The One with All the Girl Scout Cookies

I am not so affectionately calling this weekend the one with all the Girl Scout cookies.  I think you know what that means.  My niece is a Girl Scout.  I was a Girl Scout. I love Girl Scout’s.  Adorable little things in their uniforms. And their cookies.  You know, I could be a smart woman and only order a couple boxes, but it’s just not my style you know.  I mean, I’m trying to be a good auntie and support the Girl Scouts and my niece. I like making her smile. But subconsciously I slightly wonder if part of me also just doesn’t want an excuse to order and subsequently eat Girl Scout cookies.  I tell myself it’s all good, I have control and I can handle this.  Apparently that is a bold faced lie.  I ordered; wait for it, 16 boxes of cookies.  A variety of kinds.  Saturday night Chris and I ate 4 entire boxes.  It is easy to do really. There aren’t THAT many cookies in a box.  I mean, enough one should not be eating multiple boxes of them, but not so many that it’s not possible to down a few boxes.  Eek…. Self-control is a daily struggle.

Funny thing is I didn’t feel all that guilty when actually eating the cookies, it’s just the aftermath that makes you feel like shit. Oh well. So much for clean weekends. I have yet to successfully have a “clean” weekend in like forever and partly I guess that is because I just don’t care that much.  I have much better control weekdays like the rest of the world mainly.

Friday night we went out to dinner, Red Lobster, and I was pretty good.  I am sure I ate more than I should have or more than was recommended as a whole, but it wasn’t that horrible of an evening and I’m going to call Friday night an overall win. Saturday morning I woke up and did a 5k with my mom.  We walked and talked and it’s nice. Very nice to just have that alone time with my mommy. Sometimes even a 35 year old woman wants some special alone time with her mom.

We got a nice medal and lots of goodies.  Sometimes one of my favorite things about events is all the goodies that they trick you into thinking you are getting for free. Yes, they are free the day of, but you actually pay money for the event itself which probably barely covers the cost of the “freebies”, but whatever, it’s fun to come home with a variety of little treats to buy that you perhaps would never have tried otherwise. 

Saturday afternoon ended up being lazy and tiring. Despite not doing much it was just overall exhausting.  Chris and I gave the dogs a walk and then ate Girl Scout cookies while watching TV.  We did cook an actual whole chicken on the Bar-B-Que, which was delicious and healthy. But that hardly compensates for the cookies.  Oh well.  I knew we had to get up early Sunday morning for the 12k run. I knew I was going to have an entirely busy Sunday and part of me was not really looking forward to the madness. 

When I have to wake up at 6 AM on a Sunday I really start to question this whole running thing and why I’m doing it.  It’s hard.  I had a few sleepy moments of fuck it I don’t need to run, let’s just snuggle my doggies and sleep.  But alas, I got up and got myself dressed and I started to feel better.  I mean, not super great. Not a morning girl here, but better.

We arrived at the race about 7:30 ish, it started at 8 AM.  It was sunny outside but it was a deceptive sun, because it was still right around 30 degrees so it was cold.  Like long sleeve, gloves on my hands kind of cold running.  At least it wasn’t raining. It could always be worse. I was slightly nervous about running 7.5 miles.  Or rather not looking forward to it on a bone chilling tired body 8 AM Sunday morning.  But alas, when the race started I ran.  Mind you, I was in no condition or had zero desire to push myself to max limits.  This was always going to be a slow and steady kind of race.  Let’s just make sure we can actually run 7.5 miles all at once and feel comfortable.

The first 1.5 miles was awful.  I literally had to fight my brain in every possible way.  It wanted to quit.  It wanted to tell me that I was insane and should not be running. It wanted to cry because I knew I had 6 more miles to go.  It was not pretty.  And I felt like I was barely moving.  But I just kept going. Sometimes you have to fight yourself.  But eventually things stabilized, hormones normalized and I was able to settle into a fairly comfortable pace.  Not a fast pace. Not even close to my best pace, but a pace that was good enough for me on this day.

I was right around 10:30 minute miles.  Not stellar but perfectly acceptable to my brain considering the early morning and the cold and the hills and the outdoor run.  I wasn’t after trying to push myself, but rather being able to run a longer distance and see if I had anything left in the tank to do a full half marathon.  Miles 4-6 were pretty good. I was going along at this decent pace and felt totally fine.  I was waiting for the 6.55 mile mark because this is half of a half marathon.  When that mark hit, I assessed my mood, fatigue and ability and thought yeah, at this pace right now I’m doing okay and could probably grit out another 6.55 miles. Albeit, it might be hard and I have no doubt the last little bit would be brutal but I had juice left in the tank.  Mile 7 hit and I still felt pretty okay.  I mean 10:30 pace is not wining me awards but it’s a nice comfortable, I’m not dying kind of pace.

