M+B=E2O2

Potpourri

Now that I am looking back at the photos I put here to help me remember what I wanted to share, I realize just how long it has been since I last blogged! It is pretty random, so I will apologize for that now! So first I will go though and comment on the photos, then see what else I can say to get everyone all up to date on my version of reality.

I made my first brined turkey for Thanksgiving.

!

Every year I make both cranberry sauce & cranberry relish. The relish is the family favorite- so yummy!

I made a batch of pierogies. This is the heart clogging goodness that those bits of heaven get smothered in.

 

I managed to keep my training going on cold foggy mornings. Actually, I kinda like running in the fog, though I had to laugh at the dogs, my lab would see a post or bush emerge from the fog and his fur would rise and he would prepare mentally to either protect me or pretend to be tough enough to do so, until he'd realize it was a post or a bush and pee on it.

 

We were lucky enough to have good friends stay the night with us the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Our boys have hot sauce eating contests every time they get together. This is the aftermath.

Love me some friend time. 5 hours away is just too far.

My pretty turkeys. (The brined one is in the front)

My handsome husband.

Getting the group shot on Thanksgiving. Thankfully he was able to hold the wall up at the same time.

I have the bestest running mates. They are very unimpressed with the continually grumpy Mr. Cranky Pants and with the boorishly lame couple that begrudgingly says hello. (Well, he has yet to, and she is not happy about it but does so anyway).

Sunrise on my long run.

Beach people are funny. Funny weird, not funny haha.

Love seeing all the holiday decorations going up.

 

Mr. O had some fun editing photos.

I have discovered the joys of ice baths. This was my first, and far too cold. After a bit more reading up on it, I switched to a full tub, cold water bath,with a small bucket of ice added once water was filled enough to cover my legs. Brrrr.

I love the kids feet during piano. Everywhere but where they should be.

The kids made felt Christmas trees for our December nursing home visit. Unfortunately, I was begining to get sick so I could not go inside with them. They went in with friends though and gave them out, sang some songs and played the piano.

I thought I was getting a bit of a head cold, no big deal...

Then Thursday rolled around and I was feeling a bit worse. I was pretty sure Pasole would help, so using my best Jedi mind control I managed to get my mother-in-law to invite me over to learn how to make it. :-) It was very yummy, very easy and did make me feel better. Unfortunately I didn't get any better. As a matter of fact, I got worse. Friday I lost my voice completely. I really didn't feel bad, just had no voice and a little bit of a cough. No big deal.

Meanwhile, we had our first real run inthe rain. It was lovely.

Our friend Franklin came over for a visit one night. Reina has a very strange small dog/animal anxiety problem. We have to keep her on leash and we have even sedated her to help calm her. This is something we are working on. She did pretty good on this occasion, crying a bit if Franky moved about too much, but all in all it was a good visit. :-)

This was from earlier in the day, its hard to really tell, but the surf was huge. The tide was just right for me to get some running in on the sand. This was my last long run before my half. 10 miles & my longest continuous run to date. I felt great (aside from the no voice, head cold, sorta coughing thing).

Started my Christmas cookie baking.

Is anyone else confused by this??

The best early Christmas gift ever! My husband is the best!!!

Playing with my new camera with all my balloon animal friends.

The Big Day!

What a great race! I started in the back of the group. I should mention here that I was on my 4th day of antibiotics. Ben had decided I had bronchitis. I was feeling significantly better and had made all sorts of promises to all sorts of people aboout taking it easy on the race, stopping if I had to. As it turned out, I hardly coughed at all and I felt really good throughout. I did have to stop at mile 7 to pee, that was my worst time split. I managed to pace myself at a very consistant 11:01 min/mile pace. I even caught up to and passed the 2:30 pace group. Honestly, when I started training, my goal was to start (and finish) with this group, but when I ended up with bronchitis I just hoped to come in under or around the 3 hour mark. My finish time was 2:24:15. I didn't negative split the first & second half, but I blame that on my mile 7 pee break- I had a slight headache before the race and realized I was under hydrated so I made up for it by drinking lots of water before the start. oops. That said, the first half was 1:11:46, the 2nd 1:12:29. I was 88th out of 132 in my age group and I was 995 out 1473 overall. Yay for being in the top 1000! LOL!

Now, let me tell you about the awesomeness of this race. The organizers did a superb job making sure that we had support thoughout. There were commuity/neighborhood cheering stations, plenty of water stations, bands, and then there were the runners. Costumes were fantastic, fun and festive. The people were friendly and happy to be there. I talked to a number of friendly folks along the way, gave lots of kids high fives and thanked just about every police officer and volunteer that kept traffic at bay and made sure we were safe. Oxnard PD was fantastic. If ever you want to run or walk in a well organized, local event, this is for you! It was amazing. I will be there again next year! I am already thinking about my costume :-) Pancake tutu? I think so! I know a fantastic designer that I plan on brainstorming with this summer. If I am not gonna win the race I am all for winning the costume contest!

Ben and Evan ran the 5K. (Evan had already left by the time I finished). They both did great and had fun. Ben was 2nd in his age group and 15th overall. Yay Ben!

Just a few days before the race I had stopped by one of 3 local coffee shops that I frequent (depends on what end of the county I am in when I am in desperate need of coffee, but I have found 3 locally owned, independant, shops that have great coffee, great service and make me feel good about supporting local business). Latte 101 is one of the 3 and as it happens they have peanut butter syrup. If you have never had a peanut butter latte, I suggest you go out and get one. Now. They are that good. But then again, I am a peanut butter freak. I mentioned that I was doing the Santa to the Sea and it turns out they were one of the vendors. The owner (I am making an assumption here, I don't know for sure that he was the owner, but I am prettty sure) said that he would bring the PB syrup just for me! :-) Only a local business would make that kind of effort! Both Ben and I had one and it was awesome).

Now, have I also mentioned to you that the race also happens to fall on Nutcracker weeked? For me this means that the week before the race is production week at the theater. I have the unofficial/official job of taking backstage candid photos. I absoultly love that I have the privledge to do this. I take photos through out Satuday rehersals from October until the production. I think this is my 3rd or 4th year doing it, I'll have to go back and look at my photos and see. It has been so fun seeing the dancers grow and change.

Saturday we go to the show as a family. We have been going to this particular show since Owen was 18 months old. We had no idea that when our girls started ballet, they would be with this production company. To be a part of it from both the front of the house and the back is just awesome.

Sunday (raceday) is the day that I voluteer and hang out backstage. I was a little worried that it would be really hard this year, but let me tell you, the runner's high you hear about is the best! It was 10 times anything I've felt before. I was flying high for at least 4 hours post race. The last hour of Nutcracker was where I was starting to feel tired, but the really amazing thing that happens duing the last hour of Nutcracker on the last day of production, is that all the tension, anxiety and nervousness that the girls have starts to drift away. The smiles get bigger, the laughter backstage increases, the happy energy flows. So as my runner's high diminished, my Nutcracker high increased. Such a perfect pairing. I am already looking forward to next year.

The week after Santa/Nutcracker my two eldest children had belt testing. My big girl earned her 2nd degree yellow belt! She is transitioning from ballet to tae kwon do. I think it is a great fit for her. She still loves ballet, but it has been over a year since she has been able to take a technique class, the schedule just hasn't worked in her favor. She does take a floor-barre class once a week though and loves being involved. TKD will have it's challenges for her, but she is definately up to the task and our school is incredibley supportive, from the instructors to the families. She is having a great time and is very dedicated to trying her very best. She is also quite lucky to have a black belt as a brother! He has been very helpful in working with her.

Speaking of Owen, he also had to test. He is on track to earn his 2nd degree black belt, hopefully in May 2013. The 1st degree black belt students have to take 3-4 "credit" tests in order to qualify to test for their 2nd degree. Owen just earned his 3rd credit. We just watched a video clip of him taking his 2nd degree yellow test, my how he has grown!

Buka and Reina wanted to be festive since we finally started decorating for Christmas. They are not embarassed at all. Really.

The kids little tree :-)

No sooner did I get the tree skirt in place, did Buka make himself at home under the tree.

Owen wanted to try and put our angel on the tree this year.

It was more challening that usual. In the end we had to put her up as a decoration off to the side. We had to buy a smaller angel to work with this tree. This is the first time she has not worked. We have a different type of tree this year, we usually get a noble, this one is something else that starts with an "N", but I can't remember what it is. It looks a lot like a noble, but is a brighter green. The branches are as thick, but a bit softer somehow. The top was just not strong enough to hold our angel. I need to get a picture of our alternate angel.

The kids, ok honestly just the girls, helped make pretzels for our cookie bags. The boys made a few, but were just not really into it this year.

I am really into ginger right now. From Moscow Mules to Kumbatcha to adding it to my morning smoothies, I am loving it. So I really wanted to make a ginger snap type cookie to add to our cookie bags. (The standard for our bags consists of chocolate chip cookies, russian tea cakes and peppermint chocolate dipped pretzles). It took a bit of experimenting, tweaking recipies from the internets, but I did come up with a variation that I quite like and hope to put it into the bag from now on. I even wrote down the recipe so I can make them next year.

My cranberry infused vodka is done!

Because I have not used cranberries enough this season.... I made sugared cranberries a couple nights ago. Sooooooo yummy!!! Today we had them with water crackers and brie. Pretty much amazing.

 

So there you go. Almost all caught up with my crazy life. A few more bits about running, then I'm off to bed. Remember The Nag. Well, MapMyRun pulled a fast one on their users. The voice feedback feature they rolled out in October became a monthly fee feature in November. In the update notes they did not indicate that the paid features would be ones we were already using for free. I felt th price ($6/month or so) was a bit high, but did a 3 month subscription because I was scared to let go of a training tool that was really working for me. In the mean time I dug out my GPS watch and looked into other free or one time only fee apps that did what MMR was doing. One of the things I discovered was that MMR was way off in tracking true distance. Really off. I was not happy! I have found another app that is much more accurate (Runmeter), but I still have another month of MMR so I am alternating using it and taking my actual milage off my GPS watch. (More on all this in a future post).

