why i’m all about twitter right now

Yes, its true. I’ve started Twittering. It began innocently enough. I have a new job and for said job, I have to run the Facebook page and Twitter account. Oh. My. God. People in Colorado be gettin’ excited ’bout some silly sh*% on FB these days…just sayin’. Luckily, my new job rocks and the Twitter feed generally follows pretty interesting topics that I’m actually interested in, hence, my Twittering. I’m thinking, however, that there might be something to this Twitter-thing…apparently I’m about two years too late in noticing. But better late than never right?

Anyhow, this all ties back to running in one way or another. I’ve finally been back to running lately. And actually running. Like fast and sh*& (sorry obligatory cursing after 12 hour workday). I’ve also been trail running, like a super duper lot, and its officially my new favorite thing. All this running kind of emerged for various reasons, not to be disclosed at present but lets just say…no lets not, for now.

That said, despite my running awesomeness, I’ve pretty much got the mid-twenties life-spins (like when you’ve had too many glasses of wine right before bed and you lay down and are all like ‘whoa, spinnnnnnns’ and turn on HGTV until the rooms stops moving counter clockwise?) only in real life. No mom, I don’t have vertigo. But everything is spinning around me like a cartoon tornado when you can see all the things you should/need/can/could/might/maybe wanna have/do/accomplish going around you in circles but can’t quite reach? That’s the stuff. And what’s the remedy? More cowbell!? Unfortunately no, Bruce Dickinson, the remedy is less fun. Fewer carefree weekends and less time to get all those other life things done, like see your friends more than once a month, go husband hunting, have babies, buy a house….oh god, just had a minor panic attack. And then I realized I’m only 26 and I went hiking with a 46 year-old woman last night who looked a day over 25 and was probs the coolest chick EVER, next to me. And this girl.

And yes, this all relates to Twitter. So I was being a frustrated, 26 year-old female who was fed up with the male gender altogether (except for my brothers and dad who are perfect. Its true, they’re pretty much awesomesauce) and promptly picked up my phone and Twittered something dumb, meaningless and less than 140 characters. Better? Ohhh yeahhh. So you’re welcome Twitter world, for my little addition to your whirling universe of uncommon sense.

Every post needs a photo and that’s why I invited you….

too bad there’s not more of this on the USA Pro Cycling Challenge…

dog days of summer

This video is kind of blowing my mind right now. And ironically enough, despite the 90 degree heat outside, its making me want to go for a run. Which I plan to do, right after I finish this  bag of chips. That’s to say, this hasn’t been the ‘summer of running’. But it has been a summer of ridiculously awesome weekends filled with Colorado adventures, boys, best friends and the realization that life is never going to slow down, follow a schedule and be ‘normal’. For once, however, I’m ok with that. I’m kind of growing fond of running at 100 miles a minute and never knowing what’s happening next. Somehow, it seems like that’s just how things is gonna be, kapish?

So, with two jobs looming in my future next week, my third semester of grad school about to get underway, I’ve obviously decided to sign up for the Denver Rock n’ Roll half marathon. Because I clearly need more things to do. Well, that and that fact that if I continue to eat like this…

Halloween 2010, clearly this girl has her costume priorities in order.

…then I might want to start running again. A lot. And with that, I’m going to go running now at 1pm in the afternoon in August. Good idea? No, terrible idea but someone told me yesterday that you burn more calories in the heat so I’m going to go ahead and believe that and then be able to have more bbq tonight.

Now that I’m back to blogging, I might as well leave you with a list of things I think are awesome so far this summer…

1. The Bachelorette, who thinks this will last about 2 more months before someone moves out, gets a loft and ends up on the Bachelor Pad?

2. This blog. Because she’s freakin’ hilarious and from Alaska.

3. This blog. Because she’s freakin’ awesome and we’re going hiiiiiiking tomorrow!!!

4. pools.

5. pinatas. see photo below…

yes, that is Mario. and yes, it is filled with shooters.

6. trail running. see this post.

7. being finished with interning

8. denim. and this dress. and yes, it is totally acceptable to shop at Forever 21 after you graduate from middle school. It’s called “Forever 21″ for a reason. Obvi.

9. cowboy boots. still.

