1/2 marathon tomorrow!

I have been crazy busy this week. On Wednesday I took my anatomy final exam! I am DONE with that stupid online class (assuming I passed... I needed a 50 on the exam to get my C... I'm not too worried). The fiance and I also met with the pastor who is marrying us on Wednesday night. Interestingly, physical appearance came up. As in the 'if you could change one thing about your fiance's physical appearance what would it be?' question. I said I would change Jacob's weight... to GAIN! The boy is a stick and although he eats whatever he wants, he stays super skinny (no fair!) He said he would make me less concerned with my physical appearance. Which is fair to say. I value physical beauty in myself (as well as my surroundings).

Yesterday we went to a Moroccan restaurant to celebrate me finishing! I had a delicious falafel wrap and a cup of out of this world tomato soup with carrots and ginger. It was soooo good and perfect for 2 days before a race... carby and not too hard to digest.

Today my group at work is going out to lunch. I am planning to get a salad so that I won't weigh myself down too much for the race tomorrow or upset my sensitive tummy. Maybe an all-veggie sandwich. We'll see.

I'm super excited for Big to come down tonight so we can run our race! It's supposed to be HOT again. What is it with me and hot weather on runs? After the race, we're meeting Little and Little Little for some winery (and possible brewery) action. Mmmmmm....

My goal for the race is to beat my previous half marathon time of 2:06:09. I have been running fast enough that I should be able to do that, but I am worried that this course will be hillier than Richmond and also the heat is a major factor. My secondary goal is to actually run a negatively split race. Which means basically I will start off SUPER slow and see how much I can speed up at the end.

Oh and I ordered some bondi bands a few weeks ago and they came yesterday! So now I will be running with 'Will run for BEER' on my forehead. AWESOME. I'm pretty sure that alone will make the race!

Weekend recap

I had a really busy weekend! But less busy (or at least less alcohol heavy) than the last 2 weekends. I really don't know how I ever got anything DONE in college... it seems like the day after I have more than 2 drinks, I'm just so out of it all day long!

On Saturday, Jacob and I picked out our wedding invitations! Yay! I really love them, they're plain and simple, but modern and really pretty. The paper is such good quality that it makes the simple invitation look so nice! We also looked at new apartments in Richmond, and though we weren't too thrilled with what we saw, we got to walk around down town and it made me so much more excited about moving there! I really can't wait :)

Saturday night we participated in Beer a Thon 2010. One of Jacob's friends had this idea... about 10 people met at a local pub and started working our way through their extensive beer list. Everyone tasted a little of everything. We went through 26 beers. I had some new stuff that was quite good! For some strange reason, after a while, all the beer started to taste like raisins to me. It was crazy... raisin isn't normally a taste I associate with beer. One of the other guys said he tasted raisins in a lot of the beers too so at least it's not just me!

I had a NICE run on Sunday. Jacob and I did the Monticello trail twice, so a little more than 8 miles. Even though it was HOT (I think it was probably in the 80's and very humid), I still had the best run I had had all week. I don't know why, maybe it was that 13 mile run last Monday, but I just hadn't been feeling good on my runs last week. I felt so much better and prepared for the race during this run! It was a nice reminder about why I love running.

I had some studying to do (gotta get that anatomy final done!), so I headed to the rooftop pool at my gym on Sunday afternoon. It was so nice to sit outside by a pool... this was the first time I've done it this season. It was hot (but not too hot) and sunny and fabulous... I kept taking study breaks to close my eyes and pretend I was in the Bahamas! I would open my eyes expecting to see the crystal clear aqua Caribbean looking back at me, and I was pretty disappointed to see the hills of Central Virginia. But hey, the sun was out, the sky was blue, everything was a lovely green, and I could see the hazy ridge line of Mont Alto/Carter's Mountain 5 miles away and know that I had just run up that! It was really a lovely day.

Late night munchies

I do not know what is wrong with me, but I have been craving desserts. Like not just one dessert, but 3 or 4 desserts. Maybe I'm not eating enough during the day? Humm, that's a possibility. But it seems no matter what I eat/don't eat, around 9 PM I want SWEETS! Last night I had jelly beans and cookies. Jelly beans are just highly processed sugar... why do I love them so much?

I am having a 'fat week' where I don't feel my best. And a lot of it is due to eating so much junk food. I need a good kick in the butt to get back on track!

