Taper Week

Having fun during taper week


Maddie and Piper at the Park


Maddie loving on the dog


Having fun playing chuck it with Piper


Well, I’ve been trying to taper all week; I’ve only gotten in maybe 8.5 miles and no cross training. I have really enjoyed relaxing though. I’ve gotten a facial, hung out with Madison (although I think she likes it better when I DON’T try and talk to her), took the dog to the park, and did some volunteer work for the HSUS and Wildlife Guardians.
I’m itchy to get out and run on Sunday and have been trying to make a list of everything that I need to bring. It looks like I already have a suitcase full for only one night and I still keep thinking of stuff that I might need. I might need those extra two pairs of shoes and those five hundred extra pony tail holders, you never know I’m not sure where Madison and Rick are going to put their stuff in our 4-Runner; I’ve laid claim on the whole back cargo area. Good thing we decided not to bring the dog.
On my last post, I mentioned the dilemma that I was having over whether to stop and use the toilets or just wet myself. Well, Rick looked a little grossed out (as I’m sure most of the rest of you were) when I told him about this and his response was “honey, just stop at a porta potty; it’s not that big of a deal, you’ll make your time goal”, so I guess I’ll go ahead and make that pit stop if I have to. One issue resolved. I’ve read a couple of posts over at the “Shut up and Run” Blog (very funny blog, you should read it. If I was smart enough to insert a link I would) a new dilemma has arisen. Stomach issues. I know…I am grossing you all out again, but I hadn’t thought of this one either until reading her blog. Then the issue came up AGAIN while I was talking to my coach about what to eat pre race. She mentioned that I might not want to eat a lot of fruit, foods with a lot of fiber, or whole wheat products, mostly eat wholesome foods that will not be excess waste in my colon. Hmmmm….I eat a lot of fruit. In fact, it’s one of my food staples. I’ve decided to go ahead and pack some baby butt wipes and a change of pants just in case.
I’ve been trying to eat healthy, wholesome foods all week, but there have been a couple of time that I’ve found my hands in the Dorito bag, so I’ve had to remind myself that taper week is not a one way ticket to a junk food festival.
Anyway, I am ready to go; I even made reservations for the very last two hotel rooms in Fort Collins last night (I’m also a procrastinator) and got the dog all set up with a sitter. It should be a fun run and a fun birthday for Madison. Hopefully, I'll make my goal time, but if not, oh well...there will be other races.

Long Run Day and "I'm Tagged"!

Sunday was my last long run before the half next weekend. The run itself could only be described as shitty. My chosen course was shitty, the wind was shitty, my pace was shitty, and I just felt plain SHITTY! I hope next weekend goes better. My run this weekend presented another dilemma that I had never thought about before yesterday. I had drunk a giant mountain dew that morning (probably one reason why I felt shitty) and by mile two, I had to go to the bathroom…bad. What do I do if I have to use the potty next weekend? During my training run, I just shut my timer off and squatted in the bushes. I’m pretty darn sure that they won’t let you take a “time out” to go squat in the woods; nope time keeps going, even while you pee. So do I just wet myself? Take a break and actually go to the bathroom? I really can’t afford the time deficit in order to relieve myself; I will need all of the help that I can get. I guess that I will just have to suffer with a full bladder or here’s a good plan….maybe not drink a GIANT Diet mountain dew when I wake up!

I was tagged yesterday by Beth of "Shut up and Run" to do the “eight things” so here they are:

8 Things That I am Looking Forward to:

1.) My daughter’s birthday this weekend. May 3rd.
2.) My half marathon this weekend
3.) Finally getting to do some mountain biking after my half is over, after recovery week, of course.
4.) Summer and for the snow to stop today. It’s coming down hard out there. What the heck is up with this weather??
5.) Getting a facial tonight.
6.) Seeing some of our out of town friends over Memorial Day weekend.
7.) Rest Week and spending time with my daughter and husband
8.) Leaving work tonight and having a beer. I hate Mondays!

