Run, Eat, Date, Sleep

I have 13 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon, so I have officially started my own version of a taper. Today’s run was 3 miles on the treadmill with my new shoes and new running skirt. I felt so cute! I did 3 miles in 34:15, an 11:24 pace.

First I’ll review the skirt, which is a Nike Dri-Fit skirt from last year’s inventory. It felt really great. It’s really smooth, and the color is adorable!! I was always hesitant about trying a skirt, but I immediately found a huge benefit to wearing a skirt to run. My shorts usually ride up in the crotch area because of my chunky thighs, but you can’t see the little shorts underneath the skirt riding up. So, I won’t be tugging at my shorts while I run anymore! Perfect! For $15, this was a great buy! I can see myself buying a lot more!

Next, my shoes.. the Asics Gel Nimbus 11. They have really awesome heel support and lots of comfort all throughout the shoe. During my first mile, I had a little bit of pain on the top of my foot, so I loosened up the laces. And for the rest of the run, they felt fabulous! They made the treadmill bearable. I hope to get a few more short runs in before the race so they’re “race ready”.

I can tell I didn’t stretch long enough after my 11.6 mile run because my calves and hamstrings are still really tight. I’m going to spend some time tonight stretching out a little more.

I have barely brought this up, but there’s only 27 days until the NYC Half Marathon! I’ve gotten so worked up over the Disney half, that I’ve almost forgotten I have another half-marathon just 2 weeks afterwards! Ack!

And there’s the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia, which is a 10-mile race, on May 2nd. I think I need to have a race scheduled to keep me on track.

What about you? Do you need to have something to train for in order to keep yourself on track?

The day has arrived! I bought new sneakers today!

I slept in until 11. Don’t judge. I was awake last night until 2am, and I had quite a rough week in regards to sleep. My immediate thought when I woke up was “I don’t wanna run today!” But I had to stop that kind of attitude and started thinking about how the race is only 2 weeks away, and I’m lucky enough to even be able to run. Some people aren’t that fortunate. Plus, it was finally New Sneaker Day!!!

I had some oatmeal and PB for breakfast.  I then headed on over to Rehoboth Beach Running Company around noon, and Bob did a gait analysis on me. First, he watched me walk barefoot across the room and then measured my feet. My right foot is slightly longer than the left foot. And then he had me try on a pair of Asics Gel Nimbus 11 shoes so I could run on the treadmill to be videotaped. They felt really supportive and not to mention, very pretty!

Side note- when I told Bob I wanted to take a picture, I said it was for my blog. He was so intrigued by it and asked a bunch of questions.

Bob analyzed my foot placement and saw that my right foot hits perfectly, but my left foot has a very slight roll-in. So he picked out some Saucony shoes with a bit more support. I repeated the treadmill process and didn’t really feel a difference, and by watching the video, they didn’t do much for the roll-in. So, I ended up with the Asics! I’ve never owned Asics before, but I always thought they looked really sharp. When he rang up the price, I said “oh good, right at my limit”, so he threw in the brand new socks I tried on for the analysis for free because he knew I didn’t have appropriate running socks.

So here are my beautiful new shoes! I’m in love!

Beware the cankle!

And the socks I got for free!

Feetures

When I got home, I had to take these babies off and put on my old ones for my 11-miler. More on that later. I must make dinner! I’m starving!

I’ve had every intention to get to the running store this week to get a gait analysis and get fitted for new running shoes. However, I’ve had to stay late at work every night until 8 or so. Ughhhh! So I’m going tomorrow. Joy!!! I can’t wait for new running shoes! I’ll probably do a long run in my old shoes tomorrow because they’re bound to get wet with the snow that’s now turned into large puddles.

My eating hasn’t been very good in the last few days because I was running low on groceries, but I stocked up tonight and I tried something new!

Polenta!!

I was wanting to try tofu, but the packaging of polenta said it could be substituted for pasta or tofu. I topped it with a bit of alfredo sauce. I know that sounds like a weird combination, but it was delicious!!!

The postman really loved me today and brought me TWO Runners World magazines, a Redbook magazine, and Last Chance Harvey. Yay! I’m so happy!

Happy Little Things!

At the store, I also picked up some of this yummy organic ice cream! I actually had a few spoonfuls before dinner just because I was so anxious to try it. I think I could have probably eaten the whole thing if I didn’t make myself put it in the freezer.

I’m so excited to get back out on pavement tomorrow!

So what are your weekend plans? Anything exciting?

I may not have mentioned it the other night, but there tends to be a crazy late night crowd at the gym. The other night, I watched a girl stare at herself in the mirror while she did a sensual version of the “cabbage patch” dance while her friend was walking an 18-minute mile on the dreadmill with no incline, and she was hanging on for dear life. I almost pulled a “Jillian”. Ya know what I’m talking about. That girl needed a talkin-to about hands on the treadmill.

So the “cabbage patch” girl was back tonight. She jumped on the treadmill right next to me. She walked for a few minutes but started running a 10-minute mile. Yes, I’m a treadmill peeker… shhh! So here I am running my big butt off at a 10:20 pace thinking “how is the girl running faster than me?!?!” But thankfully, she lasted all of 30 seconds and jumped right off. I wish I had that kind of “work ethic”… (sarcasm). And then I look down at her feet. She’s wearing jazz shoes! To run in!!!! I’m not even going to talk about her choice of running pants. Just look at her.

Seriously, WTF was she thinking when she dressed herself to go to the gym? And yes, I took a picture of her. Oh, the benefits of an iPhone. She probably just thought I was listening to music. I feel that people like this just need to be sat down and told how ridiculous they are.

Maybe I should have given up making fun of people for Lent? Nahhh.. I gave up dating flaky ass guys instead. Well, I’m not religious, so this is neither here nor there.

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OK, on to other things. You know how I said yesterday how I felt bad about not letting my mom come with me to Orlando for my second March trip? Well, I told her today I’d like her to come along. She declined. Booo.

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Am I Cute as a Bunny yet? Not yet, but I did meet my mini-goal for today, and I drank 66 ounces of water.

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I have 16 days until I leave for Disney, and I heard there’s another snowstorm on its way here. So I’m just going to do my best to get in some good runs and not worry about long runs. I did 9 miles a few weekends ago with no problems, so I thinking (hoping rather) that I’ll do fine with 13 miles. Plus, I’m in desperate need of new shoes. Mine look a little run-down, right?

I’m way overdue on getting new shoes. They’re giving me a lot of pain. And before you say anything, I know these are trail running shoes. When I first bought them, I was running on the trail more than pavement. But they’ve worked really well on the road. But it’s time for New Sneaker Day!

Oh! Forgot to mention what my workout was tonight. I did 2 miles on the treadmill in 21:58 (10:59 pace). I really just wanted to run for the fun of it tonight.

When you first started working out, did you wear the wrong clothes to the gym? Wear anything embarrassing like what’s pictured above?