The Long Run

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December 31, 2004

New Year's Eve

I must admit, I am not crazy about New Year's Eve. The idea of drinking myself into a stupor just because the year is changing does not appeal to me. I don't really enjoy staying up until all hours of the night anyhow. Put me in bed around 9:00 and I'm happy. I get way too tired and cranky to stay up late just to watch the year change. It just isn't that big of deal to me. I probably get it from my parents since they never, ever, ever did anything for New Years when we were growing up. I tried as much as I could when I was younger to get into it, but I never could. That being said, I do not have any major plans for tonight. The neighbors accross the street are having people over, so I may go over there for a little bit. Other than that, I have no plans of a wild and crazy night. Hey, real training resumes tomorrow at 7 AM with the first long run of the year!

Today, being Friday, was the day off for the week. I wasn't feeling too hot about myself yesterday so I couldn't sit around and do nothing today. Last night I went in the basement and rode the stationary bike for half an hour because I felt so much like a slug. This morning I went to the gym and did the elliptical for an hour. I was shocked at how busy it was in there today. I guess that I thought that people would have to work today, but then I remembered that a lot of people tend to take this week off from work. After I did the elliptical, which was supremely boring, I stretched and decided that I would lift. The gym isn't open tomorrow, which is my regular day to lift. I am having a much better body image day today. Yesterday was probably due to overindulging on Wednesday night.

I think that I am going to go shopping this afternoon. I want to see if I can grab any real bargains before the year ends! I hope that everyone has wonderful, safe evenings tonight in whatever way they choose to celebrate!

Posted by Blondie at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

December 30, 2004

Good News Tuesday (and the other days too)

Now one would think that because there is no school this week, and therefore I do not have to work, I would have the time to be able to update this on a daily basis as I do when I go to work. For some reason, other things come up and there is not enough time to update and let y'all know what's going on. Some of that is probably my own fault for agreeing to do things that I would normally not do during the week.

So on Tuesday morning as I was getting ready to head out the door on my run the phone rang. My mom picked it up and it turns out it was her surgeon calling to let her know what had come back from the lab. He told her not to expect to hear anything until Wednesday at the earliest, probably later in the week due to the holidays. He told her that the cancer had only spread a little bit into the first node, the sentinel node, and had not spread to any of the other nodes. He told her the tumor was larger than it had looked on the mamogram, but he had gotten most of it in the biopsy. Basically he told her that this was the best news she could have other than it not being cancerous. This news pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. My run was fantastic compared to other runs, probably because I was in such a good mood. It was cold, but not as windy as Monday.

We spent most of the day waiting for my brother and his girlfriend to arrive. They had originally planned to pick up the rental car at 11 and get here a little bit after 1. We knew that wasn't going to happen when he called at quarter to one and his girlfriend was in the shower. Then they apparently had some trouble at the rental agency, the car they were supposed to get had not been returned yet and they finally agreed to pay for an upgrade. Then they stopped on the way and ate. Of course, we were all hungry and I had prepared chicken, risotto, and green beans. P chowed down because he doesn't get home cooked meals all that often, but his girlfriend just picked at a bite of risotto and a nibble of chicken. Since they weren't eating much, I felt like a pig eating, but in reality I did not eat very much at all.

This leads into the lousy run on Wednesday morning. Lousy with a capital L. It wasn't as cold as we're having an unusually warm end of year. Our neighbor accross the street came over to visit my mom and we ate lunch with her. Somehow I got invited over to their house for a dinner party last night. I spent the day at the mall searching for something to wear to a wedding in a few weeks. That was a big strike out, but at least there are a few weeks left. Everything that I liked was absolutely hanging off of me.

T had two couples over for dinner, myself, her daughter and a friend of her daughter's. She made two pounds of spagetti and meatballs for everyone. We all enjoyed lotsa pasta and red wine. It was not as enjoyable this morning while I ran with J and his older brother.

This morning it was much warmer when I ran with J and his brother. We had a nice relaxing run. Burping up homemade sauce and red wine is not my idea of fun. Luckily, we were just running very easy and chatting. Trying to push through a run when my stomach is acting that way is not my idea of fun. J gave me a training log as a New Year's gift. He doesn't trust me to train, so I have to keep a log for myself and a log for him. He doesn't realize that I've been slacking on keeping my log.

I'm going to look for an outfit to wear to the wedding later on this afternoon. Then I'm taking my mother on a field trip. She hasn't been out of the house since last week, so I'm taking her to Target and Trader Joe's this afternoon. She wants to get a new book to read and look at DVDs and I need to get food from Trader Joe's. Then we're going to visit her mother since the nursing home is on our way back to the house. Hopefully tonight is going to be a chillin out in front of the TV night. New Year's Eve looks like either going to a friend's house or accross the street. It can't be too wild and crazy a night since we have our 7 AM Saturday run! The contest is to see who is still drunk for the run!

Posted by Blondie at 11:22 AM | Comments (4)

December 27, 2004

Warm Thoughts

This title has multiple meanings. I want to thank everyone for their warm thoughts. Words can not express how much it means to me that so many people, both those we know and those who we do not know, have kept us in their thoughts and prayers. Sometimes we all take for granted things such as our health, our ability to run, our friends, and many others. It should not take some kind of emergency or tragedy for us to express how much we appreciate these things and these people. Maybe I'm just a little bit sentimental because of the holidays. We received one of the most random acts of kindness today. My brother's new girlfriend is coming to visit tomorrow (more about that later). I was sent to buy a welcome gift from the family at a small gift shop that we absolutely love. My brother is good friends with the owner's daughter. She was in this afternoon when I bought the gift and I told her that my brother said hi. She told me I was the luckiest to have him for a brother, he is just a terrific guy. We got to talking and she insisted on sending a gift to my mother. B has never really met my mother, but she knows that we shop in her store and she just adores P, so she sent a gift to cheer her up! It was just the nicest thing that she could have done.

Onto the second part of the title. I'm thinking warm. It was bitter cold here this morning. We got some snow last night, not a lot, just a covering. I fell asleep early last night and slept late, probably my body telling me that I have not been treating it as well as it needs. So the temperature at the bottom corner of the Today show said 20 when I was getting dressed and the wind was howling. As long as I was moving, it was not all that bad. Since there was not a significant amount of snow, the plows did not attack the roads and it was after rush hour, the roads were quite slick. There was not very good footing. The wind was only really bad at two or three points on the run. When I was waiting to cross the road, I had to hold on the street sign so that I didn't get blown over. I felt so much better than I did yesterday. It is amazing what a day of rest can do for you sometimes.

This afternoon I ran a bunch of errands. I'm still looking for something to wear to the wedding I'm attending in January. I bought a skirt that I may or may not wear for it. I can always use it for New Year's Eve no matter what. Not like I have any plans as of yet. I did head to the gym and do the elliptical for half an hour and then lift. The good news is that my right foot cooperated and did not fall asleep while I was on the elliptical. I don't think that I could tolerate much longer than half an hour on the machine.

