Last night something came over me, and apparently the roomie too. For whatever reason it was absolutely necessary that we stay up and watch Scrubs until 1:00am. On a WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

Whoooo does that?

Because of my mandatory-8-hour rule, and because my first class isn’t until 11:15, I skipped the gym, turned off the alarm, had a super random dream, but woke up feeling much better than I think I would have had I dragged myself to go do cardio. (RSC to be specific ) However, as “refreshed” as I may have been, apparently my mind was still running a little behind. Hence this tragedy happened to my morning coffee:

My morning cup of black gold turned into a morning cup of black NaCl onion garlic paprika cup of NASTY. I realized it the second I sprinkled it on and did my best to skim the spices off the top, but no amount of skimming could remedy this catastrophe, and down the drain it went.

Despite the absence of caffeine this morning that would usually leave me dragging, I was feeling just fine. In large part I’ll attribute that to the SUN that finally decided to reappear over our lovely city of Mini-apple. Splendid. I had a really fun first class.. we broke into three groups based on our personality types (A, B, C) and the got in little groups and just talked about how we act in different situations. I’ve mentioned before, I’m type A to the max.. probably type A+, but it was hilarious  to talk to the guys in my group about what we do when we’re waiting for someone who’s late.. have a slow car pull out in front of us.. or even just how extreme we take playing a board game (Grandma.. you’re goin DOWN). The class is called Lifetime Health & Wellness, and it’s through my major department (Kinesiology)… definitely my favorite!

Anywho my kiddies.. I will keep this brief because I need to meet the kids for SPIN soon! Tomorrow is TEAM MOVIE NIGHT and I’m hosting, so I have to hit Target on the way home to pick up some movie snacks! I mostly just didn’t want to go too long without posting, but also, I wanted to make sure I’m keeping alla YOU in the loop! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled, because there are some big exciting things coming to RunRoamRecycle! Some will be happening sooner rather than later, but in short, I’m pumped. And you should be too!

Until soon mis amigos!
-E

This is my first ever giveaway.. and while it might seem like everybody and their mom is having a giveaway right now, one more definitely can’t hurt! I intended to do a giveaway on my 100th post (mmm yeah, that says something about my posting frequency) but that day came and went, and here I am, a giveaway virgin. I am really excited though – I constantly see incoming links to my blog that I don’t know, and it makes me really happy to think I’m getting new readers! I hope this opens up my blog to a larger community, as well as showing ME some sweet blogs that I have yet to discover!!

So what are we playin’ for?

Healthy Cooking mag – it’s not just for the Britains
Organic food coupons and raisins not bitten
Agave Nectar – like liquid gold with wings
These are a few of my favorite things…

(OK tell me you guys are picking up on this song and I don’t just sound like an idiot…)

Advice from the Mayo on choosing your noodles,
Plus “Disease Fighting Foods” – the whole kit n caboodle
Goodies from Quaker – a key chain on a ring
Plus a pen and you have some of my favorite things…!

WOW….

that was a stretch. Please excuse the lameness.

Contents of the giveaway:

• The last issue of Healthy Cooking magazine – I browsed through it – lots of fall pumpkin infused goodies!
• 4 $1.00 off coupons for any Cascadian Farm product. I recommend either cereal or frozen b.nut squash!
• 4 booklets of coupons for lots of good organic goodies… yogurt, cereal, soup, natural cleaning products, etc.
• Mentos!! Haha I love em. They’re not breath mints.. they’re movie candy. Clearly.
• To-go packets of organic agave nectar. Seeing as how this is apparently a popular thing among bloggers…
• Two booklets from the Mayo Clinic on healthy eating out, and some super disease fighting foods
• Some little goodies I got from Quaker for all you oatmeal fanatics – a pen and a key chain
• A bigazz bag of dark chocolate Raisinettes!! Soooo good.

Alright, so the majority of these are not necessarily “favorite things,” (except the Raisinettes and Mentos) but they are definitely all good stuff. And the COUPONS! Alright let me tell you a story my friends. I ventured to the land of the Food Hole (otherwise known as Whole Paycheck) with several coupons. Rare is the occasion that you will find me there, unless I am accompanied by a generous credit card other than my own. Come to think of it, I think about 90% of the times I have been in that store have been just for lunch off of the salad bar, not actual grocery shopping of my own. That place is such a trap – the had SO MANY good things! Brands and producs that I had never even seen or heard of before! You will be seeing something related in a future post. ANYWAYS, the point of this story – with my coupons in hand and a wee bit of restraint, I got to the checkout counter and saved $15. That’s nothing compared to what I’ve done at Target before ($41!!), but that was $15 off of a $35 total!! That’s a 42% savings!! You too can save %42 my friends. All you have to do issss….

Rules to enter:

Each one of these steps counts as a separate entry – upping your chances of winning!

