2012 Highlights

January 5, 2013

This is one of my favorite times of year. It is a New Year. A new beginning. It is your opportunity to have a fresh new start. But one of my favorite things to do, durning this time is taking a look back on the year that has just ended. My yoga teacher would tell me not to dwell. Do the pose, now let it go, forget about it, and then move on and do the next posture. This is great advice, but sometimes it is nice to look back, I highly recommend it.

It is funny how people starts New Years resolutions, and then they feel bad when they do not stick to them. Then time goes by and maybe you can’t even remember what your New Years resolution was in the first place. Or maybe you are the total opposite and you set your New Years resolution and you stick to it and it totally changes who you are. For example, maybe you are that girl that looses a 100 lbs, and ends up on the Today show… it could happen… right?

But do you really need to set a New Years resolution? As I take a look back on my 2012 year, I notice a lot of amazing things went down. Most of these amazing things had nothing to do with my New Years resolution. I have noticed that my New Years resolution isn’t very significant at all, because I am self-consciously always setting small goals for myself, in every aspect of my life. Plus life itself is pretty amazing. It sends us opportunities and challenges, that are unplanned and out of our control.

So with that being said, in hope to inspire you in some way, I will share with you my highlights of 2012. Enjoy!

ART: In January 2012, I started the winter session of my drawing class at The Torpedo Factory. My teacher Tanya is amazing. She taught me that our eyes will isolate things, but as an artist you must see the full picture not only looking for the positive space, but also the negative space.

What is an object, if it has nothing you can relate it to? Everything is about relationships. In order to determine, size, shape, depth, tone… you can not isolate objects, you must relate them to other things. The most interesting thing about this class is that because I am a hair stylist I was able to relate everything to haircutting and color. It definitely made me more creative at work. The winter session starts up again, next week. I can’t wait!

TRAVEL: I use to always travel internationally, with a passion for Europe and South America. However the past couple years I have had the opportunity to explore some different parts of the USA. Trust me, when I say this, our country is beautiful, and we have some amazing places to see.

So in February 2012, I traveled down to New Orleans. I had never been that south before, so I didn’t really know what to expect but New Orleans is overflowing with culture. The architecture is a mix between southern, but also has a lot of Spanish European influence. The food is a mix of cajun spices, but they have some of the best seafood as well. There is a spooky feeling, that hangs over the city. All of the graveyards are above ground, and voodoo dolls are sold at the flea markets. However, because of the Spanish European influence there are a lot of gorgeous Catholic Churches.

I went down there for Mardi Gras, with a friend of mine who use to live there, and later, while I was there, I met up with an old friend that I went to grade school with, who lives there now – So I was in great company. We did as the locals did- A drink was always in my hand, even while walking in the street, to the next bar/parade. The whole city pretty much closed down for the week, and everyone of all ages were partying in the streets.

I made new friends.

I met up with old friends.

I drank a lot!

I ate a lot!

I wore a green wig!

In June 2012, I went out west, to explore Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Utah. The best parts of this trip were, Boise, The Shoshone Waterfalls, Idaho Falls, Yellow Stone National Park, Jackson Hole, and Craters of the Moon. Meeting, the fitness model Jamie Eason, in Salt Lake was pretty cool too.

horses in Idaho

The Shoshone Falls

bison in yellowstone

Yoga in Montana.

Caving! Craters of the Moon.

In July 2012, it seemed like I was on a plane every week. My Grammy, had surgery and could not recover. I flew to Massachusetts/ Connecticut to visit her in the hospital on her birthday. A couple days later I went to Los Angeles, California for intense hair training with Sebastian Professionals. During my few spare minutes I went running on the beach in Santa Monica.

Sebastian girls in LA

After my trip to LA, my Grammy passed on, so I went back up to Massachusetts for her funeral. She lived a wonderful 84 years, and although she is gone, she has helped form me into the lady I am today. She will always live on through me and the others who love her.

In September 2012, I again headed to Massachusetts, but this time to Martha’s Vineyard. I ran the coast of Martha’s Vineyard almost everyday I was up there. I also went fishing and caught my first fish. We ate tons of my favorite, Lobster.

