Cross Training?

My plan with training was going to get my 3 mile run to a place where it was as normal as breathing. That was until I went for my first run on Tuesday, and I ran my 3 miles effortlessly. Well, maybe effortlessly isn't the best word but I wasn't miserable and I knew that I was able to officially start my training.

If you are interested HERE is the training plan I am using. I chose this one because you aren't running on Mondays. On Monday's I need as much energy as possible for class and for nothing else. I can get up and do some yoga and free weights on Monday.

I'm a little worried about my cross training options. Everything I read said that your cross training can be swimming, biking, zumba, skiing, or anything that is using other muscles besides the ones you use for running. I even read somewhere that you could walk if you wanted to. That's what I chose to do this morning. I put the leash on Portia and hit the pavement. I didn't walk as fast as I probably should have, but at least I was doing it. I'm excited about seeing if I'll be able to run the 4 miles this week.

That will be a new personal best for me, but the fun part is that I will be increasing that personal best every week!

December 3rd=Death or Victory

This ^ will be me on December 3rd 2011!!

I am running in the St. Jude Half Marathon!

I'm so excited but really really really nervous.

I'm barely able to run 3 miles, but I decided to run 13.1 anyways.

I've got the socks, the shoes, the Garmin Forerunner 305.

Even the spandex capris

I'm legit. Too Legit Too Legit to Quit (At least I hope so).

This is truly on my bucket list.

My goal is to really get back up to my 3 miles this week.

I took a running break because we had vacations, extremely hot weather, and laziness.

I'm easily running two so I just have to get that 3 miles back in.

Hopefully I will be back to three miles by the end of this week

So I can officially start my training.

I need major support and encouragment.

If I die...make sure I'm buried in my t-shirt and medal...

with my spandex capris.

Always a Bride, Never a Bridesmaid...

Until NOW!! I'm so excited to finally say that I have been a bridesmaid.







I can now say things like:

Uggh, those awful bridesmaid dresses. (Not really, I liked mine).
I can't believe our bride made us do that (Also not true)
When I was a bridesmaid...



I can understand how being a bridesmaid is stressful, but I have to admit that the fact that someone cared enough about me and our friendship to ask me to stand beside them while they married their true love was a wonderful feeling.

This was the bride.

This is totally out of focused for the blog. Her dress was so much prettier in person and she looked amazing!!



These were the bridesmaids:

And here is what I did when no one was looking:

I was totally the classiest bridesmaid there. Did I mention that it was 98 degrees and the wedding was outside. See, it makes more sense what I am doing now.

I had a wonderful time during the wedding and made some new friends.

Oh! And now I can say," Oh, this apron? It was my bridesmaid gift from my friend when she got married...because I was her bridesmaid."

Different Kinds of Friends

When we're little, everyone is our BESTEST friend. I have yearbooks where I highlighted people's names just because I knew who they were. How I knew them? I'm not sure. Maybe we had a class together, maybe we played ball together but in any case I called them a friend.

I realized the importance of friends when I didn't have any. My family had moved from a big city to a small town and I had no one. That was a tough year. I had very random friendships that year, and as I continued on in the school system I am proud to say that I only kept one of those friendships. Those friends were weird. Learning the Macarena to TLC's Waterfalls? Yeah, that's kinda weird.

There are several categories of friends.

Used to Be Friends:
These are the friends that made a very large impact of your life. These are the ones that you used to do everything with and at some point in time were considered your best friends. What happens to these friends? Sometimes you move away. Sometimes people change. You still care about them, you are Facebook friends but you wouldn't ask them to be a bridesmaid.

Soulmate friends:
These are few and far between. These are the ones that feed your soul. I thought I had this during middle/high/and college with the same group of girls. I was wrong. Soulmate friends are the ones that you can't imagine ever not knowing. They pray for you. They want the best for you, even if it means giving up something of their own. Competition is thrown out of the window. You are lucky if you have one of those. Stephanie is mine. I'm surprised that I have only known her for 6 years because I feel as I have known her my whole life. Stephanie is to Dana as Oprah is to Gayle. We are a packaged deal. Soulmate friends don't come around very often, but when they do they stay around.

Forever Friends:
I have several friends who I will be friends with forever. We might not have been as close as Soulmate friends, but I know that these people and I could sit and talk for hours. It really speaks of their character when you know that you could run into them randomly at the hometown Walmart and catch up quickly. I love these friends.

I was lucky enough to get to hang out with one for an entire day on our vacation. Ami is a kindred spirit, a bosom buddy if you will. I was worried that because I hadn't seen her in two and a half years, that things would be awkward. Nope. It felt like nothing had changed between us. We are two very different people, but very similar as well. I'm lucky to have her as a friend and I can't wait to see where life takes her.

Protecting My Goodies

This was me yesterday, except I was in a dress and my shoes didn't fly off of my feet. That was suprising considering I was wearing flip-flops. I definitely took a tumble and lived to tell about it. What makes this situation funny is what happened after I fell.

1. I fell in front of a client while I was walking to my car.

2. Once I assured her that nothing was hurt (but my pride), I told her that at least I kept my knees together in the dress.

3. She then decided to tell me that,"If she knew my husband, she would tell him that I did a good job at protecting my goodies."

MY GOODIES???!? Really?

Did I mention that when I fell, I fell DOWN a handicapped ramp? It was a triple decker, swirly type ramp and I fell down it. Isn't it supposed to be for safety reasons?

An Actual Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my 25th birthday. Most people get excited about their birthdays, but not me. Not because I'm scared of getting older, but because historically my birthdays have always sucked. I've had birthdays where everyone at the party ended up crying. I have had birthdays where people broke their toes. My favorite was when my fiance broke up with me right before my 21st birthday. That was really special. Even my 24th birthday sucked because I felt like no one really remembered it was my birthday, even my husband.

So you can see why birthdays cause me to feel a little hesitant. This year was SO much better!!

Andrew woke up early and made me birthday waffles! I love breakfast, but he doesn't ever wake up with me to eat it. That was exciting.

At work we have a tradition which is to decorate or "trash" someone's office when it's a special day. I walked in and our office manager pretended like she forgot my birthday and she totally convinced me until I went up to my office and their were balloons everywhere with streamers and decorations! That truly made my day!! Last year, our office manager came in late on my birthday and forgot about it completely. This totatlly made up for it.

Husband then came by with my birthday present after lunch. He got me some of the best birthday presents! I have really been working on losing weight and running, which means I've been drinking water like it's going out of style. We have filtered water at home, but it sucks when I drink all of my water at work and I just have nasty tap water to drink. Andrew got me a filtered water bottle that has the filter built right in. It's so cool! Then he got me running socks. These socks are so snazzy because they even have a specific foot each sock goes on. The cherry on top is an awesome watch that I can wear when I run that calculates the kcals burnt and I can set the time to countdown my warm-up and immediately start counting and timing my run.

After I got off work yesterday, I had to throw on my snazzy running sock and shoes and hit the pavement. Part of my birthday present was my hubby coming with me this time. I don't know if it was the fact that I had a big motivator with me or the fact that I wanted to start my 25th year on a fresh start but I ran 3 miles. 3 MILES!!!!!! I have been running 2 which was exciting but I stretched myself yesterday farther than every. I plan on making the 3 miles a regular distance until I begin training for a half marathon.

We then drove to Jackson to meet the family for birthday celebration time. I had told my mom that my puppy had chewed on every pair of my dress shoes for work, so she felt sorry for me. My present from my parents was to be able to pick out three pairs of shoes in Macy's!!!!! I've got some sexy shoes now!! I even was able to get nude pumps!!!!!!!! I have been waiting and wanting a pair for forever!! My feet and legs have never looked better!

When Andrew and I returned home from our day of fun, we found that our house had been tampered with by teenagers. We had writing all over Andrew's car, house windows, leaves in a pile underneath the carport, our hose was draped across the front of our carport with one of Andrew's shoes tied to it. I knew immediately who had done it and texted a mom and got confirmation. She sent her child and the other culprits to our house and quickly cleaned everything up. Andrew was so angry, but I couldn't help but feel loved because they wouldn't have done it if they didn't love their Ms. Dana.

This is an incredibly long blog, and if you made it to the end then I thank you,haha.
All in all, it was an amazing birthday surrounded by texts, facebook messages, and family. It couldn't have been better!

It's been a while since I have posted on the blog. Here is my life update in the form of a list:

1. I am up to running 28 minutes without stopping and I'm enjoying it.


2. I haven't really lost that much weight.


3. I have had to wear my glasses for several weeks now because my contacts are kaput and I don't have the time to go to the eye doctor.


4. It's almost my 25th birthday!

That's pretty much the update of my life. I know, it's lame.