1. Submit a photo of your favorite food/snack/drink/meal/whathaveyou that makes you think FALL!!! You have to SEND the photo to me ( RunDogMpls at gmail dot com ) and before I (randomly) select the winner, I’ll have a photo post of all of your favorite fantastic fall favorites!! (How’s that for alliteration?) Since the winner is picked based off of the number of your comment, leave a comment saying what it was you sent a picture of. This is NOT OPTIONAL.. to enter the giveaway you need to send a picture!
2. Follow me on Twitter, and post a comment saying you did so. My Twitter screen name is SperlyTriRunner.
3. Leave a comment with a recipe for your favorite fall [blank] that you sent me a photo for. If you have a blog and you’ve already posted about it.. you can just leave a comment with the link to your post.
4. Post about my giveaway on YOUR blog including a link to this page, and then leave a comment with the link to your post!

Alright so #1 is mandatory – everyone get that? If I draw your number and you haven’t sent in a photo, I gotta pick someone else. Capiche?

So you have FOUR chances to enter. I don’t like even numbers.. but I can’t think of one more thing that would be a good entry. Just a side note – there are a couple things being added into the loot bag, but I already took the picture, so those are just gonna increase the suspense! I know already that there is a larger item that has been added in to the winnings, and also a little item that I threw in this morning. If I get stuff between now and when I pick the winner there might be more! And so when I pick the winner – you have between right now and Saturday October 24th at midnight to make your submissions. I will draw on Sunday, and then that week I will be posting all of your lovely photos! If you sent link to the recipe for the photo that you submitted (hahah that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built) and you don’t mind me SHARING that recipe, I’ll also include the link for that!

I’m playing by the rules here (but no, I won’t be sending off this package to myself). Here is my submission for a favorite snack that instantly says leaves are a changin’, pumpkin pie is in the oven.. it’s falllll baby!

Ingredients:
- One serving of Caramel corn
- Those burntdelicous tasting caramel coated peanuts (think Cracker Jacks) that come with the caramel corn
- A crappy paper prize A big ol handful of candy corn.

Yummmm!

OK.. I think this post has taken me close to an hour to write. Hence why I don’t post so often. What do you all do to make it easier? Wait.. don’t answer that.. at least not on this post. That doesn’t count as an entry to the giveaway! Listo muchachos? Ready… set… GO!

E Sperly – signin off from the coffee shop. Byeeee

I decided not to go out to Hudson last night. For some reason I had in my mind that it took like an hour and a half to get there.. but then I put it in googleMaps and it said it only took 40 minutes. So I nixed the plans with my mom’s friend (where I was planning on staying overnight) and decided I’d just drive out in the morning. It was a early morning! I haven’t seen 4:30am in a looong time. But it was well worth it – my mom’s friend has a dog, and I have allergies, and that wouldn’t have been a good idea the night before a race!

So I was out the door by 5:15, stopped for coffee (I had my coffee pot all set up to brew this morning.. but I set it for 5PM instead of 5am! doh!!) and was on my way! It was pitch black when I left, but I got to watch the sun rise as I was driving east to Hudson! SO PRETTY! Hhaha annnnd.. I swear the only people out on the roads at that time were people going to the tri! Every  car I saw had a racing bike on the back or a TriHarder bumper sticker… it made me smile every time!

Got there, got my transition area all set up, got my packet, my “small” shirt (which goes down to my knees… who makes these!?) and got tatted…

and then had a while to wait for the start. I was nervous because my feet and hands were COLD. I’ve always had bad circulation.. but i was thinking if they’re cold now and I haven’t even touched the water yet.. then I’m in trouble! The water even looked cold!

The race started at 7:30, but since I was in wave 5 (women 29 and under) I didn’t start until like 7:45. There were some competitive looking girls out there.. but at this race they didn’t mark your age on your calf like they usually do, so I couldn’t tell who I was up against! Maybe a good thing…

The gun went off and so did we. The water was actually not bad – I think it was probably about 70°.. so the water temperature was not the problem. Especially because I did this in more clothes than I did Green Lake… I was wearing a full length tri top and shorts. Little teeny shorts.. but shorts none the less. Honestly though.. I think I panicked a bit in the lake. Open water swimming is really different than swimming in a pool.. and the sighting thing just wasn’t working for me today. I had to breast stroke a bit in the beginning just to calm myself down, and by the time I reached the turn around bouey I was pretty much fine. It definitely slowed my swim time down though!

Thennnn the bike. I have two conflicting factors here when I try to compare to my last tri: 1. I was on a much better/faster bike. 2. I. was. FREEZING. I said the water temperature wasn’t a problem.. but the air temperature was. It was still too early for the sun to shine on the road, so the air temp was still like 55°. Take that, plus being soaking wet, plus going 22 mph = froze my ass off. Hahha I can’t wait to see the pictures from the professional photographer.. my face was like locked in one position that I’m sure was disgusting very attractive… I’ll have to wait and see.

