running

Would you workout with an overweight trainer?

| cheriarmour

Okay, but before we get into all of that, look at what I ate for dinner last night.

I met up with Kelly, a good friend from Elon last night, and we met up at this place called Pop’s in Durham.  It was a Trattoria, and choc-full of a ton of good wines to choose from, so it was the perfect spot for us.  So look what I had.

photo (5)This delicious thing, which came in its own skillet thingie is a fusilli pasta with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.  It was literally to die for and so huge, that I could only eat like a little bit of it before I packed up the reset for lunch tomorrow.  Lunch is gonna be BALLER tomorrow.

But back to the topic at hand.  So I was taking to a friend yesterday, and he was describing how is accountant had a lot of bad, outstanding debt.

“It’s like working with a fat personal trainer,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense!”

And I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

I’d like to think that you can be overweight, and fit, and that I would be okay working with a personal trainer who was overweight, ESPECIALLY if that personal trainer was well-versed in his or her craft, but I’m not sure.  I never want to discriminate against someone on the basis of how they look, especially given the fact that you cannot necessarily tell how healthy someone is by looking on the outside.  So I’ll pose these questions to you without any judgement, or leading.

Would you work out with an overweight personal trainer?  Why or why not?  

 

Here’s what! What three things are you obsessed with this week?

| cheriarmour

It’s Friday y’all, and time for my Here’s What!

In case you missed it the past few weeks, here are a few links.

1/31/14

2/7/13

And in case you’re still dumb (jk, jk), my here’s what is my “here’s what three things I’m obsessed with this week,” which I totally stole from Andy Cohen, my American Idol.  Andy, please, give me my own show!  I need it!!!  Okay, here goes though. 

Lake Street Dive. 

A friend tagged me in this video on the YouTube, and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

Rachael Price is that lead vocalist, and even though the show was totally sold out, I was able to purchase exactly one ticket.  I know a few friends are hitting the show too, so I should be able to try to find them, but yes, I love Lake Street Dive enough that I’m just going to go to this show solo dolo.

The weather.  

I promise, I’m not lame.  Which I have to say because I recognize that it’s pretty lame to be posting about the weather on my blog.  But it’s been disgusting, especially by NC standards, and I’ve been forced onto the treadmill more than I’d like this week.  Mid next week in good ol’ Raleigh, we will be well into the 70s here.  When we had a snow storm and people were abandoning their cars this week. It literally makes no sense.  But whatvevs, I’ll take whatever keeps me off the treadmill for a day or two.  Raise ya glass for 10 miles on Sunday!  Woohoo!

These Minnetonka Boots

1798801_10100273811496543_1882547200_nI blogged on these a few weeks ago, how I’d been dying for some to add to my collection, so imagine my surprise (delighted surprise), when Austin told me to close my eyes and open a shoe box?  They could not be more perfect!  Gah, they’re exactly what I needed!

So what three things are you obsessed with this week?  

Clark Howard, I’ll let you do your job, let me do mine.

| cheriarmour

During yesterday’s snow day debacle, where I literally spent the entire day inside, blogging, doing laundry, and cleaning.  I did not do any running, and for that, I feel extremely guilty.  [addendum to this post] I finally couldn’t take it anymore, and Austin and I put on our winter finest, and shuffle-ran to to local coffee joint, grabbed a cup, and shuffle-ran back.  My feet are very cold!

But anyhoo, when I was working on the blog and doing my usual scan of Facebook/Twtiter/Bloglovin, I came across this gem by Clark Howard.  Clark Howard, if you’re not familiar, is the resident financial guru on HLN, and he offers tips and tricks to “Save More, Spend Less, and Avoid Rip-Offs,” which I’m all game for.

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Wikipedia.org – Clark Howard

Seriously, as I moved toward getting married and merging finances with another human, I’m working to get better with my finances, as Austin is seriously amazing with money, and I’ve learned a lot from him. So I try not to spend money on stupidity, but I was blown away when I came across this article, that was credited to things Clark Howard had said.

The main premise of the article? 

Cheapo sneakers are actually better for runners.

No, no, no-no, no no no no no.  Absolutely not.  The article credits a Scottish study that somehow concluded that less-expensive shoes are just as good as low cost one.

