Running on Hard Mode...With Fantastic Eyeliner!

It is finished.                    

This week has been rough, running-wise. I've either got some sort of bug, or I'm having an "auto-immune thing." That's what I've started calling the "my glands are swollen, I feel like I'm getting sick, but no one around me is sick," stuff that I get frequently. Either way, I haven't felt awesome. I pushed through it on Monday and did three miles anyway, but the last couple of days, I've just stuck with walking at work. So today, I drug my hind end out of bed and told myself I could just walk. ... I'm so sneaky.

Nine times out of ten, once I start walking, it eventually turns into a run. I did end up walking for ten minutes before decided to see how running felt. I was able to finish out three miles and now at least my legs feel awesome.

I've been a bit hit and miss with my running lately. Averaging two to three three mile runs a week with a four miler on the weekends. While that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, I'm not really working towards anything right now, and I think I get more satisfaction when I have a goal, so I'm thinking about training for a 10k or maybe a half.

Random photos of family fun.

Since having S, and finally getting back to running the last year and a half, I've avoided doing more than six miles because of my weight. While it's been on a SLOW, but steady decline (then flattening out into unintentional maintenance mode the last six months), I'm not quite as light as I'd like to be before getting into the higher mileage. The reason for this is twofold (yup - twofold): one - the first time I tried to train for a half, I was a few pounds heavier than I am now, and once I got up to seven miles, my knees were NOT happy and that was before I had psoriatic arthritis.

The second reason is time/speed. I think, in the back of my mind I've been assuming that as I get lighter, my speed will pick back up to where it was - and let's face it, running long distances REALLY slow take a LONG time.


That being said, I think I'm going to search for a plan that incorporates some speed work with a longer run on the weekends. Brilliant, right? I know, I know, I should totally coach. :O)

Speaking of long run on the weekends, a couple of weeks ago I had some fun and did a test of the new Enduring Eyeliner I ordered. It's supposed to be practically bullet proof, so I decided to test it out on a long run. I put some on my eyes, of course, but also drew a smiley face on my forehead to see if it would stand up to all of the sweat.

The result? My eyes were perfect, not a smudge or smear. They even held up after a shower and a full day of activities, including yard work in the hot sun. I was impressed!

Unfortunately, the smiley face didn't make it. Apparently sweating profusely and then wiping at your forehead was too much, but I suppose that is fairly reasonable.

So, if you are looking for something that will stay on your EYES for a long run, let me know, and I can hook you up with the perfect eyeliner. If you're looking for a way to keep drawings on your sweaty forehead, sadly I cannot help you.

Hope everyone had an awesome run today, or has one in their near future.

Take care,

~Megan

Zombie Run and Shameless Plug

Hi all! I suppose first of all I should share some sad news that I forgot to mention last time. Miles, my treadmill, has passed away. After many years and many, many miles, he came to the end of his useful life. He will live on in our hearts.

Here lies Miles, beloved treadmill, forever in our hearts and quads.

This is either a great or tragic segue into my next topic - Zombie Run. I came across this app a few years ago and thought it looked interesting, but wasn't able to try it out at the time. While putting useful apps on my new phone this weekend, I came across it again and (because it was free and now works for treadmill running as well) decided to give it a go. It is awesome! You turn on your playlist and then start the app. I used mission mode and it started me out in a helicopter that crashes outside an isolated town trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. It then tells you that you have to make a run for the town and hope for the best. There are intermittent cut scenes where the tower is communicating with you collect supplies as you go. When your run is finished, you can work on "building" the town with the supplies you've collected - pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I picked a music playlist that was too short and when I changed playlists, the game lost my spot. I think this was because I hadn't completed the registration process, so I'm going to try it out again on tomorrow's run and see if this resolves itself. I was a little disappointed at how long it went between "communications" - about 4 songs (12-ish minutes) for the first bit and another 3 or 4 for the next. Tomorrow, I'm going to set it for a shorter duration and see if the same scenes happen in a shorter time frame.

Incredible view and nice camera on my new phone - yay!

Kayaking fun.

My and my fella

In family life, we had a great weekend hanging out at the lake with my in-laws. S got to play by the water with grandma and run around looking for things in the woods, and I got to go kayaking, so I was pretty happy. Poor Cody got a zillion mosquito bites and I got exactly two. My dad was telling me that taking B12 will keep mosquitoes away, so I'm wondering if my recent love of brussel's sprouts might have something to do with it. That, or he's just tastier than I am. :O)

On to the shameless plug. I've recently started selling LimeLife skincare and cosmetics. If you might be looking for chemical-free skincare or professional-quality cosmetics, check out my store website or Facebook page. I'm always around if you have any questions.

Hope you all have a beautiful Monday!

~Megan

Treadmills fix everything

I have to start out by saying that my wonderful husband fixed my treadmill last night. He's the best! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous when he started ripping the belt (yes, ripping). I'll explain in a minute.

So, I've had a rough couple of days - which you may have picked up on in yesterday's post. I've been struggling with depression and stress and have been very short-tempered (sorry loved ones!), and feeling like I've turned into some horrible person that's angry at the world. I finally realized that part of the problem is that I don't have an outlet for my stress. Don't get me wrong, I have an amazing support system that will let me vent at a moment's notice and would help with anything they can, but sometimes you've talked it to death and there is nothing left to say. Sometimes you just need a run.

I came to this conclusion on Sunday night so Cody informed me that we were going to fix my treadmill as soon as he picked me up from the bus stop after work. I then (tearfully - I mentioned the depression, right?) proceeded to explain that that wouldn't work because:
1) I had to cook dinner when we got home.
2) Immediately after eating dinner, I have to soak up all the baby snuggles I can before the little man falls asleep - this can be a very slim window and there are tears involved (mine) if I miss my snuggle time after being at work all day.
**Sometimes Most of the time, when I am really depressed, I tend to get really pessimistic and everything seems impossible.

Wow. Different eCard, same runner.

Because my fella knows this about me, he was prepared with a rebuttal:
1) We can afford ONE night of McDonald's.
2) We are taking the little man downstairs with us and you are going to snuggle him while I fix your treadmill. Boom - lawyered.

So that's exactly what we did. As soon as we got home, I changed into running clothes and bundled up the little dude and we all went downstairs. Little man and I settled in to my comfy chair and watched Cody work.

He loosened the belt, flipped it back, and tightened things back up. Then he turned it on and about 10 seconds later, the belt flipped again. He repeated the steps, working the belt a little to the right to try and keep things from catching - but the exact same thing happened again. I was starting to think we wouldn't be able to fix it (feeling pessimistic, remember?) when he looked up at me and said, "do you mind if I trim the belt?" My mama bear instinct kicked in on behalf of my beloved treadmill, but since the next step would likely be replacing the belt anyway, I told him to go ahead.

He made a snip - with nail clippers because the scissors were upstairs and he gets a strange enjoyment from making things work - and then started ripping the edge off. He only took off about 3/8 of an inch and because it ripped along the weave of the belt, it is perfectly straight and you can't even tell. I have to give him credit - he fixed my treadmill with an Allen wrench and nail clippers. Well done, sir.

So, I hopped on to check the tension and make some final adjustments... and then... I went for a run!!! "Run" might be a bit generous, but I got sweaty and out of breath and it was amazing. I made myself stop after 20 minutes to see how my back would hold up, but things felt pretty good. I did one minute walk/one minute jog intervals. My back did tighten up after I sat for a bit, but it feels fine this morning.

I'm pretty sure I was grinning like an idiot the rest of the evening. I slept like a rock (with a minor 3 am baby wake-up) and actually feel well-rested this morning. I can't remember the last time I felt well-rested. I also feel like someone took the chaos in my head and shook it so that things settled into neater stacks of manageable issues.  

I'd almost forgotten how much of a relief running can be. Running has a way of draining away all of my irritation, frustration, anger at the injustices of the world, or fears that I'm not doing all that I could/should be doing. It makes me feel like a better, more patient, happier version of myself.

I told Cody this morning how much better and well-rested I feel, ending with, "treadmills fix everything. Maybe if I run hard enough, money will start to come out, too."

Lastly, I will leave you with a picture from one of my indoor walks last week because I didn't take any pictures of the events listed above. 

Happy Tuesday!!!

The Continued Saga of the Treadmill and Thursday Randomness

Little man woke me up at 3:58 this morning for a diaper change (his, not mine). I think he was trying to make sure I got up for my workout. How he knew my alarm would be going off in two minutes, I don't know. Maybe he's psychic.

He's not a morning person.

Good news - I had an awesome 45 minute workout. Bad news - it wasn't on my treadmill. Sigh. The saga with my treadmill continues. I trimmed the frayed edge off the belt (by the way, did you know treadmill belt is one of the five things in the universe that duct tape won't stick to?) and made sure nothing was catching and then started things up. Two minutes in, the belt flipped AGAIN - WTF?? I'm going to have to do some research and see what else I can do. Anyone have this problem before?

So, since it's pizza Thursday and my plan was to do 45 minutes on the treadmill, I did the 45 minutes Les Mills Combat DVD. Whoa, Nelly. It's been awhile. I've felt pretty good doing the 30 minute workout, so I didn't think stepping up to 45 would be that different. Yikes! There was a lot more twisting in this one, which I definitely felt in my lower back and pelvis toward the end. I stuck with the modifications to take out the jumping, but had to make a few of my own to reduce torque on my lower back (i.e. switching a jab for a hook).  I'm going to have to get outside and do some running this weekend, otherwise I'll have to change the name of my blog to lazywalkerdvdgirl.

I give you proof of sweatiness. FYI - I'm not a morning person either.

Awesomeness.

In other news, I have a job interview on Monday! I'm a bit freaked out since I've been at the same job for seven years. The position is a staff accountant at the local medical center - which lines up perfectly with my soon-to-be-finished degree (estimated graduation August 2017). I think I would enjoy the work, but there are going to be a ton of factors to consider if they are interested in hiring me. Don't worry, I have lists. I'm going to finish jotting down all of the factors to consider, as well as going through my resume and the advertised job description, and then try not to dwell on it until Monday morning. If nothing else, it's flattering to get an interview.

I will leave you with a few random thoughts for Thursday:
*I've had calorie deficits between 1300 and 1500 all week (yay!) and am starting to see some downward movement on the scale.
*Today we have seasonal socks that match my toenail polish. If only I had a clean purple shirt - I'd be unstoppable.
*Lola felt the need to follow me everywhere and decided that she, too needed her picture taken.

This is the first one where she didn't move right at the last minute.

Happy Thursday, Friends!