later gator - march report out

Can you believe we're already a quarter into the year?! Three months! Just gone. 

My original goal for March was to run just about 90 miles, bike thrice a week, and swim. Then life happened so none of those happened. I did run eighty miles, bike three times, and got in the pool once. #winning

Since I started running most weekdays during lunch, it's left me a lot more time to do things at night (besides just running). Unfortunately, I reward myself for running at lunch by sitting on my ass and doing nothing. I should probably put together some sort of training plan so I ACTUALLY get in my other sports (and not just my physical therapy exercises).

Maybe that duathlon will be good motivation and practice for the triathlons come the summer. 

Goals for April include: running ninety-ish miles, biking at least twelve times, and swimming eight times. Maybe a race, too. We'll see.

Non-fitness goals include: painting the living room, organizing the office (again), and checking off everything on this spring cleaning list.

What are some of your goals for April? Do you have any races planned? Any house/apartment projects? How much are you avoiding spring cleaning?

Until the next report out, shake it out, alfalfa sprout.

- Allison Rae

another one bites the dust - a goal update

GUYS. It's twenty-seven days into twenty-seventeen and I'm already crossing off a goal!

Okay, okay, to be fair, I knew it was going to happen in January but still. I had to write it down. Getting rid of another student loan is a momentous occasion! Especially considering that when Ryan and I got married back in twenty-eleven, we had over a hundred forty thousand dollars of student debt to tackle. In the five and a half years we've been married we've paid off over ninety thousand of it.

Yeah, you read that right. NINETY THOUSAND. In five years.

Thankfully, in the last five years, Ryan got funded through school and I've jumped up a few levels at my job. Both of those have helped A LOT. It also helps (aside from being depressing) that Ryan's ENTIRE paycheck goes towards paying down student loans. 

The next loan we're working on is Ryan's last unsubsidized one. We originally wanted to pay it off in November, but since we bought the house, our finances look a little different. We couldn't keep throwing three grand a month at it but we can still manage to do about eighteen hundred. Here's hoping for a payoff date in next March. *fingers crossed*

And on that depressing note, I'm going to dream about these shrimp tacos. Because they were really super delicious.

Until the next goal update, peace out, lifers.

- Allison Rae

monday rewind and the year so far

I am officially, eight days, and twenty-five miles into twenty-seventeen. 

I'm also in with enchiladas and pizza waffles. So I'm pretty much breaking even. #whatdiet

Also - is that chart not that saddest thing ever?

This past week I continued my streak and goal to run everyday. I busted out a 5K each day, even though there were a couple runs I did only an hour or so after eating (terrible idea, by the way). I haven't started cycling or swimming yet this year. I'm currently going on like a year off of doing either seriously. 

Maybe I'll add "set up pain cave" to Ryan's list of stuff to do this week. I just have to make sure he's not too busy destroying my kitchen (RIP linoleum).

Now, I know this week has already started strong with another 5K today, but the latter half of the week is going to be a challenge getting in the miles. I'm back on site for work (after working from home for two months) and Thursday through Saturday is our physical inventory. 

If you've never been through an inventory process, first, I hate you, and second, say a little thanks to whatever powers may be. 

Physical inventory is basically when you go out and count every. single. piece. of material or product on site. From little bottles of stuff to tankers full of gunk. And since we have A LOT of material sitting around, I'll be working a few 17 hour days back to back. 

The options are either potentially sneak out at lunch and get in the miles or definitely crank out the miles before going in. I think I have to err on the side of caution and get them in beforehand. It just means that I won't be getting that much sleep.

And I'm a sleep person. 

Maybe I'll become a coffee person.

Probably not.

How's your year going so far? Are you breaking even or better? What are you looking to get into this year? Something old? Something new?

Until the next rewind, peace out, lifers.

- Allison Rae

twenty-seventeen goals

So I may have gone a little overboard when writing down my goals for this year.

I may have also finally decided on a bujo versus filofax. Then, when I sat down and started writing my goals out, I sort of forgot to stop. It was like all of a sudden I had this list and I really wanted to do all of them.  #overachieverproblems

Honestly though, I think they're all doable. But I may also be a tad out of touch with what's realistic. (Like, I-want-to-put-coffered-ceilings-in-my-dining-room-with-absolutely-no-money-for-them kind of out of touch.) Maybe you can tell me what's realistic?

Pretty please?

I DO know that some of them aren't "SMART" so I'll outline what would make me feel like I accomplished them by the end of the year. That way I don't get there and think, "I suck," when really I did everything I set out to do.

So here's the twenty-seventeen, full of boundless potential. And to no resolution about my pant size. Because I definitely ate my weight in chocolate today.

Until the next goal post, peace out, lifers.

- Allison Rae

monday rewind

Okay guys, we're two days in. How's your new year going?

Mine is off to a hilly and delicious start. Although, if you ask smashrun, it's not a good start since I didn't get that that first heart healthy week...

I'll be sharing my new year's goals in a couple days, but one of them is to run every day. And after reading an article about a sixty-eight year old runner came through my news feed, I'm want to make it a point to run at least a 5K everyday.

This runner had gone out for at least three miles everyday for thirty-six years. THIRTY. SIX. YEARS. He even upped his mileage after he retired, eventually going out for six to eight miles every. damn. day. Back in October, his streak ended when he was hit by a car out on a run. He thankfully survived and is working to get back out and running.

He's going to be how I shame myself into running more than a mile on days I feel like being lazy. Maybe I'll label those runs #robertsmademedoit. 

Tomorrow will be my first day back with my team since mid-December and while I'm looking forward to seeing them again, I'm not looking forward to my alarm clock tomorrow. Ugh.

What are you looking forward to this year? Any big plans or goals? What keeps you motivated and on track? 

Until the next rewind, peace out, lifers.

- Allison Rae

run your heart out

Well you know how I wanted to get ten more badges in smashrun before 2017?

Well along with running for the past one hundred twenty one days, I freaking CRUSHED that goal. All in all, I racked up seventeen badges from late September until now. While I still have a lot more running to do this year, I don't anticipate getting any more badges.

So, without further ado, here's what I earned...

Okay, okay. Those are the only ones. < / humble brag >

Now, I'm super excited about what 2017's going to bring. Hopefully, it's none of the shit 2016 brought. Sure, Leo may have won an Oscar but how many people had to die? I mean, was it really worth it? 

So while it's fast approaching, I've only just started thinking about my resolutions or goals for the coming year. My quick thoughts touch on race, mileage, and pace targets. Of course I'll have to come up with ones besides those based around running, but for now it's like running is my life. 

Random side note: Who AM I?

What about you? What are your running plans for the upcoming year? Are you tracking them on Smashrun? (If you are, feel free to link up with me!) 

Until (maybe) next year, peace out, lifers.

- Allison Rae

it's good to be back

I'm not going to lie, when I first wrote that I typed out bake.

I think because that's been on my mind since I've been back stateside. Well that and work, running lots, and avoiding political ads. Which, are officially now over.

Thank. You. Cheesus.

I know I'm not really accomplishing all of my seventeen before seventeen but I am plugging away at them and checking some off my list.

Top priority right now is trying new recipes. And Ryan and I are plugging away. We've made:

 ▪ trader joe's pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting (delish!),

 ▪ these peanut butter cookies (which a little light on peanut butter),

 ▪ added hershey kisses to these peanut butter cookies for some blossoms (almost there),

 ▪ the best peanut butter cookies ever to have been made (although it might be the filling),

 ▪ harvest loaves from a back-of-the-pan recipe (which needed so much more spice), and

 ▪ a hearty pot roast that was more like a stew than soup (worth making again).

Of course there's so many more things to try. Just look at my pinterest boards. They hold quite a few. And then there's my other list. You know the list of recipes from the cookbooks sitting on your kitchen shelf that you're dying to try? THAT list.

And then there's ones that pop up like triple layer dulce de leche brownie cookie bars. How can you go by a week without trying these?

You can't. I'll tell you about them soon.

Until then. Peace out, cub scouts.

- Allison Rae

seventeen before twenty-seventeen

When I first came across the idea of creating a list of seventeen things to do before I rang in 2017, I was immediately in love. Mainly because it incorporates my love of lists and my love of setting outrageous goals for myself.

Thirty seconds later, I flipped to a brand new page in my bullet journal (because I've become one of those people) and started writing. I had fourteen ideas down when I enthusiastically told Ryan about my new prerogative.

His immediate reaction was, "Oh God, here we go."

Because he knows that I often come up with crazy, unattainable goals. And I mean CRAZY. I once started a greatist challenge while increasing my mileage training for a half marathon. Both of which never got finished.

But, I beat him to the punch. My mindset going into this endeavor wasn't to go all or nothing. I wanted to make sure these were achievable but still challenging goals. 

With my first fourteen goals "Ryan Approved" I finished up the last three earning approval by the end of the day. Some are a little vague but I have notes in my bujo (oh how I love that term!) explaining more about what my complete goals actually are.

Without further ado, my goals...

If you had to create a list of seventeen things to do before you ring in 2017, what would some of them be? What would be the one thing you want to do by the end of the year?

Until the next checklist. Peace out, cub scouts.

- A. Rae

running the day

Remember that time I humble bragged about my run gains? You know, those two whole minutes I knocked off my four mile runs. Feel free to call me supersonic.

Yeah, well. It turns out, you're not supposed to be racing every run you do. Who knew? Not me! 

Now, Ryan (who has been trying to convince me for months) has reiterated that I need to run slower if I want to be faster. And I want ALL the gains. It's just really hard for me. It feels like it adds hours to my runs when in truth it really doesn't. I just hate feeling slow and those 45-60 seconds I add to each mile make me feel like I'm losing my pace.

I did run slower this past week and I think I'm seeing some improvements. My average heart rate is down and I never really feel as out of breath as before. So I think I'm in the zone. The aerobic vs. anaerobic zone. I'm definitely sweating more, if that's any indication. But I know that the key to any good training is persistence. So, unfortunately, I'll keep sluggin' along.

My real motivator for running anyway is food. That and how it makes me feel, but mostly for food. And every Monday morning I get this amazing email from Smashrun. It tells me my distance total for the past week and how it compares to the week before. It shows a high level view of my runs and of course, my average pace. For now, I'm skipping right over those.

I go right for the food. Because for as much calories I burned this past week, I want to know what I could've eaten. And I don't know about you but bacon wrapped pineapple bites sound fabulous. Straight up FAB. Bacon wrapped tater tots?! TO DIE FOR.

Even better is that I can switch up the food theme. I'm leaning towards dessert but I'm sure it won't help my insatiable appetite (runger is real!). I should probably switch it to something healthy. Seafood, maybe? Vegetarian?

What would you pick? Are you on Smashrun? You can find me here. I've been using the site for about a year now and really like the whole system. It gives me highlights about my runs and puts it all in graph form. Which, naturally, makes my finance based heart go pitter patter.

On the site, I like that the badges. They keep me motivated to run. There's three different sets of them with 117 in total. So far I have 27 and I'm on track to earn another on Thursday.

Today though, today, I started a different challenge, which in a year's time will get me another badge. I'll give you a hint - I'm aiming for something of a streak...Crazy? Probably. Going to happen? I'm damn well going to try.

Until the next run, I'll see you out there.

- A. Rae

Please know that I am not sponsored by Smashrun. I pay for the pro membership out of pocket because I think it's super neat. It does have a free service, which is still really great, so if you're a runner, and not on Smashrun, you can check it out here.

New Year Thoughts

It's almost impossible to believe that another year has flown right by. And almost more impossible to believe that these six months in Germany are quickly coming to an end. I mean, we just got here!

This year has been undeniably amazing. Ryan and I competed in our first triathlons ever. We moved into a bigger apartment two weeks before moving to freaking Germany! Then we explored seven other countries hand in hand.  We drank beer at Oktoberfest, enjoyed crepes in Paris, and watched the wind move windmills in Holland.

Then we watched as an entire city celebrated the coming new year with thousands of fireworks.

As I start this new year off in a country far away from home, I wanted to make sure I wrote down some things to keep in mind. Call them resolutions, call them aspirations, call them whatever you want. Here's what I want to guide me through this year...

Texture: Gold (recolored) Fonts: Linowrite and Sweet Pea

One of the major things I want to focus on is not being a flake. Ryan and I are both flakes and we enable each other. It's terrible. We get invite to parties or hangouts and then we just flake out. It comes down to us being too damn lazy to go or ditching those to hang out just the two of us.

The other major thing I want to focus on is being present. I pull out my phone all. the. time. I check the time. I check instagram. I look at reddit. It's probably my biggest crutch. My goal this year is to either leave it at home or leave it in my bag all night. Whether it's my family, friends, or just Ryan and I, I want to live in that moment with the people I love.

And then, of course, you can't start the new year without some health and fitness goals. One that I didn't write down is tracking what I eat. Starting today. No matter how bad the day is, I want to finish it and then start fresh the next. Here's the rest of my goals...

Texture: Gold (recolored) Fonts: Bikes, Linowrite, and Sweet Pea

What are some of your resolutions for this year? Anything out of the ordinary?

Thursday Catch Up

ON LIFE (IN GERMANY)

Fall is officially here and I love it. Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. And I'm 99% sure the smell is the best part of it all. You get out of your car at night after a rainy afternoon and it smells so so good. I want to bottle it up and make a candle. 