Full disclosure here.  I work for Fleet Feet, and I am biased, however, having run in both $25 shoes and $150 shoes, there is really no comparison.  You pay more, your feet feel better.

I consider myself something of specialist when it comes to running shoes (since it’s my job) and I’ve said it once, and I will absolutely say it again.  Go to a specialty shoe store, like a Fleet Feet or a Pacers, get a fitting, and pay the full price for your running shoes.  If you’re running, there’s no reason you should be pounding around on shoes you found in a Payless.

And now, I present to you a list of stuff you don’t need to be skimping on!

  1. Your bras.  Sports bras or not, you don’t want to be turning into a floppy mess by the time you’re 25.  Spend the money on something good and supportive, and you won’t regret it.
  2. Your jeans.  I’ve purchased jeans from Target, and they smell like mothballs.  I’ve purchased designer jeans from a consignment store.  Designer digs > Target jeans.
  3. Your vacuum.  If you buy it cheap and your ish is gonna break in 6 months anyways, spend the extra bucks and enjoy your vacuum for years to come.  I have an Oreck XL that’s like a million years old.  I don’t remember how much it cost when it was first purchased, but it’s still going strong.
  4. Your food.  Now let me clear, you can certainly afford healthy foods on the cheap.  Heads of lettuce, fruits, and juices can be purchased for cheap.  But don’t run out to some bargain place and sweep the bottom shelves for Ramen.  You’re doing your body no favors.
  5. Obviously, your running shoes.  Unless you like bunions and bone spurs.  But that’s completely up to you.

So what are you willing to spend your hard-earned money on?  

Snow day!

| cheriarmour

I think I was gonna post on something else today, but Raleigh, NC shut down today.  Thankfully, yesterday was slated as an off day from marathon training, so I wasn’t really worried about how I was gonna get my run in – that said I am not sure how or where I’m gonna get today’s 8 in because everything is shut down.

I woke up yesterday morning, and it was just straight-up cold.  But the school system closed school for the day, so it had to be serious, right?

I drove into work anyway, and worked for a short time before it occurred to me that I didn’t want to be stuck, so I headed home, and immediately set about to taking a nap.  When I fell asleep it was cold and dry.  And when I woke up, I saw this.

photo 1I’m not sure how over 3 inches of snow accumulated in the amount of time it took for me to doze off, but it did.

photo 2I stumbled out of my sleep, not realizing how much it snowed, and if you peek in the bottom of that picture, you can see that I wore my nude flats, because I honestly didn’t realize how much it had snowed.  Poor Coco didn’t really know what to make of the snow, and during her bathroom break, she actually ran underneath the building so she could find a dry spot to “powder her nose”.

At any rate, the snow day was nice because I actually had time during the day to write and to work on my blog, which, is quickly rocketing to my Top 5 of things I like to do with my time.  Can I just go full-time with the blog yet?  And it was all fun and games until Austin called and told me he was stuck, and that Raleigh had turned into a version of Atlanta 2.0.

1780853_10101721454588119_2019573208_nThis, my friends, is how the South does winter.  Let me tell you what, the South does many things correctly.  Biscuits, musicians, and summer nights.  All very well done by the South.  But winter, winter is not our strong suit.  This is literally a few blocks over form my house, and yes, in case you were wondering, that is a car on fire down the hill.  Talk about a bad day, right?

So I went into stress mode, thinking about Austin stuck.  I thought about hopping into my Lancer and saving him, like a knight(ess) in shining armor, but that quickly was pushed aside, and I kind of just wrung my hands until he was home safe.

P1160164As night fell, a really nice ice crust formed over the ice…

P1160166And my fur-baby was having absolutely none of it.  (How cute are her little footprints, PS)?

How is the weather where you are?  How do I navigate my run tomorrow? 

How marathoning is like delivering a child.

| cheriarmour

So here’s a disclaimer.  I am not pregnant, nor have I delivered a baby.  But., one of my best friends was pregnant throughout the time I trained for my marathon, and our lives have always been eerily parallel, despite the fact that she lives about 8 hours away in Nashville.  As I was going through the whole process – the training, the race itself, and then the after, I asked her about it, and she seemed totally in agreement, that training for, and executing a marathon is kinda sorta like the process of getting pregnant and delivering a baby.  Also, fun fact:  now that we have kids, we are sworn to secrecy about what happened at her wedding weekend.  I am fine with that 😉

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Mama Chelsie and baby niece Evie, when she was born on January 21st of last year! Mama delivered with no drugs!

How Marathoning is Like Delivering a Child

By: Cheri and Mama Chelsie, cause she’s actually delivered a child.

  1. You’re pregnant/you’ve registered for your first marathon! So what do you do? You tell your best friends, because you’re kind of so excited, but kind of terrified. What have you gotten yourself into? Oh well, you’ve got forever to prepare for this, right? Right? Why do some people so happy for you, and some people seem so terrified for you?
  2. Realizing that what you’re about to do is going to be a big deal, you go to Barnes and Noble and sit there with a tea while you read every single book on the topic.  You might even bring your laptop to Google some stuff and do some cross-referencing.  Why the hell are there so many theories on this stuff?  Should I eat seafood?  Is caffeine okay? Am I about to get judged for all my choices?
  3. You tell people.  And the world starts to implode.  First, it’s a lot of congratulations.  Then, a lot of unsolicited opinions.  Then a lot of stupid questions.  “How far is a marathon?”  “Why are you doing that?” “I think my sister ran a marathon once, but she said it made her hate running. [shrugs] Hope this doesn’t make you hate running!”
  4. Once you get over the initial shock of what happens, you realize, you have to eat well.  Gone are the days where you could mindlessly toss back a few cups of coffee, or drink all night with friends because each day when you wake up, whatever’s in your belly is what is coming with you for the run.  If something doesn’t agree with you, your body will certainly let you know, and you may find yourself in the bathroom a little more than usual.
  5. You talk to your friends about how they did it.  How did they prepare?  What should you know?  Some of their advice is comforting.  Some of their advice is terrifying.  You kind of think you can do it, but you kind of doubt yourself a little bit.
  6. You start going to bed a little earlier.  But it doesn’t really matter, because as you get a little closer to the event, you won’t sleep well anyways.  You’ll fall asleep okay, and find yourself stress dreaming about every thing that could possibly go wrong.
  7. You get a little practice with your longs runs (a few fake contractions).  Some of them make you really confident.  Some of them are defeating, and you’re really not sure if you can do it.  But what choice do you have right now?  You can’t back out, right?
meeviebirthhome
Jesus, that beautiful is baby, huh? Mama Chelsie isn’t too bad either 🙂
  1. Some really weird stuff starts happening to your body.  You’re hungry all the time.  But you only want to eat good stuff.  Your thighs rub together.  Things spread, things come together, and your energy is all over the place.
  2. Okay, it’s the morning of.  You can do this!  After 9 months (or less) of training, you are so pumped, and very nervous.  And the adrenaline of what’s about to happen to you starts to pull you through.
  3. Less than halfway through, endorphins are flowing.   What are people talking about?! This is awesome!  You might even nod your head and high give some passers-by.  Mind over matter that’s all it takes. ::hair flip::
  4. Chelsie was in labor for over a day.  Luckily, there is not really that when you’re marathoning.  But an hour and a half after those endorphins are flowing, despair comes.  What the frick were you thinking?  Why did you think this was fun?  Why did you tell everyone you were doing this?  Now if you were to lay down and die, they will know you failed.  You’re breathing heavily.  You’re making noises.  The only thoughts are the thoughts of your loved ones, and how you have to make it back to them.  Not religious?  Doesn’t matter.  You will be praying.
  5. The final push.  25.5 miles.  People tell you you’re almost there.  You hope so, because seriously, you’re not sure you’re going to make it.  But you put one foot in front of the other, and keep moving.  And suddenly, the finish line appears.  And with that, you give it literally everything you have.
  6. Euphoria.  You’re crossing the finish line.  And you collapse into a pile of emotion.  Disbelief.  There are tears and sobbing.  Someone puts a medal (a baby) on your chest, and a blanket around your shoulders.  There are hugs and smiles.  And in the words of Chelsie, “you feel like a million bucks,”
  7. The would-be Rip Van Winkle.  You want to sleep for 1000 years.  But you have to call your family and friends who are wondering how/what you’re doing.  Ugh.
  8. The next day, when you feel like like 10 trucks ran you over, you swear that you will never do this again.  No one in hell could pay you enough to make you want to do this again.  Your chub rub hurts.  You want to eat, but you can’t.  And you want to slap whomever it was that said this was a good idea.
  9. The blackout.  A few days later, when you’re feeling better and your homies are slapping you on the back for what you’ve done, you literally black out all the crazy stuff that happens to you, and you think that it might be a good idea to do it again.  Whaaaaaa?  Who would do this more than once!
EvieV14-12
Those little feet!

