Two Ears One Mouth

April was a weird month. I finished school at the very end of March and spent about 2 weeks being unemployed and dramatic before getting a call from my externship site offering me a job which I obviously took. I'm now working strictly on the pastry side which has been fun but I must admit I miss bread a little. Anyway, working 10 hour shifts is hard on the body so it's taken me some time to adjust meaning I haven't been running or working out much in the traditional sense. But I figure being on my feet for at least 9 1/2 hours at work and slinging 50 lb bags of dead weight around counts for something. There were some family issues that popped up in April too that were less than ideal but the month ended with me and T hosting 3 out of town guests in our apartment for a few days. Exhausting but so amazing at the same time. One of those guests was my sister and bestie who flew out to run the Eugene Half with me. She's about finished with nursing school but needless to...

I love trivia. I'm not necessarily great at it but I love learning random bits of information and then regurgitating them in somewhat relevant situations. Yesterday I got my Commit to Fit crew in on the action and asked them a little question about running just to test their skillz. Trivia time! Do you know what cadence is in reference to running? Your cadence is the number of times your foot hits the ground in a minute. So, what do studies say is the most efficient cadence for running? (Answers are for the number of times 1 foot hits the ground, double it for both feet) I tend to think that everybody is exactly like me for some reason and spends their time reading about biomechanics, kinesiology and watching videos about running cadence. Apparently not. Wonder why... Anyway, I was excited to drop a knowledge bomb since I so rarely get to do so and especially because it gave me an excuse to include a video of Meb . And the answer is..... A ! Many experts of biomechanic...

You all seemed to love my marathon bucket list post and that is awesome because now I know who to call to join me at which race. And who to tag along with. So thanks for that :) via One race that was missing from the list but will hopefully  be no less awesome is the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah marathon that I'm running this weekend! via When I was working at the running shoe store I met one of my very favorite people, we'll call her E for identity protection although you can just read her blog and you'll learn everything about how awesome she is. Anyway, we were hanging out at work during a particularly slow period and somehow she happened upon this race and revealed that it would be taking place on her birthday. Now she is younger than me but a much more accomplished runner so she quickly signed up and then decided to recruit friends to come along. We were close to renting a van, gathering anyone who could be gathered and driving down to make this t...

I know the title can be misleading so to clarify, this is a bucket list of marathons I'd like to run. Not just a really long bucket list. I'm keeping it to a top 10 because any list longer than 10 is just too long. This post was inspired by my new blog friend Eat Pray Run DC . If you haven't read her blog, you should, because it's prettier than mine. Anyway, here we go, in no particular order... 1. Marine Corps Marathon People who have run it never shut up about it so it must be great. Plus it's in DC and hello, Marines. Ooo rah. via 2. New York City Marathon Since I was born in New York and lived there for a bit it holds quite a place in my heart. It's another one of those epic races people can never say enough good things about. My only hesitation is that I'll really need to get over that thing I have about bridges. (get it? "get over"...bridges...) via 3. Boston Marathon - as a charity runner of course Let's get one th...

Hey friends! I ran another marathon on Saturday! Fun, right? Yes. Let's Tarantino this and start at the end. I had a 3 tiered goal with this race as I usually do. First and foremost was to finish but this was the first time I had goals other than survival or beat the cutoff in a marathon so it was a little scary. My next goal was to beat last year's 5:42 which on one hand would be "easy" since I didn't have any broken bones this year but on the other hand, still scary because a lot can happen in 26 miles...not mention the .2. The last goal was a 5:30 or better. That was the time goal I had floating around in my head last year but not anything I was actively chasing. This year I was. I met my first 2 goals but I missed 5:30...again...by 1 FREAKING MINUTE. Another stellar performance by me (not quite  last in my age group) but more importantly, they also sent us these cute certificates we can print for ourselves. Why didn't I hit my elusive 5:3...

BIG NEWS! No Meat Athlete is now in Louisville! Well, kind of. Here's the story... via Sometime last week NMA posted on their Facebook page  about their branded running groups that were developing all around the country (and the world ) and it prompted me to check out Louisville's group. With Ironman  already towards the front of my brain I'm making a big social push right now to force people into training with me without really training with me in hopes of making the experience as enjoyable as possible. What I love about Matt Frazier (the original No Meat Athlete and kind of a genius btw) is the relaxed attitude he's able to convey around a plant-based diet. I have a really hard time as a vegetarian (and had an even harder and very brief time as a vegan) because there's a lot of attitude in our community. If you know me well, you know that for the most part I genuinely don't care what people want to do with their lives, especially when it has nothing...

What a week! Does anyone else feel like this month just flew by? During every day this week I've been dragging and then out of nowhere it was Sunday. But I can't let another moment pass without gushing one last time about Ironman Louisville . As you may or may not know, this was the last year the race would be held in August and also the last time there would be a pro field. There will definitely be a big difference in the way the race feels next year which is sad but change isn't always bad so we'll just have to see how it plays out. Two guys from church were racing and a few others I knew so we went all out making signs for them. The night before was really rainy so we had to get up super early to place them along the run course. This year my sister and I volunteered it up again and worked in T1 and then the bike special needs station up in Buckner. There was a heat advisory all weekend which is pretty normal for August in Louisville but we've had a...

Until maybe 9 hours ago I was never really interested in getting faster. My "racing" goals have always just been survival. Occasionally I have secret time ideas  in my head but I never really name a specific goal for various reasons. Let me just say, survival is always a valid goal. But somehow I tend to find myself repeatedly ever so slightly disappointed in my performances. I always say I never want to race to exhaustion. I don't want to be the person crawling and puking at the finish line. I want my pictures to be triumphant and as Carrie Bradshaw once said, "impossibly fresh looking". That's not entirely true, I actually think I look my best all sweaty and a little roughed up. The triumphant part was true though.  Anyway, after my longest long run ever last week outside of a race (18 miles! Boom.) I felt awesome. I'd figured out my nutrition and hydration, kept an embarrassingly slow pace so I didn't die in the heat and humidity and finished feel...

As a follow up to my last post, I still have no idea what that random crazy pain was. I'm feeling pretty much back to normal and had a follow up with my doctor. Waiting for more test results and "hoping" it was maybe just a one time freak incident. So in the meantime, we'll return to regular programming. I have had a series of crappy runs to start off this training cycle. So far, I haven't gotten terribly discouraged but I know that I can only continue talking myself off the ledge for so long before I'll need to start really seeing better days. source There are a couple of reasons I suspect my runs have been less than stellar. First, I haven't been running. If you follow me on dailymile you'll notice I've been working out a lot but not doing any sessions dedicated to just running. Before training I was running maybe twice per week as part of my Orangetheory Fitness circuit workout which would average maybe 5 or so miles per week, swimmi...

Earlier this week I tweeted  a question to my followers (p.s. You should be one!) asking how I would spend my last free Saturday before inviting in the marathon monster. Upon further investigation I found that since I ended up changing my mind about which race I was going to do I was already a week behind. So last  Saturday was my last time to sleep in. Which I didn't do, if you'll recall that little swim I did. It was mildly disappointing but last night I decided to suck it up and spent a few minutes updating my play list so I could actually enjoy myself. What is it about new music that makes you really excited to run and listen to it? I mean, realistically I could just listen to the songs whenever I want.    source Anyway, in an attempt to do it right from the start this time I was up around 5 am so I actually had time to eat before I ran. I didn't do a great job at it today but at least being awake early will serve me well when I really need  to...