Chocolate is MY LIFE

Rest Days

2012-03-08T08:01:00.002-05:00

I've noticed something interesting about my Half Ironman training plan. You get a rest day, like, once every three weeks if you're lucky.

I've usually had one rest day a week while marathon training. When I started training for the Stone Mill 50 Miler, I bumped it up to two rest days per week, and since I am prone to laziness, I was in heaven.

I only wish this showed a Forever Lazy.

Transitioning to working out every single day is a big change for me. On one hand, I can sort of see why. When training for a marathon, or a 50 mile race, you are running all the time. Always using the same muscles, always pounding on your joints, and I know my body definitely needed a break from that.

From my limited experience with triathlon training, switching between three sports gives your body a break, without actually taking a break. After this past weekend, my legs were tired from a busy weekend of cycling, running, and lifting weights. Monday morning was a swim workout, so that switches the bulk of the workout to my arms. So, my body hasn't had that overwhelming, wow I can barely even put on my socks feeling when you KNOW it's time for a rest day.

Rest days are hugely mental for me though. I NEED to know that at least one day a week, I don't have to get the energy to push through a workout at 5am. Focusing on that helps me get through those other tough workouts. So I don't really know how this once every three weeks deal will work out for me. I couldn't get up again today, and this didn't even happen last night.

My big mistake last night was attending grad class.

So far, I'm on what's probably my longest ever workout streak since my boyfriend in college joined the army (I needed to fill the void). If I make it until my planned rest day on Saturday, I will have completed 18 straight days of working out. So, basically, that's running a marathon, taking two rest days, then working out every day for three straight weeks until another rest day the day before another marathon. Does that make sense? Good.

Yet, my weekly running mileage has dropped from 30-40 mpw (or something, I don't really keep track, but I think that's close) to something like 8-13 mpw. Which is exactly what I planned to do, except that marathon Sunday is making me question it. (But, as you can see, I am following through with the most important part of marathon training - setting up my excuses ahead of time.)

Not that every one of those workouts has been brutal (although some have) - far from. This week I'm dialing it down every more. Bootcamp was replaced by a 5 mile easy run, I plan to do a SUPER easy hour on the trainer tonight, and swimming Friday. I can't really swim any slower without calling it "floating", but I don't think that workout will leave me exhausted.

However, I got some good news on Pinterest this morning when I was doing my once-monthly trip because I was too tired to come up with anything funny and I needed to steal pictures for the blog.

Thank goodness everyone knows redheads are already born without souls, or this might have upset me.

Do you think rest days are important, or are you one of those elites that doesn't need them?

My research is inconclusive

2012-03-07T07:59:00.001-05:00

Last week, I posted about how I discovered that not gorging myself on chocolate at night seemed to help my training. I probably shouldn't have done that, because almost as soon as I posted it, I started not following my own advice.

Monday night, I pounded some chocolate, and, predictably, Tuesday I hit snooze until it was nearly time for me to leave for work, even though I was supposed to do my favorite workout of the week, a bike trainer/run combo. Since Kari had been intrigued by my less chocolate = better workouts idea, I immediately texted her to tell her how much I'd failed at life. That's how blogging works. People who were once strangers on the internet that happened to write a blog that I enjoyed reading are now BFFs that I text before I even get my coffee.

Luckily, she'd apparently followed my advice (even though I couldn't) and was able to write a whole post about it. That's two of us, so I'm pretty sure my scientific research is ready to be published (in some sort of peer reviewed medical journal, not just on blogs).

Any time I get sucked into that snooze button mentality, I'm always lying in bed thinking "Oh, I'll just workout at night. I'll have a ton of energy then. It was be AWESOME". It continues to seem like a good idea until around 10am. Then, somewhere around one or two it starts to lose its appeal, and continues to decline until by the time I get in the car to leave work, it seems like the absolute worst thing ever.

After a fabulous 2.5 hours of afternoon meetings (who DOESN'T love meetings??), I returned to my classroom and say I'd gotten this email.

Immediately, I mentally canceled my workout and decided to hit Red Robin on my way home and focus all my energy on getting every tiny little bit of oreo out of the cup in my Forever Lazy. Such a dedicated athlete, I am.

Then I read the fine print and saw it was "with purchase, dine in only", and realized it was a no go. I could never fully enjoy the shake surrounded by people, awkwardly eating a veggie burger. Milkshakes are meant to be eaten with a spoon while watching TV on the couch.

The takeaway of this long drawn out story - I was forced to actually workout after work, and, as usual, as soon as I got started, I was glad I did. Plus, thanks to the trainer, I can simultaneously train for a Half Ironman and work on my masters degree. Sounds so much more impressive than "read an article on the stationary bike".

An hour on the bike trainer, followed by 3.5 miles of running. I even kept talking myself out of the run on the trainer, but somehow it happened.

I didn't eat any chocolate Tuesday night (mainly because I ate it all on Monday) so I was sorely disappointed when I wasn't able to excitedly leap out of bed Wednesday morning. That really pokes a hole in my theory. I did a five mile run, and a 9:30 pace felt hard, so now I'm panicking about the marathon this weekend. Naturally.

Do you work out in the evening? How do you get motivation and energy after being at work all day?

Game changer

2012-03-05T08:08:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my second long bike ride. I met my friends Mike, Lily and Jackie at Mike's house. We started out just riding around roads and bike trails in Mike's neighborhood, and returned to the scene of my first triathlon, Centennial Lake. It was a hilly route full of sharp (for me) turns and dodging all sorts of walkers and strollers. Good practice reminding myself that I was in charge of the bike, and not the other way around.

After about an hour of trying to climb big hills in killer winds, we packed up the bikes and drove down to Patabsco State Park, where we rode last weekend. It was flatter and in a valley, so we thought that would give us some protection from the wind.

Wind is really a game changer while cycling. The winds were really only about 15mph, so running in that isn't really a huge deal. Cycling in that, however, often felt like I was on the trainer - pushing as hard as I could in the lowest resistance, and barely moving. The downhills got pretty scary because my eyes would tear up and I couldn't see. The actual temperature was 40, so with the wind chill it was right around freezing, and my feet felt like blocks of ice. Running always warms me up, but cycling basically does the opposite.

Despite all that, my legs felt great, and I was, believe it or not, enjoying the ride. This led me to believe that perhaps training indoors did improve my cycling somewhat, at least in terms of endurance (not balance or anything though).

I even rode my bike across the terrifying swinging bridge (seriously it's like 2 feet wide and swings back and forth and bounces when you walk on it).

Don't know those people, but now I've set a bad example for that child by disobeying posted signs

Apparently my brain didn't feel as good as my legs because I tried to rejoin my friends with my helmet on backwards.

It wasn't as funny to recreate it, but this post needed pictures.

We got back to the cars at about 31 miles, and as much as I wanted to add a few more miles to beat last week's total, I didn't have the guts to continue braving the cold all alone. My feet were so completely numb and frozen it was getting hard to unclip my shoes from the pedals.

I threw on my running shoes, did an easy 3 mile run, and called it a day.

I also wore my borrowed tri shorts the entire time, and loved how comfortable they were. I realized that I threw that term out there with no explanation last week even though I only just learned what they are myself. Tri shorts are shorts with just a tiny bit of padding, instead of the thick padding that normal bike shorts have. They are designed to be comfortable on the bike, but also not make you feel like you are running in a diaper.

This morning my swim time increased again on my training plan. I was kind of freaking out about it. It was only 15 minutes more than last week but it seemed totally overwhelming. Somehow, I made it through the chlorine infested waters without drowning for 75 whole minutes (in freestyle).

This week I'm adjusting my training a bit to prepare for the Lower Potomac Marathon on Sunday! I'm still trying to get in a decent amount of biking and swimming (for me, anyway) so we'll see how that goes.

Gym Rat Saturday

2012-03-03T12:37:00.001-05:00

Apparently, by doing long runs on Saturday morning every week for the past few....years or something like that, I've totally been missing out on some good times at my "gym", the YMCA.

I need to do a long ride this weekend, so I am once again a slave to the weather. Today calls for thunderstorms on and off all day, which I really don't care to get caught in on my bike. My training plan called for 60 minutes of spinning, and 30 minutes of running for Sunday, so I flip flopped. The YMCA had an 8am spin class and a 9am Body Pump class, both of which perfectly align with my "please don't die" goal during my Half Ironman.

One problem - my motivation completely and totally sucks on the weekends. I have no idea why I was able to wake up at 4:30 Friday morning and work out for 90 minutes before teaching all day, yet on Saturday I can't drag myself to an 8am spin class before sitting on my whooty all day, but I can't.

So I requested backup, and convinced Lily to join me, so I'd be forced to go. I really highly suggest that anyone who has any motivation problems (which seems to be 0% of my blog readers, at least the ones who have their own blogs that I read) find a workout buddy. Problem solved.

We got on the treadmills at about 7:15 am and I did 3.5 miles in 30 minutes for an average 8:49 pace. I didn't play my music and we only talked a little (not awake yet) so I consider it further LPM training. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or what, but the treadmill feels so much easier than outdoor running to me. This felt like a comfortable pace, while outside, I have to push it to get there.

After the run, it was time for spin class. I've been to a few Friday morning classes, and those are pretty ho-hum. A decent workout, but not that "OMG this crazy bitch is trying to kill me" feeling that, in my opinion, spin classes are supposed to provide. Well, this one had a different teacher, and she clearly had that goal in mind. The theme of the class was 80s hair bands, so I was nearly deafened by Motley Crew, and I'm saying that as a positive thing.

Right away, she ripped someone a new one because the girl had the audacity to sit down (spin classes have you "stand" on the bike a lot) before being given permission, and I knew this was going to be good.

I've heard about "Tabata" workouts on blogs, and got to try my first one about halfway through this killer spin class. The instructor said you were supposed to turn up the resistance as high as you could, and then we would sprint as hard as we could for 20 second intervals, for a total of 4 minutes. She described it as "sprint to the point of failure, like if I said we were going to sprint for 21 seconds, you physically could not do it".

It sounded hard, but I figured I could handle 20 second intervals.

It pretty much destroyed my will to live. I did the first interval and was ok, but then we only got ten seconds to "recover", which was spinning at a slower pace but still at a really high resistance, so I didn't feel even remotely "recovered" when the next interval started, which was when I started to doubt I could make it through four minutes. I made it, but barely.

The best part of the morning was Body Pump. The spin teacher taught, and she was merciless. I was loving how she was totally calling people out for cheating or taking breaks. There was a large man next to me who was at least 6'4", and I couldn't help but notice that he was using less weight than me to squat. His facial expressions were what made this the best part of my morning. I couldn't quite recreate them, so imagine the ones I'm showing you to be about 200% more dramatic.

Yes, I wear tank tops in winter, because when you live in a small apartment the benefit is it's cheap to keep it feeling tropical.

I really didn't think he'd make it through the class without crying, despite the fact that he was taking breaks every other second.

THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not trying to diminish anyone's accomplishment or anything, but when a 5'1" girl that barely does strength training is next to you lifting more weight, the least you could do is try to hold yourself together.

I love not setting an alarm and laying around drinking coffee when I wake up on weekend mornings, but now I'm doing just that AND I already have a 2+ hour hardcore workout under my belt. My arms hurt when I lift my coffee cup, though.

Do you nosily check out strangers and mock them in your mind during group exercise? Hopefully that's not just me.

An interesting relationship

2012-03-02T07:50:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited to ~~brag~~ share that I completed an entire week of waking up at the time I intended to do the workout I had planned for that day. There was a time when I would just call this "a week" because there was nothing special about it, but those days are gone. For the record, I also did this last week, but since it was only a four day week, I didn't count it.

I've discovered an interesting correlation. It turns out that when I don't eat chocolate until my stomach hurts before I got to bed, waking up in the morning is significantly easier. I first started to suspect this during Valentine's week, when my students showered me in chocolate.

This doesn't even include the ones that arrived from Eric, or the next day from a kid who was absent.

Valentine's Day was on a Tuesday, and let's just say very few of those chocolates made it to the weekend. That week I could barely drag myself out of bed by 6:30 to squeak in a 3 mile easy run.

This week, I've tried to eat like I'm actually a grown up and the latest I woke up for a workout was 5:15. I'm going to try to keep this chocolate/exercise relationship in mind going forward in my training.

Wednesday was our second boot camp. Jackie was the task master, and Lily and I were her whimpering followers. I won't type up the whole workout because that's boring, but it was fast paced, torturous, worked seemingly every body part, and I'm still sore. So, I got what I came for. Jackie is extremely good at her job. I need to do a post explaining the horror of bear crawls.

Thursday was a one hour swim. Granted, I go unbelievably slow, but swimming for an hour is pretty do-able. I'm considering it practice for exercising with no music for 4 hours during my next marathon. The sun was out, and it was 70 degrees when I left work, and I stopped at the library to pick up some books I had on hold. I really wanted nothing more than to sit outside and read, but somehow I forced myself to clean and go to yoga. I went for the stretching, but somehow got tortured with "elevated chair poses" (basically holding a squat on your toes) and more planks and lunges.

Friday morning was a repeat of last week - 90 minutes of spinning. 45 on the trainer with Felicity, 45 in spin class at the YMCA because I am lazy and won't push myself to get an actual workout otherwise. I tried out a pair of tri shorts that Jackie lent me to train and race in, and they were fabulously comfortable. Are you getting the impression that you should be jealous of how awesome my friends are? That's accurate.

Despite that jealously, remember those books I just mentioned I got from the library? That's the extent of my plans for the weekend. I know I've mentioned it before, but I honestly often worry about myself because I look forward to weekends of solitude so much (Eric has to work).

You guys will be my friends, right?

Do any psychologists read my blog? Anyone want to weigh in if this means something is wrong with me?

Questionable Decisions

2012-02-28T20:53:00.001-05:00

So far this week I've done all triathlon sports within a 24 hour period. A one hour swim Monday morning, which was highly exciting because I managed to do the whole thing freestyle. That's important because that's how you have to swim in triathlons. It's a law. Usually I switch strokes because I get bored, but I guess I should break that habit.

Tuesday morning was an hour of spinning followed by 30 minutes of running. I can't wait until I can ride outside during the week more. It's way too easy to half ass a trainer ride at 5am while I'm half asleep.

Racing can get expensive, which means that just like anywhere else you may spend your money, it's tough to resist a good deal. This inability to resist a good deal has led me to some questionable decisions lately. I haven't really mentioned them, because mentioning them on the blog makes them real and real is scary.

On Valentine's Day, I cryptically mentioned that I'd made such a questionable decision but didn't elaborate. I"m finally ready to admit that I signed up for a GORUCK challenge. This is a super secret, overnight event. Basically you show up to a location that isn't announced until the week of the event (you know the city, but that's it) at 10pm, and are led through the city for 8-10 hours, covering 15-20 miles. Doing things like bear crawls, pushups, flutter kicks (during the part where they submerge you in water), buddy carries....the list goes on and on. It's super secret because the special forces members who run it don't really decide what exciting challenges it will hold ahead of time.

Oh, and you wear a backpack with 4 bricks in it the entire time.

My friend Mike did such a challenge a few months ago and has been trying to convince me to sign up ever since, and my first reaction was: no way, no way in hell, never, you're insane, not if you paid me, etc, etc, etc.

Then they had one in Baltimore, and two of my other friends, Jackie and Colleen, joined Mike. That was a Saturday night, and on Tuesday Jackie emailed me to convince me to sign up for the upcoming Annapolis challenge with her. Since now I had girlfriends saying it was awesome, and they were throwing down their credit cards to sign up again before they could even walk down stairs, I was convinced to try it.

The real clincher was that it was buy one get one free until midnight, meaning Lily and I could split the price of one entry. And that, my friends, is how loving good deals gets you in trouble.

One thing (of many) that really concerns me is the staying up all night thing. You see, Jackie and Colleen work as a surgeon and a police officer, respectively. So they have the advantage of not only being able to stay up all night, but staying up all night doing things like SAVING LIVES. I'm used to getting my beauty sleep so I can be at my best for this:

I actually had my friend come in and take this while I was teaching for authenticity (you're welcome), but my students said it looked staged and I never look like that while I'm teaching.

I think I stayed up until 6am studying one time in my freshmen year of college. Then went to sleep. Now I go to bed earlier than my students AND my grandmother. Oh, and I have no upper body strength.

That was just questionable decision number one. Questionable decision number two is that I'm running another marathon. A week from Sunday. I had no choice though - I was offered a free entry.

Kara ran the Lower Potomac Marathon as her first marathon last year. She was given a comped entry this year. She had already agreed to volunteer for the race, so she was nice enough to offer it to me, as well as room, board, baby drool, and pizza. Also, a running buddy for the last six miles. I'm excited to go visit her and run another marathon, but terrified because music isn't allowed. I truly question my ability to run 26.2 miles without Ke$ha. Just typing that was frightening. She told me about the entry last week, but I haven't admitted it on the blog or to many people because this is probably the most I've ever feared a marathon, including my first. But, I know I can run 26.2 miles, I'm not ready to do another ultra yet, and GORUCK and the Half Ironman aren't for months, so I need some sort of challenge....right?

What do you think of GORUCK? Would you ever do it (there are spots still open on my team!)?

Have you ever stayed up all night?

Do you need music to race? Maybe I should mention this isn't known as being a "scenic" or "crowd supported" marathon.

My first long ride

2012-02-26T20:41:00.000-05:00

Full disclosure: I've been a tad nervous about switching from the weekends being for long runs to the weekends being for long bike rides. Mainly because I've never done a long bike ride. And I don't like change.

