Brain is getting mushy

Okay, I need some financial advice, and I probably need a financial adviser, but I really can’t afford a financial adviser, or can’t afford not to have one?  My brain is fried from trying to sort out all the things that are going on economically, here is the short version, and any comments are welcome.

• My employer will stop matching any money to my 401K on Jan 1, 2009
• I’m thinking about reducing my 401K to 2%, taking the remaining 8% and putting it in my regular 2% savings account in case I lose my job, which is a possibility
• I don’t know how to distribute my funds that are still left in my 401K so that I can quit losing loads of money
• If I’m only contributing 2% of my gross pay to my 401K where should that 2% be allocated?
• Everyone keeps saying just hang tight, don’t do anything, I’m afraid that if I don’t do anything in a year I’ll have nothing in my 401K, no one knows what is going to happen in a year, good or bad.

Okay, so now you can see why my brain is MUSHY, I’m not financially inclined, just tell me where to put my money.

Onto things that don’t cause a lot of thinking, running.  Yesterday morning Kim, Tammy and I were back to being bundled up and set out on our normal 6 mile loop.  I’m in a pissy mood, PMS, brain mush, just in general bitchy, so I don’t talk much, thank goodness Kim and Tammy are doing most of the talking.  We missed our first turn off on Crestwood, it was dark and no one noticed.  It was a pretty cold morning, by the time we got to North Hills the bank sign claimed it was 33 degrees, Tammy and I both had adjustments to make, jackets off, shoes to readjust.

I got a little ahead of the girls, don’t know how, just that pissy mood I guess, usually on Monday it sucks pretty bad, I just wanted to be out of the cold, I’m really done with cold.  By the time we got back to my house we had about 5.75 miles, I had lost a litte mileage when I took my jacket off, I guess my jacket pushed my stop button on my Garmin.

I brewed a large pot of coffee, put Smokey out on his leash and helped Tammy get her new Garmin programmed, at least I hope I did.  Kim could only stay for one cup of coffee, she was headed to Cabot for another workout.  Tammy stayed until 8 or so and then I had to get to work.

Tammy had given me and Kim some passes to the North Little Rock Athletic Club and I decided to go with Tammy to a Sculpt class last night, WOW, it was tough,  but great.  This got me down in the dumps, for one, I start traveling next week and don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel and two, it’s too expensive.  I love exercise classes and miss them a lot!  I do go to the Community Center on Monday and Wednesday nights, but their classes are like Kindergarten compared to the Athletic Club.  I have two more free classes, not sure when I can go…

Today I ran a solo run.  Tammy had to work and Kim was in Southern Arkansas working, so I had already set my mind to running by myself and that’s what I did, it was fine, not as cold as yesterday, 37 degrees, 5 miles average pace of 10:17.  No speed records, but decent.  I’m not running tomorrow since I think I’ll be running Thursday – Sunday and then it’s off to Sunny Boca Raton, Florida for work next week.

Have you ever heard of the 1/2 of 1/2 store?  Next time you drive by look at the sign, would you ever think it said LIZ of LIZ, I’m LMAO, Tammy actually thought that was the name of the store LIZ of LIZ.  She told us that on Saturday and I thought I was going to wreck I was laughing so hard.

Who stole my week?

This past week has been a whirlwind, I can’t believe just a little over a week ago I was in Seattle and then Stephanie’s Birthday, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, Christmas, some running thrown in and bam here it is Sunday.  I’ll try and give you the short version of the week – Ran Monday afternoon in the freezing cold, then somehow skipped Tuesday and then the HORRIBLE Wednesday run, let me elaborate just a bit.  It was one of the top 10 worst runs I’ve had, my heart rate was sky high and it was so hard to keep up, it was absolutely miserable the entire time.  We had to take several walk breaks just so I could catch my breath, I seriously don’t know how I made it through the entire 6 miles, it was torturous.  My Garmin is set to alarm me when my heart rate reaches 183, it went off in every mile at least once.  I know it was because 1. I hadn’t been running any hills since I had been in Seattle for 2 weeks  2.  Just the difference from running outside versus running on a treadmill.  I was really worried, it was like my first week running.

