LINKFEST Thursday

Today was a long slog at work. My brain is about to turn off. Before that happens, here's some things to entertain you:

• I would totally buy this. I think a lot of people my age would.


• One of the people I work with started a weight loss group. I went the first time, just to see what it's about, and because at one point I promised to lead a running/walking/jogging group. I think this would be interesting for everyone to know, especially since several of the members expressed hesitation about exercise. This is the follow up piece: forgive yourself if it's hard to learn a new habit.


• Should food come with toys? I say no but the author makes a good point about breakfast cereals still being able to market with toys when restaurants are not allowed. Does the author makes a fair point about parental choice (I wouldn't know for sure, having not done it yet)? Perhaps the assumption that everyone can afford to take their kid to any restaurant they want is a false premise.


• Just another reason to avoid Arizona.


• How we coffee lovers feel about the rest of you. Although you've got a fair point because anything with three or four dallops of cream is even better.


• The president extended some additional benefits to same sex partners of federal employees. Good. (Now just let any two legal adults get married and let people serve openly in our military.)
  


• ::Soapbox:: To everyone who thinks 'just make abortion illegal; that'll make it go away' (how many people who think that really read my blog?) It doesn't work in Brazil and that approach is unlikely to work here either. Just sayin'. ::End soap box::


• This picture makes me think of Chris. Not the monkey, it just sounds like something Chris would say.


• Our former president has joined Facebook. All politics aside, this article was funny as hell. The whole thing about 'liking' him. Phew. Hilarious.

Forget the river; I need to make peace with the lakes

The last two weeks, the runs I took along the river were great. I'm hopeful that I have some of my issues with the river path worked out. Now, I need to turn some time and energy to making peace with the lakes. And quite possibly my stomach.

Here's the thought process last night and this morning:

10:00pm last night (probably later really): Ok, when the alarm goes off at 5am, all I have to go is get out of bed and put some Gu Chomps in my mouth for breakfast. Don't think ahead any farther than that. The rest will work itself out.

5:00am - wwhatimuzit? wha...noise...that alarm sucks...
Followed by me getting out of bed and sticking to the plan of just getting out of bed and having some calories. I told myself last night that I could run 15 miles or go to the gym and do 15 miles on the elliptical.

5:15am - I cannot handle being on an elliptical on National Running Day.

5:16am - Perhaps I should have checked the weather. Those clouds look awfully dark. But if I go back inside to check there's no way I'll actually do this long run. I'll just go. It did rain and I got soaked. Happily there was no thunder or lightning and the rain stopped after about 20 minutes. It didn't even muck up my shoes.

I went over to the lakes because I haven't seen them in a while. I think ultimately it wouldn't have mattered if I were running on the lakes or the river; today was just a bad day. I actually got really sick yesterday when I was running. I thought my body was over that and I'd be safe to run. I was until about mile 10. Then my stomach was done being tossed up and down and churned all around.

It's sad that I felt like ish at the lakes. I already have a mental block about Lake of the Isles. One of my last long runs from last season was spectacularly bad and the drama all came to a head there. I have a little bit of a block around Lake Calhoun too, but nowhere near as bad as Lake of the Isles. Lake Harriet is always one of my favorite places to run ever, right next to my happy place.

After the run, I headed to work and worked a loooong day. Now I'm sitting on the couch thinking about bed. I can't believe it's 9:15pm and it's still light out. Must mean my birthday is getting close. I LOVE summer.

Long Run Thursday - Finding Peace in running along the river

I'm declaring "make peace with the river" runs a success, so much so that I now actually look forward to running those routes. My favorite part is the Franklin St bridge and running on the east bank of the river into St Paul. (I'd show you on a map but for reasons passing all human understanding, Gmaps isn't remembering my saved routes right now.) I think I should run by the Chain of Lakes sometime just so I remember I like them too.

The run this morning was a blast. It was hot so I was liberal in my water stops and took a second to re-fill my bottles at the Summit/River Parkway water fountain. I also tried new nutrition. I'm prepared to declare Cliff Bodybuilding Protein Bars a winner. While Gu is great, I do enjoy eating real food. These things are 270 calories (and 23g of sugar) per bar so they can really only be consumed on long runs.

I walked a little bit of this run, not at much as last week. (Was it really just last week that I ran this far? It feels like longer.) At least, not as much as I walked at the end of last week's run. I didn't have a time/speed goal in mind today since I wasn't sure what my body was going to do with the heat.

After the run, it seemed like the perfect time to stick my legs in a tub full of ice. (Remember winter running when this stuff was completely not necessary?) Getting into an ice tub is one of the more uncomfortable experiences that I've voluntarily endured in my life. They do work. I didn't have any leg pain the entire rest of the day.

I went to my new neighbor in Richfield, Chipotle for lunch (it was my breakfast too). I was reminded that running in the heat (it's not even that hot yet) gives me low grade nausea the rest of the day. I could only eat half of my Chipotle and I did not get hungry at work at all. Blech.

After work I did manage to get down some Chinese food and made plans with Amanda for the weekend. Then, sadly, I came home and did more work. Now I am thinking about the awesome amount of sleep I'm about to enjoy. I don't need to be at work until 9:30 tomorrow and I'm sure I'll pull myself out of bed around 8:45 to accommodate that schedule.

Linkfest Wednesday

I check my RSS feeds today and there's a lot of good stuff. I'll share it now (since my last post made so little sense) so I don't have to keep the tabs up until the weekend.

• This photo from ihasahotdog totally cracked me up.


• You Go Girls!, perhaps a little more in my consciousness since I just finished reading this book.


• Don't use 'grad school' to escape the job market. There's an excellent point about working and going back to grad school only if you need it. So true. Wait 'till you know what you want to do before spending the extra cash.


• Where do laws come from?


• ::Soapbox:: Speaking of laws, there's some reluctance to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell even though most of the country wants it off the books. (That's actually even a higher percent in favor of the repeal than wanted Universal Health Care.) I say Man Up! (Take that however you want.)::Comes down from soapbox::


• Are you good at geography? I got them all!


• And on an excellent note, there's promising news about a malaria vaccine. Malaria, by the way, kills more people in Africa than HIV. Bill Gates' foundation does a lot for finding a cure for the disease as well.

Holy Humidity - It's Cooler in the Sunshine

It was really hot this week. Monday was so hot it set a record. I didn't run on Monday. I didn't run on Tuesday either. I did go out with Amanda and my pooky bear for ice cream which was awesome and got rained on walking home with them.

This morning I ran. When I got home I checked the weather and noted it was 70% humidity (you thought I was going to say 70* didn't you?). Seriously. It was like a steam room. I do maintain that it was cooler in the sunshine because that at least helped the sweat evaporate. Ylech!

I checked the weather for tomorrow. The humidity appears to be under better control. Hopefully I'll have a nice long run. Perhaps I'll make peace with the river and the heat at the same time!

I have no idea what else I've been doing since I wrote last. I have no idea when I wrote last. I've been working 8-9 hour days and tonight I volunteered after work. I'm going slightly bonkers. I think I just saw a little green man run across my counter top. I'm excited for some time to myself tomorrow morning running. And Chipotle. That will help.

Making Peace with the Heat - An Unexpected Training Issue

Was it this hot last summer?

It hasn't been below 70* since sometime Saturday. (Thank goodness they turned the heat off on Friday!) I'm now thinking about how this heat spell will work with the training program. I was scheduled for a 15-miler this week but am intimidated to run that far in the heat this early in the year. I spent today on the elliptical at the gym (10 miles baby) to avoid the heat and avoid making that decision.

So, was it this hot last summer?

While pondering that question, here's a LINKFEST for you:

• Pillbox reminds me of a redneck's last words, "oh, it's not dangerous. Watch!" It's a great idea with a disturbing lack of oversight.


• Win for Kare11 for making people in Minnesota care about White Nose Syndrome before it gets here.


• Win for Burgerville (whatever that is) for printing calorie counts on receipts. Mayo has 180 calories?


• This sounds like such a good idea. Not sure when I'll man up and do it. I'm afraid that if I touch the toilet I'll break it.


