Wednesday Wishlist

I am so tired right now. My eyes are halfway open so expect lots of typos and mass chaos in the upcoming sentences. The only reason I am awake and bloggin' is because Thursday Wishlist is not an acceptable use of alliteration. And I love alliteration.

I skipped the gym tonight because quite truthfully drinking wine and watching Ellen in my yoga pants sounded like way more fun. And that's the truth.

Onto the wishlist...

{one}

Yurbuds earphones

From all the research I've done, these things are the shiz. They have "twist lock" technology which basically means they never fall out, never get loose. They are sweat and water resistant, because we all know how awesome it is when you come to the end of a long run and your headphones are coated in your perspiration. Yum. The Inspire Pro and the Focus Pro models have a three button control and microphone, for when your mom conveniently calls around mile 5 and wants to talk about her day. AND they have a woven cloth cord that make these headphones tangle-free! You totally want a pair now too don't you? The reason these are on my wishlist and not in my shopping cart is because they are sixty bucks. Definitely something that's worth the investment, but not in my budget until after the holiday season.

{two}

SPARKLY HAPPINESS.

These would obviously be a practical everyday purchase, as evidenced by the spectacular shape my feet are in. Okay, so maybe not. But aren't these the perfect cross between hooker and Dorothy? They scream New Years Eve and I just love them. LOVE THEM.

{three}

Erin Condren Planner

If you don't know about Erin Condren life planners, go NOW. They are like the mothership of neatness and organization for anyone who is as obsessive and list-oriented as me. This is without a doubt the BEST planner in the entire world and I am dying to get my hands on one for 2013! You can personalize them with photos, quotes, names, pretty much anything your little heart desires. They've got laminated tabs, plastic pouches, goals and to-do lists for every week and I am shaking with excitement just thinking about it. Want one SO bad!

{four}

Come on, you know I had to break up the monotony with something edible. I made the mistake of wandering into the Christmas section of Target last night, and I got lost for about an hour. About 55 minutes of that were spent in the Christmas candy and treats aisle. Y'all, this is not a joke. They really did have cookies & freakin' cream dipped pretzels. If you know me at all you know dipped pretzels are my favorite snack in the entire world. You can't go wrong. It's the constant and perfect ratio of sweet and salty so that you NEVER have to stop eating. The reason these didn't make it into my shopping basket is because I have no need for an extra 600 calories in my already chocolate and tortilla chip filled diet.

{five}

The Host

Is anyone as excited about this as I am?? Stephenie Meyer is the author of the Twilight series (duh) and has now written this book that's gotten nothing but crazy rave reviews. I flew through the Twilight series (because I'm cool like that) and ever since have been crying into my pillow about the lack of vampire love in my life. The Host has nothing to do with vampires, but is probably going to be the next best thing and I'm hoping I'll be reading this coming up soon.

Only 2 more days till 10k!

Any yurbud users out there? 


Has anyone read the host? Give me your review!

Anyone else have a race coming up this weekend?


LOVE &HUGS,

Nat

Remember when...

...there was no such thing as an Iphone and no way to publicly exploit how hilarious your friends are? Hard to think that such a time could ever exist.

We are not real grown-ups. 

I'm SO SO SO happy to report that I seem to have gotten out of my running rut. For now at least. I had a great 6 mile run on the treadmill tonight. I felt great physically and once I got over that first mile mental block, I felt golden. I'm becoming less nervous and more excited about my very first 10k on Saturday. Bring it!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Weekend Recap & a Major Case of Runners Block

People keep asking me how my Thanksgiving was and I've got a pretty solid reply that I'm sticking with. Thanksgiving was great, but a four day weekend was spectacular. I'm seriously considering drafting a very official request proposing that all weekends consist of four days and all work weeks consist of three. I will let you all sign it and then send it to the president. Or the Senate. Or Oprah. I don't know. Who makes those decisions?

