As I sit here and watch my kids play with their new toys ~ most popular were the trampoline-turned-ball-pit, plethora of baby doll stuff and the Razor scooters ~ I thought I’d share a few of my favorites that were under our tree this Christmas! Time with family, a week off work and celebrating baby Jesus are the real gifts (of course)… but a few running & fitness related items are always fun to head into the new year! Many thanks to Santa, my hubs and our parents for helping me prepare for another 365 days of merry miles & time on the mat. 🙂

My Top Five Fitness Gifts of 2017

1. lululemon “The Towel” – I seem to be one of the few at Harbor Yoga without one of these! With their 103 degree temps, having an extra layer to absorb the sweat seems like a great idea.

2. Training Journal – I’m big on journaling and recording my miles and workouts.  To me, its super motivational, and can help with goal setting & planning out your week. This could be a blog post on its own!  I’ve used several different types over the years ~ BELIEVE training journal, plain lined journal ~ and this year asked for an Erin Condren planner to try something new.  It has spots for writing goals, motivational quotes (which I’m a sucker for), weekly planning and more!

3. Gift cards and a shopping trip with my mom – I’ll be heading to Dick’s & lululemon to start, searching for a new running coat. I am NOT a cold weather runner, so once it hits 20s or lower, I’m definitely in a jacket. I’ve been eyeing the luluemon Down for a Run and the Northface Thermoball Active Jacket.  I currently have the lululemon Fleecy Keen run jacket that I’ve had for a few years… LOVE it and want a white or more reflective option as well. Let me know if you have any insight!

4. Destination trip details!! –  Eeeek!  One of my absolute favorite things is to travel! Isn’t it fun to explore new places, especially while running?! Stocking stuffers included…

• Registration to the Knoxville Half Marathon in March – this will be my 10th state and we are excited to spend a few days in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina for our spring break this year.
• Denver Running Tour – we are headed to Denver in July for our anniversary (my first time!) and we are scheduling a City Running Tour! I originally was hoping to do the half marathon while we were there, but since its a short trip, this is a good compromise. I’m hoping to run stairs or do yoga at Red Rocks as well, it’s come highly recommended!

5. Hubby running Cap City – so this one wasn’t wrapped up under the tree, but within the last few days he’s committed to running the Cap City half marathon! This has become one of my top five gifts this week. 🙂 He will train with me over the next few months and will start at least the first half of the race with me in the two hour pace group… then he may pull ahead and finish strong. This will be his second half marathon and compared to the Flying Pig, will be flat & fast.  I look forward to the time we’ll spend during training miles, the race and the after-party!!

Other gifts this year included a NoxGear visibility vest, Honey Stinger fuel, some new water bottles, Nike running gloves, Nike running vest, oodles of running socks (which my husband will likely steal, even though they are pink), a renewed subscription to Runner’s World and a new book, Run Less, Run Faster.  Runners are easy to shop for, in my opinion.  Anything that helps us stay warm, stay focused or just look “put together” while we sweat gets an A+ from me!

Completely unrelated to running – my mom wrapped up a coupon for our first Disney Cruise on spring break of 2019! This will be our first and I’m super excited! More on this in the future.  Can you turn a cruise into a running blog post?! Hee hee.

Hope your Christmas or holiday was a fun one! What great running, yoga or fitness gifts did you get (or give)?

Now time to put all this stuff to good use and start focusing on those 2018 fit goals!