Home for the Holidays

Well I'm finally back in Arlington Virginia with my family. Being home makes me so excited for graduation and the extended amount of time I get to spend with my family in January.

I'm officially cleared to run after an injury of almost 4 months, with Physical Therapy, and cannot wait to get back to it.  I've been really sick for the past week and thus not been able to actually get out a test run so we shall see how that goes when I do. Mr Charlie, my PT man, told me to keep it easy and let my ankle control how far I go. Honestly, after four months I think it'll be my lungs that restrict me. I'm just so excited to get back into it and have my normal past time back.  It's been a rough last semester without my usual stress reliever of running. I've also been so busy with school work that gym time has been precious. I'm extremely happy I've basically kept my weight constant since I stopped running, so clearly I'm doing something right (cooking all the time helps).

I'll be needing to place an order for winter running clothes since I own slim to none. Especially since my roomies cat decided my running tights were a good scratching post. Fun. 

Not. 

Anyway I'm going to go play Wii with my twinsie and my BF who are being absurd in the living room. Figured I need to get back to this since I'll actually have a life again, and will be getting back from this horrendous injury. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am one stressed out pre-graduation girl.

And damn do I miss running.

Tomorrow is my first physical therapy session! YAY!

Wait, I'm excited?

Yes, excited. I want to be back out on the road. I miss running and I'm sick of having to watch this gorgeous weather pass me by. 

Besides not being able to run, I've been miserable with the amount of work I've had to do for school lately. Senior design is kicking my ass.

Seriously, even when I sleep, I dream of solar cook stoves.

Anyway I'll update/explain that later but for now I have a test tomorrow so I must go study.

Up and Out

So I'm graduating in 11 weeks. 11? 

10?

One of those. 

I would love to say I have everything after that lined up and that it will go smoothly but I know that I wouldn't be 'starting a new chapter' if there wasn't some uncertainty. 

Without a doubt however I know I will be leaving Atlanta. This I am very ready for. It's not that I don't love GT, because I do.  If I could live by Tech and go to every home game till I die I would. I love the atmosphere when the weather cools from the sweltering hot of the summer and everyone is outside in the Fall. Just as so when the weather warms up from a hard winter in the Spring. 

It's just time to leave. 

My group of friends has become amazing, I couldn't ask for a better group. Very few people have survived four years of school staying close to me, the few that have are still my best friends.  However it's my newer friends that cross so many 'friend circles' that make the best looking bunch of Hodge-podge friends I've ever seen. It's just what I want. No stress of a 'group' and no drama. I have people over every other night, we drink beer sometimes, we work on HW most times and we watch a lot of football.

Most of all we all enjoy the time we have together because we all know it is limited. It's the time of the year when everyone realizes that 6 months from now everything will be different.  

Every minute counts.

But don't worry, no one is stressed about it. This is the best time to make a big change, and I'm so ready for it.

I've been to 5 interviews: Continental, Solar Turbines, Harris, Schlumberger and Pratt and Whitney.  The relocation varies from Michigan, San Diego, Connecticut and wherever else they want me. I'm praying for a Pratt job up in Connecticut. I'll be 6 hours away from my family and get to have real seasons. REAL SEASONS. 

And a real place to myself, with probably a real dog.

Something I'm really looking forward to though? Besides leaving behind the dredge in my life in Atlanta. 

New running paths. 

Run Happy Everyone, and never be scared of change!

Fall and My return

Happy Fall everyone! It's my favorite time of the year, fun fact. 

Well in theory it is.

If I didn't live in Atlanta I would get a real fall, instead of today's high being 80+ degrees. One of my favorite parts of fall is fall-styled beer. Oktoberfests and Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin being number 1. Today's pumpkin beer is by Heavy Seas.

 

Crafty beer!

It is, so far, very good. Actually much better than I anticipated. Not overwhelming pumpkin but can definitely taste the cinnamon/fall flavors desired.

Now away from beer.

Yes I still run. No not as often. I'm 6 weeks out of my sprained ankle and it's still giving me a lot of hate and discontent. It swells every night, especially when I'm on it a lot, and I've been having to ice it regularly. I originally thought this was just a 4-6 week recovery but it's looking to be a lot longer.  I still cannot even come close to wearing heels, the angle hurts, and it some days my ankle is tender to the touch. 

All bad news.

So tomorrow I have a DR appointment at 10am to get it looked at and hopefully get a referral for physical therapy.

I did run 4 miles twice last week and it wasn't too bad.  The after-swelling is pretty rough though.

So this explains, not excuses, my absence from the running world/my blog.  So I've been a little bitter, yes. 

I'll be around now though. Because the BF, seen here (yes with me, classy photo):

is finally on my ass about it. 

He says he has his eye on me...

See you guys around!

IM GOING TO SCHOOL

This whole summer has been wrought with anxiety and working to be able to afford to pay for my 14k$ tuition bill for my last semester at Georgia Tech.

