The Olympics are back!!!!

Is it possible that 2 years have gone by and yet again I am watching the Olympics and typing for the blog here on my couch?  Craziness!  It feels like it was just yesterday that it was the 2012 Summer Olympics and I was flip flopping between my allegiance for Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte!  Now, I don't think I will have the same all-consuming obsession with these winter Olympics as I usually do for the summer Olympics.  There is so much craziness around the location of Sochi, Russia, and I am just not as big a fan of the winter sports.  However, I love the drama and the stories and the country pride that you get with the Olympics.  The stories that come out of these things are incredible.  And as I train for the marathon, I need all the athletic inspiration I can get!

I realized today that I am getting into the phase of training that I remember from last winter/spring when the training and the race start to take over my life.  All of a sudden it's all I seem to be able to talk about.  And when I have long runs, it's what my entire weekend becomes about.

This weekend is all about the 15-miler.  Tonight I am staying in, watching the opening ceremony and heading to bed early. Tomorrow I'll be up in the morning for my run and I want to get all the rest I can to be prepared.

I felt good this morning on our 4 mile run.  WHICH, turned out to be way colder than I expected.  Who knew it was going to be one of these mornings?!?  I sure didn't!  0 degrees!

It didn't end up being too bad even though I was surprised by the temperature.  Although by the end we all did have frost all over our faces and we were covered in icicles, but hey, what are you going to do?

My weeks are becoming pretty typical so it should be no surprise to you that following our Friday run we went over to Starbucks.  And if you've learned anything about me at this point, it won't be a surprise to you that I of course, was able to act ridiculous with my friends and do something embarrassing, even before 8:00 a.m.

I think we were all high from the endorphins of running and the warmth of the Starbucks because we were very giggly and silly as we drank our coffees.  And all of a sudden one of the male baristas that we know from going there all the time walked in.  I shouted out, "HELLO!" to him so enthusiastically you would have thought that I was seeing a long lost best friend I hadn't seen in years.  Yup, it was pretty embarrassing as he barely acknowledged me and said hi, and continued to walk by to go to work.  I have no idea why I was so enthusiastic about saying hello to him.  It was pretty ridiculous and made Jess, Aubrey and I even more giggly and silly.

And guess what I had for breakfast everyone?  A smoothie!  Shockiiiiinnnnggggg!!  :)

This one was made of frozen banana, frozen blueberries, spinach, chocolate protein powder, and chocolate unsweetened almond milk.  I have been preparing them before I leave the house in the morning at about 5:00 a.m. to go running and leaving them in the car while I run, get coffee, shower, etc. and then drinking them as I start my day at my desk at work.  They stay pretty solid and smooth, so maybe I should try one day making it in the evening?  Anything that can shorten my morning routine, I am generally a fan of!

So, before I sign off I just have to ask... does anyone else have a problem where they literally cannot focus if there is candy or food in front of them that they are trying not to eat??  Today I was in a meeting that took place in a room with a giant bag of candy.  I could barely pay attention because it was taking so much of my energy to NOT eat all of the Chewy Spree.  However, since I have no will power, I did eat some of the candy.  I can tell you as a statement of fact that if you eat 14 Everlasting Gobstoppers it is 2 Weight Watchers points.  If you eat 15 -- well that goes up to 3 points.  So you'd better believe I ate exactly 14.  I also ate 5 points worth of chocolate and 1 point worth of chocolate.  Which means that essentially the 8 points that I earned from my 4 mile run went to that candy alone.  It's kind of pathetic, but whatever... you do what you've got to do I think!

But yeah, at one point I was intensely concentrating on NOT eating any more candy that it was hard to focus.  I managed to make it out alive though, so that's good!

Anyways, I am going to go watch a bit more of the opening ceremony and then head to bed.  Hope you have a great evening and Saturday!  HAPPY OLYMPICS!!!!!!