• For all my friends interested in public health, here's how we roll in Minnesota. I knew someone who was on Team D. Once you realize that Team D solved two salmonella cases before the CDC could, it's actually pretty cool.


• Just piling on to the Facebook=the opposite of privacy parade.


• A Saudi woman opened fire on religious police officers. I don't like the part of the story that says she was shooting at the officers 'to distract them so the other dude could get away'. That seems an unlikely reason to fire on religious police, but I'm sure the details given to foreign media are incomplete.


• Portrait of the typical American volunteer. Win for the Midwest for having the highest rate of volunteerism in the country.

Making Peace with the River: Continuing a Positive Process

I had the past couple of days off of work. (I love my job).

I used yesterday to continue making peace with the river. I took my longest run of the season and had a blast.

The first mile or two was gorgeous becuase steam (is it steam or mist?) was coming off the creek. It was really early. The next few miles were great and I was pleasantly surprised that the 'hill' up to the Franklin Avenue bridge wasn't anywhere near as steep as I'd imagined.

The next few miles were an adventure as I'd never run on the east side of the river from Franklin back down to Lake/Marshall. This is when nutrition started to be an issue. Ultimately I think I need to go back to Gu Gel Packs for the long runs. The Chomps weren't quite doing it for me. I really wish my co-op still sold the granola/chocolate bars I ate last while I was training. Those were by far the best.

I practiced running (and I mean running) up the hill after the Marshall Ave bridge and up the hill that leads to Cretin Ave. Why? Because this is like mile 20 of the marathon course and I can predict what my body and brain will feel like by then. (I've decided my marathon goal is to run the whole course this time, other than water stops which I always walk through.) The next part of the course is really my favorite (too bad it's not part of the marathon) because from Summit avenue to the Ford Parkway bridge it's basically downhill. By Ford Parkway I was super hot and had some water and the last of the food I could eat. (I know, good practice for summer running.) I had a plan to do run-walk intervals for miles 14 and 15 of the run and surprised myself pleasantly by running more and walking less than my original plan. I was tired when I got home but not in nearly as much pain as I could have been.

None the less, I spent some quality time with my legs submerged in a tub of ice, another great summer running practice. (Winter running basically includes an ice bath as part of the process.)

After that I spent part of the day at the pool and started reading a book Bonnie lent to me a long time ago called Veil of Roses. I got pretty far through it before I went to Bonnie's house for dinner.

Dinner during a festival doesn't start until after sunset so we didn't eat 'till about 10:00pm. I had a great time.

Obviously after my late night last night I got up this morning around 11am. Amanda called me and came over to sit by my pool. (Why are you interrupting me? I have to finish this book?) After I finished the book Amanda picked it up and is now about half way through it.

We went to Singapore for carry out. The reviews about the quality of the food are totally accurate. Sadly, the reviews about the long wait are accurate too. Usually the food is so good I don't care.

After dinner my teenager and her friend came over to use my computer. I checked out a couple of the MySpace pages she was looking at after they left. Then I decided I didn't want to know.

I'm now trying to psych myself up for one day of work before the regular weekend and praying the heat in the building is turned off tomorrow (before the weekend when it's supposed to be 90*).

May Music List

I have two exercise playlists that I use constantly. One is about five hours long and I use it for long runs or spending quality time on the elliptical. That list doesn't change much, other than adding new songs I like. The second list is about 90 -120 minutes long and has more music of whatever-the-heck-I'm-in-the-mood-for feel. I use it for my runs around Lake Nokomis and normal gym workouts. As you can imagine, this list gets played frequently so I update it once a month with new or mostly new songs. (I have a few favorites you can read about in this post.) Here's a few songs that are new for May:

• Thanks to Pandora I recently re-discovered My Sweet Lord by George Harrison which works well as a warm-up song and not much else.


• This too shall pass by Ok Go is a song a friend posted to Facebook. (Thanks, it's a great song and a cool video.)


• Here it Goes Again by Ok Go is a great upbeat song that I rediscovered while watching the video for 'this too shall pass'.


• Meddle by Little Boots is a punk/techno song with a good beat. The studio version sounds a bit different than the live version in this video. I was a little worried when she started playing with the techno toy on top of the piano but I think she makes it work.
  


• Badman by Newton Faulkner is a great song on a great album. I find the video of the guys head disconcerting and probably won't watch it again. (Your kids might actually like this one though.)
  


• Where the River Flows by Collective Soul is definitely not a new song but it hasn't seen my iPod in a long time so it's worth mentioning. Collective Soul songs typically have a good driving beat and lyrics interesting enough to at least hold my attention.

LINKFEST Monday

My tab bar is getting a little too full, a sure sign it's time for a linkfest! Here's what I've been looking at lately:

• Awesome facts about Star Trek. And the follow up, There really are aliens out there but we turned the signal off for now so they won't bother us.


• In the summer, I love to eat fresh fruit. I think I'd like all my fresh fruit this way for a while. Om nom nom.


• How much does your city spend on food and drink? It's really fascinating to see who eats out more and who buys more food at home. What's up with Detroit?


• White nose syndrome affecting bats is getting worse. Why should you care? Besides being natures pest control and pollinators, bats are about the cutest things going. Awww.


• I used to love algebra. This is an interesting use of math skills. I think I found the error in the top part too. (I am such a nerd.)


• Kids who learn to fib early are actually successful citizens. Win for me because I've been making stuff up since I could talk.


• ::Soapbox #1:: Former first lady Laura Bush supports gay marriage. Good for her. ::Steps down::


• ::Soapbox #2:: Governor Pawlenty turned down Medicaid so he can run for president. (The article is mildly accurate. The governor didn't accept the money right now. The agreement purposefully leaves the door open for whomever is elected this year to accept the money and 'expand government' while our current governor is out running for president.) And the follow up: Governor Pawlenty will run for President with the slogan, Elect me, I just cut a billion dollars from education in my state alone; think what I can do for the whole country. I've been following the budget thing fairly closely because the state budget profoundly affects my clients, and some of the proposed health care cuts would have made it much harder for me to do my job. As it is, the budget snarl actually made the department of human service put one program (that I wasn't such a fan of) on hold. It feels good to me right now that I don't have to learn this new program. We'll see if it's good in the long run. ::Steps down from soap box again::

"I think you just know if you're a runner from the beginning"

"I think you just know if you're a runner from the beginning" (or some such thing) is what the lady at the coffee shop said to me this morning when I came in all sweaty and exhausted from running.

No.

The time I started running that I actually kept at it the longest (this most recent time) I was in pain for a while. I remember my arches killing me. And going really slow. And falling down; I remember falling down. Running usually made me feel better about myself and my body, but it didn't always make me feel great as it was happening.

How'd we get on this topic?

This morning I went for a run with the St Paul runners. I love this route but it includes a fairly mean hill; it's super steep. I've made it up this hill a couple of times in my life, usually when I was running alone and at my own pace. The St Paul ladies are a bit (ha! just a bit) faster than I am and I try my best to keep up with them. Meaning I usually run out of gas about half-way up this hill.

Not today! I made it all the way up!

I'm learning that running faster means letting my body just feel more uncomfortable and not panicking about that discomfort. (It's a process.) This was I think the fastest run of that distance I've ever done, alone or with company. It was right around an 11:00 mile, maybe faster because I had to walk a block at the end (for intestinal reasons, speaking of discomfort). Remember when I ran a 10k at an 11:00 pace for the first time? Today was great and I had a great time.

We end our run at this big intersection right by a donut shop. (Why does firefox think "donut" isn't a word?) Well, coffee-shop-lady literally saw us at this intersection chatting and stretching after our run while she was driving to work.

I stopped in to the actual coffee shop after the run and told me that she'd seen me and we started talking about running. She said she couldn't do it. The other girl there said she was a cyclist. The cyclist-coffee-shop-girl made some comment about feeling like it's ok to eat Chipotle after a "couple miles" of riding. What!? Ultimately, it was probably working for her.

I keep forgetting today is Sunday. I have almost no memory of Saturday. I remember being emotionally bombarded at the School of Social Work graduation and then, nothing. I have no idea what else I did yesterday. I'm planning on making today equally unproductive.

