January Mileage

82 Miles in January! I'm well on my way to the 500 mile goal. It's been a great month of half-marathon training. I was shooting for 90 miles, but we put today's 8 miler off til in the morning so we didn't have to run in the dark.

Need Garmin Advice Please

Rich and I are finally serious about getting a Garmin but we have lots of questions. Is the newest model (405 I believe) everyone's favorite or is the older model just as good but bulkier? Is it water resistant to rain and sweat? What would you say are the pros and cons, what are your biggest complaints or what do you love the most. Can we just get 1 and share if we do runs together? Is it practical for us to each use when we run at separte times? I don't really know anything about them so all advice is helpful. I would like to have it and use it in the Myrtle Beach Half in 2 weeks since Rich will be running ahead of me trying to have his best race this time so I can't count on him as my pacer. However it is and expensive piece of equipment so we need all the info we can before we buy. Help?!?!

6 Miler, Lost & Found, and The Reader

Lost & Found went down much smoother than Edgar Sawtelle. Today is my day off so I had some time to read. I finished it this morning and I loved it. It is overall a feel-good book but it has some serious themes woven in, and the main character is pretty deep. It tells the story of Rocky, a psychologist, who loses her husband to a heart attack at a young age. It is about her journey to heal her broken heart. Mix in a big black lab, a few other lovable main characters, a bit of mystery, a new love interest and you've got a great story. It was a very quick and easy read, I'd give it a 3.7/5.

After I finished reading I headed out for a 6 mile run. I ran the same loop that we used for our 12 miler last Saturday. Whenever I have a bad run, I always look forward to re-running the same route so that I can have good associations with it instead of bad. My goal was to finish in 66 minutes, and I ended up finishing in 62:25. Wahoooooo!! I was very happy with that. I had 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and homemade (by my granny, love her) strawberry jelly and a cup of coffee beforehand and I think it was a good choice. It was in the low 60s and damp/misty out so I was able to wear shorts and a tank top. I listened to Nickelback almost the whole run. They have several songs that I love to run to. There is a song on their newest album that I love, it is called If Today was your Last Day. I want to post the lyrics because they wonderfully reiterate the "seize the day" motto that I think we all want to live by but it so easily forgotten in the daily grind:

My best friend gave me the best advice. he said each day's a gift & not a given right.
leave no stone unturned. leave your fears behind & try to take the path less travelled by
that first step you take is the longest stride
if today was your last day & tomorrow was too late could you say goodbye to yesterday?
would you live each moment like your last? leave old pictures in the past? donate every dime you had? if today was your last day
against the grain should be a way of life. what's worth the price is always worth the fight
every second counts 'cause there's no second try, so live like you're never livin twice
don't take the free ride in your own life
if today was your last day & tomorrow was too late could you say goodbye to yesterday? would you live each moment like your last? leave old pictures in the past? donate every dime you had?would you call those friends you've never seen? reminisce old memories? would you forgive your enemies? would you find that one your dreaming of? swear up & down to God above that you'll finally fall in love?
if today was your last dayif today was your last day would you make it up by mending a broken heart you know it's never too late to shoot for the stars regardless of who you are
so do whatever it takes 'cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
let nothing stand in your way cause the hands of time are never on your side
if today was your last day & tomorrow was too late could you say goodbye to yesterday?
would you live each moment like your last? leave old pictures in the past? donate every dime you had? would you call those friends you've never seen? reminisce old memories? would you forgive your enemies?would you find that one your dreaming of?swear up & down to God above that you'll finally fall in love?if today was your last day

I think my favorite line is "don't take the free ride in your own life." This song is my favorite song to run to at the moment.

After running I went to the movies and saw The Reader. It is excellent, but be prepared for lots of naked Kate Winslet with her 15 year old lover. It is a very touching story about love in various forms and how 2 people can impact each other for a lifetime.

Ok, enough of this deep post, time to take the dogs out!

