Random Thoughts & Observations from This Weekend

• Friends don't let friends eat just vegetables for dinner and then go out drinking
• Wearing blue lululemon pants to Barry's Bootcamp is a bad idea unless you think looking like you peed your pants is cool (insert Billy Madison joke here)
• On the flip side the lululemon "free to be tank" makes me look like I have some sort of a chest
• Bison meat is awesome
• I'm not sure how I feel about the HBO show Girls. It kind of makes me hate myself because I can relate to a lot of the twenty something, entitled, white girl problems the characters have
• The phrase "WTFuck" is going to totally catch on
• I want to be best friends with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
• Most of my northerner friends that live in Nashville have totally turned into cold weather wimps,  including myself
• If how quickly you fill out a 1040 EZ tax form was an indication on how well you'd do in life, I'd be a giant failure. Don't judge me because I finally gave up and made my mom do it
• I could listen to the new will.i.am and Britney (bitch) jam on repeat for days
• Finally, my designer friends were right, my blog looks much better with a white background

Morning Routine

Lately I have been a really big fan of routine. Don't get me wrong, I like being spontaneous and flying by the seat of my pants when it's appropriate, but in the mornings during the week if I decide to stray from my routine, I feel so lost the rest of the day.

Around 6-6:15ish, Farley, the man in my life, wakes up, which means I wake up because if he's not pawing my face to get me out of bed, he's pawing/biting my weave (which hurts really bad). By 7:00 Farley has gone outside (usually more than once), eaten his breakfast and I'm ready to go workout. I'm at CrossFit Cool Springs by 7:30, James' WOD kicks my ass and by 8:45, I'm back home.

Farley is going to be 70 pounds when he grows up. I think I'm going to need a bigger bed

Here's where things get all Groundhog Day, for the past three months I have made the same damn thing for breakfast everyday and I am totally fine with it. I have been known to get on breakfast kicks and previous kicks have included Nature's Path Buckwheat Wildberry Waffles, a protein shake made with Fagi 0%, whey protein and almond milk, last but not least, my college favorite, a Clif Bar (I still kind of gag when I eat them now because I must have eaten thousands of them when I was in college). Since I'm doing the whole paleo thing now, my current breakfast kick is two eggs scrambled with two teaspoons of olive oil and two slices of turkey bacon...I make a third slice to give to Farley and his sister Ellie.

Farley and Ellie are your best friends when you have bacon in your hands

Here's the thing that blows my mind about my two eggs two turkey bacon thing, the whole meal is 293 calories and I don't get hungry until around lunchtime. With my previous breakfast kicks, I was starving around 10 and if I didn't have a snack, by lunch, I was ready to kill someone (no joke, when I lived in Chicago, there were times when I was this close to killing those stupid tourists who walk slowly up and down Michigan Ave blocking the entire sidewalk so no one can get by). Here's the thing, apparently the combination of a meal of protein and fat keeps you satisfied longer than a meal of just carbs. So all those years of eating countless boxes of waffles for breakfast, I was doing myself a disservice and I should have added some peanut butter or a glass of 2% milk with it. Oh the things you learn as you get older.

I probably should just buy myself a chicken at this point to save some money on store bought eggs

Since we're on the topic of food, I am currently obsessed with this blueberry muffin recipe I got off of PaleOMG. My dad and CrossFit coach James are also obsessed.

James may or may not have eaten six of these yesterday

You Eat No Meat?! That's Okay, I Make Lamb

Hi my name is Jillian and I am a carnivore.

Yeah, so what? Well, for years I cheered for team vegetarian and after thinking long and hard about my diet, I decided to cross over to the dark side and start eating meat again. 

In college I had the privilege of being an intern for one of the Prime Minster of Ireland's cabinet members and during my free time at the office (nerd alert), I learned a lot about EU food policies and the more I learned the more I became disgusted with how the FDA and the US government turn a blind eye to things such as GMOs, pesticides and the overall health and wellbeing of the average American. I was especially outraged about factory farms and how the meat that no one thinks twice about putting on their dinner table and feeding to their kids are pumped with growth hormones and antibiotics that are, to be very blunt, fucking up our health as a nation, as well as the environment. Armed with this information, I decided that when I came back to the States I was going to cut out all meat in my diet as a way to become a healthier person, as well as only buy bath, body, hair and makeup products that do not contain harsh chemicals, preservatives, detergents and other harmful ingredients. To learn if the products you use everyday to get fresh, clean and pretty contain shady ingredients, click here.

So after so many years of being a passionate (and educated) vegetarian what made me go back? First off, I still have the same beliefs that I did as that wide-eyed, naive American college student living in Dublin, but after years of feeling crappy a couple times a week, being hungry all the time, having trouble gaining muscle and talking to my smartest friend, who also happens to know a hell of a lot about health and the human body, I decided to give eating organic, free-range, grass fed meat a try. Not going to lie, I was scared that I was going to spend my first few weeks as a born-again carnivore in the bathroom, but surprisingly, that wasn't the case (sorry, TMI). 

This is me and my smartest friend when he came to visit me in Ireland back in college.  He has given me lots of great advice over the course of our 13 year friendship.

My smartest friend also turned me onto the paleo "diet" - which mimics the diets of our caveman ancestors and includes meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. I already had the veggies, fruits and nuts thing down, so adding a little animal protein into the mix wasn't too hard, but giving up all grains was and still is the hardest thing about the "diet." I used the word "diet" very loosely because I don't believe in diets. There is no one pill, tea, shake, exercise, surgery, whatever that will help you sustain a healthy weight. You have to put a conscious effort into what you put into your body and the energy you put out. I am the first to admit that I don't always make wise food decisions (i.e. eating peanut butter M&Ms for breakfast) and that I have been known a time or two to stay in bed instead of go to the gym or do whatever is on my training schedule for that day, but hey, no one is perfect. But I am also proud of myself for working my ass off ever since I can remember to be healthy. Whether it be at swimming, running, triathlon or conditioning, working out is not just a fad for me, it's always been a way of life, so by incorporating aspects of the paleo "diet" into my lifestyle has helped me feel better during my workouts and after. Also, I do include some dairy in my diet, which is not paleo, but I only incorporate organic, hormone-free cheese, yogurt, milk, etc... because I don't want to be all hunched over with osteoporosis when I'm a mean old lady.

That's it for my rant. If you're all the way down to this part of the post, thanks for listening to me!

**stepping down from soapbox**

Get Your Weave Done

Quick note, I'm writing this post while watching the Lance/Oprah interview. Not sure how I feel about the whole thing...a part of me is like everyone in cycling dopes so who cares, but just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it right, but if you're going to go after Lance, go after everyone else too and another part of me is like, geez, I would hate to be his publicist right now because he's coming off as a total dick.

Anyways, I went to my new girl Savannah today at Parlour & Juke to get my weave re-done today. Which btw, Savannah is fabulous, my girl Andrea who originally put in my extensions moved to New Orleans to open her own salon and she recommended Savannah so if you were a client of Andrea's, I highly suggest you go to her! Extensions require some maintenance, like coming into the salon every six weeks to get them adjusted or re-sewn into your hair and then every other six weeks you have to get them completely taken out and sewn into different parts of your hair so you don't get nasty Britney Spears style weave bald spots (Britney, I still love you even though you're a hot mess).

This is me without my weave in...again, terrible "selfie"

My weave waiting to get put back in while I'm getting a haircut

Gone with the wind fabulous weave shot last night while I was out with my girls Stephanie and Bailee...yes, the RHOA is my favorite Real Housewives franchise

Last but not least, this is Hana, the friend that inspired me to follow my dreams to weavedom - it's also her birthday tomorrow!

