I'VE MOVED!!

Helllllllo!!!  I've moved to my new site so be sure to check it out. 

http://www.thegogirlblog.com/

Visit me there, and subscribe to see what new things I'm into. 

Hope you like the new site.

:)

missing in action!

In case you haven't noticed, I've been a little MIA here recently.  No worries, because good things are about to happen!  I am in the process of making the switch to Wordpress so as soon as my new site is up and running, you can catch me on the flip side (a.k.a on my new site). 

There are still a few housekeeping things to be done on the new site, so fingers crossed that it will be launched by the weekend!  A friend of mine is trying to help me import all of my Blogger posts to my new site, so hopefully that will happen to.  If not, then we'll just go with the flow. 

I've missed y'all, but don't worry because I've been continually stalking your blogs and drooling over all the sweaty runs and workouts you have been doing.  Keep it up!

Orange overalls are a staple piece for any wardrobe. 

My cousin got married this weekend!!

Fill me in on what's new in your world!  Cannot wait to show you all the new site!!!

Goal Boards and a WINNER!!!

Through a fellow blogger, I was recently made aware of a contest about making goal boards.  The deal was to make a goal board, post your picture online, then rally votes in hopes of winning.  I've had my goal board since December, so I just took a photo of it and posted it.  Lucky for me, I won!  My prize should be in the mail so I'll be sure to share once it arrives.   I'm pretty sure that bedazzled weightlifting gloves are included.

My goal board. Looking a bit crowded.

Thanks to all who entered my Christmas in September giveaway!  I loved meeting new readers!  I chose a winner from random.org and the lucky number was #19 Vanessa from Gourmet Runner!  She will get the surprise box and hopefully blog about the goodies.  Congrats Vanessa and thanks for entering.  Email me: thegogirlblog [at] gmail [dot] com with all your mailing information and I'll get your "present" right to you!



There will be lots and lots of other giveaways coming soon so you'll have a chance to win some other cool things!

Lucky number 19!

How was your Thursday?  Do you have a goal board?  Anybody racing this weekend?

don't make me blow my whistle.

It was sports night at church tonight.  As with anything, I feel it is necessary to dress the part, no matter the occasion.  Tonight was no different, so I put on my ref gear and made Ashley be a faux dodgeball player.  Too legit to quit.

Put me in, Coach.

Setting the standards for sporty muscles.

While I was jumping up and down screaming obnoxious things about how cool it is to be a referee, this 3rd grader simply says "do you do that for exercise?".  Bless you, child.  Yes, I act crazy and call it exercise.  Calorie scorcher for sure. 

Lord willing that I am able to get up out of bed bright and early in the a.m., I'm planning on doing an EASY 3 miles.  Easy, I said.  I make no promises, but I'd like for it to happen.  Except I'm at school from 9-9.  Bummer.  Tomorrow also starts voting for Team Refuel.  Be sure to vote for me, Kelsey G, for awesomeness.  Thank you and God bless America.  (sorry I'm weird)

Triple Tangent Tuesday

1.  I ran today.  Sort of.  I walked more than I ran.  But I moved my body. For 7 miles. And I've lost 6 pounds since yesterday morning.  Who am I??  And no, I did not celebrate with cupcakes.  But my coworker brought these to work the other day, and they look just dandy.

Mmmmm sin.

2.  I bought two new running books today.  They aren't the usual "how to" books I usually buy that just talk about how to run; they actually tell stories about running.  One was What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.  The other was My Life On The Run by Bart Yasso.  I can't wait to add these to my stack of "must read" selections that I have building up.

3.  John Smartt might be one of the oldest members of Knoxville Track Club.  He loyally comes to almost every 5k with a timex around his neck and his trusty walker.  On Labor Day, he competed in the track club's mile race and even did it in the rain!  Inspired?  You should be.  He even beat my friend Chelsea at a race recently and she is 22!!!  No excuses not to exercise after seeing this man.

Racing in the rain.  Get it, John Smartt

What are three super cool things on your mind right now? Read any good books lately?

Weekend Recap

After doing pretty much nothing on Friday and Saturday (and missing the most EPIC southern runner/blogger meet up everrrr), I was super ready to volunteer at a local race on Sunday.  I was formally titled "volunteer coordinator", but ended up being a finish line attendant and the person who gave out awards.  It was a beautiful morning to run a 15k through a challenging, but scenic course.  This race gave me some behind the scenes, hands-on experience for the race that I will be directing myself in April.  I'm soooo nervous but so excited about it. 

