Do you know what the running blog world needs?.........

More filler posts
(This one is dedicated to you Kovas)

Presenting My ABC's of me.  Like Patrick says.  Complete Narcissism.
A) Age: 34

(B) Bed Size: King

(C) Chore You Hate: Laundry, Any takers?

This is the hallway outside my laundry room on Monday.  All clean clothes were eventually sorted, ironed and put away+ about 4 suitcases that needed to be unpacked.  

(D) Dogs: 1 80 pound pure bred weimaraner whose favorite snack is carpet.

Travis makes me take Jasper on night runs and Jasper makes me run faster so I guess it's a good thing.  Too bad he is a total wuss and only looks fierce!

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Waking up seems to help with starting the day.

(F) Favorite Color:  Pink

(G) Gold or Silver: Yes

(H) Height: 5'8"

(I) Instruments You Play: Sadly none but hope to take piano soon.

(J) Job Title: Mom but it's pronounced MOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

(K) Kids: We are on the 4 no more plan.

(L) Live: Peoria (N. Phoenix) Arizona 

(M) Mom's Name: LeeAnn

(N) Nicknames: Kickbutt Honeycutt (maiden name)

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays: 5 baby deliveries, 1 bone tumor removal, 3 overnighters with kids with seizures, 3 overnighters with kids with RSV.  I think that's all.

(P) Pet Peeve: Passive Aggressive people.  Either be aggressive or don't be. But don't pretend you aren't when you are.

(Q) Quote from a Movie: Dumb and Dumber
Jim Carey: "What are the chances of you and me getting together?"
 Girl: "One in a million"
Jim Carey: "So your saying I have a chance!"

(R) Right or Left Handed: Right

(S) Siblings: 5 total 3 brothers, 2 sisters.  I'm #4 in the line up.

(T) What time do you get up? In the morning? Or in the middle of the night?  Morning around 7:30 am.  Night around 1 or 2 am.

(U) Underwear: Every day

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: ??  I like most if they are prepared correctly.

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Sadie (2 year old) stripping down naked 2 minutes before we are heading out the door.  It's her new thing.  

(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: Teeth, hand, back, knee.

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Key lime pie, sesame chicken.

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: The gorillas that eat their poop, it's super gross yet mesmerizing at the same time.



And I'm WAY WAY WAY overdue with a huge THANK YOU to Candice, over at I have Run, for my new Runnerd Sticker.  I have a place at my desk with all my folders and sadly my running folder wasn't even labeled?  No longer.  Perfect spot for it.  Thanks girl!

You know your a RUNNERD when: 


You have 20+ people coming over to your house for book club at 7 pm and a small feast to prepare for them and you head out your door for a "quick" 4 miler around 5:15 pm with a disaster mess of a house and having cooked NOTHING yet.  Get home, quick shower, quick hair, speed (in car) to the store, (leaving husband and kids to clean) buy a bunch of stuff that looks like you made it, speed home (arrive at 7:15) throw all the stuff on "pretty" plates and stash all the store containers in the pantry closet.  Later the ladies are asking for recipes and you let them know you'll email them to them.  


This may or may not have happened 2 nights ago.


How do you know your a Runnerd? 


Another BIG Thank you to RIO over at Her name is Rio and She Runs for my new RUN magnet.  How cool is this.  I havent' found the perfect spot for it yet so it's still a work in progress.  First I wanted to put in on my fridge but I have one of those fake stainless steel front fridges so magnets don't work on it. ANNOYING! So I ended up sticking it on my oven? 

Hmmmm.  I'm thinking I'll have to get a new fridge.  


You know your a Runnerd when:
You buy a new fridge for your Run Magnet.  




Happy Running!
Adrienne

Drama+Anger=PR!

Sweet!  I just got a new PR this morning!

This morning I posted a long post after a long break and am happy to get all that out of my system.  Of course just blogging about it doesn't make everything magically better but RUNNING DOES!

Have you ever used running as therapy before?
Running is my #1 therapy.  Chocolate and Diet Coke #2.

I got to the gym and jumped on the treadmill and started in on what was to be a 5 mile run at at 9:45-9:55 pace.  Well the 9:40 pace was not cutting it.  Too much adrenaline that needed to get out.  I moved it up to a 9:20 pace a few miles in.  Still not working.  Moved it to a 9:00 mile pace at around mile 3.  Nothing happening.  So at mile 4 I cranked the treadmill up to a 8:34 pace.  I've never run this fast before but finished out the last mile at a new mile PR of 8:34!  YAY for ANGER!

Have you ever felt an emotion so strongly that you felt like you could run and run and run forever?

The only thing missing from my run was that it was inside on a treadmill and should have been outside in the pouring rain or up the side of a mountain.  For just a few brief moments I felt "Dean like"

Have you guys been following Dean?  Seriously so inspiring!  As of today he has run 1259.39 miles in his Run Across America Challenge that he is doing in order to raise money to fight Obesity in Children.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Get out from under the rock you have been living under and check out the info here.

 I was actually registered to "Run with Dean" while he was here in Arizona for one of his 5k's he was doing.  The registration fee was a whopping $50 which is pretty steep in my book for a 5K but I felt like it was one of those "experiences" that was worth it.  Unfortunately with the "drama" that is currently swirling around me I chose to bail on it at the last minute.  I could give you a list of excuses but truth is I should have just sucked it up and gone anyway but instead I chose to stay in bed crying like a sissy.  Dean wakes up and runs 40-50 miles a day and I couldn't even get out of bed for a measly 3 miles. Old habits die hard.  My friend Christina has a quote on her blog that I think is great.  It says "You never regret the runs you do just the ones you don't do."  So true.  Good news is my $50 registration fee went towards the charity so I'm happy with that. I won't give my power away and miss out again.  Lesson learned.  My next run is the local Pat Tilman 4.2 miler in a few weeks, time to get ready!

After running this morning I wasn't angry anymore.  It's time to let it go and move on.  It's just not worth the time, effort and emotion that it is taking from me.  I so grateful that I'm able to run. You can start out feeling one way and through the course of the run even if it is a short one you can experience every emotion under the sun.  Usually at the end when your tired, sweaty and exhausted you some how feel rejuvenated.  Even if it's slower than some and not as consistent as others it really is a great tool for me to help me stay grounded and keep a clear head and did I mention I have a new mile PR?

Happy Running,

Adrienne

The Good the Bad and the Ugly --not necessarily in that order

Good grief has it really been over three weeks since my last post?  My Bad.

I met a new friend a few weeks back and from her own confession to me she told me she had done a little "digging" around and found me on facebook and then found my old family blog and she read a few of my posts and thought I was pretty funny (duh) and got a bit of a kick out of them.  Then her next comment to me "irked" me a tad.  She said, "I wish I had time to do a blog."  Funny thing is everyone I know in the blog world is extremely busy but we make time to blog because we enjoy it.  I know I love it and have missed it. Mostly I've missed YOU!  You guys rock.

So I haven't blogged for a bit.  It happens.

"Life is what happens when you're making plans"

So I'm sure you don't want me to bore you with all the little details of where I've been and what I've been doing so I'll just.....
What?
What was that?
Oh you DO want me to bore you with the details?
Oh alright if you insist!

Life is what happens when your making plans is an awesome saying isn't it?  We all work hard, schedule things out in black and white and then BAM--life gets in the way.  What can you do?
Like the Bible says, "Bless-ed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape".  Okay the bible doesn't really say that but it should.  We tell ourselves we shouldn't worry about things we can't control but we all still do don't we.
(THE BAD)
Like the next door neighbors who tell you they've decided to get a divorce.  When their kids are in your home 7 days a week it's hard to not feel your heart ripping out of your chest and keep a smile on your face and pretend everything will be okay.  Sucks.
Or your other good friend who is currently fighting cancer herself finds out that her 15 year old son also has cancer.  What does one say to this friend? Totally sucks.
Or that friend that you have known for more than half your life and even though you live far away when you finally connect on a phone call you pick up right where you left off only this time when you talk you learn her husband is being deployed to Afghanistan and the lump in your throat makes it hard for you to breathe.  Suck. Suck. Suck.
In my mind on the scale of 1 to big deal any of these things would rank on the big deal side.  Of course none of them happened directly to me but when they happen to those we love it's easy to get sucked into the black hole of despair.  So that's where I've been.  Funny thing is all of these things are big deals but there was one more thing that happened that isn't even on the big deal scale that really affected me these last few weeks.  It doesn't even rank a "1" on the scale.
(The Ugly)
I won't go into details but I'll just say there was an event that happened that ended with me throwing somebody out of my house.  NO NOT TRAVIS!  We are still happily married.  This person is a non relative but still someone I dealt with on a daily basis.  I don't know about you but this is a first for me.  Usually I only see this kind of stuff in the movies.  Uggg.  It sucked.  This event was followed by a LONG LONG "therapy" like session as I was seeking counsel with my religious leader where afterward I felt better but it still sucked nonetheless.  I'm still in the midst of this drama but it will hopefully see a close in the next few weeks.
(The Good)
Well now that I have fully depressed all of you including myself I'll give you the good news.  Oh wait there isn't any.  HA!  Okay kidding kidding, there is always a silver lining right?  Well as luck would have it, it was spring break here last week and before my little world seemed to be ending we had a trip planned for Disneyland---The Happiest Place on Earth.  Just what the doctor ordered.

I love to run and this is intended to be a running blog but sometimes it's SO SO nice to RUN AWAY!  And I suppose that is okay every now and then.  We had a great time together as a family in California and the mini break always helps to re-energize us for what we need to do. Sometimes we just want things to be okay or a certain way and for whatever reason they just cannot or will not ever be that way.  It's like the saying goes "It isn't what it isn't".  And since I'm all about the quotes in this post I'll give you another.

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved"

I think that if we can remember this little bit of wisdom we will likely avoid a lot of the pit falls or self induced sorrow we find ourselves in.  Of course there are always those trials and struggles that we will face that we cannot control but even if we find ourselves getting sucked into the despair pit we MUST MUST MUST find our "happy place," pick ourselves back up and carry on.  There is always a silver lining.  Life is good.

Thanks for letting me share my good, bad and ugly with you.  My apologies for not being my usual happy, sarcastic, obnoxious self in this post.  If it makes anyone feel better I've still been trying to rip on Chris K through facebook and email so all is not lost, I'll try to do it more regularly on the blog.  Andrew also asked for my advice on how to run a sub 30 minute 5k.  My advice is to run a 9:40 minute mile pace.  Hope that helps Andrew (wink wink).  Seriously though I think I just needed to get all this heavy stuff off my chest so now I can go back to the worthless crap I usually blog about that just makes me smile.  (Insert Big sigh here)  Can't wait!

Take Care and Happy Running,

Adrienne