Verdict: undecided

I finished my 13.14 miles. At first I felt great... major points for going on such a long run on a Monday! This is awesome! I'm so fabulous! Around mile 6 or 7 I started to get really, REALLY bored. I do almost all my runs with my fiance, and most of my longer runs with a group. So even with my iPod I was bored out of my mind for two hours and 15 minutes. I also started to hurt. My right knee, left shin, and legs in general were sore. Also, my lower back and abs were killing me when I finished. I don't know why, I can't remember that ever happening after a long run before.

I'm getting a little worried about this half marathon. Yesterday's run was hard, but I'm going to need to do the same distance faster during the race. I just did a 10 miler way faster than this... how did I do that? I'm kind of banking on the fact that tapering usually makes me feel better, and since I was running at a different time of day than I usually complete my long runs, maybe that was causing me to feel a little more tired than normal. Let's hope that's all it was!

My pants are starting to feel a little tight. I need to stop eating M&Ms and cookies and start focusing back on healthy, clean food. The scale said I had gained 3 pounds on Sunday (since last Tuesday) which I don't actually believe, but I do need to keep watching what I eat. I ended up eating about 2100 calories instead of my usual 1700 yesterday, but I don't feel too bad about that because of the long run. It's normal for me to eat more on a day that I run 10 miles or more.

So here's to recommitting to health!

Long run fail

I had a busy weekend with lots of booze. So I didn't do a long run. Well, there is only one more weekend before my half marathon on May 1, and the longest run I've done was 12 miles and that was like a month ago! I don't want to go into a half marathon without having done a recent long run. So I have planned a 13.1 mile long run for this evening. Yes, on a Monday after work. This will either be AWESOME or HORRIBLE. I am not sure which! I will post a recap tomorrow.

On the bright side, a cookout with a black bean burger and sweet potato fries is planned for tonight after my run! What a yummy way to refuel :)

Pretty Perfect

So I was thinking today that I am not totally honest with myself. I say I am a healthy person and I eat healthy food, but I still have a little bit of disordered thinking about my looks, particularly my weight. This is so weird, because I'm not usually a perfectionist AT ALL. I am perfectly happy to go with the flow, let things turn out how they turn out, and I am kind of famous among my friends and family for doing everything halfway. I'm one of those people who firmly believes that good enough is good enough. Actually that's where the name of my blog came from... I'm notoriously lazy, and so this blog is about me trying to be unlazy as far as health goes.

Except with my physical beauty. Aesthetics are very important to me in general. I love to be surrounded by beautiful things, and I don't just mean pretty people. I love art, but only art that is genuinely beautiful (I'm NOT into modern art at all). It's important to me to live in a beautiful place. Luckily, that isn't too hard for me because I find a lot of different climates beautiful in their own way. I think focus on physical beauty has led me to be a perfectionist as far as my body is concerned. I admit that I get on the scale several times per week, and the number I see there still greatly affects my mood for the rest of the day. This is sad, I don't want it to be this way. Similarly, I will feel horrible about myself all day long if I wake up with a zit. Why am I such a perfectionist in this one area of my life, when I could care less about being perfect at work, in school, in my relationships with other people?

I could blame the media, and that might be part of it. But I feel like it's also just something I was born with. As far back as I can remember, I always regarded the rest of the world as an audience and thought of myself as a performer. Is this a personality thing that I am destined to have the rest of my life?

In some ways, perfectionism can be good. It forces me to make better choices. If I want a perfect size 2 body (which I don't quite have), then I can't eat crappy food all the time. This is good for my overall health. Also, I took up running to lose weight, but I found a hobby that I truly love (OK maybe not the track workouts, but there is no denying they make you faster!)

So I guess I find myself wondering, how do you go from obsessing about being perfectly pretty, to being ok with just pretty perfect?

Another bad running decision

After I had a snack and walked the pooch after work, I headed out to the Monticello trail for my 45 minute tempo run. Of course I forgot my watch, but I know that the trail is just over 2 miles from the lower parking lot up to the Monticello Visitor's Center. Well, when I got to the top of the tree line and out onto Thomas Jefferson Parkway, the security guards had closed the gate 15 minutes early! There goes my distance calculation. I decided to keep running on the Parkway for a song or two (my iPod was the closest thing I had to a watch). BAD DECISION. This is a windy, curvy mountain road with a 45 mph speed limit, blind corners, and NO SHOULDER. I am seriously very lucky that I didn't get hit! I had to dive into the bushes once or twice to avoid a car, and I'm surprised that I don't have poison ivy right now.

