TMI Tuesday

My latest obsession is reading people's blogs. I stumbled across TMI Tuesday which I guess is just a bunch of questions that you can post on your own blog that people really don't need to know the answers to. Oh well, my blog.

1. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?
2. Do you take compliments well?
3. Are you judgmental?
4. Do you like to pursue or be pursued?
5. Do you think more about the past, present or future?

1. I'm pretty quiet when I don't know anyone. Sometimes I try to talk and people just talk over me. My voice isn't very powerful. However, I can have good one on one conversations. And I'm pretty friendly if I've been drinking.

2. Yes. I say, "Thank you" and everything but it doesn't necessarily mean I believe them. I don't, however, tell the person that I don't believe them.

3. I don't think I am. My opinions of people change all the time. I can hate someone and then love them later. I don't hold grudges.

4. Persued. Absolutely. I suck at persuing. I am too afraid of rejection. Of course, that is when I want to be persued by said persuer.

5. Future. I am constantly trying to tell myself to live in the present but I am always looking towards the future. I always have something that I'm looking forward to, be it a holiday or just the next time I'm going to sleep in. When I run, I'm almost always thinking about someting that has yet to happen. Dreaming up scenarios that may or may not ever be real.

Baby got back?

I used to have trouble finding pants that fit well. I had a very flat, non-existant butt. Most pants that I wore gave me what I'd call "Saggy butt" or "Poopy pants" syndrome. Meaning that my pants were always way too big in the butt. This was especially the case when the pants in question were more than 1% spandex. Along with the poopy pants syndrome, my lack of a butt also meant that a lot of pants that I tried on were too long. I always found this sort of odd considering I'm kind of on the taller side. I guess this all started to change when I started running more seriously. I guess that was about a year and a half ago. Now, my pants fit well in the butt because my butt is well..bigger. But bigger in a good way. Pants are no longer too long. Baby got back is fine, but baby got back and saddlebags is not.

How did that happen?

My original plan for last night -
1. Take nap
2. Go to the gym.
3. Eat healthy dinner.
4. Meet Jamie and go to the Decemberists concert where I would have 1 maybe 2 beers.
5. Go home and get a good night sleep.

What actually ended up happening:
1. Took nap
2. Went to the gym (lower body and abs)
3. Met a drunk Erin and semi-drunk Emily at Prince of Wales.
4. Made some new friends at POW.
5. Took shots with new friends.
6. Went to Joe's on Juniper with new friends and took more shots.
7. Talked to some guy about how the shortcut keys in Quark and Indesign are different.
8. Met JL and her friend and also Adam at Smiths.
9. Ate a bunch of food when I got home.
10. Fell asleep in my clothes.

Yeah, the evening didn't exactly go according to plan.

Tempo run + sugar free mentos

Do not equal a fun time. I ate an entire box of sugar free mentos. I know that I shouldn't do that. I know it will tear up my stomach, but for some stupid reason, I do it anyway. I specifically tried to tell myself that I would be running 5 miles tonight and that three out of the five would be relatively faster than normal and sugar free candy is not a good idea. I did not listen to myself. I felt like I was going to throw up the entire time I was at the gym. It was horrible. I didn't run the entire 5 miles. I probably stood there straddling the treadmill for at least .25 miles. I still don't feel great. Stupid mentos. I did mange to crank out five miles though - mostly of it running. I feel like I'm getting to the point where my weekends are going to have to be 1 night in, 1 night out. I'm supposed to run 7 miles this weekend. I'm also supposed to see the Decemberists on Friday night with Jamie and then go to the Park Tavern with JL on Saturday for Halloween. It's a balancing act. I feel like I haven't seen any of my friends in a long time and I'm not even running that much now. I'm going to have to take it easy(ish) on Friday night because I don't see myself taking it easy at a Halloween party.

I am working on making my blog pretty. If nothing else, this lets teaches me a little bit about coding.

Diet cokehead geek

I am disgusted with myself. I have managed to consume an entire 6-pack of diet coke in the past two days. This does not count any that I might have purchased at work. I need to stop. I just like the way it tastes and sometimes I just want a taste of something in my mouth. I never want the taste of water. I do not like that taste unless I'm working out or eating sushi. I've tried Crystal Light before but I think that's one of the causes of my ongoing stomachaches. So what do I do? I cannot drink this much diet coke. It's bad for my bones, it's bad for my teeth and it's bad for my wallet.