Emmy's blog update

I updated Emmy's blog today. The dogs were all laying in the bedroom floor when I was getting ready for work and I took a couple cute pics with my phone.
http://adoptemmy.blogspot.com/

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...possible Spoilers

I finally finished reading the Story of Edgar Sawtelle and it has left me unsure of whether or not I liked it. I'm not going to do an in depth book review because I don't want to give anything away. Overall I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure I would say I liked it. It took a while for me to get into, and I actually read 2 other books while I was reading this one, but after about the halfway point I was really into it and read it pretty quickly. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that it didn't turn out the way I would have wanted, and I have lots of questions still. Have any of you read it, did you like it? I know Alisa at Ambitious Aspirations read it, what did you think? I now am moving onto what I thought was a light and easy read, Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan although it is starting out a bit deeper than expectedl. I think I will love it though. I didn't run today, too busy finishing Edgar, but I plan on getting 15-20 miles in by the end of the week.

The Weekend

Friday night we went to visit with some friends and just had a nice low-key night hanging out and had a couple glasses of wine. Saturday morning we had a 12 miler planned, but it was cold and we both had slight wine-headaches from Friday night so we spent the morning laying around catching up on a 2 weeks worth of DVR including Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Houswives (I think I'm the only person who still watches these 2), Nip Tuck and Lost. We finally headed out for our run around 3pm, right as it decides it wants to rain. I actually enjoy rainy runs so it wasn't a big deal. We drove out to a 6 mile loop that we would run twice. It turned out to be a great run for Richard and a really crappy run for me. The first lap I felt like we were going "really fast" which for me is anything <11 min miles, but we were really going 11:30 min miles...not a good sign. Everything hurt, my feet had pains they've never had before, my entire back hurt, my hands went a little numb. My sport beans at mile 4 helped some, but they seemed to wear off pretty fast. Rich went ahead of me on the 2nd lap, so it was just me and the Ipod. I wanted to speed up the last 2 miles but my body just didn't have any oomph. At mile 10 to about 11.5 I was struck with the overwhelming urge to stop and walk and cry. It was a wierd feeling. I knew if I stopped I wasn't sure I could get going again so I plodded along. Beyonce came on the Ipod and I rocked out to Single Ladies for the last few minutes which really helped me kick it out at the end.



Final stat was 12 miles in 2:14, about 16 seconds per mile slower than my last HM time so not ideal but it was all I had in me at the time. I'm hoping to have the bad painful run out of the way and that the HM in 3 weeks will be nice and smooth, crossing my fingers!

The after-run was really wierd too. I felt almost flu-like, with some chills and nausea and body aches. Maybe it was toxins from the wine the night before? Food sounded terrible so I didn't eat for almost 2 hours after we finished, just drank Gatorade, which was probably not a smart move. I had eaten some oatmeal around 10am, then really nothing else besides a couple big spoonfuls of brown sugar (yes, I eat straight brown sugar from the bag occassionally, it is delicious), before we ran so maybe that contributed to it being an all around icky run. I have a lot to learn about running nutrition. Anybody else ever felt flu-like post long run?

Yesterday we saw Slumdog Millionaire. It is really good and I highly recommend it! Then we played some Mario 3 on our new Wii and both got mad when we couldn't beat World 3. I think we need some practice on that one:)

Friday Photo

I just had to share a pic of my new boots. These were a late Christmas present from Santa, aka my parents, that I got when we went home last week. They are a tapestry fabric with some black and gold beading. Gaudy? perhaps. Fabulous? I think so! I just made sure to wear them with minimal jewelry and neutral makeup to avoid looking like a streetwalker. Sorry about the upside down shot, that was the result of trying to take a pic of them in decent light by myself on my blackberry, and then I was too lazy to flip it.

