Category: oops!

Paving the Road

Sunday started out according to plan. I slept in a little, started some laundry and then met my family for a last guilty lunch. Per usual, it was pizza and salads at a local restaurant. It was very yummy. I then headed home to work on organizing and cleaning my closet before heading out for a run. I had enlisted my mother’s help with the early spring cleaning. She is an organizational queen, I once posted a picture of her closet on Facebook. All the the tank tops were hung by color, and it was very noticeable as she had upwards of 140 at the time! With my inherent Slacker-ness, minor OCD and germophobe issues, I can have hoarding tendencies. She on the other hand loves either throwing things away or donating them. I figured between the 2 of us, it would take an hour, hour and a half tops.

I was so naive. It took an hour to empty the closet. How is it that items that fit so well before suddenly expand to fill up a room and then some? It was ridiculous. I seriously do not need any more running clothes. It was dark by the time it was finished, with 2 bags of trash and 2 bags to donate. I was so over it by then, now the test is to see how long it lasts. The thing about closets; they have doors, so very easy to hide a little mess. 🙂

It was now too late for a run. I don’t run in the dark, the streets around my house are just not designed for that. There is one, just one, street that has sidewalks but they are more like hurdles, haha. My gym also closes early on Sundays. Then my phone rang, when my phone rings on Sunday afternoons, it’s rarely ever a good thing. It was someone calling in sick for Monday. Waaah! That meant that for Monday, it would be a crew of three, just me and two others. Yikes! I had a hard time sleeping last night just trying to figure out the logistics of only three people.

So this morning that meant I had to be up earlier and out the door sooner. I also went for a double dose of caffeine. I had the feeling I would need it. I even upped from a small soda to a medium. Caffeine and sugar! Work started out well, it stayed steady all day but didn’t really pick up until the afternoon. I managed to sneak away at 2:45 for a few minutes to eat a quick lunch. From then on, it just felt like chaos. I hardly sat down and walked back and forth about a hundred times. And sadly this is not an exaggeration. I was exhausted. We even managed to get help from another location, but it was still rough.

I had optimistically packed my running gear and my shiny new Garmin but I was in no mood to deal with people 😦 And it was too dark to run outside- stupid daylight savings! Tomorrow is more of the same work wise 😦 But it’s New Years Eve, so we’re wearing jeans!!! It’s the small things right?

I am also torn between going to a New Years Eve party or trying to hit the gym again. My gear is still in my car, ready to go. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

So is the road to hell paved with good intentions or good excuses?

Who got in a last or second to last run of 2013? You rockstar!

Unseasonably Warm

It’s December 28th and my run today happened in shorts and a tank top. Say what? Christmas day was in the 70’s and sunny. Boo hoo, I wanted clouds. 😦 Where is winter? I know I should stop complaining, it will be cold soon enough and I will probably complain about that too. I’m fickle like that 🙂 I passed one guy running in heavy black pants and full sweatshirt and hood followed by another 4 blocks later running only in shorts. I’m not sure which one seemed more out-of-place.

I did start out wearing a long-sleeved shirt but I lost it by mile 2. Ever have one of those runs where you felt like your stomach was leading you? I know I said that I wasn’t going to worry about December and maybe indulge a little, but I really shouldn’t have stepped on the scale this morning. Wah. And to continue the spiral, I ate a tri-tip sandwich while out shopping (Christmas returns) followed by a cinnamon roll at Panera. So counter-productive. But I think I have finally figured the new diet restrictions, so fingers crossed I level out soon. Plus my training plan starts Monday so bring on the calorie burn! Hopefully half marathon ready by February 15th 🙂

Today’s run was an easy 5.5 miles around the neighborhood. I normally don’t run after eating a lot of food because my stomach with its issue just doesn’t like it. But I am trying force myself to run through it. I usually don’t eat anything pre-race, even on half-marathon days. I know that I need to change that in the future. So like I said, I felt like my stomach was leading the way. That being said it was a pretty good run. Ran the first 3 in 30 minutes, with only a little walk break. As I rounded the top of a hill, I saw my mom and Zoey coming up it. I met up with them and walked with them for .5 mile. It added in another little hill but oh well, it had a big downhill. I took Zoey’s leash while we were walking but she must not have noticed, because about 3/10 of a mile in she looked up the leash and was very surprised to see me holding it. The look on her face was priceless. I left them at the downhill and ran on. I looped around and met back up with them at the school, water stop! I walked a bit more with them before running on to finish my run.

