What's Happening?

Oh, hey ya'll. I've missed you. But I'm back. And if you're reading this, so are you. 

Reunited and it feels so gooooood!

A lot of things have happened since we last talked. I'll try to cover them all this morning.

My anniversary happened. I got in a good run that afternoon in the chilly sunshine. I went out to Wrightsville Beach and and ran by the water. It was nice. It was chilly. And it was almost bad. 

Have you ever drank coffee before? Like a lot of it? So you know what it does to your stomach? Yeah. That happened to me that morning. But instead of giving myself a little time to "let things take care of themselves"... I decided to go for a quick run... with compression pants on... 

Okay, enough bullshitting. I'll just cut to the chase. 

I got about 2 miles in and had to stop and BRISKLY walk/run/try not to cry to the nearest public bathroom (which was, by the way, about 1 mile away). Ya'll I never thought I would say this as an adult and hope I never do again but hear me loud when I say I almost pooped my compression pants. 

Yeah, that happened. And this is a moment when not having my name on my blog really comes in handy.

For the record, I survived a near-miss. But I will never drink coffee before running again. Especially if I don't have time to, ya know, take care of things.

That evening the boyfriend and I got all dolled up and went to our favorite Thai Vietnamese restaurant. We had some beef summer rolls, a little pad thai, and a lovely glass of red wine. And then we came home and fell asleep on the couch. Soooo romantic. But I loved every minute of it.

Then this happened:

Total, I ran about 18 miles during the 8 days I was home. There were only a couple of days that I didn't run, and I hated them. 

I craved running. It was so weird. Seriously, one night I had to drop the boyfriend off at work right as the sun was going down and I thought I was going to miss my late afternoon run and got pissed about it. But then I ran 3.3 miles and was totally fine. I normally just run because I need the calorie burn and want to be healthy and yadda yadda yadda. But this time, it was like my legs WANTED it. 

I think I'm starting to turn into a semi-legit runner.

And I've been stepping up the distance. I've become super comfortable with the 5K (3.1 mile) distance. But I've decided that if I'm really going to do this whole 10K/possible half marathon thing, I need to start going further. So I decided to rock out 4 miles. And I did it twice. The first day I went 4.39 miles and I felt UNSTOPPABLE. That is, until the next day when I literally almost couldn't walk. But it was a very normal, healthy pain in my legs. I wasn't dealing with a crummy knee or a weird hip (KNOCK ON WOOD!), I just had really sore hamstrings. So I did some major stretching and a little YouTube yoga and bounced back pretty quickly.

This reminds me of something I overheard a lady say in the YMCA locker room last year that I don't think I'll ever forget. She was talking about how she beat cancer and went on to run a marathon and a few triathlons. She said something along the lines of, "The human body is one of the only machines that you can work and work and work and it just gets stronger instead of weaker." My body, even though I'm pushing it harder in my runs is getting STRONGER. 

I am running at 10:30 minute mile. 

And I'm running 4+ miles without stopping. 

Now, just to give you a frame of reference...

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My first 5K - I somehow conned my best friend, E, to run a midnight 5K with me. I signed up for the race about two months in advance, but my motivation for the race slowly fell as the event neared. I remember eating lunch with my friend the day of the event trying to find a way to somehow back out and not run. I mean, I had already gotten my t-shirt. But I couldn't back down now. Even if I walked the whole thing, I was going to do it. We had already spent the money to register. I ran the whole first mile, walked the second, and ran most of the last mile. My time was 44ish minutes. And I was STOKED about that number. It was so cold that night and the beer after the race was probably the most DELICIOUS beer I have ever consumed. But we trooped through it and finished what we started. I wish I had pictures of this one, but regrettably, I don't.

My second 5K - I ran with one of my earlier running partners, T, who really gets credit for lighting the fire under my running feet. She was training for a half marathon and her hard work really inspired me. She did her runs with a 3:1 ratio. She would run for 3 minutes, and then walk for 1 minute. That was an awesome way to develop my running legs, by the way. And if you're just now jumping into the running world, I would suggest some sort of interval like that. I can't find the results for this race online, so I don't know what my actual time was. But I can assume I was probably in the low 40 minute range.

My third 5K - I ran with See Sam Run and our goal was to run the entire race. And we did, slowly but surely. Hell, we even were getting passed by people who were stopping to walk. And when we crossed that finish line, I couldn't feel my hands. But we did it. And it took me 40:17. (That bitch Sam beat me by ONE SECOND!)

A little embarrassingly sweaty finish photo for you!

My fourth 5K - I ran this one with Sam, too. It was a hot, humid June morning and I remember there were some parts of the race route that had NO shade whatsoever. If it weren't for Sam that race, I would have walked the majority of it. But she wouldn't let me stop. We did this one in 39:12 and I remember I missed placing third in my age group by ONE PERSON! And this particular person passed me right before the finish line. Obviously, my age group was way underrepresented that day. But it would have been awesome to place.

One thing you should know about races, they always take your picture at the end.
And you usually look like sweaty crap. Oh well!

My fifth 5K - I can't even lie about this one. It was hot. It was sunny. And I was SUPER hungover. But hey! At least I showed up. I ran as much as I could, walked when I had to, finished the race, and went home and crawled in bed. It was so anti-climatic. It took me 41 minutes. And I was damn proud of that time, given my current condition.

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Anyways.. Why did I start talking about all of the 5K's I've ever run? Oh, I can't remember..

Yesterday and this morning, this also happened:

These are Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (say THAT five times fast). They are DELICIOUS. And they, in my opinion, are way better than that instant oatmeal shit. I make them on the stove top and then add in some sliced strawberries and a sliced banana with some sliced almonds and Pumpkin Pie spice. Yum!

I wanted to go to the gym yesterday but it was COLD outside and snowing. And I didn't want to crash my car into a snow bank. So I played it safe and did some workout DVDs instead. This definitely happened:

Oh yeah, that's right. I did BOTH of these. And I did ALL THREE levels on each one. 

And now, black coffee and the morning news is happening. Bam! 

What's happening with you?