Splurge on: Workout wear

I guess that technically this could almost be a "Splurge on: Lululemon" post seeing as how most everything is from that store. But what can I say? They have some of the best fitness gear and attire. Even I will pay a little extra for that! Especially since I am what one might call an exercise junkie and my workout clothes are on full rotation at all times.

So some of these items I already own and am obsessed with (yes, obsessed) and a couple others are things on my wishlist. There's always more room in my drawers for some running/climbing/yoga clothes!

1. Lululemon Bitty Bracer sports bra, $68.00. (I got this as a Christmas gift this past year and I can't don't want to remember running before it. I love it so much I want must have another one!)
2. Lululemon Push Ur Limits Tank, ($58.00) **if you wear a 2 or 4, it's $39.00 here

3. La Sportiva Miura VS Rock Shoes, $170.00. 

4. Lululemon Wunder Under Crop (reversible in pink and black), $82.00.
5. The North Face Better Than Naked™ Shorts, $50.00.
6. Lululemon The Mat, $68.00. (This is yet another one of my fav Christmas presents. If you love yoga and practice often, I swear this thing is worth every penny. Another more slightly affordable option is their Un Mat which still works well, but is thinner, so you could put it on top of your gym's yoga mats)

ps. I guess now yall know why I have to be so thrifty with my "regular" clothes :)

Life lately

I've been really terrible at remembering to take photos lately. So that's why this post looks a little more sparse than usual. Anyhow, I had a really good Thanksgiving with family, it's always good to see my niece and nephew (and yeah, the rest of the fam too :) I ate lots of food and my brother took some outfits photos that I still haven't even had a chance to review yet. I think they are gonna be pretty good though, so stay tuned for that!

The next day I got up early on a freezing cold morning to meet Casey (in town from Portland!) for a quick run through Mountain Brook and then a brief coffee break so we could actually talk without all the huffin and puffin up the hills. I was so stinkin happy to see her (& her ring!) and squeeze her in person. Miss that girl so much!

Later in the day I got to meet one of J's best friends who lives out in Tahoe and was home for the long weekend. We all drove up to somewhere near the Ocoee River and crashed another one of their friend's family Thanksgiving weekend. I was fully prepared to be roughing it in a cabin with several people that I didn't know, but we pulled up to an incrediblly large house that sat right on the Ocoee River (or I think it was the Ocoee anyhow). It was gorgeous and we had a great time eating and laughing and playing ping pong and watching football all weekend. After dating J for about 10 months now, I was stoked to finally get to meet both Adam and Josh.

After the big Turkey Day weekend getaway, things have been pretty slow in my social life (not so much at work though!). It's rained a ton here lately, so J and I have seen a couple more movies including Thor, which I actually enjoyed, and the Hunger Games, which of course I loved. I also used this past yucky Saturday to get part of my Christmas shopping done before we watched the SEC Championship with some friends of ours. Then yesterday's rainy weather gave me a chance to even get a couple of gifts wrapped and under the tree!

And for me, cold dreary weather also brings about the desire/need for coffee. I'm really hoping my new Wednesday-after-work coffee break with the girls takes off and it becomes a time that we can all see each other and catch up hopefully once a week. But with holiday schedules and plans, who knows! It's worth a shot though :)

Life lately

I feel like the small amount of photos shown here in this post doesn't even begin to paint a picture of how crazy the past few weeks have been. But maybe the lack of my posts all last week illustrate that instead? Sorry about being MIA, btw.

Anyhow, things have been hectic, but fun. I think we've just been to one show in the past 3 weeks, which was to see Rayland Baxter, as I mentioned in this post. That same weekend, J and I met up with some friends in Chattanooga, Tennessee so that Shannon and I could run the 4 Bridges Half Marathon. It was a pretty good race for the both of us, ending in a PR of 1:57 for me and a PR of 2:00 for Shannon. I've never hit a sub 2 hour half marathon, so I was pretty psyched and celebrated with a killer breakfast from Food Works.

And of course we had to stop and "See Rock City" on the way up. It was a pretty touristy thing to do, but somehow I had never been and neither had J, so it had to be done. It turned out to be the most beautiful day with perfect weather so it was nice to be outside and we also saw a pretty amazing view from up top.

