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We're Taking The Plunge!

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

Good Morning everyone! I've been enjoying a pretty lazy Sunday so far. After getting up at 6:30 this morning to see my favorite Doc off to work, I shopped online did some intense internet research for an hour or so before taking the puppster on a brisk morning walk. This week went by a little slower than I was hoping but it was still pretty decent. I started Monday off right with an always enjoyable Happy Hour with my friend Olivia. We tried to go to one of our favorite HH spots, Panchito's at the Quarry, but left after one drinking when we realized the new owners had broken the cardinal rule of all that is Happy Hour - Don't fix it if it ain't broken. (And don't take away the half off appetizers.) So we popped over to Fleming's for their pretty crucial HH, 5 for $6 til 7. I enjoyed a delicious white cosmo, shared some crab cakes with Olivia... (yes, only $6...and yummy.) I also brought home this bad boy to Justin, who spent the entire night enjoying the peace of not having to answer "Does this shirt make my feet look fat?" or "Want to watch Nick & Jessica on DVD?" or "Does this cheese smell rotten?" waiting by the window to see my car drive in. (again, $6...except for some reason, his didn't come with those two pictured, plump, delicious, crispy, crunchy onion rings...it's a mystery I can't explain. Burp.) I also munched on some blue cheese stuffed olives courtesy of a bartender who overheard me creppily professing my love for them. Later on in the week, I was about to walk out the door and went into the bedroom to say goodbye to Miss Lily...only she was nowhere to be found. Oh wait..what's that over there? Behind the pillow... SURPRISE! How could I leave right then? She's too cute...and my HR Director wonders why I'm always late...you try leaving that adorable little fluff monster every day.

On Thursday night, after realizing, at 10pm, that I'd eaten 1 candy cane, three bites of a MooseMunch Caramel Bar (Thanks Mom...super delish!), 3 5 oreos, a brownie and some FroYo, I decided to give up sweets. It was a great theory at the time. So far, as of Sunday, I've only cheated once. I had about a tablespoon of No Sugar Added ice cream and a small teensy crumb of brownies. I'm okay with that. But I really need to chill out on the sugar. Now, I'll celebrate Cookie Friday (a la Tina) and not Cookie MTWTrF [btw, anyone else feel bad for Thursday, who gets the lame "Tr" abbreviation since Tuesday was a jerk and stole the uppercase T earlier in the week?] If I want sweets late at night, I'll have a cup of hot tea, some gum or a nectarine. Pray for me.

On Friday night, the unthinkable happened...something I'm terrified to admit as I know my mother will read this and immediately bury her head in her hands, cry and wonder where she went wrong in all those years of raising me. While making spaghetti, I made the gruesome discovery that I had indeed, run out of onions. Sweet potato? Check. Butternut Squash? Check. Yellow lid to Justin's nasty cheese in a can? Check. Onions? .... Hello? Onions? .... Bueller? No onions.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic. I did have red onions in the fridge but no white or yellow onions, two MAJOR staples in my pantry. I had to make do with the cebollas rojas (Your Spanish lesson for the day. You're welcome.) and I didn't notice too much of a difference in taste. But deep down, I knew. And I was ashamed.

I dealt with the shame the only way I knew how. Okay who are we kidding here...this is how I cook every night. And excuse the greaseball look I decided to rock in this picture. I'd just gotten back from the gym.

Yesterday I hung out with my friend Rachelle and her super cute son, Connor, while her husband, Corey, and Justin went to the Army All-American HS Football Game. We ended the night at the Lion & Rose Pub to watch the Jets/Bengals game.

And right now I'm enjoying breakfast

(Leftover egg white omelet from yesterday, d'anjou pear slices, FF cottage cheese and some toast with Polaner) with water and coffee (I obviously refuse to accept the fact that the holidays are over) while DVRed Giada plays in the background.
On the agenda for today...
- Fold the Kilimanjaro of a mountain of laundry that I've avoided all week
- Hit up the gym to lift back and run a few miles
- Take down the last remaining Christmas tree
- Go to Walgreen's to take advantage of this week's specials before they disappear. (My favorites? Free toothpaste & TheraFlu and cheapo Betty Crocker Warm Delights. <---not going to bode too well for my whole "No Sweets" thing.)
- Pay a visit to Justin who is on his first of a month long of Sunday calls. Gross.

Have a great day and a great week!

Are You F-Ing Serious?!?!

On The Wings of Love? Is that really the cheesetastic-ness that the Bachelor producers came up with?!?! Oh lordy...this season is gonna be good! I'm not going to do a recap because Tara at Jimmy Choos and Tennis Shoes does an amazing job so I won't even waste my time.

But I do already have my top three favorites...
Ali
Tenley
Elizabeth
And I really liked Ashley and thought she was cute until she came out like a moron in that stupid Flight Attendant get-up. I wonder how long it's going to take me to get sick of all the "pilot" references and cheesy connotations. It's gonna be a super dramatic season! Can't wait!

I Guess I'm Just A Sucker

I hate doing NY Resolutions because I know there's no way in hell the odds are strongly against my favor that I'll keep them. But I get suckered in every year. [Hence the reason I'm so familiar with my track record.] So here's what I've come up with this year...
- Blog (some) more - I really like blogging and I know family and friends enjoy hearing what I'm up to [Wow, I sound so pompous...but it's true so whatevs] but sometimes it's more of a pain. I'm a brat, I know. So I won't make any promises as to how often I will, but I promise to update more.

- Running - In 2009, I fell in love with running. Something I thought would never in a million years happen. This year I'm planning on doing 2 (mayyyybe 3!) half marathons, a 10K here or there and about a dozen 5Ks. I also set a running goal of 500 miles [a goal that will be pretty easy to attain, I think, with all the training runs.]

- Join the Junior League of San Antonio - I've made good friends here but I'd still like to have more...plus it will hopefully limit the days I stay on the couch all weekend long watching Lifetime Movie Network.

- Keep in touch better - I talk alllll day long at work so sometimes when I come home, I just want to be quiet. [I know, I can't believe I just said that either...] But I miss talking with my friends and keeping up with the action going on back home. I PROMISE to make [and keep!] more phone and skype dates.

- Refinish a few hideous pieces of furniture in my possession - If I can convince Justin that (a) know what I'm doing [which I don't, I'll just figure it out along the way, but don't tell him that], (b) the furniture won't end up pink, and (c) I won't get two hours into the project and get hooked on a Lifetime Movie Network flick and we end up with a half sanded, half painted piece of furniture on the living room floor for 4 months then I think he'll let me channel my inner Martha.

- Stop bitching about how hot it is here - If I also resolve to increase the consumption of Frozen Margaritas, I just may keep this one.

I also have the typical "save more money, be nicer to strangers" crap that everyone else usually has too. So maybe I'll update everyone on my progress or maybe I'll fail at Resolution #1 and not. We'll see!

7 Miles....

...here goes nothing!

SIX!!

I DID IT!!

And boy was it NOT.FUN.

I woke up at 6am this morning, grabbed a bowl of cereal and read a book for a little bit. It was still dark out and I'm a fraidy cat so I wanted to wait until the sky was a nice light blue before I headed out.

Finally, around 7:20am, I was dressed and ready to get the show on the road. I was not too pleased when I was greeted by a blast of humidity the moment I walked out the door. BLEH! I was sweating just making the walk to my starting point at the front of my complex!

I drove around to map out a few different route options last night (with Lily!) so I had a general idea where I was going. I've been using Map My Run to help plan my running routes so I wouldn't be running in circles trying to make the mileage. The part of town we live in actually has the name "Hills" in it and the area certainly lives up to its name, so I've found myself on a mapped out run going up about a 35 degree incline before. To avoid that from happening again, I map a run then drive it to check out the elevation. I don't completely avoid all hills but there are some areas more hilly than others. I've found a few flat areas that make the running a bit easier.

I decided to run with my water bottle today mainly because of the humidity. It isn't really an annoyance and I was glad I had it.

Overall, the run went decent. I was V.E.R.Y. S.L.O.W. I know I can run faster I think I'm just worried I'll exert all my energy in the beginning and not be able to finish the distance. That's what I'm most concerned with...finishing. And finishing without walking.

I did have to stop twice today. Once around Mile 2.9 and the second time around Mile 3.3ish. I had a TERRIBLE cramp under my right rib. I ran with it for about a mile, trying to rub it out before I finally had to stop. The same spot bugged me again less than .5 mile later. I don't know if it went away or my mind just ignored it because I didn't have to stop again. (BTW...I only stopped for about 30-45 seconds each time and I paused my workout so it didn't affect my time.)

There is one GIANT hill that you have to go up in order to get back to my apartment and it's in the last half mile. In all my other runs, I include it as part of my running route. After having run 5.5 miles, I wasn't too sure I would be able to get up that dang thing and I didn't want a stupid hill to be what stood in front of me and a 6 mile run. So when tracking my run last night, I decided I wouldn't turn around to come back until I was more than halfway done. That way, I would end right before the hill and walk home as my cool down. Well, I guess I either started to enjoy the run and didn't pay attention or I just didn't realize how far away I was because when I heard the little voice say "Congratulations! You have completed your goal of 6 miles." I was 2 miles away! YIKES!!

Pretty anti-climactic end to a run.

I'm not one to brag (okay, yes I am) but I guess you could say I ran 6 miles and walked 2 for a grand total of 8 miles logged by these feet!

I think I have yet to experience the "Runners High" everyone has talked about. My mom used to run all the time and she asked me, "Do you ever get the feeling that you can just keep on running forever?" "Um. NO." "Okay, you haven't experienced it [The Runner's High] yet!"

This run was TOUGH for me. I was panting and breathing heavily and praying for it to be over. At the end, I tried to sprint and go as fast as possible but my legs felt like spaghetti and I couldn't really go too much faster. It got me a little worried when I realized I have to run more than twice this for the race. I guess that's what training is for.

I like running around my neighborhood because it's convenient but I think for next week's 7 miles (OH MY LAWD HOW AM I GOING TO RUN 7 MILES?!?!?!?) I am going to try out one of the park trails in town. I ran a trail near my house last week and it was so pretty that I really found myself enjoying the run (and also found myself scared shitless and face-to-face with a deer...but hey I guess that's nature.)

I haven't loaded my Nike+ yet but I think my time was somewhere around 1:06ish minutes. Yeah a little slow, but I'm perfectly content with it.

Justin ran with me a couple weeks ago (actually, at one point he walked next to me just to prove a point at how slow I was...but in my defense he has super long legs and can walk really fast) and asked why I was going so slow...I told him I wasn't the least concerned with how fast I finished as long as I finished. And the good news is at least I know I'll run 13.1 miles in 5 hours or less...because that's all the time they give you!

See you next week when I add another mile to the mix!

Stupid Nike+

So...I may or may not have finished my 5 mile run on Monday thinking I was the fastest person ever. When I told Justin my super-speed time of 42:55, he said "Great job!" all while still looking a little unconvinced because, well, let's face it - Bea Arthur and I run pretty much at the same pace. (Yes, the dead Golden Girl.) I just thought he was jealous of me and brushed it off.

I was playing around the Nike+ forums yesterday when I read something about calibration. WHA? Supposedly, I was supposed to calibrate my Nike+ to run according to my stride. Yeah. Didn't do that. So, when using my sensor to run, I was actually running less than I thought. When that little voice would say "1 mile completed" it was more like "Not really 1 mile completed. But almost 1 mile completed. In like 2 minutes."

I was really bummed at first, thinking that my entire training had been a sham so far and I was pretty much back at Square 1. Then I realized that the only real long run I've had was 5 miles (but wasn't really 5), which felt awesome and I definitely could have gone farther. All of my other runs have been 3-4 mile runs that have actually been mapped out and I know the distance is correct.

Tonight was technically a night off but I wanted to get this bad boy in order before my long run this week. So I took my handy dandy Nike+ to a local high school track and ran around 4 times (I think it's actually the first time I've ever HONESTLY run a mile around a high school track...)to calibrate it to my running style and stride. I'm going to test it out tomorrow and see if it's still a lying biotch little off or if it's just right.

Which brings me to a question...

When I originally started my training schedule, I had the date of the race wrong. I actually started my 12-week training program 13 weeks before the race. The way the schedule goes now, starting two weeks ago, I run a long run every Saturday, each Saturday building up a mile. I started at 4, then 5 and it goes all the way up to 12 miles the Saturday before the race. Since I was a week off, I thought, "Hey! I can actually add one more week to my training and do 13 miles before the race! Then I'll KNOW I can do 13.1!" But now, since I had my slip-up with not really doing 5 miles this week (more like 4.1 UGH!) I have a decision to make.

Anyone who has ever lived with me or known me for a long time just shuddered, as making decisions isn't one of my fortes. For my run this weekend I can either:

a.) Repeat the 5 miler I "ran" last week and do the 6 miles I was supposed to run this Saturday next Saturday. This will mean I'll only get up to 12 miles before the race. I know this is how the training program is supposed to go, but I'm not so sure how confident I'll be going into a race having never run the distance before. I'm a little nervous about making the jump from 4.2 to 6 miles.
b.) Brush off last week's flub and go for the 6 miles anyway. Hey! It's just 1.8 miles farther than I actually ran! (Which, HOLY HELL IS A LOT FARTHER! come on, is that so bad?) This way, I'll be able to go 13 miles the week before the race.

Either way, I'll need LOTS of encouragement as I run my farthest distance to date this Saturday! This training thing is getting intense!