Happy Valentines week beautiful people!  What have I missed about training for a marathon/having a sweet baby?  

Running Hungover

| cheriarmour

^^ Not something I would ever suggest.  But things happen, right?

I totally got to thinking about this after Monica over at Run Eat Repeat posted this hysterical recounting of how she ran the Palm Springs Half Marathon (in good time, I might add), after taking shots the night before.  The best part was this.  Her rationale for taking shots was that she should take shots instead of drinking cocktails or beers I’m assuming because you can never be too sure how much was in them.  Kinda right.  Kinda hysterical, right?

And it reminded me of the time I PR’ed on a half marathon after Beerfest.

So one of my best friends, Melanie, was running her first half, and I wanted to be there in some way.  And it just so happened that a friend of ours had signed up for that exact race, but hadn’t really done much to run for it.  So she was going to let the bib go to waste!  I totally couldn’t let that happen!  So I decided on a whim that I would take the bib, run the race, and get another race experience under my belt for spring.

Except, Austin had purchased us tickets for beerfest, which fell on the night before the half.

Essentially what beerfest entailed was going around in a tent, seeing everyone you’ve ever met in your life, eating pretzels and whatever food trucks rolled up with, and drinking every beer ever made available in North Carolina.

I just love that gif.  Cause that’s exactly how I felt.  Minus the hamburger meat.  Michael loved it.  I loved it.  We all loved it.  So my rationale is that I’m going to drink some beer, because my husband-to-be didn’t pay $60 for us to stare at each other all night inside of a dirt floor tent, take a cab home early, drink some electrolytes, and hit the hay so I could rise at 5:30, take a few cute pre-race pictures for the blog, and run the race.

Contrary to what you may think, beer has alcohol in it, and before long, my tiny frame had consumed about 10,000 tiny units of local beers.  Not sure what that adds up to in regular beer terms, but it was a lot.  So next rational line of thinking, eat a sandwich because that will cure me, and then take a cab home.  I did all of this, fixed up a nice refreshing glass of Nuun with all the electrolytes that a girl could desire, and woke up around 5:30 am the next morning to run my race.

Surprisingly, the race was beautiful, I felt fine, and I actually PR’ed on the race – I can’t honestly what tell you came over me, but I assure you, I won’t be trying my luck again.  I had enough of a hard time racing Greensboro sober to be playing with my stomach like that!

What’s the worst physical condition you’ve ever run in?  

@Ultabeauty, what’s with the bad customer service?

| cheriarmour

In addition to working out, eating, and running, there’s almost nothing I love more than beauty products.

Something about the way they smell, they way they fit into my little cosmetic bag, and they way they can take you from sweaty and gross to feeling like a super model.

So Thursday, between teaching a class and making my way home, I’d become convinced that I needed a classic red nail lacquer upon discovering that I only had a wine.

And then, while I was there, may as well pick up this beautiful blue-green I’d seen when I was there last week, right?

So off to Ulta I headed.

I approached the professional nail care section, and spotted a product that I’d seen Demi Lovato, my Latin lady lover, plugging on E!  I asked the nail tech about it, and she seemed irritated that I was bothering her as she filed her nails.

“Is this Demi Lovato’s line?”

[sigh} “I have no idea.”

I chirped a thanks, and it was clear that I’d be helping myself for the remainder of the trip.

I grabbed these…

photo…and headed to the check out, where I waited for 100 years before someone could help me check out with my two items.