Teeny tiny finish line for a small race.

What a crew!

In other news, be on the lookout for some product reviews and/or giveaways.  I have a few tricks up my sleeve and a slew of products to review.  Yay.  Oh, and don't forget about my GIVEAWAY!!!!  Enter, then tell yo friends!!

Happy Monday!

Christmas in September! (GIVEAWAY)

That's right.  It could be Christmas in September for someone out there because I'M DOING A GIVEAWAY!!!  And since we all know that when Christmas comes, you don't know what you are getting until that morning.  Right??  Sooo, you are going to have to trust that I'm hosting an awesome giveaway and sign up with blind faith.  I pinky promise it'll be something super awesome!!  You know you love surprises!!

So, the rules you may ask?  Gain your ticket (or entry) to the Polar Express by doing one or all of the following:

1.  Leave a comment telling me the best thing you ever got for Christmas!  (+1 Entry)
2.  Become a follower and tell me you did so.  (+1 Entry)
3.  Like me on facebook HERE!!  (+1 Entry)
4.  Follow me on Twitter.  @the_gogirl  (+1 Entry)
5.  Tweet about the giveaway or include it in your blog (+1 Entry)

Remember to leave me one comment with each thing that you did!  I'll be picking a winner on September 15 at 11:59 Eastern Time.  Good luck :)

Race Report: Miner's Mile 5k

When I woke up to pouring rain this morning, it was bittersweet.  Part of me was upset since I had to travel 2 hours to a 5k race this morning, but part of me was happy since maybe I'd have a chance of placing if no one showed up.  My priorities are clearly in line.

My friends Slade and Amanda had planned to run the race with me, but Amanda wasn't feeling well so it was up to me and Slade to bring home gold this year.  Upon arriving, we could tell that it was going to be a small crowd.  The rain kept pouring and my shoes were competely soaked before I even made it to the packet pick up tent.

Soaking wet.

The course was very flat and I didn't have to bob and weave around anyone since it was such a small race.  I knew I wanted to go out slower then speed up, but that just didn't happen.  My splits were:

Mile 1: 9:57

Mile 2: 10:17

Mile 3: 10:00

.1: 58:08

Total: 3.1 miles in 31:12

Not too shabby for barely training and it coming a monsoon.  I'll take it.  If you remember yesterday's post about my race goals then you'll know that one of my goal's was to shatter last year's time.  Mission accomplished.  I beat last years time by 7:48.  Wowzuhs.  Love it!! 

Slade and I stuck around for the awards since we both thought we may have won.  I actually ended up winning a doorprize, which was a gift card for a Road ID.  As soon as I get one ordered, I'll be donning it on my runs and doing a product review of it.  I did end up winning first place in my age group and got a precious medal.  Slade defended last year's title and won his age group too!  Yay for winning. 

Baldie takes home the gold.

I'll let you guess which medal is mine and which is Slade's.

The best part of the race?  The swag for sure.  Being a small race, they were able to provide the best refreshments possble post race.  We really racked up on some awesome goodies including granola bars, Clif bars, smoothies, watermelon, and gatorade. 

Yessss.  Come to momma.

Did you race today?  It was a gret way to spend my Labor Day.

Race Day Goals

Last year, I did the Miner's Mile 5k race.  While I was horribly out of shape then and about 40 pounds heavier, I still managed to do it in 39 minutes.  I haven't trained, and I haven't ran in a few weeks, but I know I can beat that time this year.  Since the race is tomorow, I made a few goals for myself.  I'd be happy with accomplishing at least one of the following. 

A)  Finish the race.  It is only a 5k, but finishing is always the number one goal.

B)  Set a course PR.  This shouldn't be that hard to do after last year's time of 39 minutes flat, but a course PR is ALWAYS a confidence boost.

C)  Break 30 minutes.  NOT going to happen, but that is always my number one goal at any 5k since I have yet to do it.  I'm not trained, and my legs won't be fresh tomorrow, so not accomplishing this will definitely not be a heartbreaker.

D)  Have negative splits.  I'm really bad at setting a good pace for myself and usually start out way too fast then get super slow at the end and can't finish strong.  I'd love to set negative splits, even if I only knock off mere seconds.  Finishing strong would be icing on the cake.

E)  Finish in under 33 minutes.  Since I know that I won't be able to break 30 minutes, I'd at least like to beat the time I had in my last 5k, which was 33:04.  Knocking a whole 5 seconds off would be kinda nice. 

