Favorite Black Friday Online Deals

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I sure did but feeling pretty bloated this morning. I'm glad I was able to get a work out in before yesterday's feast. I tried something new which was walking at 4 mph (15 min/mi) for 30 minutes and using 5 lb. weights. Not the whole time but on and off. It takes a bit of coordination since walking @ 4 mph is pretty quick. I'm feeling it in my biceps today!

I scored some pretty great & rare deals online this morning.

-- GAP has 50% off EVERYTHING and 12% back from eBates!

-- Bath and Body Works has buy 3, get 3 free on EVERYTHING. I scored six 6 oz. mason jar candles, 6 comfy shea socks, 6 mini paraffin hand creams and 6 hand sanitizers for $68 (with free shipping) or about $2.85 for each item. I plan on giving these to my coworkers for Christmas and I will have some leftover which I'll disburse between others.

-- TOMS shoes has 25% off almost everything, free shipping and 10% back from eBates! They often have $5 off $50 or $10 off $100 so 25% off is rare!

If you haven't signed up for eBates yet, feel free to do so HERE and then refer your friends and family. You can earn up to $75 bonus once they make their 1st purchase through eBates. It's simple. All you have to do is log into eBates, search for your store and click on it! Nothing more.

Are you a Black Friday shopper? 

Mall or online?

I'm an online shopper all the way.

Have a great weekend!

Grandpa John

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! We are going to have a white Thanksgiving this year. Yup, up to 10 inches of snow expected which started this morning.

I hope you all have an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend with family & friends. In past years, tonight was a big "going out" night a.k.a. drinking too many beers and running into people you may or may not want to see from high school. 

Do you go out on Thanksgiving Eve?

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Today is also the 20th anniversary of my Grandpa John going to heaven. I was 10 when he passed away but I have very fond memories of him. My grandparents lived in Scottsdale, Arizona when I was growing up and I have great memories of going to visit them in the summertime. They had an in ground pool and I would swim for days in that desert heat.

He was a very smart man. He was also very calm. My Dad also carries these traits and in some ways, I'm reminded of my grandpa when I see my Dad.

I'm so thankful to still have a bunch of letters from him. He wrote letters to me quite often when I was growing up and I'm so glad my Mom saved them.

I love and miss you, Grandpa John!

Tour Through Blogland

Lindsay from Bourbon, Lipstick and Stilettos asked me to participate in this tour of my blog. Be sure to check out her blog for fun posts about home decor, recipes with bourbon, makeup and shoes! 

What are you working on now? Honestly, I've had major writer's block recently. Besides posting about recent runs (why I started this blog), fitness challenges, and a recipe here and there, I sometimes feel that I'm running out of ideas!
How does your work differ from others in its genre? I started the blog to keep track of running, which I still do but I talk about other random things. For a while, I participated in Wedding Wednesday leading up to and after our wedding but I've pretty much covered everything! Feel free to go back to my archives from August 2013-July 2014 if you need any wedding inspiration or just feel like reading :)
Why do you write/create what you do? I wanted to keep track of my running besides just using a running app on my phone. I like to go back and read how I felt during or after a particular run, etc.
How does your writing/creative process work? I usually don't plan my posts out (but maybe I should). I might think of something the day before but I pretty much just click on "write" and start.

My blog isn't too exciting but I would definitely like to grow it and obtain more followers!

Feel free to leave comments on a topic you might like to see me cover.

Happy Thanksgiving/short work week! 

Some Updates

I definitely should have stayed in bed this morning. I woke up feeling exhausted and first thing, I spilled an entire cup of coffee all over the counter, floor and stove which then caused one of the burners to make that clicking noise (like when you turn it on). Luckily Saro was going in late today so he pretty much handled that by unplugging the stove completely. 

Pile On The Miles:

30 miles down, 20+ to go! It's supposed to be bitter cold the rest of the week so I may have to use the dreadmill. Yesterday I walked 3.5 miles at a quick pace and today, I have shin splints! It's actually harder for me to keep up a quick walking pace rather than running. I guess it's good to switch things up a bit.

My most recent run  last Wednesday was a 5k in 28:18.

Burpee Challenge:

235 down, 765 to go - OOF. They're tough! They really get your heart rate up. For me, they burn about 25 calories per 4-5 minutes. Starting today, until 11/30, I'm going to have to break them up - some in the morning, some at night.

