Category Archives: marriage

Half marathon training begins now!

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While training for my first 5K, I had a set schedule for how many miles I needed to run every week. Once the race was over, it was as though I was a complete newbie again wondering how many miles I should run each week, how many miles would keep me fit, how many miles would help me continue to lose weight, etc. I’ve pretty much been winging it because while I am a Certified Personal Trainer, I am definitely not an RRCA Running Coach! So thank goodness for Runner’s World Magazine…

This fun little tidbit of information is from a back issue, May 2006, I think {Last summer I got a zillion back issues from eBay and I’m still going through them all!}. Now, I know you can’t believe everything you read, but RW doesn’t lead me astray too often. Since 20 miles is a nice number I think I can hang with weekly, this is my new weekly mileage goal. AND I want my waist fat to get the eff off my body! So if it says 20 is the magic number, I’m doing 20. Heck, maybe 21.

Oh, but wait.

I do have a race coming up. No, not the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Half Marathon–that’s not until May 2013. And no, not the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pittsburgh Half Marathon–that’s not until August 2013.

Just last night, after some discussions with the hubster, I registered for the 2012 Carolina Sports Medicine Battleship Half Marathon in Wilmington, NC!


We’re both pretty excited! Wilmington is where we normally go to celebrate our wedding anniversaries, but we haven’t been able to make it the past few years. Our 5th anniversary is this month, so we’re going to wait for that getaway celebration to take place on this race weekend. Oh, and if you run the race, you get a free entry to tour the Battleship–we love it! Hubs was sold on that and will probably be running it with me. Not with-with because he’s faster than I, of course. :-)

So eeeeeek! So instead of the comfortable 12-15 months I had to prepare for my first half, I now only have 5 months!!! Of course, rationally, I know that’s plenty-o-time for me. But right before I was about to hit that “submit” button, I was freaking a little bit lot. What made me finally click submit was the saying that “life begins outside of your comfort zone.” I keep seeing that quote every where lately.

My comfort zone, right now, is about 6 miles. I need to do twice that and then some to successfully finish this half. I want to reach that goal. I want to experience life as a half marathoner. I want that life to begin November 4. So I stepped out and clicked. Looks like I’ll be hitting the trail to train more often and following another plan from Smart Coach!

But note to self {and all of you}: Don’t watch the Identification Discovery channel, Dateline NBC, 48 Hours, or any scary movies before I go running alone on the trail.

The other day before I hit the trail, I watched some horrible horror B-movie called Simon Says. It was awful. I love scary movies–horror is my favorite genre–but this was just plain bad. The movie mostly faded into the background while I was doing computer work, until I saw a scene with girl running in the woods.

You know it’s an older movie seeing as how she’s carrying a CD player.

The runner girl was knocked down by the scary killer man in the woods.

The runner girl tried to crawl away to safety. I’ll leave you in suspense as to if that happened or not…

Anyhow, the moral of this story for me is to be alert while on the trail!! I should not have my music up so loud that I can’t hear what’s going on around me. Also, I need to keep lifting my weights {even though I dislike it so much} so that I can fight back. And again, I should not watch these shows RIGHT before I go running!!! Paranoia at every sound/bush/tree/falling leaf/passing runner occurs!

I didn’t run on the trail yesterday; I knocked out 4 miles of speedwork on my treadmill. {I was actually somewhat speedy compared to my normal turtleness.}  Here’s another post-run video!
Oh–and if it doesn’t show up below, you can watch it here on my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/v/10150790160540356

Are you training for your first half marathon? How did you train?

Fifty Shades of My Weekend

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My first race is in 12 days and I finally ran yesterday for the first time in days. DAYS! I last ran-ran on Tuesday {one day after the gym machine ninja attack–dumb, I know}, and then couldn’t attempt another run until days later on Saturday. And that was surely JUST an attempt. Even after all of this:

Hanging in my inversion table!!

My back still was not cooperative and I couldn’t handle running even though my leg felt better. :-(

You can tell from my expression I was NOT pleased!!!

So yesterday was my first real run in a while. I was supposed to do six miles; I ran exactly 3.1. Hey, it was something. I was slightly in a better mood about it!

I really needed a good run after date night from this weekend. Saturday evening the hubby and I visited one of our favorite neighbor hangouts {there is only one hangout in our neighborhood, but luckily, we love it}, the Saxapahaw General Store for some pizza and beer!

Yes, oh yes, it was cheat meal time!

I wore a somewhat new skirt from Soul-Flower that’s just been waiting in my closet for too long as cute as it is!

It's so hippie!

We sipped on our beers of choice while we waited for the pizza. Yuengling was mine!


Then it was time for the pizza. Ohhhh, yeah, buddy!


