ChasRunner

New Blog!

2011-11-17T09:45:00.003-05:00

If anyone is still out there reading this, I would love for you to check out my new site, The Southern Summer.

I'll still be blogging about running, but also adding in other workouts, recipes, tidbits about living in the South, and even some DIYing and tutorials!

As my life is changing and evolving, I wanted a site that would reflect that and evolve with me. I hope that you will stop by and say hello.

xoxo,

Kristin

New Blog!

2011-07-13T12:04:00.000-04:00

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

2010-08-09T17:05:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay folks, but congratulations to my local running Twitter pal JennRuns winner of the $50 gift certificate to CSN Stores!

It was tempted to be sneaky and award it to my Nana since she vowed to buy things for ME with it, but I went fair & chose a random number.

Jen was one of the two who were given 100 entries for donating! :) THANK YOU Jen for being a TNT supporter, two years in a row! You should all go follow her on Twitter, she's a riot! Her husband is also a serious inspiration as he is running his first one-footed marathon in January. You can read more about his story here.

Jen, you should be contacted by CSN Stores soon!

Thanks everyone for playing! I appreciate your continued support on this fundraising journey.

Week 7 of 18: Huh?

2010-07-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

As I took last weekend off (including my 9 miler) because I was out of town, I was supposed to step things up a bit this week. Which, didn't really happen. But nevertheless...

Sunday: Lots of TV watching and then a 5 hour drive home from North Carolina.

Monday: 45 minute 6 AM spin class! My favorite way to start the week.

Tuesday: Trash Tuesday!! Err, Track Tuesday. On the agenda? 10 x 400s. We met up on the Daniel Island track to knock these out. Participants: Shannon, Katy, Sarah, me. We started out the first half between 6:30 and 7:30 pace (eeek) and then finished up between 7:30 and 8:30. Was really glad to have Shannon there when the speedier gals left us in the dust on 6-10.

Wednesday: Off. Was hoping to do AM spin, but my legs were beat.

Thursday: Was supposed to do my tempo run, but happy hour with these ladies sounded more fun :)

Friday: Although not a tempo run, got in 4 miles on the dreadmill + 10 minutes on that weirdo machine Cyvex? Not sure. A good cardio workout.

Saturday: LONG RUN DAY! 14 miles on the agenda. Of which I ended up doing about 13.5. My Garmin messed up so I'm not totally sure of the mileage. I was feeling okay until about mile 8, then my leg started to hurt and I started getting tired. Hopefully next week's run will be better. I'm hoping to step up my training a bit from here on out to be adequately prepared. I also am working on a fundraiser this week so hopefully I can fit it all in!

Winner of the giveaway to be announced later this morning!

A Tale of a Runners' Gchat

2010-07-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Me: did you run today?
im hitting up the gym after work

Katy: yea, well i kinda ran this morning....i started to run, and then i found this runaway dog but then it ran away from me, and then i saw a cop and stopped to talk to him about the runaway dog
and then i saw the cop again and he was like i couldnt get the dog
and then i started to talk to him about something else
haha
and then i found some trash in my neighborhood
so i picked it up
and then i was like well i cant really run with trash
so i just walked home
haahha

Me: omg this is cracking me up

Katy: i ran for like 20 minutes total haha
and walked for like 20
haha
it was an interesting morning
to say the least
so technically, i need to get to the gym

And there you have it.

P.S. Have you entered my giveaway yet to win a $50 gift card?

Training Update + $50 Gift Card Giveaway

2010-07-22T08:00:00.003-04:00

I missed this past weekend's long run (was supposed to be 9 miles), and didn't run from Friday through Monday....slacker! I was out of town and it was nice to do absolutely nothing all weekend, so not a total loss.

But starting off the new week, I got up early on Monday morning for a nice spin class. It's the best way to start the week! Then on Tuesday morning we got up bright & early for the regular Track Tuesday (which has now been dubbed Trash Tuesday after my Freudian slip in an email to the girls) for 10x400s. I prefer 400s to 800s, so I was down for it. We started out at a 6 something pace and then ended up around 8 something towards the end. It is so so humid here! Today I took off but tomorrow I'm hoping to head to the beach for a morning run or either to the gym to run on the dreadmill, however the mood strikes me.

I've felt kind of lackadaisical about training lately. And about life. Weird.

So for some fun....

A suhweet giveaway for anyone still reading...

I really have been lacking in kitchen gadgets, cookware, etc. lately so when I was contacted about this giveaway, I was pumped! Anyone interested in a new Le Creuset dutch oven, or perhaps a hand blender for easy soups? (Me, Me, Me!!)

CSN Stores contacted me to do a giveaway for a $50 gift card to any of their sites. At first I thought, who/what is CSN Stores?? But then I looked further and discovered the gems that are Cookware.com, FitnessEquipmentandMore.com, and BedroomFurniture.com. Wowza! Sweet giveaway, methinks.

So here's what I'm gonna do. If you want one entry into this giveaway, simply comment on this post, perhaps telling me which site you would use your gift card at. If you want to, or you can just comment to say hi :)

But for anyone who donates to my Team in Training fundraising campaign ($10 or more), I will give you 100 entries into this giveaway. How does that sound? :) To qualify for the 100 entries, please come back here after you donate & comment to let me know. Or you can leave a note in the comments section of the donation form. Either way.

You can donate easily here.

**UPDATE** I will announce the winner Monday morning July 26th! So you have all weekend to get your donations in.

Good luck!

Week 2 of 16: Marathon Training Take THREE

2010-07-01T12:38:00.003-04:00

Marathon training? Take THREE.

Ever since my first marathon I have had a love/hate relationship with the marathon. I love it for how strong and accomplished it makes me feel, but I hate it for the pain/agony/time etc. that it takes to train & to actually run the race. I just don't think I was meant for long distance races like that.

I love the half marathon, and oddly, have yet to run a decent 1/2 that I was proud of. It's on my list for this fall.

So while this year's 26.2 may be my last (for a while) I'm trying to also make it my best.

Katy & I are training via the Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster training plan. Basically, you run three times a week but you make each workout really count, plus you're definitely well rested for each run. Tuesday is track work, Thursday is a tempo run and Saturday is your long run. I love it so far because I have time for yoga & spinning yet I'm still getting in the miles necessary to train for the big race. I'm a firm believer that you don't have to log 40-50 miles a week just to prepare for the marathon. Of course, it can't really hurt either as long as you're going about it smart.

This week's training (officially week 2 on our 16 week plan):
Monday: AM spin class <--It was tough! But love how strong spinning makes me feel.

Tuesday: Track Tuesday! We did 1 mile warm up, then 4 x 1200 with 200 walks in between. Sarah & Katy kicked my a$$. I love Track Tuesday's though because the Charleston Running Club comes out there mid way through our workout and they're always speedy & inspiring.

Wednesday: Off. Was planning on yoga or spinning but was feeling a bit under the weather. Which was okay by me because I was well rested for this morning's run!

Thursday: 5 mile tempo run in 45:00. I was aiming for my 10k race pace + 30 seconds (which would be about a 9 minute mile) so I came out perfect! This was a great treadmill run, one of the best runs I have had in a while. I was pretty pleased with my speed because lately, I have been lingering over the 10:00 min/mile pace...which I don't love.

TOMORROW: Would love to get some yoga in, but will probably take the day off because I have friends coming into town! Will be drinking tons of water and eating well in preparation for....

Saturday: Long run with the TNT team, 11 miles on the docket. It should be cooler than past weeks (in the 80s) so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Happy 4th of July!

Blogger Support for TNT!

2010-05-25T11:19:00.003-04:00

I promise I have an update on Week 1 training coming up soon, but for today, please go here...

Bobbi is AWESOME. Not only does she do it all, but she manages to blog about it all too. (I can't keep up. Clearly.) She generously offered to help me raise money for my TNT campaign today!

The deets (from her blog):

>>If we sell 30 Enviotes (plus you will receive the Envipal for free ($8 value)), I will DONATE $150 ($5 PER BAG) to Kristen for her Team in Training Fundraising efforts.

>>So you are going to get a great reusable tote + a wonderful lunch box for only $20 and I will be giving $5 of it to a wonderful cause!!!

>>We only have until tomorrow night May 26th to make this happen, so let’s get shopping!!!

THANKS Bobbi!

I bought my tote, did you? I promise to be back with my Chicago 2010 Training Schedule and an update on how the first week went soon! Happy Tuesday :)

10/10/10 Chicago Marathon!

2010-05-14T12:46:00.004-04:00

I know I'm basically MIA from the blog world, but I did want to let y'all know I just signed up to be a mentor for Team in Training this fall season for the Chicago Marathon! I will be raising money again and hopefully will be able to keep this updated with my training and progress.

Will come back to post my training schedule and other thoughts soon :)

XOXO
~ChasRunner

My girls & I at M's bridal brunch at her wedding weekend in April in the Keys - the 1st of us to get hitched!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T10:49:00.003-05:00

Well I know I have been absent, I never even gave you Part 2 of my Marine Corps Marathon experience. I have been a bad blogger. I can't promise I will be better about posting in the new year, because well, I have a feeling this is going to be the busiest year of my life to date. But definitely, in a good way. Growing up ain't easy, folks.

My 2009 in Review:

I left the world of public relations and marketing & started a new career in the world of finance.
I began the grueling process of taking three tests to get licensed in my field.
I passed all of my tests! Including the horrendous Series 7.
I trained for and ran in my first marathon, the NC Marathon in May.
I ran a 200 mile relay race through Colorado with 11 other new friends.
We moved into a new apartment.
I got addicted to power yoga & practiced it as frequently as I could.
I chopped all my hair off!
We joined our first CSA & experienced a variety of local veggies we had never eaten before.
I kept training and raised over $3,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training Program.
I ran my second marathon in 2009 with TNT, the Marine Corps Marathon.
I got injured at mile 21 of the Marine Corps Marathon, & barely finished it in 4:47 thanks solely to Katy pushing me through!
We made so many new friends in Charleston, I started a monthly supper club with a fantastic group of women, & Matt and I fell more in love with the Lowcountry than ever.

Oh yeah, and I'm still injured! If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that since the marathon at the end of October I have been injured & therefore not running very frequently. At first I thought it was my ITB, then perhaps my PCL. The physical therapist said it was tendinitis but I've been doing the strengthening exercises he gave me, & it's not getting any better.

So my goal of 2010? To get up & running again! I'm going to try the Active Release Technique of chiropractic next week and if that doesn't help, I'm going to a sports medicine orthopedist. It's been challenging, but at least it has got me cross-training!

I'm really looking forward to continue to challenge my body in 2010 through new forms of exercise. I'm biking more & working out in the gym more. I hope to continue my yoga practice & visit my favorite studio at least twice a week. Matt & I are even doing a cleansing detox next week to get our year started off right! (My personal goal? Get my body looking somewhat like Shakira's. Yeah, I know it's a lofty goal.)

Well, I'm either going to go workout or continue to sit here, drink coffee & lazily watch TV while Matt sleeps in.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Marine Corps Marathon: A Race Report, Part I

2009-10-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, the lure of the marathon. What makes people want to run for hours on end, for 26 point 2+ miles, through cities & states, through pain & blood & sweat & tears....

...I have no idea, because dear lord is that race torturous!

Ok, ok. I do kind of know. People run marathons for the massivecrazy sense of accomplishment you get when you finally cross that finish line.

This marathon for me was a definite test of will. I signed up not long after completing marathon #1, and I think I only signed up because I felt like I could do better. I felt I could perform at a higher level than I did at the NC Marathon. I wanted to train harder, run faster and cross that finish line well under 4:30 the second time around. Honestly, I was a bit embarrassed with myself back in May. Of course I was proud that I had DONE IT but let's be honest here, anyone can do it if they want to. Not everyone can be great at it.

And I wanted to be great.

{Well, great for me. Not great as in superstar elite runner sub six-minute mile great, but great as in, a 150% performance on my end.}

But over the past 5 months or so, running for me has been on the back burner. My life has been crazy busy, full of changes, new beginnings, new stresses...and quite honestly, I was a little burnt out on running.

So when time finally came for me to actually run this marathon, I was more than ready to get it over with. I really didn't know what my time would be, I could only hope that I was prepared enough to hit that sub 4:30 mark that I hoped I could. I had hit almost every long run, and had kept up fine. I had actually noticed an increase in my long run pace from my previous training season. {Increase as in, speedier.} I had taken up yoga and w as working on my strength.

So, all in all, I was prepared. I was ready, come what may. But, I was also very nervous.

Kimi, Matt and I had a long drive to DC {via Raleigh to pick up Meredith}....

Kimi is excited!

Had a busy day Saturday at the expo & running errands... {trying on bridesmaid's dresses for Meredith's upcoming nuptuals! Going to the inspiration dinner..}

But when Sunday morning came around all of that nervousness had faded away and in it's place had come excitement!

Kimi, Katy and I outside of my room getting ready to head for the Metro!

We had written our names on our TNT singlets, attached our flair, written the names of those we were running in honor of on our backs, eaten our breakfast, trained for months, and were ready to RUN!

I was excited to run this race because I had people to run it with. {Instead of the cows like last time.} Plus I knew there would be thousands of spectators to cheer us on!

We headed downstairs to meet the rest of our SC team & then headed on to the Metro. This was quite the experience! There were hundreds (maybe thousands) of runners squishing onto the platforms, into the trains, onto each other...it was packed. Kind of like this...

This was taken later on in the day, during the marathon, when all of the spectators were trying to get to different spots on the course to cheer on their runners. (Taken by LiLu as she was schlepping around town to cheer me on!)

Once we got off at the Arlington Cemetary stop, the 30 ,000 runners spilled out onto the street and we made our way to....the photographers!

First up, me and Katy!

And....again...
Let's add in Kimi! Now with our numbers....we were definitely hamming it up at the start line!

So after a bit of a chilly wait, we were off! The first 8 miles of the race were supposed to be hilly, as it wound through Alexandria before crossing the bridge into Georgetown, so we were planning on taking it easy. We ended up losing Kimi & other TNT'er Andrew after mile 1. Katy and I both had groups of family and friends on the course, and we saw all of them at the 1 mile mark!

Hmm, my camera was mad at Matt that day I think. Let's try this again.

Ok, so don't have great pics from mile 1. Moving on...Katy and I decided to run the first 6 miles straight through (because it was crowded & hilly) and then after that start the run/walk. We were planning on sticking to what had worked in training - running a mile, walking a minute.

We saw Katy's family again on the bridge over into DC at mile 4!

We were to wind through Georgetown, then head down by the water to Hain's Point for about 4 miles before we made it back up to the monuments.

I think this was around mile 8 somewhere in Georgetown. Katy's family was great at meeting us every few miles. {Note, I have no idea who the other purple TNT'er is there, we're kind of hiding behind.}

We were feeling great! We were having fun, cheering, getting cheered for, slapping hands with little kids on the sidelines...it was so much fun!

But, it was going to start sucking pretty soon...

To be continued!

I finished!

2009-10-26T17:46:00.003-04:00

Going to post a full recap soon, but wanted to let you all know I finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 4:47, a PR by 14 minutes!

A little slower than I had hoped, but ended up with some (I think) IT band issues around mile 23...major pain! The pic above is of me and TNT teammate Katy resting at the TNT tent after negotiating the mess that was the finish line. I would never have finished this one without her! THANK YOU KATY!!!

...more to come!

XOXO

ChasRunner

Marathon time baby!

2009-10-22T21:48:00.002-04:00

Marathon #2 is less than three days away now! Don't have much time to post, we're packing tonight and heading up to D.C. in the morning! Wish me luck folks :) The past few weeks of training have been pretty decent, my last really long run went horribly, but when doesn't it?!

If you really wanna, you can track me online here using my first and last name. I think they either send you emails or texts every time I hit a 5k mark! If you wanna track me, just shoot me a comment and I'll let ya know who I am ;)

I am riding up to the race with Matt and my TNT teammate Kimi. We're stopping along the way in Raleigh to pick up my girl Meredith, and we're meeting up with our other teammates Friday night. We're also gonna get in some quality time with my girl LiLu and her boyf at some point. My dad, brother and grandmother are also coming up! (Remember last time?) So...it should be a fun packed weekend.

Look out for a massive recap next week!

You can also follow the play by play on Twitter....that's where I've been hiding the past few months ;)

_________
**Congrats to fellow Charlestonian Amanda on her bun in the oven! So excited for you lady :)

A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my Team in Training fundraising campaign. I exceeded my goal and raised $3, 526.00 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! You all rock.

20 miles....

2009-09-13T12:15:00.003-04:00

I am currently sitting on my couch, fresh out of my ice bath + shower, with my feet up watching The Sopranos. (Not my first choice, but I do like the show, and honestly I'm too lazy to change the channel.) We just finished 20 miles and although I was struggling the last two miles, it went pretty well!

I've found two lovely ladies that run around my same pace and we tend to stick together during the long runs. Today me, Katy and Kimi ran 1 mile intervals with a 1 minute or so walk at each mile marker. I LOVE breaking up the long runs like that, it makes the run go so much quicker!

I've been using Hammer gels, and Espresso is my fave. It tastes like mocha with a bonus jolt of caffeine! I took one around the hour mark and it really helped me pick up my pace. Then around the two hour mark I took a Hammer Apple Cinnamon gel. These taste like apple pie! Unfortunately since they are so sweet, I think the tend to give me cramps. It was hard to recover after that. In an effort to save the remainder of my run, I took about a 1/2 of another espresso gel around the 2:45 hour mark. It sort of helped.

The last two miles were the toughest for me, we had just had our last water break and were heading out for the last long stretch in full sunlight. It was getting hot out there and my legs were lead!

Our stats ended up being 20 miles in 3:24 with an average pace of 10:14. On our running portions we were keeping a steady pace of under a 9 minute mile!

Before my last marathon, my last long run of 21.5 miles that we run straight through (no walk breaks) our average pace was 10:54...considerably slower than running with short walk breaks! GALLOWAY SUCCESS.

I wore my new running clothes....

Sugoi Fizz Tank
Mizuno Women's Maverick Split

Love them! The shirt has a nice big pocket in the back where I can store my gels. The shorts I have are all black, very comfy.

I just inhaled a huge green smoothie with some added Amazing Grass (review to come whenever I finish the boatload of samples they sent me :) and now Matt and I are deciding if we want to go get food. I'm planning on lazing around for as long as possible today, I think I earned it!

What's everyone's fall racing schedule looking like? I have the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th, possibly the Raleigh 1/2 Marathon on November 1st, and then the Kiawah 1/2 Marathon on December 12th. I might also throw in a few 5ks if I can find the time. (Will be doing one on Thanksgiving Day in Greensboro, NC most likely).

Happy Sunday folks..

