If You Give A Girl A Ring: April 2012

Well this week officially kicked off my half marathon training. On July 22, I'm running the Chicago Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. I'm super excited to run this for a few reasons:

I love Chicago and am looking forward to spending the weekend there with B.
Every mile marker has bands playing at it. That'll be some good motivation to keep me going.
I have a few friends who are running it and am anxious to see them and run along with them!

This will be my second half marathon and I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about how hot it will be in July. We've already been having unseasonably warm weather so who knows what it will be like mid-July. That was the main reason why I didn't want to run it since I absolutely hate humidity. However, the race does start at 6:30 a.m. so I figured it *hopefully* won't be too bad.

I've already told myself I don't care how long it takes me to run this one. If it's hot and humid, I'll take my time and take walking breaks as I need them. Plus this is a much bigger race than the Omaha Half Marathon, so I don't know how I'll do dodging around all these people.

Since the race is about 12 weeks away, I started my half marathon training this week and here's what my week looks like:

Sunday: Cross training and full body weights
Monday: 2 mile run + arms
Tuesday: 3.5 mile run
Wednesday: 2 mile run + legs
Thursday: cross training + full body
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 5 or 6 mile run

I've been trying to do my runs outside as much as I can and my time is improving each time which I'm really proud of. One thing that is really helping me get into training is my FitBit. I had seen this on Pinterest and was really interested in it. It's basically a fancy pedometer. It counts how many steps you walk everyday, stairs climbed, calorie burned, miles walked and you can wear it in a wristband at night while you sleep. When you're asleep, it tracks how long you were in bed, how long it took you to fall asleep, how long you were asleep and how many times you woke up.

My mom and dad bought me one and mailed it to me and I was so anxious to start using it. You really have no idea how many (or not so many) steps you take in a day. I was surprised at how many I take while in the house and how little I take when I'm at work. You're supposed to aim to have 10,000 steps a day and so far I've made sure to hit that each day because otherwise I feel guilty! I didn't think this little thing would have that effect on me but it does! I'll do a post at the end of the week with my stats from this week....!

Lately I've been on the hunt for the perfect foundation for my skin. When I go to work, I don't wear a ton of makeup, but I need foundation to even out my skin tone. Since I'm at a desk all day and don't want to be overly made up, I've always tended to choose lighter foundations. However, the problem I've realized is that throughout the day it wears off and my skin looks very red and uneven. So, I started to look around and now I'm on the hunt for the best foundation for my skin.

I decided to start looking around in my own collection of makeup to see what I had been neglecting to use. Since I have sensitive skin, I started to use my Bobbi Brown Illuminating Skin Compact Foundation. While I liked the feel of this powder, it felt like it was just a pressed powder I was putting on my face and therefore it doesn't have much staying power.

I decided to try a few foundations that I had been hearing a lot about. One is the Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation. I heard this lasted 12 hours and it was good for oily skin so I gave it a try. While I wasn't a fan of the texture of it (very clay like), it did have good staying power. It's a full coverage foundation but doesn't feel like it, and my skin stayed red-free all day. My only issues with this foundation were that it made my skin feel very clammy and I looked extremely pale with it. Granted I have fair skin but I think the color washed me out even more. I ended up returning this foundation but I want to give it a try when I have a tan-then I might like it a little better.

Another one I decided to try was the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Foundation. I've never tried drugstore foundation before but had heard rave reviews about this one. I like the eraser top on it because it helps distribute just enough product. It's a nice, light foundation but I still get red throughout the day. I have almost finished one tube of it and will repurchase it since it's a) inexpensive b) a good foundation that's easy to apply on those days you need to get your makeup done fast.

I also did buy a Laura Mercier foundation but I haven't worn it enough to determine if I like it or not.

One of my favorites that I keep coming back to is my Bobbi Brown Skin foundation. It stays fairly well on my oily skin but I still get that redness throughout the day. I'll probably always keep this in my collection because it feels good on my skin and looks natural.

I still have my BareMinerals still and am thinking about going back to that for awhile. I don't know why I stopped using it in the first place but maybe once I start to use it again it'll grow on me. Now that summer is almost here I'm thinking my skin might like the break from liquid foundation for awhile.

There are some other foundations I'd like to try as well including a new one from Benefit, and two from Make Up For Ever including their HD foundation and the matte velvet plus. I'm also looking into another mineral foundation which is the Smashbox Halo Hydrating Powder.

Any of you have any recommendations for a foundation you love?