Something is (almost) always better than nothing.

Two posts in one day! Such ambition! Except...not really. I'm sitting here dying a little on the inside. Why, do you ask? Well, this morning I said I was going running but I didn't because I ended up not having time before I needed to start working. Therefore I told myself I was going to go to Zumba tonight but then I got really tired and started reading (and finishing) my book and then that idea was shot. So around 7:30 I said to myself, "Self...how can you be a perfectionist AND a procrastinator at the same time?". And then I just realized it's part of my charm, right up there with my ability to talk nonstop to anyone at any time and get 3 gold stars on every level of Angry Birds ever created. I didn't want to have the day be a waste of sitting on my bum reading a book and driving to appointments though so I dusted off my 30 Day Shred DVD (let's be honest, P90X is calling my name but it still scares the bajeezus out of me so I haven't started it yet) and now I want to die. A year ago I thought this DVD was a joke because I could breeze through it with no problems. Today however I can not feel my butt. That I am currently sitting on. While typing this. And wondering why JWow got the body she did and I was dealt the short, red haired body that I have. It's probably a trade off because SHE can't procrastinate and be a perfectionist at the same time. BOOM! And it's all because Jillian Michaels knows how to kick the snot out of you in 20 minutes. Well, at least at this stage of my physical in inaptitude.

Moral of the story: it doesn't matter what time you excercise or how intense it is, just get off the couch and do something. Then get right back on the couch content with the knowledge that you did especially if you're working towards a goal. And my goal?

My formerly bangin' self. I miss her. And her biceps.

How to build yourself up to a 5k

In my experience there seems to be two major milestones in running that people seem to gravitate towards: the 5k and the marathon. Oddly enough, neither of these are mileages that I like. A 5k is way too short for me and a marathon is much too long. I like to hang out in the 10-15 mile category, it's my happy place.

The 5k seems to be becoming more and more popular, I think in part because it's a great jumping off point if you want to start running and you can always find a 5k race somewhere. It's a great goal if you're just starting out and by the time you achieve it you should be able to tell whether or not running is your thing or if you should move on to another activity. I often see "Run a 5k" on a lot of people's bucket lists or popping up as New Year's resolutions and it makes my little heart so happy. Sometimes I see "run a marathon" on there by a non-runner which is just crazy talk but I'm not judging (ok, I am, start with a 5k and go from there, ya overachiever!).

A 5k may seem daunting to some people but it doesn't have to be! In American terms (because we loathe the metric system and all the awesomeness it entails) that is 3.1 miles which is a great base. In my opinion if you can run 3 miles you can run 6 and if you can run 6 you can run anything. Seriously.

If a 5k is your goal then first find a race that you would like to do. Whether it's 12 weeks away (totally doable if you're in decent shape) or a year away once you fork over the $20-$30 entrance fee your motivation will increase like you wouldn't believe. I first found races by googling 5k's in Syracuse NY and then came across the website CNY Running which is how I keep track of my races now. I'm sure there is something similar in most areas and if not check out your local running store, they always have fliers for races. Next do some research and find a good plan to stick to to get you there. As I've mentioned before I think the Couch to 5K program is great. I also love Hal Higdon's plans which are basically the same idea. There are tons of resources out there too like phone apps and computer programs and even the Nike Plus foot pod to help you keep track of how you're doing. And books! My lifeblood! There are lots of great books that will have plans in it (although for the most part I think C25K is aces. I also highly recommend the book The Runner's Rule Book to get you ready for running and for your first race:

Check it out on Amazon!

It's an awesome, comprehensive book that's FUNNY and easy to read.

Also, pick up a copy of Runner's World magazine at the grocery store or bookstore. The more you learn about something the more you will want to do it. Or is that just me? I have no idea, my sense of reality is warped since I am convinced I am the sun and the world revolves around me. But just do it, you'll get some good tips.

