Thanksgiving, Home Hell, and some Run-Related Stuff Too

Oh, hi there! Yea, it's been a couple days. Saying I've been busy is a bit of an understatement but I'll leave it there ... for now. lol. I figured I should probably write for a bit since I'm too frazzled to concentrate on my paper right now. My legs and hands were cramping up so I decided to run a couple sprints up and down the basement hallway here in Bowman-Oddy ... in jeans, sweatshirt, and barefoot ... and was doing that when a couple of the construction workers came downstairs looking for a bathroom. I wish I could have gotten a picture of their faces, it was priceless. I was laughing so hard my sides hurt now.

The youngest cutie, Ellie, and her
m&m-stained fingers!

Mileigh (middle child) snuggling the
poor mop, oops, I mean dog. lol. I
can't believe how much she's grown
in the last year!

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I had a great time with my uncle's family. We all ate way too much and then fell asleep for a while watching football. My cousin's kids (especially the youngest since we only saw the older girls for an hour or so) were stinking adorable (as always). Since we won't see them again for a while, we had Christmas with them while we were there. I seriously loved watching my cousin opening the new Ohio State baby outfits (mom found the most adorable Ohio State booties for baby Justice). Kayla, mom, and I all started crying when mom gave her one of Grandma's teddy bears for the baby.

The 6+ hour drive there wasn't bad (even with the complete lack of leg room in the truck) considering we drove 18+ hours each way last Thanksgiving, though I didn't appreciate the extra 2 hours on the drive home because the little brother forgot his stinking coat and tennis shoes (and then didn't notice they were missing the FIRST time we pulled over for him to check to see if he left something behind). Between his and dad's huffing and slamming crap around, dad turning up the radio so he didn't have to listen to little bro's huffing (obnoxious when the back speaker is right by your head), and the extra-cramped leg space (because the little cooler DOESN'T BELONG on the seat and mom wouldn't move her seat forward 2 inches), I was more than ready to strangle someone. It's been a while since I was THAT excited to see Manapogo ... and then the state line ... and then the airport exit. Haha.

Now, we're in the process of packing up the entire (and I DO mean entire) first floor of our house and the upstairs hallway. Mom and dad have finally caved and decided it's time to get the drywall fixed and repainted and new flooring. And, of course, it's 3 different entities (contractor/ painters and the floor installer) and none of them can give us a definite timeline how long it will take them or where they'll start. Oh, and we can't really have the wall guys and the flooring guys working at the same time. How we're supposed to live and function semi-normally during these 2-ish weeks is beyond my comprehension. My parents haven't even asked the important questions (IMO) of the contractor ... Do we need to me there all day or can we just be there to let them in in the mornings (both options have serious issues) ... What hours do they work ... Are they going to fix all the walls and THEN paint or go room to room (we know the dining room will be last since it's getting COLOR, but that's it). I'm TRYing to be helpful and ask my parents these things so we know if we have options for moving furniture/appliances around, but then they just get pissy with me. Whatever. I feel like I'm going to be living out of my bedroom and car. I think I'm going to just plan on working out on campus at the rec and then showering there before heading over to the lab most mornings (as long as I don't have to be at the house all day). That's another thing. We don't know if we can just move our modem to another outlet or what so I don't know if I'll BE ABLE to work from home. Ugh. It's a mess.

Despite my serious dislike of being out in the cold, I'm checking out races to run during the winter. I figure it'll be the motivation I need to keep running (besides HBBC). I found 2 local ones with cheap entry fees that I really like, and I have the money for the entry fees (and tee shirts) thanks to the aluminum cans I turned into OmniSource yesterday. The only thing is that the Midnight Special is at 11:45pm on NYE and the Hangover Classic is at 2pm the next day! Haha. While I'd like to be able to get drunk and stupid on NYE, I think it'd be great to just be able to say that I DID the races (whether I PR or not). And when I say LOCAL, I mean it. The Midnight Special is based from Fallen Timbers Middle School and the Hangover Classic is based out of the Monclova Community Center! I need to send in my registrations and checks soon (on top of all the other crap going on right now). Who wants to run with me? :D

