Anniversary Weekend!

That's right, it has already been a year!! Can you believe it? I sure can't... And what a year it has been! e have moved several times, both of us graduated this year, and now Matthew is applying for medical school. All of that on top of adjusting to married life (which wasn't really much of an adjustment...) and this year has been crazy. Marrying Matthew definitely was the best decision I have ever made in my life, and I was actually surprised at how easy and natural the decision to marry him was! A lot of people don't have that same ease when deciding who to marry, and that doesn't make it any less right, but I had such a good experience going through the dating process with this guy. :) First year is the hardest? If that is the case, we have a long, happy, carefree road ahead of us! Sure, we had some disagreements and issues at some point, but overall, we have been extremely happy and easygoing.

This year, Matthew planned our anniversary, which was so great of him, and didn't let me in on it at all. On Friday night, he picked me up from work and we went out to dinner at Elements. We had a giftcard there and has never eaten there before because it's kind of pricey. So we decided to go there for this "special occasion" and IT. WAS. DELICIOUS! We did a 2 for $40 deal where we got an appetizer, soup or salad each, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. We thought their serving sizes would be small so we wouldn't get a lot of food, but they were actually surprisingly large! Even Matthew couldn't finish, and that's saying something! So we got calamari for the appetizer, both of us decided on clam chowder, I got salmon and he got a seafood pasta, and then we shared cheesecake and a chocolate souffle for dessert. I was in heaven the whole time, it was so delicious!

Matthew and I at Elements that night. :)

After dinner, we headed down to Salt Lake and stayed at my in-laws house for the night. We chatted with them for a little while after getting there and then we went to bed. That morning, we woke up and headed to Park City! :) I hadn't been there in a while, so it was a lot of fun. We went hiking in the morning, and despite "forgetting to" (or refusing to) put on sunscreen and getting lost a few times, it was fun! We had a hard time finding actual trails, but once we did it was beautiful!! We found a lake at some point on the mountain and decided to sit on this cute little dock to rest and chat for a little bit, and it was really pretty! We even took off our shoes and socks to put our feet in the water. We were shortly joined by a little duck and we tried to feed him granola bars, but he didn't like them very much. The fish under him sure liked it though! By the end, we were tired, hot, and sweaty, but it was still fun.

Matthew and I sitting on the dock by the lake

The water was COLD, but it was refreshing. :)

After our hike, we went over to the Olympic Park where I had actually never been before! We watched some skiers do jumps into a pool, which was pretty cool, and then we went on the Alpine slide. We were going to do the zip-line as well, but after watching it, we decided it was LAME. Besides, we zip-lined in Mexico on our Honeymoon, so we decided nothing would really compare to that (especially not this one). But the Alpine slide was pretty fun!

Matthew demonstrating how to go on the Alpine Slide

I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the day, but it sure didn't stop there. After the Olympic Park, we went shopping at the Nike outlet (and only bought socks) and then headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready. After we got ready, we went to Massage Envy!! :) I had never had a massage before, and it was so fabulous! We got full-body massages and I am pretty addicted now. I wish I could afford to get one once a week! Haha it was so fabulous. After that, we went out to dinner and then called it a night. We were so exhausted after a long day of playing that chilling at the hotel was all we needed. The next morning we just woke up, ate breakfast and headed back to Salt Lake to visit our families for the day. It was such a fun weekend and definitely needed! :)

Other than that... Life is so fabulous now! I am getting ready to run my half on... SATURDAY!!! BAH!! I am so excited, and I think we are all more than ready to do this. :) Angie and Keith are coming into town tomorrow night with their kiddos and I am so excited to see them! It will be yet another fun weekend. Some more exciting news, however, is... I am DONE with school!! YAY! I had a fabulous (but stressful) May semester, but it is over now! I finished off my college career with 3 A's in 4 weeks. :) I was asking Matt what I was going to do with all my spare time, and I've found the answer for that as well! I just became the head coach for a U-11 girls soccer team here in town! I am so excited and I think it will be so much fun to get back into the soccer world. I am either going to love it or hate it, so we'll see which way it goes. It will be fun to try to build up the soccer world here in Cache Valley. I think that is it for now! Matthew will be turning in his medical school applications within the next couple of days, so more details will be developing on that within the next several months. Wish us luck!!