And then, my love – the run. This was a 4 mile run.. where as Green Lake was just a 5K. I actually like this run way better though. And finally my face and arms and core warmed up because the sun was finally peaking through! My legs from the knees down though were just numb.. it was ridiculous! But I knew they were still attached, and damnit, they had a job to do, so I got to it. I definitely started out slower than usual, but ended up picking it up a lot at the 2 mile turn around. My time out was 15:42 (!!! wtf) and coming back it was 13:44. All for a grand average pace of 7:21 (according to Gomer). Which for me.. is still ridiculously slow for a 4 mile run. But with frozen feet and being a newbie up and coming triathlete, I’ll take it. My friend Cyndi is the only other person I knew up there… she is from the Splashers team I train with (hard core name.. no?) and she is a great athlete! She says she is not a runner.. but I told her that is the great amazing thing about individual sports. You can be whatever you want to be. You can improve, and it’s easy to forget that sometimes! I love this lady’s attitude. She is definitely kick ass and will help remind you that you are too!

My total time was something along the lines of 1:20:xx… PickleEvents does the chip timing and they haven’t posted the results online yet. What I can say is that despite feeling like it wasn’t my best race.. it definitely wasn’t.. I took 2nd in my age group (and contradictory to my age-group-upgrade-fears, would have taken 2nd in the 20-25 devision too). I came home with an amazing medal engraved with St. Croix Valley Tri a .. stop watch? Mmm yep. Not kidding. Note to Race Director.. hopefully you’ll see this somehow – I LOVED your race. Everything. But a stop watch? Even Green Lake did medals.. they were just dog tags engraved but actually I like that the best! Then you can actually wear it without looking like you’re trying to be a show off. I can promise you that I wont be wearing my St. Croix Valley stop watch out to dinner tonight. My mom actually said she needs one for school, so…. !!

The after celebration was nice – it was a Luau theme so they had leis and pineapple and what not.. but the main “event” for the food was pulled pork. I am not one of those PITA vegetarians, but I would have appreciated sommmme sort of meat-free option! I wasn’t kidding about the shirt being huge.. and I hate that because half the point of doing a race is to get free shirts.. and I like to be able to WEAR them! Here is me, trying to jump up on my couch before Photo Booth counts down…

Please ignore the crazed look on my face.. and I promise. I am completely G rated in posting this.. there are shorts on under there! And Chad.. this is all for you buddy – the shorts:

I was actually looking for racing buns.. but no where keeps them in stock! They’re mostly for team orders.. so this was the closest I could get. And I LOVE them. And bought two pairs.

I met my mom and some family friends at Dunn Bros on my way home. It was really nice to see them all.. and MAN was I ready for a cup of coffee!! That brings me to here.. all done with a triathlon before 9:30am and saying now what? for the rest of the day! I think I am meeting up with someone to buy the calc book I need for this year (craigslist – in case I go missing) (Kidding!! Sorta… =/ ) and then I think I am going to go spend the rest of the day helping my mom set up for our YARD SALE we are having in two weeks. So this my friends concludes my St Croix Valley Tri race report, and overall I’d say it was a success. If I’m in town, I’ll be back there next year!

I’m out!

See you soon love bugs. Race on Monday.. school starts Tuesday! YIKES! Live it up while you can!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning, and ERIKA RAN – the first day.

- Genisis 1

Comrades, the day has finally come – I HAVE OFFICIALLY BEEN CLEARED TO RETURN TO RUNNING. 

That would be the legit note from señor Dr. Denis Clohisy at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and I have also been cleared by dear Dr. Millis here in Boston, as well as my physical therapist (who I haven’t talked a lot about, but he’s amazing too ), Ian.

Now let’s be clear on some things… “Return to running” does not mean return to where I was at when I stopped. It does also not mean intervals, or tempos, or 400 repeats on the track. It does not mean that in 10 weeks I will be toeing the line at Boston, no matter how badly I want to/how much I think I “could”/how many times I look over at this posted on my wall next to my desk:

Running Boston THIS YEAR is out. You better believe I’m keeping my number though.. because while you can “defer” your time for a second year, you can’t “defer” your payment, and that is $110 I will not be getting back. More than the money though, being able to run, but not being able to RUN, is going to kill me. It already is. Going to watch is going to be ridiculously hard, but there is no way I’m not going. I have two people from home that are flying out here to run, as well as 3 friends from here that are running it this year too. I will be there to support them for sure.

While the news that I get to run again is honestly the best thing I’ve heard since, “Hi, this is Marathon Sports. Your Asics just came in…” it did come with some setbacks. (Oh wait.. so did the Asics situation. Pink? Really? The website said RED.)