Christmas day run was much better!!  I don’t know what was different just 24 hours later but my heart rate was back to normal, no issues.  Tammy and Kim came to the house around 7am and I put on my Santa hat, Tammy had on her red and white striped socks, just look at our after picture, aren’t we christmasy?  It was a good run today.  When we got back we did our gift exchange which was a lot of fun, drank coffee and talked.

Cheryl and Tammy

Later in the morning Stephanie came over and opened her gifts, I think she liked everything Santa left for her.  We headed to my Mother’s for lunch.  I had made a Key Lime pie and Jello Salad for the festivities, my Mother had prepared a delicious Petit Jean Ham and all the trimmings, it was so delicious and I had my fill with not too much guilt.  Lots of gift giving in the afternoon and I was home before dark.

Friday was a weird morning, we were supposed to run at 6am, yes way too early, but someone had something to do, I think, but anyway it was raining.  Kim called and said she was staying at her house and would run in her neighborhood, but Tammy was on her way to my house in case it slacked off, luckily it was warm outside and not freezing cold.  By the time Tammy got here it had stopped raining and we decided to head out.  We got to the end of my street and my stomach started acting up, probably all the food I ate on Christmas, so we turned around and came back to my house.  I called it divine intervention because as we were getting close to my house we felt rain drops.  I used the bathroom and grabbed a couple of hats for us and we headed back out, it was just barely sprinkling.

We decided to only run around the lake and keep it light since we had a big hilly 14 miles to run on Saturday, and thank goodness, because at about 2.75 miles the sky opened up and we were getting pretty wet.  We finished our loop around the lake, grabbed our water bottles and my gloves and headed to my house.  We had to run past my house to get 3 miles, but we were pretty much done since we were wet and cold, that run was over.

Later in the day Kim and I headed out and did some after Christmas shopping, it was really warm, storms brewing for the night and Saturday.  Early night for me.

Saturday we were all  supposed to meet at my house no later than 5:25 so we could make the trip to Rahling Road in Little Rock for our Saturday run with the Little Rock Marathon Training group.  Around 5:26 no one was at my house, I had already run up and down my street, put out my trash and was getting worried.  I called Kim, she was almost there, but said Tammy had overslept and would be there shortly.  This would make us late, no biggie, my only concern was would there be any route sheets left?  I think Tammy pulled in about 20 till 6 and we were off.

Did I mention how warm it was?  65 degrees, nice, but very muggy and skies threatening rain.  We knew the biggest chance of rain was later in the day, I was keeping my fingers crossed that would be the case.  There was road spray and puddles from rain during the night, we all had worn appropriate clothing, hats, rain jackets that came off within the first mile.

As we turned onto Taylor Loop Road these huge drops of rain started falling, Kim said, I’m not running in this.  We all knew we could wait it out or run on Sunday so we just kept on driving.  We pulled into the meet spot about 10 after 6, I grabbed a route sheet and signed us in, not near as many people had signed in as usual and we got ourselves ready to head out, the rain had stopped!  This is the hardest route we do and I think we do it about 3 times for Marathon training, I hate it, Kim loves it and she runs up every hill, I really have no idea how she does it….

We started our conservatively and pretty much kept it that way, we did our nutrition, drank our water our what ever we had in our fuel belts and trudged up those mean ass hills!  The worst part about the day was the wind, it sucked the life out of me, especially when you were trying to run up one of those monsters and the wind was blowing right at you, I hated it.  One good thing, no rain.  I took my hat off for a while, felt a couple of sprinkles, put it back on and then took it off again, but the wind NEVER stopped.

Around mile 10 I was done when I realized we still had 4 miles to go, I was just depressed, I just kept telling myself, 1 mile at a time, but they were the longest freaking miles ever!  Kim and Tammy got ahead of me around mile 12 and I was thankful, I was wishing I had giving the code for my car so they could come back and pick me up, I was DONE!  and I still had that stupid Rahling Road hill to climb, I walked it, I didn’t care, when I got to the top I started running, barely, just so I could get finished.  I did realize that I haven’t run anything over 7 miles since the St. Jude marathon so I gave myself a break and didn’t beat myself up, I’m just glad I finished, I only had about 13.5 miles with a horribly slow average of 11:12 per mile.

No running today, I’m a little sore, especially my butt and outside of my thighs.  I do plan to finish raking my yard, that will give me plently of exercise!

Funny, I don’t remember moving to Canada

What can I say but, BRRRR, it’s cold down here.  I can’t stand it and it makes me grouchy.  I can’t get a thing done because I’m wrapped up in a blanket most of the time, too cold to move.  Will the cold just leave, please?

Back up to the weekend, I was due to arrive Friday night from my frigid 2 weeks in Seattle, well, the whole 2 weeks weren’t frigid, but the last few days certainly were and they were sprinkled with plenty of snow and ice, no thanks, they can keep it, but apparently it was a strange thing for them to have so much of it.  Anyway, my flight was delayed leaving Seattle by about an hour and a half, this made me miss my connection in Memphis and of course it was the last flight to Little Rock for the night.  My only saving grace was my Aunt Martha who lives in Memphis and graciously came and picked me up around 8:45 pm and dropped me back off the next day at 8:00 am.  Yes, I could have rented a car and driven to LR in about 2 hours, but I was pooped and I would have done exactly that if not for Aunt Martha.  I had also flown from Seattle in first class so I had been treated very well on the airplane, I was only disappointed that I couldn’t get home right away and I would miss our Saturday run.  I did get to enjoy some more time with Aunt Martha, which I don’t get to do often enough.

Saturday was a relatively warm day, 50’s I’d say, but I didn’t get home until noon, same clothes for 24 hours, unpacked my massive bags and then collapsed on the couch with Smokey.  I did venture out to Target to try and get some shopping done, but just wasn’t into it.  Kim  stopped by and chatted for a bit and it was great to see her, couldn’t even tell she had run 11 miles earlier in the day.

We made plans to run on Sunday morning and then go shopping, well here comes Mr. Freeze, it was way too cold to run Sunday morning, the wind, that is what really made it so cold, forget it, I don’t need that crap, at all.  We decided that after a few hours shopping we would run when it warmed up, it never warmed up and we shopped for several hours and figured we got our exercise in despite not running.

Our next decision was to run on Monday morning, uh, not happening again, Mr. Freeze stepped it up a notch and it was 14 degrees this morning, WAY TOO COLD!!  So we decided to wait until the late afternoon, 3pm to be exact, first I had to entertain my Mom, Stephanie and my Step-Dad, it is Stephanie’s Birthday today, so cake and presents before I could run and I really didn’t want to run out in the frigid air, but the peer pressure got to me.   Kim had started around 2:20pm since she wanted some mileage, crazy girl, Tammy came over a little after 3pm and we ventured out into the frozen tundra, yes, I’m a little over dramatic, but hey, it’s my blog.  It was very cold, the only things that were warm on me were my core and my head, the rest, COLD, especially my fingers and my face.  I think I could have had frozen snot if not for my glove and kleenex.  It was 25 degrees when we left the house, mostly cloudy and of course what would a good run be without  our best friend WINDY??  Tammy and I got in close to 3.5 miles, Kim I think got in a little over 6, PLENTY!

Tonight I need to get out and finish up my Christmas shopping, its so freaking cold I don’t want to go, but I must, I must!!  And then the wrapping of gifts, ugh!

Coming Home, not a moment too soon

I’m so ready to get home I can hardly stand it!!  Seattle is a great city, but I can’t wait to get home, I’ve eaten way too much and I HATE. DOUBLE HATE. that stupid treadmill.  Today I was talking to myself the entire time on the treadmill, you can do it, one more mile, 10 more minutes, ANYTHING, just to get through the boredom of the dreadmill.  I don’t know how I’m going to get through it tomorrow, maybe knowing it’s my last day here will help.  We shall see.

Today started with a snow storm and it never let up, Seattle was a winter wonderland, we never made it into the office, too dangerous according to the news and weather reports.  I would have rather been in the office than the hotel, but there was really nothing we could do about it.  I brought files to the hotel last night so I had work, lucky me.  I will have to make my way to the office tomorrow in order to take the files back, unfortunately Seattle is not flat, there is a huge hill down to Renton and I’m not looking forward to the trip.  The forecast is for COLD, high of about 27 tomorrow, so no relief in sight, but the snow is supposed to stop tonight.   My flight is at 12:35pm, hopefully by then the flights will be on time.

Saturday I will be running with Kim and Tammy for the first time since the St. Jude 1/2 Marathon, hopefully I’ll be able to keep up and run the entire 14 miles.  It’ll just be nice to be outside and running with my running BFF’s.

Snow, Ice, Seattle

It started snowing Saturday night, must have been some ice mixed in too, when I woke up Sunday morning and looked out of my hotel room, it was white with snow.  I guess there was a couple of inches, my room is on the 11th floor with a great view of a couple of main streets, where I saw quite a few cars sliding through the intersections, I knew then I would not be getting out in that mess.  I had planned out getting some shopping done, oh well, I had some work to do, laundry and of course the stupid treadmill.  I had to make myself get on the treadmill, literally talk myself into going over to the fitness center for 30 minutes of running and then some squats and lunges. HATE the treadmill.

Let me tell you a little about this hotel, the common areas are freezing cold, I know you think I’m exaggerating, here’s an example, when one of the elevators opened on Saturday night, snow came in, the elevators are the type that are on the outside of the building, I have no idea where the snow was coming from, but when the doors opened, snow came in, along with all the cold wind.  Another area is this long hallway that goes over to the fitness center, I’m in the tower which doesn’t have a fitness center, so it’s a good 3 minute trek over there, I noticed the thermostat on the wall, 56 in the hall, that’s pretty cold when you’re just walking around.  Not sure if it’s because the building is old or what, but it’s very uncomfortable.  Even the guest laundry was not heated, it was like doing the laundry outside.

This morning once again I had to drag myself over to the treadmill, I had a big plan for the day, the hotel is really close to the airport and I had to do a pickup at noon, so since the roads were icy I planned on running, eating breakfast and then working in my room until I had to do the pick up.  WELL, got a call about 7:30, she was not coming in today, oh crap, this threw a huge wrench in my plans, now I had to rush and get ready to go into the office, oh well, I had work here I could do so if it wasn’t for the email from one of the VP’s asking me how the office was doing I wouldn’t have been so freaked out.  I did hurry and get to the office, nervous about driving on the ice, but luckily the main streets were pretty clear.  I did manage 45 minutes on the treadmill, it was freezing in the fitness center this morning, no heat in there either, which was fine once I warmed up.

I’ve gotten a couple of comments about my treadmill dilemma, advising iTunes or TV, all great advice, I’ve tried to charge my iPod Shuffle and it won’t charge because it’s a different computer, I need to research that problem.  Next, the TV, the reason I picked this hotel is because of the fitness center, it’s big, new and the treadmills have individual tvs, the problem, programming, at 5am, nada, news, news, more news, or infomercials.  I was hoping for one of my favs, Angel or MTV, VH1, something to take my mind off the going nowhere treadmill.  This really worries me since I’ll be traveling a lot starting in January, depressing.

Oh, I miss my Smokey, poor old kitty cat.  I need some summer.

Where have I been?

Well, I’ve been in Seattle on business all week, special project which is not my project and puts my project behind.  I’ll be here another week, another week of running on the treadmill.

