Hamstrings

The other day I caught a glimpse of my lower half in a mirror while wearing a skirt. I don't have a full length mirror, so this view was a new experience. I did a double take when I realized for the first time that I have hamstrings. [insert the emoji face with the buggy out-y eyes here please]

I've never had hamstrings before.

I had issues with my quads in high school track because my hamstrings were so weak, my quads had to pick up the slack and then *POOF* I severely strained a quad coming out of the blocks in a 100m dash because your muscles aren't meant to work double duty. Who knew?!

Anyway. The other night, after my track workout....

Which reminds me. Yes, I just interrupted myself in the midst of writing a blog post, and I'll leave it as such.

I came home from the track armed with a monster runner's high after nailing some 800m repeats at paces waaaaaay faster than I'd expected to. I said to Kyle all serious like, "Kyle did you hear the fire truck sirens??" To which he replied, "no," with a quizzical look on his face. "Oh. Well, I just lit the track on fire!!" And then I proceeded to laugh like a maniacal idiot, because. duh.

Ok, so following my hilarious joke, I started flexing in front of him, as you do when you're on a runner's high, right? And I thought it'd be a good time to bring up my newfound hamstrings. I asked Kyle if my legs looked any different to him (which was clearly a trap).

KK: I was actually just going to say, your legs are looking a lot meatier.
JL: [insert death stare here]
KK:  NO no no! I meant meaty in a good way!!! [lolz] Seriously, they're way stronger looking than I've ever seen!
JL: Nice recovery. But seriously, have you noticed I have hamstrings??

end scene.

So next time you see me, feel free to comment on my newly found hamstrings. Just don't call em "meaty" mmmk?

Another Short Term Goal

This weekend I spent a few minutes updating my running log (for the last month...wth, I used to do this IMMEDIATELY after a run I'LL HAVE ALL OF THE DATA FOR $500 PLZ ALEX). I realized that I'm about 150 miles from hitting 800 for the year. Some quick calculations later I figured that averaged out to just slightly over 4 miles/day until the end of the year. Hmm.....

Doable.... but a bit of a challenge, so CHALLENGE ACCEPTED (there is an exorbitant amount of caps lock in this post, much apologies).

I told Kyle my goal and his response was

KK: Almost to 1600 miles!?! That's awesome!!
JL: Um no... almost 800.
KK: Oh, that's like WAY lower than you've done before.
JL: Thanks babe.

I then kindly reminded him I was in grad school for 3/4 of the year and really only started running regularly again in June, and then I told him to go shove it (or else I just thought that part in my brain....).  I'm afraid to even look at my mileage goal post, because I think it is around 1600....

Hey, life happens, eh?

Thank God there's a 2014 for redemption!

Speaking of redemption, Saturday I had an AWESOME 6 mile run. I haven't had a 6 mile run that fast outside of the 2 10ks I've ran this year, and to be honest, even with a 2 mile cooldown, my overall pace wasn't that far off my 10k paces! AND the run was on hills.

Many thanks to the NCAA XC D1 and D2 championships for providing much runspiration pre-run, as well as Emily and other JFK 50 Mile participants as I watched the finishing stream for that as well and vowed never ever to run a 50 miler, like ever. But that ALSO helped get me out the door, because hello, they just ran 50 miles and look better than I do after a five mile jog. Craziness.





















This pic.... can't even handle how much I adore it. Major runner girl crush on Abbey D! I should've attempted to solidify our BFF-dom when I got to watch her run in Des Moines this summer at the T&F C'ship.

Oh, and in other Oh s---- news, today marks one month left in my 20s. OMG!

A tale of the tootsies

It appears that the general concensus after yesterday's post is to MOVE.  Dually noted brilliant friends.  I've always wanted to move to Portland...........

Anywhosits....

No this post is not about me and my glitter farts....  I know I talk a lot about my toes.  I'm really surprised there aren't more foot fetish-ists out there following me around.  After the Fargo Marathon, I had the most excruciating pain under my big toenails.  I could actually feel my heart beating underneath them.  Prior to the race, I knew that they were each 1/2 turning purply/black, so I figured there wasn't much I could do about it.  But the pain I was in was excruciating.  I couldn't wear anything other than flip flops for a few days after the race, because the nail had come up off the nail bed, and any pressure on it hurt soooooooooo bad.

Last week, I finally took off my highlighter pink nail polish to see the damage.  ::shudders::

KK is so grossed out by them, that he has to cover them with a blanket whenever he's in close proximity to them.  I tried to turn them in to art to help:  Look Kyle.... they almost look like a sky as a terrible storm is rolling in.  Kind of pretty, right?!?!

No dice.

I need to get my pedicures in now while I still have my nails.  Anyone know if I could get a 20% discount if I'm missing 20% of my toenails??  Fingers crossed they hold on through sandal season!
_____________________
Last night I took off to do my first tempo run since early May.  You know..... back when I finally decided that tempo runs AREN'T the worst workout in the world..... well.  uff.  They're still tough.  I did 6 miles with 4 at tempo pace of 8:10.  Usually I give myself a +/- 5 seconds on the goal pace.

