Day 38

Victory! Sort of. It seems like it's taken a gazillion days, but I finally got my raise situation finalized. Here's the quick recap of this saga. I asked for a certain amount - they agreed to it... split over two years (50% this year, 50% the next). That was it. I fought back and now... drumroll please.... I will get 70% this year and the remaining 30% next year, PLUS a title change. It's not enough for me to quit job number two, but I feel really proud of myself for 1) asking for a raise in the first place, and 2) sticking up for myself when I felt like they were being cheap. Of course I would have liked to have had 100% this year, but 70% is certainly better than nothing!

After work I met Anna for a Wednesday night friend fest spectacular! I ran my 5 miles while she biked next to me, we visited Mitten (I fed Miss Mae her favorite - Chopped Grill - so she is an especially happy kitty cat tonight), then I hopped on her bike while she walked... I was a little shaky on the bike but with a little practice in the parking lot I was good to go!

Safety First!

Then she took me out for dinner at Panera to celebrate my raise/promotion! I <3 Anna. :-)

And in training news, I have now reached 100 miles!!! I was also very good with food today. I'm feeling better already. One time Alyssa and I were talking about how hard it is to get back on track once you are off and she said, "It only takes one day," meaning it only takes one day on track to feel good and remember that it is not hard to do. She is so right!

Another friend that gets to wear the good-advice-hat for the day is Rebecca. I was telling her all about my anxiety about being a "big bliss bridesmaid" at Nicole's wedding in two weeks, and how I was dealing with that anxiety by eating baddies (I know, it's backwards) even though I was putting pressure on myself to lose weight before the big day. Rebecca said, "What if you just decide you won't lose weight for her wedding?" It was like a lightening strike! What a wonderful idea! Then if I don't lose weight, it is no big deal, and if I do, it's a bonus. Nicole... I might not lose weight for your wedding. But if Matt starts to run away from the altar, I'm feeling confident I can chase him down with my awesome running skillz, haha.

Total Miles Run: 103.24
Total Weight Change: -1.8

Day 37

Here is your Tuesday update - once again I didn't update before going to bed, not because I didn't have time, but because I couldn't peel myself off of the couch after I got home from job number two. There is incredibly bad TV on Tuesday nights... the kind you just cannot stop watching.

My day began with a run. Andy and I decided to make it the shortest one of the week (3 miles) because I wasn't feeling it, the weather looked questionable, and he had a meeting pretty early in the morning. Once again I was so glad he was there to drag me out the door, and once we were going I loved every minute of it. Even though my knee still hurts, I had a great run... negative splits (that means each mile was faster than the one before) and my average pave was 9:31. Getting faster!

Then it was time for job one and then job two. When I left for job one it was definitely cloudy, but not too bad. When I left for job two... it was raining... hard. By the time I parked at job two there was a full-on monsoon. I ran as fast as I could to get inside, but it was clearly not fast enough.

Soaked to the bone

My pants were soaked (although if you look closely at the picture, the crotch of my pants stayed dry, which I find very strange)... in fact they were so heavy they were really falling down while I was trying to run inside. I'm glad no one was behind me! I know I complain about job number two a lot, but really my complaint is that I have to have a second job. The people there are some of my favorite people. After having a good laugh, one of the tennis pros gave me a pair of her warm-up pants. I went back to the Spa and changed into them, while a Spa girl took my wet pants to housekeeping and they put them in the dryer. How nice is that! I was only a couple minutes late and managed to be relatively dry during my shift.

This picture really made me realize I need to refocus on food asap. The wet pants and sausage shirt really emphasize how much weight I've gained since the Flower City Half Marathon in the spring. I don't like the way I feel, and I'm scared I'm getting kind of used to feeling this way. That is not ok.

Total Miles Run: 98.23
Total Weight Change: -0.8

Day 36

Andy and I were in complete agreement that today did not feel like a Monday at all. We woke up at the cabin and sat outside enjoying the lake.

Lake Keuka

Once the entire Brown clan was out of bed, we headed into town for breakfast. The diner we had breakfast at was decorated with high class art.

"I know... I can't do a thing with it!"

