Hello potential employer!

I'm kind-of sort-of poking my nose around for a new day job.

By "kind-of sort-of" I mean that I'm happy with the job I have now. Really happy with it, actually. But I'm thinking that it may be time to take that next step up.

If my resume is in your hands, you've probably found your way to my blog through a Google search, trying to figure out a little bit more about the woman with the obnoxious Italian last name. Welcome, you've found my personal blog! While you're here poke around a bit. It won't take you long to figure out the following:

• I like to write
• I play with data for fun
• I like to bargain shop
• I'm a textbook Type A personality
• I'm ambitious
• I'm an awesome writer
• I like my smartphone
• I'm a team player
• I like shoes (preferably the kind that lace up, but I'm not afraid of a clunky heel, either)
• Most of the music I like was recorded before I was born
• Did I mention that I'm a really awesome writer?

In case you're wondering about the blog, I started blogging on a private weight loss forum when I got the silly idea to train for a 5K in 2010. When I advanced to the 10K I transitioned to a public blog. I kept it going as I trained for a 10-miler. Then a marathon. Then through getting certified as a Spinning instructor. Then another marathon. Then another. Do your knees hurt yet?

Mostly I write this blog so friends and family can keep up with my training, but I do a few things to boost traffic, just so I can experiment with what works.

The blog gets about 2,000 hits a month. I do consider search engine optimization when I write. I do this by trying to think what Google search terms will drive people to the posts, and I also try to mention as many brand names as possible. Most of my blog traffic comes at around 8 to 10 a.m., with 8 to 10 p.m. also seeing traffic boosts, and Saturday afternoons. I like to set things to auto-post during these times so they're fresh in RSS and Facebook feeds.

Most of my traffic is driven by searches for events such as the Warrior Dash, the Flying Pig Marathon and the Tough Mudder, and also searches for specific brands of shoes. Strangely, "oolong tea" is the top search term of all time.

Thanks for reading! It's very much a work in progress, but feel free to check out my professional blog here for links to all my stories.

2,000 hits in May!

I just crossed 2,000 hits for the month of May, thanks in part to Google searches for the Flying Pig Marathon! Highest month yet is 2,246 (August 2011). So... I have three days to get 245 hits :) Thanks for reading all!!

It's been a good Memorial Day weekend. Ran just two miles with MIT Saturday and logged 58 on the bike between Saturday and today. Also ate some ice cream :) Back to reality tomorrow!

Cleveland Marathon cheering and a college reunion

All I have to say to those that ran the Cleveland Marathon this weekend: Yowzas, you're brave. This heat was killer.

I was up in Cleveland anyway because I have a newborn niece and the reunion of Daily Kent Stater employees at Kent State University all happened to fall on the same weekend. So I was home but not really home -- I was up and running around the entire time.

I'll get to the reunion in a second, but to stay on topic, first: The marathon. Cleveland is a big one, so I wanted to make sure the runners I knew could see me. So I got a bright green posterboard, a bright green backpack and Mr. Fox in Socks.

The posterboard turned into this... 15 names in total on the sign, and turns out I forgot a few:

Note to self: Next time, don't skimp on the magic markers: My hands were covered in cheap ink by the time we left!

My fellow pace coach Richard B. was also in town to cheer so we met up and headed to Tremont, a really  cool town with lots of shade. We tried to catch our runners at Mile 9.5 but the crowds were so thick that we missed quite a few. We yelled after Deb M. but I don't know if she saw us. A very peppy Michele H. bounced over and gave us high fives. The 10:30 coaches Randy and Jill breezed by, I had no idea they were running! I saw a long lost friend from high school run past, my sister's sister-in-law looking strong in her first half, and college friend Kali, who blogs here.

Runners in Tremont.

This part of the race was fun. There was good crowd support and the temperature wasn't too bad. When we saw our last person, we headed over to Mile 22 on St. Clair and E. 55th street. Here, things were different.

Flying Pig: Even more photos!!!

Swiped these of the Pig's Facebook page :) Next time I'll have a camera on course!! Don't miss my race report here!!

Best water stop ever, the Blues Brothers!

Elvis!!

We started off running next to Forrest Gump.

