Two Ears One Mouth

I started this post a long time ago but never really got through it. So since there's little in the way of training to chat about, let's keep things real...but not too real. Keeping it real can go wrong says Dave Chapelle. Anyway. I'm sure I mentioned it somewhere along the line but The Colonel and I basically eloped at the end of September. In November, we visited a cool event space where we will hold our one year anniversary party and the coordinator there was fascinated by our story and practically begged me to blog about it. I thought it was weird, but she explained that she comes across a lot of people who, after it's all said and done, tell her they wished they would've done something different. I think it's really sad that people let other people or expectations or norms decide how they live their lives and particularly how they celebrate great life moments. Here's the deal, if you're thinking about eloping, make sure it's really what yo...

Hi! There's not much going on these days since I'm not training excessively for a monumental event but I've got to admit I'm really enjoying it. Since I only retired from racing, not running I went out with  Autumn  for about 6 miles on Sunday morning. It was stupid. Dark, cold, windy and snowy/icy. We called it a trail run since we had to do so much navigating over terrain to not totally face plant. In my attempt to become a minimalist I didn't wear my Garmin. I still wanted to know what I'd done after the fact so I synced it up and zipped it into a pocket where I couldn't see it. When we were done running, I pulled it out, hit stop, and didn't even jog in small circles for 2 minutes to get the mileage to a more even number. That's a big deal guys! As far as becoming a minimalist (and I use this term very  loosely) I'm really just getting rid of a couple of things, and maybe not even entirely. First to go was the scale. It's been about...

So it's official friends. I'm retiring from the great world of racing. Kind of. I mean, if I see a race I really want to do, I'll maybe do it. But for now even looking at races for next year is uninteresting to me.  I spoke to some of my very trusted sources and they all agree - throw the deuce and do yo thang. They may or may not have used those exact words. What is interesting is after I emailed my coach and the wonderful folks at Ironman I was really expecting to feel some hint of sadness. I also kind of wanted to ride my bike and watch Shahs of Sunset (the first show I ever watched on a bike trainer). But the reality was that I felt completely at peace. Some of my stress lifted and I just felt happy. Suddenly I could run or bike or swim or lift or yoga whenever I wanted. No calendar with little colors and fields to dictate what I have to do and when. And as a bonus, I don't have to eat quite so much quite so often. Hallelujah.  You could probably call me a quitter i...

I'm at a big crossroads. I've been debating writing about this because I tried to talk about it a few times and don't think I explained it well. Then I tried to post in a few Facebook groups I'm in and I still didn't feel like people got it. So I'm still not sure that I can get the words right to explain it, but why not pose the dilemma to the rest of the internet and of course, you guys since you all know me so well. In the first Spirit of the Marathon  movie (if you haven't seen it...I'm not sure we can be friends) Lori talks about the mystery of "zen runners" and how they can just run along with no watches, no paces or splits and just happily be at one with the world. Years ago I started with a zen runner attitude. I wore gym shorts and cotton tshirts, ran on the treadmill, sometimes with my ipod and called it a day. It was fun, it was no pressure, I just did my thing when I felt like it and that still turned out to be at least 3 days ...

Last night was an interesting one. I had dinner and was having a really hard time chewing because one of my teeth had been giving me trouble for a day or two. Of course I was eating pizza so I went ahead and chewed anyway. But then it kept hurting and I noticed it was sort of swollen too. So I got online and after ruling out the usual culprits of mouth cancer and the zombie gene I decided it was surely an abscess and infection had entered my bloodstream so I was close to death. I called the dentist and after a few X-rays, some cash money and a brief panic attack I was in the chair about to get an impacted wisdom tooth pulled out. The Colonel came back with me and I launched into these crazy nervous convulsions but managed to keep my head still somehow. No need to go into further gruesome detail. So now I'm all drugged and toothless and I get to take all day today to lay around and recover. The worst part? I'm not allowed to eat any raw veggies for a few days.  I want carrots.

What a day! I'm a creature of habit. Not sure if you know that. But as a creature of habit I try to avoid change entirely or at least make changes very slowly as not to get overwhelmed. Unfortunately that didn't quite work with the new job plus training for a new race. I started full time at my new job on the 1st and so far it's been pretty great! There's a LOT to learn but I'm hanging in there and luckily since it's interesting I'm retaining info pretty well. The trouble is adjusting to the new schedule. For starters, I don't work the same hours everyday. I also don't have the two days in a row off over the weekend anymore and start my days much later than I'm used to. I'm definitely not complaining about being able to move 5am workouts to 7am but it does take some adjusting. Speaking of workouts, I'm doing a lot of them. My new coach has got me going 6 days a week and the distances are a lot more than I've been used to. Over the pas...

Happy New Year! I know I'm a bit behind but I feel like you can get away with a Happy New Year for at least a week. I worked my last day at my desk job on New Year's Eve then did a quick workout and was in bed by 10:30. My kinda night. New Year's Day I ran the Hangover Classic 5k. I was dying to run the 10 miler and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed to be doing the 5k BUT a race is a race and after having not even run let alone race since the marathon in October I was just happy to be there. January also marked the start of Ironman 70.3 training and my coach specifically put in the notes for this workout to "take it easy!" He also told me I was wise to not do the 10 miler. Autumn  was volunteering with her friends from church who were the race organizers so I recruited her to look after my bag (since I had to change clothes for work after the race) and take pictures. It was a perfect day for a run and I was surprisingly nervous consider...