Weekending - What's sleep ?

It's Monday again...funny how that seems to happen every week despite my objections.  Oh well !  I'm very excited for today's post because I can finally tell everyone how my 5K went this weekend ! And while I'm at it, I figured I could do another linkup as well :)  I love these because I'm finding so many interesting bloggers to stalk follow.

I love seeing posts about "Oh it was great to sleep in" or "I didn't have to set my alarm and it was nice."  On Saturday I got up at the ungodly hour of 6AM to run 3 miles.  My immediate thought:

Followed by:

It was a small race of only 108 people.  I spent a lot of time going back and forth in my head of "It would be cool if someone I knew was here" and "Oh man I hope I don't see anyone I know here".  I was nervous and excited and afraid I would screw something up (not quite sure how as long as I kept putting one foot in front of the other, but I'm a constant worrier so it happens).  About 15 minutes before the race was going to start, I had the best cheerleader I could have asked for show up with tons of good advice (as he'd run the course before) AND he ended up running with me during the hardest part of the course.  I pretty much won at life right there.

I stuck to my 3:1 but since I had music in, sometimes I didn't hear my watch or think to look at it so it ended up being more like 4:1 sometimes (I actually forgot my watch was set for that once I started and did 6:1...oops !)  I loved the course. It was a trail which made it interesting (I've never run on anything not paved before) and it was actually really enjoyable.

The end results were:

(According to my watch)
Time: 30:12.3
Pace:  9:58/mi

(According to the chip)
Time: 30:10
Pace: 9:43/mi

I'm going to go with my watch time for the more accurate results.  And I'm a little sad because it wasn't 3.1 miles (at least according to my watch).  Regardless, I still kicked butt ! When's my next race ?!

(I look ridiculous and gross after the race but I had too much fun to care !)

The rest of Saturday consisted of puppy time at the park, a quick nap (for them) and a birthday party for a 6 year old, which was awesome...except for the ridiculous amount of 6 year olds.  

Besides the 5K, my favorite part of the weekend was a Sunday night adventure around the NC Museum of Art.  It was probably the best way the weekend could have ended.  Now it's back to the daily grind of the work week.  Not sure about anyone else but I am SUPER PUMPED that this is only a 4 day work week.

How was everyone else's weekend ? Tell me, tell me, tell me !

Favorites on Friday

I'm pretty impressed with myself for getting this post up as early as I am today ! Yay me :)  I know it's going to be a long day, so I figured it's best to get this up now before life happens.   It's been a long week and I'm so ready for the weekend !

To celebrate it being Friday and in an attempt to expand my blogger-ness, I'm doing another linkup ! 

Favorite TV show: Bob's Burgers.

I have lines from the show as my text tones, my background and phone cover coincide with Louise,

and I'm convinced that if you mix Louise and Tina together, you have my spirit animal.

Favorite thing to happen this week: I set a goal for myself and nailed it ! (Read about it here) That means my 5K is TOMORROW ! I MAY ONLY SLIGHTLY BE FREAKING OUT A LITTLE. 

Favorite Song:  I have an obsession with William Control.  I can not get enough of this man.  I've seen Adien play 3 times over the past 10 years at Bamboozle and such but it was always from afar or a random "Hey ! Awesome set !" as I ran by their merch table on the way to another stage.  However, I have gotten to actually meet Wil the last 2 times I've been to a William Control show.  He will always be one of my favortie humans as well as artists.  I've had "Illuminator" stuck in my head. So here it is to get stuck in yours !

Favorite thing to waste time on while browsing the net: CAT GIFS !  I mean who doesn't love cats being silly or stupid or jerks. Here are some of my favorites.

(AWWW !!)

(BAHAHHAHA...I never get sick of this)

(I saw this captioned with "Best use of the force ever." I agree)

(I need dis.)

(No.)

Favorite motivation for the week:  I wrote a post last week because I didn't really believe I could call myself a runner.  It's been an ongoing struggle mentally but I've been trying to push past it.  I found this a few days ago, and it really helped put things in perspective.

My favorite fun gifs:

(I dare you to be in a bad mood after watching shake puppy)

(This might be my favorite thing on the internet)

(Aww, he tried !)

