more for four!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, here I am with my Week 4 Training Report:

Monday, December, 20th: Today I did a treadmill interval workout that was suggested in January's issue of Runner's World Magazine. I started with 5 minutes speed walking for warm-up, Run 2 min.(max speed 5.0 mi/hr)/ Walk 1 min. (Repeat x3), Run 3 min (max speed 5.4 mi/hr)/ Walk 1 min. (Repeat x3), Run 2/ Walk 1, Run 1/ Walk 4 (cool down). I covered 2.5 miles over 34 minutes. This was a good workout for my in that I am learning how to pace myself and stay running for longer periods of time. When I am running on the road I run too fast but then cannot keep it up long so I start walking. I hope this type of workout will help me increase the distance/time I can maintain running, and in time improve my pace.

Tuesday, December, 21th: Haircut, 25 minutes of P90X Yoga X Video, Massage, laundry, and pack. Sleep!

Wednesday, December, 22th: Fly to San Jose in the morning. No workout today.

Thursday, December, 23th: Run/ Walk with Dad on the road! (0.82 miles warm-up walk, 1.9 miles of straight running, and 1.1 miles fast walk to cool-down, for 3.97 miles total!), came home to do P90X Ab Ripper X, then 1/2 of P90X Stretch. I did many things today that I never thought I would do: 1) Get up a 6 am to go workout when I had no plans for the whole day, 2) Started running while the stars and moon were still out, 3) Run for almost 2 miles straight (been many years since I've been able to do that!), 4) Did exercise videos after completing a run. Today I realized that running is not only a physical sport but I learned first hand the power of the mind in being able to complete longer distances (hopefully it will still hold true as the distances get longer)!

Friday, December, 24th: While my family took naps I did the P90X Cardio X Video after going to Christmas Eve lunch with extended family.

Saturday, December, 25th: Merry Christmas! And they all settled down for a long winters nap... (Well, not really but I did take a day off from exercise)

Sunday, December, 26th: P90X Yoga X video (55 minutes).

Excitements for this Week:
- Going for a run with my training partner, Dad!
- Total distance covered: 6.4 miles.
- Worked out 5/7 days!

Goals for next Week:
- Keep on training schedule even through working 3 days in a row.
- Starting on a stricter food program.

polar express

Reading the Polar Express is a Fiebiger Christmas Eve tradition. The story is heart warming and the illustrations are beautiful. I look forward to reading this book every Christmas season!

"On Christmas Eve, many years ago..."

"All aboard,' the conductor cried out."

"Outside, the lights of towns and villages flickered in the distance as the Polar Express raced northward."

"We climbed mountain so high it seemed as if we would scrape the moon."

"The first gift of Christmas!"

"Santa circled once above us, then disappeared in the cold, dark polar sky."

"I shook the bell. It made the most beautiful sound my sister and I had ever heard."

"Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe."

Merry Christmas to you and all those you love!

three

Week 3 Recap: By the time this week has completed I feel like I am gaining a lot of strength and starting to see results. I have registered for both the half- marathon in June and a 5 K in January for extra "organized" run experience. I am realizing that this training process is not a sprint and despite saying it before I now know some days will be easier than others and I have to look at my overall progress rather than getting fixated on the little setbacks! I am excited for week 4 which falls the week leading up to Christmas. This week will be challenging but also nice in that I will have my family, friends and my training partner (my Dad) by my side for support!

Monday, December, 13th: After getting a cramp in my thigh at work last night and the joints in my legs barking at me I decided to take an unexpected rest day. I visited with friends, ran a few errands, made my contribution for my work party on Thursday, and caught up on sleep, back to the schedule tomorrow!

Tuesday, December, 14th: P90X Pyleometrics Video. I had been warned about the difficulity of this video from a friend but I wanted to see for myself and get a good workout in. I was able to finish 40 minutes of the 60 minute video and then to top things off I did some crunches and push ups. Because the exercises in the video are very high-impact I followed the low impact version of the exercises to preserve my neck and knees, for where I am at in my training this was still difficult, resulting in a very fast heart rate and i'm sure some sore muscles tomorrow.

