I have been insanely lucky to be born with relatively clear skin. I remember having some pimples and stuff in high school, and I have some freckles/sun spots, and I'm starting to get some wrinkles, but I generally don't deserve the skin I have, particularly on my face. I'm horrible about washing my face before I go to bed. I sometimes will swear to myself that I'll do better and I'll be good for a few days, but then there will be a night that I just feel too tired and the routine is broken. But since my skin generally doesn't reflect the lack of care, there's not a huge incentive to do better (I also wear minimal make-up, usually just eyeliner and lipstick, nothing on my cheeks or anything). And as for the rest of my body, I have plenty of freckles from being out in the sun too much, but generally I end up with a bit of color in the summer and am pretty good about wearing sunscreen.
But right now, my skin, all of my skin, is hating me for no apparent reason.
My face seems to be breaking out, or at least my forehead and near my nose.
And almost 50% of my runs involve some horrible chafing hot spot.
The face I think could be due to the fact that I have been eating like $hit for almost a week now. My little Memorial Day short weekend trip was full of some very healthy foods and also some unhealthy ones. I practically never eat chips but I ate a ton on Memorial Day, and then finished off the bag in the days that followed. And I've been eating cookies like crazy since about Sunday -- my bestie's mom makes these awesome snickerdoodles and she sent me home with some leftovers, plus there have been cookies at the office.
In terms of the junk food, I don't feel like I've directly paid any price in terms of my body. My weight hasn't changed and everything still seems to fit normally. And I'm still having pretty typical for me meals, at least since Tuesday. And the chips are finally gone and there are only about 6 cookies left that I'm looking forward to enjoying in the next few days (or this afternoon!). And then I expect I'll be back to eating like normal.
But the chafing on the runs is killing me. It's like become some grand mystery. There are a few rules that I follow regarding chafing:
1. I always wear body glide on my problem spots on long runs, usually anything over about 15.
2. I do not wear the few items of clothing that seem to cause problems on long runs.
3. I wear more body glide if I gain weight, even if it's just a few pounds that seem to stick around for a few days.
Right now, my rules have all gone out the window.
Yesterday morning, for example, I had a group run at 5:15 a.m., consisting of 7 miles, including 4 miles of progressive tempo (starting at marathon pace for the first one, then picking it up about 10 seconds each mile). I wore pink shorts that rarely cause me to chafe on the middle of my back, right near a seam in the waistband. Never had any other problems with those shorts. And my weight is pretty stable, completely on the low end of my usual range right now.
I ran the entire 7 miles without a single issue.
I went home, had breakfast, watched the news, then set out for my commute to work (under 4 miles), wearing the same thing.
Within half a mile, I could tell that I was chafing on my inner thighs like crazy.
WTF?
By the time I got to the office and got into the shower, it seriously hurt, and when the water hit my legs, I wanted to howl.
I do not understand why shorts that never bother me would give me problems two hours after I ran seven pain-free miles in them. Did a few added degrees make a difference? Was it because my shorts weren't completely dry for my commute? Was it because I run my commute at a slower pace than my group run? Do the running gods hate me?
Lately, I feel like almost any part of my body remotely near clothing, is subject to chafing. Everywhere covered by my shorts. Everywhere covered by my sports bra. Everywhere touching my heart rate monitor. Under my arms where they come in contact with the arm holes of my shirt. Looking at myself right now, I seem to have chafing marks almost everywhere. It's crazy. Good thing I don't have anywhere to wear a plunging neckline in the near future.
I just don't get it. The simple solution I guess is to wear glide for every single run, but man, that would be a pain. I just want things back to normal -- glide on Sundays for long runs, and no chafing on short runs with safe clothes. Please?
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
My Half Pacer in photos
I got an email with the photos from the race this past weekend. It was a half, and I had considered the race to be fairly dreadful.
But when I saw the pictures, I had to laugh.
