Buddy the Nap Coach

Yesterday was supposed to be an easy two miler, but I was tiiiiiired, so I decided to skip it. What's two miles anyway?

Today I was so tired that I actually tried to nap. Unless I'm sick, I pretty much can't nap. I just lay there and think about how nice it would be to be asleep.

Buddy is a professional napper, and tried to coach me, but it didn't work.

Check out these cute bird prints in the snow.

I was NOT feeling my run today. Not at all.

It was supposed to be a tempo run, but it ended up being more of an interval run because I took so many breaks. Also, I almost died because I wore capris instead of shorts to the basement - it was way too hot.

6 miles total, with 4 @ 8:34. I got it done, but it was not awesome.

I always try to remember that not every run can be amazing, and that toughing it out makes me stronger - both physically and mentally - but it still wasn't fun.

Mostly Pictures of Buddy

Happy Tuesday! Sorry I've been MIA the last few days. I've actually had things to do lately, so I'm getting back in the swing of properly managing my time.

The less exciting side of things is that I've been setting an alarm this week, which I have to get used to again. It's been a while. That's not to say that I've been sleeping until noon every day, I'm usually up by 8, but 6 and 8 are quite different.

Some highlights from the last few days:

We got a few inches of snow Saturday night into Sunday, and then Sunday we were treated to some above freezing temperatures. It's so wrong when temperatures in the upper 30s feel sort of warm.

I did some shopping and managed to only buy the pants that I set out to buy. I was pretty proud of myself.

Buddy tried to stop me from running, but I managed to make it down to the treadmill for the last 4 miler of my cutback week. I was not feeling it at all, but I trudged my way through it.

I took no pictures on Monday. And I didn't run. I did, however do a TON of dishes that we were avoiding all weekend.

Today's run was a good one. My training plan called for 3 easy miles, but I was in the groove, so I ended up at 4.32 miles in 40 minutes.

I sat down on the treadmill to stretch and was promptly joined by Buddy.

He's kind of ridiculous.

Feels Like: I Don't Want to go Outside

Friday was super cold.

Buddy and I layered up to go outside in the morning. He wore his vest:

And his coat. He hates the paparazzi.

And I wore ALL the layers.

I got in 4 miles on the treadmill with my tried and true Gilmore Girls, and otherwise did very little. In my defense, they played an old season finale of Bones on tv and I had to watch the next episode on Netflix - I can't end on a season finale, even if I do know what happens next.

Fast forward to today -

I didn't make it on my group run this morning, we had some work stuff to take care of, so today ended up being a rest day for me. My legs have been feeling tired this week for some reason, so it's probably a good idea in the long run (um, 5 weeks until the West Point half - I'm not ready!).

Tom and I went to brunch at Birdsall House this afternoon. We have been there for dinner a couple of times, and it's always really good! I got the french toast, it came with bacon and apple butter. Now I want to make apple butter - it was amazing.

And Tom got corned beef hash. Everything was delicious!

 
I am on the lookout for this ice cream. Has anyone tried it yet?

It's snowing again. We're supposed to get a few inches of snow before it switches to freezing rain. Awesome.

I hope your weekend is going well so far!

Cooking, Cleaning, and Hanging out Upside Down

I've been busy busy cleaning the house the last couple days. 

I had a mellow morning on Wednesday and made myself some biscuits and gravy. I have tried several times recently to successfully make my grandma's biscuit recipe (I have the recipe, I just don't have the touch). I'm getting closer. These ones were good!

At around 1:00 someone made an appointment to come see the house at 4:30, and I ran all over the house to get it clean in time.

Buddy and I went to Rockefeller Preserve and wandered around for all of 15 minutes before we decided it was much too cold.

We drove around town to kill time until we could go home.

Another person made an appointment to see the house this morning, so I did some quick dishes, swiffered the floor and packed the dog into the car. Since I knew it was going to be too cold out to be outside, we drove up to the new house to check out the snow (and because I hadn't been up to see in in a long time).

I got 4 mile runs in both Wednesday and today - fairly uneventful, as cutback weeks tend to be. The only thing less interesting than cutback weeks are taper weeks.

I've also been spending some time upside down.

