Runs with Dog

Ichetucknee Cont.

2009-10-25T08:47:00.006-04:00

More pictures......

Great Blue Heron:

Another egret:

Timeless image....

Sunning turtles

We saw lots of them, all lined up on logs.

Trip highlight! We were told to watch for a family of 5 otters and we did get a brief glimpse of them frolicking and swimming. Very awesome to see!

Unfortunately, we didn't see the one animal I was hoping for - wild hogs. I guess they are considered a 'nuisance' animal in the park, but I thought it would be neat to see them in the wild. We did see one poor, bloated and floating hog corpse but I don't think that counts and I will spare you the image.

Ichetucknee Springs

2009-10-25T08:25:00.006-04:00

We headed out about an hour north of G'ville, to Ichetucknee Springs. North Central Florida is home to numerous fresh water springs and Ichetucknee is one of the closest. It's a state park that offers kayaking, swimming, hiking, tubing, etc., with some of the strictest park rules I've seen. But it all pays off because the locale is absolutely pristine. Saturday morning dawned rainy and a little cool so the park was quiet and we saw few people on the run (Ichetucknee River is about 6 or 7 miles long until it joins up with the Santa Fe River, so as our shuttle driver told us it is a 'run' rather than an actual river.)

A large egret (foreground) and smaller white ibis in the background:

A White Ibis foraging in the mud:

Just pretty river scenery:

The spring fed water (at a constant 72 degrees) is ridiculously crystal clear. These fish were in about 6 feet of water.

The current moves at about 2 mph. We rented a double kayak and just drifted down the river, occasionally correcting direction. It took us about 2.5 hours.

accupuncture

2009-08-24T08:39:00.005-04:00

Before we left NY, Mal was getting once a week laser treatments for his back and pelvis. We saw improvement. When we arrived in Gville, we decided to give accupuncture a shot thinking if it didn't work, we could always fall back on to the laser.

Mal had his first appointment with Dr. Xie (pronounced shay) at the UF vet school a week after we arrived. We were still living in a motel. I didn't feel comfortable leaving Cosmo alone there so he went along for the ride.

The appointment consisted of a lot of history given to a 2nd year vet student. Then Dr. Xie comes in with two other vet/Phd's - one from Spain and one from Korea. Lots of talking, looking at Mal's tongue, feeling his ears, his femoral pulses etc. They pronounce him suffering from a stagnated qi (pronounced chee). And the accupuncture starts.....

Cosmo spent the first part of the appointment hiding behind me, staring at the wall. Kind of a 'if I don't see them, they can't see me' thing. Once he realized that no one was going to do anything to him, he relaxed, let himself be fussed over a little bit, got some pets and laid down.

Mal was very relaxed during the whole procedure:

Midway through the appointment (which took about 1.5 hours total!) we were joined by two other vets. All total, at one point, we had 5 vets and one vet student in the examining room!

Accupuncture results? Not really sure yet. Mal is doing better, his mobility has improved greatly. The shaky backend is pretty much gone. He is still way too thin and doesn't seem to put on any weight no matter what I feed him or the quantities.

Friday and Saturday Nights in Gville

2009-08-16T09:55:00.002-04:00

Imagine taking a stroll through Time Square. Imagine taking that stroll with Bono, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen or Mac Davis (that last is thrown in there just for Jen!)

Friday and Saturday nights are big night outs around here. The ground floor of our building has several high end restaurants, all with sidewalk seating. In the immediate 4 block radius, there are probably another 12+ restaurants, several live music venues and coffee shops.

As I take the dogs around for their last evening walk around 10:30-11 ish, we are stopped constantly. People remark about them. People want to ask questions. People want to pet them. People lean over the railings separating their dining area from the sidewalk to pet them and even occasionally offer a bite of their dinner. Mal sometimes takes them up on their offers, Cosmo usually refuses because he doesn't like to eat in public. :-) A low murmur follows us as we make our way and I can hear the comments behind us.

"Oh, those are greyhounds."

"I bet they were racers"

"Look at the gorgeous whippets!"

"Do you think they are greyhounds?"

"Wow, look at the Great Dane"

...and so on.

And it isn't as if there aren't plenty of other dogs around either, even at that time of night. People have their dogs all around hanging out, walking them, etc. But the greyhounds seem to occupy a singular spot in the collective consciousness and they garner outsized attention from the public.

Sometimes I like it and seize the opportunity to do a little education. Sometimes I just want to walk them and get up to bed.

My dogs are freaking rockstars around here.

Things I've Learned

2009-08-14T12:40:00.002-04:00

This past week, I've learned that:

1) My old kitchen was huge.
2) My new kitchen? Not so much.
3) We have way too much crap.
4) Husband believes packing should be done methodically. Unpack a box, think about where you want the stuff and put it there. Items should only be handled once on their way from packing box to permanent home.
5) I belong to the 'unpack the box, stuff the crap somewhere and get the boxes the heck out of the house and reorganize later'.

First Week in FL

2009-08-12T09:14:00.003-04:00

My first impressions:

1) It's hot down here.
2) It's not as hot as I expected. According to locals, this past week has been very warm. It's been in the mid 90's every afternoon. That is hot. The sun is very intense. I would not want to be doing manual labor outside in the sun anywhere from noon to 5 pm. That being said, there is usually a breeze. The morning starts in the low 70's and it usually cools down to the mid 70's to low 80's in the evening. I know the low 80's doesn't sound cool but it *feels* cooler. Both my sister and I remarked that first week, how temps that would feel very warm in NY seem to be more comfortable here.
3) People are very friendly and polite. They like to chat.
4) People are too friendly and polite. They like to waste time chatting away. LOL My NY casual chat tolerance ends at 5-10 minutes. That's usually when these folks are just getting started. And I have the 'hang out' gene. I can only imagine Bridget, who we joke doesn't have the 'hangout' gene, would be going ballistic around here. She has an even shorter chat tolerance than most. :-)
5) Traffic isn't as bad yet as the locals say it will get when the students return. I've already seen lots of UHauls so the students are starting to trickle back - probably mostly freshmen who have orientations and such. I compare all traffic horror stories to my epic traffic tale which consists of me loading a UHaul from a 6th floor Manhattan walkup apt., driving it from W 169th St, through Midtown at 5pm on a weekday, through the MidtIown Tunnel (I was stopped and searched!) into Brooklyn. Nothing compares to that trip. LOL And it was done with a sweaty, cranky and tired daughter! Anyways, I imagine the traffic here will be irritating but I think I can handle it.
6) I think we made the right move living downtown. We like it already!
7) I can't wait to get a bike with a big basket on the front. I plan on riding it around town, doing my shopping like a Parisienne. :-)
8) I LOVE the outdoors-iness of this place. There are sidewalks EVERYWHERE. 95% of the streets have bike lanes. No matter what time of day there are people walking or biking around. I love being able to walk so many places. And I love that the municipal authorities have made it very accesible (i.e. the bike lanes). I've also thought that when the students get here in force, I will have to be in hyperalert driving. There are a lot now, but there will be many more walkers, bikers and scooters on the streets.
9) Lots of smokers. I mean, a LOT of smokers. Young people too. Strange. I would be interested to see the % of smokers here compared to Syr.

Wow

2009-08-10T09:03:00.002-04:00

I don't want to unnecessarily perpetuate any stereotypes - my northern counterparts seem to think that things in the south are slow and relaxed and people move like they are encased in molasses - so I will stick to just the facts.

We are having new carpet put in the condo. The old carpet was serviceable but stained in places. We had it professionally cleaned but weren't ecstatic with the results. We decided to replace it while we are waiting for our furniture. We figured installation would be easy in an empty place.

Carpet is only on the stairs, the upstairs landing and two bedrooms each with adjoining baths. Job consisted on ripping out the old carpet, installing the new. Two rooms and a staircase.

Two workers started the job on Friday morning. Worked all day Friday. Worked all day Saturday. Still here today.

Three days to install what is essentially three rooms of carpet.

Wow. Just wow.

The workers are very nice though - we just can't talk to them anymore. They would never get it done. Yes, they are a chatty couple. :-)

Road Trip Day 2

2009-08-06T15:28:00.002-04:00

We hit the road early for what we knew would be our longest and hardest day. We started out from Hagerstown, MD and ended up in Columbia, SC. We decided to take our time and we picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Shenandoah National Park (it's called Skyline Dr. in this section). Well worth the $15 park entry fee. It was stunning. Gorgeous. This country of ours really is amazing!

We drove the last 50 miles of Skyline Dr. and exited out of the park onto the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove about another 60-70 miles along this route. We took our time, stopping numerous times just to marvel at the scenery, to walk the dogs, and once to have a picnic lunch. The dogs didn't seem to impressed with the scenery but they enjoyed the new and different smells. We decided to get off the Parkway when we did because my sister (who suffers from car sickness) was starting to feel a little queasy. It is a windy, hairpin turn road and it is hard to get over 40 mph.

At that point, we hooked back up with 81 and headed south. We picked up 26 around Johnson City and took that into Asheville. We wanted to see Asheville. :-) We didn't see much of it, but what we saw, we liked! One of the best parts of the drive was going right over the Appalachian Mountains. We approached them from the northwest and crossed right over them to the other side. We really got the sense of approaching them and traversing over them. There was a definite beginning, middle and end to our driving them and it gave me a sense of scale of this mountain range in the middle of our east coast.

We pulled into Columbia, SC way late. Later than I expected. We were all so tired that we really didn't care too much that our motel (Red Roof Inn!) could have modeled for a Roach Motel. I'm being a little unkind. It had a marginally acceptable level of cleanliness and it did allow dogs. The dogs crashed, I crashed, Sherry crashed. It had been a long day of driving but we positioned ourselves perfect for an easy last day of driving.

Road Trip Day 1

2009-08-03T07:04:00.002-04:00

We left NY around noon in a major rainstorm and it rained for the next two hours until we were south of Ithaca. Very apropo to our feelings. Both dogs had major meltdowns after Bridget said good bye to them. Cosmo tried to follow me into the shower, Mal just followed me all around the house, whining. Mal NEVER whines :-(

Anyways, I left NY after a nice three mile run in the morning with my running group. It was a nice farewell to finish up with them and my friends.

First day travel went really well. Both Cosmo and Mal are excellent travellers. We made good time. Went through the central part of PA which was beautiful. Today we are tackling the Blue Ridge Parkway and are shooting to end up in Augusta, GA.

Only little glitch is Cosmo's exposure to automatic doors and elevators. The expression on his face when a motel door opened as he walked up to it was priceless. He doesn't like the elevators so much. First time on it, his legs buckled and he almost collapsed when it started moving. Mal is an old champ at them and nothing fazes that dog. They are the best travelling dogs!

Daily travails

2009-07-30T19:34:00.003-04:00

Bridget thought this email to her was blog worthy. I don't know about that. It reads as just another ordinarily frustrating day. But here it is. You decide. Clarifying, editorial comments are in red.

Yesterday, Cosmo peed on the kitchen rug. I haul it, along with a laundry basket of clothes to the local homeless hangout, otherwise known as the laundromat (this is because I've sold my washer and dryer - new FL house comes with their own). First, though, I stop at a convenience store to buy a bottle of water and break a $20. It was raining. When I got out of my car, I was parked over a drainage grate. I was wearing my old birkenstocks which have no tread anymore. I step on the wet grate and not asphalt. My foot goes out from under me, I grab the car door. There goes the back. I can not bend forward at my hips any further than about 4 inches. I'm lurching around to the point where Quasimodo is graceful compared to me. As much as I feel sorry for myself - I've been battling back, pelvis and leg pain for several months now - I'm not near as bad as this. Gives me a little perspective when I start the self pity party. It just sucks to hurt it worse when you are trying to be careful and recover.

My sister #3 (the numerical designation is strictly based on birth order and has nothing to do with family standing, prosperity or affection :-))is taking Malcolm for laser today (we've been doing class 4 laser treatments on Mally's back end to try to give him some relief from his chronic pain). I decide to hobble out last night and try to clean the car as much as possible. I wanted to do it before we leave anyways and I really don't want her totally grossed out today. Of course, it took me probably three times as long because I have no range of motion. As I'm cleaning, I hear Cosmo doing his usual hysterics. Because, of course, you know, if I'm messing around with the car out in the garage, it must mean he's going someplace even though it's 11 pm. That's his reality in Cosmo World. I finish, come in the house. He's peed on the rug I just washed at the laundromat.

I get up this morning, roll and creak out of bed. Start doing some cleaning and organizing, for the movers who are supposed to be coming and packing today although I haven't heard a peep out of them. According to the dispatcher though, they are on the schedule. We shall see if anyone shows up. So I'm doing that and also cleaning because some fruitcake is insisting on seeing the house today at 11. She HAS to buy a house this week and she doesn't care if there are movers in here packing or what. I'm in the kitchen, I smell something. I turn around. Cosmo has left the biggest pile ever on the towel (that I have no ability to wash easily) that I put in front of the door for them when they come in from the backyard.

The movers are coming. The prospective buyer is coming. I can't move. My house is a mess. It smells like shit.

Miss Has To See My House Because She's Buying One This Week never shows. Her realtor never even calls to inform me they won't show. I sic my realtor on them. He doesn't like rude people. :-)

One last thing - when those movers say they are coming to pack, they do not mess around. They pack and they pack everything! And you don't realize just how used you are to having stuff at your fingertips until it is all packed away, out of reach, in neatly labelled boxes. Tonight I had to eat a soy yogurt and wash out the container all so I could drink my nightly numerous gin and tonics. Movers won't pack and move alcohol so I am doing my darnedest to work my way through 1.75 liters of BeefEaters. I can gift the rest of the stuff, the whiskey, the rum, etc to Bridget. But I really lurve my gin. I know. Real classy.

grapehounds

2009-07-24T19:03:00.003-04:00

Picked up B today and we headed out to the Fingerlakes area with Cosmo for the annual Grapehounds extravaganza and to meet up with Jen who was vending there. They did things a little different this year, instead of vendors placed all around at the different wineries, vendors were all centrally located together at a campground. Why the difference from previous years? Yeah, it seems as though the success of previous years inspired someone to schedule another event featuring the wineries and greyhound adoption groups and try to pass it off as the original. Really. Needless to say, we went with the first and original event which benefits adoption groups.

Sad day. Did not like saying goodbye to Jen. Not like it all. In my quest for self-medication, I'm now on my third gin and tonic.

Running or Not Running

2009-07-21T08:28:00.002-04:00

It would probably be more correct to title this Running With Pain. Everyone I've discussed this with has felt, even though there's not an MD in the group, very comfortable diagnosing me with sciatica. They're not doctors but they play ones. :-)

Hip, pelvis pain, sometimes radiating around the small of my back and occasionally down the leg. It was worse. I cut back dramatically on my workouts and that took care of the more sharp, stabbing pain that would make my leg give out under me.

I'm now down to running the bare minimum. I even took last week off. Went out today with the intention of running an easy 3. I pulled up at 2 and walked home.

Well, well, well

2009-07-15T11:55:00.002-04:00

I'm just amused enough to wonder how long it will take a certain someone to realize that the blog is being revitalized. Or that I am attempting to revitalize it.

Almost a year since the last post - that is a pretty good indication of what my life's been like in that past year - boring. Boring. So boring that I even bore myself.

But.......things are looking up a bit as far as new and exciting things going on. House is up for sale. New house is closing the end of this month. Husband is already in the new state working. Dogs and I are heading down in about 2 weeks. Big happenings :-)

New Post (finally!) and a race report

2008-08-21T08:19:00.002-04:00

Yeah. Been kind of quiet around here. Mainly because summer is very busy and I've been boring myself witless. Yep, I am bored with myself.

Anyways, the title does say race report and race report it shall be. Willow Bay - 5k. This was the first race for the gym's beginner group. This group is awesome - very low drop out rate and a very motivated group. Everyone did awesome and now they are moving forward, setting their sights on Bud in September.

This was my 5K 'A' race. I wanted to PR. I worked hard on my speed all summer long and it paid off................

27:39
8:53 pace

Boo-ya.
Amazing what speeds you can run hauling around 30 less pounds!

W, S, K, B and I planned on running all out - we were all shooting for PRs. This race wasn't chip timed so we all lined up at the front and went out very fast.

My first mile was 8:18. Yeah. Way, way too fast and it was all downhill pacewise after that. However, that was enough time in the bank to keep me under 9's.

At about the half mile point, I came up alongside B. I told her that we were going out way too fast. She said she knew that and at this point 'WE' (that 'we' is very important to remember) just need to relax, settle in and run. 'Oh great', I thought to myself. 'She said 'we', she must be planning on running with me and I won't be all alone'. No sooner was that thought out of my head than I was looking at her rapidly disappearing back. Seriously folks. I might have been standing at a standstill. 'Huh,' I said to myselfs. 'If that is the way she wants to play it, I will just hang with her as long as possible', and I picked up my speed. That lasted about 3 steps. I backed it right down to my snail's pace and said 'EFF that and eff her!' She quickly vanished from my vision. Beotch finished just under 26.

All the way down the parkway, to the turnaround, I could see K in front of me and who I thought was S. I run vision impaired, without my glasses. All I could see was this woman, in a pink top and I thought it was S. At the turnaround, my time was 13 and change. I spent the second half of the race chasing K. I figured if I caught her, I wouldn't have to run alone. I never caught her. She never increased her lead over me but I just couldn't catch her. She finished about 30 seconds ahead of me. Once I passed her and figured out pink shirt lady wasn't S, I had no idea where she was - ahead or behind me. Turns out she was 10-15 seconds behind me, trying to chase me down like I was trying to chase K down.

Last mile was painful. It just hurt. After the halfway turnaround, I just looked and waited to see Jen who came along to spectate with Cliff and Lucy. Once I saw her, I started looking for A on the right side of the course and I knew I was home free.

Next up - Bud in September. Not sure how I will run this - for my own time or with the new runners. After that is the Toronto half at the end of the month.

Did it!

2008-06-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

4 miles - 39:35

Next up - 4.5 under 45 minutes

2008-06-02T10:48:00.002-04:00

Cosmo and I ran with Bridget yesterday. It was supposed to be my last easy 5 miler of this recovery week. We ended up averaging 10:15 per mile and that was with an 11:10 third mile as a 'recovery. Bridget KICKED. OUR. ASSES.

Today was an easy 3 at 10:44 pace. No way was Cosmo and I going any faster. There was no life in the legs - all 6 of them. LOL

Run Report

2008-05-25T11:40:00.002-04:00

Faithful running partner, W, is out of town for 10 days. So, today, Bridget joined me on my long run. It was to be 8 miles and I was shooting for an 11 minute pace. Bridget was to run the first 5 and then drop away.

Mile 1: 10:59 - perfect
Mile 2: 10:44
Mile 3: 10:58
Both mile 2 and 3 included a pretty steep hill. In fact, last week, our mile 3 was our slowest at 11:26.
Mile 4: 10:53
Mile 5: 10:47
Mile 6: 10:42
Mile 7: 11:10
Mile 8: 11:02

Bridget ended up doing 7 and keeping it real strong all the way through.

Average pace: 10:55

Clueless People

2008-05-20T12:30:00.003-04:00

Cosmo and I head out on a little 3 mile jaunt this morning. It is nice and cool, sun is shining, very little wind - just a perfect running day. Last Friday, this route took me 29:16 so I think that I will shoot to take a little time off of that - not much, just a few seconds or so. Goal is 29:10 which would give me a 9:43 mile. Blazing fast for me! LOL

Mile 1 - 9:42 Feel good, everything is right in my world.
Mile 2 - 9:56 Huh? Well, no matter. I still feel good and I know with a little focus I can still do this. I need to hit about 9:31 for this last mile - a challenge but I am going for it.
Mile 3 - Oh wait. We are stopped at mile 2.51 by a guy needing directions. Yes, even though the neighborhood is crawling with people and construction workers, he stops Cosmo and I. He stops up ahead of us and waits for for us to approach, window down, arm waving at us. No way I can pretend I don't see him and buzz on by. I give him the directions, he asks a few questions about greyhounds and makes a few inane comments about me running with my dog (all while I stand there, dripping sweat and still huffing and puffing) and then he drives off. Momo and I stand there. You know, we so don't want to move. If I turn around, I can see the back of my house about 250 feet away. Momo refuses to look at me, he is turned around, staring intently at the back of the house.

I hit the start button on the Gar'mean' and I attempt some forward motion. My knees and hips probably made audible creaking noises as if I were the Tinman caught out in a rainstorm without my trusty oil can. Momo registers his discontent with this plan by hanging back at the very end of his leash with absolutely no slack. I push ahead, dragging my protesting dog and we slog on to the end.

Mile 3 - 9:40 3 miles @ 29:20 for a 9:47 pace. I think I could have hit 29:10 if I didn't stop but I am still happy. :-)

Holy Guac-a-Mo-Mo!

2008-05-19T07:22:00.003-04:00

From Jen's blog:

Actual post is here.

Amazing!

It is what it is

2008-05-05T06:45:00.005-04:00

13.1 miles is a long way. A long way.......

But Lehigh is done and we can check that sucker off and move on.

The weather was perfect - high 40's to start the race, overcast and no wind. If you gave me a check list, I couldn't have ordered better weather. The race was very well organized, we had no trouble getting a shuttle to the start or finding our way around. Our little band of 5 spectators had no trouble either and found us easily even though there were 4500 runners. Only negative was that our hotel wasn't the greatest. We had no hot water before the race or after. We did complain and got comped 50% for the rooms so that was good.

My super hopeful goal was a 2:30 finish. The official results are 2:35 chip (gun time was about 2 minutes more) so I am pretty thrilled with that. I definitely want to do this race one more time because I know I can do it faster. We lined ourselves up with the 11:30 pace group to begin with because we wanted to be sure not to go out too fast. Well, the pacer hit the first 7 miles all under 11:30 by a good margin - I think mile 4 or 5 was 10:58! That kind of played havoc with our plans and we ended up falling back from them about mile 8. We might have to revisit the pace group strategy, we were led to believe the pace groups maintained a steady pace throughout the race, not just shooting for the finish time averaging the pace.

Right now, I have come to the conclusion that 8 miles is currently the perfect race distance for me! :-) I was pretty miserable between mile 8 and mile 10. I think it was somewhere around mile 9 that I decided once I was finished, I was never going to run another step in my life. We hit some rolling hills which weren't bad in and of themselves but just weren't a lot of fun at that point of the race. My right hamstring has been bothering me and it got to the point that at every hill, I had to stop and stretch and walk a little bit. It and my right knee were very, very sore afterwards. At mile 10, we actually started heading back towards the finish and I started feeling a little better, because, after all, there was only a 5k left. And we can go out any day and run a 5k, right? At least, that is what I told myself. The finish line was in a stadium. The entrance to the stadium was up a steep ramp, maybe 30 feet long. B said that a lot of runners were hitting that ramp and immediately walking. We decided we were going to walk up the ramp (because of my hamstring) and then start running again in the stadium. Actually W decided and told me this because my brain was not functioning at this point. But, when we got to the ramp, both sides were lined with people and they were all shouting our names. I decided that no way in hell, with all these people watching and yelling, was I walking that ramp so I continued to run up it. W stopped and immediately people started calling out her name, saying, 'You can do it' and Keep going!'. If I had any breath, I would have laughed out loud and told them she was fine - she was only walking because she thought I was walking! Then we ran 3/4 the way around the track to the finish so that and hearing our names called out was pretty neat.

Our cheering squad found us around the 3 mile mark and then at the 12, which was when I really needed them, so that was awesome. When you approach the finish, at mile 12, you are heading towards the stadium and you can hear the announcer and the crowds. Then you have to head away from the stadium, loop around a park area and then go back to the stadium. If you went straight at mile 12, instead of running the loop, it is probably just a 100 yards or so to the stadium. I offer this up as an example of how your mind can play tricks with you. When I saw our group at mile 12, I actually thought to myself, 'I wonder if anyone would notice if I ran straight through the park to the stadium - it's really short and I could be done with this whole episode of insanity within 2 minutes.' I thought it but I didn't do it and continued on the course. And then I spent the next 10 minutes worrying and fretting that our group wouldn't have enough time to walk to the stadium and they wouldn't be there to see us finish. It was, as if in my mind, that short walk equaled the mile+ distance I still had to run and I couldn't figure out how my husband and the others would be able to see me finish. I actually felt close to tears once, thinking about it. I know. What a froot loop.

Nicely organized race, great volunteer support. There was an awesome vegetarian meal offered at the end (one of the main deciding factors for doing this race, imo) but I was too wonky to eat anything. W, who finished looking like she just took a stroll in the park, actually waved a veggie sausage sandwich under my nose at one point, trying to get me to eat some of it. Gag. Oh, and the food and shuttle busses were all up a little hill from the finish line - cruel, cruel, cruel. LOL

The plan is to do run the Boilermaker in July and we are checking out autumn halfs.

Coming home to PTT

2008-04-22T14:46:00.003-04:00

Who wouldn't want to come home to a greeting like this? Make sure your volume is up!

2008-04-08T07:49:00.002-04:00

Still here. Still running. Our half is approaching fast - April 27.
This has not been a good week with the running and the timing couldn't be worse - 3 weeks to race date! We had 11 miles scheduled on Saturday - we stopped at 8. My ITB was aggravated by a new pair of shoes. Needless to say, new shoes were purchased on Monday. Yesterday was 1o miles - 5 x 1600 @ 10:11. We got the first 4 intervals done and then I crashed. I couldn't even shuffle the last 2 miles. It was our first warm spring day and was beautiful to run. However, my subsequent post run water intake and output made it very clear I let myself get dehydrated.

On our slow runs, W and I spend a good deal of time talking strategy. How we want to run, pace ourselves, keep from going out too fast. We have not signed up for any of the pace groups but right now, we are leaning towards hanging with the 11:30 group for the first two miles. Our tendancy is to jackrabbit - go out way too fast and then tucker out. And we don't trust ourselves to rein ourselves in. There are plenty of times we decide to go slow only to get carried away. After the first two miles, our plan is assess our state and if possible, pick it up and average a couple of 11 m/m. Assess again and decide on a pace and so on for 13.1 miles.

My goals:

#3 - to finish
#2 - to finish without walking
#1 super duper, stars align, sacrifice a virgin goal - 2:30 time or under

A cruel milestone

2008-03-24T14:09:00.005-04:00

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
- Thomas Jefferson

I know that Jefferson was referencing slavery in this quote, but my mind keeps returning to it. Especially today and then when I saw this:

I don't know how some of these people can even sleep at night. They are all damned with the blood on their hands.

Austin

2008-03-23T18:19:00.003-04:00

Austin impressions:

Nice, nice city. It was much bigger than I expected, very sprawling. Traffic was horrific. No other word for it and I am not exaggerating. I think nothing of driving into Midtown Manhattan on a weekday and I was still aghast at the traffic on I-35. Sunday afternoon, it was stopped in both directions. Whenever we mentioned it to the locals, their response was identical. "Oh, I never, ever take 35. I avoid it!" We got in Sunday, picked up our rental and headed to San Antonio to see the Alamo.

Most everyone we met was from somewhere else - mostly the northern midwest. I did talk to one person born and raised in Austin and they were not happy with the growth of their city.

People were very, very nice, very friendly. We hit some nice vegetarian restaurants:
http://www.mrnatural-austin.com/
We ordered the chips and salsa here as an appetizer. I could not believe the amount of chips they brought us! I told the wait staff they could take half of them back and we still wouldn't be able to finish the remainder! I love chips and salsa so in addition to my tamale plate (just what do the corn husks add to the dish?) I did my best to tackle that plate and ate myself sick. LOL

http://motherscafeaustin.com/
The husband had the TLT sandwich here and said it was one of the best sandwiches he's ever had. They offered us chips and salsa and looked a bit askance when we demurred (askance and demurred????? How highfaulutin'!) but we learned our lesson at Mr. Natural. I had the tofu enchiladas. Simply divine.

Man, oh, man, how I love mexican food.

