Introducing My First Guest Post Ever! : Meet Shannon

I feel honored to introduce my first guest post ever! 

My blog is relatively new, almost 6 months old, so I didn't even dream of anyone taking much interest in it...not yet anyway. But I was contacted by a fellow blogger earlier this week who wanted to guest post.

As you all know my blog talks about my running, my training for a marathon next year, my hair, my life, and my food. Basically, my overall experiences with trying to stay healthy and injury free. 

So I feel Shannon's experience stays true to that. Plus, she is hilarious! I hope you all enjoy her post! Don't forget to comment and visit her blog!

Oh, and if any of you lovely people want to guest post in the future, don't be shy. Just shoot me an email at: nonataylor@gmail.com. I would love to hear any and all ideas!

Randomness

I am officially a gym-goer! I got my membership yesterday. Actually, speaking of the gym yesterday...

I FINALLY TRIED ZUMBA!!

It was hilarious because as you all know my mom has been wanting me to go with her for weeks. For some reason or another we haven't been able to go. Well, yesterday was the day.

My mom actually thought the class was Sha'bam. We walk in and I see a different teacher so already I'm suspicious. My suspicions were realized when the instructor turned around with a t-shirt that said "Zumba" on it.

I turn to my mom and tell her: "Um, I think this is Zumba". My mom says: "Oh" and shrugs. So we stay. I'm thinking that it's a good thing because she's wanted to try it for some time.

We are in there doing the steps for about ten minutes and my mom turns to me and says: "I'm ready to go!". Yes, I almost fell to the floor laughing! Here I was apprehensive about it and my mom wanted to give up after 10 minutes! Of course I didn't let her. We stuck it out for the entire 60 minutes.

Really, it's understandable why my mom wanted to leave.

• The room was RIDICULOUSLY CROWDED
• Everyone, but us, knew how to do the steps
• The instructor was hyper-active and didn't teach us how to do the steps before she started
• There was a lot of booty shaking. My mom is not a booty shaker.

Overall, it was a pretty hilarious situation. I should have taken pictures of my mother's "stank face" because she had it the entire class! Personally, I think it's OK. Would I do it again? Probably not. Mainly because it's not enough of a workout for me. I do give it some credit though because there is a lot of jumping around. But I'd rather do body combat or Sha'bam or body pump. So, yea, that's Zumba.

[We went to the gym today and my mom had her appointment with the personal trainer. I did weights after a warm up on the elliptical. Wednesday we had a rest day so tomorrow morning we are hitting a class to make up for it. Then running for me on Sunday followed by Sha'bam!]

In other news I'm trying to re-work my diet a bit. I typically don't eat anything before a run. If I do I feel nauseous. It doesn't matter if I wait 3 hours after I eat. For that reason I typically like to run in the morning. I eat breakfast after I run.

This week I've been incorporating Cliff Bars into my eating regimen. Last week I bought some vitamins and I have to take them with food. Usually I eat half the Cliff Bar and then have my normal breakfast after I run. So far so good.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to eat (and what not to eat) before a run? Or any suggestions on how I can train my stomach so that I don't feel queasy when I do eat?

In an entirely non-related note, I decorated my mom's house for Halloween! This is definitely the first time it's ever been decorated. Ok, my younger brother and Chema helped too. Marvel in the magnificence that is scary stuff. 

(Hey, I haven't been able to celebrate Halloween for 4 years so I'm into it this year).

This was my vision and my favorite part.

Clearly, my brother's idea.

We all helped with this one but Chema did the hard stuff.

This was a brother and sister colaboration.

This was my mom's idea!

I can't wait to give out candy to all the little trick-or-treaters!

Just A Quicky

I know, I was supposed to post Wednesday to let you all know how the foot (and Zumba) went. Yesterday, I was supposed to post a recipe and today I was supposed to post a completely different post. 

  

Hey, life happens is all I can say.

 My foot still feels great!

I ran at the gym yesterday. My mom wanted to do Zumba (as you all know) but the class at 730pm was too late for her. I would've done cycling (or spinning) instead, but we got there too late. 

You have to sign up 30 minutes before because it fills up fast. But I had a meeting in another city and my mom takes forever to get ready...so it didn't happen.

Instead, I ran for 25 minutes and the bike for 5 minutes and my mom did the bike. It was nice and low key because, believe it or not, I was still sore from body combat! That class is no joke! My mom definitely wants to take the class again next week.

She ended up getting a membership. I got 8 extra free days! So it worked out for us both. I have until the 12th of October. 

I'm happy with that. That'll give me enough time to try out more classes and be moral support for my mom as she starts her membership.

Actually, she has her first personal training session on Monday! Go her!

Anyway, I'm contemplating whether to run tomorrow or have a rest day. We went to the gym today and I helped my mom on the machines. She wanted to work her arms and legs. I did a bit but it wasn't really a workout for me. We shall see.

Other than that I will try to do the recipe this weekend if I can. No promises though.

Have a good weekend!

Foot Update and tomfoolery at the gym

This foot injury is WEIRD! 

I went for a walk with my brother every day this week, except today because I went to the gym with my mom.

 Aren't we cute?

Body combat rules! We might hit zumba tomorrow but I'm not sure I'm up for embarrassing myself quite yet.

Okay, yesterday we went on our walk and I used some old running shoes.

Oh, random moment, here's a nice car we saw:

Oh, and some people have already put up Halloween decorations! Crazy.

You can't see it that well, but yes, it's a pumpkin. We even saw scarecrows but didn't take pics. I don't know what we were thinking.

Anyway, the sneakers aren't technically old. Since you're supposed to swap out shoes, I swapped out those. I really like them so I didn't want to wear them out.Well, I wore them to go walking because they matched my outfit.

So we walked for about 70 minutes and then I went for a run. I only did 20 minutes because I didn't want to put uneccessary strain on my foot. Especially since I knew I'd be going to the gym today.

My foot felt great! Completely fine. I woke up this morning with no-pain-whatsoever! Strange, right?

In body combat today, I felt no pain. My mom and I registered for a 7-day free tryout pass. The monthly plan is pretty decent. It's only $44 a month and since we live at the same address the second person is $30.

Completely high tech: all of the treadmills have touch screens, each elliptical it's own TV... However, there's a gym even closer for only $10 a month, no committment. I will definitely check that place out before I make any decisions.

Tomorrow I plan to run at the gym and I hope to feel no pain. Right now my foot feels great. I don't know what to make of it.

Brooke @ FreeBird Runner had such a great suggestion: do some foot strengthening exercises!

(By the way, you should check out her blog if you haven't. She is super nice and positive and runs in the most beautiful places! If I had a blogroll she'd be on it without a doubt.)

Google is amazing. Once I put together my routine I'll share it with you all but I'm excited about it! Hopefully it will help me avoid this phantom "injury" in the future.

Stay tuned for tomorrow because my mom might just make me do zumba with her...