c25k: Week 1, Day 2

I had no intentions of running last night. But I wound up at the boardwalk with Casey and I did day two of week one.

What I find amazing is I actually WANT to run. Like legit I just have the urge to run.

Am I sore? Yes.

Am I achey? Yes.

Does it feel amazing? Yes.

The downside to running on the boardwalk is I have no control over my pace. When I run on the treadmill I set myself at a certain pace and stay there for the entire interval. On the boardwalk as I start to get tired I tend to slow down even if I'm aware of it and try to keep time with the beat of my music.

After our run we tried to get a delicious smoothie at this place on West Park Ave but they were closed so we drove over to Smootie Roo and got some protein in us. It was pretty good although I'll have to get used to the taste of whey protein again. Just one of those things I suppose.

One thing I both love and hate about running is I can really feel it in my inner thighs. Hurts like hell but I'm glad those muscles are getting some sort of use. I wouldn't mind that area trimming down since I've inherited my mother's thunder thighs.

I'm thinking I'll run at the gym tonight. I won't get a chance to work out again until Sunday night when I get home from Virginia and depending on how tired I am I might wait until Monday night to run again.

I'm debating whether or not to do Week 1 over again just so I can make sure I can sustain the 5.0 pace during the jogging intervals. I don't want to go any slower than that.

Cooooool Runnings!

Feel the rhythm. Feel the rhyme. Let's get on up. It's running time?

Coooool Runnings!

One of my goals on my 101 in 1001 is to run a 5k. I have never run that long a distance in my life. Typically my family goes by the adage, "Why run unless something's chasing you?"

But then in college I used to have dreams - literally - where I was running. And nothing was chasing me. I just ran!

And I was happy in these dreams. Happy to be running in my little sneakers with my pony tail wagging behind me with each step.

I am not a runner however. So this dream seemed out of my reach. I mean I used to be "in shape" in high school. And I even did a little running for fitness in college when my roommate got into a marathon challenge with her boy du jour.

Perhaps my dream was obtainable and I was just going about it wrong? It was soon after that, that I read about the Couch to 5k Challenge (c25k) and it seemed like I was in fact, doing it wrong. I always just went up to the track and walked a lap and then just started running for as long as I could - which usually turned into a slightly pathetic half lap - before I was panting and had to stop and walk again.

With the c25k program though, it's more of a scheduled 13 week course of interval training, ending with you being capable of running a 5k!

Last summer I tried the c25k but I was overzealous and hurt my foot even after buying new neutral cushioned running shoes (apparently I underpronate/suponate). But now I'm ready to try again! And I'm taking special care to not go too hard too fast. And I'm going to keep a log of how I feel after each work out starting today.

Each Week I'm supposed to do the work out 3 times. It takes 20-30 minutes including the warm up and cool down. I go to my gym and use the treadmill but I've also gone down to the boardwalk and done these exercises. The treadmill gives me more control over my speed which I like.

If I don't think I'm ready to move onto the next week then I can spend an additional week at the same interval. For example, Week 1 is intervals of 90 seconds of walking and 60 seconds of jogging. Then Week 2 is 90 seconds of walking and 2 minutes of jogging. Each week the intervals increase in either time or frequency and at the end of the 13 weeks, you're actually running for 20 minutes straight.

My goal is to run a 5k, but really what I want to be able to do is run the entire length of the Long Beach boardwalk (2.2 miles) and back (4.4 miles total) without stopping. I figure if I can run a 5k (3.1 miles) then I can certainly work myself up to 4.4 miles!

Week 1, Day 1

I had to retie my shoes about 12 times before they were both the right tightness and I definitely had a lot of shin splints going on. Halfway through I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make all of the jogging intervals but I did. Also I was completely distracted by some of the other people in the gym. I went to high school with one of them. His name is Chris, he was the drummer in our class band and for the life of me I couldn't remember his last name. This was almost as frustrating as the workout. Plus a beefy tattooed guy who was working out with Chris kept on looking over at me, for the love of God I was wearing 2 sports bras! It's not my fault if I still jiggle too much!

I warmed up at 3.5, walked at 3.3 and jogged at 5.0 on a 0.0 incline. I cooled down at 3.5 as well and spent an extra few minutes in my cool down so I could finish off the second mile completely.

It felt okay. I'm not dancing in the streets but at least I got through the entire work out. I did a little stretching when I got home and logged my activity for the day into calorie-count and had some dinner.

I think tomorrow I won't do the workout again, instead I'll do something low impact like the bike or the elliptical. I don't want to injure myself.

Also, I'm thinking that since the dress I wanted for my birthday is no longer available, that I'll just buy myself a new pair of running shoes as a present. I'm pretty sure the shoes I have can last another month or so. Does anyone know if the New Balance 1064s replaced the 1062s? It's been a few years since I've worn out a pair of running shoes...

Lamb Cake Part Duex

Easter was enjoyable. I spent it with my family and we got a fantastic dinner at our favorite German Restaurant Zum Stammtisch.

Seriously, if you have any sort of German in you, or even if you just love good food, head over there. We've been going to Zum for years and years and years especially since my grandma lives so close and it's always delicious and homey.

Even Mickey loves it!

Yeah, Jaclyn brought Nanny back a German Mickey from Epcot, what about it?

Probably the most exciting thing was the chance Julibean had to try the lamb cake again. You might remember our hilarious attempt last year to try to make a lamb cake for Jason's family.

Our first try was delicious, but he was sloppy. We made him out of carrot cake (which isn't as sturdy as it should be), we didn't read the directions (and apparently made the cake entirely wrong), and we used cream cheese frosting (which didn't hold together as well as decorating frosting). Basically it was a not so epic failure.

I'd never decorated a cake before so I completely winged it and he looked as if I did (as you can see here->).

I mean Jason's family loved it. Joe enjoyed decapitating the lamb cake and he was just silly looking. This year Julibean actually read the directions, made the cake out of the proper kind of cake and she even bought little sugar eyes for him.

Lamb Cake Part Duex was adorable and so much more delicious and cute than our first attempt.

Look at 'im in his little bed of grass!

Lamb Cake success!!

The Great Gonzo

The other day I was watching the Muppets Take Manhattan. It probably comes in a close second to the Muppet Christmas Carol as my favorite Muppet movie.

I love the Muppets irrevocably. (You liked how I slipped that in there, didn't you?) There is just something so wonderful about them and they were a huge part of my childhood.

Back at school whenever we had auditions for Partial Credit the one question I would always ask each singer is Whose your favorite Muppet? because I liked to get them to laugh and feel more comfortable and because your favorite Muppet actually tells me a lot about your personality. It's like my own personal litmus test.

When someone said they hated the Muppets or they didn't know the Muppets I had a gut reaction that told me I could never be friends with that person. I know...I'm special.

Anyway...

I realized as the Great Gonzo started up his chorus of chickens doing their version of Tony Bennett singing the William Tell Overture that if Jason were ever to be a Muppet, he would in fact be Gonzo.

Let's compare shall we:

• Gonzo is one of a kind (Well he is if you've never seen Muppets From Space), to me, Jason is one of a kind.
• Gonzo has a pretty big schnoz, Jason has a pretty big nose too.
• Gonzo has a thing for chickens (particularly ones named Camilla), Jason has a thing for chickens (not the same kind of "thing" however).
• Gonzo is hilarious, Jason keeps me laughing too.
• Gonzo likes to be shot out of a cannon, Jason will always try anything once in his own adventurous way.
  
• I love Gonzo because he is a Muppet, I love Jason.

See, I mean it's as if it were right there in front of me all this time! It would have reached out and slapped me in the face if I had let it.


Plus, Gonzo is quite the charmer, I mean check out that fantastic suit and those wonderful chocolates he's bought for his chick. Every once in awhile Jason surprises me with something sweet and unexpected.

So what's my point here?

Maybe it's because I'm in full on wedding mode since we're working on Laura's invites this week, but don't you think Gonzo and Camilla would make the most adorable cake topper?


I mean come on, they're so cute! And they don't care about inter-species dating or the challenges that life might bring. They're just looking to have a good time together as Mr. & Mrs. Weirdo.

And I'll leave you with this quote from the movie:

[Gonzo uses mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on his chicken]
Miss Piggy: Gonzo, is Camilla all right?
Gonzo: Yeah, but I think we're engaged!


Goodnight everybody, I'll be here all the week!

Photo credits: first and second (not only is the photo from there, but he has an excellent post comparing different personality types of Muppets in the Publicity world...read it!)

"Bitches, Happy Drunken Tuesday!"

Last night was pretty fantastic.

I had work, whatevs it was fine and I actually enjoy working with the store manager because she's really mellow and lets me do my own thing without commanding me to do something. She knows I know what to do and just lets me get it done in my own way. I appreciate that.

Anyway, after work I met up with Julibean and some friends at one of our favorite local bars. RJ's is a really nice place to go to happy hour, especially when the outdoor bar is open. Casey and I sometimes meet her parents there after an especially brutal day of work and we've made friends with some of the bartenders. (Which is always the greatest friendship to forge.)

