New blog... Go there instead.

I don't know why I forgot to do this earlier.  I have a new blog, I will not be posting here anymore.

Http://www.stringcheeserunner.com

Thank you!!

Why are you so obsessed with me?

^^ *Sang in a Mariah Carey voice

I have become obsessed with gifs.  I've used some in the past and I think I'm going to bring them back.  You will be enjoying gifs every now and then in my upcoming revampage. <--- not a word, I don't care.

I haven't had time to devote to making my new blog, which I don't know what makes me think I'll have the time to write once I do make it.  Either way, I think it'll fit, making more people relate to me and be actually interested.

However, I have an analytics/statistics counter on this website and despite my rare updates, I get about 20 hits a day.  I think that's actually pretty good considering.  It has pretty extensive details on the statistics of my blog, but most people look at my tattoos page which I think is neat.  I will have to switch that page to my new blog once it's up.

I leave you with a few gifs I enjoy:

from here





You are welcome.

Revamping.

Obviously I've been really good at blogging the past 4 months.
I'm contemplating either revamping this blog or making a new blog entirely, and just posting the link on here.

I have some ideas for a new blog, so I've just got to get it together.  Maybe some day I can be a professional blogger and quit my job.  That would probably require me to blog more than every four months huh?

I've been busy... ummm... working out?

*from here




Edited to add this video. I can't get enough of it.  If you are in a bad mood, please watch it because you will immediately snap out of it.  This video is from KFOR in Oklahoma to boot...

New Year? Yes. please.

I have really been sucking it up at my blogging.  So much for keeping you people that actually want to hear about my life up to date.

This year actually wasn't so bad.  I am very blessed, this I know.

To name a few events of the year:
My baby niece Cora was born, my family has become closer through hardships, new friends were made, and I ran my first half marathon.

I have dreams and aspirations for my life, and to be honest my life isn't where I thought it would be at this age.  It's been good though, and I know I shouldn't want more but that's my human heart I guess.
I know I am so blessed with my health, a healthy family and love.  I see people in my line of work that are just broken.  People are dying every day, some with no family by their side, and some with an abundance of family members filling the halls.  That's a part of the job, heck, it's part of life.

I had a hope of running a full marathon in the year 2012.  After my half marathon experience, I thought it would be possible.  However due to my hip issue, I don't think it's going to be possible.  I've researched and researched, and have diagnosed myself with piriformis syndrome.  Not a lot can be done with it, you just have to do a lot of strengthening, stretching, massage and sometimes chiropractic adjustments.  I hope to one day be able to do a full marathon, but this piriformis syndrome takes a loooong time to restore itself.  Taking it slow, shortening my runs, and doing tons of strengthening is in the cards for me for now.  As long as I can keep running some, it's better than not at all.  I never thought I would say that about running.

Running has saved me from myself.  Running isn't for some people, but I truly love it.  Some days it's hard to get up and do it, I will admit.  Most days it's a needed relief.  Popping on my headphones, listening to music, letting the endorphins flow, and thinking about nothing... it's the best.

I am ready for 2012.

I'm not planning on doing any New Year's Resolutions.  I just want to be happy and I want everyone that I love to be happy.  I want the world to be at peace, and I want people to be kind to one another.  I want lies to stop, and truths to be told.  I want people to stop hurting and using one another for selfish gain.

Only in a perfect world.  A girl can dream, can't she?

Route 66 Half Marathon

Once again I'm slacking when it comes to blogging.  I just wanted to give a summary of my very first half marathon.

Let me rewind back to January 2011.  I had decided that I was going to train for a 5k in March 2011.  I was not a runner, I could not run more than 5 minutes without almost dying.  I didn't follow a couch to 5k plan, I just built up my level of comfortability when it came to running until I could run 20 minutes straight, then 30 minutes... you get the point. I would have conversations with my friend Stacy about how I didn't think I could do it, that there was NO way I could run a 5k race.  I'm naturally athletic, but I'm not naturally a runner.  I'm not a fast runner, and I probably will never get below a 10 minute mile in a race but I'm okay with that.

I ran a few 5k races over the course of 5 months or so, then I ran a couple of 10k races here and there.  In June 2011, I decided I wanted to train and run my first half marathon in November.  13.1 miles.  This girl who started out almost passing out after running 2 minutes, is going to try to run a half marathon?  I must have gone insane.

The summer months were hard to train, in which I rarely ran since I DESPISE the treadmill.  I did some long runs, my highest being 11 miles.  It's funny that I now see 3 -6 miles as "short and easy runs".

The Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa started out as a cold and windy morning, and it ended that way.
My friend Stacy and I stayed at a hotel in Tulsa the night before, and maybe slept for 2 good hours, if that.  Stacy is a natural runner, and she is faster than I am and probably ever will be.

