Nurse on the Run

It’s Valentine’s Day, and the way to this running nurse’s heart is through the mail!  The highlight of my day is when I open the mailbox, whether or not I actually get anything.  Of course it’s a much better day if I get something other than loan statements,  but anything with my name on it will make me smile.  I’ve been fortunate to get a few things in the mail the past couple days that have made me smile and remember how lucky I am to have people who care about me on a “holiday” such as Valentine’s Day!  Time to share the love:

mom and dad

My mom knows the way to my heart…M&M’s!!  I eat like a bag a week…and that’s only because I buy one bag instead of more!  Those pencils are from a reallllly old stationery set of mine…and they have my name on them.    I also got a card that reads:  “What a bright would this would be if every life could be touched by someone like you.  Wishing you life’s very best – No one deserves it more.”  Awwww go mom and dad!

friends

Pretty flowers arrived on my doorstep this morning from a friend…I don’t think he even knew that these are some of my favorites!  I was actually asleep when they arrived, so the delivery person took them to my neighbor…I don’t think the neighbor was super pleased, but I think we’ll all be okay.  Love my friends, even if they are mostly far away.

blogworld

Olivia over at you can call me liv posted a plea a week ago for Trader Joe’s Almond butter in exchange for baked goods, with her biscotti as an example.  Despite never having biscotti, it looked so delicious that I decided I’d jump in for the trade!  I received this biscotti in the mail yesterday and enjoyed it this morning with my coffee!  It has dark chocolate chips, cranberries, almonds, and cinnamon, and they are delicious!  I had to put the bag away so I didn’t eat them all.  I love the blog world (nerd alert) and blogger exchanges!  So good.

Julie and Allie both offered to be my Valentine…either lady would be a fine choice!

amazon

You can always count on Amazon for good prices and quick delivery!  This box of joy landed on my doorstep yesterday…two packages in one day!  It’s like a dream!  I’ve been meaning to buy these books for awhile, but I’m so cheap that I keep putting it off.  I decided that Turbo Tax couldn’t be the only thing I bought from Amazon, so I added some books into the mix!

Which should I read first?

• Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr
• Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Has anyone read any of them?  Let me know what you think!

happy valentine’s day to all my readers!  i hope you do something fun to celebrate, or at least have some chocolate to eat. 

You know you’re a marathoner when…

…16 miles is just another day.
…you have a secret stash of your favorite fuel…go Honey Stingers!
…you think, “I only have an hour left to run!”

Sixteen miles were on deck for me yesterday.  I’ve decided that I really like doing my long run on Saturday morning.  Although I’m still a little tired from working the night before, it’s nice to get up and get it over with so it’s not left looming until Sunday morning.  In all reality, I really wasn’t feeling the long run yesterday, but once I got going, that all peeled away.

The plan was to run my four mile loop four times so I could stop and have my water and chews that I left at my house.  I’ve never done any sort of repetitive loop for my long runs before, so I wasn’t sure how I would like it.  At other times I’m able to work my runs around water fountains or drop water for myself, but I wasn’t up for that this time.  Not going to lie…I don’t think I’m going to do this little loop thing again!  It doesn’t help that this four mile route is one of my least favorite runs!  I ended up running two of the four mile loops and then did an eight mile loop instead, which felt much better than doing two more of the four mile loops!  (Are you confused yet?  I think I am.)

While I liked the idea of thinking “halfway done!” at the two mile mark of each loop, I also like to feel like I’m going somewhere…which I don’t accomplish with the loop course.  It’s another reason as to why I hate the treadmill…I want to go places!  Feeling like I’m moving somewhere is so much better and it makes the miles just click by.

Saturday, February 13
16.06 miles in 2:04:47, avg pace of 7:46
Splits:  7:53, 7:58, 7:53, 7:45, 7:44, 7:57, 7:55, 7:37, 7:56, 7:53, 7:56, 7:40, 7:40, 7:34, 7:31, 7:36, 0:11 (7:51)

The plan was to keep my miles above eight minutes for the sake of slowing down for the long run…but oh well.  I’m okay with the fact that I can run 7:30-7:40 at the tail end of a long run…marathon prep?  My legs didn’t start to feel tired until I had about half a mile to go, which is probably more of a mental thing with being so close to the end of the run.  Ten more miles to go!

