Winding Down the Year

I love this time of year. Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year, and I obviously embrace it with open arms. Not only do I wear the goofiest smile on my face weeks before Christmas, but I play dress up and wear red and green the week before. Although I love pretty much everything about Christmas, I definitely don't love the amount of sweets that I'm exposed to - and this is the reason why I pretty much signed up for the half marathon on January 17 (besides the fact that it was $30 bucks on Groupon). I figured a race early on in the new year would make me accountable to myself and prevent me from gaining major weight lol. So the last couple of weeks I've been training hard....

I can't remember everything I've done the last couple of weeks, but I can tell you that I was on hiatus from Orange Theory for a bit. I finally went back to class last week after being MIA for the last two weeks. I have been trying to run more often and at a faster pace.

On Christmas Day I woke up and ran 10 miles. I figured since I had the day off and my husband would sleep in, it would be a perfect time for me to log in some miles. Running on Christmas Day is actually my favorite. Sometimes you can catch some of the younger kids outside with their new presents from Santa having a total blast. It's pretty incredible to watch :) Before I set out to run, I tried turning on my Garmin on and it was completely dead. After trying to hook it up to another computer (it had been charging on one of my laptops), the screen stayed blank and I silently cursed it and figured I would have to buy a new one. Since I had no idea what route I wanted to run, I downloaded the Nike app on my phone to take along with me so I can accurately log 10 miles. How people lived before apps is beyond me lol.

So off I went. I felt great during the entire run; life was perfect at that moment. When I finished the 10 miles I felt great. I managed to keep under an 8:30 min/mile pace. Afterwards I showered and made myself a mushroom omelet with an excessive amount of Haverti cheese lol.

Today I had to drop off my car at the dealership. I typically wait until it's done, but since it was considered a milestone check-up, I figured I would get a run in instead. I had only planned for 6, but opted for 7 instead. It was absolutely humid and hot out, but I still managed to finish my run in under 57 minutes. As long as I got under an hour I was happy. It's definitely hard to keep that type of pace, but between my Ipod and the mantras I silently repeat to myself, I push through it. I also stopped to take some dumb pictures along the way :)



I thought this was awesome. There were so many intact spider webs along the route.

There were so many cyclists out. I guess someone keeps them hydrated! I didn't hit this up but thought it was cool!

When I got back to the dealership my car was ready. I think they thought I was nuts, but what runner isn't? I felt pretty awesome for multi-tasking if I do say so myself. Finally, I had to post one of my newly acquired workout Christmas gifts:

Isn't this shirt awesome???

I should make a brief mention of the workout stuff I got for Christmas: this amazing shirt, Nike sunglasses for running (you can interchange the lenses), running hair ties (which I wore today), a Bosu ball, a dolley (for ab rollouts), a stability ball AND a Runner's Box!!! Overall, it was a win for running stuff. I got a bunch of other gifts that I don't really want to talk about, but just know there are some major perks for being an only child.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the 1.5 hour Orange Theory class with one of my favorite trainers. Wish me luck :) Until then happy trails...