Thoughts on Running

This morning, Stephanie and I met out at Valley Forge to run ten miles.

Fun fact: I've only run this distance three times in my entire life, including today. One was Broad Street 2008; the other was Broad Street 2010. That means that Stephanie has done two thirds of my ten milers with me.

Valley Forge is an amazing place. When I was in high school, my brother and I would go there with our mom and the dog to walk the trails, explore the little log cabins, and generally wander aimlessly. Before today, I hadn't been there in...probably six or seven years? It's hard to remember the last time I went out there, but I'm pretty sure it was during the Summer of the Atkins Diet. AKA, when I was at my thinnest EVER, was really starting to appreciate fitness and physical activity for the first time, and doing things like ordering a cheesesteak and eating only the middle and leaving the bread.

But I digress. Anyway, I knew, vaguely, that this run was going to involve hills. What I didn't know was just how MANY hills there were going to be. And I also didn't know what it was like to be running up a hill and giving it your all, and having your legs just stop listening to you when you commanded them to keep turning over.

We did one loop, starting from the Visitor's Center, and hopping off of the 5.6 mile paved Joseph Plumb Martin trail to the Valley Creek area. We ran through the woods on gravel trails for a while, ran on the roads, and then picked up the JPM trail again. By the time we made it back to the parking lot, we'd covered almost 6.7 miles. With only 3.3-ish miles to go, we decided to double back out the way we'd just came. It meant some rough uphills on the 1.75-ish miles out, but we got to cruise the last mile or so back.

Those. Hills. Were. Awful. Splits:

You can clearly see our uphill struggles, and the flat/downhill cruises that followed. Altogether, it took us about 1:50 to cover ten miles, and I was SPENT.

I've been thinking a lot about running - this has been one of my most successful training periods yet. I'm feeling very confident about running the half next month. I'm recovering well from my weekly long runs, and my knees are feeling good.

I think I've found the "magic" combination, for now. I do my weekly long run, of course. And I run one other day during the week...that's it. My second run is usually some form of interval work, and it's short - 30 minutes or so.

Otherwise, I crosstrain - I've been spending a lot of time on the recumbent bike. It's a great combination: no impact (so, good for my knees) and it strengthens my quads (also good for my knees). I lift a few days - usually two, even though I would prefer it to be three. I do a lot of the P90X workouts...either a chest/back vs. arms/shoulders split, or a back/biceps vs. chest/shoulders/tris split.

Now, let's be clear. I'm not running my fastest times, that's for sure. Broad Street 08, I came in at 1:30.59, and ran the majority of my long training runs at a 9:00 or slightly better pace. I could knock out a 5K in under 25 minutes without too much effort. I'd run 20-mile weeks without blinking. I sure as SHIT am not there right now.

But when I was doing that...it was inconsistent. I'd train hard and be great for a couple months and then find myself injured. I'd spend a shitload of time on the elliptical until my knee stopped hurting, and I'd be back on the treadmill again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Now...I don't want to speak prematurely, because god knows it's only been a few months since I was last hobbling around like an old lady. But I'm feeling good, and strong. This is my first half marathon, so all I really care about is finishing - and I'm confident I can do that. Once I'm past that, I'll probably go back to worrying about recovering some of my old speed, because I really did LIKE running fast. Mile repeats are pretty much my favorite thing ever.

And it's funny what a little perspective can do. When I was running my 24:50-something 5Ks, I was frustrated that I couldn't break 24:30. Then, I did, and I was frustrated because I couldn't break 24:00. When I was running my 9:00-paced long runs, I thought I was pretty slow. Now that my pace has slowed by a minute or more, I'm starting to appreciate what I used to be able to accomplish.

OK - time to do a little more foam rolling and get back to the Phils. Happy weekend!

GAH!

Too long since I've posted!

Let's start with the bad news. That I've already gone sort-of-public with, on Twitter, and I've known in my heart for a while.

I'm not running the Distance Run this weekend.

I'm very unhappy about it, but the fact is, I let my emotions get the better of me and neglected my training far too much over the month of August. Could I fake it? Probably. But I might actually hurt myself, and I know I'd be disappointed with my performance. I know myself, and the last thing I need is to spend 13 miles ragging on myself for failing to train.

The good news? I still get to hang out with a bunch of blogheads coming into town this weekend for the race!

The BETTER news? The (inadequate) amount of training that I DID do leaves me in a good place. My knee is OK, my endurance is OK, and I'm ready to start training for the Philly Half in November, which I just registered for!

