Thursday, May 30, 2013

thoughtsday :: 5.30.13

Happy Thursday, friends! I just returned from a two (yes, 2) mile run. I had 5 miles on the calendar for today, but one mile in I could tell my legs were d-e-a-d. Turns out, my body lost some fitness after not running for 7 weeks - who would think?

On a serious note, it is a little disheartening realizing this when I'm supposed to run a marathon in 3 days. I'm going to take it easy these next couple days and hopefully these leggies of mine will be fresh and ready for 26.2 miles come Sunday.

Onto some thoughts!

1. "Running the Sahara" is one of the most inspiring documentaties I've ever seen. I started watching it halfway through at a hotel, got sucked into it the hour I watched it, and then had to checkout of the room before I watched the end. The suspense! As soon as I got home I looked it up on Netflix, where it was available. I definitely recommend it.

2. Well, now that we're discussing inspiring documentaries, Nicole over at Pumps and Iron has a post today listing my other three favorite movies. These were the main influences for me changing to a vegan diet, and carried a lot of weight with me. If you want to ball your eyes out (not that I did or anything...), watch Vegucated.



3. Now that we're finished discussing documentaries (sorry, that was an executive decision), I want to hear where you guys eat meals. At your kitchen table? Chained to your desk? On the couch?

Recently, I've been feeling guilty about how mindless I eat most of my meals. Breakfast and lunch are mostly consumed while I'm on the computer, either at home or work. Dinner is always in the living room while watching TV. When Scott and I were first married, we ate dinner at the kitchen table about half the time, but these days it's a formal black tie event if a table is involved.

I figure that it will change and we'll adapt to different habits once kids are in the picture, but right now it's what works for us. It's so tempting to multi-task, especially in the morning when there's a "rush rush rush" sense, to just eat breakfast and check e-mail all at the same time. I definitely want to make meals "family time" once there are littles running around, but it's funny how that principal gets brushed off when it's just two of us since we already catch up with each other so much throughout the day.

Are you going for a run today?

What documentary have you seen that made you change your ways?

Monday, May 27, 2013

weekend happenings :: 5.27.13

First off, Happy Memorial Day! I extend the biggest thank you to our nation's military for their unending support and selflessness to defend the United States. 

It's been awhile since I've done a "weekend what's up" post, but here it is!

Friday evening Portland fun! My boy planned us a secret trip to Portland, where he surprised with a concert to see a band I've been wanting to watch for-ev-er, Bloc Party. We also had to visit the best restaurant in the land of anywhere, Nicholas Restaurant. Their pita bread is the size of your head AND my head AND a toddler's head together. I used half for my dinner and the remaining half became my breakfast the nest morning.

Instagram: brittawebb



 Sunday my college roommate came to visit and we ventured to Fort Worden State Park. It's an old military camp that has bunkers that were used to house soldiers. Very interesting indeed!




Today we walked around downtown Poulsbo and got extremely full off delicious Mexican food. I scored some bargain black flats that I'm super excited about because it means I can throw out the other black flats I've had for 5.5 years that smell and are falling apart at the seams. Score.

I need to be honest and say that the majority of my time this evening has been spend in b-e-d. Watching Arrested Development, season 4, that I've been awaiting months for. We've made it the first 5 episodes and while the first couple were a bit slow, they hit their stride and have gotten many a laugh out of me. You'll have to let me know what you think of them.

Have a great start to your week!

Friday, May 24, 2013

SIX. MILES. (!!)

I really hope that this isn't a premature statement...but I believe this "runner's knee" situation has finally left the building. After keeping a close eye on my knee the past 7 weeks and having two pain-free 3 mile runs last week, I decided it was time to really get out there and see what it had in it. My plan was to go six miles, but obviously stop, turn around, and walk home if it flared up.

Good news. It didn't!

On Wednesday I ran 6 gorgeous, sunny, ache-free miles. It felt great, to say the least. I hadn't realized how much I missed stretching my legs like that and zoning out into my own thoughts. For the first three miles, I tried to listen to Joy the Baker's podcast but found my brain was too busy to really listen to it (which I still need to do since I can't miss one episode because her and Tracy are so dang hilAIRious). So on went my tunes for the second half.



After basically taking 7 weeks off from running, I was more than willing to take it verrrry slow, which turned out to be harder than it sounds. I kept wanting to speed up, then reprimand myself, then turbo it agian, and so on.

