Happy Day

We celebrated my birthday at one of my favorite Cleveland restaurants, Momocho. It's owned by Eric Williams and has the best mod mex cuisine, amazing guacamole, yummy maragaritas. But the best part is dessert - the Patron XO...Mmmmm. Now that's what I call a great way to end a meal. Last year, we celebrated at his other restaurant, Happy Dog, where we enjoy hot dogs, tater tots, and tall PBRs (classy, I know). Afterwards, we all shared some red velvet cupcakes to finish off a fun night of celebrating Robin hitting another race age bracket. And hopefully the new Garmin I received for my birthday will help me kick ass in this new age bracket!

Physical Therapy: Running Analysis

What a humbling experience to undergo a running analysis - to see yourself running in slow motion. On the one hand, I can still see some MILD quad definition left over from 2 marathons, 6 half marathons and a half dozen other races during 2010. On the other hand, I can also see 3 months of a dormant running life taking its cellulite toll! Sigh, not pretty.

Turns out I have a mild care of knock knees. I actually googled this because I didn't even know if it was nock or knock. Thank goodness Google always asks, "Did you mean..." to which I am always grateful that some wiseguy geek programmer didn't write the program message with "Hey dumbass, what you really meant to ask is..." So due to my knock knee alignment, hip strengthening exercises are even more important for me. No problem - I now have a vast library of exercises to pull from!



The running analysis also revealed that my ankles roll the right amount, my heel strike is good, my arm swing and torso alignment is good (the muffin top not so good) and that I'm in the right shoe "for me." Continued work is needed on my hips as my right hip really drops everytime my left knee strikes the ground. Good news overall and I've been cleared to start running again! For the next 2 weeks, I'll follow a run/walk program, but no complaining here. I had my first "run" today with no pain and I'm over-the-top happy!

Dress You Up in My Love

If Lady Gaga can rip off Madonna, then so can I! After another hour long ride on the bike, I've decided I have to get cycling-specific bottoms. My arse is shot. I came up with my own white trash version of a chamois by rolling up a pair of my 3-year-old daughter's old sweatpants and sitting on them while biking. But then she saw them wedged between by rear and the bike seat like a bad cookie and I could see the shock and disappointment in my new invention. It's time for another Amazon package to land on my doorstep.


It's a cycling skort with a removable chamois - perfect for biking to work or biking in my basement!

Mind on My Money and Money on My Mind

My family makes fun of my inability to know song titles as well as my "creative" song lyrics.

For example, while we were in Denver a couple weeks ago, I saw a 7-11 Store across from our hotel. I turned to Greg and said there's a song with 7-11 in the lyrics. I could see the look on his face - the look of "crap, she's going to MAKE me guess this song." So I sang 7-11, 7-11 (as if that helped?!). Less than 5 minutes later, Greg shakes his head and says it's Ice Cube. Yes! Today was a good day!

So today, my daily Etsy email announcement arrived in the inbox. One of the featured artists has a sign Mind on My Money and Money on My mind. Damn. I know this. I. KNOW. THIS. but I could use Greg to confirm it, but he was in mid-air on a plane. Gotta be Dre. But knowing my history for screwing up lyrics (take me down to the bare ass city), I googled it just in case. And yes, I was right. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Now I'm off to iTunes to add this one to my running mix!

Best News from PT

Physical therapy was awesome yesterday. I totally enjoy seeing my PT each week and love that she increases the intensity of my exercises. I tried one legged squats today and can actually see the difference in my form. Best news of all, though. She told me that next week I get to run! She told me to pull my hair up in a ponytail because I'm going to sweat!!! I am over-the-top with joy. During next week's session, I'll be on the treadmill having my form critiqued. Apparently, it will be taped from several different angles and then played back to show me where my form is weak and what I'm doing wrong. I can hardly wait. I just know Tuesday night will be like the night before the first day of school - you know, when you toss and turn and can't sleep a wink. I mean, come on, running...I might actually get to start running REGULARLY again!

Hope you're having the best week ever as well!

Wonderful View from My Bike

While churning out an hour ride last night, this was my wonderful view :)

Girls with Sole Spinathon

Girls with Sole, a wonderful, local non-profit organization, conducted a spinathon today at Euphoria Fitness Center. I was lucky enough to reserve a bike for the 2:00 p.m. spin class led by my friend and spin instructor extraordinaire, Karen. What a fanastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon! I sweated what felt like a gallon of water while enjoying new tunes. Best of all, I left with a CD of the music - so cool! Way to go Karen for donating your time for such a good cause!

And congratulations to my sister-in-law Kim who finished her first 10k post-baby! Woohoo - and a great one to choose - the Sedona 10k! Way to go, Kim!