Garbage Truck Run. And July Recap ... Sort Of.

One month (minus 1 day) until my first half marathon. I go through phases of freaking out and calm confidence in my training.

I decided I needed to run in the morning yesterday since I suspected my day was going to get a bit hectic (I was right). While I didn't get up QUITE early enough to beat the sun (darn thing popped up between my 2nd and 3rd snooze alarms), it was still pretty cool out. Well, at least it wasn't in the 90s. I had mapped out a 5-mile loop of local roads and was pretty comfortable with my choice until I made it up to Eber and saw the line-up of garbage cans on the same side of the road as I was running. Oh boy. I hadn't even gone a half mile before I could smell the garbage truck and then was able to see it after another couple of driveways. I'm not even joking, I almost threw up! And who knew the smell LINGERS 3-4 driveways beyond the truck? Yuck! I was glad to be past it and didn't really think about it again until I turned the corner back onto W-S and heading the last 1.5 miles home ... cue the dramatic music. More garbage cans. And the same truck heading towards me. The driver must have thought it was hilarious because he smiled and waved as I ran by on the other side of the road, VISIBLY dry-heaving. If I could have held my breath without passing out, I would have. Anyway, I ended up running just over 5.5 miles in an hour.

The BEST part of the run was when I got home. Mom had been so caught up on what she was doing that she didn't realize I had been gone a whole hour! lol

Yesterday was another dr's appointment for mom as well. As always, I didn't go past the waiting room [Anyone remember the story of how I almost passed out when they removed the cast on my hand after the first surgery? Yea.] so you'll just have to take mom's word for it. The dr took out all stitches on both feet and MAY consider taking out the pins next week. A week early. We'll see. I remember how many times my surgeon told me "we'll take out the pins in your finger next visit" before it actually happened.

There isn't much to say about July. I ran almost 83 miles which makes it my 2nd highest mileage month after June. I didn't run any races but I DID get semi-serious about biking again and managed to complete 2-in-a-row double-sport PDR weekends. Oh, and I turned 26 ... which doesn't feel any different than 25, except I feel a tiny bit worse for still being where I am in life ... which brings me to ...

My weekend blogging is about to get even worse. I apologize in advance. Something has happened and it's about to kill my Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for the foreseeable future. It's nothing BAD, just a necessary side-step in getting where I want to go in life. Money makes the world go 'round and I'm tired of not having any. I just need to figure out how I'm going to make this work with my running. :-/

Six for Saturday

I know, I've been falling behind on my blogging again. I REALLY need to update my side panel and pages too. *smacks hand* Bad blogger! Oh well ...

(1) One (1)

I SEVERELY procrastinated getting in my long run today. I just felt so sluggish (must have been all that hilarity from my cousin's wife's surprise birthday party last night) I didn't know if I could do it. Most of my aches and pains were probably mental too. I swear I told myself "I'll just get one more thing done and then I'll go run" half a dozen times. Finally, I decided I just had to go do it. By then, it was too warm and sunny to be running the roads around my house so I made the 10-minute drive over to the river and the old towpath trail.

I amazed myself. Once again. As soon as I started running and finding my rhythm, all the aches and pains disappeared, my lethargy melted away, and I realized I mentally needed this run just as much as physically. On long runs, I normally won't eat, drink, or take any walk breaks for the first 3 miles (sort of a mental training thing for 5ks). Today, I reached 4 miles before I even thought to take a sip of my Gatorade. By then, I was almost to my favorite halfway point ...

PS - I can't believe how low the river is right now! You can walk all the way across in a
couple places! Kind of hard to use the river as a post-run "cool down" when the water is super
shallow and almost 80*!

I finished off my Gatorade, ate a couple of my Power Bar Energy Blasts, and took off again. I slowed down twice on the way back, once to dump the water from my smaller bottle on my fuelbelt into my handheld bottle (I'm more likely to drink if it's in front of my face) and once because I somehow got a rock down in my shoe and I wanted it out before it snagged my sock or I stepped on it wrong and hurt myself. 9.58 miles (distance PR) in 1:50:58. That's an average pace of 11:34/mi.

(2) Two (2)

Is anyone else using Earndit? I've been using it for a couple weeks now and I'm loving it. From the website:

Sometimes we could all use a little extra motivation to exercise. While you’d think that the allures of better health and a leaner body would be enough to kick us into action, the reality of the matter is that they’re not. In fact, behavioral economists have a scientific explanation for this called "hyperbolic discounting".

In practice, hyperbolic discounting means that humans discount the value of a reward that occurs far into the future, preferring instead a more immediate reward even if its absolute value is less. For example, if I gave Harry the option to receive $10 today or $20 in a month, he’d probably choose $10 today even though it’s financially wiser for him to get $20 in a month. Hyperbolic discounting is the reason why better health and a leaner body down the road are not compelling enough to make us exercise today.

So we’ve created a system that gives you more immediate rewards for your exercise. Our hope is to foster a more active lifestyle in each of us, and in turn play a small role in improving the health of our users.

Go exercise. Get rewarded. You earnd it.

