Critical Velocity = Ugh!

Time: 6:15pm
Location: Anderson High School
Weather: Warm, but not hot
People: Team Rogue, ran by myself
Workout: 1 mile warm up, 4 x 1.25 miles at 15k pace (8:09/mi), 1 mile cool down
Comments: Yikes!! So today was the start of a new phase for us. I got there early, rolled my calves and my right IT band that has been tender. Warm up was nice and relaxed and the CV begun. The first one felt hard and trying to find my pace was hard. The second one felt the best and I was the closest on this lap. The 3rd was hard, but I felt like I was running too fast. Every time I looked down my Garmin showed my pace to be sub 8:00. At one point it even showed a 7:35 which is uh... not me ;) I slowed it down, but ended up slowing it too much. The 4th I was just trying to hang on, I was getting tired and it was hard to push the pace. Here are my splits.

Split is supposed to be a 10:09.
1) 10:26 + 17 seconds
2) 10:11 + 2 seconds
3) 10:17 + 8 seconds
4) 10:19 + 10 seconds

Killer said it was better to be a tad bit too slow than to be too fast. Thank goodness for that. I'm looking forward to the 24 miler coming up this weekend :)

Post for me, and me only...

Mental note... went to dinner with a friend :)

Friends :)

I can't imagine my life without these girls :) Saturday night, we surprised Dee for her birthday and we had so much fun. Here's some goofy pics from the night.

Fun times!

This was not my idea, if you can imagine that!! Notice who's turning around to look at the camera, it was HER idea!!

Even the boys participated in the butt pics :)

What I did this weekend...

After the recovery run on Saturday, I decided to spend the rest of the weekend on my unfinished project of my 2nd bedroom. I started painting it a few weekends ago, but never got around to finishing. I finally finished it!!! I've always wanted a room just for my running, cycling stuff and now I've got it :)

The shadowbox has my first three marathon medals in it, along with my first three triathlon medals, my first Sprint, Olympic, and Half Ironman.

14 miles of recovery, ahhh....

Time: 6:05am
Where: Rogue Equipment
Weather: F-ing awesome the entire run
Workout: 14 miles, easy
People: Team Rogue, along with the rest of the Rogue population, but for the run, the 3:59:59 group and a lone 3:40'er :)
Comments: Everything that is different these days, I'm blaming my new nutrition :) I keep waking up earlier than normal and it's a wierd waking up. It's the waking up, where I feel refreshed and ready to go, but when I look at the time, it's 3 or 4am. Too early to get out of bed. I stayed in bed, although the 4am probably would have been a good idea so I could take my time rolling and eating a good breakfast. I opted for the stupid choice. I stayed in bed and woke up in a panic at 5:30am. So much for trying to make the earlier run, I rushed out the door, then back in to get a banana to eat on the way.

Ate my banana on the way, pulled up as the entire group was taking off. I saw Andrea running with Clemmie and thought I'd have a hard time trying to catch them, since Clemmie and her peeps normally run a faster long run pace. I rushed to get out and when I was dropping off my keys, I realized I left my Garmin in the car, but didn't want to go back, so I was off. I caught Clemmie, Andrea, and gang downtown and ran with them. The pace felt pushed in the beginning, but I usually need a good 3-4 mile warm up before I start feeling in sync. We all stayed together the entire run and it was nice. Cheryl prefers to run THROUGH the water stops and she stopped for the first couple, but left us towards the middle. I was tempted to try and play cat/mouse with her but remembered that Killer said this was a recovery and the EASY pace was necessary to let our bodies recover, so I decided not to. Right before that water stop we talked about marathon goals and Cheryl's shooting for a 3:40!! I shouldn't be running with her anyways!!

Andrea and I pushed the pace towards the end, but it felt great. Our average doesn't reflect what we felt, but I think I've been running the long runs too slow lately and looking forward to trying to push the pace.

Just over 2 months left of training. A part of me is happy and the other sad, because I really am enjoying this program. I've made more friends in this group than any other in the past, and I thouroughly enjoy the company and new friends I've made. After getting back, it was nice just hanging out. I did my foot drills which I've been slacking off on, and rolled my calves while waiting for Dr. Riggs. I got to talk to Keith for bit, met a new friend Kristen, got to chat it up with Steve's group trying to figure out what we have in store for the following weekends, got to see tons of friends. It's nice being in a room where you know a bunch of people and they know you. I got another, "You're Foho, the one that posts alot!" today :) I wish I were fast enough to qualify for Boston so I continue Team Rogue... maybe next year ;)

Average pace: 10:22

OMG - I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THIS RUN WAS DONE WITHOUT MY BFDEE. MAY SHE REST AND RECOVER FROM HER BUG!!! XOXOX

Time Warner Sucks Big Butt!

So during my poker game with the guys on Wednesday night, one of them brought up the fact that after October 2, Time Warner customers would no longer be able to watch KXAN. WTF?? Amber would say, "What the French Toast????" I thought I was safe and it had to do with the digital, rabbit ears, blah blah blah... but since I had cable, I assumed I was ok and ignored the scrolling messages.

So this morning, I did an office poll and found out that there were only two people in my entire office that carry Time Warner. I called AT&T, and made the move. It might have been premature since I didn't do my research, but I'm limited to choices since I own my condo. The way my unit faces, it would be impossible for me to have a dish... so satellite is out of the question. Grande Communication doesn't service my area. What's left besides Time Warner?? U-verse!! I signed up online, installation to occur on Oct 8. I'm told they take FOUR hours, great!! I'm out of vacation time, excluding the time I've taken off for the marathon in December and need to ask for half a day off. I might have to pretend to be sick.

I'm excited. I have Tivo now, but it only records two shows at one time. The new U-verse will record FOUR!! The DSL equipment is free, although this will be my 3rd round of DSL routers. I had the old fashioned one, had my cousin move in so I upgraded to wireless so she could connect with her laptop, and now this one. I wonder if I could sell my old ones?? My cable portion will be the same that I pay with Time Warner AND I got them to add HBO so I can watch Entourage and any other super cool series. I can disconnect my home phone that I couldn't even recite the number to over the phone. I only had it for my DSL, but for some reason with U-verse, I won't need it anymore, that will save me $27 a month. $18 to Tivo will be eliminated, and now I have a Tivo that I don't need. (Leslie, you can have it so you don't have to "tape" your favorite shows ... I highly recommend it!!) And they can combine my cell phone bill for simplicity reasons. All in all a happy customer!!

Until, my coworker asked if I got the $200 in rebates!!!!!!!! The lady didn't tell me that part, argh. You have to sign up online to get the $200, and since I signed up over the phone, I didn't get it. So I've got a call to make tomorrow, that's just not fair.

So, Time Warner can kiss my grits!! U-verse, here I come!!

The Office vs. Grey's Anatomy

Disclaimer: If you haven't watched the Season Premiere's then STOP READING NOW!

So.. I've been anticipating Grey's Anatomy for the last few weeks. Ever since I saw the first preview. I even rewinded, stopped, and stared at the previews to figure out if that was really McDreamy in the supposed crash. I even got an invite to go to dinner with a new guy friend, and declined, all to watch Grey's. Maybe this is why I'm single :)

So, the workout went ok. I'm happy with it, but I rushed home. Showered, ate a healthy dinner and was ready to watch. It had been on for about 30 minutes so it was perfect. I had stalled enough so I could fast forward through the commercials. It starts and it's ok. I didn't enjoy the Chief being so grumpy. Honestly, I'm the romantic type and was waiting for the gushy love stuff with Meredith and Derek, and there was none :( I thought the Army Dr was creepy and that whole thing with Cristina disturbed me. The icicle falling into Cristina's stomach = RETARDED!! The only part that caught my attention was Izzie seeing Dennie, that was sweet and romantic. I half way enjoyed when Meredith was taking care of Derek's hand, but that got spoiled because I was afraid she'd freak out and call off the moving in. So overall, I was DISAPPOINTED! I sure hope Grey's Anatomy doesn't turn into ER. I used to love me some ER, back in the Noah Wiley, George Clooney days, but it turned to $hit and I quit watching it. I'm hoping Grey's doesn't turn ridiculous... ugh.

