more better

yesterday after running a two a day before 8 am, i decided to not run this morning.

actually i was sleepy. i went to bed about 4 hours after my allotted bed time, but i like the above excuse better.

i did take a mid day nap yesterday with sweet praia girl.

this is one of my absolute favorite things in the world

i then went to a braves game for a surprise birthday:

we won!

then i went to a bar that we vow to never go in again but manage to always break that promise. it was my friend gouda's birthday and you can't really tell the birthday boy no. especially when he is named after cheese (he's not really...i swear). well we go to this bar and there are more people than i have seen in my entire life at this bar. there was a cover band that if you saw this picture, what would you think the genre would be?

bret michaels look alike

 for the record, those are acid wash leopard (i think) jeans, converse, a monster energy cutoff shirt and a neon green bandana. if you guessed some sort of scissor sisters/hair band you wouldn't be entirely wrong, but they were a rock cover band. the lead singer was a girl. they were from birmingham and i swear to you she said "more better" in a sentence, out loud. OUT LOUD. awesome.



guess what though. i only have a beer and half the whole night. yep. accomplishments right there folks. accomplishments.

just.keep.running.

it's 8:04 and i have already run a two a day today.

one 3 mile run with Back on My Feet Atlanta and one 3 mile with this sweet face:

six miles and i was done by 745 this morning. awesome.

i will say that i am a touch tired and starving. but being so sleepy means that i don't have the energy to make something to eat. praia inhaled her food. i did accomplish a shower. progress.

off to work...

memorial day

my weekend has consisted of this:

a lot of these:

too many of those ^^ in a place that said this:

a little bit of this:

 viewed one of these:

and now we are going to go back to this and those:

and no use of these or these:

lofthouse cookies

while i was home, i did my best to not consume as many calories as possible.

i will say that i failed and succeeded at this:

making oatmeal cookies and eating these lovely little gems.

how did i not know they had chocolate?

i may or may not have been craving one of these for the past week. and i mean like mouthwatering no cookie will substitute craving. absolutely crippling. (i want you all to know that i couldn't for the life of me remember the name of these cookies and i literally typed: cookies with icing at grocery, and google knew exactly what i was talking about AND gave me a recipe. you can bet your ass i will be making those.)

i ran while i was at home, but mainly i just walked the old man and bombed around memphis.

regal isn't he?

it's sometimes fun to play hooky from life and skip out. then you've got to come back to reality and that is just not nearly as exciting.

nature box update:

the masa crisps are like crack. i can't stop eating them. i can't claim anything else in the box because i have been too focused on these.

i wore my new bright ass yellow mizunos while i was home. they are like running on pillows - ya know pillows of awesome if my foot wasn't still bothering me. perhaps i should actually go to the doctor? nah, that would be claiming defeat. never. i repeat, never claim defeat.

when you drive from atlanta to memphis you see lot's of exciting things. namely this one.

pretty sure they cut the wheel well to makes those bad boys fit.

i'm thinking of getting that done to the jetta. i think it is a much needed upgrade.

tomorrow is long run morning day. tonight is drinking in new bars with old friends night (i hope). could make tomorrow fun. or vomitty. bets?

old guy.

as i sit here eating cheese and crackers for dinner (for probably the third time this week) i started thinking about the reasons that i run.

there are the obvious ones:

stay in shape
it's calming
race day nerves and capitalizing on them
eat as many candy bars as humanly possible - not really, but i do like candy bars

the not so obvious ones:

it keeps me sane
it builds character
one day i won't be able too

it's that last one that really hit home the other day. i was reading an article about my high school track coach. he has an inoperable brain tumor and is fading.

when i read the article i was overcome with a rush of emotions. most of them i don't know how to process. he is a great man and helped to build my character. he and his son were my coaches all throughout high school and without the two of them, i wouldn't be the runner, much less the person i am today.

it's really hard to read an article about someone you care for deeply knowing that they don't have much time left.

i have a real tough time accepting things like this. i don't like seeing people in pain. it's absolutely crushing to me.

i am headed back home to memphis tomorrow to see him. hopefully it won't be the last. it was a really tough decision for me to make about going home. i want his memory in my mind to be the happy ones, but i know in order to be okay with myself, i have to go home and see him.

here's to running races for people who can't, in the memory of those who did, and for everyone that has touched you along the way.

this is the article if you want to read more about what a great man "old guy" is. that was our affectionate name for him...


