Feelin' Alright

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

Anywhere

Thursday's Song:
Funny The Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band

PEACE

Morning View

Sunday's Song:
4th of July - X

PEACE

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?

Through My Eyes

Saturday's Song:
Don't Stop Believing - Journey - Planet Ynnep Running

PEACE

Don't Stop Believing

 Guard(en) dog

It has been kind of a long and busy week.  I even missed Wordless Wednesday.  I would have posted the above picture. I'll try to catch up as best as possible without putting you all to sleep.

Tuesday
Went into orthopedics for X rays and chat with a PA. The PA seemed to think my bone was calloused over enough and I could resume normal activity, with reason. She suggested building up to running again, giving myself 3 weeks to do so. The boot got the boot and they don't want to see me any more! 9 weeks is how long it took for the bone to heal enough. It's still healing, but now I can move around without that boot again.

Wednesday
I went in to my usual RU session. I had sent Bryan my very last set of x-rays, and he knew I was good to go. First thing he gives me a big hug because I've been given the OK to resume "normal" life, but then it's business as usual, and I was back to a really good and sweaty workout. He also had me work out longer than normal. My time slot is usually an hour, but I put in about 2 hours, plus I had my foot and shin worked on due to shin splints from the 6 mile walk last Saturday, then ice. The the foot massage still isn't a fun experience, but having the shin worked on was extra special. I really had to dig super deep to find my happy place. He said it would feel better later, but in the mean time he told the PT next to him to hide all sharp objects from me, because I might hurt him after that therapeutic massage. Oww.  All joking aside, I no longer had any foot discomfort what-so-ever because my shin hurt so much after that.

After fun and games at RU, I actually set foot in Costco. I was very aware of foot placement in conjunction to other people's carts. I wouldn't use the term "paranoid." I was just more mindful. It figures that in the time I've been out, they've rearranged where they put some of their items. I couldn't find the only dog treats my dog will eat, but I did discover chocolate Cheerios and big bags of precooked frozen brown rice.

Once I got out of Costco I soon discovered two phone messages from my grandson's school. He's sick and his mommy isn't available, and it's up to me to rescue him. Poor kid. He was pretty miserable with his "throat on fire," but didn't have a fever. The fever kicked in later, though. Mommy took him to the doctor but there's still no infection, it's just a bad cold/flu.

Thursday
I stayed at home with the kiddo. He's feeling good one minute, lousy the next. He camped out on the sofa with a big blanket, some herbal tea and toast while I sat next to him and hemmed my jeans, the ones I bought at AKA Alice's party a over month ago. I actually had some place to wear my new jeans!

Thursday evening Hubs and I went to a MS fundraiser sponsored by RU. It was held at the Double Deuce downtown, only $20 per person, which included 2 drinks, substantial appetizers and a raffle ticket. The Double Deuce is sort of a Western-ish bar/night club, complete with electrical bull riding and a stripper pole. The stripper pole was in the same area as the appetizers and I made the mistake of leaning on it, to which Hubs immediately made some snarky comment. Sheesh. I was able to catch up with a lot of people who ran the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and Half Marathon in December '09. People paid to see the PT's ride the bull, with all the proceeds going to the MS Society. I also got to see my PT, Bryan, ride the bull, which was pretty funny, since he was wearing a few pairs of underwear and a pink women's tank top.

He really needs to come out of his shell...

Not just the guys did this.  Jessica, a PT, was amongst several of the women who rode!

Friday
The kiddo is still sick at home. He spent the morning sleeping. I took that time to garden a little, and discovered that some insect got into the roots of my seedlings and killed a whole bunch of them. I did what I could to save the rest and I might have planted a few too early, but with the hopes that they'll do better in the ground.

Friday evening Hubs and I attended a live art exhibit. A friend of ours paints models bodies, methodically and very strategically, then the model lays on a canvas or foam core board to make an imprint. It was quite the event and fascinating to watch.

  It was incredible to watch him work. 

