Things I Love Thursday #17: cinco de mayo, lansing lugnuts

lansing lugnuts games on a saturday night

The weather over the weekend was perfect. So J, B, and I headed to the lansing lugnuts game. the lugnuts are a minor league baseball team, and their game saturday night was so fun. fireworks, food, beer. perfect weather. go nuts! (also this is the incredible team song)

celebrating cinco de mayo (and uno, and seis)
i've been eating all the mexican food. I made jessica's strawberry margaritas and carnitas nachos. so so so good.

little loves: new skimm swag | maizey finding a spot in the grass that she loves to roll in like this | puppy play dates | 14 mile runs followed by ice baths | flexcity and lunch with the bff | flextreme challenge | winning ebay auctions | starting to gather prints for a gallery wall | emily mcdowell's empathy cards

Friday Five - Things I do on Race Day w/ Half Marathon Playlist!

5 things that always happen on Race Day

Coming just off the heels of the Gazelle Girl Half, and with the impending Fifth Third Bank River Run 25K and Hightail to Ale 5K, 5 things about race day seems fitting.

1) I always eat carbs with peanut butter pre-race.  Usually its an english muffin with PB but sometimes its a bagel thin. this combo usually works well for me.

2) I always use the bathroom before races -- I'm totally a nervous pee-er, haha.

post race port-a-potties. but likely in place for pre race

3) I run similar to my training runs. I'm not one of those people who finds crazy stamina or endurance or adrenaline during races. My race times are not usually a ton faster than my training times. This might be a mental thing I need to work on, or I may just be a pretty consistent runner. who knows.

4) I race with music. I know a lot of people don't but the amount of energy and speed I can get from certain upbeat songs is unmatched. So yes. I have playlists for all my races.

In fact, let me share the playlist from Gazelle Girl with you now :)

click the photo ;)

5) Race completion is always celebrated with beer. Even its a 5K, even if its early in the morning. Give me carby beer that's the size of my face please.

TiLT #16: nike foreverun tights and firefly hot yoga

Nike Foreverun Tights

These are amazing. Thanks cecile for being an enabler, and posting about them, because I am so in love. Naturally, J hates them, but they are awesomely comfortable, awesomely colorful, and awesomely ridiculous. And I couldn't be happier. They were also awesomely expensive until I found them branded differently but with the same style number on runningwarehouse.com, and used a coupon code to make them more lululemon-running-tight-esque price-wise. It is bittersweet that I won't be able to wear these bad boys all that often now that  things are warming up, but I also CANNOT complain about the warm-up. Ran in them for 12 miles on Sunday and they were glorious. no issues, total comfort. 

Related: 12 miles with the run club. Something about run club runs -- they are always just SO GOOD. I can't explain it. Major props to ashley and nick who pushed through the last 4 or so with me.

photo credit: @fireflyhotyogabar

Candlelight slow burn at firefly hot yoga bar

This was my sunday funday recover from 12 miles, and it was phenomenal. lauren is an excellent instructor, and the very best part - ending in legs up the wall, with a lavender scented cool towel on my forehead. perfection. 

little loves: super cleaning sunday -- clean kitchen top to bottom, clean bedroom | bed before 11 weekend nights | its gonna be may | smashed chickpea sandwiches | lots of rivertrail walks with the maize | best iphone autocorrect ever: nope to knope | monday night pimms cups | fried artichokes from MBC | 

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Race Recap - 2015 Gazelle Girl Half Marathon

I ran the Gazelle Girl half marathon two Sunday's ago. Second 13.1 for the year, and while faster than austin, still not sub-2, which is what all half marathons that I've ran where I was not running on a broken foot were. (holy run-on sentence, batman!)

So, def. not my best performance.

But I can explain why:

1) bathroom needs kicked in early on, and I stopped at mile 5 at a port-a-potty for a darn long time.

2) I'm fighting off a chest cold that has made my lungs total slackers.

3) I used the chest cold as a crutch to take lots of walking breaks, probably when I didn't need them.

that last one is a killer. it's a demonstration of how I used an excuse to keep me from running my best race. And yes, I do really have a chest cold that I can't seem to kick. And yes, I needed to walk. But not as many times as I did. I ran 12 miles this past saturday with two walking breaks. total. I can run without stopping. I just need to make myself do it, even when it gets uncomfortable.

