Ding dong the ipod's dead.

My ipod died today and I'm pretty upset about it. It's the same ipod nano I've had since 2007 (I have another ipod but it's not the same shape and I let someone else use it for a year so it's full of bagpipe music that I am too lazy to figure out how to clear) so it's the longest relationship I've ever had. I'm not exactly sure what happened to it but I would be willing to guess that it has something to do with my dumb ass thinking it would be a good idea to run with it in my sports bra for the last 3 months. Sweat does nothing good for my hair so I can't imagine it does anything good for my ipod either. Can we have a moment of silence for my sweet little third gen ipod nano?

(UPDATE! I went to go take a picture of it and after drying out and a recharge it lives! I haven't plugged in my headphones yet to see if it's still making the crackling death cry it was earlier but I'll wait until tomorrow to push it).

In the meantime I'll provide you with a stock picture of its light blue amazingness while I allow it to recuperate on the charger.

I take the death of my ipod as a direct sign that I need to wean myself off of it and what better time to die than 1.5 miles into a 7 mile run? If you've been following my training plan (which I doubt you have because I can't even remember it unless I look it up) then last week my long run was 5 miles so this week I was supposed to bump it up to six. Somehow I ended up doing 7 though which is ok, better more than less. It wasn't a good run though: I was upset about my ipod, it was 80 degrees and humid by the time I started running at 10:30am (there was a race at the lake today so I wanted to wait for it to be done) so if felt like running through bath water and I hadn't had dinner last night so I was going on less than empty. The good news is that I did it although now I kind of want to die. Next week will be better!

Training Log, Week 3 (a day late):
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: Dr appt so no running
Tuesday: 5 miles split (3 in am, 2 in pm)
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: RAIN! So no running

Total mileage for the week: 15

After my run I went to a waterfall I really love with a friend of mine which was a good time. I feel pretty lucky to live in a place where waterfalls are so abundant because they're my favorite and if I could spend every day at waterfalls my life would be complete.

Yes, that is a picture of me on the internet with no makeup on and my hair looking like hale. You're welcome.

Oh! I also finished painting my bedroom last night! Which, coupled with the 7 mile run this am, is the reason I can not move off this couch right now (so if someone could come clean out the bun's mansion that would be great). I really love the color and I can't wait to start changing things around and redecorating it because, you know, that's what Pinterest tells me I should do even though no one cares but me.

Sorry for the bad lighting, it was late. And no, I do not like that book as there is much talk of dead animals that I was not warned about so I doubt I will finish it.

Speaking of Pinterest I tried to make this last night and failed:

Chocolate frosting from coconut milk

It wasn't anything that I did that ruined it, I tried two different kinds of coconut milk that wouldn't set up properly. One can kind of did so I tried to make it anyway but I had to put a lot of sugar in it (I can't use stevia which is what the recipe calls for) which defeats the purpose of it being a healthy frosting replacement that I can eat directly from the bowl with no cake required. Oh well, at least I tried.

Double run and bedroom progress!

My college roomate stalked my house today, like legit showed up on my doorstep and then posted a picture on my facebook for me to find of her being here. She was in the area for the college reunion this past weekend and she wanted to meet up today for lunch but I have that evil thing called a JOB that I keep showing up for because the bun eats exorbitant amounts of organic spring mix so I couldn't meet her. She left me presents instead one of which was this AWESOME shirt:

I have no Ohio State affiliation other than that she lives there but now I have a shirt to remind me of her with Hello Kitty on it which is a winning combo.

Today I got home from work at 4:30pm which is crazy talk. I want you to know that I love my job, I truly do. But I would be a huge liar if I didn't admit that sometimes it's really hard to not have a normal life with friends and things to do after work and getting home (to your own house) at a reasonable hour because you're too busy travelling all over God's creation. Therefore being home and done with work at 4:30 today was amazing and gave me tons of motivation to do things I usually can't (after a 20 minute nap on the couch that is...the bun talked me into it!).

This morning I ran for 3 miles but since I was home so early I decided to run for a few more miles. I headed to the lake, waited in the parking lot through a little torrential downpour, and then ran two hard interval miles. The first mile I pushed hard and guess what?? I RAN AN 8 MINUTE MILE!!! So, I am well aware of the fact that that isn't really fast but it's way better than what I've been doing. The next mile I alternated fast and slow and went home an exhausted mess. I will tell you this though: my Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner stayed put even through all the sweat because it's phenomenal and I never doubted it for a second.

