The Holi-rather be in my pjs watching movies all-days!

Happy Holidays!!

It's that time of the year again! The time were it is bitterly cold outside so you want to sit on your couch watching all three (or is it four now?) The Santa Clause movies and eating copious amounts of holiday cookies from your office party. Or is that just me?

Well, the good news is, we welcomed the first two days of winter this year with beautiful 75 degree weather; the bad news is, I have still been eating that box of holiday cookies. Whoops.They were just SO good!

I was extremely social this past week and weekend though! I had four work Christmas parties to go to and two friend Christmas parties. My brother and sister-in-law and I also exchanged Christmas presents tonight since they are going to be out of town this week. They got me a workout journal, some weight lifting gloves so I won't have man hands, and a great arm band to hold my phone/iPod while I run. Also, I am hoping to pick up hot yoga (it is supposed to be really good for you, and I am always cold so I love the 99 degree room!) so they got me this special grip towel so I am not sliding all over the place from sweating...gross.

Now, on to the fitness! I went and had my knee checked out by one of the athletic trainers at work, and he told me I had jumper's knee. Which I thought was weird since I have never participated in any jumping type sport. Then, after I looked it up, (on WebMD of course - the place where the common cold because some crazy incurable disease from east Asia or something...) apparently jumper's knee is semi-common in soccer players. Bingo. It is my kicking leg. Anywho, my tendons are super thin, or loose, or something and my knee cap wobbles all over the place. Running is not recommend, according to the expert. Bummer since that is one of the best forms of exercise. Hopefully after a month off from running and completing his strength training regime, I can get back into my running shoes.

This weekend I chose the bike since running was out and I am in no shape for a swim suit just yet. I don't think my time (49 minutes) was too bad for the distance, but I am definitely going to have to train harder for this sprint triathlon if I intend on not finishing last! That's my #1 goal after all. Just. Don't. Be. Last. Goal #2 is to just finish, even if I am in last place.

I used my polar heart rate monitor for the first time too. I LOVE it! It took a minute or so for the watch to pick up my heart rate, but once it did, it was neat that it tracked it my whole workout and then showed me my calories burned afterwards. I didn't even notice the band either, which is great!

This week I hope is going to be relaxing! I have a few more Christmas gifts to buy and then I can just relax and enjoy my mini vacation from work (and hit the gym. No, seriously...I promise).

Sara

Girls On The Run

So, over the past year or so I have done several local races (and even the Rock 'N Roll Half a few years back). What I have noticed while participating in these races is that, no matter the distance, it is always so much more enjoyable when you have good crowds along the race course cheering you on.

When I was running (and by running I mean a half run, half walk sorta thing) the half marathon, there were some times were my legs were numb and all I wanted to do was sit down on the curb or flag down a friendly golf cart driver to pick me up. One of my best friends did the race with me and she was great motivation for me to keep going, but I specifically remember towards the end of the race (I believe it was around mile 11/12ish) there was a big crowd on either side of the course screaming at the top of their lungs for all of us to "keep going" and that "we were almost to the finish!" It gave me such a boost of energy that these strangers had been out there for over 2 hours cheering for us. It made me feel like I could do this; if these strangers believed in me, I definitely could believe in myself to finish this race strong.

That being said, I was so excited to participate as a volunteer for the Girls on the Run 5k that was this past Saturday. Girls on the Run is a non-profit organization and their mission is to "inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running." They also happen to be my sorority's philanthropy. So, on Saturday, our local alumnae chapter set up a cheer station in 40 degree weather on the side of the course, complete with pom-poms, cow bells, and our voices. We cheered on the girls, coaches, running partners, and all the other runners for about 45 minutes as each group came by. 

It was such a fun experience! Every time a group of young girls would run by, their faces would light up as they passed by our cheer station. The runners would lift their arms up and cheer with us as they ran by, because they were pumped up by our energy. Some of the girls who were walking would start running again, and it would make me think back to when I was walking through that cheer station during the half marathon and was motivated to pick back up and finish the race running. It's amazing what you can do for people by just going out their and yelling out that they can do this, and that they were doing a great job. A lot of the running partners and coaches that were running with the girls even thanked us as they went by. I wanted to thank them because I was having so much fun!

After the race ended, we all went to brunch and tried to warm up our frozen fingers and toes (and I sounded like a man because I lost my voice from screaming like a crazy person!). Overall, it was a great experience being on the other side of a race and being able to motivate the runners like so many cheer stations have done for me in the past. So, if you ever get the chance to make it to a race in your area, make sure you are cheering on the runners, because it really means a lot to them!!

This is me with my amazing sorority sisters!

 



In other news, this week is going to be so crazy! I am going to four Christmas parties at work, we have an event on Wednesday night and I really need to finish my Christmas shopping! I am going to try to fit in a work out at least three times this week either before or after work. The only problem is my knee has been giving me some problems, so they will probably be short runs. I did go look at bikes yesterday though and love the hybrids...I need to save up some money and invest in one so I can start training outdoors for this sprint triathlon in July!  Yikes!

Welcome and Triathlon

Happy December! And welcome to my blog (I use that term losely as I have never blogged before and don't really quite know what I am doing!). If you have read the about me section you will probably have a pretty good understanding of what my "blog" will be about. If you haven't, here is the gist: I basically love my DVR and never want to part from it...alas, I also want to be fit and social. You see my dilemma?

Well, here I am for the world to see (or just me and my brother to see since I will be  making him give me feedback on a daily basis - thanks bro!).

I hope this is a place that will keep me accountable to my goal of being fit and social in 2014. Because who wants to see a post every week about who got eliminated from The Biggest Loser (I apparently like to watch people work out...is that weird?)? So internet peeps who I've never met, I am asking for you to be my accountablity partners for being less lazy and more fit/social!

To help in this task, my coworker and I have just signed up for a sprint triathlon in July...what was I thinking?

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