Ryders Eyewear Giveaway!!

Outside PR has been kind enough to let me review a pair of stylish, light as feather, shades and is now giving one of my lucky readers a chance to win a pair!

I sported mine in Tuscon...

And of course in Phoenix...and this is a different shot than the one I posted before, but does homeboy look like he's giving me a dirty look for chicking him or is he just checking out my junk in the trunk?  Idk...

Seriously though, I love these shades.  I can't even feel them on my face, they work brilliantly.  I've gone through my fair share of crappy sunglasses and to have these is heaven.  No headaches from beeing too tight behind my ears, no pinching or extra sweating over the bridge of my nose and of course they look super cool.  They know what they're doing over there at Ryders - they are celebrating their 25th birthday this year too...oh to be 25 again...

Rules of the game:

1. Be a follower of moi...

2. Visit Ryders Eyewear and tell me what model and color you'd choose.

3.Share a memory from your favorite birthday!

4.  (3 bonus entries!)  Email me a picture of you in your ugliest pair of shades... : )

I'll take entries for the next week and pick a winner Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 11:59 pm.  How bout that?  Good luck!

Aren't These So Cute?

These are little Forelle baby pears.  They are like eating candy.  I've been scouring the produce section for new items that are on my 'yes' list for eating.  D'Anjou pears are my go to afternoon snack with some almonds but I thought I'd try these little babies.  They are delish...and only 50 cents a piece, not too bad.  I looked up some recipes for them and stopped at this recipe title...

Donna Hay's Maple Crème Brûlée Recipe w' Poached Forelle Pears

Now I've never poaced anything or brulee'ed anything for that matter but, man, that looks good. 

So, yes I've been sticking to my Paleo eating way of life.  I feel good.  I'm not hungry.  Not really lighter yet and I don't have caveman strength yet either.  It's only been a week sooooo, I'm trying to be patient... : )

I will say I would love a bag of chips right now, or some Dr. Pepper, or a loaf of bread, or a roll of ritz crackers, or some candy hearts, or chocolate covered cinnamon bears, or some Dr. Pepper but I already mentioned that didn't I.  It's all mental...as usual...

That's what's on my mind today, food....what's on your mind today?



Tunesday - Put this one on repeat mode...

I'm sure you're curious to know which song Mary actually sang to me....




I know, could she be any more awesome?  When this song comes on I literally sing out loud as I'm running.
 
Do you have a song that pulls you out of that 18 mile funk? 

Do you love Mary as much as me?

Any other tips for getting through a 'down' moment in a race?  
(I don't like calling it a wall)

Robert Redford Just Called...

As I'm sure you're all aware, the Sundance Film Festival began this past weekend here in Park City.  I just received word that my entry is up for Viewer's Choice!!!  I was allowed access to give you all a sneak peak...



And to say you knew us way back when...

Just in case you are unsure about what the heck we are talking about check EMZ and my last month or so of posts to see all the fun we've had... : )

Marathon #8 - Check

ROCK N ROLL PHOENIX

Well my friends we've got quite the mixed bag here...  With a marathon start like that who can complain, right?  Phoenix was beautiful.  Perfect weather.  Even had a cloud cover most the morning to keep the heat away...

But first things first.  I flew into Phoenix Friday night and my friend Emz picked me up.  Being her amazing and gracious self, she invited me to stay with her for the weekend.  First up that night was a blog dinner.

Next to me is Lauren, who is super funny and would rock at Race Trivia on Jeopardy.  Seriously, this girl knows things about every race course in the US!  Memory of steel...  Then of course is Emz.  Hilarious from beginning to end.  Love that girl.  And then DRog.  He is amazing.  Has completed a handful of marathons in the past few years and has his first Ironman coming up in the summer!  And on top of that he is dairy free and gluten free.  I am in awe of his willpower.  If you haven't already, be sure to keep up with them on their blogs - they're all amazing!

The next morning Emz and I headed to Costco...I mean the Expo...to try about 20 different samples of new endurance goodies.  We arrived early enough to miss the huge crowd, thank goodness.  We found Lauren at her booth...

And then on the way out from the Expo we ran into...

Allie from the Biggest Loser!  I totally spotted her, but I give all credit to Emz for tracking her down and asking for a pic.  Allie was beyond nice and super friendly.

