Wednesday night I got the unfortunate news that one of my roommates is moving out when our lease is up in August. Sad because she's fun, but not super stressful in and of itself. What's stressful is the timing.

See we just got a letter from our leasing office saying we have until the end of June to decide if we're staying or not. Since one of us is moving out at the end, we either have to find a replacement by June so we can tell them we're staying, we can move out, or we can tell them we're staying without a replacement and run the risk we don't find one and then two of us have to pay the rent instead of three.

Gahhhh!!!

Needless to say, yesterday was a stressful day of trying to work it all out. And what did I do to make myself feel better.

Stuff my face with chocolate. True life. I hit the office candy jar way too many times. Then I had some chocolate pudding and a brownie when I got home from work. I felt (and kind of still feel) like a fatty.

Seriously, I think the last time I stress ate like that was during finals time in college. Oy being a choc-o-holic the day after dinner at Fuddruckers. Bad timing with the bad food choices. Shame on me.

Oh well, it's life. It happens. Today I'm eating like a normal person in hopes that my blood sugar will calm down. Cereal and toast for breaky and then my turkey sandwich and an apple for lunch.

Anywho, nothing else fabulous to report. My weekend so far is a blank slate and I'm loving the idea of not having any plans yet.

Happy Friday!

I kicked my own butt by accident in yoga class last night. I went in knowing I wanted to teach a semi-challenging class with lots of planks because I hadn't rocked any core work in a while.

I also did a solid lunge series and rocked some deep Warrior poses.

Today I hurt.

My legs are seriously killing me. The BF came over for dinner last night and we walked to Fuddruckers (I know, I know, I felt like such a fat kid eating there and I still feel gross). Fuddruckers is not far from my house, but the walk was killllller. And my legs are definitely still sore this morning.

Thanks to everyone who left comments about what I should do about the 10 miler before my half marathon. I'm still mulling it over, but I'm leaning a bit more toward no right now.

In other fabulously exciting news, my cousin had her baby yesterday! She was due last week and so the doctor's had to induce her yesterday and my new baby cousin was born at 4:55 p.m. Abigail Grace, 7 lbs. 10 oz, 21.5 inches long! She's a cutie with a full head of dark hair. I'm so happy for my cousin and her husband and I can't wait to meet Abby!

OK guys, I have a question. How smart is it to run a 10 mile race the weekend before the Virginia Beach Half Marathon, which I'm definitely considering my A-race for the season and hoping to achieve a sweet PR at?

I tried to make a pro/con list but I'm still not sure.

Pros:
It will be a good tune up for race weekend.
It will acclimate me to running a race in heat and humidity with lots of people before race day.
Practice those aid stations.
It's apparently a hugely fun and popular race (I'm considering the Annapolis 10 Mile)

Cons:
It's too close to the race.
What if I get hurt?
Will running it do more harm than good?
Will I have enough recovery time?
Is running 10 miles the weekend before a race bad for taper time?
Helllllp!!!

Please leave me your advice. I'm really torn about this race. I want to do it, but I want Virginia Beach to be an awesome race. Help!

Last night was some speed work. I was supposed to do 3x1600 at 9:31. But after the first 1600 I got bored. So I decided to break up the last two 1600s into 800s and do 4x800 at 8:57. That was much more entertaining for me and I liked pushing the faster pace and working on my foot turnover. I walked a quarter mile in between each 800 so I made sure to recover plenty. It was a pretty killer work out that total six miles with the warm up, cool down and recovery time.

Taught a pretty challenging yoga class afterward with lots of planks. Overall, an excellent night of workouts.

Since I'm in the office again today, no Jillian, but I will be teaching yoga tonight.

I hope you all had awesome Memorial Day weekends. I most certainly did.

We had some gorgeous weather in Maryland, sunny and warm. Perfect for cookouts and pool parties, less perfect for runs, but I'm not really complaining.

Saturday's 8-miler was hotttt!!! I woke up early, ate, dressed, etc. etc. and was out the door by 7:30 at the latest and that was still too late. The sun was really strong so I was glad I had brought water along and right around mile 5.5ish I was really wishing I had brought a gel or something.

I had forgotten how much more I need to think about fueling and proper nutrition on the hot summer runs than during winter runs where less-than-perfect fueling won't kill me. I was able to run strong through mile five but had to stop and walk right before mile six. The heat was really getting to me.

I mixed walking and running for the last 2.3 miles and finished in 1:29:41. Not too shabby for my first long run in the summer heat.

Monday I was supposed to do three miles, but I was tired from cookouts the day before and slept in. I went out around one because it was cloudy and not too hot. Wouldn't you know it though the sun came out. I cut the run to 2.5 because I was dying. Still was able to whip them out in 23:something.

