A Month Left

Oh hey there, everyone!

Since it’s now December, and instead of just concerning myself with everyday stressors, I’m also now taking on the holidays and “oh yeah, those new years resolutions” and the sinking feeling that comes with them.

For a good laugh, let’s see how I’ve been doing:

1. Cook some sort of fish. I never have. For some reason or another, it freaks me out.

I totally did this. I’m too lazy to hunt down the post, but it was a salmon filet from Trader Joe’s and it turned out mediocre. It didn’t kill me. So it still counts.

2. Go on vacation somewhere. Did this last year by hitting Vegas. Twice if you count the bachelorette I attended there, too. Enjoyed myself a little too much. Need to make taking time off to travel a regular thing…

I took a few extended weekends. Does that count? There was a trip to Washington DC and Boston with the sister wives. A wedding weekend in Indianapolis. A race in Geneva, Wisconsin. Maybe if you merge them all together, it counts? Almost win.

3. Beat my 8k time. It was so frustrating to have a goal of breaking 40 minutes and to finish my last 8k in 40:00:00. Now the question is, who’s doing it with me???

I did not do one 8k this year. Not one. However, I PR’d with a new 5k and half marathon time. We’ll call it another almost win.

4. Figure out my new iPhone. This could take all year. Tech savvy I am not…

I love love love my iphone. And I sort of hate myself for it because I feel so cliché. But it’s true. I love it. And I’m getting better. Win.

5. Bake with yeast. I’m more of a fan of the quick bread variety. Yeast seems like a temperamental ingredient. However, if I really do want to claim to be a “baker”, I should probably grow a pair and man up.

I have not done this. Yet. I still have almost a month. And this seems much more likely to happen than the 8k thing…

6. Run two more half marathons. Thought I had figured out which ones I’d be doing. Now I’m not so sure. Either way, two decent ones shouldn’t be hard to find.

I ran 3, bitches!  The Chi Town Half Marathon where I was totally miserable with stomach cramps. The Chicago Half Marathon where I PR’d like a boss. And the ZOOMA Half Marathon that was one giant hill. BOOM.

7. Master the crow pose in yoga. Not that I’m planning on being a yoga master any time soon, I don’t really even enjoy it, but I bet the crow pose would be an impressive party trick…

I have done yoga maybe twice this entire year. And it was Jillian Michaels yoga. So you decide if that counts. I do not see this happening. I should really just give up. I hate yoga and need to admit it.

8. See a Chicago Bulls game. I heart basketball. The Bulls are my favorite NBA team. Why hasn’t this happened yet?

Took my brother for his birthday. Two birds with one stone kind of deal. WIN!

9. Eat more cookies. It may be hard to beat my consumption from last year. But I’m willing to try.

I’d call this a toss-up. Probably didn’t bake more… but that doesn’t mean consumption was down…

10. Marry a Prince. Kate Middleton did it. Why can’t I?

Well… I’m still in my budget friendly apartment in Chicago, so this clearly did not happen. I’m not so upset about it. Prince Harry seems like a handful who can’t keep his clothes on. What a hot mess. And I’m dating someone who I like better anyway. Win.

All in all, I’m proud of my accomplishments. Especially since the list was practically forgotten about a week after it was written…

Happy Friday, folks!

ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon: The Neverending Hill

The most well-deserved after-race medal/award I’ve ever earned.

Truth.

This last weekend, us ZOOMA ambassadors reunited, along with a few more awesome Chicago bloggers/runners in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Our weekend had finally come- The ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon.

We rented a lake house, officially dubbed the party house, and had ourselves a good time.The house was amazing and we easily fit 14 ladies comfortably for the night.

All we had to do was supply the food.

ssshhh… don’t tell the rest of the healthy living bloggers we may have had more candy than vegetables on site…

If only we didn’t have such a rude 5:00 wakeup call.

Twinsies! Or at least until I became a total baby and decided I was too cold to not dress in layers…

I hope you like bagels and peanut butter… because that’s what you’re eating…

Luckily for me, our breakfast was what I normally eat for prerace. Sometimes it’s awesome us bloggers can be so cliché with our peanut butter.

Because it was a point-to-point race, we met up at the Abbey Resort to get shuttled out to the start line.

Kelly was super pumped we were the cool kids on the back of the bus. Or at least we were self-proclaimed to be. Still counts.

Two hours after waking up, the sun finally starts to rise. So many things wrong with that sentence…

The view was lovely, but the temps were not as nice. We all shivered and shuddered until the start. I opted to keep my long sleeves on- something to be thankful for every time there was a brisk breeze.

