the animal kingdom

So today was my Week 3, Day 2 run. I ran outside again instead of at the gym. I noticed a dead:

And I was thinking, they are similar in body size and shape to:
I felt pretty good for the most part. Although, the last 3 minutes of running were uphill again, so that was really rough. As usual, I didn't want to stretch, BUT I figured out a way to make it a little more bearable. You see, I needed a goal to start running (the end being a 5 or 10 K), and I realize I need a concrete set of goals for stretching! SO now I am on my way to being able to touch my toes without bending my knees (sitting or standing), and do splits (middle, and left and right sided). :) I'm pretty pleased with myself for coming up with that form of motivation, I'll be honest.

Today I had work for a few hours; more computer charting training. That part was dull, but our little "check in" time is always nice. Natasha is just great. Then was lunch and Rita's with Liz!! Delicious as always. My italian ice was cookies and cream. It's mind boggling- it's ice. but it tastes like cookies. Then I went over to Lauren's and hung out for a couple hours before coming home, playing on FB for a bit, then headed out for my run. Then I pulled together a really unexciting dinner: peach, noodles with a little olive oil and parmesan, a roll, and a cookie. Now I'm just working on being ready for my day tomorrow. Phew.

honk.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

Well it wasn't a gorgeous day today, but running wasn't nearly as hot as it could've been.  It was nice and overcast with a little bit of a breeze, so I didn't sweat nearly as much haha.  I went the same route as last time I ran from my house, which was by the Avondale Lake.  There's a slight incline on the way back, of which my calves were not a fan. Because of the incline, the last minute of the 3 minutes was pretty killer.  But I did do an extra 90 sec run after the normal reps were done. This was mainly because I still had a fair amount of distance to go and didn't feel like walking the rest of the way.  So today I was a slight overachiever.  And guess what Matt?  I picked up the pace a bit with that last 90 secs too!  You should be proud haha.  But here are the ducks and a baby duck that was by the lake:

For lunch I met up with Liz B at Mellow Mushroom for followed by the amazing Rita's. :)  It was a pretty fantastic combo. :)  Here's our Rita's yumminess:

And Liz looks slightly like a creeper.  But a creeper eating awesome Rita's. :) OH!  I also decided that having good running shorts is imperative.  I have three that are my most comfy, but only one out of the three are my favorites.  The only problem with the three is that they stick to me pretty good once I'm been going for a few minutes.  So I guess soon I'll be investing in some more running shorts.  Hopefully ones that won't stick to me too badly.

Okay, I'm done now.....for real. :)  Yay for Week 3 Day 2!  Almost to Week 4!  Say whhhhaattt???? :)

cheaters never prosper...

I really don't like stretching. I just think about doing it, and get annoyed! I don't know why, it's not like it hurts or anything. Anyway. All this to say, while I have sort of been stretching, most of the time, it hasn't been sufficient. And today, my knee began to rebel when I got home from my run. So now it's all achy and grumpy, and I'm grumpy at the thought of always having to stretch haha. Oh well. There are worse things in life, I know.

Today was my Week 3 Day 1 run. And yes, Matt, I too noticed the math being goofy. But, considering, after 15 minutes, we are done with the running part and then just have to walk another 3-5, I am not complaining haha. I felt all kinds of strong for the first half of my run. And then I turned around to run home... uphill. It wasn't uphill the whole way, but my 90 sec walk, then 90 sec run, then part of the next walking section were all solidly uphill, so by the time I was done, I was DONE. haha.

The rest of my day was really busy- laundry that I didn't finish until a couple minutes ago, grocery shopping and target, worked a lot on DAYA stuff, and I cooked dinner!! I am going to be an excellent cook. I can tell. haha. Well, maybe not like, Food Network awesome, but I will be able to cook myself healthy food. Which is the goal. I made chicken with balsamic vinegar and garlic. It was really delicious. For my sides I had leftover broccoli and tortellini, and a rosemary herb roll.

Tomorrow is work. Sigh. My day off was way too short. Tomorrow is "check in wednesday" at work. I think we are going to learn to chart on our patients. Oh well. I'll live. THEN! is Mellow Mushroom with Liz!! And then Rita's! After that I'm not sure what I'm doing. Probably working on DAYA stuff, calling insurance, doctors, and gwinnett county jury people to try to get out of it. I lead an exciting life, be jealous everyone.

honk. I'm out.

bad math

Okay so did anyone else notice that the amount of time they tell you to run in week 3 doesn't add up to 20 mins? 1.5+1.5=3x2=6, then 3+3=6x2=16+6=18! Not 20. Anyway, just seemed odd to me.

Now onto week 3 day 2. I almost didn't go today. I was thinking that since I ran yesterday to make up for Sunday that I could have easily justified waiting until tomorrow. I'm sure you all would have told me that was perfectly okay. But I figured I didn't want to start down the path of postponing runs for reasons other than scheduling issues. Like, I was perfectly capable of running today and I had no good excuse, so I ran (I ran so far awaaaayy....just kidding).

The run itself was a little better than yesterday's run. My entire legs below my knees are hard as a rock when i get done and burn like a mofo while I run but all in all pretty good. On a side note I ran wearing my Braves cap today and went without sunglasses. Not sure why.

Random picture time! (I'm really enjoying the random picture segment of my posts, I like that I may be letting you guys in on some pics you might not have seen and therefore more of who I am):

Thats me (sans hair) at Tallulah Gorge. Amanda and I went camping there one spring break and that's a shot from down in the gorge, which we hiked.

Matt

Feel the burn, feel the burn!

Soooooo as Matt said earlier, we ran on Saturday for my Week 2 Day 3 and his repeat of the same day.  It was really cool to run on the beach, but dude, totally hard.  Even though the sand was pretty hard packed, it still gave a little bit so my calves were ON FIRE by the end.  And Matt loved the last running segment when he got the chance to leave me in the dust. :)

Today I did Week 3 Day 1, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.  The worst part was the last 30 seconds of the last 3 minutes of running.  Other than that it was pretty good.  I was pretty dern proud of myself. :)  I've decided that I run like an old man haha.  If you've ever seen old men run and how they take small steps and a pretty slow pace, that's how I run.  I think it's just because it's easier for me to set my pace that slow and I don't get horribly winded by the end of the very first jogging section.  But today I did try to pick up my pace a little bit the last running part.  I also decided that I'm gonna run outside once a week until it gets a bit closer and it'll be more than that closer to race time.  So I think I might get the Nike+ system since I'll be doing the running outside part so that I can start to keep track of the same stats that I can keep track of on the treadmill at the gym.  I'll let ya'll know how it goes. :)

Sadly, as Matt said, we forgot to take a picture of the beach. :(  And I meant to take a picture this morning and I forgot that too.....So here's a couple of pretty cool pictures of the sun setting while we were driving home yesterday from FL:

    

Hope everyone's week goes well! :)

back on track!!

Phew! No need to fear, kids! I'm back to the team. I fell behind with this new work schedule and such, but I'm acclimating. So today was my Week 2, Day 3. Not bad, other than the weird side stitch sort of pains I got. I burned 146 calories and went 2.04 miles. Woohoo! Here is a goose. Thanks for remaining encouraging and not being suspicious that I was going to permanently fall off the bandwagon.

Today at work all we did was learn more about how to do computer charting. It was so so so boring. So what did I do? Sit there and eat starbursts and cookies. Oops. By the end of the day I kinda didn't feel so great. On a positive note though! By the end of the day I was craving cooked vegetables. SO WEIRD. So for dinner I made: corn, broccoli, eggplant, and tortellini. Turns out I didn't really need the pasta; the veggies were plenty. In case you need a delicious corn recipe:

1 cup frozen queen anne corn

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp diced red onion

salt, pepper to taste

Those measurements are estimates at best. Heat the oil and start to cook the onions and garlic. When the onions are translucent, add the corn. Salt and pepper as desired, cook til the corn is soft and delicious.

Thank you. The end. More tomorrow... week 3!!

my legs hurt

I tried to think of something clever for the title of this post. But I'm too tired to think all that clearly. Week3 Day 1 kinda kicked my but. It wasn't as bad as week 1 when i got the times swapped but it was as close as I've gotten since. The worst part was my shins and calf muscles hurt at the end of the 3 minute sections. And not like shin splints but like the muscles were just like "whoa! too much! aaaahhh!"

I may have overstated how tired I got. But it worked me pretty good. I missed running yesterday, hence the Monday run. But it was worth it cause I got to spend the weekend with Liz W. Liz, I told Lauren Woody today that hanging out with you and spending time together was the main thing that kept my work issues from dragging down the whole weekend. You're awesome and I love you!

I am running tomorrow, so yay for back to back!

And now it's time for another installment of the random picture series!

That's me as Bill Cosby and Amanda as the priest from M*A*S*H* (I can't remember his name) at the Wesley Foundation Costume Karaoke party at Fox's Pizza!

Matt