Off to the Races

I have pretty much decided to run a half marathon...eventually. I was really excited and even picked a race, the Hartford Half, that fit perfectly into my training schedule but it falls on Logan's birthday and the day after a friend's wedding in Atlanta so that's out. Sadly, I think the race might have to wait till spring because when I run when it's super cold my lungs feel like someone is stabbing them with tons knives, plus it's hard to find races up north till April. This unfortunately presents a conundrum because if I do one in the spring that means I am training in the winter so unless Connecticut gets some global warming up in here really fast I am a bit screwed. I have been looking around at other states so we'll see what happens. I use Running in the USA to look for races, it really helps since you can search by state and type of race.

I actually stumbled on a 5K race that is on July 17th-the GE Road Race which benefits the Petit Family Foundation. It is a really sad story that most Connecticut people know, at least the ones in my area...a family was attacked at home and the husband was injured but the wife and two daughters were killed. The Petit family was really active in charity work so the funds from the race go to help their chosen charities.

Description from website:

     The Petit Family Foundation honors the memories of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, Hayley Elizabeth Petit, and Michaela Rose Petit by continuing the kindness, idealism and activism that defined their lives. The Foundation's funds are given to foster the education of young people, especially women in the sciences; to improve the lives of those affected by chronic illnesses, and to support efforts to protect and help those affected by violence.

After a home invasion on July 23, 2007, Jennifer Hawke, Hayley Elizabeth, and Michaela Rose Petit tragically lost their lives. Hayley, and later on Michaela, were dedicated to community service and charitable giving, especially with the MS Society in support of their mother's illness. After their deaths, the Foundation was created as a means of continuing on their work and spirit.

All proceeds from this event will go to the Foundation.

This will be my first 5K race that I actually plan to run. I have done some walks but the idea of running one is much more scary. I know that I have been doing longer distances than 3.1 miles but doing it in front of other people (who are much faster than me aka move faster than a speeding slug) is a bit more intimidating.  I convinced my husband to do it with me so at least I'll have someone to get a piggyback ride from when I get pooped.

Plus you get a shirt....a shirt and an opportunity to pay someone to run?!? count me in.

Committing to Happiness

I am huge book nerd. Seriously, I have many, many bookshelves in my house and they are stuffed to the gills with books ranging from serious and impressive (to be read with your nose in the air and with a stick shoved you know where), education ones (books from Masters degree and now my Ph.D. books!), chick lit (use to be slightly ashamed but now I embrace my pink covers), how to books/cookbooks (lots and lots and lots of cookbooks) and finally my newest section: improving life quality. Improving life quality has been a big thing for me this year. This year was my first time not working or going to school so I had a lot of free time on my hands. At first I used that time to sit around, watch tv and think about how bored and alone I am in Connecticut. Finally, I got sick of myself and the constant "poor me" mentality so I did something about it...I fell back on my favorite pastime for answers: books.
My first book was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

Yes, the writer is a rich white girl and thus has rich white girl problems but I still liked the book. I am all about to-do lists and the author used a ton of those. She wrote about making simple changes-for example, committing to make dinner 3 times a week, to reading a new book every month, to gardening every weekend, to taking a trip somewhere new once a month etc- basically focusing on what makes you happy and actually doing those things.

With my huge amount of free time I decided to try new things and so I turned to gardening. I am still really, really bad at gardening (I kind of hate it. The weeds just keep coming back over and over again!) Therefore, may I present the awesome beginners guide: Learn to Garden

I browsed through several gardening books before buying this one. I really liked it because it kept in mind that as a beginning you probably aren't too interested in working with really complicated, fussy plants. It also gave straight forward advice about yards, planting a flower meadow, trees, flowers, herbs etc.

As a stay-at-home wife (at least for 2 more months) I do almost all the cooking. I usually just throw things together and I tend to not cook with recipes. However, this year I focused on trying new recipes, baking new and unique things and cooking seasonally. I loved these:
Cooking Light: Cooking Through the Seasons

Logan and I gave up meat for Lent so Cooking Light: Vegetarian was a lifesaver!

and finally, when I was in desperate need of a cupcake (which is kind of everyday) I turned to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

and if cupcakes don't fit the bill, there is the culinary bible which gave me my favorite chewy chocolate gingersnap cookies (ridiculously delicious and the ones on the cover-they are that special) aka Martha Stewart Cookies

My newest hobby is running. Running and I have a love-hate relationship (it loves to make my body hurt really badly and I hate it with a fiery passion until I finish the run and feel awesome. Endorphins? I am still waiting for them to arrive). After running my first 5 miles the other day I started thinking about how far I want to take this...do I want to do a marathon? Hahahahaha....NO! 26 miles? huge no thank you. I am intrigued by the idea of a half marathon...13 miles seems much more do-able so I am thinking about training for one. I haven't made up my mind but to help me do that I ordered Half-Marathon by Jeff Galloway-guru of the run/walk method.

I don't know what it is about running but it makes me happy-the exhilarated and exhausted feeling when I reach my car (finally) when my run is done, the bright tomato red face that refuses to go away for hours and just the feeling that I did something that my body didn't want to do and survived. I may hate running but somehow it makes me happy.

Running outside is hard

Just got back from decent run. At the end I ran into a bunch of my neighbors (I have really nice, sociable neighbors) and their dogs freaked out and fought each other over who got to smell me. I hope that doesn't mean I smell like ground beef after a run. It was my first time using my new Garmin 305 aka my new favorite toy. I got it last night and spent a good hour playing with the features. Sure, it looks like an 80s calculator for your wrist but it tracks my exact distance, speed, time, heart rate etc. I also really like how I can design runs or courses online and upload them. You can even run against a certain pace or a previous run and little running figures depict how far ahead/behind/equal distance you are comparatively. Another handy feature is that it has a GPS which is really helpful considering I don't know my area incredibly well and there is a good chance I'll get lost at some point. I swear I am not getting a free Garmin for all this positive stuff, although if they want to send me one I'm totally on board :)

So for the past several runs I have been using a treadmill at my gym and today was my 2nd run outside. I have discovered the following:
     1. I must bring tissues. I don't know if it was allergies/cooler weather/etc but my nose was running like crazy-if only my legs would run that fast!-and I had no way to wipe it other than with my hand-grossness.
     2. Running outside is WAY harder than a treadmill!! I can't emphasize that enough: there are hills, dogs, people, cars, holes in the ground and all sorts of crazy stuff. I  felt guilty because my endurance is better on a treadmill so I consoled myself with the fact that running outside is harder, not sure if that is true but we'll go with it.
     3. Proper running shoes and socks are fantastic! My old shoes died a few days ago so I invested in some new ones today. I tried on a ton of pairs but my new ones have tons of support. I usually go with New Balance but didn't love any so I went with Ryka Revive 2 this time, specifically these:

I have to have non-white shoes because white shoes make my feet look like huge hobbit feet. Seriously, ginormous!

      3 cont. When I bought the shoes I went ahead and picked up some proper running socks. I have always used cotton and always gotten wicked blisters so I was mighty tempted when a running friend told me about synthetic socks for running. The salesman plus Runner's World recommended Experia socks:

The store I was at had a deal going where you buy one you get one 1/2 price so I picked up a couple pairs. So far I really like them, they fit a bit tighter than normal socks but the extra padding is really nice and after a semi-long run today there no blisters yay! I'll have to wait and see if they hold up and the multiple recommendations ring true.
     4. Last but certainly not least: MUST USE INHALER! I was running on this really flowery trail in the woods (crazy pretty) but all of a sudden my asthma started really acting up. It use to be way worse when I was a kid so I don't freak out during attacks but I really wished I had my inhaler on me because it made the last bit of the run kind of painful.
One of my favorite parts about running is discovering new things in your local area. Today I found a new trail that weaves through the woods and a bunch of wildflower fields. It was absolutely breathtaking. I will definitely run it again but the path is a bit wild so knowing my luck (and my extreme intolerance) I will probably get poison ivy. The semi-overgrown nature makes for a slow run because it's hard to actually see the path plus it's much more hilly.

On non-running notes, I was making coffee this morning and I spotted one of my favorite birds at my feeder: a Baltimore Oriole!! I always loved spotting these back in Oklahoma and my mom, aunt and I would almost always see them each year during our lake vacation so it was so neat to see one here. I didn't want to scare him away so I took a picture from inside my kitchen:

I love how brightly colored they are! I tweeted (not sure if that is an actual verb) the Connecticut Audubon Society and they replied that I most likely have a mated pair nesting somewhere in the trees in my backyard. How exciting! I love seeing new and unique birds at my feeders, makes sitting outside that much more enjoyable :)