Catching Up

Woah ... What the heck happened to Blogger? Not sure if I like this "update" or not. Hrm.

Anyway ... Last Thursday was my last day of Boot Camp for me. Honestly, I already miss it. I was finally getting used to waking up early and functioning through longer days. I planned to spend some time this weekend going through my notes from the last 4 weeks and figuring out how I can replicate some of the exercises using what equipment I already have (no money = no new toys), but it just didn't happen.

I chose to be lazy Saturday since the weather was crappy in the morning and I had a new book. But, Sunday felt like a perfect day for a run. It was cool and breezy and lovely. Trying to ignore the last several weeks' long(er) runs, I went out without any expectations other than to finish a loop I planned out. I pulled my sleeve down over my Garmin so I couldn't look at my pace and just ran by how I felt. I had a pretty good idea of the mileage up to a certain point so I resisted temptation until I had to decide if I was going to take a short cut and stay on the road for the rest of the way home or if I was going to add in about a mile of actual trail. I had made it 5 miles on pavement with a consistent pace around 11:30 and still felt great so I went for the trail. Oh man. I could have possibly done 7-8 miles if I had stayed on the road, but that 1 mile of trail kicked my backside and I had to cut off my run at 6 miles. I figure I sped up or something coming up out of the flood plain and my body didn't like it. At first, I grumbled about still having to walk the rest of the way home, but I had a thought about a half mile into the walk that I was GLAD for that time. I COULD have called someone to come pick me up, but it was under 2 miles and I really took the opportunity to think about things I didn't have the concentration for while I was running. Positive thinking is a wonderful thing.

I'm stressing out like never before over this paper. I literally have 2 weeks to get it through committee and defense. And I can't start work on my defense until the paper clears my head advisor. And that's all I'm going to say because I'm TRYING desperately to stay calm and productive (on something, anything) this evening.

Since my future is up in the air after graduation (if it happens, grumble grumble) and I know I'll lose my parents' health insurance in July, I decided it was best to go in for a physical and one last check with my dr to make sure I'll be ok to go without a yearly (or more often) visit until I can get on my feet with a job and all that jazz. Well, what should have been a half hour visit yesterday turned into 2 hours, a round of shots, and 2 more appointments. Lovely. I'm going back tomorrow afternoon for a procedure to remove a mole (we think) on my back that is a bit larger than the dr is comfortable with. I've had this mole as long as I can remember, but I've never noticed anything weird about it. It's large, yes, but it's symmetrical and the color is normal. But, with my family's predisposition for skin issues, the dr wants to get it off. This is where it gets a little complicated. It's raised, so he thinks it can just be scraped off and cauterized. BUT. If it's deeper than he thinks, the lab says there's something fishy about the sample, or he just can't close up the skin without making a bigger mess of it, I'll have to go to a plastic surgeon to have more skin removed (and hopefully a smaller, nicer scar). Oh, and I have to have a (hopefully) final round of blood work done. *shudders* At least I was able to put off the blood work for 3 weeks so I can get through this semester and (hopefully) graduation.

Since I'm going to be a bit tender tomorrow, I got in a nice 4.32 mile run this evening. It was warm enough outside I was able to run in my new nike tempo shorts (holy crap I need to remember to use body glide when I wear those ... not used to running in "short" shorts. darn chub rub!) and a tee shirt. Even though I was taking it easy and focusing on form, I was able to pull out a negative-split run (11:23, 11:19, 11:10, 10:49, and 10:31 for the partial mile). I'm pretty happy with it. It felt great to get my sweat on and have some time to myself to think. Now I'm just hoping I'll be ok after tomorrow so I can get my last speed workout in on Thursday. I HAD planned on running at group, but Sarah and Steph are jonesing for Buffalo Wild Wings boneless night and I have a jonesing for some girly chat time. Wings and beer are acceptable when prepping for a 5k, right? lol. Anyway, I want to get my run in early in the day so I can enjoy some time with my friends.

Power House 5k is Saturday. I'm still contemplating my goals. I know I want to PR (and probably will be able to), but do I want to bust serious a$$ and gun for that sub-30-minute at the risk of pushing myself too hard? I've got to think about it.

Too Long Thursday

Long day ... Long post. Very few pictures. Sorry.

I was shown EXACTLY how out of shape I really was Tuesday night and yesterday. I was SO SORE from my first boot camp. Of course, dad thought it was HILARIOUS that I was basically holding my breath and gritting my teeth every time I had to stand up or lift my arms. And you know how you tense your abs when you sneeze? Yea, it's allergy season too. And my meds haven't built up in my system enough yet to do much good. Let's just say I was glad when the days were over and I could crawl in bed and pass out.