I was hoping for nice weather as a break from our usually crappy spring but it wasn't too be. It wasn't really bad weather but it wasn't lay out by the pool, nice weather. Monday was breezy and decent - I did get my 7 mile run in. Hotel gave me a route that took me up and down a couple of canyons. WTH? I thought Texas was flat! LOL It was hard and I did have to walk once for a couple of minutes but I got the job done.

NYC trip

2008-03-23T17:25:00.010-04:00

Guess I still suck at blogging. I don't know what it is about this time of year - I always seem to experience a slowdown of my life - the inability to focus and accomplish. I actually seem overwhelmed which is ironic since my life is fairly carefree and stressfree.

Big event lately was a weekend trip to NYC with my 69-will-be-70-in-May Mother. She is originally from the south - born in Louisiana and grew up in Mississippi and Alabama. In past years, my parents have left NY after Christmas to go south but haven't lately. They also live about 1.5 hours away from me and their winters are much much harder than ours. All this is to say that my parents were getting on each other's nerves and needed a timeout from each other - hence the NYC trip.

Before leaving, I asked her what she wanted to do. Three times she said she wanted to see a Broadway show but she knew they were very expensive. Needless to say, the husb said to get her old lady butt in a Broadway show seat no matter what. LOL We decided to see Mamma Mia! in a Saturday matinee because it rained ALL DAY Saturday. The husb ordered the tickets online Friday night about 11:30 and had they held at will-call. My mother thinks he had some kind of influence in order to get tickets in the middle of the night. She really doesn't understand the internet all that well LOL.

She was so psyched about that show - it was all she could talk about. She told people on the subway she was going to see a show. As we walked through Times Square, she told the men handing out free comedy club tickets, "No thank you, we are on our way to see a Broadway show, my son-in-law got me tickets!" She called my dad during intermission and told him she was at a 'real' Broadway show.

Her proof that she saw a 'real Broadway show':

Walking through Time Square after the show - Mom treated her granddaughter to some frozen yogurt:

Styling Mamaw and granddaughter in the rain:

Bryant Park (I think), my mother wore that oversized rainjacket and lugged that big old purse around every day!:

One evening we walked half way across the Brooklyn Bridge - it was a magical:

My daughter works part-time for a hosiery company in the Empire State Building. She is computerizing and organizing their inventory. I joke around that she could just be folding socks and who would care? It's on the 50th floor of the Empire State Building. First of all, my mother was told she worked at the ESB but until we went there, it didn't dawn on her that it was THE real Empire State Building. And then, she heard me talk about the sock folding and didn't realize I was joking. She started bragging to people (she talked to EVERYONE - on the subway, on the street, in stores anywhere) that her granddaughter worked in the ESB, only folding socks but it was a start and might turn into a real important job if she continued to do well. Oy.........

My daughter lives in a sixth floor walk up. My mother, after pounding the NYC pavement for 10 hours straight on both Saturday and Sunday, then had to climb all those flights. It was amazing. I only hope I am capable of the same when I reach 70. I tried to snap a pic of her heading down the stairs. The first time she was moving too quick for me!

Then I got her:

My mother pretending to be asleep on the subway. She couldn't keep from laughing.

Take a good look at her face and her skin. When we were kids, my sisters and I used to make fun of her because every night she slathered Ponds cold cream on her face and vaseline all around her mouth and lips. We used to laugh at what we called her greasing up routine. Well, she is 70 years old and her skin is amazing. I have just put Ponds and vaseline on my shopping list for this week.

My mother with some new friends she met on the subway. They were tourists from Equador and Argentina that she started chatting up. We were on our way to the Staten Island Ferry and so were they. Because of subway construction, getting to the Port Authority was mixed up so she volunteered her 'city granddaughter' to lead they way for everyone. I told my daughter to raise her umbrella like a tour guide so we could all follow! LOL

It was an awesome, awesome trip.

2008-03-04T07:38:00.002-05:00

Wow. I suck blogging. My excuse? It is March. We have 2 ft. of snow on the ground. Gray skies and it was 2 degrees when I woke up a few mornings ago. Yuck. Don't feel like writing - nothing interesting enough to write about even if I did want to write. But in the interest of keeping the millions of fan up to date on my life miniutae, here is a breakdown:

1) PTT's biopsy came back - it is cancer. However, the margins were clean, if a little short for the lab's liking in one area. There is every possiblity that she can go on and have a healthy life. She will need to be monitored for new lumps diligently, though. Now we just need to try to find a appropriate home for a 6 yr. old, cancer surviving bounceback.

2) Still running - our long runs are up to 10 miles this week. It is hard. For the first time in training, yesterday, we didn't hit our tempo run times. That was discouraging. But we did get the distance in. 8 more weeks to go.

3) I am not running Tipp this weekend. I was wishy washy on it. Last weekend, we were to do a trial run and I woke up to snow, wind and cold. Nope. Not gonna do it. And what's more....I decided there and then I wasn't going to run Tipp. It is my protest against our sucky weather.

4) Instead........can anyone say.........ROADTRIP???? Woo! Leaving Friday with the Mater to spend the weekend in NYC with the daughter. The daughter has been pushing hard to the hoop, trying to get me down there for a visit lately. Frankly, when a kid requests your company....well, it doesn't happen often, so you better go. The Mater is going, because, frankly, the parents could use a time out from each other. LOL We will be back Monday. This is going to be lots of fun!

5) Other trips on board: Austin, 3/16. Never been. Looking forward to this. And the creme de la creme.....Miami in July. Yeah, I don't care if it is hot. We will be on the beach! Take a look at this:
http://www.miamibeachresortandspa.com/ Damn, I hope they let us in! I don't think I have ever stayed in anyplace that swanky.

Accomplishment!

2008-02-21T08:46:00.002-05:00

As of this past Tuesday, our little Weight Watcher's group of 4 has lost a grand total of 97 pounds. All since 11/6/07. I tell ya, these women are gonna be tearing up the local race scene this spring and summer.....

2008-02-15T06:58:00.002-05:00

My poor PTT. Cancer. She is going in for surgery 2/20.

Monday minutiae

2008-02-11T18:21:00.000-05:00

Today's run:
7 miles/speed intervals.
One mile warmup
3 x 1600 @10:22 w/800 recoveries
Cool down

It was the freakingest, been-to-hell-and-now-I-can-say-I-am-back-and-survived run. I have never had a run that hard (and remember - all my runs are hard for me LOL) and I hope never to have a run like that again. I am not going to belabor it because it will cause me to relive the run in all its suicidal hysteria, except to say that it was 18 degrees and 20 mph winds and we did it.

Onto nicer and brighter news....... Dinner party last night :-) Didn't take many pictures - I had 3 glasses of wine and I am a cheap drunk. And you can bet those 3 glasses will show up on the scale tomorrow night at weigh in. Some random thoughts from last night:

Bazu brought this coleslaw. Yeah, I know, coleslaw, right. Pretty standard fare. USUALLY! This wasn't your usual coleslaw though- it was to die for. Pure and simple.

If I had thought about it during the run today, I probably would have dropped dead right there between the pain of the run and the thoughts of the coleslaw glory. Oh, and she wore this cute little scarf tied around her head. That combined with her cute little haircut, well, it was almost cute overload. If I didn't like her and she wasn't so nice......I don't know what but something. You know if I tried to wear something like that, I would probably be mistaken for a drag queen version of Cher from her Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves era. (this is the real Cher - who would know I couldn't find a drag queen singing GT&Ts on youtube?)

SD and Sue both looked stunning - I am used to seeing them in workout clothes, with sweat dripping. It was awesome to see them both in 'regular' clothes. And I think I am going to have to beg for a makeover by SD. Man, if I could get my makeup to look like hers instead of making me look like Bozo the Clown, I might actually wear some.

SD brought her greyhound boy, Pre. For his first time in a strange house he did great. He did get warnings from both the snarky present females, PTT and Lucy. He took those warnings in typical greyhound male fashion, they bounced right off of him and he moved onto the next interesting thing he saw. LOL He was a wonderfully happy boy.

PTT's lack of social skills had her relegated to the bedroom about half way through the evening. She was just way too uncomfortable with so many dogs and I was too distracted to help her cope. She gave a few warnings and then was put away where she could relax. The Black Widow, Lucy, had to keep her muzzle on all evening, but really did good considering all the dogs. Of course, it probably helped that she decided to slut it up towards the end of the evening and was promptly rewarded with overwhelming attention....

And last but not least, a visit by Bridget is never complete without adding another chapter to the Ode to Cosmo and Bridget saga.....

Even Jesus isn't safe!

2008-02-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

As an avowed, responsible pooper scooper, I love this. Watch out. Next time you don't pick up after your dog, instead of throwing the poo back in your yard, I might decide to liberate something.....or someone.......

C'mon people.....we all know what Jesus would do. He would scoop!

Pa-Tee-Tee

2008-02-04T07:51:00.001-05:00

Our newest foster:

Patina, just turned 6 in January, a little red brindle girl. She was adopted out of MA group (who expressed NO interest in her return to them or a financial assist to the group here who took her in!). A bounceback - her people had a few reasons why they couldn't keep her but I think it boils down to the usual, 'she just didn't fit into their lives anymore'. Thankfully, they did contact a local group that didn't have room for her but put the word out and so W's group took her.

She is a very sweet girl, loads of spunk and personality. She entered our home and was at home, relaxed and ruling the roost, within 5 minutes. However, yesterday, when I took her to B's house for a little cat testing - it was a completely different story. They probably thought I was on crack because the playful, confident, secure dog I had been raving to them about was no where in sight. Instead, she was stressed, anxious, insecure and definitely did not relax much there. Turns out Patina is an actress. She put on a good show of confidence at my house, because, let's face it, my two boys are an embarassment of wimpiness*, even in the gentle, quiet world of greyhounds. Then Patina came up against B's three dogs, who, while very gentle and well-behaved, exude self-confidence as visible auras**. Face to face with true canine confidence, she folded like a cheap lawn chair.

She has her vet checkup today and then will be ready for a home.

*Mal and Mo are as passive as they come but they have their moments, especially Mo. They are dogs, after all. Last night, while turning the dogs out (I held Mal back so he wouldn't get pushed or jostled around), Patina hit her side and leg against the doorframe. She yelped and held her back leg up. While I tried to get around and check her out, Cosmo, who was in front of her, immediately turned around and went at her leg. Not really biting but snapping at her. He got a push and a shove and a 'Knock it off'. He immediately spun around and went at her again (she was still crying out at this point). He actually made contact this time and pulled off a little tuft of hair. Little bastard. My correction was of a harsher variety at this point (harsh meaning I really smacked his ass and in the 'Voice of God' told him 'I. SAID. KNOCK. IT. OFF.') He sulked off, properly chastened and I tended to Patina (no lasting harm done). Cosmo spent the rest of the evening avoiding me, flinching if I got to within 3 feet of him, afraid to look at me. Anyone seeing his behavior would have thought I beat him regularly. Patina spent the night, afraid to get up off the bed and afraid to go through the doors to go outside.

**Even Rimmy, who we joke is always worried and fretful. He has no problem making his wishes known. If he wants on the couch and there isn't room, he will stand there or pace until you make room or will climb up anyways and wedge his 90 lb body in a 1 foot square space.

2008-01-31T22:13:00.000-05:00

3/4 ETA: In the interest of complete girl crush disclosure, I will also admit an addiction to Washington Week in Review - I just *heart* Gwen Ifill and listen to it as a podcast. I also listen to the McLaughlin Group - yeah. Not easy to follow as a podcast - but my girl crush on Eleanor Clift knows no bounds.

2/3 ETA: The constant political coverage is starting to get to the husband now. He has developed the habit of just yelling out, at completely random times, "HA!" in a high pitched tone, ala Chris Matthews.

I have never been a sports fan/junkie. The fact that there are networks completely devoted to sports is mindboggling to me. However, in the last few months, I am starting to understand. I have always been interested in politics but this year's campaigns have me completely obsessed. MSNBC is on every night. I told my husband this must be what sports people feel watching the sports networks.
How bad has it gotten? It is embarassing but I think I am developing a crush on Joe Scarborough. Oh, for crying out loud.....who am I kidding. There is no 'developing'. It is a full blown crush. I have my theory though. Gaze upon Joe in all his glory:

Now gaze upon an image of one of my favorite dog breeds:

The eyes have it. I must have some deep seated attraction to teeny-tiny, squinty little eyes - I would say little piggy eyes but I don't want anyone to search on piggy eyes Joe Scarborough and come up with my blog.

When I get to the point that my political crushes officially include Pat Buchanan, I promise to seek help.

Run Report

2008-01-26T08:19:00.000-05:00

We have managed to reclaim our spot on our training schedule - yesterday was an 8 mile slow run. I have never run 8 miles before. W has never run 8 before. Cosmo has never run 8 before. It was virgin territory for us.

It was slow...........sloooooooooooooooooow. Program called for 12:58 miles. Only way we would hit that was with walking breaks. We didn't take any walking breaks. We averaged 12:18 miles. Breakdown looks like this:

Mile 1 - legs crikey and creaky. Momo thrilled to be out. We go out very slow (especially for us since we pace horribly and tend to jack rabbit our first miles) with lots of crosswalk and traffic stopping, 11:45

Mile 2 - feeling good, beautiful cold day with a wonderful blue sky and sunshine. 12:07 with a poop break, for Momo, not for us! He gets even happier afterwards. LOL

Mile 3 - crusing right along, lots of chatting. We figure if we talk, it keeps our pace down. 12:05

Mile 4 - halfway, still feeling decent, but starting to feel a little tired. Feel a little awkward, running so slow but we keep at it. 12:31

Mile 5 - I tell myself and W that we only have a 5k to do now - piece of cake, right? We can run 3.1 in our sleep. Cosmo drops back from being in front of us to running between us. 12:10

Mile 6 - I am tired. I start the bad thoughts....the "if I feel like this now, how do I think I can run more than twice this distance?" stuff. I tell W I am struggling. She gives a little pep talk - we are so close, if we stopped or walked now we would be upset later.....etc. I try to go to my 'happy place' and trudge on. 12:14

Mile 7 - No memory. I must have blacked out from sheer agony. LOL Seriously, this part of the run went through one of my least favorite sections of our course. It is also by the lake so we ran into a stiff wind for almost the whole mile. Brutal. I was warm but my face was freezing. Cosmo drops behind us for most of this mile - I think to use us as a wind break. 12:45.

