My Bologna Tastes Better Than Your Bologna

Happy Holidays All! I'm in Ohio right now, enjoying the holidays with my family. Ohio is different from Southern California in almost every way possible. I might as well be on Mars because Mars is about as different from California as Ohio is. Right now I am sitting in an old farmhouse that is surrounded by acres and acres of plowed cornfields. There is no trash pick up here, no cable TV, and no dishwasher; however, there is an indoor toilet, which is an improvement over where I spent a few nights last week--at our cabin in the woods of Western New York.

[Carrie in Ohio...need I say more?]

One of the biggest and most burdensome differences between the OC and Northwest Ohio is that Cali is warm and Ohio is cold! There is no possible way I would be able to run a half/marathon if I had to train in Ohio. It's flat as a pancake here, but running outside is just brutal. So, I haven't ventured out yet. My mom got a free treadmill from a couple who was foreclosing on their house, so I ran a mile on it the other day, but that's all I ran because I was contracting the cold my sister brought back with her from Colorado.

When I was in NY I went skiing, but since they only have hills there, and not mountains, I didn't really get all that great of a workout. I am going to try (no promises!) to go outside and run this week...arg. Another problem with running outside here is that there is nothing (seriously, nothing!) for miles and miles and miles so basically I just have to run down the same road forever with only dead cornfields to look at. It's very depressing and not motivating at all.

So, when I have been not running, I have been bonding with my family, which so far has included Christmas dinner, movies, and visiting our Amish neighbors in New York. The topics at Christmas dinner this year were especially interesting and included discussions about which local butcher makes the best tasting bologna and which local county fair has the highest number of broiler chickens on show each year.

The First Great Eight

Finally, I had a great week of running! Since I last posted I ran 4 miles around Aliso Viejo with Sara and then this morning I actually got up and was out the door at 6:05am to run 8 miles (22 total miles this week). It was so cold out and dark and I really didn't want to crawl out of my warm bed, but I figured that if I couldn't get out and run in this weather, then I'd have no chance of getting motivated to run in Ohio's weather when I'm there during the next few weeks. I felt great during the run and it was nice to see the dawn of a new day. Also, I'm glad running 8 miles didn't feel like a big deal to my body, especially since I have not run 8 miles since before my marathon (yikes!).

I Would Run 500 Miles

Last night I ran 3 miles at the gym and then I repeated that again tonight. I ran my fastest 3 miles ever: 24:18. I know, for all you "real" runners, that's not that fast, but it sure is a huge improvement for me considering that last year at this time I could barely run 3 miles in 30 minutes. I wasn't planning on running so fast today, but I was running on a treadmill next to a guy (who I saw running last night at the gym too) and, well, I guess I wanted to "beat" him. He had his treadmill set at 6.3, which is a 9:30 minute/mile, so I set mine at 7.5 and ran an 8 minute/mile for the first 2+ miles and then I slowed down a bit (7.1) and finished in 24:18.

Both last night and tonight I ran with my iPod. One guy running two treadmills over from mine was totally rocking out with his iPod. He was lip syncing to his music and dancing and waving his arms around like he was at a live concert.

Rock on!

Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la...

Ask Me Again Ten Years Ago

Last Saturday, instead of running (arg...), I went up to LA and went out with some new old friends: Britt, Janelle, and Heather. Britt, Janelle, and I went to high school together a million and half years ago and ten planets away from Los Angeles.

Anyway, we had a great time and our evening ended at Winston's Bar in West Hollywood, which was jam packed. Once inside, we managed to get someone to snag our photo:

Guess who that someone was?? Come on...guess! It was BJ Novak who plays Ryan Howard on The Office! Dunder Mifflin gave him 'The Hottest in the Office Award.' So...here's the story: We were hanging out and I saw BJ behind me and kind of recognized him (at first I thought he was Milo Ventimiglia from The Gilmore Girls), but I didn't want to do that whole "ohhh...who are you? you're famous, right?" thing, so I didn't say anything. But then he started talking to me and asked me to take a picture of him and two of his friends using his camera phone. It's clearly been too long since I've been spoken to by a guy who wasn't a close friend or family member and I didn't realize until a little later that the photo request was most likely just an icebreaker to get my attention (photos do not turn out well when taken in a dark bar using a camera phone). Anyway, after I took a few pics for him, he took the picture of us girls above and then we chatted for a bit (what do you do? where do you live? how old are you? what time do you have to be back in heaven? blah, blah, blah...) before he and his friends went back to their table and us girls left. Although he didn't come straight out and tell me that he was BJ Novak from The Office, he did tell me that his name was BJ, that he was a script writer/producer, that he was 28, that he knew Milo from Gilmore Girls, that he was with a friend who was a comedian (BJ is a comedian also), and that he was with friends from Harvard. So...all of that, combined with the fact that he actually looked like BJ Novak, convinced us all that he indeed was the real deal.

I'd say us girls from the cornfields of Northwest Ohio have come a long way...we're certainly not in Kansas anymore!

P.S. Just so that this remains a running blog, I'll state that I ran 4 miles at the gym tonight in just over 34 minutes, which I think is my fastest 4 miles to date. I ran for 1.5 miles at an 8 minute/mile pace and then eventually slowed down and finished at about a 9 minute/mile pace.

Where do you get off comparing your hands to my hands?!

Well...I've been doing a lot of things lately (working, grading, etc.), but not a lot of running. I'm horrible, I know. If I don't kick it into gear soon then I'm going to be slow as molasses during the half marathon race.

One thing I did recently that didn't involve running was make my debut as a hand model! My company needed some new photos for some new marketing materials and I was the female part of the photo shoot. How cool?!

[Photo by Dan Snipes]

Any hand modeling I do needs to be done ASAP because eventually, my hands are going to look like my Mom's (from left to right: Mom's hand at 49, Anna's hand at 18, and my hand at 25):

Besides hand modeling, I've also been eating a lot. It's part of my daily routine now: Get up, eat a cookie, shower, brush teeth, eat brownies for breakfast, and drink hot chocolate. Chew a piece of gum to freshen breath. Two minutes later eat cake for lunch. Recharge in the afternoon with some chocolate truffles. Skip running to stay inside and eat more cookies and maybe a cupcake or two for dinner. Hook up IV with sugar water to me so that I can have a constant supply of sugar in my body during the night. Repeat in a similar fashion the next day. In support of this new diet, I hosted my 2nd Annual Dessert & Coffee Party, which was attended by my very wonderful friends, who brought some very yummy desserts. Mmmm...mmmm!

[Sabina, Michelle, Nicole B., & Me]

[Felicia, Me, & Maria]

I should state that I have done some running. Since I last posted I ran 4 miles at the Mission Viejo gym and attended an hour long yoga class with Sabina, ran 6 miles outside with Diana, and ran another 4 miles at the Aliso viejo gym.

Here lies Carrie. She had two loves and lots o' shoes.

Last Thursday I went to a shoe shopping party at the new DSW at The District in Tustin with Sabina, Alanna, Nicole D., and Janet. And although I just refinanced my house (can I get an Amen?!) and I shouldn't be spending money, I found an awesome deal on a new pair of running shoes and I had to get them. Although online they are listed for $75-$80, I bought them at DSW for only $45 (including tax)! I hadn't bought new shoes since before my marathon (since last April, actually) and so I really needed a new pair. Sabina reassured me that it was okay for me to spend the money the next day by stating that buying running shoes is like buying toilet paper: I may not absolutely need the shoes right now (I mean, I'm not walking around barefoot), but soon I will need them when my other shoes completely break down, and so it's best to buy the shoes now when they are on sale. And so you should also always buy toilet paper when it's on sale, whether you need more of it right now or not, because eventually you will. Or something like that. I don't know. I have new shoes though and I'm happy about them! You can ask her about her toilet paper-buying philosophy.

They're New Balance, again, and look similar to my current shoes. I wore them for my runs last weekend and they felt great:-)
...the fact is, sometimes it's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun... (from Sex and the City)

Stella's Got Her Groove Back

I just got back from a 3.5 mile run outside around Laguna Niguel and I felt great! I felt good during the entire run and finished strong. I felt like I could just keep on running. Whew!

But All I Know Is That Everything's Gonna Be Alright

O vey! Running has been rough on me lately. I don't know what my problem is. During my last two runs I felt very sluggish--my legs, lungs, and heart did not want to participate fully in the exercise. Last Saturday I met Sara at her house in Irvine and we ran about 3.5 miles and then walked another 1.5-2 miles. We ran down to the Back Bay Trail in Newport Beach and then circled back to her house. As always, it was nice to have a running partner. Sara is great to run with and talk with I'm so glad that we can catch up on chit chat and get in our exercise at the same time!

On Sunday I ran 5 miles around Aliso Viejo and Laguna Hills by myself. It was a beautiful afternoon and I ran on part of a street that I've never run on. My route was Alicia>Pacific Park>Aliso Creek>Aliso Viejo Parkway>Laguna Hills Drive (that's the part I hadn't run on yet)>Paseo de Valencia>Alicia. I think I know why I hadn't run on Laguna Hills Drive yet--it's uphill! I survived though and got to run for a little bit on the Aliso Creek Trail while I was over that way.

I should have run 3.5 miles on Monday; I have no excuse for not doing that. None at all. I'm a slacker; that's my excuse. Well...I did get up at 5:20am to go running with Diana, but she wasn't up because her baby was fussy, so I went back to bed and then even though I got home early to sign my loan refinance docs (which I wasn't able to do because they were wrong!), I still didn't make the time for a run.

Tonight, I'm going to get back into my running routine though! I received a free Runner's World magazine in the mail yesterday compliments of Elite Racing (they are the company who organized the marathon I ran earlier in the year) and it got me all pumped up. Let's hope that I have more energy for my run tonight than I did for my runs last weekend.

Oh, and the title of this blog is a line from Alicia Keys' new song, "No One," which I just love. Everything is going to be all right!

...I Don't Worry Cause
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
People Keep Talking
They Can Say What They Like
But All I Know Is That Everything's Gonna Be Alright...