Black Friday began the best way I know how: SLEEPING IN! There is absolutely nothing in the world that I need badly enough to warrant getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to wait in a line to purchase. So after lazying around for awhile, Tay and I decided to go see Red Dawn, which was actually pretty stinkin' good. I may be a slightly biased critic though. I mean, Chris Hemsworth was in it. I'm pretty sure I could watch him clip his toenails for two hours and still be entertained.

That evening, we headed to Midlothian (with Taylor's roommate Jordan and his lovely girlfriend Morgan) to visit and have dinner with some friendsies. (New word I'm trying out. Go with it.)

After stuffing my face with the world's best shrimp tacos at Campuzano's, we went back to their cute little house to hang out and catch up. They were needing a little help taking a Christmas card picture with their ginormous great dane. Lucky for you I captured the entertaining magic that was this photo-sesh:

It took fifteen minutes of Taylor's weird and unsanitary hand to mouth noises, Jordan's arm flapping, and about a hundred high pitched "Here Molly!"'s to get this dog to take a picture.

HILARIOUS.

After all that, we headed back to Fort Worth with a little pit-stop to satisfy some serious ice cream cravings.

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP.
BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOR OF ALL TIME. 

He wouldn't share his fries with me because
he insisted on dipping them in his milkshake.
Rude and brilliant.

Ice cream is melting. No time for smiling.

So we're just sitting at Braum's, enjoying our ice cream and making fun of the teenagers making out three booths down, when Jordan whips out his straw, sticks it in his armpit, and says :

"Hey did y'all ever use to do this when you were little?" 

Um, no, but I'm definitely going to start. Instant conversation saver.

Saturday I got up semi-early to attempt to tackle a seven mile run on some trails out in Keller where Taylor lives. Because Taylor is 100% man, and has absolutely nothing edible in his entire house, I was doing this one on an empty stomach. It was cold, windy, and awful. The minute I stepped on the path, I was miserable. I was nauseous, exhausted, sore, out of breath. Take all of the negative words you can wrap your mind around and they applied to me. I went a slow, miserable four miles before I had to stop. I felt terrible. I was in tears, and just felt so incredibly defeated. I walked two more miles before I called it quits and met back up with Taylor. We were talking and I just kept saying I have no idea how people play team sports. Because when I fail to achieve a goal I've set (in this a 7 mile run) I am so mad. Like irate. And I have only myself to blame. It was so frustrating for me to have had the best run of my entire life on Thanksgiving morning, and then 48 hours later, to feel like I'd never run a day in my life. Mentally it was exhausting. Luckily Taylor is a sweetheart and helped to get me out of my funk and put a smile back on my face. So I just told myself I'd get back on track and try again the next day. 

Saturday evening we headed over for a birthday dinner with some of Taylor's oldest family friends and some of my favorite people in the entire freaking world. Seriously, greatest people EVER. Our friends just had a gorgeous gorgeous baby girl, so we all took turns oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over this sweet thing all night.

 And Taylor held his first baby ever.

If this doesn't melt your heart then you are a robot.

Sunday afternoon I headed home, and got ready for my run. I worked so hard at pumping myself up mentally and forcing myself to think super positively, and I headed out on the trails with a really strong mindset. About three miles in, I hit a brick wall. Total runners block. The wind felt like it was gusting 100mph in my face, my body ached, I felt weak. An absolute nightmare. I stopped just a little after four miles, and walked the last three with tears in my eyes and probably the worst attitude ever. 

I don't know what is wrong with me, and with the 10k coming up this Saturday, this couldn't really be any worse timing. I think I might just be getting a little burned out. It's hard to run alone all the time, and I really feel like I'm craving a little bit of a partnership/accountability. I think that's why I'm so obsessed with blog stalking all these inspiring runners. I decided today that I wasn't going to try to run (crying at the gym is embarrassing), so I spent some time on the elliptical tonight, and with the 10k coming up Saturday here are my Monday Mileage Goals:

Monday: 3 easy miles on elliptical

Tuesday: 6 miles ('mill run)

Wednesday: Elliptical/lots of stretching

Thursday: 3-4 miles ('mill run)

Friday: Rest/Carb Loading

Saturday: 10k Race Day!

