The World Ain't Ready for Nothing Like Y-O-U.

 I could lie to you, but that title came just because I am slightly obsessed with Spotify and yep. I was listening to Travis Tritt. If we can't be honest with the Internets, then who can we be honest with? 

That's right. Mr and Mrs Smith and I are running the Rock N Roll Savannah 1/2 marathon on November 5th. I could lie and say that Philly was perfectly okay with this, but he was not. November 5th is also the day that the Crimson Tide battles the Bayou Bengals in Tuscaloosa. Yep. You guessed. I am missing an Alabama football game to torture myself for 13.1 miles. Not just ANY game. An SEC game. BIG DEAL, people who aren't from the South or who don't care about football! 

Anywho. 

We are super pumped and the lovely Tonia at Racing with Babes made me a training plan, so it started this week. But not without a new pair of shoes. I finally did my shoe fittings right. I went to Fleet Feet in Huntsville- they have the treadmill. (Side note. Don't go for a running shoe fitting in a dress.) Turns out, I pronate my right foot. B-A-D. Can you guess what knee I have trouble with? Yep. The right one. Amazing! There's the light bulb! 

So. I know I wanted a pair of the Frees-but the color was no where to be found and running store dude said no way, bad idea. So, I got some shoes that have some stability on the inside. The Brooks Ravennas. 

It's not a glitter stiletto, but it's close!


So.. Of course I had John take some pictures of me on my first week of training, complete with the new kicks- which I have been on a few runs in, and I LOVE them. No knee pain!!
And since J gets mad when I put weird face pictures of him on the Internets, This is just for you. 

It's a talent to be this pale. I keep hoping for Edward Cullen to come along...

What? A redheaded kid wants in my picture? NEVER!

I'm getting my majorette pose down..

And.. I'm going to punch this Half Marathon in the FACE!!! 

 Are there any of you planning to run RnR Savannah? If so, let's plan a blogger dinner? Anyone game? 

More importantly.. what should I wear for the race? I was thinking.. something Bama inspired since it's game day. You know how I am about dressing up for games, right??

Runners Brain or Fashion Brain?

Guys, I am having a dilemma. While, my Karhu's have helped me knee problem, they are extremely heavy and I feel like I need a secondary running shoe. What I want, is to be faster. And to not have knee pain. I have been lusting over the Nike Free's for a while. They are light weight but I have heard bad things about distance running in them. 

I did a bad thing. I tried them on. They felt fantastic. I talked with the guy at Hibbett's- where I normally wouldn't buy running shoes, but I was browsing and he seemed extremely knowledgable. He flat out told me that with my heel strike, these shoes would be my worst nightmare, but he also told me about the Free technology that simulates barefoot running therefore it strengthens the ankle muscle and blah blah blah. He got me thinking though, he said that "natural" runners( those who hit more on the balls of their feet) have the shock of the strike in their muscles and not in their joints and cartilage like a heel striker does. 

I am afraid I am doing THE ONE thing that a runner isn't supposed to do and am choosing a shoe based on looks. He put a special insert in the shoe and I tried it on with my normal running sock and it felt fantastic. 

I am looking for this shoe as a secondary running shoe, not a primary. Something to start out with 1-2 mile runs to help improve my speed and hopefully my running "style"- is that the right word?

Anyway, so last night I went to run a mile- to help my speed and tried to stay conscious of how my foot was hitting and stayed more on the mid-foot area, and I could feel it working my calves more and different muscles in my feet. I felt much better and didn't get as tired as I normally would and ended up running almost 3 miles.

I am also still having a breathing problem... I am not sure if I just suck wind and therefore my mouth and throat get dry and so I stop to drink some water, but I am getting side stitches. How can I fix this? I think it might be becoming a mental block too.

So, my questions are.. Am I letting my fashion brain overtake my smart runners brain on a shoe purchase? I have enjoyed the Karhu's but would rather get back into my Vomero's and maybe a pair of Free's for shorter distances. What do you think?? Opinions, people!!

And what can I do to help my breathing techniques?

I jiggle- Week 3

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! While I am not digging getting older, I still do love my birthday. 

I ended up with the cutest travel coffee mug from my friend Ashley- I love travel coffee mugs! The girls got me lots of dollars on iTunes to buy some books and music and I got two bottles of wine from the wine tasting the other night and a new running outfit- it's Alabama style people. Can I just say how much I love my new WHITE running skirt! After seeing Racing with Babes Boston inspired outfit, I knew I had to have a Bama one. Philly heard my cries and somehow got a Running Skirt here after pronouncing on Monday that he couldn't find it on the website. 

So, onto week 3! I am loving everyone coming together and giving motivation to each other for this challenge. 

While, I didn't get on the scales this morning after my birthday dinner, I can attest that I have been staying strong at 130.  I can't tell you how awesome it makes me feel to have everyone tell me how skinny I look. I promise that never gets old! 

I have decided that I will most likely try to stay around 130 and just tone up my body. My friend Jana has started her second week of Jillian's Ripped in 30 Days- she says it's tough but she is already seeing results. So much that her husband has commented on it. I will be ordering that and doing it in conjunction with running/elliptical. I really want to concentrate on getting my pace under 10 minutes, so I will be working on my speed for a 5K. I am around 10:20 a mile for my 5K pace and I want to get that down to 9:00. 

I can't wait to hear about how everyone is doing this week! 

Update on the shoes.. and other things.

I have had 5 workouts with the new shoes. There are super comfy and my knees haven't been bothering me. Here is the downside. My socks don't like them. I wear the thorlo pads and these two aren't meshing. Also, my feet get hot. I can't stand when my feet get hot. Thirdly, I think they are a little heavy for running shoes. I have been thinking my legs felt like lead but now I am thinking it's the heaviness of the shoes. I can only assume that since the shoes a little heavier that they are the reason that my calves are sore. Not that I am complaining. My calves could use a work out.

I also discovered that I can't run Nashville. No babysitters. It's really not a big deal to me. My heart wasn't in that race anyway. But I wanted to look for a 10K to run. It seems like a good distance for me. I found two. One on the day of A-Day and the other is the day we leave for Vegas. So.. no can do. I'm a little ticked about it.

Since I am a person that needs goals, I have decided to really work on bringing my 5K time down. I really want to run a sub 30 min 5K. I am just not sure how to go about concentrating on speed work. How often should this be done? Can it be done on a treadmill?

I am thinking I need a running partner too. I really do enjoy running outside. I don't know many runners, so I either need to find some runner friends/runner group or make the friends I already have, run. Any takers? (yes, Jana- I, too, wish we lived closer together because we could be awesome running buddies.)

On a side note, I want to get toned. I am trying to figure out the best way to go about it. Start working with weights? Run more? Do The Shred? I had my body fat analyzed this morning. This is how is breaks down... 23.1 body fat and my muscle mass is 23.3- basically I am half muscle, half fat. 14-20% is the athletic area of body fat, and I am in the fitness area. I'm not trying to unload my body image issues on here, but basically, I hate my inner thighs, second butt, and my arms. So, anything to help me there would be greatly appreciated.

To answer the anonymous question that was posted in my comments- We are still unsure if we are done having kids or not. We are happy with the way the things are right now. If we do try again, I think we would both be happy either way it went. Boy or another girl- it wouldn't matter to me! :)

I got some new shoes on...

"Hey, I got some new shoes on and suddenly everything is bright..." 

Yesterday I went and got re-fitted for some shoes. The more I thought about my previous fitting, the more it disturbs me. The girl told me she didn't run and she was quite uninterested in helping me with my shoes. Lesson learned. 

I have been hearing some good things about The Trak Shak in Homewood, so we went over there. The guy was super helpful. And his running knowledge was immense. He actually told me he doesn't bother with races he can't win. Whoa. I just run to finish. 

I told him about my knee pain and he agreed it was most likely from my shoes and spouted off some reasoning. I just nodded. Whatever. Fix me, dude. 

He started raving about these Karhu running shoes. I thought they were way ugly. They apparently have two colors in stock. Neon Green and Glow in the dark Orange. I was leary to say the least. I tried my hardest to like the Mizuno better, but I had to think of my knee and not fashion and brought home these babies. 

I went for my first run in them. First comment from a lady in the locker room.. "Wow! Those sure are bright and orange! Are you an Auburn fan?" I replied with a no, I wasn't and thats why I didn't want to buy them, but they are crazy comfy. 

I ran 2 miles-- not a lot but I did some speed work and knee pain? Gone. It felt good to run. I would loved to have gone further, but apparently the gym didn't change their clocks with DST and I thought it was almost 11 and needed to get the girls some lunch.. ugh. Yeah, it was only 10. Boo. 

Anyway, I definitely looked like a skittle today with my green running shirt, purple,pink, and green shorts and my orange and yellow running shoes.

I'm not gonna lie, they did make me want to run a little faster! 

Road to Recovery and Disney!!

We may have done a TON of this over the past couple of days:

But, we are on the mend. I did get it Friday afternoon/evening. Thankfully the vomiting didn't start until after John got home. You know that feeling that you KNOW you are going to be throwing up your lunch later as you actually eat it? Yeah.. I had that. Good news is, it seems John's mask worked and he hasn't gotten it. The bathrooms and kitchen are disinfected and I have washed more sheets and towels than I care to admit. 

