Good times....

Yesterday was a good day.....well at least a good evening. Work was.....work, nothing too exciting to say about it. Was planning to stop by the gym on the way home for a run, but then decided to brave the cold since it was sunny out. I knew Ginger would appreciate that decision as well! :) So we headed out. I was a little worried how I would do with the cold air, my lungs usually are not happy with it. But I still made it through 3 miles....of running! The run included leaping over some snow banks too! Wearing SkirtSports makes me do things like that....why run around the snow when you can take graceful leaps over it? :) My Tough Girl skirt and new black Ice Queen jacket kept me super toasty warm and feeling great for the whole run. Seriously, if I haven't convinced you to go buy SkirtSports products yet....go do it! I promise you will not be disappointed. And at only $30, everyone needs to own at least 1 Ice Queen jacket...it's incredible!

After the run, Steve came over and we made an absolutely delicious homemade pizza. Thank you Trader Joe's for all of the delicious ingredients.....pizza dough, pizza sauce, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, peperoni...mmmm so good. (oh yeah...and cheese of course!) Next time I plan to try the garlic herb dough, and the whole wheat version as well. I also really need to get a pizza stone, the crust just doesn't get crispy enough in a regular cookie sheet. We finished off the evening with some episodes of Friday Night Lights, we are way behind on this show.....so thank goodness for DVR! It really is one of the best shows on tv right now....love it. And I love seeing all of the Austin hot spots prominently featured. And a great look of the Austin airport last night....I hope to be visiting it sometime in the near future! :)

A few thoughts....

1. Running makes me hungry.....all the time.....

2. I really wish I had a trigger point set that I could travel with, foam rollers are not portable, and I could really use some rolling right about now!

Oh yes, and in fairness to the people of Lathrop...apparently I was actually running through Manteca yesterday, my mistake....

I <3 In N' Out....

Have I mentioned before that I love In N' Out burger?? Because I do! It's definitely the highlight of any of my work trips out here. #1, no onions please! :) So good!

Of course I had to make sure that I at least deserved it for dinner last night a little, so I headed out for a run beforehand. And I found a bike/running trail this time! It was definitely much more pleasant than running in the distribution center area, but I did get to see some of Lathrop's finest. I think I ran past a drug deal in action, saw some guys who apparently forgot that they were supposed to be taking the baby for a walk, so they parked the stroller off to the side and had a "meeting" with all of their friends, 2 kids who had to be around 16 walking down the path with a bottle of something....I'm going to go ahead and guess it wasn't apple juice, and then a guy basically smoking in his daughter's face as he pushed her on the swing. Ah, good times in Lathrop. While I am enjoying the warmer weather and sun, I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to fly home tomorrow. I'm tired of looking at all of the people here who think skinny jeans are a good idea when they clearly are not!

Tomorrow should be a good day though, waking up early to drive out to San Fran and have breakfast with Jess, my old roomie, And then hopping on the plane back to Chicago. Unfortunately cold weather and probably rain awaits me, but at least I get to see my Ginger! And then on Saturday a certain someone who is apparently MIA lately finally comes home. :)

Happy Thursday everyone.....it's almost Friday! :)

California sun....

I'm out in sunny California for work this week. Trying to enjoy the sun when I'm not stuck at work. Outside it's really nice, but sitting inside I'm forced to wear my fleece because it's really cold in this windowless conference room I'm stuck in. And when I have to go out to the warehouse floor, I get to put on my super sweet Medline jacket because it's even colder out there!

I did manage to get a run outside yesterday after work though. Of course I was sporting SkirtSports, blue gym girl and black tattoo tee (one of my new favorites!) and I headed over to the roads around all of the distribution centers, mainly because it was across the street from my hotel and no one seemed to know of a park/trail/path nearby. Not necessarily a very scenic or peaceful run, but it worked. I got in a nice solid 3 miles. I did learn something though while I was running.....holy crap am I slow!! I guess the speed will come with more regular running though. First, I need to keep building so that I can run some more respectable distances. Although I'm pretty happy with 3 miles for now since I used to think 1 was really far! :)

Speaking of SkirtSports.....they now have the Ice Queen jacket on super sale!! It's a great addition to any one's collection, I now own 2. Check it out....you won't be disappointed. :)

In other news....

