Chopped!

No, I'm not talking about the TV show on the Food Network.

About a month or so ago, I decided that I wanted a hair cut. I saw a girl with a really cute style at the gym and decided that I would like it. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of talented hair stylists here in the Twin Cities, however I really only trust major hair changes to one person and that's Christine Koch at Spektre Studio in Sioux Falls. Just a little plug. She and her studio mates are awesome. She's always been able to take care of me. That meant I had to wait until I went to Sioux Falls for Easter. Well, last weekend was Easter weekend so it was time for the big day!

TA DA!!!

The picture is a little MySpace-y but it's not a bad self portrait. It's also the end of the day so it's gone a little flat and I had it up in a pony tail until about 15 minutes before taking this picture. 

This photo has little to do with running however I thought I should post about it. I've never had hair this short. I will say that when I do put it in a ponytail to do any sort of physical activity, it looks pretty humorous. The pony tail is tiny and half of the hair doesn't fit in it. It's worth it though because I really dig the new look! 

Outside in Shorts and a Tank

I got back from a run about 35 minutes ago. It was so great that I still haven't changed/taken a shower. Yes I'm sitting on my couch, a little sweatier than I should be for sitting on the furniture, but I'm not ready to get in the shower yet. On my run I was able to wear a shorts and a tank top. A tank top!!! Woot! It was almost 70 degrees out. Booyah!

Now, I have lived in northeast Minneapolis (locally known as Nordeast) for just over a year and a half. I have NEVER ran in my neighborhood. I've been on a few walks and have biked but have never ran. I'm not really sure why. That changed today.

Now, Nordeast is probably one of the more hilly areas in the City. South is fairly flat, especially along the parkways. There are some small hills but they're not too crazy and pretty gradual. Around the U it's also pretty flat. I don't know what North is like because I don't venture over there. Nordeast on the other hand is pretty much the opposite, especially in my neighborhood. 

I set off on my run and boom, right away, big hills. For those of you in Sioux Falls, think about the steepness of Tut Hill but about half the size. I knew these exist because of my walks and bike rides, but didn't really think about them before hitting the pavement for a run. The strange about the hills is that there will be huge steep hills on one street, then gradual hills 3 blocks over. I suppose it's pretty good for some variety. 

The first half of the run was the hilly part. It was actually kind of brutal because I went into work an hour early today so I was quite tired. Once I got into the second half of the run the hills were gradual and not too noticeable. At that point I started feeling much better and surprisingly less tired.  In total I only ran 3 miles but the hills were more of a workout than normal. Now I'm home and am not tired at all. For the future I will remember Fillmore Street = big hills, Lincoln Street = not so hilly. 

Goldy's Run

I thought that running in a real race merited a post...finally. I've been seriously lacking in the posting and working out areas of my life lately. Since I haven't been working out much, I also haven't posted much. I've been pretty busy in the evenings and I'm not really into running in the morning. I'm not a morning person, though I did have to get up at 6:30 today (A SATURDAY!) in order to make it to the race on time. In the end we finished with a time of 28:21. Not great but after 2 weeks of not running, I'll take it!

The weather was a little cold and windy but it was fairly comfortable to run in. This is what we looked like to start:

Notice my Run to Stop MS gear? Oh and if you're wondering, that's my friend Joe. He's also running the marathon, though not for the MS Society. Erich and Joe's twin brother, Mike, were spectators/photographers. 

The starting line was a mad house. There were over 2000 people registered between the 10-mile and 5K race. We had a really slow start so if we'd been able to start at a normal pace, we probably would have had a time that was at least 30 seconds faster. Here's what that looked like:

The race wound the the University of Minnesota campus. I have no pictures of that. Erich took a picture of us just after crossing the finish line on the 50-yard line of TCF Bank Stadium. We were on the jumbotron and that's what this picture is of:

You can see Joe in blue. My right arm and my hat are to Joe's left and almost off the screen. Their camera wasn't set up in the best way. People tend to cross the finish line, then just stop, creating a mad traffic jam. The guy in the front looks super gassed.

Here's what the finish line looked like:

See the mad mess I'm talking about? We finished the race with some snacks. Bananas and my favorite, Salted Nut Rolls! This is what we looked like at the end. Joe looks pretty much the same but I always get super red-faced anytime I exercise. 

Thank you for following through today's picture blog of Goldy's Run. 