Mile 8 - It's a death march. Cosmo is hanging in there (our pace is practically a walk for him) but he is still back behind us. I don't know if he is tired or just bored. At this point, I start checking Garmin obsessively, thinking that staring at the watch will make the distance numbers change quicker. Finally at 7.75, I stop and tell W we just need to listen for the 8 mile beeper. She says she is feeling it in her back, shoulders and neck. I feel tired and my legs are tired but otherwise (thanks to my core conditioning class devotion) I feel strong. In that past, that has not been the case - I usually ended my runs bent over like a 90 yr. woman. 12:45

8 miles - 1:38:32

Came home, showered - long and hot. Gave Cosmo his well-earned biscuit and turkey neck and then he settled down to sleep his well-earned, well deserved nap. I headed out to the Y and spent the next 5 hours in a cpr training. Hamstrings are a little achy but otherwise, just some tired but feeling good legs. Getting this run done was a huge mental addition in the plus column for us.

Run Report

2008-01-22T11:07:00.000-05:00

My presence has been pretty scarce around these parts - I guess I don't have much to say if I am not running or not running well.

This week is our third week of half mar training - unfortunately it is turning into our first week. Two weeks ago, I came down ill - the two days in bed, not far from the bathroom, unable to eat, ill. Good news is I dragged myself to WW weigh in and I was down 5 lbs! Bad news is I was unable to do anything else, meaning running. The accompanying bad news is that W tends not to run unless I run, so in effect, she had a two week break - the bum! I also haven't taken a weights or core conditioning class in the past two weeks. It was one of those illness, that once the initial agony is over, there are those lingering, it takes a week or two to pass symptoms.

I am glad to say that I think I have finally thrown off all vestiges of nausea and exhaustion. W and I were determined to get back on schedule with our training - today was a 5 mile tempo run. The middle three miles were supposed to be 11:11. Now, a month ago, this wouldn't have been a problem. Today, it wasn't even a possibility. Our pace was 11:28, 11:40 and 11:58. The sad thing is, I could not have gone a smidgen faster - my effort was as if I was running much faster. The good thing is, we got our distance that was scheduled which gives us a huge mental boost. I know that if we can just stay on track with the distances, our times will come back in a few weeks.

Dub Dub Update

2008-01-15T09:18:00.000-05:00

Weigh in is tonight.

Last week, as a group, we hit a total of 69.5 lbs. gone. In 8 weeks. We also had our first, SD, hit the 10% gone goal. She has lost 10% of her starting body weight. Two more of us are within 2-3 lbs of this 10% number too. WTH? I am stunned by these women. Abso amazing.

Maybe tonight, 75 lbs? It seems almost ridiculous to type that number out.

Run Report

2008-01-10T09:28:00.001-05:00

Yes, the first official week of the training program and what do I have to show for it? A measly 2 miles.

I started off this week sick. I woke up Monday morning completely out of it. How sick was I? Colonoscopy prepping sick. I was unable to eat or leave my bed all of Monday and most of Tuesday. So Tuesday's tempo run did not happen. I did drag my gurgling, gaseous, nauseous self to the WW weigh in. I wanted to see what two days of havoc wrecked on my system and I wanted some credit from being so sick. 5 lbs down. In one week. Yeah, I was pretty sick. Of course, I know that as soon as I was able to keep water down I probably gained most of it right back as my poor little dessicated, dehydrated cells swelled up to their normal giant size....

I have to take a core class, teach a cycle class and meet with a total health client tonight so I didn't want to push anything but I did want to get out and stretch the legs, so to speak. I thought about doing an easy three - Cosmo is back to his old self and was rearing to go. I ended up stopping at two. First mile felt good and then it started getting crampy around 1.5 so I cut it short (I was also right by my house) at 2 miles. That was plenty. Our 7 mile is still on for tomorrow - program calls for a 12 something pace so even if I have to take walk breaks it should be do-able.

2008-01-09T09:30:00.001-05:00

Painter guy shows up to finish the bathroom job. Painter guy has been here before and met son #2. Husband is home from work. Painter guy asks husband if he is another son he hasn't met yet. Husband is flattered, I am mortified.

History, yet again

2008-01-09T06:29:00.000-05:00

A woman has won a major presidential primary. Woo hoo! Looks like we now have a horse race here. Hopefully, now without any annointed 'frontrunner' or anyone wearing the mantle of 'inevitability', we will have the opportunity to really get to know some of these candidates and their platforms. Let's have some more debates! LOL

So nice, so nice

2008-01-06T08:55:00.000-05:00

The 16 week, half mar training started today. Our first run was an easy 2 miler. Just a little joy jaunt. The other runs this week are a 5 mile tempo (3 miles at 11:11) and a 7 mile lsd. Only cloud marring the sky? Cosmo wouldn't go. I asked him if he wanted to go for a run - no reaction. No reaction when he saw me suiting up. I showed him the leash, he walked away and laid down on his bed in our bedroom. He ate all his breafast fine but this is definitely off behavior for him. He has never refused a run before. We will be keeping a close eye on his today.

Run Report

2008-01-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

Finally, a gorgeous day, sun shining, temperatures in the low 30's. I suited Cosmo up and met W at the library.

Not a stellar run. The sidewalks weren't completely clear so at times it felt like we were running in sand. My left knee started hinking up on me again, reminiscent of the aftermath the last time I ran on the treadmill. We really slowed it down the 3rd mile and I actually walked a little, trying to ease the knee. Also, I am not all that disappointed given that I ran a hard 4 yesterday, took a core conditioning class and then taught my cycle. I went into the cycle planning on taking it easy but it felt really good so I ended up riding hard. I paid for all that activity today. Cosmo did enjoy himself, though.

Happy Day! :-)

2008-01-04T08:10:00.002-05:00

My mother grew up in the deep, rural South. Mississippi and Alabama. Many times I listened to stories of her youth, about her all white schools, labeled water fountains, etc. These stories seem like ancient history to my children, her grandchildren but seem like all too recent and like wounds, not sufficiently scabbed over to me.

Regarding last night.....

I don't know what it predicts about who might be our next Democratic presidential candidate.

I don't know what it predicts about who might be our next president.

There is a long, long road ahead before January 2008.

All I know is that a 92% (or 94%, I have seen both figures) caucasian, rural state voted for a biracial man in their Democratic caucus with an overwhelming turnout.

I actually laughed out loud this morning :-)

Run Report

2008-01-03T10:45:00.000-05:00

It was -8 this morning when I woke up. Very cold. How cold? Cosmo didn't even bother to get up off his dog bed and give me the guilt trip when I left for the gym and the dreadmill.

Today was:
.5 mile - 12 m/m
1 mile - 10:40 pace
1 mile - 10:30 pace
1 mile - 10:20 pace
.5 mile - 12 m/m

4 miles - 43:40

What did I discover today? I love running 12 minute miles. They are wonderful!!! No sweating, no huffing, no lack of oxygen, no muscle pains. I can carry on a conversation like I am sitting in a coffeeshop. I love them!!! I wish every mile could be at that pace.

New Year's Roundup

2008-01-02T10:01:00.000-05:00

Whew - it is cold this morning! Woke up and it was in the single digits. Not going to be running outside today.

I gifted Bridget and Jen matching (but in different color schemes) felted bags for Christmas. Did I take pictures before giving them? Nope. Did I take pictures last night when they were both here for dinner? Nope. Maybe I can get them to take pictures and send them to me. I was pretty happy with how they turned out with two exceptions. The length of the strap and the top closing edge. I never felted anything before so I wasn't sure what the shrinkage would be so I followed the directions to the T. The straps ended up way too long. Also, the opening kind of gaps. I bought some snaps but the felted material was too thick for them to go through. So, Bridget and I ran out to JoAnn's the other night and I bought some sew on snaps for their purses. Last night, they are both here so I go to look for the snaps to do a quick sew on. No snaps in the shopping bag. I check my purse. No snaps. Accusations start to fly. I think Bridget probably took them home - she denies it. Something about Cosmo's bro was thrown up in my face..... I happen to find the receipt and lo and behold.....no snaps are even listed on it. I know we picked them out. I know I walked around that store with them in my hand. What happened?

In this same theme, I made Bridget a highwaisted, sleeveless vest. No pictures. Sheesh.

The daughter, fresh off of her triumphant, Thanksgiving project, scarf, now wants to do a pair of mittens. I picked out a pattern for her and she is freaking because it is worked in the round. If she is going to make them, she is going to master this. I will not have her be a knitting coward like I was. It took me 20 years to get up the nerve to do cables. Cables!! We are off today to buy the dpns. Yes, after over 20 years of knitting, I now have to rebuy all my needles. It's a long story, but suffice it to say, my husband won't allow me to undertake the necessary actions to regain my whole stash of needles.

To complete my 'I am an idiot' post (wonderful way to start off the New Year, huh?), I am publicly proffering an apology to Jen. My thought and reaction filter malfunctioned a few weeks ago when she told me she got me a piece of jewelry for Christmas. If I recall correctly, I looked at her like she just pulled out a crack pipe and fired it up. I think my actual comment went along the lines of, 'What the hell are you thinking, you know I don't wear jewelry.' Yeah. Don't you wish all your friends reacted like that when you tell them about their Christmas present? Of course, she exhibited much more graciousness than I. And now I am eating my words. Good thing I am used to doing that and they are calorie free. I love the necklace. Love it, love it, love it. Wore it last night. It was noticed immediately by almost everyone and generated lots of compliments. I think I might just be a jewelry wearer now. Thanks Jen (lots of hugs and kisses to your generous little self from my asshole-y but now beautifully accessorized little self!)

Ummmmm, yuck

2008-01-01T09:47:00.000-05:00

I am not happy to end 2007 with a run in the 11 m/m pace.

But.....in my defense:

It was a new route and we were kind of clueless.

We ran after drinking copious amounts of coffee at the coffee shop.

It was very windy and the sidewalks were slushy.

It was very hilly and we have been running very flat. Happy New Year, all!

Release the Hounds!!!

2007-12-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

I am not a big devotee of running on consecutive days - too depressing and I am usually too lazy. But my running has taken a back seat during this holiday season so I conned Bridg into going out for a short one. She hasn't run in a while so I knew she was feeling guilty - sucker! I took Cosmo over to her house, thinking to do 3. She decided to run with John. Surprise, surprise, Bill joined us with their other two hounds, Rimmy and Maggie.

So, there were 3 humans and 4 greyhounds out for a little jaunt. John has run before, but I am not sure about Rimmy and Maggie.

I so wished I had a camera! They were remarkable to see. Maggie was so happy, looking all around, occasionally breaking into a slow motion canter. Rimmy was all business. Once he knew what was expected, he put his head right on out and just went - all forward motion, focused and intense. All four dogs seem like they really liked moving and covering ground as a pack. We were on a back street with no traffic so at times, we just took up the whole road. Maggie and Rim did 1.3 miles and then Bill started walking them while the rest of us continued on.

At about the two mile mark, John slowed to a walk and took a potty break. We walked a little bit and then started running again and finished at their house - 2.59 miles.

The feeling of running in the midst and watching the pleasure of these four greyhounds was absolutely awesome. It made for a great run.

Wow

2007-12-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

I love Garmin. I feel like a techno nerd when deep down inside I know I am a Luddite.

3 miles - 31:47
Mile 1 - 10:29
Mile 2 - 10:31
Miles 3 - 10:46

10:36/miles

I had it set to beep when we fell slower than a 11 m/m. Yeah, that little thing is going to be disabled. It would beep and all I could think of was, 'I can't run faster.'

Week 7 on WW

2007-12-27T15:29:00.001-05:00

4 pounds lost this week, which brings our total to 49 pounds in seven weeks. Pretty amazing for this time of year. I am so freaking proud of these women, I can hardly stand it.

We start the 16 week half training almost a week from now, January 7. I received a Garmin 305 as a Christmas present so there will be no fudging on those interval days. LOL

Christmas Morning

2007-12-25T07:44:00.000-05:00

It is almost 8 am. I fired my computer this morning so I could find Bazu's sourdough pancake recipe. I want to make them this morning.

The dogs are all spread out on different beds, happily digesting their Christmas breakfast. All with the exception of Maggie. She didn't want to eat her regular food. She has a tendency to get a grumply tummy when it is empty so she is happily digesting a few big dog biscuits. Hey, it's Christmas morning and I can spoil her if I want to. Bridget can deal with the aftermath of a non-eating, spoiled dog when she returns home.

So, I am sitting here, waiting for the recipe page to load, when I hear the scanner go off. My son, who only minutes ago, was a typical 19 yr old, sacked out in his mess of a room, surrounded by his snowboarding paraphernalia, comes bounding out of his room, awake and ambulatory in a matter of seconds. This is the kid who usually takes a half hour or so to get fully awake.

I tell him to be careful as he bolts out the door, boots untied, coat only half on him.

Less than five minutes later, I hear the fire truck sirens in the distance. I know the trucks are staffed with people, just like him, who rushed out of their houses at 8 am on Christmas morning because their scanners went off.

I hope everyone is all right. I will wait until he returns to make his pancakes.

It has become abundently clear now

2007-12-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

The mapping site I use for my runs is wrong

Or

My watch is defective

Or

I unknowingly enter some freakly time warp zone while running

Because

I know those times ain't mine -------------------->>>>>>>>>>

Oh, and just in case you are wondering.......the dog poo stayed safely contained today!

Gross Post

2007-12-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

If you don't have a dog, you might want to skip this post.

If you don't run, you might want to skip this post.

Why?

In my experience, dog people and runners have high gross tolerances. Dog people deal with lots of poo, dog flatulence, the devouring of dead animals and other marginally civilized canine behaviors.

Runners deal with lots of undesirable bodily experiences. Face it, running can be gross. Gross things can happen while you are running - gut bombs, snot rockets, nausea, unexpected commencement of certain female functions, etc. Runners can be repulsive. And you can subject others to gross things when they have to run behind you for three miles because they, through no fault of their own but from poor genetics, are slower.

Consider yourself warned.

