Merry Christmas to Me...

OK, I will be getting back to my goals, however, had to take a quick break away from that and blog a little running/workout related stuff.

So I mentioned the new TV that I bought myself right? It's only a 19", but flat panel, LCD Hi Def for my bedroom. However, I guess I was a really good girl because I bought myself some personal training sessions yesterday. I've had the basic routine, showing me how to use the equipment before, but never actual sessions. After my fitpoint assessment last week, I had a complmentary first session set up with a trainer (actually the head of the PT department at my gym) and we focused solely on upper body because, well, I have a wedding on January 31st that I'm in and we have strapless dresses. Anyway, they have a sale right now, 50% off sessions with a personal trainer, for new customers...well, I'm a new customer so I'm doing it. I bought 8 and am conteplating maybe 2 more, figuring on meeting with him every 3 weeks or so, that gets me through Boston and into the summer, can change up the sessions etc...did I mention he's really cute too?? :) Not as hot as my hottie at my old gym, but cute, too bad he's married!! Anyway, one other thing I'm probably going to do is a VO2 max test. They have the set up at my gym to do the VO2, the metabolic workout rates etc...they have another test for figuring out your resting metabolic rate too, but that one is just less important for what I do anyway. I can use this and figure out zones for doing heart rate etc...so we'll see. First session is 1/7/09. I have time for the workout he set me up on yesterday, and I have basically 5 weeks to the wedding to look good. Of course I don't want to outshine the bride (not possible, wait till I post her pics...her dress is so perfect for her!).

About to head to my parents. I had scheduled 8 miles for yesterday with 8x100 strides. I only had time for 6 before my training session, but did another 3 after...Today I was going to run 10, I was all ready to go and forgot to put on my Yaktrax...we have had a lot of snow (but it warmed up, was 10 today woo hoo!) over the last few days and going was very, very slow. It's like running on loose sand...I was exhausted by 6 so stopped at 8. 1 hour and 20 minutes...yeah, I had some 10:30 miles in there. Normal run for me, easy pace, 8:30...so yeah, the snow slows you down tremendously!

Anyway, if I don't get another post up before Thursday, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. And to those that don't, Happy insert holiday name here. For those traveling, safe travels.

March 31st, And We Have...

This, for a forecast:

Yes, that's a 72% chance for snow. We are getting snow right now. It's supposed to stop a bit, then really start up this afternoon with 3-6 inches likely...and then another 2-3 this evening...umm, yeah, that means we could get a total of 9 inches!! Thankfully they are usually off, but it is snowing. It is March 31st too. We have been in spring season for 10 days now. I think God forgot us here in the frozen crappy north!! Oh why do I not live where it gets warm...where the temps average in the 60s, not the 40s...(I'd prefer 70s, but even 60s would be fine at this point!!).

However, much as this forecast could make me depressed...bringing on something like Friday, thankfully it hasn't. OK, I woke up this morning, not having had QUITE enough sleep (but getting a good amount from Saturday night into Sunday morning so felt rested) and got up and got my butt to the gym. I started with 15 minutes on the elliptical to warm up and then headed to the weight room…hottie hadn’t made an appearance and I was a little bummed, but just adjusted my workout so I could strength tomorrow too in case he is there then…I’m sneaky that way!! Anyway, did my strength and then headed back up for a 45 minute bike ride…well, as I’m coming up the stairs to the cardio floor, I come to the mat pretty much right at the top of the stairs and who should be stretching there…I was slightly shocked and a little thrilled cause he had turned his head and looked right at me and I started my, hey how are you smile, that I tend to reserve for people I know, and stopped myself last minute cause hey, I don’t know him and you know, that shyness thing hitting…he looked so hot too…I think I’ve determined another thing though…I’m assuming he’s a fairly serious biker (one day I saw him in a bike shirt) and I am pretty sure I was noticing shaved legs…which made me start thinking…hmm…I wonder if he’s a tri guy…if so…that would mean he’s in the pool some days too right?? Hmm…I sooo need to see him in the pool!! Might be time to start morning swims!! (maybe that’s where he is mornings I don’t see him!!) Regardless of the fact that I’ll never talk to him, he still brightened what is otherwise looking to be a crappy day (weatherwise that is, due to the weather I’m going to have to put off my trip to the chiro as traffic is just going to suck). In his honor, I’ve put up a couple of pictures…he reminds me of someone, but I have yet to determine who…this pic of James Marsden kind of reminds me of him in the eyes…and Johnny because my hottie has, believe it or not, even nicer cheekbone structure, (think that’s what draws to his eyes)…And finally, my favorite hottie, even though I had to remove him from my list since he’s now married…Ah Matt…I still love you!!!

