Milestones: My first ever Race Without A Race!

First things first – we’re getting down to the wire on the conclusion of my giveaways! Enter to win a $35 CSN gift card by midnight tonight! And don’t forget about the 2011 Training Log giveaway for you and a friend, ending this Sunday!


Thanks M3S Sports!

Last night, I had the privileged of attending my first-ever Race Without A Race, courtesy of M3S Sports.

So, how can you have a race without a race? EASY! Lots of friends, fun, food, prizes and giveaways, and of course, beer!

Friends: I went with my mom, my sister Mollie, and one of my MIT buddies, Wendy. We had a blast! It was great to see some familiar MIT faces and talk to other runners about their recent accomplishments and upcoming training schedules. You know a bunch of runners all get together and talk about running!

Fun: There was music and a winter running apparel fashion show (we love thumb-holes!) compliments of Fleet Feet Sports Columbus. There was also the Best of 2010 MIT Photo contest, in which yours truly has been entered thanks to Emily (it was her camera!), Duane (our fearless leader!) and the MIT 13-minute Pace Group. You may remember it:

Suzi, Me, Duane, Wendy & Emily

Food: Who can go wrong in a tavern? Meatballs, chicken fingers, homemade pizza, and a veggie tray (yes – I ate the veggies!).

Prizes and Giveaways: My sister won two VIP Passes to the upcoming Cap City Half Marathon (it will be her first one EVER!) so we were super excited about that. And my mom won a gift card to come back to the Front Street Tavern! We’re still waiting [insert: patiently] on the results of the photo contest. In fact, Wendy and I were trying pretty hard to persuade ~~the completely-awesome-wonderful-funny-handsome-best ever MIT head coach~~ Jeff to choose Photo Number 8:

There we are in the right hand corner making our case!

He politely replied that his vote doesn’t count, ~~but we know better~~. So we moved on to encouraging others to vote for us by screaming, “EIIIGGGHHT” every time our photo flashed across the screen. Hopefully we got Mollie’s vote:

Is that an 8 I see her writing?

I forget what Emily wins, but I’m sure it’s something cool since Fleet Feet is involved. And of course, there’s bragging rights for Duane and his angels.

Oh yeah, and beer! I only had one, but it was free and tasted surprisingly good! 😉

AND…this is the end (I promise)! Since this is technically a Milestones Post…

Weekly Goal Recap:

Run the Pittsburgh Marathon in May 2011.

I got 4 miles in this week on Monday and Tuesday! On the treadmill, none-the-less. I am so happy to be running again – it makes my whole world happier!
Tonight I did a 1 hour cross training workout with Strong Body by Rebecca and interval training. We experimented with some Heart Rate Training, and I think it is going to be the way to go for me to accelerate my weight loss goal – so excited! I was staring to like interval training anyway and after wearing a heart rate monitor for the first time tonight, I am hooked! It really motivated me to work harder than I already thought I was. We also did some suspension training and abs. I am working hard to strengthen my core, which I will need to run those longer distances.
First run of the MIT Winter Season starts bright and early tomorrow morning! I can’t wait to get out there and get running with my crew! (Although the thought of running 5 miles right now does seem a little daunting…..)

Loose the last 50 pounds the healthy way.

As you know by now, my stomach has not been well the past couple of weeks so my nutrition and exercise progress has not been that great, but I feel like I did a pretty good job of maintaining through it all.

3. Be at my goal weight of 150 pounds by next summer.

After my workout and better week regarding stomach issues – I feel like I am finally back on track!
I started supplementing my regularly healthy diet with Visalus nutritional Weight Loss Shakes. If you haven’t – you need to check it out! These shakes offer great nutrition (especially if you are like me and struggle to eat a good breakfast to being your day), taste great (I couldn’t drink two of them a day, if they didn’t), and have really helped me to feel satisfied for longer than I ever expected (I drink my first shake at 7:45 a.m. on my way to work and am not hungry again until about 11:45 a.m. which holds me over until my sensible dinner at about 7 p.m. or so). In addition, they are low calorie, natural, and made with non-GMO soy protein so you can feel good about what you are putting into your body. The shakes are affordable and Visalus offers a variety of add-on benefits (like vitamins) and flavor choices (like banana, chocolate, and orange) that you can add to your drink to make it your own! You can find out more about my Weight Loss Challenge by clicking here. I am excited to see what my results are in the coming weeks!