I have also continued to pass the lovely cranky people off and on and they continue to be lame. I am pretty sure that the cranky couple have their own inside jokes about me- the Crazy Running Lady. I quite literally laughed out loud at them one day. I was near giggling as we approached one another, then I said my cheerful hello, he of course did not give me the slightest look or indicate that he heard me, she scowled and said hello. I couldn't stop myself, I burst into laughter. When we crossed paths again, they both smiled and said hi. So yeah, they must have a joke, but I don't care, I won a round finally- he looked and she smiled. So there.

Of course that was a few weeks ago. This last week when I saw them I happened to be the one feeling a bit cranky. I managed to get myself irritated and worked up about these Not Friendly Morning People long before i saw them, so when I saw them coming I decided I was over being the nice one. I brought up my most lovely post bronchitis cough as they approached (into my elbow of course) and then looked at The Lady with no expression as we passed. She did the same. I was all geared up and ready to scowl openly at them the next pass, except I haven't seen them since. Oh well. I really should go back to being friendly, but after 4 months I guess I'm a little tired of being the one that has to try, then that optimistic person in me wants to play nice, because surely it will make a difference. Then I get cranky and worked up and plot all sorts of diabolical plans about how to Show Them. I'm pretty sure I have issues. And maybe alternate personalities that should have their own names.

Ok, as much as I would like to share more fantastically weird stuff about myself with you all, it has taken me over 3 days to get this all written out and hopefully properly edited to make sense. There are more bits about running that you all must know and I am sure I have many other fascinating stories to share that I just don't have the time to write, however I am going to post this and move on!

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Hitting the Wall & The Ending of One Part of a Journey

I'm pretty sure I have hit the proverbial wall in my training. The run that should feel easy and almost effortless, hurts and drags. Today was an "easy" 5 mile run. I was quite happy to get up and go. I should have known that it was going to be an ugly run the moment that I let the dogs outside and realized that the TWC's version of 56* was much colder than reality. I mean it was supposedly 16* warmer than the last few days, surely I could wear my arm warmers and a tee. Ummm no. It was too cold. As I've mentioned I am somewhat lacking in the Proper Attire For Running in Cooler Temps department. Moreover, I get all my stuff out the night before so that I don't have to search around in the dark for anything. Now I needed a jacket, or something. I finally settled on a fleece pullover. It was ok, but was far from ideal.

 

I was worried about Reina's feet, they still had not really had time to heal. At one point I had bought little booties for her, but I think I must have given them away. I spent a good half hour looking for them last night to no avail. So I improvised. I have these elastic reflective bands for the dogs, but I rarely put them on their ankles. I do have a few looped on to their collars though. So I dug into the lonely sock bin and found two socks and put them on Reina, held in place by reflective bands. Really I should have taken a picture, but it was really embarrassing for her. The first on came off at around mile 1. I had decided to run to the beach today- mostly for Reina's sake as well. I thought being on the sand would be gentler on those tootsies. Once in the sand I ended up taking off the other sock, it was just getting mucky and wet, and probably would do more damage than good. Running on the sand is hard. Especially when the tide is such that the only real choice is to run on the soft sand. After what was surely a mile I pulled out my phone to check how far I had gone. One. Half. Mile. I think I may have cursed at this point. When all else fails and I am not happy, my MO is to look for something to take a picture of. In this case it served a duel purpose in that I got to stop and rest.

 

 

Fortunately one of the dogs pooped, so I had to leave the soft sands and find a trash bin. Then I had to find a bench to sit on and dump the and out of my shoes. I'm pretty sure that is why my 3 mile split was 20 min.

Everything seemed to hurt on this run. We've been playing with various KT Tape applications on my left foot. If ever I feel any discomfort running it is usually on the bottom of my left foot, precisely where the tendon tore two years ago. The most recent variation seems to be good. I can feel the tape, so I am aware of my foot, but I dont really feel any pain. I even remember thinking about that somewhere during mile 2. I was thinking how cool it would be to be completely unaware of both of my feet. I briefly marveled at how unaware in was of my right foot. Reality soon set in. Mile 4 was all about my right foot. And my hips. And my lower back. Oh and the top of my right foot. None of this was at the same time, but it was as though all my parts and pieces wanted to be sure to make themselves known. Eventually I made it home. I think my average pace was around 14 min. It was long & slow and felt horrible. I am pretty sure this is supposed to happen. Every once in a while anyway. I remember the swimming version of it anyway, so the former athlete in me knows that this is now a mental game to get through the physical. I know I can do it & I will. Tomorrow is a 3 mile easy run. I do hope that those 3 miles are as easy as Last Friday's 4.5 hard.

 

On to a totally different topic now. I have been on one heck of a journey for the last 3 years. It was in October of 2009 that I first consulted with my surgeon and subsequently made a life changing decision and embarking on a sometimes painful, often uncomfortable journey. The first part of that journey began Dec 22, 2009. On that day I got my braces on.