Hearing I can run? I’m ecstatic. Thrilled. Elated. Overjoyed. Over the moon. Top of the world. I don’t know how many ways I can say it.. but it couldn’t make me happier. EXCEPT.. I was/am scared. So scared. I’m scared that despite how great my hip (/hips) feel, I’m gonna get out there, and be like, “Shit. It’s not supposed to feel like that.” That hasn’t happened yet, and I feel that with each new run I go on, that fear will dissipate,  but that fear is real. 

So what.. 5 mile? No prob? Mmm… not quite. My doctor cleared me for 10 minutes/2x per day (ideally, or just 20 minutes once). As much as I want to take what he said and be like, “Sure.. no probs.” I honestly know that it’s a bit much. Not that I don’t think I could do that, but because I don’t think I should. The coach here.. even after little stress fractures, he starts his runners out at 10 minutes, every other day. 20 minutes every day.. kinda a big step up from that. I’m sticking to every/other right now for this first week, and I’m planning on evaluating with my PT tomorrow at my appointment. 

So yes. I’m back. Lots is going on right now in my life… I have this huge “Project Lent: 2009″ thing that I’m doing.. more on that later maybe, and oh yeah, that little thing called college:

Sad story – my roomie put my absolute favorite from-home Caribou Coffee travel mug through the DISHWASHER. And the hot water melted the seal. And melted the red outside color. And now its dunzo. She offered to buy me a new one, and I bring to you:

I know I’m all “RunRoamRECYCLE”, but this is kinda overkill. It was the only one that had a solid closing though.. and I need to be able to toss it in my bag, so there you go. “Made with 28% post-consumer recycled content”. Yeah.. it says that.. plus a lot more lil recycle-happy quotes. I am ALL FOR being environmentally conscious, but I don’t like to preach. You’ll never see me wearing one of VS’s “Think Pink, Go Green” shirts. NEVER. 

Oh.. and that lil guy.. I got a new tattoo. It was kinda one of those last minute decision things.. and I’m not so sure about it now. Sorry mom. 

Love to you all, and to all a good night. GREYS!

morning coffee + "Sneaky Pete's"

Shoes on and GO!

Unfortunately, today in Minneapolis is one of “those” days.. gray skies, drizzling rain, no sun in sight. Doubly unfortunate – this is my day off from work. My day’s off are usually filled with outdoor adventures, as I’ve posted about in the past, but today feels like one of those days when you just want to stay warm and dry. In memory of sunny days past, I will share with you a few photos of my adventure day off of work from last week Maybe it will be good karma and the sun will peak through..

goodies from aforementioned excursion

I’m LOVING the new green backpack by the way.. definitely a good buy! I haven’t gone back to Opitz at all this week because I feel pretty set for clothes. Today though my mom and I have to make a run to SpendAllYourMoney and gather up quite a few things. Supposedly though, they’ll ship it all straight to my dorm, so that’s good. It’s terrible how pessimistic I am about this, but I can just foresee something going wrong. I’m moving ALONE.. so that has already put me in the mindset of “this isn’t gonna work”.. “I’m going to be the only one doing this alone” (which is partially true – my 5 other suitemates all have family members helping out. BUT they’re all from the east coast, so it’s not an extra flight for them).. “things are going to get lost”.. “FIVE flights of stairs – are you freaking kidding!?!”.. you get the picture. What I need to be thinking is:

• This is going to work just FINE!
• My mom’s coming in October!
• Obviously you’ll forget something or something will get lost – it happens to everyone!

Hah – and if I can’t really get myself to think that, I can at least fake it! (I used to always do this for track workouts.. I’d tell myself all day “Yesss! I LOVE repeat 400s!”.. and by the time practice rolled around it really wasn’t that bad!)

OH! So you’ve all seen photos of my laptop. I got it at the beginning of the last school year, and I pretty much love it. It’s an HP Pavillion dv2000.. “special edition” (read: it has a super pretty design on the cover and insides.. I don’t know if there’s anything else that sets it apart..). When I got it I sprung (sprang? wtf..) for all the bells and whistles, and the 3 year protection plan, and the (.. you get the point) .. because I thought this was going to last me for a long time! But being the brilliant student that I am, I didn’t think ahead to the fact that DUH most design students are on MACs.

Of course a school can’t say you’re REQUIRED to use a Mac.. but they “strongly recommend” it. Basically, what I read from the message was,

Please save yourself some face and save us the hassle of dealing with you trying to use a different system than everyone else. You will be the only one not using a Mac. So buy the Mac Macbook PRO. Now.

was white my only option? I wanted black..

