Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage Planning

This past week our Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage team had our first team meeting. It was so fun to meet all the girls that we will be running with. I had only known two of the girls, one of whom is my sister-in-law, so it was great to hang out with the other girls that I'll be spending two straight days with.

We had a Ragnar veteran come to speak to us about all things important, who was a huge help. Get your butt light! Paint your van! Eat your snacks! We had so many questions, some that I definitely hadn't thought of. I can't believe it's now only 2 weeks away - which means I really need to get on the planning/packing bandwagon for this event.

1. Can we shower? YES! Total surprise to me. I guess some schools will be open, along with a couple campgrounds, so bring some change. Here's the thing though - I'm not our household's the world's biggest showerer. I don't want to get into details, but showering isn't a big priority for me most of the time. My husband, on the other hand, takes two a day. I consider it a nice form of balance, and keeping our water bill at bay.

Long explanation short: while I plan on being sticky sweaty and nasty hot, I highly doubt I will be taking advantage of this showering business. It sounds like a lot of work? (Who would have thought a girl that lazy would even sign up for Ragnar in the first place.)

2. Can we eat? YES! Like, real food, not just Cliff bars and bananas? Still a yes! Total relief. This was a worry of mine, since as much as I love snacking, runners need some serious fuel in meal-form. I felt sort of "duh" after this, since obviously we will be driving all over, past placed that sell real meals, soooo yeah. We can actually stop at those! Unless I smell too bad and am refused service (see number 1 above).

3. Can we get our art on? Yes! It's highly encouraged to decorate our two SUV's that we're bringing, so we can flaunt our team name, number of kills (when you pass people), and other such important things. Done and done.

In order to appropriately prep as best as possible, I've perused the internet for thoughts on what to pack and what to expect. Sarah OUaL has been a big help, who outlines all her relays here, and Meghann and Erika give detailed posts on what to pack here and here.

In relay running expertise you can provide?

weekly rundown

I realize that it's 120 degrees in Death Valley, and that's truly a blistering boil. However, as I stated yesterday, this late June/early July heat is truly unreal for us here in the Pacific Northwest. I had to create a rough summary of my day to portray exactly how bloody hot it is here (and while it may sound like I'm complaining, that's really not the case. Bring it on, sun.):

2am: Wake up drenched in 12 gallons of sweat
5:15am: Wake up again, this time to one ridiculously beautiful sunrise.
6:00am: Don't go running because I'm already sweating and tired from not getting any REM's last night.
7:00am: Hair dries in three minutes
8:00am: One grande iced orange coffee (it sounds weird, and it tastes weird. Go figure.)
10:45am: Finish third 16.9oz water bottle-full of water
11:30am: One hour lunch with my mom, straight in the sun's rays. It was lovely.
2:00pm: Four is the magic number my air conditioner needs to be on, which is the highest setting and yet still not powerful enough to keep my armpits dry. 
3:30pm: Jumped in a lake two minutes after arriving at a friend's house.
6:30pm: Watered four wilting lettuce plants that were looking quite sad.
8:00pm: Ran three miles to the husband's softball game with one water bottle in hand that didn't stay frozen for more than 13 minutes.

But I LOVE IT. It makes my entire day feel more relaxed and stress-free. I can't imagine if I lived in Arizona. Actually, I can, and it would include me being unemployed because I would never want to get any work done.

Play in the sun. Play in the sun. Work? Nah, play in the sun!

I did manage to squeeze in 24.71 miles last week when it was pouring down rain 4 days and pretty dang hot the other 3.

Tuesday: 5 miles, 7:58 pace
Thursday: 6 miles, 8:46 pace
Friday: 5.7 miles, 8:36 pace
Sunday morning: 5 miles, 8:51 pace
Sunday evening: 3 miles: 8:22 pace

 Grand total: 24.71

I am now off to convince my husband that it would be in our best interest to sleep outside on the deck tonight. Did you guys ever do that growing up? I'm pretty sure my neighborhood friends and I would spend more nights sleeping outside together than we did inside apart. It was such a novelty! Yes, I think I need to bring that back tonight.

weekend happenings

The past 3 days have been so. Much. Fun. That, combined with the fact that's its only a 4-day work week anyway, has left me feeling completely unenthusiastic about that work thing tomorrow. 

