Autumn Running!

This morning between 7:00 and 8:00 was perfect for running. It was nice and cool; it had rained hard the night before and the air was fresh and clean; there was a gentle, constant breeze. My Garmin Forerunner GPS watch that I ordered came in while I was sick (some kind of non-flu virus, but it was yuk), and I'm finally healthy enough to get out and use it. So guess what I did?

I slept in.

Yeah. Well, I blame my bunco sisters. We all got together last night and had a fantastic time, and I was out late. I am really grateful to have them. We are a group of the most awesome, intelligent, beautiful, fun women ever in the history of the world. Last night was supposed to be a bunco night, but we were missing two people, so we just ended up talking, laughing, inspiring each other (more on that in a moment), and eating good food (it was simple sandwiches last night, but it was great!).

I could do a whole blog post on girlfriends, and how very special and important they are, but I will do that another day.

About that inspiring each other thing. One of my bunco girlfriends is Aimee at La Familia Luis. She has been doing P90X and modifying her eating, and she looks really great. She was always gorgeous, but I can see a real difference since she's been doing all that hard work.

She has inspired me.

I have decided that I am going to also work hard and finally get rid of these final pounds that I've been toying with since the half marathon, and I'm going to get my muscle tone where it really needs to be.

I'm starting today. I'm going to do Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred workout, and then I'm going to the Y to spend an hour on the spin bikes. I might take my swimsuit and jump in the pool for a little cross-training; I don't know. But I'm back on the wagon as of now.

Even though I squandered a perfect running morning.

Oh, by the way, I don't get any kind of ad money for the links I put to the workout DVDs or the Forerunner up there; the links are for informational purposes only. If I could have found a site that described them without selling them, I would have used those.

Best Day Ever

Yesterday was Labor Day here in the United States. It's a day that we get to take off from work to celebrate work. Apparently. I don't know; I just know it's the holiday for all the end-of-summer barbecues and swimming parties. It's a nice little holiday to fit in there between Independence Day and Thanksgiving (wow - two other strictly American holidays).

Anyway, Julia and I were planning to grill some steaks and have a nice little just-the-two-of-us patio party. Now, we like to eat steaks for dinner, not for lunch, so we decided to grab our cameras and take a drive into town to see if we could get any cool photos. We're both trying to get better at photography, and it was a beautiful day to go out and get some practice. Neither of us have taken any lessons; we just enjoy it (we'd both like to take classes someday).

Our first stop was the farmers' market. There were so many opportunities to get really cool photos there! Here are a few of Julia's best ones:













And here are some of mine that I liked:















We were going to eat lunch at the Greek restaraunt at the farmers' market, but they were closed (Labor Day - duh), so we drove uptown to have lunch at a chain restaraunt on the main strip. Our waiter looked like Will Ferrell and juggled for us after bringing us our food. Yes, that was as odd as it sounds.

After lunch, we drove back downdown and parked by the art museum. The plan was to walk up and down the street a bit, getting some nice architectrual photos, then go to the museum for a while.

We were both kind of fixated on the old Union Station building, so we both took several photos of that. Here are some of Julia's:

















And some of mine:
















Then we went to the museum and stayed until it was closing time and they kicked us out.

By the time we got home, we were both way too tired to grill, so we grabbed something simple and got ready for bed. Julia thanked me several times for spending the day with her and doing such fun stuff.

I thanked her for spending the day with me and for being the greatest kid on the planet.

Best. Day. Ever.

I Do Still Work Out. I Just Don't Write About it as Much

So, now I have been coerced into doing a Spring half marathon with a couple of my online friends. We will most likely do one in Florida, so at least it will be flat.

I'll probably start the serious training in October, but for now, I just have to get my body used to running again. I've been doing spinning classes and Zumba for cardio lately because it's better on my knees, and they really needed a break. But running is another animal altogether.

So, one thing I'm going to do to get a little running under my belt in the meantime is join the adult soccer league at my YMCA. Maybe. I can only join if you don't already have to know how to play soccer. If they don't teach beginners, then I'm out of luck. My only soccer experience is watching Julia play. So we'll see.

Yeah. Not much to say today. Just a little snippet to try to get back into the swing of blogging.

