Category: Run!

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Normally I like Friday the 13th, and I can still say that even after my first car accident years ago that was on Friday the 13th. But yesterday was rough. It started out good, but then a very important piece of equipment broke. Customers were stressed, I was stressed. We called in a tech, then the back office, then the network provider and all 4 of us had a lovely little conference call trying to figure out what the heck went wrong and how to fix it. This felt like it took forever but I think it was about an hour and a half. We finally got it running but still have no idea why it went cuckoo. 😦 I’m saying trickster elves.

We’ve been running a toy and food drive since thanksgiving and look how amazing our customers are-

And this is the third time it has been emptied. It’s been this awesome at all of our locations too. 🙂

Last week, my doctor suggested (ha!) a new diet to see if it helped. I waited to start until this last Monday because I had good food in my fridge and cabinet that I refused to let go bad. Like apples! I will so miss those honeycrisp. 😦 I have been so hungry all week, and after the stress of yesterday, I just wanted pizza, so I picked one up on the way home. 🙂 Yummy. And the ingredients are not on my bad list so I can lie to myself that way right?

Today was spent errand running with a little bit of Christmas shopping. Prior to the shopping lunch was pizza again, but this time it was Red Brick, so totally acceptable. 🙂 After a little procrastinating of the presentation that I need to work on, it was over 60° so I went for a run. I was slow (oops pizza) but it felt good. I even threw in a couple of hills. When I hit the bottom of my driveway, I was close to 5 miles so I did what us crazy runners do and ran another block and back. Finished at 5.26. While I was adding in that little bit extra, i ran passed a house that had an inflatable Santa in the yard. There was also a girl with a bow and arrow. No, Katniss, no!!! Hehe, luckily the Santa was still standing on the return trip.

Tonight was a local holiday tradition, the Vine St Victorian Showcase. It’s also always been a family tradition to go, but tonight it was just me and my mother. We were able to walk there also, so yeah for extra miles. Granted, these ones were a lot colder. The street is blocked off, the houses are decorated, there are carolers and dancers and cotton candy, hot chocolate vendor’s, lots of fun. So to finish out this post, here is what I saw tonight. Hope you enjoy them!

This house is my favorite! I love how the ornaments float between the trees 🙂

Any local or family traditions of your own?

Anyone else get a warmer day?

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!

So much pink!

Baby, it’s cold outside! Shouldn’t be a surprise as it’s December, but every time I walk out the door, brrr! Yesterdays run was so cold, I think my cheeks were wind burned. Which is sad because it was around 38. Toasty compared to some other places.

Pardon the bald look, my cheeks were so cold!!!

I didn’t get back from shopping until almost 4 and the temperature was dropping but I wanted to run. I changed as fast as I could into what I hoped was warm and was running. I ran the exact same route as Saturday. Not sure if it was that I was feeling better or if the cold was the incentive but I took 4 minutes off of the previous days time. Woo hoo! I felt good and would have like to run more but the setting sun was against that. 😦 As I was stretching out afterwards, I realized just how pink I was. Not only were my cheeks pink and stinging, my clothes were too! I don’t think I have ever worn that much pink before.

This was also the first time I had ever run in full length pants not capris. I had picked them up while shopping on Sunday, and figured it was cold, why not try them out first thing? They were awesome. They never moved or slipped and felt comfy the whole time. The waistband was still higher than I would like but I think that’s just me. The odd thing is that I bought these exercise pants at Abercrombie (I know, I know, but I really like their sweaters, even when I was 40 lbs heavier). Random I know, but I have not been liking the pricey Nike capris or the numerous pairs of Fila I own. I had to go up a size and I was hoping for a lower waist but so far, worth the money. Which was the best part- $20! They washed well the first time, so now to see how long they last.

I also picked up a running skirt (my first one!) on clearance at Sports Authority and a new pair of knee socks. I also finally treated myself to some new jeans (amazing Gap coupon!). I only had one pair. Losing weight is awesome, but it was a real hit to my budget. I don’t wear jeans that often but it was making things a little tricky. My mother on the other hand became a veritable clothes horse when she lost all her weight, so I was usually calling her on the Thursdays before Friday Jean Day, crying help! I need pants!