One Wild Flashback...

I was laying on the couch this morning taking my post-breakfast nap (I love the weekend!) when I startled myself awake and realized the School of Social Work graduation was today.

Some of you reading this will remember the day I graduated from this program. Today was like having a flashback. ::Sidenote:: Thanks to Amanda, Kelly, Eric, Sue and Jeri who all set up in the balcony when I graduated. The main floor was very calm. The balcony was like a zoo and I appreciate that you endured for me. ::End sidenote::

I was a field instructor/task supervisor (social workers know what I'm talking about; for everyone else it means I helped supervise a year-long internship) for two students who graduated today. As a bonus I actually knew a third student who also graduated and it was nice to see her. The speaker was supposed to be Senator Mee Moua who couldn't make it because she was busy trying to negotiate a budget for our great state.

The bulk of this ceremony is watching the students get hooded by their friends and family. Most were hooded by their parents, kids or spouses and some were hooded by professors or field instructors. The two student emcees both commented about how challenging the Social Work program (as well as just being in grad school) is, and the types of things the students faced. HELLO FLASHBACKS! They're so right; it was a really hard two years. And I'm totally proud to be a social worker.

As I said, I sat in the balcony this year. I think next year I may try the third floor so I can have a little more personal space. Today I sat next to this little girl who literally bounced the whole time. I was amazingly not freaked out or frustrated at all. (I know, I can't believe it either.) She came with her mom to watch her mom's friend graduate. (Good for them. It meant a lot when my friends came.) Seriously. Bounced the whole time.

After the ceremony I saw both of the students I supervised and congratulated them. I also saw several old professors and talked to them as well.

Now I'm sitting at home, kind of pepped up from the ceremony, with too much energy to go to bed. I'm ok for another little while and then I'll need to clobber myself over the head or something becuase I have to be up to run at 6:30am with the St Paul runners. I was planning on doing a long run tomorrow but a strange confluence of events is making me do "the Liz Loop" (7-miler or so) tomorrow and probably a long run mid week (when I'm off for two days).

Step back week: Fun and Dangerous at the same time

Step back weeks are a great part of marathon training which is not quite a week off, but certainly a recovery week where there's no increase of weekly mileage or long run mileage. I love step back weeks because they usually come when I'm not feeling so good and wasn't going to run anyways.

But by the end of the week, I start to go a little stir crazy which leads to thoughts like, "hmmm, it would be fun to train for a 50-miler and do one". (Who thinks like that?) I started looking around for ultra-marathons. (I have the time because I'm not out running.) I have seen the 12 and 24hr races at Lake Nokomis in person and I'd love to do one some time. (I think my feelings about Lake Nokomis are clear by now although this could be the kiss of death.) It's not a true 50-miler, it's "how far can you go in 12 hours" distance. (I'd do the 12 hour before deciding on the 24 hour race.) And all my local friends can come cheer or take turns running around in circles with me.

Robin and Jenna told me about the Superior Trail Race which is a true 50-miler with a cut-off at the last water stop that I think I could handle. It's trail running which I typically can't stand so I'd have to train a little differently. (Most soccer players kill their knees; I seemed to ruin my ankles and that makes trails particularly hard for me. Maybe I'm just a wimp.)

These are both possibilities for 2011; not even close for 2010. I'm imagining that 2011 will see me train for the full Flying Pig in early May and then maybe a longer race after that. I'm not sure. I've got to get through the Twin Cities Marathon this year first.

What other crazy thing did I do this week?

I said, "I'll teach you all to run a 5k and then we can do the Milk Run (and later the Dreidel Dash)" when a colleague said she was going to start a weight-loss group at work. How am I going to train these people to run a 5k while I'm trying to train for a marathon? I have no freaking clue; I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking this is the training program to use and it'll be bonus running miles for me.

Today is the prettiest day ever in life. Maybe I just feel that way because we've had so much rain lately that I was ready to build an ark. I woke up at 5am (no, seriously) and ran by the pretty lakes. It was really windy. I had a great run and hauled tail too. This time Paula Radcliff told me I set a new personal best in the mile. (Thanks but there's no way I did a 7:18 mile on that run.) Then I went to work and was done by 12:30. WIN I came home and ate my Chipotle out on the patio. (I feel kind of full from that burrito. Bleh.) I'm not sure what else I'll do to entertain myself today. I was thinking about a walk but that burrito is going to take a while to go down.

Ow ow, pain pain pain

I love step back weeks (Marathon Training) because I don't feel guilty about walking some of my miles instead of running them. I have been feeling not so good today. I had a few appointments this morning and then I came home to work.

I partially failed at working at home because our IT company had screwed up ability to access our shared drives remotely (Every single freaking time they re-start the server and do maintenance on it, my computer thinks I have "read only" access to the "My Documents" folder on my C: drive, and I can't VPN to the server at the office. Every. Single. Time. Seriously, re-set the server, re-set my rights. It shouldn't be hard.)

After I spent some quality time with the IT team on the phone, I finally said, "can you just email me when you're done so I don't have to sit on the phone while you work?" "Sure". I got a bit of work done after I decided they were done on my computer. I still can't use the VPN but I have a feeling someone's being called about that.

Then I decided to work out torture myself for a few minutes at the Y. I walked and listened to an episode of Car Talk that I hadn't heard yet. Now I'm sitting at home thinking about training tomorrow. Could be interesting. The breakfast there usually rocks at least.

Lance Armstrong Thinks I Set a New Personal Best for the Mile!

A few days ago the S-word came into our forecast. That's right. Snow. In May! (I say booo!) While all the plants people bought too early may be harmed by frost, it's freaking perfect running weather.

I got up this morning around 8am (I love Saturdays) and checked the temperature. It's how many degrees?!? Thirty-six. It's thirty-six degrees. I got on the goose-shirt and then put on a long sleeve top over it, grabbed my snacks and off I went.


I read a while ago that I could supposedly run underneath 35W on Minnehaha Parkway again. I found this statement to be true and was delighted. I started planning my summer long runs around the lakes in my head now that I knew the path was clear for me.

And then I crossed Lyndale Ave and saw a fence across the entire path. WTF? It's worth pointing out that there's a path that doesn't even come up to Lyndale that's been closed for over a year so at this point they're closing the backup path too. (It's marathon training season and duathlon/triathlon training season too! I say booo.)

All my dreams of spending my summer running around the lakes on awesome long runs slipped away. And were replaced by visions of running along the river parkways (up one side and down the other), expanding the "make peace with the river" route to include some hills and other interesting stuff.

After that little detour I made it over to Lake Harriet and was almost literally blown away by the wind. I love Lake Harriet. I still remember the feeling the first time I made it there on a run. (I'd never even walked that way before so I had no idea how far it was.) The yatch club was out. It was a great day for sailing. I also saw several groups of what I assume are Team Ortho training groups getting ready for the marathon and half marathon next month. (Good luck everyone!)

I got lost for about ten seconds trying to find the path from Lake Harriet to Kings Hwy that would take me the to shortcut home, across 40th street. (I only meant to run about 8 miles, not the 11 the normal route would take me.) 40th street in this direction is way more fun than running from my house to the lake. It's mostly down hill this way. (This could be where Lance thinks I PR'd the mile.)

I got back home and stretched. (Because I can still hear Linda telling me, "If you don't have time to stretch, you don't have time to run".) When I stopped my iPod Lance told me "congratulations, you just set a new personal best in the mile". Ha, I think my sensors messed up dude 'cause there's no way I ran a 7:13 mile. I did feel great after the run though.

I measured out my run and discovered that Gmaps has added pedestrian paths alongside the bike paths to their site. There are no words for my joy! For a while I was just guessing where some of those paths went, and the 40th street bridge over 35W wasn't on there at all. That made me almost as happy as finding out Chipotle is coming to town!.

It was in the 40's (like 41*) when I got home. After I measured out my run I started shivering and decided I should take a hot shower. I ran out of hot water. FAIL. Ultimately it did warm me up a bit.

