21 Miles in 3 Days = New record for me

So life has been pretty busy, which is why I continue to be off my normal blogging schedule.  So 21 miles in 3 days is a new record for me.  I don't think I have ever logged that much distance in so short a time.  I did a 10 mile long run Sunday, a 5 mile recovery run on Monday and 6 mile interval run last night.  The intervals were tough!  It was a great workout though, and the Garmin was super handy for it since I could keep track of my distances.

In other fun fitness news, for Christmas, I received a lot of gift cards, most of them to Amazon.  While I'm normally a big fan of Amazon (love that Amazon Prime) my affections have lately transferred back to Barnes & Noble with my acquisition of the new color nook.  So what to do with the Amazon gift cards?  I decided to get something I have wanted for a long, long time:  A Manduka Black Mat Pro with carrying case.  And it was an amazing deal.  Since I started doing yoga, one of my greatest struggles has been slipping and sliding all over my mat and my admittedly bony elbows and knees and shoulders getting aggravated by hard floors that yoga mats couldn't seem to help.  I bought a Manduka towel, and that helped with the slipperiness, but even that got a little frustrating during fast-paced classes.  I had a couple big fitness goals this year, and some that are still fleshing out. One of the solid ones though was to up my yoga practice; it makes such a difference for every other aspect of my life.  And I have lusted after this Manduka mat for a long time, but couldn't conceive of paying that much for a yoga mat on my working-girl salary.

My new mat came this past Saturday and I have been doing the happy dance ever since.  Starting next week, I should be able to get to a yoga class, and hopefully try out a new studio I have been hearing amazing things about, Big Fish Yoga.  Since I have an extra mat now, I can try out Recycle Your Mat, a company that recycles old mats and keeps them out of landfills to reduce waste.

I've been learning slowly and surely over the past couple years now that even though sports equipment, wear, etc is expensive (though sometimes you can find great deals and not all of it is necessary) that sometimes spending a little extra is worth it.  Many of these items will last for a long time or really become something that makes a difference in your training.  I'm a sucker for a good deal, but then I realized I had spent as much on ill-fitting tech shirts that were on sale, so I could have several, but none of which fit well, while I could have used the same amount to find something of good quality that will last a while and fit comfortably.

That's all for now.  Lot's to do.  Moving this weekend so even more stuff to put up on the craigslist!