FMM: A Little More Personal

My weekend was good but marred by a lousy long run yesterday.  It was 15 miles including (in theory) 5 of race pace.  Oh, it was a disaster.  The first 5 easy were good, then a couple decent downhill race pace miles, then the uphill came and I slowed down so much.  By the end of the run, it was just a mess.  I'm glad I finished and got the miles in, but yikes.  Coincidentally, two friends were also having lackluster runs, so at least I had company. 

I also managed to go to yoga Fri/Sat/Sun, ran a relay race on Sat morning (my leg was only 2 miles, but I wonder if it sabotaged my Sunday run since I ran hard), had friends over for dinner Friday night and spent hours watching the Olympics.

It was so amazing to watch the women's marathon and it was exciting to see Gelana of Ethiopia win it all -- especially since she completely wiped out at a water stop early in the race and since she ran a marathon in April!  I was also cheering for Kenya (of course, amazing runners and incredibly odd not to have won a gold in the women's marathon), Russia (just because we were there not that long ago), Italy (an Italian was up front for a very long time -- and a cancer survivor with her spleen removed!), China (she was awesome and ended up higher than I expected) and of course the US, though my favorite from the US was injured and pulled out very early.  It was also crazy to see one of the Kenyans (who has 2 kids and adopted her sister's 2 kids after her sister died of breast cancer) who ran with the leaders, including the lead pack through about mile 22 -- then she hit the wall big time, and dropped over the last 4 miles from being in the top 5 to 20th. 

Oh, and don't get me started on Usain Bolt.  It makes me teary to see people who work so hard do so well.  Amazing was the word for the Olympic running I watched this weekend. 

Anyway, since it's Monday, time for Friend Making Monday. 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!








A Little More Personal





1. Are you a morning person?  Haha, my honest answer is no, but I do it anyway.  I wake up at 5:00 or earlier 6 days per week, but if I had my way, I'd sleep late and work out at night -- but after years and years (no joke) of trying to do evening workouts, I realized it just didn't work for me.  Either I got stuck at work, I had other plans that I wanted to do more, or it was too hot, or too dark, and I'd do the run on a treadmill and obviously that's no way to prepare for a race on roads...  But those occasional Saturdays where I don't have a race or anything else early in the morning, oh, I love sleeping in.  Another reason it's best not for me to have kids or pets -- those days sleeping in are seriously my favorites. 


2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? For the most part, an extrovert. 


3. Are you addicted to anything? If so, what?  Ooh, games and puzzles.  I would never ever get a video game system for home because it would be dangerous.  And when I start a jigsaw puzzle, I find myself late for work, sacrificing sleep, etc. because I love working on it so much.  I actually haven't done a single puzzle in 2012 because it derails my life so much.  My best friend in the world is coming to visit Labor Day weekend and I'm contemplating doing one with her then.  I feel like I'm also addicted to water -- I hate feeling like my mouth is dry, so I drink way more than is necessary.  I get a little freaked out if my mouth gets dry and I don't have water to put in my mouth. 


4. How many times have you been in love?  Hmm, tough question.  Obviously I'm in love with my husband and that's the only relationship I've had where it's really all out there and the love has been mutual and absolute.  But before that... hmm, I had definitely said "I love you" before in several relationships, but in high school does it even count?  That's more like puppy love.  I lived with my college boyfriend for one summer before law school and we said it to each other, and that probably counts as love -- we lived together and so again, it was really all out there, but I was didn't want to get engaged (though he did) because I think on some level, I knew it wasn't forever and absolute.  Don't think I was "in love" with anyone I was in a relationship with in law school or my early years of work.  I definitely thought I was in love with this guy in Italy part of the time I was in college, but obviously if you're only with someone part of the time (i.e., not living together), it's hard to know that you really love all of the person, rather than just loving the way they are during the hours you're together.  So I guess my number would be 3 -- husband, college boyfriend, guy in Italy.  I fell very much out of love with the college boyfriend after a few years.  The guy in Italy and I were separated more by circumstance than falling out of love.  I've officially been in love with my husband for more than 1/5 of my life now -- we hit 7 years this summer! 


5. What is your position on politics? I have my opinions (if I must specify, I'd say I'm liberal), but for the most part, I don't get very worked up about it, I usually can see both sides, and I hate how ugly people get about politics.  I feel like the major parties in the US are pretty similar, it's not like any radical changes really happen with either one, unlike in some countries, where for example, there is an actual reformed communist party that would make sweeping changes if they won.  It's pretty ho-hum for US politics, despite all the vitriol.