So, that's the quick run down of my weave and I's day. I didn't workout today, it was a rest day, but tomorrow I'm going to Barry's Bootcamp to get my ass kicked. FYI guys looking for a super hot, super fit girl to date, Barry's is the place to meet your future wife. I feel like I'm the ugliest girl in there after the workout because I'm all nasty and soaking wet in sweat and there are girls that come out of there looking like they just walked off the set of a Women's Health photo shoot. 

Racecation 2013 - Pensacola Beach Run Half Marathon

Last weekend the green Sister Mrazek and Sister Wagner tanks were busted out for the Pensacola Beach Run Half Marathon, or better known as Racecation 2013. Last year Sarah and I ran the Go! St Louis Marathon for Racecation 2012. I think I like the half marathons better for racecations because the entire time we were living it up in STL, we kept saying "shit! we have to run 26 miles on Sunday" - although, that might have been because Sarah's Aunt Sarah rolled out the red carpet for us and we didn't want to face reality that the real reason we were in town was to run a marathon, not go to the Cubs/Cards game, the spa, shop or stuff our face with super good food.

Aunt Sarah, Uncle Andy and Mark were our awesome STL cheering squad last year! 

The PBR half marathon was on a Saturday and I flew down to Panama City Thursday night so Sarah and I could take our time making our way to Pensacola on Friday. I'm pretty sure that Sarah and I are the only idiots who get up at 4:45am on their day off to work out, but I was dying to get my butt kicked by Dena, the resident trainer who whips all the PCB Ironmen into shape, so that's how we spent our Friday morning (and I was also wanted to see all the Navy boys running around the base there in town where Sarah works out. Make sure to ask Sarah what her and her friend Kristen call the boys).

After getting our butts kicked by Dena, we made our way to Seaside where we got smoothies at the Raw and Juicy food trailer right there on 30A. If you haven't experienced Raw and Juicy and you frequent the Destin/Seaside area, you must indulge yourself next time you're there. After we got our Raw and Juicy fix and arrived in Pensacola, we found ourselves a bottle of Skinnygirl White Peach Margarita and started to hydrate for the next day's race.

I bet Bethenny Frankel had no idea that her margarita is the drink of choice for people hydrating for a half marathon

The night before the race, Sarah introduced me to the MTV train wreck of a show Buckwild and lucky for us when we woke up on race day, Buckwild was on again. After seriously contemplating staying in bed and watching Buckwild all morning instead of going to the race, we walked the 100 yards from our hotel to the start line and were greeted by our cheerleaders Larisa and Melanie! Larisa writes the awesome blog Zero to Twenty Six Point Two and we met at the Runner's World Half Marathon up in Bethlehem  PA last year. She and Melanie live 45 minutes away from Pensacola in Alabama, so they came over to do all the fun stuff that goes with a racecation (i.e. drinking margaritas, eating cheeseburgers and laying by the pool) and none of the bad stuff (i.e. running the actual race).

Our Pensacola cheering squad wanted us to run fast 'cause they wanted a drank!

13.1 miles later, Sarah killed it and got third in her age group and I came in at 2 hours...like I always do. WTF, the course was pancake flat and I went the same time at the Runner's World Half on a super hilly course. Not sure why I have been at this stupid two hour plateau for the past year, but hopefully I can go faster at the Cedars of Lebanon half I'm doing in February. Okay, rant over.

Right after the gun went off to start the race. If you like scenic flat out and back courses and don't mind the wind, you should check out the PBR Half next year! Entry is only $40!

After Sarah and I showered and I spent 15 minutes un-tangling my weave (note to self, braid or wear hair in a bun when racing in hot and humid conditions because your weave will turn into a hot mess when you're done), the four of us went to Flounders and had the obligatory post-race cheeseburger, fries and margaritas (don't tell Dena). Did I mention I'm eating meat again? I'll tell you all about that in another post. A couple hours later we found our way to the pool where I proceeded to get burned (another note to self, do not get sunburned three days before you are getting a skin check done by your dermatologist unless you want a lecture on how every time you get burned you increase your chances of getting skin cancer by blah blah blah percent. duh).