Until next time.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was memorial day and we didn't really do anything, but it was great! School has been really tough lately and I've started to get a little burned out, so it was really nice to take a day off and relax. Our weekend started on Saturday. Matt was leaving the house when he met our neighbors from upstairs. They mentioned that they were heading over to Al's Sporting Goods to hit one of their big annual sales, and immediately Matt wanted to go over. So that morning he dropped me off at work and headed over to check it out. I swear the kid called me like 50x that morning about things he wanted to buy!! After work, he picked me up and we went back to look around. Well... needless to say, we got A TON of stuff! We didn't have any camping gear, but we always want to go camping, so we got a lot of stuff. Matt was running around the store comparing prices of tents, looking up user reviews on his phone, and then running back to tell me all about it.

The thing I was most excited about was our tent. We have wanted one since we got married last year, but we just never got it. We started out looking at a two-person tent and I told Matt there was no way we would fit, so I vetoed that immediately. We started looking at 4-person tents, but those were $50 more than the others, which was upsetting. We decided the extra room would be worth it, and we decided we were going to go ahead and make the investment. Matt went to grab it while I stood in line and he was gone for FOREVER! When he came back, he had a completely different tent. I asked him what took him so long and he was like, "Sorry, I had to check the reviews on this tent!" Well... It turns out, he had found a tent that was $15 cheaper than the tent we were looking at, except it was a 6 PERSON tent!! :) We were so excited!

So Matthew ended up using his birthday money from his parents and I used some of my graduation money and this is what we ended up with...

One 6-person tent, 2 sleeping bags, one fishing pole, one hiking pack w/ water bottles, one biking water bottle, 2 headlamps, and... that's all I can think of! In this picture, I am also wearing my new outfit that I bought with my JCPenney gift card Matthew's parents got me for graduation. I love it! So anyway, that was our Saturday adventure. We wanted to go camping this weekend, but the weather would not allow it. Oh well... We have all summer! :)

Monday was another chill day. Unfortunately, I had to go to work for 3 hours, which was kind of lame, but we still had fun. We started out the day going on a run (Did I mention the half marathon is in less than 2 weeks?? Yeah, I'm kinda freaking out...). Let's just say, I wanted to cry, collapse, and curse at Matthew all in one run. Haha It was time for us to run 9 miles, and Matthew decided to choose THE WORST route ever!! We ran the Bonneville shoreline... That probably won't mean anything to most of you, but basically, it is typically a hiking trail, so it is loose gravel and uphill for about 1.5 miles. Seriously, I have never wanted to quit so badly. It sucks that it had to come 2 weeks before race time because my confidence was kind of shattered, but Matt made me feel a little better when he told me the half marathon wouldn't be nearly as hard as the 9 miles we just ran. That trail may have only been 2 miles or so long, but my body was shot for the rest of the run! My knees hurt for the first time since I started training (they still kind of do!), my ankles were dying, and I just wanted to go home! Haha needless to say, I finished and I survived and that's all that matters. Now it's basically smooth-sailing until race day!

Anyway, the rest of the day was more relaxed. We went shopping, went to Cafe Rio and just enjoyed talking and spending time together. Matt then let me redbox "The Vow" (finally!), which totally made my night! I can't remember how everyone else felt about it when they saw it, but I really liked it! I was kind of depressed by the fact that she truly never got her memory back (which happens in real life too), but I thought it was great. I had heard the story of that couple before I even saw the movie, and I was really impressed with their story. There are some things that upset them about the movie (like the divorce) and I can't say I blame them. Anyway, it was great!

So that was our wonderful weekend. As for everything else, life is starting to calm down a little bit. This week is my last week of school... EVER! It still seems so surreal to me, but I am so excited! I am going to start looking for a full time job, so we'll have to see what happens. Matthew has been working on his medical school applications all month and he can/will start turning them in on.... wait for it... FRIDAY! I can't believe we are already to this point. I am anxious/excited/nervous to see what will happen with that in the next few months. We are also coming up on our first anniversary next Monday! WOW! I will probably blog about that next week though. :) Matt is planning the weekend, so I don't know what's going on with that, but I think we are going to try to go away somewhere. We'll see what he has in mind! :)

Until next time.

Graduation!!