Also, biking can be a bit stressful because, unlike running, you can't just bike anywhere. Ideally, you'll find a place with wide shoulders, minimal traffic, smooth roads, little to no street lights, etc. My neighborhood doesn't really work too well because most of the streets are busy with zero shoulders.

My training plan called for a three hour bike ride this weekend, so my friend Mike said he had a 30+ mile route for us, which sounded pretty good.

It was a bit of a jump, since my longest previous ride had been about 18 miles. In July. I ignored that fact. Also the other unsettling reminder that, other than a 10 mile ride on a nice day, I hadn't been on my bike outside since the fall.

The trainer was an awesome Christmas present, and has been great to get some workouts in. Unfortunately, it can't really do much other than train the muscles and work on cardiovascular conditioning (that sounded sort of scientific, so I'll add in the disclaimer "I think"). Not that those two things aren't important, but it doesn't attack a lot of my cycling weaknesses. Such as steering, not having panic attacks on downhills, going around curves, avoiding potholes, changing gears, dealing with wind resistance, and dodging cars....for starters.

Despite all that, I loved life on this ride. As we headed out down the first hill and around a curve, that familiar fear started to grip me again. However, as I got re-accustomed to being on the bike, I started to get more comfortable and it didn't last. Other than my shoulders getting pretty tired and my toes going numb from cold, I was feeling good for most of the ride.

Shadow shot to prove I was there.

I like smooth pavement.

Scary swinging bridge. I followed the posted sign and walked my bike across.

Just like long runs, it's important to use long rides to learn little lessons in addition to training. I learned today that if you aren't gripping your brakes in terror, you can shift your hand position and actually help your shoulders hurt less.

Also properly adjust your helmet before you begin. It's not supposed to crush your skull.

We rode 32.3 miles in two and a half hours. Not exactly what the plan called for, but I took it. Next week also calls for 3 hours of cycling, so I'll give myself something to build up to.

I quickly threw my running shoes on to get in the required 20 minutes of running to make it a brick workout. I had zero high hopes for pace and hoped to do 2 miles in the twenty minutes. I was pretty surprised when I reached a mile before it was time to turn around at the ten minute mark, and even more surprised when I got back to the car and saw a 8:13 average pace. I was pushing it, but my legs felt fine. The bike ride was at a super easy pace, so I'm sure that helped.

To make things even better, we basically rode all afternoon, so my lunch was 3/4 of a Clif bar. By the time I got home and had dinner the only choice that I had to replace all the calories was to eat them back in chocolate. Darn.

Valentine's Day

2012-02-26T11:03:00.001-05:00

Saturday was supposed to be my first long bike ride. On Friday night, when there were tornado warnings and expected 30mph winds, it was canceled. My plan said to do a 75 minute run on Sunday, so I flip flopped the two days. It's weird to think of running in minutes, not miles. I did 8 miles in 73 minutes and called it a day. Even with the winds, I felt great.

My actual Valentine's Day was excellent - tons of chocolates from my students, a hilarious card from my parents, and flowers from my husband. Let's be serious though - Valentine's Day is all about romance. And no one does romance better than girls. So I was truly excited to celebrate (a tad late) with my girls.

Quite a while ago, Carolyn, Casi, Lily, and I planned an epic celebration. We started out with some romantic ice skating, complete with hand holding. Not much though, as we were busy dodging the 864 small children that were on the rink. 95% of them were better skaters than me.

We risked our lives attempting to stop and take this picture, and it didn't even have our skates in it.

Another guy risked his life when Carolyn grabbed him and demanded he take this picture.

After about an hour, we decided to quit while we were ahead with no broken bones, and left to get some coffee. A night this epic required extra caffeine.

After coffee, we got my favorite dinner ever, Wegmans subs, and ate them in my favorite way - snuck into a movie theater.

Action movies are strictly to do funny poses in front of, not to watch.

We saw The Vow. Two of us thought it was just ok, two of us loved it. Personally, I thought it was no Breaking Dawn, but staring at Rachel McAdams for two hours made up for it.

After The Vow, we stopped for frozen yogurt. We planned to eat it at my house, with wine, while watching a second movie where Rachel McAdams can't remember who her husband was, so I brought a cooler.

Food porn

You can't tell but mine had 4 kinds of yogurt, brownies, reese's, oreos, and nutella, among other toppings.

Tell me this doesn't look like the best night of any woman's life

Eric was too frightened to come take a picture of all four of us.

Now The Notebook - there's a good movie. Combine Kiwi and Pear flavors into wine - also a good choice. Eric hid in the bedroom all night terrified. Probably another wise choice because he would have come out to the tissue box being passed around to four sobbing girls.

Be honest - would you rather spend Valentine's Day with your significant other, or have a day like this with friends? Eric is great to hang out with and all, but a husband will never sob to The Notebook. Sometimes you just need your besties.

Embarrassment

2012-02-24T07:52:00.002-05:00

Sometimes the stars align for bloggers. The very same day that I do something completely stupid that I plan to embarrass myself by sharing on the blog, I get an email with my Myrtle Beach marathon race photos. Now I have a theme for today's post without even trying!

One time I told a friend on Facebook that I don't really get embarrassed anymore. Whoever runs Karma must have seen that message, because the very next week I was pulled on stage during an assembly and forced to do some sort of African dance in front of the entire school. I was embarrassed.

But, before I get to that, I must share the exciting news that I did manage to make it through yesterday's hour long swim. It wasn't fast or done with good form by any means, but I did move back and forth across the pool continually for the entire hour, with no help from floaties or inner tubes or the like. The pool was pretty crowded, and I did kick a guy while sharing a lane, so it did sort of simulate triathlon training. I still think my idea of having Eric come to the pool and just randomly attack me and swim over me while I attempt to do laps is the best bet, though.

My training plan had 90 minutes of spinning on the schedule this morning. The YMCA has spin class at 5:45, but it's only 45 minutes long, so I got up at 4:30 to do another 45 minutes before class. I'm noticing that triathlon training means the 4am hour is about to become my friend.

Luckily, I had something exciting to get me out of bed. My new noodle hugger - a headband that the talented Emily makes and sells for super cheap prices. I'm cheap too, so I bought three and had her bring them to Myrtle Beach. I'll spend money on headbands even though I already have 400, but I'm not throwing the post office an extra $2.

It's just that perfect.

My bike hadn't been shifting gears correctly for a few weeks, which wasn't a huge issue on the trainer, but would be for my outside ride tomorrow. I finally got around to bringing it to the bike shop to find out the problem, really hoping it wouldn't need some expensive repair.

Eric had diagnosed it with a bent rim, so I walked in the bike shop announcing my bike had a bent rim like I knew something. The guy took it in the back and figured out the problem in approximately half a second. Turns out there was no problem, except the owner. Apparently you are supposed to clean the chain. Frequently. Buying the bike in April and cleaning the chain in February doesn't qualify.

This is why I like running. You get shoes, and then you run. No other work required.

They sold me a little contraption that attaches to the chain and then you pedal and the brushes inside clean it. Now my bike shifts gears nice and smooth like it's coated in butter.

After my first marathon, my own mother said my race pictures looked like I was a member of some sort of program where the Special Olympics helps their contestants run marathons. So based on that sort of photographic past, plus knowing how I actually felt during the marathon, I thought I was prepared for the worst.

Somewhere near mile 12, I was still with Lily, it was still early in the race, and I saw the photographer in time.

At least in this one I appear to be a somewhat normal runner.

I look like I'm about to smack her for bringing a fanny pack.

Lily's aunt's theory is that if you are smiling in race photos, you didn't work hard enough. I'm pretty sure she would approve of mine. Here's what I probably looked like in 99% of the race.

In my defense, the orange barricades in the background show I was almost at the finish line.

Don't hate because I can run a marathon with my eyes closed.

I hope these photos brought some joy to your day.

Do you agree with the theory that smiling photos means you didn't work hard enough?
I can usually smile easily in the first half, but after that, not so much.

My new least favorite exercise

2012-02-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

After running a marathon, things can get tricky. You hear all this stuff about how you are supposed to take one day off for every mile ran, but generally you're all pumped up from wearing the medal around, and already planning your next race.

I took two complete days off, then was ready to get going again. My legs were still really sore, like the kind where going down stairs is tough. I haven't been sore that long after a marathon since my first. Of course, now I'm all jazzed up on running and can't wait for my next marathon (especially after reading Kari's post yesterday). So it's kind of weird that I now have to shift gears, and start boning up on two other sports.

Now that the marathon is over, I intend to start following my Half Ironman plan fully. Tuesday, the plan called for 60 minutes of biking and 30 minutes of running in "Z2", which means conversational pace. I was barely prepared to do that, but I tried. It's hard to tell what's conversational pace by yourself.

I had woken up Monday feeling somewhat better, but 10+ hours in the car took care of that for me. We didn't get home until after 9pm, so I was expecting to want to cry when my alarm went off at 5am the following morning, but getting up was surprisingly less terrible than expected. I did a pretty easy hour on the trainer, and then quickly layered up to run, since it was 27 degrees outside.

Running was pretty painful, but my "I love running because running is the greatest!!!" high carried me through a quick 3.3 miles. I was surprised to see an average pace of 9:17, since I was expecting this run to be more in the 10:00-10:30 or even higher pace.

My friend Jackie and I have been discussing doing a boot camp workout for months, and never seemed to be able to find a date that worked around everyone's crazy work and marathon training schedule. During Monday's painful car ride home, an email reminded me that we'd finally managed to schedule it. For this Wednesday. 4 days after the marathon. Awesome.

I wasn't about to back out since we had started talking about doing this in October, and since Jackie was designing it, she was nice enough to make it mainly upper body. Which may help, since I have a 1.2 mile swim coming up in a few months. I'd never done an outdoor bootcamp, but I'd heard they can be brutal. Even more brutal than waking up at 4:20 am to get there.

The workout was brutal (and this was an "easier" one since it was our first and we are all recovering from intense races) but it was awesome. Jackie did a great job. She designed four circuits, with quick bursts of all sorts of crazy stuff - pushups, variations on pushups, situps, variations on situps, mountain climbers, planks, tricep dips, etc. She had one lunge set, but my quads were still screaming, so I did push ups instead. Extra upper body work never hurt a runner. I was also introduced to bear crawls, which may replace mountain climbers as my least favorite exercise of all time.

I drove an hour round trip and paid $3 for the toll for the pleasure of that torture. Worth it. There's really no chance in hell I'm doing bear crawls and pushups at 5am on my own. Plus, once we get the hang of it, we are going to rotate who hosts/leads the workout.

Obviously boot camp wasn't on the schedule, and I'd already skipped a day of the plan on Monday, so I had to replace a day of running with bootcamp. It feels weird, but I need to get used to the fact that if something needs to go now, it's running. I can't afford to skimp on cycling or swimming.

Tomorrow the schedule says an hour of swimming. I've never swam that long. Actually I've only swam half that long. I'm scared.

Dancing is your best bet

2012-02-20T10:25:00.003-05:00

I don't know how I forgot to mention this in my recap post, but Lily and I engaged in our patented, number one marathon recovery activity Saturday night at the post race party.

Dancing our asses off. Which is really hot when you can barely move your legs.

People who danced too well obviously didn't run hard enough. Also people who were able to make normal expressions in pictures half assed it.

It was really hard to take my eyes off Glitter Pants Suit.

Our 4:30 wakeup call Saturday morning for the race, plus that whole running really far and drinking thing did us in and we were all asleep by 10pm that night, which was much later than I thought I'd make it. Which meant we were all up by 7am on Sunday. Party animals.

Mike, Nicole, Emily and I decided to take a walk on the beach to loosen up. It was grey, drizzling, and windy, but not too cold. We walked about a mile in the sand and I saw my first real - life (dead) jellyfish, which we got to kick and explore. We turned around and got the pleasure of not only walking into the wind, but a torrential downpour immediately began.

It started thundering and lightening when we got back to the hotel. Except the boardwalk that we thought led to our hotel led to a different hotel, since our visibility was approximately zero. By the time we finally made it back, the hotel staff had to put up a wet floor sign as a result of our walking from the door to the elevator. Does it sound like I'm complaining? Because I'm not, I loved our adventure and I couldn't get over how lucky we were that we didn't have that adventure during the marathon.

Nicole's sweatshirt is supposed to show how wet we were.

Since it was pouring rain, we spent the remainder of the day enjoying the view of the ocean from our hotel. I loved the food at the post race party (especially the price), but it had been a little bland, and I was craving salt like crazy. Emily suggested Chinese food for lunch, and nothing had ever sounded better. We found a place that also had stuff like burgers, so Emily and I went on an adventure to get lunch for everyone. It turned out it was about twice as far as we'd thought, and when I asked for extra ketchup for Nicole, they insisted that they'd given me "enough for you" and charged me for extra. I thought since I was getting charged they'd give me a bottle or something, but they just threw like 4 extra packets in the bag. Money well spent. When we got back and everyone dug in, it turns out that Emily and I had been the only ones to make the right choice - when ordering from a place called "Wok Express", a burger isn't your best bet. Nicole's "turkey burger" was a burger with a slice of deli turkey on top. However, my shrimp and vegetables soaked in soy sauce hit the spot.

We said a sad goodbye to Emily, Nicole, and Mike, and spent the afternoon all doing grad work. Again, not complaining, because grad work while looking at the ocean is a huge step up from grad work in my own living room. When it was dinner time, Lily and I continued the salt - fest with a Mexican feast.

Margarita plus homemade chips and salsa is the best post-race food ever.

Obviously, that was only the beginning. We got back and took one final dip in the hot tub with some wine. I just want to spend every night drinking wine in a gorgeous, outdoor hot tub that overlooks the ocean.

Finally, it was time for my sundae bar. Someone suggested we didn't need to get the largest ice cream container that Super WalMart had to offer, but thank god I was there to provide a voice of reason.

This was what remained after my sundae.

I think we all know how I felt about this.

Even though I was only 3 minutes above my marathon PR, I'm very happy with my time. My Garmin autopaused in the bathroom, so my Garmin time was 3:55:56, which means that the bathroom break didn't cost me a PR (which would have made me cry). I was pretty sick with bronchitis throughout a lot of my way too short training. In retrospect, I think this race was too close to the 50 miler, but I don't regret it.

I'm thrilled to have another sub-4 marathon under my belt. I tend to doubt my abilities, so even though I got a sub - 4 in Baltimore, thoughts plagued me like "Maybe that was just a fluke. The race gods were smiling at me that day. I couldn't have done it without Kara pushing me". I feel good knowing that this time represents my true abilities, and that I was able to push myself to get there. It was great having friends to run with for the first half of the race, but we all know the end is where the going gets rough.

I also just found out that I was 25th in my age group!

I'm so sad to have to leave Myrtle Beach, especially since today is gorgeous and sunny. Returning from vacation to the real world is so lame.

Myrtle Beach Marathon recap

2012-02-19T17:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I completed my fifth marathon. Official time - 3:57:52. I think the only slightly less than positive thing I have to say about this race was that they made the huge "medical tent" signs look exactly like mile markers, and that really ruined my life at what I thought was mile 24.

On Friday, Emily, who was about to run her first half marathon, met Lily, Eric, and I at the race expo to get our packets.

We were really into the palm trees.

We then adjourned to enjoy what might be the world's greatest lunch: soup and salad at Olive Garden. After that, we headed to the hotel to check in and get set up for the weekend. It turned out that we were staying at an absolutely gorgeous, gigantic villa, with two bedrooms and bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a large living room. Which was lucky, because here's what we brought with us.

This is just from four of the six of us staying in the villa.

Can't beat this view from our private balcony.

We took a dip in one of the many outdoor hot tubs to relax before the race. I've never done that in hotels before races in the past, because I was afraid it would dehydrate me, but I'll never forgo the hot tub again.

The last two members of our party, our friends Nicole and Mike, arrived later Friday night. Mike was about to run his first marathon, and Nicole was, by far, the best spectator and most enthusiastic cheerleader at the race.

I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I saw the sign she had made us. It was even more exciting because she had no idea that Emily had found us absolutely epic race shirts.

5am pre-race pictures are always a good idea.

If you don't understand why this is fantastic, stop reading this blog and start reading the Hunger Games.

We went to the race in two shifts: those of us who freak out if we aren't at the race super early, and those of us who freak out about having to wake up super early. The second group got to the start line with less than a minute to spare.

6:30 am race start means you get to see the sun rise!

I've run a good number of races in my day, and this one was one of the most well organized that I've experienced. There was a huge shopping center with tons of free parking right at the start line, more than enough porto-potties (enough time for those of us who need to go twice to easily fit that in), and music blasting to get us pumped up.

The half and the full started together and stayed together for the first 11 miles. Eric likes to run alone, so he headed to the back of the pack, and Emily, Mike, Lily and I started out together. The first mile was so crowded (we ran it in 10:46!) but it quickly spread out and there was plenty of room for the following 25.2.

We separated from Emily early on (around mile 2), but stayed with Mike until mile 8. He kept us at a good pace (between 8:30-8:45), and then felt good, so he headed out while Lily and I walked through a water stop. I was feeling great, and really enjoying the course, which was through the touristy strip of Myrtle Beach. The only problem was having to pee by mile 2, which led me to believe that my goal of no bathroom breaks wasn't in the cards for this marathon.

I made it until mile 9 or 10, but then we saw some bathrooms with no line so we decided to just get it out of the way, and were back on the course in less than two minutes. I was still upset at losing the time, but feeling so much better helped me get over it.