It was roughly the most beautiful night for a run (aptly placed after me bitching about the weather... nice, eh?).  After the warm up mile was done, it was on.  My legs refused to slow down.  My thoughts toggled between "meh.... maybe I'm faster than I think I am!" to "Sweet baby Jesus I'm going to crash and burn!" 

The results erred on the sweet baby Jesus side, but not too bad.  The speed was definitely there, where as my endurance was lacking a bit.  The last mile and a half were tough!  Also, when I wore my garmin during the night of extreme heat, it ended up getting some moisture inside, so my "lap pace" isn't spitting out the correct time.  There were times I was running WAAAAAAAAY harder (see 4th mile of tempo) than I needed to be because I thought I was running much slower.

Tempo miles:  7:58, 8:11, 8:16 (with a turn around, aka I don't quite believe this split), 8:00.
Average tempo pace:  8:07.  Win.

It was really cool to look up some heart rate info after the run to see where it *should* be for these runs and where it *actually* was.  Pretty spot on!  Except for the first two minutes of my warm up......

Attention heart rate monitor:  I do not believe that my heart rate was 238 after running for 120 seconds at a 10 minute pace.  Please check yoself!  (After adjusting where it was at on my chest, it was fine, but I had to laugh when I looked down and saw that... uh... shouldn't I be dead?!?!?)

Extreme Online Shopper

Just call me Extreme Online Shopper, you hear that TLC?  Make a show about MEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ahem.

As some of you may have gathered from my Weekly Wishlists, I have a slight obsession with online shopping.  This obsession is made more humorous by the fact that I have my purchases sent to my work address, because sending them to my apartment causes a whole other errand to run because they will never leave the package.  But I digress.  So the super duper funny part of my online shopping addiction habit is that I'm a credit counselor.  When my packages come in, the receptionist calls me, and then I have to trek my boxes/bags/etc. through the building back to my office. 

My name is Jeri, and I'm the cumpulsive shopper of the office.

Hi Jeri.........

In my defense, I do about 2% of my shopping in actual stores, so I really don't shop all that much (seriously.  especially compared to when I was in college.  uff. da.).  It just looks that way when I get everything delivered to work.  :)

After my recent running shoe scores, I decided to share some tips with you (that you probably all already know, but whatever, just go with it).  I'm always on the hunt for running shoe deals.  Once I find a pair of shoe that I puffy heart love, it's on.  My goal is to stockpile as much as possible to diminish the heartbreak that inevitably occurs with Mizuno/Asics/Saucony go from 6 to 7 and 7 sucks the big one.

For my latest adventure, I knew that the Kinvara II would be coming out shortly, ergo the original Kinvaras should be having a massive closeout almost everywhere.  I google searched for the shoes in 7.5 and sorted by price to find the best deal.  After doing this, I noted whether or not there was a shipping and handling charge, and if so how much.  Then I googled for (website name) coupon code to see if there was anything out there.  Presto change-o, you have your best deal.

For my efforts, I received a pair of turquoise Kinvaras.  Sale priced at $80, Running Warehouse priced at $69.88 (originally $89.99).  On top of the sale price I found a coupon code for 10% off, as well as free shipping.  Boom:  $62.89.  Additional nugget of awesomeness, no sales tax to South Dakota (otherwise .06%).

(Tried on as soon as they arrived at work. Hence the silly dress pant/running shoe look. AKA HAWT)

Next up, Onlineshoes.com was having a Memorial weekend sale.  I found the new Kinvara IIs I've been lusting over priced at $89.95.  20% off coupon code and free shipping (as well as no sales tax) and I had a steal at $71.96.

Gotta love the "natural light" under my office desk.

sexy, no?

Considering my original pair (and current pair) of Kinvaras were $90 (a Christmas gift from my mother who's not a super sleuth online shopper like her offspring), I'd say I did pretty good getting two pairs for ~$130.  Now clearly, not everyone has $100-200 just burning a hole in their pocket, but the credit counselor in me puts aside a little bit of money in to my "running savings account" just for these purchase (along with race fees and race travel expenses) so I always have them at the ready. 

To be honest, these shoes came from a $200 discount I got on my June rent for renewing my lease at my apartment.  Hey-o free money!  (However, if you're truly taking my advice, it would've been wise to put that $200 towards my car loan or my student loans, but hell, you only live once!)

And just for fun, a random convo with Kyle on Monday morning....still cracks me up FYI.
KK:  Are you going to come over after work? I make you FEESH!
Me:  Eh, maybe. I have to run first.
KK:  Oh yeah?  Picking up a new hobby?
Me:  Yeah thinking about it.  I think it's called jogging.... though pronounced yogging.... soft j sound... should be fun!

**Check out I Run Like a Girl's sweet giveaway!**