So here is my list of goals for tomorrow's race.  It won't be anything for the record books, but I'll be lapping everybody who is sleeping in on Labor Day.  Wish me luck and hopefully I'll come home with a course PR.

Are you racing on Labor Day??  What other plans do you have??

Mt. Leconte

One thing that I love to do outdoors is hike.  I live less than three minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so going hiking on a whim is relatively easy.  A favorite hike of mine is the ever strenuous Mt. Leconte.  My friend Chelsea has been wanting to hike this for a quite some time since it was on her bucket list, so yesterday we loaded up and hit the trail.

It is super strenuous and goes uphill for 5 straight miles.  Totally worth it.  Chelsea was a real trooper and we made it to the top in a great amount of time.  Something unique to Mt. Leconte is that there is actually stuff to do at the summitt.  They have basic shelter that they rent but in order to get one, you have to make reservations almost a year in advance.  You can also pay some money and get a t-shirt.  Pretty cool stuff!!  It was my 8th time hiking this trail and each time gets better.

Chelsea and I at the dining hall on top.  It says yesterday's date.

Signing the book to say that I've been there and done that.

We got up close and personal with a deer!!

A little climbing action 

About halfway down the mountain.

Awesome dirt lines afterwards.

I'm addicted to this trail and already have plans to go back next month, if not before.  It is a great way to cross train and really makes my legs stronger.  I'm also glad that Chelsea was able to cross something off her bucket list all while sweating our bootays off.

Do you like to hike??  What's your favorite thing to do in the great outdoors??

Let's pretend for 5 minutes that we are actually our age.

Ashley and I are super good at acting our age.  Like, SUPER good.  Our church just had a kids carnival and the kid's director somehow twisted our arms to get us to "chaperone" the event.  Umm, part of that job description was to check out the equipment, right??

Obstacle course is our calorie burner for the day.

Inflatable wall?  No big deal.

Riiiiiiight.

So after eating only one sno cone each (I pinky promise it was just one!!), we had to chaperone the moon bounce.  Turns out that corraling kids to only go in 5 at a time is a real chore.  We ended up convincing the little monsters rascals to go check out some other attraction so that Ashley and I could enjoy the moon bounce to ourselves.  Real mature, ladies. 

Happiest chaperones you'll ever see.

I'm a sucker for a good sunset. 

Do you ever have problems acting your age?  It's just too fun to be a "kid".

hip happens

That it does.  If you saw my hips, you would know that hip definitely does happen.  Please be jealous of my shirt.

The pink tie-dye makes it more fabulous.

My sweet Kinsi just got her an iPod touch.  She's seven so I guess to her it is like me getting a new Garmin watch.  She walks around the house tuning everyone else out with her loud music and when we actually get her to respond to us, then she's yelling since she can't hear herself.  It's so cute and really makes me want to be seven again.

So proud of her newest accessory.

I donned my cowboy boots tonight, and Kinsi has been obsessed with her hand-me-down snakeskin boots as of late, so we of course were twins.

Boot scootin' boogey.

Are you hip?  It happens.  Do you own any cowboy boots?  They are the most comfortable shoes I own!



wedding weekend!

Last night, my good friend from work got married!  It was such an exciting time.  Her venue was to die for and she could not have looked more beautiful.  Since I have sinced moved on to my "grown up" job, I miss seeing my work friends everyday.  It was nice to see everyone and catch up all while dancing the night away under the stars. 

I love a good outdoor wedding.

The food was to die for.  Whit served up authentic jambalya straight from the kitchen of a New Orleans native.  Also on the menu was some fabulous pork roast, bbq chicken, and a candy bar.  Mmm, she knows me too well.  Congrats to the bride and hooray for wedding season.

I got a little teary eyed seeing her dad walking her down the aisle.

Do you love weddings as much as me?  What is the best food you have ever eaten at a wedding?



morning mojo and a bagel slicer!

I'm still using a guest pass to my friend's gym and since they offer a lot of great options for group fitness classes on Saturday mornings, I decided to take advantage of them yesterday.  First up was spin class.  It was an advanced spin class so our instructor sort of let us take it to our own level and just gave suggestions.  Normally in a fitness class, I like guidance and direction, but with spinning it was nice for me to do my own thing and get in my groove.

Next on my agenda was Pump.  I felt the burn, and that's all I have to say about that.  I attempted to go to "Turbokick", but it was NOTHING like my usual boxing class and it was even worse than Zumba, so I peaced out about 10 minutes in.  Sorry, charlie.  After a sweaty morning of well, sweating, I decided to refuel and reward myself with a chocolate chip bagel from Panera Bread.