When I got closer to the finish and could actually see the end and had about 4 tenths a mile to go I actually picked up the pace.  This is how I know I still had juice in the tank because I was able to sprint faster seeing the end in sight.  I had not tapped out all my energy reserves.  I think this was largely in part to me conserving and running at this pace for the 7.5 miles. I crossed the finish line and my Garmin showed 7.59 miles ran (a little over the 7.5 mark) and my time was 80 minutes 6 seconds.  I was very happy with this time.  Before race, I had kind of said in my mind I wanted around 80 minutes. This was my goal.  I was happy with that.   I pretty much finished dead in the middle of the race, meaning half the participants finished faster than me and half were behind me.  This is about where I sit at most races.  I will take it. Not that I truly care how my time stacks up to anyone else. It’s all about me and my times and abilities.

I was pretty sure at race’s end, while tired and happy to be done, that I still could have gone farther.  I know I easily could have continued running to mile 9 or 10 fairly easily but then I am sure I would have tired out and had to walk a little and force out the last 3.1 miles of a half.  BUT, I literally ran every step of the 7.5 miles yesterday and that is a good chunk of a half marathon so that gave me some hope and confidence that I can crank out a half here in 2 weeks. I needed that confidence boost.

After the race I got myself a Subway sandwich for in the car while I drove back to Salem, about an hour or so drive to meet up for round 2 of my day.  Yup, I meet Amanda and another girl at the gym for a leg day workout.  My legs were already feeling like lead weights at this point but alas, sometimes we do crazy things just because.  I took some pre-workout energy drink, deodorant-ed myself up and walked into the gym.

It always amazes me what we can do when we just tell ourselves we can.  Or perhaps it’s because we are trying to impress someone or prove ourselves.  Amanda loads up the barbell heavy for some wide squats and it is a weight factor I would not have picked but she’s like, ah, you’re strong just try it.  And it was HARD but I did it.  It was a total of 185 pound wide plait squats. 15 of them with a 10 second pulse at the end.  She spotted me which was good because trying to re rack the thing was hard when your legs felt wobbly.  But I did it, every time. 4 sets of these.  Of course this was in addition to a ton of other weighted exercises that were brutal.  But oddly it could have been worse.  Perhaps I was just numb at this point, but I honestly thought it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

When it was all said and done I stopped by my mom’s house and saw my sister and niece and nephew for a little bit.  I headed home about 5 or so and took a much needed shower, snuggled my doggies a little bit and before I knew it Chris was home.  I was exhausted. Like physically spent in a way I have not been in a while.  I guess waking up at 6 AM and pretty much pushing your body to the limit all day long will do that to you.

We ate dinner about 6:30 and I was like, I am so tired I could fall asleep.  Chris was tired too. So we sat and watched some TV on the couch and before I knew it we were all asleep on the couch.  Chris, me and the doggies.  I fell asleep about 7:45 or so on the couch.  I finally woke up about 9 PM enough to realize I needed to move to the bedroom to sleep.  So I got up about 9 and went to bed where I pretty much instantly fell back asleep. I did not wake up until 8 AM this morning.  That is a lot of sleep and clearly exactly what my body needed.  Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

I do feel better today on the tired front. Not so sleepy anymore. But I also am having a hard time walking.  You know, 7.5 mile run and then leg day.  I figured this would be the case.  I am not sure how I’m going to fair tonight at the gym.  Monday night is supposed to be at least a 3 mile run but I might not be able to run tonight. Not exactly sure what the plan is.  I might have to mix it up a bit this week.

I guess it all just depends on how I feel later this afternoon.  Right now I’m having a hard time envisioning doing anything that involves intentional walking. Ha. Certainly I can do arms and/or upper body of some sort so that is going to have to be the plan.  As I even sit here in the chair at the desk part of my legs are throbbing.  Just sitting here I can feel them pulse, so that is either a really good sign or a really terrible sign. Not too sure.

This week I’m just back to the normal same old grind and this weekend there is that insanely extremely intense 5 mile obstacle race.  This should be very interesting.  No other runs or events this weekend which is kind of nice to have a break.  I mean other than the 5 mile one that is. But that race is in my town so it’s like a 10 minute drive tops. That is nice.  

Okay, it’s time for to go run some work errands. Time to move these legs a bit.