So even though I had a fantastic holiday weekend, running wise, it was a definite low point for me, and I could definitely use some encouragement. But on the bright side, only 28 days until Christmas!

Anyone ever experienced this "runner's block"? How did you get over that slump??

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Turkey is Delicious

Thanksgiving is awesome. Can I get an amen?

Since I spent Wednesday night with my friend Alli, we woke up on Thanksgiving morning prepared to tackle an early six mile run/bike before meeting up with our families. But just as we were about to head out she noticed that her bike tires were pretty much completely flat. Such a bummer. So I headed out for a solo run around White Rock Lake. Y'all. It was AMAZING. So incredibly gorgeous you cannot even begin to understand. I headed out just before 8am, so it was a crisp/perfect running temp of about 55 degrees.

Please, let's talk about how hard it is
to simultaneously run and take a picture.
Without falling.

So so so so so gorgeous.

Even though the view was INCREDIBLE, I think my favorite part about running White Rock Lake was how many people there were. It was such a diverse community of runners/walkers/bikers, just so many people. It kept me so entertained and encouraged and just mentally strong. Which was necessary, because at mile four I tackled a massive never ending hill that I thought would surely be the death of me. Spoiler alert, it wasn't. The whole run was just so freakin' refreshing and just the best way to start off my Thanksgiving morning.

After the run, I headed back to Alli's apartment where it was unanimously decided that we were definitely going to need some Starbucks to prep ourselves for a successful Thanksgiving. 

Decisions decisions.

 After jump-starting my metabolism with all the Starbucks treats, it was time to head over to the family Thanksgiving lunch. (Warning: Excessive amount of pictures to follow. Prepare yourself.)

I'm smiling, but my eyes are saying TURKEY NOW.

Mom and Stepdad!

 

Oh glorious day.

Little brother. He is huge.
And so much cooler than me. 

Waiting for lunch/watching the Friends
Thanksgiving episode marathon. It's what we do. 

OMG-OMG-OMG-OMG. YUM.

 

Favorite Thanksgiving dessert of all time.
Pumpkin pie and LOTS OF IT.

After our family lunch I headed back to Fort Worth to hang out with my Tater and his family. All in all, a VERY successful Thanksgiving. Except for now I am hungry. And I would like some pumpkin pie.

I have three more days of weekend happenings to blog on but my four day weekend has absolutely exhausted me, so I'm saving that for tomorrow.

What's your favorite Starbucks treat?
-I really never have Starbucks (I'm not a coffee drinker), but Thanksgiving was so festive that it felt totally necessary. Peppermint Mochas are my go-to drink when I decide to indulge.

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

I am getting old

It's crazy to me that Thanksgiving is tomorrow. This year has absolutely flown by. I'm not going to get all cheesy on you but I really have so much to be thankful for. I'm sorry I ended a sentence with a preposition but there's really no other way to say that. I have so much for which to be thankful? No thanks.

Days like today make me realize how blessed I am with the friendships that I have. I was lucky enough to get off work at noon, so I headed out to Dallas to spend some much needed time with my college roomie/favorite person ever. She lives right on White Rock Lake so we took advantage of the gorgeous afternoon and went for a long talk walk.

It's unbelievable that for the one picture I took
 there was NO ONE on the path. Because this place is
constantly PACKED with runners and bikers. It's AMAZING!

Cuties!

I'm staying the night out here before I head to spend Thanksgiving with the family tomorrow so I am SO SO SO excited to be getting my run in at the lake tomorrow morning. Could there be a more perfect way to start the morning? I say no. 

So gorgeous!