I had plans to meet with a local running club, but that hasn’t panned out because there is a whole group of people here from corporate and we are sharing a car.  I ran 5 miles on the treadmill Tuesday, 5.5 miles Wednesday and 4 miles on Thursday, it was all I could do to get those 4 miles on Thursday, I absolutely hate the treadmill, it bores me to tears.  On Friday I just worked out in my room, felt guilty for not running because we have been eating out every night I feel like a big fat pig.

Today was a different story, Tamara, a girl from the local running club picked me up at my hotel at 8:20 and we headed to West Seattle to run, I was worried about the weather, it was fore-casted for snow, rain and winds gusting to 50 mph, but lucky for us by the time we got to Alki Beach the rain had stopped, on the other hand, the wind had not.  Tamara had brought along extra jackets, hats and gloves since I had not come prepared, I borrowed a jacket, and thank goodness, the wind was really strong at times, but the view of downtown Seattle and running along the coast was spectacular!!

They have a great coastal area with shops, paved path for runners and bikers that runs all along the coast, Alki Beach, apparently in the summer there is lots of events along the beach, volley ball games, car shows, just tons of people, today there were runners, but not very many.  it was so nice to be outside instead of inside on a treadmill, I was so thankful to have gotten in touch with Tamara, she was great!  She also drove me around after our 7 mile run to see some of the sights, great morning.

This afternoon I went over to REI and did a little shopping and then to the mall, back in my room getting ready to do some work.  Oh, last night I went to IKEA, my first visit ever!  It was pretty amazing, I could have spent a lot more time than the 2 hours I spent just looking around, but I knew I would have to ship home anything I bought, I did buy a couple of things, I wanted to buy LOTS, but I have a catalog instead.

I guess I’ll get up and run on the treadmill, the high tomorrow, 29, not for me.  Then Macy’s, just a little shopping and work, lots of work to do.

St. Jude Half Marathon Weekend

What a weekend!  A great time was had by all, the weather was very cold, too cold if you ask me, but we still had a good time.  Kim picked me and Tammy up on Friday morning at my house and we headed to the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, before we could get out of North Little Rock we had to make our customary stop at Starbucks for some needed fuel.  OH, let me back up to the amount of luggage that Tammy and Kim brought, OMG, let me put it this way, if I would have brought any more than the single duffel bag we would have been tying bags to the roof of the car.  I’m still not sure what they had in all those bags, even the back seat was full, the pumpkin spice muffins Tammy brought were yummy though, those were very useful.

It was about a 2 hour drive to Memphis and by the time we got there we all were about to wet our pants, it was all we could do to get parked and get inside, I’m glad we remembered where we had parked last year AND where the bathrooms were.  Once inside the Expo we found our bib numbers, went inside where it was very organized, packet with chip, shirt, goody bag (with no goodies).  Then we were off to look at all the goodies in the Expo, Kim and I were excited to get new insoles for our shoes, I think they are Lynco, we bought them last year, this is my third pair and LOVE them, we had to wait quite awhile, Tammy was even impressed and bought a pair, she actually ran in them on Saturday, which we did not encourage, but she did great.  We saw some of our running friends who were running the full marathon and talked to them, bought a Hind long sleeve top for 10.00 and that’s about it, signed up for some free drawings, got a super duper ink pen, woohoo.  We started getting hungry and decided to head to Aunt Martha’s in Cordova for lunch.

It was a good 30 minute drive to the other side of town and by the time we got to Newk’s Cafe we were getting a little cranky, I ordered soup and salad, Tammy and Kim both order Salad.  We were about half way through eating and Kim said “oh no, there’s a bug in my salad”, I was sitting next to her and she had me look, oh yeah, there was a bug and it was moving!  She took her bowl over to the kitchen, I’m not sure what the exchange was, but in a few minutes the manager came over and handed her some money and apologized, he asked if he could get her anything else, blah, blah, blah.  What bothered me was Tammy and I were eating the SAME salad, of course I couldn’t finish my soup or salad, he didn’t apologize to us or offer our money back and come to find out he only gave her the Salad money back, not her entire check (drink).  When the manager came over he said they were checking the rest of the lettuce, I should have said something, like what about my lettuce?  Needless to say we left.  We used to like that place…..

