Ice Cream Run

Back in high school track, my favorite track practice of the year was a surprise day somewhere in between the conference meet and regionals. The coaches would show up to practice with buckets of ice cream and announce that practice that day was just a mile run and then we got ice cream. It was a fun reward for a long season of hard work.

When I first started running distance, I would carry on this tradition during the taper of my half marathon training cycles for the Sioux Falls half. Granted, I did them solo because what are running buddies!?! When I moved to Tea I had a whole crew of running friends through SFWR, so I started an ice cream run to and from our local ice cream place.

This past Sunday was the 3rd annual event. And also the cruddiest weather for it. We had on and off thunderstorms all day, but it was just rainy for the event. And if we're being honest, last year's heat index of 110 was SO MUCH WORSE. I remember having to walk/run the 1.4 miles there because I thought I was dying.

I so appreciated the ladies that made the drive and ran in the rain with me to celebrate our training and friendship! Maybe next year can just be a nice sunny 80 degrees??

Impending Blizzards Make Me Crave Blizzards Natch

All of this blizzard talk on the news (ie:  twitter) has got me craving a frozen delicious treat!  I asked the boy ever so sweetly to bring me a blizzard to work since I was stuck working late.  When that didn't work, I attempted to bribe him with highly coveted bribery items.  And when that still didn't work, I used brute force.  Just kidding.  Can you imagine these t-rex arms causing anyone any harm ever?  Perhaps after I lift weights twice for the year....then we'll talk....

Anywho, after work it was off to the ol' gym to get in a b.a. tempo run.  Now I must mention that my gym is rightnexttoaDQ.  And in the 2 years that I've been a member there, I have gone to DQ exactly zero times after a workout.  If you know how much I luuuuuuuuurve ice cream, you realize this is quite the feat.  Well after tonight, I still have that streak in tact, because I hit up DQ before my run.  Yup....that's how I roll.

I wasn't positive what time the store closed and knew I would be running long after 9pm, and realized that if I didn't have a blizzard before I went to bed I would likely die.  And cry.  Perhaps die whilst crying.  Either way, it wouldn't be good.  So I hit up the DQ before I hit my gym.  Good thing it's a gazillion degrees below zero so my blizzard could stay all nice and frozen in my car waiting for me.

But of course heading to DQ/the gym couldn't be an easy task, it had to be an adventure.  YAYZIES!  I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm d-u-m-b when it comes to cars.  Well surprise surprise I also suck at driving them.  If I ever get me lots o' monies, you best believe I'll be paying someone to drive me around.  Anywho, while traveling to DQ/gym I got stuck behind a car trying to make a left hand turn into an apartment complex.  Sadly, this car was on flat ground just north of a nice little mini-hill I needed to climb.  Snowy roads+tires that aren't made for snowy roads+not so great on snow driver Jeri = wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And wheeeeeeeee = the sound of my tires spinning.

I had to pull some crazy turn around maneuver to back track and get turned around once again, gain some momentum and make my way UP and OVER the little hill.  Car success!  Ack.  How many years til I can afford that driver??

I had a pretty rockin' tempo run, so I guess all was good in the 'hood.  I did 5 miles with 3 at tempo (8:06, 8:12, 8:02).

Why You So Obsessed Wit Me?

Channelling my inner Mariah for the post title...nbd.......

My favorite New York runner and blogger Susan posted a blog about her current "obsessions."  And I thought it was super duper fun and wanted to follow suit.  :)  Plus I always love me a good list.  So here goes....

Jeopardy.  I've always been a huge fan of Jeopardy.  As a kid our family would watch it every single day before dinner time.  When we get together for holidays, you'd better believe it's a battle of the brains.  It's not nearly as fun to play without some solid competition, so I'm glad that KK is up for the challenge (and subsequent defeat) lately. 

Lists.  I guess I mentioned above that I'm a bit "list-happy" and it's no joke.  I'm in the process of creating a 101 in 1001 list, I loved crafting my 2011 goals, and I'm obsessing over a 101 books to read before you die list I recently found.  Which brings me to another obsession...

Goodreads.  Being the booknerd that I am, it's fun to see what my other booknerdy friends are reading/enjoying/hating etc.  Please find me and friend me so we can be nerdtastic together.

Stripes.  I've always been a stripes fan, but recently went a little bit overboard on my shopping trip with Jenn in Houston.  We're talking 4 new striped sweaters:  grey/white, grey/white, grey/white, and grey/yellow.  Look out... variety!!!

Green.  Always.  Obvs.

Roxette's Dangerous.  I've been jammin' out to this song one too many times the last few days.

Taking myself outside of my comfort zone.  Ok, this is not something I'm obsessesd with because I loathe being outside my comfort zone, but I'm obsessed with the idea of doing so.  One of my goals for 2011 was to be more social, so I'm going to make myself attend some local book club meetings.  I know it'll be awesome, but the insane anxiety I'll have all day leading up to it will be obnoxious.

Buffalo chicken __________.  Pizza, bites, whatever, you put buffalo chicken in front of the word and I'm allll over it.  Mmmmm.

Ice cream.  Per usual.  I tweeted about needing ice cream for productive studying this weekend, and before I knew it there was a cute boy at my door bearing my favorite (ok, one of my favorites, who could have just one?!?!!?) kind.  Granted I may have texted him the same info that I tweeted as he doesn't have twitter, but let's ignore that part.  Mmmm ice cream.  FYI that half gallon was gone on Monday.  Nbd.

My Packers snuggie.  It's legit freeeeeeeeeezing in my office right now.  I downloaded an app that tells the current internal pressure, and I've clocked it at 54 degrees.  I received a Packers snuggie for Christmas, and you can bet I'm wrapped up in it 98% of the work day.

The Packers.  Obviously I love my boys, and they're doing me proud this year.  I can't wait to cheer them on for the SUPERBOWL.  I was just a little junior high brat the last time they made it this far, and the game ended in heartbreak.  Stupid Elway.  ::grumble grumble::  GO PACK GO!

And since this post is all sorts of Susan inspired, she also tagged me in this survey.  Here goes....

1. Four TV shows that I watch

• Glee
• How I Met Your Mother
• Jersey Shore (no shame here!)
• Real Housewives of ______ (all except Atlanta currently)

2. Four Things that I’m passionate about

• Running
• Green Bay Packers!
• Reading
• Eating

3. Four words/phrases I use a lot

• Holy crapolli!
• Holy guacamole!!!
• Really?!?  Really!?!?!?
• Any phrase where the final word can have multiple repeated letters (ex:  heck yesssssssss!)

4. Four things I’ve learned in the past

• Eating dairy before a run is never a good idea.
• People change, for the good and for the bad.
• Never settle for anything.
• Yellow + blue make green. 

5. Four places I would like to go

• Hawaii
• Australia
• The Superbowl this year
• Ireland

6. Four things I did yesterday

• Ate 4 oatmeal cream pies
• Bought groceries for the first time in 6 weeks (starvin' marvin over here)
• Didn't know the answer to final Jeopardy
• Went to the library 

7. Four things I’m looking forward to

• The Superbowl:  Go Pack GO!!!!
• Marathon #3 in Fargooooooooo
• Hearing back from my grad school applications
• Spring.  I heart spring.

8. Four things I love about winter

• Ice skating (although I prefer to do it indoors, still the rinks are only open in the winter time)
• Being outside at night when the fluffy snowflakes are falling
• Christ/birth/mas season
• Wearing scarves every.single.day.

9. Tag four people to play along

• Danielle
• Ashley
• Jenn
• Alyssa

And I'm off for a run in the bitter cold.  And my coat may actually run away from me it smells so bad.  Apparently these things need to be washed on occasion... I dunno.....

Ice Cream Taper? No way!

While my legs may be enjoying a taper from running, I'm definitely not tapering from ice cream consumption.  Does anyone else think I need to change my blog to Ice Cream Runner?  Geez...this is getting out of hand (and into my tummy...muhahahah.)  Of these 4 cartons (purchased on Sunday) I am 2/3 (at least) done with the strawberry cheesecake and the snickers.  Doing work, kids!

This morning I woke up early to head out for my tempo run that had been swapped from Tuesday.  I checked the weather per usual, and realized I needed to bundle up!  38 degrees, that's COLD.  I dug through some running clothes and found my light running jacket and gloves and was out the door.

I had 7 miles with 5 @ a tempo pace of 8:25.  Since it was cloudy/gloomy out, I didn't know how the garmin would fair (he tends to FREAK and tell me I'm running 11-12 mm when the clouds are out).  A half mile in to the warm up, I knew I had made the right decision with swapping out my runs, mid-run.  Especially during taper time, there's no sense pushing too much.  My legs felt great!

First two tempo miles were kind of all over the place as my body was searching to find that "groove."  Dare I say it, but shorter tempo runs are *hard*.  You have much less time to hit/find that magical pace.  At the turn around (3.5 miles) I decided to set my virtual partner on my garmin to 8:24 (apparently I've had BQ pace on my mind, and was oblivious to the 8:25 my training called for....silly brain :p).  This helped dramatically!  I was worried that the VP would be effected in the same way that my average pace display is when cloudy, but it was spot on.  Hence why my splits were a lot more consistent the second half.

I ended up with 7 miles in 1:00:21 for a pace of 8:38.  My tempo pace was 8:20.  Heck yes!  (P.S.  I can't WAIT to run a HM post-marathon to see if my legs have any legit speed left in them!!)
1. 9:30
2. 8:29
3. 8:15
4. 8:19
5. 8:23
6. 8:16
7. 9:06

Don't you just love how the cool down mile always feels sooooooo slooooooooow and ends up being at a pretty decent clip?  I sure do. :)

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a carton of ice cream yelling out my name.
Amanda at Run To The Finish is doing an awesome {shweaty, just my style!}giveaway.  Check it out!

Sometimes you just need to eat ice cream

Thursday I had big plans to get up early to head home from Nick's to get in part of my 10 mile run before work.  Ha. Ya right.  I barely made it home with enough time to shower and get ready for work.  No problem, I would run after work and then run the remaining few miles Friday.  When I got home from work at 8, all I wanted to do was put on sweatpants and eat ice cream.

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I did not want to run.  At all.  I turned to twitter, and asked for permission to skip my run.  And it twas granted.  That's twitter loves.  I decided I would give myself the night off in exchange for 5 miles Friday and 5 miles Sunday to make up the mileage.  Now I hate running the day before long runs, and I don't enjoy running the day after long runs either, so the fact that this agreement sounded much better than going for a run just proved that I truly needed the night off.

Luckily the weather was gorgeous after work and I couldn't WAIT to go for an easy 5 miler.  While digging through my t-shirt drawer for a shirt to wear, I found this gem that I had totally forgotten about.

This is my "WTF?? How could I have forgotten about this super awesome running shirt" face.  (Also, ignore the fact that I use that chair as a place to drape clean clothes over, I'm messy.)

And this is my "Channeling my nephew H-bomb's Fonzie thumbs up impression with excitement over refound sweet running shirt."  Copywrited.  Boom.

Post photo shoot, I actually decided to run.  While I was running, I realized that this was my first run under 6 miles that I've done in a long long long time.  For the record it was March 18th, when I ran 5.75 miles.  The run was great and seemed to fly by.

I did the 5 miles in 47:00 for a pace of 9:24.

1. 9:28
2. 9:24
3. 9:24
4. 9:22
5. 9:18

Being the math nerd I used to be am I was very excited that the mean, median, and mode of my splits were all 9:24.  Somehow I feel like that should be significant.  Moving on....

When I got home, I decided to whip up some culinary awesomeness for my long run fuel.  When I was visiting one of my BFFFs out in Portland a few summers back, she introduced me to Hot Lips pizza, which is literally the most delicious pizza I have ever eaten, and let's be honest, I love me some pizza.  I might even go so far as calling myself a pizza connoisseur. <---what a difficult word to spell btw.  The pizza that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since June 2008 was this asparagus/garlic number.  Since I had these key ingredients on hand I decided to whip it up.

  

Pre oven shot.  Homemade crust, chopped asparagus, 2 garlic cloves, some EVOO, basil, and mozzarella cheese.  For some reason the crust didn't really do it for me.  It came out way better on the last attempt.  Not sure if freezing it and thawing it messed it up or what.  At least it still tasted delicious.  Just didn't look very beautiful.  While the pizza was baking away, I whipped up some cheesecake brownies for dessert.  (Sorry for the crappy pic, it was taken on my cell phone.)

Once my belly was good and fed I settled in to enjoy my replacement boyfriend for the weekend.  The good news is, Taylor Lautner is still a sexy beast, like whoa.  Mmm mmmm good.