30-something problems

Weekly Therapy: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

- Mel

the week:
Is anyone else having a mild freakout over the fact that Christmas is less than 10 days away? Not only is it beginning to LOOK a lot like Christmas, it’s starting to feel like it with the sub-freezing temperatures and snow warnings. Since the Hitchcock half marathon last weekend (and after training for multiple races since July), I’m on a little recovery period from running — likely through Christmas. Though I’m already feeling really antsy about not running, naturally.

weekend:
NOTHING.

I mean, it will include a lot of fleece and hot chocolate and being very near a heating vent, but… with way below negative temps expected, I don’t intend to do much of anything.

seven things, seven days:
1. So there’s a company locally that puts up Christmas lights, and we hired them to decorate our house. It makes me smile with glee every time I pull into my driveway.
2. I lucked out on a one-day sale online and scored a j crew handbag at 40% off (a little xmas gift to myself).
3. Had a wonderful holiday gathering at Alba this week — an excellent restaurant in the East Village.
4. We got an invite to a special preview of the new Star Wars. I got to meet R2D2! I’ve never been to a Star Wars opening night, so that was exciting!
5. Really interesting insight into achieving what’s really important to you: The difference between goals and systems. {via James Clear}
6. When it comes to success, age is just a number. Bottom line: NEVER give up. {via NYT Science}
7. How to run 100 miles. OH, IS THAT ALL. {via Red Bulletin}

Weekly Therapy: Take the risk or lose the chance

- Mel

take-the-risk-or-lose-the-chance

Something about this quote hit me in a good spot this week. I’m feeling feisty.

the week:
Was this the longest of the long weeks? Maybe because of the impending time change that made it feel so long? It was long. The end.

weekend:
Half marathon #8 — the Hillbilly Hike in Carlisle, Iowa. I’m ready for a legit Fall run; alas, it’s going to be 70 degrees and I’ll be wearing my #favoriteshorts again.

Perfect bonfire weather at night though, which I have one of those parties waiting for me Saturday night. Sunday, I’m trying out a new brunch place with a friend.

seven things, seven days:
1. Sad about the Indians loss. But it was such a great Series, wasn’t it?
2. I came home Friday to a yard and front porch decorated in Cubs stuff. SOMEONE in this household lost a bet. -_-
3. How to overcome fear… without jumping off a cliff. {via A Daring Adventure}
4. What happens to your body when you stop exercising? {via Peak Fitness}
5. MERP.
6. DON’T RUN ANGRY! Welp. {via NYT}
7. The biggest money mistakes we make by decade {via WSJ}

Weekly Therapy: 9-02 Oh, hey. It’s September!

- Mel

the week:
LADIES. I went shopping at Target for new underwear because it was time, and I bought 9 pairs — various prints, but staying with the briefs and boy-leg cuts; Target has a new women’s underwear brand (since I shopped last) and bonus: 5 pairs for $20 (don’t remind me that I bought 9 pairs and not 10). NOT ONE SINGLE PAIR fits around my butt cheeks. I spent most of my week picking underwear fabric out of my ass. How is this even my real life right now. NOT ALL SIZE 2s HAVE FLAT BUTTS. #30somethingproblems

But seriously serious: did my butt grow so much after only 6 weeks of half marathon training?

weekend:
THREE DAY WEEKEND — WOOOOOO! Saturday is the Madrid Miler Race (I’m doing the 5-mile distance), Sunday is a recovery day (brunch, probably), and Monday I’m going trail skating with some derby peeps. Super pumped about this weekend!

seven things, seven days:
1. I won a book giveaway on Goodreads! I get so many giveaway notifications from their site that I thought that didn’t happen to real people. FUN!
2. I stayed up until after midnight last night to register for a race. Hashtag, runner problems? But I’m in for the Hitchcock Half in December!
3. We’re booked for the next Rock Boat, and Sixthman announced Dexter Freebish was coming back to the line-up and AHHHHHHHHH I AM SO EXCITE!
4. I’ve been training with my new Aftershokz Trekz Titanium Pink, and I’m really digging the cord-free run lifestyle, you guys.
5. I should find out soon if I got the job that I interviewed for (my current job, nonetheless) – and these are some annoying reasons why runners make good employees. 😉 {via Women’s Running}
6. I don’t put much stock into into the MBTI (it’s all in good fun though, right?), but this article typed me appropriately: How Each Myers-Briggs Type Reacts to Stress {via Psychology Junkie}
7. You have not expired: What we know about aging athletes. {via Pacific Standard}

Sunday Lately for this 30-Something:: Week 84

- Mel

Blogger Tribe_Sunday Lately

Hey, guys! I took a couple weeks off my Sunday posts, but I’m back with Week 84.