Me, Heading out to the boat, to go fishing.

I’m so happy, I could kiss you!

In September, I went to New York City for a Sebastian Pro Hair Show. I also had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite yarn shops Purl Soho.

So that sums up my travel, I got around…

RUNNING: I ran a total of 7 races in 2012.

April 1, 2012, I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in 1:29:26. 8:56 min mile.

April 6, 2012, I ran the Crystal City 5K in 26:26. 8:30 min mile.

April 22, 2012, I ran the Parkway Classic in 1:28:05. 8:45 min mile.

August 26, 2012 I ran the Annapolis 10 miler, in 1:33:23. 9:20 min mile.

L and I at the start of the ATM

October 21, 2012, I ran the Army 10 miler, in 1:30:16. 9:01 min mile.

November 22, 2012 I ran the SOME Turkey Trot in 24:34. 7:54 min mile.

December 1, 2012, I ran the Annapolis Half Marathon, in 1:51:21. 8:29 min mile.

By not running a full marathon in 2012, I was able to focus on running form. I began to experiment with a natural running shoe (Newton), and was able to successfully change my stride.

YOGA: Through out the year I was able to continue my Bikram yoga practice.

L and I at Bikram.

KNITTING: This year I knitted up a storm. I really began to think of knitting as a form of art. And now I have become a “yarn snob,” guilty of having an obsession with high quality yarn. I love natural fibers such as merino wool, alpaca, cashmere, mohair, angora, silk, cotton, and linen. Here are some of my favorite projects of 2012.

In March, I made a yoga bag.

In April, I finished my first Sweater.

bandana cowl

White Caps Cowl

I hand knit the Super Soft Fluted Cowl.

my latest Chunky Knit! Hand knit by me.

I hand knit the herringbone cowl.

My latest piece. My second sweater. The Short Row Sweater. Pattern by Purl Bee. Yarn from Purl Soho. Hand knitted by me.

HAIR & Photo Work: I did three photo shoots.

At the end of May 2012, last but not least, and the most exciting thing of all is that my boyfriend and I moved into our very first home! We are home owners.

So as you can see 2012 was a very busy year for me, full of exploring new places, learning new things, and challenging my body to its ultimate fitness level. Now, that I looked back, I can move forward. I am very excited about 2013, but topping 2012 will be hard to do.

Questions for you…

Does looking back help you move forward?
What was your most exciting thing that happened to you in 2012?

My Favorite race of 2012, the Annapolis Half Marathon.

January 2, 2013

Because today is the first day of 2013, I find it quite necessary to recap my favorite race of 2012, The Annapolis Half Marathon. On this day, a month ago, I ran my fastest half marathon. I have been meaning to write this post for a couple weeks now, but I have decided to save it for the first of the New Year, which is the perfect day to look back on some of the highlights of 2012.

The Annapolis Half Marathon was not the first race I have ever run in Maryland, but it was by far the best! I’m going to start out by telling you a little bit about my past races I have run in Maryland. Because I have a bit of history when it comes to running races in that state.

In June of 2008, I ran my first half marathon, the Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon. I remember thinking – I needed to slow down because it was hot and hilly. At the end, I had enough energy to sprint to the finish line, finishing in 2:09:38.

In 2009, in part of my marathon training I ran a 21 mile training run in Baltimore and then a week later ran the Baltimore Half Marathon. I remember thinking – this is not a race, this is a training run in preparation for The Marine Corps Marathon. Although, cooler, it was still very hilly. The best part of this race was running the last mile downhill to the finish line. I finished this race in 2:03:36.

In August of 2012, I ran the Annapolis 10 miler. It was rolling hills the whole way, and Hurricane Isaac swept through brining us strong winds and torrential downpours. It was one of the worst 10 milers I have ever run, finishing in 1:33:23.

So when my sister said the only free weekend she had available to run a half marathon was the weekend of December 1st, and the only local race was The Annapolis Half, I had mixed feelings about registering.