Now... the Office. HILARIOUS! I've never watched an episode and didn't laugh out loud. And what the perfect episode now that I've started on the right path of eating healthy :) The first part when they're stuffing their face with cheese fountains and chocolate. Totally me :) I cracked up the entire time, and I'm not going to lie... I shed a few tears when Jim proposed to Pam, now that's the stuff I love!! Dwight putting fruit in the vending machine, Michael in the fat suit, the awkward moments that the new HR lady puts herself in, Kellie passing out on the scale, Phyllis having to run 5 miles... And the best part was the rapping by Michael and the new girl. Wicky wicky what??? OMG, I laughed the entire time... good stuff

Winner by unanimous vote: The Office

Sidestitches SUCK!

Time: 6:15pm
Workout: 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at tempo or HMGP, 1 mile cool down
Weather: Fine
People: Half of Team Rogue, ran alone
Comments: Well, I was excited about today's run. It was my first real run since I've made the decision to start eating better. My body already feels better so I was anxious to see what it would do to my running. My #1 thing I told myself I would work on this year was patience, and after 1.5 days of eating right, I'm already looking for results :) My bad...

So the warm up was fine, nothing to report. We were to do 4 miles at HMGP and I was off. I had my Garmin finally so I was able to match my effort with what I was actually running. I found myself toggling between running too fast and slightly slow the entire 4 miles. At mile 2, I got a huge side stitch that made me stop. I opened up my chest and it was a sharp pain, right under my chest cavity on the right side. I had just barely seen Dee in front of me and I was aiming to try and keep her in my sights for the rest of the run, but the stitch kept getting worse and worse with each step I took. So I stopped. I started back up, but it was still bothering me, but was moving down lower. I could hear water jiggling in my belly and after the start of mile 3, I had to stop again. I pressed in my belly where it hurt and could literally feel the air inside. Gas... again. Hope this isn't too much information, but I NEVER get the gas that comes out, I get the gas that stays in your belly and moves around. I had to slow it down for the last mile and was disappointed that I couldn't test my boundaries. Oh well, it's a down week.

Killer mentioned an "extra" long run next weekend, so I'm looking forward to seeing if this is maybe the 30 miler coming up?? Or even 27, I've never run past the 26.2, so even going to 27 would be cool. She wouldn't give any information other than, "Steve and I are discussing it." Critical Velocity stage is coming up, so there's gonna be some running with ANArobic.

Grey's is on, The Office is Tivo'ed and I need to eat...

I'm out.

Oh, here are my splits.

1)10:27 warm up
2)9:51
3)8:36 should be 8:20's
4)8:23 YAY!!!
5)8:36
6)9:10
7) whoops, forgot to restart after 4mile tempo...

Wednesday am run, what what??

Time: 6:00am
Location: My home, out and back on Jollyville
Workout: 4 miles easy
People: Me and all the cars going to work
Weather: Cool, but muggy
Comments: In order to wake up to run during the week, which I normally don't do. I had to set an alarm clock in my bathroom. This consists of having to get out of bed, walk about 20 feet and stay awake. I set it for 5:30am, and it only took me 30 minutes to get out of bed, this is good!! I figured out that if I set the "alarm" then I normally just get up irritated, turn it off and crawl back into bed. If I set the "radio" then it wakes me up, and it gets my brain going. Very good revelation!!

I immediately woke up thinking, "Meredith told me to eat within 30 minutes!!" I started wondering if my off/on sleep from 5:30am to 6:00am counted, and I think that was the deciding factor to my getting up. I went to the fridge, grabbed a handful of grapes, got dressed and was super proud of myself to be running at 6:00am. It was still really dark, but the weather was cool and the miles seemed to go by fast. Slow, but fast. Legs felt ok, but I couldn't get going. I always find it interesting how I can run MGP at 8:47 and it feel comfortable and other days it takes everything I have to not drop below 11:00's. Run is done, Meredith diet starts today (more about that in a later post) and I can get to work early and play some poker tonight, guilt free that I'm not missing my run or have to get home in time to run :)

Splits:
1) 10:43
2) 10:53
3)10:39
4)10:28

Massage attire

So during our warmup Dee mentioned to the group as we were running that she got her monthly massage. During the conversation, it arose that she wears her shorts. And her running bra. And her shirt. So we polled the group and here are the results.

Foho - buff or just panties
Ashlie - buff or just panties
Andrea - clothed
Robert - buff or just panties
Robyn - buff or just panites
Killer - buff or just panties

I can't remember who else we asked, but the general consensus was that Dee was a goober. So the question remains...

What do you wear when you recieve your massages???

Humbling Gassy Hill Workout

Time: 6:15pm
Location: Anderson HS
Workout: 1 mile warmup, 6 miles of rollers, 1 mile cool down
People: Team Rogue, ran solo most of the time
Weather: Warm
Comments: I started the warm up with the group and it lead to an interesting discussion of massages. More on this later...

Warm up felt good. I got there with plenty of time to roll and I still find it very painful to roll my right IT band, hence to sore hip. Legs felt fine. The first mile of the workout I automatically felt pushed, which was wierd, because our pace wasn't that fast. I hung with Dee, Andrea, and Robyn for as long as I could then slowly backed off. My breathing was labored and my stomach felt like someone hooked an air pump to my belly button and overinflated my tummy!! The entire rest of the run was awful, but I gutted it out. TMI warning - I couldn't toot, but had an occassional burp. Bad run, but it was humbling and I needed it to remind me that this entire marathon training is going to take discipline and work. I can never get comfortable with my progress, because it can always go to crap :)

Splits: (my progressive pace!! PROGRESSIVELY SLOW!)
1)10:53
2)9:32
3)10:07
4)10:16
5)11:46
6)11:34
7)11:26
8)11:59
last bit 2:23

Me and all my husbands!

I'm so proud of all my husbands, they are truly the best!! I love you, my sweet (from left to right) AJ, David, Steve, myself, and Matthew. Matthew gets his fashion from his mom.

Love you guys!!

To Gas or Not To Gas

So I go to fill up my gas tank and this is what I come across. GROSS and YIKES!! I thought it was a gynormous scorpion, but it happened to be a plastic kiddie toy!!!

Damn kids, scared the crap out of me!!

Recovery ride

I met some friends for a ride on the ol' bike. I only rode 32 miles and everyone else kept going. I couldn't get my legs to feel right, they were burning almost the entire time, and I'm pretty sure it was because of the Soul Maker yesterday. Good times with some old friends :)

20.7 miles filled with too many giggles, toots, and "Hether's this way!"

I've been looking forward to this Soul Buster for a couple weeks now. I'm not going to lie, I was stressing about it. Mentally, it was the first checkpoint into if my marathon goal time of 3:50 was doable. My week was crazy that lead up to this mornings run. I took Monday off from work because I was sore from my bike crash. Tuesday's hill workout seemed more challenging than I remembered before and my leg was sore from the road rash. I NEVER travel with my work, but ending up doing so on Thursday and I skipped the PP workout, so I didn't have the normal consistency going for me.

Friday night, I went to Sabrina's to help her with some of her grunt work stuff. Easy stuff, but time consuming and it's just not in my nature to NOT help a friend out when they ask. They cooked me dinner for helping and as much as I wanted to get home and get to bed, I couldn't resist their gesture of gratitude and stayed. Steak, sauteed spinach with bacon, and potatos. DELICIOUS!! Peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I got home around 11pm and stayed up till around 11:30am.

Alarm goes off, and I jump right out of bed. I had the "first day of school" feeling. I NEVER wake up too early on Saturday mornings. I always tend to get up with just enough time to get to the runs and get going. This morning I got up, decided to take a nice long hot shower, pack my clothes, get my stuff ready and get to the run around 5:20am. I had big intentions of rolling, but didn't. Dee and I were both giddy with excitement and we were riled up to get this party started. We took off, and I was amazed at how well I felt from the start. It normally takes me a good 3-4, sometimes longer to get into a rhythm, but not this morning. We were doing 10:00's to start, and it was good. The weather was cool and everthing seemed perfect.

We approach the track and see that the fasties have already started and the rest of the group is on the track hovering around. I stop at the gate, start to walk down to re-group myself and all I hear Sisson say is, "Get to the line, come on... let's go!! OK, line up and GO!" Oh my God, I didn't have enough time to reset my Garmin or anything. Before I knew it we were running. I started off behind Dee and we were trucking. It felt good, but since I never reset my Garmin and everything started so fast, I never once looked down at my pace. I was just running. The whole thing went by sooo fast. I saw Clemmie up front and I was on her heels for about a lap, but she slowly dropped me and I kept thinking that I would catch her "later" but with 4 laps, there's really not enough time to make up time. Clemmie crept further and further away. She passed Stephanie, and she was about 100 meters in front and I started going after her, but I couldn't bring myself to kick it in. My breathing was labored, but I had it controlled and steady. Thinking back, I know I could have done better by pushing more on the last two laps. Sisson was yelling, but in all honesty, I thought he'd be yelling more obscene things. I thought he was rather nice to us :) A few fasties lapped me and I didn't have the energy to cheer for them. Wiley, Kamran, Ken, and a few other shirtless wonders blew by me and it was inspiring to see them huffing and puffing and putting their hearts into the workout. After the run we figured out that I probably ran a 7:13ish, which I'm thrilled by. My goal for the next one is to break 7:00 and stay as close to Clemmie as possible.

We got water afterwards, but didn't hang out very long. About five minutes into the run both Dee and I compared how we were feeling and both of us agreed our legs were burning. The lactic acid was in there and it was churning. We kept a decent pace and rolled with it. We saw several deer and it was nice to look up in the sky and see the moon shining bright and the stars still out. What a perfect morning for a run. We chit chatted some, but dang if Dee and I aren't talking 2-3 times PER DAY, then it's not a normal day so we didn't have much to catch up on. I think we're both cured of running with Ipods. We haven't run with one in quite awhile and it's finally ok to have all the crazy random thoughts running through our minds as we pound out the miles.

We get to Balcones where Sisson is waiting for us. I tattle on Dee and they have a private moment. The next few miles I, yes I, the runner with no issues (HA) try and analyze my running buddies running strategy. Funny stuff, but we don't come up with anything conclusive other than we both lack in confidence in our running ability. I think we're both MUCH faster runners than what we let on and we need to be more confident. So after this is when the good stuff starts.

We get to Exposition fine, make it to the trail and then things start to get sketchy. We mentally remember Sisson telling us, "You're gonna feel it around mile 16-17." Sure enough, we start to struggle. I check my Garmin a little more frequently and our pace is slower, but we never dip too far over a 10:00 min mile, so I'm happy and try and work through it. I take mental notes of this feeling and do the head to toe check. I remind Dee that we need to check our head, check, arms, check, armswing, check, core strong, check, floppy legs, check, and that seemed to help. We end up on Bluebonnet and this is where all hell breaks loose.

We got to cross Lamar and a guy in the left hand lane decides to turn RIGHT, as we're trying to cross. We have the walking sign and the guy in the left hand lane actually honks at him. OMG, the guy turning had his window down and Dee yells out, "Bit%$" It was the funniest thing. So we cross Lamar and Bluebonnet ends into Curto Del something. Both of us start laughing. We're lost, how do we do this time after time?? Dee wants to run SOUTH on Curto Del whatever and I tell her we need to go back to Lamar cause I know where Hether is. It's where Steph used to live, so "Let's go this way..." We back track to Lamar and start running south. Dee says, "Why are we running AWAY from Rogue??" No answer. Dee says, "Why do we see Manchaca??" and I knew something was wrong. I told her "Stop it, maybe it's the next light." Mind you, this entire time I can't stop laughing cause we are lost souls out there. Legs are feeling that one mile and we are lost. So Dee comes across some strangers and stops to ask where Mary is. Their reply, "Oh, y'all are FAR away, how do you plan to get there??" She said, "running" and they made it seem like we were trying to get to Mary in Oklahoma or something, so we giggle ourselves back UP Lamar and sure enough, "Oh yeah, Hether's this way!" Dee won't talk to me, look at me, and now I made her mad and she's picking up the pace. Have you ever tried to run and laugh at the same time on tired legs, now that's a soul buster!!

We make it to Mary and realize we just ran all over and the directions said RIGHT on Hether and we should have taken a LEFT. Oh well, the fun was just beginning. We're on Mary, we find 5th, but I'm instantly confused. How in the world did we end up on 5th?? 5th runs perpendicular to Mopac and 35, where the freak are we?? We check our miles and we're good and decide to just try and get back to Rogue. We're delirious, we can't stop laughing at our lost butts and start south on 5th, even though the directions said RIGHT on 5th. We start running and none of the streets sound familiar and then Dee sees a dog. Dee seeing a dog translates to tooty toot tooterton :) OMG, I don't know what it is about farts, but it's inevitable that you have to laugh. So I start laughing and in the process, I must have seen a dog. OMG, I was laughing so hard, I couldn't catch my breath. If you can imagine a fart with every foot strike till you're bent over laughing so hard you think you're going to inhale all of Austin's oxygen with your next breath, that was us. We were tired, delirious, gassy, and LOST, could it be any better than this???

We stop and ask directions again and I still don't have a clue where we are. We come out to Barton Springs and BAM, there's TWO 5th streets. No wonder I didn't think it hit Barton Springs, somewhere along the way it's called Dawson, not 5th. So we know where we are and we're on our way to Rogue. We jump the fence on Congress to run and we actually pick up the pace. It felt good, legs felt fine, and we were doing at least 9:00's, dipping into the high 8:00's every once in a while. That was a good confidence booster. During the next Soul Buster and in California I need to remember that it will suck at moments, but I can work through them. Both of us were fine for miles 19 and 20. We rocked it. We had a great run. These are the runs that conclude my, "Why do you run" answer.

I can't wait till the next Soul Buster. I gave it my all cause I came home and fell asleep. I didn't wake up till 3:30.

Total miles: 20.7
Average pace: 10:21

The lone M&M

Ok, so I originally told Dee I was going to blog about all my eating until I saw Meredith, but it's been so bad that even I have been too ashamed to share with everyone. Today was my last bad meal. I see Meredith on Tuesday, and I can definately feel the added pounds. My jeans are tight today for Jeans Friday and I'm already planning on wearing a shirt tomorrow :( I knew things were bad when I got excited from seeing this under my desk.

Here is my desk.

And here's what I got excited about when I leaned back in my chair.

Can you see it?? It's an M&M and I actually got excited thinking it was sign for me to go downstairs and hit the vending machine and get some peanut M&M's. I didn't... but I need help. Please say a prayer that Meredith can rid these awful chocolate ghosts from my soul.

Wow, is that what I think it is???

So today I left my house at 6:20am to head to Waco for an insurance class. I had to get there at 8am, and on the way.. the sun was coming up over the horizon. It was gorgeous. It made the entire sky red and it was peaceful. I need to practice, or maybe not, practice taking pics with my iPhone and driving at the same time because I'm not very good at it.

As I was driving, something caught my eye to my left and if it wasn't a rainbow!!! I haven't seen a rainbow since I was a kid. I couldn't stop turning to look at it, pretty neat stuff. It made me think of wishing for things, which got me sentimental and I won't go into details here, but there's a certain person I miss and can't quit thinking of lately. I wish I could have shared this with him, I think it would have given him a little peace in his heart at a time when he needs it the most.

Good stuff. I made a couple wishes and I'm hoping they come true. I'm a firm believer that good things happen to good people. I'm not even sure if rainbows are supposed to be wished on, but this one had mine and a wish for a friend :)

PS, I didn't get back to Austin till around 6:45pm, and I missed the group workout. When I got home I was drained and decided to lay down for a "second", which turned into hours. No 10 mile PP for me today, which sucks, but I'm hoping it means I'll have a little extra kick for Saturday's Soul Buster.