I have one very good running buddy who has gotten super-fast. But on occasion, we'll still do races or parts of races together -- he'll either slum it with me at my pace, or double back to run me in after he finishes. The plan was that he would do the half, finish, get some water, then double back for me on his cool down.
Well, he's having a flare up of acute Achilles tendinitis, so he was a no show for the race. That meant I thought I'd be left to my own devices for pacing.
Here is a shot of what my Garmin pace data looked like for the race (faster is higher in the picture, slower is toward the bottom of the picture):
So you will see that there are a few random spikes due to satellite error or possibly a stop to grab water or something.
But generally, on the first half of the graph, you can see a fairly level line for my average pace. My mile splits for miles 1-4 were all within a 10 second spread. Miles 5-8 were within a 25 second spread or so, but all slower than miles 1-4. But miles 9-12 were where the wheels were coming off. All those miles were within a 20 second spread, but the spread was nearly a minute per mile slower than my average pace for miles 1-4.
The crazy thing is, I knew the second half of the course would have some pretty big hills, so I purposely paced pretty slowly for miles 1-4. I was aiming for right around marathon pace, which I basically did, and isn't exactly speedy for a half marathon.
But even with a conservative and steady start, by the time I hit the hills about halfway through the race, my pace took a serious turn for the worse.
You can see that if you drew a horizontal line following my average pace for the first half of the race, the vast majority of the second half is well below that line.
But you might also see that in the last 5-10 minutes, there is a general increase in pace, the graph trends upward again.
That is because I was struggling toward the finish, contemplating quitting or walking, but realizing that my goal was just to be done and that would happen more quickly if I just kept running/jogging.
Well, 3 guys were coming out on the course backwards. One had a big noisemaker crank thing that he was using. When he stopped, I joked that it had been nice because my breathing sounded like a train and it was drowned out by the noisemaker.
At that point, I was running near 2 guys, but wasn't really talking to either of them. The group of 3 backtrackers u-turned near us and were encouraging us to speed up and finish strong.
I wasn't really able to speed up I didn't think, but the 2 guys were actually slowing down, so I was the lucky person selected from the group of 3 to be paced to the finish.
As they chatted (I mostly grunted responses), I learned that the 3 of them had been the first 3 finishers in the race.
The leader and winner of the race told me to focus on the woman in front of me (way, way ahead) and run her down. He grabbed my water bottle for me (his shirt was balled up in his other hand).
Here's a picture of him where he appears to be looking over at me to check on how I'm doing.
Do you see the size of his left thigh in the picture above? I think it might fit into one of my arms. One of my forearms. Ahahahaha. And HE was offering to block the wind for ME! Maybe his brain was deprived of oxygen or something from running fast enough to win the race.
To humor him, I did eventually attempt to tuck in behind him and take a free ride off some of his excess energy.
Even if he wasn't big enough to provide any kind of wind block, the fact that he carried my water and that he ran with me and encouraged me was amazing and wonderful -- and as the upward trend at the end of that graph shows, effective! The last half mile had an average pace just a bit faster than the average from miles 1-4. And the last .1 was among my fastest sustained paces of the race (certainly my fastest sustained pace on something flat, there were a couple downhills where the wind died down and I probably ran about the same pace).
These pictures are good reminders that a.) runners are awesome people, and b.) fast and skinny runners can be hilarious in their concept of wind-blocking ability. I told him he deserved at least 50% credit for my age group award. If I'd been left to my own devices for the last mile or so, I think the pace would have stayed in the gutter, and there's a pretty good chance it would have cost me another several minutes, perhaps making me lose my spot "on the podium" to someone else. Though we never caught the woman in front of me, we closed the gap significantly and she wasn't in my age group anyway. And I ended up less than 5 minutes off my half PR -- which is a lot given that it was only a half, but not a lot given the elevation on the course. My Garmin (not exactly the most accurate, but for what it's worth) showed about 300 feet of elevation gain in the race, and 250 feet of that was in the second half. So about 1 minute slower for every 50 feet of climbing. Not as shabby as I was sure it would be during the race itself.