So yeah. lessons learned.

Packet Pick-Up: kind of lame, but a breeze. there wasn't much available at the expo - even a lot of the gazelle specific stuff seemed pretty picked over. It was a bit of a bummer, but I also didn't really need anything. Shirts were really awesome nike fitted. I went with a medium, my  go-to for women's specific shirts and it fit perfectly.

Race morning: one of my girlfriends who was running the race works downtown in the courthouse, so we just rolled up to her parking lot about 15 minutes before race start. it was perfect! I also somehow managed to catch Courtney, fellow oiselle bird (this is quite repetitive isn't it?), and another friend from home before the race started. Perfect!

please ignore my squinty eyes in the first picture - didnt even notice until this was on the computer. fail. 

Race: started around the 9:00 pacers, and felt really good for the start. Had my spotify playlist (will share very soon!), weather was pretty great, and we were off. Ran with B for a bit, and then waved her ahead once the race-beginning adrenaline began to wear off.

Stopped at a bathroom around mile 3, and then again at mile 5. after the extra-long bathroom stop at mile 5 though, my digestive tract was feeling good.

Then there were the coughing fits. not so fun. but again, not so much I could do about them. I really think that I used them as an excuse to walk more than I needed to though.

So walking breaks came every water stop and at various other points along the course as needed.


The funny thing was, every time I stopped and walked, once I started running again, I wasn't plodding along. My legs had tons of energy, and quick turnover. It was just the oxygenating that wasn't happening as planned. Even though in order for my legs to have energy, they needed oxygen too.

I knew there was a hill at mile 12, so I walked a bit extra during mile 11 to make up for it. Turns out that hill was seriously no big deal at all. I plowed up and it kept going.

So after the hill at 12, you end up right along the river again, and that was just what I needed. Ran in the last mile + .1, and finished at 2:10.

The all female race was pretty awesome. It definitely had the woman empowerment thing going for it.

Post race: went back to B's, changed, and then headed to propaganda doughnuts, and founders for (obviously) donuts, beer, and food.

A Day in the Life: April 16, 2015

Cast of characters:

L: me
J: bf
Maizey: dog
B: coworker
L: B's dog

context: I'm a mid-twenty something attorney, currently doing a fellowship in Lansing, MI. I live with an 11 month old 1/8 husky-7/8 mutt named maizey.

April 16, 2015

12AM-630AM  wake up coughing many times over the course of the night. Maizey joins me in bed during the night. snuggles right up next me.

630AM: alarm goes off. slept too poorly to actually awaken at this time. fumble with alarm several times (of course its the blaring foghorn alarm)

630AM-730AM: interrupted alarm sleep. poor decisions.

730AM: finally up.

730-750AM: check email, wash face, put on serum and moisturizer. get dressed.

750AM:  take maizey outside for a walk. First day in the life photo of the day!

walk walk sniff sniff

Trees aren't green yet but they're starting to sprout these type of buds. 

buds on trees

808AM: return to apartment and prepare maizey's kong -- bones and peanut butter for her to munch on.

She's a very good attentive dog when there's peanut butter out. 

hi mom!

put on moisturizer, check bag to make sure I have everything I need. Decide that the flowers J brought home for me yesterday should probably go in water. Prepare them as so

spring flowers

825AM: leave apt. a bunch of radio stations aren't coming in, and i realize i left t.swift's 1989 in J's car. bummed, but turn on lady antebellum cd instead.

836AM-855AM: pick up coworker, B, and dog, L, drop off dog, L at doggy daycare, get almost to parking lot and realize we left the parking pass at home. pick up pass and then finally get to parking lot and park.

doggy daycare

855-900AM: walk into work

900AM-10AM: check email, check in on the maizey on camiocam.

make plan for day. do some case law research to incorporate into a presentation.

drink this deliciousness

Eat the highlight of my morning: this jalapeño cheddar bagel.

omnom

maizey sleeps a lot

10AM-11AM: meet with one of my co-workers to work on a complaint we're drafting, return a phone call I missed.

11AM: receive some great timehop induced text messages reminiscing about last year.