Artisana Raw Organic Nut Butters

2009-09-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

A long way back I got a lovely package in the mail chock full of deliciously tasty Artisana raw & organic nut and coconut butters. Holy yum you might say, and all fo free! Just so I could share the good news with y'all :)

Since it's been a while, I will spare you all the deets. The kind people at Artisana sent me Walnut Butter, Tahini, Almond Butter, Macadamia Nut Butter, Coconut Butter, Coconut Oil, and some Cacao Bliss.

Here is the rundown folks: You can't really mess up nuts ground into butter. But you CAN make it better. The cacao bliss was by far my favorite nut butter, a smooth blend of chocolatey goodness. (I hear they won some award for this one too.) Plus I love that they are unheated (thus raw) because it just makes me feel better about eating it.

But the real find was the coconut butter...

Not just coconut oil. But coconut butter. The meat of the coconut plus the oil all ground together into one creamy, delicious, sweet concoction. Get thee to the web and order some of this!

I ate it straight out of the jar like I would PB. I also added it to sweet potatoes (baked and mashed), smoothies, oatmeal, toast, fish, you name it, I added it.

So here's the thing. If you would love some organic, raw nut butters and/or coconut products, I would definitely check out Artisana. Not only did everything taste delish, but the people there were so polite and happy to send me samples! So do yourself a favor and order some coconut butter and cacao bliss...you can thank me later for the fiesta in your mouth.

(Here is a list of online retailers!)

Ahh, life.

2009-09-10T16:43:00.003-04:00

It has pulled me away from this space for almost a month. I've been busy, but I'm not gonna lie, I've also been a tad bit too lazy to spend my hard-earned weeknights tapping away on my laptop. But alas, I have missed you all so I wanted to drop a line to let you know I'm alive, and faring well.

Since we last spoke, I have been doing quite a bit of running, a ton of studying, passed my final financial exam (squeee!), formally been knighted a financial advisor, settled into our new home, got my ass back into yoga, eaten a crap ton of kettle chips, been super busy, hosted an inaugural supper club for eight lovely ladies...and have generally been loving life.

The Marine Corps Marathon is coming up in just a little over a month so mileage over this way has been pretty crazy, as I'm sure it has been with most of y'all! Marathon season is in full swing!

The team and I (have you donated yet? I'm aaalllmost to my goal!) will be setting out for our first 20 miler this Sunday, so I'm sure I will have plenty of time to prop my feet up and tap tap away on Sunday Funday so maybe I will get around to the product reviews or giveways I have been promising....

Two weeks ago we did an 18 miler and it went great. Last weekend's 13 miler, not so great. So I'm hoping this weekend is back up to grrreeeat.

Hope you all have a fab weekend and (hope to) see you back here soon :)

XOXO

ChasRunner

John Denver, Monster Mix & Stank: A Wild West Relay Race Report, Part III

2009-08-16T17:14:00.007-04:00

How long is it going to take me to FINALLY post the finale of my WWR recap, you ask?? Well it's ending today!

Missed parts I or II?

So we made it to our "campsite" at our final exchange, and we were greeted with this:

There was really no where to sleep except for in front of and behind our van...but we made it happen. For, maybe 45 minutes to an hour :)

After a few hours of not sleeping and munching on handfuls more of Monster Mix, we got up to greet Van #1 and bring in their final leg so we could finish up ours! Around this time we were getting worried that we wouldn't make the cut off time (which we thought was either 4 or 5) so upon chatting with Van #1, we decided that we would "leap frog" our leg. (We should have started the race about three hours earlier than we did.)

Basically leap frogging is having two runners on the course at once. For example, we would drop of runner #6 and then drive ahead to the next exchange and drop of runner #7. We thought this was a great idea AND it would get us to the showers quicker. So we waited a while on Van #1, cheering on the huge caterpillars who were venturing out in the road to try and cross, but inevitably got squished under the wheels of a Chevy. (Seriously, I wish we had this moment on video.) When they finally arrived we snapped a few pics for them and we were off!

Alesha and I split up Steve's leg (about 2 miles each, I think mine was a little less at like 1.8) and then I headed on for my final leg. Which.Was.Killer.
I felt like the first three miles were completely uphill but I guess they were rolling. I peaked at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass and then it was all downhill from there! For some reason I had it in my head that I was only doing 4.6...but when 4.6 came and went I figured it was a bit more :)

Killer form.SIKE!

The scenery was beautiful though, I wish I had more pictures! The highlight of this run for me was when I was trudging up the final hill and was feeling beat down and the van was parked at the top of the hill waiting for me blasting Baby Got Back and cheering like crazy! I'm telling you, it was priceless! It also gave me that much needed boost to move that junk in my trunk to the exchange!

We finished up with our next two runners (blaring John Denver the whole time! how approps) and then Alesha was up for our last runner. We went ahead to the finish line and called the other van to make sure they were going to meet us there so we could all run across the finish line together. (They had already been to the hotel and showered! So.Jealous.)

Finished!!!

Van #2. 34 hours of non-showering, sweaty STANK!

Since this post has dragged on and on for over a week now, lets cut to the chase. Here are some pics of us all showered, clean and pretty again post-race.

Underexposed photo opp on our floor. Love these gals!!

Post-race Happy Hour at our slope-side hotel. Most of the gals got Sangria, but I opted for the more potent Marg. It was pretty good, not too sweet.

The fabulous ladies of Van #2 :)

Dinner at Mazzolo's. Yummy, over priced Italian ;)

All in all, I LOVED the Wild West Relay and would definitely do it again. I am already dreaming of the next relay I can participate in if not the WWR (Miami to Key West in February anyone?).

What I loved most about the race? Other than meeting all the fun people, I am thankful that I was finally introduced to the gorgeous state of Colorado. Previously I have only experienced the North Carolina/Tennessee/Virginia mountains which are lovely, but honestly they cannot hold a candle to the vast openness of Colorado and Wyoming and the great West. I honestly think I have fallen in love with this state! It's almost enough to make me want to shed my Southern home and head for the hills! At least temorarily ;)

I promise I will return to some normal blogging soon. I have my FINAL financial exam this coming Monday the 24th so I'm pretty bogged down until then. Hopefully after Monday my summer of studying will finally be over and I can enjoy the beach/pool before...wait, it never gets really cold down here ;)

{Did a brutal 16 miler this past Sunday with the team. It was tough but I'm glad I pushed through! Back down to 10 I think this weekend. Marathon here I come!}

John Denver, Monster Mix & Stank: A Wild West Relay Race Report, Part II

2009-08-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

Some more pictures from our first leg!

Once our first leg was over, we started the drive to our next exchange point. It looked like it may be a longish drive and we were HANGRY so we decided to stop in Poudre Canyon for some grub. I had the greasiest, tastiest BLT and fries EVAH!

Then we got lost.

But on the way we saw this perdy sunset in Walden, CO so all was well. We found some rando to take our picture. Gorgeous! One of my fave pics from the trip actually.

Then....we got to the next exchange and we waited on the other team. And waited. And waited. In the cold. (It was in the 30s!! brrrr) When they finally showed, Cynthia was off to murder some serious Colorado hills through Medicine Bow National Forest. Almost 9 miles completely, utterly, all the way uphill. She is my hero!

Eventually I was up for my 2nd leg, 7.1 miles at around 3 AM! I started in Wyoming and ran across the state line into Colorado.

I was half asleep wheen I started preparing for this leg, so I decided to try out my Hammer Espresso gel with caffeine. I took it about 15 minutes before my run and it worked like a charm! I will DEF be buying more of these to take before my weekday morning runs. This was my best leg yet with an average pace of 9:30.

I felt like I was flying most of the run, it was so nice to just be out there in the open range Colorado cattle country in the middle of the night. Although, it was a bit creepy. (Do you see how dark that picture with the sign is?? That was taken by my teammates while I was out running!)

I also had a running partner for most of this leg. Some guy who ran up behind me and ran with me most of the way. He didn't really want to talk (even though I kept prodding him to), but he pushed me to keep running faster so all was good.

It was especially funny when Steve (who was driving the van since he was no longer running) pulled up for one of the vans "motivational cheering points" and screamed, "You're prettier than that guy behind you!" So that became something our van started screaming at runners. Eventually it was just shortened to, "YOU"RE PRETTY!!!!" Good times.

I knew guy was going to turn on the gas right when we got to the exchange, and he did, but I was okay with him coming in a few seconds ahead of me. (I was ahead of him the whole run...) I probably wouldn't have kept the good pace without him!

So thanks guy I think your name is Cooper who breathed heavier than me yet lived in Denver. You kept me moving!

I don't look tired at all! The sun started to come up and then it was Alesha's turn.

Can I move here please?

Alesha finished up our van's second leg as she ran us into the Walden, CO high school. None of us had slept more than 45 minutes and we were all tired, dirty, stanky and CRANKY! We were told we could sleep in the school (as Van #1 had done for a lovely 3 hours...we were so not hating them at that point...) but we couldn't so we looked at our maps and it said the next exchange had a "camping" area.

So we decided to venture on that way and see how much sleep we could get outside, in full sunlight, at 8 AM before our final leg...

John Denver, Monster Mix & Stank: A Wild West Relay Race Report, Part I

2009-08-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

Where shall I begin? This trip was only a few days, but it felt like a week! So much to catch y'all up on... Here we go for Part I of our journey to the wild wild west...

Last Thursday Shannon and I set out for our wild west adventure and made our first stop from Charleston the Chicago airport. Where we saw these:

Yes, those are man legs. And no, I have NO idea what the hell those shoes are or why he's wearing them. It was odd, very odd.

While we were waiting we took a few pictures...clearly, I am not good at this.

Ok, this one's better. Our flight from Chicago to Denver ended up being re-routed up to Nebraska due to storms. Luckily we didn't have to land there, we just, uh, hovered. When we finally landed in Denver I learned that Alesha's flight had also been re-routed, but that they had landed (just to refuel) and she was in Amarillo! Luckily though once we got off the plane and wandered around looking for our ride, she texted to say she had landed in Denver. Whew!

We wandered around looking for Julie and Jennifer, who were picking us up in one of our rented vans. We finally found them and then Ryan...and then Alesha! We were on our way to pick up Dionne (aka Steve) at his place in downtown Denver. To make a long story short, we didn't end up making it to Fort Collins (and to the rest of our teammates who were already there) until after midnight Thursday night!

But we were up bright and early Friday morning and headed off to the start! Our start time was 7:50 AM...which we were to later learn was WAY too late.

Van #2 (our van!) loading up around 6 AM Friday morning.

The Dangerous Dozen ready to roll! Don't we all look so awake?

Alesha is ready to rock it!

We arrived at the start and began the check-in process and the ultimately more important process of decorating our vans. This was key!

Van #2! Our lovely minivan for a few days...

Van #1! Courtesy of Jeri's mad van decorating skills!

10 chicks and 2....? (Continue on with that thought and you will get another team's actual name...better than Dangerous Dozen?!)

They interviewed Bobbi about our team before we started. Apparently our team motto was "Get it!" and we are all from 12 different states. Even though three of us were from Colorado, two from South Carolina, two from California...you get the idea :) Somehow word spread of this "Dangerous Dozen" for all over the US...we were famous!

Then our first runner, Melissa, was off! (She's in the blue shorts.)

For those of you who don't know too much about how a relay race works, here is the low down:

Our team had 12 runners total. Each runner was responsible for running 3 legs of varying distances. There were 2 vans with 6 runners each, one van was the active van (meaning they were currently out running their 6 legs) while the other was an inactive van (meaning they were driving ahead to the next major exchange to wait on the active van to hand off the "baton" to their next runner). Once the active van passed off to the inactive van (i.e. runner #6 passed off to runner #7, or runner #12 passed off to #1) the inactive would now be active. Make sense?

Our start time of 7:50 was determined by our projected finish time. The faster the team was projected to finish, the later on Friday they would start. They had teams starting as early as 5 AM...which we would later come to learn that we should have started around then!

So here are the ladies of Van #2 waiting for Van #1 to finish up their first leg.

Cynthia (the hill goddess), Jennifer (the crazy good, crazy fast runner), me and Alesha (the DJ's assistant and our awesome last runner!).

Here is our #6 runner Julie coming in to meet our vans 1st runner of the day!

As Julie comes in, Cynthia leaves out! And Van #2 is on the move.

Cynthia is a ROCKSTAR! Our frist few legs were flat with some rolling hills...how beautiful is this scenery?

Unfortunately, our #8 runner Steve got injured on his first leg...so between Alesha, Jenn and I we ran the remainder of his legs.

When it came around to my turn, I was studying my leg map and realized that Jenn (who was out there running) had mistakenly ran my leg! I normally wouldn't have cared...but here was the leg I was supposed to run:

And here was the leg I ended up running...

But I rocked it! Not sure of my time, but I think it was around a 10 to 10:30 minute mile. Not too bad for crazy hills and the elevation!

Stay tuned for Part II!

WE DID IT!

2009-08-10T09:23:00.004-04:00

...we got our asses over the pass!

The Wild West Relay was a BLAST and something I definitely would do again! We finished in about 34 hours total as we sent our final runner over the finish line and ran in together at about 4 PM Saturday in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Shannon and I had THREE layovers to get home yesterday and started out by leaving Steamboat at 6 AM, driving the three hours to the Denver airport, running through security to get to our gate then flying to Memphis (for a two hour layover) then to Atlanta (for a THREE hour layover...spent eating chips and salsa at Chili's and having some much needed girl talk) then finally back home to good ole Charleston, SC.

When we finally walked out of the airport we were welcomed by a familiar wave of thick humidity. It was good to be back at sealevel again!

Hopefully I can get a full report up for you guys ASAP...we took tons of pictures too so it should be a good one :)

Let's just say this report will include...roadside dancing, 4 AM runs through open range cattle country, Baby Got Back/John Denver/and other appropriately themed drive-by cheering & jeering, more granola/protein bars than any one person should ever consume, The Taco Blog, AMAZING ATHLETES...and tons of crazy and delirious fun with our teammates!

I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm probably a little crazy this morning, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Get your ASS over the PASS!

2009-08-06T10:17:00.003-04:00

Hey guys! So sorry I haven't had time to post anything else this week. I am heading off to Colorado today for the Wild West Relay and won't have access to a computer, but of course, I will be Tweeting away the whole time! Our flight leaves at 2:41 this afternoon and we should get into Denver about 7:00 tonight. Our team starts tomorrow morning around 8 AM EST...and should finish up around noonish on Saturday.

So come visit me on Twittahville (I'm @ChasRunner) to follow our teams inaugural Wild West Relay experience! I will have a (massive I'm sure) race recap next week where I will outline the products/foods/gear that (hopefully) got me through the race...I bought a few new things to try out this weekend and review for y'all so stay tuned ;)

When you make plans...

2009-08-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

Well hello there! It is a fabulous Tuesday morning here in Charleston. I've been super busy moving, organizing the new place, and working a lot of overtime to make up for the fact that I'm leaving for Colorado on Thursday! I'm pretty excited about the trip, not gonna lie.

So here I sit, sippin' my green juice (I really need to start posting about my raw + food combining adventures , because it's going well...maybe after WWR) and I realized I had this post just waiting in drafts for y'all. So while I get to working I figured I would post this up. Don't worry, I know I still owe you a Part II of my Charleston mini-tour, and it's coming...patience my dears, is a virtue ;)

In running news, I ran a fantastic 12 miles with the team on Sunday. I wasn't going to go, seeing as we had been out the night before for drinks + dinner with Shannon and her boy at Crave and had stayed up until after 1 AM. But when the alarm clock went off at 5:45 I somehow popped right up out of bed!

We ran 1 mile intervals with a 1 minute walk break in between, and let me tell you, it was one of the best long runs I have ever had! We were managing between 8:30 and 9:30 pace while running! So our average pace came out to 10:02 for the entire 12 miles! If I can keep that up for the marathon I will be sitting pretty.

I've been learning that this time around, I do better when I just go...no worries, no planning, no serious must-stick-to-this training plans, hell I haven't even been running with an iPod in over two months! (They're all broke, boo.) And you know what? I'm lovin' it :) Guess that's a little bit off of my plan I set for myself back in May, huh?

It just goes to show that when you make plans, God (or whomever you believe makes the rules of the universe) laughs at them!
***

I was tagged a while back from Cynthia (a fellow WWR'er) in this 7 Traits thing and am just now getting around to it. Gonna try to make this 7 things you don't already know about me...

1. I am OCD. It's mostly a paranoia that my apartment is going to burn down. I check my stove like 10 times before I go to bed to make sure it is turned off. I also once had Matt drive 45 minutes back home after we were out for my birthday to check and see if I had left the iron on. Luckily (or not), I had. He is extremely sweet for putting up with me :)

2. I drive a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The hood is a slightly different shade of red than the rest of it, and there's a story behind that. It's old but it's paid for baby! And it's nice that my gas is only about $30 a month. My first car was a Mercedes though, I start out classy and then downgrade apparently.

3. I'm a less severe version of a hypochondriac yet I refuse to take any medicine (including Advil or whatever) or go to the doctor. (Unless its the dentist, eye doc or the gyno.) I always think I have a blood clot or a heart condition or something else completely unlikely.

4. My parents divorced when I was in 4th grade. It was pretty bad until I left for college. My mom has since re-married and divorced + is cougarrific, and my dad has never remarried. I think he likes the bachelor life.

5. I starred as Cinderella in a community theater musical in high school! It rocked. Especially when I *surprise* slipped the Prince tongue in one of our fake kisses. He about shat himself! (This was high school remember, and I was at least two years older than him. The entire cast knew it was coming which made it even more hilarious.) I still miss the theater and think abotu trying out for community shows every now and again.

6. I sang in our schools chorus (as well as community ensemble), and was usually quite pissy if I didn't get the alto solos. Diva alert! I also was in our high school pageant. Twice. I got 3rd place the second time (looossser). It was one of the most fun things I remember about high school though.

7. Matt was/is my first real boyfriend. I never had a *real* boyfriend in high school, and dated a guy in college but he sucked so he doesn't count. I went a little crazy with guys junior year of college and decided to swear them off altogether (um, not lesbo style, just swear off for a while) until Matt and I met. We met at a bar and the night is kind of hazy...I don't remember our first kiss...how crappy is that?! But I do remember our second kiss because it was outisde of my car, and he picked me up by my, umm, bootay, and set me on the hood where we made out. It was soooo Vin Diesel in the Fast and the Furious. I was hooked then and there!
***

Anything else you want to know about me? I'm a semi-open book! Hope you have a great Tuesday and hopefully I will be back with some more fun stuff before WWR!

Kiawah Island 1/2 and Full Marathon

2009-08-03T10:01:00.004-04:00

No time to post...just a quick note...