Oh, and given that the weather has been in the high 80's the past few days doesn't help my motivation either. We don't get this sort of sun in June! We're blessed with "Juneuary" until July 5th, and then summer is on. 

This is exactly the reason why we were hesitant about planning our annual bocce ball tournament on a June Saturday. We knew there was a nice chance of it raining all over our bocce balls, but also knew that everyone would adapt just fine if that happened since rain is what we've evolved to manage. 

Amazingly enough, the sun, oh sweet sweet sun, decided to do is a big one and but out loud and clear Friday and hasn't left us since. It made for an awesome lawn game day, as well as some sweet tan lines. 

That little pool brought back so many memories. When I saw this I immediately imagined my dad doing the same thing 15 years ago. He probably had the same excited look on his fave, too. 

Scott won one trophy and a good friend won the other after a long, heated (literally) fight for the gold. We now have a total of 3 bocce trophies in our household. It feels pretty good to be winning at life. 

Sunday was an incredibly easy day for me while my husband spent 6 hours doing homework. He did, however, manage to sneak in a softball game and scored an awesome win. 

I had ran there, and quickly realized .5 mile on that this body is not cool with running in this hot heat. I had froze a 16 oz plastic water bottle beforehand, which was completely warm by the time I had trekked the 3 miles to he field. I think I'm going to stick with morning and evening runs whenever possible. 

We were both pretty ravenous when we got home, and while I really didn't feel like turning on any heat I settled on making fajitas since it only used one element on the stove. Oh, and the microwave but THAT I can handle. 

How was your weekend? Any tips for exercising in the heat?

Blog Lovin'

 While I am not a huge fan of the name, I believe Blog Lovin' wins over Feedly as my new blog follower. While nothing can compare to the good ole Reader, it's demise comes Monday so I figured I better get all this figured out. I'm such an adult.

Anyways, I would be honored if you wanted to follow me over on Blog Lovin' (yeah...I officially can't stand the name.) Here's the link! I'll try to make it a worthwhile endeavor for your precious time. :) See you over on BL (that's a little better..?)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Poulsbo Beer Run | race recap

In the past few years, breweries have cropped up out of nowhere here in Kitsap County, to my great pleasure. While I'm never the biggest beer drinker of a bunch, (unless I'm with my husband - he'll just have water, thanks) I love the atmosphere of breweries. Everyone is having a good time (and if you're not, you might want to think about just leaving because there is no un-fun allowed) and not only is the beer unique and interesting, the food is typically off the chain as well.

For whatever reason, three of these brew masters decided to build their small empire within miles of each other to make the perfect tri-beer-fecta. That is to say, perfect until you are to drink a rather high-quality beer at each while intermittently running amongst them.

Homegirl, we need some breakfast. And lunch.

Wait, it's not fair for me to start at the end of the show. It really was perfect for the first 3 hours.  My sister, Brooke, and I arrived at the first brewery, Volholl, at 8:45am. We luckily started at the brewery that happens to be right in downtown Poulsbo, which also means we got to end there (=more post-race food and fun choices). The sun was shining, it was 70 degrees, and the Pacific Northwest could not have been in a better mood. (Sidenote: This was also the day of Seattle's Rock and Roll marathon, so you know they were singing praises.) The registration was great - quick and easy. We each got our bibs and a green dot, displayed prominently on our cheeks, which meant that we were to start in the 9:15am wave.

I can't remember what beers we got, but they were bomb. My brain was absent when I said I wanted an amber though, should have stuck to something a leetle lighter.

We ran the first mile to Sound Brewery, which was a nice downhill trek that seemed to go by in a minute. This palce had a nice set-up, with a small beer garden and some picnic tables posted up. You would think that we would have taken that as nature's gesture to say "here, sit down, stay awhile. Please. Nurse your beer." But we didn't. We were finished within 15 minutes and outta there.

