Coach Jen B

As promised - I'm here to announce the winners for the Zinio magazine. Congrats to every single one of you!!!!   Please email me the following information by Sunday, 12/2/12, midnight to runningwiththegirls@gmail.com.   Email address, First & Last Name, & Publication Name  (be sure to check that the magazine you desire can be  downloaded to the device you want to use!!!)

Snowflakes Ribbon Christmas Card Turn your favorite pictures into personalized Christmas cards . View the entire collection of cards.

If you run outside, then you know that each season provides you with different conditions in which to run in.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons for running.  The temperatures begin to drop, the air is dryer, and in early fall, the colors are glorious.  But there is one thing that drives me crazy about fall.   While it's cooling off, sometimes it's not quite cold enough for a fleece beanie or but yet it's cool enough to have something on your ears.  I dislike wind in my ears very much. And I don't like the burning cold feeling on my ears either.  What to do?   a convenient little bag to keep your new earbags in Sprigs has earbags to for situations like these as well as many more scenarios.  They are sometimes called bandless earwarmers.   I chose the Black Thinsulate Earbags to try out.  I do live in Maine and it does get quite cold here.  My next run I put them on my ears, which was incredibly ...

This is going to be a little backward.  On Thanksgiving Day I ran 2 races.  One official 5k in the morning (post coming tomorrow) and then an after dinner "virtual" race with the husband.  I was completed wiped out after running the 5k in the morning and had just about decided I was not going to get in my 2nd run of the day until Ward woke up from his nap - yes, lucky him, and he asked "wanna go for a run" and my response was "okay".  He completely twisted my arm.  Can't you tell?   We were still at my in-laws house and the kids were having fun with their grandparents, so this was also a date run and my virtual race for Kiley at Daily Vitamin F's Thanksgiving Race .  We don't get many of those.  It was absolutely freezing and the capris I had packed weren't going to cut it, so I decided to wear my compression socks on the run.   See?  Running fashionista here.   Ward and I ran around Brunswick and Topsham and had ...

Keeping up with the ever changing digital world can be overwhelming.  For such a long time I held out on making the switch to a smart phone because I absolutely knew once I jumped into the smart phone world, I would become obsessed.  And obsessed is simply just understated here. The Ultimate Guide to Marathon Running But now I hear that I can download my favorite magazines on my iPhone or iPad?  (well, technically it's Ward's iPad, but he'll share with me because he loves me)  Sign me up! Zinio has over 50,000 digital magazines ready for you to download onto your favorite device so you can read it anytime, anywhere (except when driving!). Clean Eating Right now Zinio is giving away 3 iPad Minis over the next couple of weeks and everyone who enters to win will get $5 toward a magazine subscription of his/her choice.  In addition, Zinio has some incredible Black Friday deals going on right no with 230 magazine titles up to 50% off their already...

Everyday should focus on giving thanks and spending time with family.  In the craziness of life, it's easy to lose sight of the things we should be thankful for in our lives.  It's definitely hard to not take the good things for granted.   On Wednesday, my family had the pleasure of having an incredibly talented local photographer come to our home and photograph our family.   There is definitely something special about having a photo session done with the people you love the most and then seeing the love captured forever in the finished products.  We had an absolute blast with Brianne walking through our fields posing for her.   Within an hour of our photo session, Brianne had a photograph edited and uploaded to her facebook page.  Immediately we fell in love with her work and couldn't wait for more pictures to be uploaded.    Seeings these pictures reminds me of the things I am thankful for.     Mostly I am...

My friend Michelle at Average Girl Doing Average Things posted today about the Top 10 Things she learned in 2012.  I loved her 10 things and thought I'd try it out. 1.  Changing jobs this summer was the best thing I could have done.  Working 3 miles from my house has been fantastic.  Yes, I took a pay cut.  But it has been worth it.  This is the first time in a very long time I can honestly say that I really do enjoy my job.  Along with that, I now have the same school schedule as Tucker.  We'll have the same snow days, early release days, last day of school, etc. 2.   In my mind I'm still training for a marathon and burning tons of calories, but I'm not.  Yet I'm still eating like I'm burning those calories and my pants are getting tighter.  I need to either run more miles or eat less. 3.   When the stylist says "I can wax your brows while you're back here" - she's really saying "Holy crap, look at those crazy ass b...

Parent Teacher Conference time is here and for all teachers it means extra long work days.  Fortunately, I had a break between the time school ended and the time I needed to back at school for conferences, which = RUN time!   The only issue is that if I go for a run, I'm going to be stinky.  I won't have time to shower before having to head back to school.    And I definitely don't want to be known as that stinky teacher. Timing couldn't have been more perfect because the day before conferences, I received a nice package in the mail from ShowerPill - full of Athletic Body Wipes.   I am impressed with ShowerPill.  The scent was light and fresh and the cloth itself was thick and quite large.  It definitely did the job.  I immediately felt refreshed and confident that I wasn't going to be stinky. Right now, ShowerPill is offering my readers a special promotion to Buy 2 boxes, get 1 box FREE for a special Black Friday sale on Amazon....

After my last post about virtual races - I started thinking that I should do a master list of virtual races.  To me there seems to be more of them at this time of year, or I could be delusional.   Probably the later, since I feel like I'm on overdrive right now. I'm going to break them down into categories - FREE Leslie & Christine's Kickin' Asphalt Facebook Virtual Running Community My college friend, Leslie and her running buddy have created a facebook community you definitely need to check out.  It was Leslie's goal to run a half marathon each month this year and she was having a hard time finding one for month of December.   Their solution?  Can't find one - create one!   Now that was easy.  And what's even better, you don't have to travel or be at a race at a certain time.  They've created a few races on their page.  Right now they have a Virtual Thanksgiving 5k on 11/22 , a Virtual Frigid Half Marathon on 12/2 ...

I do enjoy racing - but lately I'm finding it harder and harder to fit them into my schedule.  I'm also trying to not run every race I see/want to do in trying to save up for the larger races I want to do - those marathons aren't cheap! I've been finding virtual runs to be much more conducive to my odd schedules.  Which means I can now run a 5k at 5AM if that's the only time in my schedule to run it.  Love the flexibility here.  What's even better is a lot of the virtual races I've been doing have been raising money for causes such as Suz & Allan's latest virtual races - for Wounded Warriors and Breast Cancer most recently Louise's Lobtah Virtual Run which focused on raising money for her neighbor for some much needed surgeries so he can return to work. http://www.runnersramblings.com/2012/10/maine-lobstah-virtual-run.html Or, you could always join my friend Leslie's Virtual Running Community - Kickin' Asphalt and participate...

When it comes to running, I definitely prefer to run outside.  There is something about the fresh air and running to a destination that is much more pleasing to me.  Last year, I somehow managed to run outside for almost every run.  I believe I only "came inside" 1 or 2 times and I had to borrow my day care provider's treadmill. This year is FAR different.  I now work at a local gym, which = access to a treadmill basically anytime I want AND I work at my local high school that has a fantastic fitness room - just a few doors down from my classroom!  I went to having access to zero treadmills to TWO!  Anytime I want.   As you know, fitting in longer runs can be a challenge for me when it comes to my work schedule, Ward's work schedule and taking care of/being around for the kids.  For some reason, Ward worked from home on Wednesday and Thursday which to me = GO RUN JEN!  So I did.   On Wednesday I took on 10 miles afterschool o...