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

...moving on from injury and illness.

This week I'm starting over. For the past 6 months I feel as if I've gone from illness to injury over and over again. I need a fresh start without acting like I'm making up for lost time. I need to approach running and the whole fitness thing as if it's new. I feel like I get started again then I get sick, or injured, or both. I don't know the body I have right now and how it will react to what ever I'm doing. I started swimming two weeks ago then I got sick, which wiped me out last week. All I want is to be healthy. Last year was so promising and I was beginning to make progress again. This year is half way through and I feel as if it's been full of setbacks. It's time for some good karma and maybe a more conservative approach to my training. I don't think the  "full speed ahead" approach is working for me. I know I can't dwell over how the past 6 months have been,  PRs in sight (again) only to vanish between illness and injury.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE NO MORE INJURIES OR ILLNESSES THAT IMPEDES MY PROGRESS!

• I will rebuild.
• I will meet my goals.
• I will see some PRs. 
• I will persevere.

Unfinished business / randomness...

About a month ago The Black Knight had a random drawing for a Race for the Cure t-shirt from Italy.  Lo and behold, I won!

Front

Back

This T shirt is incredibly soft and I've been wearing it as a night shirt. I kept meaning to get a photo* of it ever since it arrived. Grazie molto, Cavaliere Nero!!

We received my daughter's graduation photos, finally!

Renee Alexandra Morton - June 3, 2010 - Associates of Arts - Dance, Certificates in Dance and Education **

Our senior citizen kitty, Cruiser, has to be about 18 years old, which makes him something like a hundred years old by cat standards.  He's slow.  He can't jump fences or stalk birds outside, but his head is all there, still seeks attention, and can meow louder than any other cat I've known.  He's a little scruffy looking due to his advanced age, but I captured a photo this morning that makes him look like the kitten he once was:

"Meeeeeoooooow! " translates to "Let me in!"

In World Cup Soccer today, Brazil shut out Chile, 3 to 0. Since the USA is out, I'm now completely behind Brazil, but I am out-numbered since 4 of the 5 people living in my house are part Brazilian.  Do I have a choice?  Yes, I suppose I could be a rebel and root for Germany or Spain since I have descendants from both of those countries, but it wouldn't be pretty. I'll root for Brazil and keep the peace.

Photo - Soccerfanhouse.com /Associated Press

Thursday's Song:
That's Not Me - The Beach Boys

PEACE

*Photo credit to my almost 7 year old grandson, Evan.
** How often do you use your kid's full name?

Sounds Like Life To Me

Randomness

Like many of us, I spent the past 16(?) days catching up on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, cheering for our country participating in sports I know little about. I am familiar with downhill skiing, cross country skiing and ice skating, only because I've had lessons in each of those activities, but I'm far, far, FAR from being a pro and have never competed, but I can confidently say that I can get myself from point a to point b. I know nothing about hockey, but I can get the gist of the game, and I found myself cheering and yelling at the TV a few times. Same thing with snow boarding, speed skating and bob sledding. I'm sure I would have been yelling at the curling event, too, but it wasn't on when I watched. Oh, and what about some of those guys (and women) in their super suits? You really have to have quite the physique to pull off one of those super fitted race suits. Now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are over, I'll have to find something else since American Idol is a yawner this season. At least I still have Project Runway.

I actually got out and ran with the track club on Saturday. We ran at one of my favorite locations, starting at Tidelands Park in Coronado, along the Silver Strand to fit in the time or mileage and back. A lot of people don't care too much for the Silver Strand, but I like it. I can find my groove there and just go with it. It figures that rain was in the forecast for our run. It seems it has rained three out of the four Saturdays in February, and that one non rainy Saturday I was sick. In spite of the rain there was a decent attendance of track club members. My mileage for this 2 hour out and back run was exactly as it was when I did it last year, but it was raining and very windy at some points this time, plus I was just coming back from being sick... I guess I should give myself some slack for that, but I was a little bummed with my time. It was good to be back running with the track club, though. I was able to catch up with my friends who did show up. I'm glad I had the foresight to bring a change of clothes because I was DRENCHED. My clothes and shoes were sopping wet and heavy. It felt good to change into dry clothes and shoes, even if it were just for the ride home.

I'm signed up for the Carlsbad 5000 on April 11 with Rehab United as a team - which should be fun. I missed the boat on the La Jolla Half Marathon, which said "FULL" when I tried to sign up yesterday. Am I bummed? No. Running in the LJHM was sort of an after thought to running the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January, and I was thinking about going for the triple crown (Carlsbad, La Jolla, AFC), but it wasn't a priority, getting healthy was the focus. Now I might have to rethink AFC and if I really want to do that one in the heat of August. There ARE other half marathons to consider.

Check out another running skirt give away at Endurance Isn't Only Physical.

I was in the mood for baking on Sunday, so I made a Red Velvet cake. I've been having issues with Red Velvet Cake I've had at restaurants. They aren't good. Either the cake tastes weird or the frosting is cream cheese frosting, which (in my mind) is all wrong. That's not how grandma used to make it. I scoured the internet for recipes and found this one that comes close to grandma's cake:

THE RECIPE FOR RED VELVET CAKE

The recipe for the frosting follows it. By the way, this frosting recipe contains enough butter to make Paula Deen squeal with delight.

Parenting (or in our case, Grand-parenting) rule #6.8 in the rule book:
"Never leave out any markers, pens, stamps, paint, and/or other media that a 6 year old can run a muck with."

What you're looking at is my dresser stamped with my husband's state license stamp. I guess the kiddo had a good time at it. No, he didn't get in trouble. It was his Papa's fault for leaving the stamp out, but the kiddo was made aware that this wasn't a nice thing to do, even though we thought it was funny.

Wednesday's Song:
Who Will Buy? - Barbara Streisand, London Theater Orchestra & Cast, Aaron Neville, etc...

PEACE

Photo by fleeglebingodroopersnork on Photobucket.com

Welcome Back

I ran 9.74 miles on Sunday. It was a "time on your feet run: for a time of 1:45. It felt good to be back at it, even though I was caught in the rain for 5 minutes around mile 7. I had Lucy set to show stopwatch time and chime/show mile laps, so I had no idea that I needed only .26 of a mile to make an even 10.

I think it's now safe to say I'm over what ever creepy crud infection I had. It feels good to feel good again.

Look!

You guys have no idea how long I've tried to get an orchid plant to produce blooms a second time. This is kind of a big deal for me. This big deal orchid bloom is actually about an an inch, maybe an inch and a half in size. Now that I've managed to get one orchid plant to grow*, perhaps it's time I get back on the gardening bandwagon and rototill the backyard. It's a jungle back there. It looks like we've abandoned the entire backyard.

Check out another running skirt giveaway over at Endurance Isn't Only Physical. Oh, and check out her cool blog, too.

Yesterday's Song;
I'm The Map! - from Dora The Explorer - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

*...and have rehabbed enough to squat down and get back up again without needing help...

Blue Orchid

Randomness

This being sick thing is so last week. I'm not one for daytime TV soaps since the plots are recycled over and over and over again. The soaps are EXACTLY the same as when my mom watched them 25 years ago - Victor Newman is still on The Young and the Restless - I checked. Blogger Jill pointed out that there's only so many times you can watch H&G TV before you feel like your house is a total dump, but she said it with more verve. I worked out on Monday, and it was difficult, even though the exercises presented to me weren't that hard. Coughing between sets of any exercise adds to the caloric burn, I suppose. I'm not working out or running for the rest of the week. I might go for a walk, though. I'm coughing less, but the fatigue can be overwhelming. There's almost no more head pressure, but the lung is still whistling. I create my own music just by breathing. I have asthma and never wheeze like this. I was finally able to read a book without falling asleep after the first paragraph, so that's progress.

I had jury duty on Tuesday. I showed up with big bag of Sugar Free Hall's Cough Drops and a book. This was the very first time I didn't have to go through the jury selection process. My name was never called, thank goodness. I'm sure they would have excused me anyway, with my "mentholyptus" scented breath and chronic cough. I really didn't cough that much, and probably just as much as anyone else there. By the way, the book I read while waiting in the Juror's Lounge was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

The sun came out yesterday. I put on my Uggs and a light jacket over my PJs and sat on the back porch to read a book. All of my critters (three cats and one dog) sat out with me, and no wars broke out.

I'm craving carbs, and not the good for you ones, either. I'm craving Stacy's Pita Chips, toast, bagels, chocolate chip cookies, Cocoa Puffs, pretzles, Pub Mix, and so on.

