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!

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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.

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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!