Sloppy Joes

If you don't follow this blog, pioneer woman cooks, you're missing out on some of the best recipes EVER. So I randomly decided this week to make Sloppy Joes as one of my weekly meals (I plan my meals out for the week on Sunday before we go grocery shopping), but I knew I wanted to make them homemade, not Manwich. So I googled it, and Ree's recipe came up....which of course, I was like, duh....should've checked her sight first. Anyways, her recipe was AWESOME, but I added carrots to sneak in veggies for my kids. You just dice them and cook them in the beginning with the onions & peppers.

But so here's the best part, we're sitting down to dinner, and Delph is like "what are sloppy joes?" And I'm like, "really? I've never made you sloppy joes?" And I hadn't, Delphie had not had a basic American tradition at 7 years old! Because I'd never made them b/c I've never been a big fan of Manwich. Yet, I grew up on these things! SHE LOVED THEM. Maybe b/c the recipe was awesome. Maybe just because sloppy joes are awesome. And she commented, "I get why they call them sloppy, but why joe?" Good question, my wise sage of the 7-year-old world, good question.

Running Through The Pain

So I haven't blogged about my half-marathon training in awhile....here are the updates:

1) We are officially signed up for the race! $75 in....EACH! So there is no backing out now. Come out and support us if you want, November 13th, you can google the course online to pick a good watching spot. It's early, we start at 7:30, but no worries, I'll be running for a solid 3 hours, so come on down around 9, and I'm sure I'll still be tortoise-ing along.

2) I have shin splints! UGH. If you've ever had them, they are EXTREMELY painful. And you can get all kinds of advice, ice them, brace them, tap your foot, stretch, etc. But the only way to make them go away is to STOP the activity that caused them and let them rest. But I can't and I'm not. So I do all the things mentioned above and I run anyway. It's been terribly painful, and gotten better at the same time. I did lower my training in the past two weeks to try to give them some more significant rest, and that seems to have helped. I only have to run a 10k today.....ONLY, hahaha! But this week I've got to pick it back up for 9er next weekend. The race is only 3 weeks away, so I'm just gonna suck it up and RUN THROUGH THE PAIN (sounds like a good sermon in there somewhere....maybe I'll blog about that as a devotional later.)

3) I've officially reached another mile stone, last weekend we ran 8 miles. So proud of myself, really happy I accomplished it.....and it was the most miserable experience of my life. Seriously! In being retrospective on this whole race thing, I can say honestly, that I'm pretty proud of myself and have learned that I don't totally dislike running. I can see myself continuing to go out and run 3 miles 3-4 times a week, with maybe a long 5-miler on the weekends. I could even see myself training annually for a 10k, BUT I will NEVER do something of this length again. It's so much pressure, our lives are already insanely busy with two young kids, jobs & tons of activities. But each week we also have to fit in hours & hours of running. And then when you do a long run, you're wiped out for days! I literally couldn't walk normally for two days after the 8 miles. So I'm going through with it, but that's it for me, cross it off the bucket list. No Marathons or Triathalons for this gal. Ironically, after running the miserable 8 miles, I went out this week and had the best run of my life, 5 miles faster than ever (for me) and no pain.

4) I'm a sucker for the gear. As you saw in an earlier post, I already have my armband for music, my water bottle belt. And now I'm using energy gels! I need some cold weather running pants, and I get totally a ga-ga about all the great athletic clothes when I walk in REI or Dicks. I love the idea that I could walk into Starbucks on a Saturday morning in my cool athletic clothes and look totally hard core like the other runners I've seen in there in the past. To bad when I'm actually running, I look nothing like that.

I vow to listen

So, I've wanted to write since I was about a senior in high school. When I first went to college, that was my direct goal, I studied English, read all the classic literature, wrote & edited for the paper. But after time, that gave way to other goals. I'm happy with all the things I've done, especially being a teacher and my work now at WEAG. But I still want to write.

These days I dream about my various projects....I'd love to write fiction for teenage girls (not the Gossip Girl stuff), but cool, relevant stories with Christian messages. Or I'd love to write theology books, and die waiting to be published in the oversaturated market. And I have this great idea about a funny devotional book for the working/soccer/crazed/messy house mom, who can't even find a time to have devotions.

But that's the background to my title for this post. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, and this gal is so much fun. She's got a colorful personality, has great stories and is just really fun to talk to. And I got to thinking, the kinds of conversations I have with her are the kinds of conversations that people write into their books to help make points. You know, all good writers have tons of stories in their books that help them express what they are getting at.

And then I realized, I'm 35, and I'm totally lacking in having paid attention to those conversations, those stories for my whole life. I don't listen enough. I mean, I listen well enough to respond back, even to offer good advice, but I don't listen enough for poignant moments, for conversations or comments that are so good and meaty, that you want to go home and record them for future use.

Not just so I can be a good writer, but so that I can be a better friend, person, example to my kids.............I vow to be a better listener!

5 Miles...Check!

Hello fellow bloggers and readers. It has been awhile, but I'm back and I'm still running. Only 9 weeks until the big race, but I'll get you caught up on that in a minute.

It would be way to cumbersome to catch you up on the two months that I haven't blogged, but let me just say that they were INSANE! I have been fighting with mother nature, I'll just hint at some of my adventures....14 ft alligator, Delphie's snake bite, frogs, spiders, roaches, Hurricane Earl, poison ivy & and an entire colony of Red Fire ants that attacked my feet. All in the midst of a very, very busy & exciting summer.

But now, we are home, and in the routine. School, preschool, work, and all the kids' activities, soccer, dance, Taekwando, and now we are trying to fit our regular running into the normal balance of life as well.

I have been keeping up with the running, by mid-August I had built myself up to a regular 3 miles (which was necessary to even begin an official Half-Marathon training program). So three weeks ago, we started the 12-week Hal Higdon training program for Novice runners. And yes, yesterday, Saturday, 9/11/2010, I RAN 5 MILES. And here's the crazy part....I felt good. My legs hurt, painfully actually, but my breathing felt good, and I really felt like if I had to I could keep going. I did it!

And yes, I'm all in, folks. I bought myself a water bottle belt (see picture), and I load with half water, half gatorade (gotta get those electrolytes), I've got my armband with my Droid phone that also plays music, as it uses the Endomondo app to GPS track my route, distance and mile pace. I've got my visor and my sweat-wicking shorts. I've pre-mapped all my runs. I am officially a ......... runner.

And that is beyond my comprehension. Life Lesson - never say never!

Overrun with exhaustion

Haha, just trying to use "run" in all my blog titles since I'm doing this running thing.

Side note: For those of you (2) that actually follow my blog, getting ready to overhaul it in the next few days. Had a major brainstorm of the things I really like and how they can be funny together. So stay tuned for the makeover. It will still include my brave and probably futile attempt at the half marathon, yet so much more about the real me.

But for now....went on choir tour last week. SO AWESOME! Totally a success after 4 years of not having one, think we helped everyone realize why they are so awesome. But on a side note, that meant about 10 days of no exercise, let alone my running. And I had SO built up to that solid two miles. So tonight was my first attempt back.....and I'm not gonna lie, pretty stoked on myself....ran two solid miles and ran half of the second mile at a faster pace than I usually do. (I'm a terribly slow runner). Now, as a note to would-be runners...I'm not a fan of the treadmill. I like goals like "I'll get to that tree and then walk" or "I can make it to the next street over and then it's downhill," but on the treadmill, it clocks every .01 of a mile you run so to me it feels like your crawling at a snail's pace to get to a larger goal. ("and leaving a sticky trail all the way behind you" for anyone who went to NOLA'07)

But tonight...the treadmill was the bomb. I conquered. I think b/c it was sooooooooooooooooo hot outside I knew the only way I could run was inside, so I just beefed up the music volume, watched the TV's in the gym (NCIS, I think?), and ran and ran. And I did it, I had the energy, I had the determination. Tonight's music of choice was J Roddy Walston and the Business....awesome running music if you don't have it. You can literally keep pace with it, 1st album Hail Mega Boys, next album coming soon, but you can get a 3 song EP on iTunes. I'm thinking next run, I'm gonna go for a Choir Tour Bus Dance Party Mix.

Final note, and I'm a little bitter about it....the fact that I had such good success tonight means that I must have built up some endurance prior to leaving for choir tour....which in turn means, UGH, it is time to increase to 3 miles. Glass half empty...Crap. Glass half full....hey, only 10 more miles to go after that.

It's all about the shoes....running shoes!

So, it's going to take me forever to try to backtrack my initial running, though I'm truly still in my initial stages. So here's the brief attempt:

• 5 weeks ago, started running. Couldn't run 2 full miles. But went out and got fancy "the real deal" running shoes. They even analyzed my feet & and I tried them on a treadmill in the store. Ok, so I have to stop here and expound some more b/c it was hilarious. I'm running...on a treadmill....in the middle of a store....in my jeans & cute tshirt! So she says "how do they feel?" And I'm like "compared to what?" She: "do they work well?" Me "I don't know, I don't know how they are supposed to work." She "Are they comfortable and do they stabalize your running?" Me: "I'm in a store on a treadmill in my jeans, and I'm not a runner, I couldn't begin to tell if they are remotely doing what they are supposed to be doing." I bought the shoes!
• First 2-3 times out, ran until I felt like I was going to die....about 1/2 mile. Walked a bit, ran a bit, walked a bit...liked the shoes. Note on long-term running....definitely get the motivation of cool gear like nice shoes.
  
• Accountability is good. Ran with family a few times, that pushed me...especially when Delphie is biking beside me. Frankly, it's a pain, but whenever we were going uphill, she would get "too tired" to bike up the hill, so even though I'm sucking in air like I'm buried in the sand, I'd get behind her and run while pushing her bike. Building endurance....building endurance!
• That worked. Finally about 2.5 weeks in, went for a run by myself with the old ipod set to my energetic playlist so cleverly named "Exercise," and ran the two miles on my own without stopping or walking! Success. It felt good, I felt proud. I could see the long-term goal ahead, could feel the endorphins flowing, maybe I'll end up loving this running thing afterall.
  
• Later that week, met my friend at the track to run together, again, had a good run. But as we were walking our cool down, we both looked at each other and said....great 2 miles, but really....13? No way.
  
• Been doing that 2 miles a bit now, feeling pretty good. Time to push myself up to 3. Got a head cold this week though, and my first attempt to run with it killed me. Didn't make it. Ugh. WWRRD? (What Would a Real Runner Do? in case you were wondering)
  

Haha. Thank God it's not until November. We'll see. Might have to get a new pair of shoes. I had totally underestimated the value of a woman's love for shoes in this running equation.

Too tired to blog about anything tonight, my running over the past three weeks, or my current thoughts on running, or life at all...so, I'll just say that I did get up today to meet friends at the track at 9:00am to run, and I did it, 2 solid miles. I'm telling you...I think aliens have kidnapped me and replaced me with a robot. Watch for other strange behaviors, and if necessary, please intervene for my rescue.