Welp – my third half marathon in just around the corner. Literally. As in…FIVE DAYS away. And what have I been doing to prepare?

  • 4-5 mile runs 3x a week
  • Cross trained once a week
  • One distance run on Saturday mornings

Okay- fine. I’ll admit I wasn’t very dedicated to that schedule. I mean, a majority of that training took place during the holidays!

Lesson learned: taking better precautions when signing up for a race shortly following Thanksgiving, Christmas AND New years!

However, there were a lot of upsides to that. It forced me to stay active during a time when I am the most lazy. Let’s face it- during the holidays all you want to do is hang with your friends and family…and most importantly eat and drink a ton! Having this race in the back of my mind kept me a little more focused and it helped me to make slightly better choices when it came to food and the amount of alcohol consumed.

After all the training and finally figuring out how the eff to work my Garmin I am happy to say that I think I’ve improved. It may not be a drastic improvement that will result in a kickass PR, but I know that I feel a lot better than I did before Long Beach. And once you find out a little more about what my weekends (and even some week days) have consisted of aside from some training runs…you’ll see why I’ll take what I can get!

Life other than running…

Work has been SO hectic! I thought I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off at the end of the year in hopes that things would settle down a little more once the new year started…BOY was I wrong! It’s been busier than ever and I kind of like it. At this point in my life, I think staying busy is the way to go. Sure, I may be exhausted at 11PM (that was never the case before), but I sure get a lot more done during the day. One step at a time…

My treats jar that my aunt gave me for Christmas has been really helpful when it hits 3PM and my mind is going crazy. I’m 100% sure that I’ve been reaching for peanut m&ms way too much, so in attempt to be ‘healthier’….I put it on a shelf that requires me to stand up if I want any.

See it...top left.

 

I’ve been partying. A lot. And my mom hates it (sorry Mom, but I promise it’s just a phase…maybe). But come on, all the college football bowl games were AWESOME…except for the BCS finals- don’t even get me started on my level of disappointment. I skipped a run that night for beer and nachos for LSU to not make it past the 50 yard line. Yep- apparently, that tangent was necessary.

Also, these NFL football games have been extra fun.

I’ve also made a lot of trips to San Diego…surprise surprise. And I had a lot of these:

VODKA RED BULL SLUSHIE

I know, it may not sound delicious, but I promise it is. I just love them so much. They are available at a total dive bar in Pacific Beach, but I can’t help it! But you gotta be careful with them…they really sneak up on you!

Other cool things about San Diego:

  • One of my best gal pals
  • A change of running scenery (I like to trick friends into waking up after a night of light friday night drinking to come with me)
  • It’s a huge city-town. It’s seriously a huge city with many small areas that give you a small town feel.
  • The people are fun.

This past weekend we had some fun with this little contraption…

SHOT-SKIIIIII

We created many fun memories with that thing.

Cinnamon Twist = slice of heaven

With all the amazing Mexican food available in San Francisco…a lot of the time I’ll end up Taco Bell just to have some Cinnamon Twists.

Post work and post run beers

This beer was consumed after I left work an hour early to knock out 5 miles and THEN meet up with everyone else for some brewskis. So in my mind..this beer (and the other 2 I had) were well deserved.

Random funny things…

This picture was created using the Justin Bieber BFF app on my iPhone. I saw my friend post a similar pic on Facebook and HAD to have my own. And yes, I did crop my friend out.

Gift from my friend for Xmas. So amazing - considering how over sized my calves are.

 

I know Christmas was a long time ago – but is there a present that still stands out to you today?

WHY DO I KEEP WATCHING THE BACHELOR?????