November Recap

Is it just me or did November whirl by? I sound like a broken record, but not a lot of running took place in my world. A typical week was 2 runs, 3 if lucky. 73% of the miles I ran were actual races this month vs. training runs. To my IRL friends they all think I'm "super runner" who spends all her free time training. Reality and in blog land, I'm a giant slacker! I know you're not supposed to compare yourselves to others, but I'm human so I do. I need everyone else's discipline to rub off on me!

On to the numbers!

Total Mileage:  62 miles- I really thought it would be higher, sside from being busy, I've noticed that with daylight's savings, I'm less motivated to run after work since it gets black by 5pm. Looks like I'll need to do more mid day lunch runs if I expect to get my

Highest Mileage week: 21- again thought this number would be higher, but for some reason I did more 3 mile runs vs. my traditional 5 during the week.

Races Planned / Completed: 4/4

Half Marathon # 48 (VA) Woodrow Wilson Bridge 1/2 (recap) One of my prettier and laid back runs

Ragnar Vail Lake Trail (recap) Probably the most exhausting and fun time dressed as Super Mario brothers. 

State # 49 (OK) Route 66 1/2 Marathon (recap) Girls weekend, cold temperatures, awesome bling

Annual Turkey Trot 5 mile (recap) new PR* (technically my 5 miler in Ragnar was 4 min faster, but it was down a mountain so I'm not counting it) 

New to Me: (Because you should always be trying something new) 

• Ran a trail race / trail Ragnar Relay- harder than I anticipated 

• Finally got to cross off my bucket list getting to see 2 animals that have been my favorites since a little girl. Cuteness overload!!! Got to see both, and many others, at San Diego Zoo. 

A panda

Koala- fun fact- they spend large amounts of their time sleeping because they don't consume enough calories to do much else. 

• Out of the many times I've been to San Diego, I still failed at visiting one of my FAVORITE breweries. Finally was able to make that happen this month. Pure Happiness @ Green Flash - $1 each for those tasters :) 

Accomplishments for November: 

• Survived trail running and liked it
• 5 mile PR- woot woot (37:08) 
• Finished 2 states leaving me my grand finale in January!  
• Finally finished 1st in our weekly trivia- landing us the "inner circle" seats at Thursday's Predator's Hockey game (closest to ice behind the players)

Current Book: Way behind the times but finished Gone Girl gone by Gillian Flynn - EXCELLENT read with a lot of twists in plot. Highly recommend. 

Current Excitements/ Obsessions:

• Planning out activities in Hawaii 
• Christmas Shopping
• Condensing my wardrobe to 'staple items' as well as cleaning house with other random stuff collected over years. 

Current Songs: 

Portugal, The Man: Modern Jesus

Current Treat

In Oklahoma I was all about cakeballs - bottom right is oreo flavored. 

Then mom made a peppermint cheesecake with mint oreo crust (photo didn't turn out, sorry) Now I'm on a mission to figure out what I can possibly make with this amazing cookie. 

Current Goal (s):  

• Finish Christmas shopping in next week. 
• Organize and consolidate room
• Place 3rd at Rudolph 5k this Friday-- I run it every year and it is HARD. Every.single.year I place 4th, so it would be nice to FINALLY get 3rd and receive a medal. 

November Major takeaway: I realized I don't like to run in the dark by myself. I'm still incapable of balancing workouts and play on a whim, so December I am actually scheduling / pre-planning my workouts. Should be interesting to see how it goes. 

How was your November?