Have you guys seen the huge controversy over whether or not Dane from the Biggest Loser ran the full marathon as it was shown on the show?

If he didn't actually finish it, that is some crap to say he did, and I can imagine every real marathon runner out there is probably pissed.

I think it's great that his wife started training for a race while he was away and I think it's great he went to try to accomplish it with her. But if they didn't run the full race, don't say they did. That's kind of insulting to every person who actually trained for and ran a full marathon.

And as for the time confusion. Was it 5:53 or 3:53? My thoughts are this: If it was 3:53 were the heck are the rest of the people running that race? Just under four hours is a fairly middle of the pack time for completing a race. No way is there no one to be seen finishing anywhere behind them. If they finished in 5:53 I'd find that a little more believable because people tend to be a lot more spaced out at the end of races, at least in my experience.

After reading about this whole mess, I am really, sorely disappointed with the Biggest Loser and NBC. It's supposed to be a motivational show about people working hard, losing weight and accomplishing great goals, not almost doing great things and then lying about it.

How do you guys feel about this?

I figured out why my knee problems have been so persistant this time around. The cause, unfortunately breaks my heart.

It's my beloved black boots. I noticed it today after my mom suggested maybe my footwear was causing some of the problem because my knee would start hurting at random times when it had been doing just fine the day before.

It happened this weekend when I wore the boots for about 5 hours on Saturday for dinner and then dessert at my aunt's house. On Sunday, my knee wasn't happy. Yesterday it was fine. Today I wore the boots to work and now my knee is killing me.

I notice I walk really funny in them. My left foot kind of points out like a duck, but not the right foot. Weird right?

So I think I'm going to have to retire the boots for a while. This is sad because I wear them at least once a week to work with dresses/skirts. I am in mourning.

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I went to my doctor appointment on Monday to see what he had to say about the knee. He took X-rays, which came out fine. He thinks it's the same thing I had last summer, patellafemural pain syndrome, but wants to send me for an MRI just to make sure it's not something else. I haven't had a chance to make an appointment for the MRI yet though. I'm going to try to set one up soon.

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In weekend news, it was great being home and getting to see my family. It was the first time I'd seen my cousin and his wife since their wedding in October so that was fun and exciting. They're getting ready to buy a house and it sounds crazy stressful. Glad it's not me. The family seemed to like the BF. I was hoping to come out of the weekend with some hilarious story, but nothing really...ohhhh except that we went to buy his first pair of real running shoes this weekend. Took him to a running store and got him all fitted and everything. He ended up with a pair of New Balance, but I don't know what style.

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If you haven't heard yet, there's a new challenge in blogland for March modeled after Amanda's Holiday Booty Buster Challenge. For details check out Chandra's Shenanigans.

Yesterday I ended up going home from work at lunch time and working from home the rest of the day because my stomach felt all kinds of unsettled. Don't worry though I never tossed my cookies and I feel 100x better today.

I also had to teach my yoga class last night and I was a little worried about doing that while I wasn't feeling great. I got through it though and it was definitely one of my better classes. I got lots of good feedback after the class, which made me happy. I love hearing what participants liked or didn't like so I can make changes for the following week.

In knee news, it still hurts, especially on my commute to and from work...bahhh. Can't wait to get to the doc.

And in potentially hilarious or horribly awkward weekend news, I'm taking the BF back to PA with me for my mom's birthday where he will get to meet almost my entire extended family on my mom's side. I hope this means on Monday I come back with a great story for you guys!

Hope you all have fabulous weekends! Catch ya on the flipside!

After my knee's unfortunate reaction to Saturday's 5K, I decided it was time to call in the big guns to get it taken care of. Yes, I finally made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor.

Lucky me, I was able to get an appointment for next Monday, so I don't have to wait too long. This doctor sounds pretty much amazing. He practices with the a group dedicated to sports medicine and he's an affiliated doctor with the U.S. National Soccer teams (men and women) and with D.C. United (my favorite MLS team!).

I imagine this is how our first appointment will go:

Me: So, I hear you work with some soccer teams. That's pretty cool.
Doc: Yea, it's a sweet gig.
Me: Do you get free tickets?
Doc: Sure, sometimes.
Me: Think you could hook a patient up next time the MNT is in town or perhaps when D.C. United plays the LA Galaxy?
Doc: Absolutely, how do you feel about getting to meet some of the guys too?
Me: ::Stars at him in stunned silence while slowing nodding head::
Doc: So, you were saying something about your knee...

Then he will work his voo-doo magic and heal me right away and I will be able to run the half marathon at the end of March.* The End.

*I am only semi-delusional in thinking this will happen.