Easy Run

Time: 8:45pm
Where: My home, Balcones Club Dr.
Workout: 3 miles easy or 30 minutes
People: Me and my random thoughts, no Ipod for the last SEVERAL weeks!!
Weather: Weatherbug shows 69, woo hoo!
Comments: I figured out why I love to run in blog before. I realized that running without music makes your head go crazy with thoughts, but it's a good thing. I realized I love my life and where I'm at with it. I love my job, I love my little condo (even as messy as it is now), I love my friends, I love my cats, I love my family (yes, I do..), I love my car as old as it is, and I love where I am. [Do you see what running without an iPod does!!!]

So, I learned that running on Balcones Club Dr is great because I know the mileage and it's just an out and back... it's not the best decision to run when it's dark. There are no street lights, no sidewalks, and I assumed there would be few cards, but there were many, and they were all zooming too fast for a little asian running by herself!!! Next time, run on Jollyville if it's dark.

Run was awesome, weather was perfect. Trusty Garmin that's back from the doctor states:

Distance traveled: 3.40 miles
Average pace: 10:01
Time: 34:05
Max pace: 7:40

Why do I run??

So, after reading Sisson's blog a few days ago, it's been bugging me that I don't have an answer to that question. There's the stereotypical answers like, I do it to eat what I want, I do it to be healthy, blah blah blah. But I have clicked on the Post a Comment section in Sisson's blog a couple of times, but couldn't find the right answer to stick in there. It came to me tonight.

I worked late, and made it to my poker game. I was out in an hour, which sucked, but that's poker. I came home to a nice surprise. I had my Garmin's!! Both of them!! So I headed out to do my 3 miles or 30 minutes of running and I came up with these reasons for why I run. Beward, some are sentimental, deep, and rather personal.

1.) For those "Ah ha" Oprah moments. These are the moments when you think you've got it all figured out and then you have a meeting with a coach and you're sitting there in awe because you just figured out something new about running and how it makes it you. This was my one-on-one with Sisson about a month or two ago when things seemed to click after hearing him talk. I found out I was a "baby" runner after thinking after just 5 marathons that I knew what I was doing and knew what I had to do. I run for these moments.

2.) To be on a team or accepted in a group. I never finished college, and when I went I was never a part of anything. In high school, I was in band and really loved it and as an adult, I've never been part of anything until running came into my life. I know I look for acceptance, and this is part of where I get that belonging feeling achieved from. I run to be part of a group and accepted as a member.

3.) I run because I can, for inspirational moments. I started running with a purpose that a friend shared, Team Justin. He died of ALS last year and I run because he's the one that got me running. 4 years ago at a free Runtex class I met a girl that told me I needed to run for a cause.. and in that year I ran my first marathon. There are so many people that can't, so I run because I can.

4.) I run because I need something to be proud of. Something that's not tangible, something you can't see, but only feel. I run to be proud of myself for doing it and being able to.

5.) I run so I can one up my co-workers, non-exercising friends, and family. Pretty selfish, but I run so I can say, "I ran this morning."

6.) I run for those rare moments when the moon and sun aligns and everything feels right. Tonight was one of them. I had my new Garmin, I ran shirtless (despite my chubbiness jiggling all over the place), the weather was beyond perfect, the calves cooperated, the pace felt like sub 6:00's in my mind, and everything was blissful. These moments don't happen often, but when they do, they remind me just how much I love it and how much I enjoy it. It can be on an easy run or a workout, but it's when everything lines up, paces are hit, you feel good, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be than hitting your feet to the ground.

7.) My humorous running reason: Cause I'm single with nothing else to do, hahahaha!! I can't seem to find my Mr. Right.. so until then, I run :)

Missing money??

I always like to check this site every blue moon. I once found $126 from an old paycheck when I used to work at Target back in the day. Who knows.. you could have missing money out there, check it out!

https://txcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp

What the French Toast??

Thanks to Amber, I've started using this awesome phrase. I love it, but never knew where it came from until today. Pretty funny commercial!!!

Hills and Why Does It Hurt When Your Fat Jiggles?

Time: 6:15pm
Location: HEB Far West
Weather: Freaking awesome, nice and cool, felt like the low 80's
People: Team Rogue and some new Performance Project peeps, yay!!
Workout: Hill repeats
Comments: Well, I was going to back out of doing this and try and milk my crash injury from Sunday, but after looking at my work schedule, I noticed that I'm going to have to be in Waco on Thursday and I'll probably miss running with the group. I got there early and rolled, but it didn't seem to help. Calves felt pretty tight for the entire warm up. I took a stop at the portopotty, and was the last one to start the workout.

I was most worried that my arm would get sweat and burn, so I found myself running all goofy and cockeyed. I realized that my jiggly fat thigh was more of a hinderance than my elbow. So I started the workout and after the first loop, it just became minute that it was sore. I was to do 5 repeats and keep the loops consistent. Here are my splits.

1) 8:38
2)8:41
3)8:35
4)7:41 - screwed up the time to try and catch a dog that seemed to have gotten out of a yard, tack on another minute
5)8:05

I'm happy with my times and they were more consistent that when we did the same workout two weeks ago. At least I could keep the pace and not get slower. I think my times were faster last time, but I couldn't keep it. This time around I started slower, held it then had enough to run it faster at the end.

I'm going to wake up early and get my miles in, in the morning, so I can play poker tomorrow :) Wish me luck, in waking up early...

The pics :) OUCH!

Lessons on drafting, gears, and taking my first fall...

Time: 7:30am

Weather: Warm, but not sweltering hot

People: Sabrina, Amber, P-lic, Blondie, and I

Location: Decker Lake, Longhorn Bike Route

Workout: planned on 56 miles, but only did about 30

Comments: Well, I learned a bunch of tough lessons today. We all met to do the Longhorn course. The ride itself was fun. I think I'm getting faster and better at the bike, but I'm not used to riding WITH the group yet. P-lic can probably attest to my bad bike handling skills. This is something that I really need to work on. When I've ridden in the past, I've only ridden with riders better than myself so I'm used to riding with people that know their stuff and now it's my turn to learn the little quirks of things NOT to do on rides so I can become a better rider. For instance, I turn corners too wide, not letting others know I'm swinging out all crazy and today's lesson, when I draft off someone's wheel, I need to learn to let the rider ahead know what I'm doing, so they know I'm right on their wheel.

Today's lesson: Drafting. P-lic showed me how I need to mimic the cadence and gear of the person in front of me. I think the new thing for me, is that I'm able to stay closer to the person in front of me for alot longer. So, because I'm drafting, I'm obviously working less and able to be RIGHT on their wheel or go slightly faster. Since I'm still in the learning phases, I would go up slightly to their left until I'd fall back and get right behind again. P-lic told me, no lie... no less than 3 times that I need to quit doing that cause I'll clip the tire and sure enough, in mid air this is what was going through my head.

I think we were on Blake Manor... I was on P-lic's wheel, and I moved up like she told me not too. I heard cars behind us, but they were cars that weren't passing.. and I knew Blondie was behind me, so I went to look behind me and (another poor bike handling skill) I didn't back off P-lic's wheel and I slightly bumped her and all I remember was saying, "Oh shit..." and thinking, "Ahhh... this is what P-lic told me not to do" and BOOM! My first real crash. I've fallen many of times at stand stills because of clipping in or out, but it's been a long time. I've never fallen while riding.. and I've never fallen when I've been riding at my (probably not that fast) full speed.

Thankfully, I fell to my right and into the shoulder. I scratched up my right leg and my right arm took most of the fall. My palms are tender, and I think my right leg will be pretty bruised. I'm ok and I got back up and continued riding, but after about 10-15 minutes, I knew I needed to cut it short. My arm was stinging like a !#%&# and my bike was screwed up. I only had 4-5 gears that I could use because I screwed up my derailer, my handle bars were turned in, and my brakes were rubbing really bad. We fixed as much as we could, but I was done for the day. Thankfully, P-lic, Blondie, and I turned it off and we only did about 30.

OH, and when we decided to turn off, my clips were too tight. I just got them a few weeks ago, and they were kinda tight before, but something must have happened in the fall, cause I could not get them out. So I finally got my right foot out, and as I was coming to a stop, I literally called out, "I got my right foot out, but I'm not used to leaning that way!!!" and BOOM, I fell over to my left. This wasn't bad cause it was at a standstill, but still. I was a mess today.