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1.) Ran
2.) Went shopping with my daughter
3.) Cooked dinner with my husband
4.) Drank a glass of wine
5.) Complained and bitched about my run to my coach.
6.) Took the dog on a walk
7.) Went to the grocery store
8.) Scooped dog poop

8 Things That I would like to do:

1.) Quit work.
2.) Run a marathon
3.) Take a trip to Italy or Greece
4.) Run fast
5.) Stop animal cruelty
6.) Have a house in the mountains
7.) Finish up my work project, so that I can get back to all of the things that I have let slip since starting it
8.) Travel more

8 Shows That I watch:
I don’t really watch much TV, but I do enjoy watching: NFL Football (Go Chiefs!), College Football (Go Mizzou), College Basketball, The Tour De France, CNN, and ….Yep, that’s about it. Oh, every now and then I will watch Survivor Man; I like to see him eat bugs.

8 People I am Tagging:
If you are reading this and you have a blog (and you haven’t already done it), consider yourself officially tagged!

Alright, that's about it. Update on the home front. Not much went on this weekend. Madison's test came back all normal. She just has some high stomach acid issues that we just need to take care of with diet and exercise and a few pills. She feels much better and actually went to a slumber party the other night. I rested on Saturday and ran on Sunday. Rick went skiing on Sunday for a couple of hours. He wanted to check out A Basin. I opted out since this was my last long run before the race and I wanted fresh legs. He said it was a small resort, but pretty fun. I think that we'll try and make it back out in a couple of weeks.

Tempo Run and some fast sprints

The other day I was out for a tempo run when I got a call from my daughter. She knows not to call me while I am running unless she is in DIRE need of something, so I figured that I better answer the phone.
Mom. When are you going to be home?
I'm almost done I told her, I'll be home soon.
I need "supplies" (you ladies know what I'm talking about); we have to go to the store.
Ok, I'll be there shortly. I told her and then hung up.
By this time my legs were about ready to fall off and my heart rate was off the charts from trying to hold a fast pace in the near eighty degree temps, so I was honestly glad that I needed to do a "supplies" run. I finished up my six miles and then went to pick her up.
I honked the horn and she slinked out looking like she was on the way to the guillotine. She gets freakishly embarrassed when we have to go for supplies. I told her that I could go by myself, but she insisted that I would not know what to get.
We gathered up a few other things while we were there and finally made our way to the self checkout. The self checkout was a brilliant invention and perfect for occasions such as supply buying. We scanned all of our purchases without a problem until we got to "the supplies". They would not scan. I tried upside down, right side up, and then throwing them against the scanner. By this time Madison was rolling her eyes and urging me to please hurry up. The lady manning the self scans finally sauntered over and asked what the problem was. I showed her how “the supplies” would not scan and asked her for suggestions. Madison looked horrified at this point and was looking for a way to escape. The lady and I tried with no luck to scan them again and then proceeded to hold them up and turn them over and over in order to look for an item code to punch into the system. Nothing. Well, she says, I could do a price check (I noticed that Madison had conveniently wandered off somewhere by this time). No worries, I said, I know where they are, I'll just run back there and get the price. And run I did! I figured I might as well get my heart rate up while I was at it. I sprinted faster then I had on my run earlier. I wished that I had had my heart rate monitor still on so that I could see my pace. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Madison was wandering around over by the Starbucks counter trying to look as though she did not know me and she seemed horrified that her mother was sprinting through the store.
I got the price and sprinted back. $6.99, I huffed and puffed to the lady who was patiently awaiting my return. $6.99???, why didn’t we get the generic brand? Oh well...too late now. The lady punched the price in and I gathered up my purchases and my traumatized child and we left the store.
This was not an embarrassing occasion for me, but I think that Madison will have post traumatic stress syndrome from the horror of it all.

Commitment

I left work early yesterday to take Madison to the doctor. We ran some tests on her; the doc thinks she may have mono. Eeek! If that is not what is wrong with her, they have one more test they want to run, but she does seem to be feeling better.

When we got back to the house, it was totally gorgeous out and I was actually home before five! Our friends Tim and Jeff were in town and were planning on meeting Rick, Madison, and me at the Wynkoop that evening after work, school, and doctor’s appointments. The Wynkoop is a cool little brewery located downtown and has some most tasty beer and appetizers. However, I had a run and some weight training on my workout schedule for that day. I had planned on getting up that morning to do the workout, but had overslept. Ooops; now came my dilemma. Do I do my run before or after I go to the brewery? Now….this shouldn’t be a hard question, it shouldn’t even be a question all. I knew that if I went downtown, I would not get my run and weight lifting in. There was no way in hell that would happen. I would come up with every excuse in the book to get out of the run, due to having had a beer or being tired or just being too LAZY. Why didn’t I get up that morning like I had planned??? I thought about the commitment that I had made to run the half marathon and the fact that it was less then two weeks away. I thought about my goals for that run, I thought about my goals for running a marathon. Not only that, but I have recently made the commitment to work with a coach in order to prepare myself to run a marathon in the near future. What would I tell her? “Can you please change my schedule around? I missed my workout last night because I went out drinking instead.” Yep, that’s not going to happen.

Ok, I made a commitment to something; I am going to keep my commitment. I realize that missing one run is not THAT big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but if I miss one, how many more will I allow myself to miss every time something trivial comes up? And the weather is getting warmer; I’m sure that there will be a lot of trivial opportunities in my near future.

One of these days I am going to make a commitment to working on a better nutrition plan.

Long Run Day and Brewing some beer

Starting the Process


Madison and I went to get hair products and she ended up with fake nails


Our friend Tim brewing beer


Tim is working hard

Sunday was my long run day. I had 10 miles to do. We had gotten a foot of snow on Friday and Saturday, so I was at the mercy of whatever roads/sidewalks had been plowed. It definitely made for an interesting little adventure winding through all of the streets like I was in a maze. I finally made it down to the park and ran around the lake. The weather was near 60 degrees and it felt really weird to be wearing shorts while surrounded by so much snow. There were a lot of runners out and even a few brave road bikers. I was extremely focused during my run. I knew that I had at least 4 miles in heart rate zone 3 and I knew with the hills, it would be hard to keep my heart rate down, while trying to increase my pace. I love it when I become so focused that I am “in the zone” and everything else disappears. A friend of mine commented once that she hates to run by other runners and have them totally ignore her. She likes to smile and wave and feels that they should return the gesture. When I am “in my zone”, I do not notice other runners, I do not notice anything, I am totally focused on the task at hand. I have tried to explain to her what this is like, but unless you have experienced it; your mind can’t process the experience. I do not mean to be rude to others; this is just the way my mind works. The good thing is, I also do not feel the pain, THAT is how focused I am and THAT is what is going to get me through the half marathon and then a marathon.


After my run, I stretched, showered, took care of my exercise induced asthma and went to the Coors Brewery. I figured what better way to recover from a long run and an asthma attack, then to spend a couple of hours at the brewery? Just kidding, our friends were in town from Missouri and we took them over to Golden, Colorado so that we could all take a tour of the brewery and then grab a couple of free beers (I only had one). It was interesting and the beer was cold and good. I had my favorite from the Coors line, Blue Moon. Yummy. We then proceeded to go back to our house and make a batch of our home brew beer. I have attached a few picks of our brewing experience.

Rest Day Saturday

Rick goofing off on the treadmill

Saturday was my rest day. Friday is usually my rest day, but since the Ft. Collins run is in two weeks, on a Sunday, my long runs are now on Sunday and my rest days are on Saturday. It is EXTREMELY hard to have a rest day on the weekend. I have a hard to sitting still and I usually look forward to getting up and moving since I spend 40 some odd hours in front of a computer every week. The weather was nasty and snowy, which made rest day even worse because we couldn’t get outside. I made a batch of beef stew and then decided to live vicariously through Rick and convinced him to run on the treadmill. It wasn’t very hard to do, he wanted the cardio. I went downstairs and hung out with him for a little while and snapped a few photos of him acting goofy on the treadmill.