I saw Bride Wars yesterday after work. I was torn between movie and running (a common dilemma for me). I decided to go to the theater and if a movie was playing, that would be my sign from above that I should choose movie. You may wonder why I would have to choose, why not do both? Well, the movie theater we usually go to serves alcohol. So I would have had a glass of wine, and for some reason I can almost never make myself run if I have had any alcohol, even just a glass. I get to the theater about 4, and the next Bride Wars isn't until 5. Ok, guess I'll go home and run. Oh wait, let me swing by the other movie theater in my town (sort of on the way home) SCORE, Bride Wars is just starting, and NO booze at this theater. I do eat some (ok, all) of an order of nachos single handedly, and chug diet coke instead of wine as I laughed and cried my way through the movie. I'm that wierd girl that is in the theater by herself laughing out loud and smelling of jalapenos. Don't judge. It is a pretty cute movie, and I am big fans of Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. My favorite scene is the dance off at the bachelorette party, love their moves!

After the movie, it is dark and cold and I'm having the internal battle of do I run? How far? I don't wanna, I don't wanna, just wanna watch DVR'd Oprah and lay on the couch with the dogs. But I put on my big girl panties, or more specifically my big girl running clothes, and headed out. I ran for an hour, and it was actually very nice and enjoyable, so I was glad I made it out. Today is a rest day, then tomorrow is a 12 miler, then a 2 week taper then the Myrtle Half, woohoo!

Latest Runs

The Myrtle Beach Half is on Valentine's day, and this weekend coming up is our longest run, 12 miles. Usually when we travel, we pack all this running gear then wind up wimping out and not running and we've just lugged our shoes and clothes across the country for nothing. This trip home I knew that wasn't an option because of where we were in the training, it was a pretty critical week and we couldn't afford to just be lazy all week. So the first morning home, it is freezing out so we bundle up in our warm clothes. Rich forgot to pack running socks so I'm feeling all high and mighty that I packed extra and had to loan him a pair. I'm pretty sure I teased him about it a bit, then I go to get my shoes and this is what I find....
Now we all know that figuratively speaking I do in fact have 2 left feet. However, since I do actually have a right foot, I wasn't going to make it very far in these 2 left shoes. Now it was Richard's turn to laugh at me. I managed to make it 5 miles in my mom's size 9's, although I usually wear 11's in running shoes. Later in the day we made a stop to the athletic store in my hometown where I picked up these babies....

I ran the rest of the week in them. I was a little worried because they are not my usual motion control shoes, although they did have pretty good stability. They were great though, and I managed to get about another 20 miles on them while we were out of town. My parents live in a neighborhood that is basically just one 0.6mile loop, and so we ended up doing 4 runs between 3 and 5 miles around the loop. It was boring but we made it. Then we did an 8 mile long run down in south Arkansas on some country roads. We were chased by a couple dobermans, and let me tell ya, that will make you pick up the pace! It was a great 8 miles, and after we finished I felt like I hadn't run at all which was a nice feeling.

Here we are all bundled up, and looking like a running Nike ad, before our run the morning it was 19 degrees out.

I slacked off yesterday and skipped my 3 miler. I have no good reason other than it was hovering around freezing and dark by the time I got home. Oh, and all 4 dogs needed baths after being boarded for 9 days. I don't like to bathe the labs in the shower because they get hair everywhere, but it was way to cold to even think about getting outside with a hose and scrubbing them down. By the time I had showered them all, the girls with Bath and Body Works Winter Candy Apple (don't be mad Kristen that I used your Christmas gift on the dogs) and the boys with some coconut Herbal Essence, the bathroom was covered in water and dog hair from ceiling to floor. I was left with icy cold water for my own shower, and a messy bathroom to clean, but now the dogs smell great. The boarding place charges $30 per dog for a bath, so we always just bathe them ourselves when we get them home.

