Trail Trials

So my husband thinks I'm just crazy...

Two weeks in a row now I've had to get up at 2 am to foam roll my butt. My left hamstring and glute are just killing me. I can hardly stand to sit and at night when I lay down they just cramp like crazy. Short of having a massage therapist sticking an elbow or forearm into the area, the foam roller is the next best thing.

I'm beginning to question my sanity too. My right foot is still killing me. I ended up having a really ugly trail run today. I'm beginning to question whether pacing my best friend for 20 miles next weekend is a good idea.

Basically, I hurt all over and I haven't been able to put together a good week of running since the Derby. Last week I did back to back 10 milers on Monday and Tuesday, then on Wednesday I just fell apart and bagged my run after 3 miles. No more running after that until yesterday when I went out for 10 and bagged it after 2. My foot was hurting and then every time my right foot struck the ground, I started getting a cold "wet" feeling in my foot like I was putting it in a bucket of cold water. The whole thing kinda freaked me out and I really wasn't feeling like running anyway (OK, I worked an overnight shift and I only had 3.5 hours of sleep too) so I bagged it.

Today I had no excuses and I HAD to get a trail run in before leaving for California next week. Nevermind that it was 90+ degrees... I had the afternoon free so I drove down to Morgan Monroe Forest to do my run. I decided to do the Three Lakes Trail, a 10 mile trail I've never run before.

Things started out OK. It was nice and shady on the trail. I had put off trail running a lot of days this month due to storms. The storms blew down quite a few trees. I would get to places like this and have to clamor around to find the trail on the other side...

This was my view from one of many of the creekbeds I crossed. Surprisingly, most of the creeks were pretty dry today.

Of course what goes down must come up... I think this is why John told me to practice on a stairmaster.

My Garmin died just before I hit 2 miles. It's not been holding a charge very long lately and I'm beginning to think I need a new one. I was using it mainly to track my distance.

Things were going OK until I had to climb over another really big tree that was down on the trail. It was on an uphill slope and there was no way around it. I had to grab ahold of some branches and climb up, hoist myself up onto the trunk and then over it. Just as I got over to the other side, I felt a sudden jab in my left hammie - like someone had stuck a hot poker in it. FEAR was what I felt. I wasn't afraid of being out on the trail by myself. I could get myself back to my car. What I was afraid of was that I had really damaged my hamstring. Not now! Not less than a week before I fly out for Western States. I quickly found a big root to sit on, drank some Gatorade, and tried to calm myself. Then, as suddenly as the pain had come on, it went away. Phew!

The run was uneventful for several more miles. I found this big animal print in the mud...

Coyote?

 

I was starting to get really hot. I was sweating like crazy and my eyes were burning from all the sweat streaming in them. You could wring out my clothes. I think I looked like a drowned rat. I finally got the where the trail crossed the roadway again and I estimated I had about a mile left.

 

This is where things started getting really ugly. The trail didn't match the features on my map. There was no other trail but it just didn't match what it was suppose to do on my map. I ended up on another creekbed and I think my mind started playing tricks on me at this point because I could've sworn I had been here before - way at the beginning of my run. Since I was in no mood to run another loop of the trail, I backtracked back to the road. I knew where the road went. It was a much longer (almost double the distance of the trail) way back to my car but I didn't trust where the trail went.

 

By now I'm pretty sure I had some mild heat exhaustion. I was sweating buckets but had cold chills and felt nauseous. I still had some Gatorade left but didn't feel like drinking. I ended up walking most of the road back to my car. Best guess is that I went 12 miles on the low end, 15 miles on the high end today.

 

So now here I am. Loaded up on Motrin. Foam rolled my butt. Sitting on ice, both feet on ice. There were times on the trail today that I really enjoyed myself. I like being out on the trail by myself. The aftermath always seems to be ugly though so I'm beginning to have second thoughts. I wish I could be that runner who was happy just doing 3-5 miles a couple days a week. Why is it that I'm wired to chase the beasts?

