New Toys, and one Baaad Afternoon

Wow, two posts in under a week? Who am I?

Well, in all the schmaltz and schmoopy-ness that was Monday's post, I didn't talk about a few things that went down last week. Now, I have a few more things to add to that list. So, a lot to talk about, 1 2 3 go!

Remember back in this post when I talked about the Saucony Mirage? Well, after 5 long months and lots of fawning over them at work, look who finally came home to Mama last week?

Aren't they gorgeous? 

I was thinking I'd use these instead of the DS Racers for Marquette, so I wore them on my 14 miler on Saturday morning. They worked wonderfully! My feet and my legs felt great throughout, and I only had a little bit of knee pain going in to the last few miles.
However, that 14 as a whole is a saga in and of itself... I ran it with the Marathon Training Group from my store, which is great because it gives me a group to be with so I'm not alone, and the run is supported with water stops and whatnot. However, I foolishly forgot to bring my own nutrition, and then forgot to grab something at the first stop, since he warned us out front that he might not see us again until around 9. So, I had nothing until 9, where I took another Gu. I don't know what it was, but I actually felt worse after that. My pace dropped off from around 8:15-8:20 to around 9:20-9:30, and I started feeling nauseous. I finished the run, though, in 2:01:33, so all in all I'll take it. Afterwards, I tried ignoring the nausea as much as I could, and rushed home to clean up and get back to the store for my shift. Once there, no more ignoring it. I sipped on water and tried eating something to see if that would help, but I was getting worse (and very dizzy to boot), and after my system rejected everything I put in it after the run, I sent myself home, where I promptly slept for an hour and then spent the rest of the day with what felt like the third worst hangover of my life.
So, now I'm left wondering if it was the Gu itself that caused it, or was it the fact I took it too late? Either way, I need to restock all of my running nutrition, as every last piece of it was at least a month past expiration. Oooops. Coach Mom suggested Endurolytes, so I think I might give those a whirl on my next long run. Regardless, I need to rethink my plan, as I don't want to relive last week ever again.

In other news, after too many months of fighting with MapMyFitness (who doesn't have all of my usual routes on their database, nor does it work well with the SuperMac and the Magic Mouse (which I dislike anyway but that's another white whine for another time)), and being told it was way past time for this running store manager to know what the heck she's talking about while selling them, I gave in and pulled the trigger. This little guy came home to his Mama yesterday:

 Love. Love love love. Forerunner 110, let's run away together.
And that's exactly what we did this morning.

In other news, I'm too busy being a runner and a manager to be a good "housewife" and make sure our apartment is clean. You know what? I'm OK with that.

And, the result of our rendezvous today?

So much information! So many little details! So much to analyze! Eeeeeeee!!! My favorite parts were actually the map (which I am not posting for safety reasons, sorry), and the "player", which took me through my route and showed me how fast I was going where and how the elevation changed. I was bouncing everywhere from a 5:49 pace somewhere in the first 200 yards to a 13:00 minute pace (I think that was when I slowed down to see if I could cross a street safely), but for the most part stayed between 8:00 and 8:30 somewhere. Hm, need to work on that just a bit.

So, aside from the schmaltz, that's what's up. The last few weeks of Marquette training, and looking onward past that to Whistlestop... and there might be one more big thing in the works here, too, but I'll disclose that once I have a few more details. :)
So, with that, it's time to clean up and head BACK to the store. It's sad when you have more food in your work fridge than you do in your home fridge, it really is.

525,600 minutes...

A year ago today, I loaded up my truck to the gills with most of my possessions. I then jumped in and drove 100 miles north to the rest of my life.

To say that a lot has changed in the last year is the understatement of the century.

To say that it all hasn't been easy or fun is also true. But, would I change a thing? Probably not.
Here's to the year that was, and here's to the year to come!

Work talks, and gearing up for M2 2011

Hello!

August is here, and I'm in the process of gearing up for Marquette next month. I am so excited for this race, for a few different reasons:
1. My family is taking this thing over! All 4 of us--me, Coach Mom, Assistant Coach Little Sister, and Little Bro are all running it together.
2. When I've been on lately, I've been ON. I've done a few runs where hitting my target pace (around 8:00min/mi) was quite doable. I'm really working on not getting too ahead of myself, but I really feel that a 1:45 could be in my grasp here, as long as I stay healthy and focused.
3. Watching one of my friends (and former co-bandgeek)  and her husband run their first half marathon. I've been creeping on their training via Facebook, and they are rocking it. :)
4. A 4 day weekend in the UP with my family and Brandon, with possible visits with friends? Yes, please.
5. Going "home" again for a few days? YES, PLEASE.

Source

Not that I'm rushing the rest of summer out of here, nor am I willing and able to skip the rest of training... but if September 2nd-5th could hurry up and get here, I'd be quite a happy woman, let me tell you.

I've also had the privilege lately of working with my running store's newest edition of their marathon/half marathon training group. I helped out while our GM, who usually runs it, was out of town for a few days, and it was nothing short of really awesome. If nothing else, it really confirmed to me that I'd like to run the Whistlestop Half Marathon in October (the race this group is geared toward), if nothing else just to keep meeting up with this group. They're great, and it would be nice to have more some friends in this town.
Yes, sadly, despite being here for 7 months now, I'm still feeling very much like the new girl in school, and I don't really know that many people. I have been trying to make friends at work, but the majority of them are college students and on the local university cross/track teams, so they very much have their own group going on. We did just hire some new people, though, so I'm hoping this dynamic shifts, because I'm starting to feel like that 7th grader eating her lunch in the bathroom stall here.
So... if any of you know of some cool people in the Duluth area who wouldn't mind hanging out with some crazy runner/hockey nerd/recovering bandgeek, let me know!  ;)
Aside from the social end of things, work has been going very well. My promotion became official this morning, and I could not be more excited. I have a ton on my plate, so to speak, but I feel so fortunate. Not only do I finally have a consistent job, but it's doing something I absolutely love. Plus, it's just plain fun sometimes:

The photo we sent to the rest of the management staff while they were out of town, with the caption, "When the cat's away, the mice will play." We put on tri suits and all these party hats/props one of the workers brought in, and were cracking up so hard. Good times

In all seriousness, though, if you would have told me a year ago that any of this would have happened--the relocation, the engagement, the job, the running improvement--I wouldn't have believed you. Well, probably the relocation and maybe the engagement, but other than that? No, I would not have believed you one bit.


So, that's all I have for this post. Have a great rest of your week, everyone!