11AM-115PM: continue to work on complaint

115PM-215PM: head home to release maizey from the crate and go for a walk. throw some chicken nuggets into the toaster oven to cook while we're walking (living on the edge, i know). put maizey back in the crate. travel back to work.

215PM: arrive back at work and realize I just missed the tornado drill. wooo! but this means the elevators are all full so i trudge up 6 flights of stairs - harder than one might think!

215PM-230PM: eat my chicken nuggets. receive notification that my calligraphy order has been delivered. make a dessert-esque cream cheese and preserves wasa cracker.

wasa and cream cheese and jam 

the besttttt

230-430PM: work pretty diligently, taking a few breaks to look up some makeup/skincare suggestions for my impending trip to sephora this evening.

420PM: send off what i've been working on to my supervisor, type up these notes from the afternoon. upload the maizey screenshots.

500PM-515PM: leave work, walk to car, drive to old town to check out the old town general store in hopes of finding almond butter 

515-545PM: pass preuss pets on the way which has this crazy waterfall-ish contraption outside. 

water and greenery and rocks

old town general store! 

many michigan things

what i leave with

not so surprisingly they dont have almond butter.

545-610PM: make an impulsive decision that I want mediterranean in order to garlic sauce this coughing-fit/cold away. drive home. devour said bowl.

Tabooli. a Lansing only thing I think? Very similar to roti though, which isn't in michigan

chicken shwarma bowl 

610-650PM: play with maizey, walk maizey, clean up apartment a bit, become furious when I realize that my calligraphy supplies have not in fact arrived, and have been sent to the USPS annex where I will have to pick them up tomorrow. annoying.

650-705PM: drive to the mall to use my sephora VIB coupon!

driving

driving

705-710PM: head to williams sonoma to return a dutch oven that was the same size different style of one i already have. bummer, because the one i was returning was on super sale, but i just dont have a use for two of the same size, different style.

710-810PM: sephoraaaaaa, with B.

sephora in all its glory

this is approximately $100 at sephora

810-825PM: travel home.

825PM-935PM: maizey is excited for my return. she is also in love with her new artichoke toy.

omnom artichoke

I make blondies for a farewell party at work tomorrow. they look delicious, but they're in the oven for 15 min before I realize I didn't add the brown sugar. So they're not perfect, but they're still edible. I decide I'll still bring them into work.

said blondies

J stops by on his way home. We talk a little bit, catch up on our days, Maizey is very excited to see him. 

more maizey and artichoke.

935PM-1032PM: work on this post. I'm jumping from phone to computer, since the pictures are all on my phone, but its infinitely easier to organize/type on my computer. Maizey was playing with her antler on the floor, but decides to join me in bed eventually. She must, of course, make the bed to her liking. 

maizey and antler

making the bed

good enough? nope.

round two

finally satisfied

1035PM-1040PM: wash face, turn on humidifier (also in hopes of kicking cold). Maizey has temporarily abandoned the bed for her spot up against the exterior wall.

goodnight world!

TiLT # 14: saugtuck, chipotle

Saugatuck

J and I spent the weekend in Saugatuck. It was a lot of fun -- such a cute little lake michigan town. We're looking forward to coming back when its a bit warmer!

Monday Chipotle

My new thing is to get something delicious to eat on Mondays to make them better. last week it was a bagel sandwich. this week? chipotle.  

little loves: Scarlet & Gold free calligraphy class (and ordering all the supplies for it!) | tax day sale from flexcity | sephora VIB sale | girl scout cookies | strange matter coffee |

TiLT #13: silpat, nike women's toronto, goose island and ello

 

ello water bottle
love this water bottle. easy to drink out of, easy to clean and glass!

celebrating beer day

with a chicago beer and tigers nails. (and a maizey in the background)

getting an entry into the nike women's toronto 15K

so excited for a race in a new city with a tiffanys necklace at the end ;) 

making chocolate covered banana bites on my new silpat
these were so so good and satisfying. the light brown ones are dipped in PB powder, but next time I'm totally going to do both PB and chocolate. yas yas yas. 

little loves: think goop is ridiculous but love this idea | rain appropriate outfits | graham cracker carrot cake | bagel sandwiches | brightly colored drinks and apps while watching the MSU game | PIZZAAAAA | listening to the lion king soundtrack at work on songza (station: epic film scores, duh)

note: post contains amazon affiliate links.