Now, I know I talked before about the WIDE variety of songs they play, but here, the songs are all played in their original format, profanity included. Imagine my surprise the first time I heard "The Real Slim Shady" uncensored. I'm definitely not in the US anymore. Amazingly enough, though, people aren't crude and everyone's pretty pleasant. So maybe the FCC needs to do some thinking about being such a prude. We can probably handle a little swearing.

One thing that had me swearing this week? My car was towed yesterday morning. The first time I've ever had my car towed and it's in a foreign country. That was a 190€ lesson I won't be forgetting easily. Especially not after Ryan and I had to go to three different companies looking for the damn car at eight in the morning. Seriously, how many Colonia's can there be in one suburb of Cologne? It probably would have helped if we knew just a littttllleee bit more German. Or if we knew that "towed" isn't a word here.

I suppose that if it has to happen once in your life, though, it's better to get towed sooner rather than later. Yay?

ON PLANS & GOALS

Reading this article I want to binge watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Because, hello, Charlie Day. I just want to hug him. When I brought it up to Ryan he was all over it. The Netflix binge, of course, not the hugging. I think we found our weekend plans.

Next weekend though, since being here for such a short time, Ryan and I have been traveling like mad with so many more trips planned. It's funny, considering when we're in the States, we go nowhere. Like, we take zero weekend trips. No close-to-home trips. But in the short month that Ryan's been here, he's come to realize he wants to do more exploring around home. You know, when we do finally get there.  Ryan's started planning some hikes in the Adirondacks and a Finger Lake beer/wine tour. I am super excited. Not only for the long awaited Finger Lake wine tour, but I'm pretty sure I can convince him to show me Niagara Falls. Since I've never been. And I'm also pretty happy because it's about as much wanderlust I can inspire in my self-described homebody husband.

ON CELEBRATIONS

I somehow stumbled upon this shimmery wine/vodka the other day and I cannot wait to try it. It freaking sparkles. I can't wait to celebrate with it. I just need something to celebrate.

The weekend? A long weekend? How about running. Ooo, yes. Let's do running. Because nothing says healthy after running than wine/vodka.

Training for a half is actually pretty fun. And I have the best partner. I'm getting faster and I think my technique is getting better so those are definitely things to celebrate. In moderation of course.

If you're on them, you can follow me with Garmin or Smashrun. 

Thursday Catch Up

ON LIFE (IN GERMANY)

Slowly, but surely, my apartment is falling apart. The washing machine has broken. I've broken a fridge shelf. Ryan's broken a light bulb. The shower head is springing new leaks daily. And in the past two days a smoke alarm started chirping, the heating element in the oven fell out, and the handle on the oven door fell off. Our only tool to fix  them? A hammer. 

You want to know what a hammer can fix? NONE OF THOSE THINGS. Seriously, we can't even figure out how to change the battery in the smoke alarm. 

I promise, I'm an adult.

ON GOALS & PLANS

I've thought about it for years and after reading this article I'm deadset on creating a capsule wardrobe. I love, love, love the idea. What do you think? Could you do it?

Fitness wise, Ryan and I decided before we moved here that we'd strictly train for running. It's my weakest sport (in a triathlon) and I'm super, super slow. Since Ryan has a lot of free time, he's been researching training plans and watching running documentaries. Which, if you have a free half hour watch Wonderland. All this free time also let's him find a crapload of races for use to do next year. So far the list includes: three sprint triathlons (June, July, August), the 10K Turkey Trot (November), the 15K Stockade-athon (November), a half marathon (March), and a full marathon (October). The list doesn't include any other 10K or 5K races we'll "pick up."

And if someone can reassure me that I'm not going to have a heart attack that would be lovely. Either that or tell me how hawt I'm going to look after logging all those miles. Pretty please?

ON CELEBRATIONS

Last Sunday, I celebrated my birthday in Munich. Like actually celebrated. Then again, it's kind of hard not to celebrate during Oktoberfest. But I didn't try to avoid it and pretend the day didn't exist like I always do! I can't believe I've been missing out on enjoying it for the past five years. I need a V8 smack upside the head for that. 

One win for the home team? I'm slowly picking up more and more German. I can almost make my way through dinner at a restaurant. And just the other morning, someone asked a question at work and I understood the entire sentence! By the time I'm conversationally fluent it'll be just in time for me to go back to the States. 

Now, if only I could convince Ryan to have a Halloween party, my fall would be made. Especially considering I have the perfect costume idea.