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Lastly, our puppy is 3 (or 21 in human years) this week! He's the best boy! A gentle giant. Unless you're a stranger, then he acts a little strange/protective. We believe he's German Shepherd/Dingo mix. He weighs 80 lbs. We adopted him from a shelter in North Carolina. 

He loves to play fetch with soccer or tennis balls, sleep by the dining room windows where he can keep an eye on the neighborhood, howl at Mommy to wake up at 7am on weekends (although the last few weekends he has let me sleep! Knock on wood), pumpkin & peanut butter treats, & walks with Dad. I often myself talking to him and saying things like "Murphs, you're the best puppy boy ever!" LOL he's a great listener, ha! He's very well behaved and he's never chewed furniture, shoes, etc. He has plenty of toys for that. He's not allowed on our bed or any furniture except outdoors (see bottom right picture below).

Too Many Things

I've been pretty quiet this week. I tend to shut down when there's too much going on, which there is. Oof. I'll be back next week with my running, burpee and pile on the miles updates (which are all going well!)

TGIF. Seriously.

Have a good weekend!

4 Mile PR

I hit a 4 mile PR on Saturday! I logged 16.66 miles for the 1st week of the Pile on the Miles challenge. Not bad considering I was planning on 12.5.

Yesterday was a rest day but back to it today. I got a walk in during lunch and planning on Piyo + burpees later. Have a good day!

Pile On The Miles // Week 1

So far I've walked or run 11.11 miles this week. So I think I'll make a wish! Today I won't walk during lunch since it's raining. I'm doubling up and doing T25 abs + Piyo Sculpt after work. Plus the burpee challenge! So far, 85 burpees this week, 30 left. I think I will do 15 before the workout and 15 after.

Tomorrow I will need a rest day.

I'm planning on running 4 miles Saturday morning which will put me at 15.11 for the week which is more than I planned!

Daylight savings is really depressing. I hate that it's getting dark by 4:45. Yesterday I got out of work an hour early so I was able to finish my run by 5:30 which by then it was pretty much pitch black out. There are street lights but it's still kind of hard to see which is pretty dangerous!

We do have a treadmill but I absolutely hate it. The middle school in the next town over has lights at night which is where we did a lot of our half training.

Have a good day!

2015 Vacation

We booked our trip for next year! It's the 1st week in May which will also be our 1 year anniversary. We start off with 2 nights in Ames, Iowa for our friends wedding. It's at a winery and we can't wait to check out a much quieter and laid back environment.

From there, we head to Seattle where we will spend 4 nights visiting my aunt. She lives right outside of the city but we got an awesome hotel right near Pike Place Market. I've been there a bunch of times since she moved out there and it's so beautiful. The city is SO clean. My aunt has lived there for, I'm guessing close to 15 years now and she knows the area like the back of her hand. If you ever need a tour guide, she's your gal ;)

After that, we fly to San Francisco, rent a car and drive 3 + 1/2 hours to visit with my Grandma for 2 nights. We will drive back to SF for our last hurrah and spend 1 night. When we were there 4 years ago, we had dinner at a garlic restaurant called The Stinking Rose. I may or may not have booked our hotel within a 10 minute walk on purpose ;) It'll be a great way to end a fun and exciting vacation!

I booked through Orbitz and price wise, we got pretty awesome deals. They have what's called Orbucks rewards so each hotel you book, you get $ towards your next booking. If we did these 3 locations separately, it would have come out to be a LOT more. I was surprised that one way flights are pretty reasonable.

4 Miles on Marathon Sunday

As most of you know, yesterday was the NYC marathon. I watched most of it on TV as I did last year. I don't know why but it just fascinates me. Something like 50,500 people ran it. I would love to try to run it, or rather, apply to get in and then go from there. I'm scared to train for such an event because my body is feeling really good right now and I'm not having any major aches or pains. I don't know if it's in my best interest to run for 5 hours straight. It probably isn't. Saro said he will "absolutely not" sign up for it. Hmph. He hates crowds and NYC (who hates NYC?) so put the two together and forget it.

If I WERE to ever train for a marathon, I would DEFINITELY cross train a lot more than I did for the half. For me, I think a strong core/lower back is definitely needed to run long distance. For now, I'm sticking to 3-4 mile runs.  Here's yesterday's:

I also got a 2 mile walk in during my lunch break. 6 miles down, 44 to go this month!

Have you ever ran a marathon? Would you do it again?