Weekly Weigh In & Recap

 

This week, I did even better than I did last week.  Granted, I had Chinese buffet for lunch and pizza for dinner on Saturday, but other than that, I stuck with my eating plans and stayed within my calories for each day.  So, I’m very proud of myself for that.  I found that I do NOT like whole wheat couscous…I also do not recommend it unless, of course, you like eating cat and dog food because that’s what it looked like, smelled like and possibly tasted like too.  So, I threw that stuff out and will be having quinoa with my Moroccan Beef Stew in the future instead.

I like to switch up my snacks that I eat every day.  For instance, I usually eat 1 or 2 low-fat/low-cal healthy yogurts for one of my snacks, but this week, when I was grocery shopping at Randall’s (also known as Safeway and Tom Thumb, depending on what part of the country you live in), I came across their prepackaged salads that range from 210 to 280 calories per salad.  So I grabbed 8 of those and decided that those would be my snacks in lieu of yogurt for this week.  Not something I’ll do every week because while the yogurts run me around $1 - $2.50 per day depending on the brand I buy, the salads are $3.50 - $4 each.  So yea, while a good little change from the norm, not a cost effective one.  Next week, it’ll be back to the yogurts.

Let’s kick this off with a picture of my scale from this morning

That's 2.4 lbs down from last week's weigh-in and 4.8 lbs down since the challenge started on Dec 15th.

Now, let’s move onto this week in exercise:

• Saturday: nothing.  I had signed up for overtime Sunday night at work, so I needed to do my grocery shopping AND all my cooking on Saturday because I wouldn’t have time to do it on Sunday.  Also, I was still recovering from my sinus and ear infections and seriously wasn’t up to working out.

• Sunday: busted out 15 miles after 4 days of not running due to working overtime and being infected from the neck up.  I ran at an 11:31 pace.  Nice.

• Monday: nothing.  As mentioned, I worked overtime Sunday night so I was sleeping Monday morning before having to be back to work Monday afternoon.

• Tuesday: had a great 7 mile run.  While still a little sore in the quad department from Sunday’s 15-miler after 4 days off, my legs were definitely feeling much better.  I ran at a good pace, 10:30 with my first mile at 11:00 minutes and my final mile at 9:50!!!  Super proud of that final mile.  Except for mile 2, this was a completely progressive run.

• Wednesday: nothing, I worked overtime on the morning shift before my regular afternoon shift.

• Thursday: I had a nice cold weather run this day.  I had scheduled 6 miles, but since I had just worked a 16 hour shift on Wednesday after getting probably less than 3 hours of sleep the night before, I was really tired so I slept in a little more than I had planned to and so I did the 5 miles I had scheduled for Friday instead.  I love cold weather runs and don’t mind layering up at all.

• Friday: I was sooooo happy that the freezing rain they were forecasting for Friday morning didn’t happen.  Why?  I got to run!!!  It wasn’t as cold as Thursday, but layering was still necessary.  I did a long sleeved tech shirt and a running zip-up jacket, 2 pairs of capri tights, my running socks with a pair of regular knee high socks over the top, my balaclava, my ponytail beanie and gloves.  However, the gloves came off before I got to mile 2.

Overall, I call this week a success!  That video I did for the lady at work about my weight loss and how I’ve lost 70 lbs so far…well, she surprised me with a $20 gift card to TJ Maxx/Marshall’s/Home Goods!!!  So, Saturday night, I went to Marshall’s (this is by far my favorite place to get workout gear because I can get name brand stuff for super cheap) and found 2 items I just had to have.  One was a pair of ombre capris that started off with blue on top down to the knees and then faded to green to yellow.  The other was something I’ve wanted for the last few months as I’ve seen other runners on social media running in them: an ugly sweater long-sleeved tech shirt!  And I love it.  It was perfect for Sunday’s 15-miler.  It was warm enough without being too warm.  At one point during the run, it did warm up a little bit and so I just pulled the part that goes over your hands down to expose my hands and let myself cool down a little, then the wind picked back up and I pulled them back over my hands.  Just perfect.  And I look fabulous in it.  (sorry, forgot to take a full body pic of me in it, but I do have this selfie)

Onto the food aspect of this week.  I did a pretty good job of keeping at least a small cushion with my daily calories.  It was really easy on run days to have a nice deficit.  Sunday I had more than 1000 calories left over (thanks to the 15 mile run) when the day was over.  Most runners get “rungry” and just want to eat all the food the whole day after they run, especially long distances like that, but not me.  I’m rarely hungry after running.  It’s the days I don’t run that I’m usually super hungry and just want to eat, eat, eat.  Usually when I work overtime on a weekday on the morning shift (like I did on Wednesday), I go to the cafeteria in the courthouse and get the breakfast platter which consists of fried potatoes, 2 scoops of scrambled eggs, a sausage patty and a biscuit that I will put full-sugar jelly on.  It’s cheap money-wise, but not calorie-wise.  On Wednesday, I packed my cereal and almond milk.  I still went to the cafeteria, but all I got was 2 scrambled eggs…well, I ASKED for 2 eggs, but they gave me like 2.5 SCOOPS of egg which was more like 4 eggs…oh well, eggs are good for you and I had run the day before and was running the day after so no biggie.  I would have scrambled my own eggs, but they’re not as good when you reheat them and I’m not eating them cold.  I like my scrambled eggs freshly scrambled.

I had to unsync my Garmin Connect account from my MyFitnessPal account.  It kept doubling up my workouts and I had to go back in and delete one after I notice it says I did way more exercise than I know I did.  Not difficult to do but a pain in the ass and if I’m not paying attention, I might decide to eat all those extra exercise calories that I didn’t actually earn and therefore overeat by a few hundred calories…no bueno. 

Thoughtful Thursday (I'm a day late here...oops)

The lady that originally hosted the Friend Making Monday weekly installment has come up with a new weekly installment that I fully intend on taking part of called Thoughtful Thursday.  So, here you go!

Please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your Thoughtful Thursdays questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own Thoughtful Thursdays post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
 

Trying Something New

1. Do you have plans to do anything in 2015 that you didn’t do before? If so, what will you tell us about it? I plan to reach my goal weight (again) and then maintain it.

2. Use one word to describe the hardest part of change. Uncertainty

3. What is the last thing you purchased for yourself (outside of necessities?) an ugly sweater long-sleeved running tech shirt and ombre (blue to green to yellow) running capris

4. What is the best movie you’ve seen in the last 3 months? I’m not sure I’ve watched any movies in the last 3 months and if I have, I don’t remember it so it wasn’t very good.

5. If you could travel to one place that you’ve never been today, where would you go? Ireland!

6. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I’m an extrovert that highly values alone time

7. Share one thing for which you are thankful so far in 2015. Friends and family (I know that’s 2 things, but I really can’t separate them because a lot of my friends that I can’t live without I consider to be family)

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s question! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Take a few minutes to say hello to someone new too.

Friend Making Monday: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

Here’s how it works: you copy the questions, answer them and post them to your own blog.  Then you come back here, and in the comments, post the link to your blog post with your answers to this week’s questions.  If you don’t have a blog of your own, just post your answers in the comments.

1. How did you celebrate the New Year?

I volunteered to work overtime on the overnight shift, so I worked, otherwise it would have just been my usual: home alone with a cheap bottle of champagne, watching the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest.  I’m not really a party person…well, at least not the kind of parties that happen on New Year’s Eve, anyway.  Those things can get pretty crazy.

