T-6 Days.

I LOVE Thanksgiving.  Like an unhealthy amount.  All my favorite foods, dessert everywhere I turn and wine.  I would say this might be my favorite day of the whole entire year and this year is no exception!  My birthday is actually on Monday so I have that and then three days later, Thanksgiving!  It’s like the best birthday present ever  But since it’s still 6 days away, I will distract myself from the thoughts of food and sugar with a random Friday post!

1) Yesterday I managed to snag two iPad smart covers + a plastic back cover for $40!  Aka half price!  I’ve been super classy since I got my iPad and use random blankets and bowls to prop my iPad up when I am watching it. But finally I am moving up in the world and will have an iPad stand!  And also my sister will be the recipient of the second since I couldn’t leave her out of the deals!

2) I officially joined a Gym on Saturday and have been there a whopping… 1 time.  Um, oops.  This is why I was hesitant to join.  I am hoping I can turn this around after this weekend!

3) Speaking of this weekend!  The Girls on the Rn 5k is Sunday!  How has it been 10 weeks already?  I swear we just started the season and it’s already over.  I am kind of looking forward to having my Tuesday and Thursday evenings back (for gym time) but I am going to miss the girls…

4) Pinterest is that thing that I never knew I needed to plan my Thanksgiving menu.  How convenient is it to find a recipe and just PIN IT ON A THANKSGIVING BOARD?!?!  Genius!!  No more finding recipes and then forgetting about them.  And no more pinning things with no intention of baking/cooking what you pin.  Finally Pinterest is making sense to me

5) I have become addicted to So Delicious Coconut Coffee Creamer.  No, there are not 32 servings in a small container, that is clearly a misprint – ha!  It makes French toast taste amazing also!

6) I also NEED to renew my driver’s license!!  Like NOW!  But I lost my renewal slip… hopefully I can still renew without it.  I’m a moron.  Maybe I will attempt this at lunch today.  It only expires Monday… #procrasinator And I will finally look slightly older than 12 years old on my license (hopefully…)

7) It’s officially cold outside and that makes me kind of sad  I love fall while we have pretty leaves and cool temps but once it makes that shift to cold + dead, yuck.

8) This weekend I will start Christmas shopping… I am not that fond of shopping and I swear every year to plan ahead and order stuff online.  I think I still will try to for family but for the giving tree thing we do at work, I’ll have to settle for braving the madness.

9) Never leave valuables in your car.  Sister’s was broken into on Monday and now we are both paranoid x10 about everything… I really hate that feeling.

10) No long run planned this weekend and that makes me way too happy.

That’s all I got today.  Happy Friday!

Friday Factoids.

Clearly nothing I ever say on Friday is earth shattering but then again not much I say here is EVER earth shattering…  But this Friday I feel so very devoid of factoids to type up I feel like I am at a loss!  So instead, here is a list of things I am loving at the moment! (read: this week, will likely change next)

1.  The Olympics!  No surprise there but I have somehow not gotten to watch much this week because of evening activities so I feel like this weekend will be extra full of them!  Go Team USA!  Plus track & field start this weekend!

2. My bike  I’m so happy that this is finally clicking a lot more for me and I am not struggling nearly as much as I was that first week!  I’m planning to do my long weekend ride this afternoon because my work is closing at 12:30 for our annual picnic (which I am skipping)!  I’m shooting for somewhere over 20 miles – hopefully 25-28 or whatever my legs can tolerate.

3. Ice Tea Lemonade from Starbucks!  It’s especially good with passion tea and I get it unsweetened because the lemonade is sweet enough to me!  Such a glass of summer! (I keep typing Lemonaid.  Really, Kinley?)

Plus it’s a pretty color!

4. Kit’s Organic Fruit and Nut Bars.  I know I said this last week but yesterday I had the Chocolate Almond Coconut and about died and went to heaven.  These things are ridiculously good!!!  Like German Chocolate Cake but slightly healthier!

5. The Stick.  Man, I thought a foam roller knew how to find the knots and sore muscles but man, that has nothing on The Stick!

With my new shoes!

6. The fact that my leg feels SO much better!  I have no idea what happened to make it right itself but running seems to make it go away?? Try to explain that one… I’m at a loss…

7. The following salad combination: Lettuce (obv), sunflower seeds, craisins, feta, and this dressing.  So crazy good together!  I’d been in a serious salad funk and wasn’t finding a dressing that made me enjoy them but this dressing did the trick.  That and finding a Catalina that was semi-decent ingredient-wise.  I am a Catalina dressing addict!

8. Physique 57.  Sister just got this DVD series this week and I did my first routine(?!) last night and it was a pretty good workout.  I’m excited to see if it tones your core as much as it says it will – my core needs to suck it up so I don’t hurt my back again.  I’ve been majorly slacking in this department lately! Although I have never felt like such an inflexible cow as when doing this workout.  I can’t do some of the moves I am so out of shape for that kind of thing… I’m just glad I’m not on video tape doing these moves… that would be um… interesting to say the least.  Although I highly doubt I will EVER be able to do the splits and/or place my leg next to my ear….

9.That it’s Friday!!!  This week went fast so that is a significant improvement over last week!  Bring on the weekend

Last Friday of June.

How is June over already?  I swear it was just winter and already the summer is half over.  Although in some ways, it feels like its been summer forever because it has been hot since February.  But whichever way you view it, June is almost over!  And that is crazy to me!  To end another week, here are some random tidbits for ya:

1) I am so glad the marathon took place LAST weekend and not this weekend.  It was hot two weekends ago, and now this weekend heat is forecast.  It appears for once I picked something just right that aligned with the weather.  Small victory!

2) I had been planning to paint the outside of my house this weekend but I have zero interest in doing this when it is 90 degrees outside.  I have no reason to get it done in a time frame so I might as well wait until I no longer bake just walking around.

3) I freaked out that my air conditioner was broken the other night.  On the eve of 100 degree temps… good thing Sister is a wizz and fixed it somehow!

4) I FINALLY have a haircut tomorrow.  I am about 4+ weeks over due!  I was supposed to have one the first week of the month but since I needed to run long that weekend, I had to postpone, then I had a graduation party and a marathon so now I can finally get a haircut!  It’s the little things that make my life happy.

5) Acupuncture helped my legs recover quite a bit!  I felt extra relaxed and jell-oey after my treatment on Tuesday but as long as it helped, I really don’t care how out of it I am

6) Now I want to make Jello…

7) I am planning to take about 3 weeks off of running and then add in 2 mile runs a few days a week.  I am hoping this helps reset my brain and legs after a ridiculously long training cycle.  Next marathon, I will train 3-4 months.  Nothing more!

8) I also have not been to the gym in over a month.  Ha!  I am going to attempt the classes I used to like next week and if I still don’t really enjoy them, I am dropping the gym.  There are just way too many at home/outside exercises I actually enjoy to keep going to a gym that just pisses me off.

9) I have been struggling to resist eating Blue Moon ice cream every night after dinner this week.  I have managed to only eat one spoonful serving which I consider a success  I forgot how much I LOVE this ice cream flavor and it has been way too long since I ate it.  I have a feeling it is going to be part of my list of preferred treats for the rest of summer!

10) I’m already anxiously counting down the days until my next race  I might have to add in a 5k later this summer just because!  I’ve never “raced” a 5k so I am not sure that I would like them…

11) I want to have a picnic lunch this weekend!

12) I want to order this and this and this.  Must hide the credit cards!

I guess that is enough randomness for now.  It’s going to feel so weird not running at all this weekend.  I honestly cannot remember the last weekend that did not include at least 6 miles of running…  Happy Friday!

Question: What is your favorite distance to race?  Mine is probably the half marathon.  I like how I can surprise myself by running rather “fast” but also test my endurance just enough

48 Hours.

Friday again!  Man, this week went fast again, not like I don’t say that every single week but whatever  This is a very special Friday though because it is Marathon Eve Eve!  And to celebrate, how about some randoms!

1) I will be standing at the start line of a Marathon in about 48 hours.  This is absolutely crazy!

2) If you didn’t catch this yesterday, I did a guest post over on Kimberly’s blog about my plans to switch things up a bit and focus more on Insanity for a while after Sunday.  I also really liked her post from earlier this week about making yourself have an “On Second Thought” moment and find the positives in everything.

3) I thought race medals were no longer that exciting to me after my Disney medals but then I saw the picture of the marathon and I got really excited again!  It’s shaped like a football and is no joke!  So excited for this baby!

4) In normal years, this marathon actually finished in the football stadium for the Packers but since they are doing a big reno this year, the finish line in in the parking lot of the stadium and the finish line is touted to be the Greatest Tailgating Party Ever!  I hope people don’t get too excited because watching runners seems even more boring than watching a football game

5) To all the new followers from yesterday, WELCOME!  Hopefully I don’t scare you away too soon

6) Speaking of marathons (because that’s all I seem to be able to think about this week…) I got an email yesterday that Walt Disney released the 20th anniversary marathon course!  It looks so much better than previous years and now involves running on a speedway and also through the sporting complex at ESPN Sports Center.  Makes me even more excited I just bit the bullet and signed up when registration opened

7) On a TOTALLY unrelated note, I really want to update my bedroom a little bit… I’ve had the same bedding/decor for 5ish years and I’m getting tired of cleaning all the dog hair off of the dark navy blue coloring the comforter is now.  I don’t plan to repaint but want to update the other stuff… And I really want these lamps from Target…

8) I totally thought last weeks Grey’s Anatomy was the season finale… and then I saw comments about the new episode this week.  What the heck?!  I guess I have to watch that on ABC.go.com… This is one of those shows I don’t really love but still want to keep up with for some reason.

9) The forecast for Sunday now involves slightly cooler temps but a larger chance of T-storms.  Progress, right?!?  Either way, it’s gonna be OK.  I’ll just bring plastic baggies to wrap the garmin and ipod to keep them safe!

10) I still need to update my playlist!!!!!  I plan to have a special one for miles 20-26.2 with all the best songs.  Gotta wait until then to hear them for some extra motivation

11) I have skipped all my regular exercise classes this past week and instead did more walking and yoga.  It’s been kind of nice to take things easy for a good reason  Hopefully my legs are still able to run on Sunday… the longer I go between actual exercise sessions, the more I doubt I can do it.  And as much as I hate yoga, it helped loosen my tight legs so much yesterday… maybe I better give it another chance…

12) I guess that is enough for right now!  I’ll be back some this weekend to hopefully update you that I finished a marathon!!!  Yikes!  Marathon Weekend has begun!

Happy Friday!