FAQ

It really is easy to use. Mine syncs with my Garmin Connect. When it comes to the "rewards", there's some awesome stuff. You can earn stuff for yourself or you can donate your points to a couple causes Earndit champions. I decided as soon as I started on the site that I would donate to every cause before I scored anything for myself. So far, I've donated to Heifer International, Shining Hope, and Christmas in July for US Troops (which is near and dear to my heart).

(3) Three (3)

I've been spending a LOT of time with Roadie lately ... and I love it. I'm slowly cleaning and fixing things as I find issues and riding further and further each time. My butt still hurts if I spend too much time in the saddle, but it's getting better. There's no ache right after a ride, but you can bet I'm feeling it the next time I sit in that saddle again. I think I'm developing a "groove" in my butt. lol.

(4) Four (4)

I've been noticing a bunch of these showing up around our yard lately ...

Yep, that's a hole. Big enough I could shove a garden hose down it. And yes, that really is our backyard right now. We live on the edge of the Oak Openings Ridge (basically, a giant ridge of old sand dunes) and we've NEVER [in the 21 years we've lived here] been able to grow a decent lawn. And this summer's extreme heat has burned the heck out of any grass we DID have out in the open areas. Up around the house, you can tell exactly how far the water spreads out after exiting our downspouts and where is shaded most of the day. Those areas are the ONLY green in the yard, expect for the trees.

But back to the holes ... I finally figured out what they were when I saw some movement around one of the holes yesterday ...

Cicada killer wasps. I guess they prefer really loose sandy areas for their burrows ... and they hit the jackpot with our yard. I actually took THIS picture today, but the one I saw yesterday was in the process of dragging a cicada down the hole. It was pretty cool to watch. I was a little nervous about having wasps this big in our yard, but then I did a little research. Apparently, they aren't aggressive. I accidently put that to the test his morning with this guy in the picture. I was sitting under our pool deck fixing something and this guy flew over and landed on me several times. I brushed him away every time and he never got aggressive.

So, I'm still not completely comfortable with them, but now I'm more interested than scared. We'll see what dad has to say about them when he gets home. I'm pretty sure his reaction is going to be drowning the holes in wasp killer spray and then flooding them with the garden hose, but we'll see.

I'd take these guys any day over the ant assault that's happening in our kitchen right now. The really nasty thing is that the ONLY place they show up in the kitchen IS ON THE COUNTER!!! No matter how clean we keep it, they seem to flock to the area around the sink. Mom put out "bait traps", but that would require the ants taking the material back to their colony. Dad, brother, and I have the philosophy that they shouldn't make it that far. We're having ant-smashing contests and spraying (probably way too much) chemicals. And it's lead to some pretty spectacular arguments over who left dirty dishes in the sink ...

(5) Five (5)

With the parents gone this week and my brother spending most of his time packing up his apartment (he's moving into a house with friends for the next school year), I've been trying to balance "cleaning out the leftovers" and eating healthy. I've ended up with some interesting creations too ...

Ramen noodles with soy sauce, tuna, celery and grape tomatoes. It was pretty good, actually.

(6) Six (6)

I've talked before about taking aluminum cans to the recycle center to pay for my race registration fees. I made my latest run this morning. 43lbs of metal brought me $17.52. The price of aluminum went down again. Drat. Oh well. It's better than nothing and I'm lucky my half marathon will be small and cheap. :)

If we're friends on DailyMile, you know how often the neighborhood munchkins have talked me into riding bikes with them up to Oak Openings (they aren't allowed to go that far alone) for the sole purpose of picking up cans for me. I love that they want to help me and the environment at the same time. I always hope I'm setting a good example for them and this is one of those times I know I am. It sickens me, though, that I can completely clean the 2-3 mile stretch and we can ride by less than a week later and still pick up SO many cans, almost exclusively beer.

I could have waited a bit longer to take the cans in, but dad went on one of his rampages before they left on vacation. With the bags out of the garage, it's one less thing he can blame the ants on. It'll take me a while to build up enough of a stash again to out-grow the old garbage can and worry about bags sitting around. Though, hopefully I can find a semi-steady job soon and I won't have to be so concerned with collecting them for money.


Oh well. The parents will be home sometime tomorrow so I'll be spending every waking moment until then scrubbing and cleaning and organizing. Mom is having surgery on both her feet this week so we want to have the whole house cleaned and stocked before then. I think the plan is to take a MASSIVE shopping trip and cooking marathon the day before. I can cook for myself, and dad can cook for himself and mom (usually), but we're all a bit particular about our food (different medical issues, I refuse to eat beef and starch every night, etc.) that it's just not a good idea to have dad in charge of food for everyone. Or me, for that matter. lol


PS - At what age is counting down to your birthday "immature"?

GDP 5k & Apparently I'm Crazy

Today was one of those days where you just wonder what you're doing next because YOU don't even know. And, fair warning, I had this post written out oh so eloquently in my head during my 2nd run, but you know how that goes ... Maybe I should start running with a digital recorder too? lol.

Let's start with Global Distance Project 5k, shall we? I was obnoxiously nervous for this. My cousin C and I have been talking trash all week over who was going to beat who. It was his first 5k race so I thought that gave me an advantage. It was raining when I woke up so I was hoping the clouds would either stick around for a little while or it would at least hold the temperature down until we could get through the race. Problem #1. A big fat NO on both counts. It was sunny and the temperature was already nearly 85* and climbing when I pulled into the church parking lot. I was dripping sweat within 5 minutes. I went to find C and his wife, L, right away. I was expecting all kinds of smack talk, but there wasn't any. We actually had a calm and interesting conversation about how things were going to work (since I was the only one who'd raced before) and what we personally wanted to get out of the race. I think L was surprised we were able to have that conversation without acting like a couple of kids. lol. C and I grew up pretty close (we even had most of the same classes when he transferred to AW for our Sr year of high school) and we tend to act more like bickering siblings than adult cousins. *innocent grin*

From our conversation, I knew C wanted to sub-30, which was fine with me since that was my basement goal as well. We kind of made an unspoken promise to run together, but about a half mile into it, I knew that wasn't going to happen. He took off ahead of me and never looked back. Problem #2. It was around the time that he pulled ahead that I finally looked down at my Garmin and realized something was wrong. It was bouncing back and forth between "searching for satellites" and working normally. When I crossed the 1 mile mark, it was only showing 0.47 miles. Crap. I THOUGHT I hit the "lap" button so I would at least be able to check my splits for the rest of the race. The race was an out-and-back [crossing over a highway overpass TWICE ... UGH] so they set up a water station on either side of the road between 1-1.25 mile mark, which was a much-appreciated idea. When I was making the decision if I should walk through the water station, I looked down at my Garmin again and realized I must have pushed "start/stop" instead of "lap" ... so it hadn't been recording anything! Double Crap! I just made a split-second decision and just shut it off. If I ran great, awesome. If not, it's a training run and a learning experience. To make that part of the race EVEN BETTER, Problem #3, there were only 2 women working the 2nd water station and they never got a rhythm down or pre-filled cups, so I GOT MISSED! I wasn't about to stop dead and wait for them to fill up another cup, so I just kept going. Thank goodness I train with the idea that I will only get 1 sip of water during a 5k and I was able to suck down the ENTIRE cup at the first station.

By the time I reached the overpass for the 2nd time, I was feeling the heat and my nervous-ness at being without my Garmin. I gave up a little since I didn't know my time and walked up the incline. Once I got going again, there was about three quarters of a mile left and I just pushed myself. Once I made the last turn into the driveway and saw the clock click over to 0:29:xx, I just started sprinting.

C says the clock was 0:28:xx when he crossed, but we'll wait and see. The major difference, as I see it, is that he pretty much vegged out after finishing where I got a quick drink and then went back out to the 0.5-miles to go (I think) and cheered for/ ran L in. Gotta work on that endurance, C. ;)

So ... I am currently at the mercy of the Toledo RoadRunners' webmaster to find out my official time. I may have PRed, maybe not. If I didn't, it was darn close ... and it was a gun start/ popsicle stick finish so I don't put as much stock in it as I do in chip-timed races. But, looking back, I'm a little disappointed in myself because I KNOW I would have had sub-29 if I hadn't walked up the overpass the 2nd time. *pouts*

All that being said, I'm still extremely happy. I got to spend quality time with one of my favorite cousins (and his awesome wife). Pace-wise, I know I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone without the help of my little electronic friend. I ran a smart race for all my "issues" and I learned from those things I didn't do right. Seriously, just think about what I could have done today if the weather had been cooler and I didn't have to struggle with the overpasses! An instant PR, I'm sure. And it was a GORGEOUS day, despite the oppressive heat and humidity. :D

Once I got home, I started thinking (dangerous, I know). I'm at the end of the 3rd week of my half marathon training and I've already bumped 2 long runs in favor of racing 5ks. I know it shouldn't make much of a difference this early in training, especially with upping my mileage during the week, but I still wonder about it.

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I just went into it to see where it would take me, but I decided to get on "Roadie" and go for a ride. Once I got going, I started thinking about how GOOD it felt and I found myself going the LONG way to Oak Openings ...

6.5 miles

 Once at Oak Openings, I decided I wanted to get in a run. To make a dent in that whole racing-instead-of-doing-long-runs thing. I started off with a 2 min. run: 2 min. walk ratio since it was supposed to be a "recovery" run, but after 2 miles, I got tired of this and switched it to 2:1.

2.91 miles

... And then rode home again. The short way.

3.46 miles

And now?

I'm sitting here, smelling the steaks cooking on the grill, drying off after spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool ...

... and trying not to do anything else crazy today. Trying ;)


Keep cool everyone! June recap and what July has in store for me coming (probably) tomorrow ...

Friday Five

(1) ONE (1)

It's going to be a low mileage week. I ran the minimum mileage for my #RWRunStreak on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday, I took my new tank top for a a 3.16 mile testdrive at Farnsworth in the gorgeous sunshine. I also got some fun pictures of myself. They aren't the greatest quality (and I'm no model), but let's see you do better with a fuzzy post-run brain and a sketchy self-timer on your camera. lol. I wanted to place the camera another foot or 2 to the right to get more of the old utilities bridge, but there was poison ivy. Dangit.

(2) TWO (2)

Wednesday was my first time back on the Ridge (Silver) Trail at Oak Openings since the tornado. It's been closed for a while so the damage could be cleaned up. Ever since the new park map came out earlier this year, I've been excited to get over there and check out the new re-routes. I knew about the one where the bridge had been taken out by a tree during the tornado (I made a quick trip right after the storm to check out the damage, but couldn't get too far into that part of the park). This sounds lame, and I say it at the beginning of every summer, but running in that part of the park felt like coming home. The Ridge Trail goes through one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE parts of the park ... the OLD pine stand. I need to get pictures sometime. The abrupt change is shocking and awesome. After finishing off the Ridge Trail, I finished up my run with a quick loop of Horseshoe Lake.

After 4+ miles on the trail, I decided to get my road bike out for the first time this summer and take it for a spin (I've been giving all my love to my brother's mountain bike). My ex was giving me crap the other night because I call it "Roadie". lol. I had just planned on taking a couple laps of the neighborhood, but it felt great one I got out there and I ended up going over 7.5 miles. Believe me, my backside (caboose, behind, derierre, BUTT) is STILL paying for it. Stupid butt bone. lol

(3) THREEE (3)

The heat around here has been INTENSE this week. I begrudgingly acknowledged that my parents were in the right with turning on the a/c even though it makes my sinuses all kinds of horrible. No joke, my nose will run and my head will hurt and I'll be just plain miserable. Then, I go outside and I'm fine in 5 minutes. It's obnoxious.

Anyway, I've been continuing my runs in the heat. I just saw it as another experience to "toughen me up". I take precautions, though; I make sure I'm well hydrated and I carry water AND gatorade, I try to run in as much shade as possible, and I let myself go as slow as I need. That being said, I knew group run last night was going to be BAD, but I didn't know just HOW BAD. Even with being hydrated and carrying water with me, I had to bail out halfway. After being in the a/c all day, running in that heat (around 100*, even at 7pm) with even more heat radiating off the pavement, it was making me sick. In less than 2 miles, I felt as bad as I normally to after 7-8 miles. I DO have to give a round of applause to Second Sole, the store who sponsors and hosts our group runs. They set up a water table at the halfway point AND rigged up a sprinkler system on the sidewalk out in front of the store for after the run. We had fun with THAT. You can always tell when a running store is run by people who run themselves (ha!). :D

(4) FOUR (4)

Today was just plain nifty. One of our neighbors I "babysit" for occasionally called me early to see if her 7yo and 13yo could hang out with me for the afternoon. They normally spend the summer days with their grandmother, but she's been having some health problems and couldn't take them today. I love these kids, I call them "my munchkins" (much to their continued ire [evil smile]). To them, I'm like a big sister who takes them to do things their parents don't have time for. And really, we don't do anything special. Today, they drove around with me to a couple different metroparks to find codewords and we had a complete blast. I let them be in charge of my camera and they didn't do too bad of a job. I wasn't surprised in the least when I uploaded all the pictures and discovered they were fascinated with taking pictures of the "obvious" wildlife, just like me: deer, ducks, geese, squirrels, chipmunks, robins, rabbits, and random plants. Since I promised their mom a long time ago that I'd never post their pictures online, you'll just have to marvel at a sampling of their photography skills:

(5) FIVE (5)

Tomorrow is the Global Distance Project 5k. I have 2 goals. Well, technically 3. (1) Don't die. Run responsibly. (2) But still push myself. If I PRed on a trail race, what can I do on a good paved course? Too bad this won't be chip-timed. (3) And beat my cousin. This last goal has gotten a little shakier since he told me he wants to finish sub-30. Hrm. I guess all I can do now is be smart and run my race.

I'm baaaaack!

Yes, I'm still here. I've had so much on my plate lately that blogging just didn't feel like a priority. I've been writing a ton, in my journals and my creative writing prompts, but it's mainly about stuff I'd prefer to keep off this blog since it concerns other people or it's just stuff I'm not ready to share with the world yet.

So, to keep it short and sweet ...

I didn't graduate like I was supposed to. I have so many conflicting emotions about this that I don't know how to explain, other than to say that it just plain sucks.

Xena deciding if she wants to be inside or outside and Wesley "helping" me with my yoga.

I'm back at my parents' house. I'll miss spending all the time with the pups (and trying new recipes every day), but I'm glad to be home again. I have missed my bed and having cable. I won't miss having to run on the obnoxiously hot country roads, though. Every single long(er) run I planned, I had to cut short because the heat got to me. Being stunk out of the bedroom at 2am by 2 very gassy (and unapologetic) dogs will be gladly left in the past as well. lol

Just to give you an idea of how our daily walks went ... This is a CALM day compared to what I normally dealt with. :)

And on the running front ...