Here are my pics of my first fall :) They look worse than they really are... I can't wait to show them off at work and I hope I don't get in trouble from Killer. I can still run, so thankfully I'm not hurt that way. It was definately scary, but I'm glad I got my first fall out of the way....

Mt Bonnel and Ike Who???

Time: 2am, 3am, 4am, 4:20am.. then 5:30am
Location: My bed and Barton Springs
Workout: 18 miles of Mt. Bonnell
Weather: Windy, humid, but surprisingly cool at some moments
People: Team Rogue - mainly Dee and Andrea
Comments: I need to quit subjecting myself to peer pressure. I've known that I need to come straight home on Friday nights and not go anywhere, but I went to a happy hour with Sabrina, Sam, Stephanie, Tim, and Amber. Then we went to Sabrina's where everyone drank except myself. I got some slack for it, but held my ground. I need to quit putting myself in those situations, because it's hard for me to say no.

I didn't sleep well, because what used to be a bank, decided to put big ass flood lights.. all of which shine right through into my bedroom. I can barely sleep when I leave my DVD player on, much less having flood lights shining through. I'm hoping it was just for Ike, but will see tonight. I have mini blinds, but might need to invest in some curtains. I woke up every hour and when Dee called this morning to see if we were running, I can honestly say I was looking for every excuse not to go. We both logged on and saw the note that the run wasn't postponed so decided to go. I was exhausted from not getting sleep, and texted Dee at 5am asking if she had left the house, then followed it up with an, "I don't want to go." Thankfully, she pushed me and I met her there at 5:30am. Not a drop of rain to be found and when I walked out to my car, it wasn't even windy.

I got to Barton Springs and there was a pretty big group, so I was glad I didn't chicken out. I'll cut to the good stuff. Run was good, I didn't roll my calves, but they weren't tight and the run was nice. I had to pull back a couple of times, but managed to crank out some faster paces on Lake Austin so that made me happy. I had some issues with my hip and left heel with the hills, but I have another follow up appt with Dr. Fluitt on Monday, so I'm not worried.

On our way out to Lake Austin, I had picked up the pace to go to the potty and all I heard was, "Foho, watch out!!" OMG, I looked to my left and there was an armadillo charging at me with a gun!! I yelled like a girl, did a high step and about crapped on myself. I heard giggles, but continued to run to the potty. If I wasn't sure I had to go, that confirmed that I did. Stupid armadillo!!

It was super nice to have Killer and Steve out on the course. I'm really in love with just hearing Sisson talk. Everything that comes out of that man's mouth seems to inspire me. I love doing out and backs where I can see all the teammates. We've really grown together as a team and I love it that we're all getting to know each other. I handed out a ton of "Good jobs" today and thank you, thank you, Dee for making me get out of bed.

Whoops!

My bad.. I took an after picture instead. I stopped at Suzy's and got some California rolls for dinner. Here are the remains :)

Eating was bad today. I'm convinced I have some type of eating disorder, because I get in these gorge modes and eat REALLY bad for fear of having to eat right aka upcoming Meredith meeting. For breakfast, I had two chorizo, egg, and cheese tacos... lunch was a turkey pita w/real Doritos, snack was a Butterfinger.. then peanut M&M's... then the sushi rolls for dinner. I'll restart tomorrow with yogurt or cereal for breakfast... 9/23 can't get here fast enough.. I can feel I'm gaining weight...

Ana is a whore...

Ana as in anaeorobic...

Time: 6:15pm
Weather: hot, but not deathly hot
People: half of north Team Rogue, the evening dwellers
Workout: 2 mile warm up, 4 mile tempo (HMGP), 1 mile cooldown
Location: Northwest Park
Comments: I am still Garminless so the only way I could gauge where my pace was, was to try and stay with Ana for 4 miles. I got there early and rolled for 15 minutes. I'm going to tell Dr. Fluitt that 15 minutes is not long enough to do all the dang exercises he wants me to. I have to mini roll the calf, then the other calf, then the ball, point, snap, roll to the right, roll to the left, other calf, then the IT band, then the ball in the butt, open the leg, close the leg, roll the other part of the quad, switch legs... wtf, in 10 minutes?? So i did as much as I could in 15 minutes and we started off. Andrea, Dee, and I did our 2 miles and my calves seized up. They felt tight for the entire 2 miles, I just don't get it?

The workout started and Dee was supposed to do 27 seconds per mile slower than I was.. so I decided to run with Ana and try and stay slightly ahead. First mile felt fast, 2nd felt pushed. My breathing was labored so I know Ana was there. I could only take one breath in for every two steps I took and every time I'd try and slow my breathing down, I couldn't keep it so went back to breathing heavy. 3rd mile was my hardest. I had to stop for 9 seconds to re-tie my shoe and I could tell my breathing was better, hence my pace had slowed. 4th mile was flat out a beeoch! It was up Greenlawn and I thought it would never end. Andi and Jim were coming down and did a shout out for me and told me I had less than a mile to go and once I turned it was downhill, so that was inspiring. As I made the turn, I saw "P-lic Rocks" on the road and decided to pick it up. P-lic can't run due to injury and there I was not giving it my all, so I picked it up.. then decided I was still tired. Killer yelled me in, and Dee was only 1:05 behind me. So based on her time, and taking 1:15 off (shoe tie), I averaged 8:47's. Not HMGP, but I'm happy. I have room to improve, it's still early in the game... Now what's for dinner??

Did you say poker??

So, a couple of years ago I got into playing poker and it's been a really fun hobby of mine. I got in trouble in the past for not having my priorities straight, but this year I'm trying to find some balance.

I went to Dr. Fluitt again yesterday morning, and he did some more work on me. I got some E-stem on my back, and then I was rolling out on the floor before he came to see me. I told him I rolled a good 30 minutes before class started, and I got in trouble for rolling TOO much, what the heck?? Not rolling enough, rolling too much, I can't ever get it right!! So he gave me some time parameters. 5-10 minutes BEFORE the workout, 15-20 AFTER, so I'll start that. My hip was pretty tender after Tuesday's workout so he worked on that. He said it's my TFL, whatever that is in my hip. It's at the top of my IT band, so I need to start rolling with my new big roller I got at the beginning of the week. He wanted to work on my calves and I tried to argue with him, "No, I rolled, I promise, they're fine!!" and he insisted that I roll my butt over. First touch, "OUCH!!!" Dang it. I hate that.. he had me sweating again. So he put me back on the E-stem machine for my hip and I told him, "Ok, I'll keep rolling and I'll call you if I need you, bye!" and he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Oh what, now your'e a doctor??" Dang.. so he wants to see me one more time on Monday. Ugh.. I know it's for the best, but dang I told him I'd roll!!!

So Wednesday, I decided to play poker with the guys. Just a small tournament, all close friends that have been playing for years together. $30 buy in, lots of smack talking. One of them even said, "Oh, look who decided to show up, Ms. I gotta run all hours of the night, Priscilla." Another said, "Oh, is that Priscilla, I forgot what she looked like!" Dang fools!! But I had fun. Took home 3rd, $60 :) I told them I could make every other Wednesday, but needed to dedicate the others to running and they all rolled their eyes... It was nice raking in all the chips :)

I'm trying!!

I'm really trying to make healthier food choices and I caught some slack from Killer for bringing left over Krispy Kremes to the workout, but they were from Sunday, the day before I sent Meredith the "I need you" email.

So on the way home, I thought about what I had to eat and my options were make a salad, blah... soup... double blah... or a tv dinner... triple blah. So I stopped at Luby's and got baked fish, corn, and green beans. Delicious and I think it's healthier than not eating, which was going to be option 4. My appt with Meredith is on the 23rd at noon.. wish me luck :)

Rollers, what are those??

Time: 6:15pm
Location: Anderson High School
People: Team Rogue and some new peeps!! Yay Robyn and new guy..
Workout: 1 mile warm up, 2 down, 2 up, 2 down, then come back... it was wierd, but it worked out to be about 8.5 miles according to Dee's Garmin
Weather: Felt warmer than lately
Comments: I started off without Dee, but she showed up just a few minutes after we took off. We start the Rollers workout and Dee and I were chatting, or I was attempting to chat until she went Billy Goat on me! I couldn't keep up with her on the hills and she slowly got away from me. We caught back up with each other at the water, but the same thing happened. I was breathing heavy and couldn't find my rhythm and there she was, nice, relaxed, and Billy Goating up those hills. Thanks Andrea for the term!! On the way back, I stopped at the convenience store to use the restroom. I felt better and ran with Billy Goat for two miles, until we turned around to come back. I was pushing too hard and decided to pull back. I couldn't keep up with the BG. She rocked the house and I'm proud of her. Ba Fa Duh is back in the hizz-ouse!! If she keeps up this Billy Goating I'm gonna tell on her and get Killer to adjust her MGP, but don't tell... shhh....

Cats like Oprah too!

I came home right after work to relax. It was a day off and I planned to use it as one. I tivo all of my Oprah's and today was the Season Premiere. She had a TON of the Olympians on and it was a good one hour. She only interviewed the big names, but did little snipits on some of the unknown names, and that was neat. Sassy enjoyed it too!!

Off Day, but with results!

Today's an OFF day from running, but I have done leaps and bounds in other areas. My hip, heel, back, and calves were bothering me from this weekends long run. It was a bunch of small things that I've been neglecting, but the heel pain freaked me out and I decided it was time to go see the doctor.

I switched to the ART office down off of Westgate, since it's closer to the office. Dr. Fluitt, whew, he's a cutie. All the doctor's seem to be quite handsome :) He worked on my calves and had me in sheer pain and a full body sweat within seconds. I found out my heel pain was from the tight calves, but from the top of my calf. He barely touched just below the back of my knee and "YEOOUUCH!!" It always amazes me how you say, "my heel hurts" then they touch some other random part of your body and find the trigger point. He worked on my calves for a good bit, then moved to my hip. My hip is from having a tight butt, so he called his asst over, and "YEOUCH!!" He lowered the table, pressed deep into my ass, and the asst moved my leg up, ouch... and then down DOUBLE ouch. Then he went to my back and found my pelvis was overrotated or turned or something, which was causing my back to have spasms... so he adjusted, pressed, and put me on the E-stem machine, where I drifted off. I love that machine.

I learned that I need to make rolling a necessity. As much as I get stuck at work and barely make it to the workouts on time, I need to make it a top priority to wake up 30 minutes earlier on Saturday mornings (4am, really??) to roll and leave work right at 5pm, no matter what so I can have plenty of time to roll my ENTIRE calf.

Second big thing I got accomplished is that I sent Meredith the dreaded email that I've been postponing for weeks. I asked to set up my first appointment with her and was brutally honest about the 8-10 times I eat out during the week. Looking forward to having to pay someone to tell me to eat better, not sure why I don't have enough self control to eat better. I've gotten away with it with all the miles, but I know I can be a better, faster, and more efficient runner if I learn how to fuel my body with the right foods.

Looking forward to the hill workout tomorrow, only 7 miles :)

Celebratory Ice Cream!!

I've been craving ice cream all weekend, so to reward myself for the hard workouts I've done, I went to HEB and got me some!! I really had my heart set on Marble Slab, but was too lazy to drive to the nearest one... this one will do.

1. Ben and Jerry's
2. Clean sheets
3. Full tummy
4. Britney on the VMA's
5. New episode of The Hills
6. Tomorrow's an OFF day

And I got to spend the entire weekend with friends and great workouts!!! Could it get any better than this????

Thanks Amy and Nemo!!

Hahaha, this is the only pic I have of Amy, Nemo, and I!! Aren't we cute???

Yummy!!!

So after reading friends blogs, it looks to be the "in" thing to take pictures of food. I've taken a nice long shower and was trying to figure out what to eat. I was going to order a pizza, but remembered that one of my goals was NOT eating out as much, so opted to cook some spaaassghetti!!! So here it is.. my spaghetti that I had for lunch. I left out the big pickle that went with it. I love me some pickles, but didn't want to gross anyone out ;)

47.5 of "hmm... this isn't so bad!"

Thanks Lori!!

If anyone knows me, they know I HATE the bike. That's HATE with a capital H-A-T-E. Mostly because I suck at it. I'm slow and it always hurts. My quads seem to be on fire almost 90% of every ride I've ever done.

A couple weeks ago, I took my bike in to Jack and Adams to get re-fitted and tuned up. I bought my bike from them back in 2005 and haven't had any work done on it. I've lost some weight from when I bought it, and I figured this would be my last hope. Jack re-fitted me and ended up moving my seat up a full inch and then some. I bought new pedals and then Jack also told me that I needed to keep my feet flat rather than pointed. I was actually excited to see if this advice and the work he did on my bike would help.

So this morning, we left with the Texas Iron folks. Thanks Amy and Nemo for the invite!! They were doing the Longhorn 56 mile route, but I had already mentally blocked that number from my head. Dee, Sabrina, Linda, Amber, and I were planning to just ride to the first water stop and turn around, giving us around 30 miles, good enough for me! Dee and Linda had to turn around early to prevent some possible injuries, and I unwillingly stayed with Lori and Amber. I had a brief lapse in judgement and told them I could "attempt" to gut out the 56 miles, but it was going to be slow.

We took off and what the heck?? I was fine. I was keeping up with them, and yes Lori was having to take it easy to hang back, but every time I looked at my computer it showed 15+!!! What the heck?? My quads weren't burning and I was doing just fine. After about 3 hours of riding I realized I had only taken in a Gu, and was on the verge of bonking. I ate everything I had on me, which included another Gu, Sport Beans, Rice Krispy treat, and almost an entire bottle of water. It helped some, but I was just tired. I had run 20 the day before.

We cut the course short, thank God! Thank you Lori!! We ended up at 47.5 and I'm thrilled. I think it's going to take a ton of practice, but I have more confidence now that an Ironman might be possible.

Now let's get back to running and get to California!! Gotta stay focused :)

Can I be any more retarded??

What a morning. I feel like the more prepared I am, the more things go freaky deaky on me :) I got up at 4:40am to head out. I decided to run with a fanny pack this morning, and that was Bad Idea #1. I put too much damn stuff in there, so it was heavy and irritating running with. I got to the park about 5-10 minutes early and was planning to roll my calves, but instead had a blonde moment with my poor, old car.

Before I go into detail, let me tell you that my poor, old car has been the best car. She's old. She was born in 1998, but she's free of car payments and the maintenance hasn't been that bad. I love her. She still has AC. She got a little face lift and has a nice new radio back in February. She's sweet. She's a little banged up, but she gets me to runs and that's all that matters.

So I'm sitting in my car... putting more crap in my bag that I shouldn't be. I put my Ipod in there (not sure why, didn't plan on using it, but it was a security blanket), I put too many Gu's, too many electrolytes, my Cat's Eye headlight, my debit card, my drivers license (didn't want to get stopped by the stupid Po-Po!), a chapstick, and then lastly my car keys. As I was putting them in, I must have hit the alarm button. There I am sitting in the car, alarm going full blast. I tried to hit the lock button on the key chain, didn't work. I tried to start the car, didn't work. I locked the car from the inside, didn't work. I unlocked the car from the inside, didn't work. There I am, 5:30am, nice, dark, and quiet with a full blown alarm going off. It went off so long that I had enough time to do all of that, have Nedra come over to try and help, then have a shirtless wonder come by to finally fix the problem. Enough time to have Dee come over and holler out loud, "It's Foho!! OMG, it's Foho.. that's Priscilla (enter last name)" giggle, giggle, giggle!!! I'm not going to lie, I was sweating bullets. I thought how in the world am I going to get this stupid car to shut up?? My key ring is broken, the one button that unlocks and disengages the alarm is broken. If you open the key chain slowly, you can see the little metal connector, its in there loose. If you place it right where it's supposed to be, it'll work. I just need to get it sautered on there. So in the midst of my freaking out, I try and pry that thing open. No screwdriver around, just a freaked out asian trying to pry the thing open with her teeth and fingernails. I finally get it open, but I'm in such a panic that the metal thing is somewhere in my car... thank goodness for the shirtless wonder. He saved the day by unlocking the car from the outside with the key. Who'd a thunk it??

