Magazine Smiles

Yesterday to Tomorrow

2012-01-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

The holidays sure came and went so quickly. I wish I had the time to bask in the joy of the season, but I felt as if we rushed right through Christmas, then on to New Year's Eve, and here I am, just about a week into the new year and wondering where December went. I thought I would do a lot more blogging during the holidays, but with everyone except me off from work and school, I had very little computer time, unless I could check e-mails and Facebook on my iPhone.

What a difference a year makes.

Last year I was not a happy camper at my former place of employment. It was unnecessarily stressful, brought on by a uber micro managing business owner/boss who encouraged throwing your fellow coworkers under the bus. I was constantly sick and dropped a solid 10 pounds, 15 if I count the week my weight dropped to a number I haven't seen in years. It was not a healthy weight loss and I did not have 15 pounds to lose. 10 was OK, but losing weight without wanting to is scary, especially when I was eating high calorie foods (on purpose) to maintain weight. I was constantly stressed working in a toxic environment - not only people toxic, but something (physically) there made me ill. From Monday through Friday my eyes would feel dry and puffy, my head felt fuzzy, and I always felt lethargic. Saturday and Sunday (my days off) I felt clear-minded and healthy. Monday it would start all over again. Running was my true refuge, no matter how crummy I felt. Running gave me clarity of mind and I could feel grounded again. I don't know what I would have done without running since it kept me sane. I remember the few days after I left that office, sitting on the couch watching TV and realizing how amazingly good I felt for the first time in months.

This year I am a very happy camper at my current place of employment, where I began working about a month after I left the toxic office. It may not be the fanciest or most up-to-date technical wonder of an office, we still use a DOS based program, but it's great when your employer always says things like "thanks for being here today, " and means it. We all share in each other's accomplishments and look out for each other when needed. My only gripe about my current job is that I'm not working enough hours. Oh, and the weight came back. That's not really a gripe, though. I was hoping to at least hang on to a 5 pound weight loss, but I'll take the happy + 5 pounds over the miserable -15 pounds any day. My running has stayed the same, though. I wish I could say that a happier workplace has lead to better running, but that keeps changing, regardless of what's going on in my professional/personal life.

Other Stuff...

My son's band actually played a show at the House of Blues, Downtown, San Diego -- and got paid.

UNDEAD GARDEN performing "Grilled Cheese." My son is on the drums.

Not bad for an iPhone/Facebook photo taken by a parent (me) trying to look inconspicuous.

After the gig, and back at home with is band mates & friends, Hubs felt the need to make a few grilled cheese sandwiches for the band.

My son started out as a lead guitar player, and is quite talented with his guitar playing abilities, but there were always issues finding a reliable drummer. They would find a drummer who would seem consistent for a few weeks, then suddenly be late, not show up, or move out of town without notice to anyone. My son took a few drumming classes at the community college, and took it upon himself to sharpen his skills. Now that he's THE drummer, the band has consistent practices with complete sets and are now booking gigs. I'm floored. They still need to sharpen their sound a bit, but the fact that they already have a following and are booking gigs is amazing. Their sound is sort of punk-metal.

New Year's Resolutions?

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but I have been known to do some goal setting. Once I am finished with prior race commitments, I'm going to take a break. I have a few races planned up until June, and after that I'm going to just cruise and run without a particular race in mind. I'll continue to run, but running won't be the sole focus. There's so much more out there, and maybe I need to refocus on my other passions that have been left in the dust.

My current agenda includes the Carlsbad Half Marathon, which is taking place in a couple of weeks. As much as I would love to say that I'm 100% prepared for this race, I'm not. Regardless of how ill prepared I am, this is one of my favorite races. Even though it starts off at a shopping mall, most of the half marathon is along the coast, and it's beautiful. This is a race for the mind. The two times I've run it I've been sick, and just ever so lucky to finish. I'd say running along the coast kept me going. My game plan for this time is to (again) just finish and I'm OK with that. I don't need a PR to enjoy the ride.

Song from Thursday, December 22, 2011:

(There's No Place) Like Home for the Holidays - Perry Como

PEACE

(There's No Place) Like Home for the Holidays

2011-12-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

December brought a slew of non-stop busy-ness. It's been party, party, party... sort of. I can't remember the last time Hubs and I were invited to a grown up party together until this year. After Las Vegas, we had four holiday parties last week, plus our wedding anniversary of 29 years on December 11th. This week was a little calmer but busy with baking and trying to remember what we did with certain Christmas decorations. I went old school this year and used most of the Christmas decorations from the years when my kids were in grade school. We also put up the tree in the living room this year.

The dining room where the tree usually goes is, uh, having issues...

Like last year, the Kiddo was my decorating buddy and helped me with the majority of the decorating. Hubs put one ornament on, and and my son put a few up high were I couldn't reach, and my daughter was oblivious to other life around her while busy with studying for finals.

Living room fireplace.

I would so love to have a warm fire, but this fireplace needs to be repaired or torn down and rebuilt. I put candles in it but there's no damper, and the air coming in through the top blows out my candles. *sigh* The kiddo pointed out that since we can't burn anything in this fireplace that Santa won't get burned when he comes down our chimney.

The Kiddo

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas because I got this surprise delivered today:

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than socks, holiday peppermint Gu's, and Stingers from blogger Tara - Colorado Runner! Yay!

The packages were shipped from REI. When UPS delivered the boxes I was wracking my head trying to remember what I had ordered from REI. Then it clicked that these were from my Secret Santa from the Bloggie Gift Exchange. One box contained the great pair of Smartwool running socks, and the other box contained the Gu's and Stingers. The timing is perfect because I'm out of any type of gel/goo electrolyte and I just might have to save a couple for the Carlsbad half marathon next month. The socks are on my feet right now:

Warm and cushy! I can't wait to run in these! Thanks so much, Tara!

On the running front, not a lot of running has been happening. Somewhere between the parties and work, I caught a cold. It's not a bad cold, but just enough to mess up the flow of day-to-day life. I know I had the cold before I had to deal with the bratty snot-nosed kid patient and his clueless mother.* Gross. I hope to do a slow, longish run this Saturday morning, which happens to be Christmas Eve.

In other news, for the first time in YEARS (2000?) I received a cash bonus at work. I honestly wasn't expecting much of anything, maybe a box of candy, but since I'm part-time right now I felt the bonus was rather generous. I had plans for new Ugg boots and have change left over for an outfit, BUT one of my cats became rather ill yesterday and my bonus went towards paying the vet bill. Merry Christmas to my vet. Oh well. At least I had that cash to help lessen the blow of that hefty vet bill, and for that I am grateful. FYI, it was my little girl cat, Luna, the little bitty 8 pound cat who can beat up our 75 pound dog. The vet thinks it's a thyroid issue. She's doing much better now and will be on meds for a week. Good times.

This year we didn't send out Christmas cards. I suppose we could have, we just didn't. I'm thinking of New Year's cards. Just in case, consider this picture of the Kiddo and me your Christmas card from me:

Wishing you all lots of Christmas cheer!

Song from Thursday, December 8, 2011:

Good Intentions - Toad the Wet Sprocket

PEACE

*On the scale of one to ten in snotty-nosed grossness, this kid was a 10, plus he sneezed all over everything. It was so gross that I felt the need to wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol when he and his mother left the building. I'm not a germophobe, but felt gross dealing with this obnoxious kid. I just don't understand parents who let their kids run a muck in a medical office, or any professional office. Sheesh.

Good Intentions

2011-12-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

You know what they say about good intentions?

I'm sure the race coordinators at Competitor had really good intentions when planning the new night race for the Las Vegas Rock N Roll marathon and half marathon. I'm sure it all looked good on paper. The reality was another story.

The expo was pretty straight forward and the same as any other race expo, such as retrieving race numbers, d-tags, swag bag, t-shirt and freebies (mostly food) at the expo, plus peruse the expo for the latest and greatest gear. Hubs and I attended the expo on the Friday before the marathon/half marathon, so it wasn't too bad as far as crowds and getting out of there with in a reasonable amount of time.

This year the race was a night race. It sounds kind of fun to run the strip at night with all the lights, right? The marathoners started around 4:00 PM and the half marathoners started around 5:30 PM. With the wave starts, I think we stared around 6:15PM-ish. The corrals were rather tight, and it was hard to get into our appropriate corrals. I was supposed to be in corral 9 and ended up being good with starting in corral 13. I've started other races that were quite crowded and just started in the wrong (higher numbered) corrals because I couldn't move due to crowds, so I really wasn't too surprised that this was the case. I figured it would ease up and become less congested once the race started. It did ease up a little, but, due to the fact people couldn't get into their appropriate corrals, there were walkers in front of runners, which made for slow going in some parts of the race where I felt good enough to kick things in gear. After the sun went down the temps dropped down to the low 30s and the wind kicked up in spots. It's also really dry in the high desert and you tend to get thirstier. With about 44,000 people running total, they did not prepare for running out of electrolyte, gels, and water cups. I carry a 20 ounce water bottle with me, and might need to refill it once. I refilled it 4 times at water stations. There was one stretch of the course where they ran out of cups and there was no water for 3.5 miles. The marathoners were mixed in with the runners at a several points, which screwed up those marathoners who were trying for a BQ or PRs. There were about 20,000 MORE people this year.* I was unintentionally elbowed and bumped several times, and have a pretty good bruise on my arm from someone's elbow. I was often stuck behind groups of people who were much slower, and it was hard to get around them. As much as I tried, I couldn't speed up at the end, because I just could not navigate around people. After the finish line the water seemed like long ways away, and I had to ask someone where she got her water. I know there were tables with bagels, bananas, fruit, bars, etc, but it was so crowded I never made it to those tables. It also took me a while to get a mylar blanket. I was FREEZING. When I ran I was mostly fine. Stopping was another story. I was shivering while I waited for Hubs, who was about 10 minutes behind me, and that seemed like an eternity. My gloves got wet at the water stations and my fingers were freezing. I really wanted a hot beverage like hot tea or hot apple cider. Even hot chocolate would have sufficed, and I'm allergic to dairy. Heck, a cup of hot water would have been great. We didn't stick around for our post race beer, we just wanted to get our gear, use a restroom, and go back to our room, but that took about two hours total. Mandalay Bay, where the race ended, is connected to two other hotels and an overpass walkway to the hotel we stayed at. We thought we could walk through the hotels and overpass to get to our hotel room at New York, New York, which should have taken 10 to 15 minutes. We never made it out of Mandalay Bay. We got stuck in a cluster f*** of people trying to do the same thing. People were getting sick and passing out around us. The EMTs had a hard time getting to people in need. It looked like a war zone. It turns out part of that walkway area was blocked off for some Las Vegas premier for a Michael Jackson tribute show. Talk about bad timing! It took us well over an hour to get back to our room, which was less than a mile from the finish.

Edit - Check out this article as to why so many people got sick!
http://www.lvrj.com/news/marathon-runners-say-they-were-sickened-135233493.html

We missed the after parties because it was so late when we got back to our room, but we were too tired to go anywhere. While I showered, hubs went into the hotel lobby area to get food and bring it back to our room. The hotel restaurants were OVERWHELMED with post run people just trying to get something to eat. A couple of places told hubs that they were no longer seating people or placing to go orders. He managed to find a place that had pasta, which turned out to be fantastic, but maybe because I was so hungry by the time he made it back up to our room at midnight.

The next morning we didn't have time for much more than packing and catching the shuttle to the airport. While at the airport we heard stories from other runners who had the same experience. I'm sure Competitor has heard an ear-full by now. I'm also sure they saw everything that happened from their heated and catered VIP viewing section... I guess they were initially too busy paying attention to their bottom line and not the finish line.

There were some high points. They actually had women's sized t-shirts this year, finally, and it FITS. Hubs and I attended a pre race carb load dinner at the condo one of our track club buddies, and we saw a lot of friends there. I also met up with my blogger friend Dawn (Dawn on the Run) from Canada at a Tweet-up. I also met Mary (The Running Green Girl), Carrie (Family Fitness Food) and a few other bloggers (who I can't for the life of me remember their names, but they are wonderful people!!!) I also did better than I anticipated. My mile splits weren't that great, but I was happy to see the finish time of 2:36:48 because it felt more like a 3 hour run running at night, plus it was hard to pace myself with so many people. I'm generally happy with my run. I did chat with a few (a very few) people who enjoyed every aspect of the race, and I'm glad to know it was enjoyable for those people. I'm guessing they were either uber fast and got out of the race area before the chaos hit, or they were walkers who were at the back of the pack and missed the bulk of the chaos.

The medal is pretty nice. It even glows in the dark.

The skyline is actually a sparkly green, but it didn't photograph that way. I didn't know it glowed in the dark medal until someone mentioned it to me once I returned home. Of course I tested the medal for it's glow in the dark capabilities. All the yellow coloring on the medal does glow in the dark, and even though it's a novelty, it's still pretty cool.

Besides the race, hubs and I did enjoy a night out. We caught a show, Zumanity, and had a fabulous dinner and drinks on Friday night. Sure, we could easily have a nice dinner out in our hometown, but sometimes a change of pace can do a relationship some good, and being in Las Vegas for some time with hubs was worth the effort of being there.

I'm not sure why, but I have DOMS in both forearms. I'm guessing I was tensing up after the race while trying to keep warm. I dunno.

Now it's back to normal and continue training for my next race (my favorite) The Carlsbad Half Marathon in mid January.

Song from Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday Morning - No Doubt - Run-DMZ

PEACE

*The 2010 Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Marathon event had 24,403 participants listed as finishers.

PS... Any one else having issues with Blogger? I'm having issues with comments and showing my full list of followers.

Sunday Morning

2011-11-28T20:20:00.001-08:00

I went walking along the coast with Hubs on Sunday and took the grown-up camera.

It's hard to believe this is November with weather so warm.

Song from Wednesday, November 16, 2011:

Human - The Killers

PEACE

Human

2011-11-16T11:58:00.001-08:00

What have you all been up to?

I've become rather meh* when it comes to blogging. I used to be so consistent, but now it has taken somewhat of a back seat to social networking. Sad, I know, but that's what's happening. It's also a time issue as well, and when I am home the last thing I'm doing is blogging, but dealing with family things like helping the kiddo with homework and the usual day in, day out things that need more attention than my blog does. I'm not abandoning the blog. I suppose I'll amp things up again, and post more frequently at some point. I just don't want it to collect cobwebs. I still have plenty to say, as disjointed and grammatically incorrect as it may seem at times. At least it's honest.

Product Review:

I've been trying out the VITAband wrist band. Here's a picture of mine:

From the VITAband site:

"The VITAband acts like a medical ID bracelet providing medical professionals with your identification, relevant medical history and emergency contacts to help ensure you get the care you need in the event of an emergency.

VITAband also offers Visa® payWave contactless payment technology. This allows users to simply wave their VITAband, featuring The VITAband Visa Prepaid Card, at the point of sale to make purchases at millions of retailers who accept Visa debit cards."

I know it's hard to see, but I'm wearing it on my right wrist in this photo from the Nike Women's Half Marathon this past October

I've been using the VITAband for about the past three months, wearing it during every run. It's rather comfortable and I've gotten used to wearing it. It's a rubber bracelet with an emergency number and my personal ID number on the back of the wrist- which will access my emergency and medical information for first responders, and can include a removable, scan-able pre paid Visa chip. I have yet to use the Visa chip. There are stores in my area that do have the scanner, but I usually don't frequent those stores. I wanted to talk about the ease of just being able to wave my wrist at the contact-less payment scanner, but I haven't seen one yet. I might have to make a special trek to the stores that do have the scanner, and I'll post about using it. I like the idea of having some form of money on me when I run, cash or credit card, and this wrist band would mean one less thing to carry if my post run eateries/establishments would have this scanner, and (so far) none do. There is a yearly fee to use this band and to keep your personal emergency information in their system. I really like the concept of this band, which can access more than your emergency phone numbers, but includes what ever health information you provide on the site, which can include allergies, past surgeries, medications, health issues, etc. I like the VITAband with all of my information for first responders, I just wish the High Dive down the street from my house would have the Visa scanner... Just sayin'...

Other Stuff

I was contacted (through THIS blog) by the Mutual of Omaha's "Aha Moment" team to film my "Aha Moment." I thought I'd take them up on their offer and put in what I had to say. I went to their Airstream mobile "studio" set up at Balboa Park.

As I waited for my turn there were others ahead of me who were doing great things like helping those less fortunate than themselves, saving babies, helping to find cures. Their interviews were on a screen just outside the Airstream in the waiting area. Here I am, going to talk about me and running. Running and I felt so petty at that moment.

As I waited, I filled out this clap board, which they actually used, and I got to keep:

What I had intended to say in my filmed interview with them is that my "Aha Moment" happens every time I run, that I am constantly awe struck with running in San Diego county. I'm extremely fortunate to live in an area where the running season lasts all year long. After I said something to that effect, the person directing the shoot asked me to repeat what I had just said because an airplane flew overhead and they didn't get a clear recording. MY MIND WENT BLANK. *gah* I lost everything I wanted to say. *Poof* It was gone. I became really nervous after that and felt myself stumble on my words. There was no flow. She had to prompt me with questions after that, and I felt rather sucky. I've posted my segment on Facebook and Twitter. Since Blogger won't let me post the link to access the video Mutual of Omaha posted on their site, here's the actual link:

http://ahamoment.com/moments/2630

I never realized that I move around so much when I'm nervous. If this were Tyra Banks Top Model show I would have lost the spokes model segment. Seriously. Thank goodness for creative editing. My last words came out wrong. I wanted to say something about every day being an "aha moment, " not the thing about putting it all together to say this is why I do what I do. (What?) Yeah, I lost my train of thought that morning. The scarf. People asked about my scarf. I bought it on clearance at a store in an outlet mall a few years ago. It goes with everything... I also had a black sweater on which (I thought) made me look more pulled together, but it turned out to warm up that day and by the time arrived to the taping I was rather toasty, so the sweater came off. They have three finalists and one will win a spot in the actual televised ad campaign, and I knew from the get go that I wouldn't be one of them. I wasn't vying for a TV spot. That's just not me. It's all good, though. I've never done anything like this before, and now that I have, I hope that's it.

Song from Wednesday, October 26, 2011:
Hey Soul Sister - Train - Run-DMZ

PEACE

*For lack of a better word. Complacent? Bored?

Hey Soul Sister

2011-10-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Nike Women's Half Marathon 2011 Race Report

Pre Race Thursday

Not at all organized. Not at all packed. The flight out was the next morning. I tried to be organized, but that went by the wayside with a midday doctor's appointments. I also had my sister coming down from Los Angeles to accompany me on the trip. Amazingly, flights were much cheaper out of San Diego going to San Fransisco that out of Los Angeles to San Fransisco. Go figure. I wasn't quite ready for my sister, either, the house wasn't quite up to par for company, but since it was my sister, she really didn't care that I hadn't vacuumed or mopped the kitchen floor yet. Once my sister Donna was safely delivered to San Diego, we went out for dinner and I probably should have stuck with just one drink, but since I didn't have to drive I went for a second. Have you ever tried to pack after two drinks? At least I had all of my race gear pre planned and I purposely wore my running shoes on the flight. Everything else was a mystery as to why I packed it. I was missing a few things, but it's not as if we were going to the middle of nowhere. One major thing to forget was my camera. I did have my cell phone but it's not quite the same as an actual camera. I never think to use my cell phone camera. Obviously.

Pre Race Friday

Up bright and early. Donna slept in the Aerobed on the living room floor. She woke up with a couple of Hotwheels cars, Elmo (the Muppet), and a Transformer toy. I guess my grandson didn't want her to get lonely. The male cat, Lumpy, was intrigued and woke her up just before her alarm went off. I guess he figured she could get his breakfast...

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. No major issues, but I was the lucky recipient of a random search. I found it odd that they swabbed my running shoes. No pat down. We hooked up with the Heffers on the plane, then we were off.

Once in San Francisco, my sister and I trekked to our hotel to freshen up a bit, then went to the expo at Union Square. It's at this point that I realized I forgot my camera, but did use my cell phone camera for a few shots. My sister took a picture of my name on the Niketown wall, but has yet to send it to me. I stole this one from AKA Alice:

This was the billboard over Niketown, adjacent to the expo at Union Square.

Donna and I spent enough time at the expo to retrieve my race number and swag, walked around the expo and Niketown a bit then met up with some of the Heffers at the Hyatt for lunch.

A spectacular view! I've never seen San Francisco so clear... Not bad for a cell phone pic.

Me & Donna

Post lunch photo op... Charlie's Angels? Betty, me, AKA Alice.

AKA Alice and I have the paparazzi pose down, but I'm not sure what Elsie was doing...

Since I didn't have the sense to take a lot of cell phone pics, there's a lot of gaps that I can't remember clearly, perhaps a little alcohol was involved, but we did attend a happy hour at the Hotel Palomar where the Heffer's stayed at, and had dinner at John's Grill to celebrate Elsie's landmark birthday. BTW, John's Grill has some pretty good martini's.

I must add that a big part of this weekend was celebrating Elsie's birthday, and the cool thing was that friends and family kept showing up, which was a complete surprise to her.

Pre Race Saturday

My sister and I pretty much did our own thing with some random shopping and did a little sight seeing. We decided to take a cable car up to Fisheman's Warf since the restaurant was in that general direction. After about a half hour wait, we entered a cable car, then went about a block, then the driver stops and announces that there's a protest and he can't move the cable car until it passes. Here's some of what transpired:

"Welcome to San Francisco!"This is only about 15 minutes worth, captured on my cell phone, but we were there for about 45 minutes. We could have jumped off, but it was more interesting to see what was going on.

Once we got going again, we made it up to Fisherman's Warf and I relied on my sister for directions to the restaurant. I discovered that my sister isn't great with directions. We ended up walking about 4 miles to find the restaurant that turned out to be only about a mile and a half from our hotel...

I do much better with rice dishes for my pre race carb load dinner instead of pasta, and we had reservations for Ozumo, for sushi. The restaurant was lovely and looked like the perfect spot for date night. Next time I'll bring Hubs there. I so wanted to have an adult beverage, since they had an awesome drink menu, but adult drinks were out since race day was the next morning. The sushi was wonderful, however, the highlight was dessert, which was dark chocolate fondue:

So yummy!

Race Day Sunday

The morning went rather smoothly, and there were really no glitches until I got outside and realized that it was already warm at the crack of dark. This wasn't the cooler San Francisco weather that I was anticipating. I had on a long sleeved running shirt and leggings. The hotel wasn't too far from Union Square, but I decided that since we were already less than a block away from the starting area that I would change shirts right then and there. At least I thought enough to have a short sleeved shirt in my gear bag. I ducked into a small store front entry and changed. Looking back now, I should have gone back to the hotel and changed into shorts. I was already feeling warm and the race hadn't started yet.

As Donna and I made our way to the race area, we became stuck in a sea of people. There was no direction of where people observing should go and where runners should go. I handed Donna my gear bag just in case we became separated from each other, and we did, and I just sort of found myself in a corral and stayed there. There really weren't corrals, just signs with paces. It probably didn't matter where I started since I really wasn't going for PR. Getting strep throat a couple of weeks before really messed with my training and stamina. It was all about finishing and getting the bling.

While waiting for the race to start I chatted with a couple of ladies who live in San Francisco and have ran this race several times. I really wanted to start the race with someone I knew, as several people from our track club were running, and the Heffers were somewhere near by in the mayhem, but it was OK. This race has a really good vibe about it and everyone seemed pumped up. About 15 minutes after the starting gun went off, I made it to the start.

Everyone kind of winces at the thought of running up and down the hills on this course, but I was OK with the hills. I was ready for those and actually ran (slowly) up and down those hills. Thank goodness for those practice runs on the Torrey Pines hill!

I think this is somewhere in Golden Gate Park, perhaps around mile 9???

My issue was the lack of stamina to take me running to the end of the race. Not being able to get in that last long run of 11 to 12 miles due to getting sick messed me up. It was also humid and I went through two 20 ounce bottles of electrolyte. For a half marathon I normally need just one 20 ounce bottle and rarely finish it. I was so sweaty. Right before mile 10 my body was telling me I was done. This was also at that point where I saw a friend from the track club, Judy, and I thought we could finish together. Judy was having a really good day, and after about a mile of running with her I just couldn't keep up running. I had to walk. I was exhausted. I walk/ran most of mile 11, and slowly ran mile 12, but it was running, just because I knew I was so close to the finish.

I finished, and turned to a lady right behind me and said "I have to high five somebody!" She humored me and obliged.

So happy to be finished!

After about a week, the official times have been posted, and I clocked in at 2:41:52, a whole three seconds faster than first reported. This is my second slowest race, but I really wasn't racing, I was needing to finish just to get my Tiffany & Co. bling.

NWM on the front, "I RUN TO BE" on the back.

I've been wearing the necklace since the race and have only taken it off to take the photos of it. It was worth the effort.

After the race I finally found some of the Heffers and a few track club friends, but it took me over an hour to find my sister. Cell phone reception was next to nil at the finish line, and I didn't coordinate where to meet up with my sister after the race. We finally found each other then waited in line for the busses to get back towards Union Square, which was actually smooth considering having to shuttle 20,000 people. People were in a good post-race mood. The bus dropped us off right across the street from our hotel, which was so sweet. We weren't that far from Union Square, but I guess they were dropping off people on side streets to avoid a traffic mess.

After a brief rest and a long shower, Donna and I walked towards Market street to grab a quick something to eat. We ended up at Burger King just because it was fast and I was hungry now. I know I could do better than Burger King. We thought about going to Subway for sandwiches, but there were no seats. After running 13.1 miles the burger was pretty good. Then it was mani-pedi time at Nordstroms.

Post Race Monday

Looking down Lombard street

Donna and I stayed an extra day in San Francisco to do some sight seeing (we walked from Union Square to Fisherman's Warf) and we took the BART to visit my brother and his wife who live in nearby Fremont. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture at my brother's house, but I know my sister did, and I'm waiting on that pic, too. We had a wonderful visit with Karl and Ellen and they made dinner for us. The visit was way too short, but it was wonderful catching up and talking about their eldest daughter's wedding plans.

The BART station on the way back to the hotel.

Post Race Tueaday

Tuesday was all about getting packed and getting home. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and had a last hurrah lunch at an airport bar.

This airport bar had awesome Bloody Marys...

At lunch I asked Donna if she thought she could run a half marathon, and she said that, based on the people she saw finishing, she thinks she could do one. I have a feeling I might be doing a return trip to San Francisco if she decides to complete her first half marathon. She's already running 5ks.

Life is somewhat back to normal and I hope to get back to regular blogging. The weeks before the half marathon were busy, then getting sick really threw me off. I now have the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon up next in December, so the training continues.

Song from Friday, September 30, 2011:
In Da Club - 50 Cent

PEACE

In Da Club

2011-09-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

It's all fun and games until someone gets strep throat.

Boo.

I had plans to bust out some serious mileage with hills this week, but it didn't happen. Last Sunday I felt rather ill to my stomach, but I thought it was something completely unrelated to strep throat. I though it was just bad timing or something I ate. By Wednesday I had a sore throat that burned. I had major plans to bust out 12 mile run on Thursday, but that didn't happen. I went to the doctor instead. Since my doctor had a full schedule, I was seen by another doctor who I had never seen before. I was surprised to be seen by Doctor Tall, Dark and Handsome. Bonus points that he was actually a nice guy. I wondered what kind of workouts Doctor TD&H did while he looked at my throat. He was rather cut. ANY WAY, The doc said it's pretty obvious that I have strep, but he took a throat culture for protocol. I get to take 10 days of antibiotics. I questioned my training for my half marathon, and he just said to take it easy. Just great. I sort of need to get in an 11 or 12 miler before Nike, which is looming in about 2 weeks. I wasn't planning shoot for any PRs while in San Francisco, but I did want to run the entire race and not even think about running up some of those hills. If there is any consolation is that I'm getting this infection over and done with now and I won't have to deal with it while in San Francisco on my big girl's weekend.

RU had their annual fundraiser for MS. There was a silent auction and a drawing for prizes. Hubs won a chemical peel from a dermatologists office, which was given to me It remains to be seen if I'll use that, but at least one of us won something. Last year they also raised money to get the PTs to ride a mechanical bull. This year it was the battle of Bryan and Brian. They had a beauty contest complete with talent segment, sort of a bathing suit part which was actually ballet garb, and a evening gown competition.

Bryan raising money for charity...

Brian also raising money for charity...

Brian, me, Bryan.

Is it a guy thing or what, when dressing in drag they HAVE to grab their tatas?

Song from Tuesday, September 20, 2011:
Bad Sneakers - Steely Dan - Miss Rachel

PEACE

Bad Sneakers

2011-09-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

Running & Stuff

On the running agenda I have the Nike Women's Half Marathon in just a few weeks. I've been getting in some hills, including THE HILL in my neighborhood and the hill over at Torrey Pines State Park. I'm pretty confident that the hills on the race course won't be an issue, even the one at about the 10k point, but now I just need to get in the miles in addition to the hills, especially when I've already run a bunch of miles.

I'm also going through finding just the right shoes again. My favs, the Pearl Izumi Cruise, are no longer being made and I've scoured the internet for more in my size, but to no avail. I'm currently wearing Nike Air Pegasus 28, but even after putting about 50 miles on those, I'm not quite in love with them. My feet ache in all the wrong places, even when I'm not running. I think they'll be OK for really short runs or for working out.

I'm beyond the point of returning the Nikes. I went ahead and ordered Mizunos Wave Prophecy. I originally tried them on the same day I tried the Nikes, in a half size smaller and half size larger than I needed, but the size I needed was not available at the time, and was on back order for several weeks. The weird thing is that the size smaller and size larger fit perfect in the arch, where I need it, it's just the toe box was too small and too big in the other sizes. In retrospect, I should have ordered the Mizunos, but I was hoping the Nikes would suffice, even though they felt good in the store. Shopping doesn't float my boat and I intensely dislike returning anything.

My very first pair of real running shoes were Mizuno Wave Riders, and it was a happy union, until the next version changed, then it was all about the Asics Gel Nimbus... Until those changed, then it was all about the Pearl Izumi Cruise, then that version went away. I'm hoping to have another happy union of feet and shoes.

Another person who I (sort of) know is down with a similar kind of femur fracture to what I had, except that her fracture did not break all the way through. She is a runner and triathlete. My PT, Bryan, gave her my number so that I could talk to her about what I went through with my entire ordeal, about I went through physically and emotionally. She was agonizing over being out of commission from running or from any sport for about a year or more if she opted not to have surgery, or have the surgery and begin physical therapy and be back training with in months. She had several conversations with her doctors and Bryan. I ended up chatting with her for about an hour last weekend, and I believe she was scheduled for the surgery today. I have every confidence that she'll recover well and zoom through PT. It boggles my mind how this injury appears so uncommon, but it's actually quite common in endurance athletes. Perhaps I have the propensity to over react when someone mentions that they have groin/hip pain, but It comes from a place of concern. I just don't want ANYONE to go through what I went through.

School has been back in session and the kiddo is now a second grader. He loves being in second grade. Of course, I had him pose for the obligatory first day of school picture:

Just for kicks, I had do dig up his first day of preschool photo from 2007:

Song from Saturday, September 17, 2011:
My Girl - The Temptations

PEACE

My Girl

2011-09-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

The last time I was here I said I was going to give my book review, but, I swear, I didn't think I'd take so long to read the book. Life happens.

I was eager to read the Run Like A Girl by Mina Samuels because it's an accumulation of inspiring stories about women in sports, but mostly running. There were several points in the book that I did not want to forget, and I ended up tabbing a few pages...

OK, so I tabbed more than a few pages, so sue me. I did go through a few sets of tabs, especially to refer back to some of the finer points that resonated with me.

I found my head nodding over "shrink and pink." Shrink and pink is where clothing and gear companies take a man's designed item, such as a t shirt, size it down and change the color to pink, with no consideration to a women's body, sizing or need. You would kind of think that, by now, shrink and pink would no longer be an issue, but it is. The last two half marathons I ran in gave out men's sized/fitted t shirts to everyone. Bonus points that they were tech shirts, points lost because both of my XS men's t shirts from those two races have no consideration for my curves and fit me rather large, even though those are both XS. In both of those races the women outnumbered the men. "Shrink and pink" is so 10, (20 ,30+) years ago, but still an issue.

Samuels points out that when women get together we rarely start a conversation with a list of our accomplishments, but with the tendency to bond though belittling ourselves, and dialing into the internal radio "KFKD," and, yes, it's exactly as it sounds. K- f**ked. This got me thinking to a conversation I had with a couple of ladies from the track club, how the first things that we all talked about were our crappy run times, aches, pains, and other mishaps of the running week. After a short while one lady piped in "hey, next time we get together let's talk about how wonderful we all are!" Everyone laughed, but she had a point. We needed to celebrate each other and focus on the good things, that we showed up for the run that day, that we ran, that we're together, that we are strong and awesome, etc... It's time to turn off "KFKD" and tune in to "KGrrrT."

The book is chock full of stories of women who have overcome struggles in their own lives which lead them into sports, mostly running, and how their lives evolved from being involved in a sport. What I took from this book was an over-all sense of empowerment from participating in a sport. As a girl growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, sports were not encouraged unless the choices were dance, tennis or volleyball, and maybe basketball. There's nothing wrong with any of those activities, but that's all there was and I wasn't adept at any of those. I was rarely encouraged to find empowerment in sports, or anywhere else, for that matter.* There was no sense of empowerment from running because that was a considered boys sport, at least in my parent's eyes. There was no girls track team in middle school or in the early years of high school.** I often longed for that sense of empowerment in those younger years, but I'm glad that I can feel empowered from running now. It's never too late.

Title IX is brought up a few times in this book, which is the education amendement, passed in 1972 stating:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."
—United States Code Section 20, ^[1]

I'm not sure why, but there is a reference to Roe v. Wade in this book. I'm not sure the context of which it was meant, as I re-read that particular paragraph a few times over to figure it out, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the reference. I'm not sure what Roe v. Wade has to do with running, and I felt the reference was rather unnecessary.

When I began reading this book I was excited to delve into the individual stories, but as I read I became rather complacent, making the book a bit slow to read. It's not that the stories weren't interesting, in fact they were interesting and very relevant,*** it's just that I felt certain points were made time and time again. I became bored. I'd read a page here and there, but would often put it down to take care of other business. There was no desire to get back to the book until I realized I has been over a a month since I received the book and figured would finish reading it. I began plodding through, just to give the book a fair shake. I found a new eagerness to read this book once I made it to the last couple of chapters, and my interests were once again piqued.

Mina Samuels discusses the importance of friendships and bonds through sports, and how, as adults, we still needs play dates. This chapter resonated with me. I never really thought about running in the terms of "play dates," but she has a point. Running can be a very social activity, and people can accept that you have no make-up on, you're sweating from every pore on your body, probably smelly, and, well, gross. Running friends are rather accepting of each other. We help to hold each other accountable, or to be our cheerleaders. Yes, there is something to be said about having solo runs, where you can clear your head, but it's nice to have someone who knows about your training, someone who you can talk about running with out the blank stares back and that that common bond of running that evolves into long term friendships.

I would recommend this book to an eager, new runner or any one who needs to rekindle the spark to get off of their butt and start doing something to put their body in motion.

If you don't mind, I have a play date to attend to.

Gotta run.

Song from Thursday, August 25, 2011
Take it all - Adele

PEACE

*My parents were of the realm of "Leave it to Beaver" and I was supposed to grow up to be June Cleaver.

**FYI, I graduated from high school in 1977, and the small Catholic school I attended was still playing catch up with girls in sports. They finally had a girl's track team in my Senior year, but I had no transportation to or from practice, even though I did try out for the team. My parents weren't quite caught up with Title IX.

***There were many inspiring stories of women who were top notch athletes, beginners, women who overcame disease, abuse, adversity, discrimination, struggles with weight, self-esteem issues, finding love, separation, divorce, death, losing, winning, and so on...

Take It All

2011-08-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

"Didn't I give it up
Tried my best
Gave you everything I had
Everything and no less"

Summer, although somewhat at the end for most people, has been in full swing for me over the past couple of weeks or so. For weeks not much happened, but then August starts and everything becomes super busy... and exhausting. A lot of the busy isn't anything extra special, work and house stuff, but nothing earth shattering. There are some notables, though.

Hubs' uncle and cousin visited us from Rio de Janiero Brazil. Between work and everything else, we found time to share some great moments together.

My daughter Renee, Uncle Pedro, my grandson Evan, and cousin Ana Christina.

We managed to purchase tickets to Adele in concert. I was initially irritated that I could only purchase over priced tickets through an unaffiliated on line ticket agency and not through the venue ticket sales, but it was a concert worth attending. At first Hubs was thinking I was dragging him to a chick show, but he was pleasantly surprised. Even though Adele was accompanied by her band, she could have easily sang without the band. She was THAT fabulous. In addition, Adele's personality is nothing like her songs of relationships gone wrong. The girl is genuine, hilarious (let the "f*** bomb" fly a lot) and really connected with the audience. She also dedicated the song "Make You Feel My Love" to Amy Winehouse. The cool thing is that she had us - the audience - turn on the lights to our cell phones and cameras during that song. I didn't get a picture of that, it would not have turned out on my cell phone, but the affect was amazing.

@ the SDSU outdoor amphitheater. Adele is down there, I promise. Not the best seats, but I'm glad we managed to get tickets without having to apply for a loan.

I ran in the America's Finest City Half Marathon on August 21, 2011. I honestly did not train well for this particular half marathon. I guess my head wasn't into it as much as it was for the SDRNR half marathon this past June. I did almost no speed training and it really affected my time. My goal was to complete the Triple Crown series, since I had never done that before. Done. Check. I have no mile to mile account of this race. I just could not find my groove at any point in the race. Sometimes it takes me the first couple of miles to get my bearings then I'm OK. No groove. I dragged. No reason. No good excuses. Perhaps not being mentally invested in this race affected my performance. I haven't looked at all of my stats, but this could possibly be my second slowest half marathon. I must say that the support on the route (water/electrolyte stations, restrooms, etc) was well done. I'm also loving the Triple Crown Medal. I think this has to be my absolute favorite medal. One of my friends said it looked rather Olympic.

I completed these three races...

... to receive this.

There were a few notables on race day. Waking up at o'dark thirty so we wouldn't be late for the bus to the starting area was extra special since I didn't sleep well. We had cool, overcast skies at the start of the race, which was somewhat of a bonus since August can be toasty. The warm up and stretcing exercises with the track club was nice, and helped me to wake up. During the race here were a couple of guys who were running ahead of me who stopped at the half way point to do burpees. I'm not sure how many they did, I wasn't going to stick around to count, but they full on, proper burpees without looking tired. Show offs... I got it done in 2:30:00, and that included walking up part of the 6th Ave. hill. It wasn't the hill that got me, it was just that I had no umph to spare even well before that late point in the race with one mile to go. I actually felt like walking the rest of the race, but managed to focus on and follow someone just in front of me who was running at a pace I could deal with.

I'm having kind of a tough time bouncing back from this race. I usually recover rather quickly from a half marathon, but I've been feeling rather lack luster since that day.

I've been asked to do review on this book:

I'm still reading it and will probably give a full review on my next blog post. Several pages have been dog-eared or tabbed. There are some great quotes and a few pet-peeves in the writing. I should have been finished reading it by now, but I haven't had much time to sit still and just read, or even blog. I just need to remember to take the book with me to work and read it during my lunch hour.

My niece Amber, (Hubs side of the family) who was training for her first triathlon for later on this year, ended up with a femoral fracture, similar to what I went through back in 2008. She had a similar surgery, too. In her case, what caused the break to manifest further was a freak accident where a kid (playfully) jumped on her after she completed a brick (training). There's speculation that she had the beginnings of a fracture, but the kid jumping on her caused a dislocation and possibly contributing to the fracture. Surgery was on 8/19. She's going through a lot of what I went through and I've been talking to her a lot. I keep reminding her that she will get through this and complete a triathlon, but I know that sometimes it's hard to sit still, be happy and heal while all of your friends are out there training. I feel for her. Been there, too.

My niece Anne, my brother's eldest daughter, is officially engaged. I'm not sure when they're planning the wedding and any details, but we'll attend if they have a big to do. Anne will be the very first out of all of my nieces and nephews from both sides of the family to get married.

Anyone till there?
I hope to get back to regular blogging soon.

Song from Tuesday, August &, 2011:
Heaven - Los Lonely Boys

PEACE

Heaven

2011-08-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally in full swing in my neighborhood. Going to the beach, backyard barbecues, early morning running before the heat kicks in, outdoor concerts and visiting with family and friends is on the agenda.

Speaking of backyard barbecues, Meg - Meg Runs and her husband Steve (Boy Scout) hosted a blogger meet up at their home. It's so funny how we live within such close proximity to each other and have never met. We've probably been at the same run events, either running or spectating, but have never bumped into each other. This time the happy occasion of Jill - Run With Jill and her son visiting California was just what we all needed to meet. Also in attendance were Chris - The Manly Runner and his girlfriend Alycia, Anne - Run-DMZ, Cindi - AKA Alice and her husband Michael (Walter), and Glenn - The Running Fat Guy. Hubs manned the camera and managed a few great picture.

I was able to catch up with Anne.

"Walter", Meg, "AKA Alice", "Boy Scout"

Meg's back yard is enchanting. It reminded me of what my grandparent's house used to be when I was young. I was inspired.

Boy Scout manning the barbecue as Meg looks on. The grilled pizzas were awesome.

Photo op with Jill.

We had a good giggle about Victor Newman. :)

All of us

Left to right: Jill, Meg, Steve, Chris, Alycia, me, Hubs, Anne, Glenn, Cindi, Michael

I'm wishing I had more initiative and snapped photos, but I was enjoying the company of wonderful friends. It's kind of funny how somethings just fall into place and you just know you're going to get along. Hubs made the comment that we're always going to events, parties, and homes of people I have never met in person, but through the internet. I have trusted that these meet-ups are going to go well, and that no one is extremely off kilter. There are no overtly bizarre stalkers or ax murderers in the bunch. The evening was lovely, conversations flowed, and we left feeling warm and fuzzy. I appreciated how Meg and Steve made everyone feel so welcome, and it was fun having everyone together.

Running?

Oh yeah, I run.

Last week I fit in about 20+ miles, even though Daily Mile says 19.5. There's about 3 unaccounted miles that I never took the time to log in. On Saturday I ran 10.5 miles with the track club up the hill that goes to Fort Rosecrans. It's a long, gradual hill, and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I was done. I've never run that route before. One year I think we were out of town when the group ran that route, and the next year I was cruising because I was still getting over the broken foot debacle, made it to the first water station at mile 3 and went back to the start at Harbor Island. It felt good to get over yet another hurdle. I need to maintain at least 20 miles a week, which can be a challenge with a wacky work schedule, but It's doable.

It wouldn't be summer without an outdoor concert. This year was Los Loney Boys joined with Los Lobos for fabulous music and a great time. Having decent seats wasn't too shabby, either.

Of course, since this was somewhat of a stay-caytion, we had a room facing the bay...

Still not a wake yet, but so glad to be there! No, I didn't go out for a run.

Song from Saturday, July 23, 2011:
Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

PEACE

Just Breathe

2011-07-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Blogging?

I have no good reason as to why blogging hasn't happened as frequently as it once did. Perhaps having computer issues have slowed things down a bit, and I'm not big on phone blogging, especially when auto correct gets in the way.

Everyone in my house had a cold. It wasn't anything tragic, it was just more annoying than anything. Now that the cold has diminished it has been rather hard getting back into a groove. I kind of feel as if my energy was taken away from me, and I can't quite get it back, especially when it comes to running. I should be able to keep up with the group, but I just can't. I'm quickly out of breath, but having asthma factors in. I'm sticking with the training as best as possible, still getting in the miles, albeit slow. This too shall pass.

The kiddo has turned 8 years old and is counting down to when he can finally get his driver's license. I don't want him to rush things because he's still cute, says funny things, and thinks we're still cool. I'm soaking up this phase of his life as much as possible. I know it won't be very long before he thinks we're creepy, but it's currently a blissful time. The other night he brought me a hot cup of herbal tea. The hot tea was his idea and his Papa helped him out. Yes, it was a warmish summer night, and he brought me hot tea so we could spend time together. How could I resist?

Compared to my last job, my current job calm, REALLY calm. I have coherent, linear thoughts and don't feel like my head is going to explode. I'm doing pretty much the same things that I was doing at my last job, but now I'm dealing with "normal" people for employers. It's so refreshing to work for people who don't micro-micro-micro-manage their business.

In my head. Calm.

I'm always on the hunt for natural, non-dairy treats. Not having having ice cream during the summer months kind of sucks. I have an allergy to cow's milk products which triggers skin issues and asthma. While grocery shopping I discovered Luna & Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss Bars.*

I happen to like coconut, and was overjoyed to see that these contained NO DAIRY. Every time I look in the frozen foods section to find something that resembles ice cream, it contains some form of milk. Finally, I found something that is palatable with the consistency of an ice cream bar. It's not like I'm going to wolf down the entire box (only 4) in one sitting, but when I have a small splurge, these will fill the no ice cream void.

In addition, I've also discovered that coconut water is a great electrolyte. I've stocked up on Zico.

The only thing about coconut water is that it's best served COLD. It's not so great at room temperature. I've also noticed that it's easy on the digestive system, and doesn't mess with my system if I drink one of these before running. I haven't ventured into the other Zico coconut water flavors, like chocolate, but the natural coconut is just fine with me. *

Song from Monday, July 18, 2011:
Happy Birthday - Stevie Wonder

PEACE

*These reviews are my own. No one gave me anything to say my 2 cents.

Happy Birthday

2011-07-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my favorite 8 year old!

Song from Wednesday July 6, 2011:

Little Room - The White Stripes

PEACE

Little Room

2011-07-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm cautiously optimistic that my computer won't bug out on me again. I was able to read some blogs, catch up on Facebook and sort through e-mails on my iPhone, but I'm not much for posting from my phone, unless it's super short. Yes, I know people who could probably compose entire novels on their cell phones, but I am not one of them.

The last time I posted was around the time we celebrated my mother-n-law's 90th birthday. The amazing thing is that she is still rather all together, considering her years. She still likes to boss everyone around and be the matriarch of the family. I think I once mentioned that she didn't want to use a cane to aid with her walking because (she said) it would make her look old. For the first time in years, the entire family was together. No one was away at college, those who were living out of state flew in for the occasion, and everyone who lives locally made the effort to show up. It was pretty incredible that no one thought to take a picture of all of us together.

The track club's half marathon training program is in full swing. I've been making the effort to attend the Tuesday night workout at Balboa Park, as well as the Saturday long runs, provided I'm not scheduled to work. The Tuesday night workouts are killer. I always end up feeling so beat up by the time the hour is over. The hills of the back trails of the park are on the schedule. It's not the hills that concern me, it's the dust mixed in with the warm weather that gets my asthma going. I may have to figure out how to work around that, like wearing a mask (NOT!), resign myself to the VERY back of the pack, or run someplace else.

I was looking forward to my long 4th of July weekend, but I ended up coming down with a cold, which took up my entire three day weekend. Figures. Hubs had come down with the cold earlier in the week and passed it along to me. This is the first year we opted out of running in any Independence Day 5ks. As much as I needed to sleep in that morning, I just couldn't. My head was too stuffy to remain laying down. Sheesh. A cold, no 5k and no sleeping in. Yeah, it sucked. Once I got up and downed a couple of Sudafed, and chased those with some coffee, I decorated cookies, because that's what you do when you're amped up on Sudafed and coffee.

Well... that's what I do when I'm amped up... I get all artsy-craftsy. Notice the lack of attention to detail. I am not a professional and do try this at home. Results may vary and may be better because you won't be amped up on coffee and Sudafed. Just sayin'.

While I decorated cookies, Hubs textured and painted the small bathroom. He also braved Home Depot to buy stuff to re-attach the toilet. I'd say this weekend bathroom project (that has taken about four months to work on) is about 85% finished. He still needs to cut floor tile for the trim, replace the old medicine cabinet, attach the back-splash behind the sink, and maybe add some sort of window treatment.

Before

During

After

FYI, those blue tiles on the wall were aluminum. Needless to say, those tiles did not age well, however, the ceramic blue tiles in the shower are fine. Back in 1947, my Grandpa had to cut costs somewhere, and using aluminum tiles were more cost effective.

When working on the small bathroom was over for the day, we had friends over for a barbecue. Once again, no one thought to take pictures, but we barbecued and ate way too much food, roasted marshmallows for s'mores later on, then watched fireworks from the roof and backyard.

Now that I'm somewhat on the rebound from my cold, I started back at RU with a killer workout. Even though they knew I was rebounding, they still believed that I can handle a bunch of weighted lunges, pylometric exercises and pseudo kettlebell-esque exercises, THEN run right after. Good times. It was all finished off by some assisted stretches that were extra special. (Yeouch...) It's all within the realm of getting me running just as well as I did for Rock 'n' Roll in June.

I need to get a little more serious about training for the AFC half marathon which is just next month. Getting a cold sort of threw me off a little, but I need to put some distance and hills back into my long runs, especially since I can't attend some of the Saturday morning group runs. Dollars to doughnuts, it will be warm and humid on the day of the AFC half marathon and I need to be ready.

Song from last Thursday:
Low Tech Lady - Ana Laan

PEACE

Low Tech Lady

2011-06-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Due to technical difficulties, I can't write a proper blog post. I hope to be back at it, soon. Posting from a cell phone isn't cutting it for me.

Still running.

Peace

It Amazes Me

2011-06-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

Song from Saturday, June 11, 2011

Feelin' Alright - Joe Cocker - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Feelin' Alright

2011-06-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

THE (ALMOST) ONE WEEK POST HALF MARATHON POST.
(Is that a bit redundant?)

Now that the post race glow (sweat) is gone, I've had a little time to think about my 13th half marathon.

First of all, there are no glorious photo finishes of just me running through or anywhere else on the race course. I also have photo proof that the group of Elvises (Elvi?) could outshine a girl in day glow-green. Here's what I've got:

This one is sort of OK. Just in case, I'm the one in the day glow tank top, right on the 5k marker.

I'm *just* to the right of the group of Elvises. They were stopping for photo ops with other people during that stretch of the race, making it HARD for me to even pretend to look like Kara Goucher for that last .1 mile.

I wanted to look like this.

This is as good as it gets!

This is the post race photo op that I almost didn't stand in line for:

Happy to have my third fastest half marathon in the books!

It turns out that this was my third fastest half marathon. My official PR is 2:13:11, which was Silver Strand 2007. Second fastest was also at Silver Strand 2009, clocking in at 2:13:30. I never would have guessed that last week's half marathon would rank third fastest thus far at 2:17:53. I'm thinking another Silver Strand half marathon is in my future, but I'm not sure about this year. This year isn't about speed. It's about being conservative and not pushing myself so hard that I yield to injury. 2011 is all about cruising.

I wonder if it's possible for me to cruise and PR? Perhaps it is. Hubs is cruising and PRing just about every race he's been in for the past year, even with foot issues. Speaking of Hubs, here's his glorious race action photo:

Hubs, early in the race, near the Aerospace Museum at Balboa Park.

Soon after the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll event, I celebrate a birthday. I kind of wish my birthday would fall right on race day, but the logistics never seem to work out, but it's OK. My birthday falls during post race recoup week, and that sort of gives me an excuse to throw caution to the wind, relax and wear balloon hats.

Balloon hats only after martinis.

I celebrated with these guys...

The Kid and The Dancer

The Guitar Hero

(Fuzzy, but The Kid was the photographer)

Me & Hubs

(From The Kid's perspective)

We celebrated my birthday at the Corvette Diner, a throw back to the 1950s and 1960s, which was Hubs idea, since we wanted to include The Kid and still enjoy adult beverages.

Of course I made a wish!

All is good. The martini glass IS empty.

Tuesday's Song:
Little Wing - Originally by Jimi Hendrix, redone by Santana featuring Joe Cocker

PEACE

Little Wing

2011-06-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Race Report or Color Me Surprised

I missed the track club's warm-up and stretch because I waited in the port-o-potty line, but Hubs attended, and this is what it looked like:

Coach Paul in the center with the bull horn, making a difference...

I must have been in line at the port-o-potty for a little over 45 minutes. While I was In line we listened to the National Anthem then the gun went off. I wasn't too worried because I was in corral 13, but when I was done taking care of business, Hubs and I RAN to corral 13, which moved up to about three corrals away from the start:

We made it to corral 13 with just enough time to set Lucy. Notice that there's not a cloud in the sky. The forecast called for overcast skies and drizzle. I was hoping for overcast skies, which makes for a more comfortable run.

Photo op just seconds before the start.

I had a consistent pace through out the race, and I felt pretty good the entire time, never felt like I was struggling, never had any pains.

I don't have a mile to mile synopsis, but I always find it a novelty running on a freeway on ramp and on a freeway event though the road was cambered. I saw AKA Alice somewhere between mile 11 and 12, where we passed each other going opposite directions, just about the same place we found each other last year. It was so good for my psyche when we spotted each other and gave each other a hug! It was what I needed to power through the last mile. I managed to high five as many people as I could at the last mile. I had some fuel in the tank to sprint at the end, but I was blocked by a line of Elvis runners, perhaps about 10 abreast, which made sprinting around them difficult, but I managed to find an opening and ran through.

My goal time was 2:20. I haven't been training for anything faster than a 2:20 finish time. Once I ran to the finish, received my medal, water, post race hummus and pita chips and other goodies, I took a look at my Garmin and saw:

"No way" was the first thing I said. I thought Lucy was broken.
It reads 2:17:59. Yes, when I looked at it, it was that fuzzy. Welcome to my visual world without reading glasses. Amazingly, the palm tree in the background is clear.

I made my way to the track club tent and waited for Hubs and friends to finish.

Me, Mik, Kat, Kate, AKA Alice. Yes, I know. There was a water drop on the lens, but this was the only picture of the group that worked.

Cheesy photo op

The group decided to go for breakfast. Hubs and I originally wanted to go, but Hubs was denied his beer at last year's marathon, and wanted to get his free beer first, then catch up with the group.

Cheers!

After the beers, Hubs and I went back to the track club tent and thought our friend Rich would be finished. He was expected to run the marathon in about 4 hours. We saw many of his running friends who run at his pace, but no Rich. I had received text messages about his progress through out the race, and he WAS on track to finish in about 4 hours. We received a progress text when he reached 20 miles and figured the time he'd come in. We decided to wait since we knew he was near, but we waited, and waited... Then we worried...

Almost an hour past Rich's ETA, I received a text that he finished in 5:09:30, then I received a text from Rich saying that he blew out his IT band or knee. Hubs and I decided to wait for him to make sure he was OK. After a little time at the track club tent and being stretched by a chiropractor, Rich felt better, and was able to walk without limping.

Stephanie, Rich, Me, Hubs. Yep. post marathon temporary carnage on the ground. Stephanie didn't run the marathon and is recovering from a hip issue similar to what I went through, but her doctors caught it before it became something much worse.

Once Rich was ready, Hubs and I walked about a half mile to a spot where our son could come pick us up, and ended up at the High Dive for a post race celebration. We didn't get pictures at the High Dive, but it was busy with post race patrons enjoying adult beverages...

After we were back home, I verified my finish time. My official time was 2:17:53. I need to shave off 4 minutes and 43 seconds to PR, but my time on Sunday sure felt like a PR since I trained for a slower time. It felt as if I broke through a barrier. Perhaps it was just the barrier in my head.

By the way, Hubs PRed yet again. He finished in 2:27:28.

FYI - The post race area was greatly improved over last year. The parking lot had been repaved and trees had been planted. Umbrellas for shade and tables were placed through out. There were more concessions, and it seemed like there was more than enough transportation to get people out of the venue in a timely manner. The atmosphere was much more pleasant than last year's dirty and broken auxiliary parking lot. As for the race, the route was improved upon in some areas such as less time on Fiesta Island, but some areas did not have enough and/or proper signage, or enough people directing, causing a few marathoners to be in the marathon route.

As of right now, I have plans to run this half marathon again next year.

Since I dedicated this Half Marathon to My friend Michelle, I added the Santana/Joe Cocker version of the song "Little Wing" to my iPod 2011 run play list. Michelle loved Santana, and especially loved that version of the song.

"Fly on, little wing."