(I will insert a photo here, but I have to get to my desktop to get the proper one)

I do have a blog that I started but kept private when I started this whole thing. I will open it up soon and link the handful of posts at some point. This photo is not quite accurate though, I was pulling my lower jaw forward in order to show my bottom teeth. My natural bite was such that my upper teeth covered my lowers.

Anyway, this is where I started. By March of this year my bite looked a bit different.

 

 

Better, but still not done. Major upper & lower jaw surgery on March 21, recover, recover, recover. And now here I am. 8 months post op. Still in recovery mode, but I get to complete one part of the journey.

My last photo before heading in to the office.

 

I actually got my lower braces off 3 weeks ago, but that is not as much fun to show off, plus, those uppers were still there, so I still had braces.

 

When you are a grown up getting your braces off, you get to choose, water bottle filled with candy, red, or white wine. That was an easy choice!

 

I admit I was having some fun taking these pictures so I could tease Ben.

But finally, here I am. And I have to say, I cried. As soon as Maria (the assistaint who has been mine through out this whole process) took them off and sat back and looked at me. Before I had even seen myself, she smiled and told me how good my smile looked, and I cried. I can not even begin to say how good it feels to be at this point. I can breath, my teeth all meet and touch where they are supposed to and it worked. Surgery worked.

 

So despite hitting that wall & feeling every aching muscle from the waist down today. I am so incredibly happy and so very thankful that I am now that much closer to the finish line!

 

 

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Hard Run, Wine, Long Run

I've come to realize that my fears in running have very little to do with distance. There is a brief fear of being cold- this is mostly because most of my running attire consists of warm weather stuff. I'm slowing getting things I need to keep warm, but the fear of being too cold, then getting too hot is definitely there. It was 42* Friday morning. I layered up, but not too much since this run was meant to be a "hard" run, 4.5 miles. I set The Nag to pace me at 10:45. I managed a 10:28 average pace and felt really good through out. The dogs kept up well, but it was tougher on Reina. A few months ago, she could barely walk over 2 miles without being overcome with exhaustion, tongue hanging nearly to the ground, the pads of her feet bleeding from being worn down. Now, 10 lbs lighter, she is running and walking over 15 miles a week (maybe more) and she can last 5 miles, tongue hangs low, but her feet have toughened up. Then I ran her 4.5 miles hard. She did fantastic, but both her back paws had wear spots and tracked little spots of blood all over the house! Poor thing. Good thing Saturday is our official rest day & I only take her 2-3 miles of Sunday's long day.

One other Reina note. She is a rescue, we got her when she was around 3. She has always had severe anxiety around small dogs. I have my theories on that, but I won't get into that now. If a small dog is around her whole being just amps up. Sometimes to the point of shaking all over. I don't think she wants to hurt them, but I don't trust her since she did once kill a sweet, precious chinchilla that she clearly thought was out to get us all. The groomer we take the dogs to loves her to pieces and is very good to her. Usually they have to crate her and cover her crate so she can't see the other dogs, especially the little ones. Buka usually has the run of the joint, wandering about as he pleases. Friday when I came to get them you could have knocked me over with a feather. My Reina was calmly, quietly sitting on the floor, tethered, but not attached to a person. She was sitting there watching a little dog get groomed. No anxiety, definitely very attentive, but so incredibly calm. It was amazing. I never thought I'd see the day! Buka was the one in the crate this time- he was getting to be too much of a busy body getting into everything. LOL! I am a huge fan of Caesar Milan, and have never been consistent with the most important of the three things dogs need (in order of importance). Exercise, discipline, affection. She rarely needed discipline, and she got lots of affection, but rarely enough exercise. I feel like we might be changing her life for the better a second time and it feels so good!!

 

Saturday is rest day. Sleep in day. No alarms at 5 am day. Except the car alarm that went off down the street and woke me up anyway. Grrrr. That's ok, I fell back asleep and got up at 6:30 so all was not lost. We had lots to do, Ben had to go to work, which meant the boys had to go to ballet with me. Just as we were leaving the house, right after inset the alarm, I heard a thunk on one of the back windows. I disabled the alarm and went to investigate. Sure enough a little American Goldfinch knocked herself silly on my back window. Poor thing. I held her for a minute, then went and got a tea towel for her to recover on. We were already running late for class so I couldn't stay with her to see if she broke her neck. I figured the least I could do was give her a warm little spot to recover. In the few minutes this all took she was already almost able to perch on my finger, so I felt ok about leaving. Came home to a towel with a couple of turds and no birdy! Yay!

(Please excuse my awful nails!!)

Saturday night we had a wine tasting/silent auction fundraiser for the girls ballet production. It's is our 3rd or 4th year going, I can't remember (I don't think it has anything to do with the wine either!) We always have a wonderful time. The venue is a personal estate and it is just beautiful. It was too cold to mingle outside unless you were under a heater, so I was sure to go up to the top of the property as soon as we got there to catch the sunset and take in the gorgeous view. This year was especially fun because we knew more people than we usually do. We had lots of great conversation, yummy food, a bit of wine and we bid on too much stuff, but love what we won & it is for a great cause.

(One of our auction wins...just a wee bottle of wine!! The one in the background is to give a little perspective).

