What Not to Wear

You've all seen this show on TLC. This show singles out someone who has terrible style and gives them $5000 and set of rules to redo their entire wardrobe. I totally got my own lesson in what not to wear on Sunday. Being that I work at a high school and live in the same town as that high school is highly likely that I am going to see someone I know every time I step out my door. I usually try to dress nice if I am going to a school function or if I am going to a community event in which I will probably be seeing someone from the school. Sunday morning I had to go to Meijer to pick up some last minute things for our vacation. I had showered and fixed my hair and threw up on a pair of jean shorts, a T-shirt, and a long sleeve T-shirt. Not just any long sleeve shirt, however. It was my tie-dyed senior shirt from ten years ago. As I'm walking into Meijer I run into someone from my graduating class. I talked to her for a few minutes but all I kept thinking about was that I was wearing my 10 year old shirt...the same shirt she probably threw away about 10 years ago! What a dork I am!

Speaking of vacation...I'm outta here! Dave and I leave for NY tomorrow so you won't be seeing any updates for a while, unless we happen to find some place to post there. We're running the Manhattan Half Marathon on Sunday but so is about 5700 other people so you probably won't pick us out. I'll let you know how that goes in about a week.

Running has been almost non-existent the last couple days. Not only have I not had time but my shin has been hurting and after all the injuries I've had, I'm not going to push it. For now I'm doing my physical therapy, icing, and doing slower miles or at least trying.

See y'all in about a week!

Oh, oh, before I go. Something else funny happened to me over the weekend. I had a vendor follow me around Friday at work and he asked me to come to lunch with him, so I did. We were having good conversation and he kept talking to me like he wanted me to come and work for the company. I'm not really interested in becoming a consultant but I kept listening. He started talking about the book he was reading which was about how India was becoming a more technical country and that's why all the IT jobs have gone over there, blah blah blah. So I was thinking this was a test. I've had these interviews where they ask you what you are currently reading and it's supposed to be intellectual and academic and all smart and crap. I couldn't even respond to this guy what I was reading. The book I'm reading right now? The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. That's intellectual isn't it?

Pushing the Pace

Yesterday evening my dad and I met to do our weekly stadium run. The plan, as always, is to run each mile around a 9:00 and push the stairs. We never actually adhere to that plan. Our first mile was an 8:06 and we crushed the stairs, which was totally fun because there were these body-builder meatheads there who really sucked on the stairs and it was fun to show them up. The second mile I took off--7:26. Holy cow! The stairs were a little harder the second time, through. The last mile was a 7:40. It wound up being a really hard workout, not just for the stairs but also for the pace we were pushing. Oh, and I also did 800m of swimming before the workout.

So we have Muzak at work. What might surprise you is that Muzak is not just elevator music. There are different stations like top 40, jazz, country, etc. Being that there are 300 employees at my workplace, the AGM switches stations every 2 weeks so that everyone gets the chance to enjoy their music. First it was top 40, which I really liked. The second time he switched it was to called classical jazz. It was horrific! A bunch of squeeky soprano saxophones. I can say I'm not the biggest Kenny G fan. The last two weeks were country, which again I enjoyed. (Shut it...I'm a midwesterner. They played country at our high school dances. You learn how to square dance here in gym class.) Yesterday our AGM flipped the station again. This time to gangster rap. The funny part about all this is that Janet Jackson is playing on it right now. He he! I don't think I would consider her gangster rap.

Pepper Spray, Revisited

I live in the same town I grew up in. The town has become very suburban and very upscale (not that I'm upscale, but in general the town is) with big houses and tiny yards. The town wasn't always that way. Growing up there, it was very rural and most kids I went to school with lived on farms. Despite the town's growth, there is still quite a few farms in the area. Most days I do my runs from my parents' house because they live in this rural area and I enjoy running where there isn't as much traffic. Some problems I've encountered are dogs and fast cars and construction trucks trying to run me off the road (being rural there are no sidewalks). Yesterday I encountered a new problem that made me rethink the pepper spray. As I was running I heard a car slow down as it approached me. The gentleman inside the fancy convertible asked me directions to the nearest major freeway. The funny part about all of this was that I was running in the middle of a corn field. Does there look like there is a major freeway around here? I helped the gentleman, but I got kinda freaked out that he could have just snatched me and abducted me. Maybe I should be carrying that pepper spray.

In some more good news...my weekly weigh-in on Tuesday nights yielded another drop of one pound. Four more pounds to go.

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

I talk about my niece a lot. Mostly because she has a crazy imagination and because she says super funny things. Last night she had a sheet of stickers that were earring stickers. She had already put some on her ears. They were blue half moon earring stickers. She told me to look at her earrings, which I did. Then I asked her what they were, thinking that she would tell me they were blue moons. She said, "They're diamonds." 'Nuff said.

I wasn't going to run yesterday. I was tired and not feeling 100%, but Dave had borrowed a CD from the library that had orchestrations of songs from the summer Olympics. How can you not run after hearing that?

The Dorkiness in Me

This post is dedicated to Andrea so she can really find out how much of a dork I am (which, she probably already knows).


