Jeri the Yogi

Tonight I "did it."  Eeew.....not that "it", what are you a junior high girl?!?!  (Btw, while rereading my diaries this weekend, totally referred to "it" as "it"when referencing "it" following me?  The fact that I wasn't able to call it anything other than "it" was probably a good indicator that I was smart for not actually doing "it."  But I digress.)  I finally attended a yoga class!!!!

I've been doing yoga off of Fit TV, and on video podcasts from iTunes for the past 4 years, but I've been too big of a chicken to actually go to a class....for the past 4 years.  In my town, we have a first Friday celebration, where a lot of places downtown will hold specials/events/etc. the first Friday of each month. There is a yoga studio in town that offers free classes on the first Friday.  Yet still I've been too big of a wuss to go.  After wussing out yet again last Friday, I decided I would go no matter what this week.

I checked out another studio in town that offered your first class fo FREE.  Hahah, I just really like to say fo FREE (part of the sweet secret language that the office hubby and I have developed).  Anyway, after trying to get anyone and everyone to go with me, because again, I'm a freakin' wuss, I finally ended up there on my own....sweating bullets before it even started (literally...I was pitting out sitting at my desk the last 30 minutes of work...lame sauce).

The class was super small (4 students) and the instructor chatted up myself and another girl who was new to the studio.  When I told her I had never been to a class before, she basically said this would be the last class she would recommend for someone's first.....excellent.  At this point I expected to do crow's pose for the full 60 minutes (I have it mastered for roughly 15 seconds at a time, which is a vast improvement for me!).  She got started, and it was actually great.  She corrected me in a couple of poses, which I was grateful for--the worst part of practicing by yourself is you never know what you're doing wrong/right!  Apparently I hold my shoulders very high, which I actually find myself doing all the time, not just during yoga, and it's why I have such tense shoulders and get such bad headaches, good to know!

There were some times were I was tired and shaky, but overall the class was really really great.  I guess I was confused as to why she thought this would be a bad first class to take?  Hmm...oh well.  The great thing is the prices for class are crazy reasonable $6 for drop ins, or you can purchase a punch card for 12 classes for $60.  Doesn't get much better than that.  I think it'll give me something to look forward to during the week other than running, and it'll be nice to have someone else kicking my butt instead of me doing it all the time.
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The other day I was updating my race spreadsheet (yes, as noted previously, I love me a good spreadsheet).  I list all races that I'm interested in doing along with date/time/fee/location/date of cheap fee/etc.  I always pay for a race on the last day of the cheap/early bird deadline, because I am cheap.  I was scanning the spreadsheet to see what races would need to be paid for the in the next couple of months (see that, planning and budgeting AHEAD, you'd think I was a credit counselor or something :p).  What the heck?  Vegas RnR cheap-o deadline is May 1st???  Uh...is it just me or does it seem a bit premature to register for marathon #2 before even toeing the line for marathon #1??  Based on MARATHON TRAINING so far, I really want to do another one, but I know the actual marathon could be a whole other ballgame.  Thoughts???

(Also, I tend to have 900 windows open at all times.  Multi-tasker is an understatement.)

And in random office hubby story news:

I went home for Easter, and while we were eating dinner, I started telling a work related story and mentioned "my co-worker."  Immediately my mother chimes in asking if I'm referring to Tom.  She then precedes to say how cute he is, which means my mother is a) stalking my blog (hi mom!) or b) stalking my work Facebook fan page (as there are pictures of all of our staff on there).  She then wants to know if he's single.  Hi, mother.  Remember that one guy that I'm dating?  I don't think he'd be too happy if he knew you were trying to work your magic with my office husband.  :P  Needless to say, she was pretty bummed he was taken (for me, not herself; in case that wasn't clear :p).

March in Review + New 'Do

March in Review

Total Miles: 151 which is up from 124 last month (compared to 66.8 in 2009). This breaks my current monthly record (previously 138).

Total Time: 23:35:49. I ran almost a full day this month. That's pretty sweet in my book. (Last month was 19:17:08.)

