Archive | February, 2012

The Sully Show

20 Feb

On Tuesday, I dedicated a post to my hubby-of-two-years, and I think the other love in my life, Sully, got a wee bit jealous, because he went and dug a giant hole in the backyard.  Hubs tried to deter him from digging more by filling in the hole and putting a couple bricks on top of it.  Sully took this as a challenge to bury the bricks, obviously, so now we have a crazy dirt pile surrounded by holes and buried bricks.  He clip-clopped into the house with dirt on his nose and paws and looked at me as if to say: “Where the heck’s my post, mom?“

So here he is, my little Sully-bear:

From the very beginning of our relationship, Jared and I talked about having a dog one day.  Growing up, we’d each begged our parents for puppies, but never got them (they had some lame excuse about dogs being a lot of responsibility or something…).

In 2008, Jared and I moved in together, got engaged, and ran off to the animal shelter to get ourselves some responsibility, I mean, a cute little, teeny-tiny apartment-sized pup.  And an hour later we were on our way home with a seventy pound bloodhound whose turds are the size of those teeny weeny doggies.

All of the dogs in the shelter were given temporary names after celebrities and our boy was dubbed “Burt Reynolds.”  After a mile-long list of new name ideas, we settled on Sully, after the big, blue monster from our favorite Pixar film, Monsters, Inc.  Tell me you’ve seen it!

Just like the Sully from the movie, our boy can be intimidating.  He has a very loud, hound dog howl, weighs 90 pounds, and can jump over the 6-foot brick wall surrounding our back patio.  In reality, he’s extremely fearful of everything, from other people to his own shadow.  Beyond the fear, he’s a bouncy, rambunctious, clumsy, Tasmanian-devil-dog, that quickly tires out into a mellow, dopey, snuggly pile of love.

Speaking of love, the guy is obsessed with cheese, tuna fish, edamame, licking out empty Chobani cups, string cheese, chips, Fritos, and especially, peanut butter… not that we ever feed him human food…

He’s also fairly obsessed with tennis balls and we can’t leave him alone with them because he’ll eat them.  Literally.  Have you ever seen a dog poop a tennis ball?

16 hours a day, Sully sleeps in weird positions all over the house.  We tried to crate him in the beginning, but that barely lasted a week as he Houdini-ed his way out of the crate while we were at work.  We came home to find him snoozing on the couch and the couches have been his ever since.

We have no idea how old the sniffly, howling bugger is, but since we got him the day after Christmas, 12/26/2008, we’ve deemed that to be his “birthday.”  Last year, he got a bath mat for his birthday (and a rainbow bandana from mamaw).

Although we have a giant dog bed and fuzzy bathmats throughout the house, he definitely prefers the couches and human beds, pillows, blankets…  It’s Sully’s World and we’re just living in it.

At any time, on any given day, you can find these two spooning.  (We won’t talk about the onesie pajamas…)

We may have to tell him to “sit” several times before he finally understands, but dumb or not, he’s got the biggest heart and the sweetest soul.  I mean, c’mon, look at that face!

And then there’s the head tilt that always, always makes me smile…

IMG_1630

He may be a loud, sloppy, stinkball, but we love our big sweetie-petey, because he’s made us into a family.

Now quit digging up the yard, k?

Running does NOT ruin your knees.

16 Feb

Welcome to the first edition of Chick Named Chuck’s You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

When I talk to non-runners or former-runners about my running endeavors, I almost always get some form of the following:

“Aren’t you worried that all that running will ruin your knees?”

I take a deep breath and smile and breeze by the question, sharing that I’ve never had any issues with my knees (knock on wood… the day that I have any kind of twinge in my knee(s) is the day I disappear Into the Wild like Christopher McCandless.  I’m just kidding, mom).

In my head, I get pretty snarky with the Running-Ruins-Your-Knees Believers, thinking: My knees are fine, but I do struggle with runner’s highs, lower stress, and improved physical and mental health.  It’s brutal.  And I would definitely encourage everyone to stay far, far away from my beloved sport of running.

Mark Remy is a 21-time marathoner with a personal best of 2:46 (that’s fast!) and his knees (miraculously!) have not disintegrated after 20 years of running.  He’s an executive editor and writer over at RunnersWorld.com and blogged:

“I don’t know exactly when or where it started, but for a pretty wide swath of the population, “Running Ruins Your Knees” is less a belief and more a mantra or a slogan — something that’s been intoned and invoked so reflexively, so often, and handed down through so many generations, it’s taken on the aura of eternal truth, of gospel.  Never mind that it isn’t, you know, true.”

If you need to see the research with your own eyes, read: here, here, and here.  The cliff notes:

  • “Recreational running doesn’t increase the risk of arthritis,”
  • AND “increases production of certain proteins in the cartilage that make it stronger.”  Meaning, running actually strengthens joints!

Case in point: My Dad.

A million years ago (back in the 70s), my dad was a runner for his high school cross country team.  He ran and ran and ran and was a badass and all that my-dad-is-my-hero-mushy-gushy stuff.  In his 30s, he started having some arthritis pain in his knees (cue the gasps of horror… Running ruined his knees!).  In my opinion, the real horror is that he gave up running — that’s the stuff my nightmares are made of… Anyhow, he was still my hero, working out on the Nordic Track ski machine in our basement and cranking out workouts on various other low-impact machines at the YMCA.

In 2007, I accidentally fell in love with running and dragged him back over to the dark-side.  We’ve run a handful of races together, ranging from 5K to marathon!  Here we are, crossing the finish line of the Dayton Half Marathon in 2010:

And his knees?  Well, get this: he’s currently training like a maniac for the LA Marathon next month.  He’s running three times per week following the FIRST training program, including a speed workout, tempo run, and long run, and he’s completed three 20 mile long runs in the past five weeks.  Yesterday, my dad excitedly talked my ear off about how well his training is going, then said: “The more I run, the better my knees feel!“

The next time someone tells me running will ruin my knees, I’m giving them my dad’s phone number.

Valentine-iversary #2

14 Feb

Today’s Valentine’s Day, which never really meant much to me until a couple years ago, when I married my best friend.  Now it’s kinda sorta special and stuff…

You’ve probably heard a thing or two about Jared in my previous posts: he’s my totally rad roommate, who always cleans the toilet and gives the world’s best bear hugs and runs or spectates at the bazillion-gajillion races I run!

I most often refer to him as hub, hubs or hubby, bubs, bubsie, J, Jarebear, Jerry, kitty, worm (he gave himself that one), and monkey, though I’m pretty sure he’s mostly human…

mymonkey

We met at Miami University (of Ohio!), during my senior year, when I was blonde and he was Casper…

Mar15

I wasn’t looking for anything serious, so naturally, we were immediately, seriously, and hilariously in love.

jaredbandana

We obviously take ourselves very, very seriously…

jaredsbday

stache

In 2007, Miami finally issued Jared a dipolma and he shipped off to work on a cruise ship as a “professional” a cappella singer.  I swear I’m not making this up!  I put “professional” in quotes because it was basically the most ridiculously fun, awesome “job” ever.  He got paid to sail around the world with his closest buddies, singing for guests and livin’ the dream.

I missed him yadda yadda yadda, BUT I got to visit him in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Alaska, which was so unforgettably awesome-sauce.  And in 2008, we settled down in Phoenix, got engaged and adopted a ginormous bloodhound (who’s the other love of my life).

sullyfamily

2009 was an equally eventful year, as we relocated to San Diego, started new jobs, ran our first marathon and dove into wedding planning.

Marathon Finish

On Valentine’s Day, 2010, we got married in a shoes-optional-ceremony on the beach in Carlsbad, surrounded by our closest friends and family.  And soon after, we were double-fisting cupcakes and Jersey-style fist-pumping our way through our reception.  The next morning, we jetted off to Maui for our honeymoon oh-my-goonies-we’re-really-married week-long party.

vowslaugh

sexychickcrop

honeymooncrop

Now, we’re just a couple of old married farts.  Okay, not really.  I’m the old one and he’s the fart.  We’re living out our happily-ever-after by adding to our ridiculously long list of nicknames for each other, running as many races as we can fit into our schedules as I can trick him into registering for… and being our eternally silly-billy selves.

We are sooo looking forward to having children so we can pawn off the chores on them.  Housework totally cramps our fun-loving style.

laughing

2006

mudrun

I never imagined it possible for two people to have so much laughter in their lives, but I’m loving every moment and every laugh line.

Everyday Use

Happy Anniversary, monk.  You’re We’re totally ridiculous.

Mermaid Run Half Marathon

12 Feb

Hi there, readers.  As you may or may not know, I’ve been a tad bit disillusioned lately.  I’ve been feeling burned out and down on myself and so it was with a very reluctantly hopeful heart that I registered for the Mermaid Run Half Marathon a few weeks ago… which I ran today!  And I finally, finally had a great race!

I set out to run a PR and ended up beating my best half marathon time (from 1.5 years ago) by more than four minutes!

I don’t think I can even begin to explain how much I needed this, but I did.  And I’m grateful (especially for my hubby, who got up at 6am on a Saturday morning to drive me to the Start Line in his bathrobe, twice.  When we got there the first time, it started raining and I wanted my visor, so he drove me home quickly, I changed my entire race outfit for the third time, and it just made him laugh.  AND he drove back a third time to spectate with Sully–cheering for me at Mile 9 and later running me to the finish.  Seriously, luckiest wife ever, right?).