Since it IS getting dark earlier and staying dark earlier and I refuse to be chained to the treadmill all winter, I finally gave in last night and ordered some reflective gear and a more runner-friendly headlamp from Amazon. I had a couple gift codes to spend from my survey-taking shenanigans, so I didn't pay for any of it out of pocket (heck yes, free shipping). I already have a reflective vest (still undecided on if I like it or not) and I figure my trail shoes will work well when the roads get a little slick. A pair of Yak Trax are next on my list of Amazon purchases once I build up enough gift codes, but we'll see what happens with Christmas. I really need a new pair of shoes and some more compression socks/ shin supports too. Oh, and a couple more sports bras wouldn't hurt either. They determine when I do loads of cold wash (pretty much every weekend with as often as I've been working out) and the load is always small, which annoys me. I hate wasting space and water in the washer.

Alright, I've procrastinated enough this morning. Back to working on my paper/ trying to ignore the beating and banging that is going on over my head right now. Maybe I should have said something to the construction guys who caught me sprinting instead of just cracking up laughing? Little brother is coming home tonight to help dad and I move the big furniture so i'll probably have another update on that mess soon.

HBBC Week 1

Week #1 of Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge was the kick in the pants i needed to be more consistent with my workouts. My goal for the entirety of the challenge is to do SOMETHING 6 days per week. So far so good.

Here's the run-down of this week's workouts and their points for HBBC. Note that I'll tally up my points for 30-Day Shred at the end because each workout spans several categories. My run-down will probably be much shorter next week, but I wanted to run through everything this first time and decide on a format that I like and will be able to continue using though the entire challenge. :)

Saturday, Nov. 19

- A sweet early morning run at Oak Openings with Dan. I was a bit miffed when my Garmin died after 3 seconds and even more so when I was a mile(ish) into the run and realized my side was hurting because we were keeping up a quicker pace than I normally do. Grr. At least I've run that trail several times before and have an approximate distance. (4 miles = 4 points)

Sunday, Nov. 20

- Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred: Level 1

- 1.5 mile walk on the treadmill while watching football (1.5 points)

- 2 mile run on the treadmill during halftime (2 points)

- I'm going to count my packing and moving boxes as part of my workout because it kicked my butt! I was still sore the next day! (45 minutes = 2 points)

Monday, Nov. 21

- JM 30-Day Shred: Level 1

Tuesday, Nov. 22

- Treadmill - walk 1.857

- Treadmill - run 2.553 ... I wanted to run further, but I was getting hungry. lol

Wednesday, Nov. 23

- I got in 20 minutes of weights before loading up the truck and heading to Illinois for Thanksgiving (1point)

Thursday, Nov. 24

- I got my recommended servings of fruits and veggies (1 point)

- and 2 miles walking (2 points)

Friday, Nov. 25

- I got my recommended servings of fruits and veggies (1 point)

So ... 2 days of JM 30-Day Shred = 2.4 points assuming Jillian's system is correct and you're doing 9 minutes of strength, 6 minutes of high impact cardio, and 3 minutes of abs.

In total, 21.31 points for Week 1. Not bad. I really want to work on getting my recommended servings of fruits and veggies and my consistency with working out. This week was a bit of a fluke with traveling for 3 days, but here's hoping I just keep getting better.

On the road ...

I'll be away form my computer and off-line for a couple days while I'm at my Aunt & Uncle's for Thanksgiving. We (as in, all 4 of us) are making the 6+ hour drive as soon as we all get up and get breakfast. We've already had one argument over the shower. lol. I'll be back late Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge Starts Tomorrow!

Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge starts tomorrow! Is it weird that I'm this excited? I already have 4 bonus points from the tweeting, facebook posting, and putting that lovely HBBC badge (you see on your right) on my little blog, but I want to get an early start. I'm planning on getting in an early morning run over at Oak Openings. It should be beautiful ... but a tad bit nipply. Luckily, the temperature will be right around where it was on my 11/11/11 run, so I know how to dress to be comfortable. I may even have some company. Annie volunteered her new husband, Dan, "BECAUSE he asked [her] if [she] wanted to, like he was excited about the idea ... and and he's been complaining about wanting to run since the beginning of this summer." Yep. Direct quote from the conversation on my facebook status. Haha. I warned him that I still run pretty slow, but he blew off my warning, so we'll see what happens. I want to do a 30DS as soon as I get back to the house after the run. If I don't knock it out right away, I know I won't find time to do it later in the day.