Faster Than the Speed of the Brain

This post is going to seem pretty random. These thoughts were swirling through my head last night because my cat was particularly snuggly.

Shutty. I can be as warm and fuzzy as anyone else.

Well, with animals. With people not so much.

Anyway.

Last night, as mentioned, my cat was needy. He jumped onto my bed and snuggled up tight with his butt in the pit of my arm and his body across my chest, cheek-to-cheek with me. In my half-asleep daze, I brought up my free arm and started petting him, without thinking twice.

For some reason, this reminded me of the time there was a mouse in the house. I remember on some nights, before we were able to get the exterminators in (sorry, PETA people, I HATE MICE), I would be absolutely freaked-out paranoid that the little bugger was going to jump onto my bed at night. I don't know if mice do that; but I was scared of it anyway.

There's a point here. Be patient.

Now. Had a mouse actually jumped onto my bed as I was sleeping, I would have had an immediate response to shoot out of the covers like a rocket, catapulting the mouse across the room, screaming like a little girl, and then stroking out. No thoughts, no debate. Just reflex.

What this led my incredibly geeky brain to analyze was the amazing processing speed of our brains. When my cat jumps onto the bed and sticks his nose in my face, I immediately know that he is an animal that is safe to handle. I don't have to go through the long process of thinking "This animal is under my care, is clean, has been innoculated for disease, eats a controlled diet of non-contaminated food, and is not violent; it is safe for this animal to be on my bed."

My brain knows all those things to be true, and no doubt processes them, but all that goes through my head is "Awww! Kitty!!!"

For the mouse, all I would think is "AAAAUUUUAAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHUUUUGGGHHH!!!"

I don't know why this stuff amazes me so. It's really pretty elementary; but when you're in an exaustion-induced, perfectly relaxed, ready-to-sleep state, and then a cuddly kitty jumps up purring like mad and snuggles in cozy, relaxing you even further as well as giving you a little shot of happy, your brain thinks weird stuff.

Shutty.

Still Here, Still Running.

So, after the half marathon, my first thought (after the adrenaline subsided, and then the pain started to die down) was, "What now?"

Well, I took two weeks off from running; I continued with strength training and did spinning class, but no running. By the end of the first week, I was itching to run again.

So today I did my first run after the race. It felt great; I set out to do three miles. My plan was to go to the greenway, run a mile and a half out, and a mile and a half back; but, when I got about two-tenths of a mile past the .75 mile marker, there was caution tape across the path, and when I looked past it, I saw that the remainder of the greenway was basically a lake. That is because it has rained for 31 of the last 30 days here.

Okay; my math might be a little off. But it has rained a lot. I don't remember when I moved to Seattle; but apparently, that is where I am.

(Because, you see, it rains a lot in Seattle. For those of you not familiar with US weather patterns.)

So, I ended up turning around at the trailhead and just doing the .75 mile out-and-back twice. Which, according to my calculations, is three miles (.75 X 4 = 3, right?).

It felt really good to be back out on a trail. I really enjoyed the run, and I feel really good now that I've done it.

I'm going to start training soon for my next half. I have the running bug, and I don't want the antidote...

Life Begins at 13.1

Today, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, TN, USA.

My goal time was to finish in under 3:00:00. My time according to my stopwatch was 2:43:06. Official chip time will be posted soon, and I'll post an update to include it.

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll begin at the beginning.

[Note: There is absolutely no blood in my brain right now, and the pain in my lower extremities has caused severe loopiness. This post might be incredibly disjointed and in a stream-of-consciousness style worthy of Faulkner himself.]

[Another Note: I am so loopy, that when I first typed that, I said Steinbeck instead of Faulkner. Um, Steinbeck is, like, the total OPPOSITE of SOC writing. I need a nap.]

I had to get up this morning at 4:00 to get ready, because I needed to be in the parking lot at LP Field by 5:00. I left in plenty of time to get there on a normal day; what I did not take into consideration, though, was that there would be 30,000 other people trying to park at LP Field at the same time as me. So, yeah. Traffic sucked.