I tried to make breakfast and discovered that bad eggs really can turn green inside. Doh! I didn't eat that one, don't worry. I saw that I have some Goetta to make. I'm thinking maybe tomorrow for breakfast. I'm not sure if I should cook it all and then re-heat, or if I should cook it a little at a time. Any suggestions?

I think tonight I'm going to take a walk with Amanda and then get dinner. Tomorrow needs to be a weight lifting day and also starts the beginning of a step back week. (Yeah baby, only 17 miles to run the whole week.)

Saturday LINKFEST

It's a cold (brrr) Saturday and I haven't done a linkfest in a little while. Here's what's going on:

• This is the opposite of how I browse the web. I usually keep some tabs around for a whole week (or several) until I do another Linkfest. Then they get closed.


• This is how you do PowerPoint. Quit reading from the slides, look up, and talk to the audience. We came to see you, not your computer.


• An awesome picture of me being silly!.


• As if you needed more proof that Walmart is the devil. I'm having no trouble seeing the 'Walmart Greeter' as the heroic character here.


• Straw poll: Who uses Windows 7? I uses it at work so I find articles like this one incredibly useful.


• Mental Floss accidentally found it's way into my RSS fees and I've never taken it out. It's got some hysterically funny quizzes. For example, Antidepressant or Egyptian God?, The stripped flags of the world which I rocked!, and Supreme Court Case or Featherweight Championship Bout which I did not rock.


• I find this funny because I'm apparently eight years old.


• Do women make better doctors? Excellent article. I liked the stuff at the end about how patients expect a male doctor and a female doctor to show (or not) concern and emotion. Also love to know that women are about half of medical school classes. (As women should since they make up about half of the patients.)
  


• Ever wondered what all the people who don't use the latin alphabet do when typing in web addresses? Starting today, some of them can type web addresses in their own alphabets. I love that the three languages in the post are all right-to-left languages.


• mmmm Bacon.


• Thanks to Concord MA and this 82-year-old activist for leading the way on the stupidity of bottled water. Way to look out for all of us and set a great example!


• Also thanks to Al Franken for looking out for everyone on the internets. I freaked the first time Pandora showed me my facebook picture. Not cool!


• This is the funniest post I've read in a long time. Oh, phew. I've totally bonked 4-mile runs myself. (I've also had to ask similar questions about hearing voices to the adults and seniors I work with so I get what the author is saying.)


• Japan turns adult diapers into fuel. Awesome right? They're doing it in Europe (and apparently in San Fransico they turn dog poo into fuel). Now go back and look at the picture at the top of the article. Would you hold those pellets in your hands?


• It has been a rough week for the police and fire departments of several Minnesota municipalities. But an ambulance crash because of ice and snow in May? That's wrong on more than one level and very sad.


• I haven't said much about the weight loss with all the pre-race carbo-loading. YUM! According to this article, faster weight loss is better in the long run although it goes on to say that's not definitive. I'd be interested to see figures as a percentage of total body weight per week in addition to pounds per week.
  An 160lb person trying to loose 1.5lbs per week can only eat about 1400 net calories per day and is loosing about 1% of their total body weight per week. A 300lb person trying to loose 1.5lbs per week can eat about 2300 net calories per day and still meet their goal. And they're only loosing 0.5% of their body weight. I'm just saying, 1400 calories go by awfully fast.
  (For those who are interested, I eat about 1650 net calories per day. I love running days becuase I get to have more food. I love long run days because I get Chipotle.)

if Murphy and his laws ran your day, here's what it would be like...

Actually, my whole day wasn't run by Murphy, just the last hour or so...

I woke up around 7am and promptly went back to sleep until 8:15am (a much more civilized time).

I arrived at work around 9am and found that none of the computers that run Windows 7 had internet connectivity. We could connect to our office server, just not the internet or retrieve email. (Did you know that my case management software is web-based?) The guy was supposed to come at 1pm to fix it; I left at 3pm and he still wasn't there. Thanks guys. The greater irony is I discovered the problem as the IT guy left the building (literally). He'd been there last night and this morning fixing a network issue that was impacting the XP computers. (Those all worked fine today.)

I packed Amanda's awesome Kale and Bacon dish for lunch. (I used sausage.) I also packed roasted beets. The beets made me feel nauseous for some reason so I gave up on lunch fairly quickly.

After I left the office my teenager came over and declared "you eat weird food Liz" when I told her the snack options. (She's not wrong.) In my defense, I was gone over the weekend and I don't get paid 'till Friday so I'm holding off on the grocery shopping. She typed up something for school and then spent a long time on Myspace. I'm not troubled by the amount of time she spent, just that she's friends with someone named "sexy b!tch" (yeah, it's spelled the real way too) and similar names. Even though I'm troubled, I'm not quite sure what to do about it. She promptly left her folder and notebook at my house but she has all the work she's typed.

Then, the real fun began.

My half marathon clothes were beyond gross at this point so I decided to do some laundry. (Hey, there's a thought.) I came to put the clothes in the dryer. All 6 machines gave my laundry card and error message. Fail! I went to look for my phone to call Steve to borrow his card. Why can I not find my phone? I went to another building to see if their dryers were less fussy. Six error messages later I decided I need a new laundry card. Then I walked to Steve's apartment and told him my sad story. He came over and called my phone (there it is!) and then lent me his card so I could do my laundry. WIN!

Now I'm thinking about all the money that's still on my card. Hmmm, there must be a way to get that back...

How many pigs does it take to fly up a 300 foot hill?

3:00am: Lightning and thunder outside my window woke me up. I never quite made it to sleep again after that except a few little cat-naps.
4:40am: The alarm officially went off playing my theme song.
5:00am: Uncle Jerry arrived (I can't believe he came out, that was really nice of him) and we went off to downtown Cincinnati. (Did I mention the rain?)
5:30am-ish: I found Deb and got into her car as we watched all kinds of thunder and lightning. (And rain.)
6:02am: I called Jenny and asked her to look at radar. I regretted the request when I heard, "oh, there's a line of storms all the way back to Arkansas, but you're just outside of the red box that means a tornado warning". Oh joy. Deb told Jenny not to come down but we had her to breakfast afterward instead.
6:10am: We got out of Deb's car and started walking to the start line.
6:20am: A bolt of lightning takes out power to all the street lights around Paul Brown Stadium. Runners are promised by race officials there is no severe weather in the area.
6:30am: The race miraculously starts on time. Deb and I were in the rear of the pack, too far back as it turned out.
6:40-ish: Deb and I started the race. Slow Down Deb, it's a long race! My parents and Uncle Jerry were at their first cheering spot. Mom had a bell!
Mile 1: Also hill number one. The bridges here are really tall. How tall could a river boat be really?
Miles 2-4: Ah, Kentucky. After two more bridges we were back in Ohio. I saw my parents again and had my first Gu pack. (Yes, I've made peace with the Gu.)
Miles 4-6: The lower west-end around Longworth Hall was fairly deserted (because who could get over there with all the roads closed?) but downtown Cincinnati was great. I saw my parents for an unexpected third time.
Miles 6-8.5: Deb coached me up the hill that I was totally dreading. She did a great job; told me what to expect, when to rest and when to goose it. I felt as good at the top of that hill as I did at the end of the Amsterdam Marathon. (That's how big a mental block I had about this hill.) At the split point for the half and full I saw Mike and Linda, our neighbors who I also can't believe stood in the rain that long.
Miles 8.5-10: Why are there more hills? Apparently in this race, you're never done going up hill. There was a water stop in here sponsored (staffed?) by the Walnut Hills football team. I cheered for Walnut really loud. They loved me.
Mile 10-11: Ah, the true, glorious wonderful down hill. As a surprise I saw Mike and Linda a second time.
Miles 11-13: The race has this dinky little out and back loop (clearly they needed to make the path a mile longer than it was) so I could see all these runners heading towards the finish line as I have to run away from it, around a traffic island, and back. (Hello mental block.) It was around mile 12 we met another girl named Liz.
Finish line: At this point I was saying, "hey, tell my friend Deb she's doing great, it's her first time". Big hug. Awesome medal.