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (lead by Angelica, Meghan, Nicole, and Katy) where everyone is welcome to pop a tent and share some S’mores. Catch up and read all of my Sunday Lately posts and camp out with the Tribe on Facebook

Today’s prompt:: Updating, Remembering, Needing, Wearing, Being

Updating:: Since I’ll be traveling back to Ohio for my grandmother’s memorial service, we’ve updated our travel plans to fly home from Pittsburgh — so we can spend a night there and visit some friends. I’ll be looking for my old running buddies!

Remembering:: my Vitamin D3 supplements. Since establishing new care here in Iowa, I had new bloodwork done, and I’m back to where I’ve started being SUPER low and requiring high daily IUs. Changing my diet hasn’t helped, supplements didn’t work last year either until I increased to 5000 IUs per day (which has its own risks and wasn’t sustainable) — and spending additional time in the sun isn’t recommended given my skin’s preference for burning and my history of skin cancer. But I’m giving the daily a go again, particularly because I’m nervous about being active and the supposed increased risk of stress fractures.

Needing:: to get my butt moving here, and get my long run done. I’ve got six miles staring back at me today. Time to load up on breakfast foods!

Wearing:: With the hype and fanfare of the Olympics right now, I feel like wearing one of my running medals all of the time. Just me?

Being:: super annoyed at the instability of my internet connection this weekend. While it only goes down for a handful of seconds (once, for about five minutes), it’s frustrating when you want to get stuff done. We’ve reset and recycled it this morning, so hopefully the intermittent outages be gone. At least I finally got this post done!

Sunday Lately for this 30-Something:: Week 79

- Mel 2 Comments

Blogger Tribe_Sunday Lately Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (lead by Angelica, Meghan, Nicole, and Katy). Catch up and read all of my past Sunday Lately posts and camp out with the Tribe on Facebook!

The prompts for July 03 (Week 79) :: Updating, Remembering, Needing, Wearing, Being

Des Moines Arts Festival blogger
Enjoying a vodka lemonade at last weekend’s Arts Festival (in a perfect-length maxi dress that I got from StitchFix!)

Updating:: my shampoo. Random response to this prompt, but I finally consulted a hairdresser for help with my scalp. I get the worst acne — washing my hair every day isn’t helping to get rid of these painful pimples (neither was NOT washing every day). So I was recommended a product to help balance, and, hopefully, help me out with this 30-something problem.

Remembering:: Well, trying not to remember that we were supposed to be in Belize right now. While we ultimately made the correct (adult) decision to cancel the trip, my friends are still there and I’m feeling kinda bummed out about it.

Needing:: some time off, despite our trip cancellation. How convenient that I kept this week off? 🙂 I was incredibly lucky to get a job so quickly after relocating, but I still have some unfinished business from moving. Also, can you believe that we’re closing on FOUR MONTHS of living in Iowa?! I still haven’t got my new ID here yet!

Wearing:: SWEATPANTS. After having 90+ days for most of June, this weekend’s temperatures in the 60s feel like winter. I’m not mad — it’s going to be gorgeous fireworks weather. Bonus: last night, I watched FIVE DIFFERENT displays from my bedroom window. Monday is going to be so awesome.

Being:: completely obsessed with the Olympic Trials. Did you watch Michael Phelps swim last night?

Accountability Monday: 06/20-06/26

- Mel

Well, my burpees streak came to an end on Tuesday. I laid in bed that night thinking that I could quickly get in 20… but I was mentally and physically exhausted. My new job role has kind of sapped my energy as of late. And then over the weekend, I was playing with the cat on the floor, pushed myself up (think: regular ol’ pushup position) and felt my entire chest pop and tear (I know that I’m being hyperbolic, but definitely something got tweaked something awful). It was on fire for a couple hours afterward, too.

This is some 30-something realness for you: Getting injuries doing something completely unrelated to working out.

In any event, I continued with my overall consistency goal of running three times per week (hooray!). And here are the other weekly goals that I completely failed on (boo!): 108 Sun Salutations for Summer Solstice (I never had time to commit to a 4-hour marathon session yoga mala), take a new class (this was my rain plan for Saturday… and we ended up not getting any rain that day!), ride my bike over the weekend (uh… we opted for Sunday Lazy; except I did run before bed) and keep the burpees streak going (nope).

I’m really disappointed that I didn’t do my sun salutations because I really enjoyed the purpose and ritual that I got from doing them last year (also, OMG last year at this time I was in my marathon training!).

Anyway, I had to laugh at this: Why Summer Makes Us Lazy because HAAAAAAAAAA.

