Tailgate Weekend! Mississippi State vs. Bama

We haven't tailgated for almost a month! I missed it! This weekend MSU played Alabama here in Starkville. I was loving the fall weather as soon as I got up Saturday morning. It was windy and cool, but not freezing cold. Zach and I ran 3.25 miles before having to hurry back home and get ready for the tailgate. Zach's dad and brother came up for the game, and our friend George was staying with us also, so we all piled up and headed to campus.

Go Dawgs!

As usual, I made dessert (I much prefer baking over cooking). I made oreo balls with autumn colored sprinkles and they went in my new football plate.

I got it a few weekends ago at TJ Maxx!

I also made dark chocolate brownies! They went in the MSU plate.

We spent most of the day playing cornhole and catching up with friends. The trees by our tailgating spot were bright red and orange and such a gorgeous sight for the afternoon!

Zoe was a tailgating queen again this weekend and she spent her afternoon rolling around in the grass and laying in the middle of the cornhole game. She also sampled a few of the leaves but said they weren't tasty.

Her Uncle J (Zach's brother) and his dad hung out with her at the tailgate while we went to the game. They didn't have tickets to the game so they watched on TV at the tent.

Come on Dawgs! Beat Bama!

While it wasn't the worst game we've played, we still didn't get a win this weekend. Oh well...honestly I was expecting Bama to win (as I'm sure everyone else was haha). But never say never! We still had fun.

If only my Gators got a win...

I wish Tennessee won too! But yay for Clemson beating Wake Forest! Go Tigers! And go LA Tech! Beat those Rebs!

How did your team do this weekend?

Tomorrow starts my new training plan for the MS Blues Half Marathon! It's high mileage and speedwork heavy so wish me luck! I ran 7 miles on Friday and 3.25 Saturday and my legs are sore as heck! After only 5 rest days since the Savannah Half!

Mississippi Blues Half Marathon Training Plan

I'm running my second half marathon January 7, 2012 in Jackson, MS! I'm excited to run a half in the state I've lived in for the past 3 years and also run alongside all the Elvis impersonators :)

Now that I'm recovered from my half this past weekend, I've taken what I've learned from this round of half marathon training and used a Runner's World Smart Coach plan as well as the "Run your best half" guide and mixed and matched to build a half marathon training plan for the MS Blues Half.

Feel free to click to enlarge or if you'd like to see the plan up close, let me know and I'll be happy to email it to you. This plan is heavier on longer runs and speedwork compared to my last half, since I felt those were the areas I was lacking in this past round of training. I'm also going to be more consistent with weight training considering I way fell off the wagon on that while I was training. I think incorporating speedwork, building off the endurance I have to gain better endurance, as well as building strength will help me become an overall better runner and I'll have an easier time at the half marathon in January. I also need to cross train more. You'll see in this plan the weeks are very mileage-heavy. I'm mostly concerned with hitting the long runs and speedwork days. If I'm not feeling running on a day with 4 miles or another "easy" run, I'll cross train instead so I don't burn out on running. This may happen, especially with traveling for the holidays, so I need to be flexible some days with my workout options.

Another thing I want to concentrate on is better eating. I did lose weight while marathon training, but I think I ate too much junk food. I always counted the calories for them and put them in my tracker, but I could have felt better and more energized with a more balanced diet. At the same time, this is the holiday season and I don't believe in depriving myself from seasonal favorites. I'm just going to choose better options on the days I'm cooking and at home and enjoy in moderation gingerbread cookies (my Christmas favorite!) and other baked items.

I'd love to hear your feedback and advice, as well as answer any questions anyone may have for me! I love learning things from more experienced runners and also pass along tips I've learned!

Fantastic Fall Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and I've been trying to decide between a bunch of recipes that I have for what I want to bring for Thanksgiving dinner! One of my favorites is pumpkin chocolate chip bread, so I thought I would share the recipe with y'all!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

(the picture does not do it justice at all!)

Ingredients:

2.5 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz.)

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2/3 cup water

semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

-Grease your loaf pan. This recipe makes 2 loaves in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan or you can also use mini loaf pans and fill accordingly

-Mix the flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together.

