Exciting Announcements!

Okay I know I’ve been torturing you with this….I’m sorry! I’ll go ahead and put an end to your wonderings so you don’t have to read on and on until I get to them 😀 Thanks for being such amazing and loyal readers!

When I finished my 5K on Saturday, you already know I was elated! However, I was also left with a feeling of…what now? I’ve been following a plan since I started running in November and with my race on Saturday, I reached the end of that plan. I made a conscious decision to keep doing this, because running has been an awesome thing for me and it’s something I can really keep up with and do without going to the gym all of the time (I really like the freedom aspect of it). I also knew that I wanted to get better and faster. When I was a rower I could push out 6 miles in less than an hour. I want to be able to do that again! I loved the speed and endurance I felt when I completed those runs.

So I made a decision to start training for a 10K. I think it’s the next reasonable step toward becoming a better runner. I’ve really enjoyed the small-steps aspect of my training thus far and how I wasn’t sore more than once during my entire 5K training. I’m scared to death of injuries, so I’m definitely all for taking it slow. That being said, I’ve been working over the past couple of days on picking a training plan and tweaking it a little bit for me! I ended up choosing the Hal Higdon’s 10K Training Plan: Novice level and changing the mileage of the longer runs on Sundays (increased them slightly), as well as adding a week of training, because of my next news…

I’m already signed up for a 10K! It will be Sunday, March 29th in Lakewood Ranch, FL (about 20 minutes north of where my parents live in Sarasota). Its the Take Stock in Children 10K benefitting students from low-income families and helping them afford a college education. I think it’s really important to have a measurable and attainable goal in mind when setting out to do something, so I definitely wanted to choose a race ASAP!

Another piece of news…I am officially signed up for the Gasparilla 5K taking place on Saturday, February 28th in Tampa, FL. I am SO excited for this one because I’m hoping that with my 10K training I’ll be able to PR at the race. AND it will be my first big race (with chip timers and everything, oh my! haha). I just can’t wait to participate and go to the Expo and just everything surrounding the Gasparilla celebration! Plus, there will be some awesome fellow bloggers there too!

I’ll be adding a page with my training plan soon, so you can follow me along in my new endeavors! I know I’m going to have some trouble adding 2-3 more days of working out to my already hectic schedule, but I’m going to try as hard as I can to manage my time well enough to do this! It’s all worth it 😀

Okay…how was that? I hope it was worth the wait 🙂

In other excitingness, I received my first package from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program today! In my package were 6 new Quaker’s True Delights granola bars to sample. These babies aren’t even in stores yet, so I was even more excited about that! (apparently they are! lol, so much for me doing my research :P) They threw a $1.00 off coupon in there too 😀

I got the package after my 2.5 mile run today (day 1 of 10K training!) and was so starving that I just had to try one ;-). I picked the Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut flavor first (whew, long name!). Here are my notes:

• Really, really sweet, surprised there are only 8g of sugar in this? Not sure if I like how sweet it was…
• Could taste all of the banana and coconut flavors loud a clear!
• Macadamia nuts were HUGE and very crunchy.
• I like them, but I’m not sure I’d buy this flavor over the more wholesome tasting Kashi bars or Clifs.
• I’m anxious to compare this flavor to the other 2 I received!

Okay, quick photo tour of today’s other eats…

Breakfast:

Mid-Morning Snack:

Lunch:

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Dinner:

Dessert:

To bed I go! Goodnight!!!