Spice it up

{warning, lots of running mumbo jumbo in this post. proceed with caution}

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." - Frank Shorter

Like I said in my last post, I've had an epiphany about running Chicago. I'll be the first to admit I've been very wishy-washy about this marathon; my heart isn't in it like last time, and before we finally hit the 'submit registration' button last week I honestly didn't care one way or the other about our big decision. Nate is the one who took the initiative this time around because he still has yet to experience the amazing-ness of a full marathon. I know he's going to rock it in October and I'm all about being the supportive wife....and running by his side in the process.

Training for a full is just such HUGE time commitment and I don't believe in doing it half-assed. This pretty much means our whole summer is going to revolve around running, yet again, because this goes with the territory of running The Marathon. I think the omnious 26.2 needs to be respected and it demands proper training.....or it will seriously rip you a new one without apologies. Like, 'whoops---you didn't really feel like putting in the time to train? Okay, then. Experience THIS injury/the wall/pure exaustion, fool!" [that was The Marathon talking, in case you were wondering. The Marathon still intimidates the heck out of me, obvi].

I just didn't know if I had another one in me and I guess you could say the newness of it all has worn off. Now that we've committed I've decided I have to spice things up with my training for two reasons: 1. Pounding the pavement over and over again, for a ridiculous amount of miles in an 18 week period gets rather monotonous, and 2. If I'm going to do this thang, I'm going to go big and attempt a big fatty PR. I know I can shave off some minutes from my 4:19....it's just a matter of how many.

In Hal Hidgon's awesome book called "Marathon: The Ultimate Training and Racing Guide" he mentions that there are three goals in marathon running: to finish, to improve, and to win. He says that for your first marathon you should only be concerned with finishing....no time goal, no pressure, but just to finish [whoops!]. Nate has appropriately categorized himself here despite the urge to set a personal time goal for himself. We'll see if that lasts:) But me? I've already finished a marathon. And I'm going to officially say I will NOT win the marathon because I could never imagine running as fast as the elite runners--I honestly thing they might be mutant human beings with special superhero powers. It's in their DNA for sure because I couldn't run ONE mile at a 6 minute pace. It makes me regurgiate just thinking about it.

This means I'm putting myself in the 'improve' category and Hal tells me this won't be easy. He says you have to work at it by increasing your mileage [barf!], adding speedwork [hmmmm], lifting weights [doh!], stretching [I know, I know], and paying closer attention to diet [oh, great]. As a Physical Therapist and a generally healthy person I KNOW these little extras are important in training but I've always gotten by without taking them to heart. I've never tried to vary my speed during a run because all I've cared about is finishing X amount of miles that day. I never lifted weights or stretched during training because quite frankly, I just didn't have energy reserves to do so after running so freaking much. I learned a lot about proper running diets through trial and error last summer but I know I could do better in this aspect, too.

So here's my new game plan:

1. Speedwork: I've started this on the dreaded treadmill and OMG...it kicks my arse but also makes the time go by so much faster. Basically, I'll run every quarter mile at a different pace---either slightly faster or slightly slower than my comfortable speed. So I might start at 7.0, then at 0.25 I'll bump up to 7.7 until 0.50 when I drop down to 6.0, and so on. I'm also going to make a few dates at a local track and attempt some of those 8x400 thingies, or 7x800, or whatever certain programs want me to do. I can't say that I'll like it but I will definitely try all in the name of kicking major A on race day [and hopefully recovering quicker, without so much limpage for the following week].

2. Resistance training: I've forced myself to begin a weight lifting routine at the gym and instead of cancelling my membership during the warm summer months, I think I'm going to keep that sucker just for the weights and classes. I cannot believe how weak I've gotten over the last year of 'pure cardio' indulgement. After just a few reps on my old favorite machines my arms seriously start shaking, as if to protest my new meathead-ism attitude. I know it will take a while but I really think this is going to help with muscle recovery again, and also make me buff. Let's hope I don't turn into a body builder on accident, right?

3. Cross-training: [aka not just running for cardio]. Why is this one so hard for me to do? I think part of me believes riding my bike, or hopping on the elliptical is wasting valuable 'running' time but I know the body needs variety. Actually, I think my mind needs it, too. I have a pimp road bike that is seriously collecting dust in the basement right now and my gym membership includes most classes---so a fun little spinning class, or kickboxing, or something like that would be very beneficial for me. I'm just too chicken to attend a class all by my lonesome, don't ask me why. Maybe I'll talk myself into it on a trial basis.

4. Stretching: It feels so good and yet, I'm too lazy to actually stretch unless I'm sore after a run. One of Nate's new books is a Yoga book [written by someone with the most hilarious name ever---Sage Roundtree] and he's all over it. In fact, we bought little yoga mats from Target and have started to flip the pages of the book in efforts of becoming all Zen and bendy. My first and only experience with organized Yoga left a horrid taste in my mouth back in 2006. Hannah and I naively attended a Bikram Yoga class without understanding one important detail: that type is HOT Yoga and if you show up in long pants and a tee shirt you are about 10 times overdressed. Also, the room is basically a jungle containing sweltering heat and producing buckets of sweat from yourself and very intense strangers. It was not a plesant experience, probably because we were not mentally prepared to endure 90 minutes in actual Hell, but none-the-less....I'm giving Yoga a second chance. But within the confines of my own climate-controlled home, thankyouverymuch.


So those are my new ideas, little tid bits that I'm going to add into my training routine in hopes that my speed picks up and my soreness drops off, all the while avoiding the dreaded injury.

But now the big question is this: which program do I want to use, and how hard core do I want to be with this?

My first thought is to go all out and take on the actual Nike program that Chicago endorses. But holy crap that looks intense. Only one day of rest in whole week and a ridiculous amount of mileage combined with all the variety in the world [speedwork, stretching, cross training, strengthening]. My biggest dilemma with this one, besides whether or not it will kill me, is which level I'd choose---the 'beginner runner' or the 'intermediate runner'. I think I could actually qualify for the intermediate but I'm not sure that will really help me succeed any more than the basic program. Both are so freaking insane, you guys.

But my other thought is the polar opposite: less is more, simplicity is good, and chill out a little bit. I don't know where this one came from but Nate printed it off and it's intriguing to me. Basically, it includes only three running workouts per week: a speed workout on Tuesday, a tempo run on Thursday, and a long run on Saturday. Then they suggest you doing another two days of cross training for 45 minutes each time. Honestly, this sounds much more doable since I'm only working out about 3-4 days each week right now. I love my rest days and I worry that if I do the Nike program 6 days a week I'll burn out quickly.

But then again, isn't the Nike Chicago Marathon logo the freaking bomb? LOVE. It makes me want to do their program for sure, great marketing!



Even though at first glance I though it was 'runshee' which might be an exotic vegetable of some sort.

Whew, that was a long post, huh? Any thoughts on spicing up my training or different programs would be greatly appreciated. And let's always remember what the big O says [she doesn't know I kicked her A last fall, shhhhh!]

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it."
- Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and marathon finisher

And with that I'm off to St. Louis to kick off wedding season in style. Of course, it's supposed to rain down there just like last time, while remaining sunny up here. Typical.

The Big Two Eight

So, today is my birthday [please, no pressure to sing a tune for me] and I'm officially 28 years of age.

Twenty-freaking-eight.

No, it's not ancient but it's not 'young' either. It's a nice in between age that definitely puts me over the 'mid-twenties' range and into the shocking 'late-twenties' bracket, because the jump from 27 to 28 seems enormous in my head. I'm not dramatic at all, am I? Birthdays make me introspective each year, and because I'm a diva and it's myyyyyy day, I get to ramble a little bit more on this post.

