Oink Oink!

So much to blog about so little time!!

So, when I left you on Tuesday it was cold and wet. I don't know where spring went! Two weeks ago I was wearing tank tops and we had the top down on the Jeep, and now it's back to our winter coats. Pippin and I had very chilly am walks all week - Tues was 27, Wed was 30, Thurs was 32 and Fri was something in the low 30's as well. What's up with this???

Wed was a non-running day and I did my Killer Butt DVD. This time she didn't kill me quite so much, but that DVD still kicks my butt. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the Killer Abs one from the same series, I know it would do me some good! If anyone has any good abs focused DVDs let me know! My thighs were a little sore Thurs but not too bad.

This week was "moving week" at work. They've acquired and renovated extra space within our facility that formerly belonged to a sister company. It's two stories and quite large. My department (Finance) along with the Execs, HR and Sales & Marketing were selected to move into it. The Execs are up on the 2nd floor, and the rest of us are on the first floor - I guess they figured they might as well make the glass ceiling quite literal. There's one woman on that floor, and she is the secretary. Personally I wouldn't want to be up there with them anyway. I would greatly prefer to still be where I was, I now have a 90 second walk through the bowels of our warehouse to get back to Brent. Before it was maybe a 15 second walk. I could easily disappear in all this crap and no one would know for quite a while. Our new cubes are rather large and posh for our company. Really all I need is my heater. I may have to get a second heater to keep the new space warm, it's got a much larger area to heat. I also sit underneath this strange new blue light. I don't know what it is, but when it comes on I am going to DANCE. And then probably evacuate.

The new space has actually made us a lot less productive though. Before we were all crammed into adjoining cubicles and you could easily talk while working. So, as ppl arrived in the morning you could chat while working and still stay on task. Now we're all spread apart with lots of empty cubes inbetween. So, as each person arrives you travel around and spread your good morning cheer individually. I think it was around 9.30 Friday morning before anyone started doing any real work. The bathrooms are also "flipped". In the front the women's is on the left and the men's on the right. It's just the opposite in this new space. Friday afternoon I was in a stall and heard a very unwomanly like person enter the bathroom. It was just TOO cumbersome sounding to be a girl. Then, all of a sudden I heard "him" say "F$$K" and run out. HA!

T
Thursday night I did yet another run on the treadmill. For some reason I've lost all motivation to run outside in the cooler temps. While I was training for the Miami Marathon I felt obligated to get out there and get all my miles in, now I feel like they're more optional. I ended up doing my run while watching some of the NCAA games. I started out watching Memphis vs Bradley but then noticed the Duke vs LSU score wasn't moving as it should be. I flipped over to the other CBS station to watch it. Man, the time on the treadmill flew by as I was busy watching the Blue Devils stink it up. I really hadn't wanted to run that night but watching the terrible game just made me want to work harder and harder. Duke really didn't deserve to win that game. Memphis played well though (that night anyway!) Somehow Pippin has managed to do quite well in the NCAA brackets. He actually picked LSU to beat Duke, and has LSU and Florida in the final game. I'm pretty sure he's going to end up with more point me than, how embarrassing!!

After all the moving and cold weather in the week we were zonked Friday night. We ended up eating some fajitas and watching Failure to Launch. It was really cute! I'd highly recommend it if you like cute little (predictable) romantic comedies.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in - sort of. As much as I love competing going to bed early on Friday and getting up early on Saturdays gets old. The past two weeks we've had races so we both really looked forward to sleeping in. Pippin had other ideas. Right at 7 am two little paws were scratching ME on my side. Then I got a lick in the face. Nice. So I took him out and climbed back in bed for another hour and a half. I knew I should have kept our bedroom door shut!

Once we finally got up we headed out for a run. The plan was 8 miles, and to do hill repeats. We don't do hills very often, but it's something we need to build in. We started out from our house and headed through one subdivision and over to a really hilly one. The whole path up to the top and then back down is one mile, so we ended up doing it twice for 2 miles of main hills. The first time was pretty tough but the second time we picked up quite a bit more speed. While we were up there we noticed a new subdivision that already had sidewalks. We headed that direction. It was really nice, the subdivision starts about .5 mile off the main road and there's even a little pond back there. From there we headed through the park and back up a different .5 mile hill. We talked about different ways to head back home since the mileage had already gone by very quickly and we knew we'd be over 8 miles. It was no big deal and we ended up with 8.6 miles, avg pace of 9.30. I'm really happy with the pace considering we worked hills into most of the run. It was 41 degrees but there was a ton of wind so it felt much cooler. We only saw two other runners, one of them was fluorescent guy! He wears bright neon yellow & neon green from head to toe! If he gets hits by a car it will be some sort of miracle. After all that successful hill running we came home and signed up for the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati in early May! My brother lives there and is doing part of the relay with some friends. So, free lodging helps! I'm really excited. It's a tough course and it's one week after the Country Music Half marathon so we'll be running this one for total fun. I'm even planning to run in costume, so I'll keep you posted on that!

Well, this post is getting too long so I'll post about the rest of our weekend tomorrow! Have you all heard about the preacher's wife here in TN who shot her husband and took the kids and headed for the beach? I'm sure you have because it's been on CNN and GMA and everything else. In some sort of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon we actually have a connection to this story. We went to the same small, Christian University they did. Based on their ages they should have graduated two years before us, but strangely he graduated a year after us (she did not graduate, instead they got married and started having kids). I found his name in a couple of our yearbooks, but he never had his picture made in anything other than his social club group pic, which has over 100 ppl in it and isn't labeled in rows or anything. I'm not sure what her maiden name was. I think it's very strange he never had his pic made, esp as a Bible major. Usually those guys were very outgoing and in lots of various clubs. I wasn't especially outgoing but my pic was in there numerous times for social clubs, professional clubs and academic recognition stuff. I think this story is very strange and I have a ton of theories on what happened. I don't normally discuss religion or politics here because this is my running blog and it just doesn't apply. The college we went to was huge on marriage and babies. Most of our classmates were already married before we were juniors, Brent and I were quite the anomaly. Even now most of our classmates have a minimum of two kids who are most likely already potty trained - I'm confident we would be an embarrassment to our university since we don't have children already and have focused on other areas of our life. This was a really strict university - guys were definitely not allowed in girls dorms and you were kicked out if you were caught drinking or doing anything inappropriate. We couldn't even wear shorts to class - only after 4 pm or gym class! I was constantly in trouble with my dorm mom - playing soccer in the hallways, duct taping people in their rooms, sneaking animals into the dorm, and the "pyramid of moons" never went over well. Guys got away with SO much more than us girls could. Some people love that sort of strictness, others at some point will flip out. One of my coworker's brothers went to school with us and he mentioned on Friday that his brother had actually dated her and was suitemates with Matthew Winkler. Very strange! He said his brother said she was always a nice girl, nothing strange or crazy. Bet he's glad he didn't marry her now! We've also been to some marriage & the family seminars his dad (also a preacher) has taught here in Nashville. My theory? She felt trapped and wanted a way out of all this responsibility - she wanted to just get out and be free, and not be under the preacher's wife microscope forever. But that's just my theory. She never even got the chance to finish college and enjoy life before she was wife and then immediately mommy. We'll see, I'm sure all the details will be out in the media soon.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!

Exercise-
Wed - 1 mile am walk with Pips, Killer Butt DVD
Thurs - 1 mile am walk with Pips, 6 mile run
Fri - 1 mile am walk with Pips
Sat - 8.6 mile run
Sun - 4 mile run, 3 mile walk with Pips