Two Ears One Mouth

Let post #80 for 2013 commence! July In July I went to the great nation of Peru! I didn't blog much between travel, marathoning and starting a new job...again but I did do recaps of my trip so obviously they win July. Vegetarian in Peru: A Love Story...Part 3 August There's no contest for August. Winner winner is the biggest accomplishment of other people's lives. Ironman Louisville 2013 September I got married in September which was awesome. But that's not the post that wins. The winner is my favorite post I've written so far. 5 Things You Should and Should NOT Say to Your Endurance Athlete Friend There's no picture for this post so here's one... October I spent a third of the year training for a silly little race that I finally ran in October so let's talk about that shall we? Louisville Dream Factory Marathon Race Recap November Depressed about my leg I've chosen Thanksgiving t...

I have to do this post in 2 parts because if I don't I'll have 79 posts for 2013 and I can't end on an odd number. Don't judge me. It's not nice. As much as I enjoy closure, I don't enjoy year end wrap up things unless it's a countdown of best/worst pop culture moments. I don't really need to write a recap of my year because that's why I write a blog during the year. See? I can just look at what I want to remember! I think this is the first year I actually wrote at least one blog every month. That's a big deal since I'm a historically unreliable blogger. Since I want to fit in, I'll do a recap of my favorite posts from each month. And then that will give me something to write about in part 2. January In January I started what would end up being a brief stint in graduate school and abandoned my dream of an olympic triathlon and got really sick for the first time in ages. But those blogs weren't interesting. The winner in this c...

Hey there everyone and Happy Sunday! I woke up this morning finally recovered from traveling home from Puerto Rico. I obviously didn't need to recover from my busy week of nothing but making our way home Friday was a nightmare! I managed to get my om on during the 4 hour flight and go through everything that was good at that moment instead of pulling my fingernails off one by one to distract myself from the screaming children and barking dog. I think om-ing was a much better choice. So what were some of those good things? Oh just the usual, I have a place to live, a nice guy hanging around, pets I like, the plane wasn't crashing, oh yeah, and I got my dream job! I wasn't actively looking for a new job. My current position was just fine, not great but it was a positive atmosphere and work environment which is what I will always need in life. I hate changing jobs, I equate it to moving. BUT I also have a really hard time settling which has lead to more professional shifts tha...

Hey friends! As you may or may not remember, I got married something like 3 months ago and The Colonel and I just got around to going on that little trip that comes after. Since snow is useless when one can't snowboard I decided to run away from it and soak up some vitamin D in the lovely land of Puerto Rico! I'll have some pretty big news when I get back but for now here are some pictures to envy as you anxiously await the next installment.

To appease the angry mob outside of my window all day and night, I now give you a new blog post. As I'm sure you loyal readers have noticed, I've basically been in ghost mode since Thanksgiving. It wasn't deliberate at first but now it kind of is. I'm not really ready to blog about some of the things that have been going on and keeping me pretty occupied so I just haven't been blogging at all. In addition, I'm going on a real vacation next week and will be happily out of touch with society for 5 days. BUT before I leave I thought it would be fun to follow suit with my Texan transplant friend Celeste from Our Fabulous Life in the Suburbs and give you a few fun facts about me that you likely don't know from just following my blog. Make sure you stop by the 'burbs and say hello to Celeste! Her blog is a completely different vibe from this one primarily because she not only loves kids, but also has one. And he's actually cute! Super cute! Which mus...

It's probably no surprise that I don't like Thanksgiving. Like...at all.... BUT like a good little 'Murican I celebrate with the best of em and contrary to popular belief, I also eat. Not a lot. But I do eat. Last year we went meat free which was awesomely impressive, particularly for my carnivorous and not at all interested in changing her ways mother. This year I'm not so lucky but that's ok. The menu is planned, at least on my part and a big thanks to GreenBEAN Delivery for helping me with that part. Basically what happened is this. We usually get our bin on Tuesdays but the holiday changed the schedule so we got it Monday. With a Tuesday delivery I have until Monday afternoon to "customize" my bin, meaning replacing things I might not like for whatever I want. Well since everything shifted up a day I missed my chance to customize and ended up with what they gave me. Well done GreenBEAN because we hit a nice little Thanksgiving jackpot! Yams, Cran...

I came here to write my very last blog post. This will  not be my last blog post, but I did  have a bad moment recently...like an hour ago. Allow me to explain. Do you remember this post  when I explained the ever-present inferiority complex I often find myself battling? Well it's been rearing its head more and more often lately and I'm blaming the stress fracture (which is hurting less and less each day! hooray!). Today was a bad moment. After spending most of my afternoon watching Ironman videos and putting a mere 20 minutes in on the bike I was feeling down. I've been obsessing over Ironman Louisville for the past couple of weeks which you likely know if we're friends IRL. For some reason it crept into my brain that I should go for it in 2014 instead of my original plan of 2016...which turned into 2015. Long story short, I've asked my lovely friends and family repeatedly to talk me out of it. Tell me why I shouldn't do the Ironman! I even googled it. ...

I'm sure you're all wondering how my leg is doing and my food issues and whether or not I'm still alive. I'm happy to clear it all up for you! I am in fact, alive. I have missed blogging but with the no running thing I'm low on material. Perfected carrying all my crap into the gym! I've done some "aqua jogging" exactly twice so far and it's not as bad as it seems. It's only mildly terrible. Although I've only done it for 30 minutes each time. If I decide to get an hour or so in, things might be different. So far it's been a combo of swimming and then running since I've yet to allow myself more than an hour at a time at the pool. I know, I'm super lazy during the "off season". I'm going to try cycling this weekend or next week. I'm allowed to do whatever doesn't hurt so we'll give it a try and see. Before I knew I had the stress fracture I rode my bike a lot in place of running because it didn't...