Oh, hello dirt line! I've missed you! :)

This week saw my return to Oak Openings with a 4.5-miler and a 3.14-miler on some of my favorite trails from the Mallard Lake trailhead. I can't begin to tell you how great it felt to get out there and just run trails for the love of it. I ignore the pace on my Garmin and just run where I feel comfortable. Of course, I have a motive for this other than just escaping to the shady trails on these obnoxiously warm days ... my next 5k is about half on trails, but I'll talk about that in my next post (which is already started).

Other than my 2 runs at Oak Openings, I went to group run at Second Sole Thursday night. Nothing too special, but the smooth road gave me a chance to think (instead of watching my feet so I didn't trip over a root or hole, lol) and get in a speedier run.

I also got in my longest run in a couple weeks on Saturday. My friend M called saying he and his wife, E, were in town for the weekend and were looking for a relatively straight and easy, preferably shady, trail to run. I offered to meet them at the string of metroparks along the river, enclosing the old canal path. The end of the trail is close to my house and it's been a favorite of mine for as long as I've been running. M wanted to do some fartleks so he went ahead while E and I hung back and chatted. She's been dealing with some knee and ankle issues so we decided on a 9:1 run/walk ratio just to make sure we're taking the time to drink water and check on our "injuries". We ended up putting in about 7 1/2 miles ... and they felt great! :) Running with E (and M once he wore himself out) gave me a chance to bounce some ideas off them and say out-loud some things I've been quietly contemplating for a few weeks now. Teaser, I'll discuss it more in my next post. ;)

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day, everyone. And thank you to all our service men and women ... past, present, and future.

Easter Weekend

I've missed my friends in bloggy land, but I've just been so busy the last 5 days. I've had so much to talk about but even when I had time, I just didn't have the energy to sit down at the computer and type. I usually try to write at the end of the day as I'm winding down, but I've just been collapsing and passing out right away.

I decided I needed to run my 6.2 miles for Run w/ Jess's Jelly Bean virtual race on Wednesday (I used my first 3.1 miles from Sunday for the 5k) and since it was gorgeous out, I went over to Farnsworth and the canal path for a nice change of scenery. Plus, I figured I couldn't wimp out on the mileage part-way through if I still ahd to make it back to the car. Just like my last long(er) run, the run OUT felt great, but it fell apart when I turned around. I kept pushing myself, though, and finished with a time of 1:09:51. And, of course, I needed to get a picture with my race bib, so I gathered my "gear" from the car and made the trek down into the flood plain to my favorite little place I know of at the park ...

The visual edge of that grass is the ACTUAL edge of the "cliff".
Directly below is one of the coolest places I know.

Yes, this IS the trail.

Ignore the fact that my bib is upside down.
Don't I get brownie points for hauling jelly beans around with me to get this picture?
They're the best kind too ... Starburst! lol

Sugarland. Jennifer singing "Stay"

My uncle, aunt, and their 2 youngest (freshmen in high school) got here Thursday afternoon (they stay with us when they're in town from Illinois) and that night was the Sugarland concert we've been waiting weeks for. My aunt is a big Sugarland fan but she'd never seen them live and my cousins had never even been to a concert before. It's so cool that Jennifer and Christian chose to kick off their "In Your Hands" Tour in Toledo. My mom took advantage of the email presale so we had AMAZING seats -  2nd row of the balcony, directly behind the sound booth, looking straight-on at the stage. It was so great! We had an absolute blast and I was so glad we were able to give my family that experience. Basically, on this tour, they have a general idea of what they're going to play, but they get input from the fans through texts and the website, live, on what they want to hear and the exact set list! And there was a TON of audience interaction. Sugarland has a reputation of really appreciating and loving their fans, and just being amazing appreciative people, but this is absolutely amazing. There was a girl in the Sugar Pit with a sign that said "Call my daddy when you sing Baby Girl" ... and they did. She came up on stage, called her dad, and Jennifer talked to him on the girls phone beofre they started singing. I hope nobody in my group say it, but I definitely teared up. That song was a lot of meaning for me so I was really touched. I loved it, though. I'll admit, I'm an even bigger Sugarland fan than my aunt and I probably drove my poor cousin crazy with my screaming and singing along. There might have been one song I didn't know ALL the words to, and I think I was the only one who knew the song they started with, "Wide Open". It's the one they recorded for the Olympics and I loved it the second I heard it. We surprised my aunt again right after the show and bought her a concert shirt. So, her, mom, and I are technically twinkies since we all loved the same shirt. :)

Early friday was the closest thing to boring we got all weekend. I worked most of the day on writing, but I stayed home in case mom needed me for something (which she did several times). Friday evening, some more family came over to visit. I don't know what made my stomach hurt more, all the food or how hard I was laughing at the stories and antics. Alcohol may have been involved for some of us.

Saturday was the crazy busy day. I got up and went to Boot Camp. By the time I got home, everyone else was awake and eating breakfast. After I had a chance to get cleaned up, we headed to the zoo. The twins haven't been to a zoo since they were babies and my dad, uncle, and aunt haven't seen the zoo since the new exhibits on the one side have opened or the new elephants! I drove separately from everyone else because I knew I'd have to leave early. My cousin, Jake's little boy is turning 1 and his birthday party was that afternoon at his grandparents' in the next little town over from us. I was glad to spend the afternoon with that part of my family. I'm really going to miss Rach (Jake's older sis) when her family moves to South Carolina in a couple weeks. This was the first time her little girl really remembered who I was and was excited to see me. Little miss is growing up before my eyes and she's the spitting image of both her mother and her great grandmother (who passed away only days after she was born). Pam (Rach & Jake's mom) mentioned the possibility of coming down to visit, since she's moving with Rach's family, in July for little miss's birthday. Did I forget to mention Little miss and I share a birthday? Yea, Jake called me at 3am while I was camping for my birthday to tell me Little miss had been born. lol. Anyway, since the birthday boy wasn't going to oblige us with smashing up his cake, we just had our delicious little cupcakes (I'll discuss at another time. Thanks, Ann for giving me the recipe!) and sat around talking and watching the kids play with the presents.

Saturday night would have been a nice quiet night if it had been anyone but my family. We were loud, obnoxious, crazy, and just plain goofy. The fart jokes, occasional interesting episode of American Pickers and other stunts (*coughcough*fakemouse*coughcough*) kept us entertained long into the night. Again, we over-ate (picking up a theme here?).

This morning was a lot quieter. We all slept in longer than usual. While my uncle's family packed up their stuff and loaded the car, we were getting Easter dinner ready. More shenanigans ensued during dinner, but we were MOSTLY behaved. After we ate and everything was cleaned up, my uncle's family headed home to Illinois (about a 6 hour drive depending on a laundry list of things) and we all COLLAPSED. I absolutely adore my family, and I love that they stay with us when they're in town, but BOY am I glad when everyone leaves. I came upstairs to my room and collapsed on my bed with my tv remote and laptop. It took 3 episodes of Mythbusters and the Making Of Frozen Planet to feel up to starting to write this. I know I need to get some work done tomorrow, but I'm probably still going to be exhausted.

I need a couple days of extra sleep and healthy eating to get me back on track, but I'm glad I had this weekend with all the different parts of my family. :)

Welcome Justice!

A HUGE Congrats to my cousin, K, and her husband, D. K FINALLY gave birth to their adorable son this weekend. I've been holding off posting this until they left the hospital and someone took some utterly adorable pictures. I didn't have to wait long ...

Welcome to the world, Justice Alexander!

Both his parents are police/ work in corrections. Is it a surprise his name is Justice and his first outfit it a police onesie? Watching this little man grow up is going to be fun. :)

2 more months until J & A have their little girl and Justice will have another cousin! See, I don't need any kids of my own, I have PLENTY to spoil rotten :D

My Butt Hurts.

I can't believe I just typed that in as the title of this post. Oh well, moving on ...

I took yesterday as a rest day since my normal rest day (Sunday) was spent racing, but when I woke up this morning, I was ITCHING to get out and do something physical (other than drain all the water off the pool cover from that crazy storm last night). My legs were still a little achey, so I turned to my family's collection of bikes.

My Banana Seat Beauty, a 4th birthday present.

First, a little background. Crap, this could get lengthy ... and I promise to attempt to make this sound as not-whiney as possible ... I have had 1 brand new bike in my entire life (not counting my rockin' red tricycle). Every other bike that I have owned has come out of someone's trash. Yep, you read that right. Granted, that's only 3 out of 4 bikes, but that's beside the point. My dad drove the delivery trucks before he moved up to semis and he'd always see bikes sitting out with the trash. Most were still in pretty good condition and just needed a little TLC and elbow grease to be awesome again. My first bike was this great (light) Barbie pink banana-seat stunner. I LOVED that thing. Oh, I could tell you so many stories about my adventures on that baby. When I outgrew that, I got my only brand spankin' new bike ... my gorgeous purple, sparkly "mountain bike". Around the time I outgrew that, dad found a nice road bike on the side of the road that really only needed a good cleaning and some new tires. I worked on that bike for a couple years, but it was just never a comfortable bike. And I felt like I could never get the rust under control no matter how much time I spent on it. So, when dad and I found another road bike in the garbage in excellent condition - and with BRAND NEW tires - I was estatic. We even went up and knocked on the door to make sure the guy was throwing it away since it was in such great shape. I never heard WHY he was getting rid of it, but he gave us his blessing to take it. I was SO excited. It still has it's issues (need to tape up the grips, needs a bottle holder, and some other small things), but I love it. The reason I don't ride it more often is that the tires always seem to go flat. We've put new tubes in multiple times, and it always happens within a couple weeks. I've tried checking the inside of the metal frame to see if it's cutting the tubes, but I've never found anything. My next step is to take it either to Cycle Werks (which is literally less than a mile from my house now that they've opened a shop in Whitehouse) or up to Wersell's in Toledo (literally less than a mile from the University campus). I also want to get some different pedals and quick-change wheels and seat stand (and a different seat, which I'll get to). So, I've been riding other bikes of ours until it's taken care of.

My road bike. I added the rack a couple years ago when I was carrying my backpack AND
laptop case back and forth to campus.

My brother, on the other hand, has always had brand new bikes. I never resented him this, I loved my bikes. He's even ridden my bikes (the ones I've fixed up) on occasion when his mountain bike would just be too clunky and heavy. Oh, and he has multiple bikes right now. So, when I decided to start trail riding again last summer, the only mountain bike we had at the house close to my size was his newer (and nicer) Huffy. He had no problem with me buying a little cyclocomputer and installing it on the bike and using it whenever I wanted to go out (he had his older bike at his apartment for getting around campus).

So, today when I decided to go out, bro's white Huffy was the choice. It was the first time off the ceiling hooks for this season, so I cleaned it good and checked the tire pressure and everything. Seriously, I take better care of bro's bikes than he does. Anyway, I wanted to get off the pavement. I knew Oak Opening's "multi-purpose" trail would be nice and wet and muddy after last night's storm, so I headed up that direction. Oh, MAN was it fun! I was probably grinning like a crazy person the entire time. The same parts of the trail that I shy away from as a runner (basically any place that floods ... the whole west and north sides of the loop), I blasted through on the bike and enjoyed every second of it. My poor shoes and socks were soaked from one particular area by the dunes where the water across the trail was deep enough to come up over the pedals and I had a lovely mud stripe going up my back. I kind of giggled every time I saw someone heading the other direction because I KNEW they'd turn around and come back the way they came once they saw how deep some of the water was. I was almost sad when the trail changed back to pavement and I got back on the road to head home.

My attempt at photographing my mud-speckle-stripe. Would have been better if I left my
muddy shirt on to ... and hadn't been such a weird angle. lol

After I got home, I texted my brother "Good news. Your bike loves mud and pedal-deep water. Haha." His reaction surprised the crap out of me. He basically spazzed that I had taken the "good" bike out when his older mountain bike (which has no shocks) was hanging from the ceiling of the back garage (more like a small barn). I fired back pretty quick, annoyed at his reaction. First of all, our back garage is somewhere around 2 stories tall and all the bikes we don't ride on a regular basis are hanging from hooks on the support beams. And it usually takes AT LEAST 2 of us and a basic winch system out of rope to move them. How was I, alone, supposed to get out one of dad's big ladders, position it right in the middle of a shelf unit currently storing motorcycle parts (which are actually for bro's harley. Dad is paying to rebuild the darn thing after bro crashed it last summer. And dad paid for it originally too.), set up the rope winch system, lift the bike OFF the hooks, and lower it down safely? Not possible. I sent him a text saying "#1, you know damn well I'd kill myself trying to get your old bike down alone. #2, the Huffy already had my cyclocomputer on it from last year. #3, It's a mountain bike. It's meant for that crap. #4, When was the last time YOU rode it anyway? #5, Kiss my backside. It's already cleaned and put back away, which is more than you ever do for ANY of your bikes." I think I got to him because about 10 minutes later, I got an "ok" text. *rolls eyes*

The Huffy in question ... BEFORE the mud bath.

I hate that my family (myself included) snap at each other so easily, but it's just how we communicate. I seem to be the only one who takes those interactions to heart and over-analyzes them. I can be a completely different person with the rest of the world, but I turn into "that person" when it comes to dealing with my family. We do love each other, we're just loud about it.

And I finally come to the title of this post. As much as I love riding, IT HURTS MY BUTT! I've been told my entire life that even though I have plenty of "padding" in my posterior, I have a seriously boney butt. On every bike I've ridden, I have 1 or 2 of those nice gel or foam cushions, and those help some, but it STILL kills! Dad jokes about buying one of those wide seats you see on the cruiser bikes, but I don't want to believe that is my only option. Can you imagine one of those things on a road or mountain bike?

So, someone help me out here .... any ideas? Seats or cushions you'd recommend? Anything?

- - -
Update: My butt may have been sore yesterday, but I swear it feels bruised today. I actually YELPED when I sat in the car this morning (first time I had sat down today). A cohort has already made a joke about buying a hemorrhoid pillow for my desk chair in the lab. NOT amused. >:-(

They're Gone! And some other stuff.

Did anyone else see today's Schwaggle deal before it completely sold out? 50% off a Fuelbelt Revenge R20 in electric lime, silver, or juicy o'reily (purple with lime green accents). The silver and juicy o'reily were sold out by the time I got on, but I managed to get a electric lime (probably the color I would have gotten anyway. lol). Woo hoo! I've been looking at these for a while now and have just been waiting until I had enough Amazon credits to buy one. Since I only had to pay $20 for the Schwaggle deal and then $7.95 for shipping, I'm not going to complain about spending real money. I probably will eventually buy another bottle or 2 to put on the belt (they're only 7 ounce bottles) and a bigger pocket, but I'm just glad I got what I did for such a greta price. As soon as the wind dies down a bit, I'm taking my bike to get fixed up and ready for the season and it doesn't have a water bottle holder on it, so this will be nice to use for that until I work up to running longer distances where I'll need more water. I can't wait to get my new Fuelbelt and try it out. :)

While I'm thinking about it (and since I never got an answer on twitter from anyone), at what distance/ time do you start carrying something OTHER than water on your runs? GU? Snacks? Hammer gels? My longest runs were my 2 8-milers and even with a good breakfast before-hand, I was STARVING when I got home. Even last night after the 3-mile group run, I INHALED a Subway foot-long like it was nothing. And it was healthy (a BLT with extra lettuce and green peppers), so don't give me that look. I think I've finally pulled myself out of my junk food binge earlier this week. Darn mom for bringing home a bunch of my favorite candy and then leaving all the leftovers from her Tastefully Simple party sitting out.

I DID enjoy mom's Tastefully Simple party, though. I got to see a couple of my favorite people, family friends, and mom's work friends (some who have known me my whole life). My friend Steph even brought her son. Xander is a 19-month old monster, but in a cute way. Some days he's horribly sick and won't let anyone but Steph anywhere near him. But Monday night, we were buddies, playing with (and breaking) one of my gnomes, eating everything we could get our hands on, beating on the garbage can like a drum, tickle monster, playing peek-a-boo around corners. I may not want kids of my own (for now), but I love getting to spend time with my friends' kids. :)

Oops! And ignore how my eyes look like they're crossed.

My parents are officially on their way to Florida. Dad and I worked into the wee hours of the morning on the trailer and getting the motorcycle situated (they're heading down to Daytona Bike Week after stopping at dad's aunt's place and our [Grandpa's] FL house). Being a smart-aleck (dad would say something else, but I'm TRYING to be clean here, lol), I left them a note on the counter to find this morning saying "Have fun, be good, and don't you dare wake me up. I can charge a plane ticket and rental car to your credit card and beat you to the FL house." When I came downstairs around 8am, there was an air horn and a note from mom, "You don't know how close you came to a 5am wake up call. Your father made it up the steps and halfway down the hall before I stole this and yelled at him." Haha. Yep, that's the kind of crap that happens in our family. Anyway, I spent the rest of my morning and early afternoon doing my normal "I'm going to be home alone for more than a couple days" ritual: laundry, run dishwasher, turn down the thermostat, check all the locks on doors and window ... check the gun cabinet and make sure the shotgun is cleaned and loaded. Hey, a girl's got to be prepared. Home alone in an apartment building where you're surrounded by other people and home alone in an un-attached house in a dark, "country" neighborhood (where your neighbors wouldn't know anything's wrong until the cops show up) are completely different. I'm not afraid to be home alone by any means (actually, I kind of like it), but it's better to be prepared. Call me stupid, but I'm more likely to meet an intruder with my shotgun than to call 911 and hide under my bed.

Yesterday was supposed to be my last speed workout before my 7k this weekend. Well, it didn't exactly go as planned. I knew if I wanted to do a real speed workout, I needed to get out earlier in the day and go run on the trail through town where I can count off distances on the electric poles, but that just never happened so I caved and went to Second Sole's group run. I originally decided I was going to take it easy and just focus on my form, but then I started off a bit faster than I would have liked and decided to just push the pace for all 3 miles. A 3-mile tempo run is almost as good as 3 miles including 2x800s, right? Right? *crickets* Oh well. I figured something was better than nothing and running that pace made me PAINFULLY aware of what parts of my body I need to take extra care of before Sunday. My mile times for the 3 miles were 10:35, 10:58, and 10:02. That second mile could have been much faster if not for the little "interruption". 

I was running with a "friend" (I mean, I guess we're friends. We run together at group and chat and get dinner after) and we had a car pull up to us and roll down it's window. We, being good citizens, stopped and let the woman ask us where **** Street was. Neither one of us had never head of it, we don't live in the immediate area of Levis Commons. The woman got annoyed and took off. After another half mile or so, she turns up again driving the other direction and slows down AGAIN. "Are you SURE you don't know where **** Street is? It's right by the high school." I asked WHICH high school since there are SEVERAL in the area and I actually DO know where most of them are. She couldn't tell me which one and we repeated that we were sorry, but we didn't think we could help her. I mentioned that someone at the hotel in the middle of the complex might know or have a map to help her. The lady started calling us several names I won't repeat here, rolled up her window, and SLAMMED on the gas and took off. My friend did her best Stephanie Tanner impression ("How Rude!") and seemed to blow it off. I, on the other hand, spent the rest of the run thinking about those 2 several-second interactions. I don't mind interrupting a run to help someone, but when you're rude and obnoxious and make me STOP my run TWICE to deal with you, it ticks me off. How am I supposed to help you find some obscure neighborhood road in a part of town I admit freely that I don't know well when you can't tell me a major road nearby OR the name of the high school it's supposedly near? And then you're rude and verbally abusive to us after we ATTEMPT to help you, despite our lack of knowledge? Those are the kind of people who really bother me.

Ok, rant over ... I need to get better at not letting that kind of stuff bother me. I hold onto crap for far too long. The dishwasher is finally done, so at least I can mindlessly unload that and then start another load of laundry.

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!" :)

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.

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.