Walt Wednesday

Some people do a "Wordless Wednesday" post, where they simply share a photo or image, but I thought I'd make a little series out of my Wednesdays. And since I love alliteration so much, why not go with Walt Wednesdays (obviously everyone can use a little break from the seriousness, scariness and sassiness of life - and what better way to help put a smile on your face than with a cute wiener dog picture, am I right?!)... So, without further ado...

WALT WEDNESDAY!

When life gets overwhelming, how do you de-stress?

Ventura Marathon LaceUp Race Entry GIVEAWAY

I know I've mentioned my relationship with the Lexus LaceUp Running Series a couple of times before, but now is your chance to cash in for yourself... Yup, today must be your lucky day because I'm giving away TWO FREE RACE ENTRIES to the Lexus Ventura Marathon to one lucky runner! Talk about the perfect racecation for you and your BRF (best running friend)! It'll be held on Sunday, October 21st at Mission Park. There are multiple race distances are offered, so there's something for everyone! You can tackle the downhill, point-to-point Full Marathon (a potential BQ course), run the fast, point-to-point Half Marathon, show off your speed at the 5K or get the wee-ones involved as they take on the Kids' Run. They also just recently added a ONE MILE Downtown race on Saturday to the docket that should be awesome!

As with all of the Lexus LaceUp Running Series races the participant perks are never ending (or so they seem)! Each runner will receive a tech shirt, a high-quality finisher's medal, a reusable shopping bag, a Belgian waffle breakfast, a craft beer (for those participants over 21 years old of course), free race day photos and will be eligible for age group awards!

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Entering the giveaway is EASY-PEASY! Head to my Instagram account, find the picture below and ENTER! The steps are as painless as possible! Simply follow me, follow LaceUp Running, follow Ventura Marathon, like the image and tag a friend (or 73)! The giveaway will run through Friday, August 24th (giving you just about two months before heading to the starting line). The random winner will be contacted on August 25th and has 24 hours to respond and claim their prize.

In case you aren't the lucky winner (or just can't wait to register), you can use code "CARLEE10" to save 10% on your registration! While you are at it, make sure to check out the other events in the series! The discount code works on all of the races, so register for as many as you'd like and save some money in the process! And don't forget to tell your friends!

Have you ever won an entry to a race before?

Workout Recap - Week 33

Sunday, August 12th – 17.17 mile run, Stretched & Foam Rolled

Monday, August 13th – 3 mile run, Stretched & Foam Rolled

Tuesday, August 14th – 9 mile run, Stretched & Foam Rolled

Wednesday, August 15th – 4 mile run, Stretched & Foam Rolled

Thursday, August 16th – 2 mile warm-up, 6 x 800 (with 2:00 rest) {4.3 miles}, 2 mile cool-down, Stretched & Foam Rolled

Friday, August 17th – Rest Day (Volunteered at Kodiak Ultra)

Saturday, August 18th – Rest Day, Stretched & Foam Rolled

With two rest days (due to my upcoming half marathon on Sunday), I didn't have a ton of miles for the week (41.47 total), but I've been trying to be better about taking my easy workouts slower so I can push my hard workouts faster. I may have only hit 4 of my 6 intervals during my track workout on Thursday, but I felt strong and am happy with how I am currently progressing. 9 weeks left till my marathon PR attempt - time to put in the work! {Fall PRs are made in the summer!}

How were your workouts this past week?

Friday Favorites

I'm pretty sure my favorite things about this Friday is the fact that my hubby is home!! He was out of town for work for the last week and finally got back yesterday afternoon (just in time to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary) - WHOOOO HOOOO! But that isn't really something you can try out, hehe, so I better get back to my standard type of list ;)

Line of Awesomeness

A friend of mine tagged me in this video from earlier in the week and I had to share it. I love that these young Tigers fans are getting into the habit of paying it forward and being kind to others when they see an opportunity! Let's keep the line of awesomeness going! {Don't forget to join in on my #Carlees34 project! I'm currently on day 10 of 34.}

Catch Me If You Can Shorts

You all know that I am partial to the Catch Me If You Can rabbit shorts and they just released some new color ways that I am pretty sure I NEED (and, lucky for me, my birthday is right around the corner so I can always consider them a birthday gift for myself, right?!). I mean, who doesn't need more bright colors or polka dots in their wardrobe - seriously! PS If you are ready to place your first order with rabbit, you can use THIS LINK and save $10!

Left: Classic Green / Right: Eclipse/ Gold Fusion Polka

Brooks Runversations with Des

Brooks has been releasing some "runversations" with Des Linden on their @brookswomen Instagram account and they are all pretty amazing. I hope that they keep putting the videos out because I have really been enjoying them!

Never Give Up Trucker

I love the Never Give Up shop (a 100% nonprofit apparel brand for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation) and when I saw their newest trucker I fell in love! The heart patch is so cute and the fact that it has the words "never give up" repeating on it is just an extra special touch (at first when I saw it I thought it was just a pink heart but then noticed the detail).

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What are you loving lately?

10 Unique Wedding Features

Since today marks our TEN YEAR wedding anniversary (time flies when you're having fun), I thought it'd be fun to share 10 features that the hubby and I felt made our wedding unique/ special. Now, remember, this was before the age of Pinterest (shoot, we barely had the Internet in 2008 - KIDDING!)! It definitely wasn't traditional, but if you know either Ryan or myself, you probably could've guessed we wouldn't have gone the traditional route. You may say it was cheap (I'd consider it 'economical'), but for us, we were (and still are) much more focused on our MARRIAGE than our WEDDING. Even still, it was pretty FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC and most of the details screamed US! 10 years down, forever to go!