PROS and CONS

I was a little disappointed because we had already run a race in Annapolis this year, only a month before. Would this be boring? Would we have bad weather again, maybe not another hurricane, but a blizzard could be a possibility. These were some of the thoughts that were running through out my mind. But because the Annapolis 10 miler had been one of the more challenging races I have run, I decided that this would be my second chance to try to conquer the rolling hills of Annapolis, Maryland. I also thought it would be interesting to run a half marathon in the winter – the cold winter weather might be an advantage for me. Plus I would have the opportunity to train for a race in the fall time, which is my favorite season to run in. These ideas made me pumped to register for this race, train, and then run the dang thing.

TRAINING

If you have been following my blog, you most definitely have read all of my training run posts, so I will only touch briefly on my training for my new readers. I have been running in the Newton shoe since April/May. This shoe is a natural running shoe. It is super light weight and has a 2mm-3mm heel to toe drop. I run in both the Distance U and the Gravity. With this transition, I have worked very hard on my running form. I finally feel very comfortable, with a short quick bouncy running stride, striking my forefoot/midfoot instead of my heels. This race was the ultimate test, to see if all this hard work has paid off… and let me tell ya… it totally did.

RACE

One of the fabulous pros about this race was that the race was scheduled for a Saturday. This may not matter for people, but it does for me because my days off form work is Friday and Saturday.

So on Friday, I made a pasta dinner for my sister and I. She came over right after she got off work. We ate and then hit the road. Another fun thing about this race was that I rented a Fiat for the drive up! I love that car!

When we arrived to the hotel, we prepared for the race by laying out our race outfit and set our alarm for 4:45 am. My race night ritual is laying out my race clothes and everything I need for race day.

We woke up from the sound of the alarm, not thunder like the previous race we ran in Annapolis (Annapolis 10 miler). This race started at 7:00 am and they advised us to get to the Naval Academy parking lot no later than 6:00 am, because of road closures.

When we arrived, we stayed warm in the car until 6:15 and then we headed over to the start. I found L in the line for the bathroom. Thank goodness. At the Annapolis 10 miler there were no corrals so we ended up missing each other at the start. But we found each other this time, and although it was 40 degrees out we stripped down and ditched our long sleeves. I always want to keep my long sleeves on but I always later get too hot and regret it. I was cold for the first mile but eventually I warmed up and felt perfect.

At 7:00 am the gun went off and The Annapolis Half Marathon officially began. It was super foggy. I was barely able to see what was ahead. For the first few minutes it was a tad squishy, but I stayed to the outside and found space. For the first 3 miles or so I was flying, running 7:30 minute miles. Then I continued doing an 8 minute mile. I refueled at the mile six mile water station. I was feeling so good and couldn’t believe that I was already half way through. Mile six already… I thought.

The course was rolling hills, and some of those hills were really steep, while others were gradual but never ending. However, because of the fog you couldn’t really see what was ahead, but I knew the hills were there. I felt pretty prepared though, because I had included tons of hill work during my training. But while I was running I realized I don’t hate hills. I am actually really good at hills. Mentally, I started to break the race up by hills. I ran with control going up hill, then I used momentum to pick up speed without wasting energy while going down hill. We got to run over the really big bridge, which was one of the foggiest and prettiest parts of the race.

I continued to keep my pace in check. I looked down and saw 9 minute mile so I picked up the pace again and made sure I was running no slower than 8:45 and no faster than 7:50. When I hit the 10 mile marker I was shocked. I looked down at my watch and saw a 10 miler PR 1:23:00. Could this be true? I felt good, strong, fast. I was excited because I knew I was going to PR! My goal in this race was to finally break 2:00:00, there was no doubt in my mind… I was doing that.

Around mile 12 I felt like I was slowing down a bit so I pulled out my trick. When I feel like I am slowing down I always imagine myself running over hot coals. I kept telling myself, “hot coals, hot coals.” This kept me light on my feet, bouncy and quick. I ended up having enough energy to sprint to the finish line. I got there with a big smile on my face with an official time of 1:51:21.

I wanted to post these running pics because I think it is important to evaluate my running form. Trust me no one looks sexy, in their race photos, so keep in mind these aren’t the most beautiful photos of me, however, my running form is right on. And after all that hard work transitioning my stride into a natural runner, I not only ran my fastest half marathon, but I am very proud that I accomplished good running form.

Good Running Form

Short strides, trying to land under your center body mass (do not over stride)
forefoot/mid-foot striking (do not heel strike)
cadence of 180 or higher – tip: imagine your running over hot coals
light, quick, bouncy
leaning slightly forward, (lean from your ankles, not your waist or hips)
head and chin up, always look forward. (do not look down)
engage core strength
keep shoulders relaxed and arms at a 90 degree angle

There I am after the race, see what I mean about the fog. The end of the race party was really fun. They had beer, pulled pork bbq, a raw oyster bar. They also gave us a medal, a really high tech long sleeve running shirt, and a hat. Lets just say, “they hooked us up with some awesome swag.”

We spent the rest of the day shopping around along the waterfront of Annapolis.

We also went to lunch. Of corse I had a crab cake sandwich. Maryland bay crabs are the best, but crab season was over so I went for the crab cake. It was tasty, but the bloody mary was the best part.

Next time you have a bloody mary try it with Absolute Pepper Vodka!

So that was my favorite race of 2012. As of now, for 2013, I am registered for three races in April. I am super excited for all of them but mostly the Nike Women Half Marathon scheduled for April 28th.

Happy New Year and Happy Running!

Questions for you…

What was your favorite race of 2012?
Do you like hilly races?

My Last Run of 2012

January 1, 2013

Today is New Years Eve! I got off work around 4 pm and rushed home to change into my running clothes.

L and I wanted to end 2012 running one last easy five miles around the DC monuments. We met at our spot (where we park) and headed down to the Key Bridge. Unfortunately, when we started our run, it was too late and the sun had already gone down. I had not done a night run in a while, but was excited to see the monuments lit up. DC is by far the prettiest at night.

As we ran passed the GTown water front we saw The Kennedy Center lit up in the distance.

Then we ran towards the Memorial Bridge! This is the Lincoln Memorial all lit up! I took this photo with my iphone, isn’t it lovely!

Then I decided to bust out my favorite yoga pose – Standing Bow Pose/Dandayamana-Dhanurasana.

This run was an easy fun five miles. It felt good to end the year, 2012, with a casual run. The crisp winter air, it finally feels like winter here with 30-40 degree days/nights, was refreshing. DC was beautiful lit up at night. I got to run over two bridges, through Arlington Cemetery, and running along the river was peaceful. It was nice to have the company of L with me, on this night run. And I got to listen to, Lindsay Stirling, new music I just downloaded onto my ipod. All and all it was a great run, and a great way to end the year.

Questions for you…

What is your favorite place to run at night?
Did you have one final run to end the year?

Sneak Peek

December 31, 2012

Ok Runners… Look what I found…

This neon pink beauty is a sneak peek of Newton’s new design for one of their running shoes in the 2013 line. This photo popped up on my Facebook news feed, and it is all the information they have released about their newest shoe. I am hoping it is the color for the 2013 Gravity or Distance U. The suspense is killing me… I just want to know which shoe this is and when it will be available.

super natural every day

December 30, 2012

Does anyone else get super overwhelmed with Christmas shopping? It should be fun, right? Because my family is childless, the idea of adults buying presents for adults seems kind of silly. However, I am a knitter, so I almost always hand make most of my gifts. But this year, I found myself on a desperate hunt for that special something, which holds the qualities of unique and creative, but also thoughtful and useful. The problem was I kept finding that special something that would be unique and useful for me…

For example, I was in Anthropologie and I found Super Natural Every Day, a cookbook written by Heidi Swanson. She opens this book telling us about her home San Francisco. Her descriptions are so lovely, it made me want to move there asap. She also gives us a peek inside her cupboard and pantry. She tells us where she shops for food, as she teaches us the ultimate definition of Natural.

foodbook

As I said before, I was in search for something unique and useful. This book meets those qualities because in this country every day is a challenge to eat organic and vegetarian.

Changing the subject now…

My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to eat one unique exotic food I had never tried before, every week. This made me on a constant quest to seek knowledge on these new foods I discovered. It forced me to go to local farmers markets, my favorite one being the Crystal City Farmer’s Market. I would rush over there on Tuesday, during my break at work. What I loved most about this market is that it was on a weekday so most of the time the farmers were there themselves working the stand.

I also started to explore some of the organic grocery stores, becoming a regular shopper at Whole Foods, MOM’s Organic Market, and rarely, but sometimes Trader Joe’s. Although, they are expensive, my health is worth the money, (and so is yours!)

When it comes to Whole Foods verse MOM’s, Whole Foods is much bigger and has more options. However, MOM’s has less imported things, most of their products are more locally grown. It is smaller, but their selection is more exclusive. When it comes to Trader Joe’s, I like it, but I feel like the store has a lot of packaged items, which is not really my thing. I don’t snack much, and although packaged products can be organic or vegan, I much rather get the whole food.

back to the book…

So lets get back to the fabulous cookbook, Super Natural Everyday. The title of this book says it all. This is the way I want to eat, cook, live. Every attempt, I have made at being vegetarian has failed in the past because I simply didn’t feel full with out animal protein. This September when I decided to give it a try again, I decided I am not going to label myself as anything. I simply decided to ease into it by having meatless and dairy-free days. Now I am buying fabulous cookbooks like this one, and learning how to cook more vegetarian/vegan meals.

The meal I decided to try was her stuffed tomatoes, but instead of using six tomatoes, I used three tomatoes, two green peppers, and two portobello mushrooms. I actually ended up liking the portobello mushroom best.

Simply wash them, and clean out the insides only saving the tomato insides. Put those a side in a large mixing bowl.

Add shallots, garlic, basil, harissa, olive oil, salt, yogurt, couscous. Stuff the vegetables to the top and cook them for 50-60 mins in a 350 degree hot oven.

Now this is what I am talking about! This is a must try delicious recipe, and the best part is that it is a filling satisfied vegetarian dish.

For more info on Heidi Swanson you can check out her personal site here. You can also purchase her book, Super Natural Every Day, at Anthropologie.

Breakthrough NOT Breakdown.

December 28, 2012

OMG I am so terribly sorry… I hope you can understand…

I HAD to push my writing to the back burner, because of the crazy busy holiday season. But things are starting to slow down a bit so I am going to, as my yoga instructor would put it, breath deeply… slow down, cherish this time… because life will get crazy busy again, before you even have the chance to blink your eye.

And now that I have started to write, I have realized I have so much good knowledge to share with you, but I will break that knowledge up in to a couple different posts, and keep this one short and sweet.

For the last three days I have been, sweating, breathing, detoxifying, stretching, and strengthening my body in Bikram’s torture chamber. That means I have been going to Bikram yoga.

It has been really interesting though, because I have had a different instructor each day. Although, the 26 postures and the 2 breathing techniques are the same, the classes have been so very different.

Wednesday, 12/26/12, Cameron taught my bikram class. The room was the hottest. The yoga was continuous, holding the poses, resting briefly, and then moving on to the next pose. This made the yoga more cardiovascular. I had to take a knee for a minute or two, half way through class, but I got up and continued on finishing strong.

Thursday, 12/27/12, Jamie was my instructor. There were tons of newbies in the room. Because of this the class was much more slower moving. It actually ended 15 minutes late. However, Jamie really focussed on form, and corrected several people in the class, including me. He pushed me on Standing Head to Knee/
Dandayamana-Janushirasana. And got me to understand how to do Toe Stand/ Padangustasana. Also on Locus/ Salabhassana my feet were always pointing out, which he corrected. I though this class was great, because it was a smaller class and the instructor really got to work one on one with us. I have been practicing for five years, and although, I know I am no where near perfect on these poses, when class sizes are two large it is hard for the instructor to catch ever small little incorrect thing. But these small changes make a HUGE difference. I am proof… because today…

I had a breakthrough….

