goals for 2014 and the zone perfect blog forward challenge

it's that time again! time to make some goals for 2014!

this year i've joined up with zone perfect for their 2014 blog forward challenge. i love a good challenge, so i'll be posting throughout the year as the challenge progresses. our first challenge is to share our resolutions and also post a letter to ourselves, so let's get to it!

.: fitness :.

• join the 100 club at pure barre by the end of march. 
• continue to work out at least 5 times a week until the big day. 
• i don't want to make a bunch of post pregnancy goals as far as this category goes. i've never had a baby before, and i'm not going to pretend i know how i'll feel afterwards. i hope to get my butt back into pure barre for the bounce back after baby program. and i hope to run some races in the fall. but we'll see. 

.: health :.

• stay within a healthy weight gain range for me (15-25 pounds). 
• join weight watchers after the baby is born.
• aim for 100 ounces of water a day. 
• keep a healthy snack on me at all times!

.:  spiritual :.

• finish reading the Bible. 
• join another connect group at church.
• begin volunteering at church.
• find a book about praying for your children and put it to good use. 

.:  everything else :.

• date my husband. life gets crazy, we get into routines, not all of them good. i want to make more of an effort to make him feel special and loved. 
• journal about my pregnancy and then the baby's life at least once a week. i might do it on the blog, i might just type it in a word document, i might just write it down in my planner... but i want to write it down. 

dear future self,

whatup!?! this is your january self. you know, the all excited, ready to make lots of goals self? so wherever you are in 2014 when you read this, remember how important these goals are to you. you spent a lot of time thinking them through, and they are extremely realistic. so when you want to get lazy and quit, suck it up, buttercup!

disclosure:  as a part of the blog forward challenge i will be receiving free product and other promotional items from zone perfect. but as always, all my opinions are my own, like them or not ;)

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Under Armour Women::: What's Beautiful 3.0

*this post is sponsored by Under Armour through FitFluential*

Last May I participated in Under Armour's first What's Beautiful campaign and I had a great time. I met a lot of amazing women and was inspired to post and work on my goal (at the time it was to complete 12 half marathons in 2012--done!). I even won a gift card for my participation! 

Under Armour has just launched the 3.0 version of the campaign and I have set a goal of joining Team World Vision to run the Indianapolis Half Marathon to raise money and awareness for people in Africa that do not have access to clean drinking water. 

So how does the campaign work?

• Click on this link to get signed up: Under Armour What's Beautiful 3.0
• Set a goal, upload a picture and take some time to look around the site. 
• Check out some of the other women who are participating [a good place to start is the 'top performers' tab. 
• Over the next 8 weeks, you can post about the things you are doing to work towards your goal, you can participate in challenges that UA posts or that the other women post. 
• Work towards your goal, encourage others, and INSPIRE. Yes it's a competition, but I promise you that you'll find a great community full of support. 

What else is in it for you? 

Costa Rica? Yoga? Spa? Don't mind if I do!

rearview mirror:::: january 2013

running:::: 

i finished january with 137 miles. that's the most i've ever ran in a month! i ran my first 30k, my first 20 miler, and ran a new PR for the 10k. 

i've been very happy with my marathon training so far. i can't believe i only have a month left. i've missed a run here and there, but i've hit all my long runs, and even hit a little higher mileage earlier than what was on the plan [which allowed me to put in a second 20 miler, which i'm happy about]. 

weight training::::

i miss this... a lot. i made the decision to run this marathon back in the summer, before i started training with fitness poynters. it's really important to me and i want to see it through, but i do miss feeling strong  and toned. i know running burns calories, but for me and my body, i think lifting makes me feel better and gives me better results for my time. unfortunately i haven't figured out to manage my time enough that i can do both.

reading::::
i finished the matched series by ally condie. it was okay, passed the time and attaches you to the characters like most series do, but it wasn't a must read.

i started reading ulysses by james joyce, to get a start on one of my 2013 goals, and it might not have been the best choice, but i'm trying to get into it.

as far as Bible reading goes, i'm in isaiah now and i'm doing pretty well at studying beth moore's 'john.' the only problem is that i'm working in it when i'd normally been just reading the Bible, so my Bible progress has slowed.

2013 goals::::
i crossed off one thing here this month when i completed my 30k for my 30th birthday. i came thisclose to getting my sub hour 10k, but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, right?

i'm doing terribly with the computer time goal, which may have been a 'bit' unrealistic. i did deactivate my FB profile halfway through the month to see if that helped, and while it did, it hasn't made as much of a difference as i'd hoped.

brad and i went to a new connect group at church last sunday and again today. we really like it so far and i hope we can continue to attend and make new friends!

life::::
january was a difficult month, for all the usual reasons plus some. i always fight the urge to get depressed in january, i think it's a combination of the holidays being over and the weather. the holidays are so busy, we're usually surrounded by family, have all the happy decorations up, then you have to take it all down and everyone goes back home... it can get depressing!

Tsali Frosty Foot 30K Recap

disclaimer::: this recap is going to be a change in format from usual... if you're looking for the details of the race without my rambling and personal nonsense, scroll to the bottom and you'll hopefully find exactly what you're looking for. 

on saturday brad, riley, and i loaded up and made the trip out to bryson city for the tsali frosty foot race. i'm so horrible about signing up for these random races that are kind of close to home, but not really close enough to drive the morning of, and i was very grateful that brad came with! i don't like to feel like i take over his whole weekend [pretty much his only time off], but it calmed my nerves to have him there.

we got into bryson city around 7pm and checked into our motel. we stayed at the ridgetop motel at the suggestion of microtel bryson city [the host hotel, but it was booked by the time i called]. they matched the discounted race rate that microtel was offering and it was only 9.99 extra to bring riley. it was an older motel, but it was clean and we appreciated being able to bring riley and also the owner told us not to worry if we needed to stay a little longer than the normal check out because he knew we were racing.

after we checked in we headed out the the nantahala brewing company. we watched the football games on their big screen and brad tried a bunch of their beers. he was really impressed with the flavors and i just loved the whole feel of the place. it was super outdoorsy/natural and you can even bring your dog [always a huge selling point for me if you haven't already noticed!].

i can't wait to come back here in the summertime! it would the perfect hangout after a day on the river!

sunday we got up around 7 and brad drove me out to tsali [about 15 minutes from the hotel]. he dropped me off and i picked up my packet then gave him all the extra stuff i didn't need. he headed back to the hotel to lay around and i got ready to run!

this is a picture of the start line and you can see the race director, aaron up front (in the black facing us) giving directions. aaron owns foot rx in asheville, which is a great local running store. they are the ones that put on the black jack 5K that i did in december [which resulted in me running this race in the first place].

after a short run up that paved street you can see in the pic, we hit the trails. words can not even do justice to describing how wonderful these trails were! they were a little muddy from all the rain we've had, but they were totally manageable. and the views!! i only stopped to take one picture, but i thought it was a pretty good one, just to give you an idea.

we ran all around fontana lake, it was hard to keep my eyes on the trail instead of all the beautiful scenery. as far as the trail went, it was mostly technical, single track... but it was very runner friendly for  the most part. some climbs, and some rutted out biking grooves, but very rolling for the most part.

here's the elevation chart [which can i just mention how PROUD i am that after having my garmin for almost 2 years i figured out how to upload my data]:

there were 3 aid stations along the course [i think] and the volunteers were amazing. they refilled our handhelds and offered to help in any way they could. i chose to use the nathan quickdraw handheld and it worked really well. i filled it with water and refilled it at every aid station. i also drank 2 cups of whatever sport drink was available at each station.

in addition, i had 3 gu's along the course, at miles 6, 11, and 15. that seemed to work pretty well for me, although i noticed a couple of times that i felt 'empty hungry' like i needed some solid food.

this race was a mental one for me, but any time i started to feel down or think negatively i just reminded myself that i GET to do this. God ALLOWS me to do this. and it was just what i needed. in the past month 2 past classmates of mine have passed away in car accidents. such terrible tragedies that are hard to wrap your head around. it's a somber reminder that nothing is promised to us in this life and we need to soak up every minute, so i tried to do that.

i mostly ran alone during this race, however i followed a group of 4 women for much of the middle. we ended up talking at one of the aid stations and two of them were actually in the pace group i ran with for my first half! such a small world! one of them is trying to get accepted to pace the biltmore marathon in march, how great would that be!?