Oh, and yeah, heel still bothering, I skipped a run, did only 35 minutes of bike (when I saw hottie decided I could do some ab work before he left so I could stare a bit longer) and might go back and do a bit more today. I have determined where my heel hurts though, and really don't think it can be PF. It's a spot at the back of the heel...and I can fully find the hot spot and push on it...wonder if a massage would help...

Snow, Snow and More Snow

This is what it looked like on my run last night. We haven't had snow like this (2 that blizzards within days of each other) in 25 years. I remember the last one in 1984...MN is known for it's cold, not so much the snow. What I remember as a kid was actually a fluke thing. What this means though...yesterday was March 1st...March came in like a Lion...early spring!! (not to mention the ground hog did not see his shadow this year!!)

I can’t believe I haven’t had a chance to update my blog now in a couple of days. And here I’ve even made some big decisions and I have yet to share them but with a few. I went for a run on Monday of 6 miles during my lunch, it was painful to a degree, but we had had snow, parts of the path weren’t plowed, was a bit slippery and a pain. Tuesday I was out, things weren’t feeling much better and I was supposed to do a 10 mile with 5 at LT pace of around 7:45…umm, knew that wasn’t going to happen. I’m just so not ready for that pace right now. I then and there decided that with everything going on (and just another recent disappointment in trying to find a place to stay) Grandma’s is out. I don’t have the motivation to push my training, things are still tight and hurting a bit and I just want to run just to run. I don’t want to train for it. If I wanted to, I could run and finish it, but if I’m going to run it again I’m going to PR and that just isn’t something I feel my training is going to attain this time through. So now I’m just running to run. That decided on that run, while I didn’t make the 7:45 paces for the 5 miles, I did hit some pretty intense hills and did 7 miles at an 8:30 pace. (yeah, I couldn’t get the 10/5 because I had work on Tuesday night) The last couple being sub 8 which is fastest I’ve fun in a long time. No Garmin today so I can’t post exact paces. Yesterday I ran 6.25 miles, over the same path and should’ve been a bit easier and it actually was just under 9 minute pace so again not bad. I think taking the stress off myself might be helping. I am bummed about losing registration fee and part of me still wants to do it and I might still train it, but without a place to stay and worse yet, no one guaranteed to come with me, I just don’t see it happening. Also today I’m supposed to be doing a 10 mile and we had snow last night and are expecting more this afternoon…I’m going to go out in it, but don’t know that I’ll get 10 miles in. And tomorrow is typically an off day, I’m going to run, but I have to work too, so no time for a longer run. We’ll see what happens over the weekend too. I’m running now more for fitness and weight loss than anything and I kind of like that. I don’t like pressuring myself to have to run this or that. I want to do intervals again, when weather permits, but I don’t want to HAVE to do this type or that…

In other news…I finally made a decision on my living situation. I had been on this whole, do I buy something else here, do I stay where I am or do I sell and move out of state…well, I’ve found areas and places that I kind of like and I decided yesterday I need to get my place on the market and move to one of the areas I really want to live in. In fact I think I have found the place I want. I haven’t seen it physically yet but it’s on the same street as one of my closest friends, is in an area reasonably close to everything I like to do and places I like to be, AND is at an affordable price after I ran some numbers…sooo…that means I need to get my place in saleable shape and on the market ASAP. My goal is Monday the 12th to list, and sooner if possible but I have so much I need to do to reduce clutter and make it viewable. Wish I had had it on the market sooner of course cause the place I want I know will be gone before I get mind sold…however, I did just order one of these that should arrive about the same time I’m going to list, so hopefully that will prompt something! Oh, and I talked to the mortgage people I'm planning to work with and as I suspected I'm approved...mortgage payment scares me a little as something was off on my calculations a little, but it's still doable and I'm still going ahead. Might mean having to stay at B&N for a while (or find a roommate which is the plan...I'll have a 2 stall garage on either of the two I'm looking for!!).

So back to the storms...We got hit on Saturday with one blizzard and Wednesday and yesterday gave us more. My boss told us to leave yesterday at about 1:30, and that was just shortly after we had gotten back from the thank you lunch they had taken us out for. It's just unreal though, how much snow we got. Enjoy the pics. These were taken from home and during the 6 miles I plodded through the snow (in 59:05...yes, it was a bit slow, and not the 10 on my schedule, but I think it probably should count for at least 8 plowing through what I was at times, and the slippery spots, and watching for the cars!).

This is what was happening about the time I decided to go run. Those would be my mailboxes and no, it hasn't been plowed yet!

My balcony around 2 pm yesterday. This included the snow from last weekend too, yes, I do know I need to get it cleared off!