I'm still trying to figure out how to assign points to my workouts. JM's 30-Day Shred is a little bit of everything so I may just have to tally that up by week instead of day-to-day. Anyway, I plan on posting a weekly run-down of everything here (hopefully on Fridays) so you all can follow along and keep me on my toes. :)

Poor car :(

So, life just got a little more complicated over the past several days. If you follow my facebook, you've already heard about this. I took my car into AAA to get the oil changed. Five minutes after they put my car up on the lift, the guy is asking me to come with him because he needs to show me something ...

Uh huh. That would be the transfer casing to the drive shaft. Lovely. At any time, that could have fallen apart, the drive shaft dropped onto the ground, and basically impaled my car causing even more damage. I guess I'm lucky it was caught when it was. It's just going to be an expensive fix. The quote I was given on the parts alone is more than I have left to pay off on the car loan. Sheesh. Dad had a nice long discussion with the service manager at the dealership about how there is NO WAY IN HELL that part should have broken like that. We were told the only time the only time the tech has seen something like that was when someone had taken it off-road and beat the crap out of it. BUT, there is NO EVIDENCE of abuse or even a ding where a rock could have flown up and dinked it (I HAVE been driving through a LOT of construction lately). This was a complete catastrophic failure of the part itself.

So ... I am without a car at least until the beginning of next week. Which means I have to ride with mom to campus. Which means if I want to run in the daylight, I have to do it during my lunch. Which I WAS PLANNING ON DOING TODAY, but the guys over at the dealership still haven't called me and I don't take my cellphone on my runs. I'm going to be over-the-moon PI$$ED if they called the house phone after I had them hand-write on the sheet last night that they needed to call my cell phone. They won't order the parts until they've talked to me and if the parts aren't ordered by 4pm today, my car won't be done before we head to Illinois for Thanksgiving. So, yea, I'm tweaked right now. I can't eat until I run and I can't run until they call me. Mom and I are leaving for home at 3 since the contractor who's going to do the work at the house will be there at 5 for a walk-through. I don't know if I'll be able to get my behind outside to run in what is left of the daylight or if I'll just give in and risk the shin splints on the treadmill. Ugh.

11k for 11/11/11 and Veteran's Day

First, I just want to say thank you to all our service men and women, past, present, and future. We wouldn't be able to live our lives and be who we want to be without your sacrifice and the sacrifice and support of your family and friends. I have family and friends in just about every branch of service and I am proud and honored to know/be related to them! I wish I could hug every single one of them today and say "thank you".

Originally, I had planned on running/walking 11 miles today to celebrate 11/11/11 but I was kind of regretting it last night as I thought about it. I've never run more than 7 miles ... ever ... Jess offered me an "out" when she mentioned on facebook that she was going to run a 11k. Woo Hoo! Why didn't I think of that? Sheesh. lol. Anyway, I knew I'd have to run it either at Oak Openings or on the Towpath Trail so I didn't get bored too easily. I settled on Oak Openings since it's closer to home, I'm never more than a couple miles from my car or a bathroom (important on long runs, I'm learning), and I just really enjoy my run-ins with OO's wildlife. lol.

So, here's the mechanics. I'll address the rest in a hot minute:

Milage: Avg. Pace
Mile 1: 12:03
Mile 2: 12:22
Mile 3: 11:52 ... This part of the trail is paved and pretty straight. It showed. Lol.
Mile 4: 16:21 ... I walked this mile.
Mile 5: 12:38 ... This is REAL trail. Unpaved. Uneven. Dodging tree roots.
Mile 6: 12:34 ... Still mostly REAL trail.
0.83: 12:09

I had my iPod playing while I was running. I figured I'd need it to keep me distracted from the distance and any aches or pains. It did help me re-focus a couple times but I spent a LOT of time thinking about my grandparents. Both of my grandfathers were deployed with the army during Korea (Gpa C to Korea as a soldier, Gpa K to Germany as an electronics/communication tec) and my grandmother (dad's mom) worked in the armory/surplus here in Ohio while waiting for my grandfather to come home. I thought about my great-grandmother (dad's dad's mom) too. I can't imagine what she thought and went through in all the time she lived. All of them, really. I am so proud to be their granddaughter and I miss them every day. Every day I wonder what they'd think of something or if they would have given me specific advice on something. Any time my dad lectures me about something, I feel like I can hear his parents laughing and talking over him telling me to not take it to heart because he did even worse when he was my age. I'm not going to lie, I got a little emotional a couple times while running.

Ok, I'm getting off that before I start crying again. I DID get to see some wildlife while I was running (besides peoples' adorable/ hilarious dogs). I saw my deer buddy again in almost the exact same place as the other day. Again, she was sitting JUST off the trail and just stared as I ran by. I looked back and saw her take off like she was spooked when the next person went by her (running the other direction). I wonder if she recognizes me? If she is one of the 2 young ones I saw at the beginning of the summer, I've seen her pretty much every week for several months now. I know there are a TON of deer around Oak Openings, but I'm pretty observant of their individual markings (especially as their spots faded).

And the other reason I chose Oak Openings for my run ... bathrooms. For most people, this is going to be a bit TMI, but I think SUAR would approve of this topic. I usually refuse to run outside unless I've already gone #2 that day. I'm not the only one whose insides "shake loose" while running, right? Well, #2 didn't happen this morning, so I was nervous about running where there weren't bathrooms. About 3 miles into the run, my body decided it had to release SOMETHING. I wasn't sure WHAT, but remembering the numerous pictures of runners $#!@ing themselves made me cautious. Luckily it was just a fart (*offers a prayer of thanks*). Pretty much as soon as I got home, though, I was sprinting for the bathroom. Finally. I'm actually amazed I ran that much with that sitting in my system. Sheesh. Maybe doctors should prescribe running as a laxative? Strangely, my GI has still felt stressed the rest of the day. Not quite sure what THAT's about. Hrm. Oh well. Here's hoping I'll be back to normal by tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Veteran's Day. And good luck to everyone racing this weekend! Hopefully I'll remember to talk about my racing plans for this winter next time I write.

Oh, Beautiful Day

Did you vote today? I sure hope so. Issues 1 and 2 got shot down here in Ohio. *happy dance* I was SOOO ready for today. If you're friends with me on fb, you may have seen my rants on the political telemarketers. I really should have posted more on the couple times campaigns were silly enough to make a REAL person call our house instead of a recorded message. I had fun. *giggles evily*

So, if I hadn't needed to be in the lab early this morning, I would have run to my polling location. It's right along the bike path were I like to run. But, I was expected on campus before 8am, so I had to just drive and put off my workout until later in the day. Sitting in the lab was a bit of torture. The construction continues almost directly over my head and we apparently had a mini waterfall going in the stairwell across the hall from my lab. *Sigh* Yea.

I finally gave up after lunch and headed home. The weather had turned absolutely GORGEOUS! Slightly overcast and in the high 60's? Yes, please. I didn't want to waste this, possibly last, opportunity to get in a good-weather run at Oak Openings. I busted through my daily dose of 30-Day Shred (more on that in a hot minute) and high-tailed it for the woods. I stuck to the multi-purpose trail since I was still wearing my road shoes (and I just wanted a nice easy run). It didn't seem like much of a PUSH to run the WHOLE loop. It was a continuous run of 3.5 miles. It was slow, but I was enjoying every second of it!

I had a breakthrough with my 30-Day Shred!  I was able to continue all the strength exercises for the whole intervals. I'm still only doing 1 arm at a time during the side lunge/anterior raise(?) interval (Cycle 3), but I don't stop any more! One thing, though. I've pin-pointed the point where my shin starts to bother me. Jumping jacks. Yep, you read that right. My shin splints rear their ugly head the second I start doing jumping jacks. It's a HUGE problem since they come up again and again in EVERYTHING Jillian Michaels does! Ugh. I'm going to look up more strengthening and stretching stuff and hopefully that helps because I really AM enjoying 30-Day Shred.

Dinner with the parentals at Nick & Jimmy's. I had a delicious cajun chicken sandwich. Oh, and I finally found something that makes DAD cover his years and yell "la la la la la" as he leaves the room (for those of you that don't know, that is the standard reaction around our house any time my parents decide to remind us how much in love they still are. I think dad does it o purpose sometimes just to watch the kid brother and I spaz). What is this magic trick, you ask? It started as mom and I discussing how much I enjoy corsets (seriously, I freaking love them!) and turned into me reminding dad of an incident where mom asked him to move laundry from the washer to the dryer and he had a revelation that he'd never seen the "sexy" underwear before, so it must be mine. We heard the cursing and spazzing from upstairs. It was hilarious. 

There IS a UT football game tonight, the last home game of the season, actually, but who in their right mind goes to a football game on a random Tuesday with an 8pm start time? To make it even better, it's being shown on tv (though only on ESPN U, which isn't carried by ANY network in the area), which means the game won't be over until after midnight. And then we'd have to drive the half hour back out to our little town. Needless to say, we stayed home and caught up on our taped tv shows (can I just say one thing? My dad is insane. He'd rather tape shows using 3 different VCRs than just pony up for a freaking DVR. Ugh). 

Now I'm just sitting in bed, watching Conan, typing this, and waiting for my brother to text me the final score so I can go to bed. Oh, and dreading the craptastic-ness that will be the weather from now on this fall. So, awesome day all-around. :)

Weekend Report

Well, I was lazy yesterday. I spent almost the entire day in bed watching college football (GO BUCKEYES and SUCK IT, MICHIGAN) and catching up on my tv shows (thank you, Hulu and Netflix).

A hilarious late-night phone call made me appreciate the end of Daylight Savings Time (and the fact that all my clocks either changed automatically or I took care of them before I went to bed) and that extra hour of sleep time. Since it was probably the last "nice" day of the year, the parentals took off on the motorcycle and I holed myself up in the basement with the tv and exercise equipment. After knocking out my semi-daily session of 30-Day Shred, I jumped on the treadmill. Oh, COME ON! Did you really think I would leave the house to run when there was a decent football game on tv? Puh-lease! I walked the entirety of the 2nd quarter and into halftime of the New Orleans/ Tampa Bay game (3.03 miles in 50 minutes). Then, I decided I wanted to do a short ladder run. I ran 2 minutes at 4.0mph - 4.9mph. It ended up being 1.48 miles in 20 minutes. Short, yes, but I'm babying my shins until I figure out wtf is going on.

So ... except for my high school losing in football Saturday night (playoff game against a team of guys that have 40-50lbs on our offensive line), it's been a pretty awesome weekend for sports. Other than the Buckeye victory and the  Wolverine loss, Kyle Busch was suspended from Nascar for the rest of the weekend over an incident in the truck race (good, I HATE that guy), SMOKE won the race and is now 3 points behind the Chase leader, and Cleveland LOST today. One more thing to make today completely awesome ... a Pittsburgh Steelers win over the Baltimore Ravens. Bring it. Kickoff in 5 ... Later, people.

Nothing Special and They're Baaaaaaack?!

Like the title says ... nothing special to report on. The past couple days have been the normal revolving door of working on my paper, trying to get chores done around the house for my parents, working out, and trying to stay sane. Today was day #2 in a row for "30-Day Shred". I think I'm going to just keep trying with the 5 pound handweights. Even if I just keep doing Level 1, I'm still working on increasing my fitness, which is what I want. I'm getting much better at not STOPPING, just modifying the activity even more so that I can keep going. I don't really want to move on to level 2 until I'm able to do the WHOLE workout the RIGHT way. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ... I guess. lol.

On the other hand ... F@^#ING SHIN SPLINTS! I've been running on the treadmill after my 30-Day Shred workouts and - surprise surprise - my interior right shin is aching. Grrrr. How the heck am I supposed to run on the treadmill during the winter when it's just hurting me?! I guess I'm just going to keep running outside as long as possible and get back to focusing on my calfs and shins again.

Any suggestions on dealing with the shin issue?

P.S. - T.G.I.F. ... Seriously.

Halloween Weekend

Happy November ... I guess. It being November already just stresses me out. My paper isn't as far along as I NEED it to be. Yea, I'll just skip that rant. I spend enough time worrying about it.

So, Halloween weekend ... Friday evening was spent over at the newly-married-couple's house meeting their new feline addition. Bonus, D's sister and her bf were in town too and brought along their adorable new puppy. I'm a sucker for labs of any age but Baily is barely 2 months old and is FREAKING ADORABLE. I wish I had gotten pictures of the little fluff balls, but I was having too much fun laying on the floor and playing. lol. After we wore out the fuzzies, we went across the street to the mexican restaurant for some margaritas and shenanigans. It was a good evening.

Q and I ... too bad there are no pics of me with my
sword and hat ... or full body. lol

Saturday night was party night. I decided that even though I wasn't going to know anyone besides Q (which usually instantly triggers my "pull back and just watch" safety mechanism), I was going to try to enjoy myself. I was mildly successful. At least I (think I) looked cute. lol. I'll give Q this, I wouldn't want to live in that old rectory. It'd be an amazing building in its heyday, but MAN is it creepsville. To be honest, it wouldn't be as creepy if half the building wasn't used as storage and Q and her roommates didn't CONSTANTLY talk about how creepy stuff was. Oh well. I ended up driving home around 4am since I was pretty much sober and there was NO WAY I was staying there if a couple of Q's roommates' friends were staying there. They creeped me out almost as much as the basement of the rectory. Oh course, I had to wait almost 10 minutes before I could leave since my car was completely iced up and I didn't have my scraper in the car yet. It was a foggy, just-below-freezing night ... perfect for thin sheets of ice on stationary surfaces. Is it weird that I actually kinda enjoyed driving in the crazy fog on the ride home? It was a creepy but awesome drive down 65. Once home, though, I was glad to strip off my fishnets and throw on my sweats and crawl into my bed.

I spent all day Sunday lazing around in my sweats. I did get some cleaning done, but not much. I was just as emotionally and mentally exhausted as I was physically.

Monday was Halloween. I kicked myself into gear early and got a couple hours of work in on my paper. As soon as my mind started to wander, I went off and decided to decorate the front of our house for the trick-or-treaters. We never carved pumpkins this year, but we have a bunch of light-up fakes between mom and I. I arranged them out around the front porch to look like a little pumpkin patch. Again, I should have taken pictures but I just didn't think about it. I loved sitting by the front door with mom and watching the little kids in their costumes. Then, it was time to gather up my snacks and my glass of wine and settle in for Ghost Hunters Live. *giggles excitedly*. I know, I'm a complete nerd. I love this stuff. Don't get me wrong, if I ever found myself in any of those situations I'd probably $#!@ myself and then run away screaming and never be able to sleep again, but it's fun to watch. Do I think ghosts/spirits exist? Yes. I've seen and felt and heard too many things in my life to believe otherwise. On more than one occasion over the past couple years I've FELT my Grandmother's spirit with me when I needed her. I really do believe she was sitting in that room at Hospice with Grandpa, just waiting for when he'd be able to see her and join her on the other side. But enough of that ... I had a great evening watching the live investigation at Pennhurst, playing around on the interactive website, and tweeting back and forth with the other people watching. Ate WAY too much candy and carrot cake, too. Darn near perfect Halloween night, IMO.

As for today, I'm sitting here with my paper stuff spread out around me on my bed. My bedroom is slightly cleaner than it was yesterday. My Halloween decorations and costumes are boxed up and ready to head back to my storage unit the next time I leave home (tomorrow). Oh, and a Destination Truth marathon is on tv. :)