Five Things Friday. Again.

There’s no need for introductions, I’m just diving right in.

1) I have a massage and a pretty important doctor’s appointment back to back Tuesday, and I cannot wait. At least for the massage. Jeff always says it’s like there’s two sticks poking out from my back-I carry so much stress in my shoulders, and I will stress FOR you. I worry too much, about everything, and hold it right up in my shoulder blades. I once had a deep tissue massage in which she could not move from a 6 inch spot on my shoulders/upper back and still didn’t even get the knots out of that area. It hurt SO BAD. I’ve read about this scraping phenomena, anyone tried it? I scream like a baby when I remember to use my foam roller, so I’m not sure I could hang with that.

2) I’m getting back to a consistent running speed, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I actually feel good running again, and that’s something I’ve been missing for almost a year now. Last year, most of my run training was stupidly done in the worst heat of the day, which was usually around 90. I thought I was “preparing myself” for my half Ironman. Spoiler alert: heat sucks. Because you run in it once, doesn’t mean it won’t suck again on race day. Might as well get your training in how you can, and not just during race day conditions.

3) Does anyone else wake up to their alarm in the morning and count down how many times they have to hear that blasted thing before the weekend? When I woke up this morning and realized it’s off for two days….bliss. Even better is that aside from a Superbowl Party Sunday afternoon, we have no plans this weekend. I used to be one of those girls that needed to be “out” every weekend, and I am now so excited about just staying home and all the simple pleasures that come with it. Maybe I’ll get started on planning our France trip!

4) If you don’t follow Mike at Running Around the Bend, you should. Very frank and insightful, and that man can run in sub zero conditions that make me cry like a little girl (if that wouldn’t just freeze the tears on my face). His post “Life is not full of unicorns and rainbows” really resonated this week.

5) It sounds like Saturday night, Jeff is cooking me his first authentic Shepherd’s Pie. With lamb meat. I’m excited to try it, I’ve really only had lamb one other time. I was just talking with friends on Facebook last night about the palate change you go through as an adult. There’s so many things I crave now that I HATED as a kid. I think some of it goes back to the fact that as a kid, my parents felt obligated to feed me vegetables, but didn’t really know how to prepare them. Things just got steamed, or boiled, or put in cream of mushroom soup casseroles. And none of that really tastes good to a kid-do you blame me for not loving grocery store deli cole slaw or steamed brussels sprouts as a 10 year old? Now I really appreciate both of those items when well prepared.

*Anything you used to hate eating that you  love now?

*Anything you used to love eating that you may have burned out on?

 

Day in the Life

You asked for it, Alison! Here’s a day in the life of Laura. I’m doing yesterday, because it was weird.

3:30-wake up because dogs are sleeping on me. Am I hungry or am I nauseated? I was a little low on calories yesterday…could be hungry…staying in bed.

4:00 -still hungry, this dog won’t stop sleeping on me, infinitely sore from yesterday’s workouts. Dogs get up to shake their ears or whatever noisy annoying thing they’re doing at 4:00 AM. Kick them out of bedroom and shut the door. Try very hard to go back to sleep and kinda succeed.

6:33-alarm goes off. Yes, I have to get up at an off time. It’s a quirk. Embrace me for it.

6:55-have done hair, makeup, gotten dressed, and packed food for the day. Out the door to work. Yes, I have this down to a science. No wasted time here!

7:15-parked car and walked in to my office. Throw food in fridge, oatmeal in microwave, and settle in to work. Early morning, I’m sending out failed URL confirmations, contacting schools, setting up new profiles for payment plan processing, and creating a document regarding the migration of our product from one platform to another.

8:30-have a flash of inspiration; check internal job board to discover that my dream job is currently posted at my place of employment. Dream job for me? Wellness coordinator. I’m going to have to work hard to convince them that I’m the lady for this job, but I really hope I can do it. This would be an amazing, amazing opportunity, and basically what I feel like I should be doing with my life. I have so many talented, driven friends in my life. I have two PR directors and the communciations director for our state as 3 of my best friends, and lately I’ve felt like I’m not putting forward the work to really be at the place in my career I know I could be. This would totally change everything.