Well it's all over and everything is golden. And I could not be happier.
Stressful summer with a lack of running but a whole lot of fun and memories.


Currently I am dealing with a very bad sprained ankle and will probably be out of running for a few more weeks.
But that's ok.
Why?

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO GRADUATE IN DECEMBER!!!

I hope everyone has a glorious day and can find something that puts them in as equally a good mood as I am currently in.
Run happy everyone!

My Texas-Sized Hangover

So radio silence occured becuase I was in...
TEXAS!
For 5 days. Left Wednesday at like 6am and got back Sunday night...more like 12am Monday morning and then had work yesterday and today. Crazy! I've been very very tired/worn down. It was the longest car ride I've ever taken and the first time ever traveling in Mississippi and Texas. Louisiana I've been to...for Bourban street.
Another time, a good story, or two.

Anyway it was awesome. The drive out was to Dallas and then stayed the night there, then from Dallas we drove down to Texas Station. That's right folk's Giggem'/Saw The Horns Off/Texas A&M Aggie town.  I'll post more about why I was there later, with pictures and all.

I would like to however cover my excitement about Texas.
This is how I pictured Texas: desert-y, armadillos, long horns, salloons, maybe tumbleweeds?

Clearly I'm an idiot.
No there was no desert. I did see some long horns while driving, Holy crap they're huge. I saw a few dead armadillos, which made me sad.  (Fun mini story: my dad ripped the muffler off him and my  mom's little red MG by driving over a dead armadillo. My dad thought it would smush...nope.)
Tumbleweeds were a negative HOWEVER Salloons? I'm gonna say where I partied Saturday night was close enough in my book.

Picture in your head if you could, a college town bar. These are foreign to me. Atlanta doesn't have many since it is a City in it's own right and College Station...well is College Station.
Cruddy engraved tables that wobbled, stuff ALL over the wall, lots of Aggie things/memorabilia AND 6$ PBR pitchers and 7$ New Castle pitchers.

'Scuse me how much?
Done.
It was 9 of us all out together so we started with 3 pitchers. As we're looking around the bar we find, I shit you not, LIFE SIZE connect four. The pieces were wooden circles of 8ish inches in diameter.  It. Was. Amazing. And then we found Jenga made out of 2x4's. I was amazed. We were all amazed actually. Like big kids in a big kid toy store.

I had 2 beers, The BF brought me a gin and tonic and while playing connect four (reigning  champ what up!) I met a very nice A&M girl named Jackie who played with me a few times.  I decided that clearly, as I was drunk enough and from out of town, that Jackie and I needed a shot. Here's how the bartender and I's convo went.

ME: "Hey umm how much forrrrr your Patron shots?"
Bartender: "4.50$"
ME:"...."...serious pause going on..."How much for Jose Silver?"
Bartender: "3.25$"
ME: "HOLY SHIT I'll take four."

So me, Jackie, Jackie's friend and BF and I took a shot. and it cost me total what 1 and a half shots of patron would cost me in ATL. All the drinks actually were super, super cheap.

AMAZING.
This is why my hangover was huge.
Hey, everything is bigger in texas, I figured my hangoer should be as well.

Great fun, I have great pictures, I can't wait to post more later. The epicness of how cheap drinks were had to go up here because I think I'm still reeling from it.

I'm currently in my lab slaving away. Put in a solid 6+ hours yesterday, I'm on hour 5 right now. Makin MONIES!

After this it's gym time to bike/lift/abs since my hip flexors are still killing me, which the long car ride did not help. Then headed to the Roomie's swim meet for the kids she coaches and dinner at Felinis!

This is such a nice day.
Everyone, go be happy, go enjoy the day.

Go listen to some country!

Forever and a day. Or Two.

Long time no post eh?

Alright, I've been way out of running for a few weeks. Maybe like 6. 

Running here and there, putting in mileage every week but I haven't been into it.

Well, IM BACK!

Back and unfortunately having some problems. My hip flexors/abductors absolutely murdered me during my half. I mean, mile 7 out I was in so much pain and it was so weird because it'd never happened before. Well now it's a reoccurring theme. I'm icing and taking care of them, they've kinda radiated down to my knees, specifically my left, but it's still annoying when I want to come back with crazy-I-missed-running-mileage.

Since last Sunday I've put in about 28 miles. Not bad for a week and a half! My body feels good, feels like it's getting back to normal actually, even the aches and pain feel good. 

I'm now working in a lab as a research undergrad-help-assistant-monkey-sidekick for a grad student. It's very interesting and I like the work so far. Kinda tedious, but I get to do other things in between...like blog! oh hey that's what I'm doing right now!

So my summer consists of lab work, 20 hours a week, grading papers and running/training my little butt off.  I've got some new goals for shorter distances now.

5k: sub 25 (ouch)

10k: sub 50 (maybe not this summer but we'll see)

Half: still sub 2 hours. It's gonna happen. Soon.

In other news I've picked my camera back up again, so I will part you all for now with a fave photo I took this weekend. 