2. How was 2014 for you?  Give us a run-down/review of how 2014 went.

I ran 19 organized races and 6 virtual races this year.  As a result, I earned 19 medals and a couple gift cards that I used to buy a new pair of running shoes.  I placed 2^nd in my age group at one race.  I ran a number of races for the second year in a row (Stand-Up 5K, Autism Speaks 8K, BunRun -- last year a 10K, this year a 5K, Run With The Heroes 5k, Brown Santa 5K).  I also ran some other races that I want to make annual repeats (Austin 10/20, Freedom 5000, Hot Chocolate 10K, Austin Halloween Half marathon, Turkey Trot).  I trained for and ran my first full marathon and loved it.  I visited my home state of Oregon for the first time in 5.5 years and got to see my grandpa before he passed away shortly after my visit.  I logged 960.75 miles for the year, blowing my goal of running 900 miles out of the water completely.  I bought a new car.  I paid off some credit cards.  I built my credit a little bit.  I worked a bunch of overtime again, just like 2013.  Overall, 2014 was a success.

3. Did you make any resolutions and/or goals for 2014?  What were they?

Yes I did.  However, I apparently didn’t blog them, so I’m going to try and remember them to the best of my ability.

• run at least 900 miles.

• complete a full marathon.

• get back down to 172 lbs.

• workout 3-4 days a week.

4. How successful were you with keeping with these resolutions and/or goals?

Meh.  I definitely did the 900+ miles and the marathon.  However, I yo-yo’ed with my weight and never did make it back down below 180 lbs.  I think most weeks, I did get the 3-4 workouts done (or at least 3-4 runs), but there were weeks where I only did 1 or 2 and a few where I did nothing at all.  So, I’d say about halfway successful…BUT the things I did succeed at were pretty awesome.

5. Did you revise your list of resolutions and/or goals partway through the year?  If so, what did you change?

Not really.  I was just trying to keep up with what I had laid out for myself.

6. Are you making any resolutions and/or goals for 2015?  What are they?

Yes, I have a few specific goals I would like to achieve.

• run 2 more marathons before March 14^th and achieve Marathon Maniac membership.

• run another marathon later in the year (maybe…if my Ireland trip falls thru, I will try to run the Vegas RNR full).

• run 3 half marathons within 90 days and achieve Half Fanatic membership.

• run at least 5 half marathons.

• run at least 1000 miles.

• complete a sprint triathlon.

• get down to 170 lbs or less.

• practice clean eating at least 80% of the time.

7. If you could change one thing about what happened in your life in 2014, what would it be and why?

Not open so many credit card accounts.  Oops.

8. Did you do anything in 2014 that you have never done before?

Ran a full marathon!

9. Do you have any hopes of doing something in 2015 that you have never done before?

A sprint triathlon.

10. If anything were possible and you had no restrictions, what would you like to do in 2015?

Run Boston. 

What's Cookin' Sunday

This week, I did a recipe I've made multiple times, a recipe that is completely new to me and then I also made some more Indian Rice as I was starting to run low.  First, let's cover the completely new-to-me recipe.

MOROCCAN BEEF STEW

Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 lbs beef, cut into cubes
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 can (14.5 oz) reduced sodium beef broth
• 1 cup pitted prunes, chopped
• 1 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 3 cups spinach

Directions:
• heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  in a bowl, toss beef cubes in flour, 1/2 tsp of the salt and the pepper.  add half of beef to pot.  brown on all sides, about 4 minutes.  remove to a plate with a slotted spoon and repeat with remaining beef.
• reduce heat to medium and add onion to pot.  cook 3-5 minutes to soften.  sprinkle with cumin, cinnamon and cloves.  cook 1 minute.  add a splash of the beef broth; cook 1 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pot.
• add remaining broth and bring to a boil.  return beef to pot along with any liquid.  cover and simmer 1.5 hours over low heat.
• uncover pot and stir in prunes and apricots.  cover and cook 15 minutes.  uncover and stir in spinach.  cook, uncovered, 5 minutes.  season with remaining 1/2 tsp salt.
• serve over couscous.

