{Picture is from last year’s Pittsburgh Marathon expo}

Note (warning?): A lot of these are explicit. I like swear words. They make me have more energy.

Turbulence – Steve Aoki & Laidback Luke featuring Lil’ Jon
I Need a Dollar – Aloe Blacc
Tonight is the Night – Outasight
Ray of Light – Madonna
Crank it Up – David Guetta
Ooh Wee – Mark Ronson
Ni**as in Paris – JAY Z & Kanye
Rack City – Tyga
Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
T.H.E. – will.i.am
Party on Fifth Ave. – Mac Miller
I like it Like That (Goldstein Remix) – Hot Chelle Rae
Countdown – Beyonce
Work out – J Cole
Headstrong – Trapt
You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Shake Senora House Remix – Raco Rabanne
Save the World Tonight (Extended Remix) – Swedish House Mafia
The Anthem – Pitbull
We Found Love – Glee Cast
Love on Top – Beyonce
Rock That Body (Skrillex Remix) – Black Eyed Peas
Hangover – Taio Cruz
Miss You – Foster the People
Midnight City – M83
One (Your Name) (Vocal Mix) – Swedish House Mafia
Jumpin’, Jumpin’ – Destiny’s Child
Ghosts N Stuff – deadmau5
Ready Steady Go – Oakenfold
Take Care – Drake featuring Rihanna
Check It Out – will.i.am and Nicki Minaj
Our House – Madness
Baby – Justin Bieber
I Ran (So Far Away) – Flock of Seagulls
Pump it up – Elvis Costello
Party People – N.E.R.D.
Hot in Herre – Nelly
Blackout – Breathe Carolina
Runaway Baby – Bruno Mars
Booty Wurk – T-Pain
International Love – Pitbull and Chris Brown
Days Go By – Dirty Vegas
Love You Like a Love Song – Selena Gomez
Blue Monday [12" Version] – New Order
We Got The Beat – Glee Cast

Listen to this right this second on Spotify.
Visit my playlists page for parts I-V.

Other playlist resources:

• Fitnessista always has good songs. Her latest playlist for the 2012 Winter Shape Up is here
• Fit Bottomed Girls has a great playlist section here
• Health/Fitness Magazines are always posting playlists. SHAPE and Women’s Health are two that come to mind

How I’m feeling this week:
TIRED. After working out five days this week, I am feeling the fatigue set in. You know what else? My left leg hurts. Feels like I could get my shin splints back if I don’t treat them now. Also, I have been hungry since my long run this afternoon, despite eating a few times. I haven’t felt like that since my first half marathon training days. What I attribute this to, though is I have not been on a regimented training schedule for 8 months. I like to think of this past week as transition week.

What I ran this week:

• Tuesday 1/17: 4.00 miles, 49:35 (12:23 average pace), treadmill
• Thursday 1/19: 5.02 miles, 1:00:42 (12:06 average pace), treadmill
• Saturday 1/21: 4.02 miles, 43:16 (10:46 average pace), treadmill
• Sunday 1/22: 6.02 miles, 1:06:18 (11:01 average pace), (snow-covered) track and road

TOTAL: 19.06 miles, 3:39:53

{That handy chart is thanks to Garmin Connect. Such a great way to track everything online.}

In this transition week, I am also pacing myself. I had a slow pace everyday, and I think this is for two reasons. One, I don’t want to burn myself out too quickly. I want to ease into it. Two, I am getting back into training shape.

How I cross-trained this week:
Wednesday 1/18: 1 hour of hot vinyasa yoga

What I ate this week:
Greens! Water! Yay! Although I wasn’t 100% perfect, I cut back on the badness and focused on the good. I even had a couple alcoholic beverages
{Left: Wheat grass. My gym has been selling them. I chase it with apple juice. Right: The old standard Green Monster.}

And I got reunited with “running food.”

{Left: Coconut water. I mix it with lemon and water. Right: Running Jelly Beans. Verdict? Delicious. Thanks to my running buddy Autumn for giving me those.}

Roadblocks this week:
None, really. I was excited to get started. I will say the snow was a bit of a roadblock, though. Hence why I was stuck on the treadmill Saturday morning. Today I braved the cold and headed outside. Running on a high school track covered with snow was interesting. It felt like running on sand at the beach (with the added fear of slipping). I managed a mile and a half, then kept to the school complex the rest of the time. Also, snowstorms make me want to curl up on the couch all day.

