Goodbye College Years...

Those were my thoughts a couple Sundays ago, when I was looking at my "Ruby" red 3-door saturn that I've had since my college days and gawking over the pearly white CT200h Lexus sitting next to it. Yes folks, that Sunday was a big day. I turned in the keys for my saturn, which served me well, and signed myself away for a 5 year loan on a new Lexus hybrid hatchback.

I have to admit...it was hard. I know it's just a car, but it's only the second car I've had in my entire life of driving; and I drove it for the past 10 years. And, the little red saturn was a very generous gift from my parents, which I'm so grateful for (both the Parents and Ruby).

Ruby, as she was named quite appropriately by my friend Angela, took me a lot of places and has filled me with a lot of memories......

Back and forth 180 miles (roundtrip) approximately every other weekend in college (go dawgs!) to either visit my parents or the Techie boyfriend (now husband)

Several parking tickets...Ruby was red. What can I say. She wasn't hard to miss.

My first solo vacation with a boy (now husband)

Road trips galore:
~Texas, New Orleans, Florida (this was all one trip)
~Montreal, CANADA! for Jazz Fest, which included stops in Hershey, PA; the Adirondacks; Montreal - of course; Toronto; Niagra Falls (both sides); and Ohio, where I saw the prettiest sunset I've ever seen, believe it or not, on Lake Erie.

~Florida several times more
~Cinncinatti, OH with Angela for Gena's 30th, which included repeat stops, coming and going, at McAlister's Deli for oversized, stuff-your-face, loaded baked potatoes

Singing and dancing in the car with girlfriends.

Riding around, just to listen and not miss the monumental sports cast when the dawgs beat the gators for the first time, in who knows how long.

My first real "moving" accident: being rear-ended by a Blazer with Juno ending up in the front seat with me. Luckily no injuries. (Side note and reference to the "moving" accident: the car before Ruby unfortunately had to experience the inexperienced driver's utmost assurance that she wouldn't hit the lawnmower in the garage; I never said depth of field was my forte.)

And so on....{sigh}

But, most importantly, I always got to where I was going.

109k miles strong, Ruby's waiting for new adventures. And new adventures await me with the CT200 Hybrid, which gets 43 City and 40 Highway. It actually charges the battery when you brake!

Luxury combined with being green. It doesn't get much better than that. And, I'm kind of a hippy at heart. I love planet earth.

So here's saying my goodbyes to Ruby and hello to [insert name] Lexus...we'll see how you hold up to her.

The "run" down

So this week was a good week for running with my new shoes! At least that's what I'm saying made the difference.

3rd Run. Tuesday, August 16th was successful! I made it all the way...full 3.1 miles. My goal was to just go the 5k path we've mapped out around our neighborhood and make it up the first big hill in the last mile. But, at 65 degrees F and low humidity (plus new running shoes), a little extra endurance seemed to be on my side. All in just 35 minutes. I was happy.

4th Run. Thursday, August 18th...can I say this?...Damn, I hate humidity. It was low 70's with a lot more humidity, and I was sweating like I just took a shower. I did make it all 3.1 miles again (yay!), but it was harder this morning. And, I really hate that last mile. Here's how it goes....first mile (for me anyways) always sucks. Just hate it. Going into the second mile, I start to feel good. That last third with 3 intense hills...h-a-t-e...i-t!!! Time. 40 minutes today. But, I felt good when it was over. (Of course!) No, but really, it feels like I accomplish something before the day gets going and that is rewarding.

Tomorrow...leg workout, and then off to Vegas baby! Something tells me working out in Sin City is going to be hard. But I will try to be good ;-) ...technically, I still need to get one more run in this week.

5k Race: 23 days and counting.

Trials and Tribulations: 5k here I come

So, we started running and working-out upon returning from our vacation in Serbia, as we ate way too much! I will come back to this in future posts.

And our neighbor put a little bug in our ears last weekend...you should run a 5k. And what do you know? There is one coming up September 10th that is supposed to be downhill; at least that's how it's being marketed. I will let you know. I have suspicions that it's not as easy as it sounds, since the guy told me today when I was buying new shoes that it actually is up and down. Oh boy!

We did sign up...and I think it's a good goal and motivator to keep running and push myself a little more every time; because, I sure don't want to be the last one coming across the finish line. (Shh...honestly, that's my worst fear. But, if that does happen, it won't be the end of the world.)

So, the goal is to run at least 3 times a week, on a 5k path, and push myself a little farther each time.

Tuesday, August 9th. First Run equalled disaster. I tried to keep up with my husband, and I was tired less than a half mile in. Not the right pace for me. I slowed down to find my pace but I was pretty much off for the rest of the run. I think I did a 2.8 mile path that evening. Definitely not running the whole time.

Thursday, August 11th. Second run was a much needed improvement. Mainly for my morale, since Tuesday's run was so bad. Also, this was at 6:30am in the morning, and the weather was much more pleasant. Still humid though. I think I like running in the mornings better anyway...it's quiet and its all my time. No one else interupting my thoughts. However, my body disagrees when the alarm goes off. Anyway, this time, I was able to make 2.33 miles running at my pace, which might be slow, but I don't care; I'm just proud of myself for making it that far. Two weeks ago, I couldn't run that far.

So technically, I only ran twice this week. But we are interchanging our runs with this crazy thing called P90X for strength. (I don't like this program...it's evil!) Hence, why we didn't run today, Saturday, Augst 13th...because I can barely move my legs and butt after yesterday's workout.

I did by new shoes today, so I kind of ran (maybe for 4 minutes total). They have a treadmill at this store...Big Peach Running Co., so you can actually test out the different shoes. I definitely recommend. But yikes, there is no discount on these shoes! I guess a few less dollars is better than achy, or achier feet and legs.

So here I go...5k ready or not.

Back to Blogging

So...I took a little hiatus, but I'm back with lots to share.

But first, just one of the adorable little creatures I met this summer!

you gotta love that slight curl of a smile