HBBC Week 6 ...

I know. I've been pretty quiet this week. Sorry about that. This week has kind of thrown me for a loop.

Christmas was exactly what I expected. Just the 4 of us. Sitting around watching movies. Arguing over stupid crap. The normal. At least mom caved and bought a Honeybaked Ham! Yummy! Not going to lie, though, my parents spoiled me this year. Along with more Zensah, mom made a payment on my car loan and surprised me with tickets to see Beauty & the Beast (the Broadway show on tour) (Yes, I'm 25 years old but I'm a proud Disney kid and B&B was one of my favorites)! Dad, being his normal ridiculous self, decided my brother and I needed something that he and I had been seeing in stores for 2 months now and joking about ... Ohio State gnomes. If they have the other one next time I go into that store, I'll probably get it. I laugh every time I look at them.

<-- Mine              Little Brother's -->

Monday's run was supposed to be an easy 2 miles, but the only word I can think of to describe it is fugly. If you don't know what "fugly" means, feel free to ask your children (but don't be surprised if they don't want to answer you). Anyway, 5 minutes in, my right shin (outside ... not where it normally bothers me) seized. I stopped several times to stretch it out, and that helped a little, but it still hurt. For almost a mile, I felt like my left foot was striking normal but I was just dragging my right foot along. I likened it to the clomping of a horse's hoof or something. It took a LOT of self control to not freak out. I hoped it was just something about the angled road and not being completely warmed up that irritated my shin. As soon as I got home, I ace-bandaged a heating pad to it, stretched it out, and then pulled on my compression socks. It helped, I guess.

Wednesday was supposed to be a 3-mile run day, focusing on speedy intervals. The same spot on the right shin got a bit achey just before mile 2, but it didn't really HURT like it had on Monday. I stopped to stretch it out a couple times. By mile 3, it felt almost normal again. I don't know if it was finally warmed up and stretched out or if the ibuprofin I took before leaving the house was finally giving in, but I was thankful.

I've done a little cross training on the days I wasn't attempting to run, but I've done better. I just haven't wanted to hurt my shin even worse this close to my races this weekend. I've been really good about my fruits and veggies this week, though. I guess it helps that mom let me do the grocery shopping on Monday and I made sure to stock up on things she wouldn't normally get. And then took the time to cut up the veggies and have them ready to go.

Tomorrow is day zero. Except for having lunch with an old friend who's in town for the holidays, I'm going to spend the day laying in bed watching movies and relaxing ... until it's time to go race. This thing with my right shin has made me more nervous, but I'm trying to stay calm about it all. I'll take extra care warming up and stretching out beforehand. All I can do it my best. Cross your fingers for a PR.

If you're also racing this weekend, good luck. If not, have a great new years and be safe. I'll have plenty to say about my 2 live races, virtual race, and resolution fun run next time. :)

Christmas 5k Virtual Race

Now that I've finished my shopping and wrapping, eaten yummy eggnog pancakes, spent "like an hour" (according to my brother) in the hot shower (ahhh!), baked fudge (shh! I stuck it in the basement fridge so hopefully nobody will notice it's there and I'll get to eat it all on my own), and watched my Pittsburgh Steelers win over the St Louis Rams 27-0 (WITHOUT Big Ben! Holy $#!@), I guess it's time to recap my run this morning.

Hanging with the big man himself! Yes, I'm wearing a
Santa hat. lol

Like I mentioned yesterday, my training plan called for 5 miles today and I decided to make the first 3.1 miles my Christmas 5k Virtual Race. Really, this came at the perfect time in my training. My double 5k (potential) disaster is exactly a week away now and I wanted to test myself a bit. Honestly, I don't know why I keep calling it the "potential disaster". I decided weeks ago that I was going to focus on racing the NYE 5k (Midnight Special) to the best of my ability (come on, PR) and let the chips fall where they may for the Hangover Classic the next day. Anyway, I wanted to push myself through a 5k this weekend just to see where I was. My training has been a bit all over the board so I wanted reassurance that I CAN run this and I CAN beat my 5k race time from June (my first and only in-person 5k race to date). 

And BOY was it a nice run.

I am ESTATIC! I keep telling myself that I'll be happy with my time next weekend if I can beat my time from the Happy Trails 5k in June, 35:52, but I've been quietly hoping to break 33 minutes by my 26th birthday (this coming July). Ok, not so quietly if you follow me on DailyMile. Anyway, I felt STRONG the whole run and the 2 times I noticed that I was starting to shuffle my steps a bit, I was able to quickly change it back to a quicker, stretched-out stride and continue. I knew I could run the whole 3.1 without walking (a huge achievement for me), but every time I do it is a boost in my self-confidence. I had a little bit of discomfort in my right side under my ribs around 2.5, but I ignored it and took a couple seconds to focus on my breathing and it got better and I was able to push myself through the last half mile (yep, check those paces). And as much as I wanted a white Christmas, the 40* and sunshine were much appreciated today :)

Thanks to Kiley @ Daily Vitamin F for hosting the virtual race!

~ ~ ~

And if you have young kids and don't know about this yet ... YOU CAN TRACK SANTA ON NORAD'S WEBSITE! Here (Santa's view) or here (Google Maps). Even for big kids, it's kind of fun. It goes live every Christmas Eve at 7am (EST) as Santa starts his run (which I only know because I was already awake this morning when Norad posted on facebook that the Santa tracker was up and running. lol). Every once in a while he'll stop at a place that just makes me laugh. Last year, I opened the website just as Santa was making his stop at the International Space Station!

And apparently Santa has brought PENGUINS to the North Pole to be slaves in his bicycle factory.

Hahaha ... or should I say

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Blessings to you and your loved ones! Remember that kids grow up (as my mother is currently lamenting as she stares at our piles of laundry), familys grow apart, and you're never guaranteed tomorrow so enjoy today.

HBBC Week 5 Summary and BAKING COOKIES!

I decided to post my HBBC summary a day early since I'm taking today off from working out. Yep, you heard that right. I took today off. Things needed to get done around the house (mom was home today, so I couldn't exactly focus on what I wanted to do) and tomorrow's run is going to be a challenging one for me. I've been loosely following a personalized training plan from RunnersWorld.com and tomorrow is calling for a 5-mile run. BUT, tomorrow is also Christmas Eve, which means I need to get in my virtual 5k. So, I figure I'll run my first mile (or half mile depending on how I feel) as a warm up, knock out my 5k, and then finish up my miles at the "recommended pace" (which seems obnoxiously slow to me). It'll be a good test for me to see where I am as my double 5k is next weekend. Yikes. That experience is just sneaking up on me.

Anyway, my HBBC spreadsheet nearly gave me a heart attack the other night (as those of you who follow my twitter know). My computer had a minor hiccup and I needed to force-restart it. When the computer came back up, it had saved my original spreadsheet as a .xlsb file. I didn't know what that meant until I clicked on the file to open it and IT WOULDN'T OPEN! I spazzed for a good 10 minutes about how I was going to recreate everything (it wouldn't have been a problem, really, between my weights spreadsheet and my dailymile) until I had a little lightbulb flip on over my head (hehe) and I tired just changing the NAME of the file to a .xlsx. Amazingly, IT WORKED. I'm pretty sure I was jumping up and down doing a happy dance. I started going back through this week's and last week's lists and realized I HAVEN'T BEEN COUNTING MY STRETCHING! HOLY GUACAMOLE! Oh well. I won't make that mistake in the future. Lol. I know I have no chance at having the highest points in my category (not even close), but I still like to put up as many points as possible.

The evil press. Apparently it only works for MOM!

So, along with the cleaning frenzy that was today, we talked mom into baking cookies! My grandmother used to be the cookie queen. She'd take DAYS to bake the dozens and dozens of multiple kinds of cookies. Every family, then, got their own BIG tin of the cut out cookies and smaller or medium-size tins of the specialty cookies. Plus any of us who were away at college got our own tins ... with extra of our favorite (and Grandma always knew which ones were our favorite). Imagine her doing this for our family, my uncle's (huge) family, my grandmother's siblings (whoever was left of the 13ish originals), and THEIR families! One of the best parts of December while growing up was helping Grandma make and pack all the cookies. And OF COURSE us kids got to eat the "leftover" dough and lick the beaters after every batch. That's the whole point of BAKING, isn't it? lol. Well, we miss Grandma more than ever around this time of the year. I've been begging mom for a couple weeks now to bake some press cookies (one of my favorites ... but I can never get the press thing to work right by myself) and I guess dad asked about peanut butter cookies (HIS favorite) so mom caved and baked today. I seriously felt like a 5-year old waiting for her to press the dough so I could sprinkle the sugar crystals and stick the cookie sheets in the oven. That was always my job when I baked with grandma and I still don't let anyone else do it. The red sugar crystals just sprinkled on the flower cookies and the green sugar crystals get sprinkled on the tree cookies, just like Grandma used to do. In our family, there is NO other way TO do them! Period. End of story.

Now I just have to try not to let myself eat all the cookies before we even get to Christmas. Mom's family isn't doing a party for Christmas Eve (for the first time in decades), so I don't have any distractions from those delicious cookies sitting in the cookie jar ... staring at me ... calling "Eat me! Eat me!" :)

HBBC Week 4 and Jingle Bell Hell Run

All I'm going to say about HBBC Week 4 is that I'm disappointed in the points, but not in myself. Life just got in the way this week. I couldn't make up for the day I took off with knee pain on the treadmill since it's closed up and shoved against a wall right now but that's ok. This week was about starting to get our house put back together and getting this semester finished off.

At least I started HBBC Week 5 off right with my version of XLMIC's Jingle Bell Hell (Virtual Fun) Run. While I didn't run the full 1/3 marathon distance, it was a long and very interesting run for me.

Here are the nitty gritty details from my Garmin, if you really care: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/134966829

How the trail looked when I was starting. Snow was
just starting to stick to the trees and longer grass.

Anyway, I had planned on getting up early and getting in my last LONG slow run before my New Years double 5k adventure (yep, that's how I'm looking at it now) ... preferably before the snow started this afternoon since the weather guys were disagreeing on how much we were going to get and when it was going to start. Well, I slept in 2 hours past my alarm (it was only 10:30 when I got up, give me a break) and woke up to find the snow had already started, though it hadn't started sticking to anything but the trees yet. Ugh. I scarfed down a packet of oatmeal (I normally eat 2 but didn't want to feel sick while running) and half a can of Diet Coke (I need the caffeine, dangit!), threw on my normal run gear (plus my bright orange raincoat with the logic that I didn't want to get wet, forgetting that I was going to drenched in sweat by the time I was done anyway), and headed out. And guess what? I actually took my cell phone with me so I could get some pictures (shocking, I know. I don't like running with my phone. I know it's a safety thing, don't lecture)!

I knew my 6.25 mile run wasn't really going to be "HELL" since I was sticking to the paved Wabash-Cannonball Trail (and this is NW Ohio ... we don't have real hills unless you want to run the man-made sledding hill in town. lol), but I decided to make it slightly more challenging for me to judge distances (I don't like looking at my Garmin while I run) by running WEST from Whitehouse instead of my normal EAST. I also stuck my iPod on my Christmas playlist (this will come into play later, trust me). Within the first half mile (and JUST out of "downtown"), I came across an older gentleman walking with his 2 overweight labs (who weren't on leashes *ahem*). The dogs were big babies and woofed at me so I bent down to pet them as I went by. The guy had been talking pretty constantly on his phone as I ran by, so I didn't really think anything of it when he raised his voice once I was past him ... until the chocolate lab ran into the back of my leg and almost took me out. Apparently he took off after me when I passed him and the poor old guy had been trying to call him back. Oops. lol. I ran back to the guy so the dog would follow and he decided it was probably a good idea to put both dogs on their leashes for the rest of their walk. Uh, yea. haha. Things were pretty uneventful for the next couple of miles if you don't count the occasional branch or twig getting knocked out the trees along the trail by the wind. Running the trail this direction my be more protected from direct blasts of wind, but that just means there are more projectiles that could get "thrown" in your direction. I'm aware of 3 smaller twigs landing on me, but it could have been more and I just didn't notice.

Right before I got the crap scared out of me.