During the rest of the weekend I did things like play on a playground (I'm not kidding), walk around a park, go to cookouts and just sit outside on the deck soaking up the sun and reading. Here's a few pictures from the weekend (and so you can all check out the new 'do!)

Got my hair cut last night, but skipped my run because my hair appointment was at 6:30 and with D.C. rush hour traffic I was almost late getting to the salon even though I left work at 4:30.

Didn't finish at the salon until 7:45. Stopped to pick up some things at the grocery store after and then got home at like 8:30.

The rest of the night went like this. Make dinner, sit down and relax, go to bed.

I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I came in to the office obnoxiously early this morning so I could bolt out of here around 3:30.

I've got a cookout tonight with the BF's fam for his grandfather and stepdad's birthdays and then another one on Sunday with friends. I've got a schedule eight miler on Saturday and I might also be trying to catch a baseball game Saturday. It's going to be a busy weekend, but it's shaping up to be a lot of fun!

So remember the other day when I was telling you how awesome my job is with my sweet work from home days and all. Yeaaa...well karma's a bitch. I had to go into the office yesterday and I'm going to have to next week too. That's what I get for bragging I guess. So I give you permission to all chuckle at me.

Since I was in the office yesterday and not at home I didn't have time to squeeze in any Jillian. I usually take a break around lunch time when I'm at home to work here in, but it obviously wasn't happening since I was in the office.

Instead, I just taught my yoga class last night. I had three people, which is pretty average for my Wed. night class and afterward, one girl I told me I was the best yoga instructor she's ever had. I was stunned. And flattered. It was a comment that caught me kind of off-guard.

It's funny because I never think my classes are that great, but I guess some people really enjoy them, which is always good to hear.

Last night's tempo run was mehhh. I had six miles to do with four at tempo on the dreadmill before my yoga class. I felt good through the first mile and a half and then I noticed that as I was getting more fatigued my form started to get sloppy. Over the next mile I paid attention to foot strike and stride, but couldn't quite pinpoint the exact muscle I needed to prevnt my foot from flopping like a fish every time it hit the treadmill. I finished feeling pretty good though. Six miles in the books with some nice yoga to stretch afterwards.

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Not too long ago, the fabulous Kristina sent me some coupons so I could test out Oikos Greek Yogurt. I have never ever eaten Greek yogurt before this, but I have always been a huge yogurt lover so I was excited to try it.

The only flavors my grocery store had were Plain and Vanilla. I hattttte plain yogurt, so I went with the Vanilla, though I was really hoping to try the Blueberry. (I heart Blueberry yogurt). I wasn't sure what to expect, but Kristina told me Greek yogurt is super creamy and she was right.

The yogurt was creamy and packs all sorts of nutritious goodness (aka, way more protein than regular yogurt).

I tried the yogurt three ways, by itself, in my smoothies and mixed with cereal.

By itself, I wasn't a huge fan. I think it's because I'm so so so used to normal yogurt that the change just threw me. The taste wasn't bad, I think it was more the thickness that I wasn't used to. I felt the same way when I tried it with cereal. I just wasn't feeling it that way.

But I did really like it in my smoothie. It made it a lot thicker and creamier and definitely upped the nutrition value for the smoothie. It kept me full way longer than my smoothies with regular yogurt do.

So thanks to Kristina for letting me test it out! It's something I might try from time to time in my smoothies!

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The other day Carolina John gave me a super sweet blog award. He said I was Super! In keeping with the game, I'm going to play along.

The rules are: tape the award on your blog somewhere and pass it along to 5 fellow super bloggers. Then comment on their blog to let them know how lucky they are today! When you present your Super Blogger awards, link back to the Super Blogger who gave it to you :)

I decided I'm going to dedicate these blog awards to the people who have been around since the beginning (three years ago when I started) I know some of them have already received this award, but I'm going to recognize them again anyway, because they've been reading and inspiring me for so long so I think they deserve it!

1. Stacy at Dare to Tri. She left one of her first comments on my blog back in June 2006.

2. Denise at Firefly's Running. Found her first comment in July 2006.

3. Neese at Run with Neese. First comment in August 2006.

4. Jess at 21 Days. Her first comment was from Sept. 2006 and it was a funny one so I'm including it: "Just discovered your blog. I'm a little freaked out that we have the same name (not that it's an uncommon one). Hope you're not my long lost identical twin!" (Sadly we are not long lost identical twins, although that would be pretty awesome!)

5. Wes at A Code Geek's Tail. His first comment was in May 2007. There were other people between him and the early ones, but many no longer keep their blogs or have gone private for personal reasons (like Java Mom).

So thanks to all of you who have been reading for so long. You guys rock. Not that I don't love my newer readers too. I mean I pretty much think you are all awesome because you read my babble every day!