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Splash MS. It's a fundraising event at the Water Park of America. I'm pretty stoked. Family raft ride, here we come!

$306.20

That's how much money I've raised so far for Run to Stop MS. It's pretty awesome. I still have some little events planned and haven't even sent out letters/emails to family and friends asking for money. That's all from posting on Facebook, baby! It's still a far cry away from the $1000 I'm required to raise, not to mention the $2000 I'd like to raise. If you'd like to help me get to my goal, you can click on this link to do so.

The MS Society uses the money collected in so many different ways. Research, financial assistance and programs for people with MS as well as their families. My favorite program has become MS Youth Camp. It's a week-long camp for kids who live with someone who has MS, usually a parent. I attended Youth Camp last year as a counselor, because we were short volunteers. The programs side of our organization is not my area, so this was pretty exciting. I loved camp as a kid so I was stoked when I got to go. Being there was fantastic. So fantastic, that I requested to go again this year. Luckily for me, the MS Society sees fit to allow people to help out across departments and I was approved to go back again in June. I'm really excited for the opportunity to return and spend time with the kids and form new bonds. I loved summer camp as a kid so it's pretty much the perfect setting for me. I'll be gone June 19-25 and simply cannot wait.

In training news, I haven't had much to share, thus my posting hiatus. It's not that I haven't been doing any training but the workouts have all been fairly similar and boring. Winter decided to return after a couple of weeks of teasing with warm weather. That means I was back inside on the treadmill. Funny how I didn't used to mind it all that much until I ran outside in nice weather. Now it's pretty dull. But, I can still make it on there for a pretty good chunk of time without completely losing it.

Last Saturday I did a 45 minute run. During the week it's usually only about 30 minutes because we're lifting too. I thought I'd try listening to music again. Bad choice. I spent so much time fiddling with the earphones, I just got really annoyed. Today I ran for an hour (6 miles total) and didn't have the music on. It was much more enjoyable. I just listened to myself in my head. I tend to space out and think about all sorts of things. I get caught up in everything going on around me too. The gym is an interesting place to observe human social behavior. I've also noticed that I have a really big urge to encourage the people on the treadmills next to me. Weird, I know. But, people are really putting in effort for some sort of goal, and I feel like they should be given a pat on the back. I've never actually spoken a word to anyone but I really have to fight the urge to. Maybe some day I will. For now I just try to encourage Jill when we're together. This past week, Jill and I did a pretty intense workout of biceps, back, and abs. We were doing 1-minute planks and Jill was struggling a bit. Her arms were shaking, no doubt due to the brutal curls and lifts that I'd just put her through. So I made it a point to keep her going, although her shaking made me tired just to watch. But, I'm very proud of her because she made it through three 1-minute planks and didn't break once! Go Jill!

Today I took time to be at the gym alone. I went around 10:30 a.m. and easily found a treadmill. That's pretty common for a Saturday. Not as many people are motivated on the weekends. My plan was to run for an hour and I was really hoping to keep up an average 10 minute mile speed, to put me at 6 miles. I did. Now, it's easy for me to run under a 10 minute mile speed when I'm only running for a half hour, but an hour is a different story. It gets trickier but I'd really like to keep a 10 minute average for the marathon. This will put me in about the middle of the pack. I think it's totally achievable. If I think I can, I will.

Now, I'm working on replenishing my calories. That's definitely the fun part. I went to Annie's Parlor for lunch with some people I haven't seen in a while. Yay for a bacon cheeseburger and hand cut french fries. I just took a pan of brownies out of the oven. Yes I made them out of a box but, no judgement. I think box brownies taste awesome. They're for Jill who had a rough day yesterday because of some car trouble. Something tells me that she'll enjoy them tonight with the wine and cheese girl time we'll be having.

I am now off to work at the Division III Men's Hockey Championships being played at the U of M. Hopefully it's not a long shift because I really want to dig into those brownies and have a glass of wine. Hopefully I don't have so much that it impedes with my bike workout scheduled for tomorrow.

When all else fails, go with food

I don't really have much to write about today. Had a short little 3-mile run. I ran at a pretty good clip. About .5 to 1 mph faster than usual. Not too exciting though. Back on the treadmill. I guess the most exciting thing about the run is that I had no knee pain despite the increase in speed. That's a plus!