6. Are you religious?  Hmm, another tough one.  I would say more spiritual, less religious.  I'm Episcopalian (hubby is Catholic), but there has been a huge mess with the church and I disagree deeply with the Dallas diocese, so I have stopped attending services here.  Religion can too easily be used as a tool of hate.  Plus there's the whole "opiate of the masses" and all that.  But deep down, in terms of beliefs, accepting saviours, etc., I believe.  It's just something I'm not comfortable talking about in most situations, including on the blog.  I also get very uncomfortable when, for example, a boot camp instructor leads the group in prayer after a workout -- I hate how exclusionary it is, and it feels so disrespectful to non-Christians.  I don't like that, I guess it's the lawyer in me...


7. Would you prefer backpacking or a luxury hotel?  I honestly love both.  I have backpacked through Europe for months, and in Africa all too briefly.  The only time I've been to Asia, we did more luxury hotels.  Hubby and I are currently 100% torn on what to do when we go to China in October.  We definitely have a nice hotel in Beijing, which I wanted before the marathon, but we're considering winging the rest of the trip.  I guess if I have to pick one, I'd say luxury hotel now, but that probably didn't change until after I was 30. 


8. Do you have/want pets? No, I have enough trouble keeping myself fed and watered.  And I'm allergic to most pets, including all those with fur.  But I also am not big on the noise, the responsibility, or most of all, the smell.  I hate the way pet food smells, and I'm actually just not big on animal smell.  Even when a house is really clean, it still seems to have an animal smell -- but that's probably more related to my allergies than anything else.  Hubby would love so much to have pets, dogs or cats, I don't think he'd care.  He loves animals and if I die before him, he would probably have a pet within a year.  But he actually says he wouldn't want another one until he was really old and he was sure he would die before the pet did because he doesn't want to go through a pet dying again. 


9. Are you a sports fan? Not at all.  I like watching marathons, and I like watching track and field in the Olympics, but again, I hate the way people get so worked up and hateful about sports, and I also cannot fathom wasting that much time watching sports or being that invested in someone else's athletic endeavors when it truly has no bearing on my life.  One of my brothers played professional baseball for a while, and of course I loved that (traveled to games when I could, listened to all the others online) -- but if it's not personally connected to me, I couldn't care less.  If most major marathons were televised, it would be a tough call to decide if I'd watch them or not.  Right now, I watch the local one here on TV, plus the Olympics, and sometimes NYC if that's televised.  I can handle committing about 4 hours per year to watching that sport on TV.  If it was shown more, not entirely sure I'd want to waste more time watching it. 


10. How often do you brush your teeth? At least once a day.



11. Do you have tattoos and/or piercings? Just my ears, but they were once double-pierced.  I kind of wish I hadn't done that, but I think the second holes are slowly closing up.  As I spend more and more time at yoga, sometimes I think about getting one big massive tattoo that covers my entire back.  Maybe something about Texas, or something written in Chinese, or some dragon or fairy characters.  But I'd never really do that. 



12. What’s your favorite clothing brand?  I'm blanking right now.  Donna Karan?  J. Crew?  I'm not too into clothes or fashion. 


13. Should a man open doors for a woman?  Living in the south, it seems fairly routine and is nice.  Just as a woman should open doors for someone with full arms...


14. Which season is your favorite?  Not sure.  When I lived up north, it was always summer, but I'd actually say fall now because summer is so so so hot here.  Fall means Oktoberfest, the state fair, marathon season, lots of 5ks, better running weather, etc. 


15. Would you rather eat less or workout more?  Workout more.  If I eat like crap, I have no problem running extra miles to make up for it.  I generally am a pretty healthy eater anyway, but I do like working out a lot. 


16. What’s your idea of romance?  Putting someone else's happiness ahead of your own -- and all the little things that entails.  Last night I had dinner waiting when hubby got home from work -- but before he came in the house, he parked in the garage, and took my car to gas it up.  Those little things I think meant a lot to each of us.  If only we were both always like that! 


17. How often do you do things that are outside of your comfort zone?  Not very often.  I feel like I expanded my comfort zone a lot within the last 10 years, and now I don't leave it often.  Maybe I'm just defining this wrong?  I mean, I have no problem trying something at boot camp and if I crash and burn, so be it.  But that's not really outside my comfort zone.  Same with going to China where I don't really know the lanugage and it's a little scary -- not really outside my comfort zone.  Peeing in an alley during a long run on the other hand...


18. Christmas or Halloween? Christmas.  Love being home with my family, surrounded by snow and Christmas cookies! 


19. Would you rather live in the country or the city? City.  Second choice would be country.  Third choice and way, way back would be suburbs.  I would absolutely hate that -- I like having non-chain restaurants on the block.  Hubby and I joke about how we'd just rather die than have the nearest restaurant be a Burger King next to Home Depot or something, and have to get in a car to drive there.  Or worse yet, Applebee's...



20. Share your life philosophy.  Not sure I have one.  Live and let live?  Just do it?  At the end of my writing time for a Monday morning...






Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday, Friends!