Monthly Archives: December 2011

2012, Bring It On!

2011 has been a fantastic year for me. I have found new hobbies, started hiking, gotten addicted, started running, gotten addicted, set goals, and achieved almost all of them. Even though I’m not running the PFChang’s Rock and Roll Half Marathon in 2012, I’m still setting a goal of running at least one this year. I can’t wait to be healed from this knee injury so I can run again! Until then, I am setting goals.
My New Year’s resolution last year was to become a more active person. I have definitely been successful!

I am not going to just set one resolution this year, because there is so much that I want to do! I don’t feel like I have to go at it with an “overhaul myself” state of mind, either, since being active, for me, is a way of life now. I don’t know how I was so sedentary before! I have never felt better! (Being good to my body by not drinking, not smoking, and eating pretty darn well also helps :-) ). I have gone from drinking at least 1, if not 2 or 3 diet sodas per day and about 1 small bottle of water, to feeling dehrdrated if I haven’t had at least a 1 liter Smart Water halfway through my day. I’m overall better and nicer to myself than I ever have been, and definitely want to keep it up.
So, here are some of my goals for 2012:

1. Run a half marathon. 13.1 miles under my belt, and a medal to show for it! God willing, injuries mended, I will do it! One that I am planning on running for sure is:

2. Run a 5K in 25 minutes or less. I think that this is possible, if I can stay healthy.

3. Run as many 5K’s and 10K’s as I can. I have so much fun at races! I want to do as many short, fun races as I can this year.

4. Keep up on my running scrapbook. I am making a scrapbook with my race bibs and medals, etc from all of the races I have ever done. I will take some pics and make a blog post about it when I get more of it done.

5. Expand on my cooking skills. Ask my husband about my cooking…..actually don’t. Please, lol! I tend to cook on the healthy side; sometimes to the extreme. I follow recipes, and substitute ingredients to make things more healthy. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t! Cameron isn’t always a huge fan of my cooking, so I would like to work on it this year. Making meals that are good for us, and also, don’t remind us of cardboard. I am open for suggestions, so shoot them my way!

6. Walk Ali more. Since I’ve been hiking mountains and running much longer distances, I haven’t been able to take Tater Tot with me, because I know she’ll be done after a mile or less. I’ve started getting her right after my runs and taking her on a walk around the block as a cool down. I want to start doing this more, because it is good for her, and I love her :-) .

So these are my goals! What are some of your goals for 2012? Leave me a comment below, or Facebook me!

Going To Keep On Running, but No PF Changs This Year

So I had to make a hard decision this past weekend: To run or not to run a half-marathon in three weeks. The bottom line: I am injured. There is no way I will be able to safely train to the extent that I need to in order to be ready for the half-marathon on January 15th. All of my closest family and friends (including my husband and my Mom) and my coach agree that I have made the right decision. I feel a lot better about the whole situation now than I did yesterday. I want running to be fun and stress-free; not painful and stressful. I will be the queen of 5K’s for awhile before I start training for another half. It could be months! I just want to take it slowly and build my body up gradually according to its preferred pace. I also miss hiking so much! I am allowing my body to rest this week, heating and icing, and doing some strengthening exercises for my knee, and stretching out my IT bands. I’m planning on some hikes with no running involved, as well, if I can do it without pain. I would like to post more blogs about my everyday hiking and running starting very soon! Thanks so much for checking out my blog, and I hope to bring even more to you this new year :-) . Happy Trails! ~Stacey


Love my 5K’s!!

Am I Going to be Ready?

I finally had a good run/trail run/hike today, after taking it easy for 4 days and resting. It felt great to finally be out there again. I have been having IT band pain all the way up onto the outside of my hip, and some medial shin muscle pain that has been keeping me sidelined (at the advice of my awesome coach, Owen.)
I met with an awesome trainer and friend today, Molli, where she investigated my ailments to try and give me some advice on how to best deal with them. That she did! She showed me some stuff on my foam roller, and some stuff with a tennis ball to help loosen my IT bands and my gluteus medius, as well as surrounding tissue. She thinks it is going to help immensely with my pain I have been having. She also tested the flexibility of my hip adductor, and thinks that it is contributing to the pain I am having in my shins. I am so grateful to have such a great friend that is willing to take time out of her busy schedule to help me! She is so knowledgeable!
After that, I went to Hand and Stone Massage (LTF didn’t have any openings early in the day), and got a massage with a girl that works with runners a lot. She worked my IT bands out! It hurt! It was great, though, because it helped to loosen them up, a lot. Then, I came home and took a hot bath with lavendar epsom salt; something I do quite often now that I run a lot.
My big dilemma today was to run again tonight, or not. My total mileage this morning was around 4 miles. 2-2.5 of which was running. (I obviously took the cautious route and decided not to run.) I am on the verge of freakout mode. I am scared that I am not where I need to be in my training for PF Changs (half-marathon), which is January 15th. I have been given great advice from my coach, that I cannot make up for missed runs. That sucks, but it’s the truth. I have been told by a few people that as long as I run a long run of 10 miles about 2-3 weeks before the race, I will be fine. Ok, well, if I increase my long run distance by a mile each week until I reach 10 (I know the rule is 10% increases, but oh well), then I will run 10 miles on 12/28, and 11 miles on 1/6 (my work schedule is the reason why I am putting off my longest run until the 6th.) The way I have my training plan written out (based on the plan my coach made for me, tweaked a tiny bit because of my work schedule, and injury), I will run 11 miles 9 days before my race, and taper from there. Does this sound like a good plan? Will it be enough time to taper? I decided to go up to 11 miles, since my next long run is 7.5 miles, not just 7. I went up from there.
Providing I can keep my ailments suppressed and healed for the most part, this is my plan of attack. I always feel better when I have a plan written out. Is anyone else this way? What do you guys think of this plan? Is anyone else training for a race soon that is in the same situation as me? Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you! Have a great evening!

Who Has a Garmin?

I am looking to upgrade to a Garmin, or something similar, to keep track of time, distance, pace, and heart rate. There are a few that I have seen around, but I’m not sure which one to get. Can anyone give me suggestions?

There might even be newer ones that I haven’t learned about yet. Leave me a comment below if you have personal experiences with anything similar. I would love to hear what you guys think!

My Lashes After Almost 3 Months of Latisse!

It has been three months since I posted the before pics of my lashes. I started by using Latisse every night for the first month. Since the second month, I have been using it about every other night. I have seen growth, for sure! I have had no eye pigment changes, and no eye irritation like I was told I might. Overall, I am impressed! I know I would have had a lot more growth if I had used it every night for the whole three months. To be honest, I wanted to conserve it so I didn’t run out so quickly, because I just can’t justify spending that much money on it every month. I think Latisse is fun for people who just want to have fab-u-lashes :-) ! It would also be great for people that have sparse lashes to begin with. It is SO much fun to try different mascaras when you have a lot to work with. Let me know what you think of the results, and if you have since tried it yourself!

Before:

After:

Before:

After: