Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee...

...Ijustspent$125inAmazongiftcardsonrunningandhealthstuff, Happy Birthday to Me!


Yep, its official...I survived my 30th birthday with no major mishaps. Had a nice run with my running group (and saw a lovely squished frog on the road...no I didn't do the squishing), went to a local farmer's market and Whole Foods with J, then headed down to my cousin's wedding in Cinci. Had a good time at the wedding and visiting with my sister, her boyfriend, and their dog and cats beforehand, then drove back to Columbus. Where I was greeted with a beeeeeeyouteous quart of sugar free tangerine ice from Rita's in my freezer, courtesy of the wonderful Katie who was nice enough to come over to feed our dogs dinner and let them out for a bit while we were gone. Said quart of tangerine ice is approximately 60% gonzo now :$


My parents and sister were nice enough to gift me with, among other things, the aforementioned Amazon gift certificates. Since I can never let these things sit for long, I spent some quality time on Amazon today and ended up ordering...


-my very own copy of the Omnivore's Dilemma, which despite checking it out from the library twice and incurring hefty overdue fees both times because I can't remember to return things on time to save my life, I have not yet finished. So now I can take my time reading it (even more than I already have) and not worry about more overdue fees.


-CEP compression socks in white. I figure these will come in handy as I attempt to slowly lengthen my weekly long runs to 13+ miles. No, I'm not doing anything silly like training for a marathon...I just figure its time to run 13+ miles more regularly than the two times a year I run a half marathon.


-Body Glide. I've actuallly been lucky and haven't had many chafing issues but as it gets hotter and stickier I know this can potentially be a big issue. And a painful one.


-a new Sweaty Band. Because a girl can never have too many things that keep her hair out of her face...no matter what her husband says.


-a canister of Click Vanilla Latte protein powder...because its yummy.


-a shaker cup for making protein drinks with said protein powder.


-A box of Oskri coconut bars. I hear they're delicious and cracklike, and well I'll eat anything with coconut in it at least once. Okay, almost anything.


The protein powder is on backorder but I'll be stalking the mail for everything else over the next couple of weeks. Yaaaay stuff!



In other news, after a lovely reprieve from oppressive heat and humidity last week, its back with a vengeance. Last week's workouts looked like this:


Monday-lovely, breezy, not too hot 5 mile run. At noon. The fact that the weather was tolerable at that time of day shows how nice it really was.


Tuesday-day off, thanks to a sore right quad. Its the kind of pain that says "time for a new pair of running shoes!". Thankfully, my parents also got me a gift card to do just that for my birthday :)


Wednesday-5 miles of speedwork, in the early morning so it was extra nice out. 1 mile warm up/cool down, and 4x1200m at Lactate Threshold pace. Aka hauling ass.


Thursday-spin class at the gym. Love it.


Friday-impromptu rest day, because SOMEONE slept through her "time to get your ass out of bed and run" alarm.


Saturday- 11.5 muggy, warm miles of fun. You know its muggy when your hair is soaked in sweat after 4 miles. Ew.


Sunday-60 mins on the elliptical, to flush out the junk in my legs. They weren't happy at first but felt much better by the end.


I was planning on running this morning but got up later than I'd planned and it was freaking muggy and hot...so off to the gym I went for a couple of easy miles on the track and then spin class. I am currently resisting the urge to eat everything in my house.


So far, 30 ain't so bad...

I like big butts and I cannot lie

Good thing too, because I feel mine expanding by the minute. Damn you, birthday funfetti cupcakes (my coworker made them for me) sitting on the shelf above my desk. I already ate THREE of you, stop calling to me! Guess who's getting her run on before spin class tonight?

I have been stuffing my face this week and it feels great...though my jeans undoubtedly will not (good thing I wear scrub pants to work, right?). Dinner out Monday, four pieces of deep dish pizza deliciousness for dinner Tuesday, a mostly healthy dinner of fish and "fried" (meaning breaded and baked) artichokes last night but oh so delicious Chipotle for lunch, and so far three yummy funfetti cupcakes down the hatch today. And we haven't even gotten to dinner yet. Or hell, Friday. Thank you baby Jeebus for spin class, and hopefully getting up for an early morning run tomorrow. And 10ish miles of fun with my running group on Saturday. Nothing says "Happy 30th Birthday to meeeee!" like getting up at the crack of dawn to run 10 miles....right? FTR, despite all my sarcasm that is exactly how I'd like to start out the Dirty 30.

Now on the other hand, I am slightly whiny about having to drive to Cincinnati later that day for my cousin's wedding. Okay, more than slightly whiny. It's not an "OMGGGGGGG how dare she have her wedding on my speshul birfdayyyyy" whine, it's an "OMGGGGGG I don't wanna drive to Cinci on my bday, I wanna go out to dinner and let my friends get me drunk instead" whine. But said cousin made the trip from Atlanta to Columbus for my wedding almost three years ago (!!!) and we have no good reason NOT to go (and no, my birthday is not a good enough reason)...so we're going. And driving back that night instead of spending the $$$ for a hotel and dogsitter because we have FIVE FREAKING WEDDINGS TO GO TO BETWEEN THIS SATURDAY AND OCTOBER. Omfg. I thought we were done with the crazy wedding summers. But no. Bless the tiny infant Jeebus, J is a groomsman in one but we're off the wedding party hook for the rest...that one and another are in town, the other three are not, but we're probably not going to one and if I go to the October one it'll be with my coworkers (since its a girl we work with that's getting married). I had to be the party pooper and say that we are NOT staying in a hotel downtown after the wedding next month (cost+making dog arrangements is a huge PITA), but something tells me after the wedding in question J is going to be drunk and want to go home to his dogs (because that's how he was after the last wedding we went to. Unfortunately, we were in Dayton and had already checked into our room, so I told him no we were NOT driving home piss drunk at 1am and waste a perfectly good hotel room. Instead, he woke me up at 7am and we were in the car headed back to Cbus by 8am. Jerk.)
So that won't be an issue. But still...bachelor/ette parties, tux, wedding gifts, shower gifts, a new dress for moi (because I neeeeeeeeed one...that isn't too tight :$), and at least one cab ride home from downtown? I think I hear my wallet crying.

Back to the state of the size of my butt. Thankfully, I've been good about not slacking and either running or going to the gym almost every day...besides Tuesday, but I was having some funny groin/quad pain and decided it was in my best interests to take that day off. Luckily it was gone by the next morning, just in time for speedwork. Yay. So my butt is not quite as big as it could be, given all the CRAP I've been eating (did I mention the cookout over the weekend, at which our chef friend made the most amazing mac and cheese ever? Of which I ate my weight in? Omfg, a.maz.ing.) Bless you, exercise gods, for keeping my weight in check.

On that note...I think I hear the cupcakes calling to me again. Kidding!

Ah, summer...

...aka one of the few things that can drag me out of bed at 545am on a Saturday in order to get most of a run in before it gets too hot outside. 'Cause damn it's hot. We got a break for the last few days, with low humidity and temps in the 70's but today we're right back to 90 degrees and humid. Gotta love summer in Central Ohio....right?


Or something like that.


I've been trying to get up early to either run or go to the gym because of the heat...even the gym in the evening is hot and stuffy and sweaty. "Trying" is the operative word here, because as much as I like getting my workout out of the way, I like my nice snuggly bed even more :D I'm trying, though...working out in the morning does put me in a really good mood. Maybe its the hunger, since I also want to eat everything in sight for the rest of the day. Or maybe its endorphins. Either way, I need to get back into the routine of early workouts...comfy bed be damned.


Running for shits and giggles only is feeling really nice so far. I ran 10 miles this morning because that was what I felt like running when I woke up this morning, and it felt really good. Far better than last week's hung over, beer-sweating-from-pores run, at least. Aka "what happens when you try to keep up when drinking with your spouse's 25 year old coworkers"...which I apparently cannot do anymore. I made it through my run okay, but my stomach reacted unpleasantly to the big cup of Gatorade from concentrate+hose water that I drank after the run which kept me either on the couch or trying to puke in the bathroom until almost 5pm last Saturday. Lesson learned, I guess :p And that lesson made today's run feel even better. I could get used to this!


Other than last weekend's liver abuse, not a whole lot is new. I'm still happily on my mental training break and though the itch to run the Columbus 1/2 this fall is creeping in, I'm trying to keep it under control for now. I finally got my veggies in the ground (two heirloom tomato plants, two cherry tomato plants, a red pepper, a mild hot pepper, and two cucumber plants in the garden, plus basil, cilantro, lettuce, and strawberries in containers on our deck) so right now lets just hope we don't end up overrun with tomatoes like we did last summer. The dogs are staying out of trouble (with the help of Eddie getting Benadryl 2x/day to help with what appears to be a mild environmental allergy), J's working a lot and golfing not a lot but c'est la vie. My schedule is changing at work in a week, which means I go from Thursdays off to Mondays off. This also means that J and I will both have Mondays off, and will hopefully mean we'll get the family room painted and the deck stained sooner rather than later...but yeah. We'll see how that goes. J and I both tend to be fairly lacksadasical (sp?) about house/lawn projects, which drives my dad nuts but suits us both just fine right now.


Pictures to come of the garden and some other stuff...but for now, that's all I got :)

Back at it

Ladies and gentlemen, its that time of year again.

The time of year where I have to put on sunscreen for any run starting later than 8am.

The time of year where I can kiss my insulated tights goodbye until October/Novemberish. And probably my capri tights until at least September. Oh, and my long sleeved tops and the majority of my short sleeved ones too.

The time of year when I take water with me on any run longer than four miles (if after 8am), and grab a pop to put on ice as soon as I get back (my usual post-hot run craving).

The time of year when I don't wear my wedding ring for most of my runs, because my hands usually end up swelling and it takes forever to take off.

And of course, the time of year when I come home from every run soaked in sweat.

Summertime is here, my friends.

As is tradition (heh, South Park reference for those of you who don't know), the weather in Central Ohio has practically gone straight from wet, rainy, crappy weather to 80ish degree heat. This means yard work, dogs who want to stay outside all day long (and eat junebugs all night), and making every effort to run early in the morning or late in the evening because that's the only time of day that makes it even slightly tolerable (and even then, sometimes its not tolerable).

Good thing I got the giant multipack of sunscreen at Costco last month, huh? It takes work to maintain my own personal shade of superpale skin :)

In other news, the summer/fall session of my training group started yesterday with a lovely sliiiightly warm 6 mile run (for me). I'm still leaning towards not full-tilt training for a fall race, though with being a pace coach this summer comes pacing probably a half marathon in September so I need to keep my mileage up. We'll see what happens...I'm starting to get the itch to go for a sub 1:50 half this fall again, and am trying to squelch it. Tryyyyyyying.

The local farmer's markets started up a couple of weeks ago, and I managed to go yesterday after I got done with my run. YAAAAY farmer's markets! Since its a little early in the growing season here, there was plenty of meat and cheeses and other non-produce stuff but other than a variety of veggie seedlings (some of which I'll be picking up next weekend for our garden) there wasn't a TON of produce. I managed to get some good asparagus and lettuce though, which will come in handy here :) I'm looking forward to picking up more fun stuff as more fruits and veggies become available...we're so lucky to have so many options for local produce available to us this time of year.

Enough of my ramblings, though...time to catch up on the DVR!

Race Report-Capital City Half Marathon

Aka "Lessons Learned". But first, lets go back to the beginning...

The Expo-great. Not too big or difficult to navigate, and no crazy lines (though this may have been due to the fact that I went less than an hour after it opened, when lots of people were still at work). Plus, getting my corral assignment changed (insert ominous music here) was no problem. There were some great sales on running gear and I could have blown a ton of money but managed to limit myself to a few headbands (Chica Bands, which are pretty similar to Sweaty Bands) and a shirt (in addition to the below race shirt, which is pretty nice).

The night before the race was uneventful. I picked up some mini chicken gyros from Greek Express (mmm, drool), came home, ate, hung out, and got my stuff laid out for the next morning.

The sticker next to my number refers to my changed corral assignment. I was feeling ambitious and got switched to a faster corral. Cue more ominous music.

I slept pretty well, and was up on time in the morning. Hit a little bit of traffic getting to where I wanted to park, but nothing major. Found my training group's meeting place, got my bag put in the truck to get taken down to the tent set up in the finish area, and headed over with a girl from my training group that I know from our speed workouts. She was in the same corral as me (her goal was a 1:45 finish, mine was sub 1:50) so we walked over to the start, found our corral, and got situated closer to the start than I've ever been. Which was kind of scary, but super exciting at the same time. We started right at 8am, and off we went!

Cue that ominous music again.

The first four miles were fab...I was rocking 8:00/mile pace, which was faster than I'd planned on running but I was feeling good so it would be fine. Right?

Wrong.

At about mile 5, my legs ran out of gas...hardcore. So I slowed my pace, which helped for a little while, but eventually I had to suck it up and do the unthinkable (for me, at least). I slowed to a walk for a bit. Less than 1/10 of a mile, but still. I was hoping that this short walk break would miraculously restore all the juice to my legs, but alas...it was not to be. I spent the rest of the break taking a short walk break or two each mile, as the fatigue in my legs (specifically, my quads, got worse and worse). Even at a slower pace, it was like my legs forgot all the training I had done over the last four months. And it sucked.