It's Baaack!! CVS Diet Coke Deal

Confession: I did not do a trail run this morning. It started pouring rain overnight and it was still spitting rain when my alarm went off at 6 am. I didn't feel like doing a mud run so I rolled over in bed and listened to the raindrops instead.

What I did do was get some CVS shopping in.

So here's the down and dirty for those that do not have coupons and want a great deal. All you need is a CVS ExtraCare card.

Coke products are part of the "Buy $30, Get a $10 Gas Card" deal this week.
Coke product 12-packs are on sale 4 for $12 this week, only if you buy them 4 at a time.
Buy 4 for $12 + tax and you will get $20 credit towards the $30 needed for the gas card deal.
So...

1. Buy 4 Coke 12-packs. Get a $20 gas card credit.
2. Go to another CVS. Buy 4 Coke 12-packs. Earn a $10 gas card and get a $10 credit rolled over for your next gas card.
3. Go to a 3rd CVS. Buy 4 Coke 12-packs. Get another $10 gas card.

End result: You own 12 12-packs of Coke products. You paid $36 + tax. You have $20 in gas cards.

Rumor has it the gas card deal is a June monthly deal with a limit of 6 gas cards.

Of course I had to make it more complicated...

There is another June monthly deal at CVS on Ban (deodorant) products. It's "Buy 2 Ban products, get a $4 ExtraCare Buck (ECB)." Last weekend there were insert coupons for $2 off the Ban cooling cloths. The cooling clothes are $3.59 at CVS. So, buy 2 for 7.18, use 2 coupons, pay 3.18, get a $4 ECB. So essentially you are getting free cooling cloths and making a small profit in fake CVS money.

Initially, I wasn't going to do this because I don't buy things that I don't use. Then, I figured out these would be great to have in my car to wipe down with after my runs when I'm out at the state park or at a race. I had 4 coupons so I did the deal twice and ended up with 2 $4 ECBs plus my 4 packs of cooling cloths.

free cooling cloths

 

The monthly limit on this deal is 6. I only did it twice because I only buy 4 newspapers a week. Plus, as soon as this deal came out last week, all the couponers pretty much cleared the shelf at CVS. Even if I got more coupons this month, there is no product left on the shelf... I know, I checked this morning!

 

So here was my plan...

I had 2 $4 ECBs. I also had 2 $3 off $15 CVS coupons.

 

Store #1: Buy 4 Diet Coke 12 packs ($12). I needed to spend $3 more to use the $3 off $15 coupon. I figured I was up to $12 all ready and the $3 would just be free money. I looked for more Ban but the shelves were still empty so I threw in a 3-pack of Orbit gum.

 



Used the $4 ECB and $3 off $15 coupon, paid $8.84.

What was interesting was what printed at the bottom of my receipt.

I was expecting a $20 gas card credit. Instead, I got a $29 credit. All I could figure was that the Coke was getting a bigger than $20 credit. I ran back inside and bought a bottle of Ajax for $0.99. This was part of the deal too and CVS deals will payout at 98% (meaning you only need to spend 98% of the amount you are suppose to attain - so I just needed $29.40 total for a gas card).

So Ajax got credited and I got my $10 gas card. Now I'm thinking "Holy crap! This is a better deal than I thought. I just spent $9.90 total for 4 12-packs, a 3 pack of gum, a bottle of Ajax, and got a $10 gas card!"

 

So now this is where I got into a little trouble. I deviated from my original plan of just buying Diet Cokes because I thought I was going to end up with a crazy deal...

 

Had I just done Diet Coke 12 packs and just used my 2 $4 ECBs, I would have ended up with 12 12-packs for $28 and $20 in gas cards. But noooo...

 

Store #2: I did figure out in the parking lot that the Orbit was counting towards the gas card deal too so that was part of why my credit was $29 for my first transaction. Still, that meant I got $26 for the Diet Cokes... Well, I did the exact same products again and used the same two coupons again but just did it in one transaction.

 



Except this time, I didn't get the same amount credited like I did at the first CVS and ended up $6.02 short.

