This Song is on Repeat Right Now

This song is playing on repeat right now.  Pugbear and I are dancing around the apartment with excitement.  Pugbear is a wicked smaht dansah, didn't you know?

The Sweetest Words

The other night Kyle asked me a question I've been waiting forever for him to ask:

Will you create a running training program for me?



I squealed and shrieked.  And then started spouting out of a multitude of questions.  And then I think I freaked him out.  Baby steps, Jerbear.

As you may have noticed, I fell off the blog wagon after posting my grand goal for the rest of the month/year.  And that's because I fell off the running wagon as well.  I had some pain in my foot that I started to affectionately refer to as my "stress fracture foot" and after a couple of runs sans knee strap my knee was feeling wonky.  Couple that with upcoming finals, one of which that was 40% of my final grade (NBD, I'm just having a panic attack thinking about it now!), and some possible burn out on the horizon, I decided to put running on the back burner for a bit.

I was a little concerned when I wasn't missing running.  At all.  I was sleeping in on my late days at work.  I was sleeping in on the weekend.  It was... kind of amazing.  I was also studying my little booty off during every second of free time, and it was great not to have to stress about fitting in an hour of running in my already crammed day.

But Saturday I took my tough final, and Saturday night I celebrated, as I think is necessary.  And Sunday I rewarded myself with a run.  Just a measly 3 miler.  But it was nice.  And then I watched Green Bay put up another tally in the win column.  GO PACK GO!

Monday I woke up with more knee annoyance, and I was pissssssssssed.  I complained to Kyle that "I JUST WANT TO GO FOR A RUN G.D. IT!"  And he said... good.  Finally.  And he was right.  FINALLY I was excited to get back in to it.

I did a lot of foam rolling on Monday and Tuesday, and knocked out an easy 5 miler with strides on Wednesday morning.  Granted my "easy" heart rate isn't quite what it was pre-Philly.  But apparently endurance eating doesn't equate to endurance running.  Wish you all would've told me that... jerks.

And tomorrow is me and Kyle's running date.  And I'm pretty excited about it.  Since I'm not begging him to run with me, as has been the case the 3 other times he's ran with me, and it's him requesting it, I think it's a good sign that he's excited to do it.

And as for my first semester of grad school, unofficially knocked out a 4.0, while working full time and training for two half marathons and a full marathon.  ::gives herself 3 gold stars and 2 successive pats on the back::  ROLL TIDE!

P.S.  Have you met my niece?  She's kind of beautiful, no?  Takes after her auntie obvs.  ;)

Fall Race Plans + Alabama Orientation Recap

My running has been pretty boring this week.  Easy paced miles with low heart rate, and striders thrown in at the end.  My allergies are attempting to wreak havoc on my system, and after 3 nights of sleep, my insomnia reared it's ugly head the last two nights.  Meh.  I figured it was high time to provide you with my Alabama orientation recap.

But first, I wanted to share that I had made a decision regarding a fall marathon.  But wait?  You think to yourself.  Didn't you already make this decision?  Like...twice or so?  Yes yes I did.  School is going awesome, and it's a ton of work, reading, writing, etc.  Much like I imagined it to be.  Surprisingly, I am adjusting better than I expected.  However, the more research I do about marathon training and specifically heart rate training, I realize that my endurance is not where I want it to be for a go at 26.2 miles.  I'm sure the race would go fine, and probably better than my last two injury fests, but I want to really knock it out of the park, and I don't think a quick 5 week schedule crammed in to heavy study sessions is going to do the trick.

Instead, I'm taking on my back up plan race of the Fargo FM half on October 8th.  The course is super flat, and should be nice and chilly.  I love the half marathon distance, sand that's what I'm most prepared to run, so that's what I'll do.  And then because halfs don't destroy your body like fulls do, I can still run some fun local races in October before the blizzards arrive.  :)

And shockingly, I plan to employ a standard length of marathon training for my spring race:  my 2nd go at the Green Bay Marathon!  And during the frigid winter months leading up to that training program, I will be working my tushy off with heart rate training to get my endurance where it needs to be.  #yaycloud

Ok, on to the bama recap. :)

I arrived in Birmingham, AL on August 17th, and met some of my cohortians at the airport.  (There are 43 of us in my incoming class).  A shuttle took us to our hotels in Tuscaloosa, and we got to see some of the horrific tornado damage.  Interesting fun fact:  I got my acceptance email an hour before the tornado hit, so I was glued to my tv as if it was "my" home being undertaken by storms.  Yikes.  We went to the nearby restaurant/bar to meet some of the other students and professors.

Thursday morning orientation started bright and early and it was go go go for about 12 hours.  There was a ton of information to cram in to our nerdy brains.  I kept finding myself analyzing the group, particularly in terms of introvert tendencies.  Typically in the librarian profession, you see a high number of introverted individuals, and orientation was true to form.  It was interesting to see people need to take breaks from interacting with people to "recharge" and people that would need to move on from group conversations when the group became too large, and thus unmanageble for them. :)

I guess the next two days were fairly similar to the first two, with lots of information thrown at us.  We did get to have a night out on "the strip" where we all felt like old farts compared to the little 21 year olds.  I managed to take a sweet photo ID pic, and then the worst photo of all time for our cohort "directory."  I'll have to share that on a day that someone needs a major laugh. :)

So enjoy the random pictures from the weekend.  I left my camera batter charger at home, so I had my cell to take pictures with.  I whined about this 1200x.

running + tuscaloosa..... yayzies

Gorgas Library. Pretty, right?

Denny Chimes.

Cool tinman sculpture.

roll tide!

Denny Chimes from the Gorgas Library steps.

Sweet library/harry potter shirt?  check!

Librarian cardigan?  check!

Bama pride?  check!

Sweet ID pic.  aka I WIN AT LIFE.

Surrounding the Denny chimes are the captains names, hand prints, and cleat prints.

Back to School + Weekly Wistlist: Apartment/Home Edition

I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at decorating my casa.  I'd like to think that I have good taste, but since I rarely entertain it seems silly to spend the $$ on my apartment.  I mean... hello.... running shoes are expensive!  Anyway, I've been compiling this list for awhile now, and it's pretty much my dream place.  Hopefully the links are all still good!

My current bedroom is green (shocker!) but I love the soft whimsicalness of this pale yellow.  I had a yellow room growing up, but this is so much more chic.
Buy it here.

Buy it here. Painfully out of my price range, but I love the retro look, and obviously the color tones. #greenandyellow

Buy it here. I'm obsessed with book shelves (yet another shocker).  I love that this one doubles as shelves for books/nicknacks/ktochkes/whatevs.

Buy it here. In my world, these curtains totally "go" with the yellow bedding.  So we'll leave it at that, I guess.  Ignoring the fact that the window I have in my bedroom is ginormous and wouldn't fit this at all.

I am a faithful "fan on to block out the noise of life, all night long" sort of gal.  Have been since college and living in the loud ass dorms.  Eventually my beloved wind machine will die, and I would like one of these pretty lovelies.

Buy it here.

Speaking of home decorating, I actually got a chance to hang up some items in my apartment that I've had leaning against the walls for 2 years now.  Meh... good enough for me!  Kyle brought me over a desk to use for my online classes (rolltide!) and decided to bust out the hammer and help me out.  I was able to set up my little desk area, for the most part.  I have a few book-nerd-esque prints that I need to frame and hang.

He also hung up my sweet bib board that I've had done forever.  Seriously it's been done so long I have enough bibs to make #2.  I love seeing all the race bling hanging below it.

And finally, my gorgeous back to school bag gift from Jenn.  I heart her.  And this gorg bag.

I start classes tonight!  Good bye sanity and free time for the next 24 months.  ROLLTIDE!

Nerdy library shirt and librarian cardi...check!

ZOMG Back to School

Attention everyone:  I become a grad student in a week.

In related news:  holy shit!

About a month back, Kyle and I were in Target when I happened upon their back to school display.  Instead of being annoyed about a back to school display in the middle of the summer, I instead freaked out and insisted on back to school shopping!  Every fall since I have been out of college I have been very jealous of everyone who was doing back to school shopping.  I heart school.  In other related news, I’m a nerd.

I’m in the process of getting everything ready to go for school, I found a desk (shopping in Kyle’s parents’ basement FTW!), bought a couple of prints from Nan Lawson of two of my favorite literary heroines to hang at my desk, along with some previous prints I had bought from her.  Bought some great colorful felt pens and highlighters.  You know…. All of the FUN stuff.

Katniss

Hermione

All of the important stuff is still on my “to-do” list, and last night it almost gave me a panic attack.  As of Wednesday night I still needed to:

• Buy a headset (it’s online coursework after all)
• Buy books for course #2 that were just given to us
• Attend an hour session to make sure my computer is compatible with the software for classes
• Buy a suitcase since mine broke on the way home from Vegasssssssssssssssss
• Do laundry
• Pack
• Switch over car insurance
• Cancel cable (since I’m quitting cable, I figure it’s smart that I don’t pay for the 6 days I’m out of town)

Not to mention that in my head I THOUGHT IT WAS THURSDAY.  And Kyle’s birthday is on Tuesday the day before I leave, AND I HAD YET TO GET ANYTHING TOGETHER FOR HIS BIRTHDAY EITHER.

[insert panic attack here please]

But then I woke up Thursday morning and realized it was actually just Thursday and not Friday like I had originally thought, and I calmed down a bit.  Uh anxiety…. you’re a be-atch.

I’ll get all of the stuff done on my list.  I’ll get my 13 mile long run in Monday morning before work.  I’ll make a damn good effort at a 5k PR this weekend (apparently it’s been 14 months since I’ve raced a 5k….weird).  Kyle will have a great birthday.  And I’ll be the smartest person in my class.

Ok, that’s the other thing.  What if I’m dumb all of a sudden?  It’s been over 5 years since I’ve been a student.  Dear Brain,  Please still be smart.  Thanks.  Xoxo Jerbear

And I’ll leave you with this random tidbit, whenever the topic of school comes up when I’m talking with Kyle, we immediately break in to the Billy Madison “back to school” song.  We seriously sing it in its entirety trading off each line.  We’re the biggest dorks.  But I like it.

Tips for this back to school girl?  Alabama kids:  any restaurants I need to eat it?  Bars I need to test out?  Running routes to explore?  I need to make the most of my short stay down south!

My Dream World

If you know me at all in real life, you may know that I’m a bit of a worrier. Little do you know I’m actually an INSANELY LARGE WORRIER. In college I had terrible insomnia all the time because I could never shut off my brain from worrying about something. It’s obnoxious. Oftentimes my dreams will reflect my brain’s erratic sense of reasoning. This weekend I had some great ones I deemed worthy of sharing. Enjoy.


In dream #1 I was on the University of Alabama’s campus for orientation. Not surprisingly the campus looked somewhat similar to my undergrad campus (I’ve never seen Alabama’s campus FYI). I had arrived at orientation crazy early and decided to do a little exploring. I made my way in to this gorgeous old library and was looking around for approximately 5 minutes when I heard over the loud speaker, “Will Jeri _______ please report to orientation, you are severely late!” I looked at my watch to realize that the couple of hours I had to spare had whittled away and I was now 8, (8!) minutes late. Naturally I panicked and started running towards the building orientation was held in. “I can’t believe she’s late for this. She was late yesterday too!” I hear the orientation organizer say under her breath, not realizing the speaker was still on. My heart dropped.

Out of nowhere, this building is now housed on top of an extremely large hill. Roughly a straight 90 degree angle. And covering the hill is parachute fabric. I try to sprint as hard as I can and resort to clawing my hands in on my knees to pull myself up the parachute covered grassy knoll. Upon my arrival there is a hot air balloon waiting to take me. There is one other student in there but the basket is so tight of a fit that we all have to ride up with one leg dangling out of the basket. Safety first, I guess.

Once I finally get to my class, I learn that Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) is in my cohort. And I think, sweet! I’m going to make him dress up for Halloween with me and we’re going to win sooooooooo many contests (I occasionally like to think I can pull off a good Hermione with my crazy wavy hair). And then I woke up.

Dream #2..... Uh.

Well stupid me started writing this post when I had some free time, and got distracted.  So much so that I didn't bother to leave myself any "clues" as to what dream #2 entails.  I asked Kyle because I know I told him, but apparently he doesn't keep a dream journal for me.  WTH?

Most recently I dreamt that I was living in a post apocalyptic world.  Somehow I had managed to survive (probably because of my extensive knowledge of zombie attack survival; don't ask how this relates to non-zombie attack end of the world circumstances.... ).  My biggest concern in this dream scenario was getting in my training runs.  Oy.  Running on the brain.  Always.

Tuesday night I hit up the treadmill yet again to get through some miles.  The heat index up in here has been around 115 which is enough to actually melt my flesh off, so yeah... TM, I'm all over you.  I always save up my magazines for treadmill workouts, because reading while running makes the miles fly by.  I grabbed a recent fitness mag, and then scored 3 dirty/juicy gossip mags at my gym.  Who needs some celebrity gossip, I haz it!

Prior to the run, Renee, Krista and I made a treadmill survival pact.  We all had to hit the TM because of the heat, and I didn't want to be the one to wuss out, and that really helped me get through the miles.  Also the fact that I surely would've died if I ran 6 miles outside. 

I did 6 miles 57 minutes-ish.  I think the pace was 9:36. I'm too lazy to look.

Good news:  The heat is going to break overnight!  I don't think the temps have dipped below 80 since last Thursday.  We'll have a low of 67!!!! tonight.  Yes I will be up early to do my recovery run. YAYZIES!

Exciting News + Weekly Wishlist

I received some news on Wednesday afternoon that allowed me to cross of one of the most important items from my 101 in 1001 list:  get accepted into master's program!!!!!!! 

Starting in the fall I will be a member of the University of Alabama's 2011 online cohort for my masters in library and information science.  The program is completely online except for a few days late in the summer that I have to head "down souf" for orientation.  I hope to come back to the Dak with a heavy southern accent.  Like Sookie's from True Blood (yes, I do need to get out more if that's my only frame of reference for the south.)  I also hope to not die of heat stroke, as I imagine the temps in mid-August are enough to kill me.

To say that I'm super de duper excited would be an understatement of my life.  No clue how I will be juggling my full time job, part time masters classes, running and some semblance of a social life, but on occasion I seem to think I'm super woman, so we'll see.  Any suggestions are welcome.  I'm guessing marathon training will probably be out of the question, but that's ok as I'd planned to focus on some b.a. fast HM races anyway.  And hopefully a nice little library job will open up in this town of mine.... you hear that Universe!!!  Get cracking!

[If you saw any of the tornado coverage, holy terrifying....... lots of prayers heading down south.]

Switching gears very abruptly: On to my weekly wishlist!

Buy it here.

I can't stand carrying a clutch, but this has gotta be the prettiest thing ever, right?  I've been watching too much Say Yes to the Dress so forgive me for my next comment.... it'd be kind of great as your something blue... no?  Ok, moving on....

Buy it here.

I've yet to get around to buying a laptop bag for my little MacBook. Primarily because it usually stays at home unless I'm traveling. However, this bag is so stinkin' cute I would consider it. (Clearly still obsessed with yellow...blame the lack of sunshine if you'd like....)

Sidenote: When I was talking to KK about my blog last night, I casually mentioned that when it came to Christmas/Birthday he could easily peruse my blog for gift ideas, and he questioned my intent for these weekly wishlist....

KK:  So do you expect people to see these on your blog and just buy them for you???

JL:  Uh.... what kind of blog do you think I'm running?!?!?

But to clarify, yes KK, if you see these items on my blog and buy them for me, I'll be completely ok with that. :)