I guess since I talked J into Rock City, I let him talk me into going to Atrox Factory, which is a local haunted house near Bham. I am so NOT into scary things whether it be movies, haunted houses, anything like that. But I took one for the team and we ended up having a really good time with my friends Joy and Justin. I just made sure to keep my eyes closed and hang on for dear life while walking through the attraction. It turned out to be a good strategy since I am currently still sleeping at night! :)

We've also managed to take excellent advantage of the incredible weather and we've been out into the great outdoors a lot over the past couple of weekends. I did a trail run and cookout with the BUTS group (Birmingham Ultra Trail Running Society) at Oak Mountain, plus we've climbed with Beth at Moss Rock and Horse Pens 40 and also took a camping trip up to Desoto State Park last weekend. It's clearly been a great fall so far and I expect many more camping and climbing trips in the future. Stay tuned!

My top 18 running songs

As a pretty committed runner (5x a week, at least 5 miles each day) I've had plenty of time and logged plenty of miles to know what my favorite running songs are.

Sure, I don't always listen to music since I have my trusty running partners, but there are definitely some days where a solo run is necessary. And I definitely couldn't survive those without my ipod. (Well, I could, but it's just not as enjoyable for me.) Plus, we always manage to throw in at least one awful hill and maybe even a good short sprint, so a power song is definitely in order for those occassions.

So in case you're looking for some new running tunes, I figured I'd share my top 18 songs. It sounds like a random number, but it should be enough to get you through an hour's worth of a run. And trust me, there is no particular order to these. I can't place one song higher than another because there are so many different genres and tempos. Basically this list gives you a nice mix of getting-your-butt-up-the-hill songs and also just zoning-out-on-a-flat-stretch-of-road-or-trail songs.

Enjoy the run!

1. Bad Romance, Lady Gaga (purchase mp3 here)

2. A-punk, Vampire Weekend (purchase mp3 here)

3. Womanizer, Britney Spears (purchase mp3 here)

4. Browntown, Raining Jane (purchase mp3 here)

5. Home, LCD Soundsystem (purchase mp3 here)

6. 4 minutes, Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland (purchase mp3 here)

7. Cluck Cluck Old Hen, Alison Krauss & Union Station (purchase mp3 here)

8. With Love, Hilary Duff (purchase mp3 here)

9. Four Night Rider, The Rural Alberta Advantage (purchase mp3 here)

10. Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap (purchase mp3 here)

11. Feel So Close (Nero Remix), Calvin Harris (purchase mp3 here)

12. The Dethbridge in Lethbridge, The Rural Alberta Advantage (purchase mp3 here)

13. Soul Singing, Black Crowes (purchase mp3 here)

14. The Lion, the Beast, the Beat, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (purchase mp3 here)

15. It Won’t Be Long, Evan Rachel Wood (purchase mp3 here)

16. When I Grow Up, Pussycat Dolls (purchase mp3 here)

17. Ride, Cary Brothers (purchase mp3 here)

18. Ragged Wood, Fleet Foxes (purchase mp3 here)

The dish on running

After almost seven weeks post my injury, I finally laced up my running shoes after work yesterday. It felt good. Kinda like I was reconnecting with an old friend. And then I went and literally reconnected with an old friend.

It ended up that Joy and I talked so much we didn't even bother starting our run, but we walked the entire five miles instead...followed by a lengthy dinner too, of course. By the time I got home four hours later, I left my workout clothes on and didn't even want to take my running shoes off. This is not normal for me. Usually I kick those suckers off the second I walk into my bedroom. But clearly I missed these guys. And I realized that just by wearing them, they made me feel productive.

I haven't always been a runner. Something clicked after I graduated high school and one day I just got up early and went for a run around the pond across the street. I've pretty much just kept up it with ever since. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes running and I "break up." Sometimes it's because I just need a break. And other times it's because of some lame injury. But I always come back to it. And until the recent broken arm injury, my relationship with running had been pretty solid!

A lot of people don't understand this relationship. It requires you to be disciplined and leave late night fun times with friends in order to meet your early bedtime so you can get up at the crack of dawn just so you can drip with sweat in the disgustingly hot summer. Or in the winter you have to leave a nice warm bed while it's still dark outside and put on insane amounts of layers just to endure the freezing cold temps.

I'm not good at math, but even I know that when you think about it like that, it doesn't all add up right.

But what does add up are the miles that I have logged with friends. And the conversations and stories we have shared. We are bonded. My running girls know entirely too much about me and vice versa. There's definitely been some group therapy sessions on those short and long runs. Just two weeks into my injury and not spending time running with those girls and I can tell you that I felt different. And in a bad way. My mood was altered. There's certainly something to be said for a runner's high and the ability to simultaneously verbally vomit everything that's been going on in your life lately. It's a pretty killer combo.

