That Runner Chick

Sooo here is my first review: the Adrenaline GTS and the Infiniti Capri!

For years and years, I ran in only Asics. You couldnt get me in another pair if you told me I was on fire. Then my Ragnar Relay team got sponsored by Brooks. I decided to try out the Adrenalines because they were the closest to the shoe I was currently running in. And I fell in love. With the shoe and the company. While talking to them leading into the Relay, I realized what a down-to-earth company they are and how awesome their employees are. So I was sold! From that point on, I have been nothing but a Brooks girl!!!

This is the only shoe I run in, the Adrenaline GTS (this is the 12). It is a support shoe, which is good for me because I overpronate like its my job!!! It also has swell arch support, which again, was great for me because I need it.
It is a solid shoe–lasts the longest out of any shoe I have owned. I have run in versions 9, 10, and 11, and can tell you they have improved each year. This shoe actually won Best Update (in 2010 AND 2011) by Runners World. It features DNA cushioning technology, which conforms to each person, reacting to each step. Because I love this shoe so much, I am looking forward to trying out the racing flat. PW has a pair of those now, maybe I can get him to review those…

Ive been looking for a pair of running capris for years. I have always done the shorts to tight transition in December with nothing between. Then I got these:

I am 5’2″ and these are a little long on me but otherwise fit great. I can overlook the length because the rest is perfect, they are warm enough, and the price is right! They are not super tight at the calf which is good for me. I actually use these for weight training at the gym too, I love the fit so much (and they are flattering to boot).
It has the back pocket, which I much prefer over the front side pocket (it also comes with that one though–the “key pocket” as I call it).

QUESTION: Is there anything specific you guys would like reviewed on here (from Brooks…or in general?)

What could possibly prompt a third entry this week already? HUGE breaking news in ThatRunnerChick land, thats what!

Before dinner tonight, I got an email…from Brooks. They are reshaping their BrooksID sponsorship program and they have decided to sponsor me again!!! I am so excited to represent their brand again this year–they are a down to earth, for the runner company, who makes a pretty sweet running shoe.

Why this news is so huge? Because the benefits to the sponsorship is huge–they seriously outdid themselves this year. I almost dropped my phone while reading the email. Im going to take the opportunity to do a review on some of their product that I am receiving (totally of my own doing–they didnt ask me or require me to do it). Starting tomorrow with my standby shoe and new go to capris!

Until tomorrow….I have to go continue jumping around my house in excitement.

Pssssst…PS, PW updated his blog with details of his first training block, you can find it here

Yesterday, Jess of Little Miss Runshine tagged me in a blog trend. You are supposed to share 7 things about yourself and then tag some other bloggers to get in on it too! So….here are my seven:

1. I LOVE candy.
I could live off of it alone. However, I don’t like orange and yellow candy. This includes (but is not limited to):
orange and yellow starbursts
orange and yellow skittles
orange and yellow nerds
orange and yellow gummi bears
etc.

2) I dont always love running.
Does anyone? In fact, there are many times when I despise it until I put on my running shoes and start–then I remember why I do it. Most of the time its pretty alright though. It helps when I am well-fed and rested, too!

3) I sing and dance all the time.
My husband, friends, and coworkers can attest to this. I often sing falsetto. And make up random songs about my surroundings. I am not above breaking into dance in the middle of lunch. Don’t get me wrong though–I have absolutely no talent in either one!!

4) I could watch Law and Order all day.
Its sort of a problem. Whenever I have a spare hour (which is very, very rare right now), I will watch any episode. Ive seen most of them, but lucky for me theres usually multiple ones on, 24 hours a day. SVU is my preference though!

5) I am an extreme time manager/organizer.
This is hard to believe because it didnt set in until I was 25 or so. Now, I cant have things on my to-do list for more than 2 days before I panic. I can’t work at school unless my desk is spotless. And I cant work at home unless my house is spotless! As soon as I am asked/assigned something, I like to have it done by the end of the day. Its a little out of control.

6) I am the worst email responder, of all time.
The above characteristic does NOT apply to emails. For someone reason, I am lucky if I respond within 3 days! PW makes fun of me for it all the time, it is my New Years Resolution every year, but I just cant seem to conquer it!!

7) I can sleep anywhere, anytime.
Maybe I am borderline narcoleptic. I fall asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow. I can take a 3 hour nap at 4pm and it wont affect my bedtime. I can sleep in the car, on the couch, sitting in a chair. Definitely on a plane. And I can go to bed at 6pm, no problem! What can I say, its a gift.

Coming up with 7 things was hard!!!
I am tagging:

Megan
Mary
Xtina
Emily
Kim
Elaine
Matt
Steve

Can’t wait to read them, guys!!

I think that song is played at least 3 times on the radio when Im in my car on the way to work (my 20 minute drive), and now it is perpetually stuck in my head!

