Lesson learned

After reading Chelsie’s blog about rookie running mistakes earlier today, I apparently felt the need to go out and make some of my very own!

Because weather.com told me that it would be overcast with a chance of thunderstorms all day, I decided to hold off on my run until this afternoon when the chance of thunderstorms would be over, but it would supposedly still be overcast. Nice running weather.

Mistake #1: Instead of being overcast and cooler, it was hot, sticky, and humid. I felt like I was sucking soup instead of air. Cute, right? Definitely should have stuck with the morning run.

Mistake #2: I didn’t properly hydrate before or during my run. I need to start remembering to keep a few dollars on my while I run so that I can stop at a gas station for a Powerade if need be. I was planning on 4 miles, but stopped at 3.5 because I was so dehydrated that I started feeling sick.

Mistake #3: I went off on my run like a rocket, so I absolutely died on the second half. I pride myself on being able to run four miles; it was a huge accomplishment for me the first time I did it. By going out so hard, I crashed on my second loop and had to walk quite a bit in the second half.

All in all, I’m using this run as a big learning experience. Hydrate, start slower than I think I need to, and stick to the game plan.

The run took me from raring to go…

to a hot mess.

Yes, those are rivers of sweat on my shins.

I’m going to try another 3.5 miles tomorrow (morning) so that I can still hit close to my mileage for the week.

In other news…who knows what tomorrow is?

UGA football. Oh, yes.

Why I love my job

My job rocks. If I was working almost anywhere else, I would probably be trying to find something that pays a little better, but even my really crappy days at this job are better than most of my average days at my other jobs.

I’ve always wanted to work in the nonprofit sector, and I have been an animal lover my whole life, so working at a humane shelter that doesn’t euthanize for time or space (i.e. an animal on the adoption floor stays until it gets adopted) was a perfect fit for me.

Is it my ultimate forever dream job? Probably not. Is it one of the best jobs I’ve ever had? You bet.

So this morning, since it’s a rainy day here in Georgia, I wanted to give you guys a little photo gallery of why my job is awesome sauce.

Calliope the Bandersnatch, the calico queen bee of everything.

Hopefully, these will warm your heart a little!

Also, all these animals have been adopted and found loving forever homes. It’s thanks to people like this:

These two cuties did a lemonade stand to raise money for us!

And remember:

I love my shelter pets!

And finally, meet my shelter pets…

Roxy Rose. She responds to “Ruh-Roh” if that gives you any idea or her personality.

Callie, the calico leader of the world.

Edit: Sorry for the Callie repeat in the gallery…something funky was going on with my photo uploader.

I survived day one (kind of)

As I blogged this morning, today starts my journey toward the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. After I wrote my post, I laced up my shoes and took off into my neighborhood. The weather today was overcast and humid, but I was hoping I could get through my 3 miles before the rain hit.

I turned away from my normal running route to run through the downtown area. I live in a suburb, so downtown looks like this:

I like running through downtown, because the views are pretty and there are sidewalks everywhere. Not so true of the neighborhoods surrounding mine.

I was feeling really good, jamming out to some hard rock on my iPod, and for some reason, I was in the zone today. I was running almost a full minute faster per mile than I normally do, and I was holding splits under 10:00 for a lot of the run.

As I came around back towards my house, however, I realized that I had grossly misjudged how long my route was. Note to self: MapMyRun is there…use it! I was headed for the last half mile, having only run a mile and a half. For some reason, I thought that loop was longer.

Thankfully, there’s a nice park near my house that I ducked into to get a little more mileage.

It wasn’t quite enough mileage, though, and the wind was starting to get really rough. I began getting worried that I might get caught in the rain. Considering my iPod has been through enough carnage, I wasn’t about to get it wet. So I headed for the house.

All told, I ran 2.3 miles at a 10:46 pace. This may not be fast to a lot of people, but if I had kept that pace through another 0.8 miles, I would have PRed my 5k time. By a full minute.

I’m not too bummed about missing less than three-quarters of a mile of my first training run. Things happen. Plus, I have a nice 2 lap loop to run tomorrow. I’m going to hit those 4 miles hard!