At mile 11 the full and half marathon split. I've never been in a race where the half marathoners split off like that, and I thought it would be a real downer seeing them head off toward the finish with more than 15 miles left to go, but it actually didn't bother me. The course cleared out a lot after that, but there were still plenty of runners to keep things interesting.

At mile 12, Nicole was cheering her ass off for us.

If you've run a marathon, you know you have to play some completely insane mind games to get through it. Any time I wanted to slow down, I'd tell myself "If you don't speed up and pass this guy/girl RIGHT NOW Cato is going to come up behind you with his knife and completely F%&# you up."

Training helps, but the ability to be completely delusional is really what gets you through 26.2 miles.

Can you spot me and Lily?

Just after the halfway point, I felt pretty good, so I told Lily I was going to try to push it and we said goodbye. I thought I could run a few miles before I started jamming to my music, but I had my headphones in by mile 14. Music is just so much more motivating than listening to a bunch of sweaty people breathing heavily.

Just after we passed our hotel at mile 17, we turned away from the main strip we'd been on since mile 8 or 9 and passed the next few miles in some random neighborhoods before heading back toward the finish. A guy had collapsed and was surrounded by a group of runners while someone performed CPR and mouth to mouth. Runners separated and helped to direct an ambulance rushing toward him. It was really scary to see, and after the race we kept checking the news to try to find out what happened. Luckily, we found out later that night that he had survived and was recuperating in the hospital.

I was pretty shaken after seeing that, but obviously there was nothing I could have done to help, so I tried to just move on. I saw Mike and Lily again in an out and back portion and they both looked strong, so that helped. Also, the weather could not have been better. It was in the high 50s/low 60s and sunny with barely any wind. I was still enjoying the course and felt good. Miles 8-18 my pace was in the 8:50-9:10 range.

The next few miles had some good crowd support, which was nice, but then we turned off onto some random paved path next to a highway, so there was really nothing to look at except.....highway. Around mile 22 I went from feeling great to feeling like complete hell, which in my experience is the nature of marathons. Something about that running 22 miles as hard as you can really takes a toll on you.

At mile 20 the clock was at 3:03. I hadn't been looking at my Garmin at all. It hadn't found satellite right away, so it wouldn't have been accurate, and I wanted to run by feel instead of obsessing over pace, which seems to be my best bet. We'd crossed the start line less than a minute after the race began, so I knew getting in under 4 hours was going to be a challenge. I'd been walking through every other water stop since mile 8 and refilling my handheld when needed, but there was no way I was stopping or slowing down after mile 20. Too much risk of not being able to start again. My pace was just under 9:00 in miles 20-25.

There were clocks every two miles after that, so I was continually playing the game of "omigod, I only have 40 minutes to run 4.2 miles, can I do that? What pace is that? What pace am I running - should I look at my Garmin? No, you've come this far, don't look at it. How the hell long does it take to run .2??" followed by "just calm down and keep running like you have been". I'm fairly sure that's the most pain I've been in during the last 10K of a marathon. I definitely remember feeling a lot better in the last 6.2 of the Baltimore Marathon.

So, the last few miles were pretty freaking rough. Nicole was cheering at mile 25.5, and all I could do was turn my head towards her and give her a halfhearted grimace that was supposed to be a smile. It should have been a huge boost, but I was giving everything I had to keep running at that point, and had zero energy left over for things like emotions.

There was no 26 mile marker, but there was a clock, which I assumed was at mile 26. The clock said 3:57, and I let out a huge groan. Like, I'm talking top volume. I knew I was going to have to sprint it in to make it under 4 hours. The final .2 was at a 7:15 pace, and I'm really not sure how I pulled that out after 26 miles, since sometimes I can barely run 800 intervals that fast. Emily said she saw me come across the finish on the huge TV, and I can't even imagine how frightening I must have looked.

Immediately after finishing I found Emily, Nicole, and Mike. I could barely walk or think, but I'm sure deep down I was really excited for Emily and Mike for completing their first half marathon and marathon, respectively.

Mike did great, although I'm pretty sure that he should sell this picture from the finisher's chute to active.com, so they can post it as a warning to all those interested in signing up for a first marathon.

Running a marathon is fun, but be prepared to look like this afterwards.

We managed to pull it together a tad for a photo op, but not by much.

After walking around in a daze collecting random foods and drinks, we finally managed to get the group together.

Mike was still struggling with directions such as "look at the camera and smile".

I love small races, but big races like this also have their perks.

After stopping here, I was in slightly less pain.

Having that early race start meant we had plenty of time to take a dip in the freezing cold ocean.

At mile 24 I saw a finisher wearing his flip flop medal, which was one of the reasons I kept going.

We spent some quality time in the hot tub, then some time doing this.

The marathon continued to exceed our wildest expectations when we headed to the post race party. The party was at 5pm, so I loved that it gave the runners time to shower, drink coffee, and regain some of their mental faculties. It was in a huge bar with two floors, tons of food, free beer, live music, and footage from the race streaming on huge TVs everywhere.

We showed off our medals and race shirts. It took me five marathons, but I finally got a short sleeve race shirt.

I'd had a few snacks at the hotel, but none of us really ate until we got to the party, where they had the perfect runner's dinner: two kinds of pasta and a rice dish. Still, apparently not eating much all day, going in the hot tub, and chugging Michelob Ultra wasn't the best plan, because I was really nauseous when we got back. The three full marathoners took yet another dip in the hot tub, and then we busted out the sundae bar that I'd been so excited for. The though of ice cream made me want to hurl, so while I feared for my sanity, this was all I could manage for dessert.

I love Cheez-Its, but they're no sundae bar.

Despite the fact that I was in the most marathon pain I've been in during the end (possibly, or possibly I've just blocked out other marathons), I loved this race and really enjoyed it. I had a fantastic time up until about mile 21 or 22, and that's really all you can ask.

Thank you so much for all the supportive comments! Don't worry, I plan to destroy the remnants of the sundae bar tonight.

The picture of ideal marathon prep

2012-02-17T11:25:00.003-05:00

I'm blogging in Myrtle Beach - and running the marathon tomorrow!!! Our view from our hotel is mainly shopping centers, but I'm pretty sure I saw a palm tree when we pulled in last night.

To sum up my week of preparation, I did a super easy three mile run Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and ate massive amounts of chocolate and valentine's day candy every day. I drank some Powerade, so I'm good.

Last night after work, Eric, Lily and I headed down south. We left about 6:30 pm, and I carb loaded with my first ever Subway foot long. I may never go back to the 6 inch.

I mentioned in my last post that Runner's World should really do a feature on proper pre-marathon nutrition using me as an example. (Hint: Eat an entire box of Valentine's Day chocolate every night). I've read numerous times that the sleep you get the night before the marathon doesn't really affect your performance, so lying awake due to nerves all night is nothing to worry about. It's actually most important to get a good night of sleep two nights before the race.

I really nailed that one. I took a Tylenol pm at midnight, and restlessly dozed in the backseat until 3:30am when we pulled into the hotel in Myrtle Beach (Eric is obviously a superhero for driving). By that point I was so whacked out that I couldn't even string together a sentence, and stumbled to our room to crash for another 6 hours. Now on top of a stellar week of nutrition, I also got proper rest for optimal performance. NAILED IT. Plus there's nothing that helps hydration like 9 hours in the car.

In all seriousness, these will just become important factors in my excuses in the case of poor performance, or overwhelming obstacles I managed to overcome in the case of a good race.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't love the Hampton? Despite being exhausted, all of our internal alarm clocks woke us up by 9:30. The most important part of a hotel is the complimentary breakfast (second place: the pool, third place: if they serve cookies) and it was only served until 10. We were not about to miss out on that.

Woah Woah Woah.....Oatmeal Bar.

Right now we are laying around in the hotel beds (we must conserve our strength for the race). Once it's checkout time, we'll head to the expo to meet Emily, and then to the villa we are all staying in with Nicole and Mike. Tonight we'll carb load with a pasta dinner party, and we have a nice early wake up call for the 6:30 am start of the marathon on Saturday. I'm not going to lie - I'm getting pretty nervous! I just keep telling myself that at least I don't have to run 55 miles.

A love letter to my husband

2012-02-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

That's a little Valentine's Day joke.

On the off chance that I would ever write a love letter to a person I live with, I wouldn't be posting it on a public blog.

I am curious to see if my stats for this post are way down since who would want to read that?

Here's a funny Valentine's Day story (at least it was funny to me). When Eric and I were engaged in 2008, I really wanted to cook him a steak, but I'd never cooked meat. Everyone at work had different opinions on how to cook it so I got overwhelmed and pulled into Outback on my way home and got takeout. I hid all the takeout containers and told Eric I'd cooked it myself, and he was duly impressed, which shows he's a man. A woman would have noticed that not a single dish appeared to be dirtied in the process.

The next morning a local radio show was asking for listeners to call in and share if how their Valentine's Day went. I called in and bragged about how awesome I was for fooling my fiance, and they asked if they could call him and reveal the secret on the air. So, we totally got to be February 15th radio celebrities and at least one person I know heard us by chance.

In 2009 I was a real live wife so I felt obligated to cook Eric and actual steak.

The watch wasn't a v-day gift. He went through a phase of needing it in every picture.

Good story, huh? In 2012 Valentine's Day exploded in our apartment.

Flowers from Eric, the rest from children

Really generous students + zero willpower around sweets = textbook fueling for a marathon. Runner's World should do a special on me.

So far my taper has included an hour on the trainer on Monday. Check out my sweet setup.

Good thing I had him take it right when I started. Apparently he was exhausted.

I can't type anymore, in fact, I can barely see straight due to my sugar induced delirium. I've already made one questionable race decision and I need to step away from the computer before I do more damage.

Hermit Success

2012-02-13T07:46:00.000-05:00

I could never, ever work at a bar. This is what I found when I woke up Sunday morning. And pretty similar to what I saw Saturday morning.

Sorry for the blurriness....hadn't had my coffee yet.

Eric worked from 5pm until 4am with no break for food or anything. I can't deal with drunk people for even 5 minutes without getting annoyed or go more than 4 hours without eating without turning into an evil wench, so I really can't imagine doing this job.

Good news. I'm starting to get on board with the fact that I'm running a marathon in five days. A six minute video of the course on the website and exchanging emails with Emily planning our outfits did the trick. Now it's time for the excessive hydration all week. Luckily for me I get even fewer bathroom breaks than ever now. Yay teaching!

Yesterday I'm proud to say I stayed true to my plan of refusing to leave the house all day. I woke up with this strange feeling of.....motivation. I was confused, but went with it and knocked out a few hours of grad work.

I stayed in for my workout (the temperatures in the 20s and scary winds helped with that). I found a spin workout on YouTube that I did on the trainer. It was only 30 minutes, but it was intense and left me gasping. I did another 30 minutes to Felicity when it was done, then the first four circuits of No More Trouble Zones. I swore I'd do the whole thing this time, but it was already like 3:30 and I hadn't had lunch yet and was too hungry to go on. The first four hit all the important muscles anyway.

I was getting concerned about the lack of dessert in the house and how that would affect my "no leaving" decision. While I was working out I decided to freeze a banana and make a smoothie, because I see on all these blogs that you can make a smoothie and it's just like ice cream.

Of course, when dessert time rolled around, I laughed at my crazed workout self - a smoothie, just like ice cream? What had I been smoking? I commented to Eric that I wished ice cream could be delivered, and he hopped up and told me if I typed his paper he'd go get us brownie sundaes from Burger King. Best deal ever.

I posted the other day that my love of sweets has work off on him. Never has that been more evident than when he came home with two brownie sundaes from Burger King, and two McFlurries (from McDonalds). I somehow managed not to completely disgrace myself and only ate my one brownie sundae.

Anyone out there who would have eaten them both? No shame.....if I hadn't been so full from dinner, I probably would have.

Vampires, wine, and Forever Lazy

2012-02-11T21:48:00.001-05:00

This morning Lily and I completed our last long run before the Myrtle Beach marathon. I was prepared to be soaked due to the forecast of rain and snow, but luckily it was just snowing/raining the tiniest bit when we started at 8am, and by the time we finished 12 miles, we were only getting hit with droplets falling from the trees and power lines. The 12 miles flew by, and we even did 125 crunches afterwards.

I may have totally half assed my training for this marathon, but one thing I never half ass is the really important part of marathon preparation: the food.

Marathon runners are known for their healthy eating choices.

I swore I wasn't leaving the house on Saturday and was going to be a worthless pile of lazy crap all day, but Wegmans was calling my name. Because I love to eat. So as long as I was there, I figured I'd get some necessary items for next weekend. The candy and cookies are for the sundae bar I plan on creating after the race.

I continued to fail at my "no moving" plan as the day continued. Lily's strong powers of persuasion got me out of the house again.

It's a good thing my friends were on the straight and narrow in middle and high school because clearly I'm highly susceptible to peer pressure. Or maybe not. I refused both Carolyn's invite for a zombie bar crawl (for real) and Lily's invite for a party downtown. I'll do insane yoga poses in a 115 degree room for 90 minutes, but I'll be damned if I'll get dressed up to drink at a bar. Since so many readers said that my weekend plans coincided with their ideal weekends, I imagine most of my fellow bloggers are on board with this choice.

I wasn't about to cancel on this hot date.

My friend Kristin was at Target shortly after they opened to secure copies of the DVD for us. When I arrived at her house to pick mine up, she was on the final scene. For the second time. That day. We're not ashamed to be Twi-hards.

Between the wine, movie, Forever Lazy, and delicious Wegmans bulk chocolate, I swear I was experiencing euphoria.

Except for the parts of the movie that were making me dry heave and hide my eyes. The wine did nothing to help with that. I won't give away spoilers, but I'm sure my fellow vampire fans can figure it out.

Now we all have to wait until November for Breaking Dawn, Part 2. Thank god we only have 40 days until the Hunger Games comes out! I promise not to do a countdown or obsessively talk about it though. No I don't.

Have you ever drank an entire bottle of wine by yourself ~~before writing a blog post~~?

Happy Hour

2012-02-10T18:09:00.002-05:00

The past two Fridays in a row, my happy hour activity has been cleaning. Yes, I realize this means I need to get a life. Badly. (For the record, I did get a call inviting me to an actual happy hour, but it was like an hour away and it was rush hour). However, while I have to summon every bit of strength I have to force myself to grab the Clorox instead of collapsing on the couch, starting the weekend off clean is so nice. I honestly can't manage to get any cleaning done during the week, so by the time I come back from my long run Saturday morning things can really be looking dismal. If you don't suffer from chronic laziness, be thankful. It is an excruciating, debilitating condition.

Here's something awesome now that I'm home from work on this lovely Friday afternoon: I'm done going places for the weekend, unless I want to. More than 48 hours is available to me with absolutely no plans. Even my long run is here - Lily is meeting me at my house, which makes me so happy. Between that, the Breaking Dawn DVD, and a new book I just got, this weekend is likely to be a winner.

So, so much chocolate will be consumed this weekend.

Confession: While I posted Tuesday that I was considering going to a big Target event at midnight tonight to get the Breaking Dawn DVD, I passed out on the couch before 9:30 pm that very night. A midnight vampire party is not in the cards for this wild child.

Confession: Sometimes I feel obligated to post pictures of me with friends, and relieved that pictures like that exist. Because it gives me hope that other posts declaring my undying love for a weekend alone with a vampire movie and a book won't make me seem like a complete antisocial lunatic.

There's really no way to smoothly segue into this, but since this is officially a running blog, I feel obligated to include that I ran 6 easy miles with Lily this morning. I'm also super excited that I "only" have to run 12 tomorrow. It's still a long run, but after 23 miles last weekend, it's looking pretty short.

What is your absolute ideal weekend?

Random Crap Thursday

2012-02-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

1. Wednesday ruled

I had a great 5 mile run Wednesday at a fast (for me, for the morning) pace of 8:49. Sometime in the early afternoon Wednesday I got an email saying that after - school activities were canceled for the evening, ergo, my grad class was canceled as well, due to snow. I immediately ran to the door to my classroom to check out the snow.

Thank goodness they canceled after school clubs. We need to think of the children's safety!

With the three hours I had just gained, I organized the hall closet, did my taxes, cleaned the baseboards, and had long meaningful talks with 3 friends I'd lost touch with. HA. Obviously kidding. I put on the Forever Lazy, folded the laundry, and ate more chocolate while reading blogs and watching TV. A wonderful day, indeed.

2. I love my bike trainer

I thought trainer workouts were for the afternoon only, since I have to turn the TV to nearly top volume to hear it over the trainer. I had plans tonight though, so I watched Felicity on the laptop with headphones and I thought I was in Heaven. 90s TV drama is the best way to start a day. I rode for one hour, aka "15 miles".

3. Frightening obsession

Having my mom in the movie theater business, I've always heard crazy stories of obsessed fans when movies with cult followings open, such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. While I may have blogged about, and talked about my excitement over the opening of the fourth Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn, even I shook my head when I heard about tent city.

Obsessed fans camp out for days hoping to get a glimpse of the actors on the red carpet at the official premier.

However, the closer we get to March 23rd, I'm starting to become uncomfortable, because the gap between myself and these crazy fans seems to be growing smaller and smaller. Particularly when the Teen Vogue that I had to order to be elligible to win Hunger Games Premier passes arrived in the mail.

I'm not proud, and yes I flipped straight to the Hunger Games special.

