My Morning

...yep

Feelings

This is what happens when I have feelings. (minus 4 cause I had to make sure they won't kill you when you eat them...don't worry they're good to go)

Fortune?

What the hell kind of fortune is this?!

"New people will bring you new realizations, especially big issues."

I don't even know how to digest that...

Oh today...

warning part of this post is from negative nancy if you don't like that stop reading

This morning I woke up late. I set my alarm for PM. I spilled my coffee on my pants. I frantically looked for a child's intake materials, basically screaming expletives, it was sitting on my desk the whole time. I had to eat my breakfast in a meeting at work quickly so I could take notes...stomach ache. On my way to my first client a giant truck made a giant rock meet my new windshield which splintered immediately (insert more loud expletives)...today just hasn't been a good day. :( sadfaceformeandmypityparty

As soon as I got off work I changed ate me some peanut butter almond butter and jelly on a multi-grain sandwich thin and hit the road with Balmorhea for 10 miles to run away from my problems clear my head. Thankfully I was able to get some reprieve momentarily, although I was unsuccessful at running away from my life completely.

I do have a great life, and things could always be worse. I understand this. Today was just bad. Crying in the toy closet at work while sitting on the floor in front of all the water you just spilled in front of the open fridge is just not a good way to start the day. I love my life, and I am incredibly blessed in more ways I can count. But earlier today those blessings were clouded by negative spirals.

Running makes me feel better. Had I posted this right when I got home from work it might be flagged for inappropriate content from all the swears. I'm glad I had the time for 10 mind slowing, mind clearing, mental reprieve miles. Dear world: I am a better, much more pleasant person to be around when I run. And I love endorphins which are the fuel behind this post. Yes!!

Oh and look I got a new door hangy thing for fall :) thank you smiths marketplace!

Humble pie

I am just very humbled today...veeery humbled.

16 miler that almost happened

Hahahaha okay so it was 14.70 but my legs were tired and I didn't feel like running circles around my moms neighborhood to make it happen. Lesson learned: do not do kettlebell swings two days before a long run. You end up being second day sore and that just sucks while running to your death. You use your inner thighs more than you might think when you run, kettlebell swings will not only show you that, but shove it right down your throat. get your mind outta the gutter they really are sore from kettlebell swingin!

I took a picture on my run today and I would like to place it (here: insert flag picture!) but I'm posting from my iPhone and I haven't figured out how to do that yet...Today I started my run about the same time the first plane hit the first world trade tower 10 years ago. And when I hit 9.11 miles I said a little prayer for all the survivors and the families who lost someone special on that horrific day. I found myself getting a little scared too when planes would fly over me. (the road I took to my moms is also along the flight path for a lot of planes leaving or coming here). I will never forget where I was that day, and how watching the whole thing take place on tv, and reading about it makes me feel. It was a terrible act that happened to our country. We've come a long way since then, and I am grateful that so many people go to such great lengths daily to make sure we are safe.

Unrelated note: why am I so hungry all the time?! You can't tell me it's all my running cause I seem to eat 3x what I burn! Weight watchers sucks right meow cause no one can seem to explain to my why I gain weight when I earn anywhere from 50-100+ activity points a week. Sweet old ladies don't know nothin...tellin me I run too much...THAT'S NOT AN ACCURATE REASON AS TO WHY I'M GAINING WEIGHT! Ugh. I did run 35 miles this week though...but seriously other people who run a lot are toned, ripped, and thin, I am missing out in this department!

Welp I'm off to raid my house for food like a scavenger, so I can shove it all in my face while watching the cable we don't havetv.

Yes I really do

Eat salads in large storage bowls...

Did I mention just how much I love enchilada salad?

And IPA from Montana!

2 hours of spin?! Who does that?

Woke up this morning before my alarm went off and decided I would get myself dressed, semi-fed and off to the gym for Saturday morning spin class. I showed up early and about 1/3 of the bikes were claimed already! Ya, I got there about 45 minutes early too. Set up my bike then headed upstairs to get my run on. The schedule calls for 6 miles today but I only had time for a little over 3. Did a 9:13-9:31 pace though!

Fast forward to spin class. Yep it was full, and there were two bikes at the front. I was wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. Turns out today was a 2 hour class! 2 hours of sticky, soaking wet, can't breathe cause the room is so stuffy-spin. Don't really need to tell you I rocked it only stayed for the first hour cause my legs were going to fall off. It was a great class though, maybe if I attended more faithfully I would know there are two hour classes sometimes and I would have come more prepared to meet my impending doom.

I met a new friend in spin, she ran the PC marathon too and has been my sole human source for other race information. Today she told me Big Sur marathon in April was already sold out! WTF I wanted to run that damnit! So now I'm looking around for other possibilities. They have a 21 miler available that I could do, can I just keep running the last 5 miles? Do you think they'd notice?

The SOJO marathon registration goes up next week and I'm still on the fence about it. I need to do more race research so I don't look like a fool when spin class friend crushes my dreams informs me that all races I want to run are full.

Imma go start some laundry then maybe sloth around for a bit, the 12 pounds of pumpkin protein pancakes I just ate are sitting like cement in mah bell-ay.

happy labor day

I've been working all the food I ate yesterday my butt off this morning just picking up things around the house and trying to get organized.  I need to do some paperwork for my classes today and I need a clean place to do it or it won't get done.  I wouldn't say I'm OCD...just like to be organized.  The projects for today should be the office and the garage, they aren't dirty, just cluttered and need a nice pick-me-up.  I have things organized in little piles all over the place, just don't know where to put them.  Hopefully we get around to it today!

