I’m In Seattle!

First of all, National Readathon Day is on Saturday!! I’m over halfway to my goal, and I would LOVE your support! Because who doesn’t love books and literacy? Please make a donation over here. I’ll love you forever.

Feller and I are on the second leg of our Portland-Seattle-Portland vacation, and so far it’s been great. We spent the past few days hanging out in Beaverton, Oregon and not doing much. We discovered a Fred Meyer down the street from our hotel, which is sort of like an even BETTER version of Target, if you can believe it. Needless to say, we engaged in some light retail therapy and grocery shopping, since our room had a teeny tiny kitchen. We also discovered the 24 hour delights of WinCo, and their crazy huge bulk section. These two stores are certainly making a good case for Oregon being a pretty decent place to live.

On our first full day in the Portland area, we went to a Fred Meyers & picked up some important travel essentials. Namely, these bangles. #NAB #needabracelet #Portland #vacation

A photo posted by @amysaysread on Jan 15, 2015 at 3:15pm PST

I also discovered that I wasn’t quite as prepared for the amount of rain we were going to be doing with as I thought as I was. I brought my umbrella from home, but then I misplaced it somewhere between home and the hotel. Turns out, I had just put it in a different bag and forgot. But not before I bought a new one! And a raincoat! (My first raincoat ever. It’s like one more step to being a Real Adult.)

Actually Important Portland Purchases: rain gear. #vacation #Portland #raining

A photo posted by @amysaysread on Jan 18, 2015 at 2:21pm PST

Turns out the raincoat came in real handy when we hiked up Multnomah Falls. It wasn’t raining most of the day, but it started to as we came back down the mountain, and it was certainly nice to have the protection when we were walking by the falls.

That was the only Big Thing we’ve done since we arrived, but I think we both needed some time to relax and recharge and recover from Life. Life’s been exhausting recently, and we were ready for a break. We have, however, reached the point where we have to start making the most of our days and Doing Things. We were gonna try to go to Ecola State Park yesterday, but after the ass kicking the Falls gave us the day before, we decided to take it easy. (Also, we got up kind of late, surprising exactly no one who knows us.) So it was to Seattle we came, and we got here just in time for me to get in a nice run in the neighborhood around our hotel.

Guess where I got to run tonight #vacation #Seattle #SpaceNeedle #running #writeandrun31

A photo posted by @amysaysread on Jan 19, 2015 at 5:42pm PST

Not a bad way to greet a new city. Also, it seems the #writeandrun31 is turning me into one of those weirdos who looks forward to working out. Except for one Fuck It Day and a few days where I was sick, I’ve been sticking with my goals, even on days when I was really not feeling it or thinking that it’d be okay if I skipped. Like today. I was not going to go for a run, but we got checked into our hotel a couple blocks from the Space Needle right before sunset, and off I went.

Anyways, we’ve got a lot of stuff we want to do and see in the next couple of days. We’re only in Seattle until sometime on the 22nd, and there’s a lot to do! I, in particular, want to see the library.

Running Highs and Lows

One of my resolution sfor 2013 is to run one race per month, and so far, I am officially signed up for all but four months worth of races, two or three of which I already know what I’ll be doing. In fact, I’ll be running the Bay Breeze 10K on Saturday.

The inspiration for my resolution, however, is the fact that I signed up for a half marathon training program, like a crazy person. And NOW, I’m signed up for five different half marathons this year, like a REALLY crazy person. And I have eleven and a half weeks before my first of them. When I put it that way, I’m fucking terrified. I feel super unprepared, even though I am reminding myself that that is plenty of time to get from where I am now to where I need to be to get myself across a 13.1 mile finish line. If I’m diligent.

Here’s where I admit that thus far? I haven’t been diligent about my training. I have INTENTIONS to be diligent and exercise. I packed my running clothes when we visited my family for Christmas, without touching them once. I packed them again when we went to Cozumel. I even ran twice while we were on vacation in Mexico. In the humid, humid Mexican sea air along the beach and in the tiny, no air circulating fitness center after midnight with my shirt covering the timer on the treadmill, until one of our fellow divers told us that exercise 12 hours after diving can lead to The Bends. But even when I’m at home, I’m not great about following a regular fitness regiment, let alone a fairly structured training program.

With 11 weeks before my first 13.1 mile race, it’s time to get fucking serious about this shit.

I only ran once last week, and it was a pretty good one: 7.84 km in 1 hour, 4 minutes. Not bad, and I felt totally badass afterwards.

When I ran this week, I started the run badly. During my five minute warm up WALK, I was asking myself why I was doing this crazy, hard thing. And then I wondered if I really, REALLY, did I REALLY want to run a half marathon? Is that something I REALLY wanted or just something to do to satisfy my inner “I’m better than you” smug bastard? Thankfully, I also realized that EVEN IF I don’t want anything to do with a half marathon, it’s too damn bad because I’m signed up for five non-refundable races. That are as EXPENSIVE as HELL. So I ran. And had a shit run. I couldn’t make it through my first 18 minute stretch of running without a walk break, and I ended up giving up and turning around before the halfway point. I. was. DONE.

Thankfully, that shitty run reminded me of how much fucking WORK I need to do. It was the kick in the butt I need to really start focusing on training and crosstraining and getting shit done. The fact that my work pants, always a little tight, are noticeably loose on me now (despite my best efforts over the weekend to shove every food ever into my face) doesn’t hurt either. I don’t want to lose that momentum, and I don’t want to want to cry anything but tears of joy and accomplishment after I finish my first half marathon.

Onward.

So…this is weird for me

I did something this weekend that I’ve never done before. Something I never thought I would want to do. Something that had anyone suggested it to me, I would have shied away in revulsion. How about no? Never. Ain’t gonna happen, no thank you. But yet, there I was.

I exercised with my partner.

When he suggested we go running together on Saturday night, I was a little apprehensive. What if I couldn’t keep up with him? Or worse! What if he couldn’t keep up with me (not that I thought he was incapable, but he doesn’t run on a regular basis)? What if he sees me all red faced and sweaty as HELL and is like “Um, actually, just kidding, I totally made a mistake. Have a nice life?”

And you know, it was fun. He pushed me harder than I probably would have pushed myself, opting to attempt week 2 of Couch to 5K, when I most likely would have pussied out and repeated week 1. It was a good run; we found a route that works really nicely for the amount of time I usually head out. And cleaning up together after wasn’t bad either.

It’s just … really nice to have someone around who’s supportive and challenges me. Even though maybe I don’t want to be challenged. He’s interested in how my fitness journey is going and helps hold me accountable. And sometimes it’s hard for me to accept. I have a really hard time talking to him about getting fit and eating right and all that shit, and it has nothing to do with him. I can babble for hours here and on Twitter about exercising and eating right (or not!) like it ain’t no thing, but when he brings it up, I kind of have to fight the urge to bolt. I think this comes from my past of casual sex; I would NEVER talk about this stuff with someone I was just casually seeing, and I’m REALLY not used sharing these details of my life with a man and that’s a hell of an adjustment. But definitely one I’m happy to make.

Ass early in the morning isn’t as bad as I would expect.

So I’ve been making a legit attempt to run on a regular basis recently, which involves waking up an hour earlier than normal in order to be out the door and running at 6 am. SIX FUCKING AM. I HATE 6 am. If I could NEVER see 6 am again, I’d be very happy. But at least it’s not 5 am. That bitch is even worse.

And you know what? Except for the fact that I hate 6 am ON PRINCIPLE, it’s really not so bad. You know what’s weird for me? It’s CHILLY at 6 am. I need a JACKET. In JULY. You know when you need a jacket in July in Tucson? When you spend 3+ hours sitting in an overly air conditioned room. Maybe. I mean, by the time I’m about halfway through my run, I DO NOT need a jacket anymore, but to start out? JACKET.