Yesssir. So within the next day or so, this lil guy, + iWorks (already installed thank god) + Windows for Macs + a free touch iPod + a macbook sleeve should be arriving in the mail. So my question for all of YOU is this: who is on a Mac? Do you like it? Is it really different than an HP? Is it better/worse? Any design students out there using it? What do you think?

I’ve basically been against iPods since the day they were created, so I’ll most likely be selling this one as well. I sold the other Shuffle I won at that race a while back too. Anyone in need of an iPod?

Wellll I think it’s time for me to move onto other things on my ToDo list (and yes – blog update was actually on there). I have RunClub with Team MED tonight at 6, and that BB&B excursion hopefully by 3! Not to mention all the other million and one things I need to do to get ready to move! Hope the weather is better for all of you out there! Enjoy the day.

Yesterday I went to this store called Opitz - it’s sort of like Overstock.com, only you can physically go there. I used to love it in high school because they would get tons of Delia’s clothing and they always had my sizes (for once!), and I actually still really like *some* of their clothes. They get a lot of True Religion and 7s and crazy expensive jeans, but the fantastic thing is – EVERYTHING IS AT LEAST 70% OFF. Wednesdays are like the restocked-secret-mailing-list-members-only day.. and THIS Wednesday was the start of the “Hey you college kids.. come stock your dorms!” advertised in the mailer. So, stock we did! Hah.. actually not that much. I got two pairs of jeans, a sweet shirt, and a 10 piece bakeware set for our suite.

(don’t ask me why I decided to wear a skirt..?)

(World Wildlife Fund!)

(Baileys.. from Delia’s)

(Urban Behavior. Not gonna lie.. I’ve never heard of that brand.)

(hah! “Tools of the Trade”! It will work just fine for me!)

I struggled with this whole suite deal before, because I feel like I’m the only one out of the 6 of us who doesn’t spend (or have money to spend) like crazy on all these name brand things. One girl’s coming with all this William’s Sonoma stuff, and I’m like “Yes! Target!”. But I’m starting to feel better because now I can feel like I’m contributing. I’m also bringing our 2nd Magic Bullet, which we haven’t opened yet. The bake set was new.. but only $10! (YESS 70% off!) And then my mom came home last night with a basically new set of flatware (forks, spoons, knives.. that’s called flatware, right?) from her friend who just got themselves a newer new set. AH! Feeling better.

My mom and I went BACK to Opitz today, and I found the GREATEST pair of jeans.

(Paige. “Premium Denim”. My legs are smiling.)

Can you see that price tag?! $215. And I got them for $65. Hah! And $65 is already a “splurge” for me on jeans! I figure that everyone is entitled to one pair of really good, really nice, feel good jeans. And these will be mine. I haven’t gone shopping for me shopping in what feels like forever, so today I’m a happy camper. I also love good pockets (oh.. cause that makes me unique..) so these ones scored double points. Well maybe not the black pair, but the other two..

(pockets!!)

I would also like to say that I feel stellar about my running and the way things are going right now. Despite the groin injury/tear/pull that I was struggling with (that I would say is about 90% healed right now), I am really enjoying running and life in general. Last week was rough – really rough – but I can look back on it now and say “Erika. Quit crying and T.T.F.U. You only get one life so you better make the most of it!”

(T.T.F.U. is pretty much my favorite acronym, and I suggest you all incorporate it into your daily vernacular. (Is that a proper use of vernacular? Oh boy.))

(both mom and I are devoted Asics-for-lifers. RoadID is a must! Safety first kids.)

So yes. Running. Strong, hard, easy, enjoyable. I ran a few sub 7s on my run yesterday without realizing it, and I’ll be running probably 9:30s when I go with my mom this afternoon. I’m running the Urban Wildland Half Marathon on Saturday.. at 7:00am. Yikes!

I am pretty sure I wont be racing it, just coming off this tear and all, but none the less I am SO EXCITED. From everything I’m heard, it’s a wicked race. (Gotta start incorporating that Boston vocab!) It’s quoted as “Minnesota’s Green Race” which is probably the coolest thing I’ve seen so far. This is quoted from their website:

The Urban Wildland Half Marathon & 5K is a no-waste race! All refuse from the event is either composted, recycled, or reused.

Not only is the no-waste effort kinder to our environment, it helps to meet one of the key goals of the Urban Wildland Half Marathon & 5K: to raise awareness about the environment and to practice the earth-friendly values that are taught through Wood Lake’s environmental education program.

Did I say yet that I love life?

(Anddd it has a built in coffee pot!)

Also on the list of purchases yesterday at Opitz a new coffee/espresso maker. My mom is THRILLED. I’m hoping this was a really good brand, because despite being like 70% off it was still over $100! We tried it out today for the first time and it’s AMAZING.

(hah mom you look surprised. You’re too cute.)