Race report: Flying Pig weekend

The Flying Pig Marathon was hands down the best event I have ever done. I ran for 5 hours, 21 minutes and 7 seconds and genuinely loved every second of it. (Separate blog post with more photos.)

Thinking back to how miserable I was the last 8 miles of the Columbus Marathon, trying to make a time goal, I wonder if slowing down and stopping to smell the roses (literally, Rebecca E. stopped and made me smell some pink ones), is the best way to go.

To bad I have too much of a competitive spirit!

This weekend was a whirlwind. I'll just whiz through the early details so I can get to the super-fun stuff. Woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday. Headed to downtown Columbus to see the MITers off for the Capital City Half Marathon. Had a blast standing on a freeway overpass for several hours ringing a cowbell, jumping up and down and yelling at the many, many members of my running groups competing. The incredibly awesome Sara W. cheered with me. She blogs here.  

Me and Sara

Sat in a Tim Hortons sipping tea for an hour -- as quiet of a moment as I was going to get that weekend. Met up with Brandie D. and Rebecca and headed out of town. Got stuck in traffic for an hour because of an Obama rally. Finally got out of the car on I-270 to stretch our legs. Saw cars moving up ahead. Screamed. Waved our arms. Ran back to the car. Many engines behind us revved up as a result.

Ick! Traffic.

Finally made it to Cincy. Found parking. Went to expo. Spent too much money at expo. Bought some yummy dried fruit snacks and some Flying Pig gear at 50 percent off. Loaded up on free samples of laundry soap, wrinkle reliever and undereye cream. Since Mr. Obama held us up we were there as they were closing and trying to get rid of stuff.

Loot

Went to Arnold's Bar and Grill for dinner with other members of Run DMC. Got some yummy gluten free pasta with portabellas and a bottle of Woodchuck cider. Made it to the hotel by 10 and crashed almost instantly.  

Run DMC after dinner

Our alarms went off at 4:30 a.m. We dragged ourselves out of bed, got ready and walked a good mile in the dark to the starting line. When I woke up I was petrified, but as we were walking across the bridge that separates Kentucky from Ohio, we heard "Born to Run" over the loudspeakers and saw crowds of people pouring in from every direction as the sun rose. The fear was gone, now we're just excited. We dropped our bags and got in the corral.

Brandie and I, up bright and early.

I loved, loved, loved this course. I wish I had brought a camera so I could document some of the things we saw. The course was windy, curvy and hilly. Around every turn there was something new, a mascot, someone in a funny costume, cute kids cheering, zombies, drunk people, a band, a DJ, people with hoses to cool us off. The miles just flew by.

More pictures from the Flying Pig

More photos from the weekend:

My updated wall of accomplishments

A flying pig, duh!

My dinner

Go time!!

<p>I've been posting regularly to Facebook but I figured I'd do a quick blog too. This will be short since I'm on my phone. Fantastic time in cincy so far, we had a great dinner and I scored some good deals at the expo. My outfit is laid out and we're ready for tomorrow.
Cap city this morning went really well too, it was great to see everyone, especially the first timers.
Wake up call in 6 hours...

Flying Pig tracking

Unfortunately, the Flying Pig does not have anything set up where split times will be automatically posted to Facebook or Twitter.

If you really care, you can follow my race by signing up for text alerts here.

Brandie, Rebecca and I are going to be doing a very slow run/walk because of the forecasted heat. I'm guessing we'll finish in around 5 hours.

Eeeep!!!

Uh oh, I'm running 26.2 miles Sunday!

**Dislike button**

Race weekend is creeping up!

I'm very excited to head down to Cincinnati this weekend for the Flying Pig Marathon.

It's shaping up to be a hectic weekend! Friday I'm taking a half day at work and getting Lizzie to Worthington, where Molly was kind enough to offer to dog sit. Then it's off to Fleet Feet to pick up my favorite flavors of Gu, to the Y to teach one more class then home to pack.

Saturday I'll be up bright and early to cheer on all the MITers and the Run DMCers at the Capital City Half Marathon. I'm really excited to see so many people come through, especially those who are racing for the first time! I'll probably end up bumming around Columbus for a few hours until it's time to meet Brandie D., Rebecca E. and Ryan G. to head down to Cincinnati.