I did get parked in time to hop on one of the shuttles to the starting line (LP Field was the finish line, so our cars were there when we were done). Talked to a nice guy who sat next to me on the shuttle. He had run the CM half before, and was really cool to talk to. One of my favorite things about running is the camaraderie that almost instantly forms when two strangers find out that they are both runners. It's very inspiring to talk to a pro; it's equally inspiring to talk to someone who has trained their ass off and is running his or her very first endurance race.

So we got to Centennial Park (starting line), and I checked my gear bag, went to say hi to my TNT team leader and coach, and got in line for the Port-a-Potty. The lines were long...

So, time to get in my corral. I was in corral 26, because I put on my race registration that I expected to finish in around 3 hours (faster runners are in the front corrals; it keeps them from trampling us). The race started at 7:00; our corral started at 8:00. It was a long wait. I had to use the bathroom again by the time I got to the starting line. Damn.

So, I took off at a nice, easy pace at the starting line. I went totally according to plan; 3 minutes run, 1 minute walk. It was going well. There were bands playing every few miles, there was plenty of Cytomax sports drink and water, and it was a beautiful run. I love Nashville.

The only bad thing in the beginning was the heat. It was hot. Like, 80ºF (26.6ºC). That's not too bad for spectating, but it was hot for running.

The bands were great; the spectators were awesome. There were lots of TNT supporters shouting "Go Team!" whenever they saw a purple jersey passing. My coach from the triathlon four years ago saw me, and shouted "Go Nena!" It was so energizing, so exciting! I had lots of energy the whole time, really, but just after mile 6, around the 10K mark, the bottoms of my feet started to hurt. I mean, really started to hurt. Like they were breaking to pieces starting to hurt.

I pushed through it, maintaining 3 min run/1 min walk. Lungs felt great; heart rate was good; knees felt good; legs felt good. I'm fit enough to do this. Damnit if only the bottoms of my feet didn't hurt like the fires of hell.

Have you ever had a sudden, stabbing pain that only lasted a split second, and it hurt so much that you couldn't imagine how awful it would have been if it had lasted longer than that split second? That's how my feet felt, but not for a split second; it was enduring pain of that magnitude.

I was maintaining my intervals through mile 10; still felt good. There was a Port-a-Potty with no line right before mile 11, so I made a quick pee break, then right back on course.

At mile 12, however, I started to go downhill. The pain in the soles of my feet was almost unbearable; my legs were getting fatigued; and my general energy level had dropped drastically. I wanted to quit. I wanted to quit so badly; but there was no way in hell I was quitting. I had worked too hard for this. I did have to ditch my timed intervals and just run when I could, and walk when I had to.

Mile 12 was the longest mile ever in the history of the world. There were more TNT supporters along that mile, cheering and encouraging us to keep going. They knew that's where we would need them. It helped; but it didn't take the pain away.

Then, I saw the pedestrian bridge. The home stretch. This was it. I make it to that bridge, run across it, turn the corner, and I can see the finish line.

13 mile sign...there it is. I can do it...

Turn the last corner...

Boom.

It was the most amazing feeling ever. I did it. I finished the half marathon.

Highlights:
- The bands. They were awesome.
- The crowds. Especially the TNT supporters.
- The general excitement of all the participants. It was contagious.
- That I didn't crap myself. Seriously. That was a fear of mine.
- Knowing that I was going to finish. It hit me at mile 10, and it was an incredible feeling. I almost cried.
- Crossing the finish line.

Lowlights:
- The heat.
- The horrible pain in the bottoms of my feet.
- The weird snake-shaped blood blister thing I have on the big toe of my right foot. I just discovered it when I got home.
- The ice bath afterwards. No one was home when I took it, and it's a good thing. I screamed like a banshee. No; not like a banshee. Banshees would have wondered "what the hell kind of creature can make a noise like that? Damn!"

I am so glad I did it. I'm already thinking that I want to do another here in Tennessee in October. Then another in Florida next March.

I'm not sure whether there is an effective treatment for my particular brand of insanity.

I'm sure I'll think of more things that I want to say. I'll post updates as I think of them.

Thanks to all for your support.

UPDATE: Official chip times were published today. Mine was 2:42:42. Even better than what I clocked; and the chips are way accurate! YAY!

The Truth About Tapering

Apparently, when one trains for an endurance event, one must go through a process called "tapering" during the last two weeks before the event.

