Three Things Thursday ~ 1st Quarter Wrap Up

We're almost through the first week of April, but I wanted to recap how the first quarter of this year went:

1.  Running
My focus for January was to build my endurance.  February I wanted to focus on hills and I completed the Strava climbing challenge for the month with over 6500' of climbing .  I also found out that I had won a free entry to the Utah Valley Marathon!  That puts my running in focus until June 10th.  I've completed all my long runs so far and my legs are feeling good.  I've continued to cross train on the bike and still really love it.

I don't always eat dessert, but when I do...

2.  Nutrition and Health
My second January focus was to decrease sugar.  I went the entire month without dessert and felt better than I had in about six months.  We are now allowing ourselves one dessert a week and sometimes we don't even have that.  I'll always love sugar, but my body doesn't love it nearly as much.  My anxiety/heart palpitations have been completely absent and I feel pretty strongly that sugar was a large contributor to those issues.  Bonus:  I lost 12 pounds in the first 3 months of the year!

3.  Gear
I've got over 60 miles on my new Brooks running shoes and I'm very happy with them.  My iPod shuffle finally died completely about a month ago after refusing to shuffle for months.  Since my new phone has a ton of memory I decided to just use it for my running tunes but hated the long earbud chords constantly getting caught in my equally long hair.  I finally broke down and bought the Yurbuds Inspire 500.  I've taken them on several long runs, they are comfortable and stay in.  They got the "sweat test" this morning, we are back in Hawaii and I ran 9 miles with them in without any problems.  While I'm talking about gear, I just want to say how much I still love my Suunto Ambit2.  I have had it for almost four years and it is so solid.  It's a little on the big side, but I love all the screens that are completely customizable.  I have the screens set up differently for running, cycling, walking or intervals.  Good gear isn't necessary for good running but it sure is fun!

Total distance for Q1:
Running: 202.72
Cycling 207.79
Walking 53.35
Total: 463.86

How was your first quarter?