Oh, and of course I almost got flattened by a truck.  I supposed that’s why you’re supposed to go 10 mph around the corner and not 40…

It’s Friday and many people were grumbling about having to go back to work today after two snows days.  Schools are still cancelled, but for me, it’s just another day!  Luckily Friday means I only have eight hours until the weekend…and an easy day on the training schedule!  Four miles is super short these days (although it feels so long…), and the relaxed pace means there’s time for some fun…so I took my camera with me on my run!  I know some people snap pictures with their cameras/iphones, and I’m wanted to document some sights on my run!

Away I went for a snowy four miles, but this time with the roads clear!

This was my car yesterday morning.  I had to shovel myself a parking spot at midnight when I got home from work…not fun!!

  Snow, snow everywhere…but clear roads!!

Interesting attempt at a snow man?

If I ever die while running, it will be at this corner.  I kind of fear for my life every time.

A shoveled sidewalk, from the ground.  I thought it looked cool…

No one wants to shovel the middle of the driveway, I suppose…

I hope this doesn’t keep any deliveries away!!

Overall, a quick, easy run.  Multiple stops to take pictures, but no worries.  No near death experiences this time, and my shoes stayed dried!  Always a plus.

Friday, February 12
4.03 miles in 31:19, avg pace of 7:46

16 miles this weekend…and MARYLAND vs DUKE is tomorrow.  It will be Jess, Sara, and me vs Sarah and Allie!!  We need to place our bets!

…and neither do marathoners.

What a week it has been!!  The snow came down last weekend, and then graced us with it’s presence again Tuesday night and well into Wednesday evening.  I think we got another 18-ish inches to add to the 18 that we already had, which is quite exciting.  Apparently that’s more snow that Pennsylvania has gotten in the last year combined, and I think it’s some sort of overall record.  We got more snow than Buffalo, NY did this year!  Why the weatherman chose to compare us to Buffalo is beyond me, but I’m going to assume they get a lot of snow up north in Buffalo.  The mayor declared a state of emergency and “only essential personnel should be on the roads.”

Well, I guess that’s me.  A couple people asked me if I still needed to go into work with the snow.  I don’t think snow has magical healing powers so the patients are still there…yep, gotta go to work.  Luckily not too many people were out on the roads on Wednesday afternoon and the roads were a little plowed (but not really), so going slow worked well for me.  I went about three miles per hour down a giant hill in an attempt to not run my Honda Civic off the road.  Since I knew it was supposed to snow allllll Wednesday, I packed a bag in case I had to spend the night at the hospital…which pretty much would have been my worst nightmare.  Luckily the snow stopped around 9pm and I was able to get home quite easily.  The roads are actually worse now because I don’t think they even touched the residential streets so all the snow is just packed down from cars driving over it.  So slippery!!

Even with all the snow, don’t you think I missed out on my runs!  I knew the snow would be bad on Wednesday so I shifted my workouts to include a rest day on Wednesday…good planning because there was NO way I was going to run!  The best weather for snow is actually some of the best weather for winter running…if it’s warm enough to snow, then it means it’s pretty warm out!  Being from Chicago, I know what it’s like to be too cold to snow.  (Yes, there is such a thing!)

A few runs to catch up on:

Monday, February 8
8.05 miles in 1:01:20, avg pace of 7:37

I thought my legs were going to be super tired since my salty fifteen mile run, but they weren’t at all!  The run felt awesome and the roads were clear, which was definitely nice.  I feel much more confident about running when I can run well the day after a long run.  Perhaps working a shift as a nurse is a good way to work out post-long run soreness?  Forget ice baths…just run around like crazy for eight hours!  Done.