Here comes the geekdom. I just freaked out Jamie told me that my beloved Nano that I've been coveting will not work with my computer. It requires a 2.0 USB port and mine only has a 1.1. Sometimes I just want to rip that apple sticker off my car.*

I'm trying to eat a little less. I finally got a new battery for my scale and was not happy with the number this morning. I know what it's from; candy in the office and extra helpings of dinner. I need to stop.

* Upon further investigation, I have come to find out that the Nano will work with my old-ass computer, just slowly.

I'm COOOLLLLLD

Atlanta weather is weird. One day it's summer, the next it's fall and then back to summer again. I don't know how I survived four years in Vermont when I feel like I'm going to get hypothermia in fifty degree weather. Really, how did I do it? More padding? More pot? Something. So of course, I am getting nervous about running in the cold. I cannot do anything farther than 8 miles on the treadmill. I just can't. Even 8 is a stretch. I did it once and it sucked. But it's so fucking cold out. Cold and dark. Cold, dark and scary. Today's just 2 miles. I can easily go to the gym for that. But when my mileage increases and my training gets more intense, I really don't know how I'm going to deal. I guess it does give me an excuse to go shopping. I can't believe it's 50 degrees out and I'm bitching about the cold. I like seasons, I really do. I just like being warm in them.

The Ipod is 5 years old. Not my Ipod (Irene or Iris Pod, I always forget what I named her), but the Ipod in general. I can't imagine running with a discman now. Hell, I can't imagine running with a full sized Ipod. Times they are a changin'. Which is why I need that Nano.

Good run

I didn't end up doing much of anything last night. I spent a good two hours watching a Dateline special on sexual predators while talking to Adam and drinking Vodka mixed with Crystal Light (cause I'm sophisticated like that.) That's probably for the better though because I had an awesome run this morning. I actually managed to sleep until almost 9:30 which was a big treat. Normally I get up around 7ish and am groggily messing around my apartment for 2 hours until I fall back alseep and the morning is gone. Right now I'm following a Runner's World 10K training plan so I can do well in the Turkey Chase. Today was 6 miles at a 11 something pace. I don't know what my pace was. If I had that Nike+ ipod thing that I am fantasizing about, I would. That would mean that I would be the owner of three Ipods. Is that necessary? Umm, yeah, it is. Anyway, it felt slow but maybe not that slow. I ran down Lenox into the Highlands and back up Briarcliff. I had done the same route a few weeks ago and had to stop for some hillier parts. Today I ran the whole thing. Might have had to do with the temperature outside. It was a nice 55 degrees or so. I wore a long sleeve shirt and was sort of hot. I could have kept going. A marathon is 20 miles more than I ran today.

Since when does it get dark so early?

I get off work at 4 on Fridays. For a long time, my favorite way to spend my Friday afternoon/early evening was to take a nap and then get up and run. After my run, I was free to do whatever. A key element in this routine was that I did not have to set my alarm. I could nap for as long as I felt like it because hey, it was Friday, the weekend. So I slept for about an hour today. Perfect. That would give me time to run my six miles and then come back and check on my tentative plans which include hanging out with a boy. Except I forgot one thing. It is officially Fall. It officially gets dark. I cannot run for an hour when the sun sets in half. Crap. This puts a severe dent in my Friday afternoon routine. I have two options as far as I can tell. One being La six miles at La Fitness and the second running them tomorrow before the Decatur Beer Festival. The first option is better because I won't be sitting around waiting for my phone to ring, at least not for an hour.

And so it begins

Yesterday I did something midly insane; I signed up for the ING Georgia Marathon. It's on March 25, 2007. 5 months away. In five months, I will run 26.2 miles. WTF? Hence the title of my blog.

I've attempted to start a blog before but always ended up writing way too many personal things about myself that I didn't want anyone to read. Not sure what the point of a blog is if I don't tell anyone the address. So, this time I'm going to try to focus on marathon traning and everything that goes with it. I will try not to write much about personal things (i.e. boys and work) although I'm sure they'll creep in here and there. The way I figure it, if I wouldn't want my parents to read about anything that their little angel did, then I shouldn't write it.

Back to marathon training. I'm going to follow the New York Road Runners training plan for a casual marathoner. I looked at what seemed like a very overwhelming selection of training plans and I decided that I liked that one the most. It's just mileage; there aren't speed workouts or hills. There are two 20 mile long runs. It's an 18 week program. For me, the 18 weeks begins on December 4th. Until then, I'm actually following a training plan for a 10K that I'm running on Thanskgiving with my dad and Emma. I'm also running the Chomp and Stomp 5K in 3 weeks.