12:15-settle an issue for a client and head out to the gym. First workout of the day? 30 minutes on the AMT trainer. It’s like an ARC trainer, and a cross between an elliptical machine and a treadmill almost. It always gets my heart pumping.

1:15-back to the office. Inhale snack at desk and immediately want more. Wait until 2:00 and make some popcorn in the microwave air popper of the gods.

Pretty awesome Christmas gift!

2:40-leave work to cross town and make my 3:00 doctor’s appointment. It’s my final post op appt from my Nov 30 hysterectomy, and I have a list of questions to ask my doctor.

3:15-seen by the doctor. Cry a little. Ask questions and get sent to another doctor-though this isn’t really his fault. I’ll be crafting another blog regarding the referral, but I’ll say that I’m really going to “miss” this doctor. I see another practitioner in his office for my yearly exams but he’s done all 10 of my surgeries. We’re out of organs for him to operate on now, for the most part, so it’s going to be weird not seeing him every year to eighteen months. We had a good run, Dr H, but I don’t think I’m going to miss our yearly appointment in the OR.

4:00-head out for my run. I finagle a strange route that takes 3 miles and gets me to my pregnant friend’s house. Rake her leaves for her for approx 1.25 hours. Daylight is fading-run straight home for another 1.25 miles and make it home around 6.

this was raking her leaves LAST year…pile was about the same. But without the human we hid at the bottom for fun last year. Miss you, Erik!

6:00-start making Laursagne for Jeff. I’m basically Peggy Hill in this scenario. I like to turn my name into the name of the food I’m cooking. My naming conventions aren’t for everyone…

6:45-while dinner is cooking, inhale a salad and take a hot hot bath to soothe my poor muscles from the last 2 day’s exploits.

8:00-we sit down to some fantastic lasagne and property brothers.

8:30-foam roll on commercial break. Try not to scream. Fail miserably.

10:00-hop in bed, take melatonin, pass out.

So, that’s me. Super exciting, right? What’s that? Not so much? Yeah, it was Wednesday. Not terribly exciting. But that’s just a day in the life of a married Nebraska lady!

What I Ate Wednesday-Guest Post!

 

I’m going to link up today to WIAW-with a twist! We woke up this morning to a mess of shredded saran wrap and one missing homemade baguette. Jeff was crushed, he had some pretty tasty plans for that bread today. The reality is that our dogs are decidedly more snuggly and apt to sleep on the bed in winter than in summer, and as a result I’m literally crushed under the weight of their love for…our heated blanket. I could NOT get room to stretch out my legs last night, and considering I taught 30 minutes of spinning and 90 of strength training yesterday, I could feel my legs throbbing and soreness setting in, so around 4:00 AM I sent the dogs out and shut the door. Blissful, sweet leg room! Apparently, the cost in our house for such delicious space is one crusty loaf of bread. Anyway, thinking of Foster out in the living room with a baguette between his paws made me giggle, and then took me back to his puppy days. You see…Foster’s a big of a pig. Don’t let this face fool you, there’s been a “push all the food back from the edge of the counter” rule in my house since the day I got him.That dog is TRICKY. 

So this morning, after the sting of baguette loss wore off, I realized MY food didn’t have many pictures and wasn’t that varied, so we’re going to have a guest poster today. Foster, our pleasantly plump pup, has ate quite a great deal more than his share of people food over his lifetime. I thought we’d let him chime in with some of the best meals of his life. 

The first thing I remember eating is some delicious dark stuff all wrapped up in plastic. This was when I was about 6 months old, and kids kept ringing our doorbell in funny outfits. It was so much fun tearing through the wrapper to get to that tasty sweet stuff! I got through about 6 packages before Mom saw what was happening and stopped me. She let me outside to go potty, and I discovered all that sweet stuff made me run REALLY fast! She couldn’t catch me and it was fun to have her chase me around the yard. She said something about “late for work” when she finally caught me, but by then I was feeling pretty sleepy and worn out, so I just took a nap. 

Mom’s note: I was SO freaked out that he ate chocolate, but thankfully aside from super speed there were no side effects.

Then there was this one time, Mom was making Deviled Eggs for a party. She realized she didn’t have any mustard, so she was going to “run quick” to the store to get some. Not quick enough! I could only get the first half dozen, because I couldn’t reach that far back on the counter, but boy were those eggs good! Mom kept complaining that night about “stinky farts”, whatever those are. My tummy was sure rumbly that night, but how else would I learn if I liked them or not?

