Useable Bling!

Everybody LOVES Bling, right? That bright, shiny medal they give you after some races, the occasional trophy, I even got a red rose once. (That really made my day, lol)
Last year I found a use for the other bling: the t-shirts. Tech shirts are not really good for this, but the cotton ones that you wear a few times and then sigh every time you cannot shut your dresser drawer. I made them into a blanket. The pic below is unfinished, but I back them with a full-sized sheet and use lovely satiny trim to finish them off. No padding needed, they are toasty warm all by themselves!

Every time you curl up with it, you will be reminded of all the races you finished, the sweat and the tears and the joy of crossing that finish line!
Here is my first quilt, finished with pink satin trim. I sewed every other square to the backing instead of using corner buttons like I did below. I also used sweatshirty material that was crazy hard to work with, lol.

I recently made one for a friend, using her collection of  (mostly) Hard Rock Tees:

This is also unfinished, I used buttons in every corner to stop the sheet and the quilt front from sliding around. There are lots of sites online that sell kits, or charge you (usually a *lot*) to make them for you. I sew mine by hand (I have a sewing machine, I just hate using it!!) so it takes awhile but it is so worth it in the end!
I also saw somewhere that you can make tote bags out of your race bibs, but I put mine in an 8x8 scrapbook along with pics from the race. I love flipping through them. My fave bibs are the muddy crusty ones from mud runs I have done. What a story they tell you!!

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What have you done with your race bling?

Week 3 of Training...check!

I just finished week 3 of training for the Disney Marathon! So far, traning has been very easy, all 3 milers, but next week it moves up to 5 miles as my long run. I have run that distance many times, so I am not worried! I am training to finish, not to finish well, so I am right on track. Today I added in some walking, to make it as real as possible, and my time for the 3 miles was 35:20 with an average of  11:46 per mile. I remember when i was running my fastest and was thrilled with a 13 minute mile. Ahhhhh those were the days!
I was able to mark on X on the last day of week 3 today, with no missed runs. Woot!

This week coming up i have Summer Series, week 3, and MudManX: 5 miles of mud, water, and obstacles. SO excited about that! I have also ordered the pics from Rugged Maniac. They are *not* pretty, but I will share them when they arrive! I only ordered 2, it was too expensive to order more, but I will scan and post when I have them!
I still have 3 mix-ins in my Pounds Lost cup, woohoo, and will hopefully be posting my 5 pound update soon!
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My cool new running decal!

I previously mentioned my awesome new running decals from www.runnerdecals.com and I finally put the one on my car! I have my cool new weight loss cups, some cute runner girls on my laptop and some flowers that still have to find a home. I might one near my runner girl for every Half I finish.
Anyway, here is a pic of my new car decal:

Cute, right?
Now we are finaly off to the Jazz Fest. So far I have done yoga, walked around the Cape May Zoo for over an hour, and now we will bike to the Fest and back. A good day for exercise, and my eating has been amazing! we brought lunch to the zoo so that we could eat well. A great day all around!

Yoga on the Beach

Today was a beautiful morning for yoga on the beach! The rains brought in a nice cool breeze and the temps are perfect! Waves crashing, birds singing, breeze blowing. Very chill and perfect!

I even rode my bicycle there and back, a total of 2 miles, and the neighborhood was very quiet and calm, almost unheard of in this part of Jersey, so close to the shore! I loved the class today, as always, loved the flow and the stretching, which I never seem to get enough of!
Today is Jazz Fest here in town, so we will also be biking there, and checking it out. This is the first year, so we are curious. Plus, it's Jazz! We love Jazz music, although we rarely get a chance to hear it live, which is truly the best way to hear it!
The scale is moving back in the right direction! I had to remove a mix-in yesterday from the pounds lost, but today i got to put 2 into it! Woot! 3 pounds down, 24.2 to go, lol.
Happy Saturday to all, what will you be doing today?

Summer Series, week 2

Today was week 2 of the JSRC Summer Series, 5 weeks of Thursday night 5Ks. Last week was rough, and this week wasn't much better! The weather was nicer, a little cooler and there was a nice breeze. I am still getting used to hills, though. My first mile was amazing, but each subsequent mile slowed down! I kept it up though, and beat my time from last week. By 2/100 of a second lol. I also was NOT the last runner. There were 4 people behind me. WOOT!
Hubby took a pic of me approaching the finish in my cute running skirt. I really need another one, this one is getting over-worn lol.

I turned in my time, and found out I was 4th out of 5 in my age group. One step up from last week's last place. My friend Cheryl came in 3rd this week. Her cute daughter ran the mile and knocked a whole minute off her time. SO CUTE!

I am hoping to see more time shaved off at week three!

I have just joined a bolg group called Picket Fence Blogs. Clicking on the icon to the right is a vote for my blog. Feel free to vote, if you like my blog today!

I will be posting updates on my quest to Lose a Marathon soon. I have moved another mix-in to the pounds lost cup, and will update when I have moved over 5 total!

I also joined an Olympic Challenge that involves running a different distance every day until you total a marathon, I believe over the course of one week. Once I get my scorecard emailed to me, I will post updates about that as well!

Losing a Marathon

I have mentioned before that I joined a challenge to lose a marathon... which is 26.2 pounds. They set a time frame of 13 weeks, but I have set my own time frame...by January 13, 2013, the day of my own marathon in Disney!

I saw a great idea at the facebook page, to use 2 mason jars (or Solo cups, lol, as you will see soon) as a visual aid. One holds the weight you want to lose, and one holds the weight you have already lost. Cool, right? And a really great company sells the decals to make these cups! They also have some cute running girl decals, among others. I got a great one for my car, pic to come as soon as the melting hot temps cool off so that I can apply it! You can check them out at RunningDecals.com

For now, I am using Crystal Light mix-ins lol, but I am going to change that as soon as I can find something I like better. I only just started this challenge, as you can see by the lonely mix-in that is in the 'pounds lost' cup. The decal company also sells 'Lose a Half Marathon" decals, in case you don't need to lose a whole marathon. Once I lose the whole marathon, I will be back to my WW goal weight, more or less. 10 pounds *less* then I weighed on my wedding day!

Any ideas as to what I should use to represent the pounds in my yellow Solo cups?

Post Maniac Run

Ever have one of those days? All sorts of annoying little things happening to make up one big crappy day? That has been my day so far. Add to that, I am still sore from the Maniac. Not crazy sore, but just enough to be, well, annoying. I was so happy after I finished that race though, so I will try and hold onto that!

There is also a chance I may not be able to do MudManX because they assign you your time slots, and like a bonehead, I told my daughter I would take her to a play at 2 o'clock that day. UGH.

So of course, I don't want to run the scheduled 30-45 minutes for the day. It is sooooo hot and sticky, but I get dressed, grab my ipod, and head to Gold's. It is even sticky and hot at the treads! Yay. Oh, and my ipod isn't charged. Bonus. I am determined to run so I get the machine ready for a 45 minute run, and off I go. After 5 minutes I am sweating like a pig, and my shins are hurting. No worries, stop. Stretch. Back on the horse. Now my calves hurt. Really? UGH. Stop. Stretch. Back on the horse. After a while I realize my right foot is hitting wayyyy harder than my left, because I am overcompensating. By now I have about 18 minutes in, averaging a 13:30 mile. Cool down time, not worth possible injury.

Thursday night is Summer series Week 2, and I hope to beat last week's time. This won't happen if I hurt myself, and won't help my Marathon training. Week two? No worries.
On the weight loss front, my quest to lose 26.2 had stalled, so I am regrouping and starying fresh. I am not concerned with the time limit imposed by the challenge, I can continue long after that time has passed. Just want to get there!

Next big stop? Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half, my Susan G Komen Marathon for the Cure race, just 2 months away (from yesterday, actually!) so I will leave you with this: