Ryaaaaaan!!!!

Tonight Caitlin and I ran 7 miles in 1 hour 21 minutes.  The pace was very comfortable, which was awesome because my knees have felt tight all day.  We headed out before her boyfriend, Ryan, got home, so she left him a map of our route.  I assume he was trying to catch us and took a short cut, because as we were approaching a road that was perpendicular to the road we were on, we saw him run by.  He had on headphones and didn't hear us yelling his name, and he was so quick that there was no way we could catch him.  It was pretty funny.  If I had thought about it at the time, I would have taken a picture of him running ahead of us. 

Well time to ice my knees.  I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

P.S.  Tonight my Garmin Forerunning 305 was charging, I took it off to figure out what my time was, and then it would not turn on.  Based on a Google search, I saw that it is recommended to do a soft reset by holding down both the "mode" and "reset" button for 10 seconds.  I did that and nothing happened.  I did it again and nothing happened.  But then I tried turning it on using the power button and that worked.  So if anyone else has that problem, I suggest the soft reset.

Easy run and Self Love - Exercise

Tonight was an easy run with Caitlin.  3 miles in 33 minutes.  Perfect for chatting.

Still working on my very slow catch-up of 30 Days of Self Love. 
Here is another post:  Exercise (click here for Tina's original post, which I highly recommend). 

Tina posed the questions:

Has exercise ever controlled your life or defined you in a negative way? 

What ways can/do you pursue fitness for health and a stronger sense of self? 

Sure, I have become obsessed with exercise at some point.  When it stops being fun, that is when I know I need to change my views on exercise.  Of course there are days when I don't feel like running but know I need to run for training... that is not what I'm referring to.  I mean when I become overly obsessed with make sure I work-out.  Luckily that is not the case now, nor has it been in some time.  It is important to not let exercising control your life but rather to use it to improve and balance your life.  That leads me to question two.  You can pursue fitness for health and a stronger sense by working out to keep yourself happy.  Part of my marathon training is for me.  It helps me keep a consistent running routine, which is great because I feel better when I work out consistently (again, consistently is not the same as constantly).  Crossing that finish line will be just another way of showing myself that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to do.  So can you!

Quote:

"A good goal is like a strenuous exercise - it makes you stretch." ~Mary Kay Ash

Worms

This is one of those random memory posts, inspired by The Pioneer Woman's blog today.

When I was in the sixth grade, our teacher would give us a topic on the chalk board and we had to write in our journal about it.  Being creative, I made each day a poem.  My teacher actually submitted one of my poems, and it was published in a young writers anthology.  I'm pretty sure they accepted any submission, but I will never forget the day the book arrived.  My dad ordered multiple copies.  I will never forget his expression.

I'd like to think I wrote much more age-appropriate and more serious poems back then, but here is the poem that my teacher submitted (I mean really, how inspiring can the topic "worms" be?).  My really silly poem:

Worms

Worms are slimy,

Worms are gross,

Worms are sticky

like jelly on toast.

Worms dig holes 

the size of their skin.

Their ears are smaller

than a hole made by a pin.

Worms are really nasty.

They're gross from the inside out.

Just looking at them makes me pout.

There is no other term for worms except

EWWWWWWW!!!

Quote of the day

For anyone who follows me on Facebook, you know that this past year I have become obsessed with posting a quote a day.  It helps me put life into perspective by starting the day off with a quote that makes me think.  I thought I would share today's quote on my blog, since it especially spoke to me today.

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.  To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.  To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
~Henry David Thoreau

Sleep does a body good

Friday night, Chris and I went out to dinner with our friend Kyle.  On Saturday, our original plan was to get up, go for a run together (I needed a third run for the week), clean, then hang out with his family.  Instead we slept in (it was wonderful!) then did a lot of cleaning.  Then his family came into town to celebrate his birthday early.  We went shopping, out to dinner, celebrated with cake, and just had a great time.  Unfortunately, I still needed a third run for the week.  Putting it off wasn't the best idea, but we still fit it in!  We ran 3 miles (in 28:06) last night around 9:30 pm.  My stomach was full from dinner and cake, so it wasn't the most amazing run, but I was glad we did it.

