How to Be A Runner in the Summer

The title of this post is totally irrelevant because I actually have no idea how to be a runner in the summer. I really don't. All I know is that this summer has been incredibly too hot for me to run. Thank goodness I'm not training for anything.

I've tried to keep up with running at least 2 times a week... but most of the time those runs have only been 1.5-2.5 miles.

So, I did the only logical thing: I signed up for a 4 mile race on Saturday (even though there's also a 5k on the same day. Apparently I like to torture...I mean challenge myself!) Because that makes sense. My weekly mileage has been averaging a measly 3-5 miles, so why not run 4 at once? BRILLIANT!

Or I may die. Whichever.

My only hope is that I made it through that brutal 10k back in June and it was humid as a sauna that day, too... so surely I can make it through 4 miles, right??

So yeah. I indeed did run 13.1 miles just a few short months ago, and I'm glad I blogged about it because if you had seen me on my run this morning, you probably wouldn't believe that I could run that far once upon a time. And I used to run 4 miles for speed work and I would do 8-11 mile long runs and 7 mile tempo runs like it was nothing... and now I am wondering if I can complete a 4 mile race, which by the way, is on a flat course (thank goodness!!!!).

Eh, whatever. I know I can do it. It will just probably suck a lot at the time and I may walk a lot and I definitely won't PR... oh wait, I actually will because I've never done a 4 mile race before! Sweet! I knew there was a reason I went with the 4 mile race instead of the 5K ;-)

Here's to hoping the weather gods have mercy on me and let the humidity take a day off on Saturday!! Send good thoughts.

*photo of my no-longer-calloused running feet :(

p.s. after reading some old posts about my half marathon training, i realized that i actually miss it. i never thought i could actually like, or MISS running. it's weird. i miss having to get up early to go run and having an ultimate goal. when i think back on my first half marathon, i still can't believe that i actually did it. i can't believe that i stuck with my training program even when it got hard, and that i met my goal. and i can't wait to do it again!!

smorgasbord

sometimes when there's nothing to cook for dinner we get out all the ingredients & leftovers from the fridge and have a smorgasbord of food for dinner instead and clean out the fridge in the process.

well, i'm cleaning out the fridge here on the blog with a few leftovers that haven't been posted about yet.

first of all, for everyone who was asking, this is the photo that ended up winning the jamaica photo contest:


and we're planning on taking our free trip in december and i'm hoping that the trip to the nice warm, tropical caribbean in the middle of winter will keep that freezing cold, wintery funk away.

(the photo was also used in their july newsletter.. pretty cool!)

in other news, now i'm going to tell you about the time i fell down and went boom.

i had a syncoptic episode on monday night for the first time in my life AKA i fainted. it was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. or at least that's happened to me this week. i've never experienced anything like it before. i took a shower after i got home from the gym and as i was getting out i started to feel dizzy (this happens to me somewhat frequently.. usually after i've been sitting or laying down for awhile and I get up too quickly) so i didn't think anything of it. and then apparently i blacked out for a moment and i don't remember anything until i hit the the shower door/floor like a ton of bricks! i got a pretty cool battle wound from it:


i have named him Gnarly.

so anyway. it hurt like H-E-double-hockey-sticks. it's mostly the huge bruise underneath that hurts though since i landed pretty much right on my shins. my other leg made it out unscathed except for a huge knot and bruise.

dr. josh took good care of me and cleaned it out with rubbing alcohol immediately even though i told him it was already clean since i was getting out of the shower. duh. then he put New Skin on it... which made me wince in pain and whine like a toddler.. he's a saint for putting up with me :-D

Gnarly made my 5:30am weight training the next morning a little difficult, but i made it through. and we also saw this on the side of the house on the way to the gym:


what the heck is that thing... besides freaky lookin'?!? josh named her Mothra.

and i just realized we have a weird tendency to name ev-er-y-thing.

moving on.

speaking of moving.


kristen moved back to tennessee this week, although this time it's a little more permanent, as she has gotten a big girl job there and isn't just moving for school this time! i was not-so-secretly rooting for her to get a job locally so I could have my best friend back, but i'm super excited for her especially since teaching jobs are so hard to come by lately. congrats, kristen.. but we will miss you! :O(

(i was gonna write a long sappy post about how we've been best friends since we were 15 and blah blah and when in the world did we get old enough to graduate from college have real jobs?! when we first met our biggest problems were our pimples & braces and how we were gonna pass calculus class. but anyway, i didn't -- but i love you kristen, even though we didn't get to hang out much this summer and you are moving back to tennessee. i'll keep a look out for a teaching job here for ya ;-))

oh, i forgot to tell you all what a handyman josh is.

i found this shelf at lowe's that i decided i liked so i snapped a picture of it on my phone and sent it to him to see if he liked it too. he said he did, but he said, "if that's what you like, i can make that!"

keep in mind, this was on like the wednesday before my birthday, which was on a friday. so, i didn't wanna burst his little macho man i-want-to-do-it-myself bubble, but i kind of wanted it done before my birthday party, which you know, was why i was waiting until the last minute to find something.

and he replied, "i could have it done by then!"

"could you have two of them done by then?"

well, he had 3 of them done by then...


3 homemade shelves. i love them! and they are even better quality than the ones from lowes :)

and as you can see i finally put a picture in my shadow box!


eventually we're gonna hang all of our shadow boxes on the wall above the shelves.

and other than that, we've just been enjoying the little things on these 100+ degrees days... like central air conditioning, ice cold water, and my baby boy..


who i get all to myself for the next few days since my mom is outta town!

hope everyone is stayin' cool!

Camp-In Sleepovers & 30th Birthdays

I told you it was birthday month!

My birthday week was immediately followed by Amylyn's (Josh's sister) birthday week and I don't know if she celebrated all week like I did (which she should have!) but I know she at least partied it up on Friday night and Saturday.

We watched her munchkins on Friday night. As in overnight.

After a popsicle-eating, helicopter-twirling, balloon-chasing evening, we built a fort on living room floor and watched Where The Wild Things Are -- which, by the way, is not exactly what I'd consider a great childrens' movie, although Gage and Morgan informed us they had already seen it anyway.





Since we didn't start the movie until 9:30, I expected the kiddos to fall asleep. But they didn't. So we watched the whole movie. Which was over after midnight. Which last time I checked was really late for me... let alone the 3 and 4 year olds.

Needless to say, morning came pretty fast, especially after a night of sleeping tossing and turning on the hardwood floor.

But it was fun!


The remnants of our fort... all 4 of us plus Kosmo slept under there. It was cozy. :)



In the morning, Gage and Morgan danced and played, while Unc made pancakes.



I love his pancake-flipping focused face with the tongue sticking out :-p


He caught it every time!


That afternoon it was party time and we celebrated Amy turning 30!







And Mo Mo ate all the bananas!



Seriously, I think she is turning into a little monkey! We started off with 6 bananas in the fruit basket and by the end of the day there were only 2 left.. good thing we got extra bananas this week!



I am loving that July has turned into a month of celebration... of freedom and birthdays and summer and life.

I wish the weather would cool down a little though so I could feel like a runner again. I am pretty sure that by the time it's actually decent enough to run outside again I'm going to have to start from scratch! Okay, not really, but seriously... I can only run about a half mile comfortably right now, and 2 miles seems to be my total limit. But don't worry, running friends, I haven't let it go completely and my next half marathon plan is in the works! So running posts and half marathon training will commence again soon... just wanted to throw that out there since I know some people read/started reading my blog waaay back in the day when I was training for a half marathon and pretended to be a runner ;-)

In the meantime, I am enjoying the last month of summer freedom! I can't wait for what's in store! It should be fun.

Happy Birthday, Amy! I hope it was fabulous! Enjoy your 30's! :)

24 before 25.

i had so much fun with my 23 things list that i wanted to do it again. so... here are 24 things i hope to accomplish before july 9, 2011 aka my 25th birthday! (whoa! hello, mid-twenties, where did you come from?!)

1. go sky diving.
2. graduate college.
   
3. go horseback riding... preferably on the beach.
4. go on a picnic.
5. dance with josh.
6. give blood. (maybe i'll get it done this time!)
   
7. get a birthday calendar and send family birthday cards.
8. run a half marathon in another state.
9. go on a girls trip with my mom (and cousin if possible!! and we should make it an annual thing... just saying :))
10. go to chicago (never been!)
    
11. go camping.
12. get the craft room set up... and use it!
13. make s'mores in the fireplace.
    
14. visit cousin at her house in argos.
    
15. run across 2nd street bridge.
16. go strawberry picking.
17. plant a garden...and not kill it.
    
18. see a play.
19. go salsa dancing with the gang on sunday.
20. keep up with my one race per month trend.
    
21. start a christmas tradition.
22. do more photo shoots for other people.
23. have a tennessee friends reunion.
24. read a novel.
    

hopefully i can get them all done! i have nearly a year this time, so maybe i can do a little better than a C average! :)

the ones i didn't do..

(this picture has nothing to do with my list... but i took it yesterday on the way home from josh's parents' house. we told kosmo to sit and apparently he thought in my purse would be a good place to do so....)

after four birthday celebrations, several people have asked me how i did on my 23 things list. several people that i didn't know read my blog, by the way. hello blog stalkers! welcome! feel free to come out of the woodwork and comment once in awhile. i promise i don't bite! :))

the verdict: i accomplished 17 of the 23 things. not bad i suppose.

i didn't...
give blood.
spend a day with my favoritest cousin before she got married.
run or plan a half marathon out of town.
print & organize 2009 & 2010 pictures.
start a 2010 scrapbook.
or get my nails done professionally.

in all fairness, i have excuses reasons for not completing all of these. and normally i probably wouldn't try to make excuses for things, but this is my blog so i can do what i want ;-) besides, i'm not making excuses, i just feel you guys deserve an explanation for why those things didn't get accomplished :) or something like that...

okay, i really have no excuse for not giving blood other than i just never got around to and that i was scared. i still plan on doing it though. some day...

my girls' day with cousin was planned, but it got snowed out.

we are still talking about tentative marathons & half marathons for this coming fall/winter, just haven't set anything in stone. plus it's kind of hard to think about running another half marathon when i can barely run 3 miles right now, it's just so hot and humid! but right now the major possibilities include: vegas (december), philly (september), and akron (september). personally i'm rooting for vegas because it gives me the most time to train for it and i just think it would be totally awesome since i've never been there, but we'll see....

as far as pictures and scrapbooking go... i go back and forth with wanting to scrapbook. it's time consuming and expensive, but it is fun and i think, worth it, once it's done. i think it will be easier to do once i get the craft room all set up and have everything in one place. and find a printing company that i am totally satisfied with. does anyone have any suggestions? i like to edit my photos, and while they look good to me on my computer, it seems like once i have them printed out they don't look as good.

aaaand last but not least, i was going to get my nails done on friday before my party but since i ended up having to work, the afternoon just kind of got away from me.

so that's that.

having this little list was fun! it helped me to be more intentional with my goals, even if they were mostly small and seemingly insignificant. and it was fun to cross things off and feel accomplished even if all i accomplished was going for a walk in the rain, trying a new recipe or taking pictures in a photo booth. (although i did cross off some major goals like running a half marathon and completing the triple crown!!! sometimes i still can't believe i did that. or that i want to do it again.)

and yes, i'll be back with a 24 things list. it's currently in the works :)

p.s. keep scrolling down if you missed the birthday post.

twenty-four.

My birthday was absolutely fabulous.

I have spent the past 4 days celebrating the fact that I'm now 24... and I didn't even know turning that age merited such a wonderful celebration, but I'm not complaining.. I have been left feeling filled to the brim with love and happiness. If it's any indication, I think 24 will be a wonderful year.


It started on Thursday. I met up with my mom after work to go shopping for the food and decorations for my party on Friday.... only to find out that we were actually going out for dinner with Josh. SURPRISE!

I thought it was a little suspicious when she packed a change of clothes and make-up for a trip to Wal-Mart, but hey, you never know who you may meet at Wal-....okay, no. Now you understand why it was suspicious.


We were originally going to hit up The Cheesecake Factory, mostly because it's right next to a mall that has a photo booth, and taking pictures in a photo booth is on my 23 things list... and time was running out!

Luckily we squeezed in #22 with only a day to spare and I didn't have to settle for our original jaunt in a photo booth... thank goodness!

(you can view a video of our photo booth experience here if you'd like... it kind of explains our faces in the last photo. a random little girl opened the curtain and tried to get in the booth with us just as it snapped the last picture!)

So after that we went to The CCF, but after a storm (that apparently only hit on that side of the river because I was unaware of the major power outages and trees down) their power was out so the wait was going to be awhile... so PF Changs it was! Oh, except their wait was even longer. So I remembered I had a gift card for Macaroni Grill, so that's where we went. Thanks for my birthday dinner, Adam! It was delicious! ;-)




Friday was my actual birthday. I ended up having to work, so #19 didn't get crossed off as planned, but that's okay... it'll happen one day.


I have to say, one of the coolest things happened on my birthday... Josh and I WON 1st place in the photo contest for the resort we stayed at in Jamaica!!!!! I couldn't believe we won... and ON MY BIRTHDAY. Pretty cool, right? First place wins 4 days, 3 nights free at any of the resorts in Jamaica (they have a few). Here are the photos we entered... not sure which one was actually the winner yet though but the consensus seems to be that it was probably the jumping photo.

That night I had some friends over for a little birthday cook out...















It was a perfect evening with hot dogs and hamburgers and a HUGE ice cream cake (that wouldn't fit in the freezer) and good friends and Wii playing and girl talk and pick-up lines courtesy of Ariel... I loved every minute of it. And THANK GOODNESS calories don't count on my birthday (week) because between all the celebrations we had ice cream cake, regular cake, cupcakes, and cheesecake brownies... and TONS of leftovers!

Saturday evening we ventured up to North Vernon for another little cook out at Aunt Kathy's house. We ate some delicious kabobs and then played bubbles with Gabrielle.

We also got to meet Brad & Merideth's new baby Asher.



He had the saddest little face when he cried, but I thought it was so cute!

AND we had cake with the most delicious cool-whip icing!



Thank you for inviting us up, Aunt Kathy! We had a great time!

Today we went over to Josh's parents' house to hang out with Gage.


We had fun coloring, playing with trucks, and doing puzzles. He picked out my birthday card and made me some of the famous cheesecake brownies! I've been hearing about them for almost a year now, so I was glad to finally get to try them... delicious! We tried to get Gage to tell us the secret recipe, but all we got out of him was that there was sugar, butter, and eggs in it.. not sure that those 3 ingredients mixed together would quite create delicious cheesecake brownies, but maybe?!

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate turning the monumentous age of 24 (I think I made up that word). I love you all.