it was a long race and it hurt. i had to stop several times to attempt to stretch out my hips, they were what gave me the most trouble. as with any new race distance, my goal is just to finish with a smile on my face. so when i rolled in and saw my boys there waiting on me, i did just that. one of the volunteers even made a comment to me when she was giving me a water about still smiling and that's one of the best compliments she could have given me!

there was a lot of great food after the race, a local cafe, The Green Sage, even had chili for all the runners. i was really excited about that because i love their food, but after the race i just couldn't stomach the thought of eating it. do you ever get like that post race? i've been doing it more and more lately. nothing sounds good and sometimes just the thought of eating upsets my stomach. it usually goes away after about an hour or two, but it's weird.

this was right before we loaded up the car to head back to asheville. i'm pretty dang proud of myself for running this race and really like that i can always look back on my 30th birthday and know that i accomplished something to remember!

when we got home i MADE myself take an ice bath. i didn't even wash the mud off before getting in.

then i showered and got ready so we could go eat and see zero dark thirty [it was great, and jessica chastain was wonderful]. check out our sweet shirts from the race:

.:race details:.

date: january 12th and 13th (50K on saturday, 30K and 8K on sunday)
race organizer:  foot rx asheville
race day pick up? yes or you could pick up the night before at the host hotel
start time:  8:30 (30K)
did race start on time? yes
adequate restrooms?  yes, i think there were 3-4 port-o-potties
aid stations:  3, stocked with water, sports drink, GU chomps and roctane, bonk breaker bars
course spectator support: i actually saw more people than i thought i would considering it was a trail race
course terrain:  technical, single track. several tough inclines but mostly rolling
shirts:  30K runners received Mountain Hard Wear half zip technical shirts (each distance got something different)
medals:  none
would i race again?  absolutely
any complaints?  my only complaint is that the finish line is right in the middle of the post race area. i literally was dodging children and adults to finish. it would have helped to have it roped off. i know that most everyone was finished already, but it sucked a little.
what you need to know:  you'll definitely need a hydration plan for this race, most runners carried their own (handhelds, belts or backpacks), parking is a little difficult so get there in time to park and take care of whatever you need). sign up early!!! the 8K and 30K sell out, i was only allowed to sign up because someone else dropped out!

.: 2013 goals :.

.: running :.

• finish a 30k to celebrate turning the dirty thirty
• run a sub 2 hour half marathon
• run a sub hour 10k
• finish a full marathon
• maintain my mileage around 15-20 miles per week after the full. 

.: weight training :.

• after the marathon, get back to a full out finess poynters plan [i've been doing a modified plan while my mileage has been increasing].
• i don't really care about lifting PRs, i mostly want to get back to the consistent schedule that i was in before i started bumping up my mileage. 

.: reading :.

• read at least 12 books from  the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels list.
• finish reading the Bible (i'm in Song of Songs right now). 
• read at least 10 non fiction books. 

.: spiritual :.

• join a connect group at chuch [sunday school class]
• finish beth moore's 'john:  90 days with the beloved disciple' 
• pay more attention to where God's leading me. 

.: everything else :.

• limit computer time to 30 minutes a day on work days, an hour on any other days.
• lose the last 5 pounds... then MAINTAIN. 

that's a LOT of goals! but you know what?

Flying Pig Half Marathon:::: #4 of 12 in 2012

flying pig half marathon, cincinnati ohio

half mary # 5

race# 4 of 12 in 2012

time:  2:16:25 (PR)

division:  408/1116

gender: 2125/6772

expo:

The race expo was Friday and Saturday and it was the largest expo I've ever attended. If you want to read more specifics you can check out this post. There were tons of volunteers which was really nice. There were really long lines for all the booths that had free samples. We got tech shirts, posters, and duffel bags (all really nice).

race morning:

Traffic was pretty crazy on the Ohio side of the river. Luckily Brad's parents live in Cinci and are pretty used to it. We decided to park on the Kentucky side of the river (AKA the better side!) and walk over. That worked pretty well. I had my standard Clif bar and some G2. We arrived around 6am (race time at 630am). You'd think that would be plenty of time but it totally wasn't. I was hoping to see Jill and my friend Becca before the race (it was Becca's first half!!), but that didn't happen.  I got to my corral (pigpen) and the bathroom line was RIDIC.

