1. I’m getting a massage today and it seriously can’t come fast enough. I can’t even express how much I am looking forward to getting a massage and then coming home and having a glass of wine and painting my toes this color:
2. I don’t even think it’s possible that this week is already over. I have had a weird week. I’ve been insanely productive at work, in bed by 9:30 every night, and had really good workouts all week. What is happening here?! This morning I ran 3 minutes at a time, up from 2. Progress.
That’s what I’m saying.
3. I don’t have 3 things today. I just don’t. I don’t know how I am unable to come up with 3 meaningless tidbits of information, but my brain hurts from thinking about it too much.
How are you workouts going this week?
Do you get massages? My coworker convinced me that getting a membership would be life changing. She was right.
I know that a bunch of you do a “what I’m loving Wednesday” post.
I am all about finding the positivity in things. I love uplifting posts that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. And I like finding out new products that I should try and love just as much as everyone else.
However I don’t love everything. In fact, these things are absolutely driving me crazy.
I don’t love that it is 97 out with a heat index of 103, however it is FREEZING in my office.
Despite the fact that my skin wants to melt off if I step outside for longer than 3 seconds, we currently have a space heater on in our office. It’s been on every single day since we moved into the office. I look like a fool walking into work every day wearing jeans and donning a jacket. No one should have to wear jeans during the summer in Houston. And for the record, before anyone says that I live in Houston and should know it’s hot blah blah blah, it’s not the heat that bothers me. It’s that it’s so freaking cold in our office.
I don’t love Peanut Butter & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter.
I don’t like raisins. So why would I buy peanut butter that has raisins in it? I know, it makes no sense. I bought it because I am obsessed with cinnamon and with peanut butter and I was hoping that those two things would outweigh the raisins. I had no idea that it would come with a million and a half raisins in it.
Why am I bringing this up again, you ask? (Also, I just re-read that post, and I said almost word for word the same thing about the peanut butter, cinnamon, and raisins. If nothing else at least I am consistent). Because there is a jar of it sitting on my work desk. I tried to get myself to eat it by bringing it to work so I would have for a snack, but now I just pack a crapload of snacks so I won’t have to resort to that. #fail.
I don’t love the new season of True Blood.
I know Paula knows what I’m talking about. I have been a faithful True Blood watcher since the beginning. I tried my hardest to get involved in last season, but even then I wasn’t that enraptured with it. Then came this season.
WTF is going on!!
Aside from the fact that I will absolutely never turn down watching a show that harbors so many shirtless, good-looking men, I just can’t get into it. Considering Sean and I have been watching since the beginning, I feel like I am invested in the show and the characters. But it’s getting harder and harder for me to not gouge my eyes out during the hour that it’s on.
Except for this:
Are you kidding me!!! Gah, I die. I don’t even want to hear it if you don’t think he’s attractive, just keep that horrifying tidbit to yourself.
I don’t love that it took me TWO HOURS to get home from work yesterday.
On a bad day it takes me 45 minutes, mayyyybe an hour. Yesterday, however, there was a light out on Highway 6. I have to take Highway 6 all the way home. Anyone that lives in Houston knows what this means. It was the most brutal drive of my life. MY LIFE!! (not being overly dramatic, promisecrossmyheart.)
I came home in the WORST mood. Luckily I have a good husband who let me have a glass of wine and change the channel to watch an episode of What Not to Wear.
Then I yoga’d for 25 minutes and felt immensely better. Yoga + wine + girly TV = automatic mood booster.
And because I’m not going to make this post an entirely negative one, here is a a fantastic little yoga video on YouTube that everyone should do:
What are you not loving right now? I’d love to compare.
Also, any True Blood watchers out there? Thoughts?
So. I had a nice, snazzy little post written out once already today.
I managed to delete the entire thing when I was about 5 minutes away from publishing. This means I had already edited and everything and was basically giving it a final gloss-over before hitting “post to blog”.
!$%^&*
There is nothing that frustrates me more than the fact that I am an idiot and don’t periodically save documents in the middle of them. This is entirely my fault… ok and Live Writer’s… how I managed to delete an entire post from existence with no way to bring it back from the dead is just beyond me.
rant over.
You can thank Heidi for this post even existing because I just can’t say no to her.
Anyways. Yesterday was not a good day for me. I woke up in a fog, managed to crawl out of bed and do some things around the house, throw in a k-cup and then crawl back onto the couch until I absolutely had to leave for work.
I stayed in this funk all day yesterday. At work I was irritated and unmotivated, and I stayed this way right up until I threw myself onto the treadmill for 20 minutes. I don’t even think I came to until about minute 18 of my 20 minute jaunt. (by jaunt I mean walk, by the way).
This morning was a complete 180.
I woke up and forced myself out of bed and onto the treadmill to walk/run. I had coffee, checked emails, showered and put on adult clothes (a big step, I always wear t-shirts to work), and generally went through my morning quite happily.
I was productive at work, in a good mood, and have managed to cross the majority of the things I need to do off my to-do list.
So what is the point of this otherwise pointless post, I’m sure you’re wondering.
The only differing factor between yesterday and today was that I worked out in the morning.
I’ve been a longtime advocate of morning workouts and this is a prime example why. It is absolutely incredible to me how much of a difference breaking a sweat in the morning makes. I know everyone says that they can’t get up and workout in the mornings, and maybe you truly can’t because of time constraints, but if you can do it!
And if you need more reasons other than a phenomenal mood boost, try these:
- you start off the day already knocking off an item on your to-do list
- you jumpstart your metabolism
- you are more alert because you’ve already gotten your blood pumping
- it’s DONE.
Those are all really scientific reasons, promise.
Do you notice a difference when you work out in the mornings?
Don’t let yourself fall victim to the comparison trap, it’s a dangerous game to play and one that almost always results in failure.
It’s easy to start comparing yourself to other people, ESPECIALLY in the blog world where there’s always someone that’s doing more than you or is faster or stronger or whatever. Speaking firsthand, I know it can be demoralizing to feel like what you’re doing is inadequate when you read about how much more someone else is doing.
Anytime I start to feel like that I try to give myself a reality check. I am who I am and I have to do what’s right for me and no one else. It doesn’t matter if I don’t measure up to someone else because I’m always working to create a better version of myself.
Instead of comparing yourself, celebrate who YOU are. There’s only one of you. Make yourself count.
I’m a very sarcastic person by nature. I know you’re all probably shocked by this news.
The truth is, I’m thrilledat this point to be running any amount of time at all, be it 30 minutes of 2 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking, or 10 straight miles. This whole injury/recovery process has been a really humbling experience for me because I think at a certain point I started to take running for granted. I was naturally decent at it, and so I pushed and pushed and pushed… and fell apart.
I had pretty grand plans for this year in terms of running, and being injured has shelved every single one of them. It’s taken a lot of back and forth inside my brain, but ultimately I’m ok with that. Am I still going to mentally fall apart from time to time? Yeah, probably. I’m a pretty emotionally driven person. But overall I feel like being injured has taught me to really appreciate a lot of different aspects of my life.
Running 30 minutes of 2 minutes running, 1 minute walking soundslike a walk in the park. Even as I’m typing it I mentally am thinking how easy that little of running is. But honestly, it’s hard. Especially because I’m correcting my running form in the process. I’m sore in places that I’ve never been sore before from running. I’m out of breath after 10 minutes of run/walking. I’m sweating up a storm after 45 minutes… and only 20 of those minutes were spent running at a pace that is not usually a fast pace for me. And honestly, I couldn’t be happier.
On top of that, I can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am for all of y’alls support. It’s been incredibly moving, and I am filled with an amazing gratitude for the blog world and for all of you people out there that have offered words of inspiration, sent me encouraging emails, and tweeted me to congratulate me on finally getting to a point where I’m doing any running at all.
There’s no real point to this post, other than to say THANK YOU and to say that even if I’m not running marathons right now, I still love running. You guys are awesome.
1. Sean has been out of town since Monday and he’s finally back today. While I thoroughly enjoy any time I get to spend by myself (bring on the Wheel of Fortune and What Not to Wear!), I am more than ready to see this face:
look here we are laughing because we are both just so hilarious! this was not staged at all!
I am, however, going to be sad that I can’t have What Not to Wear marathons after work anymore. I’m trying to devise a plan where they will feature me on the show and overhaul my closet and tell me what to wear. It’s clear I need $5000 to spend on a new wardrobe.
2. WATCH OUT RUNNING WORLD. I am going to run for two minutes at a time tomorrow. I am practically breaking Olympic records right now. Kara Goucher ain’t got nothin’ on me.
BRING IT.
Oh wait, you can tell this is an old picture because I most definitely do not heel strike anymore. Even so, I was running with the elites then, and I am again now.
3. Two things. I should probably just make this four points, but I’m not going to. Dang, I think we’re up to three points for this one point right now. Oh well. You cannot tell me that this isn’t the sweetest little cat face you’ve ever seen.
I refuse to believe there are cuter cats out there than mine.
This picture has been making me laugh nonstop for four days straight now. I cannot look at it without laughing. And the longer I look at it, the harder I laugh.
I kinda laughed and then went to Google and sure enough, look what I found:
How very odd. There Sean and I are, in all our wedding glory. I suppose I should be happy that it is at least one of my favorite wedding pictures that shows up.
Speaking of, I then went and read Tara’s post where she used a different picture to illustrate hills. I can’t imagine why she didn’t use the one of Sean and I. I think it’s kind of rude. We clearly are the epitome of runner hills.
So now Tara and I are in a fight. Oh did I forget to mention that to you Tara? Well, we are. I’m mad that you didn’t include me in your blog post when a picture of me and Sean in our wedding attire so clearly demonstrates hill running.
Moving on.
SOMEONE may have taken a *teensy* break from strength-training. You know, because of the old knee and all… or maybe just because I’m lazy. I’m not sure which. Regardless, I decided yesterday to quit being a baby and just get it done.
I followed a workout that Melissa recently posted, with a few slight modifications so it ended up looking like this:
1. Holy crap I have clearly lost some strength. I knew this would happen but I think I’ve been blissfully in denial about it. After one round through I thought about shelving the workout and just going to lie on the couch, but I managed to talk myself into finishing.
2. I AM SO SORE. Every part of me is sore. When I stand, when I walk, when I sit. Lunges and squats are the devil.
3. I need some heavier weights. Even with losing some strength, I still need some heavier weights for certain exercises. Since I did this workout at home (minus the biking, that was a lunch workout) I had to stick with 8lbs because they’re the heaviest weights I have. Maybe I need to buy some more weights. Or just get myself to the weight section of the gym when I’m there.
So, the moral of this story: don’t slack off on weight training. You’ll be sorry if you do. Oh and use my picture when you want to illustrate hills. Obviously.
I need some more strength workouts, so if you have some please send them my way!
Since I’ve been injured you would be amazed at how many people have tried to tell me that it’s time that I give up running. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve heard that I should find something new to conquer, that I’ve already run a marathon and should move on to the next big thing, or that clearly my body is trying to tell me to stop.
Depending on the day my response toggles between frustrated and amused, because if they truly understood the passion that I feel for running they would never tell me it’s time to stop. I didn’t run a marathon to cross a goal off a list and move on, I ran a marathon because I wanted to run it. I don’t run because I hate the act of it but want to burn calories, I run because every step that I take – whether it’s good or bad – propels me forward and makes me a better person. And I don’t believe that my body is trying to tell me to stop, I believe my body is just telling me that I need to adjust and that soon enough I’ll be running again… faster, more effectively, and stronger.
I was lounging around the house trying to summon the will to go to the gym. I wrote out a nice little ladder swim workout, changed into my gear, and finally forced myself out the door. I was feeling a little under-enthused about working out, but it happens sometimes right? after all “you never regret a workout”. I figured after a couple laps I’d find my stride and everything would be good.
Well that never happened. I swam for a grand total of 10 minutes before getting out of the pool, changing into dry clothes, and leaving the gym. I don’t think I’ve ever cut a workout that short. I always can find the will to push myself for at least 20 minutes. Apparently swimming wasn’t in the cards today. In fact, I did a grand total of nothing after that other than laying in different positions on the couch reading until about 3pm this afternoon when I finally forced myself to start going through some stuff in our “office”. I have to use quotation marks for that because until last weekend you couldn’t even see the floor in there because we (ok, I) would just open the door and throw things in there. In fact, the only reason the floor is visible is because we wanted to have plenty of space available for people to crash if they needed a place to stay last weekend. I did end up walking for 20 minutes after doing some cleaning, but suffice it to say I’m – brace yourself – listening to my body and taking today off. Groundbreaking news, I know.
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On to father’s day. We actually celebrated last night by having my family over for dinner and some entertaining rounds of Scattergories and Scrabble. Roxie, we missed you guys!!
I got really lucky in the dad department.
My dad and I are a lot alike. We’re both passionate and stubborn, and sometimes that means that we clash on stuff. We both hate crowds but can still thrive in social situations, and we both love to have fun. We love wine, we love to laugh, and we are 100% committed to our families. We both get our feelings hurt kind of easily and can be pretty quick to react to things, but we also forgive easily and love hard.
My dad is one of my best friends. Get us together and we’ll talk for hours. My dad is my biggest supporter, has no issue giving it to me straight, and has done nothing but give me unconditional love and support. Especially at mile 18 of a marathon when I was starting to mentally fall apart.
So like I said, I scored big time in the dad department. I am beyond blessed.
I am in the midst of drinking an exceptionally good glass of wine right now, courtesy of my awesome in-laws. so Roxie, I know you’ll read this sooner or later, the wine y’all brought is GOOD.
1. work has been really busy for me lately. I don’t know how things sped up so quickly but they did, I feel like I’ve been fighting to stay afloat for the past 2 weeks. needless to say, I can’t even begin to comprehend that tomorrow is already friday but I am so glad that it is.
2. this guy drives me absolutely insane sometimes.
but I think he’s pretty cute, so I like to keep him around.
3. biking makes me feel pretty rad because I can bike a decent number of running miles in no time at all. for instance, on my lunch break today I biked 7.37 miles in 30 minutes. that would take me an hour to run. so even though it took me way less effort, I still think of them as running miles and I feel good about it. that thinking is flawed, isn’t it?
