I'm Back! And have an ENERGYbits Giveaway Winner!

So, I fell off the face of the blogging Earth.  And kinda off the face of the real Earth too, if that makes you feel any less neglected.  Life got pretty busy the last few weeks with work and the holidays.  And honestly, I wasn't running or working out much at all so didn't have anything meaningful to talk about except random ramblings.  Sometimes those are fun too though.  Here are a few snapshots of things I have done over the last few weeks:

Twin Day!  I can't pass up a good opportunity to post a twin day picture.  I think when my blog gets super duper popular, I will start posting an outfit that everyone should wear and then you can all send me your twin day pictures.  Or it will just continue to be Grace and I matching from afar.  And on Wednesdays, we wear pink.

And while we're at it, Grace and I had another twin day while she was in town!!  Go Bears!

My cousins Katie and Kelly and I also had a twin night.  We wore our matching footie pajama onesies, decorated Christmas cookies, and watched Elf.

Christmas Eve with the Smiths is probably my favorite day of the year.  We had a lot to chat about now that 2 of the Smith girl cousins are engaged!!

We played a few games.  In this one, two people had one of each of their hands tied together and then had to use the 2 remaining hands to wrap a present and use ribbon to put a bow on it.  Katie and I won in 2 minutes and 9 seconds.  We were all very competitive.  Mom and Dad were a close 2nd.  I think they had an advantage since Mom is a lefty.

And we sang some songs.

And now it's almost a new year, things should be calming down a bit, and I have started to pick up the running again!  But I'll get to the running details in my next post, which I promise will be tomorrow and not in 2.5 weeks.

I FINALLY have a winner for my ENERGYbits giveaway!  I'm sorry it took my so long to announce, it was not an expected blogging hiatus.  I used the Excel random number generator and the winner is.....

Congrats Jackie, I know you will love them!!  Send me an email with your address and you will receive your sample of ENERGYbits in the mail  :)

Have you had a crazy busy holiday season too?

What was the best thing you did over the past few weeks?

The Most Delicious Turkey Sandwich

It's TWIN DAY!!  I don't think I've mentioned enough how much I love matching outfits - for running or for real life.  The workday is going to be a million times better knowing Grace is sitting at her desk in DC wearing the exact same outfit as me.  Today is a pretty exact match Twin Day since we have the same top from The Limited.  But sometimes we have Twin Days where we just say wear a khaki pencil skirt, a blue top, and a white cardigan.  I think we need to get even more people to join in on Twin Days.  Oh and on Wednesdays, we wear pink.

I had big plans for last night.  I was going to leave work, go to Walgreens, run 6-8 miles, get ready really fast, and meet Mariel and Steph for dinner.

Around 4pm, the sky started to look dark so I decided running wasn't going to happen.  I was still sore from Monday's long run and I could use the extra time to go to the grocery store.  I planned to take either today or tomorrow as a rest day, so I figured I'd just switch it up.  Here's what actually happened last night:

(This is called "The Colleen Tracker" - as named by Rachelle.  I have a habit of telling people really minuscule details of my day that really don't matter to anyone and doing so in the most long-winded fashion possible...which is why I like having this blog)

Walgreens - I needed a prescription and picked up some household items so that Lauren and I can live like real people in our apartment.  Normally, we don't buy things like toilet paper, paper towels, sponges, etc.  We go "shopping" at our parents houses when either of us goes home on the weekend.  Our moms have Costco memberships so why should we buy things for ourselves when they can buy it in bulk for us?  Anyways, I forgot to "shop" while I was home on Saturday and we desperately needed a few things.

Treasure Island - This is such a wildly overpriced grocery store.  But the man at the deli who sliced my turkey was very pleasant even though they were out of the first two types of turkey I asked for.  And the man in the produce section was very kind as well.  I was about to grab gala apples and he stopped me and told me to take them from a box he had just brought out straight from the cooler.  I don't think having nice workers is worth me paying a bit more for groceries though.

Here's where things get fun:

Dinner - After my errands, I got home and got ready to go out for dinner.  But then it started pouring and thundering and lightening and nobody wants to go walk around in that.  We decided to reschedule and I was OK with that since now I could use some of my new groceries for dinner.  I didn't feel like really "cooking" (see my definition of cooking below), so I settled on making a turkey sandwich, but this was better than any average turkey sandwich I've made!

wheat bread slightly toasted

basil pesto hummus

cucumbers

turkey

So basically it's just your average turkey sandwich, but I used cucumbers instead of lettuce and put the basil pesto hummus on the bread.  That was probably one of the best ideas I have had in awhile.  Usually I buy garlic hummus, but the basil pesto flavor called out to me and I'm glad it did.  My eating habits are very elementary so putting hummus on a turkey sandwich was new and wild to me.

I meant to only use the turkey for weekday lunch sandwiches, but it really did the job tonight when I wasn't intending to cook in the first place.  And to me, cooking means making buttered pasta.  Sometimes I get gourmet and add feta cheese.  We can add cooking to a list of things I should probably learn soon.  I was just going to say that I am good at baking though.  But that's actually not true.  I am a boss at making brownie mix out of a box, but that's about as far as it goes.  And that brings me to my next point.

Cookies - Pumpkin cookies from a box mix.  They came out amazing.  And I made them even more amazing by using Lotus Biscoff Spread as frosting (basically cookie butter).  You can't add quite as much as regular frosting because it's much thicker - almost like a peanut butter consistency.  I was going to add chocolate chips to the mix, but forgot to buy those which means I'll have to make these again soon.  This box wouldn't have expired until May of 2014, so I can go stock up on quite a few boxes to get my fill of pumpkin things throughout the year, and not just right now in the fall.

Marathon Signs - Catherine's marathon is this Sunday!!  So I had to make some signs :)  I do not want to show any pictures though because they have to be a surprise while she is running.

What do you do on a rainy night?

What is the best food idea you've had lately?

What Should I Do This Weekend?

Here's a quick summary of my workouts last week:

Monday - 6.3 miles tempo-ish run
Tuesday - 5.6 miles normal (included in the same post as Monday's run)
Wednesday - 19.25 miles !!
Thursday - REST
Friday - REST
Saturday - 4 miles normal w/ Angela and Olivia in northern Michigan - also, some paddleboarding = arm workout
Sunday - cross train - 12 miles biking, leisurely on a tandem bike

Even though I didn't get a run in on Friday as planned, I'm still really happy with the runs I did this past week and glad to have gotten my mileage up (both long run mileage and total weekly mileage which was about 35 miles).  I would still like to get that weekly mileage up a little more over the next 3-4 weeks before I taper.  But I say that every week.

I haven't decided yet what I want to do this weekend.  I might go to Madison, WI to watch the Ironman Wisconsin and in that case I would probably shoot for a 20 mile long run on Saturday.  But after all the driving this past weekend, a day trip to Michigan planned for the following weekend, and then UD Parents Weekend at the end of September, I think a weekend without traveling will be nice.  So if I stay here in Chicago this weekend, I can do a half marathon on Sunday or do a long run either day.  Here's my plan for Monday through Friday at least.  Obviously Monday already happened, so I just put in what I already did.

Monday - hill workout ~4.5 miles
Tuesday - 10-12 miles
Wednesday -6 miles
Thursday - Speed Workout - Mile Repeats
Friday - 5 miles

And now it's September!  As far as August running mileage, I ended up with 140 miles. If you've read some of my other posts, you know that I am comparing these couple months of marathon training to how I did during 2010 when I was training for the Columbus Marathon. In August of that year, I ran 145 miles, so I'm pretty much at exactly the same.  I was hoping to be significantly higher for the August mileage, but the beginning of the month was pretty low-mileage.

September should be a big increase over 2010 because I only had 98 miles that month. I want to shoot for close to 200 miles this September.

I decided I needed another picture and thought I'd include another one from the lake weekend, but then I thought - why not find a picture from last September?  My soul was sold away to the public accounting world for most of the month, but then I got to go to Nashville to celebrate Grace's Bachelorette party!!  Are you aware that according to whatever spell check system this blogging software uses, bachelorette is not a word?  It wants to correct it to bachelor.  That is weird.  And now I just typed it in Microsoft Word and it is a word there.  Google Blogger must not think that girls have fun too.

What are you planning to do this week?  Or this weekend?

Have you ever been to Nashville? 

Would You Rather...?

...be out running and get mauled by a bear OR hit by a biker?  I read this article about a 12-year-old girl out for a jog in Michigan who got mauled by a bear.  And I thought getting hit by a biker was bad...

This morning, on a short mental break from work, I decided to map out yesterday evening’s run.  The problem was, I could not remember where I ran.  I have no idea where I did my first 2 miles.  I went on www.mapmyrun.com and started mapping one direction down my street, but then I decided that wasn’t the way I ran.  So I started mapping the other way down my street and didn’t think that seemed right either.  So then I decided to back-track because I remember the end of my run.  I back-tracked mapping it 3 miles, and then I have absolutely no idea what I did.  I guess it's like when you drive or walk the exact same route to work or school or wherever every day, then you arrive and don't even remember how you got there.

I also have no clue what I thought about while I ran (except for the one mile during which some bro running through the city wanted to race me, which I will detail below).  Usually I always have something on my mind (aka something that is stressing me out).  So I am very glad that I was able to just run and apparently not think about anything and not feel like I'm killing myself and enjoy it!

I might be completely losing my mind because also yesterday on my way home from work I got on the wrong train.  I wasn’t paying attention and just got on the first one that came to the station I was waiting at and got on.  Luckily, instead of just immersing myself in my phone, I was looking around and realized I was on an orange line train.  But it’s OK, because I was able to get off at the next stop and transfer to a purple line train as if it never happened.  And now I can say I’ve rode the orange line.

Anyways, I ran 40 minutes at a comfortable pace, so I imagine the run was 5 miles.  One thing I remember thinking right when I finished the run is how easy it felt!  I think I mentioned this last week, but I have recently been feeling like these normal 5-6 mile runs are a piece of cake!  It feels good to not feel like running is just painful the whole time and like it’s just a chore that I have to go out and do because I have to train for this marathon.

Actually, if I had to guess, I think it might have been a little faster than 8 minute pace.  Why?  Because the very first thing I remember about this run is that I turned onto Armitage and ended up running right behind a guy also out for his evening run.  I was just cruising along listening to my music and we were basically going the same pace, but apparently he wanted to race.  He obviously realized I was running behind him for a minute or two because he kept kind of indiscreetly looking over his shoulder and speeding up…not a lot, but enough to make it clear that he didn’t want to let me pass him, probably because he doesn’t want to get passed by a girl.  I just stayed behind him until that street ran into a dead end and then I decided to turn the opposite direction that he did.  So that’s why maybe my run had about a mile of slightly increased pace than normal.

Something that made today awesome from the crack of dawn:

Grace and I had bought the same outfit from The Limited when we went shopping together for our real job work clothes a few years ago.  She texted me this morning with a picture of her wearing it and said “twin day?”  Of course I agreed because (a) I love matching outfits (even if we are across the country) and (b) that meant I didn’t have to decide what to wear, which cut out a solid few minutes of my morning preparation.  Couple that and the fact that I had already prepared a few lunches for the week yesterday, and boom! - extra time to have breakfast at home instead of at work.

Do you ever "race" with the random strangers running near you?

Do you have any little ways to save time in the morning?

And since my Would You Rather question was kind of obvious (hopefully) and it is such an awesome game, here's another one:

Would you rather be chased by bees or dogs?

Christmas Music in the Summer?

Since I had a guest post yesterday instead of giving you my usual run-down (pun intended...I crack myself up), here's the scoop on the runs I did this weekend and a few other noteworthy activities.

Yesterday morning I ran 13 miles at an average 7:56 pace.  My fastest mile was 7:42 and slowest was 8:05.  The rest were all fairly consistent at right under 8 minute pace.  Since I've been doing my last couple long runs on my own, I decided to meet up with the Coach Brendan Running group at 6am.  It was still dark out when I woke up.  That shouldn't happen on the weekends.  I actually ended up running by myself the whole time instead of with anyone from the group, so I was glad I brought my iPod.

I made a new running mix that has quite the variety of songs.  Life is a little weird when you go from a rap song straight into a church song.  I'm a fan of everything.  Here were some of the songs I recall particularly enjoying on the run:

• You Make My Dreams - Daryl Hall - Thanks to Grace for sending me this song recently.  If you don't have Spotify, you need it.  And then you need to send me some of your favorite songs.
• Kanye's New Workout Plan - Kanye West
• Drunk Last Night - Eli Young Band - I think this is my favorite song right now.
• Wired to the T - Dorrough - If this song doesn't just get you pumped while running (or whenever), I don't know what would.
• Hell on the Heart - Eric Church
• You Are Holy - Michael W. Smith
• Red - Taylor Swift

I'd like to thank my friend Carly for inspiring me to listen to rap while running.  It really does work nicely.  Carly is also training for the Chicago Marathon and always posts on Facebook with her motivating running song of the day...and it's almost always rap, so I decided to go for it.

And since we are already talking about music, I have to disclose that I listened to Christmas music last week.  Catherine made me a CD for my birthday, which included some Christmas songs because she knows I love them.  I will say though that I only listened to a few songs one day because I don't want to get Christmas music burnout before the Christmas season and I obviously had to listen to the CD she made me.  It'd be rude not to.  It is fun to be driving down the highway and know that all the other drivers have no idea I'm listening to Christmas music right now in August.  But now that I got that little bit in, I'll wait another few weeks before listening again.

Also related to music, here's a little tidbit I got from a Dove chocolate yesterday:

I always am, Dove, I always am.

After yesterday's long run, I went to Jim and Christina's new apartment.  They have a pool at their building, so Christina and I laid out there for a few hours.  I wore sunscreen this time, but I had my head turned to the side the whole time as we talked, so half of my neck got a little red.  Jim was doing manly handyman tasks around the apartment, but he was kind enough to take a break and bring us some Lime-A-Ritas (and UD coozies).

This morning I met up with my friend Christopher who I had not seen since I left my old job in May, so it was great to catch up!  We had been talking for like a year about running on this dirt trail that goes through Wicker Park and we finally did it.  It was basically old train tracks that are no longer in use and have overgrown with dirt and grass...a little sketchy though, so probably not somewhere I'd run alone.  But in the middle of the day with a friend was a great time to try it!

What are some of your favorite running songs or genres?

Have you ever listened to Christmas music not during the Christmas season?

Do you like to go explore new places to run?

The Past Few Days - Birthday Celebrating!

I have been so busy the past few days and completely failing to post things here.  So here is my recap of exciting things and running things over the past few days.

On Wednesday, Katie and I had big plans of rollerblading and sitting out at her pool. The weather killed those plans though. Instead, we went to Joann Fabric, looked up some ideas on Pinterest, and had craft time. We made these little rings:

I decided to stick with the Pinterest theme for the day and cook a new recipe for the padres and Kyle. I made these spinach, feta, mozzarella croissants (without olives). Kyle took a look at the mixture before it was done and decided there were not enough red pepper flakes,  dumped way too much in, and made them a little too spicy. They were still good though.

On Thursday, I suffered through terrible traffic and met Mac at the track, but we did a normal run instead of a track workout.  My legs have been really feeling last weekend's long run.  We ended up on a trail in the forest and of course, it wouldn't be a trail run without falling at least once...and hitting a tree with my shoulder on the way down.  I had to take a picture of the scrap on my knee.  It is actually a very small injury and is done hurting now, just 3 days later.  Despite the fall, I'll still call it a good run since it was cool to run on the trails!  We probably did about 5 miles, but who's counting?

After getting all the mud off, we went to a concert!  It was the CMA Songwriter's Concert Series at Joe's bar so it was awesome to hear a bunch of country songs performed by the people who wrote them.

 

Friday wasn't anything too exciting except for some cleaning, some errands, some chatting on the phone, and a 5 mile run on the lake.  But I did get THIS AWESOME PLANT DELIVERED from Grace for my birthday!!!  So that made the day extra good and not boring :)  I will water it and let it bloom and be excited that I now have some real flowers instead of all the fake flower decorations in my ultra girly bedroom.

 

The big day of fun was Saturday!  Angela and I went for an 8 mile run in the morning (I failed to get any pictures.)  We were both just not feeling a long run, and this was nice to just run and chat and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather.  Then, to continue enjoying the weather, we went to the pool for a few hours with her sisters and Kevin and then took a walk along the beach.  I got a little burnt.

Saturday night was my birthday party!  I was so glad so many people were able to come!!  Plenty of friends, cousins, and family were all there and then met up with a few more when we went out to the bar.  Even a few UD friends that I haven't seen in forever were able to come over!  We went to Bub City, which is a newer country bar in River North and it was a lot of fun!  The line took forever to get in and I attempted to get the bouncers to let us in early since it is my birthday, but they would not and it was a nice night out so that was OK to stand out there and chat.  Once we got in, we were lucky to get a little table to stand at and there was a live band.  Unfortunately, people were not really dancing and were more just standing watching the band.  But we had an enjoyable time anyway!  Some pictures from the night:

Angela and Christina are now real DOCTORS of Physical Therapy!!

And then today was Grandma's 80th birthday party.  I don't have any pictures from that uploaded yet, so I will paint you a visual picture.  We sat outside, enjoyed a bunch of snacks and appetizers, chatted, sang Sweet Caroline to Grandma because she loves that song (I hope a lot of people will sing Teenage Dream to me tomorrow?), had some lunch including Portillo's salad, and then started the REAL birthday festivities.  And by that I mean we sang a song about Grandma that we made up, read a poem about her, opened gifts, and had dessert (including a cake with 81 candles - one for good luck).

I wish every weekend could be filled with that much excitement  :)  Basically I want it to always be my birthday.  It is the best day (or days leading up to it).  I don't understand people that don't like their birthday or don't want to celebrate it.  So if anyone wants to come to my apartment every weekend bearing gifts and to go out with me, I would love it.  Also, it would be a reason to make sure my apartment is always clean and tidy.

Have you had any bad injuries from falling while running? - My worst was the time I got hit by a biker while I was running.

How do you celebrate your birthday?