Not happening. I could have stayed and went (chip timing) but I didn't want to have to bob and weave more than I was already going to have to.

the race:

I felt prepared for this race. Ready for the hills. Hoping for a PR.

Prepared but not super confident. I had an A goal. One that I shared with NO ONE. Super secret.

And my B goal was 2:20.

This was the first half that I've done that I ran with someone I knew (my friend from home, Jill).  Oddly enough, we had never ran together before. It worked out a lot better than I'd hoped. She is a little faster than me but she wanted me to pace her, she usually goes out too fast.

Here were are within the first half mile of the race. I was a little stressed trying to maintain a good, steady pace. I REALLY wanted to catch up to the 2:15 pace group, but that never happened. They started from the E corral and I never saw them again. [Side note:  I registered WAY early for this race and plugged in the only finish time I had-- 2:32. I could have/should have/wished I'd been in the E corral].

I felt really good throughout the race and Jill and I did well staying together until about mile 6 or so. We were going up a hill and she found a new gear! I walked for a minute, got my legs back then started back up.

The other races I've done have been more rolling hills. You get a little up, you get a little down. My strategy to this point has been to walk uphill if I need to, then run down. This course was different because the uphill wasn't steep, but it was pretty consistent over about 3 miles. I ran most of it but took a few walking breaks when I needed. Maybe one day I'll actually run an entire half! ;)



Anyways, I was really pumped up at the halfway point. My legs were getting a little tired and I was worried I'd emptied my tank by running some of those hills, BUT I was right on pace for a sub 2:15. Anytime I felt like slowing down I just repeated my mantra, "HUSTLE HARDER." I also used 'dig deeper' a couple times.

 

 

The crowd support at this race was amazing. This was my favorite sign and I thought it was pretty funny that Brad picked it out and got a picture of it too! I love me some Luke Bryan and I thought this was the sweetest sign ever. HINT HINT Brad! Some others:

My mother in law made this hot pink "C" for me and it says 'Go Courtney Go!' It was super sweet of her to make (this is my father in law carrying it) and it was also great because they held it up while they were in the crowd. I could always pick them out when I was running up to them throughout the course!

 

There were so many people out cheering us on, so many great signs and well staffed water stations. There was no GU supplied on the half course which I thought was odd for a race this size. Best moment of the race? A group of girls had taken those tube popsicles and cut them in half and were handing them out. BEST POPSICLE EVER!!! I grabbed one and Jill and I killed it!

 

As I came to the end of the race I was getting super excited. I totally had my sub 2:15!!! The weird thing was, as my watch hit 13.1 I STILL COULDN'T SEE THE FINISH LINE?!?! WTH?  So of course I started getting super frustrated, but I kept running.

 

So what happened? The course was long. My watch said 13.46 when it was all said and done. Everyone else I talked to said the same thing. I was PISSED.  I met up with Jill, she finished a minute or so in front of me. There was a lot of different food out for racers, but they didn't have any bags for us so it was kind of dumb. There was no way to carry stuff, I ended up dropping half of what I picked up. They had cold Gogurt, which was a good idea. No chocolate milk (bummer) and believe it or not I made it thru the whole chute without getting a water. Not cool.

 

I found my family and we loaded up to go to brunch. Brad, his parents, and his cousin and her husband all came out to support me which was really nice! We had an amazing brunch in KY after the race... I had french toast with fresh berries, chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar! YUM!

 

 

When I saw my final time for this race my initial reaction was disappointment. Then I had a come to Jesus with myself and decided I needed to get over it. I was being a turd. I reminded myself of all the things I should be thankful for, and I got over it.

 

Besides, I'm totally going to get that sub 2:15 eventually!

 

After brunch we went home to shower and Brad took a long nap. He'd had a tough day ;)

 

(This was in the AM before the race). While he was napping I met up with Jill, who organized 12 in 2012! We had been trying to meet up all weekend but we kept missing each other. We met at Starbucks and chatted for a while. It was so great to meet her and her beautiful family!

I stole this picture from Jill!

 

All in all it was a great weekend and I would definitely run the Pig again.

 

I wanted to give a big shoutout to my friend Becca who rocked her first half at the pig!!! She's already got the bug and I'm hoping we can do a race together later this year!

An Amazing Weekend!