This morning (ahem, at fivefreakingthirty) I churned out another 3-miler verrrry slooooowly. I had tree trunks for legs. Granted, I had not had coffee yet but I'm guessing it will take awhile for my fitness level to creep back up to where I was before that whole knee thang. Too bad I don't believe "awhile" reads "one week," since that when my marathon is.

I've put some thought into whether I should or should not attempt the marathon, and I decided...what the hell. I paid for it, my injury has fleed (I hope), and I want a t-shirt and snacks. The worse that happens is my knee pain flares up, I have an asthma attack and/or there's an earthquake that sucks us all into a giant hole. So yeah...I'm going.

In the meantime, I believe that proper marathon fueling is to visit the great state of Oregon two weekends in a row for wine-binging, doughnut-eating, and staying out waaay past my bedtime. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Monday, May 13, 2013

look at me now

I'm getting some run in (singing to the tune of this song). After putting in some diligent work these past few weeks to kick this runner's knee biz-nass into my past, I couldn't be more surprised to see that it might have actually paid off!

I went on two pain-free runs Friday and Saturday. Both were only 3 miles long and I averaged a 10-minute mile, which I didn't find the least bit discouraging. It felt so good to get out again, and you had better believe I did not take a single step for granted. I kept a close, obsessive eye on my knee to make sure it wasn't starting to feel sore, but it held out both times. I took Sunday off to make sure I didn't over do it (and to make sure I had plenty of time to be, let's face it, lazy) but I plan on slowly getting back into my mileage from this point.

Articles here and here discuss how to safely resume running after taking time off from an injury. It seems like 40% of your previous weekly mileage is the proper number to resume at, so I am going to finish off the week at 20 miles. It's going to be tough to hang back on speed, but I need to remember it's alllll good and running the pace I used to will only make the return worse.

Jenae had a post on how much fitness is possibly lost when taking time off, and I have to admit it's a little intimidating. However, I have done a pretty OK job of strength-training and walking while being down and out, so hopefully my body doesn't completely hate me. Only time (and a few runs) will tell.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

to the moms!

You guys knock it out of the park. I hope you went through the day feeling appreciated for all that you do, day after day. Granted, you should feel that every day, but I know getting something in return for such a full-time job was most likely not why you became a mom.


Today was a highly lazy day that consisted of church, mom time, and (of course) food. It was my last day of teaching sunday school until September, which was a little bittersweet. I'm glad I'll be able to see my kiddos regularly at church or else it would be a sad day to see they had all grown 6 inches over the summer and missing every one of them.

We hung out at my in-laws for lunch, catching up and hanging out. My parents was the last stop on the agenda, where there was a dog bath, dinner and movie-watching. Have you guys seen "Coming to America"? I hadn't even heard of it until today, and was laughing 2 seconds into it. If you haven't seen it, you need to know that there's a hamburger phone appearance, which should be all the reason you need to check it out.



And there you have it! I'll be back tomorrow to share a very exciting running update, which is a rarity these days.

(I feel like I should clarify that when I say "running," I don't mean to the fridge/mailbox/washing machine, because that pretty much sums of the past 5 weeks for me.) 


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

a wednesday walk-about


I was born in Bremerton.

It is the town where I grew up playing twilight summer softball with the neighbor kids. It is the town where my friends and I, in typical Junior High fashion, would scour the local Safeway for the just right hair color ("you're going amber? Ballsy.") It is the town I skipped out of without a second glance as I left for college. It is the town that welcomed be back with open arms when I returned after carelessly abandoning it for four years and two continents.

It is also the town that I have slowly come to realize will be my home's home for quite a long time. This epiphany was strange for me when it first arrived because for some reason, I always envisioned myself settling down somewhere else. I'm not sure why. I mean, does anyone ever think to themselves "I am going to grow up here and then grow up here some more and then do some more growing here and then die here"?

But yes, we will be here in our home for a nice long while. My husband, you think he's married to yours truly, but in all actuality he's more married to this town. Which, thankfully for him, brought him to me. He has a story for every business (past and current), hedge and street pole that he likes to hash out with his friends whenever the slightest of an opportunity is presented.

And after today's neighborhood walk-about, I'm at ease with this whole growing-roots thing. I've lived in this house for three years now, which is a comforting feeling after moving six times in five years. And in those three years, I never once turned right at the bottom of our cement stairs and went alllll the way down and explored the neighborhoods beyond. I've never had any friends down thataway, and there are no stores. Just houses, and old cars, and new mail boxes, and so much character.

Today packed a punch of 66 degrees, and was perfect for such a stroll. Here's a little peek: