The "chair"

0 miles - a bit over-ambitious with my Saturday... I was super sore on Sunday. Not from my run, but from my volunteering! We hauled boxes and tons of other stuff as we "refreshed" for spring at the Bargain Basket store. I actually had to forego a run and do a round (or two) in my massage chair. Which, by the way, is THE best chair ever! Here is a quick pic. It looks kinda fancy and not very powerful, but looks are deceiving with this bad boy. It really gets in there so that your muscles can heal, although it totally hurts while the chair is working it's magic. Beats a $150 massage and you don't have to strip down to your skivvies to enjoy it. This chair is so amazing that when I first bought it back in Boise, I had a blind date that night and could not wait to end it so I could go sit in the chair. Two reasons: guy was a total downer and chair was so awesome. SO... it was a round in the massage chair and then heading "home" to Reinbeck for my oldest nephew's 10th Birthday party. As with anything... seems like yesterday that I got the call that he was born. Yet, I can't remember what it was like without him. Such a bizarre and completely ironic kinda feeling (which incidentally is an old favorite song of mine as well...). Seems to happen to me all the time lately though. What's that all about?

Lucky 14

14 miles - So one of my favorite restaurants is Lucky 13 in Boise. I haven't been there in 3 years but you can bet it is on my list for the next Boise reunion (along with many others like La Cafe de Paris chocolate almond croissant, Guido's tomato basil NY style pizza). If I was there right now I'd order either a pizza & beer or the Belle of Brumback sandwich... it's way yummy! Click on the link and check it out. So, yeah... apparently I am hungry right now and totally over the Oatmeal/yogurt that I had as my "recovery meal" this am... and on a memory lane trip. I digress. So back to Lucky 13 and what my lucky number for the day was... 14! We essentially hit 1/2 marathon status and ran another mile. w00t, w00t! :-) Yay! I was so excited I called Mom on the way home just to tell her. Have I ever mentioned that we run 2 mile circles around Des Moines' Gray's Lake? Click on the name for a map and you can imagine how it is one of two things 1) comfortable cause you know what a lap feels like, especially when you do 7 laps or 2) dizzying. Ha. This afternoon I'm headed to the Jr League Bargain Basket Thrift Store to volunteer for an afternoon shift. Who knows maybe I'll find some new running gear. ;) . Come down and say Hi!

Brilliant

3 miles - It was a quick 3 miles, fast paced run between conference and client calls today. I upped the pace and continued watching "About a Boy". I love how those British always use the word "brilliant". Which reminds me... that was a New Years Resolution of mine: to use that word more. :-) Love it. Tomorrow we are starting early at 6:30AM cause we are going to do 14 miles... and it might take us a while. Brilliant!

Several Meals - No running

0 miles - I decided to take a day off and spent the night at a birthday dinner from a friend at one of my local favorites, Flying Mango. I got the Dixie Chicken sandwich and chipotle mashed potatoes... goes well with red wine!;-) Then went to my church, Lutheran Church of Hope to volunteer for Meals from the Heartland. We had a great group for the packaging and they had it so well set up that we got through 3 full boxes and packaged around 100 meals in the time we were there. It's pretty amazing the assembly line and measuring that they have set up. All the meals go to Haiti as they are still in need. What a cool thing to be a part of, even if I didn't get my run in! :-)

Tools of the trade

4+miles - We had a great outdoor run, with the exception of some "refreeze" on the trail where the balmy 32+ degree sun had warmed it, we had a clear path. And best of all? It is light out most of the run! A real treat. :-) Jonna, Kristin, Ken and I did the quick two mile out and back. Nothing too exciting to tell on this one. So, I'll include a couple photos of two essentials that have been getting me through my days recently. My reusable water bottle that NEVER spills and I haul it everywhere with me (got this at Costco... I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. My parents have a love only relationship with Costco and my Costco card). Also in the pic; my night time reading and inspiration, Shape Magazine. Sidenote: I love reading about the exercises but never do them. I know, lame. Favorite part: the 2 before/after stories they always feature each month. Love those. Who doesn't like a success story? Least favorite: the "skinny "shape readers profile on the back. Seriously? Not inspirational. And the second Pic to the right is the breakfast tea from Harrod's in London that a colleague, Paula, brought when visiting us in NYC recently from the UK. Splash of milk and a splenda packet = Yummy!

Memory Lane

5 miles - Did I mention how easy it is to run these 5 while watching Biggest Loser? I'm not sure easy is the best word I guess, but definitely keeps my mind (and eyes) off of the mileage tracker. I messed around a bit and I mean a tiny itty bitty bit with incline and speed today, just to "spice it up" and I thought if the overweight peeps on BL could do it, I should at least give it a shot. I'm sorta obsessed with the thought of having my own Bob or Jillian, I think how amazing the results would be if someone was there beside me making me do faster runs and maybe even a push up or two after the runs. And then I think, seriously? I have to have someone make me do this to get this done? And, when I really think about it, I hate it when people make me do stuff.. makes me not wanta (problem from childhood, only person that has this syndrome worse than me is a friend from Portland... you know who you are! ;) So, as a result of obsessing about having a Bob or Jillian, I've really been thinking about the "drills" of high school sports lately. Let me just say that although my high school track coach, OJ, was no Bob (and I mean really not) and cross country coach, Clare,was no Jillian (ditto on this one); I think it would be fun to do interval training (although we despised it at the time). Or as we used to have done to us in cross country.... get dropped off on a country road about 4 miles out of town and have to run back. Yep, I'm from a small, small town in Iowa and believe it or not, we had a blast on those country road runs. Nothing says team building like trying to cut through field and stream for a shorter route than the gravel. I miss that. However, the TNT crew is slowly evolving as a group/team and that is fun to see on Saturdays. But I'm pretty sure we won't be doing any interval training soon. Probably a good thing, now that I'm fully into memory lane and remembering how it felt like. Interval training really sucked!

P.S. Breakfast favorite for the week: Kashi Oatmeal, Activia Vanilla Yogurt and slivered almonds. Micro the oatmeal, cool a bit, throw in the yogurt & throw on the almonds . Voila! Way yummy. Totally digging on this this week.

Morning runs rule

5 miles - Rock'n the Monday morning run. woohoo. I had a decent run. Nothing to write home about, although I'm blogging about it here apparently. Jumped on the treadmill and wrapped it up with a RB smoothie before jumping on the phone for my work - phone marathon today. Not 26.2 miles but 26.2 minutes x like 4 today. I started watching "About a boy" while on the tread today. Because against my will, I'm a Hugh Grant fan. I know, he's always awkward and there was that whole prostitute scandal thing in the 90's, but I like him. Now that the Olympics are over, oh, sad day for the Men's US Hockey team yesterday, I also have to admit to a not-so-secret crush on Apolo Ohno. Let me just say, Wow. I was thinking maybe we could do some marathon training together.

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