June Goals + Juicer Recommendations

June Goals

• Run 100+ miles.
• Run three long runs as scheduled.
• Do one fast finish LR.
• Do one LR with 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes. 
• Run all three speed sessions as scheduled. 
• Run my 2nd fastest 10k in Harrisburg. Sub 52??
• Watch 2 Oscar Best Picture Nominees.
• Every other day core work, hip stretches, and drills.
• 2 buddy runs.
• Do a run with a buddy other than Jenn! Operation: more running buddies! *cough* Megan *cough* :)
• Make 2 new meals using my veggie box ingredients.
• Rework budget.

I'm considering getting a juicer and need advice. What brands should I consider? What brands should I avoid? What information do you wish you had before making the purchase? What's the least I can spend for a good one?? I found one for $2400, and let's just say that's a *little* bit out of my price range....

Can I just give you my credit card and trust you'll order me a good one? Thanks.

And most importantly.... what are some great recipes once I inevitably buy one!??!?!

Memorial Weekend in the Sun

Kyle and I both had to work Saturday until 5pm, so as soon as we were off work, we were packed up and lake bound. Ollie wanted to wear her sundress. Obvs. Kyle took forever to load up the boat, so we had time to take a selfie.

We had several pillows and blankets in the backseat for her to make herself comfy on and nap. She chose my kelly green kate spade tote, because she has taste and an affinity for team green.

When we finally got there, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

And a giant fire to keep the bugs away. Holy hell the mayflies were OOC!

Sunday morning Kyle took off for fishing at an ungodly hour, so Ollie and I hung out with his parents all day and were treated to a lunch time pontoon ride. Ollie loves the pontoon.

At one point she smelled some cabin's lunch and kept sticking her nose in the air to inhale heavily. It was hilarious.

After the pontoon ride it finally warmed up so it was time to do some sunbathing. Ollie had to join. She tanned topless, #rebel.

This might be my new fave pic of her.

Kyle got home from slaying the fish, and Ollie continued to smile from ear to ear. We started to be concerned, as she usually gets ~22 hours of sleep a day and she had woke up at 5am because she was on lake time, apparently (which is reverse for pugs, I guess) and had yet to sleep/nap by supper time.

We were treated to another pontoon ride after dinner, and that finally did her in. But she had to hold my hand while zonking out (i die).

When we got back to the cabin it was FINALLY time to enjoy some s'mores. Which I had been craving for at least 10 days.

For anyone concerned, Ollie slept the hardest she's ever slept in the history of ever and barely moved when Kyle got up to go fishing. She burrowed under the covers further with me and zonked out for another three hours. Is this why parents bring their kids to the lake? 

Monday we woke up and had barely eaten breakfast when the rain started. 

We put up the umbrella and continued to enjoy the droplets while reading until the thunder and lightning started to come a little too close. 

Kyle and his dad got home from fishing early. I convinced him to take the kayaks out with me. I thought for sure I was going to eat it crawling down the wet rocks to get in to the kayak, but I made it down unscathed (this is known as foreshadowing). We bopped around the lake and visited the turtle areas and then we went out to a random point on the lake that seemed like a good goal destination. On the way back I challenged Kyle to a race because I was feeling cocky. I lost, but it was pretty darn close.

On the way back up the rocks, the rock I stepped on gave way and so did the rocks under it, leading part of the rock wall to collapse and a giant rock to fall on my foot. Derp. My big toe took the brunt of the fall, thankfully.

My hair got larger and larger as the 88% humidity day wore on. Uff. Family pic FTW. The only time I'll post a bad photo of myself on the internet is if my pug looks extra cute.

Weekly Reads: Invisibility

Invisibility is a book I've had checked out from our library and re-renewing for far too long. I finally vowed to read it and return it. It's written by David Levithan, whom I thoroughly enjoy and Andrea Cremer, whom I'm not familiar with but who writes paranormal books.

The book started out really interesting as Stephen is invisible, and he suddenly meets someone in his building who can see him. I was super intrigued as to why, and then it got all paranormally and lost my interest a bit. For those that are into paranormal stuff, I'd imagine they'd devour this, but it ended up moving fairly slow. I did love that it was set in NYC since I was gearing up for my trip there.

My rating: 3 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth.

Weekly Training Recap

Monday I shocked myself by going for a twilight run after my late working shift. Kyle was home entertaining Ollie so I hit the road for four easy general aerobic miles with some strides.

Tuesday I took a rest day. And came home to dinner on the grill--pineapple infused brats. SO GOOD. Ollie was patiently waiting for her plate of brats.

Spoiler: she didn't get any. Look how skinny she's looking!! Good work puggy!

I did manage some core work with brats a-sloshin' around in my belly! 

Wednesday I had my first warm tempo run of the season. I hydrated heavily all afternoon long and brought a bottle of Osmo Nutrition along for the ride.

I had a mile warm up and then 5 @ tempo. I struggled. I could feel that my butt wasn't participating in the run at all, and the ~9 minute pace felt like a 7 minute pace. Jenn and I yo-yoed with each other as to who was dragging @$$ the most. I decided to cut a mile out. At the turnaround I stopped to do some reverse lunges and that helped get the glutes in to high gear. I think we ended up spending more time chatting post run than we did on the actual run!

I offered to record her form after our run so she could see her wonky foot thing, and she did the same for me. I'm floored at how much better my form looks! There's certainly still room for improvement, but I'm just so excited I'm on the right track!

Thursday it was crazy hot out so instead of getting up and running before work, I didn't run. I did do my core exercises though.

Friday was my first day off in seven days and by the time I woke up at 7:30, it was already toasty toasty out. I also realized that I have a whole extra week of training for my 10k (I forgot to adjust my training program after I learned the race was a week later). Somehow that translates in to me being lazier.

And thus I didn't pack my running shoes or garmin for the weekend at the lake cabin.

So I guess an alternate title to this post could've been: weekly training recap but not really because I only ran ten miles. But that's really long so.....

Stayed tuned to next week to see if I finally wise up and wake up before the sun. Forecast says temps in the mid 80s. Woof. 

2014 Goal Achieved

One of my Life goals for 2014 was to earn a promotion.

Well if you follow me on instagram, you know that this was crossed off the list!

I'm super excited to be one of the newest library associates at my library system, and one step closer to being Jeri the Librarian. And the best part is that I get to stay at my current branch and continue to cultivate relationships with our patrons. We have such a great location being right near a middle school and grade school, and this wannabe Youth Services librarian is in kiddo heaven.

Yay for a lot of hard work paying off! I heart my job.

Oh, and because, lolz, I'll leave you with this video because, again, lolz.

Friday Faves

Here's a Little List of some things I've been digging on lately:





Being able to shop again
I've done some celebratory retail shopping as of late. Hurrah to the shopping freeze being lifted, amiright??

I've already professed my love to the Mac Roga, but I also am obsessed with the green flyte tank for obvious (=green) reasons.

Kyle bought me the pink version of the Oiselle flyte long sleeve a couple of weekends ago when the sale was on sale (and I guilted him in to the purchase since he missed my goal race for a fishing tourney and I did well). I regret not getting the yellow as well (ugh of course).

I also threw down some $$ on some new PRO compression socks. My old ones just weren't as calf huggy as they used to be. Naturally I picked green and yellow colored socks. 

Veronica Mars

My co-worker is obsessed and has been lending me the television series. I'm loving it. 12 years later. Whatever. The huge (now huge!) cameos are enough reason to watch! I'm working hard to get through it so I can catch the movie.

Qdoba Mango Salsa

Every time I eat Qdoba (way too frequently, might I add) I think to myself "I wonder how skinny you'd be if you didn't like Qdoba....." and then I realized I'd substitute another terrible food in its place, and continue to eat my nachos. The worst slash best time of the year has started: mango salsa time! My Qdoba consumption increase.... exponentially during this time of year. Thank god marathon training is just around the corner before I need a wheelbarrow to get around.

Rebecca Lowman's narration skills

I started listening to audiobooks when I was in grad school to capitalize on more "reading for fun" time that was extremely limited. I'm done with school, but still listening away on the way to and from to work, and car trips. Narration can really make or break an audiobook. Rebecca Lowman is my absolute fave and I'll probably continue to listen to anything she's narrated (luckily there's a lot!).

**I'm not affiliated with any of the companies in this post and my opinions are my own and I wasn't compensated in any way for this post. Blah blah blah, etc.**

Hamstrings

The other day I caught a glimpse of my lower half in a mirror while wearing a skirt. I don't have a full length mirror, so this view was a new experience. I did a double take when I realized for the first time that I have hamstrings. [insert the emoji face with the buggy out-y eyes here please]

I've never had hamstrings before.

I had issues with my quads in high school track because my hamstrings were so weak, my quads had to pick up the slack and then *POOF* I severely strained a quad coming out of the blocks in a 100m dash because your muscles aren't meant to work double duty. Who knew?!

Anyway. The other night, after my track workout....

Which reminds me. Yes, I just interrupted myself in the midst of writing a blog post, and I'll leave it as such.

I came home from the track armed with a monster runner's high after nailing some 800m repeats at paces waaaaaay faster than I'd expected to. I said to Kyle all serious like, "Kyle did you hear the fire truck sirens??" To which he replied, "no," with a quizzical look on his face. "Oh. Well, I just lit the track on fire!!" And then I proceeded to laugh like a maniacal idiot, because. duh.

Ok, so following my hilarious joke, I started flexing in front of him, as you do when you're on a runner's high, right? And I thought it'd be a good time to bring up my newfound hamstrings. I asked Kyle if my legs looked any different to him (which was clearly a trap).

KK: I was actually just going to say, your legs are looking a lot meatier.
JL: [insert death stare here]
KK:  NO no no! I meant meaty in a good way!!! [lolz] Seriously, they're way stronger looking than I've ever seen!
JL: Nice recovery. But seriously, have you noticed I have hamstrings??

end scene.

So next time you see me, feel free to comment on my newly found hamstrings. Just don't call em "meaty" mmmk?

Weekly Reads (Listens): One More Thing

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is The Office's B.J. Novak's first novel. I picked up the audiobook version after failing to listen to Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey's books on audio instead of reading them. NEVER AGAIN will I make this mistake. This one was narrated by B.J. along with many guest narrators. The stories are all short stories, although there are some themes that run through several stories. I listened to this while running and there were moments when I was actually laughing out loud. And then there were times that the stories were just...okay.

Definitely worth a read or a listen.

My rating: 3 stars.

Summary from Goodreads:

From an actor, writer, and director of the hit TV comedy The Office (US version): a story collection that was "workshopped" at comedy clubs and bookstores on both coasts.

B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut collection that signals the arrival of a welcome new voice in American fiction.

Across a dazzling range of subjects, themes, tones, and narrative voices, Novak's assured prose and expansive imagination introduce readers to people, places, and premises that are hilarious, insightful, provocative, and moving-often at the same time.

In One More Thing, a boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. Author John Grisham contemplates a monumental typo. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare, obsessed with scoring a rematch against the tortoise who ruined his life; and post-college friends who debate how to stage an intervention in the era of Facebook. We learn why wearing a red t-shirt every day is the key to finding love; how February got its name; and why the stock market is sometimes just... down.

Finding inspiration in questions from the nature of perfection to the icing on carrot cake, from the deeply familiar to the intoxicatingly imaginative,One More Thing finds its heart in the most human of phenomena: love, fear, family, ambition, and the inner stirring for the one elusive element that might make a person complete. The stories in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: they share the playful humor, deep heart, inquisitive mind, and altogether electrifying spirit of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the reader.

Weekly Training Recap

Monday I took a rest day. Starting off the week strong! Lolz.

Tuesday I took advantage of the sunny skies and did a general aerobic run on rolling hills. I shocked myself when I looked down for the first time and saw a sub 10 pace on my watch. I don't think I've run sub 10 on a run that didn't have speed work in it.... for a while. So that was fun.

Wednesday I hit the track with Jenn J. I was nervous that my legs would be tired from the day before's run. We had 6x800 on the schedule since we slacked the previous week. Recap: I ran 8:02-8:10 paces for two and felt like my legs were going to fall off they were so heavy. Recovered? Nope.

We did our mile warm up and both of us commented that we didn't have much pep in our step. Uff. We did our stretches and I did some booty activation exercises (<--I will henseforth refer to them as such, because, lolz, sounds like a super hero move, Captain Booty, ACTIVATE!) I planned to run the first one at or around 8 minute pace, and then drop from there if my legs were feeling it.

Well, I guess my legs were feeling it.

3:55, 3:53, 3:50, 3:56, 3:50, 3:44. Avg. 3:51 (7:42 pace), whoop!

Alright then. Jenn stopped for a few seconds after each of our quarter mile jogs, allowing me to rabbit her, and that worked well, because I don't want to get caught! I'm hoping it won't be too long before her and I are running the same paces!

#stataholic

These paces are almost on par with a similar workout done in the spring of 2011 (yes, I clearly went back to check my log for this data) and the spring of 2011 was when I set most of my PRs. #comeback 

(#toomanyhashtagsforablogpost?)

All green. As you do when you hit the track, right?

Thursday I took a rest day.

Friday I had the day off for working Saturday so I set out for my long run after procrastinating most of the morning. As you do. The temps were cool and the wind was minimal. And it. was. awesome. I haven't had that strong of a long run in a really long time. It was actually at a faster pace than my first two halfs of this spring..... :/  I did 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes to keep things interesting and to keep my form engaged.

It's important to match your toenails to your running top.

My hat was soaked, even on a "cool" day. Somehow that didn't come across as well in the photo. :(

After the run I met up with some friends for some twofers. But not until I took a selfie to feature my new pug shirt and purty hairz.

If I was a pug, that's what I'd look like fyi.

Tom and Jeri! This picture makes me laugh.

And the best beer I've had in a really long time:  Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA. I may have spent a considerable amount of time calling around to liquor stores on Sunday to find somewhere that carried it. Spoiler: I didn't luck out. :(

Saturday I took a rest day and accidentally did Sunday too, unless you count eating Qdoba nachos as training, then I nailed it.

New Hairz

Last week I trekked up north to get my hair done and to see Megan and baby Otto. Even though I'd just seen them the weekend before. Hey Megan, have a baby and I'll be up e'ery weekend! Also I hadn't gotten my hair colored or trimmed in over 6 months. Uff. That's a long time even for me. I blamed Megan and her ability to color my hair so well that I had zero noticeable growth. Now if she could magically fix my hair so the ends never split, she'd be working herself out of business!

I asked her to take off some length to take it from religious cult long to just regular long. I also wanted some more light pieces on the underneath. I think this part is the key to me not needing my hair redone in 3 weeks, it grows so fast! I hate seeing the blonde all grown out and sad. :( She also gave me a nice deep all over color with a red tinge. So purty.

See ya in a year, Megan. :)

Then I got to meet the other Megan (baby Otto's mama) for a brief catch up, but first I had to wait for her to get done with her chiro appointment, so I finished the second half of my book and dominated a delicious latte (with foam art, I'm a sucker for foam art).

Apparently there are no photos of Megan and I, because Otto was rude and napped the whole time. He didn't even wake up to offer and take a photo. He's lucky he's cute.

Race Photos

As I was flipping through all the race photos from the Brookings Half, searching for green, I realized that almost everyone was in pants/tights, jackets, long sleeves, etc. And this was the first race I haven't felt *hot* during in a really long time. Told you it was perfect Jerbear weather!