Wednesday, December, 15th: The soreness from my workout yesterday set in about 1 am while at work. My only motivation for working out today was to get my muscles warmed so I could stretch them out and get some of that built up lactic acid out. For my workout today I did: Elliptical (10 minute warm-up)/Treadmill (20 minutes, 50% run, 50% walk)/Weights/Stretching in the gym, and then went to work nights as charge. After my muscles were nice and warm from the cardio, I stretched out and a lot of my muscles soreness went away. As soon as my muscles cooled off the soreness set back in which made for a interesting sight when I went from sitting to walking all night at work, needless to say I'm excited for my scheduled break day tomorrow.

Thursday, December, 16th: Morning meeting, some sleep, afternoon class, evening work party.

Friday, December, 17th: Today I had to dig deep for motivation to workout, I was sitting on the couch, it was raining outside and the last thing I wanted to do was get sweaty. I find that the day after I have a rest day it is hard for me to get the motivation to get my workout in but somewhere though I found the motivation to complete the entire P90X Kenpo X Video. Upon completing the video I felt good, proud and happy that I had found the motivation to do my workout.

Saturday, December, 18th: Big Workout for the week, Walk/Run 4 mile loop from my house to and through Balboa Park. Today I woke up and immediately put my workout clothes on so I could not be tempted later to miss out on this run, especially since it was not raining when I woke up and I wasn't feeling sore from yesterdays workout. I ate a little something and got going on my run. I took a reverse route of my loop than I usually do to keep things interesting. I ran more than I usually do but I find when there is any kind of wind (as there was today) or once my heart rate gets to 180's (I wear a heart rate monitor) I have a hard time to keep going. What I did today was let me heart rate come back down to the 160's and then would start running again. I definently have a long ways to go before I'll be able to run this half-marathon and I'm trying to have hope that it will get easier as the training progresses but I'm just not so sure it will. I guess all things in life aren't easy and the ones you have to work for are that much more rewarding! (I'll keep telling myself that...LOL)

Sunday, December,19th: Unexpected rest day for an unwanted and unexpected migrane leading to waking up right before time to get ready for night shift :( Good news is I was not sore from my run/walk yesterday, which probably means I need to push myself harder to be running longer.

Excitements for the Week:
- Being told I look like I'm losing weight, by 3 co-workers now!
- Felling that I have more energy (most of the time!) and not needing as much sleep.

Downfalls for the Week:
- Not following my diet as I want to.
- Not drinking enough water.

Goals for Next Week:
- Keep on track with training schedule despite being week of Christmas and going home for a week (starting Dec. 22nd).
- Focus more on following a balanced diet.
- Drink more water!!!

cake pops

Cake pops are the hottest fashion for serving your favorite cake. Between cupcakes, cake pops and whoopie pies; cake is sure taking the center stage on many websites, blogs, shops, and even TV shows! For my work Christmas party I wanted to contribute something fun and festive and of course have the opportunity to bake so I decided to make cake pops. Let me just tell you that that cake pop making experience may be my first and last! Those puppies are not easy to make. Luckily I did not try to cram it the steps into one day or even two. Please forgive the lack of pictures throughout the steps, I was too focused on trying to get the steps down that I gave up taking pictures after the first step.

Step 1: The first day I made 2 different types of cake red velvet (I thought the red would be fun for Christmas) and chocolate (cause lets face it, who doesn't like chocolate). I could have just made one and it would have been enough, but I learned from my mom and always make too much food for parties, so 2 cakes I had. After they cooled I stored them to use later for step 2.

Step 2: I crumbled each of the cakes into their own bowl using a fork. For the red velvet cake I mixed a jar of cream cheese frosting. (This made a really soft mixture and I would recommend using 2/3 -3/4 of the jar of frosting rather than the whole thing.) The frosting mixes in completely so eventually you don't see the frosting and it is about the consistency of cookie dough. For the chocolate cake I mixed in 2/3 jar of milk chocolate frosting. This yielded a much better consistency for step 3.

Step 3: Step 3 is done on the same day as step 2. You can use a spoon or a small ice cream or cookie dough scoop would be helpful to take a piece of the cake mixture and roll it into a ball (Mine where about the size of a ping pong ball but they could definitely be smaller.) Place on a lined cookie sheet or cake pan. Once the pan is full place in the refrigerator or freezer (I had read that the freezer makes them too hard but my fridge didn't get them cold enough to do step 4, so I had to put them in the freezer). Leave them chilled.