I was a little better prepared for this morning's early wake-up call for boot camp. Besides getting around 5 hours of sleep (which is normal for a week night for me), I "packed" and filled up all my water bottles last night, along with picking out my food, assuming it would make my morning a little bit easier. It did. And I was packing probably even MORE stuff than Tuesday because I have group run tonight and I knew I needed food for dinner and post-run too. I'm sure I looked ridiculous walking into the building this morning carrying all these bags and a cooler. Oh well. 

It was the same group this morning as we had Tuesday, which was nice. We already knew each other and could talk. My soreness had faded enough that I could joke about it and appreciate finally working those muscles which have gotten weak. We had a different circuit today (I'll post details about the circuits this weekend that way I'll have 3 days worth and I'll be able to get the names and details right ... maybe even some pics [from the web, NOT of me]). This morning's class would have been GREAT if I hadn't made one small mistake. One of the stations, we were doing kettle ball swings THROUGH the legs to make a figure 8. Apparently I didn't take a wide enough stance to start and when I tried to grab the kettle ball to change hands, it slammed into my thumb and tore up the nail. It basically bent in half, the painful way. And it bled like crazy. Oops. I just grabbed the spare bandaid out of my sweatshirt (I'm dealing with a problematic blister on the back of my ankle as well), wrapped up the finger (after pushing the nail back down), and kept going.

Even though I knew I was going to be getting sweaty again tonight, I went over to the student rec center on campus to get in a little extra cardio and a shower. Luckily, one of the working ellipticals was open and nobody was really close to it. I actually really enjoyed my 45 minutes. I kept the strides per minute around 165-170, which was where it felt comfortable with an incline of 5 and resistance of 3. I got to put a dent in my backlog of podcast listening. I always fall behind on the talk ones because I don't like hearing talking when I'm driving OR running. And I can't concentrate on writing and the podcast at the same time. It's usually music or nothing for me. About 20 minutes in, a relatively cute guy decided to get on the elliptical RIGHT next to me (even though others were free). He was OBVIOUSLY trying to show off, which was funny. But, I appreciated the eye candy because I was too far away to read the closed captioning on the tv (Sports Center was on) and I needed to keep my eyes entertained while I listened to Jillian Michaels.

It got even better when I went back to the locker room to shower and the handicap shower (the only actual shower stall) was open. And all the swimmers were almost done. *happy dance* It isn't so much about my body image (even though there are some scars I'd be happy to keep hidden from people who don't know me and the stories behind them) as it is the SPACE. I can hang up my towel (or clothes, if I don't want to walk out in a towel) in a place where it isn't going to get soaked. And there's a little shelf to sit my shampoo and soap on. And you don't have to worry about any awkward eye-contact. AND the water gets hotter in that stall. I'm a creature of comfort (sometimes), so sue me. HOT water makes Jessie happy. And I like being happy. lol. BTW - I got told I was a bad-ass for walking across campus to the rec in my shorts ... by a football player (former student of mine). He had on 2 or 3 shirts under his sweatshirt and heavy sweatpants. Haha.

I felt like I hit a wall around 2pm. One minute I was fine and then the next I couldn't keep my eyes open for anything. Ugh. I had to pull out my icky sweatshirt from this morning and use it as a pillow on my desk for about 20 minutes until the feeling passed. I'm sure I would have been better if I let myself take a nap (I've dozed off in my car in the middle of the day before), but I was TRYING to be productive.

I took it easy at group run tonight since I'm still a little stiff/ sore. I got there early and went out on a short walk/run interval run just to feel out my legs. On the run itself, I held myself to paces of 11:04, 11:00, and 10:50. I was pleased with how consistent I was, even if my GOOD knee was twitching and my glutes are cranky. It was nice to just run.

Mom gets home from Vegas late tonight. Their plane lands in Detroit at 12:30am (if it's on time), which means they won't be getting to our house until around 2am. As long as mom doesn't come into the house screaming or drop her suitcase and let it bounce down the steps multiple times (don't laugh, it's happened before), I shouldn't hear any of it. I'm completely exhausted. Today was just too long of a day.

Source

At least I have something to look forward to tomorrow night. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but mom bought me tickets to see Beauty & the Beast for Christmas! The Disney kid in me is so obnoxiously excited I could run around having a Disney sing-along all day. Mom texted me yesterday to remind me and I sent her back, "DO you REALLY think I would forget? I've caught myself singing all the major songs at least once since you left. I see the tix every time I walk in or out of my room! :D" Pretty sure she laughed at that. To make it even better, Sarah is going with me. Sarah is one of the girls I've known and been friends with our ENTIRE lives. I'm smack dab in the middle between her and her sister, Steph (mom of that crazy 19-month old, Xander). Our parents have been friends since college and we've basically been raised together. There are pictures of the 3 of us as toddlers, in coordinating sweatsuits, lined up next to each other on a picnic table on a camping trip [OH MAN did we get into some shenanigans on those camping trips as we got older]. My parents are even Sarah and Steph's godparents. So, needless to say she's as big a Disney nut as I am. This is going to be FUN! *bouncing up and down in excitement* :D Now to decide what to wear!

Larabar Yumminess and Boot Camp!

So, I won Stefanie @ Run On!'s Larabar giveaway a while back and I had a present waiting for me in the mail yesterday (I told you, I love our mail lady. She brings me fun stuff) ...

I have resigned to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays being EARLY mornings for the next month ... no matter how little sleep I get the night before (maybe 3 fitful hours, broken up, last night) ... and how much hassle getting through those days are. First of all, I felt like I was packing my car for a weekend away, not just a random Tuesday. I had to have warm workout clothes, cold workout clothes (and my running shoes), normal day clothes, shower stuff, my laptop gear, my school gear, and about 3 meals worth of food since I'm going to be on campus late too. Somehow, I ended up needing all 3 of my research binders and 2 notebooks at school today too. Dad was leaving for work as I was loading my car and he joked it looked like I was going to start living out of my car like I did during rowing season in high school. I just glared and turned up the heater while I waited for the windows to defrost (it was 35 degrees this morning!).

There were only 3 of us in Boot Camp this morning, which was great since 2 of us were new (and it was only 6:15am, so I wasn't exactly a friendly ray of sunshine). The instructor seems nice (in a distant sort of way) and was able to quickly and easily correct any form flaws I had. Apparently I'm in much better shape than the other 2 women so he made a couple things even harder, just for me. Yippee. (Can't you just SMELL the sarcasm? lol.) Everything was set up in a circuit and we rotated "stations" every 45 seconds. I really liked the mix of cardio, strength, and drills. I even got reacquainted with a foe I thought I had left behind in high school ... burpies. Ewwww. Actually, the whole class reminded me a LOT of my old rowing days ... on the days our coach actually paid attention to our off-season cross-training (Sorry, Dave, you know I appreciate how much you did during racing season, but you were nearly worthless during winter conditioning). My arms were a little achey and my legs were a little shaky by the end of class. And I wore a grin all the way to campus to get in some extra cardio and a hot shower at the student rec center. I may change my mind later, but I kinda wish this trainer was cheaper so I could continue with him after my month is up. I have a feeling this month is going to be VERY good for me. I need to take some time after every class to write down (and describe) every exercise we do so I have a chance of replicating the workouts after my time there is up.

Thursday's Group Run and the Boot Camp Class that wasn't ...

I knew this morning was going to be an early wake up call, but I didn't think it would be before 5:30am. Ugh. Normally I would sleep through mom and her coworkers meeting up to head to the airport (they all met at our house and one of the husbands was going to shuttle them), but I think I never really got to a deep sleep state last night so I was already almost awake. The lucky dogs, they're heading to Las Vegas for a financial aid conference. Mom insists they won't have any time for fun, but she said that last time and still managed to bring home stuff from Coyote Ugly and Chippendale's. All work, no play, my boney behind! lol

Anyway, I got up as soon as they left for the airport since I *KNEW* I'd never be able to fall back into restful sleep. I've tried in the past and ended up just rolling back and forth trying to get comfortable, like I do at night, never really drifting off because I know the alarm will be going off soon. Oh well. I may as well get used to crazy early mornings again if I plan on attending the 6:15am classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll readjust soon enough.

My comment last time about gorgeous weather for the group run was obviously wishful thinking. I could hear rumbles off in the distance as I was driving over to Levis, but I figured it would hold off until JUST after we were done. Again, wishful thinking. We weren't even a quarter mile from the store during the run and the sky opened up. And I'm not talking sprinkles, I'm talking downpour so hard you have a hard time seeing and are soaked instantly ... for about a mile. I've run in the rain before (I enjoy it), but I don't think my shoes have ever gotten that ... sloshy. Sure, we'll go with sloshy. Luckily I was wearing a tank top and shorts, both tech material, so those dried out relatively quick. The only thing that REALLY bothered me about the run was that my iPod died within 5 minutes. Oops. This totally blew my concentration for the rest of the 3 miles. I still averaged a very respectable 10:07/mile, but I know I could have done better. Oh, and the running club photographer was there that night too. It figures he's never gotten a picture of me at a race and then he comes to group and gets shots like these ...