You can't see it quite as well as I had hoped, but the prints on the left were from when I left the house, the ones on the right were right after I got back. It filled in that much in just under an hour. Some of them I couldn't even find. Oh, and I had taken my shoes off before running out to take the picture...I was in stocking feet in the snow!!

Balcony after all the snow was finally done, well, kind of. This was this morning and we are supposed to get maybe 3 more inches. I did make it into work though this morning. And I have running stuff with me, so am going to attempt a run at lunch.

Another Interesting Weekend

I finally got to get caught up with “my person.” (If you don’t watch Grey’s, or if you’re like FullMetalLunchbox and haven’t watched it cause it induces eating, let’s just say I mean she’s the one I’d call to help me drag the body across the living room after I killed someone) At least a little bit. It’s been forever since we caught up. In fact it was October last that her and I managed to get out and do something. She travels for work and just ends up being hard to get together for various reasons (even though she lives only about 10 minutes from me now) and she knows nothing of the C saga, and it was another friend’s birthday (well his birthday is on Wednesday but she’s out of town so we went out to see him last night, the picture was just before we left and Kerry thought it'd be fun to give him his birthday spankings)…a few cocktails and I asked where C might be as he wasn’t out, it was suggested I call him, so I did…umm…yeah…I know…Get him on the phone and he’s stuck in someplace in South Minneapolis as he has to give a guy a ride home to a place north then he is going to try to get back to us…about 20 minutes later he walks in (I have just finally started telling Kerry the C story). He found someone else to give the guy a ride and joined us right away. It’s getting late and Kerry is calling a cab to get us back to her place and C offers to give us a ride, he has had one beer so is fine…so off we go. Again, I realize. Anyway, first our friend is given his birthday spankings, then we headed out the door. C came in and we hung out at Kerry’s for a bit, then C took off, but not before we had a little talk…he can’t guarantee that I am not a rebound, and I realize that, at least he’s honest about that part. And to be honest, I know I’m going to get hurt if I keep my interest level and allow what I want to happen, to happen, namely things moving toward another level. I know that I am rebound girl, he can’t say if I am or not, but I honestly know that I am…and even knowing this, I am still drawn for some reason to him…so I guess I just take the leap and will be crying to you all in another month or two. I mean it’s not like we had a discussion and are “dating” now or anything like that. He just knows where I stand, and how I feel…he didn’t give me any reassurances and I still feel just as up in the air about it, but what do you do? Can’t always make ourselves interested in the right people now can we?? I always find the ones with the most baggage and somehow let them slip in. It’s kind of unfair, but what do you do. And this after my recent post about being single. This is why single is better in my mind!

So little sleep last night and I got up, went home and went for a 7 mile run. I ended up doing nothing yesterday cause I was just tired feeling and ended up working later than planned. This morning didn’t feel too bad though. It was a slow pace due to weather (about 9:10), in fact I ran into another person and we discussed the treacherous footing, tomorrow will be even worse, but running in something that is like loose sand has to do something good for you right? I guess that pace isn’t THAT slow considering, and it did feel better, nicer conditions might have brought some paces I was finally happy with. It’s just funny cause yes, I live in MN, shouldn’t we be used to this? But not really, we are more about the cold, not so much the snow, not for a long time and we are looking at getting another 6-10 inches tonight I guess. This is a picture after the snow had been coming down for an hour or so two maybe. It wasn't going to stop me from joining some friends to watch a band play though…and there are some attractive men in it, hmm…maybe I can use someone there to get myself over C!! Ah, fat chance but a nice thought.

Well, blogger was having issues, so I might as well round out the weekend. Even with the massive amounts of snow, I met up with friends and we went to see the band play. It was a fun night that continued into the wee hours. Even though I live kind of far from where they played, I invited everyone back for an afterbar. The drummer accepted as did the brother of one of the other members and the two people I went with and one other friend that joined us. We watched Eurotrip and hung out and suddenly sun was coming up and sleep was much needed. Woke up around 10:30 and everyone else (people had crashed here) woke up around 11. The boys left and the girls remained, we chatted till about 4:30, when they left and I am now so sleepy I’ll probably go to bed early. I did not get my run in today. Even if no one had been here, I don’t know that it would’ve happened anyway. We got at least 8 inches of snow and the sidewalks weren’t looking cleared. The picture shows my balcony at the end. Most of the main roads are clear, but the idea of running through all that snow was not overly appealing. It was a really bad week running and workoutwise, but oh well. I’ve been feeling run down, maybe I’ve been overtraining and hopefully this lighter week will lead to a better week this week. Also it’s the last drinking night for a really long time. I don’t normally drink both nights and this was a strange weekend. I’m dehydrated and body is exhausted. But that’s OK, once in a while you need to do that right? Besides, with the boy stuff going on, I really do need to get out of my own head once in a while!!