100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

Last Tuesday I challenged myself to run 100 miles in 42 days and I’ve been running like crazy ever since! Wednesday will mark the end of week two of my challenge and I’m currently on pace to complete 100 miles in just 24 days!

Miles since last post: 31.3
Days since last post: 6
Miles until iPad Mini: 49.3
Days until Deadline: 29

I realize that my timing is sort of backwards with the whole fitness thing… most people would have started working out before getting married to get ready for the big day but I, on the other hand, waited until after our wedding to get back into a serious exercise routine. In my mind the reasoning is very simple — there’s no way that I had time to run/walk 5 miles a day in addition to all of the DIY wedding projects, vendor coordination and planning that I needed to get done before the wedding. Now that our wedding is over and life is returning to normal I feel like I have oodles of free time and I’m happy to spend some of it working out! 🙂

Oh yeah… I got new purple running shoes on Saturday because my old sneakers were woefully worn out. Like ’em?

Related Posts:
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge

23Jul2013

100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

After 205 days of streaking our old Schwinn elliptical machine is starting to fall apart. We have taken this as a sign that it is time to retire the elliptical and invest in a more serious piece of fitness equipment… a treadmill! After some online research we settled on a NordicTrack and our new treadmill arrived by truck at 9:20PM last Wednesday night (gotta love that “12-6” delivery window..!). Undeterred by the late hour, we happily pushed, pulled and heaved the 350 lb. machine up a half flight of stairs and carefully maneuvered it into the spot that the elliptical had occupied in our little home gym. After some minor assembly we were good to go!

Our new treadmill!

My workout routine has completely changed since the treadmill arrived. Throughout the first half of July I had been faithfully sticking to my mile a day streak, but now over the past six days I’ve been averaging more than THREE miles a day! I’m sure the novelty of the treadmill’s map-based workouts and HD video runs will wear off eventually, but for now I’m going to keep my extreme workout schedule going by setting a goal:

If I complete 100 miles on the treadmill by August 28th I can buy myself an iPad mini!

Why an iPad Mini, you ask? After lugging three books along on our honeymoon (and reading all of them) I came to the realization that a tiny eReader capable of housing dozens of books would be a great investment. I looked at various options and determined that an eReader that also happens to be an iPad sounds pretty awesome! As for the origin of my August 28th deadline? Easy. We’ll be going to a hunting camp in central PA for Labor Day weekend and I hope to spend lots of quality time in a rocking chair on the porch reading books on my iPad mini! 🙂

Treadmill and TV

Only 80 miles to go!

So… 100 miles by August 28th. Including the miles that I’ve put in since last Thursday, this leaves me with 35 days to complete 80.6 miles. That’s about 2.3 miles a day. Think I can do it? I’ll be posting updates that look like this:

Miles since last post: 19.4
Miles until iPad Mini: 80.6
Days until Deadline: 35

Wish me luck!!

3Jul2013

July Update: A new streak begins and the garden keeps on growing!

Posted in Adventures at Home, Challenges by Annie T

Matt and I are home after spending 10 days in beautiful St. Lucia and a few days in Western Maryland for the DockDogs Regional Championships. I’ll post honeymoon photos and the dockdogs recap soon, but in the meantime I have some updates!

After 205 consecutive days my mile-a-day streak ended the day before our honeymoon began (June 13th). I initially thought I would keep on streaking while in St. Lucia but for the first week we were staying in the rainforest on top of a mountain at the end of a precariously washed out dirt road so running a mile a day wasn’t really feasible. Oh well! 🙂 As of July 1st I have started a new streak. We’ll see if I can beat 205 days… I’ll reach that goal on January 21, 2014.

In other news, we had record rainfall in June and as a result my vegetable garden has been growing like crazy! Check out this photo that I took today… a comparison shot from my May 10th gardening post is below.

Quite a difference, right? When we got home from St. Lucia I was shocked to see how much the parsley, thyme and tomatoes had grown and I was overwhelmed by the enormous zucchini plants!! (I think my basil was overwhelmed too… it’s now living in the shadow of those large-leafed behemoths!) Here are some other photos of my garden and back yard flowers from today.

Purple Hosta Flowers

Baby Green Tomatoes!

Pink Zinnia

Mmm… Basil

Shasta Daisy

Mint

Monster Zucchini Plants

While I was wandering around with my camera this afternoon I was surprised to spot a white-tailed deer in the front yard. It is quite common for us to see deer in our area (usually in other peoples’ yards or dashing across the road!) but it is very, VERY rare to see a deer in our yard because Bailey has made it her life mission to stalk and chase any and all wildlife that comes within her invisible fence boundary.

I guess the neighborhood deer herd realized that Bailey was not at home for most of June and as a result they are now making themselves comfortable in the front yard. Luckily Bailey was on her game this afternoon and as soon as this deer made a move Bailey (who must have been stalking it from a different angle as I snapped away with the camera) came blasting over, chased it away, and then proceeded to roll and rub in the deer’s scent for a good 30 seconds. Good dog, Bailey (even if you do smell now…)

Oh hello, deer in the front yard

Bailey on patrol!

