Where have I been?

I've missed my blogging, not gonna lie. I've also missed running but my motivation was gone. Literally it went kapoof! That seems to be a recurring theme with me. But who ever said running was easy?

Until the weekend. 

A while ago my mom got me a Nike attachment for my ipod shuffle and I finally decided to use it. On Saturday, I decided to just ease back into the whole running and ran for 3 miles at an easy pace. Then Sunday came and I thought, hey maybe I should go to the university track and see if I can bust out some 800s. Since, ya know, I'm all out of shape and all that turned out to be not so fun. 

Warm up: easy 400m

For my first 800, I was going at my casual, easy running pace until I remembered that this was supposed to be a fast workout and it was supposed to hurt. By the second 800, I was hurting. Third 800 I wanted to quit and go home. Fourth 800 I thought my lungs were giving out... 

Then I did an easy 400m cool down.

Oh yeah, I did 10 burpees in between each set. 

(total: 3 miles) 

Now to the other exciting part of my weekend. 

B went out of town to go to the Rangers game in Arlington, TX with his family. So, I invited two of my friends over and we drank wine (lots of it) and carved pumpkins for Halloween. 

And here is our final product (after emptying about 3.5 bottles of vino) 

Mine is the witch on the far right. I accidentally cut parts that I wasn't supposed to so it turned out to look like it is either playing the guitar or holding a ninja sword. 

Family Slideshow

It is my parents 15 wedding anniversary! Since my sister's wedding, my mom and step-dad have gotten into a slideshow making kick and made this video to celebrate and show how much our family has grown physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.

Featured is my mom, step-dad, sister, and two brothers - oh, and me of course! 

So, here it is, for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.
Oh, and that would be a picture of me trying to do tricks in beer pong- behind the back! Obviously I missed.

Last night I was super bored. B had a night class from 7 to 10 and the Jersey Shore wasn't going to be on for another three hours! So what did I do?

1. Internet shopped - really, I browsed since I'm always too broke to buy anything. (new fav. store is Asos.com and Topshop.com)

Who wants to buy me a pair of these boots  size 9.5? I know, I know, I've got some big feet.

2. Began my new book, "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson (who is getting a bunch of backlash for allegedly providing a bunch of inaccuracies in his books - I found this out after I bought it)

3. And lastly, decided enough was enough and laced up my running shoes and went for a run

My run consisted of an easy 50 minutes. Since it was getting dark I decided to keep my run around the campus area because they have much better lighting and also SPRINKLERS!!! I just love to run through some sprinklers, especially when they are humongous football field sized ones that drench you after one hit. It was pretty fun, not gonna lie, and it pretty much made my night. Its the little things, ya know?

I'm also pretty proud of myself because I cooked a fabulous dinner last night. It consisted of rice, vegetarian "meat" crumbles, and chickpeas stuffed bell peppers and oven "fried" okra.

It was all pretty simple to make. For the stuffed bell peppers, I cut them in half and then in a separate pan sauteed up some chopped garlic, threw in the morningstar "meat" crumbles, pre-made wild rice and a rinsed and drained can of chickpeas. I added salt, pepper, and a little cumin and then stuffed the pepper, topped it with shredded cheese and put in all in the oven at 400 degrees until I decided it was done enough. Easy.

As for the okra, I had no idea what to do with it all after B decided to buy a whole bag of it from the farmers market last Saturday. The only kind of okra I've ever eaten (and enjoyed) is fried okra and I wasn't about to make that!

So what I did was cut the okra into bite sized pieces, dip them in egg beaters and cover with gluten free bread crumbs. Then I salt and peppered them and throw those babies into the oven with the bell peppers until they looked crispy.

Dessert happened to be half of a vegan nut and chocolate chip cookie and some spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream that was stashed in the fridge from when B's parents came to visit. It was bliss.

Hump Day

I have no idea how it's Wednesday already. I literally had to check the calendar on my computer to make sure it really wasn't Tuesday. Oh wait, of course it's not Tuesday - I remembered I watched the new episode of Pretty Little Liars last night.

My alarm clock went off at 6:30 this morning. I didn't get out of bed until 7. I did, however, get in a short run this morning: 27 minutes at an easy pace.

Last night for the first time in a long loooong time, I went to yoga. The class was jam packed and I (lucky me) got stuck right by the door and all the windows. At first, I parked my mat nudged in between the corner of the room and some other lady until I was directed to move because the lady informed me, in her good ol' okie accent that, "honey, I'm gonna be hittin' ya with my arms if your gonna be so close to me".

There really was a lot of space but since I was already having kind of a rough day I moved for her... next to the door and windows where little kids and their parents walked by as I awkwardly attempted the cow pose without feeling violated and telling myself "no, they are not staring at your butt even though it is sticking into the air". That's one thing that I do hate about yoga, why have windows where passersby can watch and enjoy as you are attempting undoubtedly compromising positions? My favorite yoga class was through the university, which I can no longer attend now since I graduated, because the instructor would dim the lights enough to where you could see what was going on but still feel comfortable.

For breakfast this morning, I had veggie juice (cucumber, spinach, carrots, kohlrabi, and tomato) with an apple thrown in and a handful of blueberries for sweetness. Then, I added a scoop full of Superfood  for that extra boost. Superfood definitely makes the juice a little less appetizing but its not too bad once you get used to it.

The good and bad about having a mom who runs

My mom began running in her mid-thirties. Now, over twenty years later, she's still a running maniac.

What's nice about having a mom who runs? 
I can call her up any day and say "hey mom, what do you think I should run today?" and she'll know the exact workout that will kick my sorry butt into gear.

The bad? 
The fact that my mom kills me in workouts. I suppose this could be seen as both good and bad. Good because I get a good workout, bad because my mom is showing me up.

Example: I told her one day I was going on my long run, 13 miles. Afterwards, I texted her to let her know how I did and her response was that she did 14...

She's so funny. I love my mom. 

My mom on the left, sister in the middle, me on the right. We are wearing our Pakistani tunics for my sister's wedding rehearsal.

Don't be fooled, my sister is wearing heels and I'm in flip flops. I'm usually the tallest!

