mochi_bunnie

I've been a bad person for not updating as my last post was during the middle of Q3. With 2012 creeping up on us, it has prompted me to think about what I want to achieve for next year. Without further ado, ladies/gentlemen: I present to you my 2012 New Year's Resolution: I will run every race that I ran in 2011 10% faster next year. Just for the sake of comparison, I have dug up the results for each race 2011 and my goal times for each in 2012. 

Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle: 3/25/12
  2011 Official chip-time: 48:04
  2012 Goal time: 43:16

Soldier Field 10: 5/26/12
  2011 Official chip-time: 1:36:45
  2012 Goal time: 1:27:04

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure: 9/29/12
  2011 Official chip-time: 59:29
  2012 Goal time: 53:32

Bank of America Chicago Marathon: 10/7/12
  2011 Official chip-time: 6:26:10
  2012 Goal time: 5:47:33

P.S. I am 100% certain that I will be running these races in 2012. (READ: Unless I get hit by a bus, I WILL BE THERE.) They are BFD to me as in...IT'S JUST MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION so it'd only make sense that I CONFIRM WELL IN ADVANCE. 


I plan on participating in these races as time allows:

1. Bloom/Zoom 10K @ Morton Arboretum, 4/12/12
2. Fort 2 Base @ Fort Sheridan, September 2012. (This is 10 nautical miles so 11.5 miles)

Nowhere in this list does it list a 5K. I'm over those, 'k thanks.

Hello World!

I realize the last time I updated was during Q2 and it's we're already 2/3 of the way through Q3, yikes! I'm so bad. I've been super busy with marathon training b/c the big day is coming up. I'm excited b/c I took booked myself two nights at Swissotel aka my favorite hotel for marathon weekend. I love the design of the inside with clean lines, and a spa-like atmosphere. The first time I stayed there was 2  years ago for brand conference and I instantly fell in love w/it. Ironically, it was the Monday after Marathon Weekend too. I saw these people walking down to breakfast wearing their finisher's medals. Yeah, that's gonna be me this year. Can't wait!

Oh yes! I actually took a promotion in the middle of August and have been in my new role for 3 weeks now. It happened really fast.  Definitely a nice change of pace. I'm happier at my new store. I feel more challenged there. Also, yesterday was the first day I got my first paycheck w/the new raise on it. Yeah, works for me! Starting next year, I will go up another 5 days in vacation. OMG the things to do with my free time, it's gonna be awesome!

My main goal this year was to ultimately become a better person after last year's break up/I think I have achieved that. Good things happen people who can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, hold their heads high, and keep on going. As far as developments on the romantic front goes, I have weeded out a few over the last few months/separated the contenders from the pretenders. Lets put it this way: Every idiot I talk to is one less idiot I risk marrying.

What else...I met a really hot econ geek a few nights ago. He comes with a dark sense of humor/he does Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He's the first guy to have passed my 5 second test since Adam only hotter. Le sigh. Rough/tumble is so cute. I haven't been school-girl giddy for a really long time. It's a great feeling but I must remain the cool, collected marathon girl who's in control of herself. =P

With that said, it's time to get changing and ready to go out for my 20-miler. I've been so bad lately but must do this. With that I bid all of you, happy running! :)

One new skill I've learned since the last time I was here was how to insult anyone like a southern belle. You just say the words: "bless his heart" at the end of everything, lol~ EXAMPLE: Leave it to the little brat to know exactly which buttons to push, bless his heart.  AAAaaaanyway, if I'm not blogging I'm running and here's the condition of the bet:

Since he never got around to registering for the Chicago Marathon, he's hellbent on buying my bib off of me so he can run it on 10/9. He keeps on telling me that I'm gonna die if I don't start training now. I have officially adopted the CARA Marathon Novice Training Plan and last week was Week 1 of 18 my training. The conditions are as follows: I have to hit 90% of all the miles by 10/8 or else he's going to pay me the $145 and buy my bib off of me. It's like, 400 miles b/t last week and 10/8. I actually agreed to it. He tells me he wants an Excel spreadsheet emailed to him every Saturday and he will be auditing my iPod b/c I use it to track all my runs. YEAH. 

