Let's be honest

Not to be confused with lesbehonest...

 

(If you haven't seen Pitch Perfect, RUN, don't walk to a RedBox or Blockbuster or Walmart or WHATEVER and watch it right now! And then we can resume our friendship.)

Hi everybody! First things first - it is FLIPPIN HOT.

(Proof just in case you thought I was kidding.)

 I kindove hate August because it seems like every year around this time I start to go crazy and feel like there is no end in sight for this ridiculous heat that has me sweating around the clock. Not only is it super attractive, it also makes running approximately 17 times more difficult. 

Speaking of running, this is where the "let's be honest" part comes into play. Running this summer has been HARD. Hard because of the heat, hard because of my lack of motivation, and lately, hard because of a minor injury. 

A couple weekends ago, I headed out for a ten miler with the running club group. About two miles in, I began having a sharp/stabbing/shooting pain on the outside of my left knee. I fought it for eight miles until it got to the point where I almost fell over. I had to walk the last two miles. As I limped back, with about a million thoughts racing through my mind, I had an emotional breakdown. I cried and cried and cried. Not necessarily because it hurt (oh, but it did) but because for the first time EVER, I wasn't physically able to run. The drama queen in me came out, and as I cried I started panicking at the thought of having to stop marathon training, or worse having to stop running altogether. My favorite thing in the entire world. My pace group was super sweet, helpful, and sympathetic. After I described to them what I was feeling, the general consensus was that it sounded like something they were all pretty familiar with - IT band issues. 

So I came home, cried a little bit more, googled, iced, stretched, foam rolled, and didn't run for five days. Then Taylor and I went on a run date (those are a weekly thing now!). I took it easy, and my knee felt a little sore, but nothing like the pain I'd felt before.

I still decided to go to the doctor, who gave me an x-ray and confirmed there were no fractures (hallelujah) but that I did have IT band issues and just a whole mess of little problems with my left leg, and also figured out that I underpronate. Which means my outer knee pain, and the fact that I've previously had issues with inner shin splints make perfect sense. After hearing all that, I decided not to push it, and that it would probably be best to skip out on the eleven mile training run, and rest up. I think that was the best decision I could've made. This week, I was able to get in a really good, solid six mile treadmill run that had me feeling like things were finally getting back to normal.

But still, I was a little nervous for this weekend's long run. It was a pull back run, so we only went 9 miles, but I was secretly terrified that I'd start feeling the same pain. But luckily, I didn't. I had a pain-free 9 mile run, and I really feel like I am back in the marathon training game!

So here are my thoughts: I can't believe how ridiculously useless I felt not being able to run like I normally do. I read all the time about people having injuries, but I would've never imagined it would affect me in the way that it did. 

Running has changed my life. I knew that before, but I can honestly say it has never felt more true. Running is the constant that makes everything else seem a little easier. I feel so blessed to have found something that makes me feel so alive.

But enough of that. Let's move onto lighter subjects. How about some non-running related tidbits?

I can't get enough guacamole. Good news is neither can Taylor. 

I have officially developed strong strong feelings for Macklemore. Like lyrics playing in my head all day long and also creeping their way into my dreams type of strong.

Almonds. Almonds. Almonds. All day every day.

Want to know how to kick-start an awesome weekend? Jet out of work at 4:59 on Friday and head straight for a "I totally deserve this" pedicure and glass of wine with your awesome co-workers!

Is it sort of creepy that I took a picture of  man rubbing my legs? Mmm...probably. But it was AWESOME.

New YORK!

We are just a little bit excited. Every time Empire State of Mind comes on the radio I have send her videos like this...(please don't laugh at my "sing while simultaneously popping donut holes into my mouth" dance.)

Luckily she does pretty much the exact same thing. Minus the dancing.

Another honest moment - I have no idea what I'm going to do with my Mondays now that the Bachelorette is over! Except maybe count down the days until I get to watch Juan Pablo as the new Bachelor. 

Um, yes. Just YES. 

I'm racking my brain really hard to try and come up with a good way to convince Taylor that I should  probably audition. I'm thinking my opening line will be, "So I think what would be best for our relationship right now would be for me to take off a few months of work and travel to various tropical locations with an exotic Latino man." Thoughts? Yeah...it's still a work in progress. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Endorphins and Easter Candy

I should really be doing laundry and making my weekly run to Trader Joe's because I have no clothes and no food but it was such a great three day weekend and so many wonderful things happened that I just have to share. So when I show up hungry and naked to work tomorrow you will know why. 

Friday started off really well because I slept in until 8:45. For some reason I have completely lost my ability to sleep late when I'm sleeping by myself. It just isn't possible. Mostly because 97% of the time my bladder wakes me up at 6:30. That's embarrassing, but it's true. Hey hold on for a second, I have to pee again.

Okay I'm back. So Friday I slept in a little bit, then went for a run because I was stuck at work late on Thursday so instead of running I decided to eat a pizza and then go to sleep.

So after my run I did approximately 12 girl pushups and then called it a workout. I was jamming out to Bon Jovi while I was doing my pushups, and completely forgot I'd left my music blaring so when I hopped out of my shower I thought for a minute there was a really talented attacker in my apartment and panicked. Then I realized it was just "Livin' on a Prayer" and my heart rate returned to normal. So that was Friday day.

Friday evening I met up with Taylor and we headed over to his parents house to have a nice little dinner with them. I really love them and it had been way way too long since we'd seen them so that was wonderful and delicious and it's probably good we don't see them more often because they feed us too well and we would most likely be like 100 pounds heavier than we currently are. 

We spent the rest of the night relaxing and goofing off with his roommates playing made up card games and ridiculous trivia. I may have cheated. 

And then we thought it would be funny to put a tie on Jax. 

Actually I'm pretty sure that was my idea.

A tie. On a dog. Funny right? No? Ok. 

Saturday morning we had no trouble sleeping in until ELEVEN. Of course I woke up early to pee and then went back to bed, but that's really beside the point. And then of course, donuts happened. Weekend breakfast at Shipley's is almost like a reflex now.

It goes like this: Wake up, NEED SHIPLEY'S NOW. 

Cake donuts are my new fave.

I have to tell y'all a secret. 95% of the time Taylor pretends that he can't stand me. 

This  is what I get when I beg him to take a picture with me.
Friggin' Spock hand.

But then he buys me donuts, takes me shopping, spends the afternoon watching Forrest Gump with me while I cry (if FG doesn't make you cry there is seriously something wrong with you), and then feeds me Saltgrass for dinner. Tater, sweetheart, you aren't fooling anyone. 

I'm aware that you already saw the donuts, but I can't help what I instagram people. 

So that was Saturday. 

Sunday we woke up bright and early (eh, is 9am early?) and went to church for an awesome Easter Sunday service. Then we celebrated the resurrection with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of food.

Seriously, it's what Jesus would have wanted. 

If you are thinking that you don't see any vegetables on that table then you are dead WRONG mister.

That is a whole dish full of green bean casserole. 

If that isn't the most Southern Easter dinner you've ever seen.
BBQ brisket and fried okra? OMG Texas you are the best. 

Then it was picture time. 

Remember when I gave you insight into a typical Mimi conversation? Well I am kindove obsessed with Mimi and she might be my most favorite person in the whole entire world. 

This is Mimi's permanent stance:

Hunched over with her wind up disposable camera glued to her face capturing some super unimportant moment. 

Like this one for instance.  

Crazy lady actually made us pose holding a plant.

You cannot make this stuff up folks.

I keep telling her that one day her face is going to get stuck like that but she doesn't listen to me. 

See? I wasn't kidding about the wind up disposable camera. 

Favorite people. 

Yeah that's me holding my belly because it was FULL. But look how cute my brother is. 

Oh there's that boy again.

Also apparently Mimi forgot my name, because my Easter egg looked like this:

WTF Mimi?!?!!! She says her hand slipped but I don't know if I buy it.

JK Mimi I love you and I love my semi-personalized boiled egg. 

If you are still reading this then you must really like me so give yourself a pat on the back because this is really long and you've obviously developed some super human blog reading endurance. I applaud you. Also I'm almost done.

After the food coma, we headed back home to Fort Worth. I'd really wanted to squeeze in an 8 mile run this weekend and had pretty much decided it wasn't going to happen but the weather was just way too nice and I so I went out for a run. 

Best decision EVER.

My calf pain/tightness/shin splints have been bothering me pretty much always lately. Which makes running less fun and more about distracting myself from the pain. It's been awhile since I've had a really enjoyable run. So I knew that if I was going to have fun with this run, I was going to have to slow the heck down. So I did. And the result was a perfect, pain-free run. 

I think I've been so caught up in wanting to get faster and faster all the time that I've forgotten the benefits of a comfortable run. 

I needed someone to remind me that every run is not a race. And I need to do a better job with incorporating a slower paced long run into every week. 

But now I won't be able to sleep because I'm hopped up on endorphins and Easter candy. Oops. 

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