 

This morning I had all my alarms set to go off in the dark, but it was 40* and the Weather Channel app said it felt like 37*. My fear of being cold kept me in bed for another hour or so, then I had no choice but to get on the road. It didn't make a bit of difference, TWC app said the same thing at 6:30 as it did at 5:30. Oh well. I put on 500 layers (of every different obnoxious color I could manage) and got moving. I didn't want to push Reina too hard so I ran the 'hood for 2 miles then dropped her off at the house along with a layer of gear. She was not happy. After the bleeding paws though, I really wanted her to heal.

(Me in all my colorful glory- sporting my Santa socks)

 

Buka and I then took off for the beach. I am testing out various things as I go along this journey. Today I wore a water belt. It holds two small bottles. In one I put plain water and in the other I put one that was flavored and had caffeine type stuffs. I also brought chocolate flavored Gu. Before leaving I ate half an Ezekiel English muffin. The water belt has a pouch that could fit my phone, but it would be on my back, I don't think I would be able to hear The Nag, so I also wore my regular pouch on the front. Everything seemed to fit well and was comfortable. For the long run days I actually do not use The Nag, however I do have her tell me each mile point. Helps me know when to turn back for home and also let's me know my pace, though I am not concerned with pace, just comfort.

 

 

I had to take a quick peek at the ocean, it was so clear you could see Yellowbanks out on Santa Cruz Island. I let Buka take a quick dip in the ocean and were off again. I felt great for the whole run, very comfortable. My left foot had some pain in the spot where I tore the tendon two years ago, and at one point my lower left butt cheek hurt, but nothing was run stopping and mostly I felt awesome. The only time I picked up the pace was in my last mile. I wanted to negative split and I want to get used to picking up the pace and pushing the last bit of the race. When. I hit 8 miles I dropped to a walk and checked out my splits. Have to say I am very happy with them! I averaged 12 min miles which is great as far as I'm concerned. Except for mile 5, I was either at a 12 min/mile or 11 min/mile. Mile 5 was nearly 14 min. Might have been when I was on the beach, not sure, will have to look t the map. The best part was that mile 7 was a 10:09 split, then my last mile- 9:55! I won't be bringing home any prize money, but I think I have a good chance at being a strong middle of the pack finisher LOL! I spent a half hour stretching, using the foam roller and working out any aches. All in all a great week of running, time with friends, and we will finish it up celebrating Gampy's birthday tonight.

 

And for those of you that are wondering, no sign of Mr. Cranky Pants, Barefoot Bathrobe or the Odd Couple. I think I have scared everyone off.

 

 

 

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Maybe I'm the Crazy One

The other day I posted about people who don't smile or say hi to fellow morning exercisers. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does. When I was in college, I remember noticing a huge difference between the general friendliness of people in Northern California verses Southern. Maybe it was because I was in a college town, or maybe it is just the case that northern Californians are friendlier, but in Chico, everyone said hello to everyone when passing on the streets. Or at least made eye contact and smiled or something. This was over 15 years ago, so maybe times have changed, maybe there are just more Mr. Cranky Pants out there. I don't like it though. I like saying hello, I like connecting, even if it is for just a brief moment with other people. So I smile, I say good morning, I try to connect & yes, get annoyed when it is not reciprocated. I haven't seen Mr. Cranky Pants in a few days. I hope I haven't scared him off. I wonder if he goes home and says to his wife "Man, there is this crazy lady who runs with two giant dogs and a flashy thingy who is always yelling and talking." Or maybe he is just trying to work out the time change and will be back soon. I kinda think that all of us who are getting up in the dark and cold to raise our heart rates are a bit on the crazy side. That is the thought that goes through my head nearly every morning as I get out of my cozy, warm bed. But then I get out there, and I run, or I walk and I feel good and not so crazy. Plus I get to talk to the blue herons. Sometimes I scare them off too.

 

Today I had some interesting experiences. I will often go around the block before heading over to the harbor for my run. As I rounded the corner today I came across a man. He was not a fellow exerciser. He was in his bathrobe. Barefoot. Seemingly coherent and awake. And he said good morning. So how could I be annoyed? It was weird though. Very weird. Kinda creepy actually. Not sure where he was going or what he was doing, but he disappeared around the corner and I continued on my way, thankful for the 80 lb German Shepard, 75lb lab and big bag of dog poo in my hand. It is no fun to carry poo on a run, but in cases like this, when meeting strange men in bathrobes at 5:30 in the morning, a bag of poo is way better than mace.

Since Mr. Cranky Pants was unavailable to harass encourage friendly manners, I found someone else. Well really, they were just there. I've crossed paths with them before, I think I've mentioned it. It is a couple, maybe 5-10 years older than me. The lady begrudgingly says hello or good morning, the man, well, he might be Mr. Cranky Pants younger brother. He looks down or straight ahead, aways wears a baseball cap and is always the one talking. Maybe that's why he doesn't say hi? Today on the first pass, I got a "good morning" from The Lady, nothin from Baseball Cap. Then I passed them again. She was not happy about having to say hi again. As I approached them for a 3rd pass, I couldn't help but think of Shakespeare. Macbeth, more specifically.

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightening or rain? When the hurleyburley's done, when the battle's lost and won."

I was seriously giggling to myself as I got closer. Neither one said hello this time. I ended up sharing the quote with the dogs instead. I don't think they were impressed. I did end up passing them a fourth and final time, but this time I was coming from behind them. The sun was up by this time, maybe that makes people friendlier. Both turned back to see who was coming up behind them. Both said hello and both smiled. Baseball Cap even made eye contact. Score 1 for me & the dogs!

 

One of the training tools I am using to help me make it through this half marathon safely is a feature on Mapmyrun (app) called "Voice Coach". I just think of her as "Coach", or "Naggy Lady". I tell her what my intentions for the run are and she keeps me on track. For example today was an "easy" day with a distance of 4.5 miles. According to my training guide, "easy" means I should be able to have a conversation while running. (Good reason to say hello to everyone I see, I need to know if I'm going easy!) I'm still kinda figuring things out as far as pace and such, but it seems as though "easy" for me right now is around a 12 min/mile pace. I forgot to tell Coach that though. She thought I wanted to go 11 min/mile pace. She nagged me every 2 minutes about this. Most of the time telling me I was going too slow and to speed up. She has a one track mind though and I couldn't change it without starting over, and I wasn't about to redo those first two minutes, so I let her nag away. I managed to keep a 12 minute pace average throughout the 4.5 miles, mostly ignoring the nag.

 

 

My lower half is definitely feeling the increased mileage. It feels good, but my legs are tired! I have a 3.5 mile run tomorrow, hopefully I will remember to tell Coach the proper pace!

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Long Run

Today was my "long run" day. I think I really like these longer runs. I went 7 miles today. Long and slow. I took both dogs for the first 2 or so miles. I started late, well, with the time change, I don't know really-late?early? What I do know is that the sun was already on its way up and there were way too many people out. Good news is that I did not come across Mr. Cranky Pants or anyone else against saying hello.

The half marathon that I will be doing encourages the participants to wear costumes or dress up in fun, festive ways. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do, but I do know that I want to have a little fun. Also, not knowing how the weather will behave I want to have a few options. Lately my morning runs have had a nice chill in the air. Nothing impressive, but cold enough to want to cover my hands and ears.

Once upon a time, when I was living in Colorado and running with (NOT ON) the Western State College cross country team, it was truly cold when we'd run. As in, anywhere from -25* to the nice warm 30's. One thing the coach always insisted on was that his runners covered their hands and ears. I don't remember much from those days, but the coach hollering "hands and ears" to everyone as we came out of the locker rooms is something that has always stuck in my head. Not sure why since I am a California girl and it really doesn't apply all too often. However we are coming into the time of year where there is the potential. I have plenty of knit gloves (thank you Target 75%off section for the .$39 two packs). But my ears have been cold every so often. I have ski caps and headbands, but that is just too much, so I went on the hunt for a light-weight headband that I could either push back off my ears as needed or loop on to my waist pack. One of the first sites that came up in my google search was a company called One More Mile. Once there I recognized them from my friend Kris posting about them. 10 minutes later, purchases were made and I eagerly awaited my new stuff. I copied Kris and got the shirt she had blogged about. I also went with "berry" color so that I could wear it to Santa and be festive. I got a matching headband as well, but felt I had to pick a different saying. I also decided I really needed arm warmers, that way if it gets too warm I can just take them off and still have my awesome new shirt showing. Plus I wanted one other saying. They arrived yesterday so I had to test run them all today, despite the slightly east wind blowing and lack of chill to the air.

I have also decided that I want to wear the socks we bought at last year's Santa 5k. They are too awsome not to wear, so they are officially my "long run" socks.

 

The bottom line and moral to this whole post is that if I can't be fast, at least I can be funny and festive.

 

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Morning training and the people you see

37 days and I will run my first half marathon! Really enjoying the training that I'm doing right now. Getting up at five is not my favorite thing but once I'm out there feels really good I love the cool crisp air. My new running shoes seem to be breaking in really well. This is the first time I've used a shoe aside from Nike in over 20 years. Aside from being totally cute and very comfortable and they seem to fit I would say as good if not better than any Nike I've ever worn. Today's run was 4 1/2 miles. It was meant to be at a hard pace. My goal pace was around 11 minutes per mile, which is 30- 60 seconds faster than I think I might be able to do the hal,f but now I'm not so sure. My splits were: 10:55, 10:33, 9:38, 9:18. I don't have a split for the half-mile. I'm pretty sure 9:18 is the fastest mile I've ever run and that includes when I was regularly running 5ks. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor so I don't quite know where I was at in that regard, however I felt pretty good and didn't feel too terribly taxed. I came home and dutifully used my foam roller and spent a good 10 minutes stretching. Tomorrow is a rest day for me and then Sunday is a long slow 7 miles. I'm not sure where I'm going to do that run or if I will take the dogs. Buka seemed to do pretty well and was still ready to keep moving when I got home. However Reina was definitely tired and I think ready to be done so I think 4- 5 miles is her max right now.

One thing I love about morning walks and runs is the people you come across. Most people say "hi, good morning", or at least give a quick nod or wave. I'd say at leat 90% of those I come across do, maybe more. I'm always sure to make eye contact with people when I see them. Especially men. I want them to know that I am able to identify them in a lineup if I should ever have to. Mostly I see other runners and walkers, no one I'm really all that concerned about. A few weeks ago, when I saw a cholo at 5:30 in the morning it did give me a little pause for concern. Didn't quite fit in with the neighborhood I was running in; a private, gated, albeit public access walkway. But the classic uniform of white socks pulled all the way up to the knees, khaki shorts hanging down, white T-shirt and dark blue dickies jacket, he just didn't fit the M.O. of your typical morning exercise kind of dude. However he smiled said hi and made eye contact with me when I passed by. I haven't seen him since, so I don't think he's made a routine of this morning thing.

Then there is Mr. Cranky pants. I've seen him at least 3 different days. He is a walker not a runner and he stares straight ahead the entire time he's walking. The first time I said hi I thought maybe he just didn't hear me. I happened to pass him again in that same morning. This time I made sure sing out "good morning" as loudly as I could. He didn't flinch, he didn't look my way, he didn't even remotely acknowledge that I was existing in the same space. Hmmmmm. That wouldn't do. I didn't see him again that morning but had already decided that if I did come across him again I'd be sure to try a little harder. Sure enough, two days later I saw him again. So again I called out as loudly as I could "good morning sir", and he again did not look my way or aknowledge me in any way, shape or form. So I added in a much too cheerful "have a great morning!". I passed him twice on this occasion, both times trying my very best to get him to, at the very least, flicker his eyes in my direction or down at my dogs or even completely away. Something different than just the staring straight ahead blank look on his face. Score 4 Mr. Cranky Pants 0 me. Didn't see him for about a week but this morning I saw him again YAY! Another chance. One of my dogs was actually peeing as he approached us so I was at a standstill as he came up to me. I gave it a good hearty try, lots of "good morning" and other cheerful words as he stared straight ahead, never flinching, never changing his pace, never turning his head, just walking straight on past as though we did not exist even a little bit. I even had a very cool flashy, blinky, seizure inducing button light attached to the neck of my shirt, He had to look at that! Nope. *sigh*. Since I was nearly done with my run at this point I didn't have much hope of passing him again and having a second attempt. However as I came around the corner I looked across the harbor channel and there he was. I think maybe he was glancing my way but I couldn't be sure so just in case I raised my white gloved hand and cheerfully waved across the channel and called out "good morning!" He didn't look. Ah well, I have at least 3 early morning runs next week, I won't give up!I may be down by 6, but I am not a quitter!

Getting Better

Emma is finally on the mend.  She still has a wicked cough though.  When we have left the house and gone public have have gotten a few "looks".  I'm confident she's not contagious, but the cough sounds so bad I understand the looks really.  Owen tried going to TKD today, but he only lasted 30 minutes or so.  He seems so much better, but I had a feeling he would have a tough time doing such hard work.  We've been keeping busy around the house though.  Below are a few pictures of our projects.

Emma working on her  "book".  This was taken 4 days into 6 days of the flu.  She lost 6 pounds, 7% of her total body weight during this bout. 

Olivia decides to get in on the book making.

"See right here mommy, I made this for you."

We got some acrylic paint on Saturday and did something with one of our collections.

Here's the crowd painting some rocks.

Olivia was quite serious about it.

I LOVE this one that Evan made for us! He was so careful with the placement of each dot.

Here is one of Emma's

another of Emma's

Here's a long shot of the group.  The polka dot one in front is Emma's - she liked Evan's idea.

Guess which one is mine...

The First One Down

Evan with his "sock friend' on his ear.  I used to have (probably still do, just have no idea where) a lovely rice filled "pillow" that I used all the time when I was pregnant.  I draped it across my lower back as I slept.  I thought Evan would maybe feel a little bit better if he could apply warmth to his ear (nasty ear infection) but couldn't find my beloved rice pack so I improvised.  We have more lonely socks than we do pairs so I filled one up with rice and tied it in a knot.  As an afterthought I drew a face on it.  Evan loved it.  It didn't necessarily make his ear feel any better, but he loved having a warm friend. Antibiotics have done wonders and he is feeling sooooo much better.  Now we have to get the rest of the crowd feeling better.

This is his crystal that he made.  We have a green (or will it be blue?) one now.

My Weekend

Friday night we went to the yacht club for dinner.  We had invited our swim coach from college and his wife.  We had such a great evening!  Chef  made chicken Mole and chile verde- YUM!  It was great to relax and enjoy the company of good friends.  The kids ran around and played, battled, caught crabs and just had fun.  All and all a great night.  We came home and got the kids to bed then put on our recent obsession 24.  We are on season 3 near the end.  When it got to be around midnight  my tummy was hurting.  I didn't notice it so much watching 24- that show can tie up your stomach as it is! But once I went to lay down, man it hurt!  I could not fall asleep because of it.  I eventually got up and took some benadryl- which normally knocks me right out- Nothing.  At 4 am I finally gave up trying and come down to the computer for a while.  Olivia woke up at 4:30 so I went to her & got her settled back in.  I went back downstairs and got a heat pack and put it on my belly- that helped enough- the last time I saw the clock it was close to 6 am.  I slept until 9 or so then started my day.

Saturday night my friend put on a engagement/bridal party for our friend.  I helped her with bits and pieces of it.  Mainly I just brought some food- she did an amazing job setting up the yacht club- man it looked beautiful!  I spent all day Saturday making my two dishes.  I borrowed two recipes from my friend Maili.  I made Orzo Salad and Roasted Dates. Holy cow were they good!!  I had two huge platters of the dates-maybe 70 or so dates and I did not have even  one left over! I can not tell you how many complements on  it I got! The Orzo salad was fabulous as well. The recipe on her site called for arugula but i subbed it with spinach.  I also forgot to add the capers- which would have added another dimension of flavor to an already flavorful salad.  There was not much of that leftover either. I will definitely be making that salad around here again!  Maili has a book coming out in the fall, Football Food-  last I heard it was creeping up on amazon in pre-order sales- in the top 25 among other cookbooks- Way to go Maili! (I ordered 2, one for me one for my MIL). 

I felt ok much of Saturday, small aches  and crampiness that never quite left, but mostly ok.  By 8:30pm I was struggling to keep up a happy, pain free expression. I didn't fall asleep until after 3 am this time. 

Sunday morning I felt ok enough to go back to the yacht club for breakfast, ate a lovely plate of juevos rancheros.  We invited the IL's for breakfast and had a nice late morning meal.  (didn't get there until after 10). By 11:30 I was cramping up again and hurting.  What really sucked it that my friend was going out for a sailing practice for a womens one design  race coming up in October and they were short a few crew.  Ben offered to keep the kids so I could go, but my tummy hurt so much that I had to decline.  Damn.  Ben called in a script for me,something that helps with cramps.  I picked it up and came home.  Once home Ben did his doctor thing and listened to my gut, pushed and poked my sore tummy and declared that I should go to urgent care.  He wanted to have them rule out things like  UTI  and uterine problems.   My urine came back with slightly elevated white blood cells- so that is off being cultured, but is mostly likely nothing of consequence.  She also did a blood draw.  She took a second urine sample to do something else with.  I took the blood straight over to the hospital so we could get the labs back faster.  While there the CNP that I had seen called me and said they found blood in my second urine sample.  So off to CT I went to rule out(or in) kidney stones.  I do have two stones, however they are in the kidney and not the urinary tract, so they are not the issue.  Back to waiting for labs.  Oh and somehow the blood taken from me at the urgent care got gooed up so I got to have a second blood draw at the hospital.  Good times.  Ben and the kids came back to the hospital to get me and we went home.  I picked up some other meds at a different pharmacy since my own pharmacy closed at 5.  So I am now taking my thyroid medicine, anti-cramping medicine, antibiotics (until we get back my labs), probiotics, and tylonol as needed for pain.  sheesh.  

So today here I sit.  I had to cancel Bungee's vet visit, piano lessons, swim lessons and TKD.  I showered, and have had my bottom firmly planted to the couch,  heating pad resting on my tummy.  I am a bit afraid to eat anything since that seems to make it worse, and I am not particularly hungry anyway. 

I am already looking forward to bedtime.  Is that bad?

In case you hadn't noticed

I weighed in on Monday and I have officially lost 5 lbs!  (since the end of April & the beginning of a little contest between my friend and I).  Our final weigh in for the first month is on Friday the 30th.  I've already met my goal (4 lbs) but now I have to spend all week worried that I'll have some sort of freak 10 b weight gain. Ok well mostly I'm worried about a 2 lb fluctuation gain.  Over the course of a month, even when losing weight, I add a few lbs here and there- usually around or during my period.  I should

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Weird.  This post was supposed to be in draft mode- not published until I said- Publish.  (Hence the sentence that was left hanging.  yeesh. )

Well I did keep all my weight off (YAY) and me and my girl went to a local wine bar and had a perfectly wonderful night.  I'd go into detail but then you'd know that we indulged in yummy cheese, wine, Tuscan style fire baked pizza and (shhhh) we shared a piece of chocolate cappuccino pie thingy. Mostly it was great girl talk while the boys watched all the kids.  (That is a whole 'nother story)

Anyhow my intent was to blog about my crappy day today, but upon finding this here post unfinished I didn't get to do that did I?  Actually the day wasn't crappy, I was just in a crap mood right from the get go when a freakin bird started pacing my roof at 4am.   (We have a cathedral ceiling so I heard every dang step).  I am trying desperately to let go of my negative mood even now at 945pm.  Honest to God if that bird walks the roof again tonight I'll be out front in my jammies tossing rocks at the damn thing (and I really like birds normally- honest).

Peace out all-  maybe tomorrow I'll have my chance to write.  (Jenny I was also all geared up to share about the whole yearbook thing I'm doing too.)