Friday, 12/28/12, I woke up this morning thinking I may skip class, and go running instead. But I received a text from my friend K, and she was excited to go. So I got dressed, grabbed my mat/towel/ice water… and headed over. Shelly was teaching class. The room was pretty packed today, but I felt good and strong, and more flexible than I have been in a very long time. All the running makes my body so stiff. The warm up poses went well, and then it was time for Standing Head to Knee/Dandayamana-Janushirasana. Breakthrough! Finally after 5 years of practice, I can completely straighten my left leg, and as for my right leg, it is almost there. I know it has taken a very long time but I am not very flexible, so this is big for me. I just continued to kick my leg out. I breathed into the pain and tension and boom I was there. I finished the rest of the class strong. I left totally drenched with sweat. It felt good pushing my body to its ultimate limit.
Plus I was in great company. Thanks for coming with me, K!

I don’t have any pictures of yoga class today, but I do want to share with you a yoga bag I hand knitted.

You can find more photos and details on how I made this yoga bag, on Cashmere&Silk.

For my Yoga lover

December 18, 2012

Sorry I have been so busy I haven’t had much time to write blog posts. However, I am always in search for inspiration. So this one is just a little cute something for all my yoga followers. I can’t remember where I found this, but I hope you can relate to it, and have a laugh.

Enjoy!
P.S. I will be posting some longer more quality posts in the next couple days. So keep your eye open, for some book reviews and my half marathon recap.

Words of Wisdom

December 17, 2012

I found this image floating around Tumblr. I wanted to share it with you, because these words are wise and ones to remember. Enjoy!

The secret to injury free running is Cadence.

December 16, 2012

For the last two days, all I have done, is Christmas Shop. No running, no yoga, only shopping. It has been really overwhelming for me because I hand make most of my presents. I will show you a sneak peek of my hand made gifts in a future post, but if you can’t wait you can check out my tumblr blog Cashmere & Silk. Anyway, when I was Christmas shopping, I stopped to have a latte and read the UK Runner’s World. While I was reading I came across this…

Ever since April/May, when I began to focus on running form, I kept hearing the word Cadence. Cadence is how many steps you take per minute while running. The secret to injury free running is a Cadence of 180 or higher.

A couple years ago, when I was in New York City, I stopped in the Asics running shoe store and they evaluated my running form by taking 3D images of my feet and video taping the way I ran barefoot on a treadmill. By doing this I learned a lot about my feet and stride. I discovered that while I run I tend to over stride and because of this my cadence was in the 160s, below average.

When I first began to run in my Newtons, I decided to read the book Natural Runner, written by Danny Abshire, the inventor of Newton. In his book, he pushes the importance of having a cadence of 180 or higher. In order to achieve this, he tells runners to have a short, quick, bouncy stride, where your feet land under your center mass. Be light and quick on your feet. Imagine yourself running over hot coals.

Because I have the Garmin Forerunnner 50, which has a foot pod, I am able to measure my cadence. I have been recording it for some time now, however my garmin has always said it was between 80-95, which is disappointingly low. Turns out my garmin only measures the one foot, that the foot pod is in. Duh! So looks like I am right on target.

If you don’t have a foot pod to measure your cadence, you can download a cadence app on your phone. Listening to a faster beat song helps too.

Yipee!

December 13, 2012

I can not even begin to express how excited I am. The Nike Women’s Marathon has always been on the top of my list of races to run. However, because it has always taken place in San Francisco I haven’t had the chance to run it. Well, at the end of the summer a friend informed me that the race was coming to DC. This is the first time that the race is going to take place in a city other than San Fran. Out of all the cities on the East coast they chose to place the race in Washington, DC – very cool, and convenient.

Another thing about The Nike Women’s Marathon is that it is super popular, so popular that they had to make it a lottery. They also kept the registration date a secret. So everyday I was checking on whether or not the race was open for registration. It was really weird, I would google NWM and there would be NO info on the race registration. Finally, I found out, through facebook, that it had open and I registered.

It wasn’t until today that I found out that I got in and so did my running budy, L and my sister E. Super Excited. I can’t wait to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon at the end of April. I heard shirtless firemen hand out Tiffany necklaces at the end.

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