Raindrops

Run Happy everyone!

The truth about off brands

Ok yesterday I went to buy allergy medicine because Atlanta has been KILLIN me lately. 

I picked up the first allergy medicine I saw that was kroger brand (aka cheaper) and bounced.  

Well, I grabbed that and some sugar free chocolate mousse but it's fine. 

Its fiiiinnneee. 

Went out this morning in my, finally, newly replaced Brooks Adrenlines and my NEW RUNNING SKORT!! But before, of course, I had a snack and popped one of these allergy meds. 

Bad. Move. 

RTFM.

(read the effin manual) 

This allergy medicine was pink, like benadryl. That's right, the drowsy medication. 

I felt like I had two-year-olds hanging on my ankles. It was the hardest run/workout to power through, not because I hurt, but because literally if I shut my eyes for two long I was worried I'd fall asleep, and the rest of my muscles felt the same way. 

Rough.

Very rough.  I'm still hazy right now.

The skort however held up wonderfully. It helps that they had super hot booty shorts underneath the skirt, and y'all know how I feel about those. (LOVE)

Time to do a lab, grade papers, and get a sweet brinner made for me tonight. 

Run happy everybody :)

 And don't forget, don't pop benadryl and run. Bad plan.

the 15k from hell

Alright so I haven't been as diligent the past few weeks with my training. I still got 20 miles in last week even if I only ran 3 times but i've just been slacking. Kinda tired, kinda enjoy being a regular college student and sleeping in when I don't have class till 11 and getting beers on random evenings.

Anyway saturday was the Atlanta Track Club 8k/15k spring has sprung race thats fo FREES for members. I signed up for it a long time ago thinking ehhh Ill be done with the half and be able to bang a 15k out no problem. Well the night before I wasn't feeling it as a race. I liked the idea of the distance just fine, but my legs didn't want to race. Morning of I met up with my friend, we both had sore legs from biking the day before and were not in the mood. He sprinted ahead of me and by mile 4 I came jogging up behind him. He looked miserable. Absolutely shot and kinda shuffling along. So we made it to the 8k mark and at this point we could stop or keep going. BUT stopping meant a DQ. We stood at the fork in the road between crossing the finish line or continuing on and debated for a solid minute or more. we walked toward the finish line to just be done when I said 'man, i really don't want a DQ out of this'...then turned around and soldiered on for the rest of the 15k. It was slow, but once I slowed down I felt just fine! My friend and i finished it out together and I was very happy to get a long run in for the week. It turned into more of a 15k-run-race than a race-race, but that's ok!

Ill be ordering new shoes today, mine are so shot that i probably shouldn't have even run in them on saturday. Shit happens though. I need to get paid before I can get em!

In non-running news I have acquired a very good research job this summer that will pay 10$ an hour (wooo not minimum wage!) and will NOT be taking classes. Thank the good lord.

Be warned: this summer will consist of Running, Tanning and drinking.

Should be epic. I hope everyone else enjoys the sagas that will result from the combo.

PS to start a good story: saturday I got sooo sunburnt because I was going between tanning, doing laundry, and drinking at the pool. bad plan. but epic tan now!

Ill be going out for a run later, I skipped mine this morning and slept in. it felt amazing.

to everyone out there, especially with the gorgeous weather in Atlanta, Run Happy! and be happy :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (totally leaving this lame signature)

Location:Ferst Dr NW,Atlanta,United States

Lame songs stuck in my head

Whatup everyone! That I accidentally forgot about but not on purpose.  

How is everybody? I hope good. I've had an interesting few weeks to say the least. My last weekend was INSANE and involved me being out partying friday, saturday AND sunday. 

Whoa big spender on my part.

Anyway I had a blast, I feel great, I've been doing really well with all my drama, which is now drama no more. I have just about everything in order. I'm back in the gym workin on building muscle, been on a few runs, upped the intensity of my XT on the bike, and feeling good once again.  

I need new shoes really badly though , my knees ACHE after a run. And for a while after.

I'll order some new Adrenaline's next week when I get paid.

So a sweet super win for this summer, I'll be doing paid research with tech!! On a Pratt and Whitney project nonetheless. I'm very very excited and I can't wait to start. Plus it's automatically going to pay more/be better than this stupid min wage desk job I'm currently sitting at until 8 pm tonight. 

It's ruined my Friday's that's for sure.

On the running front, I have a 15k race tomorrow! 9.3 miles. Hopefully it goes ok, not gonna lie I'm barely prepped for it but I figure I've done the distance multiple times so I'll be fine!!

Changed the blog around a bit, wanted my own picture to be the background. Was trying to find spring-y/summer-y colors but didn't like any that I found so I stuck with the black and white.  Hope y'all like it!

I'm off to attempt to not-sleep on the job.

Run Happy everybody!

Spring

Happy April everyone!  I'm very happy to see the sun here in Atlanta. It's been a gloomy week, and very representative of the ongoings in life lately.