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In Sexy Six Pack challenge news, I failed miserably. I stuck with the program so well for the first few weeks and then I didn't stick with it as closely and last week I didn't do any ab work at all. I'm not sure if last week I was just more enamored with the core work I was doing in Yoga or if I was just bored with the 200 sit up challenge or what. I feel like some of it is my utter frustration about not being able to run because normally I would do my abs right after my run. So without running, some days I just plain forgot.

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As far as my knee plans: Rest and ice until my appointment.

"There's an old saying, 'Got more guts than brains.'"

That's what some older fellow said to me after I finished my 5K on Saturday morning and was limping back to my car. He asked me if I started that way or ended that way. I told him I was checking to see how my knee was doing. That's when he told me about the old saying.

My knee was not in a happy place after the race or for much of the rest of the day Saturday, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's backtrack to the actual race.

It was the race that was the closest to my house in a long time and it started at 10 a.m. so I got to sleep in a little bit before it actually started. Left the house by nine, got to the park by 9:30. Got my bib (No. 302) and hit the porta-potty. BF hung out with me before the race started. There were a ton of people there and it was a bright sunny day. Temps in the 40's. Beautiful running weather.

The race directors got everyone lined up and then we were off. My knee was taped up, but it started hurting right away. Not too bad, but I could feel it talking to me. I kept going though and I hit the first mile at 9:04ish. The first mile was a lot of downhill though.

I grabbed some water from the stop at mile 1.5. I kept moving and hit mile 2 around 18:34. By this point my knee was feeling a little bit better, but then I hit an uphill toward the end of the race and my knee started hurting a bunch. The finish was only a little bit further and I managed to cross the finish line in 29:15 on my watch, 29:18:09 by the official clock.

I also ran this race as part of the Freakishly Flexible 5K dedicated to NonRunner Nancy!

After the race, I grabbed some Gatorade, and a cookie and a package of strawberry shot blocks. I looked for Merry Mishaps at the food table because she told me that's where she was volunteering, but I couldn't find her. Bummer.

My knee really started hurting after I stopped running, like extreme pain walking back to the car. Boyfriend offered to drive back home so I could rest my leg. I iced it and rested for the rest of the day Saturday. By yesterday it was feeling a little better. Today it seems to be almost back to normal, but I'm not sure what to do now. I guess just more resting for now.

Happy early Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all have plans for a fun weekend (whether it involves V-day or not!)

I'm just dropping in for a quick post to update you on the knee situation and tomorrow's Valentine's Day 5K.

The knee has been on again off again with how much it hurts or doesn't hurt. Going down steps still nags at it, but for the most part it's OK otherwise. So I'm going to tape it up and give the race a go. If I have to walk, I have to walk.

Also want to give a big shout out to Carolina John who is running his first marathon this weekend. Stop by his blog and send him and his wife lots of good luck for their first big race!

As for my other weekend plans:

My friend's birthday is tonight so we're hitting up Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore for dinner and drinks. (Just dinner for me.)

Tomorrow's my race and then no real V-day plans of note.

And Sunday and Monday will be chill out days. Man I love working for the government and getting the holidays off! Hope you all have an awesome weekend! Catch ya on the flipside!

Just a few quick things:

* I start my new job teaching yoga tonight. I planned out my class on the metro on the way to work and I'm thinking it should go pretty well.

* I got a shout out from Razz in this week's edition of the LoungeCast for one of my super lame running excuses.

* Speaking of the Runner's Lounge, I changed my ID name. When I registered I signed up with jmilceti, the log-in I use for things not related to running. Yea, not sure why. Just habit I guess. Anyway, I created a new account this morning. So my new Lounge ID is RunGirl (RunGirlRun was already taken....curses). Feel free to send me messages and such to that account. I'll work on adding you all back in as Lounge friends soon, but if I miss you/am taking too long, friend me too!

* Woke up insanely late this morning (6:29 a.m.) Somehow managed to get my butt dressed, out the door and on the metro by 6:39 (that last possible train I can catch and still get to work only a few minutes late). Good news, my knee didn't hurt tooo much in my mad dash from house to metro and metro to work. Maybe that's a good sign for the 5K this weekend!

Guess what? I got a job teaching yoga at the Gold's Gym a few minutes from my house! I'm so excited!

It's been about a year since I've taught any sort of fitness classes like I used to in college and I was really missing it. I had looked briefly at the gym in York, but they weren't hiring at the time. I hadn't even really started looking for real back in D.C., but when I took that yoga class last Monday on a whim, the instructor mentioned they were looking for a new yoga instructor to replace one who was about to have a baby.

He recommended me to the director of fitness programs and I met with her last night and she offered me the job. I start Thursday night!!!! For now I'll just be teaching one hour-long yoga class once a week, but I think that's the perfect way to break back into teaching easily.

Plus the best part, is that one of the perks of being an instructor at Gold's is that they give you a free membership! So I can go whenever I want for free now! How awesome is that!

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In knee news, it wasn't as bad today as it was yesterday. I think resting it is definitely helping. All I've been doing is my commute to work, which is only about 1.5 miles round trip. I'm registered for a Valentine's Day 5K on Saturday and I think with a few more days rest I'll be OK to run it. I just won't race it. I don't want to risk making things worth for my half marathon in March.

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In nutrition news, I've kind of been all over the place lately. For the last few months, I had wanted nothing to do with sweets, like not even at the holidays. But lately the past few weeks, I've been really wanting them again. Maybe it's just because people have been bringing all kinds of food to the office lately and so I see it and "want" it. Maybe it's because I haven't been able to run or really workout a ton lately. I've also been really bad about eating at home lately. I've been eating a lot of Subway (which isn't horrible because I always get the veggie on whole wheat) and other take out food. Some of it is the BF's fault. He doesn't keep food in his house so when I'm with him, we almost always go out to eat. The rest of it is just my laziness.

I'm kind of getting sick of it though, so at the grocery store tonight, I picked up some easier dinner stuff. Yes, I grabbed a couple Kashi frozen dinners, but sometimes that's what I have energy for. But I also picked up some oatmeal and all kinds of fun toppings. After reading Caitlin's blog and seeing all her yummy oatmeals, I got a little inspired. I don't have time to make it in the morning, but it's a quick, easy and healthy dinner.

Tonight I made it with strawberries, some berry trail mix and granola sprinkled on the top. It was delicious.

That's it for tonight, I'm off to finish watching the Biggest Loser!

Well it's official. I dropped down to the half marathon from the full this morning. I can barely walk this morning my knee hurts so much. I tried to go out for a run Sunday while the weather was gorgeous. I got maybe a quarter of a mile before I had to stop and walk back home. It was disheartening to the say the least.

I guess it's back to rest and ice and stretching out my freakin' IT Band.

I'm trying to keep my chin up. I love half marathons. They are such a fun distance and it will be my first race ever in D.C. and my friends can still come watch. I'm just nervous my knee won't heal up in time for me to get some quality runs in before race day. I don't want to DNS or DNF this race.

I'm bummed but OK with dropping from the full to the half, but I would be heart broken if I couldn't run at all.

I've been resting my knee most of the week and it seems to be starting to get better. I hope that's the case because we're going to get a warm spell this weekend and I want to get in some runs while the weather is in the 50's!

In other news, Lindsay over at Chasing the Kenyans tagged me to do the 25 Random things thingy that is floating all around the Internet. A few of my friends tagged me in notes on Facebook and I've been ignoring it/putting it off, but Resting Land doesn't leave much good post fodder, so here we go.

1. If I was a boy, my parents were going to name me Thomas. Now it's my little brother's name and they can't remember what they were going to name him if he was a girl.
2. If money weren't an issue, I would travel more often.
3. Specifically I would go to warm tropical islands by way of cruise ship.
4. I'm a morning person and it weirds out all my friends.
5. My college roommate got me hooked on country music.
6. I love that I don't have to drive to work, but still hate the commute.
7. My job works a lot with social media. So basically I get paid to go on Facebook and Twitter. I love it.
8. This is the first winter I have run semi-consistently in the cold weather.
9. I would have been more consistent if I hadn't been sick/had knee problems.
10. But it's better than other years when I would punk out and not run outside.
11. At 22, I'm the youngest person in my office.
12. I have a late birthday, so I'm a full year younger than my best friend even though we were in the same grade in school.
13. Winter is my least favorite season of the year, followed by Spring. I like Summer and Fall pretty equally.
14. I've never broken a bone, gotten stitches or had surgery of any kind (knock on wood).
15. I am terrified of needles and pass out almost every time I get a shot or have blood drawn.
16. I'm constantly tired no matter how much sleep I get.
17. It could have something to do with my low blood pressure. (98/50)
18. Or my blood sugar level, which made me have to go through diabetes screenings this summer.
19. I don't have diabetes, but I have high blood sugar and have to be careful about what I eat.
20. I'm envious of everyone who sleeps on the Metro. I'm too afraid I'll miss my stop.
21. I love running, but I love my friends more and I have a hard time blowing them off because of training.
22. My bedroom walls are still bare from the move. I want to cover them with race numbers and medals.
23. I'm going to start carrying a notebook around with me to write down all the ideas for blog posts or work videos or podcasts that I dream up at random times and then forget minutes later. (I wrote half a script for a video in my head on the walk to the Metro yesterday and couldn't remember a word of it by the time I got home.)
24. I love convincing other people to run with me. I'm currently working on my cousin, the BF, and a few friends.
25. I love when friends put their pictures up on Facebook.

I continued to take advantage of my free 7 days at Gold's on Tuesday night. I wanted to try a spin class and this class called BodyCombat, which the Gold's Web site describes this way:

"BODYCOMBAT™ is the empowering cardio workout where you are totally unleashed. This fiercely energetic program is inspired by martial arts and draws from a wide array of disciplines such as Karate, boxing, Taekwondo, Tai Chi and Muay Thai. Supported by driving music and powerful role model instructors strike, punch, kick and kata your way through calories to superior cardio fitness."

Kickboxing was one of my favorite classes to teach at Maryland and I was really excited to try this variation.

I hit the spin class first though and was horribly let down. Bad music, boring class, not challenging at all (and I made sure I cranked the tension extra high). I barely broke a sweat. The whole time the instruction was telling us we were burning 800-900 calories. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when instructors talk about how many calories we're burning and how Spring Break is right around the corner, which he mentioned a lot too. It just takes the focus off all the other benefits of working out and makes it solely about body image. Plus, I think I barely burned 300 calories. I felt bad for the two girls next to me who were talking about going out and eating lots of food after class because of all the calories they burned.

After the disappointing spin class I was really excited to get to BodyCombat. The instructor looked like she had been a fighter her whole life. She was jacked, but not in a manly way. The class was set to fun music and I was beat by the end. My arms got worked, but in a good way and I can still feel the workout today. Unfortunately all the kicking really upset my knee even though I had it taped. I'm still hobbling around today. Bad times. I'm staying off it for now as best as I can and hoping it's just a little flare up from motion it wasn't used to.

Took a rest day yesterday and I'll most likely be taking another one today with the knee acting up although I may try to get to yoga. I'll have to see.

Happy Thursday!

Yesterday I was cranky, tired and pretty irritable all day long. I'm not sure if it was just a bad case of the Mondays or if it was a bad case of Monday after the Super Bowl. But either way, all day I just wanted to be in a yoga class.

I never joined a gym when I moved back to D.C. because my community has a free fitness center and there's one at work too. Plus with running, I figured it was silly to pay for one. But fitness centers can't give me yoga and spin classes, which I've been missing like crazy lately.

So last night I printed off the 7-day free pass to the Gold's a few blocks from my house and hit a yoga class and it was the best thing ever. I'm planning on hitting a spin class after work today if I can make it in time and yes, I'm thinking about just paying the money to join, if it's not unreasonable, because I really miss having the option of dropping in to those classes when I feel like it.

Yoga makes me feel so much better. Today I'm in a much better mood. I'm still a bit tired, but I feel like I can accomplish everything I need to get done at work. Yay!

Ohhh and I decided to play the interview game that has been floating around on a few people's blogs. I saw it over on Jess's blog and she sent me my questions last night. They were good ones too. Made me think. So here ya go:


1. If you could give recent college graduates advice about transitioning into the work world, what advice would you offer?

I think the best advice I could offer is try to make connection with people you work with. When I took my first job in York, Pa., I didn't know a single person so I relied heavily on co-workers for tips on fun places to check out or even just which garage to take my car to for an oil change. I was lucky that I worked with a lot of very fun people and there was a good group of young people who got together on the weekends. Having a life outside the office is important and it can be hard to establish one if you're in an area you're not familiar with.


2. In terms of running, what's your favorite time of year to run?

I love running in the fall when the weather is still warm enough that I can be in shorts or capris, but I get to start using the long sleeve tech tops. The humidity is low and the temps are moderate and I feel like I can run faster/longer with less effort. The only challenge to my fall running is fitting it around tailgating.


3. If you could eliminate one part of your day that feels unnecessary or tedious, what would you eliminate?

Hands down, I would eliminate my commute. It's not as long as some people's but it takes me a good 35-45 minutes by Metro to get into the office, and I just think about all the other things I could be doing with that time, like running or spinning or yoga. It makes me miss the five minute commute that I had in Pa.


4. What's the best part about being a soccer fan?

The best part about being a soccer fan is that there aren't a ton of us out there (at least not compared to football, baseball, etc) so it's fun to randomly find other people who are as obsessed with soccer as you are. Tickets to most games are more affordable than other sports (in most instances) and I have a great group of soccer buddies that road trip to North Carolina for Maryland's away games. The whole atmosphere is fun and festive and feels like belonging to some crazy family.


5. If you could win any competition in the world, what would it be for?

This question is really tough. I've always been amazed by people who can remember and recall random trivia because it's a skill I sorely lack. So I'd be pretty impressed with myself if I was able to win something like Jeopardy. In the running realm, I think it would be the coolest thing ever to win an age group award, although I think I'll be waiting on that one til I'm about 65.

Thanks to Jess for the questions!

To play along:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.