Pro Compression Giveaway!

As most of you already know I am part of a new pacing team known as the Run Your Race Pacers.  We have started a blog, www.ryrpacing.blogspot.com and will be doing giveaways quite often.  As a matter of fact we are doing a Pro Compression giveaway RIGHT NOW!  It ends tomorrow so get on it peeps ;)
I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was when Holly walked these down to my house the other day.

I LOVE the back of the shirt so you get a picture of that too.

Since Pro Compression has come on board as sponsors they sent us some goods to keep us in tip top shape for pacing.  Proper recovery is key and these stockings are sure to help your muscles get the blood flow that they require to rebuild themselves.  I did a product review of Pro Compression back in November that you can read HERE.

And for those of you not interested in my non-sense mile long post, I will do a quick recap as to why I am in love with these socks.

First of all, they are really, really, ridiculously good looking. 

They also feel AMAZING!  I love the fact that they fit perfectly.  They are super tight in the leg which is how they should be, but I don't feel like my little toesies are squished together like in other brands.  Nothing feels better after a really hard run/workout than slipping on Pro Compression socks.  They feel like a little hug for your tired legs.

I have also found that I love to run in them.  With other brands I never wear them to the gym because they just aren't very attractive.  I not only wear these to the gym but I get compliments every single time, like I said they are ridiculously good looking.

I love to sleep in them as well.  The night before a long run I always slather my legs in BioFreeze and sleep with my Pro Compression socks on.  In the morning I feel refreshed and ready to go.

Be sure to enter the giveaway asap.  Not only do you get a pair of socks but you get to pick them out and believe me they have some really great socks to choose from.

Push Hard But Not Too Hard! b

As of late I have been thinking a lot about pushing myself off a bridge in running.  I think there is a very fine line when it comes to doing all that you are capable of without getting over trained or injured.  I am currently training for the Ogden Marathon and I am bound and determined to PR!  I am trying to be smart and have a hard time knowing how hard to push myself.  Working with weights I can push myself without the fear of injuring myself but running is a whole different beast.  One wrong move and you can cause yourself all sorts of trouble.  If anyone has any words of wisdom for me please let me know.

Now onto other things.  Looky at what I did today...

I took my most favorite running shirt and turned it into a workout shirt.

Actually I did it to 2 :)  It was just so fun I couldn't stop myself!

I was browsing on the Pinterest when I stumbled across THIS and I decided to dig out my Saucony FIND YOUR STRONG shirt.  I have worn that shirt so much that it was looking a bit haggard and sad.  Now I can wear it to the gym and I am sure to find my strong.

Saucony just so happens to make my running shoe of choice, the Kinvara!  One day last summer as I was doing hill repeats I looked down at my Kinvara's and told myself to "find your strong!"  It worked, I was able to repeat that to myself over and over again until I reached the top of the blasted hill.  Thank you Saucony for making such wonderful shoes and thank you to the sales rep who gave me my beloved shirt when I worked for 26.2.

For anyone who wants to try to make one of these shirts make sure you practice on your not so favorite shirt first.  My first go at it wasn't quite so successful.  I made the front a little too revealing.  When I cut the sleeves off I got a little carried away and well let's just say that if I wore that shirt to the gym I would surely be mistaken for a floozy.  Ain't nobody got time fo' dat'!

This video brings me great joy :)

Something else that brings me great joy is pacing races!  I love it and I can't wait until race season is in full swing.  I will be pacing with the Run Your Race Pacers.  Follow the link for their blog.  I'm so excited to work with these amazing runners pacing AMAZING races.  Honestly if I could pace a race every weekend I would, I can not wait!!

Please leave any tips you may have for pushing hard without pushing too hard.  No injuries here PLEASE!!!

2012 Recap!

Here is my recap of 2012.  Feel free click any links that excite you, heck if you have 12 days go ahead and click them all but I won't feel bad if you don't!

McKenna and I went on our first girls trip which you can read about HERE, I will warn you that it is a very loooong post but kind of entertaining.

I made a job change that seemed like a good idea but it wasn't!

Jake, Jorge, Holly and I went to New York and Boston so that Holly and I could run the Boston Marathon, that was definitely memorable.

