Well…I have been stressed out lately and not running as much as I should so I have been dealing with it by shopping.  This week I found great deals!  4 shirts and a pair of pants for $45 total.  Then today just goofing around I tried on a BCBG dress that was marked $328:

It was pretty cute….and 70% off which makes it roughly $99 plus tax.  I of course have no where to wear it and I hope it leaves my memory soon, but for the moment I am really wanting to head back to the mall :p

That is all I’ll take pics of my other deals soon!

On my way into work one day, on a radio station that no longer exists, there was an add for Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out.   I bought a ticket right away and luckily was able to talk a couple of other girls into going   All of the photographer’s pics from the night can be found here.

This was a blast!  For $15 I got a bag full of samples, free cocktails and a room full of shopping booths.  Linda and Sandi even got massages…I was being fussy so I passed and had an extra drink :p  They also had photographers snapping shots which is where I got the picture shown above.

So, here’s how it went down.  We rode the DART rail to within 2 blocks of the event and then had a small line to wait in.  Got our pics taken on the “red carpet” (again by the photographers that I don’t know the name of).

Once we got in we picked up our tickets, wrist bands and then “goodie bags” .  Then I saw the free bar :p  They had Midori and X-rated cocktails…very yummy!  There were several booths of jewelry and clothing, as well as, some cosmetics and massage type places. Here’s a picture of me (courtesy of Linda) in a 1K fur coat that I kept telling the sales women looked too much like kitties.

I bought a few gifts, Sandi and Linda had their hair curled by a very amusing man and we all drank enough   Here’s Sandi and I giving Linda the look…lol

We hopped on the train when we were done and grabbed some food.  Ok, we may have gotten a little lost and had to call for directions, but hey…did I mention there were free drinks

All in all a great cheap girl’s night out!  Thanks to Sandi and Linda for hanging out and we will expect you there next time Monay   They are supposed to have these twice a year and I am definitely up for the Fall one!!  Maybe we can get a big posse to go

I have quite a few other events to post here, but I thought I would start with the most recent and work backwards.

My cheapo VS pants finally arrived last week and I wore them today   They are pretty comfy now that I have a size that fits.  Beware the VS sizing chart…these are 2 sizes smaller than the chart specifies for my measurements and I think they fit great.  As promised here is me and the model…lol

Please ignore my beer belly...I’m working on it

For the price I would definitely purchase them again even though they didn’t make me look like the tall skinny model chick….sigh :p

Well, Since last I wrote I have celebrated a birthday!!  I have now turned 29 for the 6th time…lol.  I had a very nice birthday thanks to all of my wonderful friends and family!!

Friday  I spent my lunch hour running and then met with Gina for happy hour at one of our old haunts.  It was great to be able to hang out with her for a couple of hours!!

Saturday morning I got up early and ran the DRC loop race around white rock lake.  The pic at the beginning of the post is me and Amber after the race courtesy of Qualen who incidentally let me beat him in the race for the first time in like 4 years :p  We chilled at the race for awhile and then my friends helped me celebrate with a post race lunch at Henk’s.  Thanks to Qualen, Linda, Roxanne, Matt and Angelica for making the day special.  We ate, had some beer, had some cake and chilled out.  Linda celebrate her bday just a couple of days before mine so she got an awesome cake to go.  Here are a couple of pics from lunch…again thx to Qualen for the photography.

I got home in the early afternoon and opened presents from the family.  Mom got me a Coach purse which I have been wanting for awhile now! Mom in law got me a gift certificate which I used for some awesome boots.  Sis gifted me earrings and some cute clothes. I am so spoiled

After gifts I opened up an Irish Stout and got ready for dinner.  Hubby took me out for a great steak and large daqueri.  So…was a pretty great couple of days.  Thanks friends and family, you almost made me forget how dang old  I am

Well…maybe I do, but I never spend very much.  I just can’t resist a good deal!   I really blame it on my MOM   After my Nike spree I was done and then  I got a coupon for 20$ off at Vic Secrets.  Found another coupon code for free shipping and free return shipping on any pants (which is important because I have not idea how Vic Secret pants fit.) 72cents later these should be on their way.  I looked at the sizing chart and did the dreaded measurements and ended up ordering a size larger than I usually wear, but the chart looked like they ran small.  We shall see.  Ok, now I am seriously done shopping for a little bit

I broke out my last pair of “new” running sneakers for the the Tour Des Fleurs race and immediately began to panic about not having a new back-up pair in waiting…lol.  The ones I am wearing now are the blue ones above that are about 2 years out of fashion   I got them onsale at Lukes last August.  I put my cute little Nike+ chip in them before the race and I was really nervous because it was not near as snug of a fit in these sneakers as my last pair.  Turns out it read a little more accurate.  I really cannot complain at all about the sports band.  It does exactly what I need for a fair price.  I just wanted something that could keep reasonably accurate track of how many miles I have run so I could make up routes on the fly.

Oops…I am getting off track.  So after mourning for my last pair of new sneaks I began to search for my back-up pair at the mall and online this weekend.  I ended up getting the best deal with a coupon code from Bethany (thanks, B!!) at Nike.com that put them at $56, yay for clearance shoes!

Of course since I had the coupon code for extra 20% off clearance items  I ended up with a couple of other items in my shopping cart.  :p  I am calling them bday gifts

In other news…my 15miler yesterday morning was rough, but I got through it.  Rewarded myself with a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks and donated a dollar to some lady at the dart rail needing a ticket.   I know I’m a sucker   Decided to take a day of rest today so looks like I was one day short on my 5 day running schedule last week.  Ended up with 30miles total for the week and I am ok with that.

Hope ya’ll had a great weekend!

It’s been sort of a tough week and I am glad to have reached Friday!  Work has been a little busy.  I volunteered for a lot of projects and am having trouble keeping up.  My boss is out for a couple of days and so are a couple of other key folks.  I think next week will be better.  I had to miss barbell class on Wednesday, I have gotten in all of my scheduled runs except a 3miler that I will either skip or fit in on Sunday.

Today I ran my first “pace” run the day before a long run as prescribed by Hal’s Intermediate training plan.  I decided to run it during lunch so I wouldn’t back out later.  Turns out it is still pretty hot at noon in TX :p  My goal was to keep all 5 miles under 8:20 pace.  Unfortunately 2 of them snuck over   I will just have to keep trying!

The pics from the Tour Des Fleurs race are out and since they WON’T CGI in some abs I guess this is a wake up call that I really need to cut back on my carbs and do some crunches!  Anyone have any Pilates DVD recommendations?  Here is the close up:

I think that is about it!  15 miler in the morning and then I plan to look for sneakers and grocery shop.

This weekend I ran the Tour Des Fleurs 20K for the first time.  It was a pretty difficult race.  Started out flat for the first half and then treated us to a bunch of hills in the second half.   I happened to see a couple of girls from the DRC running club at the beginning of the race which was lucky since it was pretty crowded.  I admittedly went out too fast keeping pace with Katherene…one of the faster girls in our training program.  I slowed down significantly at the half way, but still walked away with a 20K PR at 1:39:21.  Q beat me by over 2 minutes and Katherene held her quick pace finishing 5 minutes ahead of me.  Kyle beat me by ooo ummm 13 minutes!  Race Results are here.

Being that I am once again obsessed with qualifying for Boston I plugged my 20K time into the McMillan Calc and McMillan predicts a 3:41:07 marathon in my future….ummm Mr. McMillan, I don’t mean to be rude, but I need a 3:40   Ok, so it isn’t his fault…I just need to get faster!

The other neat thing about this race is it begins and ends at the Dallas Arboretum.  There is free beer and food and free admission to the Arboretum.  Somehow I lost track of most everyone…I was in the beer area and then food area and then finish line….gave up and went back to the beer area.  A friend I had not seen in awhile found me there and after a few photo opts with some interesting folks we strolled through the arboretum and then headed out for lunch in Uptown.  Here’s a pic of her (Chae) saving a rather plump caterpillar that was on the walkway

Got home and never did get a nap, but I fell asleep at 10:30 and got a good 12 hours of sleep Saturday night

Giving up on Yahoo 360….never works anymore!  Going to give this site a try.  Let me know what you think while I try to figure out the features

I’m going to try this blog out for a bit since 360 is irking me.
http://lisaawes.wordpress.com/