There's also something to be said of a friendship that you know you can count on. You say, "I'll meet you at 5:15 at the Trak Shak." And you know they are going to be there. Sure, we all bail from time to time, but when I think of the past five or so years I've had with my running partners, I'd say we've had a pretty positive percentage of no bails!

The more I run with my girls, the harder I find it to make myself go on solo runs, but those are pretty important, too. I remember coming back from Africa a year ago and being like, "ok, I'm doing this." I needed that alone running time to process everything I saw and experienced over there. Plus, it had been more than two weeks since I had ran, so I was jonesin for a run. I have never felt more "free" in my life than I did on that first mile. It was the highest of runners highs. And then the next four miles were brutal, but ya know, I managed to make it through!

I felt almost the same way this morning when I met up with the neighborhood crew for my first run in about two months. Once I hit the pavement, it was on. I broke ahead of the girls a little bit, but stayed close enough to hear their stories. Then I dragged towards the end of the run, but it was a good kind of drag. I mean, I hadn't ran in almost two months and I just finished three miles. Not too shabby. I definitely suprised myself with that.

I have to say, it feels good to be back. It took me a few days after being cleared from the doctor to make myself get out there and get started again. But now that I have, I know that first run just kickstarted the addiction and I'll be setting my alarm clock for ridiculous times again—five days a week.

But sleep is just a tiny sacrifice for everything I get in return from running. I guess the easiest way to say it is what my friend Casey says on her blog: "I like to run. It makes me happy."

Free fun: Trail run

Ok, I should be honest. I don't know if I should call this free "fun" but maybe a free butt kickin workout instead?

I mean, it's fun for me, but I don't know that many other people who consider running in 80-something degree heat while trying to keep from falling down because of tree roots and mud as "fun"... but if you do and you're in the Birmingham area, then you should come join Alabama Outdoors as they host trail runs tomorrow night at Red Mountain Park.

I went last Tuesday with this group and while the first mile was brutal (to be fair, I had already ran 5 miles that morning) after I was able to accept that my breathing wasn't ever going to quiet down I settled in and managed to hang in there for the next mile until we stopped and saw a pretty amazing view of downtown Birmingham. The second half was definitely a lot easier and it seemed a lot quicker, too. But I think that's how most all of my runs feel.

Anyhow, I've been a runner for a long time but I've never done a trail run. And if this hadn't been a group meeting at a certain spot with a person leading the run, I might not have ever even tried a trail run. So if you're looking for a way to shake up your running schedule or for a different workout entirely or you just want to meet new people, I think this is a great way to do all of those things. It's also a great way to check out the latest park addition to the Birmingham area. (side note: They have a zip line - how cool is that?)

Just be sure you get there as close to 5:45 p.m. as possible because there are outdoor companies with shoes available for you to try out on the run and it's first come, first serve. Plus, you need time to sign a waiver and figure out what running group you want to be in before the groups leave at 6:00 p.m.

Here are the details:
1. Tuesday May 22nd & May 29th
2. Arrival time at 5:45 p.m. at Red Mountain Park
3. Free shoe demo opportunity
4. Beginner level group - 4 miles at a 12 min. pace*
5. Intermediate level group is a possibility, depending on runners in attendance - 10 min pace
6. Advanced level group - 6 miles at an 8 min. pace

*I strongly advise joining the beginner level group if you've never done a trail run, even if you run on the road all the time. The "12 minute pace" includes the water stops, so really you are actually running at a faster pace.

Hope to see you on the trail!

Featured online retailer: ZB Sports

I like to buy "local" when I can, mostly as an effort to support the Birmingham community. And for some reason, I especially feel the pressure to do this with any outdoors or exercise apparel or equipment that I buy. Probably because we have some pretty great stores around here to shop at and purchase these items. But usually you can save money when you buy online and sometimes my thrifty nature just wins out.

So when it came time to buy new running shoes a few weeks ago, I gave in to purchasing them online this time. But I found a way to appease both my wallet and my conscience with ZB Sports. They had a great selection of shoes (particularly the Saucony Kinvaras that I had been looking for and now LOVE) for a great price...and guess what else. They give a portion of their proceeds to charity! You can choose from a variety of animal, environmental and health organizations that you would like for your percentage to be donated to.

I got my affordable shoes (delivered to my house—quickly) and I helped out a charity. To me, this is a no brainer. So if you're looking for some new kicks or maybe some outdoors/active wear, I think you should give www.zbsports.com a try!