Check out a Runningskirt.com giveaway at blog: Endurance Is Only Physical.

Check out a Champion giveaway at blog: Shut Up and Run.

Blogger Laura gave me a "Sunshine Award." Thanks, Laura. Everyone needs sunshine in their day, and this made mine sunny. I'm supposed to bestow this award to 12 others bloggers. I think I'll save it for another blog post next week, since I need to find 12 bloggers who Laura didn't already mention. :)

A few weeks ago, blogger Julie (Juls - Keeping Pace) wrote about her orchid plant, how it's nice and green but it hasn't bloomed in a year. I responded that I have orchid plants with nice and glossy leaves but no blooms, and that I actually stuck fake orchid flowers in one of the plants just so I could pretend it grew. I have 4 orchid plants with beautiful leaves but no blooms, not since their first blooms or buds when I bought them years ago. Julie's blog post got me to get up and take a good look at my orchid plants. I went and took a peek. This is what I saw:

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -- John Lennon

I never notice the buds before. I did a happy dance because this is the FIRST TIME, ever, that an orchid plant I own produced buds a second time. I did nothing special to get this plant to produce buds -- no fertilizers or special filtered water. Other than a little water once a week, I did nothing. If it matters, my orchids sit in a west-facing window in my kitchen. The funny thing is that I was resigned to putting more fake orchid flowers in with the live plants. I guess I should have more faith in my plants and in what ever green thumb I may have.

Yesterday's Song:
Steep - Phish

PEACE

Penny For Your Thoughts

...It's more like my two cents

Miscellaneous blab:

Summer has finally arrived in Southern California and we're all complaining how hot it is! I know we're rather spoiled here, but guess what? It is hot! When it gets into the 90s on the coast, which is usually the coolest place to be, it's in the 100s everywhere else. I sought refuge in the air conditioned gym to do my "track" workout*.

Brief gym rant:
To the woman next to me on the treadmill at the gym: Get off your damn cell phone! Even with an iPod plugged into my ears and Nickleback's "Burn It To The Ground" is blasting away, I can still hear your conversation! ("But I love you more... but I love you even more... but I love you more than that"...) PS: Ease up on dousing your entire body in vanilla scented cologne. I wanted to pass out. After my 10 minute warm up on the treadmill next to vanilla cell phone diva, I switched to another treadmill.

I would like to see more run events with chipped timing. After the 4 mile Fire Run on Sunday, I turned off my GPS after I made it out of the finishing corrals, giving me extra time and distance, and it came out to about a 9:02 minute mile. Technically, I finished under a 9 minute mile, probably about an 8:55 minute mile. When the results were first posted I was given a 9:06 minute mile. I just rechecked my results and I now have a 9:07 minute mile finishing at 36:25. I know it's a few seconds, but when you're looking for PR's and improvements every second counts. I think I've blogged about this before, but with so many more people running, the margin for error in manual time recording goes up. Can someone explain to me how much more complicated is it to come into the here and now and have all races chipped? If it's expense, I'd love to be given the option to have a timing chip and pay a few extra bucks for it.

I have an appointment with radiology and my endocrinologist scheduled for next month. These appointments include a DEXA scan (bone density testing) and a mammogram. I'm not quite sure if the endocrinologist is going to order more follow up tests, as he did last year. Good times ahead...

Popsicles, lemonade, and Propel are being inhaled at an alarming rate my house as I type...

Cupcakes. I need to hit up a bakery. There's no way I'm baking anything right now. I just want one and I'll be fine. It just takes one to get the craving out of my sytem.

Photo from Women's Day

My friend Rich, the guy who ran with me at the Fire Run 4 miler, has been seen at my blog before. A few years ago I made him a pirate (Jack Sparrow) costume coat:


My brother will be in town for a few days. I've invited him to run with us and the track club on Saturday morning. It should be interesting. He's one of those uber fast types with a whole lot of energy.

Mel of Tall Mom On The Run is having a giveaway for her 200th blogpost. The swag is a Pearl Izumi running shorts. Go on over and enter and please mention that I (Irene of Magazine Smiles) sent you!

Sunday's song:
Like A Virgin - Madonna - Barbie2be

PEACE

*It was too hot to run outside on an actual track, so I used the virtual track on the computer readout of the treadmill instead.