3 New Music Things

Ok. So what. I have perezhilton.com in my google reader. Hello! I have to have minute by minute updates of any kind of Britney news. So while I can get a total celebrity news feeding, they also have posts highlighting some kind of musician they like. Recently there have been two that I really like.

The first was Nicole Atkins and the second is Yael Naim. You'll recognize the second one if you lick your TV everytime there is a Mac commercial on TV as her song New Soul is the background to the new MacAir commercial. I got both of their albums on iTunes and am digging them immensely....digging them immensely?....is that anywhere close to making sense? Ah well, whatever. This isn't english class.

The third piece of music is expanding our Jack Johnson collection, adding in his debut Album Brushfire Fairytales. It's a great album & very mellow. There is a song on there called Bubble Toes which is great, but sounds oh so familiar. Like I totally get that all of his music kind of sounds the same, but this one I know like I KNOW it......but have no idea where I would have heard it or anything. It's making me (and Jason as he agrees) crazy.

Am I trying to cover up the fact that I did not in fact make it to the gym this morning. Yep. I suck so bad. But good music helps.

Cutting Back

On caffeine that is.

For a few personal reasons I am trying to cut way way back on my caffeine intake. The main one just being that I don't like being that dependent on anything. I let the coffee/diet coke/fat free triple shot latte/chai tea intake explode and so I am bringing it way back down. I am working on just one cup of coffee in the morning when I wake up and that's it. Unfortunately I am not adapting well to the detox. I have severe headaches and I am kind of in a fog. I remember my freshman year of high school my dad stopped drinking coffee (this from a man that drank several pots of coffee a day) and he couldn't do it. He got such bad headaches that it didn't last more than a few days.

I think people take for granted that caffeine is in fact a drug and like most drugs easy to get addicted to and hard to not use. It's amazing how a human body responds after you take something away from it that it has gotten accustomed to.

Tomorrow morning we are going to the gym for running and weight lifting.

What the FUCK Are You Doing Upstairs?

Seriously.

Remember awhile back I posted about some sawing noise in the upstairs apartment going on at 4:30am? It's been happening on and off since then and we still have no idea what is going on. Maybe there is some friskyness going on...but really? At 4:30 in the morning (it's always between 4:30 & 5am)? And it doesn't even really sounds like that. Maybe a workout video? Again the noise is too random and oh so weird. So if you are reading this and live next to a Ukrainian Village Deli and are in a 2nd floor apartment....PLEASE comment and tell me what you are doing. Otherwise the next time I hear it I am going to start beating on my ceiling and maybe that will shut you up (screaming "SHUTUP" does not work...or tapping on the ceiling with a broom handle).

Luckily for the 2F residents we were slated to get up at 5am anyways for a workout. Since you don't often get 46 degree mornings in January we decided to move our treadmill 3 miles to an outside three miles. It's always nice actually getting up in the morning and getting out there for a run and as always I love seeing the neighborhood before it wakes up.

So it's 6:20 and we are up and ready for the day which, in it's own way, is nicer than being curled under the blankets at this hour.

Sunday Run Review

Not that there is much to review but might as well get in the habit. Yesterday after much procrastinating and laughing about nothing inparticular we headed out for our "long run" or "only run of the week".

We decided to stick around the neighborhood because we wanted to go downtown and didn't want to take the time to drive to and from the path. We just did 5 miles around the hood, paced about 9:05 min/mile. A good place to start.

Mondays are always a day off for us and so we we are honoring that tradition. Tomorrow we'll go to the gym and hit the mill before work. Just have to make sure we got to bed early tonight so we don't break our alarm clocks when they go off at 5am.

We had a fun afternoon downtown starting at Water Tower and ending at up at the movie theater and catching Sweeny Todd which was really good. It was super gory and in usual Tim Burton/Johnny Depp fashion awesomely weird and well...just plain awesome.

Who's Tired of Me Talking About Weather?

I am! ooooh me!!! It's really really dull.

So fine. So this is a running blog, we used to run. We've gotten slacky.....so, it's time to do something about it.

Last night we signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in Chicago as well as the Flying Pig 1/2 marathon at the beginning of May. I am thinking we are going to do the Hal Higdon Intermediate plan for the 1/2 marathon. There are some hills I think in the Flying Pig though so for some of our runs we'll have to make sure we run up the hills over on the lakefront.