Did the Utah Valley Half Marathon while over trained, that was really somethin'!

I ran my own version of an Ultra Ragnar at the Wasatch Back Ragnar.  I actually quite enjoyed that, crazy huh?!?  I would love to do an Ultra Ragnar again!!!

I ran the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon which I loved with all my heart, this was the only race that I actually raced.  I PR'd but didn't get the time I was hoping for...boo hoo!

 Ran the Freedom Run 10K another PR but again I was disappointed with my time.  I'm starting to see a trend, maybe I should be happy with my PR's rather than compare myself to others who are much speedier than me.  There will always be someone faster you know!

I ran a 20 Mile Half Marathon which sounds odd and it was!

I started pacing races which is my favorite.  I paced the Top of Utah Half Marathon and loved every second of it!

Paced the Mt. Nebo Half Marathon and found one of my new favorite races!  If you want to PR this is the race for you.

Another PR race would have to be the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon.  That was an amazing race.  I totally forgot to post this fancy video they sent me.  They made videos for every runner which is just awesome!  Big Cottonwood Video!  You can try the link but I don't know if it will work or not :(

I ran my most favoritest race EVER!!!  No race will ever live up to the Nike Women's Marathon!  That family trip was amazing...SO FUN!

I quit the job that I thought I wanted!  It turns out that lazy people annoy the crap out of me, wow that was blunt wasn't it?!?  I got so sick of people complaining that their heart rates were high...DUH!  That's sort of the point.  Obviously working out is hard otherwise everyone would do it and there wouldn't be a huge obesity epidemic.  I know I am strange because I actually enjoy torturing myself but seriously if you were paying $35 an hour for a trainer wouldn't you put a little effort into doing what you are being told?  I had to hold my tongue so many times when people complained about my workouts being too hard.  Seriously, if they wanted hard I would give it to them, I was actually really nice to them :)

I quit as soon as I got back from our San Francisco trip and truth be told I wasn't working enough to make it worth it anyway.  Basically since I quit I have been caring for McKenna with her migraines or either one of my kids for different illnesses.  I truly do think that everything happens for a reason and I think that I needed to be home these past 2 1/2 months.  It was hard for me to accept that training wasn't for me.  Rather it was because I wasn't a good trainer, motivator or that I just didn't fit in where I was working or maybe all of the above.  I know that I needed to be here for my kids no matter how horrible I felt about myself being a jobless twit.  Where do I go from here?  Quite frankly I don't know.  I am working on getting certified as a cycling instructor but will that really be enough?  That is a good question.  I guess I am on a quest to find what I want to be doing.  Actually, I know what I want to do.  I want to get paid to workout and blog, is that too much to ask?  Not, if you ask me :)

Paced the Halloween Half Marathon, this one was tough for me, I don't think I was quite recovered from my marathon but still managed to finish in time!  I was shocked!

The last race I did was the Thankful 13 Half Marathon.  I loved the race but it was very hard for me!  It was a great way to kick off Thanksgiving!

That is 8 half marathons, 2 full marathons, a 10K and partridge in a pear tree!  I also ran 2 5K's with Kobe which was sooooo fun!  Jake and McKenna ran them too but Kobe and I ran together.  I really wish I would have done a blog post on those races.  If Kobe could run every race with me I would be pleased as punch!  I ran a grand total of 2405.59 miles (I don't know how I ended up with such an odd number, that will drive me crazy for eternity) and here are some other interesting facts that the DailyMile told me.

2,516 Total Miles (I thought this was what I ran, I was so sad when I found out that it included my walks)

426.40 Total Time

48 Lbs Burned

329 Total Workouts

0.10 Around World

351.92 TVs Powered

132.42 Gas Saved

918.30 Donuts Burned

It looks like I can eat a few donuts if I so desire ;)

Overall I would say it was a year full of awesome races, fun trips, lots of trials and even more self doubt.  Maybe my new year's resolution should be to believe in myself a little more.

If you made it through that post you should get a medal! 

New York City Day 1!!

 I am just finding the "draft" of a post that was written in April and it is now December and of course I have forgotten all of the fun details of the rest of the trip.  Hopefully it will come back to me but for now I guess this is all you get!

This trip was one that I will NEVER forget..but just in case I do, I want to do a post about it, or 3!

Wednesday morning Holly and I woke up at 4:10 a.m. to go get our workout done before we had to get packing, cleaning and all of that fun stuff.  We dropped our kids off at Mama Jex's at about 7 p.m. so we could head up to SLC for our RED EYE flight :/  We boarded the plane at about 11:30 p.m. and arrived at JFK airport at 5:30 a.m.  Needless to say none of us got any sleep, heaven knows we tried but the weather was bad and the flight was HORRIBLE!!  I was certain that we were going to die and all I could think of was how selfish I was to leave my kids to run a marathon and that I would never see them again.  I know you think I am exaggerating but it was honestly the scariest flight I've ever been on.

We grabbed a cab and had him take us into Manhattan...where we took a bus...to a subway... to an air tram...to a shuttle and viola 3 hours later we got to our hotel :)

All I could think was what on earth have we gotten ourselves into.  We got showered up, took about a 15 minute nap and we were off!  So that's 15 minutes of sleep between Wednesday and Thursday, just for anyone keeping track.  We got to Manhattan and wandered all over the town, we probably walked somewhere between 8-15 miles.  We decided that if we took the subways we would miss too much so we walked and walked and walked and walked.  We saw Times Square, Trump Tower and lots of other stuff making our way to Central Park.  We then walked back to where we started and headed back to our hotel in Newark.

This was in Trump Tower!

Angry Bird comin' at ya!

We had some fun in FAO Schwartz

Friday morning Holly and I woke up and headed down to the hotel gym for a lovely walk on an incline and some core work.  We walked 4 miles and laughed hysterically at Ridiculousness on MTV...so FUNNY!!!!  We got ready for the day and headed out for another adventurous day in New York.  We started near Times Square again and headed towards the Statue of Liberty.  We saw lots of fancy cars, we had to take pictures for Kobe who is obsessed with cars.

Do you like my new ride?  I wish!!

From this point on I am just trying to remember what went down 8 months later so it's a little fuzzy!

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge so we could eat at Ghrimaldi's.  Ghrimaldi's was the best pizza EVER!

Holly had an adventure buying a bag from a suspicious fella' in the alley ;)

We made our way up by Central Park, we walked all the live long day.

We tracked ourselves on this fine day and we walked over 20 miles not including the treadmill fun that Holly and I had. 

The next day we rented a car and drove to Boston, why didn't anyone tell us it was so far away ;)  We went straight to the race expo and walked around for a bit.

We went to a Red Sox game which was really fun even though we didn't really have seats, we had standing room.  It was amazing to see Fenway Park!

Race day was pretty much race, walk around Boston with our good buddy Cameron and that's about all I remember!

Tuesday we walked around Boston for a little bit and then had to drive back to New York to catch our flight home.  We walked up to our gate to see Cameron sitting there along with a whole bunch of other Boston runners.  The flight home was the most miserable thing I've ever experienced.  My legs hurt soooo bad, if you've run a marathon before you can imagine the pain of sitting on a plane the day after a marathon for 6 hours.  I wanted to jump out the window, seriously!!!

This was truly a trip of a life time.  I had so much fun :)

Last Chance!

I have a couple of people who have yet to claim their prize in my 12 days of Christmas.  I am giving the winner of the 1st day of Christmas until tomorrow (December 29th) at noon to contact me otherwise your prize will be gone.  Whitney@FrenchFryRunner please contact me asap!! 

Monica, the winner of the Stocking full of GU has until Monday (December 31st) to contact me otherwise her prize will be gone.

Consider this your last chance ladies :)

I want to add one little thing into this post that I feel is very important.  Cross training!!  I have heard many people question the importance of cross training.  Of course we all love running...DUH who doesn't ;)  The problem with only running is that you will create muscle imbalances.  Pretty much EVERY injury is the result of a muscle imbalance.  When you do the same movement over and over you create overactive muscles and under active muscles.  I don't want to get to technical here because I know people will stop reading because they are bored out of their minds.  Google muscle imbalances in running and you will get some good information.  Just rememeber that working muscles that you DON'T use when running is good :)

If you are running and not strength training or doing some other form of cardio on a daily basis you are asking for an injury.  When strength training you don't only work your quadriceps right??  No, you work your quads, hamstrings, glutes and calfs.  You have to work ALL of your muscles not just your favorite.

How many times have you seen a meat head at the gym whose shoulders are totally rounded forward?  I've seen it a lot and do you know what it means?  It means that said meat head loves to work his chest but doesn't work his back.  Not only can muscle imbalances lead to injury but serious posture problems.  I see so many guys who go to the gym and work their chest every single day, not good!!  And I know we've all seen the guys who have HUGE upper bodies but bird legs, aren't they attractive?!?

Cross training is also good because your body needs a break from running sometimes but maybe you still want to get your sweat on.  I love a good spin class.  Not only can I get an awesome workout but I am working different muscles which is a good thing!  Road or mountain biking is good fun too!

This picture was taken at my last road race.  It was the Skinny Tire Event in Moab, I believe it was 72 miles.  It was a great time even though I had pneumonia, which I'm pretty sure I have again right this very minute.

This was my first road race which I think was 50ish miles???  It was a super good time.

See Niccole and I even got to pose with the big bad wolf, that equals FUN!!

I haven't rode my road bike in quite sometime because I read a book (The Long Run) and I have been horrified of biking ever since.  I also HATE dogs that chase bikes.  People need to learn how to put their doggies on leashes.

I have promised myself that I would do an Ironman one day, a full Ironman at that.  So it seems that I need to hop back on my bike and jump in the pool.  That was a little tangent but hopefully you are getting my point.

Talk to any physical therapist and they will tell you the importance of cross training...it's science people!

Do you cross train and if so what do you do?

I love doing spin and one day I will get back on my bike and learn to swim :)

Merry Happy Holiday!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!  I have eaten myself into an oblivion and wish so badly that I could go and run 25 miles on this wonderful 25th of December.  Too bad for me I feel like complete SHIZZLE, pardon my french ;)  I was going to post a picture of our Christmas morn but just realized that I was so out of it today that I didn't even take one measly picture.

Sorry I am a little late on announcing the winners of the last 2 days but here they are.

For the Top of Utah Marathon entry and the Scott James necklace it is..

Steph Numero DosDecember 24, 2012 10:47 AM

I like scott james on fb

YAY!  Steph Numero Dos you are the winner :)

And the winner of the Utah Valley Half Marathon and the Scott James necklace is...

EricaDecember 25, 2012 8:03 AM

liked utah valley on fb

Hooray!!  Congrats on your prize.  Email me(kyt1976@gmail.com) your address and I will mail you the necklace and I will tell you what you need to do to get your race entry!

I still have not heard from Whitney@FrenchFryRunner who won the 1st Day of Christmas.  I also have not heard from Monica who won the stocking full of GU!  Monica, I really want your family to survive a natural disaster so please claim your prize ;)

I'm still waiting to hear from Korlynne as well, who won a Scott James necklace.

If you will all email me at kyt1976@gmail.com I will send you your prize!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaways, I wish you could ALL be winners!!

Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, yay!!  I went to the gym today and soon after I started working out I realized that I felt like crap.  I had been fighting a cold all week and apparently I lost :(  I was planning to run after my leg workout but seems how I couldn't breathe I decided to do spin.  It was interesting to say the least and I will leave it at that because my mama always told me if I couldn't say something nice not to say anything at all!

Last night we went to see the beautiful lights at the River Woods.  Kobe feel in love with a ginormous nut cracker ;)

Anyways on with the winners of the wonderful necklace!  The first winner is...

 KorlynneDecember 22, 2012 8:26 AM

I like the RUN and 13.1 charms :)

AnonymousDecember 22, 2012 11:33 AM

This is Suzee, I liked Scott James on FB!

Congrats you two!! Suzee, I know where to find you!  Korlynn, please email me your address (kyt1976@gmail.com) and I will mail you your prize :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve!