Running

Running on freezing

| cheriarmour

So, it’s cold as eff here, and as far as I know, I’m still running a marathon in two months.

Lord Jesus please someone explain to me why the low on Thusrday is 5 degrees?  I live in North Carolina, this should not be the case.

via WRAL.com
via WRAL.com

This is straight, unadulterated bs. And I’m trying to figure out the best way to go about running this week without injuring myself or going crazy on the treadmill, not only because the treadmill is ridiculously boring, but also because the treadmills at my job try and close you out at 45 minutes for the courtesy of others. I may have to guest it somewhere and run on a treddie or a trail here that will allow me a little more time and still allow me to pack on the mileage. But hey, I won’t whine too much because I have a warm bed and a roof over my head.  More than some folks can say.

But I digress.

Beside the fact that we’re freezing for whatever reason here, I have an actual question for you all.

So, I may be the only woman on the planet, but I never read Fifty Shades of Grey.  I never got into it, and in fact, the summer when the series’ popularity had reached a fever pitch, I was working in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and I truly just didn’t have time to read it, plus I didn’t want my girls to see me reading it (even though a really decent number of them, juniors in high school, were reading it).

And now, with the movie last weekend, and with the proliferation of articles for and against it, I’m genuinely curious as to what all the hype was about, and if we ARE pushing something dark and abusive.  Knowing all of this, and knowing that I’m still training, and running a lot, I’m definitely considering putting that in the queue for treadmill books, really to see what this controversy is all about.  I honestly feel weird commenting on it at all without having read it, and I’m surprised to see that a lot of the folks who are writing blog posts and articles about it haven’t so much as cracked its spine.  But that’s just me.

Are you staying warm?

Did you read 50 Shades?  What did you think about it?

Underboob Chafing

| cheriarmour

I made a critical error in judgement during my training.

Because I was at the Hornets game this weekend, I shifted my long run to Monday during my workday, and went for it.  But because I was rushing off to work (as usual) I grabbed whatever bra I could find out of the bottom of my clean clothes, and happened to grab this bra that isn’t even manufactured anymore, a bra that may have fit me back in the summer of 2010.  So that was five years ago.

After working in running retail for some time, I have repeated to our female customers numerous times the importance of replacing your sports bras.

“Your bra should never see a birthday.”

“You should change your bra when you change your shoes.”

“Gain or lose weight?  Have a baby?  Come in for another bra fitting.”

But we never, never listen to our own advice, and I have had this bra since I was about 22 years old.  (I’m now 27, about 20-30 pounds lighter, married, and I’ve changed bra sizes and tax brackets.)

So of course, I put this old raggedy bra on, so raggedy that one of the hooks on the hook-and-eye closure has complete disappeared.

Mid-10-miler, I noticed something going on, but was a little focused on making it back in one piece – the temp was steadily dropping, and my poor hands were losing feeling, so I sort of think adrenaline took over.  It wasn’t until I took a shower that I figured out what happened.

I cranked the water and hopped in – I was meeting an old friend for dinner – and immediately starting screeching.  I investigated – I’d managed to rub the skin off the underside of both of my breasts.  I screamed throughout the rest of the shower, and located my tube of Aquaphor immediately after I dried off and slathered a layer on.

That bra is going in the trash.  Well…what if I need it later?  Can it hurt me if I shove it in the bottom of the drawer again?

Any articles of clothing you’ve let hang around for five years?  For longer?  

One Year with Cokes

| cheriarmour

So, let’s start by describing what position I’m in.

After a speed workout on Tuesday, and teaching two classes, I woke up on Wednesday not really being able to move my neck around a whole lot.  I tried turning it right, then left.  Not a whole lot going on.  Up and down?  Same thing.  And I knew I had like two meetings at work.  Kinda felt like Miranda…

Miranda SATC
via yourepeat.com

When she managed to pull her neck during marathon training, and Aiden had to come peel her off the floor. [Side note: still a little upset about the way things ended with Aiden the first time because the second time those two got together and got engaged was just painful to watch.]

But I digress. My neck was not at all feeling well, I’m not sure what I did to it, and with two meetings scheduled that day, I really couldn’t not go into work.  Double negative.  But you get it.  So I popped three Aleve, and went on my way.

By the time I’d made it through my second meeting, the pain was starting to come up through my head, so I went home and alternated putting this heated rice bag thing on my neck with this neck massager thingie my mom very thoughtfully got me for Christmas a few years ago.  It came in handy with my first marathon because I was having a lot of trouble with my pirformis, and I would just wedge the massager onto my big ass.  This time, it’s actually on my neck where it’s supposed to be.  Ahhh!

One year with the Coco. 

About a year ago, I took a huge leap of faith, and adopted a little dog, sight unseen, because I was told her owner was going to take her to the pound.

CocoThe night we got her, she jumped up on the end of the bed, and I woke up periodically that night to make sure she was still there.  She was thin, her hair was patchy, and I don’t know that she was getting the love that she needed.  But she fit right in with our family, and really has brought us so much joy.  I’ve convinced myself that Coco is immortal and she’s done little to correct me.  I love that.  Here’s to many, many more happy memories with the Coke-monster!

Tell me about your pets!

Speed werk + China

| cheriarmour

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m training for Rock ‘n’ Roll, the full, in Raleigh in April.  Training is in full-swing, and last night, with there being some nasty weather in North Carolina early this morning and last night, I was forced to do my speed work, 12×400 with 400 meters of rest, on the indoor track.

Now that all sounds well and good, but the track?

Indoor Track

15 laps equals a mile.   Kill me!

Surprisingly, it wasn’t so bad though, and I’m not as sore a day later as I thought I would be.  Even though I think most people kind of dread speedwork, I will say that it’s a really fun way to get a lot of miles in – you’re so focused on hitting those meters 12 times (ew) that you don’t realize that 6 miles is come and gone!  And I think speed work can keep you skinny!

China

Forgive me, but I’m a little salty about this topic.   And by salty, I mean I’m a little salty, but more jealous.

My husband is going to China for work in a few weeks and I can’t go!  Blah!  It’s a work trip, so I have to hold down the fort while he goes and does work things in China.  But a few things I will do while he’s in China that first week of February?

  • I’m going to hire some housecleaning help that we’ve been talking about since before we got married.  Judge away, but we both work full time, I’m messy, and housecleaning isn’t my skill set.  I think it’s a good time for me to get some help in here and see how we do with it.  I would LOVE to (if money were no object) have someone once every two weeks, but we’ll start with just the one visit while my husband is gone.
  • I will cook so girly. Remember that epi of SATC when Carrie talked about secret single behavior?  One of my SSBs is eating strange things as meals.  Veggie dinners, salads with weird little things on them, and all of the things that your husband might look at you funny for eating.  I’m PUMPED.
  • I will drink wine in my underwear.
  • And I will miss the heck out of him.

I’m jealous, but I just want him back with me, not running around China!

What are your SSBs?

Addicted

| cheriarmour

It’s official…I’m addicted to quinoa.

It all started when I got a free quinoa bowl from Happy and Hale a few months back.

Photo via Bizjournal
Photo via Bizjournal

The place is a really cool concept – a very “Stuff White People Like” deal, with a full bar of fresh ingredients waiting to be combined into your delicious salad. Prior to my intro to the ‘noa, I’d kind of just avoided a ton of rice and grain, simply because the serving size on it is so small and I’d really like to eat more of something else without me getting bloated.  But I discovered the incredibleness that is quinoa, and now I just can’t get it out of my mind.

Similar to rice, you can cook it in the steamer, get a ton of fiber out of it, stay full for hours, and it’s SO plain, you can mix it with just about anything that you want.  Why I waited so long to be introduced to quinoa, I don’t know.  But I love it, and I’m not turning back.

2015 Events

Since I’ve been focusing more on the budget the past few months, even thought I’ve really wanted to sign up for races right and left, I’ve kind of held back, and as a result, I’m only signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh, and I’m so itching to sign up for something in order for me to keep my motivation and my fitness up throughout 2015.

So here are the options I’m looking at.

Rock ‘n’ Roll DC

P1160281I did this race, and since I stayed at the Westin, I ran into some cool-ass people like Carrie Keagan, who used to host Big Morning Buzz on VH1.  Still one of my favorite races, except for the killer hill at mile 6.

North Face Endurance Challenge

Since reading Dean Karnazes’ books, I’ve been really intrigued by the idea of ultra marathons (any marathon over 26.2 miles).  The idea makes my husband really really nervous, but I’m thinking about doing it just to see what I can do.  I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing one of these things.

Marine Corps

Marine Corps isn’t open, but the lottery opens in March.  Which means that if I got in, I would have to train throughout the summer.  In North Carolina.  Kinda blah, but I hear the race is absolutely awesome.  I also did training with a friend end of last summer, and I forgot that I don’t completely hate running long.  I just hate the heat kinda.

Nike

So this one is just sort of annoying.  The past two years, I’ve done the Nike Women’s Half marathon, and love it.  Nike canceled their DC event, and have yet to announce a spring event, leading me to believe there is no spring event.  It sucks, because these races are definitely one of my top races, but it’s also a total first world problem, and I have clean water and a warm bed to lay my head down at night, so no complaints.  Well, not that many.

So those races are on my radar for the year.  Any races/events you’re looking forward to signing up for to keep you motivated?

 

Serial (OMG!)

| cheriarmour

First and foremost, I hope your Christmas was a good one.  I spent my first Christmas with my husband as a married couple, and it was really very nice!  We were able to sneak in a run downtown, and spend some time with one another, which is not something we get a whole lot of time to do together.  Fun fact:  you would think as a married couple you’d be all up in each other’s grill all the time, but when you both work full-time, and you both work out an have to manage four pets – sometimes spending time can be tricky.  All that to say, our time was lovely and very, very much needed 🙂

So, I’ve taken to listening to podcasts while I’m running.  I love, love, music, and am constantly reworking my running playlist on Spotify so I’m not horribly bored, especially on long runs.  But truthfully, I’m starting to feel like there are only so many times you can listen to Chandelier…

…before you can sing every ad lib on cue, and you can perform the music video, frame for frame, on a long run.  I know this because I did it in Vegas when I was running my first leg at the Ragnar Relay.

So I started by downloading a few of my faves.  Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, This American Life, and The Read, a podcast so funny, that I’ve had to stop myself from falling off of the sidewalk from laughing so hard.  So I started on the hunt for some more podcasts to keep me entertained, especially considering that training for Rock ‘n’ Roll starts in like two weeks.  And I found two that were like omg, the funniest things you have ever ever heard of in your entire life/the most riveting pieces of literature (?) I’ve ever heard.

Psychobabble with Tyler Oakley

So, if you’re into hystericalness, this is the podcast for you.  This podcast is done by Tyler Oakley, a YouTube celeb, with a wicked sense of humor.  Often he and his friends discuss pop culture, his love for Lady Gaga, and the epi is sprinkled with wise little nuggets of feminist goodness – which you don’t think you could typically get from two dudes, but they’re very socially aware.  My only complaint is that it’s only about 30 minutes.

Serial

Serial Logo

I just finished the last episode of Serial, and all I can say is OMG. Slash, I need someone to discuss it with. Slash, what is going to happen to Adnan?

So if you’re a fan of the storytelling style on This American Life on NPR, you will most likely be a fan of Serial, which is an amazing story of a murder that occurred nearly 15 years ago in Baltimore Country, Maryland.  I promise, you will be hooked.

And if anyone is done with Serial and would like to discuss it with me here the comments, please feel free to do so.

So these are the ways that I’ve managed to keep my mind occupied while working out – how to you keep your mind active while you work out?

Did you/have you/are you listening to Serial?  

My year in music.

| cheriarmour

I’ve used Spotify for years – love it so much that I actually pay for a premium account, and have access to all my faves on all my devices.

Spotify has been with me at every single race I’ve ever run, and now, at least since last year, Spotify has been analyzing your listening patterns, and it makes December a little more fun when you get to remember specifically what you were listening to, with numeric proof of how obsessive your personality is.  Here’s a little bit of info about what I was listening to in 2014.

My top artist?

Demi

None other than the gorgeous and talented Demi Lovato.  This is two years running now, and my obsession shows no sign of slowing down.  Even though I do wish that she would break if off with Wilmer and then maybe she and I could be good friends.  Maybe more than friends.  Idk, we would take it slow, just see where it goes.

My Favorite Artists

My faves

Like I said before, Demitria obviously came in at number one, followed by Ariana Grande, who ruled the charts in 2014, followed closely by my friend and confidante,  Gavin DeGraw.

Gavin DeGraw and your peeps truly!
Gavin DeGraw and your peeps truly!

See! I told you! Friend and confidante!

The most fun analysis of them all!  Top 100 Songs of my 2014?

Top 100We got Magic’s Rude, we got Bailando, and really weirdly enough, we have Popular Song by Ariana and Mika.  And I’m not mad at it.

The coolest little thing about what Spotify did is that they went ahead and made a playlist of your Top 100, which I was having fun with on a boring treadmill run the other day by clicking around and taking a little jog (at six miles per hour) down memory lane.

What made your top lists in 2014?

