June in Review + Minneapolis Recap

June in Review

Total Miles:  80.6 down from 87.6 last month. (90.5 miles from June 2010.)

Total Time: 13:11:09 from 14:05:55 last month. (14:18:41 last June.)

Total Runs: 18 for an average of 4.48/run.

Highest weekly mileage: 

6/20/2011 — 6/26/2011:

27.4 Mi

4:41:41

Favorite run: I had a lot of fun on the Runners Block group run.  Granted it was hot as ballz, but it was so fun to be out running with a group of people.  The delicious bagels after the run didn't hurt. :)

Most hardcore run:  I'd say my 4x800m repeats on the treadmill while trying not to drown in my own sweat.

Favorite race:  None.  :(  Still trying to get the bod back to 100% post-Fargo.

Bike Miles: 15.  Almost doubled last month--8.5.  Hah.

Favorite Jams:  Since I've been running with so many friends, I've been leaving the tunes at home.  Kind of a nice break.

And I was super lame and never got around to showing the tales of my Minneapolis weekend.  So here I go.  We got in to town on Friday night and got all gussied up for a night on the town.  We hit up a great restaurant with super cute and delicious drinks.  And then painted the town red with our dance moves.  I haven't danced in a long time.  And wow.  My calves were not happy on Saturday.

My bfff and I before heading out for dinner.

My bfff and I and the bride to be!

It looks like Jenn is presenting Sheana's face in this picture, and I kind of love that.

And because I can't take more than one normal pic in a row.... we end up with this.

Perhaps my eye was bothering me.... we'll use that as the excuse for the quasimodo squint.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed out for brunch at the Cheeky Monkey.  Mmmmmm.  It was so good.  The mimosas were amazing as well.  From there we went to the wedding venue per the bride's request and then to some patio bar for some drinks and dessert.  Hello my two favorite things.  :)  Next up was a German festival (the bride is from Germany, so she was sooooooooo excited to go).  We went out to some more bars later, but this little ol' lady was quite tuckered out.  Uff da.  I jsut can't bachelorette-party-it-up like I used to be able to.  Don't ask me how I was able to pull of a long run the next day....

Patio bar.  Cheese balls+cheesecake+beer FTW!

Mmmm bier.

Check out Mile Posts' great Saucony shoe giveaway.

Weekend Recap AKA Always a Runner

After my supercalifragilisticexpealidocious run earlier this week, I ended up not running again.  :/  The next day my hip kind of hurt, and then I opted to hang out with Kyle instead of running the next night.  Saturday brought the return of the i infuction, so I'm basically a professional couch potato professional.

But even though I'm not running, it doesn't mean that running isn't on my mind.

For example,  I went to visit my BFFF this weekend.  When I filled up for gas before leaving town, I reset my odometer.

• From my doorstep to the Centerville exit sign is a marathon.
• From my doorstep to my exit is a 50k.
• Both of these distances I can drive much much much faster than I can run.  ;)
• Irene could have a STELLAR one mile race starting on the east side and going through town (there's a monster hill).
• I would hate to train around Irene because it's so stinkin' hilly.

Today on my way home, I made a pitstop in my hometown because I was having troubles seeing out of my eye.  When I was in high school, a girl had stopped at our house asking for a glass of water, stating that she had just ran from a neighboring town to ours.  I remember being awestruck (keep in mind this was in my distance days... 1 miler, right here....) that she had run that far.  Since I drove the route today, I decided to clock it.  6 miles.  Um.... during marathon training, I'm not sure if I had a single run LESS THAN 6 miles.  It's funny how the perspective changes, huh?  (But to be fair it's a hilly ass 6 miles.)

I decided next time I'm home I'm going to run there and back for fun.  Yes... for fun.  Ha.

