On My Playlist: Songs to Run To.

Hello and Happy Friday to you!

Workout playlists can be pretty telling. Some like to get motivated with hard-rock (or as I like to call them, "Burn, Hate, Kill" bands). You know what I mean, those screamy-harsh bands that always sing about fire or something.

My playlists tend to go in the other direction. The direction of pop-hits that I assume are about two years old. They are embarrassingly cherry and meant for tweens. Case in point, one of my favorite songs to take me from warm-up to run is Kelly Clarkson's Stronger. 

My new favorite: Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce. 

Fun, catchy and just weird enough to be great:

Even if our tastes differ - send me your workout playlist favorites. Even if it's Call Me Maybe.

I won't judge. 

Triathlon

Over the weekend, my best friend and I completed our first triathlon.

The Danskin Triathlon is not a full (aka, crazy) triahlon. It's an all-women event, a .5 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3.1 (5K) run. When you break the sections apart, it's manageable. Tie them all together and it's fucking hard.

Without going into the nitty gritty details, the day before the race I came down with the stomach flu. Or food poisoning. But, I wrote this off as nerves and hoped for the best.

Race day was overwhelming and exciting. We woke up at 4:30, drove down to Pleasant Prairie and waited to be shuttled to the starting line.

Where I was a bucket of nerves. Checking my bag, asking pointless questions and declaring my bag contents every two minutes:

Here we are pulling it together for a moment: 

After the bus ride, we set up our gear in the transition area:

And waited.

And then, as we watched the hard-core athletes complete the swim and start their bike rides, I started to get nervous and excited. And tried to squash any feeling of wooziness.

As the corralled our heat to the starting line, I knew something wasn't right but figured I was in my unflattering Speedo already, and swam with the rest of my red-swim-capped heat.

Even though we were warned, the swim was hard. I won't sugar coat this - the swim sucked. It's unnerving to swim with that many bodies with limbs thrashing around you. I learned pretty quickly that I was a slow swimmer and had my eye on the sandy finish line from the start.

Next was the bike. After I saw my friend in the transition area, I got my headphones in and playlist going. Surrounded by so many different women of all shapes, sizes and ages - the bike ride was inspirational, motivational and fun. At first I was disappointed that there weren't mile markers along the course, but as the miles ticked by, I was thankful because judging by my ongoing playlist - I was going pretty (preh-tay) slow.

I couldn't wait for the run. The run is what I trained the hardest for and what I wanted to do the most.

But, near the end of the bike ride, my stomach bug had returned and knew it was no longer related to nerves.

I'll be real with you - after the bike, I threw up. Then, signaled for someone to come help me because I felt like shit.

A volunteer jogged over and asked me what was wrong.

"I think I have the flu." 

"Do you want to go on?"

"Yeah, I think I want to finish. "

"Then, go!'

She patted my back and with that, I needed to finish.

I started to run and feel dizzy - and with literally nothing to fuel me, I needed to walk and cross the finish line.

Now, I'm not sharing this to be dramatic or because I think I'm special for finishing a race in this condition. Not so.

In that moment, I was proud of myself mentally. Proud that I didn't stop or push myself too far. I just walked and thought of Gatorade.

And with the finish line in sight, I ran:

Crossing the finish line, I was dehydrated, tired and slightly disappointed. 

Then, the loudspeaker announced: Lindsay Atkinson is now a triathlete! 

And my slight wave of disappointment was temporarily washed away because that announcer-guy was right, stomach flu or not, I was a triathlete.

Which is slightly amazing (and annoying) that even while literally crossing the finish line, I had to be reminded that this was a mental and physical accomplishment. 

The next day, I was still sick. But, on Tuesday, my friend and I rehashed the details and came to the conclusion that we had more fun than we though we would. 

The race was a challenge, the women were inspiring, the elite athletes were motivational and the energy of the day was indescribable. 

Can't wait to beat my personal best in 2013! 

Rounding Third

Earlier this year I started to run.

Sick of the lingering pregnancy pounds and eager to find a quick workout - running sort of made sense. But isn't it sort of terrible? I started running on a treadmill indoors, gradually working my way up to a mile. Then two. In January a two-mile race, then in March, a 5K. I was inconsistent, slow and was so hard on myself mentally. Every walk felt like a failure. Every slow run I hung my head in shame and questioned my motives. After a painfully slow and disappointing 8K CrazyLegs race in April - it was time, time to stop dicking around and actually start to put some serious effort into this "hobby."