Tuesday, February 9
4.02 miles in 31:57, avg pace of 7:57

I actually attended a Body Pump class at the gym on Tuesday morning…getting my butt out of bed at eight in the morning on my day off.  Crazy!  Body pump is a weight lifting class set to music, and it was pretty fun!  I’m soooo weak!  haha.  I’ll dedicate another post to my Body Pump experience, but I went running (outside, of course) after the class and my legs were tired!  I told myself to keep it slower for some recovery and this is what I ended up with.  I feel like runs that are only four miles should feel really short, but this one didn’t!  Go Body Pump…haha.

Thursday, February 11
11.09 miles in 1:29:41, avg pace of 8:05

Oh dear.  Ohhhhh dear.  What a run.  Since the roads were okay on my drive home last night, I figured I’d hit the roads for my eleven miles, even though I really didn’t feel like it!  I never regret a run after I’ve done it, so away I went.  Parts of the roads were fine so I tried to stick to them, although for the last five miles I pretty much ran on packed, slippery snow.  My pace ranged anywhere from a 7:30 miles to a 8:46 mile…based purely on my footing!  I was NOT enjoying myself for those last five miles!  Anyway, after about 2/3 of a mile, I totally wiped out.  Feet out from under me…total face plant.  I mainly hit my knees and nothing really hurt so I kept going.  I suppose most normal people would turn around and go home, but I decided to keep running.  Crazy, huh?  For the rest of the run, I almost slipped about two more times, but not too bad.  One car was backing out of his driveway and almost hit me…he probably wasn’t expecting to see anyone out on the roads.

Highlight (or not so much) of my run:  I was about half a mile from my house, where a stoplight exists.  As I was coming up to the stoplight, a truck that had just passed me rolled down his window and yelled, “You need to stop running because you get yourself or someone else killed!!”  Wait.  Waaaaait.  What?  The roads weren’t great, but I like to think I’m a pretty safe runner.  I never run with music so I’m alert to my surroundings, I run down the side of the road (not the the middle…), I try to wear bright colors when I think visibility might be bad (although people still almost hit me when I’m wearing yellow…), and I always have my eye out for cars or other potential hazards.  And really, if you think the roads are that unsafe, why are you out driving?  And on that note, it would be nice if you were actually using the plow on the front of your truck.  Just saying.

I’m excited that tomorrow is Friday and even more excited that the weekend is so soon!  Two days off…so good!!

With Snowpocalyse 2010 on my heels, I wasn’t so sure what my game plan would be for running this weekend.  I had hoped to do my fifteen mile long run on Saturday, but just one glimpse at the pictures and you would see why I scratched that idea.  Digging my car out of the snow was a good enough workout…my forearms were sore this morning!  The next great idea was to move my long run to Sunday, but with the most I’ve ever run before work being 14 miles, I wasn’t sure how it would go.  Tired legs can be trouble when you’re a nurse!  The roads were still bad when I drove home from work Saturday night, so I didn’t know what the roads would be like, and fifteen miles on a slushy mess didn’t sound like fun.  Since training plans are more of suggestions than regiments, I decided to switch my runs around for the week and do eight miles this morning and do the fifteen on my day off on Tuesday, when I would presume the roads would be clearer.

So with that plan in mind, I Under Armour-ed up and headed out into the cold!  I had an eight mile route in mind, and the first two miles were terrible.  I kept thinking about what a terrible run this was going to be and how long it was going to feel.  About two miles later, that feeling had past and I felt amazing!  Not sure if I finally warmed up or what, but my run went from the worst ever to great.  At about mile 4.75 (going downhill with the wind at my back…), I decided that I would do fifteen miles today instead of eight.  It seemed like a good idea, and I could extend my current route into ten miles, where I would loop back by my house, grab some water and maybe something to eat if I wanted, and then do another five miles.  Sounded like a great plan.

Except I didn’t really feel like heading back when I hit the eight mile mark, so I turned to add on a loop instead of running past my house.  I figured I could stop and eat some snow if I needed to.    Still chugging long, I kept waiting for my legs to die or to really need something to drink, but I didn’t!  Since I hadn’t planned on doing 15 miles, I didn’t have any fuel or water on me, and I did fine without it.  It was one of those runs where I felt like I could run forever, which is surprising with how terrible it started and how the roads were!

The roads…oh the roads.  While I applaud my town for its attempts to clear the roads, everywhere still had at least an inch or so of packed snow and slush.  I spent a lot of time running down the middle of the road which was clear from the cars driving on it.  That being said, I would hug the side of the road when cars went by and they still almost hit me!  If they didn’t hit me, they covered me in road slush.  Thanks, drivers. 

Covered in salt.  Please note:  I threw out these socks today.

I passed a lady who was shoveling her driveway, and she yelled to me, “Well, you’re certainly ambitious!”  I failed to mention that I was on mile eight of fifteen…haha.

by the numbers

Sunday, February 7
15.12 miles in 1:55:44, avg pace of 7:39
Splits:  7:50, 7:54, 8:12, 7:40, 7:34, 7:43, 7:32, 7:45, 7:37, 7:51, 7:32, 7:38, 7:33, 7:23, 7:25, 0:28 (7:25 pace)

Take that, Snowpocalypse!!

• 8:  Miles I planned to run.
• 15:  Miles I did run.
• 12:  Cars that almost hit me.
• 3:  Cars that covered me in road slush.
• 1:  Other runner that I spotted.
• 4:  Plow truck drivers who must have thought I was crazy when they saw me three times.

Overall, I’d say I’ll take it. 

If you are anywhere on the east coast (but apparently only south of NYC?), you are probably buried in snow.  I know we are.  It was a bit of a mess getting home from work last night…when I got to work at 3pm it hadn’t started snowing yet, and I kept peering out my patients’ windows to see when the snow would start.  I think it started to come down around 6pm and I watched it get worse and worse with every hour!  Nurses who had to work at 7am on Saturday came to the hospital Friday night to sleep since they figured it would be a mess (or impossible…) to get to work on Saturday morning.  Right they were since when I woke up at nine this morning they had yet to plow my street!  One of the night shift nurses (who come on at 11pm) got detoured and ended up being late…we were all worried that we would have to stay overnight if people couldn’t get in…luckily that didn’t happen!

I was super worried that I would be snowed in…while I hate my job, I would feel really bad not going.  Nurses don’t get snow days!!  It’s different if they tell me not to go versus me calling me and saying I’m not coming.  By 10am I saw a plow go by at least four times, so I figured the roads might be not too terrible.  The trick was going to be digging out my car, which I was admittedly not too excited about.  I mean, that’s what boys are for!  I set out to shovel away, and then I got some help from my roommate’s friend who is snowed in with us.  Victory!

It’s kind of funny that I moved all the way from Chicago, expecting to avoid snow falls such as this, but oh no no no, the snow decided to bring Chicago to me!  How nice of it. 

Enough talk, let’s just get to the photo evidence of the disaster that occurred overnight.

View from the driveway, pre-shoveling.

I don’t own snow boots!!

Car on the side of the road…not mine, luckily!

Success!!

No BBQing tonight…

Getting to work should be fun.  I’m going to leave early and go super slow…I drove between 15-20 miles per hour all the way home last night and prayed alllllll the way up the giant hill my little Honda Civic had to climb.  I’m nervous about going down it….gah.  It’s going to be okay.  I hope.

So much for my 15 mile run I was supposed to do today…

I’m not exactly sure where I got the inspiration for this meal (or week of meals, as mine always are!)…it may have been Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point.  Anyway, this weekend I got a hankering for roasted vegetables because I remember roasting for HOURS a few months ago and thought about how delicious everything was.  Besides, you can’t really go wrong by throwing a bunch of stuff into the oven.  Simple, easy, delicious.  Right up my alley!

So what was the plan?  I basically just browsed the produce section and bought whatever veggies I thought would be tasty…green pepper, red pepper, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, RED POTATOES.  The potatoes being the star of the show with the broccoli being a close second.  Who knew roasted broccoli was so good?  I sure didn’t.

So what was my secret to roasting?  Well, it’s not exactly complicated…and it’s certainly not really a secret!

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut up those veggies into one inch (or bite size) pieces.
3. Throw veggies into a bowl.
4. Throw in some olive oil.  Add whatever spices you want.  I used black pepper, parsley flakes, some garlic powder, and an “Italian Medley.”  Basically, I stood in front of the spices and grabbed whatever sounded good.
5. Toss the veggies/olive oil/spices.
6. Place coated veggies on a baking sheet.  I sprayed it with Pam before using.
7. Put veggies in the oven for ten minutes.  Stir them around.  Roast for another ten minutes.  Stir them around.  Check to see if they’re done.  I roasted them for another five minutes and they were soft yet still crisp.  (Stick them with a fork!)
8. Enjoy!  (Let them cool a little first…)

It doesn’t get any easier than that! 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a bite is worth a million…but since you’re not in my house to try my tasty delights, I’ll have to leave you with a thousand words a picture.  Or a few.

Plate of roasted veggies…with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce and ketchup for dipping!

I think the BBQ is what really makes this meal…seriously.

Brown rice, kidney beans, and, yes, more BBQ sauce!

I don’t think I’d make too bad of a vegetarian…except I love buffalo chicken and don’t think I could ever give it up.  Hmmmmm.

Clementines…a gift from God himself.

My lunch…altogether now!  I love that elephant tray.

Guess what I’m having for dinner??  SO GOOD.

I hope you all enjoyed a little glimpse of my lunch…now it’s time to eat it all before I head to work!

With just under 11 weeks until Boston, I’m officially in my second week of marathon training!  I’m at that point where it doesn’t quite feel like marathon training yet, but with a 15 miler scheduled for this weekend, I’m sure that feeling won’t last too long.    I’ve had two great runs so far this week!  Monday was a rest day…I had great plans to brave the gym for some lifting, but I decided to start small and use my free weights in the comfort of my own home.  I’ll get there!  I reviewed different strengths moves to try at the gym so I won’t look like a complete fool.

My run on Tuesday was the first tempo run of marathon training!  I’m always intimidated by tempo runs, although I don’t know why…I think it’s totally mental, as I think they should be hard and painful and not fun. It’s mostly funny because I think my tempo pace is somewhere around 7:00-7:10 (that’s a guess…based off of the McMillan calculator for a 3:20 marathon), which I’ve been hitting at the end of many of my runs anyway.  It’s still kind of daunting!  Let’s see how it panned out…the plan was 8 miles with four at tempo pace:

Tuesday, February 2
Warm up:  2.15 miles in 17:05, avg pace of 7:57
Tempo Miles:  6:58, 6:49, 6:40, 6:39, avg pace of 6:45
Cool down:  2.11 miles in 16:39, avg pace of 7:53

I don’t know about you…but I’d call that a success!  The last tempo mile got a bit painful with about half a mile to go, but otherwise I felt controlled and comfortable.  Definitely working, but no puke factor or anything.  In other news, I should probably slow down my warm up and cool down…but that’s for another day.

Over night, we got about an inch of snow (which lead to schools being delayed for two hours…REALLY?  Come on now.), so that foiled my plan to do my 11 mile run on the local trail.  Crunching through possible slippery snow was not my idea of fun, so I mapped out a run through the local neighborhood, which had clear streets.  I do many of my runs in the neighborhood since it’s a bit hillier (good practice!), but this was the longest I’ve gone so far.  Luckily I didn’t get lost, and I had an awesome run!

Wednesday, February 3
11.05 miles in 1:24:36, avg pace of 7:39

My legs were tiredddd after yesterday, and I wasn’t sure how they would feel today, especially with the hills.  Once I got out there, it felt great!  Post-snow runs are the best because snowing means that it’s pretty warm out, especially with cloud cover!  Plus it’s fun with the snow lands in your open mouth. 

run the mile you’re in

I’d like to take some time to address how to get through various runs.  Many people ask me how I keep myself occupied while running…Music?  Thoughts?  Cartwheels?  The honest truth?  I have no idea.  I don’t listen to music (safety factor…and I never have!), my cartwheels would certainly cause injury both to me and the people around me, and I think my mind is like a black hole when I run.  I know I think about things, sometimes sing songs (in my head, never out loud!), but when I get back, I couldn’t tell you what I thought about…quite impressive for those long run!

The mind warp is all fine and dandy when I’m having a good run, but what about those ones where you just want them to end?  When four more miles seems like an eternity?  (And you’ve only ran ONE so far!)  Although I’ve gone by this for years, Lam said it point blank when I made a comment that I could run 7:30 pace for six miles…but what about the next twenty??  “Run one mile at a time,” he said.  (Maybe not the exact words, but that was the gist of it.)  During my tempo run, the thought of running four 6:45 miles didn’t sound so peachy, but running ONE 6:45 mile?  I can do that.  And when that one is done, I can do another…but let’s not think about that now.

We’ve all been there on the long run…you’ve run six miles and fourteen more seems impossible.  When training for the Wisconsin Marathon, I tricked myself into thinking about one mile at a time by making sure my Garmin was set to give me my current mile distance and pace.  When I looked at my watch, it would only say I’ve gone half a mile instead of 8.5 miles!  By thinking about the mile I was currently running, it got my mind off of the next twelve (or ten…or six…or whatever) miles I had left to run…it’s a great way to trick your mind, and it’s gotten me through many long runs, tempo runs, or any run that just seems to go on for.ev.er.

Run the mile you’re in.  Sounds simple.  And it is.  You can’t control what will happen in ten miles, but you can concentrate on how you’re running now.  Just think about it.

Ohhh how I love when a long run seems easy!  I know that 13 miles doesn’t necessarily fall into the “long run” category (depends who you ask, I suppose), but that was the scheduled long run for the start of my 12 week training plan for BOSTON, so away I went.  Actually, I procrastinated quite a bit before going on my way.  It’s been cold this weekend so I was waiting for it to warm up a little.  I bundled up in some Under Armour (sooo good!), a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt (and that’s just on top!).  Once I got outside, I figured the sweatshirt was overkill and left it at home.  Good call…I would have been quite toasty!

I’ve been running pretty fast lately, and I wanted to try to slow down…but.  Well.  That didn’t happen.  (Yes, I’m sure you called it…)  The pace ended up feeling really comfortable and lots of other runners were out on the trail!!  Due to the odd time that I normally run (10am-1pm) during the week, I rarely see other runners.  Most of them waved back at me or even said hi so it was fun.  Seeing people also helps decrease my anxiety about ending up on the next episode of Law and Order:  SVU…you think I’m kidding, but I get really paranoid about it!

Sunday, January 31
13.11 miles in 1:39:51, avg pace of 7:37

Splits:  7:28, 7:47, 7:41, 7:45, 7:43, 7:51, 7:43, 7:41, 7:33, 7:37, 7:34, 7:18, 7:13, 0:50 (6:54 pace) 

That’s right…a half marathon!  I can’t run only 13 miles when I’m so close to a half.  I’m pretty excited about this run because the pace felt great…not like I was chugging away, but pretty comfortable.  (Until the end when I was making sure my watch said 1:39 instead of 1:40…haha.)  Marathon pace, maybe??  That would be 3:20…although I’m sure Boston is hillier than my flat trail.

the skinny (on) jeans

I headed to the mall today to attempt to do some retail therapy.  While the therapy part failed (I’m a terrible shopper…I guess that’s good for my wallet), I somehow ended up with a pair of skinny jeans!  I think I’m stylish enough to not look like a total loon, but that’s about it.  Skinny jeans are a big deal for me!  I got some good tips on Twitter about wearing skinny jeans, and here’s what I’ve got so far:

Tops to Wear

• Shirts that are longer…cover your butt!
• Shirts that are looser.  Balance out the tightness on the bottom!
• Combine the two and use a cute belt to tie up that loose shirt.  (I am not nearly stylish enough to pull this off!)

What about those shoes??

• Heels…make those legs look like they go on forever.
• Boots!  Hello, these will go great with my new Uggs.  (I don’t care what you say, my feet have never been warmer.)
• Flats.  I love my cute red ballet slippers…perfect.

Alright, I guess you are all probably fashionistas and did not need my little tutorial on how to wear skinny jeans.  (Except for you, Matt…I hope you took notes!)  But I hope you enjoyed my little fashion lesson.  Now I just have to go out in public in them. 

spin…fail

This morning was quite the adventure…despite being exhausted all week, I dragged myself out of bed to attempt to go to my second spin class at the gym.  They put up a sign up sheet half an hour before class starts so you can sign up for a bike, but I figured if I got there somewhere around there I’d be fine.  WRONG.  The list apparently filled up in about two minutes…people were waiting in line to sign up!  On Friday morning??  Okay fine.  Well I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do since it’s freezing outside and I wasn’t planning on running today anyway.  I headed upstairs to look at the machines and decided to try the elliptical.

Oh dear.  I just reinforced the fact that I hate the machines.  I have no clue how people use them for an hour!  Or more than 20 minutes, which is how long I used it for…it was torture!!  I can run for an hour without any issues and time will fly by, but the seconds draaaaaag on the machines.  I told myself to do 20 minutes and call it a day since I was tired.  Legs are kinda sore anyway.  I’ll survive.

that’s what boys are for

The other exciting part of my morning was when I turned on my car and a warning light came on.  I am no stranger to car problems (multiple cars have broken down on me…gah), but that still doesn’t mean I have any idea what to do with them.  I scrambled to find the owner’s manual and learned that the funny looking light was the “low pressure” indicator for my tires.  I’m not a total idiot, so I knew well enough to check my tires to see if they were totally flat (they weren’t).  My next plan was to put air in the tires, but like anyone who has NO CLUE what to do with cars, I called my dad.  Because cars things are for boys to deal with.

Yes, that’s right.  I have a list of things to which I say, “That’s what boys are for.”  That saying started when I had a friend who was shocked that I didn’t know how to change a tire or check my oil.  Well, no…of course I don’t…that’s what boys are for!  If I’ve ever had car trouble or anything, I always call my dad and he figures it out.  This list isn’t only related to car problems, but also includes things such as:

• Taking out the trash.
• Changing light bulbs that burn out.
• Mowing the lawn.  (Although I’ve enjoyed this the few times I have done it.)
• Any yard work.
• Shoveling the driveway.
• Fixing anything and everything.
• Grilling.
• Cleaning the floors.  (I hate cleaning floors. I’ll clean anything else, I promise.)
• Starting fires…like in a fireplace…not for real.

Most of these are probably based on the things that my dad did in my house, or are things that I would rather not do for myself.  Not saying I couldn’t do these things, but if someone else could do them for me, I’d be a happy person.  I like to think that I contribute to life other ways (cooking!  baking!  cleaning!  being entertaining!), so it’s a fair trade off.

Do you have anything on your “that’s what boys are for” list?  Let me know that I’m not alone!

Don’t worry, I’m not driving around with flat tires…I managed to figure out how to check the air pressure in my tires and put air in them.  Success!  See, I’m not a complete helpless female.  (Although I did almost have to go inside the garage to ask how to work the tire pressure gauge…then it suddenly worked!)

i am completely capable of running on my own

Although it would be nice to have a body guard to run with (I watch too much SVU…ha), I am quite capable of running by myself.  I put off my run yesterday for about an hour and a half before it was do or die time.  Okay, not that extreme, but if I was going to run, I needed to get out the door so I could get to work on time!  I finally decided that running yesterday would be better than running today and that I would be happy with myself when I was done.  And that was true, of course.  I don’t usually ever regret going on a run…especially when the next day is 18 degrees instead of 40!  Definitely wouldn’t have wanted to run nine miles today!  Yesterday, however, was glorious.

Thursday, January 28
9.04 miles in 1:08:20, avg pace of 7:33

The speedy runs continue!  No complaints here. First “long run” this weekend…13 miles.  I’ll be trying to slow it down as to not wear myself out, but we’ll see how it goes.  I just hope it warms up a little bit!

Happy Friday, everyone!