Every morning these lovely folks send me an email quote of the day.  Today's quote was;

"Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best."
Michael Johnson, American sprinter and winner of four Olympic gold medals and eight world championship gold medals

I thought this was interesting today because when I was preparing for my marathon I had a bunch of reasons about how metaphorical it was for my life.  Marathon training for months on end is hard on you, I would say more mentally than physically.  Aches and pains will go away, but the things that are going through your mind, and the things you show yourself while in the midst of a workout will sometimes rock you to your core.  Well it did for me anyway.  See, I had never run a marathon before.  It was something I had always wanted to do, but didn't have the physique, or the mental prowess to actually follow through with it.  So for me, running this first marathon was a whole lot more than just running for 26.2 miles.  It was about me breaking away from my 'old' self and becoming this 'new' person (imagine my upset when that doesn't actually happen ha).  Reading this now, I shouldn't be putting 'old' self, I realize how that if it weren't for my past for my 'long stretches of hard work' and the 'opportunities to perform my best' I wouldn't be where I am today.  So I try something and I fail at it miserably...while I'm off beating myself up over it, the rest of the world is doing the exact same thing and just moving on.  My first Marathon taught me that I can do just about anything.  If I have the diligence to wake up between 3:30 and 4:30 most Saturday's and Sunday's to get my long run in before the heat tries to kill me, or get that workout in when I really don't want to, not just for training purposes but for mental clarity, I can handle most anything life throws my way.  Even if I fail at it at first, as long as I keep 'training' or trying in this instance, I will succeed. 

Ever since I ran the PC Marathon, I've been tempted to run another really fast.  Its a great feeling to be a part of a marathon.  Its fun!  You meet lots of new people, who offer nothing but kind words and encouragement, plus all the jitters you get just from being a participant, it's exciting!  One of the girls in a spin class I regularly take told me about this marathon and I have been thinking about it.  Even got me a training plan for how to run marathons only 8 weeks apart.  The more I consider it though, I wonder if I am wanting to do it to get a better time?  Because they are way fun and I love being apart of something?  I love running, but I don't need to be a participant in a race to love running.  I may reconsider so I can train hard, get my core stronger, and work through this lovely ITBS that doesn't seem to be going away.  Plus, while reading Runner's World magazine I saw and add for this marathon  and think that would be pretty sweet. 

Welp I'm off to try to figure out what to do with myself for the rest of the day!  Adios!

Running revelation what?!

I really love my Sunday morning runs. I run with just my hydration pack and my chomps. No music, and my phone is tucked away in the little pouch on silent, so if for some godforsaken reason someone decides to call me early on a Sunday morning I can ignore it until I get home. During my runs, I just am. Most of the time, not a thing is going on inside by brain, but this morning I had a lot to think about. I am really glad I got to think about my life, and how its a series of choices not chances. I learned that from a friend once many years ago, and just now, is it really starting to mean something to me...Life is a series of choices not chances. I don't by chance just have a horrible attitude, I choose to have it, or choose to maintain it by not choosing to just laugh about things. I choose to let how someone is acting toward me (or in general) affect my day. For the longest time I though everyone else around me needed to change their attitudes cause they were pissing me off, but in reality, its been me the whole time who needs to take a step back, to stop getting so caught up in emotion, anger, and perfectionism, and just be happy. Ha, its not often I get such a great revelation from a run, but this morning's kinda run was a very humbling run indeed.

The last time I had a humbling run I took this picture. I keep this as the background on my phone and as my profile picture most of the time so I can remember that run and what it taught me. Who needs church on a Sunday morning when you have the road?! Sunday morning runs are my 'church' and today was a great sermon run.

oh tomorrow morning's run

*Clearly written yesterday but posted today...still new to this shiz business*
There's a 12 miler on the schedule for tomorrow...hopefully it'll happen. My throat has not been feeling well at all and if I can't breathe without having the scratchiest throat ever I'm thinkin running will be even worse. (look at those reasoning skills!!)

So I ran my first marathon ever on Aug 20 and I thought I'd share some pictures from the bliss.

I got up to Park City earlier in the evening to make sure that I had everything ready to go for the run!  I laid everything out all nice and neat so I wouldn't have any confusion in the morning.  Just looking at this picture makes me excited!

Enter mile 18 or 19 of the marathon.  Not really a good sign when the race people spray paint a GIANT blue frowny face on the bottom of the biggest hill ever.  It never seemed to end, and it was about an 18% grade.  I tried to jog up it, but I felt like I was joggin in place so I said screw it and just hiked up the thing.  It was ridiculous!

I want to do another marathon...just looking at the pictures of this one I am flooded with emotion.  Feelings that good should be replaced immediately.  I've toyed around with running the SOJO marathon on October 15, registration fees are super cheap and its flat so I could get myself a better time than the PC Marathon...but I'm also thinking I should take this time to train harder to find another race at the beginning of 2012. 

new to this shin-dig

Over the course of the last year and a half or so I've read a lot of blogs.  Blogs to help me cook, to help me run better, to make me laugh, or to update me on my friends' (more interesting than my own) lives.  Now its my turn to try this business out.

I've been running avidly for about a year and a half now.  I love it, I hate it, I do it when I shouldn't and don't always want to.  Its really become a part of who I am.  I think sometimes its the only thing that keeps me semi-sane.  Running is something that is always going to be there for you, if you just throw your shoes on and do it.  For me, when I run, its like...well solace.  (hence the name).  Running is the only time during my busy busy days where I can think about absolutely nothing.  If you were to hook up brain activity electrodes to my head when I am running, they would be flat, and that is glorious to me.

Really I am starting this blog to help hold me accountable to my fitness and nutrition goals.  Too, it'll be fun to post all the random musings that go through my brain while running, I swear I could write a book and it would be a best seller!

If you don't know me, well, good luck!  Plan on getting to know me!  I'm a blunt, say it like it is kinda gal, with a lot of randomness and sarcasm to boot!