It's Coming...! And So Much Random.

Who pissed off Elsa?

This is what we have to look forward to this week.  Let me make myself perfectly clear:  I'm not complaining!  I love, love, love the cold...I love the snow!  It just comes more suddenly than I'm used to, is all.:)  What's bad is that it isn't even THAT bad.

I have spent just the one winter here in Chicago.  I can't really count and weigh against it, since it was one of the worst winters Chicago had ever seen ("Shy-BEER-ia").  What I can gather, though, is that winter comes strutting in quickly and quietly in the night.

Harry text me last night around 6:00pm, letting me know that he was just then on his way home.  While he was planning on making his blackened shrimp pasta (AGAIN), I decided to give the Kid a break and order up some sushi.  Harry opted to pair it with a wasabi beer!

Mmmmm...the soosh...<3

Here's a video on winter training gear.  This will be pretty important pretty darn soon.  I will do anything to avoid being stuck inside on the treadmill, so bundling up is the way to go for me.  While it does eventually get cold in Texas during winter (the lowest it may get is in the 20s or 30s), that's just a walk in the park here.  I used to wear sweatshirts with compression underneath when all I had to worry about was 20*F-something and it being overcast.  Here, it seems like it's mostly overcast and your face will freeze off if you don't cover it.  I was running in the -* temps last winter and was still fine, but it's very important to cover every inch of skin, as much as possible!

In other news...I am EXHAUSTED.  Daylight savings is killing me up here!  I'm not used to the daggone sun being completely down at 5:00pm.  Just not.

Random:

Ginger discovers R2Clean2

Some Instagram luffs (here's ME on da'gram!)!  Gotta love a PROCompression sale and Sock of the Month!

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Do you enjoy running in the cold?  HOW COLD?

-I'm happy right around 40-50*F.

Quick dinner decision, and you order out...what do you order?
-It's either pizza or soosh for this house.

Sitting in front of the TV?  What'cha watchin'?
-Harry and I are kickin' it to "Modern Family".  <3 this show.

Oh Heavens [And March Challenge Updates]

Y'all.  Seriously.  I went to bed last night knowing that there'd be snow on the ground this morning, but this was ridiculous.  They said that we were expecting four to eight inches of snow, after we've seen temps in the 40s and 50s the past few days.  In other words, the sidewalks were clear, there were puddles of melted snow and slush, and my spirits were sky high.  Psh.

I woke up this morning to this:

 WHAT.

I acted quickly.  These past few months of my first winter in Chicago have been a crash course in snow and ice maintenance and safety, to say the least.  I knew what I needed to do this morning, and that was get my booty to the gym out near where I work and get on the treadmill.  First thing's first:  Get all of the fresh white stuff off my Jeep.  Pronto.

It took about fifteen minutes. I also knew that I'd need this for a good portion of the 45-minute commute.

The highways weren't really all that bad, but the roads were.  I got to the gym and quickly hopped on the tready for an easy threesie (#FFMarchMiles!).  It was flippin' hot in the gym, compared to the sweet 20s that it was outside.  Blurgh.  I sometimes feel like it's "artificial" sweat or something when I'm indoors.  Isn't that strange?

The drive to work included the 4WD.  FOR SURE.  Cars were sliding all over the road, slamming on their brakes, and just driving irrationally.  *le sigh*  At least it's pretty!

It's so pretty.  ^_^

Work, work, work, and I was STARVING after my last P.E. class.  Luckily, one of the paraprofessionals at my school stocked the "staff pantry" with some goodies.  Thanks, Barry!

Yeah, my hands are really, really, really dry.  Add the cold weather to the fact that I wash my hands every fifteen seconds, and you've got some cracked skin.  :(

After a doctor's appointment and some grocery shopping, my guy made us some dinner that I basically inhaled was super filling...spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread!  We're about to sit down to watch something on the tube, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures from challenges from today real quick.

From #ZoomaPhotoADay, day 12 is "Hydrate".  I drink about 192 oz. of water every single day, and yeah, I pee a lot.  I've been carrying around a nerdy water bottle since 2007 (right around the time I quit smoking cigarettes).  I get teased a lot, but I gotta take it, since I really do ask for it.  I take it into restaurants, I ask airline stewards to refill it, and carry it with me every which place I go.  Derp.