4. Marathon next week - WHAT?

I can't seem to get on board with the idea that the Myrtle Beach Marathon is next week. As in, we've entered the ten day forecast (which is good, as of now!). In my head, it's so much further away. I need to start doing things like....hydrating....packing......OCD planning.

It's going to be epic though. Eric, Lily, and I are meeting my friends Mike and Nicole, and Emily, and all staying together in a villa. Pasta dinner Friday, marathon Saturday (Mike's first, and Emily's first half!) and then celebrating race victory Saturday night (which for me involves eating chocolate until I can't move).

5. Middle schoolers

Eric coaches 8th grade girls basketball, and today I was finally able to make it to a game. I love seeing him and his team, but I was sitting in the stands with all the adolescents, and after the game I had to remove myself for their safety. It's not their fault, it's just an annoying age, but DAMN is it an annoying age. I have no idea how Eric, or anyone, gets through the day surrounded by middle schoolers. I'd rather be a garbage man. I took some pictures of Eric, but they all have middle schoolers in them, and I don't want to go to jail for posting pictures of children without permission, so you'll have to imagine him looking really intense and making wild hand gestures.

A self esteem boost for YOU!

2012-02-07T18:58:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you need to feel better about yourself, and the only way to get there is to compare yourself to someone inferior. For example, going to Walmart if you are feeling ugly. I'm privileged to have to opportunity to give everyone who reads my blog that self esteem boost this morning.

Our friends left our Super Bowl party around 10 or 10:30 Sunday night, so I could have gone straight to bed and gotten up to work out, except I stayed up until midnight watching To Catch a Predator with Eric. We've been addicted to Chris Hansen's one liners for years. I didn't even set my alarm for a workout Monday morning, and barely made it up in time to head to work in time as it was.

I intended to do a trainer workout when I got home on Monday, but after a soul crushing meeting at the end of the day, I had no motivation to move, much less workout. Before I went home I took inventory of my body, hoping I had some symptom that I could blame an unplanned rest day on. Headache? No. Legs sore? No. Stomach troubles? Other than hunger, no. My body felt fine, so I decided to try and forge on with the workout plan.

Nope, the second I walked in the door the Forever Lazy started its siren's cry and that was that. To sum it up, instead of working out, I ate chocolate and meringues in my Forever Lazy.

Tuesday morning I was up at 5:30 for a run (due in no small part to Lily arriving at my house at 5:45). My legs felt great, my lungs felt great, it would have been a great time to push the pace. Yet again, laziness won out. Chatting while barely being short of breath seemed so much more fun. We did a total of 7 miles at a leisurely 9:53 pace. (Note - I'm not calling this pace slow, I'm just saying that I should have run at a pace that required more effort.)

It would be nice if my laziness and utter lack of discipline were for a higher purpose. I've never really believed much in fate, but recently I've had reason to give it some thought. Eric works at a bar, but he hasn't worked there since November. We actually thought he was fired for a while, but apparently not. He got called in to work there this weekend after months of hearing nothing from them.

Now, is it or is it not fate that he is suddenly called in to work the same weekend that this comes in to my life?

I'm seriously considering going to Target at midnight on Friday to get it (they are playing a preview of BD part 2!!!).

You know what's going to be really awesome about watching the movie on DVD as opposed to when I saw it in the theater? Other than being able to pause it to use the bathroom, drinking wine, and wearing pajamas (ok, a Forever Lazy)? Not having to get up and run 50 miles the next morning. That's going to be pretty sweet.

It seems like most blogs I read are written by completely focused athletes that never do crap like skipping a workout to eat chocolate. If you have, please let me know so I feel less pathetic.

Should my friend and I go to Target at midnight to get the DVD on Friday? Can we even stay up that late?

My weekend in food (alternate title: I'm a fatty)

2012-02-06T20:16:00.002-05:00

This weekend was one of those ones that caused me to make that corny joke to coworkers during the typical Monday morning chitchat: "It was great, but I need a whole other weekend to recover from it!". Hardy har har.

Saturday morning started out bright and early. I was in the car by 5:30 am, headed downtown. I had a group run at 7:30. The group was planning on 14 miles, and I was aiming for 20, so I wanted to get an early start. I was feeling good right from the beginning, so I decided to bump it up to 22 miles.

Running at the harbor during the sunrise helped with that good feeling.

I finished 7.5 miles before meeting my buddies, and then we completed another 15 together. For them to reach 15, I ended up getting to 22.59, so the only logical solution was to run circles in the parking lot until I reached 23 miles for the day. This was the first long run of this training cycle that I truly enjoyed. The miles on my own flew by, and then I was having so much fun chatting with my friends that I barely even noticed we were running.

I rushed home, hit the showers, and then Eric and I hopped in the car for a three hour drive to Williamsport, PA, to visit my Grandmother. My sister and her boyfriend met us there (they live about three hours away in the opposite direction).

We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with her in the nursing home, and even taught her to use an iphone.

7:30 in a nursing home is equivalent to 1:45 am in a bar. I got lucky and all four of us instantly agreed on my favorite dinner location of all time - Wegmans salad bar. Conveniently located next door to the luxurious Hampton Inn, where we were staying.

I always get the same sub for dinner, but dessert presented more of a challenge. Wegmans makes GIGANTIC whoopie pies that I am always eyeing during my shopping. Somewhere in my nearly four hours of running I decided a whoopie pie would be my "I just ran 23 miles so I can eat whatever I want" treat. However, they are made by hand, so the amount of frosting varies. I had to perform extensive frosting analysis to ensure that I found the one with the maximum amount.

If you know me, you know this picture was not staged.

We feasted in the hotel room while watching all the Jimmy Kimmel skits where he has parents trick their children.

I think I chose a winner.

In the morning, I did an hour on the elliptical and some free weights in the hotel gym with my buddies Zack, Kelly, and Mr. Belding. I also made friends with an elderly woman who came in to walk on the treadmill in her pajamas and slipper socks (no shoes).

We spent a few more hours at the nursing home with Gram before heading home. We got back a little before five, which gave us just enough time to throw the bags down and get some food ready before our friends arrived for our Super Bowl "party" (just 7 of us, but enough food for 50).

This was just the snacks - there was also pizza and homemade wings.

Casi made everyone their own crab pretzel - genius.

Carolyn's team neutral cupcakes.

I'm still traumatizing by last year's Superbowl experience - no talking during the game, everyone talking over the halftime show. For someone that hates football and loves Fergie as much as I do, this was upsetting. I think I've come across the secret to a successful Super Bowl Sunday though - host the party. My house, my rules. As soon as everyone arrived, I informed them there would be no talking during Madonna and/or any Hunger Games commercials. Then, I happily spent the game chatting with Carolyn while the football lovers yelled words I don't understand, and was able to give Like a Prayer the attention it deserved. Although, apparently the Hunger Games commercial during the pregame was it.

This was totally the first time I'd seen it. My friend Kristin and I didn't find it online last week and then spend the weekend obsessively texting trying to analyze this scene.

I have problems

Do you prefer to go to parties or to host parties? I love hosting parties, and I love hosting gatherings with a few friends like this one even more. No driving, being down the hall from your own bed, being the boss, hosting is the best.

HG fans - Have you seen the new preview? What's going on with Cinna? Is the Mockingjay pin a secret in the movie?

Chocolate is his life

2012-02-03T08:01:00.000-05:00

The other day I posted my struggles with spelling due to a certain rapper. This is absolutely my husband's influence. My sister even mentioned in her maid of honor speech at our wedding that one of Eric's positive influences on me was my new found love of rap. I guess that influence goes both ways, because when I went to bed last night, there were no brownies. Actually, much to my regret, there was no chocolate in the house whatsoever.

When I woke up, there was this.

In his defense, there were a few brownies left, but he took them to work.

I really don't know how I slept through brownies baking, especially since I hadn't even had any dessert myself.

I had big plans last night to ride the trainer. Eric is usually not home when I ride (hence the Felicity entertainment). It's extremely loud - think trying to watch TV while using the vacuum cleaner, so I decided to get his input on the entertainment I'd be blasting for 90 minutes. I texted him to ask if he wanted to watch the new Justin Timberlake movie. He thought I meant this one.

Looks nice and guy friendly, right?

I meant this one, because I didn't even know about "In Time".

I highly recommend you watch this movie immediately.

The time on the trainer flew by, particularly the parts where JT was topless, and for all his whining Eric was hysterically laughing and almost cried when I was done and we had to pause the movie so I could shower. My sister gave him one of his favorite all time movies, Bride Wars, for Christmas, so I'm not sure why he ever opposed my movie choice. We are watching the other JT movie tonight - can't really ever get enough JT, can you?

Seriously, I had plans to see Bride Wars in the theater with my girl friends, and he asked me if he could come along, and now he has memorized every line.

That means that yesterday, I finally followed through on my plan for a two-a-day. Swimming in the morning, biking in the evening. I feel like the Half Ironman training has actually begun, even though it was all indoors. In other news, I took a closer look at my current training plan, and realized it calls for workouts that will take me 2.5 to 3 hours to complete - on weekdays. Several times a week. I don't know if this is normal for Half Ironman plans, but I don't really see that happening for me. I knew training was going to be a huge time commitment, but that just seems unrealistic. I found another plan that seems much more reasonable, so I'm switching. I'd link to them, but the old one is just a printout my friend gave me and the new one is saved at work, and I don't think anyone cares. If anyone has experience though, let me know that level of training is normal and my new plan is only for slackers.

I have a 20 mile run planned for tomorrow, and then I guess it's time to taper for the Myrtle Beach Marathon! Crazy. I have no idea how it got here so fast.

If you live with your significant other, what things have you rubbed off on each other?

Ginger Balls

2012-02-02T08:07:00.001-05:00

I didn't feel great during my race on Sunday, and I felt god awful on my run on Monday. Wednesday, I was desperate for a good run. Back in the day, before I had all sorts of fancy, overpriced equipment, and before I was required to share every detail of every workout on Daily Mile with all sorts of amazing athletes, I used to just run, as far as I felt, for as long as I felt, as fast or slow as I felt (since there was no way of knowing my speed or distance anyway), and I loved it. I decided to try that again.

I did bring my "fancy" knuckle lights, because it's just dumb and unsafe to run in the dark without lights, but nothing else. I had a vague idea of doing six miles, and I ended up enjoying it so much that at some point I made the executive decision that if I skipped washing my hair I would have time for another mile. Obviously I'm not ditching the Garmin for good, but it's nice to take a break every once in awhile.

Wednesday night I started a new semester of grad school. The class is called instructional video, and we are supposed to be learning a lot about taking good videos and video editing, so expect some vlogs that will blow your mind in the near future.

I'm so glad I put my plan of swimming Tuesdays and Thursdays out there on my blog. This morning, I was so, so extremely tempted to just hit snooze and skip it. I remembered I'd already vowed to swim and it was all over the internets so I'd have to follow through.

Confession: I posted that I skipped Tuesdays swim because we lost power. That may have been true, but it wasn't the first swim I skipped, it was just the first one where I felt I had a good enough excuse to mention on the blog. I would never just skip a run for marathon training for absolutely no reason like that, and I really need to bring that same commitment to swimming.

Besides, I finally got to try out my fancy new googles which were recommended by Victoria, an amazing swimmer who is training for a Half Ironman (and a full Ironman!) the way I really need to be.

Pink and didn't make me feel like my eyeballs were about to be sucked out - win/win.

I started out with that whole "YAY I LOVE SWIMMING I FEEL GREAT THIS IS GREAT" feeling. I only did 20 laps for a total of 1,000 yards, so I feel pretty dumb breaking it up and talking about it like it was a 20 mile run, but at lap 15 I got really nauseous. It's at least the third time that's happened, and I'm blaming the chlorine, even though Wikipedia doesn't back me up. I need to figure out something to do about that.

When I got home, these little babies saved me, and now I'm happily sipping coffee, totally back to normal.

Check out those super healthy ingredients.

My sister got me these Ginger Balls for Christmas. I really, really like ginger. Both my sister and our friend Marc are fellow ginger lovers, but they both spit these out with a reaction similar to someone being poisoned. I'm trying to ration them so I only eat them when I truly need one (like this morning) rather than just eating them like candy (which is just so tempting).

What weird thing do you like to eat that none of your friends can stomach?

Did I do that?

2012-01-31T21:43:00.002-05:00

Here's a lesson I learned this weekend: If you are invited to an event that is entirely centered around an activity you don't enjoy, don't go. Technically, I should have already learned this lesson when I attended a super bowl party last year. I can be slow on the uptake sometimes though, so Sunday night I attended Action Movie Night. It was organized by some friends on our broomball team, I hadn't seen them in awhile, Eric made wings with his deep fryer, and our BFFs were going, so I figured it would be a social event with Diehard mixed in.

I hate action movies, and I hate sitting on a hard kitchen chair for 2+ hours after running a half marathon while watching them even more. The highlight was (I'm assuming everyone has already seen Diehard) was when Carl Winslow confesses that he killed a kid one time, and somebody asked if it was Steve Urkle. I have no idea what that has to do with the plot, as I was deep into Angry Birds at the time, but I laughed.

These delicious pop rock cupcakes (explosive....get it?) Casi made for the event did help me make it through.

She actually enjoyed the movie, but Diehard 32 or something was filmed in Baltimore, and they needed to film a traffic jam, so she was a surprise "extra" in the film when they blocked off traffic for like 2 hours. Eric was unable to spot her car in the movie, and she's never forgiven him.

Monday morning I ran the worst 6 miles ever. My legs were so stiff that I felt like I was stumbling instead of running, and I just felt terrible overall. I even had to take walk breaks, which I never, ever do unless I'm trail running. I don't feel I can blame Sunday's "half marathon" since it wasn't actually a half marathon, and it wasn't an actual race effort, so I think I'm just going to blame Bruce Willis for that one too.

I somehow forced myself to go to yoga Monday night, in hopes of my legs not hating me on my next run. I needed to arrive 20 minutes early in order to get a coveted ticket that allows you into class, and even then I got the second to last one. Oh, January at the gym, how I love you. I got in 12 minutes on the elliptical, so I guess that's something.

My plan for the next few weeks is to try to get in two-a-days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, swimming in the morning, and biking in the afternoon. I woke up at 4:30 this Tuesday, half an hour before my alarm, to discover we had no power. The thought of trying to get my crap together to shower at the YMCA using a flashlight at 5am combined with the panic attack about not being able to use the coffee maker had me so overwhelmed I just reset the alarm for 7 and went back to sleep.

When I woke up for the second time (something like 7:30), Eric was nice enough walk to Starbucks and get me a Venti coffee so that I could survive long enough to stop at Dunkin Donuts for more coffee on my way to work. I should have just had him get me two coffees but the lack of that kind of smart thinking is why I needed the coffee in the first place.

When I took my class outside for recess, I realized it was 60 degrees and sunny, so sitting on the bike trainer for an hour and a half once I got home would have been ludicrous. I raced home after the kids left, hopped on the bike, and got in 10 outdoor miles with Eric. It was glorious.

As soon as we got home I put the bike back on the trainer and knocked out another 50 minutes while watching Felicity. Eric made dinner and I loved life.

I actually didn't realize Eric was taking these pictures.

When faced with the possibility of amusing blog readers yet humiliating myself, of course I have to take one for the team. Full disclosure: When trying to use the word "ludicrous" in this post, I kept getting the wavy red lines, and no similar suggestions were coming up. I thought the rapper and the actual word were spelled the same, but when I turned to Google, everything that was coming up was related to the rapper. Then this happened:

None of those 75,600,000 suggestions was helpful, so I turned to Kara, who was able to help me spell the actual word correctly. Yup, I'd been trying to say riding the trainer would have been "ludacris" over and over....and over. And to think, when I got married, I probably couldn't have named even one single rapper.

Snapple Cloud Half Marathon Recap

2012-01-29T15:20:00.001-05:00

I was really excited to run the Snapple Cloud Half Marathon for my second time this morning. So excited, in fact, that I hopped out of bed at 5:30 am, instead of pushing snooze and cursing the beeping 500 times.

The race was about an hour away, but I declined all offers of carpooling, because I am an audiobook addict.

There was limited parking, so the race director had begged everyone to carpool and meet at this satellite parking lot a few miles away from the race start, but it seems like Kara, myself, and about 6 other people read that email. I hopped in her car, and we headed over to the race start.

Can you spot our third race buddy in the back?

That's right, I ran an entire half marathon with a dog! And, I was not the most unhappy runner about Peanut participating.

It was below freezing at the start, but supposed to warm up, so I just wore tights, a t-shirt, and my arm warmers. Kara got crazy and just wore a running skirt.

We were supposed to run in wave two, but we couldn't hear the announcer, so we just went when everyone around us started moving. The race was on a canal path of crushed rocks and gravel. There were some huge puddles, and we even saw a girl slip in the mud and nearly fall into the canal! Her friend had to grab her to pull her back onto the trail. Wild stuff.

I wanted to PR in this race, although my recent runs haven't really led me to believe it was going to happen. After just a few minutes of running, I could feel myself wheezing, and unfortunately knew that meant I was going to have to stop for an inhaler break - so annoying. I had considered using it before I started, but I tend to get really light-headed if I do that, so I vetoed it. Once the crowds thinned a bit around mile 2, we pulled over to the side so I could puff away. I had a feeling that meant the race wasn't off to the greatest start.

That seemed to set the tone of the entire race - my legs felt great, I was enjoying it mentally, but my lungs felt terrible. I was huffing and puffing and after a few miles had the horrifying realization that I was THAT PERSON - the annoying, loud breather.