-In a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, and water until well mixed and add to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

-Add chocolate chips. The recipe recommends a cup but let's be honest...my mix usually ends up with most of a bag

-Bake for 60-70 minutes until a knife or toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Sometimes it takes my bread a little longer than 70 minutes to bake completely. Put the bread on a wire rack to cool completely. Or eat it out of the pan like I do :)

It's amazing at room temperature and warmed up with butter. SO good!

And while I'm on the topic of Thanksgiving, check out Zoe's November collar and bandana! She wears the collar now but the we are saving the bandana for Thanksgiving weekend.

Work it girl.

I'd love to know some of your favorite recipes for the holidays! I love baking so do share!

Sunday in Savannah

Thank you everyone so much for all of the encouragement on my first half marathon! You all are so sweet!

To wrap up our great weekend in Savannah, we enjoyed Sunday morning in the city before heading back to Mississippi.

First we went to Forsyth Park. I wanted to see the park without all of the marathon activity going on since I'd heard how pretty it was.

We walked around the perimeter of the park under the mossy oaks and looked at all the pretty historic houses. Zoe loved being able to run around outside and saying hi to all the other dogs in the park.

We walked towards the fountain to get a picture of us with our medals and the fountain.

I love fountains...this one and the pineapple fountain in Charleston are just so pretty!

It was crazy to think that 24 hours before, the park was crowded with tens of thousands of people, the streets were lined with spectators, and the finish line was buzzing with activity. On Sunday, not even a banana peel was left.

We sat outside the little cafe for awhile and people watched, then made our way to the Confederate memorial.

Such a gorgeous statue!

The weather was amazing and we had such a nice time walking around and playing with Zoe. Then we headed downtown to go to some shops and meet Scott for lunch at Goosefeathers Cafe. I had a fantastic turkey sandwich with lettuce and herbed mayonnaise on a croissant with a fruit cup for lunch.

Zoe is so well-behaved. Zach and I are so lucky that she just sits down and people watches while we eat. She just loves adventures! I missed her during the race on Saturday-she's my other training buddy and I couldn't have done it without her! Too bad races are prejudiced against furry participants!

After lunch we got in the car and made excellent time getting back to Mississippi. We went from the middle of Savannah to our apartment in 8.5 hours! We didn't listen to music the whole way home and just talked the entire time. Sometimes that's my favorite part of going on trips. I feel like sometimes life gets so busy we barely get to have a conversation that doesn't involve grocery shopping, laundry, or who fed Zoe!

Overall I had an awesome weekend. I'll never forget how wonderful Savannah was for my first half marathon!

Rock 'n Roll Savannah Half Marathon Race and Expo Recap and Review

I had an awesome weekend in Savannah running my first half marathon! After having quite the adventure getting to Savannah, we woke up well rested on Friday, enjoyed yogurt and oatmeal topped with peanut butter for breakfast, and made our way downtown to go to the race expo.

The first thing I saw out of the parking garage was this "Welcome Runners" sign! I saw several other signs throughout the city and written greetings on business windows welcoming the runners to Savannah. I loved how hospitable the city was towards all the race visitors!

We took the ferry over to the expo to avoid having to drive over the bridge. It was cold but I loved the view of Savannah from the ferry.

The expo was held at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center. I liked that the expo had a lot of space alloted for the exhibitors, but luckily I went early on Friday. Participants who arrived later in the day sat for hours trying to cross the bridge. The Convention Center is only accessible by the bridge or the ferry.

Packet pickup was really quick and easy. The race-day directions were explained clearly for those who hadn't read the race directions previously online. We then picked up our bags and shirts and headed into the expo!

Overall we had a really good time at the expo. I was able to see all of the exhibits I wanted to and we had fun trying samples of different kinds of bars and drinks as well as look at the interesting products some exhibits were selling.

One vendor had the funniest bumper stickers. I got such a kick out of this one because it was so made for Zach! That and "I run for beer!". We got our race fuel at the expo since I had forgotten to get it in Starkville. The race was giving out GU but that kind of gel bothers my stomach. I usually stick to Powergel.

After the expo we went back on the ferry and had lunch at Moon River Brewery. I got a wrap that had grilled chicken and sauteed veggies with tons of water and it was delicious! Zach got BBQ and beer. Can you tell who was more concerned with proper race fueling? Ha!

After lunch we walked around one of the squares then went back to the hotel for a few hours to relax and hang out with Zoe. We met up with Scott (Zach's best friend who I'm sure y'all remember seeing from Destin and football pictures!) who is stationed in Savannah for supper. We went to The Distillery. The food was great and we had no wait for a table! I got a grilled chicken sandwich that had peppers and cheese. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, got everything ready for the morning and crashed.

We woke up at 5:15 am, got ready, took Zoe out, and ate peanut butter sandwiches and bananas on the way to the Savannah Mall to park. We were there by 6:15 or so but didn't get on a bus until after 7! The lines were so long for the busses. It seemed like the bus drivers and race volunteers were lacking in communication with race directors. It turns out busses had been waiting at a McDonalds until they were directed to go pick up more runners. The bus situation was way disorganized. By the time we got to the start line the race had already started. I had to give my bag to a "late check in" pile, even though I went to the bus for my last name letter and the driver wouldn't let me put my bag on the bus. I was in too much of a hurry to argue.

We caught up with our corral (with absolutely no warmup) and tried to warm up jogging in place and stretching in the corral.

Here we go!

After about 5 minutes we were off!

The first part of the course went through some interesting neighborhoods in Savannah. They definitely weren't the places you would visit when vacationing in Savannah, but I loved how the residents were all out on the porches or in their yards cheering on the runners. Miles 5-7 were pretty boring...mostly on back roads with no crowds. I took my first gel at about mile 5.5 then took a woods break a little after the 10k mark. The lines for the port-a-johns were extremely long and I didn't wait to wait that long.

I felt really good through about mile 8 when my back really started to bother me. I walked a little then picked up back running and alternated running and walking the rest of the course. I had mixed feelings with the second half of the race because I was frustrated and wanted to run, but it felt like my legs and back were too sore to want to run. I pushed through it the best I could and focused on enjoying the gorgeous second half of the course. We ran by the most beautiful houses and churches in the historic district, and there were lots of people cheering on the runners. This was definitely my favorite part of the race. Zach and I finished hand in hand and reached our goal of finishing our first half marathon! It took us just under 3 hours, which I was disappointed in, since my goal time was 2:30, but I'm not beating myself up over it. It was my first half and we really just wanted to finish happy and enjoy the course.

We did it!

Sweet '90s style shirt tied around the race.

Half-marathoners!

Despite the fact that I was disappointed in our finish time, I tried to push it out my head and celebrate the fact that I just ran my first half. We picked up our free beers (which I promptly gave mine to Zach-I just don't like alcohol that much!) and sat on the grass in Forsyth park to listen to the music and eat some fruit and bananas. After a little while we went to pick up our bag from the bag check. This part was pretty frustrating. I went to the late check in area, who told me they didn't have my bag but that there was another late check out area at the end of the line of busses. I went down that end and they told me the area was in the front of the line of busses. It took me about 30 minutes to find the area behind the line of busses. Miscommunication was a huge issue in the race execution.

Lots of runners who ran the race were a little disappointed in the course. I can see why they wish we ran more in the middle of the city where the parks and nice houses were, but I appreciate why they chose the course they did. The entire city welcomed over 23,000 runners and their families for the weekend. We took over their city and they couldn't have been nicer about it. The entire city sacrificed and volunteered their time to make sure the race went well, and I actually really liked the course. Flat and lots of nice people cheering you on! What more could you ask for? The only recommendation I would have for race day is to communicate between race employees and volunteers as well as make sure the busses are more organized. The food at the end of the race was kind of lame too. For such a big race, there should have been a better variety of food choices.

We went back to the hotel and rested all afternoon and watched football. We had a Hooters-wing-eating-LSU-Bama-game football party in our hotel room that night.

Ice and compression sleeves were my best friends all night!

The front of the race shirt

The back of the race shirt

Close up of the medal

I loved the shirt and the medal! The designs were very cute and I like the tech-tee Brooks race shirt (FYI-if you ever run a race with Brooks as the shirt manufacturer, make sure you size up! Brooks runs small).

I had a great race day! I am a half-marathoner!!

Now onto the next one:

My Running Story

I first discovered my love for running in 7th grade. The choices in gym class for that unit were volleyball and basketball, neither of which I had an interest in. The female gym teacher decided to create another activity for the students, and lead a walking group out to the trails behind the school. The trail was only probably about a mile, maybe a little bit more, but I loved getting outside and quickly decided to run the trail instead of walk. My mom had always been a runner, and I fell in love with running fast.

In 9th grade, I joined the cross-country team at the high school. I ran cross country and track (600 meters, 1200 m, 1500 m, and 4x800 relay) and was in great shape throughout high school. After graduation, I kinda went to the gym and kinda ran, but once I started college I was way more interested in making friends, classwork, and working at Starbucks. By the time I ended my sophomore year of college, I had gained 60 pounds.

This was not the best time in my life. I was severely unhappy in my long-term relationship that had survived four years (2 from high school, 2 in college) and really should have ended sooner. I also lost my grandfather that summer. Fresh from my first broken heart and deep sadness for the loss of my pop, I found myself on Jax Beach with my mom. Running.

In fact, the morning my grandfather died, my mom and I were out on the beach running, and we saw two dolphins swimming in the waves. Jax Beach is usually too busy to see dolphins.

That summer, I lost 35 of the 60 pounds I had gained, and felt like myself again. I was much happier, independent, and more comfortable with how I looked and felt. Running saved me from falling into a black hole. Running and my mom.

I didn't gain any weight for the rest of college, and started graduate school in Mississippi with high hopes and a semi-new relationship. I was so excited to be in a new place and meet new people. However, once I arrived I learned really quickly that people weren't who they made themselves out to be, and I found myself alone, struggling to keep up with grad school, and terribly depressed. I wanted to go home and give up.

After Christmas, with a new year and a new mentality, I decided I wasn't a quitter. I tackled things one at a time. First up: keeping myself from getting kicked out of grad school. I started getting to know some people that semester, did much better in classes, and ended the semester with lots of fun memories, a group of friends, and a 3.6 semester GPA.

That summer I started working out again with two of my friends, although I really struggled to lose weight. I gained about 40 pounds between graduating college and finishing my first year of grad school. I went to classes, did the elliptical, ate better, nothing seemed to work. I got discouraged and working out fell by the wayside once the fall started back up. Football games and starting to date again (Zach :) ) plus research and class just took priority. I was so happy. But not completely myself yet.

I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to run again. But I had some type of mental block that was stopping me from putting on my shoes and heading out. I think it was because I was so happy in all aspects of my life, I just didn't want to face "failure" in the one part of my life that was missing.

Finally in April, with Zoe and Zach, I put on my shoes and ran a mile. And it sucked. But it was so great at the same time. I loved pushing myself and the feeling of reaching a goal. Who cares if it was only a mile? I did it! And just like that, I was back.

Before:

After:

I decided in June that this is it. I'm a runner and I always have been.

I love running.

It makes me feel alive.

I feel accomplished, happy, less stressed out, and a million other things after a run.

I signed up in June for my first half marathon.

A challenge I'm about to complete this Saturday, November 5, 2011, in Savannah, GA.

I don't care what my time is, I don't care what my pace is, I just want to finish.

This Saturday, I will become a half-marathoner, with the man I love by my side.

The man who has supported me through the ups and downs of getting back into running shape, as well as the stresses of graduate school and life in general. He never gave up on me, and I'm never giving up on myself again.

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. - Hebrews 12:1

Nick Bell 3.6 Mile Memorial Run Recap

Last November 2, a Mississippi State football player, Nick Bell, died after a short but intense battle with a rare form of skin cancer. It was so awful to have watched him play football in the beginning of the season and then he was gone by the end. I never had the chance to meet him, but from everyone's stories about him he was a great person.

Tonight the student association put on a 3.6 mile run/walk in his memory, since tomorrow is the one year anniversary of his death. They chose 3.6 miles as a tribute to his football number, # 36.

Zach and I ran the run at an easy, enjoyable pace. The route was very similar to the route from Saturday, just an added loop around the fraternity houses. I like running around campus a lot and I had a really good time just cruising along and listening to music. I was really disappointed that two MSU athletes (girls-I'm assuming volleyball or softball) who had been behind me cut the course! A man in front of me called them out on it and they said they had ran enough during practice! That's not a way to represent MSU as an athlete or in memory of a fellow athlete. If you don't feel like running, just walk! Other than that we had a great night. I love events that are in memory of someone. It's really nice to honor their memory that way.