For the #SweatHappyWithYoga Challenge, I rocked a tree pose this evening.  Harry was nice enough to take the picture for me, then use his fancy iPhone5s free photo software to mess with it a bit.  Behold.

Yeah, that's what I wear to work.  Hah.  Y'all have a beautiful evening!  I'll be hitting up the B-I-B-L-E (that's the book for me!) here in a bit before I go to bed for my 3030 Challenge.  Answer some questions if you're bored.  :D

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Do you need a snack in the afternoon?  SHARE!


Do you have any races or events coming up?  What about travel plans?


Do you have plans for Pi (3.14) day?

I Smile, I Wave, I Thank [And the Art of Anticipation]

No, not that.

That's more like it.

When I see another runner, especially out in the icy snow and cold, I smile and wave.  In Texas, I rarely encountered runners that acknowledged a wave or smile, which I don't mind.  In Chicago, though, it seems like runners really feel each other.  I came across five or six runners this morning, all smiles and waving.  One even cheered me on with an "ALLRIGHT!  WOOOO!" as we passed each other.  WOOOO!

It wasn't particularly cold this morning; though it wasn't warm by any stretch of the imagination.  Harry mentioned that it was "bad cold", the kind of cold that seems more cold than it should.  Meh.  What do I know?  I only went 10 miles, and he did 14.  It was BREEZY, so breezy that my brand new ponytail (my hair was so long, I usually sported a messy bun) whipped around like nobody's business.  It was different.

I love snow, but seriously, I'm ready to see some color other than gray!

Around mile 7.  RUNGRY.  FOR THAT.

As you can see, the sidewalks weren't exactly clear yet.  Although, the weather is warming up, leaving huge slush puddles.  I thanked every single person I saw clearing their sidewalks.  They deserve a pat on the back for, what I consider, trying to keep *ME* from falling down on my butt.  People were out and about today, too...people who would stare me dead in the eyes and walk on the cleared part of the sidewalk in their waterproof boots and make me run on the icy, unstable parts of the sidewalk.  To quote Harry (in jest, of course), "Why is life so hard?!".  Running in this city has taught me about the art of anticipation regarding other humans and their paths.

Do you call out to people when you're about to pass them, just to give them a heads up?  I do, but it only seems to cause drama.  I have to rely on my super agility to spring to the other side of where I called because 98% of people I pass think "On your left" means "I want you to move to the left so I can pass you on the right."  No clue why, but that's okay!  It's only less okay when the place I'm bouncing to is icy and slick, which causes me to use my backup super agility.  Boing, boing, boing...  I try very hard not to get frustrated.  It's not like everyone has to get out of my way, and I certainly don't want to scare people by alerting them that I'm trying to run around them.  I just don't want to fall.  Ever.

So a little over 10 miles at a very easy 9:44 pace over the ice, snow, and slush, and around a whole bunch of people.  :)  Those miles go toward my FitFluential #FFMarchMiles.

These challenges are really going well!  Today's #SweatHappyWithYoga was this:

 And ZOOMA + Altra Running's ZOOMAPhotoADay was "Shadow".  Last year, Harry visited me for my birthday when I still lived in San Antonio.  It was his first trip to Texas, so I had to show him my hometown of Austin!  I took him to the house I grew up in, which backs up to the Greenbelt, where Barton Creek runs.  I showed him the creek I used to go to all of the time, to do my homework, to go read, to just listen to music.  It was my hangout.  He adored it, and had the brilliant idea of taking this photo.

So an oldie, but a goodie.  :)

We just inhaled enjoyed some ice cream and are spending the rest of our Saturday evening watching "Lost".  I got him hooked on this show!  <3

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Do you have a peaceful Sunday lined up, or do you have chores and errands?


Do you alert people you're attempting to pass on trails or sidewalks when riding your bike or running?  What's the most productive way you can do this?


Are you looking forward to the new week?  FRESH START!  

F^3 Lake Half Marathon [A Race Report]

Well, well, well...SURE, I'll run a half on the Lakefront in Chicago...in JANUARY...during a POLAR VORTEX.  To be fair, the high for the day was about four hours prior to race start time (10:00am).

I spent my early morning (after sleeping in!) enjoying sipping some coffee and doing some blogging.  Around 8:45am, I started getting dressed and we took off toward Montrose Harbor.  No lie, I've never participated in a race that started this late in the morning.  I was beginning to get hungry!  Since I haven't found a good food to nom on before any kind of run, whether it be long or short, I just don't eat before taking off.  I have successfully completed 14+ miles without food, so I figured today wouldn't be any different.  I realized it sort of WAS different, since I usually run earlier in the day.  Much earlier.  Like hours earlier.  Ahhhhh.

When we finally arrived and found parking, which was about a half mile from the race start, we realized that it was FIVE MINUTES until race time!  My emotions were teetering on the fact that I didn't feel prepared, but that it was a chip-timed race, and I wasn't *racing* it, anyway.  I could waltz over the start line five minutes after they began the silly thing if I wanted to.  Luckily, they started the race in waves.  There were parts of the path that would've been just downright frustrating having to deal with everyone at once.  The best part about being late?  SO MANY PORT-A-POTTIES!  Not ONE was occupied.  This isn't to say that I took my sweet time and chose the cleanest one with the most TP in it, but it was nice to not have to stand in a line.  The first wave had taken off before I even got near the start line; the second wave took off just as I finished up and was ready to go!

Despite my ridiculous timing, this race was clearly extremely organized!

Source

As you can see, it was REALLY tight at the beginning!  Everyone was running right on top of each other, stumbling over patches of ice and mounds of snow.  We even stopped completely at one point; for what, I have no clue.  They had shoveled and cleared the entire route before the race, but the WIND kept blowing more and more snow onto it.  I just concentrated on people's feet in front of me.

    

Meanwhile, Harry took some really wonderful pictures!  Welcome to #Chiberia!

The first half was pretty nice!  I sloshed through mud, shuffled through snow, and slid ever-so slightly over icy patches.  I kept the pace extremely easy, as I was just treating this like a long run.  I tried to pick up and tempo a bit, but I eventually hit more snow and ice, so I slowed back down.  My feet started to ache from all of the bouncing and dodging around people and winter elements.  Up top, I was burning up!  I had put on two layers, knowing that the temperature was going go drop quickly.  I was ready to turn my back to the sun.  The wind eventually started blowing HARD, nearly knocking me over into the oncoming race traffic.  It felt nice.  :P

Source

I hit the turnaround and thanked several volunteers for being out there.  If I was freezing my tooshie off while running, they must be absolutely frigid!  

Eventually, I started getting REALLY tired.  Why?  I'm assuming from running in ankle-deep snow and sand (SAND!  Sand had gotten up there, too!) and from dodging puddles.  I took a GU (see above about me eating and running...this goes for DURING, as well) around mile 7, as I felt my tummy turning over itself.  When I say that I "took a GU", I mean "chewed a GU slowly over a mile".  Now I had a GU-cicle in my tummy.  Great.  

Miles 8-12 were really just me putting one foot in front of the other.  Times were tough.  My feet were muddy and freezing, and my legs were heavy!  I kept saying "I'm not of my body, I'm not of my body", attempting to control the mentally enduring portion of this run.  I did not want to stop for anything.  I saw so many people walking, which mentally messed with me...taunted me..."You know you want to walk, Tiffany...it's only a long run...you can stop if you want..."; with which I would fire back with "NO, I don't care, I can't stop...I'm not of my body..."

I finally got to mile 12 (after successfully watching every tenth of a mile tick-tick-tick away...*le sigh*) and I got excited.  Hooooray, food is near!  

Harry was settled about .15 of a mile from the finish line.  Of course, I looked stupid-happy to see him.  I looked forward to the finish line and smiled at every camera I saw.  There's definitely nothing more humbling than running that far in that weather, in those conditions.  Unless you were volunteering that day.  Then you win.  :)

Harry found me grabbing food and water.  I was trying to show him that there were ice cubes in the water...you can see what I suspect as frozen snot.  *le blush*

    

Aftermath mud!

All in all, this was an absolutely fantastic, fun, well-organized race!  From packet pick-up, which had been situated in several locations all over Chicago a week out up to race day, to the traffic coordinators and volunteers.  Plus, they had nifty Finisher's medals and 1/4 zip long sleeved race shirts!  The hat was a gift from Harry.  D'awwww.

Did you run in F^3 (EFFING FREEZING FROZEN) weather this weekend?

Wordless Birthday [Yesterday]

Here's to my last year in this age group!  <):)

Also, I woke up to this this morning!  One more birthday present?!