Summer Hair

For the first time in 8-9 years, I decided to go BLONDE with my hair. Or at least as blonde as my hair can probably go without falling out. I'm the only brunette Kyle has ever dated so I like to hold on to that title, but I decided it'd be fun to go lighter for the summer. 

I may or may not have a fun plan to do another wild color once I get bored with this. Stay tuned. I also only let my hair stylist cut off just a little bit this go around. In January I got it trimmed and it ended up SUPER short. Like, cute little kid short, so I was excited that it was growing out again. TBD on if it hits a weird length and I hate it. Fingers crossed I won't!

New Hairz

Last week I trekked up north to get my hair done and to see Megan and baby Otto. Even though I'd just seen them the weekend before. Hey Megan, have a baby and I'll be up e'ery weekend! Also I hadn't gotten my hair colored or trimmed in over 6 months. Uff. That's a long time even for me. I blamed Megan and her ability to color my hair so well that I had zero noticeable growth. Now if she could magically fix my hair so the ends never split, she'd be working herself out of business!

I asked her to take off some length to take it from religious cult long to just regular long. I also wanted some more light pieces on the underneath. I think this part is the key to me not needing my hair redone in 3 weeks, it grows so fast! I hate seeing the blonde all grown out and sad. :( She also gave me a nice deep all over color with a red tinge. So purty.

See ya in a year, Megan. :)

Then I got to meet the other Megan (baby Otto's mama) for a brief catch up, but first I had to wait for her to get done with her chiro appointment, so I finished the second half of my book and dominated a delicious latte (with foam art, I'm a sucker for foam art).

Apparently there are no photos of Megan and I, because Otto was rude and napped the whole time. He didn't even wake up to offer and take a photo. He's lucky he's cute.

To Chop or Not to Chop

.... that is the question.

I've been obsessed with blogger Kendi's new hair cut since she hacked it off, and have multiple screenshots of it saved in my phone.

Three weeks ago I was ready to make the hair appointment and do the hack, and then I had a few random days where I actually did my hair and remembered how much I loooooove my long hair, when I have the time and actually care how it looks.

But still.... I'm considering...

I've chopped my hair 2x, and hated it both times. But also didn't know how to style it, so that probably didn't help....

I'm guessing it won't be a tough decision once I'm no longer using my hair as a second scarf to keep me warm and the hot and humid season is upon us.

And the nice thing is, my hair should be long enough to donate to locks of love, which has always been a goal of mine. So even if I absolutely loathed my hair, at least I would know that it was for a good cause! And my hair grows like a weed, so it'd probably be down to my butt in two months anyway.....

Running Tidbits from 2007 + Gnat Attack

Attention!  This post was "lost" on Thursday when Blogger was down.  If you've already read/seen this post, my apologies...no sense seeing my gnat covered sweaty neck more times than necessary.  :P

Saturday after the race I was bored and not feeling the greatest (I have the tendency to feel really feverish after I race), so I was just bumming around the apartment watching Project Runway and Gilmore Girls reruns.  I decided to do something productive:  manually enter my 2005-2007 running logs on to the Runners World log I've used for the past 4 years.

Here are a few gems I found in the process:

• It's very clear I did every run as a race, going as fast as I could.  
• I was a good 20 pounds heavier 4 years ago.
• My running times reflect that, at times.  Other times I'm shocked I was able to haul that quickly with that much extra weight on my frame.
• Actual comment on one of my runs: Felt like I was going to barf up my BK the whole run. saweet. I feel like I shouldn't have been that surprised.... I stopped eating fast food a couple of years ago (with the exception of DQ...mmm.... b/c it destroys my stomach.... I can only imagine how it felt to run after eating it.  Sweet Louisiana!

Also, I'm super duper bummed that the Runners World log only goes back to 2007. I guess I'll have to hold on to my paper running log, and excel spreadsheet from 2006 just a wee bit longer.
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Wednesday night I went out for my last speedwork session before Fargo. I was super amped up to do a tempo run, and I wasn't really sure why. They usually freak me out! When I realized that it was 5 miles (with 3 at tempo pace) instead of 6 miles (with 4 at tempo pace), I got even more excited! Easy peasy! The first thing I noticed is that the +30 increased temperatures from Saturday's 10k made it much more difficult to breathe properly for a hard workout. Throw in some heavy humidity, and my lungs felt like they were dyyyyyyyyying. Luckily my legs felt just dandy. I cranked up my iPod so I couldn't hear my deathly gasps for air and off I went!
The hardest part about the tempo run was the cooldown mile. I could not, for the life of me, slow down to an easy pace. I know I know... waaaaaaaaah....woe is me....... etc. etc. But to go from a low 8 minute pace, a 9 minute pace (aka marathon pace) felt like I was walking! (Yes brain, drill that in.... 9 minute pace feels like walking.....)
I did 5 miles in 43:16 for a pace of 8:39. Tempo miles average: 8:13.
1. 9:30
2. 8:20
3. 8:13
4. 8:06
5. 9:09
There was much less gnat activity of the trail than Monday night, so I sucked it up and took a picture after my run. Then I immediately scrubbed the little buggies off before I stretched. Ick.

OOOH! And I also got my hairs hacked off (maybe 4") to make me super fast, and a new darkerhue to up my intimidation factor. I attempted a pre-run photo shoot in my bathroom (AR's fave!  If only I had thrown up a peace sign pose....drat!)


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: Someone's lost her lips.


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: Eating and also smelling a sour lemon.


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: If a rat were a human with rage.

Plus you can barely see my hair color because the lighting in my bathroom is so poor and the shower curtain seems to match my hair. Woe is me.