**couscous nutrition info not included in the info for this recipe**

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ROASTED EGGPLANT PARMESAN W/ SPAGHETTI SQUASH

Ingredients: 
• 2 spaghetti squash (flesh yield of about 3 lbs)
• 2 eggplants (about 1.75 lbs)
• 2 cups no salt added marinara sauce
• 1.5 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
• olive oil cooking spray
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:
• preheat oven to 350°.  cut spaghetti squash in half and remove seeds and place flesh side down on baking sheet.  add half cup water to pan.  bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and allow to completely cool.  shred flesh with a fork.
• preheat oven to 400°.  peel and slice eggplants into 1/2 inch discs.
• lay eggplant discs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and spray with olive oil cooking spray and lightly sprinkle with sea salt.
• roast eggplant for 20 minutes and remove from oven.
• spoon the marinara sauce onto each disc evenly, then sprinkle the mozzarella and parmesan on top of the marinara and place back in oven for 5-10 minutes.

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**the Indian Rice recipe can be found here.

Weekly Weigh-In & Recap

This week was better than last week…eating-wise, at least.  I had a large speedbump (you know those road humps that are like speedbumps on steroids?  Yea, one of those) this week.  I started feeling not so spry last Friday.  I opted to sleep in Friday morning and skip my 3 mile run I had scheduled.  It was only 3 miles and I figured the extra sleep would be better for me.  I was right, however, it made it a little difficult to sleep that night and I had to get up by 4:30am the next morning for an overtime shift at work.  I had planned to do my 35 minutes at the gym followed by my Zumba core on the Xbox and then maybe make up the 3 mile run.  Six hours into the 8 hour shift, they sent me home as they didn’t need me anymore.  I was feeling tired and thought I’d lay down for an hour when I got home.  Yea, like 4 hours later I woke up and was super blah.  I stayed up for 7 hours and was then fighting my eyelids again, so I went back to bed and slept for TWELVE HOURS!!!  I got up a little after noon on Sunday.  Then I procrastinated before finally getting going with what needed to be done…a 13.1 mile run, picking up a prescription from the pharmacy, cooking.  I was then up until 2am, but didn’t get to sleep until after 3, after I took half of a sleeping pill and the proceeded to sleep horribly until my alarm went off at 9 so I could run 9 miles before work.  

Let's kick this off with the weigh-in:

That's a 5 lb loss from last Saturday, but a 2.4 lb loss from the first weigh in for the Biggest Loser challenge.  YAY!

So, here’s my breakdown for exercise for this week:

• Saturday: nothing...felt sick.

• Sunday: ran 13.1 miles and PR’ed the distance.  My previous PR was from the very first time I ever ran 13.1 miles.  I did it in 2:24:08.  This time I did it in 2:23:46, a full 22 seconds faster!  Granted, that’s not a HUGE difference, but when you take into consideration that I haven’t run that distance that “fast” since July 2013, that’s really something. 

• Monday: ran 9 miles.  I felt like hell during this run.  I woke up in so much pain from Sunday’s PR run.  Everything hurt.  My quads, my hammies, my inner thighs, my calves, my abs.  My lower back hurt too, but that was from being horizontal for so many hours Saturday night and Sunday morning/mid-day.  I started running and I just felt so slow.  So. Slow.  It sucked.  I figured after a couple/few miles my legs would loosen up and I could pick up the pace, but no such luck.  My legs stayed stiff and sore the entire 9 miles.  At around mile 2.5, I thought that I could just do 4 and do the 9 later in the week.  I decided that wasn’t an option.  Then I started thinking that I could just cut it short a smidge and run 8 miles.  I again decided that wasn’t an option.  I slogged out the whole 9 miles.  I hated every minute of it too.  The whole 9 miles I just wanted it to be over.  I hate runs like this.  But, I won’t let it get me down…and I didn’t.

• Tuesday: nothing, worked a double shift Monday night and slept Tuesday morning and then went straight back to work in the early afternoon.

• Wednesday: ran 7 miles.  The soreness from Sunday’s “super fast” half marathon was finally mostly gone…YAY!  It was pretty cold out, though.  The temp read 37°…feels like 27°…both when I started my run and when I got done with it.  The temp didn’t change one bit in the hour and 20 minutes-ish that I was out running.  I layered up really good, so that helped.  I bought these leggings from the department store about a month or so ago and I wore them as my base layer and was pleasantly surprised to find out they were fleece-lined!  So I was quite toasty.  About 2 miles into my run, my hands got hot so I took my gloves off.  It really wouldn’t have been bad at all if it wasn’t for the wind!

