Things are getting less scary

Aug26

This past weekend I ran 18 miles. That was by far the longest run I have done. At least the farthest I have done on a training run. In my first attempt at the marathon, I made it just past mile 21. In any event, the 18 miles actually felt pretty good. This was kind of surprising to me considering that the week prior, I had 17 miles to run and the entire week leading up to the 17 miles, I was freaking out about how far I was going to have to run.

I chose not to do the 17 miles with my pace group for various reasons and it turned out I did alright. Although, I did have to adjust where I ran because the Air & Water Show was happening so I couldn’t run as far south as I normally would have. Anyway, that run was almost my best long run of the year except around mile 10, I started to get a weird pain in my calf near my knee.  Continue reading →

The Dead Body Run

Aug5

dead body.jpgIt isn’t every day that when you decide to go on a 15-mile run, you come across a dead body. This is especially true if you are running in a highly populated area. Most people would expect that if you a person were to run across a dead body, it would be because you were running trails in the woods or on country roads.

However, this past Saturday when I left to go to the Lakefront Running Path in Chicago for my group run, I did indeed see a dead body. I live in a very populated area so I wouldn’t exactly expect to see one. It is a very residential area that I was running through to get to the lakefront and only expected to see the random early bird person out as I was.

Instead, as I was roughly 0.38 miles into my run, I saw flashing police lights. There were no sirens or anything, just the lights. As I got closer, I then saw that a police car had the street blocked and there was yellow tape up. Then, as I was passing the scene, I saw the dead body. Fortunately, it was covered with a sheet. Continue reading →

Once in a Lifetime

Jul31

Penfold's GrangeSeveral years ago, I got a bottle of Penfold’s Grange as a Christmas gift from my boss. While I loved getting it, I must say the boss at the time was the absolute worst one to have and thanks to a tanking economy, I was eventually laid off from the company. That was a good thing as being around that boss was starting to be bad for my sanity.

Anyway, at the time of getting that bottle of wine, a part of me felt bad because it is so expensive. However, given all the work I had been doing over the Christmas holidays (including working Christmas Eve, day and day after at nearly all hours) while other members in the office got to enjoy the holidays work-free, I felt less bad.

Continue reading →

you’re not getting any younger. . .

Jul29

Around here.jpgIf you’ve read any past posts on here, you know I spend a lot of my time at the gym working out. So it should come as no surprise that last week I was at the gym and had a most interesting conversation.

That conversation involved of all things relationships. Or more importantly, starting them. It all began when I was talking to another member about how he doesn’t show up for a particular class on Thursday mornings with one of his favorite instructors and attending law school.

Eventually this led to guessing how old I am and conversation about how blondes and gingers are not my type, but brunettes are just so good. Oddly, the guy is just the opposite and he can’t stand brunettes, but loves him some blondes and gingers. Continue reading →

Bars & Children

Jul26

Every once in a while, I will go to a bar to watch sporting events. Sure, there are times when I will go just to hang out, but generally, it is for purposes of watching a sporting event. In June, it ends up that I go to watch the Stanley Cup finals and at other times, it might be because I want to watch my football team play on television. I could watch at home, but sometimes, it is just more fun to go out and do this.

However, at times when I am trying to enjoy a sporting event at a bar, it is ruined by people who think it is cute and appropriate to bring their children to the bar. I’d like to think these people know this isn’t right, but given how often I see it, perhaps they don’t know. Or they do know but think because they now have children, the world should bow to their and the kids’ whims on how to behave now. Continue reading →

I Wish I Had Friends

Jul22

Thursday night, I ran in the inaugural Esprit de She race in Chicago. It was a 10K and a 5K race. I signed up to do the 10, but because the temperatures were so high, the 10 was canceled so everyone had to do the 5K. Part of me is happy about that because I would have pushed through to do the 10 and perhaps regret it later.

In any event, I was only one minute slower than my fastest 5K time. Not bad considering the heat was forcing us runners to go slower. If the temps were decent, I can only imagine what my 10K time would have been as well as my 5K split.

Continue reading →

Never Been Kissed

Jul14

imageInstead of recovering from a 12-mile run on Saturday morning, I took the day as a rest day. I didn’t sleep well the night before and in a weird way, I wanted the temps to be worse, so I delayed the run a day. No worries as I still got those 12 in for the week’s long run this morning where it was more miserable than yesterday would have been. It is good for me to run in miserable conditions.

To start my rest day, I decided to watch Never Been Kissed. With a reunion coming up next month, it just seemed appropriate viewing. If you aren’t familiar with the movie, Drew Barrymore plays a copy editor for the Chicago Sun Times and gets her first feature assignment to go undercover at a high school and find out what the kids are up to these days. As with most romcom movies, she ends up falling for someone and through a series of events things don’t work out then they do work out.

Continue reading →

Athletes, Burnout and Routine Shake ups

Jul13

20130711-091537.jpgBefore I started marathon training, I had been taking a number of rest days. Part of me knows that was completely reasonable to do. Especially since I had run a half marathon and a 10 mile race within six days of each other. During the weeks of the taper leading up to my half, I started to get sick. That would explain my half not being the absolute best and why I ended up missing my time goal.

Anyway, Shortly after the 10 mile race, I ended up taking consecutive days off from working out. And I realized I was starting to get burned out from working out. Yes, I took days off, but then to get back at it seemed like such a chore. I tried to run a couple of times and each time, all I could muster was a mile. It felt so pathetic. Pathetic because I was the person who had gone over 450+ days straight of doing something, whether it was easy yoga or an intense weight class to leisurely runs. I talked about this revelation with my trainer and she said, well part of it is because I am now an athlete. Athletes have to and do take breaks. To prevent injuries and so as not to start hating what they do. Continue reading →

Random Thoughts

Jul9

frog at the atl conservatoryAfter a recent session with my trainer, I got to thinking about all the random and strange thoughts that go through my head. It came up because she said she had on her to-do list to read one of my other blog posts. And a lot of the strange thoughts that I have occur in the gym because I do a great deal of people watching there and when you are on the treadmill, sometimes your mind just wanders.

Granted, many of the thoughts are just way out there and could possibly explain a whole lot about me, but here goes. Some of the strange thoughts I have: Continue reading →

Busybodies

Jul8
You and I performance.jpg

“and baby how we spoon like no one else. . .”

Last fall, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Ingrid Michaelson, perform a show at Park West in Chicago. I had seen her perform a couple times before and when she was back in town, I was excited to see her. I know a lot of people know her and her music from the Old Navy Commercial dealing with sweaters (her song The Way I Am is used in that commercial and known as The Sweater Song) and from watching Grey’s Anatomy (which should have been killed several years ago.) I know a lot more of her music and while it is great it is played in those settings, she really is a great artist. Plus, I feel like a lot of her songs say things that I feel, but just haven’t quite figured out how to put in words. And now I don’t need to because she already has done that.

Continue reading →