Catching up.

I know, I've been quiet for a couple days. I'm sorry. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say (the day I have NOTHING to say is the day they put me 6 feet under, and even then I'll probably be watching the whole thing from somewhere else and making comments). It was more that the things I needed to say weren't for the electronic world. Certain things outside bloggyland had to come first. I wrote pages and pages in my personal journal, but nothing here. Actually, I worked more in my writing journal in the past 4 days than I had in the entire month of January. lol. So, I guess I need to catch up on this week. Sorry if this goes a little long ...

Feb. 6 @ Farnsworth

Monday and Wednesday's runs ... I've been feeling for a while that running on the paved W-C Trail so often was kind of spoiling me so I decided to head back to my old summer haunt, Farnsworth Metropark and the canal trail, for my 4 miles. I LOVE this trail. If I park in the lot closest to town (Roche de Bout) and head southwest (really the only way TO go since you're at the far end of the trail system), you get the best mix of straight, curves, pavement, gravel, dirt, and small hills you'll find on the whole trail. It was a GORGEOUS day with sunshine and just enough of a breeze to make me think twice about wearing a windbreaker (but I didn't). I had decided that I didn't want to look at my Garmin at all for pace and I had a pretty good idea of where I needed to turn around and head back for my distance. I was barely a mile into the run when I decided that I was right about the W-C Trail spoiling me. I toughed it out, though, and was pleasantly surprised when I got back to the car and looked at my Garmin. I was even happier when I got home and uploaded the info to my laptop and checked out my mile times. Honestly, I was expecting 20ish seconds slower and much more variation between miles. Even with the mud and dog-walker traffic, it was a fun run and I think I'm going to get back to running there more often. All the off-road work can only make me a stronger runner, right?

A little while after I got home Monday evening, my right knee started bothering me. It was a spot BEHIND my actual knee, towards the outside. If you know what this is, could you PLEASE tell me? I've had some discomfort here before, but never THIS bad. I wore my crappy old knee brace the rest of the night and all of Tuesday just to hold it steady incase I just tweaked it or something running on the trail Monday (wouldn't be the first time). I get so many aches and pains that I don't like going to the dr or even calling my aunt (who's a nurse) unless I KNOW it's serious (as in, I can't walk, crazy bruising, too painful to sleep, etc.).

My knee felt a bit better on Wednesday and I had speedwork on my training plan. I decided to risk it since this was my last run before my 5k this Saturday. I ran the first 2.5ish miles very slow a deliberately (~12:00/mi) to make sure my knee (and ankle) were ok. Seriously, every 5 minutes I was evaluating if my knee felt ok to keep going since the further I went, the further I was going to have to go to get home. Amazingly, the more I ran, the better they felt. Huh?! Since they were feeling ok, I decided to go for my speedwork. I ran the next mile alternating around 9:00/mi and 12:00/mi, using the electric poles along the trail as markers (they're between 0.16 and 0.2 miles apart, depending on how far you are from intersecting roads). The last half mile was run around 11:00/mi, as close to my 5k race pace as I could do safely through "downtown" with the traffic. Final time was right around 49 minutes, which I'm happy with since I had to spend so much time and attention on my knee. My knee was a little achy this morning, but I think I'll be just dandy for the race Saturday if I completely take it easy today and tomorrow. :)

I finished off my tubes of Zipfizz earlier this week and I decided I'd buy some more of the flavors I REALLY liked. Well, even though the company's website says they sell it, my WalMart doesn't carry the tubes, just the shots. Ugh. So, I looked up where else I could buy them in the area. Costco (which I don't have a membership for and I'm not getting one JUST for this stuff) and Vitamin Shoppe. Right. Thank goodness it's sold on Amazon. I'll just have to add it to my "wish list" and only buy it when I have enough Amazon credits. It's either #2 or #3 on my list right now. I think my pull-up bar is #1 (but that could change).

I've been keeping up on by Fab Ab February, have you? Like I said before, I'm doing this in addition to my #plankaday. I'm excited to say I've finally reached a new PR for planking. I've held a plank for a whole minute 3 days in a row now! I felt like I was going to puke afterwards the first time, but I did it! *happy dance* Also, apparently a LOT of people have been finding my blog the past couple days by googling "fab ab february". I think my daily visits have quadrupled the last 2 days. So HI if you're new here. Welcome to the nut house. lol.

I'm still working on the changes to the blog. The new "About Me" should be done within the next week. I've been working on it a little bit every night. Now that my crazy emotional outburst is running its course ("details" in the appreciation challenge for today), I can get a little clarity and be more realistic about it all. I know a little bit better what I want and how to make it happen.

