Gracias! Danke!

Blogging on a Holiday? Yup. Don't be surprised. I got a new baby laptop and I just had to give it a test drive. I'll be blogging about it sometime soon but thus far it's amazing and I'm in love with it! Some ladies have given me some awards and I wanted to give them a shout out for their kind words. I truly appreciate and enjoy reading every one's comments and encouragement, especially about the upcoming marathon.

Shopaholic Confessions
Julie

and


Brandi




gave me the Queen award!


Toronto Girl out West




gave me the Renee Award


A Glimpse of the Girl Next Door gave me the One Lovely Blog Award (send me the link to your blog and I'll link you! Sorry I couldn't find it on my new computer :( )






and Mrs.GI Joe
Gave me the Charming award








Thanks ladies. I don't think you all realize how wonderful it is that people find me to be an running inspiration or funny, or whatever you think. I'm glad that I have all you "in" my life, and just as much as you like reading about my failed runs, my home, my life and my exercising, I like to read about yours!

This weekend I did an eight miler and it was poopy. Not figuratively but literally. I seriously think that Gus make me poop. Too late to really work with figuring out what works the best for the marathon but there are porta potties along the route! Other than the bathroom break the run was great, I felt really fast and just cruised along. I am getting excited for this weekend! I can't believe it's approaching so quickly.

Other exciting things that happened this weekend was my roommate graduated! I think I'll post some pictures on Foto Friday. I also have been searching for the new perfect shirt for the marathon, but haven't had much luck, but today I am going to continue my search and lay out by the pool and enjoy the sun! Good luck to everyone who ran the LA marathon and did any type of Memorial day race.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day! Remember all those who have fought for our freedom.

xoxo

Weekend Wrap-Up

So this weekend my cousins, the Olies traveled up to Paso Robles where they have a lake house. We had a very fun filled weekend and prepared ourselves for the 5k and half marathon. I decided not to run the half marathon race morning because it was very cold and was going to be warmer when I finished. Sweating, coughing, sniffling and running didn't seem like they would help the fast track to recovery so I ended up running the 5k. That was interesting, you'll all get a good laugh tomorrow in the race report.

I am feeling a little bit better, slowly but surely with tons of Vitamin C, Emergen-C and sleep. We had a very relaxing time and I just wanted to post some pictures of our trip.

This was at race packet pick up. The course was out on a winery in town and it was very serene and gorgeous! Quite different than my normal running routes. Here we are gathered by a nice little lake right by the day spa where the race started.

We went to Chili's for lunch after packet pick up and then went to Target. We were pretty crazy this weekend. While we were eating lunch some guy was doing some tricep dips right outside where we were sitting. I decided to follow his lead after lunch and I called it extreme working out. Dang, my t-rex arms failed on those.

When we got back to the house, my uncle wanted us to 'split logs' because we were going to try out their new fire pit and make s'mores after dinner. He had this crazy machine to split logs.

Then we made some delicious s'mores! :)

It was a great weekend full of many laughs and some good and much needed relaxing. I can't wait to share the race report tomorrow. Turning around and running back to the start is an amazing way to start a race, it's like a salmon swimming upstream. I am taking at least one more day off from running because my throat burns like I just poured salt on an open wound when I breathe, so I think heavy breathing while running wouldn't be the best idea. Just working on getting better is enough to deal with. More to come on the race in the race report tomorrow!

xoxox

So I have a new lover...

So I completely love Mr. R, even when I ruin pictures with him and he ruins pictures with me. He's always making me laugh and makes me a much better person just being around him. He also likes to point out EVERY SINGLE ONE of my super blond moments and even explains the jokes to me that I don't understand. Now that is love. Don't worry, Mr. R knows about my new lover as well. He thinks he's kind of lame, but he is glad that I am happy and can track my workouts better now.

He even was there when he helped me name little Claude and has seen Claude's intense tracking power. Let me tell you, Claude is amazing. I will post a complete review hopefully by Friday because by then hopefully I will have been able to upload the workouts online.

This weekend was my first long run with Claude and thought I only went 15.5 miles, instead of my full 16, it was great to have him along and I felt like the tracking was much more precise and it was nice to see so much about my workout located on the little screen.

My long run was done on Saturday this week because I knew it was going to rain on Sunday and I don't run in the rain. Everything was going great, I was hydrated well, had some delicious shot blox and did my first 7 miles with an average 8:55 pace. I stopped at mile 8 back at my house for about five minutes, went to the bathroom, got some more shot blox and took off again. About mile 14 I started to sputter around. I continued on the stretch home but I got really weird cramps in my back right by the back of my ribs. It was strange but my last mile I think I averaged about a 10 minute mile and I was hurting. I came home did my sit ups and push ups and then showered up. It was a good run and for not running very long runs consistently, I'm glad I got that one out of the way. I totally forgot I have a 1/2 marathon this weekend in Paso Robles. It should be fun and I feel prepared for it.

Mr. R and I went shopping and then we went to church and watched Man Vs. Food, one of my new favorites shows on the travel channel. Yesterday one of his friends randomly invited us with him to the Ducks Hockey Game and they won 6-2! There were not very many fights , but the seats were about 10 rows back from the ice so that was exciting. We also saw the movie, "I love you, Man" and it was hilarious! I really recommend it. I love Jason Segal. He's so hilarious in all movies he does, I love Forgetting Sarah Marshall too. I am not the biggest Jamie Pressly fan either, but I loved her in the movie as well.

Yesterday was a scheduled rest day for me and tonight I'll be doing an easy 5 miler with my lover Claude. I can't wait to post a full review for you guys. I was very skeptical as to what the Garmin actually did, and now that I have one I completely understand the common, "You'll never run without it," and the, "You'll wonder what you did before it" comments I was getting before.

I am also excited to share about my adoption in the month on April. I'm glad so many of you are interested in it, or at least my side of the story. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

xoxo