Thankful Thursday: My Boy is Back in Town!

It's Thursday. It's not 100 degrees out. Let's be thankful!

I'm thankful...

...that Rocky is back!!! He spent a few weeks with his dad, but he's happy to be back in the hood, and I'm so happy to have him!

...that Tuesday marked the official start of training for my second half-marathon!  Staten Island, here I come!

...that it was only 74 degrees on my run today! And with a breeze? It was like Christmas in July! 

...for my roommate.  I'm sure I've said it before, but I would probably be naked half the time if I didn't have her extra large closet at my disposal. Thanks, Goof.

...for feta cheese. And hummus. And pitas. Okay, all Greek food. 

Now you go and be thankful too! :)

Checking In

It's halfway through July! Can you believe it?! Well, back before 2012 started...I set out some goals for this year.  I didn't make too many, and looking back I think that's because I was being cautious.  I was nervous to aim too high and fail.  Or worse, reach for too much and get injured.  I had started setting monthly goals for myself as well, but quickly fell off with that.  Oops.  So let's at least check in with my goals for the year and check my progress.


1. Set a new 5K PR.  Aiming for under 28:30. CHECK. I killed my old 5K PR at the Valentine's 5K race, finishing in 26:50. Boom.

2. Run my first half marathon. Check! You can read here about my first (definitely not last) adventure of 13.1 miles!

3. FINALLY take a spinning class. Check. Earlier this year I had a Living Social deal for NYSC so I took a few spinning classes. 


4. Complete another FUN run. Check! Just a few weeks ago, I had the best time at the Rugged Maniac race.  And in August, I'll be doing the NYC Color Run! Woo!

I did say "fun" run, right?

5. Run a race for charity.  Check. In April, I ran the Run for the Wild 5K to raise $ for the Wildlife Conservation Society.  I'll admit this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to run a charity race, but it'll do.  

And my non-fitness goal for 2012?

1. Graduate from my internship & GET A JOB! Halfway done. Internship is complete, job not so much...I'm working on it!!!

So I pretty much met all of my goals for 2012! I should be super excited, right? Eh, I am.  But really I'm feeling like a baby for not aiming higher.  I've been listening to my body and taking it easy when I need to, so I don't anticipate getting injured anytime soon.    So I'm going to step up my game and make some new goals for the rest of the year!

1. Run half-marathon #2 this fall.  I'm currently contemplating the NYRR Staten Island Half (Oct 7th).

2. PR in the 10K distance. Not sure how this is going to happen since I'm not signed up for (or even thinking about) another 10K this year, but I want to improve my time in the dreaded 6.2.

3. Step up to the plate and run the 25K Turkey Trot with my dad.  Talk about scary! I dread the 5mile course I've been doing each year because of the insane hills that I am not used to.  Can I survive 15+ miles of those hills?  I'm thinking if Dad can do it...so can I?! Might not be the case, but let's give it a shot!

4. Get my butt in the pool and "learn" to swim.  I know how to swim, but if I want to do a tri next year (and I do want to...) I need to swim well.  


5.  (Non-fitness related)-Pass the RD exam and GET THAT JOB!


How are you doing on your goals for 2012? Anything you want to add now that we're halfway through!?

I'm Unemployed and Still Thankful!

Happy Thursday! I'm trying to be productive  and study...so let's do this!

Today I'm feeling thankful...

...for my temporary unemployment.  Yeah, it sucks to not have money.  But I DO have plenty of time to exercise, relax and enjoy the summer weather.  Oh right, and study for that dang RD exam while applying for jobs. 

Hello, beach. Let's be friends.

...for fun colorful index cards! :) What better way to re-learn everything I ever knew about nutrition than on neon index cards?! 

...for pickles.  At the risk of sounding like Snooki, I love pickles! So crispy, crunchy and salty. Yum.

...that I found the Nike+ app to replace MapMyRun.  I'm not sure if this was a problem for anyone else, but MapMyRun was miscalculating distance on every single one of my runs.  It's really not helpful for me to think I've gone a certain distance at a certain pace, only to be completely disappointed! The Nike+ app has been fantastic so far, and who doesn't want random encouragement from professional athletes?

...for finally trying Nuun! So many of the runners and bloggers I follow have been talking about this awesome product for so long, and I've just got along to giving it a shot myself.  Nuun is a flavored electrolyte tab that dissolves in water and doesn't contain any sugar or carbohydrates.  

I started with Grape because I have a crazy love of grape Gatorade, and I have to say it's tasty and a great way to hydrate!

Now you go...What are you thankful for? Having a job? NOT studying for the RD exam? :)