Third stop was the Slippery Pig Brewery, which is down a little dirt road on a farm. It's my favorite brewery by far, which a cute outdoor seating area complete with comfy couches and a sweet wooden bar. The beers were right my alley, too - fruity and light. I went with a rhubarb-flavored one while Brooke chose kiwi. Oh, and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries was passed around, which could also be 4th reason this place was my fave.

At this point, we knew the rest of our day was screwed. It was only 11:00, two hours after we had our first beer, and we were three beers deep. I realize this isn't a lot for many people, but for two girls who don't drink a ton this got us in a solid way.

Oh, and I didn't have breakfast (which never happens except for when I run myself drunk, naturally.)

Oh, and we kept forgetting to drink water while sweating buckets in that gorgeous sunshine.

So essentially, we screwed our own selves over but WHATEVER, it's a beer run.

Oh, lookey there, two sunburned drunk girls. I can't even remember what's sticking out of my bra. That's a sign of a good time.

No, but really, we had a fantastic time. What's not to love about beer, sun and run - and combined, at that?

We ate lunch at The Loft, and ohmygosh it was so incredibly delicious. It may have just been the ravaged state we were in, but that quinoa pita thing Brooke got was the best food I've tasted in weeks. I got a roasted veggie wrap that was also super good.

We too our time eating and downed the jug of water before walking back to my car...and then deciding to instead take a giant, 2-hour nap in the park o the waterfront.

What I'm trying to say in this post is I'm a total goal-completer. I completed a race, was drunk before noon on a sunny Saturday, and had some quality time with mi hermana. That's all I wanted to accomplish that morning, and I'm pretty proud of myself for being so productive.

However, there are a few things I would change next year:

1. Eat breakfast
2. Wear sunscreen
3. Drink water, at least within the first 3 hours I'm beering

I'll leave you with a little advice on how to be a better friend (good thing all my friends are evil and are happy to let me drink sissy beer ;) ).

What has been the most fun race you've ever ran? Do you have a "fun run" coming up soon?

the weekly rundown

This week left me feeling pretty drained, which I couldn't quite figure out because my mileage wasn't super high. I think physical therapy might be leaving me a little fatigued, which is funny because I don't do a whole lot of strength training. There are some squats and some booty/quad work, but nothing strenuous. Most of PT has been reconditioning my muscles and stretching, which leaves me feeling really refreshed. Stretching has never been my thing - it's so boring. Luckily I've learned that it's the peanut butter to running's jelly, so I need to stick with it.

Monday: 4 miles, 8:55 pace
Tuesday: 6.5, 8:46 pace
Wednesday: 3 miles, 8.54 pace
Saturday:4 miles, 2 beers an hour pace ;)
Sunday: 4 miles, 8:53 pace

*Sidenote: The picture above was taken Saturday at the beer run in downtown Poulsbo. It's a city that is filled to the brim with Norwegian heritage, and its downtown streets totally reflect that.  You guy buy frozen lutefisk TV dinners, all the black licorice your heart desires, and Uff-Da shirts. I mean, what else did you ever want to own in your life?

Have a great start to your week!

weekend happenings

Friday night my sister came over and we made vegan pizza. It was ahhhmazing. We topped it with cashew "cheese" and pesto, along with the required tomatoes and onions. 

Saturday was the great Poulsbo Beer Run! I will give a more in-depth description this week, but lets just say it was so fun that we had to take a three hour nap in the park promptly after our forth and final brew. 

Sunday we took on the outrageously fun role of babysitters for my sweet little niece. This girl is a trip, and not to be taken lightly. She's the only person I know who chooses just one topping for her FroYo. And the only one who makes me laugh when she plays s fun game of "let's scream really loud in the house for hours!!!" 

What, your hometown doesn't have a museum dedicated to insects? There was also a tortoise present...and a boa constrictor. Pretty solid Sunday!

What is the strangest thing/place in your town?

the doctor said...

that I have a fiiiiiine looking left knee! I went back for my follow-up appointment today and got the A-OK on my knee. He said my x-rays are perfect and that he can't feel any swelling or such negative things around it. While I knew that the pain was "just" inflammation and that physical therapy has helped heaps and bounds, it was nice to hear the good news from a professional.