It's time for spring cleaning, physically and metaphorically of course.  My room needs an overhaul and so does some stuff in my life.  I'm very excited to get back to a training regiment, especially after this weekend where I'll be working inside at the pool all the time.  

Anyway hopefully I'll get a workout in this afternoon, I forced myself to wear my workout clothes (including my not-really-pants-workout-tight-capris) today so that my free time will be at the gym.  What will I be doing? not sure. I need the thinking time though. 

For now I'm off from work and have class/some social stuff to handle.

Hope everyone in Atlanta has a good happy day of running! 

Testing? Hello?

IM ALIVE!

Ok i've been alive this whole time it's just been rough going. I have a test this morning. Clearly I'm not studying, I'm blogging.  

Anyway I am feeling better than before. It's later in the week, I've had a chance to bounce back, get back into a semi schedule. If only this gloomy rain/no-sun weather would go away. Atlanta as a city just seems depressed. It was clearly affecting my kids yesterday at our track practice because we had to be inside and just chat instead. They were so rowdy and fidgity and combined with my mood this week...well it was almost catastrophic. 

I'm gonna go study, I would be working out right now but alas I fell asleep sitting up reading last night and didn't get to study much last night. So here I am, at 7:30 am writing a blog post when I have a test in 2 hours.

Classic. 

I am too cool for school. (nerdy-cool, not normal-cool)

Rough Days

Sorry for the radio silence. 

I'm going to make this kind of brief to spare everyone my problems. 

The half marathon went great. 2:05.41, 12 minutes faster than my last half marathon on Thanksgiving. 

I can't wait for my next one, if only they were easier to find in summer months that aren't so far away...curse you southern heat. 

I'm dealing with a lot of stuff right now on top of a really busy schedule.  For the first time in over a year, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing with myself every day. I have chunks of time just...blank...where I could do anything productive but I'm so used to saving them for someone else. I've been going over my decisions of the past six months over and over and trying not to brood, because I am so good at it, so that I can be productive instead. It's been rough going.  I know I will be turning to training to help, I just hope it can keep me out of the funk/cloud that is ominously staring me down.

Anyway, I'll be in and out randomly on here for a bit. Hopefully when I cheer up some I will come back but as for now I'm honestly too confused to post much of anything that's useful to the running world. I just keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason. 

Right now is definitely a time when I need to run happy, and I hope everyone else is too.

Upswing

Yesterday it rained all day in atlanta. It was miserable and my roommate and I just sat around and baked all day. 

Really, we didn't do anything.

So today was long run day, my last true long run before the half in 2 weeks.  After a disasterous 8  miles last weekened I really wanted today to be special. To feel like I hadn't been training for nothing.  

I woke up at 9:30, ate a bagel and some yogurt and didn't leave until 11:30ish. I packed my normal gatorade mix and a Cliff gel that my friend told me to try and kept a positive attitude despite the horrible weather that is here. 

It's cold.

It's windy.

Oh and it's wet everywhere.

Did I mention windy? Seriously, Atlanta is like a wind tunnel on every street.

Anyway I decided to run my usual route backwards, tackling the dreaded North Avenue hills first.  Honestly I couldn't have asked for a better run. 

Well I could have, like not freezing, and not so windy I was being pushed sideways but eh!

I ate my little gel at mile 6 as I was leaving the Highland area and by the time I got home I'd run 11.06!

I felt good. I got home, iced my knees and feet (they were achey) and smiled knowing I had hit my goal half pace.  

Now I'm sitting down to finally do school work.  

Ugh Guess I gotta put work in at some point right?

14 days till the half. Taper starts in 4 and I'm so so so ready for that!!

Run Happy everyone!

I miss

Things I miss:

I miss trail running every weekend. It got me away from the smog of marta buses and SUVs.

I miss spontaneous weekend trips due to warm weather.  I love this city but damn I need to get out of it for a bit every once in a while.

I miss, pause and don't repeat, going to random baseball games.

I miss spending hours and hours on the couch watching sports. I don't have time for that anymore

I miss drinking on the DU porch on random warm Thursdays and Fridays when classes were over. 

I miss skirts. 

I miss being tan.

Get here faster summer.

Balancing Act

Who thinks they should add like 6 hours to every day? Just round it to 30 hours right?

I think I'd get a lot more done.  I could use the hours. 

I just painfully/excitedly applied for a research position doing something I would LOVE to do.  But from beginning to end of this process took like 3 hours. To fix my resume. To perfect the cover letter. Make sure my references were ok with me.

3 hours?! 

Where does time go? It's running away from me I think. 

The fact of the matter is I'm having a hard time balancing everything.  I have school, I have training, I have a job, I have a boyfriend...and I'm supposed to find another job? and think about graduating? 

I spend every 24 hours surviving those 24 hours and don't have enough time to think of the 24 hours 3 months from now that could be vital in my life.

