I need to budget

After getting my first paycheck, I got in to this sort of a bad habit of buying everything I want (mostly everything) Also, the fact that I eat my lunch at my desk in front of a computer and the advance of internet shopping is really killing my bank account. Not to mention, there are tons of lessons that I want to take such as hip hop lessons and etc. 

There was no way I could not buy this shirt. Do you get it? (Spoiler: it's cow tipping)

Long story short, I need to seriously get my stuff together and budget so that I can start saving some money. 

Just today, I ended up buying a good bye present for Stefan, since he's leaving Baton Rouge soon to get back to school. (Best girlfriend ever!) And that was seriously going to be it until my co-worker invited me to a site with cheap running shoes. 

I feel like inviting a runner to a site with cheap outdoor gear/workout gear should be a crime, something like giving a gin and tonic to a recovering alcoholic. 

He had originally just sent me the invite because he thought I'd enjoy the selection of Brooks on the site, but then I found out that they were also selling a pair of Hoka One One's for $60 something dollars. The one shoe that I really wanted to try out but couldn't afford was on sale! Yeah, you guys can probably figure out how this story ends. And while I was there, I picked up a solid looking running bra. 

Unattractive compared to my past running shoes, but if it'll help me run better, I'll wear  clown shoes.   

I'm super excited for my purchase to come in and hopefully the new shoes will fuel my motivation to start training for real. Technically my training started last week, but I missed the first week of training due to sleepiness. (This week, I had to be at work by 6:00AM! 'Nuff said, no running got done.) 

Hopefully, now that I've gotten a pair of running shoes and enough of household things to last me a while, I can actually start saving some money and maybe even figure out the whole 401K thing. 

Hopefully this won't be me. 

A quick question: Do you guys have the Roth 401K or the before tax contribution 401K? Also, do you guys budget running into your budget? Race fees and running gear is so expensive! 

PS - If you guys want an invite to the site with the running gear, send me your e-mail! 

Holy Humidity

You're lucky that you're getting this update through an internet blogpost and is not chatting with me in person, because I'm a one sweaty mess. I don't mind sweating when I'm working out, since sweat=awesome workout. 

And Monster=giddiness. A Monster a day keeps the Starbucks away. Yes, I know this picture is sideways, but my computer was being stupid. 

But it's not fun to be all sweaty and hat haired at work. I am finally beginning to do some real work that is helpful for the company instead of just attending training. Unfortunately, this also means that I spent the entire morning out in the Louisiana heat and humidity tracing lines in the plant. Because of safety concerns, I also had to be out wearing long sleeve collared shirt, long pants, steel toed boots, hard hat, and safety gloves. 

True story, except my boss doesn't think I sleep through the day. I hope not. 

Knowing that I'll be outside walking up and down flights of stairs, when my alarm buzzed at 4:50AM, I opted for more sleep. I knew a spin class would have made me feel better, but I also thought that might kill me at work, so back to sleep it was. It's a lot easier to justify going back to sleep when you're half asleep and cozy in bed. 

Now that we got the work talk out of the way, let's talk about running. Despite this being a running blog, I haven't written about running in a while. Let's be honest, I haven't written anything in a while. The bad thing about a running blog is that you have to run in order to blog. 

Yesterday, remember how I said that I went to a Body Pump class before work? Well, after work, I actually headed out for a 3 miler. It felt like I was dying, but I got in 3 very sweaty miles at 9:47/mile pace, which is faster than I've been running outdoors. 

The only reason that I ran "so fast," was that I felt like I was going to die if I stayed outside for longer. Note to self, bring water on runs. 

Photo of me if the heat was the moose(?) Is that a moose?

Hopefully, now I'm ready to get back into running and I will soon be able to tell you about exciting things like mile splits and emergency bathroom runs track workouts. A big maybe on the track workouts, since I never really did them even when I was in the racing mode. The emergency bathroom stops will definitely come up more often than I'd like since the route that I run has zero bathrooms. I mean seriously, what do all the runners do when they need to go? The woods is not an option because it's heavily populated and right by major roads. 

You knew this picture will be in the post since it's so relevant. Here's to hoping that won't be me and there's some hidden bathrooms on the route. 

I'm also now in the process of looking for new shoes. I feel like I should break in new running shoes while my old ones are still good. To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the Asics that I have. Now, I don't know what brand to try. I'm thinking about a different line of Brooks or Sauconys. I really want to try out Hoka One One, which I found out about from this awesome blogger who doesn't know I'm alive. But she's cool and she swears by these shoes. Fun fact, Marshall Ulrich, ultra runner, also loves them. 

Now I'm off to trace some more lines and hydrate so that I don't faint off the unit. How did you guys find your shoes and how did you know that they were the one? Was it love at first wear or do you need to develop the relationship?