Foodie Pen Pal

This month I once again participated in Foodie Pen Pals put on by Lindsay. This month my penpal was Leslie @ My Kitchen is Open.

I received Leslie's package on a rough day, which was so nice to have something to bring a smile to my face!

In my package I received gluten free chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chocolate granola bars, peppermint tea, a couple of beautiful kitchen towels, a mug, and...

Chili mix snacks (picture taken .2 seconds before I devoured the remainder of the bag)

I love the mug!

It's maiden drinkage. A late-night, I can't sleep so I must have some Black Organo Gold Coffee sweetened with stevia. Yes, it sounds counter-productive to drink coffee when it's 2 am and I can't sleep... but it's naturally low-caffeine and the herb it contains helps to promote sleep.

Thank you so much Leslie! I thoroughly enjoyed this package!

Foodie Pen Pal

Hey guys! So this month I decided to try something new and participate in Foodie Pen Pal, organized by Lindsay @The Lean Green Bean.

A little bit about Foodie Pen Pal, each month bloggers and blog readers sign up to participate and are then matched with a fellow blogger/reader. Participants then have until the 15th of the month to put together a box of treats, baked goods, etc. and mail to their match.

This month (my first month), my pen pal was Erin @Cookies in Gym Clothes. She sent me some delicious goodies!

• Homemade chocolate chip cookies (So good!)
• 4 varieties of Kind Bars
• Pure Bar
• Quinoa

Sadly, everything but the quinoa is already gone =( But I enjoyed every bite! Thank you so much, Erin! 

I am definitely signing up for future months!

Weather.com and the Weather App Lied

This past weekend was full of activities. My mom came in to town on Friday, so went went to see the musical that the high school was putting on that week.

Blast from the past! High school theater

Pre-musical snack was some delicious chocolate almond ice cream made with almond milk

I want this right now!

The next morning was filled with yard saling (1/2 whiskey barrel for $15? I think yes), after which I had to go to work.

My dad arrived on Saturday evening, and Sunday morning was filled with yard work and attempting to get a garden going (my dad also started the lawn mower for me and mowed the lawn. Score!) And, again, off to work.

With all the running around, plus my parents being here for the weekend, I never really had a chance to fit in a workout, so this morning after my parents left I knew I had to do something. I'm taking a couple of days off from running, as my calves have been incredibly sore, and I haven't biked in a while so I knew I needed to go out and do that. I was really hoping for some nice, warm weather, and to be able to go relax in the hot springs after I was finished.

Ah, the hot springs! The sound of the river, and a sunny, warm day!

Instead, I got cold, rainy, hail..

I waited a little while and when I thought it was about to clear up I headed out. Weather.com claimed that it was going to be 57* today, but it lied! I got in 9.3 miles, and saw some beautiful sites, but oh buddy! It was cold, I was afraid I was going to get struck by lightening (which started when I was about 4 miles out), and I'm just gonna say it... I'm slow and terrible at biking!

I'm pretending like I'm enjoying it. look at those menacing clouds!

I <3 the mountains!

Longest bike ride ever. Now to add 6 more miles to that by the end of June!

Despite the cold, the wind, the lack of sun, and the hail that started when I was almond finished, it was still a good ride!

With how busy I was this weekend, it appears I never made time to feed my cats

But, yes, they had been fed. But heaven forbid they not have food out for 10 minutes!

Now, on my day off, I need to go get groceries... but all I want to do is curl up in a ball, under a blanket, and relax!

I got the job!

First, something I forgot to mention in the last post, another new thing for me is that I am officially a certified personal trainer! I'm worried, though, that I won't be able to find a way to get into personal training. I want to work with a personal trainer for a while so I can get used to working with clients, but so far I'm having a difficult time finding someone who is willing to work with me. Yes, I've only contacted one gym, but I honestly don't have TOO many options in this area. Hopefully I'll figure something out!

But on to the title, I have a job! I'll be a shift manager at the local brewing company. I start today, and I'm SO excited! I've also applied at the Hot Springs, and I'm hoping I'll get the job because then I won't have to pay to soak/use the pool ;) Plus, I think it'd be an interesting job. So, we'll see what happens.

It's About Time!

Hello! It's been quite some time since my last appearance in blogosphere, and I figured it's about time I came back!

Since my last post several things have happened:

1. I found a newborn kitten in my yard and bottle fed him

He used to be so cute.

2. I learned how to build a pretty darn good fire

To be honest, this one involved quite a bit of diesel

3. I signed up for a triathlon (no picture for this one. But let me tell ya, I'm terrified!)

4. I got "lucky"

This is just a few of the ones I found

And, for the biggest change...

5. I moved from this:

Missouri, land of the flooding driveways

to this:

Colorado, my native home

which involved these:

A freaked out puppy

A few lot of tears, covered by sunglasses

A cat walk

And, no, it didn't last long.

And a long, boring road

And now I actually have to walk my dogs

And now it's job searching, friend searching, ME searching... (lame? yes)

And let me just say how weird, Twilight-Zoneish it is being here. I'm now in the town where I grew up. I moved when I was 16 and there are some people here that I still know. Some are good (I've been spending time with my mom's friend, my "aunt") and some not-so-good (an girl I went to high school with, an old acquaintance of my mom's who caused some trouble in my family... those people I recognize but don't really know who they are, so I feel like a fool around them)

So hopefully this change will give me more to blog about. Maybe I can actually become a popular blogger! 

HAHAHA!

Close, but no PR (Bass Pro Half Race Recap)

The night before the race I was worrying about the weather: it was supposed to be cloudy, windy, and possibly rainy, with temperatures in the lower 50s. Even though 50s typically is warm enough for t-shirt and shorts, I was afraid the mixture of cloud and wind would make it feel much colder. Fortunately, when I walked out that morning it felt only slightly chilly.

That night I did not sleep well. I woke up pretty much every hour, and finally decided to get up at 3:30.

At the starting line I was feeling good and ready to go. Thoughts of a PR were racing through my mind, but I did my best to push those out of my mind as I knew chances were slim for a PR. The first mile started out slow, with jogging behind slower people, passing people, and getting into my groove. Miles 2-6 were pretty good, with miles between 8:15-8:21. But then the wheels fell off. I had begun to struggle in mile 6 just thinking "almost halfway there" to keep me going. It was also in mile 6 that we passed by the first photographer and I remember thinking "of course they have to have the photographer right when we're starting to feel like hell".

Mile 7 I started to hurt. To be honest, I think I started to hurt before then, but mile 7 is when it really became evident in my times and my desire to be done. My knee hurt, my foot hurt, and even my hip was starting to hurt. I finished that mile in 8:28, and progressively slowed down after that, with my slowest mile being mile 10 in 9:02. Once I hit mile 11 I consciously tried to speed myself up, knowing I was almost finished.

in the last .1 I managed to kick in some speed, and sprinted to the finish line. I finished in 1:52:14.  9th place age group, 193 overall (with over 1,000 finishers).

I'm trying to be proud of that time, but all I can think is how out of shape I am, and how irritated I am that I didn't get in the right training. But I went in to the race just a few weeks after serious knee pain, so I should be proud. I guess. I just hope that I can get over the pain once and for all and actually be able to train for races, and hopefully do a marathon at some point... even though after that race I don't know if I could push myself through 26.2 miles.

Doubts & Discouragement

My half marathon is on Sunday. To say I'm a nervous wreck is a serious understatement. I feel like the whole "training" (or lack thereof) has been a complete disaster. First, take into consideration my whole knee problem: because of it, the longest run I have done since September 18 has been 10 miles, and I just did one 10 miler, and that was on Saturday. My knee felt okay, but there was still some discomfort, tightness, and pain.

Second on the list of disasters if my immune system, which has been attempting to fight off a cold/flu/something for a week or so now. On Friday I was, thankfully, called off of work and while I was not feeling so horrible that I'm sure I couldn't have done some elliptical or something I decided I'd just take the day completely off and slept most of the day in hopes of kicking this thing in the butt. On Saturday I felt fine, ran, went to work, thought I got rid of the little bug. But on Sunday it hit me again, MUCH harder than it had hit me on Friday. But I had to go to work. I felt awful. I wanted to cry. All of my tables were demanding and I wanted to punch them all in the face. Went home, went to bed, and woke up this morning feeling okay... until I started running. I could feel it in my lungs, I just couldn't get my breath and I was going sloooow. I feel okay now, but I can still feel some tightness in my throat, and since it's been coming and going so much I'm worried about how the rest of the week will go.

I so badly want to PR, or at least come somewhat close to last years time. But I have the feeling that won't be happening. I don't know how fast my knee will let me go, and all of my running times in the past year have just gotten to be so crappy. Whereas last year I could manage 8:45 minute miles on longer runs (up to 13 miles, maybe?) this year I'm lucky to keep below 10:00 minute miles. I know I need to cut myself some slack because I've dealt with a lot this past year, and just coming off of a knee injury I shouldn't expect myself to be too fast, but I always compare myself to, well, myself, and just feel like I HAVE to do better than last year. If not, I've failed... or something. It's incredibly discouraging to try and try and try to get somewhere with so many things and just continue to fall further and further behind.

As for the doubting... sometimes I doubt whether or not I really enjoy running. It's always such a struggle for me to get outside and start, and just thinking of running sometimes I feel complete dread. Although, normally, once I get going I do enjoy it, and, unless something hurts, I feel so much better after. I think a bit part is just frustration over the same old running routes (I don't have much to choose from at all. Plus my dad's dog has decided to run with me, and he stays off a leash unless I want to stop and let him mark his territory or sniff poo every 2 seconds, which limits my route options even more), plus anxiety over need pain that causes me to dread it so much. Not to mention the changing of the weather. I hate the cold, and trying to get outside when it's 40 degrees or below it's darn near impossible. I just feel that, because I'm not always gung-ho, "let's go do this!" about running, I must not truly enjoy it. I'm just in doubt... about what it is I enjoy.

Sorry for the depressing, woe-is-me-ness of this post, I just had to get that out there. And hopefully someone will understand my discouragement and doubt right now.