It really blows my mind. How are kids (I'm saying I'm a kid because I haven't graduated) supposed to worry about doing everything perfect, having the perfect resume, the perfect jobs, the perfect grades AND focus on everything in the future? It's painful! 

Anyway It's done I'm applied and all whatever blah blah.

I'm so excited to start taper in 6 days. (10 day taper) I'm trying to get a good amount of real good workouts in this week and then rest rest rest.

PS I'm losing a toenail. Fantastic. 

I'll update later. Workout at 2. Back to work at 4.

Gotta love Fridays!

Run Happy everybody!

The Bad Times

Today's Running World Quote was:

"It takes faith and the courage to risk failure in order to realize one's destiny. Having had my share of failures throughout my career I know that it is well worth the risk." - Ryan Hall, American long distance runner and winner of the 2008 United States Olympic Marathon Trials

I love this quote. It really hit home after the past few weeks I have had. 

This explains a lot of my lack of posting. 

"Drama" is exactly how I'd characterize what's been going on. I'd love to divulge everything (not) but it involves tears, yelling, alcohol and honestly a little loss of dignity on my part every once in a while.  

Don't worry, you can just go watch an ABC-no-so-Family show and it will be about the same. 

Anyway the drama has caused some sidetrackedness in my focus on training. I'm still doing it but it's been more of a mind numbing get-away-from-everything thing, causing me to not want to post about it. 

On top of my 'drama' I had one of the worst runs of life on Sunday.  I had skipped my long run last weekend due to, surprise, drama and drinking, and so I was excited to get back to a 10 miler on Sunday.  I had eaten breakfast with some friends early in the morning and headed out around 2pm so I could have plenty of time to digest my food.  I felt perfectly fine when I left. Excited to run, had on new clothes, it was a beautiful day in Atlanta at a high 60's low 70's temp with some wind. 

Well I got to about mile 2.5 and realized something wasn't quite right. My legs weren't shaking that dead feeling. I chalked it up to a few days of not running and they were just stiff but I couldn't get rid of it. By mile 4.5 I was in the Virginia Highlands and had stopped. I was sitting on a bench with absolutely dead legs and a stomach ache just to add to it. My lungs were on fire and everything felt like it was falling apart.  I knew I wasn't going to make 10 miles that day, I was praying just for 8 at the rate I was going. I texted my roommate with a warning text of "this isn't going so hot" just in cased I needed her to come get me.

Yeah, I felt THAT bad. 

So I kept going, forced myself at least, slowly, and told myself that if I could just keep going and walk some/rest I'd make it through. 

The next 3.5 miles were the worst miles ever. 

I've never thrown up from working out but I was pretty damn close, and I actually WANTED to. I wanted to throw up so bad thinking it would make me feel better. Anything to make me feel better. I kept waiting for a second wind but no. And of course when you're in the middle of Atlanta you're smack in the middle of a MILLION and one hills. Steep, long hills. 

I somehow made it back to campus and when my Garmin watch hit 8 miles I just stopped. And I walked home. Walked. I've never done that in my life. It was miserable. I was miserable. I felt like such a  failure. And the half is only 3 weeks away! I was supposed to be throwin out 8 miles like nothin. 

My legs just did not want it. And I had to listen on Sunday. 

Maybe it's been the alcohol, which honestly hasn't been much because if any of y'all knew me you knew I can get a hangover from 2 beers and be hammered in 1. Maybe it's all this drama, or school, or the stress I've been putting on myself lately but it's just been a rough few weeks of training. My Monday run was sucky as well. Legs hadn't recovered yet but I knew I needed to get the miles in. 

Anyway back to the applicable quote for the day. I guess this is all of my failures right now. I keep fighting the failure feeling. I have to shake it because I start taper in 8 days and then it's race time. I've been working way too hard to let this feeling take me down.

So it's time to push the personal shit out of my mind and get it all done and get back to running happy instead of this moody gloomy running.

Shopping!!

As a Bday present to myself since I've been so good training thus far AND because I got paid a nice paycheck this week I splurged and bought...all of this :

I just do not own enough running gear. I only have 2 pairs of shorts! and I workout 6 days a week!!! SO MUCH LAUNDRY.  So, I finally decided it was time to drop some big bucks and gear up like a proper Brooks ID runner. I will probably be building my wardrobe like this every other paycheck (once a month) just so I have enough clothes on a week to week basis. I ALSO paid 5 whole extra dollars (oh my!) to get it 'expedited' here. I have no idea when they're going to ship it but pinkies crossed for today so I can get it by next Friday. I am SO excited!!! Mmmm clothes. In other, more upsetting news, I was planning on going to ABC (brewery) tonight with a bunch of friends for my birthday (I know it was Tuesday but I'm a college girl, I can't take time out of my classes to party on a Tuesday!) however I needed to get out of work from 4-8 to be able to do this.  Of course, none of my coworkers will cover it. 2 semesters I've been working the dreaded Friday Close shift and yet, no one will throw me a bone for my birthday. Such is life. On to study. Happy Friday everyone!