My brother's girlfriend is coming to the East Coast to visit. She is from Southern California and has never been East during the winter. They met through her older sister who is one of my brother's good friends. She thinks that it is cold when the temperature gets below 70, so we are all a little bit nervous about how she is going to react to this cold. It is supposed to warm up by the end of the week to unusually warm temperatures for December. They're heading up here for dinner, which I have been commissioned to prepare. I'm making chicken for all of those who eat meat and risotto for a side for those eating the chicken and a main dish for those of us who do not eat meat. The girlfriend does not eat meat most of the time. I actually enjoy cooking, my family makes fun of it because I don't particularly like to eat.

All right, now I must catch up on everyone else's blogs. Not having access to the computer has put me behind on my reading! Hey, we can all have some kind of indulgence.

Posted by Blondie at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2004

Long Time, No Blog

Since my brother was at home from Thursday afternoon until just a few hours ago, I have not had access to our computer. He usually spends most of his time at home with "the guys" from high school, but this trip consisted of most of his time in his room. That happens to be the room where the computer is. I'm not even sure when the last time I updated this was.

Thursday was our last day of work before break. It was rainy and warm. Work was pretty lousy. By the afternoon it was raining pretty heavily. I did head over to the track, but only L showed up. She and I ran for 35 minutes. I didn't want to run a really long time because I knew that I would be running again first thing the next morning. I didn't feel too bad and the rain did ease up by the time we ran.

Friday was our traditional Christmas Eve Breakfast Run. This is one of my favorite runs of the year. About 40 people showed up. I ran with about six others and we ran a decent clip for 50 minutes. It was much colder. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees from Thursday night. Breakfast was a blast as well. After breakfast, I had to do some errands: getting wine for Christmas dinner, going to the grocery store with the last minute grocery list etc... I also went to a get together that evening at M and S's house. They invited some of their friends over who don't have local family, or in my situation, need to get away from family for a while. I do love and appreciate my family, but I need to get out every so often. My mom was so happy that I went because she thinks that I spend way too much time at home. We didn't eat dinner until very late so I didn't sleep very well on Christmas Eve.

Christmas day I was up around 6. At 7:30 I got out of bed and went out for my usual 4 mile Christmas run. I never see anyone on this run. I always look for a car with a bow on it like in the Lexus commercials. I got home and made breakfast for the family and made the coffee. We had a really special Christmas, my mom was happy because we were all happy. My brother got me a really cool picture. My aunt and uncle stopped by for a little while and brought my grandmother over. She was really upset about my mother. We didn't tell her for a little while. She'll be 90 in February and does not need to have this hanging over her. Later on I made dinner for the family. One of my parents friends had made a turkey for us, so I didn't have much to do. Then last night I watched Almost Famous with my parents and turned in early.

I did sleep like a rock last night. My run this morning was pathetic, with a capital P. I had no energy whatsoever. It was at the point that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I would rather not go any farther in my discussion of this morning. I was going to go to the gym this afternoon after I did exchanged my sweater that did not fit. I decided to listen to my body: I could barely keep myself upright and decided that rest is best.

Wow, I know that I missed a lot. This is one of the reasons that I like to update every day. I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, it is really meaningful to me. I know that I must be strong right now, but it is difficult. My mother was reading the information the doctors gave her and is getting very scared because nothing has gone as they thought it would so far, so she is almost convinced of the worst. I don't know if that is better because she was not as upset after her surgery as I was because she said that she knew it was in the lymph nodes. As she put it, some things you just know. We'll get more information later on this week after the nodes have been tested more.

I hope that everyone had wonderful holidays and enjoyed time with their families. I hope that everyone who travelled made it to their respective destinations safely and easily. I am looking forward to a new year, not so much for the celebration, but for hope.

Posted by Blondie at 7:01 PM | Comments (3)

December 22, 2004

I'm so happy I found this place

It continues to amaze me how supportive and thoughtful everyone who keeps blogs here is. The support and thoughts that we share are sometimes more than those of some of my closest friends. In reality, we are all almost a group of total strangers, yet we continue to encourage and support each other. This is not to say that my friends do not support me or encourage me, but it is to be expected from someone whom you have known for many years.

Today was a much better day than yesterday. After seeing my mom, I knew that I had to stay positive, for all of us. Much of surviving has to do with attitude and the attitude I had right after hearing the news yesterday was pretty pathetic. Running in the afternoon helped that out as well.

Since I took a half day of work today, I ran around noon. In the early stages the run was probably too fast. Considering it was close to 50 degrees out when I headed out the door I wanted to run like it was the fall again. Anyhow, it was a bonking-type run. I had to run before I ate lunch because if I didn't go then I would not be able to at all today. I know that eating is crucial, but there was no way I had any desire to spend quality time in a port-o-pot again. The first five miles were good to OK, but the final two were a death march.

My massage this afternoon was extremely relaxing. She worked quite a bit on my back, neck, and shoulders. My jaw was also very tight, which I knew because I've been chewing through my night guard. I'm looking forward to our Christmas Eve breakfast run on Friday. It is one of my favorite runs of the year. It is completely social and non-competitive.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has been thinking of us. We will pull through this.

Posted by Blondie at 7:36 PM | Comments (4)

December 21, 2004

Keeping Spirits Up

First I want to thank everyone for thinking about my mother today during her surgery. It probably does not need to be stated, but I was a basketcase all day at work. My 8 AM meeting did not show up until 9 AM which did not help matters any. The family lives within walking distance of the school and could not even make it close to on time! The only good thing about them being so terribly late is that it took up a lot of time. I called my dad around 11 because I hadn't heard from him yet. At that time mom was still in surgery and he was in the waiting area.

Since my school is for students who have been expelled from public schools, one of the required components is a social skills class. The responsibility for these classes falls on us guidance counselors. A huge problem with these classes is that the students do not care and do not wish to change their ways. The class that I had this afternoon is a particularly difficult class and does not see the point in the material. Anyway, while I was trying to teach them about making better decisions my cell phone started buzzing. I ran out of the room leaving the other two teachers in the room. My father told me that things did not go as well as hoped. Mom was in recovery and she was still asleep but it had spread into the lymph nodes. He didn't know much else and had to make some other calls. The teachers could tell by my facial expressions that the news on the phone was not good. I stayed because there was nothing that I could do yet. As soon as the class was over I went into my office, closed the door, put my head down and started to cry. I stayed in there until dismissal.

I went downstairs to do my dismissal duty, returning items collected during searches to the students. I was supposed to fill in for a colleague in a meeting that had supposedly cancelled, but then showed up. I told the school nurse who was concerned that there was no way I could do the meeting. She told my administrator that I could not do it. At first some people thought that I meant that I had a duty to do and someone could fill in, then they saw my red eyes. I gave the confiscated items back to the students and my supervisor came and told me that I could leave and go be with my mom or go upstairs to be alone if that was what I wanted.