In the world of cycling.....apparently Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone while racing in the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon. This is obviously not good for him, but from what I've heard it's a clean break with no complications, so hopefully he'll be able to get back on the bike and still save part of the season.

The upsetting part to me is that all of the articles I have read state that Lance made his comeback in order to make a run at an 8th Tour de France win, and then possibly some small mention of spreading cancer awareness as well. NOT TRUE PEOPLE! Apparently all of these silly reporters forgot to pay attention when Lance told them (over and over again) that the main reason for his comeback was the global cancer initiative. He has never said that he is coming back to try and win the Tour. Who knows, he may not even be the team leader when it comes around to that.... So I would just like to remind reporters that they are supposed to write about facts....not the ideas that they believe to be true...

You may now return to your regularly scheduled afternoon activities.....

Bracketology...

So nevermind about my bracket not doing so well....apparently it's doing well enough to put me in 2nd place in the office pool! That was some good news for my Monday morning! :)

Aahh...weekends...

Ok first off....the bracket update. Long story short....mine isn't doing so well. Stupid upsets that I didn't predict.... Cleveland State....really??

Been a busy couple of days, but for the most part I've been good about getting some decent workouts in as well. Some runs, some lifting, some basketball (watching), out with the boys, and sending the boyfriend off for a week of hanging out on a 75' yacht....yeah poor guy. I also had an extremely crazy, busy day at the shop today. Yes, spring is in the air here in Chicago, and that brings plenty of people out to buy bikes or get their current bikes fixed up. And with 3 of the mechanics out on vacation for the next week....yeah that equals fun. I also had the extreme privilege of helping out 3 different people with their new trunk racks....oh joy. At least it gave me a few moments out in the sun! :)

Oh yes, and the highlight of the weekend! I got all of my new Skirt stuff! I'm loving all of it (of course), and can't wait until I can get some more great stuff from the spring line.

On the schedule for this week, running with Ginger outside tomorrow (if it's nice) and then heading out to California for work Tuesday. Gone until Friday....and then another busy weekend ahead! Non-stop I tell you! :)

The Big Dance....

It all starts today (for real - the play-in game doesn't really matter)! It's time for the Big Dance....aka March Madness! :) I love this part of March! The Illini play tonight at 9:00 against Western Kentucky, for some reason many of the analysts think that WKU will win for the 12-5 upset, but that's just nonsense! Go Illini!! Unfortunately after that we will more than likely end up playing Gonzaga in Portland, which is definitely no fair. And if by some miracle we make it past them on what will basically be a home court, we get to play UNC, definitely not awesome. Although I would cherish the opportunity to knock them out of the tournament early. So bring on the madness, I'm ready. I'm even putting my bracket out there for all to analyze!

A first....

Last night, I decided to hit up computrainer again. I was sick of feeling completely run down and not being able to do anything. So I decided to just go, and see how it went. For the most part, it was good, but I did have to do something that I swore I would never do. I had to pull on the Zensah calf compression sleeves during the ride! :-o

Now, any of you that are triathletes are probably thinking, so what?? That's what they're for! But I'm not a triathlete and I preferred to wear my compression in secret, for recovery. But I was about 50 minutes into the ride and I felt the cramping coming on, and I knew I couldn't hold it off for another 40 minutes especially with some really hard efforts coming up. So I decided I could suffer, quit, or look a little silly. I opted for looking silly. And boy did I! I had also opted to wear my Bike Girl skirt last night....which on it's own was a great decision, I always feel better in SkirtSports! But the combination of the bike skirt, and the calf sleeves, made me look like a school girl with knee high socks. Bright blue socks I might add! Luckily the guys in class didn't care, and they were just glad I was there to kick butt. It wasn't a stellar performance by any means, but I was able to finish strong without lowering my FTP, and I felt good about that. So I'm back. No more feeling tired and getting worn out after walks with the dog. I've got everything in the car for a run at the gym on the way home. Sadly, our nice, warm, sunny weather that we had yesterday only hung around for a day, today we're back to temps in the 40's with a chance of rain, so the gym sounds like a better option for me. My lungs don't like cold air! Yes, I do know that most runners would say high 40's is perfect, but I'm not a "runner" so for me, it's too cold!