All that walking and talking made us hungry, understandably, so we hit up my most favorite Mexican restaurant of all time, Chuys. OMG so good. Oh and that is the bestie's mouth you see photo-bombing my chip picture. She happened to have a photoshoot out at the lake so it worked out for us to all meet up for dinner afterwards.

And I am thankful for Chuy's chunky salsa. 

 Is anyone doing the Turkey Trot tomorrow?
-Nope, but I will be doing a great Thanksgiving six-miler at the lake tomorrow morning!

What's your all-time favorite/must-have Thanksgiving food? 
-OMG green bean casserole. AND pumpkin pie. I'm sorry I just love it all.

Happy early Thanksgiving!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

The Line between Love and Hate

HA lured you in with an interesting title and now I'm going to proceed to tell you what I ate today. Don't you feel like a sucker?

Naw, I'm kidding. Well sort of. I'm still going to tell you what I ate today, but I'll chatter about real stuff too. Don't panic. 

Today I was SO excited to go for my run. I think I'm still on an emotional high from my hip not constantly KILLING me. But I'm serious y'all. By 3:00 my legs were restless and I was ready to book it out of there and hop on the treadmill. Which is exactly what I did. Tonight I did five miles. The first four at an easy 9:30 pace, and the last at a 9:05. It's so much harder for me to run fast on the treadmill. No idea why. Anyways. For me the first mile and a half is always the hardest. But once I get past that point I seriously feel like I could go forever. I'm not out of breath, I'm not hurting. A pain-free run is definitely something I've taken for granted in the past. 

So I got home and I hopped my sweaty ass in the shower and I was thinking about how amazing running is and how much I love it and blah blah blah. Then I started laughing. (I actually laughed. Me, alone in the shower, with the soap, laughing? A little creepy, yes? But not the point.) Does anyone ever feel like running is the crappy boyfriend that sweet talks you into taking him back when the whole time you were together you hated it? That's sometimes how I feel. Not always. But sometimes. Like you go into it with a great attitude and positive outlook and then about a mile in you're hurting and bored and you're like OH THIS SUCKS SO BAD. But then once you've finished your run, you're so high off the endorphins that you've convinced yourself there is literally nothing greater in the entire world. Running is super sneaky like that. You're only one run away from loving or hating it. And that's the beauty. 

Oh and these are my feet, with my beautiful blisters.
WHY they 've only plagued one foot, I do not know. 

Now onto the good stuff. You wanna know what I ate today? Of course you do. 

 Favorite breakfast:

Fiber Antioxidant Cinnamon wanna-be Cheerios
(in a red solo cup)

 Mid-Morning Snack:

Yes, I sort my m&m's into color pairs.
I may suffer from slight food OCD.

Another Mid-Morning Snack:

Epic fail.

Okay, I loove oranges, but OMG so much work. If I'm being honest I seriously have no idea how to peel an orange and eat it without it becoming a complete and total disastrous mess. As witnessed in the above picture. Seriously. It was a freakin' massacre. But delicious.

Favorite Lunch:

I'm OBSESSED with these black bean burgers. 

When I got home from the gym I had every intention of eating my tilapia and leftover broccoli for dinner but you see my hands were temporarily paralyzed so I had to go to Subway. (A miraculous healing took place just in time for me to consume the sandwich.) And because I was so ravenous I forgot to take a picture so we will just pretend this is what my sandwich looked like:

I'm pretty certain that the gentleman who prepared my Subway sandwich was under the influence of some type of illegal substance. Which normally is no problem, except that he totally did not cut the bread loaf into an equal six inches! I'm sure I only got 4.5. Seriously Subway if you're reading this you owe me an inch and a half.

And now it's time for New Girl and sleep because I've decided that I'm going to hit the gym early in the morning because I keep reading articles about effective cross-training and it's making me feel guilty that I currently do slim to NONE. (Run-on sentence much?)