But anyway, on to the weekend fun.  Yankton was having their 150th celebration, so I went down to spend it with my BFFF.  Sadly the weekend was cut short due to my stupid eye, but I haven't had that much fun in such a long time.  Sidenote:  BFFF completed her first race EVER last weekend running the Boulder Bolder 10k.  So proud of her.  Maybe I'm attempting to convince her to do a half marathon in September.... just maybe.  ;)

Big head Todd and the Monsters.

I feel like I was misled by the size of Todd's head.

Pretty BFFF.

This is what happens when you have 9 people who need a sober ride home from the bar.

This is what happens when your eye ball has an extreme sensitivity to light and you're taking a pic at night with the flash on.  Ouchies.

Memorial Weekend Wrap Up

I had been looking forward to last Friday for months.  Honestly.  The opening of Wild Water West (my favorite water park, and 2nd home during the summer.  The 1st being the bike trails) and the weekend Sex and the City 2 premiered.  Combine that with seeing my BFFF and we have ourselves a good weekend, no?

Before she rolled in to town, I had to get my first long run post-marathon done.  I had 12 miles on the schedule but decided to do 10-12 to be on the safe side and allow myself the option of shortening it if necessary.  I got out the door at 8:30am and already knew I had made a mistake by leaving so late.  Hello summer.  Welcome to SoDak!

I started off a little fast.  Then when I tried to reign in my legs, I opted for the slower side.  My normal spot on splits were no where to be seen!  I stopped for a quick drink of water at fountains along the trail at 2 miles and 3.5 miles.  At mile 5 (where I decided to turn around), I was *dying* of thirst.  Bad sign.  I tried to slow my pace waaaaaay down.  The wind I was running into definitely helped to slow me down.  Grrr.  The last couple of miles felt as terrible on my tummy as the last few of the marathon did.  Blech.

I was beyond happy to be finished.  Mental note:  must focus on hydrating all day (and night) to help avoid dehydrating.  Might have to suck it up and bring my handheld on long runs this summer.  When you sweat as much as I do, it's not cool to go with out the waaa waaa.  Seriously I haven't had this much sweat roll down my legs since summer ball in high school when we'd be sprinting up and down the court in 90+* gyms!  P.S.  My legs look unnecessarily meaty in this shot.  Please ignore that.

I did 10 miles in 1:34:16 for a pace of 9:26.
1. 9:10
2. 9:15
3. 9:30
4. 9:19
5. 9:29
6. 9:41
7. 9:34
8. 9:41
9. 9:33
10. 9:01

Post-run and post-shower it was off to the waterpark.  I love the sun.  I love the smell of sunscreen.  I love boys with their shirts off.  What?  It's true. :)  I got to hang out with my BFFF and see some old friends.  After getting our tan on (and by tan I mean reapplying sunscreen every 45 minutes and nagging all the boys who were acting too cool for melanoma to apply as well) we got ready and went out for drinks.  Somehow we both took our cameras and took zero pictures.  BFFF fail.

Saturday we were up bright and early to see SATC2!!!  EEEEE.  So excited.  We were both big SATC fans back in the day and watched the first one together as well.  I know everyone has been revealing which girl they are in the show.  Funny moment with my old roommates, they were talking about the show, and each one listed off who they thought they were, leaving only Samantha unclaimed.  As soon as it dawned on me, I let out, "Oh.... does that make me the whore in this scenario??????"  After a glass or two (or four) of wine, this was apparently the most hilarious thing ever.  Anyway.  The movie was gooood.  And Aiden is still looking gooooood.  After the movie and lunch it was time to say ta-ta to my bestie (haha I hate that word, but like to use it sometimes because it's so obnoxious).

I went home, took a little snooze, and got all dolled up for movie #2 for the day:  Prince of Persia.  I'll be honest.  I didn't really think this movie would be my cup of tea, but decided I could stare at Jake Gyllenhal for 2 hours if worst came to worst.  It was actually really good.  I was impressed.