Well crap! I guess that's what I get for being greedy. Now I had to spend another $6 for my next gas card. I was still going to end up spending less than $28 for 2 gas cards but I wasn't getting all my Coke products either because I just needed $6 more and I didn't want to spend $12.

Store #3. Bought an 18-pack of Scott toilet paper that was part of the deal for $6.99 minus a $0.75 coupon.

...and got my second $10 gas card.

So, spent $26.53 for all this...

 

                                                                               ...and got 2 $10 gas cards.

 

 

Yup. This is why I coupon. I love to play the game.

 

Could I do some more deals this week? Sure. The gas card limit for the month is 6. Will I? Probably not. I'm set on Diet Cokes for awhile. All my 12-packs expire in August. Diet soft drinks don't keep very well past their expiration dates - they start going flat. There should be some Labor Day deals by then. I am not a reseller. I just buy what I think my family will consume so I think I'm good for now!

 

Have you found any good deals this week?

 

P.S. OK. I have to share another story that I read on one of my coupon forums...

 

Last month, CVS had a monthly deal that involved buying bars of Neutrogena soap and earning ECBs. I didn't do the deal so I don't know all the details but, essentially, it was kinda like the Ban deal this month - use coupons and get the Neutrogena free plus make a profit in ECBs. I think the "profit" was a buck or two. Of course all the bars of Neutrogena soap sold out the first week. Well, some woman got caught bringing in her own bars of Neutrogena soap and rebuying them! OMG! Are you kidding me?

 

G'night now!

 

***UPDATE*** I found out where the extra $6 credit from my first transaction came from. Last week there was a gas card deal that I didn't do but Lancaster caramels were included in the deal. I purchased 2 bags because I had coupons and got them for $0.50 a bag... but they gave me a $6 gas card credit... which carried over to this week because the gas card deal is a June monthly deal. 

Abby Brinkman 5K

The last couple days have been all about catching up as well as living in the present...

Friday:
Worked from 6:30 am to 3 pm and got off on time!! Woohoo!! Always a plus when that happens.

I had a going away party for some co-workers to attend at 6 pm in Bloomington so I decided the best way to kill 3 hours was to get my run in. I asked around and found some trails to run - nice shady trails! I ran part of the Bloomington Rails to Trails Trail as well as the Clear Creek Trail. I was originally going to run 5 miles, but the Clear Creek Trail was so nice I decided to do more. I was thinking 10, but then the trail just dead-ended on private property so I ran it back to my car and only got 7 in.

Grabbed a shower at the hostess' house and had a great time at the party. By 9 pm though, my belly was full of good food and wine and I just wanted to lay down! Unfortunately, I had to drive an hour home. I wanted to hit the sack as soon as I got home. I had a sinking feeling though that I didn't have any clean running clothes for my race in the morning. Then, I managed to find one clean sports bra, a pair of shorts, and decided to wear the Monumental Mile tank top I had gotten Thursday night. Nevermind that I wasn't all matchy matchy, I could go to sleep without doing laundry!

Today:
Up at 5:30 am and out the door by 6 to drive down to Columbus for my race. This is the race that had the locked bathrooms (read HERE) last year so I stopped at a gas station before I got to the park to take care of business. However, as soon as I pulled into Mill Race Park, I needed a bathroom again - go figure! This time, thankfully, the bathrooms were unlocked... with no toilet paper. Had to make another trip to the car for my fast food napkins!

The weather this morning was perfect. The course was perfect. It was run on the People Trail through the park. I however was not feeling it. My legs felt like lead and I pretty much got my butt kicked.

Mile 1 - 7:58
Mile 2 - 8:33
Mile 3 - 8:27
last 0.1 - 0:51

Official time - 25:49 (8:18 pace)

I ended up 11th overall in the women's race. My first place in the 40-49 age group was pretty much a gift as there were LOTS of fast women today... just not in my age group.

Awards got over at 9:30 am. I jumped in my car and drove like a bat out of hell up the highway to downtown Indy where the Indianapolis Women's Half-Marathon was being held. My friends Trena and Amanda were running. This is Trena's 50th half-marathon. Simply amazing! She was also a finalist in the Indy Women's Runner of the Year competition and I was positive she was going to win.