Step 4: This step can be done the day before you wish to serve them or even the day of. Using a double boiler, melt chocolate (I used colored chocolate from Micheal's Craft Store). Not until the chocolate is melted should you take the cake balls out of their chilled location. Place the cake ball on a stick to make it a cake pop or leave alone to have just a cake ball. Cover the ball or pop in the melted chocolate then if desired immediately sprinkle with some decorative sugar sprinkles, or candy, or whatever! I allowed mine to harder while stuck in a Styrofoam block; if you decided to have them cool while lying on wax paper you will have a flat side to your ball. Once they cooled and the chocolate hardened I gently layed them flat on a cookie sheet and covered in plastic wrap.

Step 5: This step should be done the day you plan to serve them. This step was the most fun part for me, it's all about the display! I decided to make a cake pop bouquet with mine. I placed Styrofoam into a Christmas-y container and then covered the foam with shredded paper and red tinsel-y strips. The cake pops where placed into the foam and stayed pretty well (that is until I had to put the arrangement into my car and drive to the party and it fell over : (, luckily not too much damage was done and they still tasted great! I have also seen people place the cake pops upside down or the cake balls themselves in cupcake wrappers. You can get creative with how you display your cake pops/balls and regardless of how they are displayed everyone will be excited to eat them!


Cake Pop Bouquet!



Here you can see the moist cake inside with the sprinkle covered white chocolate outside!

resolution run

As part of my training for the SD Rock and Roll half-marathon I registered for and will be running in the San Diego Resolution 5K Run on January 9th. This will be my first orgainzed run which I wanted to have under my belt before running in the half-marathon. I have heard that organized runs are much different than going out on the road on your own and I didn't want to have that first experience when I was going to be trying to run the half-marathon. Anyone interested in running with me, go to the link above and sign up before January 7th!

one week left

7 little flaps left to fold back til it's Christmas!

This is the advent calender I made to count down for Christmas this year, as you can see there is so little chocolates waiting for me each morning, just a little tab. I originally planned to put an activity behind each flap or a quote but that did not get done yet, I can always add it for next year as this Advent calender can be used year after year!

I embellished the Advent Calender with die cut reindeer, and snow flakes as well as some glidder glue for the snow on the roof and the snow flakes. After the flap is folded back each day, a Christmas pattern is revealed on the paper behind.

sunny visitor

Katie & I,  May 2006



Katie & I at a sorority recruitment event.

My dear friend, and Sigma Kappa "sister" from University of Arizona, Katie, came to visit this past weekend, after she had to gone to San Francisco for a work conference. Since she had trekked from Minnesota to California it only made sense that she stopped in San Diego before heading back. Katie is the one person in my sorority that I connected with instantly, she has the most cheery, friendly personality! Katie and I lived together with our friend Sarah, my senior year; that year we spent lots of time attending sorority events together and going on double dates with our then fraternity brother boyfriends. Katie is a friend that you could call on for anything and she would do it for you and no matter how much time passes we pick up where we left off.

Katie arrived late Thursday (after a crazy day of travel) and we enjoyed a yummy dinner that night and hours of laughing and talking.

Friday Katie worked from my apartment and I slept in and worked out; early that evening we got sushi (one of our favorite things to do when we lived in Tucson) and then watched Sex & the City 2.

Saturday after breakfast we headed over to Coronado Island to enjoy the AMAZING weather Katie must have brought with her, high 60's and so sunny. We walked through the downtown area, Hotel Del Coronado (checked out the ice skating rink at the hotel that due to the weather was starting to look like a wading pool), walked along the beach and boardwalk, fulfilled Katie's Mexican food cravings, and then headed to La Jolla.

Hotel Del Coronado on a gorgeous day.

View of downtown San Diego from the west side of the island.

Katie playing in the water.

Upon getting to La Jolla you would think we had traveled a whole lot further than we had. The temperature dropped 12 deg and it was like we were in a cloud. We walked along the boardwalk, said "hi" to the seals at Children's Pool, and then checked out a few shops. We headed home for dinner and a movie.

Seals kissing.

Children's Pool all fogged in.

Beautiful sunset

Sunday morning we were greeted by even better weather than Saturday. After breakfast we went to the Hillcrest Farmer's Market and then it was time for Katie to head home. Luckily she did not have any problems with her flight as we were anticipating due to the many flight delays and cancellations on Saturday from the biggest blizzard to hit Minnesota since Halloween 1991.

It was such a pleasure to have you visit Katie, and I cannot wait to come check out your stomping grounds sometime soon! I hope you had a relaxing weekend in sunny California! Thanks for all the laughs and reminiscing too!



