Where's the Beach?

This post might be a bit heavy for a Monday. If you don't want to stick around, I understand. I've debated on writing it. I don't have pictures. I don't have motivational quote. I have sincerity. I know that this time of the year tends to be happy. It's a time for family, friends, for re-connecting and then for new resolutions. There's hope in the air. And for me, it was very much a time with family and friends. Time with loved ones. Enjoying the innocence of my niece and nephew. Their wonder and excitement. Also, it was a time of loss and reflection. Last Monday I learned of the loss of someone I knew. We weren't best friends by any means. But she was someone I had known from the gym then later learned we had mutual good friends and even worked at the same company. She was one of those people who always had a smile on her face, always upbeat. I have been to her home, worked out with her, hung out with her at tailgates, enjoyed time together. She and h...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know that we did. It started off on Christmas Eve Day for us. We headed to our hometown to for lunch with my mom, her husband, my sister and her kids. I'll talk about some of the food I made later - a vegan "ham", coconut maple carrots from a new cookbook, and gluten-free Irish soda bread. We had a great time, and the weather was beautiful, sunny, 50 degrees. One funny before I move along, my sister and I have always felt we just should have been twins. We are 3 years apart, but most people think we're the same age. We have very similar mannerisms even if we don't look much alike. Well, this year when the gifts were being passed around, I handed Sarah her gift bag from me. She started laughing hysterically and pointed out my gift bag from her. Yep, same gift bags. And similar gifts. She got me a new beach bag with my initial and I got her a new work bag. Great minds? Anyway, after mom's it wa...

Saturday was all about family time. It was a miserably rainy day, kind of the perfect day to stay inside and bake cookies though. Cookie baking (and decorating) was something my sister and I had grown up doing, and continued the tradition up until about two years ago. Well, this year we brought the tradition back. My sister and her kids showed up around 11. We started working on some of the cookies while Jason and C ran to the store to pick up a few things I had forgotten. Jason's brother, sister-in-law and their 2 kids showed up closer to 1. Let the party begin! They have a girl (J) who is one year younger than A and a son (N) who is one year younger than C. But they all got along fabulously. They played and the ladies finished up most of the cookies. My niece had initially started off assisting Sarah and me with making the dough for a few of the cookies and the icing as well. Then she got side tracked playing with J and the boys. I took the easy way out for sugar cookies ...

Marcia at Marcia's Healthy Slice did another Runfessions post for the Holidays. I "borrowed" her Runfessions idea once before , and am borrowing it again for Fun for Friday . I hope she doesn't mind ;-) I thought I would do a Runfessions - Race Day  edition since I finished another half marathon last week and it's still fresh on my mind, especially the mistakes I made that day. Funny how you can PR but also have a host of silly mistakes. But I have a few other confessions to make, so it's not all about mistakes. Though, I did make several no-no race day mistakes. I broke the golden rule of never doing anything new the day of a race. Not only did I break that one once, I broke it twice. So, here it goes... 1. I tried a new gel on race day. I had been coveting my Salted Caramel GU packets for weeks. I was practically salivating at the mere thought of trying them out. My special treat to myself for the race. Now, the error had nothing to do with the f...

MissZippy started a wonderful post idea, Year of Running . I have really enjoyed reading other people's year of running recaps, but wasn't sure if I could pull one together. It can be hard to pinpoint a best run or name the most inspiring runner. But, when I sit back and reflect on my year, running has been such a huge part of it. This was the biggest running year for me period. And it's funny because it didn't start out with running at all. Many of you will recall that I was sidelined with a blood clot in my left jugular. I was told no running, no exercise, sit on the couch. It was a tough pill to swallow. Not only was I terrified because of the clot, the one thing that I could do to decompress, to sort of get away from it all, I couldn't do. I couldn't run. I couldn't run away from the problem. I couldn't have that zen me time. Once I was cleared to run, I tried to jump right back into it, but it was HARD. I could barely run two miles. I struggle...

I wanted to thank everyone again for the congratulations on my CASA Half Marathon . If you ever want to sleep very very soundly, run your fastest half. I slept 12 hours Saturday night. That was even after having had a catnap around 3:45. I imagine the other way to sleep that soundly is by running a full. Sunday was a very lazy day for me other than running a few errands. Basically, the rest of the weekend was a no hair and no make up weekend for me. The only reason I got out of PJs was to leave the house. By Monday, my hamstrings and inner thighs (odd right?), and piriformis were hating me from the race. I knew I needed to get my legs moving to work out some of the stiffness. I also desperately needed a massage. And I do mean desperate. I actually do not like massages at all. I know, I know ... crazy. I don't know what most people's post-race recovery is like, but I'm usually pretty wiped out and the muscle soreness starts to set in big time by day 2. I also know that...

If you recall, I posted last Thursday about not feeling truly prepared for this half marathon. We had been having very cold temps that seemed to be negatively impacting my running. My last training week was slow and felt very difficult overall. Luckily, the temperatures for the CASA Half Marathon had started to go up. Race start was 39 degrees with a "feels like" temperature of 36. The problem was that it was heavy fog and the winds were starting to kick up. This means damp and raw basically. The CASA Half Marathon is a small race. It's one I had not done before. I decided to sign up for it on the tail end of the PR high from the Soaring Wings Half . Sometimes I think there should be a law that states you must wait x number of weeks after one race before signing up for another. Seriously, runner's amnesia can bite you in the butt. But, I signed up for it. I was going to run it. It was a flat course, so I was kind of looking forward to that for a change. But, I ...