The Best Laid Plans

Blondie was doing a month without drinking, from VDay to St Patrick's Day - he was doing this because half marathon training has kicked in, and we are both trying to lose the last few pounds that have been hanging around since last August when we plateau'd.

I came into our apartment building on Monday night after work, and was digging in my bag for the keys to the mailbox when I noticed my phone had a message on it. It was Blondie, and it turns out that Blondie's old roomie was in town for a few days! This guy was awesome, he was Blondie's roomie when I first met Blondie, and I have a very embarassing story about it all (embarassing for me). Anyhow, I turned right around and headed to the bar. It was so good seeing him and getting caught up on his life now (husband, dad), and then just being at the bar and seeing all of our friends made Monday feel not so much like Monday.

Tuesday, my BFF from work had a very bad day, so we headed to a bar on the UES for some drinks. Some drinks turned into about 7 beers and a scotch, and then it was back to my hood to meet up with Blondie and his roomie again for another late night at the bar. Our walk home at 1 am led us to CVS where I left with a giant bag of M&Ms and a frozen pizza. Go me!

Wednesday I went to work feeling like ass - I also thought I looked like ass, but ironically, everyone stopped to tell me that they loved my hair that day. I had it in a high ponytail with a small headband wrapped around the front part to keep my bangs off my head - it's my typical workout look, but I hadn't washed my hair on Wednesday so I just threw my hair up instead.

Thursday was a lot better - it wasn't Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday which automatically makes it good, and I had one hell of an awesome run! I did my 3.5 mile run in 10:37 min pace, which for me is like FLYING. I'm typically a 11 min to 12 min pace, so 10:37 min pace was elating to say the least.

And then Friday was pretty good - my girlfriends were going out drinking after work, but I knew I had my first long run outside on Saturday, so I declined. I came home and ate some pasta for dinner with Blondie and was in bed pretty early. OMG. Could we be anymore exciting? All I know that 2 late nights on Monday and Tuesday threw the rest of my week off. But still, I could've done that at 25, and then still partied Wed-Sat. Old. Lame. Old. Tired. Old. Le sigh.

It was worth it though - the begging off of drinks. As Blondie and I headed out for our first outdoor run of the training on Saturday morning. I've been treadmilling it because it's been really cold here, but yesterday it was in the 50's and sunny, so we decided to just go for it. We both did 5 miles, Blondie in an 11:30 min pace and me in an 11:46 min pace. I'm aiming for 11:30 min pace for my half. I know that the first outdoor run always is slower for me, and that within a week, my pace will be back up to what I want, so I was just ecstatic to get the whole run in a reasonable pace from the get-go.

After our run, we both had major runner highs. We headed out for lunch for burgers - some of the best burgers I've ever tasted. 5 Napkin Burger in our hood - I had the original and Blondie had a bacon burger. We split an order of onion rings, and I had a side salad and a beer with mine, while Blondie had fries and a cider with his. It was so relaxing - we had done our 5 miles, we had some good food, and we had each other. Awwww, sappy! After lunch, we did our grocery shopping and bought out the fruit section of our farmer's market, before heading home to collapse. I never have pain after treadmill running, but my legs were SORE yesterday. It was worth it though because I slept the sleep of the dead last night. I'm normallly up 5-6 times a night for various reasons (pee, I thought of something, Blondie rolled over, etc - just a light sleeper), but you could've landed a jet beside me last night and I wouldn't have heard it.

Today it's raining like crazy - I need to go do 40 mins of cross training, either bike or precor. But other than that, nada. Cuddle a cat, maybe a husband, watch some bad TV. It's shaping up to be a good weekend.

I'm back to SF in 2 weeks for some more workadoodle, so I have that on my radar. And just a bunch of training in the meantime.

A couple of notes - the bean craving has not gone away, and I literally had chili 2 nights last week, and a bowl of black beans one night, and a black bean taco another night. It's getting slightly ridiculous.

This was week 4 of training. I took Monday as a rest day, did 3.5 miles in a good time on Tuesday, took Wednesday as a rest day (oops, that wasn't planned - thanks beer!), did 3.5 miles in a SUPER time on Thursday, did 2 workout DVDs on Friday (Bob and Jillian DVDs) and did 5 miles outside on Saturday. I'm getting excited to run the race with Mr Pooh and Blondie, show Mr Pooh my new city, and rock this half!

--K