I find this arm positioning way easier than the tripod stand I was doing the other day. I still have terrible balance, but I'm getting a few more seconds of balance off the wall, so I'm getting better.

It's fun. :)

I made stuffed chicken breasts for dinner tonight. As an added bonus, they actually turned out the way I wanted (this is not always the case when I cook).

They're stuffed with goat cheese and arugula and wrapped up with prosciutto - hard to go wrong with that combination!

I win at dinner tonight.

(Not)Pancakes, Running and Reading

If you're on Pinterest, I'm sure you've seen those "pancakes" made out of a banana and a couple of eggs. It seems wrong, but people apparently like them. In case you, like me, were curious about these two-ingredient "pancakes," let me save you some trouble.

They taste exactly like you would expect them to: like eggs and banana. Nothing about this resembles a pancake, and I seriously question the tastebuds of those who claim to like them. I ended up adding some flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla, which made my "pancakes" closer to what a pancake should actually look/taste like. I ate part of a couple of "pancakes" before I decided to scrap the small remainder of my experiment and made myself an English muffin with peanut butter and banana, which was delicious.

Next time, I'm not messing around with any weirdo Pinterest recommendations - I will have actual pancakes!

I took Monday as a rest day (I hear those are good for you), and did my best to not go outside.

It was a little brisk.

This week is a cut back week on my training plan. No speedwork, and lower mileage. I'll take it! I ran an easy 4 miles on the treadmill and discovered that if I increase the font size on my Kindle, I can totally read while I run. I wouldn't attempt it doing anything faster, but it was a nice change from clicking around on Netflix for 20 minutes.

After my run, I did a Piyo workout (define: lower body), and did some balance work on my BOSU ball.

This is blurry, but cute, so I had to share. Buddy was getting so hot laying in the sun (inside the house) that he was panting - crazy dog.

Have you had any Pinterest fails? Successes?

You Can't go Wrong with Waffles

I swear I'm either really productive, or really lazy - there is no in between.

It's impossible to keep the tile in our entryway clean, especially with muddy Buddy paws running around, but I decided to clean it this morning. I also vacuumed all the chunks of Buddy's toys up off the carpet so they will stop sticking to my socks.

I made myself some waffles for breakfast.

You can't go wrong with waffles.

I did a bunch of laundry and then spent a while thinking about how much I didn't want to run. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was dying to be able to run again. How quickly we forget.

The first 20 minutes of my run was spent picking something to watch, and then deciding that I didn't want to watch it. I ended up watching Desert Runners. It follows a group of people running 4 ultra marathons through deserts all over the world (Egypt, China, Chile and Antarctica).

Holy cow, those people are crazy! There's something right about watching a movie about running while you run though. It just feels so wrong to watch something like that while I sit on the couch.

I ended up running 12 miles in 1:55:18, a 9:36 pace. Not too shabby. Good thing too, it's only 6 weeks until the West Point Half!

Now I'm watching the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special. I love it when the cast breaks character and starts cracking up. Anyone else watching?

Ice Dodging and Doughnuts

Happy Valentine's Day! I celebrated by eating too many skittles. That's festive, right? Tom is out of town for work, so we'll probably do dinner when he gets home.

Between the weather and my ankle, it's been about a month since I met up with the group to run. This morning I was up bright and early (ew) with about 4 outfit choices because it's been so long since I ran outside that I no longer know how to dress for a run out in the elements.

The elements were cold! I may have made a poor choice with my capris, my shins ended up a little wind burnt, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. You can kind of see the red line where my capris ended.

It was good to get back out there with the group. We had to take some different trails because of snow/ice and there were a few dicey spots (mostly the downhills), but it was fun to run with everyone again. We got in a little under 7 miles in just over an hour. Not too shabby with all the ice dodging.

Right when I got home and sat down with some coffee, the upstairs smoke detector decided it needed a new battery and started to chirp, which started to freak Buddy out. I took a quick trip to the store for batteries and a doughnut (since I was there anyway) so Buddy didn't have to shake with fear any longer than necessary.

Everybody wins!

And since nothing else exciting is going on (if you don't count a bit more snow, which I don't), I'll leave you with a couple of Buddy pictures.

He's kind of weird.

But very cute.

Are you doing anything fun for Valentine's Day?

Look What I Can Do

Happy Friday!