We'll get to Cincinnati around 4 p.m., then we're headed straight to the expo! I'm so excited to do a little shopping and load up on swag :)

Then we're meeting some other Run DMCers for dinner at 7 p.m. at Arnold's Bar and Grill in downtown Cincy. I'm so excited about this place, it has a gluten free menu and lots of pasta!

Somehow, I'm supposed to get a good night's rest, then it's up early again Sunday for a 6:30 a.m. start time! Hopefully Mother Nature will be good to us.

I've had a lot of ups and downs in the past few weeks so I'm not sure how I'll be feeling. I'll either run the whole thing at a 12-minute pace, or do a 4:1 run:walk ratio. I'm hoping for the former. No matter what, I'll be getting my medal!!

Ready to race

I am so proud and happy that I have stumbled across such a wonderful, supportive group of people. The past two weekends Facebook has been filled with posts of people virtually cheering on our teammates and it has me so excited to run the Pig next weekend.

I had a great run this morning with the 12:00 pace group. It went really fast and I had a lot of fun, and got me thinking about my plans for fall :) After I got two shirts for $7 at Old Navy, went to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Half Price Books.

DMC members Amy, Amanda, Richard, Kim, me and Mandy.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. Brandie and I are going to cheer at the Capital City Half Marathon, then head down to Cincinnati for the Pig.

Taper time!

Last week was my 22-mile run, and now I'm in taper mode. It was an icky week -- after that 22 I just couldn't make the legs move, and it wasn't until Friday that I was able to get a good run in.

I woke up early Saturday for MIT to the tune of pouring rain. Screw it, I'll get the 12 miles in on my own time.

So instead I woke up (somewhat) early Sunday to run on the Olentangy Trail with Miss Rebecca, who I haven't seen since the Granville Winter Run.

Me and Rebecca at Antrim Park after 12 miles on the O-Trail Sunday.

Rebecca and I met while hoofing it up the hills at the 2011 Granville Winter Run and became fast friends, and kept in touch thanks to Facebook. We both decided to run the Flying Pig, but then had incredibly rocky training seasons for our own separate reasons. I never get to see the girl though, since she lives on the far side of Columbus and we work opposite schedules!!

But Sunday, the stars aligned and we got to run together. I warned her that it would be slow (she didn't believe me), but it was. My legs felt so heavy after the first mile that she agreed to do a super-slow 3:1 run/walk with me.

Clockwise, it took forever, 2:28 for 12 miles. But it went so fast because I was in good company! Because we took it easy, I'm not even feeling it today.

The Flying Pig will be Rebecca's first full and I know she's going to do great! Like me, she's been humbled this season from injury, so our collective goal is just to survive!

Does anyone know where we can get a cheap curly pig tail and pig ears in the Greater Columbus area?

Stepping into the 20s

Six weeks ago I wasn't sure if this marathon was going to happen. I'm happy to say that on Saturday I survived my 20-miler, and felt strong in doing so.

The 20-miler came after yet another rough week. For a number of reasons I was feeling under the weather, sick and fatigued. Last Monday I ran one mile, went to spin, and couldn't run after. Last Tuesday I came home from work with full intentions of running, instead I collapsed on my couch and it took every ounce of energy I had even to walk the dog. Wednesday was worse, but by the time I got home from work Thursday I was feeling strong again, so I went out for an 8 mile run/walk in addition to spin.

Friday I was feeling good again, but I took the day off from running and just did spin.

After all this, I wasn't looking forward to Saturday's run. At all. I lined up with the 12s, and grouchily slugged through my first couple miles, Matt & Kim blaring in my ears. I'll admit to being kind of mad that I wasn't with my old group, I had no idea how I was going to survive 20 miles, so I kept to myself for awhile.

About three miles in, I thought the woman running next to me was texting while running (she was just using the GPS on her phone) so I pulled out the earplugs and said something like "how on earth do you do that?" That was enough to spur some conversation, with her then others in the group, and before I knew it we were closing in on 10 miles. We're approaching Antrim on the return trip and tiny barefoot Michele H. is coming in our direction. The coaches split the run for us so the two of us running 20 would have company.

