Vibram

I caved.

After reading Born to Run, I decided that I wanted to try out this whole barefoot running thing.

Read the book.  You'll want to as well.

After reading it, I started seeing people wearing the "barefoot running shoes" almost every time I went for a run.

I became very, very jealous.

So I went and purchased a pair of Vibram Fivefingers.  

Aren't they cute?

OK, not really, but I think they're kind of fetching.

Only problem... this is my second pair.  The first pair fit in the store, but when I got them home I realized they were about 3/4" too long on the back...so I took them back for the smaller size.

This pair is too small in the toe area.  I can't cram my toes in the slot!!!

Can you tell?  Can you see all the extra room on my 3 smallest toes??  

Frustrating!  I don't want to take them back and give up!!

Maybe barefoot running isn't for me.

Oopsy

I've managed to injure myself again.

It happens a lot

Sunday, I was sitting on the coach in shorts, enjoying a nice, piping hot bowl of soup.

Then I tried to put the bowl on the tv tray while avoiding dropping it on the dog.

And I managed to spill it all over myself.

It hurt, a lot.  I did some screaming. David came out and tried to fix it, which involved both of us freaking out.

We've decided that we need to take some crisis management classes, because neither one of us remain calm or polite in the face of injury.

Oh well...

Here's the mark, 36 hours after injury.  A little oozy and gross!

Wine Fest!

On Saturday, my darling friends Jess, Tara, and I went to the wine fest at Forest Park.

It was a beautiful day (especially considering how cold Sunday was!), but it was even better to get to spend time with my friends... I haven't seen them much lately (remember how marathon training is ruining my social life?) and it was good just to catch up.

We sampled bunches of wine.  Tara and Jess tried a wide variety while I stuck with my known and loved Riesling (or just sweet white).  I know what I like... and that's for my wine to taste like sugar.

And that's how this happened... I was telling a vendor my wine preference and then we started talking about K-State.  

Then he gave me a bottle.  I'm pretty sure this was not sanctioned wine fest behavior, but I was thrilled!

So... after I finished that I headed back and told him he was my favorite.  We decided a photo was in order...

...and then he gave me another bottle.  

I was so happy.

Since I had two bottles, I gave my free beer tickets to Jess and Tara... I was not in need of beer.

We had dinner and then David picked me up...  

Driving was not in my future Saturday.  Since I had run 15 miles that morning AND I hadn't had a drop of alcohol since Labor Day (geesh, I'm getting old and boring!), it hit me rather quickly.  

Luckily, my husband is UBER protective.

Correction to previous post

Today on facebook, I was informed of something...


"I read yesterday's blog post and I have to say I'm a little hurt that getting to hang out with me after conquering another marathon was not on your list of reasons to keep going ;-) Hang in there, I'm continually impressed/inspired by your ability to forgo drinking in order to maintain your physical fitness...you've come a long way from being my "Bad decisions buddy" ;-)"


And she's right!  I never mentioned that a great perk of running races is that I have an amazing excuse to go places and visit long lost friends.


Can't wait to see you, Mary... I hope it's as fun as Key West was :)

Marathon training....1.5 months left

I have about a month and a half left until the marathon...and, confession time, I am slightly less gung-ho about the whole thing than I was at the start.  But that's to be expected, right?  Right?

This happened last year when I was training too.  I actively told anyone that would listen that THAT was going to be my first and only marathon.  David agreed that it being a one-time thing wouldn't stink at all.

Obviously, I promptly forgot that promise to both of us the second I crossed the finish line.

This time around, it's not so bad.  I have a new plan which allows me to cross-train and I've developing a love for swimming and biking.  Since I only run three-ish days a week, I'm not feeling nearly as burnt out with running this time around.

I love that it gives me a chance to ride bikes with friends...

...and just generally be a little more relaxed about my non-running training.

That being said, I'm at the point of training where I need to remind myself why, exactly, it's worth it.  My weekend runs are hitting the three hour mark...which makes me no fun on Friday night (in anticipation of Saturday morning) and no fun all day on Saturday (in retribution for Saturday morning).  My social life is suffering since I'm hog-penned by training.  (I'm not sure if hog-penned is an actually term people use, but I'm envisioning the hog pens of my youth.  Classy!)