And lastly, my favorite thing to do at work because my coworkers haven't figured out what it means yet:

(This needs to be the universal symbol.  I expect to see everyone doing this soon.)

So there's my first Friday Favorites post ! What are some of your favorite things ? I'm nosy, tell me ;) 

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and thanks for reading !

Exhausted !

I just fell asleep at my desk. Oops ! That's what I get for not being able to fall asleep last night. My legs feel really good today but adamantly REFUSED to stop throbbing last night from about 1AM until about 5AM.  It didn't help that the dogs kept flopping on them every time I tried to move into a comfortable position. I even took it easy during spin class to make sure I didn't aggravate my IT bands AND sat in the hot tub.  Oh well. Today is a rest day so I'm not too concerned.  At least all the awake time let me update my "About Me" section - go check it out ! In other news, hooray for giant cups of coffee !

Since I'm useless currently, enjoy some fun quotes I've collected that make me feel better about running and training.

(My favorite is the "special kind of idiot".  I want that on a shirt for when I run my first half !)

(Sometimes this is the only thought that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other)

Since that will only keep you amused for about .7 seconds, here are some links I like !

• 36 Things Only Runners Understand
• Buzzfeed's 28 Problems Every Runner Will Understand
• 22 Unexpected Things When You Run Your First Half Marathon
• 5 Common Mistakes Newbies Make

Enjoy while I try and function as a human being !

Drumroll Please...

I know you've all been anxiously chomping at the bit to find out what happened with the bet I made for myself last night (at least pretend, okay ?)  The results are in:

Sadly, I didn't go 3.5 miles. Around the 2 mile mark I decided to be smart and pull back a little so that I didn't kill my legs.  Sore legs today, but I can walk so I know I did the right thing.  However, since I did manage to run a 5K distance AND because I averaged less than 9:56/mi...

As of 9:25AM this morning, I'm signed up to run my first* race ! (* I ran the Santa Paws 5K back in November '13 but since I decided to start clean slate, we're counting this as the first.)

I'm pretty excited.  It feels so great to set a goal, work at it, and see it happen. My goal at the 5K on Saturday is be smart, don't give everything away on the first mile, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and cross the finish line.  Go me !

Since I'm spilling here, something that I've seen Alyssa do every week are Humpday Confessions.  In an effort to keep myself out of becoming a one trick pony, I'm going to take a page from  her playbook today. Literally, because I stole the questionnaire she used this week. It's a linkup as well so here we go !

1. What's a nickname only your family calls you?
The running joke is that my name is JoJiLi.  Growing up my mom would try and yell at me but would start to say my brother's name, realize that was wrong, start to call me my sister and finally get my name.  My brother used to call me (and still does occasionally) Lala because he couldn't say Lisa.  My dad also calls me Fred. 

2. What's a weird habit of yours?

I have to tell the dogs goodbye before I leave the apartment.  If the words "Bye, mommy loves you!" don't leave my mouth before I walk out the door, I have to go back and tell them.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?

I'm super not a fan of gorillas but I don't know if it's a phobia.  Monkeys are cool.  The whole crazy, destructive rage thing that gorillas have going on at the drop of a hat though kinda freaks me out. Watching King Kong was an interesting roller coaster of emotions for me. Also terrified of anything that has more legs than a dog. But pretty sure that's not weird.

4. What is a song you like to jam out to alone?
I get made fun of often because when people see my playlists they vary from "Oh my god this song will change your life" to "oh my god please don't judge me".  I will jam out anytime but usually reserve my alone car rides for musicals. The most frequent go to songs are "Don't tell Mama" from Cabaret, "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid or "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl. 

5. What's one of your biggest pet peeves?

Stupid people. That pretty much sums it up.

6. What's one of your nervous habits?

If I'm nervous I start picking at the skin around my nails. I don't even know I'm doing it and there's maybe one person I've ever met who actually notices when I do it.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
Usually the left side of the bed (the right if you're looking at it).

8. What was your first stuffed animal and what was its name?

It was a little white bear.  I don't think it had a name.

