You know you're a runner when...

Every once in a while I have one of those moments where I'm like, "yeah, I'm definitely a runner because XYZ."

The most recent moment came when I was driving to my dad's house this afternoon. I am 100% jealous of all the sidewalks he has around his house and neighborhood. Around our house - I can run about 3-3.5 miles before having to do loops to add miles. It sucks. I crave more sidewalks and more places to run close to home.

There is actually a bunch of construction going on around us to expand roads, etc. So far, most of the area they are doing constructions seems to be adding sidewalks as well as expanding the roads. I am ridiculously excited about that. I would love to do a long run from my house without having to make loops around the same route. I absolutely hate having to drive to do a long run. That's a big reason why I missed some longer runs during my last half marathon training.

Runners, be thankful for your local sidewalks. :)

No AM group run today.

The group I have been meeting with for a couple of weeks decided we would run Monday and Wednesday this week. We normally run on Tuesday and Thursday, but with Thursday being Thanksgiving - we just adjusted.

There was a discussion on our FB group page about running this morning. It seemed like a few girls were on board. When my alarm went off at 5 this morning I promptly checked the FB page because that last thing I wanted to do was show up and have no one there. One girl posted last night that she wouldn't be there this morning because she thinks her hip flexor is jacked (bummer). Another girl's husband is out of town and she has a daughter who she, obviously, can't leave in the morning to run. I knew that another girl was sick yesterday, but she intended to run today. I ended up texting one of the girls because I had a bad feeling that I would be the only one to show up. I'm glad I did because, sure enough, I would have been there by myself. I snuggled back into bed and went back to sleep for a few hours.

So it sucks about not getting a run in this morning, but I think I am going to do some speed work/intervals on the treadmill at the gym tonight. Tomorrow morning or after work I am going to do some cross training at the gym. Wednesday morning we are hopefully still meeting so I can get some easy miles in before the Turkey Trax 5k on Thanksgiving morning.

I did get in a little less than 4.5 miles on Saturday before we started tailgating for the Mizzou game. My 5am wake up call seems to be getting easier and easier each time. I went to the normal spot that I meet our group, but decided it was too dark and uncomfortable to run there by myself. So I drove across town to campus where I knew it would be better lit and more traffic. I just took off and really didn't have a route or a plan in place. I basically just ran until I was running out of time to meet to shower and meet our tailgating friends. It felt pretty good and I ran about a 9:20 pace.

That 5am start to my day really kicked me in the ass about 6 that evening. I was done. A full day of tailgating and watching the football game.did me in. Justin and I grabbed some Thai take out and vegged out the rest of the night. We were in bed by 9:30.

And I will leave you with some tailgating pics. :)

Justin and I showing off our "black out" outfits for the day.
I told him he looked like a cheerleader so we posed accordingly. :)

Justin with his bestfriend's sister who is, obviously, much taller than him.

MIL, Justin, and Me outside of the stadium

Family friends.

Structure? No thanks.

All right, so I'm not going to post a training post and follow it. It's just not going to happen. Instead - I am going to blog whenever the heck I want. Haha. I suck at this blogging thing...and I think that's what the majority of my blog posts have been about this year. I will try. No promises.

In recent running news - I started meeting with a very casual running group. It's a group of girls that live on my side of town that meet at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday and Thursdays. A few of them get together on the weekends for longer runs too. I say it's very casual because it's just a group put together by some girls on FB and they have each just invited some friends to get the word out. There is not a strict schedule, a coach to push you along, etc. You just come when you can and someone picks a route to run. I have only gone twice, but I'm loving it so far. I will definitely need the accountability in the winter months. :)

I have also amped up my cross training a bit. I need to get a bit more structured with my cross training, but I figure something is better than nothing. I have added speed work. It's all on the treadmill, but I'm doing it. It's also not very structured. I usually warm up pretty slowly for a half mile and then do one minute of just a bit faster than 5k (goal) race pace and then 2 minutes of a little slower than half marathon goal pace. I do this alternating for a couple of miles and then do a slow half mile cool down.

My next 5k is the Turkey Trax on Thanksgiving day. It will be my 1 year racing anniversary. I am pretty excited about it. :)

On the house front - our house is on the market!! No bites yet, but we are trying to stay optimistic since this is a slow time for home buyers.

Last thing - (Just) Trying is for little girls is doing a pretty sweet giveaway. Keep the faith creations has some really cool pieces of jewelry that are very runner friends. Check out her blog, the giveaway, and keep the faith creation's website.