Those training for Cap City ran 10 on Saturday. The group I was running with was so upbeat and so inspiring, and it ended up being a cool run to do because this was the first time many of them stepped into double digits.

Michele had two others with her that slept in a bit before doing their 10. So Kate and I, the sole two in the 12-minute group, had even more company for the remainder of our run.

We waved goodbye to the rest of the group, and our five-pack went past the school and north toward the gazebo. I'm feeling strong at the halfway point, but by the time we got to the water stop at the gazebo at Mile 13 I'm starting to fade. It's a horrible feeling at that point -- you've gone so far yet you're nowhere near done.

I slugged it through the next four miles. At some point in this trek we lost Michele in her quest for a port-a-john, and when we got to Antrim we said goodbye to the two girls who got a late start on their 10. It's just myself and Kate now, and we have three miles to go. I can't feel my legs anymore. I'm exhausted, starving, and my bad mood is coming back.  This is when I'd benefit from the chatter of a big group, but instead this is the quietest part of the run.

We keep on slugging, then someone comes storming up behind us. It's Michele, cheery and energetic as always! We turn around by the bridge, and she gets us through the rest of the run, going a total of five miles over her prescribed eight. Superwoman!

My watch made the glorious beeping sound for Mile 20 and we promptly stopped. It took us 4:00:38. Normally I'd bemoan those 38 seconds, kicking myself for not picking it up just a tiny bit to beat four hours, but on Saturday I didn't care... because I ran 20 miles!

Another reason to be excited for the Pig

The Flying Pig Marathon released the shirt design today.

It's perfect.

I'm back! And reassessing

I've been a bad blogger, but something is keeping you folks clicking, I'm sitting pretty at 723 hits a little more than halfway through the month.

Like half the population, I made some pretty lofty goals at the beginning of 2012. And, like half the population, it's halfway through February and I've pretty much abandoned them.On a positive note, the gym isn't crowded anymore!

I think I'm going to steal an idea from a friend, and take goal setting on a monthly basis instead of yearly. So, I'm going to come up with a post of three goals to accomplish in March, and think small.

Thanks to an inability to keep myself healthy, my training for the Pig has been incredibly rocky. Because of some side effects of one of the medicines I was on, my weight loss efforts have also been stalled. (The jeans are a little tighter today. Prednisone, I hate you.) But not all is lost! I'm still on track for the full, and it doesn't look like I'll have to abandon my time goal, either.

Here's my weekly mileage for the year thus far:

Every time I've fallen back, my gut reaction has been to panic and overtrain the next week. I've had some calf issues this week, so I know that needs to stop. With three miles today and 14 tomorrow I'll be at 26 for the week, a respectable jump. I took a week off from lifting, due to a nasty cold, and time constraints kept me from my routine yesterday, so I'm a little behind in that respect.

So where have I been? I'm still running, still teaching, still writing. I may start posting some of my class profiles, just for kicks.

And I completed the Granville Winter Run Sunday with an awesome time (not as awesome as last year). Look forward to a race report on that... soon(ish).

I will be a better blogger :)

Two weeks in: Holy hills!

Weekly update post on the 2012 goals! This week had it's ups and downs, was really crazy but I survived!

Goal #1 - 4:10 at the Pig: This week I took a big and necessary step toward this goal -- I registered for the race! I secretly thought about wimping out and doing Cleveland instead, but now I'm committed!

Training went very well this week! I did my second tempo run, then did hill repeats on Thursday. I missed MIT Saturday due to crummy weather, so as an added bonus I ran more hills Sunday during my 10 mile run! Since I did most of my long run solo (Brandie came with for the first 4), I sped up and averaged out at 9:47. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I ran a total of 27 miles for the week (plus one walking).

Elevation profile of Sunday's run

Scheduled miles for this week (slightly modified, of course!)
Today: 4 miles easy
Tuesday: 6.5 miles tempo
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 4 miles hills
Friday: Swim
Saturday: 10 miles
Total: 28.5

Goal #2 -- Train for a triathlon: Except for spin classes, no movement on this one this week!

Goal #3 -- Lift more: I've resigned to the fact that I only really have time to lift twice a week, but I'm getting that in!