Anyway, once I was back on the safety of the trail, I had a great run. Since the trail is all uphill to the Visitor's Center, it means that you get to run all downhill on the way back. I was doing a tempo run, so I sped it up even more than usual, and let me tell you, it was pretty fun to just fly down that mountain!

This evening I am going to go to spinning at my gym. There is a new instructor who I've never met before tonight. Should be interesting to see if the workout is harder or easier. The guy who normally teaches spinning on Tuesday nights is apparently the hardest spinning instructor at the place! Of course he would be the one I go to....

Today's lunch consisted of some more baba on a whole-wheat wrap with cucumber and tomato slices, a small romaine salad, and an orange. Jacob is going to make an Indian curry for dinner tonight. He puts chicken in his, but of course I will have him make mine with tofu. Or just with the veggies maybe. He makes really good curry. It's not greasy at all like restaurant curry because there is no coconut milk, just a little olive oil and a LOT of spices. This will be a good dinner because it's a little cool in Charlottesville today.

OK, so I realized to day that I have mentioned Monticello quite a bit. In case you don't know what Monticello is, it is Thomas Jefferson's house. It's a lovely historic site to visit, and it's usually pretty crowded. I have taken the tour several times. What I love about it is a the 2 + mile long trail that leads up the mountain. Actually, it leads to the saddle between Monticello (which means 'little mountain') and Montalto (which means 'big mountain'). There's also another ridge line coming off Monticello called Carter's Mountain, which is an apple orchard. I love going to Carter's Mountain in the summer for peaches and in the fall for apples. There's a little barn up there, and a small wine tasting room too. I will miss the delicious Albermarle pippin apples (Charlottesville is the only place in the world where they are grown) when I move to Richmond.

... and that's it for the Virginia lesson today. Yay VA!

Weekend wildness!

Friday after work, I was faced with a serious dilemma: gym or beer? My coworkers were going out for a pint, and normally I join them on evenings such as this. But I had planned to take an anatomy quiz right after work, and I really wanted to go to the gym. So decided to skip the beer, which ended up working out really well. I managed to take my quiz (A- again!), fit in a quick workout (30 minutes on the stair climber plus abs), and make it home in time for dinner with Jacob, who informed me that he had made plans for us to meet a friend at a bar down the block. Yay! I really did get to do it all :)

Saturday morning, Jacob and I got up to run before heading up to DC for the night. We went out to the Monticello trail again (suddenly I am obsessed with this place!) and did it twice. Jacob wanted to stop short of the top the second time, but I made him go all the way to the top of the trail (but we did stop short of the visitor's center). All in all, it was somewhere between 7.5 and 8 miles. It was really pretty with everything blooming, and it was pretty crowded too! We actually got yelled at by a security guard for trying to run all the way up to the house. Apparently you need tickets.

After a breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter and apple (and an iced latte with almond milk!), we headed up to DC. My sister lives in Van Ness, so we stayed with her. She hosted a late engagement party for about 20 of our college friends who all live in or near DC. The best part was actually getting all my bridesmaids into one room! One of them flew up from Alabama just to come to the party! I love my girls :)

Before the party, the BMs, and I (plus our significant others) grabbed a quick bite to eat. I had a delicious salad that included spinach, sweet potato, walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese. MMMmmmm!! There were lots of yummy munchies at the party too. My favorites were black bean, corn, and feta on tortilla chips (my sis's invention, and one that I will definitely be replicating!) and my absolute favorite cake in the world, pound cake with buttercream frosting from a grocery store/bakery in Richmond. It's absolute heaven!! There was also a considerable amount of alcohol to drink. Sis made some fabulous sangria out of white wine and white grape juice.

On Sunday morning, the BMs and boys again met for brunch. It was a late night (we went out in Dupont until about 3) so 1 of them didn't make it, but the rest of us enjoyed a lovely brunch at a french bistro on Adams Morgan. I had a vegetarian omlette. It was lovely and kept me full all morning! Then we headed to the zoo, where we got to see the male giant panda. He was just sitting there eating bamboo and looking cuddly. I want a panda so bad! They also have this orangutan ropes course of sorts... the orangutans can climb a tower and then follow this wire that's like 40 feet in the air over to another enclosure. It was pretty cool to see those guys walk on that!! We ended up walking around the zoo for a pretty long time and I was super tired by the end of the zoo trip. It was HOT too and I didn't pack any shorts, so I ended up sweating in my jeans the whole time.