Fun times!

Friday Fun and Saturday Laziness

Last night after an annoying drive downtown to pick up Jason from work we headed to see Cloverfield with our friends Jake and Laura. It was *really* good. I'm not going to say anything about the movie, but I do recommend it.

After the movie we all came back here and between Jake, Jason and myself we finished off a bottle of Capt. Morgans and lots of Diet Cokes. Great conversations and lots of laughing started off the weekend. As always, great seeing those kids.

Today...like most weekends lately we have lazed around being lazy. Watching Psych (of course because our obsession is getting sicker by the day), some movies on HBO. We did go to the grocery store and there is chili chili-ing on the stove. So see we did do something.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the lakefront for a nice lakefront run sometime in the late morning. This week it's back to the gym in the early morning for us...well that's the plan anyways.

It Makes That Noise

You know...THAT noise. The one where after it snows and then it gets to single digit temps and then you walk on the snow...and it makes that noise, like nails on a chalkboard. Yeah that one. I hate that fucking noise.

According to Tom Skilling (weather man extraodinair) however, it looks like we'll be warming back up in the next few days. Including a very warm day on Monday. Whatever, winter fucking sucks my soul out.

I will be going to St. Maarten though, exactly one month from today which is way exciting. A week on my dad's boat with no worries. Yes yes. We are all sad for Jason since he has to stay here since he doesn't have vacation days.

No working out to report on. We have been going to bed late and as we all know it doesn't work to get up early when you do that. Fun plans tonight to see Cloverfield with some friends of ours. Happy weekend all!

Good & Bad

The Good
I caught this over on chicagoist.com and I thought it was fantastic! It's an e-mail the new owner of the Tribune (Sam Zell) sent out to the Chicago Tribune Employees
From: Talk to Sam Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:03 AM Subject: Censorship, the First Amendment and the Fourth Estate

Everyone,
I learned on the first leg of our tour of Tribune’s business units that some of them were filtering Internet content. I do not see how a member of the Fourth Estate, dedicated to protecting the First Amendment, can censor what its own employees and partners can see. I have instructed that all content filters be removed. You are now exposed to the dangers of You Tube and Facebook. Please use your best judgment.

Let’s focus on what is important, and go for greatness.
Sam

Isn't that great! Maybe this guy will sell the Cubs to someone as smart as he sounds in this e-mail.

The Bad
I almost don't even want to go here as I don't want to give this wack job any more press or recognition. But on Gawker.com (through radar) I noticed the tidbit that the lunatics over at the Fred Phelps church, you know...the ones that are protesting at the funerals of American Soldiers when they come back from Iraq...yeah them. They are going to picket Heath Ledger's funeral. Because one time he played a gay guy in a movie? Yeah they say this :

Isn't going to hell pretty bad in the eyes of the believers? Really wouldn't that be enough? If you really believe people are burning in hell, isn't that like you winning. Like haha you're dead and we are good believers and so we are going to heaven and we will laugh at you rotting down there? But no. You also have to go a funeral, "protest" when family and friends are grieving. Plus...isn't protesting usually meaning that you are against something? So are you sad that he's dead and against it? Maybe Mr. Phelps when you die millions of good people will come from around the world and have big fucking party outside your funeral. Oh but wait. No no. Probably not, because no one can be has hateful and just downright rude as you are.

I don't understand why people are so hateful. What I really don't understand is when religous people look at atheists and comment on their morals. Like you have to be religious to have any kind of moral background. Just because I don't believe in a higher power and only believe in myself does that make me bad and immoral? I don't think so.

Anyways. It just makes me sad that in this day and age that kind of anger can be around.

Oh..also bad is the weather here in Chicago. It's really really cold. We are going to end up being here pretty late tonight and thus are going to try and run Thursday-Sunday to get our 4 days of running in this week.

Heath Ledger

Apparently the NYC police found Heath Ledger dead in an apartment in Manhattan this afternoon. He was such a talented actor. How sad.

Playing House

Yesterday evening Jason and I came out to Brookfield to help out with the son of friends of our family. His parents are in LA and so we are here making sure he gets dinner and all that good stuff. They have a great house in Brookfield and it's been fun hanging out here. This morning Jason was out the door early to catch a 6:50 train to the city. Sam woke up around 7 and I made some pancakes before driving him to school.

Jason and I are going to try and run tomorrow evening after we get back home from here. The plan then is to run Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Also....we are thinking about doing the Flying Pig 1/2 marathon on May 4th and following that Higdon Intermediate training plan. We did that a couple years ago for a 1/2 marathon and felt great throughout. Plus it starts out real slow so it won't be hard to jump into it. I have a week long vacation in St. Maarten coming up so I'll have to start the plan early....but I think it could be just what these runners need to get back on track.

It's Cold in this Apartment

I hate being cold. I mean everyone does I guess. But once I get cold I feel like I cannot warm up. Our apartment has the worst heating ever designed and so most of the rooms are freezing even though the stupid apartment temperature thermometer is right next to the heater and so when it's hit the correct temperature there it turns off even though the living room/office rooms are probably about 20 degrees colder.

So I get cold. Then I just stay in said cold state all day until I go to bed under mounds of blankets and tons of long pants and sweatshirts on. It's so ridiculous.

No running today and we are helping a friend of the family by watching their son while they headed to LA to deal with some family stuff, for the next few days so I don't know if we'll get a chance to head to the gym.

Try and stay warm.

Back Home Again...

In Chiiiicaaaago.

After a quick but wonderful trip to Florida to visit theMom & theStepDad, Jason and I are back home in Chicago to catch the end of the Packers game and enjoy the rest of our Sunday evening. My mom is always super popular and outgoing and in her usual fashion threw an amazing party on Saturday night. I met a friends of hers that she was best friends with in high school. They are so funny together and I hope that I'll still be friends with high school friends when I'm her age. I also met and loved a woman she works with who is a crazy outgoing edgy liberal. Lots of Hillary vs Barack discussions and all good and interesting. She was really nice and fun to talk some politics with her. I think she enjoyed the Democratic discussion as I am guessing in Florida there isn't that much of that. I thought she was great because one of the first things she said was, "Can you believe there are candidates running that don't believe in evolution? Doesn't that terrify you?" At which point I was like, this person is my kind of people.

I only ate salt water taffy & sour patch kids...oh and peanut butter m&ms today....so my tummy is a little angry at me, at which point I say deal with it as all of that stuff is delicious.

The Posting Streak Ends

Well we are here in warm and sunny Florida visiting my mom when I realized that my posting every day since the beginning of the year came to a halt yesterday. Ah well.

Nothing interesting about the flights. After we got to Tampa yesterday we went to visit my grandpa for a bit and then headed down to North Port which is where my mom lives. It's so good to see her as always and I'm pissed that we have to leave so early tomorrow morning.

We ran about 3.2 miles at about noon here which was a nice change from running outside in Chicago at this time of the year. I said I was going to start timing runs and so we actually ran on time and then figured out how far we went when we got back since we don't have any running routes in Florida. We ran 15 minutes out and finished in a total of 26:26, and the second half was directly into the wind. So just under 9 minute miles which is fine.

Good luck tomorrow to the Packers and the Chargers.

5 Miles & 6-1 Win

Since me and the snooze button had a fight with me on the losing end yesterday morning and I didn't head to the gym in the AM, I went for an afternoon run instead. I went for a 5 mile run around the neighborhood. Not much to note, except that the last mile was directly into the wind which is always a fun way to end the run. I haven't been timing myself on runs, but I think that I will start doing that again soon enough.

Last night Jason and I went to a Blackhawks game as part of our holiday season ticket package that Jason got me for Christmas. The first two games that we had gone to, the Blackhawks lost so we were itching to see them win. At the end of the first period one of our players went head first into the goal which was crazy. He was fine, but the Blues goalie was injured. Thus they had to put in their backup goalie who sucked. The Hawks won 6-1 which was fun. The Blues did a weird thing and pulled their goalie with over six minutes in the 3rd period. We have two more tickets in our package although we have been having a lot of fun and so we might try and get another five games. We are finally getting to know the rules of the game and so would like to see more games if possible.

No running today and tomorrow we are going to Florida for a weekend visit with my mom. Very excited since it's going to be like singular digits on Saturday and we'll be lounging in the state of oranges instead of freezing our asses off. We are going to try and run on Saturday and enjoy doing that in shorts and tanktops.

Finally A Good Night Sleep

Last night Jason and I were both tired. Me because I haven't been sleeping well and him because...well I guess because he has to go work at a real job all day long now. So we went to bed with big plans to get up at 5am.

So last night, I was reading in bed and Jason crawled into bed and the entire bottom mattress fell off the bed frame. Our bed is from my bedroom set that I got back in 1993. It's a fine bed but the bed frame is simply two wooden edges (I have no idea how to describe it). Basically it's barely balanced on the frame. There are two support slats that go perpendicular to the frame (thus supporting the mattress), but they aren't the most brilliant invention as their little feet don't hit the the floor. Anyways. We have talked about getting a new mattress where then they would bring in a new type of frame to go within the wooden frame of the bed, but we want to wait till we move so we don't have to move a mattress.

ANYWAYS. So the bed has fallen off the frame. So we get up, take off the top mattress and carefully align the bottom mattress so it's balanced. Top mattress goes back on, bed gets remade. I get in bed. Jason gets in bed. BAM. Completely falls off. Jason and I are laughing so hard at this point that tears are rolling down my face. We had to repeat the process one more time at which point we were just like. Ok, it should be fine as long as we don't move at all.

Our alarm went off at 5am. I banged on it until about 5:18 (9 minutes per snooze you know) and then Jason was like, "yeah I'm not getting up". So I reset it for 6:30. I am feeling tons better though this morning as I feel that I finally got some good sleep last night. I am going to try and go for a 5 mile run around the neighborhood this afternoon. Tonight is a Blackhawks game so I don't know if I'll be getting up early for that Spinning class tomorrow. If not, I'll be back there on Tuesday.

Second Time Not A Charm

I went to my second spin class this morning again from 6-7am. I was excited to try it again as I thought the first class was hard, but not impossible.

I mentioned yesterday that I haven't been sleeping well lately. Last night was better, although it took me about an hour and a half to fall asleep. I'll get to the point where I am just on the beautiful edge of falling into the dream land, when I'll roll over or whatever and be back to staring at the clock. It's very annoying. But once I fell asleep I was asleep although still plagued with dreams of all kinds, including having to take the Physics GRE again and doing horribly on it. In the dream, my cousin Lisa's students also took the test and got perfect scores on it. She teaches at a K-8 school, which made me feel *awesome*.

But it was just a dream and I woke up at 4:55, 5 minutes before the alarm was to go off. I think I heard the coffee pot going off. Again surprising as usually a parade could walk over the bed and I would just curl up, ignore it and pass back out.

But to Spin I went. 30 minutes into the class my heart was racing and I couldn't catch my breath. The instructor came over and asked if I was ok. I just said yeah, just couldn't catch my breath. I laughed and said that it was only the second time I had done the thing called Spin. She said she remembered me the previous week and I was looking strong and pretty good then. She came back and said, "Wait, do you mean your second time on these bikes or ever?" I told her ever as I run a lot and am trying to add more cross training into my schedule. She said she was so sorry for not realizing I had never done it before. For the next little block of exercises which were sprints, I just sprinted every other one to get my breathing back into control. She said that it will take about six classes to get more into it. I told her I was stubborn and would be back on Thursday.

I guess I am a little bit concerned about my racing heart and lack of breathing, but not surprised. I drink *no* water during the day and had 2 glasses of wine last night so I think I might have been slightly dehydrated. Plus I do think that sometimes you'll do something for the first time and it's easy(ish) and then it's the second time that the difficulty really hits you.

So that's that.

In other news. Jason and I got HBO free for a year from Comcast. I called and told them I have been a good customer, love their service but hate their prices (the $99/month for the three services expired back in September). They said they could give me HBO for $10/month. I told them that they could just give it to me for free because $10 a month is nothing to them and a lot to me. The woman transfered me over to someone else and he was like, sure we can do that...and it should be connected now. Thank you Comcast!

And now time to get some work done.

Sleeping Badly

I have always been a very heavy sleeper. My parents told me that they took me to some music show or something when I was a little kid. I guess it was really loud in the room and I just curled up in a ball on one of the chairs and passed out. Well I feel that they told me that anyways...I could just be making it up. Neither of them read this blog with regularity (yes yes yes because my mom is busy working and my dad hardly has internet when he's out sailing the seven seas, not because they don't love me) so I can't confirm the story.

Anyways, my point being that I can fall asleep anywhere and usually when I go to bed at night I fall asleep quickly and wake up only when my alarm goes off in the morning. Last night however was horrible. I went to bed earlish, probably around 10:30 or 11. But then I woke up at about 3am. And I mean wide wide awake. To the point where I was questioning just getting up and doing some work until the alarm went off at 5 at which point we would go to the gym. Then it's just annoying because you know that you could fall back asleep but then you are thinking about falling back asleep which make the process all the more difficult. I think I finally feel back down around 3:45. Needless to say when the alarm did go off at 5, I was not easily getting out of the bed.

Jason got up and went to the gym though and I got up when he got home around 6:45. I am frustrated because usually sleep isn't one of the things I have to worry about as it comes so easily. I also had tons of dreams last night which I guess is good cause that means you have to be in the REM state...(maybe?). However, I wonder if one has really interesting dreams where they are stealing cars and witnessing crimes and running around if it's as calming as say...I don't know fields of grass with butterflies flying around.

So anyways, crappy sleep last night led to not getting up at the right time for the gym. But as I work from home I can go whenever. So I went at 8 and did 4+ miles on the treadmill and a bit of weights work. I am so clueless in the lifting weights department and so perhaps it's time to get one of those fancy trainers that I see around the gym.

And thus it's Monday.

Lazy Sunday

I have to say that today was by far the laziest Jason and I have been for a very long time. Last night we hooked up with some of our friends at the movie theater to see Juno which was *hi-larious* and highly recommended from these two. After that we headed to a bar in Bucktown where friends of our friends were have an all you can drink special night for a birthday party which was fun.

Today though. Nothing. We went to bed last night at probably about 2am or so and for some reason I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. I laid in bed for about 15 minutes trying to will myself back to sleep which didn't happen. So up I was. I got the Sunday paper and put a free On Demand movie on and since then haven't done much since.

When I was growing up, Sundays at my Dad's house was always the same. Sunday paper. Classical music on the radio. Big breakfast. In the winters of course the afternoons were consumed with snacking and football. I would like to have that tradition as well when we "grow up". So we had the paper and I made a really good breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, onion & green pepper along with some bacon and home fries style potatoes. And unfortunately we watched the Colts lose (sad for Jason and small joy for me). The IU basketball game followed that as well as the Giants/Cowboys game so there was flipping back and forth. The Hoosiers won and were ranked #10 although I don't think that will change as they played UofI who was unranked.

We just started playing Resident Evil 4 on the Wii and it's super awesome and bloody. It's going to take some time to get into it though as I am dying before the second save point.

Last week I ran about 19 miles. It's not great but it's not nothing either. It for sure feels good to be getting back into a workout schedule. Tomorrow it's up early at the gym for treadmill running & weights.

Pysch You Out In the End

What's the goofiest most addictive show on TV right now?

That's right it's Psych on USA. It's so ridiculous and Jason and I are thoroughly addicted to it these days. I recommend you check it out. Lots of wackiness ensuing. I mean really, have you had an episode with a better title than "Meat is Murder but Murder is Also Murder"? It's classic.




Jason and I did an easy breezy 6 miles around the neighborhood this morning making it 7 days in a row of working out. We are going out tonight with my friend Corey and her husband and knew that we probably wouldn't be in condition to run tomorrow so we moved our "long run" to today.

Also..it should be noted that I have yet to miss a day of blogging this year....hopefully I'm not being too dull as I have noticed that happens when people start blogging everyday just because they put anything down to make sure they have a post for each day. So I'm trying to write everyday but be interesting about it at the same time which is proving to be a challenge.

6 Days in a Row

I have done some kind of working out activity for the past 6 days. Even days when I overslept or thought I would take a rest day I got out and did something, so that's a good thing I think.

Today I went to the gym at ran 3 miles on the treadmill (I know I know it's boring). I followed that up with an hour long pilates workout which was great. I did pilates a week ago and I woke up the following day and couldn't sit up. It's a great workout and I think I will try and get it in a couple times a week.

Ok. I don't know if this post could get any more dull.

The apartment people are supposed to come by my apartment today. They said they would be here at 11am. Hmm...alright 11:18. I fucking hate it when people are late. It's my biggest pet peeve. It doesn't help that I am always 5 minutes early or in some cases 30 or in the case of flying a cool 2 hours...but whatever. If you say you are going to be somewhere at a certain time, how hard is it to a) be there at the time or b) call and let me know you are going to be late. Alright then. We'll see if they even show up at all.

Snoooooze and What Plan?

Damn.

Well I was 2/2 and now I am 2/3 getting up early to go to the gym. The plan was to go spin at 6:30 and follow it with some weightlifting. But the snooze button and Jason being under the blanket going, "Leah I'm just really sore" turns into...."Well, ok I guess we shouldn't start working out 6 days a week" and me banging on the alarm and then finally resetting it for 6:15. I even went to bed early last night. And by go to bed I mean passed out reading.

So. We'll see. I might go out for a 3-4 mile run before the rain comes in this afternoon. Tomorrow there is a pilates class at 9:15 that I will do and follow it with a run. So that's the plan. It's all coming together.

But what is coming together? Do we have a plan? A strategy? A race calendar?

No.

I guess spending a year of my life training and being excited about being fast and then being stupid enough to not have a backup plan (like had I signed up for two marathons around the same time...then if the Chicago weather was bad I could have skipped it completely and run the second one) is annoying me...yes still. The disappointment of Chicago is still frustrating. Am I proud of myself for getting through the whole thing and being smart enough to know early that it wasn't going to happen, and thus stayed out of any real health trouble? Yeah, I am actually. I just don't know if I can put that kind of effort in again.

That's bullshit. I know I can train with that kind of effort. I just am not jumping up and down in excitement to do that.

So for now we are going to run and workout and be excited about being able to do things in the workout world other than just run. I don't know if we are going to even sign up for a marathon this year. However, I love training for marathons in the summer because I love running along the lake and being outdoors in this great city. So we'll see what happens. Right now we are just running and lifting weights and enjoying that.

Because We All Use Some Form of Google Reader

This is the rss feed from my photoblog : http://www.photoblog.com/rss/LeahC

There is a very cute picture of Dagny the Cat (my dad's cat is the wonder cat...whatever) on there today!

Hot Bod?

Yeah I guess I'd like one. So when there is a class called "Hot Bod" at your gym, maybe you give it a try. It was good...lots of balancing on those ring tube things. But it had weight lifting and ab stuff and leg stuff. Seemed like a pretty good all around workout. I cannot do any of the balancing stuff, and so when my 6' tall self gets unbalanced that's a lot of arms and legs flalling about. I was jealous of the instructor who at 5'4" maybe had no troubles with her balance. Alright alright, she was also super buff and that probably helped.

After that class I ran for 3 miles on the treadmill while watching Dharma & Greg. I might have even loled a few times, which I know makes me super cool. On the treadmill I have a routine kind of. For the first 1/4 mile I start out at a 9:22 pace, then from .25-1 mile I go to 8:57. Then from 1-1.5 8:41, then 1.5-2 8:34. Then for the last mile of the workout...today this was 2-3, I bump it up for each quarter mile. The last quarter mile I did at 7:41 so that one got a couple bumps up. I think it makes running on the treadmill way more interesting.

So that's done and done.

You'll notice some changes around these here parts. The photo of the day has been taken down, however, I do have a link to my newly created and hopefully will keep updated, photoblog. It kind of sucks because of all the ads, but whatever, a good place for me to quickly post a photo a day. Also there is a link to my smugmug collection which is just a large collection of photos. For books we are going with GoodReads.com and through that Jason and I have put up widgets showing what we have read. Bridgette said that when she looked at it, it said that the shelves were empty, but that's cause she's dumb and since I'm super cool and awesome, I see pages of books on my screen. Hopefully everyone else who's not dumb can see it. Oh I'm kidding. I have known the girl for 10+ years I am allowed to tease her :-)

Spin Faster

Come on. Come On. Double Time. That's it...peddle. Now give me a full turn to the right, and peddle. Come on. PEDDLE! This was like 10 minutes into a 60 minute spinning class.

For those of you that have read this blog for awhile or know me at all, know that I am not one for indoor cardio. I cannot help but watch the clock and be shocked that only 3 minutes have passed in what feels like 30 minutes. This winter however, I am trying to not be so uppity about indoor training and get more gym workouts in. This included trying out spinning for the first time this morning at the bright eyed bushy tail hour of 6am. (oh yeah...and I never bike. Ever. I own a mountain bike that I use during the summers to get around the city but...sparingly to say the least).

So the alarm goes off at 5am. There was an attempt last night to turn in early, but there I was at 11pm, looking at my clock, thinking "How is it 11pm already...that means my alarm is going off in 6 hours" quickly followed by "Don't look at the clock, because you know that at this point you will now be getting less than 6 hours of sleep". I don't know what time I fell asleep, but whatever, less than 6 hours is not so much enough.

But we got up and on it, a half a packet of oatmeal down and it was out into the rain and off to the gym.

I think a lot of people have done spin so I am not going to go into the details of the class. But I do think it's a great workout that I am going to try and do it once or twice a week. If you haven't done spinning and think your legs are not strong enough (hint hint to the other writer on this blog) you should give it a try as it burns the ole' quads. So perhaps running Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday, with weight training on Monday, Wednesday and Pilates on Friday. Then Spinning on Tuesday and Thursday....? That could work. Well a plan is forming anyways.

Jason and I have to register to vote so we are going to go change the address on our drivers license at lunch time today. The weather is so crappy, hopefully the rain lets up a bit between 11 and 1.

ok...Ok...oK...OK!!!

Alright, when it's 64 degrees outside...in January...in Chicago you go run, it's like a rule or something.

So 3 miles done...a bit under 24 minutes. These legs still have some speed, but only cause they are in shock that they don't have goosebumps.

Still planning on spinning tomorrow.

Up Early...

But only to do work. Tomorrow there is a 6am spinning class at the gym that I am going to try out. I have never done spinning, and I don't know if trying it for the first time at 6am is going to be a great idea...but whatever. I'll run again on Wednesday and follow it up with this body sculpting class called Hot Bod..interesting.

So as per my "I have to write my thesis" resolution....I just imported my analysis note that I have already written...and I now have 68 pages to my thesis. Not that it means anything because it needs to be edited and whatever, but I feel more on my way. There is a flickering light out there signaling the end of this degree.

52 Degrees....

Doesn't make running for the first time in what seems like forever any easier. Since we don't really love running on the treadmill, but we do love our new gym AND it's easier to get up at 5am, drive to the gym and run there than it is to run in freezing temps our plan is to run at the gym and workout during the week and then run outside on Sundays (and sometimes Saturdays), I thought we would start this plan on Monday as I am a true believer in the week starting on Monday and not Sunday.

But then I stumbled into our office with a cup of coffee and checked weather.com and was surprised with a 52 feels like 52 temperatures.

So it was on with the running clothes and out the door to the lake front path. Then we realized that we would both rather run in 20 degree temps, with no wind than 52 degrees and wind that blows through the entire first half of your run. We "got through it" ugly style, but whatever it was nice to be outside and not freezing.

We apparently were not the only ones who thought that running at the lake front path was a good idea as the parking lot was packed. That's what you get for 52 degree temps the first weekend after New Years Resolutions are set.

Tonight we have tickets to a Blackhawks game against the Detroit Red Wings....so GO HAWKS.

Grey Weekends

This weekend in Chicago is one of those gray nasty winter slushy awful weekends where you realize that you are only in the first weekend of January and there are still probably about 12 to go. It's not cold or anything, just dank and dark and ugly out.

Jason and I went downtown today and stopped at the Borders and then walked around Oak Street Beach and I took lots of pictures. There was lots of floating ice islands that were fun to look at. We walked over to North Avenue and took to bus to Damen, stopping at Cheetah for a new class list as well as a parking permit for January. Then luckily a Damen bus was right there so we jumped on that and ended up back in good old Ukrainian Village.

3 for 5

Yesterday I already did three of my resolutions.

I sent postcards to my folks-in-law, my grandpa and my mom.

I read for an hour.

AND I even cooked a real dinner. A whole new meal, one that did not involve the Pizza Pizzaz (which if you don't own one and you ever eat frozen pizza you should). I made Basil-chicken currey. It was delicious and probably the most complicated meal I have ever made. It wasn't hard, just many steps and lots of ingredients. We had that over rice along with a nice green salad. It was like we were adults.

Alright, the PhD....going to get on that starting Monday. And what was the other one...oh yeah, I have yet to contact my people about their birthdays.

Today I have a lady docs appointment at 3:15 and then Jason and I going to meet downtown and we are going to see No Country for Old Men. A date night on a Friday night. Whoot.

Yes I realize I haven't talked about any running goals yet. I will I promise, I am just trying to decide what they are :-).

Resolutions & Sawing at 4:30am

I never do this. I never make resolutions because they usually end up in the trash can by mid February if not sooner. This year though, I am making a ton, so we'll see. The running goals will be a entirely separate post.

1. Read More : This is easy. When I was taking the train to work I was reading 2 hours per day. Just because I am not taking the train doesn't mean that I shouldn't be able to do that. So I am going to try and get back to reading 1-2 hours a day. I got some great new books for Christmas so I want to do that anyways
2. Pictures : I got a new postcard printer for Christmas from Jason. So I can very easily, take pictures I have taken, print them and send them off to friends and family. Real mail is always more fun than e-mail & I get forced to taking more pictures so I think everyone wins.
   
3. Finsih my PhD : I have to write my thesis. We redid the office, to be a place I want to be in. Now I just have to write the document. I have to get out of here and figure out what to do next...that won't happen without writing the degree.
4. Birthdays : Everyone likes getting cards for their birthday. I never send them. EVER. It makes me a bad daughter, daughter-in-law, grand daughter, sister-in-law, etc. I feel bad all the time about it. So I need to collect birthdays from family so I can actually know when people are turning another year older.
   
5. Dinner : I want to do less ordering from Penny's Noodle Shop and more making dinners. I got the Better Crocker cookbook where there looks to be lots of easy meals. It's not that hard to make dinner. It just needs to be done. I'm going for 4 days a week to start.

Since I'm not big on resolutions or very strict about it. This will all start next week.

So this morning at about 4:30, I wake up to the sound of sawing above our bed. Jason woke up too and we have no idea what it was. If this was Law & Order SVU there would be a guy carrying weirdly shaped bags to the trash with his cut up wife in them. Given that this is not TV, we have no idea what it was. We never hear the people upstairs and this was really loud!

I am feeling tons better today and I think after another day of rest I'll be back to 100%.

Ooh...and I'm 3/3 for blogging in the new Year....Yes I am counting the drunk/exhausted post from the 1st.

Starting the New Year Off With...

A giant fucking head cold.

I never ever get sick. I have the immune system children around the world dread as I never ever ever get sick and thus never missed school. So I wake up on New Years Eve, with the stuffed head and runny nose. Some Dayquill got me through the NYE party. Yesterday I layed on the couch all day and did nothing. Today I had to go to the lab to get my ID renewed...after sleeping for 12 hours even though I felt as if I could sleep more.

I just got home and have a date with my couch.

I am not a good patient either because I hate being sick and so I'm *real* crabby. My dad suggested that Jason work overtime. Boo.

It's 4:42....

so we are 4 hours and 42 minutes into the new year...and number one I am still up which means it had be a great night....but more importantly...our closest friends came to celebrate new years eve with us and it was a wonderful ending to an already great year. We had new friends and one of my oldest and bestest friends here. Having here here was fun because even though we don't see each other nearly as often as we used to, we can easily fall back into the groove like we still see each other ever weekend. We had friends here who I met because he used to teach high school physics with my Dad and now are friends, and as always great to see him and his wife. Our co-hosters were as fabulous as they always are. To have found friends like that through running blogs amazes me every time we get together.

So Merry New Year everyone. We'll have some new goals for the running season coming up tomorrow (or Wednesday).