Who could get mad at that face?

My FAVORITE time was when Mom baked cookies. She put them on a rack to cool and then went to go vacuum the floors with that loud scary thing. Since the loud scary thing never went into the kitchen, I went to hide in there and realized I was tall enough to see cookies! They smelled so good; how could I not try them? I ate about 9 of them before Mom could finish vacuuming, and boy was she mad! They were totally worth it though; she never stays mad at me for long.

OK, Foster, that’s about enough out of you! But seriously-that dog. Not including his favorite things list, we also need to add:

1. Numerous pairs of flip flops (mmm, feet smell. WTH, Foster?)
2. Several books, both library and private collection
3. Half a loaf of banana bread
4. A pan of chicken fried rice (like Baxter in Anchorman, I wasn’t even mad, just impressed-he made no noise and no mess getting that off the stove!)
5. The edge of a coffee table
6. Poop. Rabbit poop, dog poop, whatever, the more frozen the better.
7. Apples, bananas, any leftovers in a bowl he may occasionally be offered, and popcorn (OK, these are actually all things I will offer from time to time…I’m a sucker!)
8. Baguette, garlic bread, all things carbo-licious.

Hi, my name is Foster and I’m full of shame.

 

My FAVORITE story ever about Foster stealing food though has to be the pizza experience. My ex was a HUGE online gamer. Like, couldn’t be bothered to get up and procure his own dinner. So one night, we ordered pizza and I hung out in the office with him while he slayed whatever nerdy dragons needed slayed. We sat the pizza box on an ottoman in between us so he didn’t have to move. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Foster walk up to the box of pizza. I turn around and he’s just grabbed a slice and is walking away, NBD. I yell “FOSTER” and he just slo-mo drops it out of his mouth, all “bleh”, and then slinks off and hides under the desk. Um, no, buddy, this isn’t a free-for-all, although I can totally see how he’d think that. I’ll also add that it really cracked me up the night Foster chewed through the ethernet cord mid-game. Hehe, karma. 

OK, pet owners, now is the time! Please tell me I’m not the only one living the dog-shaming life! What has your pet gotten into that they shouldn’t have? Do they have a favorite human food? Do you have a sad beggar on your hands like I do? 

Travel Log Tuesday

So a new thing I’m going to run with on the blog is Travel Log Tuesdays. Whether it’s a trip we’re considering, one I’m reminiscing on, or something in between, travel is something Jeff and I hold pretty dear to our hearts. Part of our current indecision on if/when to begin the adoption process is that we have so many places we’d like to go and things we’d like to see. We feel like we could be equally fulfilled raising a child or traveling the world. OK, maybe more fulfilled travelling the world right now-we’re newlyweds, after all. 

Today I’d like some opinions, so I’ll start by talking about our “big” trip for this year. We’re thinking our first anniversary deserves a big trip, and we’re thinking France. But not touristy, Paris France. We’re thinking wine country. I love the idea of using a site like airbnb.com to score a vacation rental on the cheap with character. But WHERE? Burgundy? Leon? Marseille? Is it practically a requirement that we spend at least a day or two in Paris? Some of the things Jeff and I loved about Rome on our honeymoon were finding the corner cafe for breakfast, our favorite little trattoria for dinner, you know-setting up shop like we would if we lived there. That’s why I feel like we’d have more fun in a middle sized or even small French city. 

Trattoria Morgana-our favorite place for dinner in Rome

Vatican City-Pope not included.

So there’s some photos from our last trip-although I’m sure over the Tuesdays I’ll gratuitously share more honeymoon photos for all they’re worth. It was the first time either of us left the country, really, and we just loved the crap out of every minute. But for now, people, opinions! You know what they’re like, and everybody has one! Where should we go in France? What do we need to do? What do we have to EAT?

MiMM-Marvelous in my Monday-More fun in my Sunday

A little late in the day, but I’ll still leech onto Katie’s roundup designed to make us feel a bit better about today being the day of the week I most resemble grumpy cat (the resemblance still exists the other days, but isn’t nearly as striking).

After the rocky start to my weekend Friday, my tummy finally settled down around 9:30. Playing it safe, I stuck to my single girl dinner of days gone by:

Popcorn in the Stir Crazy, a few M&M’s for flavor.

Woke up Saturday and knew 2 things were certain: I probably SHOULDN’T run yet, and I was totally going to. The sky was a creepy overcast gray, and I’m a terrible morning runner, but I got in my 5 miles. I’d gotten in my new compression socks last week and hadn’t had a chance to test them out yet! I didn’t notice much difference, but maybe once the distances get a bit greater they’ll come into play more. For all the grumbling I do about morning workouts, I will say this: virtually nobody on the path I ran wasn’t also running, and it was kind of nice to be part of the Saturday morning run community. There’s a tight head nod that we give that seems to say “respect” much as the way a fist bump would. My pace is coming back to pre-surgery levels, and while 9:15 isn’t cause for excitement in most runners I know, I’ll totally take it.

Saturday night rolled around, and then this happened:

yeah, that picture does things no justice. We finally hit the new Korean place, Yami, for a bibimbap. There was an egg on top that cooked in as you stir things around. It was SO good, but I had the hottest hot pot bowl and it got my rice kinda crispy on the bottom. I won the lottery there! It was good but also really similar to beef fried rice? Regardless, I foresee times in my future where that’s totally going to hit the spot. After the dinner, Jeff was super full (I totally dominated him in the “I can eat more than you dept”) and we scrapped our plans to find a new Speakeasy in town and headed to the Red Box instead. It had been kind of picked over, but we grabbed World War Z and The Great Gatsby. We popped Gatsby in when we got home, around 830, and I kid you not-Jeff was out in like 10 minutes. I surfed, I knitted, I laid around on the couch before I was that obnoxious bee flicking his ear trying to wake him up to head to bed. Fun fact: my husband sleeps like the dead. He fell asleep at my aunt and uncles once and they laughed at me-it took a good 10 minutes to wake him up. Usually I give up and let him sleep on the couch after some semi-conscious groans and displeasure are voiced, but he looked super awkward and I knew his neck would hurt the next day if I let him sleep there all night. That’s a thoughtful wife for you-I’ll annoy the crap out of you to wake you up, all in the selfless name of no cricks in the neck.

Sunday was another run day, brunch at the egg and I-no pics, oops, and homemade pizza to cap the night. Nothing too stellar or outrageous happened, but it was a darn good day. Here’s Foster in his “aren’t I pathetic? Now can I have that food you have?” pose:

I think he feels like the flatter he is to the floor, the more pathetic he seems. And while that’s not untrue…you still can’t have my pizza, buddy.

 

Spill It Sunday-TV Edition

Arman is at it again with another Spill It Sunday! Today’s topic is TV. I’ve been called a couch potato a time or two in my day, so you could call me an authority on the subject. I’ve got a weird memory that may not remember how to make myself a fortune, but I can damn well quote Friends 12 ways from Sunday. 

So lets start with the questions! 

-> What was your favourite TV series growing up? I’m going to borrow a bit more from Arman and break it down thusly: 

Childhood- the Bozo show, Today’s Special, Scooby Doo. Does anyone else remember Today’s Special? Set in a department store, a mannequin who came to life when he had his special hat on, creepy puppet mice…

OK, it looks really creepy now. Anyone else remember this?

 

Teen Years-90210, although I don’t really remember watching much TV as a teen. 

College- That 70’s show, Simpsons, Real World 

Twenties-Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Survivor

-> What is your current favourite TV series? I love Project Runway, as evidenced here: 

For the uninitiated, we’re at the fabric store featured in Project Runway.

I also like Parks & Rec, Parenthood, Mindy Project, Sleepy Hollow

-> If you could guest star in ANY TV show, which would it be? The thought of guest starring anywhere makes me break out into flop sweat. Fun fact I haven’t divulged yet (but it IS Spill It Sunday) is that I trained to be a professional wrestler in my early 20’s. I’m holding back the details because that deserves its own blog, but the reason I stopped pursuing it was that when we started using me to referee matches, I realized that a crowd of people looking at me was terrifying. Why did I not remember how much I hated being the center of attention? NO clue. But that killed my illustrious future WWE career. 

