Waiting until the last minute

I realize that I'm about four years behind, but I am now in love with Glee. I can't stop watching. So an advanced apology to all my co-workers because there is a good chance that I will break out in song and dance in the breakroom tomorrow.  You are welcome. Weekend recap comin' at ya...NOW!

Saturday morning Taylor and I were up bright and semi-early to head to the Color Me Rad 5k. I did a pretty good job of convincing Taylor that pop-tarts are a very nutritious and common "runner's breakfast." He totally bought it. 

We signed up for the Color Me Rad awhile back and ran as a team with a group of friends. We ran the 10am wave, which was way hotter than anyone of us had imagined it would be, but still pretty fun. 

Oh and, FYI, temporary tattoos are a pain in the ass to get off. I would know because I spent all day Saturday and Sunday walking around restaurants and stores sporting a "rad" tat. Very cool. 

I really did try to get a variety of color on me, but for some reason Taylor and I only managed to get hit with mostly orange and yellow. And not even that much of it. Color fail. Oh well. I think what I enjoyed the most was getting to run a little bit with Taylor. I can count on one hand how many times we've run together, and this was our first official "race" to run together. And I've already started making plans in my head to run marathons together. Poor Taylor. 

In summary: hot, fun, and a little overrated. I'd probably be alright if I never ran a color run again, but I see the appeal, and it's definitely a fun thing to do with friends. 

After crossing the finish line and downing a refreshingly cold beer, we made our way to a burger place called  Shaw's, where I demolished a guacamole bacon burger. 

Fun fact about me: if a restaurant has sweet potato fries-I'm going to order them. It's just a given. 

After lunch, we headed over to Rahr & Son's Brewery to hang out. I could only stomach one pint because it was about 1000 degrees outside and really I'm just not fancy enough to enjoy a beer that doesn't have the word "lite" in the name. I did enjoy my free glass though. 

 After all the fun, we headed back home to scrub off the sweat and color. We were pretty exhausted from our day, and we chose to deal with that exhaustion by taking a 3 1/2 hour nap. I woke up all frazzled and grumpy by the fact that we'd just slept away the better part of an entire evening and then Taylor said "Chipotle" and I perked right up. After Chipotle, I had to satisfy a craving that I'd been having the past couple of days:

Are you really overwhelmed and impressed by the beautiful background of this picture AKA Taylor's living room? I thought you would be. Just don't let it distract you from the magnificence that is DOUBLE STUF OREOS! Sometimes I forget how much I love Oreos and that is exactly why I do not keep them in my house. I am not exaggerating when I say that I ate half of this container. I repeat: I am not exaggerating. 

I was really worried that because of the excessive length of our nap, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, but I was wrong. We were passed out by 12:30 (per usual for me, not so usual for Tater Tot). We slept in until about 8:30, and when Taylor asked me what I wanted to do for breakfast my immediate response was "WHATABURGER" because the taquitos were calling my name. 

I strongly believe that every meal should be followed by dessert, and that includes breakfast. So I was forced to wash my taquito down with a few Oreos, just to even things out. 

In all the craziness of the weekend, I realized this afternoon that I'd majorly procrastinated my half marathon training weekend run. Um, oops. So I peeled myself off the couch and headed to the gym around 6:30 for my 8 mile run (AKA 72 minute Glee watching marathon). 

(Oh and an empty gym makes for a really happy Natalie.)

  

Just let me know when you guys start getting tired of the gym selfies, k? 

I have to be honest, after all the crap I ate this weekend (oh and I forgot to tell you about the onion rings dunked in ranch that I had during Sonic's happy hour today) I was pretty much expecting my run to be reminiscent of the enchilada run/debacle from a few weeks back - but it totally wasn't. In fact, this may have actually been the most undeserved, perfect run of all time. Obviously this means that I need to precede each run with an order of onion rings, right?

Oh and in case you were wondering - today is exactly TWO WEEKS until my birthday!! Now I'm off to celebrate with more Glee. Come on y'all, it's not going to watch itself. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

I'm the strongest person I know.

Technically this is a weekend recap, but I actually have like 900 things to tell you and it's comin' at ya in no particular order whatsoever so READY LET'S GO!

After the 5k Thursday night, I took Friday off so that I could spend a little time with my friend Alli (featured in my Katy Trail 5k photo dump post). We slept in till about 8:30, treated ourselves to massages (AMAZING) and then to an incredible breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe.

I would now like to introduce you to the most incredible invention of all time that also happens to be the only thing I have ever ordered off this menu....THE BACADO OMELETTE. 

The bacado omelette is filled (stuffed full really) with bacon, pepper jack cheese, a TON of avocado, and served with a side of yummy salsa. I just about died. The omelette is massive so Alli and I split it and ordered an extra english muffin and potatoes to round out our breakfast. It was really just the most delicious thing ever and writing about it right now is only making really upset and disappointed thinking about the boring breakfasts I will have to endure until I return to Another Broken Egg again. I really don't know how I will survive. Good thing I'm not dramatic. 

That afternoon Taylor and I headed to Stephenville for our friend Andy's graduation. Taylor and Andy grew up just a couple houses down from each other and have been BFFs for approximately one million years. He is basically really awesome and I love him a ton. Friday night we had dinner with his family and then went back to his house to celebrate. 

After a verrry fun and celebratory Friday night,we woke up bright and early Saturday morning for graduation.

