Tracking with a MisFit

Earlier this week I mentioned that I was participating in a Fitness Challenge at work and that I received a free tracking device.  I am probably the only Fitness blogger that does not own a Fitbit. Even my husband has one but I never saw the point in tracking my steps or all that other data.  Since I started wearing my tracker, I've noticed that I really have to put some effort into reaching my 10,000 steps.  It's not as easy as I thought it would be.


The Fitness tracker that I was given is

Limited Edition Gear

I generally get a race jacket at every marathon I run. I have one from WDW, Boston, Big Sur, and Marine Corp just to name a few.

I've been wearing my Boston Jacket a lot lately, probably because

Races with the BEST Race swag ever!

As sisters, we do tend to run a lot of races together. However, for various reasons there are races that we each choose to do on our own. This isn't a bad thing because we can each share a unique perspective on that race.

For this post, we each want to share a race (or race series) that we thought gave the best race swag!

I have to say that the best race swag I received came from

Weekly Wrap and a Race I forgot..April 24


Wow, another week down and a new one beginning again already. I don't know about you but this Spring is going way too fast. I don't mind though because I am definitely ready for summer!

Last week in the weekly wrap I said that I currently had no races on my calendar. Well, I totally forgot that I will be running a

The week I broke the rules

Happy Friday folks! I am pleased to say that I was very energetic this week and fit in a lot of workouts.  Unfortunately  “I broke a fitness rule.”

 You are probably wondering what that was.  I’d also like to ask who came up with this rule anyway?   Well, before I get into that, I want to share

The Day I've Been Waiting For


If you have been reading our blog for a while now, you know that we mostly talk about Running, Traveling, Disney, and our Labradors! Of course we often talk about other things, but those are probably the topics that give us the most joy!

We have had plenty of joy this past week and a lot of it revolves around our sweet labs!  Here are just a few things we wanted to share with you.

1. Our friends at Gone For a Run know we just LOVE our dogs, so they asked us to review their new line of  "Running with my Dog" items.   Lacey chose the long sleeve, light weight performance hoodie.

The hoodie is made out of a moisture wicking polyester/cotton blend and is perfect for morning runs when it is still a bit cooler out. These are fitted hoodies, so if you want it loose order a size up. Lacey is wearing a size Medium and said it was still a bit snug.  The  Gone for a Run "Running with my Dog" line also includes, T's, tanks, hats, medal displays, dog items, and home décor. They are all super cute. Check them out HERE.


2. In other exciting news, I have been selected to write a pet feature for a magazine! And guess what, it has to be all about Baylee! I am super excited. I just don't know what story about Baylee that I want to tell. The editor said I need to include about a dozen photos too. Pictures of Baylee? No problem!

3. Okay, lastly, this is the day I have been waiting for.........  Anyone that owns a retriever (Labrador or Golden) knows they shed like crazy.  This Spring as been a rough one for Baylee ( no pun intended), with losing clumps of hair. This hair ends up around the house and on our clean clothes.  We love this girl but it's getting to be too much. SOoooo, since the weather finally turned warm and I can assume it's here to stay, I shaved her for the summer!
Baylee is such a good dog. She just relaxes as I use the electric razor on her.

 Her fur grows so fast that I know this is of course only round one, but her and I both feel SO much better!  Plus, she looks so darn cute when she's shaved.
                                  She looks like such a puppy again and about 10 pounds lighter!

Tell us something fun about your pet.  

The Evolution of a Running Goal

If you read my post on Friday, you would recall that my very first race was the Disney Royal Family 5k. After that race, I knew that I was going to continue to make a Disney race an annual thing. Around that time my sister continued to run more long distance races and I thoroughly enjoyed being her cheerleader on the sidelines.  I knew I could never run a 10K or half marathon so I was just happy to show support and hold a sign.

After experiencing the excitement as I cheered for her at the Rock n Roll Virginia beach half marathon, I made it a goal of mine to become good enough to actually run the Rock n Roll 5k race. I was happy running the Disney 5Ks but I thought it might be exciting to run a race that is actually chip timed and earn a real medal, not those rubber medallions that Disney gives out.

Yup, so this was my only goal, to run the Rock n Roll 5k race because I didn't think I was capable of anything else.  I really wanted to run one of the larger Disney races so I thought maybe, just maybe I could run the Tower of Terror 13K relay.  But then Disney changed that race to a 10 miler so that was absolutely out of the question.