So how was the race you ask?

Well.

We were warned about the hills. But even the warnings were not enough to prepare me for what was about to happen.

Turn the first corner, oh hey- a hill.
Congrats, you’ve hit mile marker 2.  Go run up a hill.
You’ve been running on a flat surface for a quarter mile. This is too long, so go run up a hill.
You just finished a subtle incline for a mile. Go run a steep hill.

I truthfully believe I was running uphill for 75% of the race.

The worst was near the end- mile 11. At that point, I was just keeping my head down to avoid the soul crushing inclines ahead of me. But at that particular spot, I looked up. Not one person was running up the hill. It was THAT steep. I attempted my arm-pumping, look like I’m running but in all actuality am barely moving, run. For about 20 feet. Screw this, I’m walking.

I would have cried, but it’s dangerous to dehydrate yourself like that in a race.

So after the half mile from hell (I don’t think it was this long, but that’s what it felt like), we ran a little longer and turned around. To go back down it.

Now, I’ll go ahead and say my love of the stair machine at the gym probably saved my life going up those hills (because we all know I wasn’t training for them on the treadmill). But the downhill? It was so steep. And it took so much energy to slow myself down as I was barreling down, that every time my foot hit the road, my body got a shock to the system. Everything vibrated. With every step.

“This is going to hurt sooooo bad tomorrow.”

But that was about the end of it. Which was good. I was taking a beating. My endurance somehow held up. But my joints weren’t going to take much more.

2:00:04.

10th in my age group. A small race, but I feel it important to throw that out there, anyway.

Some of the ambassadors post race. Smiling. Because it was over. Whew!

And with that, I finished my 5th half marathon.

Check out the sweet compression socks. It’s how a lot of us ambassadors were able to see each other in the distance. And they kept us warm. Duh.

Thank goodness there was wine at the post race. That’s all I have to say about that.

And thank goodness my parents were there to take me to lunch afterwards.

Because I wanted to eat EVERYTHING.

A local brew called Spotted Cow to go with my turkey burger. Because I like diversity.

Oh and more food…

Why yes, the tree of broccoli was quite delicious with my mahi mahi. Thanks for asking.

So yeah. That was my ZOOMA experience. Not my best race time. But not my worst. And with all the hills? I’ll take it.

Plus, I got to see my parents and hang with a bunch of pretty awesome girls for the weekend.

Wine. Jewelry. And a solid girls weekend.

Worth it.

Now excuse me as me and my sore thighs limp on out the door to work…

Laters.

Friday Facts About The ZOOMA Half

Facts revolving around my upcoming half marathon weekend:

1. My ZOOMA Women’s half marathon is tomorrow. I have not trained adequately for it. My hopes are that the efforts put into the Chicago Half Marathon in September will at least halfway carry over. Or just a smidge.

But in the meantime, I’m packed and super excited!

Sometimes it pays to raid your mom and dad’s house over holidays for all the good stuff.

That’s where I got my old jenga game from middle school, not the wine. I can buy that myself now…

2. I am riding with the lovely Meghan to Wisconsin for said race. We have met once and ran into each other while running on the lakefront once. If I disappear for an extended number of days, you know what happened. SEND HELP.

Just kidding, Meghan. I totally trust you.

But just in case, guys…

3. My parents are meeting up with me in Wisconsin to watch the race and take their first official trip to Wisconsin. I’m going to introduce them to cheese curds the same way I was almost two years ago. With good beer in a bar. This may be disastrous.

4. The state of my nails are atrocious about 90% of the time. However, for the time being, they are rocking the blue. Not ZOOMA blue, but close enough.

I really love that it’s time to break out the dark polish again. Makes me feel so bad ass for no good reason at all.

Even if I’m really awful at giving myself manicures. Points for trying?

5. Some of us girls are staying together to make it a super fun, estrogen-filled weekend. We decided to potluck it out. I made cookies.

You’ll hear more about those later. But feel free to drool. They are delicious. I should know. I had no less than four last night and intend to have one with my second cup of coffee later on.

I have a sugar addiction problem. Send more help.

6. There are no set goals for the race itself. Just to finish. Which is technically a goal, but stop getting so technical on me. This is mostly due to all that hill training I planned to do never happening (shame), the furthest I’ve ran since my last race was 8 miles (shame), and my cold apparently got a second wind and lingered until about two days ago (not my fault).

This is just not going to be “my race”.