• Thursday: nothing…again, worked a double shift Wednesday, so was sleeping in the morning and going back to work early afternoon.

• Friday: nothing.  I ended up at the urgent care doctor and was diagnosed with a sinus infection AND an ear infection.  Let me just tell you...I hate ear drops.  I haven't had ear drops since I was very small.  I hate them.  But, they cost a pretty penny so I'll be using them...and also, I want my ear to stop feeling like someone stabbed it with an icepick.  On the plus side, I did get a shot of my vitals from my visit and check out that pulse!  That's a "runner's pulse"!!!

 

I did eat out a few times this week.  I was hoping to start the whole “no fast/junk food” challenge again, but that didn’t happen…not this week anyway.  But, I did stay within my calories, even if the food wasn’t the best choices I could have made.  Sunday was a bacon cheeseburger and fries from my favorite burger joint.  Monday was a steak finger basket from DQ.  Monday was also a venti skinny mocha and a spicy chicken biscuit from 7-11.  But, like I said, all within my calorie ranges for each day.

Without exercise, my daily food intake looks something like this:

• breakfast: 2 farm fresh eggs, scrambled with a little bit of sea salt & a bowl of high fiber, low sugar cereal with almond milk

• lunch: a nitrate-free lunchmeat sandwich with light mayo on 2 slices of sprouted grain bread

• dinner: one of my pre-prepared entrees that I’ve cooked during my “What’s Cookin’ Sunday”

• snacks: large honeycrisp apple (or 2 small ones) and 2 low calorie/low fat/low sugar Greek yogurts

If I’ve worked out, I’ll add some multigrain pita chips with some lemon hummus, another piece of fruit, a Clif bar, an extra egg at breakfast, some low calorie crockpot beans, you get the idea.  I do try to keep it healthy…but I don’t always succeed.  Sometimes I just want what is fast and easy.  Honestly, though, the things I listed as healthy additions if I’ve worked out, ARE fast and easy.  I’m not sure why I think they’re not and that I need to go get in the car, drive somewhere and pay extra money for food when I have perfectly good and good for me food at home that is ready to go and already paid for…and cheaper than what I drove to go get at the fast food place.

Dallas Marathon Race Recap

"It's important to know that at the end of the day it's not the medals you remember. What you remember is the process -- what you learn about yourself by challenging yourself, the experiences you share with other people, the honesty the training demands -- those are things nobody can take away from you whether you finish twelfth or you're an Olympic Champion."
-Silken Laumann, Canadian Olympian

Okay, now I’m doing my Dallas Marathon recap!

Like I said previously, I was super nervous leading up to the marathon.  My last long run was that horrible 22 miler where everything kept cramping and seizing up on me.  I was on the verge of being terrified that my marathon was going to go that direction as well.  Thankfully, it wasn’t.  I think I figured out the problem with that run, too.  I know I didn’t eat anywhere near enough carbs the day before and, really, I’m sure I could have hydrated better.

I loved the course.  It was fairly flat with only a few long, gradual hills to speak of that I really barely noticed.  The aid stations were well spaced in my opinion and were well stocked with water and Gatorade.  For the most part I stuck to the water.  The Gatorade was just too strong for me, besides, I was taking in a gel regularly every 4-5 miles, so I didn’t really need the Gatorade on top of that.  At some of the later water stops, like after the full split from the half, some of the aid stations had orange slices, so I grabbed some of those at a couple stations. 

