My Favorite Running Duds


Because I love running in athletic skirts you may think my favorite piece of running apparel would naturally be one of my skirts from Runingskirts.com.  It is true that I do like wearing those particular running skirts at races for various reasons.  However, I think the one piece that has slowly became my favorite "every day" running piece has been the

The BEST of the Holderness family....Are you ready to laugh your booty off?

We thought this would be a perfect post to kick off the weekend!  We have been fans of the Holderness family for a few years now and every time we watch one of their videos someone ends up tearing up from laughing so hard! We are SO excited to share this post with you!

If you're not familiar with this family, let me give you some background.

This is how my PT taught me to lace my running shoes

Mizuno Enigma
 
I am considered to be a neutral runner. I was even tested at physical therapy to prove it. I don't over pronate or underpronate yet I must have been doing something to cause that same old injury to come back. 
Well after a year and a half of Physical Therapy and changing out the brand of running shoes I wear, I was on the path to recovery. I will be the first to say that I have the best Physical Therapist and I have learned so much from the people in that office. One of the things I was taught was how to  properly lace my running shoes to

Race Medals that change from year to year and ones that stay the same



Although many people say they "Run for the bling" we totally understand that isn't the main reason to run, although getting a medal at the end definitely makes it more fun!

There are several races that we've done year after year and I love to see how the medals have changed over the years.

5 Things that Warm My Heart

It was pretty cold here this weekend. When I say cold I mean like 28 degrees cold but the wind was blowing so the "real feel"  was even lower. So much for an early spring, right?  Well I am SO glad I had a 5 day weekend  (4 days planned and one unplanned snow day)because I just hibernated inside and spent A LOT of time on Pinterest. That's naturally what everyone does when it's cold out, right?

Instagram occupied a bit of my time too.  For that reason I want to share several

Thursday Thoughts.....On Running Long Distances

Wow, we haven't done a Thursday Thoughts post in a long time.  There's something I've been thinking about for a while and of course it has to do with running.

Before I started running long distances, I was a spectator of long distance running. I watched my sister run half marathons and marathons before I even considered running one (or two) myself.

As a spectator waiting at the finish line at these races, I saw runners come through who could barely

New for 2016......

I know I am probably a little late on announcing these things but some of them I just found out about myself (or at least found out more information about it). As you know, there has been a lot of changes and renovations going on down South!

Workout gear for those who love their pets!

For the past several years I have been a supporter of the Canine Cancer Foundation. I know most people don't even know that's a real thing, but it is.  We have been fortunate that none of our dogs have had to suffer from cancer (knock on wood), but we also know that retrievers (both Labradors and Goldens) are dogs that have the highest risk of cancer. We've had friends and family who have lost their retrievers WAY TO EARLY because of this awful disease.

Here's the scoop....




Okay, so cupcakes may not be the best thing to talk about on a fitness blog but anyone who has been reading a while will know that I have quite the sweet tooth and cupcakes are definitely my down fall!  I have been doing real well on cutting back on the sour patch kids, so I deserve a cupcake, right?
      
1. Scott and I are fans of the show

How to extend the battery life in your Running Watch



We've mentioned on the blog several times how much we like our Garmin GPS Running watches.  In fact, the love for Garmins had trickled down to our mom, dad, and Scott too.
Our parents also have the Forerunner 10 and Scott has the Garmin Fenix with all the bells and whistles (because he is of course convinced that he will be lost in the woods by himself somewhere....lol)

I had already told the story about how Scott offered to upgrade my Garmin for me during my first marathon training cycle and I told him "Nah, don't bother. I'm only doing one marathon anyway".   Of course, I ran a second marathon and still didn't think it was necessary to upgrade even though my battery died at 4 hours and I still wasn't done running .

I expressed on the blog last week my concern of the short battery life of the Garmin Forerunner 10 and Kristy from Runaway Bridal Planner offered some great advice. She told us this trick that could extend the battery life from around 4 hours to almost 10 hours.

Here is what she said

"So after you start it. If you turn it back to the regular clock screen, (instead of leaving it on the screen that shows you your splits/laps/mile time (that screen drains your battery).)
You can flip it back every now and then if you need a quick look at where you are at. But if you leave it mostly on the main clock screen it saves the battery especially if you are planning to use it for more than 4 hours.
I've had mine for years, it took me a few years to discover that trick. But even now, years past the battery will still last about 10 hours as long as I don't leave it on the screen that is draining the battery. Try it sometime, it works like a charm for me that way:)

I am so glad Kristy shared this tip with us and I will definitely be trying it out. The Garmin Forerunner 10 does everything that I need it to do and I really felt guilty upgrading it just because of the battery life. Now perhaps I won't have too.

Do you have any running watch tips?

Cheating in February

I declared February my "Rest Month".  I can have an entire month dedicate to rest right?  The reasoning behind this was that I was just down right exhausted during marathon training and going to the gym right after work 2 or 3 days a week was pretty time consuming (but I did it because I did not want to risk another injury). In the end all that gym time paid off and I finished the marathon sans injury.  I am glad that I went. 

Now I wanted to come home from work, plop my tush on the couch and read a book or cuddle with Baylee, ANYTHING but be active!  Has that really happened yet? Not really, although I did come home one day, watched Judge Judy, and called it an early night.  

The weather has been really great here for February and seeing as the Groundhog did not see his shadow, it appears we will be getting an early spring.  Gotta take advantage of this nice weather, right?

Well, that's just what I did. I think my February "Rest Month" will be just a "No Gym" month. I'm really liking getting home and spending that extra time with Baylee (and even getting a few things done around the house).  The other day we took a trek to our favorite trail on the island.

But guess what?  The trail

Brightlife GO


Have you ever heard of Brightlife GO?  I hadn't. But because I am the author of a fashion column I am introduced to many companies and designers than I wouldn't have heard about otherwise.

One of the companies I've recently reviewed was Brightlife GO, which specializes in compression gear.   But WAIIT, they don't stop at just socks and sleeves.

Tips for the Big Races....I'm looking at You Disney

 My sister and I have been both runners and spectators at large races and this is how some of these ideas came about.


I am of course aiming these ideas at Disney because this is where we first thought of the ideas, but I'm thinking that they could work at any large race, perhaps Rock n Roll Las Vegas, NYC Marathon, or any race that supports a large crowd.

So what are these ideas we speak of?

This first one I've been thinking of for several years now. As I sat near the finish line and waited for my sister to

Rock the Canyon

We haven't actually planned out all our races for 2016 and truthfully, I think we're gonna play it by ear. Our goal has been to cut back on the larger races and to do some more races closer to home. Perhaps you could say we are getting a little lazy?

Nah, we're not getting all that lazy, we just don't want running and training to consume our lives. There is so much more out there ya know!

BUT we did come across this race that sounds really cool. It's called the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Marathon and Half Marathon.
 
I actually saw this