In the Twilight

So go me. I'm now down 16.1 pounds. I think the excessive running, the vitamin D3 and the only having eaten out 3 times since Feb 18 might have something to do with it.

I can't believe the half is next week. In a way I'm glad. I'm getting tired of "having" to run. Of course, I go from the half to training for my tri.

So I've been supposed to be reading a PMP book. Instead, I started reading Twilight. Yes, I'm late to the party. But to be honest I don't go to movies, so I can only tell you the Edward/Jacob debate is something my friends talk about on FB when a movie comes out.

Well, of course it would be Edward. But not that guy in the movie. I started reading and immediately pictured him as Alex Ovechkin (can you tell what I watch on TV, courtesy of D). And Jacob...I've only gotten 2 occurrences of him in the book, but he looks like Mowgli from Disney's version of the Jungle Book. So you can see how I would choose Ovie, I mean Edward.

So this consumed my thoughts running, because I want to get back to the book. Yes, I'm pathetic.

Edward or Jacob? I pick Edward.

No Title

So yesterday, I had 5 miles on tap. I was trying to convince myself to get up and run. Except I felt like I was going to vomit. Maybe replacing a Clif Bar with Pop Tarts wasn't the best idea. Enough excuses! Off to gym.

I walked the .3 miles. Then I started running. Immediately, I thought I would puke. So I lowered the mphs. 3 minutes later, I tried again. I was going to faint. Back to lowering the mphs. Intense sweat dripping in my eyes. Walking at 3mph, I tried to figure out what to do. OK, I'll walk 2 miles. At 2 miles, I decided to walk another. I tried running at 4mph. I lasted 5 minutes. Back to 3mph. With 28 minutes left, I tried some more. I got 4 mph for 5 minutes and upped to 4.2 and 4.3. Finally I was finished. I was tired, sweaty and cold. A quick run to the store to get D some soda, and some green beans, and home I came.

I took a 3 hour nap. D asked me about dinner. I thought I would hurl. I took a Benadryl and slept 12 hours.

This morning I woke up feeling a lot better. Clif Bar and off to the gym for 3 miles. I did my start at 4.5mph and increase every 5 minutes. I got through 4.9mph and was very tired. I did another minute on 4.9 and took it down to 4.5 and 4.6 the rest of the time. Not what I wanted but oh well. My legs felt like they were going to give out if I kept going at 4.9mph.

So this week's Aldi's savings was $13.85. 4 weeks is $28.50. I think it was because I had to buy 4 pounds of ground beef. 90-10 is $2.99/lb whereas Kroger is $4.19/lb.

12 miles -- DONE!!!

So 12 miles was on tap for this weekend. Friday, in preparation, I made Oreo Balls. Actually I made them for C's birthday present (C is A's daughter). She was having a Fancy Nancy Party. I still don't know what that means, but whatever.

D got home and made us ravioli. We were carbing up.

Saturday morning we got up and took the dogs to daycare. Scuttlebutt needed to be tested to get in. G already was. Then across the top of 285 to the Silver Comet.

It was about 45 degrees and D and I were in shorts and short sleeves. We were cold. I redid my shoe (I wore the new ones) because something was in the shoe. Bathroom break and we were off.

I decided I was running 9 minutes walk 1 minute. This proved to be good. At mile 2 I saw my friend John running in the opposite direction running with his tri group. I didn't really like this path because it went down on the sides. When I run on the road, I run opposite traffic because it seems to help my legs. I couldn't do that here. At mile 4, I was thinking I could run a marathon with no issue. My legs felt strong. At mile 5 I saw D who was on his return trip (out and back run). Between Mile 5 and 6, I decided the Garmin broke. I couldn't get to mile 6. My God! 5.39, 5.44, 5.51 etc. Finally I hit 6 and turned around. Mile 7 seemed good and I got to Mile 8 around 1:57:00 which was 6 minutes faster than last time. Mile 8 and 9, I could feel myself getting slower. Still 9/1. I hit 10.5 miles and decided I wanted to stop. Instead I went to a 4/1. I was getting irritated with all the stroller moms who would just stop in the middle of the path (this was where I biked last year) and with the bikers who would ride as close to the right to when they passed me on the left (I was running right on the edge and actually felt 2 bikers). Finally I hit 12. I saw D (who had been waiting for me for over an hour). He "ran" to the car and got me a Gatorade, as I slowly walked to the car.



Looking at Garmin, I think I will do the 9/1 for the HM. My times were better. I think I get a block during my last 2 miles as well.

