No excuses...

The holidays... wonderful and fun, yet horrible for my running.  Thankfully, Rachel and Woody gave me a wonderful gift certificate to Nordstram Rack.... woohooo! This meant that I could finally go buy myself some running clothes for outside.  As modeled in the pictures above... Now I have no excuse... I can go to the gym and NOW run around Patterson Park when I am too lazy to go to the gym... wooo hooo!

Two reasons I may not be running tomorrow

REASON #1:

 In her excitement to get in the back door after our last run Alice yanked me up the back stairs, I tripped and fell and busted my knee on our not-at-all-springy concrete steps.  As of day 2, the knee is turning all sorts of holiday yellow and green.

REASON #2:

We have SNOW!  On Christmas!  The weather folks on tv were salivating over this possibility for no less than a week straight (we just witnessed the last 3 days of coverage because we were hanging out with folks who watch the weather).  We learned that a "White Christmas" occurs only when there is more than 1 inch of snow.  Who came up with this arbitrary rule, we don't know.  But if there is 7/8 inch of snow I suppose it is a Soggy Christmas or Wintery Mix Christmas.  This is why I'm not the one dancing in front of the green screen talking about fronts and low pressure systems...

It truly sucks that my knee is a bit busted up.  I am hoping to run on it tomorrow or the day after.  Remember when we used to bust our knees all the time and get up and keep playing?  Wow that feels like it was so long ago.  Oh wait, it was.

One-Love

On our run on Tuesday, Alice found this outside the B'ton Tennis Association.  She carried it all the way home (over 1/2 mile!).  And when we got home she showed this tennis ball who was boss.  By promptly eating a hole in it.  I did 5 miles on Sunday and this upcoming weekend is a much shorter run of half that distance, it'll be a nice Xmas break!

Downward dog

I keep my exercise mat rolled up in the back bedroom to try and keep dog hair off it...clearly this strategy has failed:

Both Maddy and Alice enjoy the sticky feeling of my exercise mat on their furry bottoms.  Here Maddy is about to go into a headstand.

Four miles happened today -- it was cold out but not windy so no need for the running ninja look.  It felt pretty good.  I tried to focus on the road ahead and think less about my form (mostly because it is so pathetic but a little to just let my body do what it will naturally).  Alice got home from the four-mile run and promptly launched into one of her "tornado episodes."  There is no limit to that dog's energy...

Running ninja

Today was cold in B'ton.  Really cold.  Not cold in a Southern-oh-it's-dropped-below-70 sense.  It was 24 degrees out and with the windchill it was 12 degrees.  I waited until after lunch today and the temp finally got above freezing (but was still 22 with windchill).  Having misplaced my cozy fleece whimple I fashioned my own neck/ face mask with my Buff scarf.  Meet Sister Mary Katherine Ninja Bank Robber:

I've run in 22-degree temps before without this fancy and menacing get up but today there were 20 mph winds.  It was brutal.  When I got to the end of my route and went to turn around I half expected to see Tibetan prayer flags and lots of people in North Face gear talking about "respecting the mountain but, you know, dude, conquering it at the same time."  I thought I trudged past some folks from the Donner party but then again I'm in B'ton and pretty much everyone looks like that.  But I did my 3 miles (4 miles is going to wait till next time when I don't feel like I am going to get frostbite on my eyeballs), woohoo!  Can't wait to see the crop of festering pimples I am going to wake up to tomorrow.

Make sure you are dressed for the weather!!!

Rachel has always been a great sister and has always given me great advice... like what to wear when running in the winter... its true... gloves are meant to wear on your ears!!!!

We so Hood!!! (ummm Well Hoodie!)

Watch out World The Chico Sisters are training hard and we are going to kick some booty in April!

We were clearly the Rams and not the Gazelles

Back in 1993, I was a proud if not graceful member of the Randallstown High School track team.  From this photo, it is clear that our mascot was a ram -- an animal that has to take VERY short steps to avoid falling off precarious mountain inclines.  Rams also apparently need to put their manes in lovely French braids to allow them to better scale the terrain.

At a 5k last year, I showed that while I make the exact same attractive running face as I did 17 years ago, I do have better clothes and cover 2 feet with each stride...as opposed to 6 inches.  Click here to take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-jM8CcQIQ

LET'S GOOOOOOO CRRAAAAZZZZYYYYY!

Our strict training diet

 

Here you can see Mary and I early in our high meringue - low protein diet routine.  This fluffy and sweet diet has allowed us to do impressive things like squat to eat and disregard all hygienic standards.  Strict portion control is important as well -- only one half a lemon meringue pie PER ATHLETE.  No more.  Now that our bodies are in tip top shape, we are ready to train for our April race!

Mary and I have always been active.  I wish I could turn up a pic of Mary in her field hockey uniform (Mary, ante up!).  Me, I have been galumphing around tracks since high school.  In general I try to wear distracting outfits like this one so people don't notice that I'm supposed to be running.

All those string hanging off my shirt sadly added precious seconds to my record breaking mile time.  My good friend in the history dept attempted to sail her way through the race with a cardboard kite.  Her Ben Franklin get up made a lot more sense to folks than my Frida Kahlo one.  As for the grad student in the middle?  He hasn't spent sufficient time in archives and libraries to think either of these outfits are fun.  Just wait mister...soon you too will be dorks like us...if you're lucky.

I am very glad to have my sis along for the ride...and to have my husband on the sidelines with pastries every mile or so.

Here we go...

I was given two options, train for a half marathon/5k to run with Rachel or stand with Woody on the sidelines, eat pastries and laugh at Rachel while she ran it.  After much soul searcher and deliberation, I made one of the most difficult decisions in my life. I'm going to RUN! 

WHATTTTTTT!!!!???? I have never passed up the option to eat pastries and laugh at my sister or laugh with her while eating pastries... either way its glorious. (Memories of my sister and I eating a lemon meringue pie off the floor as I sit here typing... Rachel, you know what I'm talking about!!!) 

Rachel thought of a wonderful way to keep us motivated and track our progress... this Blog!  Some may wonder why its called "Oh no lets go!"... well its inspired by Princes, "Lets go Crazy".  One of the best songs of alllll time... (ok maybe not, but its damn good!).   Rachel and I used drive my mom and family crazy by blasting the song and dancing around the WHOLE house... oh the good times... we will have to do this in your new home Rachel... prep Woody for the madness...

So, that's it for now from me... the kid sis in training.  I am very excited to be doing this with my sister and very thankful she proposed this idea.  I'm looking forward to running AND eating some delicious pastries too... (after the run of course... its ON!!!).  :)

My new RUNNING shoes... and Poe enjoying the shoe box... its a win/win! :)