Back in it.....bring it on!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY EVERYONE!

I'm broken....

Ahhh, glorious warm weather. It has finally arrived in Chicago! (Although it may be leaving us way too soon!) I thought Saturday was good when it was right around 50 and sunny, but then Sunday hit and it was 60 and sunny! :) Hooray! Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it like I wanted to.....

Saturday the plan was to wait until it warmed up and go for a ride around noon, unfortunately I had a nasty headache that was making me really dizzy, so I didn't think getting on a bike was the best idea. So I took Ginger for a walk instead, I made it 3 miles and was completely exhausted! There has got to be something wrong with me, apparently I'm broken. :( My mom has decided that I have walking pneumonia....I don't know about that, but I know that I can do more than walk 3 miles before I'm completely exhausted. I did spend about an hour sitting on the back porch in the sun and reading though, which was very nice.

Sunday was work at the shop day, and we were super busy! Most of it was people coming in to get their bikes tuned up and repaired for the upcoming season. I really wish (and I'm sure the mechanics do too) that people would learn how to change their own flats....come on, it's not that hard! Once again, just the act of being on my feet in the shop all day left me completely exhausted. Not good, so I finished out the day by making a Trader Joe's run, and eating a nice healthy dinner while sitting on the couch. :)

On a good note though, I placed a huge order with the SkirtSports outlet on Friday! :) I'm waiting patiently (or not so patiently) until a large box shows up on my doorstep. There will be another large order placed sometime soon for items from the new spring line....I'm just waiting until they have released all of the new colors! I love Skirt!

Completely unremarkable weekend...

Can't say that I have anything exciting to report from the weekend, except that I did a lot of sleeping, and when I wasn't doing that I was sitting on my couch watching tv... Now before you go and call me lazy, let me tell you that I needed it! That stupid sickness just wouldn't go away. I was battling a fever, cough, congestion, headache, etc... It was awesome. I got home from work on Friday around 6pm and promptly fell asleep on the couch only to wake up at 11pm in order to relocate to the bed and sleep for another 12 hours. Yep, 17 hours of straight sleep.....awesome.

Now being sick and being forced to sleep a lot wouldn't have been as bad if I hadn't missed out on so much fun this weekend. I was supposed to do a lot of fun stuff this weekend, but sadly had to miss out. Medieval Times with friends on Friday night, Sara's shower Saturday afternoon, and the Modern Day Romeos concert Saturday night. Luckily there will always be other Medieval Times shows, Sara is having another shower and the Modern Day Romeos will be playing more shows sometime. So fun will be had eventually.

I did manage to leave my house last night (for the first time all weekend) to go to my mom's house to celebrate her birthday with a delicious spaghetti dinner. I wasn't so sure about food on the way over there, but once I started eating I was ok with it. So we had a nice evening with good food and good times. Then home where I took my NyQuil and fell asleep.

I'm still not at 100% unfortunately. Luckily the fever has gone away so I am at least able to maintain a constant body temerature, which is nice, but I have added constant dizziness into the mix. Please don't ask me to explain how I was able to drive into work without hitting anything this morning... Here's hoping I'm just as lucky on the way home... :)

sick....blah...

I don't know how or why it happened, but I'm sick again!! It's not fair! How can I be sick twice in a month?!?!? I'm currently suffering through a day of work, (yes I'm blogging at work) because I couldn't stand the idea of using another sick day when I'm actually sick. I had to go home yesterday at lunch because I felt terrible and was completely unproductive. Here is a rundown of yesterday's activities.

Get home
Eat some lunch - soup and grilled cheese, the best feel better food ever.
Watch a little tv
Get tired, try napping
Nap on and off for about 2 hours
Watch a little more tv, check facebook
Try to find something for dinner, but decide that everything looks like too much work
Scrap the idea of dinner and go to bed instead - at 8pm

What a way to spend the afternoon/evening....and to make it all worse the bf is very busy with school so he's not able to come and take care of me. :(

On the leader board!

So we started some friendly competition in computrainer class in the form of recording the max watts and highest cadence. As you can see, it's very official, but check out who is in 2nd place for the women in both categories! As you can see I have some work to do to capture 1st place....but Marie is a machine!