Anyway, without further ado, I am proud to say that Week 1 of 18 marathon training is in the bag. I have attained 100% of my mileage this week AND did the 6 mile long run this week. Spreadsheet is sent, iPod is ready to go. Only 385 more miles to go. He can't win b/c I'M running it dammit!

I really need to change up my playlist, shiet... Sad part is I'm no longer able to train outside b/c I am mosquito bait. Went out twice last week in the woods and came back with 4 bites and a rash. (READ: Hill function and marathon mode on a treadmill will most likely be the way to go!) Oy. Anyway, now it's time to go party out at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville! I bid you guys happy running! :)  

Hello World and welcome back to my little nook of cyberspace. (Seriously, I have no idea where that came from but anyway--)

So for those of you who're connected to me on FB know that I completed the Soldier Field 10 yesterday. Aside from telling the story through pictures, I felt the need to recap what was going through my head as I was running. First things first, I did want to congratulate my fb boyfriend Oscar and bff Julie for completing the race. You guys made this year's race exciting and memorable for me. (I mean come on, look at that photo album on fb!) Thank you. Ok, now onto the good part, what really went on through my head during the course of this race/without further ado, here we go:

Julie made her way over to my place around 5:30ish. I ate my usual breakfast--peanut butter on toast. I purposely refrained from coffee b/c caffeine is a diuretic and that was a bad move. We drive down there to pick up Oscar at his place and made it to packet pick-up at the South Lawn b/c Julie never made it down there to do it before the race at Piper's Alley. I see a stand for coffee and made a beeline for it. Coffee took care of the grogginess almost instantly. I felt a lot better. Then, we slowly make our way into the corrals and the Star Spangled Banner gets sung before kicking off the race. Not gonna lie, every time I hear our national anthem I get all pumped up/excited. Shortly after that, they let people go. They were letting the people go in Corral 1 and that was when I realized that I was standing in the wrong corral. Corral 2 is like the slower group. I just leaped over the red tarp and started proceeding towards the Start line and if they're gonna bitch about it I can just show them the sticker that's on my bib.

Race starts and I knew I had to pace myself. I told myself that I wasn't gonna start booking it till about mile 4/purposely lined up the slower songs on my playlist that way. Yeah, I saved the Flo Rida, David Guetta, and Rihanna for last, haha! As I made my way to the Start line, I see Oscar and I tap him on the shoulder and we ran together for the first 3 or so miles. We ran underneath a tunnel for the first half mile or so and it was pitch black/wet which made me nervous b/c it was uneven pavement and I was really afraid of rolling my ankle b/c of it. I thought to myself, slow down...slow down...we're only in mile 1, no sense in gunning it now.   Finally we make it out of the tunnel and I'm feeling great. I take a peek at my heart rate monitor (HRM) and it's reading like, 156bpm--barely in Zone 1. Mile 2 and mile 3 were a breeze. I'm running running running and coming up to mile 4, I realize I lost Oscar and just kept going. I saw the pace leader for 1:40 and all these people who're running right by her. I pretty much had to elbow people to get past that group b/c I was out to beat my personal best and 1:40 is sure as hell not my personal best. We finally turn around and Robyn's Indestructable came on. That was my signal to start speeding up. Mile 6 and 7, I'm still in Zone 3, upper 180s heart rate. Mile 8 rolls around and I'm bouncing b/t 192 and 194bpm. My anaerobic threshold is 193bpm. I had to slow down for a few strides to get myself back down to 192 just kept going... Mile 8.5 I'm at 195 and I'm thinking to myself it's time to gun it/so I do. Once again, I'm so intent on crossing that finish line that I forget to look up and watch myself on the Jumbotron. I did manage to beat Oscar! He managed to find me as I was making my way out of the stadium to get my stadium blanket and we walked past the start line and people were still running. I was like, 'OMG they're still running?!' This lady behind us started laughing and I was like, 'I mean it in the nicest way possible but they're still running!!!' =T My official chiptime is 1:36:45, 27 seconds over my personal best. I ran a pretty solid race but in order to get past this speed slump I'm gonna start interval training to work on speed over long distances. 9:00/mile average for long distances, must get to that point. I think I'm gonna sign up for the Chicago Half Marathon in September and run the full one in October too just to see what kind of progress I've made. 

Finally we made our way home and I made my way to the shower. Julie/I managed to hit up Lululemon at the mall and she shared how she saw a lot of Target/Wal-Mart brand performance gear while she was running. She started with the 13:00/mile people and managed to blow past a lot of them. I was like, 'I saw a lot of Nike/Lululemon where I was at.' She's all like, 'Not only was I with the fat people, I was with the poor people too!'   Haha, too funny!

Wow. You know you're in for a treat when I start off my Mother's Day post with the above title. Let me just start off by saying that my mother is fucking off her rocker. Here's the latest case in point:

She has been talking about how wanting to rip up all of the carpeting in the house and replacing it with (fake) hardwood floors since we've moved in back in 2002. The desire to do so has been re-kindled with the start of the year of the Rabbit. Feng shui has it that people born under the sign of the current year will have bad luck/things won't go as planned for them and one of the most effective ways to fix it is to remodel the home to change up the energy balance in the home. Year of the Rabbit, Mom is a rabbit, oh my god let the madness begin. Since the start of the new year, she has stumbled up the stairs a few times and gotten sick on/off. Nevermind that you eat crap/don't exercise after your knee replacement that you "never really recovered from." No, it's the feng shui so this is resulting in her decision to rip up every square inch of carpet in this house to put down fake hardwood floors. Everything downstairs is carpet w/the exception of the kitchen, foyer, and bathroom is pink ceramic tile. What this means: front room, dining room, and family room is all carpet. Everything upstairs is carpet w/the exception of the bathrooms.  YEAH. You can see how big of a pain in the ass project this really is.

For the last 2 nights in a row she's been waking me up non-stop because of the screaming on the phone at 8am. Yesterday it was because the guy who was supposed to come in to lay these floors suddenly bailed so she screamed at him.  (This guy is one of my uncle's friends who's in construction, blah blah what the fuck where's the contract?)  Understandable. Everything downstairs is a train wreck right now. This morning, STILL no definitive person who's willing to take on the project and yet she INSISTS on ripping up the carpet upstairs starting with HER ROOM.  WHY in the world would you do that?!  This guy is most likely gonna jack up the price b/c your floors are a hot mess and you're gonna have to pay him to get it done!  She sees me this morning and asks me if I needed to work today. I told her I was off and she's like, 'If only you'd be a little more cooperative, they could work on your room first since you're off.' I told her my next day off would be Tuesday/she's like, 'Well you have to be ready by the time they come."  Yeah.

So much for trying to get shit done in phases. She just wants it all done this instant even though it has to wait. Rate determining step is how fast you can A.) GET someone to actually DO the floors and B.) how FAST it takes THEM to lay floors down. GRRRR!!!  Suffice it to say that I'd rather be working today. I hate Mother's Day and this is the reason why I cut her a check--so I could get out of hanging out w/her.  I'm running 9 miles out in the forest preserves today. Mother's Day, what Mother's Day?  I have no idea what you're talking about. EVERYDAY is Mother's Day in this house/I just killed you 3 times in my head just now.

Finally, a decent day to crank out another post where I'm not frantically running around with a checklist of things that have to be completed. Thank goodness for FB Prohibition.  Last e-mail I got from them, Zynga was offering to unwither all of my peas, throw in 20 Farm Cash, and an English hen if I came back. Not gonna lie, it was quite tempting. 20 Farm Cash would take leveling up 20 times to earn for someone who's level 83, that's pretty fucking hardcore. I know I'm not up for that anymore.

Latest developments:

I finished the Shamrock Shuffle last weekend.  My official chip time was 48:04 and my personal best time for an 8K was 47:40. I finished 12,598th out of 32,427 people who actually completed the thing.  (Really? It's only 4.96 miles, how do you NOT finish it?)  If 10 people walked past me at that race, I would've done better than 6 of them--and yet I know I can run faster at Soldier Field.  The time to beat for a 10 mile race is 1:36:18.  ANYWAY-- I couldn't have asked for a better day for a race on Sunday. The weather was perfect and it was hot outside. Getting down there was a total clusterfuck with construction/the blockades which made me think about what race day is gonna be like for the marathon in October. I might just get me a nice hotel room downtown and make it a marathon WEEKEND full of shopping and marathon festivities.  I'll buy my Burberry downtown the night before/run faster knowing there's a designer handbag waiting for me at the finish line. =P  Come on, a finisher's medal in one hand AND a huge Burberry in the other--it would be one hell of a default profile picture.  Accomplishing both new year's resolutions in one day.  I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.

I made it on the same day to weigh in for my 90-Day Weight Loss Challenge at Lifetime.  I'm really exited about it because I need the competition.  I love how it's an overall percentage of weight lost instead of just straight poundage b/c god knows I don't have 40 pounds to lose.  They also have events every Tuesday where you just have to show your Lose It to Win bracelet in order to get in.  I skipped last week's 5K fun run for a 7 mile run out at Busse Woods.  It's good that they have Try It Tuesdays because that's my normal day off.  I need to start working on the distance part, 1.5 months before Soldier Field!!!  I must finish strong because Oscar/Julie are both running it this year.  I'm super excited!!!

Sidenote: I bought the most awesome pair of Nikes for my race the other day.  They are so freaking awesome b/c they have the cushioning at the bottom and I feel like I'm springing back up as I'm pounding the pavement.  I love the color too.  They're white with a highlighter blue cushion/laces/fly wire.  So cool!!!  Vroom vroom!  AHHH!!!

Other news.  I made it to the second round of interviews for a job that I'm excited about.  It has been nothing but pure madness at work and I seriously want out already. Time to follow up on Monday and I'm keeping everything of mine crossed.  47 fucking hours last week.  Ugh, it's insanity/really isn't worth the pain/aggravation anymore.  I know I'm gonna bonus again this quarter which will be nice but still.  If things pan out at this other job, I'm ready to be like, sayoonara bitches.

Ooook.  Now it's time to peel off this Biore strip/ take my new running shoes out for a run.  Later World!

Wow talk about productive:

• 4 job submissions went out over the last 5 days.  (1 more soon to be out as soon as I make a few phone calls tomorrow.)
• Ran 6.3 miles out in the woods today, burned 1,310 calories.
• Filed away all laundry.
• Gave my room a good once over, all clean now.
• Packed tomorrow's lunch.
• Scribbled a bunch of stuff on my dry erase board/crossed it off as I'm going along.  (I've come to the conclusion that I like to make lists for myself only to be able to cross them off.  Feels so good!!!)
• Enjoying my Aveda tea while cranking this out.

This Facebook Prohibition thing is going great.  At the rate that I'm going, I don't think I wanna go back!  Ok sleepy time!  :)

So my mission to cut out FB continues strong with revamping the resume and job hunting.  After about 8 revisions, I finally got it out on Wednesday night.  It all started with my brother gutting about 70% of it and forcing me to rethink everything I've done thus far.  Something inside makes me feel positive about going through with this.  (That and the thought of more money just makes me happy in general.)  It's because I'm not going about this with the same resume I've had for years b/c come on, the corporate definition of insanity is to do the same thing over/over again and expect a different result each time.  It makes me feel good that I'm making the choice to go out and impact my life in a positive way.  We talk about things happening to us all the time but we fail to realize that a lot of things happen to us because of the choices we make.  There are very few things that we don't know how to do.  Everyday is a challenge to make the right choices/do the right thing.  Making the right small choices will lead to good things happening down the line.  (Ah, there goes the motivational speaker in me.)