Weekend Buzz

| cheriarmour

The weekend was absolutely, without-a-doubt, one of the busiest weekends I’ve had in forevs.  I say that all the time, but I totally mean it this time.

Anyhoo, so Friday night, I taught a Zumba ® Fitness party with two other fancy ladies, and we had an absolute blast.  I mean, I completely overdid it in the cardio department, but it was so nice to catch up with the other teachers.  The last time I saw them was at my wedding in August, so SO worth it.

After that, I headed home, and Austin and I decided to call it a night by watching a Disney movie, so we caught The Hunchback of Notre Dame on NetFlix.

Can we talk for a second about how screwed-up that movie is?

To be fair to Victor Hugo, the book ain’t no binder full of knock-knock jokes, but that is one screwed tale, and I’m not sure how or why my parents allowed me to watch it as a child.  A few highlights?

  • Referring to someone as a hunchback in general is not really encouraged.
  • When Frollo murks Quasimodo’s mother and then tries to throw Quasimodo in the well.
  • When the crowd tortures Quasimodo.
  • When Frollo is racist the entire movie.
  • When Frollo gets creepily obsessed with Esmerelda and sings an entire song about simultaneously wanting to have sex with her but feeling conflicted since he’s so racist against her people.

Those are just a few highlights.  But seriously, go back and watch it.  It’s SO creepy.

The craziest, then funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…

So Saturday night, I was able to convince my sweet husband to take me out to sushi, and then we met some friends for drinks.  Driving around downtown, we saw this Santa bar crawl – so a TON of folks dressed up as Santa, drinking and roaming the streets.  In this one particular group, there was a young woman in a wheelchair also participating in the crawl.  Her friends were like, drunkly pushing her around, and they’d almost made it completely across when they hit the curb and she went flying out of the chair.  I made sure she was okay first (she was) before I lost it.  I have never, in my 27 years of life, seen something like that, nor have I ever laughed so hard.  To be clear, I am NOT a bad person, and I was not at all amused UNTIL I knew that the drunky monkey in the wheelchair was fine.

Following that, I went for a trail run in which I was still intoxicated from a holiday party the night before. Because the trail was actually pretty challenging, I fell (which means it was a real good time), but managed to not break my nose.  Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because if I were to break my nose, I could get a free nose job and get a nose more like my sister’s.

Now, how was your weekend?

What I think about when I’m running.

| cheriarmour

Long, long ago, long before I even thought about my first marathon, a coworker causally mentioned that she was running a 17-mile training run.  Prior to me running marathons, and contemplating an Ultra (eep!), 17 miles sounded like an absolutely ridiculous amount of mileage.  So I asked her,

“What are you going to think about for 17 miles?”

I don’t remember her answer, but once I started running those distances, it became apparent that I had to start finding some things to think about while I was running.  So here it is, what I think about when I think about running. 

Austin captured this one close to the finish line.
Austin captured this one close to the finish line of City Of Oaks!
  • Prior to us getting married, I often thought about who would marry us. Neither of us was big in the church, and I worried that we wouldn’t be able to find anyone to do it. That fear was unfounded, because I found an amazing female officiant who was just what we needed, and provided us with a little bit of counseling before we got started.
  • “I wonder if I will be able to wear this bra again without washing it.”
  • I listen to a Podcast called “The Read“.  Do not, I repeat, do NOT listen to this podcast if profanity offends you, but I listen to it a lot on runs, and sometimes it makes me laugh out loud.  Then I think that anyone driving by in their cars might think I look like a lunatic because I’m laughing so hard that I’m falling off the sidewalk.
  • I think about my husband a lot.  Like what he’s doing, or if he might think that I look pretty while I’m running.
  • I think about why my thighs are chafing, especially in the summer when I forget my Aquaphor.
  • “I wonder why my stomach is hurting so badly. I hope I don’t have to stop at the Whole Foods (again) to….well…”
  • “Why are they so mean to the women in Mad Men? It’s kind of gross. And by kind of, I mean, really gross.”
  • “When will Justin Bieber/Rihanna/Ke$ha release more music.  I really like them!”
  • I imagine what it was like if I started touring with Little Mix.  I would be the lead singer (obviously).
  • I also imagine what it might be like if I opened my own coffee shop, called The Skinny Café.  I would obviously be part of the logo.  Winking and smiling.
  • I also imagine what it would be like if I narrated my own episode of This American life.
  • Pasta.
  • Nachos.

What do you think about when you’re running?