The spectators.  Oh my god, the spectators were amazing!  The only part of the course I wasn’t a big fan of was the part that didn’t really have any spectators and that was the out-and-back by the lake.  The best part of the spectators was their reaction to my shirt, the “BIRTHDAY GIRL” tank I was wearing.  So many people yelled out “happy birthday!” and “hey, birthday girl!”  One lady at one of the water stops actually started running with me and sang me happy birthday the whole way through!  A few more people sang happy birthday as I ran by.  When Carina joined me at mile 20 and ran with me for a couple miles, she would shout out “hey!  I got a birthday girl here!” and the people would cheer super loud for me.  At one point, there was some high school band kids huddled under one of those booth tent cover things and she ran up and asked the trumpet player to play happy birthday…and HE DID!  I seriously felt like a celebrity.  It was awesome and amazing. 

This was my most memorable race that I’ve done so far because of these reasons and, of course, because it was my first full marathon.  Off and on while I was running, I kept getting emotional because I kept thinking about what I was doing, that I was going to accomplish something that less than 1% of the US population has done.  This was huge and it kept hitting me.  I figured I’d lose it when I crossed the finish line, but I didn’t.  I did stop at the finish and do a little leap into the air with my arms raised, but, the photographers didn’t catch it.  Ugh.  That’s pretty much the only thing that I was truly disappointed with.  But, basically all the photos that they did get of me were good pictures…YAY!  It was a little difficult to choose JUST 3 photos to buy, but I narrowed it down to my one of my finish line photos, the finisher’s photo they take with you and your medal and then one that was somewhere on the course, I don’t remember what mile it was.  The photographer did get me my photos really fast, way faster than they said they would, so that was really nice. 

When Carina ran with me around mile 20, she asked me how I was feeling.  I told her I felt great and that I couldn’t wait to run another marathon.  True, I hadn’t yet finished this one and I still had about 6 miles to go, but I figured that if I was still doing great at mile 20, that 6 more miles really wasn’t going to change things much.  Later at dinner, she told me I wasn’t normal for saying that.  Usually, around mile 20 is where people start wondering why they thought running a marathon was a good idea in the first place but not me, nooooo, I couldn’t wait to do it again!  The good news, I don’t have to wait long as I won an entry to the Austin Marathon!

As soon as I crossed the finish line and had gotten my medal – my beautiful medal - my foil “blanket,” my finisher’s photo and other finish line goodies, I checked my messages.  I had signed up for the text message updates for when I hit certain points along the course (5K, 10K, etc).  The final one was, of course, when I crossed the finish line.  It said 5:14:59 with an average pace of 12:01.  However, my Garmin said 5:15:01, 26.77 miles and an average pace of 11:45.  I’m inclined to go with the Garmin because I know I didn’t run the tangents and then there was the little detour about half a block off course to use that fancy port-o-potty after the full-half split.  Also, even though it’s a USATF certified course, it’s not going to measure exactly the same as a GPS watch.  So, really, the truth is probably in between what my watch said and 26.2. 

Something I really liked was when we were going through the finisher’s area, when they were giving you your little snack packs, they did it with one of those string backpacks and it has the logo for the marathon’s logo on it.  I really like it too!  It’s going to be my new race bag where I put all the things I need to take with me for races.

Because I had also signed up for the marathon to post updates of my progress to my Facebook page, the people that didn’t sign up for the text updates could look on Facebook and see how I was doing.  Because of this, by the time I got back to the hotel, stretched and showered, I had quite a few comments from friends and family.  The one that really hit me was my mom telling me that I am now a marathoner! 

 

check out my time for mile 22!!!  fastest mile of the entire race!

just check out that smile!  i was having a great time!

crossing the finish line, still going strong!

such a pretty medal!  i love all the colors!

it' official and i have a shirt to prove it!!!

