Bridal shower weekend. Oh, and a couple runs too.

What a weekend! It started off with a 6.25 mile run on the Wabash-Cannonball Trail early Saturday morning. I felt pretty strong through the whole run and I was entertained almost the whole time by my surroundings and the patches of fog. The 57* temperature was pretty nice, too. My friend was outside with his daughter as I ran by his house (their yard backs up to the paved trail that runs through the area. Lil One shrieked when she saw me and demanded her dad go get his bike so they could catch up to me on the bike trail. I slowed down my pace a bit so they COULD catch up (not too hard when I was running and they were on bikes, but oh well). I got to hear all about her first couple days at the elementary school her dad and I went to, which was pretty great.

Annie & Daniel during #2

As soon as I got back to the house and got a shower, mom and I were in the kitchen finishing up the corn and deviled eggs for my friends, Annie and Dan's bridal shower that afternoon. This was shower #2 for her and her fiancee, but the first time we could have all us bridesmaids together in one place. It was a LOT of fun. My parents even had a good time talking to the groom's parents. Dan's dad and my dad have a LOT in common and I knew they would hit it off if they just got to talk to each other. Dan's mom LOVES me and the other bridesmaid she hadn't already met. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and just a bit sore from standing on concrete all day (and apparently not stretching well enough after my run earlier). I had wanted to hit up the German American Festival later that night, but it just didn't happen. I passed out SO much earlier than is normal. 

Annie and I after #3

I was able to sleep in until 9:30ish on Sunday, but still felt like a truck hit me when I woke up. I somehow got "Ain't no rest for the wicked" stuck in my head as I showered and got ready for bridal shower #3. Yep, another one. Same girl. Saturday was mainly for the friends and extended family, but Sunday was a more proper and lady-like shower for the aunts and cousins. Another fun one, but not as random and goofy as Saturday's. When mom and I got home, I crashed. I crawled in bed and zoned out for the rest of the night. I went back downstairs to visit and grab food when mom's cousin stopped by, but other than that, I was a zombie. 

I'm not sure if I was SO wiped because of the 6+ mile run, the stress of the 2 showers, or a combination of the 2, but whatever it was got me good. Thank god I'm not the one planning a wedding. Sorry, Annie. lol.

Never made it into campus this morning. I had my alarm set for early enough, but I was still exhausted from this weekend and decided I should get another couple hours of sleep. My legs felt better when I finally got up, minus when I made the mistake of kneeling down on that left knee and I just about fell over crying ... again. At least the bruises on my right knee are fading. Nothing feels BROKEN on my left knee, and it doesn't hurt when I walk or run on it, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Anyway, I got a couple hours of work on my paper down then I decided I needed to get my "easy" run in for the day. Treadmill and I renewed our friendship for a 2-mile run. It wasn't bad, though I was bored about 2 minutes into it. When on the treadmill, I almost always run at 4.3mph, but I decided I needed to run closer to my regular pace so I kept it at a 4.5mph the whole time. Maybe my slower speed is the reason I can only do 30+ minutes of continuous running on the treadmill right now? Hmm, deep thoughts. *Ouch* ;)

SEE?!

I'm not crazy! Caterpillars are attacking! lol. Ok, maybe that's a BIT over-dramatized ... but there ARE a ton of them this year and I'm not the only person noticing!

13ABC - Caterpillars Invade Toledo Metroparks

Dodge the caterpillars and acorns!

I'll get to today's run and the explanation of this entry's title in a minute, but I need to set the (mental) scene. I talked about my *spectacular* fall leaving the wedding reception in my last post, but what I never really touched on was HOW sore my knees, right ankle, and wrist are. I spent yesterday hopping around the house with my ankle brace on, but couldn't put my knee brace on because of where the bruise was. Think about where your knee touches the ground and takes your weight when you kneel down. Yea, RIGHT THERE. It's a little more colorful today than it was yesterday, too, but that could have been from the multiple times I kneeled down yesterday without thinking and instantly fell over sideways cursing and almost crying it hurt so bad.

