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.

Accountability

I am happy to report that my 5:30am wake up call followed by a run was successful last Saturday. I may or may not have hit snooze a couple of times, but I did make it out the door by a little after 6. Not bad considering I was seriously doubting myself to even get out of bed that early.

Since I was getting started a little later than I would have liked - I knew that I was going to have to cut my mileage shorter than I had planned. I ended up running a little over 3 miles. Not a great distance, but at least I made it out there.

The first mile of my run was pretty darn dark. It was a new experience for me. My eyes and mind were playing tricks on me. I really wasn't a fan of it all. I will definitely be asking for a head lamp for Christmas...along with reflective gear. I pointed all of this out to Justin last weekend when we were at a sporting goods store. :)

I am also happy to report that Mizzou won their first game. It was a close one, but they pulled it out.

Justin and I made the trip to Tempe, AZ this past weekend to watch Mizzou play at Arizona State. We weren't quite so fortunate there. We lost in overtime. It was disappointing, but they rallied to come back in the 4th quarter so I don't think it was a complete loss.

I got up fairly early in Tempe to go for a run as well. Our hotel was very close to the campus so I did a few miles around their campus. I know people mention that Arizona is a dry heat....I'm sorry, but 90* is 90* regardless of the "type" of heat. It was only 7am at the point, mind you. I think it got up to 113* that day before a little bit of rain came through.

I don't have much more to report at this point. Mizzou is back at home this weekend and it's a 6pm game. We will probably start tailgating around noon so a morning run should not be that hard to manage. There is a Susan G Komen 5k this Sunday, but I haven't signed up just yet. I know Saturday will be a long night so a race the next day may not go so well. I will probably still do the race just because of the cause, but I don't anticipate good results.

A lot of the blogs I read post their weekly training plan and then follow up with how they did later in the week. I think this is something I may have to try out around here. I know there for a while this blog was a way to keep me accountable and I would feel guilty missing runs because I knew I would report back here that I missed them. So, I think if I post my weekly plan then I might stick to it more. At this point I am not training for anything in particular. I have a half in mind for the spring so I am loosely training for that, but it's still 6 months away so it's not a major deal right now.

I hope everyone is enjoying the break in the crazy hot temps (at least around here). If you are not, I'm sorry. I hope relief comes soon. I know my pace has dropped a few seconds with the temperature drop. I can only hope that continues...in a big way.

Later, y'all!

Update..

Once again, I have done a horrible job at blogging over the last month or so. I don't feel like I have anything excited to talk about. Plus, my camera only works 1/2 the time so I don't take many pictures to upload here. I know that I enjoy posts from other people with pics so I am sure the few times I do update - they are probably pretty boring to everyone because the content is generally boring plus there are no pics.

So the last month...

-We have watched my little brother play baseball a lot this spring. I am so happy to be back in Columbia so that we can catch most of his games. They are all 10 or 11 years old and they are really fun to watch. They are starting to understand the game much better and they are getting pretty skilled at their specific positions. It's much more fun than a couple of years ago when there were kids who didn't have a clue. Rian pitches quite a bit, which I love to watch. He is doing so well. I hope that he keeps it up because I think he is going to continue to grow into a great player.

-We are still living with the in-laws. It's not ideal for anyone involved, but it's going pretty well. We definitely can't complain.

-My job is going very well. I am learning a ton each day. I have been told multiple times that I am learning very quickly and that they are impressed with how well I have done so far. I feel great about that, obviously. After my first week, I never thought I would get to a point where I feel so comfortable so quickly. I am very happy with this switch. And after a budget meeting earlier this week, it seems that MRI is one of the few sub-departments in radiology that are doing well. So, at the moment, my job is not in jeopardy. That's some great peace of mind to have.

-Justin's job is going well also. He does a lot of gopher work still. He is slowly working his way into doing more cases. He goes to a week long training in May. After that training, I think he will be better equipped to start selling some of the orthopaedic implants. He is doing a great job so far and I am really proud of him.

-Our 2 year wedding anniversary is in just over a month. Some days it seems like there is no way we could be married for that long...and other days it feels like we have been married for 10 years. We are also just a couple of weeks away from our 8 year dating anniversary. We don't have plans for our anniversary yet. I think we will probably just do something fairly low-key again this year. Last year we spent the night in a hotel in KC...we went to dinner, went to a comedy club, and out for a couple of drinks afterwards. Nothing too exciting. We do, however, plan to go to St. Lucia next year for our anniversary. I really hope that we are actually able to swing that. We definitely need a trip away just the two of us...and to a beach, my request. :)

So that's our exciting life in a nut shell.

And speaking of my less than par functioning camera...does you have any recommendations for a good point and shoot camera??