Today's run - 9:30 am. Temperature - 28 degrees. Skies - Overcast. Perfect running conditions. A little chilly but it warmed up to 34 degrees by the time we were done.

I run with a Handsfree leash from a company called LarzPetGear. I love it, absolutely love it. It has allowed my form to remain efficient and natural while still providing security and range of motion for Cosmo. I ran with a leash for a while but handsfree is really where it's at.

Everytime I head out for a run, I grab the poop bags because, well, Cosmo poops about 3 minutes into any run, 99.7 percent of the time. He is pretty regular in that aspect. I tie two bags onto the waist belt, like so:

When he does go, I scoop, tie the bag tight and tie it back on the belt. Don't get too grossed out - he is fed raw and his poops are very minimal, nothing like kibble poos.

So, today, he goes. I scoop and tie and think about how it is my lucky day because it is trash day and I might just happen across the garbage truck and be able to toss the load. As I am contemplating this wonderful scenario, I get a whiff of something nasty. I wonder if I didn't tie the bag tightly and glance down. This is what I see:

Oh, yeah, the poop bag somehow, someway, deposited a nice streak of dog doo right across my sweatshirt. Good thing I always bring two and was able to rebag everything.
I am used to carrying dog poo while running, but wearing it was a first for me.

This post is dedicated to the two people in my life who most love gross stories. They aren't afraid of a little dog poo.........

2007-12-19T11:15:00.001-05:00

Hmmmmm.......last workout over there ------------>

Not sure what that is all about but I know that pace can't be right.

Recent searches...

2007-12-17T18:32:00.001-05:00

that turned up my blog:

My dog has issues

Can greyhounds eat turkey?

My dog is pooping alot

Chicks following dog

Run Report

2007-12-15T07:34:00.001-05:00

I realize the numbers for yesterday's run don't look all that impressive, but if you break them down, there is a different story to be told.

5 miles @ 12m/m pace.

Mile 1 - 12 m/m warm up
4x800 progressive intervals w/ 800 recovery (usually walk for .1 mile then back up to 12 m/m
#1 at 10:30
#2 at 10:20
#3 at 10:10
#4 at 10:00

Now, I realize that a 10 m/m pace is a piece of cake, a walk in the park for most runners - for me it is a sprint. Seriously, set that treadmill at 6 mph and it is an all out sprint for me! And let's just say that my last interval was a spectacle. I was the only person in the gym, running 10 m/m with sweat flinging off my elbows, flinging off my hair, doing that groaning/moaning/grunting breath exhalation (you all know what I am talking about!). It was a pathetic sight. My left knee also went hinky on me so that I had to actually walk the last .25. It was one of those things when I extended it and put weight on it running it would hitch up. Didn't do it while I was walking either, so all the old people who can go at the gym during the day were treated to the sight of:

Me: Damn knee hurts. Walk.
1 minute later, Me: Hmm, doesn't hurt now, speed up.
15 seconds later, Me: Ouch, ouch ouch, slow down.
1 minute later, Me: Hmm, doesn't hurt now, speed up.
15 seconds later, Me: Ouch, ouch ouch, slow down.
And on and on for a quarter mile.

Doesn't hurt now, either. Of course yesterday, having the brilliant idea to walk up two flights of stairs to Bridget's office, it took me about 5 minutes to get up them, with lots of pauses. I finally had to just straight jacket my leg and swing my leg up the stairs. My embarrassment was completed when Bahar and Michael (who we were meeting there) came up behind me and witnessed the sorry spectacle.

WW Report - not a completely stellar week for our little group but we still lost - 4.5 pounds. Our total gone now is 39.5 pounds. I am very excited that we are almost assured of cracking the 40 lb mark next week. Then on to 50!

Just some things I have been pondering lately

2007-12-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

Our national political/religion obsession is getting a little out of hand. Did we actually have candidates raising their hands that they don't believe in evolution?

Newsflash: Creationism (and I use that term loosely because it is just a plain stupid way of trying to validate religious mythology) has no scientific basis. Believe in creationism? Then feel free to see a faith healer when you break a leg. Personally, I will go to a physician, trained in medicine and science.

I don't want my preachers talking politics or my politicians talking religion.

The CIA feels it is necessary to destroy material to protect agents? My guess is that there is plenty of tapes, materials and papers remaining at Langley. Wouldn't most of that information and material compromise operations and agents? Too bad no one there felt it was necessary to destroy information pertaining to Valerie Plame before she was outed by White House officials.

Oh, and waterboarding?

Torture.

Just saying.......

Death March

2007-12-11T11:21:00.000-05:00

After a couple of decent runs, I decided to take a new weights class last night. It is amazing how you can get used to a certain workout and then try something different and it kicks your butt. My butt was kicked from here to all ways next week. I don't know why.....I run, I cycle.....why do lunges and squats trash my legs? I definitely have sore quads, hams and inner thighs today. That must account for the abysmal 11:47 pace today. At least, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

WW weigh in is tonight. I think this might be my first no lost week. At least according to my scale at home, I haven't lost anything. Bah.

Edited to Add: The run wasn't all doom and gloom even though I can barely walk right now. The temp was in the mid 30's (perfect!), snow is on the ground but the roads are completely clear. Timing was such that there weren't many cars on the road in my neighborhood so I didn't feel like I was taking our lives in hand by running. Cosmo was full of p*ss and vinegar and was so happy to be out, spinning around, bumping my hand and side with his nose. Yeah, I guess it *really* was a good run :-)

My Winter Run By Cosmo

2007-12-05T15:51:00.000-05:00

Tale of a Winter Run
by Cosmo

We are in some kind of funky weather pattern. All snow, wind and cold. School was cancelled yesterday.

But a 5 mile run was on the schedule and there was no way I was going to let that mo-fo of mine leave me home again. She ran on the treadmill Monday and left me. I stayed attached to her like glue, all day long. No way was she getting out of the house without me.

5 miles in the village and on the parkway along the lake. We did a 9 run, 1 walk because the ladies were so completely miserable. Only happy camper around was me! No bro for me today, they thought it might be a little too cold along the lake. So W dragged out an old single fleece coat that she had in her car. It was pink. Good thing I look smashing in every color.

Real men wear pink.

We b jammin'.

Action Shot! I go slow over the ice because the humans are so darned putzy!

25 degrees. Snowy. Windy. 5 miles. To all those who think greyhounds are delicate, fragile, couch potatoes......I say...Yo Mama!

Post Run. These chicks will stand around and talk for hours! They should put me in the car.

Ah yes. The couch is a fitting location for a post run nap.

Christmas 2007

2007-12-05T07:20:00.000-05:00

If you look closely, you will see that Mally is wearing his reindeer ears. These pictures are from a fundraiser by one of our local adoption groups, Greyhound Outreach.

2007-11-28T10:41:00.000-05:00

The bro has been found. It was in my laundry room all along.

Dub Dub Report

2007-11-28T06:50:00.000-05:00

Here's an update on our little happy group travelling the Dub Dub Highway to weight loss....

Week One - 13 pounds gone
Week Two - 9.5 pounds gone
Week Three - 5.5 pounds gone

Not to shabby. A total of 28 pounds so far. We have lost a toddler! If you find him, keep him.
We don't want him back :-)

Of course, as SD put it, we are 4 pounds less each week so that means next week our total should be 1.5 pounds!

Week One was spectactular, but of course, that week I only accounted for .5 pound gone. No one would want me on their Biggest Loser Team :-(

My share so far has been 3.5 pounds. Two in the group have already managed to obtain their 5 lb. weight loss star sticker AND their 10 lb. weight loss ribbon. I am beside myself with jealousy. I can't hardly stand it, it is killing me. I WANT MY 5 lb. STAR STICKER!

I am particularly proud that we still managed to lose this week and it was a gastronomic holiday week! I was hoping we would crack the 30 pound barrier this week but I am confident it will fall next week. What is also nice is it is beginning to be visually obvious on some in our group that the weight is coming off. There's been of talk of new clothes.

Attending the WW meeting is a real exercise in behavioral diversity. To put it another way, there are some real characters there. My current favorite is 'Pick Up Guy'. We think he comes to try to pick up women. He always sits in the middle of the room, on the outside aisle, so he can turn and scan the whole room, making significant eye contact with anyone who isn't quick enough to avert her eyes. He NEVER faces forward to the front of the room, he always sits sideways, perpendicular to the speaker. He cornered Sue after one meeting but she must have froze him out successfully because he hasn't tried for her again. LOL

Spring Half Marathon? Maybe not!

2007-11-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

I might just be a DNS* in April for the half. Momo's bro has gone missing. He cannot train throughout the winter without proper dog winter running attire. I am almost 100% certain it is at Bridget's house. I believe I took it over there in case Cosmo was taken along for a run, but she denies it. I kept asking and she got more and more aggravated with me that I believe if it does turn up at her house, she would throw it away rather than admit it was there.

*did not start, as opposed to DFL with is dead f*cking last which is only slightly better than DNF - did not finish.

2007-11-25T08:43:00.000-05:00

If love died along with death, then this life wouldn't be so hard.

-wisdom posted on some usenet newsgroup at sometime or another

Wow

2007-11-25T07:56:00.000-05:00

11/11 - last post??? Where have I been?

Trying to keep to WW, lose weight and stay supportive of the little group I am doing it with.
Dealing with the family and the holiday - including Thanksgiving in NYC. I just love that city.
Trying to be as good a friend as possible.
Trying to get my runs in (formal start of the half training is coming up soon.
Dealing with the seasonal job duty increase at the gym.
Spending way too much time at the coffee shop.
Starting some projects to give as holiday gifts.
blah, blah.....
Eh, no one is probably very interested LOL

I did come across this idea on The Lean Green Family and I have to say, it is just brilliant! It is one of those so simple, 'how could I not have thought of this?' ideas. Purchase and use the reusable, $1 shopping bags that everyone and their brother are now selling, as gift wrap. Score! I love it!

11/11/07

2007-11-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Veteran's Day to my favorite (now thankfully, former) vet.....

2007-11-09T06:52:00.001-05:00

Definitely a 'why the hell am I doing this?' kind of morning. Scale shows absolutely no movement in the last week. Yeah, yeah, I know, I shouldn't weight myself every morning.....

I have the metabolism of.......um.....I don't know. A sloth? Some creature that has a glacial metabolism. I once visited a doctor who told me to look on the bright side. Shipwrecked on an island with no food, I would probably survive the longest. Huh. Doesn't make me feel any better about myself.

Good news is I have been meticulous with tracking my food. There is no fudging, no cheating, nothing. I am hitting up 3 classes (2 core conditioning, one weight lifting) a week, in addition to my own cycle class and running. The bad news is I seem to be doing this just fine on about 1200 calories a day! One thing I do know is my diet is very heavy on the carbs. Of course. I eat a vegan diet. Very hard to do the atkins thing when you are a vegan. I do know my protein intake is low (at least according to American stats, I think using WHO I hit the minimums). So I am going to try to fit in 6 oz of tofu every day (roughly 20% of my points). Any other ideas of a protein I can use in place of an english muffin (whole wheat)?

Everyone else is doing great so far on the program. S and K showed up at my cycle class last night and did great. Especially K who was there for her very first time. S did fine managing the physical part of the class, I knew it wouldn't tax her much cardio wise but she was very uncomfortable with the seat. She will get used to it. At one point, she actually said she would rather go out for a three mile run than be cycling. Who would have thought? I remember when she started running and 1 mile, much less 3 seemed almost impossible and here she was throwing it out there as a more desirable and do-able activity than cycling!

I cannot wait until Tuesday night because I think Sue and S will show some real results with their weigh in. I just hope I haven't gained.....

blah

2007-11-07T10:40:00.001-05:00

Ran the neighborhood - I am so not impressed with myself. 3.94 miles in 47 minutes. In my defense:
It is cold
It is windy
It actually snowed a little
Cosmo was out of sorts. He was very distracted and didn't settle down until almost the mile point. We stopped for several sniff and pace around breaks, one actual pee break and one actual poop break. I didn't stop my watch for any of these and that surely added a couple of minutes.

First WW meeting

2007-11-07T08:31:00.000-05:00

After the 5 pm core conditioning class - which kicked my ass. No, I mean, seriously, it kicked my ass. I felt like the biggest wussy having to stop in the middle of repetitions. It was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. I actually felt a little nauseous at points. But I digress.....after the class, I saw them setting up for the WW meeting and I went over to introduce myself to the women.

It was obvious I was a Y instructor (I am sure the red YMCA instructor jacket gave it away). I told the woman I was signing up and that probably 3 or 4 more new people would be signing up with me too. She gets a whole new happy look on her face (cha-ching) and then it is quickly replaced with a worried look. She gazes at me, looks me up and down and then says,

"Are you sure you are appropriate for our program? The minimum weight loss needed to qualify is 5 pounds."

In my mind, I immediately saw her bathed in angelic light and heard the choirs.

In reality, I quickly assured her that 5 lbs was a mere drop in the bucket compared to what I need to lose. She continued to have a doubtful and skeptical look on her face (Bless her!). I could tell that my red instructor jacket was blinding her to my chubby truth and that she needed some serious convincing.

The only way to really show her the ugly truth was.....well, to show her the ugly truth. I lifted my jacket and shirt and proceeded to grab my midsection with both hands and make a 'doughnut' of all my pale, flabby fat. And for good measure, I waggled and jiggled my gut and repeatedly said, 'See? See? Can you see all of this?"

A look of horror came over her face which was quickly replaced by a sick look. She dropped her eyes, looked away and said, "Be back here in half an hour to sign up."

Oh, and to complete my humiliation for the evening? Their scale there weighed me the same as the recently-returned-to-the-store scale of doom.

Oh, for the love of......

2007-11-05T07:46:00.000-05:00

Fall marathon season in full swing? Well, then it must be time for the inevitable articles to start popping up ..... link

It's as predictable as turning the clocks back.......

Found this

2007-11-03T20:13:00.000-04:00

I came across it somehow. Cosmo tested out at 10 human years younger than his actual age :-)

http://www.dogage.com/reg/regassess.aspx

You have to sign in and answer lots of questions. I think I could have gotten him younger but the food questions don't really work for raw feeding and we were subtracted because he doesn't get the yearly vacs anymore.

Anyone run with a cell phone?

