Gravity's a bitch.

I never thought you could bruise your boob, but I just might have accomplished that this morning. I got into a fight on my run.

Pete was being a pistol and I had to drag him along. Then the sidewalk didn't want us there so it jumped up and bit my ankles.

It was a slow motion fall... I thought there was a chance I could've caught myself.

Shin, knee, hip, boob, shoulder, head... boom boom boom. Somehow my hat ended up crooked and I have a grass stain on my shoulder. However I didn't land in the grass - just on the sidewalk... Not quite sure how it happened.
Gravity's a bitch.

And now, I might be too. Not a great start to a Friday.

Luckily - its only bound to improve.

Not that I'll be doing any bounding anytime soon...

Cut short

12 miles turned to 6 yesterday. CZ's was supposed to be the turnaround point. But my friends offered a delicious bagel with honey walnut cream cheese... And a seat on the front step. And the entertainment of watching an Olathe garage sale.

Needless to say, CZ drove Pete and I home.

Oh well. This week will be a better one for training. Starting with a Monday morning bike ride to get the week started off right!

12 oz curls

Heat index of 102, skipping the hill workout and watching "How I Met Your Mother" instead.

MMM this cocktail tastes great.

I could get used to this workout.

Weight Loss Update

Its been a little over 3 weeks since I first posted that Pete and I are trying to lose some weight. Time for an update:

Me solo: 167 even. Sheesh. I should have checked in the morning... seems like almost every morning I'm at 162 and change. Oh well, I had just eaten dinner. Maybe that counts for something... at least its .8 lighter!

Pete and I together. Aren't we cute?! :-)

Us together: 224.4 that's a 4.6 pound improvement, meaning Pete has lost 3.8 himself! Way to go little buddy.

All that training is paying off - but poor guy is tuckered out after his runs. This is Pete post-11 mile run on Saturday. Nose in the corner of the room, enjoying the cool tile - hoping BDR and I leave him alone to recover!

Sigh.

It feels like there is so much going on in my life, and yet nothing at the same time. My days have been filled with hectic busy-ness of lowest in our lifetime interest rates, mornings with runs and training for the marathon, and evenings filled with extracurriculars and time with BDR and Peter. It's all great, yet slightly overwhelming at the same time.

Luckily, I thrive when I'm busy so I've been pretty productive lately.

I'm the co-chair for the Youth Leadership Institute which takes place next week at Johnson County Community College, and we are working to develop partnerships to help sustain the program, as well as work thru the mundane details that are necessary for a successful week. Plus weekly Rotary meetings and other club activities on top of YLI.

I'm the social chair for KC Multisport. We just had a successful post-SMP Tri party and are planning a concert featuring the one and only IRONBAND!!! If you haven't heard of them and are into these crazy endurance sports. Check them out! Tons of fun spoofs about Chamois Butt'r, Mike Reilly and sandbagging. Plus - they actually sound pretty good as well. If you're interested in getting them to play at your local race - let me know!!

I'm on the board for Girls on the Run and have been too busy lately to devote much time to them. However, I may have recruited a charity runner, or SoleMate, as we call them today - so that is exciting!

BDR and I have been shopping around for a place together. We found one that we are very excited about, with the awesome backyard, doggie doors, and wet bar in the basement - its like no other rental in the area!

Combine all of that with work and training for the KC marathon, not to mention a semblance of a social life - I do have friends that I actually like to spend time with! - I'm beat.

But really, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Weeks highlights

Man, life has been busy lately. Long days at work. More training than before. No time for blogging!

Highlights of this past week...

-Closing my first loan with Kansas City Mortgage Group! It was for a couple that really needed the extra cash that the refinance brought to them, so it felt great to help them out.

-Running 11 miles Saturday morning. Pete is a machine. He was going strong the whole time. Here's what we did:



-Finishing "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Grrrrrreat book!

-Starting my new week with a smile.

4th shenanigans

Fourth of July and heading to the Lake. Unfortunately, the sun didn't want to go along with my plans. But I planned to make the best of it and prepare holiday goodies.

The first go didn't turn out so well. There wasn't even sugar cookie dough to fill the pan, so I tried a half batch of chocolate-less chocolate chip cookie dough for the other half. It took forever to bake and then wasn't anywhere near done when I thought it was!

Luckily Round 2 turned out amazing. The whipping cream and cream cheese icing on the top was delightful and my hope of leftovers burst at everyone's first bite.

After a swim in the lake, dock diving competitions and an amazing kebob dinner, the real competition began.

The White Bread Challenge. Allegedly its not possible to eat a piece of white bread in 45 seconds. Lil Bro challenged and many of the rest of the clan had to give it a shot.

Charlie tried the squish it into one ball of bread method. Fail.

