Don’t give up + it’s always fun to help out friends + excitement about the weekend!

I woke up Wednesday with NO ankle pain at all! I was pumped. I got 5 miles in at 8:34 and felt really good. The only time I would feel my ankle was when I was using it to change direction, and even then, it was just sore. YAY! My knee started bothering me a little yesterday, so I don’t know if that’s a flare up from compensating for my ankle or what. So, boo to that. But yay to a good run yesterday! I ran a really hilly route that I used to run in high school during cross country season. Every time I run up one of the big hills, I remember a summer day during my junior year. I had just started running cross country, I think this was my first week, third day, actually, and we had a 4 mile out and back to do. I could NOT run up this hill. I remember making it maybe 20 seconds up and I had to stop and walk. I felt so disappointed and didn’t think I’d ever be a runner. I walked the whole hill and when I got to the top, I had a negative attitude and wanted to just walk all the way back. My cross country coach, Coach Russo (the best coach I’ve ever had that wasn’t my Dad), ran by me and said he was proud of me and that this route was definitely a tough one. That was just what I needed – I ran the rest of the route, slowly, but made it back to where we had started. I’ll never forget that feeling of accomplishment and pushing through something that hurt/sucked. That was 12 years ago and I’ve been running ever since! Don’t ever give up on your dreams! Struggling and experiencing failure help you achieve those dreams. I ran up that hill with no problem yesterday, but I haven’t forgotten the struggle and I know there will be more days that I have to push myself up over another ‘hill’. That one day in pre-season cross country, if I wouldn’t have had friends and coaches encouraging me to continue, I may not have been back the next day. Thank you, Coach Russo! <3 I’m so glad I didn’t give up because running is who I am. It’s my me time, it’s how I deal with stress, it’s how I celebrate. Plus, you get to wear super cute tanks like this one! ; ) If you haven’t heard of Run Steep Get High, check them out! They’re a mountain running brand and they’re awesome. I shared with you the other day about how Jake calls me a mountain goat (big, strong legs – I don’t love it), but he got me this shirt to explain why he calls me that – I guess presents make it a little better!

After my run, I was meeting our friend, Lori, to stuff packets for the event we are going to this weekend – Single Track Mind Festival – it’s seriously AWESOME. Check it out: http://www.singletrackmindfestival.com. On my way to meet her, I grabbed coffee and a green juice from The Press – a new coffee/cafe/bakery in Farmer’s Park. Holy cow, it was delicious! We love their coffee, but I hadn’t had their juice yet. So. Good.

I brought breakfast with me, so I heated it up when I met Lori and then we got to work! Lori organizes and puts on this whole event, so she’s crazy busy right now – I don’t know how she’s doing everything. We worked for a couple of hours before we both had other things to do. We were going to meet up later to finish. Here are my egg muffins! Mmm.

I got to see this guy yesterday! This is Dan, and he is one of Jake’s best friends from high school. We took this picture to send to Jake, he was jealous!

I got an email saying a package from Amazon had been delivered (my guilty pleasure), so I rushed home to open it! Also, I cannot have my hair down in the summer. It’s too hot!! Anyone else feel this way??? Ugh.

My ROQ rings came in!! We were looking at Qalo rings, but I’m weird about plastic-y rings, so I wanted to try some out before we got one. I am obsessed with these. I like how skinny they are, too. Plus, I have so many options!

I threw some on and we headed to Two Rivers, which is where the event we are helping with is taking place. Jake was going to mark race courses with Jesse (Lori’s hubby), and Lori and I were going to finish stuffing packets.

My dang knee. Something flared up during the afternoon, so I iced while we drove to Two Rivers.

Driving with the windows down is our favorite.

We ended up being at Two Rivers for way longer than we originally thought, so we were STARVING when we left about 9. I never eat that late because I can’t sleep if I do, but we needed to get some food. We stopped and grabbed some wings on our way home. Luckily everything was fast! And our waiter even brought us some complimentary queso. Win-win!

As we were leaving, Jake goes, “Oh, you got a quarter?” Then he gets really excited and kind of yells, “I need two! I’m going to make the best combination…” This “best” combo is a mixture of Skittles and Reeses PIeces. Gross. I think I was laughing and rolling my eyes at the same time. Luckily I had THREE quarters. Because if he’s getting Skittles, you know I’m going to NEED my own Skittles. Also, here’s a debate – do you eat your Skittles by the handful or one-by-one? I like to eat all of one color (green first, I don’t like them), then move onto the next color (usually, yellow). I save red for last! But Jake eats them by the handful! It really throws me off. What do you do???

My plan had been to run 6 this morning, but my knee had other plans. It feels a little better than it did last night – I can at least bend it now without being in terrible pain, but I would be pushing it to run, so I’m taking a rest day. I decided that a rest day called for breakfast in bed.

I iced while I ate breakfast!

My nurses. After I iced, which actually made the pain way worse, I put a heating pad on my knee, which is really helping! Fingers crossed. I don’t know if I’ll ice again today…

I’m going to spend the day doing some computer work and getting everything ready to camp this weekend. This is my last week/weekend before I defend my dissertation proposal, so once that happens, it’s crunch time until May. GULP. The next 8 months are going to be some of the hardest for me – I’m teaching two online classes, working on a paper to present at a literacy conference in December, and starting my dissertation, but at least I know graduation is close. I am on a super tight timeline for my dissertation study because I wanted to do everything in one year; most (sane) people take two to four years, maybe more. So, fingers crossed everything works out. I’m definitely nervous!

Happy Friday Eve!!

Don’t forget to tell me about the Skittle debate! I’m really interested in what you do!