Vegetable noodles: my current obsession

That, my friends, is a bowl of deliciousness. Zucchini noodles with onion and green pepper topped with marinara and turkey meatballs.

I am obsessed with that Veggetti thing. All I can think about is shredding more vegetables into noodles. Ok, so maybe that's all I think about at meal times, but still. I love that vegetable spiral shredder. 

I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of zucchini that way this year. That makes me really miss my garden.

Have you found any fun kitchen products lately?

Dog runs, errands, and wrenches.

The day started waiting for comcast... Ugh. Never fun. But as soon as that was done, I took each dog for a run. They all ended up exhausted.

Fergie was tired even hough she only gets a half mile walk for my cool down. Those little Bassett legs just can't quite run wih me, but a good walk suits her just fine.

After that, I had my husband's blessing to go get clip in pedals and shoes for my bicycle. Yay!

I thought I could change them myself, and I know how to do it, but the darn things are stuck.

As in, I took a rubber mallet to them and everything stuck. Stuck, stuck, STUCK.

Guess what my husband gets to do tomorrow? :D 

The highlight of the frustrating day was when it turned around with his- a Vegetti! It turns vegetables into "noodles." I shredded a zucchini and cooked it in chicken broth for a tasty side dish. It was easy and yummy, so it's a win!

 Upside/downsides to your day? I almost forgot the best one- I cured Matty's upset stomach (complete with constant dog I-am-about-to-puke-on-your-shoes-drool) with a half mile walk. No puke and a little extra activity is a double win!

Life in limbo

Lately, life has involved a lot of naps (since these guys think 6 am is the perfect time to wake up every day)...

...and just hanging around with Mom...

...and some runs, often with the dogs (and hating the random coooold mornings we are still having!)...

And more naps.

Exciting, huh?

What's going on in your world?

Homeless

Well, it's official. We no longer own a home. We are temporarily staying with my mom, until a time TBD (after the Husbeast is out of the first parts of training).

This has meant many adjustments, including getting the dogs calmed down and used to my mom's house as home.

At least they seem to have taken to the new eating scheduled:

It takes a little refereeing to make sure Turd Ferguson, my mom's Bassett hound, doesn't eat everyone else's food like a vacuum.

I've been taking at least one dog for a short run most mornings. The biggest adjustment for me is figuring out where I can run! But, I know have a 1.5 mile path for taking a dog, and 2 mile path, and I will keep exploring to get my runs done.

Moving: on a scale of one to ten, how much do you loathe it? The packing and loading of a truck drives me crazy, especially when people offer to help but then refuse to listen.... Ugh. Thank goodness it's all done!

How NOT to run a marathon (Circular Logic Recap)

DON'T
1. Don't make your single longest run only 13.31 miles, with the other "long runs" more like 9. Or 8. Or 6.5... (I could blame this craptastic winter, but the fault lies with my own will. I choose not to run long in the brutal cold or on the treadmill).

2. Don't stay up late the night before. Even if it's the first time you've really had a good conversation with your husband in a while, he'll understand. Definitely don't stay up past midnight, and then get up at 4 am.

3. Don't forget to factor in wind when you get dressed. It's not going to warm up as much as you hope, you fool.

4. Don't quit. 8 miles in, when you have to put the extra shirt back on that you had just taken off a mile ago, and you are so cold and grumpy (but somehow still smiling), don't quit. Even when you run within 10 feet of your car. DO NOT QUIT. (taking extra bathroom breaks in the heated bathroom is perfectly acceptable, though)

DO
1. Do remember to smile.

See the ponytail? WIND. Stupid, stupid wind.

2. Keep smiling 6 miles later.

3. It's ok to tell a volunteer you're "full of four-letter words" when you are 23 miles in and so undertrained, especially if you're still smiling.

4. And when you finish, do remember why you run. For me, it's all about fun. And since every photo taken of me had at least half a smile that day, I can overlook being undertrained, miserable in the cold wind, and the fact that my legs are still swollen 2 days later. It's hard to explain to non-runners how I could be so miserable and still be having so much fun, but that's the magic of running.

Marathon #5 took 5 hours, 31 minutes and change. That's my second slowest time, but all things considered for the day, I feel like finishing is winning. 

That makes 7 races at marathon distance or longer. It will probably have to stay that way for at least the remainder of the year with all the moving coming up (and that silly promise I made to my husband about training for half marathons or less while he's gone). But, I am excited to run 2 half marathons coming up (Carmel and the Indy Mini). As the year reveals itself, I hope to add a few more.

What's your worst race experience? This was definitely my worst marathon. But if the worst marathon still had me grinning, I'd say a bad run beats a good day in office!

Have you ever DNF? DNS? I thought about quitting, more than I care to admit. I do not tolerate a cold wind at all. I couldn't get warm until I stopped by my car towards the end (and resisted temptation to get in and leave) and grabbed my winter fleece jacket to run the last 3 laps. 

I better get back to packing. Any moving tips? Seriously. Want to come help me pack? When I'm unsupervised, I tend to pack a box and then "oooooo, look at this, let's do something completely irrelevant for the rest of the day...."

Money-saving habits and tips

How is this related to running, you ask? More money leftover in the budget means more race fees!

1. Buy cheaper paper towel. Do you really need paper towel that can hold a bowling ball? Chance are, you don't. And if you are not using the paper towel for washing dishes, you don't need quintillion layered, super quilted, fairy dust coated paper towel.

But I do not recommend buying the cheapest, either. There is a nice midgrade range of paper towel (I personally love Aldi paper towel that comes in a three pack for $1.49). It will hold up to light counter scrubbing and cleans windows well, and functions as a great napkin, too.

2. Speaking of napkins.... Why not use your paper towel? Eliminate redundancies. Do you really need napkins? Two separate paper products when one can function for them both? I get it for special occasions. They look cute. But I would lean toward fabric reusable napkins for holidays anyway, which, if you buy (or make!!) in a solid color, can function well beyond a single holiday. Two sets of fabric napkins will work for every holiday- red for Valentine's Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and green for St. Paddy's, Easter, Mardi Gras, and (since it often has the most) added to the red for Christmas.

Here's another bonus for paper towels: they don't blow away when you take the roll out to the patio for a cookout!

3. My personal favorite: buy in bulk.

My mom refuses to buy cheaper paper towel. Refuses. So what did I do today?

I showed her how she could save $14 by purchasing paper towel and toilet paper in large quantities- even with buying the expensive brands! By driving 10 minutes further to a big box store, she saved that much. Plus, as a bonus, there was an additional $5 coupon if you sent a text, so I showed her how to retrieve that, too. Yep, that means by purchasing in larger quantities she saved $19! Crazy. I have ran a few smaller 5ks for that price!

What is your favorite money-saving tip?

Cheapest race you've ran? Besides the free 5ks on base, I ran a race in Denver, Indiana for $12. That was with a soft cotton tee, too!

Apologies

It's about to get quiet here. Two weeks until we move, a full marathon Saturday, followed by a 10 mile the next weekend and a half the weekend following...

Things are busy. Crazy. But good.

So it will be quiet around here. 

I promise I will try to at least share a few finishing photos from the races coming up.

Come mid-April, I will be back. Living with Mum. THAT will be it's own type of adventure.