I went upstairs and cried some more. Then I called my dad to try to get some more information. He still didn't know too much. He said that she was going to have to spend the night in the hospital and he would call me back when he knew more. Shortly later he called and told me what room she was in and I told him that I would be there soon. My supervisors were very considerate in letting me go. When I submitted to take tomorrow afternoon off, I was given a hard time. When I got there, my mom was in better spirits than I thought she might be. I stayed there with her and my father for about an hour and a half before heading home.

When I got home I headed out for my run. I knew that it was not going to be pretty because my stomach felt really full of air. It was much warmer today than yesterday. I am not sure why I am always so cold, but I am always the coldest one in the group. Anyhow, I digress. This afternoon I really needed the run. The fresh air and the private time really helped me feel much better about everything that is happening. Even if I was burpy and gasey. After running I went to the gym and rode the bike for 40 minutes and lifted.

I passed my dad on the way home. He came back to tell me that he was heading back to the hospital and wanted to know if I wanted to come with him. I would have, but I was starving and needed to eat. To top off the terrible day, as he was leaving the hospital tonight he was rear ended in their new car. My parents bought this car this summer. He said that it's going to need a new bumper. He was sitting at a stop sign waiting to go and some woman drove into the back of the car! He did get her insurance information, so her insurance company will be buying the new bumper.

Tomorrow I am going into work in the morning and leaving at 11. My mom is supposed to be released around lunch time. I am still going for my massage tomorrow afternoon. This is a Christmas present to myself and is much needed. I have a tendency to carry all of my stress in my neck and shoulders and can feel the tightness already. My brother is coming home tomorrow instead of Thursday as planned. I think that we will know some more tomorrow after my mom sees the doctor again. I know that I need to keep my spirits up and be strong at home.

Posted by Blondie at 7:49 PM | Comments (3)

December 20, 2004

I am the Michelin Woman

Do you remember the commercials with the Michelin Man? That is what I felt like tonight. I had on so many layers that if I had fallen over it would have taken some help to get me up. I realize that it is significantly colder in many parts of the country and I am a big wuss when it comes to the cold. My wardrobe selections amaze the other folks in the running group. Case in point: tonight I wore two pairs of fleece lined tights, a turtleneck, a Gore Windstopper pullover, a fleece jacket, a windbreaker, a heavy hat, gloves, and socks over the gloves. I didn't start to get warm until just about half way through and I only got to being comfortable. The front half of my right foot was numb for most of the route.

Today was the second coldest day of the year so far. The high only made it into the mid-teens and there was a strong wind for most of the day. The crazy part about all of this is that on Wednesday and Thursday we're supposed to have highs in the 50s.

Tonight's run was particularly unpleasant, and not only due to the extreme cold. There were only 5 of us who were brave enough to show up. J called me right when I was getting ready to leave to let me know he wasn't going to come because his father had fallen this morning when he was out for his daily walk and he wanted to make sure he was OK. Most of the folks who showed up tonight are a little bit slower. C (whom I refuse to run with because he can be a real jerk) was there and insisted on pushing the pace quite a bit. The others were having a hard time keeping up and I was trying to stay somewhere in the middle and keep us in a group. A few people mentioned that there was no reason to run the way C was running tonight. We managed to stay together for the most part. The pace was easier than I find comfortable, but with only five people I made an effort to keep everyone together.

The course was a pretty course through some of the old money neighborhoods. The homes are so stately and decorated beautifully. Seeing the professionally lit trees is so much prettier than the haphazard lights that are usually up.

Mom's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. They told me to go to work because there is nothing I can do in the waiting area. I did take a half day for Wednesday so I can help her in the afternoon if needed. Dad told me that he would call me as soon as he hears anything. We are all a little on the nervous side now. Hopefully after tomorrow we will all feel quite a bit better.

Posted by Blondie at 7:43 PM | Comments (3)

December 19, 2004

Good Night, Not so Good Morning

The party last night was a lot of fun. J told everyone that the party was starting at 7:30. Since I had to sneak the gifts for J in and set up my cookie tray, I aimed to arrive a little bit on the earlier side, not before 7:30, but not really fashionably late. Embarassingly, I was the first to arrive. I used the time to set up all of my cookie trays. I had way too much fun yesterday when I decorated my runner cookies and was individualizing the cookies to people in the group. Everyone got such a kick out of having a cookie with their name and characteristics on it. I felt bad because I didn't have enough runners for everyone who showed up.

Once everyone showed up, the party was a blast. It is a lot of fun to see the people you run with, their significant others, and some people who just can not make it to run with the group on a regular basis. Some people, myself included, look very different in regular clothes versus running clothes. There are always a lot of comments about how good some people clean up.

Again, I did not sleep particularly well last night. I thought that the cuts on my knees from when I fell in November had healed, but the newly formed skin on my right knee came off last night right after getting into bed. I could not get comfortable because anything touching it hurt. My stomach was not too happy either since I ate some food that probably was not a good idea. Topping off the night with some Christmas cookies very late was a particularly bad idea.

So now to the not so good morning...I woke up pretty early because there was no comfortable position to sleep in. I hung around for a while to try to cleanse my system from the eating and drinking of last night. Eventually I thought it was safe to go out. The temperature on the TV said 36, so I bundled up to go outside.

Within the first quarter mile I could tell you this was not going to be a pretty run. I was warm. Who me? Yes, it was not nearly as cold as the TV indicated. I had on adidas Astro pants, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, hat and gloves. I'm not sure what I would have worn differently, but I was warm. The second problem was my stomach. Ooh boy, it was bad. Since yesterday's "long" run was quite hard this was meant to be an easy effort. Easy took on an entirely new meaning today. By the time I was around 3 miles I was just itching to go a half mile further for the port-o-pot. There was no getting to it fast enough. After the pit stop the rest of the run was pretty uneventful. My stomach still is not too happy, but it is settling down some.

The rest of today has been rather productive. I cleaned my room, changed the sheets on my bed, and wrapped the rest of my Christmas presents. I also got to watch parts of the Eagles game. Later on I must call the guy who I went out with on Wednesday night or else he'll think that I am completely avoiding him. Right now I'm not sure exactly what I want out of it and this week does not look like a good week to go out either. My brother is coming home tomorrow for our mother's surgery on Tuesday. He's making me look like the bad child for not taking the day off from work. We only get five days for the school year and I would rather take a day off when I can do something other than sit in a waiting room. So Tuesday night is not a good night to go out. I have a massage scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and am going to have to rush in order to run before it. I may take Wednesday off from work or take a half day depending on how the procedure goes on Tuesday. I may be going to the ballet with a bunch of friends on Thursday night. Then Friday is Christmas Eve. It is going to be a busy week, but it should make it go by faster!