Tapering consists of doing shorter, gentler workouts to allow your body time to heal from the rigorous training it has endured, and rebuild some of the strength you will need for the actual race.

It also consists of being RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY and having tiredness and soreness after even a short, easy run. Yesterday I ran four miles, which lately has been a piece of cake; today I am sore and really tired. It's strange.

As for the ravenously hungry part, I was told by a seasoned endurance athlete with whom I work that I would be hungry. She wasn't kidding. I have been eating like there's going to be seven years of famine. It's overwhelming how hungry I have been. I'm going to have to really buckle down on the food intake after Saturday. I actually gained some weight back last week, but this is not the week to worry about that. After the race is the week to start worrying about that again.

Julia-ism. Antarctica Edition.

So, my husband returns from working for six months in Antarctica. You can imagine he had some very interesting things to tell. One story in particular was about when they had to spend several hours at a time out "on the ice," where there were no facilities or buildings or anything.

Husband: So, when we had to pee, we had to just go outside. There were yellow flags posted where you were supposed to go.

Julia: [pause]

Julia: Were there also brown flags?

Because I Just Now Have the Strength to Post Again

On Saturday, April 4, 2009, I ran 12 miles. That is 19.3 kilometers. That is a lot.

Surprisingly, it was a good run. I felt good; I felt strong. I kept a very good rhythm until about mile 11, when I started to really feel the fatigue. Mile 12 consisted of a lot of walking, but I managed to trod to the end at a pretty good clip.

There are no words to describe how much my legs and abs hurt on Sunday. Honestly. No words. The bottoms of my feet felt like they had been shattered with a jackhammer, too. Lotsa pain.

What frustrates me is the fact that I can not get my eating under control enough to see any real weight loss results, even with all this exercise. I just seem to eat to make up for the extra calories burned. I'm not gaining anymore; at least I'm maintaining. But I'd like to see a loss.

Admittedly, I have not been journaling my food like I should. I guess I'm going to have to start doing that again. It's just kind of a hassle. eh.

Oh, and PSA: Race to Witch Mountain is a decent movie. It's not awesome. Don't pay more than matinee price to see it; but I think it might be worth seeing it on the big screen. Dwayne Johnson is hot.

If This Was One of You Wonderful Readers, THANK YOU!!

I just got a very generous donation today on my Team in Training page, but I don't recognize the name.

If it was one of you peeps who read me here, THANK YOU!!

I'd love to know who you are. If you want to remain anonymous here, you can email me at pinkvelvetribbon@gmail.com.

I really appreciate it, whoever you are.

Oh, and if I should recognize the name, please forgive me - I'm terrible with names until they are beaten into me.

*sniffle* I needed an act of kindness today. That was a wonderful surprise. You totally, totally rock.

:-)

Julia-ism; Movie Edition

Julia did this movie. I thought it was hilarious.

Movie

Thanks to The Bloggess for the tip on this website.

Apologies

I see that when I leave a comment on a post of The Bloggess, I tend to get hits from it. Sorry to disappoint; I'm not funny like her at all. I have a few humorous posts, but mostly I post about my everyday life and my efforts to become fit and hot. I mean strong. Yes, fit and strong (and by strong I mean hot).

Anyway, I ran ten miles again yesterday. I improved on my last time by seven minutes; I finished it in 1:58:17. The run was similar to my last ten miler; I felt good during the run, still had adrenaline after I finished, then had excruciating pain and fatigue for the rest of the day. I did another ice bath, and to tell you the truth, I couldn't get the water cold enough. My poor legs were on fire and crying for the coldness. It was definitely needed.

It is now Sunday night, and my right knee is just now starting to feel like I can start to use it again. These long runs are really hard on me, but I can continue them until the half marathon in April. After that, I will go back to a much lighter running schedule. I'm thinking two 3 milers during the week, and a 6 miler on Saturday (still doing spinning classes for supplemental cardio). I want to stay strong and in shape, but I don't want to tear my body apart doing it.

I'm still raising money for Team in Training. I appreciate any donations. Part of what keeps me going with this is knowing that if it gets too hard, I have the option to quit; but victims of blood cancers do not have that option. And believe me, it gets much, much harder for them than my piddly little long runs. Thanks to all who have supported me.