Katie & I, December 2010



2

Here is a recap of week 2 of half-marathon training:

This week I am feeling I am gaining a lot of strength but my muscles get easily fatigued and sore during workouts that I have a hard time getting as much done as I want. Working night shift and having a friend in town made it slightly more difficult to get my workouts in but I am happy to say I did an official workout on 4/7 days, next week I will aim for 5, please give me the strength to accomplish my goal!

Monday, Dec. 6th: Rest, back still hurting.

Tuesday, Dec. 7th: 45 minutes of Yoga X video in P90X series. Great cardio, strength and stretching workout! Work night shift after :(

Wednesday, Dec. 8th: 30 mintues of cardio (walk, run, elliptical) in gym followed by stretching. Work night shift.

Thursday, Dec. 9th: Rest, Katie (AZ roommate and sorority sister) comes for the weekend!

Friday, Dec. 10th: 4 mile mostly walk, very little run from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach and back, with Pati. Harder to run with wind resistance (at least that's what I'm telling myself), despite loving having the company I think I push myself harder when I am working out alone cause I can pace myself

Saturday, Dec. 11th: Walked all around Coronado Island exploring with Katie.

Sunday, Dec. 12th: Woke up early to go to gym, 26 minutes of intervals on elliptical, 10 minutes walk/run on treadmill. Katie headed back to her winter wonderland and I napped to work night shift as charge.

Up next: Pictures from the 70 degree day spent with Katie walking around Coronado Island. I am very thankful for sporatic days of amazingness in the winter that make me hopeful for a nice upcoming Sping/Summer!

deck the halls

My apartment is all decorated for Christmas and I love it! I wish it could be Christmas year round and I could enjoy the smell of pine, the lighted Christmas tree, and Christmas movies and music every day! Everyday events such as watching tv or having dinner seem that much more special with a beautifully decorated and lighted Christmas tree illuminating the room. To celebrate the start of the Christmas season I had the States Family, Pati, Leith, and Isaiah, over for dinner; here are some pictures from the night!

Table set for dinner with my Spode dishes

My Apartment all decorated!

Father and Son

Happy Family

Isaish wants some brownie & ice cream too!

lululemon

While being bored at work tonight and searching the internet I came across lululemon athletica website. I initially was scrolling throught the yoga and running gear which was very nice but then came across the 'education' tab. I am always one for wanting to learn something new and was curious what this athletic clothing company could teach me, so I clicked on the tab...I came aross more than I could have ever imagined. Being that I am training for a half-marthon I first looked at 'goal setting'. There I was directed to the lululemon goal tender. I highly recommend that you all click on that link and follow the steps as I did. I am already a pretty goal oriented person so filling out my career, personal and health goals for 1, 5, and 10 years was not too difficult for me but having it on writing is always an added encouragement. Set your goals high, failure is okay... SERIOUSLY, that shows you are pushing yourself to accomplish tough things. Go on, do it NOW!

From there I came across lululemon's manifesto which really spoke to me. It really made me think and examine my life. Here it is in text format:

• Drink FRESH water and as much water as you can. Water flushes unwanted toxins from your body and keeps your brain sharp.
• A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
• Do one thing a day that scares you.
• Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic questions.
• Write down your short and long-term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and two health goals for the next 1, 5 and 10 years. Goal setting triggers your subconscious computer.
• Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks.
• Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.
• That which matters the most should never give way to that which matters the least.
• Stress is related to 99% of all illness.
• Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.
• The world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW!
• Friends are more important than money.
• Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.
• Take various vitamins. You never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck to everlasting health.
• Don't trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.
• Visualize your eventual demise. It can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.
• The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought.
• Live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Vancouver will do nicely.
• Observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.
• Practice yoga so you can remain active in physical sports as you age.
• Dance, sing, floss and travel.
• Children are the orgasm of life. Just like you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you have them.
• Successful people replace the words 'wish', 'should' and 'try', with 'I will'.
• Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment.
• Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce. Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top, and will give you a lousy life.
• lululemon athletica creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives. If we can produce products to keep people active and stress-free, we believe the world will become a much better place.
• Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter.
• SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.
• Communication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur.
• What we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
• The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

one is done

Week one is completed. Here is a recap of my first week of training.

