I can finally relax

Another whirlwind of a weekend. May wedding#2 is in the books. No one wanted it to end especially the bride! My friend looked amazing and nearly everything was perfect. The rain once again held off until just as the last person in the recessional walked off. Unbelievable timing. I danced my booty off which is good because I drank a lot of corona's and had a lot of delicious, aka bad, food. Had two very late nights...let's just say I was one of the last few hanging on (and usually only girl) both Friday and Saturday night and I can't remember the last time I stayed up until 4am! I'm too old for this stuff ;) There were a lot of laughs and catching up with old friends and current friends so in my book that's a success. And even with all my late night partying on Friday I was up and at em early enough on Saturday to get in a workout. A friend and I went on a short trail run got a bit lost then ran back to the hotel and went to the gym for another 40 minutes. It felt great though and it was nice to actually have a friend to workout and run with this time. Then he is uber healthy boy so it was easy for me to eat a healthy breakfast even though I wasn't so good the rest of the day :) I am more exhausted now than I've been in awhile. This go, go, go state I have been in over the last 6 weeks finally caught up with me today. I felt as if I had been hit by a truck. So after we got home I took the day to catch up on Indiana Jones movies over on the Sci Fi channel then Grey's Anatomy episodes. It was great not to do anything!

Feeling Guilty

I ended up sleeping in this morning as I couldn't fall asleep until nearly 3 am last night. Therefore no workout today and I am feeling guilty. I had a great plan at 7:30 am to sleep some more and get to site then catch an earlier flight home to workout in Chicago and then run to the store for some healthy dinner food...Yeah, so no earlier flight. I really don't know why I thought there was a flight before mine??? Then my flight was delayed nearly an hour so I didn't walk in the door until after 8pm. At which time I was starving and inhaled the only edible items in the house - a lean cuisine then some carrots, hummus, dried cherries, and almonds. (random I know but I didn't want to leave the house again to pick up food to make a normal dinner). And this is yet another example of why I seriously can not wait for the day I don't have to travel on a regular basis for my job! Tomorrow is my long run so no missing that run!

This and That

20 minutes of weights is better than no minutes of weights - right? That's what I told myself today. I squeezed in a short but I think effective workout before heading off to the airport today. I did go on a easy 4 mile run yesterday with Jacob. He actually went all 4 miles with me! Yeah Jacob! My visit starts a little later tomorrow morning and even though it is a bit late I hope to wake up and do some sort of cardio. My schedule is all messed up this week and I think I may be doing my long run on Thursday instead of the weekend. At least it will get done this week :)

In other non-running related news - we received our first wedding gift!!! So fun receiving presents in the mail from people I don't know (relatives of Jacob's I have never met). And what is you might ask? Just the coolest 8 inch omlette pan you have ever seen ;) I'll be mixing some of the tastiest spinach, mushroom, cheese and 1 egg + egg white omlettes! I also was giving myself mad props last night for FINALLY figuring out my map and direction information to go in with the invitation. I'll have to put pictures up later. But if I don't say so myself my little booklet looks very professional. I surprise myself weekly with my newfound craftiness.

Week in Review 2

Wow, what a long weekend that went by so fast. Does that even make sense? I am exhausted but happy to finally be home. My friend's wedding went nearly perfect. Her now father in law drank in excess and called the 2 of us lezbo's because we were dancing together in order to avoid him. Nice. He most likely doesn't remember that part of the evening. Anyways, she looked beautiful and the rain held off until the day was nearly over. I've never seen her happier and at the end of the day that is all the matters. Oh and that the bridesmaid dresses for this wedding rocked! And see those pearls - they're real! One of the bride and grooms friend works in India and got a great deal. What a sweet bridesmaid gift! Not a great picture of the two of us but all that I have. Not really in the picture taking mood this weekend.
But before the fun could be had in central IL I carved out an hour of my morning to complete Nancy's 10k on the 9th er 10th! I felt like crap but powered through the crappy feeling. I ate too much for breakfast, went out to fast, had a blood blister pop at mile 2 (blood blister came from running through O'hare in heals not running), and finally just plain wanted to give up and walk starting at mile 3. Even with all that and the lack of crowd or course support (my own fault I suppose for not picking a better course) I finished. I couldn't imagine trying to come back and write about how I gave up because of my lack of motivation. Plus, knowing so many others were running and possibly going through the same thing helped get me through the hour. I think this run ended up being an excellent precursor to my 10 mile run in 2 weeks. So the stats

1 - 7:59
2 - 8:11 (pop goes the blister)
3 - 8:26
4 - 8:35
5 - 8:46 (just plain wanted to give up but then didn't want to write about walking in my blog)
6 - 8:31 (almost finished)
7 (.2 miles) - 8:04 (finally done!)

Average pace of 8:24 with a final time of 52:07 :) Thanks again Nancy! Looking forward to the next one for sure. And Happy Mothers Day to all you moms! Hope you had a wonderful day.

Eh..

Really I wanted to title this Worst Run Ever but I felt that may be a bit negative. I'm in southern IL and there are some severe storms moving through so I took the run indoors. I was scheduled to run 6 mile tempo run with 4 miles at 8:30. Yeah, not so much. I got through 4.5 miles with 3 at an 8:30 pace and that was a struggle. Not that I was out of breath but rather my limbs just didn't want to move or work in any sort of cohesive manner. The room was extremely warm as well and I'm not sure that helped. I probably could have made it to five if severe stomach cramping hadn't started. From what? Who knows...At least I was able to get a 10 minute cool down done on the bike. It's something I guess. Next struggle finding something healthy to eat. Not too much to choose from in these parts. There is a Mexican restaurant, Steak and Shake, or Ruby Tuesdays. I'm going to search some more. Maybe I can find some wonderful local restaurant :)

Lots to do and no time to get it done

Stressed that is the word of the week. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Except somehow I manage to blog about my stress...hmmm...can we say avoidance? I leave in a couple hours to head to a lovely suburb of St. Louis for 1 night, then up to southern IL, then back home on Thursday night. I am only supposed to work a 1/2 on Friday in order to have enough time to get out of the city to make it to my friends rehearsal dinner in time. Then wedding on Saturday and finally drive down in further central IL for mother's day with Jacob's mom then drive home so I can start my week over with wedding #2. In between that time I need to fit in some random runs, make it to the store b/c we are running low on such necessities as toilet paper and contact solution, get a manicure and pedicure because I was told to by the bride, need to return some items I bought that didn't work out before the return window expires, another store to pick up some champagne for the brides to be, and oh yeah and get some work done. I'm sure there is more to do but my head hurts. I really need to run today for my own sanity but I don't think that is going to happen either.

Ran an easy 5 miles yesterday. My body still feels heavy and dragging on my runs but at the end I am always glad I ran. Hopefully this feeling wears off by the time my 10 mile run comes around on the 24th.

Week in Review

Oh wedding season is in full force. And I'm not talking about my own. As I may have mentioned once or twice before I am standing up in two weddings back to back. #1 is this coming Saturday in central Illinois. Full Catholic mass = One long day. #2 is the following. Bachelorette party #2 was last night. For a girl who wasn't looking forward to last night the bride seemed to have fun. Mission accomplished. I can't wait until May 31st. That's the first weekend that is mine. All mine. Even the fiance is out of town that weekend. I probably won't know what to do with myself when that weekend arrives! Actually that's the weekend I have set aside to assemble and address my invitations. Anyone care to help? ;) Yes, I really do have to plan that far in advance for my wedding stuff. And no, I'm not a planner by nature. I procrastinate. Maybe it's good I have so much on my plate. Otherwise the invitations may never get done and I just spent $$$$ for a wedding no one will attend b/c I was too lazy to get invitations done and sent! So being busy with others weddings and wedding related activates as well as traveling all over the country for work is a good thing ;)

Onto running for the week. They were just okay. I was able to get 9 miles done yesterday morning before leaving for the day long party. Not a stellar pace (9 something) but I made it back before the ominous clouds broke loose. The speedwork session I had scheduled for Weds didn't go so well. It was supposed to be 3x1600 and I could only get through 2 1600's and 1 800. At least it was something. With the warm up, recovery jogs, and cool down it was around 6 miles. And my easy run on Thursday felt more hard than easy. I think my body is a little run down from everything going on right now. I just need some sleep. Today is my day off so hopefully tomorrow will be better.