But whatever. The weather seems like it’ll pull through, Wisconsin is supposedly quite pretty at this time of year, a lot of great girls are running it, and I get a necklace at the end.

And wine. Lots of wine.

My parents should probably find me at the finish sooner than later.

Did I mention there’s wine?

Where was I?

Oh yeah… so that’s my projected weekend in a nutshell. I hope you all have an equally fun time. Or at least get to drink equal amounts of wine.

Did I mention there’s going to be wine?

Wait… where was I again…?

Because Sometimes I Need a Reminder

Running isn’t always easy.

 

Wait- did you know that already? Is this not news at all? Something everyone already knows?

 

Well. There goes what I was going to talk about today.

 

Hmm.

 

Whatever. I’ve got nothing else. Humor me for a bit, mmmk?

 

Running isn’t always easy. It can take a lot of time. It can hurt. It can be exhausting. It can make you doubt yourself. It can make you wish you were anywhere else other than on this stupid lakefront path or treadmill for the millionth time. It can make you want to quit.

 

It does all this. Over and over and over again.

 So what’s my reason to do this again…?

 

It’s my therapy. My time to myself. To think of whatever I want. Or nothing at all.

 

It continues to teach me discipline. When signing up for a long race, I am not only signing up 2 hours of my life on race day. I’m signing up 3 months of waking up early to beat the summer heat. Getting up early to cross and strength train to avoid injury. I’m spending 3 months making sure I get enough sleep on the weekend to get in my long run. Not having that last glass of wine to make sure I’ll hit that last necessary mile (ahem…). Going for salad instead of french fries as a side so I won’t feel like crap during the next day’s workout.

 

Sure, there’s room to bend the rules from time to time. But the end goal is always there.

 

Running has taught me I am capable. Three years ago, my first 5k was a REALLY big deal. And yes, 3.1 miles is a long way. But before that, I never imagined running much further. My first half marathon was a result of a bar bet made after too much liquid courage. While still recovering from an injury. One of the most idiotic but best decisions I’ve ever made.

 

Turns out, most of my big life decisions can be classified as such.

 

*Please note the big life decisions should be considered “a little crazy”, not always made ”under the influence”.

 

Running continues to strengthen relationships and bring great people into my life. It’s been a bonding activity for me with cousins and friends as we do races together. I’m always excited to have my parents come spend a weekend and cheer me on. And on top of that, the Chicago running community is massive. As is the blogger running community. Which is nice. I like having conversations about pace times and races. Or which toenail just fell off. Or the weird tan line from my sports bra.

 

Running keeps me healthy. I like my chocolate, and yes, this helps to counteract decisions my sweet tooth made for me. But it also encourages me to eat better as a proactive choice. Not because I have to, but because I want to. And besides, have you ever had wings and beer before hitting the road for a few miles? It’s not pretty.

 

Not at all. Seriously. Don’t do it.

 

Running makes me feel accomplished. Seeing a big number on the treadmill or finishing up a run along the lakefront? It… kicks ass. And the boost in confidence is a pretty good way to start a day.

 

So yes. There are days when it sucks. When it really sucks. Like… a lot. But there is never a day, even the crappy days, that doesn’t pay off.

 If you’re not into running, that’s fine. Just try to find something. Something that you don’t mind getting up an extra 20 minutes for. Or taking 20 minutes after work. Something that motivates you. Something that makes you feel good. And maybe, just maybe, something that makes you seem a little bit crazy.

 

Because normal is boring.

My Fault

Yesterday’s long run was stupid.

Yes. Stupid.

And the frustrating thing is… it was totally my fault.

I knew what the forecast was. But had no desire to wait until Sunday morning for better weather. Patience is not a virtue I possess.

So maybe I’ll just get up a little earlier and take a nap when I get back?

Fabulous idea, Amy! You’re so smart!

Then this happened:

One glass would have been fine.

Two? Sure, I can handle it! I’m so giggly! This is fun!

Three? Well, I’ll be slower, but man am I thirsty and it’s just soooooo gooooood. It’s too early to go to bed! What should we do? Let’s text EVERYONE!

You get where I’m going with this. Right?

I still got up at 6:30 yesterday morning. Plans were to be out on the roads by 7:30. Get in 9 miles before 9:00 with no issues.

My standard weekend run/race breakfast was made.It’s nothing exciting. But I never deviate from peanut butter on toast. It’s a superstitious quirk.

All good so far.

And then I entered some crazy time warp and didn’t make it out until 8:30. 2 hours after I make a point of getting up early.

What? I still have no idea how that happened.

Things were fine for a while. A new playlist helped. But my water was running out too quickly. And I needed energy gel badly.

After a mental fight, stubborn Amy and whiny Amy compromised. All three of us looped it back to the apartment, grabbed a gel and ran to the gym to finish out the run. This is why I’m annoyed.

8.6 miles in total. I’m absolutely positive I could have hit 9 if my estimates wouldn’t have been off (my runs are always GPS free and I track my neighborhood runs afterwards on MapMyRun). I know this because my last mile was spent working on going progressively faster. So the endurance is there (my positive takeaway from the run). I just need to actually do it.

I don’t feel too badly about missing the mileage. It was only .4 under what was planned. A little bummed, but hardly anything to cry over.

The thing that bugs me is only half of the run was done outside. Which is more important to me right now. The Chicago Half Marathon is early September. And, in regards to the weather, it’s a total crap shoot of what we’ll be dealing with. Being ready for the heat/humidity is a must.

That last glass of wine was excessive. As was the waste of time before actually getting outdoors. Both very much factors I can control. And just didn’t.

My fault.

But I’m done dwelling on it. There’s always next week.

Moving on…

Although I’m super crazy about my pre-run rituals, my post run process has never been the same.

Due to Muscle Milk being a ZOOMA sponser, I’ve been taking advantage of their generosity:

An entire case was given to us at the ZOOMA Training Kick-Off party a few weeks ago!

This is the first time trying it. Normally, because texture plays a large part in what foods I like/dislike. Drinking smoothies/shakes/milk/etc is almost always avoided. So I was timid about this stuff.

But protein after long workouts is pretty important.

So what the heck?

Justin is still a vital part of the household decor. And yes, he likes Muscle Milk, too.

And wouldn’t you know? It’s good! My favorite is the Cookies n’ Creme. If you were to liquify an oreo, this is what it would taste like. Totally.

Never do I drink a whole one at once- it’s split up between 2-3 workouts. This works perfectly- just enough to tide me over with recovery fuel until my stomach settles a little more and my true appetite kicks in.

And when that appetite kicks in? Watch out for your fingers, kids. 8.6 miles gives me a lot of room to work with. Holla’.

To all of my lady friends (sorry dudes): Looking for a fun half marathon this fall? Consider the ZOOMA Women’s Series in Lake Geneva! Especially if you’re in the Midwest! There’s wine and jewelry for everyone running!!! Not to mention, you get a group rate at the freakin’ SPA and Resort! If you sign up today, use “GLAMB1″ to get a discount!

Therapeutic

My Tuesday started with a massive headache.

This comes as no surprise. It was Tuesday, after all.

And Tuesdays are just, like, sooooo stuuuupid.

Instead of raging my way through the work day, I really tried to keep it all in check. And channeled the energy elsewhere.

Running with these ladies, to be exact.

Kim and her friend Carrie! Due to my weirdly rotating work schedule, this only happens every other week or so, but it’s always a fun conversation and distraction from my regular workout routine.

We all ran and took our turns venting for 6 miles. It was therapeutic. And I felt fabulous afterwords.

Until throwing myself directly into Bulls and Cubs traffic afterwards. This left me slightly wound up again.

Luckily, there are ways to de-stress at home, too.

Comfort food helps.Or something that, in my frugality, sort of resembles it. A cheap and healthified Mexican dinner for this chick would be a quesadilla stuffed with the refried beans my roommate bought and now refuses to eat (it’s a texture thing), skimping on cheese and overloading on hot sauce. And a side of brussels sprouts to make my mother proud.

It is almost Mother’s Day, afterall.

As a side note, can we talk about how the quesadilla maker could be the greatest invention of all time?

There’s also the option to give your mind an escape.This puzzle is really coming along, kids. The roommate and I have grand plans to spend one night in this weekend in hopes of putting the finishing touches on this baby.

We’re wild.

But I’d like to have it done sooner than later. No joke, I had a dream about it last night. My roommate had deconstructed it. At this point, that may even be considered a nightmare. 2000 pieces is no joke, kids.

Because the day was a doozy, I even went the baking route.Other than obvious reasons of loving cookie dough and the cookies themselves, I really do enjoy the process of baking. Not quite sure the logic behind this, but it makes me feel all happy inside.

Or maybe that’s just the sugar high talking?

Because there’s a friend with a baby coming soon, I thought I’d send some love her way in the form of the Cookie Butter Stuffed Cookies debuted a few weeks ago. Recipes aren’t repeated in this kitchen often, but when everyone raved about them, how could I not?

I made a smaller recipe this time around. But thankfully, there’s still one this morning that was purposely left out of the care package. And it has my name on it. Expect me to have a sugar crash at my desk around 3pm.

After all that, my annoyance from the day finally subsided. Right before it was time for bed.

Funny how that works.

Oh Tuesday. You won again!

Standard Procedure

Good morning!

Now that Monday is over and the exhaustion from the weekend has subsided for us all, how’s it goin’?

Things are well in these parts. As standard procedure, the first few days following a long/busy weekend fall into a routine of sorts.

First off, sleep becomes an important focus. Not super hard to take care of. After staying up late, changing time zones, flight delays (two hours ON the plane ON the runway is quite horrendous), etc, slumber was quite easy. The last two nights have been deep and heavy sleep.

This doesn’t happen often, so please excuse me while I relish in it.

Ahhhhh….

Ok. We’re all good.

Secondly, groceries need to be acquired. As much as I didn’t want to, a stop by Trader Joe’s on the way home from the airport happened. Because a few cans of black beans and a pantry of cereal are never considered components of a balanced day all by their lonesome.

If you’re like me, you’ll be way too lazy to prep your own dinner after traveling all day, so you’ll walk (yay exercise!) to the nearby Whole Foods and zip through their salad/food bar. Sure, you still have to do it yourself. But they have considerably more options than what I would have been willing to prep in my own kitchen.

Don’t question my logic. Instead, look at all the coloooorrrrrsssss…. (or all the colors you would see- the purple cabbage, carrots, corn, and squash are still there, but hiding).

My aunt once told me, when I was a wee lil’ thing, there should always be a rainbow of colors on your plate for lunch and dinner. The rule has not been lost on me.

To me, this also should include peanut butter after dinner. Because brown is still a color to not be left out, yes?

I wonder if my aunt had a saying about having dessert every single day?

She probably did. Probably something like “don’t”. And it probably went in one ear and out the other. Sigh.

Lastly, it’s a matter of easing back into the fitness routine. We covered a lot of ground over the weekend as we walked through shops, ran through the rain, and danced our way out of the bars.

I also trekked through miles of airport terminals. Which is nothing to scoff at- not only was it tiring, but new flats were being broken in. By the time I reached my gate, said flats were filled with my blood.

Total rookie mistake. Running through O’Hare in heels may have been a better option.

Either way, I’m off on a tangent again, so let’s bring this back around, shall we?

 Monday was still too early to pull out a crazy “let’s go to the gym and GO GO GO GO“. Instead, I went with “let’s go to the gym and GO”.

One “GO” instead of four. It translates to 20 minutes on the stairmill at a lower level of intensity and 1.5 miles on the tread at an easy pace.

Baby steps.

Clearly not like this… 

Princess Kate

This post is brought to you by inspiration of a royal nature.(Source)

Oh Kate Middleton. You are fabulous. And I kind of want your life. Call me if you’re willing to discuss a swap for a week or weekend or day or minute… or whatever…

But anyway, it’s true. I sort of idolize her. She’s elegant. She has a classic sense of fashion. She gets to travel the world. She’s sporty. And, oh yeah, she’s a princess.

To be honest, I’d be satisfied with just 3 of the 5. Maybe even 2 of the 5…

I’m not picky.

But anyway, as a fan of hers, I feel it necessary to say “happy belated anniversary” to her and Will. Especially since I made a point of watching the nuptials last year.

It’s one of my favorite “Mon and Amy” stories. Because we got up and hit the gym at 4:00 in the morning to watch the ceremonies start and ended the day with champagne to watch all the post-wedding coverage we had already seen 3 times that day.

I mean, we were going to get up to watch anyway, might as well be doing something during, right?

This was still sort of in that period where I was getting used to the morning workout- attempting to make it at least 3 days a week and calling it a win.

Now, it’s a set habit. And I’m at the gym/running no less than 4 mornings out of the week (when I work 9-6 in the office- it’s always changing). Sometimes cursing happens while getting dressed (not very princess-like of me, I’m sure), but I get there.

It feels awesome to sleep in. But it feels so much better to have my workout done and out of the way. When I do get home after work, all I have to do is take off my jacket and throw myself back into the dent in my couch for the evening.

Keeping that in mind, I did a pretty standard 22 minutes on the stairmill (to achieve that Middleton booty) before retreating to the elliptical for another 16 (why not 15? who knows- I like weird numbers) and finally to the weight room to mess around with free weights and that weird hip adduction machine I’ve started to like so much.

There’s no doubt that morning workouts are much more productive for me than evenings ones. Especially in intensity.

Which is a good thing. If I want to get in princess shape, this will surely help.

Please excuse me… now that I have that crossed off the list, I must track down a stylist to help me on my quest to become the next Kate Middleton.

Toodles!

Dent In The Couch

I missed a high school friend’s wedding this last weekend.

An unfortunate consequence of me moving a state away after college. I can’t go back to my hometown as much as I’d like for such things. It sucks sometimes. Sure, I’ll see pictures and hear all the stories. But it’s not really the same.

I’m not writing about this to start a pity party. I love my life in Chicago. And my weekends as of late have been full of so much fun! But with my traveling to Mid-MO for Easter and with my trip to DC this coming weekend, it was decided to stay home this last weekend for the sake of saving some cash and sanity.

Or at least salvage the last of both. Whichever.

So, as promised to myself on Saturday, I did turn down invites out. And had myself a nice little night in. Sweats. No makeup. My spot on the couch.

Everything but the kitchen sink was in this pizza. Or at least everything in my refrigerator- mushrooms, green peppers, onions, pepperoni and black olives. Topped later with mozzarella and feta cheese. Because one type of cheese is never enough...

And nothing says “lazy night in” like a glass or two of wine and some pizza.

That's the ticket. Notice how light it is- because dinner happened at maybe 5:30. Apparently, when deciding to stay in this weekend, I also became a senior citizen in the process
Oh and you're crazy if you think I didn't go back for another two pieces. It was that good.

And proceeding to fall asleep on said couch by 10:00 that night.

Sigh. That hasn’t happened in SO long. As much as I enjoy being a social butterfly, it was nice. Really nice.

What does a person do after 9 hours of sleep? They have a nice little run to Wrigleyville and back. The only people out were me, taxi drivers, and a few people stumbling into the area brunch spots. So every few blocks, there was a rotation between the smell of bacon and eggs, then stale beer. Gotta love Wrigleyville in the warmer months…

3.2 miles and a shower later, I was back on the couch. Where I belonged. Making my dent.

And here I am now- my weekend unfortunately over, watching the headlines, and getting ready to leave my dent in the couch for work. Sadness. At least I have pictures of the missed wedding mentioned earlier to look forward to when I get home and retreat back to my dent in the couch.

It’s important to ease your way out of lazy weekends slowly. A little known fact…

Surprise Long Run

Isn’t it funny how, when you’re ridiculously tired/exhausted, it’s that much harder to fall asleep? Still reeling from the long weekend and all the events that went down, you’d think I’d be passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Nope.

So when the alarm went off on yet another dreaded Tuesday this week, I didn’t even have to wake up. I was awake.

Not a surprising way to start that day of the week. Why do Tuesdays have to be so stupid?!?!

Coworkers are surely going to start gossiping. Either about my bloodshot eyes and how they came about or the threat of my heart exploding from the amount of coffee being consumed. Maybe both.

Had I been forced to sit in the traffic that has plagued my commute the last week or two, the gym would not have happened. So lucky for me, Kim and Maggie were available for a run on the trails near my office!

That doesn’t mean I didn’t drive around 10 minutes longer than necessary being semi-lost. But hey- at least now I know where to go next time…

This was the first time I’ve met up with either of them and I was excited. My coworkers were nervous. Because when you leave the office in running gear and people inquire about your whereabouts, do not say “going to go run in the woods with strangers.” It won’t go over well.

Hilariously enough, we planned every detail except for how far we would actually run. Being as how I’ve eased up on the running since my half marathon a few weeks ago, I was a bit uneasy about not knowing this one weeeeee lil’ detail.

Especially since these girls, and another running buddy that joined us, are marathon runners.

Uh. What exactly was I getting myself into?!?!?

Most of my runs during the week have been 3-5 miles. And, if we’re being honest, the majority of them as of late have been closer to 3. No real reason. No excuses. That’s just the way it’s gone down as of late.

But I surprised myself! MapMyRun was horribly off (what gives, iphone app?), but Kim helped me figure out that I had done approximately 7 miles (we kept it at a conversational pace) after meeting them on the trail.

And only one bug was snorted in the process. Solid win. 7 miles on a Tuesday. A freakin’ Tuesday! Maybe that’s what I need to start doing more often to make Tuesday seem less sad and pathetic?

Who woulda thunk it?

Someone remind me of this next week.

And since I know you were concerned, I’ve slept like a rock ever since.

Happy sigh.