No Shirt, No Shoes (jk), No Death By Sweat

I'm not a very self-conscious girl when it comes to my body.  When I was younger and incredibly skinny, I was super insecure, oddly enough.  I gained more confidence when I was heavier, and have kind of settled in to my happy place recognizing what my body is capable (running... for what feels like forever).  And yeah, it probably doesn't hurt that running keeps me at my happy weight for the most part.  I can sit at the swim up bar for hours in my bikini with no problem.

However, ask me to log a few miles in a sports bra sans shirt and I'll cower in the corner.  What gives?  I'm not quite sure.  Everything just seems to look a lot better when it's not all in motion, ya know?  Last summer I went shirtless for one run when it was 12003459834 degrees with 1708345% humidity.  I knew I couldn't handle one more run in that crap drowning in my clothes and the air.  I swear some girls gave me an evil look, and I never went without again.

This year I've been talking about it for at least a month.  I've done a decent job sticking to my core work, partially for this reason (christ...vain much? don't do core work because it might make you...uh.... faster... idiot).  

Well last Monday it was a nice 80 degrees with 80% humidity (seems to be the norm 80-80 not sure why) and after dealing with a death march of a long run Sunday I said screw it.  I threw on my running hat for incognito sake and did my 5 miles.  And it didn't kill me.  A lot of walkers wouldn't even make eye contact to smile/wave/say hi to me, probably because they were uncomfortable, but runners didn't bat an eyelash.  AND I WAS SO FREAKIN' COOL.  zomg it was amazing.  When I got done running my stomach was cool to the touch, because my internal cooling system was able to do its job when it didn't have fabric in the way.  Your body sweats to cool you off.... duh.  

So for the rest of the summer, I'm not going to give two poos about a few snobby judgmental stares because I'm 88% less of a sweatmonster.  WIN!

But in the meantime.........

Dear God, 

Please send me Susan's abs by my next long run.

Thanks.

Jerbear

MMMM Cookies + More Biking

Oh running I miss you so.  Guess what I've been up to...not running.  And apparently not running=biking.  Sunday I set out to do a long bike ride with Miss Polly.  Unfortunately I was a little lazy to get out of the gate, and didn't end up leaving my place until an hour before the sunset.  Ok then...60 minute bike ride will do.  I managed to see a rooster (male pheasant) and a big ol' buck while riding my bike around, which is funny because a bunch of my friends were pheasant hunting this weekend, and another has been sitting in a tree stand for the last 2 months trying to get a stupid deer.  I mentioned on facebook that I should've been a hunter, but that a gun would NOT go with my bike.  Something about my bike makes me think she's a non-meat eater/bambi killer as well.  ;)  I ended up doing 11 miles in a little under 60 minutes.  Clearly I'm about breaking land speed records.  Look out.

Another interesting thing of note on Sunday, I went to the bookstore to enjoy a latte and read some magazines/look for books.  I've always had a fantasy about meeting a guy at a bookstore as we're grabbing for the same book on the shelf.  Yes, I'm a romantic nerd, whatever.  Well, it happened.  Kind of.  In the magazine section, I was loading up with running magazines, when someone grabs a Runners World over my shoulder.  I turn to see my triathlon friend!  Whom I actually was interested in for a while in college, coincidentally.  Hah.  Of course we spent the next hour talking about our races/training/etc.  He's doing his first full in January and is trying to BQ.  Crazy kid.  And then he's doing his first full Ironman this spring.  Again, he's a nut job.  But it was nice to catch up with the guy.  I only occasionally see him flying by on the bike trail, and I miss our gazillion of hours together trying to survive our insanely hard sociology courses in college (just kidding, I don't miss that part AT. ALL.)

Monday I got back on track with my early morning yoga and did a yoga routine that focused on the thighs and booty.  Uff, whatever is jacked up in my left cheek is still hurtin'.  Yeouch.  I did another 60 minutes on the stationary bike of some random hill workout for 11 miles.  Also, when did a bunch of hotties join my gym?  Seriously it was like boy central in there.  Maybe they were all there all along and I was just blinded by love, but it sure is a lot easier to get through a boring hour long bike ride with some eye candy.  After my ogle fest (jk) I came home and created some shrimp enchiladas that were so. damn. good.  And while they were baking, I rocked out a nice ab workout.  2 points for yoga + abs.  Whoo.  Go injury dedication.  :)

A couple of weeks ago I got the baking bug.  I looooove to bake.  More importantly I looooove to eat baked goods.  I found a recipe for Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies at For Love of Cooking and knew I had to have them.  Seriously check out her site for the recipe and to die for pics.  Mine really don't do the cookies justice, but here they are regardless.

One stick of butter + a bunch of other delciousness?  Yes please.

+ 1/3 bag of Oreos...again...yes please.

.....Then have your blog eat the picture of the delicious cookie dough balls all laid out uncooked before they go in the oven.......(jk pic recovered, phew!)

Then straight up deliciousness.  Say it with me now, yes please.  :)

hills, hills, hills

I did hills this morning, and they didn't kill me. [Insert pat on the back here.] In no way do I feel completely prepared for the Wild West Relay that's in....oh..17 days...but man I feel a heckuva lot better. This morning I had 5 miles of hills to do, so I set out on the route that I did two weeks ago except with an extra .5 mile added on (to up it to 5 miles total). I felt like a machine. Each time I would get to the bottom of the hill, I would look up, sigh internally, and before I knew it, I was at the top. It was the craziest thing. Perhaps I was still half asleep, but even so, I'll take it.

Close to the turnaround point was the high school track that I've been eyeing to do speedwork at (it's only a mile or so from my place, I ran from Tay's this morning). I decided to veer off course to check to see if I could get in. That place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox! I did spy an area of the fence that is a good foot off the ground, so I could crawl under if I REALLY wanted to, but I'm such a wuss when it comes to getting yelled at, I'm sure I won't. Plus, it's a Catholic school, so I'm fairly certain that intruding on their property would subject me to eternal damnation, and I'm just not sure if it's worth it. :)

On the way back through the hills, my iPod died (of course) and realized that despite how good I felt, I was breathing HARD. Of course hearing myself made me convince myself (slightly) that I was actually tired, even though I wasn't. Does anyone else like listening to their iPod to drown out their breathing? Because I definitely do. Yowsers.

I did the 5 miles in 47:08 for a pace of 9:26.
1. 9:33
2. 9:13 (!!)
3. 9:35 (part was spent running somewhat aimlessly around the track looking for an entrance)
4. 9:36
5. 9:09

I have an intern in my department that I've been training for the last month or so who is also a runner, training for his first marathon this fall. So of course, we spend the first chunk of our morning talking about our runs. When I told him what hills I ran, he didn't believe me! He was thoroughly impressed, and I, again, patted myself on the back. Hah.

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One of my personal goals for running is to do a race in every state. I know some of you crazy people are already on your way to becoming maniacs, but I just don't ever see myself getting that nutty about marathons (we'll see after I finally do one, I guess). But I'd love to do some half marathons in some cool locations that I've never visited, or randomly do a little 5k or 10k while in a different state for whatever reason. Part of this goal is being accomplished this fall/winter. In August, I'm doing the Wild West Relay, knocking Colorado off the list. And in December I'm doing the Dallas White Rock half marathon, crossing Texas off my list.

While looking at the leg maps for the WWR last night, I was reading the directions when I saw "Enter into Laramie county." Wait. Isn't Laramie in Wyoming? By George it is! I get to run from Colorado to Wyoming on my second leg of the race. Too cool. PLUS, that totally counts as a "race" in WY in my book. Two birds in one stone, I'd say. :)

In other news, I finally got back on the strength training boat last night with some push ups (35, holla!) next to the muscle machine aka the boyfriend, and some intense ab work. Both arms and abs sufficiently hurt today, so I'd say it was a success. I need to keep doing this, especially the ab work, because it seems to keep the ab pain away. A strong ab is a happy ab. I should totally make a shirt with a smiling ab muscle. My God I'm random....

Also, I had the MOST AMAZING dinner ever last night. Again I should've taken a photo but it just looked toooooooooo good to wait. All day I was craving avocado, so I basically planned the meal around getting me a healthy amount of avocado in my tummy. I ended up making a grilled wrap with smoked turkey breast, pepper jack cheese, a teeny tiny amount of ranch, tomatoes, and AVOCADOS all rolled up and pressed in my sweet panini machine. (Thanks Ma for giving this to me 4 Xmas' ago, I finally found it still in the box and use it all the time now!) Oh. My. God. This was amazing. Something about p-jack cheese and avocado together hits the spot EVERY time. The wrap was followed up by some super juicy watermelon. Pretty much the greatest dinner time experience of my life. I was probably patting myself on the back between bites. And by probably I mean, most definitely.

Oh hey. I just noticed that my run for today put me over my total mileage for June. And it's only the 21st. Hey-o. :)