Journey to 13.1

Today starts training for the…

I’ve wanted to run a half marathon for about a year and a half now, but something has always come up to keep me from training. Well, let’s be specific; I’ve always let things dissuade me from continuing my training. I’ve either gotten scared by the distance, the committment to training, or the sheer magnintude that I’m trying to do something that is a really big deal to me, and there’s a chance I might fail.

Hopefully, by putting this out in blogland, where the whole world can see, I’m giving myself the accountability to finish what I’m starting today.

But enough with the motivational speeches.

I’ve come up with my own training schedule modified from Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 Program. I only realistically have time to run 3 days a week, so I used Hal’s long run scheme (mostly) and gave myself one run with moderate mileage and a short run every week.

In addition to running three times a week, I’m going to keep practicing yoga and keep lifting weights twice a week. Yoga will most likely be done on non-running days, but unfortunately, I’m going to have to double up running and weights to fit all my workouts in.

As I prepare to start my Journey to 13.1, I’m researching things like compression gear, energy gels, fuel belts, and technical wear. I’m really excited, but also feeling a little crazy for trying this. After all, I’ve never been a runner, and the most I’ve ever run without a walk break is 4 miles. But I’m also keeping in the back of my mind the sense of accomplishment I’ll feel when I cross that finish line, no matter what my time, place or method of finishing.

Here’s a table of my training schedule for any of you who are crazy enough to want to run like me:

12 week half marathon training   schedule	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
3 runs per   week
Plus cross training
Week 1	3 mile	4 mile	3 mile
Week 2	3.5 mile	5 mile	3 mile
Week 3	4 mile	6 mile	3 mile
Week 4	4 mile	7 mile	3 mile
Week 5	4 mile	8 mile	3 mile
Week 6	5 mile	5k TT	3 mile
Week 7	5 mile	9 mile	3 mile
Week 8	5 mile	10 mile	3 mile
Week 9	5 mile	10k TT	3 mile
Week 10	5 mile	11 mile	3 mile
Week 11	5 mile	12 mile	3 mile
Week 12	2 mile	2 mile	RACE

Chorizo, zucchini, and pepperjack, oh my!

I’m not gonna lie, I’m replacing the lyrics to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” with “cooking queen” in my head…

And this bad boy is the reason why! I whipped this up tonight to slice up in the mornings and eat for breakfast. This is the second week in a row I’ve made a frittata. I like fritattas for a couple of reasons.

a) They’re easy and don’t take long to make.

b) They only require a few ingredients. Since I’m on a super tight budget, I like things that are fairly cheap and feed me for a long time.

c) They’re delicious. Seriously. I mean, how wrong can you go with eggs and cheese?

Those all sound like awesome reasons to me. I also really like that I can customize each fritatta so I can eat these week after week and not get bored. A high protein content also helps me out a lot, since some days I don’t get a chance to really eat from seven to noon. And me getting really hungry is like asking the Hulk to come out and play. Or like watching one of those “messin’ with Sasquatch” commercials.

Anyways, let’s get to the meat of the post (see what I did there? Wink, wink).

Chorizo, Zucchini, and Pepperjack Fritatta

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound of ground chorizo
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped, about 1 cup yield
• 6 large eggs. I use cage free brown eggs because I like them better, but any eggs will do the trick.
• 4 oz pepperjack cheese, grated

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a frying pan, brown the chorizo.
3. Once the chorizo is browned, drain away the fat, then add the zucchini and cook until tender. This only takes a couple of minutes, so keep a close watch!
4. While the zucchini is cooking, whisk together the eggs in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Pour the eggs over the chorizo/zucchini mixture, then stir lightly to mix. Let sit until the edges of the eggs set (when the eggs start to look a little dry around the edge of the pan).
6. Top the fritatta with the cheese, then stick the whole frying pan in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

You can eat it straight out of the oven, or let it cool, then slide it onto some tinfoil to wrap up for later. If you don’t have access to ground chorizo, ground sausage would taste great in this, too. I typically cut my fritattas to serve six, but it’s up to you how much or how little you want in a serving.

Because you are the cooking queen, young and sweet…