But you know? Getting my workout out of the way first thing in the morning is nice. It’s refreshing. AND I have a little bit of time to actually get ready before work. Do my hair. Put a little makeup on. Maybe stick my contacts in. AND I still get to work 10-20 minutes before I had been recently, which means I can leave work 10-20 minutes earlier in the afternoon. You know what I DO NOT enjoy? Not cooling off until over an hour after I finish the run. No matter how much cold water I stand under or how long I stand in front of a fan on hi, I am HOT. My face is RED. And I am STILL SWEATING MY GOD JUST STOP SWEATING.

I’ve also been trying to get some exercise on the stair climber in as well, since, as my feller likes to remind me, we’ll be doing quite a bit of hiking in Hawaii, and I don’t want my legs collapsing on the side of a mountain. And DANG, stair climber is hard, yo. Also, I HATE exercise machines. I get SO BORED there stomping away, but there aren’t really any conveniently located sets of stairs, though I might trying running up and down these little half sets my apartment complex has around. We’ll see.

Ideally, I’d be running in the morning 3 times a week and getting in stairs in the afternoons when I get home from work. But sometimes, after 10 hours at work, I kind of just want to sit on the couch and eat pizza. Which is why my furniture is still piled in the middle of my floor. The electricians are done, but … eh. Pizza, cheap wine and crappy TV sound WAAAAY better most nights. And this week has been a bit of a screw off week for me; I’ve spent more nights at my feller’s place than I have mine, and we’re always up so late that I need the extra hour of sleep. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll get up and try those little sets of stairs. Or maybe not.

At some point, I might want to think about doing some sort of exercise that works more than my legs; the legs of my jeans have gotten pretty baggy but the waist has not. Oh well. My legs are my problem area, so I’m not going to complain.

And in about three weeks, I will own some Hobbit Feet. Oh yes. They will be mine.

Random Thoughts

I went for a run in Mountain View the other day. That little city is ADORABLE. It’s covered in plants and flowers, and all of the houses have charm and character, even the cookie cutter subdivision houses. Or maybe all the growing things give them charm and character. There’s a great farmer’s market (and OH MY WOW, I TOTALLY should have bought WAAAAY more strawberries and cherries and peaches than I did because I SWEAR TO GOD, the farmer’s market produce is the best stuff I have ever put in my mouth EVER (maybe not ever ever)), and I found a little park during my run. It had a patch of grass, picnic benches, a jungle gym and a swing set. I may have paused during my run to swing. That totally counts as exercise, right?

While I was paused, I had the thought that THAT was the kind of place in which I want to raise my kids. Someplace beautiful and green with a great community and lots of stuff to do.

You know what’s weird? Whole milk. I don’t think I’ve ever had it before a couple of days ago, and … it’s weird. I’ve spent years drinking non fat milk, which is like the Keystone Light of milk. Not that it’s kind of disgusting or that it’s the only beverage you’ll find at a frat party, but in the way that there’s really not much going on besides a little color and a slight beer-y (milky) taste, so it really doesn’t taste much different than water. After only experiencing that, jumping to a Quality Beer or whole milk is a little jarring.

Going to my church small group always reminds me that I need to make the effort to do that more regularly. Now that school’s paused, I have NO EXCUSE not to go. I love those ladies SO MUCH, and they refresh my spirit. They help me regain the peace and joy that comes from Christ, and they remind me that I am blessed and loved and a daughter of God. And right now, I’ve got a lot in my life riding on Faith that I need those reminders, I need to get connected spiritually with God and great people who are going to uplift and encourage and believe with me in God’s plan for my life and an outpouring of blessings and favor. I’m SO blessed right now, but I know God’s got even bigger and better things in store. So, barring some extreme circumstance, I’m going to every Connect group and making an effort to get to church sometime on Sundays, maybe in the morning while the feller sleeps.

What the hell? I’ve gotten a bunch of Facebook friend requests the past few days from people I know and who have been on FB for awhile. What’s making them all think “You know who I need to friend? AMY.” Weird.