Cabin Weekend

After work on Saturday, I finally made it out to Kyle's parents' lake cabin with the pugbear in tow to finish celebrating Kyle's birthday.  We had dinner and then it was time to go out in the pontoon for a ride.  

Kyle had to kayak out to the pontoon because something wasn't working right.  And while his dad was charging the battery, he decided to take Ollie out for a stroll.  She's wearing her Packers coat because there was a pre-season game on Saturday.  Also she looks adorable in it.  So there's that.

Ollie has been out to the cabin more than I have (dang you school), so she has a "spot" on the pontoon and it's in the driver's seat with her Grandpa!  Captain Ollie, at your service!

LOLZ U GUYZ I'M NOT EVEN WATCHING WHERE I'M GOING!!

The night wouldn't be complete without a fire pit and s'mores.   Mmmm.  I <3 smores.

Sunday morning was spent with a cup of coffee overlooking the lake.  And GORGEOUS summer weather.  Bliss.

Which segued into mid-morning book reading in the same chair overlooking the lake.  

And then Kyle coerced me in to taking the kayaks out with him for a spin.  At the last minute he decided Ollie would come with him again because I was too big of a wuss to have her in mine.  But after she kept trying to jump ship out of his kayak, we finally switched her, mid-lake.  Oy Pug.  She loved it though.

Once we got back to land, I figured we might as well find out if she could swim, so I took her for a little swimming lesson.  She can swim for about 8 seconds before she starts to sink like a brick.  Then we had the bright idea of finding an old school life jacket for her to wear since we don't have a doggie one yet.

Genius.

Cabin weekends are the best.

Slow Down Summer

I feel like all I do anymore is write “update” blog posts. But Danielle was whining that I need to blog asap, or she’s going to cut me, so here I am. IN BULLET POINT FORM-ish.

• Last weekend I biked 52 miles in the Okoboji ride. Following arrows on the road is hard thus the extra 2 miles in my 50 miler. It was hot. Last I saw, the heat index was 106 or something painfully hot like that. From 9am-2pm I drank over 80 oz. of fluids, yet did not have to pee until well past dinner time. Please keep in mind that I sweat 1/10^th of what I do while running, as I do biking. Gross. Big thanks to Aaron and Mike who kept me company, and joined in on my delirious singing on the latter miles, something to the effect of “my lady bits hurt, and my butt hurts, and I’m HOT.. doo deeee dooooo!”
  
  10:15 breakfast brat, natch.
  
  
• I got to spend the 3^rd and 4^th of July with my bestie Jenn and it was glorious, but of course not nearly enough time, as it never is. Someone needs to stop living in the jungle on the other side of the planet ASAP… ya know?
  
  
  
  I hope Jenn has all the cute pics, this is the only one on my phone.  *sobs*
  
  
• The other night I asked Kyle if he would come snuggle with me, as I was having a bad day. He looked at me, looked at Ollie who was snoozing away in between us, and indicated that we be “vewy vewy qwuiet” to sneak out without her. We crawled in to bed and giggled about our swift escape. Ok, I giggled, it’d be way weird if Kyle giggled… not much of a giggler. We joked that it felt like we had a kid that we were trying to sneak out on. We enjoyed 5 minutes of alone time before someone woke up and likely had a panic attack that we weren’t there anymore. “MOOOOM! DAAAAAAAAD! WHERE’D YOU GO? COME BACK! I MISS YOU! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Our Ollie girl is a little bit of a spaz when it comes to our attention, can you tell? (just like her mama, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!? Ok yeah. I’m a spaz for attention too, I must admit.)
  
  
  
  
  
• It’s been hot as hades here and running sounds like 0% fun. I’ve been going pretty strong with one run a week, Monday nights, 5 miles. It’s become a running joke, actually (heh…running joke.) I’ll be lacing up my running shoes and Kyle will say, “Whoa?? You’re going running? How far??” And then he’ll remember it’s Monday…. “Oh.. enjoy your 5 miles!” This week I bucked the trend. It was 100+ with a gazillion percent humidity, so I decided to take my 5 miles to the gym in my apartment. Ugh. The treadmills may be as old as me in there. My footfalls are SO LOUD that I couldn’t hear the TV over my plodding along. 1.25 miles later I called it good. I planned to wait until 9 when I dipped below 90 but then I got invited out for beers at Old Chicago. That’s one thing I *can* do in the heat.
  
  
• Marathon training starts in approximately a month, so I think my time of “d!ck!ng” around should probably be coming to an end. Meh. I am excited to start running again, but glad I’m not having to get “serious” for the next month. I’m kind of enjoying this break. I have started doing some targeted strengthening exercises to strengthen my glutes, hammies, hips, so hopefully I can avoid injury for once.
  
  
• I got an invitation from the Mizuno Mezzanni project, and received my free Wave Riders in the mail today. That means, that along with my heavily discounted Kinvara 2’s that I just purchased, I’m now hoarding 3 pairs of running shoes in my office at work. I used to really like the Wave Riders, and ran the Vegas Marathon in them. But when the newer version came out in Winter 2011, I *hated* them. Speaking, I still have a pair of them in pink, size 8 if anyone wants to buy them for cheap. They have 5 miles on them. Anyway, given my extreme ability to break while running, I’ve been thinking that I could stand to run in a more “substantial” shoe, especially for long runs. I’ve wanted to try to Wave Riders again, but after being burned with the pair a few versions ago, I couldn’t fathom plunking down $100+ to see if they’d changed. I’m pretty excited to see if they fill the previous long run shoe void in my heart!
  
  
  
  
  
• I’m still riding a 4.0 wave after getting my grade for my June class (quickly raises the roof with excitement). Oh p.s. I’m trying to bring “raising the roof” back so feel free to get on board with that, spread the word, etc. It was a children’s materials and services class, and further solidified how badly I want to be a children’s and young adult librarian.

Well I think that’s enough babbling for now. What’s that? You want more Ollie cuteness before I go? Alright, twist my arm.

Ollie thought she got to drive home on the 4th of July.

Dad gives the BEST tummy rubs.

When I smile my tongue usually gets caught in my teef and flipped around.  

I kan haz some sushee?!?!?!

No.

No Shirt, No Shoes (jk), No Death By Sweat

I'm not a very self-conscious girl when it comes to my body.  When I was younger and incredibly skinny, I was super insecure, oddly enough.  I gained more confidence when I was heavier, and have kind of settled in to my happy place recognizing what my body is capable (running... for what feels like forever).  And yeah, it probably doesn't hurt that running keeps me at my happy weight for the most part.  I can sit at the swim up bar for hours in my bikini with no problem.

However, ask me to log a few miles in a sports bra sans shirt and I'll cower in the corner.  What gives?  I'm not quite sure.  Everything just seems to look a lot better when it's not all in motion, ya know?  Last summer I went shirtless for one run when it was 12003459834 degrees with 1708345% humidity.  I knew I couldn't handle one more run in that crap drowning in my clothes and the air.  I swear some girls gave me an evil look, and I never went without again.

This year I've been talking about it for at least a month.  I've done a decent job sticking to my core work, partially for this reason (christ...vain much? don't do core work because it might make you...uh.... faster... idiot).  

Well last Monday it was a nice 80 degrees with 80% humidity (seems to be the norm 80-80 not sure why) and after dealing with a death march of a long run Sunday I said screw it.  I threw on my running hat for incognito sake and did my 5 miles.  And it didn't kill me.  A lot of walkers wouldn't even make eye contact to smile/wave/say hi to me, probably because they were uncomfortable, but runners didn't bat an eyelash.  AND I WAS SO FREAKIN' COOL.  zomg it was amazing.  When I got done running my stomach was cool to the touch, because my internal cooling system was able to do its job when it didn't have fabric in the way.  Your body sweats to cool you off.... duh.  

So for the rest of the summer, I'm not going to give two poos about a few snobby judgmental stares because I'm 88% less of a sweatmonster.  WIN!

But in the meantime.........

Dear God, 

Please send me Susan's abs by my next long run.

Thanks.

Jerbear