Stacey 2.0

Long time, no see!  I changed my "About Me" profile to reflect that I am the occasional blogger, because let's face it:  I am terrible about updating this on a regular basis.  At least if you see a new post you can probably assume I have news to report (although admittedly there's no guarantee of that either).  I just want to get through a couple of quick updates!  If you've looked at my blog in the past then you may notice that I changed the layout and theme.  I have never really found a format that I love, within my knowledge and skills of Blogger, but I do like this one a lot better than the previous version. I've been experimenting with my eating regimen since I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's late last year - I have been gluten free since September and dairy free since the day after Christmas.  Although I haven't lost any weight yet - ugh - I do feel so much better than I did before my diagnosis.  My energy levels are back and probably b...

If I had to sum up how my training went this summer, it would be...  "Hrmph." Or, insert your own onomatopoeia of disgust. If you know me in real life, or read any of my other recent posts, you know that my running has gone downhill (pun intended); not only in my actual ability but in my love of doing it. I don't know if I can use it as my sole excuse, but I did find out I was hypothyroid back in July and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in September.  I do think these new-to-me medical issues have played a big part in my weight gain, my inability to "run it off", my feelings of lethargy and my discouragement with any type of physical activity.  As of right now I am still working on how to live well with this, but I haven't found a solution that makes me feel great yet.  There are far worse things I could be dealing with, but it's hard to be patient with your own health. As for that dreaded physical activity I was talking about, I ha...

It occurred to me when I threw up my quick post about Phoenix Comicon that I never did update the blog with my last two attempts at the sub-2 hour half marathon. Attempt #3 was the 2017 Phoenix Women's Half Marathon in January, which I finished in 2:25 - even slower than the previous two tries.  Attempt #4 would have been the IMS/Sun Health Half Marathon in February, but I convinced some other lovely ladies to drop from the half and do the four-person marathon relay with me instead.  Our team name was Half Kidding.  Thankfully they all seemed pretty willing and I ended up having a pretty fun time. Since then, I've given up the goal of breaking the 2-hour half marathon, at least for a while.  It'll be too hot for me to set any records until winter, even assuming I wasn't completely discouraged by running altogether! In March I did the Vistancia Sprint Triathlon, to try and "step up" my triathlon game.  I was convinced late last year that I would be sign...

Check out the guest review I did for Droids Canada! Thanks to everyone at Droids Canada for allowing me to attend Phoenix Comicon on your behalf. http://www.droidscanada.com/phxcc17

I looked back at my blog at one point and noticed I started talking about this stupid goal of a (sub) 2 hour half marathon back in like 2014.  Very shortly after that I set a new personal record at IMS of 2:07:10.  People I talked to  about it in real life seemed to think this was an achievable goal for me.  But so far this season, I’ve ran 2 half marathons and didn’t come close – 2:10 in November and 2:18 last weekend.  This is starting to not be fun anymore. I hired an online coach this year thinking that was the missing piece to my training, to get me where I wanted to be.  In my mind, I obviously had some level of fitness but just needed to be guided better instead of piecing together training  plans I found on the internet.  I worked with her from February 2016 until my first attempt in November, the Phoenix 10k/Half Marathon event .  She never sent me anything with pace goals but simply listed the workouts as “easy” runs or “moderate”...

My friends know I tend to get a little depressed around my birthday.  I spend a lot of time thinking about how I'm not as far along in life as I want to be, about how I thought I'd be doing something more important than I am.  Well, today is still a little bit like the other birthdays.  I've made peace with some of my shortcomings, and I'm mostly happy, but I know I've fallen short in areas (like the career department). I decided to celebrate my 35 years on this earth by putting forth a list of 35 things I hope to accomplish in the next 35 years.  A bucket list, I suppose, of things I want to do between now and age 70 that I think will be fun and give my life a bit of purpose.  If and when I get done with these items I can come back and update the list.  Let me know what you think. Here they are, in no particular order: Run a half marathon in less than 2 hours. Run a full marathon in 4 hours 30 minutes or less. Finish an Olympic distance triathlon...

On Sunday I ran my first long-distance trail race  - the Dam Good Run 40k - where I actually had to traverse the distance.  I say it that way because I've ran races of this length before, even trail ones; but they were timed races, running the same 1-4 mi loop over and over again ( Soulmates CYA 6 hour race , Soulmates Tryptophun Rhuns 6 hour, and Across The Years).  But The Dam Good Run would require me to run what was essentially an out-and-back course consisting of 40k in total length - lots of ground to cover.  For awhile now, I had been wanting to do a trail marathon, and locally this was as close as I could find.  Plus with my volunteer credits, it was a free race entry for me.  If things didn't go well, I could back out and not be out a ton of cash for an expensive race registration. Come race day, I was pretty nervous, mostly due to fears of getting lost or seeing a rattlesnake.  I felt confident that I would finish, though, and had hop...