Posted by Blondie at 4:13 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2004

Big Reunion

This morning was the first morning that I have gotten myself out of bed to meet the early morning Saturday group. Most mornings in November I slept in or raced, so there was no point in getting up to run long on Saturday if I was trying to race well on Sunday. After my race-fest in November I took a week off last week. Most of the fall, we only had a rather small group for the Saturday morning run. This morning I was the first to pull up. The first thought that crossed my mind was that everyone saw how cold it was out and decided to wait to run until later in the day. Was I ever wrong. In the next five minutes pretty much every person who ever runs with us on Saturday morning pulled up. There were about 25 of us who headed out on the hilly route this morning. It was really cool to see so many faces that I don't see on a regular basis. I'll also get to see a bunch tonight at the track club party.

I was on the "hour plan" this morning. Some people in our group were planning on running a whole lot longer than that. I'm not really sure why, they aren't running any races in the near future. The group I ended up with was running quite fast. For the early part I was feeling OK, but going up one of the hills the poor diet that I have been following caught up with me. One of the guys who was trying to run with us stopped and walked up the hill with me. Lucky for us, the other three running our route had to stop at the top of the hill for a pit stop, so we were able to hit the reset button and regroup. By the time we hit the last twenty minutes, I was feeling a little more like myself.

It was c-o-l-d this morning. I wish I had on more clothes. Tights, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece jacket, a windbreaker, a hat, and two pairs of gloves just was not cutting it. Others had on much less, but my feet were numb. This has been bothering me for the past few days when I run. Today I had on thicker socks and that helped a bit. I think that I am just so cold all the time that when the temperature is below 30 I just can not get warm.

Anyway, the run this morning would not be considered long by any means. It was my longest run of the week, therefore it is the long run. We aren't exactly sure how long this course was, but our guess is that it is definitely over 9 miles but less than 10 miles. On the way in I was running with V and A and we determined that we were running well under 7s. We ran at least that fast earlier in the run and we were out for just about 66 minutes.

When I get stressed I have a tendency to not eat. It becomes a chore and the thought of eating is just not appealing to me. I don't like to eat in the first place since I have spent so much of my life getting sick after eating that I have a negative association with food. I have been trying to force myself to eat more today because I am feeling weak and run down. During cookie baking this morning I ate plenty of rejects.

My mom and I went accross the street to bake cookies with our neighbor. We had a blast. T has had breast cancer three times and is just the nicest woman in the world. She will give you the shirt she has on if you need one. T also loves to cook and bake. We don't eat many cookies since my mom and I don't eat many sweets and four years ago my father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. So we made some cookies that I am taking to the party tonight and some for us to keep for the holidays. My brother and his girlfriend are coming and she has never had some of the cookies we used to bake. It was nice to bake with someone else because we didn't have to keep all of the cookies.

The guy called me yesterday while I was out grocery shopping. I learned from prior experience that talking on the cell phone in the grocery store is a bad idea. It is just so loud in the store, trying to carry a basket, pick up items, etc is overwhelming. He knew how tired I had been and how busy today was supposed to be, so he just said to call whenever I got the chance. I think that I'll play it safe and call tomorrow since I have to start getting ready for the party pretty soon.

I have yet to buy the gifts for the party tonight. I'm going to do that on my way over. Nothing like truly last minute gift buying. My family is completely done and so is all of the shopping for me.

Between now and the New Year, I have to start thinking about what races I want to run next year. There is still plenty of time because until at least February I'll just be doing base building. J called me the other day and told me that before I start to figure out which races to focus on I have to read my log books for the past two years to see what worked and what did not work. One thing that I do know is that I need to work in short cycles, no 16 or 18 week training cycles for me. More like 6 and 8 week cycles. I ran my half-marathon PR off of about 5 weeks build-up. I can get in good shape really quickly but then can not hold it for long. I also think that I need to start to do drills this spring. We planned to do that in the fall, but I was struggling so much with that sprained ankle that it was not feasible.

Well, it's just about that time to go and do some ab work, eat a light dinner and get some Christmas gifts!

Posted by Blondie at 3:39 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2004

Still Alive

Life has been quite busy the past few days. My date did not abduct me and kill me or anything crazy, I just have not even been at home or with access to a computer the past few days. This is going to end up being a marathon entry, so here it goes...

Wednesday morning I woke up with no desire to do anything. I slept very hard on Tuesday night and struggled to get out of bed. While I was in the shower, I said "self, you have to cheer up and go out tonight". It was still chilly in the afternoon when I went to run. It was not as spring-ee of feeling of a run as on Tuesday, but it was still very relaxing and enjoyable. My legs were a touch on the tired side, but I just focused on enjoying running for the pure joy of running.

I got in the door and had an hour until I had to meet my date. I jumped into the shower and got dressed again. Having a date on a school/work night stinks because it involves getting all done up twice. Before I left, my mom called and said that they weren't coming home, but going out to dinner. They didn't know that I was going on this date, so I told her that I was heading out on a date. I asked her why she sounded so upset and she said the cancer had either spread into her bones or that she had arthritis. The doctor wanted more x-rays done after her surgery next week. Of course, I was a mess when she said that. I was driving over to the pub and my cell phone rang. Mom called and told me that she had re-read what the doctor told her, that the pattern is not consistent with the spread of a tumor. It is probably some kind of arthritis or osteoperosis. When I was heading over I kept thinking that I could call and cancel since family does come before a first date. Her second call was a relief, but I am still concerned about what is going on in her back.

The guy and I hung out for a few hours. We each had two glasses of wine and shared some appetizers. I did not eat much because I wasn't too hungry from stress. Driving home, I realized that I probably should have eaten more. We had a really nice time and may be going out again sometime (not this weekend).

I got home and collapsed into bed. At midnight the phone rang (a wrong number) and I couldn't get back to sleep. When I got home from work yesterday, I tried to sleep but didn't get too much before I headed over to the track.

We let C lead our run last night, which is never a good idea. Every time I run with him, I say that I will never run with him again. He never has a route planned out, takes us on some really dangerous roads, sprints and stops all the time, and is generally a pain to run with. I was hungry from not eating much on Wednesday night and not eating a whole lot during the day at work. It was still cool as far as I was concerned, but milder than Tuesday and Wednesday. The pace last night was very easy and relaxing. We ran for about 50 minutes.

I was not going to go to the bar after the group because I wanted to go home and eat a real dinner, but I decided that right now I need to keep living my life as much as my parents need to keep living their lives. I ended up staying at the bar until about 11 and not eating a real dinner. The bar does have the absolute best soft pretzel sticks in the world. I ate four or five of those and had two beers for my dinner. Definitely not the most nutritous meal. I collapsed into bed again, but this time I slept until 3 AM.

Today I have been starving and about to fall asleep all day. I was going to go to the gym today, but I believe that my absolute exhaustion is a good indication that I need a day completely off. My shin was sore today because my boot was hitting it in a tender spot. When I got home from work I fixed a small snack to eat before I did this entry and go to the grocery store (next on the to-do list).

Tonight I have to make cookie dough for the cookie baking tomorrow morning. Tomorrow I have to buy the gifts for J and have fun at our party. It is always nice to go and see everyone from the track in regular clothes. Two weeks ago I saw one of the newer members out and he hardly recognized me in "regular" clothes versus running gear!

