A lazy 3-picture Sunday night right before bed post.

Picture #1:

It's hard to do your ab workout after your upper-body strength training when the dog is monopolizing your "I don't want to get animal hair on me from the carpet" mat.

Small dog be like "here's some fur for the top of your mat"

Picture #2:

When you're all "I am so pumped from all my weight work I don't think getting on the floor and suffering through ab exercises would actually be a bonus, Cathe"

Picture #3:

Female cat don't care.  She doesn't care about fitness, this blog, and the fact that she was in my way when I had to put the sheets back on the bed.

Nope.  Don't care one single little tiny bit.

Leaving you with some learnings:

• It's Sunday night and I have to go to bed so three pictures it is for this post.
• I know you dig that tie-dye head scarf as much as I do.  I'm trying those things out instead of headbands because I have so many headscarf-type things sitting in my gear drawer.
• My eating was better today than it has been in the past few weeks.  Thinking you look horrible in your blog post pics will do that to a girl.

Tomorrow's workout: Some speed - 4 x 1200.  Look out, treadmill, here I come.

The feeling when you write a post about your long run feelings.

Yesterday I did my usual total body weight workout and dodged animals as I tried to lift my heavy weights and barbell around them.  And today was my usual long run that I, as usual, didn't really want to do but, most unusually, it was actually a nice day outside so I really had no excuse but to suck it up and get outside.

At least I got the rare chance to match tie-dye to tie-dye, which only happens when you buy two things that have tie-dye on them and wear them at the same time.

tie-dye AMAZINGNESS

With my tie-dye motivating me to at least step out the front door, I did my scheduled 18 miler.  And those 18 miles went alright, except for a few things.  You know that feeling when, during your long run...

...you realize those first way too fast 6 miles with the large dog is going to come back and haunt you on the back half of the run.

Don't blame me, Mom, for your "running too fast" stupidity.

...you finally decide in mile 14 that eating that high-fiber Nutrisystem muffin AND brownie was a bad idea, especially since there is no safe place to hide and suffer the consequences of that decision.

...you realize that your legs aren't as tired as you thought they'd be by mile 16 since, you know, marathon last weekend.

...it hits you that you have really, really, really missed the sun.

...you would like to look at anything other than a lot of vast brown nothing, including rows and rows of corn.

Hey look at all that brown nothingness.

...all the long running in the sunshine made you feel better about not losing any weight over the past few weeks and how crappy you think you look in all your pictures.  Running is MAGIC that way.

...you inevitably suffer the consequences of the high-fiber brownie and muffin along the side of the road and you think no one saw but then you look up and make eye contact with the driver of an SUV you hadn't seen coming down the road.

...you realize deciding to run into the 14 mph winds for 5-ish miles in the middle of the run was an incredibly stupid idea, making the pace of the run much slower than intended.

BUH

...you're glad you wore gloves because those 14 mph winds were freaking COLD.

...you're pretty sure the cats are just lazing about sleeping while you're suffering on the run.

And they were.  Jerks.

And now for that feeling when you see those dumb learnings she puts at the end of each post:

• Wearing all that tie-dye was joyous.
• After I dropped off large dog and went off running without him, he displayed his displeasure with that decision by eating more of my drywall.
• It was actually a really nice day for a run.  Except for that damn wind.
• And except for the look that SUV driver gave me as I was on the side of the road.

Tomorrow's workout:  Upper body goodness...I have missed my weights.

Just another marathon expo with lots of tie-dye.

So I completely forgot to tell everyone that I was running a marathon this weekend.

So hey-I'm running a marathon this weekend!  The Cowtown Marathon, to be specific, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Or the Cowtown Marthon, according to the race guide.

In the past I've run the Austin Marathon this time of year, but I decided to go for something different for this February.  And by "different" I mean "a marathon that isn't so damn hilly and makes me want to cry by mile 12."

So the twin and I (she's running the half) headed into Fort Worth today to grab our race packets and spend too much money at the expo.  It was held at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, which is a collection of mostly cool old 1930's art deco buildings that look like they came straight off a cover of an Ayn Rand novel with old timey murals painted on them.

This place also gave me the opportunity for a selfie with old Roy Rogers himself.

After admiring the architecture and the statues, we made our way into the expo to grab our bibs and our race shirts.  Packet pickup was quick and painless (mainly because we were there on Friday, not Saturday), and the expo, while not as large as I would have thought it would be, offered a wide variety of things I wanted to buy, most of which I could not because I am not independently wealthy.   It even included a booth that sold beef jerky, cheese, and sausage because, well, Texas:

Twin sis is actively purchasing some beef jerky goodness in the
center of this pic.

I did manage not to overspend too much, but I simply HAD to have that new Roo sport pouch, those cushy recovery sandals, and that freaking awesome tie-dye marathon sweatshirt:

TIE-DYE GOODNESS

Please note the other two shirts in that picture.  The one on the left is the official "Sunday finisher shirt," and the one on the right is the "Saturday finisher shirt."  I got both since I am racing on both Saturday (a 10K) and Sunday (the marathon).  And you'll further notice the tie-dye sides on the Sunday finisher shirt and the tie-dye edges to both of the race bibs.

All I can say is that I fully support any race that uses that much tie-dye.  I can also support all of the post learnings listed below:

• You probably noticed that I didn't work out today.  I decided to take an actual rest day with a marathon and such this weekend.
• I have no plans on actually racing either of the races this weekend - just running them both for fun and to photobomb other runners' race photos to ruin them.
• How can you NOT be excited about this much tie-dye?!?!
• I am not excited, however, about the thunderstorms that may cancel the 10K tomorrow morning.  We will see.
• I'll try to get video and pics during the race tomorrow for your viewing pleasure; keep an eye out on Twitter, Insta, and FB!

Tomorrow's workout: Hopefully 10K-ing it in downtown Fort Worth!

I have to post quickly before the NyQuil gets me.

Today was (still is) my birthday, and I am still sick.  I must post quickly before the NyQuil takes me, so here are some quick pics of the day so I can be taken to that wonderful world of sleep:

1. I kinda sorta did a tempo this morning.  Wasn't the 5 miles I planned on, but 4 total with 3 at tempo is the best I could do with my sickness situation and that fact that I got up half an hour late.  And only in my world is 3:30 AM on a Thursday considered "waking up late."

Human salt lick, at your service.

At least the animals got what they wanted from the morning.

2. Since I was super duper late this morning, I only had time to grab the bag o' presents the hubbs left for me to find this morning and take it to work with me.  I finally had time halfway through the day to open it to find a salt crystal lamp (I love those things), a crock pot recipe book, and Cathe's Fit Split series which I already have.  Twin sis bravely volunteered to take one for the team and take those workout videos off my hands so they wouldn't go to waste.

PURPLE

3. I came home to fins my birthday presents to myself had arrived exactly on my birthday!

Rock and Roll Marathon Series Brooks Launch 5s, meet everyone.  Everyone, meet the SHOES OF MY FREAKING DREAMS.

4. Those shoes cancelled out all the sick suck I dealt with at work today on my birthday, as you can see in the picture below which was taken moments after I yelled SQUEEEEEEEEE TIE DYE SHOESSSSSSSSSS!!!!

SQUEEEEEE

Sleepy NyQuil learnings:

• Just show me a little tie dye and I'm a happy squee-ing camper.
• Some workout is better than no workout.
• Being sick on my b-day was a bummer, but not nearly as bad as the time I spent my birthday night at the ER getting EKGs done.
• Who doesn't like salt crystal lamps?  I freaking do.
• SQUEEEEEEEE TIE DYE SHOEEEESSSSSSS!!!

Tomorrow's workout: Gonna try me another one of them Cathe Fit Split workouts!