Five Things Friday: 4/7/17

Happy Friday, friends!

I haven't done one of these (or let's be real, even posted anything) in a while, so here's a little catch up on five things rocking my world this week!


1. Work continues to kick my ass. I work on a college campus in a career center and March/April are the absolute busiest times for us- lots of night and weekend hours. Just like the students I work with, I can't wait for finals week and graduation!

My goofball staff at an annual community event we manage that has upwards of 1000+ attendees!

2. I have a new favorite running shirt. 😉

New shirt. Same old 5k. 11:55/11:26/10:49 splits.

A post shared by Sarah (@sparklyrunner) on Apr 5, 2017 at 2:16pm PDT

3. Stress + long hours at work + making crap decisions about what to eat =  weight gain for me. *sigh* I'm already getting back on track but the scale has not been kind to me the last few weeks. Let me put it to you this way, I'm wearing lots of dresses and leggings these days because they are the only thing that fits comfortably.

I feel ya, Regina George.

4. It might snow AGAIN in Pennsylvania this weekend. UGH....

5. Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend is only FOUR WEEKS AWAY!  Guess I better start half marathon training! On a serious note, we are super pumped to see all our friends and enjoy our favorite city for the fourth year in a row!

Love these people ❤

What's rocking your world this week?!

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

Because I skipped Accountability Monday this week (I'm blaming winter storm Jonas!), here's a semi-wordless Wednesday check-in post:

2016 Blizzard: 32 inches of fluffy, white goodness and three full days indoors.

Matthew shovels; I selfie. 

New Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale Starter Kit: Ready for new recipes.

Favorite snow day treat: Banana, 1 tablespoon PB2, 1 tablespoon chocolate chips-
bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes in aluminum foil pouch. Guiltless dessert!

New, uncluttered spaces in our home: Spent the entire blizzard weekend cleaning,
organizing, and re-decorating using the very popular KonMari Method.

Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend 2016: I registered for the half; Matthew is in for the full; we're both in for the 5k.

The scale: Not a jerk this week. 

My knee: Total jerk this week. Weird pain behind my left knee cap.
 Took a complete rest week and feels much better today.

Happy hump day, friends! 

Accountability Monday: 12/21/15

Welcome to the second-to-last Monday of 2015!

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you know that Matthew surprised me with a four night cruise on the Disney Dream last week! Isn't he just the most wonderful man?! I think so :-) Seriously, I think I might have the BEST future husband in the world- he's just so good to me. It was really awesome to be able to take a week off with him during the busyness of the holiday season and just enjoy being with each other and relaxing.

The beautiful Disney Dream, all decked out for Christmas.

So this accountability post takes place while we were cruising on the high seas! I'll probably write a more detailed post about our entire cruise experience sometime in the future. Sidenote, I was in Instagram "jail" all of last week- I could post pictures but I couldn't add captions or comments to my or anyone else's photos. I have no idea how I ended up in jail but it finally ended late Saturday night. If you see any posts without captions, that was why. So weird.

Training:
Tuesday- Castaway Cay 5k, 35 ish minutes, Yoga on the Beach class
Wednesday- Group Cycle Class
Thursday- 30 minute run on Deck 4, no clue as to distance or pace :-)
Sunday- 4.29 mile run with Jen, 10:34 pace

One of the coolest things about cruising with Disney is the free classes offered by the Senses Spa and Gym. Everyday, there were cycling classes, yoga classes, ab workouts, etc. at no additional cost. There were some other classes (boot camp, etc.) that you could participate in for a fee. I liked the free ones just fine :-)

On Sunday, Jen and I kept what felt like a really easy pace- I figured we were running about 11:30- 12 minute miles. We were both shocked to see 10:34 as the overall pace as we both felt like this was an easy effort 4-miler. Hopefully this just means we are getting to be better and faster runners!

I call this "Bahamian Leaning Tree Pose." :-) 

Finishers of the Castaway Cay 5k and our frosty friend Olaf.

Food Find of the Week:
I made a similar dish to the one found here (Skinnytaste Cheeseburger Casserole) this weekend and it came out ok. Instead of pasta, the recipe I used called for sliced potatoes. It was definitely different from what I usually make and I'm looking forward to trying it again only using pasta this time. And adding pickles.

Weight:
Who knows??

I did weigh myself on the cruise and I was up about 2 pounds from the previous week. I'm cool with that. There's a lot of eating and drinking on-board a cruise :-)

Non-Scale Victory:
Matthew and I took the stairs EVERY SINGLE DAY on the cruise, regularly walking from Deck 3 to Deck 14 and everywhere in between. We only took the elevator once and that was to move our luggage and to look at the inside of the elevator- there were Disney characters painted on the inside of the elevator shaft that we wanted to see.

Hello from Disney's private island, Castaway Cay!

Have a great week, friends!

I'm back!

Hey y'all! Did you miss me?!

Things have calmed down (just a little, tiny bit) so I wanted to write a short post and just catch up a bit. For the last two years, I've posted here at least once week and it's helped keep me grounded and keep me connected with the running community. But this little break was so needed for my sanity.

I blog because I like to share my experience with others, connect with like-minded people, and keep myself accountable. But sometimes, it starts to feel like a job- one that I don't get paid for. Coming up with content, taking pictures, editing; it's a tremendous amount of work sometimes. I never want to feel like this blog is an obligation or a chore. So in the coming weeks, I'm going to be doing some soul searching on what this blog is about and where I want it to go. I just want to love it all the time, you know?

I feel the same way about running right now. For a long time, I loved, I mean, loved running. I wanted to do it all the time, I was obsessed with racing, and I was totally committed to training. And now, I like running. I'm not as "in love" with it as I was but I still want to do it... sometimes. Maybe I'm in a rut? I don't know. I'm looking forward to the Charles Street 12 this weekend and am totally pumped for the Akron Half Marathon in just a few weeks. But training? It's definitely taken a backseat to life. And my new job(s). And planning a wedding.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still working out. It's just more walking than running right now. I did get 10 miles of running in last weekend and I'm feeling somewhat prepared for the race this upcoming weekend. It's just been a struggle to get out and run lately. Matthew broke his arm in July and has been unable to run. So it's been tough going out and running alone. After years of training together, it's different and kind of sucky to do it alone.

I also know part of the problem is that I don't have any major goals right now to work toward. I've reached maintenance with my weight loss and I felt like I got the monkey off my back with the Pittsburgh Marathon. So now what?

I don't have the answer for that.  But I'm confident I will. Eventually. :-)

In the meantime, look for race recaps this week/weekend (Baltimore Women's Classic, SU Service Fun Run) and follow me on instagram/twitter for live updates from the Charles Street 12 on Saturday!

My last few weeks, in pictures:

The name tag makes it official "official" :-)

Enjoying a date night at our favorite MiLB stadium,
home of the Harrisburg Senators!

This workout is NO. JOKE. I bought this as a present to myself for reaching lifetime status- it's awesome.

5ks are always better with friends.

We have had some beautiful sunsets here in the last few weeks. 

I'd love to hear from you- what do you like to read about? What kinds of posts would you like to see here? What subjects/topics surrounding running or weight loss are you curious about? Please share in the comments below!