Running with Pixie Dust

I thought the FIRST plan would be a nice second training plan for me because it still only requires three runs a week (which is really all I can handle without whining), but with the speedwork and longer tempo runs, I thought it would give me a nice challenge and hopefully improve my time!  So, with that in mind... 

1.  I did P90X Chest & Back on Monday.  It was really hard.

2.  I did my first official speedwork training on Tuesday.  It was really hard.

3.  I sat around and cried today because I was so sore and exhausted and destroyed by life.  It was still hard.

I wish I was joking about that third one.  I don't want to be the Debbie Downer blog, and I try not to get too personal around here... aside from talking about smashed boobs in sports bras because SOMEBODY HAS TO TALK ABOUT IT, PEOPLE!

Sorry, David.  The world has to know.

But I have to admit that part of the reason I haven't been blogging lately or responding to anyone's comments (I read them, I swear, I don't think I'm that cool) or commenting on anyone else's blogs is because it has been a hell of a week.  I really did sit on my couch and cry tonight - I'm deciding to blame hormones and Tangled because really, how do you watch the lantern scene and not cry?  But it was also because I've been having some personal nonsense going on.  I love a hard workout as much as the next masochist, but the speedwork on Tuesday stomped all over my pride and handed it to me on a silver platter.  Speedwork sucks.  And Bonnie was spayed yesterday (she's super thrilled with all of us right now), so after a brutal and demoralizing run, I got to pick up a 45 pound squirming and unhappy dog several times and get her in and out of the car.  Let me tell you what a blast that was when my entire upper body already hated me from P90X on Monday!  I woke up this morning and my left arm was throbbing and my elbow refused to straighten.  So I took today off.  Which I know is listening to my body and taking care of myself, but it unfortunately translated into "take the day off of exercise... and also, eat your feelings."  It didn't help that I hung out with a friend today, and it turned into helping her pick out a birthday card and present(s) for another friend of hers.  Apparently she didn't realize that since she didn't get me a birthday card or present, this would hurt my feelings.  Not sure how that oversight was made, but I didn't say anything because, really, what do you say?  "I'm sorry, I can't shop with you for someone else's birthday because I'm still waiting for my birthday present.  Love and kisses."  

I pretty much dissolved after that and ate half of the contents of my fridge, bawled my eyes out, watched Tangled and You've Got Mail, bawled some more, called David and cried to him that I don't have friends and never will have friends... and now here I am, telling the internet how sad and lonely I feel tonight and how good I am at eating those feelings instead of doing anything about it.

But that's that.  Today is over and tomorrow is not only a new day, but a new month, and I intend to get December off on the right foot.  Probably by wearing the fabulous new Lululemon jacket that I completely splurged on today.  WIN.

If you know me at all, you know that I actually seriously considered purchasing these just so I can have them in my drawer.

3.  Actually, I did splurge a little and bought the CW-X compression tights I was obsessing over.  But I got all twitterpated when I ordered them and told myself I wouldn't fit into the medium, so I ordered a large pair.  As if my ego wasn't big enough already... they're too big.  After I did an adequate happy dance, I realized I was super disappointed.  So now I'm trying to squeeze a trip to the local Road Runner Sports (by local I mean it's 25 miles away from my house) into my crazy day tomorrow, along with working two meetings and racing to the expo.  Which I am SO EXCITED FOR I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!

4.  I did have a minor panic attack when I first got the CW-X tights out of the package, though, because I realized that they didn't have a nice pocket for my phone.  God forbid I rely on the water and Cytomax stations they provide, because obviously I am hell bent on carrying my Camelbak and my handheld water bottle... which I hope isn't too obnoxious, but it's what I've gotten used to, and I don't want to change anything at the last minute.  But with my water bottle in my right hand, I don't want my phone in my left hand because I like having a free hand... THE AGONY!  Then I re-read all of Cely's posts where she was worrying about Chicago, and it made me feel better.  At least I'm not the only one who gets a little freaked.

5.  I've been slightly in denial all week about how fast the half was coming up, but I thought today I'd finally take a minute to look at what other people recommend eating the last couple of days before the race.  After reading a whole lot of articles, I decided I needed some more carbs.  So I did what any good health conscious runner would do: I went to Chipotle and got a massive burrito with some chocolate milk.

Bonnie was also interested - she felt pretty depleted after this morning's walk and wanted to replenish her glycogen stores.

6.  Not half related, but when I went to work yesterday afternoon, I felt like this:

And when I left, it was a whole lot more like this:

It wasn't a pretty day.

7.  I skipped Turbo Fire today.  And yesterday.  My excuse is that I need to take it easy before the half.  But really, I'm just burnt out on Turbo Fire and thrilled that running 13.1 miles gives me a great reason to slack off.

8.  They keep changing the forecast for Sunday.  A week ago, it was in the 50s and partly cloudy, otherwise known as perfect for running.  Then it was high 30s and snowing, and then mid-40s and raining.  Now it's back to 50s and partly cloudy.  If you're not doing anything Saturday night, please do me a favor and pray to the weather gods for no rain.