That afternoon we relaxed and went out for a nice pasta and pizza pre-race carb meal.  We planned to go to sleep early but just couldn't resist watching the Miss USA pageant... : )

Race morning was simply beautiful.  A little chilly, but I started with no jacket and was just fine.  I had my game plan.  This was a TRAINING RUN.  I was going to hold back at least til 15 and then if I felt strong I'd pick it up.  That was Plan A.

This race was similar to RNR San Antonio in that  it was all city street running.  Phoenix city streets far out win San Antonio in beauty, but they're still just city streets.  I caught myself several times just staring at the pavement, tuned out to where I was at.  I just don't love city running.  Sidenote:  when I come back to race in Arizona in the future, I would go back to Tucson before Phoenix.  I now will probably never do a Rock n Roll marathon again.  Just not a fan. 

I checked my Garmin often and kept myself between 10:00 and 10:20 miles in the first half - a lot of the moments that I checked I would be around 9:30 and 9:40, so I'd slow down a bit.

When I got to mile 15 I felt good, but not overwelmingly good enough to speed up.  So I thought I'd wait til mile 18 or 19 and if still feeling good then speed up for the last 6 or 7.

I don't know what happened in those late teen miles.  Some kind of brain freeze I suppose.  I really slowed down and could not physically push myself to get back in my groove.  I wrote the worst blog post in my head.  Do you ever do that?  So weird.  I found myself writing in my head what I would say about this race, myself, running, life and it was the most depressing thing ever.  Maybe sometime soon I'll write the 'Mile 18 Post'.  I'd have to make sure you had the world's smallest violin ready to play in the background for that one.  For now it's just too sad.  Even included tears.  Reminder to all:  miles 18 through 21 is no time to make big life decisions.  Should I quit my job?  Should we move our family across the country?  What am I doing with my life?  Should I quit running?  Should I switch phone companies?  You're just not in the right frame of mind to make these kinds of choices...

So, obviously, I didn't speed up.  I found it impossible to keep pace and fell back to 12:00 miles while holding back tears.  I know, so sad.

Around 20 miles I forced down a 2x caffeine GU and pulled out of my funk.  I managed to finish the last 4 miles with a pace of 11:00's.  And somehow when I crossed the finish line I managed this...

I totally chicked that dude behind me.  Check here if you are unsure whether or not you've been chicked.  Homeboy doesn't look too happy bout it...  Sorry dude.

Emz and her cute fam waited over an hour for me to come across the finish line.  It was nice to be able to compare stories the rest of the afternoon and commiserate a bit from the day's race.  Even though she didn't quite hit the mark she was hoping for, she's still smokin' fast!

I was happy to finish...not so happy with the 4:43 finish time though.  But I succeeded in this being a training run.  I held back, ran it at a pretty steady pace from beginning to end.  Even though I was hoping for a negative split, the main goal was to finish feeling strong and ready for more.  Mission accomplished, even though I was 10 minutes off from what I was predicting.

In hindsight, I should be satisfied with my finish time.  For only running one day a week for the last 4 weeks I feel like I did ok.  However, with a training run, you don't get a recovery week.  So I'm going to keep pushing hard, no days off.  I've been such a slacker for the last few weeks that I definitely need to kick it into high gear to be ready in 3 weeks.  I want Surf City to be a great 'RACE'.  I already hit the gym yesterday and ran 5 miles.  I wanted more but that's about all I could muster.  I will cross train today, easy run Wednesday and some speed work on Thursday.  We'll see how my week goes.  I will taper though. 

I'm also changing my eating up.  I'm going as Paleo as I can stand.  No dairy and as little grain as I can will myself to live with.  No soda.  No refined sugar.  Nothing in a plastic bag.  I'm going hard for 3 weeks.  I'm hoping to gain some speed, I've got the endurance covered.  Hoping to drop at least 10 lbs before race day.  Not messin' around.  Holidays are over, no excuses. 

Mantra from here on out...

Don't Talk About It, Be About It.  Game On.

Farewell Arizona...  Until next time... : )

I'm Off...

Last minute things all in order...  Heading out to the airport soon...  I've got a good read for the plane ride...

I'll be looking for last minute inspirations and tips... feel free to add yours in too! : )

RNR AZ here I come...

Three Things Thursday

1.  I think one of the bigger things I'm supposed to be learning is how NOT to be a procrastinator...  Every time I go out of town I leave everything to the day before.  Seriously, why?  I'm thinking about everything all week but wait til 24 hours before I'm heading out...  Lists, lists, lists...

2.  This new [plan] I have is messin with me... BIG time.  Since when do I travel via airplane to go do a 'training run'.  Yeah, I'm just going to Pheonix to run 26.2 miles, easy pace, no worries.  Oh and that's nice that 20,000 other people showed up too.  Super fun.

3.  That's it.  That's all I got.  Gotta get back to #1's list of things to do... : )

Plans

I've got a [semi] new game plan for the next few months.  In the back of my head I've had a general plan of how the 12 were gonna go down.  I knew some races would be harder than others and therefore wouldn't expect fast times or PRs.  But for some reason every time I toe up the start line, in that moment, the gun goes off, my brain switches to 'I'm going to run this as fast as can no matter what' (all except for Napa Valley - that course was killer). 

So cut to the month of December - I was tired.  I mean 'sink into the sofa' tired.  Every.  Day.  A lot of things could have contributed to the fatigue last month...


Christmas....

my ornaments were already falling off after the first day of being up...

December marathon...

pretty sure I was saying, 'whatcha know bout dat...'



Kids home for Christmas break...

More kids out of school...

notice me sinking into said couch... : )

Busier at work...

doing celebrity eyelash extensions... ; )

Beating the kids at MJ...

notice the name at the bottom with high score...

And - just trying to keep up with this guy 24/7...

yes, he may only be 3 and finally passed out from running non-stop but you don't wanna mess with him...



That's just a few reasons why I only ran one day a week for the past few weeks.

So I consulted with a coach, a well respected coach in search for some wisdom.  I'm sure many of you are familiar with Miss Zippy...  I asked for her take on my fatigue.  I think she nailed my problem without even batting an eye.  She said I had been racing every race - in my 8:30 - 10:30 minute racing pace zone.  I needed to evaluate the remainder of my races, decide which ones had the POTENTIAL for PRs and treat the others as training runs.  Sounds so basic, so simple. 


So I've done just that.  I've re-evaluated my upcoming five races. 

So, the race coming up this weekend is a 'training run'. 

Surf City in February I'll race. 

March which is undecided will be thought of as a training run, as will be April marathon. 

Ogden Marathon in May will be raced.  My big FINALE - a sub-4, hopefully a BQ.  That's the plan.  We'll see how I'm feeling when that gun goes off come race morning.

BTW - I hope you're all planning, scheduling your airline tickets, getting excited for the big party in May...  You're all invited! : )  Party of the year...

So, what do you think?  Am I on the right track?  Think I'll be able to hold back this weekend?  I'm gonna start with a 10 minute/mi - hopefully finish between 4:20 and 4:30.  That's the [PLAN]...

I just noticed...

It's 1/1/11!  I better go run 1.111 miles or 11.11 miles or run for 1 hour 11 minutes 1 sec or 11 hours 11 minutes...

Decisions, decisions...

Did you celebrate today? : )

Forks

I had to do my long run today.  It's freezing here.  It's actually below freezing here.  I did NOT want to run in 15 degree temps nor breath the inversion soup that is our air right now.  So I thought I'd head to Forks, Washington to run my 18 miles today...

It was quite the run.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into today.  There was a really pretty field that I came across but accidentally interupted a moment...ooops...  I  ran by real quick as to not disturb them.  I'm pretty sure they didn't notice me though.  Phew.

It was funny though cause as I got back to town I ran into the same two kids and another guy and I literally had to jump in and break up the fight.  That silly girl just stood there making goofy faces and sighing a lot.  Somebody had to do something.  That pale guy was about to get his butt kicked.

The trail brought me back through the forest for a bit and I got some speedwork in while being chased by a pack of wolves!  You'd think they'd be faster but I got a way.

It did rain for a minute and I ran into this kid one more time.  He was so sad.  I had to stop and ask what was wrong.  He said that he had run out of beef patties and that he could already tell that his abs were fading away from not having his protein for the day.  I reassured him that all was well.  No need to fret.