After graduation, we headed back to Andy's house for a little graduation lunch/cookout with his family (aka my favorite people in the entire world). I didn't take a picture of my lunch but I can tell you it consisted of about 17 hot dogs and nearly an entire bag of potato chips and french onion dip. And no vegetables. But I did eat a chocolate covered strawberry. As you can imagine, my nutritious lunch led to an intense food coma. So after an amazing little nap, Taylor and I headed out and onto our next stop...

Ooops. I have no idea how this picture got in there. That is most certainly NOT my chocolate xtreme blizzard. I mean I don't even like chocolate. Okay fine I'm lying. But you pass approximately 72 Dairy Queens on the way back from Stephenville to Fort Worth and if that's not a sign then I don't know what is. 

Anyways, off we went to dinner with one of Taylor's old college roommates (Brian) and his family (who also happen to be my boss and coworker. It's complicated, just try to keep up.) I don't know why I didn't snap a picture of dinner. But it was kindove amazing and since there are no pictures, you're just going to have to take my word for it. However I did get a picture of Taylor trying to dig a dog bone out from under the couch. The puppies were only trying to help. 

After all the fun Saturday, I passed out hard that night and woke up this morning ready for the first weekend run of my Jalapeno Half training plan. 

Sportin my new gear AKA what may be the most comfortable race t-shirt EVERR. 

 

This was a great easy run that also gave me a rude awakening back into running outside. It was about 67 degrees for this run and I was covered in sweat by the time I finished. I don't know how I'm going to survive summer without melting into a puddle. Anyways, I didn't really have a plan for my run, but it ended up being an almost perfect progression run. I started off with about a 9:20 pace and ended on an 8:40. Aside from being hot, it was great!

After I got back from my run this morning, I hopped in the shower and got ready to head home for Mother's Day lunch. 

LOVE my mom!

All the lovely "moms" in my life!

Oh and PS I win daughter of the year for best mother's day gift EVER. 

After partying with all the moms I had to head back to reality because I haven't grocery shopped or done laundry in approximately 2 weeks. Adult FAIL.

But then I redeemed myself. I'm sure you are wondering why I titled this post "I'm the strongest person I know" when we are all perfectly aware of my thoughts on strength training and heavy lifting in general (EFF it I say). The reason is....

LOOK WHAT I FOUND AT TARGET TONIGHT!

Y'all I nearly peed myself. 

I spent a good 45 minutes in the frozen goods aisle just staring...then opening the door...then closing the door...then walking away...then walking back. Repeat 17 times. But in the end, I did not buy the ice cream. I did buy all this grown up crap though. 

I have never exercised so much self control in my life. See that y'all? GROWTH. Well, does it still count as growth if I plan on going back and getting it tomorrow? No? Oh well. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

So it begins...AGAIN.

Here's what happened last week:

 I felt like I was getting sick. Tried to fight that off...

 Then I got sick. And developed a chemical dependency on Tylenol Cold Multi-Sympton - severe. (A big shout out to the medical community for this prized contribution that kept me from killing over all last week.)

Disgusting cold - 1, Immune System - 0.

SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS.

Then I made a Tater and I a really delicious and comforting pot roast (easiest recipe ever) and moaned inappropriately the entire way through dinner. 

Looks gross - tastes delicious.

Then I was really productive at work...

Shoes is what I came up with after I got bored with "boobies."

Then Texas decided to dip from 85 degrees on Wednesday to 35 degrees Thursday. Which happened to coincide with really badass 11th row Rangers tickets falling into my lap. 

Friday night I stayed home, got in bed at 7:30, and tried to sleep off my cold and gear up for....

Cinco De Mayo/Tailgating/2nd Rangers Game of the Week!

Yes, that is a ghetto rigged pinata hanging off the back of a pickup. No, there was most certainly not any alcohol involved in this endeavor. (I'm lying.)

I. LOVE. HIM.

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Aren't you exhausted after all of that? I was. 

Today was a BIG day because...it's about that time again...half marathon training time! The countdown and preparation for the Jalapeno Half Marathon has officially begun! Brace yourself for the roller coaster of emotion that is to come in the next eight weeks. You are welcome in advance for the entertainment. If you are interested, here's the training plan I've concocted. If you aren't interested, move along, there's nothing to see here.

How this half is going to be different than the first:

- It's going to be hot. As balls. Not looking forward to that - AT ALL. 

- It's going to be flat. (Halleluyer!)

- I'm actually going to cross train. As opposed to what I did last time. Which was talk about cross training and then proceed to convince myself that strolling around Target is cross training. I am very convincing y'all.

- I'm probably going to have to run while I'm on vacation. In Colorado. Can you say altitude? I'm scared. 

- I'm going to strength train. (Hello BodyPump!)

So, that's the plan! So far we are on Day 1 and I haven't failed yet. Someone, please, pat me on the back. I'm going to be very honest and tell you that I've only run a small handful of times the last couple of weeks. I had two absolutely terrible runs while I was sick last week and then I took a whole five days off from any physical activity at all, which I needed and don't regret for a second, but I'm more than ready to get back into the swing of things. So because it's been awhile, I did a very easy and sloooww 4 miles on the treadmill tonight with no pain, and no shin tightness, and then I followed up with my new favorite - a Pump class. 

Don't laugh at my tiny weights. Just don't. 

And then I cried all the way home because my arms were so jello-y that just manning the steering wheel was becoming too challenging. 

Tuesday Natalie you are so screwed. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Natalie