I'm baaaaaaaack (did anyone notice I was gone?:))

I haven't posted in a while because Richard and I have been on a fabulous trip home to Arkansas for a post-Christmas Christmas vacation. It was a great trip, which I'll recap in words and pictures for your viewing delight after work today when I get my pics uploaded. We got to visit with our families and a few friends, play some blackjack and roulette at the casino, shoot skeet (well I spectated and helped my mother-in-law put away some Goose...the bev not the bird), eat and drink way to much, watch lots of movies, open Christmas presents, run endless 0.6 mile laps around my parents neighborhood, and just generally enjoy a week and a half of no work and no dogs/cats to take care of!

Just a random thought...to me, January is the worst month of all. Christmas is over, there is not much to look forward to until Valentine's Day, if that is a day you even look forward to at all. The "new" has worn off of winter yet spring is nowhere near. So, anybody out there love January and want to share why so maybe I can stop hating it? (sorry Elvis, Kim and Lynette, didn't mean to trash your birthday month)

10 Miles

Today's long run was 10 miles. It has been almost a year since I've run that far, since training for last March's Little Rock half-marathon. Richard was working, and I had to come to work at 2:00 so I was on my own this morning. I was armed with my Ipod, my fuel belt with water, orange gatorade (blue is my favorite but the gas station was out), half a pack of orange flavored Cliff Shot Bloks, and an espresso Hammer Gel. After the butt-kicking the Cooper River Bridge gave me the last time I attempted it, I thought I should tackle it again today. The weather was much more cooperative today, in the upper 50's when I started and mid 60's by the end with sunny skies and very light wind. I did the first couple miles on trails, then the next couple up and over the bridge into downtown, a mile or so into downtown, then back. I just ran for 2 hours, and figured that would cover at least 10 miles. It probably ended up being closer to 11, that's just a mind game I like to play with myself so 13.1 will seem shorter than I think. I assume 12 minute miles when I'm actually running more like 11:30 so I go farther than I think. I ate the Shot Bloks at 4 miles and the gel at 8 miles. That Hammer Gel was deelish! It tasted like squirting your mouth full of hershey syrup. There were lots of other walkers, runners and riders so it was nice to have lots of people to look at.

I wore my SkirtSports Marathon Girl skirt, which I love...but perhaps not the most appropriate item for running up a bridge with a tailwind. On the way back over the bridge the wind had picked up quite a bit and this skirt does what most skirts do in the wind, kept blowing up. It has built in spankies/panties/bloomers/whatever you wanna call them and I finally resigned myself to the fact that I could either run holding my skirt down or just let all the cars and other peeps o the bridge see what was under my skirt. I'm not the most modest gal around, so I opted for the latter after briefly attempting the former unsuccessfully. I just kept my head down so that nobody could make out my face and check out my bloomers simultaneously. I learned that at Mardi Gras in college, if you pull your top up, make sure it covers your face...but that's another post in itself, about a friend of mine, not about me of course. I finished feeling really strong, and pushed the pace up (relatively speaking) the last mile or so. It was a great run--no serious pain, great weather, good spirits. My spirits are not so good now that I'm at work on a Saturday night, but I ranted about that one in the last post so I'll spare you now.

I had to drive back over the bridge to get downtown for work this afternoon, and I talked some serious trash to it. Basically saying things along the line of "I dominated you today bridge" and "You're my bitch bridge!." I know, I'm wierd.

I'd like to give a big Congratulations to Lindsey at Chasing the Kenyans who is running the Goofy Challenge this weekend. That's a half-marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday. She totally rocked the half today and I can't wait to see how she does tomorrow. Stop by her blog and give her some props!

And finally, here's a pic us with of our friends new baby, Keegan Matthew. We love him!

Book 2 of '09

I just finished my 2nd book of the year. It is Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky. It tells the story of a 30 something woman who does not know much about her past/family history and her typical straight off the Mayflower husband whose family is quite wealthy and snobby. Main character lady gets pregnant, has baby, baby looks african american although both of her parents are white as can be. The story goes into both the husband and wife's pasts. There is much digging up of family secrets, learning about oneself, seeing beyond color, yada yada. It is actually a pretty good, albeit predictable, book. It's a quick read and fits nicely into my purse to take to work. Kelly Goodson, if you read this, ignore that last line. (that's my boss)

I am working the evening shift Friday-Sunday nights, those hours are 2:30-11pm. I get out to my car at 2:00 this afternoon ready to leave for work, when I see my keys in the cupholder. The doors are locked. We only have 1 other key. It is on Richard's key ring...with him...at work. He's on a conference call and can't leave. Finally he gets there at 3pm, and I get to work about an hour late. Again, Kelly Goodson, if you're reading this, ignore this entire paragraph. So I made it to work, hit the gift shop for a bag of sour worms, ate 'em all and am now sitting here bored out of my gourd wishing I had a job that didn't require me to work weekends, especially weekend evenings. What I meant to say was: I love my job, I'm thankful for my job, many people don't have jobs right now, I'm so grateful that I have a secure job that pays the bills nicely, that's my mantra, repeat 10 times. No really, I am thankful for my job, doesn't mean I have to love it though. Anyway, thanks to my hard work tonight many patients in the hospital will poop because I entered their docusate, not vomit because I entered their zofran, sleep because I entered their ambien, not reject their new kidney because I entered their cyclosporine, not hear voices in their head because I entered their zyprexa, and just generally be healthier because I entered their multivitamin...it's serious work I do folks. On a funny note, one of the other pharmacists got an order for a patient to use his own penis pump while in the hospital. Yep, really. I'm not sure what it was used for in the first place, and why it is necessary to pump your penis while you are a patient in the hospital, but apparently this guy's doc wanted him to have that option. At least things like that give us a laugh to break up the monotony of typing and answering brilliant questions on the phone for 8.5 hours qday prn mortgages/new shoes/dog food.

Running, a new baby, Emmy

This has been a good week so far. Monday we did a dog run, meaning we took the dog(s) with us. We were aiming for 5 miles divided into 1 mile for Dickson (he has some arthritis) and 2 each for Tanner and Fiona. It was in the upper 70's and humid, and by the time it was Fiona's turn, Richard and I were both ready to call it quits. We walked her 1 mile, finishing up with 3 miles jogged, 1 walked, and 1 punked out on. Tuesday I did 3 miles while Rich was working. I decided to try some speedwork (fartleks? not exactly sure the term). I took each dog for a mile and picked a couple times each mile to really push it for a few seconds, like to the tree or the next trashcan, that sort of thing. Wow, it was fun and much tougher than I anticipated. The dogs were in hog heaven though, running fast with their ears and tongues flapping. Yesterday was 5 miles again, and it was one of those days where all morning I had the internal mental battle of whether or not I was going to do it. When it came time, I had about 3 hours to kill and was torn between going to a movie and sitting on my butt eating popcorn, or going running. I reluctantly chose running and of course was so glad I did. I chose to run on the beach this time instead of just on the roads near the beach. It was low tide so I had plenty of hard sand, and it was a little misty and gray out so the beach was deserted except for a couple windsurfers. It was so enjoyable to jog along the water line and watch the waves come in and get the sea breeze in your face. I jogged for an easy hour and never once wished I was somewhere else, so I consider that a hugely successful run!

Our great friends Erin and Brian just welcomed their first baby into the world yesterday, his name is Keegan Matthew and he is a doll. We got to see Brian's mom meet her first grandbaby, it was so sweet. I'm looking forward to toting the little bugger around the beach this summer. He is a handsome little thing, and a future heartbreaker I'm sure:)

In doggy-land, we took Emmy to the vet yesterday and today to get her 2nd and 3rd (final) shots of her heartworm treatment. She takes the shot like a trooper, but you can tell she is in pain from it all day. It is 3cc of fluid injected deep into the muscles around her spine, and it makes them really really sore. It make me sad to see her hurting, but I know that she'll be back to her feisty self soon and then in a few weeks she will finally be able to run and play and go on long walks since she will be heartworm free!

Polar Bear Plunge, 9 Mile Long Run, and 1st Book of the Year

Here we are immediately after coming out of the Atlantic for our first Polar Bear Plunge. A local pub hosts this event annually to benefit the Special Olympics, and we decided to go for it. The weather had been so nice and warm for the last few weeks, but New Years morning was in the 30's. It was probably around 40 or so by 2pm when we Plunged. Everyone dresses up in costumes, and lots of people actually wear the costumes into the ocean. I dressed in some 80's garb, complete with loads of blue eye shadow and a scrunchie, and Rich wore his new do-rag (still have no idea how to properly spell that) and bling. That guy in the champagne bottle keeps us line...literally...he is our chiropractor:) For the Polar Bear Plunge, the open container laws do not apply and there are vendors selling beer and bloody marys along the beach. There were several thousand people there, although lots of them were just spectating. You basically run in, splash around, and run out. It felt so good to get back into my warm sweats afterwards!

Yesterday was our long run of 9 miles. I had run a grand total of 1 mile, and Rich 2 miles, in about the last 8 days so we did not have high hopes of completing 9 without walking. But we did it! We went to a flat (everything here is flat) trail, both wore our Ipods and kind of did our own thing. It was cool and misty, overall great running weather. I could tell from the beginning that I would be able to finish it, even though my legs felt heavy and my right hip flexor was tight almost from the first quarter mile. There was never a time where either of us felt we couldn't do it, although Rich did get a little dehydrated since he ran ahead of me and I was wearing the fuel belt. He ate Sport Beans and I took a regular Gu at the halfway mark, and we both finished strong. We went home and showered, then met some friends for lunch. We had delicious salads and pizza! Then we went back to their place for a few hours of Guitar Hero. We had never played before, and I can see why people rave about it. It is really fun!

I finished my first book of the year, so 1 down and 29 to go to reach my goal of 30 in 2009. It was Dean Karnazes' 50/50 that I got Rich for Christmas. WOW, that's about all I can say about the guy. He offers lots of emotional insight and motivation, as well as some practical running and training tips. It was a quick and very inspiring read. I highly recommend it for all you runners, or even for anyone who has ever wondered "Could I even run a mile? 5K? 10K? and so on." It will make you want to test yourself and see just what you can do.

Emmy's Blog

I created a blog for our foster dog Emmy as a way to put up pics and stories about her in hopes of helping get her adopted. Click here to check it out.

Goals and Plans for 2009

Drum roll please.....the moment we've all been waiting for has arrived. The unveiling of the 2009 plans/dreams/wishes/etc.

1. Run 4 half marathons: Myrtle Beach on Feb 14th, Napa to Sonoma on July 19th, and the remaining to our still TBA depending on numerous factors.

2. Run at least 500 miles

3. Go to yoga at least once every other week

4. Go to spin at least once every other week

6. Strength train at least once weekly

5. Try at least 3 new recipes each month

6.Significantly decrease the consumption of delicious beverages of the caffeinated, sugary and/or alcoholic varieties.

7. Send Christmas cards (I have never done this...always been too lazy)

8. Move or be in the process of moving back to Arkansas

9. Get knocked up

10. Read at least 30 books

11. Actually track my progress so I'll know how I did this time next year.

Whew, it simultaneously exausts and scares me to think of all that. It should shape up to be a very exciting year, one way or the other! Today we are off to the Polar Plunge on Sullivans Island. All last week when it was almost 80 degrees out we thought it was a great plan, but I got up this morning to frozen water in the dog bowls and began rethinking that plan. But apparently Richard really wants to so we're going for it, and it is definitely something I've never done before so after today I'll be able to cross that off the bucket list. I never did get to run yesterday. By the time I got home from work and the chiropractor, it was dark and I was feeling crummy again so we just laid low and watched a couple movies. We did stay awake to watch the ball drop and the countdown in Times Square, but I wasn't even up for drinking any champagne (in case you haven't noticed, that is very ouf of character!). Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful start to 2009.