Nick tried multiple tiny bites. Fail.

BDR tried normal size bites. Fail.

Kristen tried to roll and bite method. Fail.

Mike got in on round 2 - the 6 saltines in a minute legend. Fail.

We should have known... who else wanted to try!? Pete the Wonderdog of course. He still had nearly a full slice at 20 seconds, the first 15 were spent finding the best spot in the kitchen to snack. At 32 seconds - the bread was gone! I barely had time to even snap pictures!

Even though the rain put a damper on the fireworks, it was a great holiday. Nothing like Nanny & Poppy's Colorado adventure with Yogi Bear (photo here) walking down their driveway, but still...

Guess what I found?!

So an amazing thing has happened. Its been a whole week and hopefully will continue.

I have found.... drumroll please...

RUNNING BUDDIES!

H, R & C have been running together for a while now and I was invited along on Tuesday and Thursday last week.

It was pretty much perfect. We met at 5:30 and ran about 4 miles each day. They are exactly my pace (slow) and walked at every moment when I wanted to. Plus great conversation. And for 3 amazing women with wonderful families - they only talked about their kids minimally! Don't get me wrong, I love kiddos and I think its great when parents are so proud they like to talk about them. But remember, there are other things to life than your kids. After an evening with some ladies who were the complete opposite, my new running buddies were the perfectly balanced complement.

We're up and at it early again tomorrow...

Ta Town Trip

Friday afternoon, Pete, BDR and I loaded up the Jeep and started the 2.5-hr trek to Wichita for a weekend visit to Nanny and Poppy's house. Luckily Pete is really good in the car (for the most part) and we all endured the outrageous Friday evening heat. The AC struggled to keep up, so we just struggled, but we made it.

BDR kept me entertained on the drive, and he didn't wreck so that's a bonus. He did succumb to the blue-tongued boredom disease, or maybe it was the Jolly Rancher, or he ate a smurf. Who knows. Either way, he was pretty cute.

Pete was gracious enough to model for me, but he had to pay attention to BDR's driving while he did.

He is a pretty good co-pilot, keeping an eye out for what's ahead and a nose to the vents. Making sure wayward moo cows didn't hamper our travel plans. That, and he had to make sure we didn't miss any of the more than 10 state license plates we bet on. (Yes, I won. Dan lost. Of course. I mean really, we're pretty much guaranteed to see KS, MO and likely OK and TX - but he still wanted to bet we'd only see 5 states.)

Friday evening brought brats and beers with Nanny and Poppy, and a fairly early bedtime. After all, Pete and I had to get up at the crack to run 9 miles. We intended to do a couple laps at Sedgwick County Park, but driving past downtown I noticed the awesome amped up bike paths along the river. So we parked near the Keeper of the Plains and took off along the Little Arkansas. Pete and I ran loop near the Wichita Art Musuem, Botanica, Sim Park and the All-Indian Center, then headed south along the Arkansas toward the Hyatt and Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. Coming back we passed Exploration Place and then I caught this awesome early morning shot.

Pete was obviously having a great time, but he desperately wanted to go for a swim. Its hot when you're covered in fur and running 9 miles!

We stopped at the car for a drink and headed thru downtown Wichita to Old Town. I even stopped for a quick photo op with this man reading the paper waiting for the bus on Douglas.

It was quite the tour of the town. I swear running is the best way to see a place you're visiting, and I got to see so much of my hometown in a completely new way.

After a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast and shower, we headed back downtown to enjoy some beautiful gardens at Botanica. Poppy got some great shots, including this awesome candid of me and my beautiful mother!

Saturday evening brought juicy and flavorful T-Bone steaks, baked potatoes and great conversation. BDR got to experience Old Town and the "best topless bar in town" - the Brickyard. Clever catchphrase for a place that doesn't have a roof!

We headed back to KC Sunday mid-day, enjoying the beautiful Kansas country with windows down, music up and ears flapping in the wind.

Weds Track Workout

The best part of the track workout on Weds came after the actual workout, during our victory at trivia night:

This is me beforehand, wondering if the storm is going to hold out.

Luckily, it did. Towards the end, I really wish it had been sprinkling - the heat and humidity had been brutal!

So here's part of the group getting an introduction to the workout from Flash.

We did a double warmup... a mile easy and then 2 800s... then headed over to "the hill" for some repeats. Here's the route and info. (The extra mile warmup isn't included in the stats.)

We had a great cheerleader with us - and she even did some of the laps and the hills! Good work Paige! We gotta get her signed up for Girls on the Run!

Matthew "Flash" Mellor led the group, as he does every week. He did his first marathon at 15, ran at KU in college and estimates he's run between 45 and 50,000 miles in his lifetime. That's around the world - TWICE!!!

All in all, a great workout. But TOUGH.