March 22nd Group Run, Second Sole Toledo - Facebook Photo Album

Believe me when I tell you these 3 are the best of the pictures of me. Ugh.

And if you haven't guessed by the title of this post ... Boot camp didn't happen this morning. I drove in and sat there with 2 other people for 20 minutes before the one woman called her husband to check her email. Class was canceled on Thursday, she never checked her email. And the instructor never emailed me. *Sigh* Fine then. I guess the woman at the front desk shot off an email to him because I got a message from him a couple hours later apologizing and saying he thought I had been included in the email. Obviously not. So, I wasted an hour and a half, and some expensive gas, driving to Sylvania and back.

Since I was already dressed, I just changed shoes when I got home and headed out for a run right away before I could sit down and get lazy. Running in the fog was pretty cool, don't think I've run in that low of visibility before. Just to be safe, I jumped on the W-C Trail (south fork) and ran an out-and-back. The run itself was a serious mental battle. I'd slow down, knowing I need to conserve energy for more miles, but then I'd get bored and speed up again to the point my side would ache. Bah. I ended up running 6.2 miles in 1:08:17, which is an average pace of 11:01/mile. Not too shabby. I know I didn't wear my race bib, but I'm thinking about using this run for Spatula Runner's Virtual 10k. I'll think about it tonight. I know I won't be competitive, time-wise, with the other people running this, but it was a semi-solid run for me and I don't know if I'll be able to pull out another 6.2 miler before the end of the virtual run.

I want to write more, but I'm just mentally exhausted right now. I've already warned dad he needs to go buy the paper in the morning because I'm sleeping in. No alarm clock. I just need tonight and tomorrow morning to decompress and mentally work through some crap before I go back to being a drone on Monday. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend! Good luck to everyone racing! :)

Finally Friday Five

1. I cut my hair. 7-8" and the last of my old highlights, gone. I scared the crap out of my friend Ted by posting that on facebook. He spazzed, "I said Penny (from Big Bang Theory), not Ellen (DeGeneres)!" I just laughed. Ted hasn't seen me in a couple months so I had to explain to him that there really WAS that much hair there to get cut off and then texted him a picture to prove it. So far, the reaction has been positive. Either way, I like it. My head feels lighter and I swear my shower/ bathroom routine this morning was at least 5 minutes faster. lol.

2. I think I had a breakthrough last night at group run. I ran the 3 miles in 30 minutes and 3 seconds. That's a faster pace than my 5k PR, and only 0.1 miles shorter. The funny thing is, I spent the entire run thinking how hot I was and how hard the pace was after starting a little too quick (9:48 for the first mile). I didn't look at my Garmin until I got back to the store and hit the "stop" button. But when I did, I smiled. Its runs like that which make me think a sub-30 minute 5k before my 26th birthday in July IS possible.

3. I'm running aimlessly right now without a race to train for. If I'm still in the area, I know I want to run the Metroparks 5k again this year (it was my first race ever last June). There are a couple half marathons I'm looking at this summer, but they're all either too far away, too expensive, too soon, or I can't find any information on them. I guess I'll keep looking. I seriously stalk the stack of race papers at Second Sole every week after the group run ... and the Toledo Roadrunners website (though they aren't very helpful).

4. I finally caved and redeemed my livingsocial deal for BCOR Bootcamp. I start next Saturday morning. The gym owner/ instructor emailed me right away with my release paperwork, a weekly schedule of their classes, and some tips for next week. I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

5. We had a WICKED storm cell move through the area last night. There were confirmed tornados to the north of us, but we just got spurts of crazy-heavy rain and a spectacular thunder and lightning show. Any time I wasn't raining in, I had the back door open and was sitting by it with a book. I know we had a house in the next town over lose its roof to a lightning strike the night before, but I'm absolutely fascinated by nature's fury and I love watching it whenever I can.

2nd Chance @ BCOR Bootcamp and a Blip in my Training

If you didn't take advantage the the livingsocial deal for BCOR Boot Camp, don't worry, Groupon has you covered! Groupon's BCOR Deal. Again, the deal is nation-wide. It's $35 for 6 weeks of unlimited Boot Camp classes! I know I got the other deal from livingsocial, but I may just get this one too. To get more info on BCOR and kind a location near you, http://www.bcor.net/

Now, I shared my workout plan for this week earlier, but things got a little off track. Oops. Just as I was getting ready to roll out on my run Wednesday, the mail truck pulled up into our driveway. She only does this when she has a HUGE package or if we have certified mail, and normally she just drops the package on the porch, honks the horn, and takes off again. This time, she actually got out of the mail truck, came up to the door, and rang the doorbell. Uh Oh. That means certified mail. As soon as I opened the door, she joked that I probably wasn't going to like what she had for me and please not to kill the messenger. She was right. I didn't like what she had for me. She hadn't even pulled out of the driveway yet and I was already shaking I was so mad. I can't go into details, but I CAN say I've spent some time playing phone tag with the insurance company and a lawyer. THEY're just as tired of this crap as I am. At least it's out of my hands now and they'll keep me updated on what happens.

Anyway, that little surprise COMPLETELY put me off working out the rest of the day (except for about 5 minutes of beating the crap out of a punching bag). I pretty much crawled in bed and watched Ghost Hunters the rest of the day and night (<3 Steve and Tango, and Jay and Grant, and Amy and Adam, and Britt ... and MADDIE! hehe).

Yesterday (Thursday) was just as bad. Except for my #plankaday and pushups, I sat at my computer and worked on my paper (and a couple old writing prompts that I found sparked my imagination so I spent an hour or 2 working on those. Maybe they'll lead to my next published short story. Who knows). I wasn't even really MAD anymore, just exhausted from the mental aspect of dealing with it all.

Today, with full intention of getting outside, I woke up to this:

I have no problem with running in the snow, but it was super-gusty and the 20-degree temperature drop in 12 hours is REALLY playing games with my sinuses. For those of you who don't know me in person, I have a pinched sinus cavity and anytime a major front sweeps in too quick, my sinuses can't keep up with the pressure changing and they go BONKERS! Congestion, sinus pressure, the works. I'm pretty much guaranteed 3 or 4 good sinus infections every winter (usually towards the beginning as it's getting colder and the end as it's getting warmer). I was told a long time ago that the only solution would be to drill out my sinuses. Yea, that isn't happening until I have freaking amazing health insurance.

Anyway, I decided I didn't want to just SKIP the run. So, it was time to acquaint my new(er) shoes with the treadmill (now that the basement is cleaned up again and I can ACTUALLY use it!) ...

Treadmill, meet Sauconys, Sauconys, meet treadmill.
Play nice. I mean it.

I warmed up with 15 minutes of walking (0.874 miles) and then started my run. I KNOW treadmill running is so much harder for me than outside running and I can't (for some weird reason) run the same pace I normally would, so I started the speed at 4.5mph and cranked it up every 10 minutes. Since I forgot my iPod upstairs, I was glad to find Spike with a show on the Mongol motorcycle gang. Yea, I know. The weirdest things entertain me when I'm on the treadmill. The whole 3 miles took 00:38:46, which ends up being a pace of 12:55 or something, not too far off the 12:40 that was in my plan for Wednesday's run.

I had totally planned on posting the picture of how I felt after that treadmill run, but it's just horrific. Running a 13-minute mile on the treadmill takes more out of me than running a 11-minute mile outside. Ugh. I also somehow didn't realize until after I was done running that the heating vent was blowing DIRECTLY on me the entire time and since it's the closest vent to the furnace, it was pretty darn toasty. *rolls eyes* Oh well. The miles are done and I'm looking forward to *hopefully* getting in my 4 miles outside tomorrow.

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P.S - I'm playing around with some different layouts and backgrounds right now, so don't freak out on me. :)

BCOR Bootcamp, Here I Come!

Ok, I had to take my lunch break a little early to blog about this because I'm SO STINKING EXCITED! I knew I wanted to focus on my cross training this spring, but it was like some kind of divine sign when I opened up my livingsocial email the other day and I saw this:

The deal itself is for one month of UNLIMITED boot camp classes ($20) and/or one month of online boot camp diet ($6). Oh yea! BCOR recently opened a location in Toledo (Sylvania, really) and is in the process of opening up 2 more in the area, but they are country-wide and getting bigger all the time (and this deal applies to ALL their locations).

Once you BUY the deal, you can START your month any time. I haven't decided if I'm going to jump into this right away or if I'll wait until March or April when the resolution-ists have used their deal. No offense to them, but I hate huge groups. If I'm doing something wrong, I want to be corrected quickly and without a huge scene.

If you're interested in the deal, you'd better move quick as there is only 1 day left on this deal. If you want to be a REAL pal and help me get a FREE deal, click through from HERE. If 3 people buy the deal through my link, I get a free one. Another thing, if you actually sign up for an account with livingsocial (which I hadn't before today), you get $5 off your deal. So, technically, if nobody buys through my link, I'm still only paying $15 for this killer deal!