9.  I have already decided on my post-half-marathon dinner.  I will be having a two pound pizza from Beau Jo's.  It's designed to feed 2-3 people, so I'll probably need a side of breadsticks too.

Just looking at it makes me drool.

10.  I also have a feeling that some of this will be in order post-half...

Or maybe pre-half.  Like right now.

11.  Again, not half related... but I love Frasier.  Really.  God bless WE tv for having hours of it on at a time.

That will probably be my face when I cross the finish line.

12.  Two nights ago, I dreamt that it took me four hours to finish the half.  Last night, I dreamt that I finished in 2:30.  Even my subconscious is unsure about this whole thing.

13.  Of course, I also dreamt that I looked like Sofia Vergara, so... my brain is clearly delusional.

14.  Obviously I'm watching Frasier right this second.  They mentioned gummi bears.  Now all I want in the world is a delicious, sugary, gummi snack.

15.  My eye just started ticking.  Either I desperately need to get to sleep or see a doctor.  That's a delightful 15th thing, isn't it?

This is an addictive game.  So entertaining.  I had never heard of it before, but I am so glad I decided to go for it and just buy it.  If you are bored right now and have one or more people with you, go to Target. Buy this game.  Now.  Seriously.  I'm watching you.

Anywaaaaaaaay... the point is that I suck as a really-on-top-of-things blogger (I'm working on it, I swear!) and that if I tried to do a Triple Tangent Tuesday right now, it would be laughable, because all I really want to talk about is how my eyes feel like sandpaper and are begging for me to take my contacts out.  So I think I may officially move to Triple Tangent Twednesday because it seems like it works the best.  And I am planning on giving you all a GREAT BIG SURPRISE in tomorrow's TTT, so stay tuned, kids.

In the meantime, I shall give to you photo spam from the past week of my life.  Because it's about all I can handle before I rip my contacts out and drool on my pillow.  I'm a pretty girl.

Bonnie is a classy lady.

ANNIVERSARY DINNER!  More on this to come when I am awake.

I may drool on pillows and have sandpaper for eyes... but I must have something going for me to have landed this one.

Also, he wants you all to know he is winking.  You know, just in case you thought it was a tick or something.

The sticker blocks the full title: "A Pug's Life."  I laughed about it at the time, but clearly I need this book.

David: "Do you think they have to peddle their wares?"

Me: *laughing hysterically and probably snorting* (told you I was a pretty girl)

Yum.

Yeah.

Stay tuned for Triple Tangent Twednesday... because Tuesdays and I don't get along.

Someone forgot to tell Bonnie that collies are not water dogs.

After that, I got my act together and was productive for a while.  I got my flipchart done for my meeting on Friday because I'm going to be busy this week... DAVID GETS HERE TOMORROW NIGHT FOR A SIX DAY VISIT!  I'm super excited to see him again.  It's been far too long since we saw each other (nearly two months now), PLUS he's getting here in time for our two year anniversary together.  We're planning on going to the same place we had our first date to celebrate :)

Speaking of firsts, this is the first picture taken of us together.  I was still wearing heavy eye makeup and fake eyelashes from a show I was doing... but we have no excuse for the faces.

Which immediately turned into this...

Which immediately went in my mouth.

And such a glamorous and classy lady.  She clearly takes after me.

We celebrated by going on two long walks, including a trail walk where she got to bite all the plants her little dog imagination could think of!  She seemed pretty happy.  We also treated her to a little bit of vanilla soft serve from Dairy Queen... turns out you can order a "Pup Cup" from them specifically for pooches!  I love this.  Bonnie did not get to finish her Pup Cup because it was still a lot of ice cream for my girl.  She was not pleased when I took the cup away.  I can't blame her... I'd be pissed if someone took my ice cream away.

And speaking of Bonnie and food, here's a nice little treat for you - just a small glimpse into day-to-day life with the Bonster Monster.  I wish I could say that this was a one time incident, but really, this is a constant.  

Look who got in the shower today!  Hold the applause, please.

Lucky for her, she is still absurdly cute.

After that super adventure, I met my friend Ross for lunch.  Ross is an old friend... we've known each other since high school and yet, still don't hate each other.  This is a rarity, kids.  Unfortunately, Ross has the metabolism of a... well... a guy that's in shape.  Rude.  So he eats things and I get jealous and tell myself that I can eat them too.  This is how I ended up eating a lunch that was 53 PointsPlus values.  Since I get 29 PPV a day, that was perhaps not my greatest choice.  But 30 of those PPV were for possibly the greatest thing ever: a Black Forest milkshake.  Worth it.

Buuuuuut... when I got home and realized how many PPV I'd used on a single meal, I realized I couldn't keep putting off today's run.  So I sucked it up, got off the couch, and drove to the rec center to meet my dear friend, the treadmill (also known as Satan).  And like most of my runs, parts of it were great and felt wonderful, and parts of it felt like my legs were made of lead and I was going to die on that treadmill.  Because let's face it, kids, I don't care how much you love running... over an hour on the treadmill is too long.  I will be very excited to have people in my house again so that Bonnie has someone else to squeak at in the morning when I'm running on the trail.  And I'll be even more excited when it's September and I can run at a reasonable hour because it's not a million degrees outside!

The shins weren't completely thrilled with the run, especially because I'm still struggling to find the right shoe.  I bought five different pairs of shoes from the Road Runner sale, and right now, I think I'm only keeping one pair... the Asics Gel-DS Trainer 16s.  Which are performance shoes.  They are pretty great on tempo runs, but I tried them out today and it was just too long.  I need more cushion for long runs.  Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding what I need.  So I think a trip to the Boulder Running Company (fabulous local running store) is in order, where I will torture the poor salesperson by hogging the treadmill and trying on every pair of cushiony stability shoes they have.  In the meantime, there will be a whole lot of this happening.

Please keep all discussion of my paleness to a minimum.

And yes, I did put this through Instagram solely to make my legs look less ghostly.  Can you blame me?

There will also be lots of Advil, but I didn't really feel a need to take a picture of me popping pills.  Why I felt the need to take pictures of huge ice packs on my shins, I will never know.

But here's some nice evening walk pictures to balance it all out.  An hour of walking around and sniffing stuff and Bonnie still has energy.  I wish I could bottle that.  And hoard it.

Today's workouts:

Fire 45 EZ (almost didn't do it, SO GLAD I DID)

390 calories/44:35

Today was kind of a blah day.  Bonster Monster woke me up at about 5:45 am, which meant not enough sleep and grumpy grumpy Jessica.  Now, to be fair, it was the cutest wake-up call I've ever had... no whining, no barking, she just chewed on one of her toys (a crochet corn toy to be exact).  So all I heard were a few faint "squeaks."  I thought about rolling over and ignoring it, but I knew she needed to use her facilities, so out we went.  We walked for a little over 2 miles, and then came home.  And stayed home.  Except for a morning walk and an evening walk with Bon Bon, I haven't left my house all day.  I'm the coolest, I know.  Want to know something really lovely?  When I took her out for her after-dinner walk, I was strolling along and something occurred to me... I hadn't washed my face.  And come to think of it... I might not have brushed my teeth.  Quick, let's take a poll - who here remembers the last time they washed their hair?

Shocker... my hand is not raised.  BUT I know that I rinsed my hair and slathered it in conditioner on Friday to go to work so that it smelled nice and people would just think "Oh, she didn't have time to dry her hair."  That's something, right?  Right?

Okay, I swear I don't tell you these things just to make myself sound disgusting, though I'm sure I do a darn fine job of that.  The truth is, part of the reason I fell off the face of the blogging world is because I've been in a funk lately.  Now, yes, it is normal behavior for me to not wash my hair very often.  But I swear brushing my teeth comes standard.  It's been a really rough couple of weeks for me personally - work got very stressful and overwhelming, I've been feeling like I don't really have much of a social life (or friends, for that matter), and I was struggling to get the energy and motivation to work out, which is such a vicious cycle for me.  If I don't have motivation, I won't work out, but the best way for me to stay motivated is to keep working out.  Oh, and did I mention that I took a nasty fall on some stairs on Wednesday, gouged my shin, and had my first x-ray on Thursday morning because I thought I might have broken a bone?  That was fun.  I didn't break a bone, thank goodness, but I've got a lovely bruise going on.  I'll spare you a picture of a blue circle on my pale leg though.  You're welcome.

Whew.  So at the risk of sounding like pity, party of one... I've been pretty sad for a few days.  Not locked in my bedroom crying sad, I promise.  Though I did catch the last 10 minutes of a Hallmark movie about a man overcoming his Tourette's to become an award winning teacher and bawled like a baby.  Just kind of "I don't feel like getting ready because I'm not doing anything anyway" sad.  Pity, party of one sad.  Which is why things like this happened, regardless of the fact that I pretty much make minimum wage and only work for 8 hours a week.  And the macaroni salad... oh God, the macaroni salad.  And you can judge from the title of this post how much willpower I have had lately around whipped cream.

But I don't want to be the Debbie Downer, so I'm working on it.  It's funny... yesterday, in my 15 Thing Friday post, I wrote about the episode of The Golden Girls that I was watching and how silly it was to believe that positive thinking made positive things happen.  And here I am today, vowing to be more positive and to express more gratitude.  So instead of 15 Thing Saturday... I'm going to have a little gratitude this Saturday.  Here are a few things I am grateful for today:

1.  Weight Watchers, for helping me lose weight in the first place, and for always being a plan I can return to when I'm feeling lost or out of control with food.

2.  Hallmark channel, for giving me movies that make me cry, but somehow make me happy at the same time.

3.  The iPhone and Instagram for being the coolest things EVER.

4.  My mom, who is always supportive of me.

5.  David, who is always incredibly tolerant, even when I'm being difficult.

6.  Bonnie, who does adorable things like this that make my day.

7.  Long, slow walks in the evening with a very cute puppy that give me a chance to feel the breeze on my skin, to see the sun setting, and, if I'm lucky, to catch little moments of beauty like this.

Um.  Yeah.  It's been a tough week.