We did a CostCo adventure today, and no joke – every single time we’re there my mom looks to see if they have an espresso machine. She has been waiting and waiting and waiting, and they’ve never carried one (except for online, and it was like $$$). What did they have today? The day after we bought an espresso machine?

Well too bad. We like the one we bought better. Plus, being black and sliver, it matches the rest of our appliances. And I just thought I’d throw this in here, since the blog world seems like it’s just discovering these amazing goodnesses..

(Amongst other bulk goodness. I actually think that box of Rice Krispys has been down there since I was like a freshman in high school.)

What the heck took you guys so long!? For those of you that have a CostCo.. they sell them in bulk – Clif bars, Lara bars, those nasty coco type Lara Bars, Power bars, Balance bars, the new Trio bars – they’ve got em’ all! Just a heads up!

WOW! What a post for a Thursday! Back to work tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great week!

After the gym I came home and showered. Then I decided I wanted to make a smoothie, but we were out of yogurt. SO I biked on over to Lund’s, and proceeded to buy enough to make my backpack as big as I was. It was rather precarious biking home.

Got home, made smoothie.. remembered I need to sell this iPod! (BTW, if any of YOU want to buy it.. you better lemme know asap!) So I made up a flier and biked on over to..

Dunn Bros to post it on their bulletin board! This is actually an old picture.. I didn’t have my camera with me. But I did get an iced soy chai that was pretty fanfreakingtastic. I also walked across the street to the Co-Op and put a flier up on their board too.

Then I went to the Library because I couldn’t bike with my chai.. so I needed to waste some time. I checked out the latest two issues of Runners World.. but not before having to pay an effing $34 fee for overdue items.. HALF OF WHICH WEREN’T EVEN MINE (cough*MOM*cough.. we’ll be talking). Went home, made up some food, put on tanning lotion/sunscreen.. and WENT TO THE BEACH!!

OK.. not the beach.. but I laid (layed? nope.. Hmm it still looks wrong though) out at the lake. Calhoun of course And yikes.. not the most attractive picture, but LOOK AT THAT SUN! LOOK AT THE BLUE SKY!! Ahh-mazing.

Here’s my little sunny heaven: got the phone.. the literature.. the drinks.. and the music. Which I didn’t need or end up listening to because..

this chick brought the beats. Mmm actually she wasn’t that good. Like really.. not that good. But hey, can’t blame her for trying right?! Gotta practice somewhere! This is looking over towards the volleyball courts.. and it’s like my favorite place to lay out – between the courts and the beach! WHAT? Be amazed. Minnesota does have beaches.

This is looking the other direction (east?). There are always people here playing frisbee or football and whatnot. The guys in this picture were fine.. but like 5 minutes later 2 other guys came and thought they were a little too cool with all their big boy swear words. Seriously? Man.. I hope I act like that when I’m like 28.

This guy’s my favorite. I run this lake all the time.. but I’ve gotta say – I’ve never just decided to stop midrun and plop down in the sun and chill for like 20 minutes. I might have to try it some time..

And time to pack up and head home. I was sorta sad to leave, sorta thankful. It was actually NOT really bikini weather.. it was pretty damn windy and I was kinda cold. But I’m stubborn determined to work off my shorts/sportsbra tan. Its a constant struggle to get rid of those, since I run a lot more than I lay out in my swim suit. SWIM SUIT!! Ahh my ex boyfriend still has my swimsuit at his house! And nooo, don’t let your mind wander to the gutter. He has a hot tub. I had to shower. Everything was kept PG.

Well kiddos.. time to head off to RunClub. Afterwards, we’re all going to my work (Tin Fish!!) for drinks!! SOOO.. I hope everyone can find one day this week to just relax and enjoy. I’m definitely thinking there will be more of these days in my near future.

Next post.. FOUR DAYS TILL MED CITY!

So, here goes Erika’s Little Big Race Report:

I woke up at 6:20 with the sun, but then, remembering that I went to bed just six hours ago, I tried to get a little more sleep before I had to get going. Got back up at 7:04, did the usual contacts in/brush teeth/wash face thing, and checked the temp quick before getting dressed. 40 and sunny, light breeze, high of 60 by 3:00. PERFECT racing weather. Got the mug of coffee (very important) poured and breakfast going. I’m not usually a breakfast-before-run person, but racing is different than running, plus I knew it would be a while before I’d get a chance to have real food. I heated up about 6 Chik’n Nuggets.. which you might be like “WHAT? For breakfast?!” but seriously.. these are like my favorite pre-run fuel. They don’t really fit the carb/protein/fat ratio that’s supposedly “ideal“.. but I’ve been running for a long ass time and I just do what works for me.