Song from Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thirteen - Big Star - Miss Rachel

PEACE

Thirteen

2011-05-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

A week from tomorrow is the 13th San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon/Marathon run event. This will be my third half marathon for this year, and my 13th half marathon overall. Am I sad that I'm not running a full marathon? Not at all. I'm glad I'm running the half. I'm also anxious to see if the event coordinators listened to all of the complaints from last year. I do know that they've repaved that crappy overflow parking and have planted several young trees where the post race festivities will be held. Last year that lot was rather dismal and disheveled. I've heard that they've taken care of the shuttle situation to eliminate long lines and long waits, and parking should be better, but, of course, that all remains to be seen.

I'm not a true numbers person, but it appears that the numbers for race day are looking good. I'm not sure why, but odd numbers work for me. The marathon/half marathon is listed as the 13th San Diego Rock 'n' Roll event. This will be my 13th half marathon. I'm in corral 13, which makes my bib number start with 13, and all the numbers in my bib are all odd. Perhaps it's a stretch, and maybe somewhat of a placebo for my psyche, but the numbers look good to me. 13 isn't a lucky/unlucky number*, but it's showing up a lot for this event. I don't believe in being lucky or unlucky. It's all about hard work and training. You get out of it what you put into it, and you have to accept the unknown factors, blah, blah, blah. That being said, I wonder if I can work the number 13 into my finish time?

Oh yeah, a half marathon is 13.1 miles.

Tuesday's Song:
Telephone - Lady Gaga

PEACE

PS:
On a more serious note, I will be running this half marathon in memory of my friend Michelle, who would have celebrated her birthday on that same day, June 5.

*I have no lucky/unlucky numbers

Telephone

2011-05-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

This year, for Mother's Day, Hubs upgraded my standard issue cell phone to an iPhone 4. Thank goodness just about every single one of my friends has an iPhone and have been kind enough to guide me, otherwise I'd have to put on my glasses to read the directions. The Crack Phone, I mean, the iPhone is rather addictive. There's so much stuff on it and so much stuff to add to it that it's ridiculous. There are apps for just about everything. There are apps that you need that you didn't know you needed. I realize that I'm somewhat late to the tech party with an iPhone, but now I understand the novelty turning into a necessity.

On my prior cell phone I had an app for tracking runs. It was Bones in Motion, a GPS enabled run tracking app which I used for all of my runs. It was user friendly, easy to adjust/correct GPS malfunctions, and had the best graphics and charts. Tech support was awesome. They even called me to follow up on an issue I had with live tracking. I thought I was sneaky and did not need to buy a Garmin. Unfortunately, Bones in Motion was bought out by another company, was interfaced with a different brand, was not compatible with my cell phone, and did not offer the same type of stats, graphics and charts. I was bummed. With my new iPhone I discovered I could use the GPS capabilities to track my runs again if I ever forgot my Garmin. There are several run tracking apps for iPhone. I went with Nike+ GPS.

By today's standards, I am not very tech savvy. The 7 year old in my life knows more about computers and techy stuff than I do. I figured Nike+GPS would work right out of the box, um, right after the upload. I used it for the first time on Saturday for our track club's 2 hour run. I hit the start button and placed it in my Spibelt and went about my run. When I returned from my run I took the phone out of my Spibelt and noticed that it said something like 14.7 miles in 2 hours. At this current point in time, 14.7 miles in 2 hours would be a miracle. With all the injuries I went through last year and purposely backing off speed this year, I'd be happy with 10 miles in 2 hours. I had no idea that the Nike app needed to be calibrated, and I couldn't figure out why it added mileage. After returning home and mapping out my run manually, I discovered that I actually went a little over 11 miles and was able to calibrate the run to accommodate the time I put in. Upon further inspection of the route I ran, I discovered a ton of GPS bouncing, which gave me the 14.7 miles.

Once I was at my computer at home, I expected to go to the nikeplus.com site and see my stats. I thought, through the magic of GPS and my new iPhone, that my stats would automatically appear on the site upon logging in. Nope. In addition, I couldn't sync my stats to Dailymile no matter what I tried. I spent most of my Sunday afternoon playing e-mail tag with Stephen at Nike+GPS tech support. Stephen at tech support and I were quickly building a relationship. I was beginning to think the app was a lost cause and I began looking into other GPS run apps. Finally, after several different ways of resetting and rebooting, it worked.

Yay.

If I could just get my home computer to work properly, then I'd really be living large.

Song from Thursday, May 12, 2011:
To Make a Long Story Short - Gladys Knight and the Pips

PEACE

To Make A Long Story Short

2011-05-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

Taper time. Sort of.

With the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in about three weeks and three more half marathons on the calender, there's really no such thing as taper time. Perhaps it's stagger time? If I were marathon training for SDRNR would be running the longest run of the training session this weekend, which would be a 20 miler, but since I'm opting for the half marathon it's another day at the office... sort of, but it's the kind of office I enjoy going to. There's no need to burn the candle at both ends.

Song from May 4, 2011:
Protect Ya Neck -Wu Tang Clan

PEACE

Random internet photo of taper candles, no photo credit attached.

Protect Ya Neck

2011-05-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Product Review, Again.

I've posted a product review for SCAPE sun block before, but since Southern California had summer-like weather again, I figured it was a good time to bring it up again.

San Diego had summer-like weather for the past four days. There has been no "May Grey" to speak of. On one of those toasty days I was determined to start prepping and priming part of the house exterior for painting. I worked on an area that was in harsh, direct sunlight for HOURS. Before I placed myself in that extremely sun-soaked area, I applied SCAPE to all exposed skin, which was my face, ears, neck, arms and legs. I must have prepped and primed that exterior section of house for about 4 hours. At the end of the day there were no signs of sunburn, or evidence that I had been in the sun.

Finally, a mention about year-round skin cancer awareness, prevention and education. YEAR-ROUND. Every day. 365 days a year. Got it? Even though the people at SCAPE asked me to give them a shout out about (YEAR ROUND) SKIN CANCER AWARENESS, PREVENTION AND EDUCATION, I would have mentioned it any way. I was given full sized products of SCAPE to try about a year ago, but continue to purchase their products and use them daily. I'm fair skinned and have been to the doctor for skin cancer screenings on a few occasions. I've had my share of sun damage, especially while spending plenty of time outdoors swimming, running, gardening, hiking, etc. Ever since I've been using SCAPE on a daily basis, there have been no issues with sunburns. I use sunscreen every day, even if it's cloudy or if I'm planning to be in doors all day, because I never know what the day will hold.

THE FACTS:

Dr. Nic Martens,  the PhD behind Neutrogena’s biggest product launches in history ~ he developed Helioplex and Ultra Sheer, has developed a new sunblock called SCAPE www.scapelabs.com with a specific emphasis on skin cancer awareness. (Hence the SCAPE acronym.)

SCAPE Athlete Sunblock will protect you against both the harmful UVB and UVA rays, providing the highest quality protection from both sunburn and skin cancer.
SCAPE is:
•   5X more waterproof than anything else – proven
•   Will not rub off and go into your eyes
•   Breathable – allows the skin to breathe and keep body temperature down and doesn’t clog pores
•   Has the highest UVA protection on the market
•   Loaded with vitamin E and antioxidants to protect and nourish the skin

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S.
•   Over 1.3 million will be diagnosed this year
•   1 in 5 Americans will develop a form of skin cancer in their lifetime
•   90% of skin cancers are caused by sun exposure
•   The risk of skin cancer decreases by 80% with the regular use of sun protection

I use SCAPE SPF 30 lotion, SPF 50 lip balm, and SPF face stick sunblock. This stuff works. I'm even scraping out the last of the face stick with a bobby pin, just so I get every last bit of it.

Song from Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Unskinny Bop - Poison

PEACE

Unskinny Bop

2011-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Aside from having to re-learn a computer program that's still in DOS (really) and office flow, work is going well. The first day I worked with the doctor he commented, "The last time you worked here was when Seinfeld episodes weren't reruns!" He also made a comment about my hair, that it's no longer curly. 12 years ago (just about) everyone had big hair. I had long, super curly, big hair that became frizzy when I even thought about humidity.

Hubs and I, 1990-something...

Holy Hair, Batman! I'm also about 30 pounds heavier in this picture and rockin' the mom jeans.

It's not the best picture, but you get the idea. I had TONS of really big hair. Now I wear my hair somewhat straight with the help of technologically better styling products and a really great flat iron.*

The running continues. I've made an effort to show up at the Tuesday night track club workouts where we're doing 800 meter intervals, which is a two lap run around the track, then a recovery jog/walk. Lather, rinse, repeat. Last week was 800 x 6. This week I think it was 800 X 7. I lost count. We always end the workout with some sort of abdominal exercises. Good times. I'm still putting in my Saturday long runs with the track club, and a shorter run in my 'hood just because it contains hill. I will be needing to keep hills in the equation since my next three half marathons are loaded with hills.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Runner's World wear test program again. I thought I had missed out this time due to scheduling conflicts. Luckily, for me, there were a few pairs of shoes left and coach Paul brought the extra shoes to a Saturday run. I just had to be extra EARLY. It was early. I got up around 4:30 AM just so I could make it to the park at 5:45 AM. I scored a pair of Karhu's Flow Fulcrum Ride. I tried to look up my particular model on Karhu's website, but the shoes are scheduled to come out this summer. I must have an unintentional bright pink vibe about me, or something. My last pair of test shoes had screaming pink soles. These Karhu's scream PINK. Hubs calls them my "Rainbow Brite shoes." My first impression of these shoes was "Ow, my eyes!"

Once I got over the color, I began to pay attention how I felt while running. They're not as cushy as what I'm used to, and these are somewhat similar to a racing flat, but not quite as minimal. There's still a fair amount of cushion in the heel, decent arch support, and a little forefoot cushion, but (again) not as much cushion as what I'm used to. These shoes are perfect for track workouts. I might give them a road test and see how they do on the streets in my 'hood, perhaps an easy 3 mile jaunt. I don't think they'll get me through a 10 miler on asphalt, though. They fit smaller than the size indicates. I took an entire size up from my regular shoe size so that they would fit properly.

Between getting our taxes done, starting a new job, the Easter holiday, the bathroom in rip-out/remodel mode, and real life, my house is beginning to take on the vibe of one of those houses you see on the show "Hoarders." O.K, maybe not THAT bad, but I don't recognize my house right now. I need to spend a week reorganizing and cleaning without stopping. I know what I NEED to do, but I just haven't done it. I had to do this blog post first. Priorities.

The last time I ran in the Nike Women's Half Marathon was 2007. I've been trying to get back in every year since then. I would always get the rejection e-mail or no e-mail at all and I'd have to search the site to see that I was actually rejected.

FINALLY

Even though it says "marathon," I'm signed up for the half. :)

I GOT IN!

In addition, AKA Alice and the Heffers got in, too! This time it's a girls trip!

It looks like hills will continue to be on the training agenda... There will be hills and plenty of sunscreen because it will be a summer training season.

Yay.

Song from Monday, April 18, 2011:
Rolling in the Deep - Adele

PEACE

*Thank goodness for advances in hair care! Walking around with a head that looks like a Brill-o pad gets old.

Rolling in the Deep

2011-04-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

The La Jolla Half Marathon Race Report or S*** Happens

Well? What can I say about this one. Another race done? Yes.

Hills?

Yes, but I rocked those hills.

Hills were not the issue.

Race day started out as it usually does, at the butt crack of dawn, getting a quick something to eat, and out the door while we're not fully awake. We always forget something. Half way up to La Jolla Hubs realizes he does not have his ID, meaning he can't get into the beer garden after the race. Oh well.

Fast forward to a few hours later. We're at the Del Mar race track parking lot area waiting for the race to start. This included several trips to the port o potties, stretching, attempting to warm up, and socializing.

Hubs and I waiting... and waiting...

While we were waiting an announcement was made that they needed someone to volunteer to sing the National Anthem. Amazingly, two people offered and it was awesome. It turns out this couple sings at weddings. They harmonized the National Anthem.

Once the race starts it's the usual all systems go and everyone takes off. No problem. I make it up the first small hill. No problem. Make it to the Torrey Pines ginormous hill and up. No problem. Past the very top of the Torrey Pines hill near UCSD I needed to use the rest room. Problem. The last restroom was at the ranger station on Torry Pines hill, a mile back, and I kept thinking "there's usually a port or potty or two along the race." No. The next port o potty was about 4 miles away, where the 5k started. Since the race course goes along UCSD, the landscaping is impeccably manicured, and there were no obscure bushes to hide behind, no public restrooms, nada, zip. It was awful. This made me sick to my stomach, and slowed me down. I kept running, but it wasn't pretty. I was miserable. I finally made it to the 5k area, and that really wasn't pretty, but I was at least able to take care of business, compose myself as best as possible, and then finish the race. Before the race I was thinking I could possibly finish in around 2:20 to 2:25, even with the hills. I finished in 2:28:28. Meh. I finished the .race

I was supposed to meet blogger Chris of The Manly Runner in the beer garden, but I couldn't make my way in. They would only let a certain number of people in at a time. I found Hubs, my sister (who ran the 5k), her husband, and my friend Rich, and we decided to ditch the beer garden and just go home. I REALLY needed a shower and something to settle my stomach.

I have no post race pictures. Rich might have taken a few pictures, but I know we didn't take any. We just wanted to get out of there. We exited the back way out of La Jolla to avoid the clusterf*** of traffic going toward the freeway.

The pros - The course took us along the coast from Del Mar to La Jolla, and it was beautiful. I had trained for those hills and didn't walk once. My sister came to run the 5k and PRed. I logged another half marathon in the books. I got another medal.

The cons - Too long of a wait for the race to start after the buses dropped us off. 2 hours. Not enough port o potties on the race course. I got sick because I needed to use a port o potty NOW and there wasn't any place to go. Lack of post race swag. Not that I was slow, but there wasn't enough stuff left for the half marathoners after the 5k'ers went through. I didn't get to meet Chris.

I want a do over. Hubs thinks I'm nuts because he doesn't want to see those hills for a long time.

Last Saturday's Song:
Ready To Start - Arcade Fire

PEACE

Ready To Start

2011-04-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

The New(er) Job
What a difference. It's kind of like I went on a job diet. I have the same type of job with 50% less BS. No job is 100% BS free, but I've got a feeling everything IS going to be OK. I feel lighter already.

The Hubs
We celebrated Hubs birthday on Thursday. It was a kick-back occasion with a couple of friends and our immediate family. One of the highlights was this sweatshirt:

A sweatshirt from his SDSU daughter

The Running
I've been sort of bad about attending the track club's Tuesday night track workout, but I attended last Tuesday. We did 800's with a 400m recovery. It would have been killer IF I had pushed myself harder, but I'm trying not to get hurt. This, too, shall pass. It's not the fear of injury, it's that I've decided to take a more conservative approach (this year) and build up gradually.

I also ran with the track club on Saturday, at the La Jolla Shores "Low Tide" run.

Pre run C-C-C-C-C-C-COLD! Michelle and I were thinking warm thoughts.

I love the beach and the idea of running right on the beach sounds sort of romantic - with the sight and sound of the waves crashing along the shore, the crisp ocean air after a rainstorm the night before, and the sight of a few hundred runners running on the beach...

...BUT I'm not a big fan of actually running on the beach only because I end up feeling more beat up than when I run on a paved road. The unevenness of the sand always leaves me feeling awkward. There's also a segment of the run where we have to slowly trek over a few huge mounds of rocks, and I almost always seem to tweak a muscle or tendon while making my way over those rocks. I often run at the beaches (here in the San Diego area) on the paved walkway that goes along the most of the beaches.

As I was saying, I ran with the track club on Saturday. This run goes from La Jolla Shores, up to Del Mar then comes back to La Jolla via Torrey Pines and the infamous hill. Since I'm not training for a marathon, I ditched the run up to Del Mar, and trekked directly up the hill after the jaunt on the beach. As slow as I was going, I was still in running formation, meaning: I wasn't walking. I kept running posture the entire time, up hill, the little engine who could. I believe this was the first time I've ever run up that particular hill without stopping or walking.

Notice the elevation gain???

I'm glad this hill was a part of the run this week, just so I could wrap my mind around the idea of running up this hill halfway into the half marathon on April 17, 2011. Now that I've made it up (and down) that hill, I think I'm (mentally) ready.

Post run with hubs. By the way, it was COLD. I had three layers on for this photo op. Yeah, I'll admit to being a weather wuss.

There's a saying I've heard actor Will Smith use: "If you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready." Those are great words to live by, especially when it comes to running. To be half marathon ready for months on end is a good thing.

I'm ready.

It feels good to say that.

Last Sunday's Song:
How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty

PEACE

How Far We've Come

2011-04-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

The El Cajon 20k Race Report or How Irene Got Her Groove Back

I must admit to some ambivalence after I agreed to participate in the track club's El Cajon 20k race, but I knew it would be a good half marathon training run since it's almost half marathon distance, complete with some kick-ass hills. This was also the same day as the train run, which is one of my favorite runs because we take the train* 16 miles up the coast and run back along the coast and a few of the coastal towns along the way. I love running along the coast. The El Cajon 20K is inland, which is usually a good 10 degrees (or more) warmer than it is on the coast. I've never run this race before, but EVERYONE kept talking about the hills. In the few days leading up to the race, I was concerned about the weather. It was warm in my 'hood, which is by the coast, so I could only imagine the warmth in El Cajon. I was not looking forward to running an almost half marathon with hills and heat.

Race day comes and it's rather overcast and a little humid. It's not cold out, but far from hot. It actually drizzled a little when we arrived at the race venue, at Granite Hills High School. This isn't a big race, perhaps about 200 people. A lot of the people I normally run with were at the train run. After the usual formalities it was soon time to race, and I wasn't ready. Waking up at 4:30 AM didn't help. I felt tired. Since the air was on the humid side, a bit of asthma kicked in, and I needed to get a forced breathing pattern down right away.

Into the first couple of miles we all noticed plenty of road kill and eau de skunk in a few areas. We also encountered a dead snake on one of the uphill climbs. As with most races, it started out with everyone running somewhat clumped together until we arrived at the first steep hill, then the clumps of people thinned out. Several people walked up the steeper hills. People who were well ahead of me were soon behind me and never passed me afterward, which surprised me. At times I was running alone. As slow as I was going up those steep hills, I was still running. I was still moving.

I have not much to say about the route, other than it was hilly, but we did run through some beautiful areas along the lush countryside, past some huge custom homes with horses, and (of course) rocky hills. This race was not on a closed route, and we all had to be mindful of bike riders and car traffic. What goes up must come down. The thing about running up hill is that there's a little relief coming down. The last 3 to 4 miles were mostly at a slight downhill, and I was able to make up some time, and was able to pull out whatever I had left in me to jam to the finish line.

Notice the elevation gain?