Anyways, the point of this is that my mom and I decided we would begin training for the Tulsa marathon this year and to start, we should run for one hour at a slow pace. Now, it's been awhile for me (like 3-4 months) since I've ran longer than 35 minutes - the heat here doesn't help, people! So, this morning I got up early to beat the heat and get this hour long run over with. Unfortunately, I only made it to 50 minutes. I'm clearly in no shape for marathons at the moment. Don't you worry, my mom ran her whole hour and informed me that we need to make it an hour and fifteen minute run next week. Here's to marathon training.

Wedding Weekend and the Juice Disaster

Last weekend my sister just happened to get married!

Yes that's me holding her 15 lb bouquet looking on happily as they share their first kiss as husband as wife! Isn't my sister beautiful???

(I will hopefully be able to add more pictures later on)

Basically it happened to be the best wedding I've ever been to. Not only was the place absolutely gorgeous, with real glass drinkwear (classy!) and highly attentive servers, the dj played some pretty amazing jams! Me and my entire family were dancing fools, especially my older brother who pulled out moves I'd never seen before! We partied until they kicked us out at 12:30 and we sent away my sis and new brother in law away in their limo with bubbles.

Oh yeah, I caught the bouquet as B looked on in shock and disbelief. My defense: I had had one too many shots of tequila, beer, wine, and champagne under my belt and I couldn't stand the thought of one of her not-so-deserving bridesmaids to get it. So there I was standing front in center as I swapped it out of the air. When I realized what I had done I attempted to pass it on to my little brothers girlfriend who refused to take it. So I'm stuck with it and I guess B is stuck with me! Luckily, as my mom said, there isn't a time frame on it :)

On another note, B and I have developed a new habit! We've been juicing up veggies every morning for the past 3 weeks. I've noticed a lot of changes with this. First of all, I no longer need coffee (!). For reals. I NEVER thought I would say this but I have successfully managed to wean myself off of caffeine. Now, it took a few days and I did have a couple of headaches but I have seriously not needed any type of pick me ups since I began drinking fresh veggie juice on a regular basis. Not only that, my appetite has decreased. I find that I no longer crave sweets or fattening foods like I used to. So, despite my mimosa, beer, champagne, and wine binge all weekend, I didn't gain a pound! You should have seen me when I stepped on that scale Monday morning shocked and in disbelief.

As for the taste of veggie juice, I love it. Er, most of it. This morning I decided to venture out and try new veggies. This led me to throw in a daikon radish into the mix which has caused my first veggie juice blunder. After I went through red kale, cucumber, tomato, carrots, celery and an apple I thought that a little radish won't hurt, right? WRONG! I drank the thing just because I didn't want wasted goodness but OMG it upset my stomach and left a horrible funky taste in my mouth for hours. That will be the last time I add radish to juice.

I know, I know, it has been ages since I last updated this thing.

Over the weekend it was B's and my birthday! Yep, we share the same b-day (July 23) except he is exactly 2 years older. The best parts about sharing a birthday with your bf? You get to share a birthday dinner with both of your family's all together. Also, the stress of making their day special is somewhat relieved because, hey, its your birthday, too!

The bad part about sharing your birthday with your bf? They get to drag you to In-N-Out Burger after driving 3 hours to visit said families and wait in line for a 45 min and you cant use the "I don't want to because its my b-day excuse". Oh well, it's not like I didn't enjoy devouring some delicious junk food.

For dinner Saturday night my fam (minus my little brother who couldn't make it because he was driving home from Maine) and Brent's fam (minus his little brother who couldn't make it because he was in France) met up in Plano, TX for some food, drinks and cake!

AND I GOT A NEW JUICER! My pics won't upload for some reason, but it is a Jack La Lanne Juicer Express. This morning after my short 30 min run I made some orange-celery-beet-carrot juice. YUM!

I should probably get a new title for my blog since I haven't exactly been running very many marathons lately, let alone running period.

The truth is, my adjustment to the new 9-5 work schedule hasn't meshed well with my previous go-to-class during the afternoons partnered with my part-time job which really didn't take up too much of my time. So, basically I used to workout a lot because it kept me from being bored! Now, I'm just so tired at the end of the day going on a run is really becoming pretty difficult - not to mention dealing with our triple digit heat. Thank you Oklahoma.

Look at me, I'm the queen of excuses.

To top it off my weekend was filled with greasy, fried food from Jack in the Box (gasp!!!) and Whataburger (the horror!!!). I mean, I had to cure my Fourth of July hangover somehow, nothin' like a potato egg and cheese taquito to do the trick! Of course Monday night I vowed to get back into the habit of my healthy old ways and treat my body with some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

So here is my "what I ate Wednesday"
For breakfast, I made some delicious veggie juice consisting of beets, celery, cucumber, carrots, ginger and an apple and a handful of blueberries for the sweetness factor. It was all good until I got to work and realized I'd forgotten my coffee! No worries, got my caffeine fix during lunch.

Then, B told me about this place down the street that sells these Herbalife shakes. Anyone heard of 'em? I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to so-called meal replacement shakes but decided to give it a try anyway (mostly because I was hungry). I'm still not convinced. I'm much more of a fan of organic supplements or eating the classic, real fruits and veggies to get my nutrients. The meat head guy that owned the place was definitely giving me a thorough sales pitch, though. Even shooting out words like "its got all the nutrients you need in a day for only 200 calories".

So, I realize Herbalife is probably not the best-for-you supplement out there but are there any that are more natural? I'm just wondering because it was sorta nice to drink a shake for lunch but I would rather have one with less additives and fillers. Any suggestions?

Party pics

I'm sorry but I came across this pic and I couldn't stop laughing. Please tell me it makes you laugh because I seriously snorted by myself in my cubicle. I wonder if it is because I have wanted to do this before?

Photos of my sisters bridal shower and bachelorette party:


My sister, my mom, and me. Remember when I was going to lose weight? Yeah, me too -oops.
I made those sashes though! Who would have thought I could be so crafty! Lizzie's says "bride-to-be" and my mom's says "mother of the bride"




Excited! I know my face is shiny and I look sweaty and gross but the truth is I was sweaty and gross. You try lugging bottles of water, liquor, beer, mixers, leis, decorations, cake, and sleeping bags up five floors - over and over again.




This would be our stretch blue hummer, driven by a wonderful man named Harold. We loved harold.




My favorite ice bucket. B's mom gave us this for the house awhile ago and it lights up in pretty colors. Hello beer!



More Health and Fitness News & Tips at Greatist.

I successfully completed another lunch time workout and this time I ran on the treadmill for 35 minutes at disappointingly slow pace. I just barely reached four miles. The funny thing about running is that if you don't keep at it consistently, it'll all just go out the window in a matter of a week. So, I'm back to building up my speed.

In other news, I'm stressed to the max about planning my sister's bachelorette party - did I mention it is TOMORROW? So, I got half of the day off from work in order to get down to McKinney early and finish up some things tonight with the help of my mom. Yes, she'll probably make me run with her and will definitely make me some delicious vegetable juice in the morning. Aren't moms great?

The bad news is that I'll be leaving my precious little schnoodle with B for the weekend. This dog is like my child and spending the weekend apart from him is going to be rough. Hopefully B will cuddle with him each night like I always do. 

Mellifluous

For those of you who don't know about stumbleupon.com , you should try it out. It's great for those moments where I'm bored, sitting at my desk and just want to cruise through the Internet looking up a random bits of information. Today, I came across a wonderful little site that listed the 100 most beautiful words in the English language.

That's where I found the word mellifluous- sweet sounding
I like it, I'm going to try to use it more often.

Speaking of words and writing and stuff, I found an old journal of mine last night and began reading through it. Apparently, back in '03 I had some serious boy problems, aka the classical conundrum of a boy that I liked not liking me. That and I liked to complain about the most petty things. I may have to burn that little journal of mine, I was embarressed for my 16 year olds self. If it ever ended up in the wrong hands, its definitely viable material for blackmail.

During lunch today B and I went to the YMCA to workout again. We are totally on a roll now! It's just too bad we went to Qdoba afterwards and downed a 700 calorie meal without even flinching. I even went without the tortilla! How is it still possible to be so bad for you, then? They must use some kind of ninja secret to make you believe you're eating healthy when really its just a little less than half your days worth of food. Should I have known that this was a bad choice? I suppose so. It was mighty tasty, though.

It was basically a short and sweet workout. I got on the elliptical for 15 minutes, got bored and hopped on the treadmill and ran for another 2 miles. It got my heart rate up and I sweated through my shirt so I was satisfied. Maybe if I'm really motivated I'll go on a longer run this evening.

My mom can outrun your mom

I've noticed that my little blog here has kinda gone off track. How'd I go from running to talking about my sister's bachelorette party? Oh yeah, its because I haven't been running recently. :(

Well I'm here to tell you that I'm on day 3 of getting back into the ol' routine. I have a new membership at the local ymca (because it has an awesome scholarship program that actually fits with my AmeriCorps budget) and I have reached the conclusion that I can no longer use the temperature outside (which is in the high 90s!!!) as an excuse. Heck, back in high school, we were running at 2 in the afternoon during the peak hours of heat in August.

It also hurt my competitive spirit to be shown up by my own mom when I was visiting over the weekend. That lady can run more and do more push ups than me and shes my mom! I can only hope to be in as great of shape as her when I'm her age. Must. stop. drinking. beer.

Bachelorette Party Planning

For those of you who don't know, I'm the maid of honor in my sisters wedding. A fun fact about me is that I really lack in the planning department. Liz, if you read this, its all good. Don't panic!

 I used to be a big "go-with-the-flow" kind of girl. As in, go to France for a month without having enough money, not packing weather appropriate clothing (I didn't even think to see what the weather would be like. Did you know its pretty cold and rainy during the month of June in Vichy?), and having no idea of what I was going to do there (besides attending class). The good news is that I feel that I can be pretty resourceful when confronted with condundrums that erupt due to lack of planning. Either that or I just have some amazing and loving parents who were wiilling to wire me money when in desperation.

What I'm trying to says is that the old, no-planning Erica is making an attempt to plan things, starting with my sisters bachelorette party!

I'm beginning to realize that it takes a lot of work. Wish I could tell you all about it but just in case my sister reads this I want it to be a suprise.

This is how my day has been going...



Gettin' down on Friday!

Hooray for today being Friday of a three day weekend!!!

We've been out of coffee for the Keurig for two days now, so I've been having to make a detour by Starbucks on my way to work to indulge in the goodness of a grande triple non fat latte (say that five times fast!). Now that the caffiene has been running throughout my bloodstream I am way too ready for the weekend at 10:00 am.

Here's what's been going on in my life:

1. Yesterday I got off work and decided to go on a run at 5pm. BAD IDEA. For all of those who have allergies out there, I hope you can sympathize with me. I feel like, as I've gotten older, my allergies have gotten worse. In high school I was prescribed an inhaler to help me out with running but since I no longer run competitively, I haven't really kept up with it. So for my workout yesterday I went for a 30 min run but had to stop a little in between to catch my breath. UGH!

2. After my run B made some delicious turkey burgers topped with some brie cheese (delish), greens, and mustard.

3. After we ate, we double dated with by good friend and her boyfriend to the movies to watch Hangover Part II. There were several parts in that movie that I could have gone without seeing, but I knew what I was in for from seeing the first one. I did enjoy the giant tub of movie theater popcorn, large diet pepsi and bag of sour punch straws...

4. Then, being the grandma that I am, I passed out at the late hour of 10:00 pm.

It was a good night.

I was going to try to wake up early this morning to run before the heat and the wind was out, but I'm pretty sure my alarm was going off for a full 20 min. before I noticed. It's supposed to be close to 90 degress out today and I'm not looking forward to it.

Tornado!!!!

Today I got to leave work at 3 because the center closed down due to the tornado threats... and I spent the next 2 hours with my eyes glued to the news.

We all know that Oklahoma is recognized as having tornadoes so let me ask you this, why doesn't every house have a basement? Only the wayyyy older houses have basements here and while my house is definitely not new, I do not have a basement.

When it got to be the point where it seemed like Norman (the town in which I live) was for sure going to get some tornadic weather, B and I hightailed it to the basement in a home of a wonderful lady that I work with and her family. Then another girl that I work with and her husband joined with their dog. Of course B and I brought Jackson and Sampson and along with the family's dog, it was a mad house!

All is good now and the dogs are sleeping safe and sound, but that was pretty rough!

In case you are not from around these parts, here's a video of what was supposed to be going directly through where I live. It's a miracle it stopped just in time!

Stress

Sometimes when I begin to think about where I will be in a year, I freak out. I'm 23 (almost 24) and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Law school? Grad school? Job search? Move out of state? Move out of the country??? Let the anxiety ensue.