The race was supposed to be 6.55 miles out and back on the towpath, so when the turnaround came just after the six mile marker, we had a feeling this wasn't exactly going to be the "half marathon" we'd planned on. Shortly after the turnaround, Kara took a bathroom break and I held Peanut while using my inhaler again (for real this time, not taking a quick puff and then taking off running again). Clearly, this meant both of us had basically given up on our time goal.

Usually, runners seem to make friends with other runners during races, even if it's short lived. I've never encountered so many complete jerks while racing before. Right at the start, some girl rudely asked Kara if her dog was allowed to be there, and then muttered something like "I doubt it" while racing away from us. Now, no one despises the entire dog species more than me, but I would never be that rude to someone who's dog was clearly well behaved and not bothering me in the slightest. We also got cursed out by a guy we passed while he immediately passed us back, and Peanut got attacked. TWICE. The second time I came to a skidding halt in the mud to avoid falling on top of the snarling dogs, causing the runners behind me to slam into me. People follow Maryland's leash law about as well as they follow the no texting while driving law.

When we passed the leashless dogs (still roaming free!) on our way back, Kara prepared to inform the owners of the leash laws, and I eagerly yanked out my headphones in anticipation of the return Inner Race Bitch. Unfortunately, the offending dog walkers must not be English speakers, because they just continued on their merry way without even giving Kara a glance for all her angry shouting.

As we ran back towards the start/finish, all of the mile markers were nearly a mile off, so I wasn't sure which was wrong, the course or the mile markers, but I tried to mentally prepare for the full distance. We suddenly saw a big group of people shortly ahead of us, and went through a confused dialogue "is that the finish?" "it can't be the finish, we're not even at mile 12" "there's a big crowd of people, they don't seem to to be moving, and they are blocking the trail".

It was the finish indeed, and 12.14 miles after we began, we were done. We'd been shorted on our half marathon. If I'd been on track to PR, I would have been devastated, but since neither of us were having a great race, we laughed it off. I'd been hot as hell and jealous of Kara's bare legs during the race, but, as usual, as soon as we finished, and I was standing around in 40 degree weather in nothing but a soaking wet t-shirt and thin arm warmers, I nearly died of hypothermia on the half mile or so walk to the car.

We were cool with being shorted, but Peanut was pissed.

I was pretty surprised and disappointed when I checked out my mile splits. I could have sworn we were going something like 7:30 at least during a few miles, but our times were all pretty slow (relative to race pace) - the fastest mile was only 8:22. I guess all that huffing and puffing made it seem harder than it was. Of course, according to my heart rate monitor, I should be dead, since my maximum heart rate was 213! I've never seen anything over 200 since I got a HRM nearly 3 years ago. My average heart rate was 183 - still pretty high. Still, seeing those times when I thought I was pushing so hard was pretty defeating. I guess that explains why Kara was barely out of breath.

Totals: 12.14 miles, 1:46:46, average pace 8:47 (according to my Garmin). Apparently the course is USTAF certified, so I can officially say I ran a 1:46 half marathon.

I did survive being in a car alone with a dog, so that's an important first. Not sure why the picture was flipped, I was in the passenger seat.

We are going to "Action Movie Sunday" tonight, a party where a bunch of friends are all watching Diehard (and some other movie, but one action movie is more than enough for me). According to the emails, there isn't going to be anything for me to eat there, so I'm pretty sure I'm showing up with Subway in my purse. Luckily I'm pretty sure everyone attending already knows I'm a weirdo.

I love the 90s

2012-01-28T10:35:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I have plans with my friends that I am really excited about, but that are also sound really strange to other people. Like the time we celebrated New Year's Eve in the middle of February.

We called it New Year's Eve 2K7.2

Last night was another one of those times. We went over to our friends Carolyn and John's house to watch a bunch of home movies from Carolyn's childhood that had been converted into DVD. Sounds freakishly boring, but it was hilarious. We used to watch them when we lived together, so this was actually something we'd really been looking forward to.

I love the 90s. So much neon.

We ordered takeout, wore pajamas, and drank wine. Combining drinking with friends and wearing pajamas is the secret to my everlasting happiness.

I got to combine that with my absolute favorite ending to a night, even: going to bed without setting an alarm. Is there any better feeling than going to sleep and knowing you can sleep as long as you want and no rude alarm clock is going to be screeching at you approximately four hours before you actually want to wake up? Around 9 I rolled over, started the coffee, and laid in bed alternating reading and falling back asleep for a little while. This is why I need to figure out how to be independently wealthy.

The book I'm reading now. Ok, not the greatest. I'll take recommendations.

Today is a rest day (and as we all know, I take the "rest" part extremely seriously) because tomorrow is a race day. Kara posted yesterday about the half marathon we are running together tomorrow. To sum it up, the plan is to run fast, the goal is to get a good time. I'd love to PR, my last half mary PR seemed to nearly kill me, so we'll see.

The good news is I'm pretty much guaranteed to PR over my time in this race last year. About half the race entrants didn't show up after getting an email from the race director basically stating "the course is under 6 inches of snow and ice, run the race at your own risk, and don't say we didn't warn you".

When your time is ridiculous, you may as well stop for a photo op.

Why waste money on "adventure races" when you can just wait for a regular race after a blizzard?

Tomorrow's forecast is sunny with a high of 48, so I think I should be able to run a tad faster. My usual race plan with Kara is just to stay with her (she's a fantastic pacer), whine for a bit about the pace, then just give up and accept it and be happy with my time when the it's all over. Celine is coming with me, though.

Friday morning I went to spin class (any triathletes read my blog and want to comment on whether or not that is actually at all helpful in training?). For years, I went to this spin class at my old gym downtown that I was totally obsessed with. It was so hard it would DESTROY me every week, but the music was fantastic and the instructor was so motivating (ok, I had a huge girl crush on her) that it also somehow flew by. I'm not even joking that giving this class up was one of the first "cons" I brought up when Eric suggested moving to a cheaper area to save money. I miss it so much now after writing that.

Spin class at the YMCA is the poor man's equivalent. I can compare it to a bowl of grapes vs. a brownie sundae for dessert. It had decent music, it was a pretty good workout, and it was over in 43 minutes. So short, so sad.

Since I was done at 6:30 am, I decided to get a few miles in. I wanted to run outside since it was 50 degrees, but I had brought all this stuff with me to the gym, and it seemed like a pain in the ass to bring it all home first, so I just hopped on the treadmill. In writing that last sentence, I realized I could have just left all my stuff at the gym and got it after running, but that's my brain at 6:30 am before coffee.

Amazing the difference "warming up" with spin class made. Usually I hit the pavement about ten minutes after my alarm goes off, and a 9:30 pace feels like a sprint. On the nice, flat treadmill yesterday, an 8:30 pace almost seemed too easy. I did three miles at an average pace of 8:13. I felt fantastic, even though the boredom of the treadmill still horrifies me. I would have kept going, but, as stated above, the lady of leisure lifestyle still eludes me, and I got bills to pay, so I had to go to work.

I really need that "8:30 is so easy!" feeling to return and stay with me for all 13.1 miles tomorrow.

What's the weirdest way you and your friends have spent time together? I could really go on and on about mine.

Thursday favorites

2012-01-26T08:03:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much for all your supportive comments on my fear of dogs post! I tend to overreact (just ask my husband) so I loved all the validation your comments gave me.

Last night was incredibly traumatic for me. When I was moving one of our end tables over to my bike to get ready for my trainer ride, the heavy, wooden box that we keep all our remotes and crap in flew off and nailed my foot. After a lot of screaming and cursing, I remembered I was a blogger and took a photo.

I have yet to meet anyone who's pain tolerance is anywhere close to as low as mine (in fact, I really don't even understand what people mean when they talk about a "high" pain tolerance). This "injury" had me moaning in the fetal position on the floor for several minutes.

Somehow I managed to pull it together and do my 90 minutes, which again I'm calling 20 miles, on the bike trainer. For some reason, I was getting really mentally overwhelmed with the time. The idea of riding for 90 minutes (or, soon, more) was freaking me out. Doesn't really make sense because I'll spend 90 minutes at the gym and not think anything of it, but I guess then I'm doing a variety of activities. I made it through though, and this was the first time I stayed on the bike for the entire time, without a drink or bathroom break or anything.

This morning, Lily and I did an easy six mile run in my neighborhood. Not much to say about that, so here's some stuff I'm obsessed with this week. If you want me to do you a favor, try one or all of these out. They are all awesome, I assure you.

Felicity

It's making the time go by while I'm on the bike trainer. When I finish the series, I might need to rewatch my old Dawson's Creek DVDs.

Lady Gaga Pandora Station (on my phone!)

I have yet to give a thumbs down on this. How did I just create this station this week? It's really helping me not hate life during report card week.

Hard Boiled Eggs

Eric read in some men's magazine that you should eat them, and he made some, so I made a huge batch to eat with my lunch this week, and they are so salty and delicious. Plus, Kara Goucher said to eat one a day in her book. Since I'm eating at least 2 a day, I expect to be running 5 minute miles at my half marathon this Sunday.

I also expect my legs to look like this pronto

Cappuccino Peanut Butter

Cappuccino? Good. Peanut butter? Good. Can't go wrong here.

Dolvett

I know that's not exactly new information, but I swear he is looking better and better each week on Biggest Loser. My usual text conversations during the show with my sister Darcy and BFF Casi used to be about what the contestants were up to, now it's things like how great Dolvett looks in his weigh in outfit, and how freaking white his teeth are. Plus, everyone's day just got better as a result of looking at this picture. You're welcome.

What's your pain tolerance like?

What is something you can't get enough of this week?

My dog aversion: The History

2012-01-25T07:45:00.000-05:00

I do a lot of bitching and moaning about work (hopefully this statement surprises you because I've successfully limited it to Twitter and real life). I definitely don't say enough positive things about it. So, I'll say this blog post is brought to you by two of my wonderfully amazing work friends. Both of them are teaching my class tomorrow (at different times) so that I can work on report cards, which is why I'm currently typing this blog instead of endless comments. How great is that?

Of course, no one wants to read a lovey-dovey blog about how magical and special everything is, just like no one wants to read Facebook updates about how much this person loves their significant other (who is probably sitting on the couch next to them as they type it). At least, that's how I feel. I try to limit Facebook interactions with my husband to ones that mock him in ways that I feel the world should know, instead of just being limited to private interactions that only we experience. He just updated his status and used the wrong form of "there", and even though I'm not a grammar nazi, I'm struggling not to call him out.

So, let's do some complaining.

Yesterday, as I was about to leave for work, I knocked over the coffee grinder, which decorated my just-cleaned kitchen with coffee grounds. Everywhere. I knew I'd leave for work, forget all about it, and get super pissed when I got home and saw it later that night.

Then, I started to walk to my car, and an unleashed dog ran directly at me while its owner stood across the parking lot laughing.

I should probably explain that dogs terrify me. I got bitten when I was really young because these total bitch neighborhood girls (I'm still calling them bitches even though we were all like 4 at the time) told me I had to bring flowers to our elderly neighbors' house in order to get into their "club". They knew there was a crazy dog that lived there, and I was too young to read the warning sign that said something like "crazy ass dog lives here that WILL bite anyone dumb enough to approach". I never thought about it, but this story probably explains why I was so against pledging sororities in college.

Not exactly relevant but this is the youngest picture of myself I could find on my computer.

So, anyway, obviously that story ended with me getting bitten, and it turns out there wasn't even a club to begin with. Apparently the story about the other members climbing to the top of the basketball hoop was a lie as well. Please note, I have never tried to convince anyone that I am popular or smart through the use of this blog. I'm not really the type to "forgive and forget" or "get over things", so dogs and I have never made up.

I am positive every interaction with a dog owner will end with something like this.

Back to this morning. FINALLY, after a long impasse of the dog slowly advancing and me slowly backing up, inwardly panicking, the owner came and got it. I told him I had a lifelong phobia of dogs and he looked at me all accusingly and was like "This is a therapy dog". He followed that up with going over to his friend (who was standing right by my car) and pointing and whispering about me in the style of seventh grade passing time.

To make things even worse, I don't leave for work until the last possible second, so I really didn't have time for all this crap. And I was scheduled to appear on our school's morning newscast (this may have been morning announcements in your day) to discuss my running in order to make the children realize the importance of a healthy lifestyle (seriously, not making this up, also not my idea), so I didn't need to be all rattled about scary dogs and inconsiderate pricks who own them. I was extra frightened because just a few days ago one of my students got bitten by a dog on a leash so badly on the way to school that she had to leave to get medical attention.

There's your usual whiny, bitchy post for the day. You're welcome.

Yet another unrelated thought: For a second, I could swear President Obama was talking about new markets in Panem today. I need help.

I looked at my Half Ironman plan!

2012-01-24T08:04:00.002-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that I wasn't exactly a slave to my Myrtle Beach marathon training plan (as I usually am). I'm also supposed to be starting to train for May's Half Ironman triathlon this month, so last night I busted out the training plan. I'm not entirely following it until after the marathon (less than a month to go!) but I want to start incorporating more biking and swimming instead of easy runs.

The plan seems pretty intense, even this far out. It called for 20 miles on the bike today, and 25 miles on Wednesday, plus 4 swim days. Once I cut way back on the running that will be far more doable. Time-wise, at least.

Since it was icy, dark, and close to freezing out, the trainer will be my bike method of choice for now. I'm not complaining though. On grey, nasty days like yesterday, it's really nice to have the option to do my whole workout from the comfort of my living room.

Maybe "comfort" isn't the right word when referring to over an hour on the bike. I've been advised by full Ironman veterans that the butt pain really never goes away, so I'm trying to get on board with that.

To clarify, the bike trainer is just a little stand that holds my bike in place so I can ride it indoors without falling over. It's not a fancy shmancy machine or anything, so there's really no way to "ride 20 miles" like the plan says. I decided to do a 90 minute ride, and hopefully that covered it.

I did the same thing as last time with high resistance and some minute sprints thrown in every five or ten minutes, depending how into Felicity I got. That might be my longest time on the bike, and it really wasn't easy. It was great getting to watch TV though.

I was really tired after the ride, but I've felt really guilty about my many opportunities to do strength training lately. Like, I've been at the gym, I've had the time, and I've been just way too lazy. I really just prefer to zone out until the time runs out on a machine, rather than have to think about all sorts of numbers like weight, reps, concentrate on form, etc. I like my workouts physical, not mental, you know what I mean? It's really unlikely I'll do weights unless I'm in Body Pump or watching a DVD so all I have to do is follow the leader. Maybe I should request donations for a personal trainer.

35 minutes of No More Trouble Zones later, at least I'd worked all my major muscles (the ones I know about, anyway). If you are familiar with it, yes, I almost always skip the last 3 circuits, because I suck. If you're not familiar, be impressed that I did a whole 35 minutes of weights.

I left my Forever Lazy in Maryland while I was out of town this past weekend (purposely), and after my date with Jillian was over, I couldn't wait to take a long, hot shower and then be reunited. It was glorious.

This morning Lily and I did 7 miles, average pace 9:40, my legs were miserable after the bike trainer, and my lungs were in terrible shape as well, although I've heard it can be quite awhile before you are truly recovered from bronchitis.

I don't have any pictures, because it's really difficult to take a picture of yourself on a bike trainer, so I'll leave you with this. It pretty much sums up how I feel about any marathon.

I have to do report cards this week. FML. Cross your fingers for me.

The time it took over 3 hours to run 14 miles

2012-01-23T20:49:00.001-05:00

It turns out driving 800 miles round trip to see your family in one weekend doesn’t leave a lot of time to blog. I’ll try to get better. I promise.

On Friday I went to spin, worked half a day, then hopped in the car for the 6-7 hour drive to my hometown in upstate NY. Taking a half day was genius, because instead of getting there at some time past midnight, and stumbling straight to the bed with my suitcase, I got there right around dinnertime. I met my dad and my sister for some delicious Indian food. After dinner, I had time to hang around my family’s pajama party for a few hours before lights out.

Because I’m uptight, I started my panic attack about how to get my long run in early last week. Last year, a long run attempt in Rochester in January yielded only 6 pathetic miles, because when the roads look like this midday, an early morning long run isn’t going to be very successful.

Snow makes running exciting.

So I called in the big guns. Kari and Kara gave me some expert advice when I frantically emailed them last Thursday. They recommended 14 miles (I’m only VERY loosely following my training plan, and not following it all regarding long runs, but rather letting my schedule dictate them). They also came up with the plan to try running outside, and switch to the treadmill if necessary.

I made it nearly 6 miles outside. The weather was actually beautiful, sunny with no wind or snow. My many layers (including an Under Armor coldgear base, which I highly recommend) kept me nice and toasty even with the temperature in the teens. The problem was that the sidewalks had a few inches of snow on them, and the roads were a mess of ice and slush. My shoes and pants were soaked within the first mile, so after doing a loop around town, I headed back to my mother's house. Luckily I'd thrown shorts and a t-shirt in the bag at the last minute, so I quickly changed out of my wet layers, threw on the new clothes, and drove to the YMCA to finish the run on the treadmill.

I hate the treadmill, so that tells you how gross the roads were. At least I only had to do 8.3 miles there instead of the full 14, and my feet were dry.

Only getting a sliver of my face in the picture wasn't an accident.

I don't have any official time or pace for this run, especially because I suck at the treadmill and hit the emergency stop at least 3 times per use. But I started just after 9am and with the slow going on the ice, combined with changing clothes and driving to the gym, I didn't hit the showers until nearly 12:30. The 14 miler took about as long as a 20 miler.

