It's Not About the Numbers

Since I've started training and blogging, word has spread across the community about my, now very public, plans. So far everyone has been very supportive and excited for my news. My friend Morgan made cute handmade hair ties for my workouts, Katie shared her recipe for delicious peanut butter energy balls and colleagues throughout the community have been sending me words of encouragement. It is exciting and I hope that I am inspiring others to become more active in 2014 and challenge themselves, personally.

One of the most common questions I hear is "Wow, you're running a half-marathon; so how many miles are you up to?" The question is innocent and very valid. The first week, my answer was sheepishly "one." This week, my answer is a confident "one to two miles."

Life Hacks for Runners

Since today is a rest day, I wanted to share a new (to me) discovery. After my first two runs, I got very frustrated with the cords to my ear-buds flopping around. I've seen several products in stores and on TV before that are designed to solve this particular problem but I hate buying gimmicky products that are really good for only one purpose.

Rest Day Research

We're 83 days away from the Martinsville Half-Marathon and today is a rest day because it's raining. Secretly, I'm not complaining. "Rain, beautiful rain!" (Excuse #17?)

While browsing the App store on my iPhone I came across a free app called RunKeeper. It tracks your runs by mapping the route, keeping up with time and measuring the elevation that you climb while running. The app will import your own playlist of music and also gives verbal motivational cues telling you throughout the workout, how far you've run and what your pace is.