Since it was a Tuesday night the bar itself was pretty quiet. I met up with them around 10ish and caught up with some people I haven't seen in awhile which is always nice.

Matt (Julibean's Army friend) is home for a few weeks. He needed a break since he's going through a pretty horrific divorce/paternity crisis. It's seriously awful and I feel so bad about it because Matt is a great guy and doesn't deserve that sort of ish from anyone.

Anyway one of Matt's other friends wound up being at the other end of the bar celebrating his birthday so we invited him down to our end of the bar to share some cake. Since she's in the cake portion of her pastry schooling Julibean brought along one of three cakes she had made in class so we could munch on it at the bar.

While everyone was making birthday cakes and anniversary cakes, Julibean went straight for the Drunken Tuesday cake.

Sorry for the poor quality.
Bar lighting + cell camera = shitty photo.

The story of Drunken Tuesday:
When we were in school Wednesday was typically a day of no classes. Sure, some people had testing periods early in the morning or labs, but most of us (the Humanities students) didn't have any Wednesday classes.

So Tuesday night became a great night for parties and going out to the bars since everyone had a light schedule on Wednesdays. Literally the campus was buzzing on a Tuesday night, it was insane.

Drunken Tuesday was born.

It was inevitable. Even if you were just sitting around you apartment with nothing to do and no parties to hit up, you would pop open some wine or some tequila and watch a movie and get drunk with your roommates. It was marvelous.

So in honor of our college days, we had some Drunken Tuesday cake and some drinks and now I'm going on like 5hrs of sleep instead of my usual 7. But thems the breaks. It was a fun night and I don't regret it.

Crazy Go Nuts

This weekend was extremely productive. Laura and I got a whole lot done.

Typically when we get together we make a whole lot of plans to do certain things and then we only get maybe two out of the seven things done. This weekend we got everything done except one thing...and that was to eat corndogs. Alas, regrettably we just couldn't fit it in to our busy schedule.

However the following things on our list got done:

• Candle Party - This was the reason I left work a little early on Friday, so I could get up to Albany and be there for Laura/Chrissy's Candle Party. It's like a Tupperware Party except with fire.
• Folded all 125 pocketfolds for the invitations.
  
  
  Our hand crafted pocketfolds.
  
  
• Stamped the return address on the back of all invitation envelopes.
• Stamped their address on all the RSVP envelopes.
  
  
• Went to GoodWill and found glass containers of various shapes and sizes for Laura's candy buffet.
• Went to a few antique stores and found a bracelet for Laura to wear to her wedding. Her grandmother had given her a necklace and earrings ages ago and we managed to find a bracelet (decently priced) that matches the set exactly!
  
  
• Hit up a good sale at Michael's and got the last bit of adhesive tape, stamp pads, and various other things we needed for wedding crafting and the like. I love when absolutely everything on my receipt is 20% off.

I'm going back up to Albany this weekend because we are in fact still a weekend's worth of work behind because of the funeral and the fact that I haven't been able to get up there since.

So for this week I am racing to get the invitations designed, printed and cut. As well as two of the four inserts designed, printed and cut. Then this weekend we'll assemble what we have so far and emboss their monogram on the invitations and the belly bands and put those together as well.

No rest for the bridesmaids. As if I could complain about doing stuff that's so creative and fun!

Dance Party Friday: Ask Me About My Wiener!

In college Laura and I did a lot of our grocery shopping together at Sam's Club. I vividly recall one day when we were in the frozen food section and both looked into a freezer case and immediately decided we needed to buy and devour corndogs.

I love corndogs.

I feel like a horrible person because I didn't know that there was a National Corndog Day. Luckily Winona over at DaddyLikey keeps me well informed on important holidays like this.

Apparently National Corndog Day occurs on a different day each year. It "coincides with the Saturday of the final 32 teams in NCAA basketball tournament" which for those of you like me who don't know anything about basketball is the only day you can turn on one channel and watch four consecutive basketball games.

They suggest eating your corndogs with tater tots and a delicious beer.

Allow me to just say this:
Greatest. Holiday. EVER!

So to celebrate, please enjoy these happy condiments dancing around from this retro drive-in intermission clip.



If you ask me, I'd say that hot dog was playing hard to get.


In other news, my awesome friend Morgan just started a new blog.
How Do You Like Me Now?

Somehow I've already made an appearance even though she's only had it a few weeks. I guess we're just both really cool like that.