Old Guy

the bolt.

yesterday morning my friend andrew and i ran the brookhaven bolt 5k.

my legs are super sore this morning. which is either from the run, new shoes or the late night dance party that occurred last night...

it's probably a sweet combo of both.

a guy standing behind me at the start was describing the course to me. tough first mile. downhill second mile and cruiser third mile. lies. ALL LIES.

if you understand these, more power to you.

that picture probably helps no one, but it made me feel like a real running blog to include it. if i were to describe that course in two words i would say, all hills. yep all hills. that course was BRUTAL.

i did however PR. and got 13th in my age group and 138th overall. the age group block was 20-29 which is a bit bizarre to me, but whatever. top 15. i'll take it.

i don't quite understand the point of chip timing if you go by gun time for race results. because clearly dude who placed at 140 was faster than me....

can we take note of the girl that placed 15th and what her name is....

i wore a pair of my new shoes. i probably shouldn't have, but whatever i was really excited about getting them and wanted to test them out.

oh hey shiny new running shoes

i love them. i haven't had a chance to test out the other pair yet. we will make that a tomorrow morning activity. this morning was not all sunshine in roses for this kid.

too many whiskeys. too many.

poltergeist.

they're heeeerrreeeeeee.

just a little poltergeist to get your afternoon going.

so i finally made it to the post office today to pick up my shoes and i had another surprise awaiting me:

that is a really shitty picture of a naturebox

i was little kid excited to open my "hippie food" as someone who shall remain nameless called it. this month includes (as described by the insert in the box):

-masa crisps : "top salads with a sprinkling of masa crisps for a savory lunch-time crunch." why's it got to always be about lunch? why not dinner? or snacks? i like snacks...

-tropical trail mix: "when you're feeling the afternoon slump, turn to our tropical tail mix for a natural boost that coffee can't dream of." i'll take anything that says i shouldn't drink coffee. but i do not like the "of" at the end of the sentence, but because i am feeling generous i'll let it slide. (besides something is bound to be misspelled in this post)

-cinnamon spiced almonds: "we pair warmly spiced cinnamon with our california grown almonds and add a touch of honey to help you fine tune your memory any time of the day." sold.

-agave citrus granola: "this soft-baked granola is unlike anything you've sunk your teeth into - literally." interesting verbage. (see there you go, i made up a word)

-honey nut medley: "stir a handful of your honey nut medley into yogurt for a sweet bite after lunch or dinner." gross on the yogurt mix-in front. but they are delicious. yes i've already opened them...don't judge me.

i'll keep you posted on the others.

now to the REALLY important thing. NEW SHOES. all girls love new shoes. i just prefer running shoes or sandals. i love me some sandals...

so shiny and pretty.

i can't wait to test these obnoxious bad boys out in the morning.

nothing.

ever have those days where you roll over in the morning and you don't want to wake up, and you convince yourself that if you go back to sleep now you will run in the afternoon?

i had one this morning. guess what didn't happen today...running.

my shoes are being held hostage at the post office, and it was miserably hot by time i got home.

i did tell myself i would make a snack and then go run. turns out, i wanted a snack and then dinner. you know what happens after that right? nothing. that's what happens. nothing at all.

aside from the like of paying bills, reading, and trying not to fall asleep nothing has been accomplished.

when i ate lunch, i was super hungry and i ate entirely too fast. so fast that i thought i was going to vomit. i've never actually done that before. i've eaten too fast and had the hiccups, but never the fear of throwing up. that was a new one. lesson learned. lesson.learned.