9. What's the drink you always order at Starbucks or Dunkin?

I don't drink either. But my go-to at Cup A Joe is a Medium Iced Soy White Mocha Latte. My favorite is their Iced Chai Fusions though. Yum.

10. Which way do you face in the shower?
Usually away from the water unless I'm washing my face.

11. Do you have any weird body skills?

Apparently being able to fold my hands behind my back between my shoulder blades is weird ? And when I sit cross-legged on the floor I usually end up laying down over my legs or propped up on my elbows which is also weird ? I guess my flexibility is weird to "normal" people.

12. What is your favorite comfort food that you know is bad for you but you eat it anyway?
M&M's.  It's not a comfort food so much as I'm just addicted.  Chinese food is a must if sad/stressed.

13. What is a phrase or exclamation you always say?

Depends on who I'm talking to.  Usually "Will do" & "awesome".  There's one person who hears the phrase "I'm going to murder you...in your sleep" daily.

14. What do you wear when you go to sleep?
Um....usually a giant t-shirt. Let's go with that.

15. What did you used to wear that you thought was cool and now you realize it wasn't?
Butterfly clips.  My mom usually only bought the ones with glitter.  I f*cking HATE glitter.


So there you have it folks ! I'm still pretty new to this linkup idea so look for more in the future.  Thanks for reading !

Makeover & New Goals !

As if you couldn't already tell my blog underwent an AMAZING makeover.  The biggest thanks in the world to Natalie over at Revel And Design. You wouldn't be looking at the awesomeness you see before you without her.

That being said, I'm going to work on updating some things this week and making this EVEN BETTER !  I've been reading some things in other blogs and also hearing it from people directly about putting yourself in a niche with your blog.

So I'll be working on making this a little more well-rounded.  I think it's important to include more than just my training plan and accomplishments because I think everything will just get real old, real fast.  Mostly because I've realized that training for the half marathon is intertwined in my life a lot more than I let on.  I'll give you a minute to digest the fact that you will actually get to know me a little more than just how slow/fast I ran on any given day.

Are you still with me ? Good. For now I'm going to stick to what I've been doing until I can get enough things set up, pictures together, ideas formulated and executed, etc.

Now that you know my goals for ole bloggy here, let's talk about my running goals. First, a little recap from the past 2 days:

Sunday:
Time: 35:12.7
Dist: 3.50 mi
Avg. Pace: 10:04/mi
(Creative Loop around my apartment)

Monday:
Time: 30:12.0
Dist: 3.04 mi
Avg. Pace: 9:56/mi
(Hibernian run-less hilly route I found)

These times are INCLUDING walk breaks. So I started looking at my runs and my average pace and attempted to do math.  When that didn't work, I used the internet, and confirmed that I run about a 10:00/mi.  My goal for the City of Oaks Half Marathon is a 9:00/mi.  I have 4 months. That's more math that my brain doesn't feel like doing, but it seems like I can make it a reality. I just have to push myself and focus.  And to do that, I made myself a little bet.

Tonight I'm going to run 3.5 miles.  If my average pace comes out below 9:56, then I'm going to run a 5K on Saturday to give myself a timed race.  If I don't average below 9:56, then I'll keep working and look for one again in a week or two.  I still plan on signing up for Raleigh's Finest 5K in July, but I want to have little races here and there to track my progress in a way.  I just really want a starting point, a place to go "Okay, this is where I started, where I need to push from and what I can compare myself to at the end." I feel like this is the best way to get over all the negative energy in my head and start focusing on not comparing myself to other runners.  Cross your fingers for me ! I'll be following the advice of RuPaul, "Good luck ! And...

Thank you for reading !

Get Set...

IT'S OFFICIAL ! 

Today, I signed up for the Raleigh City Of Oaks Half Marathon.

How I seem on the outside to everyone :

Internally and to a few people who have the misfortune privilege of knowing the real me:

Please excuse me while I try and keep myself from freaking out at the fact that I only have 4 months to be super awesome train.  Also, I need to figure out how to harness this in order to run faster.

Normal posts will resume tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a great weekend !

