We woke up to a record snowfall this morning! I believe it was about 21 inches and ranks in the top five record snowfalls for the area. Crazy stuff. Needless to say, I haven’t really left the house since I got home from work (yes, work!) yesterday. I took some pictures this morning and earlier this evening of all the snow.

So, lots of things have happened since my last post and I’ll write a longer update soon. Hope everyone is staying warm and safe!

Since my last run, I’ve kicked up the training a bit and this week marks the first “official” week of training for the half. On Saturday, I went to a running seminar put on by the folks that are sponsoring the marathon and learned new tips/tricks, especially as it relates to nutrition and mental training. Here’s a tidbit of what I learned…

I usually don’t have a problem eating before I run, but I am really bad with drinking enough water before I run. Its recommended that you drink 20 oz. of fluid before you exercise. And when you are drinking before/during/after your run, you should take gulps over sips. The reasoning behind this is that it enhances absorption and will also be voided by the body quicker.

When I run, I usually lose salt since I end up with salty residue on my skin. So, I need to make sure that I am getting enough salt. Recommendations they mentioned include eating pickles and pretzels (pretzels with peanut butter are my fav snack right now too) and adding salt to a sports drink. Sometimes when I run I make sure to have salt packets and use those as needed. This usually is only a concern for me during the humid, summer months. But, I’m going to keep a close eye on my salt intake to make sure it is not an issue.

After exercise, I sometimes find it hard to eat, but I really need to make sure that I eat something small within 15 minutes of exercise to speed up recovery.

And the toughest part of running for me is the mental part. Sometimes I psych myself out and don’t even try. This is something I want to get better at and I am going to work on training my negative thoughts. I am not going to give pain any of mental energy – that just gives it more energy. Instead, I am going to change the negatives into positives, ie, “bring on the pain, I can handle it.” I also tend to over think runs, so I am going to do my best to stay in the present and to simplify the runs – its just a series of lefts, rights, left, right. Easier said than done, but I really want to conquer this! If you have any mental tips, I’d love to hear them.

On Sunday, I also got my long run of three miles in. Kinda sad when you think of three miles as a long run, but I’ll be racking up the miles again shortly. I left the Garmin at home, which was both a positive and a negative. The good thing was I couldn’t beat myself up mentally for my slow pace because I didn’t know what my pace was exactly. And that was the bad thing as well. Its probably better I left it at home since the trail we ran on was icy and snowy – it was pretty hard to get any traction and I was more concerned about not falling and aggravating the pain in my glutes (which has mostly gone away, yay!) than running fast. Speed workouts come back into play this week too and I’ll share my training schedule as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a health or fitness professional and I am only sharing information that I have come across. My blog is based on my experiences and opinions, which may or may not work for you.

Lately, I’ve been letting the whole I don’t have a job thing define me, especially over the holidays when everything slows down and I need to snap out of it. The good news is things have been finally picking up (three interviews this week!) and the  half-marathon I am training for is in 109 days. So, its time to press play and unpause my life. Having a job does not define or make a person. Its easy to forget that sometimes.

On Sunday I met Julie from Wearing Mascara for a run. This was my first run in ages and I was so glad to have a running partner to tackle the 11 degree temps! I had on running tights, workout capris, two long sleeve tech shirts, a vest, a hat and gloves. I probably could have gone without the vest and the capris. After we conquered the temps, we had coffee at Caribou Coffee, which always reminds me of the summer I spent interning in DC. This weekend I’ll meet up with my running group for a run and I am thrilled that I have found a group to train with. One of my friends also signed up with me, so I am really looking forward to the experience. I have never trained for a half with a group, but I think it will be really beneficial.

My good eating habits have also gotten a little complacent. Too many sweets over the holidays and not enough water, fruits, veggies and exercise. I’ve been bookmarking tons of great recipes and can’t wait to try them all out. I just got a new camera, so I’ll share these on the blog too as I cook them all and try to balance my eating habits along with living with my parents. It has been challenging at times to say the least!

Happy New Year blog friends! I know I’ve fallen off the face of the earth in blog land, but with the holidays and job hunt, it was hard to blog. Plus, a lot of the stuff I’m dealing with right now isn’t blogging material (for me at least), but I am hoping to blog a lot more in 2010! While 2009 was not a bad year for me at all, I am really looking forward to what 2010 brings!

While I was reading everyone’s New Year post, I became inspired to write one of my own. So, here’s a look back at the past ten years of my life.

This past decade I:

* Graduated high school (and OMG 10 year reunion this year? Crazy.)

* Graduated college

* Discovered a career in P*R and learned from amazing colleagues while working with suburb clients

* Traveled lots (LA, Nashville, New York City, San Juan, Miami, to name a few)

* Moved to San Francisco without knowing a soul and lived there for almost two years

* Watched my favorite teams win a Super Bowl (Steelers), Stanley Cup (Pens) and a World Series (Red Sox)

* Became an athlete (ran 2 marathons, 2 half-marathons and countless other races; discovered I actually enjoyed going to the gym)

* Lived in Boston for three years

* Moved back to Pittsburgh

* Became comfortable in my own skin

Over the next ten years I want to:

* Travel more (Europe, anyone?)

* Get my graduate degree

* Buy a house (which means, saving more!)

* Keep running and run more races in different states

* Help others more and make more time for others

I think the next ten years will be the one of the best of my life and I can’t wait for the ride. What do you want to accomplish in the next ten? Happy New Year!

I saw this adorable ad for Google on Single-ish post last week and had to share.

I’d like to think my love story starts something like this:
moving from Boston to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh jobs
Pittsburgh apartment
jeans and boots for first date
good gift to bring when meeting boyfriend’s parents
Caribbean travel deals
antique engagement rings
fall diy wedding
wedding dresses that are not strapless
Pittsburgh houses for sale

But I think its better left unwritten. What is your love story?

Well folks, we are at the end of November finally and the end of NaBloPoMo. I’m surprised I made it, but glad I was able to get into the habit of blogging daily.

Things I learned include:
* I’m not a blog once a day person. I don’t think I’ll post as frequently, but will post more often now that I am in the habit.
* I enjoyed the challenge of finding something to post once a day, but didn’t enjoy throwing together random posts.
* Too often I waited to the 11 p.m. hour to pull something together. I need to get into the habit of writing at different times of day, especially when I’m not tired.
* My interests are all over the place blogging wise and I want to continue blogging about different things, but I’m not sure how to go about doing so in a clear and concise way. Any suggestions?
* Not having a computer makes blogging challenging as does not having access to a digital camera.
* I need to comment more, which I plan on doing more now that I have my own computer. Comments really make my day!

Thank you to everyone that kept coming back and reading my posts. I love the blogging community and I’m glad to be a part of it. If you participated in NaBloPoMo, what did you learn?

Finally resorting to the bullet points and the list. I am not very good at NaBlPoMo, but I’m not going to fail now!

* Stayed in on Saturday and watched “17 Again” with my sister. Zac Efron love.

* In love with my new computer.

* Started cleaning the basement, which has become the catch all place for lots of random junk. Not fun, but needs to be done.

* Went out to watch the first half of the Steelers game. We’re doing much better than expected considering our third string QB is starting.

* How is it practically December? Wasn’t it just Halloween?

* Work at 6 a.m. tomorrow, so this is gonna be short! Nites!

I finally got my pretty, fast, new computer! I love it. Still trying to figure out how everything works (like the mouse!), but it is a million times better than the old one. And speaking of the old one, it decided to turn on in the store. Figures! I’m going to reformat it and craigslist it this week. I’m so glad I did not lose all my data – they were able to transfer everything over. Smart, techy people – what do I do to back up my stuff? Advice appreciated!

So excited to step up my blogging and job hunting game now that I have a working computer. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far, I’m off to watch “17 Again” with my sister.

I hung out with some high school friends tonight, which is kinda scary, considering our 10th high school reunion is next year around this time. Ahh, am I really that old? The class of ‘99 had their reunion tonight. Crazy. I feel old! But, I loved spending time with my old girlfriends gossiping about our secret high school crushes and old friends. Totally a morale boaster and I so needed that tonight.

Did anyone else have a high school secret crush that they never told anyone about? I wonder what would have happened if I fessed up. Did you do “drive bys” of your crush’s house? We did! Too funny. To be young and not have a care in the world, right? Those ere the days.

Happy Thanksgiving blog friends! I hope your day was full of lots of family and friends, good food and endless laughter. I know mine was. I have a lot to be thankful for, including the wonderful folks I’ve met through this little thing called the Internet.

Good luck to those brave enough to hit up the mall tomorrow!