Birthday Week

Alright people. 

My 22nd Birthday is on Tuesday.

For some reason my friend's all want to take me out separately so I am haveing 3+ birthday dinners, which means I have a lot more running to do next week

I don't even care I'm SO excited about it! My best friend evvaaa is making me a sugar free cake from scratch! 

yay no sugar coma! 

In other news, I'm already past 11 miles for this week. I had a lovely 6.5+ mile run on Wednesday that felt like someone had literally lit a fire under my ass somehow. I was movin' out there. Maybe it was the perfect mid 40's weather or the fact that I was craving BBQ? Not sure, but it was a wonderful run.

I can really feel my speed picking up each month I'm still running.

Now for a random funny/Awkard tech boy story, I was at the gym last night up at the track doing my speedwork and I stopped in front of this guy...boy. Anyway I stopped to walk my half lap and he was passing me (walking) and turned around to talk to me. I thought he was asking if I was ok because I probably sounded like I was breathing through a straw at the time but he really was just going to do this:

Awkward boy: "Hey, you doin sprints"

Me: *wheeze**die*"yeah"

Awkward boy:"ohhh killer dude"

Me: *wheeze* "thanks?" *die*

Awkward boy: *awkward smile/wave/turn around to keep walking in front of me*

I love tech boys. They're just so cute. 

Long day ahead of me and long long run ahead of me tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get more than 5+change hours of sleep tonight. 

Hope everyone is having an amazing Friday so far!

Sleep

Monday morning's workout turned into a Monday EVENING workout due to one too many (meaning more than one, meaning two) whiskey coke's while watching the Superbowl.

Somehow my tolerance is like negative drinks now. I think if I even look at alcohol my head starts hurting.

Anyway so I went last night I did some abs and ran around the track a bazillion zillion times to get some miles in.  I then decided that since it was 8pm and I didn't feel like fighting for a treadmill for hill stuff or braving Atlanta night-time that I'd just do some stadiums inside the pool viewers deck!

What a GREAT idea right?!

False. 

I made it through three sets, my legs were shaking so hard I couldn't stand still, literally. 

It's amazing I used to do those every week when I was swimming.

So then last night around 11 I was icing my knees and heating my shoulders (which hurt) and felt exhausted.  I was very excited to sleep hard and rest before my 6am workout, which is the normal Tuesday time. 

Fell asleep...and then woke up at 1:30 convinced it was 6. 

Re collected my thoughts. Fell asleep.

Then woke up at 4 conVINCED it was 6. 

Goodness. You'd think I'd stop being so anxious about missing my alarm and would just sleep.

Then of course at 6am I turned my alaram off and fell asleep till 6:30.

That's life right?

Rushed over to the gym to get in some biking and a light leg lifting session.  So far so good this week. Quality workouts that I'm definitely feeling the next day. 

Or days after I mean. 

Hopefully I'll sleep like the dead tonight though. God knows I need it. 

Lab at 8am! Woo!

Everyone go get a good run in today!!

Run Happy!

V8

Random thought I HAVE to share. Wouldn't it be awesome, if like in those V8 commercials where everyone has the little number above their heads for the servings of veggies/fruits when you ran you had the same thing above your head?!?! but for miles?! That would be awesome, talk about possible guilting into running more.
You see some guy with a big 10 over his head, and you'res says "3". I would be ashamed.

Just sayin.

HeavyWeight

This week I have been put through pseudo hell and back. 

My training goes light week, medium week, heavy week. This week was heavy week. The past 2 weeks have felt you know, hard, but nothing like this week. I am sore EVERYWHERE. My back hurts, my arms hurt, my legs, my ass, my abs. Everything hurts.

Today I ran 8.6 miles and it was probably the longest 8.6 miles of my training yet. It took all of my energy to get through it. I got a second wind around 4.5 miles at my turn around point in the Highlands. Seriously though my legs felt like lead. Lead jelly. 

Needless to say it took a very long hot shower of stretching to get all the kinks out of my body and I'll still be asking for a massage from Christopher later. 

This long run also brings my total mileage this week to 20 miles!!!! 

Epic. I feel epic. 

In other amazing news, I had my first Atlanta Track Club Kilometer Kids meeting Thursday! 

I'm so excited to get to work with kids. I really need to get my head out of the Engineering cloud I live in every day. 

Tomorrow is rest + super bowl day and I will be vegging on a couch and probably enjoying a whiskey coke or two. 

I hope everyone has a GREAT Sunday and enjoys it as much as I hopefully will.

Run Happy!

Family

So my mom is probably my best friend ever, my biggest fan, and my biggest support. She's who I call when I'm crying, the few times I cry.

Reasons I love my mom:
1) It's 6:15PM on a Friday and she's sent me a picture of a beer.
2) she proudly exclaims its a 9% beer and goes "AHA"
3) she's at a new restaruant raving about how we need to go there together, even though I live 650+ miles away
4) she just alerted me to the fact that the REASON I need to go is because they have back on a stick.