We had buttons instead of flowers.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something that would die in a day or two, so I found someone on Etsy who made amazing bouquets and boutonnieres out of buttons and asked her to make some for us. We still have them in our office.

I walked down the aisle to Jack Johnson.

Might as well toss tradition out the window from the jump, right?! And we were in San Diego, so why not walk down the aisle to a beachy-feel song?! And in case you are wondering which of Jack Johnson's songs it was - it was Angel.

Our guest book was a surfboard.

I found a free surfboard on Craigslist (one that wasn't great for the actual sport of surfing, but would be perfect for an art piece), so we painted it our wedding colors and left our markers so people could sign it. It's still on display in our bedroom.

The menu was 100% vegetarian.

I became a vegetarian in 2005 and the hubby in 2007, so since this was probably one of the bigger parties we would throw, we wanted the food to align with our beliefs/lifestyle. And it made serving easier when everyone got the same meal.

Instead of favors we donated to a charity.

Let's be real, unless it's food, most people toss the favors they receive at weddings. We decided instead of spending the $2-3 per person on a trinket we would donate the money to an organization doing good in the world - Invisible Children.

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We have a code word for when the hubby wants to "spin" me.

The hubby may not have a ton of rhythm... but he loves to "dance". He may not be a conventional dancer (he loves moves like the "windshield wiper" and the "sprinkler"), so to keep me safe we used a code word so I knew when I should spin.

We didn't have a DJ.

Most DJ's just play the songs you ask them to anyway, so why not just make our own playlist and have a friend record the few introductions (like the wedding party entering or the daddy-daughter dance)... Well, the hubby misunderstood what I meant and recorded the intros HIMSELF! Yup, he DJ'ed his own wedding... but at least it makes for a funny story to tell!

We had cupcakes.

This might seem like the norm these days, but back then it was definitely out of the ordinary. I thought it was easier than a cake because we didn't have to do any cutting or serving - folks could just come up and grab them. Easy and delicious!

My "something blue" was on my shoe.

Okay, so maybe some of the traditions are fun to keep... but in a different way. For the "something blue" I used blue rhinestones to put our initials on the bottom of my shoe (in the arch where it wouldn't touch the ground and come off).

Our "getaway vehicle" was a tandem bicycle.

We needed our car to be able to get back to Oceanside after we stayed at a hotel the night after our wedding, so we thought a fun tandem bike to ride around the parking lot would work perfectly for some photo ops and then we wouldn't have to worry about logistics afterward. I even attached a bunch of Diet Mountain Dew cans via ribbon to the back of it ;)

Like I said, it might not have been your taste, but I think it fit our personalities perfectly! And everyone who was there seemed to enjoy themselves and at the end of the day we were officially married, so what more could you ask for?!

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Are you more of a traditionalist or an outside-the-box sort of person?

Walt Wednesday

Some people do a "Wordless Wednesday" post, where they simply share a photo or image, but I thought I'd make a little series out of my Wednesdays. And since I love alliteration so much, why not go with Walt Wednesdays (obviously everyone can use a little break from the seriousness, scariness and sassiness of life - and what better way to help put a smile on your face than with a cute wiener dog picture, am I right?!)... So, without further ado...

WALT WEDNESDAY!

When life gets overwhelming, how do you de-stress?

America's Finest City Half Marathon Goals

If you've been around my neck of the InterWebs for an extended period of time, you've likely noticed I run my fair share of races... but I don't race them... I would say 95% of the races I participate in are "for fun". I am running them with friends, to experience a new city, because the race medal is pretty, etc, but racing them for time is never a huge priority for me.

Well, I'm a little nervous to say, but that will change for this Sunday's race... America's Finest City (AFC) Half Marathon!

You see, most of the marathon training plans I have used thus far reference a "half marathon race" sometime during the plan but I've never had a race actually line up with the appropriate weekend so I normally just go out and run a fast 13.1 miles somewhere locally. When I noticed my "half marathon race" for my Ventura Marathon training plan lined up perfectly with AFC I had to look into it! Can you believe this is the 41st year of the race and I've never done it before?!

Seeing as this race will be a benchmark for my marathon, I want to go in with a few goals... but necessarily numeric ones.

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Beat Yesterday

Like I mentioned, I don't "race" races very often... and, actually, the last time I raced a half marathon was last June. That particular race didn't end up going according to plan so my current PR (personal record) is still from two years ago at the Fontana Half. That PR is 1:38:38 - which equates to 7:31/mile. Since my goal for the Ventura Marathon come October is to run 26.2 miles with an average pace of 7:37/mile, I am hoping that this weekend's race will bring with it a shiny new PR.

Be Brave

Because I know that numbers, times, paces, etc aren't everything, I will be okay if I don't run away with a PR. With that said, I do want to do my best to "be brave" for the entire race. That means giving it my all even when it gets hard or when I'm scared it will blow up in my face. Running fast isn't comfortable, and I want to be comfortable getting uncomfortable. Despite what the clock says when I cross the finish line, I want to know that I gave it my all and left it all on the course.

Smile

I feel like whenever I share my goals I normally end with 'crossing the finish line healthy and with a smile', but it's not just a default or automatic answer. I really do love running. It brings me a ton of happiness and makes my heart smile. And if there is ever a time that I start to lose that love and enjoyment, then I know something is amiss. Don't get me wrong, I realize it isn't always easy and every run isn't rainbows and butterflies, but once I lose the joy I know I'm definitely off kilter.

I know there are only a few days left before the race, but if you are local or will be in the San Diego area on Sunday, August 19th, and still want to run AFC, use code "CARLEESFINEST" to save $10 on your half marathon registration!

What goals are you currently chasing down?