Afterward, we went to D's work and got a Boston Butt for chili today (not worthy of linking to the recipe). We got home, and got ready for C's birthday. A had gone all out on the food (Baked Brie was devine), and A's husband had a good selection of beer of which I chose Terrapin Rye.

We left around 5 and went to get the pups. SB PASSED! I had been worried, because when he plays he shows teeth. I had reminded the daycare we were Porter's parents (everyone loved Po), so maybe that gave him extra points. But anyway, he can now be boarded for our trip to Louisville! To celebrate we took the pups for ice cream.

Half-Marathon Shoe Question (actually 12 miler question)

OK, so I woke up this morning, and lost 1.7 pounds. Woohoo! 13+ pounds lost. D has lost 40 pounds. Woohoo for him too. To be honest, I can tell he lost weight, but I never noticed he had gained it. Does that make sense? I can't really tell I lost weight. But it probably has something to do with the fact I wear a t-shirt and sweat pants every day. I don't really have any reason to wear form fitting clothes at the moment. D says my legs are thinner.

Anyway, I went and ran my 5 miles. Not very exciting. It rained and washed away the pollen so of course today the pollen is bothering me.

So I have a question. I have now worn my shoes for 10 miles...8 running, 2 walking.
I have a 12 mile run on Saturday. Should I wear my new shoes or my old shoes? I can't decide.

Brain Dump

So yesterday was a 5 miler. Because I didn't want to deal with people of the hood, I went to the gym. My treadmill was taken (an end TM) and the other end is a different kind and only allows 60 minutes max. So I don't use that TM on a 5 miler. So 3 people were on the 90 minute treadmills, and they weren't spaced correctly. It was going to be like going to the urinal (according to D), and I would have to be next to someone. Not really paying attention, I chose a TM that didn't have an emergency stop. Well, dummy me doesn't know how to stop the TM any other way. So during my .3 mile warmup I'm trying to figure this out. There is not stop anywhere else on the TM. There is a pause, so that's how I stopped. I'm smart like that. At that point, the lady on the end was done, so I got off my TM and got on the end one.

The run was good. I ran 10 minutes, walked 1 minute for 56 minutes. Then ran the rest. Drank a lot of Gatorade, but it was a 69 minute run, which is back to what I had been running before a few weeks ago when I started bitching about my time.

I came home. Applied for a job. It said, "PLC Exp a plus." I applied. The recruiter emailed me asking, "Do you have PLC experience?" I explained I did and how I did, how much I did, and everything else. He writes back, "The company wants 5+ years." (which I don't have). Now, if the company wanted 5 years, then why doesn't the want ad say they want 5 years.

D came home and did some laundry and realized the washing machine was broken. I think I cried about our washing machine until 4AM. I mean, really when is it going to end.

This morning, I wrote recruiter back thanking him for his time. Then I laced up my new shoes. I put them on my feet. They pretty much felt like my other shoes (they are the same model/color...New Balance 1123). I wasn't all that enamored. I think it is because D had about 700 miles on his shoes when he got new ones and was all, "ahhh." I had 410 miles on mine. Anyway, back to the gym. Fastest 3 miles ever. 37:30. And I know where I can get faster.

The right shoes (ontop of my Snuggie)

The left shoes (notice my wear on the one shoe...the big white spot on the almost verticle white line). This is always the foot that hurts.

Afterward, I went to Lowe's and bought lightbulbs. I told D I was buying a washing machine, but when I looked at them I got overwhelmed. Who buys a Washing machine for $1500? And I hate the dryer because it is front-loading so why would I get a front-loading washer. On top of all this, I didn't know what size our machine was, so I went home. I changed 2 lightbulbs in the garage/basement, and then got needlenose plyers and took an old lightbulb stem out of the outlet (the bulb had broken off like the first month we moved in 3+ years ago). I was careful not to touch my hands on any metal while doing this (because no I didn't turn off the breaker). Then I looked at the garage door opener on D's side, because it hasn't worked for about a month or 2. One wire was out. Put that back in, and got my remote. It worked (his door didn't work with either remote). Hooray. D no longer has to open the garage, pull the car out, go back in, close the garage and go out the door.

I came inside and Scuttlebutt had been sick all over his crate. Poor boy. The pollen is getting to him (A bad pollen count is about 100. Atlanta's today was 5900! Everything is green). I just looked at his crate pad wondering how to wash it without a washing machine. At about 2pm, I decided to just wash it and let it air dry (the wm doesn't spin). Well the washing machine spun if you turn the dial past the spin notch. Who knows, but it works and I can save some money for now.

D came home. His remote didn't work. I took it apart. Aha! Battery. I went and bought a new one and now it works. So garage work... success!

Oh and Aldi savings this week was $7.40. So I've save $14.70 now!

What Happened to My Normal Running Buddies, like the Terrorist Dogs or the Man on the Bike with the Bolt Cutters?

Well, the 2nd April Run was not much better than the first.

It started Saturday. 1 or 7 too many beers on Friday night prevented me from getting up on Saturday to go for a run. On top of it, the temperature was 80+ degrees. Excuse me, where is spring...65-70 degrees? I hate being hot so 80+ degrees is nasty.

So around 2pm I got my ass at out of bed, and watched Intervention. I can safely say, I'm not a heroin addict, nor do I have OCD.

So I made chili, because isn't that what you make when it is 80+ degrees out? D called and we discussed whether we should get more beer for the evening...yes. So he came home, and we had chili and beer and watched Burn After Reading. It was a good movie. Much better than the new GC movie...Up in the Air (hated it). You should really make the chili.

So today we got up. And went and had bagels. Then watched ice hockey.

At 1:30 I decided to go on my 7 mile run. Outside. It was 79 degrees. I drank some water, found my hand-held water bottle, and was off. I was running slowly. I was thirsty at .25 miles. My water was already warm. This run was going to be stellar I could tell.

I was in the subdivision and there isn't a lot of shade. I saw my neighbor, and waved. I did his street's hill 3 times, and went to the front of the sd. But I wasn't in the mood to do his street's hill 3 more times, so I just ran back up past my house, and out to the prison.

German Shepherd's street had some shade so I turned there. It was about 2 miles in. My legs were like lead. I was thirsty. I started thinking about my friends and GA Snail who ran 50K yesterday. I thought they were nuts. I thought I was pathetic considering how I couldn't run 2 miles. My left eye was burning (pollen under the contact) and my lungs were sucking. I was drinking my hot water.

Terrorist dogs weren't out. ATT Street had lots of people on it, enough to make me uncomfortable so I didn't run it. I didn't feel like doing Friday hill either. I ran down the church street, and ran up to the school, and did a loop back to the church street. There was a family inspecting some trash from someone's eviction that I passed. I recognized them from the neighborhood (this was where the kids were jousting earlier last week). I got to the school, and a black truck with no license plate passed me. I noticed he stopped but not at the stop sign. So I turned around. And he backed up. Not wanting to be on a street that I wasn't sure if people were out, I turned back to where the trash pickers were. I proceeded to run up and down that street for .75 miles while the truck followed me. Of all the times to forget my phone!!! The trash pickers noticed the truck too (the diesel fumes were helping me breathe as well). By now, I was just done. The truck finally turned out of the neighborhood away from the subdivision, so I ran home. I hit my driveway at 4.6 miles and ran the driveway until I got to 5 miles. I cut the run short by 2 miles. More because I was freaked then not wanting to run.

God, I hate people.

March Totals

OK, so I ran 77.93 miles in the month of March. This was 5 more than February. And with a week I took off.

Weight... according to an "unofficial" weigh-in on March 1, I was 8 more pounds than I was today. Why was it unofficial? Because March 1 wasn't on a Thursday. Otherwise, all my weigh-ins are the same.

I'll take that. So I don't know if it was the Vitamin D3 I started taking or running 20+miles a week that caused the loss. I'm thinking it was they VD3. Only because calorie wise, it isn't that off what my tri training was. Of course I'm eating less than I did during tri training. So who knows.

So today's loss was .5. I weighed and got back in bed and watched Frasier (I got a clif bar and some water too). I tried to convince myself to run 5 miles. 30 minutes later a new Frasier was on. I really didn't want to go to the gym. Somehow I convinced myself that running outside would be faster. Another 15 minutes and out I went.

The run was boring. The trashmen were the only people out. It was hot (72). I didn't want to be there. I finished the subdivision hills and started in the hood, but decided I didn't want to run a hill (Hellatious Hill). So I ran along the prison boundary for awhile. Then through the hood missing all side streets (so no Terrorist Dogs or crazy man on ATT St). I ran by German Shepherd's house twice. I got to the bottom of the last hill before my house at 4.62 miles. Ugh! So down the first hill and once around, and finally I hit 5. Slowest I've ever run 5 miles. My legs were exhausted and I was hot. So I came in and watched Las Vegas. Quality TV, right there.

Hopefully, the first run of the month is not a predictor of the rest of the month. Next up is Satuday 7 miler (a "taper" run).