Poor B, is all I can say. With thoughts of imminent failure looming in my future I threw myself into spaztic cleaning mode when I got home from work. I vacuumed, mopped, folded laundry, put up the dishes and made the bed. But the tightening, choking feeling in my chest just wouldn't let me be.

So I downloaded the new Lady Gaga CD on Itunes and threw on my running shoes and ran.

Simply got outside and flushed out all the stress.

Be prepared for my deep thought...

It was getting dark while I ran and the trees were arched over the sidewalk making it seem like a tunnel. I knew that this was the last stretch of my run and that my house was less than a mile away but I couldn't see an end in this tree tunnel, it looked like it went on forever. I feel like this is where I am in my life. I'm running without the end in sight, even though I know there is an end somewhere. I just have to keep going, no matter how tired I am.

Now time to shower and go to bed to dream lovely dreams. GOOD night!

There are a lot of things that I don't understand and death is one of them.

As I was walking into work this morning I recieved a text from my mom that just said "call'. I knew this was a bad sign and my heart sank. I thought it would be more bad news about my great aunt. I had found out yesterday that they put her on life support and I was going to drive to see her tomorrow in the hospital.

I was relieved to find out that she had actually been showing signs of improvement but my whole heart dropped when she told me that my little brothers close friend, Hance, died in a car wreck last night by a drunk driver.

A year and four months ago I lost my best friend in a car wreck and am still working on moving forward.
  this is an older photo of us


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So, I'm just going to talk about what's on my mind right now
There are many reasons why I run, I even made a post about it not too long ago but I'm just now realizing I had forgotten to include one of the most important reasons- I run because it helps me feel "normal" when I am affected by difficult situations out of my control.

There's something about the process of just putting one foot in front of the other and letting your body take over that reminds me that I have to keep moving forward - even when I just want everything to stop. It has helped me to start healing but will never be able to take away the lonliness and pain of losing a friend.

I'm heartbroken to know that families have to feel the pain of losing a brother, son, daughter, or sister.

And for anyone that has lost someone they loved.
My thoughts and prayers go to Hance Henrie's family.

Cinco de Mayo

I was a french minor in college and still regret not taking Spanish.

There are several reasons why but here's just a few:

1. You can easily find someone to practice Spanish with here in Oklahoma
2. I LOVE Mexican food
3. I LOVE Mexican beer (Pacifico, Modelo, Dos XX)
4. Mexico has some amazing beaches I hope to visit one day
5. Tequila!!!
6. I could have had a lot more job prospects had I been able to speak Spanish
7. France is so expensive and thus more difficult to travel to
8. It's Cinco de Mayo and it would make it that much cooler if I knew the language

I wish I could think of two more reasons... oh well

So to celebrate this holiday- I've heard isn't even a big deal in Mexico (correct me if I'm wrong)- I went to lunch at Ted's and enjoyed a bowl of chicken tortilla soup and a chicken soft taco with atomic salsa. Since I was having to go back to work I put the cervesa on hold until later tonight. Maybe it will be a post yoga treat.

A full week of being sick...

It's been a full week since I've been feeling like crap. During that week so many fun events were going on here in Norman that I feel like I had to miss out on. First of all, Norman had the Norman Music Festival which is basically a free 3 day music fest with bands I've never heard of but yet very entertaining. I did drag myself out for a bit Friday and Saturday night but was home super early both nights. I've solidified my grandma status with my friends with that one. Second of all I missed the OKC memorial marathon!!! UGHHHHH

In case you haven't read my past post, I was planning on running the half marathon, not the full and the night before the it was to take place I went to bed at 9:30 telling myself that I will wake up at 5am and if I'm magically feeling better then I will. Nope, didn't happen. I do feel that I made the right decision though to not run because the weather that day was miserable. Not only did the temperature drop to about 40 degrees, it rained the entire time... even hailed at one point. I wanted to see my best friend (since 7th grade!!!)  finish the half though so I drove down to OKC with an armful of dry clothes (I figured she would want some to warm up in after she finished) and searched through the throngs of people exiting the finishers corral. Because we have that best friend sixth sense I actually found her! There were about 25,000 registrants for this race and I waited smashed in between others looking for their runners and there she was. Seriously, its a pretty cool power.

As sad as I was not to have completed the half with my bestie I went home feeling even worse from being out in the rain for that short period of time and slept for the rest of the day snuggled up with my dogs and B.

Today, I feel almost completely better. Since I hadn't worked out in about a week from being sick I dragged myself to spin class after work and then took the dogs on a walk.

Allergy season, I hate you.

Allergy Season

It never fails. Every year, when all the flowers begin to bloom and the grass begins to grow, everything becomes so beautiful and happy and then comes that pesky cold which then becomes a sinus infection. It also happens during the fall for me, too. So count on it. Each year I will have at least 2 sinus infections.

I will say that I tried out something new yesterday in my attempt to take a more natural route in combating this, the Neti Pot.

Let me tell you sinus sufferers out there, it works great! Usually at this point I'm so stopped up in the head that I can't even talk without people wondering what I'm saying through my nasal congested voice. While I still have a nasal drip (ew) causing me to have a very soar throat, at least I can breathe somewhat out of my nose.

I also tried out a local botanical company's concoction made up of a highly concentrated mixture of garlic, habanaro peppers, onions, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and horseradish root. You can look at it here. Lastly, I consumed hot green tea constantly throughout the day as well as downing about 2 bottles of water mixed with Emergen-C. Then I went to bed hoping I would wake up rejuvenated and healthy...

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning still feeling miserable. Not too much worse, but still miserable. Normally I would have tried to fight out the symptoms with my "natural remedies" for a bit longer but with the OKC half coming up in just 2 days I gave in, called in sick to work and went to the doctor to get some antibiotics.

So here I am, home for the day and completely bored. Can't run, can't workout and the only thing that's on TV is the "Royal Wedding". I won't lie, I've been watching some of it since I've been up since 5:45 (I actually did show up to work today but at the advisement of my co-workers who were going to be spending at least 3 hours in the car with me, possibly not wanting to get sick, told me to go back home). So, yes, out of curiosity and possibly a hint of jealousy since I'm not becoming a duchess (remind me to complain to B for not being a prince) I checked out Kate's wedding dress and watched them do their 2 second kiss on the balcony. I won't comment anymore on it, except to say that they could have at least given that crowd a show! I mean, come on! A peck on the lips right after you are married? Boo. I'm obviously much more suitable to be marrying a prince.


 Anyways, here's to hoping I feel well enough by Sunday morning to run the half marathon!

Early run!

I finally got up early this morning to run! I have been making this attempt for the last 6 business days but without success because of my undeniable snooze button. On top of that, it felt great! The weather was crisp and cool and there was absolutely no wind. Not the typical weather for the end of March, here in Oklahoma! It was about time for me to get in a good run, too. The OKC Memorial Marathon is this Sunday but I'm only going to do the half since I've slacked off so much. It's going to suck when I reach the point where the half marathoners break from the full marathoners. I always enjoyed that point in the marathon because it made me feel way more hardcore than those poor halfers.

Unfortunately, I just found out that tomorrow I will have to be at work an hour earlier than usual and since I already go to work each morning at 8:30 I think I will reserve time for an afternoon run. Hopefully after the half marathon on Sunday my motivation will be back were it was when I started this blog because my last few posts have been rather lame.

Denver

It has been so long since I've posted and I feel like so many things have happened. I went to Denver for my PSO and met a bunch of really awesome people and even got to check out the town a bit. I also discovered how difficult it is to run in such a high altitude. I woke up early one morning to get in a run on the treadmill since it was snowing outside (in March? What?) and could barely make out a ten minute mile. I was so out of breath I thought I had lost function of one of my lungs. To be quite honest, that really made me not want to run very much on this trip and since I've been home I've only ran once so I'm now thinking of just doing the OKC Memorial half marathon. Boo.

Government Shutdown Scare

Yes, I had a freak out moment this weekend and here's why.

Everything started out lovely last Friday. I woke up, ran a few errands and waited patiently for the mail to come because I am anxiously awaiting my tax refund. The mail came, but not my tax refund, which is much needed right now, and so my mood went a little sour after that. I put it behind me though and made my way from Norman, OK to Dallas to see my lovely family for my mom's b-day.

And yes, I gave myself a mini photo session because I was bored sitting in traffic on good ol' I-35.

Of course I had little Sampson with me.



When I finally made it home I checked my e-mail to find out that my AmeriCorps pre-service orientation -- the one that I had just blogged about would be canceled if the government was shut down and rescheduled to a later date. So yes, I panicked. I have been waiting two months to start this job and could not possibly wait any longer. How relieved was I to learn that the a decision was reached and the government wouldn't shut down? You have no idea. Let me tell you what, I stress ate to the max. It was bad.


So, tomorrow I leave for Denver and I could not be more excited. Now I just need that check to come in the mail.

Jobs and Life Plans

I feel like I've been on one gigantic summer vacation except all alone!

It's been pretty boring to say the least but I gotta say I have really bonded with the dogs. We hang out all day together, going on walks, hanging in the backyard, laying around in bed... we've even developed a pretty strong sense of communication. But luckily for them and for me my vacation is almost over! Tuesday morning B is dropping me off at the airport for my 4 days of pre service training in Denver and then I get to start my job. FINALLY!

I know my life sounds completely lame right now because it definitely feels lame to me. I guess I just have to remember to be patient. Patience is something I am not gifted with. As soon as I graduated I expected to land an amazing job dealing with foreign affairs and traveling the word. Ha! Yeah right! With no experience except for my college degree in international studies, I found out my "dream job" was a little out of reach. And then I looked at my actual job, as a waitress, and thought about how much I hated it, how every time I stepped into that door and saw the crusty old owner I wanted to turn around and break for it. It was my desperate need to quit that place that put me into job search overhaul and made every rejection letter debilitating.

So, I went completely haywire. I started re-evaluating my life plan. I thought that maybe I should go back to school for nursing or something health related because I would have no problem finding a job then! Or even becoming a teacher because I have plenty of friends who have gotten jobs at that! I even almost accepted an offer in telecommunications software sales. Say wha? It took a lot of convincing from friends and B to tell me to chill out, that I just needed to wait a little longer and work a little harder to get where I really want to be. It's probably a benefit to the rest of the world because I would honestly make a horrible nurse and an even more horrible teacher. I decided I need to look at things as rungs (are they called rungs?) on a ladder and take small steps towards the direction I want to go. This is where I am now. I would say I'm on the second rung with the AmeriCorps job because completing my degree would probably mark the first rung. So yeah, this is where I'm at. The second rung of a 100 ft ladder. Great.

As for my workout yesterday, I changed it up a bit. The day before I went on a short and sweet 30 min run and it felt like my legs had 10lb weights attached so I decided I would visit the gym and do the elliptical and weights. Then I went home and took a walk with B and then another one with the dogs because the weather was so gorgeous. I'm going back down to Dallas later today because my mom's birthday is Monday and we're celebrating it over the weekend. So Happy Birthday to my mom!

Here's a pic from about 2 years ago of us the afternoon after we completed the Dallas WhiteRock Marathon. I was having to work that night and had to drive 3 hours back home. Not the best way to recover.

Tummy ache

I still haven't gotten a good run in since my last post. It's a bit discouraging because I was on a consistent workout regimen until recently and I'm afraid I have lost all of the endurance that I had worked so hard at building up. I seem to have come down with an odd stomach bug though which has kept me in bed the past two days. Yesterday I thought for sure it was the flu because I was achy, had the chills, and had no appetite. Today I still don't have an appetite and am just soooooo tired! Thankfully I have my 2 wonderful dogs that don't mind cuddling with me in bed all day, pretty sure they actually prefer it.

B did get me out of bed for a little bit with the allure of going to Sam's to look at all of the gardening stuff yesterday. Hopefully we'll start working on that sometime this week since I'll be in Denver all next week.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be all better and maybe the wind will decide to die down so I can get back on track with running.

April Fools

I went out yesterday and ran 6 miles at a not-so-great pace and ended up even walking for a bit because my knees were really bothering me. I've taken a week off and my knees are still bothering me? I've never had this problem before! I guess I'll just take it easy and keep icing although I'll be honest, I haven't been doing too well on icing in the first place.

On another note, here in Norman the medieval fair is in town! Nothing like walking around with people dressed up in clothing from the middle ages and enjoying a beer...or two... or three. Alright, because I'm counting calories I'll try to keep it at 2. Also the weather here is fantastic!