If anyone wants to run the Kiawah Island 1/2 or Full Marathon on December 12th, registration opens today and usually sells out within 8 hours!! Register here.

I've heard nothing but good things about this local race. Flat + fast course, great post-race spread, great scenery! I am officially registered for the 1/2! (Maybe will do the full next year :) Come on down to Charleston for a fun race with moi!

More later with moving recap and Charleston mini running tour Part II!

***
Updated to add: As of Tuesday morning, it looks like registration is still open...so go register! I know there are a few of you out there who will be joining me, or are considering it...

Where I (Used to) Run

2009-08-01T11:58:00.000-04:00

Good morning lovelies!

Thank you for all the well wishes for us moving! It was quite the two day affair, complete with illegal pets, broken frames and even a shooting....but more on all that later.

I woke up this morning so sore from all of the heavy lifting, although I didn't go on a run yesterday (and only made 2 last week!) I feel like I got a serious workout in.

During my morning run on Thursday I took some pictures of where I have been running the past year, and I wanted to share them with y'all. I know I promised them yesterday for Photo Friday but...yesterday morning I had no idea where either one of our laptops were!

I started out early and it was still a bit dark, but the sun was right under the horizon. This is the path along the water I used to take every day coming out of my old apartment.

I love the marshes in the Lowcountry!

This is looking back, towards our old building. See the tall brick building on the right? That was us! The City Marina is on the left, and that grey building houses some yacht sales companies, an ABC store and a wine shop and further to the left is Salty Mike's, a casual bar which is frequented by boaters and sailors. Love it!

Further down that path, Lockwood Blvd. turns into the famed Broad Street. Here is a quaint little house I particularly like right on the corner. I love the red door and white picket fence.

This is Colonial Lake. It sits right above Broad Street and there are always runners and walkers there. It's small, so I don't usually run around it. But its a great meet up spot.

The sun is coming up! I love all of the houses around here, it's so beautiful downtown.

Then you get into the larger homes, I believe this one was on South Battery, but it may have been on Tradd St. Either way, it was South of Broad (anything South of Broad Street is v. nice and v. expen$ive).

The gardens downtown are gorgeous, I love peeking through the gates to see how beautiful people keep them. There are actually home and garden tours in the fall where you can visit some of the really impressive private homes and gardens downtown. I would like to look into that this year...and dream of having a home as nice someday!

I love this house! The picture doesn't do it justice, but the large expanse of old glass windows is right up my alley. This one is right across from Battery Park.

I will finish this mini tour later on in Part 2! For now, I leave you with some pictures of what we will be doing today...

Matt is up and itching to get unpacking, so hope you all have a fab Saturday!

Moving Day!

2009-07-30T08:54:00.004-04:00

Hiya! It's MOVING DAY! We're signing our new lease at lunch today and I will be picking up our keys on my way home :) Then we're loading up the UHaul and getting as much moved tonight as we can. I'm really really excited. I may or may not take off tomorrow to finish the job up, it just depends on how much we get moved tonight.

I knew this morning would probably be my last morning to get up and do an early downtown run before work, so I FINALLY jumped out of bed and went on a nice (albeit semi-asleep, semi-blind sans contacts) 3.5 miler with camera in tow! This is mayjah for me as I have been trying to get up for an early run for oh, six months or so. I was hoping to go a little further but I woke up too late and didn't have enough time...but 3.5 is better than nothing, right?

Pictures tomorrow for Photo Friday!

In the spirit of Thursday deals a la ChicRunner...here is a nice little nugget for anyone who wants to use it...

Gap's Give and Get Program starts today (It's Thursday July 30th just in case y'all haven't had your coffee yet) and runs until Sunday, August 2nd. Download this coupon to bring into the stores with you and you will receive 30% off PLUS 5% will go back to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! (Not to my specific campaign unfortch, but to LLS in general.)

This includes ALL Gap stores in the US and Canada! Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Banana Outlet and Gap Outlet...too bad this doesn't include Piperlime...boo. Mama needs some new shoes!

So go out, buy some pretty things, and support a fab cause.

Alright kids, I have a busy day/weekend ahead of me so I gotta run! See y'all tomorrow :)

Dessert Party + Blogger Meetup + TNT Update

2009-07-28T10:56:00.001-04:00

Guess who I met up with at my dessert party?

Why it's Diana from The Chic Life!

This past Saturday Matt and I headed down to Charlotte for my TNT dessert party that my mom was hosting.

We had tons of desserts that were donated to us by various bakeries, and my mom and I also made up her famous blueberry pound cake. I had gathered tons of giveaway items from local companies and I was hopeful that the event would be well attended and get me closer to my $3,500 fundraising goal.

I won't say that the entire party was a failure, but it definitely wasn't what I had hoped for. Not many people came. The good part? I raised $225! Better than nothing, right? Another good part? I got to meet Diana and her hubby!

After Kelsey posted about my event last week, Diana contacted me about it since she lives in Charlotte. I love meeting other bloggers because we always have stuff to talk about! Although The Chic Life is more of a food blog and she's not a runner, it was cool to chat about whole foods + healthy living with her. It was also nice that our boys could chat over some beers + cake + sports :) I hope we can all meet up again sometime when we're in Charlotte or they come to Charleston. (Thanks for supporting my cause guys!)

Diana was kind enough to let me steal her pictures, because if the above pic is any example, my point and click Nikon had nothing on her DSLR. You can read her recap of the night here!

All for a cause!!

The spread! Her pictures make it look much more chic than it was :) I guess that's her specialty though, right? I need to take some tips on that...

We had a beautiful flower arrangement donated by Willow. If you live in the Charlotte area and need flowers, this place is amazing. It's run by Tricia whose tag line is "organically inspired designs." We picked this up at her studio, which is run out of her gorgeous house in the Baxter Village area of Ft. Mill right off of I-77. Thanks Tricia for the fab arrangement!

We had two cheesecakes, this one is a chocolate cinnamon flavor. It was so-so.

This was strange indeed, some sort of frozen strawberry treat. It was actually pretty good. We dubbed this one the "ham and cheese" dessert. I've never seen or tasted anything quite like it.

YUM. My mom's blueberry pound cake. We had a little mishap making this. My mom was mixing everything up and we got flustered and distracted by some visitors and she forgot to add the sugar!

We had it all ready to go and were about to add the blueberries when we were like, hmmm this doesn't look right. We had to throw it out and start again. I guess there really is a method to the madness of adding ingredients in the stages that recipes call them to be added. But the second time was a charm as this was definitely the star of the evening.

And it's safe to say that this lemon topped carrot cake came in second. Delish!

The second cheesecake was a Bailey's flavored Irish Creme cake. Yuck!! I love Bailey's but this was nasty.

These were little chocolate marshmellow pies. Looked weird, but tasted great! Reminded me of chocolate Moon Pie's or Mallowmars but 100 times better. (I hate Moon Pies too.)

All in all this was a fun and relaxing evening, and although I didn't raise over $500 like I was hoping to, it was nice to see my family and of course to meet The Chic Life + Chic hubby!

..and I might have a giveaway of sorts in the cards as well. Some of the items I gathered for door prizes I still have, so stay tuned!

Team in Training Update
My running fundraising total for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is $2,612. Which means I only have $888 left to raise to meet my goal! If you can donate anything I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks to the following bloggers/online buddies for donating to my cause even though we've never met in person!

Ross K (my first donor and largest donor to date)
Anthony L (third highest donor!)
JennieBinSC
Nicole B (Running Bebe)
JoyRuN
MaytonH
Jennifer B
Meredith (Balance for Mere)
Eugene M
NY Wolve (**Updated to add...inadvertently missed this donor! Hard to keep the real names and the blog names together when looking at my donation sheet :)

I missed the group run this weekend unfortunately, and didn't have a chance to make up the 14 miles on my own. We are moving this Friday so this week is pretty slam packed but I did a nice 6 mile run last night and plan on doing a few two a days this week to get ready for the madness that is going to be WWR NEXT WEEKEND!

Wild West Relay + TNT Update

2009-07-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

So... the Wild West Relay is quickly approaching...actually, it's in 13 days!

Although I almost backed out at the last minute, although I have absolutely no money, although I am moving the weekend before the race, although I have another test for work the weekend after the race, although two weeks after the race is my fundraising deadline for Team in Training, I am going and I'm excited about it.

For those of you who don't know about WWR, here's the rundown:

200 miles, 24 hours
12 runners per team
36 legs total
3 legs per runner
From Fort Collins, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO
2 SUV's packed with granola bars, peanut butter, stinky people & G (that would be Gatorade now apparently)
Lots 'o hills
Lots 'o elevation
Really, really challenging terrain but it promises to pretty amazing

We gathered runners from all over the blogosphere and then some! Here's our team, the Dangerous Dozen!! We have two guys on the team, hopefully they can put up with a lot of estrogen for a few days :)

Amanda from Run to the Finish
Melissa from Trying to Heal
Bobbi from NHerShoes
Shannon from Shannon's Scene: Take Two (and a Charlestonite :)
Alesha my BFF from college (we also went to high school together!)
Cynthia from Amber (Shannon's cousin)
Julie (not sure if she has a blog, but I think she has run WWR before! or maybe that's Jennifer?? sorry guys)
Jennifer (not sure if she has a blog either!)
Jeri from JerBer Shares
Moore (Alesha's friend)
Dionne (Moore's friend and lives in CO)
...and yours truly

I am runner # 9 so my legs are 9, 21 & 33. Check out these maps! Holy elevation batman! These are gonna be tough for a sea level gal like myself.
Although it looks like I get my most challenging leg out of the way first, way to plan Kristin, way to plan :)
A longer run, but a gradual descent. Gonna be tough on the quads after all that climbing earlier. ...and the final leg! I'm sure this one will be pretty tough because it will most likely be the next morning/afternoon. We probably will have slept for all of 15 minutes on the ground somewhere waiting on our next leg. But that's gonna be the fun of it, right? RIGHT??

I will be running a total of 16.6 miles, with a total elevation gain of 1,608, total elevation loss of -2,180 with an overall difficulty rating of 9 on a scale of 1-12 with 12 being the hardest. Although my net elevation is -572 (the hardest leg's net elevation is 2,547) I'm pretty sure this is going to be a VERY challenging race for me. I actually would prefer to go up hills than down them, because descending always ends up hurting my knees and quads.

Last night I decided to start prepping for WWR and did some hill repeats. I ran about 1.5 miles to warm up (which included going to the top of my chosen hill-the bridge, obvi), then I started my 4 x .25 repeats, running back down the .25 each time. My Garmin died mid-run so I don't have my totals, but it was actually not that bad! I think total I ran a little over 4 miles? Maybe more, I'm not sure.

Next time I would like to do 1/2 mile repeats, which would be a lot tougher. The .25 mile was pretty simple and I could tell that doing at least 4 half mile repeats would definitely test my hill strength. I'm going be doing these a lot over the next two weeks to get ready!

Have I also mentioned that I haven't been running with an iPod in about a month?? Yeah, both of my shuffles are on the fritz and I just haven't had the time to mess with them. Plus, all of our long runs I run with people so there's no need for music...so it's just my solo runs that have been a bit quieter. It's actually been pretty nice...

Headed out tonight to Charlotte for my TNT fundraiser tomorrow night. Gonna be a quick trip, gotta get back in time for our TNT 14 miler on Sunday morning...then spending the day PACKING...as we're moving next Friday to....Mt. Pleasant! Yep, we're leaving our beloved downtown Charleston for a nice slice of suburbia. But we're not gonna be far away from downtown and I happen to love Mt. Pleasant, so I'm not upset about it. (For those of you not familiar with the area, Mt. Pleasant is just the town across the bridge from the downtown portion of Charleston, so, it's not like I'm actually moving away.)

***By the way...have you donated yet?? My running total is $1,867...so I'm onl7 $1,633 away from my goal! I'm also only $133 away from $2,000. Anybody want to make my Friday and help me reach $2,000 today????

Have a fab weekend lovahs!

Raw Creamy Zucchini Salad

2009-07-20T22:08:00.007-04:00

This is by far my favorite raw meal that I've made. I keep coming back to it over and over again.

Creamy Zucchini Salad! This stuff is amazing and so simple! I don't know where I first saw it...I think here then here and it probably originated here...but basically (since I don't have a spiralizer) I shred up one zucchini (skin and all, length of zucchini) with my cheese grater, mix it up with 1/2 of a mashed avocado, juice from 1/2 a lemon, and some sea salt.

Kind of like a deconstructed guacamole salad + some zucchini?

I added some raw onion and tomato to the mix and plated it on top of some organic baby spinach. I mixed it all together when I got ready to eat it...Heather's right, who needs ranch or blue cheese when you have this creamy goodness?!

On the side I served it with some non-raw steamed acorn squash and (probably a bit much) Smart Balance Light (my "margarine" of choice) and some sea salt. (I wasn't too hungry tonight due to some happy hour cocktails and calamari...normally this wouldn't fill me up, but it hit the spot tonight.)

What I like most about the shredded zucchini, is that it's a fantastic stand in for pasta! It makes a very tasty (and nutritious) base for raw pasta meals. I've used it to make pesto "pasta":

I mixed up a "pesto" sauce with some fresh basil, olive oil, parm (so, not completely raw due to this addition) and sea salt. I topped this one with some avocado. Tasty!

I've also topped it with a raw tomato sauce that turned out nasty. Note: Don't blend raw mushrooms and raw tomatoes together in the attempt to make a raw pasta sauce sans sun dried tomatoes. It will come out brown and NASTY! :)

I haven't been too adventurous in my raw meals yet; been keeping it pretty simple since that's all I have time for.

But that is why I love this dish! A) Avocados are one of my fave foods, B) Zucchini is probably my favorite veggie, C) This takes all of 5 minutes to make. So...If you haven't tried this combo PLEASE go out and do it now! Matt even had a bite (unwillingly) and said it "wasn't bad at all." So, I guess that means it's pretty YUM.

***
Ran 14.49 miles this Sunday with TNT. Felt great! Back in the game baby ;)

Dessert Fundraiser this Saturday in Charlotte, NC Area!

2009-07-20T16:32:00.008-04:00

Hey y'all! Just a quick update for anybody out there in the Ft. Mill, SC/Charlotte, NC area!

I'm holding another dessert night fundraiser this Saturday, July 25th from 7 to 9PM at my mom's house in Fort Mill, SC. She lives about 15 minutes outside of Charlotte so it's pretty close for any of y'all in the 704 area!

We're gonna have all you can eat desserts, coffee, Bailey's (yum) and hopefully some wine if I can get it donated, in exchange for donations.

I raised about $500 at my last dessert night for my Team in Training fundraising campaign and I'm hoping to shatter that number with the help of my mom at this event!

If you're in the area I would love to meet you! We're going to have plenty of desserts and some fun giveaways as well :) I've got a few "marathon inspired" donations from local companies so far that I'm either going to auction or raffle off...you gotta stop by to see what they are!

If you wanna indulge, shoot me an email for the deets: ChasRunner at gmail dot com

Have a fab Monday!

***Edited to add***

Awesome local companies making this event rock!

TGIF!

2009-07-17T11:47:00.004-04:00

Sorry that my past two posts seemed to be fishing for compliments...I didn't mean for them to sound that way! I was just excited about my new hair & then about my exam....I'm really not that narcissistic :)

Last night I had a meeting at 6 after work, and the last thing I wanted to do was go out and RUN. Especially when I was hungry and it looked like it was about to storm...Matt was even trying to convince me to stay home. But I headed out anyways and got in a nice 3.5 miler. Nothing spectacular, but a good way to get back on track. I also did some squats, lunges and whatever that thing is where you "sit" on the wall for as long as you can. I'm a bit sore today!

Tonight I'm heading out to run the bridge after work with Shannon...I love running with friends it makes it so much easier & I'm probably 99% less likely to back out of it...

Thanks for the thoughts on my venture into raw foodism. One thing I dislike about healthy living blogs is the fact that when one thing gets popular, everyone jumps onto the train just because its what everyone else is doing. I know raw foodism is "the cool thing to do" currently but I really believe in the foundation of thought behind this diet choice. Plus the food combining aspect is what really intrigues me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not just trying this out because I don't want to be left out. I'm trying it out because it makes sense to me on some levels.

You've seen meat on this blog and you probably will continue to see meat on occassion. I'm not a vegetarian but as Matt would say, "You pretty much are." I just don't like meat as much as veggies, and I've always been that way. Plus I am painfully aware of how inhumane the meat industry is in America, and that also plays into my veggie loving ideals.

But I also love cooked foods, so I'm not giving up on all of that just yet! I just want to incorporate 1-2 raw meals a day into my diet.

Did I bore anyone yet?!

While I'm not running out to buy a dehydrator anytime soon, and I'm probably not going to fork out the $$ for sprouted breads...I'm going to see where this thing takes me and go from there. I hope you will stick along for the ride :)

Of course, I'm also gonna throw in some running + racing here and there...that is what this blog is about, right?!

I also have realized that I want to start showcasing this fantastic Southern city of mine a bit more...so many people love Charleston and come from miles away for vacation, yet I hardly ever talk about it. I want to share with you all this city that I have come to love over the past year. The beautiful row houses, the beaches, the lush green marshes and the water front paths that I run on...so more to come soon I promise!

Hope everyone has a fab weekend, I think I've got 14 on the schedule for Sunday?

Back on track...

2009-07-16T10:08:00.004-04:00

So I've started like three different posts this week and haven't published any of them...I have been so uninspired with blogging I just didn't want to post something for the sake of posting...But I felt the need to give you all an update!

This past weekend I was glued to my desk (er, kitchen table) studying for my General Securities Series 7 Exam (stocks, bonds, options, variable retirement plans, brokerage services, etc.) that I had to take again on Monday...remember when I failed the first time?

When I took it before I seriously underestimated the vast amount of material this test covered, and did not spend as much time studying as I should have. I mean, the exam is 6+ hours long! So this time around I knew I would have to devote a lot more to studying. Which I did. All throughout this past 30 days I have had to wait to re-take the test I was studying in between work, meetings, running and fundraising. Plus Friday through Monday morning I barely ate anything, was crazy cracked out on caffeine, and did not sleep much in order to cram into my brain everything I had been studying for the past three months!

(This was in no means healthy at all, actually Matt told me I looked "bulimic or something" on Monday afternoon. I was a wreck! But believe me, I have made up for it this week with everything I have eaten.)

Monday morning came around and I headed to the testing center feeling...optimistic yet scared. When I broke for "lunch" after the first half of the test (130 questions) I felt....good but not 100% confident in all of my answers. The second half was brutal, and by this point I think I had given up and realized that I wasn't going to score at least the required 70% to pass.

