Short Thoughts for Day 6

Today's quick thoughts...

- Milwaukee parking sucks and I hate parking tickets.
- I wish I had money to buy whatever purses, shoes, and scarves possible.
- I love finding little gems of Milwaukee. Found the best consignment store on North Ave. next to Cranky Al's this morning. 
- I ran 5 miles today and felt great. I'm really looking forward to the Discovery Run at the end of the month. I was also excited that I was able to run a sub 10 minute mile for about 2 miles., and I ended up with an average mile of 10:58 and that included my stops for traffic and to take some pictures of the beautiful fall foliage along my route. I was pretty happy with that. I was only planning on doing 4, but the run was feeling really good. Plus with the 15k coming up, I really gotta keep working on upping my milage. Special shout out to Dr. Jane at Kocal Chiropractic for hooking me up with some awesome inserts to fix my pronating problem. 
- I need a real piano. Badly.
- The Ingrid Michaelson concert was amazing. The best way to describe it that she actually sang everything song. She felt every bit of it. I'm including a video of "Ghost" that I took during the concert. It's hard to see because I'm standing in the balcony, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how awesome it was. I'm tempted to go see her in Chicago this coming Tuesday, but I'm not rolling in money so I don't think that's much of a possibility. But I'm super grateful that I got to see her last night. What a treat!

Ok, time to cuddle up with Frog and watch some How I Met Your Mother. Later gators.

Day 2...not bad so far!

Well, we're on day 2 and I've managed to post two days in a row. Great success. I need to get my butt out of bed and into gear and go running. Hopefully I can go tonight after babysitting. Ooo! I am leaving work early today to pick up Ingrid Michaelson tickets! I could probably go after that and before I babysit tonight. Even if it's a short little run.

Lots of good things coming up. I'm hoping and praying that one of my friends gets a callback on his job interview. I know he could do such a good job and I really hope that he gets this opportunity. Wednesday I have the last Brewers game of the year. Bummed they got knocked out of the post-season already, but here's to 2013. Thursday is voice and shopping for Teri's get well basket. Friday is the concert! REALLY excited for this. Saturday there's a Badger game to watch and Sunday there's Sara B.'s birthday and a Packers game to watch! Not to mention there's a Schommer/Oppermann coffee date coming up, as well as Chrysta's birthday, another Badger game, a 15k run, Halloween, the quilt retreat...AUGH! Life seems like it's running by me sometimes.

Sometimes I feel like I don't spend enough time appreciating all the good things in my life. Yeah, sometimes things are hard and difficult. But there are a lot of positive things in my life. And the last couple months I have learned to let go of control of certain things, and just let them happen. I have a hard time with that. I want to know when things are going to happen, what's going to happen, and what I need to do to prepare for them. And I've been forced to relax and just let things happen. And WOW has it been hard! But, sometimes in life we don't always have control. We just have to let God be God and trust that things will work out how they are supposed to. And it's something I'm still working on, but I'm finding out that sometimes when we can let go...it's better than we expected. And there are good things that happen that we have no control over.

So. For day two...ramblings? Not bad. Here's to another day. See you tomorrow. =)

Post-Race Post

The post-race post. The race last Saturday was probably one of the hardest runs I’ve ever had to complete. The race course looped itself three times. But I think the hardest part was that there were two hills, one at 7% and the other at 8% inclines, that we ended up running up and down three times each. The race was also on asphalt (better than concrete) but by the end my knees were pretty much shot. I was exhausted the remainder of the day and spent it either sleeping/relaxing on my bed, couch, or lawn chair.

However, I accomplished my two goals. 1) Finish the race. 2) Run the whole race. I can’t say that I ran especially fast for the hills but I kept going. I watched lots of people finish ahead of me, but I also watched them walk up the hills and I was determined not to be one of them. Sunday I took the day off of running and Monday I eased back into it with a nice four mile run around Wauwatosa. We’ve been having exceptionally beautiful weather in Milwaukee so I’ve been able to do all of my runs outside the last couple weeks.

This weekend I will headed to New York City for a trade show, so I’m hoping to do my long run in Central Park this Saturday, as our hotel is only about four short blocks south. Hopefully the weather there will be just as nice as it has been here!

I’ve also recently started running without music or earbuds. I’ve always been a huge proponent of having tunes while I run, but I think I’ve crossed over to the other side. I’m not one that likes to have a conversation with someone while I’m running, I just really enjoy the quietness and solidarity, even while running in the city. I would encourage people to try sometime. Don’t think about how bored you’re going to be, think of how you get to shut off everything electronic in your life for just a bit (even though I run with my Nike app) and listen to your own thoughts.

Alright, I suppose that’s all for now. Stay tuned for more about running, music, and life in general. This Saturday makes six weeks before my Half Marathon! Eeks!

Live, laugh, love,
Andrea