I work for a major shoe retailer and I get a pretty good discount. No I don't buy my running shoes there (we don't carry them) and no I will not buy you any shoes!!! Anyway, last week I was out shopping and my favorite pair of sandals popped the back strap off. I was devastated! Here I am a week away from vacation and my favorite shoes just broke. I did a little shopping at three different places on Friday and didn't find any sandals I liked. Everything was a flip-flop. I really dislike flip-flops. They're not made for people with skinny feet and I think they are just plain painful. During my lunch break today I took my sandals to a shoe repair place and paid $10 to get them fixed. Who's the dork now?

I Got Soaked

And it wasn't even because it was raining. I started my long run on Saturday at 7:00am to beat the heat and because my dad had some place to be before noon. I watched the news at 6:00 to see what the weather was going to be like. At 6:00am it was already 75 degrees. The run started well. Dad and I ran 5 miles in about 42 minutes and then waited for everyone else to show up at 8:00. Then we ran another 7 miles at a slightly faster pace. When we stopped for our waterstop, everyone stopped except Doug, Andrea, and I. I went another 2-1/2 miles with them and then turned around. I walked twice in the last mile because my stomach started to hurt. But, I made it--17 miles. I was so soaking wet by the time I was finished with my run. In all my years of running I have never been completely wet including my shorts. My shorts were dripping they were so wet. I spent the rest of the day laying around. I think it's way too hot to be running.

It Must Be My Lucky Day

What do you do with all that change that you collect in your car, wallet, pockets, etc.? I put mine in a shoe box that sits on the top shelf in my closet. The box has so many coins in it that it's too heavy and the box too flimsy to take off the shelf. This morning I wanted to get four quarters so I could get a lemonade out of the vending machine at work. I blindly started grabbing coins out of the box until I got four quarters. When I got to work this morning I pulled out the quarters only to realize I had three quarters and one dollar bill coin. Crap! I though for sure there was no way the vending machine was going to take a dollar bill coin. But, it did!!! And now I have 75 cents extra to get me some pretzels later on.

It has been a great week of running despite the heat. I have already run 18 miles this week and went to one spinning class. Today is a day off from running and I plan on doing an 18 mile long run tomorrow morning.

Speaking of the heat....it's supposed to be 95 degrees today. I also saw gas prices at $2.55 this morning. Both the heat and gas prices are obscene. I'm just not going to drive this weekend. I'm not a hippie, but I'm really starting to think about protesting the gas prices and riding my bike whenever and wherever I can.

Hey, if I don't talk to you today, have a good weekend!

Woo Hoo!!

First things first...I have lost two pounds in two weeks. Five more pounds to go!

Secondly, how many of you have an iPod? I've been thinking about buying one but I'm having a tough time determining if I'll get my return on investment. (He he! I'm an engineer--only people like me would try to figure out an ROI on an iPod.) See, most likely I am not going to wear the iPod when I run outside. It's dangerous. There have been two women recently attacked on the trail I run on and I've been chased by enough dogs that I want to be able to hear them. So the only time I would wear my iPod to run would be when I'm on the treadmill or when I'm running on the track. I like to ride my bike on a trainer so I could see myself using an iPod then and I hate to grocery shop and could see myself using the iPod when I grocery shop. I drive an Element and it has a built in adapter to play the MP3s through the stereo so I could use it then too. And here's the kicker...I get a discount on it. So what do y'all think?

I am running the Reach the Beach relay in New Hampshire September 16th and 17th. Anyone else running it? My legs are 9, 21, 33. Check it out!

I'm also running the Manhattan Half Marathon on August 27th. Anyone else? I would love to meet any RBFers while I'm in NY. More details on that later.

Finally, a friend of a friend recently did Ironman Lake Placid. It was inspiring. I was able to watch her finish online and then I looked at her splits. To me, they were doable. Now the wheels are turning. My goal has always been to do an Ironman before I turned 30. I think Dave will divorce me if I train for an Ironman. He didn't see me very much when I was training for the half.

That's all for now folks. :)

Weekend Round-Up

No races this weekend, but I did have a successful run on Saturday. The group was at Highbanks and all of us did various distances. Andy, Andrea, Doug, and I all did 16 miles. It was a good run. Dave also did his longest run to date this weekend--15 miles. I don't know if he blogged about it or if he's going to, but you can check it out here.

Okay, so this is totally going to make you laugh. I was at church yesterday and they were holding a meeting afterwards to vote on approval of the new building designs. I didn't really care to be part of this because we're switching churches anyway, so I decided to sneak out during the meeting. The pastor said the benediction and then he went right into the meeting. I bent down to grab my keys from under my chair and WHAM! I cracked my head on the chair in front of me and it made a very loud sound. I snuck out of the room, but I wonder how many people saw that? Here's the kicker...my head is tender to the touch today. I'm lucky there's not a bruise there.

Not much else to report this weekend. Dave and I got a lot of work done around the house, so above all else, it was a productive weekend.

An Announcement

Did I mention that I got my hair whacked off last night?

