30..

30 is here today! I have never felt better going into a new year. I am a runner and have an awesome daughter to share it with. I hope all of your holidays were fantastic. We were really busy over the last week that's why there were no posts. From engagement parties to holiday celebrations and visits with friends. We will be headed back to Vermont tomorrow and I have a 9.5 mile run planned for Saturday morning with some friends, then skiing Sunday (hopefully my legs don't protest this plan until Monday!!!)

For the new year I set up runkeeper on my phone to keep track of all my miles. My new run buddy motivated me to try and sign up for a race every month to keep myself going and not slack off. So I think that's what I'll do, I haven't found too many races I want to do yet. After the PHM I am going to do a 10K and try to work on my speed. I am reading Train Like a Mother right now, it has a lot of motivational stories/anecdotes and training plans.

Here's the current race plan, all my info was found here: Run VT

February - Run to Chocolate 2/16 - 2 miles
                 PHM 2/24 - 13.1 miles!!!

March -

April -

May - JMMY Run 5/11 - 10K

That's all for now.. going to enjoy my cute little munchkin, read a book then head to my parent's later for some mexican food!!

Run Buddy!

This weekend I did my first run with someone else (besides pushing a stroller or at a race). I met my run buddy on the Princess Half page and she lives right down the street from me. We met up Saturday morning and knocked out 8 miles in the 18° weather! It was really nice having someone to chat with to make the miles fly by. Here's our run details, we stuck to a nice 12min/mile pace which is perfect for me! I am so impressed with how far I've come since August. I never thought I would be able to, or even want to run 8 miles!

Below is the workout I did today, just a variation on last week's. It went fast, but my legs were still a bit sore from Saturday's run.
 

And of course, I can't finish a post without a picture of my wonderful cheerleader hamming it up for the camera! She had a wonderful weekend hanging around the house. She finally realized there are other rooms in our house so we are spending a lot of time following her around! I made her some Roasted Pear & Banana Puree last Friday and she's been enjoying it along with yogurt and avocado. M is really into using the spoon herself so normally I just put a bit on the spoon and all hell breaks loose. Food everywhere.. cheeks, ears, hair, on me. Oh well, at least she figured out that she likes food. And to be fair, she does get quite a bit in her mouth.

A new treadmill workout

Here's my workout from today, I finally got my butt back on the treadmill and it wasn't too bad. I think having to change up my pace every 30 seconds throughout the run helped. Even though I was clock watching, it wasn't clock watching know that I have to run to x miles or x minutes. I'll definitely be doing this workout again really soon! What also helped my workout step it up was the fact that I found the speaker jack. Listening to Alternative Endurance radio on Pandora was amazing!




Start at whatever speed is more comfortable for you, and get to where you can!



The workout & my workout cheerleader! (I'm assuming all the blabbering was cheering for me!)

Someone had her first yogurt today. She ate it right off the spoon
which I was kind of surprised about. But yay! We're getting places :)

Been awhile..

Since my last post I have:

Run 8 miles (not in a row, that happens this weekend!!)

Traveled to CT and back

Saw a DMB concert

Coveted these lovelies Chanukah? Birthday?

Celebrated M's first Chanukah (her carseat now smells like latkes)

Visited two sets of M's grandparents

Bought plane tickets for the Princess Half

Pledged to run 1000 miles next year (am I nuts????)

Ran into friends from college I haven't seen in years

and I think that's all of any importance!

Yankee Swap

This past weekend was our annual Yankee Swap get together with our friends in VT. It was mostly booze filled, but there were some awesome other gifts I kinda coveted.. like these: Redneck Wine Glass. I ended up with a bunch of brews and a nice bottle of hard cider, my fave!

I ran 7 miles this weekend! I was planning on doing 3 miles one day and 4 the next. My plan called for 7, but I've been slacking a bit. I went out on Sunday, turned on some podcasts and went for it. I really enjoyed running to podcasts, kept me way more engaged (and my mind off the fact that I was still running) and I wasn't thinking about the fact that I had only run for two 4 minute songs. I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner.

Here's part of my stats - See those 12:09 and 12:15 miles? That's where the wind was blowing so hard I almost got knocked off my feet a few times. At other points I also felt like I wasn't moving due to the wind gusts. Crazy! I'm so proud of myself for making it through the whole 7.

Here's a pic of the muffin, she's all about standing and pulling up on anything in her way. She crawls over to me now and goes right up my knee to standing.

We also tried a new sleep technique for the munchkin this weekend, she's been a little spoiled whether it be napping with us or joining us in bed in the wee hours of the morning. While it is great, and I love snuggling with her, something had to be done. She is back to her swing during naps for the time being. We moved it up to her room, turn on the white noise machine and sit there with her until she falls asleep. For night time we are not picking her up when she cries, we go in and rub her belly or back until she calms down then we leave. She comes into our room for her morning eats - anytime between 5 - 7 and then gets to stay in bed with us. Hopefully this will get some better sleeping habits out of her and we will be able to get things done during naptime! Then once she's better about napping on her own, every once in awhile I wouldn't mind cuddling up.