This Song is on Repeat Right Now

This song is playing on repeat right now.  Pugbear and I are dancing around the apartment with excitement.  Pugbear is a wicked smaht dansah, didn't you know?

May, The Light At The End of the Tunnel

When the students in the cohort ahead of us spoke to us at orientation last August, they weren't kidding.  "Your spring semester.... be prepared.  It's not easy.  You will lose your mind."  (Rough quote, of course).  The amount of major papers and projects that I have to complete during this month are kind of terrifying.

I'm currently counting down to May when I have an entire month off from school.  Every time I think of something I really want to do, read, see, watch, etc. I put it on my list for "To-Do in May."  Based on my list, you'd think that I didn't have to work in May, but you'd be wrong.

Currently my list o' fun includes:

• Reading Stephen King's 11/22/63.
• Watching Modern Family from the start.
• Pack my apartment for a move.
• Watching MadMen from the beginning.
• Volunteer at the library.
• Vampire Diaries?  (uh... maybe I accidentally started watching this while procrastinating a school project....)
• Pretty Little Liars?
• Watch Downton Abbey
• Attend a book club meeting.
• Run with friends as much as possible (May is usually the most awesome month for training, and lucky for me I won't be injured from a marathon this year!)
• Get in some biking miles.
• Hang out with all of my friends. I don't now how many times I've said, "sorry I can't, but get ahold of me in May I'll SO HAVE TIME TO BE YOUR FRIEND AGAIN!!"

Any other area of pop culture I should quickly catch up on?!?!  Get me caught up on 2011-2012 you guys!

The Sweetest Words

The other night Kyle asked me a question I've been waiting forever for him to ask:

Will you create a running training program for me?



I squealed and shrieked.  And then started spouting out of a multitude of questions.  And then I think I freaked him out.  Baby steps, Jerbear.

As you may have noticed, I fell off the blog wagon after posting my grand goal for the rest of the month/year.  And that's because I fell off the running wagon as well.  I had some pain in my foot that I started to affectionately refer to as my "stress fracture foot" and after a couple of runs sans knee strap my knee was feeling wonky.  Couple that with upcoming finals, one of which that was 40% of my final grade (NBD, I'm just having a panic attack thinking about it now!), and some possible burn out on the horizon, I decided to put running on the back burner for a bit.

I was a little concerned when I wasn't missing running.  At all.  I was sleeping in on my late days at work.  I was sleeping in on the weekend.  It was... kind of amazing.  I was also studying my little booty off during every second of free time, and it was great not to have to stress about fitting in an hour of running in my already crammed day.

But Saturday I took my tough final, and Saturday night I celebrated, as I think is necessary.  And Sunday I rewarded myself with a run.  Just a measly 3 miler.  But it was nice.  And then I watched Green Bay put up another tally in the win column.  GO PACK GO!

Monday I woke up with more knee annoyance, and I was pissssssssssed.  I complained to Kyle that "I JUST WANT TO GO FOR A RUN G.D. IT!"  And he said... good.  Finally.  And he was right.  FINALLY I was excited to get back in to it.

I did a lot of foam rolling on Monday and Tuesday, and knocked out an easy 5 miler with strides on Wednesday morning.  Granted my "easy" heart rate isn't quite what it was pre-Philly.  But apparently endurance eating doesn't equate to endurance running.  Wish you all would've told me that... jerks.

And tomorrow is me and Kyle's running date.  And I'm pretty excited about it.  Since I'm not begging him to run with me, as has been the case the 3 other times he's ran with me, and it's him requesting it, I think it's a good sign that he's excited to do it.

And as for my first semester of grad school, unofficially knocked out a 4.0, while working full time and training for two half marathons and a full marathon.  ::gives herself 3 gold stars and 2 successive pats on the back::  ROLL TIDE!

P.S.  Have you met my niece?  She's kind of beautiful, no?  Takes after her auntie obvs.  ;)

Weekend Musings

This weekend was… intense.  And fun.  And stressful.  Ok, mostly intense and stressful.

Friday I skidaddled out of my office at 5 bells to go hit the bike trails to get in my 6 miler.  It was cold, and my legs felt amazing.  I ran a speedy (for me) “easy” pace at a nice and low HR INTO THE WIND (well the last 3 miles of it were anyway).  I was on cloud 9 a bit.  I brought my handheld along…. I know… I know… on a SIX MILER, but I have been insanely dehydrated all week long, and I figured this would help me get a jump start on hydrating for my long run the next day. 

I did 6 miles in 56:30 for a pace of 9:25.  Average HR: 151.

And then I got to meet up with Miss Megan and a bunch of her lady friends for drinks and dinner.  Ok, drink.  Singular.  Sad.  And because it was National Dessert Day, I had to celebrate it.  Sadly the dessert was pretty hohum.  I didn’t finish it.  (This happens approx. never in my life.  Or now, has happened approx. once.)

After downing twice as much water as beer (again, tear) I headed home to watch some Shrek with Kyle.  Interesting fun fact:  I think Kyle looks like Shrek on occasion.  He doesn’t like this comparison, but I think it’s HILARIOUS.  7am came and went, and I was still a-snoozin’.  Good thing it’s finally cool around here, because I didn’t head out for my run until almost noon.  Oops.

Attention:  16 miles is a long freakin’ way to run.  Last time I ran that far was during the Fargo Marathon.  And it sucked.  J

When I started out running my heart rate was crazy high, and my breathing was all wonky.  I’ve been feeling not quite 100% lately, so I’m not sure if it’s a cold/allergies/whatev.  I stopped to walk during my GU breaks, and had to refill my handheld 3 times (that’s 55 oz of liquid in 2 ½ hours if anyone is keeping track at home) trying to get my heart rate down.  Finally about halfway through the run, my breathing seemed to get “normal” and my HR chilled the eff out.  And it was pretty enjoyable.

I did 16 miles in 2:33:55 for a pace of 9:37.  Average HR: 160.  (High end of my long run range).

And then I planted myself in my chair and studied.  And took breaks to get Redrossa pizza and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte because I was nodding off in said chair.  And then I had to take my first midterm of my grad school career.  And I think it went well, but my brain was shot for the rest of the weekend.

And I watched zero football this weekend, which makes me want to punch a kitten.  And I love kittens.

Exciting News + Weekly Wishlist

I received some news on Wednesday afternoon that allowed me to cross of one of the most important items from my 101 in 1001 list:  get accepted into master's program!!!!!!! 

Starting in the fall I will be a member of the University of Alabama's 2011 online cohort for my masters in library and information science.  The program is completely online except for a few days late in the summer that I have to head "down souf" for orientation.  I hope to come back to the Dak with a heavy southern accent.  Like Sookie's from True Blood (yes, I do need to get out more if that's my only frame of reference for the south.)  I also hope to not die of heat stroke, as I imagine the temps in mid-August are enough to kill me.

To say that I'm super de duper excited would be an understatement of my life.  No clue how I will be juggling my full time job, part time masters classes, running and some semblance of a social life, but on occasion I seem to think I'm super woman, so we'll see.  Any suggestions are welcome.  I'm guessing marathon training will probably be out of the question, but that's ok as I'd planned to focus on some b.a. fast HM races anyway.  And hopefully a nice little library job will open up in this town of mine.... you hear that Universe!!!  Get cracking!

[If you saw any of the tornado coverage, holy terrifying....... lots of prayers heading down south.]

Switching gears very abruptly: On to my weekly wishlist!

Buy it here.

I can't stand carrying a clutch, but this has gotta be the prettiest thing ever, right?  I've been watching too much Say Yes to the Dress so forgive me for my next comment.... it'd be kind of great as your something blue... no?  Ok, moving on....

Buy it here.

I've yet to get around to buying a laptop bag for my little MacBook. Primarily because it usually stays at home unless I'm traveling. However, this bag is so stinkin' cute I would consider it. (Clearly still obsessed with yellow...blame the lack of sunshine if you'd like....)

Sidenote: When I was talking to KK about my blog last night, I casually mentioned that when it came to Christmas/Birthday he could easily peruse my blog for gift ideas, and he questioned my intent for these weekly wishlist....

KK:  So do you expect people to see these on your blog and just buy them for you???

JL:  Uh.... what kind of blog do you think I'm running?!?!?

But to clarify, yes KK, if you see these items on my blog and buy them for me, I'll be completely ok with that. :)