So, needless to say, I didn't get a workout in yesterday like I had wanted, especially on pavement. I just didn't want to take the chance with my knees and ankle feeling the way they are.

And then there was last night. I was so jazzed about the incoming thunderstorm that I was having problems falling asleep. I finally dozed off a little before 3, right around the time the rain was starting. 3:15 on the dot, I hear my bedroom doorknob (it's kinda loud because it catches during the warm, humid months when the door swells). I figured mom or dad had been woken up by the storm and were just checking windows. That would have made SENSE. Well, it WAS mom, and instead of just LOOKING the extra 3 feet to see that my window was already closed enough that rain wasn't going to come in, she stands in my doorway and WAKES ME UP to ask if my window is closed. *headdesk* I ended up laying there watching the storm another 30+ minutes before I could fall back asleep which, of course, meant I slept in this morning and never made it to campus.

So, with not running in a couple days and (I guess) resentment towards my mother and my paper, I was desperate for some physical activity today. My knees felt a little bit better but I was still cautious of pavement or the treadmill. Thank goodness we have an amazing Metroparks system in this area with plenty of great trails. This being the middle of the week and the middle of the day, the dune trail was DESERTED. Well, deserted except for about a billion caterpillars ... and the acorns and mops of wet leaves falling out of the trees. I kind of felt like I was on one of those wacky game shows where you have to dodge things thrown at you: "Don't look up or you'll step on a caterpillar. Don't loop down or you'll get hit by something falling out of a tree." It was entertaining ... and the spongy ground felt good on my legs. I had to walk more than I would have liked, but I got out there and did it. Maybe now I can start getting back to my regular workout schedule.

Oh, and the best part of that run? Coming home and jumping in the pool (sweaty sports bra and undies, oh yea). The thermometer SAID 80*, but that was the coldest 80* I've ever felt. Of course, today was the first day back for the local K-12 and the afternoon bus with the younger kids was coming through the neighborhood just as I jumped in the pool and popped back up, cursing and spazzing over the temperature of the water. Oops. lol

And now ... the countdown is on to tonight's episode of "Ghost Hunters". I'm giddy like a little kid. Seriously, it's an addiction. Anyone else with me? :D

Congrats Mr and MRS Beebe!

Just some of my favorite pictures from last night ...

Steph (bride's sister)

Not going to lie, I teared up a bit watching Joe walk Sarah
down the aisle (and so did Abby, the MOH)

KISS!

Mother and (one) daughter, Becky and Sarah

Gil and Becky :)

Becky, Ed, and Grandma Mary.
Mary sewed ALL the outfits for the bridal party, minus the corsets!

Xander wanted to dance on his own, not with mom. lol

Sarah and her dad, Joe

Josh and his mom

Steph and I

If you're REALLY interested, you'll have to check my facebook album for the pictures of the ridiculously large smoked turkey legs we got for dinner. Many of us gave up and just ate the veggies and cupcakes because the effort it took to get one good bite of the turkey just wasn't worth it. I know the bride's dad wasn't happy.

And then there's the one thing I DIDN'T get a picture of (thank goodness) ... my spectacular fall down the stairs leaving the country club. My heel caught on a step with loose carpeting and down I went, right onto the pavement at the bottom. My knees have lovely bruises on them (the left - which is already bum - kinda painful) and my right wrist is a little sore, but I'm ok. Is it sad that I'm more upset about how scraped up my pretty heels got? No matter how many times my dad lectures "it'll buff right out", it won't. Damn.

At least Sarah and Josh had a gorgeous wedding filled with love with their family and friends. I love Josh for making Sarah so happy.

First Day of the Semester

First of all, can I say how FREAKING AMAZING it was to wake up to my bedroom at a crisp 55*? I'm the kind of girl who LOVES sleeping snuggled down under multiple layers of blankets and I can't exactly do that without suffocating during the warmer months. Damn Ohio and our erratically variable weather. lol

It may be the first day of the semester/school year, but that doesn't mean much for someone like me who's paying more attention to the deadlines to be able to defend my final paper and presentation and finish my degree. I'm not taking or teaching any classes and I don't come into campus more than 2-3 times a week. I work on my paper 7 days/ week, but there is no point in me driving the 20 minutes to campus every day when all I'm going to do is sit in my basement lab and work on my laptop. It's a rare thing for anyone to come downstairs looking for me (actually, it's a rare thing for even my masters advisor to TELL me he needs to see me. *rolls eyes*) and I just lost my basement PIC to his PhD program in southern Florida. Oh well. A couple more months and I will be done. Completely. Finally.

