What's 1 more day?

I have had an absolutely horrible month on the training front. An entire MONTH. 4 weeks. That is a solid bit of time when you consider I am training for a half marathon. It started with me getting sick, then we moved, then we got 6-8 inches of snow, then we got another 18 inches of snow...and I just haven't picked things back up on a consistent basis since. It all boils down to excuses. One after the other. And in my head I kept saying to myself, "what's one more day going to hurt?"

I proved to myself today what all those extra days off really do hurt. On my training plan I had 4 miles scheduled yesterday. I had planned to go after work, but it was so cold and I didn't bring appropriate clothes for the treadmill (another effing excuse). So today I was determined. I was determined to go before work. I work at 1pm so it's not like I have to get up at a crazy time to get this done. I lounged around for 30 minutes longer than I originally planned...and you guessed it...thinking of another excuse not to go to the gym this morning.

Well, I went. And it was miserable. I horrible 4 miles. In all honesty - the first 1.5 miles were good. I was feeling confident that I had not lost everything I had worked so hard for before. Well, that confidence was kicked straight to the curb and in a hurry. My run when down hill very quickly. At the 2.25 mark I had to stop to get some water. I didn't bring a water bottle for me. This was almost my excuse to quit for the day. The good news - every time that I wanted to quit, I thought about my blog. I knew I didn't want to blog about falling short. For that, I am thankful to anyone reading this because even if you don't know it - you are keeping me accountable.

Most of my run was at 6.5mph (9:15/mile pace, I think). Occasionally I would bump it up to 7mph (8:35/mile pace). And for the last half mile I did bumped it up to 7.5mph (8:00/mile pace). An 8 minute mile pace was pushing it for me a month ago. So that 8 minute pace for even just a half a mile kicked my butt. I knew I needed to kick my own ass for even just a half mile as a small extra punishment for all my time off.

I took a post run pic of myself in the gym bathroom. I have named this the "huff and puff face." How ridiculous do I look? My face was beet red. I don't think that's captured in this pic very accurately. I am, however, wearing one of my favorite running shirts. If I am going to have a horrible run - I would like it to be in my pink and yellow livestrong shirt.

Back at it....

So, the last week has not been the most successful training week for me. I was sick last Wednesday, I was recovering Thursday and Friday, and we began moving on Saturday.

The good news is that we have moved back into our own place. We really appreciated the opportunity to live with Justin's parents and save money while living there...the time has come for us to live on our own again. January 1 marked one year that Justin lived with his parents. I moved there at the end of February/first of March...so my one year mark was quickly approaching.

We moved this past weekend into a duplex. And, quite honestly, it is in my in law's back yard. We are literally .4 of a mile from my in law's house. I know this from running the loop in their neighborhood often, ha.

We are slowly, but surely finding a place for everything. We got rid of a lot of furniture when we moved from Kansas City because we didn't have space in our storage unit for everything. So, needless to say, we are in the market for some new furniture. We have hand-me-down couches...which we are ok with for now. We have our master bedroom set which we love (until we move again...and we will get a king). And we have 2 beds for spare bedrooms. We need: a tv stand, end tables, coffee table, computer desk, and some bookcases. Once we get all of that furniture - we will be complete. :)

On the training front - with everything going on, I have not done much. AKA I have not run since my awesome work out last Tuesday. I really need to get after it and get back to my training plan. Based on my plan - I am at week 4. So I feel like as long as I get back on track Sunday with my long run (5 miles) then I am good. I have got to hit these long runs at an absolute minimum. Of course I want to get all of my work outs in, but I feel like as long as I am upping my mileage each week then I will be ok. But, I want to be more than ok. I want to rock this 13.1 I have a lot of work to to do. I have exactly 3 months, 1 week, and 4 days to go before Nashville.

Side note: the 5k that I was recently talking about...it got cancelled. It was supposed to be this past Sunday. Thankfully - it was cancelled due to ice/snow on a major hill of the course. By cancelled...I mean postponed. It's going to be the end of January instead. I am cool with that. I was feeling very run down on Sunday morning so this works better for me. The cool thing about this race? I paid $25 as an entry fee (pretty normal around here) and I get $20 back in gift certificate form to a local running store. SCORE! I got a fabulous gift card from my in law's for Christmas to this store. So add $20 to that and I should be able to get fitted and new running shoes without much out of pocket. Holla!

Here's to getting back on track this weekend. *tink*tink*

Sickly

Yeah, so much for that whole "better, faster, stronger" comment from Tuesday night. I was feeling really great after that workout...that was until about 3:30Am Thursday. I woke up to a sour stomach that felt like it was in knots. I foolishly thought I could shut my eyes and sleep it off. I was oh so wrong.

I was up at least twice an hour for the next 5 or so hours. It was miserable. I am pretty sure my body was getting rid of absolutely everything in my system at that point. I was finally able to rest for about an hour around 10am. The frequent trips to the bathroom finally stopped completely around noon on Thursday. Then came the body aches.

I attempted a shower around 3pm. That proved to be a bit of a mistake...a bath might have been a better idea. When I got in the shower - I couldn't get the water hot enough. I was so cold. I got through shampoo just fine. I put conditioner in my hair and then went to soap my body. I was completely worn out at this point. I got incredibly hot and light headed. I turned the water to cool, opened the shower curtain a little...nothing seemed to help. I quickly tried to rinse my hair and the soap off, but not quickly enough. I thought for sure I was going to pass out before I could get the water turned off and myself out of the shower. Luckily, that did not happen. I grabbed a towel and sat on the bathroom rug for a few minutes. I sat there freezing until I got some strength back to me. That was enough excitement for me for the day. I spent the rest of the night on the couch or in bed.

Needless to say, I did not get my cross training in yesterday. Today I went to work. I probably should have taken an extra day off to get a little more rest. This would have left my shift incredibly short so I felt guilty. Luckily, we were not too busy so I had time to rest in between patients. Water was my number one priority today as I felt so dehydrated.

No running for me today either. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day so I will definitely follow that. :) Saturday is another cross training day, but we are moving so I figure that is cross training enough. I am supposed to run in a 5k on Sunday, but my training calls for 5 miles...plus, the weather here is frigid. We will see how moving goes, how I am feeling, and how the weather is. That race may not happen for me.

I hope the stomach bug, flu, whatever it was stays away from everyone else. It sucks!

Just gorgeous, darling!

I received the 'gorgeous blogger award' from Tiffany from Baby Fish. Thanks, girl!

Yes! Something to blog about...sad, isn't it??

Rules:
1. Accept and thank the blogger who gave this to you.
2. List 10 things about yourself.
3. List 5 additional things that you don't like.
4. Award this to 10 fellow bloggers.

10 things about me:
1. I was born in a hospital who is nicknamed "Deathwell."
2. I have always wanted an old VW Bug.
3. I learned (just last night, actually) that my dad has always wanted an old VW Bug. I guess that's where I got the idea.
4. Cinnamon toast is my favorite breakfast food...especially when it's made in the broiler.
5. I am the only person I know who likes the taste of red bull. I really wish that they would make caffeine free (and sugar free) red bull - I would LOVE it.
6. The only major injury I ever had during my 14 years of playing soccer was a head-on-head collision with another girl during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. It resulted in about 36 stitches and a broken nose. Other than that, just a few sprained ankles.
7. During one of our trips moving from KC - I stopped to meet my cousin to give her some wedding stuff and I managed to lock my keys in the car with it running. Justin had a spare key, but he was about 90 minutes behind me. I have locked keys in the car before, but never with it running.
8. I did the electric slide to 'Achy Breaky Heart' in 2nd grade.
9. Also in 2nd grade was the election that Bill Clinton became president. My elementary school did a ballot, etc. I voted for Bill Clinton - totally uneducated vote, but I think it's crazy that I even remember that.
10. I love the Shrek movies. I am excited for another one to come out, but I hope it doesn't ruin it for me.

5 things I don't like:
1. Spiders.
2. Heights.
3. The sound of styrofoam being scratched.
4. This haircut I got today (I might post pics if my camera decides to work today).
5. Pineapple.

From what I can tell - just about everyone has already been awarded this. If you haven't, then I award YOU! It's genuine, I promise.

Moving...

Moving sucks.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who actually enjoys moving. If they do, they are nuts. And by moving I mean the actual packing, loading boxes/furniture into a truck, unpacking, and putting away everything.

We attempted to move from Kansas City this last weekend. Unfortunately, since Justin started his job at the first of the year and I didn't start until March (and I left KC about 2 weeks after finding out I got the job) - we did ZERO packing before leaving for Columbia. We packed up the bare minimum that would get us by in Columbia. Other than that, everything was left in KC.

That was mistake #1. And mistake #2 was made by thinking we could get our entire house packed and moved 2 hours away in a weekend.

And, fear not, there was a mistake #3. Mistake #3 came when I got off work on Friday evening. Justin asked if I wanted to wait until Saturday morning to leave for KC. I agreed and continued to make mistakes #4 and #5 (are you still with me??). We met up with the fam to have some drinks Friday evening and then met up with some friends to close the bar down Friday night (collectively mistake #4). I then woke up at the crack of dawn (7:30...that's the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning for me) to watch my little brother play baseball. He had a double header starting at 8. Of course, I could not leave after the first game so I stayed for the 2nd (mistake #5). I didn't leave Columbia until about 12:30 on Saturday.

So if you are following...that's Friday evening and half of Saturday wasted. When I finally made it to KC, Justin was already there and at a friend's house because he didn't take a house key with him. OYE! I needed a nap at that point. So I asked Justin to let me sleep for 45-60 min. That turned into about 90 minutes because he was enjoying the company of his friend. So it's now about 5pm on Saturday.

Instead of getting right to packing/moving then, we decided we should grill burgers. So while the boys prepared and cooked burgers, I packed. I got a few boxes packed on Saturday...but no where near the amount we needed to pack in order to be ready for the in-laws to bring a trailer to load up on Sunday morning.

After dinner (oh and a movie) on Saturday night, we were worthless so we went to bed. We planned to get up around 9 on Sunday. As you can probably imagine, that didn't happened. We started packing about 10:30 on Sunday morning...with the in-laws planning to arrive about 12:30 ready to load things up.

Believe it or not, we got about 60-70% of our house packed and furniture disassembled by the time they got there. I was impressed with us considering how the rest of our weekend had gone.

By the time 6pm rolled around on Sunday we were D-U-N, done. :)

We still have about 25% left to do. Unfortunately, that means another planned trip back to KC to finish.

I hate moving under any circumstances.

I have quickly realized that I hate moving when it's:
A. moving long distance
B. completely put off until the last minute
C. preceded by slacking and procrastination (goes along with b).

I don't plan to move into another house until we can afford to build it how we want and make it our forever home. Other than that, we will move some things into an apartment in the mean time...1 apartment followed by 1 house and then never move again is the plan for right now.

And just based on this post, we can all now tell how good we are at executing plans. :)