Hostile Takeover.

It's no surprise to anyone still reading this that my blog is NOT about knitting. It should be, but it's not. Instead, it's more of a sounding board for whatever hobby is striking my fancy that day. Recently, it's been running.

I made a goal for myself to run a half marathon this year (more on why, etc. in another post). Having two very fabulous besties as marathon vets has made my training pretty easy -- they're there to answer my questions, they understand what I'm going through, and they help keep me motivated. Conquering the weekly mileage has actually been one of the easiest things about training. Let me tell you about some of the ways my body has reacted to the 15-20 miles a week I'm taking it:

-- I am TIRED. I mean, I know the "work retail during the holidays" tired. I've experienced "I just had 3 20 page papers due and I've been up for 72 straight hours" tired. I'm even familiar with the "I just slept for so long I can't possible consider getting out of bed without clocking another 8 hours" exhaustion. But this "running" tired is something I've never known. My body craves sleep -- at LEAST 7 hours a night, but easily 10-11 (especially mornings after a long run) if I'll let it. I've even NAPPED a few times this weekend after my 7 miler. It seems I just cannot get enough rest.

-- I'm STARVING. Am I the only person to actually GAIN weight while burning ridiculous amounts of calories training for a race? I can't get full. I eat all. the. time. I have been pretty good about staying with healthy (ish) foods, but my portions are insane. I swear I ate a 32 oz. container of fat free cottage cheese in 2 days. I made applesauce in the crock pot today out of EIGHT apples and it's halfway gone already. I've developed a serious peanut butter and Eggos addiction. The worst part is, I know I am eating ALL of the calories I'm burning on my runs (and then some), but I can't quit!

-- I'm getting REALLY ANNOYING. All I talk about is running, because it seems like it is all I'm doing. I know balance is important, and I do do (hehe, doodoo) other things (like eat! and sleep!), but I find myself telling people how far I ran, or did you see the new Nike headphones at Dick's, or do you know how to configure my Garmin settings? I'm trying to stop myself from commenting on my sore shins, or the blister on my right toe because I left my socks out of my gym bag and ran 4 miles without them, or bring up how much I LOVE spandex. My apologies to everyone for my irritating running rants (silly, really, because this entire blog post is one of them!).

-- Everything else I do has gone out the window. Sure, I'm keeping up on Idol ("Walkin', talkin', with your pants on the ground!"), I caught the premiere of P. Runway, and I didn't miss a second of this weekend's NFL playoff action. But TV is pretty much the extent of it.

I haven't picked up my knitting since I naively started a Christmas gift project at the beginning of December. But I know that balance is important, and you shouldn't always be about just one thing. So tonight, I'm logging in to ravelry. I'm going to pick out some cute patterns. I'm going to post them here. And this week, I AM GOING TO FINISH THAT DAMN COLTS SQUARE (sure to be part of a Super Bowl XLIV Champs blanket). I will find balance between work, running, and knitting. I will fulfill my roles as boss, wife, and dog mom. I mean, I can do this -- I'm not even planning a wedding!

In the spirit of this post, "On The Go" has been updated to reflect part of a playlist I'm working on (working title: "GO. RUNNING. NOW.").

No more posts about running this week, I PROMISE!