I'm not suggesting it - but for me - quitting the gym was key. I was too focused on all of the shit around me instead of running. Chatty personal trainers and TVs on every machine were so loud when all I was looking for was an escape. Time to clear my head and focus.

When it wasn't unbearably hot this summer, running outdoors proved to be the missing link to help move me from slow/inconsistent to not-as-slow/semi-consistent.

Then, it was time for the Summerfest Rock 'n Sole Quarter Marathon. Remember 2011? When I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for a race when Ingrid was roughly 3 months old (see "I'll use the term 'race' loosely" and 10-astrophe).

This year, the race was well organized and Dan and I crossed the finish line together and then met our good friends for a beer. It felt fantastic. No disappoint, no dramatic victory - just personal accomplishment and an excuse to get together with friends.

In a few short days, my best friend and I will be participating in a triathlon. An unexpected first for both of us. I'm nervous about the entire race, the transitions, everything, but I can't wait to cross another finish line because it finally feels like I've hit my stride - no apologies - it feels good!

Awkward and Awesome

Without Mad Men, Sunday nights are back to their annoyingly-awkward self.

Whomp waaaaaaa.

Let's not be a pack of Debbie Downers and even dwell on that sad fact. Or, start down the path of "What do you think about ________ in Mad Men" line of questioning (although, I did love to read her spin on all-things Mad Men and seriously, what do you think of Megan Draper?)


This weekend was full of friendship-love, baby-snuggling, running around and literal running (and swimming, more on that later). Let's start the week off right with some awkward and awesome moments, shall we?

Awesome: 

• Clarisonic - simply an amazing facial scrubber. It's worth every cent! Ok, so I have a knock-off-Groupon version, but honestly, I've used the real deal and it's wonderful. 
• Brunch and Brady Street with Dan. 
• Ingrid's budding sense of humor. 
• Brats, beer and the Brewers.  
• Snuggling with new, two-week-old baby (too cute!) Jackson  
• Proposals - During a morning run, I passed over a chalk scavenger hunt. By reading the clues, it was clear that someone was trying to get their ex-girlfriend back - or it was an elaborate and low-cost marriage proposal. As I reached the top of the hill, and noticed dude in dress pants, I assumed the latter and started on an embarrassingly long line of questioning.
  
  Turns out, he had arranged for his friend to get his girlfriend (now fiance, perhaps! hopefully!) out of bed and videotape her along the way to capture this special moment. I was bursting with excitement for this stranger and creepily wanted to turn around, catch up to her and see the proposal in action.
  
  Ok, that was a long bullet point, thanks for reading. Moving on. 

Awkward 

• Realizing that the majority of the above Awesome list could fall into the Awkward category. 
• Dan agreeing to get hot chocolate. Then spilling what I assume was the best hot chocolate ever all over the carpet. This is maybe the second time I've seen him spill anything, ever. (Awesome: he went out for another hot chocolate and it was awesome). 
• Parking tickets. Three in three weeks. That's a new pair of shoes, City of Milwaukee! Grrrrr. 
• Getting carded. Then spending about three minutes wrestling with my wallet to get my ID out.
• Ordering Dan's Father's Day gift on Father's Day. 
• Forgetting the names of Ingrid's daycare teachers (in my defense, there are roughly four Meghans). 
• Spilling coffee on myself. Then, on my keyboard. And finally, while walking upstairs (probably not the smartest move on my part, to walk up three flights of stairs with a full cup of coffee).

Awkward and Awesome Bonus: 

Ingrid likes watermelon smiles.
I'm not sure if that's a real term or not, but in this kitchen - it's smiles or nothing.
Don't you even think about giving her a watermelon cube. Ingrid turns her nose up at silly ideas like eating watermelon via cube-shape or fork. 

Ingrid has to bring a lunch to daycare. Her old hand-me-down lunch box was huge, dirty and had a 3-foot long strap that always wrapped around other lunch boxes in the daycare refrigerator. This little new lunch sack has become one of Ingrid's favorite things in like, 14 months. Bonus, it totally goes with her outfit in a subtle "not-too-matchy" kinda way.