The Weekly Weigh-In, Some Lessons, and My A**hole Dog

Excuses
Greetings to you! First of all, I'd like to apololgize for being such a slacker this week when it comes to the blog. In my defense, grad school started this week, and I've been in just a general state of high-anxiety. I feel like there's about a million things going on in my life right now and I just get busier by the day! GAH! I sure wish I was married so I had someone to help me take care of things...Oh wait! I AM! Well, I sure wish Billy was around to help me take care of things. Although, with football season starting it's hard to tell how great his contribution to the greater good of the Haas House really would be. Probably not much. If you read this Billy, I KID! I kid because I love ;) xoxo

The Weigh-In
Anyway, on to the nitty gritty. I didn't weigh myself last week and was a little hesitant to step on the scale today, but I'm so glad I did! 133.0!! Go me! 3 more lbs and all I have to do is maintain and I have several nasty runs coming my way in the next 2 months (20 miles, anyone?) so I like to think that it won't be that hard. But this whole weight loss thing has already proven to be more challenging than I had anticipated, so we'll just see how it goes. One day at a time and all that.

So, Grami Jane...how close to 130 are you? Have I gained any ground or have you already beat me?

This means that all in all, since May 17th, I've lost 12 lbs. Not a world record or anything, but if I start to think about how much 12 lbs of steak would be if I bought it at the grocery store, I start to feel pretty self-righteous. Not only that, but I had 3 random people tell me last week on different occasions how much skinnier I looked. Again, go me. Flattery does my little fickle girl heart good ;)

A Sad Sunglasses Story
Remember when Brando ate my beautiful pink shoes? If not, you can read about it here. Well, the little jerk is at it again. This time, he ate my running sunglasses! Who does that?! That couldn't even have been good! Stupid, stupid mutt. I would once again like to reiterate that my beautiful little dog, Gwen, would never eat an expenisive accessory. You know why? Because she's a LADY! And she understands! Brando clearly has no concept of this or respect for a lady's personal belongings. Are you ready for this? Behold:




That's all that's left! Can you even tell that those were once a pair of polarized sunglasses that made me run faster (true story)? I'm so bummed. Dear MuM, please send me some new glasses, please :(

Lessons From The Road
Maybe I've been getting too sure of my abilities lately because I've been making some rookie mistakes. Today I ran a 10 mile easy day and what was supposed to be no problem ended up being rather unenjoyable by about mile 7. The reason? Hydration. Yesterday I didn't drink nearly enough water. And every time I went to the fridge and said "Hmm...Miller Lite or Aquafina?" Miller Lite won. I knew I was going on a long run today, but I figured it didn't matter. What was 10 miles anymore, anyway? I labored by way through 15! I ran 12 1/2 at an 8 minute pace! I can do 10 under any circumstances no problem. Wrong, Ash. Very wrong. It's hot in Hawaii in September, even at 7 a.m. and it's stupid to think that hydration can fall by the wayside. Learn from me, kids. HYDRATE! Over-hydrate, even! It's the difference between a good run and a bad run, trust me.

Now, one screw up wouldn't be so bad. But let's go back to last Thursday. 8 miles on my lunch break, starting at 1 p.m. and ending by running up Halawa Heights. I'm not even going to bother explaining this road. My friends and followers in Hawaii know what I'm talking about. It's a nasty, nasty hill. Once again, I knew I wasn't properly hydrated. Furthermore, I hadn't done laundry in ages, so I was out of clean microfiber socks. Remember those blisters I used to get? Haven't had an issue since I switched socks. But on Thursday, I just went ahead and grabbed a pair of my old cotton socks and said "what the heck. How much difference can it really make?" A lot, apparently. By mile 2 my feet were burning up. It was SO hot inside my shoes! And by mile 5 I was in a lot of toe pain. I now have the monstrous blister on my right big toe to prove it. I'll spare you another picture of my nasty runner's feet, but just believe me that it's there. And it's painful.

In Conclusion...
Overall, successful running week despite my setbacks. Next week the mileage on my LSD runs gets cranked back up again and you can bet your butt that I will be properly hydrated and prepared! I will try to be more dutiful with my blogging this week, but if you don't hear from me again until next weekend, please know that I am still running, I do still love you, the blog is still high-priority, I just am still adjusting to having to be more frugal with my time management. Until next time...