My dad and I got to Minehaha Park by 8:15.. got my bib, met up with Bobby (see below pictures..) and his girlfriend, and we (Bobby, myself, and GOMER) headed out for a warm up. OK so keep in mind my total mileage for today was supposed to be around 12 as my last “long run” before Med City (NEXT SUNDAY!!).. so anyways did 1 mile easy with B and 1 more easy on my own.. made my last bathroom stop.. went back to grab my dad.. and then we headed up to the street where the starting line was. At that point it was 8:56 so we had good time.. until suddenly the damn horn went off! I whipped my sweatshirt off as my dad was like “Drop and Go Erika.. Drop and Go!!” and GO I did.. Here’s me coming in the last 100 meters.

Unfortunately I didn’t hit Gomer until like half a mile in. I thought I did, but guess not. And I apologize in advance if I come off as bragging, but I had way too much fun, so I’m gonna brag away.

I passed the 2nd leading woman at mile one, and the 1st woman at 1.5.. and after that I was right at home hangin in with the guys Chatted with several people along the way, but after 3.5 I was on my own for the rest of the race. That’s one crappy thing about small races – if you’re not with a pack, there’s no one there to compete with (outta sight, outta mind), do you really are responsible for pushing yourself. I passed one last person with about .75 to go, and came in strong at 44:00 even. Unfortunately, I had too much left at the end, but that’s what happens when you’re not used to racing that distance.

This picture would have been SO GREAT if it was like a quarter of a second earlier! The finish line was about 25 feet ahead of me.

Me and Mr. Bobby. I was the first woman finisher, and 6th overall. Bobby was 4th!! And for finishing first, I won an iPod!

A tried and true TURC pose. (TURC stands for The University Running Club.. I met Bobby on one of the first trail runs of the year.)

Here are my race freebies (that made it home, as opposed to in my mouth) The two shirts are basically the same – the red one shows what the back looks like.

Up close: two vanilla Boosts.. a Power Walker hat (sorry.. this will be donated. I’m not a walker).. my iPod (not donated.. but I’m selling this one. I don’t really want/have a need for an iPod).. a big delicious apple.. a whole foods granola bar.. and a target knockoff of a Zone bar (strawberry yogurt flavored).

Overall, the race was really fun – fun being my key word because by no means is it a PR for me for 6.2 miles, but since it was so small I got to enjoy being the first female finisher. After I collected all my freebies, I sent them off with my dad, and he drove down to Dunn Bros where I was going to meet him. I got in 5 more miles easy, and ended my run at the coffee shop! It worked out perfectly!

After Dunn Bros, my dad and I decided to stop at the Farmers Market before he dropped me off at my mom’s.. but those pictures are for a different post I’m headed off to work right now, and I’ll be there till close.. so hopefully it’ll be super busy since it’s so nice out! It’s a little cool.. but not too bad. Hope everyone has a LOVELY Sunday! (my absolute favorite day of the week btw!)

We’re “Gold Star” members.. I feel so VIP. I could die tomorrow, but knowing this, my life is now complete.

How fake looking/freaking amazing is this!? My mom asked “What.. you’re going to buy us a grill?” but ACTUALLY… I was the one who won our nice gas grill that we have now.. so I think its her turn to make the contribution

All you bar-lovers out there.. here’s a little bit of heaven. In bulk they have Clif bars, Lara bars, Balance bars, those ThinkThin bars, some new one in the top left that I can’t remember the name/brand of, and then of course.. the only one worth buying – KASHI ROLL BARS!! Seriously.. we buy two boxes of these at a time (36 ct each) and go through them faster than beer in a frat house. I know I’m a total outcast, but I HATE Lara bars. ICK.

And my lovely madre picking out some gum and mints. I think it would be pretty freaking awesome to climb these shelves. It would be like spelunking.. only with 2 pound tubs of mustard instead of stalagmites.

I believe this is right after I found my new all time favorite munchy cereal. It’s hiding in the picture.. can you guess what it is? Hhahaha.. a secret I’ll never share! (Actually.. I will be sharing in my next post..) Sadly, CostCo stopped carrying the 3pack of Kashi Vive. It’s the only Kashi cereal I like.. and it’s getting harder and harder to find! Even my Co-Op is discontinuing it!!

I’m actually not wearing white tights.. nor am I that pasty. The lighting. Honestly. Highlight purchase of this trip? The new issue of SELF. Hehehe, I almost NEVER buy magazines since we do a swap at my gym.. so I can end up getting them for free, or I check them out at the library. I like to treat myself when at CostCo though. And hey.. treating myself to a magazine is a lot less damaging on the wallet than treating myself to a 73″, $3,799.99 High Def Flat Screen.

The rest of mothers day was great. My mom and I started the morning with Coffee & Card time, and then I headed out to RunClub. I was all set to do my regular long run with the marathon group when I realized MedCity is in two weeks and not three! Soooo.. I did 10 with run club, and then took off for home and did a 5 mile “trot” with my mom. She’s seriously stellar.. she ran her last marathon in 2002 (her 22nd), and she doesn’t race at all anymore, but she still gets out there and does her thing. She’s even going to be our guest speaker at the marathon clinic in a couple weeks!