I did have three slices. Mmmmph! And I’m not sorry about it either! Miraculously I’ve not dipped back up into the next weight bracket {since hitting my new milestone} this entire week–even without my running! So I just smiled and happily ate my slices. :-D

I'm old-school and keep track of my daily weigh-ins on paper. The little dashes stand for record lows. :)

But since I also haven’t dipped below the 149 point, haha, I’m not resting on my laurels for too long. Hubby offered me the leftovers yesterday and I politely declined! The 130s/maintenance level awaits!!

So besides working out and eating on this glorious 3-day-weekend I’m in the midst of, I’ve been getting a lot of reading done.

I’m ANTI Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games for damn sure with a passion {NO interest in wizards, teen vampires, and kids killing each other}, but this? OHHHHH yessss… this I can and have been getting into. Mmmmmmy!!!!!! Fifty Shades of Grey is my cup of passion right there!!! I will definitely be picking up the 2nd and 3rd book soon and sooooo looking forward to the movie!

I’ve been staying up late, ’til like 3am late, every night reading this book. Except for last night–had to get to bed so I could get up for HOT YOGA this morning!! Finally, again, right?!

How was your weekend, everyone? Have you read 50 Shades?

Instagram, Zombies, Run For Your Lives!

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Yesterday I opened my email and found the most glorious message:

instagram availbable for Droids Androids

Hooray!!! I felt a little bit cooler the moment I saw this. As if I was at some über hip club and suddenly gained access to the VIP area behind the velvet ropes. I never once have been sad that I didn’t have an iPhone until I realized Instagram wasn’t available on the Droid. Not so anymore!

After my 4 mile run, I decided to get busy snapping pics.

I was about to make a delicious serving of tuna salad but got stuck standing at the pantry looking as confused as ever. It was a serious Jessica Simpson moment.


I couldn’t, not for the life of me, figure out if the contents of this can were indeed chicken or tuna. Now, I bought the dang thing. I knew I bought tuna the other day, but standing there looking in the cupboard, it was as if my mental capacity eluded me. I kept asking/saying to myself, “Is this chicken? Or is it tuna? I know it says Chicken of the Sea, but that’s confusing me more. I don’t want chicken. I want tuna. Okay, this isn’t chicken. It’s tuna. For real–it’s tuna. Yeah, it’s tunafish. Let me go make that salad.” I think the only thing I can blame my mental fart on was the intense slow recovery run beforehand??

Anyhow, the above was my very first stab at taking a photo and putting the magical Instagram fix on it. Love it! I just wish I had a little make up on so I didn’t look so much like a zombie…

I gradually got better with the visual effects.

My asparagus, Alexia oven fries, and baked chicken {only 380 calories for all this!} looked so much more awesome the Instagram way than they would have on just my regular Droid-snapped pictures.

Yummy right?!

Okay, so just a second ago I mentioned zombies. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned my love of zombies on my blog, but if you know me in person, you know I have a serious zombie-obsession. If you do too, good–we’ll chat sometime. And if you think that the zombie apocalypse is surely going to happen and it’s just a matter of time, also good–we can compare our zombie escape plans. {All of my running training will NOT go to waste we’ll just say. Rule #1–CARDIO.}

Anyhoooo, because of my zombie love, I have selected my next race!

How awesome does this look?! I can't wait!

The Run For Your Lives Zombie Infested 5K Obstacle Course Race!! I wanted to do it last year, but still wasn’t quite ready. I surely am now! It’s not until September, so I’ll have more time to plan for it. This is going to be sooooo much fun!!!! I am crazy-excited to train for this!! And hubby will be running it with me. When I wasn’t sure that I could get him to go for it, I was chatting with the zombie race organizers on Twitter. Their response to me was:

When I posed it that way, how could hubby say no? ;-)

Oh and check out the video for it–

It’s not the cheapest race, but we’re going to save up for it and hopefully get registered soon. I don’t need to go to the beach this summer. Give me running and zombies and this girl’s happy. Yay!!

Do you love Instagram? Have you had it for a while or is it new to you? Any fun races planned? Any with zombies?

Birthday Recap: Beer, Freebies, Food & Cake!

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However you choose to look at it, my birthday was either 3 days ago, or it was last year and is now 364 days away {thanks, Leap Year}. Anyhoooo, since my cake is still fresh and edible, I’m going with the 3 days ago thing and doing a pictorial recap. If you read my post the other day, you pretty much know what I was going to do, but here are the pictures capturing it all!

Before we left the house, hubby snapped a photo of me in my birthday outfit. Yes, that’s a pink ribbon saying “Birthday Girl.”

These Anthropologie shorts are like, my fave things evahhhh!

Again, I’m still amazed at how different I look from last year on my birthday!

After we left the house, our first point of destination was the Red Oak Brewery. Yummmm…beer. :-P

Red Oak Brewery

Red Oak Brewery

Haha, so true.

Red Oak Brewery

Hubby, not double-fisting--just holding my brew.

After the tour, and sampling the deeelicious brewskis, we headed over to Sephora to get my free birthday gift.


The sales associate gave me not one, but TWO bottles of the Happy Birthday, Beautiful from Philosophy. She said she had extra and since I came in on my actual birthday, she’d give me another one. Score! This stuff smells like the most amazing cake ever!

After a few other random errands, and a quick pitstop at home, we then headed to Chapel Hill for dinner. Destination: Talullah’s–amaaaazing.

Talullahs Chapel Hill NC

Talullahs Chapel Hill NC

We had the coziest little, tucked away booth!

Talullahs Chapel Hill NC

Appetizer...

Talullahs Chapel Hill NC

Dinner. I can't even pronounce the Turkish words for it...but it was great!

We were full and happily delighted. I forgot my coupon for a free birthday drink at Caribou Coffee, so we went home to have some there…along with my mystery cake that hubby made and decorated for me. I was excited to finally see it…

Pittsburgh Steelers Birthday Cake

Is this not the cutest cake ever?! There's even a little Ben Roethlisberger on it!!

I wasn’t sure what the theme would be, but I figured it was a toss up between fitness and Steelers, lol. I’m happy with how it turned out! So cute AND delicious!

So that’s it. Thanks for taking a little stroll with me down birthday lane! Any big birthday plans or surprises for you or yours this year?

Eat, Drink & Be Married.

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I’m safely back from the DC roadtrip and so happy to be home. It was fun pretending to be a tourist, going to my first Steelers game {will blog about that soon!} and seeing my sister marry the love of her life, but there’s something about just relaxing and sitting on your own couch. I’m exhausted! Annnnnd I have to go back there in less than two weeks for a NASM personal training conference. I’m a roadtrippin’ fool lately!

So now, about my sister marrying the love of her life…Yay! That’s right….I did go to DC to be the Matron of Honor in her wedding!

This is the happy couple in one of their engagement pictures. Isn’t my sis cute?! My new bro-in-law Shurman is a lucky man. She’s also lucky because she found a really good guy. Awww, ain’t love grand? :-)

The wedding and small dinner reception took place at the Chesapeake Beach Resort & Spa. It was beeeyooootiful there.

I could stare at water forever. I seriously need to move to the beach. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know how to swim. I just want to look at it.

Now, I did a lot of running around at first–I had lots of Matron of Honor duties to complete! I then felt sweaty and gross by the time the ceremony began. Blah. But it wasn’t about me. But I’m also slightly vain so, yeah, I still wanted to look nice! ;-) Not so, I’m afraid. After all that searching for the perfect red dress of my dreams, I don’t like any of the pictures that I found of myself  in my camera. My hair was a mess, my face was oily and needed to be blotted. Double Blah. I’m HOPING someone else got good ones.

This is the only one I somewhat like and it’s BLURRRRY. Grrrr. So, here’s another:

I think my face was still puffy from the cats! My sister has the most amaaaazing little kitties and I adore them, but I’m allergic. I guess I cuddled too much with them, lol! I sneezed the whole trip, but as hubby pointed out–at least I didn’t sneeze during the wedding. :-)

And now, for the most gorgeous bride ever–my sister Pamela!

LOVE the dress!



After the wedding, it was time to come in and get our eat on! {Or, drink on…}

Can't forget the champagne to go with my Yuengling!

I did eat, too. :-)

Oh, and the cake! The cake was yummy. Pretty, but yummy mostly.


And here are some of Pammy’s best friends enjoying themselves:

It was a great night had by all! I’m so happy for my sister and thankful to see her married off! The only part I dearly missed was having our Mommy see her, but I know she was there watching from one of the soft, puffy clouds in the gorgeous sky above. I thought I felt a small drop of rain hit my arm during the ceremony, but I’m quite certain it was her shedding a happy tear. :-)

‘Tis the season for weddings…have you been to any this summer?

aren’t there any good mistresses in south carolina?

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      this story keeps getting better and better. first the governor of south carolina is missing. then he’s camping. then he’s in another country. and now the truth comes out–he was in argentina having an affair with a friend. say it with me everyone, ARGENTINA?? oh for the love of pete. if he was going to cheat, please tell me why he couldn’t find a mistress here in the states? did he really need to go to argentina to do it? don’t say it’s because he’s famous, i’d bet my house that there are plenty of men more famous than mark sanford that are getting a little on the side here in the u.s. and no one is the wiser.  yes, there are always the john edwards and the elliot spitzers that get caught–it’s the risk they take for a little nooky. but argentina?? what’s wrong with a good ol’ south carolinian lady friend? and did he really think that he’d be able to just slip out of the country unnoticed?  for five days? to go camping? hahaha, thank you gov. sanford. in my time of sorrow that i’ve been having this month, you have given me the best laugh ever. i can’t wait to hear more.

best. lie. ever.

best. lie. ever.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31522908/ns/politics-more_politics/?GT1=43001