Now time to read what everyone else is up to as I continue to ice my sore shin.

Posted by Blondie at 3:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2004

Brrrr!

It appears that winter has arrived and will probably be sticking around for a while. In about a month, today's temperatures in the low thirties will be considered on the mild side. Definitely not warm, but more tolerable. The main problem is that the temperatures have been quite mild so far this fall/winter. The coldest that it has been before today was in the mid-forties, so low thirties with wind felt freezing. This compounded with the fact that I am forever on the cold side meant that this run was bone-chilling.

Don't laugh when you read how much clothing I wore out today. I had on a pair of actual tights (these are reserved for either layering or cold days, I much prefer to wear loose fit/baggy style pants), a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, a vest, a hat, and windstopper gloves. Even wearing all of this clothing I was chilled during the run. My thighs were red and raw when I got back from running.

For the next several weeks I won't really be timing my regular runs. I'll time the nights at the track and my Saturday "long run". The whole point of this time is to rest, renew, and rejuvenate. Part of that is just running for the pure pleasure of being able to run. That being said, this afternoon was one of those runs I wish I could have every day. Although I ran into the wind and was chilly, my body felt fantastic. Before I left I was apprehensive because my left hip pointer had been feeling really tight, but about three quarters of a mile in it loosened up.

During the last two miles I was starting to have some bathroom issues, but this is something that I must learn to run through as much as possible. I need to teach my stomach to be able to let me run with some food in it. Having to wait five hours between eating and running just is not always a possibilty. When I got home, I took care of that and changed to head over to the gym. I rode the bike for 40 minutes and read some magazines. After that I lifted. I anticipate being sore tomorrow since I did some different exercises than I have been doing.

Tomorrow night the guy and I are going out for a drink and some munching. He is a friend of my colleague. When he saw her over the weekend he was upset that I had not called yet on Saturday. She told him that I had had a busy and tough week. We aren't going out until 6:30, so it gives me plenty of time to run and shower and get ready. I also have to pick up my mother's Christmas gift before I get to run.

Posted by Blondie at 7:52 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2004

Lazy Day

For some unkown reason, we did not have school today. It isn't a holiday or an inservice, but the high schools were supposed to have a half day, which we are not able to provide, so we had the day off. Hey, no reason to kick a gift horse in the mouth. I took full advantage of my day off. I slept late this morning after staying up to watch the Eagles beat the Redskins, en route to a 12-1 record.

After I woke up, I lounged around some drinking my coffee and doing the crossword puzzle. There were a few bills hanging around that could get paid, so I took care of that. Before the end of the year, I must renew my USATF membership as well. I did a little bit of laundry, attempting to machine wash a pair of dry clean only pants. They're old, so I decided if they do get ruined it is not a major loss. They aren't dry yet, so I'm not sure if they are ruined.

Yesterday I did call the guy who I met finally and he called me back while I was Christmas shopping. The ringer was off on my phone since I did not want to be disturbed, I was a woman on a mission. I called him this afternoon and we talked for about 20 minutes, he's supposed to call back later on tonight.

After he and I spoke, I went out to do some errands. A lady who I know is coaching indoor track at a local high school. Many of her students can't afford shoes. She bought shoes for some of them. I saw her when she was doing that and told her that I have won shoes that I hate that I was willing to donate to some of her runners. I gave her two pairs of trainers that have been worn one time each and an old pair of racing flats that were worn three or four times. I dropped the shoes off at her house and then headed over to the dollar store to buy Christmas candy to give away and gift bags.

Now onto running today, since that is what this is supposed to be about. This evening I went over to the track. We actually had a bigger group than has been showing up. We did the usual warm-up loop. This guy C, who I refuse to run with, was pusing the pace. He has this tendency to speed up, slow down, stop, and repeat. We got back to the track and J said that we were going to do a loop that he plans to do pick-ups on come January. I hung back with J and a few of the other guys for most of the run. It may have been slow, but at least it was steady. I did throw in a few stride outs to get my legs feeling better. K and I finished the last mile pretty quickly. We ran for a total of 52 minutes. It was cool and breezy, winter is starting to appear :(

Cookie baking didn't happen last weekend. It is supposed to be this Saturday now. This actually works out pretty well since the track party is Saturday night. I can take all of the cookies we bake to the party so they aren't sitting around the house.

Posted by Blondie at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2004

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Things are getting back to normal around here. My brother left this afternoon, so the house is back to normal. It's hard to believe that all four of us lived here at one point. Now that we all have routines, my parents and I do pretty well. When my brother comes back home, he throws a wrench into everything. The house just is not quite big enough for four adults. Maybe it also has to do with when P is around, Mom and Dad are around more too.

Running this morning was much better than it was yesterday. Although neither run was timed, today was significantly faster than yesterday. I know this by the clock on the garage. Today I was out for the same amount of time, but I stopped and talked to one of the men from our group for several minutes. He was in his car on the way to the drugstore and was telling me about a race that I missed yesterday.

I could not sleep as late as I wanted to this morning. S and I did not go out, instead we hung out at her house and watched 13 Going on 30. It wasn't too bad, definitely a light movie, but that was what I wanted to watch. I got home around midnight and woke up at 8, but forced myself to sleep for a little bit longer since there just is not much to do early on Sunday. I got out of bed around 9 and watched some TV so that my legs wouldn't feel so tight. I was out the door around 10:15.

The weatherman didn't say anything about wind this morning, but boy was it windy. Not as bad as some days, but for the first half of the run it was in my face. I had on pants, a thin long sleeve shirt, the Under Armour shirt I won a few weeks ago, and gloves. I passed one of the women from our group who had on shorts! Now she's a bit crazy, we all acknowledge that, but it was not warm enough to warrant shorts, at least in my opinion. I did have to stop two times this morning, once for my stomach and one time to adjust my shoes. My legs and form felt much better than yesterday. Although I have the day off from work tomorrow, I have to wait until the evening to run. There is no point in driving over to the track to collect gift money if all I'm doing is driving over, I might as well do my run then. My legs will feel much better from walking around all day.

This afternoon I did some Christmas shopping (and so me shopping, of course). I took care of my mother today. All three of us are pitching in on a necklace that she wants. I bought her slippers, fancy pj's, and a fleece throw for when she is laid up. My brother has been taken care of since Black Friday. I'm about to Internet shop for daddy. He loves his car (he has a Vette). In fact the joke in the family is that the car comes first. It doesn't even go out in the rain. I'm going to try to find some Corvette memorabilia stuff online for him. Then I am DONE until the weekend when I have to but the track club gift, but that isn't my money!! No problem spending other people's money in my opinion. Most of what J is getting is gift certificates anyway, not too hard.

Posted by Blondie at 8:10 PM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2004

I'm so weak

Ok, so I broke down this morning. I woke up this morning with such a strong itch to go run and free time. I had to do it. Five consecutive days off is close to a week, right? Please help me with this one.