Anyways, so even though I didnt really blog about it this week, I have been running. It was a cah-razy week in ThatRunnerChick land which was kind if a bummer for my Thursday run, but I cant help it now! This week I have in total a 30 min run, two 60 min runs, and an 80 minute run today. My zone 1 pace continues to drop. After a few years running QT2 style, I am consistently amazed at how much fitness you can keep over an “off season”. My first year, I start zone 1 in 10:30s, then I started the next season at 9:30′s, then the next at 9:00′s. Its pretty awesome.

Last night we went to a Thanksgving/dinner party. Much food was consumed. We started with Brie and raspberries (next to spinach artichoke dip, my favorite appetizer ever.) Chrissie made an impressive spread, my picture doesnt do it justice. We had mood lighting (candles) and my now retro iPhone couldnt handle it. Im sure you can get the jist of it though:

Some of my dinner dates:

(It looks like they have sunburns but I promise its the lighting!!)

Dessert was a spread as well. I brought my favorite apple pie. There was also a chocolate ganache cake, pecan pie, and fruit tart. I, of course, sampled it all1

Finished off the night with some very serious foosball playing:

We didnt make it home until 2am (!!!), so it was a late start to the morning for me. I have to get my run done so I can sit down and write a research paper today. Wish me luck–it’s been years since Ive written one of those!!

I was trying to think of how to sum up the last week for you guys. I don’t know if it is an unreasonable amount of time but, it took us what seemed to be forever to look for a new car. The only websites Ive been on for the past week have been car ratings and car dealerships! Admittedly, I do drive a hard bargain when investing in such a huge purchase so I wasnt the nicest browser! This is the car I was looking at:

I will be sad to see my green jelly bean Prius go, but this will end saving us some serious cash–the monthly payments are significantly lower on all other car we’ve looked at!

Other things have been happening over hurr:

Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year happened:

I do not mess around on this festival of gluttony!!! While eating enough for 3 women, I had this picture of myself staring at me:

That is from a family picture we took when I was at my heaviest, and my grandma has it displayed so lovely on the wall

Also, we hung up our very first christmas tree! We legit couldnt afford one last year and I was ever so bummed. I moped for days. Lucky for us my parents gifted us their old fake tree, including lights and garland, so all we need is a star.

And, because its worth mentioning, PW and I went out to eat with Ethan and his awesome girlfriend Jess last night, and this is what he got for dinner:

His was the only meal I took a picture of because it was so funny to me that he ordered a nice, healthy, broiled fish and then topped off his end of the season with two fried sides!!

I have a pretty debilitating cold at the moment, so I am off to try and recuperate on the couch while catching up on Grad school work!

Hope all your Thanksgivings were fun and delicious!

I sure am getting lucky with the weather here lately. Its the middle of November and I have yet to run in tights! In fact today, I will be out in a tshirt and shorts–its 55 degrees right now! Today marks the end of Week 2. This will be my third season running under the QT2 protocol and each time I come back from the mandated time off I notice more fitness. My zone 1 pace begins at 20-30 seconds faster each season, and I am very, very thankful for that! This week bumped up to 24 miles:

Monday: 45 minutes
Tuesday: 28 miles
Wednesday: 38 minutes (rainy, cold run!)
Thursday/Friday: off
Saturday: 40 minutes
Sunday: 67 minutes

Hard to believe only one week until my first rest week!

Have to give a shout out to Wayne at Garmin on here. Their “hard straps” (the ones that come with their 305′s and 405′s) were too big for me, always falling down. I bought a new “soft strap” because it was smaller and more comfortable. Unfortunately, the thing was wacky. My average heart rate on runs would be over 200! I despised running without heart rate data–what was the point of having the thing? I contacted them, told them my problem and all the troubleshooting I had done, and they sent PW and I new ones! Not just replacement, but replacement with the very new ones. I love it. Havent had a problem yet…it is comfortable and most importantly accurate!

Debating where the infamous first 5k of the season will be!

So, the first week is almost over. And I havent skipped any runs so that is a bonus! Since that (and as an extension, being super busy) was the demise of my marathon this past season, I am going to try my darnest not to miss a single workout.

Monday: 30 minutes. By my lonesome, right after work, on the bike path!
Tuesday: 25 minutes. Trail run with mi padre.
Wednesday/Thursday: Off!
Friday: 25 minute run with Meg.
Saturday: 32 minute run in the ice cold, alone.
Sunday: 51 minute long run.

Other things that have been going on:
Yesterday I watched my first episode of Criminal Minds. And then, subsequently watched 8 consecutive episodes. It was was a productive day off!

I tried sweet potato tater tots for the first time:

And my bought my first pair of riding boots:

I think I have a pretty sweet giveaway coming up for you dedicated readers. I hope to have it finalized this week!

My day ahead appears to be full of grading and grad school work (end of term one has come!). But also some fun: visiting one of my favorite people and her newborn baby, and cheering at a volleyball game.

And this week ahead? Looking to add some weight training to that ol’ run routine!

