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Ode to 2011

By Mary Baum on December 30, 2011

Marcus and I were up bright and early this morning to tackle our last workout of 2011! The schedule called for a 5 mile pace run, so I need to hit each mile at 8 minutes to keep the 3:30 marathon goal in mind. I did just that! Here is what the miles looked like:

  • 8:03
  • 7:57
  • 7:57
  • 8:01
  • 7:57

I’m happy with that! Goodbye all of those 2011 workouts! I have to say, I’m not going to miss you too much. But thanks for kicking my butt for a whole year :)

2011 was a whirlwind! So many amazing things happened, and I feel like I blinked and it was over! Before I move on to 2012, I feel like I need to give 2011 some love. Here it goes…

Marcus ran his first marathon, and I got a 1/2 marathon PR

My friends threw me a fantastic bridal shower

Marcus and I got married!

We went on an amazing honeymoon to Whistler, B.C.!

I ran the Boston Marathon!

I started the blog!

We tubed down a bone chilling river and participated in a peep war!

We had a great long weekend in North Carolina

Marcus and I rode 150 miles to help find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis

I met some new friends while running a really fun 1Day Relay

I quit my first out-of-college job and started a new one I LOVE!

Celebrating at my company's holiday party

I turned a quarter of a century old (how did that happen?!)

We celebrated our first Christmas together as a married couple

The attention of everyone is hard to come by!

We got a furry new member of the family!

 

I am still in awe at what an amazing year 2011 was in my life! What are some on the wonderful things that happened in your life in 2011. I would love for you to share them here! :)

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Spin Your Heart Out

By Mary Baum on December 28, 2011

My favorite part of our marathon training plan is that it calls for only 4 days of running, 2 days of cross training, and one rest day per week. Last night for our cross training day, Marcus and I decided to head up to spin class. We bought a Groupon to a local spin studio last fall, and finally redeemed it!

SoHo Cycling Studio is my favorite place that I have taken a spin class! At this studio, the first class is free so you can try it out, which we took advantage of a few weeks ago. They have a cool online feature where you can actually pick the bike you want to use before coming to class. You are able to show up right before class starts and not have to compete with others to get a spot in the class – it is such an awesome perk!

So I went on the website yesterday, picked out my bike, and this was at the studio when I showed up. No worrying about whether the class will be full :) Pretty awesome!

There are 2 100′ screens in the front, so the class flies by! The music video of the current playing song is shown on the screen, so it really keeps your mind off of the workout.

The room is nice and big, and has over 30 of the nicest spinning bikes out on the market. They are so smooth and you can adjust them to fit your frame perfectly.


The instructor did a great job as well.  She was crazy fit and worked just as hard as everyone else. (Sidenote: I went to a spin class back at UCF where the spin instructor never once got on the bike the entire class! I never went back to Mr. Lazy Man’s class!) The songs were all different and not the ones constantly being played on the radio.

Cycling is definitely my favorite cross training activity, and I am sooo happy to have an awesome spinning studio so close to where we live! We have 9 classes left from our Groupon, and I fully intend to be back every week to redeem them!

What is your favorite way to cross train? Any fun activities that most people would not think of as cross training?

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Kicking It Off With a Bang

By Mary Baum on December 26, 2011

Another Christmas is in the books! How on Earth is it the day after Christmas already!?

My sister Emily was in town, and showed up with some sweet shirts!

She made the shirts as part of my Christmas gift, and also got one for everyone in my family. The back is pretty neat too…

She put my blog URL across the back! Sooo fun!  :) We played some fun games….

Opened lots of presents…

And had plenty of downtime to relax!

My apologies for all the puppy pics – I just can’t help it ;)

The holidays with both of our families was a success! I am so lucky to have two families in my life that get along so well with each other. It was an awesome first married Christmas for both Marcus and I :)

Kicking off marathon training

After a good night of sleep from the pup, we were up and ready to hit up our first workout of our marathon training! Yesterday was technically our first day of our marathon training schedule, but it turned out to be a cross training day. We went out for a nice bike ride, in anticipation for our workout today! Our schedule called for 3xhills, which is not an easy task in Tampa – the city is flat as a pancake! We researched where to find some hills, and we found a good alternative….