Only two more sleeps till Thanksgiving!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

A really really really good Monday

First off, please, let's talk about this:

I've been using this conditioner for well over a month
and am just now noticing this.
We'll talk about my observation skills later.

What does this even mean?!?! I have no problem with the unbreakable. It's the seduction part. What is seductive hair? I definitely don't think that my hair qualifies as seductive so clearly Herbal Essences isn't exactly holding up their end of the bargain. I feel pretty strongly that my hair shouldn't be seducing anyone without my consent and approval. And to be honest, if there's going to be any seducing going on, I'd really like to be the one doing it. I'm controlling like that. But seriously. Who is coming up with these shampoo names?

In case you are new here, you should know, I like Mondays. Not as much as I like Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays, but Monday and I are on pretty good terms. When Monday comes around, I'm usually still so energized from the weekend that I don't dread it in the typical way. But even if you are a Monday-hater, one thing that is sure to brighten up your day is a little bit of

BREAKING FREAKING DAWN!!!!!!!

I'M SHAKING.

Yep. Tonight. 7pm. This. is. HAPPENING.

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I also forgot to share a few pictures from my very first golfing experience this weekend. (And by experience I mean reckless golf cart driving, cheering on my boyfriend, and enjoying some Ellen.)

This is how I golf.

(This is probably how you're supposed to golf.)

It was cold as the arctic on Saturday (okay fine it was 65, whatever) so I spent the majority of this golf outing shivering and whining and then randomly laughing because Ellen is a comical genius.

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I'm having major ADD brain right now. So I'm just gonna top this randomness off with my Monday Mileage Goals:

Monday: Hip Exercises/Stretches/Rest/Eat lots of candy in honor of Breaking Dawn

Tuesday: 5 miles ('mill run)

Wednesday: Hip Exercises/Stretches/Rest

Thursday: 6 miles (trail run-gotta burn calories before that delicious Thanksgiving dinner!)

Friday: Bike!

Saturday: Run 7 miles (trail run)

Sunday: Easy long walk or 3-4 mile jog (depending on the hip)

So total weekly mileage goal= roughly 21 miles 

What are everyone's mileage goals this week?

Who's seen Breaking Dawn? Give me your mini review!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

The Mental Battle (and where I've been all week!)

(Note: For those of you that could care less about my running updates, skip down the bottom for the non-running related good stuff.)

I have an excuse for being MIA since Tuesday , I swear. Well sort of. Is being busy an excuse? Where I'm from it is.

When it comes to running, this was the most grueling week I've ever had. And I don't just mean physically. 

I've been bitching and moaning about my hip for awhile, but here comes a little more, so brace yourself. At the beginning of the week, I posted my mileage goals. So the week began, and I ran my five miles on Monday, about halfway through the run, my hip was hurting. Not sore, not annoying, but actually hurting. I finished the run though, and went home and just collapsed. Tuesday, I was majorly sore (hip wise), so I soaked up my rest day. Wednesday came and went, and I decided that even though my hip was still pretty sore, I really didn't want to miss a run. Like at all. (Read: YES I am stubborn. You shouldn't be at all surprised.) So I went to the gym, and started on a five mile run, with every intention of not only finishing, but also getting up the very next morning to run another four miles. The very minute I started running, my hip was killing. Sore, sharp, throbbing, all of the above. But I did not want to stop. I went 4.5 miles, before I had to stop. I somehow managed to make it back to my apartment before breaking down and sobbing. I had just never in my life hurt that much. And I'd never in my life been forced to cut a planned run short. I made an appointment with the chiropractor for Friday and I decided (along with some major threats/persistence from my boyfriend) that I wasn't going to run again until I knew what was up.