Soaking up all of that deer stinkiness

Well, that’s it for tonight’s update. Happy 4th of July and have a great holiday weekend!!

Related Posts:
• Streaking, Reflections, and Other December Challenges (December 3, 2012)
• Streaking, Day 100 (March 1, 2013)
• Let the 2013 Gardening Season Begin! (May 12, 2013)
• Waiting for Red Tomatoes (July 4, 2012)

1Mar2013

Streaking, Day 100!

Posted in Challenges, Hikes by Annie T

This morning I completed day 100 of my mile-a-day “streaking” challenge, woohoo! The challenge started out back on Thanksgiving Day as part of the Runners World Holiday Running Streak (#RWRunStreak) from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, but when 2013 rolled around I just kept on going!

On a typical weekday I wake up at 5:15 and elliptical my mile while watching the morning news. The downside of this is that the news is pretty boring (how many traffic reports can one person watch??) and yes, it’s early, but after I’m done I feel great all day knowing that I’ve finished my mile. I also like having a routine, even if it means that I now have to pack my running clothes on vacations or business trips.

Here are a few of my more memorable miles over the past 100 days:

Day 13 (12/4/12)
I ‘ellipticalled’ a mile in the morning and then we went on a 5 mile hike in Ridley Creek State Park the afternoon! That was a big day for exercise.

Day 41 (01/01/13)
Matt, Bailey and I ran the first 2.4 miles of the multi-purpose loop at Ridley Creek State Park. Not bad for New Year’s Day!

Day 52 (01/12/13)
We ran a mile on a chilly morning in Thornbury Township Park. For some reason this felt much harder than the 2.4 miles on 1/1. (The Thornbury Park Photo is actually from September. I wish it had been that beautiful there in January!)

Days 54-59 (01/14-19/13)
Completed a week of miles on a treadmill in the Palazzo gym in Las Vegas. I was nervous at first because I usually elliptical in the privacy of my own home but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment afterwards! (And I think I managed to look tough and strong while running which is really half the battle, right?) 🙂

Days 94-95 (02/23-24/13)
Ran around Cape Charles on the eastern shore of Virginia while we were in town with friends for the Barrier Island Center Oyster Roast. On day 94 my iPhone app got confused and said that I ran 1.7 miles in 13 minutes (which is impossible) but I let myself believe that was true when I enjoyed all-you-can-eat oysters, clams, BBQ pulled pork and wine later in the day.

I look forward to keeping my streak going until Matt and I get married on June 8th. Wish me luck!

3Dec2012

Streaking, Reflections, and Other December Challenges

Posted in Challenges by Annie T

I don’t usually take part in online challenges but I am making several exceptions this month! Here’s a quick run down of the fun challenges that I will be participating in for December:

1. I’m Going Streaking!!

As a part of the Runner’s World “Streak,” I have committed to run, walk, or elliptical at least 1 mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I completed my mile for day 12 of the streak this morning and I feel great!

“Streaking” is a big deal for me because, although I was a runner in college, I’ve really done very, very little running since graduating in 2007. I am usually quite content to come home from work and make dinner/watch TV/blog/do anything besides exercise. But all of that has changed since I started my streak on Thanksgiving. Now I actually wake up BEFORE work (something I never would have believed that I’d ever do!) and I elliptical my mile while groggily watching the morning traffic and news. It’s an awesome feeling to come home from work and know that I have already finished my exercising for the day. 🙂

I have to give a quick shout out to Jocelyn from Running Noodle because without Jocelyn I never would have known that the Streak challenge existed. I read Jocelyn’s “Streaking” Post last winter and decided then and there that I would try streaking myself this year. I learned this weekend that streaking is actually a whole blog/twitter/social media “thing” with it’s own hashtag (#RWStreak) so I guess I’ll start tagging my streaking posts from now on!

2. Weekly Photo Challenge: REFLECTION

I kept seeing posts with beautiful “reflection” photos featured in my WordPress reader so I did some investigating and learned that WordPress sponsors a Weekly Photo Challenge. It’s easy to participate so I thought this would be a fun way to add to my December challenges. I think to actually join the challenge properly I need to create a brand new post titled “Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection” but this post will have to suffice for week 1.

I have two photos featuring reflections for this week. The first (above) is a rare self-portrait of me taking a photo of Bailey via the car’s rear view mirror. She loves car rides! (Ignore my wrinkly forehead… I was thinking hard!) The second (below) is a photo of a Delmarva DockDog named Sam. I love how Sam and his toy are converging with their reflections!

3. 25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge

Yes, another photo challenge. (When I decide to do something I go all out!) I learned about this photo challenge from Pami at Pa-BLAM. There’s a nice holiday-themed topic for each day and, like Pami, I will probably do a post every 7 days or so with the photos from the previous week. I’m going to have to rely on some holiday photo archives for a few of these though… I mean, I HOPE that I see snow on December 7th but at this point that’s not looking too likely!

OK, well that just about sums up my December challenges. I think that #3 is going to be really fun but overall I am most excited about Streaking. Wish me luck! 🙂