Mmm, carbs.  And chocolate.

I asked for the kind people to slice my bagel in half because for some odd reason I feel that if my food is in more pieces, then there's more of it. Kinda like cheese cubes.  Anywho, the lady told me that she could "super slice" it and it would cut it up even more.  Umm, hello, yes please!  My bagel ended up being shredded into 12 different pieces which really helped me not eat it so fast!  Yay for super slicing!

Post workout/carb consumption, I met Ashley at our favorite store (Target, duh) and looked for dresses.  No such luck, so we settled for a morning brunch at Tomato Head and manicures.  Freshly painted fingernails does the soul good.

My best friend is so pretty.  And so are her veggies.

Did you have a sweat-tastic Saturday?  What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday morning?



Fitness Friday!

It is that time again!  Fitness Friday is back!!

Head on over to Jill's blog at Life As I See It and check it out!  Hopefully you meet new people!

xoxo

stepping, stomping, and stuffing!

I braved up today and went to a BodyStep class.  I'm not a fan of things that actually involve coordination.  That list includes dancing, stepping, running on a treadmill, or trying to walk on a balance beam.  It was a super great class and the instructor was good although her microphone was broken, so it was a bit of a challenge to hear her.

After Stepping it up, I headed downstairs to meet Kim on a treadmill while she did a 6mile tempo and I pretended to run.  The longest I've ever "rode" a treadmill is about 10 minutes max.  I get bored, distracted, and like I said, I have a hard time being coordinated.  I toughed it out and to ease my boredom, I did short spurts of fast running, then I'd run easy, and speed back up.  My mileage ended up being 4.3 miles, so at least I did something.  I also did some incline walking on it just to make sure all of the features were working.  Hopefully no one else heard my stomping!!

Kim, being the sweet gal she is, offered to buy me dinner at Chick-fil-a.  Her kids were SOOO excited to see me.  She wonders why they like me so much, but she doesn't ever see me slip them the chocolate and ring pops.  Bribery is the key to maintaining any friendship with kiddos.  I had a delicious (and somewhat healthy) dinner and was stuffed!!

Chicken filet with no bread or pickle with a plain baked potato.

The kiddos ended up getting ice cream with their kid's meals, and it looked super yummy, but I just couldn't bring myself to get one.  Willpower, baby!  Kim got some though, so I suppose I can just live vicariously through her and be just fine.

How does it taste, Kim??

The kids also thought I was so cool because I climbed in the play place thingy with them.  Please don't mind my post workout self.  I wouldn't want you to be jealous or anything, especially over the fact that I have a 7 year old self living inside of me.

Dinner and a play date.

Mmmhmm.  Good looking ladies, for sure!

Do you have a workout buddy?  What do you eat for supper following an afternoon gym sesh?  Did you love playing at restaurant's play places when you were a kid?



Three Things Thursday (oink oink)

What up, what up, whattt uppp!  Top o' the morning to you, guvnah.  Hope you all are having a great Thursday and enjoying this gorgeous weather!  I'm going to stop being lame and give you three things about today!

1.  Nothing is better than magazine subscriptions.

I use a post office box, and the feeling of opening up my tiny little bin and finding new magazines (prefferably running/fitness related) is quite possibly cocaine in the form of snail mail.  Love it!  It is almost like the endorphins from the pages get released into you! Know what I'm saying?

2.  No Textbooks!

God must have heard my POOR, pitiful cries when I griped all summer about having to fork over hundreds of dollars for textbooks this semester.  I'm taking 18 hours this semester, so I was fully prepared to hand over around 600 dollars of my hard earned money to the bookstore.  Can you imagine my elation when I recently found out that I only have to have ONE textbook?!?!  Yes, just one!  And the best part is that my girl Kelly found it for me at the local used bookstore for less than one dollar.  Man, who wouldn't wanna be me?

3.  I'm on the fence about signing up for my very first FULL marathon!!

I originally had the idea to make Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon my first full since I have so many ties to the race, and it was the reason I began to lose weight and start running in the first place.  However, today it hit me that I should sign up to don my favorite color at the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon.  The course is great, the swag is awesome, and I get to wear pink! What more could I ask for?  Oh yeah, me and my momma's pig collection could grow!!

My baseball piggy bank.  Better start saving now for the race.

We love pig related things in our household.