Whew.. so now that, that's over with. Dee and I start our run. Nice and slow. We chit chat as we normally do. Compare notes on running without an Ipod. This has been week 3 or 4 she's run without one, and I'm following suit. This is probably only my 2nd week and 1st long run without one. It's not that bad and I can work on my breathing and use that to gauge my effort level.

Speaking of effort level, this fool gets all crazy on Balcones. I can't keep up with that Billy Goat. She's running up those hills effortless and smooth. I tried to keep her in my distance and it was nice watching her have such an awesome run. She would zig zag down the hills the way you're supposed to and go nice and easy up them. She waited for me after we got to Hart and we were together again. We got passed by Jim and Kamran earlier in the run, and Karen's 3:10 crazy group later. It was nice to feel like we were ahead of everyone else, but come to find out, we still came in last like we always do. It was nice mentally to think we were running faster...

Oh, which brings me to... so we're running. The hills are over and we're on flat ground. I'm pushing and feel like we're running awfully fast. All I have to do is mumble, "Sub 9:00" and my fool of a running partner glances down at her Garmin, giggles, then slows down. This happened probably 4,029,775 times during our 20.5 mile run. As much as I'd like to say, we weren't running that fast, but I could definitely tell when the pace was getting pushed, so it's nice to know that inner gadget works.

The entire run was filled with tons of giggles. Oh my gosh, if I could just learn to run while laughing, I'm sure I could run probably 30 seconds faster per min/mile. Dee and I laugh so dang much, it's ridiculous. About stupid stuff. Farting... someone is always farting and who can't laugh at a fart?? Reminiscing, oh my gosh, we have the best stories to laugh at. I need to learn to run while laughing...

We finished up, headed to breakfast and continued the giggling. Josh, James, Keith, Javier, Mike H., Clemmie and friends were all there. Breakfast full of laughs. Topics ranged from my nipples showing at Zilker (thanks, Dee!) to Josh's eye brows, to Josh cracking on me about my 2:45 marathon goal - "so what's the 2nd half??" to Keith so positive he can run a 3:10 it was shocking. We heard about James's future baby, how the sonogram has come so far from when Clemmie was prego, and all kinds of fun things.

All in all, another great run. I know I worked hard, cause I came home and took a 4 hour nap. You read that right, and I could have stayed asleep. It was one of those nice naps, where you can feel your entire body sink into the bed and you have to stay in one position because you're to tired to move. Ahh...

Now to tomorrow.. let's hope I survive the bike ride that DEE planned for us...

How can you forget a marathon???

So I'm still awake, it's almost 10pm and I should be sleeping, but I'm having too much fun playing with my blog :) I'm creating a list of all my marathon times to add, and noticed I missed a marathon!!! How in the world do you forget a marathon. I thought I had only run 4, going for #5, but I've actually already run 5, and California will be #6!!! What a retard!!

1) Austin 2005: 4:55:39
2) San Diego 2005: 4:30:44
3) Austin 2006: 4:28:27
4) Austin 2007: 5:05:51
5) Austin 2008: 4:32:32
6) Cali Intl 2008: going for 3:50

Now do you see why I think going for a 3:50 is crazy????? I think I erased the 2007 away from my memory. That was the marathon that I trained for under Killer with Dee, Lori, and Linda. We stuck to training schedule like clockwork. Never missed a workout, did everything we were supposed to, but I cratered, and cratered early and gave up. So much, that I had a blast stopping, walking, talking to spectators and not respecting that I still had to put the distance in. I ended up injuring my foot during the last miles from goofing around too much. I was even caught on the local news while the commentary was something like, "Some had great races.... (and they'd pan to a shot of someone celebrating at the finish line) and some didn't.... (and there I was hobbling across the finish line in tears)" That one sucked, but I learned from it and that's all that matters....

Off to bed....

I'm not tired!!!

So it's Friday night before a long run. I just stuffed my face with tons of carbs and am super full, but surpisingly not tired. Today was busy with work, work, work. I stayed in the office for lunch and have all of my co-workers trained to not ask me to go out for lunch anymore because I'm really concentrating on eating food from the grocery store rather than restaurants and fast food establishments.

I'm looking forward to the run tomorrow morning. Dee and I are going to start at 5:30, just cause. No real reason.

I guess that's it, I'm stir crazy, not tired.. and ready for the morning to be here!!! Looking forward to running with Dee, seeing our shirtless men run by us in a blur, having the entire Team Rogue pass us (haha) and coming home to a nice nap with my girls :)

Yeah, the weekend is here!!

Cause I'm bored... and because I can...

Here's a retarded survey I got from a friend on my Myspace :) Thanks Amber!! Need to waste some time for lunch.. so here it goes!

​1.What time did you get up this morni​ng?​ 6:30am
2.Diamo​nds or pearl​s?​ I guess diamonds, but I'm not big into jewely, unless it's a running gadget :)
3.What was the last film you saw at the cinem​a?​ Pineapple Express
4 .What is your favor​ite TV show?​ Grey's Anatomy, MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenges, Lost, Runs House, The Hills... yes, I love reality and teeny bopper MTV shows and not ashamed to admit it!!
5.What do you usual​ly have for break​fast?​ lately a banana, muffin, and yogurt
6.What is your middl​e name?​ Rene
7.What food do you disli​ke?​ I like all foods!!
8.What is your favor​ite CD at momen​t?​ Uh, I have no clue... I like that new Pink song?
9.What kind of car do you drive​?​ Nissan Altima
10.Favor​ite sandw​ich?​ turkey, bacon, with avocado
11.What chara​cteri​stic do you despi​se?​ dishonesty
12.Favor​ite item of cloth​ing?​ Nike running shorts, I'm in a Nike short phase...
13. If you could​ go anywh​ere in the world​ on vacat​ion where​ would​ you go? ANYWHERE, I've never been outside the US!
14.Favor​ite brand​ of cloth​ing?​cheap
15. Where​ would​ you retir​e to? Austin
16. What was your most recen​t memor​able birth​day?​ Last year's, turning 31... I thought I had it made!
17.Favor​ite sport​ to watch​?​ Olympics, is that a sport?
18.Furth​est place​ you are sendi​ng this?​ not really sending it
19.Perso​n you expec​t to send it back first​?​ no one, I'm the only goober that does these!!
20.When is your birth​day?​ Feb 19th
21.Are you a morni​ng perso​n or a night​ perso​n?​ Night person, unless during the week, I need my sleep for work!!
22.What is your shoe size?​ 6 1/2 unless it's a running shoes, then 7 1/2
23.Pets?​ my girls, Sassy and Sarah
24.Any new and excit​ing news you'​d like to share​ with us? I'm full, I just ate a turkey sandwich, half a big bag of jalapeno chips, Peanut M&M's and a gynormous glass of Nuun.
25.What did you want to be when you were littl​e?​ Don't laugh, either an astronaut or a professional flutist :)
26.How are you today​?​ excited about tomorrow's run!
27.What is your favor​ite candy​?​ Twizzlers, Skittles, Snickers with Almonds, M&M's, Milky Way, should I go on?? AND BUBBLE GUM!
28.What is your favor​ite flowe​r?​ any, I never get any!!
29. What is a day on the calen​dar you are looki​ng forwa​rd to? Dec 7, I'm gonna PR, and then June 21, 2009 the day I will become an Ironman!!!
30.What is your favor​ite pasti​me?​ running and laughing with friends
31.What are you liste​ning to right​ now? 96.7 and coworkers typing
32.What was the last thing​ you ate? M&M's
33. Do you wish on stars​?​ yes, all the time
34. missing??? WTF??
35.How is the weath​er right​ now? hot, but not too bad
36.The first​ perso​n you spoke​ to on the phone​ today​?​ insurance client
37.Favor​ite soft drink​?​ Welch's Grape Soda, Root Beer, and Creme Soda
38.Favor​ite resta​urant​? PF Changs, Rudy's and Mac Grill
39.Real hair color​?​ Black
40. What was your favor​ite toy as a child​?​ Rubix cube
41.Summe​r or winte​r?​ Winter, rather run in the cold than the heat!
42. Hugs or kisse​s?​ BOTH, at the same time!
43.Choco​late or Vanil​la?​ chocolate all the way!
44.Coffe​e or tea? Tea
45. Do you want your frien​ds to email​ you back?​ umm...I'm blogging, so I doubt it
46. When was the last time you cried​?​ It's probably been a month or two :)
47.What is under​ your bed? cat hair
48.What did you do last night​?​ ran with group, then giggled on the phone with Dee till she caught her flight
49.What are you afrai​d of? not PR'ing in California, bonking at any mile in California, and not making the bike cutoff in CdA.. and my cats not living forever and being left ALONE!
50. Salty​ or sweet​?​ PICKLES!
51.How many keys on your key ring?​ 4
52.How many years​ at your curre​nt job? depends... 11 months, but if you count the transfer as a change, then 5 months. Job before was 10 years!!
53.Favor​ite day of the week?​ Saturday, long runs and napping!
54.How many towns​ have you lived​ in?? Not very many.. 2
55. Do you make frien​ds easil​y?​ Yes, but need to make some more!!
56.How many peopl​e will you send this to? this is a retarded question....
57.How many will respo​nd?​ Zero, nada, zilch... comprende?