I love my new Garmin, and all its shiny new data. Even If I am still trying to figure it all out. I was able to send workouts to it but I have not made it to the track yet to test them out. Right now I all I know is that my pace is all over the place and my cadence is really low. More things to work on 🙂

I have one last guilty lunch with my family planned for tomorrow hopefully followed by a run. I also have boring errands and laundry to catch up on 😦

Anyone racing tomorrow? If you raced today, you rock!!!

Can you believe it’s almost 2014?!!

Monsters and Miles

Tuesday’s gym plan did not happen. 😦 Turns out my group wanted a few corrections on the advertising plan, so I spent the evening reformatting again. And fighting the urge to chuck my computer across the room as it froze every 20 minutes. But it was finally done. I was able to walk it down to print shop today to get it bound. My coworker, who is also in my class went to pick it up after work and they had done it wrong. She was able to get it corrected fairly quickly, but still. It was good thing she was one the picking it up because I may have lost it on the print guy. Not sure if I would have started crying or yelling, though.

Yep! The lovely folks @ I Love to Run — Yep!
The lovely folks @ I Love to Run

Adding to yesterday’s chaos, I finally paid attention to my tire pressure warning light. It has been coming on and off for the last few weeks and I had a done a pretty good job of ignoring it. I did get air put in the left front one three times, but I finally had to admit that I probably had a nail. As I was driving to work yesterday, the tire light was on and so was the frost warning. It was 24° and part of my commute is down a narrow, windy, 2 lane road with a wall of hill on one side and a ravine on the other. My overactive imagination struck yesterday and I was suddenly trying to figure out what I would do if my tire blew out. Ok, stay calm, slow down and find the soonest place to pull off to the side. But what if I jerked the wheel? Right would send me into the hill that already had landslides on a daily basis, what would a car hitting it do? Left would be like pulling a Thelma & Louise. See? Crazy imagination. So after all that paranoid thought, I got to work and asked what a good repair shop would be. One was super close, so I took my car over and walked back to work. There was a nail, they took it out and fixed the hole and my car was good to go. I walked back over to pick up my car, so some exercise!! As I picked up my car, I looked at my passenger seat and laughed. The day I take my car in and it looks like this- oops!!! It looks like I live in it.

See gym bag? I really had planned on running.

Other than the binding fiasco, today was a pretty good day. I was dismissed from jury duty without having to appear and I remembered to get a picture of our work tree. Plus plugging and unplugging all our lights is a pretty good little workout. We have 13 strands of hung around the building and all the outlets are in the ceiling, so twice a day up and down, up and down. Once I saw the completed project I was just done. All energy left me and all I wanted to do was sit and maybe read. But I had felt like a busted can of biscuits all day so I changed and drove home by way of the gym.

Only a little crooked :) — Only a little crooked 🙂

I hate the treadmill. Those felt like the hardest 4 miles of my life. I was tired and sluggish and to top it off, someone had that show “Monster Inside Me” on one of the tv’s. Yuck!!!! I kept trying not to look but it was like a magnet drawing me back. I am probably going to have nightmares about the creepy larvae things. Why would someone do that? NikeC was busting out her own miles a few treadmills away and she couldn’t help being distracted by it as well.

Back to the miles, I walked 1:30 at the beginning of every mile, I was tired. Then maintained average pace until the .8 mark and cranked it up to 7 for the last .2. It was kind of funky but I felt like I was doing something. Could only get my pace to 10:30 overall, though. I swear I am slower on treadmills than outside. 😦 And I apparently started my Nike+ in the parking lot getting out of my car, so oops 🙂

Tomorrow I have to turn in the dang advertising plan and prepare for final presentations next week. I am so ready for this class to be over. I probably won’t get in any running until the weekend but its also supposed to 70° again, so woo hoo!!!

So tell me, am I the only one whose imagination goes into overdrive at times?

Does anyone like the treadmill? And if so, help!!!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

A Slow Return

I really didn’t plan on a running break this long. As of this morning, I had not run since the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. After the wonderful but calorie laden birthday dinner for my parents, I was going to try and run the next morning. I had my doctor’s appointment Wednesday morning so I had some extra time. My alarm went off; I silenced it and checked the weather- 25 degrees. Umm, no thanks. Hello winter and I rolled over and slept more.

Back to Tuesday, I had mentioned that my mother wanted a cake? Thanks to the Madonna Inn, I delivered. Sugar Rush anyone?

I also presented with the Pops with this shiny new Garmin.

Right now I honestly can’t remember what I did Wednesday night, so not sure why I didn’t try for the gym. Hmmm, oops. Thursday was school, and I have to say, I cannot wait for class to be over. This class has dragged on and on and on. Just 2 more weeks. I have a plan to submit, a presentation and a final in that time but it’s so close!!

Friday was a little crazy at work. Someone called in sick and then later in the afternoon, the system crashed. It was a short outage but was no fun while it lasted. The tree was finally delivered but it came so late that it still isn’t decorated. Bummer, but that leaves something to look forward too for next week.

photo 5 (2) — But here’s a little of my tree!

I met a friend (NikeC) after work for dinner to catch up. We ended up chatting for a few hours; I think the restaurant may have been a little irritated, oops. It was a good talk, life and running, plus good food, good times!

Today started out cold again, so I slept in a little. Then I ran some errands and ate a yummy lunch. I was trying to find an inexpensive party dress for next week’s work Christmas Party. I found one that fit the budget but I am still on the fence. I have a week anyways. And then it was after 3. I so did not feel like going to the gym. The Slacker in me was whispering “one more lazy day, maybe one last weekend, you can run on Monday”. The whispers were so very tempting. It was cold and I had rolled my ankle yesterday ( I was stepping down from a credenza onto a squishy chair wearing 3 inch heels, so in other words my own damn fault). It was a little twinge, but it needed rest right?

No!!! I changed speedy fast and was out the door. I was wearing long sleeves but forgot gloves and an ear warmer, oops. I knew I was going to be sluggish and I was. But it felt good to be out and running, cold ears and all. I ran the neighborhood, hills and all. 3.8 miles later I was done and was greeted with this cuteness-

My ankle was fine throughout the entire run, but I have felt it ever since. That twinge feels very tendon-y. hmmm. I have some Christmas shopping to get done tomorrow, and hopefully I will get in another run. Fingers crossed!

How has everyone’s weekend been?

Any Racing?

The trouble with pants

Can I just say that pants and I have a love-hate relationship? I am presently on the hate side. And running capris? Well, they are the devil.

A few weeks ago, I committed a big race no-no while running the Spooner’s Cover 5 mile race. I wore something I had never ever run in. On a race day. I ran in a skirt, I didn’t even own one, I had to borrow it from my mother. (She has a ridiculous amount of running/ tennis clothes.) I had never really been interested in running in a skirt before. I know that tons of people do and I have seen some super cute ones, but in my mind, skirts were for tennis and shorts were for running. But I just could not stomach wearing capris so I figured I would try a skirt. Actually, it was pretty comfortable, I may buy myself one.

But off point, the last month or so of posts, I have mentioned some stomach discomfort. I figured I would share a bit. I have a thing, I hate words like disorder or syndrome or condition. Anyways, that thing is gastroparesis. Or at least that’s what the doc is going with now.

I have had problems for years and went to multiple doctors and nutritionists and had numerous tests done, yet very little help. No allergies to speak of and then last year, they finally came back with gastroparesis. What that means is that my stomach doesn’t like to digest food, and it does so extremely slowly. See, even my stomach is a Slacker. 🙂 So that can cause some discomfort and irritation and make running uncomfortable. It also can cause some blood sugar drops which lead to lovely dizzy spells. Woo hoo!

Back to the pants, there are times that pants just suck. In fact I own plenty of dresses for that exact reason. Ok, well some are just really cute ( and great for lazy days 🙂 ) I even have one that all my coworkers know I wear when I just refuse to wear pants. Running capris are the worst. Why are they so damn high-waisted? I have tried so many brands and types but all the same. I have tried rolling the waist band down too, no such luck. I love my Nike shorts because they sit low enough. Sometimes, it’s uncomfortable just crossing my arms, which sucks because I always cross my arms.

So, verdict is that I should be a grazer, and have to moderate my carb intake among some things that I shouldn’t eat. Despite the food pictures I have posted on this blog, I really do monitor my carbs, but those pictures would be boring. I have literally had the same thing for lunch and breakfast, with slight variations, for the last 11 months. Yawn.

Anyways moving on, I have had a better year than previously but November has not been my month. Hence the whining on my posts and the very uncomfortable last 2 miles of my last race. But I see my doc next week, so I will be sure to whine to him, but this may wander back into the blog at some point, just giving you a heads up.

I have debated posting anything about this, but I figured why not? It can’t hurt and maybe something good will come out of it. Maybe someone out there has similar issues, who knows. Otherwise, my next post should have some actual running in it :).

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Any crazy AM shoppers out there?