Life Update: Bearded Ben, Turkey Trotting and Running Fast

Hi Friends!

I know it’s been awfully quiet around here lately!

So here is a look at what’s been going on (in no particular order):

Confession, I wrote most of this post last night…

Farmer Ben had all four wisdom teeth out today (yesterday) and I have to say, he is a trooper!

I just took a Bourbon pumpkin cheesecake out of the oven (last night) and I am 65% sure the crust is burnt….

Also, have you ever gone to bake something (that you need to bring somewhere the next day) and realized you were missing almost half of the ingredients? Yeah, that happened to me tonight. Cue my scrambling to find substitutes to avoid leaving the house. Thankfully, I went a bit overboard on buying random ingredients for Thanksgiving/December baking so it all worked out… I think.

You may have noticed from this photo that Farmer Ben participated in No Shave November at his workplace.

Post Turkey Trot…My face is frozen because I don’t have a beard.

And apparently people like it because he won a gift card… Why can’t I win a gift card for not shaving my legs?! I’m only half-kidding.  And I’m still waiting for Farmer Ben to shave…sigh.

On Black Friday, the hubs and I scored a pretty sweet deal on cold weather running gear at Dick’s. All Reebok stuff was 50% so we couldn’t resist….major sales are pretty much the only time I buy name brand anything, so we splurged on some tights, (not exactly) sweats, gloves and a half-zip w thumb holes (!).

The pants are (almost) the most comfortable pants I’ve ever worn and I am not even embarrassed to say that I have had them on almost every waking moment that I don’t have to wear work pants since I purchased them. My standby XL sweats may have a rival!

On Thanksgiving, Farmer Ben and I did the Turkey Trot…. and froze our butts off. We actually had our family dinner on Wednesday so we got up with slight food hangovers to run in ridiculously cold and windy weather (15 degrees. Real feel, 5. and WIND.).

Luckily, we pre-registered and picked up our race packets the night before so we just had to show up.

I had signed up for the 10k… but at the two-mile mark, while I was struggling to run in a semi-straight line, not slip on the ice and not blow all over the road, I decided to drop down to the 5k… I just didn’t have the gumption to continue in those conditions for another 4.2 miles. That’s the thing about the Turkey trot, you never know how the weather is going to be. Do I feel bad for dropping down to the 5k? Not really…it happens.

I’ve been participating in the #elf4health challenge with Elle and Lindsay and am loving my partner elf! Hi Rach!

You know that crazy (and super vague) thing I mentioned I *may* be doing? Well… I took the first step. Not gonna lie, I have no idea what the outcome will be! Its invigorating and nerve-wracking at the same time.

In other news, I’ve been thinking about what my goals are for the new year, particularly my fitness goals:

To start,  I want to focus even more on my nutrition (oh hey, ENERGYbits!) and my form. But I also want to get stronger. And Faster.

Another marathon is definitely on the docket for 2014… but I am looking to improve and not “just finish.”

I want to finish strong.  I don’t know why, but admitting that out loud (or on blog) kind of freaks me out.

I think this realization hit me on a run a couple of weeks ago. For the last year, I’ve been running about 9:45-10 min mile pace, give or take 10 seconds. Completely respectable and nothing to sneeze at. I really haven’t been focused on time, just getting out and getting those miles in.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I did a four mile run at a faster-than-usual pace. When I got back to my car, instead of getting in or starting to stretch, I ditched my excess layers and reset my watch. I proceeded to run a timed mile at 8:23 pace.

What?!

You can imagine I was pretty stoked.

About a week later, I had a jam-packed day, so I planned to run at lunch.

Unfortunately, my work place is not located in a runner-friendly area. There’s a lot of traffic and people drive fast. So, I drove to a spot in town where I do some of my night runs.

This meant I would have just under 30 minutes to run, after drive time/make-myself-presentable time (luckily it was a Friday). After parking, I started mapmyrun and took off on the bike path. I meant business (mostly because I didn’t have a lot of time).

When the app notified me that I had completed a mile and gave the split, I thought it was a mistake but kept moving (my second mile was about a minute slower and the third was somewhere in the middle).  

In the end, I ran 3.1 miles (I had only planned on 2) in 28 minutes. My first mile was run in  8 minutes and 16 seconds.

That’s speedy for me. I haven’t run that fast in a long time…and it got me thinking… Could I run that pace consistently for a whole 5k? Or longer?!

I haven’t trained for speed in a long time… since high school. I’ve gone out and run fast, and randomly done a speed workout here and there, but I haven’t consistently tried to get faster.

So, this is going to be a new adventure…and a challenge.

And completely off topic, but there is currently 2.5 gallons of hot sauce in our fridge. Go big or go home, right?

If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking through my ramble!

Let’s chat, what have you been up to? Did you run a turkey trot? Beards-yes or no? What are your fitness goals for 2014? Any suggestions for speed work?

---