New Route & First Race News!

What a week and it's only Wednesday! 
Marlon has been sick.  He missed our long run together on Sunday but he was with me in spirit as I tried out a new 10 mile route. It was a beautiful, snowy day.

I decided I would run out to a new location 10 miles away and then call & ask Marlon to pick me up.

I was happy to find an Avia -- this will surely be a stop when I get to the way longer runs in my Marathon training. A potty stop!

I saw these guys along the way.

The route was beautiful with the last part taking me thru snow covered forest trails.  LOVE this part of Germany with all the amazing trails.

I ended up at this spot...More trails & marked ones especially for Nordic-Walking which is very popular here.  I've decided to try these trails out before the month is up.  But reaching these trail heads also meant my 10 miler was over. 

I called Marlon  to pick me up & he arrived some minutes later with a banana & hot mug of tea.  Yes!!
Perfect end to a perfect run! 

Counting down the days to my first race of 2013.  Just 3 days to go before I line up to run the Gran Canaria Half-Marathon. Just a little excited & nervous as I will be doing this one without Marlon -- by myself.

And now it's back to packing...will update with race news.  

Have you run your first race of 2013 yet?  Where & when?

Fueled on Mexican

Went out to dinner with my Sicko Husband Marlon last night. He was not feeling good but we were hungry.  Too hungry for a can of Campbell's...which I would've "made" if I were a good wife.  

Hey, he WANTED Mexican!  Well, as Mexican as we can get in Germany besides my Tex-Mex creations.

So the base has this restaurant - Manolitos.  It's not great.  It's not even that good.  We eat there anyway.

I had a giant Steak Taco Salad...yep, the kind in a crispy, fried taco bowl.  The dang taco bowl was the only thing good about my salad, but my health nut self only let me eat a 1/3 of it.  My hungry runner self should have just let me eat it!!

But I don't know what kind of good not eating it did because I ended up eating all the chips and salsa after my plate was taken away.  Go figure.  Hungry runner self won after all. 

And yes, I attribute being hungry all the time to my 4 weekly runs.   

So my theory is that all the salt and carbs from the chips will make my 10 miler totally kick-ass today. Yep.  I definitely needed those.

The house is really quiet right now.  I've been up since 7...had to get the oats in...

This is not how I had it this morning...but the only difference is instead of apples I added bananas and instead of PB2 I added yogurt.  

I'm practicing with my pre-run meal to see what works best.

So far it's 1/2 cup oats (raw), 1 tsp mini chocolate chips, 1 container LC1 vanilla yogurt, 1 small banana, and 1 tbsp walnuts.  

It's really tasty and works fine as long as I wait 2 hours after eating to go on my long-er run.  


Today's run is only supposed to be 7.5 miles since I have a half-marathon next weekend.  But I want to do 10.  

I plan on running to the next town or two over and then calling Marlon to pick me up.  Yes, even though he is sick, we made a deal that he would pick me up so I wouldn't have to run back...I really want to see how far the sidewalk goes.  I don't know what he gets out of this deal?? 

Germany is awesome.  You can take the sidewalk on the main road from town to town -- too cool!

So instead of running in the Schonbuch Forest like I usually do on Sunday, I'm going to follow the sidewalk, see where it goes, and who knows, it may turn out to be the perfect route for when my runs have to go beyond 15 miles (like next month). 

Time to brave the cold...hoping the nike/under armour coldgear combo works 2 days in a row.  (Yes, I washed it.)

What's your fave pre-run/race meal?

A Late Start

This blog is late getting started.  Very late.
I "resolved" 12 days ago on New Year's to create a blog as a record for the year I decided to do some Kooky running things.  

Like 1) Run 13 races in 2013, 2) Run 2013 kilometers in 2013, 3) Finish at least one half-marathon in 2 hours and 13 minutes (a 7 minute PR), and 4) Run a Marathon before my 40th B-day in October.  OMG...40!!  

This can't be happening this year!!

Since I can't really do anything about that, I'll just focus on all the really, ridiculous running things I will now have to do this year.

Don't get me wrong, I love running.  Probably too much for someone who runs as slow as I do.  
Only I would set a goal to run more instead of run faster...I'll save that for NEXT year. 

Now on to today....

Marlon, my sometimes running partner and the man I "convinced" to make my running goals his this year, made an awesome pot of coffee this morning...love that man!  

Saturday mornings at our house are not complete without Migas...including the "Black Sensation" avocados I found at my fave German grocery.  heh, heh...black sensation...I couldn't resist!

Breakfast was a hit and literally inhaled in 5 minutes...do not judge me but I unconsciously shovel my food into my mouth after a run. It's not a pretty sight.  At least my food looked good for a few minutes!

Not really wanting to, but 3 hours after my run, two cups of coffee later, & breakfast while watching Latin Lifestyles on AFN, I probably should go shower.

It's a perfect day to just lay here though...and I can't bear to take off my warm socks.  'Cause yeah, I ran in two pair today.  The yellow were just too cute not to run in but not warm enough for today's -2 C snowy, weather.  So I added a "base layer" and wore the yellow on top.  

Cause I'm Kooky.  (I will regret this later when I have more laundry to do.)

Help me! 

How do you keep your feet warm & stylish while running?