I'm so excited April is finally here. In 10 days I will be flying to Denver to begin my pre-service training with AmeriCorps and in 18 days I will be starting my new job. From that point on I anticipate on being busy with the Oklahoma City Marathon training and planning the bridal shower and bachelorette party for my sister's wedding. On top of all of that I have to be studying for the GRE or LSAT and hopefully in a year I will be out of the state of Oklahoma! We'll see where this year takes me. I have good feelings though!

Hiatus

Yes, I realize it has been a few days - ok, more than a few days since I've made a new post. A lot has been happening. Unfortunately I haven't been running a whole lot but a cold front came through and I had already decided that I was done with running in cold weather. I live in Oklahoma! It is not supposed to be cold during this time of year!

Other than that, all I can say is that I will be back up and running again by tomorrow. I just needed to take a break and recoup a little.

Thursday means awesome TV!

What am I doing right now? This very second?

Watching the Jersey Shore of course!!!!

I enjoy watching a number of trash tv shows and this happens to be one of them. It's what I look forward to every Thursday night because my life is that exciting. Usually B is sitting right next to me laughing along but tonight he's in the other room watching "the sweet sixteen" which I found out to be basketball related. Thank goodness we own multiple televisions!


Earlier today I made a grand attempt at being productive since it was my day off and I became domestic! I cleaned, cooked dinner, and ran - the triple threat.


I have this amazing cook book called Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health and from it I concocted this: 

I'll have to go back and look at what the actual name of this pasta, kale, lentil, tomato, carrot, and onion dish is called but I can tell you it was delicious! I served it over a bed of fresh greens that I bought from my local health food store and topped it off with some parmesan cheese. B and his little brother even liked it and the bonus is that there is a lot of leftovers.

My workout today consisted of a 5 mile run which was a great way to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Runner's Knee

Since I had taken a long hiatus off of "official marathon training", we're talking somewhere around two years, I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that all this mileage that I've been tracking is going to come back and haunt me. Sure enough, my knee is starting to bother me. Sure tell sign that I began doing too much too fast.

Not to worry, it isn't bad but I'm now having to ice it periodically after I run and throughout the day.

Monday, I didn't run since it was my rest day and instead I snuck into a nearby apartment complex's gym and did about 30 minutes of elliptical and some weights.

I wanted to make a new post yesterday but it was kind of a full day for me and also rather boring. First, I woke up early to get in a good run. Since my knee was still bothering me, I decided to take it easy and ran for about 45 minutes. Then I came home, juiced, and went to work.

Boring post, I know. I'll have some more interesting stuff up here shortly.

Long Run Sunday

I have no idea how far I went since I'm not fancy enough to have a gps watch, but I was running for time which ended up to be about 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

I was actually semi nervous this morning about heading out on a long run solo. I mean, what if I get lost? What if I run out of water? Or spontaneously pass out?

Well I'm here to tell you, my faithful readers (aka my mom and sister) that I successfully managed a 2 hour and 30 minute run all on my own. To all those hard core runners out there, this may not sound like much, but to me this is, like, celebration material.

First of all, I didn't spend $40 dollars on an entry fee just so that I could have those trusty water stations and strangers cheering me on. And second of all I feel way more independent. I'm free!

That little waist pack of mine is a real gem. It held my phone (in case I did get lost, dehydrated or injured), a packet of gu, and a full bottle of water spiked with Gatorade AND it didn't chafe by back or waist or annoy the hell out of me like I thought it would. Thank you running engineers, you really came through with this one.


Also, here are some lessons I learned / things I should have thought about but didn't from going on a long run solo:

1) Wake up early because the sun only gets hotter as time goes on. 
I really tried to wake up early. I set my alarm for 6:30 but hit the snooze until around 7:40. Finally, I dragged myself out of bed, threw the dogs outside with food and water and hit the road but when I finished I wished I had started at 6:30 because the sun really wears on you.
2) Avoid the psych ward 
You'd think this would be common sense but I actually didn't even think about it until a crazy man walking down the side walk in front of me started yelling at me and waving the boom box he was carrying. After I got over the shock of it all I realized where I was. Yup, right outside of Griffin Memorial Mental Hospital.
3) Wear sunblock
This actually pertains to running in general for long periods of time, not just by yourself, however when I'm alone I forget all of the simple necessities. Needless to say, I got a little pink on my face.
4) Pick a nice, scenic part of town to run through (not by a psych ward)
Unfortunately for me I picked the WORST part of Norman to run around. Did I mention I passed a psych ward? Not only a psych ward, a Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and a grungy neighborhood with a homeless woman walking around. To be fair, I previously lived in that neighborhood (as part of the broke, college experience) so the area was familiar to me and it's not like Norman really has anywhere nice to run around, but still. Next time I should take the time to drive out to the nice neighborhoods with houses I can gawk at.
5) Make sure you have enough songs on your playlist to listen to
This isn't really that important to me since after about an hour my head kind of goes numb and I forget I'm even listening to music but I wanted to have 5 points since 4 seems inadequate. Plus, it is kind of annoying to realize that you're listening to the same songs over and over again.

New running toys!!!

 Workout today: easy 6 miles in preparation for a long run tomorrow!

This morning I went to my local running store and spent all of my hard earned waitress money on some new running toys! I wonder if people would tip me more if I told them that it was going to such a good cause...

Here's what I bought:

An ultimate direction access waist pack 
which I will test out for my long run tomorrow. And yes, I did get a pink one.

A pink (to match my new waist pack) foam roller made by Pro-Tec that I have just tested out and love. Remember from a previous post that this was on my wish list of running gear?

Oh, and the guy that was helping me out said that this would be one of my best running gear purchases.

And lastly, an assortment of different Gu flavors so that I can test them all out and find out which one is my favorite.





I'm a little weary about the waist pack because I have never ran with one before so we'll see how it goes. Do any of you runners out there use them? I'm used to the old "hide your water in the bushes" tactic but I think its time to get with the new technology.



After my run I ate a PB&J sandwich with some chocolate milk and a banana. Oh and earlier I juiced...
Ingredients: cabbage, celery, spinach, carrots, apple

 Whoa, crazy girl on the loose with some veggie juice! 

 B (aka my boyfriend and photographer) is out of town so I awkwardly took pics of myself. I'm so cool. Especially without makeup.