10. cowboys. still. working on wrangling one in now.

yes, this is sorta why I live in Colorado.

jock jams

Let’s talk about the gym. Not the university gym or church gym (if you’re in the South) or rec center gym but the straight up GYM that grown ups join and go to before/after work to get krunk. I recently joined a gym near my apartment so I wouldn’t have to do strength training on my living room rug with my cat laying beneath me, mocking my every attempt at non-girl push-ups. I figured it couldn’t hurt, might meet some nice gals to work out with (or elliptical next to some other random females while we simultaneously stare down the hot men in the vicinity)…

Anyhow, I joined this gym and am making a concerted effort to do a situp more than once every 6 months. It seems to be working, I’ve been at least a few times a week and I think my guns are getting “huger” every day. Like I said before, the best part of the gym is the people watching. As soon as I’m suited up in my typically less than fashionable gym get up, I plug in my iPod and rock out to some Talib Kwali and pretty much just stare at people until they notice (and I mean that in the least creepy way possible, I mean, come on, I’m a 26 year-old blonde haired female, ‘creepy’ isn’t really in my makeup, yet). In my well-practiced people watching, I’ve made a few observations I’d like to share in the form of (gasp!) a list:

1. men (and women for that matter) why WHY do you wear those shoes that individually wrap each toe? WHY!!!!???? they simply cannot be comfortable, they look like you’re (I’m sorry, but I’m being honest) about to participate in some kind of cyber-space, 3-D, dance-dance-revolution competition and I’m just not comfortable with it (except for you, cute trainer, who gave me a free session while wearing those particular shoes in green, you pulled them off just fiiiiiine)

2. gentlemen, if you’re going to wear a shirt, don’t rip the armpits down to your waist, you’re likely to get caught in it while doing your plyometric workout and really, no one wants to see your nipples.

3. dear guy using the rowing machine, well done.

4. I’d like to issue a general apology to everyone at the gym for sweating so much, I don’t know why I do, it just happens. But its probably from ‘werking my muuuuscles so haaaaard’ (please read with Arnold Swarzanagger accent)

5. dear guy at the welcome desk, for the LAST time, I DON’T WANT TO BUY ANY MUSCLE MILK SUPER DELUXE PROTEIN POWDER NOT NOW NOT EVER! thanks for asking though.

6. why are the TVs in the cardio area always tuned to 1. sports 2. msnbc 3. sports and 4. HLN? Its mostly women spending their workout on a treadmill or elliptical indoors and they would most likely rather be watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” anyhow.

7. please, please, please clean your equipment when you’re done, its fairly high on my gross scale when I jump on a treadmill covered in sweat droplets, even for a sweat monster like me.

8. I think the women in the Zumba classes have got it more figured out than the rest of us, y’all wear sick awesome neon outfits with retro nikes and dance around, burn about a million calories and then all go out for Fro Yo. If I hadn’t have been kicked out of adjunct ballet in college, I would totally be there.

(why aren’t we ALL doing this?)

9. now I want fro yo.

10. I would secretly love to get my hands on the gym radio station and tune it to bluegrass for an afternoon, just to see what happened.

 

Karmic Relief

Oh Karma, you are such a fickle friend. You let me have an awesome weekend camping BUT you made certain that I smashed up several toes, scrapped up my knees circa 6-year old me style, got a wicked horrendous sports bra tan, and broke down my car 5 BLOCKS FROM MY HOUSE. Thanks a bunch. At least no one fell off the rock while climbing or broke anything other than my ego. That whole ‘wait for AAA for an hour in the 100 degree Denver heat at 5pm” was pretty ingenious though. Let me tell you.

Still, the weekend turned out rather fabulously. Lots of sunshine/sunburn, climbing big rocks, boosting my ego, crushing my ego, repeat, repeat, repeat. Now, back to the grind and back to biking everywhere college style. Luckily the high today is only 85! Oh well, maybe I can make biking a habit and save gas for more climbing trips

No time to write more, have to go unclog my shower drain, bandage my toes, find a work outfit suited for post-85 degree biking, register for class, and find my soul mate. Will be back when check-list is complete. But leave y’all with some photos from my sick-gnarly-bad-arse climbing adventure this weekend…

big rock, multi-pitch route aptly named "lost in space"

bad-arse climbing guide/best buddy from southwest Colorado

wounded toe x2, yes, that is a tampon used as a bandage. don't judge till you have a 45 minute hike in chacos with a bashed up toe...

the fearless climbers, me looking a little worse for wear, a perhaps a 'bit' 'sun-kissed'...

