A Numbers-Free Run

Half Marathon training did not go well while I was in Ohio for Christmas, but I did have the chance to run on an indoor track yesterday morning at my dad's gym.  The track was 12 laps for each mile, and I decided that it wasn't worth trying to count laps and instead I would just run for 35 minutes.

I am a numbers kind of girl, so it was strange for me to not have my Garmin watch or the treadmill to track my pace and distance while running.   This was a big step for me to put the numbers aside, but it turned into a very nice, low stress run!  

To get my training back on track, I plan to do my long run of 5 miles this weekend now that I am back in Florida and can run outside again! 

Happy New Year to All!

Winter Stew!

Here is the recipe Megan referred to in her "Perfect Day" post. It is super easy and a great low calorie meal that can last a few days. Most health food stores also sell the butternut squash already cut into small pieces. I got mine from Trader Joes. I am already excited for the left overs tonight for dinner.

Weight Watchers Moroccan Stew

The Perfect Day

Yesterday Holly and I spent the day together doing our favorite things: a workout at the gym, 3 meals together, and a full day of scrapbooking! 

Gym
We started the day with a workout at the gym.  It was a great full body workout - just what my body needed after many days of unhealthy eating and no workouts.   Our workout included a warm up on the treadmill, many trips up and down the stairs carrying two 25 pound weights, and a variety of push ups, situps, walking lunges, and some other things I don't remember...

Meals for the Day
I was fortunate that I was able to spend the whole day with Holly, and therefore eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at her house! 

Breakfast: Pumpkin granola and Greek yogurt

Lunch: Low Carb Tortillas with cheese and black beans, and a side of pita chips with hummus. 

Dinner: Holly made a really good veggie stew with butternut squash, carrots, and beans, served over couscous.

Snacks: Granola bar and a few cookies

Scrapbooking
The best part of the day was the scrapbooking.  We spent the morning at Archivers in their workroom, and it was so great to have all their supplies available for purchase while we were working.  Once we went home for lunch, we did more scrapbooking at Holly's house in the afternoon.

Here is Holly setting up the Cricut in the workroom.  Look at our big table we had to ourselves!

The first page we did, we both scraplifted from the same page.

Here is Holly's version...

And my version....

And here are the other pages that we did yesterday....I told you it was a productive day! 

At the end of our day, showing off our work...

Winter Motivation

Part 2:
...Just for the record, they didn't do a great job clearing our streets after the snow so I made a date with the treadmill instead. It was me, the treadmill, my new Nike workout shirt (the one that says "Believe in the Run", a little extra motivation), Poision playing in the background and the TLC show L.A. Ink for a hour. Not a bad afternoon :)

Part 1:
Well its well into my winter vacation and I already am looking for that extra motivation, especially with the winter snow storm we had last night. Its soooo hard to get out of the warm house when I don't really have any where to go! My first task this morning was to contact my gym buddies to see what their plans were so I at least had a mini-plan in my head of what I was going to do this week. Then I did a little research online...

Runner's World Tips to Get you Motivated

Step 1: Create a Blog, Looks like that one is checked off!

Step 2: New Shoes, Didn't quite get new shoes, but you might call me "gear girl" now given all the new running/workout gear I got for Christmas. I am a little excited to try it out!

Step 3:Running Commentary, I'll let you read the article for this one, but one of the recent Runner's World quotes fits right in here...

"Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running."

- Sara Condor, Runner's World Daily Quotes

The list goes on, but it is a great motivational list. I hope you enjoy the article. Its off to run a few errands and then hopefully this afternoon I will be ready to try out my new gear with a run through the freshly fallen snow!

Happy Monday!
Sarah Condor

Training Goals

I feel like I set New Year's Resolutions every week as I am a pretty goal oriented person. Most of them I keep, some of them usually related to food and weight only last a short time and are replaced by a new goal. (Gotta work on that!!) Overall though, once I commit to a physical training plan I am usually right on.

Last year I ran two 1/2 marathons. One for my 30th birthday as a way to celebrate and the other to specifically improve my time which I did and had my personal best.

Since 2010 is right around the corner I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish. This year I would like to run at least one 1/2 marathon with the goal to drop some pounds to improve my time (per Megan's research). I am also hoping to participate in Pelotonia, Columbus's newest grassroots fundraising effort that supports the James Cancer Hospital at OSU. I need to get a bike to get that goal going, but due to my increased love of spinning, I hope this is an obtainable goal :) Maybe Santa is listening.

I came across this article which helps classify what kind of training you respond to. Of course I was 50/50 so it didn't really give me an answer, but the different training plans were interesting to read. I have a lot of friends who recently signed up for 1/2 marathons around the country so hopefully you will find this helpful!

Runner's World 1/2 Marathon Training Article

I hope to do some more reading over Christmas break to get my training plan ready to go! My running/fitness magazines are waiting for me.

Changing it Up!

Yesterday I went to my favorite store, Trader Joes and was on the search for some new healthy options to try out over my Christmas Break (2 days and counting...) I wanted some new things to keep me on track and balanced with all the eating, drinking and traveling that will be taking place. Sometimes I eat the same things for weeks straight. It is time to change it up!

I ended up with pumpkin granola, whole flax seed, Lara bars, Trader Joes Brand Greek Honey Yogurt (super cheap), Yogi Immune Support Tea and Trader Joes Very Green Blend Juice. The two items I tried this morning after spinning were the Lara Bar and the Green Blend Juice. I am saving the tea for an afternoon treat.







The Lara Bar was suprisingly good, although didn't look so great. The amazing part is it has only 3 ingredients. I had the cherry pie version which contained dates, almonds and unsweetened cherries. It has no added sugar, is unprocessed, raw, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan and kosher. Who knew something store bought could be so healthy!!

The Green Blend Juice also does not look appetizing (I'll spare you the picture) but one serving has the following ingredients...


Spirulina 650mg
Chlorella 200mg
Broccoli 50mg
Ginger 25 mg
Spinach 50mg
Barley Grass 37mg
Wheat Grass 37mg
Blue Green Algae 25mg
Parsley 25mg
Garlic 25 mg

Pretty green. It actually tasted like apple juice somehow. I think I am going to work this into my daily routine. One serving is 130 calories, but I feel super healthy and not hungry at all. Hopefully it will fend off all those germs going around.

The Yogi Immune support tea has peppermint, echinancea root, lemongrass and a whole list of other organic ingredients. Hopefully my body will apprecite these new choices!!

Goodbye Florida, Hello Ohio

Today is my last day of work until January - Yippee!!

It's been cold in Florida the past few days, but I keep reminding myself that it's going to be much, much colder in Ohio. I took a few pictures on the way to work this morning to keep me thinking about palm trees and warm weather...

I am so lucky to have this view as my morning commute! Occasionally I even see dolphins :)


This is week 3 of half marathon training, and I did 3.5 miles yesterday on the treadmill, because it was 40 degrees outside yesterday morning. That's way too cold for me to run outside.

Tonight I will do 2 miles, and then I have to figure out how to run while in Cleveland. I need to look today and see if I can find a gym near the in-laws so I can do another 3.5 miles on Thursday, and then I can do my 5 miler this weekend on my dad's treadmill. At least that's the plan right now, I know I just have to be flexible and if I don't get all my runs completed while in Ohio, know that it's ok.

Hectic Holiday Schedule Adjustments

Hectic holiday schedules come once a year, and this week for me is the most busy! Usually I feel pretty guilty if I skip a planned workout but today I was so tired, that I was pretty happy to get that extra hour and a half of sleep. My goal for this week is to fit in workouts where I can, but to really watch calories the next few days if I don't make it to the gym. With work, traveling and the holiday, I need to keep things in balance.

During crazy weeks, I try to fit in my power yoga dvd. Its only 45 minutes and a good stress relief. Its also super cheap for those of you that are looking for a new workout. It can travel with me wherevever I go!

Brian Kest's Power Yoga

My tentative workout schedule for the week is as follows. A little lighter than usual, but next week Megan will be in Ohio to motivate me!! :)

Monday: Power Yoga DVD (Running got cut after the sleep in!)
Tuesday: Spinning (My new favorite class.)
Wednesday: Body Pump (Meeting Katie, so no sleep in day here!)
Thursday: TBD
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Run (I always try to run when we are out of town, it helps me feel energized and this week will make up for that Christmas dinner!)
Sunday: Rest

Enjoy this holiday week!

Need Motivation to Stay Healthy During the Holidays? Read This!

I came across this article online and I think it's great motivation to eat well and commit to exercising during the busy holidays....

Asking the Right Questions

The "Clean out the Pantry/Fridge" Challenge

Today was a lazy day at home since all of the Christmas shopping is done..