On to the fun stuff. It's been a while since I've posted. Part of it is that this has been an insane week at work, and I just haven't had time. Part of it (the BETTER part) is that it was an equally insane weekend - but I was too busy HAVING FUN. Saturday we made an impromptu decision to have some of my siblings over to watch the Penn State game and make dinner. Sunday we hung out with some friends from law school who I haven't seen in forever. Add to that the cleaning and house-prepping, and the gym-ing and grocery shopping, and BAM! that's a full and fun weekend.

Last Friday (god, has it seriously been that long?) PhillyGuy and I went out to celebrate our anniversary. Yup - Monday marked two.freakin'.years since we got all dolled up and said "yup, you're the one" in front of our friends and family.



To celebrate, PhillyGuy made us reservations at R2L, a restaurant at the top of Two Liberty. We started with a drink at the bar while they got our table ready -- and he managed to snag us a very private, corner table that looked out over the Western part of the city.





Frankly, I expected this place to be decent food and all ambiance. I was blown AWAY - it far exceeded my expectations. We started with a braided loaf of pretzel bread while we perused our menus.



Appetizers were bacon-wrapped scallop potstickers and crisp cheese risotto.



Risotto balls might be up there with the greatest decadent treat inventions.





We split a bottle of wine with dinner. After seeing Murphy-Goode Liar's Dice zinfandel on Jenna's blog so many times, I was very excited to see it on the wine list. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world's worst picture of a delicious bottle of wine:



PhillyGuy also had french onion soup. The presentation was fun, but the soup itself was pretty "meh."



We also split two entrees. The veal, served five ways - including a meatloaf, a brisket, tenderloin, sweetbread and a gravy - tossed with potatoes:



and the halibut, seared and served over a smoky corn salad:



Un.Be.Lieve.Able. I can't pick a favorite, but I guess I'm leaning towards the halibut? Or maybe the veal? Or the risotto...GAH I DON'T KNOW.

I ended with a cappuccino, and we shared two dessert plates.



I love artistic foam! Beignets (which were actually a variety of fried pastries, including donuts, beignets, and an apple fritter) and a trio of dipping sauces:



and the "Cinnamon Toast Crunch." you had me at "donut ice cream."



I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this place for a swanky night out. The view was amazing, the ambiance was fun (if a little slick), but the food far surpassed my expectations.



Oh, and just in case you were wondering what we did on our ACTUAL anniversary?

Sweet Lucy's BBQ in the northeast.





I may love me some sweetbreads and cappuccino, but ribs and messy, vinegary Carolina BBQ sauce is where it's REALLY at for me.

Oh Monday

about five hours of sleep plus lots of this



requires lots of this



That's my second cup of coffee so far. First bottle of water.

I should be telling you all about the nine-miler that I ran yesterday. But I won't be. Because I didn't.

I stayed out JUST a touch later than I intended to on Saturday night. And drank JUST a touch more alcohol. And I stayed up just a TOUCH later, to drink plenty of water on top of the bottle of Gatorade I chugged on my walk home. (and, while we're at it, I left just a TOUCH more Facebook messages for people than I intended to leave.)

So while I didn't have a hangover yesterday, I DID sleep really late. I think it was after 9 by the time I finally woke up. By the time I walked the dogs, it was nearly 10, I had no coffee in the house, and it was already 80 degrees. No chance was I running nine miles at that point. Instead, I hightailed it to Ants Pants for an iced coffee, followed by a quick trip to the grocery store. I feasted on a bagel with cream cheese, lox and tomato from the comfort of my couch while putting together a game plan for the day.

The good? That game plan involved some MUCH NEEDED home maintenance. I scrubbed my downstairs hallway, recaulked the seal of our door that my innocent lil' puppy managed to dig out, did laundry, replaced light bulbs in a ceiling fixture, vaccuumed three flights of stairs, de-dog-furred the hardwood floors, and cleaned the bathrooms.

The bad? That game plan DID NOT involve any running or, in fact, any gym-going at all.

I think I'll try to cover the nine miles tonight. I cannot believe it's less than three weeks until the Distance Run. I still haven't decided whether to run it or not, but I'm leaning towards running it...if only for the free t-shirt.

How was your weekend? Also, Distance Run roll call? Anyone else running it?

Yoga Pants at Work

Yup. I'm doing it.

What a beautiful freakin' morning it is. Sunny, low 70s, (relatively) low humidity.