Once I was showered, my sister and I picked up our friend Melissa and headed to a cafe downtown, to do what this weather called for: sitting around and drinking hot chocolate. Or, in my case, an Aztec mocha, which is a mocha with chili pepper.

I spent many, many nights at that coffee shop in high school with my friends (I wasn't a partier back then). Random tangent: Any readers who have moved away from their home town may be able to identify with the feeling that when you go back, things are supposed to be exactly the same as when you left. Things like new Walgreens at a formerly empty intersection corner can throw you into a tail spin.

Melissa is recovering from surgery on crutches, so I dropped off her and my sister, Darcy at the coffee shop and then left to go park. When I got back, I searched all over the sitting area upstairs trying to find them, but they were nowhere. I was totally confused because the only areas left were down a steep set of a stairs (crazy to attempt on crutches), or an area off to the side, but there would be no way they'd sit over there, because that was the smoking section.

I was just about to walk downstairs when it occurred to me that there was no more smoking section. NY banned those something like 10 years ago. But my high school self remembered it that way, so in my mind that's how it was.

I just realized the rest of my pictures are all food, and they aren't even all the wonderful food consumed this weekend. What can I say, I'm a fatty.

Baltimore doesn't have Reese's McFlurries anymore, so when I found out Rochester still did, I really had no choice but to head to McDonald's Saturday night.

Maybe I can quit teaching and make money off a documentary about a girl who eats nothing but McFlurries for a year.

Sunday morning I went back to the YMCA. I knew I really should get some miles in on the treadmill, but I just couldn't bear to get back on it. Instead, I did 50 lame minutes on the elliptical. Better than nothing.

My mom made huevos rancheros for my sendoff breakfast (it's basically eggs and cheese on tortillas with this amazing tomato chili sauce), and yes I had to Google that to figure out how to spell it.

She's such a talented cook, she can make over-easy eggs for 6 people at once!

Huevos rancheros and fried potatoes - breakfast of champions

I always hate leaving my family, but bills gotta get paid, so back to Baltimore it was. I didn't even need a nap this time, and I barely even cried while I finished listening to Mockingjay. I took a break to visit my grandma in her nursing home at the halfway point of the trip, which I think helped. Side note - I didn't care for the ending to Mockingjay when I read it the first time, but the second time through I loved it. Thoughts?

Do you get upset when your hometown has the audacity to change things without your consent?

Each time we arrive in Ohio to visit my in laws, we have to extend the 8 hour drive so Eric can take a tour through town and make note of every new street light and change in font of a restaurant sign.

Keep your germs to yourself

2012-01-19T08:09:00.000-05:00

I really don't know how bloggers post every day of the week, much less two or three times a day. This was one of those weeks where I had nothing but time, but nothing to say. I really didn't want to assault my loyal readers with some crap post that was a waste of time, so I said nothing. What would be a smart solution would be to generate a list of topics that I could write a post on when I am lacking ideas. So....feel free to think of any. And leave them in the comments. Thanks!

After my 20 miler last Sunday, I started getting really sick. It was just a basic cold, where my head felt like it was going to explode from congestion, nothing new or exciting. Whenever I get a cold, it hits my asthma, so it turns into a cold plus coughing and wheezing. Any blog post I would have written about my activities Monday (which, luckily, we had off from school, thanks to Dr. King) would have been something like "blew my nose, threw the tissue away, whined to my husband about how sick I feel, got another tissue, repeat until the whining turns into crying". Fascinating.

I really wanted to run Monday, since I had the day off, but I'm a pretty big follower of the "neck and up rule". If your symptoms are from the neck up, you're ok to exercise (which is why I went for the run Sunday, I wasn't coughing or anything yet then). As soon as they are anywhere below your neck (aka. lungs) it's a bad plan.

I took Tuesday off too. Because I'm a big whiny baby and I was starting to cough like crazy again and I was terrified of contracting bronchitis again. Bronchitis is really really not fun and I would really like to avoid ever having it again.

Tuesday I was THAT GIRL at work, the one who is constantly blowing her nose, sneezing, hacking, and making everyone else stay ten feet away and wonder why this rude bitch brought her germs up in here. It's not really like me to do that, so I put in for a sub on Wednesday.

Tuesday afternoon was warm and sunny, but I resisted the urge to "just get a few miles in" and went straight home and got in bed. By the time I emerged Wednesday around noon, I felt like a new person. I felt so good that I went grocery shopping, which made me feel guilty for not being at work, but, whatever.

I considered going for a run, but the winds were gusting over 30 mph, and since I had taken off work due to my lungs hurting, I decided not to be an idiot and set up the bike trainer instead. I rode for an hour while watching Date Night. I thought it might be hard to stay motivated to push it hard enough to get a good workout, but I was so wrong. I cranked up the resistance, and did one minute sprint intervals with between 3-5 minutes of rest, depending how lazy I felt in between, and I was dying. DYING. I need to really get my quads in shape for this Half Ironman.On the bright side, exercising in my living room while watching a movie was a win. Now I totally want a treadmill.

I went for a 6 mile run this morning, average pace 9:33. Nothing life changing. It was freezing, 25 degrees but felt like 20. Might as well get used to it, it is January, after all. I tweeted it to Dolvett to see if I could accomplish my life dream and get him to retweet me.

Our school is doing a Family Fitness Night this evening. I'm on the planning committee, so I'll be teaching kids and parents about healthy eating this evening. Hint: Don't keep buying chocolate and then eating it all in one night, every night. I haven't quite mastered that one yet.

A scientific experiment

2012-01-15T19:32:00.000-05:00

Yet another week of blogging slacking due to real life getting in the way. I don't really mind (and I'm kind of guessing most of you don't either) when it's a result of a busy social life though. It's when it's due to grad school or report cards that it's lame.

Wednesday was a very important GNO (girls night out) with my former roommates Casi and Carolyn. We went out to eat at a Tapas restaurant. I stopped in my old workplace (Starbucks) at about 9pm on my way home, and a friend was extremely confused when I said I was heading home from GNO, not to GNO. What can I say - that's why I love these girls. We agree on certain things. Sangria with whipped cream? YES. GNO over at 9pm so we can all get up early and workout before work the next day? YES.

What isn't improved with whipped cream?

Thursday morning was Body Pump, which I can summarize in one word: pain. Thursday night was book club, which was fun, but I can also summarize briefly: rich people problems. Let's just say all the members are a bit more financially comfortable than a teacher married to a teacher may be, and yet their lives are just oh so hard.

I'm lucky enough to have a running buddy who trains and runs crazy races with me, and Friday night was her birthday!

When we aren't covered with sweat and dirt, turns out we look pretty good!

We celebrated in style - my first limo ride since junior prom!

We started with dinner at, funnily enough, another tapas restaurant. I went prepared this time and had a big snack after school. I don't know how it is other places, but in Baltimore, you aren't going to leave a Tapas restaurant feeling full unless you are prepared to reach your credit card limit.

After dinner, we headed to a club. Although I'm normally the type of person that considers DVR and sweatpants a Friday night match made in heaven, I was super excited that Lily chose this place to celebrate. Sometimes, you just need to dress up, get wild, and dance your ass off with your girls.

I did not forget my New Year's Resolution - Whooty Awareness all the way

This picture sums up any night out together entirely. Eric taking weird pictures of himself, and me constantly dancing with my hands up and mouth open.

On a night like this (where we go to a bar and neither one of us needs to drive home), Eric and I generally engage in a competition over who can get the most drinks bought for them. He usually dominates, but I totally smoked him this time. It's our way of cutting back during the recession.

You have to pretend to be interested, but only when the drink buyers can see your face.

We still found some to spend together - after all, yesterday was the 6 year anniversary of our first date!

My late night, post bar eats have really improved since my younger days. My roommates and I used to make at least two boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, and here I am eating a Subway sub. Getting those veggies in is important at 3am.

Saturday was uneventful. Highlights included a five mile run (the fact that I completed it the day after a crazy night out and 4-5 hours of sleep on an air mattress was the highlight, not the run itself) and watching Titanic with Eric, only to learn that he had all the lines memorized. Like, ALL the lines.

I'd been excited for my Sunday morning run for awhile. I had a trail run planned with Kara, and fellow Stone Mill 50 Miler Perry. We met in the middle of our respective locations at Rosaryville State Park for 20 miles on the trails.

It was freezing at our 8am start.

Kara and Perry found three other friends who wanted to join us. I need to learn from them, because no one responded to my "Hey want to drive an hour and then spend four hours running on trails on Sunday morning?" email.

I felt great and was enjoying the run until mile 8, when suddenly I felt exhausted and way too out of breath. Saturday I had gotten hit with a cold (I know, I just recovered from bronchitis two weeks ago, WTF, I did my time already), so that wasn't at all helpful. I knew we had less than two miles to go until our epic snack break though, so I sucked it up until then. When we were almost back Kara said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to walk for a minute, and while I hate to see a friend in pain, the excuse to walk was oh-so-thrilling to me. We hadn't walked AT ALL until that point, and walking up the hills is one of the main reasons I love trail running so much.

Here's the other one. We set up our aid station in the back of Kara's car, as per usual.

"Oh, sorry, Kara, you were trying to take a picture? Stuffing my face really takes precedence".

Here's something shocking:

Peanut (Kara's coonhound) ran with us for 16 miles, so that gives me a new dog PDR. I'd previously done a ten mile run with two dogs. When we got back, the others were busy adding extra mileage before snacking, so I offered to hold Peanut while Kara took a bathroom break. I really did my duty to the animal community when I poured water in her bowl for her too. (I mean, I actually do my duty to them every day by not eating them, but let's not split hairs).

After a few minutes of eating salted potatoes and oreos and drinking Gatorade, I was more than halfway to hypothermia. I (almost) always feel hot when I run, but standing around in sweat soaked clothes makes me painfully cold. Even though I'd been feeling rough, I was more than ready to run to warm up when we headed back out for the second loop.

The second loop had the best sights.

Can you spot Perry, Peanut and I at the mansion?

I am honestly not sure how I finished 20 miles, but I think it had something to do with the fact that if I didn't do it on the trails where I had nice people to chat with, I'd be stuck doing it next weekend all alone in Rochester, NY, where yesterday the feels like temperature was 6.

Also a stray dog chased us for the last mile and a half and I was terrified.

So, for the record, a rough night of drinking + a cold is not an equation for a run that feels good. Throw in some asthma on top and you really have a winner.

The Baltimore Ravens made the playoffs, and the game was this afternoon. Eric asked me if I'd be home in time to "watch" it with him. I was confused about what difference it made if I were home ignoring the game or not home. Either way I wouldn't actually be "watching". I managed to make it home and get showered by the fourth quarter, so I quickly threw on my jersey, and I'm pretty sure that me reading blogs while wearing it for those last few minutes really helped bring the Ravens to victory.

Eric had two orders of cheesy bread from Dominoes on the table when I got home - I don't think I can imagine a better welcoming committee after a long, hard run.

What's your favorite late night (possibly post bar) food? How about favorite post long run meal?

Zumba Fail

2012-01-11T08:09:00.002-05:00

While I'm a runner now, I have a deep seated love for group exercise classes. I've mentioned before that I used to go five to seven days a week, and really only started running more because we moved and I had to switch gyms. So with my 12 day pass to my old gym, I've been really excited to get some classes in.

Last night Zumba (a Latin dance class) was on the schedule, and I was excited for it all day at work.

I used to do a decent amount of Zumba, and in my opinion, there are two types of classes.

Type 1: Taught by an actual dancer, often in an actual dance studio, most likely a great workout for those with ten or more years of dance lessons under their belt. Usually Latin music unknown to Americans is exclusively played. To an outsider, it would appear very similar to looking into a club on Friday night at 10pm, except they would see water bottles instead of Sex on the Beaches and sneakers instead of hooker boots.

Type 2: Some sort of cross between aerobics and dancing, with easily reproducible moves that are generally repeated many times, therefore allowing even the most uncoordinated person, who would normally never in a million years dance sober, follow along somewhat. Usually top 40 music is played, so that Americans can feel all "ya, I know how to do Latin dances!" when really they are just doing modified aerobics moves to Boom Boom Pow. To an outsider, it would appear that a few people are dancing while for some reason ignoring the room full of people behind them who are having violent seizures.

Obviously, I prefer Type 2. I've been to Zumba at this gym before, and it was Type 2 all the way. After a half hour elliptical warmup I headed in to class. I have a strict Zumba rule to NEVER look at myself in the mirror, even by accident, so it's very important to position myself in such a way that there is no possibility of that happening. No easy task in a room that has two walls of nothing but mirror. The trick is to make sure you can see the instructor, and someone who knows what they are doing and looks great. Bonus if they have a great body. This tricks your brain into thinking that you look exactly like them doing all the moves, so actually catching a glimpse of yourself completely shatters that illusion.

I really, really wanted to like it, but the class was so slow and boring I couldn't handle it. I've been mentioning my heart rate a lot lately, and it was barely hitting 110, even in the "fast" parts. I've gotten a great workout in Zumba there before, but I guess this instructor just wanted to have a more mellow class. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I was there for. I held out for half an hour, and then went back to reading Runner's World on the elliptical, but I really just wanted to go home.

During our run on Saturday, Lily and I challenged ourselves to run seven miles in one hour this week (also known as Kari's robot pace). To be honest, I had my doubts about it when I woke up this morning, due to my complete laziness, lead legs, and general lethargy in the mornings. We decided to just see what happened and ran the first half without looking at the Garmins, while chatting. At the turnaround, we realized we could make it if we picked up the pace a bit. Too bad the way back is nearly all uphill. Lily really pushed us and we made it! 7 miles in 1:00:09. Average pace 8:35. Too bad that wasn't the only challenge I have to face today.

My class challenged me to climb the rope with them in gym today. They claim I did it two years ago, when they were in first grade. I may have, but I also lifted weights regularly and went to Body Pump and stuff then. This is the rope WITHOUT the knots to help you. Maybe I'll have them take pictures so at least I'll have some funny ones to post tomorrow.

A different type of marathon

2012-01-10T07:56:00.006-05:00

On Saturday morning, I got up early to run 17 miles. Once I got home from that, my accomplishments for the weekend were over.

I spent the rest of Saturday laying around, doing nothing of note. Around 5 we finally got dressed and headed out to meet Carolyn and John to see The Girl with Dragon Tattoo, which I'd been dying to see since it came out, and my coughing has finally died down enough for me to attend a movie and not be the most annoying person there.

Guess what - SOLD OUT. I was devastated. We put the giant bulk bags of candy that had been in my purse to sneak into the movie theater with the rest of the groceries and went to a self serve frozen yogurt place instead, so I did get to drown my sorrows (and the boys got to watch the football game), but even that didn't make up for my loss. Self serve places can be a bit embarrassing though, when they tell you the price and everyone in the shop knows that you plan to eat an ungodly of amount of frozen yogurt and candy (no fruit - never fruit).

Sunday I had planned to wake up early and use my free gym pass to take Body Pump and try out Power Yoga. I stayed true to my new tradition and slept right through it. Not by accident - I turned off the alarm. In my defense, I had stayed up way too late Saturday night to hit the gym early on Sunday. I just want to fit in with the rest of America - it's January 10th, shouldn't those resolutions already be slipping?

I figured I'd go running later, but Eric literally pinned me to the couch and force fed me gummy bears and refused to let me leave the living room or do anything productive. I am so not joking on this. So, I stayed in my Forever Lazy and we had a full day movie marathon. Cereal was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I thanked him before I went to bed because - come on, tell me that doesn't sound like a day of bliss (except for when he made me watch a documentary on football - seriously). No picture of this day exists, just picture a slug and that was me.

Monday morning rolled around and you won't believe what happened - I couldn't get out of bed to run! Shocking! I had ten miles on the schedule, and, like I discussed Saturday, that distance before work seemed so intimidating, that just sleeping for a few more hours sounded like a better idea. Unfortunately, that meant I had to do it after work, which didn't seem so great once I actually got up.

As much as I hate afternoon runs, they just always seem to be faster. I can't compete in the mornings, when my feet hit the pavement ten minutes after my alarm goes off and I don't even halfway wakeup until three miles in. I did ten miles at an average 8:42 pace, which is pretty fast for me, especially on a hilly route. It started snowing (or possibly sleeting) and for awhile I was running straight into whatever was coming out of the sky, and it was pretty much blinding me, not to mention making the ground nice and slippery. I also had to take a Gu. I wouldn't normally have one for a ten mile run, but I didn't finish the run until about 6:30, and all I'd eaten since some soup during my lunch at noon was some cauliflower and dip, and that just wasn't doing it.

Have you seen this video from Saturday's SNL? Two friends sent it to me Sunday, and Eric and I watched it twice and cracked up. Then it backfired on me when we tried out our new pizza stone, and I asked if we should grease it, and Eric told me that was a white people problem and walked away.

Today I did sleep in, but this time it was on purpose, because I'm going to Zumba tonight! I love Zumba.

Let's brainstorm some ways for me to stop sucking at life and start getting up to workout when I am supposed to from now on. And......GO.

It's still hard (TWSS)

2012-01-07T14:43:00.001-05:00

Confession: I'm starting to think that maybe I didn't allow myself enough time in between my 50 mile race and my next marathon. I planned on an entire month to recover, and two months to train. I didn't count on bronchitis wasting some of my already extremely limited training time.