2014 In Review

I want to take a moment to review how 2014 was for me.  I started off the year with some goals for myself.  I met most of them.  All but the getting back down to my goal weight.  When 2014 started, I had a goal to run at least 900 miles throughout the year.  To help me make sure I hit this goal, I did up a list of total miles I'd need to run every month throughout the year.  This is what I came up with:
• January: 50 miles
• February: 57 miles
• March: 62 miles
• April: 69 miles
• May: 75 miles
• June: 80 miles
• July: 85 miles
• August: 85 miles
• September: 85 miles
• October: 85 miles
• November: 85 miles
• December: 85 miles

It started off great.  I ran 50.5 in January, 60.2 in February, 68.5 in March.  Then, it all started to go a little wrong.  I only did 54.6 in April.  May was just 55.8.  June dipped down to 43.8.   My all-time low was just 19 miles in July.  There was no way I was going to hit my goal of 900 for the year.  But then, I registered for the Dallas Marathon and started training like crazy.  August's miles were 54.5 and that was pretty much all in the last 2 weeks of the month.  September I really started hitting the pavement and racked up 148.4 miles (my second highest monthly mileage ever...highest was September 2013 with 148.75...just missed it!).  I was set to do over 160 in October when I hit a speedbump and strained my calf.  This forced me to cut out some runs and drop the mileage of others, leaving me with 135.95 for the month.  November I cranked out 131.75.

In December, I ran my very first full marathon.  I trained for it all on my own with a training plan created completely by me.  I found a few marathon training plans in books and online and used those as guides when I was creating my own.  I will be up front and say that I did NO speedwork, NO repeats, NO tempo runs.  All I did was straight running...just logged the miles.  I did gradually increase my long run mileage each week until I hit that final long run of 22 miles that was just hell in running shoes.

But I made it.  I ran my first marathon.  And I didn't just run it.  I rocked it!  Granted, 5:14:59 (official) isn't exactly a fast time, but when I tell you that my goal was to run it around 5:30:00 and that I was convinced I'd be lucky to finish in under 6 hours, then it puts it into perspective a little.

On top of organized events that ran this year (19 races), I also ran a number of virtual races.  These are races that you sign up for, pay a small registration fee for, run on your own and then turn in your time on the website, and then they send you a medal.  The proceeds of these races go entirely to a charity.  I participated in 6 virtual races.  3 I did as a 5K, 1 I did as a 10K, and the other 2 I did as half marathons.

I worked a good amount of overtime at work this year, which paid for my trip home to Oregon to visit friends and family.  It was a wonderful trip and I got to see my maternal grandpa for the last time as he passed away in August.  I was so happy to see him and, although he was very tired the whole time I was visiting, he looked well and happy to see me.  While in Oregon, I ran the Helvetia Half Marathon and it was gorgeous.  It took us through Oregon wine country and was very scenic.  If I'm in Oregon in June again, I will run this race again...hands down a great race.

My adorable VW Beetle died and I replaced her with a brand new Kia that I named Dori (after the blue fish in Nemo).  This car is everything I ever wanted in a car and then some.  I am very happy with the purchase.

As I mentioned, in August, I lost my beloved grandpa.  He had a long battle with blood cancer and kidney failure and he finally succumbed to it.  When I ran the Hot Chocolate 10K on September 6th, it was the same day as his memorial service, so I ran the race in his memory.

In 2014, I actively started paying attention to my credit rating (I know, I know, I should have done this YEARS ago) so that I can build it up and hopefully get approved for a good home loan in a couple years.  I started paying off credit cards to help with this and hope to pay off some more in 2015.

I tested for promotion in my career.  I did well on the test (especially when you consider I didn't study one bit for it), but not well enough to proceed to the next step in the promotional process.  I plan to test again in 2015 and I plan to do well enough to get to that next step.  While I did not promote, they did give us a very small pay raise.  It amounts to about $1300 a year before taxes.  That's like $55 before taxes a pay check because I get paid twice a month.  Ugh.  Almost not even worth it.

To wrap up this summary of my year, I want to say that I really did have a pretty good year.  I'm very happy with it as a whole.  I blew my goal of 900 miles in one year out of the water with a total of 960.75 miles!  The only thing I'm not happy about is how I conducted my attempts at weight loss.  I am ending this year weighing about 8 or so pounds more than I started it weighing.

Here's some fun stats from the website I use to track my mileage, dailymile.com: