bridge

watching: iCarly
reading: Woman's World

I'm either turning into the jimmies or my mom, I can't decide. Two particularly sad observations: 1) I've seen this episode before; and 2) 5% of Woman's World's readership is men. (Seriously?)

So no bonus-make-up-for-February-at-the-last-minute run today, unless you count a few minutes on Wii Fit. Speaking of which, I beat my trainer (again!) at the push-up challenge (up to 50! oh yeah!).

Time to register for my new favorite 10K: The Cooper River Bridge Run! The cute husband and I enjoyed a lovely weekend in Charleston last year (see right), which included watching the Heels in the Final Four. I have this crazy feeling that part won't be happenin' this year (and not just because the race is a week earlier).

slacker

I dunno why I've been slack about blogging... maybe because I didn't have a great long run last weekend (and in fact cut the scheduled 19 miles short) and missed my midweek run (again).  Oh well.  Today's run (9.7 miles) was good, and I was thinking about an unscheduled run tomorrow just to get to my goal for this month of 75 miles.  We'll see if it happens.  I also have a good amount of work to do tomorrow, so no promises.

Anyway, I had a fun date night tonight... the cute husband and I had a yummy dinner and went to see a wonderful play at our favorite local theatre.  I think I mentioned earlier that I was excited about our half-season tickets and also about getting Wii Fit.  Both of those things have not disappointed.  Wii Fit is crazy fun and addictive.  I still need to get new running shoes (the other item on my list of fun things on the horizon)... I think the discomfort I had on the outside of my foot today may have been because my soles are too worn down.  Unfortunately, I spent my shoe money at Ulta today.  I told the cute husband that letting me go in there alone was like letting a 7-year-old go in a candy store alone.  But for some reason, he preferred to wait for me at Borders (and letting him go in a bookstore alone is about the same thing). 

Oh, very bad news... one of the Two Gomers (mentioned here as my favorite new podcast) got hit by a car while running (he's going to be okay, but their March marathon is off).  Very scary stuff, and as they pointed out, a good reminder to run with ID.  Which I'm totally going to start doing.  Really.

so you think you can krump

watching: The Buried Life #33: Compete in a Krump Contest
remembering (fondly): So You Think You Can Dance Krumper and season 6 winner

All I have to say is if 4 white boys from Canada can quickly learn how to Krump and not get booed offstage in a competition, surely I can run a marathon after months of (sorta) training. (They did have one of the best teachers imaginable, but still.)

And now back to my suburban reality: time to go log some minutes on Wii Fit so the jimmies or kitties don't get too far ahead of me.

Winter Olympics! Ohno!

watching: women's mogul skiing (2010 olympics)
elevating: my left foot

I had a good shorter-long run today (9.7 miles) with a somewhat gross surprise when I got home.  But you know, watching what these Olympic athletes go through (and not just Nodar Kumaritashvili) makes me almost want to not bitch about something as silly as a blood blister.  Almost.

I have a new favorite podcast.  It's only new to me.  It's hugely popular apparently.  And after listening to Episodes 18 and 19, I see why.  Last week on my miserable long run, I tried out 3 episodes of Running Stupid.  I don't know if it's just because I was having a bad run, but it wasn't doing it for me (and it wasn't the kazoo either; I actually didn't mind the kazoo and the Dean Karnazes reverence).  Anyway, the Two Gomers (my favorite new podcasters) are gearing up for ING right here in the ATL, which would have been my marathon choice, but it was just a little too soon when I was choosing a race and looking at training schedules.  They're funny and relevant, and I like the show format.  It's a lot better planned out than this blog ever thought about being.  So check it out if you haven't already.  (PS - I still love Steve Runner.  But the longer runs finally required me to branch out, which he's been trying to get me [and by me, I mean all 10 of his listeners] to do for years.)

Exciting things on the horizon:

1. First and foremost, the Valentine's plans with the cute husband (may his blog rest in peace):  we're supporting local theatre and going to see a fancy play.  We even bought half-season tickets, which I'm so excited about!  Now if we can only decide on which six plays to go see!
2. As soon as this stupid blister stops freaking me out, it's time to go get new running shoes.  The old ones have way too many miles on them, and I need to start breaking in the new ones before the marathon. Who knows, I may even branch out and try a different shoe.
3. I finally broke down and ordered Wii Fit!  I decided to channel some of my Guitar Hero O.C.D. into something that doesn't give me carpal tunnel. We'll see how that goes.

Celebration

So it's FINALLY the end of football season, and we're having a party. The cute husband is in the kitchen making chili; I'm baking my pie crust for sugar cream pie (Go Colts!). I'm going to try to locate some beignet (Go Saints!) mix at Cost Plus as soon as it opens. And mostly I'm wondering if I can sneak in a game of Guitar Hero during all the preparations.

I ran 17.37 miles yesterday, and honestly it sucked. It kept getting colder while I was running, so that I had "frostnip" in my hands by the time I finally got home. Oh well, only 3 more longer-long runs before the race, and hopefully it will warm up for those. My weight was way down this morning. It's possible that 22 ounces of water for 4 hours of activity was not enough. Also, we went to Taco Mac Friday night, and for some reason I had not one, but two beers. I'm really not very bright. I would never do that the night before a half-marathon. Why did I think it was a good idea the night before a 17-18 mile run?

Oh well, they were yummy. Rogue Chocolate Stout and Rogue Hazelnut Stout. But I really gotta drink more water.

Speaking of water, there was an incident yesterday involving Tony Randall and the laptop crashing to the floor along with a glass of water.  Luckily for Tony Randall, the laptop seems to have recovered.  But we're wondering how well he'll be able to behave himself during this party with food everywhere.  I don't see it going well.

Warning: Long Post Ahead

Past Runs...
Well, I missed Monday’s run (my excuse is it was the morning after my birthday and I was out late seeing Up in the Air), but I ran my usual weekday run this morning. I got freaked out before I got to the main road when a car slowed down next to me and then pulled into a church driveway right in front of me, completely blocking the driveway so that I had to run in the road to go around them. I think they just had to stop and do something and didn’t feel like turning around in the parking lot (this way they could just pull straight out), but still it really freaked me out in the semi-dark and on the not-very-busy road. I ran right on the middle line of the road when going past them… nowhere near grabbing distance of the car, just in case.  I need to start doing PSAs about how not to freak out runners when you're driving.  I wonder if that would just make it worse though.

Luckily, that experience was balanced when I ran by the jovial traffic cop who directs traffic into a car dealership during “rush hour.” He always gives me such a big smile when he says hi; I think it’s appreciation that someone else is out in the cold too.  It's the little things in life...

In case you were worried about how I'm doing on my schedule after being lazy with my cold... I didn’t do my long run from a week and a half ago until this past Friday. I did that in place of the shorter long run scheduled. The plan is to just skip that one and do my next longer long run this weekend (17-18 miles… boo!) to basically get back on track. 

Future Runs, Part I...
I may do a 5K at the end of the month... my schedule allows it, and I haven't tried to run faster than a crawl in forever.  Could be fun.  Anyone want to join me on the 27th?

Presents:

Speaking of my birthday (we kinda were in paragraph 1, really), the cute husband (who, you will notice, has not posted since last decade) did a good job on the birthday presents. One of his best qualities is he supports my running (on-again, off-again though it may be). So he got me a very cute (Carolina blue) Ironman watch and a cute (pictured) water bottle. And a book, but it’s not exactly exercise-related.

Past Eats:

I made another new chicken recipe on Saturday, which I LOVED, the jimmies were not such big fans of, and the cute husband conveniently avoided by being out birthday-shopping.  It was Chicken and Sweet Potatoes with Shallots, and that’s pretty much all it was. It was so easy, Real Simple even. But I like my food pretty basic, so that worked out. Mmm, in case you were wondering, I got my usual for my birthday dinner… the vegetable plate with Israeli couscous, steamed broccoli, roadkill zucchini (that’s probably not the official name), and acorn squash with some sort of ridiculously yummy maple butter or something on it. And of course the earlier-mentioned carrot cake, which the jimmies generously helped me eat.

Future Runs, Part II:
One last note… registration for Chicago on 10/10/10 opened up, and I have a couple of friends planning to run it. Would it be too crazy to sign up for a second marathon before I even make it through my first in April? On the plus side, it’s a lot flatter than Nashville, and I’d have a free place to stay as two of my BFFs are moving back there right around now (they're still looking for a place to live, and I've already invited myself to crash there - how do you like that?!).

Future Eats:
Super Bowl Party Sunday!  The cute husband will be making his famous chili.  As I'm the one with the sweet tooth, I'm thinking about making beignets, à la New Orleans, and Sugar Cream Pie, à la that team from Indiana.  I do love a theme.