I had an ok run yesterday. I wanted to do a 6-miler and it was already sunny and warm by the time I got around to being ready to work out, so I grudgingly went down to the basement to make friends with the treadmill. It turned out to be a good decision as we got a freak shower right around mile 4. Mom ran downstairs just to let me know "how lucky I was". I normally can't watch tv while running, but I got caught up in an episode of "Operation Repo" and it made my run so much easier. I'm not quite sure why, but I can run longer and steadier on the treadmill than I can when I have to pace myself. My FINAL time was 88:43, but the first and last 1/2 mile were my warm up and cool down. I DID, however, run over 3 miles continuously, which made me ecstatic.

Despite being the first day of the semester, mom and I are leaving campus early. A friend of mine is getting married this afternoon (don't look at me, I don't know what the hell she was thinking either). The wedding itself is private and earlier in the afternoon, so only mom and I are available, but there's a pretty big gap of time before the reception so we'll be able to head home and pick up dad and Sean. Oh, and did I mention it's a renaissance theme and the bride and her grandma made all the bridal party's outfits ... including her dress? Oh yea. This should be interesting. I really am happy for Sarah and Josh, it's just a weird day and time to get married.

Must. Run. Need. Stress. Relief.

I've been away from running for over a week. Between moving the kid brother, camp, and just trying to get my life together, running just took a back seat. But, boy did it feel great to get back on the treadmill today. I needed the stress relief.

Note to EVERYONE: planning a party/trip by committee is a ROYAL pain in the booty. Everytime I think we have stuff figured out, a specific person chimes in with "well what about this person?" or "what if we did this?" No. Two of us who are helping plan this have already put money into this trip. I hate to be the bad guy, but we aren't going to be able to accommodate EVERYONE. You just can't do it. We're getting too close to the date to have this LITTLE done. I have too much going on in my life to have this much uncertainty in my schedule and bank account. It's more important that we include that central group of people, and if the other people on "the list" are able to come, awesome, but PLANS NEED TO BE MADE NOW. This isn't something that can be tossed together the night before.

Ok, rant over. See why I needed my run? lol.

Now I'm heading out to the pool. I'll get in a few laps, but I really just want to lay out and unwind before the parentals get home from work. The house is MUCH quieter without the kid brother around, but weekends are still a bit crazy around here. Toodles.

I survived camp! ... I think.

Well, I survived the weekend. I never did get any runs or structured workouts in, but I was walking around and lifting enough that I didn't feel TOO bad about it. It's a little over 1/4mile from Frontier up to the dining hall and about the same from Frontier OR the dining hall to the activity field, so I got in plenty of steps.

Tom and Jake "guarding" the door as the severe
thunderstorm rolls in.

FC is always FC. Fun for the campers and counselors, stressful for the coordinators, and bittersweet and hopeful for the alumni. There will always be some kind of inter-personal drama and apparently I'm very good at getting caught in it, despite my wish to just be a part of the background this weekend. Oh, and I had to hear about it from one of my mentees/friends and not from the people who have a problem with me. Typical. At least I got to see and spend some time with Jake. I really wish I got to see him more often. We make jokes about his "creepy" antics, but he never fails to make to smile. Seeing Nancy and some of my favorite places around camp was nice too. Oh, and I got a HUGE surprise when I went to "visit" the horses while everyone else was off doing Buddy Walks! Candy, the horse I rode for YEARS at Camp Libbey, is still alive! She's REALLY old at this point, and in bad shape, and her temperament has only gotten worse since the last time I saw her (she nearly took off a finger when I tried to feed her), but it's still Candy. As soon as I recognized the markings, my eyes started tearing up. That horse is responsible for some of my favorite memories of summer camp. Nancy said it's about time to start looking for her final home, and I wish [so much] I could give it to her. I wish I could give back a tenth of the happiness that horse gave me over the years. Seriously, I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it.

Candy, my palamino baby! <3

HOLY CRAP JOE! This is why it's dangerous to
leave us in the storage room with the prop/dress-up
closet during a severe thunderstorm warning.
lmao! LOVE these people!

Anyway, my passport was waiting for me when I got home. Yippee! The State Department must not be too busy since I got it in under 3 weeks. lol. At least now I have it. :)

I spent most of yesterday either laying in bed working on my computer or SLOWLY cleaning and doing laundry. I was just completely wiped, mentally and physically. Today, I had to get my butt up and onto campus. Sean came over and we went to get his textbooks before he had to head back to Whitehouse for physical therapy. Move-in has started for the freshmen and campus is already starting to return to life. Of course, this also means it's time for campus maintenance to shut down all the parking garage for work and for all the road construction AROUND campus to kick into high gear. Happens every year. lol. Oh well.

I'll probably just rest again tonight and run tomorrow morning. I still feel like I'm dragging but I need to get my workouts back on track, especially my upper-body weights. This camp wiped me harder than it ever has before, even when I was running the show. Weird.

I should be ...

I SHOULD be, preferably, sleeping comfortably in my super-comfy bed, but I'd take "packing", "cleaning", or "working on my paper" as acceptable answers too. Instead, I'm sitting here staring at my "to do" list for tomorrow, wishing I had run more this week, and rehashing every dang little detail of today (Thursday ... I guess I should qualify since it IS already 1:30am on Friday).

"We" moved my brother and his friend into their new townhouse today. I say "we" because kid brother still can't lift anything and his roommate decided to show up HOURS after we were expecting him. I could write for another 20 minutes just on the details, but let's just call it a long, emotionally and physically exhausting day and leave it there.

I'm headed up to YMCA Storer Camps in Michigan this weekend. As an alumni, I was asked to drive one of the short buses up to camp for the Freshman Camp program at UToledo. My brother is a counselor this year and is well enough to attend this camp (we kept him home for the 1st weekend). It kind of makes me proud that MY mentees are this groups's coordinators and THEIR mentees are the counselors. It makes me feel old. There is the possibility of one other alumni who may be up there (other than the branch program director, Jill), and he was one of MY counselors, so I'll have to can the "old" talk until we gat back to Toledo Sunday. Or maybe not. JL and I are known for teasing each other. He's like a big brother. lol.

Maybe I'll take my trail running shoes and get in a couple miles before breakfast Saturday and/or Sunday. We shall see. I sleep pretty hard when I'm "out in the woods" ... and yet I always seem to make it up to the dining hall for breakfast before everyone else :)

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Some days I hate being a woman.

I ended up cranking out my workout Monday on the treadmill and then did some upper-body weights work.

I was supposed to run again today, but I don't think that's going to happen despite the absolutely glorious weather (I actually slept UNDER my blanket last night!). This is probably a bit TMI (forgive me, please), but it's "that time of the month" and my cramps are BRUTAL. They aren't as bad as they were before the dr put me on meds, but holy crap can they still ruin my day. Most days I can still function and get my workout in, but I'm only getting out of bed to eat and use the bathroom today. I'm currently sitting here waiting for this week's episode of True Blood to load so I can watch it.

Assuming I feel better (*crosses fingers*), I'll run tomorrow ... and probably Friday morning too. I may even take my running gear up to camp this weekend. We shall see.

Any tips on dealing with cramps during workouts? Especially running? I'm desperate for a solution here. I feel like I'll go nuts if I don't do SOMETHING and I've already got enough Midol in me to keep from going off on the crazy mood swings.

Thank goodness I have a laptop and can at least get some work done from home (right after TB, of course).