One thing that was nice about running the trail this direction, I got to run past my good friend's house. Now, you should know that K and I have a history of pulling pranks of each other. We've been doing it as long as we've known each other (since kindergarten, basically). When I ran past her place on the way out, she was outside working one of her horses (the one that I normally ride when I go over there, actually) and we waved at each other and kept on our merry way. Thinking back on it now, I really should have been more warry on my run back. Not long after I turned around (just past 3 miles), Trans-Siberian Orchestra kicked on in my playlist. I had turned the volume up a little bit before my run since most of my Christmas songs are a little quieter and I wanted to be able to hear and enjoy them, so when TSO started, it was pretty much blasting in my ear. When I hit K's property again, I could see that she wasn't out in the jumping ring any more and I didn't think any more about it. The trail was pretty in this area so I decided to slow to a walk and get a picture of me. I had just started running again when I felt something grab my hair braid hanging out from under my headband and hat! Of course I spazzed and spun around freaking out. That brat K had jumped her horse over the creek, snuck up on me (easy to do with my music being that loud), and encouraged Shotzi (yep, thats the horse's name. Long story.) to nibble at me! Once I knew what was going on, I just about fell over laughing, but THEY SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME (a real possibility since I hadn't relieved myself before leaving on my run and had already had the "is this a fart or do I need to pull a SUAR and start looking for a secluded spot" thought train)! The funniest part (for K, at least), was that Shotzi was so darned proud of himself. He was prancing and tossing his head as if he was thinking "Ha ha! I got you! Did you see me, mom? I got her!" Yes, in my mind, he has the voice of an excited little boy. He usually acts like it too. lol.

The rest of my run was (thankfully) slow and uneventful. And I realized my brother was home as soon as I ran up our driveway ...

I guess since we aren't really putting up Christmas decorations this year with all the renovations going on, little brother decided it was necessary to at least decorate the front porch. Yep, Santa rides a Harley at our house. It let me end my run on a smile, at least. :)

House progress, I'm faster!, New gear, and Remembering Gpa C

If you see smoke coming out of my ears, it's because my mind is working over-time right now. On top of stressing out over my paper (will I/ won't I graduate this semester), thinking about finding a job for the holiday season (in SERIOUS need of some cash right now), figuring out the whole dog-sitting thing over Christmas for my 2nd mom (she's been friends with my parents since they were in college, both her daughters and I are really good friends), and all the work going on at the house, my head is spinning a bit.

The work on the house is moving along, I guess. The hard floors in the kitchen, hallway, laundry room, and downstairs bathroom went in last Thursday. Appliances went back into the kitchen Sunday night and the fridge and freezer are mostly re-stocked. Painting was finished up yesterday (even though we're not happy with it, we just want the guy out of our house now). The guy broke mom's lamp and then had the nerve to say (after I basically told him HE needed to talk to mom about it) that he wasn't going to do anything about it "because it still works". We looked up the price of the lamp online and we're going to just deduct it from his last payment (and send along a nice little note). If he thinks he's going to get a recommendation from us, he's crazy.

... and this piece is broken.

The "bowl" is bent up ...

We also got all the base boards reinstalled in all the hard floor areas of the downstairs. And today is the day for carpet. New carpet is going in the family room, dining room/living room, and up the steps through the upstairs hallway. The house won't be "done" at that point, but at least we'll be done with all the contractors stomping in and out of our house. We'll be able to start putting every room but the dining room back together tonight, thank goodness. The dining room is going to be a bit more work on our part with the beadboard, new chair rail, and all new base boards (and who knows when we'll actually have time to do all this). Mom and I are both crossing our fingers we'll be able to get the washer and dryer back in tonight (preferable early) or we'll have to spend a couple hours at the little laundry place in the village. Dad is out of work under-shirts as of today and I've been out of tighter long-sleeve workout shirts for a couple days now. I've had to get creative with my outdoor running layers.

Speaking of running, I've run in my new Saucony's twice now ... and I'm absolutely in love with them so far. I don't know if it's the new-ness of the shoes, my fitness level, a placebo effect, or what, but my last 2 runs (the only 2 with the new shoes) have been my 2nd and 3rd fastest paces I've ever recorded on dailymile (the fastest was a 2ish mile "sprint" I did this summer).

Dec10 - 11:07 avg (3.14 mi)

Dec12 - 11:03 avg (3.95 mi)

I turned down my music on yesterday's run and concentrated on my stride (when I wasn't grumbling about the people walking on the wrong side of the trail and having to stop where the trail crosses roads) and was noticing the little things that were different with these new shoes. Like I said in my last post, I can feel the difference in the heel cushioning. I TRY to not land so hard on my heel, but it happens. The other thing I noticed was my stride itself. I feel like I don't "shuffle" as much as I used to. I still do it a bit when I'm tired or when my side starts hurting (which recently I'm attributing to my poor nutrition rather than my fitness ... maybe even the quicker pace? idk), but I'm getting much better about lengthening my stride. I also feel like "pushing off" with each stride is easier and more comfortable in these new shoes. Again, I don't know if all this really is because of the new shoes, but I'm enjoying it. I'm crossing my fingers (and toes) that this continues right on through my NYE and NYD 5ks. *big smile*

Right around the time I bought my new shoes, I also decided it was time to get serious and cash in some of my Amazon credits. I already had my Runner's World reflective vest (worn only once since I bought it in June), but I wanted more reflective gear and I've been looking at buying a blinking light to stick on the back of the vest for a while now, along with reflective banks for my arms and ankles. I also convinced myself that it was time to buy a proper headlamp. The one I have now is great for basic camping and not stubbing my toes while trying to find the breaker box when we blow a fuse, but it just isn't a great option for running. I had looked at the knuckle lights, and I still really want to try a pair, but I had Amazon credits to spend (plus free shipping). I have a friend I camp with who has this same headlamp and he absolutely loves it. He does caving and dark climbing and other crazy stuff like that, so I KNEW it was a quality piece. Also, I got myself a travel-size Body Glide stick for my gym bag (hey, it was on sale and I had a couple dollars left on my Amazon gift cards).

I'm pretty sure I weirded out my parents the night all this stuff came in the mail. I was running around the house in all this gear, shorts and a sweatshirt, bright pink compression socks (hellz yes, Zensah!) and fuzzy slippers. No, there are no pictures. Thank goodness. lol.

On a different note, yesterday was 7 years since we lost my mom's dad (and set off the chain of a funeral pretty much every other month). I was extremely blessed to have had all 4 of my grandparents (and my Great-Grandmother, God bless the mean bitch) in my life as long as I had, so losing Grandpa was a serious blow. To have it come on the Sunday evening right before my first finals week in college made it even harder for me to process how I felt about everything. I was really tired last night after my run and dinner, so I showered and crawled in bed early. It was almost eerie how I turned on the tv and the first thing I found was an old John Wayne movie (actually, it was the same one the grandkids were watching the morning of Grandpa's funeral - weird). It happens every year, I feel like I need to watch either an old John Wayne movie or watch a couple episodes of M*A*S*H and I never have a problem with finding one or the other to watch. So many wonderful memories of watching both those things with him while I was growing up. And then? I found White Christmas (one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies of all time). Listening to Bing Crosby was another "Grandpa thing" too. I tear up now, thinking about it, but I was in a happy calm the whole time I was watching the movies last night. It felt like I was back 20+ years ago. Thank you for everything, Grandpa. I love you and miss you.

HBBC Week 3 Summary and New Shoes!

It doesn't really show in my HBBC points, but I'm a little disappointed in my workouts for this week. After my run last Saturday, I crawled in bed and didn't surface again, really, until Monday night. Stupid sinus infection. I've been feeling the after-effects of the sinus issues and my lack of healthy eating while I was sick for the rest of the week.

Also, I've been thinking for a while that it's time to buy some new running shoes. My trail shoes still have a ton of miles on them, but my road shoes (my asics) are already starting to break down and I wanted a spare pair of shoes to wear when I run through a puddle (or snow/slush) and my shoes don't dry out over-night. With a new pair of shoes, I can dedicate the new pair to JUST running and use my older pair for x-training as well.

So, when Dave's Running was having their "Black Friday" sale on that epic nasty and wet Tuesday not that long ago, I went and bought myself an early Christmas present ...

They're Saucony Progrid Ride 4s. I was a little irked about having even more PINK in my workout wardrobe, but I'm loving these shoes so far. I've never had Sauconys before (I was pretty loyal to Adidas before I started running and gave asics a try), so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I took them out for the first time today (wanted to wait for a nice dry day) and LOVED THEM! I could feel the difference in the cushion under my heels and my knees didn't ache after. Even with running into the wind for half the time, I set an awesome pace for me, 11:07. If I can hold that pace for my 5k on NYE (actually, I was running the course for that race today), I'll PR. *crosses fingers*

Racing Dilemma Solved ... I guess

So, I had this whole post written out over my freaking out over my race plans to NYE/ NYD ... wait, wait, wait. I don't know if or how much I've shared on this subject before (and I'm too darn lazy right now to go look it up), so I might as well run (ha. I made a funny) through it all quick. Please excuse the copy and post from the original, slightly whiney, post ...

"I’m kicking my booty out the door and forcing myself to embrace running in the cold and (far too soon for my liking) snow. To enforce this, I’m considering a couple 5k races close to home (and I DO mean CLOSE). The problem is, the start times are only 14 hours apart. Yikes. I asked for advice on the subject on facebook the other night and, as entertaining as some of the responses were (*cough*Kyle*cough*), it was only non-runners responding. I value my friends’ opinions, but I think I need to hear from runners too.

So, the first race I’m looking at is the 2011 Midnight Special. This race starts at 11:45pm on NYE (which means I will DEFINITELY be running when the clock strikes midnight) and the home base is my old middle school, literally 5 minutes from my house. While I could go out and be young and drunk and stupid, this is more for the person I'm trying to be; healthy, fit, and happy. What better way to start off a new year and my resolutions than to be running?! I guess about 350 people ran this last year and they're expecting about the same number, maybe a few more, this year. Medals are awarded for each age group (At least 5 deep! Woah!) and there is a finisher medal for everyone (but anyone after the 350th finisher will get theirs in the mail).

Anyway, Midnight Special isn't the race I'm conflicted about (as much). The other race starts 14 hours after Midnight Special, 2pm on January 1st. The race is called the Hangover Classic. I know, I laughed too. This one is an out-and-back race (most likely up the W-C Trail) from the Monclova Community Center, which is only a couple minutes further away than the middle school. I really want to run both but I don't know if my body would handle it."

Now, this is the point where I had to step away from my computer to go take care of something and ended up having a bit of an epiphany. I have a notebook full of quotes and I'm always adding to it. I was copying running quotes into my notebook while sitting outside my advisor's office waiting for him to get off the phone and I found this ...

"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."
-Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder

... and this ...

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about."
-PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian 

... and I knew I was going to run both races.

I will probably RACE the Midnight Special [*crosses fingers for a PR*] and just run (for fun) the Hangover Classic, but I'm going to complete both. I was thinking about it yesterday while I was running and it just cemented my determination about the whole thing. I want to do this. For me.

Registrations and checks are going in the mail tomorrow morning.

So who wants to run with me? Or even come cheer me on? :)

Holy Guacamole, Rain Gods and HBBC Week 2 Summary

To use my darling cousin's phrase, "Mother Nature was PMSing again" Tuesday. [Oh, and I don't want to forget to mention that his using that phrase started a fb conversation between his wife, step-mother, and I that ended with him digging himself a hole so deep he had to cook his own dinner. lol] We literally had torrential downpours all day Tuesday and it is STILL making life a little difficult here in NW Ohio.

Yea, this is from the edge of my neighborhood looking north towards the village limits.
Of 4 ways out of town, 3 were flooded. Lovely.
And, yes, that is a car stuck in the flooded part of the road. Idiots.

Construction in our house is progressing. The dining room and living room have their first coat of green paint (which is still a bit of a shock, but I like the color ... I just don't like dad's idea to add the beadboard in the dining room) and most of the cracks and gaps in the drywall everywhere else are either filled or in the process of being filled.

And now onto the sum-up of HBBC, Week 2.

I didn't do 30-Day Shred nearly as much as I would have liked, and I included a lot of the time I spent packing boxes and moving furniture. I REALLY need to work on eating my fruits and veggies too. I guess I'm still learning.

Wish I had more time to write right now, but I'm just not feeling all that great right now.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.