Gaaaaah, I miss running with this guy! One year ago I guess we were getting ready for a cold, dark morning run. I can’t wait to be running again!
I headed to yoga yesterday morning and it was WONDERFUL. Such a great class! It was also finally warm enough for me to wear the slides that Jake got me for Christmas. I have this weird thing where I don’t like to wear my running shoes in the car to races. I have to have something else on my feet. I had been wanting slides forever, but couldn’t find any that I liked. He got me this pair for Christmas and they’re perfect!
I LOVE presents. Jake and I have been wanting to travel a little bit more and I saw this awesome puzzle online and thought it would be fun to use it to choose where we travel/race. We want to run a race together in every state, so we need to get started! So far, we have done races in Missouri and Colorado. 48 to go! I didn’t want to get into the attic to get wrapping paper, so I used some scraps that I found, haha!
Jake already opened the present, so here it is! How cool is this? Once we finish a license plate, we will have to go to that state. Fingers crossed for Hawaii! ; )
These wraps are my life right now. Throw some hummus, chicken, Sriracha, and balsamic glaze in there – it’s the bomb.
I also had a salad on the side, plus the rest of the chicken that wouldn’t fit in the wrap.
I shared yesterday a little about my graduation dilemma…after speaking with graduate studies and my advisor, I officially submitted my application for graduation. GULP. I know that it’s possible I will have to back out and won’t be able to graduate in the spring, but this was still SO exciting. It means I’m FINALLY getting closer to being finished with school. Forever. I am praying I can pull off a spring graduation, but there’s no guarantee. If I don’t graduate in the spring, I will wait until December. I won’t want to walk until I am 100% finished. BUT STILL. I can see the light, friends!
Okay, I’m embarrassed to show you this, but it needs to be done. This is in my office. It’s a complete mess. When I resigned from teaching, I had to bring ALL of my school stuff home – so that’s 5 years of classroom stuff, plus 11 years of my own schooling. It’s amazing what you collect when in a classroom and/or a student. I kept meaning to go through stuff and organize it, but things just got busy and time got away from me. I didn’t feel like writing yesterday, so I spent about an hour or two tackling this bookshelf. While attempting to organize, I ended up making a bigger mess. Anyone else do this?
I ended up piling stuff on my desk and the girls’ kennels, so stuff was EVERYWHERE. This is my makeshift desk. Jake is building me a desk out of our old coffee table. It’s going to be GORGEOUS and I can’t wait for him to finish it.
I used to journal a lot and I found one of my old journals while I was going through stuff. I always loved the cover of this one! I think this is another reason why I love blogging so much, it’s kind of like journaling.
I matched the running pillow Jake got me for Christmas. I took a break from organizing/creating a mess to conduct an interview, then I finished up for the evening.
Here’s the before and after! It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. We both don’t really like this bookshelf, so we are going to sand it and paint it black. Jake is also going to build more shelves into it. I think once we do that, it’ll be more useful and look WAY better.
Last night, Jyssica, Kayla, and I went to Springfield Brewing Company for a nutrition talk. They are putting on a winter lecture series and this was lecture #1. We were excited to go and learn about nutrition…while drinking good beer. I got to drink out of my mug, which I loved!
Note-taking and beer drinking. My kind of night!
We were all nerding out during the lecture and taking lots of notes. I love that these two are as into nutrition and running as I am! We haven’t been running together lately, so I’ve been missing both of them. I cannot wait to get back to training so I can see them more!
My dinner was delicious. I had a Cali Chicken Wrap (sans wrap) and sweet potato fries.
We sat around and chatted for a long time after the lecture and we are getting SO excited for Nashville in April! They’re both in the beginning of their training plans and they are KILLING it. Seriously. I’m SO proud. They also let me vent about not running and listen to my dreams about when I come back – I’m hoping for a half PR in April…we will see!
It was up early this morning to get some time in on the elliptical before my 5:30 AM Body Pump class. These are 3 songs I’m loving right now.
I got 20 minutes in on the elliptical before my 60-minute Body Pump class with Cassie, then I finished up with 10 more minutes. I watched country music videos while I worked out – I never get to see music videos, so this is typically what I watch while I’m at the Y. I don’t listen to the TV, but I like having something to watch.
Body Pump time!
Then it was home to do some work on the computer, eat breakfast with Jake, and cuddle this furball. She would not leave my side this morning, so I took advantage of it! Jake calls me Waldo whenever I have my glasses on…I see where he gets that, ha!
I have my second appointment with my physical therapist this morning! I’m excited to see what she says. After my appointment, I’m going to spend the day doing computer stuff, then I have two interviews to conduct this evening. I am almost completely finished interviewing 7 participants! I will have interviewed 7 people 3 times each, so that’s a pretty big step! Ideally, I would like to have 12 participants, total, so I’m at least halfway there. I need to work on finding a few more people. The weather is supposed to get pretty nasty here, so I’m going to stay bundled up on the couch in sweats for as long as I can! Oh, I’m going to try pool running for the first time tomorrow morning – wish me luck! And if you have any experience pool running, I’d love to hear about it!
Happy Friday Eve!
This weekend after my long run on Sunday morning I got bitten by the cleaning bug. First step was going to Target to get new storage containers and organizing our storage area which turned out to be a nightmare … once that was done I could actually organize but I needed a break and took an iced coffee break before I started back. Haha! The hard thing about being in a constant state of distance running training is that I’ve lost a hood amount of weight so all of those clothes went in to storage and I’m trying to decide if I should buy new stuff. Thoughts? I mean if I gain the weight back I’ve wasted money but at the same time a few extra lbs wouldn’t hurt. How did the pool running go? Did you end up throwing in the towel and start swimming laps? I love that lap swimming helps me keep up my cardio endurance.