I love having every other Monday off as part of my "alternative work schedule." In a ten-day pay- period, eight of the days, I work nine hours. One of the days, I work eight hours and since that equals 80 hours, I got the 10th day off. It's a beautiful system.

So yesterday was my "AWS day."

I couldn't have asked for a better day to have it. It was gorgeous outside all day and I went for my three miler around 9 a.m. and it was perfect running weather. Slightly cloudy with a little breeze and in the 50's. (We're currently in a bit of a chilly spell for May.)

I whipped off my three miles in 28:30 after fueling up with two cookies....whooops, cookies make for bad pre-run fuel. I felt ready to hurl by the time I got home.

I spent the rest of my day off doing laundry, going to the grocery store and shopping for the "perfect" sundress. I've been on a quest for three years now to find a sundress that is casual enough to wear to a summer picnic or BBQ, but nice enough that it would still fly in the office with a cardigan. I found something that works yesterday, but I wouldn't say that it's perfect. Ladies, hit me with sundress links if you've got them.

(For those of you doing the math about my work schedule, yes I have next Monday off for Memorial Day and then the following Monday off because it's my AWS day. Did I also mention that I get to work from home every Wed.??? Yeaa...I may have the best job ever...hehe)

Tempo run and yoga tonight!

By the time I got out to do this weekend's long run it was past dusk, moving quickly into full-blown night time. I wasn't optimistic that I'd be able to get in all seven miles before it was too dark too see, but I was shooting for between five and six. 

(Man this post is going to get me hits from all kinds of creepy freaks)

Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment, as if Tuesday's intervals weren't bad enough, last night I decided to work over my IT bands.

Now that BF is starting training, he's been saying occasionally his knees and shins hurt. The shins we've been able to deal with with lots of icing and stretching. The knees, only flare up from time to time and I'm about 99.99% sure it's because his IT band is as tight as a mo-fo.

Unfortunately I've also been noticing my IT bands have been tighter than normal. So last night, while we were sitting around watching the Caps blow it big time in Game 7, I introduced BF to the Stick. (Oh god, TWSS).

I showed him how to use it to roll out his quads, hamstrings, IT bands etc.

It was mildly amusing watching him contort to reach his muscles and eventually I felt bad watching the BF sit all funny and offered to do it for him.

Wellll as you all know, having your IT bands worked on is never a good time and is always insanely painful. BF learned that fun little fact last night. I felt bad.

Then since I had been saying my IT bands were tight, BF offered to roll them out for me. (Secret revenge perhaps?)

I can only imagine what my roommates thought was going on when I was yelping "Ouch, stop, oh gawd that hurts, ohhh right there do you feel that knot?"

Both our IT bands were so tendered afterward that we used a little Icy-Hot to calm them down. I'm not a huge fan of relying on Icy-Hot, but it was kind of necessary.

Now my IT bands are happy (or at least as happy as IT bands can be) and I'm sure they'll be fine on my short run tonight.

Happy Thursday! Please be nice in the comments. I gave you so much to work with here lol!

Last night I had my first bit of speed work on the schedule and boy, do I hate speed work, but I wasn't about to skip only my second run of training. (My shoes managed to dry out during the day. It was combo of shoving paper inside them and then giving them a quick blast with the hair dryer when I got home from work.)

Since I teach yoga at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, my plan was intervals on the treadmill so I could jump right off and go teach class.

I'm bad at coming up with my own speed work plans so I took some speed work suggestions from the SmartCoach plan thingy on Runner's World and last night called for 2 x 1600 at 9:36 with 800 jogs in between.

Unfortunately, the treadmill didn't have a speed setting for 9:36 miles, so I went with 9:31. Did my warm up mile, chugged through the first 1600 and then hopped to the sides of the treadmill to grabbed some water before jogging my 800.

I thought the second 1600 was going to kill me. Seriously people, I'm not fast and apparently I suck at trying to run fast. It was painful, it was not fun, but somehow I managed to get it done.

Yoga after that torture felt awesome.

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In other quick news, I had a disasterous experience at Safeway this morning. I never grocery shop at Safeway. I hate it. A lot. But it was the only grocery store locally that carries Oikos yogurt and since the awesome Kristinia was nice enough to hook me up with coupons to review it, I figured I'd better schlep my butt out to Safeway to pick some up.

While I was there I decided to grab a few other staples, like cottage cheese and hummus. Yea...they didn't have the kind I eat. They had little to no cottage cheese selection of the single serving packs and only the huge party size hummus tubs or the teeny tiny, why do they even bother to make this size, hummus containers.

I was really, really disappointed in the lack of selection.

Overall, I have yet to find a grocery store in Maryland that I truly love. I go to Giant because I can walk to it and they have pretty good selection, but nothing like the Giant back home in PA. (Owned by different companies).

OK, end grocery store rant. I am really really excited to try the Oikos Greek yogurt, and I'm definitely not going to let me crappy Safeway experience taint my review.

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On tap for tonight, yoga for sure. Maybe Jillian, my legs are still pretty dead from speedwork, so I'll have to see.

After yoga last night I was determined to get my first training run in despite the ominous black clouds that had blown in. I felt a drop or two of rain as I hustled home from the gym, but figured I could get a quick three miles in before anything crazy happened.

I got home, ran upstairs, changed into running gear and by the time I opened the front door it was pouring. I thought for a second about turning around to go back inside and watch Greek with my roommate and her friend, but skipping my first training run didn't seem like the best way to kick off training.

So I stepped into the chilly rain and took off. Twenty nine minutes and 15 seconds later I had knocked out my three miles. I was a little surprised by my time. My clothes were soaking wet and felt so heavy only minutes into the run so I was surprised I was able to break 30 minutes. I felt like I was moving so slowly, but maybe I just ran super speedy because I didn't want to be in the rain.

When I got home, I stood under around stoop and began wringing out my shirt, my short and my ponytail. I peeled off my socks and rang them out too and tried to dump extra water out of my shoes.

I've heard stuffing newspaper in wet shoes helps dry them quickly, unfortunately I didn't have newspaper so I just used notebook paper. They were still pretty wet this morning when I checked them. Does anyone have any suggestions on other ways to dry them? I was thinking blasting them with my hair dryer, but I heard high heat is bad for the cushioning or something.

I have another run planned for tonight and I don't want to have to skip it because my shoes are still wet.

Well it's official now. BF and I shelled out the race fee yesterday to sign up for the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend.

I'm super excited that it's official now. Va. Beach is one of my favorite races. I mean first off, it's at the beach and you finish running down the boardwalk with the ocean at your side. How cool is that? Secondly, it's extremely flat, so you can PR easily (even if you have strep throat and have to take many medicines before running...believe me, I know.) Third, the expo for this thing is huuuuuuge. You could spend hours wandering around and getting all sorts of free stuff!

I'm also super pumped for this year because knock on wood, I think I've left the knee injuries behind me. My knee has been really strong lately and I haven't had to tape it on a run in months. For those of you who've been reading a while, knee injuries kept me from this race last year, so I'm excited to get back and try to PR on the course.

My time to beat is 2:17:and change set during the National Half Marathon, a much hillier course, which had the advantage of moderate temps. Va. Beach is always a hot race.

I put the finishing touches our training plans over the weekend (although I seemed to have lost the first page of mine already...greeeeat...starting off reallll well here Jess) and I'm excited to get started. I'll most likely talk about the training plans in more detail later this week. So if you have specific questions you want me to answer let me know.

As for this week, I'm teaching yoga three times...ooof. That's a lot of yoga. I'm filling in for a co-worker tonight and then from here on out I'll be teaching two classes each week instead of one. I think it will only help my training.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Happy Monday!

Here are some pictures from the beach! I'll post the rest to Facebook if you want to check out more.

Me, Sam and Amy soaking up the sun.

Jumping for joy because I love the beach.

Terrified of the shark that looks like it's about to eat me.

Hey bloggie peeps! I'm back from my vacation to the wonderful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Got in last night and promptly passed out. Driving for 7.5 hours is exhausting.

I have tons and tons of pictures that I hope to get uploaded soon. We had a wonderful time enjoying the sun, sand and surf. And major bonus points to me for only picking up mild sunburn. (I'm pasty white and burn pretty easily.)

Some quick highlights:
We left at 5 a.m. to start the drive down and made amazing time.
South of the Border signs are horribly racist.
South of the Border itself is just creepy. We didn't stop. I refuse.
Our loft was gorgeous and the complex had a lazy river, heated pool, fitness center and shuttle to the beach.
I ran 3.22 miles Sunday morning and 5 miles Monday morning. It was HOT!
Took a yoga class Tuesday at the fitness center. It was geared toward senior citizen and all done in a lying position.
I kicked booty in mini-golf. Won by 10 strokes and had two holes in one.
Went to bed early every night and woke up early every morning. I love life at the beach.

Some of the girls and I drove back yesterday. We left later and got back later and got stuck in traffic on the way home. The ride was much less enjoyable. Now I'm home and it's back to the grind.

Half marathon training kicked off for the BF this week and so far he's hit all of his runs. Go him! I'm working on developing our training plans. I know what they'll be in my head, just a matter of getting them on paper.

Vacation pictures to come soon.

My blogging has been sporadic at best this week and I'm about to head out on vacation until the middle of next week, so it won't be getting much better.

I may be able to post the occasional update while I'm at the beach, but no promises.

I do however, promise to have some awesome reviews and get back to regular posting when I return!