So, what does this mean for my future running endeavors? I was thinking about it on tonight's run, and I'm not sure how I"m going to proceed. I'm definitely going to take it easy and limit my mileage, which should be easy since summer is here (!!!) and that always means fun, non-running activities are in the works.

I'm still on for Ragnar Northwest Passage, which I could not be more excited for. My sister-in-law just booked us our hotel room for the night before, seeing as how we have a 3am wake-up call the morning it all begins. My legs are on the shorter end (3.1 | 4.8 | 5.8), which I'm hoping will be nice for the old knees of mine.

Seattle has some great 5 and 10k's in the summer and fall, so those are definitely in my future. I was also thinking it would be sweet to run a race in Europe, where we will be traveling a good chunk of August. I could totally set aside my pride to run a race in Greece and get beaten by thousands of people who have hailed from the land of the marathon birthplace. Has anyone ever ran a race internationally? I need the deets!

Alright, thanks to Netflix I'm off to drown myself in season 3 of "Parenthood" (why oh why did I allow myself to get sucked in a sitcom that so does not jive with my lifestyle? Is that what makes it so appealing?). To accompany me, I have these tasty treats:

Only 12 of these squares are supposed to go to the potluck tomorrow. Trust me...the other 4 weren't invited.

Poulsbo Beer Run: +2, please

After dealing with the slight depression I felt after having to drop out of the North Olympic DIscovery Marathon, and then feeling the highs that have come with recuperating, I decided that it's time for me to get back out on the road to manage all these feelings. Yeah...it makes sense. We're rolling with it.

Tonight, I successfully ran 6.5 miles, which is the longest distance I've covered since the 8 miles I did at the marathon. There was hardly a squeak from ye olde knee, so I feel like this is a huge success story. Granted, it wasn't 8 miles, but seeing as how I've been running 11 out of the past 12 days (and pain-free, might I add) I believe that if there was going to be pain at all, it would have already taken me down.


To celebrate this milestone, I did something selfish. I forced my sister to run (or, stagger/swagger/crawl) this fancy race: Poulsbo's Hopstock Beer Run. It's 4 miles total, but you stop at 3 different breweries along the way for beers and breaks, which will nicely chop up the mileage. I think my knee can handle this kind of race.

When I first informed my sister of our plans, she was hesitant. She's not a runner, she would be the slowest person there, she would make a drunken fool out of herself (oh wait, that was my worry). It took a mere 3 seconds for me to reassure her that this is a beer run, and that "run" is most likely (100%) not the accurate description for what this whole event will consist of.

Unless it's to the bathroom. Or the pretzel guy. Those sort of runs will definitely be in the books.

And they used to be such sweet, charming girls...

the weekly rundown

Since marathon training is currently over and I've been dealing with this stinkin' injury, I haven't been posting my workouts of the week lately. This has bummed me out, not only because it means I haven't been running but because they're my favorite posts to pull together.

So, I decided it's time to bring them back, rundown style. My physical therapist has me running very consistently now (bless her heart), so it makes even more since now that I have some actual logging to do. They have all been pain-free, too, which sort of just makes me want to scream "weak hips don't rule your life" from the top of Mount Rainier. At least not anymore.

Sunday: 1 mile, 8:27 pace
Monday: 2.84 miles, 9:04 pace
Tuesday: 2 miles, 9:00 pace
Wednesday: 2 miles, 9:06 pace
Thursday: 3 miles, 8:55 pace
Saturday: 3 miles, 8:57 pace

All my runs have been much slower than what I'm used to, which is just fine. I realize I'm coming off both an injury and a long period of severely decreased mileage, so I remind myself that this is the safe way to creep my miles back up.

And of course it feels damn good to be running again.

Sidenote: The picture above was taken Saturday morning while I was at breakfast with a friend. It's a little secret treasure of a cafe, all tucked away on the Puget Sound where it takes a good 30 minute drive to reach. I got 2 incredibly large pancakes (all gone) and my friend got the seafood omelete = to die for.

If you live anywhere in the Seattle area, you really should grab your honey, your homie, or your hound and make a fun morning of coming out for this breakfast. It's a beautiful drive, and there's a state park right down the way. Your taste buds will thank you...your thighs probably won't, but who cares about them, anyway?

Have a great Monday!

on why physical therapy does a body good

I admit that I was a little skeptical on going to physical therapy when it was prescribed to me. Why? I'm really not sure. Maybe because it's something new to me and I feel like why partake in something that I've lived without these past 27.5 years? And to be honest, it made me feel weak, which I wasn't expecting. I WAS weak - my knee was screaming like a mother at me - and yet, I couldn't come to terms with that fact that I was injured.

Sure, I got by those first 27.5 years...but these past 4 months of knee pain? Yeah, I can do without that. And if (since) I want to continue pounding pavement these next 3 decades, I decided it was time to really get down to serious, real-runner business and figure out this body of mine.

And I am so glad I did. Because my physical therapist? Is the bomb. I've only been twice and already I feel like a new, better runner.

At my first appointment, she had me show her the strength-training exercises I do at home. Now, that was a tad embarrassing given that I've done a little number called "The Mini-Skirt Workout" since it came out in, ohhh, 2009. (Maybe. Maybe it was actually 2007. The fact is, it works! Mini-skirts are like magnets to these thighs.)

As soon as I got to the lunge part, she was like WHOA, girl, there you go. That's your problem. Your knees are sneaking inward, when they should be going in a straight line downwards.

The oh-so-accurate diagnosis? Weak hips. Which I really should have known, since my hips are constantly telling me they're weak and my hips don't lie. She also magically determined that my right tibalis anterior (ohh, fancy name) was "stuck" so to speak, and that it needs to be worked out a little more.

She gave me exercises for both my hips and for me tibalis, and va-voom, 5 days in and I feel great, albeit sore. It's weird to feel my muscles and form shifting after just a few short days of trying a new routine. It's sort of weird to imagine all the different things the body secretly does underneath all this skin and stuff we carry around. And with that, how easy it is to modify those by certaian exercises - who knew ankle circle could un-stick a stubborn tibalis?

My physical therapist-gone-goddess  has me steadily increasing my mileage (so long as it doesn't hurt anything), by instructing me to run one mile/day for three days, then two miles/day the next three days, then three miles/day the next three days, etc. If my knee does start acting up like the attention-seeking child it is, then I am to divide that day's mileage in half and run that. Pretty doable, I say!

I hereby dedicate this lovely Tuesday to weak hips! Oh, and for coming in third (cough, out of four teams) in Beer Olympics 2013 this weekend. Now there is an athletic accolade worth boasting about.

Cheers for beers!

thoughtsday :: 6.6.2013

1. First and foremost, can we all just agree that these shorts are the bomb? I don't know if it's the reusable grocery bag material or the serious creases, but I need to buy these in bulk like Hanes socks.

I sported those at the doctor's office yesterday, where I got an actual diagnosis for this knee biz. After having zero pain with all the pulling, pushing, (hit it! Bop it!), the doctor seemed pleased to say that it's just inflammation. SCORE.

I'm going to have two weeks of physical therapy, followed by another doctor's visit, followed by rest, followed by...run? Yeah, let's hope so.

2. In the meantime, I'm trying to adhere somewhat to the "anti-inflammatory diet" to try and heal up from the inside out. This has involved a large amount of smoothies, cherry juice, almonds, and dark chocolate.

Yes, there's a hunk of life-changing bread in there. Carb me up, baby.

Something you might already know that I wish I had known when green smoothies were first born into the universe as nature's cure-all: tart cherry juice 100% cancels out all vegetable taste, making your smoothie taste like dessert, and sometimes almost too sweet. The first time I got a little heavy-handed with it and ended up not using any milk, which was a little too much for me. I get mine at Trader Joe's every week and drink it pretty much every day.

3.  I'm the co-co-chair of a little event my friends (AKA my fellow co-chairs) and I are hosting on Saturday called BEER OLYMPICS. So what if this makes me sound like I'm still a sophomore in college - there's beer and sports and sun involved! Bring on the debauchery!

Oh, and I plan on bringing this little guy to really get the party going. There's nothing like a good fruity shark to get everyone wanting that W.

Courtesy of Taste of Home

What do you typically put in your smoothies to make them oh-so-delectable?

North Olympic Discovery (cough, Disappointment) Marathon Recap

First off, let me warn you that this post will be brief and succinct due to the fact that I'm still in mopey, frustrated phase of "failing."

I had to drop out at mile 8 of the marathon yesterday, due to another flare up of "runner's knee." It was (and still is) really discouraging, and I'm angry with myself for letting me get so worked up about it. As my sweet husband said, there's nothing you can do about injuries. I mentally prepared myself for a potential disaster, but there was definitely a feeling of denial that I could still be dealing with this knee of mine.

With the obvious knee issues being the poignant source of my frustration about having to quit, it was also incredibly annoying that I had such a good pace and felt great in every other aspect. I was going about 7:50/mile, kept a good eye on my form, and it was a beautiful day. Seriously, 68 degrees and gloriously sunny. It was one of those times that I felt like I could go on forever. With someone else's knee.

The past 20 hours have been filled with me trying not to mope, making the best of the situation (meaning going out for two lunches and having a nice walk in the sun) and reminding myself that there are always worse things. In this case, much worse.

I made a doctor's appointment with a local sports medicine provider, and will do what needs to be done to fully recuperate. While I have 7 weeks until Ragnar, I highly doubt this issue will be resolved by then. And I will come to terms with that, hopefully sooner than later. What I really need to do is stop being so stubborn and commit to the fact that I'm injured and that appropriate steps need to be taken in order to properly heal.

Nope, no fun. But here are some pretty shots I took yesterday in the first 8 miles - I'll get miles 9-26 another year. ;)

the day before a marathon

Before my first marathon, I was surprised to feel all the emotions that come with the preparation of running 26.2 miles. My nerves were shaking, my adrenaline was pumping, I had dreams about running the course that was etched into my mind...I didn't expect this. It's just running. It had been a daily activity for the past 18 weeks.

And now, I'm getting those same feelings. The excitement surrounding the packet pick-up, the finish line events, even waking up at 5:45am on a Sunday. All of these things with the common denominator of running four hours (crossing fingers I get less than that tomorrow) straight! It's a crazy time we live in.

I spent Friday trying to drink every last bit of water in my line of sight. The problem is...I strongly cannot stand drinking water. The only exceptions to this statement are when I just ran a bunch of miles and feel like I will die without it right then and there, or when it's all frozen in cube-form and floating in my cocktail.

So, to honor my body and try to show it a little respect for the upcoming torture I'm going to put it through (I'm only saying torture because I haven't ran more than 6 miles in 7 weeks. It might freak out on me a little), I bought 3 different kinds of coconut water: peach mango, pineapple, and orange. Peach mango was definitely my favey, with orange coming in second and pineapple being a far behind "yeaaah, maybe never again."

The said thing is, as much as I love fruit, I love chocolate much more, which is why chocolate coconut water will always beat all other flavors. No contest.

I've also been loading up on lentils, fruits, veggies and Mexican food so my energy stores can be in tip-top shape come tomorrow. There have also been some chocolate squares in there as well, no duh.

The above e-mail I sent to myself and Scott to make sure we're both on the same page. The race is about an hour away and we won't have time to get over there today to pick up my race packet, so I want to make sure we get there nice and early to get all my ducks in a row (line? How does that saying go?).

And yes, McDonald's coffee is an absolute must, with its badass $1 any size price.

As I've mentioned, my #1 goal is to finish this race, free of pain. With my training being so rudely interrupted I don't have any PR hopes. All I want is for this knee of mine to behave so I can enjoy the b-a-a-Utiful trail that connects Sequim to Port Angeles. Oh, and to celebrate over a hearty carby meal with my people!

Have a great weekend!

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?

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!

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!

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.

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.)