Sickness: DEFEATED (sort of)

I have returned to the land of the well and non-deathly. For the most part anyway. I still have to blow my nose every 7 1/2 minutes and am coughing up delightful little phlem gems, but other than that, I'm a-ok. Plus I was able to get in a run last night. Double bonus. I did a nice EASY 3 miles at the gym. My legs felt good, my lungs felt fine (surprisingly), my hip didn't hurt AT ALL, but my stupid ab on the right side started hurting, so I had to slow down, which is probably good since I struggle with running "easy." Time for run: 26:34.

Tonight I have an tempo run scheduled which I'm very excited about. For some reason I love any run that has speed in it. This is probably due to the fact that I am a sprinter at heart, and only a distance gal because there just aren't very many adult 100m, 200m dash races out there. Strange. :)

In other news, my fish is still dead. Someone suggested I take it back since he didn't last a full 24 hours. Can I do that? It's really morbid to have a dead fish in my apartment, but if I can get my $4 back, I think I might.

Mica at MicaPie sent me this survey. Whoo!!!

The rules are:


1.) Fill it out


2.) Change one question with one of your own


3.) Add an additional question


4.) Send it to 3 people.

1. What are your current obsessions?
reading people's running blogs (um obviously), Pink's new CD, guacamole, Kelly Clarkson's new CD, & cardigans

2. Which item from your closet are you wearing most often? my black and white t-shirt. it looks like old school wall paper. I wear it to work under a cardigan and out on the weekends. Love it.

3. Last thing you bought for yourself?


I bought myself bagel boy for lunch yesterday--2 everything bagels and an italian creme soda, otherwise I bought 2 new dresses, 2 shirts, and a cardigan from forever 21. I have eleventy billion weddings to go to, so figured I was in need of some more dresses.

4. What’s for dinner?


Hopefully big delicious cheeseburgers on the grill with all the fixins. [Taylor I hope you're reading this, I wasn't kidding]

5. Say something to the person who tagged you:


I think your blog is fabulous and I literally laugh at some point during each post. If I lived closer, I would totally invite myself over for dinner, because your culinary delights look deeeeeeeeeelicious.

6. What is one item you could not live without?


my cellphone. I'm lame. That's fine.

7. Vacation spots you must visit before you die?
Everywhere, I've gone nowhere, it's crazy. Germany & Ireland for sure. After watching vicky christina barcelona, I know feel like I need to go there. And am working on convincing the boy to accompany me.

8. Three things to do before you die:
Wow. Deep question. Travel more, run a marathon, be blissfully happy.

9. What are you reading right now?
How to Meet Cute Boys, Nickel and Dimed, She's Come Undone

10. What is the last movie you saw and enjoyed? Rate it out of 5 stars.
Changling 4 1/2 stars

11. What's your favorite season and why?
Fall. I love how beautiful the trees are and the crisp air. And wearing hoodies. But most importantly, it signals the start of football season. :)

12. What are you eating/do you want to eat right now?
I'm actually not eating anything, or craving anything right now. Which is really strange. Now that I've had to think about it, Chevy's chimichangas sound good. Num.

13. Best thing you ate or drank lately?
Cool Blue Gatorade

14. Care to share some wisdom?
my life motto: Passion will make you crazy, but is there any other way to live? [I've heard this quote attributed to several different people, so am unable to give it proper credit, sorry.]

15. Describe one of your happiest moments.
Nerd alert: My best friend (who wasn't actually my best friend at the time, just the beginning of her happy r'ship together) and I were going to the Harry Potter release party for the 6th book. First we went to B&N for the party, and to take photos, and get sweet glasses. Then we went to Applebee's for drinks and dessert where we discovered crack in the form of dessert: maple butter blondie, something or other. Seriously, the best dessert ever, and the after effects have to be similar to a crack-high. I wouldn't know. Then we went to the ghetto-Walmart in town to wait in line for the book (and get the cheapest price in town). It was a great great night. :)

16. What was your best Halloween costume? I dressed up as an Elf one year. Those pictures are probably not blog appropriate though. [Ok just double checked on the photos, confirmed that they are not blog appropriate.]

17. What do you have an addiction to? everything bagels, fettuccine alfredo, ice water, and cheese cake
18. What do you do that you would be embarrassed for others to know about? I'm sure there's something, but nothing I would care to admit on the internet. :p

19. What was your first screen name? jerilee40

20. Do you have a weird talent? Please elaborate if yes: I learned to wiggle my ears. Wiggling your ears is not that special, but the fact that I taught myself how, makes it special. Oh and my eyes change colors with my mood.

I tag:

Cindy at delusions of other people's grandeur b/c she's my newest follower (hurrah!) sorry if you hate these, and don't want to do it, I'll understand. :)

Kathryn at MISSION MKWC: Matt & Kathryn World Conquest but not Matt b/c I don't care about his answers. :p jk darling.

Aron at runner's rambles b/c she had the funniest picture of her pets' loungeday on her blog today

Peace out!

Um...sorry about the weird spacing, etc. I can't seem to get the format to correct itself. Apparently I suck at copy and paste? Awesome.

RIP Iliza Fishinger

Um ya.  I killed my fish.  :(  I came home from work today, all excited to see him.  He had his nose buried in the rocks in the bottom of the aquarium.  I immediately thought he was dead.  But his little fins would move just a little bit every 5 or so minutes.  Since I don't have internet at my house, I called my madre, and she read me some info about beta fish, to see what I could do wrong.  We determined that the water temp had probably cooled too much in my apartment over night and the poor thing was freezing.  I tried to gradually heat up the water, to revive him, but it didn't work.  Seriously I had a beta in high school that I would forget to feed for weeks at a time (please don't turn me in to the Humane Society, I'm a better person now) and who lived in a dirty dirty fish bowl.  Yet I kill this one that I take such good care of.

In running news, I am also near death, so I haven't ran since Saturday.  I'm starting to go stir crazy.  I'm going to try to run tomorrow morning before work, but we'll see how I feel when I wake up.  I literally feeling like walking death.  It sucks to miss runs, especially since I've started to actually ENJOY my runs again.  I just keep telling myself that I'd rather be sick than injured, this'll clear up sooner or later.  Emphasis on the sooner!!!

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like....Spring??

There have been blizzard warnings across South Dakota for the past week. Fortunately they've all missed my area, except for this weekend. I thought I would snap some pictures as the snow was falling. Since I'm a horrible photographer, you're unable to see the ginormous snowflakes, but that's what I was trying to capture.

Here are some post-snow fall, pre-meltiness. It's the perfect snow to make snowpeople in, so maybe I'll have to convince Taylor to make some with me when he gets bank from the gym.

Because I'm a huge wuss, I went to the gym to get my run in. I did 4 somewhat speedy miles at 34:47. It was an amazing run, and I felt like I could run forever at that pace, which was nice. Afterwards, I biked for 6 miles to keep my legs loose.

Today I was supposed to get in 6, but I've been hacking up a lung since I got out of bed, so I'll be moving my run to tomorrow.

When I moved into my new apartment, my mom gave me my old fish bowl from back home. Yesterday I decided I needed a pet. After deciding between 3 different fish for at least 20 minutes, I decided on this lil guy. I named him Iliza Fishinger, after my favorite comedian. I'm super clever, I know. You don't have to tell me that.

Here he is posing for a picture.

TiarT (but a few days late)

This is the first time I've participated in Tiart, and apparently I have to be different and post it on Saturday. TiarS if you will. Anyway, I had meant to do it previously, but didn't have access to internet, then I didn't have access to my camera, now I have both. Please forgive my tardiness.

To preface my post, I thought I would share a picture of all my running shoes. Left to right, top to bottom are my shoes newest to oldest. Apparently I like to throw in an Adidas pair every 5th shoe. Randomness. Ok Here I go.

[Shoes pictured top row 2nd from the right]

Asics Nimbus 7. You are my favorite color: green. You are the most expensive pair of running shoes I have ever purchased ($130) and while I was a poor, poor college kid. But I had to have you. You were with me for my second and third half marathons as well as my two fastest 5ks. When you had reached your mileage limits, I upgraded to the Nimbus 9. But it just wasn’t the same. I missed you. When it was time for another new pair, I started scouring the internet in hopes that some warehouse somewhere would have you, and I could buy 50 pairs to last me to the end of my running days, but alas, I was not successful. I love you green Asics Nimbus 7. You complete me.

[Also, I ended up with 132 words, but with tax, I'm sure it was right around there! Ha.]

My running has been going very well lately. Tuesday I had an easy 3 mile. Wednesday was a speed work, which I l-o-v-e. I had 6 x 400 meter repeats. Thursday was another easy 3 miles. I've been challenging myself to actually do my easy runs at an "easy" pace. For some reason I feel like I have to run fast on every run. Which is dumb. Today I have a 4 mile easy run and tomorrow I have a 6 mile long run. I love that my "long" run is less than an hour. Hehe. Unfortunately it's in the 30s and supposed to be snowing all weekend, so I'll be putting some mileage in at the gym.

OOH. And I got to see comedian ILIZA SHLESINGER last night and it was amazing. My goal was to get her to pick me out of the crowd and ask me to be her new BFFF, but it didn't happen. :( Soooooooo stinkin' funny.

End of March Report

I have been spending waaaaay too much time reading peoples' running blogs and not enough time blogging.  Luckily I have been spending a lot of time running also, so at least that hasn't been lost in the shuffle.

Here are my highlights for March

Total mileage:  66.8 miles.  I tried to look in my old running log for the summer I was training for my first half to see if this is the highest mileage for a month, but I wasn't able to access it.  Without record of it, we will deem it as such.  Ridiculously sad since I was only training for a 5k this past month, instead of a half.

Best (only) race:  St. Patty's Day 5k.  I PR'd by 48 seconds from a 5k two years previously.  And improved 2:30 minutes from my previously most recent 5k.  Yay for speedy Jeri again.

Best training run:  Obviously training for a 5k required many 3 mile easy training runs.  On one particular run, I was cooling down with a walk after the 3 miles were completed.  I happened to glance at the treadmill timer at 3.1 and I realized that even after walking .1 miles I still had a faster time than the last 5k race that I did.  Wow.

Random highlight:  Getting to experience Matty's first race with him.  It was awesome seeing how excited he was after completing the race.  I felt like a proud mother duck.  Er...something.

For April, I plan to run even more miles and hopefully break my 5k PR even further towards the end of the month.  I've been trying to incorporate a lot more ab work with my running, since I actually pulled a muscle during the previously posted race, instead of a silly old side stitch.  And I have had some random hip pain in some runs.  If I'm able to PR again I'm allowing myself to buy a Garmin.  Oooh baby, bring the PR to mama.

It's a PR party. St Patty's Day Style.

Pre-race photo.  See how windy it is!  Sweet hair me.

I finally had my St. Patty's Day 5k this morning that I've been talking about for. ev. er.  Or maybe it just feels like it.  But if you're my friend, co-worker, or even just someone dumb enough to pause next to me in the streets/elevator/hallway I've told you about my training.  Anyways,  it went pretty darn well.  My cheering posse dwindled down into almost none existence, but that's to be expected.  Hah.  

I've been a little concerned about the race because my hip has been bothering me considerably for the last few weeks, both running and walking, so I wasn't sure how she was going to hold up.  Also, I was running/training for the race with my running buddy Matty.  We weren't planning on actually running together, but we've done a few of our training runs side by side on the ol' treadmill.  The race started fabulous.  Oh so glad I decided to wear running pants/tights rather than shorts.  Eek.  Because I've been running on the treadmill so much in training for this race (meaning only ONE run in the last 2 months has been outside--it's been cold.  Sue me) I haven't really had to pace myself, the machine has done it for me.  I had it all planned out in my head where my mile splits should be for me to PR in the race.  My first glance at my watch was at 8:50.  What?!?!  Am I going THAT slow???  No mile markers wtf?  At this point I realized that there were no mile markers.  Awesome blossom.

I also had time to smile and wave to ma and pa when I ran by them.  They're just super fans, it's not even funny.  So I'm trudging along into the bitter bitter cold and wind, trying to run behind people to take off some of the wind for me.  Unfortunately, runners are tiny, so ya.  Great wind shield you are scrawny chick.  At the halfway point my watch said 12:58.  Whoo.  Under 26 minutes, plus I have an oh-so-fabulous kick stored up inside me.  Secretly at this point, I'm also hoping to catch up to Matty and beat him.  Heheh.  I slowly start to pick off people, knowing that the majority of the second half of the race is downhill (since the previous half was uphill, duh).  My first step down this hill and I have this sharp shooting pain in my side.  Really?  This is what a cramp feels like?  How have I NEVER had one of these?  Ouch.  Ouch.  Must stop.  Pain.  Oh...there's mom and dad again.  Try not to look like I'm in too much pain.  Must look cute for the pictures mom's snapping.  Ouch ouch ouch.  Basically at this point I think that it'll hurt just the same if I stop (big big BIG lie I'm telling myself here) as it will if I keep running.  I only have a mile left, no biggie.  Who cares that I can't take a full breath, right?

This inner monologue goes on for roughly 1/2 a mile when the route starts to go slightly uphill again.  Just enough to ease my cramp.  YAY.  I start to pick up the pace a bit from the slow painful march, and again start running into the wind.  Seriously?  Wind the whole route, out and back?  Is that possible?  I look at my clock and realize that I have to finish in the next 2:30 to PR and the finish line doesn't look that far away.  I sneak behind some unsuspecting runners for the next 1:30 so they can fight the wind on the remaining incline, and then kick in the ol' sprinteroo and pass 5-7 of them before the finish line (all boys except one, thank you very much).  I came in at 25:48 which is my best time by 46 seconds.  Go me.  Plus it's my best time in 2 years, which is even cooler, since the last 3 5ks I've done I've gotten progressively slower.  

Matt and I will be heading to eat delicious food and drinks as soon as I get my lazy butt off the couch, and will be celebrating St. Patty's day like a true Irish (wo)man should.  Don't worry, I'll also be celebrating on Tuesday.  Dual St. Patty's Day week--you just might kill me.  Erin go bragh.  

Post-race photo.  He's got a sweet Leprecaun/tuxedo shirt under that jacket. 

P.S.  I didn't beat Matt.  He did FABULOUS.  But there's always next time.  :)

Race Stats:

Division Place: 10 out of 70

Gender Place: 21 out of 167

Overall Place: 91 out of 284

Countdown.

The St. Patty's Day 5k is in 6 days.  Whoo.  I did my last long run of 7 miles this morning and it felt good.  I really hope the weather isn't atrocious, because I think I have a honest shot of a significant PR.  I'm mentally planning about 3 different race outfit options depending on the weather.  Having as much green clothes as I do really makes it difficult to narrow the decision down.  What a horrible problem to have.

I'm just really excited about falling back in love with running.  The last couple of years I've just been running for the sake of running.  It's been awhile since I actually looked forward to my runs, and started to get that competitive streak back in me.  Looking at my 7 mile from today, I really think I'll be able to get under 2 hours in one or both of my 1/2s this year, which would be amazing.  I had kind of given up on that hope since I had started to run at a snail's pace.  I'm also even contemplating doing a half this spring.  I could have 2 months to train (if I found one in May) and I'm already up to 7 miles for my long run.  It's not a bad idea.  But scary.  I'm used to "training" from February to September for my 1/2.  But since that training consisted of about 1 long run a week, maybe that's why it took so long to prepare.  :p

If you're in the area on Saturday and want to see me in all my green glory, let me know.  I'd love to have some extra support!