All in all it was a great morning.  18 miles in the books.

P.S.  Thank you Gold's Gym for playing Eclipse two times in a row in the cardio cinema room...so that I could run 18 miles on the treadmill today...almost painlessly.   : )



I'm About To Eat Friday...

No not really...  But since I began my confessional yesterday with sharing that my running #s might as well be negative - I should also share with you that my eating has tanked as well.  I'm really quite disappointed in my lack of willpower over the holidays.  I gained 4 elle bees in a short 2 weeks but am happy to share that even with my minimalist running this week I've already dropped 3.  It's a fact that we all know and I think often forget as runners - diet/food intake really is everything...

So this week I've been toying with changing up my eating plan.  I have the taste buds of a four year old and feel like I need to branch out a bit.  So of course I began my search in the quintessential source of all things good and true and right...

I mean really...  if I could look like J-Lo...  nuff said.  Problem with all their suggestions in US is that all off them basically required me to have meal deliveries that would equal what I make in a month to pay for food per week...  Darn those celebs with endless bank accounts.

So, I've also been looking at other places of interest, with close to the same standards as US - first on list is always runnersworld.com, I read the Runner's Diet, I've checked out EAP, I've printed off an extensive list of things Kovas has said are keepers and good...  and actually one of those options caught my eye - the Paleo Diet.  Still doing some more investigation but it's looking good. 

Anyone trying something completely new in the eating department this year?

Any celeb inspire you to throw out everything you know to be true and try what works for them...eating/exercise mode - no need for personal moral confessions... ;)

Three Things Thursday

1.  What?!?!?!  It's Thursday?  Seriously.  I get the kids back into school and the days just magically fly by.  It sure takes a lot to get a house back in some kind of order post-holiday.  I have all these things I want to write about but to sit down and do it has not been easy this week!  Maybe once I get the last of my Christmas stuff put away today the normalcy will return.  Fingers crossed.

2.  Just over a week out before race day.  Craziness I tell ya.  You're going to fall over once I tell you this, so prepare yourself... but since my last race mid-December, I've only ran ONE day each week.  Longest run has been 10 miles this last Monday, one week it was 4, one week it was 6.  I know.  I'm going minimalist this cycle.  It wasn't planned that way, but here I am one week out.  Just for fun I might try to kick out 18 miles on Saturday.  It's all good, right?  Riiiigggghhhht?  (I need a little reassurance...)  

3.  It's cold here.  Like mostly teen degrees, afternoon high of 22.  I can't handle cold running.  I'm feeling a little wimpish.  And there's no sign of it getting any better.   So that 18 miles I was just talking about will be on the treadmill.  Hopefully there will be a good movie on at the gym...  maybe I'll slip the girl a little somethin to put in one of my top picks... :)

Do you run in the cold, no matter what? 

Longest treadmill escapade?

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Well I just wouldn't be a good fellow blogger if I didn't take a little time to put my 2011 goals out there.  And I'm not sure I really like the word goals.  For me, I don't always hit a lot of my 'goals'.  It's all mental, all wordplay.  So I'm just going to going to tell you what I'm going to do this year...

1.  I will finish out my 12 in 12.  You might have heard me talk about it once or twice in the last few months.  I only have 5 races left and they're going to fly by, I guarantee it.  Don't tell my husband, but I'm not stopping after May.  I have a race still planned for every month for the rest of the year... :)  You didn't think I could stop did you?  However, I am giving myself permission to take a break during the summer..if I feel like it.

2.  I will complete an ultra event this year, maybe even 2 or 3.  I'm looking at turning my March race into a 50K event.  Does that count as one of my marathons?  I'm pretty sure it does.  Also looking at an ultra event in October and then the NorthFace Challenge in December.

3.  Qualify for the Boston Marathon.  I'm giving myself two races to do this.  Either the Ogden Marathon, which is my #12 in May or the Top of Utah Marathon in September.

So there you have it.  Only three things.  No big whoop.  Those are the major running 'goals' for the next twelve months.  Obviously I'll be dissecting them more.  I've got to tweak my training if I'm going to stay healthy, injury-free and happy through all this running.  And I'll be going over some personal 'goals' as well - still haven't mastered the art of laundry.  : )

What will you do this year?