Lull

Hello everyone! I hope everyone made it through another Christmas season without too many bumps and bruises along the way. I, for one, am pretty glad it's all over and am ready to get back into a comfortable routine. That's sad to say, but true nonetheless. I guess when you're in the middle of a particularly bad Christmas, you don't really know it. Not until all the gifts are opened and the food is eaten and everyone goes home and the dust settles around you do you have time to reflect on it all and say "Wow, that pretty much sucked." Without going into too much detail, I will say that for a group of people who all came from the same place, I don't know how my family came to live in such different senses of reality. Hopefully someday we can all work out our differences and be able to get along, but for now we are merely tolerating each other's existence.

Anyway. Enough of that. Aside from the family drama, Christmas was nice. My dad got me some fun running books and gear and my mom got me The Sweetest, Softest Robe on Earth with footies to match. I've pretty much lived in that for the last week. My sister and her husband loved the cross stitch monster I've been working on and hung it up right away. I was just glad to have it finished and framed in time!

So now I'm starting to look ahead to what my goals will be for 2008. I want to do it all! But I find myself in sort of a lull. It's hard to get out and run and my base I had planned to work on during the time between the marathon in October and the half marathon in April has taken a nose dive. I'm lucky to get up over 15 miles a week! I think not having a training program to hold me accountable is really making it easy for me to slide. I'm considering tacking on an extra 4 weeks to my 1/2 marathon training program (16 versus 12) to get me back on track and hopefully salvage some sort of base. I've decided to switch up the training plans for the 1/2 marathon. Last year I stuck pretty much exclusively to the Hal Higdon programs and was happy with the results. Next year, however, I'm going to go with SmartCoach and see what happens. If you've had experience with this training program please drop me a note and tell me your thoughts. I'm also trying to figure out how to add in some hill training (seeing as how the lack of it pretty much killed me during the marathon) but I have no idea how to do that. Is it just as simple as running up a bunch of hills? Do I charge them as fast as I can? Or try and keep my heart rate the same? How often and how many? So many questions for such a simple idea!

The good news? I'm down 20 of the old LB's since October 21st. The fact that I've managed to lose any weight at all during Christmas is extremely encouraging. Now if I could only get out the door every once in a while...

Christmas Reminder

This was me yesterday. Freak out central. Only, cousin Eddie did not kidnap my boss and force him to reinstate the bonuses that were promised. Oh, and no jelly of the month club either. Instead, I drank beers with friends who provided some much needed cheering up and consoled me during my realization that I've got to get out of my current employment situation.

I awoke this morning with a slight hangover and dragged myself through a shower, through breakfast, through scraping off my car and hulling myself through the 45 minute commute to a job I pretty much loathe right now. But somewhere on Polaris Parkway, this song came on the radio and a sense of calm washed over me. I know I'll be ok without the bonus, my situation will work itself out. But this song served as a subtle reminder that this isn't what Christmas, or life, is all about.


The First Noel,
the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds
in fields as they lay
In fields where they
lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter's night
that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

They looked up
and saw a star
Shining in the East
beyond them far
And to the earth
it gave great light
And so it continued
both day and night.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

And by the light
of that same star
Three Wise men came
from country far
To seek for a King
was their intent
And to follow the star
wherever it went.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!


This star drew nigh
to the northwest
O'er Bethlehem it took its rest
And there it did
both Pause and stay
Right o'er the place where Jesus lay.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

Then entered in those
Wise men three Full
reverently upon their knee
And offered there
in His presence
Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord
That hath made Heaven
and earth of nought
And with his blood mankind has bought.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

Snow dancing

The big fat snowflakes were really fun to run through on my Saturday morning long run. They stuck to my eyelashes and my nose. I managed a 10:35 pace and the crazy thing was that the pace felt really easy which was bizarre. Maybe there's something to be said for speedwork after all! I ran 7 miles and felt great the entire way. Near the end, both knees started to twinge a little but that's probably because 7 miles is as far as I've gone since the marathon if you can believe it. It took me longer than I'd anticipated to bounce back from the marathon but on Saturday I felt like I'd finally gotten there. So I stuck my tongue out and caught some snowflakes on my tongue and danced around the lake like the crazed fool that I am.

No News!

I've come home the past two days panicking at the blinking light on my answering machine. Isn't it against the law or something for telemarketers to leave voicemails? If it's not, it should be. I'm on the Do Not Call list and everything.

Anyway, no word from my cardiologist. Hooray! But I'm still having stabby pain around my heart. Boo! The waiting game continues...

And I still have a cold. I can only breathe out of my left nostril and had to sign over my first born child at the pharmacy just to get some Sudafed. I have no interest in constructing a meth lab. Have no fear, pharmacy lady. Honestly, it hasn't been hard to rest my tweaked foot. I'm run down, sluggish, lack of motivation abounds. Blah. I'll be better soon.

2 Race reports

That's right, I did two races in one weekend. On Saturday, I slipped and slided through Nancy's 8 on the 8th and on Sunday I ran the Reindeer Run which wasn't officially timed but I crossed the finish line in an un-official 30:24 (poopahloopah). Also, my races overlapped as I only did 5 miles on Saturday, Sunday's race bringing me to a grand total of 8.1 miles for the weekend, which, I guess would technically make me last in Nancy's race seeing as how it took me TWO DAYS to cover the distance. Nancy is the most lenient race director I've ever not met =)

I must have tweaked something in my right ankle on Saturday as I was slipping and sliding through the ice and snow. I'm going to rest it for a few days. Since I have a cold and the weather is downright depressing right now, seems as good a time as any to rest up the old body.

In other news, I had my stress test this morning. I told the nurse I was totally going to own that treadmill. She laughed and said the treadmill always wins. How right she was. The combination of speed, incline and being hooked up to all manner of machines, not to mention being topless (they did give me a paper robe-thingy, but come on! I need an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder in order to really show 'em what I got!) caused me to reach my max heart rate far sooner than I expected. Then they threw me on the table and took all kinds of pictures of my heart. It's amazing to see how much work our hearts do and we hardly ever notice it until something goes wrong.

The nurse told me they would contact me within the next 24 hours if the cardiologist found anything urgent, otherwise the full report will be finished in a week. I imagine this sort of waiting is common....you wait for an appointment, then you wait for the results, then you wait for a follow up appointment where the doctor tells you to go see someone else, then you wait for an appointment with that guy and he orders more tests and the cycle continues until someone either tells you you're gonna live or you're gonna die. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on getting out there and living, aka running.

Winter

So, this is what I awoke to yesterday morning, a fresh blanket of white covering the ground and quieting the city. I thought about trying to make my way through it for a few miles but then thought better of it. I'm a runner, true, but even I have my limits!

This being the first snowfall of the year, I'm still in a place where I get excited like a little kid at the prospect of snowmen and sledding down hills until my lips turn blue and my toes fall off from frostbite. I can't wait to sip a cup of hot chocolate in front of a crackling fire and cuddle with a fluffy blanket...or cat...or Christian Bale look-alike, I'm not picky.

But all too soon I'll grow weary of digging my car out every morning and long for the humid 95* days I was complaining about not too long ago! The grass is always greener, I suppose. One thing I really love about living in Ohio is that we get to experience all four seasons in their entirety, sometimes within the span of 4 days. I read it's going to be in the 60's next week so I'm keeping a snow shovel and a pair of shorts in my car at all times. You just never know around here!

Crafty

I planned on reveling in my post-PR high all Saturday afternoon but in the car on the way to go Christmas shopping with friends, I got a raging migraine. Although, at the time, I had myself convinced it was a stroke and opted out of the mall and screaming kiddies for the sanctuary of my very dark and quiet bedroom. I'm not quite sure what brought on the migraine - I haven't had one like this since I was in junior high - but it kept me flat on my back for the rest of the day.

It's subsided to just a dull ache somewhere at the back of my head but I'm once again thankful that it's just another one of those freak things that happen to my body and not something serious. Spoken like a true hypochondriac, I know!

All that to say, I haven't done much other than cross stitch this weekend. I got the brilliant idea a few weeks ago to make this cross stitch thingy for sis and my BIL for Christmas and I've been working my nubby fingers to the bone trying to get it done in time. Hopefully, it will resemble the picture when all is done.

Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis

It was cold this morning. I mean, low 20's with a windchill factor in the 'teens. So I bundled myself up, secured my jingle bells to my shoes and headed downtown along with 1,500 other runners and walkers, dogs and little kiddies. Santa hats and elves hats were everywhere!

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The horn sounded at 10am but there was no starting line (and no chips) and mass confusion at the start so I didn't know when to start my watch. Oh well, I thought to myself. Fun run. Fun run. Fun run. But the competative side of my brain took over and knew I'd be slightly dissapointed in myself if I didn't finally break 30:00. I got tagngled up in a group of three baby strollers whose mothers had lined themselves up with the front runners at the 3rd row. Geesh. Fun run. Fun run. Fun run. I got out of the congestion eventually and hit the first mile marker in 9:23. When I came across mile two in 18:30, I knew this was going to be the day. All I had to do was hang on.

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My lungs were screaming from the cold and I blew snot bubbles practically the entire way but I came across that finish line in 29:01 feeling strong, a full 1:45 faster than I ran it last year. I smiled at the volunteer who took my bib and handed me a bottle of water. I felt fantastic but looked like hell - my face was beet red and I'm sure I had dried snot all over my face. And I wonder why I never seem to meet the man of my dreams at these things! I found a place on the sideline and cheered on the other runners as they came through the finish shute, just happy to be around other runners again. I send a text to my BIL to tell him how fast I was. He wrote back Awesome! How do you feel? to which I replied Now I know what it must feel like to be a Kenyan.

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Erm. Not quite.

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What a fantastic way to spend a December morning!