We have also unloaded our piggy banks...

In an effort to teach the girls about saving money, I told Addison that we would empty her piggy bank and she could pick out and buy whatever she wanted to with her money. She was all for it! 

Look at that concentration!! 

In the events of sickness, I missed a 5 mile run and my 10 mile run. Which, I know in the scheme of training, it isn't that big of a deal, but, mentally, I really wanted that 10 mile run. Now my question is, Do I run 5 tomorrow? And maybe 3 Thursday if I can fit it in our Disney schedule?

And I know everyone has been waiting for the outfit reveal....

I am still a little undecided on the tall socks.. I like them, but I didn't get a chance to run in them, so I am not sure how they will do. I have a sparkly silver sweaty band--it reminds me of Cinderella! 

If you see me on the course.. Say Hello! Or ya know, drag me across the finish line. 

Complete Randomness

Yesterday, we had to go to Huntsville because John's car was shaking pretty bad whenever he braked and since I am driving it to Nashville next week for Blissdom, we needed to find out what was wrong. Apparently, there was a silent recall on the roters? They didn't send out letters but if anyone complained about it, they replaced it for free.. Weird. Anyway.. the car is good as new. 

We pretty much lounged around all day.. took some stuff back to Hancock Fabrics that I didn't use for the ottoman, looked in Dick's sporting goods, and then we went and ate at Newk's. John loves Newk's. It's okay... But I like to give places a chance until I can find something that I love. I tried to Cobb Salad this time.. no onions or Blu Cheese. Blu Cheese makes me want to vomit. John warned me that the salad were pretty big. I wasn't prepared for the mixing bowl that it came in. 

It's the size of my head!!

I would like to point out that most of this salad was lettuce and I did pound it pretty good. I also learned something about myself from this salad. I do not like Gorgonzola cheese. GROSS. I love Feta cheese and I thought it was similar, but NOPE. It's like Blu Cheese's twin sister. 

We ventured over to Fleet Feet Sports in Huntsville, so I could scope out a Spibelt. And let me tell you, that place is heaven!! I mean, the one in Huntsville slaps the one in Birmingham in the face. They were passing out packets for a 50K this weekend, and I thought John was going to have a stroke over the distance- which is 31 miles. But he also contemplated signing up because of the super nice North Face shirts that were the race shirts. I also found these tempos.. they had a white pair that was trimmed in the purple and green and it was a tough decision, but John made fun of white running shorts. I realize I need another pair of tempos, like I need another hole in my head, but I can't help it!! I am addicted... (the first step is admitting there is a problem...) John made fun of me about my addiction, but I told him I owned up to it unlike him with his addiction to tennis shoes and jackets. 

I mean.. I NEEDED this shorts, because I like outfits that match and I have a shirt that is that green color that has never had a pair of shorts of it's very own to match! You see... I did that shirt a favor, right?!!? 

Anyway, I am not sure about the Spibelt... it's a good idea in theory, but the one I looked at didn't look big enough for my iPhone! 

Since it's Friday and I love spitting out song lyrics.. Can you name this song?? 

"Black, black, black and blue

Beat me til I'm numb

Tell the Devil I said 'Hey' when you get back to where you're from"

Happy Friday!

Running gear Yay or Nay?

Even though I am kind of slacking at training, I'm still getting in there everyday, and I guess that means something. Y'alls comments mean a lot... Thanks!! I really liked Mollie's idea of having John drop me off 6 miles from home and him making me run home.. that would definitely get the mileage in, don't you think?





Anyway.. I am starting to comtemplate (obsess) over what I should wear for the Disney Half... I want to cute and girly... I am thinking this pink running skirt? And a a white running shirt for it? Any ideas?

Running Skirts

I really want one of these water bottles for outdoor training..but in pink. Duh.

Nathan Water Bottles

I realize that this may be the running fanny pack, but I think it would come in handy during the race for my camera, GU's, and cell phone--because that is a definite MUST for finding family after. 

SpiBelt

I am also wondering about compression socks for either during or after the race?? Anyone ever used these for a half?

Zensah Calf sleeves 

This is a definite MUST HAVE. Talk about some motivation!!! 

Hand stamped necklace from Etsy...  

I realize that these wouldn't match my outfit.. but I am definitely needing some fun socks for the race! What do you think? Yay or Nay??

Little Miss Matched

I also REALLY want a pink sweatyband!!

Is there anything that I am forgetting that might be beneficial for this race? I am really sad that I didn't have any pictures during the race last year, because the course was SUPER fun! Also.. is anyone out there running it or know anyone running it? I need some course buddies!! I think my partner has backed out.. my friend Kristen may run it with me, but she has bad knees and is going to have to see how it goes...