So Friday morning I went to the chiropractor, who after watching me a do a few different things, explained (forgive my uneducated and very basic summary) that I don't have an injury, but I do have an imbalance of muscle buildup. Basically the muscles on the outside of my legs (IT band and all the other good stuff) are stronger, bulkier, and more fibrous than the muscles on the inside of my legs. This imbalance could be caused by a million different little things, but it makes for some major discomfort when running for extended periods of time. So they adjusted the crap out of me (Chiropractic is AMAZING) and showed me a few exercises/stretches to help build up those inner leg muscles without irritating my hip. I walked out of there already feeling so much better. I decided that I would take that Saturday off, and then pick back up on Sunday, but only if I was feeling better. 

Let me tell you, those three days I took off from running at all, seemed like an eternity. It was such a struggle. I felt like I was just being so incredibly lazy. I know a lot of people can understand this, feeling like stopping to actually listen to your body is somehow equal to defeat. I didn't want to do it, but I've got a 10k in less than two weeks, and I knew that if I didn't want to crash and burn, yet again, I'd need to just chill the heck out. 

So this afternoon, after taking three long days off, I got ready to go out for my run. My big goal for this week was to run six miles, and as I was about to step out the door, my mind was just going a million miles a minute. I was freaking out. I was panicked. I kept thinking, "What if two minutes into the run my hip starts to kill again? What if I can't finish six miles? What if I can't finish one mile? What if my pace just sucks?" What if-what if-what if. I just needed to get a grip. I needed to calm the hell down. I hadn't even stepped out the door and I was already in a total panic, already setting myself up for failure, and already sucking all the fun out of my normally enjoyable runs. I was being ridiculous. 

So this is what I did. I didn't turn on my MapMyRun app. I didn't want to hear that electronic voice notifying me of my pace, my mileage, my time-anything. I was just going to turn on my favorite playlist, and run. 

And you know what? I ran my six miles. I ran pain-free. I ran comfortably. I didn't look at my time. I didn't dwell on my pace. And it was one of the best runs I've ever had. And you know what else? I somehow ran faster it than I ever have. 

This mental battle is crazy. I think that's why running has the power to make you feel so strong. Because 85% of it is in your head. Well, at least for me it is. Because when I run, it's just me, alone with my thoughts, which is a dangerous place to be. But I feel like this week was such a stepping stone, it was a huge learning experience, and I feel so much stronger because of it. 

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I know this has been a long and boring post for those of you that couldn't care less about running, so on another note, when it comes to personal stuff, this was one of the best weeks I've ever had! Let me just fill you in, k? Great.

Thursday was ANNUAL BEST FRIENDS DAY!!!!!! 

**I'm about to explain and then totally convince you that best friends day is the greatest invention ever and you're all going to want to follow suit. You just wait and see.** 

Annual best friends day takes place in November. (Usually the day after Thanksgiving, but the older we get the harder it is to coordinate the schedules of two full-time workin' adults, so we bumped it up a week this year.) It's a day off from work and all that boring crap to meet up with the bestie, shop till you drop, eat till you explode, and have super deep meaningful best friend type conversations to celebrate a whopping EIGHT years of best-friendship. I know, you're super jels.

I know. She's adorable. Why do you
think we are best friends?

We take the "eat till you explode" part VERY seriously. 

***If you have a Great American Cookie within a hundred miles of you, go NOW and get a Chewy Pecan supreme. I'm seriously salivating just thinking about it.***

This year, best friends day just happened to coincide with a performance my brother had at the Dallas Museum of Art. (Yes, he's a prodigy. Yes, we are related. Yes, I am aware that he got all the good genes, and I'm totally fine with it. Gives me something to brag on!) So we finished up the day by soaking in some amazing exhibits and then enjoying Jazz Night in the atrium complete with copious amounts of wine and lots of solid family and friend time.

AMAZING brother!

This has SERIOUSLY been the longest post ever. I kept waiting for blogger to cut me off like twitter does when you've hit your word max. No doubt about it, I've definitely hit my word max here folks.

Have any of you runner peeps hit walls like I did this past week? What got you through it?

Is anyone running the Turkey Trot or any other Thanksgiving themed races this week?

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat