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GOOD MORNING!!!

It's thanksgiving break, I'm home, it's snowing (kinda, a crazy mix between snow & rain..), I'm with the people I love, and tomorrow I get to indulge in two thanksgiving dinners. That's right, TWO! hahaha, which is why I'll be running 10 miles in the morning so I can work up an appetite for all that grub.

I had an awesome night with my sister. We went and picked out her first real Christmas tree. I told her when it's time for me to purchase my first Christmas tree she has to come with me (wherever I may be) to pick it out. New tradition. The remainder of the night was spend dancing to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. She's such a weirdo, but gotta admit the beat is catchy.



It looks as if Christmas threw up all over Spooner (my hometown). Christmas lights are strung on houses and yard decorations are everywhere. And now to add to the holiday spirit it's snowing! Christmas is coming quickly, but first I wanna fully enjoy Turkey Day to it's potential. Giving thanks, eating until I feel sick, napping, and ignoring any thought that has to do with school.

Running wise, I've been taking it real easy. I've only ran 40 miles the past two weeks. My legs were begging for a break and I'm having some foot issues. This week I'm getting back at it. 4 easy miles yesterday, 6-7 today, 10 tomorrow... It'll feel good to get back in the routine, I'm just hoping & praying my bod holds up. Running in pain really sucks the fun out of it.
And with that, I'm going to finish up my chai and take off for the trails.
home sweet home. xox
-A

two things

Get inspired.


And check out Dr. TriRunner's blog and enter her giveaway!

Transition to an a.m. runner

I recently made the switch from a night time to morning runner. And by night time I mean anywhere from 8-midnight. I was running when it was pitch black outside & I loved it. I loved being the only runner out there, it made me feel unique. (?) Don't ask why, I've got strange reasoning. Even though I enjoyed the quiet & peaceful runs and running underneath the stars, I knew that with winter coming I couldn't keep this up because of safety reasons. I tried running during the afternoon but it was absolutely horrible. After hours of classes, early mornings, and homework I don't have enough energy to get in a quality run. So my roommate Steph convinced me to give running in the morning a try. I'm actually surprised I didn't start it sooner actually. Steph and I are both early birdies, the pot of coffee is usually always brewing by usually 6:30. I absolutely love 6am. I think it's one of the most beautiful times of the day, it's time before your hectic day when you can do whatever you want whether it be read, run, relax, think, or blog :).

After one day of running in the morning, I was hooked. I get the same euphoric feeling as I did running at night and my mind is quiet. I'm not thinking about school, work or stress yet. I'm just running and thinking about life (the exciting things). The other morning I realized how thankful I am to have the gift of running. It's really been a big part of me becoming the person I am today and I'm so grateful for that. Even though I'm not competitively running for my school, it's still had a huge impact on me. Because I'm a runner I care more about logging miles than going out on a Friday night, I spend more money on running shoes than on my current wardrobe, and water is my beverage of choice (synergy being a close second :)) I'll go into more detail in a different post about how running has affected my life, I'll start working on it soon!

Things you should check out this week:
Grooveshark -It's like pandora but a little better (if that's possible).
The new Runners World:

Goodness in a bottle. Synergy:

Made with 100% pure love & good for the bod!
And lastly: Stephan BBG & My twitter pages cause were else can you see quality pictures like this:

Alright, time for my run which I've been anxiously awaiting it since 8 pm last night! Have a great day everyone!
-A

Monster Dash: Race Report

Hi friends! This is my first time writing a race report BUT there will be many more races to come in the near future, so I suppose I better get used to writing these. This was my second half marathon and can I just say I LOVE this distance? 13.1 miles of awesome-ness. Around mile 9 I was thinking about how difficult it would be to run a full marathon. I give all you marathoners out there props, hopefully someday soon I can find enough guts to run one. It's gotta be done, I'm thinking Spring :). But, for now I'm just going to concentrate on training for the half distance cause that's what makes me happy!

Monster Dash was in Minneapolis Minnesota, about a three hour drive from my home in La Crosse. My Aunt lives close to the city so my mom, sis and I stayed over night and got to enjoy the company of my wonderful, hilarious family. This was also my cousins last weekend at home, now he's living it up at marine boot camp (notice sarcasm). He did decide to run the 5k with my sister so that was awesome. I'm slowly turning my family into a bunch of runner nuts :). My Auntie made amazing Spaghetti for the pre-race meal, which was amazing.

The alarm went off at 5:30 am and we were out the door by 6:00. My pre-race fuel was a combo of oatmeal & Granola and a Banana. (Coffee too, of course). My auntie, mom, sister, cousin, and I were packed into the car and were having difficulties finding parking. 6 am + too many females that are lost = quite a bit of tension. We figured it out though, thanks to a very nice guy we found during our excursion. We got there plenty early which meant no lines for the bathroom! Thank the lord!

The race: I ended up getting a personal best by 10 minutes which is great. But, I know I was capable of going faster. I ran a 1:50, but for the first 8 miles I was running at 8:00/mile pace and around 9 my whole lower body just cramped up. I ended up slowing down for the last 5 miles making my pace 8:29 for the entire race. I accepted the fact that It just wasn't my day around mile 9 and decided to just have fun. I'm surprised I still PRed by so much actually because I was not pushing the last 5 miles at all so it makes me really excited to race again and see what I can do! Here is my lovely finishing photo: (i'm in the blue).
What's really awesome about this race is that my sister (Kara K-B) ran her first race ever and liked it! We are hopefully going to do a half marathon this summer together which will be awesome. The rest of my fall is packed with races (as many as I can find), one winter half marathon, and then this spring and summer is going to be races almost every weekend! I've already made my training plan for November & December :). Alright. So I decided I don't like writing race reports because I feel like I have nothing to say. Doesn't help that I waited a week to write this. baha.. Enjoy the pictures. I'll update soooon.
-A