On a whim this morning I decided to try to do a headstand. I think there have been too many amazing yoga pictures on instagram lately and I was getting jealous. While I don't like the super slow speed of yoga, I'm always impressed by some of the postures that people can bend themselves into.

So, quite naturally, I googled it. I read a few articles and watched a couple of videos and decided to try it.

Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

But then I wanted to keep working on it. So, after my run (2 easy miles, nothing terribly exciting), I tried again (and again, and again...).

Once my base felt stable, and I trusted that I would catch myself on the wall, I was able to get fully extended.

My form could still use some work, but for one day of practicing, I'm pretty proud of myself. I got to the point where I could balance without touching the wall for a second or two before I would go back to the wall and/or fall out of it.

The pictures are actually screen shots of videos I took, that's why they're a little blurry. It worked out to be a nice training tool so I could see what I was doing afterwards!

Buddy and I have worn a path in the yard, it's nice to not have to trudge through the deeper areas of snow.

Don't let that blue sky fool you - it was cold out! We're talking negative wind chills. Not my favorite.

Buddy enjoyed the sun from inside instead.

He's so cute.

My goal is to go to bed at a reasonable hour so I can meet up with the group in the morning (for the first time in over a month!). Hopefully I can still keep up with them! :)

Can you do a headstand? Any other fancy yoga moves?

On Thursdays, We do Speedwork

Buddy is a professional sad face maker.

I had mile repeats on my training plan for the day, and I was starting to psych myself out, so I started my run sooner rather than later. I was worried about my speed since I've been off lately, but it ended up being a good, if tough, run.

I ran 1 mile warm up, and 3 miles (at 8:00, 7:54 and 7:48) with 800m recovery jogs in between and a 1 mile cool down. 6 miles total in 53:06.

I'm glad I pushed past that feeling of doubt, because now I can go into my next speed work session with a little more confidence!

Sweet basement lighting, no?

Random fact of the day: I bought this hairspray so my hair would be presentable for our dressy dinner back in December, but I use it a lot - to control the frizzies when I run.

It is seriously the only time I use hairspray.

We had some snow flurries this afternoon, but it was actually above freezing, so it was just pretty instead of annoying. I'm ignoring the fact that we have a wind chill advisory overnight and it will be around 5 degrees out tomorrow morning when Buddy needs walking. Seriously, I don't even want to think about it.

Dinner tonight was a repeat of last night because I'm lazy and I had leftovers. Plus it was tasty, so there's that.

Now excuse me while I go watch the temperature drop - it's happening at an alarming rate.

What's the weather like at your house? If it's hot there, you can just lie to me, ok?

ALL the salads!

I had a salad for breakfast. It just sounded good, and yes, I ate it out of the greens container.

Why make dishes if I don't need to?

Check it out: I actually went somewhere today!

Since I'm not working right now, I've been trying to be good about not spending money when I don't need to. This has resulted in me pretty much only going to the grocery store that's a half mile from our house and nowhere else. I'm starting to go stir crazy.

So this morning I went for a drive and spent some time wandering Target. I may have found some new yoga (pajama) pants, but I'm not sure yet. The tag is still on, so I'm not committed yet. I had no idea I was so picky about yoga pants.

Lunch was yet another salad - they're just so good!

I'm on a giveaway winning streak lately. I won this last month, but they just sent it to me this week.

The box was a little smooshed, but everything inside was fine.

It's a bundle from real food. real life. - their big thing is fermented foods and probiotics.

I'm interested to see if I notice any difference taking these. My body is generally pretty indifferent about my healthy choices (which is why I usually don't worry too much about them).

I got in a 2 mile treadmill run and did a Piyo core workout this afternoon. Core work is never my favorite (I once yelled "I have no core!" during a roller derby practice), but at least this workout had some different moves to keep things interesting.

Dinner was pretty healthy today, too. Roasted broccoli, baked sweet potato and steak. Considering I had chips and salsa for dinner a couple of nights ago (on accident, it was an out of control snack-a-thon), this is a big improvement.

And since no post is complete without a picture of Buddy, here's him tangled in the curtain earlier today.

Do you get on food kicks where you eat the same thing all the time?

This salad kick is much healthier than when all I want is sour patch kids. ;)