Begin Again.

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a relaxing holiday and fun NYE. I personally love New Years because it’s also our anniversary!

3 years, baby! Officially old married couple. No?

With New Years comes reflection. I’m a huge resolution person. I make them any chance I get. Like for instance, in the Spring I’m all like, “Spring is a time of renewal. I should start flossing again.” It’s also important to reflect on past resolutions, recognize goals achieved, be honest with ourselves with failures, and create some new ones. So let’s reflect shall we?

My 2012 New Year’s Resolutions were as follows:

1. Get some new products for NaturaStride. STATUS: Complete. Well, kind of. We did get some new products over 2012. But… you might have noticed some changes with the blog and website. Mainly, that Joe and I have chosen to disable our shop at NaturaStride.com for the time being. Trying out our favorite natural nutrition products has always been a passion of ours. Gathering these products to offer on NaturaStride was an incredibly rewarding process that has since opened other doors for us. Because of this, we have decided to suspend the site for now while we focus our energy on other projects. One thing I love the most about New Years is the ability to reflect back on the past year and consider all the surprises life has brought. Each year, many events happen that I couldn’t have even fathomed the year prior.  So although we are stepping away from the retail aspect of NaturaStride, we are excited for what the next year has in store for us in terms of our other projects, or projects we haven’t even thought of yet. Do I consider it a failure? Absolutely not. I have learned so much from starting my company and am positive these lessons will benefit me in future endeavors. Oh, and don’t worry. This blog is going is staying put!

2. Run a bunch of cool races including the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, Broad Street, Good Neighbor Day 15k, Philly RNR Half Marathon, and the Vegas RNR Half Marathon. STATUS: Uh, FAIL. Haha. We all know how that turned out. Like I said, life is full of surprises.

3. Run a FULL marathon. STATUS: COMPLETE!!! I feel like this one trumps all the rest. This resolution should actually read, “Acquire double pelvis stress fracture, recover, and then qualify for Boston.”

4. Continue to learn Greek: STATUS: Working on it! I finished Rosetta Stone Greek Level 1 last year and am halfway through Level 2. Although I put it on the back burner during the craziness that was this past fall, I’m excited to get back into the swing.

Okay, now we’re ready to establish some new resolutions. So here we go:

2013 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Help bring Girls on the Run to at least 5 schools in Philadelphia in 2013: This is huge, this is what I want  2013 to be all about. We are so close to starting our first season at two schools here in Philly. I can’t WAIT. Finally. We hope to expand to 5 schools in the Fall. GOTR has been keeping me incredibly busy and I absolutely love it. I am actually heading down to the GOTR National Summit in New Orleans this weekend to meet over 300 other directors and coaches from all over the county.

2. Teach at least 5 Vinyasa Classes per week: Now that I’m registered, I hope to teach at a bunch of studios throughout the city if I can! Starting in February, I’ll be teaching at Dana Hot Yoga in Glenside on Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM!

3. Finish Rosetta Stone Greek Levels 2 and 3.

4. Running Goal: TBD. I am finally beginning to MISS racing since completing the marathon. I have not decided yet what I want 2013 to bring for me for running (we all know how planning went last year, ha). I am still deciding what to do as far as my NYC Marathon option – although I have a feeling I will take the refund. Maybe I’ll run NYC when I turn 40. In the meantime, I have plenty of other bucket list marathons including Big Sur, Chicago, etc. Hopefully I can get an entry into Boston in 2014 with my BQ as well. But I’ll figure it out.

5. Blog more! Promise!

 So that’s that.

Q: Are you a resolution person? If so, spill it!

Introducing Tailwind!

So, you know this Tailwind product I’ve been gushing over the past couple of months? Well, guess what…

You can now buy it on NaturaStride!!!

You all know I’m equally obsessive and picky when it comes to my endurance fuel. So, when I find something I love – I can’t get enough and all I want to do is share it with y’all.

I heard about Tailwind a few months ago after listening to a Trail Runner Podcast. An endurance athlete, Jeff Vierling, created this product after being disappointed with products used during the Leadville-100. You can read more about Jeff’s story here.  

According to the folks at Tailwind, it is “complete and simple to use, so you can use it as your sole fuel source without having to supplement with gels or electrolyte pills. It provides rapid and sustained energy without upsetting your stomach, replenishes electrolytes in the same proportion as you sweat out, and has a mild, subtle flavor that you can drink all day.”

Tailwind has been generating some buzz in the ultra-running community and since these guys are as hardcore as they get, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Over the past month, I have sampled the Berry, Lemon, and Mandarin Orange flavors during my long runs and truly love them all. Simply scoop one serving into a 12-oz water bottle, and sip throughout your run. Results? My energy has not been a problem at all during my long runs, including the 16-miler I did last weekend. Also, the flavor is perfect: not too sweet, yet kind savory. In the past, I haven’t been a huge fan of many sports drinks because of the “artificial sweetener” after-taste. I’m happy to say Tailwind is the first product I’d happily drink even when not running. Plus, all the ingredients are natural, and all the flavoring is organic (swoon!) I definitely plan on packing this during the NYC Marathon.

Anyways – try it out! NaturaStride now offers variety packs in quantities of 3, 6, and 12 so you can try all the flavors. Let me know if you do - we love feedback.

Speaking of long runs, I completed a 16-miler while visiting my family up in New Hampshire last weekend. Thankfully, it was MUCH better than my 14-miler last week. Very minimal plantar fascia pain – thanks to golf ball rolling the crap out of them over the past week. The route was SUPER hilly, but my legs felt strong and I was able to keep an average pace of 8:24’s. Thanks to a sports massage on Monday and a TON of yoga, I’m recovering pretty well.  I think I’m getting the hang of this whole marathon training thing – but am still remaining cautious. I have an 18-miler this weekend, followed by a 20-miler next weekend (gulp) and will then figure out if I can muster up one more long run before the taper. Less than 5 weeks to go…

Enjoy the week!