Brad and I drove up to Cincinnati this weekend to visit with his family and so I could run the Flying Pig half marathon (#4 of 12 in 2012). We left Asheville on Thursday and drove straight through to Cinci, arriving around 130am.

Friday morning we got up and went to Kings Island. It's a big amusement park that we both went to a lot growing up. It was really fun, but we both decided that apparently our bodies are starting to get too old for that stuff!! Those roller coasters beat the crap out of us!

This is us on the Diamond Back coaster. The sun was obviously a little bright!

After Kings Island Brad thought it would be a good idea go ahead and get my packet picked up. I went to the expo while he went and had a refreshing beverage!

This was definitely the biggest expo I've ever been to. SO MANY VENDORS! I loved all the pig statues that were everywhere:

I got my packet then weaved my way through the booths. I noticed the Norwood Chiropractic booth and stopped by. They specialize in ART (Active Release Technique) and Dr. Lydia Ogden spent a lot of time with me and working on my right knee. I've got what we all seem to think is a piece of bone that has chipped off and right where it is I've got some pain that seems to come and go. It's worst when I do squats, but it's not there everytime I do them. When it does hurt it feels like my knee cap is about to pop through my skin, all through that one little spot.

I don't remember all the lingo exactly but Dr. Ogden said it was something along the lines of my right knee not moving in the line it should. Of course there was a medical name for it, but despite my being in the medical profession, I don't don't remember it. She did some ART on my quad and it hurt so good. I have bruises now, but I really think it helped a lot.

After stopping at the Norwood Chiropractic group the expo was starting to close up. I got my shirt, duffle bag, and poster and headed out.

Saturday we headed to the mall (they opened a new Lululemon store there!!), Costco, and the outlet malls. I got some tanks and Lulu, a bunch of stuff at Under Armour outlet and these at Costco:

Oh my gosh. YUM. I'm going to have to separate them into baggies and lock them up. If not I'm going to kill both bags in about 2 days. I also got a big old twist yogurt. Brad bet me that I couldn't finish it. I laughed. Me, not finish fro yo?!?!

He was right, I couldn't do it. Dangit. How wasteful.

Oh and at the mall I got Riley a present:

It's a stuffed pig and it has a rubber band that lets you shoot it across the room. He loves it!!

We had LaRosa's pizza for dinner then I headed home to get to bed for our early wake up call. I laid out all my stuff (and I can't get this pic to rotate):

 That thing in the middle is a pace tattoo that I picked up at the expo. What was the goal time?

My secret A goal that isn't so secret now. Did I get it? Unless you follow me on twitter you'll have to wait to find out!

Really Random Monday

Have you entered my GIVEAWAY?


Thank you all so much for your feedback on my amazing race scheduling. When I first realized what I'd done I had a major freak out. When I told Brad he replied, "Oh that is not a good idea, you do not need to do that." So there it is in writing so he can say I told you so if he needs to! I'm just going to train and see how I feel and go from there (I think I'm going to do it, SHH don't tell him!).


Brad and I did some shopping after church yesterday and you should really go to Dick's Sporting Goods if you're out. It's clearance time, check it out:

3 pairs of Nike tempo shorts and a pair of UA shorts for 33 dollars!! They had a lot of shorts in really bright colors and at 7-8 bucks a pop you can't beat it!

When I was younger I drank a glass of milk every night with dinner and with breakfast most mornings. I've really gotten out of this habit and over the last few years I rarely drank milk, so a goal I made this year was to change this. I'm trying to drink a glass a day!

I'm doing pretty well so far, the only problem is that when I have a big glass of milk I want something like this to go with it:

I picked this up for Brad at the mall but he had picked up his own snack (pretzel) and didn't want it. And YOU KNOW I wasn't just gonna throw it away. Twist my arm. If I can just keep from buying OREOS I should be okay :)

I'm really happy that I've been able to start working out again this week. I've been struggling over the past few weeks with my neck, bronchitis, and this weird rash on my face that turned out to be SHINGLES!?! They think it's actually what was causing my neck to hurt so bad. Completely random. Just it case you're wondering what shingles looks like:

And it's starting to dry up here, it was quiet the mess a few days ago. YUCK!

I hope you all are having a great Monday so far! I'm going to shower and go meet my momma for lunch!

