Three Years of Making Faces and Making Up Words

Last year I shared about the creeper and the first date and how The Pilot and I have been reenacting our first date each year.  We recently celebrated three years since that first nervous meeting.  We headed back to the same restaurant, unsure what we would find since last year it was a completely different restaurant.  It was the same restaurant this year...kind of.  Instead of ordering like you would in a Chipotle like last year, we were actually seated and someone took our order.  There were some decor changes but the menu seemed the same or at least pretty similar.

I got some kind of vegetable stir fry with their fried tofu.  It was really good....but that was way too much food.  The Pilot ended up taking my leftovers to work with him.  I haven't gotten a report on how it tasted a couple days later.

I'm not sure what The Pilot got but unlike me, he was in the clean plater club so whatever it was, it must have been good.  I think I'm going to start calling him food dumpster.  That boy can put away some food.  And as long as I'm eating vegetarian, he usually finishes off my plate too.  Damn him and his high metabolism!

Look at me being a stereotypical blogger posting pictures of our food!  Moving on...

So that was our third annual reenactment of our first date.  It still blows my mind how much has happened in such a short amount of time but at the same time, it feels like I've always known him.  Obviously I remember a time without him but with each year I spend with The Pilot, more and more of that baggage from that past life is left behind. We are settling into married life and enjoying our new house and all the projects that we are still working on (we have new kitchen counters sitting on the floor of our living room...who wants to install them?!).  We still make random funny faces at each other and the other day we decided that we have unknowingly created our own language.  "Violence," "success" and some other random words have entirely new meanings and if we shared those meanings with normal people, we might get sent away.  But we amuse each other and that's what matters.

Do these shoes make me look fast?

I've been wearing New Balance 860s for several years now.  It's all about the function with these shoes.  They aren't the snazziest looking kicks I've had but they get the job done.  They keep my foot stable and gives me a cushy landing which comes in handy when one spends nearly 7 hours finishing a marathon.

A little grubby but defintiely ho hum.  Blue and navy with a little bit of "flash" known as silver.  And there's also my own added bling.  Remember I like shiny things?

Here is what they have looked like for several years.  They aren't flashy but that came in handy on my wedding day when I decided I NEEDED to be comfortable and I wore them throughout the reception.  They weren't so flashy that they were obvious.  In fact, unless you were getting down with your bad self on the dance floor next to me (can I get a cha-cha-slide?!  Anyone?), you probably wouldn't have noticed I was wearing running shoes under my gown.

After trying to stretch another 1/2 marathon out my most recent pair and after having all kinds of aches and pains throughout that last race, I decided it was time for a new pair.  Expecting to pick up another pair of ho-hum but functional shoes, I was plesantly surprised when they brought these beauties out to me!

Holy 1980s neon back in fashion!  Purple and neon green?  Yes, please!

Do you think they will make me look faster?  It's basically the same shoe so I know they won't actually make me faster but they sure look fancy, don't they?!

I haven't actually run or walked in them yet but hopefully I can get my butt back in gear and out on the trail at some point in the near future.

What are your favorite running shoes?  Do you get bummed out when the "correct" shoe for your foot type isn't the prettiest shoe?  :)

Also, a special thank you to The Pilot who doesn't bat an eyelash when I ask him to take pictures of my shoes.  

Nuts Are Tasty.

So I didn't fall off the face of the Earth.  I've done stuff.

1.  I survived the holidays. 

2.  I turned 32 (I think I'm going to start counting backwards next year.  31 anyone?).  And got a birthday card from one of my best friends...and this was on the back of the card.  32 doesn't mean grown up does it?

 
3.  I dragged my lame self through 13.1 miles of Walt Disney World. 

I'm working on my full race recap but I will say that I finished.  I'll also add that despite that being my ninth 1/2 marathon, it was one of my most challenging.  Never mind the fact that I churned out some near PR times during training.  My body and the weather had other plans.  And that's ok.  I survived and had a little fun in the process.  Nothing wrong with that!

4.  I spectated the full marathon of the Goofy Challenge....and thanked my lucky stars I didn't get talked into that!  Two years later, I still have NO desire to do that again.  I nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement though when I saw my running buddies looking like super heroes at mile 23.  They are machines.

So that's the last couple weeks in a nutshell.  Because nuts are tasty. 

10...9...

It's taper time!  With less than two weeks until the Disney 1/2 marathon, I've been decreasing my miles to prepare.   The weekend before Christmas I met up with my Goofy ladies.    It was their 1/2 marathon mileage day (as opposed to their full marathon mileage they did the next day) so I hung with them for most of the miles.  I had 10 miles so I headed out on the trail a little early to get in a few miles before they arrived.  The wind chill was in the teens and it had snowed earlier in the week but the path had been plowed so it was perfect.  January races are my favorite to train for because it's cold but we don't typically get the gross slushy weather until January/February.  It was perfect for me.  I'm not sure that many would agree....but that's what makes me special. ;)

 Know what happens when the temperatures drop?  I run faster.  One theory is that I'm cold and the faster I go, the warmer I'll be.  Or the faster I'll finish and can go back inside.  I'm convinced that I'm faster in the winter because summer training sucks the energy out of me.  And then there is the asthma that is irritated by humidity.  The air in the winter is dry!  And makes me rocket powered....you know, because 13:00 minute average pace is rocket powered in my book.

 I probably wouldn't have been faster at mile 6 but that might have been when we spotted a bald eagle (for real) and we stopped to check it out.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

This past weekend was even colder.  And we got buckets of snow dumped on us right after Christmas.  It was great!  I love snow.  However, the paths weren't as clear when it came time to train.  Lisa's neighborhood employs little elves who plow and salt at even the slightest flurry so unlike me and Mary's ice packed streets, Lisa's were dry and clear!  So it was going to be 9 miles worth of loops.  We ran around the block, down each cul-de-sac and anywhere we could to get the miles in without repeating the same roads too often.  Lisa was probably bored to tears but Mary and I weren't as familiar so we didn't notice any repetition.

So I mentioned it was even colder.  There was also a crazy wind we were fighting (up hill no less) but I ended up having something on my side.  And it's pretty selfish.  Mary was battling a cold but being the trooper she is, she was there checking off the miles with us.  The cold did slow her down some and that meant I spend the entire 9 miles with them.  When I needed a quick walk break, they took one also.  Of course I felt bad that she was sick but it was nice to have company for the entire workout.  I'm awful.

And that colder weather brought out my rocket power....it was my second to last long run before Disney and it was my FASTEST of the season.  Holy smokes I didn't see that coming!  That's right at 1/2 marathon PR pace.  Say what?  I'm still not aiming for a PR but we will see what happens...10 days until the race