Speaking of “happy pace,” I still can’t believe I was able to pull off and even moreso, to maintain these paces…

Mile 1 – 8:26
Mile 2 – 8:26
Mile 3 – 8:30
Mile 4 – 8:19
Mile 5 – 8:31
Mile 6 – 8:24
Mile 7 – 8:27
Mile 8 – 8:17
Mile 9 – 8:16
Mile 10 – 8:21
Mile 11 – 8:19
Mile 12 – 8:21
Mile 13.1 – 8:20/mile

Official Finish: 13.1 miles, 1:49:11 (8:20/mile)

Out of 173 runners, I finished in 13th place overall, managed 4th in my age group, and pretty much floated through the day on a cloud 9 runner’s high.

Like I said… So needed this.

Superbowl Challenge!

4 Feb

NYC Running Mama is hosting a Superbowl Challenge, which I found out about via yesterday’s Runner’s World Daily.  Since, I (sadly) couldn’t care less about this year’s Superbowl, I’m stoked about making it into a running challenge!

The rules of the challenge are simple: If your team loses, you have to run the point differential in miles!

For example, if the Giants beat the Patriots 24-21, anyone rooting for the Patriots will have to run 3 miles.  In the occurrence that there’s a blowout, the mileage is capped at 20 miles–meaning the most anyone would run is 20 miles.  And the deadline to complete the miles is one week.

I’m in!  Anyone else want in on the challenge?!

Like I said, I’m not invested in this game, at all… but I’ve been on the same train as my hubby, saying I’d like to see the Giants beat the Patriots, again–who can forget that crazy awesome game 4 years ago?!?!  But I kinda want to pick the losing team, so that I get to run, ha!

Regardless, I’m sticking with the Giants as winners, and just for the helluvit, I’m predicting a 34-24 final score.  I hope Brady and Manning give us a good game!  And that the commercials rock socks!

Happy Superbowl Weekend!  And Happy Running, Pats fans! ;)

Just Run

4 Feb

Last week, I’m ashamed to say I celebrated the Carlsbad flop with a week-long pity party.  It was entirely unintentional—I gave myself the “get over it!” pep-talk a dozen times—but I still wallowed a wee bit too long and with a wee bit too much frozen yogurt (but really, is it ever possible to have too much fro-yo???).

Alas, Monday kicked off a new week with a new attitude!  Okay, scratch that.  I lie.  I woke up on Monday morning still feeling like a pitifully undecided and goal-less wanker—about running and life and everything…

I posted this obscure, random post, then threw myself out the front door for a run.  In my mind, I was thinking: “Just run.  Just shut up and run.  Don’t think about anything.  No whining, no excuses, no negativity.  Just run.”  And so I ran.  I ran to the ocean and breathed that salty ocean air like my life depended on it.  I (somewhat miraculously) managed seven miles that morning, and felt phenomenal!

When Tuesday morning rolled around, I found myself following Monday’s footsteps, and running the exact same route for another super awesome seven-miler.

Wednesday morning, the snooze button got a bit of a workout, but I managed to guzzle my coffee, lace up my sneaks, and throw myself out the front door, again, with the self pep-talk: “Just run.  Just shut up and run.”

I ran.  I was tempted to take my usual route along the bay, but ventured over the three bridges to the ocean with it’s delicious, salty air.  I love running along the ocean for a million reasons, but on Wednesday, I loved seeing the half-dozen people standing on their separate balconies and patios, with mugs in hand, silently watching the ocean waves as they curled and crashed and washed the sand.  I always love seeing these ocean-loving peeps, but on Wednesday morning, I promised myself that I would be one of them, “one day.”  After 6.6 miles, I was floating miles above cloud nine, nauseatingly optimistic and upbeat and jazzed about everything.  The “runner’s high” is real,  let me tell you!

This morning, I ventured out with Sully, who hasn’t been running a whole lot lately.  We ran 5.3 miles together (that’s a long way for our floppy Fido!) and I couldn’t be more proud of the lil butterball!  We had very, very few stops along the way and he stayed right by my side, except when a dude passed us.  Sully thought dude was Jared and tried to sprint after him; however, dude smelled like soap and cologne, so Sully caught on pretty quick that he was most definitely not our beloved stinkball, Jared.

Anyhow, if you made it this far, you deserve a medal.  I still feel uncomfortably undecided and goal-less in some ways, but I do have a new focus:  Just shut up and run—to the ocean, baby!

Carlsbad was a really crummy ending to a book I loved.  It left me feeling unhappy and unsettled.  BUT!  I’m easing my way into a new book and while I have no idea where we’re going, so far, so good.

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