Yes - that is a sheep supposedly having a bad hair day. Artistic gems like that were hanging everywhere. Near the diner was this exciting sight... Alyssa immediately came to mind. :-)

World Record Pancake Griddle!

After breakfast, Andy and I packed up and headed back to civilization in hopes to be somewhat productive - since I had the day off I had big plans as far as cleaning/laundry/grocery shopping was concerned. While I did get some things accomplished, I certainly didn't do everything on my list. I was so tired! Vacation really wears me out, haha.

Tomorrow I'm back to running. Even though today was a rest day, I feel so worn out that I really wish tomorrow were a rest day too! Oh well.

Day 34 + 35

Greetings friends! I am sorry to have abandoned you all over the weekend, but alas... I did not have an internet connection. Time for a mega-massive-weekend-update!

Saturday started off in the normal Saturday way - working job number two. This was especially not fun since I worked it the night before, but once my shift was over life got better because.... I went to the Brooks Cavalcade!!!!

Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities

I was super excited to go to this event because I had a ticket for a free prize - they were handing them out at Urban Fit a few weeks ago. The person in front of me ended up getting a bandana (not so exciting) so I figured I'd probably get a sticker or something. Wrong-o! I won a t-shirt!!! Not that I really need another running t-shirt since I have quite the race t-shirt collection, but I was still pretty excited.

The rest of Saturday was spent packing and driving out to Keuka Lake. Andy's family rented a cabin for the week, so we grabbed Anna and headed out there. By the time we got there and unloaded our stuff, it was time for dinner. Then the three of us headed out in hopes to find a good route for our long run in the morning. After that we were off to bed!

Sunday was really our only full day down at the cabin, so we definitely made the most of our time there. I woke up early to catch the Olympic Men's Marathon on TV. It was so inspiring! Then the three of us headed out for our 10 miler - Andy's dad joined on his bike. Andy and his dad took off while Anna and I (we were dubbed "team estrogen") held a respectable pace. My goal for the marathon is to hold a 10:30 pace and we ended up averaging 10:24. We are so good! Anyway, the route we planned from the night before was perfect - 5 miles out and back - not the most creative route, but it went right along the lake, so the views of the water and the lake houses were really nice, plus the road was pretty quiet and almost entirely flat. It was great!! 

Typically during long runs I eat sport beans, but this time I decided to try my first "gel pack." Anna documented my experience. :)

Bottoms Up!

ewwwww

Ok, so it really wasn't that bad. Just different. The flavor of the packet was vanilla, and it really sort of tasted like frosting. You won't be surprised to learn - I really like frosting. However, this had the texture of snot. Snot frosting is not my favorite. Seriously though, it was a lot easier to eat than the sport beans (except it made my hand sticky) and I felt fully energized the entire time. I'm pretty confident that gels are the way to go, so I plan to host a "gel tasting party" in the very near future to figure out which kinds are the least snotty/most tasty. You are all invited - just let me know if you want to come!

Gels (or anything eaten while running) have to be followed by water. In a moment of sheer genius the night before, we planted water bottles along our course. I was so happy they were still waiting for us at the 6 mile mark.

Homemade Water Stop

I actually wish I had more water around mile 8 - of course if I hadn't poured some of it to clean the sticky gel off of my hand I probably would have been fine. All in all, that was one of the best 10 mile runs I've ever done - probably tied with a happy hour 10 miler I did once with Alyssa and Andy earlier in the spring, but I just liked that one because we ran FAST (and hit the hot tub at the club afterwards). But I digress...

Once we were cleaned up, Anna and I hopped in a canoe - because 10 miles of running is clearly not enough fitness for these two girls!

Barbara "Runs like tortoise" and Anna "Runs like hare"

The canoeing was very fun except when I fell on my butt trying to get out of it and got very wet and dirty. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself! After I cleaned myself off, we packed lunches and then.... it was time for another boating excursion. While we were canoeing, Andy ran off with his parents and rented a pontoon boat.

Captain Andy

The entire Brown family climbed aboard and we were off! At first it was fun eating our lunches while looking at the houses from the lakefront, but then the rain came... and the wind... we headed back. At this point, Anna bid farewell. I was soooo glad she came! Once the weather got a little better we headed back in the boat to take Ali (Andy's little sister) tubing, but then we got flagged down by some stranded boaters and ended up using our time to tow them back to the marina. Definitely our good deed for the day.

