Running and Living Green

I talked Kate into running the Omaha 1/2 marathon with me and now I need to talk myself into it. I'm trying to do good for myself again. I was on a roll last year with training for the marathon, eating right, not drinking (hangovers = runs that make you want to die) and just being a good girl. That is not the case anymore. I run once a week, maybe twice if I'm lucky. And it's always on a treadmill. I ran outside for the first time this year with some guys from work and it was awful. Granted, it was 90+ degrees outside, full of hills and all the guys are totally serious runners. But still, it was completely depressing. I need to work on that. I need to get outside and sweat my butt off doing a real run. The 1/2 schedule starts on Sunday, so I have until then to get my act together. I also need to start eating better. Not to say that having a donut and a diet coke for lunch isn't a well-rounded meal...

The house is shaping up a little bit. Our guest room is starting to be an actual room. There's furniture, things on the wall, the pile of wedding stuff is getting smaller. It feels good to have a third usable room in the house. I've begun digging out some decor that's been boxed up the the last year and making the house more homey. We also hung curtains in our bedroom. I'm sure this is completely obvious to everyone else, but hanging curtains in a room keeps it so much cooler than just having blinds! Matt put them up after lunch yesterday and when I came home from work the room felt great. It's usually hotter than hell in there. I registered for tons of curtains so hopefully we'll get some for the wedding and help improve our carbon footprint a little. (Speaking of carbon footprints, I think the three days we lived without power this month should qualify as us living green for a few days to help offset the eco-cost of the wedding. Makes me feel a little better about it.) We're also going to call and get a quote this weekend for new windows. That will make a huge difference on our energy costs. We live in a house where 80% of the windows don't open, yet 80% of the A/C manages to escape out of them. Plus, it will make the outside of the house look a little less crappy.

I also really want to get a bike and combine my green efforts with my cross training. Work is only seven miles or so from home. I can easily ride a bike to and from the office. I can't imagine it would take that much longer than driving in morning traffic. My building also has a locker room in it so I could shower after I get all stinky on the ride to work. I could probably save at least 2.5 gallons a week with a bike. At $4 a gallon, that's $10 a week I'd save. Pretty good stuff right there! The bike would more than pay for itself in the long run. Riding would also double as cross-training for this damn run I signed up to do.

Back to work I suppose...