the f-word, runner style.

in the process of all things new on this little blog of mine, i should probably tell you one of the new big things i finally committed too. its something that has terrified me to my very core for a long time as a runner and something i swore up/down/left/right/center i would never ever do. its a scary, scary word that starts with an f. ladies and gentlemen this last week i signed up for a full marathon. thats right, 26.2 miles of pure full craziness!

now i didnt go into this lightly. i had been thinking about it for many months, consulted a few experts that gave great personal encouragement, did research-a lot actually, and even a little bit of a test run with the back to back 1/2 marathons last year in october-sneaky i know. and while signing up was a big decision for me, where i would go was no question. i knew instantly when i wanted to sign up i would be traveling to washington dc to run the marine corps marathon!

first it is known as the peoples marathon and does not have a half attached to it. i knew for my own psychy i would not want to be tempted in going down the half course on race day! it would also allow me to check off another place i have raced in and the marines hold a very special place in my heart:) i never knew how true it was when someone said when one member joins the corp, the whole family does, until i was in that family. plus i figured that of anybody that could coordinate a race, the marines would do a kickass job. 

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so 2 weeks ago i sat down at the computer on my desk at work and watched the clock countdown to 9a pst, then waited a good 2 minutes before logging onto the active.com website to sign up. last year the race sold out in 2 hours and 46 minutes so i knew i needed to hop on fairly quickly when it opened. and then the site crashed from overload. then kicked me off halfway through registration. and finally after 2 hours and 27 minutes of refreshing the race was sold out. now what was i going to do?

there were many apologies by the marathon of all the people that had countless problems and frustrations, trust me there were tons of us. but that still left me without a bib. so back to my research i went in what to do next. i considered the bib transfer option in which over the summer someone that signed up no longer wants their bib can give it to someone waiting desperately for one. but that meant i would have to find an actual person and with all the people that got shut out, i wasnt sure that was the safest option. see i didnt have a back up plan if i didnt get in. the marine corp marathon is my only choice for my 1st full marathon. that meant i was heading down the road of a charity option.

i hesitated quite i bit, ill be honest. i didnt want to pick one just because it was my only option. i wanted to pick one that i was passionate about. but then i started to really look into the amazing organizations and was phenomenally impressed with what they do! i narrowed it down to two places after chatting with my brother. can you tell i dont make big, big decisions quickly haha.

after waiting a few days for response and confirmation i am incredibly proud to tell you that this year i will be fundraising and running the 38th marine corps marathon with.......

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you may have heard of them before, if not please check out their website! they are doing truly amazing things with the incredibly brave men and women that have served our country:) i am sooo proud to be able to help raise money for such a fantastic organization!

alright now its time to start the fundraising, today my friends! my firm goal is $500 by october 1st. but i would love, love, love to blow that goal out of the water before then and continue to raise money all the way through race day! you will see these links a lot and i will talk about it tons for the next few months:) it so super easy to donate. you simply enter the donation amount, click on the next button and enter the credit card information. no amount is too big or too small, everything adds up! thank you so, so, so much in advance:)

https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/individual-fundraising/curlyrunnerbugtakesonmcm/

the march training recap.

total mileage: 163.71 miles

# runs/mileage: 12/56.38 miles

# rides/mileage: 6/103.49 miles

# swim/meters: 10/8,750 meters
highest weekly mileage: 41.12 miles
# rest days: 10

favorite run: the running tour around london of course!! seriously sooo much fun and different than anything. history and running put together? heck yes!

with my tour guide lloyd.

most hardcore run: the run i did on my brick workout the day before leaving. i decided to put it all together and dang that 4 miles was tough. i got a great idea of how my body will react and some of the things i will have to talk myself through when doing it.

current reads: goodnight, beautiful. well not really current, but i read it on my trip to england. sooo good, i could barely put it down, i had to know how it was going to work out! 

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current shame-inducing guilty pleasure: well it happened in england, it was throwing everything out the window and having an amazing time. i didnt count calories, or worry about training, think about work and students, worry about my balancing my time, or think about school. it was seriously amazing!

current obsession: getting back on track. while throwing everything out was fantastic, returning to it all is a bit overwhelming. but race day is coming and its time to return the focus.

current drink: gatorade with glutamine. after i started struggling a lot with sore muscles that would heal and hurting legs and feet, gary at the nutrition store suggested a glutamine supplement to be taken twice a day. let me tell you how much its helped!! omg. i mix it in with my gatorade so i know im drinking enough of that and it seriously helping my body sooo much.

current song: ours by taylor swift. i really do love her and was totally in love with song, then i saw the video. you must watch all the way to the end!

current wish-list: a new fun springy dress for kristins wedding reception. it sounds a little silly i know, but im in the mood for something new and different!

current need: to begin putting together a list for race day. i need to start doing some research and test runs of what i will really need and dont in each transition and for the day overall.

current triumph: making it to race month in 1 piece! i still have a ways to go before i am ready for race day, but this is the 1^st step.

current bane of my existence: all week it has been the jet lag! getting sick at the end of my trip and trying to immediately hop back into the same routine of work, training, school, and life so quickly didnt work so great. i ended up taking a few extra rest days i wasnt planning for, but now glad i took. 

how i felt allll week!
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current goal: to keep myself level headed about rage in a few weeks. its coming very quickly and i just need to stay calm and out of my own head to make it through.

current indulgence: the cupcakes from richards birthday! while in the airport he informs me that his best friend mike ordered him a dozen cupcakes from the cupcakery-yum. i was super excited, yet figured they would be gone by the time i got home. luckily he only ate 1 which means i needed to help him with the rest!! yes!

happy birthday my love!
and some for me:)

current excitement: all of the amazing and challenging things happening in april! easter (which means my brother is coming home!), kristin and seans wedding reception in phoenix (i saw pics from the ceremony in hawaii and am super hoping she is going to wear her gorgeous dress again!), the triathlon-holy crap its coming, and the warrior dash-yay! there are sooo many cool things happening in april this year, i cant wait:)

the grad school update

back in june i began my masters program (if you havent heard, check it out!) and i can't believe it's been that long already! i decided it might be time to clue you all in on how it's going:)

i am now in the 1st week of my 4th class, crazy i know. i think i may have finally figured out a schedule haha. i started with one, then threw it out, then started another and continued till i finally found one that worked. the problem wasn't school, it was fitting the 2 other important thing of training and work into the equation.

sunday:  

off

long run
blog/homework if absolutely necessary


monday:
work 830a-530p 
blog/clean up from the weekend/do things at home
 sin city roadrunner group @6p 4-5 miles

tuesday:  
work 11a-8p
read/research if needed for class
rest (training)

wednesday: 
work 9a-6p
homework
6am spin class

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thursday: 
work 9a-6p
homework
6am body pump class

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friday: 
work 830a-5p 
clean/homework if needed

run 4 miles

saturday:  

off 

(i do work once a month and some 

saturdays we do have open house too)

rest

as you can see this doesn't leave a lot of outside time for well a life haha. or rest from everything/life lol. i am also extremely lucky to be doing this before i am married and/or children come into my life. i have noooo idea how moms handle all this, mad respect, seriously. also remember that richard works nights. so i try to get everything done during the week so the days we do get together i don't have to worry about fitting in homework. he is also extremely supportive and makes sure that im getting everything done on time, it's very sweet.

i have now completed the intro class, leadership in education which I actually really liked, and the god awful law and policy in higher education. as soon as i saw the last one on the curriculum i knew it was going to suck to be honest. that coupled with the horrible professor i had made the class a terrible experience all the way around. i for sure celebrated when that class was over, after fighting tooth and nail to get my last 8 points to keep my A and 4.0 gpa.

after this class i will be just about halfway! it's super fast. each class is only 8 weeks total, it runs 7 1/2 weeks then you have the last half of the week off before starting again. which for the last 2 classes and this one as well, have had the final due the day after my big races. it makes for a crazy race week to say the least. i am set however to finish january 2013:)

then its time for one of these!
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many people have asked what that means i will do when im done? i want to work at the staff side of a state university somewhere. i have absolutely no desire to teach, i also have mad respect for those that do, seriously. it's just not my gig. i would love to get into student affairs/orientation/tours and events/residence life something along those lines. im not exactly sure where or in exactly what department, but do know that is the path i want to go down. i can't wait to see where this all takes me!

the tv shows and dvr.

dvr might be one of my favorite inventions of this century.  ok, i really dont know how old it is, but i love it all the same.  my parents started getting dvr when i was in my senior year in college and everything changed.  before you had to set up the vcr, of course every single one was different, make sure the last person to turn the tv off had it set on the right channel, and that your vcr time matched the actual tv time.  you had to have a separate tape just to record the new shows, and make sure to set it exactly right so you didnt tape over anything you hadnt watched yet.  then came the invention of dvr to my house.  all you had to do was find the show you were looking for and press record.  it never expired.  it, usually,  never ran out of space.  you didnt even have to remember to tape it every week, because you could tape the entire series.  no one could record over your show for something else.  you could fast forward/rewind and didnt have to pray the tape wasnt going to break.  happy sigh, it is amazing.