The winner for this award was going to be announced at 10:30 am. I got parked at 10:15, then discovered I was next to the wrong downtown park and had to run about a mile to the correct park. Luckily, I was still dressed in running clothes and shoes. I made it to the park just in time!

 

Here's my friend Trena. She's the Indy Women's Runner of the Year! I'm so proud of her!

 

 

After lots of screaming and congratulations, we parted ways and I finally drove home... showered and completely crashed. So much for post-race nutrition. I was starving but too tired to get out of the bed I had crawled onto - yeah, too tired to even get in it. I finally got myself up at 2 pm to eat a sandwich.

 

I finally got my second wind and went to Blue Mile this afternoon to buy trail running shoes with the 4 race certificates I'd won from the Memorial Day triple header and today's race.

 

Saucony Peregrine 4

 

Check out those treads! Western States here we come...

 

I just may have to take these for a test run tomorrow morning! Tomorrow is another full day. It's G's dance studio recital. I'll have to get my butt out of bed early if I'm going to squeeze a run in tomorrow.

 

How are YOU living your life this weekend?







Harnessing the Runaway Train

My life has become a runaway train of late. It all came to a head last night when I realized I had over 1000 emails in my inbox and I couldn't find my paper calendar/schedule. How did this happen?

First Saturday of May was the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.

Second weekend of May was Rising Star dance competition.
Third weekend of May was Ticket to Broadway dance competition.
Dance competition weeks are busy as there are extra rehearsals in the studio and costumes to bling. Not only was G dancing but I did the choreography for one of her solos and I was the choreographer  for one of the high school girls' groups so I had to run those rehearsals.

My refrigerator died.

Fourth weekend of May was my crazy triple header Memorial Day race day plus work.
Work went on til Wednesday. I had Thursday and Friday off for my G's 5th grade graduation activities... then the kids were out of school but I had to work Sat-Sun-Mon until I got a day off.

Yesterday was my day off.

What happened to summer vacations where everyone just got to lay around all day? I had paper calendars printed for June, July, and August with all the kids activities and my work schedule and my activities penned in. There wasn't a blank day on that calendar.

I am the original troglodyte. I prefer my schedules to be made with pen and paper. I just learned to text but I still can't fully operate my cell phone. I just got onto Facebook this year but can't figure out what the difference is between clicking on your name or "home." Is "home" your newsfeed? Are all your "friends" on your newsfeed? What's your "wall"? I've had this blog for over a year but can't figure out how to put text next to my photos or tabs across the top of my page (anyone?) ...get the picture?

Anyway, back to those emails... 1000+ in various stages of reading and dealing. More stuff to pen in on my calendar. Where the he** is my calendar? I don't even know what I'm doing for the rest of this week without those pieces of paper. Last time I saw it, my husband had it in his hand wanting my work schedule so he could figure out what days he could go out of town... and now he's out of town. I finally called him. He took my calendar with him because he didn't have time to copy it. Ackkk!!

He ended up taking a picture of my calendar and emailing it to me.

Then I started wading through those emails. I have never let the emails go this bad to where I had over 1000. Halfway through May, I found my gas bill and a Kohls charge bill. Both due June 1st. Ughh... first time ever I've been late paying a bill.

Yup. I decided then and there that my life is pretty much out of control right now. The irony seems to be that the less I put on my "to do" list, the more chaotic my life gets. I think I need a training schedule again. The busier I think I am, the more efficient I get with my time.

Today, it was time to be efficient.
Accomplishments for today...

1. Spent some quality time with the kids while they are on vacation. We went out for breakfast - or brunch - it was 10:30 am.

2. G has been wanted to go to Nashville, IN for some time now to do some shopping so she and I did that next.

3. Got groceries to make dinner. We've been doing WAY to much drive-thru lately.

4. Took J to cheer; put dinner in the oven and ran 5 miles while she was at cheer.

5. Made dessert after dinner. I have been wanting to make these Nanaimo bars ever since I first read about them. I finally made them tonight!

I have one more day off tomorrow. I am planning to find a training schedule... wade through some more emails... and run the Monumental Mile with Trena in the evening.

Now it's off to enjoy some Nanaimo bars!

Racing Update

Crossroads posted their standings this morning and I'm happy to say I am still in second place!

The woman in first is the one that won the overall last weekend and she is clearly faster than me. Sara, who is now in fourth, is definitely the fastest female runner (she runs a 6 minute pace) but she didn't run last weekend. Pretty much everyone else in the top 10 ran last weekend so I.'m glad I made the choice to run.

Crossroads also ended up mailing out the age group awards so I got my gift certificates in the mail yesterday.

I see some new trail running shoes in my future!

 

 

While I was running my triple header this past weekend, my friend John did a formal Western States training weekend in Squaw Valley. He ran most of the trail... covered 78 miles in 3 days. He then called and told me to start putting in some time on a stair master. There will be large portions of the trail where we will be walking uphill. A lot of the climbs are pretty technical and we will definitely be doing my section in the dark. He rolled his ankle 7 miles before the end of his last training run and ended up walking 7 miles so he was all about being careful on the trail now.

 

I've been tired this week. After racing Saturday, I put in a total of 42 hours at work from Saturday evening to Wednesday afternoon. Got 5 miles in Wednesday night. I had 10 planned yesterday but had too much kid stuff to do in the morning and didn't hit the road til 10 am. Then it was too freakin' hot! I bailed at 2 miles and decided to finish it in the evening. I went out again at 9 pm and was going to do 8 but bailed at 5 because, again, I still had stuff to finish up at home and that's all I could think about.

 

Today is G's elementary school graduation. Last day of school for both kid's. Both kid's have parties to attend this evening so I think Clark and I are going to have date night... instead of me going for a run.

 

Crossroads has another race on Sunday but I am stuck at work all weekend. I may try to hit some trails after work though.

 

What are your weekend plans?

A Tale of 3 Races

It was a series within a series... a literal  race marathon yesterday.

My road racing series, the Crossroads of Indiana, hosted it's first Memorial Weekend Family and Fitness Funfest - three races in one day. A memorable day it was! It ended up being a true bonding experience for all of us "Crossroads" runners that made it through the day together. It was a deal too. If you preregistered, it was $15 each for the first two races and $10 for the last race, however if you signed up for all three at once, it was $35 for the day - crazy.

Race #1: Never Forget 4 Mile Trail Run

This started at 8 am in Nashville, IN. This race and the last race of the day were benefits for Elder Heart. From their website ...

Elder Heart is a Veteran organization that does community projects as well as public private and corporate art to raise awareness for the 22 Veteran suicides that occur every day. Our purpose is to employ and empower Veterans while raising this awareness.

Elder Heart also donated two absolutely beautiful tomahawks that are handmade by Veterans that were awarded to the male and female winners of this race. They sell these on their website.

I want one!

We got our race packets for the day that included all our bibs and this T-shirt...

There were 57 runners in the race and the first mile went straight uphill. The course was just ridiculous! After the uphill climb, it went up and down... I usually let gravity take me and fly on the downhills. On one of the earlier downhills though I lost complete control and went flailing down, arms waving wildly in the air and legs just all over the place. There was a woman in front of me and I thought I was going to mow her down. I couldn't even scream. I think I just made some guttural half scream half grunting noise as I flew past her. I cannot believe I didn't face plant but I ended up at the bottom still on my feet. I ran pretty conservatively for the rest of the race after that!

 



Most of us ended up walking the steep uphills. I half walked the downhills too since half of them ended in creeks - creeks that you had to run through. I was happy to make it to the finish in one piece!

The actual race was 4.1 miles.
Mile 1 - 10:38
Mile 2 - 10:21
Mile 3 - 12:51
Mile 4 - 11:26
last 0.1 - 0:28 (??)

I ended up running 45:44 (11:09 pace). That was good enough for 23rd overall, 3rd overall in the women's race (darn it! no tomahawk), and 1st in the 40-49 age group.

There was some confusion after the race. There was nothing at the finish line. Not even water. The race info for the weekend said their would be age group awards for each race (since not everybody was doing all three races today), then there was suppose to be an awards ceremony at the end of the day for the whole series. Finally we were told there would be no awards after this race as most of us had to get to Seymour, IN, which is about an hour away, for the next race that started at noon. Plus, understandably, the race director had to clean up everything from this race and get stuff set up at the next race so I don't think he had time to get everything tabulated in that amount of time.

Race #2: One Team, Best Health 5K
This was sponsored by a company called Aisin. It is the first year for this race and they went all out! Apparently their employees got some kind of health insurance discount for participating. The Crossroads runners showed up and found ourselves outnumbered by Aisin employees and their family members (all in blue T-shirts). There were race banners. There was food - like real food - Subway sandwiches, full size bottles of Gatorade, bananas, granola bars, and even a snow cone table. They even gave everyone a medal in the finish chute!

There were 235 runners in this race. It was brutally hot with no shade anywhere. I felt like crap as soon as I started running. Originally I was going to try an 8:00 pace, then it became 8:15, then I was hanging on to the thought of 8:30.

Mile 1 - 8:23
Mile 2 - 8:33
Mile 3 - 8:29
last 0.1 - 0:34 (??, mile times might be off, Garmin says I ran 3.11 miles though so total is right)

Official finish time - 25:59 (8:21 pace). Ended up 35th overall, 5th in the women's race, and 1st in the 40-49 age group.

Again there was confusion after this race. Obviously most of these 235 people were not going to end up at the third race. Was there going to be an awards ceremony? Plus they were suppose to give away two $100 and one $50 Blue Mile gift cards after this race in a drawing. The race brochure did not say you had to be present to win but most of milled around for over an hour after the race to see what would happen. Finally someone said they were going to do the gift card drawing soon. I ran to the bathroom. When I came out, everyone was leaving and said they had already had the drawing. There were no awards.

The final race was in Columbus, IN at 5 pm. I went to my in-laws house in Columbus after the second race to shower and change clothes. It was the longest break between races and I had to get out of my sweaty clothes and get my feet up for awhile. I felt like I was overheating. Fueling was starting to become a problem because I was too hot to eat.

Race #3: Memorial Mile
One more mile! My legs were dead by now. So were everyone else's. We all made it to the picnic shelter at Donner Park in Columbus that had been reserved for our group and commiserated together. The race director had been able to tabulate our cumulative times from the first two races by now so we could see our standings.

The women's leader's cumulative time was 64:19. I was second at 71:44. Third place was 73:19. I was obviously not going to make up 7 minutes in a mile race so I figured out I was running for second. I was pretty sure I could keep second as long as I didn't completely die... but the possibility of crashing was there... plus the third place runner was 17 years old and I only had 1:35 on her.

My other "problem" was that I had to be at work in Martinsville, IN by 7 pm. I would have to drive 45 minutes home to Greenwood, shower/change, then drive 20 minutes to Martinsville. I thought I was running at 5 pm. Then they announced that there would be three heats. Heat #1 was for the 4-5-6 minute milers. Heat #2 was for the rest of the runners. Heat #3 was for the walkers. My heat was suppose to start at 5:15. Rut roh!

There were 61 runners total. The women's leader lined up as the only woman in heat #1. I considered joining her since, initially, I had hoped for a sub-7:00 mile when I first signed up but I quickly talked myself out of it. There was no way I was running sub-7:00. I was going to be happy with anything under 8:00.

The runners in the first race were amazing. The winner ran 4:39. There were 6 guys under 5:10. The woman finished in 6:44 which was second to last in that heat.

In our heat, I got passed by a 12 year old at around the half mile mark but I had run ahead of her all day so I just let her go. The 17 year old came up on my shoulder around that time too but I was able to drop her. I raced some guy stride per stride for close to the last 200 yards but outkicked him in the end. I ended up running 7:44. That put me 25th overall, 3rd in the women's race, 1st in the 40-49 age group.

I ran straight to the car and drove home. My family had met me at the park for the final race and I left them in charge of picking up any awards. My husband says the awards went on forever but that they never gave out separate awards for the different races. All they did were the overalls for the day and the overall age group awards for the day and brought this home for me...

First Place 40-49 age group medal.

 I finished second Overall Female for the day.

Would I do this again? Definitely! Crossroads actually put on a big cookout after the final race with burgers, hotdogs and sides - all included in your registration fee. I didn't get to hang out because I had to go to work but I'd love to next year. There were 46 runners total that made all three races. It was truly a bonding experience. I also made my goal of racking up some points. I ended up with 24 points total. Since I can't race every race in the series, this will provide me with some "cushion" for the rest of the year. I'm pretty sore today but it was so worth it!

NOT a Morning Person

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm NOT A MORNING PERSON!

I set my alarm for 4:20 am today with every intention of getting up so I could go run with the group that runs at 5am at my fitness center. I figured if I did that, I could get my 10 miles in before I had to get the kids to school. NOT!

Alarm went off. I shut it off and rolled over... and that's all she wrote. I got up in time to take G to school at 8:45 am.

Next on the agenda was getting rid of some of J's unwanted clothing.

All of this went to Goodwill this morning

 

Then it was off to Meijer for a little shopping.

 

First transaction - I used this Catalina (the machine next to the register that spits out coupons) coupon to get a $50 Meijer gift card.

 

$50 gift card for $45 - it's like $5 free money

 

I then used the gift card I had just purchased to buy everything else.

 

Second transaction - Oscar Mayer has a deal going on where if you buy 5 packages of lunch meat, a Catalina coupon will print for $4 off your next purchase. Meijer has some of the Oscar Mayer lunch meat on sale for $1 this week. Ziplock has a deal going on where if you buy 4 Ziplock products a Catalina coupon will print for $2 off your next purchase. Meijer has their own promotion going on this week where the register will automatically deduct $2 when you buy 3 Ziplock products. I also had coupons for $1 off 2 Ziplock products.

 

I bought 5 packages of Oscar Mayer Cotti Salami and 4 boxes of quart size Ziplock bags. Paid $11.55 and got these two coupons...

 





Third transaction - 6 count boxes of Kashi granola bars are on sale this week, buy 3 boxes, get 1 box free. The advertised price was 3 for $9, however I found that my favorite ones were actually clearance priced at $2.30 I also had coupons for $2 off 3 boxes. The clearance boxes would not automatically give me the 4th box free at the register but the cashier did an override since both their print ad and their shelf tag said "buy 3 get 1 free." I got 8 boxes. Also picked up 4 lbs of ground chuck at $2.59 a pound and used a Catalina coupon for $1.50 off a $10 meat purchase. Plus, there is an mPerks promo for this weekend (that started today) where members get 5% off grocery purchases and I picked this transaction to use the 5% off. Paid $11.19 for this transaction.

$22.74 for everything pictured (regular price was $60.32)

Ended up with:
4 boxes of 30-count quart size Ziplock bags
5 packages of Oscar Mayer Cotti Salami
8 boxes of 6-count Kashi bars
4 lbs ground chuck

I really like the Kashi bars. I recognize everything on their ingredient list. The Dark Chocolate Coconut bars have 4g protein, 21g carbs and 120 calories per bar. The Dark Mocha Almond ones have 6g protein, 21g carbs and 130 calories per bar. They're handy to have around when I feel like chewing my arm off.

So I said I would run 10 miles. Now I had to run 10 miles. Of course the kids came home. Afternoon turned to evening... I ended up hamster tracking it at the fitness center at 7:30 in the evening. The first two laps were sheer terror - my right foot was killing me, I didn't feel like running, I was afraid I would bail... but it got better by mile 2 and I started to feel really good. By mile 7 and 8 though my brain was telling me it might be OK to just go home. I've put in a decent amount of miles, why not? No no NO! I stuck it out and did all 10.

Tomorrow's a "rest" day. Actually I'm working all day then meeting friends for dinner. Hopefully I'll get to bed at a decent hour so I can rest up for my crazy triple header race day on Saturday!

What are your weekend plans?