ANYWAY onto less denser stuff.  I've still been watching my daily episodes of Only You on TVB satellite and I am in love with Kevin Cheng's character.  I'm at the part where he falls in love with the female lead and they're dating after bickering for the first half of the series.  It has caused me to re-think what my priorities/criteria are when boyfriend shopping and I've added one extremely important one to the list:

(On top of having instant chemistry/being really good looking) I need someone who isn't a fucking pussy when it comes to exclaiming out to the world that we're an item and won't be afraid of meeting my parents. (copied verbatim from one of my texts sent last night.)

Instant chemistry/looks would be SUFFICIENT for me to go out on dates with you but all three would be NECESSARY in order to have a RELATIONSHIP otherwise it's an instant deal breaker.  One of my guy friends describes me as one of those girls who can spot an asshole from a mile away/isn't afraid of calling people out on their shit.  I think with my mind/not my heart.  If I'm doing what's good for me, my heart will follow.  It's been 3 months since everything happened.  I made the executive decision to cut you off forever.  Granted it hurt at first but I did the right thing, it was extremely well-played, and my heart followed 3 months down the line/now I'm stronger than ever.  As long as I focus on my races, and keep job hunting, it won't be long until I get to add insult to your injury. It's the best when your friends brag about you.  I'm on my way to making more money, running my first marathon, buying my first Burberry, and being the best person I can be AFTER I left you.  Who's the idiot now?  I can tell you it ain't me.    

I'M A WEEK IN WITHOUT TOUCHING FACEBOOK!!!

I called it in the very beginning that this journey is gonna be part painful/part liberating.  It was painful for a day or two and now it's just liberating.  For starters, Sunday I was able to make it out to the woods to do a 10 mile run/jog with one of my guy friends on Sunday.  As always, it was good times.  Afterwards, we got dinner and then we did our grocery shopping together.  Would've never happened had I spent 4 hours on Facebook that day.  The fact that I haven't been sitting at the computer (ripple effect of the FB hiatus) as much makes me feel better as a person.  Like, I have a life.  I have things to do, and I'm not chained to some non-human object.  I don't base my life around the shit that really doesn't matter in the long run.  

I find it funny how I like to quit things cold turkey.  Guess I'm just that kind of girl that likes to rip the band-aids off fast.  They say it takes 3 weeks to make/break a habit.  I am gonna try incorporating other activities (i.e. GMAT studying) in place of my dramas, job hunting, and managing my time with the consistent use of a calendar so I don't feel like I'm constantly trying to stay abreast of the shit that gets thrown at me.  At this point, I'm not sure what I wanna do as far as re-introducing it back into my life.  Maybe I'll log on once a week afterwards and give myself a maximum of 10 minutes by timing myself.  Once the alarm goes off, that's it. No more Facebook till next week.  I dunno, whatever. We shall see.  :)

IN OTHER NEWS:

I'm heartbroken.  I got the news earlier in the week from my mom that Meatball's mom is moving about 2 hours away and that she won't be babysitting him anymore after today.  He's undoubtedly the cutest kid I've ever come across--evER.  3 years old, 35 pounds (36 after he weighs in WITH his clothes on before his shower, lol), and a perfectly round head supported by a tiny neck.  For me to be in love with a kid is saying a lot because I hate little kids.  On the bright side, Paul/I are taking him to Legoland, Chuck-E-Cheese today, and the toystore today.  I love how he doesn't need an Xbox or PS3.  All he needs is your attention and for you to play with him.  I find it funny that he can sit there and put a puzzle together only to take it apart and be like, 'Do again!'  I think I'll buy him a few more of those today while we're out there.  I love how he'll purposely plant himself in your lap while you're watching Tom/Jerry cartoons with him.  Or how he'll come running up to you screaming in excitement/hug your leg when you walk through the door after work.  Yeah... my whole family is in love w/him.  Today is gonna be a sad day...  

Anyway it's time to get ready for our adventure together today.  =]
 
In an attempt to end this post on a high note, I will post another YouTube video of the new song that I'm in love with.  I wanna karaoke to this below: