4.5 very sweaty miles done. I find that waking up at 6 am is getting easier…I’m much better at morning running than evening…I don’t know why I try to kid myself into thinking i will have the energy to run after work. Its not gonna happen!

Also see the pink bites on the back of my hand and arm? Somewhere a mosquito got ahold of me and attacked! I must be very sweet! 😉

Grossest thing on my run? I kept running into spider webs hanging down from trees or between them. Yuck. Don’t even wanna think about the potential of spiders being attached to those webs! (shudder!)

Happy Thursday! Make it a great day!

Scenes from this morning’s run:

Holy humidity! It was soupy out there this morning. That made me a little slower due to my heart issue, but it wasn’t too bad.

The next picture is one of the lakes in Lincoln, its not too far from my house and this morning I ran around part of the shoreline. I think around the lake is something like 5 miles so that may become a new route.

Me, after the run. So much sweat.

This silly cat thinks it lives at our house. Sorry Buddy, I can barely afford to feed myself, let alone a stray animal that seems well fed. Sorry ‘bout that. Also, I’m allergic to cats, so there’s that.

And finally, I believe those are hibiscus flowers. I saw them in someone’s yard along the way.

4.5 miles in 50ish minutes.
Good morning friends! That’s how I like to start my day!

Blame it on the weatherman

I woke up to the sounds of rolling thunder and the sight of lightning.
I was so mad! My run outside was thwarted, again! Mother nature is being quite rude lately.
Instead of heading down to my treadmill, I simply reset my alarm and rolled back over.
But there would be no more sleep. Nope, not for this girl. So instead I got up and did Ab Ripper X. Seems like an ok compromise. I guess. I’m itching to get out and run. My legs want to go, I need a good run. Tomorrow morning for sure!

Have a good day friends!

Well, that was an awful run.

Clearly I can’t wait until after work to run. It felt like a sauna out there. Steamy is the best way to describe it.

1 mile in 13:47. That is a terrible time for me. Lots of walking cuz my legs felt dead…and breathing is hard when its so humid.

I WILL get up and run in the morning! Its supposed to be 97° tomorrow and I’m going in to my PT job for a bit after work so I can’t do it then! Accountability.

Weekend Recap

Friday night I was working at my 2nd job, when my mom texted me, telling me she wasn’t feeling well and was going to go to the ER. My brother ended up taking her as both my dad and I were at work.
Fast-forward to the next morning and I find out her hemoglobin was low (8) and so they gave her 2 blood transfusions. They want her to have a colonoscopy and they really have no clue as to why it would be so low. But they don’t think she has cancer…so we shall see. She came home Saturday and is back to work today.
Saturday morning I found out my old roommate’s mom died. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March and was told about 2 weeks ago that she had less than a year to live. She passed away Saturday morning. My friend is devastated. I feel awful for her. I hugged my mom a little closer after I read that.
I worked Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoon at my 2nd job. It was nice, the money was good and I love working there. It’s so much fun!
My friend Keith and I went on a frate (friend-date) to see “World War Z” after I got off work last night. It was a decent movie, but a little stressful. Good movie.
I haven’t run since Thursday morning. I worked late Thursday night and couldn’t get up early Friday morning…and then my mom wasn’t supposed to be alone Saturday (although I did sneak out for a 5 mile bike ride!) while my dad was sleeping. Sunday was work and a movie… (and wow, do I have a lot of excuses or what?) And then this morning I couldn’t face getting up early. I just reset my alarm. I WILL go run after work. Promise. I need it after the stress from the past few days.

Hope you all have a good week!

Rules of the Road

I’ve always been told that when you’re out running you should run against traffic. Because I run on busy streets, I run on the sidewalks. And as I understand it, bicyclists are supposed to ride their bikes in the street WITH the flow of traffic, right?

In fact, the city of Lincoln made special bike lanes through parts of the city, just so bikers can be safe as they ride throughout town. They ride with traffic.

So imagine my surprise when every morning this week on my runs I’ve nearly been run over by bicyclists while I was running on the sidewalk AGAINST the flow of traffic! Only 1 of the 3 even had the courtesy to say “on your left” before they barreled past me. I have my music on, but low enough to hear people and traffic for safety reasons. So that’s not why I didn’t hear them…they just didn’t say anything!