Lovely Lazy Sunday

This whole weekend has been great. Despite the rain yesterday, the family reunion was great fun. I got to spend time with some of my favorite cousins and their adorable kids. I get to see Rachel's family now and again (though that may soon be changing) but I rarely get to see Jacob (and now Caroline). Plus this was the first time I was getting to hold Cayden.

Mikayla (2 years - my birthday buddy!) giving her cousin, Cayden (4 months), a kiss.

And then singing *Twinkle Twinkle Little Star* for him when he was upset. 

I was pooped by the end of the day and just came home and crashed. I wasn't lucky enough to sleep in this morning, but I sat in bed eating cereal, drinking juice, and watching tv like I did when I was a kid. I spent a couple hours laying in the pool trying to even out my tan lines (my stomach hasn't seen this much sun in 20ish years!). A freak thunderstorm blew through, and then it got sunny again. Mom heated up the last of the homemade lasagna for dinner and now I'm back on my bed, eating ice cream, and waiting for my favorite phone call of the week. :)

A perfectly lazy ... comfortable ... relaxing ... day.

Rockstar Morning

What a morning. Since I didn't get a run in yesterday, I set my alarm to my normal morning-run time (5:30am), fully expecting myself to just roll over and ignore the alarm and be forced to run in Oak Openings to escape the sun. While I DID reset my alarm for 6:30, I was wide awake and ready to go by 6:15. If my family heard me getting up, they probably thought I was nuts. I'm normally the child they don't see until 10 (at least) and when I do get up, I go straight for the caffeine and can't function until an hour later. lol. Plus, I was in a strangely good mood and humming under my breath the whole time I was getting ready.

It really was a great run, though I wasn't so sure about the start. My Garmin was having a little difficulty finding satelites and I was worrying I would have to just time myself off my iPod and figure out the distance later (a BIG worry since I can't always map on DailyMile the trails I run). About 5 minutes into my warmup, it seemed better and recording just fine. Instead of turning down Cable and taking Weckerly away from town, I decided to head directly past the elementary school into town to catch the south fork of the Wabash-Cannonbal trail (it's a wonderful trail system in our area made from old railroad lines). Before jumping on the trail, I took a quick lap around the pond in the park. A dog-walker was going the other direction and one of the beagles threw a fit when the guy didn't let him turn around and run with me. lol. Getting on the W-C trail was nice. Even with this being "the country", there aren't many long stretches of straight, well-maintained, level pavement in my running radius (max 5-6 miles, round trip ... for now). I only went as far as Cemetery road before cutting back over to Weckerly and heading for home, heading down the steep hill on Winslow and back into my neighborhood from the north end. Oh, and did I mention it was still only 67* by the time I got back to the house? Oh yea. It was nice.

As I do at the beginning of all my runs, it seems like, I let myself run as far as I can without feeling fatigued or needing a drink of water. I made it 1.7 miles (18:34) before I even though to look down at my Garmin and see how far I had gone. That plus the weather put me in a great mood for the rest of the run. This was really the first time I felt like I was RUNNING and not just shuffling along. According to DailyMile, this is my fastest-paced run off the treadmill to date! My SLOWEST average pace for a piece of a run was 11:08 and all the others were under 11. Maybe it was the nice cool-ness, maybe it was because I KNEW I could do the distance. All I know was it was a GREAT run for me and it makes me 10x more confident about signing up for that next 5k. As long as I can keep extending that initial run distance and pushing while still feeling comfortable, I'll be a happy girl.

When I got back, I did my pushups right away, even though I'm still feeling the ones from Thursday. Dad laughed at me when I groaned reaching up to the cupboard for something this morning.

Now, I get to go haul tables and boxes and help set up for the family reunion this afternoon. It's my dad's mom's family and I always enjoy seeing them. It'll be the first year without either of my grandparents (Grandpa passed a little less than a year ago), and it'll be hard, but I'll have my cousins and their adorable kids to keep me entertained. Mikayla is my little rock star birthday buddy (she was born on my birthday) and I haven't even met Cayden yet (he was still 2 weeks from being born when I visited Pittsburgh this spring).

The Good, The Bad, and The WTF?!

Today was an interesting one, to say the least.

1) I DID get to talk to advisor-man, and he agreed that it would be best to just pay for a credit hour this fall and get the stupid paper finished (*grumble*$#!@ data*grumble*). Neither one of us want me to walk away from my Masters. He and JB are leaving Saturday for a week so I'll have that time to just sit at home and get stuff done.

2 & 3) I haven't signed up for my credit hour yet. I was waiting on an email from Karen to let me know if I needed to do anything specific to defer graduation to Fall. I already have my new Graduation Application ready to go, but there's nothing on the website about HOW to defer and our "Grad school liaison" didn't know either. If I don't hear from her by tomorrow afternoon, I'm just going to sign up for it  so advisor-man is still around if I need him to sign me into the credit (sometimes the computer system works, sometimes it doesn't).

4) I was pretty pleased with (part of) my run. The Roche de Bout parking lot was closed for repaving, so I had to use the Indianola parking lot 1/2 mile down the trail. I did my warmup by walking BACK towards RdB so I wouldn't cut too much into my actual running distance. I don't want to run past the River Bend shelter house just yet. Anyway, I started with just a comfortable steady run and went until I decided I needed a drink. I ended up going 1.77 miles with an average pace of 11:21. I walked for a bit while I took a drink and then took off again. When I got to the "Welcome to River Bend Metropark" sign, I knew I was 1/4 mile from the shelter house so I picked up the pace for 0.59 miles with an average pace of 10:43. It was nice to feel the power in my legs as I picked up the pace. On the way BACK to Indianola, I went at whatever pace. I was paying more attention to all the sick or dead trees along the trail than I was to my running. I didn't really care. I was still riding the happy from the first part of the run.

The "WTF?!" part of my day came when I got home and plugged my Garmin into my computer to upload the data to Garmin Connect. I saw the "Dear Customers, thank you for all your early feedback on the latest version of Garmin Connect. Unfortunately, we’ve identified bugs that need to be fixed before we redeploy the new features." right away, but then I noticed that my entire page was in ITALIAN!! Then, as I found the "account settings" and went to change it back to english, I noticed that though MY id was at the top of the page, I was somehow looking at the information of a 46 year-old Italian guy. REALLY?! I guess they DO have a glitch. I signed out and signed back in and that seemed to fix it, but HOW THE HE!! DID THAT HAPPEN?! Of course, my dad is looking over my shoulder and just laughing hysterically at how peeved I was getting. I was seconds from telling him where he could stick it. Even after I signed out and back in (and changed my password just in case), I was told several times "this info is forbidden". *Sarcastic glare* Uh huh. And then I refresh the page and it works just fine. Whatever.

I may have found a race for this fall, too. September 10th. Sunshine's Walk, 5k Run & Roll. Close to home, too. Apparently "base" is Monclova Elementary and the routes are W-C Trail for the walk and Black Rd for the 5k. Registration is $15 before August 31st and it all goes to Sunshine. Hmm.

5) I did Day 1 of Week 1 of my Push Up Challenge. It consisted of reps of 5, 6, 4, 4, and max-out. I'm doing the easier stance (knees on the floor instead of toes) for now. Maybe once I can do the 100 push ups with the easy method, I'll do it again with the correct form. Maybe. I need to be careful of my posture ALWAYS. My wrists already twinge. My wrists have never been very strong and my right hand in general hasn't been the greatest since I broke that ring finger in flag football. Yea, you read that right. Intramural flag football my senior year of undergrad. I grabbed for a guy's flag and my finger got caught in the elastic on the bottom of his jersey. Spiral fracture the length of the proximal phalanx (the 3rd bone up from your fingertip). Two surgeries and my wisdom teeth coming out within 3 weeks. It was a great semester. Oxycodone and Hydracodone and I were buddies. lol.

6) I'll start my plank challenge later tonight [I'm pooped right now]. I'll be doing the modified pose for this too (forearms on the ground instead of hands, but legs and back straight as always). I'm still deciding how I want to start and proceed since I can't find any good "plans" online. Does anyone have suggestions?

Today's Plan

Just so it's out in the blogiverse and I can be held responsible ...