Ok, so you've chosen a race, you've got a plan, you've got some good shoes because you read THIS post and you've done some research. Now comes the tough part...the running. Regardless of what plan you have start out slow and then slow the hell down! Yes, it's called a race but I'm going to try and break this to you easy...you aren't going to win. Unless you you keep running until you're 70 and end up the only one in your age group chances are high that you aren't going to pull a Kara Goucher and qualify for the Olympics right out of the gate (I love her, she's my favorite runner). Be easy on yourself. It isn't about speed, it's about getting it done and if you try to bang out even an 8-9 minute mile your first run it's not going to be pretty. take your time and don't worry about how long it takes you to run it. Some weeks will be harder than others. Some DAYS will be harder than others and we all have them. Two summers ago I remember I set out to do a pretty easy 8 miles with my running group and turned around a mile in and walked back to my car because I was just too tired and couldn't go another step. It happens to everyone so don't get yourself down. If it takes you two weeks to get through Week 1 of C25K so what? No one is judging you. My saying is that no matter how slow I am going I am still faster than the person sitting at home on their couch and my goal is to just not come in last (which is STILL faster than the person on the couch). Most importantly follow your plan. It's ok to redo some days but unless you've run before I wouldn't try to jump ahead *cough* like I did *cough* and do more than the plan calls for. It's helping you build up your resistance, your ability to run and most importantly to make sure you don't get hurt (try pushing yourself and let me know how those shin splints feel). And TAKE YOUR REST DAYS. Rest days are just as important as run days because they give your body a chance to rebuild itself from the beating you're going to be giving it once you hit 5k and realize that you want to do a half marathon ;)

And on that note I am getting out of bed now and going to go run. Happy trails!

Oh! And here's an AWESOME race that I just came across and am trying to do (even though it's a 5k, grumble grumble) so if you're close to one you'd best be signing up because it looks amazing!

The Color Run

*This post dedicated to my friend Andrea who called me a b**** for the fact that she just started C25K. YOU GO GIRL!!!

Bunday Monday: Bunnies give kisses?

When I first got the bun I went out and got a bunch of books on rabbits to familiarize myself with my new pet (again with the over-researching). I'd spent 4.5 years working with rabbits at my last vet tech job and my roomate in college had a rabbit that I called Bunny Man but I didn't really know their behaviors or little quirks or really even what to feed them. As I was reading Rabbits for Dummies (no joke) I came across a part that mentioned that if a rabbit really accepts you and loves you they will lick you as a part of grooming and sign of affection. As you can imagine it was my biggest hope that I would get bunny kisses one day but she was so small when I got her I wasn't sure what her personality would shake out to be.

Well guess what? I got myself a bunny kisser! Archie loves to give kisses, especially when I've been gone for a few days. She likes to get on the couch behind me or on the arm of the chair and lick my face or lick my arms when I sit on the floor to play with her. She also likes to bite in my hair (hard!) which I don't love nearly as much. When I've been gone for a few days Trixie is also more affectionate so the first thing I do when I get home is sit in front of Archie's cage. Trixie will usually sit right in front of me and allow Archie to lick her too (for 2 minutes or so, then it's the normal hissing and spitting when Archie starts to bite in her fur) which is as close to family harmony we can get around here :)

And yeah, I know that this solidifies me as a crazy rabbit lady but what can you do, it's cute.

Click for a video of Archie giving kisses that I can NOT get to embed, argh!

The hardest step for a runner is the first one out the door.

The last week hasn't been kind to me. The universe keeps shoving me down at every turn and (almost) all of it is out of my control. When my running friend texted me on Thursday and asked if I wanted to do a 4 mile training run on Saturday for a race we have in a few weeks I replied "Yes!" even though I hadn't run in 2 weeks because I was mentally dying to get back at it. Then when my alarm went off on Saturday morning I was full of reasons why I couldn't go: It had snowed. I wasn't ready for 4 miles. I didn't know what I was going to wear. My back hurt. My knee hurt. I was in the middle of a good book. On and on and on. The time that I needed to leave by came and passed and I still hadn't gotten out of bed and then my friend texted me and said she was going to be 15 minutes late. I still laid in bed thinking of all the reasons I should stay there and then with 10 minutes to go out of nowhere I got out of bed, threw on some clothes, and went to our meeting place.

The run ended up being an interesting one because I've never experienced black ice like we had that morning. The course for this race is notoriously hilly and we could barely walk a lot of it let alone run but we still did (most of) it. By the time I was done I felt so much better that I had gone and it gave me the grounding I've been looking for for weeks plus the confidence I needed to know that I can run this race in 2 weeks. I couldn't walk a lot of the rest of the day because my knee and hip hurt so bad (probably because of my stride being weird due to the ice) but it was so worth it. I decided not to run today because I wanted to give my old lady parts time to rest and because I want to start P90X tomorrow but I really wish I had been able to because yesterday's run wasn't enough to carry over to today. For yesterday though it was completely mind clearing.

Sometimes you just have to force yourself to get up and do the exact thing you don't want to do. Sometimes you have to push down every little voice inside, no matter how many there are, and go anyway. Sometimes you just have to stop thinking so much and just get out there and do it. And even if you hate every step in the end it will be worth it, no matter how small of an effort tomorrow. Yesterday I did it. Today I didn't. Tomorrow is a new day. And that's all I can ask for.