We spent the rest of the night at the cabin. Ali and I painted our nails while watching the Spice Girls reunion during the Olympic Closing Ceremonies (I'm sad the Olympics are over), and then it was out to the fire pit for s'mores.

Mmmm.... s'mores......

You could see tons of stars where the sky was clear. Everyone managed to see a shooting star except me... I waited and waited....and then I finally saw one, which of course meant I had to shove my fist in the air and let everyone know I SAW ONE. :) I'm glad the Brown Family knows me well enough to not think I'm a total wacko (or at least I don't think they think I'm a wacko, haha). It was a good end to a long and busy day. I was all too happy to fall in bed.

Total Miles Run: 95.12 - less than 5 miles to go to 100!!
Total Weight Change: ??? There wasn't a scale at the cabin, although I'm sure after eating 10,000 s'mores it will not be pretty

Day 33

Today's a dreary Friday - the clouds are rolling in, the office is quiet, and in less than two hours I'll be working job number two for the rest of the night. :-( Not fun.

Andy headed out to play golf this morning, so for the first time in 33 days, I ran by myself. I thought since I was on my own I'd be much slower (no one to push my pace), and honestly I wasn't even intending to try to go fast.... but I did! My average pace was 9:35. The whole weight loss thing is clearly not going how I hoped it would, but at least I'm noticing concrete improvement in my runs. I'm very thankful for that.

When I would train for races in the past, I would always try to map a new route for every run. Lately I've been running the same route over and over, but I actually don't mind - it's kind of comforting in a way. In my running rut, I see this billboard every time... pretty fitting considering I'm training for the Marine Corp Marathon!

Marine billboard on my route

Time to sign off and get ready for job number two.

Total Miles Run: 85.11 - Sarah, I'm getting close to 100! Where are you??
Total Weight Change: -2.1

Day 32

Happy Birthday Bipul! Today was our good friend Bipul's birthday and we got to spend the evening celebrating with him. :-) For those of you that don't know Bipul, he is a doctor with a special place in his heart (har har) for cardiology. Hence... the birthday card I made for him!

Birthday greeting EKG style

And what better way to celebrate an aspiring cardiologist's birthday than by eating three rounds of dessert!

His cake cutting skills were surgical

And now a quick update on the training program - this morning was an easy 3 miler. Andy and I weren't anticipating going very fast as I am slightly sore all over from MXT and he is slightly more sore from a 4 hour kayaking trip he went on yesterday. Turns out we didn't end up going slow at all. I'm really amazed at how "fast" I am getting. At least for shorter distances. We were planning to do our 10 mile long run tomorrow morning, but there is a "severe thunderstorm warning" in effect, so we are going to swap it out for a 4 mile run (hopefully the weather won't be too bad) and wait to do our long run on Sunday. I know you can't predict the weather on race day so it is good to train in all conditions, but seriously... if there's lightening, I think I'll pass.

Total Miles Run: 81.02
Total Weight Change: -2.5

Day 31

So tired - will keep it short so I can go to bed. This morning Anna and I took a complimentary TRX training session. A blurb from their website....

TRX Suspension Training requires the use of the TRX® Suspension Trainer™, a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity and the user’s bodyweight to enable hundreds of exercises that can be instantly scaled for any user to reach any fitness or training goal.

I had tried TRX for about 2 seconds at a local gym the last time I was home for Christmas. It was really interesting so I was very excited to try it out for a 45 minute session. I absolutely loved it and would definitely like to make it part of my weekly routine (of course my wallet wouldn't appreciate that).

Having fun (with a really stupid look on my face) while doing TRX

Then it was time to go to work where I got to watch someone younger than me, with less education and work experience, get promoted - so now they make more than me. I have many hateful feelings for that place right now

After work it was time for our final kickball game of the summer season. :-( We lost - again - but it was still fun. I'm definitely glad I gave it a try, and I'm looking forward to the fall season that will be starting very soon!

Goodnight friends - tomorrow I'm supposed to run. meh....