Rather than running actual hilly terrain, we found a trail with a nice overpass, so we went ahead and turned that into our hill. We parked at a trail head and warmed up with a 2 mile jog to the overpass.

Once we got there, we went up and over the hill 5 times – we decided since we drove all the way up there (approximately a 20 minute drive), we would go ahead and do a couple extra repeats to really make it worth our while.

I was super impressed with the trail. Everything was really well marked, and was being used by so many people!

We will definitely be going out there again when the schedule calls for some more hills! My heart rate was definitely up, and it was a great workout!

Only 18 more weeks to go until Nashville! Countdown starts now!!

How was your Christmas with your family and friends? Did you get out and exercise over the holidays?

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An Early Christmas Gift

By Mary Baum on December 23, 2011

While I was at work yesterday, Marcus was sending me a few pictures of our Christmas present. Originally, we decided to skip the presents on each other and only get them for our family. Late last week, that changed. We had a little something land in our laps that we could not pass up. Meet Winnie!

Winnie is a 6 week old Golden Retriever who has already stolen our hearts. Marcus’ coworker had a connection to a litter of 9 puppies, and as soon as we heard about it, we were there! We had been talking about a getting dog in a few months, but this opportunity was too good to pass up!

We believe in getting dogs from the Humane Society, as they are so many dogs that need to be rescued. This litter of puppies was being given away to any takers, and then the ones remaining were brought to the Humane Society after we picked up our puppy. Be sure to check out a local dog shelter in your area before paying high dollar for your new dog. 3-4 millions dogs are euthanized each year, so do your part and save a life :)

Winnie slept for a good portion of the first day we had her, but she has definitely started to come out of her shell!

She still has a hard time walking in a straight line, and is loving pulling on our clothes (and any type of fabric) whenever she gets the chance.

Marcus and I are catching up on Cesar Milan’s book to make sure we are in a good spot to start our puppy training. Since we are introducing Winnie into an environment with another dog, we want to make sure we are doing it right. We are going to use Cesar’s tactics to teach our puppy how to be an amazing dog! If you are looking for a book on dog training, be sure to check it out. The man knows what he is talking about!

Friends already!

I can’t wait until Winnie gets a bit older and she can come running with me. She will be a rockstar runner – I can just feel it!

Winnie is hands down the best Christmas present we could ever have. I am soo excited that she is a part of our family, and can’t wait for all of the fun we are going to have with her!!

Any other early Christmas presents out there? What is the best gift you have ever received?

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Friendly Support

By Mary Baum on December 21, 2011

This morning I had the privilege of running with someone other than my dog – such a treat!

 

My friend Courtney, a teammate from the 1Day relay, has recently moved to my side of town, and we live so close to each other now! We met up on Bayshore for a nice run, chatting about everything from the holidays, to boys (should we be calling them men at this point??), and our upcoming races.

I love Bayshore morning runs!

I always forget how much I truly enjoy running with other people. Friends are truly the best to just experience it all with!

(Source)

When I started running, I was on the cross country team in high school, and that spilled on over into college. I was always running with a group of girls, and it made all of the trying workouts such a better experience.

The best teammates ever!

I completed my first marathon with a former teammate as well. Annie and I have always complimented each other very well on the course, and this was no different for the Disney Marathon.

Now, I feel very lucky to have a husband that not only understands my running, but is willing to take on that task with me! We are starting to train for the Country Music Marathon this coming weekend, and I could not be more excited! This is the first marathon that we will be training for and running together. Luckily, he knows what he is getting himself into! ;)

Marcus and I after completing the OUC half marathon

How often are you able to get out and run with friends (if at all)? Does your significant other understand your training and dedication?

 

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