These were my first Wave Elixers. I loved them.

Then I moved onto the Mizuno Wave Riders after the Elixers. These also worked for me. Sad to retire these bad boys. We had some great times!

Now onto these, the Elixer 7s. The 25 miles I have on them felt amazing

These will be my next shoes, the Wave Rider 16s. Super pumped to try out a run in these as they are a re-design

I will wear the new pair for short runs, less than 4 miles a few times a month, until my old pair reaches the mature age of 250-300+ miles and are ready for retirement. I then, start to wear my new ones solely, that are already perfectly broken in so I dont’ have to scale back on mileage ever. I think its a genius plan. I guess some people just buy shoes when they need them and only wear the one pair until they retire them? Is this common? How do you buy your running shoes? Am I insane? Like, more so then we already know?

Here are the stats:
-.2lbs
-.1lb in Body Fat
-.4% Body Fat %

I didn’t go up in anything, so that is good but I am hoping this week will be better with my nutrition and I will eat healthier and have less “cheat” foods that I indulge in. Not going to beat myself up over it but learn from the journey!

My March challenge is also going well. I have hit an all time high for miles. 116 today and a few more days left. I haven’t been over 85 miles since May 2012! This challenge has reminded me of why I love to run. I also love this time of year where it is slowly getting warmer and it isn’t too hot yet but its not bitter cold either. Spring is definitely in the air!

I feel like I am definitely ready for my April 14th unplugged 1/2. My distance is definitely there and I have been doing a lot of hill training to help my endurance and speed for the straight flatness. Hoping to just have fun and enjoy the company of Danielle and Chris while we run 13.1!

I am killing it in March!

I think the most important part of finding my running groove is running some amazing miles with some amazing people. I have run numerous times with both Danielle and Chris. I have also met up with a couple of girls from high school and have reconnected over running. I also have been logging some miles by myself. Well, not really by myself entirely. I have been running with my favorite partner in crime, Sirius Wiki.

Like any newly acquired love, or reconnected love, I want to make sure it isn’t scared away by me being too much, too soon. So all the races I have lined up for this spring/summer I am putting no time cap on any of them. I am running the miles to run. I feel like putting so much pressure on myself to race, and ultimately feeling defeated, turns my passion into some really dark. I just am not ready to do that again. I am getting older and wiser! However, I do love to lace up, and put my Oiselle singlet on so I did sign up for several races.

Here is what my spring and summer are looking like:

April 13th – Unplugged 1/2
May 26th – Key Bank City Marathon (2 person relay)
July 7th – Mad Marathon (1/2)
July 14th – Stowe 8 Miler
July 28th – Essex 1/2
August 17th – Vermont 100 on 100 Relay (will be running with Danielle and Chris on team J’adore Hardcore)

So that’s where I am at. I am sure I will sign up for some more races, I am itching to do a Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 and there is one in Montreal and Providence, RI so I am sure one of those will make an appearance on my racing schedule.

I’ll take it!

I also still on point for the running everyday in March Challenge. I ended this weekend with 27 miles. Which is a high for me in a LONG time! I feel as though my love affair with running is back in full speed (pun totally intended). I am really enjoying the outdoor running even if it is still winter (projected to get 6-18″ starting tonight) Late winter running is my favorite time to ramp up the mileage and get me ready for spring and summer races. Also having some great groups of people to run with helps to get out of bed and going in the morning!

+.6lbs in overall weight
-.8 Body Fat
-.7% in Body Fat %

I may have gained a little weight over all but the other numbers are the numbers that I like. Body Fat weight and percentage dropping!

This is a marathon, not a sprint so I am excited to see what the coming weeks will have in store for me. If nothing else this whole challenge has me thinking again about what I am eating and why I am eating. I choose fruit instead of those effing mini cadburry eggs. when I am craving something sweet. Success!

This weekend I did two longer runs. One seven miler with Chris and then on Sunday I did a 10 mile run with Danielle and two girls that I went to High School with. It was a lot of fun to have two group runs, get miles in and have two days where I knew I got the miles I needed in for not only the challenge but for the Unplugged 1/2 that is coming up April 13th.

Tomorrow is my weigh in for my 15b430 and I am a little nervous. I have eaten much healthier than usual, stayed away from sweets (cadbury mini eggs, you need to stay screaming at me through the fridge. It is RUDE) and have amped up my workouts. I am hoping for some good BF% drop but I am not going to psych myself up too much. I don’t want to feel defeated and get into a bad place mentally. This is a fun challenge that I need to keep fun. I earned $7.00 for the challenge last week by hitting goals so that is what counts and this is a marathon, not a sprint. Let’s see if I remember all that tomorrow morning when I weigh in. Side Note: I now know what the Biggest Loser contestants feel like! NERVOUS

Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was absolutely beautiful this past weekend in Vermont. I fear I may have gotten slightly spoiled with the sunshine and amazing weather. Spring is definitely in the air and around the corner. I am ready! I love fall and spring sooo much. Definitely my favorite times to run.

edited to add: I clearly do have dementia or some other mental illness as YESTERDAY i explained all about the March challenge. Whelp, there goes this post. Sorry to have wasted your 1-5 minutes depending on how fast you read! Promise some more exciting posts and less redundancy and mental illnesses around here soon. Well, I take that back, I shouldn’t make promises I can’t keep! 

I have been on a medication for the past month or so and have been doing fairly well. No horrible bouts of stomach pains – Horray! I was starting to feel optimistic that things were, finally, turning around for me. Granted the pains weren’t every day, all day, but I felt like things were defintely better. I started to get into a great routine with running, I signed up (mentally, there wasn’t really a sign up sheet) for the March Challenge to run at least one mile every day for the month of March with mama and all in all just feeling great. I even wrote to my Mother in Law saying just that!

Well, I take it back. All of it. Today has been the worst day since early December. Today, I have been working from home, Thank God, and writhing in pain. I have alternated from rolling on the floor, sitting in a fetal position in my chair and stretched fully out on my chair so I am diagnol. I haven’t been COMPLETELY productive today, but I certainly havne’t gotten anything done so I don’t feel toooooo guilty.

I feel like I am going to be like this forever. This thought makes me go into a really dark place. I just am trying to think positive and know that nothing is ever final or forever.

On a better, less crazy, or more crazy, not sure, note I have signed myself up for, again this is a mental thing as there is no actual sign up sheet, a challenge. I am calling it 15b430 (lose 15lbs before turning 30). My friend and I are semi doing it together and keeping each other accountable. So far we have cash incentives, you get money for reaching small, attainable goals and you lose money for cheating. Cheaters never win, my friends.

Rules:
- $1 earned for each workout that is over 60 mins.
- $1 earned for a whole day of clean/healthy eating
- $5 earned for .5% body fat dropped (i have a fun scale that tells me my bodyfat in lbs and %)
- $5 earned for each pound dropped
- $5 fearned or each ab that “pops” through
- $20 earned for a 4 pack (in the ab department, i have tons of 4 and 6 packs in my fridge which probably is the reason why i need this challenge)
- $2 lost for cheating on food for the day. Clean eating will get you the body you want and more money in the jar
- $2 lost for going over my daily calorie alotted.
- $10 lost for gaining a lb.

Bonus, my life is pretty boring and at least doing weekly updates on this challenge will give me something to talk about other than, I ran today, Sirius is still awesome and I love my husband kind of posts!

My birthday is in 132 days (July 15th). The house we just bought this winter has a pool and Alan turns 30 in July too. We are planning an epic birthday bash which will require me in a bathing suit in front of all our friends. The goal is to not feel or look like a whale. I want to feel fit, fabulous and sexy on my 30th. I’m not sure if I will have a hard time or not turning 30 but figure that if I do go into the dark place that some people go to turning a new decade I figure it will be easier when i look down and see me rocking a bikini and no rolls except for the ones that are holding the veggie burgers!

Now that more testing has been done, due to my stomach issues still not resolved completely, we have realized that I am not gluten intolerant at all. So, since a huge ingredient/additive/etc. can be added back into my diet I think I am ready to eliminate animal protein, again.

Looking back over the years of being veggie and not, I have noticed a few things:
I drank less coffee/caffeine in general when I was a vegetarian
I had more energy as a vegetarian
I got up earlier and slept more deeply

Lately, I feel like I have been crazily addicted, again, to coffee. I have several cups a day and have added Red Bulls back into my diet. Not good. I eat a fairly healthy diet in general but the caffein/sugars etc. that I consumed could be cut out. I am hoping that going vegetarian again will help to eliminate some of these vices, but will give me the energy that I remember I had before and am hoping it wasn’t due to my age of being in my early 20s!

Now, how do I break the news to Alan that his meat eating wife will not longer be splitting burgers with him…