But when I saw the pictures, I had to laugh.
I have one very good running buddy who has gotten super-fast. But on occasion, we'll still do races or parts of races together -- he'll either slum it with me at my pace, or double back to run me in after he finishes. The plan was that he would do the half, finish, get some water, then double back for me on his cool down.
Well, he's having a flare up of acute Achilles tendinitis, so he was a no show for the race. That meant I thought I'd be left to my own devices for pacing.
Here is a shot of what my Garmin pace data looked like for the race (faster is higher in the picture, slower is toward the bottom of the picture):
So you will see that there are a few random spikes due to satellite error or possibly a stop to grab water or something.
But generally, on the first half of the graph, you can see a fairly level line for my average pace. My mile splits for miles 1-4 were all within a 10 second spread. Miles 5-8 were within a 25 second spread or so, but all slower than miles 1-4. But miles 9-12 were where the wheels were coming off. All those miles were within a 20 second spread, but the spread was nearly a minute per mile slower than my average pace for miles 1-4.
The crazy thing is, I knew the second half of the course would have some pretty big hills, so I purposely paced pretty slowly for miles 1-4. I was aiming for right around marathon pace, which I basically did, and isn't exactly speedy for a half marathon.
But even with a conservative and steady start, by the time I hit the hills about halfway through the race, my pace took a serious turn for the worse.
You can see that if you drew a horizontal line following my average pace for the first half of the race, the vast majority of the second half is well below that line.
But you might also see that in the last 5-10 minutes, there is a general increase in pace, the graph trends upward again.
That is because I was struggling toward the finish, contemplating quitting or walking, but realizing that my goal was just to be done and that would happen more quickly if I just kept running/jogging.
Well, 3 guys were coming out on the course backwards. One had a big noisemaker crank thing that he was using. When he stopped, I joked that it had been nice because my breathing sounded like a train and it was drowned out by the noisemaker.
At that point, I was running near 2 guys, but wasn't really talking to either of them. The group of 3 backtrackers u-turned near us and were encouraging us to speed up and finish strong.
I wasn't really able to speed up I didn't think, but the 2 guys were actually slowing down, so I was the lucky person selected from the group of 3 to be paced to the finish.
As they chatted (I mostly grunted responses), I learned that the 3 of them had been the first 3 finishers in the race.
The leader and winner of the race told me to focus on the woman in front of me (way, way ahead) and run her down. He grabbed my water bottle for me (his shirt was balled up in his other hand).
Here's a picture of him where he appears to be looking over at me to check on how I'm doing.
Because the wind that day was fierce and straight into our faces when we were on the hilly second half, he told me to tuck in behind him and draft.
During the race, that comment had made me chuckle a little bit, but the pictures actually made me laugh out loud. The idea that this guy was going to be able to block ANY wind for me is hilarious!
Do you see the size of his left thigh in the picture above? I think it might fit into one of my arms. One of my forearms. Ahahahaha. And HE was offering to block the wind for ME! Maybe his brain was deprived of oxygen or something from running fast enough to win the race.
To humor him, I did eventually attempt to tuck in behind him and take a free ride off some of his excess energy.
Even if he wasn't big enough to provide any kind of wind block, the fact that he carried my water and that he ran with me and encouraged me was amazing and wonderful -- and as the upward trend at the end of that graph shows, effective! The last half mile had an average pace just a bit faster than the average from miles 1-4. And the last .1 was among my fastest sustained paces of the race (certainly my fastest sustained pace on something flat, there were a couple downhills where the wind died down and I probably ran about the same pace).
