This article is for Amanda

Even though she doesn't need it because our pictures were completely, perfectly, exactly straight and level no matter what anyone says.
How the rest of y'all can hang perfectly level artwork...

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Matter over Mind would be nice

Today, I did this route. As you can see, it's not the "Minnehaha Parkway to the Lakes and back" route any normal human being would have preferred. But it got the job done. MnDot (or whoever) finally took my advice and actually made it clear that no one should be underneath 35W at Minnehaha Parkway. It's really clear, disappointingly clear now. So clear that you can't fake not knowing and going through anyway.

My stomach and I got along much better this week than the last couple of weeks. I think part of the problem is the Gu Gels freak out my entire GI tract. (Raspberry is the best flavor I've found BTW.) It doesn't create *ahem* problems, but I just don't want to run when my body feels that way. Today I tried bringing a granola type bar with me too. That seemed to work really well. I could actually eat that while I was running in little bites and it wasn't so sugary. Also, Gatorade is disgusting. I don't remember it being that bad.

I'm also able to identify more of the abrasions I'm getting on my skin from running. I still have one on my belly button from my Fuel belt and waste line of my pants all coming together in the same place. The one I originally thought was from a sleeveless shirt under my arm was actually the armband that holds my iPod. How'd I find that out? It changes sides when I change the armband.

Today's run was good because for the most part my stomach wasn't trying to kill me. My body actually performed well overall. I wasn't even in a ton of pain when I got home and was able to run up some hills at the end which I've never been able to do at that distance.

My brain, on the other hand, totally freaked out around mile 14 and wanted to be done. It's much harder for my body to fight my brain than the other way around. So it was really hard to make my body keep running. I think part of it is that I always run that same route (only partly because Heather put the fear of god into me about Pike Island) and my body knows when it wants to be done and how much is left. I'm hoping Amsterdam will be new and interesting enough to distract me for much longer. Or maybe I'll teach my body to overcome my mind in the next few weeks. Or maybe both. We'll see.

Discretion: The better part of valor

An hilarious story from today: I had to go speak to the Executive Director. I knocked on her door and looked through her window. At the boss. Playing Freecell. She closed the game before inviting me in. (If it had been anyone else I would've given them a hard time, but I decided not to in this case.)

Right now I'm thinking of doing a long run tomorrow but I can't decide the mileage or the route I want to take. My options are basically anything between 10 and 20 miles for distances. For routes, I can go do the grand tour (kind of what I'm leaning towards, but hesitate because of the 35W construction issues), or Minnehaha Falls/Ft Snelling/Pike Island (which seems like it would be fun but it might be kind creepy and isolated that early in morning). Local runners: what should I do?

Well... just wow, again

::Steps onto soap box::

I finally got around to watching President Obama's speech to congress from last night. I know, I can't even use the "no cable" excuse on this one. I loved the part where the president talked about health care as a social justice issue. (Anyone who went to the U of M social work program understands...) And I was reminded again how valuable the time I spent outside standing in a looong line on this day was.

If your curiosity is piqued, or if you've been under a rock, check out the full speech here by scrolling down to the bottom of the text of the speech. (I suppose you could just read the speech there too.)

::Steps down::

Liz Trains for a Marathon: My GI Tract is still mad at me...

I *ahem* attempted to do a long run this morning. It was a mixed success. The minus column is obviously that my GI tract is still mad at me, I didn't feel so hot after about mile... well I didn't have it mapped so we'll put that in the minus too, but I cut the run shorter than I wanted.

The plus column is that I found a new route which doesn't involve me running through construction zones under 35W and I think I know why my GI tract is trying to kill me and it's not really my fault.

In the undecided column, is there anyone who can tell me which path leads to Pike Island? I was confused.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: An Open Letter to....

1) Katy Perry: Thank you for my new favorite running song.

2) MnDOT: I'm renewing my earlier concern about freaking closing Minnehaha Parkway under 35W with no explanation or, you know, detour. The last time I ran through there, the sidewalks were at least closed on the east and west side of the bridge. Today at o'dark-thirty, there were no sidewalk closures marked on the east side of the bridge. Although as soon as I was under the bridge I met a huge construction barricade and all of the sidewalks on the west side of the bridge were well marked as closed.

3) To my friend Alicia (who I'm sure doesn't read this blog, but some of you might know her): When we were teenagers on a caving trip, you taught me many valuable skills. I was just thinking of you today.

4) To my digestive track: We really need to work something out. I don't want another long run like the one you and I had this morning. Was it really good for you? Things that seemed to help you feel better and not want to kill me were water, sour patch kids (I know, I was surprised too), and running slowly. I'm sorry things got to the point where you needed extra water and food. I'm also sorry about the Gu. We're almost out of the gross lemon lime stuff, and I'll only get the raspberry from now on. I promise. Also, I'll try to take better care of you the night before a long run so we don't get into any more disputes. I don't want any more runs where you try to hurt me.

5) Everyone who was part of my Nike+ iPod graduation gift. I'm still using it. As you can tell by number 4, it was a rough run. At then end, I was feeling kind of discouraged until I looked at last weeks run and realized I was only 5 minutes slower this week than last week. (I assure you, I can account for all of that time.) It helped me realize how hard I actually worked and keep a positive attitude.

6) The sunrise over Lake Calhoun: you make my heart happy.

7) Willow trees: Willows FTW. (Kelly Pooky Bear, is "FTW" one of those abbreviations you can't stand? Sorry if it is.)

8) Everyone who has contributed to Bolder Options so far, and everyone who still wants to: Thanks for your ongoing support. Running a marathon I think will be a big accomplishment but raising enough for a kid to go through a mentoring program is an even bigger deal to me.

No power? No problem.

This morning, I woke up and decided to go back to sleep. When I woke up again, there was no electricity. Doh. No electric means no lights. Normally that's not a problem for me. As a former caver and bat biologist, I have a collection of flashlights and head lamps that rivals the camping section at most sporting good stores. But today, all my flashlights were with my gear from the race and were mostly out of batteries. Obviously, this lead to a comedy of errors this morning that culminated in me doing my hair in the dark.

In other news, I've decided to do the "Liz doesn't eat out for a month" thing again. The last time I did this was after my kitchen was finally finished. The rules at that time were no restaurants, no take out, but coffee shops are exempt (because I was totally hooked on lattes back then). That time, I wasn't really running a lot or putting in a lot of miles. This time I'm amending the rules that any day I run more than 10 miles in a single day, Chipotle is also allowed. (Sometimes, there's just no other way to recover that many calories.)

The last time I did this, it was mostly about money. This time I realize bad things happen to my body when I get lazy and eat out a lot. Really bad things. I'm getting excited about what I can cook for myself. I'm thinking of homemade chicken quesadillas (Firefox thinks "quesadilla" isn't a word btw). I was all emotionally prepared to try roasted brusells sprouts but amazingly the co-op didn't have any. Tonight I'm roasting other root vegetables such as beets, potatoes, carrots and cauliflower (which is not a root vegetable but it awesome). That'll be lunch for a few days.

195 miles of fun

Who wants to run from Winona Minnesota all the way up to Minneapolis? In two days? In costumes? (I was on board right up until someone wanted me in costume, by the way.) No, actually, I did wear a costume. Our theme was "Ragnar 911", obviously.





We certainly weren't the only team in costumes. This team is the W.H.O.R.s team. (Women High on Running) and we stayed up with them most of the way. I think we arrested their team a few times. They were really fun.


Turns out, we arrested almost everyone at least once.

Some of our team even had special band-o-liters. I'll let you imagine what's in the test tubes.


Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually, slightly before the crack of dawn), and met my teammates to drive down to Winona for the start of the race. There were 12 of us in two vans of six and I was in the second van. (I already know which van I want to be in next year, btw.) I was the 11th of 12 runners, which meant the race started at 11am and I wasn't running 'till sunset. It also meant I didn't have to run again 'till sun rise.

Very few of the legs of the relay are on running paths or sidewalks. Mostly, it's just running up the side of a road. This is definitely my favorite way to see Wisconsin.


Did you know, they had to make a special rule for if runners encounter dangerous live stock? It's one of the only ways a runner can re-enter the team van during their leg without being disqualified.


First lesson I learned for next year: Hill Training.


Good job to Kate who actually had to run UP this thing in the middle of the heat. She was the only one we saw who actually ran the whole way.


My first leg was a nice 4 mile run in the evening. I was the second to last person to go and I was ready to run by the time it was my turn. I felt like I went much faster than my normal pace (that's still pretty slow) so I felt good about that one. After my run and runner number 12's short 3 mile run, we headed off to sleep for a few hours.

The first runner of our van had to start running about 4am. I started running at 6:30am. I had some issues hydrating and keeping food in my body after the first run. The first mile or so of the second run I felt like I was going to die. And then my team passed me some Powerade which I have renamed Go-juice, because once I had that, I felt like I really could run the next four miles up hill.

The hydrating and keeping food down issues persisted the rest of the trip.

Another lesson for next year: I feel like any idiot could run, go to sleep, and get up and run again. It's really the 3rd run in 30 hours which is challenging. And the third run was exactly that for me.


Hee hee. It's funny because it looks like I'm running away from jail and the police officers.


Who here in the cities knows hidden falls drive? Now, who here has ever tried to run UP it? Big ol' Thank You to the cheering section at the top by the way.




Once I got into Minneapolis, I had to contend with the running path on the West River Parkway being basically not there. It was a pretty run, but a hot and challenging one as well and I was super happy when it was over. I had spent most of the day being jealous of everyone in van 1 who were all done running by about noon.

We had one more runner after me. While I was grabbing some water after my last run, we met a guy biking on the parkway. He started in Portland (Oregon) and is going to bike all the way to New York City. Wow. He thought the relay sounded really cool. I thought his trip sounded cool too. He asked us to take a picture with that Nalgene water bottle which is making it's way across the country with him.



At some point, I really stopped noticing Kate's mustache. But it freaked a lot of other runners out.



At the finish line, the criminals (that's right, I dressed up as a jail bird instead of a police officer) held the crime scene tape as we and the rest of our team ran through. Then, there was much drinking and rejoicing. And the medals double as bottle openers.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Another 17 miles

A couple of quick hits because I actually have to go to work soon (bah), no, actually I like my job. It's just hard when my feet are so sore.

• I never knew all of the different places on my body I could get blisters and abrasions from fabric. I have a blister on my big toe from the seam in my sock, a wicked looking thing where my water belt rubbed against the skin on my back (yeah, that goes most of the way across my back too), and possibly a place under my arm from where my sleeveless shirt seam was hitting my skin.


• Ice baths continue to rock.


• I wish breakfast would cook itself. I'm trying to decide between cooking or just using the time to rest. Which is more helpful?


• For some inexplicable reason, all of the paths, sidewalks, and roads under 35W along the creek were closed. Which I didn't realize 'till I was in the middle of a construction zone. ::Steps up on soapbox:: WTF, to the north there's a bridge over the expressway but it requires scaling about the biggest hill in Minneapolis, and the bridge over the expressway to the south is like a mile out of the way. In your construction zone there's a road, a sidewalk, a bike path, and a running path. You're not working on all of them at the exact same moment. Leave one open. ::Steps down::


• Last night, I planned out a route, check it out here that was about 18.5 miles long. While I was running this morning, I was inspired to check out Lake of the Isles which is a similar mileage to Lake Nokomis. Also, I had a detour on the way home due to the above mentioned construction oversight. So I took this route instead. At least I got to go down the big hill instead of up it. (If you want to see the hill, turn on the elevation feature and look between miles 15 and 16.)

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz Ignores her Blog

I've been away for a while... I make no excuses. (BTW, for those of you reading this as a "note" in Facebook, I do have an actual blog at a4bats.blogspot.com that you should check out.)

How's training been going? I'd say fair. My long runs are now long enough that the weather has started to be a factor. Things like humidity (which I'll get to) and pop-up thunderstorms are much more of a problem when I'm several miles away from my house than when I'm just running around Lake Nokomis and can get home fairly quickly.

This Sunday I tried to do a long run since I couldn't on Saturday. Like a good girl, I got up nice and early, checked the weather and determined there was no chance of lightning killing me, laced up my shoes and went out. Into the 95% humidity. It wasn't that hot, it was just humid. I'll be honest, it was like a pride thing that I didn't want to stop. But the humidity absolutely kicked my butt. I wound up doing about 6.5 miles outside. Then I went to the Y to run intervals inside, but by that time I was already so tired I didn't get very far. I was feeling pretty bad for not being able to run in the humidity. A friend pointed out there was probably more water in the air than usable oxygen, which helped a little.

How's fund-raising going? Also about fair. I helped at a water stop this Saturday for the Minnesota Half Marathon, for which I will receive a donation towards my goal. For those of you who don't know, the point on the whole marathon-training-thing, is actually to raise enough money to put a teen (or pre-teen) through the Bolder Options mentoring program entirely. The marathon will be more to celebrate that accomplishment. Everyone on the marathon team will also have raised enough to put a teen through the program so with all of us, that'll be about 15 kids. Want to make a donation? Great! Head over to my fund raising page at Firstgiving.com or drop me an email. I'm about half way to my goal, which is supposedly ok for this time of year. Everyone else thinks the other $1,600 dollars for this undertaking will appear, so I'm trusting the universe as much as I can. (Thanks to the universe and to all y'all who've already donated too!)

How's the rest of life going? I told someone that it's a real barometer of my mental health when I stop cooking lunches for the week on Sunday before I go back to work. I don't think I've cooked lunches in a few weeks, probably about the last time I wrote on the blog. For some reason, this time of year is always hard for me. Maybe I was traumatized by always having to go back to school (which I hated) at this time of year. I don't know. But, as expected, anxiety has been noticeably present. Don't get too worried yet. I did just cook lunch for the next few days, and I'm planning to do my long run tomorrow so I can be stuffed like a sardine in a 15 passenger van with a bunch of smelly runners (what'd I just say about my mental health?) run the Great River Relay on Friday and Saturday with a team from Bolder Options. It should be really fun.

Now I think I'll go try an hypnotize myself so I don't freak out about this run tomorrow.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz runs for a loooong time

I don't know exactly how far it was that I meant to go this morning when I left the house. But I'm fairly sure 17 wasn't the number I had picked out. Through some very poor math however, that's about what I wound up doing. Oops.

It took me about four hours. Don't worry, the last time I ran 15 miles, it took me three hours. There were more stops and more hills on this route, plus I walked a little more. I couldn't figure out why I was so tired at the end. (Could've been because I went a few miles further than I meant to.) I ran this morning instead of Saturday because I was already going in to work late so I had the time. Plus it's going to be 90* on Saturday. I fear the heat.

Another awesome thing that happened today is I saw my friend Kao who's been teaching English in Japan the past two years. It was so nice to see her. I love having friends where I can just pick up with them right where I left off and it's not weird that we haven't seen each other for a long time. We had Chipotle which is a bit of a joke between the two of us because when I worked with her, I think I had Chipotle every freakin day.

As with most days after a long run, my day has mainly been about food. After lunch with Kao, it was on to a company picnic (much more pleasant than it sounds), also with awesome food. I love working in a place with such good cooks. I benefit highly from it. Even though I'd had a burrito like three hours earlier, I had plenty of room for the friend chicken and noodle salad.

After the picnic I had to run a group for work, but it turned out no one showed up. Now I'm at home, the first real opportunity I've had all day to put my feet up and it feels great. Oh, hey, I think I'm hungry again...

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Ice Baths

How many people here played sports in high school or college? If you raised your hand, you probably had a trainer dunk you in an ice bath at least once, as I have. I'd pretty much forgotten the experience (blocked it out is more like) until recently I heard someone talking about ice baths. Last weeks run wore me out in more ways than one and I started thinking "oh, an ice bath would be nice" but I just couldn't get it together after that run.

So last night, I made sure my tub was clean. As I was cleaning it I realized I don't actually own a drain stopper. (Is it odd I've lived here four years and that hasn't come up yet?) Also, I have no ice. I'd done some research and while three bags of ice seems a little excessive, I knew a wimpy little tray of ice wasn't going to do it either. So I ran up to Walgreen's and stocked myself up.

This morning I ran with Beth and some other runners I didn't know very well. We took this route basically, except we started a block north of the starting point on that map. They all swore it was over 13 miles. I tried to draw the actual route with all the little walking trails on Gmaps but I couldn't see the trails well. It must have been summer when they took the satellite pictures because the trees are in full bloom.

When I got back, I stretched out, came in, and poured the ice in the tub. And then, in I went. I did not use any words I can't write here. I'd kind of been looking forward to it because I knew it would help. It's the only thing that compelled me to get in the tub at all really. I sat there with my little iPod and listened to a book on tape, drank some juice and ate sour patch kids. Yum. Fifteen minutes went by relatively quickly with a book on tape. Now it feels like my legs are fine and the top half of me still has the post-run-I'm-so-stiff-I-can't-move feeling.

The instructions say to take a shower a while after the ice-bath, which I'm looking forward to. After that, I'm looking forward to a heaping plate of eggs, bacon, and bagles and the Tour De France on television. I actually missed the live action today on Mont Vontux (is that how it's spelled?), so I'm watching the re-broadcast at 11am. For now I'm trying to stay away from parts of the internet that would tell me the results, including googling the correct spelling of the mountain they're racing UP today. And I mean UP. Go Lance Armstrong.

I want sweat pants. Brrr.

Linkfest: A Beautiful Sunday

First off, I'm planning a party. Most of it is only planned in my mind right now, but if you're around the afternoon of August 9th, I'd love to have you.

Second, Alberto Contador is Superman. Who saw him climb right up that mountain this morning? Just, wow. (For those of you who don't know, he's a cyclist, and a teammate of Lance Armstrong.) After watching that amazing leg of the race this morning, I went to the Y and worked out. Between the mountain climbers today and watching Beth run up that big hill yesterday like it was nothing, I decided I needed to work on the hills and climbing of it all. So I got on the stair master. The stair master is still pretty hard. But a good workout. Then I did the elliptical. Then I walked a mile. Altogether, I went 8 miles today. Nice.

I went shopping and talked to my parents. For dinner I went to Chipotle with a neighbor and then we hung out in the courtyard talking for a while. Now, I'm surfing the wilds of the internet.

• For some reason, my current shoes really hurt my calves. I think it could be the way their tied. They have a weird ankle-lock lace that could be too low. But it got me thinking about running mechanics and how we're really meant to run barefoot. I looked at the shoes, and I think I would really like this style. I might give it a try.


• I'm always interested in education, poverty and equality in different places, mostly because I've traveled so much. Here's a great graphic about how education, especially for women, is the gateway into the rest of society. Equal education is actually a human right recognized by the UN, as it should be. In the US though, poverty seems to be the bigger barrier. Now they're talking about giving underachieving schools longer school years. 'Bout time. 'Bout time for all the schools really but I'll take what I can get.


• In lighter news, they're getting The Shire ready for habitation. Did you know there's going to be a second movie after The Hobbit. Me neither. I think it could be really good or completely ill-advised. Not sure yet.


• And finally, this would be my worst nightmare

Time warp?

It is 66*. Are we in a time warp? It cannot possibly be July.

LIz Trains for a Marathon: Liz falls down, literally

Beth (and Janine for a while) took me on a beautiful run this morning. We started down the St Paul side of the river. It was on the River Parkway that I totally bit it. I scraped my hand and banged my knee. I was scared for my knee but my hand is actually in a lot of pain and my knee almost none. My knee's not swollen either (yet). I was thinking the last time I fell which was a really long time ago. That time I knew I was hurt pretty much immediately. Although I continued to run that day and for another few weeks before I completely had to stop.

Today after Beth and Janine helped me up and dusted me off, we went over the Ford Bridge by Minnehaha park and down this freaking awesome path that goes... well I'll have to look at a map but more or less towards Fort Snelling. Because it was there that we crossed back over the 5-55-62-whatever-that-road-is bridge into St Paul and back up the river parkway.

I told Beth that street is where I do all my home shopping. She likes the porches. I like the windows. We both had fun pretend house shopping. And pretending to have a domestic staff to clean those really big homes. Although the best part of the run was when I was needing to *ahem* make a personal stop. There must be some event going on because there was a well stocked personal stopping point in a parking lot that normally does not have such accommodations. (Nice!)

Beth was really patient with me the last few miles of the run. My mind sort of got done running about the time it was that huge hill leading up to the bridge back into St Paul. So I was really dragging. Plus my hand hurt from falling. You wouldn't think that would slow me down. It just made my mind more tired thinking about it.

I was told to ice my knee when I got home, which I thought was excellent advice. Guess who doesn't have ice. Yup. So I put my suit on and went and sat in the pool. In the record cold temperatures. (Global warming my foot.) I had an iced mocha, a book on tape (book on iPod but whatever), and a fleece and sat there for a while. If you can't have an ice bath, it's the next best thing. Luckily the pool is heated too, so it wasn't as painful as it could have been.

Now I'm doing laundry (which was only a week late) and I changed my fishes water, (also a week late because I was out of town and I didn't want to make Steve do it). My fish looks very happy. And, while playing on the computer, I found the most awesome Dilbert ever, and I thought I'd leave you with it:

Blogging while... whoa, it's a good thing I was able to get home

I went to happy hour tonight with some of the Amsterdam runners whom Amanda refers to as my "running mates". It was fun and even nicer that someone else bought the food. I just had to buy my own..

Alcohol, which is the subject of tonight's post.

It's a good thing I can't remember how many people I don't want to see this are friends with me on Facebook. It should be more embarassing that three drinks (ok, I had an extra beer at home I needed to kill) does this to me.

I actually new ahead of time that this place has good happy hour specials so I took the bus to the bar instead of driving. (Good for me and good for you.) Apparently I totally missed the boat on this whole website for giving thing. (Woops.) I have to go back and read the material. Not tonight. And then create my own website. So you can all donate to Bolder Options for the Marathon trip.

I was thinking about marathon training today. I tend to ponder when I'm worried I'll slur my speech if I open my mouth. It's really given me a much grander idea of what is possible. And of what I can do. There was a time, not so long ago, that I thought 15 mile training runs would kill me. Turns out they just wear me out for several days and then I'm fine. I was even thinking back to the first time I ran around Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha. I was so impressed with myself when I got done, and proud. I'd never run that far. Now I think, "that's all I have to do?"

Also, while I was waiting for the bus to take me to Uptown, I kept smelling Pot. I suspect the little grocery store on 38th and Bloomington also sells weed. (I can't believe I'm writing this. I must be more intoxicated than I think.)

Ok, seriously, stop now.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Fifteen miles is LOOONG

I ran 15 miles today. I actually legitimately ran 14 of it. The last mile I threw in a couple short walks with the runs. Surprisingly, I am still able to move.

I ran three laps on the Lunken Airport running path which is 5 miles long. The first lap was interesting because I got to watch a beautiful sunrise and saw about one person. The second lap was interesting because I was still feeling strong despite having run what for me is a long way. The third lap was pretty painful, but ultimately quite rewarding.

I'd like to thank my running companions, iPod, Nike+, Fuel Belt, and the Sour Patch Kids, especially Red.

My parents eat even less meat than I do so I knew we were going to have to go elsewhere for lunch. (Thanks to Robbin, Jenna, and Beth for teaching me to eat meat after long runs to restore my protein, thanks to Amanda for teaching me to eat Red Meat for iron.) We went to a place that would satisfy their vegetarian tendencies and my need for protein and iron: Skyline Chili. YUM.

For dinner, almost all of my aunties and uncles came. Two aunties were missing in action. Thanks to Jody and David for the Green Beans and Cucumbers. There were freaking awesome. (Did you know green beans are one of my favorite vegetables?)

It was really nice to see family, most of whom I only see at Christmas. We had all healthy food which was really nice for my uncle whose diet is pretty restricted. I think he was surprised when I saw, "we have all food that you can eat!" and was correct. It was equally hilarious to watch another uncle look at all of our Tofuit Cutie Ice Cream Sandwiches because he looked like he wanted the ice cream sandwich but was repelled by the thought of tofu. Hee hee.

In Minnesota right now, I believe several friends of mine should be at Lake Harriet, one of my favorite lakes (or was it Lake Calhoun, my least favorite lake) celebrating an exciting birthday. I'm sorry to miss it but I hope Gooster the Rooster fills in adequately in my absence.

Tomorrow, besides church, I think there will be sitting at the pool. Mom also wants to go to some health food store down town. She is excited about it.

Watch now as I avoid what I'm supposed to be doing

I think the elliptical is doing a body good, or my running companions are just really nice, because I wasn't sucking wind nearly as much as I normally do when I run with them, and we ran 5 miles today instead of four. (Maybe it's a little of both.)

It was also my opportunity to celebrate Beth's birthday, since I'll be out of town for the real thing. I have no idea where the whole goose theme started with this group. Although the obvious jokes about goose bumps have been hilarious at times. So I tried to find something with a goose on it. Geese are not popular animals apparently. Because there was nothing in the whole store. Not even in the section where they had farm animal toys. Popular animals right now appear to be monkeys, frogs, and octopi. (Is that the plural of octopus?)

Through an astonishing bit of math in my head, I figured out that Beth is a Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac. Since the Rooster is a winged farm animal and I could find one of those, that's what I chose. I was also going to get a princess hat for her to run in this morning. I was stopped by the thought that the hat would be saved for my use at a future date and running in a princess hat is not something I would enjoy. Although Beth said she'd be willing to run in a beak which is something I will not forget.

At work we took a boat ride for our team meeting. No, seriously. It was really relaxing and put me in vacation mode kind of early. After work I went to Chipotle with Amanda and then back to her house where she kept me 'till all hours of the night. Hence I am now behind on packing and trying hard to avoid it. My brain wants to stop working, but I'm to the point in the evening where I need it to do things like make good playlists for the iPod and pick good movies for the trip.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Still Going

I'm still up here training. I know it's been silent for a week. Every so often there's a lull in my training that is, shall we say, forced. And quite frustrating to me.

But this week, I'm back in action. I tried to run yesterday and made it 3 miles. I walked the other e for a total of 6. It was much hotter than I anticipated. This morning I did six miles, over 5.5 of which was on an elliptical. Every time I step off the elliptical, my legs feel like jell-o. (No, seriously, I'm like Gumbi.) But no joint pain.

The training schedule I found has me running five days a week most weeks. Most people I've talked to say that for me knees to last so I can enjoy running for a long time, I should only run three or four days a week. So, I use the elliptical and count it as running. It's an excellent workout if you've never tried it before. When I run 5 miles, I usually go at about an 11:30 or 11:00 pace. When I'm on the elliptical, I go at a 10:00 pace.

I'm also getting to the point where 10 mile runs aren't scaring the crap out of me. Like, I want to do one tomorrow. Just because I can. When I started training, I never thought I'd actually want to run from my house around Lake Harriet and back. Wow.

How'd the editor miss this one?

It just begs the question: Do you really want to have this picture with that headline?