Running with Pixie Dust

1.  In keeping with the theme of learning something new every day... today I learned that I also have a problem with oyster crackers.  Weird, right?  Maybe someday I will realize that what I actually have a problem with is all food, anything even remotely edible... but today is not that day.  Today I merely have a problem with oyster crackers.  But not oysters, because those are disgusting.



2.  My Lululemon addiction keeps getting worse.  It's sick now, honestly, and I'm helping sub a bunch of meetings this week and just took a receptionist position at another meeting because I want to keep buying stuff.  I want this jacket so much that it physically hurts (especially the price - DON'T LOOK AT THE PRICE, you will weep openly).  I took these crops on my 10 mile run on Sunday and fell madly in love, and now need them in every color they were ever made in.  My behind has never looked so good.  Lululemon, what do you put in your pants?!  Is it magic?!!!


3.  I found this video randomly, watched it, and cried.  Is that silly?  If it is, don't tell me... I love it.

1.  I'm sick.  Not horribly sick, when laying on the couch is exhausting and it hurts to blink... just sick enough to be annoying.  So today I felt like working out, but was tired and achy, so I skipped it and ate potato chips and French onion dip instead.  My Cinderella dress is going to fit like a glove.

Tangent within a tangent: I wanted a picture to go along with this theme, and I typed "can't fit into dress" into Google.  The first image that came up was a spray painted "WORRIED" attached to a post written by a bride about how one of her bridesmaids didn't fit in her dress.  The seventh image (2-6 weren't so exciting) was of maternity wedding dresses.  Welp.  At least that won't be the reason my dress doesn't close!


2.  Before I got the plague though, I got in some good speed work yesterday.  I set out to run my own little 5K, and instead of doing my usual 3-1 intervals of running and walking (run for 3 minutes, walk for 1), I did 2-1 intervals and went all out on my two minutes of running.  Can you guess what happened?  Those of you guessing that I woke up this morning with seriously angry legs are correct... but if you guessed that I got a new (if unofficial) 5K PR, you are also correct!!!  I ran 3.1 miles in 33:25, which is 22 seconds faster than my latest official PR.  It's still not super speedy, but what was nice about it is that I still felt pretty good afterwards.  I wasn't trying for any specific pace during the running intervals, but I felt comfortable maintaining a pace around 8:30 or 9:00.  I couldn't maintain it for much longer than 2 minutes at a time, but it felt great to see that pace on my Garmin!  I actually ran at a 7:10 pace for a while!  And with this run, not only did I prove that I am getting faster, but I also have now run over 300 miles in 2011.  How awesome is that?!!


3.  One of my friends on Pinterest posts these incredibly ugly drawings:

I'm a space cadet - this is common knowledge, but sometimes it bears repeating.  Like when I realized today that I've had my official photos from the Denver Rock 'n Roll Half for a couple weeks now and still haven't posted them.  I did make one of them my new profile picture almost immediately, but then forgot about the rest of them.  So I thought I'd incorporate them into a couple tangents, because they are probably some of the most exciting pictures in my iPhoto right now.  Unless you count the picture of David posing in a pair of my sweatpants... but I'm relatively sure he'd kill me if I posted that.

1.  I'm very glad that photographers were there to capture two incredibly awkward moments of my race (one of which I was well aware of, the other I didn't realize was kind of awkward until I saw the picture).

2.  These three pictures might be my favorites, because they show my finish line progression.  Come along, kids!  Let's go on a journey to follow the red arrow!

David is weeping reading this.  Yes, this is an entire Triple Tangent Twednesday dedicated to cats.  I am an 80 year old cat lady stuck inside a 24 year old's body.  Help me.

1.  My parents and I often go to a trivia game at a nearby restaurant on Wednesday nights.  The game always follows the same basic format - it's a three part game, and in the last part, the final question is a "lightning round" question.  Usually, it consists of quick glances at several pictures in a row, all of the same category, and each team has to identify the picture.  For example, one particularly difficult lightning round consisted of 5 pictures of female singers, all from their high school yearbooks.  So you had to look at a picture of some 18 year old girl and try to figure out who she was.  I remember that one because I'm still bitter about not being able to identify Ke$ha.

1.  Tonight, David and I partied like it was 1999.

I found all of my P90X workouts again... they had fallen behind the television.  I have no idea why I didn't automatically think to look there.  I decided to put the strength workouts back into my rotation because I really haven't done regular strength training since I finished doing P90X the first time... which was last summer... which is unacceptable.  So I decided to start doing them again this week.  I also decided to start this half marathon training plan this week as well, in preparation for the Ralston Creek Half that I am still considering (really, it depends on how lethal the weather decides to be in February).

It's been a while since I actually remembered to write one of these bad boys... I'm excited :)

1.  I realized today that it's been over a month since my big half marathon debut.  I've done one run.  Yikes.  Also, I still haven't actually ordered the CD of the official race pictures... which is a complete shame because they snapped some really great pictures of me, including one when I was trying desperately to get my armwarmer off about 2 miles in because it was warming up and I am clearly PISSED.  So glad the photographer caught that moment.  So since I still have no official photos to show you... let's take a look at my favorite picture that my Pops took that I have not felt the need to share yet.  Get ready.  It's glamorous.


Is it lame that looking at these pictures makes me really hope that I wake up feeling good enough to go for a run tomorrow?  Taking Bonnie on a trail walk yesterday made me really want to run that trail again.  I miss it.  I need to pick another race to train for and get back on it.

2.  Speaking of things I need to get back on... my arms got tired today putting my hair into a ponytail.  Um.  I swear I did P90X.  Maybe it's time for some more strength training?

First of all, WELCOME NEW FOLLOWERS!  I can't even begin to explain how exciting it was to get so many comments and watch my list of followers grow today.  I was checking my email and punching David in the arm all day.  I'm sure he was thrilled.


For those of who you are new, I feel the need to explain this post a little bit.  Originally, I stole the idea of Triple Tangent Tuesday from this beautiful blogger, but I failed at blogging on Tuesdays.  Tuesdays were dead to me, apparently.  So I started doing the tangents on Wednesday and calling it Triple Tangent Twednesday.  The end!  Now it's 11:57, so most likely this will end up being a Triple Tangent Thursday, but... we do what we can.

1.  My pretty, shiny bribe to trick myself into tracking my food for a week WORKED, kids.  I tracked for a full seven days, every single day, and I didn't even use all of my weekly allowance!  I love bribery, works like a charm.  Dangle something lovely in front of me and I'm so much more likely to get off my chubby parts and get moving.  I now have my Tervis tumbler!

It's been a while since I had one of these!  Hooray for actually paying attention to what day it is!

I feel like this is going to come off as more of a confessional than a bunch of tangents...

1.  I had three dinners tonight.  I mean, kind of.  First, I had some Honey Baked Ham that I literally peeled off the bone and shoved into my face while standing over the kitchen sink.

I almost actually posted this on Tuesday, but I'm starting to think maybe it's good that it's Triple Tangent Twednesday.  Though, honestly, today I'm feeling a little bit more like this girl with her WTF Wednesday tradition.  Bitter is my new thing.

1.  I've been working on my housewife skills lately (David is simultaneously intrigued and freaked out right now) and pretending I can cook.  My parents and David and other people that blindly love me will tell me that I am a great cook, but here's the thing... I'm really good at cooking maybe 5 things.  And I mean it, those 5 things are delightfully delicious.  But people who can actually cook can cook lots of things.  And I'm learning that I'm not one of those people.  My meatballs?  Delectable.  My chicken fingers?  Fabulous.  The BBQ chicken burgers I made the other night?  Laughable.  Go, drool at those pictures, and then know that it's not going to happen.  And let's not even mention the macaroni salad that I made from a Weight Watchers recipe (normally a good source, really!) that was essentially inedible.  But last night, I made chili. Oh good Lord, that chili.  I started with a Weight Watchers recipe, and then got obsessive and Googled "how to make chili" and learned lots of chili secrets and ended up kind of making up my own recipe as I went along.  And you know what?  It was amazing.  If I could marry that chili, I would.




2.  Today I tried to clean my bedroom.  See, there's something I haven't told all of you... in fact, I haven't told lots of people.  My room is a disaster area.  I mean this.  I'd show you a picture, but that's too much.  And I say that having shown you many pictures of my sweaty, unwashed self.  You can ask David about it if you want, because once I made the horrible mistake of showing him and every time I remember that, I cry.  And I'm not being dramatic.  I can't watch any of the hoarding shows because I am afraid that I will understand them.


I just don't know how to part with things.  I mean, some stuff is easy, like random things that are broken, things that are clearly trash, clothing that I don't like anymore.  Some stuff is even fun, like clothing that I stopped fitting into 30 pounds ago.  But then there's everything else.  I don't actually consider myself a hoarder, because I rarely have the mentality of "But what if I need this later?!"  For me, it's a problem of being a sentimental sap.  Today, I was going through clothing and doing pretty well at weeding stuff out, until I got to the back of my closet where all of my sweatshirts are.  And I froze.  I may have broken out in a cold sweat.  Because hanging there are maybe 7 sweatshirts from high school.  How do I get rid of my high school sweatshirts?!  If I get rid of them, no one will know where I went to high school!  And yes, I have moments of logic, when I know that the best use of those sweatshirts is to keep someone warm, and they can't do that in the back of my closet.  But does it make it any easier to put the damn things into the giveaway bag?  Absolutely not.

3.  Um... I don't remember when I last washed my hair.  It might have been a week ago today.  It might have been a week ago yesterday.  It might have been a month ago.  This is the problem with not having a reason to leave the house.  But wait... I have a reason to leave the house tomorrow and will I wash my hair?  Um.  Maybe I'll just go for dreadlocks.