These pictures are good reminders that a.) runners are awesome people, and b.) fast and skinny runners can be hilarious in their concept of wind-blocking ability. I told him he deserved at least 50% credit for my age group award. If I'd been left to my own devices for the last mile or so, I think the pace would have stayed in the gutter, and there's a pretty good chance it would have cost me another several minutes, perhaps making me lose my spot "on the podium" to someone else. Though we never caught the woman in front of me, we closed the gap significantly and she wasn't in my age group anyway. And I ended up less than 5 minutes off my half PR -- which is a lot given that it was only a half, but not a lot given the elevation on the course. My Garmin (not exactly the most accurate, but for what it's worth) showed about 300 feet of elevation gain in the race, and 250 feet of that was in the second half. So about 1 minute slower for every 50 feet of climbing. Not as shabby as I was sure it would be during the race itself.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Pros and Cons
Big things on my mind these days:
Current job positives:
Interesting work
Great hours
Some travel but not much
Great boss
Good salary
Run to work 3 days per week
Work from home 1 day per week (could be 2 if I wanted)
Many friends in ofc
Great network of professional relationships built with people I regularly interact with
Can work from other places or other cities/states (if I want to visit friends or family in other cities and there is wifi, I don't need to take vacation to do it; all that matters is that I get my work done and my hours billed)
Great gym in office
Boss knows I want to move to Italy in about 10 years and work remotely (not clear if this will work, will depend a lot on what changes technologically in 10 yrs, what travel is req'd for my job (right now about 8 trips/year), and if someone else could cover that, but at least boss knows that's the goal)
Good benefits (some 401k match (unknown in the law firm world), employee stock purchase plan, pretty good insurance, reasonable amount of paid holidays)
No real office drama (at least none impacting me really)
Current job negatives:
Billing time (tracking what I'm doing EVERY SIX MINUTES...)
Glass walls in office (well, walls between offices, but glass on outside of bldg and toward inside of bld, so people walking down hall can see in my office)
Ofc location may move in 2.5 yrs to location 10 miles away in city where my husband works
Incompetent idiot assistant
Only 2.67 weeks of vacation per year until 2016 (then more)
Theoretical new job positives:
Approx 20% pay increase
Work from home 1 day/wk (more if I want)
Some travel but not much
Great hours
No billing time
One colleague left here to work there and I like her, so at least 1 friend in the ofc
Presumably a standard office with no glass wall
Theoretical new job negatives:
Longer commute (about 10 miles each way, but to the same city where my husband works)
Less interesting work expected
Boss is an unknown
No running commute (unless we moved, then maybe even a short walking commute)
Unknown assistant (and unknown level of support)
Unknown amount of vacation (presumably no less than I have now)
Unknown if there is a gym in bldg
As to the location issue, the theoretical new job is very near where my current job will likely move in about 2.5 years. If we wanted (and if my husband had his way), we could sell our condo, buy an identical condo by the same builder with same floor plan and everything, and make over $100k on the deal. But if we did that, we wouldn't be living in our awesome 'hood, near our awesome neighbors and near our awesome running store. If we moved, I could possibly run to the new job (not sure of shower situation), but I could also possibly just walk -- that would all be true also if my current job moves in 2.5 years.
So what does it boil down to?
Significant pay raise at theoretical new job (I know the data says that once you have a comfortable salary, making even significantly more doesn't increase happiness, but in this case, what if the hours stayed exactly the same and instead we were able to pay off the condo sooner? Or is it really mo' money, mo' problems?)
Great boss at current job
Love running to work at current job, but this may end either way in 2.5 years (but by then, maybe I'll be over it, have met my marathon goals, etc.)
More interesting work at current job
No daily recording of time at theoretical new job (time recording seems to be the bane of most attorneys' existences, and I thought I got away from it when I moved out of law firm life, but surprise, some places still expect you to bill time so they can track resources/time; I'm fairly used to it and I don't hate it, but it would be lovely not to have to do it)
Hmmm... thoughts?
Current job positives:
Interesting work
Great hours
Some travel but not much
Great boss
Good salary
Run to work 3 days per week
Work from home 1 day per week (could be 2 if I wanted)
Many friends in ofc
Great network of professional relationships built with people I regularly interact with
Can work from other places or other cities/states (if I want to visit friends or family in other cities and there is wifi, I don't need to take vacation to do it; all that matters is that I get my work done and my hours billed)
Great gym in office
Boss knows I want to move to Italy in about 10 years and work remotely (not clear if this will work, will depend a lot on what changes technologically in 10 yrs, what travel is req'd for my job (right now about 8 trips/year), and if someone else could cover that, but at least boss knows that's the goal)
Good benefits (some 401k match (unknown in the law firm world), employee stock purchase plan, pretty good insurance, reasonable amount of paid holidays)
No real office drama (at least none impacting me really)
Current job negatives:
Billing time (tracking what I'm doing EVERY SIX MINUTES...)
Glass walls in office (well, walls between offices, but glass on outside of bldg and toward inside of bld, so people walking down hall can see in my office)
Ofc location may move in 2.5 yrs to location 10 miles away in city where my husband works
Incompetent idiot assistant
Only 2.67 weeks of vacation per year until 2016 (then more)
Theoretical new job positives:
Approx 20% pay increase
Work from home 1 day/wk (more if I want)
Some travel but not much
Great hours
No billing time
One colleague left here to work there and I like her, so at least 1 friend in the ofc
Presumably a standard office with no glass wall
Theoretical new job negatives:
Longer commute (about 10 miles each way, but to the same city where my husband works)
Less interesting work expected
Boss is an unknown
No running commute (unless we moved, then maybe even a short walking commute)
Unknown assistant (and unknown level of support)
Unknown amount of vacation (presumably no less than I have now)
Unknown if there is a gym in bldg
As to the location issue, the theoretical new job is very near where my current job will likely move in about 2.5 years. If we wanted (and if my husband had his way), we could sell our condo, buy an identical condo by the same builder with same floor plan and everything, and make over $100k on the deal. But if we did that, we wouldn't be living in our awesome 'hood, near our awesome neighbors and near our awesome running store. If we moved, I could possibly run to the new job (not sure of shower situation), but I could also possibly just walk -- that would all be true also if my current job moves in 2.5 years.
So what does it boil down to?
Significant pay raise at theoretical new job (I know the data says that once you have a comfortable salary, making even significantly more doesn't increase happiness, but in this case, what if the hours stayed exactly the same and instead we were able to pay off the condo sooner? Or is it really mo' money, mo' problems?)
Great boss at current job
Love running to work at current job, but this may end either way in 2.5 years (but by then, maybe I'll be over it, have met my marathon goals, etc.)
More interesting work at current job
No daily recording of time at theoretical new job (time recording seems to be the bane of most attorneys' existences, and I thought I got away from it when I moved out of law firm life, but surprise, some places still expect you to bill time so they can track resources/time; I'm fairly used to it and I don't hate it, but it would be lovely not to have to do it)
Hmmm... thoughts?
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
FMM: Summer Fun
I'm a day late on FMM and was happily avoiding the computer throughout the long weekend.
We had a low-key Saturday consisting of lots of tv, napping, and organizing. The highlight was watching The Running Man. Hubby had been insisting since we saw it that The Hunger Games was a remake of that movie. I'd never seen it, and now I suppose he has a point.
On Sunday, after our "long" run (only 8 miles right now), my local bestie, her sister and I went to their parents' house for the rest of the weekend. They are both going to Germany too to run the Berlin marathon, so my bestie and I spent some time Sunday afternoon playing on our phones with fun German apps. So incidentally, it was great that I'd spent a couple hours on Saturday watching Arnold -- it helped a lot with my German pronunciation!
Monday's highlight was a half marathon. It is a hilly course, and we also had wind (and of course Texas at Memorial Day is hot, but at least it was overcast). The race was really a beating. I planned to go out pretty conservatively, around marathon pace, and then hold steady on the second half of the race, which was very hilly.