I didn't even realize that I had my pinky up.

St. Patricks Day!

I'm a huge fan of holidays in general and especially ones where everyone dresses up in green and drinks Irish beer!

In order to prepare for yesterdays festivities I first went out for an early 9 mile run at an 8.53 pace. I really expected to run an easy 7 miles but then I remembered about all the beer I was about to consume and threw in 2 more.

Then I made green veggie juice! More like, I tried to make it green but at the last minute I threw in some carrots along with my green cabbage, celery, spinach, green apple which made it turn semi orange. Its the thought that counts though.

I also drank some green kombucha and discovered multi-green is not my favorite kind, I love gingerberry so much more!

Then came the fun stuff. B and I met up with some friends and enjoyed some nice cold beers while watching bag pipers play and wandered around looking at some of the crazy things people were wearing. Finally, because at the tender at of 23 I have the internal clock of a grandma I went home and got in to bed by about 10 pm falling asleep to my recorded episodes of Pretty Little Liars (PLL) and Glee.

Successful night.

How about another post just for fun

Some days my body is just not into running. Example, today. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have laid around all day falling in and out of sleeping and only getting out of bed to eat. Around 2:30 I finally got my lazy a** dressed and ready to run and fell into what I call running ADD. Here's what happened: 

I ran to a nearby park to warm up and thought about doing some 800s for my workout because there's a marked 400m path that circles a playground. Well, I knocked out one single 800 and felt like I was running in water. My mind kept saying "come on faster, faster" and my body just couldn't do it. It was very frustrating to say the least. To make it worse there were a bunch of small kids playing and the fear of me running into one and a momma coming after me was enough to make me change my mind about those 800s. 

So then I decided I'll just give myself a break and run easy for awhile. I ended up running easy for 18 min and found myself back in my front yard with the feeling of defeat. Sometimes you just have those days I guess. I had the elements against me (did I mention the horrible wind?) my body against me and my mind is against me. 

Lucky for me I have a family full of runners. My mom helped lift my spirits by making me a glass of fresh veggie juice made of celery, cabbage, and beets! Yum! 

  

This isn't the exact glass of veggie juice that I drank but it closely resembles it. I drank it before I could take a picture of it :/

And my amazing brother sensed my disappointment and offered to go on a 3 mile run with me. Back out into the wind I went but this time with his help I completed those 3 miles with hills and gusty winds and now I feel much more satisfied. In total I think I ran somewhere between 5-6 miles if you count my earlier warm up, 800, and jog home. 

No running tuesday

I had warned you yesterday that I was going to eat a ton of sushi and saki and that I did.

After B picked me up from my house we drove about 15 minutes to Allen, TX to this cute little shopping center jam packed with little restaurants and indulged in a bunch of different rolls with his mom and dad. We're pretty lucky that his parents usually take us out to dinner for sushi when we are in town since good sushi is so expensive and we can't exactly afford it on our own.

The night didn't end there, afterwards, we went to a pub called the Londoner and I got to drink my favorite mixed beer of hard apple cider and Harp (otherwise known as snakebite) and B ordered even more food because he wanted to try out the chips and curry, which I'm sure you can guess means a plate full of pub fries and curry sauce.

It's a good thing I did 40 min of cardio on the elliptical and some weights yesterday.

Now to today:

I have slept about 1/2 of the day already and it's not even because I went to bed late. In all actuality I went to bed extremely early (somewhere around 10:30-11ish). I'm going to blame it on little Sampson because he's been cuddling with me the whole time. It's hard to get up when you got that little fur ball resting on your tummy!

Now I'm going to go on what I'm hoping will be a 5 mile tempo run with a mile warm up and mile cool down. We'll see if thats what my body wants to do today.

Lady Gaga!

Even though I'm no longer in school it doesn't mean I can't have a spring break, right?

Yesterday I woke up early (8:30AM early) and laid around the house until I drank enough coffee to get me moving and out the door for a 7 mile run.

It was freezing cold and windy (and I hate wind) but I still managed to finish in 58 minutes which was much better than I thought it would be. Surprisingly, I'm not even that sore from the 25k on Saturday! 

Then, B and I packed, showered and drove down to Dallas for me to see Lady Gaga with my mom and sister and for him to spend some quality time with his family. 

We started off the evening at Kenichi where my mom took her first ever tequila shot (sometimes I don't know how I am her daughter) and then we snacked on sushi and drank some more...much more. It was great. 

Lady Gaga was AMAZING! Even though we were up so high I had to squint to see her, I had a blast. 

Currently, it is around 3:30 and I've just had a bowl of peanut butter cup ice cream and am trying to will myself to go on an easy run. I don't even care how far I go, it could be just 3 miles, but I NEED to run. I'm going out to sushi tonight (again) with B and his parents and undoubtedly there will be saki and beer and so much food! Oh well, its my spring break. 

Why do I run?

Whenever I am feeling miserable during a race/run, this question tends to sneak its way into my head quite often. "Why am I doing this?!"
But then I think about it and here are just some of the reasons why I run:

I run because it reconnects me to the world around me.
I run because it calms me and releases all the negative energy and feelings that I may be hoarding inside.
I run because of the amazing feeling of accomplishment afterward.
I run because I love to eat food.
I run because no matter what I feel beautiful when I'm done.
I run because the world melts around me.
I run because I can't get enough of that runners high.
I run because it gets me out of the house and into the sun.
I run because it's my prozac.
and lastly,
I run because I can.

One phrase that I've always enjoyed goes something like, "your life is dictated by the choices you make." I've made more bad decisions than I can count and am continually learning to accept responsibility for my mistakes and take control of my emotions. At the same time I can take credit for my good decisions.

One of the best decisions I ever made was joining the girls cross country team in high school. Here's why:

I remember when I first joined cross country as a young whipper snapper. I was shy, insecure, and entering 9th grade. Now, I should tell you that at this time I was also on the 9th and 10th grade pom squad and was having a hard time of it because of the stereotypical cattiness that comes with it. There was gossip, cliques, glares, and the "divas" always had to be in the front and center of all the routines. In short, it was misery.

But then at my mom's urging I found the cross country team. It was a breath of fresh air. The older girls didn't shun me as a possible prospect of beating them, they took me under their wing. At practices, they would encourage me and we would run as a team even though it was the most individualized sport at the school. If one of us felt like they needed to slow down we wouldn't let them. Many times that was me and I would always get the "come on Erica, we're almost there!".

At one particular meet in Missouri we had five of us running right next to each other and as we passed a coach from another team he screamed out "Come on girls! Now that's a team!"

So I loved cross country for what it did to me. It helped me become comfortable in my own skin through the "awkward years" and gave me much needed confidence. I know this is such a sappy post but it's true and I think it gives some reflection to the running culture. Even though it is a very competitive sport it's full of the most encouraging people I've ever met.

Today was a long and rough day. I'm glad it's almost over.

Yesterday, however was actually a pretty good day. I'll stick with talking about that. 

I woke up early and drove to Panera Jack Rector Beacon 25k with Brent who was also my photographer for the day. I finished with an official time of 2:17:11. I'm not very excited about it but I'm glad that I went and finished. It's nice to have gotten a 16 mile run under my belt. I haven't run that far in at least 2 years.

The run was basically out and back and I clocked in my first 8 miles at 1:06 and thought I had it until I had 5 miles left. Then I died and my pace went to what felt like a shuffle. 

I had some more pictures taken on my camera but I am missing the cord that allows me to upload them on my computer so hopefully I will find that soon and put some more up. Oh and it was also Brent's first ever experience at a road race. He did a fantastic job and supported me the whole way.

For lunch after the race I gorged myself on Indian food and later in the evening enjoyed a few good brews at a gastropub.

Then today happened.
The result of working a double at work and no running is a very unhappy girl. In order to placate my frustrations I ate about a gazillion calories and felt even worse afterward. Thankfully its a whole new day tomorrow.

Good night!

Outside it is BEAUTIFUL!

Finally, it's starting to warm up here. Oklahoma is not supposed to be cold (at least in my mind) and I'm ready to be playing around in some 70 degree weather.

I ended up running 6 miles yesterday because I was feeling good and thought an extra mile would only make me stronger. Today I'm going to rest since I'm planning on running a 25k tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll do a little yoga or elliptical. Who knows.

Green thumb? I wish.
Now that we're getting into spring with full force its time for me to start working on my garden. One thing about me is that I do NOT like to plan. I don't even like to say the word, really.

So last year I tried to plant a garden and it failed miserably. My tomatoes (which I found out are supposed to be caged in one of those wire things) spread out everywhere taking over my squashes and cucumbers and everything else just died because I got too lazy to water and weed it daily, or even weekly.

I also never put up a barrier around it so the dogs went traipsing around it crushing the last living bits. Complete and utter disaster.

I did have some survivors in the form of flowers and random potted peppers though. 

See? This is one of two of my little knockout rose bushes that are STILL alive just not blooming yet!!!

I also successfully grew a pot of little hot peppers but wasn't quite sure what to do with them because I had forgotten the actual type after I planted them. 








So this year is going to be different. I'm going to PLAN PLAN PLAN and make an awesome garden that will actually grow veggies that I will use!

One day my backyard will look like this:

And I will take a picture of me standing happily in front of it just like I  stood in front of the hydrangeas (my favorite flower) at the Arboretum in Dallas last summer.

On another more serious note, my thoughts and prayers go out to those suffering in Japan after the massive earthquake. I am chilled to my bones after watching this film taken from the NY Times website. I can not imagine what the victims must be going through and it breaks my heart.

Rise and Shine

I woke up extra early this morning. Not on purpose, but because I nudged Sampson (my dog) to make sure he was still alive (I periodically do this in the middle of the night because I have a fear that I may crush him in my sleep) and he didn't move. So for a second I panicked and rolled him over and he woke up and looked at me very annoyed. 

This is actually a very old pic of me sleeping that an old roommate took as a joke, but thought it was still appropriate for this post.

I guess since I'm up and already have a cup of coffee flowing through my blood stream I should get out there and run my 5 miles. It is less windy.

It's apparently the international day for awesomeness. 

Maybe I'll have an awesome run? An awesome day today at work? 

Let's hope so.

Today's Run

Today my workout consisted of a mile warm up, 3x1600 repeats with 2x800 jogs in between and a mile cool down.

1st mile: 7:17

2nd mile: 7:30 (struggled with this one)

3rd mile: 7:20 (redeemed myself)

Total miles: 6

Then, a nice walk with the dogs.

A little bit about my dogs:
(scroll down to see a little video)

What else do I love besides running, my family, and my boyfriend? My two little babies, Sampson and Jackson. Ok, they're not really babies and truly, only one of them is little, the other one is rather big.

Here's a little history about them:

Sampson a schnoodle (for those that don't know that's a schnauzer poodle mix) once lived on the harsh streets until he was jailed up in the pound. One day, I came in looking for a furry little friend to keep me company since, at the time, I lived by myself in an apartment and wanted some companionship. What had drawn me to my little Sampson was that he was the ugliest, dirtiest little doggie there. His hair was matted and he was covered in ticks and fleas so I adopted him (err as I like to say, bailed him outta dog prison), cleaned him up and give him a pretty awesome home. He is now groomed and tick and flea free after a long and difficult process of several deep cleaning baths.

He looks a little unhappy in this pic but one interesting thing about Sampson is that he always looks like he's upset because of the way his eyebrows are shaped. Kinda weird.

See? I'm not even holding him and he still looks unhappy.

My other dog, or rather my boyfriends dog that I claim as my own, is Jackson.

Jackson is a pretty awesome husky and has become best buds with Sampson.

Here they are snuggin. Pretty adorable if you ask me.

One thing about these two is that every time they see me put on my running shoes, they think I'm going to take them on a walk. If you're not familiar with huskies, they have a tendency to "talk" or howl which is pretty entertaining until it becomes annoying and Jackson uses it to his full advantage, roo-rooing around the living room until I give in to leashing him up and heading out the door. So now, no matter what, I have to walk these two after every run because even if I put them outside in the backyard they seem to use their dog sense to know when I'm lacing up the Asics and will cry and whine at the door. Relentlessly. No matter how tired I am.

I tried to get into the habit of walking them before I ran, but the ordeal of walking an ADD shnoodle that zig zags from side to side and a husky with a will to chase after and attempt to eat stray cats depletes my energy enough to expel any motivation that I may have had to run.

Here's a video from today of Jackson and his way of telling me that now that I'm done running, its his turn.