Shopping Can Be A Workout Too

So my kids headed to Pop Pop and Grammy's for the week on Sunday and my dear friend Deb and I headed to Columbus for a mini girl's trip. We got into Columbus Sunday afternoon and headed over to Easton where we spent a good four hours shopping (most of that time being spent in the container store. I could use up my life savings in that store. So many cool things!) Sunday evening we enjoyed dinner at the Melting Pot. We had A LOT of food and I was glad that I had run 10 miles Sunday morning. We headed back to our hotel after dinner and decided we would head to the outlet mall in Jeffersonville in the morning. Before I go on, I should mention that Deb and I are not big shoppers. Now imagine our surprise when we realized we shopped for 7 hours straight on Monday! Shopping is a lot like work! We had an amazing time shopping, people watching, and laughing until we cried at the outlets. We also found awesome deals ($98.00 jeans for $14.24 is just one example) as you can see in the photo below. When Deb emailed my husband this picture, he sent me a text message which said: "Ok that's her stuff so no room for yours. Glad I didn't buy you a Suburban." Deb and I laughed when I read the text message and I replied with: "actually mine was more than half".

We called it a day around 6:30 PM and started on the 45 minute drive back to our hotel. There was dead silence for awhile. It was really quite comical when we realized it. Neither one of us has ever been quite so sore from shopping! When we got back to our hotel Deb even commented that she may have felt better after running 13.1 miles at the Cleveland Marathon. Me, not so much, seeing how I felt like I had been hit by a Mac truck after 25 miles at the Cleveland Marathon. We headed up to our room and sat there for awhile commenting on how sore we were. In fact, we both updated our Facebook status to reflect just how tiring shopping had been. I truly think I was in less pain after my 10 mile run on Sunday than I was at the end of our shopping trip on Monday. We eventually decided we should find something for dinner. We headed back to Easton and had Bon Vie. It was very good, but of course I ate too much again. Yesterday was our last day in Columbus and Deb had ordered a shelving system for her daughter's bedroom from the Container Store so we headed back to Easton where we spent another two hours shopping. We went into a few stores we hadn't gone to on Sunday and then we headed to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. Deb convinced me to be adventurous and try something new so we shared a chop salad and fish tacos. I was pleasantly surprised! I really enjoyed the meal and would definitely order it again. Now, if they would just put this restaurant in on the West side of Cleveland we could go there more often! Our final stop was the container store. After all was said and done, my Trailblazer was filled to the rim (both the back seat and the back hatch area). Take a look at the picture.

We didn't do one ounce of running on our trip but we certainly walked A LOT! How could we not walk a lot when we shopped a total of 13 hours in three days!?! It was a great trip and I can't wait to do it again!

And no worries on the running front, I got out there this morning for a nice 5 miler!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

How Jodi got her groove back....

My name isn't Stella but I am going to use the altered movie title anyway :). Two simple words explain how I got my groove back: rest day!! It was certainly obvious to me today that yesterday's rest day was just what I needed. I headed out for a nice three mile run after work and imagine my surprise when my legs were actually turning over at a decent pace. Today's run made me realize how important rest days are and that if we continually push ourselves we will eventually breakdown in one form or another. For me it was both a physical and emotional breakdown. The physical part reared its ugly head in the form of a sore throat and "lead" legs. The emotional part was the fact that I was miserable, mentally, the entire run and couldn't believe how awful it was and how glad I was to just be done with it. I still have the sore throat and I have been fighting a headache all day but I am starting to feel much better and am thankful for the sunshine today. Speaking of sunshine, why is it so hard to decide what to wear to run in this time of year? Take today for example. I check weather.com right before I change for my workout. Current temperature: 45*. Feels like temperature: 39*. Okay, 39* isn't exactly warm so I decide to go with long pants, a light weight long sleeve shirt, and a light weight windbreaker. I was cold when I started running but was almost too hot by the end. So I will leave you with this question: "How do you decide what to wear?"

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Terrible Ten

I had my first bad run in a long time this morning. I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed up. I grabbed a little bit of water and then I got ready to head out on my scaled back ten miler today. My plan was to run my five mile block twice so that I could grab some water and carb boom at the half way point. My legs felt heavy from the beginning. It was by far the worst run I have had in many, many months. My nose was running the entire time which was just plain annoying. The wind was annoying as well, it wasn't forgiving at all. The most frustrating part of the run for me was the fact that I couldn't seem to get my legs to turnover at a decent pace. It took me 1:40.36 to complete ten miles (10:03/mile). I couldn't tell you the last time I ran that slow. Seriously, I ran just over a 9:00/mile pace during my 13.1 miles on the "worst course ever" last weekend. I realize that not every run is going to be perfect but this one was just plain awful compared to my "perfect ten" a few weeks ago. I was never more happy to be done than I was today. Now that I am typing this, I wonder if how I felt today had anything to do with the fact that I didn't drink my coffee or eat my peanut butter toast and banana before I headed out. I wanted to get my run in before the rain started so I just got up and went for it. I am still fighting a sore throat and I am just crossing my fingers that I won't end up getting really sick and being down for the count. I almost forgot the one positive thing that happened on my run today...it didn't rain! Tomorrow is a rest day which I am hoping will help. Here's hoping I'm back on track come Tuesday's run.

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!