I also didn't count on a month not being enough to recover. Physically, sure, I feel fine. Mentally - I'm sort of not really feeling training again.. But only sometimes. Too bad though, I got on a runner's high way back when and registered, the race is paid for, the hotel is booked, and I have some awesome friends doing it with me. Obviously, the best thing to do is to suppress those feelings deep down inside me and pretend they don't exist.

These crazy thoughts don't exist all the time. I'm starting to get a bit excited about the race. I'm pretty sure I won't be trained to the level I originally hoped for, but I'll have fun. Until mile 20, at least.

Training is back on track this week though, with 37.5 miles completed (I'm using my free gym pass to do Body Pump tomorrow, so I'm done running for the week - probably). This morning, Lily and I completed our longest run since the 50 miler - 17 miles!

Here's the problem with distance running - just because you've run a long race, it doesn't make running a shorter distance any easier.

For example - when training for my second marathon, my husband didn't understand why I'd get anxious before a 20 mile run (or, for that matter, a 12 mile run). He'd be all "but you've already run 26.2 miles!". I wish it worked that way, but, unfortunately, once you've worked your way up to a certain distance, all shorter distances don't suddenly become a piece of cake (in my experience). Especially when it's been awhile since you've done them.

When I woke up this morning, 17 miles seemed terrifyingly long. Just a few weeks ago, I had to do two 9 mile runs before work, and that distance on a weekday seemed enormous. I've done both of these things tons of times before, but, they still seemed daunting. Maybe less so than the first time I tackled them, but they still scare me.

Of course, I acted totally confident as we warmed up for the run and didn't admit any of this until we were walking back to the cars when it was over. Fake it till you make it is my strategy.

The run was great, because I had a buddy again (the last two long runs I've done have been solo), but it felt hard. The pace (average 9:39) didn't really feel too challenging, but it still felt difficult to run that far. If that makes sense. My legs were pretty stiff afterwards.

When I got home, Eric wasn't feeling well, and requested that I watch TV with him in bed. Well, I guess since he twisted my arm......

I still had the post long run breakfast/lunch/snack whatever of champions.

Coffee, coconut water, and pickles.

Such a weird, yet satisfying combo. The pickles are so salty, the coconut water tastes so refreshing, and the coffee is just needed because it's a day that I'm alive.

I've been extraordinarily lazy the rest of the day, which means Saturday is a win.

Do you still get nervous about running? Any particular distance that does it ("long" is a relative term).

If you join a gym, you must be fat

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

So many workouts to discuss/complain about, and so few pictures to show.

Wednesday night I activated a free 12 day pass I had for a local gym (Merritt) so that I could take bootcamp class. I'd been a Merritt member for around 4 or 5 years (it's one of those awesome, super expensive, waste of money gyms) so I was pretty familiar with the layout. I didn't want a bunch of annoying calls about joining, so I made it exceptionally clear that I was only using the pass, there was no way in hell I would be enrolling, and I'd already been a member so I knew exactly what joys I'd be missing out on by not signing up. I was still forced to go on the half hour tour. Good use of my time.

Maybe forcing the tour on me is just standard procedure, and it was January 3rd and I was using a free gym pass, but did the enrollment guy really have to immediately ask me if I were there to lose weight? I'd love to say I have perfect self esteem and I just laughed in his face, but that's not the case. Believe it or not, there are actually other reasons people may exercise in January. I'm really upset that I wasn't quick enough to come up with an appropriate reply. Next time, I'll pretend I need to use the bathroom, tweet it, get your awesome comebacks, and then go get him.

I finally was released to do a quick elliptical warmup and then the bootcamp class. I was really nervous about attending, and I was right to be. My friend at work was all like "no, why are you nervous, you're in shape!". I may be able to run for an hour with no problems, but an hour on this:

The evil BOSU

is a different story. Especially when it's mainly upper body and core work. I swear the trainer running the class had Dolvett's body (not quite as attractive, but close).

This is for you, Emily.

He also had his loud, booming voice, which is a lot more fun to listen to on TV. Staring at him wasn't as much fun when you are terrified he is going to come over to you and make you start doing up and down planks on the BOSU again while you are secretly taking a break because he's picking on someone across the room.

I survived. Barely.

Thursday morning I got up to run before work for the first time all week (I'm easing back in), and made it to the YMCA (my usual gym) in time to totally F up some 800s. The last time I did them I had awesome negative splits, and ended at a 7:06 pace. So, obviously, even though I'm still recovering from bronchitis, and had gone to bootcamp less than 12 hours before, and I had to do an extra interval this week, I decided to start at 7:06 this week.

I did my first interval at 7:13, because I can't read numbers correctly at 6am, second at 7:19, and then when my heart rate was at 193 in the third, I moved it back to 7:30 and started walking instead of jogging for the recovery. My heart rate still got into the 190s for each interval (7 in all), and I continued to fear I'd fall off the treadmill having a heart attack and my emergency sub plans weren't totally ready. FYI, 190 is a ridiculously high heart rate (for me, I'm not a doctor, so all I know is I don't see it on my HRM monitor much and it feels horrible). Usually a really intense workout might get me to 183 or 184.

After all that, I went to Bikram (intense yoga done at 115 degrees) after work, and I swear it was even hotter than usual. My skin felt like it was going to ignite. I always looks like I jumped in a pool after, but this time even the clothes I changed into after class were soaked with sweat within minutes. See why there are no pictures?

Luckily, today is a rest day.

What would you have told the guy at the gym who asked if I was there for weight loss? If I get any especially good responses, I might just have to sign up for a free week at another gym just to try them out.

Winter is finally here!

2012-01-04T07:52:00.003-05:00

I grew up in upstate NY, and started running while attending college there, so I'm no stranger to running in the cold.

I took this just before a run in my hometown last winter.

My first 10K took place in the in frigid temperatures while it was snowing. I've been dealing with nasty conditions so long that I once fell so hard while running on ice that my CD flew out of my discman and across the street.

This was my one and only running accessory in college.

Yes, that's right, I was running ON ice. In upstate NY you don't hit an icy patch by mistake. If you want to run in the winter, you just accept that it's going to be on top of snow and ice and slow it down a bit.

Nevertheless, running in below freezing conditions is supposed to be something that your body gradually adapts to over several weeks or even months. Due to this crazy unseasonably warm and rapidly changing temperatures, my body (and probably all of ours) is totally confused.

On Christmas Eve, I did do a long run when it was about 20 degrees out in Rochester. Then I took a week off, and ran for the first time on New Year's Day, in shorts and a t-shirt, because it was nearly 60. Just two days later, Lily and I headed out for a run bundled up in layers (so, so many layers) in weather that felt like 17 degrees. It was snowing at the end! There were also some killer winds, the kind where running into them feels like running in place. We ran 6 miles around her neighborhood at an average 9:21 pace - pretty good considering I'd been at work about five minutes when my principal and a student told me I was too sick to be there and requested that I go home. (It's funny how people always act all concerned and tell teachers to go home, but don't mention the little fact that unless they are going to take over watching your class, you can't actually leave for even a minute, much less go home).

I was pretty proud that we even got it done. Since it was in the afternoon, I got to listen to the howling winds all day to psych myself up. The horrible day that I'd been dreading had arrived yesterday - it was time to return to work after a full 10 days off. I eased into it by sleeping way in (like, ridiculously late) and then stumbling in to work at the last possible second. To make things even better, something like half the classrooms at my school had no heat, so the kids and teachers in there had to wear all their winter gear to "learn" all day. I was one of the lucky ones that at least had some heat.

Thinking about taking a hot shower, putting on my Forever Lazy, and eating some chili that had been cooking in my new fancy crockpot all day got me through the run. Yes, I fantasize about the Forever Lazy.

Who watches Biggest Loser? It's a huge event in our household that we look forward to like crazy. I won't give anything away, but I will say that it's hilarious to watch with my husband because he HATES the black contestants and gets so pissed at them every year. Let's look at a little more Dolvett. I can never get enough.

Tonight I'm attempting boot camp at a gym that I have a 12 day trial pass for. Cross your fingers that I survive.

What's the coldest temperature/worst conditions that you will run in?

I have workouts to discuss again!

2012-01-02T18:57:00.002-05:00

2012 is the year of the Half Ironman, so I figured New Year's day was the perfect time to dust off the bike and get going on that. I have a loooooong way to go.

Since there are no daylight hours to bike outside during the week in the winter, my friend Jackie and I set up the bike trainers in her workout room. We have grand plans of making this a common occurring throughout our training. She has a super ironman biker friend that was nice enough to come over to help us set up the trainers, and give us all sorts of fantastic newbie advice. We did a 45 minute spin DVD and it was a pretty good workout, despite us ignoring the video and chatting through half of it.

Our "aren't we hardcore?" pose

I stopped on the way home to get Eric and I McFlurries for dinner. So far if my New Year's Resolution was "eat less healthy", I'm really nailing it.

I went to bed more excited than on Christmas Eve because I had a trail run in the morning. I was meeting my friends about half an hour away, and I think I enjoyed the drive at least as much as the run. I finished the audiobook of the Hunger Games and now I'm in the middle of Catching Fire. Seriously, I need Hunger Games Anonymous.

I hadn't run on trails since the infamous Stone Mill 50 Miler, but, despite a few flashbacks at the beginning, I loved them as much as I always have. I was running with my friends Lily, Conor, and Rob, and Mike joined us for a little while. The boys set a pretty quick pace up some of the hills (although we also spent quite awhile walking). We covered 8.5 miles total, and my lungs felt almost back to normal.

I have, without a doubt, also developed an unhealthily close relationship with my Forever Lazy. When I posted the picture last night, I had just put it on, so I wasn't fully aware what a wonderful addition to my life it was. It's warm, soft, comfy, and makes me look like Cookie Monster. I highly recommend going to your nearest drug store and picking yourself up one immediately. However, I caution you - the name is not a lie. It truly does make you forever lazy.

One more time

I don't know what happened to me over break, but I turned into a total night owl and started staying up and sleeping in later and later until it culminated with 3am to 11am on New Years. This morning I set my alarm for the first time in ten days and was completely confused when some weird beeping interrupted the nightmare I'd been having at 8am. Considering I've also taken some sort of drugs to help me fall asleep every night since Christmas, I'm a little worried about attempting to return to a normal, workday sleep schedule tonight. (Taking drugs to sleep and then trying to keep 20 kids alive all day, much less learning, doesn't really go hand in hand).

I took drastic measures and significantly reduced my caffeine intake today. I'm talking about probably having no more coffee than a typical American has each morning. I could barely keep my eyes open all day, so it better have been worth it.

Last random thought - our Christmas tree is already down and put away. I'm pretty sure this is a new record in the Lindsey household.

I'm really good at New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T18:18:00.000-05:00

I want you all to know, that when I asked for reader suggestions for my New Year's Resolutions, I truly took them to heart. One of my closest friends suffered injury and bloodloss as a result, but I stand by my choice.

Andrea suggested throwing a Hunger Games themed party, and now, thanks to her, my 29th birthday is half planned.

Last night, Eric and I headed to our friends John and Carolyn's to ring in the new year with some of our close friends. Being among several other Hunger Games fanatics (Eric is one of them!), we decided to get a head start and have a 2011 reaping.

Casi and John were chosen, things got a little out of hand, and Casi ended up with a bleeding fat lip.

No worries though, the 2012 reaping went much more smoothly, and the Victor was declared with no actual blood loss.

After the disaster in the arena, we switched gears to a much safer option - the celebrity game. You have to guess the celebrity on your head by asking yes or no questions.

I got my celebrity crush, just after her husband divorces her....coincidence? I think not.

Usually gifts are reserved for Christmas, but a fellow Stone Mill survivor, Perry, mailed me and Lily a little something. We wanted to order 50 mile race stickers, but we also wanted the true distance that we covered represented. Perry specially ordered these for us.

I can't wait to get this on the Civic. I don't care that no one will understand it.

You may not have known this, but you are actually allowed to re-wear the exact same outfit from a former New Year's Eve; IF, and only IF, you were with a different group of friends the first time you wore it. I think I should switch this blog to being a fashion blog.

2009

2011

This NYE, while dangerous, was educational. Lily taught us all a Colombian New Year's tradition. You eat 12 grapes at midnight, and get to make a wish for each one. I don't know how to express this in writing without sounding sarcastic, so, disclaimer, I mean this completely seriously - I love learning holiday traditions from different cultures. I've led a pretty sheltered life so it's exciting to me.

I had a panic attack at 10pm because I hadn't made any serious resolutions yet, so it was hard to also come up with 12 wishes, but I think I did pretty good.

One thing I've never learned that I really want to know - was this considered NYE 2011, or NYE 2012? Seriously, my picture albums on my computer are all messed up because I never know if you are supposed to refer to it with the previous or new year.

Around 11:45 we grabbed the champagne and headed out to the harbor to watch the fireworks. A huge barge was setting them off over the harbor in front of the city skyline, so it was gorgeous.

Classy, no?

Tried to get the fireworks in the background - fail

I told you I was taking your ideas seriously, so since Kara suggested promoting whooty awareness, Carolyn and I wore signs to inform the other fireworks observers that there were whooties to be seen.

I can't just rely on the blog - I need to bring whooty awareness to real life

We always do paper plate award for New Year's Eve, but we ran out this year, so mine was on construction paper. It truly captured how I spent the night, however.

I successfully contracted bronchitis TWICE in 2011

We ended the night with a New Years group hug and Don't Stop Believing.

Eric and I had originally planned to spend the night, but since I didn't want to risk keeping Carolyn and John up all night with my hacking, we decided to stay sober and drive home. I had some delicious sangria when we arrived, since Eric had offered to DD, but turns out alcohol and illness and meds didn't mix, so I switched to Powerade anyway. It was officially my first sober NYE since I've been of age.

My last sober NYE was in 2003.

Fun Facts about that NYE:

I was also sick that night
It was at my friend Stacy's wedding, which was in the same exact room where Eric and I later had our wedding reception.
While writing this blog post I had a panic attack because I couldn't remember what the room was called and the place we got married has now renamed all their rooms.

2003 - partying in the Dewitt - Clinton room

2008 - couldn't find one where we were actually posing

Remember when this was an exercise blog? 2012 has been a great year so far. I woke up (at 11am, after going to sleep at 3am - who am I?) and Eric said "wow, you look much better!" immediately followed by "wait - I didn't mean it like that!". Luckily, after all he's done for me this week, he can do no wrong.

Lily came over and we ran five whole miles together! I'm back in action!

We also tried out my new Christmas gift (just for a minute or two each).

A bike trainer!

I even have another exercise date tonight, at the late hour of 8pm. This might be the latest I've exercised since college. It's with two doctors though, who are coming after a busy day of performing surgery and saving lives and stuff, so I guess I could take a break from my 9th consecutive day of doing absolutely nothing and head over there.

Last, but not least, I'm ringing in the new year in what might possibly be my favorite gift of all time....the Forever Lazy.

My new laziness PR

2011-12-31T12:22:00.005-05:00

I've reached a new PR - the longest I've ever gone without exercising in my adult life. Even when I had swine flu, when I had bronchitis last year, or after I recovered from running 50 miles, the longest I took off was five days. Today is day 7, with no end in sight.

Well, I guess I'll spend the last day of 2011 the same way I've spent the entire last week - on the couch, in my pjs, half asleep, and coughing my brains out. Things could be worse though, I'm lucky enough to have a handsome man waiting on me hand and foot. I was supposed to finally run this morning with Lily. I went to bed at 10pm last night, and then when I was still up, coughing like crazy, and unable to catch my breath at 1:30, I thought maybe I wouldn't be getting up at 6:30 to run. Eric made me some Theraflu and watched reruns of The Office with me until I fell asleep sometime around 2. I'm constantly trying to convince myself that there are worse things than a week of being bedridden, and I won't be completely out of shape when I can finally run again.

I appreciate all the ideas for resolutions on yesterday's post. I'm surprised so many people suggested procreating for 2012. If all of those people could just send us a donation to pay for childcare while my husband and I both work full time and attend grad school, Baby Lindsey will be on the way!

I am most certainly adopting 3 of the suggestions:

1. Place in my age group in a race - I really need to find a smaller race for this. The last 5K I did had 2,500 runners and a girl from my running group won my age group doing something like 6 minute miles.

2. Do a pull up. Emily, I will join you in this goal.

3. Have a Hunger Games themed party. Consider my 29th birthday planned.

I feel like I should do something in honor of it being New Year's Eve, and all. I already did a look back at NYE through the years post last year, so I'll copy Kari and answer some questions about running in 2011 that she posted on her blog a little while back.

Best race experience? Running the Baltimore Marathon for the second time, and getting a shocking sub - 4 hour time. I love this race, and I had no idea I could run a marathon this fast!
Best run? It's really hard to say I had a best run, because I did so many runs with good friends, and had a lot of fun, but I think the Baltimore Marathon course preview was maybe one I was most proud of. I separated from a friend to finish the run at my goal pace, and built up some confidence that I was a little faster than I gave myself credit for.
Best new piece of gear? My Nathan Endurance hydration vest.
It's huge, holds a ton of water, and helped me survive my first 50 miler. And it's super comfortable. And cool looking.

This vest has totally helped me fit in with the popular crowd.

Best piece of running advice you received? "Don't look down." Kara told me not to look at my Garmin during a metric marathon and it turns out when I'm not obsessing over the pace, I can actually run faster.
Most inspirational runner? There's no way I can choose just one - I have so many amazing friends that I love to run with, and I read so many inspirational blogs - just being part of the running community is incredibly motivating.
If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? WTF did I get myself in to?

