April 25, 2013

The not-so-silent alarm

Okay, so I'm always complaining about how I wake up multiple times each night, and I wish I could sleep better. And remember how I said I always wake up at the exact same time of morning before my long runs? I thought it was interesting when Thomas mentioned that he did the same thing for a while, when he discovered that his computer would do some sort of update which would turn on a fan or something, causing him to wake up at the exact same time of day.

Well, a couple of nights ago, I could have sworn that each time I woke up, I heard a beep. It was super quiet, and I thought maybe I imagined it. Yesterday afternoon, Jerry and I tore apart our bedroom, looking for whatever could possibly have made the noise. And buried in one of our nightstand drawers was this:
A stopwatch. I have no idea why we have it or where it came from. Jerry said, "Let's wait until the top of the hour and see if it beeps." So we sat there talking, and then he counted down... 5-4-3-2-1...

Beeeeeep! It was very faint, high-pitched, and short, but it was there. That stupid beep had been going off every hour on the hour for God-only-knows how long. I am a super light sleeper, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was the reason I'd been waking up so much through the night. I somehow managed to disable the alarm, and now hopefully, we won't hear it again!


Last night, I was toying with the idea of doing my long run today, instead of the usual Friday. This morning, I was still in the mood to do it, so I got the kids off to school and then ate breakfast. I got dressed for the weather, in running tights and a tech shirt with my Women Rock MN light jacket from the half-marathon I did in August. I even remembered to put my pepper spray in the pocket in case I came across unleashed dogs.

I started running, and almost immediately, I felt miserable. It was SUPER windy, blowing right in my face. When I glanced at my pace, I saw I was at about a 9:00/mi, but I felt like I was putting in much more effort than that. About a mile in, I was just thinking about how miserable this 12-mile run was going to be, when I thought, "I don't HAVE to do a long run today! I'll just run four, and run long tomorrow."

The second mile was the hardest. The wind was so strong, and the sun was out, making me kind of hot in the jacket. I was dying to turn around early, but I stuck it out to the two-mile mark. I kept thinking that as soon as I turned around, I would have a tailwind, and feel a million times better. Not so.

The wind was only slightly better, but the sun was much worse after turning. It was all I could do not to just stop and walk. When I finally got to my street, I kept going past it, and then when I hit the four-mile mark, I stopped my Garmin and walked around my neighborhood for about 2/3 of a mile. I was having a hard time catching my breath, and once I finally got home, I figured it was probably from being sick.

My nose wasn't stuffed up or anything, but I just haven't been feeling well at all for a couple of days, ad it's hard to take a deep breath (but the cold is just in my head, not my chest). So I'm thinking for my long run tomorrow, I'll just run 8 miles instead of 12, and I'll do them on the treadmill so it's easier on me. Today's run was awful!

Normally on a four-mile run, I burn just over 300 calories; today, I burned 386. That means my body was definitely working harder, even though I was going slower.


For lunch, I eat the same thing almost every day--eggs with cheese and crumbled bacon, along with grapes and an English muffin with jam. Today, I decided to try a (genius) idea from Ty to make a different spread for my English muffin--mix PB2 with Torani sugar-free syrup! As the queen of PB2 while I was losing weight, you would think this would have occurred to me before. There are so many different syrup flavors, this could open up a whole new list of spreads for me.

The sugar-free syrups are 0 calories, but they use Splenda; so if you're a clean eater, this is not for you. I am (obviously) not a clean eater. Normally, I'm not a huge Splenda fan because of the taste, but I do like the Torani syrups in my protein shakes. Anyway, I mixed the PB2 with sugar-free caramel syrup, and the caramel + peanut combo tasted just like the inside of a Snickers bar--SO good! (I just used one serving of PB2 and enough syrup to reconstitute it, maybe a Tbsp.)




I am SO glad that Running on Candy suggested that I look for my bridesmaids dress used on E-bay. I didn't find the exact dress on E-bay (well, I did, but it was a size 2!), but I kept searching online until I found a few of them in my size and color needed. I messaged the owners to ask questions about alterations, stains, etc. The cheapest was an apple-colored size 6, exactly what I needed, and only $66. I thought it had to be too good to be true, so I asked for more pictures and if it had been altered. The woman who owns the dress was extremely helpful and quick to respond, which I was grateful for. She said that she had it hemmed, because she is 5'4", but that was the only alteration.

I was ecstatic! I am also 5'4", and was expecting to pay a small fortune for the dress (it's $170 new) plus the alteration fee to hem the length of it. So after some back-and-forth questions and answers, I bought the dress for $66, which includes shipping. I'm so relieved. Jerry and I have been talking lately about how we really need to cut spending, and I was feeling super guilty for having to buy this dress. She's shipping it tomorrow, and I'm just hoping that it fits the same way the one in the store did. And hoping that the hem is the right length; the bride says we are going to be wearing flats, which is a little unusual. But even if I have to pay for alterations, I'm still saving quite a bit!

14 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you found the source of the beep and hopefully you'll notice an improvement in your sleep!

    That's awesome you found the dress on Ebay and hemmed for your height! That was a great suggestion. Though I couldn't have taken that route for my BIL's wedding, I'm still a little raw that I had to pay $400 by the time we got alterations (my own WEDDING DRESS was $500!!) and such for a marriage that ended in divorce. I want my money back! LOL

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    1. This made me genuinely lol :)

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    2. LOL. I hear ya!! Too bad there isn't a rule about refunding the wedding party when the marriage doesn't work. My friend got married a couple years ago. I got super lucky that she picked the same dress I wore in my aunt's wedding the year before. The only problem was that I was pregnant so it didn't fit. My Mom got rid of hers, but thankfully one of the other girls said I could borrow their dress that fit. I saved $160 on the dress, but of course they picked dyed shoes. $75 for cranberry satin shoes that are miserably uncomfortable & ugly. I was so mad, I don't spend that much on shoes I wear regularly (except running shoes). The best part is.....she kicked him out after 29 days of being married and filed for divorce the next day. UGH!!

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  2. I am a really light sleeper too, and that would make me crazy. Hopefully you'll get a good night's sleep now.

    This morning it was super windy here, and chilly. I was pretty miserable for the first couple miles because I literally thought the wind would blow me backward. I did 4 miles and was relieved when it was done.

    I hope you feel better. Earlier last month I got sick, and I thought it was just a little cold because I started to feel better, so I went out in the cold and ran. I ended up getting really sick and couldn't work out at all for over a week. I don't know if I had the flu or what, but it spread to my chest and I couldn't breathe well. Maybe if you're still feeling bad tomorrow a rest day would do you good. Your body sounds like it's trying to fight off whatever it is. I rarely get sick now, but it seems like when I do it ends up being awful, the kind of sick where I feel so wiped out I don't want to get up off the couch for anything.

    I haven't seen those syrups before! Where do you get them?

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  3. Ooh, I'm glad you were able to find your bridesmaid dress on the cheap! I've had to buy 2 and both were pretty expensive. I should have thought to look online!

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  4. Oh man! I hope your sleep troubles are fixed now!

    Sarah
    www.thinfluenced.com

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  5. Haha, glad I was able to hopefully help! Hopefully that was the culprit of your waking up. I was so relieved when I figured out mine because I thought I was going crazy!

    39 degrees sounds good (it was 76 today here on my run) but the wind sounds terrible. Cold plus wind is the worst!

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  6. Stephanie from BelgiumApril 26, 2013

    Yay for finding the alarm, could it also be the reason why you're feeling so "bad" ? When I'm super tired I tend to catch every cold. I'm sorry you had a bad run but it's super nice that you found the dress for half its price !

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  7. Crazy that the stopwatch has been waking you up all this time! If you were actually USING the dang thing you'd be changing the batteries every other week!

    And YAY! for Gigi's EBay suggestion panning out. We got lucky with my 1 sister's dress at David's. There were several in our size and when we got to the reg. to pay, it was 70% off day, so the $45 gown cost $16 with tax!

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  8. I am not a light sleeper and I used to have a watch that did that, it would still wake me up! so I am not suprised it was waking you up!

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  9. Hilarious story about the stop watch hiding in the drawer and beeping every single hour. Why don't the batteries in kid's games last that long? Glad you got it figured out and hope you slept better last night. What a great find--to get that dress for less than half price. Hope it fits well on you!

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  10. If you are worried about money and spending, you should just get a job. Just a part time one, so you are still free to get your boys on and off the bus. What about working at Weight Watchers? That would be a perfect part time job for you!

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    Replies
    1. I don't want to seem rude but it is nobody's business whether she chooses to work or not. Besides... It is not easy finding a part time that will only let you work mornings.

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  11. No matter what I'm looking for, I check eBay first( after checking store prices) you can save a ton on almost anything!

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