Well, that plan didn't work. I went out a little too fast, but pretty close to the goal. But I slowed a lot on the second half. The hills were tough and unfortunately right into the wind. So even on the downhill, when I was working hard and trying to pick up speed, it was still right into the wind, and my pace was nearly a minute slower than I expected -- and of course I expected slow pace on the uphills, and that was also a minute slower than expected.
When I had about 3/4 of a mile to go, I got lucky. Three guys were running backwards on the course and they u-turned right near me and the 2 guys near me. The 3 of them were encouraging us to run harder, that we were almost done. I ended up being the only one of the 3 of us still running who tried to humor them. So I had 3 escorts to the finish line. As we talked, it turned out they had finished first, second and third! The lead guy carried my water bottle for me and told me to tuck in behind him so he'd block the wind. Since he probably weighed less than me and was about 6 inches taller, that was fairly useless, but the sentiment was sweet. We tried to catch the woman immediately in front of me, but that was too much. But I was still thrilled to have the company and to be running fairly hard for the finish. Particularly with my escorts. I was very surprised to see my finish time -- only almost 5 minutes slower than a PR, and good enough to win my age group. Crazy! I guess everyone else out there (at least in my age group) had the same struggles with the heat, the hills and the wind. It was a nice little bonus. And it was a good excuse to spend the rest of the day drinking beer, eating too much, and relaxing in my bestie's parents' pool.
Anyway, here is my belated Friend Making Mondays...
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 here 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!
1. What is your favorite summer fruit? I like so many summer fruits but if I am forced to choose a favorite, I'd go with cherries I guess (followed by peaches, then strawberries, then watermelon).
2. Do you know how to swim? Mmm, not really. I mean, I can get around in the water, swimming out to a raft or something (and I can even do it with one arm up holding a beer out of the water). But I don't have good form or anything. I hate putting my face in the water -- remnants from when my asthma was much worse as a kid and I was almost always wheezing and struggling for air when I tried to do anything strenuous. But if I'm going to do an Ironman someday, I think I'll have to learn.
3. Do you prefer sun or snow? Sun, sun, sun (unless it's the week of Christmas, then snow please, can't imagine a non-white Christmas).
4. What temperature do you like most inside your home? If it were up to me, I'd say 78 or so. But hubby is more of 76, so we compromise on 77 when we sleep and 78 during the day if we're home.
5. Is it humid where you live? Not too bad most of the year, but May and the first part of June usually are. This morning it was in the mid-70s and the humidity was in the upper 70s. Made for a(nother) tough run...
6. What is your favorite food to put on the grill? As a vegetarian, I'd go with veggies. I love veggie skewers on the grill. I have a recipe I like for grilled tofu, and I love grilled fruit, but my fave would be veggies. Corn on the cob, mushrooms, zucchini, love it.
7. Do you prefer to wear a one-piece or two-piece swim suit? I wore a bikini yesterday but it should be noted that I was just with my friend and her family, not quite sure I'd wear something like that where others could see me, but I didn't care too much around them.
8. What is your favorite summer drink? Tough call. I'm usually in marathon training season over the summer, so water, sadly. In terms of fun drinks, something with vodka and a fruity taste. Made a recipe for "dirty Shirleys" off Pinterest a few weeks ago, very good.
9. Do you prefer the pool or the ocean? I wouldn't complain about either. If I have to choose, I guess I'd go with ocean.
10. What are you looking forward to most over the summer? My 20 year high school reunion is at the end of summer. That will be interesting and there are a few people I can't wait to see.
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 (a day late)!
We had a low-key Saturday consisting of lots of tv, napping, and organizing. The highlight was watching The Running Man. Hubby had been insisting since we saw it that The Hunger Games was a remake of that movie. I'd never seen it, and now I suppose he has a point.