Those kick-ass hills kicked my ass. My hamstrings and glutes were screaming when I was done. It was hard to stretch, but I managed a little stretching without falling over or screaming. After grabbing the usual post race muffin and banana, I walked around the high school a bit just to keep my legs and butt from locking up or cramping. I also chatted with a few track club members and met a few new people. Hubs ran this race too, and wasn't that far behind me.

Soon after hubs finished his run, the race coordinators began announcing the over all winners and age group winners. I though I might have a chance at something this year due to the fact that everyone who usually wins my age group were probably at the train run.

I WON THIRD IN MY AGE GROUP!

Me and my prize for 3rd in my AG. I actually had a choice between socks, running shorts, t shirt, coffee mug and beer glass with the track club insignia. Of course I selected the beer glass. I have my priorities! Cheers!

For all I know there were probably 3 women in my age group. It doesn't matter because I showed up and I took on those kick-ass hills. You can't win if you don't show up. Oh, wait, I take that back. *cough* This time I earned my prize. Everyone who ran this race deserved some sort of prize because it truly was not an easy course.

According to Lucy** moving time was 02:15:30 and elapsed Time was 02:16:19. I'm still waiting on the official time, but it was in the 2:16 range. This race did not use timing chips or D tags. Posted race results are pending.

EDIT

Final results 70 IRENE M 33 51 3/6 F 2:16:19 10:59

Tuesday's Song:
No Scrubs - TLC - Run-DMZ

PEACE

*What's not to love? You get to take a train ride with friends and run along the Southern California coast.
**My Garmin.

No Scrubs

2011-03-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have a 20k race coming up THIS Saturday. What the heck was I thinking? It was either do the 16 mile train run, which is mostly coastal, or do the 20K race, which is inland and hilly. I really like the train run, all 16 miles of it. The track club does this run every year. We meet at the train station and take the train 16 miles up the coast and run back. Since I've opted to train for the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll HALF MARATHON this year, I have free admission to this 20K race through the track club. If I were signed up for the MARATHON, I'd have my train fare paid for and would be running 16 miles. I'm going into the 20K with an open mind. I'm not at all familiar with the route, and I just keep hearing that it's a hard race due to the hills. I'm not a newbie to hills, but I haven't been training on hills as much as I should be.

Other Stuff

I was somewhat vague in my last post about certain details. My new job really isn't a new job, but I'll be working for a doctor who I was employed with several years ago. Through Facebook, a former coworker contacted me wanting to know if I knew anyone who was looking for a job. Me! I'm keeping an open mind about this job because it will be much different than my last workplace, but I'm looking forward to working for someone who isn't a complete psychopath. I'm looking forward to a much calmer workplace. No more scrubs.

Lake Murray with Cowels Mountain in the background. It was much prettier closer to the lake. Trust me.

Ducks do not like having their pictures taken. They were just about ready to call in their body guard ducks.

FYI, the pictures in my last post (and in this post) are from Lake Murray in La Mesa, CA, which AKA Alice affectionately refers to as "Lake Boy Part."

Lentils and eggs actually go together for breakfast, and strawberries and rosemary go well together in a compote or jam. You need an ice cream maker to make gelatto. 1st grade homework is ridiculous. Yeah, I've had some time on my hands the past couple of weeks.

Friday's Song:
Best Days - Graham Colton

PEACE

Best Days

2011-03-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of running on this:

Stopping to look at and smell these:

Spending a lot more time with:

and reconnecting with:

It has been a good mental vacation of sorts, but I've been in search of employment, and have been spending way too much time looking here:

Last week I received this:

For whatever it's worth, I normally don't put a lot of stock into what a fortune cookie says, but I was hopeful.

This week, this happened:

I start back to work in two weeks. Whew.

Song from Wednesday, March 16, 2011:
Peace - Norah Jones

PEACE

Peace

2011-03-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Monday night I was watching some mindless TV* and had a revelation. I realized that I felt good. I almost forgot what feeling good felt like.

My eyes were no longer puffy and allergy affected.

My body didn't ache.

My mind was clear.

I was relaxed.

I also went for a run earlier in the day, on Monday, and my run felt good. My runs almost always feel good, even a crappy run is a good run, but this was different. I felt more aware and more in control. I think it's time to crank up the running and be a little bit more competitive again. Cruising is fine, but I'm getting the energy back to push myself again.

Aside from not feeling sick and running better, I also noticed that my animals are happy that I'm home. They will not leave my side. On Tuesday we all sat on the back porch to watch the sunset.**

Actually, I sat on the back porch and watched the sunset, the dog was at my feet, one cat was on my lap, and the other cat was sitting behind me. I wished I had been able to photograph that moment. It was peaceful.

I'm sure the people in my house appreciate that I'm not cranky and tired all the time. They just don't glue themselves to me. Heh.

Sunday's Song:
That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On - Sam Cook, Adele - Extra bonus points to Katiefeldmom for guessing Adele

PEACE

*The Bachelor... and it really was mindless...
** Actually, a sunset photo from another day, but I needed a sunset photo from my back yard. I didn't want this blog post to be picture-less.

That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On

2011-03-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Brownie points if you know who originally sang the song (blog post title). Extra bonus points if you know who sang it exclusively for an iTunes Live mix. :)

My last day of work was Friday. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I dressed as if I were spending the entire day there to finish a few last details and hand off my patient load to my coworkers, but after the morning meeting my boss handed me my checks, said I was paid up until the close of the office that day, which is 1:00 PM, and I could go on about my life. That's all fine and good, but I would normally put in 3 hours over that time, so I felt somewhat gypped out of some pay. For someone who shows up early to work and leaves late, this gesture, however seemingly kind on the surface, was not kind. Had I known she was going to release me in that way I would have showed up for work in running garb and gone for a run around the lake near by. I had no running gear in my car.* What a waste of make-up! I did get to say good-bye to my coworkers, and that part was worth my time and effort.

The type A portion of my personality was somewhat screwed. I thought I had my day planned, but it was early and I had not planned for this sudden free time. Since it was so early in the day, none of the places I thought to go to were opened yet. I ended up on the freeway getting stuck in traffic for 45 minutes going west. I guess the only advantage to getting stuck in traffic was listening to the morning radio show and getting to hear Sam the Cooking Guy. (I'm trying to look for the positive here, people -- all 10 of you who still read this!) Instead of returning home, I went out to Shelter Island and walked around. There wasn't much to see since the fog had not burned off yet, and the water wasn't swelling yet due to the impending tsunami.** I had no camera. I had no running gear. I was wearing my scrubs and felt like such a dork being dressed for work and no place to go, but I went for a brief, purposeless walk. The type C portion of my personality took over at this point. I had no back-up plans.

What do you do when you feel directionless?

Once all the businesses opened, I said good bye to my last pay and reimbursable checks and made a deposit at my credit union, then spend the rest of the day sort of aimless. I had no groove. There was no one available to hang out with. I really don't like shopping unless I need something, which means malls were out of the question. I didn't want to be home, yet. Since I had some time to burn I ended up walking in to a salon for a mani-pedi, which are usually a pretty good time suck, but not time sucky enough.

Now what? This directionless crap is not for me.

To make an already long and boring story/blog post short, I ended up getting my running gear at home, but went for a walk because asthma kicked up.

All of this nothingness made me tired and wiped out. Perhaps it was the accumulation of 4 months of not sleeping well and being stressed. Perhaps it was the realization that I was finally out of a toxic work environment -- and by toxic, not only mentally and emotionally toxic, I mean physically toxic. I was always sick. I've lost a ridiculous amount of weight, and not in a good way. The crazy thing is that I'm eating a ton of calories. I should be overweight. My skinny jeans are huge. Any who... I finally ended up back home and slept for HOURS.

This not like me. I need to get me back.

Now I look to a new week, and perhaps a fresh start. The resume has been dusted off and revised. Craigslist isn't going to know what hit it.

Until I hit Craigslist, I'll be hitting the pavement.

Last Monday's Song:
Hard Headed Woman - Cat Stevens

PEACE

*I normally keep an extra set of running shoes, running clothes and other extra running essentials in my car in a plastic storage bin, everything was removed from my car for routine maintenance.

**Yes, our coast had a TSUNAMI warning, brought on by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.. Although it was not dramatic here, it did cause the water to swell, causing some very minor damage in our area, and actually did cause some rip currents. The irony is that the warning was to stay a way from the coast, but it caused people to come out to the coast in droves. Funny, when you tell people NOT to do something they automatically go and do it. By the way, me ending up at the bay had nothing to do with wanting to see the tsumami. The bay was affected, but not by much. There were no crowds. I just needed somewhere to go.

Hard Headed Woman

2011-03-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

I went to my therapist on Sunday.

I was reluctant to go at first, but I really needed to put myself out there.

At first I felt so awkward. It's just me and my thoughts, trying to work out my feelings, my emotions, my strengths and weaknesses.

I wanted to cry, but I felt more like laughing.

My head was full of contradictions.

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, gosh darn it, people like me."

"I am woman, hear me roar."

"I'm drained."

"I'm tired."

"Persevere."

"Who am I kidding?"

My therapist reminded me that I needed to keep on going, that no one is going to carry me. Sometimes things just suck. That's just the way it is. That's not what I wanted to hear, but she is right. As much as I wish that someone else would carry me, it's up to me.

My therapist also reminded me that it's OK to stop and smell the flowers, watch the birds fly and the children play. It's OK to take a break.

When I was finished with my session I felt better.

Meet my therapist.

13.62 miles of therapy on Sunday.

Saturday's Song:
Why Not Me? - The Judds

PEACE

Why Not Me?

2011-03-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

It appears that I've placed in my age group for the Sue Krenn 15k this morning. That's all fine and good, but I was at work when the said race was taking place.

I wonder how fast I went?

That is all.

Saturday, February 26. 2011's Song:
Love Roller Coaster - Ohio Players, Red Hot Chili Peppers - Run DMZ

PEACE

Love Roller Coaster

2011-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

Life has been one behemoth roller coaster, and this post is full of chiche's.

LAST WEEK

The Job
In a nutshell, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Running
Running is my safety net. It's amazing how great I feel after a run, even if I run around Fiesta Island, which is considered one of the least desirable routes to run, since it's mostly flat, either dusty or muddy and not much in the way of vegetation, even though it's at Mission Bay Park. After running a loop around Fiesta Island last Sunday, I felt rejuvenated and clear minded. I think I save myself some big bucks and travel time by running instead of seeing a psychiatrist.

Last Week's Three Day Weekend
It sure didn't feel like a long weekend. I was looking forward to that extra day off, but I'm kind of wondering where all the time went. So much for feeling rested!

THIS WEEK

Saying Good-bye
I found out, through Facebook of all places, that one of my childhood friends, Michelle, died. We were probably about 8 or 9 years old when she moved into the pink house across the street. She lived there for only two years, but we were inseparable. I loved her long and flowing blond hair, that parents let her have puppies and kittens, and that she had an older brother and sister who were way cool and popular -- at least in my eyes. She was equally envious that my parents let me join Brownies, that I had a stay-at-home mom, and that I had a little sister who we could play dress up with. We were even a few days apart with our birthdays. We wrote letters to each other for years, and then the internet in recent years. She came back to California a few times and each time we got together. We've been through Barbies, roller skating in the driveway, wearing our first high heels, first kisses, favorite music, school happenings, boyfriends, college, jobs, marriage, children and grandchildren, even though a lot of it was in written letter form. Over the past year I found out that she was dealing with liver disease. This disease had nothing to do with lifestyle, but the doctors figured she contracted some sort of virus that happened to attack her liver. She was on a list for transplants, but she lost her battle on February 14, 2011. I found out about her death last Sunday, and felt horrible that I missed any of the services or memorials. I would have dropped everything and flown out to Oklahoma to attend. I posted an excerpt from a song called "Seasons in the Sun" on Facebook, sort of to remember her, even though the song is about wanting to die. It's a little bit cheesy of a song, but at age 13 or 14 we were really into it. She liked that song just because her name was in it, but we were young teens when that song came out and had little clue to what the song really meant, even though the lyrics are rather plain. I will miss her terribly.

Michelle ~ June 5,1959 ~ February 14, 2011

Work
I gave my two week notice at work. Yep. I'm skydiving without a parachute, walking the high wire without a safety net, and running with scissors. My husband is freaking out over my decision, but I've been battling illness, a lot of unhealthy weight loss and tremendous stress since November, and it hasn't been what I call a good time. It's not that the job is that hard, it's just that the way the office is managed is not very methodical. There isn't the flow that it once had. They've been through ~~three~~ four staff members since May 2010. No matter who they hire after me, the new person will not work out unless they fix their internal problems. There's a lot of "don't do as I do, do as I say." I will miss working with my patients, though. I do have other "irons in the fire." I don't want to say anything about the other irons just yet. I must admit that Michelle's death put a lot into perspective for me, and that life really is too short to be miserable. I'm ready to turn over a new leaf.

Running
This morning it was raining. A lot. Staying in bed felt so good. After a bit of coaxing, Hubs talked me into going to the track club run in Coronado. Time was running out. We hurried ourselves since we were behind schedule and made it out to Tidelands Park to meet up with the track club. We made there, but missed any of the warm up or stretching. It wasn't raining hard, but it was raining enough. If I were alone I would have run 3 miles and called it a day, but I saw friends who I had not seen in a long time, and friends who I enjoy seeing every week. I ran some of the miles with AKA Alice, which was nice because the conversation kept my mind off of how cold and wet it was.

Running out to Silver Strand was OK, it was the return that was a little rough for most of us. The wind picked up and the sting of the rain was a somewhat brutal. I was wet, cold, my bones hurt, my hips were sore and I just could not speed up to keep up with AKA Alice, who became a bright yellow spot on the horizon ahead of me. I brought a change of clothing, but I was so cold that it took hours to warm up after returning home.

Finishing up. I promise.
My next week is all about finishing up at work. I don't want to leave behind the legacy of undone paper work that I inherited when I started, which was from two employees ago, and I'm glad to say that most of it IS in order.

I had a job interview on Friday. Whatever happens, happens.

Song From Sunday, February 13, 2011:
Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Come On Eileen

2011-02-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

What do you do with your race numbers? I kept mine in a three ringed binder inside plastic sleeves along with my finish times, notes, cards, certificates and other momentos, in chronological order* until about a week ago. I went to put my race numbers from the Carlsbad half marathon and from the Super Run 10K inside the binder, only to find that part of the binder sustained water damage from the rains we had in December.

I guess it's to be expected that a 1947 house would be a little leaky, but we did not have massive rains since moving into this house to test it out. Luckily the leaks were minimal, but my three ringed binder absorbed and kept some of that moisutre. I had to take everything out to dry completely. Most everything was salvageable, but some things were not.

A few certificates and photos were damaged, and now lamination is looking like a pretty good idea.

Pre run sunrise photo from Hospitality Point.

Being well feels pretty damn good. Sure, that's a no brainer, feeling good FEELS good. I had a relaxing, mind clearing 8 mile run with the track club on Saturday. I ran with the B group and was able to keep up. This is what I ran:

I wasn't running to try and keep up with the group, but I ran based on how I felt. I even ran around Fiesta Island and didn't once complain about it. One of my friends commented if I had my Wheaties. Heh. Not being injured and/or sick is a major factor in running well. Duh.

Photo op at the electrolyte cooler, wearing my Sue Krenn race t, with a fellow track club member who I don't know. By the way, It was a GORGEOUS day to be out running.

Finally, there is proof that the couple of years I've spent at Rehab United is working:

Before : I lean

January 2009 - Leaning when I run. Sometimes it was worse than this picture shows.

After - Irene, not I lean (sorry, I couldn't help it.)
February 2011 - No tilting when I run, no leaning. No wonder running feels so much better now.

Last Sunday's Song (February 6, 2011):
There You Go - Heart

PEACE

*The type A personality in me.

There You Go

2011-02-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

I never used to think much about a 10k race before. I neither liked it or disliked it. A 10K race was kind of neutral territory, used as a training run. I've come to the realization that I like the distance of this race, perhaps it's because the shinsplints have not gone away in entirety, and I'm not beat up after 10K.

Saturday the track club participated in the Super Run 10K, which is a kick-off to Super Bowl weekend. Hubs and I arrived at the crack of dawn, checked in the confines of our warm car until it was time to warm up and stretch with the group. I ended up taking a different warm up route with the Heffers around the parking lot instead following the track club. I'm not sure where they ran to, but it was further than a lap around the parking lot.

The race start was somewhat uneventful, and I had no pre-race jitters. The Garmin was on at the start line and just ran based on how I felt. I felt good, and never felt like I was pushing it. I was allowing myself some slack just because training has been hit and miss between getting a sinus infection and working over time. The race started at South Shores Park, where the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Marathon finished last year. The route took us through the Sea World parking lot, over the Ingraham Street bridges, to Crown Point and back.

I like this route and was quite happy they didn't make us run around Fiesta Island this year. I would have been happy with a 1:06:00 finish time. Much to my surprise I finished in 1:00:47. That's a minute faster than last year. I'll take it. Sure, it's at least 5 minutes off of a PR, but I'm happy. Running makes me happy, anyway.

Running in for the finish. Just in case, that's me wearing the red top and black leggings. Photo credit to track club friend Doreen.

Post race we joined the Heffers for mimosas and breakfast at World Famous. Mimosas and a nice Belgian waffle brought me to yet another happy place, and we toasted to happy places. I for some bizarre reason we didn't take pictures at breakfast, but I managed to get this photo with my cell phone right after:

The view from World Famous and my cell phone.

Another happy moment on Saturday was meeting my great niece, Kiley.

My niece Ashley, my great niece Kiley, and moi. :)

Meeting Kiley was somewhat of a family reunion event. Quite a few relatives came out of the woodwork to meet Kiley. The last time a baby was born into the family was when Evan came into the world, about seven and a half years ago. Kiley is kind of a big deal, even though she's so small.

Finally, check out Misszippy1's Tough Chik t-shirt giveaway! I haven't posted about a giveaway in ages, so please check this out!

Wednesday's Song:
The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix

PEACE

The Wind Cries Mary

2011-02-02T20:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday's Song:
Awake - Godsmack - Run-DMZ

PEACE

It was so windy that this eucalyptus tree fell over, crushing three cars and *just* missed hitting a woman, right across the street from Hubs office, and right in front of Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, La Jolla, California.

Awake

2011-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

I keep coming up with plenty of blog fodder, but I no longer have the luxury of the extra time I once had. There are few gaps of free time, and what ever free time I do have is spent sleeping at night. I kind of like sleeping at some point during my week.

While I wasn't sleeping, I actually got off of work on time to attend another Runner's World shoe test distribution. I showed up late and was at the back of the line, just sort of keeping my fingers crossed that a shoe in my size would be left just for me. By the time I made my way to the front, there were no size 7s at all, just 8s and 9s. Just as I was getting ready to leave, someone brings back a pair of 7s that were too small for her. It turns out that shoe happened to be a neutral cushioned shoe. Score! I came away with a pair of Reebok (Premier) Zigblades.

These funky looking shoes are comfortable and are quite the conversation starters, however, the soft insole makes my foot slide around a bit, contributing to blisters. This shoe did not have the extra eyelet at the top, which would have helped to make the shoe more stable. I've run about 40 miles in these shoes, and it was on my 7 mile run where blisters became an issue. This is an almost perfect shoe. If they could keep the comfort and address the slipery-ness , then they'd have something pretty special. I'm also not big on the white vinyl as a design element, as well as the hot pink. If I were to buy a pair of these shoes, I would go for a black pair, or something less obvious. These shoes scream "look at me!!!"

A short while back, Nitmos posted a picture of his computer space, you know, the place where all the magic happens, and invited others to do the same. I did no prepping or cleaning. I just kept it the way it looks right now, which is not as clean as I'd like, but cleaner than I've seen it in a while.

Not very magical bills to be paid, sitting before me...

That's Shep. He's a Happy Meal toy that I've adopted, and he lives on the top of my computer screen. If he were a Hotwheels toy, he'd be under the cushions of the sofa, along with several marbles, a half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my husband's cell phone.

Found this fortune in a cookie right before a big race, probably one of the races I did during the year after major surgery. I stuck it to the monitor frame and it has been there ever since. I know, it's cheesy, but it gave my psyche a boost.

Then there's this one. There's so many way to interpret this fortune. I've used this on my Facebook profile page.

The computer area is in somewhat of a wide hall area between the kitchen and the designated garage area, which is now a bedroom. It's not the best place for a computer area, but it's the only place that seems logical right now, until money falls from the sky and we can afford a second story master bedroom suite addition, and a designated office space with room for a decent desk and my artwork.

Cookies. I was craving cookies in a big way, but there were no cookies in the house. I was considering baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but I have piles upon piles of laundry to get through first Suddenly, the doorbell rings. It's four Brownie Girl Scouts, a mom, and a little red wagon full of boxes of cookies. You JUST cant say no to four adorable 3rd graders, their mom and a wagon full of boxes of cookies. I bought 5 boxes.

Craving crisis averted. The Dulce de Leche cookies took care of the craving. The Thin Mints are in the freezer for later.The Samoas , Lemon Creams, and Trefoils might last through the week, provided I hide them. I have a distinct feeling that these cookies won't make it past Wednesday, February 2.

Wednesday's Song:
Free - Seal

PEACE

Free

2011-01-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

All that chatter in my head I had mentioned my last blog post turned out to be something more. My mind was scattered and my head was tense. I just thought it was the stress of being at work full time and over time. The reason why my head wouldn't shut off is that I had a sinus infection. My doctor put me on a giant horse pill antibiotic, which was very toxic to my system and made everything else seem worse for the entire 7 days I was on it. The up side is that my mind and head issues are gone. Today was my last day of the horse pills. Yay.

While being on antibiotics, I did participate in the Carlsbad Half Marathon on Sunday. I said "participate." It would have been worse for me not to participate. There is something very therapeutic about running along side the ocean. I was happy and my head was clear, it was freeing -- which is why I run in the first place. I certainly was not prepared and by mile 10, or there abouts, I started walking. I rarely walk a half marathon, but I was pretty tired. I walk/ran the rest of the way, making this race my slowest ever. Going slower than normal isn't a bad thing, it's actually good, because I saw a lot of friends (who were behind me) pass me up. I would not have seen them otherwise.

Oh yeah.

The bonus to this race is that I started and finished the race with blogger friend Penny. I'm not quite sure where we lost each other, but with the finish line around the corner Penny runs along side me and passes me. I figured I could muster up something to catch up with her and finish running. Much to my amazement we finished at the exact same time. I've never finished a race with a friend before, and I must say that it was wonderful to share finishing a long race with someone, and to share the joy of making it to the finish line.

We finished! 2:41:58.

(We did not plan to wear pink and black together. It just happened. )

This is also the very first time my husband finished ahead of me. I knew he would pass me up at some point, but it took me being sick and under-trained for him to do so. He even PRed by over a minute. The past several races he has run in have all been PRs. It's all about the training and not being sick or injured, that's for sure!

Post race with Hubs and Rich.

Bonus points that I didn't end up in the medical tent this year.

Song from Tuesday, January 18, 2011:
Rattled - The Traveling Wilburys

PEACE

Rattled

2011-01-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is what the inside of my head looks like about now.

You know what happens when you don't check your reader or feed for a couple of weeks? You end up with a zillion things to read and not enough time to read anything. You end up just marking everything as "read" and start fresh. With one coworker off for two weeks, then another coworker getting sick, and the onslaught of patients using their flex spending plans before a certain date, work has been rather hectic. Once I get home and have some sort of dinner, I'm done for the day. The hard part is that, no matter how worn out I am, my brain just won't shut off, thinking about all the things I did and all the things I need to do and other unimportant matters:

"Did I set the coffee maker?
Did I call the lab to check on orders?
Was that guy a jerk or was that my imagination?
The dog is making too much noise snoring.
Oh, crap, I forgot to call the vet. Something about the dog needing more meds. Great.
The Housewives of Beverly Hills gets on my nerves.
Laundry. I should have done a load. No one will notice that I've worn the same scrubs for four days.
What was I thinking going back to work full time?
Oh yeah, money.
Matthew McConaughey or Johnny Depp?
Did I turn off the faucet in the bathroom?
Creamer. Buy creamer tomorrow.
Files. Must pull files on Wednesday for Monday's patients.
OK. Mind, please go to Hawaii or Ixtapa, even the park down the street would be good.
Mind, please shut off and go BACK to sleep.
Where did I put my name tag?
Do I have enough gas in my car to make it to work in the morning?
I really should get out and run in the morning, even if it is a mile.
Mind, go to sleep!"

The amazing thing is that running has been my release. Once I run, my head is clear. Unfortunately, I've been too tired to run and I haven't trained well. I run on the weekends. I also have a half marathon THIS weekend, the Carlsbad Half Marathon/Marathon. I know I'll finish. That's not an issue. Will I run unscathed? Probably not. Will I PR? Definitely not. I'm just going for the ride and just enjoy. I don't want a recap of last year. *Positive thinking*

I'm still waiting for my new Keurig. With the snow storms in the rest of the country, Fed Ex sent me a nice note saying my Keruig will be delayed due to the weather. Which reminds me, I need to set the coffee maker.

Song from Saturday, January 8, 2011
Can't Find My Mind - The Cramps

PEACE

Can't Find My Mind

2011-01-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

For everything I know, there's always something new to learn. Such is life, right? Just about everything I knew has changed. I haven't been out of the loop all that long, but time and technology marches on, and a lot of the changes were made over the past three years. Then there's the thing about having to remember everything I did know that still applies now. My brain is on overload, and I haven't even begun to study for the certification tests.

Today was the first day of the track club's Rockin' 'n' Runnin' program. I'm perfectly fine being in the "C" group, which is the 9:30 m/m people and SLOWER. Each year our groups (A, B and C) are named after Rock groups. Last year "C" group was the Kinks. (I think) The year before that we were Air Supply (which most of us were insulted by). This year "A" group is Tears For Fears, "B" group is Kiss and "C" group is The Cramps. Perfect. Love it. I'm proud to be a "C" grouper. Turns out one of The Cramps songs is on my running play list, "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns."

The run wasn't anything to write home about. Really. I probably should have run with the B group (7:30m/m to 9m/m) only because they ran longer, about 6 to 8 miles. Our group ran only 2.5 miles around the track, and that included the warm up run. It took that brief run to start feeling like I had my groove, and it wasn't difficult. The shins were a little twingey, but not bad. There's always tomorrow. I have a half marathon in a couple of weeks. This one month taper was a bit too long...

Oh, yeah, the Garmin wasn't working. Yes, it showed the time, but when I decided to hit the start button it went blank. It turns out that it was hooked up to the charger, but not plugged in. Go me. Coach Paul shouted out times as we ran by, so I probably ran about a 9:45 m/m average, just cruising and chatting with a few of my fellow track club members.

In other news, my Keurig started doing things I didn't want it to do, such as making my cup runneth over, or not filling it at all. After chatting with a lady in customer service*, they're sending me a new unit. No charge. Sort of. I have to send them the k-cup holder from inside the unit and an authorization number to receive full credit. No biggie. Postage is cheap.

I guess this is one of those instances where it was good to REGISTER my appliance. Most people don't take the time to register their small appliances. Oh, and Keurig's customer service person was easy to work with. This was just an FYI, in case you run into this same issue, provided you own one of these or know someone who does.

Song from Saturday, January 1, 2011:
Good Riddance -Green Day - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

*...AND taking it apart per her instructions ala McGuyver, poking around a few "ports" with a paper clip, then turning it back on, only to find that it didn't heat the water and still overfilled my cup.

Good Riddance

2011-01-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm still here. I survived my first two months of full time work with over time and the holidays.

This is an amazingly decent photo of Hubs and I back in November before I became chronically tired from working over time. I'm amazed that I don't have dark circles under my eyes in this picture, but this was the calm before the mayhem. By the way, Hubs is no longer allowed to wear that hat because we discovered that it's actually signed by former Padres baseball player, Tony Gwynn.

Christmas Eve Hubs and I decided to hit the mall first thing, at 7 AM to finish up the Christmas shopping. We basically got out of bed, threw on some clothes and went to the mall before it became mayhem. By 10 AM we were done, but Hubs wandered off. While I was sitting in front of Macy's at Fashion Valley by the Santa visiting area, trying to call Hubs, I hear, "Hey, that's Irene." I look up and it's AKA Alice and family. AKA Alice looked fabulous, fresh, and coiffed. I looked like death warmed over. Thank goodness (for me) there were no cameras involved. It was fun catching up for a brief moment, and that gave Hubs time to wander back to where I was waiting. It suddenly felt very Christmas-y. Up until that very point of seeing AKA Alice and family, I had been stuck in a vortex of work and being on auto-pilot. Yes, we put up the tree and various Christmas decorations, but I hadn't been able to enjoy any of it. I'm not sure why this was a turning point for me, but the whirlwind that is my life right now sort of calmed down at that point, perhaps it was seeing someone else actually enjoying the holiday, and I was finally able to relax and enjoy my Christmas holiday. Christmas Eve night was pretty quiet, with dinner at Hub's sister's house and a few family members. All was calm. All was (relatively) bright.

Christmas morning I was up early making holiday sticky buns. No one else was up yet, and I was enjoying the silence of the morning. After I get the sticky buns in the oven and the aroma permeates the house, Evan wakes up, runs right past the Christmas tree -- ignoring the loot Santa put under the tree, and wants to see what I'm making, and asks for a cup of hot cocoa. It was priceless. He never once asked about opening gifts.

This was taken before the realization that Santa had visited our house, before the mayhem. FYI, that's his 1969 Chevy Chevelle SS, that his uncle Jim and aunt Katie had given him the night before. He asked me to put in the car's info. Some kids sleep with stuffed animals. Evan sleeps with his cars.

Just so you all know, my grandson was asking for the actual Polar Express train to stop by our house, and not a toy version. Santa hooked him up some great toys on his (ever expanding) list.

It's hard to see, but Santa brought a Razor Ground Force Drifter...

...and a lot of action figures, amongst other goodies.

It really isn't Christmas until the dog rolls in the gift wrap.

One of the best gifts of all is that we were able to spend Christmas with my sister and her husband, here, in San Diego, for the first time in YEARS.

Hubs, Me, my bro-in-law, my sister.

I worked half day on New Year's Eve, but I was able to participate in a rather off-beat office tradition that I forgot about. We each write a list of things or people we'd like to forget about from the year, fold it, place it in a large tin and burn our lists. I didn't have a list of people on my list, but a list of my injuries over the past year. I'm not sure if this was therapeutic or not, but it was kind of funny to see my boss burn her list of former psycho employees. I guess it's a release kind of thing, just to let go and start fresh in the new year. The ashes were flushed down the toilet. Yes, where I work is not typical and is (still) like being in a sit-com.

By the way, my boss hooked me up with a pair of Moeben sleeves in tye dye as one of my Christmas presents.

Hubs and I had no plans or parties to attend, watched SNL reruns, and I struggled to stay awake to ring in the new year. (When did I become an old fart, anyway?) With less than 5 minutes to the new year, Hubs scrambled to find THE bottle of champagne from the back of the fridge and opened it just in time. Evan was with us and stayed awake long enough to ring in the new year, go outside and beat a couple of old pie tins together and yell "Happy New Year!"

The good thing about having a low keyed New Year's Eve is that there was no hangover to deal with. It's not that I often find myself in a state of hangover-ness, it's just that it takes longer for me to bounce back than it did when I was in my 20s.

I still have not run since I ran the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon at the beginning of December. My shin splints aren't as bad any more, and I really need one more week off, but I have the Carlsbad Half Marathon at the end of January. I've run a half marathon with 3 weeks of training and lived to tell about it, and I'll do it again. My stats won't be great, but I'll get to run. Then again, it's not my first half marathon, either.

Happy New Year, and may all your hopes and dreams for 2011 come true.

Song from Saturday, December 24, 2010:
What Child Is This? - Josh Groban, Carrie Underwood, Vince Guaraldi Trio, Vanessa Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Burl Ives, etc...

PEACE

What Child Is This?

2010-12-24T13:41:00.000-08:00

Do you believe?

My grandson does!

Evan did this all on his own and asked me to send it for him. I hope Santa gets this letter in time, only because Evan composed this letter today, Christmas Eve.

May your days be merry and bright!

Last Saturday's Song:
Christmastime Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio

PEACE

Christmastime Is Here

2010-12-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

Got the tree up!

2010

I went for the more traditional tree this year, (meaning: Evan helped me decorate and I pretty much left everything where he put it -- all on one branch and lopsided) with multi-colored lights and old ornaments from years past, not the mostly blue and white glam tree with pearl garlands I put up for the past four years. (meaning: I decorated it by myself.) Having Evan help me decorate is a bajillion times more fun.

2008

There has been no running since the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon . I'm taking a self imposed hiatus from running, at least until after Christmas. My shins, especially the left shin, were not too happy with me and are pretty sore. Even though I'm not running right now, I have been in motion, non- stop, since returning from Las Vegas. Work has been extremely busy, not just with the work load, but with the physicality of it. On the surface it looks like I would be at the computer all day, but we spend plenty of time trekking up and down the long hall at the office. I also try to get out and walk for about 15 minutes at lunch, just to get some air. I'm also putting in over time hours, which is amazing to me. I can't ever remember the office being as busy as it is. I still have my Wednesday morning sessions at Rehab United, where there is no rest for the weary, and the assisted stretches (that seem so unnatural and I need to find my happy place) are still part of the protocol. Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

Jill hosted a bloggers Secret Santa gift exchange. After a crazy/busy day at work it made my day to receive mail that wasn't a bill! I was super excited to receive a pair of Dry Max running socks from Ginny at Happy Feet 26-2. I put running socks on my wish list every year at home and at work, but never receive them. I guess non-runners probably think socks aren't that exciting, but I love me some running socks! I was planning on taking a picture of the socks, but I've already worn them with my work shoes (which ARE running shoes, just black and grey) and they're now in the laundry. :) Thanks, Ginny!

In the midst of all the busy-ness, we had to put down one of our cats this past week. We adopted Cruiser as a kitten from the ASPCA when my son was 4 years old . My son is now 23. Yes, 18 to 19 years is super old for a cat. He was a gentle kitty, but would defend his "family" if need be. In his later years he gave up being hissy at the dog and they would often just hang out together.

R.I.P. Cruiser -- 1992-2010

Good bye, ol' man.

Since my crazy week pretty much wiped me out, I attempted to get in the holiday mood by watching Christmas movies while wrapping gifts. I watched Elf, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Polar Express. Elf is one of those movies you don't need to think much about, it's just silly with a touch of warm and fuzzy. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is sort of a must see for our family every year, just because we experienced "Jelly of the Month Club" ("the gift that keeps giving all year" instead of a bonus) and having the eldest person say the blessing ("I pledge allegiance to the flag...") Polar Express was my grandson's choice and I actually stopped what I was doing to relax, sit close with the kiddo, snuggle with a big blanket and watch the movie. Next on the agenda is (maybe) baking some sort of Christmasy cookies. We made Rice Krispy treats last week, but that really doesn't count. (PS: Chopped up crispy bacon pieces mixed in the Rice Krispy treats is actually pretty good. - My son's idea.)

Oh, hold on a second... My new Dry Max socks from Ginny are out of the dryer!

I'm still in my warm Christmas PJ's, and I'll probably be this way ALL DAY... HOWEVER, check out my new socks!!!! Sweet!

Last Friday's Song (December 10, 2010):

Nothin' But a Good Time - Poison - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Nothin' But A Good Time

2010-12-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

Another half marathon in the books.

If you've ever run in a Rock 'n' Roll series event, the expos are pretty much all the same. This year we arrived on Saturday instead of Friday, and other than the t-shirt, the swag wasn't that great. Friday swag is usually better than it is on Saturday. Of course, I wasn't there for the swag or to cruise the expo, which was inconveniently moved from last year's location of Mandalay Bay to The Sands. This new location made for an unnecessary trek up Las Vegas Strip to retrieve our race numbers. We wasted a lot of time getting from point A to point B, especially since we had no direct transportation and did not want to use a taxi just to get to the expo since we were trying to watch our expenses. So much for resting up before the run.

We didn't get any exciting or blog-worthy photos of the expo or of our carb load dinner with a few of the RU group. A few of us dined at Chin-Chin (Asian) located in New York, New York.

Race day. A 4:30 wake up was on the agenda. Luckily we had the foresight to purchase a couple of coffees from Starbucks the night before and put them on ice to have with breakfast (biscotti) the next morning. Iced soy latte actually tastes great. 5:30 am rolls around and we're just a tad late meeting the Rehab United group for the warm up and stretch, but we were there just in time to get in something before heading out to gear check.

The Rehab United Run Fit group. I forgot my mustache.

Waiting at the start. Cher sang the national anthem. We could hear her but never saw her.

Me & Hubs. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but after running it was pretty good. Hubs came in at 2:38, a PR, finally under 2:40.

My shins and ankle were a little sore for the race, and I really started feeling those sore spots at about mile 7, and that's where I slowed down. My official half marathon personal record time is 2:13:11, and my unofficial half marathon time is about 2:02, which was a training run, just months before the broken femur back in 2008. I knew I would come nowhere close to those times. I just wanted to do better than last year's time of 2:29 and change, and I did. I'm satisfied with 2:25, considering the broken foot and shin splints this year.

One bonus to this years run is that it wasn't freezing. Early morning temps were probably in the mid 40s, and probably rose to the mid 50s by the time we finished running. It was perfect running weather. By the time the concert started, I'd venture to guess that it was about 60. Last year the cold kept people from staying in the post-run concert area. This year it was packed, but it could have been that Brett Michael's Band was the featured band.

The hat.

Brett getting the crowd going. This guy just doesn't stop.

Can you say "animated?" We got a kick out of watching this guitar player.

Even with the thousands of people at the post race area, we did not see anyone we knew from our group or otherwise, even though they were all there, somewhere.

One advantage to attending the expo is that we picked up red rubber wristbands, which gave us free admission to XS, a club located at The Wynn hotel. This club was pretty swanky.

Part of the deal was free drinks from 7pm to 8 pm. After that, the prices skyrocketed.

During the race I kept looking for Dawn. Last year I found her on the marathon course around mile 6 as I was running. This year I never saw her, and kept thinking I'd see her at the post race concert, but never did. While Hubs and I were hanging around at XS, talking to Tobie (who we just met -she ran the marathon), Dawn walks right in front of us.

Dawn, me, Tobie.

Hmmmm... Extra hands? Dawn? LOL.

Michael bustin' a move with Tobie and Dawn.

Hubs making friends...

After a few hours at XS, we were done. We never saw any one from RU, even though they said they were there, but we did bump into a few running buddies from the San Diego Track club. For some odd reason there are no pictures of our track club friends. I only had a couple of drinks, but I was done. I think the lack of sleep contributed to my "tipsy" state. Wearing 4" heels didn't help matters, either.

When it was all said and done, we had a pretty good time, even though we spent the entire time in Las Vegas on very little sleep. By Monday morning I was ready to go home.

Yeah, I was done.

I'll be taking a running hiatus for the next two to three weeks, but I'll be doing a lot of hill walking. I'll start up again after the hiatus because the Carlsbad half marathon is in January. No rest for the weary.

Yesterday's Song:
Mystery Achievement - The Pretenders

PEACE

Mystery Achievement

2010-12-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

The minimalist race report.

Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. 2:25:18.

I'll fill in the (major) gaps later.

Last Friday's Song:
Tuff Enuff - The Fabulous Thunderbirds

PEACE

Tuff Enuff

2010-12-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

I spent one pain free week, then I tweaked out my left ankle at my very last Run Fit class. Doh! It figures, that with the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon THIS Sunday, I go and do something to throw things off. It's not a serious ankle tweak, it just feels off. With an already slow training season, this ankle tweak just means I'll be slower. Ah, well.

Since I trained with Rehab United for this race, I'll be wearing one of these bright yellow tech t-shirts:

For some reason I couldn't get the lighting just right, but the lettering is bright blue.Our group should be easy to find. I think there will be about 25 of us this year.

I still need to pack. Gloves and scarves will be in the wardrobe. It's going to be a wee bit too cold for this Southern Californian.

Sunday's Song:
Walk With Me - Neil Young

PEACE

Walk With Me

2010-11-28T17:37:00.000-08:00

Tecolote Park Trails

Taper time! The Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon is next Sunday!

I think this is the first time I am taking a taper week as a no run week. After two ridiculously busy weeks back at work, my body is just saying "no."

I am listening.

In addition to my body just saying "no," I am dealing with some allergies that I haven't had to deal with in YEARS. This time I can't pin-point the triggers, but I've looked as if I've aged 10 years over the past two weeks due to the itchy eyes, dry skin around my eyes, and darker than normal allergic shiners (under my eyes.) There is no concealer or cream that will camouflage any of this allergic reaction. I have two theories to my allergy dillema. The office where I work is right next door to a lumber retailer, and they create plenty of dust, OR it's the scented oil diffuser bottles my boss has put in the office since I was last working there full time. I'm guessing it's the scented oils causing the issues. I'm going to ask my boss take those out for a week to see if it makes a difference in how I feel/react. My boss did give me a sample Rx for a newer allergy eye drop, which does offer relief, but it's just a temporary fix.

Did those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving have a good one? I'm certainly thankful for all of my blogging friends. Running and reading would not be the same without you all.

Thanksgiving was quiet this year. Hubs and I opted to sleep in instead of run in a 5k Turkey Trot. We both needed the rest. Most of our relatives were in other states and cities this year. There were only about nine of us at my sister in law's house for Thanksgiving dinner, compared to the 20+ people we're used to. I did host a day after Thanksgiving dinner for my side of the family, but that was easy, since I swore NOT to use leftovers.

This year Evan wanted to help. I showed him how to use an apple peeler, how to use the food processor, how to measure ingredients, how to roll out a pie crust, and how to saute' mushroom. These new cooking skills beat out watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Evan is demonstrating his mad rolling pin skilz.

A future chef?

I also stayed away from the Black Friday sales. I did partake in some internet shopping, but there was no way I was going to set foot in any mall or store, even for groceries. I'm all for a good deal, and kudos to those of you who camped out to get a good spot in line for a good deal on that wide screen TV or computer. Working in retail many years ago sort of ruined the thrill of shopping for me. I did work all of those crazy retail hours and had to deal with the aftermath when it was all over.

Hubs and I did get in a couple of walks:

and

For both walks we tackled Illion St, which is what I refer to as "The Hill." This street has a 16% grade, and I would equate it to doing stairs, just because you need to use your legs as if you're ascending/descending stairs. I've mentioned this street before because we've seen Marines train by running up and it over and over again. The only thing ~~worse~~ just as good is the steep hill that goes through Torrey Pines State Park towards USCD. Since I have the La Jolla half marathon in my future, and the route goes through Torrey Pines State Park, I will be utilizing "The Hill" as much as possible over the next five months. I hope shin splints will no longer be an issue...

Yikes.

Finally, this:

Evan - Watching TV with Transformers.

Monday's Song:
D'yer Mak'er- Led Zeppelin - Running With The Black Knight

PEACE

Check out this sweet giveaway at Run Faster, Mommy for really cool Sporty Girl's jewelry!

D'yer Mak'er

2010-11-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

Yee-haw! One week back at work full time and I've already put in overtime. Due to the actions of the ghosts of employees past, there's a lot of corrections to be made, pick up the ball that was dropped, and bring everything up to speed. I realize I have plenty of catching up to do, but it's coming back rather quickly. Every night before I leave they say:

"No texting or e-mail messages, OK?"
"We know where you live!"
"We'll make you come back!"

The reason being is that their last two employees quit by text message and e-mail. I'm glad to be back, even though it seems overwhelming at times. I know everything will fall into place. I've been to this rodeo before.

Running is happening, slow, but it's happening. I'm still dealing with shin splints, although they are less sore. My last run before the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half was less than stellar, but I got it in, hills, shin splints and rain.

We were supposed to do a flat run out by the bay, but we had a social networking group join us for the run, and we met out at the RU facility in Sorrento Valley, and it was much easier for the group to meet indoors, especially since it had been raining that morning. This group handled their runs differently than what I'm used to. Instead of sending people out by pace (all the 8 to 9 minute milers take off, then the 9 to 10 minute milers, etc), they sent people out by how far they we running. I was running with a pretty nice group until we arrived to the intersection where the people running 6 miles went one way, and the people running 11 miles went another way. I suddenly found myself alone, since I was the only woman over age 40 running more than 6 miles at a much less than an 8 minute mile. I don't mind the alone time, though, but that's when I was going up hill. The shins weren't too happy with me. This had to be one of the slowest runs I've had lately, but I just wanted to get in the 11 miles without walking. The run up Coast Highway through Del Mar, to the "Welcome to Solana Beach" sign is actually a pleasant run, especially early in the morning. I didn't take pictures, but it was also quite damp out, and a camera would have been a moot point, unless it was waterproof. I avoided any heavy rain until I had only a half mile to go. You just can't outrun Mother Nature. A nice, steady shower hit. It's one of those rain showers that's great if you're indoors with a hot beverage in front of a fireplace. Alas, I was running underneath the I-5 at that point, watching the rain from the underneath the bridge and I really wanted to finish. It would have been easy to just stand there until the rain let up, but maybe it would rain for hours. I made myself run the half mile in the rain back to the warm confines of RU. It honestly wasn't a huge stretch or feat to run in the rain, it was actually kind of nice. Running in the rain gave me the excuse to explain my slow pace, but we all know better.

There's so much more to talk about, especially about work -- it's like a sit-com -- but my mind is toast. 'Nite.

Thursday's (November 11, 2010) Song:
Sweet Serendipity - Lee DeWyze

PEACE

Sweet Serendipity

2010-11-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's sort of funny how life unfolds.

Running into my former coworker Darla at Sunday's 5k turned out to be quite a serendipitous thing. Monday she left a message on my cell phone telling me that the office where I work (on call) had a Craigslist post for a full time optometric tech. I had no idea. It's either hit or miss with when they do need me and they have not needed me to fill this year thus far, and it's November. When looked up the job posting I noticed that it was very recent and for a job position I already know quite well. I took a chance and and e-mailed my boss, pleading my case and even offering to become ABO certified at my own expense. Tuesday afternoon I received an e-mail from my boss saying they wanted to talk to me on Wednesday. Amazingly enough, two weeks ago I had scheduled myself an eye exam for that Wednesday -- I'd be at the office anyway. I went in with an open mind. The funny thing is that I had the eye exam first, before they would even talk to me. Fine, but, for the first time in YEARS I had a dilation exam, which meant my eyesight would be compromised during our chat following the exam. Not only that, having my vision compromised made me feel queasy. After pre testing, the exam, frame selection (yeah, I got new sunglasses and regular glasses) and a little chit chat with my coworkers, the grilling began. They first wanted to know my motivation for coming back full time, then they wanted me to know that they changed their entire office dynamics, and if I could bring my roller skates because it would be that busy. I plead my case (without being able to see and wanting to barf). It must have been what they wanted to hear. I start back Monday. They even offered to pay for my ABO certification. They also went to wearing scrubs, which will save me a ton of money in not needing a career wardrobe, and they will pay for those as well.

Two of the reasons why they're bringing me back on is because they know I can be trained on all the new procedures/equipment/tools and I'm not a psychopath. Yes, they actually used the word "psychopath." Since another long-time coworker had to relocate 6 months ago, they have not been able to find anyone to replace her. People interview well, but they become complacent after a short time and their performance falls apart, or their true nature comes out and they're just bizarre. They've had 3 new hires who did not meet their standards in the past 6 months.

Needless to say, I called Darla and thanked her profusely for the phone message about the job listing. She is now working in another field, which is why she didn't go for it, herself.

Oh yeah, when I was in RU on Wednesday morning, Bryan asked me if I knew anyone who would want a front desk/general office job. It seems they're having trouble finding decent office staff as well. I said I was looking for work, but I was going in to my office later that same day to ask for full time. Then he started asking me about my job experience and rate of pay. It felt like an interview while he was working on my shin. I think he would have hired me based on our conversation. I would have taken a job a RU if the full time job at my office fell through.

They say things happen in threes. Dollars to doughnuts I start receiving calls from all the places I sent applications and resume's to over the past year.

Now I must go and dust off my roller skates. Monday will be here soon enough.

Monday's Song:
There and Back Again - Daughtry

PEACE

There and Back Again

2010-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Pre race photo op with "Mik", "AKA Alice" and "Walter"

Sunday was the Shelter Island 5k Run. This is a favorite because there's a champagne brunch after the race. The brunch is held at Humphreys, the same place where Hubs and I often enjoy summer concerts. Sunday's run felt a lot like summer. I ditched my jacket before the race because it was already warming up at 7 AM. It felt more like July than it did November. I'm still dealing with shin splints in my left shin, but I figured I'd just cruise this 5k instead of race it. I cruised, but I should have cruised a little slower, even though I felt like I was going slow for me. I could not run faster at all, even if I tried. I couldn't even make a mad sprint for the finish line when it was in sight. It just wasn't going to happen. I sort of broke even with my last 5k - July 4th 2010 in Coronado. Sunday's 5k was actually a few seconds faster than Coronado, but still a good 4 minutes away from a PR.

Here's my stats:

Time: 29:19

Pace: 9:27

F 50-54: 12 out of 56

The fun thing about this particular race is that it sort of feels like one huge party and EVERYONE seems to be in a great mood. I'm sure the champagne/mimosas helped with the great mood.

AKA Alice and Rich

Hubs and I with my former coworker Darla. We haven't seen Darla in a few years!

Hubs had a really good race day. Even though he really wasn't attempting to go for a PR, he achieved just that... An all time 5k PR. He finished in 30:10, a 9:43 minute mile pace. This is the first time he has broken a 10 minute mile pace. My friend Rich had a really good run too. His time was 24:30 - Pace/mile 7:54, a new PR, taking about two minutes off of his last 5k race.

Cheers! Mimosas makes the shin feel all better!

Photo credit to Rich

A group from RU was also at the run, and I did see my PT Bryan run right past me, but I did not see any of them at the brunch. They were wearing bright yellow tech shirts, but it turns out they all changed out of their tech shirts after the race. I was looking for a group with bright yellow shirts, which is probably why I never found them.

The next day...

Monday was little bit rough. My shin is not too happy with me. I've been doing everything I'm supposed to be doing for it, and it's helping, including this:

I have about eight of these cups and a ziplock bag with homemade blue ice(a slushy ice pack) in my freezer. I'm foam rolling, massaging, stretching, doing ankle exercises, point and flex exercises, modified squats and lunge matrices. (It's an RU thing - squats and lunges are the cure all for just about everything.) You name it, I'm doing what ever it takes to relieve shin splints. I've been to the doctor, the chiropractor and my physical therapist. I appreciate all the advice and kind words everyone has given to me and, trust me, I've been trying it all.

I've been back to using the old school Bowflex, low weight high rep exercises and utilizing the row attachment seat for some sort of alternative cardio since I don't feel like going into the gym and using their ~~crappy~~ old stationary bikes.

I have just less than 4 weeks until the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. I still need to get in some mileage, and I plan on taking a very conservative approach to it. I need to put a 10 miler this week, even if I run/walk the entire way.

Wednesday's Song:
Ramble On - Led Zeppelin - Black Knight

PEACE

Ramble On

2010-11-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

Anything but a Wordless Wednesday...

RAMBLING RANDOMNESS

FYI, in my last post the dog is trying to eat the bubbles and having fun. When she was much younger she would love to chase the bubbles with a "woohoo!!!" attitude.

It figures that now we're into November the weather is more summer-like. I'm not complaining one bit, but after the overcast and sometimes cold summer, I am enjoying the warmer weather.

Clear skies.

I know, not exciting. This is the view from the parking structure of my doctor's office.

Running has been less productive as I would like. I just can't get beyond the shin splints, still. The right leg is OK, it's the left leg shin that will scream at me when I run anything beyond 5 miles. It's not as sore as it was just a few weeks ago. I know if I just stopped running for 3 weeks I could probably get rid of the shin splints once and for all, but with a half marathon in about 4 weeks I can probably take one week off. My mileage base isn't what it used to be, either. The most I've run (at one time since about August) is 7 miles at one time. Not good. I'm all set for a slow 10K, not a half marathon. My weekly mileage has suffered, too. I've been running about 10 to 15 miles a week -- Not good, either. Yikes. I guess my strategy will be to enjoy the ride, so to speak. My pacing is off, too. I should be running in the low 9 minute mile to mid/high 8 minute mile range for a half marathon, not 11s and 12s. I was so looking forward to PRing at the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon, but I guess it's not to be. I also have a 5k THIS weekend that I was hoping to do well at, but I'll do well when I'm finished and enjoying the champagne brunch after the race is over.

I know every runner tends to go through some sort of slump due to injury or unforeseen circumstances, but, come on already. It has been over 3 years! I haven't had a PR since 2007 or early 2008. 2008 was when I had the fractures and surgery. 2009 was all about rehabbing and rebuilding and I was happy just to get going again. 2010 started out hopeful and I was making a ton of progress, but then it was one illness or injury after the next. Perhaps I need another odd number year. 2011? Please?

Remember those Nike Lunarglide + 2 test shoes? I LIKED THOSE, a lot. They're more comfortable and durable that I expected they would be. I've had past issues with Nike's not lasting more than 100 miles, which isn't good for marathon training. I've put well over 100 miles on those Lunarglides and they have hundreds of miles in them. From what I've heard, they're featured in the November 2010 Runner's World Magazine*. They didn't use my 2 cents, but I thought I'd give those a positive mention , anyway.

Currently, I'm testing the Saucony Pro Grid Jazz 14. I've had these a couple of weeks. They're super durable and, for a neutral shoe, are really supportive. These feel much firmer than other neutral shoes I've used, but Saucony's are durable and can usually take a beating. Bonus points that they're not making my shin splints worse. I still have my Sauconys from a wear test I did well over a year ago, and those still have a lot of run left in them.

Although the pastel green color is minimal, I still have issue with pastel colors on my running shoes, however, the mostly black, white and silver overlays and details makes up for it.

Last week I pulled a muscle in my right hamstring while at my RU Run Fit Class. As usual, I wasn't doing anything extraordinary. We were doing warm up exercises when the cramp suddenly came on. Most of the discomfort is gone, but every once in a while I feel that minor tension in my hammy. Sheesh.

Halloween came and went. The kiddo went as Ironman. His mother went to a party as a version of Lady Gaga the night before. I didn't dress up this year. Call me crazy, but I stayed home with the dog and doled out candy to the 30 trick or treaters who came by. Go me. My daughter took the kiddo trick or treating closer to our house and Hubs took the kid trick or treating on a second shift in a different part of the neighborhood. It's not like the kid needed any more candy, I just think Hubs really likes trick or treating, plus there's a street in our neighborhood that caters to the adults and hands out bowls of chili and Dixie cups filled with margaritas.

Tuesday I was at the rental house waiting for the new renter to show up with a rent check. She called to say she'd be about 30 minutes late. I decided to walk my old run route in that neighborhood. Not much has changed there, other than a few more homes are up for sale, but I put in my 2 mile loop. It was a beautiful day in the old neighborhood.

Since I had my cell phone with me, I used the GPS running program, however I just found out that Bones In Motion is closing shop and we can transfer our past data to another application.** That's nice, but my cell phone doesn't work with the new application. My cell phone carrier is not supported. I was planning to post that map here, but now I can't. SIGH. I need to migrate three years worth of data over to the new application so I don't lose it, but it won't migrate everything, such as my notes on the run and mile splits. Now I'm really glad that I have my Garmin, but that means I need to remember to wear it every single time I run, and I don't always remember to wear it.

It's kind of funny that, as adults, we still receive stickers. Here's two I've just received:

I always expect the "I Voted" sticker.

I did not expect the nurse to slap a sticker on me for getting a flu shot.

I'm still going though testing to figure out the intermittent fatigue I've been dealing with all summer. Today I gave more blood for allergy testing, although I have no idea which allergies I'm being tested for. I really should have been given a referral to an allergy specialist, but we'll see if anything shows up.

Finally, I was rummaging through several item that were in storage. I came across a series of watercolors and inks that I created when I was a sophomore in high school... 19*cough*74*cough*...

This was before the advent of disposable, pre-filled tech pens and Prismacolor felt tipped pens that comes in ten-thousand colors. I used cake water colors, sabline brushes, and a traditional fine point calligraphy pen and dipped that into a vial of India ink over and over again. That really was so old school. My style has changed so much since that time due to time. That particular piece took weeks to do in a twice a week, two hour art class. I don't think I would have the patience to do anything like that at this time in my life. I take that back. With the disposable, pre-filled tech pens and Prismacolor felt tipped pens the process would probably be faster, but it still would take more than one day. I'd rather be out running.

Last Wednesday's Song:
Something Good This Way Comes - Jakob Dylan

PEACE

*I still have not received that issue.
** I don't care for it. BiM offered more data.

Something Good This Way Comes

2010-10-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday's Song:
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin - Run- DMZ

PEACE

Misty Mountain Hop

2010-10-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Friday's Song:
Keep My Head High - Echo Movement

PEACE

Keep My Head High

2010-10-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

I really wasn't planning a blog hiatus, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. Most of the crazy had to do with our rental house. I'll go into details about the rental house later. Right now I just need to catch up.

I'm still dealing with shin splints, however the soreness isn't as bad as it was just a couple of weeks ago. I've only run once in the past two weeks, twice if we count the Run Fit class at RU last night, but that was not continuous running -- We did circuit training. I've also made a discovery that the custom orthotic for my left shoe is most likely a contributor to making my shins splints worse than they needed to be. I took the orthotic out of my left shoe and replaced it with the original insole that the shoe came with. Guess what? I had little to no discomfort in my shin. At the Run Fit class I was able to SPRINT for the first time since about August, and there's no next day overwhelming soreness or pain. *WHEW* I must add that I still can't do a lot of side to side movements, but when I run it's not side to side -- it's forward. I like moving forward, and not just with running.

My dad left for for a Mediterranean cruise last week. I'm not sure of all the ports, but Morocco and the Egyptian Pyramids are on the itinerary. It's the perfect trip for him. He's traveling with a group from his church.

The same day my dad left for his cruise was the same day my cousin came up from Ensenada, Baja California - Mexico. The plan was for her to stay at my dad's house while he was away, but he forgot to leave the keys with us. My cousin had a lot of business to take care of while she was here and she ended up staying with us until we could have a set of keys sent down from Fremont, CA where my brother lives. It was great catching up with my cousin, but she needed a lot of assistance with looking for particular businesses and agencies. It's a long story, but her purse was stolen with all of her identifications in it, including her Military ID, California Driver's License, her Mexican residence ID, and so on. She was planning to stay with us only one or two days until the keys arrived, but it turned into four since a couple of agencies required long waits in line, such as the DMV. The advantage to my cousin's stay with us is that we were able to catch up on all of the relatives happenings and incidental gossip in addition to a lot of thought provoking conversations about spirituality.

My cousin is a veterinarian. It was funny that my cats and dog seemed to know she was an animal person. My cat, Lumpy, would not leave hear alone at all.

Computer companion

Since just before the end of September we were dealing with our rental house. A friend of ours had lived there for over three years, but work was about an hour drive one way. He decided to move closer to work. He kept telling us that he was working on cleaning the house and getting it ready for the next renter. Hubs and I figured all we needed to do was paint and shampoo the carpets, plus some small repairs and a little yard work. We were wrong. So many things were broken or dirty beyond cleaning. We were shocked. Our friend hired a cleaning company to help him out, but it was so dirty that even the cleaning company charged him extra... and it was still not up to par when the cleaning company left. Trash and rotten food were left behind in the driveway. Some personal items were left behind, even though our friend said he took everything and that other stuff was ours. In all fairness, we did keep a few things in the garage, but mostly Hubs' drafting equipment, a desk, a dresser, rolled up blueprints, and a few toys from when the kids were little, but that's all. These items were all off to the side and out of the way. Our friend's kid's photo album, some of his furniture, bird care supplies and clothing items were definitely not ours. We have a long list of things that were broken and needed to be replaced such as entire closet doors. We really did not expect this since he rented another house from Hubs folks a few years back and everything was fine. Our friend was expecting his security deposit back, but the cost of getting everything fixed and cleaned exceeded that dollar amount. Needless to say, our friend is a bit miffed with us, but mostly with Hubs since they handled the agreement together. I'm not sure what will happen with this relationship, and I hope we can get past this mess.

Hubs and my son worked at the house every singe day for the past two weeks painting and doing repairs. My cousin even helped us a few hours hauling trash and cleaning cupboards. I sanded and varnished the kitchen floor and part of the living room floor. I also spent time scrubbing various things like greasy drawer pulls in the kitchen, the mold off of the ice and water dispenser on the refrigerator door, and the fireplace that was left full of soot, ashes, and wood.* Since we didn't rent a dumpster, we put trash in receptacles where ever we could, which meant hauling bags of garbage to our house, my inlaw's house, my sister-in-law's house, a neighbors house (she offered) and my dad's house. New carpet has been installed and everything is beyond ready for the renter, who should have moved in when our friend moved out.

*SIGH*

If that weren't enough, someone rear ended the back bumper of Hubs' car while he was idling at a stoplight after a trip to Home Depot, buying items to finish fixing up the rental. No one was hurt, just the bumper. Hubs had to laugh because it has been a draining past couple of weeks -- then the car gets bumped. At some point you just have to laugh because it's so ridiculous.

If there's an upside, sanding and varnishing floors is a really good workout.

Now that we have some momentum going, we need to get back to caring for the house we live in. I need to sand and refinish parts of the dining room floor where the dog likes to hang out.

My boss turned 60 last week. She looks amazing for 60. If you met her you would never guess that she's even close to 60. There's something to be said about healthy living. Her family arranged a surprise party and had a small gathering. I was quite touched to be included since I haven't been summoned to the office in several months due to a very stable staff. One of my former co-workers flew in from Texas to be here for the occasion. It was so good to see her again. This birthday event was somewhat like a family reunion, even though it was people I have worked with. I guess it's a good thing when you can consider people you work with as family. I thought Hubs brought a camera, but he didn't use it. My boss was given a toga, crown and gold tone asps to wear at her party. It was great. I must explain that my boss is notorious for pranks, and you know what they say about payback. It was awesome.

Good news. My daughter finally got into San Diego State University. SDSU was being a bit stingy with admissions, but recently let more students in. SDSU is only a 15 minute drive down the interstate, but it will take much longer just to find parking.

Saturday, October 16, is my daughter's 27th birthday. Since she has a gig working behind the scenes at a college play on Saturday evening, we'll be taking her out for lunch. She has plans to spend next weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate.

1983

2010

There's plenty of blog fodder ruminating in my head, but there's so much that it would quality as the longest blog post ever if I were to write it all down. Two extremely busy and emotional weeks will fill a head. I'll spare you all. Besides, there's too much fodder to even process. I'm exhausted.

Song from 9/29/2010:
It Happens - Sugarland

PEACE

*My cousin kept calling me "Cinderella."

It Happens

2010-09-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

I received almost ALL of my lab results back. I'm still waiting to do the pulmonary tests in a few days. Nothing unusual showed up which would explain my fatigue, but I was sort of stunned to see that my cholesterol was borderline high. I exercise and run on a regular basis. My weight and BMI are within a normal range for my height. I eat really healthy 5 to 6 days a week, with a couple of splurges during the week, usually Thursday date night with Hubs and maybe a one meal splurge with breakfast or dinner on Saturday or Sunday. I rarely eat foods that would cause my cholesterol to be high, and I eat a lot of foods that are supposed to help it stay low. I'm perplexed, but genetics is a funny thing.

Saturday morning's group run with Rehab United turned out to be just Hubs and myself. Everyone else had other plans or run events. We ran from the RU 2 location near Sorrento Valley Road to the Coast Highway near Torrey Pines State Park and back. Hubs has never run this route before and I needed to slow my pace so that he could keep me in sight, but it was just as well because of my shin splints. We ran about 5 miles. Lucy says it was 4.9, but I forgot to hit the start button when we set out.

The novelty for the morning was sun. All summer our runs have been with overcast skies. We haven't had much of a Summer this year, and it figures that we're a few days into fall and we get hit with hot weather. It was inching into the 80s by the time we were finished with our run. I managed to get a decent photo of this stretch of run along the coast with my cell phone camera:

I almost forgot what clear skies looked like! It was gorgeous.

Here comes Hubs. He's wearing a blue shirt, almost in the center of the picture.

Just so you know, shin splints still suck. Shin splints make it hard to achieve runner's high.

My son turned 23 on Wednesday. He didn't want a big to-do because he was volunteering at the food bank. I made him chicken enchiladas with all the trimmings, which he later ate, and we still had a cake with candles and sang "Happy Birthday To You" because we just HAD to. Hubs made margaritas because I said he had to, and, well, why not?

Cheers!

Also on Wednesday, Evan came home from school with a different smile. It turns out one of his buddies at school assisted him by pulling out his dangle-y tooth.

I'm surprised Evan let his buddy pull out the tooth since he didn't let any of us near it.

A friend of ours, Tim, is temporarily in town to say goodbye to his father who passed away last week. I met Tim a zillion years ago at a church group function while in high school. We dated for a few months until he thought he found the love of his life* and dumped me. It's just as well because Tim was a lousy boyfriend, but turned out to be a good friend, and I met Hubs through him. Saturday afternoon we attended a "Celebration of Life" for Tim's father instead of a funeral. It was actually quite lovely. Family and friends met at Tim's parent's house, and three military (Navy) personnel were there to present the flag and play taps. Tim, his brother, and sister-in-law each said a few heartfelt words about their father, then we proceeded into the house for a reception, and to reminisce while viewing a slide show of happier times. We were also able to catch up with friends from the past, such as the lady (who was the girl) Tim dumped me for, and other mutual friends. It was somewhat of a walk down memory lane. It was a bittersweet event, not only because of the passing of Tim's father, but because his mother attended and is dealing with the latter stages of Alzheimer's disease. It was the first time she had been back to the house in a few years, and will be the last because the house will be sold. It's hard to let go, sometimes, but there are always the memories.

Tuesday's Song:
Push - Matchbox Twenty

PEACE

*She ended up dumping Tim for someone else and got married. ;) ... and everyone sort of lived happily ever after. Tim now resides in Texas and is happily married to his lovely wife Kristi, and has two teen-aged children. Tim's family could not make the trip from Texas.

Push

2010-09-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Wow. I have a moment. I can get in some blogging...

I did see the doctor last week for the fatigue I've been dealing with. He ordered fasted blood tests (thyroid, iron, vitamin D, adrenals, celiac panels, B 12, etc) and a pulmonary function test. The fasted blood tests are done, and now I'm just waiting on my appointment for the pulmonary tests. He also put me on a steroid inhaler (Qvar) in hopes that will help open up my lungs more, and to see if that helps lessen the fatigue.

I started working out with a group on Thursday evenings with Rehab United. Last Thursday we did endurance testing. Last year I kicked bootay. This year... um, not so much. Most of my numbers were cut in half. I couldn't do nearly the same number of push ups and pull ups I could do last year. The fatigue has really taken it's toll on me. I guess the good thing is that I now have a new baseline to start with, and I know I can get it back if I just keep pushing through -- at least I hope it works out that way. The only thing that looked half way decent was my timed mile. We were supposed to run one mile as hard and fast as possible. I was timed at about 7:15 for that mile, but I think that's wrong. We run around the complex where RU is located, which is just under 400 meters by several feet. We ran 4 times around the complex, and I know that's just short of a mile. I'm guessing that my mile is more like 7:45 or 8:00. It's certainly possible that I could run 7:15 for just one mile if I'm busting out some speed, but I wasn't, except for maybe the last 100 yards or so. I didn't have my Garmin with me, so I couldn't check exact time or distance. The good part about working out on Thursdays is that I'm with people I already know from last year's group, and they're a lot of fun.

The last time I ran was Saturday morning with the Rehab United group. The plan was a 40 minute, time on your feet run. Most of the people who showed up ran about my pace or under, which is unheard of. Last year I was the slow-poke of the group since most everyone's slow pace was an 8 minute mile. (Yeah, yeah, speed is all relative, but when you're shooting for an 10 or 11 minute mile for a long run, there's a lot of waiting around involved on their parts.) Our fearless leader, Justin, and his girl friend were the speedy ones -- probably in the mid 7s, low 8s. I held an average 9:30 m/m for the 4.4 miles I ran, but I just couldn't push harder than that due to my ongoing issue with shin splints and fatigue. I should be able to hold around a 9 minute mile with ease. I was a little frustrated, but glad I was able to hold my own without going any slower. I was able to pace with my friend Renata, and I think having her just slightly ahead of me kept me from slowing. Renata and I came in ahead of the group, which was a novelty to me. I'm NEVER at the head of any running group when it comes to speed. (This year several people are opting out of the Las Vegas trip due to the expense, and a lot of those people were MUCH faster than me.) Everyone else came in just after us, so it's not like we were channeling our inner Kenyans - we were just pushing through as best as possible. As for my left shin, it was not too happy with me. I even wore compression socks, which helped tremendously, but still not a fix for my screaming shin.

I booked air fare and a room for the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. I was planning to register for the half marathon on line, but the processing fee is $11.00. That's just ridiculous. I thought I'd be able to use my $10.00 discount code, but that processing fee negates the discount. I'll sign up the old fashioned way, with pen and paper and no processing fee, AND a $10.00 discount through Rehab United.

Just in case, if you're planning to run Las Vegas, a lot of the hotel web sites say they're sold out for that Saturday. Call the toll free number and ask for group reservations. I was able to book a room at Luxor that way, even though the site said it was sold out.

My sister and her husband were in town last weekend. They are so happy to be back in California, and the job transfer has been smooth. They stayed in Coronado at the Glorietta Bay Inn and we were able to share dinner with them. We (sort of) celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday. Long story short ... BUT, He was constantly joking around with our server, so she brought out a huge slice of mud pie -- on the house. Hubs suggested a candle for the mud pie because it WAS (supposedly) my brother-in-law's birthday. Not really, his birthday was in July, but since there was a mud pie, it only seemed fitting that someone was sung to.

We were all laughing, not only because it wasn't his birthday, but because the people at the adjacent tables were singing, too. The server was a really good sport. PS: That's my sister on the right side.

Monday's Song:
I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More - Barry White

PEACE

I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More

2010-09-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

I stole this from Stacey's Blog - Muscle and the City

Ressurected Runner

I'll update soon... Running and workouts are continuing -- I'm still chugging along.

Tuesday's Song:
I Shall Believe - Sheryl Crow

PEACE

I Shall Believe

2010-09-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that with the start of school would mean time to catch up on blogging and checking in more regularly, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. I don't know whose idea it was to have school start the day after Labor Day, but it always makes for a very short and busy week.

Right after Labor Day, Hubs and I went to see Sheryl Crow in concert at Humphreys. Most of the songs were from her new CD "100 Miles From Memphis, " but several of her well known hits were scattered through out the show. The encore included her hit "All I Wanna Do" and a Michael Jackson tribute "I Want You Back." She puts on a great show and we were in awe of her extremely talented band and back-up singers. Hubs is more of the Sheryl Crow fan than I am, but I had a lot of fun, too.

4th row, center.

Hubs snapped this photo.

Sheryl Crow is super fit, by the way. She has some serious muscles, and looked fabulous. You can't fake a healthy lifestyle, that's for sure.

I hooked up with Rehab United to train for the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in December. I missed the first group strength training class because I had prior plans, but I made it to the first group run. There were only 7 of us for a 30 minute run, but several people were participating in other running and sporting events. We should see more people this weekend. I ran about 3.2 miles, but it felt like a lot more.

Running isn't as effortless as it should be these days. I just can't fight the fatigue I've been dealing with all summer. I'd have a glimmer of energy for a day or two, but it doesn't last. It's not like I haven't been running, I would do at least 4 to 6 miles for most of my Saturday runs while concentrating on building speed, plus do some high intensity interval training on the treadmill gym during the week, run at the bay or my neighborhood once or twice a week, and fit in a weekly session at RU. I believe this is something other than just a case of feeling burnt out and is not psychosomatic. On top of the fatigue I've been dealing with a ridiculous case of shin splints in my left inner shin. Newbies get shin splints from wrong shoes, running too fast, far, too soon. I'm far from newbie status, but the shin splints started (a few weeks ago) when I was wearing heels, and would sort of go away after I warmed up while running. Now the shin is just constantly reminding me that it's there, warmed up or not. I'm doing all the stretches that I'm supposed to do, massaging it with the stick, plus ice. I even backed off running a bit last week. I'm not sure if the shin splint is a result of the fatigue I've been dealing with, but I have plans to call the doctor this week. Good times.

In other news, I just found out that I'm going to be a great aunt! My niece is expecting her first baby in early December. I'm not sure why things were kept secret for so long, but we're all excited. My grandson is excited to finally have another kid in the family.

Wednesday's Song:
Be True To Your School - The Beach Boys - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Be True To Your School

2010-09-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Monday's Song:
Bulletproof - La Roux

PEACE

Bulletproof

2010-09-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Bullet Point Post*

Check out this giveaway over at Miss Zippy's blog for Sugoi compression pants.

The dog was (sort of) skunked (again.) This time it was in our sun room. We had to take everything out, hose it off, scrub it, bleach it, etc, then put it all back. We may have to paint that room.

I signed up for the Shelter Island 5k on November 7, 2010, The Carlsbad Half Marathon on January 23, 2011, and the La Jolla Half Marathon on April 17, 2011. Also under consideration are the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon 2010 and the AFC Half Marathon 2011.

I found ound a new running song, "Wheels" by Heart on their Red Velvet Car CD.

"Rain is humming

The streets are running

Underneath the neon lights.

We run together

We'll run forever

Out of here
Riding the wheels."

My sister and husband moved back to California this week. They now reside in Los Angeles and are so happy to be back in the state.

Concert in my kitchen last night:

Sam

Went running with Hubs:

A quiet morning at Hospitality Point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought people, not cars, had the right of way on sidewalks. While running in my neighborhood last week I came justthisclose to getting hit by a car on a sidwalk. I was running on the sidewalk on a busy stretch of street -- I figured it was safer. The gentleman** who came to a screeching halt with in about 12 inches of me never once waved to acknowledge me or say he was sorry. Not only do I have to watch for stray dogs, other people (runners, cyclists, weirdos, etc), cars on the street, cars backing up out of driveways, wild animals (they're out there, even in the suburbs), uneven/cracked pavement, weird noises, etc, now I have to add cars driving on sidewalks to that list. That mile was my fastest split because I was so shaken and it took a while to calm down. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor that day, but I'm sure my heart rate would have been through the roof. I guess you can never be too safe.

Remember that contest my nephew entered to win a spot as a candidate for job in advertising in New York? He didn't win the popularity vote, however, he's a strong contender as a finalist. Apparently, the advertising firm knew about my nephew before the contest, and in a good way. PS: He did get a job at a small firm in San Francisco.

Happy Labor Day!

Wednesday's Song:
In The Colors - Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

PEACE

*Unfinished business -- This was supposed to be a real post with one or two particular topics, not several. My time for myself last week was interrupted, but for good things.
**Jerk

In The Colors

2010-09-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Monday's Song:
August's Rhapsody - August Rush

PEACE