The following year, after our 3rd Royal Family 5K at Disney, my mom and I made a pact that we were going to train for the Princess Half Marathon.  I couldn't believe what I had just agreed to. I couldn't imagine completing a 5k and then having to run 10 more miles! During that time I gradually increased my race distance. I actually did run my first timed 5K, (but it wasn't RnR VA Beach), I ran a 7K, 8K, and a few 10Ks  and a half of a half, before I finally took the plunge.

I've come along way from my only goal being to run a timed 5K.  Since I started training for actual "timed" races my goals have been this.......

To run a 5K under 30 minutes - Check, did that
To run a 10K under 60 minutes- Check, did that
To run a half marathon under 2:30 - Crushed it!

I never thought I would run a marathon so just finishing was my goal! Did that twice.

These were my very first running goals when I didn't even really know what I was capable of. Quite honestly I don't even know how I came up with these times as goals. I think I just picked them out of a hat or something...haha

2016 is my year to enjoy running pain free and so far it's going well. I am probably due to work on getting those time goals down even further since my PR's are very old, but I'm not sure if working on speed quite yet is where I need to be.   How did you know when it was time to adjust your running goals?  -M

Oh, and by the way, I never did get to run that Rock n Roll 5K race in VA Beach.

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.

Weekly Wrap.....On the run...April 17

Wow, I can't believe how fast April is going.  I really thought April would drag on because we have no Holidays or long weekends this year, but surprisingly it is just whizzing by.  Also, since our March was SO windy here, I thought April would bring us lots of showers. We had a few days of rain but I think that is behind us and the warm weather has definitely approached!

I haven't done any real running since the April Fools Race we did the first weekend of the month. That's understandable since I don't have any races in the near future that I need to be training for and I 've been having that foot pain from a pair of dress shoes I wore a few weeks back. I thought I would have been over that by now but I figured a few more days of rest wouldn't hurt.  However,

Why this was my first race ever!

Since Lacey talked about her first race experience earlier this week, I thought it might be fun for me to talk a little bit about mine.


I'm sure it comes as no surprise that

It's Fit House


I read something really fun this past weekend.  And you know me, when I read something fun, I usually want to share. This story had to do with running, so of course I wanted to share!

celebrities who run
  It was a story about

What I REALLY didn't know about racing....

 
 A few years ago I wrote a post on what was truly my very first race.

It was the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon and boy o'boy did I come along way since then. I don't just mean in my times, I mean in the whole way

Weekly Wrap..April 10th

How was your weekend? How was the weather where you live? It surely did not feel like spring when I woke up this weekend. It was a rainy snowy mix most of the morning. By the time I got off work, it had stopped, but it was still very cold and windy. I had no desire to go for a run when I got home since I taught class in the morning, but when I arrived home

5 Lesser known races you should try


As most runners do, I often think about the new races that I would like to try. Because of where I am located, most of mine that make my list tend to be on the East Coast.

The ones I chose are not super popular and some of them I may

April Fools Races Weekend in Atlantic City

This past weekend we participated in the April Fools race in Atlantic City! We love this race and this is the fourth year in a row we've participate.

Besides the fact that the race is a reason to go to Atlantic City, we like it because there is both a

Our Running Lately


Since we both just completed our first race for Spring, we thought we would talk about our running lately.

To be honest, this whole year has been really up in the air and we hadn't really made concrete plans for our race calendar.

The only thing we really planned and trained for in advance was the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend and that was a success.

Weekly Wrap...April 3rd

 
It's that time of the week again where we are participating in the Weekly Wrap. Wow, these weeks just keep breezing by don't they?
 
 
Here's a little bit about what went down last week.

This Running Journal is messing up my Zen

Over the years I'm sure you've heard me talk about how I kept track of my runs. I've used a regular wall calendar for a few years, then I graduated to an actual running log from Runner's World, and then on to the fabulous running journal from Gone For A Run that I just can not say enough about. I love this journal SO much that I wrote about it several times. This journal has everything you need to keep track of training runs, races, PR's, goals, future races, you name it, it's got it. I like it so much that I wrote in depth reviews about it here and here.

I started with my official Runner's World training log when I started training for my first half marathon and then just continued with it throughout the training of my first full marathon.

I moved to the Gone For a Run running journal when I started official training for the 2016 WDW marathon.



Neither the training log nor the journal are filled up, yet I was gifted with another running journal for Christmas. It is The Complete Runner's Day -By-Day Log 2016 Calendar.

I thought about