I’m a bad, bad bride

(And blogger, because I forgot my camera today.)

Lunch was about the same as usual lately—cantyloupe, strawberries, Greek yogurt, a multigrain bagel with Laughing Cow cheese, and what was SUPPOSED to be a big bowl of spinach with a little balsamic on it.  But, the balsamic was left at home.  Clearly, I’m forgetful today.

After work, I went to the gym in the pouring rain.  I ran about ten steps and my knee and shin just didn’t feel great, so I stopped.  At this point, I’m just holding out until I get my custom orthotics—I will probably do minimal running until then, because a) obviously my current shoe situation is not working and I don’t want  to make the problem worse and b) I kind of have minimal energy for the gym going on right now because of the wedding.

I spent half an hour on the elliptical.  It was kind of miserable.  Dan Savage’s podcast was the only saving grace.  (PS:  I met Dan Savage.  He’s been in my car.  He gave me marriage advice and we did a shot together.)

Now, why I’m a bad bride.

Our house has been kind of in a state of perma-squalor for the last few weeks.  I haven’t been around to clean, Tim just doesn’t really notice that things need cleaning, so, yeah, it’s gotten bad.  Particularly…our carpet.  You can imagine the amount of hair two moderately floofy cats in springtime, a beagle, and a stressed twentysomething redhead Sasquatch produce.

So I broke the rules.  Technically, any shower or wedding gifts received before the wedding aren’t supposed to be used until, well, after the wedding.  But I was dying to use our Dyson Animal Ball and get some normal, clean carpet going on.  (Our current vacuum, well, doesn’t suck, literally.)  It was worth it.  Even Tim begged me to take a whirl.

Yes, friends, we exceeded MAX DIRT in our house.  (Okay, more like max animal hair.)

It appears the major culprits were Southpaw and me. 

(If Tim dumps me in the next two weeks, I’ll ask my sister if she wants her money back.  But I’m keeping the damn vacuum.)

In other wedding news…we have a situation.

We invited 204 guests to our wedding.  We currently have 88 coming (3 of which are children under 5 that are free), 80 NOT coming, and 36 question marks.  Of the 36 question marks, we’re anticipating that at most, 8 or 9 will come.  (Most of them are really long distance guests we’re not SUPER close to.)

Our venue contract states that we have a minimum of $X.  To meet $X, we would have to have 114 guests attend under our basic wedding package.  Clearly…that’s not going to happen.  But we don’t want to pay all this money to the venue for 20 guests that aren’t there, right?

So we are looking into upgrading our package.

• If we upgrade from the basic package to the deluxe package, we get an extra hors d’oeuvre, wine service during dinner (we have open bar, but it closes during the meal), and a full on dessert table with 12 options rather than two plated dessert options.  The cons of this?  If we do have about 95 guests attending, it will put us slightly over our minimum—not a ton, but a few hundred bucks.  Also, it doesn’t seem like we GET all that much more for what we’re paying.  Our crowd doesn’t really drink wine, so I doubt they’ll make much use of the wine service.
• Stick with our current package and add a lot more appetizers and some other random stuff—side dishes, maybe a special martini bar, maybe more desserts.  The cons of this?  We already have a TON of food.  Like, guests are going to be rolling around.  Do we really need to add a sweet table if we’re already going to have two flavors of wedding cake, cheesecake, and profiteroles?  Prolly not.
• Stick with our current package and eat the cost.

We’re not really into just eating the cost…but neither other option seems great either.  I’m thinking of potentially bargaining with the reception venue—maybe pay for the deluxe package, but skip the wine and add a few more apps instead?  Or see if I can switch the wine service at dinner to keeping the bar open?  I don’t know.

What do you think?  Upgrade the package?  Add on a bunch of appetizers?  Any other great ideas?

Banana Face

Today’s post title is brought to you by my morning snack.

I brought a banana and a teeny raisin box for a morning snack today, and I suddenly remembered that my mom used to do this for me when I was little to make fruit-eating fun.  She would even give them hair, and buttons out of raisins.  What a mom!

Banana Face was delicious, anyway.  Raisins and bananas are a good combo!  When I was little I’d always get fruit salads from dessert made of chopped apples, banana slices, raisins, and peanuts.  I wish I had an apple and another banana to make one!  Talk about nostalgia.

Today’s run was supposed to be a 3.5 miler on the treadmill.  But I got to the gym and it was insanely crowded–all the treadmills were full, and the track was closed for track practice.   I stood around for a few minutes seeing if anyone would hop off, but it didn’t happen.  So…I juggled and decided to make today tomorrow’s weights day instead!  Voila:

• 10 minutes on the elliptical at butt-searing resistance
• Squats, 3 X 12 at 135 lbs.
• Overhead shoulder press, 3 X 12 at 20 lbs.
• Lateral raises, 3 X 12 at 20 lbs.
• Deadlifts, 3 X 12 at 40 lbs.  (the heavier weights were ALL being used!  Weird!)
• Upright rows, 3 X 12 at 40 lbs.
• Reverse crunches, 12 @ 25 lbs. (these killed my back for some reason, in a moderately uncomfortable way, so only one set.)
• Prone jackknives, 2 X 12
• Swiss ball crunches,  2 X 12

It wasn’t what I was planning, but it wound up being a nice little full body workout!  I already feel a little wiggly.  I’ll get to the 3.5 miles tomorrow.