Last night involved eating dinner late because my brother's train didn't get in until later on in the evening and decorating the house. We had to take the tree out of the attic, my brother and I have such bad allergies that we would all be miserable with a real tree. We had to put it together and then decorate it. This year we decided that some of the really bad ornaments didn't have to be put up, since there are a lot on the tree anyhow. We put out some of the other knick-knacks and put the regular pictures, etc... out of sight for the next few weeks.

I woke up this morning and just had to run. My body was craving it. It was kind of misty for most of the run and the temperature was around 50, pretty dreary in general. My body felt really strange. Some spots were really tight from so much cross-training this week. Generally, it was a pretty easy effort. I didn't wear a watch and just tried to stay relaxed. The last three of four minutes were in a steady rain. The tight spots worked themselves out after a hot shower. I wish that I had worn gloves because my hands were swollen and cold, the hot water in the shower really hurt them.

This afternoon my friend S and I went shopping. It was supposed to be retail therapy. Her work holiday party was last night and she was feeling unmotivated to do anything, so she was happy to hear that I wanted to do some shopping. I had planned to buy for my parents, but I did lots of Christmas shopping for me. If I can't find something for someone on my list, I usually buy for myself since I feel like I should be buying.

We're still not sure if we're doing cookie baking tomorrow or not. My plan is to get out for an early, short run and then knock on their door to see if they're still interested. Tomorrow I must call the guy who I met last weekend. He probably thinks that I'm totally uninterested, but I have been busy and that is not a lie. I have to give him at least a chance to see if I want to pursue anything or not. Well, I think that S and I may be going out again tonight. We both need to get out more...there is no way to meet someone if you just stay in all the time!

Posted by Blondie at 8:03 PM | Comments (1)

December 10, 2004

The Easy Part is Over

Five days down, two to go. The easy five days of no running are completed, the two hardest days are yet to come. The itch is there...I'm ready to go again. The weekend days are the hardest days to take off because I have some extra time. I guess being single and not having too many obligations gives me lots of excess time to run on weekends. My body is feeling more rested than it has in ages. For the most part the weather has not been good running weather this week. The past two days have been rainy and gross, but the rain is supposed to clear out for the weekend. Next week is supposed to be significantly cooler.

This afternoon I went to the gym after work. I planned to do the elliptical trainer for an hour, but my right foot kept getting numb. I don't know how some of you do marathon sessions on the thing. My right toes can only make about 15 minutes on the dang thing. I went for half an hour, stopped, took off my shoes and massaged my foot and then got back on for another 30 minutes. Afterwards, I stretched, gabbed with a guy I know who wants to get under 3 hours in Boston, and then lifted. Nothing too exciting.

I think that cookie-baking might have been moved to Sunday. Mom is getting to the point that she does not care if we do it with the neighbors or not. It keeps getting moved, and we're doing it more for the hanging out aspect of it than the having cookie aspect of it. We don't eat many cookies here. The only good thing about this is we would only have half the number of cookies we would have had if we made them all on our own. Speaking of cooking, I'm making dinner for the family tonight and the kitchen is calling my name!

Posted by Blondie at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 9, 2004

Follow the Tiled Black Line

I'll start with a quick health update as there is nothing new to report. We are all trying to stay positive and live as normally as we possibly can. We have been compiling a list of questions to ask tomorrow. I will not be attending this meeting, just my mother and father will. I'm saving my time off from work for any time that my father is not available to be with my mother. My father is self-employed, so he needs to work so that they can pay all of the bills and insurance. He wants to go to everything, which is fine with me, but when it comes to spending time at home I would rather do it. Simply put, it is easier for my father to support me and my mother than for me to support them.

Four days down, three to go. The three remaining days are the most difficult days of the week off. Tomorrow isn't too hard since it is usually a day off from running regardless. The weekend is the most difficult time to take off. Usually I don't even make it this far, so I'm doing really well this year. I have to keep reminding myself that this *really* is good for me. My theory is that it helps in injury prevention since rest is just as important as hard work. The funny aches and pains are subsiding quite a bit. Today I was a little on the sore side from yesterday's massage, but everything felt generally good.

Today I decided that I would swim. In college, I swam competitively. I try to get in the pool every so often now, but it is difficult because of the swim team. Anyhow, I lost the one and only pair of goggles that were leftover from college. This required using some more of the leftover comp time from work to stop in the swim shop on the way to the gym to buy a new pair. I got to the pool and had no problem finding a lane. I ended up swimming 2000 yards which is more than I have in many months. My shoulders may be paying the price for being overzealous today tomorrow. After around 1600 yards, my allergy to chlorine began to surface; I started to sneeze uncontrollably. It does not bother me too much when I run in the pool because my face doesn't get too wet. After the swim, I went into the fitness center. I got on one of the ellipticals. I wanted to do 45 minutes, but it had a half hour max. I set it for 30 minutes and did one of the hill programs. It wasn't too bad, but I wanted to read some of the good garbage magazines they had today. I just can't stay balanced on the machine. I ended up with 35 minutes because I kept the resistance up during the 5 minute cool down. I intended to lift, but I saw a woman who I know from running and ended up talking to her instead. I'll use my dumbbells when I watch TV and do my ab routine...hopefully tonight's TV shows are not all reruns.

Posted by Blondie at 7:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 8, 2004

Ouch....Aahh

I would like to thank everyone again for thinking of our family. It truly means a great deal to all of us. Things are looking better now that we have some of the procedures scheduled. I think that it make my mother feel better than something is about to be done, rather than waiting for procedures to be scheduled.

My brother will be home this weekend because of the news. Our parents told him he did not need to change his plans on account of the news, but he wants to come home anyhow. Given his situation, it is not all that hard for him to come here for the weekend. His position is involving travel right now and all he would have to pay for is the difference in the price of the ticket. P's coming home for the weekend is convenient as well; he can help decorate the Christmas tree. This is typically a long ordeal in our family. We have an unbelievable number of ornaments. Our parents are too sentimental to get rid of anything. Broken ornaments, ugly ornaments, the sleds made out of popsicle sticks, noodle picture frames; you name it, we've got it. P gets at least two Santas ornaments each year and I get at least two angel ornaments each year. Put them all together and you get a long project.

There was absolutely no working out for me today. As jenandmats stated, taking a complete week off from running is a challenge for most runners. It is probably the most difficult week for me. Today was absolutely beautiful out for any time of year, but especially for December. Luckily I had a massage scheduled for immediately after work and by the time I left it was getting dark. My massage therapist is a fantastic runner and she supports my choice to take a week off. We were discussing that the rest days are perhaps the most important days of training. I let her go to town on my legs today. They definitely got some work. My hip pointers were especially tight. There was no way that I could have done anything after the appointment. I will do some sit-ups while I watch TV, but no workout. At some times it hurt so much before it felt good, hence the title.

After my appointment I took care of some Christmas shopping. I don't have too much to do, but now some of it is off my back. On Saturday morning my mom and I are doing cookie baking with the woman across the street and her daughter. We've been talking about doing this since last year. It should be fun. Our neighbor's daughter is the same age as I am and has just moved back into the area.

Posted by Blondie at 8:00 PM | Comments (3)

December 7, 2004

Round and Round We Go

Thank you all for your warm wishes regarding the news about my mother. It really means a lot, especially since I have only met one of you. I spoke with my dad tonight regarding the course of treatment. He is the one who talked with the surgeon. He and I both think that they found this tumor early. The surgeon asked if we wanted to wait until after New Year's to proceed with treatment, but my dad decided that it would make my mom feel better to go through with treatment before Christmas. She is scheduled for a bone scan to check her lymph nodes on the 14th and her lumpectomy is scheduled for the 21st. At this point we do not know if there is recovery time required between removing the tumor and the radiation, I guess we find that out this Friday. The fact that the surgeon considered waiting until after the holidays to proceed with treatment leads me to believe that they did find this very early.

As for my mental state, running probably would have helped me a great deal today. That is my time to really think and clear my head, but my health and body are important too. The weather today was terrible. It was cool, very foggy, misty, and just dreary. The temperature is actually supposed to get warmer overnight, with a high in the upper 50s tomorrow.

I went to the gym and did the early Spinning class. Actually, I got there a little bit early to get some extra time on the bike. Doing two classes was a possibility, but my seat is just not ready for two hours in the saddle yet. I was able to get 75 minutes of Spinning in this afternoon. It did not feel like quite as good of a workout as running, but it does feel like a decent workout. It was kind of strange because it was making my shin feel funny if I didn't have the resistance right or if my position was off. I need to go and ice it soon.

Tomorrow will probably have no workout of any sort. I have a massage scheduled for right after work and then I should take care of some Christmas errands. This would make J happy since he thinks that I should sit on my tush and be a completely lazy bum for an entire week!

Posted by Blondie at 7:43 PM | Comments (3)

December 6, 2004

Bummer Start to the Week

Most of the day today was actually a pretty good day, I just got the bad news about an hour ago (more about that later). Today was actually a half decent day at work, completely unproductive, but tolerable. Perhaps the fact that only about half of the students were in school made it easier. I forgot to get the number of the guy who I met on Friday night from my co-worker, but that can always be taken care of tomorrow. Apparently he is quite interested, she was filling me in on him today.

This afternoon I used a half hour of the comp time left from when we had open house last month. The pool at the gym is supposed to have 6 lap lanes from 3:00 until 4:15. This was not the case, three lanes were being used by one of the after school programs (maybe because one of the local school districts did not have school today). I ended up having to share a lane with lap swimmers. It really was not all that bad, my hair was already getting wet. There were only a few big splashes in my face. It was so boring, time would have passed so much faster if I had a pool-running partner. The first half hour really dragged, but the second half hour went by much faster. After I got dried off, I went into the fitness center and rode the stationary bike for 35 minutes and did some ab work. While I was at work, I also scheduled a massage for later on this week.

Now onto the bad news. Last week my mom had to have a biopsy for something that had shown up in her mamogram. She found out today that the tumor is cancerous. My mother tends to be on the paranoid side in the first place, this diagnosis has really thrown her. The doctor who is a family friend told her that it is an aggressive cell but is small. She had my dad talk to the doc and she didn't really understand what he was saying. I think this is because she was so upset that she stopped thinking and hearing and just started crying. I told her that the best thing she can do right now is wait until her appointment on Friday morning. When she's there she can ask questions and get more information. She isn't really sure what her doctor was telling her about treatment. They have to check out her nodes and then they can tell her more. Now she thinks that some soreness that she has in her upper arm is cancer as well. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I want her to think positive thoughts and get more information before she jumps to conclusions. She told me that she doesn't need me to come with her to the appointment on Friday because my dad can come, but she might need me some other days.

Sorry about the heavy topic. It's funny, I feel like I can put this all out here since nobody here knows my mother. I also feel like we all know each other well in some way, yet most of us have never met face to face. It is easier to share this with strangers than with some of the people I know. My mom isn't really to talk to people yet, so the best I can do is just be here for her.

Posted by Blondie at 7:17 PM | Comments (3)

December 5, 2004

Buzz Kill

Since it has been an unusally mild December for the mid-Atlantic, I decided that I would race this weekend. We have had snow for the first weekend in December for at least the past two or three years. Today was sunny, breezy, and in the low 50s! There is a pretty good sized 10K that is about 25 minutes north of my house. Last year there was so much snow this weekend that they had to cancel the race and move it to March. When they had the postphoned race, they could not have it on the traditional course becuase they could not secure the permits or use the university. I ran the race in March. The course was horrendously hilly. After the race I was told that not only was the course unusually hilly, it was actually close to 6.5 miles, not 6.2! That definitely explained the slowness of my time that day. There is nothing like thinking that you are in pretty decent shape and then running a 10K close to two minutes slower than where you thought you'd be.

Fast forward about eight months. They moved the course back to the traditional course, which other than this spring, they have run something like 25 times. Parking was a pain in the rear, but I was able to find a spot after a pretty long detour including a cop yelling at me as I was about to turn around before the road block. I registered, got my chip, shirt (size XL, of course) and headed out to warm up. The race did not start until 1:00 which posed a bit of a problem. I usually don't eat before races, but this started so late that some kind of breakfast was in order. I ate a good size portion of oatmeal, but I felt kind of heavy in my stomach. The warm-up helped that along.

We lined up for the race. I was amazed at how many really fast women were there. They flew in a bunch of foreign runners, who ended up taking at least the top four spots. Some of the local runners, myself included, were a little bit upset about this. The community puts up the money for the race and the winners are not contributing to the community. Don't get me wrong, I understand that some of these foreign runners do this for a living while we work, but this is not Boston or NYCM-it's pretty much a regional 10K race. The course is strongly rolling. The hills are not super steep, but they aren't tiny rollers either. I went through the mile in a shade over 6 minutes. At this point I was feeling pretty good. There was no clock at 2 miles, so I'm not too sure where I was. At the three mile marker I knew something was up. The clock said 17:12...that's pretty close to my 5K PR pace. No clock again at 4 miles. Somewhere between four and five miles I started to go back and forth with another girl. She was a much better downhill runner than me, I kept passing her on the flats and ups, while she'd fly by on the downs. Something to work on next year. We went through 5 miles in a shade over 30. OK, that is pretty darn close to my 5 mile PR. I kept thinking that maybe it was a good day. I know that my 5 mile and 10K PRs are soft, so maybe. The final 1.2 miles are pretty much all uphill. The course makes a left hand turn, goes up a hill, into the stadium parking lot, and onto the track for about 350 meters. It feels kind of like the Olympic marathon to come around the track to the finish. Making the turn onto the uphill some guy was telling us what places we were in. At that point I was in 11th and he told me that I better kick if I wanted to get the last money spot. There was no way on earth that I'd have been able to catch 10th. I pretty much gave up at this poing. No matter what I did, I wasn't going to be in the money. We got on the track and the girl who I'd been going back and forth with came by me and some other woman came sprinting by us. I did close some on the girl, but didn't pass her. I finished in 38:18 by my watch. I was so happy that I ran somewhat well. The fall has been very difficult for me, running lots of subpar races. Then I got the buzz kill. We found out that the course was a block short. The had us turn somewhere too early at some point between the first and third miles. That explained why the 3 mile split was so fast.

I did a short warm down since there is no running at all next week. I've put it in writing, now I've got to stick to it. I had to wait around a long time for the awards. The top 10 are money and 11 to 20 were gift certificates. I ended up with a $20 gift certificate to a running shop in that town. It isn't too far away and I have a gift certificate to a restaurant in town as well, so I'll kill two birds with one stone some day. I think that my time would still have been a high 38 if the course had been accurate. The thing that is really irritating is that they have run this course at least 25 times. Some folks were really mad because they needed to have certified courses to set age group records, etc...

The race took up almost the entire day. I stopped in Trader Joe's on the way home to stock up on some of the food that I've run out of recently. I also need to go to the regular grocery store tonight as well since I'm out of some staples. Laundry is still not finished, two more loads to go. The laundry that got done yesterday still needs to be put away. This is all OK since there are reruns on TV tonight.

Posted by Blondie at 5:38 PM | Comments (5)

December 4, 2004

Needed to fill the tank

No, not in the car. This morning's run was based purely on fumes in the gas tank. Since I was going to a party, I ate lite fare for dinner to save room for any appealing munchies. As usual, I really did not eat anything at the party. I had three glasses of wine over the course of seven hours and about half a bottle of Fresca. I ended up staying way later than planned since I was talking to a guy who I met. Fortunately I was not planning on going to the 7:00 long run today...crawling into bed at 3 in the morning is not conducive to good long runs.

I didn't really sleep all that late, even after staying up into the wee hours of the morning. Around 9:30, I ventured out for my easy run. My legs didn't feel all that bad considering how little sleep and recovery there was over night. The elliptical did a number on my achilles/calves, they felt really tight. No time on this run, it was the easy run the day before a race. The last ten minutes started to feel a little bit bonk-ee, but nothing as bad as an all-out bonk.

It was cold out, in my opinion. I couldn't find my ear band this morning and it was not quite cold enough to put on a hat. I find the mid-to-high-30s to be cold. Yes, as in tights, a shirt, fleece, gloves, and ear band cold. Finding clothes to wear was an issue, since everything is in the laundry. So far, I've done five loads of laundry and still have some left to do.

Later on this afternoon I'm going to a cookie baking party. Not good pre-race eating, but at this point I don't really care. This is my last race of the year, and it is more of an afterthought than a planned out race. In a few minutes, I'm heading out with my parents to see the proofs from the family portraits last week. We're all curious to see how they turned out.

Posted by Blondie at 3:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2004

Ellipticalling

No running, as usual for Friday. It is so nice to leave work on Friday and be able to just start the weekend without having to squeeze a run in. Not like it really matters, we never go to happy hour after work, and even when we have it isn't for at least two to three hours after we get off. Seriously, who really wants to go out for drinks at 2:30 in the afternoon? Who is out at that time, the raging alcoholics?

A co-worker invited me to a party tonight and I wanted to get something new to wear. Right after work I went out looking for a fun, new, flirty top that I can wear tonight and for all of the holiday parties this year. Mission accomplished.

Following the shopping trip, a workout was in order. At the gym I did 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. A question for all of you hard-core elliptical folks: how do you read on the thing? I kept getting dizzy and having a hard time focusing on which line I was trying to read. My calves were screaming by the time I got off, so some stretching was required. Then I did a quick lifting session and some ab work on the BOSU ball. I think those ab exercises are going to kick me in the stomach tomorrow morning. Luckily I did not fall off the elliptical today, so I may be able to do that a few days next week along with some pool running and Spinning.

Now off to get ready to party!!

Posted by Blondie at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)

December 2, 2004

Big Houses

Instead of running right after work today, I waited until the track group ran. Nobody contributed toward the Christmas gift, so I might as well have run at home. Well, the social interaction is good for me.

We did a different route this evening. The route from Monday is not that bad when it is light out, but it does go through some less than terrific areas of town. Tonight we took a tour of three of the richest neighborhoods in town. Some of these houses are just enormous. A few of them have some interesting stories behind them as well. The houses are impressive in the dark, but I enjoy running in these neighborhoods during the day so I can ogle at the houses. As nice as a big house on a lot of land would be, I would not want to have to take care of all the yardwork. Give me a big house with a postage stamp yard and I'll be happy.

We started out pretty slowly, but the guys I ran with on Monday and I picked up the pace a bit as we went along. The course was probably about 7 miles, we were out for 51 minutes. The weather was cool, in my opinion. Of course, I believe that anything under 50 is cool. I'd rather have on too much clothes and be warm than be freezing my buns off because I'm so cold.

While I watch TV tonight, as I do every night, I'll do some ab work. In the past year I have noticed a real difference in definition. I've been doing ab exercises for years, but some of the exercises I learned in the ab class at the gym have made a real impact. Next week when I don't run I'll go back to all of the classes I used to take at the gym.

Luckily the wind from yesterday had diminished. Many homes lost power yesterday from the gusts. There were even a few deaths blamed on the wind. In retrospect, it was really stupid for me to go out and run in that wind.

Posted by Blondie at 7:31 PM | Comments (11)

December 1, 2004

The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowin In The Wind

The answer to yesterday's question, "will it be three in a row", can be found in the lyrics of Bob Dylan, "the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind". Yes it was windy. Very windy. In fact, it is still windy. Heavy rain this morning gave way to sunny skies and lots of strong wind. There was so much rain overnight and this morning that the entire area was under a flood watch.

Only a stubborn fool, such as yours truly, would be dumb enough to go outside for a run in the winds we had this afternoon. While I had the weather on, in the process of getting changed into running clothes, they showed the peak wind gusts in the area to be 66 miles per hour. The gusts were not quite that strong, probably "only" in the forty mile per hour range. After seeing that weather report, the watch was left on the dresser to be worn on another day. Why bother getting all upset over running slower because you're running into a strong headwind. Sometimes I think the worst part is when the strong wind is at your back, it feels like you are going to get picked up and carried away.

It is hard to judge if today was a good run or a bad run. Early on, my legs felt kind of tight. In the middle, there was so much wind that most of the effort went into being able to move. The final two miles felt pretty good. I think that some foam rolling is in order tonight due to some excess tightness. I rode the bike at the gym for 45 minutes after running. I did some stretching at the gym, but I was hungry and just wanted to go home and put on sweats.

I desparately have to do laundry. I think that I am almost out of sports bras. The really sad part of this is that I must own thirty to forty sports bras. My real problem is that on the days I go to the gym I go through two bras in a day. I can't stand to have on sweaty clothes when I go to the gym, it just makes me colder.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer comes on soon. It is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies. Something about it just makes me smile every year :)

Posted by Blondie at 7:43 PM | Comments (1)