2011... What A Year

I love year reviews. Love, love, love them. Probably has something to do with my nerdy need to be organized, but that's neither here nor there.

I can't begin to list all the things that I enjoy about blogging, but one of my favorites is being able to look back and see progress. I love that word:  PROGRESS. Am I where I want to be? No. Have I reached all my goals. No way. But have I worked hard and progressed? Abso-freaking-lutely.

Because it's the most fun and easiest to quantify, let's look at running:

• i participated in fourteen races
• five virtual races, nine in real life
• two trail runs, seven organized road races
• thirteen in North Carolina, one in Ohio
• nine 5k's
• one 4 miler
• one 9k
• two 10k's
• one half marathon 
• three instant PR's 
• two real PR's

I am beyond happy with my running this year. I ran in NC, OH, KY, TN, NY (Central Park in NYC), HI (Mauii), CO (Denver). Running in Central Park was surreal. What's also great about running in all these places: 

Usually I would make excuses:
I'm on vacation.
I'm going to be eating out so much there's no point in working out.
There's no point in taking up room in my suitcase with running stuff (you just need a pair of shoes my ass!).

I count this point alone as major progress.

Top Three Running Experiences of 2011:
3.  Lady Distance Classic 10K in Ohio - Brad and his parents came out to cheer me on--the only race I ran this year with people I knew watching (I did run several races with friends).
2.  Running the Turkey Trot 5K with Brad (his first 5K). -- just realized I never posted about this race. Bad blogger award.
1.  Finishing the Asheville Citizen Times Half Marathon.

I've really enjoyed reading your all's 2011 reviews! I'll be back at you later with my goals for 2012!

Tell me your top running experience(s) of 2011!!!!

My Top Five Tips For Getting Your Workout In Early

So as you may or may not remember, I set a goal 21 days ago.  I'm proud to say that I pretty much kicked it's butt!! Did I get up first thing EVERY morning? Nope. Did I get up and work out before work, church, and my other activities. YES.

It's true what they say that the hardest step is the first one. But once I made it to the gym, I found myself wishing that I had gotten up earlier to have more time!

Will I continue to workout in the morning? Absolutely! It's not always the most practical choice, but more often than not it is! It's great to be in the gym when it's quiet and almost empty. I'm not going to lie, it kinda makes you feel like a badass just being there!

I also get ready in less time (less distractions while getting ready) and I'm earlier to work. All great things!

So I thought I'd share what has worked best for me. So here are my top five tips for getting up early and getting your workout in:

5. Think about how awesome it will be to get off work and be able to come home and hang out with your family/put your feet up/eat dinner/watch tv/whatever.
4.  Get to bed at a decent hour. My goal was 7 hours of sleep minimum but hoped for at least 8.
3.   Avoid Nyquil. :)
2. Pack a dedicated gym bag (mine has a travel hairdryer and straightener, shower shoes, shower kit with shampoo, conditioner, and face wash, etc.). This way you don't have to worry if these key items are in your gym bag or your bathroom.
1. PLAN AHEAD. The first thing I do when I get home from work is change out my towel, unload my dirty clothes and pack tomorrow's outfit. That way it's ready to go in the AM. It takes 10 minutes and then it's done.

Another logistical thing I learned from the other women who shower at the gym... When you're finished with your towel, hang it on a clothes hanger then you can hang it in your car. Helps dry it out.

I hope this helps you out if you're thinking about trying to work out in the morning. I never thought I'd be the person to get up and work out before work. But I LOVE it and I feel so great for the rest of the day. It's 'my time' and it allows me to focus on the day. I'd encourage you to give it a shot!

Hope you all are having a great week so far!!

Pink Elephant In the Room... Or that's what it feels like at least.

After I finished work on Friday, Brad and I packed up to go to Kentucky. One of his cousins was getting married so it was kind of a like a mini family reunion for his side of the family. It was a really nice wedding and great to see everyone.

He cleans up nice doesn't he?

I've been in a crap mood since Friday. I'm not sure what's up with that. I think a huge part of it (no pun intended) is my current weight situation. I've been trying to figure out how to attack it, and as I mentioned here I plan on resuming weekly weigh ins.

But even during last week I found myself making poor food decisions. I wasn't committed yet.

