The weather outside is frightful!

So far so good this week! I am definitely surprised that I am able to run as much as I have been considering all the time off I took to sit on my caboose! Its weird running inside on a treadmill while looking outside at all the snow. I almost feel like I should be running with a sweatshirt on. Almost. I am a tank-top kind of girl when it comes to running. I absolutely hate feeling my shirts rub on my arms. I think the guy on the elliptical next to me thought I was crazy when I took off my hoodie. Oh well! I'm a hot beast when I run and don't have any shame! I do, however, need to look into getting a few new items for my running wardrobe. Preferably some comfy shorts that don't ride up on my arse and a few tops that have bras built in. Not sure where I should look, but Target didn't have exactly what I was looking for. I may try Dick's or Marshall's. A girl can always find a reason to shop, right?

*Mulan*

Back on track, baby!

After a few loooong weeks of no running and unfortunate food choices, I am back on the wagon! My endurance has suffered a bit, but all in all it feels great to be running again. I ran once while vacationing in Florida. Not much, but it was better than nothing! It was nice to feel the warm air on my face and to breathe the fresh air in Southwest Florida. The view was also amazing - very other street is bordered by a canal and the boats were also a sight for sore eyes.

Today, I made more conscious food choices and ran two miles on the treadmill. My plan is to steadily increase mileage this week to 3 miles. I will be running 2.5 miles tomorrow and Wednesday and my "long" 3 milers will be Friday and Saturday. Its definitely a tall order considering New Years Eve is Thursday night, but I feel extremely confident and officially ready to start my half-marathon training!

*Mulan*

Feelings of Accomplishment

I haven't blogged about my running adventures in a while, but don't worry, I'm still running! Sunday was awesome, as me and a few other close friends ran the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon Relay. Basically it is 5 people that run part of the relay. We even had a ghetto PVC pipe with our time chip in it to hand off at the exchange spots. We were all up early, but I was the last leg, so I didn't run until about 12:30 that afternoon. As I was standing at Mile 20, watching all the marathon runners go by, I started thinking how much I really want to run a marathon. There were some interesting characters running the marathon as well. So here is a breakdown of my experience while waiting at Mile 20, and then on to the finish line:

We ran in a neighborhood, so I was waiting at the corner of one person's house watching the hundreds of people pass by. There were so many people supporting their friends and family, which I thought was really awesome. Then enter middle-aged man in a white shirt, stained with BLOOD! What's that you say? Yes...he sweat and chafed his nipple so bad during the marathon that it was bleeding through his shirt. It sent me on a flashback to the scene where Steve Carrell is walking home after getting his chest waxed in 40 year old virgin. I wondered, how is it only one nipple, wouldn't the other one bleed too? Anyway, that was not inspirational at all. I then saw a couple of very old men with no shirts on, which grossed me out. Then I saw several people limping, seemingly pulling their bodies along as they finish up the race. You know they are thinking 6 more miles...but seriously...6 more miles?? That's a lot to the average man.

Then an old man ran by saying.."You should try this, it's fun!" as he ran by the crowds of people cheering on (probably thinking to themselves, "No thanks, did you see the bloody nipple guy? I'll pass."). As the anxiety grew waiting on my friend to hand off the baton to me, I had the urge to go to the bathroom. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say the port-a-potty experience was beyond disgusting. I know you are thinking, "Isn't it always disgusting?" But this time was much much worse...trust me. So I quickly go hoping and praying that no part of my body touches anything in there, and I run back to my spot and wait. As I wait, I get the urge to go again, but oh crap, here comes my teammate. He hands me the baton, and I take off. My goal was to run 6.2 miles in less than an hour, as I was trying to stay under the 10:00 minute mark. As I run, I am feeling great. I am passing almost everyone, as most of them have been running for 20 miles. I felt a little defeated however, because the majority of the people were walking, stopping to stretch, or just limping their way to the finish line. As I passed mile markers 1 and 2, I felt great, even though I had a little piece of me that needed to stop to go to the bathroom. So around mile 3, I saw the potties and I went. I went quickly, and even ran out of the bathroom back to the running path pulling the wedgie out of my butt. The last mile felt like forever, but as I neared the finish line, I knew why all of those people had ran, bled, and limped the entire way. Lined with crowds and crowds of people with signs, cheers, waves, and smiles, I crossed the finish line with a sense of accomplishment. I now know why they run the marathon, and that is the feeling I hope to have one day when I complete 26.2 miles. For now, it was 6.2. I finished right at an hour, running a 9:45 mile. Had I not gone to the bathroom, it probably would have been a little faster. A shout out to my team the Cinco Cabrones, as we finished our marathon relay in a little over 5 hours!!

*Pocahontas*

The Road to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks is Paved with Good Intentions.

So, starting my training on December 1 is an "epic FAIL." And I have no excuses. The only thing I can say for myself is that I've put my social life well ahead of my training. I've made some new friends and those friends...like to go out. Every. Single. Night. When I say "go out" I don't mean party per se (though there is plenty of that going on). Instead I mean meet for dinner, then drinks, then a movie. For those of you that know me this new set of priorities is a big change. In my defense, these are volleyball friends so the shenanigans tend to occur after we've played a few pick-up games. The upside = I'm still working out. The downside=the shenanigans start late and continue until the wee hours of the morning. The result = no 6 am running.

I can assure you that this will not be a permanent thing. But for this week this girl just wanted to have fun. I've promised myself that starting Sunday, I'll get back on the stick. Get serious. And start that training, since the race will be here before you know it...

*Belle*

Baby it's cold outside....

It's no secret that I HATE the cold weather. My toes and hands freeze in seconds after being out in the cold, only to take hours to warm back up again. I cringe when I know I have to get out of bed and walk on the cold tile in the bathroom. The only time that I like cold is when it's 100 degrees outside and I need to cool off. Although I do like to ski, and I love the snow, I could deal without the cold weather freezing my lips,ears, and causing pain when I breathe in.

We had a cold front come through yesterday, and it snowed. Needless to say, we had our first freeze this morning, and it's going to get colder. So when I got up this morning, I decided to stay in bed (BIG surprise I'm sure) instead of getting out and facing the freezing weather. I worked this morning, and then came home and sat under a blanket spending the day working on the computer. I knew I needed to go running, but I just couldn't bring myself to get out from underneath the blanket.

When I finally decided to get my lazy butt up, it was 5:30...sun was starting to go down, and it was getting colder..so i bundled up and told myself I had to do it. Within 5 minutes of running, it had turned pitch black outside. Now I don't know what it is about the cold, but it always makes my nose run...A LOT! So I am running and constantly wiping my nose on my sweatshirt (lady-like, I know). What is it about the cold that increases my snot production??

I really wanted to run 4 miles today, but I knew that probably wasn't going to happen because I was going to get too cold. Surprisingly, I felt good out there! My 3 miles happened so fast, that I just kept running...I think I could have ran a half marathon tonight! I ended up running my 4 miles tonight, in the pitch black darkness of night and almost freezing weather....it was like something came over me and I felt like I could run forever....hoping that this feeling continues!!

~Pocahontas

My new name: Defeated N. Lethargic

The craziness of the holidays got in the way of being able to run as much as I would have liked. I ran last Saturday at my parent's house, which was a nice change of scenery. I'm not sure if it was the weather, my body lethargic from food and travel, or just pure unconscious somatization of my feelings of being at home with my family (yes, I just went psychoanalytic on you) that made that run the most awful run, but I felt like my legs were 50 pound weights that were hard to carry. I felt like I couldn't move and I could have fallen asleep while running. I'm not kidding, it was that bad. So after my run I spent the rest of the day with my family and then came home and slept amazing in my own bed after 3 days away from it. It made me realize I am officially a "grown-up" because I love my "own" bed, not sleeping at my parent's house anymore...I'm a big girl now!!

So I skipped workout yesterday because 6:00 am came to early, and then I dealt with some crazy people at work and didn't want to do anything but drink wine and sit by the fire last night. I woke up this morning and thought...mmmm....gonna go back to bed. So after my longest day EVER I came home and decided to run. By this time, the temperature has dropped to somewhere between 38 and 42 degrees and it is raining. Off to the treadmill I go! I dread running on that stupid thing....how do people do it everyday? So I put on my music and tried not to feel like a hamster. I was the only one in the workout room...looking at myself in the mirror in front of me, no TV...nothing. Of course the oldest treadmill available is in our workout room, so I get to watch the red arrows move around the track in front of my face as I trot in place and have nothing but myself to look at. I hate those stupid red arrows...why don't they move any faster?? In the middle of my run, my fiance texts me about dinner. Have you ever tried texting while running...or while running on a treadmill? Don't! I couldn't even see what I was typing because I couldn't figure out how to keep my hand still enough while running to see the screen. Can I say "nauseating?" Ugh, it was the worst!

So to motivate myself towards the end of my run (and to try and make the red arrows move faster), I decided to try and finish my 3 miles in under 28 minutes. On the last lap, I notice that the arrows aren't moving any faster, even though I increased my speed...so for the last quarter of a lap, I was all out sprinting on a treadmill trying to beat the clock with the red arrows. I didn't do it, I finished in 28:03. Pissed, about to vomit, and dizzy from running on the treadmill...I walk out of the steaming 80 degree workout room in spandex and a sweaty t-shirt into the drizzling rain and 38 degree weather back to my apartment. Recipe for a cold, anyone?

~Pocahontas