i'm so excited!

Does the title of my post make anyone else think of the episode of Saved by the Bell when Jessi Spano gets addicted to caffeine pills? I'm too stupid to figure out how to put a video in my post, so if you want to see it go here.

Anyway, that's not why I'm excited, although that is a powerful piece of film. I'm excited because I am signing up to take riding lessons again! It's something that I've wanted to do for a while, but I hadn't found the right barn yet. Now I think I have and I'd like to start taking lessons in April - after the half-marathon of course. I'm not going to quit running for the sake of riding, don't worry. Maybe this will just turn into a running/reading/riding blog.

Speaking of running, I had a decent 3 mile run last night. It was the last day of good (aka warm) weather that we are supposed to have for a while. Meh to that. This weekend is supposed to be rain, rain, rain, rain. I'm not happy about that, but at least the temps are supposed to be in the 50's and not the 40's. Fingers crossed that we'll have good weather for the half - in just over 2 weeks!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat my lunch. At 11am. Apparently my appetite has returned.

too tired

I am too tired to blog well, so here is a quick recap. I tried to write a post about my 10 mile run last Sunday, but it just ended up sounding stupid. It was a good run, the last long run before the half, and I finished strong. Second breakfast afterwards was great! Either Perkins has really great food or I was starving.

Tuesday was a nice, easy four miler. Although there is not much nice or easy to say about running in the cold, rain, and dark. I take that back, it was very nice to be running it with my group. I don't think I could've (or would've) done that one on my own. We are hardcore!

Wednesday = three miles. Alone, ugh. I went home after work, let the dogs out, changed into my running gear, brought the dogs back in, and drove over to the neighborhood. In the dark. Luckily there were streetlights, so it wasn't pitch black out. I was in hurry to get it over with I guess, because my pace was under a 10 minute mile! I felt like I had a good pace going, but I did not expect the 9:48 that my ipod reported when I was done :-) That really made it worth it, considering that I almost skipped the run because I am so exhausted.

That leads me to the whiney part of my post. D left Sunday afternoon to go to FL for work. I felt like such a bad wife because I didn't even make it home from my long run/breakfast on Sunday before he left. We met up at Starbucks (when did I turn into such a yuppie?) for a quick goodbye. I know that he had to go for work, but it just really sucks that is was this week before the half-marathon. It has left the the house and the animals solely under my care, which I can handle, of course, but it would have been nice to take it easy this week. I'm also not very good at cooking and/or eating dinner when it's just myself at night. That has stressed me out trying to find the time to plan meals and cook. I've done just OK with that this week. I had second breakfast leftovers on Sunday night, soup and cheese toast on Monday night, Twizzlers on Tuesday night (um yeah, Twizzlers the candy), and a shrimp, veggie, & brown rice stir fry last night. I have leftovers from that for dinner tonight so at least that's covered. D gets back Friday night so maybe I'll ask him to pick up some dinner on his way home from the airport. I am thinking of taking a half-day tomorrow to give myself a little time to rest, I think I'm going to need it.

For being too tired to blog, I sure wrote a lot! One more run before the race, a big two-miler tonight, then book club, then driving home, then handling the animals, then doing laundry, and then...........sigh. I think I'll have more time to relax while I'm running the half than I've had all week!

unexplained run

bad run
crappy run
hell run
shitty run
unfinished run

Those are a list of titles for this entry that I tossed around while I was running last night. I planned to tell all of you that running EIGHT MILES after all you'd eaten that day was: a poptart, wheat thins (of course), and peanut M&M's - was a BAD idea. Oh and don't forget that you'd had no water all day, only coffee and a diet cherry coke. Yep, that's how I started out on my run, with a sharp pain in my side and a bad attitude. Well guess what, folks?!?! That is evidently a winning combination. I was able to run the full 8 miles at a faster pace than any of my long runs thus far. I've said it before and I'll say it again - WTF?

This is one of the reasons that I have a hard time accepting and respecting my body - because it doesn't make any sense.

up to 7.5 miles!

I can't believe that it took me so long to share this! I ran 7.5 miles on Monday night. Remember how great I said I felt on my 7 mile run? Well, this was definitely not a repeat of that experience.

I was supposed to run Sunday night, but I didn't, because my Mom was in town and we got a little sidetracked by all of the um, shopping at the outlet mall. So I planned to make it up to myself and my running schedule on Monday night. I was a little hungry when I got home so I thought it would be a good idea to eat a Luna bar for a snack. Guess what? NOT a good idea. I had intense stomach cramps for the first couple of miles. I was literally doubled over at some points. Does that make me dedicated, or just stupid? Not sure.

Around mile 5, things started looking up. That is, until I looked down and saw that I almost stepped on a snake! I generally do not mind snakes, especially not black snakes, but I *really* don't want to step on one. This particular specimen was not a black snake, either. It was patterned with brown, tan, and black - I think that it was probably a corn snake, but it very well could have been a copperhead. I told D about it when I got back to the house and he asked if it had a diamond-shaped head. Now, I know that is how you tell a venomous snake from a non-venomous one, but really? I'm not getting close enough to look.

After my little scare, I went on to finish my run uneventfully. By the time I was through, I was just happy to be done. I did my usual post-run activities - a cool down walk, some stretches, and then a shower. I am having a really hard time eating after my runs lately. I ended up not eating dinner that night, but I was honestly never hungry. I know that's not great for my body's recovery from my run, but I am also stuggling with some other "eating issues." As part of my treament, I am trying very hard to eat only when I am hungry and to make sure I stop when I am full. I know that running is good for me because it is helping me to appreciate my body and not hate it so much, but it also adding another layer to my food struggles. I've gotten a few suggestions and my post-run plan includes: cooking afterwards so that the aromas will tempt my appetite; taking a couple of bites of something because that usually makes me hungry; and if neither one of those work, I will try to sip on a smoothie or protein drink. I feel positive that I'll work this out.

a little vacation

I know, I know, I haven't updated lately. But it's not because I haven't been running - I have! I went out of town for the 4th of July and kind of got off track with my blogging. But now I'm back and ready to report.

I ran 3 miles last Thursday evening and quite honestly did not have the best time. I think part of that was due to my crappy attitude. I was just in a bad mood. I told myself when I left the house that I was going to have a good run and be in a good mood, but once I finished and saw my not so great pace..........my bad mood came back. Oh well, at least I did it.

Next up was my 4 mile run on Sunday. I didn't go in the morning as planned because I had a splitting headache. I ended up going out at about 8:15 that evening. The humidity, even at that time of day, was unbelievable. The air was so thick and heavy. In spite of that, I had a really good run. My pace was not the best, I think it was about 10:45, but I felt great the whole time. I never felt tired or out of breath. I really felt like I could've kept going. I ran at my parents' house so the change of scenery was nice. I need to find more places around here to go running.

Funny thing - I really should have put on bug spray before I went out. The gnats were so freaking annoying out there. Actually, instead of bug spray, I needed a bug deflector. I came in and went upstairs to take a shower - when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I realized that I had bugs all over my chest! That's right, ladies and gents, I am a human bug deflector. GROSS.

OK -seriously - last update: my 3 mile run on Tuesday SUCKED. I was starving the entire time. I was planning to eat a snack of yogurt and granola before I went out. Unfortunately a storm started heading our way, so I had to move my run up an hour. I have never felt more like stopping on a run before. I powered through it though and unbelievably my pace was 10:35. WTF????? How can I feel great on a run (Sunday) and have a slower pace than when I feel like I am going to collapse? I.just.don't.get.it. I'm relatively new to this whole running thing though, so I guess I'll figure it out eventually.

I've decided that I'm going to post a "things I've learned" section at the end of each post. I learned this week that I *can* eat before I go on a run. I've been so afraid to eat within hours before running because I tend to get stomach cramps very easily. But on Sunday my mom and I had been shopping all day and didn't exactly eat lunch. I was starving so I ended up eating around 5:30ish and was fine in my run later. I was actually already hungry again, but I didn't want to eat too close to my run.

I didn't run yesterday as scheduled because we had another storm roll through. I did my ballet workout instead and I plan to go out and do 3 miles tonight. I'll report on that in a timely fashion and I'll let you know how my new audiobook is!