Bunday Monday!

I've heard that there are some women that surround themselves with less attractive women so that they can look better standing next to them. Never one to follow the pack, I choose to surround myself with gorgeous women instead. Maybe I'm hoping that it will rub off on me? No such luck yet as I'm still an average looking red haired chick but sometimes things take time!

While I was in DC last weekend with one of said gorgeous friends and one of HER gorgeous friends, sipping Moscow Mules and wondering who goes out on a Saturday night in kitten heels or a suit (DC is a place unlike I've ever experienced, everyone has a much more important sounding job than me, are much more cultured and much less white. And kitten heels? REALLY?) the topic of conversation turned to the bun. And why wouldn't it because she's darn adorable? So in the wee hours of the morning while I was showing off videos of her throwing socks while simultaneously wondering how my bar tab got so high the gorgeous blonde friend of my gorgeous dark haired friend decided that I should have one day a week on my blog dedicated to Archie. Pure brilliance, I tell you.

And so we have...Bunday Monday!

Onto the first installment!

As I mentioned I was gone for 10 days in DC and then in Baltimore and returned on Friday. My pet sitter was amazed at how many pellets Archie can go through when she's bored and stuck in her cage so he filled her feeder to the top. Since I've been home I've noticed that she no longer eats from the bottom portion of her feeder but instead stands on her hind legs to eat from the top. I don't ask, I just go with it. She also dips her paws into Trixie's water fountain bowl to wash her face like a raccoon so I've come to expect unusual behavior from her.

Honey Badger bunny does what she wants!

Also for the record, yes that dish on top of her cage is her salad bowl that came from Anthropologie. Her middle name is "Spoiled".

The three mile sweet spot

I'm on the verge of accomplishing something that I've been working towards the last couple of years. For most people this would mean excitement and anticipation yet for me it means panic and uncertainty. I've never been afraid of failure (although to be honest, I'm a bulldog and refuse to fail at much). Failure is something I can handle, I've always got a plan B in the wings and just move along towards that. Instead I have a fear of accomplishment. When you work so long and hard at something and all of a sudden it happens there is almost a "now what?" mentality that follows and shortly after that the fear of whether or not I can maintain the goal. Everyone has their weak points in life and there is mine: if you finally get exactly what you want how long will you be happy with it? And how long will it last? So maybe it's less a fear of accomplishment and more of a fear of maintenance. Who knows, I'm not right so it's probably best not to delve too deeply.

That being said I approach every run the exact same way. I'm almost always certain that I won't make the mileage I have set for myself. I'm too cold, my socks are making my feet slip in my shoes, my stomach hurts, I 'm too tired, I exaggerated the mileage I ran the week before, etc etc.

 Every. Run.

I always start off with the idea that I will only go as far as I can and then I will walk if needed. Even when I'm banging out 40 mile weeks and my long runs are 10-15 miles I tell myself this because I'm convinced I can't go more than 2 miles. I always start out cautiously, mentally weighing all of the factors I've built up in my head that will ruin my run for the day. I will whine and moan through the first few miles, thinking about how in 10 steps I will have to give in and walk. And then magically, like clockwork, at mile 3 everything falls into place. My brain finally stops, my muscles start smoothing out, my stride lengthens and it's just me and my feet racing past the world. I have no idea how or why this happens but you can ask anyone who runs with me to confirm that it does. At mile 3 I stop talking to anyone, stop hyping them up to get through the run, stop paying attention to where they are and I go into autopilot. When I talk about why I love running I am talking about what happens to me after this 3 mile sweet spot. I live for those miles, when my overactive brain finally gives me a break and thinks of nothing else but my breathing and my stride and the road.

I'm an overthinker, an overachiever, a textbook Type A only child. I swear I've been pushing myself from the womb to go bigger and farther than I thought I could because once I've accomplished one thing I'm looking for the next. Easygoing isn't a personality trait that I have, sad to say. I need my life planned out every second for the next 5 years or I'm in a panic. Running, to date, has been the one thing that slows my brain down and makes me focus in the moment. Regardless of if you're like me or not I think that society pushes us more and more to think and be and do. A bachelor's degree in college is no longer a terminal degree for a good job as everyone has one. Do you need a master's, a PhD, an MBA? If you start a new job what is your career goal to move up and how long will you give yourself to accomplish it? If you get a new car how long do you plan to keep it before upgrading to the latest and greatest? If you buy a house are you going to build a brand new cookie cutter suburban dream or get a fixer upper and create a beautiful blog about vintage Italian door knobs and antique Italian linens that you've spent 10 years scouring shops and roadside sales for? When does the pressure to do more, be more, accomplish more end? And when do you stop pushing yourself so hard?