Anyway, lately I have been feeling a little…rundown?  I don’t think that’s the word, but I was super tired yesterday and I’m really quite tired again today.  Plus, I woke up with a stuffy nose this morning, which is never a good sign (although I feel fine otherwise).  Friday and Saturday are going to be rest days to the max after tomorrow’s run.  I want my legs to be nice and fresh for Sunday’s 10K, and I feel like I need lots and lots of sleep before then.

Also, random note: I’ve given up my lunchtime Diet Coke.  I got into a two-a-day habit for awhile, but I’ve gone back down to just one for the last two weeks and I’m feeling good.  I know none is best, but that never seems to stick for me.  One is better than two!

In wedding news, I asked my mother to take charge of finding me some earrings.  I bought a pair, but I wasn’t crazy about them, and she is great at finding jewelry.  Plus, with her job, she basically shops 5 days a week!  She sent them to me and they came today.

What do you think?  I really, really like them.  I think they’re fancy enough that I don’t need a necklace, but not so busy that they’ll take away from my dress or fascinator.  Go mom!

What is your mom really good at? My mom is a great jewelry matcher and banana face maker, obviously, but she is also a really talented baker!  Her caramel brownies are to die for.

Rollin rollin rollin

Guess what came in the mail today?

My foam roller!

Hooray!  I asked Santa for one, but he didn’t come through.  So I broke down and bought one on my own on Amazon last week.  Anyway, after work I ran 2 miles in 19:08, and then I did 15 minutes on the elliptical on 15/20 resistance. e (My booty!  It burns!)

I immediately came home and wanted to play with my new toy.

Please note how huge my thighs and fanny are in relation to the rest of my body.  (That’s not a bad thing!  I’m not very jiggly–that’s muscle, mostly.)

In other news, how to keep cats busy for hours:

Milhouse also thinks it’s a toy for him.  I only did a little bit, but I’m going to watch some videos and get to rollin’ after I post.  It felt absolutely fabulous (though painful) on my quads!

In other news, my foot is effed the eff up.  (Beware gross foot picture!)

It’s probably the size of a fingerling potato and just keeps getting bigger.  The little red ridge around the edge is new from this workout.  I don’t get it.  It’s not particularly super painful now, because there’s not much fluid in it, but it’s annoying, especially when I run.  Oh well.

Oh, and I also got some new books in the mail.  I am ridiculously interested in polygamy (interesting fact: I wrote and published a scholarly article on it).  These are both about polygamy.  I just finished The 19th Wife which was really interesting (and factually accurate), and my favorite show, Big Love, just started.  I recommend both!

What weird subjects are you interested in?

Coffee, tea, and feet

I forgot to show you all my new coffee mug!

I’ve been scouting for a good one since October but couldn’t justify the money.  We have  three already, but two of them just have a hole in the lid and I spill coffee all over myself, and the third is Tim’s and entirely too bulky and complicated for my liking.  Santa left me a $15 Starbucks card in my stocking, so I decided to take the plunge.  I’m very happy!  It’s not too big, cute, and has a snap-tight lid.  Hooray!

I finished the coffee at work and immediately made a mug of hot herbal tea to take the chill off.  I’ve been hydrating and moisturizing like a crazy woman and my skin still feels like sandpaper.  I don’t mind the cold; it’s the side effects I hate.

In other news, it is freezing here.  Like, really really freezing.  The high today is about 15 degrees, and Friday and Saturday will be even worse, with highs of 0 and 5 degrees, respectively.  So, I’m preemptively switching around my training plan for the week.  Instead of doing my “long run” of 4 miles (ha) this Saturday outside, I’m going to do it inside at the gym on Thursday, and do some stretching and strengthening (yoga? Maybe a Jillian DVD?) indoors on Saturday.  (For my newer readers–I live about 30 minutes from my gym.  The gym is about a block away from where I work, so it makes sense to go there on weekdays and exercise at home on the weekends.)

This is all totally okay.  Hal Higdon says so:

• Juggling: Don’t be afraid to juggle the workouts from day to day and week to week. If you have an important business meeting on Thursday, do that workout on Wednesday instead. If your family is going to be on vacation one week when you will have more or less time to train, adjust the schedule accordingly. Be consistent with your training, and the overall details won’t matter.

This is why I really like Hal Higdon’s plans.  Runners can be really hardcore and nitpicky sometimes (and, well, if you’re trying to run Boston or something I can see why) and those plans just aren’t for me.

So, this week will be:

• Monday: 3 miles
• Tuesday: 2 miles and cross training
• Wednesday: 3 miles
• Thursday: 4 miles
• Friday : rest
• Saturday: stretch & strengthen

I’m sure it will benefit my overall training program to not die of frostbite.

I was planning on finishing my Promax bar before the run, but this gorgeous Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar caught my eye in the drawer and I couldn’t say no.

Yum.  This is one of my favorite flavors of Larabar!

Then I went to the gym and was lucky enough to find an empty treadmill.  The gym was considerably less busy–have the resolutioners given up already?   I ran 2 strong miles in 19:08, so a 9:34 pace.  I feel like I could have pushed a little harder, but I didn’t want to burn out early so I started slow.  Oh well!  Now I know.

Then came the “cross” part of my training.  I decided the elliptical sounded good, so I did 20 minutes at a high incline and resistance.  Good times!

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble with my feets again.  My totally sweet arch callus is blistering again!  (Warning–nasty foot pic ahead):

It’s hard to tell, but that is basically a large blister on the front part of the arch of my foot.  Icky.  I’m going to try tying my shoes super-tight tomorrow and see if that helps?  I’m trying to hold out on new shoes until March…sigh.  (Again, if you’re a new reader: my feet are all kinds of crazy; they are two completely different sizes so no pair of shoes will ever fit both feet; my arches are low and I get real bad blisters.  FML.)

Anyway, what are your opinions on “juggling”?  Good, bad, or only for the lazy and weak?

Quickie

Just a quickie update because there’s not too much to report.  I have some cool stuff going up tomorrow (best. giveaway. EVER!  For Canadians, too!) and New Year’s Eve, so I will make up for it then.

First things first, an administrative note: Please do not leave your web addresses in comments, other than in the space marked for “website address.”  So, if you write a comment saying “Your blog is awesome! http://www.mycrappysite.com” I will mark it as Spam and it won’t be published.  However, if you simply post “Your blog is awesome!” with your name being My Crappy Site, linked to said site, that is fine.  (Not that any of you have crappy sites, but spammers, I’m on to you and it’s to your benefit to not piss me off.)

Anyway.  That said, today was a gym day.  I would have run outside, but frankly, my cold weather running gear smells bad and I didn’t want to put it on this morning.   New Year’s Eve and probably New Year’s Day will be for relaxing, and Half Marathon Training 2010 kicks off next Monday!  (Skeery.)  I was feeling a little indecisive, so I did:

• 1 mile of running, increasing my speed every minute from 6.0-7.0 mph
• 20 minutes of FHIIT (fairly high intensity interval training) on the elliptical.  I would go at an easy pace for two minutes, and then push myself to a pretty high max heart rate for a minute, lather, rinse, repeat.
• Another mile of running, at an easy 6.0 pace (my legs were like lead from the FHIIT)

Then I came home to a fun surprise–more Christmas presents from Tim’s parents!

(And an excited dog to knock them over.)  Tim got a video game and a DVD and a book, and I got some fun stuff for my office and a candle holder.

Be sure to stop in tomorrow morning!  You will NOT want to miss this giveaway!

Wheezy.

Well, today was certainly not as I expected.

Remember how I thought yesterday’s race went so well?  Well, okay, it did and it felt great during it.  But then, afterwards, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.  More specifically—as soon as I sat down at home, I pretty much could not get up and move.  My quads were super crampy (I suspect I was a bit dehydrated) and I was exhausted.  And even though I’d eaten a huge breakfast for lunch, I was starving all day.

So, yesterday afternoon, I took a nap and felt a bit better.  And then as the night went on, I started wheezing more and more, and feeling my chest get tight.  Talk about scary.  I decided just to go to bed and see if I felt better in the morning.

Well, I didn’t.  I was wheezy all morning, and from wheezing, I get the nice side effect of my heart racing because I feel like I can’t breathe. T also mentioned that my wheezing woke him up because he thought something was wrong with the dog (thanks, honey).  First thing I did when I got to work was call the doctor to see if I could get in before Friday, but, of course not.  (It sucks being a new patient.)

I don’t know what is wrong with me.  I strongly suspect asthma, since this has been going on for so long—at least the last month or so.  But I won’t have any confirmation or peace of mind until Friday, and so, inadvisably, I will be scarily wheezing my way through this week.  I feel slightly better this afternoon, but my legs and hips are still incredibly sore and I’m still not 100%.  It just boggles my mind that I’ve been asthma symptom-free since 2001, but now it’s suddenly taking over my life for no apparent reason.  And it scares the bejeezus out of me.

Being the stubborn broad that I am, though, I couldn’t keep my mind off the elliptical all afternoon at work.  Which is weird, because I usually haaaate the elliptical.  I mean, it’s all fine and good, but usually I want to work out as intensely as I can, and the elliptical doesn’t really do that for me.  But today, it sounded perfect—light cardio that won’t tax my lungs too much but will get the blood flowing to my sore muscles.  So, I went to the gym and, well, did the elliptical for 40 minutes.  I forgot my headphones, though, which sucked, so I read Time magazine instead.  Awesome.

In other exciting news, today, my business cards came in.  The cards themselves are boring, but look!  I got this as a graduation gift from one of my bridesmaids and I’m so excited to use it.  I am not really a blinged-out type of girl, so to speak, but I like small flashes of glam here and there.

Someone sue me.  It has my married monogram on it and I’m not married yet.  Oops.

Anyway, what’s your go-to post-race recovery workout?  I love the elliptical for not taxing myself too much but still getting the blood flowing.