Typically, a run with mom would go like this: We start out together.. just chatting and enjoying each others company. After about a block.. she reminds me to tone it down.. because I’m always a step ahead of her and I’m “dragging her along.” So I try to cut it back.. but I’m back out “pushing her” in about 15 seconds. I can’t remember the last time we actually finished a run together because usually about half way through I say.. “do you mind if I just meet you at home?” and then take off. I know right – MEAN! Well I figured Mothers Day was better than any to just BE with my mom and do the whole run with her. I felt good about it at the end. And hey – even on one of her “worst day” (she had worked in the yard for 7 hours the day before.. we’re re-landscaping..) we still were passing people, and no one passed us!

IN OTHER NEWS: I just picked up a sweet pair of these guys:

I had been asking around for good sandals for runners.. because I run, and then I’m on my feet all day waitressing, and I know my body was HATING me on the days I wore flip flops! These are exactly the kind of shoes I would have rolled my eyes at and thought LAME when I was like 12.. but now I think they’re pretty much the coolest things ever.

AND..

My baby is arriving TOMORROW!!!! As a moving away present.. my parents (together.. awkward situation) ordered me the Garmin 405. I can’t even put into words how excited I am. I think my love for this thing is slightly more intense than my love of air. I. CANT. FREAKING. WAIT! Plus.. I’ll have it for the Race for the Ribbon 10K I’m doing on Sunday.. AND I’ll be able to use it during Med City!! Ahhh the wait is killing me. I’m sure you’ll be seeing this lil guy much much more. Is it awkward to love an electronic so much that you name it? People name cars.. bikes.. um, anatomy.. I’m pretty sure this thing deserves a name. I’ll be workin on a good one. Well that’s all for now my friends. Have a lovely splendid day!

So yep – 18 miles indeed. The rest of the group did 16, but since I’m running Med City too (which is one month earlier than Grandma’s) I should be at 18 by now. For those that didn’t/don’t know, I’m running Grandma’s Marathon (June 21st), and Med City Marathon (May 25th). Med City is sort of just for kicks.. and the crowd is no where near as great as at G-ma’s.. but I’m still looking forward to it. Except for the whole first half is hills.. that I could do without!

The route we did today is one I never want to do again. Seriously. Running the lakes, you can do 18 miles in no time, and you’re like – What? I’m done? This route was on paths that are meant for bikers for the most part + it was early + cold = pretty damn secluded. I love solidarity at times, but on an 18 miler I want people! Oh. And there were NO bathroom stops along pretty much the whole thing. I can go to the bathroom three times before I leave, but my bladder cares about [---] this much. I still have to go. That picture (above) is The Depot coffee shop ~mile 7 that saved my bladder life. Good thing I stopped because that was my last chance till ~15.

One thing I need to work on is hydration while running + my sports bean/gu/supplement usage. I’ve done about a bajillion halfs, and I don’t use anything for those, but a marathon is a different story, and I know I should be drinking gatorade and doing energy replacement during the run. I’ve long ago found that Gu and I are not friends. Sports beans are OK.. but I have trouble using them because it’s just something you should do vs. something you need to do. Does anyone else run into this problem? Any advice?

Anywho, enough about that. I finally bought a lunch bag! And you’ll probably look at this thinking – Sperly! That’s a purse! But dangit I DON’T CARE because it suits my needs and I love it and it’s what I want I gotta shorten the strap, and then I’m good to go.

So post long run, my mom and I drove around Minneapolis for FOUR hours (and bless my mom’s heart for doing the driving!) for a field study I have to do for one of my classes. We still have four more hours of driving. And then I get to write a 12 page paper about it. Shoot me now. Sweet. First half of the semester we did St. Paul and it took ELEVEN hours. :O

Rest of the day I walked to Dunn Bros (above drink!)/worked/met my pops/stopped at co-op on walk home. Then I went to McDonalds with my madre Hah I feel so counter productive. Co-Op -> McDonalds. Whatever dog.. I’m a happy camper!

Just a little heads up, and I really hope this doesn’t come across as rude: If you leave me a question, and you’re like a name I’ve never seen before or you don’t have a link.. I’m much more apt to answer it if you say a little something about yourself. Even if it’s just like “hey! I’m a runner too. I was just wondering …” vs. like “do you ever rest”. I hate internet and texts because there is no tone of voice, so sometimes I take things personally when it should really just be a simple question. Again – really hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way! I really am a nice person! Just a little sensitive..

Haha I just consumed an entire 8 serving container of hummus while writing this post. (Not plain of course. With veggies!) How’d that happen? I clearly don’t write the title till the end!