I was thinking up new careers, envisioning what I would tell my office...making plans to skip the country....then finally I was finished and had about 15 minutes of my allotted time left...I couldn't bear to press the 'I'm done' button so I went back through some of my answers...until finally the time ran out and the screen went blank waiting on my results...I couldn't bare to look!

But finally I did and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the word: PASS

I almost couldn't believe it. I was now certified to work as a stock broker! I never thought I would ever utter that sentence.

So needless to say, running (and blogging!) has fallen by the wayside and I am seriously in need of getting back on track. After a 6 PM meeting tonight I'm hitting the streets to get my body moving again. (Um, hello Wild West Relay in THREE WEEKS???!!!)

In other news, I have been tying to tweak my nutrition and eating habits over the past few months, and are becoming more curious with a partial raw food lifestyle. Food combining is really intriguing me and I've been juicing a ton.

I hope to soon start posting more pictures/recipes of some of the things I eat in order to include some in the new Healthy Yum website that I was so excited to be invited to be a part of! (Well, anyone can be a part of it actually, so I guess I was excited to be included in the invite :)

Just a bit of a sneak peak of some of the raw foods I have been enjoying lately...

Carrot + Apple Juice

Cabbage + Greens + Veggies + Peanut Sauce Salad
(Not exactly raw because of the peanuts, but DELISH! Lived on these last week!)

Raw Creamy Zucchini Soup with Sprouts

More to come later! Have a great Thursday y'all!

there's a new gal in town

2009-07-09T14:03:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't heard...

I chopped off my hair!!! I'm in love with it and also with Katie at Strawberry Blonde Salon! She did a fab job!

Busy busy week....some running...lots of other stuff. Hopefully can get back to blogging normality next week. Have a fab weekend lovahs!!

xoxo
ChasRunner

Foto Friday: Pig Pics!

2009-07-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

(Stacia, some girl I don't know & me)

(that's me on the left with some of our Habitat committee)

(Jason & Sandy!)

These of course are all from last Sunday's Habitat for Humanity Pig 'N Pluck at Bowen's Island. I don't know some of those people, I just thought the pictures were nice :)

Since I have today off I headed out for a run this morning around 8 AM. I decided not to run with Kara last night as I just kind of wanted to chill, especially since I could get it in this morning.

After wrestling with two iPods for about 30 minutes I headed out the door with one I thought was working. It wasn't. So I left it downstairs in the office and headed out for a nice, silent 5 miler.

I decided to run one mile and then take a minute or two walk break. I did, and it turned out well! My average pace for 5.03 miles was 9:56. Much better than yesterday's 10:25 average pace for 4.5 miles!

Just made myself some green juice and now I'm about to head somewhere to get my study on.

Sweet and Creamy Summer Green Juice

2 large kale leaves
1/2 cucumber
1 peeled lemon
3 large handfuls of spinach
1/2 apple
2 carrots
1 teensy tiny bit fresh ginger (I don't like my juice spicy)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy July 4th! I will probably be drinking on a beach somewhere tomorrow after our group 12 miler :)

{Just a reminder, if anyone can help donate to my TNT fundraising campaign, I would really appreciate it! Even if it's only $5!}

i've lost my marathon mojo! + heart rate training

2009-07-02T09:24:00.006-04:00

So I know I promised some healthy nutrition posts this week...and they will come. Just maybe not today :)

Tuesday night was our TNT practice. I ran there again (1.9 miles or so) at around a 10 minute pace.

{I've lost my marathon mojo and I need to get it back! I've been struggling to maintain a quick pace during any of my runs this week.}

After some chit chat we started in on our heart rate training workout.

First we did two warm up laps around the track to loosen up the muscles. Then our plan was to run four more laps (one at a time) at different paces and measure our heart rate after each lap to determine what percentage of our max heart rate we were running at.

The ultimate goal being to find the pace with which we run at about 70-80% max heart rate, so we will know what pace we should be training at to avoid over-training or "going out too hard" and getting injured.

Well I am not the most coordinated person, so at the time I was really confused with what was going on and I don't think I once calculated everything accurately! But basically if you don't have a heart rate monitor (should have worn mine, ughgghhh) this is how you figure it out:

Run one lap at an easy "I'm comfortable with this" pace.
Time your lap and remember it. Or use a stop watch and stop it.
Immediately at the finish line stop and count your heart beats in a 10 second period.
Go write down the beats per 10 seconds, as well as the time it took you to run the lap.
Multiply the heart beat number by six, to get your heart rate per minute during your run.
Consult a heart rate chart (such as this one below) to see what percentage your HR for that lap falls under.
If you're easy lap HR was above 75 to 80%, you were probably going out too hard. (This below chart is not the one we used, but it's pretty similar.)

Then we continued this process for 3 or 4 more laps, each time increasing our speed. The point of this whole exercise was to figure out where our "easy" pace was (70% of max heart rate) versus our "all out and I want to puke" pace was (85 to 90%). That way we know what pace we should be training at to avoid injury and getting tired too quickly.

I know I'm going to dig out my HR strap today and use it on my speed workout tonight to see where I'm training at.

Then I basically ran/walked the 1.9 miles home...I was a tired girl!

Wednesday night I really was not in the mood to run after work but I knew I needed to, and I'm glad I went. I ended up covering 4.5 miles with an average pace of 10:25. It was hot. It was muggy. And have I mentioned I've lost my marathon mojo?!

Just so I can start to be accountable again, here are the sad splits (yes, I took a walk break during mile 4):

Split	Hours:Minutes:SecondsTime	milesDistance	feetElevation Gain	feetElevation Loss	minutes per mileAvg Speed	minutes per mileMax Speed	caloriesCalories
Summary	46:53	4.50	683	777	10:25	07:07	504
1	10:12	1.00	189	295	10:12	07:41	113
2	10:04	1.00	194	189	10:04	07:07	112
3	10:22	1.00	197	180	10:22	08:26	115
4	11:31	1.00	82	79	11:31	08:49	109
5	04:42	0.50	21	35	09:23	08:08	55

When I got home I did 2 regular 1 minute planks and 2 side 1 minute side planks, one each side. I was going to do more but the boyfriend and the grocery store were calling...

Tonight I'm planning on hitting the streets for a 40 minute speed workout with Kara Goucher. I know I shouldn't be doing short speed intervals since I'm marathon training and all, but I bought her workout on iTunes with a gift certificate I had (thanks Meredith!) so I'm gonna test it out. I might also do that killer conditioning workout if I have time.

HAPPY FRIDAY!! :)

Easy & Healthy Weeknight Meals with the Man Stamp of Approval!

2009-06-30T08:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the Garmin advice from yesterday's post! I used to lock my bezel (I have the 405) during the winter months when I had long sleeves on, but haven't been doing that lately. That's probably the problem! Also...my TNT total went over $1,400 yesterday!
***

Since some of you have asked how I eat up all the veggies I stock my fridge with, I figured this week I would spotlight some of my favorite veggie centric meals that help fuel my training and at the same time don't gag my boyfriend.

As many of you ladies know, it's hard to cook for two when your significant other is the McDonald's and Coke type and you're the spinach and squash type. But it can be done!

Before I get into what we ate last night, I wanted to share my recent loot from heaven on Earth, Whole Foods.

I have been trying to stay away from this food mecca until pay day, but yesterday I just couldn't resist any longer. Plus I desperately needed some GREENS! Whole Foods, Earth Fare, other natural food stores as well as seasonal farmers markets are the best place to buy your produce. If you look hard enough, the fruit and produce is generally competitively priced.

Whole Foods loot!

1 bag of organic lemons for juicing as well as for the hummus I was about to make (this bag was a better deal than the same amount of non-organic lemons!), one 5 pound bag of organic carrots for juicing, 2 avocados, 1 box of Annie's Mac N Cheese (I have been craving mac n cheese for months...so when I saw it for $1.99 I had to get it.)

1 bunch of organic kale for Green Smoothies, organic quinoa for tonight's dinner, lentils from the bulk bin, 2 cans no salt added black beans (not organic, b/c they didn't have organic with no salt added), and 2 cans of no salt added garbanzo beans for my hummus appetizer! (All of this ran me about $23, not too bad for mostly organic.)

I quickly mixed up the hummus when I got home from the store in my food processor because we were both starving and I knew dinner would take a little while to prepare. I hated it as you can see.

In my hummus I used 2 cans garbanzo beans, some tahini, some olive oil, juice from two lemons, a bit of water, 1 garlic clove, some sea salt. YUMZA! Matt and I shared the above portion. He actually didn't hate it (his words), but I ended up eating most of this.

One of my favorite dinners to make for Matt and I is simple, easily adaptable to on-hand ingredients and packed with nutrition. Stuffed peppers! Since we bought a bag of six red and green peppers a few weeks ago, I needed to do something with the remaining peppers and I immediately thought of this weeknight favorite.

This time I was going to be using:

1 cup dry quinoa, cooked (you can also use brown rice or any other small grain but I love the taste and texture of quinoa, plus it is a protein power house, perfect for athletes)
1 diced onion
1 zucchini (we eat zucchini & summer squash at least 2 times a week, such versatile veggies!)
1 yellow tomato
A little bit of Italian blend cheese for Matt's portion
4 small slices off a Muenster cheese block for me
herbs & spices

On the side I was going to make pan fried tilapia (from frozen and thawed tilapia).

I started out by dicing up some veggies.

I bought four yellow tomatoes the other day at Harris Teeter for ridiculously cheap because they were going bad. All I had to do was cut off the bad spots and I had 4 yummy tomatoes for less than a dollar! This is a great way to get good quality produce for cheap. I also got 4 organic apples for less than a dollar --they were perfect for juicing!

Then I sauteed up the hard veggies in a little olive oil. I was planning on mixing the tomatoes in last minute and then baking the whole stuffed pepper, so I didn't want to saute them first because they would cook down too much.

I then prepped the peppers by cutting off the lids and scraping out the seeds and insides. I put it in a "greased" (with Pam) glass casserole dish in the oven to soften up a bit at 350 before adding the stuffings.
Then I started to dip the fish in one egg, and then a whole wheat flour/herb mixture to prep them for the pan...

...when I started to smell smoke & opened the oven to find that the drippings in the bottom of it had caught fire!! Of course I screamed for Matt and he came to my rescue with some baking powder...after I hastily removed my peppers.

Lesson learned: Clean out the oven from time to time so it doesn't catch fire...

Once that was handled I got back to the fish.

In the meantime I was cooking up some quinoa on the stove: 2 cups liquid for 1 cup dry quinoa. I usually cook my quinoa in stock but I was all out of bouillon so I went plain.

Once I knew everything was about finished, I sprayed the skillet with Pam and added the fish to "fry". I cooked them for about 7 minutes on each side. The key to pan frying fish is to let them cook thoroughly on one side before flipping them.

Since I was no longer "baking" the stuffed peppers like I usually do (wth a bum oven and all) I needed to heat up the tomato, so I popped it in the microwave for two minutes. Then I poured the heated tomato & the veggie mixture all together into a bowl with the quinoa. I added some herbs (this time I used herbs de provence, red pepper flakes & a bit of sea salt) and stirred it up.

And popped the peppers in the microwave for three minutes with some water in the bottom of the dish to steam them (since I wasn't baking them anymore...)

Once the fish was done, I stuffed up the peppers and added some cheese...

I used some muenster cheese on top of mine, I mixed some Italian blend cheese into Matts. There is usually some quinoa & veggie mixture leftover that we add to our plates. But I still have one serving left for lunch today.

And if you're wondering, Matt loves loves loves this meal! He even requests it on occasion.

So there you have it, delicious stuffed peppers that can be adapted for even the pickiest eater. If your oven doesn't catch on fire, what I usually do is bake the peppers on their own for about 15 to 20 minutes while I am preparing the stuffing, then bring them out and stuff them and pop them back in the oven until the top of the stuffing is a nice golden brown. But if you're short on time, microwaving the peppers in a shallow dish with a bit of water works in a pinch as well.

This looks complicated, but it really is simple. You can easily add some ground meat of your choice if you would like to the stuffing, or add in more vegetables. You can change it up with different herb and spice combos. You could stuff it with rice, cous cous or any other whole grain or even maybe a pasta if you're feeling daring!

I love this dish because its healthy, tasty and most importantly - it's man approved!

***
I didn't workout last night, although I felt like I could have! I surprisingly wasn't sore at all from Sunday's 12 miler but I wanted to cook dinner and get some things wrapped up at home.

Since I'm going all healthy on y'all this week, get ready for some posts on:

binge eating & how to avoid it
at least one "raw" recipe that will get the man stamp of approval
...and of course more ways to sneak veggies into dinner without the men in our lives running for the nearest phone to dial Pizza Hut!

Anything else I should add to the list?

Weekend Wrap-Up: 3 Workouts!

2009-06-29T09:26:00.006-04:00

Monday morning....not my favorite day. But I did have a great weekend and managed to get three workouts in!

Friday night I attempted to do some hill repeats on the bridge, and didn't get too far :) I basically ran almost a mile to warm up and then ran up the steep side of the hill, back down, and attempted a second run up. I gave up because it was Friday and it was hot :) Next time I do these I am going to do 1/4 mile repeats. Much easier than MILE repeats...what was I thinking.

Saturday I wasn't planning on working out, but around 2 pm I got bored of studying so I decided to go on a bike ride to work off my lunch. I was so glad I went! I managed to ride 12 miles and explored my soon to be new neighborhood. I wished I had brought a camera because it was so beautiful down on the marsh overlooking the river.

After the ride I decided to go return my new shoes that I was NOT happy with all last week. So I headed out to TrySports to see what I could find. This time I remembered to bring my old Adidas that I trained for (and ran) the last marathon in. The very helpful Diego looked at my tread and told me that I had way too much arch support and was rolling onto the outside of my feet when I ran (I forget which kind of pronating that is...) So he told me I basically needed a shoe with no support, and could possibly go with some orthotics or insoles after I tried them out on their own.

I ended up with a shiny new pair of Saucony ProGrid Rides. I freaking love them!

They're light and they have a nice sized toe box which is essential for long runs because your feet will swell. I also got a 1/2 size larger than the Asics I was returning. They felt fab on my feet during the run yesterday. I may not even need insoles! Plus they're a pretty silver and pink :) AND I got $40 back!

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early for my long run with my TNT group. We had 10 miles on the schedule that day, but we ended up taking a bit of a detour to run through the Harbor Fest down on Concord Street to see the tall ships in the harbor. I love tall pirate-like ships, they always remind me of The Goonies! (Only one of the best movies ever made.)

My Garmin is SERIOUSLY not liking the heat and how much I sweat. Every time I take it out when its hot for a long run, it gets really cranky and starts yelling at me and switching screens. I have reset it multiple times so I may have to send it back in to Garmin. I'm going to try getting a wrist band to put underneath it to possibly shelter it from my sweat??

It's odd to me because I was under the impression these $300 watches were MADE for athletes. Huh. Anyways, that was annoying. Luckily once we were done with the run it came back to its senses and let me know we actually ran about 12.2! (I did a little more than the team because I ran to the starting point from my apartment and then ran back.)

This time I succumbed to the walk/run method and it was actually nice given the heat and humidity. Plus we were able to keep a pretty decent pace during the running portions. Our Coach went a bit further at convincing me to train with the walk/run method druing the run:

If you train with walk/run, you recover faster and can get in more miles during the week. (This is so true, I felt fine all day yesterday and today even though that was my longest distance run since the marathon May 2nd. In fact I will definitely be working out tonight, something I never do on Monday's after long runs.)
You don't have to (and she said I wouldn't) run the actual marathon using walk/run.
Once we get up to higher mileage, I could possibly start out half of the run doing walk/run and then finish the second half with a strong consistent run.

So all in all I may be convinced, it was nice to actually run with the group this time and get to know everyone better. But I guess the real test will be if the walk/run method can actually translate into me RUNNING the whole marathon.

After a much-needed shower (I was DRENCHED in sweat! Mid-run I realized I was sloshing in my shoes....so gross.) and a short nap....Matt and I headed out to the downtown Charleston chapter of Habitat for Humanity's Pig 'N Pluck!

Basically it was at the greatest locale in Charleston (in my opinion) Bowen's Island Restaurant.

The restaurant actually burnt down a few months ago and they are currently rebuilding it, but they still have their docks and covered shelter on the dock where the Bluegrass band played.

It is just gorgeous. Right on the water, on the marsh. I love Charleston. Check out the crappy iPhone pics. (I need a new camera.)

Matt enjoyed the Hometeam BBQ. (As did I.)

Beautiful Lowcountry marshes.

Kids even enjoyed the day!

Sandy and Jason stopped by!
There was lots of beer...And Matt made some new friends! (and apparently leaned on some paint somewhere...)

Although the pics look dark it was actually REALLY sunny and hot. I belive it was 98 yesterday? I worked the first hour at the registration table (I'm on a Habitat committee) and was sweating bullets until the hour was up. Then I went to chill on the dock with the breeze. We hung out from 3 to almost 8 yesterday and we were exhausted by the time we got home.

Great weekend, great weather, great workouts. What more could a girl need?

This week I'm planning on doing some health + nutrition related posts so stay tuned!

Photo Friday: Dessert Charity Night

2009-06-26T14:40:00.005-04:00

12:30 AM Wednesday night: Monkey bread FAIL.
(Do not use spingform pans and Grands biscuits for monkey bread. It will turn out like this. One.Big.Fat.Buttery.Fail.)

5:00 PM Thursday afternoon: Monkey bread REDEEMED!

The spread! Sorry for iPhone pics...
Monkey bread, lemon raspberry pie, blueberry pound cake, cupcakes, mini cheesecake bites (with Reeses in the middle!) and cookies. Holy YUMZA!

Between the donations under my door and last night, I raised approximately $450! Which brings my total up to over $1,000!
(I haven't exactly counted everything, so that's an estimate.)

We didn't have a crazy turnout, but everyone who came donated generously as we stuffed our faces and watched the MJ coverage.

A big thank you to those of you who came :)

Have a good weekend! I'm off to do some hill repeats after work!

You Are What You Eat

2009-06-25T09:23:00.002-04:00

Also...wanna see what's in my fridge? Head on over to Carrots 'N Cake!

(It looks a little messy compared to everyone else....)

The big day is here!

2009-06-25T08:54:00.003-04:00

Well it has been a busy week, and it's only going to get busier.

Had a GREAT solo run last night (my first run on my own since...um, too long ago) over the bridge. I'm still not where I want to be with speed or endurance, but I felt pretty good throughout the 5.5 mile run. I really, really needed a solid run yesterday as Monday and Tuesday I didn't have the time to hit the streets. (Tuesday night was our TNT social, it was fun! I even got some goodies for having over $500 in my fundraising account!)

I think my average pace last night was 10:02? Not bad. I took one short walk break. I need to be getting these shorter runs down in the 9-9:15 range though! I think I can do it.

What I did realize during my run was that just running the bridge (over and back) is not going to be sufficient for hill training (it's the only hill in Charleston. Truth.) If I learned anything with my first marathon, it was that this flatlander definitely needs to step up the hills!

So starting next week I will be doing hill repeats up the steep side of the bridge once a week. I figure a good workout would be to warm up for a mile and then do maybe 4 x .5 mile repeats? I would either jog or walk down the hill between repeats, then afterwards cool down for a mile. I'd say from the bottom of the hill to the peak, it's maybe .5 to .75 miles. I guess I could start with that and see if I could make it/need to add more.

Also, I tried my new shoes out again, this time I took out my old insoles. That helped a lot! But I still need more arch support so as soon as I can afford to order some new Superfeet I think that will make all the difference!

After my run I hit up the Teet for some last minute supplies for my dessert-a-thon tonight! Then I headed to Cupcake to pick up the cupcakes they donated for tonight's event. I'm glad I'm not a cupcake fiend because if I was, I would imagine it would have been hard to resist one of those last night...

I also stayed up baking/cleaning/arranging until past 1 AM! Needless to say I was struggling this morning. I still have some last minute things to do (and bake) before people start arriving at 7, so I'm hoping to leave work a bit early to finish things up.

In other news, we found an apartment! It's fantastic and actually a lot bigger than the one we have now for about the same rent. Plus, now we will have a washer/dryer AND a dishwasher!! Yeah, we live in a really small and older apartment so those luxuries have been a thing of the past for the last year...not any more! It is really nice and we are both super excited. We will be moving at the end of July!

We have a lot going on at work today so I will be busy busy 'till closing time. Hope to see some of you tonight! (Or either, see your beautiful names on my donation page :)

Quick update....

2009-06-22T08:36:00.002-04:00

Uneventful weekend. Some studying, cleaning, grocery shopping and a 10 mile run with my TNT group. I bought new running shoes on Saturday and was excited to try them out Sunday morning.

Run went well, I found someone who runs (about) the same pace as me and didn't want to run/walk. Although I think I slowed her down a bit...sorry Katy! I had to take two walk breaks...I'm still not back to where I want to be as far as endurance goes. I ran 9.75 miles in 1:40, which is above a 10 minute pace...we were doing well until I made us walk! Grr...

New shoes didn't feel that great, so I'm going to give them one more shot tonight (if I have time) and will return them if they don't feel better.

Also found out on Thursday that we have to move out of our apartment when our lease is up July 31st...which was a complete shock to us as we were hoping to stay there another year. Apparently the owners are moving in to do some renovations so they can lease it for higher rent. So we have been scrambling to find a new place and did some house hunting after the run on Sunday. So...on top of everything else I have going on, I have to figure in there time to find a new place and moving. It's going to be a great summer....

Tonight I will be working on:

Sending out my TNT fundraising letters (late, I know)
Getting the apartment ready for the dessert charity night - I stuck flyers under everyone's doors in my building yesterday (12 apts on 12 floors!) so I hope I will have some people show up....
Going grocery shopping for the desserts I am baking (monkey bread and blueberry pound cake!) I'm hoping that Publix will donate some of it...
Laundry
Studying
....and I hoped to get a run in there somewhere?

Tomorrow night is our TNT social at Taco Boy downtown...so unless I run in the morning I won't be able to run tomorrow. Busy week ahead of me but I'm ready to tackle it!

If you're in Chucktown, I better see you at my place Thursday night...email me for deets!

I wasn't going to post today but...

2009-06-18T11:51:00.008-04:00

...I had a KILLER workout last night with my TNT group that I just had to share.

Coach Barbara is amazing, and incredibly fit. She has a daughter about my age but is WAY more in shape than I am! She's run over 30 marathons (including Boston) so she pretty much knows her stuff.

So I ran to and from the practice last night which was a little less than 2 miles from my apartment. (I almost had to sprint there because I was running late, so I was pretty tired before it even started.) We immediately got started on this killer workout.

Basically, you do each conditioning exercise for one minute. We did this on a track and used yoga mats for some of the exercises, and other things (fences, curbs) for some of the stretching and leg lifts. Check it out!

***UPDATED TO ADD: If you want a Word doc of this, let me know and I can email it out!***

1 Minute/1 Hour Conditioning Workout
By: TNT Coach Barbara Halpern

Cardio (10 Minutes)

Easy running
Skipping
Chase (R/L) - Running sideways, shuffling heels together)
Fast grapevine (R/L)
Walking high leg kicks (R/L)
Walking alternating lunges
Backwards running
Forward easy run
Bleacher or bench step-ups (Step up right, step up left, step down right, step down left, repeast with left side up first) 2 minutes

Strengthening (20 Minutes)
Side-lying leg lifts
Side -lying leg circles -two directions, as big as you can make it
Side-lying, top leg forward toe-taps
**Do all of these for a total of 4 minutes, then repeat on other side**
Pelvic lifts up -on back
Pelvic lifts- right and left
Standing heel taps (R/L) - We used a curb for these, one leg on curb, other foot heel tapping the ground, about 4 inches down

Standing rear leg lifts (don't touch up leg to ground)
Standing rear bent leg lifts
Standing rear bent leg pulses
**Do all three then repeat on other side**

Core Strength (10 Minutes)
On back, limbs form X, R arm to L foot touch (then reverse)
Pike - Arms touch straight legs
Elbow to knee bicycle crunch

Tibetins (head lifted, straight legs lift, legs down, head down)
Oblique twist "chasers" with straight legs (Arms out, R leg down to R hand, L leg follows, L leg up, R leg follows, then reverse)
Plank
Superman
Swim (Just like superman, but use arms and legs to "swim," R arm up, L leg up, reverse)

Stretching (10 Minutes)
Standing single-leg balances (Eyes open and eyes closed, R/L) - This is to strengthen our ankles so they're less likely to twist!
***

Might be kind of tough to understand, so if you have any questions about a specific exercise, email me!

Also...so excited about my dessert charity night! Yesterday I found out that a local bakery, Cupcake, is donating cupcakes for the evening!

Woo hoo now I don't have to bake as much :) Thanks go out to Kristin, owner and cupcake extraordinaire, who is also training for an endurance event!

Have a great Thursday folks, almost the weekend!

My Life for the Next Month...

2009-06-17T10:22:00.000-04:00

Just as an FYI, especially in light of our #1 blog pet peeve, for the next 4 weeks I am going to be so busy I can't think straight. My job literally depends upon whether I can pass this test (that I failed the first time) that I'm taking again on July 13th. So every spare waking moment for the next four weeks I will have my nose in the books and will be up to my ears in stocks, bonds and the dreaded options.

On top of that, I am trying to get back into training for marathon #2, I have twice weekly training sessions with TNT, commitments with our local Habitat for Humanity, I am attempting to plan a running bloggers conference AND somewhere in there I have to raise $3,000+ dollars by August 23rd.

I'm not complaining. I love my life right now and I love to be busy. And I'm sure that most of you are laughing at me because you probably juggle all that on top of taking care of children, moving & starting new jobs, training for an ultra, race around the world or adventure race, transitioning to a morning runner or something equally taxing.

But all I'm saying is that I'm here, and I'm reading when I can and commenting when I can. I love this community and I love learning from all of you who undoubtedly accomplish more than I do daily. My posts may get sporadic because I am seriously (not kidding) OCD and cannot concentrate on more than one thing at once, but I'm not leaving!

I will be lurking your corners of the interwebs and stalking your every move, don't you worry.

Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts these past few weeks. I think last Thursday's post was the most commented one I have had so far. It was really interesting to see what everyone was annoyed with by blogs. Here is the rundown:

Bloggers who don't share the love & only communicate with their cliques
Blogs with a ton of grammatical errors
Blogs with weird font and backgrounds that make it hard to read
Blogs that you have to be a member of to comment
Shortened Reader feeds (such as in Google Reader) where the post is only a tease and you have to click through to read the rest
Bloggers who refuse to follow anyone on Twitter
Blogs that are only about giveaways
Confirmation words on comment boxes
Long posts and wordy posts with no pictures (hmm, maybe I should add a pic here, this one is getting long...Ok, that's better :)

Badly written blogs with tons of readers! (Gah, I hate this too, glad someone brought it up.)
Small font! (I agree, I'm sooo blind)

So let's all promise here and now we won't do these things?! Then we can all get back to loving everyone's blog and commenting and learning and getting to know each other and all that sunshiny crap :)

Thanks also for your support for my dessert & coffee charity night next week! I think it's definitely going to be fun and I hope I have a good turnout! I live in a big apartment building with 12 floors, so I am inviting everyone in the building and hoping it will be like a "block party" type thing where we can all meet each other (since I don't know too many people in the building). I will keep ya updated on that as well.
***

TNT practice (and thus my first run since Saturday) was stormed out last night due to serious lightning, much to my dismay, so instead I did some planks and some push-ups.
I'm on this new push-up kick. Trying to do 50 (girl) push-ups MWF along with abs, hopefully working up to real push ups.
Practice was rescheduled for tonight. I have no idea what we're doing (it's a conditioning practice) but it starts a little over a mile from my apartment so I'm going to run there and back.
I've got 19 weeks till the marathon and about 50 days until the Wild West Relay...so I better get my rear in gear. Maybe I will go rogue like Miss Alisa, seems to be working out for her!

Dessert & Coffee to Cure Cancer

2009-06-16T17:01:00.006-04:00

I completely stole this picture online. But I will be making my mama's blueberry pound cake, never you fear.

What: All-you-can-eat dessert & coffee charity social

When: Next Thursday, June 25th from 7 to 9 PM

Where: My place! Downtown Charleston (with all the parking you can imagine.)

Why: To raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Program!

I know many of you who read this blog are not in Charleston. But some of you are. And I would love to meet you and take your money. Just kidding! :) But, seriously. I need donations. I'm over $500 but not anywhere near $3,500 yet!

So a few co-workers and I will be baking up some cakes, pies, cookies, etc etc and will be serving them at my (lovely but small) apartment downtown with some coffee (and possibly some Kahlua and whipped cream...any takers?) and socializing!

Feel free to drop by anytime between 7 and 9 PM. If you wanna eat, you gotta donate! Whatever you feel comfortable with donating, I'm not going to put a minimum number. But if I had to, it would be at least $10. It's ALL YOU CAN EAT SWEETS people. And it's not any of my "healthy" desserts either, there will be multiple pounds of butter and white sugar in my kitchen next week. (And peanut butter...just sayin')

I'm obvi not going to put my home address online since I am sure I have at least two stalkers out there, but if you want to come, email me or twitta me!

Can't come? Live in California or Oregon or Florida and wish you could? I will send *sweet* thoughts your way if you click here and donate anyways...love you :)

**Updated to add: Cupcakes have so graciously been donated by Cupcake on King Street!**

Weekend Wrap-Up + Exciting News

2009-06-15T07:13:00.006-04:00

Before we left for the mountains Saturday, I got up and ran 3 miles. It was nice. It was easy. Then I did 50 girl push ups. WOA! Have I been sore since then! We got to Flat Rock, NC around 2:30 Saturday afternoon.

Our hotel was super cool back in 1974 when the Brady Bunch stayed there.

The wedding was fab, overlooking the mountains.

The bride was gaawwrgeous.

The reception was lovely. (The bride + groom are now enjoying St. Lucia!)

I drank a lot and had fun with Matt and my co-workers! Sorry, no pics of us :(

We spent Sunday in Hendersonville, NC and ate brunch at a Beatles themed restaurant!

Mean Mr. Mustard Cafe was amaazzing. Matt didn't know the song so I had to play it for him on the way there. Then we heard two different Beatles songs on the radio so I knew it was fate.

Matt got the French Toast Cordon Bleu! I just got some boring eggs and fruit. No fun for picture, but was really good.

Cute S & P shakers.
Perdy flowers.

The town had lots o' apples.
And I got to embrace my hippie side for a day. Life was good!

Exciting News!

So what do you guys think about a Running Bloggers Conference??? @antorias and I have been tweeting about it since Friday, and are furiously brainstorming/planning ways to make this happen! We are thinking early 2010, possibly attached to a race, possibly in Vegas?! But we're open to ideas + suggestions + help + sponsorship (we already have one sponsor on board)!

There are hundreds of us running bloggers out there, so this would be a great way to meet up, maybe run a 'lil, and have some fun!

I think this is the best idea I have come up with in, well, probably forever.

So we need your help. Ideas. Thoughts. Concerns. Whatever! We want to make this happen!

Follow the RunBloggerCon on Twitter!

What would you want to see in the First Annual Running Bloggers Conference? What would make YOU come?

I love goodies :)

2009-06-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

If you haven't added your two cents yet, head over to Thursday's post about what bugs us about blogs. Don't be shy, we're all friends here!
***
I didn't talk too much about it, but last month I did Bobbi's Simple Life Challenge. Basically, the challenge was to make your life more simple and green by doing things like, making your own coffee vs. buying at Starbucks, running/walking/riding bike/riding public transport to work instead of driving, making your own gifts, NOT going out to eat all month, starting your own gardens, etc. etc.

Since I am poor and already do all of those things (well, except for the getting to work thing. This girl drives) I didn't rack up too many points. But it was fun nonetheless and it was good not going out to eat too much. At the end of the challenge we were given a 'buddy' to send a small gift to, just to say congrats on finishing.

My buddy was Meredith, from Balance for MEre, and it has been great getting to know her through her blog better over the past few weeks. Bonus, she lives in my favorite (home) state, North Carolina. She actually lives pretty close to where I grew up. And, y'all send her some congrats because she recently ran her first 5k!

Thursday, I got Meredith's package and wow, did she do too much!

1 Pecan Pie Larabar
$15 gift card to iTunes
5 Odwalla bars
3 all natural fruit leathers (Matt begged for the grape, "Ooo, Fruit Roll Ups!")
1 purse size fold up reusable shopping bag (SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS)
1 bag of Wasabi flavored roasted edamame

No, she didn't send the 'NAM: A Photographic History' book. Apparently Matt considers this some light reading, approp for the coffee table.

I might have eaten two of the fruit leathers as soon as I opened the package...oopsies! Meredith, you can ask my friend Alesha, but I bought your present last weekend at the market downtown...I have been toting it around in my purse since then. As soon as I can get to a post office it's on its way to you!

Hope everyone has a fab Saturday, I am currently on my way to the North Carolina mountains!

Attack of the monkeys!

2009-06-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all of the comments on yesterday's post, What bugs YOU about blogs?? Thanks again to LiLu for sparking the debate. (Also, just so you know, my girl is getting a TON of visitors to her site per day, from all over the place, not just DC. It must be the TMI Thursday! She actually was JUST named as the featured blogger on 20 something bloggers! Congrats lady!)

I think we can all agree that we want more blog love between us and our favorite bloggers. It's no fun to comment and comment somewhere and never get a response. I actually felt pretty good yesterday organizing my Google Reader into a folder with just those who communicate with me, whether that is via comments, responses, emails, whatever. That way I can easily read through all of your posts. Love it! (I'm actually trying to figure out how to switch to Wordpress so I can quickly respond to comments via email. If anyone has any tips for me, let me know!)

For almost all of you who asked, short reader feeds are when bloggers shorten their posts when they're in readers (i.e. Google Reader) so to read the rest of the post you have to click through to the site. This doesn't mean I don't read the blog, it just may take me a bit longer :)

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this, but I thought it was interesting, and was definitely something I needed to get off my chest. I freaking LOVE the running blog community, and what I love most is that we are all excruciatingly honest with each other. At least, that's what I'm striving for.

If you haven't commented yet, please head over there and give me your thoughts! I like the conversation we're having :)
***
I was tagged a while ago by my favorite running blogger with 'tude, Mica. Sorry this has taken so long but GAH I've been so busy not running and all. But it's Friday and I'm feeling lazy so here goes.

Where I blog (most of the time):

We have a pretty small one bedroom apartment, so for right now, our kitchen table doubles as our desk. Unfortunately since Matt is still in school, it's usually pretty messy. I was gonna clean up for the picture, but eh, too much effort. Matt has this horrible habit of hanging up his jeans on the chairs when he changes into shorts. The dining room/office/living room is not your closet baby! He knows I hate this yet he continues doing it. I guess he could do worse things.

What are you wearing right now?

PJ's!

What’s the last thing you read/what are you currently reading?

Runners World Magazine. Marathon Challenge!

Do you nap a lot?

No! I only nap if I'm sick.

Who was the last person you hugged?

Matthew!

What’s your current obsession/addiction?

Hmm. I like this whole blog thing! Also, marathon training and juicing.

(I added this one) What is your dream job?

A travel writer! Seriously, how cool would that be.

What’s for dinner?

Cornish game hens roasting away in the slow cooker.

What was the last thing you bought?

Other than food? Probably a pair of running shorts for $6.99 at TJ Maxx. Score!

What are you listening to right now?

I really want the new Dave Matthews CD. Also that new Black Eyed Peas song is playing in my head. Something about having a good night.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Flying!!! I always have dreams I can fly and wake up sorely disappointed.

What is your favorite kind of weather and why?

I love love love springtime! High 60's with a breeze baby. Of course, the 70s are nice too on the beach.

What time do you usually wake up?

I always try to get up at 5:30 and run. But I usually end up rolling out of bed around 6:30-7 AM wondering why I keep setting my alarm for so early.

What is your most challenging goal right now?

Passing the Series 7 exam. Boo! Maybe this is why I didn't pass the first time....

Favorite pair of shoes you keep going back to over and over again even though you have a zillion others?

I have a pair of black and cream patent BCBG pumps that are my favorite. Unfortunately I have worn them to death and the cobbler tells me he cannot fix them. So, I guess I would say I no longer have a favorite pair. So, maybe my $3 gold Old Navy flips?

Name one thing you can’t live without.

Cell phone. LoveitGottahaveit.

What time is bedtime?

9:30-11:30. I always shoot for earlier but it depends whats on TV :) (Tuesday nights it's always later...REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NJ)

If there was one place you could be right now, where would it be?

Back packing through Europe with my boo. And since it is also Foto Friday, maybe somewhere that looks like this...

Houses of Parliament, London 2005
(When I was a wee one in college who made poor fashion decisions)

Arc de Triumphe, Paris 2006
(My fave photo ever)

Northwest Territory, Australian Outback 2006
(Hmm, I look a 'lil hefty there. But look! I have boobs!)Uluwatu Temple, Bali, Indonesia 2006
(Getting attacked by a monkey so please excuse the double chin)

Town of Makrigialos on the island Crete in Greece, 2007

The town of Ia on the island Santorini, Greece 2007

Dominican Republic 2008 with my girls LiLu and Mere!

So yeah, I guess I have had a lot of contact with monkeys in my life.

Headed to the mountains tomorrow for yet another wedding. This one should be swank though, it's black tie!

***
Ran 4.41 last night in...45:09...it sucked! I started out fine but ended up taking a few walk breaks. I need new shoes. My muscles were tight. Ugh, hope it gets better!

What bugs YOU about blogs?

2009-06-11T07:22:00.006-04:00

I couldn't resist one more picture of me and Alesha before we went out Saturday night. Aren't we adorable?

Thanks for all of the thoughts on my post yesterday about the nutrition seminar I attended with my Team in Training group. I'm glad that someone agrees with me about this! A few points I wanted to address:

As far as the caffeine pills thing goes, I forgot to point out that in collegiate athletics, taking caffeine pills to boost performance is considered illegal doping by amphetamines. So why would a dietitian recommend it?
However, it's been all over the media recently that some form of caffeine is good/safe to help your perform better before a race. I take this to mean COFFEE. I always drink a cup of coffee a few hours before a race or a long run to "get things moving." (Both mentally and physically!)
But coffee can dehydrate, so I find that if I drink a 1/2 to 1 cup before a run, I need to leave enough time to also drink some water.
The dietitian that spoke has completed an insane number of races, including four appearances at Boston and several Ironmans! So obviously, she has found what works for her.
Which brings me to my final point. We all have to find what is healthy and what works for us. For me, that means less processed foods and more whole foods. Does that mean I never eat processed foods? Of course not! But I try to make it a healthy balance. I would be scared to take caffeine pills before a race because I would never take them otherwise.

Yesterday my good friend LiLu (who is definitely not a running blogger in any shape or form, she's more of a snarky/sassy opinionist who has found an insane following in DC) posted yesterday about what bugs us about blogs. We got into a discussion about this on Twitter yesterday so I figured why not throw it out here today.

What bugs ME about blogs?

When some bloggers are "too big" to follow you on Twitter, respond to your comments, or visit your blog. Yet they make sure to communicate with their "popular" clique of bloggers. I think that blogging is a conversation, and should be so. I don't mean that every blogger should respond to every comment, or read every post. We're all busy, life gets in the way. So I tend to stick to the blogs who read me, that way, I feel like I'm actually getting to know you guys & vice versa. (Is that mean??? I hope not!) I love those "big" bloggers who if I @reply on Twitter, they respond. Why would I make the effort if it's only going to be a one-sided conversation? (Of course, maybe they don't know about Tweetdeck. Greatest.Thing.Ever.)
Insane amounts of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. (I throw these things together fast so I know I have some, so please no tomatoes.)
Short reader feeds. I know some of you do this, and I still love you! It just takes a little more effort. (I'm lazy, what can I say?)

So how about you guys, what bugs you about blogs?

***

I didn't run yesterday because I suck. But I will be heading out tonight to do something. Bridge? 4-5 mile flat run? Speedwork? Who knows!

Matt and I are heading to the NC mountains Saturday for a wedding, so that should be fun. But that also means running this weekend may not happen. Gonna have to squeeze in a long run (8 to 10 miles) at some point!

Adventures in Juicing + Nutrition Lesson?

2009-06-10T08:53:00.005-04:00

This morning's Green Smoothie. Almost 1 cup almond milk, 1 large banana, 1 spoonful all-natural peanut butter (ingredients: peanuts and salt), and at least 4 cups of organic spinach. 20 ounces of heaven. Seriously. Try it.

So I am really getting excited about this marathon! I am so pumped to finally be back in training after about a month off.

Since my first marathon on May 2nd, I've just been so lackadaisical (like that big word?) about my running (and I guess I had a right to be after 4 months of non-stop training). But what I realized is that I really don't like it when I'm not running and training regularly.

Last night after work I ran over to our Team in Training Tuesday night meeting which this week was all about nutrition! We had a dietitian/personal trainer come speak to our group about the basics of sports nutrition and some of the things endurance athletes need to do to keep their bodies in peak performance mode.

She went through the ins and outs of what we should be eating daily, how to fuel your body during a race as well as any supplements/vitamins that you could take.

Honestly it wasn't anything I hadn't heard/read before, I guess it was geared more towards beginning runners. Plus I was a little disappointed that she said her favorite snack was a PowerBar and that she takes caffeine pills before big races. That just didn't scream health to me! To each his/her own, but if I were a dietitian, I would try to recommend fruits, veggies, nuts or minimally processed/all natural snacks (with an extremely low and readable ingredient list). The caffeine pills...I think that's a debate for another day.

But I guess everyone isn't as strict on their foods as I am. (Although, I do partake in some Dorito's actiton on occasion :)

But seriously, check out these ingredients for the PowerBar Triple Threat Chocolate Caramel Fusion:

CHOCOLATEY COATING (SUGAR, FRACTIONATED PALM KERNEL OIL, COCOA, WHEY, NONFAT MILK, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOR), CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL (CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, CREAM, WATER, FRUCTOSE, PALM OIL, SOY LECITHIN, SALT, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, NATURAL FLAVOR, CARRAGEENAN), POWERBAR TRISOURCE™ PROTEIN BLEND (WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE, CALCIUM CASEINATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE), MALTITOL SYRUP, VEGETABLE GLYCERIN, OAT FIBER, SOY CRISPS (SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, TAPIOCA STARCH, SALT), DRY ROASTED PEANUTS, HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL, ALKALIZED COCOA, AND LESS THAN 2% OF ALMOND BUTTER, NATURAL FLAVORS, SOY LECITHIN, SALT, PEANUT FLOUR, MINERALS: CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, FERROUS FUMARATE (IRON), VITAMINS: ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), VITAMIN B6 HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1). CONTAINS ALMOND, MILK, PEANUT AND SOY INGREDIENTS. MADE ON EQUIPMENT THAT ALSO PROCESSES WHEAT.

Hmm, that just seems like a lot of unnecessary gunk to me. I like the ingredient list on my apple or banana with peanut butter. I can count it on (less than) one hand.Or how about my beloved Cliff MoJo bars?...Although still a long list, look how much better this looks (70% organic too!):

Organic Dry Roasted Peanuts, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Honey Roasted Peanuts (Peanuts, Evaporated Cane Juice, Honey, Salt Natural Vitamin E), Soy Rice Crisps (Soy Protein Isolate, Organic Rice Flour, Calcium Carbonate), Organic Pretzels (Organic Wheat Flour, Salt, Organic Canola Oil, Organic Malt), Organic Dry Roasted Soybeans, Organic Peanut Butter, Organic Oat Syrup, Organic Honey, Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt, Organic Gum Arabic, Natural Vitamin E (antioxidant).

Difference in cost? Not significant. Difference in taste? Much better in my opinion! Difference in ingredients? I think they speak for themselves. (Although it does seem like everything processed contains soy. While I am limiting my intake of soy, I'm not getting rid of it completely. Everything in moderation.)

I'm not saying that PowerBar's are necessarily unhealthy, but for me, if I have to eat processed foods, I would rather know what I'm eating.

Ok, let me step down from my soapbox.

Before my meeting yesterday I knew I was hungry for something but didn't want to eat too much, as I would be running in about an hour. So I decided to pull out my new juicer!

If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that I found out Saturday night that a local Twitter friend had a brand new Hamilton Beach juicer that he did not want and would give to me for free. Seriously?? Can I say how much I love Twitter? What is that saying again, ask and you shall receive?! So Matt and I picked up my new toy Sunday afternoon and I've been playing with it ever since.

My Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer works fantastically! As you can see, it is a bit large but not too obtrusive. I line the pulp basket with a grocery bag so I can easily dispose of the juice pulp. The small spout on the right is where the juice comes out.

What's great about this juicer as that there is basically NO prep time! All you do is wash the veggies/fruits and stick them in. Since the mouth is so large, I can just pop an entire apple in there, core and all.

Here were the stars of my juice yesterday. Carrots and apple juice is my new fave, but Shannon suggested that I add some lemon and ginger. I didn't have ginger but I did have a lemon. You do actually have to "peel" citrus fruits (as well as pit peaches or anything with hard pits) but I just kind of used a knife to get the rind off there. I had 1/2 banana left over from a Green Smoothie so I figured I would throw that in there as well.

Holy Yum! This combo was DELISH! It made a TON too.

I love carrot juice because it's so tasty and added with just a bit of sweetness (apple, lemon) it tastes just like a fruit cocktail. Minus the liquor. This was almost TOO sweet if you would believe that! Next time I think I will use half a lemon.

So after the meeting, we all headed out to run "4 to 4.5 miles." I was excited that after we started running, not everyone was doing the run/walk method. Thank goodness. There was a group of about 5 of us who kept chugging along at about a 9:30 pace. Eventually our coach joined us and we all started talking...and slowing a bit. But all in all it was a great run, and when I got home my Garmin said 5.0 miles...and I hadn't even ran it all because I stopped when I got to my apartment. I think they ended up doing 5.8 which is great for a week 20 mid-week run.

I was pretty pleased with the stats too: 5.03 miles in 48:22. Average pace: 9:48. I actually ran a bit more than that too, as I ran to the actual meeting (probably about .3 miles?). I think had we not slowed to chat as much, we would have averaged out under a 9:30 pace.

I think I have picked my marathon training plan...I am super excited because I know I can make this one in sub 4:30 time! Revealing training plan soon...

Do any of you guys juice? If so, any good combos I should try?

Back in Biznass!!

2009-06-09T08:52:00.007-04:00

I don't know about you guys, but I am glad that Monday is over! I don't really love Mondays, I seem to be much more productive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sorry for my absence of late, I am been so busy it's been tough to find time for anything. Quick wrap-up:

Last week I was busy basically all week with studying for my big test Thursday.
Wednesday night I was up all night (not even a wink of sleep) and had to drive 2.5 hours to Savannah, GA for my exam 9 AM Thursday morning (thankfully, Matt drove me while I studied)
The test was SEVEN HOURS LONG.
Unfortunately, I have to take the test again. BUMMER. I have 30 days to study.
Because I was so cracked out on caffeine and no sleep Wednesday-Thursday, my body was messed up until...basically, yesterday. I felt out of it and so light headed all weekend!
Although I was sad about the outcome, I was glad for it to be over (for now). I hardly ate anything all day Thursday. I immediately came home and chugged...a huge Green Smoothie + some vitamins. That seemed to help.
No running ALL LAST WEEK!
My BFF Alesha came to visit from Raleigh, NC Friday night, and unfortunately I was so wrecked, I had to pass out around 10:30 PM. We did, however, make it out to dinner first at Shem Creek Bar & Grill. We like it raw!
But we did get up and "run" 4.5 miles Saturday morning through downtown. I had to walk a lot and felt extremely dehydrated and run down. Sorry Leesh!
Stats: 4.5 miles in 47:38. Sllloooowww.
But we both felt better for getting it done!
Alesha and I headed to Folly Beach Saturday even though it looked like it was raining in that direction. But it didn't! It was a gaaawwrgeous day. We laid out for awhile, then ventured up the beach to find...a bar. As if I hadn't done enough damage to my body that week, I wanted to start drinking during the day.
So we found a bar at the newly redecorated Holiday Inn on Folly (that sounds lame, but Folly is such a small beach it's actually a pretty nice hotel) that was beach-side. Perf.
Alesha forgot her ID so I was stealthily buying us drinks...just like the good old days!
We had three rounds of cocktails while we watched some drunken girls embarass themselves dancing in their bikinis to the band.
After we had enough and the sun was setting, we headed home...er, to Taco Boy. We split some guac and each had a taco.
Then we really headed home, got showered up, ate some Doritos (apparently I wasn't mean enough to my body yet) and headed out on the town for some drinks + to meet up with my boss' bachelorette party! (Pics to come soon)
Matt was nice enough to give us girl time basically all weekend (I hadn't seen Alesha in a loooong time and this was the first time she had been to visit us since we moved to Charleston last August) so he drove us to our first stop, Chai's on King.
Then we walked...in heels...about a mile to Light, a dance club on East Bay Street. We proceeded to dance the night away/eat jello shots/drink some more.
Then we headed to Wet Willie's, a slushie bar on East Bay Street. I had about 1/2 of a White Russian slushie and then spilled the rest on the floor. (Was an accident, but I was glad to be rid of it, waaayy to sweet.)
By this point, we were dunzo, and called Matt to come get us. It was pouring rain and we were ready for bed! (Alesha, I am sparing the details for you... :)
Sunday morning, I did NOT get up to run with TNT. Oopsies. But it's okay, I have a lot of training time left and this week marks the beginning of actual training for me.
Last night I was almost 80% convinced that I was was NOT going to run after work. But I was feeling crappy and I knew that I needed to go, so I went. Begrudingly.
It turned out to be a good 3 mile run through historic downtown Charleston. I took a new route and ran down South Battery St and then back up the waterfront, so pretty. I even met up with a little pup named Ollie who seemed to be lost. I tried to take him home to the address on his collar, but he wasn't having any of that so I ran on.
Stats: 3.0 miles in 28:00 minutes. Splits: 9:56, 9:30, 8:34. I'm back in biznass biyatches!
Tonight we have a TNT meeting on Nutrition (woo hoo! my fave topic) and then we are heading out on a group short run.
I think I have decided on a training program! I will post on that tomorrow.

***
Coming up on ChasRunner soon: Marathon Training Plan for a sub 4:30 26.2, a blog re-design, smoothie recipes, and all about juicing with my new juicer!

Also, as a follow up to my recent post about the benefits + dangers of soy, check out Gena's post on the topic if you haven't already!

A big THANK YOU goes out to Amy of Will Run for Fun for sending me my favorite Cliff Mojo bars! I mentioned to her that I was so sad I couldn't find these bars in Charleston after she posted about them, and she was kind enough to send me a care package! Thanks girl!

If you haven't checked out her blog, you should. She is a former NCAA cross country and track runner who is now a cross country coach. She has a lot of good running/training advice! (Also if you haven't tried Cliff Mojo, you should!)

Have a fab Tuesday and I'll see ya tomorrow!

don't leave me!

2009-06-08T14:33:00.002-04:00

GAH, I know I have been MIA again guys...so sorry. Last week was suuuper hectic and busy with my big test on Thursday and then I had company this weekend and all in all not too much running has taken place in the past two weeks. Not only have I not had time to blog, but I haven't felt like I had much running news to share with you all...

BUT...I am working on some exciting new blog changes and I'm getting back into training mode this week, so stick around, will ya?!

I promise a new post tomorrow...I have so many things to share with you guys! They include some tasty raw dinners, new smoothie concoctions, marathon training plans and a new juicer that I have been testing out!

(Word to the wise, beet juice is gross unless mixed with something sweet...gag me.)

See ya tomorrow! ;)

Wild West Relay Poster....Get Pumped!

2009-06-02T08:35:00.005-04:00

Since I'm not running another big race for a while, and everyone running all these races this past weekend has made me jealous, I'm choosing to get excited for the Wild West Relay in August!

I'm soooo freaking excited for this relay! 200 miles, 24 hours, 12 runners, the beautiful scenery of Colorado...who could want anything more?

This is an old poster, but I love it!

Here's this years poster! We are going to ROCK this relay.

Ok, that is all.

trying out raw foods + Galloway method?

2009-06-01T08:47:00.005-04:00

Thanks for the comments/suggestions on my recent post about soy. I do agree that everything in moderation is key, and also that there are tons of conflicting information about nutrition out there. It seems like every day a new study comes out saying that something we thought was good for us actually isn't. It's getting pretty hard to discern what is and what isn't good for our bodies.

For me, I try to eat as many unprocessed foods as possible, and since I don't love tofu anyways, I'm just gonna avoid it. There's no doubt that a big block of tofu is almost as processed as they come.

Also, it's just as easy for me to pick up Almond or Hemp milk than it is Soy, so that question is answered...now I just have to do something about those dark chocolate covered edamame that I have sitting on my counter from Trader Joe's....maybe I can just eat those up really quickly before they start to worry me :)

Had a lot of fun with food this weekend, going to post later on about my first (semi) raw food endeavor...Zucchini "Pasta" with Fresh Basil Pesto...so simple + YUM-O.

I also am now the proud new owner of...

An Oster Classic Beehive Blender! I needed a new one badly, as my addiction to Green Monsters has gone out of control. I tried it out this morning and it worked great! Way better than my food processor smoothies that I had to almost chew! I cannot stress enough how great these things make me feel. I have been energized and feeling great all morning.

My pal Alesha and I have gotten intrigued with raw food and we chatted constantly this weekend about the topic. She went out yesterday and got a ton of raw food supplies! I must admit, I was so impressed with my first "raw" food meal I plan on adding a few more of these to my daily routine. Thanks Gena and Abbie for the inspiration!

{More on this later, I'm also seriously considering purchasing a juicer...}

***
Had my first official run with my TNT group Sunday morning. We meet every Sunday at 7 AM at Colonial Lake downtown, which is perfect for me because it is about a .4 mile run there from my apartment. So I set out around 6:45 AM and boy was it muggy. I was already sweating when I reached the group!

There was about 15 of us or so there, and we were running varying distances from 5-8 miles. Apparently they train on the Galloway Method, which is basically running for short intervals and then walking in between. I was on the fence about this, but decided to see how it worked for me this week.

So I headed off with the 8 mile group and discovered we would be running for 5 minutes, and walking 1 minute. I have to say, this was not a very challenging run for me. I was definitely a bit sore afterwards, but with all the walk breaks and the two bathroom + water stops we had, I didn't really feel (mentally probably more than anything) like I had put in a good run. I just have it in my head that for a run to be really a run, I have to do it straight through with no walk breaks!

But nevertheless, it was good for me to get out there and try it, and it was in total the longest run I've had since the marathon, at about 8.8 miles round trip.

Bad news was, my almost-brand-new 6-month old Garmin 405 was acting the same way it was last week when I ran the bridge with Shannon. It was chirping nonstop and kept switching back and forth from various screens without me touching it. It wouldn't let me start or stop it and eventually when I got back to the apartment it got stuck on the 'lost satelite reception' screen. I plugged it in to charge to see if that would reset it. I haven't checked on it yet but I'm not holding my breath for it to be fixed. I guess I'm going to have to see how I can send it back in....

Tonight is an off day for running, I am going to be out of commission for the next few days cramming for my big test on Thursday.

But I might be going to look at a used juicer tonight... :)

To Soy or Not to Soy?

2009-05-29T10:43:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's Run:
5.7 miles over the Ravenel Bridge (And to those of you who asked, yes you can run the bridge anytime! Not just during Bridge Run weekend. There is a sweet little walk way for runners/walkers and a separate lane for bikers. It's basically Charleston's only hill, so I try to run over down, turn around and run over and back at least once a week. Since I've been a slacker this week, I did it yesterday as well as Wednesday to try and whip my little tail back into shape.)

It was tough for sure, and very humid. I had to take 2 walk breaks coming back over! How lame am I.

Tonight I'm taking off running to clean/study. Plus I woke up mucho sore this morning. This weekend is 100% studying...I moved my test to next Thursday so I would have enough time to study for my upcoming 7 hour test! If I don't pass, I have to wait 30 days to take it again, plus I will have to pay the test fees out of my pocket so I definitely don't want that!

Saturday and Sunday are both running days. A short one on Saturday and my first TNT "long" run Sunday morning, I am really excited to officially meet everyone!

***
So on to today's discussion about soy.

Recently I switched from drinking cow's milk to trying out various alternatives, including soy milk and almond milk. I never have been a huge milk drinker, I like it in my cereal and occasionally I might want a glass, and of course it's in my coffee and (sometimes) tea, but that's about it. Matt however, goes through a gallon in like negative 5 days.

But since I started up with these green smoothies, I have been consuming a TON of it as well. I have always heard a bit of noise about the negative effects of soy, but it never really pertained to me when I wasn't consuming much of it, so once I started, naturally I was curious and a bit concerned. Especially about the negative effects of soy in relation to women and breast cancer. Although it doesn't run in my family, I know it could easily happen to me, so I obvisouly want to take precaution where I can.

{I have also been researching a bit on the benefits of buying organic produce, and have been buying organic greens for my smoothies and organic apples and bananas and other produce where I eat the skin (when I can afford it). It hasn't proved to be that much more expensive yet. But more on that topic (and other rants) another day.}

So yesterday I decided to ask everyone's favorite raw foodist (I don't know if I could ever go raw...but here's to her!) and nutritional smarty pants, Gena, of Choosing Raw about her throughts on all things soy.

KBo:

Hi Gena!

I've been reading your blog and I find that your way of eating is very inspiring, and extremely informative. I have always had an interest in a healthy lifestyle and I eat pretty well, although I am not vegan or raw :) I tend to stay away from most meats and I'm starting to ween myself off dairy. (Cheese is the hard part!) Anyways, I was just wondering if you could shed some light for me on soy products. Are they bad for us? Why?

Gena:

Hey Kristin!

Thanks for your message! I am delighted to hear from you and so happy that you like my blog. It's not about 100% vegan or raw, my dear: it's about 100% healthiest you can be within what works in your own lifestyle.

Here's my deal with soy: if you're looking to transition into a vegan lifestyle, then I absolutely support soy as a transitional food, meaning that I think it's fine to eat tofu or tempeh as you get used to life without meat. But that's where my support ends. I'm fundamentally quite anti soy, for a few reasons:

1) Soy is heavily mucuos forming, which means it ends up clogging digestion
2) Soy affects phytoestrogen levels in the body, which means that it's not only a bit scary, but also a very precarious food for women who have a family history of breast cancer (and my Mom is a breast cancer survivor).
3) Soy slows down thyroid function.
4) Most soy is heavily processed: tofu included.

Bottom line? I'd stay away.

Thanks Gena! (Y'all should definitely go visit her site for some info on the raw food lifestyle. It's definitely not for everyone, but I still think it's fascinating and is a great healthy choice to make for yourself, even if you only do it on occasion.)

I was going to do some internet digging on the subject, but I know that you guys probably know way more than I do, so can you point me in the direction of some solid soy facts?

Do you guys eat soy? Do you worry about it's negative effects or do you think it's all hype? I hope I get some good responses because this really intrigues me!

In the meantime, I'm all almond milk ;)

Best Running Shorts + Wild West Relay!

2009-05-28T09:45:00.004-04:00

A few of you were wondering about what shorts I wear, since I claimed they are the best for running because they don't chafe...well they don't and they are simply fab. The only problem is, they are hard to find.

I bought my first pair of the Hind P.E. Short at Dick's a few years ago, and then found more online at RunningWarehouse.com. Unfortunately, that site doesn't carry them anymore. Sometimes I luck up and find them at race expos, for some reason they are ALWAYS at expos.

They are short and light weight, perfect for running in the humid & hot summers of Charleston. They also come in a bunch of colors!

They're not fancy, and they're pretty inexpensive. If you want to try them out, I found a few online here: (but after looking more closely, they all only carry L and XL...I wear a M.)

Dick's Sporting Goods $31.99
Joe's Sports $14.97
Sierra Trading Post $6.99!!

I couldn't find any more online that were in S or M, if you guys do, let me know. Sorry for the tease, but check out the picture and then when you're at the next race expo, pick up a pair!

Last night I ran the bridge with Shannon, who lives in Charleston and is also running the Wild West Relay on our Dangerous Dozen team! We had a nice run, chatting and getting to know each other. I love meeting people in real life from blog land :) I don't know my time or splits, my Garmin was doing something REALLY weird. Basically it kept switching screens and chirping like, every 30 seconds. It was quite annoying to say the least. When I got home it was working fine, so maybe it was just the heat? ;)

But total I think I ran about 5.5-5.8 miles.

It was rough, I'm not gonna lie. I haven't ran the bridge in probably a month, it was hot, and let's face it, I've been slacking lately. But I think I'm slowly getting back into the running groove.

If you haven't been reading long enough, in August I will be flying out to Colorado to participate in a 200 mile overnight relay with 11 other runners!

The idea all started when I found the Bourbon Chase Relay in Kentucky through Twitter. I started looking around to see who might want to run it with me, and after week or so I decided that maybe we should do a race that wasn't in it's inaugural year. Plus, I had never been to Colorado :)

Abby shared with me a link for a relay in Vermont, which is the sister race to the Wild West Relay I ultimately decided on. Bobbi has been helping me organize, and the rest is that! I will post more later on about this, but that's the bare bones story about how it came to be. I am pumped about it, and had a great time running with Shannon yesterday. I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of our WWR team and kicking some ass in Colorado!

Want some dessert?

2009-05-27T10:31:00.003-04:00

Ok guys, I know there are a few of you in the Charleston area who lurk around here without commenting...that's okay! I love you all. But I just opened a poll question on the right side of the blog and I want your input!

I am considering putting together an "All You Can Eat" Dessert & Coffee Night at my apartment building downtown to help raise money for my Team in Training campaign. In order to gauge interest for this event, I opened up a poll to see what you all think.

It's quick, and it's easy. Best of all its anonymous so all you lurkers can vote without having to actually comment! :) So please help me out here!

If I feel like this event will be a success, I might ask you guys to help me with other details for the night. But I think it would be so fun and could be pretty successful for my campaign. I would probably hold it on a Thursday evening, after work hours. I would collect a ton of goodies from my own kitchen, co-workers and friends who would willingly donate some sugary treats for this cause. Then I would charge a "cover fee" per plate with a minimum donation of some amount.

But hey, if you want to donate $10 or so now, I wouldn't be mad! If everyone who visited this blog gave $10 today I would have...well, not a whole lot, but more than I have now! ;)

Also you guys should check out my fundraising page, I added a bit about the little boy who I will be running for! How can you say no to that grin?

***
I'm hoping to meet up with a new Twitter/blog/Wild West Relay team member Shannon tonight after work to run the bridge, which is about 5-6 miles round trip from my work. I haven't ran it in a while, plus I'm sure it will be hot and muggy so I hope Shannon isn't mad when I'm slowing her down :)

Then I'm meeting up with my pal Sandy for some Bride Wars and dinner! Love me some girls night. See y'all later!

doin' the gobble

2009-05-26T20:45:00.003-04:00

Hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! I spent most of mine studying & laying around...and eating. A lot. I have come to the conclusion that when the cat is away...I will eat a crap load of food. And of course by cat, I mean Matt who is back home in Kentucky this week.

Just to further prove my point, look what I demolished Saturday night...

Yeah, I ate ALL of that in one sitting. (Maybe I shouldn't have shown you guys that...) I can KILL some chips and dip. (The pic is actually from the next day, when I finished it off...god I need to shut up.) Needless to say, I was sick almost all weekend. I might have also rented Nights in Rodanthe since there was no boy around insisting we get Gran Torino or something similar. It was pretty good, I think I really liked it because it featured my home state of NC!

Sunday morning I didn't run, instead I got up and cleaned the apartment and spent the day studying and running errands. And making pulled BBQ chicken. Behold:

I got the recipe idea from Erica, but I made a few changes. Since I was only making this for me, I used three frozen chicken cutlets (smaller than a breast) and a mixture of about 1/2 TJ's All Natural BBQ Sauce, about 1 T of TJ's chili sauce, and a sprinkling of brown sugar. (Probably a bit too much sauce but it was still amazing.)

I had it on a Whole Wheat Arnold's Sandwich thin with 1/2 avocado and some diced onions. This made about 2 servings.

Monday morning I HAD to run, and since I was off work, I had planned on doing 10. But when I got up I knew that wasn't happening. So I set out on a loop that I thought was 5.5 to 6. When I got home, my Garmin said 5.0. Oh well! Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 10:21
Mile 2: 9:57
Mile 3: 10:09
Mile 4: 10:03
Mile 5: 9:15

It wasn't the best run, but when I felt like stopping at mile 2, I told myself I had to push on!! I cannot have another marathon performance like my first, and I need to be stricter with myself on stopping when I feel tired. So I never stopped and walked, and when I got home, I felt a lot better for it.

Today I woke up and I felt bloated...and cranky. I have been eating a mixture of really healthy and really unhealthy foods which I know isn't settling well with me, so I wish Matt would get back so I could feel like everything was normal again!

I had my first TNT meeting tonight at the TrySports in Mt. Pleasant. It was basically a beginner's "seminar" on running gear, gels, shoes, etc. I think I owned almost everything they had on their display table. But still it was fun to "meet" some of my teammates, although I don't think everyone was there. I am looking forward to our long run this Sunday!

I also realized that I don't run with the recommended gear...like, I trained for my whole marathon without carrying one single water bottle or fuel belt. I can't stand them! I have one and have only used it once. Instead I planned my long runs around water fountains, or stashed water bottles along the route.

I also NEVER needed Body Glide. I bought some the day before the marathon and used it, but that was the only time! Our coach and the other staff there were saying that it was a must have and all distance runners need it. I think I didn't need it because I have the PERFECT running shorts! (the only ones I will wear and I have them in 3 colors!) I did chafe a few times at my bikini line, but it wasn't that bad and I think it was because I was wearing undies underneath my tights. I also have great running capris and tights which I think helped a lot during the colder months. Plus, I don't really have boobs so there is no chafage anywhere near there! (*sidenote, I have gone down a cup size during marathon training. fantastic.)

But I was excited to see that they carry Hammer products, I will be trying those out soon since I have only used GU's thus far. I like that Hammer is all-natural and stuff.

Since the meeting was at 7, I didn't get to run tonight. I told Matt I was going to run afterwards or "go on a walk" and he freaked out thinking I was going to be running in the dark by myself...so I guess to make him feel better I didn't :)

Will DEFINITELY be running at least 4 tomorrow, so will report back on that!

And this is what my cat Callie was doing this weekend...

That bag had spilled beer all in the bottom because we use it for recyclables...I guess that didn't bother her.
***
Ya know how I mentioned that my mom was starting to run? Well she wants to do a 5k with me at some point so she's starting out slow. But she called me Friday after she had gotten back from the gym, and she was so proud of herself because she said she almost talked herself out of it, and instead, she walk/ran on the treadmill for 1 hour!

She said, "Well I thought if Kristin can run for 5 hours, I can do 1 hour!" Yea, yeah thanks for rubbing that in.

Both of my parents also called this weekend to tell me that "your brother ran a mile this morning." My dad is convinced that he is "training" to beat me in "the gobble" on Thanksgiving Day. (I ran a 5k at my dads last Thanksgiving called the Greensboro Gobbler, but my dad only refers to it as "the gobble.") So of course I had to call my brother to tell him I knew he was "secretly training to beat me in the gobble." He laughed and said, "Yeah Kristin, I am secretly training."

Anyways, I am proud of my family for running! Also I am a little worried about my brother's secret training, because although he is not a runner, he is the athlete in the family and will probably be kicking my ass in the gobble this year.

New marathon training plan to come this week...getting pumped. (But why is South Park on my TV right now?? Must.Change.)

***
TNT Total: $562
Want to donate and help me reach my $4,000 goal?

TNT + My New Running Attitude

2009-05-24T18:47:00.004-04:00

Since this is a running blog after all, I figure I should get back to that subject.

I have been so busy lately, that I haven't really had the time to sit down and think about my new marathon training goals for this summer, so while I have nothing better to do today, I thought I would take the time.

If you're new here, I just finished my first marathon on May 2nd in a pretty slow/sustained/whatever time of 5:01. I have since signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th through Team in Training to try and beat that time by about 30 minutes as well as to raise some much needed funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have already raised $537 towards my $4,000 fundraising goal! (My minimum amount I have to raise by August 23rd is $3,500...but my personal goal is to beat that by $500.)

While I was out of town last week on business, I missed our TNT kick-off meeting Tuesday night, so I made sure to find out if we had our first "long" run this Sunday morning...I was told that we didn't. Of course we actually did, which I found out this afternoon when I got an email recapping the run. Way to start off on the crappiest foot ever with my TNT team!

Oh well, I will be there Tuesday night! If you're not familiar with Team in Training, it basically works like this:

In exchange for raising money for the Leukuemia & Lymphoma Society, each runner trains for a distance event with trained coaches as well as their other team mates.
The fundraising minimum is a lot, and varies by event. For the Marine Corps, the minimum is $3,500.
Each team meets twice a week; once on Tuesday night for either a shorter run or a clinic of some sort (this coming week is a shoe clinic at a local running store), and Sunday morning for the weekly long run. (Of course the rest of the week you run on your own.)
Each runner gets a training schedule (I think this varies based on running experience/pace/goal marathon time, etc. but honestly I'm not sure since I have missed the first two meetings).
TNT pays each runner's way to the race, including airfare, hotel and other expenses.
They don't only do marathons, you can also train with TNT for Olympic distance triathlons and century bike rides.
Although I can certainly train on my own, I think this TNT experience will A) be a lot of fun! B) make me feel as if I am a part of something larger than my own selfish self and C) be a way to make new running friends!

So yeah, I am excited. I plan on following their training schedule as much as possible, but I'm sure I will be tweaking it here and there. I still plan to stick to my 4-5 days a week running schedule, that looks something like this:

Sunday: Long run
Monday: Off/cross train/abs
Tuesday: Hills (4 -6 miles)/TNT run
Wednesday: Mid-week long run ( 5-10 miles)/abs
Thursday: Speedwork @ the track (3-6+ miles)
Friday: Off/cross-train/abs
Saturday: Off/cross-train/short run (3-5 miles)

This time around, I also plan on adding yoga & strength training to the mix more frequently. This week, I am going to visit a few yoga studios & gyms to decide what I want to do with that. I really enjoyed working out in a gym last week and I would love to be able to afford to do that more regularly. I might actually be doing some yoga tomorrow if I can find a studio that's open!

My time goal for the marathon this time around is anything sub 4:30.

I was sort of shooting for that last time, but obviously, that didn't happen. It didn't happen for a few reasons, one being that I didn't train based on time, I just went out there and ran. Sure I tried to keep a good, even pace and to keep negative splits, but I wasn't really bothered if I didn't, I just wanted to finish. Another reason I didn't hit my goal was because I clearly had not done enough hill training! North Carolina ain't the Rockies, but it was definitely more hilly than my training ground of below sea-level, flat as a pancake, Charleston! I was also kind of lazy out there, and once I took my first walk break, my mental toughness was dunzo....it was all run/walk from that point on.

So...other than sticking to my training schedule over the next 5 months or so, I also want to maintain a few things:

I will not skip speedwork or hills, period.
I will strength train at the minimum two times a week.
I will work on my abs three non-consecutive days of the week.
I will never skip a long run. (This only happened once last time, and it messed me up for almost a month!)
I will be aware of my goal pace for each run, and try to stick to it as much as possible.
I will ride my bike and/or cross-train 2-3 times a week.
I will take up yoga.
I will continue to eat healthy :)
I will continue to drink a crap load of water.
I will run happy!

So there you go! I think that if I can stick to these above things, I will improve drastically as a runner. Everyone is different, and every runner has different goals. For me, my first marathon was all about finishing. This time, I'm coming back for a rematch with myself and I am determined to kick the crap out of the runner I was on May 2nd!

I may also do a sprint triathlon at some point this summer. If I do decide on that, then I guess I need to start swimming, huh??

In addition to my athletic goals, my professional life is crazy hectic these days. I am going through my second and then final tests over the next few months, and after that happens, I will be moving slowly into a new role at my office. It is scary and it's not the easiest, but I think it will be all worth it in the end! So needless to say my life is about to get a whole lot busier.

***
This weekend has been great so far! I went to the Farmer's Market yesterday morning with friends, and then we went out on their boat for most of the day. It was nice, and I got a little sunburnt...oddly I think from the Farmer's Market...wouldn't you know it.

Today has been lazy and great. I made some suuuhhhweeet BBQ pulled chicken tonight that couldn't have been more easy! (Thanks to Erica for the idea & recipe!) I will post pics later on.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Memorial Day tomorrow, and don't forget to thank our men and women in uniform, as well as to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

:)

M.I.A.

2009-05-22T08:46:00.005-04:00

Well hello there, how have y'all been ALL WEEK??

I have been so out of commission since Sunday, and I am just getting back to Charleston and back to work this morning. It has been a crazy week! Too much to post about but here are some bullets for a lazy Friday morning (eve of holiday weekend WOO HOO!):

Last Friday night we made pizza! Best.Pizza.Ever. Here is the recipe for the dough (whole wheat thin crust!), from one of my favorite food blogs. (I decided you guys could handle the mess that was my kitchen that night, I mean, I'm not trying to be someone I'm not, right?!)

The only sub I made, was I used 1.5 cups organic whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose. I put cheese, onions, asparagus and PESTO on mine.After generously rubbing the dough with olive oil...

Holy yum.
Saturday Matt and I played in a cornhole tournament!! We won our first game and then lost the next two.

We got jipped out of the second round play and were pretty mad because we wanted to keep playing! (So instead we sat there and watched everyone else/drank beer/ate BBQ/all was good.) I also finally met in person a local Twitter friend. Gotta love the internet!

After the tourney/when we had enough beer in our bellies, Matt and I went to the beach at around 6 pm and stayed there until dusk. Beautiful!

Sunday morning I headed out early for Charlotte! My mom lives there, so I was staying with her until Thursday because I had to take a class downtown for work. (I am taking my Series 7 General Securities Exam this Saturday! That's stocks/bonds/options/mutual funds/etc.)
So basically Monday-Thursday were spent sitting in a classroom from 8:30 to about 4 learning about things that make my brain hurt. (Although I stuck to the TSL Challenge and brought my lunch and snacks every day!)
I made a mad run for Trader Joe's downtown Monday at lunch. Ohmygoodness how I miss thee.
My mom and I went to her gym on Monday night and got in a HELL of a workout. Man, I forget how much I like to go to the gym! We started out on the treadmill and my mom did a run/walk routine for about 35 minutes! I was so proud of her!
I did a speed routine (which is much easier on the treadmill) and started with a 10 minute warm up (1 mile) then did 4 x 1/2 mile intervals at 7:30 to 7:18 pace. In between I jogged for the first few for about 2 minutes, then at the end I ended up walking in between. I did a cool down walk for about 8 minutes. I was beat!!!
Then we did abs: planks, side planks, the superman (I don't know what this is really called), balance ball crunches, regular crunches....whew!
We hopped on the bike for 10 minutes.
My mom decided to go tan so I got on the elliptical for 10 minutes and also did some free weights for my arms. What a workout!
For someone who ONLY runs, I was sore for almost three days! So was my mom!
I ran again on Wednesday, for about 4 miles outside. It was HOT! My mom started out the run with me and ran about .3 miles, I'm so proud of her for running.
In between all of this, I managed to see my grandparents twice, my extended family on my moms side, hang out with my younger brother (who also stayed Sunday-Thursday), played with a really cute Chihauhau that I no longer covet because it poops on the floor, introduced the fam to the green monster, drank a ton of coffee and green tea to keep my sanity, found out my cousin in going to West Point in the fall, saw a pretty bad wreck on I-77 where an entire car was burnt to a crisp (no one was hurt though), found out I was the 3rd highest fundraiser this week for my Team in Training team (thanks y'all!! I am at $512!), realized again just how much I love Charlotte, went to South Park Mall and didn't buy anything, went to Anthropologie and coveted everything yet didn't buy anything, and tried raw almond butter!

That was a lot to digest. You guys still there? Anyone removed me from their readers yet thinking I had given up blogging for a new love? I hope not! :)

Gotta get back to work now but I am OFF on Monday for Memorial Day which I am SUPER pumped about. Also, Matt is leaving me to go home to Kentucky tomorrow morning for a WEEK so...um, anyone want to hang out?

Are you guys jealous of where I live yet?! Here is the view from the pond next to our building. Love it!

Have a fab Friday!

Generosity :)

2009-05-14T09:42:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I posted my fund raising page for my Team in Training fund raising campaign for the Marine Corps Marathon. Since then, I have received $437 in donations! That is just crazy to me, I am so excited for how much I can potentially raise for this organization in the next five months!

So I was thinking about interesting things that I could do to raise money, and after browsing through TNT's tips and talking to some co-workers, here are some ideas:

Partner with local restaurants to have a TNT night where a percentage of the profits goes towards my campaign (usually about 10%)
Hold a "dessert-a-thon" where I invite a ton of people over for all you can eat desserts in exchange for a "cover charge" (I would like to do this in multiple locations, like once at my moms house with her friends and maybe once here)
Seek company sponsorships, both locally and with companies I have connections with outside of Charleston
Hook up with local sports teams to see how I could either get a portion of the night's profits, or work a booth to raise money

I'm sure there are tons more, but these are the first few that piqued my interest. Y'all let me know if you can think of any more!

Also I have been greatly surprised by those who have donated so far whom I only know through Twitter or the blog! How crazy is that?? Oh, the power of the internet! (And of course, a big THANK YOU to those of you who have donated! You know who you are :)

***
As far as training goes, I officially have 30 weeks until my next marathon. Wayyy more time than I had to train for my first, plus since I already have one under my belt I should be set. Our Team in Training kick-off meeting is next Tuesday, but unfortunately, I will be out of town for business so I will have to miss it! I'm kind of mad about that, but I think that our first group run should be next Sunday...so that's exciting!

I have a meeting tonight so I can't run, plus it's pretty bad weather here today, so I'm going to do some yoga at home. I have a TON of studying to do before I go out of town next week so I will have my nose in a book basically from now until Monday morning. Blah.

***
For some color, I thought I would post today about our three-year anniversary dinner at S.N.O.B. here in Charleston a few weeks back.

S.N.O.B. stands for "Slightly North of Broad" because the restaurant is right above the famed Broad Street in historic downtown Charleston. I had heard nothing but good things about this place, so I was pumped to try it out! Matt was too, and was in a pretty good mood once we got there :)

We had scoped out the menu online before we went, so we knew we wanted to try the cheese plate as an appetizer. Check this baby out!! Three different types of cheese (changed daily), plus strawberries, grapes, pineapple, walnuts, almonds, dried fruits and toasted bread. YUM!

When I asked Matt if I could take a picture of this, he said, "Yes. If you hurry." Gotta love a hungry man :) (Check out the top of the pic, he's ready, knife in hand!) The cheeses were fresh and creamy and oh so good. They also brought us out some white bread and cornbread squares. What more could a girl want?

This girl wanted fresh veggies, so I decided to order the Vegetable Plate when our server told me it had 12 different local veggies!

Oh man, this did NOT disappoint. Let me see if I can remember everything on this gigantic plate of food. Summer squash, okra, eggplant, zucchini, roasted tomato, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, scalloped potatoes, tofu, some sort of weirdo mushrooms, white corn, and even some southern grits with a sweet chutney. That's actually 13!

After eating the cheese plate, the bread they brought out, and tackling this, I had about 1/2 of it leftover to take home. (Matt's stuffed flounder came with sweet potato mash and mushrooms, which he promptly gave to me...needless to say I had a lot of food!)

So I transformed it into my lunch the next day.

All I added was some whole grains with a little leftover Kashi Pilaf and tomatoes. (I find that pilaf to be pretty bland on its own even after cooking in low sodium chicken broth, so I add a can of no salt added diced tomatoes, juice and all.)

What I loved most about this entree, was that it was cooked with minimal oils and sauces, and everything was cooked differently. Some were steamed, some baked, some grilled. It was delicious for sure! If you're ever in Charleston (you better call me up) I would definitely recommend S.N.O.B.

Ok guys, I've got to finish up a few things and then I am off to my Habitat for Humanity meeting! Don't forget...if you want some good karma, donate a lil bit to my Leukemia and Lymphoma fundraising campaign!

Review time: Whey Protein + Best Running Headphones

2009-05-13T07:45:00.008-04:00

Thanks a lot for everyone's sweet comments about my new marathon goal! I will be posting more info soon about my fund raising efforts for the Marine Corps Marathon through Team in Training, but if you're feeling generous today, please check out my fund raising page. I have to raise at least $3,500 by August 23rd so any little bit will help :) Thank you!

***
Yesterday I went out for another 4 mile run. I thought about going biking, but I knew I probably wouldn't be able to run Wednesday and Thursday so I laced up and headed out. My goal for yesterday's short run was to run consistent miles in the pace range of 9:00 and 9:30. So here are my splits:

9:21
9:10
9:11
8:30

Totals: 4.01 miles in 36:18, avg pace 9:03. Yesterday's run of the same distance was in 37:13 with an avg pace 9:13. Sweet! Right on track. Now to continue this pace for more than 4 miles...

***
On another front...REVIEW TIME!

First off, how about some Better Whey of Life yogurt?

I was contacted a few weeks ago to review this stuff, and I was excited because I have been wanting to try it for a while, but they don't carry it in South Carolina yet. So they shipped me three flavors to try, the Acai Mixed Berry, French Vanilla and Plain.

The flavored yogurts both have a whopping 15 g protein, while the plain packs in 17 grams. They are all-natural and are the first whey protein-enhanced, nonfat yogurts on the market.
Other good things about this product:

30% less sugar than the leading yogurt
3g Prebiotic Fiber
Made with nonfat milk with no added growth hormones
Excellent source of Calcium
Contains Probiotics for healthy digestion

My verdict: I tried the Acai Mixed Berry first, and I attempted to eat it plain. But I couldn't even finish it because it was so extremely tart tasting. I should have added some cereal or granola or fruit, but I wasn't really feeling that flavor. Next I tried the French Vanilla, this time I mixed it with some Cheerios and it was pretty good. Paired with a Green Monster it kept me full until well past 1 PM that day. (Which is rare for me.) Yesterday I had the plain yogurt, which I mixed with honey and Cheerios. This was the best combo I thought. I love plain yogurts with mix ins so this one would definitely be my favorite. Plus, the plain has less sugar than the flavored kinds and 2g more protein. This one again, kept me full all morning!

All in all I would say that for a nonfat yogurt, these are pretty good! If you are looking for a product that will keep you full and taste pretty similar to regular yogurts, then you should try these out. I know I struggle to get enough protein in my diet so I welcomed adding these to my morning routine. They are in general though, a bit more tart than normal yogurts due to the lower amount of sugar and the whey additions, so if you try these expecting a Dannon Light 'N Fit taste, you're not going to get it!

Thanks Kasey for sending me these to try! When are they going to be available in my neck of the woods?? :)

Check out their website to see if Better Whey of Life is available in your state!

***
...and now for my Phillips In-Ear Headphones. These babies are seriously my favorite headphones for running. And believe me, I have tried out many different kinds and am really, really picky!

I should have worn a different color shirt so you could actually see the cord, but these headphones have two different lengths. Here, I have it shortened and the cord just reaches down to wear my iPod is. (Please excuse the cheesy pics.)

I usually clip it to the top of my sports bra for easier access, and it's nice to have the option of a shorter cord so it isn't all in the way, like I did here:

But if you want a longer cord, you can add on the extender.

What I like most about these headphones, is that they have three different sized ear buds to change out, depending on, well your ear size. Regardless of how they look in this pic, I have really small ears and most in-ear headphones are too big and keep slipping out during a run or either irritate my ears. But with these, I can choose the size of the ear buds to fit me perfectly (medium).

They also have a longer cord for the right ear bud, which works out nicely if you wrap the right one around the back of your neck, and secure the ipod on your left side.

These headphones are comfortable too, and they also have great sound quality! Much louder and richer than my iPod earbuds.

And they come in a cute little case so you can keep the extra extension and ear buds.

I bought these at Target, and they usually run about $30. But I could only find them online here at Best Buy for $34.99. They come in red or black.

(Whew! That was a long post! Thanks for sticking around :)

Why I Run

2009-05-12T08:51:00.003-04:00

I don't just run for myself and for my fitness. I don't just run to meet and exceed personal goals. I don't just run because I like it or because I want to.

I run because not only does it make me feel great about myself, but hopefully, it also inspires those around me to do something good for themselves.

Since I posted yesterday about adding the Raleigh City of Oaks 1/2 Marathon to my fall schedule, I have been reeling 'em in to run with me!

My good friend Alesha (who claims she will never do a full marathon but has conceeded to possibly trying for a 1/2) printed out her training schedule yesterday and is going to train for the Raleigh 1/2 with Meredith and me. Woo hoo!

Then I thought about my aunt, who sent me this after completing the marathon:

Great job finishing the race. We are all proud of you. I must admit I was inspired - but not enough to put my knees through that - maybe a shorter race next spring??????

So I sent her an email yesterday, slyly suggesting the Raleigh 1/2 (since she lives there) and this is what I got back:

Scared - but I would like to try. I will know very early in the training if my knees can handle. When you have a chance give me some ideas about how I start.

Then yesterday when I was gchatting with my 71- years young Nana (the one yelling at the cops here) she told me that this past weekend she "ran a little." When I asked her why she said, "maybe you inspired me." I could not have been more proud of her! I actually stopped what I was doing at work to hand write her a little note to pop in the mail to tell her so.

I've been kind of down on myself since the race for not making it to the finish line under 4:30 like I was hoping to. But it's moments like these that make me proud of myself for finishing the race period!

So I ran it in 5 freaking hours and walked too much in the final miles. So what? I accomplished something not too many people can accomplish, and if I can inspire my aunt (who is not a runner) to get out there in training to run 13.1 miles, if I can inspire a 71-year old woman who lives in the hilliest part of Virginia to get outside and run up and down her long and winding driveway, I more than accomplished my own goal.

Next goal? To get my mom in on the fun too! She's been going to the gym lately (she hasn't worked out in years, but still looks great) and told me that she would like to train for a 5k with me. Maybe I can convince her to train for the 1/2 instead? :)

A little inspiration can go a long way :)

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ

***
I ran a quick 4 miles last night in 37:13. I accidentally had my Garmin on bike mode so it didn't record my splits, but I know my last two miles were in the 8s. I felt pretty strong.

One thing that I didn't like about my marathon training (or did like at the time but now I sort of regret) was that I wasn't focused on time at all. I was okay with running as slow as possible just as long as I got the miles in. Well that worked for my first marathon, but this time I am attacking this monster with SPEED!

My run last night was tough for me, but I was constantly aware of my pace and I made sure that I sped it up each mile--which is something I never do. This is part of my new strategy...more speedwork, more hills, fasterfitterstronger!

I'm also going to be doing ab work MWF so I started the week off yesterday with one 60-sec plank, and then two more 60-sec side planks. I should have done more but I was rushing to start dinner!

Also, I am faxing in my TNT registration today for the Marine Corps Marathon! Hot and muggy Charleston summer training here I come!

Beaches + Post-Marathon Training Goals

2009-05-11T09:15:00.007-04:00

I hope you all had a fab Mother's Day! I didn't see my mom yesterday, but I will be seeing her next weekend and I saw her last weekend. Isn't she cute?

Well, I'm getting a cold I think (sore throat, coughing a lot). I tried to go to sleep early last night so I could start off this week by exercising in the mornings before work, but I ended up tossing and turning all night and I didn't wake up until almost seven this morning! I guess I'm destined to run after work.

But yesterday was a pretty good Sunday. Unfortunately I did not run my 8 miles like I said I was hoping to, but that's the beauty of not being on a training plan :) Instead I lazed around a bit and then headed to the beach! (I was still really sore from my 12 mile bike ride on Saturday, and weird thing, my left hand was partially numb Saturday-Sunday and still kind of today! I guess I'm not used to road biking yet...)

I headed out to Folly Beach on my own, and found a new little walk way down onto the beach...

I spent a few hours out there sunning, reading my new Women's Health and studying (a small bit). The water was cool and it was just perfect. I decided to pack up and head out around 2 PM.

And as soon as I turned out of Folly Beach and headed back towards downtown, this is what I saw:

Where had that crap come from?? It was bright, sunny, blue skies at the beach! Not more than about 5 miles later, the sky opened up.

I guess I left at just the right time :) When I got home, I found this package waiting for me in the office! (I seriously love packages)

Inside was my Better Whey of Life yogurt samples I was sent to review! Unfortunately, they weren't cold once I unpacked them...but being the brave girl I am, I decided to stick them in the fridge and try them out anyways. (What I do for you guys...) I have tried 2 of the 3 and I'm feeling okay so far! Full review to come tomorrow so stay tuned :)

***
So anyways, back to running! I am pumped about this week because I am officially going to be back into training mode.

I think I have decided to do the Marine Corps Marathon in October through the Charleston Team in Training. I haven't officially accepted yet because I have been weighing my options, but all in all, I think it would be fun to train with a team, it would be a great way to meet new people, and most importantly it would raise money for a good cause.

The only thing I am worried about is the $$ commitment. I can handle running a crap load of miles, but raising almost $4,000? That scares me big time. Anybody have any thoughts on this? Advice for me?

I have also added a 1/2 marathon to my fall schedule, the Raleigh City of Oaks Half on November 1st. This would be right after my marathon, so perfect timing! I am really excited about this one because I will be running it with my girl Meredith! (Who has been sucked into the blog world, woo hoo! Go check out three dogs and a dream :)

So there ya have it.

I'm still working on my training schedule, so more about that later on as well. Other than the yogurt review, I promise I am going to review my headphones this week too! (I need more hours in the day...) Happy Monday y'all!

Happy Moms Day!

2009-05-10T10:03:00.006-04:00

I Love You Mom!
XoXo
-KB

Charleston, 2009

Cooper River Bridge Run, 2009

Carolina Beach, 2008

Country Music 1/2 Marathon, 2008

Keith Urban/Carrie Underwood Concert, 2008

Eric, mom and I, 2007

UNC graduation with dad, 2007

Graduation dinner, 2007

21st birthday trip to Nashville, 2006

Perfect Saturday

2009-05-09T20:49:00.006-04:00

I have had a fantastic Saturday so far! (And I may or may not be drunk blogging right now.)

It started off with a bike ride through downtown Charleston and over our only hill in town, the Ravenel Bridge. I rode for a total of 12.6 miles and I definitely have a new found respect for cyclists. Obviously it's not that difficult on flat surfaces, but over hills are quite the challenge--even for someone who just ran a marathon!

I am considering doing a sprint (or even possibly an Olympic length) triathlon this summer/fall so part of my post-marathon plan has been to dust off the ole road bike. Regardless of whether I end up doing a tri, my post-marathon goals in general are to be more well rounded athletically, work different muscles, and do more cross-training to firm up my body and lose a few pounds.

This morning when I started out I was feeling great! Then when I started up the bridge I knew it was going to be tough for a non-cyclist like myself. I made it up the first hill and stopped at the top for some water which was a mistake. I almost threw up my breakfast. Going down hill was fun though...but then I had to make my way back over. I got passed by some super-speedy cyclists who offered me some, "Stick with it! You can do it!" I felt super lame, but at the same time, I think it helped me push it up to the top.

After my ride, Matt and I headed to Lowe's to pick up the herbs for my balcony herb garden!

It was a hard decision, and I almost bought another planter so I could have 6 total herbs, but I decided to be thrifty and stick with 3. I got rosemary, sweet basil and cilantro. Last summer I had basil, oregano and sage and I am super pumped about the cilantro this year! Did you guys know that coriander seeds grow into cilantro? You probably do but when I found that out last summer I was pretty shocked/surprised.

I also bought a pot to plant my marathon plant in that Meredith brought me after finishing my race! It's African Violets (I think) and I can't wait to see how big it grows!

Matt and I tag teamed dinner and he grilled up some BBQ chicken and balsamic eggplant, while I oven baked some sweet potato and regular potato wedges and steamed some asparagus.

Delish! We've been jamming out to some tunes and sipping on bourbon and coke so it's been a good/relaxing evening. We're about to head over to our across the street/on the water bar for a few drinks!

Hope you guys are having a fantastic Saturday!

***
My first run back yesterday turned out pretty well! I did about 5.5 miles over the bridge and back after work. It was really hot and I was dehydrated, but other than that it went well. It felt good to be running again.

I'm gonna head out in the morning for 8 miles (hopefully) so I will let y'all know how that goes!