My running partner is cuter than your running partner.

It happened. Taylor ran with me. :) Ok, he's run with me once before, but it's been almost 2 years now, so I had assumed it was never going to happen again.

The scene: My bedroom.

The time 9pm (I had to work til 8pm, he had class until 8:30pm).

Jeri: I'll just go run once you fall asleep (he works at 5:30am) so we can hang out and then it'll be cooler out, unless you want to come with me. Hah hah hah.

Taylor: I was thinking I would....
Jeri: [jaw drops, immediately put on running shoes before he can change his mind]

He wanted to run about a mile, even though I tried to convince him to do two (he consistently runs about 2 miles on the treadmill, but hasn't run outside, well since our run together 2 years ago). It was a great run, and he did awesome. Apparently he thought I was going to tell him when .5 miles was up, but I didn't, sneaky me. I knew he could go 1.5-2 miles, so we stopped at one of my favorite bridges on my running route (.8 miles in) he stopped to stretch, and I continued on to the one mile mark, and came back, where I picked him up and we ran home together. He had a really strong kick the last .4-.5, so I decided to go along with him pace, and run a harder 2nd mile, and then have a "cool down"/easy mile my 3rd mile by myself. Overall the 3 miler was 26:29 for a pace of 8:50. The first mile was about 9 min. miles, the second around 8:30, and the third around 9. Because we stopped to stretch at the bridge my Garmin went weird and counted that as my first lap, so the laps were all weird.

I was really happy he came to run with me, and hope this won't be the last time. We even went through his schedule and determined the nights he could come running with me, and there's definitely a couple that would work, especially on the weekends. It would be really nice to have him meet me for the last couple of miles on a looooooong run when I'm tired and want to quit.

I did my sit up routine (still hoping to achieve Jessica Alba abs) pre-run, and followed up the run with push ups. I did 2 (then stopped b/c I was being critiqued, ugh), then 15, then 10. Then I spent the rest of the night asking Tay if he had tickets to the gun show. Ya I'm super cool. :)

Oh. And I swallowed approximately 5 gnats, and snorted one up my nose. Not included in the gnat death count are the 3-4 that were sent to their death by drowning on my face in my sweat. I love summer.

For Foto Friday, I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures in. the. world. It's at a friend's bachelorette party 2 years ago, at the skeezy bar in town (one of the only with a dance floor of course), that plays a mix of country music and booty shaking music, randomness, where I have only been hit on by old cowboys my dad's age. ANYWHO. Here my old roomie and I are enjoying a slow jam together. I think I may be serenading her. 2rue 4ever. :)

New Running Buddy? I wish. :)

I forgot to mention two things that should've been highlights to my previous post.


Highlight 1: When I got home from running Thursday night, I walked in on a shirtless Taylor doing push ups. AGAIN. Yay me. But that's not the highlight (ok, partial highlight for sure). I decided I would do some push ups also. I did 10 in a row without a break. Whoo! After I got done, he said that they looked so strong that I could do more. So when he started his next set, I did 15 without stopping. I've NEVER done 15 push ups in a row, especially after 10. I was super proud of me.


Highlight 2: I had asked Taylor to join me for a couple of miles on my 8 mile run on Monday, but he didn't want to. When I got home he was mowing and called me as soon as he was done. He was bummed that I was done running. He was planning on surprising me on the bike trail to run the last bit of my run with me. Unfortunately he underestimated my speediness. Hopefully the mood strikes him again in the near future, because a cute running buddy is just what I need. :)


On to the current. Yesterday I had an easy 3 mile run to do. Usually I have a rest/yoga/abs/push ups day after my long runs, but because I didn't get my lazy butt to run until Monday, I already expended my rest day. My legs were tired, to say the least. I just took the run slow, my hamstrings were REALLY tight after the first mile, so I slowed up a lot and just enjoyed the run. Total time 28:47 for a pace of 9:36. For the first time, ever, I think. I posted all positive splits. Go me. :)


1. 9:28
2. 9:33
3. 9:45




Tonight I had a 35 minute tempo run to do. Since I now know what paces I should be shooting for to do my tempo runs in, I was kind of excited for this one. Plus I had the extra incentive to run fast so I could get to Tay's softball games. I had planned to do 1 mile warm up 9:30-10 mm and then 3 tempo miles from 8:20-8:30.


1. 9:51 warm-up
2. 8:45 whoops. I wasn't dying after this, and it actually felt like a pretty comfortable pace. Double whoops.
3. 8:22 Ran a lot harder on this one. 4. 8:14 Felt like I was flying on this one, especially the last 1/2 mile.



What I learned from this run: I really suck at consistent pacing. That will be my goal as I move in to half marathon training.


The softball games were fun, they won their first one just minutes after I arrived, and the second one they lost.

The T-Bagz star pitcher.

5 day post hiatus and 3 day run hiatus, cured.

Apparently I've been lazy.  Eh.  Oh well.  Wednesday and Thursday were both easy 3 mile runs, with nothing to write home about.  Except the AMAZING weather on Thursday, 59 degrees, no wind, no humidity.  Per.  Fec.  Tion.  I could've ran forever if I wasn't starving and wanting to rush home to hang out with Tay.  :)  Tuesday's run was done in 26:18 for an avg. pace of 8:46 and Wednesday's was actually 3.06 in 27:50 for an avg. pace of 9:06.

Edited to include this addition:  So one funny/interesting/noteworthy thing happened my easy run day 2.  On glorious cool weather day, there was a person in a lawn chair, on a street corner with their hood up over their head using their laptop.  If he/she really tracked down the wi-fi signal to the street corner, color me impressed.

Friday night we had planned to have a date night to the drive in, but the rain put the kabosh on that idea.  Instead we went out to Chevy's for drinks and dinner and then to the indoor theatre to see Angels and Demons.  It was...meh.  I've read all of Dan Brown's books, and Angels & Demons was by far my favorite.  And I really enjoyed the Da Vinci Code movie.  But I didn't think this movie was that great.  Good and glad I went, just not meeting my expectations.  I did, however, get extremely giddy over the New Moon and Harry Potter 7 movie posters.  :)

Saturday I skipped my 4 mile run.  Lame.  But I had a good reason, kind of.  I lost my contacts.  Ya.  We've tore apart my apartment, on the bf's apartment and they're nowhere.  I am blind without my spectacles/contacts but can't run with glasses b/c I'm SO SWEATY.  So I didn't run.  Sunday I skipped my long 6 mile run, but that was only due to laziness and wanting to sleep in.  And wanting to enjoy some Sunday Funday long weekend festivities.  I had it in  my head that maybe I would run Sunday night, but 5 beers later I thought otherwise.

As punishment, and so my monthly mileage wouldn't completely suffer, I decided to do an 8 mile long run today.  I haven't ran 8 miles since September (my current 5k training plans not going over 7 for a long run) so I thought it would be fun.  Um.  It wasn't, really.  I went out at 11:30am because that's the earliest I could drag myself out of bed, and it was already too warm, and I didn't eat anything before, because I'm dumb.  I'm starting to be concerned about this early morning running business since I typically opt to not eat instead of getting an upset stomach, and then just run out of steam.

There were strong winds from the south, so I had planned to run the first two miles with the wind, the middle 4 against, and last 2 with.  The wind blew.  HA.  But seriously.  It sucked.  And I was melting.  And I got sunburned.  I haven't even THOUGHT of wearing sunscreen on a run this year.  I guess it is summer now, crazy.  Some miles were good, some were sucktastic.  

1. 9:25 
2.1 ? My garmin was not restarted after an ab stretch break, so I estimated my overall time based on the pace it did record for .88 of the mile.
3. 9:35 
4. 9:47 
5. 9:52 
6. 10:04 
7. 9:32 
8. 9:02 

Total time of 1:17:42 for 9:36/mile.

One annoyance that I've noticed for my Garmin, is that it's mile splits aren't actually right.  There's been a couple of times that I'll look down at the 1.0 or 2.0 mile mark, noted the time, and one the mile timer pops up on the screen it's 2-3 seconds slower than what it actually was.  If this is consistent, it obviously evens itself out through the rest of the miles, but it's annoying.  End rant.

Speed workout, long time no see. I missed you.

Last night was supposed to be an easy 3 miles. When I got off work it was 92 degrees with 25 mph winds. I was sweating in my car driving home from work. UGH. Apparently we were 2 measly degrees from breaking the temp record yesterday. Darn. Anyway, because of the elements, I decided to head to my gym, and switch out my quarter mile repeat workout. My love. :) If you've been following along at home, I stopped doing sprint workouts after the Washington Pavilion 5k because my stupid strained ab was still, well, strained, and I knew the speed work, specifically the sprinting part of the speed work, was causing it to not heal. That means the last sprint/speed workout I did was April 15th! I looked at my running log and decided I would run them at the same pace I did then, and scale back/stop if the ab started to hurt.

IT. WAS. AWESOME. I felt like I was flying (especially since I was on the treadmill). I did 6 x .25 at roughly mile pace, with a .1 walk break in between. I warmed up with .5 and cooled down with a .5. The best news was, I didn't hurt. At all. :)

.5 warm up 4:30/9:00 pace
.25 1:43/6:52 pace (2 at this pace)
.25 1:42/6:48 pace (2 at this pace)
.25 1:41/6:44 pace
.25 1:30/6:35 pace
.5 cool down 4:30/9:00 pace

Avg. pace for sprints 6:46, warm up/cool down 9:00.

I'm also excited because these felt (dare I say it) easy. Granted the last couple had me huffing and puffing, but I remember being much more labored on these a couple of months ago. Assuming the pain doesn't come back, I think I'll be bumping up the speed a bit. YAY!

This also makes me think that I could do another race before June 27th (the next one I have on my list). There is a 5k on May 30th put on by the Canaries/Roller Dollz, and another 5k on June 6th for SIDS research. 5 more weeks is a looooong time to wait to race, so we'll see. Luckily these are races that you can sign up the night before and still get the low low rate.

Today's weather is pretty similar to yesterday's, except more wind. Ya, seriously. It might be another gym day because somehow easy does not equal sweating my behind off while fighting hurricane like winds (or so I'm guessing since we don't have hurricanes here, obv). Then I get to watch the bf's team kick some softball booty. Go T-bagz. (Um..ya.)

morning runner?

I don't know how many times I've said, "Gosh, I should really get up in the morning and run." Yet I don't. The rare times I have (mostly on weekend long runs because I have something going on that evening) have sucked. But now, more and more the morning run seems to entice me. What do I do when I need to make a LIFE ALTERING (ha) decision? Pros and cons list, duh.

Pro Morning Running

• Taylor works at 5:30am, so he has to get up at 4:30-4:45am. Because I'm a light sleeper, I'm also up until he leaves at 5am-ish.
  
• I could go to bed at the same time as him and get up and go when he does. Genius.
  
• It could make me more successful in races because races are in the morning, therefore training in the morning should make me a machine. :)
  
• It's going to get hot. I've gotten in the habit of running after work 5-6pm during the weeks, and that is not going to fly. Today's forecast is 90 degrees at 5pm. Holy meltage.
  
• By running in the morning, I would have more time after work to hang with friends/boyfriend.

Con Morning Running

• Ugh. 4:30am is EARLY.
  
• Going to bed at 9:30pm is LAME. (sorry Tay).
  
• Past morning runs have suuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
  
• I'm starving in the morning, but can't eat more than an hour or so before my run or my stomach is upset. Therefore, I starve on the run or have intense side crampage.
  
• Part of the reason I eat so healthy all day long is knowing that what I put in is fueling my body for my run in the evening. Running in the morning would throw this out the window.
  
• I've always been an evening worker-outer. In high school, we had practice right after school, or games in the evening. In college, I had intramurals after supper and went to the gym after that.
  
• I'd have to shower at Taylor's most mornings (EEEEW). He's not eew, but he has a roommate, and I know how often that shower has been cleaned=zero.

With this being said, I think I need to give morning running a try. Most of the cons are whiney Jeri. And the pros are pretty legit. For the first two weeks of June (Drumroll please) I will become a morning runner (said with a thunderous clap in the background). Is anyone else imagining a super hero version of myself, hands on hips, with a cape billowing behind me with an old school alarm clock and sunrise? No? Only me...ok then.

Either way I'm going to have to switch up my routine, by running later 9ish, or butt @$$ crack of dawn. If two weeks is horrendous, I'll quit and go back to the evening runs. Although I do know from past experience, I am a lot more likely to "skip" runs in the evening. Oh who am I kidding, last falls half marathon training I was likely to skip all runs. Eek.

Are you a morning runner? Were you ever as anti-morning runner as me? Any awesome motivating factors?

This daisy is going on 2 weeks and is just the prettiest thing in my apartment right now. :)

Wonderful Weekend

I love me a good weekend.  :)  Friday I had planned on spending a quiet relaxing night in, since Tay had day 1 of a 2-day bachelor party to attend.  Lucky for me, day 1 ended up falling through, so I got to have some fun instead.  We went out, met up with some other friends, and ended up having a boy slumber party at the bf's house.  Haha.  I think some serious nachos were inhaled post-bar.  Yikes.

Saturday...sucked.  Since I had originally planned on having a lowkey evening, I had planned on getting up EARLY to go run.  Um.  That didn't happen.  Instead we laid in bed.  After Tay and I parted ways, my BFF came to town and we had a completely girly day.  I haven't had a girly girl day in a long, long time, so it was awesome.  We went to lunch, shopped, and got pedicures.  It doesn't get much girlier than that.  :)  Apparently I'm a failure as a chica because this was only my second pedi.  And my first was a gift for Xmas last year.  Hah.  Oh well.  My tootsies are CUTE.

After my bff left, I had to get my run in.  3 miles, fast.  I decided to run it and let my legs determine what felt fast.  25:42 for a pace of 8:34.  That's at the tail end of my tempo pace, so I guess we'll file that under the "fast" column.

1.  8:48

2.  8:43

3:  8:09

After my run I made an amazing sandwich:  grilled pepper jack cheese with turkey and avocado.  OMG.  I could eat this sandwich every day for the rest of my life.  Saturday night I snuggled up in my bed to watch Twilight, again.  Because I'm twelve and in love with a vampire.  HA, speaking of, I had a dream the other night that Taylor got bit by a vampire and my first thought was, "awesome, vampires are sexy!"  Weirdo.

Sunday morning roughly 10 hours after my previous run, I was doing it again.  I never do night time runs, except Thursday nights (Fridays are rest days).  It was rough.  Yikes.  My calves were tight.  My quads were heavy.  And it was windy.  I had 5 miles to do, and kind of just slugged my way through them.  5 miles in 46:38 for a pace of 9:20.  Blah.

1.  9:26

2.  9:48

3.  9:37

4.  9:22

5.  8:22

Sunday was spent lounging with Taylor as he was recovering from the bachelor party he went to all day before.  I love a good lounge day, and it's a great way to end a great weekend.

easy run+foto Friday+marathon training program suggestions

Phew that was a mouthful of a title. At least there will be no element of surprise in this post.

Starting with the run. A nice easy lil 3 miler. I'm really trying to abide by specific "pace recommendations" for this round of 5k training, so I wanted to run it 9-9:30 mm. But I also determined that if it's my Thursday easy run and I want to pick up the last mile, I will, because I have Friday off, and why the heck not?
1. 9:21

2. 9:26

3. 8:43

For dinner we had an AMAZING shrimp stir fry that we added extra red and green peppers to. I'm eating the leftovers for dinner, so maybe if I finally exchange my batteries for my camera, I will share it with you. Probably not though, I'm lazy.

There seems to be a trend for the photos today, and I'm not one to buck the trend, so here are some pictures from my senior prom 2002 and also a guy pal's prom that I accompanied him to halfway across the state. Yes I am all of 95 pounds. YIKES. I wanted to have a photo from each year of prom (you can go as a Freshman if asked by someone older), but apparently I don't have any saved. I know they're somewhere though. :(

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...marathon training plans. If you haven't been following along for too long (since I've only been blogging for a few months, that would include all of you), I'm embarking on my first full marathon. In one year. :) Ha. I've ran a local 1/2 marathon every September, this year will be my 5th, and usually I just stop running after completing it until spring rolls around. But not this year. This year I will continue to train after the 1/2 for another half Dallas White Rock in December. Since my bro, sis in law, and adorable nephew live down there, it will be a double whammy of a good time. Also, since I will have such a GREAT base going (which never has happened before) I have decided to embark on a full: Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.

I'm a ginormo Packers fan have always wanted GB to be my "first." I have my training plans set for the Sept. 1/2 and the Dec. 1/2 and have just started looking for my full plan. I've been pretty religious to Higdon's plans, and would like to do one for my first marathon also. I would like to finish in the range of 4:20-4:45, so no break neck speed, by any means, I just don't want to die on the course. I'm toying around with his Novice 2 program, which includes 1 20 mile run, a 19, 18, & 17, with top weekly mileage at 40. And his Intermediate 1 program, which has 2 20 mile runs, an 18, 17, top weekly mileage at 44. I know some of you guys do 3 20 mile runs during your trainings, but you're also ridiculously BA, and I am just a lowly newbie. :)

I would really like to hear your suggestions, both in comparing these two and offering up great first training programs that you used, or even ones you stumbled on after your first and wish you would've used. Although I would like to be faithful to Higdon, I am willing to move on to greener pastures if the opportunity arises.

And if you think it's ridiculous that I'm worrying about this 7 months before I even START the training program, then poo on you. :)