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I've been thinking a lot about when a "runner" becomes a runner. For those of you who don't know, I'm a philosopher (not just at heart, I actually have my BA in Philosophy) and plan on being a college professor when I decide to grow up,

(Yes, I just did this. And I spelled it right without spell check. Self-five.)

so I spend a lot of time thinking about things. Remind me not to blog when I spiral into my existential crisis moments...they're not pretty.  But I digress.

The reason I bring up philosophy is because last night a comment was made and I'm still laughing over it.  "We discovered a waterfall ! It didn't exist until then !" Granted, it was said to get a laugh out of me but it seems kind of relevant to what I've been thinking about lately.

I always have and probably always will refer to myself as a dancer.  I started at age 4 and only stopped 5 years ago because I decided not to pursue it professionally.  It's how I explain why I stand differently and sit down differently and why it takes effort for me to stick my butt out when doing squats.  Usually when I say "It's because I'm a dancer," it just makes sense.  So it's very weird to me that people have started calling me a runner.  I think in the past 2 weeks I've heard, "Oh, are you a runner ?" so many times and I don't know what to say !  I usually respond with, "I'm a beginner" or "Oh, I guess, but I haven't been doing it that long" or "Oh, I've only run a 5K".  I then usually feel compelled to tell them that I'm training for a half marathon and it just gets awkward.

I consider most, if not all my friends "runners". I mean experienced runners too, with a laundry list of amazing accomplishments.  Then there's me. NO WAY would I call myself a runner around them because I honestly feel so inferior to them, it's ridiculous. Okay, that sounds really dumb to say, but it's the truth.  So I started thinking about why I consider them "runners" and why I'm off in some lable-less limbo waiting for something to happen so I can say "Yeah, I'm a runner."

I don't like to think about runners in terms of how many miles they've ran or how long they've been running.  There are so many different levels of experience but just because someone has been running for 5 years versus 10 years doesn't mean one is a runner and one isn't. Also, running is a form of exercise, and you can absolutely run without being what I classify in my head as a "runner".  Which is why I always seem a little iffy about calling myself a runner.  Does that make sense ?

Let's start simple.  They've got all the gear.  I can't tell you how many conversations I've listened to about compression socks & shorts, singlets, K Tape, foam rollers, gels and shoes.  And the laundry. Meghan made a comment one day about how she has "normal clothes" and "running clothes" and how often she does laundry.  I guess I kinda laughed about that this morning when I had to make a new drawer for my running clothes when I was putting laundry away.  I get a little obsessive about making sure I separate my shorts and shirts and tanks and socks from my normal clothes so it's easier to find when I need them...well okay, so I fall into that category.  I mean, I just made a post Monday about all the fun goodies I got. Not to mention how many times I mention rolling with The Stick. Alright, alright...

In my mind a runner is someone who has a running goal.  There's a point to getting up everyday and lacing up your shoes and putting one foot in front of the other.  I hear people talk constantly about their next race or time goal or PR they're look at.  And they have this because they've already run a race so they have something to compare it to. Okay, okay, I get that I can fall into this category because I ran a 5K and I want to run one in July and run it in under 29 min and ideally I would love to run my half in November in around 2 hours.  Well, moving on.

I think the biggest thing for me is that a runner is someone who doesn't give up and just keeps pushing and pushing to reach that goal.  To see all my friends out there day in and day out prepping themselves for Rock N Roll or Boston or all these other races just inspires me.  I hear all their stories and see their progress and I keep pushing myself constantly so that I can get better and run faster and longer and cross the finish line at City of Oaks and feel like all my work paid off. Um...

Guys ? I think I'm a runner.

I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't call myself a runner after looking at those reasons and definitions.  Yes, there is still a part of me that feels like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop so that I can have some sort of validation.  I may not be a seasoned runner like everyone I can't seem to stop comparing myself to (I'll work on it, I swear) but I think the only way I'm going to get there is if I start realizing that I'm already the very thing I've been trying to become.

[EDIT: I almost didn't publish this. I honestly almost hit delete. But I think it's important.]

I realize this one went kind of long and a little personal, so thanks for bearing with me and thanks for reading !