1) Talk to advisor-man. The GPR equipment was sitting RIGHT in front of my desk in the lab this morning, so I know he's back in town. Hopefully he'll be in his office in about a half hour.
2) Sign up for my 1 credit hour (grrrrr) and pay the bill right away (even more grrrrr)
3) Find out what I need to do about my grad school/ graduation paperwork (at least I know who to talk to for this, if she isn't too busy)
4) Run (at least 3 miles ... on trails [shins are still achy from the road run Tues morning])
5) Start my one hundred pushups challenge (I did the test last week, time to start the reps)
6) Start my plank challenge

Arctic Ease Giveaway

Dorothy Beal over at Mile Posts has a giveaway going with Arctic Ease (GREAT product, btw)! Head over here and check it out! You have until August 8th at midnight!

"Why exploring a trail beats a new iPad every time."

Since there's no "blog this" button in DailyMile's community blog ...

Why exploring a trail beast a new iPad every time

Oh, hello Tuesday

Tuesday is, so far, turning out infinitely better than Monday (watch me jinx it now). Like I said in my post Saturday, I didn't get to run that day and then I didn't run Sunday or yesterday either. I felt like crap from all the party food Saturday and Sunday and then Monday's weather decided to turn to crap just as soon as I got ready to pack up my computer for the day and head out to the trail. As I was driving home, I had every intention of running on the treadmill before dinner, but I sat down on my bed to take off my shoes and was woken up 2 hours later by dad banging on my door and yelling that dinner was ready. Oh well.

So, I set my alarm for the usual 5:30am today and got myself out of bed and out the door around 6am (when I judged it safe enough to head out on the streets ... I really do need to get some "gear" for dark running. The days are only getting shorter). I managed to get in my 3.77 miles looping up to Weckerly and then turning back on Davis and Obee, but boy could I feel my crappy diet and lack of exercise the past couple days. I met up with a woman who lives in the next neighborhood over on my run and laughed at her description of this morning's weather: "The temperature is like Carolina in the early spring, but good lord this humidity is like the devil's sauna!" The thermometer on our back deck was reading 72* when I got home, but I didn't think to check the weather sensors at the airport for the humidity. It was probably upwards of 75-80%. I had to wear one of my old cotton tee shirts with the arms cut off since all my tech tees are dirty (I can wear dirty shorts every day, but I can't stand to wear a dirty sports bra or shirt) and I swear I was wearing as much water as I had started off with in my water bottle. Ugh. At least it was a good run. I couldn't tell you 1 song I listened to on my iPod, other than Britney Spears, but I know I would have gone crazy running along the road if I hadn't had my iPod. Breakfast was kind of fun for me. I warned mom and Sean last night that I was going to make myself a smoothie for breakfast so when I left this morning on my run, I got a giggle seeing both bedroom doors shut tight and (obviously) pillows shoved along the bottom of Sean's door. Mom's blender is kind of loud. lol. Really, I may need to make breakfast smoothies more often. I just threw in some orange juice, banana, frozen mixed berries, and half a scoop of my protein powder. It turned out really yummy and lasted me pretty much until my oatmeal around 10am. It sure beats my normal breakfast of Diet Coke and a Snickers bar from the vending machine on campus. lol.

If the rest of today can hold out on the "good" side, I'll be happy. There's a storm rolling in again (yep, another one) and I'm hoping it will either hold off until I can finish this post, get a couple more emails answered, and get home, or just blow and pour like crazy and get it over with before I can leave. Either way, there's no point in my spending much longer in the lab today. Advisor-man is out doing fieldwork with one of the newer grad students and I can do just as much work sitting at home as I can in this dank little basement lab on campus.

Now for some fun stuff ...

Jen over at Runner ... maybe? has a great give-away going on with Spibelt. I currently run with a belt from Nathan's, but it is bare-bones basic (bought at the last second for my first 5k) and I'm always looking for better ways to carry my "gear" when I run (especially as I start running longer distances without my iPod/arm strap). Go check out the blog, follow it, and then check out Spibelt on FB and Twitter!