Because I Care

I am seeing from my site meter that people are visiting my blog, only to find that I have not updated since their last visit. This post is to remedy this (for the time being).

So. Today I took Julia to have her braces put on. In order to understand the next bit of my post , you must be familiar with this:

Beyonce/Justin Timberlake SNL Skit

So. Julia is a little upset about how her speech is affected by her new braces. She had to have some barriers put on her back teeth to prevent her mouth from closing all the way, because her top teeth could knock the brackets off her bottom teeth without them.

So, she is talking with a little bit of a lisp, until she gets used to it.

On the way from the orthondontist, I asked her to say for me, "We're the dancers."

She said it.

It sounded just like Justin Timberlake in the skit.

We cracked up.

Then, while we were still laughing, I asked her to say, "Dance biscuits."

She did.

We cracked up again.

This calmed her down, and boosted her confidence to go to school with her new braces. If any stupid jerkbag made fun of her or laughed at her, at least she could say that she had laughed at it first.

Social crisis averted.

I am so fortunate to have such a cool daughter.

Really. Somebody Tell Me. Who *is* This Woman Doing All This Running?

Because it is certainly not the woman I used to be.

I made it. Ten miles. I can't believe it.

What I can't believe even more is that I finished in 2 hours and 5 minutes. That's an average of a 12:30 mile. Almost 5 mph.

I expected to be writing a humorous blog entry about how horrible and grueling the run was; but it turns out, if you train consistently and pace yourself, you actually start to become more fit, and can do more each time. Who knew?

I felt so great during the run. I had adrenaline pumping through my body like crazy, and I felt so strong and awesome. My coach, who was having some hamstring problems, ran with me for most of the second half, but he ended up having to walk at about mile 8 because his leg was getting too tight. He was very impressed with the pace I was keeping, considering at the beginning I was worried about even finishing! When I finished and saw my time, I was so pumped. I felt like Superwoman.

Then I got home and felt like I'd been hit by a truck. No; a jet. Once that adrenaline wears off, the fatigue sets in FAST.

The trainers recommend an ice bath for your legs when you start running in the double-digit mileage. I was prepared for this to be one of the most horrible experiences of my life. It is basically this: you run a tub of lukewarm water, enough to cover your legs while sitting, bundle your upper body up so you don't lower your entire body temp, sit in it, and dump two bags of ice in the tub. You sit in this for ten minutes and it is supposed to decrease inflammation in your muscles and joints. Then you take a warm shower and the blood vessels open up and the circulation in your legs is supposed to speed up the healing process.

The ice bath was not nearly as bad as I expected. It was actually kind of nice, because my leg muscles were on fire and very inflamed. I bundled up in my warm pink New York hoodie sweatshirt, brewed a cup of hot coffee, and settled in for the soak. It was COLD, and it wasn't really pleasant, but it did make my legs feel better, so it was totally worth it. I'm glad I did it.

All in all, a successful day, and a great run.

*groan*

Tonight, Brittnee put me through a very taxing lower-body strength and toning workout. It was a great workout; but afterwards, I had to run five miles.

Ouch.

I could not skip the run because on Saturday I have to run my longest distance ever, ten miles, and I feel like it is important that I follow the training schedule exactly this week to prepare.

My neck and back were already sore from being too tense while doing chest and triceps yesterday; now my hips, butt, thighs, knees, and calves are going to be sore and fatigued all day tomorrow.

And tomorrow is spin class.

Joy.

I am in need of one more glass of wine and a good night's sleep. I think I will make that happen right now.

Julia-ism on a Thursday

Julia: 'Cause that's how I roll; like a bowling ball. Smooth; but heavy.

Cool Visual

There is a site called Wordle that will create a visual rendering of what your blog is about; it's pretty cool. Here's mine:

I like it. I'm a little surprised that "Julia" isn't a bit more prominent, but I guess I do dwell on running a lot; that's appropriate, I suppose, considering the title of the blog...

Thanks to the Bloggess for the Wordle tip.

Somebody Please Talk Me Out of This

Whose big idea was it for me to train for a half marathon? That person needs to be slapped with a fish.

Oh. Right. It was my idea. Never mind.

Today the group ran eight miles. Eight. Miles. It sucked.

There is a famous running guru (and by guru I mean douchebag) who claims that there is no such thing as a bad run; there are only learning runs. Well, today I learned that sometimes you have a bad run. So, I guess in a way he's right.

My short runs had been rough all week; so I knew that today was going to be tough. Today, by mile three I was starting to feel fatigued. That is when I knew that it was going to be even worse than I had anticipated. One of the coaches ran with me to the turnaround at mile four, and that helped a lot. I ran most of the way up to mile 5; then it felt like I had been hit with a truckload of bricks. The walk breaks became frequent during the last three miles. I ended up finishing in 1:45.

My current condition: my right knee is inflamed and pops around a bit in the socket if I bend it too far; the bottoms of my feet hurt; the arch of my right foot doesn't feel quite right; my fingers are swelled up like sausages; and I stink so bad I could make Right Guard turn left.

And I have tons of stuff to do today. Oh, the joy.

Julia-ism and Today's Run

It appears that the Julia-isms are not going to be a Wednesday thing. They happen too randomly, so it's best for me to just post them as they occur.

If you are familiar with Monty Python's Flying Circus, you will get today's Julia-ism. If not, it won't be nearly as funny.

Today Julia was folding clothes for me. She pulled one of my bras out of the basket and held it up. The underwire was hanging half out, and it was sadly threadbare.

Julia: This is a late. bra.

Me: It's deceased. Dead. Pushing up daisies.

Julia: IT HAS CEASED TO BE!

............................................................................

So, today I ran six miles. I ran every step, except to slow down for two hydration breaks so I wouldn't strangle on my water. It took me 68 minutes. I can't believe it.

I did the run today on the treadmill, because I was really exhausted after a trying week, and I needed to sleep past 5 this morning. I started at an easy 5 mph pace, and did intervals of 6 mph and 7 mph, and did some hills to try to mimic outdoor running as much as possible.

When I first started running, I jogged at 4.5 mph. If I made it for five minutes, I thought that was great. The first time I made it a full twenty minutes without walking, I felt like a rockstar.

As my endurance increased and I was able to jog longer stretches at 4.5 mph, I started pushing myself to run a few minutes at 5 mph. After a minute or two at 5 mph, I had to walk, because a 4.5 mph jog did not get my heart rate back down at all. Still, I felt good about doing a little at 5 mph.

Now, I warm up at 5 mph. I can run at 5 mph for a long time, without getting my heart rate very high at all. It is a recovery pace for me now, and after pushing myself at 6 mph or 7 mph for a few minutes, I can slow down to 5 mph and recover completely to a comfortable zone 2 heart rate. That amazes me.

I know that my current pace is not very impressive to seasoned runners; it's still very slow, even for a distance runner. It is so much more than I have ever been able to do before, though, and I am so excited at my progress. I am in awe of every step I run. When I began my training, I could not imagine doing what I can do now. It is so exciting to think what I'll be able to do in three more months!

Progress

Here is a side-by-side of me in May, and me in December.

I think I look like a different person. I can't wait to see me in 20 more pounds!

Brittnee wants me to take a full body shot and look at it with my "before" full body picture. For some reason, I'm still a little afraid to do that, but I'll try to make myself take one this weekend.

Anyway, it is nice to see hard work pay off.

Today's Run

Today I ran seven miles. I was supposed to run eight, but I missed a turn on the course and had to improvise the best I could. When I mapped it on mapmyrun.com, it turns out that I was only a mile short. Not too bad, considering I had no idea what eight miles felt like.

I have some sort of minor calf injury that is really nagging me after my runs. Tomorrow is a rest day, then Monday is spinning class instead of running, so hopefully that will give it some time to heal.

I am very sleepy right now, as I had a truckload of stuff to do when I got home from my run this morning. I've been going almost nonstop all day, with a couple of Facebook breaks. I am going to bed.

Goodnight.

One of Those Nights

Tonight was one of those nights when the reasonable part of my brain was completely pummelled by the fatgirl part of my brain.

Fortunately, this does not happen very often anymore; but when it does, resistance is futile.

Here's how the dialogue went inside my head tonight:

Fatgirl part: Peanut butter. We desperately need peanut butter. Right now. Now. I SAID NOW!!

Reasonable part: We shouldn't be hungry; we had a decent dinner, and all our nutritional needs have been met today. We really should be satisfied and...

Fatgirl part: PEANUT BUTTER PEANUT BUTTER PEANUT BUTTER NOW NOW NOW

Reasonable part: Okay; let's have a small serving of peanut butter on some celery...

Fatgirl part: Peanut butter sandwich. Big glop of peanut butter on soft yummy bread. Now. NOW.

Reasonable part: Okay, well, then let's enjoy it; I'll toast the bread and it will be nice and flavorful so we won't need as much...

Fatgirl part: &*^% TOASTING IT TAKES TO FREAKIN LONG JUST GIVE ME THE PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH I NEED THE SANDWICH RIGHT NOW GIVE IT TO ME GIVE IT TO ME...

Reasonable part: ...


Yeah. Fatgirl won tonight, and I wolfed down a very yummy peanut butter sandwich. That isn't so bad, but I really shouldn't have been hungry. I know that that sort of thing is going to happen every now and then. Fatgirl is just too strong to fail every time. She's like way more powerful than Lex Luthor.

I suppose I have to throw her a peanut butter sandwich every once in a while to keep her in check.

Asking For Help

Many of you already know that I am training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training to run the Country Music Half Marathon. What you may not know is that I need some serious help with my fundraising.

I am raising funds to help fund research to find a cure for blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. The victims of blood cancers are too often children; these children can become survivors rather than victims when we find a cure.

One of my honored teammates is Jillian. Jillian was first diagnosed at age one with myelodysplasia in 1999. Six months later, it became AML. She and her twin sister, Jade, had the same cancer. Jade died in 2000 after relapsing after her bone marrow transplant. Jillian relapsed in 2002 and again in 2004.

In 2007 Jillian was diagnosed with a cancer called osteosarcoma; the tumor is right above her left knee. None of Jillian's treatment options offer a guarantee, but if anyone can fight this battle, it's Jillian. She is a special little 9 year old superstar and the family comedian. She is the force that keeps her family focused and hopeful; but more research is needed to find a cure and secure Jillian a chance to grow up and realize her dreams.

Please help me meet my fundraising goals by making a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. Seventy five cents of every dollar donated goes directly to support blood cancer research and patients. My fundraising goal is $1800; if all of my blog readers donate just $10 each, I will be well on my way to reaching that goal.

My fundraising page is here. Please visit it now and make a donation of any amount you can.

Thank you so much for supporting me! This cause is very important to me, and your donation is truly appreciated.

Six. Miles.

Today I ran six miles.

That felt really good to type. I'm going to type it again.

Today. I. ran. six. miles.

That's almost 10 K for those who use the metric system.

It was not long ago that six miles would have exploded my internal organs.

The most amazing thing about the six miles that I did today is that I had a perfect opportunity to skip the run out of frustration. I was supposed to do six miles in a group run with Team in Training; but I had deleted the directions for how to get there from my email. It was a route that we had done once before, so I thought that maybe I could find it from memory; but I couldn't. I drove aimlessly until 7:00, when the run actually started, then headed back toward home.

My intention was to stop at the gym on the way home to do a six-mile hill program on the treadmill. When I got to the gym, the parking lot was empty. They didn't open for another hour.

Damn.

The old Nena would have gone home and made a mimosa.

I decided to run the greenway. The trail segment that was convenient to where I was is a three mile trail; out and back is six miles. Perfect. It's hilly, but I could walk when needed. It looked like rain, but heck, it might be raining on race day.

So I ran the three miles out and three miles back on the greenway. There was walking involved; but I ran a very respectable amount. I even did a little surge up some of the gentler hills to get a little spike in the heart rate.

Now I'm going to go take a much needed shower. Then I have laundry to do. w00t.

Wednesday Julia-ism (on Thursday) and Why the Hulk is Really Totally Awsm.

Me: Where are your shoes?

Julia: In the back seat of the car.

Me: ...

Julia: You know, there are only a handful of people in the world like me. Who forget their shoes.

Me: ...

Julia: And we are awesome.

............................................................................

Okay, sorry the Julia-ism was late. Yesterday was a little busy.

So, last night I went to the gym for the first time since conquering the alien flesh-eating bacteria that attacked my throat (I've decided that I don't believe the doctor when he says it was just a normal, earth-dwelling bacteria. I think he just didn't want me to panic.).

I did arms and abs for my strength training, and I ran two miles on the treadmill. It felt great. And by great I mean like I had been beaten to within an inch of my life with spiked baseball bats by angry UAW workers. Because UAW workers are mean when they are angry. Not as mean as the Hulk, who is only mean to bad guys so I guess that isn't really considered mean but actually vigalante-ish, but still they can be mean. I assume. I really don't have any contact with UAW workers, so I don't have any frame of reference for this statement. But now it is on the internet, so it must be true.

And yes, I totally ripped off this writing style from the Bloggess. Because she is really cool and I want to be just like her. I'm not nearly as funny as she is, but I plan to study her with the intensity of a James Joyce piece until my blog is indiscernable from hers. I have started formulating my plan to begin stalking her, but it looks like that is going to be too much work. So maybe I'll just stalk her long enough to find out where she lives, then I can break in and throw her in my trunk. I think I can get her husband to help. Then I'll keep her in a pit under my garage. Everyone wins.

I'm not really going to start trying to write like the Bloggess. I've just been reading her a lot lately and her style is kind of running through my head. Like an earworm, but in the brain. So a brainworm. Which is totally disgusting.

Steroids Rock.

No, I haven't started shooting the juice to improve my running time.

I finally went to a real doctor for my throat. It was so inflamed that he actually prescribed a round of steroid anti-inflammatories along with the antibiotics. I've never taken steroids of any kind before, but man, do they help with inflammation pain! I took today's dose at 8:00 this morning, and by noon I was able to eat without wanting to weep from the pain.

On my way to the doctor this morning, I was thoroughly convinced that he was going to tell me that I had an aggressive, alien, flesh-eating bacteria taking up residence in my throat and the only course of action was to just suffer it out while it eats the entire right side of my head. I was ready to ask if he could just give me a cyanide capsule to bite down on to speed up the process. He could bill my estate (since my insurance doesn't pay for diddly).

Turns out it was just a run-of-the-mill (though I was right on the aggressive part) non-streptococcal bacterial infection. Steroids and antibiotics should have it cleared up shortly. I know you were all worried.

So I won't be showing up in any super-secret area 51 medical journals with my half-eaten head preserved in a formaldehyde jar. All in all, I think that is for the best.

This Post is Not Entertaining...

No kidding. It's more like a diary entry that I'm writing for my own benefit. You're welcome to read it if you'd like, but I feel quite certain that you will be bored.

This morning I woke up with a very painful sore throat. I was scheduled to go on a 4 mile group run.

It was a tough call; I almost stayed in bed, but I dragged myself out, pulled on my running clothes, and headed out the door. I felt like hot sick, but I figured I didn't have the luxury of being sick before my run; I could be sick for the rest of the day afterwards.

So I made it to the group meeting place, listened to the pre-workout talk from the coach, and headed off with the group for 4 miles. I knew I would be slow today, but there were others in my pace group for most of the time, so my pace must have been okay. I did have to stop to walk a couple of times, but not as often as I thought I would. It's really amazing what your body can learn to do with some training.

In my under-the-weather-cloudy-headedness, I left the house without my heartrate monitor and stopwatch, so I have no idea how long the run took. That's probably best, because on a day like today, just finishing should have been the goal, and I did that; so I should focus on the positive, what I did do, and not worry about what I didn't do.

I'm not sure whether I really should have gone this morning or not. I stopped at the Little Clinic in Kroger on my way home to get my throat swabbed to make sure I don't have strep throat (I don't). I got home around 9:00, and I immediately brewed myself some hot herbal tea and sat in a hot bath for a while. Then I went back to bed and slept until noon. I did manage to get out of the house later to get desperately needed haircuts for Julia and myself. Now, at 6:00 in the evening, I think I may brew another hot tea and lay in bed with a book.

One request: if you read this, could you leave a comment? Just a "hi" or a "yeah, I read it." would be fine. I can see in the stats that people read my blog, but I don't know who reads it, and I'd love to find out to whom I'm talking. Thanks!