Mile 1:  9:54 (I was lagging behind)
Mile 2:  9:23
Mile 3:  8:47  (Why?  I have no idea!  But we both felt like throwing up at the end.)

That officially marks 40 weeks in a row that I have run at least 3 days a week.  I am determined to make it through the end of the year!

This also concluded week 12 of marathon training with a total of 21.26 miles (yay for over 20!!).

Chris's dad is a doctor, so yesterday also included flu shots.  I hate shots.  I am the biggest wuss in the world when it comes to shots.  As a result of the shot, both Chris and I are feeling rather "blah" today.  I don't have a lot of energy... well really all I want to do is sleep.  So I slept in.  And... I took a nap.  It was fabulous.  Sleeping seems to help me fight off sickness.  Last year when we got our flu shots, I felt like this for a day, but then I was fine.  I'm sure I will feel back to normal tomorrow. 

It was awesome having Chris's mom here to discuss all my current wedding ideas.  I know, I know... we are planning for a long engagement, but I cannot help looking!  Besides, that is the beauty of a long engagement... planning with the stress of saying I'm planning.  It was so cool showing her everything that I have come up with.  Last weekend I got to tell my  mom, so now I got to share it with my future mother-in-law.  (o:

I had a realization the other day.  Today is 10-10-10.  Next year we will hit 11-11-11, then the following year 12-12-12.... but there isn't a 13-13-13.  Which means that unless I live until we hit 01-01-01 again, then 12-12-12 will be it.  How sad.  I guess I will at least get to see 12-13-14.  I don't know what made me think of this, but I thought it was interesting.

I hope you all are having a great 10-10-10!  I hope the Chicago marathoners had a wonderful race!  I'm off to do more relaxing!

10-10-10

Good luck to all of those running the Chicago Marathon today, especially my friend Rebecca!  You all rock!  I soooo cannot wait until my first marathon in February!

Follow your heart...

This post was inspired by Caitlin @ The Healthy Tipping Point.  She asked in her post this morning "What dreams do you want to achieve?  What things have you ticked off your bucket list?"

In regards to "what dreams do you want to achieve?"... I am currently working on the dream of getting my PhD, so that is nothing new.  One day I want to will write and illustrate a children's book.  That has been one of my dreams for as long as I can remember, and I look forward to making it happen. 

The very first thoughts that came to mind for the bucket list question were skydiving, grape stomping like in I Love Lucy, and following my heart. 

I'd like to elaborate on the last.  I always told myself that I wanted to follow my heart for the important decisions; however, I am one of those people who is very much always "in my head".  When I was nearing the end of my Master's degree, I was trying to find a job.  That same year I started dating Chris.  We had only officially been dating for about 3 months when I went on a job interview in Georgia; however, my heart wanted to see where things would go with Chris.  I had never felt so happy with someone.  While it was an awkward conversation for me to bring up, I told him that I loved him and wanted to continue to see how things progressed with us.  It was awkward to start that conversation, but the actual conversation was not awkward.  He agreed.  After that conversation, everything seemed to fall into place.  My adviser suggested I go for my doctorate, and that he would have funding for me.  That was another life-long dream, so I was very excited!  A few weeks later I got a call telling me I was one of the top finalist for the job, and they were going to begin the background check.  I told them not to bother, because I had decided to pursue my doctorate degree (and what I didn't tell them but was thinking... I decided to pursue my heart.) By deciding to follow my heart I not only ended up pursuing my dream to get a PhD, but I am now engaged to the most amazing man in the world.  I think that life has a funny way of working out, don't you?
 

I have what seems to be endless dreams and bucket-list items, which I will continue to share.  What about you?