Total Runs: 17 for an average of 8.88/run. My lucky number. :D (Last month was 7ish/run).

Highest weekly mileage: 3/22/2010 — 3/28/2010: 39.8 Mi 6:14:10 Highest mileage week to date (no wonder my legs were traaaaaaaaashed)! (up from 35 last month)

Favorite run: My first 20 miler.  I imagine this is similar to the love you feel for your first born, no?  To be honest, I expected to crash and burn, just b/c 20 miles is a long way yo!  Imagine my surprise when it was my best LR of the 14+ distance.  20 I heart you.

Most hardcore run: 7 tempo miles.  It. Sucked.  But I'd imagine I am a stronger runner because of it.  Right?  RIGHT!?!?!?  I purposely haven't looked forward in my planner just because I'm assuming there's a longer and faster tempo workout to come.  [shudders]

Favorite Race: St. Patty's Day 5 miler.  Auto PR + my fave holiday + one butt ton of Green = What's not to love people?  Oh yes, the massive mud and poorly organized day.  I remember now. :P

Current Jams:  Ke$ha--Dancing with tears in my eyes & Hungover,  Rihanna--Rude Boy,

This week has been a cut back week (praise the Lord!).  My poor leggies were hurting last week.  Last night was my last run for the month.  As everyone was shouting out their mileage for the month on twitter, I was prompted to check my running log:  142.8.  Well I couldn't end the month with 150.8 miles could I?  Hell no.  I headed out after working in gorgeous 70 degree temps.  I just let my legs do what they wanted to do, and apparently that's a bit faster than my easy pace.  I figured I would compensate with the 8 miles slated for the following morning.

I did 8.2 miles in 1:16:20 for a pace of 9:19.

This morning I begrudgingly got out of bed.  I always plan to run before work on Thursdays (I work a late shift) but always end up sleeping in.  A friend is in town back from school for Easter, and we're going to take on the town so I had to get out there.  Morning running!  How could I have forgotten about you?!?!?  It took a couple of miles for the legs to wake up, but after that I was crusing along.  My effort level was 10 minute miles, but my actual pace was around 9:10-9:15.  It was crazy.  You gotta love those runs.  All day I've been feeling my fabulous runner's high.  I think morning running and I might be rekindling our flame this spring.  ;)

I did 8 miles in 1:14:15 for a pace of 9:17.

In exciting news, I got my hair did this week.  whoot whoot!  Check out my darker do.  I think the dark makes me look more like a smarty pants, no? :)

In sad news, my office husband moved offices.  The following are various email excerpts to how I feel about this travesty.

Email to Nick (yes he knows about my office husband, and is ok with it....at least as far as I know!): 

Did you ever get moved in high school because you talked too much to your friends that sat around you in certain classes? Surprise surprise, I did. All the time. Apparently I’m a bit of a talker?!?!?!?


Anyway, my office husband had to/got to relocate to an office farther away. I feel like this is the corporate version of desk moving. :(
Also random/awesome email brainstorm with the office husband:
Jeri:  I hate that you’re not next door. Shall we craft tin can phones this afternoon?
Tom:  yes we should or get web cams so we can skype
Jeri:  Hahahahahah we should totally skype from two offices down. Love it.

RIP office relationship.  I've already got one distance relationship on my hands, I just can't hack #2. :(

Did Somebody Say Marathon Training?

What's this now (<--totally stole that phrase from Nick, cracks me up every time)?  *I've* been talking marathon training?  Non-stop?  Nooooooo.  I'm never one to talk obsessively about something, especially when it comes to running.

Ok, you got me.  I think everyone in the tri-state area knows that I started Marathon Training!!!  this week.  (Does anyone else hear some loud booming voice from the heavens every time I type Marathon Training!!!?  No?  Just me?  Ok then, moving on.)  Your mom probably even knows, ask her.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty darn excited about it.

I figured it was high time for that ol' Marathon Training!!! Program reveal and such.  I used Runnersworld.com, as I've fallen slightly in love with their training programs as they have carried me to 2 HM PRs over the last year.  I like that there is still some speedwork incorporated into the training runs, so it's not a complete beginner schedule (which there is nothing wrong with, you just know I heart speedwork).  I chose to do a 14 week schedule because 16 just seemed too G.D. long.  I also did some swapping around of the long runs, as they had me scheduled to do 3 20 milers, which seems like a LOT.  I know some of you vets swear by it, but 3 was enough to scare me into the fetal position on my couch, so I swapped out one for another 16 miler.  Without much further ado, here she is:  (Please note Runnersworld has me predicted to run a sub-4 hour marathon...BAHAHAHAHAHAH! :P)

Yes, I will be breaking my personal distance PR already next weekend with 14 and hardly looking back until mid-May.  Excited = understatement.  Scared poopless = absolutely.

I started the training Monday with an easy 6 mile run.  Because I'm an idiot and raced on Sunday , against my better judgement (and not to brag, but totally took 1st in my AG, and was overall female winner.....so ya...pretty legit) I H-U-R-T on Monday.  We're talking shuffling around the office, shin pain (I used to get horrific shin splints in HS track), hip issues, and tight hammies.  Holy hell, I'm an idiot.  I usually take my easy runs around a 9:30 minute pace, but I kept it slooooow, and my legs thanked me for it.

I did 6 miles in 58:37 for a pace of 9:47.  When I was done I streeeeeeeetched (and internally cursed my stupidity).

Tuesday I had a 6 mile tempo run to do (Um ya, I failed to switch my actual training program to reflect the order I'll be doing my workouts in M: easy, T: speed, W: rest, Th: easy, F: rest, S: long run, Su: rest), 4 miles at 8:35 pace.

I headed to the gym still.in.pain.  Why oh why am I so competitive dumb?  The start of the warm up mile was brutal.  My hamstrings were screaming at me (Dear Hammies, if you worked yourself at ALL during distance training you wouldn't be so ding dong sore after some serious sprint racing.  YOUR FAULT NOT MINE!  xoxo Jerbear).  Finally after the mile warm up they seemed fine.  Once I kicked up the pace on the treadmill they were a-ok.  Thanks Legs, Love you Lots.

I did 6 miles in 53:42 for a pace of 8:57 (tempo pace was 8:33).
1. 9:49 2. 8:29 3. 8:34 4. 8:35 5. 8:34 6. 9:41

Also, can we talk briefly about my shoes?  I noticed it was time to throw a new pair of kicks into my budget for the upcoming month as they would be tapped out after about one month's worth of training.  But you would never be able to tell it by the way they look.  Look at these beauties!  Still in pristine condition!

270 miles?  No chance.  Oh wait.....250 of those have been on a treadmill?  Ok now I can believe it.  Poor shoes, they probably have S.A.D. because they never get to see the great outdoors.

And on a completely unrelated note, there was quite the stir of comments regarding my office husband Tom.  He started at my place of employment about 9 months ago, and we spent some majah time together as I did 100% of his training.  He's a runner as well (got injured training for Twin Cities Marathon last full), and just a pretty cool kid in general so we get along really well.  Makes for a good work environment for sure.

One day he commented that we spend 26 hours of our week together (subtracting out our lunch breaks and our days where we work opposing late shifts).  Impressive/creepy that you've figured that out, but makes sense that we would become such good friends being around each other that much.  A few weeks ago, the power went out at work, so of course all the "cool kids" congregated into my office because I'm the Prez of the cool kid club natch.  A bunch of us were talking, and Tom and I started finishing each other's sentences in a ridiculous way.  I made the joke to my manager that I needed to fill out new insurance information to get a cheaper rate since Tom and I were obviously married at work.  And so, office husband/wife was created.

Sorry Lauren, he has a girlfriend.  But if they end up taking a nosedive, I'll totally let you know.  After the overwhelming response I had from readers, I told him that if him and his GF didn't work out, I could pimp him out on my blog for a small fee.  He was very flattered by all the comments (yes, I shared them, he's my husband yo!).

Now I'm off to enjoy an early Valentine's Day dinner and drinks with one of my loves, Melissa (Captain of Team GREEN). G'night kiddos!