the trials of being a girl

so, roommate and I went and got french manicures the other night. roommate had a gift certificate that she had to use by friday and suggested we go together, which I thought was extremely generous of her. I had never had a manicure before. and, I am a nervous cuticle picker during the winter time... which basically means when I'm sitting in class and bored out of my skull I'll pick at my fingernails, so they are all ripped up and in bad shape. 45 minutes after entering the spa, my nails look fabulous and I have a new consitution to actually not pick at my nails. wonderful. but unfortunately, to keep them cute I have to put a topcoat on them every day and basically do nothing while they dry. it's kind of annoying.

So I figured that since my nails look cute I might as well dress up today. not that there's any particular reason... the people in my class and at work are either all married or all uninteresting. so I decided that instead of finding a pair of pants to wear to work I'll wear the cute jean skirt with the calf high boots. this requires me wearing stockings of some sort, because I need something between my boots and my poor feet. I realize that the stockings that I last wore with these boots had a run in them, so I threw them out. No problem. I'll just wear this nice pair of nylons that I have right here in my drawer... nope. these have a run in them too. 3 pair of nylons/thigh-highs later, I've finally found a pair with no runs. why on earth do I put them back in the drawer if they have a run in them? sometimes I'm amazed at my own stupidity. I was 20 minutes late to work because of this ordeal.

so anyways. on to important things. Tuesday was rest day. Yesterday I ran one of the biking trails at the park down the road that I had not run yet. I was planning on running through some of the horseback riding trails, but halfway through the trail I wanted to run I realized it hadn't been cleared all winter and there were trees down all over the place, basically making the path unpassible. I wasn't up for running through the swamp that surrounded the trail, so I headed back to a different trail. I think the reason why I like trail running is because it's fun, and the trails are always pretty, and there's so much less pressure to run x miles at xx:xx pace. At least, for me there's less pressure. it's just plain fun. and running should be fun, right? but I was thinking about it while I was running and it's not like I work less hard on these runs. even though I'm going slower most of the time, I'm usually working just as hard if not harder to get up the huge ass hills or to manuever around the path or jumping over fallen trees.

so that's my metacognitive-thinking-about-running-while-running blurb for the day. yesterday I got about 5.5 in on the trails. and then I scurried over to the fitness center and got some leg lifting in. I almost didn't do leg extensions, and then I decided I was being weak and that my knee would be happy with some quad strengthening.

3x10 weighted walking lunges (30 lbs)
3x10 deadlifts (40 lbs)
3x10 squats (20 lbs)
3x10 leg extensions (80 lbs)

I'm only feeling it in my ass today (which I suspect is more from walking up 6 flights of stairs in high heeled boots, but who knows) so that bodes well for my next few runs. And for upping the weight next time I lift legs. I've been going light on weight because I hadn't lifted in like 2 months. Tonight I'll cross train and lift back. it will be awesome.

In related news... roommate is back in training action! woo-hoo! she joined a gym and is working with a personal trainer with the goal (hopefully it's ok if I post this, but she made it public herself on her own blog so I think it's alright) of rocking the D this fall at the Free Press Marathon. I know that once she puts her mind to something you really can't stop her, so I'm sure she'll kick some butt this fall.