I am woman hear me roar

Things have been exciting and busy lately, unfortunately, finding time to blog has been challenging but here's a recap of what's up:

Documentary update:

This past week I traveled to Wisconsin to meet and film my Ragnar team captain, Rik for our documentary. This whole documentary process has been overwhelmingly awesome on so many levels, I cannot even begin to tell you. Rik and his wife, Cynthia are fantastic people as has been everyone on the team, we've met.

While in Wisconsin, Rik was competing in a 5K called "Race for the Bacon" where the top 100 finishers got something better than bling… they got bacon. Yes. Bacon. The race shirts were so cute that it had me regretting not signing up myself! The best part of all? Rik placed third in his age group and set a PR. Rock. On.

Bacon and the cutest race tee EVER. (Rik center)

Also in Wisconsin, I tried yoga for the first time (courtesy of Rik's wife who is a yoga teacher) and even ate and enjoyed cooked salmon. (I've tried many times to like it and just haven't… this time I liked it!)

looking super yoga-y aside from wearing running sneakers

It was a successful trip and I've got a really good feeling about this project.

Psst: If you have no idea of the film project of which I speak, you can read this post to learn more about it.
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I wear short-shorts:


Since beginning running, I've stuck to long black pants with the occasional capri thrown in. I, even now, just am not a fan of my legs. Yesterday, however, I took a huge leap. I did it. I bit the bullet and bought myself a pair of running shorts.

Yes, my legs which haven't seen light since 1989 are still pale and bumpy with cellulite but you know what? F. That. I earned those g-damn shorts. I am a runner and I'm sick of sweating to death. I am over feeling bad about my legs and body. Those legs have carried me over a thousand miles and they put up with carrying 100 pounds of excess weight and now they are strong. They don't deserve to be treated poorly and sweat all summer so I'm freeing them with these green Nike shorts…

At least in theory. I'll let you know if I chicken out of actually wearing them in public.

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The Leo in me:


I've been running and definitely working on speed. Have been pretty pleased with some of my runs of late. Today, I had a good running experience. I had 6 miles on the training schedule. My first few miles were slow/average - which was OK with me. Kind of. That park attracts some heavy duty good runners, so, much of the time I was getting passed. I don't know why but it still irks me to get passed - even on a training run and even when it's by someone who is clearly half my age and has been running track since birth.

getting cranky! stop passing me! 

In my last mile, I saw a guy up ahead. Maybe a quarter of a mile or so. He didn't look like he was going too fast and something clicked in my brain. I was gonna get him. **CHEESE ALERT** (This is gonna sound so freakin' corny) But, in my head, all of a sudden I was a lion and he was an antelope or something and I was getting my focused chase on. I was cooking. I was gaining. And then I got him! He was mine. And… I. SMOKED. Him. I kept running at top speed until I finished since it was my last mile. My average mile is usually around a 10 min pace (more or less depending on the day) My last mile… after having run for five? 8'46!

The guy caught up to me as I was cooling down and said, "Thanks a lot! You make me look bad!" He said it with a smile so I know that he was at least half kidding. :-) I know it's wrong but I did take a wee bit of pride in finally not being the one passed!

BOOBS:

And then another guy passed me as I was cooling down and said "good run out there today - have a great day. You earned it." People never really chat at the park so I kinda enjoyed those interactions… until I looked down to realize I had two gigantic sweat circles - directly over my boobs. Lovely. Couldn't be more attractive or better placed if I tried. Fab. It was pretty mortifying. Like I had drawn two big circles around my boobies - A huge magnifying glass of obscenity. Right on my chest. Awesomeness.

Oh well. Runner problems….

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Still dealing with the food stuff. Have had some good days and some days that are still a little iffy in the tummy. Just need a few weeks to see how that will all pan out - keep ya posted!

How are you doing?

XO
Jen

Lion image courtesy of  freedigitlphotos.net