In 2011 I went from having run one marathon to completing four full marathons, two 50Ks, and a 50 mile race. I also went from being terrified of riding a bike to completing my first triathlon. While I had planned on the triathlon, when I thought of my goals for 2011 last year at this time I had no intention of becoming an ultra runner. I couldn't have done it without some fantastic running buddies, and I can't wait to add some more ultras to my schedule for 2012!

In the comments, answer some or all of the above questions, and tell me something to make me feel better about my lack of exercise. It's mandatory.

Happy New Year!

Bronchitis is lame

2011-12-30T11:38:00.003-05:00

I've graduated from being completely unable to speak, to being able to speak, but being unable to complete a sentence due to constant coughing fits, to finally being able to carry on conversations like a normal person. As long as someone who has been smoking for 40 years sounds like a "normal person". It's really too bad schools aren't in session, because I could probably get a part time job for DARE speaking to children about the dangers of smoking. I considered doing a vlog of myself trying to talk, but I don't want to torture my readers, especially around the holidays.

I was finally able to sleep last night without the assistance of codeine, and only woke myself up with coughing fits like 10 times or so. Oh, I also have to sleep sitting up, otherwise I can't even go a minute without coughing.

First world pain - I had to waste my whole vacation from work being sick, and didn't even get to use any sick days.

Other reasons I love bronchitis - Eric and I were supposed to visit my grandma at the nursing home on our way back to Baltimore last night (she lives about halfway between my hometown and Baltimore). Well, we did stop, and Eric did visit her, but I had to just sit in the car playing Words with Friends, because the chance of bringing bronchitis into a nursing home was way to dangerous to risk. So, lame.

Let me summarize my training for the week. Helping carry a car full of Christmas gifts and suitcases up three flights of stairs. I didn't even help pack the car up yesterday morning because I was still exhausted and high on codeine so I laid on the couch while Eric packed up everything we owned. I would award him husband of the year for all that, but he'd already won that when he went out on Christmas to get me medicine, not once, but twice, the second time driving around for over an hour looking for a drug store that was open and sold Vick's Vapor Rub.

As if Eric didn't take good enough care of me, I really can't complain about getting sick while being home (maybe someday when we actually own a house or something, I won't call my childhood house "home", but until then, that's what it is). Obviously, the only thing anyone wants while being sick is their mom taking care of them, and I had that, plus Eric and my stepdad, so basically I had a never ending supply of tea, Popsicles, various medicines, pillows, and sympathy (really, the number one thing to help me get well) at my disposal. It could be worse.

I'm still completely exhausted (I could barely even stay awake in the car to listen to Catching Fire), but I think I'll be recovered to do my normal amount of karaoke for New Year's Eve. I haven't even thought of a single resolution yet, so I better get working on that list.

Based on this blog, why doesn't everyone just come up with some resolutions for me in the comments. I think I've shared enough of my shortcomings for that to be a pretty easy task.

The long awaited Christmas recap

2011-12-28T09:39:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been awhile. I haven't taken a blogging break like this in quite some time, but I am still in upstate NY visiting my family, so I thought I'd give them my full attention. Unfortunately, those non-teachers had to return to work today, so here I am. I don't even know where to begin....

In my Christmas Traditions post, I explained how my family does Christmas fairly comprehensively, so I won't go through it again. Also, I'm guessing a lot of you had Christmases that involved everyone sitting near the tree, opening presents, and sitting around a table eating, so you probably have a pretty clear idea how it all went down. I do have some pictures to share, however.

My Christmas pjs - open me first knows me so well!

Eric is a great person to buy for, he always knows how to show excitement.

I know, this outfit is completely new and different! I totally didn't wear it to school on the 23rd, either.

As if I didn't already love Christmas enough, Eric made me love it even more when he proposed on Christmas Eve, 2006.

Awww....look how young we were

5 years later, same picture, different tree

Santa still comes in our house - the lack of children doesn't dissuade him

Stockings are the most important part of Christmas

Deep fryer and pizza stone - eating healthy is a true priority for the Lindsey household

Half Ironman here I come!

My teacher friends understand my excitement here

My sister got me the best gift ever. Eric got me a photobomb.

On Monday, we met up with some good friends that all live out of state now. We hadn't seen most of them in quite awhile, so Eric was extra excited to show off his new gift from my mom.

In Saturday's post, I mentioned I lost my voice, but felt ok otherwise. Well, the "ok otherwise" part rapidly went downhill as the holiday continued. By Monday night, I couldn't even get through a sentence without a coughing fit, so Eric took me to an Urgent Care facility. I'm quite the expert on these type of places now, and we both rated this one as by far the best we've seen. Just look at what the waiting room had to offer:

We were then escorted to a private room.and given the remote to a private TV. In a similar facility near our house in Baltimore, I was lucky to have a curtain pulled around a chair separating me from the other patients.

The doctor was nice enough to examine me, but I'm pretty sure the receptionist could have diagnosed bronchitis. Eric having to give all my information because I couldn't speak without nearly falling out of my chair due to coughing was a clue.

Needless to say, I haven't been running since Saturday and my enforced rest has no end in sight.

That's basically how I spent Tuesday.

I got to watch Love Actually (my first time!), Bad Teacher, and Super 8 in my convalescence. I loved them all.

When you can't work out, it's important to maintain your health by eating sensibly, so we busted out my Christmas gift to Eric.

Fried peeps

Believe it or not, fried peeps didn't work out exactly as we'd envisioned

We immediately followed the fried peeps with fried pickles and fried peanut butter.

Bright side to being sick - I've had lots of time to enjoy my new obsession.

Ironically, I have done a long run with bronchitis before and ended up in Patient First. That's not the the ironic part. The ironic part is that I've used that as both a cautionary tale to other runners, and as proof that I've learned my lesson. Well, apparently not so much. Everyone, enjoy your runs a little bit extra for me this week, and I promise to enjoy my controlled substance (codeine) cough syrup a little extra for you.

To cheer me up, tell me a time you thought you learned your lesson, but then totally relapsed. Or just something totally dumb you did. Don't be embarrassed, we all know I share enough dumb things on this blog.

Running without a voice

2011-12-24T13:41:00.001-05:00

It’s hard to believe in just one day, my running outfit went from this:

to this.

I guess that’s what driving 400 miles north will do.

I lost my voice on the ride up. I was talking on the phone to a friend with no problems shortly after we left. My mom called probably only a half hour later, and I could barely even squeak out hello. When I lose my voice, it's gone. After trying to tell Eric something three times while we were in line at a gas station, I finally had to text it to him in order to relay the information. I had to text him, while he was standing right next to me. Needless to say, I was a pretty boring road trip companion.

We passed the time by listening to comedy shows and The Hunger Games on audiobook. We arrived at a very exciting part, so Eric was unable to interact with anyone until he finished listening on my ipod.

If you've read the book, you understand why this was necessary.

Since I was coughing up a lung, unable to speak, and my throat was on fire, I wasn't sure the 16 miler I had planned for Christmas Eve morning was going to happen. My throat felt better and I wasn't coughing when I woke up, so I headed out.

I was so unmotivated to run, it was shocking. My family was hanging out in their pjs, drinking coffee, and spending several hours running on snow in temperatures well below freezing (21 degrees when I started!) was so unnappealing. I had a beautiful out and back route by the lake planned, so I tried to do my usual trick of pretending I just had to get to the turnaround to fool myself. Until a bridge repair threw a wrench in my plans.

Somehow, I became even less motivated to continue

I rerouted myself to take a nice little tour through my hometown (the mall, my high school, two ex boyfriend's neighborhoods....you get the idea). I was seriously struggling to continue at mile 7 (my little tour would have made stopping at about 9 miles nice and convenient) so I had to give myself some tough love and bring myself back to the hell that was the Stone Mill 50 Miler. Once I remembered that I had made it through those tortuous last "nine" miles, I realized this was nothing, and my mood finally improved (relatively speaking), even though it had started to snow.

The rest of the run was uneventful, except I tried my first Gu Roctane. Oh, and I ran 16.5 miles, because that would bring me to 40 for the week, and I like even numbers.

I wasn't terribly impressed, but maybe this awful run wasn't a fair assessment.

I have worked out for the past 8 days, with no rest day in there at all, including a race, two long runs, and speedwork. I know a lot of you hardcore athletes can handle that, but not this girl. I need a day off. My legs are begging for it. It was well worth it to schedule my rest day on Christmas though. Tomorrow, all the movement I'll be doing will be to get up and get more cookies. If someone puts the plate near me, I won't even have to do that.

Are you working out tomorrow, or does your "exercise" plan resemble mine?

I've gotten up early and ran or exercised on Christmas before, but since Vince brought alcohol into our Christmas traditions, I prefer to have nothing holding me back from drinking copious amounts of wine on Christmas Eve .

What do you do to get your head out of your ass when you need to complete a run but you cannot think about anything except how much you want to stop running?

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-22T20:03:00.000-05:00

Once I publish this post, I'll have a workday to get through (though, it includes a Polar Express party, so it won't exactly be torture), followed by a 6-7 hour car ride, and then I will be officially on Christmas break!

I know we're all sick of seeing Facebook posts, tweets, blogs, etc about the unseasonably warm weather, but I just can't get over running in this outfit, before sunrise, the day before Christmas Eve.

I was thrilled to get a text last night saying Lily would be at my house at 5am to join me for a run. We chatted through an easy 9 miler, average pace 9:40.

Tomorrow, it will be time for the Christmas traditions to commence. My mom, sister, and I refer to ourselves as Christmas Nazis (extremely ironic, since my sister and I are both half Jewish), and we allow no one to deviate from the traditions in even the tiniest way. Some are longstanding, since childhood, and some have developed recently, since we've added a few members to our family.

This Christmas gang, taken by Eric

1. Christmas Eve dinner will consist exclusively of appetizers. This isn't exactly revolutionary, but it is delicious. Shrimp cocktails, various dips, crackers and cheese, veggie platter....you get the idea.

2.The most wonderful grocery store ever, Wegmans, closes for the only day all year (Christmas) at 6pm, so it's important that a vital ingredient must be forgotten, leading to a frantic mad dash to Wegmans at around 5:43 pm.

3. Everyone must have pajamas to open on Christmas Eve. The tag must read "From: Open me first" on the pajamas, and everyone must open them in turn, then retreat to separate rooms to put the pajamas on, and return immediately to resume more traditions.

4. Everyone must choose another gift to open on Christmas Eve. It's important to give this gift the same deliberation that an inmate on death row gives to his or her final meal. If you don't care (Vince and Eric), pretend.

My sister and I agonizing over our Christmas Eve choices

Unofficial tradition - matching gifts

My sister and the other black man in my life

5. Drinking must occur. This is a new addition, since Vince joined our family, that, personally, I believe is quite an improvement.

6. First order of business on Christmas morning - get hot coffee in everyone's hands. Actually, that's a tradition every morning.

7. Stockings must be opened first.

8. Gifts must be opened one at a time, and all eyes must be on the opener (sorry, a little teacher talk snuck in there, but I promise to give it up the second the final bell rings tomorrow).

Pictures can also be taken of the opener

9. Showers are optional, but pajamas must be worn all day. It's important to be prepared for any post gift opening naps.

He was exhausted from eating an entire forest of Reese's trees

So, there you have my family's Christmas traditions, in a nutshell. What's your favorite Christmas tradition?

I may not be as dumb as I appear

2011-12-22T08:08:00.003-05:00

I'm having serious issues with blogging. I like to blog in the morning, but my snooze button has been my best friend, and now that I'm actually training again, I can't just shorten my workouts, so I just push those until the last possible second and skip blogging. Then I try to blog at night when my creativity is at an all time low. This summer I got in an argument with a professor because she was insisting on posting an assignment so that we would only be able to work on it at night, and I kept insisting I needed it up at like 6am so I could get a good grade.

Speaking of grades, my grade is a 104% percent for my fall class. So if you thought I was really dumb based on things I've said on this blog, well, I understand, but that's a real grade from a real university! I'm actually a pretty big nerd when it comes to school, but ignorant at real life, like keeping up on politics or balancing a checkbook. Basically teaching and learning about teaching is all I got.

The training plan had hill repeats on the schedule for today. Since my marathon is flat and I consider all of my neighborhood runs "hill repeats", I went with last week's speedwork, which was 6X800s (running at a faster speed for a half mile, then resting by running at a slower speed, repeat 6 times). It's been so long since I did any sort of real speedwork, so I was actually kind of excited.

I have always professed hatred for the treadmill, but, I'll admit, it's great for speedwork. It's a lot easier to just push buttons than try to see your watch in the dark while running on uneven, cracked sidewalks. Intervals are basically the only workout I don't hate on the treadmill, because constantly changing keeps me from dying of boredom. Plus, it is nice to be able to put in both headphones, and totally zone out, and not continually stop for lights, watch for cars, try not to trip on debris on the sidewalk, etc, etc.

I warmed up for half a mile at a 10:00 pace, then started my 800s - the first three were at a 7:30 pace, the next was 7:13, and the last two were 7:08. I did a slow jog for a quarter mile to rest in between each one. I swear we should tell the drug addicts about the high runners get after speedwork, they may never go back to crack if they try it.

Most of my last half mile cooldown was at an 8:34 pace - it felt easy after 7:08!

Unlike nearly every other teacher in the country, I still have to go to work today. And tomorrow - all day. Oh, the humanity.

What time of day are you at your most productive?

What are your thoughts on speedwork and/or treadmills?

Double Holidays

2011-12-20T20:56:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was a great day for a Jew/2, like me. (Jew/2 was my nickname in college). I engaged in my annual Christmas present wrapping tradition, while drinking decaf coffee and watching my favorite Christmas movie, Elf.

Ignore my weirdness in this picture, Eric said he was taking a picture to show the tree/wrapping extravaganza.

Check out that big one in the back Mom and Vince - that's for you!

It was also the first night of Hanukkah! Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas this year - double score. So we paused Elf to light the menorah. Classic melding of cultures.

Pop Quiz: why are there two candles even though it's only the first night? Beware - wrong answers may indicate anti - Semitism.

I am trying to stick with Wednesday morning being for swimming. The week before Christmas is a great gym week, I had the pool to myself for almost the whole time, until an elderly gentleman joined me for what I could only guess was some sort of pool dancing workout. I'm sort of embarrassed to even post my swim "workouts" on here or Daily Mile because they are just so slow. My only consolation is most of my readers are runners and have no clue what a good swim time is (like me).

Santa came a little early and dropped off a brand new iPhone for me! Since I've previously posted that I've gone from being all "I'm too cool for a smartphone" to "I can't go four seconds without my smartphone", this was pretty exciting.

It's actually been a huge debacle getting one, and I really wanted to post about my frustration. I didn't because the whole "boo hooo my new iphone isn't arriving on my doorstep the exact second that I decided I wanted it" was so ridiculously first world pains that I simultaneously wanted to scream at almost every Verizon employee and punch myself in the face.

I'm still trying to figure the whole thing out, but what apps does everyone recommend?

A field trip to poop

2011-12-20T08:09:00.000-05:00

Happy Hanukkah! I'm celebrating as soon as Eric gets home with the candles.

I've sort of decided to follow Hal Higdon's Advanced Marathon training plan for the Myrtle Beach marathon, but possibly adjust some of the mileage and trade out the easy run days for cross training. So, in other words, it's a loose estimate of what I'll be doing, but don't look at the plan and call me out for slacking, because I know everyone really cares to put that much time into cross referencing the blog with the hyperlink above.

It called for three easy miles Monday morning. My knee felt off during/after my run on Sunday, so I decided to hit the elliptical for a 40 minute hill interval workout with, my favorite, magazine reading.

I'm pretty sure my knee was annoying me because my old shoes had approximately 428 miles on them, so this morning, I busted these babies out.

The new Brooks Adrenalines

Please ignore my orthopedic old lady socks, I don't like blisters.

Hal told me to run nine miles this morning, and I had a little anxiety, because that kind of seemed like a lot. I've run more than that since the 50 miler (a grand total of three times), but those were all long runs, not just a midweek run. I don't know why I was freaking out, I just felt like I wasn't ready to dive back in to that early wakeup call and long miles in the dark. Plus, morning runs always just feel so much harder than afternoon runs.

I ended up with 9.25 miles before sunrise, and was feeling pretty good about life. Mentally, I enjoyed the run, but my legs felt totally sluggish and my heart rate was higher than it should have been. My average pace was 9:44, and I really struggled to even keep that up.

I blame not eating enough the previous day, and not eating before I ran. Anytime I eat less than an NFL lineman, I consider myself underfueled and my training suffers. I blame poop.

Apparently, a local Baltimore landmark is these Golden Poop Eggs, also known as Poop Epcot. They are named that because that's what they smell like. Yesterday, we took a field trip there, and it turns out that they are actually filled with poop. Note: I did not plan the field trip to the Water Purification Plant.

Here's the poop before it enters the eggs, when they thicken up to make it easier to remove from the water. There are three kinds of sludge removing machines.

And then eventually you get this!

MMMM, ready to bottle and drink.

The other teachers and I considered burning our clothes when we got home. I never lose my appetite, but I could barely choke down the yogurt I brought for lunch (a sad lunch to start with, I know). Thus, a slow run the next morning.

You're welcome for the pictures.

On the bright side, the Civic got its first Christmas present last night! The bumper never looked so good. Thanks, Emily!

Eric thought the race organizers sent them to everyone, as an apology.

Do you have a unshakable appetite, or do you lose it easily? I'm weird because I have a weak stomach in the sense that I completely freak out about having to see any sort of needles, even on TV, yet my appetite never leaves me.