Goals for the week ahead:
Keep it up! I need that momentum to see me through. Also, ice and stretch to prevent shin splints. Finally, I have to travel for work on Wednesday, so my goal is to do a little cross training when we get back to Pittsburgh, despite 8 hours of car time. Maybe a spin class or 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym. Business travel is definitely a road block.

This week’s running topic: Safety.
I’ve written about staying safe before, but Skinny Runner’s post this week provided a lot more tips in light of recent events of women being harmed while running. My biggest tip to stay safe is to not broadcast where you are. I run alone a lot, and I never talk online about where I am outdoors. I also always tell someone where I’m going and at what time, then again when I’m done. It’s easy to text your mom before and after a run.

Bonus round:
I’ve decided to add some hashtaggery to these recaps. If you’re on Twitter and following along or training yourself, let’s use #LRAM for Let’s Run a Marathon. This can be used for recaps and musings throughout the week.

And check back here on Wednesday morning — I will be posting the latest installment of Songs to Run to!

“After all it was a great big world, with lots of places to run to.”

How I’m feeling this week:
Fat and lazy. Honestly I didn’t have a good week healthy-wise. But running-wise, I’ve been running regularly since the last half, but no where near consistently or long enough. 3-5 miles is my general base. But that’s all I need right now — a base. And I am about to get on a good regimen. Tomorrow is a new day.

What I ran this week:
3 miles on Monday, 1/9. I need to step. it. up.

How I cross-trained this week:
Walked around Washington, DC.

What I ate this week:
Let’s just say there were too many beers, burgers and bar food involved.

Roadblocks this week:
See above.

Goals for the week ahead:
Cut down on the booze and diet pop; up water intake. Slowly but surely cut down on the junk food. Read Runner’s World “Your First Marathon” training guide. And run 15-16 miles, most importantly. Here’s the training plan I am using (I plan on cross-training on Wednesdays):

See you next Sunday with a check-in on my progress! Want to ask me a question or request I blog about something marathon-related? Email me.

January

Celebrated 4 years with the best guy I know (we’ll be at 5 years next week!)

Won a fancy award

February
Came back to the ad agency where I started my career, and took in the view

March
When “WINNING!” was actually funny

Visted Austin, TX for southern BBQ, SXSW music and some March Madness for good measure

April

Tried out bangs for the first time since elementary school

Colored Easter eggs

May

Ran my second half marathon

June
Enjoyed the patio

Celebrated a momentous work occasion with cupcakes

July
Fourth fireworks in the ‘burgh

Made and documented my breakfast

Turned one year closer to 30. GULP.

August
Took in a Pirates game…

…and began the Steelers season

September
Reunited with my love of PSL

Celebrated boot weather

October
Got a new mug

Walked around in the rain in the windy city

Celebrated PITT football at an epic tailgate

Discovered the Heinz History Museum

November

Oktoberfest beer!


Suffered through the second Steelers loss to the Ravens. But not without some friendly bashing

Took in Pittsburgh Light Up Night from 40 flights up

Had my first Mad Mex gobblerito

December

Finally got Instagram

And continued the pretty Christmas tree trend

Captured Pittsburgh one last time

Me? I’d like to try Pilates there. Since I am an all yoga kind of girl, it would be interesting to change it up and try something new.

Thank you to all who entered! I put your names (and additional entries) into a spreadsheet, then into Random.org. According to the website, the winner is…

Congrats, Marisa! I agree with you on the nutritional counseling. Would love to have someone next to me at all times yelling, “Step away from the bag of chips!”   You can use your gift card towards whatever you’d like. Just email me your address (or DM it to me on Twitter), and Verve will put it in the mail for you.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012!

