Yo, Coach

Today was BUSY.

I day started off kind of crappy, as something weird was going on with my work email, and I had to spend nearly all of my planning period trying to fix that rather than, well, planning stuff.

And then when students came into my room and I explained something to them, one of my students raised her hand to ask a question and instead said, "Um, you should put your hair down." Thank you. Thank you for that super sweet advice.

Guess whose hair stayed in a pony tail? This girl's.

After school, I quickly changed into sweats, a zip-up jacket, and my Brooks, and I headed to "coach" my very first tennis meet:

I was actually quite nervous for the meet, as a.) I know nothing about tennis, b.) I don't know the girls at all, c.) I haven't coached anything in about five years, and d.) this was an actual meet, not just a practice.

But, it went really, really well. The girls for the most part knew what they were doing, and I figured it out eventually.

It was really nice being around kids in a coaching manner, too, rather than as a teacher or a mentor. They were super sweet and giggly and energetic. I'm going to really, really enjoy this.

I left the meet a smidge early, as I had to head home and prep for book club. Because there are varying dietary needs (Paleo, vegetarian, and vegan) among us, I decided to go a relatively easy route and (with BFF's help with the chopping) whip up a taco bar:

It was awesome. I put everything on the table, and people naturally just pulled up a chair, and we had dinner together. Usually during book club we grab food and then migrate to the living room, but it was kind of nice eating and chatting around the dining room table.

I wish I had photos or even a video of all of us making our tacos, our salads, our nachos: it was really a cool picture seeing everyone reaching over and under and around, passing things across the table, moving things around, etc. It was cool.

Per usual, we had a great discussion, even though most of us thought the book (Beautiful Ruins) was not our favorite.

Now, I'm about ten minutes from bed. My muscles are pretty sore from my run yesterday (jogging from the tennis courts to my car in the torrential downpour was interesting -- I looked a hot mess), and now my upper back is absolutely killing me. I just downed some Ibuprofen and need to lie down -- stat.

Breakfast: I was too busy dealing with email crap to take a picture of my breakfast, but if you want to know what it looked like, imagine last night's Paleo Oatmeal in a Tupperware container on top of a school-issued concrete desk. Lovely.

Lunch:

One of the usuals: sweet potato, green pepper, jalapeno, avocado, chicken sausage. Yum.

Dinner:

I threw together a taco salad with beef, tomatoes, onions, guacamole, salsa, and black olives. It was really, really good, and I'm not going to lie: I'm already looking forward to having it for lunch tomorrow.

It was interesting buying and preparing food that I don't eat anymore -- shredded cheese, queso, sour cream, etc. I almost, out of habit, licked the queso spoon after stirring it from the microwave, but I stopped myself at the last minute. And, I was sure to send everything non-compliant home with my friends. I think that was a smart move.


Well, friends, I'm going to head to bed. Sorry for the super short, non-exciting post. I'm wiped!

G'night!

Because 9.2 Would Be Silly

Yesterday, I mentioned that I would like to get a nine-miler in this weekend but that I wasn't sure it'd be possible due to feeling so darn exhausted from whatever my body is battling at the moment.

I then realized that running during the week is going to be difficult due to all of these tennis meets, and that I likely wouldn't get a long run in next weekend due to having entirely too much fun in St. Louis, so I pretty much told myself that today's run was essential.

So, as I was lounging around after breakfast in Omaha, I mapped out a route: from my apartment to the river, down to MLK, over to Gray's Lake, through Water Works Park, up the hill by Ashworth Pool and the Art Center, and back home. (This sounds like a crazy rendition of To Grandmother's House We Go. It also sounds like a heck of a long distance.)

I told my mom that I had mapped out a 9.1-mile route, and she so sarcastically commented, "Because 9.2 would just be silly." So funny, that one.

When I got back to Des Moines this afternoon, I whipped up some lunch/pre-run fuel and then met with Shaw about my new coaching gig. We both figured that it'd be good to know a little something about tennis -- or at least how meets run -- since the first one is tomorrow, and tomorrow is, coincidentally, my first day of coaching.

Stay tuned for how that goes. Again, if I can coach girls throwing liberties and basket tosses (mostly) without hurting themselves, I can probably manage tennis.

After our little coaching get-together, I headed out for the run. It started off fairly well, which surprised me. It was so good, in fact, that I ran the first mile in 10:57 (granted, much of this was downhill).

About a mile-and-a-half in, I stopped to chat with BFF for about 15 minutes. I hadn't seen her for several days and really hadn't talked to her much this week, so it was really nice. Then, I picked right back up with my three minutes of running and one minute of walking.

I ran downtown, and it was kind of a cluster this afternoon: there was a show at the Civic Center that was getting out just when I was running past, so there were pedestrians everywhere, and traffic was pretty crazy as well. And then, just as I was passing Principal Park, an I-Cubs game ended, so there were more (drunk) people everywhere. Plus, there was stop-and-go traffic, so I had to wait for traffic signals before I could continue on my way.

I bet your skyline doesn't contain an Absolut bottle.

When I got to MLK, things were better, as I was basically on a trail. Everything was going well, and I was super pumped to hit five miles in less than an hour. This is a huge accomplishment for me, so I was pretty stoked.

Mile Six, however, was a different story. I entered Water Works, and I was kind of feeling a bit beaten down. So, I munched on a few of the fruit snacks that I brought along:

My new favorite (and Whole30-approved!) mid-run snack.

That gave me a boost of energy, which helped tremendously, and I kept on truckin' through Water Works and up to the trail.

The first part of the trail (miles seven and eight) were not too bad, but I did walk a little more than what the lovely iSmoothRun lady told me to -- but honestly, not too much.

As soon as I got out of the trail, however, everything went downhill -- only figuratively, as literally, I was facing a huge uphill for the entire last mile:

Why, why, why did I do this to myself? I know this hill, and I know how it affects me mentally on a one-mile run, let alone a nine-mile run.

At the beginning of the hill (in the parking lot of Ashworth Pool), I gave myself a pep talk (yes, literally out loud and to myself): "Em, you can do this. Just keep swimming. The miles aren't going to run themselves. The faster you go, the faster you're done, the faster you can sit down, the faster you can put water into this dehydrated, broken body of yours."

Yep, it was great.

At this time, I also texted BFF, as she was my contact person for running solo on a not-so-populated and questionably safe trail:

Friends, as I told BFF, the hill won. I was having none of that today. I tried running, and my body just wouldn't let me. My ankles hurt, my calves hurt, my hammies hurt, my armpit hurt (from chafing), my back hurt (from being hunched over up that damn hill), and I could go on and on and on. Essentially, everything hurt.

So, I embarrassingly (in front of other runners, an Ironman, some cyclists, and a cuter-than-cute dog-walking couple) crawled trudged up Hell Hill -- and then walked the rest of the way home, as you can see from my splits:

Interestingly, my eight-mile run last week
was done in exactly 1:37, too.

I was a hurting unit.

I seriously could barely stretch because I could barely move. (Don't worry, I did stretch, but it was not easy and definitely not painless.)

This was one of those runs where I thought, "Em, a half marathon? Seriously? What were you thinking? You can't do four more miles of that!" But then I had to remind myself that there were a number of variables affecting the usual occasional awesomeness of my runs:

1. I'm sick. Seriously, my body has been fighting off whatever the heck is revolting against it, so it was not so in the mood to take on a crazy workout today.
2. I waited until mid to late afternoon to run. Usually, I run in the morning, while I'm full of energy. Running at a different time was weird.
3. I was under-fueled and dehydrated -- mostly dehydrated. I'm to the mileage now where I'm going to need to start planning routes better and/or carrying water with me. This was way too many miles for not having any sort of hydration.

I know I can do a half marathon in four weeks. I just need to have another stellar run before then.

After my run and attempted stretching, I took a shower (that included more stretching) and unwillingly hit up the grocery store, where I spent $72 on this week's food. Since I'm making tacos for about ten girls tomorrow, I feel like that was pretty good. I do, however, still have to pick up a rotisserie chicken, so add another $6-7 to that -- still not too bad.

As soon as I hit publish on this bad boy, I'm going to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones: CAN'T WAIT!

Breakfast:

My mom made me an omelet with bacon, red peppers, and jalapenos, and it was delicious. The bacon was cured with sugar, but a.) I ate it regardless, and b.) believe I'm going to continue to do so. I don't eat much bacon anyway, and the availability of sugar-free bacon is nearly non-existent (aside from Whole Foods). So, this might be the one area that I really "stray" from Whole30 guidelines.

She also made a fruit salad with bananas, blueberries, and blackberries. I'm pretty sure I could've eaten the whole bowl, but I figured it'd be polite to share with everyone else. Darn manners.