Big thank you to Mike, Linda, Uncle Jerry and Mom and Dad for coming out and standing in the rain to cheer.

Big thank you to Jenny, Doug and Chris who entertained me after the race.

And CONGRATULATIONS to Deb for running her first half-marathon in under her goal time.

I am thinking about training for the full pig next year but I'm not committed to it yet. Basically it's going to require some serious long runs in the winter months. While that was no problem this year, this was like the 4th mildest March on record so I'm not making any long term plans. Even seasoned marathoners have told me it's a really challenging course (hello hills!) but it's my home town so I really want to do it. I could always try to train and have the Minneapolis Marathon as a backup. Or Gramma's. I guess I should focus on running Twin Cities this year first. (And so I shall.)

WIN for the Day

It made my day when my two-year-old cousin comes in to the kitchen, holds up a rock with "JOY" written on it and says:

"J-O-Y, that spells happy!"

A Pre-Race Linkfest

The big race is Sunday. One more pre-race run tomorrow with the St Paul runners and then I'll rest until the race. At this point I can share with you that I'm not at all intimidated by the distance (half-marathon) but I'm totally intimidated by the Gilbert Avenue/Eden Park/Madison Road climb. My race partner has never run a half-marathon before but she has run up this hill more than once so I'm planning to encourage her the entire race except for this little part where she can be dragging my butt up a hill. (Her shirt looks awesome by the way.)

And now, for the links:

• This is for my Pooky bear. She knows why.


• The real United States of America? Funny, I think of Minnesota as 'always cold' too. Not sure where the truck driving thing came from.


• Fear of heights - conquered. If that were me I would simply cease to exist.


• I thought My Pooky Bear would also like this idea, although most of you weirdos who eat caramel will probably like it too.


• This shot, and this completely unrelated photo both make me think of Amanda.


• While most of this article is fairly disturbing, the last line is hilarious.

  No word on whether the truck, shown in the photo in a parking spot reserved for the handicapped, has the requisite disability tags.



• My hometown got high ratings for walk-ability? Seriously? Clearly these people have never tried to walk anywhere in Cincinnati. It's one of the few places on the planet where the phrase "I had to walk to school and it was up hill both ways" is completely true. I'm just saying.

How far can I run in the rain?

It was good that I prepared myself last night that I was going to run this morning, even if it rained.

I went for my long run. And it did rain. The trees all have leaves on them thanks to a super early spring so I had reasonable protection from the rain most of the way. All of Minnehaha Parkway is blooming. The apple blossoms and lilacs are wonderful.

After the run I came home and shivered for a while tried to warm up. Then I went to Maria's with Amanda and my Pooky Bear. Corn pancakes. Mmmm.

Kelly took me home and helped use fabric paint to, um, personalize running shirts for Deb and I for next weekend. I did not put the phrase FLYING PIG VIRGIN on the back of the shirts. I was sorely tempted. (Please keep in mind, a similar phrase was actually requested by my running partner.) Kelly helped me cut everything out and then showed me how to apply the freezer paper and paint it. I've still got the backs of both shirts to paint. I'm planning on finishing it tonight. I'll show pictures after the race.

I also got my completely finished pajamas from Kelly. Just in time because I'm coming to grips with the fact that I'm really too tired to move or do laundry tonight.

I don't have a taper plan in mind for the rest of the week. (Perhaps I should?) Usually I take the day off after the long run of the week but I may try to do the rowing machine before work tomorrow. Tuesday I may be able to sneak in one last run around the lake (and go see those apple blossoms one more time before I leave) and Wednesday, who knows what will happen. Wednesday I have five appointments so it'll be crazy busy. We'll see how i feel about running Thursday morning. I could go for a quick outing with the St Paul runners before I leave town. (I could not run and sleep in before I leave town too.)

Trying to make peace with the rain

Now that I'm starting to make peace with the river I need to think about making peace with running in the rain.

Because tomorrow morning is the only time this week I can run 11 miles and still recover in time to run 13.1 miles next Sunday. And rain is predicted for some or all of that time slot, so I'll have to give this whole thing a try. No thunder and lightning are predicted right now.

I'm also trying to decide my routes. Currently on the table are Lake Harriet (because according to MnDOT I can go this way again) or a longer version of the Liz Loop. Those are two of my favorite routes and I feel like using them as a reward for keeping a good attitude on my last long run.

::Oh shoot. I need to find someone to feed my fishes while I'm gone.::

While I'm thinking about the run tomorrow, I wanted to share some more running music with you. See previous installments of this series in part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.

• Say you will is only on my Long Runs play list right now. It's not quite fast enough for the short runs but it's a great song. For some reason, it always reminds me of Chris. Something about these lines in the chorus makes me think of him.

  That always seems to heal the wounds
  If I can get you to dance



• Call on Me by Eric Prydz is a good up-tempo song if you don't mind the same lyrics over and over. This was one of my favorite songs to listen to while I was slogging around Lake Nokomis in the snow all winter and it's good for improving my attitude on runs now. (Side note: No good comes of looking for this video on youtube.)


• Always something there to remind me. I love this song. I have no explanation.


• POP by NSync (I am not ashamed) has a great beat too.


• And finally, My Doorbell by the White Stripes is a super fun song (with a fairly cool video).

The Friday Five

I'm doing the Friday Five since I didn't run today and I haven't thought about long runs and tapering for next week yet (I have NO plan).

1. Tea or Coffee or juice in the morning, and why? Diet Pepsi because it's cheaper than coffee and has caffeine so I don't go into withdraw.
2. What's your typical breakfast on workdays, and what on weekends? At work it's usually Greek yogurt with granola and sometimes a piece of fruit.
3. What do you drink through the day? Heh heh. (Oh wait, serious?) Mostly water, sometimes another diet pepsi or some juice with the water.
4. Best snack? Bananas, peanut butter and chocolate chips.
5. Your favourite dinner when you cook for yourself alone? I make a fried egg sandwich with bacon and goat cheese that's fairly awesome. I refer to it as the 'protein sandwich'. In the winter it's excellent pre-run food. In the summer it's excellent post-run food.

Long Run Wednesday: Where would YOU go?

This was ultimately a good long run day, although I had my challenges. Here's my route. I'm calling it the "make peace with the river" route. For a while I just had a mental block about the river. I never ran there and then the one time I did (thanks Ragnar) the running path was under construction (boo!) and I was so sick I felt like I was going to die. And then the next time I ran there was the 20-miler I ran in preparation for the marathon. (The 20-miler was so bad I apparently didn't even blog about it.)

I'm trying to replace those memories with some good ones so I enjoy that part of the marathon. I had a nice run with Beth and Jenna a couple weeks ago and today was also ultimately a positive experience. I had some, um, digestive issues which added excitement and an unexpected opportunity for sprint intervals but did not discourage me from the river. (At least I know where the port-a-pots are now.)

Here's how the run went:

• 5:00am: My alarm clock woke me up by playing I am superman (link plays sound). Said song only plays on days I need to get up and run and said song is not allowed to be snoozed. (Hey, it works for me.)


• 5:05am: "Hmmm. Peanut Butter would be a great pre-run snack. Oooh look, here's a spoon. Good enough for me."


• 5:15am-ish: Here I go.


• Miles 1-2: "Wow, it's early. And I'm not going to get to see the sunrise over a lake. I wonder what it looks like over a river."


• Miles 2-5: "Oh, pain. Oh, it's ok. There's a port-a-pot coming up in this next parking lot." As I arrive at the parking lot, "how is it not here?" Ultimately that problem was solved because it was in the next lot about a block away.


• Mile 5: This is mostly the Lake Street/Marshall Ave bridge. I'm afraid of heights. It actually worked out because the sidewalk is wide enough I was able to stay away from the edge.


• Miles 6-9: This stretch is in St Paul and starts with one of the several hills I'm going to have to make peace with in the marathon. I'd seen this hill before the peacemaking it going well. (Although I've never tried to make peace with after running 20 miles.) It looks steeper and longer than it feels when running up it.