If you follow me on instagram or twitter (yes, I've just learned how to use instagram and twitter) then you pretty much already know what the verdict is. Turns out that mysterious pain in my leg I've been complaining about yet ignoring for months is a femoral stress fracture. What does that mean? No weight bearing for 6 weeks (December 23rd) which means crutches and no running, walking or cycling. Now that I've had time to digest the news I'd say I'm doing ok. Probably slightly under par. I am doing the stay positive thing and as much positive self talk as I can stomach and for the most part it's ok. I smile and am overly chipper throughout the day to keep the spirits up but by nighttime it all sort of rolls in and I just wanna stomp my feet and cry. I don't stomp, since that would just make things worse but I do sometimes get all teary and huffy and witchy. Let's do a brief recap. Last Monday I had the initial appointment with the ortho and was...

This is a post that I've written and re-written, started and re-started about a hundred times but I think the recent developments in my injured status have sort of brought things to light and I feel like now is as good a time as ever to open up just a bit on this blog with something personal and probably something that effects more people than would like to admit it. I can't say that I have or have ever had an eating disorder but I can confidently say that I have had and may still have a pattern of disordered eating. For anyone who isn't familiar with the term, there are a billion different definitions of who a "disordered eater" is but for my purposes I refer to myself as such because I do not eat like I would say a "normal" person does. It has nothing to do with being a vegetarian and it's not that I just don't eat. I also don't binge eat or have an obsession with healthy eating known as orthorexia . But I can't deny that I don't ...

I knew it was only a matter of time really before a big one hit but hopefully it's not as big as I'm afraid it will be. Since I'm now an insured individual and the marathon is over I decided it was finally time to visit the ortho doc about this stupid leg pain. It's only been 2 months right? ...or 3... But I want to be in tip top shape before Raleigh so I made an appointment to get checked out. An hour and twenty minutes after my appointment time I was taken back to the little waiting room and threw on my pair of shorts I put in my purse so I wouldn't have to wear their terrible paper ones. I should've taken a picture. Work top and sweater with some gray short shorts. Hot stuff. Dr. Smith came in (who I apparently saw in 2009 about my IT band after my first half) and was all sports analogies charismatic fit doctor I-won't-call-you-sweetheart-again-after-that-look-you-gave-me-but-I'll-still-call-you-things-like-champ-and-hotshot. He's actually a c...

Don't worry, soon I'll be back on a training plan and will be able to actually post about the things I really like to talk about. Well, at least the things I think I'm good at talking about. Training and racing is what makes me human. It's the one thing I feel that I have total control of (even though occasional injuries like to make me think otherwise) and it's my happy place. My pain cave is dark but there's great music in there. source Anyway, the point of today's blog is to talk about how to handle that pesky inferiority complex. I don't know if any of you are like me but I have a hard time recognizing my own accomplishments. I had this discussion with Miss Jessica the other day: Me:  She makes me sad that she's so hard on herself Jess:  I'm pretty sure you're that hard on yourself in some ways, so there's something to think about Me:  I'm not THAT hard on myself Jess:  Maybe not hard, but I feel like you get disap...

Well it was only a matter of time before the post-marathon blues set in. Earlier this week I was too exhausted to recognize what was happening but this morning I figured it out (with some much needed help from Jess ) that it is the Marathon Hangover! The hangover is closely related to the Marathon Monster but it's much sadder. It's essentially the death of the Monster who is so desperately trying to hang on and beg for higher mileage to sustain its life. Alas, the Monster eventually loses, the mileage dwindles and you're left feeling sad, fat and bored. source Or maybe that's just me. Am I the only one who needs a goal to stay motivated? I don't exercise for the sake of exercise and being healthy although I'd really like that to be the case. Honestly, I run for the races. I train to accomplish something. Without a race I literally just go through the motions. I can ride my bike but I'm not going to push up hills or anything. I'll lift weights bu...

Welcome friends to the blog of a two-time marathoner! SPOILER ALERT! I finished the Louisville Dream Factory Marathon with second in my (super tiny) age group! I've said this about a billion times already to people not on the internet that it was truly the race you dream of! Leading up to race day the weather was sketchy at best and the day before was a miserable cold, drizzly day so I had my fingers crossed for Sunday. Luckily it was dry and calm when I woke up though very cold. I think it was in the low 40s so I was glad to have a throwaway shirt to wear for the first few miles. Otherwise it was sunny and pretty, a perfect day for marathoning! I'd forgotten how different waking up before a marathon is than any other race. I put my timing chip in my shoe and planned to attach it in the morning since I always wake up super early for race days and I did but I didn't take into account how long it would actually take to put it on. It was one of the old school chips wit...

I'm not a huge TBTer but in honor of a little race I have coming up I thought I'd take you back to where the journey to M2 (Marathon #2) started. Let's bring it back to April where I watched Shalane Flanagan among others throw down on the Boston Marathon course. source I was participating in my usual "watch live feed online coverage of a major race while attempting to do something more important" ritual and got hooked in. Out of nowhere my brain said to me "Do another marathon." And my body said "Ok." And that was that. No profound realizations just simply, "I'm going to do another marathon." This was before any tragedy struck. This was early on when the Rita Jeptoos were finishing. The tragedy did nothing to sway my opinion, if anything it just strengthened my resolve. Fast forward to June and marathon training had commenced. My most memorable run in the past 16 weeks was the very first long run on the calendar. I...