Taper Madness

Taper madness presents itself differently in everyone. For me, it's typically sour mood and temperament (sorry friends and loved ones!). Also any anxiety I typically have is magnified a bazillion percent and my control freak nature ramps up a hundred fold. I was prepared for this part of taper madness (and so was Kyle, bless his heart). But the one part of taper madness I had forgotten about was the compulsive shopping.

Hi. My name is Jeri, and during taper, I shop like a maniac.

The first few days of taper were maintainable, I'd do some online shopping, put items in a check out bag, and then walk away from my computer. I do this...uh... frequently. But then came the "gateway" purchase. I needed arm sleeves or a long sleeved shirt for the marathon, so I started looking around. Many adorable green items were "added to cart" all over the world wide web. I finally snagged a pair of neon green Saucony arm sleeves for mega percent off.

And then, all shopping hell broke loose. Since then, I have purchased a j. crew button up with polka dots (second hand), Megan's birthday and Christmas presents, Jenn's Christmas and birthday presents, Kyle's Christmas presents, 2 pairs of green and pink shorts from J. Crew crazy on sale (because duh, why wouldn't you buy shorts as we're on the cusp of winter!??!), green earrings and a new cell phone case from Kate Spade, and a time turner necklace to complete my Hermione Granger Halloween costume (not to mention a Gryffendor tie and her wand, but those were costume necessities, right??)

Now this past weekend I get an email from Jenn letting me know that she found a cheaper version of a ring I've been obsessing over, and it was on sale. Attention checking account: Jenn is back in the states, your monies are no longer safe!

The good news is that everything I bought was crazy ridiculously mind blowingly on sale and then discounted. And the majority of things really were for gifts, and just some other little stuff for me, but STILL. OMG.

So now here are some small fruits of my shopping labors, Harry Potter Halloween pics!

Hermione and Ginny hanging out at Platform 9 3/4, waiting for their train.

We had these signs made for kids to take pictures in at the library on Halloween.

More Addictions: Online Shopping (And a HM before work)

In lieu of a weekly wishlist a few weeks back, I actually indulged in a little retail shopping.  Usually my little "shopping" trips to find things for my post can curb my urge to spend the dollah dollah bills ya'll. Bahahahah I can't believe I just typed that, I'm so cool.  Anyway, I got an email from J Crew about free shipping and off I went.  I was stoke because usually J Crew is free shipping* (*on purchases $150+).  Well I never have $150 just a-lyin' around for online shopping purposes, so that does me no good.

Anyways, I picked up a few gems for about $20/piece!  I found a great grey long sleeve with adorable buttons on the shoulders (can't find a pic anymore, sorry), and also had an aqua in my "shopping cart" before it was no longer in stock.  Wah!  Oh well, saved me $12.  Then I had the hardest time deciding on a color in the cutest tank I've seen in a long time.  I enlisted some help from my twitter pals, and then did what I knew I'd end up doing all along, I bought them all!

There's also a navy blue one they no longer have the photo for. loooooooove.

One of the shirts whilst displaying my newfound Bama pride. :)

I have serious issues with buying things I love in bulk.  Nike tempo shorts.... I probably have 15.  Target v-neck shirt, at least 8.  If I find something I love, I stick with it.  And I love these tanks.  EEEEE!  Online shopping urge cured... for now.

Friday brought on an evening of no plans, and somehow my shopping "itch" just hadn't been cured completely.  I hit up the mall with some cute items in mind. Priority #1 was to find a dress for an end-of-summer wedding.  Why oh why is it that when you have money you're willing to part with for cute clothes, you can't find anything!?!??!  I always get money for Christmas/birthday and it never fails that I'm so over winter clothes that the money sits in savings waiting to be spent on race entry fees.

However, I did manage to snag the dress I've been coveting FOREVER from the Gap.  It was originally $70 and was listed at $35.  I knew I would need to take up the straps to get it to fit properly and didn't think that was cheap enough for the extra work I was going to have to put in.  Until the sales woman told me it was half price.  $17?  Yes, I can sew a few stitches for that.  And then I found a super cute neon awesomeness skinny belt for $5.  I almost got a crazy cute yoga bag, but I couldn't justify it.  Sad face.

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I have been very hohum regarding running lately.  I seem to get in a funk after I have cutback weeks, and this last one was no different.  In case you missed it, I ran 7 of my 41 planned miles last week.  Yikes.  And I was not looking forward to running this week either.  Last night I asked Kyle if he'd be ok if I hung up my running shoes, and to my surprise he said no.  Whaaaaaa?  when I asked him to elaborate he said that I'm a much happier person when I'm running all the time.

Can I just say, 3 cheers to Kyle for learning proper phrasing in his responses?  What he meant was, "Please God NO!  You're a raging B without your daily running endorphines."  He's getting goooooooood, no?

Anyway, because of a crazy weekend with lots of plans and a Saturday shift at work (barf) I had to do my long run on Wednesday this week before work.  Luckily for me I don't work until 11am, and the temps were in the 70s.  YES!  I made myself get out there for my little half marathon before work, and whattaya know, I'm back in puffy heart love with running.

Is anyone else like this?  When I'm running 5-6 days a week I LOVE running.  Once I take a rest day, it's soooooooo hard for me to get out there the next day.  It's just obnoxious.

I did 13.1 miles in 2:05 something for a 9:35 pace.  Which is better than my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd half marathon times, in case you were keeping track at home.  ;)

Shopping Spree + Long Run

Saturday I set out to get the remaining item on my Wild West Relay list:  GUs.  When I walked in to my local running store, I was greeted by an employee stating that they were having their 1 year anniversary sale, and apparel was buy one get one.  Uh oh.  :)  I found the green tank for $25 and another in black.  The black was just a smidge snug, and they didn't have anything other than an XS, so I got the light blue as its friend.  

I tried it on for the boy after the shopping spree and his comment, "Wow, that fits perfect."  Doesn't get much better than that for compliments.  Especially on workout clothes.  Next we were looking at water bottles.  After doing more research on the race, I've learned that it's super easy to get dehydrated at the higher altitude.  

My first run is a 7.5 mile leg and will be around noon.  I figured I NEEDED to get a handheld water bottle so I didn't get sick.  Then I finally got what I came in for...the GUs..... a good chunk of those are for my van and the rest are to replenish my stock.  The dude did give me a discount on the GUs because I bought so many, never hurts to ask right?  $88 later, I was done.  :)

Saturday we spent the whole day post-shopping watching Star Wars.  Believe it or not, I've never seen the movies.  It was one of my summer goals to watch all of them.  We knocked 2 off the list yesterday.  I can't believe I've never seen these movies.  I'm slightly in love with Yoda.  :)

Saturday night I ended up not going to bed until 3am, so I was not very excited when my alarm went off at 7am.  I ended up snoozing until about 8am.  Luckily the weather has been freakish lately because it was still cool out.  I wore my new blue tank top and was out the door at 8:30am.  It was a really great run!  Perfect weather, legs felt a little tired, but nothing too bad.  

Notable mentions from the run:

• I was playing leap frog with a girl on the trail who was running a slower pace them me, but wasn't stopping at the fountains for water like I was.  After the second time, we chatted a bit about how long are runs were for the day, she asked if I was training for the 1/2 and said she was too.  It was nice to have someone to chitchat with for a couple of minutes.
• I tried a Vanilla Bean GU Roctane.  Probably my favorite.  Tied with Blueberry Pomegranite fo sho.  
• I ran into (not literally) my college friend who's the big tri stud now.  I was running along when I saw this VERY serious biker coming towards me.  Whoa, Lance, you look like a big deal, I thought to myself.  No sooner than I had this thought did he should out JERI!!!  We waved and screamed hi as he was flying past.  Last time I saw him he was running.  If the next time I see him he's swimming along in the river next to the trail, I'm going to have to confront him about stalking me using this "tri training" as a cover up.  :)
• The lady with the yorkie in the sunglasses (from a long run 2 weeks ago?) lost her dog.  I was running by her when she yelled out, "Have you seen a yorkie!?!?"  I said no and kept running.  What I wanted to say was, "Maybe your dog ran off because he's sick of the accessories you force him to wear.  Just an idea!"  But I refrained, because I'm nice.  Ok, that's not true.  I was too tired at this point to shout something that long winded.  
• My new tank was dy-no-mite.  Pretty much felt like I was running without a shirt, which is just the way I like it, minus the flab bouncing around for the world to see.  Seriously, if the running store had more colors in my size I would totally buy them all up.  
• I didn't have the pukey feeling during any of my run, or immediately after stopping.  Granted I ran a much steadier pace and didn't go BTTW during the last mile, so that makes sense.  Unfortunately, my stomach is still upset this afternoon.  :(
• A dude on a bike passed me while on the trails.  He was wearing super short cotton shorts (think cheerleading camp shorts with the triple folded waist band) with an equally short shirt and his jock strap 3 inches above his short line.  Awkward.  I had a thorough convo with Tay to see if this was a weird situation, or if I was missing some aspect of cycling for a dude, and he agreed it was weeeeird.

I did the 11 miles in 1:38:39 for an avg. pace of 8:58.

1. 9:16 
2. 9:19 
3. 9:10 
4. 9:09 
5. 9:06 
6. 8:58 
7. 8:57 
8. 8:56 
9. 8:57 
10. 8:38 

11. 8:06

I took an ice bath post-run, and then went back to bed for a little nappy post-shower.  We're heading to the waterpark for one of my good friend's birthday party.  Should be a nice little Sunday.  Might make it to Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond...I dunno... I dunno if we'll have TIME!  Name that movie.  

What's a Christmas-gram? I WANT ONE!

So the holidays have come and gone. Of course that means that I'm in a deep dark wine & cheese induced depression. A whole year to wait until the next holiday season. Alas, it was a good one.

Christmas was fabulous, as usual. Santa let me have some extra time off this year, from making toys of course (what a jolly ol' saint of a man) so I was able to do some celebration Christmas Eve & Christmas day with my family and Taylor's family. Taylor's Christmas was a drunken mess, as usual, (mess=an amazing amount of fun and merriment) with more presents stacked under one tree then I've ever seen total in my life. Christmas Day we spent with my family back home, which was a good time. I got some great new appliances that I needed for my new apartment and some cool things to decorate it with, along with some clothes.

Of course, the most important day came after Christmas. My quarter of a century birthday. 25. Big deal. Or at least I made it out to be a big deal. Taylor had to work (boo) for a good chunk of it, good thing he was almost done by the time I got out of bed. Did some shopping (as usual) with Miss Mel, finding absolutely nothing that tripped my trigger (double boo). After that Taylor was done working, and he took me out for my birthday lunch to Sushi Masa. The single greatest restaurant I have ever dined. Seriously. Unfortunately, they were no longer seating people or taking names for lunch time diners (triple boo). Oh well, getting our order to go allowed me time to shop at my favorite used book store and Zambroz.

Then we had a small crowd over to my new apartment (after the in between 2 hours were spent thoroughly cleaning and finishing unpacking my apartment) for a Guitar Hero tourney.

I used my shiny new blender to whip up some strawberry margaritas. APPARENTLY, tequila can go bad, so they were rancid. Whoopsies. I'll remember that for the future (I think). I let Barry win the tourney so he wouldn't feel bad about losing to a girl, and we were off to the bars. Many many shots were taken at Shenanigans and I think I finally lost the headache that I had from that night.

One of the best birthdays I can remember (no pun intended), thanks to all those who celebrated with me, or wished me a happy birthday.

After 5 days off of work, I dreaded going back on Monday, but the 3 days flew by and last night was New Years Eve. We celebrated at Taylor's BEST BUD ZIMMY'S new house in formal attire. My personal favorite way to celebrate the new year. Well that and a bottle and a half of wine and a whole block of pepperjack cheese. Seriously. Now another day off today to watch football and play the Wii (ie: beat Taylor at the Wii) work tomorrow and the weekend again.

2008 was great, and I'm excited about what 2009 will bring!!