• Miles 10-11: "Dude, I can see my breath!" which was shortly followed by "there's that discomfort again". At which point I started mentally noting where all the possible stopping points could be. That was quickly followed by, "oh, I guess I am going to get to see a lake today". I took a little detour over to Lake Nokomis which had some facilities to meet my needs. It wound up adding about half-mile onto the run and an opportunity for some sprint intervals.
  


• Mile 12: From 44th street to 42nd street is a steady down-hill path and I love getting up a good head of steam on that part. It's fun that it comes at the end of the run. I didn't going as fast as I would at the end of a 6-miler but I did get going.


• After the run: I thought about taking an ice-bath but ultimately decided I was already too cold to sit in a tub of ice. Based on what I saw of the weather last night, I'd expected it to be about 50* by the time I got back. When I checked the actual temperature it was 43*. No ice-bath was completely the right choice.

It's a good thing I burned like 1,800 calories before breakfast because I ate out at lunch and at dinner. For lunch I went with a colleague to The Highland Grill, the only one of the Blue Plate restaurants that still sees Vegetarian Chili-Mac. I didn't get it but I should have. For dinner Amanda and I went to Ngog, a fancy little place in Frogtown. Apparently it's so new Google doesn't even know about it. I think I'm giving my teenager a ride home from work but she hasn't called me yet so I'm not sure.

Walk around naked...

My teenager asked me today, "do you ever walk around the house naked?" Hilarious!

The thing about this relationship is I always try to be honest with her. Even when the questions are awkward or private. (When's the last time you had sex? What's it like to get drunk?) I figure if she trusts me enough to ask I need to trust her enough to be comfortable and tell the truth. She hasn't disappointed me yet.

You see how I'm not answering her question in this particular forum but I did tell her she may feel differently about the question if she lived alone instead of with a parent.

Today was an off day from running (obviously or I would have had something else to write about). It's been a busy week. I have a long run and hill run to do still this week. Then I need to figure out how to taper before the half-marathon. (Anyone want to car-trip it to Cincinnati with me?)

While I'm looking for half-marathon training plans that will help me remember how to taper for this thing, I think you will all enjoy this.

Where's the prettiest place on the planet?

The prettiest place on the planet is right here at sun rise. (I love Lake Nokomis.) At sunrise there's no bikers either so all the runners go to the bike path. (As it should be.)

I got up early to run today because, frankly, I had Chipotle to earn. I ran by Lake Hiawatha too, just to add distance to the run. As you may imagine from my above comment, it was a gorgeous run.

Sadly, I did not get to eat with Molly today at lunch because we both had last minute meetings come up. (I have no explanation.) I wound up getting Chipotle a little later on. I tried to call Amanda and find out about her day but she didn't want to talk to me. (I'm sure I'll find out later what book she was reading that was so much more important than talking to a friend...)

Work was 10 hours long today. (No. Seriously.) After work I was exhausted and sore. I thought first a massage would be nice but then I thought about sitting in a hot tub. The other half of my brain responded that I could do just that at the Y so off I went. I'm now sprawled out on the couch like a pancake contemplating exactly what time I've got to wake up to go back to the Y tomorrow morning. Hmmm.

Whilst I think about then, you should enjoy this link fest:

• Evil genius.


• Mmm, Tequila. Too true.


• Amanda, even though you didn't want to talk to me today I thought you might like this information.


• This is so true. Regular squirrels and flying squirrels. Just ask Chris about flying squirrels that get into your bat nets. Booo I say.


• Want and know it's a waste of counter space. Still.

Let's Take a Poll: What Should My Shirt Say?

It's been a rough week. Mercifully, it was a step-back week so I didn't miss too many miles. (Only about 2.5 miles short all told.) I use this training program but I've moved around the step back weeks to better fit my life. (here's part II of that schedule for anyone who's interested; it's what I used last year too.)

::Side note: I think they're training new people at my Chipotle because this burrito is not the same as normal....::

Thursday I worked a super short day (only five hours) which was great because I felt like I was going to die the entire day. Friday I spent basically on the couch. Bleh. Saturday I tried to run and was quickly reacquainted with the "10 minute rule". The 10 minute rule basically says that I should get up and go for a run and if I really feel that bad after 10 minutes, I can stop. In my early running days I had good luck using it as motivation to get myself out of bed because I always felt great once I got going. Not so on Saturday. Boooo.

Sunday I thought about running early but my body, once again, protested. I did have success finally in the afternoon when I did the elliptical for an hour at a 6mph pace (yes, that is a 10:00 mile). Thank goodness. My body feels like it's coming back to me now.

After the run I went to Target and picked out Deb and my Half Marathon shirts. We'll be in white this year. (One of the fun things about racing is trying to pick the color shirt that will be easiest for spectators to pick out of the crowd and cheer for you.) I've learned from my past racing experiences that writing your name on your shirt is highly advisable. It results in 13 miles (or 26 miles this fall) of people shouting "go Liz" instead of "good job runners" (or in some cases just a sedate "bravo"). I called Deb to make sure she understood that I would have a shirt for her and she asked me to write "I've never done this before, please cheer really loud" or "marathon virgin" on the shirt. I just want it down in writing that this was requested ahead of time. (Although, really, nothing can top the shirt that Robin got for Beth H last year with an huge "I'm turning 40 tomorrow" on the back of it.)

This brings me to my question.

Should I put "Liz" or "Alex" on the shirt I'm going to wear? Pretty much everyone reading this blog will know me as Liz but there was a time in my life (read: high school) where everyone called me Alex. I didn't even think about it until I realized I'd run into people from high school, or parents of people I went to school with who will still know me as Alex and I went them to cheer too. Actually almost everyone in Cincinnati will know me as Alex. Chris told me I should write Liz (a.k.a. Alex) on the front. I'm thinking about just writing "Minnesota" on the back. In Cincinnati that will be notable enough. Although, if I wrote "Flying Pig Virgin" on the back of Deb's shirt I could really write it on mine too.

Thoughts please.

Praying While I.... well, yeah

I had a bladder infection this weekend. It was not a super-fun experience but I'd pick it over a migraine (universe, this is not an invitation) almost any day of the week. Saturday when I ran I knew something wasn't right. Sunday night I started drinking tons of water which relieved most of my symptoms (thank you palliative care).

Sunday night I was talking to my mom (who is still a total hippie) and she told me a story about a lady who was in danger of loosing a kidney and asked people to pray for her. The leader of whatever service this was (I don't think it was a traditional religious service of any denomination or faith) told the lady to focus on what was healthy and how her other kidney was still working. And then he told her she could pray while she peed. So that was Mom's advice to me. (Thanks.) Monday I visited the doctor who gave me some antibiotics and a drug that relieves 'irritation' and has a side effect of turning my pee orange (glad they warned me about that one in advance).

Monday I spent some time with the doctor and took it easy (when I wasn't working).

Today I slept in (ha!) until at least 7:30am before a day of meetings and trainings. I didn't turn on my computer or check my voice mail at all. At the end of the day I went for a four miler at the lake before getting soup with Amanda.

From the running experience I learned one should never run around Lake Nokomis in the afternoon. It is packed. It was hard to get up a steady pace and stay on the path. I spent a lot of time in the dirt/grass rut next to the path running around people or getting out of the way. My knees and ankles were not happy with the situation, they wanted the nice flat even concrete. I gave them a couple ibuprofen when I got back so hopefully they'll forgive me. Lake Nokomis early in the morning is much more pleasant. It was a gorgeous day though.


I cannot believe how warm it is in April this year. Someone said it doesn't bode well for the summer but I prefer to think we're getting it all out of our system early in the season. I was able to wear my 'gooster the rooster' running shirt the St Paul runners made for my birthday last year. (Heather was already thinking about Ragnar costumes.) In honor of the warm temperature and the heat still being on in my building (I say BOOOOO) I got out my air mattress which will be much cooler than the real mattress. I'm hoping to spend the whole night asleep. (The last few nights I've been getting up in the middle of the night to pee. In technicolor).

Now, since it's been forever, a brief linkfest:

• Something all runners should know about keeping your legs strong. It's such a funny name for a website too.


• Great google search tricks I typically don't remember. The site: search and the filetype: searches are dead useful.


• The secret fast food menu: the Starbucks stuff looks really good.


• Know your charity ribbons. I knew autism and some of them I guessed on.


• How well do you know your neighbor: Mr Roger's quiz. I failed. But I used to love that show. I think it's sad kids today can't watch it.

Running the "Liz Loop"

I got out of bed early (at the crack of dawn) this morning to see the St Paul runners. We ran what they have hilariously dubbed the Liz Loop which was spectacular and gorgeous this morning. I had a great time. Afterwords they stopped at Meloglaze and I stopped at Turtle Bread. (Even after a long run donuts don't sound that good to me.)

I lounged about this morning and cooked a leisurely breakfast a huge plate of eggs and bacon with a croissant. Yum. Then I went on a Target run and got some of the best news ever.

In the tradition of posts where I tell you about my running music (see previous entries here, here and here) I'll share some songs which for are basically new to the running playlist in April 2010.

• Send me on my way by Rusted Root. The video is cool because I love the badlands.


• My Prerogative by Bobby Brown, a oldie-but-goodie. Also generally safe for kids I think.


• Love Game by Lady Gaga. I think I've made my feelings about Lady Gaga clear. I'd also encourage the adults to listen to this song and watch the video before any kids do. I'm just sayin...
  


• Fireflies by Owl City. This song is safe for everyone and has the bonus of being a Minnesota artist.


• Big Love by Tracy Byrd. (Why yes, yes it is a country song.) There was a time in my life when I listened to much more country music than I do now. I still like it but the country music stations up here aren't as good as the ones in Cincinnati (big surprise) and I like some of the other stations better. Nonetheless, this is a good song and a fun one to run with.

A new Chipotle Location? I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!!

Chipotle is coming! Anyone who knows me knows it can't come soon enough. (I'm so excited. And I am sooo screwed because I'll be there all the time.)

A few years ago, they built a Target and some other stuff at Cedar Commons (Cedar Ave and 66th street in Richfield). Stores besides Target include Famous Footware, TCF Bank and Carribou Coffee. But one of the buildings was always empty. Every time I drove by it I'd say, "that's where the Chipotle should go".

Ask and you shall receive.

Today when I drove by it I saw Chipotle banners saying "Burrito building zone" and the like. I called my pooky bear right away (because she also shops at that Target). Sadly I can't call Amanda because she will never (and I do mean never) eat Chipotle with me again (due to an incident for which Chipotle itself bears no responsibility).

I don't know when it'll be open but it's not listed on the Chipotle website yet so it may be a while. (I'm sure it'll be open in time for my 20-mile runs.)

Can an exercise ball hurt your knees?

I know earlier this week I mentioned that my knees are a bit achy sometimes. At work I've been sitting on an exercise ball and I use my legs a lot to keep my position constant. I wonder if this has anything to do with the achy-ness. (It couldn't have too much to do with it really because I was off work for four days when I wrote that last post.)

I'm also mildly in Ragnar Relay training mode meaning I'm trying to do more than one workout within 24 hours right now. Wednesday night I went to the gym and made friends with the stair master. (In honor of my knees I'm not running down Montreal Ave this week.) This morning I got up and had a great run around my happy place. (I'll remember that at mile 13 when I'm crossing that bridge in the sunshine.) After my run Paula Radcliffe told me I set a new personal best for the mile. (You'd think I would've done that running down Montreal Ave but cool nonetheless.)

I got to reminiscing this week and started looking back and when I learned to run but reading my old blog posts. Through a freak accident I found that other blog that we kept to detail getting ready for our first 5K. Here's some of my favorite posts:

• The first run: So cute. I remember running around like a four block path in my neighborhood when I was learning. It could possibly have covered a mile but not much more.


• At some point I got to where I could run far enough that the little path in my neighborhood was inadequate and I went to Lake Nokomis. And so began the a beautiful friendship.


• I remember how bad my arches used to hurt too. I don't know what happened, they just stopped hurting once I'd been running for a while. More on the arches here and you can follow the link for instructions on taping your arches as well.


• Amanda is always right. Too bad she doesn't run with me anymore. I still remember that lady saying, "gosh, I have to go three miles just to not feel like I'm going to die" which is how I felt about running for a long time; the beginning was always the hardest. (Actually I still do feel that way sometimes.)


• This must have been the first time I ran over a mile without stopping. Good for me.


• Waking up early: Sucked, even back then. It was good to read this post because (it's hilarious) in my mind I always imagine that I had an easy time getting up to run 'last year' or 'when I first started' and that it's gotten harder. The truth is I just have more excuses now. When I was in grad school if I didn't get myself up to run at the crack of dawn it meant no running for the day because I was so busy. Now sometimes I'll think, 'oh, I'll just go to the gym after work...' Right. Like that happens. This morning I woke up to my cell phone playing I am Superman which did ultimately help me get up and moving.

That was great summer, learning how to run again and then doing the Milk Run with Amanda and Amy. There had been a couple of other times in my life when I did run. Before I did semester at sea (I was 20) I ran every day and was probably the skinniest I've ever been. (I still remember walking into Abercrombie and buying the same size pants I wore in eighth grade!) After Semester at Sea I was so busy with school and graduating I didn't exercise a whole lot. When I lived with Andrea the first time (I was 22) I remember getting really good at running and even developing my winter running skills. I also remember loving Andrea's little Gazelle exercise machine. Although once I left for Africa and came back I never re-started the habit. Really, after Africa it was two years before I started running again, thanks to Amanda's bright idea to use the Couch Potato Running Plan to get ready for the Milk Run.

• After my first 5k I was preparing for an ambitious (at the time it was) five mile race and took quite a spill. I didn't stop running that day but ultimately becuase of the injury I stopped for at least a month. I could barely walk or get up at one point.
  


• Happily, despite the fall and injury the habit stuck and I kept it up. (I remember when my living room was that color and when that painting was there... How strange.) And now here I am training for my second marathon.

This concluded the trip down memory lane.

'Protect Your Knees' week here at Marathon Training central

I love four day weekends. I'm also finding to-do lists to be very helpful. I was inspired by my pooky bear to make a to-do list for my time-off. I want to be clear that mine is in no way that ambitious. (Good for you Pooky!) Here's mine:

• Sew button on pants: Check, done Sunday night, and that is the limit of my sewing expertise.


• Fix earring: Also done Sunday night. (One of the charms fell off of one of my favorite earrings, simple fix but it did involve my jewelery pliers.


• Untwist elastic waistband in a pair of shorts - not yet. Is there a simple way to do this? I haven't even figured out a difficult way to do it.


• Make a guitar playing area in the living room and buy a guitar stand: Done today. At first I was planning to take apart the behemoth that is my entertainment center, take off one of the shelf segments and put it back together so there'd be no space on my wall. Then I realized I couldn't actually disassemble and reassemble the thing alone. That realization was followed by the realization that I should probably use my pooky bear (the only other human being on the planet who can figure out how the thing goes together and comes apart) for more important jobs. I was able to find an acceptable 'space' with the entertainment center intact.


• Figure out a 'standing desk' hack for the office with Ikea furniture: Fail.


• Polish kitchen table: Not yet, but I will.


• Load pictures from my camera onto the computer: Done. Not wouldn't it be nice to put them on the blog? Too bad that's not on the list.


• Buy summer work shoes: Check. Most expensive item I bought today. I have heavy criteria for my summer dress shoes (flip-flop style toe loop, no strap around the ankle, has to be dressy, black is preferable, heels bad) so it's good I found something I like and will wear. My current shoes are going on three years old. It was really time for new ones.


• Buy and install drawer organizers for the bathroom drawers: Ikea actually had something for this. Done.


• Make a system for contact lenses: Done. (It's not even worth explaining but glad it's in place now.)

Today I meant to wake up at 6am and head over to some of my favorite lakes. Sadly, I woke up at 3am and spent a couple hours lying awake so at 6am I was fried and I reset the alarm for 7am before turning it off completely. At 10am when I finally woke up (don't you wish you had a four day weekend too?) my knees weren't interested in running on concrete. I can't say I blame them; they've been working awfully hard lately. So I went to the gym (one visit down this week) and made friends with the ellipticals.

Not all ellipticals are created equal. The first one I was on was much harder at level 6 (like worked my muscles harder, had my heart rate higher, slower number of steps per minute) than the one I normally use at level 9. I'm just saying. I went a total of 12 miles on a combination of ellipticals. For the last couple of miles the Reds game (opening day!) was on the TV in front of me so I got to see shots of my hometown, the opening day parade, and the Cardinals get their first of several runs in the game.

I don't think my knees are injured, they're just kind of achey right now. They don't hurt worse when I'm standing or sitting, no stabbing pains, no throbbing. But I'm respecting their wishes. I think I'll try to do most of my mileage at the gym this week. Next week is a step back week so I'll try to skip a long run then. (I have to look at tapering before the half marathon too, now that I think about it.)

After the 2.5 hour elliptical marathon, I came home and made brunch before the shopping trips described above (Guitar Center, Ikea and DSW Shoes).

I called Steve for dinner and we had an excellent time at Chipotle. (Good thing I was on an elliptical for 2.5 hours today. I don't even feel guilty about it.)

After dinner I came home and played the guitar for a while, something I haven't done in a while. I don't remember why exactly I wanted to start playing more again. I think it was a combination of not liking to spend as much time on the internetz as I was and a co-worker (who also plays guitar) saying something to me about it. I decided to be honest with myself that I'm not really a fan of my acoustic guitar. It's got a couple dead frets in a really bad place so it makes some chords (A, C#m, D) that are fairly common sounds really bad. Plus I always liked my electric guitar the best. I dug the electric out of my storage closet, along with the amp (I hope it's not too loud for the neighbors) and set it up. (Hence the guitar area.) The case for the electric literally disintegrated in my hands when I opened it up. That should tell you how long it's been away.

I'm not actually tired yet but I should think about going to bed...

Had a bad bad half-marathon dream

In my dreams...

I was running a half-marathon with Bonnie, not Deb, my actual Flying Pig partner. And the race started inside, in like a gym/sports complex. (Dreams where I'm running indoors never turn out well anyways.)

Bonnie and I went like, a tenth of a mile, and she had to stop and pee. (Wtf?) So I waited for her. Mind you, we were at the back of the racing pack anyways so I wanted to GO.

And here she comes, walking back in her street clothes, "oh, you go on, I decided not to do the race". And I said, "are you kidding, I paid all this money and drove down to Cincinnati to see you, you can't just change your mind like that". And she just sent me on my way.

I was far enough back from the pack that I lost my way and had to run inside a different building. There were all these guys walking around on horses as I'm looking for which path (skyway type deal) to take. And I got stopped when a man on a camel (not a horse, a camel)crossed my path.

Mercifully then I woke up.

I hate dreams where I'm running and can't get anywhere, or where I'm running and can't find the race course. Also, what do horses and camels represent?

Running, and an abnormally large dinner, even for me

Today marks the first day of a four day weekend for me. One of the many benefits of working at a Jewish agency without actually being Jewish. Side note here - it drives me mildly crazy when people wish me Happy Easter since I don't celebrate it. It's even more ridiculous to get those messages at work since I work for, oh yeah, a Jewish agency. I'm starting to have some understanding of what Christmas must be like for everyone who doesn't celebrate it.

This morning I woke up and decided I'd go to the gym later to run. I went over to Turtle Bread since I've been ruined forever and can't eat bread that's more than a day or two old. I got a chocolate croissant for breakfast. Just 'cause I could. When I got home I realized there was a rare opportunity for an afternoon run with the St Paul runners so I ate some yogurt and got ready. Much better than running at the gym.

I had a great time running my tail off with Beth and Jenna. It's a good preview of the Twin Cities Marathon route. It's also nice to make peace with that part of the river parkway since the last time I was on it I felt like I was going to die. Actually, I was there one time after that for a 20-mile training run and that run didn't go so well either. (Can't have been too good because there's not even a blog post about it!) How the St Paul runners feel about Lake Nokomis and the Cedar Avenue bridge is how I feel about the River Parkway. The peace making process must continue.

Funny story about the run: Jenna and Beth actually continued east on Summit where I turned off at Fairview because they were doing a 10-miler (over-achievers that they are!) so I ran the block or two back to my car unaccompanied. It was the prettiest day ever and the sun was shining down on us the entire run so I was fairly hot and thirsty. To say I had cotton-mouth would be an understatement. It felt like I had an entire plantation in my mouth. The best relief to such an unpleasant sensation is to swish a little water in my mouth and then spit it out. Beth's husband Gordon has some kind of timing because as he was pulling up to the house he got an excellent view of me spitting water out my car window. (Spitting is never gross when running. Do non-runners understand this?) His window was rolled up so luckily I didn't have to say anything. I'm sure I would've turned bright red in embarrassment if I'd had to say hello after that.

After the run I stopped by Sister Sludge for an Iced Mocha. For those of you who drink coffee, this place has the best iced drinks ever. One of their ice cubes is frozen espresso so as the drink melts the coffee taste doesn't get watered out. Mmmm. So good!

Tonight I went out with Amanda's family for Easter to Buca Di Beppo where I ate every single calorie I burned running and probably a few more. The Alfredo hit the spot. Her family includes three teenagers so I was pleasantly entertained for dinner. Afterwords we walked around the shopping area for a little while. I was actually able to buy a couple new pairs of running shorts, something I'd needed for a while. As far as running gear, I'll probably buy more sports bras (who can ever have enough?) and I need to get a couple shirts for the flying pig so I match my running partner. I'm planning on painting our names on them, more for her than for me. Because, really, for your first half-marathon, you should have a shirt with your name on it so people can cheer specifically for you. (They will too.) It's kind of nice to be the more experienced runner in a race this long. I can't wait!

After dinner I came home and cleaned and organized for a little while. I also made a list of things I'd like to accomplish in the next four days. A surprise addition, but something I genuinely want to accomplish, is to establish a guitar-playing area in my living room. Sadly, I think it may require dismantling the beast that is my entertainment center. (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I can do that alone.) We'll see. I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out.

My day, running, the good and the not so fun...

When's the last time I wrote? Hmmm. It's been quite a while then.

Here's what you've missed:
Monday: I worked like a mad woman until the office closed at 4:00pm (by which time it was 80* in my office). Then I went home and relaxed. Sorry, it's so long ago that's all I remember.

Tuesday: was long run day. The weather falls in the 'good' category but my health status falls in the 'not so fun' category. (Looking back, perhaps this is where some of my problems started.) I should have just listened to my body and that small part of my brain telling me to do a shorter run (like 6 miles instead of 12). There was no listening. I wanted to run to 'earn' enough calories for the Passover Seder that night.
I tried a sort-of new route. It was a really nice run until I got to the far side of Lake Calhoun and met a head wind that was quite strong. That slowed me down. And then I started to feel nauseous. Which made running less fun. I started throwing in walks with the run when I got past Lake Harriet.
When I got home I did take an ice bath which was the right idea. After recovering I picked up some Chipotle (hey, it's breakfast and lunch!) and got the green beans that it was my job to make for the Seder.
The Seder itself was fun too. It was much smaller than ones I'd been to the in past (only eight people) but definitely a good time.

Wednesday: I moved from the bed to the couch. That was my big accomplishment. (I did go for a 12.5 mile run the day before.) In the evening Cheryl and I went to see Brief Encounter which was an hysterically funny play, as funny as a play about an affair could be. The lead characters were fine but the supporting actors really made the show. Hilarious.

Thursday: Can anyone tell me how much the premium version of Pandora costs?
I woke up and ran seven miles. I must have been feeling good because I wasn't planning on going that far. That run was pretty much where the good feelings stopped.
The intestinal distress I alluded to on Tuesday was back in full force which was not how I wanted to spend my morning. Luckily I was able to work from home in the morning so I didn't miss too much. I went in to work and stayed there for a while.
After trying to eat dinner I have decided I may need to adopt a liquid diet for a little while until my stomach sorts itself out. Blech.
I did realize it's April so it's time to update the running play list. I'll let you know what I discover.