Merry Christmas!

This past weekend was my husband's birthday so we got to celebrate at a friend's camp. It was a nice relaxing weekend, except for Friday night. 

This handsome guy wouldn't sleep without me in front of his cage on a hard tile floor. I got 3 hours of sleep. (Bad sleep) Luckily we didn't have anywhere to be Saturday so we just hung out all day. 

This morning I took Him for a walk/run around the area. He loved every minute of it. Afterwards a friend and I got out work out in. 

Can you guess what we ate all weekend? 

I try not to go more than 48 hours without some sort of exercise. It wasn't a lob workout but it was enough to get a good sweat. 

Have a Merry Christmas! 

Marathon Thoughts and New Resolutions

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! I have not gotten any Christmas shopping done. Usually I'm done by now but I did buy myself some cyber Monday goodies. I bought two pairs of shoes from Macy's online buy 1 get 1 and I also bought a race application. The big NYRR New York marathon opened its application process on Monday. I sent my husband an email at work asking what he thought about me at least putting in an application for the lottery to see if I would get picked. As loving an supportive as he is, he told me to go for it. In my next sentence I told him that I had no clue how much it actually costs and what if it's too much to do. He told me that we'd figure it out when the time comes. So with that being said I put in my application.  I'll find out in march if I hit the lottery. 

Have you decided on your New Years resolution yet? I love making resolutions and the new year. I love the fresh start. After contemplating what mine were going to be, I've finally figured it out!

I'm sure everyone has seen on Pinterest that "gym savings bank" the pin that tells you to put a dollar in a jar every time you work out and than once you hit $100 you spend it. Well, I'm putting my own little twist on it. Different prices for different work outs. Here's how it's going to work. 

CrossFit: $2

Run: $1 

Home work out:$1

Races:

5k: $5

10: $10

Half: $13.10

Full: $26.20

I'll keep it until next year to see how much I've collected. 

My other resolution is to only eat out once a month or if we're celebrating something. I've noticed that we spend way too much money on going out on the weekends. I'd rather save it and spend it on things that we want to do. 

Those are my resolutions. I'll probably add more too it but those are to start. 

What are your resolutions? 

Marathon training starts now.

My mom has always drove me nuts about my heart and lunges while running. When I told her that I wanted to train for a whole marathon, she didn't like the idea. I promised if it made her happy I would go get a physical and some bloodwork done. My little sister works at a doctors office so I decided to go there. Since my husband hasn't had a physical and bloodwork done, I dragged him along. 

Every thing is normal! [I already knew that] I didn't get my results back from my bloodwork but I'm sure there isn't anything wrong. Everything sounds good, my height and weight are normal and healthy, and my blood pressure was a nice low 110/60. So, with that being said... Marathon training starts now. I've been reading up on training to help me get ready. 

Jeff Galloway knows what he's doing. I also go to CrossFit 3 times a week, lift and run. Here's how today's CrossFit workout went. 

I went last night too so moving my arms today isn't happening. I'm pretty excited to go out and start training, even in the cold. 

Here's an idea of how my training schedule will go:

CrossFit: 3 days

Lifting: 1-2 days 

Running: 2 short 1 long run

That's in a weeks time. Obviously there will be some over lapping in workouts. 

I'm going to start cutting back on the dairy and carbs that I usually eat as well and go back to my wholey clean diet. (A beer or 2 once in a while won't kill you.) 

What does your training and diet schedule usually look like?

Happy Turkey Day!

There's a lot to be thankful for this year. I'm thankful for my family, my handsome husband, my puppy, my kitty, and my overall health. Yesterday one of my longest friends and I started a new tradition, the turkey trot. I ran it alone last year, but it was fun to have a few friends to do it with this year. I even wore a tutu. 

We were almost late making it to the start line because we were barely there when they shot the gun to start. It was about 23 degrees but once we started, it didn't seem that cold. 

This ends race season for me. It has been an awesome, memorable year. I'm also thankful tha my husband goes to every race to cheer me on. I'm so lucky to have such a great support system. I can't wait to see what next year brings. 

I'm no longer MIA

Sorry! It's been over two months since I've done anything through my blog. After my last race in July I felt it was time to crack down on wedding festivities. I asked for 0 help from my bridesmaids and groomsmen so I had to take on everything by myself. I looked at it as, everyone has their own lives and I can't make anyone feel obligated to help me since this is my day. It helped me not get upset with anyone that couldn't make it. 

Well, the wedding is over and it was perfect. By far the best day of my life. I'm lucky to have married someone so wonderful and fun to be around. He tells me I'm beautiful everyday (more than once) and tries to make it to every race that he possibly can. I would say that I'm pretty lucky. 

Since we've lived together for quite a while before we go married Adam has always been bugging me for a puppy. I had legitamet plans on surprising him on his birthday but that didn't go as planned. One night we had all the guys over doing their football draft and Adam made it clear that he has been looking at puppies online for a while. In fear that he would bring home some mean mut, I have in. Literally a week and a day after our wedding we got a puppy! This is Hudson. 

And this is how much he has grown in the 4 weeks we've had him.  

So that's what I've been up too. Things are winding down again and I'm back at CrossFit 3 days a week and I'll be starting my lifting back up shortly. Sunday I have a 10k to put in the books and Tuesday is the Pittsburgh Marathon registration already!! My plans are to sign up for the half and train for the full that way I can switch later. 

I can't believe this summer came and left so quickly! This was by far the greatest summer I've ever had but I'm ready for fall. 

How was your summer?

Did you have any fun races or life changes? 

Last race before my wedding.

42 days until I'm hitched to the love of my life. Wow. We started dating when we were 13. He's by far, my best friend ever (other than my twin sister). In the past 10 years he's made it to almost every dance recital, completion, softball game, soccer game, football game when I was a majorette, and race. He's so supportive and loving. I honestly don't know how I got so lucky. It takes love to stand alone in the middle of 100,000 people to try to watch someone run 13.1 miles when it took me over 2 hours to do. True love. Enough of that. 

Wednesday I ran my last race before our wedding. I was supposed to run the Rock 'n' Roll half in Pittsburgh, but due to certain circumstances it was canceled and we got our money back. I decided I was going to run this race on the 4th of July. All of my CrossFit friends were doing it so I was peer pressured into it. Lots of hills and beer at the end. Totally worth $20 if you ask me. I went to packet pick up on Tuesday to register. Got my shirt, got my beer mug, ready to go. 

Since I've been so busy with CrossFit and work, I haven't been running like I should. Tuesday was a terrible day and night for my lungs. I woke up in the middle of the night having and asthma/eczema attack. It was so humid and hard to breathe.  I was totally scratching my skin like a crack head. It was terrible. Once I got back to sleep, there wasn't much time before I had to be up for work and then the race. 

After work I changed and tried to find my way. I was told that this race had a lot of hills so I was already nervous since I had to do breathing treatments all week. There was also a big storm warning before hand but they went along with the race anyways. Since the sky was already black when it started I didn't wear my Garmin or take my phone. I wanted to see how I did without everything since the last time I PRed I didn't have anything either. 

The race

They weren't joking when they said that the first mile and a half was a hill. 3 or 4 hills actually. Completely up hill. I'm not going to lie, I did have to walk a lot of it. You know what though? I'm okay with that. I learned from this race that not every race is going to be wonderful. I usually finish under 30 minutes and this race was over 34. I'll take it. It doesn't matter how fast you run, runners don't care how fast other runners run. Just as long as they run. At about two and half miles it started storming. Thunder, lightening, everything. Just so it's clear for future reference, one of my biggest fears are thunder storms. Another fear is getting stuck in thunder storms.  The spectators were awesome though. Everyone yelled and cheered us on from their porches. I love running because everyone is so supportive. 

Once the race was over I met my mom, (this was my first race that she ever made it too) and my fiancé at the local bar for my beer and wings. I changed out of my soaking wet clothes, of course.  The bar was packed with all the runners so we ate our food and headed home. 

Fitness tip of the day: Don't stress yourself over numbers or how you do. Work on having fun and feeling better about yourself. Honestly, no one cares how you do. If they care that much, then they are focusing on the wrong aspects. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Fourth of July festivities.

This past weekend was my first 4 day weekend ever! It was so nice. I made sure that I kept my weekend full and tried to eat as healthy as I could. I still ate a little more sweets than usual but it was a wonderful weekend. It was so nice to have a break and relax for once. Here was my weekend start:

Wednesday night

CrossFit class was brutal! I think any workout including bear crawls are my least favorite. 

Thursday

I ran 3 miles with one of my childhood friends on the bike trail. Afterwards I went to my family's house for a picnic to swim and relax. 

Friday

Adam and I went and walked around the local arts festival for about three hours. It's wrapped around two lakes so when we go we always make sure to walk around at least once. I've never timed it but I've been told if you go around it the "right" way, it's 3 miles. Later on in the evening we had friends over for a cookout. 

Saturday

Adam and I met some of our friends and went to my first farmer's market! It was great! I bought fresh green beans, 2 loaves of bread, almond butter, and Adam bought a cupcake for himself. Afterwards, we pick up our dryer (it was a gift from our wedding shower. We just never got around to getting it) Later, we went swimming at our family's house again. 

Sunday

Sunday wasn't a great day. My asthma was acting up and I needed to do two breathing treatments. (Not fun!) I met my sister for coffee and finished my thank you cards from my wedding shower. After spending close to 4 hours with my sister, I went home and Adam and I wrote out our wedding invitations. 

I had a wonderful weekend, minus the lung issues. I was defiantly ready to go back to work Monday morning though. I ate a little more than I probably should have and some extra sweets but guess what?! I didn't get fat or lose my muscle. It doesn't hurt to take a break and eat what you want. It was a nice break but I'm glad to be back into my normal swing of things and routine. 

Fun fact:

My favorite "festival food" are gyros. I could eat them every day and not get sick of them.

What's your favorite holiday or festival food?