Blackout

What a week!

I'm happy to say that it's the morning of my long run (11 miles) and I have 3 runs under my belt already...THAT MEANS I'M GOING TO RUN 4 TIMES. Good work, self. (Also, I'm watching "I Used to be Fat" while writing this, so I may be distracted). I am especially happy with the 3 runs because I've had QUITE the obstacle this week. On Sunday night, sometime while I was asleep the power went out in my house (along with 40,000 people in town) because of an ice storm. Where I differ is while most people's came on throughout the next few days, it didn't come back on for me until Wednesday at 4pm. Oh yeah, then it went back out at 10pm. I was SO ready to just be alone (because since Monday I had been either at work, or at someone's house since it was dark, cold, scary and sans-television at my house) so I came home after work on Wednesday, SO excited to just be at MY house, sit and watch tv, and not feel like I was burdening anyone...or have to talk to anyone really. Well, it was FREEZING since the heat had only been on for about an hour. I killed some time by running (which I'll talk about in a moment), and by the time I got back, it was up to about 57 degrees. Cold. So I ordered some take out Lebanese food, brought it home, wrapped myself in a big coat (over my sweaty running clothes...yes), and then draped 2 blankets over that. And I [tried] to eat in that set up. I said [tried] because I was still able to eat, but I got it EVERYWHERE. Oh well. I convinced myself to take a shower since the water MIGHT be hot...and it was. It was glorious. And so I was out of the shower, the apartment had heated up to about 65...a LIVABLE temperature, and Top Chef was about to start, and I was ready to start a new blog post. After the opening credits rolled for TC, The. Power. Went. Out. I was FURIOUS. And instead of going anywhere, I found a mini flashlight, an old book, and read until I was sleepy and went to bed under 4 blankets. It was still off when I woke up, but I hear it came on about an hour after I got to work.

Some highlights of my time away from my apartment because of the lack of power: I re-saw the first 2.5 episodes of Lost, made my mom watch RuPaul's Drag Race, kept my fridge food in the back of my car overnight because I was afraid it would be too cold outside, had to play Sofie's Choice with my condiments (and also found out my fridge needed a CLEANING), and accidentally exposed myself at the gym (but I'll get into more of that later). Anyways, I know this isn't a "my power went out" blog, so I'll just get right into it.

Monday, 4 miles, Dreaded Treadmill, 5pm
So this was Monday, day 1 of no power. I got out of work and then realized I had no where to go. I had to knock out a 4 mile run, and I didn't want to run outside and then get home to a dark and cold apartment with no shower, so I figured I'd kill as much time as I could at the gym. I packed a gym bag with all my shower stuff (which was kind of difficult since I didn't have any mini bottles of shampoo and whatnot, just those giant 32oz bottles that were on sale at Ulta) and I headed to the gym. I have to interject that I HATE the treadmill. It's SO boring and all I can do is stare at the time/distance and count the tiny numbers that go by until I'm done on this awful, awful machine. I also feel the speeds are out of wack, I run 9ish miles (sometimes faster, sometimes slower) on the road, but on a treadmill, I run like 11-10min miles. WHAAT. But today was different. I hadn't been on a treadmill since about December, and believe it or not, I'm a little more in shape than I was then (I wonder if it has to do with my Marathon training...). I started on the treadmill completely expecting to hate it and DRAAG out the 4 miles, but it wasn't terrible...surprisingly. I know I was really happy with my body after the 10 mile run from the weekend, but the fact that I could keep myself together on a treadmill is INSANE. I wouldn't say I enjoyed myself, but I also didn't feel tired at any point. At around mile 3 I could feel my arch blister acting up OF COURSE. I figured out that anything over 4 miles required 5 minutes of pre-run foot taping, but for some reason it came earlier this time. Ugh.

So I finished the run, lifted a little, and hit the showers. This is where things get a little inappropriate. Now a lot of the older ladies at the gym don't mind just walkin' around totally naked. I'm not one of those. I even change in the handicap bathroom. But today I thought "no, I stand here a gym person today. I will adapt and try not to think about my...self being exposed to the outer world. I QUICKLY changed into a towel, while in the back corner facing the lockers (I may have "tried" to change in public, but who am I kidding?) Well the towels at the gym are veeeery small and thin. I knew that, but I didn't take that into account while placing it on my person for the seemingly endless walk to the showers. As I mentioned before many of the older ladies walk around naked all the time, but you know who was in the gym when I was in my towel, girls my age. Girls who DON'T change out in the open, they don't even change at the gym half the time. They use the locker room to go to the bathroom, check their makeup in the mirror, that type of thing. So I just thought "ok Erica, just walk to the shower, you're more covered up than most ladies who....are not here currently." And as I started to walk, I felt a brisk breeze....on my bottom. I figured it was just because the towel was so short and it was ok, since half the time when I wear skirts it always feels SO much shorter than it actually is. This must be the same scenario...right? I walked past 2 of the girls, and they just gave me this LOOK. After I had passed them I was in shower domain, and I turned around to the full length that was behind me to see TO MY HORROR that the towel left little to the imagination in the back....as in 3 inches of the bottom of my bottom, JUST HANGING OUT. Ok, if I'm 5'1, and the towel doesn't cover from my chest to MY BOTTOM, who are we making these towels for?! I wonder if they put up posters in the locker room with my face on them with the words "Inappropriate Exposing" underneath. Mostlikely.

Wendesday, 5 miles, 5:30pm, sunny, sidewalks icy and not very clear
So this is that 5 mile run I was talking about earlier. I ran it because I had to get 5 miles in..but mainly for the apartment-heat-up-time-killing-aspect of it. Honestly, there was nothing too remarkable about this run, I felt great again (like on the treadmill), so it's nice to see my long distance runs are starting to positively affect my shorter runs. I taped up my foot because of the arch blisters, and the ground was so uneven that almost each step I could feel my "dressings" coming loose...which is SO irritating. But it was COLD outside. I even had to wear a full hat, not just the ear warmers.

Friday, 2 miles, treadmill
Yep, it may just be 2 miles, but it gets me to that 4-runs-this-week place! I took Friday off of work, and John and I went to a brewery on Thursday night called 3 Floyds (best. beer. ever.)

After our few beers, I picked up a growler of this fine fellow.
I plan on getting acquainted with Mr. Bruce tonight after my long run.

We didn't stay out late, but I'm guessing having some HEAVY beers right before you go to sleep can't aide in your morning run. We were going into Chicago on Friday, so I brought my running clothes with my half thinking I maybe might think about possibly running, but Friday morning I work up much earlier than John, and figured "why not, they have a treadmill in their basement." Well, I think I mentioned before I. Don't. Run. In. The. Mornings. And for some reason I forgot this details (and that I still had beer in me). I hit the treadmill, going nice and slow, shooting for anywhere between 3-4 miles since I had limited time. Well, it was PAINFUL to even make it to 2 miles, and I was COVERED in sweat, so I figured 2 miles is enough for me, I still ran, and I'll take and it not feel bad. And you know what? I don't feel bad. I'm happy I got up and ran instead of watching tv or something, and I know that I need to start running in the morning more (since the marathon itself is at like 7:3am).

So I'm planning on running 11 miles in a few hours, and I just trying to figure out of I do 1 long loop and have John meet me at the halfway mark with some Gatorade, or do 2 laps of a smaller loop so I can swing by my house and get some. I know, decisions, decisions.