Happy Trails Yo

I have this friend. She’s kind of a bada$$. Think sub 4-hour marathoner, ski maven, marketing guru, cowboy-boot wearing (girl after my own heart), chick, who also eats dessert with me. Anyhow, she recently started a wicked good blog with food, workouts, Colorado humor, and general adventuring and it got me to thinking about my own blog. Reading over my old posts, I realized that 1. I’m kind of a cynic 2. I’m still not sure how I did all that training in the snow and -5 degree weather 3. ok, I’m definitely a cynic,  but a recovering cynic 4. I wish I was this girl when it comes to running 5. I should probs do another marathon…at some point. Most importantly though, I started my blog to keep myself accountable for getting my workouts in and to gab about my workouts when my friends simply couldn’t listen to another story about mile 14 of my Saturday morning run and how I saw 7 groundhogs at that park I ran through in Lakewood and the best flavor of GU (which is vanilla by the way, although I’m sure its called something more like “Vanilla MONSTER” or “Extreme Vanilla Energy Explosion with 17x the legal dose of caffeine”).

Anyhow, reading my friend’s blog, I realized how much I liked just writing about the sh#* that happens to me, using the real words, and feelings, and everything that came along with it (sorry mom, sometimes I say $#it, it just happens). So, in order to continue blogging about all this random &h*t, I figured I had to start a NEW blog with a NEW name, but simply put, I don’t have time for that. Right now, I have an internship with an awesome PR firm, am working with an amazing start-up outdoor adventure, caring for a even more cynical cat, trying to reclaim my post-marathon social life, dating (no comments here, yet.), preparing myself for the premier of Harry Potter 7 part II, and just generally being wicked busy. SO, as a substitute, I’ll just re-define the name of my own blog by saying that me vs. the marathon is about me, running, living, working, HP 7, and general ridiculousness and sarcasm. First topic of discussion? Trail Running (only appropriate to branch out with a new and unusual topic like say, running)

Anyhow, I had an impromtu afternoon off work so after lunch with my pal from Fear of Bananas, I decided it would be prudent of me to go do something super hardcore, like trail running in the 100 degree heat. Of course, at lunch both of us were sweating our faces off and talking about how we couldn’t wait to go back to air conditioning (which was conveniently located next door in the form of this bakery…). Yet, I still thought trail running would be a perfect afternoon activity. At the recommendation of said friend, I drove (with the AC blasting like it was Georgia in July) to a peculiar park past Morrison and Red Rocks called “Lair o the Bear“. Not “of the bear”, “o the bear”, my friend corrected me. Ok, Colorado, come on, really? What the f? (pun intended) Equipped with a waist belt water bottle holder (only used after discovering my camel bak had not been cleaned since pre-may 1 and was most likely harboring some strain of cholera), I asked the friendly (read: hot and shirtless) mountain bikers in the lot where the best trail was after which I got turned around and ended up on a completely different trail that lacked friendly mountain bikers (read: no hot shirtless men)…

Nonetheless, my first trail run of the summer turned into an unbelievably energizing hour and some 6 mile run through woods that define why Colorado is so freakin’ awesome. By the time I got back to my car though, I was drenched, thirsty, and desperately wanted to dive head first into the creek. For fear of more cholera, I nixed the creek and went for my extra water in the car. Unfortunately, I had neglected to read the temp gage in Peanut (my tiny subaru), which looked something like this…

Whoops.The water may or may not have actually been boiling.

Anyhow, the run was enough to hook me on another sport I’m going to have to fit into my schedule this summer. And after crashing in bed at around say, 8pm, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck and ready for more. Luckily, I have a short day today and have the weekend to rest my legs, because I’m going ROCK CLIMBING instead of running!!! Don’t worry, I’ll take some super wicked gnarly pics of me doing some sick grabs and other hard core climbing stuff like that….Here’s a little preview of what a serious climbing chick I am…

Note the facial expression of determination and focus. Clearly, this girl knows EXACTLY what she’s doing.

26 and counting…

Hello 26, how are you? Did you notice how I was ignoring you all week long in hopes that you would just dry up and blow away? Unfortunately you didn’t, but watch out, I ran a marathon this year so I think I can take you. I like how you tried to throw some wrenches in my week until I kicked your bootay on my run today and then we made up. Lets be friends now so this year goes smoothly. Gotta fake it till you make it right?

This week I discovered a few things…

1. turning 26 doesn’t hurt as much as running 26.2 miles

2. turning 26 is more fun with your friends around

3. some people will never appreciate you

4. some people will always appreciate you

5. older brothers are called ‘older brothers’ for a reason

6. and that reason is that they usually have good answers to questions from little sisters.

7. nothing puts you a good mood like bluegrass music and bbqs

8. never get a manicure and go climbing the next day

9. climbing is more fun than manicures anyway

10. running with a friend is more fun than running alone

11. tacos are never a bad idea

12. wine is never a bad idea

13. the invention of the text message is slowly leading to the destruction of a. civilized conversation b. dating c. constructive emotional interaction

14. i’m going to quit texting for the next week and see what happens. i have a feeling my life is going to improve dramatically.

15. which is easier, banjo or violin? i need a new instrument.

15. this song is freakin awesome. and so is the cello players hat…and earrings…

 

time to get SERIOUS

So, its time to get serious, serious. In all seriousness, it really is time to A. blog again B. run again and C. run again. Well, and D. thank everyone again for helping me finish a freakin’ marathon!!!

Problem is, when I drag my lazy bum out of bed at 8am and look in the mirror and flex my muscles, I realize that yes, I did finish a full marathon (that is 26.2 miles of running in case you were wondering) but it was in fact, nearly three weeks ago, and it is probably time to stop living the dream and start getting my act together. And so, I’m signing up for another race. Not just any race, the PERFECT race. Its called….drum roll…The Slacker Half-Marathon. Perrrrrrfect. This race is literally for slackers, or people who have become slackers as a result of extended self-gratification through excessive television viewing, wine consumption, sun tanning, and general apathy towards physical activity.

And so, today began my month +/- training for this, my 3rd half marathon of the year (please insert boastful tone here). I plan to wear my “That Dam Run” shirt during this race as a testament to its irony. So, as noted in this posts title, lets get serious. Hit it Jermaine.

Thanks for that little musical snack. Time to get my bum in bed so I can get up, get my zen on with some pre-running yoga, and point myself in a forward moving direction. Hello again Saturday (or Sunday, because its only a half right? right….) morning runs, I missed you. Hopefully we’ll get along just as well as we did before, maybe even better. This time I promise to complain less, stretch more, and not be such a nag when you set the alarm for 6:30.

Nice to meet you Marathon

Well, well, well marathon. We meet at last. As promised, you lasted 26.2 miles, with 1 hill (albeit at mile 19, which was less than pleasant), several challenging miles, and a big fat finish line. You did leave me with a ginormous silver medal, pink t-shirt, a few blisters, some wicked sunburn, and hamstrings that feel like little gnomes have been pounding on them with hammers. All in all, though, I think we got along just fine. You showed up Sunday morning with a little 33 degree chill in the pitch black dark at the top of the Poudre Canyon and I showed up in a pink hoodie, shorts (I was literally the ONLY person wearing shorts at the start line, come on runners, you have legs for a reason, show those puppies off!), and my nails done in “fuschia power”.

I wasn’t sure how things were going to go, it was kinda like a first blind date. You know, when you think you’re going to like the other person because you really want to and then you go through that silent mental process for the first few minutes, “do I like him? can I take him home to meet my mom? what will my dad think? why is he wearing that shirt? does he know he has something in his teeth? do I tell him? is that weird if I do? what if I don’t and he goes to the bathroom and sees it?” You know, kind of like that.

Luckily, things went well and in the process of covering 26.2 miles together, I think we started to click. That is, until mile 22. It was after my friends showed up with neon puffy painted shirts (I had no idea how artistically talented they truly were until yesterday) and similarly bright-tastic signs, and handed me green gatorade as I flew effortlessly (insert sarcasm) by, that I realized how much pain I was in. It wasn’t my knee for once, rather it was my right ankle, both quads, both hamstrings, my shoulders, my face, and my socks that started aching and yelling profanities at me. It was also at that point that I realized I had 4 miles left to go. Had it been 3 miles? No prob, I could run a 5k in my sleep at this point but 4 miles? Not so much. I trotted along next to a guy who was still wearing longsleeves and a hat (it was about 80 degrees at this point) and carrying a fuel belt which I desperately wanted to steal a water bottle from, then tried to pace with a girl was being paced by another girl wearing a Boston Marathon 2011 shirt (figured I couldn’t go wrong there), until I hit mile 23 at which point it was evident that if I just put one foot in front of the other I would indeed make it to the finish. Which was the plan all along.

And so along I went, finally hitting the mile 25 sign and realizing I potentially had less than 10 minutes to run. So of course, I put on my favorite running song, turned up the volume and picked up the pace. The one thing I didn’t realize about this race was that the ENTIRE 26th mile was on a rec path, no cheering fans getting you through those last few minutes, no signs, no cow bells. Just rec path. And this kid on a bike with a poodle-puff-ball-tiny-dog-mix on a leash biking next to runners pretty much driving everyone nuts. Finally, at mile 26, with 385 yards to go, you got fans and people cheering. Wow, that would have been nice at mile 18. Oh well, it was worth it just to sprint to the finish (actually did sprint there), heart racing, and ears pounding from the unhealthy volume of my iPod. And so, I finished.

I didn’t, in fact, collapse as I thought I would, I just stuck out my hand and demanded my medal. The guy looked at me and said “full or half?” Seriously! Do I look like it would take me over four hours to run a half? “FULL!” I said very politely. And I put it on and wore it all day. And it was delightfully heavy. Then I ate my weight in cookies and bacon, laid on the hotel bed, and basked in my endorphins for the rest of the day. It. Was. Wonderful.

So, again, thank you to everyone who came to watch, who donated money to my American Cancer Society Fundraiser, together we raised $1210 for cancer research with the hope that it will help bring an end to this disease. I couldn’t have done it without you.

But don’t worry, I’ll be back this week with plenty of commentary on just how sore my legs really are right now

Its the Colorado Marathon Yo!

So I’m running a marathon tomorrow. Its freezing outside but I’m optimistic that the sun will come out at 6am and shine down on the Poudre Canyon and warm all the little marathoners cold tushies. I guess all I can really be at this point is optimistic. I went for a little joggie today, only about two miles just to make sure I remembered how to run. Which I did. It felt good to be in my neon shoes and sunglasses cruisin’ around the park until I got home and remembered that this race is 26.2 miles so basically, .2 miles of fun, and 26 miles of wondering when it ends. And that’s where the optimism comes in…

In re-reading some of my blog posts, I think I’ve finally accepted the fact that I’m maybe not the world’s most proficient optimist. But that’s what I have friends for right? Friends who call me, email me, and come watch me run (which is saying something because unless you’re a runner, running is not the most exciting spectator sport), and tell me they know I’m going to finish. So thank you to all of you who have put up with my whining, moaning, and groaning over my aches and pains and woes, my avoidance of any social situations prior to Saturday training runs, and anything else that I may or may not have put you through. Y’all are amazing and I appreciate every last comment you’ve made to get me here.

That said. I’m off to Fort Collins to pick up my bib (look for #203 because she’s going to be wearing some sweet blue animal print arm warmers, neon shoes, and obviously, will be running like a greyhound), eat my pre-packed pasta, and stare at the hotel room ceiling until 4am when its time to run, run, run.

well, here goes nothing!

minor freak out attack.

Just a quick post to let you all know how much I’m beginning to freak out about this marathon. Turns out, its a rather long race. 26.2 miles to be exact, in case you weren’t already aware. And this whole taper thing that I thought I would just luuvvv? Not so much. I feel like I’m about to run a 5k. That’s not good I don’t think. How do you mentally prepare yourself for something like this?

I remember before soccer games in high school we would listen to the rap radio station in Atlanta (which was pretty much the best rap station EVER) and call in and request songs. When the DJ asked us where we were calling from we would all say “Holy Innocents Womens Soccer! Woot Woot!!”. The fact that we were calling a rap station from a school called “Holy Innocents” was pretty much the best part of the whole thing, but it definitely got us pumped up.

Cross country meets were a whole other story though. We would have pasta dinners and watch “Mulan”. Something about that sassy female ninja got us really revved. Then we would all eat bagels in silence on the bus to the meet. Maybe an impromptu viewing of Mulan is what I need…

I was also figuring out what time I actually need to get up for a 6:15 start time. Uh, how about 3:30 am. Not cool. Really not cool. If I have to be at the bus by 4:15 (which I think is a bit much, but they do, after all, have to drive us 26.2 miles out of Fort Collins), then I should be up and in the shower by 3:35am. Ick. Doubly ick for my bestest friend who is taking me to the bus. Luckily, she gets to go back to bed and sleep for another like 6 hours before I actually get close to town. Hopefully she’ll be able to pick me out of the crowd in my impossibly hot spandex shorts, neon yellow shoes, neon pink SPIbelt, and neon pink athletic tape (why get the taupe color when there’s NEON PINK!?).

Guess I’ll do some homework to de-stress from all this marathon talk. Wow, never thought I’d hear myself say that…