Saturday


I went running with the track club. It started out as a walk/run, with a ratio of 2 minutes of walking to 2 minutes of running. That walk/run thing only lasted for about the first couple of miles. I found it less stressful to actually run, but at a much slower than normal pace. If it were not for the stop lights I probably would have ran the entire way back. I wasn't intending to put in 9.3 miles, but I felt good and just went with it. We also had PERFECT running weather, which was cool and overcast. It felt chilly afterward, while we were sitting on the grass listening to our guest speaker. Even though the speaker was fun to listen to, I was chilled and decided to warm up in the car. My foot feels OK, just a little weirdness in the ankle, but my knees are telling me that there's a storm on the way, but that has been an ongoing issue due to arthritis. I don't feel thrashed or as if I had never run before. 9 weeks is a good chunk of time off from running, and I feared not being able to handle more than the 6 miles I walked last week. I could of handled 13.1 slow miles today.

Hubs brought his camera on today's run:

 Mik and AKA Alice

"C group, GO!"

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy ones:

• Getting in what ever running I can get in, within reason, of course.
• Making sure my garden survives.  Some of my seedlings in K Cups were eaten at the roots. Stupid bugs.
• My sister and husband will be in town for a week.
• My in-laws are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
• My daughter is graduating from community college with two degrees.
• My nephew will be in and out of town (a few times).
• The pasta dinner with the SDTC is the Friday before the marathon, and it's going to be a full house.  
• The 2010 San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and Half Marathon is in just two weeks.
• My birthday. Edit -- It's not until June
• Life.
• And laundry...  It goes on, and on, and on, and on...

Monday's Song:
Feelin' Alright - Joe Cocker


PEACE

In Bloom

Yesterday's Song:
Life is Beautiful - Vega4

PEACE

Bauhinia Tree

It Amazes Me

Yesterday's Song:
The World Ain't Slowin' Down -Ellis Paul

PEACE

Photo credit - Erik, my son

Early in the Morning

Saturday's Song:
Spring - Tracey Chapman

PEACE

Who Will Buy?

Yesterdays Song:
Welcome Back - John Sebastian

PEACE

Jagged

Sunday's Song:
So Says My Heart - Lattimore Brown

PEACE

Steep

Sunday's Song:
Sick Bubblegum - Rob Zombie

PEACE

Pretty Persuasion

Saturday's Song:
Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Pocketful of Sunshine

I ran with the track club today. Yeah, I ran. 5.54 miles. I wasn't planning to run, but when I met with the cool ocean air, and a gorgeous sunny morning, breathing was less labored. I took it easy, though, and even stopped at the water station, and I usually never stop. I wouldn't say that I felt spectacular, the run felt good for my soul, but I was also running with the track club, and I was in good company.

It was high tide as we ran up the coast, and a few of the waves even splashed on the asphalt. I didn't quite get the waves splashing on the asphalt, but the tide was coming in, RIGHT THERE, just inches away.


I'm always awestruck, no matter how many times I'm at the beach. Every time is picture worthy. My timing was off and didn't quite get the ginormous wave shot because, well, I was also trying to run.

I also saw AKA Alice and the herd. AKA Alice was running as if she was on a mission! The girl was bookin' it up hill! I'd say she's back!

It felt terrific to be out, running again. I hope it feels as good working out on Monday.

Yesterday's Song:
It's a Heartache - Bonnie Tyler - Run-DMZ

PEACE

The Stairs

Friday's Song:
Ridiculous Thoughts - The Cranberries

PEACE

Street of Dreams

Wordless Wednesday




Yesterday's song:
Travels - Pat Metheny Group

PEACE

Travels

Michael and I on top of the roof of Sam's childhood home in Guanajuato, Mexico.

We're baaaaaaak!

There are so many stories about the places we've been to, people we've met, things we've seen. I'll post some highlight pictures in another blog post. I was planning this great photo collage for my first post of the new year, but most of my favorite pictures aren't with me at the moment.

I'm thinking I need to follow Anne's lead and initiate a "Wordless Wednesday." I took so many pictures that I ran out of space on my media card, and had to download the pictures to Michael's laptop. Yeah, he took the laptop on our trip so he could do some work. *grumble* Next time I'm bringing extra media cards.

In just under 10 days we visited so many places - I counted about 10 cities/villages/sites, but I know there's more. Sam kept saying we were living like gypsies because we were always on the go. I think there was only one down day in Queretaro to do laundry, check e-mails and rest. I came home inspired and with an entirely new perspective of Mexico. I was awestruck. I have TONS of pictures, but for some reason the media stick Michael transferred the photos to (from his laptop) isn't cooperating.* I have to wait until he brings his laptop home from work, just so I can download some pics here. I have some great shots.

We had some of the best food from the street vendors and in farmer's markets, not to mention super cheap. We were stuffed full, beverage included for about the equivalent of two or three American dollars. Everything was super fresh and made to order, right in front of us. We were constantly on the go, so we mostly had only two large meals per day, and perhaps a light snack at night. We were so busy that I was able to maintain my weight.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I'll catch up to you all, soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009's song :
It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Andy Williams, etc...

PEACE

*Discovered that he copied the photos to the stick as "read only." DOH!

Mixed Emotions

Last week we had some rather toasty start-of-Fall weather here. It was in the 90s in my neighborhood on a few days, which is normally 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the county. My inland friends baked with temperatures in the 100s. We usually feel no need for an air conditioner. We just gather every fan we own and turn them all on and say we're buying an air conditioner NEXT year. Logan and Cruiser are usually never seen in the same room together, let alone just inches away. Barking and hissing are usually involved. Here they are within a couple of inches of each other. I think they might have touched once.

Too hot to care. There's a fan on the floor, by the way.

Saturday morning I ran with Rehab United instead of the San Diego Track Club. I had mixed feeling about this because the SDTC is like the boyfriend, and I was cheating on him with RU. I have a lot of wonderful friends at the track club and I did miss them on Saturday, but I needed to change my training and work on issues that are specific to me, and RU offers that, along with an intense strength training and running session on Wednesday evenings. One major difference is the number of people. There's probably about 30 people who are training with RU exclusively for the Las Vegas Rock 'N' Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. The SDTC has about 125 half marathon/whatever members training for several events, even if they don't all show up at the same time. I'm also training for the Silver Strand Half Marathon, which is about 2 weeks before Las Vegas. I need more miles than the folks training for the half at this point, but less than the people training for the full. Another difference is the warm-up and stretch, which is combined. The running part is, well, running. The location is different, but it's not like I went to Mars. We ran from the RU location over at Carmel Mountain Road, to Torrey Pines State Beach and back. I didn't take on the entire hill at Torrey Pines, just a little bit of it, which was plenty. I ran mostly with the marathoners who were putting in 14 miles, but turned back at around right before mile 4, just so I could get in at least 7 miles total. The return miles were by myself, but not unnoticed, and I was grateful . Two runners who didn't need to put in the 14 miles came back behind me just to make sure I was OK. One more marked difference is pictures. There aren't any with the RU group. At some point I'm just going to take it upon myself to take pictures. The run on Saturday was breathtaking. It was cool, foggy and we were running along side the beach. It was like being in a dream sequence in a movie. I loved it, however I have no pictures to share of how dream-like it was. Here's a map from my BiM run tracker page. I know, it's not the same thing, but that's where I was:

The stats:

Distance: 7.69 miles
Time: 1:23:21
Speed: 5.5 mph
Pace: 10' 51 /mi
Calories: 736

...and not just one hill.

Wednesday's song:
Deep Inside Of You - Third Eye Blind - Barbie2be

PEACE

No Time

A super-duper cropped sunset /avocado tree photo taken from my back yard, sometimes last week. It's a challenge to shoot between power lines and have the shot look good. The cropping CAN be a good thing.

Until I can get back in on a regular schedule, perhaps in the middle of next week, I won't be blogging much, unless everyone in my house (besides me) decides to be gone all day. I'm babysitting the grand kid this week because his mom began college classes this week and his school begins next Tuesday. This 6 year old boy has so much to say and wants to do everything like play with cars, play in the dirt, ride bikes and bake cookies.

I'm still running.

Thursday's song:
Penny For Your Thoughts - Peter Frampton


PEACE

First I Look At The Purse

A shark's Mermaid's Purse seen at the Sea Life Aquarium next to Legoland. We could actually see the insides pulsating.

Monday's song:
Picture This - Blondie

PEACE