Bacon.
on.
a.
stick.

I love my mom so much.

Rain

Anyone been around Atlanta lately?
Call Noah, We need an arc STAT.

Seriously I'm treckin around all day in rainboots.
Which is really difficult since I am SO SORE.

I'm on a heavy weight week right now and I am really feeling it. Legs, arms, back....ass. Everything HURTS.

43 Days until the Publix Half...
Seems so close and yet so far away. Mainly because I'm sure I will be more sore some time down the road.

I'll post later about the week.
I'm finally at break time for work. Thank goodness.

Brooks

I got my Brooks ID discount today.

My poor, poor, bank account.

I'm going to be poor.
Poor.
Like my bank account.

Long run time! It's 65 degrees out. FYI.
Amazing.
See you soon!

Bad Poster

Man, I am just AWFUL at keeping up sometimes. I vow this week I will stop posting only once a week.

Vow, promise, swear etc. 

I'm currently sitting at work, sipping my coffee, prepping for a long day in this office which I just opened at 8am. And I will be closing at 8pm.

Tricky right?

Anyway as I sip my coffee and peruse the running world websites I frequent I find myself wondering if sometimes, even though I fail to write on here, I peruse too much and don't do enough school work. 

Goodness, there, I said it. I'm preoccupied with my training. School is getting more and more difficult to focus on.  I'm stuck in this mode where I don't want to graduate, but I really want to graduate, so I'm at a standstill.  Kind of stuck in limbo honestly. I'm always/generally more than willing to get up and go for a run or go to the gym...but try and get me up early to do a lab? No thanks.  I like school, I really do, I'm just a little...well tired of it. 

Enough about that blah blah. 

My 5k last weekend was wonderful, I got a PR by 2 mins and was first in my age group! With a 26:47. Not the best time in the whole wide world, but I was very happy with it. I started off at a 9 min/mile pace because I was pacing someone else and then progressively got faster. It felt good, and smart, and like I could definitely run one faster.

Good news, I have that opportunity in a few weekends! Another free 5k! 

I'm very happy I'm an Atlanta Track Club member. 

I have a 7 mile run planned tomorrow and I am legitimately excited for it. The weather in Atlanta is supposed to be beautiful!

Look at THAT!

That's all for now. Later I will be posting everything I will be/want to order from the Brooks website.

I may-or-may-not have a very long list.

I need an overhall on my running apparel!

Snow Days good? NO!

Alright so my new rant this week has been about the 3.5 epic snowdays that GT recieved last week after the south got hammered by a storm.

I loved them at the time. I was lazy. I sat around with the boyfriend, worked out lazily, complained about being cold. Got a ton of sleep.

And also didn't get used to my new schedule. I don't know about everyone else but one thing I love about the first week of classes is that I can get used to the actual time factor of the schedule of school before I have to get used to the workload.  Well now, this week, even with Monday off, I'm having to get used to the time part, the school work ALREADY, and a new training schedule! Holy smokes! 

I am very tired. As my last random post already stated.

I've decided the snow days SUCKED. I am now scrambling to get used to everything at once. I have a test and 4 assignments due next week already.  I'm sore as hell from working out, and I have a 5k tomorrow!

That's my rant, and I'm stickin to it. 

As for training, I'm in my light week for weights and am just a little achey from it. Not exceedingly sore but it's not nothing. My arms already feel more toned (I'm technically on week 2 of lifting) and I'm looking forward to my medium weight week next week. 

As for running goes, I've been pretty much rockin' it this week. I think that time/experience is finally becoming a good factor. I feel faster, just naturally. 

To be fair, it's been 8 full months of running, it's about time I got used to it. 

I've run 12? eehhh 13 miles this week. 4+ of hill training Monday, 5+ on a random (read: awesome) run on Wednesday, and around 3+ miles during my very FIRST speed workout ever.

Talk about pain I haven't felt since swimming descends. Goodness. I did 200m repeats. For my first workout I was a little confused as how I was going to react to it. First I did 5x200 (in a row) where I was sprintishing/supposed to be a mile time for one 200m then slowing down for the second and alternating. With a 3min rest in between sets.

I did the first set, got through the second set and then had to take my little grey warm weather capris off that I had under my shorts. (I had to run to the gym to get to the track and it was FREEZING out). And then decided to see how it would feel doing 200m, walk half a lap (which is 200m), and alternating that way. I tried this because when I got to my 3rd set I was dying and had to stop. I liked it better cause I was already really tired so I finished up this way.

PS. dumbass (this girl, me, that's writing this) forgot to take her inhaler. Idiot.

After I finished I did some core stuff and dragged my tired, sore, body home. 

I don't know why but this week has just seemed so hard. No amount sleep is enough. I've been up at 6 or 6:15 every day, some days not sleeping well at all and haven't had a workout rest day since Sunday. Part of it has just been a funk I'm in. School is starting to wear on me. 