-> What genre of  television do you enjoy the most? (Reality, Action, Drama, Comedy) This depends on my mood. If I’m sleepy, I’ll put on a “good” procedural crime drama like Bones or CSI. If I’m really engaged, I like comedies or drama, pretty much at the same level. And most of the time when I am on cardio machines at the gym, it’s a reality show like Property Brothers or Millionaire Matchmaker. 

-> Which TV series do you think should NOT have been renewed after it’s first season yet had? Ok, I’m going to make you all hate me. In the early 2000’s, there was a series of “big funny guy with hot wife” shows that I just did NOT get. Raymond, King of Queens, According to Jim…none of them EVER seemed funny to me. SorryI’mNotSorry. 

-> Which TV series do you think deserved to be renewed yet was not? I said this out loud to my husband, and he’s a bit more passionate about this than I am. He said Firefly, Dollhouse, Chuck, and Jericho. I haven’t seen all of them but Jericho was really good. I also was really into this show called Reunion a few years back. Every episode was a different year in these 6 people’s life leading from high school to their 20th reunion, and there was lots of drama along the way as one of them had been murdered. We never got to find out who did it…sigh. Also, Freaks and Geeks. One season? Seriously? That was awesome! 

What do YOU love to watch on the “idiot box”? 

Few Things Friday

Keeping it brief today…I’ve been at home sick since around 1:00 today. I actually was really worried for a while that it was some kind of post op flare up because I also had a lot of intense pain around the surgical area, but that’s gone down a bit and I’m hoping it’s just the flu. Never thought I’d hope for the flu, but there we have it. Apparently, there’s a stomach bug going around the area so I’m guessing I picked it up. My immune system has been all jacked up between spending December living in a bubble and then I’ve been training pretty hard all of January, so it’s no wonder I’m not feeling my best. Nurse Duncan has been on the job as usual, napping next to me on the couch while I lay there and whimper. 

So sleepy…I could just fall asleep right here!

Trying not to freak out that I’m missing my run for the second day in a row, but things happen. I’m still fairly low mileage right now, so it’s not the end of the world if I can’t get 3 miles in. Looking forward to hopefully getting it in tomorrow, as well as the errands I’m supposed to be taking care of tonight. I’m a very results driven person, and I am ideally always productive, so today is kind of a tough blow to my ego. 

Tomorrow I also have a much needed lunch with some girlfriends. We’re all going through some very big life changes, so it’s nice to get to see each other when we can. 

 

And lastly, I just want to send a thank you out to my Aunt Lynette. I’m going through some tough stuff mentally right now and trying to sort some things out, and she’s just really been a great sounding board for me. I’m sure I’m probably driving her crazy right now, but she’s always nothing less than supportive. 

Hope you have a great weekend! 

Traveling Blogger Sharing Award!

And let me tell you, it’s a MAJOR award, though not a leg lamp.

Aw, my first blog award! Thanks to Running around the Bend for including me. Here’s what I got as the guidelines.

1. Post the logo on your blog. Done.
2. Thanks the person who nominated you. Done.
3. Answer the questions. See below.
4. Choose 10 or so other bloggers as your nominees. Also see below.
5. Post the links to the nominees’ blogs and notify them on their blog.

Favorite Color

Blue. My favorite color combo is blue and brown-evidence of this is literally all over our house. When Jeff and I got engaged, I told myself I wouldn’t use that color scheme for our wedding colors-until he told me he wanted a chocolate brown suit. Then, of course, I had to complete the combo! I don’t ascribe much to astrology, but I will say that I’m a Pisces, and we love water (which isn’t really true about me now but was as a child), so blue kind of fits that bill.

A few photos that emphasize my love of blue, as well as my love of being a big goof:

Doesn’t everyone do this at wineries?

Finishing my first olympic triathlon. Yes, that’s a farting unicorn. Thanks, Jen!

Favorite Animal

Crazy dog lady for the win. I’m that crazy girl who says hi to dogs on my walks/runs but ignores the people. I’ve rescued dogs I find loose on the street/bike path. I’ll even admit to having a favorite of MY dogs:

First, we had Foster. Foster is simply the coolest dog on the planet. He gives high 5’s, especially when you command him to “hit it”. When he comes in from outside and it’s wet, he goes right to his rug on the kitchen floor and waits for me to dry his paws. Hell, if he can avoid getting wet, even better-I’ve had to carry him over big puddles more than once or he wouldn’t go pee. His dainty paws don’t like being wet-he used to bark at the other dogs at the dog park to get out of the stream and come play. He may be dainty, but he’s got no fear-he took a ball from a Rottweiler at the dog park before and is the more vocal of my dogs when he thinks the house is going to get invaded. He’s a bit aloof, and the more stern judge of character of my 2 dogs. But he still lets me do this to him:

what, you don’t wear towels on your head?

Embarrassment has a face. And it is canine.

Then we have our lovable oaf, Duncan. He has all the grace of a lumberjack when plopping into bed or onto the floor-his elbows have no fur left on them at all from our hardwood floors. He’ll play fetch until he can no longer run, and then he’ll take the ball and lie down till he can catch his breath, then he’s back for more. He’s my nurse when I’m sick, and he can catch treats and tennis balls with pinpoint accuracy (Foster lets them bounce off his head and looks insulted). Duncan runs on pure emotion, and thinks everyone is simply there to love him. He also has the most precise internal clock I’ve ever seen-he gets me up at 6 every day for breakfast and stares at me at 6 PM until the kibble drops.

chilling with the homedog.

he lets us give him hugs all the time!

hungry eyes

Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink

Water should be first. Coffee is. Dang, I love coffee. Didn’t start until I was probably 25 or so, but now I take a thermos along to work every day. I will admit to enjoying a frappucino on occasion. And we have our own espresso machine. My answer is clear.

Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook -always. A coworker and I joined twitter when it was pretty new, and couldn’t even manage to find each other yelling from adjacent cubes. I follow some celebrities on there, but just find it hard to sift through the crap to find anything worth seeing. Facebook is much better for keeping in touch with friends near and far, light stalking (kidding!?…), and organizing events and stuff.

Favorite Pattern

Um…this knitting pattern seems pretty cool…

What?!?

What is Your Passion?

I have a few. Running, fitness, family, friends, and fun. Yeah, that took a sharp F turn towards the end, didn’t it? I am pretty passionate about wellness and balance in life. I’d love to get into a wellness field for my career, but in the meantime I just stay as involved with our employee committee as possible. I love running when I’m not in a wicked slump, and find that it can really cure what ails me.

But what really makes me happy is of course my husband, family, and friends. Spending time with my favorite people-isn’t that really what life’s all about?

And, #4 & #5 – Choose Other Bloggers to annoy… tag… to do a follow-up post! Um…I’ll leave this up to you guys. I feel like I may be a smidge late to the party so I don’t know how far this thing has gotten, and I don’t want to tag those who have already done it! If you read this, and you haven’t done this yet, DO IT! It’s fun and look…so many pictures of puppies!

 

Thirsty Thursday In Your Thirties-AKA Thinking Out Loud

Happy Thursday! On our way to work this morning, Jeff and I kept watching the temp drop on the thermometer in the car until it settled on -4. Holy crap! I got in my 9 degree run the other day but even I have my limits, and I think that’s it. MEGA props to the guy who was running with the balaclava and the headlamp this morning while we were shivering in the car.

So anyway, I keep waking up in the mornings with the driest mouth ever. YOU know the feeling…cotton mouth. And since today’s Thursday, I decided it was Thirsty Thursday. Going to try to get in 4 of my tumblers of water during the work day. And that is decidedly NOT what people had in mind when they coined THAT phrase. That’s where I am in life-Thirsty Thursday just means I’m literally thirsty, not some fun crazy drinking experiment that leads you to class hung over the next day. So what else changes in your thirties? Here’s what Buzzfeed has to say.

 

Another piece of random for you-Facebook target ads are really creeping me out with their accuracy lately. Yes, I did look at that dress on ModCloth, Facebook, but I decided the reviews just weren’t worth it. Thanks for trying to make me rethink that decision 20 times, though.

I’m really excited lately with a project I’m working on at work. I’m actually picking up some computer programming type knowledge, and it makes me feel all warm and nerdy inside. There’s lots of “OOOHHH!” going on at my desk as things start to click in my brain. Sorry, coworkers, for the 50th time today I wasn’t talking to you, just talking to myself again.

Taught my first boot camp last night-I think it went really well! It’s going to be fun coming up with unique challenges to keep that group entertained-they’re all pretty high level fitness, so challenging them is…challenging.

It was a tough one, for sure-we barely made it through on time!

This brings me to my question of the day-what is the most embarrassing thing to happen to you while running? I’ve seen some runners with some sheepish selfies lately, and it just got me wondering. I think mine is probably the time I was running on a REALLY hot day here in NE, so I will cop to running in only a sports bra and some shorts (and shoes, natch). Well, nature called, so I had to run into a Burger King all sweaty and scantily clad to steal use of their bathroom. Hey, when you gotta go…you gotta get stared at by everyone ordering their combo meal.

Time to head off to my lunch date with a few friends-sandwiches and CCQ (chips con queso, of course!). What’s for lunch with you?

Terribly Busy Tuesday

Hi guys! Just a quick blog today-Tuesdays are nuts! I managed to squeeze a 4 mile run in over my lunch hour-it was 9 degrees when I left the office! I still can’t seem to get the hang of this compression gear stuff-I have a compression top and bottoms, and while they do keep me fairly warm, I must still be off in sizing. I am constantly yanking the shirt down and the pants up. I know they’re just following the path of least resisitance-no matter how thin you are, there is some kind of curve to your stomach, and the tight stuff just wants to shoot along that curve. But I feel so awkward hiking up my pants every 10 steps, thank goodness the path was pretty deserted over lunch. I got a big bummer when I got back to the gym to change though-I had the bloody sock of doom! Tell me that happens to other runners-I trimmed my toenails last night (gross I know) and I must have missed a sharp edge because I totally destroyed my poor middle toe. That’s going to be fun for classes tonight!

Tonight is my regular SIC class (Strength Interval Cycling) and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m also a bit nervous-tonight is my first Tuesday night double feature, and my first time teaching this time slot of power pump. It’s a new group of people to me, so I get to do the awkward feeling-them-out thing to find our common ground. I got a good review last week (on my first class back in like 6 weeks, to boot!) but she reminded me I need to have my music a bit louder and speak up a bit too. I’m always just afraid I’m going to blow out some eardrums, but I’m pretty sure our gym sound system couldn’t quite handle that anyway. So here’s our set list for tonight:

• Warm Up-The One I Love (REM)
• Standing Run-Take On Me (A-HA)
• Jumps-Push It (Salt & Pepa)
• Seated Climb-You & I Both (Jason Mraz)
• Standing Climb-Unbelievers (Vampire Weekend)
• Tabata-Heads Will Roll (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
• Fast Flat-Dream Police (Cheap Trick)
• Seated Climb-Everlong (Foo Fighters)
• WATTS Training-On Top of the World (Imagine Dragons)

Then we go into the kettlebell portion of the class, first time through 60 seconds, second time 45:

• Plie Squats w/Upright Row
• Double Arm Bicep Curl
• Kettlebell Swings
• Overhead Tricep Extensions
• Alternating Lunge with Kettlebell Twist
• Left Side Bent Over Row
• Squats with Kickover
• Right Side Bent Over Row
• Side Lunges with Halo
• Deadlift
• Planks-Regular, Side Planks, and Spiderman to finish off.

Should be a fun class! I’ve got a pretty wide variey of ages in this class, and it’s small, so I keep the music pretty all over the board. My power pump classes are usually skewed more to my alt rock tastes-you don’t have to be so specific with those. I’ve warned poor Jeff that by the time I get home, I’m going to be starving, so he’s promised me he’ll have dinner ready when I get there. I’m a pretty lucky girl to have a guy who’s so happy to cook!

That’s about it! I should have a new Try It Thursday coming up soon, I think I’m going to start a new knitting project-I’m into the idea of these scoodies I keep seeing. It’s a combo scarf/hoodie thing that looks like a lot of fun!

What’s your cut-off temp for running outside? Mine is 20 (usually). I really felt like I HAD to get a run in today, so I defied my rules and wisdom and went anyway. I’m really glad I did-4 miles in 9 degree weather is STILL better than a treadmill run for me!

What do you reach for when you get home from a really tough workout and dinner’s not done yet? I usually can stave off the beast with a salad, although sometimes I’ll have a few chips & salsa or some cheese.