On the way back to Charlottesville we stopped at Sheetz so I could get a snack. I had a yummy salad with romaine, green pepper, onion, tomato, jalapenos, black olives, and cheddar with Ranch dressing. I heart Sheetz and Wawa! Dinner was late and kind of random... I had cucumber and baby carrots with baba ghanoush and a mini pizza on an Arnolds sandwich thin. Dessert was leftover CAKE!!

Today I'm glad to be back to a more regular eating schedule. I find I eat WAY better during the week because I never know where I'll be on the weekends, so I tend to eat whatever I can get when I can get it. Usually this means I eat later than I should and I'm super hungry by the time I get to some food. Anyway, today I had my normal yogurt and bran flakes for breakfast and another mini pizza for lunch, along with a small caesar salad and more veggies with the baba ghanoush. I packed an orange and a nutri grain bar for snack, but I'm getting less and less interested in processed food the more I eat natural, whole foods. So I might not eat it. I'm planning to do a 45 minute run (probably on the Monticello trail... I'm addicted!) tonight.

So in summary, it was an awesome weekend! And yay for good weather (75 and sunny) on a Monday!

Chance of death = fast run!

Sometimes I get something in my head and then I just HAVE TO DO IT. Even if it's a horrible idea. This most frequently happens with fitness-related goals. Yesterday was a classic example of Keri making a horrible decision.

I had been looking forward to my 4 mile run on the Monticello trail all day long. I knew it was supposed to thunderstorm around 6 PM, but it wasn't thundering yet when I got off work. So I decided to go do my run, even though the sky was getting darker and darker. I changed quickly and set off. Just as I got out of the car at the trail head, the first raindrops were falling. I didn't hear any thunder so I thought "Oh well, I won't melt!" and set off. When I was almost 2 miles from the car, I saw a bolt of lightning. Yikes! I turned around immediately. The skies opened up. That was honestly the wettest run of my entire life (and I am someone who enjoys running in the rain and does it whenever possible during the summer). Did I mention the Monticello trail goes up a mountain? Elevation gain + lightning = BAD. As I tore back down the mountain WAY above my normal speed, I passed a group of 3 women who were also high-tailing it out of there. I smiled and said "Nothing like the chance of death to make you run fast, right?" Honestly that was by far the fastest I have ever run the week after a race! I covered more than 3.5 miles (half of it going up a mountain) in 32 minutes! Not bad for 5 days after a hard 10 mile race.

Hey, lightning is a good motivator! (disclaimer: DON'T try this at home!!)

Two down, one to go!

One more test down! Now I just have six new lessons, two quizzes, and the final exam, then I am done with Human Anatomy! It's a great feeling to be learning so much and doing well in the class.

Jacob and I had beer to celebrate me finishing my last test last night. It was pint night at the pub/brewery down the street from us. $2.50 for a delicious local brew. My favorite! I had a lovely hoppy pale ale.

Dinner last night was couscous with leftover chickpeas and a salad on the side. Couscous in a whole wheat wrap is also lunch today. I love couscous with grated carrot in a wrap. It's my new favorite lunch!

Even though we set a record high temperature yesterday (my car thermometer said 93 degrees when I left the testing center at 5:30 PM) I went for a run anyway. I didn't wear my watch and just jogged as slowly as I pleased. It was so liberating to just go out and run for fun! I made it about 3.25 miles and then the heat and last weekend's 10 mile race caught up with me, and I ended up walking the 2 miles back home. But for my first run after a race, with it being that hot, that was fine with me! I have a month before my net half marathon, so plenty of time!

Tonight we are having a Mexican fiesta... my favorite sweet potato burritos with mole sauce, and margaritas! Yum!!

Feelin hot hot hot

90 degrees and sunny today. 90 DEGREES!! In APRIL!! Insane!!

I may or may not go for a run this afternoon. I've noticed that the more I train for races, the more I enjoy simple running without a watch... just going out for a little jog. But if it's 90 degrees, I might be in the gym again today.

I am taking off from work at 3 to go take my next anatomy test. Now that I have officially given my resignation notice, I don't feel bad about this anymore! I just told my boss I had a test tonight and he goes "oh absolutely, go study!" So easy :)

I've been eating lots of crap recently and my skin and energy levels are paying for it. For example, I had chocolate, jelly beans, and cookies last night. Not too many of any of the above, but still. Not good dietary choices. Today I'm trying to keep it simple and eat more whole foods. I had a delicious burrito on a 110 calorie whole wheat, high fiber wrap for lunch. It included black beans, canned diced tomatoes, less than 1/4 cup shredded 2% milk cheese, and salsa. It was soooo yummy! For breakfast, I was running really low on my fat free plain yogurt that I eat almost every day, so I used a frozen 1/2 banana (leftover from yesterday's banana and almond butter snack) to add some extra volume. Let me tell you, frozen banana and yogurt are an AWESOME combination!

So wish me luck on the test and off I go to finish a little more work!

37 seconds

That is the amount of time I went over my 10 miler goal by. I was so angry! I started off hitting my target pace exactly for the first 5 miles. I was feeling great! Around the mile 7 mark, I started to feel not so good. It was hot, I was tired, and there were some big hills. My pace fell off. Honestly by mile 9 I was just hoping to finish! I figured at that point that I would not hit my goal time, and I would finish in like 1:34 or 1:35. But at the end I guess I picked it up a bit. But to miss my goal by 37 SECONDS?? That's just annoying! Honestly, I'm pretty happy with that time because it is so close, but it's just frustrating to miss a goal by so little.

I took it easy on Sunday. Jacob and I cooked an Easter feast with my mom. We grilled out (burgers for them, a portabello mushroom for me) and had potato salad and fruit salad on the side. It was so yummy! And super healthy. OK maybe not the potato salad, but my Mom makes THE BEST potato salad, and it is very light on the mayo, so it's a healthy-ish splurge.

The plan for this week is to take it pretty easy. I am going to go to the gym tonight, study some (my next exam came today!) and watch the premier of Tory and Dean. Love me some girly TV!!

10 miler tomorrow!!

Today is exciting for two reasons. First, I handed in my official resignation today! YAY!! Now I just have to work here for 5 more weeks, lol! I also really need to figure out where I'm going to get health insurance!

Tomorrow is the Charlottesville 10 miler. Which means that today is carb loading day! Pizza for dinner! Jacob and I prefer homemade pizza to pasta for carb loading. Don't know why, but it seems to work better for us. With all that pasta in my tummy I usually end up feeling like I have a solid ball of noodles bouncing around inside of me the next day. Pizza is a little less... cumbersome. I had a beer last night (which I don't usually do 2 days before a race!) but no alcohol tonight, and probably no dessert either (NO DESSERT!! OH NO!!) That's what the rest of the day after the race is for :)

Other than the race, weekend plans include enjoying the beautiful weather (80 degrees in April? Yes, please!), studying human anatomy (because the it ain't easy to tell all the arteries apart on a black and white photo of the cadaver... honestly with the photos on the test I'm lucky if I can figure out whether I'm looking at the stomach or the liver), going to lots of church services, and mom is coming for Easter lunch! We're grilling portabello mushroom caps and having potato salad and fruit salad. My mom makes WONDERFUL potato salad!

Speaking of mushrooms, I didn't have dinner last night until like 9:30 PM. I was at a restaurant/bar with Jacob and another friend, and I was really hungry. After perusing the menu and almost selecting a quesadilla, I saw a BBQ chicken salad that sounded really good. But I'm a vegetarian now. So I asked if I could get it with portabello mushrooms instead of the chicken, and the waiter was super accommodating. It was delicious! Portabello slices tossed in BBQ sauce on a bed of fresh crisp romaine with tomatoes, corn, and a little sharp cheddar. Mmmmmmm... I think it was supposed to have ranch dressing on it, but my salad definitely did NOT. It was so much better without the ranch! All I needed was the delicious tangy BBQ sauce. And since I got the mushroom instead of the chicken, they took $2 off the price! I heart this place....

Today for lunch I had a whole wheat wrap with shredded carrot, lettuce, hummus, and teensy bit of leftover couscous. It was actually really yummy! I had oatmeal with peanut butter for breakfast. I'm trying not to do too much dairy today (just the cheese on the pizza tonight!) because it isn't great for my tummy pre-race. Jacob brought my baby Goldielocks (she's an 8 year old golden retriever/cocker spaniel mix) over to eat lunch! He has the day off (lucky duck!) so it was nice to get to eat with him, and I showed off my super cute puppy to my coworkers!

Off to go get a little more work done before I leave for the weekend. Wish me luck in the 10 miler!