I have this horrible mentality when it comes to dieting... All or nothing. I know how problematic this mentality can be. Trust me. But I've never had successful weight loss without hitting rock bottom (or an all time high on the scale), then making a conscious decision to make hard core changes.

I (like most everyone else) like to see results quickly and those results are what motivate me to continue. But then I look back over the past 10 years of my life (dang, really 10 years?!?) and I see how I've yo-yo dieted throughout. Honestly, it pisses me off. A lot.

I'm sick of being self conscious.
I'm sick of not being able to wear the clothes I want to wear and be confident in them.
I'm tired of being embarrassed to walk into a running store (seriously I am).

I hesitate to say these things, because once I hit publish it's out there for good. I'm afraid to fail. But I cannot keep doing this to myself over and over. I feel like I've missed out on so much because I've been too worried about my weight.

I hope that I can work on this over the next few months as racing winds down. Then hopefully come spring my running will reap the rewards of me being at least 20-25 pounds lighter. I hope that I can conquer this nagging problem that I have let beat me so many times.

And trust me I know that it doesn't stop once you get to where you want. I've lost the weight twice and gained it back. (Once right before pharmacy school started and again before the wedding, although I didn't get back as low as I'd have liked for the wedding). So here I am again, hoping that the third time really is a charm.

Sorry for the rambling, woe is me post. I try not to be Debbie Downer, especially about situations that I've brought upon myself. I just felt like I needed to get it off my chest. So no more excuses, it's on like Donkey Kong :)

What's your best healthy eating tip?

October Goals

Get my diet back on track. I was doing really well with my diet, until I started running. Then I did the typical, "I'm running I can eat" routine and I'm right back where I started. I feel like my weight is holding me back in  a lot of instances, especially in my running. I know it's crazy, but I still feel really weird mentioning that I run to people. I get self conscious, because I know I don't look like the stereotypical runner. I'm going to start weighing in weekly again, and I'll share my gains/losses on a new tab up top, called The Weigh it is.

Do more than just run three times a week. I've accomplished a huge goal of mine (1/2 marathon), so I need to be confident in the base I've got. But I want more, and to do that, I can't keep doing the same things. I want to add at least two days of cross training to the mix, to the point that I'm working out five days per week consistently!

Figure out my fall racing schedule, and start looking towards next year. I'd like to plan my races a little better next year, maybe traveling a little to do some more interesting races. Brad and I usuallly take a long weekend trip here and there, and I'd like to line up a race with some of those.

Do you have any goals for this month?? Staying out of the Halloween candy should definitely be another one of mine!!!

September Goals

So it's that time again... Let's see what my goals were for August and how I did.

Log and run 75 miles.

Well, according to my Daily Mile profile (let's be friends!) I only logged 58 miles. I missed one three mile training run. But even with that, I would've been a little short. But that's okay, I STILL LOGGED 58 miles. Compare that to March and before that... I'm golden.

Figure out how to make a cool header for the blog.

Well, I figured out how to make a header... the cool part is completely debatable. But now that I know how to make it and put it up, I hope to improve on it as time goes on.

Complete my runs while on vacation at the end of the month.

Done and done. Especially proud that I completed my long run.

I've got two goals for September:

Finish my first of many half marathons and do it with a smile on my face.
Get my 5k time below 30 minutes.

What are your goals for the month?

August Goals

It's that time again. Last month I came up with 5 goals, how did I do?

1. LOG 60 miles. Run them. And log them. According to Daily Mile I ran and logged 63 miles. Score 1 for me. [don't be fooled, it goes down quickly from here]
2. Do yoga once a week. At least. Well, I did yoga twice this whole month. Yikes.
3. Spin once a week. I didn't take a single spin class this month, but I did ride my bike once a week. I'm calling this a win.
4. Lose 5 lbs. Um yeah, about that.
5. Go through my closet and donate the stuff I don't use anymore. Cleaned out the closet, haven't made it to Goodwill to drop off yet.

So you win some and you lose some I guess. I'm proud that I hit my mileage though.

So for this month I'm going to knock back to three goals.

1. Log and run 75 miles.
2. Figure out how to make a cool header for the blog.
3. Complete my runs while on vacation at the end of the month.

This month will be a busy one. My training has made the shift from running three times a week to four. We've been out of town the last two weekends and we'll be on vacation during the last part of the month. I just want to concentrate on taking care of my body and putting the miles in.

What are your goals this month?

July Goals

1. LOG 60 miles. Run them. And log them.
2. Do yoga once a week. At least.
3. Spin once a week.
4. Lose 5 lbs.
5. Go through my closet and donate the stuff I don't use anymore.

Boom, they're out there.


Do you have any goals for the month?

Where did June go?

So today is the last day of June, I didn't get the memo... One whole glorious month of summer gone. At the beginning of the month I talked about my goals for the month. This was my first time setting monthly goals, so let's see how I did.

1. Log at least 60 miles this month. Walking or running. I logged 41 miles on daily mile, plus I'm doing 4 tonight. So let's just say 45. I didn't do a great job logging the miles, but I'm happy that I did this well. Next month I'll pick a new miles goal and have a tag-along goal of logging them all. Like they taught us in school, if you didn't document it, it didn't happen! 

2. Finish reading the new rules of lifting for women, and figure out a plan to realisticly get it going. This was an epic fail on my part. I cracked the book and made it halfway through the intro. And that is all. Not only did I not read it, I got a fat overdue book fine from the library. Nice.


3. Track my weight watchers points. Have a solid month of losses. (that's technically two i guess). Well this one is a little a lot embarrasing. It probably warrants its own post but that would be even more embarrasing. My first three weeks were golden. Slowly but surely I quit tracking. At my fourth weigh in I should have been on track to hit my 5% goal. And I gained 3.2 pounds. That was the total of my losses in week 2 and 3. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. As you might imagine, this sent me into major depressive mode. So what did I do? I ate all day and thought, get it out of your system, tomorrow is go time. Then I repeated that for 6 days. Which brings me to today, I'm supposed to weigh in. NOT HAPPENING. But I am getting my life in order, throwing all the excuses out, and 'starting over'. I will weigh in next week. Come good week or bad week. And I will not let the number on the scale dominate me like it has over the past week. Done and done.

4. Wash my face before and after I run. I'm really good about the after, not so much the before. I've done really well with this goal. I even visited the Clinque counter last week and got set up with a new skin care regimen that I'll give the deets on in a later post.

5. Plan my half marathon attack and get it started. This is a win for me too. You can follow my training for the Asheville Citizen-Times Half Marathon here. I'm two runs in, with a third tonight.

I'm a list maker, and this goal setting for the month was really good for me. If you know me in real life you've definitely heard me say, "If I don't write it down, it will not happen." That's usually me alluding to my superior ability to forget anything and everything, but it also has to do with me being me. It helps me so much to write things down then be able to check them off and feel accomplished.  Emily pointed out that today is the halfway point for 2011. She used it to evaluate her yearly goals and see where she sized up (that chick is amazing). I think I'm going to post July goals as planned, but also some goals to complete by the end of twently eleven.

my june goals

1. Log at least 60 miles this month. Walking or running.
2. Finish reading the new rules of lifting for women, and figure out a plan to realisticly get it going.
3. Track my weight watchers points. Have a solid month of losses. (that's technically two i guess).
4. Wash my face before and after I run. I'm really good about the after, not so much the before.
5. Plan my half marathon attack and get it started.

I don't want to have more than five at a time, and who knows, maybe 5 will be too much. Might scale back to 3 next month, I'll see how it goes. I have a huge problem with setting goals and following through in a specified time period. My goal for the last two years (almost three) has been to lose weight. Yes, I have a goal weight in mind, but I'm afraid to say it aloud (like he who must not be named).

I also tend to take on way to many things at once. This has ALWAYS been a problem for me. I want to spend time with my husband. I want to spend time with my family. I want to have to work. I want to become a better runner. I want to spend more time with my photography. I want to read so many books. I want to continue reading the Bible. SO OFTEN I try to do it all and I get worn out and I don't complete anything.

So I've gotta learn to prioritize. Immediately if not sooner. So at the end of the month I'll see where I'm at and set some new goals. Hopefully this will allow me to concentrate on one or two things at a time, and it'll also give me a time period to evaluate. Instead of just cruising along for two years repeating the same patterns that are not good for me.

Do you have any goals for this month?

Do you overwhelm yourself with things you want to accomplish? How do you cope?