California Dreamin' - Racing on the west coast

Signing up for races is addictive!

I made a decision to spend a few days in LA to convene with my Cali business partners, get some meetings done and yadda, yadda, ya so I figured I'd do that in conjunction with a race.

My business partner, Angela, who was the one who introduced me to running to begin with runs Surf City ever year. She kept inviting me to run it with her and I was hemming and hawing… I mean it's Super Bowl Sunday and as a big football fan, I had to take that into consideration! Well with my crappy team safely out of any chance to make the big game, I had nothing standing in my way.

me and Ang after Jersey Shore half 2010

Yesterday, I decided to make the commitment to run Surf City on February 5th - it's supposed to be a beautiful run along the ocean - and it's flat and fast (with typically ideal weather) so I hope to use this one to PR.  I'm so excited.  And I'm very excited to run with Angela again. She ran my very first half with me in Jersey. She was waaaay faster than me but she paced me the whole time and made my first experience awesome.

Then, today I decided to pull the trigger and sign up for The Hollywood Half.  I mean, that race just has my name all over it.



The race is on April 7th. It starts at Universal Studios and you run parts of Hollywood Blvd and Sunset and look at how cute the bling is:

Hoooray for Hollywood!

So my first two races will both be on the West Coast - which is cool because I can always justify the trips there with work related stuff in addition to the fun of the run! Plus a trip in February and another in April breaks up the winter very nicely.

I'm also planning on running the New Jersey half marathon in Long Branch again. In fact, my hubby says he's gonna run it too! (Woo!) He just started running again and training. That would be awesome.

I've decided not to run a full this spring though, I'm loosely following a marathon training program. I've been doing the weekday 'assigned' runs and then slightly modifying the long runs (like 8 miles instead of 10 and 10 miles instead of 13) but still overall increasing my weekly mileage.

My grand plan is to continue my lucky/winning streak and get into the NYC marathon in the fall and if for some reason (perish the thought) I don't get in, I'll find an alternate fall race.

Hope you are all doing well!

What races do you have coming up? 

Did you apply to the NYC lottery?

XO

Jen

Skinny Jeans - a goal weight before and after

Hello there -

Sorry for the lapse in blogs this week- I'm in glorious, sunny, warm, snow, coat and cold weather free California... My 3 mile run yesterday was fantastic and as I ran past palm trees in a short sleeve tee and as the sun warmed my face, I felt like I died and went to running heaven.

Ahhh.  If not for a husband and a son I adore and miss, I might have made the decision to never go home but I probably will return to Jersey on Wednesday. I think.

Anyway, I wrote a blog about getting to my goal weight last week and Christine aptly reminded me that most people do like a little before and after action for such things.  I'm pretty much the worst picture taker ever - which is unfortunate because coupled with my crappy memory - I forget a whole lot of things. Lucky for me, I have a few friends and family members that are pretty good, so I can piece together things here and there.

I know that I did a before and after blog a month ago, so maybe this is redundant - but the "after" wasn't goal weight, it wasn't full length and I was wearing running attire... So, I figure all is fair, even if I did blow my before and after load, prematurely.

Now, I want you to know how much I love you because I really hate this before picture - it's not just because I was really overweight but I don't think it's a particularly good photo. But, you get the gist of the "before" and I guess that's the point.  And if I was a better picture taker, I'd have more of a selection.

I am the plus sized gal on the right

I'm here in LA with the girl on the left, she's a celebrity fashion stylist (and my bff) and finally helped me get out of sweat pants last night and into some real clothes. I haven't really shopped for anything new yet, because money is tight, and when I have a few bucks - I'm usually putting it towards running crap.  So I'm wearing her skinny jeans in this photo - (The word "skinny" has never been a part of my clothing vocabulary - ever.) and the blouse - is a favorite shirt of mine that I actually have worn since the size 20 days... It still works somehow.

wow. eat less + exercise. What a concept.

So there you have it.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to make my way to the beach for a little running and enjoy the rest of the sunny days... maybe I'll even treat myself to my own pair of skinny jeans.

XO

Jen