So on Friday I was lucky enough to hold not one, but TWO, blog/twitter parties–I just combined them into the same night! It was a Chex Mix/Driscoll’s Berry party.

Chex sent me their cereals and some recipes and told me to have at it. I scoped out the recipes and picked my favorite three. I must not have read them THAT carefully though because I missed the part about needed a microwave. We don’t have one so I did a lot of double boiling! It all ended up working out though so NBD!

I got home from school on Friday and went to work making three different kinds of Chex Mix:

The three I chose (with recipes):

Though all were eaten (and taken home!) fan favorite was definitely the Hot Buttered Yum!

At the end of the night everyone packed up their to go containers to bring what was left home (not much!)

This was the table at the end of the night:

I wanted to have a couple other snacks too so I supplied some chips, salsa, and guac for something a little more savory (served in my favorite bowls!)

Here is where the Driscoll’s part came in. They supplied me with some berries and some recipes. After checking them out, I knew I wanted to make the Brie. Ive never served or prepared brie…in fact, Ive only eaten it once!

I made it so it would be ready after all the guests arrived.

And served it with crostini:

And Im pretty sure this is what our guests (and us!) looked like after they tried it:

Here is the recipe for anyone that wants to recreate it–it was delicious, fast, and definitely worth it. My only edit was that I left the pistachios off.

Since I had the berries, I also decided to make mini-cheesecakes topped with macerated strawberries!

All in all the night was a success! Thanks to our guests for joining us and thank to Chex and Driscoll’s for sponsoring the night!

I have quite a few posts to catch up on–first week running schedule, Chex Mix/Driscolls blog party,  and the complete demolition and rebuild of our living room by PW.  I am going to put them into separate entries and start with the latter!

So, last year after Hawaii we (PW) redid our dining room.  He tore down all the drywall, an entire wall, insulated, added counter/redrywalled, tore up the rug, etc. It took about 5 months though because work was occurring too! He decided this project would be to overhaul the living room. However–there was a time constraint due to the Blog party I was having on Friday. He would only have 2.5 weeks to do it! Here are two pictures of what the living room looked like when we first moved in:

(The curtains were the first thing to go )

So one day, demolition started. We dont have any extra room so we pushed the furniture to the middle of the room, covered it in plastic, and started hammering down the old drywall!

The tear down/clean-up of that mess took about two days. I did about 30 minutes of work, it was rough (that was for you PDubs!), then PW insulated and the house was dramatically warmer.

And then he and his father took a day to hang up allllll the drywall.

A couple days of what I think is the worst job ever–taping, plastering, and sanding (again, I had no part in that–my job was slowly but surely coming). Then it was time to PAINT! The weekend we were ready to paint conveniently fell on our 4 day weeked due to Snowtober. We primed on Saturday, and got two coats up of the color on Sunday.

Yep–we went WAY out of comfort zone and painted the walls red! Once both coats were up, it was time to tear up the carpet so the trim could be put up. We worked on that a long, long time but it was worth it! Because 1) the house was done for the blog party 2) I am sitting in the living room enjoying it right now!

Without further ado, here is the outcome:

Before:

After:

Before number 2:

After 2:

I do not think the pictures do it justice–I love it!! And yes, that it Law and Order on the tv in the first after picture, because I do not watch anything else

The pictures are deceiving because the room actually looks a LOT bigger, despite our dark paint choice. And check out the awesome floors! Feel free to tell PW what an awesome job he did on his blog.

Alright, check back later for a rundown on the Chex Mix Blog Party fun!

Well, Snowtober happened. For those of you New Englanders, you know what I am talking about. A foot of snow, some snow days, no power, cancellation of Halloween, etc. We got lucky and didnt lose power which means that we spent every day from 8am-9pm working on finishing our living room. The snow days ended up working in my favor because it allowed me to spend an extra day finishing the floors and a day hunting down a new area rug, lamps, and barstools!

Anyways. On to important things. Like running! I have been keeping up a 2 runs a week schedule with Meg. This means only one thing: next week is going to be terrible. Our official training starts on Monday, and its going to be BAM–miles. Like a ton of bricks! I need some sort of motivation though or I will lay around crying about being tired, so this will be better in the end. No bike riding for me NOR PW yet, as our sun room (bike studio) is currently filled with window trim and baseboards. Again, everything evolved around finishing this room (FOR OUR CHEX/DRISCOLL PARTY ON FRIDAY WOOOO!), so it looks awesome! Cant wait to show the finished product.  Pdubs did a complete demolition/rebuild in 3 weeks!

Two last things. I know Halloween was cancelled in central MA, but I still found Waldo taking a stroll across Chandler on Monday. Wish I could have gotten a picture of his glasses:

And on Friday, before heading to a hilarious hynosis show, I got to snuggle one week old kittens. I wanted to take them all home but PW nixed that idea (might have something to do with the fact I think I am allergic!)

QUESTION: Anyone else doing the Hyannis Half in February?
I will be there with bells on. It will actually be my first half-marathon…ever. So no matter what I can PR