2007-11-03T18:41:00.000-04:00

Met Sue, SD, KF and BS today at the west trail. Was planning to run 4. SD was injured for a while so her distances are down. She was going to run a mile and walk some. Sue and BS took off while KF and I hung with SD. It was a cold, crisp morning and Momo was wearing his rainbow bro:

SD started having breathing trouble at about .5 mile. A couple of times we walked for a few seconds while she tried to catch her breath. We hit the mile at about 13 minutes, she said she was going to walk another quarter and then turn around. She seemed ok so KF and I picked it up in a futile attempt to catch Sue and BS. We got to about 100 or so feet of them at the 1.5 mile turnaround.

On the way back, we just couldn't close the distance. We passed SD walking - still seemed good. When Sue and BS finished, they walked back. Right behind them, KF and I started to walk back when we finished. All of a sudden, Sue passes us at a run, saying she has to get SD's inhaler (she took two hits off of it before running but then left it in her car). KF went on to meet and stay with SD and I started back towards the car at a slow jog to meet up with Sue. My thinking was that the two of us sprinting half the distance each would be faster than one of us sprinting it all. I caught up with her in the parking lot, passed over Momo and took the inhaler and sprinted back to SD. All the time, I am wishing some of the faster people we know would come along. But it was just us. A couple of hits off of the inhaler and she was just fine. I certainly felt I could use a hit or two myself. I have run with my cell phone a few times before but didn't have it today. It all ended well today but no one really wants to depend upon my sprinting ability in the midst of an asthma attack.

On a different note, we have all decided to do weight watchers. Sue needs something easy and managable because her life is crazy, SD and KF I just plain need something. I have been pretty careful counting calories but my progress has slowed and it looks like I am stalled at 10 pounds gone. We start this Tuesday. I have an 'old school' scale but today, I wanted to up the ante so we got a fancy schmancy, bells and whistles scale. Tests for hydration and body fat,all with nice big digital numbers down to .2 pounds. Got it home, stepped on it.....it weighs 7 to 10 pounds heavier than the old school scale. I know it is just a number and the real number you want is just the difference but it still sent me to bed curled in a fetal position. Which scale is right? The husb maintains the old school scale matches the doctor scale at work so it is more accurate. Needless to say, bells and whistle scale is going right back to the store tomorrow. I can tell you right now if the WW scale at Tuesday's meeting weighs like that new scale, I will probably have an emotional meltdown right there in public. It's stupid, I know.

Search thoughts

2007-10-30T09:23:00.000-04:00

The SOP for greyhound searches is plaster the areas with flyers. The thought is that searchers cannot cover the amount of ground necessary to keep up with a moving greyhound. Most greyhounds stay within a 2 mile area but that works out to be what? 12 square miles? Maybe more? Shoot, where is the actuary husband when you need some math done? In any event, it is a huge area.

When there is that much ground to cover, you need other people looking. And not so much that they are *actively* looking or searching but you want to plant the idea in people's minds that there is a lost dog in the area. So that if they happen, on their way into work or the grocery store 5 days later, to see a dog crossing the street, they think to themselves, "didn't I see a flyer a few days ago about a dog lost? Maybe that was the dog. When I get home, I will see if I can find the flyer and give those people a call".

In urban areas, this strategy has worked extremely well. We followed the same plan on the search for Mercedes but I really didn't know if it would work as well. We were in a very rural area with a fairly low population density. On some roads, there was easily a half mile or more between houses. There were lots of wooded tracts, farm fields and hunting trails crisscrossing hundreds of acres. There was a lot of area she could have been in that no one would have ever saw her. I didn't think we would be getting many calls or that many people would see her.

So what happened? We got calls. People were seeing her and they were calling. How was she found? A woman called, said she was looking at her in her backyard, right then and there. The family was able to get there within minutes and recover Mercedes.

Flyers do work - even in extremely rural areas. Nice bit of anecdotal validation there for the flyer theory :-)

Day 3

2007-10-29T19:15:00.001-04:00

Dog found :-)

She is home, safe and sound with some owners that are positively sick with relief. Tough, tough way to learn a lesson. They are so, so very lucky.....

Lost dog

2007-10-28T21:42:00.000-04:00

The end of Day 2.

I hate this, just absolutely hate it....
http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=182669

Part of my angst is I just don't want to search. Riding home tonight with B, I just prayed over and over that they would find the dog tomorrow morning. I don't want to drive over an hour roundtrip. I have other ways I would like to spend my time. I just don't want to be doing this right now. But I have to search for this dog because these people decided to let their greyhounds run loose. Their greyhounds were different - they wouldn't run off. If I had my way, when this dog is recovered, she wouldn't be going back to them. Unfortunately, their adoption group is defunct and I have no say in the matter but I do wish someone would be the voice for this dog.

I can't quite get a handle on the owners - they were ready to write her off as dead ("she ran until she had a heart attack") within 4 hours of her being gone. I am trying to be nice and pleasant to them but I can hardly look at them. My disgust for them is simmering so close to the surface, I try not to have much to do with them. They knowingly and habitually let their 9 year old, spooky greyhound run free. But they thought, she was different than other greyhounds. They could trust her. Yeah, whatever. This is that girl's second night out alone and it is going to get down below 40 degrees tonight. They will be warm, safe and comfortable in bed. As someone said, they might as well as just stuck the needle in her leg themselves and killed her. Harsh, yeah, but undeniably true. Greyhounds can NEVER (and never means no exceptions) be off leash.

The girl is shy and isn't going to be coming to people. I got to within about 100-150 feet of her and she wasn't having anything to do that. She wasn't interested in Cosmo. I tried 'finessing' her to us by ignoring her, yawning, playing with Cosmo, sitting down - none of it worked. We might end up having to trap her.

Yeah, I am a little pissed. I spent 20 minutes tending to Cosmo's feet this evening. Several miles through wet, cut hayfields can be brutal on greyhound feet. That dog is a trooper - he was 100% game tonight.

Tons of flyers are out - they are usually the best way to find dogs. Unfortunately, when I did see this gal, she was about .5 mile from the nearest house and the main road (I am estimating that distance from the time it took me to get back to the farm - and at one point, when we lost sight of her over a hill, Cosmo and I were booking - we were going flat out. I mean, you know how I usually say when I run with Cosmo, his pace to keep up with me is just a brisk walk? Well, he was running this time.)

We are lucky in that we have a community that is willing to come together and search for dogs. And within that community, we have a few really determined, stubborn people who won't stop looking. If they have no success tomorrow morning, Cosmo and I will be out there, walking miles through the fields, looking for this dog. Because it isn't her fault she is out there.

Just venting here.....

2007-10-25T14:03:00.000-04:00

Just when I start to feel all warm and fuzzy about the human race, I come across this. Are people freaking insane? The human race sucks. I am beginning to think I need to climb aboard the Anthony Bourdain environmental train.

I'm a radical environmentalist; I think the sooner we asphyxiate in our own filth, the better. The world will do better without us. Maybe some fuzzy animals will go with us, but there'll be plenty of other animals, and they'll be back. The world will do better without us, when the blight of humanity is removed.

The blight of humanity indeed.

In other news, after rest, ice and massage, the hamstring is a little better - it doesn't hurt when I walk.

Who's your candidate?

2007-10-24T11:35:00.001-04:00

Found this on a running forum and thought it was fun:

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

Turns out I am 100% Kucinich. That surprised me. Not that his name came up but the 100% part of it.

The ensuing discussion on the running forum dealt with people being surprised with who they matched with and the whole issue of do you vote for who you think will have a chance to win or do you vote for you support?

I had a discussion many years ago with a former boss who told me I 'threw away' and 'wasted' my vote by casting it for Nader. I asked him why and he replied because Nader had no chance to win. Sorry boss. I vote for who I think is best and I don't consider it 'throwing away' my vote. This is really ringing true to me this election cycle where it seems the press is already shoving a couple annoited candidates down our throat. I mean, for crying out loud, if it wasn't for Bill Maher, poor Ron Paul wouldn't get a lick of press. I thought we chose, not the press.

Hamstrung by my hamstring

2007-10-24T10:39:00.000-04:00

I did a four mile run this morning and now I am sitting on a bag of ice. My left hamstring has been iffy lately and today just did it in. No one to blame but myself.....I had a sneaking suspicion that this was a possibility. I hate to stretch. I hate to warm up. I hate to strength train. So the chickens have come home to roost. It's a regimen of ice and ibuprofen for me and no hamstring exercises for a few days. Oh, yeah, I guess I will have to stretch also :-( Only good thing is I came across a video for hamstring injury massage. Will have to get A to do that for me - you know, in the interest of complete clinical recovery.

Fickle is catching

2007-10-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

Jen isn't the only one I would apply the term fickle to today. (And for the record, I might tell her she is fickle but I really suspect she is one of those talented, creative type people that just isn't bound by pedestrian habits like the rest of us).

I have one 'feel good' run and I sign up for a half marathon. Today, I have one struggling run and I want to apply for a refund. LOL

The initial plan was to run 6.5 miles around my house this morning with W. #2 son came home from an overnight shift and said we would be nuts to run on the roads - the visibility was very poor due to fog. So we shifted our locale to the park and I brought Cosmo. We were going to do a run 9, walk 1.

In my quest to lose weight and increase my fitness for the half training, I took a weight lifting class, taught by a friend, JP, at the Y yesterday afternoon. The first weights I have lifted in about 6 months! I told JP I would go on the condition that we do NO walking lunges and she takes it pretty easy. I stuck with very light weights too. I didn't feel too bad after the class or even early this morning. Then I ran this morning and immediately I could tell I was approaching 'over done'. My inner thighs - which I never notice while running, but we did lots of plie type squats yesterday - were screaming within the first mile. My hamstrings felt shredded and I just felt tired the whole way. W wasn't feeling 100% as she hadn't run in about a week so we ended up doing 5.5 miles very, very slow.

I know if I stick with the class, I will get used to it quickly and it will benefit my running. However, right now, it hurts to walk and I have no idea how I will be able to teach a 45 minute cycle class tonight. Should be interesting.

And no. I am not going to ask for a refund but the thought seriously crossed by mind at about mile 4.5!

Deep Breaths

2007-10-16T12:21:00.000-04:00

I am trying not to hyperventilate. I have done it. There is no turning back. I just registered for this. Amazing what the first half decent run in 6 weeks (see previous entry!) makes you think you can do :-)

Woohoo! April 27, 2008.

Why this race?

1) I wanted an early/spring race.
2) It is an 3.5 hour drive from home.
3) W agreed to run this one - you didn't think there was any way I would run by myself, did you? Now just to get B & B to run it.........Mwahhahahahahah!
4) 10 bands along the route! I am big on anything that has the potential to distract me from my misery.
5) We will run through a covered bridge! How cool is that? A COVERED BRIDGE!
6) Post race lunch includes Vegetarian Vegetable & Mini Perogie Soup and Vegetarian Sausage Sandwiches. Oh, I am so there!
7) It's a big race and we shouldn't be DFL (not that there's anything wrong with that - I HAVE been last before. The sun still comes up the next day.....)

The plan is to do a 16 week training program for it starting the first part of January. And to lose 15 pounds before starting. Ha ha. I can't even read that sentence with laughing out loud at the hopeful absurdity of it.

WTF???

2007-10-16T10:05:00.000-04:00

I feel like I had a out of body experience. Today's run. W cancelled because of a work commitment so it was Cosmo and I at the park trail. I wasn't sure what my distance would be....3....3.5.....maybe even 4. I was going to play it by ear. Also thought I might throw in a few walking breaks. I really didn't expect much. We started off and hit the first mile at about 10:40. Huh. I thought that we would wait and see how things were lying at the 1.5 mark and maybe turn around there. Hit the 1.5, felt pretty good. Actually, I felt better than pretty good so on we went. I figured if I wanted to, we could walk a minute or so at the 2 mile mark. Got to the 2 mile mark at 21:30 AND I still felt pretty good. I was starting to fret a little by now. After all, it has been a long, long time since I have run and felt good. Specifically, 9/5. That was before I got sick and the last time I clocked a sub 11 mile for a run. On we went, hitting the 3 mile mark under 33, so I decided to go for it. Cosmo, who had been trotting along by my side the whole way, seemed to realize that things were looking up and he picked it up. He trotted (it is really unfair to call his pace a 'run' when he is with me. It is practically a fast walk) up in front of me and stayed there the whole last mile. You could tell he was happy, he was all perky and prancy.

The final verdict? 43:22, 4 miles, 10:50 mile pace. It felt so good, I am a little scared.

Meme-a-palooza

2007-09-29T21:41:00.000-04:00

A while back I was tagged for a meme by Pink Theory at Luminous Vegans. I have stalled enough, waiting for....what? I don't know. My life to become interesting enough to provide something of value? Anyways, here are the rules (copied from LV)

Rules:#1 Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of your first or middle name.

#2 When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.

#3 At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them, they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

#4 If I’ve tagged YOU (the bloggers that I've tagged are listed at the end), please join in on the fun!

T - Talent. I have none. Can't draw, can't sing, can't really do much of anything. If I had my druthers I would love to be able to sing. It wouldn't have to be great or anything but the ability to keep a tune would be awesome because I love music.

R - Running. I am not fast but over the past four years, running has become a constant identifier in my life. I am, therefore I run. And I run with Cosmo. Hence the Runswithdog.

A - I think I might have to skip A. I have pondered this letter and even asked the husb to contribute. He came up with ambitious (I think he was being sarcastic), aggressive (unfortunately, I think he was not being sarcastic) and anxious (not sarcastic here either). He also said alienated. WTF? Alienated from who? And to top it off lastly he said I was not 'antediluvian'. I asked him what that meant and he didn't really know exactly. And so I wasted 5 minutes of my life looking it up, telling him the definition and then having to listen to him try to justify it's appropriateness related to me. It turns out I am younger than the great flood and Noah. Oy.

C - Countries. I am willing to go anywhere. I love to travel. I will go anywhere at least once, even if I never really cared about going there. I guess you could say I am an indiscriminate trip dreamer :-)

You know, I am not the most introspective person and finding something for those four letters really kicked my butt. It was a good thing I decided against using runswithdog!

I am going to tag 5CGs, AndyandBrian'sMom and Trailhoundz. My bet is 5CGs won't do it but maybe TH will because she loves this kind of stuff.

Situationally Unaware

2007-09-27T12:29:00.000-04:00

I came across that term in a comment on the NYT's food blog and it struck a chord with me. It is the exact term I have been searching for - how to describe all those people who stand around with their heads up their asses, completely unaware of their surroundings. Case in point:
Yesterday
Local Library
Returning books

There is a little chute in the front counter for book returns but the staff prefers you just stack them on the counter - it is easier for them to get to the books and check them back in, I guess. I walk in to return my books. There is a large woman and a small boy standing in front of the book return. There is one of those umbrella strollers behind them, tipped over because there are heavy bags looped over the handles. The large woman, pretty oblivious to the stroller or the boy is talking to another woman who is standing over to the side. She, the boy and the tipped over stroller are right in front of the book return. I can't get to the book return to return my armload of books. She keeps talking, the boy keeps picking his nose. The stroller remains tipped over. She turns around, looks at me, turns back and keeps talking. The boy now progresses to making monkey noises. She keeps talking. I say, 'excuse me' and am not heard over the din of monkey hoo-hoos. In a fit of perversity, I decided to wait her out. Finally, the conversation comes to an end - only after checking out books. Turns out she was waiting to check out books in the return line even though there was no one in the check out line!! She uprights the stroller, grabs the monk- er boy by the hand and wanders off with nary an acknowledgement or apology tossed in my direction.

WTF??? I wish I was back in NYC where not only would the person have moved, apologizing at the same time, they probably would have grabbed the books out of my arms to return them themselves! I am encountering this type of behavior more and more! Is it just me? Do you people come across these situationally unaware folks who seem to think they are the only inhabitants in their special little world? On second thought, I don't even think I can classify this woman as 'situationally unaware'. She was aware all right. She just didn't care.

Training Update

2007-09-27T12:05:00.000-04:00

The cold is finally all gone with the exception of a lingering, innocent little hack at night. And my training is back on track. But I am slower. Oh Gawd, am I slower. My schedule calls for a weekly tempo run, intervals and a long run. I added into that mix a fourth run - less than 3 miles. Just a jaunt to keep the leg muscles from atrophying and the calorie count from jumping. I thought the route was 2.82 miles. And I was throwing down some killer times so suspicious minds and all that jazz......I re-calculated the route. I did it using USATF, Gmaps and Mapmyrun. The overall concensus is 2.46 miles. So one day it was a 12:12 miles (just 2 seconds a mile faster than my 6 mile run WITH WALK BREAKS earlier in the week!) and today was 11:13. The real kicker is both times, I felt like I *was* running fast. Oh well, guess it is going to take a little longer recovery time for me....

Laugh for the day....

2007-09-25T12:15:00.001-04:00

for the week, for the month? Who knows. I have just been giggling to myself for days over this.

2007-09-21T11:38:00.000-04:00

Shout out to AMT.....

I am sure you won't want to miss this.

***Along with my daily dose of celebrity whoring, I have become quite the devotee of food blogs :-)

NYC - Part III

2007-09-15T18:55:00.000-04:00

Day 3 in NYC.

Since we hoped to leave in the early afternoon, we used this day to get a couple of letterboxes in the Riverside Park area and we wanted to eat lunch at a place I found on the Internet - Strictly Roots. Strictly Roots is at 2058 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (aka 7th Ave) between 122nd and 123rd.

Okay, after the disappointment that was Vegetarian Dim Sum House (I am beginning to wonder if all the Americanized Chinese takeout I have eaten over the years has corrupted my palate and I am just unable to enjoy true Chinese food. After all, this place is raved about so much - did we hit it on a bad day or do I just not know good food when I eat it?), Jen and I needed some good food. We needed to hit a place that would feed us, feed our souls and minds. And boy, did we find it. This place has some mad, cheap grub that will stick to your ribs. The food is served cafeteria style but they also have fresh, made to order items on their menu. We stuck to the heating trays and just pointed up our lunches. Each item is priced differently, by serving. Jen asked for the plantains and the tempura tofu which were each $1. Yeah. $1 per serving. She got a juice and was all set for $4. Her plate:

A close up of the plantains:

Man, these were good. I was picking the caramelized sugar out of my teeth all the way to the Delaware Water Gap.
I ordered the collard greens, the red beans, and the mac and cheese. With a juice, my total came to $10. Even though we shared each others food, we still couldn't eat it all.

The collards:

I loved these. Jen thought they tasted overcooked and from a can but I know better. My mama is from Alabama :-) These were delish.
The mac and cheese:

This was good. Day-um good. We ate all of this. It was creamy, cheesy and pure comfort food. I would go back just for this.
The beans were okay, but with plates full of stand out food, they suffered by comparison. They had some baked goods but we passed on those because of the amount of food we ordered.
The Strictly Roots mural:

Yeah, get thee to this place :-) But avoid the bathroom - yeesh. That's all I am going to say about *that*.

One last thing - per my previous post.....do you have any idea how hard it is to letterbox in a city that people can't wait to help you out? Walking around with papers in hand, looking confused guaranteed someone stopping to offer directions. We had a person pull over in their car while we were at the Cloisters! So, in our best helpful tradition and to try to keep the NY nasty reputation alive, I offer you this:

This is Jen, trying to discreetly rehide a box in the Riverside Park area. Miss White Shirt and Black Purse is lost and is supposed to meet someone here. She decides, of all the helpful and nice NYers around, to hit us up continually for advise and directions. Us! The only people around who don't want to strike up conversations with complete strangers, who could care less if someone is lost, who don't want to talk to ANYONE. We are only concerned with getting the box, stamping in, rehiding, with no one else around the wiser. She came up to me 3 times - 3 TIMES - with inquiries about the location, the time, can she borrow my phone, blah, blah, blah. I am proud to say that I did my best to brush her off and turn her away. It is sad when a couple of folks from Syracuse pretty much display the only "typical' NY behavior :-)

Edited to Add: Strictly Roots menu

NYC - Part II

2007-09-15T18:50:00.001-04:00

Sunday - Day 2

Three things I have decided about NY.

1) No one sweats in that city. Seriously. We would head out and by the time we got the subway station on Broadway, the sweat would be pouring down my neck and my hair would be soaked. People were just strolling around me, cool as a cucumber. WTF?? I spent most the time looking like a drowned rat. One benefit was that I sweated so much my need for public bathrooms was practically nil.

2) People are way, way too nice in NYC. We practically got a private tour in one of the museums we visited. Every time we even as much as slightly paused on the sidewalk, someone would ask us if we needed directions. Once, just slowing down in front of the steps in a subway station, I asked Jen if we were heading up or down town. Two old men were right there asking where we were heading. Once, walking down a street in Harlem, we asked one man for directions and the three of us were interrupted by another woman chiming in with her version of the directions. Where is the cynical, push-you-aside-to-get-where-I-need-to-go New Yorker?

3)Every single freaking male subway employee is African-American, Hispanic or some other non-Caucasian demographic and is absolutely drop dead GORGEOUS. Is is a job requirement? Ladies, I am telling you, we saw some FINE men working those trains and they knew it too. They knew we were checking them out and were all about making eye contact and smiling.

Sunday, our plan was to hit a couple of 'living' museums, you know, the type where they have restored private homes to a certain historical era. We had a few letterboxes we wanted to get and we were going to hit Vegetarian Dim Sum House in Chinatown and an art place.

First up, the Morris Jumal Home. We thought it was closed because it was locked up. We finally were let in with a scolding from the employee because we wandered from door to door and she couldn't find us. Now, she was a good old-time brusque New York public servant :-) The Morris Jumal House:

Jen acting as Henry the Navigator

She did an awesome job. Usually when I travel with the husb, I have to do all the navigation so it was a treat to relax and be told where to go. It was also a delight to travel with someone who shares my delight in public transportation and living museums :-)

I don't know what I was thinking but I took no pictures of the Merchant's House Museum. The Morris Jumal House was fine but if you like this kind of stuff, the Merchant's House Museum is a must see stop in NY. This place is great.

I was very excited to go to Vegetarian Dim Sum House in Chinatown because I heard so much good about it. Maybe it was an off day but I wasn't really impressed and I don't think Jen was either. All the fried food had a tired, identical taste as if the it was all fried in the same old oil. Jen did like her fresh kiwi juice:

We ordered sweet and salty dumplings, which were stuffed with vegetables and decent tasting:

Spinach dumplings. I actually liked these but I don't think Jen cared for them.

Steamed 'pork' buns. Blah.

Fried turnip cakes. Blah.

Sorry about the quality of pictures - I tried taking these without a flash as to not disturb the other diners.

After eating, we hit Pearl Art Store on Canal Street. You could tell it was back to school time because there were tons of students wandering around clutching their supply lists. The store was awesome and Jen was positively orgasmic, wandering around, looking at all the handmade paper. I actually think she might have moaned once or twice out loud LOL. The paper was beautiful and very reasonably priced. I picked up two sheets to use to make books.

We found two letterboxes this day, one up by the Cloisters and one, Halloween Adventure, which ranks right up there in my fave five boxes ever. We had a blast with this box. Location was great, clues were great, it was just awesome. I would definitely recommend this box to anyone heading to NYC.

NYC - Part I

2007-09-15T18:28:00.000-04:00

Been back from the Big City for almost a week but haven't blogged the trip yet - I am a disgrace in bloggerville :-) Jen was prompt with her account. She is much more responsible than I. LOL

Ah, what can I say? New York. I LOVE New York. Luve, lurve, heart it. Anyway you want to say it.

We drove down on Saturday afternoon (in the Prius, 50.9 mpg, thank you very much!) and arrived around 5:30. We stayed with my daughter who has a very nice two bedroom apartment she shares with a roommate, in the Washington Heights area. We lucked out and found an awesome on street parking spot on W 170th, right across from a police station. The prius was parked and stayed right there until we left Tuesday afternoon. The apartment is a 6th floor walk-up and everytime I hiked those stairs, I thanked myself for all my running!

We went to Jen's old college friend, Christie's play that evening. It was good. Really good. A very, nicely professional production. I don't know what I was expecting but I enjoyed it a lot. We then went to the afterparty at a bar around the corner from the playhouse. Both of Jen's friends from school, Christie and Jody were very nice, friendly and welcoming.

Kate and Jen on the subway to the theater:

The crowd outside the theater after the play let out:

Successful Wells Alumnae, Christie, Jen and Jody (?), all a credit to their university:

Party On Garth! Seriously, that is my beer she is holding, Jen only had a soda in the bar :-)

Bud was a Bust

2007-09-15T15:15:00.000-04:00

At least it was for me. Other people had stellar outings, more about that later.

This race is jinxed for me. I signed up two years ago, came down with shingles 2 days before the race. This year I got sick again. Cold, sore throat, achy, cough, what have you. It started a week ago Wednesday so I thought I could throw it off, but no dice. I modified my plan and thought if not the 10 k then I could walk the 5k. No dice there. Heartbreaking because it was cool and drizzly, just how I like it.

Now Bridget and Wendy went out and tore up that course, Bridget under 60 minutes and Wendy 1:03. I am way out classed by my running partners :-( Sue also ran her first 10k without walking, or so I am told. She wandered off after finishing and I didn't see her under the beer tent.

I am coaching the new run group starting tomorrow. What a joke.....they are all faster than I am! LOL Seems like it's mostly runners from the previous group and they want to move up to the 10K distance. Works fine for me - think we will shoot for the Jingle Bell Run in November which has a 10k.

Edited to add: A picture from our Friday night pre-race dinner hosted by yours truly. From left to right: Shannon, Kris, Sue. Around on the left is Mick with Wendy hiding behind him. Not shown is Bridget, Bill, Andrew and myself. It was a really fun, fun, noisy, lots of laughter type evening. We covered everything from Alton Brown's man boobs to running to Jen's upcoming 'date'. And yes, you do see a white plastic lawn chair in the picture. Bridget had to bring hers because my kids have taken all my folding chairs to use in their various apartments.

Run Report

2007-09-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

W and I tried to do 4 miles today. We ended up walking twice for a quarter mile each time. The weather forecast is for record highs and an ozone warning for today. I thought we could beat the heat, but it beat us. I didn't take Cosmo. It is hot and humid outside. All that means to him is that dog hating monsters in the sky will be making loud noises at him even though the forecast says nothing about thunderstorms. This is how he spent his morning:

One week to Bud. I am not feeling 100% confident. According to McMillian, I should be able to do the 10K in 1:07:29. Nice and firmly in the BOP :-) However, I don't think I can maintain a sub 11 pace for over 6 miles. I am shooting for 11:15 or around 1:09/1:10. Very, very nicely in the BOP :-) Boy, when I look at that time written out all I can think if that is a long time to be out there running. Extended weather forecast is calling for a high of 70 and sunny for Saturday.

Tomorrow will be 5-6 miles and then Jen and I are off to NYC. I am going to run the first mile with Shannon, her first straight mile run since she has been injured.

Montreal

2007-09-04T05:14:00.000-04:00

Better late than never. The trip to Montreal was very nice. It was about 250 miles away so we drove. Frankly, the northern NY and southern Canadian landscape is pretty unremarkable, very flat and boring. The city of Montreal is remarkable for it's architecture. I found it to be a very clean, very friendly city, although a few people have told me their experience is different, as least in regards to the friendly part.

The night we arrived, we walked down to Vieux Montreal, the old part of the city and stumbled upon a street festival celebrating the history of the area. There were vendors dressed in historic garb, demonstrating and selling traditional craft items. Andrew checking out a display:

We came across this interesting fruit/vegetable (?). It tasted like a cross between a grape and a cherry tomato. Any suggestions as to what it may be?

Canada has a large immigrant population. China Town was one of my favorite neighborhoods to walk through:

Vieux Montreal was especially picturesque:

I ended up not running. For all my good intentions, I really didn't expect I would. I decided to use these few days as a break and to give my legs some recovery time. Of course, I then went out and proceeded to do my best to completely walk every area in the metropolitan Montreal area. I was practically crippled every night :-)

However, the best part of the trip was the formal dinner on the last night. It was hilarious to watch a bunch of newly admitted FSA's throw down their calculators and pocket protectors

and cut loose for the evening, intoxicated on relief, the thought of no more exams and lots of free booze.

Three Strikes, am I out?

2007-08-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

8 am. 80 degrees and 80% humidity. Three lousy runs in a row.

I know that this is SOP for some of you southern runners, but for us above the Mason-Dixon line? It is pure hell.

Schedule called for 6 miles.
The only shows were Bridget, Bill and me. Everyone else has some sense. Bridget and I talk about cutting it down to 4. Bill says he is going for 6. We stash our water at the start point (you will see the significance of this later).

About a mile in, Bridget says let's cut it to three miles. I am all over that. We are doing about a 11:30 pace at this point. We get to the turnaround and at the two mile mark, I apologize and slow to a walk. It was like running in a sauna. Bridget didn't seem all that upset about walking. Of course, Bill just happens to pass us on his way back as soon as we started walking. As he passes us he says he is only doing 4. After less than a quarter mile walk, we start up again. I am thinking to myself, 'can I run any slower and not be walking?' At one point, I actually hear her exhale and ask her, 'did I just hear you breathe?' While I am a 'huffer-puffer' runner (I actually sound like a 90 yr old asthmatic running), Bridget never breathes heavy. When she struggles with a run, it is always with leg and lower body fatigue and discomfort, never cardio-vascularly. So to hear her huff, even if it was only once, was strange. We manage to make the last three quarters of a mile and grab our water.

Someone let their dog pee on our water bottles! Not only is that rude but could have some serious consequences in weather like this. We could have been doing a really long run and was counting on that water. Nasty, nasty, nasty and shameful. I hope your dog pees in your bed.

I am still undecided about running in Montreal. Do I need a break or just cooler weather? I will bring my gear and decide later.

So now I have cooled off enough to shower - I hate showering when you haven't cooled down enough and you keep sweating after getting out of the shower - I am going to use the peppermint soap judiciously. We are going to hit the State Fair tonight to see Dickey Betts and the Outlaws. Oh man, it is enough to make me feel 16 again! I am off to practice my rock hands!

Menthol does not belong everywhere!

2007-08-24T12:02:00.000-04:00

The husband came home a couple of days ago from his naturopathic appointment with some special soap. It was some liquid peppermint shower soap from Vermont Soap Organics. He is probably his naturopath's best customer. You would not believe some of the stuff he brings home from there.

Anyways, fast forward to today, after my run. I hop in the shower, grab the shower sponge, pour some of this stuff on and proceed to go to town on my nasty sweaty, 'I'm gonna make you regret your alive during this run' body. I even thought that maybe this stuff would help my self conceived body odor problem. No one else smells it (or maybe they are just being polite when I ask them if I stink) but ever since summer began, I don't think I have completely been able to banish the b.o. I feel like Pigpen with a little noxious cloud following me all around.

I have tried numerous deodorants and antiperspirants (and let me tell you, they never work!). Different soaps. Washed my running shoes. I even Fabreezed the car seats, thinking that must be what is smelling. No matter what I do, I am still afraid I smell.

So I lather up all over and enjoy the nice, peppermint-y smelling soap. I even think to myself to be careful not to get any of this in my eyes because that peppermint would sting. And then I feel it. Not in my eyes, but in a certain other, delicate, lady-like area. Refreshing, cooling, minty, numbing, menthol-y stinging. I check the bottle and there is no genital warning. If this stuff wasn't safe to use on genitals, wouldn't they have to put that on the labels? This stuff better wear off before my run tomorrow morning because I bet it will be a killer combined with a bad case of runner's crotch sweat.

It was ugly out there today

2007-08-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

Saturday - good race
Monday - good run
Wednesday - starting down that slippery slope
Friday (today) - crash and burn

Ugh. Bad, just bad. A regular death march. I didn't feel good from the first step. I didn't bring Cosmo because it is very humid. The kind of humid where sweat doesn't evaporate but goes flinging off your elbows every time you swing your arms. We walked 3 times, and not just little minute walk breaks but quarter mile walk breaks. My legs felt tight and heavy, like I could barely lift them. The only good thing about today's run is that it is over. Right now, the way I feel, Saturday's run is iffy.

I almost left my time off my training log and put only the distance. I feel bad enough and didn't think I needed to be reminded of the torture every time I look at my blog. But I decided to suck it up and put the evidence of my misery out there for everyone to see.

I am leaving Sunday for Montreal and coming back on Wednesday. Of course my plan was to bring my running gear but now I am wondering if I should. W thinks I should just take those days, relax and recuperate and come home renewed, rested and ready to resume training. Do I really need a break? Is it possible to overtrain on less than 20 miles a week? LOL

On a positive note, Real Time with Bill Maher returns tonight so I have something to look forward to, that is if I can stay awake. :-)

ETA: W kept telling me that part of the reason I was so tired was that I taught a cycle class last night. I don't know what came over me but we did do a lot of hovers, a maneuver where you come up out of the saddle, stabilize your upper body and pedal, with no upper body engagement. They suck. And we did lots of them. But I don't think they are to blame for my crappy run.

Midday runs.....

2007-08-22T17:05:00.000-04:00

stink.

I had an early morning dental appointment to replace a temp crown with a perm. And then I had an appointment with my friendly neighborhood masachistic hair stylist so this morning's run became this afternoon's run. No big deal, right? After all, it isn't as though my days are chockful of peace brokering in the Middle East.

I have a nice little morning routine. Coffee, water, a light fruit breakfast, do whatever else has to be done and then run. The problem with a mid day run is you are held captive to all that has preceeded your run. In my case, it ended up being a bowl of cereal, two rolls (with vegan Earth Balance), a huge 16 oz fruit smoothie - everything I ate before 3 pm. Let me tell you, tummy no likey smoothie while running. Some weird gastro-intestinal brewing was going on.

It started off decently. First mile 10:45, second mile 21:50, and then Cosmo decides he has had enough. So we walk a minute and then start again slowly. At the 3 mile mark, I have had enough and we walk for a minute while I try to get rid of a stitch in my side. First time I had one of those in years. So we end our 4.5 at 51:42, a full 3 minutes slower than I hoped. Oh well. Such is life. Maybe Friday's run will be better.

More race news

2007-08-19T18:53:00.000-04:00

W ran a trail 5k today. Her time was 30:26. I already told her that no way are we using that time to figure our training for the half. No way Jose.

Willow Bay Run for Women Race Report

2007-08-18T23:33:00.000-04:00

Goal C (no dnf)- Done
Goal B (sub 11 m/m) - Done
Goal A: Under 33 minutes - DONE!

Woo hoo! Official time: 32:31. 10:29 m/m. Bridget time: 32:29. She has the proof in a picture and wants me to lodge a formal protest over those 2 seconds. LOL.

Today was a gorgeous day for a race. The temps were nice and cool, probably about 60-65 degrees and the turnout was great.

After checking in, milling around and chatting, the race started promptly. I was a little nervous and the tummy was sketchy but it all settled down eventually. The plan (as I was informed numerous times during the prior week) was to run with Bridget and let her pace me. She assured me she could keep a nice, steady pace for us. First mile was 9:55. Ooops. We were passed quite a bit in the beginning but just kept running steadily.

Right after the turnaround (which took forever to get to - the freaking race felt 6 miles long!) Sue cramped up in her quad and dropped back. Sorry, Sue. I wasn't happy about leaving you but I knew it wasn't a disaster movie and that we would see you in the end. We were also running into the wind which blew up stiffly every once in a while. At one point, Bridget pulled out in front of me and said she would block the wind and I was to run behind her. Yeah, that worked. I appreciated the thought but running behind a toothpick for someone my size didn't really block much wind. LOL

Second mile stayed the same pace and we did pass a few people - not many but a few. Just past the 2.5 mark, I started to get tired - really tired from the pace. I was focused on watching for Jen and her dogs because I knew they walked down quite a way to watch. Afterwards, she said when we passed them I was looking pretty rough. Yeah, I was feeling pretty rough too. Pukingly rough. At this point, we could see the finish line but it took forever to reach it. Bridget was checking her watch compulsively and talking tough. My husband was the next spectator I was watching for. At this race, his m.o. is to show up after the start, walk down about .2 miles and stand on the right side. Sure enough, there he was. I think I was so relieved I said it out loud.

Right at the finish line, close enough she was almost in the finishing shute and had to swerve to enter it, some little 16 yr old flashed by me. Yeah, honey. Quite an accomplishment. How rude and tacky. I am old enough to be your mother. And it didn't help you much. You were still last in your age group by almost a minute, while I was 29/38. Boo-ya!****

Sue finished in an amazing 33:43 which might be a best for her too. Remarkable considering the leg cramps she battled.

Some amazing stats (and just in case I think advancing up in the age groups will help me):
Age Group 70-74: First place 24:21
Age Group 75-79: First place 34:44

Absolutely freaking amazing.

I am very happy with my time - I ran this race very hard, thanks to Bridget. I am going to consider it a PR. I have one 5K race that officially was faster - 31:59 but it was a uncertified course that had a scandalous history of being short. And I am pretty sure that I have never run a 31:59.

Next up is the Bud 10K, September 15. I found out from Bill that there is a new 5k race this October sponsored by the local Army reserve unit. It looks to be pretty small but it is the same course as today's race so it might be a good race to measure any improvement. It would also be fun to wear the USMC School of Infantry shirt the eldest son gave me. I might try to talk him and the younger son into running it with me :-) Those Army guys aren't fooling around either. The registration form says you will get your t-shirt AFTER you complete the race and check in with your race time (no chip times here, folks).

***The Truth in Blogging caveat here is that I pass so few people, that if I had the opportunity, I would probably pass a Granny in the shute saying, 'In your face' as I did it. LOL Just joking. Honestly. I would never do such a thing. ;-)

Miracle of modern veterinary medicine

2007-08-17T10:05:00.000-04:00

Our Mal is 9 years old. He is an Irish born greyhound with a pretty illustrious pedigree. His sire, Phantom Flash was the 1996 Irish Stud Dog of The Year. We have struggled with him healthwise the past 3 years. After biting the bullet and having an exhaustive set of x-rays done we discovered that he has some old injuries to his spine and pelvis which are painful so he is on pain meds for them. Recently, he was put on some antibiotics for a foot infection. I think he is feeling better ;-) This has been his behavior over the past three days. It might not look like much but if you are familiar with Mally, you will be impressed with his mobility:

Funk-y Town

2007-08-17T09:24:00.000-04:00

First off, to all you kind enough to worry and comment...I did find my running shorts this morning. Somehow they were stashed in my underwear section of my bureau. Very embarrassing, especially as I accused the 18 (soon to be 19, in 2 weeks) year old son of coveting and absconding with them. He looked at me like I was nuts.

Things have been funky around here and not in a 'groov'in with some energy' type of way. More in a funk - y type of way, with the emphasis on funk. Blah. We ran Wednesday. 4 miles. Plan was for 6x400 repeats. We got almost through four and Cosmo was stung by a yellow jacket on the inside of one of his front legs. Until this point, we were just under 11 m/m. He limped (very pathetic looking), and we walked, through the 1.5 miles left and we finished at 55:25. Just a shade under 15. My suspicion is that the sting couldn't have hurt all that much and he was playing it up, not wanting to run. Dog should have been a soccer player. Oh yeah! And I should have been a comedian. LOL

The Willow Bay 5 k is tomorrow. Previous times:
2005 - 34:05 (11:00)
2004 - 33:18 (10:45)

As always, I have my A, B and C goals.
C Goal - finish. Always want to avoid that DNF
B Goal - sub 11 minute mile pace. Even by a second. Any day under 11 is a good day for me.
A Goal - never sees the light of day unless I make it. Then I will write about it :-)

Eternal mystery

2007-08-13T08:24:00.000-04:00

I lost a brand new pair of running shorts. How? I put them on in my house. I take them off in my house. They are nowhere in my house. It ticks me off.

Wednesday Run Report

2007-08-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

W and I have been thinking a lot of about the half, which one, what time of the year, how to train, etc. Up until now, our training has always been the 'get out and run and try to do it a little faster and/or longer each time. Yep. Not very scientific or guaranteed to get results. And we haven't gotten many results. :-) We need a serious half plan. I have been reading about this one. More info here.

Pros:
Workouts are very specific.
3 weekly runs
Seems to have a reasonable success rate
Lots of down time
Low mileage = less chance of injury

Cons:
Only 3 weekly runs but those runs are hard

Today I ran 4.5 by myself. Too hot and humid for Momo and W had a prior engagement. I decided to mix it up and so I did 4x400 speed repeats. My original plan was to do six but I was too tired after 4. That might be a problem on FIRST.

When we ran Saturday, I was shooting for 11:30 pace. Our first two miles were under 11 and we hit 3 miles at 11:03 pace. It seemed like every quarter mile I was giving Sue the 'palm face down slow it down' motion. Today, keeping in mind the 400 repeats, I was determined to be very slow with a 1.5 mile warmup. I clocked it right at 12 m/m. Perfect. My goal was to shoot for a 2:35 400s (10:20 m/m).

First 400 was 2:25 (9:40 m/m). Oops. But how was I to know? I just started running. Second and third were a little bit slower but still under 10 m/m pace. Fourth and last 400 was around 2:33. I ran 400 slowly in between each repeat to recover. Of course, by the end of the 4th repeat, I was feeling vaguely nauseous and walked .25. I must say, though, it was fun. It broke the run up nicely. And it was fun to run fast - remember, in this case, speed is all relative. I felt like I was a kid, running so fast. It made me wonder just what it must feel like to run those 5 - 6 minute miles. Overall pace was 12:15. Not too bad considering the .25 walk.
I will probably need a nap today :-)

Teleportation

2007-08-08T07:50:00.001-04:00

I usually live in Central New York. Somehow, I magically woke up this morning and am in the deep south, in the hottest part of their summer. Seriously, it is 77 degrees at 7:30 am. You know the saying, 'It isn't the heat, it's the humidity'? It is so humid that every time I open the fridge, a cloud of mist escapes. My hardwood floor feels damp and icky under foot. I will be running alone this morning, without W or Cosmo (too hot). Fun times, people. Fun times.