By one o’clock, I was really hating my Saturday rest day, so Rick, Madison, and I piled up in the 4 Runner and went to REI to hang out and shop. I went ahead and purchased a new pair of Brooks shoes and a new outfit for my half marathon, which consisted of a new pair of shorts, sports bra, and running top. I hope that it’s not 20 degrees and snowing in two weeks.

Just some thoughts...

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed." Jacqueline Gareau

How true this quote is. I don’t know how many times that I have been out and have wanted to quit a run because it was not going well or I was tired and I just kept pushing through until my mind finally overpowered my body. One of the biggest challenges of long distance running is too prepare the mind to not let your body give up because your body can usually sustain much more then it thinks it is capable of. They say that the last six miles of a marathon are ran with your head not your body. I don’t know, I’ve never done one, but when I do, I want to be mentally prepared.

Less then three weeks to go until the race. I am relaxed and feeling confident so far. I am trying not to put to much pressure on myself with this one. This is just my “testing the waters” race to see how my mind, body, and spirit hold up during the run. I’m sure that the pressure will come with subsequent races since there’s always that need to reach a different goal and do better then the last race. I’m sure the pressure will come and when it does, I will have to squash the ugly headed monster and remember that I run because I love to run (see blog URL :)).

I’ve gotten in a couple of runs this week already. Monday night I did an easy paced 4.5 jog and last night I did a 7.72 mile run, working on holding my goal pace. Last night was hard, not because of the pace, but mainly due to the raging 35 mph wind that I was running into. This was a prime example of my body wanting to give up and slow down, but my will forced it to keep going, I need to be prepared for any type of weather condition on race day. The wind may be raging at 45 mph, you never know.

Happy Easter!

Easter was fun. Madison and I did our customary egg dying and baking. This year we made cupcakes in the shape of little easter bunnies. The bunny shape came out ok, but you really couldn't see the face or the details. They were quite tasty though! It rained most of the day, so we hid the eggs inside the house, which was still fun. I always forget where I have hidden the eggs and usually end up hunting my own eggs with Madison. I half joked that I was going to hide them before I went to bed and then get up in the morning and look for them after I've forgotten where all of them were.


Madison and I thought that Piper would look cute in her bunny ears. She was more interested in the egg Madison was holding.


Rick and Madison.


We made cupcakes in the shapes of bunnies. The shapes didn't turn out too well, but the cakes were yummy!


Getting ready to start the egg dying and the cupcakes.


Rick made chili while Madison and I baked and dyed eggs.


Madison loves her blue egg!


Almost finished!


Madison with her pink smiley face egg.

Listening to the madness of my mind-Long Run Day

Relaxing after my long run


Feels so good to stretch

Today was my long run day. My goal was 12 miles and I had planned on driving over to Fort Collins to run the race course, however, I got up on Saturday morning and there was a chance of rain for Ft Collins and Denver. The race course is on a fairly busy road and Rick convinced me that I did not want to run on a busy road, which I was not familiar with, in the rain, so I chose the Cherry Creek trail, which is a paved bike/jog trail that goes all of the way to downtown Denver. I had coerced Rick into dropping me off at one of the trailheads and then picking me up at the big REI downtown. He was happy to oblige, in order to stop me from the whole Ft. Collins plan. The radar map showed that the rain would probably start in the next couple of hours and I was determined to get my run in before the weather turned bad, so I changed, loaded up my supplies, and went to the trailhead that was exactly 12 miles from downtown. Rick and I have biked on this trail many times and it really put the mileage that I was running in perspective. The path ahead seemed daunting. I ran 12 miles a couple of weekends ago and I ran in and out of neighborhoods and different trails and it didn’t quite seem as long as the trail ahead of me. The farthest that I have ever ran was 15 miles, back in college, when running came easier to me, even though I was a beer drinking, shitty food eating college student.
I was doing the first 6 miles at a nice easy pace, then hitting my goal pace for a few miles, and finishing up with an easy three miles.
It’s so easy to get lost in your thoughts on a long run and I was completely immersed within a few miles into the run. I thought about what I was trying to accomplish by signing up for more half marathons and attempting a marathon. Running has always been a solace for me, a way to escape my own thoughts and the madness of the outside world. When I sign up for races, I am usually locked inside the madness of my own mind, consumed by thoughts of paces, goals, and time. I’ve been there before and I was doing it to myself again. My goal pace for this half is to run the 13 miles while doing 9 minute miles. Running nine minutes per mile is a fairly comfortable pace for me, but I’m not used to holding it for 13 miles. I will get there, I will teach my body what it feels like to hold this pace for 13 miles, it will happen and it will happen before this half marathon. I will make my goal and then we will work on whittling that pace down to 8 some minute miles, then we will work on holding 7 some minute miles for 13 miles. That will happen too, I’ve been there before, and I will be there again. I am not a fast runner anymore, I accept that, but hopefully, I can work to get where I want to be. It will just take time, patience, and work. I’m still not sure why I am doing this. I don’t really have anything to prove to anyone, but myself.

These are just some old pics from my wedding weekend that I thought I would share. I took so many shots.


Garden of the Gods


Madison took this shot right outside of our lodge that we were staying at for the wedding. Amazing how close they let her get to them. Is it any wonder why wildlife attacks humans when they are becoming so accustomed to us?

I am hungry. I am constantly hungry. Right now I am sitting here dreaming about what I will make for dinner tonight. Will it be spinach manicotti or something easy like mahi mahi and rosemary potatoes? I am sitting here debating on this at 8:00 in the morning as I am finishing up my second breakfast of the day. Vanilla yogurt and a kashi bar. I know that all of this extra eating has to do with all of my extra training and running that I have been doing. But jeez, you would think that I was doing an Ironman or something, I’m only doing a half marathon. I hate to see how much I consume when I start training for an actual marathon. I’m going to just have to start leaving big pieces of meat laying around the house for quick consumption.
Waking up in the middle of the night, ready for a snack, has actually led to serious thoughts of adding a refrigerator to our room. Rick has been waking up hungry for years and has consistently made the trek downstairs for a glass of chocolate milk and I never could understand why he couldn’t just fall back asleep. I can now see how hard it is to fall back asleep when your stomach is rumbling and you are dreaming of spoonfuls of peanut butter and a big glass of milk; now we both wake up together and have an early morning (2:00 am) snack. Think of the convenience of having a refrigerator stocked with ready amounts of peanut butter within arms reach of your bed.
Even my long training runs have become an event in planning. Ok…so I’ll need gels for 15 minutes into the run, 45 minute into the run, and 1:15 into the run. That’s three gels. What a minute; where do I put them? I’ve already got water, cell phone, epipen, and an inhaler. I can't leave any of these items behind,where do I put my fuel? Do I leave them? No, I’ll duck tape them to my body if I have to; they’re going with me otherwise I’ll starve to death.
On a different note I have done a couple of runs this week. Monday night I did a short easy paced 4 mile run and last night I did a 7.5 mile run. Last night I was working on keeping up with my half marathon goal pace, which was hard because my throat was getting scratchy and I was tired. Am I getting sick?? Tonight is a recovery run and a yoga session.

General Ramblings

Yesterday morning I had to pull Madison out of school so that I could take her to a doctor’s appointment. While I was driving to the school to pick her up, I saw a Mercedes Benz with the words “student driver” on the side of the car. What the hell? When I was that age, I think we had a Corolla for a driver’s ed car, which is much a better choice of car if you are going to have students driving up into people’s yards (trust me…it can happen) because it’s much cheaper to repair then a Mercedes.

If you think having a Mercedes for a driver’s education car is bad, you should see the high school parking lot. Who buys their sixteen year old a BMW? Apparently most of the parents at Madison’s future high school do! The high school parking lot looks like an ad for a luxury car lot. When I was sixteen, my parents bought me an Oldsmobile Omega. Yes, my first car was a big, brown, four-door tank whose sole purpose was to keep me safe in any accident. It was a looker. However, you could pile up at least seven people in that car and you could start it without the key. It even had a nice size trunk where we could store those unsightly “butt people” that we would “borrow” (I swear we put them back) from people’s yards. Oh, what fond memories I have of that car.

Madison always talks about what kind of car that she might someday have. She’s thinking corvettes and really slick nice cars. Rick and I are thinking “1999 Honda CRV” or aka “the dog car”. I told her that I would even clean up the dog snot off of the back windows and shine the car up real good. She’s not too candid on this subject. Why is it that you are so concerned with having nice cars, name brand clothes, and looking perfect at that age and by the time you get to my age, you just don’t give a crap anymore?

I remember those days when I wouldn’t walk out the door without every hair glued perfectly in place (the wind would blow and my hair would go up and yet come back down in one piece) and makeup caked on. Now I’m lucky if I’m wearing matching socks and I don’t have holes in the armpits of my shirts. Madison often looks at me mortified and exclaims “You’re not going out looking like that are you?” Oh well….it’s a good thing that I love myself.

Relaxing Sunday

Cooking Lasagna


Rick in our "junk room" looking at Poi Dog website


Madison is sick. :(

The snow had melted by Sunday mid morning. The sun was finally out and it had warmed up. That’s the way it is in Colorado, seventy degrees during the day, snowing at night. I had always thought that Missouri weather was bad; at least we never got snow in April or May. That’s so weird! We have gotten more snow in the last two weeks then we did the whole winter. I was saying not more then two weeks ago (to someone at my wedding), that I had missed seeing the snow this year. Be careful what you wish for!
Rick and I spent the morning getting our workouts in. It is so handy having a home gym. He ran on the treadmill and I did the bike trainer (cross training). Then he worked out on our functional trainer and I showed him some of my moves that I do on the stability ball. We finally poked our heads out the door around 11:00 and decided to go for a hike. I invited Madison, but she was wiped out from her trip and elected to spend the day lounging in her chair.
It was a very muddy hike and we ended up having to give the dog a bath. We have a huge steam shower in our basement that works well for this, so we hauled her dirty butt in there and soaked her good. We ended up soaking wet and smelling like wet dogs too. At least she was clean, even if we weren’t anymore.
Not much went on the rest of the day, it started snowing around 5:00 (imagine that) and I decided that I was going to cook lasagna. I love Italian food and lasagna is one of my all time favorites. Normally when I cook, I try and use leaner turkey or buffalo for my ingredients, but I don’t skimp on the lasagna. I use good ole Italian sausage, the fatter the better. It usually takes me about 3 hours to cook and simmer the meat sauce, so I got started right away. The aroma was awesome. We got so hungry that we couldn’t wait on it, so we ended up eating leftovers for dinner and we’ll do the lasagna on Monday night. It tastes better the next day anyway.

Snowy Saturday

Tara & Piper at Coyote Duty.


Searching for Coyotes in the Snow

Saturday was a good day. Madison’s flight got in right on time on Saturday morning and we didn’t get the 8 to 10 inches of snow that they were calling for. I was extremely worried that they would cancel or delay her flight home. She had spent the last week visiting her dad in Florida and it rained quite a bit and now she was coming home to snow. Poor Girl! Plus she had to get up at 3:30 in the morning in order to make her 6:05 a.m. flight. She was exhausted when she got home. She fell asleep at 8:30 Saturday and didn’t get up until 11:00 the next morning!
It snowed most of the day, but we only ended up with 4 inches (I think). It was pretty and it was nice to just relax in the house and watch the snow fall. I was actually supposed to go to the track to get in some speed work, but I ended up in my basement doing a dreadmill run instead. I got in 6 miles. I held some of the miles at a 7 some minute mile, so we’ll just call that my speed work for the week, good enough for a dreadmill run.
The half marathon is still a month away. Am I prepared? Am I ready? I guess we’ll see. I did a twelve mile run last Sunday and I felt strong and ready and I have another twelve mile run next Saturday. The race is at a higher altitude then I am used to, which leaves me a little concerned. I am not good with exercising at altitude. Leaves me feeling a little dizzy and a little tired, but hopefully, I will do fine for the race. I’m sure as time gets closer, I will be on here telling you how nervous I am!

Dinner and a Show

Friday night was our last night of being alone together without the "mini moo", so we decided to take advantage of it and go out to a nice dinner and a play. We hardly ever go out to dinner together alone or stay out late, so we thought this was perfect time to have a "date night". The Denver Theater of the Performing Arts was showing "A Prayer for Owen Meaney", which was perfect because John Irving is one of Rick's favorite authors (when he decides to read that is). I did a couple of theater productions back in the day (Lyceum Theater), so I love seeing shows plus I have also read the book (I love to read), so I told Rick to definitely buy the tickets. He walked to the theater at lunchtime and got us two amazing seats! We made reservations at the Baur's Ristorante, which is down the street from the theater, and our night was set. I couldn't wait to get off of work and spend a great evening with my new husband.
I took the train downtown after work and met him in front of the Denver Convention Center. From there we walked down to the restaurant and were a bit early, but they went ahead and seated us. I ordered the Filet and Rick ordered the Salmon. They were both amazing and I highly recommend this restaurant. Much better then The Capitol Grille or Brooks. We had NY cheesecake for dessert and finished off with a cup of coffee. I was extremely relaxed and ready to see a good show. We walked to the theater after dinner and found our seats. The play was very good, but not quite as good as the book. Isn't that always the way it is?
When we left the show, it was lightly snowing outside. We were expecting a major snowstorm over the next couple of nights (five to ten inches) and I was very worried about Madison's flight the next morning. We took the train home and called it a night. Madison's flight would be in at 8:00 the next morning. We both agreed that we needed to do "date nights" more often.

Tara with dog at Park

Our marriage license arrived in the mail yesterday. There it was, in writing, yep, its official. Every now and then, it will hit me, hey, I’m married! It’s a good feeling; especially when you are married to the right person. Everyone kept telling me that things would be different after we were married.
“Well…how so?” I would inquire
“I don’t know…just different.” Would be the reply.
“A bad different?” I would press further.
“Well. Not necessarily.” The reply came with a shrug.
“Rick and I have been together for almost seven years now. I don’t see how different it could be.”
“Oh, the seven year itch!” They would stare with open eyed horror.
I think it’s funny. People and their preconceived notions on how things should be, instead of letting things just be. Rick and I agreed that yes, being married has changed our relationship, but for the better. He says that he feels even closer to me. We were pretty close before; so I guess that's a good thing.

The only bad thing that I can see is that I am taking his name so I’ve been rushing around trying to get everything updated. Driver’s license, social security, work e-mail, etc, etc. What a pain! I guess it will eventually get done.

In other news, I’ve been doing a lot of yoga and strength exercises this week. I haven’t done yoga since I moved away from Columbia. Rick and I used to take a wonderful Power Yoga class at Gold’s Gym. The teacher was awesome and the class left you with a nice relaxed jelly like feeling. I miss that class, but enjoyed doing the moves at home. I wish that teacher would move out here, maybe I should find her! Yoga is so good for your core and a strong core leads to better running and more endurance. It also just makes you feel damn good and most of your aches and pains will magically disappear.

I’ve only done one run this week; a four mile run on Tuesday. I’m going to try and get some more runs in, but it sounds like we are about to get a couple of feet of snow dumped on us again! I realize that we desperately need the moisture, but I wish that the snow had come during the winter and not in the spring!