Anyway, today was literally like any other day because I worked a full 8 hours, then hit it hard at the gym, and then made myself some leftovers for dinner. You see, I didn't feel right asking off at work considering that I get the privilege of a three day work week anyway. Wedding season starts with a bang this weekend and we'll hold it down in the STL with intensity for sure. I love weddings, in case you didn't notice.

Then Nate had a volleyball game tonight and as much as I enjoyed smothering him with a guilt trip about missing an actual birthday dinner, it really wasn't a huge deal to me. We went to dinner with his parents on Saturday and just the two of us are going out tomorrow night, too, so really....what more could a girl ask for? Reheated stir fry alone will do for this old hag.

I decided to make use of my free time after work while Nate was being all athletic and stuff, and brought it at the gym. More on this later, but I had an epiphany about this next marathon. Big ideas, new thoughts, and a whole lotta renewed excitement over here. It might have something to do with my husband being a freaking psycho researcher with the following display of dork-ism. A few of these were purchased and most were rented from the 'brary. But dude, nobody could ever accuse him of jumping into something without analyzing every detail. [Yep, that quality makes my heart pitter patter. Was there any doubt?]



More on my newfound running mojo later. I'm so into it.

But the whole point of this post is this: how did people ever feel loved on their birthdays before facebook/the internets/text messaging/cell phones? Really. I don't know how I survived the multitude of birthdays before today. I feel so special, so important, so popular---which is exactly how a girl should feel on the day of her birth, right? A ridiculous amount of people left me a note on FB, I got a few emails, texts [and as a person that is NOT hip on the text messaging fad this is a big deal], and voicemails all of which did their job in making my day happier. I truly enjoy feeling 'connected' to people and technology makes it so much easier. Maybe I'm just now realizing this connection is why I spend a significant amount of time on the internet, especially at a time in my life when I'm geographically distant to my old comfort zone of home. See? There I go again, getting all deep on you again. I'll stop now but moral of the story is I heart technology because it makes me feel special.

Speaking of special, please don't be creeped out by my newest craft:

No, that isn't the creepy ghost lady from The Ring. That's Kim, my friend who is living in Korea. She is a part of our 'fab five' group of girls and since Kristen is getting married this weekend, making her number four out of five to don a wedding dress, our group will be severely lacking one important key member. We are all sad Kim will miss this occasion but I decided to take matters into my own hands. Now we will have the complete group in our pictures, at least!


That is Kim's head on a stick and I'm sure she will make an appearance in many hilarious pictures this weekend. Isn't she fabulously creepy and awesome, all rolled into one? I love it.

So that's all I have for you on my first day of being 28. I'm off to play with my new toys now since Nate got me a tripod for the SLR, a new hot pink Nike running tank, and his parents gave me money for a new dress to wear on our many wedding excursions. Shopping?!?! Pink running attire??? AND something photography related? You'd think they would know me better than that by now:)

hack job

A few days ago, my dog looked like this:

Long ears, long beard, and about a month overdue for his routine hair cut. In my opinion, perfect in every way albeit a little shagtastic.

I broke down and finally scheduled him an appointment with the groomer and Nate took him in yesterday. When I pulled up to the house after work, I saw my little buddy peering down from the window like always. I saw him throw his head back and begin to howl, contorting his little mouth into an 'O' to signal that his mom was home at last. That is when I noticed something was different. As he flopped his head backwards, his ear immediately caught my attention....what the heck?? Did they.....no, that's not right.......OMG. HIS EARS ARE SO SHORT!!!!!


I'm used to this adorable face awaiting my arrival every evening:


And instead got this one:


I'm used to this stringy tail, this shaggy torso:


And now we have a dog that is sleeker, to say the least. He's practically shaved you guys!


This is Henry's natural bang before I took the scissors out on my own, just a few days ago:


And now? No bangs to be seen. And also no beard. My baby! What have they done to my baby?!


Okay, so maybe it's not that bad. I'm sure it will just take some time to get used to this new do, right? Apparently Henry's favorite groomer was not there yesterday and some new chick butchered him into this new strange sight. It's really not her fault, though. I guess my husband told her to 'leave an inch and a half all over.' I think she took that statement to the extremes and really, if it weren't for his incredibly short ears I think it wouldn't be such a shock. I cannot stop laughing at him and he's about had it with my chuckling:


His eyes seem to have bulged out and spaced apart without all that hair and I must admit that his cuteness factor jumped up a notch or two, don't you think?


But can you just look at his dorky ears again, please?


No more eyelashes, either:


I think he likes it. He is strutting around like he owns the place, even more so than usual. That is, until I start laughing at him again.


I call this next series "The Many Faces of Henry". Also known as, "If I Close My Eyes, Will You Go Away?" Please enjoy:








I know I've mentioned it before but Henry has never looked like Falkor more than he does in this next picture. Hold this one in your mind....
Then look at this and try not to laugh:

Fly away, little Henry. Go find your fur:)

Even with this new hack job haircut I love him with all my heart. How can you not love this face?

Thanks for the photo shoot, little buddy. I'm sorry I couldn't stop laughing.


In other news, remember how we signed up for the Chicago Marathon on Tuesday night? We BARELY made it under the wire because as of Thursday, registration was closed! Dang that was a close call. I guess it was meant to be.

Also, the St. Louis Marathon pics are up and let me just show you something:

Apparently everyone who crossed the finish line with us forgot to smile for the cameras. Dude with a pulled hammy looks particularly painful, no? I love looking through race photos because the facial expressions are always so animated.

Also, it was so freaking rainy. I think this pic shows the wetness quite well:

(from the Go!St. Louis website)

And wouldn't you know it? It's raining at this very moment, too. Of course yesterday was sunny and 80 degrees on a day I had to work indoors and today-- on a day off--it's miserable outside and in the 50s. Oh well, I'll take it. Even a rainy, cool weekend beats a sunny workday in my book.

Off to stare at my comedic dog again...

sugary sweet

Thanks for the support, dear readers. I realize I might be certifiably insane by registering for another marathon but it's very exciting as well. Nate is taking the whole thing quite serious as he just informed me about two new book purchases from Amazon: 1. something about yoga for athletes, and 2. Something about nutrition for endurance athletes. He tells me he really wants to avoid an injury this time around and he hears yoga does the trick....so he's going to read about it and let me know. He's such a nerd sometimes, but you gotta love him.

Okay, so onto the sugary sweetness from last weekend.

#1 After Nate, Keri and I went to the runners expo on Saturday Nate informed us that he has a 'secret errand' to run and was really creepy about where he was taking us. I, of course, automatically accused him of forcing us to enter a golf store where he most likely bought golf-related items behind my back, knowing that I would not approve. I figured he ordered something from a St. Louis store without me knowing about it and had to pick it up during our trip. I'm not sure why this was my first thought but I'm sure it symbolizes something deep about our marriage when I assume he bought golf crap without my consent.

He pointed the car towards the Central West End while Keri and I threw out guesses left and right: was he taking me to get a new puppy??? [his look of disdain told me this was not the surprise]. Was he taking us to Straabs? [besides being weird and totally unnecessary, going to a high-end grocery store was not even on his radar]. Was he taking us to church at the Basilica? [again, very odd and not likely but we had to guess SOMETHING]. I kept saying that there were no golf stores in the CWE, thus adding to my confusion. He just smiled and drove on, letting our imaginations run wild. I think I'd convinced myself he was taking us to Bar Louie to slam shots and dance on the bar---at 4 pm, by the way---when we rounded the corner and saw this sign:

So then I was all, "OMG....you ordered us cupcakes for our upcoming wedding anniversary! How thoughtful for you to remember we got our wedding cake from The Cakery, which has the same fabulous owners of The Cupcakery! {Ericka rules!} I bet you even got us the same flavors as our wedding cake!" Then I realized that although I love my husband dearly he just isn't one of those ultra-sensitive guys who would do something like that.

As we walked into the store Nate finally admitted the surprise: my mom had ordered me cupcakes for my birthday. But not just a dozen cupcakes would do----it's my mom, afterall. She just HAD to get me 28 cupcakes for my 28th birthday despite Nate trying to talk her out of such an obscene number. And let's remember that these cupcakes are neither small nor cheap, which makes 28 of them even more ridiculous. Here is her sneaky cohort with the motherload: yes, they required two whole boxes. And yes, my husband is a cutie:


During Nate's pleading with my mother on the phone, he asked her what in the heck we would do with 28 of these monsters? To which she replied, "I don't know....hand them out to your friends, take them into school/work, do what you want. But I'm buying 28 of them." You know it's a lot when you can't even fit all of them in one picture:


But you guys, they are so freaking amazing it makes my eyes bulge out of my skull. Can I get a little Will Farrell {a.k.a. Frank the Tank} here? "It's so good once it hits your lips." We managed to leave St. Louis with 18 of these babies and I was quite proud of our distribution skills to rid ourselves of 10 within less than 24 hours. It's a horrible problem to have, really....too many cupcakes, too little time:


Nate got to pick out the flavors and I must say that the "Tuxedo" might be one of my top picks. And as an FYI, we did have dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream for half of our wedding cake....and these cupcakes are JUST as good as the real deal wedding cakes. I think it's the real butter....


The "Red Velvet" might be one of the prettiest and of course it's like a tiny bite of heaven melting in your mouth, with all that cream cheese icing. This is the flavor that made Nate grunt the loudest.....inappropriately, of course:


I think the french vanilla cake/vanilla buttercream "Confetti" combo is the loveliest in pictures....don't you? Our other half for wedding cake was similar to this minus the confetti, plus raspberry fruit filling between layers. Mmmmmmm.....


But the "Peanut Butter Cup" with peanut butter buttercream/dark chocolate cake is probably the richest and therefore my favorite. A girl can't have too much PB in my book...

I could have taken a picture of each and every cupcake because they are just that beautiful, but I don't want you to be too envious of me. And besides, we attempted to freeze about 14 of these babies so that we can enjoy them on my actual birthday. We want to avoid a sugar overdose this week even though it's quite tempting to down one of these suckers every night after dinner. Isn't my mom the best?

#2 Speaking of moms and sugary sweetness, meet Clare:



My first real baby to shoot! My hands started tremoring as soon as she entered the room because all I saw was a new photography subject! One that isn't a dog or a flower or food. Yippee! In my honor she blew me some wicked bubbles, possibly gassy here?



She is about four months old and just the most squeezable little thing around. Her mommy and daddy are our good friends from college and we are so happy for them. I think they special ordered the most well-behaved baby in existence and I'll be picking their brains on that procedure some day. I want one just like this:)



I realized that shooting real live babies are tougher to capture than dogs. She was just so wiggly and adorable....it distracted me to no end. Also, my 1.8 had a hard time focusing on her in a lower light condition, which I find frustrating. But then again some of her shots turned out just fine. I personally love this one of Clare's daddy feeding her. If you could see the look of sheer adoration in his eyes it might make you feel a little weepy...or maybe that's just me:



Chunky thighs! In a pink outfit! With the most adorable booties ever! Squeeeeeee!



I had to include this picture because it makes me chuckle. You have Michael, who shares my love for photography, trying to capture Clare's beauty just like me. Then you have Conor, holding his lovely baby with pride. And then you'll notice a certain white dog in the middle looking utterly perplexed. He was beyond frightened of Clare and yet he was completely intrigued. He'd stare at me while I held her like, "WTF, MOM?!? What are you doing? Put that thing down! Don't you know she is a mutant human who is impossibly small? She will take over the world!" I'm sure he was jealous but instead, he took on the role of pensive Henry....as seen in this picture. He couldn't stop smelling her feet and really, can you blame him? I'm sure they smelled divine. Oh, I can't wait for the 'first born syndrome' to kick in with our little Henry someday when he has to share his parents with a little monster like Clare. What fun that will be.


I think Clare was staring back at Henry in this picture which probably made him lose his mind. Please tell me her eyes aren't the most precious things ever. Those lashes!


Tiny little tongue and her baby blues...


She finds my camera quite enthralling, obviously.


When she got all bundled up in her carseat/carrier thingy and went outside into natural light, you better believe I whipped out the SLR yet again. This one is a touch overexposed but I love it anyway. I tend to like my images on the brighter side anyway...so sue me:)


I had a hard time justifying making any of Clare's images black and white, just because we'd lose her gorgeous blue eyes. But this one was screaming B&W to me for some reason. Her mouth in this picture is my fave.....a near smile, I'd say:


Agh, babies. Why are you everywhere? And do you have to be so freaking cute all the time [or at least for the 1-2 hours I get to see you?]. She made it look so easy, that Clare. I just want to eat her up!

And with that I think I'll go defrost another cupcake.....if I can't have the sugary sweet baby I think I'll settle for second best. This one just so happens to have about a bajillion calories, of course. :)

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Dude, I'm totally freaking out over here. Please observe:

My husband and I will be two of 45,000 lunatic runners taking on the dreaded 26.2 this October. Holy crap, I can't believe I'm going to do this again....especially when I'm still still exhibiting a wicked pimp walk from a mere 13.1 mile run.

Also, that 'whooosh' you just heard was $250 flying out of our bank account with this registration. Nobody ever claimed torturing yourself for 4 hours was free, you know.

So I'm a little bit scared, a lot a bit nervous, and a teensy bit excited. Does this mean I'm addicted to marathons now? In the year from October 08-October 09 I will have done two full marathons and one half. My grand total will be 2 and 2 [fulls to halves, that is] in my lifetime. My running resume is still completly puny compared to most other runners out there and yet, I think I'd qualify as a 'marathoner' now....right?

We promised our friends we wouldn't become that psycho marathoning couple and yet, I think we've morphed into that very couple without even noticing. Oh well. I'm okay with that, I guess.

Here we go again...eeeek!

visual evidence of the weekend

{warning: long post alert, full of pictures and some narrative. come back later if you so choose.}

I got the perfect surprise today at work: I didn't have to stay past lunch and let's just say this was exactly what my body needed. I had big plans for my afternoon off [laundry, groceries, cleaning...all of the stupid stuff that can't get done when you are away all weekend long]. What did I do instead?

Treated myself to a little Panera for lunch and then passed out on the couch for a solid two hour nap, snuggled up next to a very tired fluff ball named Henry. Both of us slept so hard that we were a little delirious when we finally awoke. It was one of THOSE naps, you guys....the freaking bomb, even though I still have a pounding headache that is going strong since yesterday. I'm not going to let my neurotic self imagine it's brain cancer, or an aneurysm, or something else completely fatal. I'm going to use my realist side and say it's probably just fatigue, still, right?

Okay, so let's move onto the pictures. I was all ready to say, "I didn't take that many this weekend, and it felt kind of good not to be pressured to snap away the weekend." And then, I uploaded my pictures to find a total of 135 images. Whoops! Guess I did manage to go photog-crazy as usual. It was just odd to be without a camera at the actual race, but more on that later.

Our drive down: I got off work a tad early so we hit the road by 3:30 which might not seem like a big deal but it literally made the weekend SO much more tolerable. Arriving at 9:30 instead of our originally planned midnight was freaking huge.

Our family spends the six hour trip as follows: Me, the shutterbug:


Nate, the annoyed driver:
I must say this: I won 'wife of the year' by offering to drive halfway on the trip home. That was a stupid idea on my part, considering the horrid weather and my extreme fatigue. What can I say, I'm quite the catch---and he owes me big time. I hate that drive with a passion....but let's move on.


And finally Henry, the ever-stressed world traveler who pants the entire trip as if to say,"Where are you taking me, you crazy humans? Let me out of this forsaken car!" At least he's cute when he travels.



Should we take this as an omen for the upcoming race?



The sunset was only decent on this day, but I took pictures anyway. Nothing like a little farmland to make a scenery shot.


Once we finally arrived at our destination on Friday night, we chatted with Hannah and Michael until the wee hours of the morning. It happens everytime no matter how tired we are. It's just so good to be in the presence of old friends again. Sigh.

Speaking of, on Saturday Keri came to town. Hannah, Keri and I went to eat lunch at McGurks and I almost passed out from the intense love I felt towards my Three Grilled Cheese. Then Keri and I went to get a pedicure, praying we wouldn't run it off the next day. I sometimes forget that Keri HATES when they use that holey stone thing to scrape the bottoms of your feet. She freaks out and squeals and giggles. And thus, I took pictures.



Now I don't know about you, but I think it's official: Keri got her groove back. Her eyes have that sparkle again, her laugh has that familiar happy pitch to it, and she looks freaking amazing. I'm so proud of my friend and I miss her dearly. Again....old friends just make my heart feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaking of making my heart happy: it's definitely a season called 'Spring' in St. Louis. Which is funny because as I type this, it's a measly 39 degrees outside. And the forecast calls for the 'S-word' tomorrow. I cannot even type the word S-N-O-W without gagging in my mouth a little bit. So let's move onto a better climate: The STL, shown via these pretty images I loved taking:














Love it. Can't wait for flowers of our own up in The Great North.

Also, going with my favorite themes of dogs and flowers....here is another cute dog for your viewing pleasure. His name is Sampson, he's a Wheaton Terrier, and he is Hannah and Michael's dog....so I guess that makes him our host dog. He and Henry grew up together as puppies when Hannah and I lived together [before we each got hitched] and the dogs are obsessed with each other. Also, Sampson is obsessed with the camera and is a total poser. He rushed up to me as soon as he caught a glimpse of my camera and smiled for this shot:


Oh, the boys. Seemingly innocent, aren't they?


For our pre-run dinner we opted for Vitos and although it was pure torture to order anything besides their bomb pizza, the spaghetti and meatballs dish was pretty tasty and full of adequate carbs. I did not take pictures and I think Hannah was immediately disappointed in me, questioning how I would write a decent weekend post without pictures of my pre-game meal. She is right, you know. I'm a slacker:)

So we went to bed nice and early only to awake at 5 a.m. the next morning: half marathon morning. Did you know it's still dark out at 5 a.m.? Yep, sure is.


The eluisve self-timer picture taken at 5:30 a.m. Do we look pumped?


One really cool thing about being up before the sun is the gorgeous light. I believe this would be 'twlight', right? Love this shot of my boys:


This shot is a little blurry [darn 1.8 lens doesn't like low light conditions much] but I still like it. I spy bokeh!


The race began at 7 a.m. and the rain started at 6:15....of course the weather men were right on this occasion, right? All I kept saying was, "At least it's not cold AND rainy....it could be 40 degrees right now and that would be pure hell." Instead it was a nice 50-60 degree day albeit sopping wet. Here is our view from the start line taken with Nate's wannabe iPhone camera:

So apparently there were 15,000 runners at this race which was freaking insane! It was awesome to run with so many people but a little challenging, too. Not a big fan of dodging other runners throughout the course [and all I kept thinking was that Chicago would be about 3 times as crowded]. I can't believe how many spectators there were enduring the horrible conditions to cheer us crazies on---I love big races for that feeling of unity, the knowledge that every runner has a story and every spectator has a desire to support these runners. It's so freaking awesome, you guys. Even when it sucks. :)

Because of the sheer number of people and the mad chaos in the morning of the race, I didn't get to meet up with Keri which is a bummer but I knew she'd be in good hands with her sister and some other friends. I know Ker was nervous about finishing but of course, she kicked major A and pushed through like a champ. It was her first half marathon and I bet she'll catch the bug and do more in the future. Again, so proud of her!

As far as our run goes, I am very pleased with our 1:57 time, which is a little less than a 9 minute mile pace as an average. In our 2005 half marathon we clocked a 2:10 time, or a 10 minute mile average, so this race we shaved a full minute off each mile...I'm impressed! I really didn't feel like I was pushing myself until mile 10 when I figured out we could actually go sub two hours...then it felt like we sprinted the remainder of the course. Which is probably why I'm the sorest I've been since my full marathon....except I'm actually functioning today instead of hobbling around like a cripple. I'd say it's only a slight limp today so that's good:)

Here is the only picture we have of us together at the race, and this is right after we finished. Again, Nate's camera phone isn't quite the same as my SLR but I didn't think running for two hours with a giant camera slung around my neck would be a good look:)

We were very wet and started getting cold after we stopped running, and I must say that showers taken after half and full marathons are pretty much the best thing ever.

Here we are back at Hannah's before the shower. We don't even look that wet, do we? But I promise we were. Even Henry was annoyed with us dripping all over him.


We cleaned up and my appetite came out to play with a vengance. We chose Square One Brewery for the specific purpose of order thier amazing pancakes. This meal DID deserve a photograph simply because it was so mouth watering.


And after that we were back in the car for the world longest drive. If I ever try to pull this stunt again....running a half marathon and driving all the way home in the same day....someone please talk some sense into me. I knew it would suck but I had no idea how badly. I should know better, I'm practically geriatric with my birthday next week.

I have one more post full of even more pictures waiting in the wings---if you can handle it. I'm not sure posts like these are even interesting to most of you readers but I'm still running low on my 'witty tank' at the moment. Do forgive me:)

must.sleep

The whirlwind of a trip is complete and I'm so tired I could puke.

Instead of barfing, I think I'll go to bed by 9 pm tonight and call it a day. But I've been told by a certain someone that I'm known for being quite prompt with my posts/pictures from events and I cannot let her down. Apparently I have a reputation to uphold.

So this little teaser will do for now until I can fathom sitting in front of the computer for more than 5 minutes with my eyes open.

Bottom line: we got up at 5 am and observed that it was indeed pouring, ran 13.1 miles in 1:57 which made me incredibly happy [PR and sub-two hours, what?], then we drove for 6 hours in a torrential downpour. Too many numbers in there, right?

Also, during the weekend I took pictures of actual blossoms---real flowers that are blooming like crazy in St. Louis, an adorable baby, dogs, cupcakes, and various human beings. Those pictures will come later but here are two self portraits to make this brief post worth your time:

Me in the mirror at 5:30 am. I am sneaky and flipped the image in Photoshop so it's no longer backward. That process took my remaining 3 braincells for the evening.



And me, testing out my self timer so that I could get a picture of both Nate and I together before the run. Apparently my self timer was set to two seconds and it caught me a bit off guard, sprinting to place, and looking rather dazed. That look on my face is back again right now....deer in the headlights for sure:


And yes, the mystery items from my last post were in fact: a bagel [French Toast flavor, actually], peanut butter [the regular stuff, not the weird natural kind], honey, and two multivitamins [not prenatals, although they do have enough folic acid to do the job:)]. That was my pre-run breakfast, of course. As if I'd run using some foreign foods to fuel my belly! You girls are good and cannot be fooled.

More to come but first I must stop my head from spinning. I also need a massage...

Here goes nothing...

It seems like a lot of people were unaware of my weekend plans. When I say 'a lot of people' I mean about 2 actual beings who forgot to write my busy schedule on their calendar, since I know everyone cares :) Well, let me just clarify: I'm going to St. Louis on Friday night after work to run the half marathon on Sunday morning. Nate is running with me, as is Keri---which was the whole reason I signed up for this race [to see Keri and celebrate her health during a painful endurance run:)]

A week ago I was all, "OMG, I get to see St. Louis in full fledged Springtime! There will be flowers and green grass and sunshine! Yes, there will be evidence of life that Wisconsin is majorly lacking right now."

And then, this happened:


Whaaaa? RAIN? I did not order this forecast and I'm praying that the weather people are way off on this one. Why can't it just be sunshiny and glorious down there, strictly in my honor? Too much to ask?

So I could whine and complain that it will rain not only on race day [hello, blisters!] but also on Saturday.

Or I could look at the bright side and thank the good Lord this run isn't taking place in Milwaukee. Sure, Saturday will be amazing here but please look at Sunday:


Um, lows in the UPPER 30s, plus rain?! I think I'll take rainy and warm over rainy and effing cold any day. Eat it, Milwaukee. I still like St. Louis weather better.

On that note, I am packing tonight and I'm not sure I've devoted enough posts to the topic of packing. I hate it. It stresses me out. I would like to think with my Type-A qualities I am a fabulous packer but it seems like I always pack the wrong type of gear. I mean, it's organized and neat and all that junk....but my packing skills consistently lack proper estimation of what I'll actually NEED during a trip. Ugh. Just add this to the list of things I do not like [there are so many].

Speaking of packing, I would like you to guess what this is:



Hint: there are four items pictured here. 10 points goes to the reader who correctly guesses all four of these. I'm afraid this makes me a bit psycho....


And finally, I just finished New Moon and I have to admit.....it was not my favorite. In fact, it seemed to drag on forever and I just didn't have the desire to get through it as fast as Twilight. I might do a separate post about this major let down but let me just leave you with this: when Bella cried and moaned about potentially turning THIRTY before Edward would change her, I lost even more respect for that whiny baby. No she di'int.

As someone who is turning the big 2-8 in a matter of days I take great offense to her statement found here:

'But you said thirty,' I whispered. The tears leaked over the edge. 'What? You're going to stay, but let me get all old anyway?'

Perhaps this should be my big wake up call: the Twilight series is geared towards a target audience approximately 10 years younger than me, if not more. They think I'm old and believe that turning thirty is next to death.

I suppose when I was 17 I thought the same thing, but still. I'm a little sensitive to this whole 'aging' thing, Miss Bella. So lay off the overly dramatic tantrums about getting 'all old' already.

And seriously, why did 2/3 of the whole book have to be about Bella being completely depressive and lonely. Talk about Debbie Downer!

With that, I am off. I will reveal my mystery items when I return. Try to contain your excitement.

baseball, brunch, bridges, booze, etc

So our 12 mile run on Saturday was pretty fabulous and we finished in 1:50. If we run our half marathon in less than 2 hours I will be elated and it might even push me over the edge to click the 'register' button on the Chicago Marathon site. We'll see.

But after the run we had to hurry up and get our drinking faces on....for we had tickets to a tailgating par-tay from 3-6pm before the Brewers game. It was all you can eat, all you can drink, plus your game tickets for $75 which I thought was pretty decent. Daytime drinking with a bunch of strangers huddled together to stay warm always make me think of St. Louis Mardi Gras--minus the beads and boobs. But you see, Wisconsin daytime drinking is a serious sport and no joke, it's like a different world up here....some alternate universe. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

We went with some of Nate's PT friends and endured the seemingly-nice-but-yet-cold weather in the name of baseball. I was brave and even brought my SLR despite the vision of beer dumping into my bag and destroying my camera forever. That's the part when I scream and cry and throw a tantrum and whine about it to anyone who would listen. Aren't you glad my vision never turned into reality? Me too.

So yeah, here we are gearing up for the game. Did I mention that this was the second home game of the season? And we played the Cubs? Pretty intense. Pansies need not apply.




So there we were having a jolly old time when all of a sudden, Bernie Brewer strutted into the tent area! He is so squeezable and I forced him to take a picture with us. Although I was once enthralled with any accidental flare I caught in pictures, this one is quite annoying and I understand why people get those hood things for their lenses. Oh well, still a fun picture. Even if Bernie DOES remind me of that creepy Burger King guy with is haunting smile.


Nate with some of his fellow PT students. And no, dude in the back is not a part of the group although he is obviously awesome.


And now, I'd like to expose you to something called, "Welcome to Wisconsin." You see, although I love St. Louis, you will never see Cardinals fans dress up like this. This is not an insult to either state.....it's just a matter of fact, coming from someone who has drifted like a nomad into a new culture of Wisconsinites. Also the lumpy beer gut is a dead giveaway---this boy obviously loves Miller High Life [no Budweiser in this belly]. Only in Wisconsin:


And I know some die-hard Cubs fans that claim to be unique and loyal and all of that.....but really, only Brewers fans do things like this:


I have no idea why a green jumpsuit and a gorilla costume are appropriate for Easter weekend but apparently it's normal up here.


And this guy? Yep, epitome of Wisconsin for sure. Why do I feel like we are at a Packers game at this point? Note the actual fox legs dangling down his back. PETA doesn't exactly thrive up here, you guys.


In an unfortunate turn of events, our seats just so happened to be surrounded by a bunch of dudes wearing this type of gear:

You know how testosterone and booze don't always mix? The whole liquid courage thing plus a little crazy sports fan thing intertwined with an intense rivalry between two midwestern cities thing equals macho men acting stupid.

I must say that my husband and all of his friends were well behaved but some other lads were just plain crazy about this game. I mean, I thought it was just a stupid ball game but apparently the whole world revolves around baseball for some people in both Milwaukee and Chicago....at least after a day of downing beers like water.

Actual phrases I heard during the game: "Your momma.....", "Sweet season last year, a-hole......", and then there was something about football thrown in there for good measure. My personal breaking point was when someone dumped a beer down from the heavens in an attempt to soak the opposition and instead, it splattered my innocent little head. Not happy. It made me bitter and old and haggy for sure. It also made my hair frizz which as we all know, can bring the wrath of estrogen to which no amount of testosterone could ever withstand.

But anyway, boys are dumb when it comes to their sports. It's sad, really. Don't they know it's supposed to be fun......and look! Sausage races! Who doesn't love a good sausage race to distract a bunch of drunkards? My rarely-used telephoto lens came out to play for this one.


And of course, before the race I chose the winner with my Hot Dog pick. Nate's choice of Chorizo never stood a chance. I win!


Miller Park is pretty much the bomb, even if those Cubs fans called it 'Wrigley North.' No offense but our retractable roof is way cooler and much more functional. At least these Wisconsinites prepare for their sub-par temperatures with this invention. Also, please note our crappy seats strategically placed right behind a rail. Eh, whatever.


Ooooh, lookie! Pretty fireworks under the closed roof!


So after losing in a heartbreaker, we soothed ourselves with my favorite pizza around: Riverfront Pizzeria. [insert Homer Simpson's gargled drooling here].


And that was Saturday.

Then came Sunday when we pulled our tired selves out of bed for 8 a.m. church with Nate's parents. It was lovely and I SO wished I would've snuck in my camera to snap pics of the awesome spring flowers at the altar. OMG, you guys. So much color and prettiness it hurt.

Then we all went to brunch at my favorite brunch place, Trocodero. [I love eating out, can you tell? Too bad we never splurge like this because we're too cheap. In the name of the Resurrection, we decided to go all out and partake in multiple meals outside of our boring little home. I know Jesus would approve].

Anyway, outside of brunch is this awesome bridge that I've seen many-a-times on Flickr and have always wanted to shoot it myself. Of course, my shots are not nearly as fantastic as the amazing ones on Flickr but I tried. It's called the Marsupial Bridge. You'll see why in a minute:




Because here is a giant rat sculpture right across from the bridge. Weird, huh?


Wanna see our grub?

Here is what they call 'Puffed Pastries', or as I like to call them, 'Freaking Amazing Chocolate Filled Flakiness.'


I could not decide between the stuffed French toast, a Belgian waffle, an omelet, or a crepe. So I got this instead: Brie, Tomato, and Basil on a baguette. Pure heaven, I tell you. The French don't mess around.


After successfully drinking insane quantities of expensive coffee and eating ourselves silly we came back home and changed into our Sunday lounge wear. Is there anything better than lounge wear? Oh, yeah.....just my TWO HOUR NAP on the couch with my boys. Yes, we were that tired and I forgot about my love affair with naps.

To prove that it really isn't Spring here yet, no blossoms or flowers or anything fun like that, I took this picture of a pathetic little bud on our tree. I'm told it might flower into something glorious....probably by July, at this rate.


After all of our festivities from the weekend, I realized I wasn't satisfied with the number of pictures we took together. I mean, I got plenty of inanimate objects and complete strangers. But I wanted one of us to mark Easter Sunday, 2009. Here is what I got right before Nate drifted into his napping coma. I followed shortly after of course. I like how it's very 'us', don't you?


And finally, Mom sent me this scan of my first Easter back in 1982. I know, my overalls are the bomb, don't remind me.
This might have been the year I forced my parents to 'hide' Easter eggs on the sidewalks because I didn't like the way grass felt on my feet. Or maybe I did that for the first five years of my life, but whatever. I was very odd as a child. Thank goodness I grew out of that, right?

And that is how we spent our Easter weekend. I think it will take us all week to recover....which will be just in time for a 'quick' 6 hour drive to STL for a 13.1 mile run. I bet I'll be tired next Monday, too. :)

Could I go to jail for this?

I wonder if applying leg warmers to your dog counts as animal cruelty? Hmmmm, something to ponder. Please observe.

My loving mother sent us an Easter care package and realized once she shipped it up to The Great North that the contents were a little biased towards the canine member of our family. Nate and I got a bag of M&Ms and an unopened Golf Digest addressed to my father---hope you didn't want to read your April issue, Dad.

The rest of the items were for our little spoiled fur baby. I'm frightened to see how she handles her first grandchild, aren't you? We might not even get M&Ms at that point. Probably just outdated copies of magazines will suffice.

One of Henry's pressies was inspired by four year old me, seen here:

Pay no attention to my tree-decorating skillz, nor my disgustingly sweet Sleeping Beauty pose. Even my pimped out pink leotard does not deserve the spotlight here....but instead, my rocking purple leg warmers are the point of interest.

Henry is bringing the 80's back, as you can see:


I know what you are thinking. Argyle leg warmers for a dog? In April? The answer is 'Oh heck, yes' when said dog is this stinking cute:




Not only did he get leg warmers, but a new Easter bandanna, too. As if he weren't borderline gay already...


"I want no part in this, woman. Take these absurdities away from me at once!"



"Maybe if I shake with enough brute force they will shoot off my arms in one freeing motion?"


"Mother, please. I'm being a good boy right now. But I might eat your face off soon if you don't stop laughing."


"Perhaps you didn't hear me?"



"And now you make me stay with a freaking treat on my paw? The horror! I could not hold more contempt for you right now."



"Just give me my new fox from Missouri and I'll forgive you."

All better now.

Until I force the warmers on him again just to see him prance around, avoiding any bend of his knees.

Cute, right? And I'll go ahead and say that Henry secretly loved the warmers but only pretended to hate me for them. In fact, I still got my face licked multiple times this day so it can't be so bad.

More weekend fun to come...stay tuned.

Compare and Contrast

Lately I find myself comparing two major life decisions: getting a puppy versus having a baby.

Now before you go and get your panties in a bundle over the 'b' word, I'll go ahead and clarify: no, I'm not pregnant. And---as a side note---I think it's awful how any major 'exciting news' for a semi-newlywed-sans-child is automatically assumed to mean 'I'm knocked up!'. I admit that I assume the same thing about fellow non-parents-who-might-be-getting-pregnant-soon folks, and for that I do apologize. I guess it comes with the territory but it really sucks when you're like, "Guess what?" and someone is all, "You're pregnant?", and you're all, "Um, no--sorry to disappoint. I was just excited about asparagus being on sale this week. Nevermind." Perhaps I'm paranoid, no?

So anyway, where were we? Oh yes, puppies and infants [avoiding the 'b' word successfully here]. Because I'm a psycho Type A control freak, I feel most in control of my life when I plan the hell out of it. For instance, I cannot relate to those couples who say, "Whatever happens happens, we'll just float long life without a list/spreadsheet/care in the world and see where life takes us." No, no, no, my friends. I need many lists and timelines and pretty color-coded excel sheets or I might become certifiably insane [might be there already, huh?]. Deciding to have a kid is no different: I need a timeline, a game plan, and a check list. Which is exactly what I called upon when deciding to get a new puppy. Do you see a theme here?

So when Nate and I discuss having children, I find myself comparing this decision with The Great Henry Debate of 2005. You see, throughout college I always said I would buy myself a puppy as soon as I graduated and had a real job/place of my own. I don't think Nate ever took my threat seriously until I began researching the crap out of dog breeds. And oh yes, there were lists involved.

Initially, Nate was not fond of me getting a puppy because he thought it would be too much responsibility, it would hold us down from traveling, it would cost a lot, and his biggest [secret] fear was that I'd want to spend more time with the puppy than I would with him. We talked it to death and eventually I got my baby puppy. And guess who Henry has wrapped around his furry little paw more than anyone else in this house? Yep, hesitant little Nate is now utterly obsessed with Hankster. [I told you so, what?] :)

Looking back I think the fear of the unknown was a huge part of Nate's tentativeness. I mean, when you decide to get a puppy your entire world changes and neither one of us really KNEW what that would be like.

Well guess what? Neither one of us really KNOWS what it will be like to have a kid but if we're honest, we know it will completely change our lives. We are in that weird limbo stage where one day we think we are ready for a baby and the next we feel perfectly content with having free time and being child-free. Is anyone else in this same stage right now? I understand that these things cannot always be controlled and it's not something we can just snap our fingers and out pops a baby, and of course that thought frightens me. I have read way too many infertility blogs to think that making babies is easy. Because I'm neurotic I worry that when we are ready it might not happen for a long time after and my 28th birthday that is sneaking up in a matter of weeks just makes me feel like my eggs are shriveling up. Completely dramatic, I know. And heavy and depressing so let's move onto more about puppies instead [and no, I don't want one of those right now either. At least not today].

We were going over our potential baby timeline the other night and I had an epiphany: we were nervous about getting a puppy for the same reasons and look how that turned out. We survived, didn't we? Sure it was hard at times and I can't say that I want to go through that again any time soon, but oh--the memories.

Hold on, new mothers. Are you breathing fire yet? Don't hurl stones at your computer screens or curse my name in vain. I am fully aware that comparing a newborn child to a canine family addition isn't the most accurate. I realize that one decision is a little more important than the other considering it's a precious human life and all. But humor me for just one second as you read my list, okay? It's all in good fun I promise. A little sarcasm never hurt anyone:)

Compare: ways that getting a new puppy and having a baby are similar

1. Both demand your attention, and thus a huge amount of your life will begin to center around this addition. You'll need constant reminders to keep your marriage/relationship a priority or else the new object of your affection will suck it dry.

2. If you are ill/tired/cranky, too bad! You still have to care for this little bundle of joy. In fact, they will both wake you up in the middle of the night just for the heck of it to test your breaking point. Hope you don't like to sleep very much, right?

3. You must remember to feed them, and pay for their food. Yes, you'll need to be responsible like that and at least pretend to be an adult [gulp].

4. Both of them make horrendous messes/can be stanky. You'll have to dispose of it without gagging. But I will say this: a nasty pile of dog crap ain't got nothing on a fully loaded diaper. More on this below...

5. Neither are temporary, so once the novelty wears off you better settle in for the long haul. If you get bored easily remember these additions can't get pushed to the back of a closet like yesterday's hottest blouse.

6. Both are so freaking cute it makes your innards quiver. It also forces people like me to take entirely too many pictures on any given day.

7. Both can be the best thing since sliced bread. And I love me some carbs.


Contrast: ways that getting a new puppy and having a baby are a wee bit different.

1. You can leave a puppy alone for at LEAST 4-5 hours at a time, depending on bladder size. I do not suggest leaving an infant alone for this long unless you have a strong desire to do jailtime. I think I'll pass on that one, okay?

2. A puppy might wimper a little bit at night but I'm pretty sure a newborn's bloodcurdling scream is way worse. And rubbing a baby's belly probably won't get him to stop crying, but I could be wrong on this.

3. Babies poop their pants, puppies poop outside [or perhaps inside but really---it's not like it's held up against their body for any period of time, so the baby still wins this bullet point. Poop needs to exit the system and not adhere itself to the host, which is why babies get the short end of the stick, IMO].

4. Puppies love to play fetch and are generally interactive and fun. From what I've seen with newborns, they aren't excatly 'entertaining' unless you count staring at their freaking adorable cheeks for hours on end to be your idea of endless fun.

5. It seems like babies need way more crap than puppies. I mean, have you seen some of these baby registries? I'm pretty sure I got some food, a toy, and a collar with a leash when we brought Henry home. But with a baby you might need a regular U-haul van to cart around all of their paraphernalia. Geesh, talk about high maintenance.

6. Babies grow into teenagers which seems like a real pain in the butt. Those teenagers will eventually go to college and since we will be paying off our own tuitions for many years, the thought of adding more to our tab is quite frightening. Puppy obedience school is pretty cheap in comparison, I suppose.

7. This trumps all the rest: you birth a human child. I'm told it isn't exactly fun to pop a living creature out of your nether regions and in fact, I bet you it hurts a lot. Call me a wimp but I think I'd take a room full of chewed-up furniture over pushing a 8 pounder from my girlie parts. Yep, not quite ready yet.

So there you have it, my essay comparing and contrasting two subjects that are both similar and different. Of course, since I've only aquired one of these objects [Hi Henry!] I suppose I'm just guessing at a lot of my points. Feel free to let me know any comparisons I've missed. I'm sure there are many:)

miscellany

Here we go again.

1. Did I mention that I cannot wait until Summer? Besides the obvious increase in temps and decrease in Seasonal Affective Disorder, we have two biggies coming our way:


In reality, I'd settle for a true Spring day instead of this winter crap.
It's been snowing on and off all weekend and even my northern husband is ready to check real estate in Florida. The final straw? Our run down by the lakefront today.

You see, we knew it would be cold [high in the low 30s] and windy [we could see the stoplights swaying in the wind on the way down]. But we had no idea how bad Lake Michigan had it out for us. Our training program called for 11 miles and we were all about it, but honestly Mother Nature and her evil friend The Lake laughed at those plans. When we stepped out of our car and promptly saw a woman's hat fly off her head we knew we were in trouble. When some crunchy dead leaves slammed into our legs at approximately 2556 miles per hour we questioned our sanity. As we took off down the path the wind was blowing so hard against us that we were practically running in place. I have never experienced such strong gusts of bitter cold wind nor do I ever plan to expose myself to elements like these again.

The best part was when Nate abruptly turned around mid-stride and said, "Welp, eff this, " and started trotting back to the car. I was so confused and yet incredibly relieved at his decision to abort mission. Our skin was bright red, our noses were snotty, and we were mumbling obscenities by the end of our 11-turned-4.5 mile run. We decided to reward ourselves with Alterra coffee anyway because we deserved it.

Note to self: it's a bad sign when you only see one other poor soul running at the lakefront. Sometimes you just have to listen to your gut and call it quits, lesson learned.

2. We have a lot of red wine right now, for no reason in particular except that it rules. So I took a bunch of pictures on a day that actually came with sunshine:









3. Henry and Nate are at their wits end with me and my camera. They are taking some much needed time off from their lives in the spotlight and so I am forced to turn to another subject: myself, without makeup, pre-run. I know, what was I thinking? But I see so many cool self portraits on Flickr and never tire of using my new lens, so I figured what the heck. I could always use another profile pic at some point.







And those awesome frames? I found them at MCP actions for free. I love actions, especially free ones, and I think I might ask the birthday fairy for a set of 'real' ones. I just can't decide which ones to get. Any suggestions?

4. Project 'Album of 2009' is coming along nicely and I feel less overwhelmed by the ridiculous number of pictures I've taken this year now that I'm almost caught up. I really think that making my 2009 pages for our yearly album as the year passes is one of my best ideas yet. And I love using blog posts for text. Here are a few of my recent faves:








If you cannot read the quote on the Henry page, get ready to tear up. It says, "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

This was a quote I found by an anonymous author on some random website as I searched for cute doggy sayings to add in our album. I have no idea why this quote makes my throat tighten up but it does. It also makes me want to rub Henry's little belly until he passes out from happiness because sometimes I love that little butt head so much it hurts. :::sob:::

5. Laura posted about the movie Spirit of the Marathon. I immediately wanted to watch it and I must say that it almost made me tear up a few times, too. Why am I such a sap these days? Watch this trailer and tell me you aren't inspired:



It follows 5 runners as they train for the Chicago 2005 marathon. Some are elite runners who blow my freaking mind [running 145 miles in a week? Seriously?], some are first-timers who make me reminiscent of last October 5, and some are trying to qualify for Boston [crazies!]. If you watch this movie I think you will understand why people run marathons. In fact, it tipped the scales a little bit further towards me running another full marathon. Both Nate and I are seriously considering Chicago 2009. Seriously. But the whole part about 40,000 other runners potentially trampling me to death kind of freaks me out. And excites me. The $125 entry fee worries me and the time commitment bothers me.....and I think we're gonna do it. But we'll see.

Nothing like being wishy-washy, huh?

6. We have a very busy but fun month ahead of us:

Next weekend: Tailgating in a party tent for a Brewers vs. Cubs game. Squeezing in a 12 miler {weather-permitting}, and Easter brunch. Yum! Fun!

The next weekend: world's quickest trip to STL for a little thing we like to call a 'half marathon' with friends.

The next weekend: celebrate my birth:)

The next weekend: a slightly longer trip to STL for Kristen's wedding.

Holla! I love fun-filled months and I'm sure it will fly by at record speed.

7. Henry reverted back to being a puppy yesterday as he bit a hole through one of our blankets. Excuse me? Since when to dogs who are nearly four years old do such things? I think it's his way of protesting the weather, too.

And that's all I got for now. I must attend to the 15 loads of laundry that await me in a damp, stinky pile full of nastiness. How is it that two people can produce such an obscene amount of dirty clothes in a mere week? It never ends. Laundry and grocery shopping---my eternal nemeses. Does anyone actually like these chores? Can I pay you to do ours?

Newbie runner's toolbox

I am not an elite runner. I do not know it all. And I'm pretty much a newbie to this sport running my first real race in 2005 with the Madison half marathon. I was not a track or cross country runner in high school---quite the opposite, actually. I was a basketball and volleyball jock who would rather line up for sprints and stairs and punch herself in the face before running a mile. Then came college when I was no longer exercising for 3+ hours each day with high school sports and I was deathly afraid of the freshman fifteen. So I started running about 2 or 3 miles at a time just to burn some calories, but I ended up addicted to being a runner.

Running is such a mind game. It's methodical, simple, and accessible. The feeling of accomplishment you feel after a great run should be bottled up and sold for ridiculous amounts of money. Whether you are training to run/walk a mile, doing the Couch to 5k program, running in your first half marathon, or even a full 26.2 you've probably been overwhelmed by the running world out there. I mean, there are so many things to learn, so many questions to ask, and so many hard-core runners out there that scare the crap out of us newbies [at least, in my opinion]. So when Hanna asked if I would write a post about running---must have gear, clothes, equipment, etc---I decided to take her up on it in hopes that it will help somebody out there. I apologize for the length of this post already, but I just adore talking about this stuff [you can't tell, can you?]


ATTIRE:

Absolutely the most important piece of equipment for a runner is her shoes. Now ladies, this is not a place to skimp on quality just to save some money and since this is coming from a self-professed tightwad, you should know that it's a big deal to me. I hunt for sales as much as the next person and usually spending $100-$150 on a single item would make me blackout. But your shoes not only protect your feet but they are the basis for proper body alignment and will definitely make or break you as a runner. As soon as someone tells me "My _____ hurts when I run" I immediately ask about their shoes: are they old, worn down, or ill-fitting? If so, it's time to get professionally fitted for the perfect pair of kicks. I don't go by the 500 mile rule, or the 6 month rule, but I just listen to my legs and they will tell me when it's time to make the next purchase.

I am a big fan of shoe stores that watch you run on a treadmill to observe your foot mechanics in their shoes. They should measure each foot, watch you walk in different styles of shoes, and also watch you run in them before letting you walk out the door with a new pair. They will see if you over pronate, stay fairly neutral, or possibly over supinate and then prescribe you the correct shoe accordingly. We like Fleet Feet for this purpose but I know there are other stores out there that will do the same for you.

Right now I'm wearing the Saucony ProGrid Guide shoes:


But in the past I've been an Asics freak and ran my marathon in the GT-2140s:


And have purchased many-a-Cumulus and Nimbus styles:


After you have the proper running shoe, next you should splurge on some non-cotton clothing. For my socks I am obsessed with the Smart Wool brand and believe their $13 price tag to be worth it.

You'll need to put all your fears aside and wear tight pants/capris/shorts/skorts if you want to avoid chafing. I was completely skeptical about this commitment to serious running back in my rotten cotton days. Remember this post? This is when I turned the corner and embraced the idea of dri-Fit attire. And I must say that I'm a Nike girl with more of their items than any other brand. I'm seriously considering getting yet another Nike Skort. Iloveitsomuch.

THE GARMIN:

Ah, my little Garmin. I have a serious dependency on this puppy and cannot imagine running outside without it. You know how a treadmill gives you specific information about your run, like your pace, total time, total distance, and calories burned? That is exactly what a Garmin tells you but without the confines of a hamster wheel. I know, why didn't I think of that?

Here's the lowdown on Mr.G: it's a GPS system you wear as a wrist watch. It's freaking huge---as in Flava Flav's clock around his neck, but only it's on your arm. I suppose if you are a big spender you can get a smaller more pricey version but let's get real---you get used to wearing such a monster on your wrist when it's completely pimp.

We bought the Garmin Forerunner 205 which cost us about 200 bones. The biggest perk about a Garmin is that you can glance down while running and check your current pace. For instance, at the beginning of a run I tend to get excited and run too fast, like, "Oh crap, I'm running an 8:00 mile and need to slow my roll right now if I want to last." And sometimes I feel like I'm trucking right along but I'll check with Mr. G and he'll tell me otherwise.

The other thing I love about my Garmin is it tells me my exact distance and how many calories I've burned along the way. There are many other functions you can trigger on a Garmin---like seeing a visual of your traveled pathway, average speed throughout the run, time of day---and you can upload your stats to a computer to keep a log of your runs.

I consider the Garmin to be a luxury and not a necessity but I can assure you that if you spend a decent amount of time running outdoors you will not regret your decision to buy Mr. G. Nate and I often fight over ours since we only have one but we're learning to share like adults should do, I suppose.

TUNES:

One of the most intense debates in the running world is whether or not to run with music. I know the prospect of running without an MP3 player to those of you who can't leave home without it might seem awful. The problem is that most half and full marathons forbid the use of music because they believe it can distract the runner, and potentially lead to an accident if you can't hear a car coming your way. That's not to say that some marathoners don't sneak in their headphones, which I say is their own choice, but technically it IS against the rules and I'm not exactly a rebel:)

I ran my half and also my full without music. For my training runs I only used music when I was running alone and running more than 10 miles simply to stave off boredom. I promise you that if you go sans music your mind will find things to think about and honestly, it can be totally therapeutic. It's just you, the road, and your thoughts----but I will admit that sometimes you just don't need to solve the world's problems during a run.

My iPod shuffle is my lover boy for times like these and I dig a mixture of tunes for my runs. I know a lot of runners are always looking for new songs so I figured I'd share my newest 'March 2009' playlist for your entertainment. I hope you can click to enlarge it. And I hope you like techno and rap music.

NUTRITION:

Another hot topic in the running world is what to eat and drink during training, and especially during race day. I feel like this is a personal decision and is only realized after much trial and error. For instance, I naively thought that fried cheese curds and Diet Coke would be 'energy food' for a 15 mile training run and discovered I was wrong. Dead wrong.

I've also tried many-a-gels and can't quite choke it down because of the texture. There's just something about the texture---all slimy, gooey, and thick----that is the opposite of refreshing when I'm all hot, sweaty, and parched. The only gels I can stomach are the Strawberry Banana PowerGel and a lot of the fruity flavors from CarbBoom. I prefer the ones with caffeine, obvi.

I relied heavily on Sport Beans for my marathon because their texture was more acceptable to my salivating mouth. But you probably don't even NEED to worry about nutrition during a run unless you are running more than a half marathon----at least, that's what I found for myself. But no matter what you will require lots of water and/or Gatorade during your runs to stay fully hydrated.

In fact, drinking a butt load of water about two days before a long run will be a lifesaver for your body. And of course, you will want to drink even more afterwards to replenish your fluids and decrease your muscle soreness.

I find that sticking to carbohydrates before a run does me well, but cheese, alcohol, meats, and sugar does not help me run. I guess that seems like a no-brainer but trust me---I REALLY wanted pizza to be my pre-run meal and it just wasn't happening. But a bagel with peanut butter and honey, plus water and coffee is my tried and true 'morning run' meal and coincidentally it's also my everyday breakfast meal, too. What can I say, I'm boring like that.

So what questions did I miss in this post? Am I totally off on some of these ideas? Any other thoughts or questions are appreciated. I hope this helps other newbies like myself.

Oh, and I'm still on the fence about another full. I'm starting to get the itch again, you guys. Anyone with me?

{and I finally changed my header and blog colors if you care to observe. I let my inner pink diva shine through for this one.}