My family is incredibly hard to Christmas shop for but I think I managed to pick something out for my brother. I am 99.9% positive that he does not read this, but just in case, that is all I am saying. Now if I can just figure out everyone else before Christmas. Managed to finish my Secret Santa shopping too, now fingers crossed, it gets here in time!

At work, we finally managed to get our Christmas tree decorated, but this Slacker forgot to get a picture. I also apologized to my boss, because as I was tumbling on Friday, I managed to break one of her icicle decorations. Sorry!!

The plan is to hit the gym tomorrow night and get a couple miles in on the treadmill. That will depend on how far I manage to get with my advertising plan. This post has been a wonderful distraction from the headache of formatting but I better get back to it! The Sing-Off is pretty distracting too 🙂 And I am on standby for jury duty again tomorrow, so who knows?

How was everyone’s Monday?

Anyone like jury duty?

Anyone else singing along?

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 Slacker in the Sisterhood ~

It’s Monday!! And the first one back from vacation. Note to self, never go back on a Monday. Overall it wasn’t bad, one person called in sick but we made it work. After work, we all hung out and ate pizza and decorated for Christmas. We hung so many lights, going up and down the ladder felt like a workout. There are garlands wrapped around the beams and lovely silver bells hanging down as well. Snowflakes and lights fill the windows. There is a little more to finish up tomorrow and then the tree comes on Friday!! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well as long as you don’t go outside, it was a lovely 70+ degrees today with a bright shining sun.

Today was also my mother’s birthday so I then rushed home with flowers for her. She wanted a cake…oops. Tomorrow the plan is to take her and my pops to dinner for their birthdays (his is Wednesday).

There is a decided lack of running in my schedule right now but I have chosen no to stress about it. I am calling it a rest period. I am going on day 5, let’s see how long til I get twitchy. After the last race, I was tired, so I figured a little rest won’t hurt. But it will only be a little one!!!!! I promise, help hold me accountable people!!

In brighter news, I was recently nominated for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Say that 5 times fast. The nomination came from the wonderful TIA and the awesome Tartan Jogger. Thanks Ladies! I won’t lie, sometimes these awards confuse me. They are amazing to get, don’t get me wrong, they sometimes bring back memories of signing yearbooks and never knowing what to write. “Have a bitchin’ summer” anyone?

So the rules are as follows (I think)- Thank the blogger who nominated you, answer some questions, nominate 10-12 other bloggers and notify them on their blogs. Easy enough right? So Q&A time-

Favorite color– Alternates between purple and grey, depends on my mood.

Favorite animal- Cats- they are self-sufficient enough for my admittedly Slacker self, and slightly anti-social like me, ha!

Favorite non-alcoholic drink– Diet Coke, seriously I’m addicted.

Facebook or Twitter– I’m still working out Twitter (17 followers, woo hoo 😦 ), so Facebook.

Favorite pattern– Ummm, help? Chevron?

Favorite number– 394, anyone know why?

Favorite Flower– Rose, is it narcissistic if that’s also my middle name?

What is your passion– Still looking for it, but when I do, I will shout it from the rooftops.

So next- my nominees in no particular order-

Don’t Blink. Just Run

I Thought they said RUM

See This Girl Run

Lucy on the Lookout

Hmmm, just noticed a lack of female bloggers I follow. I need to find more!!!! Any suggestions? I would have nominated TIA and Tartan Jogger, but someone beat me to it! 🙂

Ok, I totally admit that I am a Slacker, and I am going to do my best to notify everyone on their blogs, (yearbooks again) however, if I do not in the next 24 hours, and any of my nominees read this before I do, please don’t wait for me, enjoy your shout out!!!!! Also if you have previously been nominated just use this as confirmation that you rock.

Hope everyone had a good Monday!

Any Reindeer or Jingle Runs in the future?