My chip time, however, was not as bad as I thought it would be. 1:57:22. Which is not my best time (1:52:xx, fall 2010) and not my worst (2:07:xx, spring 2010), and certainly not sub 1:50...but that's okay.

I do have to say, the race itself was awesome. The start and finish areas were extremely well organized, the hydration stations were plentiful and very well staffed, and the crowd support was awesome. My favorite signs were from the staff of the local Lululemon store...the only one I remember off the top of my head was the one that said "Don't poop.....out" but they all gave me a much needed chuckle.

So, lessons I learned? The biggest one, of course, is DON'T GO OUT TOO FAST. A little ambition can be a good thing, but too much ambition is not and will come back to bite you in the ass. This was likely the biggest contributor to my undoing yesterday.

The other thing I learned is that apparently I was not as well hydrated as I thought I was. I stuck to my usual routine of stopping for water at every other water stop (which in this case worked out to every other mile) and taking my Shot Bloks around mile 7, but with the slightly warmer than I would have liked temps yesterday it (and the hydrating I did in the days leading up to the race) apparently wasn't enough. After the race, I didn't feel horrible but I felt very bleh. A couple of bottles of water helped, as did some Gatorade when I got home, but I noticed that even after taking a shower my face felt dry and tight like it does when I'm hung over...and therefore dehydrated. So if I felt like that AFTER bottles of water and Gatorade, I'm thinking that I was more dehydrated during the race than I realized.

Overall, yesterday was a huge reminder that your training can go great, you can think you're doing everything right, and it can still all fall apart come race day. But in the end, you survive, and you learn. And sometimes, you get a big.ass.medal out of the deal. I mean, LOOK at this thing! (and forgive the fact that the picture's upside down, please)

So, what's next? A lot of taking it easy and getting back to running for the hell of it and not because my training program says I'm supposed to run x miles on x day. More biking and swimming, and enjoying my summer :) I'm still planning on sticking to my "not training for a fall race" mantra, but admittedly after the way yesterday's race went I can feel my resolve waning juuuuuuuust a teeny bit. So we'll see what happens...

La di da

Me=bored. Take one day off work for a funeral and apparently the next day goes to crap. I've seen four patients all day. FOUR. And will probably only see one more. Blech.



Want to know what else is crap?



This weather. April showers, fine. But WTF, nothing but rain so far in the month of May? Though I guess I should count my blessings that so far, the forecast for my race on Saturday is looking to be decent.



Yeah, that's right...my race is SATURDAY. Holy crap.



And I'm ready...I think. At least, I'm as ready as I'll ever be. So bring it onnnnn!

Ten on Tuesday

A local forum I post on often has "Ten on Tuesday" posts, where the posters list pretty much the first 10 things that pop into their heads. I'm sitting here killing time and watching DVRed Army Wives b/c J's poker night is going on upstairs, so I decided to have Ten on Tuesday riiiight here. So here goes...



1. I managed to get a good solid 5 mile run in this evening WITHOUT getting rained on! Considering the craptastic rainy weather we've had since about 3am today, this is a miracle.


2. One day shy of two months left in my twenties...yikes!


3. And I'm plotting to ask my mom and dad to get me the new Verizon iPhone for my birthday. Yeah, I'm asking my parents to buy their kid a new cell phone for her birthday. Her 30th birthday. Don't hate, appreciate!


4. J and I NEED to get going on getting the family room painted...real bad. Its depressing, how much I hate the current paint color.


5. On that note, we need to get on getting our veggie garden planted and flowerbed mulching done. Oh, and staining the deck.


6. I'm so excited to get the veggie garden done-buying fresh, organic produce at the store is expensive and growing it myself is way better.


7. And the farmer's markets will be starting up soon, so whatever I don't have the room or expertise to grow myself I can buy at the market. Along with yummy cheese and meat :D


8. We need to get back into the routine of walking the Terrible Twosome every day (or almost every day). We started slacking off this winter, once we realized they didn't HAVE to be walked that often anymore.


9. I need to get Eddie's right rear leg checked out-he definitely tweaked it wrestling with Georgie yesterday and limped for a few minutes after, but I think I've caught him limping on and off for the last week or so. I might just be paranoid, but either way I want to make sure my wee man is okay :(


10. Getting my hairs did on Thursday! Cut and color, here I come :D