But it is worth it.  I until a few years ago, I never dreamed that I would be a runner and dreaming of doing triathlons.  I never thought I would be begging for a nice road bike for my birthday. I never thought I would enjoy and yearn for physical activity.  I never thought I would feel better after sweating my heart out than pigging out.  After the race, I'm going to remember how great it felt to cross the finish line.

All of the annoyances will seem minor compared to finishing a really big goal.

Labor Day

I know it's WAAAAAAAAAY late, but I had a ton of pictures from Labor Day, and wanted to show them off.

We went to the K-State-UCLA game (Go Wildcats!)

Some guy wandered by with a puppy and allowed Cher and I to hold the dog for a free beer.

Sounded like a deal to us!

EMAW!!!

Every

Man

A

Wildcat!

After the game, we headed back to Lyndon... Cher, Kyle, and I got to drive a very drunk Grant, who spent a lot of the ride complaining about Sonic bathrooms and Kreem Kup.  Always classy.

Dad got some meat ready for the smoker.

The next day, we played with some guns.

The gun above is the gun that Kyle both Cher for passing Hunter's Safety...

Cher felt more comfortable with a 22.

Meanwhile, Dad was making meat.

It was good.

Especially after it was sliced on the fancy slicer.

Then we had some puppy play time...

We ended up tying Baxter and Lucky to Maggie since she's sedentary and not easily moved.

Good old Maggie.  

All in all, it was a good weekend.

Early Birthday

David's 30 birthday is quickly approaching...so on Sunday, I took David shopping.

But not before I forced him to take me to learn to play tennis.  Turns out, I may be able to run for a long time, but I'm still not coordinated.  Luckily, David was nice to me.

Anyway, David got...

a new bike!

(Not Maggie... she just likes to pose in front of pictures)

I know it's a bit early, but I wanted him to get this before the weather turns bad.  Plus, he's been telling me for a long time that he really enjoys biking.  You should see him whenever I return from my bike rides... he'll take my crappy California cruiser up and down the street.  I figured it was time he had his own!

Look how cute he is!

Update and puppy pool party

I haven't blogged for a while!  Honestly... work has been killing me and I'm in the heavy throws of marathon training.  Usually, when I get home there's time for a quick dinner, a shower, and then to bed.  I'm going to try to get better... and I'll start by sharing pictures of the puppy pool party I went to on Sunday.

I went with my friend Courtney from work, but she ended up not staying very long due to child/dog complications.  Turns out that the event was a little overstimulating for both her child and her dogs.  Oh well.

Maggie, on the other hand, has calm down to a science.  She paddled around...

and, in general, acted happy to be alive...except when I held her.

She got annoyed that it was an unflattering position.

The day before the pool party, I was convinced by David to go to the Mizzou game.

My father-in-law convinced me to wear a silly hat.

You would not believe the number of compliments I got from this hat.  Seriously.

Night Runs

No, not to the bathroom.

Sicko.

I'm in that weird part of my training for a fall race...where the sun is setting WAAAAY earlier than the heat is leaving.  And school's started back, so running in the morning just isn't happening.

I'm going on runs at night and in the dark.  Yikes!

Here's the story... last night I had an 8 mile tempo run (actually, 10 with warm-up and cool-down) on the agenda, but it was muggy as all get-out. I checked the weather, thinking I could leave at 6pm for my run.  Nope, 88 degrees.  Too hot.  But at 7pm it was down to 81.  Perfect!

Except there was a chance of rain at 8pm.

I ignored common sense and headed out the door at 7pm.  It actually was quite lovely outside and didn't start raining until 6 miles into my run.  Of course, it got dark about 5 miles in, but I had a headlamp and a back flasher thing.

Am I stupid?  I feel safe doing this, but most people freak out when I talk about my night runs.  I figure my biggest safety hazard is tripping & that's where the head lamp comes in.  That, the flasher, and all my reflective junk makes me pretty visible.  Plus, I don't run on roads and my trail only crosses roads at street-lighted cross walks, so cars aren't an issue.

David wasn't really happy about the situation, so we've decided that he'll get to come along (on my bike) while I do my next night run.  That should be cute, right?  Although I'm not so sure it'll be safer, since he's likely to run me over with my bike :)