The Mail Lady Brings Me Fun Stuff

So, remember that Schwaggle deal not too long ago that sold out ridiculously fast ... the FuelBelts? Well, it finally came today ... *jumps up and down excited like a little kid*

After spending a couple minutes with the R20, I can understand why some people aren't happy with the zip pouch on this belt. It really is just big enough for your keys and a gel or 2. Even if I didn't try to carry my blackberry (which is kinda compact compared to most smart phones out there. And it's still too big for this pouch), my car key and remote will fill it up pretty well. I already planned on purchasing an extra bottle, caps, and slide-on holster, but maybe I'll have to consider a larger pouch as well. I know I've seen them on Amazon and I SHOULD have some credits from survey-taking to be redeemed soon.

Oh ... and it brought along a friend ...

I'm almost as excited for that second little present as I am for the first. I've been contemplating nutrition a lot lately but have been cautious of buying anything myself. I don't like buying something and then decided I wasted my money on it, so I'm always game when someone sends me free stuff. :) Maybe it's just my ignorance, but are all gels this big?! Oh well. I think I'm going to save this for a longer run. Clif does have some pretty nifty ideas about their shots and the packaging, though (perfect example ... litter leash!). You can read about them HERE.

I haven't decided yet how I'm going to schedule in runs once I start boot camp Saturday morning. I guess it depends on how I feel after classes, if I need the days between as rest days or I'll be good for a couple 2-a-days.

An email newsletter form one of the local running shops gave me a couple ideas for upcoming races. They're both 5ks, but I guess something is better than nothing. I don't like NOT having something to train FOR. Plus, one of the 5ks starts less than a mile from my parents' house and benefits the elementary school parents club. I remember how important that parents club was for the students when I was there, so I have absolutely no qualms about the $30 registration fee. I figure I'll save a couple more bucks and just walk down there and back (or ride my bike and park it at the school).

Alright ... time to get ready and head over to group run. I'm sure this gorgeous weather is going to bring out a bunch of people! :)

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.

2 Runs and a Saucony Surprise!

I'm a day behind on my blogging ... again. Oops. Even with my compulsive list-making and organizing, things still get left in the dust. Oh well. At least now I can cover both yesterday AND today's runs. Yep, you read that right. I ran 2 DAYS IN A ROW.

Yesterday's plan was a 4 mile run with 2 miles at "tempo". My stomach was doing much better, thank goodness, but my knee was aching when I woke up so I was a little concerned about that. I decided I was going to take the first 2 miles easy (somewhere in the low 12/ high 11 minute range) and see how everything felt. If my knee felt good at the end of mile 2, I was going to run my tempo miles in the mid- to high 10s. Well, once again, my knee felt better the longer I ran. Weird. Anyway, I knew I'd be turning a corner right around the end of the 2nd mile so I went for it once I made the turn. I didn't look at my Garmin once I kicked up the pace. I tried to use the third mile to let my body get used to the faster pace and then pushed it in the 4th mile. Considering I started slow to be nice to my knee, I was pleased with my pace.

I hadn't planned on running today. I usually don't run 2 days in a row because the last time I did, my shin splints got so gnarly I had to take a very painful week off completely just to be able to walk without pain (stupid treadmill). But, when my friend Liz called and said she wanted to go to Second Sole's group run tonight, I relented. But, in full disclosure, her husband (who I'm actually better friends with) called me about an hour before I would have to leave and practically begged me to go with her. Poor Mikey. *giggle*snort*giggle* He married someone who's just as active as him and now he can't get a day off. Just imagine me sitting here rolling off my chair laughing. No joke.

Anyway, I went. There's a great little 3 mile loop in Levis Commons (where Second Sole Toledo is located) that Second Sole uses for weekly group runs and the occasional race. It loops through the commercial, industrial, and residential parts of the development, which kept the run interesting. And there was JUST enough light between the occasional street lamp and the ambient glow from all the buildings that I never felt like I couldn't see. Like I expected as soon as she asked me to go, Liz took off and left me in the dust before we even reached the first mile marker (we both knew she was going to do this, so WHY couldn't she go on her own? Believe me, I thought about this while I was running). I didn't have my iPod with me, so I got to enjoy the quiet and focus on my form. A couple people had their dogs with them, too, so that was pretty entertaining.

The one thing I didn't mention so far is that Saucony and Second Sole were doing a raffle for 2 jackets tonight. Saucony is sponsoring this month's group runs so they have fun stuff going on every Thursday. Back to tonight, by the time I got back to the store, Liz was standing outside the doors with a $#itty grin on her face. When I asked her what the face was for, her only response was to giggle "You can thank me any time now" and drag me by the shirt sleeve to the back of the store where they had the jacket winners posted.

Saucony Nomad jacket

Want to guess who the winner of the Saucony Nomad jacket in ViZiPRO Orange was? THIS GIRL, RIGHT HERE. I was just a bit in shock and may or may not have told Liz I would slap the $#!@ out of her if she somehow was pranking me. The Saucony rep overheard the whole this and thought is was hilarious for some reason. He went over to the rack and grabbed a couple sizes and we got me fitted and happy in no time at all. I LOVE it. If I wasn't so strict about not running the day before a long run, I'd be jumping into my running shoes first thing in the morning and heading out to test this baby out. Lol. I very nearly smacked Liz as we were pulling out of Levis because she was still gloating over talking me into coming tonight. She even called Mikey and put him on speakerphone and told HIM all about it while I was driving. Yea, I'm never going to live this down. It's going to come up EVERY time she's in town and I say I don't want to go out and do something. Lol. If stuff like this happens every time I go out with Liz, then I'm ok with it.

A VERY excited Jess! :D

Something I just realized ... weird ... I have a habit of painting just ONE of my fingernails a fun color. It's a bit of an inside joke between myself and some of my former classmates. If you can't see it in the picture above, my left thumb nail is currently painted an awesome shade of orange. Here I was thinking I was just being clever covering up the fact that my nail was turning orange from peeling oranges the last 2 weeks (I always use that nail for peeling oranges for some reason). :)

Alright. I ran to the tv to turn on Vampire Diaries as soon as I got home (and then Grey's ... and then Private Practice) and now I'm STARVING. I don't want to cook anything since the parental units have already gone to bed, but there are some hard-boiled eggs, oranges (hehe), and Trix cereal calling my name. G'night. :)

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Today, I'm appreciating my friends. Mainly Mikey and Liz. Both are very good at pushing me into deciding if I really DON'T want to do something or if I'm just being lazy.

And I'm appreciating my mind and imagination. I could have been upset that Liz ran ahead of me, in the dark and sans-iPod, but I chose to keep positive and find other ways to keep myself entertained and engaged during the run. And it turned out to be a pretty great night.

New Toy

So, I'm addicted to Target. I can't go into that place without spending money. I love most of their clothes and I'm a fan of C9 workout gear (the sports bras and tops, I hate their bottoms). Anyway, I knew the clothing clearance racks were getting stocked last night (thank you, friends who work for Target) and I'd been eyeing a certain something in this week's ad ...

Yep, I caved. They were on sale for $55 and I've been researching adjustable dumbbells for a couple months now. I really just went to Target to dig through the clearance racks and go get a good look at these babies (I hate buying things without seeing them first), but I couldn't resist once I started playing with them. I've read some reviews, some awesome, some horrible, so we'll see what happens. I like them so far (and the fact that now I don't have to worry about buying individual dumbbells).

Oh, and I did get a pair of cargo khakis for half price too. I just need to move the button on the waistband so they're a little more comfortable. For half price, I will GLADLY make that tiny adjustment. :)

- - - - -

PS - I've seen the EXACT same thing under several brands (just the name on the sticker was different): Reebok, Pro Form, Jillian Michaels

Need proof? http://www.amazon.com/Jillian-Michaels-Ultimate-Adjustable-Dumbbells/dp/B0045GRJCM/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1325716402&sr=8-17

- - - 

AGH! As soon as I post about my new toy, the UPS guy shows up with THIS:

Ignore how gross I look and focus on the new(er) toy. Haha

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.