Baby its cold outside

How was everyones weekend? My birthday weekend was great. I got to have a nice relaxin Saturday (this happens never) and went for a nice run without any form of timing or tracking device which was a great feeling. Then it was off to The Nutcracker!

I went to see The Nutcracker all the time when I was little and in Chicago, then last year my brother and I took my mom to see it in Boston! I had never seen it before in NY and it was fantastic! I love little Christmas traditions like going to see The Nutcracker. Very successful birthday night.

Sunday was another relaxing day. I wimped out when Paul said "lets go running," and responded with "but baby it's cold outside!" I mean really though, it was about 15 degrees outside and he was running 4 miles more than I was. This would result in me sitting outside in the freezing cold for a little while after I finished running. I instead decided to stay inside all nice and warm. We watched a movie for the afternoon (Four Christmases, very funny!) before dinner at Chipotle with his family for my birthday! This was followed by a very delicious Carvel cake!

I managed to get the day off today (yay!) for a mini shopping day. The plan is to finish up everything I need for my Christmas shopping, and not buy too many things for myself! Then off for a run this afternoon to run off all the cake and cupcakes from the weekend! Plus it isn't as cold out today so I won't wimp out!


Happy Monday everyone!!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm a pretty big fan of my birthday, not that I usually do anything too over the top. As long as I have a cupcake at some point, I usually consider it a successful birthday.

23 was a big year for me, although most of them lately have seemed like big years for me. I may or may not have had to go back through my facebook timeline to remember everything about this year for me as well...no judgement. So here are the highlights of my birthday year!

 First was Christmas!

Which was immediately followed by VEGAS!

  New York New York Hotel we stayed in!

 Love this quote! 

February meant many Hockey games and also seeing one of my best friends!

This is also around the time I started training for the 1/2 marathon!

I cut 6 1/2 inches off my hair, yes this was one of the most exciting parts of March

I also got my new iPhone! Again yes this is one of the more exciting parts of my life...don't laugh its true.

Beginning of May I visited my brother in Arizona!

Then I ran the 1/2 marathon that there are no pictures with proof I was there. I promise though, I suffered through a miserable 13.1 miles. There is proof of a record online, just no pictures thankfully.

I spent most of June in the above location. Well actually I spent the most of June at work or traveling in the car, but when I had a free second I spent it here.

July was the big moving month!! Yay! After that July was a little crazy!

My brother and I surprised my mom at Cape Cod for her birthday!

I went on multiple job interviews and etc. That was well, not fun at all.

Then I went to a wedding with Paul, and managed to get myself a job. I know craziness!

August was filled with more race craziness and starting the new job. Oh and then a hurricane happened.

First Triathlon complete!

Awesome medal right?!

Yankee Stadium 5k!

I was back in MA too for a long weekend to see my Dad and Step mom!

September was a little slower...a little. I started to get into work and start of travel season. I did manage to do a triathlon, sort of.

October is almost a complete blur. I traveled 24/7 for work, including the weekends. For the Saturday's I was not working I was watching one of Paul's many races. This did mean I got to go to one of my favorite places, Rhode Island!

 Rock n Roll 10k in Brooklyn! 

 Newport, RI! 

The 1/2 marathon medal was awesome.

This was right around the time I got myself back in gear and started running again! Yay! 

November finished up a crazy travel season with work, followed up by an Open House for the College. I volunteered at the NYC Marathon in Nov as well!

Then of course the wedding!! 

Yay they're married! 

Of course this was followed by Thanksgiving in Rhode Island, some more work, and some more running!

As you all know the birthday year ended with a trip into the city to see the Christmas decorations! 

So that was my last year in a nutshell! The birthday plans are to have a nice choc chip pancake breakfast with some starbucks, I know not healthy but whatever it's my birthday and I'll eat fattening pancakes if I want to! Then of course go for a run to not actually feel bad about the pancake breakfast. Tonight is The Nutcracker with Paul!

So here is to myself on my 24th birthday, wishing myself all the happiness of last year and so much more :)

Running breakthrough

So I've been rather vague, purposely so, about just how bad or good my running has been lately. It's because how embarrassed I am about how bad I've gotten. I think it is helpful though to tell people about it for multiple reasons. Reason 1 being, well there are only so many things on this blog I can talk about and this one is important to running, thus here we are. Reason 2 there are only so many times I can say "awful run" or "great run" without people thinking "how far did she run? 10 miles?"...and no, none of my runs have been 10 miles lately. Last reason is because I think a lot of people struggle with not being able to run at the same level they use to after taking some time off. If any of you have proof some how that I in fact am the only one who could fall this far back in running, please don't share as it may just depress me.

Moving on to the facts of it all. Yes, in the past I did 2 half marathons as well as 2 (kind of) triathlons, go me! While I was never lightening speed "cough cough...I was slow as hell...cough cough" I was able to chug through the miles for the races. When I recently started running again, after work travel ended, I found myself struggling to run a mile. I was never good at the mental game in running. Some people are able to say "only a few more minutes", and then keep running and say to themselves 20 minutes later "only a few more minutes." I am not one of these people. When I am tired and done with running, I am just tired and will be done with running.