Aunt Martha lives pretty close to Newk’s, we unpacked the car and settled in on the couch until my Aunt got home with Grace, my second cousin who is 10.  We were planning to go out to eat, but ending up just having soup and salad, AGAIN, at the house.  We discussed our plans for the race on Saturday, checked the forecast, COLD, got in our pajamas and crawled into bed.

We got up around 5:30 am to get ready to head to the race, here is a picture of Kim and Tammy in there finest race gear, we were pretty unsure of what to wear, the temperature was below freezing and there was some wind.  I had a tank and a tech top, running pants with shorts, light for me, I think Kim and Tammy had quite a bit more as you can see from the picture.

Kim and Tammy

We headed to downtown around 6:50, a little later than expected, but it worked out perfectly, we remembered what exit to take from the year prior and actually parked in the same garage which was only 3 blocks or so from the start.  When we were walking to the start there were some icicles hanging from some scaffolding, yikes.  It was cold!  Once we found our corral we decided to go stand in line for the port-a-potty where we saw Annette, Michele, Brenda and Andrea, it was nice to see the girls before they headed out on their Marathon.  I was already sick of shivering, my back was hunched, arms and legs shaking, toes cold, hate it.  After the potty break we got inside our corral hoping for a little warmth from all the bodies, it helped some, but the wind would whip up, gives me the shivers just thinking about it.  What I was hoping for was sunshine, unfortunately it didn’t come out until around 10:00am.

We were anxious for the race to start so we could warm up, Kim and I had already decided we were all going to run together, we were not going to leave Tammy behind, this was only her second 1/2 Marathon, a huge one at that, and we were not wanting to PR or set any land speed records.  We started off at a reasonable pace and pretty much kept that pace the whole race.  I was not loving the race, never did, it was just too cold for me, I was ready for it to be over before it started.  I tried to enjoy to sites of Memphis, the best part was Beale Street, that’s where a lot of the crowd support was, a lot of music, just good vibes through that area, but unfortunately that’s at the beginning of the race, around mile 3 or so.

We just kept moving, Tammy was not having any issues with the new insoles or her foot, which was great!  Kim on the other hand was having some sort of bladder problem, like she was getting an infection and had the sense that she needed to urinate but couldn’t, we’ve all been there and that is a miserable feeling, so she wasn’t feeling very good, but kept on going too.  Kim and I had our fuel belts on and Tammy was carrying her G2, so we had no need for the aid stations that were every mile, we would try and swing wide around them, but it proved to be difficult at times.

Around mile 6 I had to pee, bad, so in the port-a-potty I went, and I couldn’t go, the whole thing was shaking, it felt like it was going to tump over, I finally went, but it really slowed us down, sorry girls!  We did catch back up to the same people we had been running with which surprised me, maybe they had slowed down.

We were expecting to see Aunt Martha and Grace around mile 10, the same spot they were last year, but they weren’t there, then again I told them around 10:15 am, it was 9:40 when we were at mile 10, I don’t know what I was thinking.  I thought, oh crap, they will get there and just be waiting and waiting for us and we will never show up.  After mile 10 Tammy started walking a bit, just every once in awhile I would glance over my shoulder and she would be walking, I would have to remind her about the medal, food and Starbucks that was waiting on her, she was a trooper.  I was tired too, I wanted it to be done, at some point I had taken my gloves off, but I was cold again and had to put them back on, maybe it was the wind, the sun was out, but it just wasn’t enough.

We were in a crowd of people for the entire race, we were never alone for sure, people would just stop running right in front of you too, it was odd.  When we got to the turn off for the Marathon 1/2 Marathon, I felt so bad for the Marathon people, and so happy for myself that I wasn’t running the full!  It was only about half a mile to the finish, yippee!!  Right when we were going down the hill into the Stadium, I heard Grace “there they are”, my head turned and there was Aunt Martha and Grace, just waving and cheering for us!  It was so good to see them.  We had talked about them being in that area, but I thought they had decided against it, so it was a surprise to see them at the finish.

Once we got on the field it was such a relieve to be done!  I’m no t sure of our official time, but somewhere around 2:15, respectable, but no records were broken by us, which is fine by me.  We got our mylar blankets, medals, and headed up the stairs to the food and beverage area where a welcome cup of soup awaited us.  We also got a Diet Coke, but it was so cold up there, it was shaded, windy and just cold, all we wanted to do was get warm.  We headed to the parking garage soon after we stretched.  Walking to that garage was the coldest I had been for the day, I had sweat some during the race, just enough to give me the chills, I had the mylar blanket, but it was definitely not enough.  Once we got to the car Kim couldn’t get the door open, I think her fingers were frozen!  We finally got in, cranked the heat up and got warm.  We put jackets on and headed to Starbucks, that took forever, everyone had the same idea we had.  Before we knew it was time to head back to the stadium to cheer in the first of the girls, it was 11:45.

We were still cold, but not nearly as cold as earlier, we got in a prime watching spot, but it was in the shade and we started getting cold again.  We were watching for Andrea and Brenda to come in, we thought we might have missed them, but finally we saw Brenda, woohoo, here she comes and not long after that, Andrea, it was good to see them come in.  We were starting to get stiff and decided to head out, back to Aunt Martha’s for a shower and dry clothes.

When we were driving we saw more marathon runners, we saw Michele and hollered out the window at her, I don’t think she knew who we were, then while stuck at a light we saw Annette!  We hollered at her too, but she knew who we were, she looked like she might be having some calf problems, but looked pretty good and was almost finished!

We finally got through the traffic and back to Aunt Martha’s where we all took nice hot showers, we headed out to do a little shopping and that’s about all we did, a little shopping, we were starving and ended up at Ruby Tuesdays in the mall, it was so delicious!  This was our first real meal of the day and it was 6pm!  After we ate we were too pooped to do anything else so we just headed back to get in our pj’s and plop on the couch.

We left Memphis around 8:30 Sunday morning, home before noon, packing to go to Seattle today, yuck.  We had a great weekend even though it was cold.

Me, Tammy and Kim

Winter Blah-dom

No, still not winter, but it feels like winter and it’s very blah.  Nothing to talk about, nothing to post about, blah-dom.

We all ran on Monday, that would be, me, Kim and Tammy, it was very cold, I had extra layers on and Tammy even wore pants.  Uneventful run, 6 mile loop, cold, no one else out running but us crazy girls.  Once we got back Kim had to take off for Cabot to go to Andrea’s class, not even time for a cup of coffee.  Tammy hung out for a bit and we enjoyed the coffee and Sunday’s paper.

Tuesday – Rest day – I had to make myself go to Walgreen’s to pick up a prescription.  I waited until late in the afternoon when it was a little warmer, I just don’t want to go out, don’t want to get ready, don’t want to fix my hair or put on makeup, don’t even want to change clothes!  It’s too damned cold, my clothes are warm and I don’t want to take them off.  Silly.

Today – Kim came over and luckily it was a little warmer, a whopping 48 degrees, but it was much better than Monday.  i was expecting about 28, so 48 was a heat wave.  At first I thought I had not dressed warmly enough, but after we got started it was just right, I even got a little warm around mile 4 when the wind was finally at our backs.  We did the 6 mile loop again, we wondered today how many times we had run the “loop”.  I looked back at my running journal when we got back and we were just running around the lake back in May, and we were only doing 3 or 4 miles at a time with an average pace of 11 to 11:30.  What a difference 6 months has made.

Friday we will be heading to Memphis for the St. Jude Half Marathon, we will have a blast.  For now heading to Fitness boot camp.