Wait, what's missing from that picture...ME! Don't worry, I also got my nap today :)



Everyone few months, I skip my weekend trip to the grocery and attempt to eat what's left in the pantry and fridge. Tonight's dinner was going to be a challenge. Here were my options:

• High Fiber Tortillas
• Cream Cheese
• Whole Wheat Couscous
• A can of Refried Beans
• A can of Peas
• A can of Garbanzo Beans
• A can of Black Beans
• Plain Fat Free Yogurt
• Carrots that are past their prime
  

I debated having Mexican food, or some kind of bean salad, but ended up with a pseudo-Greek dinner:

• A high fiber tortilla with
• Hummus made with chickpeas, lemon juice, evoo, garlic from the jar, ground cumin, salt, and pepper
• whole wheat couscous made with chicken bouillon and water
• shredded carrots
• and a side of peas
  

I wanted to make a tatziki sauce for my wrap, but quickly learned it is made with cucumbers, which I don't have, and the yogurt is best when strained for a few hours. At least I know for next time.

Dinner was actually really good. I love hummus so I am pretty sure that anything with hummus tastes good to me! There is even enough left that I can have it for lunch tomorrow.

Four Miles to Start the Day

I slept until 9am this morning and it felt great. I had a smoothie before my run made of pineapple, plain fat free yogurt, ice, and a few pieces of frozen fruit from a bag of assorted fruit. About 30 minutes later, I went out for my 4 mile run. The weather was perfect - mid 60's and sunny. Although snow is nice around Christmas, I would much rather be in the warmer weather! The windows are open in the house and it will be a perfect day to go out and do some last minute Christmas shopping.

Today's run:

4 miles, 45:38 minutes, for an average pace of 11:23 per mile

I need some extra motivation to stay away from the cookies and candy in the house, so I did some research online about how weight loss effects running pace. According to an article on RunnersWorld.com, for each pound lost, you will run 2 seconds faster each mile.

That may not sound like a lot, but for a 5 pound weight loss, that's 31 seconds off a 5K time. So it's no cookies for me today!

Winter Wonderland

Its a gorgeous winter day here in Ohio, the kind you love to wake up to and enjoy with all the holiday decorations. I went to bed last night looking at a few snow flurries and woke up this morning with almost an inch on the ground! I have worked out the past 5 days in a row and the snow reminded me that first, I didn't want to drive in it and second, it would be a great day to rest. My body needs it. So today is a rest day, hopefully with some time to scrapbook this afternoon! Happy Saturday!

Songs for Running

Currently I have the following playlist on my iPod, and I listen to it every time I run, always starting with the first song.

• Lose Yourself (Eminem)
• 7 (Prince)
• Before He Cheats (Carrie Underwood)
• Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks)
• Sweet Child O'Mine (Guns N Roses)
• The Climb (Miley Cyrus)
• Autobiography (Ashlee Simpson)
• Standing Outside the Fire (Garth Brooks)
• Crazy Bitch (Buckcherry)
• Control (Puddle of Mudd)
• Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N Roses)
• The Pusher (Blind Melon)
  

The list goes on, but I don't get to the later songs as often. It's quite the strange mix, I know. That's pretty reflective of my music tastes....which can be described as outdated and widely varied.

I missed one of my training runs this week, but it's still early enough in the schedule that I am not worried. Tomorrow I will do my "long" run as originally planned, which is 4 miles. It's going to be in the mid-50's and windy tomorrow morning, which is cold for us Floridians.

Scrapbooking Ideas

I am still planning layouts for when Holly and I scrap together after Christmas. I have a few places I always go to for ideas for scrapbook layouts:

• Scrapbooking magazines
• Scrapjazz Website
• Cricut website message boards
• Magazine ads that catch my eye

Do you have any other ideas? Where do you get inspiration from?

Let It Snow!

In preperation for our first "forecasted" snowfall this weekend, I made some gingerbread snowflakes last night. I had no idea how many spices went into gingerbread, but they turned out pretty good!

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

I was so sore from my stair workout yesterday that I just walked this morning and then took an arbs, ams and glutes class at the gym. The instructor who teaches it is 65 and continues to amaze me. I can barely do a leg lift and she is just chatting away the days activites. She is in awesome shape. While not a huge calorie burner, the extra stretching and lifting was a good way to get the weekend started. I just need to watch my cookie intake today! Gingerbread for breakfast is pretty good :) I plan to do yoga tomorrow and a rest day on Sunday. I am really looking forward to sleeping in!

TFIF!

Yum!

I wanted to share with you my first batch of the Brown Sugar Goodness. Holly was right, it's good and easy! I added coconut to the top along with a few holiday sprinkles. I went to the grocery at lunch to stock up on supplies so I can make more.

Circuit Training Stair Challenge

This morning I had circuit training on the schedule. I did an old favorite, the stairs! I have done this workout on vacation, at the beach etc. You can really do it anywhere. This morning it was at the gym. Its amazing how many things you can do off of the stairs and how much running up and down stairs increases your heart rate. The key to the workout is working in different excercises between the stairs to make your heart rate slow down and speed up. Here is what I did...

- Run 1 mile (warm-up)
- 3 trips up and down the stairs alternating running and a two foot hop (literally hop onto each stair with both feet.)
- Ab work (side bends w/ 25lb weight)
- Push ups with a side plank twist
- Squats (w/ 25 lb weight)
- Repeat 3 trips up and down the stairts
- Ab work (standing crunches and side twists w/ 25lb weight)
- Walk out pushups (move your hands from push up position 2-3 inches forward, back and then side and back, repeat 8 times)
- Curtsy squats
- Bicep curls
- Calf raises (off the stairs)
- Repeat 3 trips up and down the stairs
- Moutain Climbers (1 minute)
- Leg raise, squat combo (for hip stretching)
- Dead lifts (w/25lb weight)
- Cool down/stretch

My legs are feeling it this morning, but due to my cookie consumption yesterday I feel much more balanced. I am off to enjoy my granola and greek yogurt!

On a side note I am feeling extra cozy this morning because I wore my Uggs to work. These boots back me love winter a little more. They are so warm!! 4 more working days until Christmas break!! :)

"Working" from home

Good morning! Today I had to start work at 6am, so I am working from home. So far I have created my first batch of Holly's Brown Sugar Goodness, and I am planning pages for my upcoming scrapbooking date with Holly over Christmas.

In case you missed Holly's earlier post for Brown Sugar Goodness: click here to read it

I have lots of reading and planning to get done today:

Next up: laundry, and then I will actually do some work. My leg is feeling better today, but still not great. I am either going to do a slow 3 miles, or take a rest day and do my run tomorrow. Depends on how I feel as the day goes on.

Stupid Injuries

I have really bad luck when it comes to getting sick and getting hurt. Tonight at volleyball I managed to pull my left quad muscle. I still don't know how I did it, but I am pretty sure I am not going to be running 3 miles tomorrow. I am icing it right now, and will have to wait and see how it feels in the morning. Bummer!

The good news of the day is that I completed everything on my to-do list, with the exception of baking, but there is a good chance I can get that done while working from home tomorrow :)

Recipe for Gift Giving

A few weeks ago I took my first scrapbooking class at Archivers and ended up making two of these projects for Christmas presents. Both projects ended up looking nothing like the example and took WAY more time than I anticipated, but I am hoping my family members will enjoy making some of our favorite recipes from this custom recipe book/holder. The best part of the class was I was able to get a stamp set to make my own recipe cards. Each recipe is follwed by a cute inspirational quote with a cooking theme/picture. Stamping is definitely something that I need to work on, but it was fun to expand my scrapbooking skills and use some ink! Archivers is still offering the class and the supplies you get for $24 is well worth it!

Archivers Website

Gotta Love a To-Do List

Today's to-do list includes:

• 2 mile run
• work
• finishing wrapping Christmas presents
• mail Christmas presents
• baking for the neighbors (if I have time)
• 9:30pm volleyball game (if Christian feels up to it, he is sick right now)

So far I can mark running of the list, and a half day of work. It was an easy two mile run today. I love the Garmin because I didn't follow my normal route, and was still able to track my distance as I ran around downtown Dunedin to check out all the Christmas decorations. I wish I was running a little faster, but I keep reminding myself that it's not as fun to train if I stress about my pace the whole time.

Balance

I woke up at 4:15 this morning counting down until my alarm was to go off at 5 and made my way to the gym. I worked thru the elliptical and then Body Pump(weight lifting class) with my friend Katie. Thankfully she was there otherwise I am pretty sure I would have slept in!

Katie made these awesome cookies which were left on my car when I left the gym. I found myself eating them on the way to work while listening to the XM station "Holly", the renamed pop Christmas station. So as I am consuming about 500 calories of sugar for breakfast and singing Jingle Bell Rock, I reminded myself that its all about balance and it was worth the workout!



This time of year, its OK to have a few cookies. I'll just have to run a little extra.