On Sunday, after our "long" run (only 8 miles right now), my local bestie, her sister and I went to their parents' house for the rest of the weekend. They are both going to Germany too to run the Berlin marathon, so my bestie and I spent some time Sunday afternoon playing on our phones with fun German apps. So incidentally, it was great that I'd spent a couple hours on Saturday watching Arnold -- it helped a lot with my German pronunciation!
Monday's highlight was a half marathon. It is a hilly course, and we also had wind (and of course Texas at Memorial Day is hot, but at least it was overcast). The race was really a beating. I planned to go out pretty conservatively, around marathon pace, and then hold steady on the second half of the race, which was very hilly.
Well, that plan didn't work. I went out a little too fast, but pretty close to the goal. But I slowed a lot on the second half. The hills were tough and unfortunately right into the wind. So even on the downhill, when I was working hard and trying to pick up speed, it was still right into the wind, and my pace was nearly a minute slower than I expected -- and of course I expected slow pace on the uphills, and that was also a minute slower than expected.
When I had about 3/4 of a mile to go, I got lucky. Three guys were running backwards on the course and they u-turned right near me and the 2 guys near me. The 3 of them were encouraging us to run harder, that we were almost done. I ended up being the only one of the 3 of us still running who tried to humor them. So I had 3 escorts to the finish line. As we talked, it turned out they had finished first, second and third! The lead guy carried my water bottle for me and told me to tuck in behind him so he'd block the wind. Since he probably weighed less than me and was about 6 inches taller, that was fairly useless, but the sentiment was sweet. We tried to catch the woman immediately in front of me, but that was too much. But I was still thrilled to have the company and to be running fairly hard for the finish. Particularly with my escorts. I was very surprised to see my finish time -- only almost 5 minutes slower than a PR, and good enough to win my age group. Crazy! I guess everyone else out there (at least in my age group) had the same struggles with the heat, the hills and the wind. It was a nice little bonus. And it was a good excuse to spend the rest of the day drinking beer, eating too much, and relaxing in my bestie's parents' pool.
Anyway, here is my belated Friend Making Mondays...
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 here 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!
Summer Fun
2. Do you know how to swim? Mmm, not really. I mean, I can get around in the water, swimming out to a raft or something (and I can even do it with one arm up holding a beer out of the water). But I don't have good form or anything. I hate putting my face in the water -- remnants from when my asthma was much worse as a kid and I was almost always wheezing and struggling for air when I tried to do anything strenuous. But if I'm going to do an Ironman someday, I think I'll have to learn.
3. Do you prefer sun or snow? Sun, sun, sun (unless it's the week of Christmas, then snow please, can't imagine a non-white Christmas).
4. What temperature do you like most inside your home? If it were up to me, I'd say 78 or so. But hubby is more of 76, so we compromise on 77 when we sleep and 78 during the day if we're home.
5. Is it humid where you live? Not too bad most of the year, but May and the first part of June usually are. This morning it was in the mid-70s and the humidity was in the upper 70s. Made for a(nother) tough run...
6. What is your favorite food to put on the grill? As a vegetarian, I'd go with veggies. I love veggie skewers on the grill. I have a recipe I like for grilled tofu, and I love grilled fruit, but my fave would be veggies. Corn on the cob, mushrooms, zucchini, love it.
7. Do you prefer to wear a one-piece or two-piece swim suit? I wore a bikini yesterday but it should be noted that I was just with my friend and her family, not quite sure I'd wear something like that where others could see me, but I didn't care too much around them.
8. What is your favorite summer drink? Tough call. I'm usually in marathon training season over the summer, so water, sadly. In terms of fun drinks, something with vodka and a fruity taste. Made a recipe for "dirty Shirleys" off Pinterest a few weeks ago, very good.
9. Do you prefer the pool or the ocean? I wouldn't complain about either. If I have to choose, I guess I'd go with ocean.
10. What are you looking forward to most over the summer? My 20 year high school reunion is at the end of summer. That will be interesting and there are a few people I can't wait to see.
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 (a day late)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)