Goal #4 -- Learn to teach something new: Nothing here, either.

Goal #5 -- Weigh 120: Had several missteps this week. I'm back on track now!


Goal #6 -- Increase blog traffic: Traffic is down this month, way down :( Debuting a new feature tonight -- Music Mondays!

SQUEAL!!!!

I sealed the deal to run the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon today! I'm really excited!

The email:

One week down, 51 to go!

MIT on Saturday.

I set a bunch of goals for 2012, and one tool I want to do to meet them is a weekly update post. While I won't make progress toward each one every week, I think it will help keep me on track!

4:10 at the Pig: I had an awesome running week, just awesome. I logged 23 miles, and managed to get some hills in with Brandie on Monday.

I took each of these runs easy since I was recovering from a stomach bug (ie too much food at Christmas!). I'll be back to more hills and tempo runs this week. (Tempo Tuesday!)

On Saturday I ran 10 miles, more than my scheduled 7. MIT was phenomenal, there were so many people. It was a great day and I was just feeling good!

After the rest of the group split off another 10:30 and I sped up. Average pace ended up 10:11 with a sub-9 last mile. Next week I think I'm going to run with the 10s!

This week I'm going to shoot for a total of 25 or 26 miles. I modified the weekly schedule a bit to do this:
Monday: 4 easy
Tuesday: 5 tempo, lift
Wednesday: 4 easy, spin
Thursday: 3 hill repeats, spin, lift
Friday: spin, swim
Saturday: 10 at 10, lift if I have some juice left

Other goals:

Train for a triathlon: Didn't get to swim this week. My goal for the moment is to swim on Fridays, but I had to teach spin then lift last Friday so there just wasn't time.

Lift more: I started the second phase of the New Rules of Lifting for Abs. This phase is tough... planks + rows, offloaded squats, burpees!! With my running and spinning schedules I may only get to it twice a week, but I'm going to stick with it!

Learn to teach something new: Probably there won't be any movement on this one for awhile, but I will get to it this year!

Get down to 120 pounds by the Pig: I rocked this one out this week! Lost 2 pounds and tracked my food everyday!

Increase blog traffic: I started a new feature, Foodie Fridays, which I hope will get me a few more hits!

2012: The official goals post

As this is auto-posting, I'm getting back into a familiar routine.

While most of the world is sleeping in on Saturday morning, once again I'm up early. Before dawn early. I'm putting on my cold weather gear, packing a bag of warm clothes to change into after, and warming up the Fit.

I'm driving 40 minutes to join the long procession of cars turning into Thomas Worthington High School for the Marathoner in Training program (MIT). Jeff's going to gather all 400 of us in the gym to kick the winter season off. He'll call out "10:30s!!!" then we hit the Olentangy Trail, sun, rain, sleet or snow. We'll yearn for the heat of summer, just as we yearned for the cold of winter in August.

I'm going to stop with the "I must be crazy for doing this" posts. It's a foregone conclusion. We're all crazy in our own little ways. I just choose to blog about it.

All 400 of us share one same personality trait: We're all goal oriented, some to the point of obsession. The magic number is called a PR, a personal record, and each one of us is there because we're determined to beat it.

The PR could be a goal distance, for many first timers it's simply to run as far as you can, to the marathon or half marathon point. That was my ambition my first season of MIT, training for Cleveland. 

But once you complete that distance, you now have a time to beat. Some simply want to beat their time, others set a new goal time. I ran a 4:32 in Cleveland, and sought to run Columbus in 4:20. That was the number that was burned into my head in my second season of MIT. I smashed through that goal, running Columbus in 4:13.

First on the First: A PR attempt for the new year

Jan. 1 I'm going to attempt to whittle down my 5K PR of 24:27 at the First on the First in Westerville. I'd love to beat 24:00, but even shaving a few seconds off would make me happy!

To run a 24:26 I'd need to run a 7:51 pace. To run a a 23:59 I'd need to run a 7:43. So I'm going to stick with the old strategy of starting the first half of the race with the 8 minute pacer then kicking it up!

I'm in the middle of a 2-week hiatus that ends with the kickoff of MIT Saturday. Looking forward to training for the Flying Pig!