I'm really glad that I ran 5 miles total today because I needed to work off the cake I ate last night. It was allowable cake because I've spent a lot of time at the doctor lately so every time I have to go I allow myself a piece of cake as a reward like I'm 5. However, just because I've ok'd it in my head doesn't mean I don't then need to work it off so that's what I did today since yesterday was a rest-and-eat-cake day. Also, I am outraged over how orange the lighting in the dr's office makes my hair, behold:

I guess it doesn't look that bad in the picture but in person it's ridiculous. The good news is I look fantastic in the shade of blue their gowns are in.

After my second run I came home and started painting my bedroom. I painted the smallest wall in the room so naturally I feel super accomplished, as I should. I am kind of missing the blue already but I think it will be a good change. I hope? I might cry about it though, no joke, but if I don't like it in another month or two I can just repaint it (not like I haven't done that before).

Did you know that tomorrow is National Running Day?? I won't be able to run most likely (maybe tomorrow night) but I will be in spirit with all of you who DO get to run! So get out there!

Training Schedule: Week 2, VICTORY!!!

Am I the only one totally, ridiculously excited that Blue Crush is on tv right now? Probably. This movie is so awful yet I used to watch it on repeat back in college and I would tell you why if I had a clue. Which I don't.

Today was a fantastic day for my running and I will tell you why: I ran 4 miles without even thinking about stopping! I know that this seems minor but before today I was letting myself stop whenever I felt like it. No because I needed to, mind you, because every time that I get in the car after my run I feel like I could have gone farther (although to be fair I used to feel that way after 10 mile runs). But because I will literally just stop out of nowhere, walk for a little bit and then start running again. It's a totally mental thing, I have the physical capability of doing it but I have a mental block against it. Today I overcame it which means that good things are on the horizon.

This weeks mileage rounded out to be:
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: 3 miles
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3 miles (maybe 4...I don't know...I'll go with 3)
Friday: rest
Saturday: 4 miles

That brings the week in at 17 miles, not too shabby.

I wore my Ravennas today and I didn't get any blisters. I'm not sure which shoes I'll wear tomorrow for my long run but I'd probably guess my Ravennas. Next week I'll go back to my Mizunos and see how things go. If they make my feet worse again I'll take them back and start from the top.

Here are a few pictures to round out the week (because a blog without pictures is a blog I don't want to read):

There was some good mud on the trail today from all the rain yesterday. The kind of mud where you think you have solid footing but as soon as your foot lands you're hydroplaning. I like it.

The bun was super lovey last night. She looks terrified but I swear it's just that whole "eyes on the side of her head" thing. Currently she is trying to eat the tape off a box and cause a intestinal blockage for herself.

I've mentioned it before but I read the blog of a super awesome girl named Bethany. I do not believe that there is a difference between real life friends and blog friends and therefore I count her as a friend now but long before she knew I stalked her blog she wore this dress. I coveted it above all else because rose gold and I are meant to be in a solid, long term relationship and after months of looking I finally found one of my own! It arrived yesterday and my life is now complete. I have no idea where I am going to wear it yet but who cares? it's mine and that's all that matters.

Frozen yogurt is my favorite! Tied with running, of course.

I love Ikea. Love with a capitol L O V E. Sadly, the closest one in any direction of where I live is 4 hours. I have no idea why Ikea and Chick Fil A hate upstate NY so much but they should stop and come closer to me.

The good news is that there is an Ikea about an hour from the very edge of my downstate territory so sometimes I suck it up to drive through NJ just to wander around the amazingness that is cheap Swedish design. Sadly, they no longer make the nightstand that matches the one I have (nor do they have one tall enough for my bed since it appears that the Swedes prefer to sleep with their mattresses directly on the floor whereas I am a princess and require my bed as close to the ceiling as possible) which was the whole reaosn for my visit so I left empty handed and confused about what to do with the left side of my bed. Although I didn't really leave empty handed because I was able to make the one hour drive worth it with one of my favorite things on the planet...

Frozen yogurt! One dollar. One hundred calories. One happy Mary.

Soft serve frozen yogurt also hates upstate NY. Maybe it's time to move?

To add to my frozen yogurt happiness I'm happy to report that I hit the goal weight I had set for myself for the end of May today! That means 8lb lost in May and 25lb lost since February. Go me! I'm not willing to tell you what the exact numbers are right now but maybe someday :) When I lost weight the first time I rarely talked about it and never talked about numbers and that's the way I am now. I always read that you need to create a support system and confide in people to be successful but that's not how I work in life and it's not how I work with weightloss. But at the end of it all I will probably share. I am not sure what the goal I will set for myself for June but hopefully it will be the same or better than May's because I don't have a week's worth of eating Chick Fil A and sitting on my bum to counteract.