Now I ride my bike too. I’m all for biking. I just think we should all be safe and share the road. Am I right?

/end rant.

Scenes from this mornings run:

I found this Owl carved from a tree stump near the eagle I found a few weeks ago. Pretty cool.

This palm tree is in our neighbor down the street’s backyard. I had to take the picture thru their fence. The tree is real. This is Nebraska. I’m confused.

The humidity was bad today. I managed to soak completely through my shirt with my 4.5 mile run. But it was a great run. One of those where you just feel happy to be alive and love being awake and running before the rest of the world is even out of bed. This makes me very happy.

Have a great day friends!

A few random things…

As I was trying to look up the race results from the 10k on Sunday, I found the results from the last time I ran the race in 2011. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I saw that I came in SECOND in my age group (at the time) 20-29!!!! I had no idea!! Apparently I won a medal, but I never got it. Still, how awesome is that??!?! They still haven’t posted this year’s results. We shall see.

On my run Monday morning my Garmin was beeping at me. Turns out, since I’ve never deleted any workouts since I got it in 2011 the database was nearly full. I’ve apparently run/walked/biked over 900 miles on that thing! Runner problems! Also, it was counting backwards! I watched it go from .19 down to .18, then .17, then back up. How does THAT happen? I deleted some runs from the database so I’m hoping that helps. To paraphrase Brooke (two-o-nine) “get it together 305!”

Apparently I did NOT want to get up and run this morning. My alarm went off at 5:40 and I finally managed to pull myself out of bed at 6:20am. I even was dreaming that it was raining so I didn’t have to get up and go run. Which is silly, because I have my treadmill in the basement! No excuses. I’m always glad when I do get up and go run though.

The annual “Run for the Homeless” to benefit the People’s City Mission is this weekend. Its a minimum of $25 fundraised to do it. I ran it 2 years ago, and wanted to this year, but I work my PT job Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights so I’m going to make a good life choice and choose rest/sleep/a long run instead.

I also wanted to do the “Firecracker Run” on July 6th. But I work the PT job the 5th and 6th and $25 for a 5k seems a bit pricey to me. So I’m making a good life choice again and choosing me. Sometimes its good to be selfish.

Have a good day friends!

I may or may not have ran through this yard during my run this morning. It was humid, I was warm. Besides, there are no witnesses. It may or may not have happened! #running #sprinklers

The Summer of Melissa

Summer starts on Friday. As the solstice draws near I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my life. Running, dating, weight-loss, relationships, my finances, things like that. And I’ve made a BIG decision.

I’m declaring summer 2013 as The Summer of Melissa. I’m going to work on me. (Not that I haven’t been doing that for the past few years!) but I’m working on things that don’t just involve weight-loss. I’m going to be busy and don’t have time to waste.

Last week I started by getting my financial house in order. I’ve managed to rack up some decent credit card debt, so I applied for and got a personal loan! I’m paying off 2 of my credit cards, and have only a little bit left to pay off. I feel such a sense of relief and like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The plan is to pay off my other card by the end of the year. That’s where my second job comes in. I’m working there as much as I can during the week to make extra cash. Every little bit helps, right?

Secondly, I’m taking a self-imposed dating break. I’m tired of stressing about it, I’m tired of worrying about things that I can’t control. It’s stressful and I need to just take a step back and re-evaluate. I went out with the friend of a friend that I met on Match 2 weeks ago. We had our second date. Two days after that date I texted him and I never heard back. I took that as a sign that I need to step back and spend some time on myself. When the right one comes along I will know. I will be in a better place mentally, financially, physically and spiritually to be with him.

Thirdly, I’m changing up my workout routine. I’ve been running without doing much else for 4ish years now. I’m going to bike more, do yoga, and I’ve started lifting weights. I’m up 5 pounds and that’s unacceptable to me. I feel squishy. And I don’t like it. Time to get leaner, stronger and faster. And I need to remind myself that I don’t need dessert every night!

The way I see it, I have 90 days to make some big changes in my life. I want the next 3 months to be ones of growth and change. I will still be me, but Melissa v.2.0 🙂

Welcome to the Summer Of Melissa friends! 🙂