BUT this morning I have gotten a second (third? fourth? millionth) wind. I've been very productive, which I consider this post in the productivity range, and will continue until I leave work at 8pm today.

I have a physio ball workout today that will be fun. I love stretching out on those things! 

Time to go get some of my never-ending school work done.

Happy Friday everyone! Run Happy!

Tired

I'm finally having to go to class and participate in full days of school + work. I am TIRED.

Worked out this morning, my leg is giving me some problems, it's making me really nervous.

I'd love to give a detailed breakdown of the past few days but I couldn't sleep last night and was up at 6am and have to be up at 6am again tomorrow.

So for now, I'm going to go look over my lab manual and crawl into bed. I love you all. I will write tomorrow. Pinky-internet-promise.

Doing it all

Last semester was the first semester I really felt like everything CLICKED. Well, at least in the past few months it's felt like that.

I had a rough spot from about last New Years till August/September. 

Wow that's a long rough spot looking back.

Anyway, I had a bad relationship, I lost my car before I even saw it, I had lots of health problems and friend drama all thrown in.  By July/August I'd started to get my feet back underneath me. By October I was sprinting. My grades were out of this world good, was working 20 hours a week and was training for my first Half Marathon. I was happy. 

Very happy.

I was also very organized. I knew what I wanted, when I needed things done by, how every day would go.  I had plans for just about everything. It seems kind of cyclic/boring to most but for me it worked. And the busier I was the better. Nothing could get in my way! Half marathon? So ready. Finals? Breezy. (comparitively) Yes I had a few  panic moments but otherwise, I did great! This was my best semester grade wise. I applied, and GOT, an internship with Atlanta Track Club working with kids AND now this sweet Brooks deal.  I have a wonderful boyfriend who supports me all the time and the best friends anyone could ask for. I really am doing it all right now.

I've found, after having some of the worst luck possible, that a positive outlook and a set plan really works. Yes some luck is involved, but when I set a goal I'm positive, I'm calculative and I'm persistent.  I know my limits but I also know when they should be pushed. I make sure that I wake up every morning with a positive outlook and knowing what I have planned for the day.  Maybe that's not everyone's cup of tea, but so far it's worked wonders for me!

Here's a nice little article by Active about setting goals. It's short and to the point, and if you can master all of these aspects of goal setting for running you can set goals for just about anything else in life.

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Defining_Your_Goal.htm

I think today is a rest day for me. My butt is still in quite a bit of pain.

I hope this ice/snow goes away soon. I need to run long this weekend!

Sitting Down

So, in case you haven't heard, Atlanta has been covered in ice/snow for a few days now. I haven't been in school for THREE days. Georgia Tech is like pulling a prank or something. 

Anyway despite the snow and ice and awful conditions I've been getting back into the swing of a training routine for my second half. Last night my roommate Thea and I sat down and really worked everything out for the next 10 weeks. It was a lot more involved and intense this time than it was for the first half marathon. My first one was really more for completion than for time. This time around I'm trying to shave off 17 minutes and run it in 2 hours or less.

Monday, Day 1 of the Snowpocalypse, I ran some hill workouts on the treadmill and did a few thera-ball exercises with the BF in his baby gym in the house complex he lives in. I sweat my little ass off. Clearly I've been running outside in the cold too much because I forgot how much sweating I do inside.  Tuesday I got on the stationary bike as a XT and did legs.  This involved some lunges...and some machines...

I can NOT sit down without pain, my ass hurts so bad. 

Today I ran 3 miles with some speedwork thrown in, a bunch of abs, and arms. 

These first few weeks are going to SUCK. But I'm fully ready to commit to the work that I will need for this. I want to run this well. I want my time cut down. I want a PR. And I know that by adding lifting, some speedwork and hill work will do it. I think it's going to get me past the plateau I'm on.

This morning I was up at 6:15. Alarm went off and after 3 weeks of sleeping in, it actually felt GOOD to get out, get back showered and out for breakfast and back before 11am. I feel like a champ today.

Time to try and be even MORE productive in the snowy ice snowpocalypse that's struck Atlanta.

Why?

I started this blog after I got my favorite pen and started to write down all of my runs in my little 'running notebook'.

I got the pen from the Peachtree Expo.  It was a Brooks pen and it said "Run Happy" on it.

I was obsessed with it for some reason. I loved the slogan, and after running the Peachtree, my first 10k, I wanted to start documenting and sharing why running made me happy.  I named the blog after the Brooks slogan because I believe it, and I love their product. The running community built around them is filled with good people.

Through some various things, I am now a proud member of the Brooks I.D program.

Brooks Inspire Daily. I'm so excited to represent Brooks and their philosophy. I hope I can work more at sharing my experiences on this blog and I can't wait for the coming year filled with RUNNING!

I'm beginning my training plan for my next half marathon on March 20th. 72 days. I'll be upping my speed work and adding a lot of hill exercises as well as more weights. I'll keep y'all posted.

Run Happy!!