Lunch:

After unpacking and before meeting with Shaw, I whipped up a tried-and-true meal: sauteed sweet potato with jalapeno, green pepper, two eggs, and avocado. And I inhaled it.

I also "sampled" a bag of the same fruit snacks that I brought on the run with me.

Dinner:

I was unsure whether or not I was actually going to eat dinner tonight since I was not at all hungry after my run or at the grocery store (and instead felt like I could puke and be totally fine with it). But, as I was writing this post and just kind of lounging, I got hungry and made a quick-and-easy dinner: Paleo Oatmeal.

I hope you all had a nice weekend! "See" y'all tomorrow -- if my ankles/calves/hamstrings/quads/back can make it from my bed to the computer. :)

Peace out, yo.

And Tennis Makes Two

Hello, friends!

I feel like such a slacker. Yesterday, I skipped Farrell's because I was so darn tired and decided sleeping was more important than working out, and then today, I skipped my run because I felt so run down.

I honestly think I am coming down with something. I have woken up with a rash every single day this week, and it's not necessarily the huge welts anymore but rather just bumpy redness. And, whereas the hives went away by mid-morning, this rash has been hanging out with me most of the day. Today, I felt super off, almost like I could pass out at any minute. I felt light-headed going upstairs, my head felt really foggy, my joints (especially my hips) have been killing me, and I was just out of it -- not to mention absolutely exhausted. I'm starting to think I may have a virus or something that is just manifesting itself through my skin.

I don't know. I'm sure Web MD will tell me I am pregnant or have cancer.

But anyway, instead of going for a quick run after school, I came home and did a lot of this:

It's a miracle I haven't coughed up a hairball yet,
considering how often this cat is literally in my face.

Well, I did a lot of lying on the couch and napping, not a whole lot of smiling and selfie-taking.

Immediately after work, however, I headed to a relatively new-to-me store, Campbell's Nutrition:

Campbell's is a health-food store that is literally a mile away from my house, yet I have gone there maybe twice. (I mean, prior to this whole "healthy-eating thing," why would I want to spend a bazillion dollars on "weird" stuff?!) Truthfully, it's like a mini Whole Foods that focuses on supplying organic produce, meat, and dairy; natural supplements; and all sorts of food for special dietary needs (i.e. gluten-free, raw, etc.).

I really just had to pick up some eggs. But, you know how it is at a new place.

I also snatched up some Nick's Sticks (that I already devoured -- yum), some baby food pouches (for long-run fuel, don't judge), and a couple different all-natural energy bars (to sample for running fuel as well).

I will definitely be hitting up Campbell's a lot in the near future.

You know what else I did today? Signed up to be the assistant girls' tennis coach at my school. You know what sport I know absolutely nothing about? Tennis.

This marks not the first but the second time I will have coached a sport about which I am completely clueless. Yep, for three years I coached cheerleading. Since I managed to coach girls throwing other girls in the air (without any huge mishaps), I figured tennis should be a-okay.

So, that adventure starts on Monday.

Totally related side note: I just got a text from the head coach (who just so happens to be my Work Boyfriend) that said, "This is gonna be fun! As long as you do what you're told." Bwahahahahahaha. He knows me so well.

Breakfast: I had an IEP meeting this morning that totally cut into my usual breakfast time, so when I got back to my classroom, I pretty much inhaled my breakfast and completely spaced on taking a picture. It was a variation of, you guessed it, the usual: a sauteed sweet potato with jalapeno, mushrooms, and chicken sausage.

Lunch:

Today I had leftovers from last night: Beef & Broccoli Cashew Stir-Fry. It was just as good the second time around. Seriously, friends, please make this. The sauce is so thick and juicy and so, so yummy (twss).

Dinner:

Again, I'm not feeling so hot, so instead of cooking an elaborate meal, I just whipped up my Whole30-ified version of Carrots 'n' Cake's Paleo Oatmeal. I splattered a glob of almond butter on the top, and it was oh-so-good.

Now, I think I'm going to take some medicine, cross my fingers I can stay awake for Parenthood so that I don't have to catch it on Hulu, and then pass the heck out.

(Let's be real: what's really going to happen is that I'm going to hit "publish," drug up, and pass out -- all in the next 15 minutes.)

See you tomorrow morning, friends!

Have you ever taken on a responsibility for which you felt completely unprepared? What was your favorite meal of the day?