Elle the Nocturnal Creature

Elle is a strange little dog. 
I jokingly refer to Elle as a rat.  If a DNA test was performed and it was confirmed she was a hybrid rat-dog, I would not be surprised.  Not only does she have rat-like physical attributes, but she also exhibits nocturnal behavior. 

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night.  I look over and see Elle sitting on Jeff’s chest staring at him.  It was so weird and really creepy!  I pretended to be asleep and continued to observe her behavior.  She continues to stare at Jeff (who is soundly asleep) and then walks around the bed and stops near me.  I close my eyes so she doesn’t know I am awake; I feel her cold little nose and warm breath on my face!  SOOO creepy!  Then I feel her sit on my pillow and her tail starts whipping me in the head.  What the hell, Elle?!? 

At this point I am trying so hard not to laugh.  She then starts swatting Jeff’s head with her paw like a freaking cat!  I refuse to partake in this little game so I continue to pretend to be asleep.  Now it is just a game of “Midnight Chicken” with Jeff.  Who will “wake” up first?!? 

What do we do, do we ignore her or cater to her nocturnal shenanigans?  If we ignore her, she will either A) burrow back under the covers and go back to sleep or B) get up and shit on the ground.  I vote ignore her and take my chance with shit on the floor in the morning. 

Jeff apparently doesn’t want to chance waking up to shit on the floor and caves to let out the little brat of a dog.  (Honestly, I think he walks in his sleep and doesn’t even know he is letting her out.  He also uses is as excuse to go have a midnight snack.)

Oh Elle, you are so bizarre and super annoying sometimes.  But I still love your little pea head and extra large eyes that pop out of your head.

So Fast!

March Running Update

I’m pretty happy with how my training is going for the upcoming St Louis Half Marathon April 15.  I still want to get a bit faster to run a sub-7 minute pace, but I have enough time to add more speed workouts. 
I have been getting 25 mile weeks in, but hope to up that to 35 miles for the next few weeks.  After April 15 I will be increasing the weekly mileage for the marathon in June (40-50 mile weeks).  I am typically a low mileage runner, mostly because I get bored easily and do other activities besides running (before it was soccer), so this will be a pretty big change for me.  I hope the hard work pays off! 

When you are feeling a little down…..

March Madness always results in mixed emotions.  Right now KU just pulled off a win over Purdue, so I am happy.  Before KU’s win, I was a little down because my bracket was not doing so hot.  If your bracket is also doing poorly and you are a little down, take a few moments to watch a talking dog discuss bacon with his owner:

First 10K, Lucky Laces

I ran my first 10K this morning, a run in honor of a splendid holiday.  I decided last night at 9pm that I would run instead of going skiing with Jeff.  My coworker said his roommate signed up but was out of town, so I saved myself $25 and picked up his pre-paid race number and ran as a 27 year old male by the name of Dallas.

Dallas dressed up for the race and wore a shirt from 2004 St Pats in Rolla, MO in which he “Feared No Beer.”  He also had some nice knee high socks from a previous St Pats run.
Dallas had never ran a 10K before and didn’t know how fast to run it.  Plus Dallas was stupid and ran 5 miles last night at a 7:20 pace and drank beer and ate pizza for dinner while watching basketball.  Dallas didn’t expect to feel or do well.
 
Dallas finished 6th in the 23-29 Male age group (I would have been 3rd in my age group and gotten a metal, that’s what I get for cheating the system). 

I actually didn’t feel all that well and was disappointed that I ran the same pace I ran my last half marathon in.  I definitely want to do another 10K and try to run it at a 6:45 pace or faster.  I will have to do a lot more mile repeats to run that fast..….

Oh I also signed up for the Denver Rock and Roll Half marathon, goddammit.  They had a deal if you signed up you got a discount and a T-shirt….I was a sucker…. and signed up for another stinking Competitor Group race.  But I did sign up as myself and not as Dallas.

Flashback to Costa Rica…..

So I read a post on another blog about a scary moment while biking across the country HERE.  It was a crazy story about her encounter with an unstable Missourian at an Arkansas Ozark campground.  The story got me thinking about my own scary story (though not near as scary as hers).

Flashback to December 2008.  Jeff and I got married………..

………and headed to Costa Rica for our honeymoon.  We spent the first few days in the middle of the rainforest at the most magnificent self-sustainable luxury jungle retreat, Pacuare Lodge. The only way to get to this lodge is by whitewater rafting (it was in a very remote location, no electricity).  We stayed in a river view private bungalow (best sleeping is by a river, love that sound) and all meals were included (amazing gourmet food).  We relaxed in our hammock, hiked, zip lined, and met some cool people from around the world.  We WILL go back to this place, it was absolutely amazing.

After 3 amazingly relaxing days at Pacuare, we got dropped off at the rental car place (Avis) in San Jose.  We got our rental car and a VERY necessary GPS (because we don’t read or speak Spanish and the maps are terrible and the roads are not marked well in Costa Rica) and headed to the west coast of Costa Rica for the rest of our trip.  We immediately got stuck in traffic and then our GPS died.  We pulled over at a well lit Holiday Inn and Denny’s restaurant (we figured this would be safe) to re-group and figure out how to get back to Avis to switch out the GPS. 

When we went back to our car, there were several men milling around the parking lot suspiciously.  We quickly got into our car and headed straight for Avis.  We noticed our tire seemed to be going flat and then we noticed a car following us.  We did not stop and made it to Avis right as our back tire goes completely flat….it had been slashed!  The car following us speeds off as we pull into Avis. 

The Avis man comes out and immediately freaks out and explains how lucky we were.  There had been a string of attacks against tourists in San Jose. The tourist stops and while they are away from their car their tires are slashed.  They get back into their car and are followed until they have to pull over for the “flat” tire.  They are then attacked and have all of their things stolen and left on the side of the road.  Soooo, we were EXTREMELY lucky we made it back to Avis and thank goodness the GPS died!!!!!!!

The rest of our trip was uneventful, but we were definitely on edge the remainder of our vacation.  We were always aware of our surroundings and suspicious of everything.  I guess that is a good thing, but it made it hard to relax.  Regardless, it was an amazing honeymoon!

And we lived happily ever after.  The End.

Correlation Between Runners and Drinkers

I just read an article in Women’s Health about the correlation between exercisers (runners) and drinkers:

(source)

This article says that the more people exercise, the more they drink.  They also found that the trend is particularly pronounced in active, educated women.  It discusses the issue into detail, click the above link if you want to read it. 

Interesting.  And now I know that I am not alone when I say that I run hard to be able to enjoy a glass of wine or beer.  With that being said, I keep within reason and am not drinking more than a few drinks at one time.  My crazy binge drinking days are over (or saved for trips to Vegas). 

This also leads me to my wine review of the week.  My mom brought her favorite $4.99 bottle of wine and we gave it a try:

Crane Lake Pinot Noir, 2010

$4.99, Cork, Sonoma, CA

(We forgot to take a picture before we drank it all up)

There is no description on the back of the bottle.  Booorrriiinnnng.  It just has the Government Warning from our Surgeon General telling me that I shouldn’t drink if I get pregnant and not to drink and drive.  Good advice Surgeon General.

Jeff and I agreed with my mom, this wine is pretty good for its cheap price!  It wasn’t too sweet and was not bitter or cheap tasting.  There wasn’t really anything special about it, but for a random non-special night, this is a good wine.  Good recommendation Mom!

I hope everyone has a great Friday and enjoys all the basketball games that going on (c’mon bracket, win me some $$, right now my “gut feelings” about upsets have all been wrong, ugh).  And don’t forget that tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day!!!

In Honor of the Upcoming Holiday….

My mom and dad prepared corned beef and cabbage for dinner to celebrate St Patty’s Day (early since they leave Friday and we are going out to eat tomorrow).  Mmmmm it was delicious!

I took tonight off from running or working out because my legs were tired.  But I did take the dogs on a 2 mile walk with my dad.  Its always a good idea to take a rest day if you are feeling tired or sore.

Also in honor of St Patty’s Day, my mom taught me how to make Brownie Pops (don’t ask me how these are related, I just decided that eating balls of gooey brownies dipped in candy is a good way to honor St. Patrick).  I’ll do a quick tutorial because it was flippin’ easy. 

1) Make a pan of brownies.  2) Crumble entire pan of brownies into a bowl.  3) Mix 3/4 a can of chocolate frosting with the crumbled brownies.  4) Roll brownie and frosting mixture into balls.

5) Mix half a bag of candy wafers (we chose dark chocolate and mint) with a tablespoon of Crisco. 6) Melt candy wafers in microwave (about 30 seconds). 7) Dip sticks in melted candy and stick into balls (this is so the balls are easy to eat). 8) Put in refrigerator for approx. 15 minutes to harden a bit.  

9) Dip brownie balls into melted candy. 10) Get creative if you want and put other flavors on it (I was very bad at this, mine got really ugly looking). 11) Stick into something (like Styrofoam) to harden/dry standing up (they harden/dry faster if you put them in the refrigerator). 12) Eat all of them, get a tummy ache, and celebrate St. Patty’s day by eating Brownie Pops instead of chugging beer (I will save the beer for the actual St. Patty’s Day).

So easy and so yummy.  Thanks Mom for helping me make these Brownie Pops of delicious goodness!