MONDAY: REST (dinner plans after work with boyfriend’s colleagues)

TUESDAY: I took my second golf lesson, which started off almost as terribly as the first. My instructor had to correct a few things with my swing and follow-through, and I was hitting a little better. But then she put a driver in my hand, and I just lost my focus to frustration.

WEDNESDAY: My weekly 15-minute run and hour of hot yoga combo at LifeTime. I didn’t really connect with the flow this week. Meh.

THURSDAY: REST

FRIDAY: The truth is, I wanted to work out in the morning because we had plans to go down to the Arts Festival after work, but… I just haven’t got to a point where I can function that early yet. REST (And some vodka lemonades. And a reminder to not schedule workouts yet for the morning because I won’t wake up.)

SATURDAY: I ran for 20 minutes, did 20 burpees, and then my Strong & Fast workout from Runner’s World that I typically do on Sundays. For this run, I did a little jaunt through Prague via my treadmill. I know that it’s been 10 years since I’ve been there IRL, but holy moly I don’t remember it being so hilly!

Later in the afternoon, we went to the driving range so I could practice what I learned in my lesson this week. Again, I am just overly frustrated and letting it get to me (but I did end with three really good shots with my driver, to end my practice!).

SUNDAY: I wasn’t going to let myself fail on ALL FIVE of my goals, so I ran 2 miles before bed to get my third run in for the week. I thought it would be best to take a day off from suspension training due to my chest tweak.

Goals for this week:

  • Keeping the consistency going: Run three times!
  • Take a new class (yes, recycling this one from last week). I’ll be at LifeTime for a massage on Saturday, so it just makes sense to take a class while I’m there.
  • Do you know that I’ve been running on my treadmill all this time? Well, this week, I’m taking one of my runs outside!
  • Adding to the above, I’m joining one of the local running groups for a social run!
  • Plan my vacation workouts! I’m going on a short road trip after the 4th, and I want to schedule my runs while I’m visiting two new cities: Know anyone that likes to run (or a run club) in Omaha or Kansas City?

Weekly Therapy: 49 weeks left in my 30s

- Mel

the week:
Friday’s Weekly Therapy was disrupted by OUR FIRST IOWA VISITORS!

weekend:
The boyfriend’s parents spent the holiday weekend with us, and we explored some fun things in Des Moines — the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday and Iowa Cubs game on Sunday were big highlights. We definitely crossed a few items off of our Iowa Bucket List!

Mel with Iowa Cubby Bear Des Moines

I get an extra (unpaid, unfortunately) day off today, and we’ll be spending our free afternoon on the golf course with some friends. I’M DRIVING! 😉

It looks like the rain is holding off until tomorrow, too — yay!

seven things, seven days:
1. This article spoke right to my soul: Why some people find crowded cities relaxing — and others don’t. I’m definitely in that latter category! Constant horn honking is decidedly UN-relaxing to me. {via City Lab}
2. I ordered fried chicken tenders in a restaurant this weekend AND THEY WERE GLUTEN FREE. Imagine that, a food place that uses gluten-free breading for all its fry stuff. OMG, going here forever.
3. 7 ways to re-motivate yourself at work {via Entrepreneur}
4. UGH. The foul reign of the biological clock {via The Guardian}
5. I know that I’ve always hated the reference to derby “girls” but this goes much deeper by way of books What does it mean when we call women “girls” {via LitHub}
6. I don’t consider myself a Millennial, but if you’re in your early 30s, you may: The anxiety of the Millennials {via Huffington Post}
7. A good run is always amazing: Neurologists explain the mind-clearing magic of running {via Science of Us}

Sunday Lately for this 30-Something:: Week 67

- Mel 2 Comments

Blogger Tribe_Sunday Lately It’s Sunday morning and the Blogger Tribe is collectively sharing their Sunday Lately posts. Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (lead by Angelica, Meghan, Nicole, and Katy). The prompts for April 10 (Week 67), are:: Doing, Appreciating, Designing, Humming, Expecting. Read my past Sunday Lately posts and join camp with the Tribe!

Doing:: Um… my taxes. Talk about last minute!

Appreciating:: Is it terrible of me to appreciate that I’m not in Pittsburgh or Cleveland right now dealing with all that snow? (It’s going to be in the 60s here today.) 😛 #sorrynotsorry

Designing:: Today, we finally are getting some of our artwork up on the walls. I’ve been planning out the wall designs in my head (and positioning frames in rooms where I think things will work). But the real design test will be limiting the number of holes in the drywall when inevitably, I change my mind.

Humming:: Did you watch the American Idol finale? In one of the medleys (with previous contestants), they sang Meghan Trainor’s song “NO.” That was the first time that I’d heard it, and, well, I’m obsessed.

PS: I haven’t watched American Idol in YEARS, but fun fact: I worked behind-the-scenes during Season 4’s Cleveland auditions (I think it was 2005). It’s pretty cool to have been part of such a historical show — I mean, look how many talent reality TV programs exist now!

Expecting:: Another crazy week! But once again, my weekly goals include keeping on a regular workout schedule. Having a treadmill at home now, I’m hoping to use before work a couple times per week.

Weekly Therapy: Found somewhere in between boxes and cat toys.

- Mel

the week:
Movers delivered everything on Monday. New sectional was delivered on Tuesday. Piano tuner was here on Wednesday. I had an interview on Thursday. Errands to run and dinner plans on Friday. This was a little look into how my week was thus far. And a headache today, to boot. I have probably also had too much wine this week.

I have no clue what this label is supposed to mean. ?

A photo posted by Melinda (@melliesmel) on

weekend:
Well, because all of our stuff showed up and I want to get my house in order, I’ll be opening a lot of boxes and trying to clear out my garage! It’s also Easter, and since we won’t be traveling back to Ohio, we’ll be making our traditional foods and having our own fun little dinner party on Sunday.

And there’s still a chance that we might get into downtown. And maybe I’ll actually be able to settle into start a workout routine. I’ll definitely need to open up a new bank account, however.

seven things, seven days:
1. I gained five pounds already. :-/
2. Found a few broken items from the move, but nothing really to make a big fuss (or claim) over.
3. Have I mentioned how windy it is here? It’s really windy. And the thunderstorms are no joke.
4. I also experienced the first statewide weather alarm testing, which… blblblblblblblbbllbbl. OMG. I had no idea it was a random mid-week testing — it’s usually done on a Saturday. I freaked. the eff. out.
5. How much of our personality are we “stuck” with and how much can we change after 30? {via Science of Us}
6. Oooof, adding to the reproducibility crisis in the field of psychology — new research on the theory of ego depletion {via Slate}
7. On “idea debt” and procrastination and such: Stop thinking, start doing {via The Guardian}.

Weekly Therapy: So long. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehn. Goodbye, Pittsburgh.

- Mel 1 Comment

the week:
Lots of “lasts” in Pittsburgh this week — last spin class at the Y with my girl Kylee, last run//yoga//run//club at Urban Elements with my tribe, last drink at the Pub (and my favorite salad in this city), last run through the Point (but definitely not the last cry), last massage (I’ve been seeing the same massotherapist for over 3 years!), last walk into downtown. People keep asking if I’m nervous (I’m not); I’m positively excited and anxious to get to my new home. That doesn’t take away at all from my amazing experience living in Pittsburgh for the last 5.5 years — I’ll miss the hell out of this place. And the reality of moving away from some wonderful friends struck me kinda hard this week.

Also, if you need to know the best (read: my favorite) place to cry in Pittsburgh, it’s at the Point, near the fountain at the top of the stairs… looking back out at the city. I don’t know how or why I always end up there when I’m feeling really freaking sad, but it’s become a special place for me.

30something_point state park Pittsburgh
Bye, ‘Burgh!

weekend:
Tonight is the last night in our Pittsburgh house, and we leave first thing in the morning. *waves*

By Sunday Lately, I’ll be publishing from Iowa!

seven things, seven days:
1. I’m a huge fan of overnight fridge oats, and this week I made a couple with the flavor packs that I received from Devotion Nutrition — swapping out my usual maple syrup for coconut biscotti and banana fosters Flex Flavors. SO GOOD.
2. I continue to get regular massages because my left IT band is almost always tight – and my shoulders and my glutes. But at this week’s appointment, my hip flexors are really messed up. Read: need to find a way to stretch my psoas? WHOOF.
3. Um, I intentionally and willingly ate gluten for the first time in over two years. (And the carrot cake cupcake was DELICIOUS.) So… I’ll be watching for any symptoms for a few days. I definitely got a headache that night, but it didn’t linger.
4. Speaking of all things gluten and not: I found a gluten-free bakery (donuts!!!) within walking (running?) distance of my new house.
5. I’m on the job hunt, so this article was incredibly eye-opening!: A top recruiter on what anyone can see after 30 seconds with your resume {via Quartz}
6. “Here’s the awesome thing about making choices and decisions – we get to make them. we get to decide and then change our mind when circumstance change. ” YES YES YES, ALL OF THIS, YES! Procreation Choices {via The New Wifestyle}
7. Good reference for any age group: 30-somethings should be doing a mix of interval training and lifting heavy weights — The best exercise for your age {via Huffington Post}