Sunday morning I hit the trail for an easy paced 6 mile run.  Barely two miles into the run I saw a familiar face:  Angie!  My old boss in college, who is seriously just the sweetest person in the world.  We've tried to make plans to run in the past, and they have always fallen through.  The funniest thing:  only runners seeing each other on the bike trail will do the following-- a) start waving and smiling as soon as they recognize each other. b) simultaneously stop their stop watches as they slow to meet up.  c) embrace in a mondo sweaty gross hug.  After we caught up for a few minutes, we both went on our way.

About two miles later, I ran into my Prince of Persia date, who decided to jog along with me for a while.  Sidenote:  fairly certain my ~9:30 mm pace for him would be like me trying to run a 12 mm.  Sorry!  My heavily sweated self must not have freaked him out too much because we made plans to hang out on Sunday night.  Mental note:  Must get faster.  ;)

I ran 6 miles in 57:06 for a pace of 9:31.

Both people I ran into while running commented that they could tell it was me from afar because I was wearing green.  Good to know that I've been known for my green tendencies long before my running days.  Also, how fab is it to run into friendly faces on a run???  Answer:  pretty fabulous.

Weekend Recap + January in Review

I'm giving myself the ol' school bribery tactic with the blog tonight.
Stern/Responsible Jeri: Jeri!  No more HIMYM until you post about this weekend!
Lazy in Love with Marshall Jeri:  But I don't wanna [insert pouty face here].  I'm so close to the end....
S/RJ:  Ugh, maybe I should just let you finish it so you can move. on.
LiLwMJ:  Ha!  Jokes on you, as soon as I finish it N agreed to re-watch it with me.  So THERE.  Neener neener.

Etc.

Obviously Stern/Responsible Jeri won.  Shocking, actually.

Ok so the weekend.  Friday is a rest day, as per usual, as once 5pm hits I don't want to do anything that requires anything other than me:
a) putting on sweats/laying on the couch
b) getting gussied up and playing googly-eyes with the boy.

Friday night was spent celebrating N's quarter of a century birthday (yes, I'm a cougar, NBD).  I've seen the guy a gazillion times since his birthday at the beginning of the month, but I refuse to do a birthday dinner with the very limited dining options in his area.  We feasted on a delectable piece of salmon and a bloody slab of dead cow (take a guess as to which was mine, will you?).  Blech.  After a birthday dessert as big as my face (nom nom), he said the magical words to me, "Wanna watch HIMYM?"  Gaaaaaaaaah.  Keeper, no?

I finally got to the marathon episode that my manager had said I was going to looooooove.  If you haven't seen it yet, please do.

Barney: Here's how you run a marathon. Step 1: You start running. There is no step 2. 

Ok, I'll pause while you watch it.  Done now?  Laughed a lot?  Great.  Moving on.

Saturday my BFFF Sheana came to town for a day of BFFF awesomeness.  We shopped, we ate, we talked boys, you know, the usual things girls do.  During this time, I may have gone to Target and possibly picked up Season 3 of HIMYM.  "My name is Jeri....and I'm an addict....."  As soon as she took off for home, I finished up the last 2 episodes of Season 2 and plopped in Season 3.

Sunday I was rustled out of bed by the gym's treadmill calling my name.  I scoured my apartment for fuel for the long run and came up pretty empty.  I had a piece of cinnamon/sugar toast on nasty bread and about one spoonful of peanut butter straight out of the jar (totally scraping every.last.morsel. off the sides).  After a couple of episodes it was finally off to the gym.

The gym was actually pretty busy for a Sunday afternoon so I kept somewhat entertained.  I had 10 miles to do, and was shooting for a 9 minute pace.  I took a GU (and felt like a total nerd doing so at the GYM on a TREADMILL, the shame....) at mile 4, along with a quick water break, and another water break at 7 miles.  I actually busted out my trusty Nike tank top, so I wasn't a total sweat monster as usual.  Score one Jeri!

I did 10 miles in 1:29:00 for a pace of 8:54.

1. 9:08 2. 9:13 3. 9:13 4. 8:57 5. 8:51 6. 8:59 7. 8:46 8. 8:49 9. 8:40 10. 8:21

I pretty much wanted to murder myself during mile 8, but other than that, it was a great run, and I felt strong throughout.

After a quick shower to wash off the 3 pounds of salt that had built up on my skin (sexy, I know) it was back to the couch and my boyfriend, HIMYM.  N stopped in on his was through town and found me laying on the couch looking all googly-eyed at the television.

N:  You've been laying here all day watching this haven't you?
J:  Nooooooo.  I took a one hour and 29 minute break to run 10 miles.  But yeah, other than that and a short shower, totally been doing this all day.

January in Review
Total Miles:  81.5 which is up from 73.2 from last month (compared to 36.5 in 2009).
Time spent: 11:25:01.  Kind of interesting...in November I ran 1 less mile than this month, but spend a full hour more running.  Just shows the amount of speedwork I've been doing this month.  WHOO!
Total Runs: 14 for an average of 5.82 miles/run.
Highest weekly mileage: 1/4-1/10/10 24 miles 3:29:30
Favorite run: The speedwork session that was 6x800 and 2x400 .
Most hardcore run: The speedwork session that was 1x1600, 2x800, & 4x400 at neck-breaking speeds .  Or close to it.
Favorite Race: None.  Sniffle.

**Season 3 may have been finished before bed Sunday night.  And Season 4 may have been purchased today......

Food Poisoning Renders You Incapable of Running; Lesson Learned

For those of you that were concerned that I was dead after a weekend of debauchery, rest assured, I'm still alive and kicking.  I've taken the longest running hiatus since starting up running again in January with Saturday through Monday without a single run done.  When I woke up to a horrible thunder/lightning storm this morning, I thought it was going to be another day chalked up to my slackertude.

But let me back up.  Do you remember the "raging" birthday party I was to attend on Friday night?  The one that I moved my long run for to attend and celebrate?  Um...ya.  Definitely a bit more lowkey than we anticipated.  Most people had 1-2 bevs, and we played board games.  Now I love me some board games (another area of my life where I'm uber competitive, imagine that) but not exactly the kind of evening you would need to move a long run for.  At 10pm, everyone started trickling off to their bedrooms for "sleepy time."  I'm sorry, what!?!?!?  Taylor and I soldiered on, drinking some delish beer and watching Harry Potter 5.  Sidenote:  Any night with HP and delish beer is ALWAYS a night well spent.

Friday night marked night #1 without any sleep.  Taylor's sis has a newborn, and the poor thing didn't feel well.  I think I maybe got 2 hours of sleep on and off.  Let me say this now:  best.  birth.  control.  ever.

Saturday we got up bright and early and got ready to head to Yankton.  For some reason, I totally for about doing my daily yoga.  :(  Fail #1 for the weekend.  I thought about doing some down dogs post-bar, but figured that wouldn't be in my best interest.  We went to Riverboat Days (Yankton's summer time festival) and meet up with my best friend, her boyfriend, and one of Tay's best friends was going to meet us there also.  We spent some of the afternoon wandering around the arts and crafts, and eyeing the deliciousy greasy food.

For dinner, we decided to hit the vendors, HARD.  For starters, I had some cheese curds.  I love me some cheese curds, so I figured they would be worth the impending digestive issues.  Next round was a couple bites of Taylor's gyros.  (Fail #2 of the weekend, as you'll see later.)  Sheana and I decided to split a deep-fried Snickers, my first, but have been craving one (Can you crave something you've never had?) since Glenn mentioned having one not too far back.  It was ok.  I was slightly disappointed though.  The batter it was fried in wasn't that great, so I ended up eating a melted Snickers.  Ha.  Then the boys bought some funnel cakes.  One bite lead to half of a funnel cake.  Whoopsies.  Sheans and I took the annual rbd-funnel-cake-powdered-sugar-mustache photos.  Almost as good as the inaugural year.

RBD 09.

RBD 04.

I had a few drinks throughout the day/evening, but not too terribly many, keeping in mind that I had a speed workout to do Sunday night.  I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst stomach cramps of my life.  I felt like I could've been throwing up while I was going to the bathroom.  (TMI?)  It was horrible.  Usually when I eat dairy and get sick in a somewhat similar fashion, I feel better as soon as the dairy is out of my system.  I still felt horrible after, and ended up make 2 more trips to the bathroom throughout the night.  I was struggling.

Sunday we swung through my hometown to see my pops as it was his 60th birthday.  Whoot whoot!  Happy birthday Papa!!  This is one of my favorite pics of me and my dad from when I was 6?  That's also my favorite dog ever, Buck.  He was my best friend.  Awww.

I had planned on doing my run Sunday night, but my stomach never felt quite right.  Plus, I didn't realize how early it's getting dark-dark out.  9pm it was pitch black out.  Summer come back!!!  Luckily I did manage to do some yoga on Sunday to get back on track for my streak.  I did a heart opening series that left my shoulders/neck SORE.  I must not be doing the poses properly.  A lot of you have asked what I've been doing for my yoga.  I've been downloading YogAmazing podcasts from iTunes.  They're 20-30 minutes long and 9/10 I like them a lot.

Monday was a rest day from running so I did some yoga for neck/shoulders to loosen them up from Sunday.  Taylor started his fall league for softball, so yet another day went by without running.

This morning as the alarm went off, I noticed a huge bolt of lightning outside my window.  That's all I needed to reset my alarm for 6:45am.  This girl does NOT like lightning.  She does, however, like sleep.  After hitting snooze for about 25 minutes I finally crawled out of bed and got ready for work.  Skipping morning yoga.  (Is anyone else seeing a trend here?  Lazy butt!)

As soon as I got to work I told myself that I was running after work, no matter what.  Luckily it looked like the weather was going to cooperate.  I had 6 easy to do today and tomorrow, and knew that would bore me, so I did 7 today and will do 5 tomorrow.  I don't know why I hate the 6 mile distance, but I do.

I started off running and thought I was going at my usual "easy" pace.  When the first mile beeped in, I realized that was not the case.  Who knew?  The legs needed a 3 day hiatus to feel fresh as a daisy.  I decided to run as quick as the legs wanted to without feeling like I was pushing the pace.  I was pretty happy about the results.  Mile 6 my quads started burning, but other than that, I felt great.  I'm guessing I was running with better form (hence the faster time) and actually lifting my legs, causing the quads to be more tired.  Craziness.

I did the 7 miles in 1:01:46 for a pace of 8:49.

1. 9:07 
2. 8:49 
3. 8:57 
4. 8:47 
5. 8:45 
6. 8:50 
7. 8:28 

Now I'm back on track, and have the motivation I need to stop skipping runs:  I have to do all my runs through the end of the month to have more miles than last month.  Can't be a loser for August!

Whoa, sorry for the marathon of a catch up post.

BFFF weekend recap + 9 mile run

I had such a blast this weekend, it's always good to catch up with the BFFF. I got into town early Friday evening and we set out to get OJ to pair with her champagne for mimosas "getting ready" drinks. The mimosas were followed by some pinot noir and some other libations at various bars in town. And I got to run into a bunch of people from my high school days that I hadn't seen forever. It was so nice to catch up. :) 

Saturday one of Sheana's boyfriend's friend's had a boat and took us out to enjoy our first sunny day in June. Thanks to my sunscreen application in the necessary areas and just a smidge of tanning oil on my lower legs (they won't tan otherwise, grrrr) I left with a nice brown tan and no pink/red to speak of. Success. Saturday night we had a delicious BBQ at her boyfriend's house with all of his roommates and some random friends. It was nummy and entertaining. Because we were drained from being in the sun all day, we called it a night eeeeeeeeeearly. Unfortunately for me and my very light sleeping tendencies, I couldn't sleep in a houseful of LOUD BOYS. I was kind of concerned for my 9 miler that was to come on Sunday since I was crabby pants and didn't see sleep happening anytime soon. :(

Sunday I went home home to my parents house (conveniently it's on the way from the BFFF's to my home) to see the madre and the dog, Kerby. Of course Igboo (the cat) was MIA as usual, so I didn't get to say hi. :( The cat is always scared of me for the first 12 hours I'm home, and then remembers that we're BFF, and won't leave my side. I set my mom to work hemming some dress pants, and taking in a dress that I got in April that is now too big. whoops. While she was working on that, I went to visit another BFF and see her lil baby. He's pretty stinkin' cute and it was really nice to catch up with her too. :)

It was a fairly cool day 77, with a light breeze, so I wanted to get back home asap so I could run before it decided to get any warmer. Plus Taylor was getting back from Chi-town and I wanted to be done running and showering by the time he got back. My training plan had me doing 7 miles, but to be honest, I'm BORED with the Higdon Intermediate 5k plan. This is my third time doing it since January, and I'm snoozing. My 1/2 training starts immediately after my race June 27th, and the long runs start at 9 miles, so I figured I'd do one Sunday to gauge my progress.

I bought my very first ClifShot (mocha) to try during my run and was nervous/excited to see if it would upset my stomach/help with my run. Since it was pretty stinkin' warm out still (and I was running 2 miles farther out on the trail then I usually do, and wasn't sure of the water situation) I made sure to drink water at almost every fountain I saw (roughly 1.5 miles). This was probably more often than necessary, but waiting 3 miles seemed like too much.

My first mile beeped in at 8:58. HA! What were my crazy legs thinking?

Second mile: 9:05. Oh lordy. My long runs are supposed to be done around 9:48 pace, my goal HM pace is slightly under 9 mm.

Mile 3: 8:58. In the middle of this mile I took my ClifShot. Because I was wearing it in my inside "key" pocket in my tempo shorts, it was EXTRA hot. It was like a super thick melted chocolate gooiness. But it was actually pretty good. I washed it down with a swig of water, and was on my way. When I did my last 8 miler, I started to fade around Mile 4, so I thought this would kick in (hopefully) prior to me slowing down.

Mile 4: 8:49 Whoa!

Mile 5: 8:46 I always start to speed up after my "halfway home" point, so this wasn't too surprising, but I was still concerned about crashing and burning. :(

Mile 6: 8:45 I FINALLY found a bathroom along the trail, as I had been holding it since .25 miles into the run. Sweet, sweet relief. :)

Mile 7: 8:43 The consistency is kind of freaking me out now.

Mile 8: 8:28 Finally around 7.5 miles into the run, I started to feel like I was "working." But I figured, heck, I can tough it out for 1.5 miles. All mental from here. Of course after the time came in for that mile I knew why I felt like I was struggling!

Mile 9: 7:47!!! Seriously now, that's crazy sauce. That's my 5k pace! After running 8 solid/quick miles before.

Total time: 1:18:23 for a pace of 8:43.

Now I know this was not a "smart" training run, but it was SUCH a confidence booster. My speed has improved immensely over the last 5 months, but I felt like I was still struggling with any distances over 5 miles maintaining a strong pace. After this run, I'm pretty confident that I can break 2 hours in the 1/2 in September, and run under 9 mm miles for the duration. And I can also put more confidence in the training schedule without having to test it on another long run. But dang it, that was FUN! :)

When I got home I took a glass of ice water out into the grass to enjoy some stretching in the breeze. The shower after was a-ma-zing. And I was done just in time for Taylor to get back into town. I missed that boy. :) We shared stories of our weekend over seafood alfredo at Olive Garden (had to replace those 816 calories somehow!) and spent the rest of the night snuggling and watching Revolutionary Road. Overall it was such a great weekend! And now I know the key to a good long run is minimal sleep the night before and burning hatred for loud 20-somethings from midnight-7am. :)

Also, don't go here and don't register to win the sweet (I mean crappy) giveaway because it's lame carpet samples and not a $75 gift certificate for SHOES.