this is clearly a post about nothing. a rather boring post all around.

i promise to do better. perhaps i can get my shoes out of hostage tomorrow....

mmmm. new shoes.

trail running.

this morning i did a rainy saturday trail run.

probably my favorite combo of things. it wasn't torrential downpour, but a light rain. and trail running is by far my favorite type of running.

when i started running in high school it was a combo of small trail running, fields, and parks. none of this sidewalk, please don't get hit by a car running. it always nice to get back to trail running. it's challenging in its own right, but that's what makes it fun. you don't notice how tired you are because you are focused on watching where your feet are landing and what that trail is turning into in front of you.

it requires a completely different form of focus.

i ran at sweetwater creek. it is beautiful, but i hate to say it, the trails aren't marked very well. part of it you are swimming along and doing great, then all of a sudden you question where you are and realize you haven't seen any colored markers in a while. so you hope for the best and that what you are on is actually a trail. it's a bit hard to get lost because all you have to do is turn around, but sometimes it's a bit nerve racking.

normally i go with praia so it's not as scary, but today i went by myself and would just turn around when i wasn't sure. normally i just press on, but the trails were slick and i didn't want to get stuck out there.

but here were some things i saw. (pictures from sweetwater creek website).

mill ruins

i'm hoping to get out there more and really figure out the trails. in the mean time i am trying to find trails closer to my house. sweetwater creek is a bit of a hike....

new routes

yesterday, apple had to reset my phone. this morning i had no alarm. i probably should have thought about that before i went to bed...

i also probably should have eaten more than just 5 cheese and crackers for dinner. whatever, i was sleepy.

i did do a new to me run yesterday that was fantastic. darwin and i went and ran around emory university. he is super fast and i wasn't sure i would be able to keep up with him. i figured i would have to make up my own route and meet him back at his house. but i did okay. the hills over there are BRUTAL!

uphills kick my butt, but i can make up some serious time on the downhill. i should probably work that out better.

overall it was just over 6 miles and we ran it doing about 7:46 mile pace.

i was thinking that was a fast pace, and it is, but i was looking over my dailymile page and noticed that it is faster than i normally run, but not unbearably faster.

there was one hill, that i finally had to put my head down, let darwin outrun me, and stop looking up to see where the hill ended. it.just.kept.going. like 7th layer of hell hill. torture. i can grind out some serious hills, but i am really slow when it comes to them and that one was absolutely no exception.

we got to a stop light (read darwin stopped and waited for the slow poke) and wait to cross and i was praying that we were turning because if you crossed the street, the hill kept going. i think my heart would have been crushed if i had to run up any more of that hill...

once he, praia, and i made it back, we had a driveway party. you know the one where you lay down and try to remember how to breathe normally again? yea that lasted a minute.

one pair of my new shoes arrives on monday and the other pair arrives next friday. how's that for some serious difference in shipping times....

new.shoes.

ever have one of those days where you think i'll just eat cheese and crackers with an apple for dinner? maybe with a side of peanut m&m's for dessert? no? just me? cool, because that is most certainly not what i had for dinner. okay you caught me, it's exactly what i had.

and you know what? it was delicious.

things i also did while eating "dinner," ordered two new pairs of shoes to try out....

these: mizuno wave rider 15

and these: mizuno wave elixir 6

i know the wave riders are the newest model (as i also own them in that atrocious pink limited edition color), but the elixirs i have no idea about. i could probably look and then be informed, but whatever. i think the first pair i had were the 5s so there is a good chance these aren't the most recent pair in the history of elixirs.

so in 3-5 business days, these puppies will be all mine. woop. woop.

i should probably find something more suitable for dinner, but i've been up since approximately 4:30 and will probably fall asleep in the next 30 minutes....

winning the lottery...candy style.

back to the morning running grind.

i've been out of sorts lately with the move at work. early mornings to late nights make me sleepy.

i was going to run when i was out of town for candice's wedding, but i was exhausted. everything hurt and i didn't think it was time to be pushing out some miles just to say that i did.

i ran 4.12 miles this morning with no watch.

might have "borrowed" from limewire....does that exist?

sometimes i like the freedom to just go out there and run. timing runs can put an unwanted pressure on them. especially when your body is screaming at you to stop running. it allows you to slow down and just meander through. it was quite nice to know that i could walk when i wanted and could go as slow or as fast as i felt capable.

things i have noticed over the past week of running/walking around:

my right foot still is tender from kickball
my left knee still bothers me occasionally
morning runners are not the friendliest
i love morning running
hills in atlanta are killer
you can't run early enough to escape the heat
i really need some new running routes
i miss the beach - well mainly just water in general
you can always push just one more hill/mile/minute

i would run more hills if they looked like this.

not surprisingly, i ate my weight in candy during the wedding weekend. to be fair, it was free and who says no to free candy? not this kid. so i've been trying to get back on track with eating better, but somehow i ended up with ::read: absconded:: all of the candy from the wedding. there is no escaping it. besides, life is too short to live without candy.

sugar high....not my picture either.

i may or may not have partaken in some alcohol as well. in the form of michelob ultra (blegh), miller lite, mimosas, whiskey ginger ale, etc. etc. etc. this was over a 3 day period. give me a break.

things that are entertaining to me: bridesmaid's dresses are ordered to fit elephants. i am fairly positive of it. i am on my second one now that was entirely too big. like let's play the game of what all can you keep in your dress because your boobs certainly don't fill it out. it's a fun game. you should try it sometime.

i've done enough rambling for one day. it's time for a grocery run (it's been two weeks. i've officially run out of creative meals to eat).

source
source
source

bored.

so this morning i was supposed to go running.

you know what happened? i woke up and decided that i was "supposed" to watch the back of my eyelids for a bit longer.

i had to be at work at 7 and knew i was going to be hauling the truck and trailer. i decided sleep was in my best interest.

you know what? i was right. i also came home and promptly took a nap. it was 92 when i got home. needless to say this kid did not make it outside to run...or inside to run. or any sort of exercise.

unless you count convincing myself that whole grain cheez-its are a legitimate dinner. my stomach disagrees and pasta is currently cooking. yes it's 830. whatever. don't judge me.

hot.

this morning was one of those runs where you feel like your legs are stuck in cement and you are running through molasses.

i felt that way the whole time until i looked down and noticed that i was on point to finish my 5k route in about 22 minutes. huh. no shit.

that last mile was brutal. BRUTAL. i wanted to throw up, quit, lay down, throw up while laying down after i quit. you know the usual.

tomorrow i am going to have to do a super early morning run as i have to leave for work at 7. running in the dark. i'll take it.

i would also like to point out that this morning when i started running it was 68 outside. it was 630. how is that even possible? everything i had on when i got home was soaking wet. EVERYTHING. best shower ever.

i will say, i don't have an ice maker and i never really have a need for ice, but this morning i would have killed for a glass of cold water. learned my lesson and made a water bottle that i put in my refrigerator. this was also one of those mornings when you finish running and you can't cool back down.

i now know what praia feels like when it's super hot outside.

i love the south, but man some days. it feels like you can't get up early enough to beat the heat. and you sure as hell aren't going to be able to out wait it in the afternoon.

if you haven't noticed i am a grumpy runner when it is hot. i usually get over it about june, so we've got about a month to tough it out.

until june... here's to a lot of complaining. 

oh. remember how yesterday i said that i signed up for two 5ks.

this one may 19th:

and this one june 2nd:

well i also bought some compression socks...these ones:

and signed up for the nature box:

big day for my bank account....

i'll keep you posted about the socks and the box. the socks i have in black and love them. the box...well we shall see.

here's to purchasing things when you are stressed out...weeeeeeeee