Toys R Us. 8 p.m. on December 20. That alone is enough to make me run for the hills. But I had little kid shopping to do, which usually brings me to this store around this time of year. What kid wouldn’t want a Christmas present from Toys R Us? Anyways, I was at the register ready to check out when I told the associate I had a Google Offer (I snagged a great $10 for $20 offer last week in my gmail knowing I’d be at that store in the near future). I gave the associate my phone with the barcode to scan. It didn’t work. He looked perplexed. He tried again and scratched his head. I asked him to try again and maybe ask for help. So he called for another person to come over. Another woman came over and basically just told me it wasn’t going to work. Fail #1. I had bought my offer fair and square. I was redeeming it within the allotted time frame. She told me to call 1-800-Toys R Us to get a gift card. Oh joy. A Toys R Us gift card. Just what I want AFTER my shopping is done. I usually have little patience for this type of thing but I politely paid full price and left the store. Since I had a-ways to drive home, I decided to call the 800-number immediately and tell them the story. So I was directed to customer service and told the lady on the phone about what happened. I then had to describe what a Google Offer is, exactly. Now I’m starting to shake my head.

“I think I’ve heard of that,” she said. “Oh, good,” I thought. “‘I think’ is exactly what I want to hear.” Sarcasm. So she goes and talks to her supervisor. At this point I am thinking they will refund me or give me the gift card I don’t want. But no, wait for what happened next…

“Ma’am, I talked with my supervisor and we’ve only heard of this one other time. We believe you got scammed.”

At this point, my heart sunk for a moment. I once had a run-in with a debit card thief in 2005 when I first tried Ebay. Memories were brought back of this. But then I quickly snapped back to reality and realized that this woman had no idea what she was talking about. Scammed? I was completely flabbergasted. I received this offer from GOOGLE, then downloaded the app on my ANDROID, the Google operating system. No way was it a “scam.”

“You’ll have to call your credit card company and have them refund you.”

So what did I do? Call my credit card company? Nope. I just hung up and then looked at Twitter. I found Toys R Us’ official, verified account. And alas, ten or so tweets down saw this:

Oh yeah. That looks like a scam to me. Sarcasm again. Fail #2.

At this point, I thought about finding the CMO of Toys R Us’ email address so I could email him or her directly. A nice, “Heads up, buddy, but half your company has no idea you’re running a deal,” would have sufficed.

But with this new information I learned from Twitter, I decided to call customer service back. I spoke with a different woman who put me on hold for 12 minutes. At minute 13 I hung up and called back because I have no patience for hold music. So after speaking with my THIRD customer service woman, I again had to explain what a Google Offer was. “Think of it like a Groupon,” I said. Then she called Google “Groogle.” Oy vey. Finally, she directed me to the online department, where I was connected to the most friendly southern woman ever. She affectionately referred to me as “honey” and “darling.” Which if you are a southern woman, I gladly appreciate.

When I told Southern Gal my story, she sounded completely embarrassed. When I asked her if she knew what a Google Offer was, she knew right away. “The 10 for 20 offer?” she asked. Exactly.

I leveled with her. I said that I had a baby gift to buy for a friend’s baby shower next month, and she’s registered at Babies R Us, so I would try again. This time online. She said online was probably the best way and if I had trouble, to call back the online department. I’m sure if I had nothing to buy she would have helped me get my money back. It’s only $10. But this is all about the principle.

So what’s the moral of the story? Two words: Integration and Communication.

Social is great. It’s such a nice tool to be able to speak with your audience directly, and get actionable feedback and insights. And do some pretty fun and cool stuff to boot. However, if you have brick and mortar stores, it would be wise to bridge the gap between the online and offline employees. If you launch a great offer right before Christmas, you should make your employees in- store aware and be able to scan a mobile phone. You should also make your customer service folks answering phones aware of how to fix the problem if there is one. It’s the same thing as having a Facebook or other social deal or promotion. If you’re a retail giant like Toys R Us, make sure that all channels are aware and educated before launch. Do a lunch and learn. Or at least a company-wide email. Social and online marketing budgets are growing and growing each year. Only having a small portion of your company aware of online initiatives is grounds for customer frustration. The same goes for educating your online employees of things happening offline and in store. They go hand-in-hand, and if they work together, can be a great thing.

Verve 360 is a health and wellness spa and salon in Pittsburgh that encompasses 360 degrees of wellness. According to their website, they are leading a life-changing revolution by creating a model for complete and and total reinvention both inside and out. Their services include Pilates, yoga, massages, manicures, pedicures, waxing, facials, makeup and haircare. Not to mention, nutritional counseling,  health education, stress management and retail products. That’s a whole lot of good stuff. I like the fact that it’s a one-stop-shop. You can take in a yoga class and get your eyebrows waxed in one fail swoop. Verve 360 is located in downtown Pittsburgh on 142 Sixth Street. Also convenient to stop before or after work, or on your lunch break.

To watch a video to learn more about the salon and see it, just scan the QR code. Good luck!

1. Invest in an epic planner
I’ve been using a planner since about the fifth grade. My first one was Ziggy day planner circa 1994. In middle school they forced us to use a planner to write down homework assignments. I gladly obliged. I’ve been using one ever since, all throughout college and now at work. When I first starting using a BlackBerry about four years ago I attempted to sync my work calendar and personal calendar on one handy device. After hours of being on the phone with a RIM employee in Canada trying to troubleshoot duplicates and missing dates, I quickly resorted back to the tried-and-true day planner. Besides, there’s nothing better than highlighting, color coding and crossing things off the list. I want my 2012 planner to be both a calendar, to-do list and note important work deadlines. Not to mention track my marathon training. I originally liked this from Pinterest:

You can print out your own here. But, you wanna know what’s even better that I just discovered? THIS:

Seriously, it’s like they are inside my brain. Will be ordering my Erin Condren “Life Planner” this week. Thanks for the reco, @ChrissyDecapite!

2. Streamline your contacts
Unlike my day planner, I CANNOT have my contacts in a hand-written book. I need emails and phone numbers available on my phone, 24/7. So, I am still trying to manage that process. Right now, I’ve got 3 separate email contacts that my phone pulls plus the original phone contacts I had when I got the phone, plus Google+ contacts I don’t need. That’s a lot of pluses. Anyways, there are lots duplicates in my phone, and goofy things going on within the “notes” section, and some contacts have their old information in it. VERY annoying. So 0ver the holidays, I am going to backup the phone, then completely wipe it and reload with current, relevant info. Annoying? Yes. Necessary? Definitely. And I will be stopping at Verizon with my laptop and phone in hand gladly willing to accept free help. Any suggestions that can help this process? Leave a comment!

3. Unsubscribe to, or reorganize emails
My Twitter friend @Julia_Prior tweeted this yesterday, and it could not have been more timely:

Well said, Julia. The takeaway is “never get around to reading.” My Yahoo email BLOWS UP with emails daily, most of which I delete, and sometimes I am missing emails from friends and family because of it. So, take 30 minutes to evaluate what’s useful to you and what’s not, then unsubscribe. Feel like you’ll miss a deal or important blog post? Create a new email address for email subscriptions only so you can capture things like Groupons, travel deals and important industry news. Then transfer everything over there so when you do need it, it’s there.

4. Organize & purge
If you’re anything like me, papers pile up. I’m not even a big paper/printing person. So, go through all of those manilla folders and get rid of things you will never use again in terms of old files. I have a lot of folders with my chicken scratch in them. Or, store files somewhere if you think you will need them again. Just get them off your desk. I also have a pile of magazines and newsletters collecting dust. By now those are old news, so I’ll toss those in the recycle bin or offer to my coworkers. Cutting the clutter makes for a more organized work space. Same goes for computer files and emails. Delete old ones, store those you need, and start light and fresh for 2012 (Inbox=0 for January 1!)

5. Clean & redecorate!
I’ve been looking at my cube lately, and it’s the pits. Granted, you don’t have much to work with in a cubical, but there’s an opportunity to make it a little more homey. After all, you spend a LOT of time here. But first — clean it. Offices collect lots of dust and germs, so use some disinfectant wipes to wipe it all down. This includes your desk, shelves, drawers, phone, computer, etc. This should be a regular habit. I’m also looking to invest in a cute lamp and cork board as well as picture frames to spice up my space. Again, Pinterest has been giving me fun ideas, like this:

And this:

Bonus round:
Make a list of 2012 goals for work. Yes, it sounds corny. But it’s effective.When it’s in writing, you can look at your goals often and make them attainable. Or make a “bucket list” like another Twitter friend Arik Hanson did. Very fun!

Here’s to a successful and fun 2012..and making it to 2013

Questions? Email me.