These external pressures will always be there. Keeping up with the Joneses will always be there. But in order to combat it you need to find a way to slow down and think about nothing for a while. Exercise is probably the best way to do that whether it's something you can see now or not. I think there's a reason that so many women have latched on to Zumba: it's fun, energetic, you get to dance and more importantly there is NOTHING else to think about for that hour that you're dancing your butt off next to a blue haired older lady who's getting down to Pitbull in a way that you can only pray her mortified grandchildren never see. But who cares? She has stresses too and she's forgetting about them to work on being fit and having FUN.

My best advice is to try one thing you've always wanted to. Running, Zumba, hiking, spinning, swimming, a triathlon, anything physical. Yes, you'll probably look ridiculous doing it for a while. Much like the first three miles of my runs sometimes you just need to suck it up and get out there and do it. But once you find the one activity that you click with not only will you stop caring how you look, you'll stop caring about anything but what's going on in that moment. And it is by far the best thing you can do for yourself mentally and physically.

That being said I am never buying those damn cargo pants all the other crazy ladies wear to Zumba. I am not.

Hunter boots review

Today I got my first gel manicure. If you have never heard of this it's a manicure that will (supposedly) last up to 2 weeks without chipping. It involved many layers and UV lights and took about 45 minutes but I was willing to give it a shot because of how rough I am on my hands. The seat I was sitting in while getting my nails done was right in front of a huge tv hanging on the wall. There was weird "soothing" music playing so I couldn't hear the movie that was playing but they had the subtitles on so I could read what was being said. As the man doing my manicure didn't say much (which I was ok with) I spent most of the time watching the movie which was...Dear John. I have never seen this movie on purpose because I think that Nicolas Sparks' main goal in life is to make grown adults cry as much as possible without being in physical pain. I was a basket case when I watched the Notebook and I can still tear up at the drop of a hat just thinking about that scene in the rain. Omg, I need a tissue right now. Dear John, however, was WAY worse. I couldn't hear what they were saying but regardless I was still inconsolable. I was trying SO HARD not to make it obvious that I was the crazy American girl crying over the silent movie but I was almost sobbing at one point. I didn't watch the end, thankfully, because I remember looking it up on Wiki when it came out to see if I would even enjoy seeing it so knowing what I know...I would have needed to be taken to my car on a stretcher if I had seen the end. I was at the part where he was reading his dad the letter and...

Just don't watch it if you haven't seen it. It's brutal.

The good news is that when I came home I was finally able to open the box I found on my porch this morning on my way out the door: my Hunter boots! I was really excited about them coming but also nervous because of the size I had to order. I tried them on at Lord and Taylor before ordering them and an 8 was way to big (my normal size) so I had to order a 7 without trying them on (no half sized, sad face). Of course before I could try them on (or even open the box) I had to let Trixie sit on it for a while.

And then as soon as I opened the box Archie had to check it out, naturally.

Spoiled. Squared.

Finally I was able to open my boots and it was like angels singing. So shiny, so red, so eager for mud puddles and snow slush and pumpkin patches and waterfalls and general outdoorsy shenanigans.

They're. So. SHINY!!!!

I stared at them and admired them for a while before I tried them on and once I did...I'm unsure how I feel. The calves are a little tight and I think that's a combination of the fact that I just started running again so I have some size to lose in these calves (and I will, I know what the usually measure vs now) and the fact that I had to go down to a size 7. I read a lot of reviews and saw that many people mentioned that they were tight in the calves which is contradictory to every picture of any model wearing them (of course I am 5'2" and no model so that makes sense). As far as how my foot fits in a 7 it's ok but feels like it might be a little tight if walking for a while. I did have pretty thick socks on but I would if it were cold anyway.

I think before I make any decisions I am going to go back to Lord and Taylor and try to 8 on again. I'm kicking myself for not ordering both sizes as I initially had wanted to but I wasn't interested in ponying up $260 even if I was sending a pair back.

Moral of the story: the jury is still out on the boots. The catalyst for finally buying them after years of saying I had no desire to was because I am going to Washington DC this weekend and it's supposed to be rainy but I'm trying not to let that factor into my decision. TRYING because I know me and I'd rather just suffer for the sake of instant gratification. Because look at them:

Yup. Like two little fireman shoes just waiting for adventure. *sigh*