I usually don't blog about food because, well, that's not the topic of this blog and if I blogged about every good meal I made, I'd feel like a big fat fatty because I kind of pride myself in what I believe to be above average cooking skills. Plus, people would get sick of seeing what I make because I never really cook with a recipe and thus could not share how I make things. But, behold my masterpiece for dinner last night!

Yep, that's right. It's a Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I made the sauce from scratch as well as the dough. The sauce was pretty standard with crushed tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Don't ask me how much of each. I know I put in one 29 oz can of tomatoes and 1 clove of garlic. That's it. The dough was the real accomplishment. As you may know, I don't really like to bake. It's tedious and messy. But, making this dough was different. 1. It was easy. 2. Dough needs to be kneaded so that was fun. 3. I actually followed a recipe. Winging a dough didn't seem like a good idea. I will be making dough from scratch again. Next time I have to remember to save my scraps to make into breadsticks. I threw away the scraps before I realized that would be a good idea.

For the stuffing I chose Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and black olives along with both provolone and mozzarella cheese. There are so many other things that would taste so good in here that I can't wait to make it again. I realize I probably should though because it can't be too healthy.

To top it off, I made Rice Krispie bars. I don't consider that to be baking at all. Melting and mixing and pressing, yes. I don't have a picture of those because really, who hasn't seen a Rice Krispie bar?

Feel free to be jealous of my pizza. I know I am and there's leftover in my fridge! I think this is very good fuel for running don't you think?

Time to Undo My Recent Neglect

I've neglected a lot of things lately. Mostly because I most certainly did not neglect work, particularly my part time gig with the Gophers. Today is the first Friday since I can remember that I didn't work a shift at the U immediately after finishing up at my real full time job at the MS Society.

Not too long ago (though it seems like ages) I was able to exercise outdoors. This was particularly thrilling because right now I'm watching a weather report about getting another snow storm next week. We're now on to the sports report and the Gophs beat Bemidji State in hockey tonight so woo hoo! Gopher hockey is one of the very few things I enjoy about winter...Anywho...

I ran about 7 miles outside the day before which I wrote about in my last blog. I also did an outdoor walk with Jill that week. I was rear ended (in our new car of course) on Valentine's Day so taking care of that junk got in the way of any more workouts that week. Hmph. I am happy to report that the other dude's insurance is taking care of everything. Which is good because it was definitely his fault. He was rushing to a meeting and came up behind me too quickly, especially considering there was a light sheet of ice in the turn lane we were in. He also was ballsy enough to leave the scene after giving me his information because he had to give a presentation at 8 a.m. It was just after 8 when he hit me so he was already late. We've gotten everything worked out now and will be taking my car in to be repaired on Monday. We couldn't get it in until then because all of this terrible weather has meant pretty good business for local body shops.

This leads me to last week, where I also neglected my workouts. I got sick last week and I always like to allow proper time to heal before getting back at it. Considering I stayed home from work a couple of days, I figured I probably shouldn't head to the gym. Plus, I spoiled myself with the outdoor workouts so the thought of getting back inside the gym is pretty sour.

But, this week I got in a couple of days of lifting with Jill. Mondays are always busy at the gym and this past Monday happened to be the last day of the month and that means people pack the place trying to get their last time in for the month in order to get health insurance benefits. Needless to say Jill and I just forgot it and moved on to Tuesday and Thursday. We worked on triceps, chest and shoulders on Tuesday and biceps and back on Thursday. I plan to get in there tomorrow for a run.

This weekend I'm totally on my own. Erich is in Washington D.C. for the bachelor party of his friend Eric. He left last night. Since Erich started the weekend early, I decided to as well. I went out to show with my coworkers, Allison and Lisa. Allison's husband is in the band and they put on a great show. When Lisa dropped me off it was 2:30 a.m. I haven't stayed out that late on a week night in a long time. It was really fun! Today at work wasn't much fun. Allison and Lisa had the day off so it was really quiet. I was quite happy when 4:30 rolled around and I got out of there. I came home and took a nap! I would definitely do it again though. Tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the gym (whenever I wake up) and get some stuff done around the house. Then I have my only shift at the U for the weekend at 5:30. After, it's fiesta time with Jenna! I have a buy one, get one coupon for Chipotle and we're also having margaritas. I'm pretty pumped for some girl time hang out.

This post was kind of all over the place so I apologize. I've had a request to do a post on stretching so I'll get to that soon. I just need someone to take pictures. Thus ends my recent neglect of this blog.

Awesome firsts this week!

This week has been full of some sweet firsts. Needless to say it's been a fantastic week.


First, Sunday was over 40 degrees. That was a first for the year for sure. It hasn't happened for a long time. That first led to another. I ran outside. Now, I've run outside many many times before but since we're in the middle of winter, it's been awhile. Months. So for the first time since probably October, I ran outside and boy was it awesome. The weather was perfect. There was barely a breeze, though it did pick up a bit as I ran across the Mississippi River for the second time in my run. That time it was blowing against me so it made it a little tiresome at the end of a fairly long run. But, it turned out to be great all around. For some reason, I love running over the river and I got to do it twice with this run. I ran a total of 6.77 miles according to Daily Mile.


This run led to another first. Despite having lived in Minneapolis for over 5 years, I've never ran on either of the River Roads. It's a very popular spot for recreation so it's kind of weird that I'd never done that. For those of you who know the area, I started at Minnehaha Park in south Minneapolis and ran north on the West River Road to Lake Street. I crossed the Lake Street bridge (which turns into Marshall Ave halfway across the bridge), going across the Mississippi River into St. Paul. I then turned south and took Mississippi River Blvd down to Ford Parkway. I crossed the Ford Parkway bridge (which turns into 46th Street once you get across), then followed 46th St to Minnehaha Parkway and back to the park. It's essentially the Walk MS route, backwards. The route was a little slushy and puddly and there was some soft snowpack on the trail. That mean I had to do a lot of hopping and skipping to avoid my feet being submerged in frigid puddles. It also meant that every step on the snowpack was a little uneven so it was a big workout to my ankles and inner calves. Kind of like running in sand. I found those areas to be exceptionally sore on Monday and Tuesday. It was a great run. Anytime I'm outside I feel so much better. I did feel some of my old knee pain/IT Band Syndrome coming back. I'll have to keep an eye on that.


Monday morning rolled around and on my way from the Target Center to my office, someone rear ended me in our new car. First accident for the new car and first time anyone has EVER hit me in my almost 10 years of driving. Grrrrrr! It pushed me into the van in front of me which happened to be a guy doing some work in my office. No damage to his car. Also, no damage to the car that hit me. Unfortunately all of the damage was concentrated on my poor little Elantra. :( My front license plate holder is now bent and there are two holes poked in my back bumper, left by the screws on the dude's front license plate. It looks like a vampire bit it in the butt. So, now we're trying to figure this all out with insurance, etc. Damn that guy in a hurry.


The last firsts for the week have to deal with work. Our office is closed this entire week (a definite first in my tenure there) for a network, operating system and phone system upgrade. We're getting Windows 7, Microsoft Office 2010, and a VOIP phone system. Wahoo! So, Monday we had about a half day to do real work, then we started cleaning up our workspaces and I moved my cube to a new one. I'm now by the window which is the first time I've had that since being there. Yay! Sunlight! Tuesday we had an all staff retreat and today we volunteered at Second Harvest Heartland. Tomorrow is another cleaning day. We're literally scrubbing our office from top to bottom. Then on Friday we'll be trained and getting used to our new gear. We have Monday off for President's Day.


Today, after volunteering, Jill and I took a walk on the West River Road near our office. It was a little chilly but we did a bit over 4 miles. We're looking forward to a day lifting in the gym tomorrow. I think we're on triceps/chest...maybe biceps/back. I don't really remember. More on that later.


Happy Hump Day!


***
Addendum: I originally included the following information in my post, however didn't want to spill the beans too early. I think I've given it plenty of time though so here's another first that should have been included above.

At the end of the day, things got significantly better when my sister, Kaci, who had called me during my run on Sunday and I missed it, called me on that evening. She was calling to let me know that I'm going to be an aunt! Up until this point I've been an aunt to only one person, my sister-in-law's daughter, Megan. That's been great but I'm so stoked for my own sister to start bringing kids into the world! This is my first blood-niece/nephew. It's also the first grandchild for my parents and the first great-grandchild for my grandparents on my dad's side. Today I went to Target and of course had to look at the Twins and Gophers onesies. The kid's going to be stylin' in Minnesota gear! I pretty much can't get over this and am so looking forward to visiting in April. Wooooooooooo!