What a perfect day to rock some lululemon to work.



Pretty sure this isn't in our "business casual" dress code, strictly speaking.

But I'm also pretty sure I can go the whole day without interacting with anyone in the office. Bosslady's out. My secretary is out. I haven't been working for anyone else lately. And I am flanked by empty offices.

And besides - other than the pants, I'm dressed "professionally." Cardigan, shell, pearls, watch. Hurrrrr's did. Makeup's did.



I'll be comfy all day, and no one will be the wiser.

On a more serious note...I am considering selling my bib for the Rock'n Roll Half.

I have just NOT been training properly. I do my long run on the weekends, and that's it. And it's showing.

Sure, I've been getting in my lifting and some other types of cardio (mainly the bike)...at least up until the past couple of weeks, when I hit a bit of a bump and let it get the best of me. Part of it is that it's been stinkin' hot and humid, and I've noticed that while my knee rarely bothers me during or after an outdoor run, it almost ALWAYS acts up on the treadmill. So, on hot and humid days -- which has been, um, all of them, lately -- I don't run.

And then I get out to do my long run and it's a big struggle. I always, ALWAYS feel amazing when it's done, but it's tough when your first six miles are kind of lame and you don't start to get into a groove until the last two. I go back and forth, though - I will (probably) feel better about myself if I just suck it up and race. But I might not. I might either (1) struggle for 12 of the 13 miles, only to finish with a time so slow I don't feel accomplished at all, and/or (2) actually hurt myself since I'm not in "half marathon" condition, physically.

I guess my bottom line is -- I could fake ten miles for Broad Street. I'm not so sure I can fake 13.1. And I'm not so sure I want to try.

Thoughts?

Swear I'm Not Dead

I swear.

I've been in a bit of a slump lately. I've been going through some stuff in my personal life - nothing earth shattering and I'm not dying, don't worry! - but it's been taking its toll on my energy levels and motivation.

Honestly, I haven't had much inclination to blog for these past couple weeks (um, no kidding). And even if I had, what would I do? Show you pictures of me eating every carbohydrate (simple, complex, white, wheat, and chocolate chip cookie dough) known to man? Tell stories about how I haven't done any running except for my weekly long runs, and how I haven't gone to the gym more than 4 or 5 times in two weeks?

Thrilling. And not super-healthy.

It takes its toll. The last thing I felt like doing Sunday morning was getting my butt out of bed and going for a run. I did it - and I made a really big effort to fix the problems I had with last week's run, and to make this one an honest reflection of my capabilities. But...I was being hard on myself, and it showed.

I filled my camelbak with ice and Gatorade, and tossed a random Clif gel in the zipper pocket to eat at my turnaround point. Fun tunes on the iPod, Garmin on my wrist, and I was off. I made a conscious effort to keep my pace slower and as steady as possible -- I don't need to do what I've been doing and burn out before I get halfway there, right?

But my slower pace is an effort for me. My body's preferred pace naturally falls around 9:15-9:30 these days, and to take it down to 10:00 takes a conscious effort. I felt awkward and plodding. My camelbak was bouncing and I couldn't find a place to jam the spout so that it didn't snag my headphones. I couldn't seem to shake the negative thoughts. "You're too slow for a camelbak. People who run this slow don't need "fuel," they need to work harder and get better. You can't even run 8 miles today - how are you going to run a half next month? You should just drop out and forget it."

No bueno. No bueno AT ALL. I managed to shake the negativity a bit by my last couple of miles, and I did do a much better job of pushing myself through without stopping, AND of leaving the garmin on when I did stop to get a more honest look at where I am. Splits:



The fact is, though, I'm not going to get OUT of this lil' funkslump unless I just freakin' do it. I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like eating veggies, fruit & yogurt...or I could just EAT that stuff and get rid of the half a pizza that's been in my fridge since Saturday.

I did that this morning. Bye bye, dried-out pizza. (I suppose it's actually a good thing that the half-pizza sat there in the fridge, drying out, instead of me eating the rest of it Monday night.)

I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like going back to the gym and spending some QT with Tony, or I could just GO EVEN THOUGH I WOULD RATHER SIT ON THE COUCH IN MY FAVORITE SWEATPANTS.

I did that yesterday. 35 minutes of cardio (25 on the bike, 10 on the elliptical) and P90X chest/shoulders/triceps. (Note: weeks and weeks without doing a one-armed pushup will have a pretty big effect on your ability to attempt one-armed pushups. Rocky Balboa I am not.)

I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like going grocery shopping...or I could just get in the car and go.

I did that last night. Now I finally have fresh fruit again. Cherries! Peaches! And my precious Starbucks VIA. And green beans to roast with onions and mushrooms. Thus making it far, far less likely that I will either order a pizza, or walk to the corner store where I will suddenly decide it is far less work to purchase a bag of pita chips & tub of hummus for dinner.

I'm getting there. I even ate veggies for dinner TWO WHOLE NIGHTS IN A ROW. (I took pictures, too, but I forgot to bring my card reader to work.)

No Supervision

You know...I love my job and I really love my boss. I lucked out, for sure. But I can't lie...I still love those days when I know she's not coming in.

It's not like I do anything differently, really. I guess I could. It'd be tempting to come to work in yoga pants, for example. I truly don't think anyone would notice, because when she's not here, I may not need to interact with anyone else at all, except my secretary. Who isn't going to judge me. (At least, I don't think she'd judge. And if she did, she'd still be nice to me, so whatever.)

But there is just something freeing about knowing that I don't need to get X done by Y time. Which means I can blog at 9am and not feel guilty about it.

Distance Run/Rock & Roll Half training is going...OK. I had a 7-miler this weekend, which was also my first ever run with my brand-new Camelbak. PhillyGuy was away, so I couldn't take pictures for you, but I dig it. I bought the Annadel:



Not too big, not too tiny. I filled it about 1/3 of the way the night before and laid the bladder flat in the freezer overnight. In the morning, I filled it the rest of the way with lemon-lime Gatorade. Since the ice was in a big sheet, it took longer to melt and kept my Gatorade nice and cold.

I got a later start than I wanted, and didn't hit the road until just after 9am. I ran a nice out-and-back on Kelly Drive and the Schuylhill River trail. As I was running out, I started thinking about how I should build in a cooldown period. Oh! Wouldn't it be great to make it so that I wrapped up my seven miles just as I was exiting the trail back onto Locust Street? Then I'd have a nice half-mile walk home to cool down, instead of running straight back to my house and having little to no walking time. Great! I'll just run an extra half mile out before I turn around.

Are you better at math than I am? Because I was AWFULLY surprised when I hit my 7 mile point when I was still on the trail. Not just still on the trail - I hadn't even made it to the steps at JFK/Market Streets. Oh...DUH. An extra half mile out before you turn around is NOT an extra half mile. It's an extra mile. And I am a total moron.

Oh well. I had a nice mile long walk home with the Garmin turned off. Splits:



Eh. Those splits are a little deceptive, to be completely honest with you, blogworld. I took a couple of "stretching breaks" between a few of the miles. Like between miles 2 and 3...and again at mile 3.5. And again at mile 4.5. And again at mile 5. And then I just straight up walked a bit during mile 7 - but, of course, that's actually reflected in my time. So even though my Garmin tells me I covered 7 miles in 1:08.52, it actually took me more like an hour and twenty minutes, because I paused the garmin during my stretching breaks.

I need to stop doing that. Breaks are OK, don't get me wrong -- but it's not helpful to me to look at my time and say "oooh, I did 7 miles and averaged a better-than-10-minute pace!" when, well, I didn't.

Ok. Moving on. Another side effect of my training? My poor toenail, which bruised and eventually fell off after Broad Street, has not been able to grow back properly. Brace yourselves for gross feet pics:



Oh, you poor thing. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just looks...well...busted.



I've been telling my pedicure ladies to just leave it alone. They don't seem to mind. I'm afraid to paint it, like somehow the nail polish might inhibit the regrowth process and I'll be doomed to have a busted toenail for the rest of my life.

Meh. Now, who's ready for food pictures??????

Monday dinner:



Mexican crockpot chicken. I throw mushrooms, onions and peppers (usually -- I didn't have any on hand this week) in the crockpot with a bunch of chicken breasts (frozen works too if you forget to thaw them), black and pinto beans, cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper (or a packet of taco seasoning for the really lazy), and dump a jar of salsa over the entire thing. Cook on low for 8 hours. Come home to delicious chicken that falls apart when you stir it.



I like to serve it with hot sauce, black olives, green chiles and plain Greek yogurt.

Breakfast today:



I treated myself to a delicious DiBruno's whole wheat bagel with their lox spread.



SO GOOD, even if I did have to scrape 2/3 of it off. And it took about four hundred times longer than usual, because I scraped it off and then performed surgery to dig out the lox pieces and put them back on the bagel.

I suppose I should get to work now.

Anyone want to join me for an 8-miler this weekend? Assume a 10:00 pace. And assume that I will actually run the entire time, which I generally do when I have someone with me.

Runnin' on Sunshine

You won't believe it, blogworld. I almost don't believe it myself.

But for once in my life, I actually GOT UP WITH MY ALARM at 5:30 (ok, ok, so the alarm was set for 5, since I knew I would need a couple of snooze-button-sessions, but WHATEVER) and WENT FOR A MORNING RUN.

I was pretty disappointed in myself for not pushing through and completing my five miles on Sunday as I'd planned. How am I supposed to run a half marathon in September if I can't even cover five miles now?!? And I know damn well it's not a matter of CAN'T...it's a matter of "WON'T." Or "DIDN'T WANNA."

So, with the lovely stretch of low humidity and temps we've been enjoying lately, I figured what better time to take advantage and try to reignite my let's-not-be-lazy-now abilities? So, I did. I rolled out of bed and was on the road by 5:50ish.

My first couple of minutes were so, so weird - it was seriously as if I'd forgotten how to run. Every step I took hurt my knee, I was shuffling awkwardly and slowly and couldn't figure out how to bend my knees the right way or have my feet hit the ground where they were supposed to. I was thanking the powers-that-be that no one was up and about in my little corner of the city at that point, since I'm reasonably certain I resembled a baby giraffe trying to learn to walk for the first time.

Thankfully, my legs remembered what they were doing after a quarter mile or so, and I settled into a comfortable and steady pace. I did five miles out and back along the Schuylhill River, turning around a little past Boathouse Row. I stretched my hips when I needed to, and I even walked for a bit during my last mile, but in general, I just felt GOOD. I was happy to be running, happy to be people-watching, happy to see that I was one of the only ones out when I started but joined by plenty of other runners, walkers and bikers by the time I was wrapping up. I covered my five miles in about 48 minutes - will check the Garmin later.

When I was walking the pups in my post-run euphoria, I couldn't help but think about how much they've both changed since we first got them.

Sophie was a tiny cuddly baby:



SO SMALL! Now she has a ridiculous attitude.



"What? I eat apples. Wanna fight about it?"

Cosmo was skittish and skinny and generally worried about life.





He's blurry in that one but you can see his butt bones jutting out.

Now he has a wide ass and a big dumb grin at all times.





Dogs are the best. So are happy endorphin-generating morning runs.

Holla

You guys, I had the BEST RUN yesterday.

Not the fastest or the furthest or anything remotely like that. I mean, I ran 4 miles in 37:01 -- as my "long run" for the week. At this time last year I'd have been sort of embarassed about that time. But not this year -- definitely not yesterday.

I've switched from my "usual" Runner's World training program (one short easy run, one tempo or speedwork run, and one long run) to Hal Higdon's novice plan.

That kind of thing isn't easy for me, since I've been running regularly for about 7 years now -- I'm not elite or anything, but I wouldn't consider myself a novice. But after a couple of weeks of my RW plan, I started noticing a pattern -- I was NOT looking forward to my runs. I was never sure if I'd be able to handle them, I was worried about injury, training was feeling like a job, and worst of all, I was really starting to regret registering for the Distance Run.

I really didn't want to admit it, but I had to: between my knee and hip injuries and my spring of basically zero training, I really wasn't at the level I was "pretending" to be at. I had made the mistake of plugging into the RW calculator some stats that I WANTED to be at (a recent race time of 2:00 for a half, for example, when I barely (BARELY!) finished Broad Street this year in the 1:47 range, and 11-15 mile weeks when I hadn't even cleared double digits for months) instead of where I REALLY was.

So I swallowed my pride, printed out Hal Higdon's twelve-week novice plan, and went with it.

And um, wow. You know, I had started to think of "just cover mileage" as kind of garbage runs. Just getting in miles for the sake of miles? What's that going to do? Certainly not make me faster. But duh...I don't need SPEED right now. It's OK if I run the same pace for every mile, because holy crap, I can barely get the miles in right now.