There were so many people there racing, and a lot of supporters along the road.  Total strangers cheering on other strangers as they ran.  Some of my favorite signs I saw were, "Be a honey badger, Don't give a S&*#"  "Run complete stranger that I don't know, Run"  and at the end "You're almost there" with a sign beside it that said, "That's what she said"

The first 6 miles were pretty hilly, and I have to say that I am never prepared for hills.  Mainly because I rarely train on them.  I've learned my lesson though, I have to get over my hill phobia.  The last 7 miles were pretty much a straight, flat way. After mile 9 or so, you had a straight, VERY cold wind coming at you.  In my experience, between mile 10 and mile 11 was the longest mile of my life.  My legs could not go any faster, my hips were getting incredibly tight, and my energy was depleting.

I took some Clif Shotbloks along the way and drank Gatorade every now and then.

I ended up finishing in 2 hours 32 minutes and 40 seconds.  It was a 13.3 mile course, which ends up being an 11:29 pace.  I am pleased with that considering I didn't train for 2 weeks prior due to life.  My goal was to finish and now I have a PR to build off of.

Right before we faced the cold weather.

All the people behind us that were racing.

Me and Stacy at the end. 13.1 finishers!

I have a marathon relay coming up in December at White Rock Marathon in Dallas.
I plan on running the half marathon in Ardmore and the half marathon for the OKC Memorial.

I have a goal to run a marathon in 2012.  I never thought I'd want to, and I never thought I'd say those words.   I may be crazy, but why not I say, why not?!

Warrior Dash Tulsa 2011

I had a request to blog about my experience at the Warrior Dash in Tulsa, and I thought that was a great idea.  Especially in a year when I look back and try to remember exactly what I thought.

This was the first year that Oklahoma had a Warrior Dash, so I was pretty pumped to participate in it.

Let me start off by saying that I WAAAAY underestimated how hard it was going to be and that I am NOT in as good of shape as I thought.

They donate your shoes at the end if you want so they encourage you to wear your older shoes.  (Big mistake on my part, and I'll show you why later.)

I ran the Warrior Dash with two of my best friends Stacy & David.  They are in way better shape, so they left me and had a much better time.  I ended up finishing around 55 minutes.
I'm okay with that because I didn't do it for time, I did it just to finish.  Also, next year I will be able to go under that time.

I went into this thinking, "Oh, I'm a runner, I don't really need to train for this too hard."  Yeah. Right.

It started off pretty good until about the 3/4 of a mile into it when it basically went into a straight up hill trail run with tons of little ditches, holes, rocks and what not.

The obstacles included:
-jumping over walls then going under bars x 4
 -stepping in tires and jumping over cars X 3
-running through tires
-climbing up a straight wall with tiny bars to step on that were very far apart and a  little wall (they had those a couple of times through the course.)
-climbing on nets flat
-climbing over a net wall which was SOOOO high that I had a miniature panic attack about plunging to my death.
-leaping into an ice cold river and having to roll over logs X 3 (apparently a lot of people peed in it..I found this out later),
- Climbing up multiple taaalll talll walls and worrying about falling and dying. (Yes, I'm a bit dramatic)
- Running down a straight downward trail hill, trying not to go too fast so that you run in a ditch and fall and roll to your death.
- Jumping over more walls.
-Crawling under barbed wire and nets
- Jumping and crawling in a mud pit
- Jumping over fire.

I'm sure there are more but that's all I can remember.

It was probably the hardest thing I've done physically, yet it was sooo much fun.
I wanted to die while doing it, but I felt so accomplished afterward.
If you know me well, you know I have basically no upper body strength.
That I was able to do those obstacles and climb up straight hills made me really proud and pumped up!

So obviously this is going to be a yearly thing!

Here are some photos from our little adventure:

Stacy, David, and I after

Me & Stacy

David & I

Me and my mud boogers

Next day. My bruised & cut legs (If you can see them)

...ANNNND this is why you do not wear old, too small running shoes in a race like this.

Notice the blisters on the left (sorry my feet are disgusting)

I encourage everyone to do this race at least once in your life!  You won't regret it!  (Well you might at the time you are running it, but afterward it's great!)  :)

My friend Sherrie found a video somebody had posted using their camera helmet.  It's long but you can fast forward through parts if you are interested to see what kind of obstacles there were.  Obviously this guy did it way faster than I did, and it doesn't truly capture how hard it really was.)

Love.

what happened?

What happened to me blogging more often?

I'll tell you what happened... I became a failure at living successfully these past couple of months.

What do I mean by that?

I have failed at doing anything really productive, being spiritually lazy, and even running consistently.

I'd like to blame the heat for all of these things, and I can sort of blame the running part on that.
However, it's not the case with the other parts of my being.
I know people go through seasons of things and what not, but this is getting old and tiresome.
I'm in a state of indifference and I'm not sure how to get out of it.

So I apologize if I've been less than my normal self... I'm sure things will get better.
That's a good thing and a bad thing about life.
The only guarantee is that everything changes, nothing stays the same.