Wow! Life. Is. INSANE!! I wouldn't have it any other way because I love being busy... Well, maybe I'd calm it down just a little bit! I am surviving though and taking a break to Blog... First of all, I GRADUATED!! Sort of... Haha On Saturday, May 5th, I walked the walk in the ever so fashionable cap and gown and got handed an empty diploma case. :) It was good and I was grateful for all of my support that came.

My parents and fabulous husband after the first session

My wonderful and supportive in-laws who came to celebrate! I am so grateful to them for all of their love and support and for raising such an incredible son!!

Ok, so the morning started out on the quad where all the graduates met up. I found my HR buddies and we all celebrated together. Then, all of the graduates walk from the quad, through campus, to the Spectrum where we have the commencement. The morning commencement was great! We had a Navy SEAL speak to us and he did a great job! He said a lot of things that I really liked and kept it short and interesting enough to keep me entertained. My name wasn't in the program, sadly enough, but Matthew's was this time! Haha Matthew "fake-walked" last year, but graduated this year due to some additional classes he wanted to take for medical school.

My hubby who has kept me sane through school the past year

In between sessions, we went and got some sandwiches at Jimmy Johns (YUMMY!!) and then actually drove to Smithfield to watch my niece, Makelle, play soccer. It was a lot of fun to be outside in the beautiful weather and see my niece follow in her favorite aunt's footsteps (me of course!).

Look at that game face she has on!

She ran the whole time. Haha even if she didn't touch the ball when she got there, she chased it like a mad-woman! :)

After the game, I had to head back to the spectrum for the business school commencement. That one wasn't quite as entertaining. I sat with my HR folks again (and our friend, Justin, who Matt grew up with), so that was good, but we were all falling asleep. It was a long day and the speeches didn't help much, so I was kind of glad when it was over.. Everyone's gotta do it though, right? It's part of the experience! My sister, Kelsey, graduated the day before and she couldn't come up for mine, but she sent some beautiful flower leis from Hawaii with my mom for me to wear. They made my outfit lots cuter! :) Thanks, Kel!

Justin and I at the Business school graduation

All in all, it was a good day. I was exhausted, and Matt and I just relaxed the rest of the day, but it was a lot of fun. I am grateful for all of the support that my parents, siblings, friends, and of course my wonderful Matthew has given me. I finished! I have no idea what I'm going to do now, but that is part of the adventure, right? I am still in classes 6 hours a day, 5 days a week until June 1st, so maybe I'll finish with that before figuring out the "what next?".

I love my dad! He has been such a great support system to me throughout the years and helped (actually more than helped) fund my way through college. He has always worked so hard to provide for our family and I admire him so much. My education meant so much to him and he really made me appreciate what I was getting. I can honestly say he is one of the main reasons I got through college. He is so great and has taught me more about the value of work than any class could ever teach me! I love you, dad!

My mom has also been there for me every step of the way! We actually started college at the same time, and that was so fun for me! She is going to be done next year and I am so, so proud of her! She is such a hard worker and passed me up on every single test she took. (Thank goodness we aren't in the same major, she'd just make me look bad!!) She was there for everything and I could always call and vent to her about school, work, dumb boys, everything! I love her and am so grateful for her example.

How could I end without something about my best friend and my love, Matthew?? He is the greatest husband a girl could ask for. He got me through my last two years of school and helped me stay focused and motivated when I needed to. Whenever I was nervous about a test, he would always help me study and tell me he believed in me. He makes fun of me for being a business major because it's "easy", but I know he knows I'm smart. He has put up with me, flaws and all, and loved me all the way. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us now! (By the way, MCAT test scores came back, and my hubby is a smarty-pants!! I love him and am so proud of him!)

I told you so.

No, I'm not saying that to you, that is what Matthew is saying to ME. He told me I'd "come around". He told me I just needed to give it a chance. He told me... I would become obsessed. I have always wanted to think I'm a runner, but I just could never do it. I hated it. I felt better about running one mile as fast as I could than trying to tough out 5 miles at snail speed. Well... needless to say, I think I am obsessed. I don't look at working out with as much dread, rather, I wake up every day thinking "when am I going to run today?" I think I am becoming obsessed. One mile, even two miles, just isn't good enough anymore; I get grumpy when I don't run (because some days you do other things or rest); and even if I hurt, I can't wait until my next run. So here are some reasons I love running. (P.S. can also be used as why people love working out in general. Everyone has their thing, mine is just starting to be running...)

1-

(Photo courtesy of Pinterest, of course!)

 Isn't it so true? Running helps me run off the stress of school, the frustration of work, the fear of the unknown (which there is beginning to be a lot of nowadays in our house), everything! It is an hour where I can get out, get some fresh air, and just... RUN! Haha It's pretty exhilarating! I come home with a new desire and motivation to get things done. It also gives me more energy to actually do those things, so that is good because energy is what I need most days!

2- It is something that Matthew and I can SHARE now. Let's face it, running was always "Matt's thing". I mean, it still is because he is SO much better than me, but I have really enjoyed the days where we get to do it together. He has taught me so much about it and it makes it so much more than just running! He talks to me the whole time, and even though I want to punch him in the face sometimes, I love it. I love that it is something we can do together and it is a good way to spend time together while still "getting things done". Need to deposit a check at the bank? Why not just run there and get 2 things done at once! Haha I truly love it when I get to run with him

Side story: I ran a 5K this past Saturday with Nicole, Matt, Trisha, and my boss, and Nicole was getting SO frustrated with how much I was talking (Matt has worn off on me more than I thought!). I realized that I used to be the same way when Matt would tell me what to do when I run, but now I do it and can bother others! Haha I guess I'll have to just talk to myself from now on because Nicole wanted to punch me. :)

3- I feel AWESOME afterwards!

(Another good Pinterest find)

I love that picture too. I can get side-aches, blisters, and straight up feel like I want to DIE during a run, but I never regret it afterwards! It is truly something that has boosted my self-esteem, made me a happier person, and helped me deal with the stress of finals, graduating, and, again, the uncertainty of our lives right now. (Can you tell that I HATE uncertainty?? Well... I do.)

Ok, so I'll just do the top 3 things I've been thinking about. :) I have finals to study for anyway. Haha but I have to get up to 7 miles this weekend. I am pretty excited. Ever since I ran 6 miles last Saturday (not yesterday) I hit the milestone of "longest I have ever run", so I will hit it every weekend afterwards. We will get up to 9 miles before doing the half, so it's kind of scary/exhilarating that I'm already approaching 7!! AHH!!! 

Anyway, finals are this week and graduation is on Saturday! AHHH!!! I will try to do a post next Sunday because I know I won't have any time after that. My schedule for the 4 weeks following graduation will be:

7:30 AM- 2 PM (no breaks): SCHOOL

3 PM- 8 PM: Work

8:15-9:00ish: Run :)

9:00-bed: Husband time/Homework

Yeah... Maybe I'll find some time to eat and sleep in there... Who knows! Pray for me! Haha I wish graduation was an actual end, but I will survive. I am still super excited! I am almost done!  I am glad I can finish school in just 4 weeks this summer so I can enjoy the rest of it. YAY! On top of all of that, Matt and I are moving a week after graduation, so that will add some stress and excitement.Wish me luck. :) 

Until next time... 

Picture Catch-up!

So here are just a few pictures to catch you up on our lives... We don't take many pictures, so these were pretty monumental! :) Matthew is finally done with the MCAT! YAY!!! I was so glad it's over. They started an hour late, so after he had been gone about 5 1/2 hours, I was starting to panic. But, nonetheless, it ended and we can hopefully move on with our lives. He won't get his score for a month, so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes! If he's not happy with his score, he'll probably take it again in August, but he is submitting applications this year regardless. :) YAY! Lots of crazy changes coming our way this year.

(Love this boy! :) I got him this balloon and put it out with his breakfast on test day.)

More updates:

For Christmas, Matthew got me a snowboard (courtesy of my awesome sister, Angie), so we HAD to take it for a test run! I took the day off of work and Matthew already had it off (if I remember right) and we went to Beaver for a day! Ok, so we were cheap and went on the "bunny hill"... Oh well, I still had fun and fell a couple of times! I swear there were children laughing at me as they passed me sitting on my butt...