I decided the best way to get my but in gear was to prepare for a race (DC half marathon anyone?) and to have a plan. I went with an app I had on my iPhone, the Couch 2 5k. I figured I had managed to get myself far enough back that starting with this training plan might really help me. I slowly started to get through the days, instead of only doing 3 runs a week for a certain level, I would do one run at a certain level and if I felt good, move up to the next level for the next day. I steadily did this every day until I got to a harder level that I needed more than a day to work at. Then I started following the plan one day at a time for each level. The biggest help was that it would have me mix in running with short times to walk, then have me run again. I really found it helpful knowing I had that little time to catch my breath in between runs.


Recently my running has really improved. I've been following along with the app for the most part, example (running 7 mins, walking 1 min, running 4 mins, walking 1 min and etc.), but from time to time I would try and last an extra minute or two in a running section to push myself. I finally got myself up to the level in the app I had been dreading, running 20 minutes straight. No stopping at all. This was a huge fear of mine, and also something I use to be able to easily do. I got in my head 100%, and when I went out to run on Thursday was dying 5 minutes into my run. Long story very short, the run got cut short and I didn't accomplish my goal.I went home sad and upset that I was never going to get through this little mile mark and have the big running breakthrough I needed.

This past Saturday I decided I would go back a day in my training plan. It required me to Run 9 mins, walk 2 mins, Run 9 mins. I had done it before and knew it was no problem. I started running and was feeling great! I finished my 9 mins and thought, well I'm not tired why not run the walking part (note to all, I never actually think things like this usually or follow through with them). I ran through the walk part and kept on running. Once I hit 20 minutes I almost jumped up and down, and I definitely did a mini fist pump. I kept going though because I knew I had a good pace going and was just under 2 miles. In the end I ran 25 minutes straight and did 2.48 miles. I could not have been more excited! This was hands down the longest I had run without stopping in many, many months.

I almost wasn't going to write this post because I found it very embarrassing to admit to anyone, other than Paul who was with me for this, that my biggest running accomplishment that week was running for 25 minutes straight. Then I realized that it made no sense to hide it. Yes I have gone far back in my running ability, but I'm pulling ahead and had a huge running breakthrough that I needed. I finally feel more comfortable now thinking about going out and running. I need to remember that I can and have done all this before, and just need to not get in my head about it too much.

I am sorry this was so long, but come on! Huge breakthrough! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Birthday week

How was everyone's weekend?! Friday kicked off my early birthday week celebration! Paul and I went to the mall after work to look at a couple things. This turned into Amy's birthday present time, which was a mini shopping spree at lululemon! Best birthday present ever :) I was totally spoiled and loved it! I got a new pair of pants, a long sleeve top, and a zip up. All of these I'm 100% obsessed with and would love to wear them all 24/7...not kidding, I asked if I could wear them to a Christmas party I was going to, Paul advised against it haha. After my mini shopping spree, we headed to Friday's for my birthday dinner! So delicious.

Saturday was a running day for me. Huge accomplishment for running on Saturday that I'll post about tomorrow. After that Paul and I headed into the city for part 2 of my birthday present! Every year I try and get into the city to see the decorations, tree, and etc. It was a great time, even though it was freezing. It was also Santacon this Saturday so the city was nuts. For those of you unfamiliar with Santacon, a couple thousand people walk around the city in a pub crawl dressed as Santa. It's pretty hysterical to say the least.

The Tree! 

Yay! Perfect Christmas card picture if I were to send out Christmas cards

This is also the first official picture of me with the brown hair on here! Yay! Here's another for you. 

This was followed by some great chinese food and coldstone so delicious! Then it was early to bed for me because I had work the next morning and was exhausted!

The weekend ended with a Christmas party at my aunt and uncles house that was a lot of fun. I also got a surprise Christmas present before the party from Paul! I know I was so spoiled all weekend. :) New digital camera for me! 

It's awesome and I'm obsessed already! 

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend, and I promise more running posts tomorrow! 

Happy Monday everyone!

K-Swiss BOGO

Now that you know just about everything about my running wardrobe, on to the more important business of shoes! I run in K-Swiss and I LOVE them.

Current Shoes (Keahou II's) 

I tried K-Swiss over the summer after I heard from a few people that they were a good choice for running. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked these shoes and how I never once had any problems with them. I went with the Keahou II's from the start because while they were still nice running shoes, they weren't as expensive as a few of the other K-Swiss options. I got them at Dick's Sporting Good store too, and with coupons, ended up only paying about $80 for them.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, K-Swiss had a buy one get one deal for their shoes..AMAZING! I got two pairs, one were another pair of Keahou II's because I liked them so much, another was a new type I wanted to try, K-Ona's.

New Keahou II's

New K-Ona's 

For the two pairs of shoes I paid $110, with free shipping! That is $55 per pair, INSANE for running shoes. I am so excited for them! I decided to try the K-Ona's first to see if I love them as much as the Keahou II's. I have run in them twice so far, and while I am still breaking them in, I think they are going to be great! There is also a pair (California's) that I have heard great things and plan to try next!

 They are so bright I love it!

You can't totally see them, but new shoes!

If you are in the process of looking for new running shoes, I highly suggest you check out K-Swiss....and no they didn't give me anything for doing this post, I just love K-Swiss!


Finally Friday! I will be spending it seeing the Christmas decorations around NYC, working, and at a Christmas party. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!