craptastic weather is ruining my life but everything else is *awesome*

Rochester weather has been a suckfest for the last week. It's either raining and sleeting while the temperature hovers around 40 degrees or it snows all day. Neither of these are great for outdoor running so I have hit the treadmill for the last 4 out of 5 runs. This may not seem like a big deal, I mean it is winter and I do live in western NY, however I am not a treadmill runner. This is the most I have run on the treadmill ALL WINTER. I am not a fair weather runner. I run outside, year round, through wind, hail, blizzards, and icy sidewalks. However, doing this resulted in 2 sprained ankles this season so I'm trying to watch it for the remainder of "winter."

Hence, I have been moving my runs inside when the footing is too dangerous (snow and ice) or when it is too cold and rainy out (40 degrees and rainy is not enjoyable no matter what kind of running clothes you have on). I have the race on Saturday and 5 miles to add on after the race and that is getting done outside regardless of the weather - it's supposed to rain - hopefully it will hold off!

Unfortunately, running on the treadmill seems to be aggravating my hamstring which, up until now, wasn't bothering me at all. So I have busted out my foam roller again and we've been spending some time together.

Screw you winter!!!! It's MARCH. GO AWAY.


Anyways...

For those of you who asked about the t-shirt quilt that I am aiming to have made in the fall, I think I am going to go with this place: http://www.campusquilt.com/. The pricing is pretty typical but they have a turnover time of 2-3 weeks which is great and they do the style of quilt that I want. They also can make quilts in several sizes so you don't have to have 40 shirts in order to get a quilt made. You can design the layout of the shirts if you want or you can entrust it to them, and they offer choices in colors for the back of the quilt and for the color in between the shirt blocks which is exactly what I am looking for. I'm pretty psyched to get the rest of my shirts! (Am I a dork or what??).

I am STILL getting around to completing the unpacking/cleaning process of my new apartment (yes I have been living there for at least 3 weeks and it still isn't totally unpacked) but when I am done I promise an episode of "CRIBS" like the hilarious one my friend Matt did with his apartment (it's worth watching just for the shot of his closet full of shoes!).

I think I am super close to selling my old road bike. I have two people that are really interested in it - one is a woman who is coming to look at it on Monday, and another is a man who wants it for his son if the first person doesn't want it. So I could potentially have it sold sometime next week! That will be some extra storage space for me and some more money for my husband, Mr. Ironman.

And last but not least, some excitement on the Train-This front:

• we are getting some really awesome Headsweats visors showcasing our new-and-improved logo (which you can see in the top right corner of my blog) - SUPER EXCITED about this
• we are getting Train-This water bottles from super awesome coach Mary!
• TONS of us are doing Johnny's Runnin' of the Green and then are pub crawling (Mary's term for running the course again post-race)
• we are doing a team breakfast/picture/meeting next weekend
• we are just plain *awesome*

back to it.. sort of

It is November 1st.

Today, is the first day of tri-season training.

Unfortunately, today is a day where I also feel like ass.

I have not been sleeping well for the past week. Last night, as I was falling asleep on my couch at 6:45 pm, I decided to surrender, take 2 Ibuprofen PMs, and crawl into bed before 8 pm.

I crawled OUT of bed at 5:45 am to get ready for work. That is nearly 10 hours of sleep.

I still feel absolutely horrendous. I don't know if I am getting sick or what. I am exhausted, I have a headache, my stomach is queasy, and I just feel.. off.

Unfortunately, even after I escape from leave work, I still have to go to a chiropractor appointment, Wegmans, and do an hour ride on my bike before I can crawl onto my couch and snuggle under a pile of blankets.

It looks like it's going to be the type of week where I pound orange juice with extra calcium and vitamins, and spend all of my spare time sleeping. I guess it's that time of year.. I hate getting sick. I hate the cold. I hate winter. I hate that I still need to take the AC unit out of my bedroom window, and that soon I will be forced to turn on my heat. I hate putting the flip flops away for the next 6 months. I will be cold from now until June.

In an attempt to "think ahead" to a time that is warmer..

I am currently looking into a half IM for May. Two that are on the radar are the Kinetic half in Virginia, and the Little Smokies half in Ohio. Unfortunately, I WAS looking for something that was within driving distance and that would take 0 vacation days for me to do. I'm not sure if that exists in May.. but both of these are driveable with perhaps 1 vacation day needed. It's a long way off so I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. More research needs to be done!


P.S. I watched an episode of Glee yesterday where they sang "Defying Gravity" from Wicked and my heart almost melted because I love Wicked! I also love Glee more and more every episode. :)