That night Sarah and I got pedicures at this surprisingly awesome nail salon in Gulf Breeze, called Nail Lounge. If you're going to run the Double Bridge Run in March, I totally recommend treating your feet right and going there after. Promise you won't reget it. After getting our feet rubbed for an hour, we went and ate our weight in sushi and topped the night off with some peanut butter M&Ms, which then I also had for breakfast the next morning. Paleo diet, what? Needless to say, it was a cheat weekend.

Like all good things, racecation 2013 came to an end far too quickly and I found myself back in Nashville, where it was a balmy 30 degrees (Chicago friends, feel free to roll your eyes at how big of a whimp I've become since my move back south).

Larisa and Melanie are going to run the Dublin Rock and Roll Half in August and Sarah and I are seriously contemplating making the trek over there to my motherland to also run the race. You don't have to ask me twice if I want to go to Ireland and run one of my favorite cities, so maybe there'll be a part two to racecation 2013.

This was during the 2008 Connemara Half Marathon I ran in Ireland when I studied abroad in Dublin.  It rained, it sleeted, the sun came out all within 2 hours. Sheep were my cheerleading squad in that race!

My Weave & I

Yo, so after giving it much thought and consideration (and some pressure from friends), I've decided to blog about my running, triathlon, CrossFit and random adventures with my weave.

My weave is shoved all up in my pink helmet during the Nash Vegas 70.3 last August. Did I mention I love  the color pink? I have a pink M Dot tattoo to match my pink bike. I'm like a five year old girl, I'm aware.

If you don't know me, here's the deal, after an almost twenty-year swimming career came to a crashing halt, my partner in crime, Sarah (Sister Mrazek) and I decided to start running. We picked up running mostly because we went to college in the middle of nowhere and that was the only good, clean fun we could entertain ourselves with on a daily basis. I decided to take running to the next level a few months later and signed up for the Chicago Marathon. Fast forward seven years and I've finished 8 marathons, an ultra-marathon, an Ironman, three 70.3s and too many half marathons to count.

Sister Mrazek and I after our first half in 2006 and after our last half we did in Pensacola last weekend.  Don't worry, there's going to be a post entirely dedicated to last weekend.

What I failed to mention is that all that swimming, biking and running has torn my body up. ITB syndrome, patellar tendonitis, an inflamed SI joint, bursitis in my hips, stress fracture in my femur, fractured ribs and I can't forget the skull fracture and brain bleed that I sustained when out for a leisurely 8 mile run with Sister Mrazek one afternoon. Besides the head injury, my doctor and my PT will tell you my injuries come from being weak...what?! you can't possibly be weak and do an Ironman and run two marathons in two weeks?! Oh yes you can! So I eventually fell in love with lifting shit as a way to avoid injury and not fall a part at the end of a race. I've been at this strength training/CrossFit thing for 8 months and I'm kind of addicted. Addicted like how I was when I first started running. If I don't wake up sore the next day from a workout, I'm like wtf.

Me and some of the banditos after the Polar Dash half in 2012. Wind and snow ripping off Lake Michigan made for a miserable time. Why do I do this again? Oh yeah, because I ate an omelette the size of my head right after at Eleven City Diner. I miss the food in Chicago!

You're wondering about the weave. I wanted extensions for a while. I have naturally thin blonde hair and when I moved back to Nashville, a girlfriend of mine had them and she was always talking about how much she loved her weave, so I decided to take the plunge and get one myself. My girl Andrea at Parlour & Juke hooked me up with my weave, some blonde ombre color and the rest is history.

My ombre weave courtesy of Parlour and Juke. I look mean in this picture. I hate "selfies" and never know what to do in them, so this is my leave me the F alone face that I rock when I don't want anyone to talk to me. 

So yeah, that's my first post. If you don't like the occasional swear words, I suggest you don't come back because I've been known to throw a few four letter words into my vernacular every now and then, so my guess is, I'll be throwing them into my future posts. If you don't have virgin ears, check this thing on a daily basis for my two cents on things like training, eating, gear and whatever else I feel like talking about.