i have been an avid fan ever since.  so when richard and i moved in together i knew it was something we definitely needed on at least one tv.  richard hadnt really gotten to enjoy the amazingness of dvr on his own tv before, but he immediately agreed that he wanted it too.  then came the debate, how many tvs do we put it on-we only have 2 ps-, whos shows go on which tv, can you watch and record something else at the same time.

being that he is at work during primetime nighttime tv he has become so behind on shows he gave up, becoming interested in new ones, or so i thought.  once he also realized how fantastic dvr is he was recording left, right, center, backwards, and all in between.  i would get up in the morning and he was recording something random at 7am.  he would watch part of a show and then record the rest because something else came on.  now, i thought this was all pretty cute and humorous until the night he started messin with my tv schedule.  and let me preface this with, yes i really have a schedule.

sunday : undercover boss @9p.  army wives @10p-only during the summer.  keeping up with the kardashians @10p, but this comes on many times during the week so i can always catch it then. and im thinking about getting back into brothers and sisters @10p.
monday : gossip girl @9p.  himym sometimes @8p.
tuesday : the biggest loser @8p.  this is recent, thanks mom lol.  the city @10p, whenever that decides to come back.
wednesday : nothing really happens on this night in the land of tv, which is why i usually work late lol.
thursday : big bang @8p.  greys anatomy @9p.  project runway is also on @9p so this must be recorded.

ok, before you really think i am totally crazy-instead of just slightly, let me explain a little bit more.  now, yes i do feel the need to watch this many tv shows every week, and if any new ones come out that i like i reserve the right to add more.  however, if i get an invitation to go out, or am not going to be home i will simply record on my dvr so i can watch them another time.  i am not chained to my tv and feel the need to watch them the second they come on.  plus if you do watch them on dvr, you can fast forward the commercials!

ah yes, the difference in our tv shows.  his shows include things like glen beck-yuck, pawn stars, anything on fox news really, american chopper, sportscenter, boardwalk empire,ufc next fighter thing, pardon the interruption, now entourage-even though i have been watching it on dvd for almost a year, asking if he would come watch with me, because it is so good, as he turned up his nose, until he lived with his friend anthony and now thinks it is the greatest show on tv-and man vs. food.  now i will give you that pawn stars and man vs. food are actually pretty good, and i am totally willing to watch those if they are on.  now this is where his schedule really plays into the tv show watching.  since i am home when most of my things come on, and they are pretty girly i do admit, he gets out of watching all of them!  not that i need a tv partner to watch with me, i talk enough to myself as it is during the shows, it would just be kind of cool to have somethings we watched together.  im just sayin, whew, glad i got that out lol.  so when he does come home, we sit down to watch tv, click on the dvr shows, we are watching something of his.  usually though it is pawn stars or man vs. food, so like i said i am willing. 

so as i was saying, the random recordings was all very cute, until he started messing with my tv schedule.  i came home on monday night, for sure one of the most important/best tv nights because gossip girl is on-followed very closely by thursdays, ready to sit down curled up with my ice cream when the awful message flashed across the screen that two things were being recorded at the same time and i either must watch one or nothing at all.  my two choices were wwe raw or american chopper.  guess what i choose...nothing.  thank goodness we have more than one tv!  so i simply went into the bedroom and snuggled into my bed instead, thinking why do i watch tv on the couch when i could be curled up in here instead!  i watched himym and gossip girl that evening in bed perfectly content.  that night when richard came home he was completely shocked to find me already in bed, i think he thought i was sick and dying.  when i began to tell him the tv story he got this silly/goofy grin on his face like he was 5, and while i couldnt help but laugh.  he started to explain that he tried to cancel a couple of recordings, now i really could care less where i watch these shows, just as long as i get to watch them.  after i finished laughing and him explaining he fires back, not so cooly, that i have taken over the dvr on thursday nights.  he really was not ready for the rebuttal that came from that remark and then we both just looked at each other and cracked up laughing.  

while yes there are bigger battles we will have, and much larger things to worry about than which tv show to watch when he comes home, we are definitely still trying to figure it out.  he has stopped asking though, as soon as something is done taping when i am going to watch it.  and i content in watching his shows when he comes home, because spending anytime that i can with him is really all i care about anyway:)

the schedules.

when i was younger and thought about growing up and living with a boy-now mind you in this interpretation i would be married to him lol-i always believed we would get up, get ready in the morning somewhat together then come home and be together in the evenings.  while the being married to him changed so did quite a few other things.  the biggest thing to change was the schedules.

i work in higher education, have a fairly normal weekday schedule and the occasional saturday.  i am usually home between 630p-730p with one day a week come home after 8p.  richard works at a shipping company in their warehouse hub in the evenings monday-friday.  he goes in somewhere between 3p-5p and is home between 11p-midnight.  he has had this job the whole time that we have dated, so we talked at nighttime, usually when i am in bed and he is driving home.  this has definitely messed with my sleep in the past, but it got to the point where i couldnt sleep through the night without it, it was our routine and it worked for us.  this definitely made us make the most of our time together, as we spent most of our weekends together.  not seeing him during the week was tough, some weeks where definitely tougher than others, but we always seemed to make it work.  as we began to seriously talk about moving in i wondered how this routine was really going to work.

whenever we did talk about moving in, i still had that togetherness idea in my head about the mornings and the evenings.  i had never really seen it done any other way, and wasnt sure i was really ok with this.  but when i talked to richard he always sounded really excited about our opposite schedules.  he always told me that i would be able to come home and have all this time to myself to watch my girly shows-i will admit most of them are pretty girly lol-and relax from my day.  he would still be there in the mornings and be able to get up with me while i was getting ready for work to start the day.  and he would have the time to himself during the day and see me when he came home, we could still talk about our days and spend time together at night.  i never had the heart to tell him that i wasnt really ok with this plan, because i knew in my heart there wasnt anything i could do to change it.  i think what bothered me the most was that i was finally going to see him everyday and go to bed with him at night, which i was really excited about, and all he talked about was the space.  

i got to the point before we moved in where i realized part of the reason he wanted "so much space,"  he had never really lived with anyone before or had to seriously share his space before.  he was an only child growing up and lived much of his life with his dad.  the closest thing he had to roommates was when we met and they were living with some family friends.  but even then, he was pretty much on his own, he had never really shared his up close/personal space with another person, much less a girl.  i had lived with a younger brother growing up and a family that would constantly walk in and out of my room at leisure.  i lived with many different roommates in college, fantastic ones in the end, crazy ones, naked ones, quiet ones, and loud ones.  i had figured out how to live with other people that i was and wasnt related too.  however none of the a fore mentioned roommates had been boys, that in itself i knew was going to make a huge difference. 

the first night i came home from work it was very eerie.  i didnt totally feel like i lived there yet, there were still boxes in the living room lol.  i wasnt really sure what i should do, so i did what i always do.  i changed out of my work clothes into my pjs and wandered into the kitchen to make dinner.  as i made dinner for myself i kept expecting other people to come home, but i wasnt really sure who i was waiting for.  i also wondered what was i supposed to do when richard came home.  do i stay up and wait?  do i go to bed?  i knew things were going to figure themselves out when he called that night to say he was on his way home.  i-being the huge overthinking girl that i am-wondered if he was going to, and i was so glad he did.

the next night i came home was my late night and i had already eaten dinner, so i had one less thing to do when i got home.  i still felt a little bit lost on what to do.  i had this i live with a boy feeling, but i dont ever see him.  when he does come home he is awake and ready to go.  he wants to talk and tell me all about his day, he asks questions about my day and the things i did.  he watches most of his shows at night and is up till 2 and 3 in the morning, this has taken some definite getting used too.  the hardest part is the fact that it is 11 or 12 at night and i am ready for bed/falling asleep when i finally do get to see him.  i dont really spend anytime with him in the mornings either.  my alarm goes off and as i am getting up to take a shower/make coffee he is rolling over to keep sleeping.  i always kiss him goodbye as i am walking out the door, while a little piece of my heart is sad that i cant get back into bed with him.  how am i going to get used to this?

a few days later it was like a switch flipped.  i came home from a particularly long day and was so ready to just flop on the couch and pass out.  it was so nice to come home to my own apartment and be able to do that.  richard was at work like usual and i was so relieved to have a few hours to myself to unwind.  when i was living at home there were a lot of times i wanted to do this exact thing, but it never seemed to happen.  i finally felt like i understood where he was coming from with the goodness of our opposite schedules.  there are still some nights where i wish he was home when i got there with his smile to make the perfect ending to my not so perfect day.  we are both trying to get better about the night time.  quite a few nights i have fallen asleep on the couch which actually turned into a good thing, because now i can stay up a little bit later chatting and watching tv with him.  he always gets sad when i go to bed and he is still up for a few more hours by himself.  we spend all day apart and then spend an hour, maybe at night together.  the best part is though, its so much more time than we used to spend together, and i am so grateful.  the mornings are still a little sad, i hate leaving.  nobody wants to get out of bed in the morning, and i especially dont now with him sleeping next to me.  but as i am leaving each morning, i still smile watching him sleep and am so glad that we made this moving in decision.  it has already brought us so much closer.