Monday, Nov. 29: Ran/Walked 2 miles on the treadmill over 29 minutes. I went a max speed of 5.5 mi while running. After I did a few of the upper body weight machines in the gym. Did workout prior to working night shift.

Tuesday, Nov. 30: Eliptical 20 minutes, intervals. Weights. Today I did not want to workout and it took a lot of mental encouragement on my part. My dad's daily emails of his workout also added a guilt factor which got me off my butt and into the gym for an easier workout.

Wednesday, Dec. 1: Rest; Today I slept in, ran errands and went shopping all day. My body was more sore after this then most my workouts.

Thursday, Dec.2: Ran/Walked 4 miles over 55 min. I used 'mapmyrun' to map out a route that I like to take from time to time. I started at Mission Beach, next to Belmont Park (where the roller coaster is) and ran/walked to Pacific Beach and then back. It was a beautiful, warm day and not many people out. My right knee started to hurt towards the end as did the ball on my left foot and I got my first blister on my heal (I'm sure it will be the first of many blisters). The first half I ran more than I have been able to in the past and I felt like my lung endurance is improving. Overall a great workout.

Friday, Dec. 3: More Christmas Shopping

Saturday, Dec. 4: 20 minutes of yoga before driving to see parents and grandparents in LA
Sunday, Dec. 5: Work night shift

Goals for next Week-
~ Do a workout on 4 to 5 days.
~ Work through the aches and pains and get my lower back pain undercontrol which I've had since my run/walk on Dec. 2nd.
~ Resist sweets associated with the Christmas season.

joy!

The other night I had this little bundle of joy and his parents over for dinner. We had a festive night with dinner, dessert and Christmas movies. I'm so thankful to have these dear friends in my life and get to see this little guy grow up! Merry 1st Christmas Isaiah!

rockin' around the Christmas tree

Thank goodness to Home Depot my 2010 Christmas tree was found! Last year I found a great tree at Target and for some reason Target (at least in San Diego) is not selling live Christmas trees this year. What was even better for the Christmas tree search is that Home Depot is right next to Target. They had a HUGE selection of both Noble and Douglas Fir trees. Our family has typically always gotten Douglas fir trees, as did I last year, but this year a cute little 5 ft. Noble was calling my name. I have to say it was much lighter than my tree last year which made carrying it into my apartment alone much easier!

Once in the apartment it was base, water, lights, topper, skirt, and then the ornaments!

All my ornaments, I have collected over the years from childhood, including my 'Baby's First Christmas' ornament, which makes for a special tree. Each year my parents and grandparents gave me an ornament, so I have quite the collection. As I got into middle school my mom would try to pick out an ornament that symbolized that year or a major event in that year. It is always very special to unwrap the ornaments from their tissue paper each year at Christmas time and recall special memories that certain ornaments bring up!

map my run

For you road runners, walkers and explorers alike, mapmyrun.com  is a website to help you determine the distance you covered on your random run through neighborhoods or along the beach. This website allows you to use a google like map which you can click on it showing your every turn, it then totals up the distance you covered. It allows you to make loops or an up and back route if you go somewhere and then take the same path back. I have used this website infrequently in the past but for my current training I think it will be even more helpful to use daily so I can discover new runs that other people post, or I can trace back or plan my route checking for the mileage I'm looking for for that run. The website also has a training log, races and runs, forums and much more that I have yet to even discover. 'Map my run' could be especially helpful if you are traveling and wanting to go for a run but you don't have access to a gym or do not know the area well enough you are in to just start running.

nana's ricotta gnocchi

Ever since I can remember, my great-grandma's ricotta gnocchi have been one of my favorite pastas and dishes in general. My grandma, Nana, has carried on the tradition of hand making these gnocchi to share with the family. Even as a child Nana started to teach me how to make gnocchi and although I've made them a handful of times, I still have a ways to go til they are as perfect as when Nana makes them. The good news with gnocchi, no matter what they look like, it is hard for them to not still taste good. These gnocchi taste different than the potato gnocchi you usually see in stores and restaurants. Ricotta gnocchi are tender, delicate, and smaller than the potato counterpoint.

My great-grandmother came to the United States from the southern Italy region of Calabria as a young women just in time to get married to a man she had not met. They had 6 children together which she then raised alone after her husband died of pneumonia. From all the stories Nana has told me about her she seems like a very strong, courageous, and resourceful woman.

Growing up my family usually came to spend Thanksgiving at Nana and Papa's house and then later they came to our home. The Friday after Thanksgiving was ALWAYS gnocchi/Italian night. Nana would make a few pounds of gnocchi and bring them frozen to where ever we happened to be for dinner that night. The gnocchi are always a crowd pleaser.

I decided it would not feel like Thanksgiving without gnocchi, so the week before Thanksgiving I made some homemade ricotta gnocchi. I didn't think the frozen gnocchi would travel well with out a cooler so I kept them here in San Diego and have been enjoying them for a few different dinners now. There are not many foods that warm my heart and bring about memories like these gnocchi do for me!

Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi

1 lb Ricotta Cheese (do not use low or non fat)

1 whole egg

Mix with fork

Add all-purpose flour~ about 1 1/2 to 2 cups (enough until dough is easy to handle, should be slightly stiff)

Once dough comes together in a ball and is workable, put dough on a plate and cover with a bowl. Take a small piece of dough and roll to about the size of your finger. Cut into pieces about 3/4 inch. Lightly flour gnocchi board (board with ridges) or use a the grooves on a fork. With your index finger, roll each piece on the board or fork towards you, pressing hard enough to curl dough. This makes ridges on the outside and hollows out the inside of the dough.

Put a piece of wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and fill with a single layer of gnocchi. Once cookie sheet is filled, place in freezer for about 20 minutes. Once they are frozen, peal off the paper, break them apart from each other if stuck, then place in a gallon sized plastic bag, and store in the freezer. Repeat until done.

 When you desire to have your gnocchi, place desire portion in a pot of boiling water. Make sure to use a pot large enough not to over crowd gnocchi, otherwise they may be mushy. When the gnocchi first go in the pot they will sink to the bottom, slowly one by one the gnocchi will begin to float to the surface of the water. Just as they all rise,which just takes a few minutes since the pasta is fresh, immediately drain in a colander.

 Lightly mix with your favorite basic tomato sauce and freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional). Serve immediately, it cools off quickly. Enjoy!

'get off your butt and on with your training'



I recently finished reading a book in preperation for training for the half marathon I will complete in June, 2011. The book, The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide For Women, Get off Your Butt and On With Your Training, is a very matter of fact look at the mind set, ups and downs, and insanity of training for a long distance run. The realistic humor left me laughing out loud throughout just about every chapter in the book.

It is complete with a training guide for both a half-marathon and full-marathon.

The program I will be following is a 20 week plan with the end being race day! Since it is more than 20 weeks from my race day I will be spending the next 8 weeks doing a combination of running, walking, eliptical machine, weights, and P90X videos in prepartion for the training program. My goal during the next 2 months is to increase my endurance, become more familiar with running, gets used to working out regularly, lose weight, and gain strength.

Last night I had the joy of completing my first official training day. This was not a very long workout considering I had to work night shift just after but it was not easy to say the least. I used the treadmill in my apartment complex gym and ran/walk 2 miles which took me 29 minutes (pathetic if you ask me, but that's why it's called training...right?). I went a max speed of 5.5 mi/hr while running and probably walked half and ran half. While running i focused on keeping my upper body relaxed, my breathing patterns, running technique and tried to ignore that my lungs felt like they were burning and my neck hurt. Over time i hope my body will hurt less, to increase my speed, and length of time running. On an exciting note, over the past 3.5 weeks i have lost 5 lbs and feel great! It's rewarding to know my increased efforts are giving some sort of pay off!

giving thanks

This Thanksgiving I was able to get off work and fly home to the bay area and spend a long weekend with family and friends! I am so thankful for the family and friends in my life not to mention my health, job, life in San Diego, future opportunities, my car, apartment, my creative outlets, and overall life in general! Here is a recap of the weekends festivities. 

Relaxing at home...

The Men of the House, Dad and Mr. Biggs

Maddie "Mad Dog"

~
Wednesday night Pre-Thanksgiving Festivities...

Me, Kate, and Libby

The Gang

Sisters!

~
Quiet Thanksgiving at home...

Mom and Mama Sue

Future Half-Marathon Runners

Dad and Mom

Thanksgiving Feast

Corie entertaining us!

~
Lunch with extended family...

Me with Cousins Emily and Libby

Mama Sue with her grand kids

~

Christmas tree cutting....

The "One"



Timmmmm...



berrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Warrior Women!

Locked and Loaded

I already cannot wait to head home for Christmas and spend time with friends and family!