I also made a trip to Starbucks given my 4:15 wake-up call. They have the best mix of green and black tea this time of year called "Joy." Another great balance of very different tastes. Just what I needed this morning! Time to get to work!!

You Win Some, You Loose Some

It was a long day at work, and I indulged in way too many of the Christmas cookies today! I am pretty sure that's what happens when I let myself get too hungry, and then add in some stress. After work I had dinner with two Ohio University grads who live in Tampa, and it was a lot of fun to reminisce about OU and Ohio in general. I did pretty good at dinner: A taco salad with chicken and a few diet cokes. I did manage to avoid the chicken nachos which are my favorite.

I had to do a little work when I got home from dinner, and I will leave you with a picture of Timmy cuddling with my work laptop because he likes the warmth. So cute.

Half Marathon Training: Week 2

Good morning! I woke up at 6:30 today for my morning run. I wish I could do it earlier, but I don't like running in the dark. Today's run was 3 miles. I am following Hal Higdon's novice plan for my half marathon training.

Hal Hidgon's Half Marathon Novice Training Plan

I was still sore from kickball on Saturday (who would have thought it was such a good workout!!) so it was a little slower than I wanted, but I am trying to just enjoy my runs during training and not worry too much about pace and time. I have been running 4 minutes, then walking 1 minute, and it makes me so much less stressed while running because I am not worrying about my endurance, and whether I can do the full run without stopping. It was another warm morning in Florida, and the perfect 70 degrees as the sun was rising.

Granola Motivation

I decided this year for Christmas to make some of my friends a healthy alternative to cookies (even though I did include some Brown Sugar Goodness in the package). I found this recipe by Alton Brown for a semi-healthy granola mix. Its pretty high in calories, but for the past 3 days I have eaten it for breakfast mixed with Greek yogurt and it has been fabulous. The last batch I made I included toasted coconut on top with a handful of chocolate chips.

Granola Recipe

This morning as my alarm went off at 5:15am I was dreading going to spinning until I realized I had some granola waiting for me afterwards. I got right up! :) Pre-spinning I had 4oz of low fat chocolate milk, followed by the second 4oz, granola and greek yogurt afterwards. That is a LOT of protein in a short amount of time, but it kept me motivated through the class and will keep me full until lunch.

Food is my best motivator, so I try to keep it healthy. I am going to go home tonight and make another batch. I guess after the holidays I may have to eliminate the chocolate chips!

Leftover Night

Dinner was nothing exciting tonight as I am trying to eat the leftovers in the fridge. I had meatloaf, red potatoes, and asparagus soup. I know the soup looks gross, but it's really good. It's canned asparagus mixed in the food processor with a little onion, water, beef bouillon, salt, pepper, and a few slices of the red potatoes. Yum!

Brown Sugar Goodness

This is not healthy, it doesn't make you run faster and does not apply to any scrapbook layout. It is however the best holiday recipe I have come across in a long time! I guess if you eat this, you may want to motivate yourself to run a few miles to burn it off!

Brown Sugar Goodness

I skipped the nuts and just used holiday sprinkles. I have used both dark and milk chocolate, but the dark chocolate seems to taste the best!

Holly

Day of Recovery

Good morning! Today I am still sore from Saturday's kickball tournament, so I am going to rest and do some extra stretching today. And then tomorrow it's back to running to start week 2 of my half marathon training!

Today I have moved to a new desk at work, and it's a horrible spot, but the two good things are:
1. I have a job.
2. I am far away from the "food area" that has been created for our team! There are so many cookies piled up there today and I already know that I am going to eat none of them!!

Yesterday I spent the day wrapping Christmas gifts. Here are the tags I made with my Cricut and the Joys of the Season cartridge. The letters are the Disney Mickey font. They are simple, but I still like them. I haven't done much scrapbooking lately, so it was fun to spend time in my craft room again.

Happy Monday!

Yoga for Runners

Saturday I went to V Power Yoga (www.vpoweryoga.com) a nice mix of power yoga and 90 degree heat in downtown Columbus. I haven't been in about a month and now I am paying for it. My date with the treadmill this morning was painful but I knew my body need to work some of the lactic acid out of my mucsles. The workout was a nice reminder that it isn't about cardio all the time and sometimes that extra stretch is just what you need. When I was training for my last 1/2 marathon I was a dedicated yogi. As a sufferer of plantars faciatis from running, yoga saved my soles and made me a much more aware of the benefits of a total body workout. I start this Monday off with a goal to get to yoga class more often and treat my body to its benefits. Hopefully this will inspire you as well!

- Holly