(Here is one of the only pictures we took while snowboarding and it was after we were done. Haha)

Then this past weekend we finally got a chance to dye our Easter eggs and hide them from each other! It was actually a lot of fun even if it was a week late. We did get our baskets on time, and that was a lot of fun. We set a $10 limit on each other (which meant we didn't waste our money on grass and eggs and instead I used newspaper and rubbermaid containers) and went shopping at Walmart the night before. There wasn't much of a surprise as far as what was in our basket, and we ended up sharing all the candy anyway. Basically, the limit just meant we didn't buy a crapload of candy to make ourselves sick for the next several weeks... Just the next several days... :)

(Here we are dying our eggs. I was really proud of the yellow egg. It probably turned out the best. I was upset with how bad the pink sucked.)

(The finished product! We did a solid of every color and then we both got to create 3 of our own, mine are all the ones you think are awesome!)

Hiding the eggs in our little apartment was a lot of fun! First Matthew hid all of them and I found them and then I hid them and he found them. We laughed a lot, he called me a cheater a lot because my eggs "weren't visible" the way they were supposed to be, and that was just a lot of fun.

(This is us after finding all of the eggs! It really was a lot of fun, even if our apartment is small!)

We also went to "Baby Animal Days" the Saturday before Easter and it was a lot of fun (but probably only worth the money because we had a buy on get one free..) I bet parents with children like it a lot because the kids LOVE to pet and play with the little babies. Ok, let's be honest, I thought they were adorable. Unfortunately, I don't think we took any pictures that I can remember. My favorite part was the baby bears from Yellowstone! Freak, if those things didn't grow up with the desire to eat me, I would totally buy one right now. :)

Then on Easter we went to church, of course, and then we went and had dinner at Chett & Trisha's house. That was a lot of fun. Matt and I have been really focusing on trying to spend our weekends visiting our families while we can. There is a good chance that next year we could be across the country or something, so we have been trying to visit them while we can now. With Nicole & Jeremy and Chett & Trisha in or just outside of Logan, we have kind of taken that for granted and not visited them as much as we should. But we have been doing that now and it has been great. I especially love seeing my nieces and nephew. They grow up way too fast, but they are all so smart and funny! :)

So anyway, there's my little update! Even if I have pictures, they're still very few, so I'm sorry. :) But there ya go! Until Next time!

P.S. Aren't you impressed with how well I've been blogging lately!? :)

(Just a little picture to send you on your way!)

First Long Run

Ok, guys, it's Monday and you know what that means! I made it through the "long" Saturday run! Hooray! First milestone is over and done with. Ok, so it was only five miles, you gotta start somewhere! :) I woke up on Saturday morning at about 7 to go running. The weatherman said it was supposed to snow from 6 AM to 7 AM and then rain from 7-8 or something and then just be cold. Well guess what? He was WRONG! It was so wonderful! I ran in a long sleeved shirt (that's actually about 3/4 sleeve on me) and I was just fine. I actually got a little hot towards the end.

So anyway, I was supposed to maybe try and go running with my sister Nicole, but she wasn't feeling well and was going to wait a little longer to see if she started to feel a little better. I wanted to wait, but I had work that morning too, so I had to get started. Matt would have gone with me, but he was still "hungover" from the MCAT the previous morning (talk about mentally EXHAUSTING!), so I let him sleep in and I headed out by myself. That was the first thing I was so proud of myself for. I used to HATE running by myself. I would start out too fast, I couldn't pace myself, and I wouldn't push myself as hard as I could have because I could stop and walk without holding anyone back. Man, I don't realize what a headcase I am until I write it all out... But anyway, I went by myself..

So I started out and I had Matt's watch to try to pace myself a little better and Matt had already plotted out a 5 mile route for me to run. (Ok, so maybe I still couldn't have done it without my wonderful husband, but at least I ran it alone, right??) About 2 miles into it, I checked my watch and realized I wasn't running as fast as I would have liked to or even as fast as I thought I was, so I was a little bummed and thought I wouldn't be able to finish in my goal time (I was hoping to finish in 50 minutes). But nonetheless, I kept running. I felt surprisingly good though! My one mistake is that about the first half of my run was flat or downhill which meant...? The second half would be flat or uphill... YIPPEE! My legs felt good, I was running a good pace, my foot wasn't hurting at all, and that helped make me mentally strong. Then I turned the corner of 1000 N. and 600 E. and started heading up 10th towards Aggie Village. (The locations and coordinates are for those of you familiar with Logan and its setup) Well from 600-800 E. is a slight incline and then from 800-1000 E is a STEEP hill. HOLY. CRAP. Ok, I was feeling good, but that hill murdered me. Haha I mastered what my husband likes to call the "survival shuffle". It is when you are basically barely moving but you are still in running form and bouncing up and down as if you're running. I made it, I did the survival shuffle until I recovered and then I got back up to pace and finished my run strong.

I was so excited when I finished and didn't feel like I was going to die (anymore). I was even happier when I looked down at my watch and I had finished it in 47 minutes! Ok, for those of you who are runners, I know that's not ALL that great, but I felt accomplished. Let me put it into perspective for you:

Before I met Matthew, I had barely run more than like 2 miles I think. Last year (I don't remember if we were just dating or engaged at this point) Matt and I went for a run together. We said we would go for like half an hour because I was terrified of running with him and that we would go at "my pace". Well... that run turned into 5 miles and I'm pretty sure we were barely running above a walking pace. When we got home from that run, Matthew told me how proud he was of me and I was pretty stoked myself because that was the farthest I had EVER run. In my entire life. I asked Matt how long we had been running for and he said "It only took us like... 50 minutes or something like that!" Oh... my cute boyfriend/fiancee told me a lie to make me feel better... Haha he tells me now that it took us about an hour if not a little more. So anyway, I tell that story because in just one year I took almost 15 minutes off my 5 mile time! I was really excited about that. This was the first time I actually saw the improvements I've made because they were significant enough to see!

Anyway, let's wrap this up... Haha Long story short, I think I am becoming addicted to running. I love the way it makes me feel about myself. I have found that I have a ton more energy throughout the day (most days, some days I'm just a lost cause regardless) and I am not as concerned about my weight or other trivial things. I finally understood the advice about how "weight is just a number, you need to focus on other things like how you feel and how your clothes fit". Yes, Matthew, you are right and you have been all along. Anyway, I guess my "advice" for this post (even if it's just to myself) is... Get out and do something! Even if you can't run and you can't do this or that or whatever else, get out and do something you CAN. If you find yourself in a rut like I've been in for the past little while, get out and try something new and active. It makes you feel better about yourself and it helps blow off a little steam. The past little while, life has been stressful and monotonous all at the same time, but training for this half is the best decision I made. It has brought some excitement back into my life. I am doing better at living day to day rather than waiting for the future to come. My "I'll be happy when..." attitude is almost completely gone and I am happy with my life right here, right now. :) BTW I'm sorry these past few posts have been pictureless and are super lame. I will try to get more pictures up, but there's nothing to take pictures of when you're running alone! Until next time. :)

P.S. I ran 4 miles today and felt great. Tomorrow is the dreaded interval day. Let's pray I survive. :)

Week 1

Ok, so here I am posting about my "week 1" training. I know it's only Wednesday, so it's probably too soon to post, but in all honestly, I have been indirectly training for a half marathon for a while now. The training schedule that I have doesn't have you run any more than like 4 miles during the week. You save all of your long runs for Saturdays, which is the only thing I haven't been doing so far. But can I just tell you that actually signing up for the race, having that motivation and goal to move towards, as well as talking to my sisters about it has made ALL the difference in my desire to run and workout. I am not just doing it for the sake of doing it anymore. It's not "I guess I'll go work out now..." It's "When do I get to go running today??". I don't know, call me a freak or tell me it'll all go back to normal when the novelty wears off, but I get excited to run now! Knowing that I am moving towards a higher goal is SO great for me.

So I started off on Monday with a 5K. I ran 3.1 miles and it felt pretty good! I think I was supposed to run 3.5 but I hadn't completely solidified my workout regimen yet... Oh well. My foot had kind of started hurting again (I got tendonitis pretty bad in it a few months back and ended up in a stupid walking boot), but it wasn't anything big.

Tuesday was a fun day because I knew I got to go running with Matt. I get off work at 5:30 that day, so we have time to go running together afterwards, and it's usually about the time he needs to take a break from studying for the MCAT anyway. So it was our "interval training" day. It didn't seem like it was going to be that bad. You run for 40 minutes and do 5 minutes "fast" and 5 minutes "slow". In order for me to try to put "fast" and "slow" into perspective, I'll use the speeds on a treadmill. I usually like to run on a treadmill at a pretty stead 6.5 (don't judge). That's a good pace for me where I feel like I can go for awhile. Well.. using that as my base, that makes my "fast" pace a 7.5 and my "slow" pace a 5.5. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Wrong! I hated it. haha All this time I have been running at a nice and easy stead pace and all of a sudden I have to speed up? Get outta here! Well.. needless to say I am learning to run through pain (I HATE side-aches) but I felt freaking awesome afterwards! We ended up running just over 4 miles in 40 minutes, so I thought that was good! A couple things I learned during this day: I am capable of more than I think I am (when I think I can't take another step and I am going to collapse, I end up being able to run another mile). The second thing is that you NEVER regret working out. I don't know if anyone else is different, but I feel freaking awesome after I work out! Matt even says that I glow and I just have a different look when I've been working out.

Today was a good day as well. It was raining outside, so I decided to run on the treadmill in the gym instead, which was kind of a bummer. Today is supposed to be my cross-train day, but I like to "cross-train" with Jillian Michaels on that day because school and work is more hectic. So today I did the Thursday workout which is a 3.5 mile run and strength training. Well... treadmill meant I needed my ipod and a sweatshirt to go over the screen so I didn't just stare at it the whole time. A word of advice from a non-professional-- DO THAT. I have always found I can run farther, faster, longer if I can't see where I'm at. Some people like to track it, but I become so preoccupied with the whole "I've only run ____ FAR!!?... Well... Maybe I'll just run 2 miles today instead, this sucks..." Gosh, I hate that. I hope someone else can relate. Another game I play is that I start at 6.3, at the end of the first song I go up to 6.5, next song up to 6.7, back down as needed at the nest song and so on. I have found that I do better when I look at the short term "goals". So this time I said "I have to listen to ___ songs before I can look at how far I've run". Well... believe it or not, by the time I looked, I had already run 2.5 miles! I don't think you realize what an accomplishment that is, usually I look AT LEAST ever 1/4 mile! Haha and by the time you reach 2.5 then a new energy hits because it's like "I only have one mile left!" Call me weird, but I love it. Maybe if you're someone who is looking for a way to get into running or something, this will help. :)

So anyway, tomorrow is my cross train with Jillian, Friday is a stretch and strengthen day, and Saturday will be the much-anticipated 5 mile run with Matthew. I have committed myself to taking my anti-inflammatory medicine to try to get my foot to feel better, and Matthew even convinced me to wear my boot today. I hate that dang boot, but if it means I can run in this half-marathon, I'll do it. No time to take breaks! Gotta push through the pain for now!

So I'll leave you with my last soap-box and my extremely inexperienced opinion, so take it for what it's worth. 1. Read "Born to Run". It's a book and it is inspiring! It shows that our bodies are truly made to run ridiculously long distances and we have just ruined them by either eating too much, being "too busy" or just flat out telling ourselves we can't. 2. (which really shouldn't be a #2 because it's kind of just an addition) Are you scared of a long race? Just do it! Commit yourself, and you will probably be amazed at what you are capable of! When you start running and your body starts to hurt and ache and your knees feel like they need a replacement and your side starts to hurt... RUN THROUGH IT! That is one major thing I have learned. If you just ran up a steep hill, don't stop and walk because you're tired, keep your pace! If you do that, you will feel AWESOME in a couple of minutes. You need to give your body enough time to give off endorphins (natural pain killers) and you will feel so much better. My foot hurt for the whole first mile of my run tonight, but as soon as I got past that, I couldn't even feel it! Your body is AMAZING, seriously. It can do so much more than you could ever imagine!

Ok, are you sick of me acting like a pro after only a few days? Ok, I'll stop. I just know that there are probably a lot more people in my situation than not, and maybe some people just need to know they're not the only ones feeling that way and maybe they just need to know how to deal with mental lapses. (Some days the only way I get through mine is to have Matthew running with me so I'm dealing with my pride, or if I'm on the treadmill I race the person next to me.. Haha). So anyway... Get out and run, you won't regret it, you'll feel awesome and... I'll leave you with an opinion I CAN have. Freaking download Kelly Clarkson's song "Stronger" and run to that on repeat. It is freaking awesome and SO awesome. :) Until next time...