A Good Run

Last night was my stadium workout. Dad and I met to do the run around 5:30pm an dit was 94 dgrees. Suffice it to say, I was not looking forward to the run. But, surprisingly, it went really well. We did our first four laps at a 7:43 mile and then worked really hard through the steps. When we got to the second mile Dad started to fall behind and only completed three of the four laps. We went through the stairs again; this time a little slower. Our last four laps we did 50 meters of walking and then a full 400 meters of jogging. At the end of the workout we walked a full 400 meteres.

I'm starting to get a little concerned. My dad's starting to talka bout giving up and not doing the marathon this fall or even another marathon. I think it's hard to reach a point in your running when you know you're only going to get slower. And I think it's really hard for my dad because I've gotten faster than him and he think he's holding me back. I think he forgets how hard I've trained all spring and summer for the half Ironman. I hope he find his passion again.

In dog news...I didn't get chased by any last night! Instead of pepper spray I was given the suggestion of carrying a small spritz bottle of ammonia and using it if necessary. I'm not really sure how I'd carry it, but that's probably a much better idea than the pepper spray.

Ugh!

Dude, I don't know where all you live and the weather there, but it is damn hot here in the midwest. Today's high is suppose to be 95. 95!!! This weather is wreaking havoc on my training. I am an afternoon runner and running in the bright sun and full 95 degree temperature is not what I call fun. And you say, why don't you just run at a different time? And I say, it's not that easy. Because of a report I have to do every morning at work I have to be at work no later than 6:30, so that rules out running in the morning. (I already get up at 5:15; I'm not getting up any earlier.) And I don't like to run in the evening because that is the time I get to see Dave. If I do my workouts after work then I get my run in before Dave gets off work and we get to spend the evening together. Plus if I go home after work then I never get out to run. Too much to do at home. So yesterday I reduced my run to a run-walk where I would walk anytime I got to shade. And in true Meredith fashion I got chased yet again by a dog. People!! Chain you dogs up!! This dog came right out to me baring it's fangs and barking like it was going to attack me. I kept screaming no, but the dog didn't stop coming toward me. The owner finally came out and got it and told me she was in the process of putting the dog in the car to go to obedience school. Ironic? Then the woman looks at me and goes, "Are you Meredith?" Yes and your dog tried to eat me!!! Seriously, I need to do something about the dog situation. Not only am I scared of dogs to start with, but they're even scarier when they're coming full force at you while running. One of these days I'm going to get bitten. I've thought about carrying mase/pepper spray but having asthma I'm a little worried about an accident and I would wind up in the hospital. Any suggestions?

Self-Conscious

My husband and I dated 2 years before we got engaged and then we were engaged a whole year before we got married. While we were dating we got the never ending questions of "when are you getting married." It was annoying. I don't think you should be rushed into decisions like that and I am a big proponent of dating a lot to find that exact person. Now that we've been married for nearly three years and are inching closer and closer to 30, we get the question "when are you going to have a baby?" My friends and family close to Dave and I know not to ask that question because it's not in the plans. I like to be skinny; I like my money; and I like my space. I know that's selfish but after I have a child there is no more selfish so I better enjoy it now.

I had always heard that you should never ask a woman if she was pregnant. If you're wrong not only do you look foolish but you've really insulted the other person. I don't know if it's because I work in a blue collar environment or the people I work with just have no common sense, but this morning for what is probably the 3rd time in the last 30 days someone asked me if I was pregnant. And then proceded to tell me that there is a rumor going around that I am. Usually I wouldn't care because I think people here are just waiting for it to happen (I'm about the only person in management who doesn't have kids and the only one of child-bearing age), but this time it bothered me. It bothered me because not only did the woman ask me if I was pregnant but she told me why everyone thought I was pregnant...because I have "blossomed."

Here's the truth people. I'M NOT PREGNANT! I got a new bra and I put on 7 pounds this summer. Thanks for asking!

In running news (he he he)...it's too damn hot to run!

July Totals

Higher running miles. Lower swimming and biking miles.

Run = 89.7 miles
Swim = 5900 meters = 3.7 miles
Bike = 270 minutes = 4.5 hours

Summer Classic 10 Mile Run

I did a 10 mile race this past Saturday. Not really much to say about it. It was out and back; it had a few rolling (small) hills; and it was pretty boring. There were a few things to talk about, though.

First, I'm not too keen on the whole GPS/pedometer thing. I'm just not sure they are very accurate. As I was approaching the 4 mile mark of the race this older gentleman I was running beside started talking to me about how far off the mile markers were. He said we were at 4-1/4 miles at the 4 mile mark. He asked me what I thought and well...my times were pretty accurate. Sorry about your luck, buddy.

Then for several miles I had this gentleman run beside me, behind me, in front of me but he would never bug off. I can't stand that! I kept speeding up and speeding up but he would never leave. Finally I crushed him going up a small hill and that was the last I saw of him.

My intent was not to run this race hard, but I wound up doing it anyway. My time was 1:18:27. I finished third in my age group and got a nice plaque.