Random Thursday Thoughts

If I blogged half as often as I think about sitting down to write a post, you would be so sick of me.

We're having a freak week of summer this week. My car said it was 94 this afternoon, which I am definitely not ready for. Fortunately it is only supposed to be in the upper 70s tomorrow, so at least it isn't sticking around.

I signed up for Jay Johnson's semi-personal coaching for my fall marathon. I'm so determined to feel good about my race this year.

Unless I can't count (which is entirely possible), marathon training starts up next week! It feels really early to be starting, but my training plan is 20 weeks long, so it makes sense.

The pooches have been joining me for some long walks lately. They love it. Scout doesn't know what to do if I stop to let them take a break and I end up tangled in leashes.

He's also super helpful when I try to stretch.

This is the floor of what will eventually be the hall/guest bathroom. We've kind of been ignoring it for a while.

I decided to pretend I know what I'm doing and made a little progress last weekend.

I ran out of thinset, and needed a break, so I didn't get it finished. Once we get all the little squares filled in it will be ready for tile!

Let's not talk about the fact that we also have the area around the tub/shower to tile, or the fact that we haven't even started on the master bathroom floor...

Have you used Thredup? I have bought a few things from them, and today I sent in my first "cleanup bag." It's basically an online consignment store. It got a bunch of clothes out of the house and may bring in a few dollars. Feels like winning to me!

New Sponges and Other (Not)Exciting Things

Today was one of those days where I was so productive I wonder what on earth I do with my time normally. It helps that I don't teach classes on Mondays right now, so I did have the entire day to get things done.

I spent some time in the morning putting together email lists for work stuff. I felt like I was back at my old life, entering blood donation records for the Red Cross. Type a bit, flip a paper over, type some more, click a few things. I don't miss that job. I also don't miss my basement cubicle life. I do miss working with Tiny and seeing her everyday though.

I tackled the dishes, which somehow ended up being almost all of the plates we have out (the kitchen is going to be gutted, so we still haven't unpacked) despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I washed them yesterday.

My reward was throwing out the old kitchen sponge for a shiny new one. Being an adult is lame sometimes.

Buddy and I went for a 3 mile run around the neighborhood. He went out way too fast and we had some serious positive splits going on. He had a blast though. I have built in running with Buddy days on my "not training for anything" training plan, so he will get out and about more often.

An added bonus of taking him running is that his nails aren't quite so lethal from running on the pavement. This is good because I can usually only get one nail clipped before he completely loses his mind and starts playing keep away.

When I got home I hit the mat for day 15 of my (self-imposed) 30 day yoga challenge. I don't want to speak too soon, but I have been enjoying taking a bit of time to slow down and do a little yoga. I'm definitely noticing some increased flexibility.

I'm not a fan of how early it gets dark now. Seriously, the sun is setting before 5 o clock! Not cool.

Don't forget to enter my hemp hearts giveaway! It takes a few seconds and you have seriously good odds of winning because apparently no one likes free stuff anymore.

Go With It

Friday morning I didn't have anywhere to be until noon, so I tackled the dishes that we (yet again) let pile up. Then I was struck by a super random urge to clean more things, so I decided to just go with it. These things don't happen often, so I try to take advantage when they do.

I cleaned the kitchen counter - I actually moved things and cleaned under them (I know, it's madness over here). Then I did some vacuuming and dusting and swept. From the amount of hair I swept up, you would think both buddy and I would be bald (for a short hair dog, Buddy sheds an impressive amount).

We had group nap time (the boys napped, I just relaxed with the pooch) in the afternoon. Buddy is the best lounging companion.

The Rivertown Runners (my weekend running buddies) had a brewery meet up Friday night, so Tom and I went and enjoyed some free beer. It's always funny to see people in non-running clothes. We don't always recognize each other!

This morning I was up bright and early to hit the trails. The weather was just about perfect, sunny and mid-50s. I did not feel like running when I woke up - my cold is really lingering and I had a headache - but about a mile or two in, I was so glad I went. It ended up being a really nice run!

We ran our usual 7 miles, my watch calling it 6.58 miles at a 9:10 pace.

Buddy hung out on the deck with me when I got home.

A nice run, coffee, and sunshine - an excellent start to the weekend!

Two for One

I meant to post last night, and then it didn't happen, so you get two days in one post - a great value! Speaking of great values, our grocery store keeps having buy ONE get TWO free english muffins. It's pretty exciting. I'm all stocked up :)

Monday:

I finally tackled the dishes that we have been ignoring for days. Dishes are my least favorite part of eating.

The order is eating - cooking - dishes, in case you were wondering.

Buddy is pretty excited that the snow is finally almost gone - there are so many new smells to smell!

 I did laundry and then I pulled everything out of my drawer of running stuff. It turns out that if I fold everything (and put away my heavy duty winter gear) it all actually fits in the drawer. It closes and everything!

So fancy!

Buddy tried to get me to nap in the afternoon, but I still can't nap. Any nap tips would be greatly appreciated.

Tuesday:

My run today was 4 easy miles with some Gilmore Girls. I came upstairs to find his highness in my spot on the couch.

Brat.

We're having some seriously strong wind gusts tonight - the power has flickered once so far and I keep hearing various sirens going off outside. Fingers crossed that it sticks around.

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.

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?

Random Tuesday Happenings

Today was kind of a blah day. Well, I was feeling blah anyway, I guess it's not the day's fault.

Some random cleaning feeling hit me this morning and I went through the snack cabinet. There were 4 granola bar boxes with a grand total of 3 granola bars between them. An excellent use of space. I also consolidated all my running fuel into one box.

These were basically all just taking up space:

It's not exactly what I would call organized, but since it was dangerous to open before, this is a vast improvement!

Then I shoveled the driveway, which sounds like a lot more work than it actually was. Normally I would have left it alone (there wasn't that much snow), but it was supposed to be in the upper 30s today and I wanted it to melt off before the next freeze/snow.

Is it spring yet?

Buddy the sun worshiper:

I ran an easy 5k on the treadmill while I watched part of Clueless. Pretty uneventful, which is a nice change from hurting myself!

I didn't take a picture, because I was busy shoveling it into my mouth, but dinner was super delicious! I took my favorite salad kit, added avocado (I haven't bought one in a while because I had a lot of disappointing ones) and chicken - bam! Dinner.

I'm super impressed that this picture turned out, because Buddy was trying to drag me away while I took it.

What's for dinner at your house? 

Do you have snow everywhere?

All I Want To Do

There was more house action today - two people came to see it! That means I spent some time this morning cleaning (our tile instantly gets dirty the second you finish cleaning it, it drives me crazy) and Buddy and I had some time to kill outside the house this afternoon.

I finished early but I didn't want to mess anything up, so I was laying on the floor. Buddy was confused.

We went to the Rockefeller Preserve to walk around for a bit. The trails were pretty well packed down, and some sections were plowed.

The lake is officially frozen.

When we got home I tried to jump back to my training plan, which maybe wasn't the smartest course of action. I was going to do a tempo run (6 miles including warm up and cool down), but I stopped after 2 miles, which was really frustrating - there may have been some ankle pain...maybe. I hate when my body won't do what I want it to.

All I want to do is on this shirt:

Is that so much to ask?

I've been stretching/foam rolling, and I iced my ankle after my run. Just to be annoying, it doesn't hurt at all right now. We'll see what it's doing tomorrow.

You know I'm going to try to run.

Babysitting, Cleaning House and Speedwork

Holy cow, I'm tired.

I got up at 6am and haven't stopped moving until now.

This morning was spent babysitting a sick baby/toddler (she's between ages, I think they've decided to call that age "wobblers" now). Most of the time she wanted me to carry her and the rest of the time she was either laying on me, napping, or playing with the remote.

I got home, took Buddy for a walk and wolfed down some oatmeal for lunch. While I was babysitting, someone called to make an appointment to come see the house. We are not as good as we should be about keeping the house clean between showings, so I had quite a bit of work to do.

Buddy hid from the vacuum and I got a nice stair workout in moving things upstairs and down to the basement.

Since it was dark by the time the people came to see the house (and I didn't feel like going anywhere), Buddy and I just walked around the yard (for almost 40 minutes) while we waited for them to get there/leave.

Buddy had a great time smelling everything and really wanted me to let him go chase something that was in the bushes.

Once we were back inside, it was finally time for me to hit the treadmill for some speedwork.

I ran a 1 mile warm up, 3x1 mile with 800m jogs, and a 1 mile cool down - 6 miles total. I did my first two miles at 8:13 and the last one at 8:06. Not a bad place to start this training cycle at!

I was so happy to get through my workout since last week's speedwork was aborted.

Now we're relaxing with some beer and tv. I have a feeling it's going to be an early night.

I'm Smart Like That

Hi! How's your Monday treating you?

Don't hate me, but I slept in. Not working makes it so you don't hate Mondays. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back on the Monday-hating bandwagon again soon.

It was sunny out today, so Buddy was busy following the sun around the house. Usually he lays down behind this curtain, but was confused since it was open today.

I feel like everyone updates their blogs on Monday, I had TONS to read this morning!

It took me forever to get moving today, but I finally hit the basement for a couple of miles.

I used my run as a warm-up and spent some time on Gigabody doing the Ballet Body workout again. It's a good mix of strength training and stretching, neither of which I normally do. I'm pretty much constantly saying I should do something other than run and then I just go running.

I'm smart like that.

How have I never tried a Quest bar before?

Tom got me a special holiday RunnerBox for Christmas, and there was a Quest bar in it. I have read several blogs that go on and on about how wonderful they are, but haven't ever tried them - until today.

This cookies and cream Quest bar might be the best protein bar ever. To the point where I may actually make a trip down to GNC to pick some up.

I was really sad when it was gone, and I was happy to see that it isn't full of strange chemicals and things. Apparently people also cook things with Quest bars. Seems like a lot of work when it's so delicious on its own.

In an effort to make the dog less stressed, we decided to run the self-clean function on the oven. Hopefully that will make the smoke alarm chill out - time will tell.

Have you had Quest bars before? Other favorite protein bars?