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Have you entered my Running on the Wall Giveaway yet? You have until Wednesday, January 9th to enter!

This past weekend we made our annual trip to Lake Geneva. My husband's family has been going up there once a year for the past 30+ years. Last year I had a lot of trouble fitting in my workouts so this year I planned accordingly. I met up with the local running club for a run on New Years Eve morning. Pepper came with me and she absolutely loved the attention! She would just stand by various people in the group, waiting for them to pet her. Lol. Amanda even brought champagne for us to sip on.

Can you spot the happiest dog in the world?

Tuesday I braved the dark and freezing temps to meet up with the running club again for some easy miles. When we left for Lake Geneva on Thursday, I was happy to already have 2 runs under my belt.

In preparation of a long run, I had emailed Kim earlier in the week as I knew she didn't live that far from Lake Geneva. We met on a trail that was half way in between for 9 windy miles. Bobbi joined us too! Since I haven't actually ran with Kim or Bobbi before, it was a lot of fun.

Thanks Kim, for letting me steal your photo!

Kim even got me a birthday present (complete with a card that made me laugh)! Thanks again Kim for the amazing gifts!! :) We ended up having a bit too much fun at the local watering hole on Friday night so I was glad I got my run done earlier in the morning! I brought a Picky Bar with me on the run that we shared as I really want to try and get a fueling strategy down this year. It seems I get part way there and then my stomach has other ideas...

Running on vacation is always hard, but it helps to have some friends that will meet you half way! When you go on vacation, do you run with friends? Do you look up local running clubs to participate with?

Do you have any traditions or vacations that your family has done for many years?

This past weekend was another busy one! I got in a 9 mile long run with some beautiful temps. I wanted to stay close to home so I met up with the FN Runners. I joined some of them for the last 9 of an 18 miler. I gotta say, I'm not really jealous of those training for the marathon this year. I'm glad I'm taking the year off.

post-run in my Oiselle Distance Shorts and Bani Band (that I won from Mag Mile Runner)

After my run, I headed to Kate LF's house to help put the finishing touches on the surprise bridal shower for Kate S! I've never planned a shower before and it was hard work! Especially the part about keeping it a surprise... Overall, I'd say it was a success because guests came and Kate was surprised! :)

The theme of the shower was "red white and blue" since Kate is a July 3rd baby and those are her favorite colors

As some of you may remember, I volunteered as a part of Amanda, Jess, and Kate's Ragnar team in June this past year. To take advantage of the early bird discount, we're already putting a team together for 2013! I'm excited as we start to piece together ideas, team names, sponsors, etc.! I'll probably be talking about this more and more in the months to come and I'll be looking for tips and advice for those of you that have completed a Ragnar in the past! If you're interested in being a part of the team as an alternate or volunteer, please let me know!

How was your long run this weekend? If you live in Chicago, how much are you LOVING these temps?

Also, don't forget to enter my Zipfizz giveaway! You have all week to enter!

This past weekend was a pretty crazy one with a family wedding on Friday and a bachelorette party on Saturday. I took the day off of work on Friday (since the wedding ceremony started at 4pm). I was able to squeeze in my long run (9 miles) before the festivities began.

The temps were amazing and I felt great during and after the run. I wore my Oiselle aero tank that I purchased from Running Warehouse. I loooved it and have to invest in more. Since I was running on the trail, I decide to run with my Garmin but I changed the view to be only 1 field: distance. I'm going to keep running without looking at the times on my Garmin for a full month as it has worked out well for me thus far. :)

After a shower, running some errands, and studying for a bit, it was time to get ready for the wedding!

If you follow me on Instagram, these pics are old news. If you don't, here is a pic of me and my husband's cousin outside the church and then one of me and Toph at our dinner table. We danced the night away and I was happy to have done my long run on Friday when I woke up Saturday morning without having gotten much sleep. After coming back home on Saturday morning, I tried to get in some studying, and packing before it was time to head to the city for a bachelorette party! My aunt is getting married for the first time (she's 55 years old), so we celebrated in Wrigleyville at a Chicago Cubs Rooftop.

my cousin and I at the game

Those Brooks shades are certainly getting their use. It really was some great swag from the RNR Expo! Now it is back to the old grind and time to figure out my run, work, study schedule for the week. If you're wondering what I'm studying for, I've decided to attempt the CFA. I'm taking level 1 in December for the first time. I'm completely and utterly terrified and studying has only just begun...

Because we had a big family wedding on Saturday night (and I was meeting the bride and wedding party on Friday afternoon), I was debating to do my long run on Friday morning or Sunday night. Thursday night before going to bed, I had every intention of doing this run on Sunday morning. However, when Friday morning came, I decided to give it a shot. Having not properly planned the night before, this was a big mistake. I thought 12 miles wouldn't be a problem. The plan was actually to do this as a progressive run with the first 6 miles easy and the last 6 progressively faster. Since I decided to do this run kind of last minute, I didn't properly hydrate the night before. Waking up thirsty when you have a warm long run ahead is never a good sign. Also, Thursday's dinner could have been much better. Can you see where this is going?

I started off feeling strong and had to force myself to slow the pace. The trail was relatively shaded and not very crowded. Miles 1-5 were right on target, no problem but I was starting to get warm and pretty sweaty. At mile 6 I realized that a progression run was going to be more difficult than I thought. This run soon became "just get through it." I was so thirsty and the hard core stomach sloshing started around mile 9. I was so sad that this run was sucking, so thirsty but couldn't drink any more, and so hot that I wanted to cry (and did a little at during mile 10). Miles 11 and 12 included a lot of walk breaks and left me feeling defeated. The more I thought about the things that went wrong, they all seemed to point to my poor pre-run planning. There is definitely a lesson to be learned from every run, and I'm walking away from this one trying to focus on the positive. Amanda reminded me of something I had once told her during marathon training and it totally holds true. Not every run is going to go as planned. Bad runs make you appreciate the good ones just that much more. I've had many successful workouts in this training cycle. This was just not one of them and I'm okay with that.

So now that the run was done, it was wedding time! We really had a fun weekend and I'm very happy for my cousin. Here are some photos from the day!

On the party bus

At the reception with our cowboy boots on!

the bride and I

me and my bros!

Note: mixing beer and Tom Collins is not a good idea...