Because coffee is its own food group…

Have you ever had a week where you are pretty sure that without coffee you would have fallen asleep standing up? This was definitely one of those weeks. I’ve been really good at getting a decent amount of sleep lately, until this week. The combination of a short month (which meant cramming my usual number of miles and usual work hours into fewer days) plus Beer Geek being on travel (so there was no one to tell me to go to bed) meant I saw 1am on the clock every night this week. Oops. Good thing I recently got a coffee delivery and have enough to keep ALL of us awake now.  Anyways, I’m joining up with my friends Deborah and Coco for a virtual coffee date as well as linking up with  Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for Friday Five 2.0.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that March is definitely coming in like a lion. They are projecting wind gusts in the 50-70 mph range tomorrow. Somehow, this is often when crazy weather hits – we’ve had snow and ice as a frequent introduction to March. Looks like I’ll be hitting the treadmill as I have no desire to be blown to Kansas on my run, plus we’ll be sleeping in the basement tomorrow night. Fingers crossed all the huge oak trees surrounding our house stay where they are. At least I don’t have to run 12 miles on the treadmill like I did one March…

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I recently got chosen to be a Beta Reader for a book coming out by an author I enjoy. It’s for a book in the Indigo Bay series by Jean Oram. (OK, now you know I like to read romances when my brain needs a break. I happen to love her Blueberry Springs series.) I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about the book, but as a Beta Reader, I get to help catch inconsistencies in the plot, the descriptions, and the character behavior. As a voracious reader and librarian, this is right up my alley. (And no, I don’t get paid. I just get to read for free.)

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that Jones won first place in the botany category at his high school science fair, so he goes to the regional science fair this weekend. I got to spend most of my day on Thursday trying to find him a sports coat. I always thought Men’s Wearhouse was supposed to have reasonably priced stuff, but when the only jacket I liked in his size was $799 (yes, just the jacket) it was apparent I was in the wrong store. Thankfully, Kohl’s did not let me down and I scored two sport coats for him and one was on clearance for $22.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I am so excited for next weekend. I head down to Austin for ZOOMA for 3 days and can not wait. It’s been a while since I traveled by myself, so I’m planning to fill my phone with books for the plane ride and pretend I’m on vacation. I know I’ll be working hard while I’m down there, but it’s going to be a super fun event and I get to run the race so win/win. It’s awesome having a job doing something I love.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m finishing up my second session of the Faster Way to Fat Loss program. This program has done some amazing things for my body. I’m seeing muscles I haven’t seen in ages and all of my clothes fit so much better. I’m moving on to their “graduate” program because I’m ready to start running more again. Now I just have to figure out how to train with lower mileage than I always used to do. I don’t have the time to run my old mileage while I’m cross training plus that much working out sounds like a recipe for overtraining. There will be no Hansons in my life this year. Fingers crossed that I can maintain my newfound gains (losses?) and still manage to get back into long distance running.

How is your March starting? Are you being hit with crazy weather too?