I ran 10 miles yesterday afternoon.

Sometimes it just makes sense to get the long run out of the way on a Friday so the weekend can be uninterrupted. I’m lucky to have the flexibility in my schedule right now. And today while Mr. SOTSS is getting his long run in, I’ll be chilling back at the house with his 10-year old. Teamwork!

I didn’t have it in me to do a long run in the neighborhood again so I took it to the beach and ran along the pretty trails alongside the ocean and through other parts of the national park area.

I love living on a coast.

quiet, secret trails

The weather was gorgeous. Bright blue skies and about 59 degrees. I started out a little too fast for a long run but it caught up with me. I did however bust out my fastest mile in the last mile for the win!

And here’s a great shot AND an outtake from my timer-camera pit-stop about midway into the run.

successful timer-camera action (and when do i retire this shirt? I’ve been wearing it for 3 years now! I get so attached to my marathon finisher’s shirts)

Unsuccessful timer-camera shot. LOL!

And no, unfortunately (or fortunately) I’m not the one with the long legs….Duncan is:

I need your help.

My running capris are getting really worn and I’m going to have to replace them soon. The ones in the pics above are not made anymore. They were the Brooks Essential Capri. Who’s got suggestions for good running capris?

1. They need to stay up,
2. not unravel along the seams,
3. have a zipper pocket in the back,
4. be closer to compression gear but not that tight and not come too far below my knee.

What’s the weather like by you this weekend? Ever do your long run on a Friday?

I ran the Philly Love Run half marathon in Philadelphia yesterday. This race has been in existence now for 3 years and I’ve run all 3 years.

You get a mug each year as part of your swag which I love since I’m such a big coffee drinker. They seem to be shrinking each year though. 🙂

The first year (2014)  I set my current half marathon PR in the pouring rain.

Such a wild day running in the pouring rain

Last year (2015) my knee was still recovering and I was just hoping to finish without crippling myself.

Yay! Done! Knee ok. Let’s eat.

This year I knew I wasn’t in PR shape but I also knew after last week’s Cherry Blossom 10 miler that I could run strong 10-minute miles for at least 10 miles so my goal was to finish between 2:10 and 2:15. Well, despite the ridiculously big hills between miles 7 and 8 I did it and came in at 2:13 with a 10:09 average pace.

Each year the course has changed between miles 6-9 and that has always been the hilliest and most challenging part of the course. I’m going to do a comparison of all 3 year’s courses in detail at the end of this recap but first I’ll recap yesterday’s experience:

Expo: I’ve yet to attend an expo since I live an hour and a half from Philly. I’ve relied on my friend Jane (and her resources) to grab my bib and swag every year. They are fine with someone else getting your bib as long as you show a copy of that runner’s ID.Thank you Jane!

Philly Love Run Race Day

Pre-Race: I slept at Mr SOTSS’ the night before so at 4:15am when the alarm went off I got up and shut it off quickly, got dressed, made a travel mug of coffee and toasted a bagel with a little butter and wrapped it up in foil so I could have my breakfast on the road. Mr. SOTSS’ dog Chester eats breakfast really early so he was happy to see me moving about at 4:45 am. I fed him (and Duncan too) just before I left the house at 5am.

Old school note left on the kitchen counter. Wouldn’t want the dogs to get fed twice although I’m sure they’d be ok with it 🙂

I ate half the bagel, half the cup of coffee and had some water on the drive down and by 6:30 am I was parking. The lot was almost full! Each year the race gets larger so if you plan to drive be sure to give yourself plenty of time to park. There is street parking if you are lucky but I hate stressing about parking so I just shelled out the $20 for the parking lot and patted myself on the back for getting there as early as I did. The lot I parked in is only 3 blocks from the start. By 7:30 I had met up with Jane and her friends.

Start–Mile 4: It was cold in the morning. Temps were just below freezing. But graciously mother nature decided to ease up on the original predicted wind and there was plenty of sunshine too. I decided to seed myself in the 1:45-2:00 hour corral.

View from the corrals

More »

It’s 60 degrees! 30 degrees above average and that was all I needed to help push me out the door to finally get a run in since recovering from that nasty upper respiratory infection.

pretending to be in jail.

I’ve been feeling better since probably Wednesday and I’m sure I could have managed a few miles on Thursday or Friday but I was scared that running would cause me to relapse. Or maybe I was just being lazy? I ended up being rather busy with work on Thurs/Fri so I just took the extra 2 days to take it easy.

And today, with the warmish sun on my face, I set out for 3 miles which turned into 3.5.

I think my favorite color combination lately is this chartreuse green and turquoise combo on my shirt and sneakers. I even have the green stitching up the sides of the leggings and on the cuffs of my socks.And I love that my earbuds match too!

Of course I’m not loving the extra lbs I feel like I’ve gained over the last few months. I can see it in this picture for sure 🙁 Time to work on that. #storyofmylife

The highlights of my week involved spending time with Duncan, Mr. SOTSS, Chester, and various combinations of all 3.

Duncan squished in between me and Mr. SOTSS.

Chester using Duncan as a pillow and Duncan using me as a pillow

I’m going to shoot for another few miles tomorrow and then on Monday I’m dropping my Subaru at the dealership for service and I plan to run/walk the 6.5 miles from Subaru to Mr. SOTSS’s house. This should get me back on track for training for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler.

Speaking of the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, have I mentioned how excited I am for it?!

Are you excited for any Spring races? What are you up to this weekend? 

Woah! How is it 6 days into the new year already? Let’s catch up! How did you ring in the new year? Anything new and exciting planned for 2016?

So the good news is I have managed to break my 10-cookie-a-day-habit but I have been satisfying my sweet tooth with these candy canes I got on the half price rack after Christmas 🙂

Let’s face it—I have no expectation that my sweet tooth will just disappear for 2016 so I’ll do what I can to keep it under control.

I got a new couch and it comes with a classic Sally story. So last Tuesday I met some of my high school alumni at a local bar for our annual holiday get together. It’s always fun to catch up although we keep in touch on Facebook too. I spent 4+ hours there and it was after midnight when I got home. I was expecting my new sofa to be delivered between 6:30-9:30am the following day and knew I needed to get my existing furniture out to the curb. I couldn’t exactly call someone in the middle of the night. Mr. SOTSS’s suggestion was for me to just move my existing furniture into the dining room until he was able to get over to help but I’m stubborn and a little too type A to be able to handle having the old stuff lingering for a day or more. So I just hauled a$$ and got-er-done but I took out chunks of sheetrock, pulled some muscles and bruised myself along the way.

All because I was too stubborn to wait 12 hours!

But I did it! Down 2 flights of enclosed spiral stairs #stronglikebull #stubbornasamule

There was even a moment that the love seat was literally wedged in the staircase and I couldn’t budge it loose. I almost fell apart and cried but I pulled myself together and slithered under the railing to get beneath and jiggle the love seat free. While I’m still sore and bruised a week later, it was worth it.

And the new sofa? I love it!

It’s big enough for Mr. SOTSS, me and BOTH dogs. This was very important to me since Chester is a big boy and hasn’t been able to fit on the sofa with us without being a “lap” dog =)

we ALL fit!

So I thought it would be fun to go month by month and share my most memorable moments of 2015. They won’t all be running related but I’m sure you don’t mind. Gonna go in reverse and start with December first so that I can tell you all about my New Year’s Eve:

DECEMBER 31—New Year’s Eve/Day

Happy New Year

I spent the afternoon strolling the outlet stores with Mr. SOTSS, his girls and his mom too! We then picked up some groceries at the supermarket for dinner. The girls and I took on the important responsibility of picking out ice cream flavors and before you knew it we had whipped cream, chocolate chips, sprinkles and chocolate syrup! If there’s one thing I know it’s that you need to make ice cream sundae’s to ring in the new year. Mr. SOTSS’ mom cooked an amazing dinner (his aunt and uncle joined us for dinner too!). We then put on our party hats and waited patiently for midnight. The girls played chess and then joined me in working on one of the jigsaw puzzles that I bought them for Christmas.

Matching shirts!

The finished puzzle. All glued together and ready for hanging.

Party animal!

Siblings! Always a competition =)

More »