I don’t know if I’m more sensitive to customer service, because I work for Fleet Feet, and we bend over any ways our customers want, but it’s nice to get the same treatment when I go shopping for whatever it is I want.  And it’s really really challenging to shop for cosmetics online.  You can’t smell them, you can’t see what the colors really look like, and it just makes more sense to shop for them online.

But when you shop at a place where you’re not sure if they even want you there, what’s a girl to do?

I wrote a letter to Ulta corporate, and I received a call from the manager today.  I will call him back, and we can discuss how gross my experience at Ulta was.

Now, I don’t want you guys to just think that I complain all day – I write letters when I have excellent customer service as well, and always have.

Whats the best customer service you guys have ever had?

Mine would have to be from Amazon.  Any dealings I’ve had with Amazon have been absolutely stellar, and one time, when I broke my Kindle, they apologized profusely, and asked what they could do to fix it?

What’s the worst?

Mine would probably be at Ulta the other day.  I hate to feel like anywhere I’m giving my money doesn’t want me.

What about you?

 

Can I shop in peace?

| cheriarmour

I taught a class yesterday morning, like I always do on Saturday mornings, and then headed into Fleet Feet Raleigh to moonlight for the weekend (which I love doing btws).

I ran after class, so I was smelling extra ripe, so I decided to jump in the shower after class to spare my coworkers the pain and suffering of having to smell me for 5 or 6 hours.

This is all to say, I wasn’t looking particularly fine on Saturday afternoon.

Midway through the afternoon, I headed to the mecca for health-conscious 20-somethings, moms with tattoos, and people who smell like patchouli.

l

Duh.

And I was ordering my pizza sandwich, the sandwich that I eat when I’m feeling like pizza but when I know I don’t need it, when this short sorta frumpy guy sidled up to me.

“Just cause you pretty doesn’t mean you can hold up the line.”

[Polite laughter]

“So what do you order?”

I told him with a polite smile glued to my face.

“So what are you, some type of vegan or something?”

And then his creepy friend rolled up and smiled in a creepy fashion.

“Are you a student athlete?” [He looked my body up and down.]

And the conversation went like this, me politely laughing and trying to ignore Dumb and Dumber whilst they looked my body up and down, a body that, I might add, was barely showered and not looking its best.

I can not express to you how painful it was to get looked up and down while I just tried to order my sandwich.  Seriously.  Can anyone else empathize with me? Can I shop in peace?

Here’s what. What three things are you obsessed with?

| cheriarmour

You guys literally get so much of me today, you probably can’t stand it right?  So last week, I did my “Here’s What,” as a tribute to the great Andrew Cohen, the executive producer of like, so much amazing stuff on Bravo.  And here we are, back again for the second round on Friday.

So, here’s what.

  • Buying these Oreos last night.

P1160151

 

I think I told you guys that Oreo was coming out with two limited edition flavors.  One of them is like super weird, so I really couldn’t bring myself to try them, but last night, after a friend alerted me of their arrival to the local Food Lion, I grabbed them on the way home from class, and waited until after dinner to try them.  The verdict?  They wasn’t all dat.  They wasn’t all dat at all, and they’re really too sweet for anyone to be feeding them to their children.  I’m still convinced that the best part of the Oreo is that outside cookie part.

  • Veggie Dinner. 

P1160153

 

I’ve talked to you guys about my love of veggie dinner, which is when you heat up a bag of vegetables, throw some protein in it (like some tofu or an egg), and then you eat it.  Low-cal, easy, and a good way to get back on track if you feel like you’ve been eating nothing but crap all day.  Veggies and Oreos.  My kinda lady.

  • And finally, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the treadmill has been a good friend for the past few weeks.  In case you’ve been out of touch with the mainland here, last week the weather in North Carolina was atrocious, especially by southern standards.  Running outside was not only really uncomfortable, but it also sorta dangerous.  We don’t have equipment to really plow a whole lot of snow and ice, so a lot of the sidewalks, trails, and driveways were totally iced over for the week.  So that said, I took to the treadmill for a few of the longer runs last week, and actually survived with the help of Netflix.  Now quite obviously, I’d rather be outside just so I don’t have to make conversation every time someone wants to use my treadmill, but I’ll take what I can.

What three things are you obsessed with this week?