So anyway. This week called for a couple of two and three-milers throughout the week, plus a "long run" of four miles. My two and three-milers were as one would expect. Perfunctory, let's get it done and move on to lifting. But Sunday, I went for my "long run." I opted for the treadmill since it was pretty late in the morning (since I stayed in bed watching the Hills for two hours). First mile was nothing special. Second mile, I started to get a little bored and, as usual, found myself thinking about dropping out of training. After the third mile, I stopped very briefly to stretch my IT band and hip flexors, and then hopped back on.

I did my first three miles at 6.5mph, so I bumped it up to 6.7mph for mile 4. A couple of minutes into that mile, the magic started to happen. Oh my god -- ENDORPHINS! I had forgotten about those! I started smiling, and BIG -- I'm sure I looked like I had lost my mind. I was feeling invincible and I bumped the speed up to 7.0 at 3.5 miles, and did the final quarter mile at 7.5mph. I seriously felt like I was flying and I didn't want to stop...but hey, I'm listening to my training plan. So I stopped and stretched and smiled my big dumb grin and rocked out to my music.

I don't want to get too excited, since there's obviously a great chance that I'll have another exhausting crappy run or two this week...but it had been a LONG time since I remember feeling as amazing as I did on Sunday.

In other news, I STILL don't have my camera cord replaced. I went to Best Buy on Saturday and bought a card reader...for the wrong card format. DOH. I'm going to try to get out and get it exchanged this week, because I've got a ton of pictures to share and no way to get them uploaded!

How was everyone's weekend?

No Farmers Market for You

I'm already up one for the day, since I actually managed to, you know, GET OUT OF BED AND GO FOR A RUN instead of falling back asleep. Of course, I think it helps that it was 7:30 and not 4:55.



After walking the puppies and downing some instant caffeine (Via freakin' rocks) while watching Real Housewives of OC "Lost Footage," I was more than ready to head out. Inspired by Melissa at Miles for Markets, I planned to do an easy four-mile out-and-back down South Street to Headhouse Square for the farmer's market.

I stuck to an easy, comfortable pace, which ended up getting me down to 2nd & South in about 19:48. Cruising down South Street east of Broad always makes me want to cry a little bit. Like most people who grew up in this area, high school for me was punctuated by more than a few Friday night visits to South Street. It was nothing short of AWESOME. Funky, random little stores, Zipperheads, and a fantastic crowd of really, REALLY cool people.

(Great shot of Zipperheads, courtesy of Wikipedia, for those who might not remember:)



Well, Zipperheads is gone now. And apparently, so are all the really cool people. Although I strongly suspect that South Street may have always been so...um...shady...I prefer to believe that it was just a different, more awesome place when I was sixteen or seventeen. So tragic.

So, mourning for the South Street of my youth , I hung a left into Headhouse Square, wildly anticipating the Farmer's Market.

That is not really what I got.



After talking to one of the people at the single booth that was setting up, I found out that the market doesn't open until 10am -- which I consider kind of late for a Farmer's Market. It was 9:15. FAIL. Oh, well. I took a few pictures, stretched my calves and then hightailed it out of there:







I ran back up Lombard instead of South Street. MAN, what a difference a block makes. It was shady and quiet and tree-lined, instead of being lined by (not-so-funky) stores and a Dairy Queen. Most of it, I just ran, looking around and singing along (hopefully not out loud) to my iPod and just enjoying the relative quiet of a Saturday morning.





I wound up back home around 40 minutes later, sweating and smiling.



Today's fun playlist:



Now I'm hungry and so, SO ready to head out and get a much-needed pedicure. I usually get my nails done every other week, and it's been over a month since I've had time -- I think about 7 weeks since I've had a pedicure. My poor feet are really in need of a little TLC...especially since my big toenail is bruised to high heaven from Broad Street.

Happy weekend all!

First Half!

So, I did it.

I just registered for the Philadelphia Distance Run...which is apparently now known as the "ING Rock n' Roll Half Marathon - Philadelphia."

This is my first half. Or, well, it will be. Years ago, my friend's mother gave me her bib for the Disney half, but I (wait for it) injured myself during training and did not run it. (Please try to hold back your astonishment.)

I have plenty of time to train and for once in my life, have finally figured out that I don't need to go insane on every single run. And I strongly suspect that if I DON'T go insane on every single run, I might juuuuuust manage not to hurt myself five weeks into training.

If my training looks like it's going well, I think I'm going to go really nuts and register for the November half also.

Not going to lie, I'm a little excited to train. Like, I kind of want to dance around my office. (I probably won't do that. Might somehow affect my chances of making partner.)

So, who is going to run it with me???