- - -

I know I haven't been posting it on here, but I HAVE been working on my Appreciation Challenge. Every day, I've been writing down something about myself that I liked or I've been proud of. I've been appreciating the people around me. I won't talk about it on here too much, but I'm slowly coming out the other end of a multi-year tunnel of grief and emotional issues [see the old version of my "about me" ... before I take it down]. While I was writing my Super Bowl post Sunday night, I was on the phone with a good friend and something he said started me thinking about individual instances where friends have been there for me, helping me through tough times. As soon as I got off the phone with him, I started writing thank you's. I've written 10 letters so far. And cried while writing every. single. one. Most of them will never find the person they were written to, but it felt good to just write them, to acknowledge that person's influence in my life. I am able to recognize that person' effect on my life the last couple years, during my darkest times. I would be nowhere near the person I am today if not for my family and friends. I'll never stop appreciating them, but it's time for me to start stepping out of the shadow of the last couple years. It's a chapter in my life, not the whole book. 

Eh ... an ok day.

I was SOOO excited when I woke up the first time this morning and realized it had SNOWED! It was only a light dusting ... but SNOW! Since it wasn't time for me to get up yet, I rolled over and fell back asleep for another hour and a half, hoping it'd still be there when I went out for my run. No such luck. It was completely GONE by the time I got up again. Grr. I wasn't in any hurry to get up and go out for my run after that, especially since dad and brother left the house early to go donate blood [which means mom and I had a nice quiet house].

My training plan called for 4 steady miles today, but I wanted to go for 5 since I knew my 6-mile run next Saturday will be nixed in favor of racing the Winterfest 5k. I decided I didn't want to look at my Garmin at all and covered it up with my sleeve as soon as I got going. I knew the distances along the village streets and trail cross-roads well enough that I could approximate how far I needed to go before turning around. When I finally did uncover my Garmin, I was already at 4.68 miles. Awesome. For not watching my pace at all, I'm not disappointed in my mile times. I know the first mile should have been slower, but I had to sprint across a couple roads and driveways in the village downtown area.

I've tried 3 of the Zipfizz flavors so far: Orange soda, grape, and citrus. I don't know that I'd go out of my way to buy orange soda or grape, but I really liked citrus. It reminded me of lemonade that someone snuck some orange juice into. I THINK I noticed a boost in my energy, but I've still been drinking my Diet Coke in the mornings. I'm going to try it tomorrow WITHOUT my normal morning caffeine kick. We'll see what happens. I'm going out tonight so I'm going to be TIRED tomorrow if I don't sleep in late enough. I AM loving the bottle, though. When not filled with Zipfizz, it's been put into the rotation of my water bottles with measurements on their side (making sure I drink enough water during the day).

Did you join in on Fab Ab February? I think I've settled into at least 4 reps of the written workout. Today's is 25 sit-ups (I've been doing bicycle crunches), 6 push ups, and a 20-second plank. I've been switching up regular and side planks.

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2.3.12

I am proud of my ...

Heritage. I'm very proud of my German/ Czech/ Irish/ Native American background. A little closer to present day, I'm honored to be the granddaughter of 2 Korean War veterans, 3 if you count my father's mother who worked in the armory while waiting for Grandpa to come home from the war. I don't know a LOT about my family's earlier generations, but these things I do know and I'm very proud of. It saddens me that I've learned more about my Grandparents since they passed than I did in the time I had with them, but I'm still so thankful I had them in my life for so long. I had all 4 of my grand parents and my great-grandmother up until my freshman year of college. My childhood would have been completely different if they hadn't been here. Every little thing I learn about them just makes me appreciate them and the time I had with them all the more.

Who I appreciate ...

Whoever invented pinterest. It's the newest time waster, but a great way to share recipes, crafts, giggles, ideas, and motivation! I can spend HOURS on there just looking. If you want an invitation to join (and don't want to wait around for an invite from pinterest itself), let me know. Or, if you're already on the bandwagon, click the button on the right sidebar and check me out!

2.4.12

I like that I can ...

Easily make friends with just about any remotely-friendly animal. I suspect it's a trait I picked up from my dad. Most of the dogs in the neighborhood love me (and wait for me to pet them when I go by on my run). Also, I'm always hanging out with the horses when I'm up at camp. It's natural for me to be found wherever the animals are. lol. Our last dog was SUPPOSED to be a "family pet", but he was more attached to my dad and I than anyone else. He was super-protective of both of us and ran to us when a thunderstorm or something else bothered him. When one of us wasn't home, he'd wander back and forth between the person home's side and the front door, waiting for the other.

Who I appreciate ...

Gustav Heineman, the founder of Heineman Winery. They make my favorite wine of all time, Lake Erie Pink Catawba. It's local, delicious, cheap, and STRONG. Oh, and it's award-winning. :) The grapes are grown on the Lake Erie Islands and the nearby mainland and the wine can only be purchased directly from the winery out on South Bass Island (Put-In-Bay, Ohio) or from the Anderson's stores in the Toledo area, as far as I know. And the winery will ONLY ship to Ohio. If you go in person, there's a really neat crystal cave beneath the building that you can tour too! My day can be absolute crap and one glass of this while curled up in bed reading or watching a movie and I'm a deleriously-happy girl. I hadn't had a bottle in a couple weeks, but mom came home with some the other night because she knew I was having a really stressful day at school (stupid inter-departmental mail LOST my graduation application and several other grad students' thesis paperwork). I'm slowly working my way through trying ALL of Heineman's wines, but Pink Catawba will always be my favorite (even if it's just because the memories of this wine and my 23rd birthday out at PIB (-: )

Fab Ab February and Zipfizz

I've seen this calendar floating around Pinterest and Twitter for about a week now, but it has finally found it's way into the blogosphere: Fab Ab February.

For someone who has never done much core work or is just getting back into it, this is awesome. Since I'm not exactly in that category, I'm adjusting this plan for myself. I'll still be doing what is in the plan, but I'm going to do it MULTIPLE TIMES! I haven't decided how many yet since I just jumped on the bandwagon last night (hm, I seem to have jumped into a lot of things yesterday), but I'm thinking it'll probably be 4 or 5.

Another thing to check out on twitter is #plankaday. I've been participating for a couple weeks now and those darn @plankpolice have already caught me not logging my planks once. In my defense, I was logging into Twitter from my Blackberry (the mobile site, not the app) and I WAS tweeting. It just wasn't going through. *grumblegrumble*.

A while back, Steph @ Run On! hosted a Zipfizz giveaway and I was one of the winners. And guess what came via UPS last night ...

I don't know how Robbie, our UPS guy, found our porch and doorbell last night in the dark without hurting himself (we hadn't turned the outside lights on since we were all home already and weren't expecting anyone). But, then again, he HAS been here a LOT the past couple weeks. Between my running/ Amazon stuff, mom's stuff from catalogs, and dad and bro's new parts for the motorcycle, we've been getting packages either from UPS or the postal service pretty much every other day. LOL. I was so confused when Robbie said the package was for me, but then I read the side of the box and did a little happy dance. As always, be just laughed at me. Anyway, I've never tried Zipfizz before so I'm a little excited. My first bottle is in front of me right now (orange soda flavor) and I have 2 different coupons from Zipfizz in my email inbox for WalMart as soon as I decide which flavors I like the most. I was digging around on their website last night too and I'm LOVING that they WANT you to send back the tubes for recycling when you get 100! I'd probably do that even if they WEREN'T offering a water bottle. I think I'm just going to keep the box the bottle came in and put them back in there. :)

I'm really excited to see if I could take these on my backpacking/camping trips. Normally I can't function in the morning without my caffeine or energy drink. When I'm home, it's normally Diet Coke [parents aren't fans of the smell of coffee]. At camp or the bf's, it's coffee, but I need creamer and stuff to make it palatable (can only drink black coffee when forced at knife-point). I've tried taking canisters and packets of mixes on the trail before, and some are ok [G2 in the single-service packets = live-saver], but this MAY be an easier option. We shall see.

- - -
2.2.12
I appreciate my ...
Hands! I saw the Kohler commercial last night with the "Hands can do so many things" song and it got me thinking. My hands have so many scars, but each of them is a story, a chapter in my life. I have callous scars from my years of rowing, dog bite [the one and only time Patches EVER snapped at me], burn from working concessions for my friend's student government campaign, burn form the first time I made dinner with my "bf", the scar(s) from the surgeries on my finger after breaking it playing flag football, and so many more. It simply blows my mind to think about all the things my hands have done over the last 25+ years.

Who I appreciate ...
Another corny one, but Brad Paisley! I normally turn on my stereo to listen to Bob & Tom as I'm getting ready in the morning, but I accidently had the country station on this morning [stupid tiny buttons on the remote]. I wasn't feeling great when I got up, but as soon as I heard Brad Paisley's "Old Alabama", I started smiling and singing along. I love that song. I grew up listening to Alabama, have ALL their albums on my iPod, and even got to see their farewell tour when they played at the Lenawee County Fair years ago. Thank goodness mom had already left for work since I'm sure I looked and sounded like a fool, but it made my morning!