After doing some research on it, I found out that early registration closes two days following my big fall half marathon.  My plan is to run my fall half, and see how I'm feeling and where I'm at in my training process, and if I'm feeling confident, then go ahead and register for my first full.  Sound like a plan, man?

What's your three things Thursday?  Were you just as nervous as I am about registering for your first full?  What convinced you to take the plunge?

waking up and a Walking!

Anytime the alarm goes off while it is still dark outside, it is TOO EARLY.  Just so you're aware.  Needless to say that when my alarm rang off the hook today at 4:45, I was not a happy camper.  But I drug myself out of bed because I knew I had Kim waiting on me at the gym.  After a quick shower, packing my lunch, and trying to do the wake up dance, I was finally out the door.

I met Kim this morning for a 6am bodyPump class.  Are we crazy?  No.  Just committed.  As usual, I watched the clock on the wall like a hawk.  Oddly enough I was sad when it was over, but I worked up a little sweat and got a head start on my daily calorie deficit.  Holla!!

I'm WAYYY too happy at 6am.

Following my long day of substitute teaching, I had a meeting to help plan my childhood best friend's baby shower!  Too exciting!  I'm so happy for her and her husband but a little sad that we are nearing the age to start having our own youngins.  Then it was off to THE WALK!!!!!

Yeahhhh for The Walk.  Tonight was the kick off for the semester, so they held it at World's Fair Park by the UT campus.  It was catered and they served fried chicken with all the fixin's  including mac n cheese!  Yum yum yum.  We had a great time sitting with hundreds of other college students worshipping and studying the Word together!  Love The Walk and I'm so glad that it has started back!

Pre worship.

The amphitheatre and only about half of the people there.

Ashley, Callie, Caitlin, and myself showing what being awesome looks like.

How was your Wednesday?  Do you ever get up SUPER early to sneak in a workout?  

get it, girl

After getting a full 10 hours of sleep last night, I was up and at 'em this morning.  I had a great day subbing today at school.  I put my cute clipboard to good use and attempted to look fashionable while donning the school colors.

Monogram and a bow?  What more could a girl ask for?

This is fashion, right??

Oh, and about 10 minutes into class, the kids informed me of the "good drawer".  Basically, it is a drawer of random candy that they get if they are good.  Or in my case, that their teacher eats when she wants to be put in a sugar coma.  I only ate 3 jolly ranchers, so feel free to clap for me!

Why so tempting????

Now that we have all pretended that I'm a reasonably fashionable and awesome person, lets get down to business.  I left school and met my awesome friend Kim at the gym (that rhymes!!)  for an awesome work out.  She was kind enough to let me use her guest pass!  We took a spin class, which wasn't so great.  The music was lacking and the instructor was mediocre, but I sweated my booty off and it was good.

Kim forced me to stay for the 15 minute "Ab Blast" afterwards.  I counted about 8 curse words that slipped out while doing it.  Hurting tummy right now.  Feel the burn, baby.  It felt sooooo good to be back in the gym.  I love taking classes and getting my sweat on!  It is way more fun with a friend too!  I'm meeting Kim at 6am tomorrow morning for Pump. Lord help us all. 

Looking good, sweaty girls!!

How was your Tuesday?  What's on the workout agenda for tomorrow?  What's your favorite candy??  Mine isn't jolly ranchers, its blue pixie stix!!

frizzzz!

I spent last night at my good friend's bachelorette party!  She'll be getting married this weekend as I'm part of the wedding, so it was only appropriate that I showed her a good time.  Unfortunately, no pictures were taken, so you'll just have to mentally visualize all the fun us girls had.  You can see what my hair looks like when I take it out of my daily french braid though:

What up Curly Q?

Fierce.  I know.  This week is going to be really hectic for me.  I'm gearing up to start training for (gasp) a full marathon in the spring.  I'm not sure if I will ACTUALLY take the plunge and sign up for the full, but at least my body will be prepared if I get brave.  Yay!  I  am taking advantage of my friend Kim's guest pass at her gym to take a few classes.  So pumped because its been tooooo long since I've taken classes at a gym. 

The Walk also starts on Wednesday night.  That's the college ministry at a local church.  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids fill their massive church each week to worship and fellowship together.  They sure know how to treat us poor college kids.  Sooo looking foward to it.  Oh, and I substitute each day this week!!  Yay for being a pretend teacher!

Click HERE for The Walk promo video!

 

Okay, that's all I have to say today.  Boring, I know.  Tomorrow I'll be reporting back about how the first day of training went.  I have a LONG WALK scheduled.  Walking is exercise too so don't judge!!