Just me and the mill

Last night I embarked on a solo run. It was the lonely treadmill and I. After a few moments of running in silence trying to find my groove I ended up plugging in my ear phones and zoned into The Bachelor for a bit until I couldn't stand it anymore.

Immediately thoughts started popping into my head. Darn! I instantly thought of Kim at iLaxStudio. A few days ago she said that she usually keeps a pad of paper and pen at her treadmill just for these moments. I tried to remember whatever it was I thought was so interesting at the time, but as I fell into the rythm of the treadmill all thoughts were lost.

But then around mile 2 another thought hit me... I am currently reading "Runner's World's Complete Book of Women's Running" by Dagny Scott Barrios.


I just finished chapter 6 which opens up the question on When do you decide to call yourself a jogger or runner? Because to a lot of people this is a big deal. I know it is for me.



I was thinking about this question as I was huffing and puffing my way through mile 2. Does running on a treadmill make me a runner? Does running in a race make me a runner?

I personally have never even thought about labeling myself a jogger. I think of joggers as those who go out in their sweat pants, maybe with a dog on a leash just breezing by without a care in the world.

I think of runners as the intense ones. The ones who have that look of determination and focus. They may not be running fast but they are in the zone and are running with their hearts.

Now I am noone to judge the difference between a jogger and a runner. Hell, people probably pass by me and label me a 'jogger'. Whatever, they can call me whatever they want.

I think the important thing is what you call yourself. I have never once called myself anything other than a runner. Because ulitmately that is what I am and what I strive to be.

I run in races. I will run in many more races. I may have only clocked in my longest run at 6 miles but to me that is success. Some may have only a 5k under their belts, but to them that is a running achievement.

So as I finished up my 3 mile run with the mill I decided that as long as my feet are litteraly moving toward my goal of running in a marathon then I am a runner.

What are your thoughts on runners vs joggers? I am curious to hear what you call yourself and why.

Ready To Run!

Oh yeah!

Ready, ready, ready, ready...ready to run
(The Dixie Chicks said it best!)



I promised to give you a full report on some of the special running items I received from Santa. I definitely felt like a little kid this Christmas with all the fun stuff I received. I didn't know that there were so many gadgets and gizmos out there for runners. So that made my Christmas list really easy this year. Anything that can help me run or help motivate will be awesome!

I am still building up my running clothes wardrobe. As I have not yet been running a full year, I still haven't all the right warm and cold weather clothes yet. That is until I received this awesome Nike long sleeved moisture wicking shirt!

It is light-weight and great for layering. I found it very comfortable and no chaffing problems.



I was in need of all types of wicking shirts, so you can believe my surprise when I saw that I got a short sleeved pink one! I like to layer the long sleeved then put the short on top, usually covered by a wicking jacket for the cold weather runs. It's great for keeping the core warm.



The biggest issue I have had since I began running was wear to put my keys and cell phone? I seriously do not feel safe running without a cell phone and have roughed it up until this point. That was until the SPIbelt came into my life.



Oh lovely SPIbelt, how I love thee. One word to describe the SPIbelt...AWESOME! It fit my cell phone, I.D & keys perfectly. The boyfriend tried to call it a fanny pack, like that was a derogatory thing. Oh well, it got the job done. It didn't shift around while running. And honestly I never even noticed it was there. YAY!



And the biggie...the thing that I really really really wanted most. I am hugely motivated by numbers, times, distances, ANYTHING really. I recently lost my i-pod and nikePlus which gave me a pretty accurate reading of distance and times when I ran.

I found that the GARMIN Forerunner 405 also does this and much much more! It tracks my pace, distance, time running, heart rate and all through GPS.



Garmina,(I decided to name her this morning) is my new running bff. Her and I are going to rock it in 2010. We are going to run a lot, we are going to run fast, and we are going to run far. How far? Well 26.2 miles to be exact! She is going to motivate me through my marathon training this coming year.

I was so excited to try out all my stuff that I geared up for my first after Christmas run!


I am definitely sporting the layered shirts, the SPIbelt and Garmina! I have to admit I was a little scared at the high-techness of Garmina. I wasn't sure if it would be easy to operate while running. It was so easy! The whole watch is touch sensative. And it shows your pace & distance on the screen as you run. This is a great tool for me as I am working on my speed per mile. I can also use it to track my distance when I start branching out on longer runs.

I ran a 2.5 mile run today. A lot shorter of a distance than normal but it was only 27 degrees and I have not ran in a week. I just wanted to give all the gear a little test run. I am so blessed to have received such useful and thoughtful gifts! I had a great runners christmas and am now seriously ready for any run!

Missing in Action

I'm BAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

(Did you miss me?)

I would just like to say that I have missed the bloggy world this past week and all of your encouraging blogs and words. I wish I could say that I was vacationing on some tropical WARM island, or running a grand race somewhere. But I wasn't doing any of those things.

Though, I was lucky enough to be working many long hours for my job which was actually pretty darn cool. I got to hang out with all the Idaho County Sheriffs for the past 4 days. I was the conference coordinator for their annual conference.

The upside is that I learned A LOT of cool things, met some really interesting people and did what I love (event planning and execution). LOVE LOVE LOVE!

The downside is that my days ran long up to 13 hours one day, leaving little or no life left in me by the time I arrived home. I managed to shred it up on monday, but by tuesday & wednesday I was done.

I felt as though I was letting you all and myself down by not forcing myself to shred it up these last two days. But I realized that sometimes you just have to say no and that's okay.

I think it's important to listen to your body and to give it what it needs. Today is a new day though and I have accomplished not only Day #11 of the Shred, but an hour of Cardio Kickboxing class and quick mile on the treadmill. Woah, double duty hardcore-ness! I know! :)

So thanks for understanding, I really really really wanted to do 30 straight days of shredding. But I am back on the horse people. So here's to 19 more days of shredding craziness! Oh and level 2 starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Just Do It!

The beauty I witnessed on my adventure today!

I woke up this morning with the urge to workout. I was just going to hit the gym, as I was resisting the green belt run due to the lack of motivation of running it alone. But some words of encouragement were staring me right in the face. I read Gina's blog today and it gave me motivation to overcome whatever it was that seemed to be holding me back.

Whether it be the lack of a running partner, the cold brisk air outside, the 4 mile route that I had never ran before or just the idea of running in general, I knew whatever it was needed to be conquered.

So I called J. Alabama (the boyfriend who refuses to let me use his real name) for the last little bit of motivation. He told me that he thought I should try to run it in 36 minutes because he knows I like challenges.

Now I know what a Christmas tree feels like - do I have enough attachments? Seriously?

So I set off to get this run done and over with. I just started running and running and running. I wasn't sure how fast I was going but could tell my breathing was harder than normal and I was struggling a bit. I didn't dare look at my pace in case I was really sucking.

I had picked a different route to give it a try and wasn't sure the mileage. Luckily my NikePlus talks into my ear every mile I go! So after a while the voice finally reported that I had hit 4 miles! And I was happy to say I almost made the goal time!

Running Stats:
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 38.42 (pretty close!)

What I took from this exercise is to not let your negative thoughts hold you back. I knew I could do it, but was trying to find excuses why I should bail on myself. Of course going to the gym would have been easy and safe, but I would not have experienced what I did today.

Good job self, for being awesome today!

Thankful Thursday

With Thanksgiving just around the corner I am constantly thinking of what I am grateful for in my life. I have had quite the amazing year and have SO many things to be thankful for. A biggie is the love and support of my family. Though they may not understand why I would EVER want to run 26.2 miles they are there rooting me on the entire way, along with every other life goal I have. They are my best supporters and I have to say thank you for ALWAYS believing in me!

My little brother, me, mom & dad! We were on a bike tour together.


To recap my day…

Kick. Punch. Kick. Punch. Shuffle..shuffle.. shuffle.. shuffle..

I just finished up Body Combat my FAVORITE group exercise class at the gym. I have been attending kickboxing type classes since I was in high school and have always held a special place in my heart for them. Some gyms offer the bags where you can actually punch out your frustrations, but the one I attend gives the opportunity to visualize your punching bag, (aka punching the air).

I find that exercise classes at the gym give you a different kind of workout than what you would do on your own. For me I am pushed to work out for 60 minutes without wimping out. The spirited instructors bouncing around with high intensity and enthusiasm help to get you jacked up and into the work out.

I am a runner now, but there is nothing I love more than a good kick/punch session at the gym! So I like to incorporate at least one day of non-running cardio into my weekly workouts. It helps for a change of scenery and motivation.


Speaking of running, The Pile On The Mile Challenge (POTMC) is still under way. I have 6.8 miles clocked in to date. And a goal to run 50 miles by Thanksgiving and 57 miles by the end of November. Now that I have my NikePlus I am mile tracking fool!

Wine, Cupcakes & Running - Oh my!

Saturday was AWESOME! I took the opportunity today to hang out with my grandma. It's been a really long time since we had a grandma-granddaughter day, so we seized the day.

It started out at the bagel shop for a delicious bagel sammie and a cup of coffee. While we were ordering our bagels we spotted Pumpkin Cream Cheese! It was a must have for sure. It's pumpkin cinnamon deliciousness!

Then we heard about a great wine sale at The Wood River Cellars Winery (Formerly Eagle Knoll) and had to check it out. As you can probably gather from my last post, I am a wine enthusiast. Not to mention I am Italian. So a wine blow-out sale moved to the top of the to-do list today!

After we had our wine tasting we spotted Lilly Jane's Cupcakes. Grams mentioned she had never been there, so it was obvious we needed to take a little sweet break. We split a peanut butter cupcake, and bought a few treats to give out to other family members.
MMMMMMMMmmmmm!!! :)

After our treat I took Grama home and headed off back to my home. I wanted to take advantage of the last few nice fall weather days. The forecast is showing many cold days next week. I strapped on the running shoes, the nikeplus and was on the green belt in no time. I was feeling a little heavy from the eats & drinks, and a wee bit sore from the run the night before. I resorted to the Galloway Method of running, which is where you run a portion and then walk for a minute. This seemed to relieve the shin splint pain and got me through.

My Running Stats:
Distance: 3.93 miles
Time: 42.01
Calories: 427

I love how I am rocking the "Towers" t-shirt from my freshman year of college in the dorms at Boise State University. It's a classic!

Rain Runner

Rain or shine the running group treads on!

A few weeks ago a few friends and I decided to start a running group. We have been meeting for runs every monday, wednesday and friday after work. It's been great to have such a fun group of ladies to run with. I am getting to know new friends too! The running world gives you such a great opportunity to meet new friends with a passion for hitting the trail! And did I mention the catchy title for this group? Well we voted on the "I Will Run For Wine" group. Since we decided that wine would motivate us to run.



Last night I met up with Nicole, Bethany and Emmy (Bethany's doggie) for an almost 5 mile run. We were a little hesitant since the weather drastically changed at the last minute from beautiful to downpour. Nicole informed me on our very first run that she didn't do rain runs. So it was surprising to see her there ready to get it over with. The three of trudged along through puddles and raindrops which actually made for quite a fun run. I loved it! We were shooting for 5 miles, but finished just short of that at around 4.67. The dark sky was setting in, and we were drenched. But all and all it was fab!
Here I am drenched after the run.

It has become apparent that if I want to be a marathoner I can't let rain, snow, hot or cold get in my way! This was a test of mother nature's abilities and I am proud to say that we didn't let that stop us!