Soul Buster Anyone?

So at the end of tonight's workout Killer gave us the inside scoop about our upcoming Soul Busters. I'm soooo freaking excited!! My biggest pet peeve about marathon training was that we never did any runs where we get the same feeling as when we're running the last few miles of the marathon. The past two years I've nailed the lab that took us to about mile 18 to 20. Hit the paces like clockwork, but could never imagine keeping that pace for longer than we ran it. I'm a newbie to marathoning, but out of the four I've done, I've never run one where I've felt like I had equal or more energy in the last 6.2 miles. I ALWAYS crater, and I ALWAYS let my goal slip away in the last miles.

Not this year!! With this new Lyniard training, we'll get three, yes, count them THREE Soul Buster workouts!! Woo hooo, double wooo hooo!! Killer gave us some top secret information, but I won't post so I don't ruin any surprises that Sisson or Ruth have for the other groups, but all I gotta say, is HOLY F-ING SHIT, this is gonna be some good stuff. No more of me whining about never training in that cratering, hitting the wall, I suck feeling. I'll get three opportunities to work through my demons, work on my nutrition, work on my form when tired, and have this feeling burned into my self conscious so when Dec 7th rolls around, say around 9:40am (that's my projected time when I hit mile 20) I'll remember the feeling, dig deep, suck it up and keep my MGP or get progressively faster. This all seems like nonsense now, but I know I can do it, I have no other option but to succeed for this marathon.

Soul Buster #1 will happen in three weekends.. I will survive, we all will!!!!

Hammer Jacked Up Workout!!

Time: 6:15pm
Location: Northwest Pool
Workout Assigned: 10 miles progressive pace running, ending on miles 8 & 9 at MGP and last mile at HMGP
Workout Accomplished: Jacked up Fartlek
Weather: hot, but I must be getting used to the heat cause it didnt' seem bad at all
People: Half of Team Rogue, but ran alone for the workout.
Comments: If anyone can hammer jack up a workout, it's me. Anyone that knows me knows I'm awful with direction. Dee and I get lost on a regular basis together, but I swear it's her and not me. So the assigned workout was to add 1:45 to our MGP and progressively get faster, ending with our fastest mile at HMGP. The workout starts and I'm the retard (see other blog, I won the gold) that asks how many miles do we get to run for a warm up. Killer looks at me like the retard that I am and says if I calculated right, my miles should be slow enough that the first few miles are slow enough for a warm up.

Both of my Garmin's (I once had three) are in the possession of the US Postal Service on their way to Garmin International to be either fixed or replaced, so I'm geek-o-meter less for the workout. Killer put mile markers on her trip ticket, but not sure how accurate they were. We were to do two 5 miles loops that gives us 10 miles. Dee's out of town on work, half of the group does the morning option, so I was left with Andrea pacing for a 4:05 marathon pace and Cecilia and Ashlie pacing for a 3:40. Either too fast or too slow for my 3:50 goal, so I decided to try and stay behind Ashlie and Cecilia and gradually let them inch forward. That plan didn't work. I ended up getting caught at an intersection that they blew through and when I finally made it I found myself running too fast to catch them. Retard moment #2, I forgot Killer was going to run the loop once and was behind me. There I am on Shoal Creek cruising along gaining ground on Ash and BAM, Killer's in my face! "Click your lap, click your lap!!" I wasn't using my watch, but Killer was telling me to time my split because according her Garmin I was coming up on mile 3. I got about a 30 second butt chewing for not knowing my paces and running too close to people that were too fast. So I pulled back and she took off. I caught Ash (shhh..) but figured the last 5 miles were the important ones. As we approached the end, I thought I held back enough to make it look like I was behind them, but Killer knew I was too close and gave me a good lecture about not running too fast or else I'll peak too early and my dream marathon will be down the drain. So I understand.. and I want to PR, so I'm going to listen.

2nd 5 mile loop, I wrote out my mile splits on the trip tickets.. but this is retard moment #3 where I hammer jacked up the workout. Here are my splits according to my watch and where the supposed mile splits were.

Mile 6) should have been a 9:17 I ran a 9:19 (almost perfect!)
Mile 7) should have been a 9:02 I ran a 8:28 (crap, WAY too fast, that's my HMGP!)
Mile 8) should have been a 8:47 I ran a 10:01 (I'm hoping the marker was wrong and I just hit it wrong, cause I know damn well I wasn't running a 10 min mile pace!!)
Mile 9) should have been another 8:47 I ran a 7:39 (now I this was wrong, I've never run that fast before! I completely hammer jacked up that mile!!)
Mile 10) should have been 8:20 I ran a 9:16, I slowed down too much.

So instead of doing a progressive pace, Killer said I created a Fartlek... oops, my bad. I felt awesome tonight, but I do need to learn to run paces with better feel instead of relying on the Garmin. With my luck with Garmin's, if it's broken on marathon day I should and need to be able to know what my different paces FEEL like.

It's 10:30 and I'm wide awake with posting ideas stirring in my head... more to come :)

How far did I run??

I'm retarded for not knowing this link, but just got around to playing with it today.

www.usatf.org/routes

You can search for routes and use it to see how far you ran when you don't have a Garmin on. I mapped out what I ran last night, and it came out to 3.2 miles. Kinda sucks considering I took 36 minutes to run, but it was an easy run and I know my legs were tired from the hills and the sports massage... or at least that's the excuse I'm using!!

New blog :)

After seeing others use this blog, I've changed my mind and decided to switch from Live Journal to Blogspot. I'm envious of all my fellow teammates that get to log miles in their margins and have cute pictures to show their personalities. So here's my first attempt. This blog also seems much more user friendly than Live Journal.. so the switch has been made!!

Time: 7:15pm
Where: My place, Balcones Club Drive
Weather: Nice, cool, and breezy!
Ipod: none
Workout assigned: 3 miles or 30 minutes easy
Workout accomplished: 36 minutes of running easy
People: Myself and my thoughts, scary huh?
Comments: I left work early at 4:45. I was supposed to leave at 4:30, but lost track of time. I had a 5:00pm appt with Martin at Kneadz for my monthly massage. I was a few minutes late, but I saw Amy Anderson leaving so knew I couldn't be that late. Massage was the nicest I've had EVER!! Normally, I break out in full on body sweats from the pain and have to concentrate on my breathing. Today's was nice. It was tender in some places, but he said my calves which are known for always being tight were doing better. I think the regular monthly massages are helping and my TP massage ball kit. I need to make that a priority now that we're in hill phase so my calves don't fall off.

I made it home and changed and went out the door. I live right on Balcones Woods Drive and decided to run up and down that. It's short and the workout for tonight was short so it worked. My calves felt a little tight, but I finally loosen up as I was almost home. 3 miles just isn't very long and I wished I could have run farther, but tomorrow's workout is gonna be a hard one so I decided to do as prescribed. I only went over for 6 minutes :)

Tomorrow's workout is progressive pace, incorporating HMGP, holy shit!!