This morning I did a three or four mile run (I'm not sure because part of the lake was blocked off so they could work on the trail so I had to turn around and back track). I did wear my Ravennas today and they felt a lot better than the Mizunos (do you like my lack of continuity where I call one pair by the shoe name and one by the brand name?) although I did get a blister. I'm not counting it though because it didn't hurt which means it didn't exist. My logic = awesome. My shoe saga continues though since I'm not sure what to do just yet. Maybe run in my hiking boots? Because THOSE never give me blisters.

Oh! But guess what! About 2 miles in I totally hit my sweet spot! The spot where my brain turns off, my stride lengthens and I just run. It's what I've been waiting for and I'm not sure when it will be back but for a mile or so it was there so I know that it's on the horizon! Hooray!

I'm taking tomorrow off from running to let my feet heel a little bit and because my knee hurt a lot today. I think it was because it was a lot cooler today, it's been in the 80's at 7:30am and today it was 65 and glorious. I run on a torn meniscus in my left knee that I opted not to have surgery on so sometimes the arthritis in it acts up and I need to give it a day or two to stop aching.

Saturday though, I'm back at it. Anything more than one rest day now and I get antsy. And that, my friends, means the magic is coming back :)

What do goats have to do with running? Girl gone crazy.

Did you know that goats have horizontal pupils to increase their peripheral vision? So do deer, horses and cows but they aren't as noticeable because their irises are dark vs goats who have lighter caramel colored irises. The fact that goats have such visible horizontal pupils freaks me out to no end however the babies are tiny and cute and I used to love feeding them bottles in tech school (maybe because milk replacer smells exactly like vanilla cake mix).

I enjoy random facts and even more so I love forcing them upon other people. I read a lot of books full of random information in the off chance that I could one day run out of things to say and be forced to pull from my reservoir of infinite knowledge to keep a conversation alive. You. Are. Welcome.

Another random fact: did you know that when you are named Mary people constantly ask you about your sheep or how your garden grows as if it is terribly clever? It's not. Also, I don't recommend calling me Mare. It won't end well for you.

A third random fact: I can NOT spell recommend without spellcheck. Or restaurant. Or conscientiously, despite all the spelling awards I won in elementary school. Some words are just elusive little devils.

massive tangents aside, the goats I saw at the zoo last weekend got me thinking about the Mountain Goat race which got me thinking about the Boilermaker in a few weeks which got me thinking that I am petrified of having the same outcome as the MG. I hope not though, that would be really freakin embarrassing with the amount of people I know there. My MOM goes to this race and she has never nor will ever attend any major events of mine so it's a big deal. I'm trying to do my training though, two weeks in and I'm already doing better than I was all of MG training. Note to self: you can not take a year off from running, become a chubby muffin and then think that one long run a week with prep you for one of the hardest races in the area.

I've put a few miles on my shoes now (almost 20 to be exact) and I'm not gonna lie, we aren't really friends. I'm getting blisters under my calluses every day and they HURT. It's like a deep pain that won't go away even when I pop them. Yes, I pop my blisters. No, I do not believe that I will die from it. 75% of the time they feel better after and I've had a layer of blister under a layer of blister under a callus before and let me tell you what...I'd rather have my wisdom teeth removed again then have that happen a second time. And my wisdom tooth removal wasn't a good one.

I'm still trying to give them time to see if I settle into them since 20 miles isn't really that much. I think I might run in my Ravennas tomorrow and see how that goes. I'm at a total loss here about what to do because I really don't think I need that much stability but it's obvious I need more than I thought. And yes, to my cousin Todd I am aware of the fact that you're yelling at me through the computer right now to start running barefoot...not happening, buddy.

Mileage so far this week:
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: 3 miles
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 2 miles

My week isn't going too great, with my feet and with life. I'm pretty sure it's because I tried to give the bun a frozen grape last night and she was NOT happy about it. I was equal parts sad for her and laughing hysterically which is really cruel but if you had been here you'd have laughed too. I gave her an entire strawberry afterwards but I think the karma gods are after me now. I may have to buy her some parsley tomorrow or something to right this cosmic wrong.

Closets need love too.

No, really, who else is crying over Deadliest Catch right now?

Seriously, no one? You're all heartless.

I say that with love.

It's too much for Archie to bear.

I started painting my bedroom yesterday. It made sense since I spent all of last year's Memorial Day painting my kitchen and it was the last time I painted anything. My kitchen has a sloped ceiling that is 10-12 feet on one side and it took me 2 coats of primer and 4 coats of paint to cover the previous color and I'm still emotionally scarred. This year I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself (seeing as it IS a holiday and normal people are hanging out at lakes eating hot dogs) and decided that if I could get the trim done this weekend I would be happy.

That being said I had this epiphany on my way home from the paint store yesterday (my apologies to them that I showed up right after my 5 mile run in air so humid it felt and looked like I was running in bath water...but didn't smell like it, I'm sure) that I should paint my closet too. I moved into my apartment 6 years ago and I painted the whole thing over the course of a month before I moved in but I never did the closet since I was in a time crunch. It had a quick paint job on it from my landlords but nothing that looked great and it really needed a refreshing.

Yesterday I managed to get one window painted (I wanted it done asap so that I could get my AC in), the closet doors painted, the inside of the closet painted, my bedroom door painted and the trim along the closet wall. I also went through my closet and cleared out some clothes and shoes that I don't use so it all took a lot longer than I expected. I had plans to do more today but I found the Deadliest Catch marathon and I need to leave for work in a few hours so I figured I could do it next weekend. After last year's kitchen fiasco I figured what's the rush?

I tried to take pictures but on my iphone the colors look exactly the same. Trust me though that the new shiny white is SO much better than the old dingy 6 year old off white.

I finally chose a wall color too and it's Stonington Grey by Benjamin Moore. It's a permanent color but I found it in the Pottery Barn Winter 2010 color selection swatches (since I never throw them away). Every room but my living room is now a Pottery Barn color which makes sense because if I could set up camp in the middle of that store and never leave I would be the happiest girl ever.

Here's what it looks like in a few bedroom pictures I found online:

Source

Source

I seriously can't wait until it's done, I am BEYOND excited! The light pink in the first room is making me rethink the hot pink sheets I have though...typical.

Training schedule: Week One

Can I just tell you how high my level of excitement was when I came home, crashed on the couch in a sweaty puddle of my former self and turned on the tv to discover a Deadliest Catch marathon? Seriously, my little heart went pitter pat and all thoughts of accomplishing anything today went right out the window. Please tell me I'm not the only one that tears up when they show flashbacks of Phil Harris? And owns almost every season on DVD? I am? Oh. Awkward...

Have I ever mentioned that my running clothes never match? Ever? And if they do it was a total coincidence, like how yesterday I noticed that my hot pink shorts matched my new shoes which got me pretty excited until I realized that my bright green shirt with a big running shamrock on it threw the whole thing off and I oddly felt better about it. I will never be that girl who's running clothes match perfectly which is odd given how I dress the rest of the time but I take comfort in that chaos. It's almost like proof that my brain is capable of acting like a normal person's on occasion.

It's ok you're jealous. It happens.

And you can't really tell but my shoes are covered in a lovely layer of dust now, breaking them in is going well and I really like them. I keep getting blisters though so maybe I'm not as neutral of a runner as I thought?

I think I have been doing pretty well with my goal to get myself back into being a running lover and to get ready for the Boilermaker. Last week's mileage was:
Sunday: 2 miles
Monday: 3 miles
Tuesday: 2 miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday & Friday: Nada. I used them as rest days/I'magirlanditsucks days
Saturday: Nada. I thought I was going hiking with my friend but it didn't happen

The good news is I did a pretty solid 5 mile run yesterday which made me feel on cloud nine. Today I mentally wanted to do 5 again, physically wanted to do 2 (I started painting my bedroom yesterday so I was stiff today and am brewing a migraine) so I compromised at 3 and am happy with that especially since a storm was coming and the humidity was awful, I hate sweating that much. Grosses me out.

The training plan I'm loosely following calls for my long run to happen on Saturdays but I like them on Sundays instead because it's what I'm used to. Last week I was supposed to do two three milers and one 5 miler and this week is the same. Like all other training plans I'm supposed to cross train on the off days but that just means more running to me. I already have today's three miles done so I technically just need one more this week, probably on Wednesday.

The awesome news is the two and three mile days are getting easier. It's all a mental game now and I know that because I end every run feeling like I could have gone longer. I'm taking it slow though so I don't push too hard too fast and end up where I was mentally at the end of the Mountain Goat. The only person I'm racing is myself and so far I'm doing pretty well.