The first true 'Long Run' of the season...

Here's how it all began:

Sunday: Prettiest. Day. Ever. And I was stuck working. (No, seriously.) The combination of the time change and getting to the office early and being there alone all day meant I was fairly zonked by the time I got home. I opted not to run despite the awesomeness of the day.
I talked to a friend who I (unwisely) let pick out my long run route for today. He thought the "11.5" mile route would be the best. I thought it'd be fun to see Fort Snelling and the river because that's one of my favorite routes. It's gorgeous.

Monday:
O'dark-thirty: hmmm, I could get up and have a snack before I run. I think I'll just lay here for a minute.

10:00am: Oh, perhaps I should get up and eat something. Gosh, it sure was nice to sleep in.

12:00pm: It's a really pretty day, maybe I should run.

1:00pm: Ok, I'm getting ready to run. I'm wearing the IAmsterdam shirt for good luck. (Hey, whatever helps!)

1:30pm: How the f%&$ did a loose a second receiver for my Nike+ system. I know I put this one away where it belongs. Darn it, now I'm not gonna get credit for this 11 mile run in the Nike+ challenge I'm doing...
I packed up my fuel belt with a water/juice mix in two little bottles and left the other two at home. I also packed two packets of sour patch kids. And off I went to see beautiful Minnehaha Falls; Fort Snelling and the Mississippi River. And beautiful they were.

1:45pm: Huh, that was pretty dumb, I could've just taken my iPod touch with me since that has the receiver for the Nike+ system built in.

1:50pm: Shoot, the port-a-pots aren't out for the summer yet. Shortly thereafter, relief at Minnehaha Falls which is apparently equipped for all seasons. (Thanks to the park board for having, um, facilities up all year for us to use. Fail to the park board for having a handicap port-a-pot's door open onto a 4" height difference where the curb meets the road.)

2:00pm The veterans home is really much more impressive when there's no leaves on the trees. Also, 50* my foot. Feels a lot hotter than that.
I did check the weather. The temp was reported to be in the low 50's where it was supposed to stay. And my brain thought, "great long run weather". My brain did not take into account the fact that I've been running in sub-freezing temperatures for quite some time and when the sub-freezing temperatures backed off, it was still in the low 40s. My brain, and the rest of my body were quite hot.

2:30pm I freaking love this route!

2:45pm Hmmmm, some day I should go see Pike Island and Lake Snelling that's supposed to be back there.
2:50pm This hill may kill me.

3:00pm Thank god, I'm still alive. It would have been smart to pack just water instead of juice and water. The juice was making me feel puke-y. Hmmm, it must be long run season if Gatorade sounds like a good idea again. Also, Gu or shotblox may be worth another try.

3:30pm OMFG, what was I thinking?

4:00pm Are we there yet? This is why the training plans have me add one to two miles per week to my long runs instead of, you know, four miles at once. And for the love of all that is holy, why is this water fountain not on yet?


Eventually I got home. I did start throwing walks into the run when it appeared that I was not emotionally prepared to run the whole thing. I was fighting off some, um, intestinal distress. I'm not sure if having plain water would have helped or if that was just a mental game I was playing.

There were tons of people out today. That's the most people I've ever seen on the Ft Snelling trail. Ever. It's one of my favorite runs but I didn't use it too much as a long run option becuase it opens at sunrise. In the summer when I run early I'm actually up before sunrise. (I know, I can hardly believe it either.) That's why running around the lakes always worked so well for me.

As I was coming around Lake Hiawatha I could really feel the blisters forming. I like these shoes but they give me blisters like no other shoe ever. I think it's actually time for new shoes anyways. I'm going to see what's cheaper and buy that. The Dyad is what I wore for the marathon. It's got much more cushioning and harder to beat down. On the other hand, holy good night, the blisters. You'd think after I had the shoe since September the problem would've stopped. I thought that too. We're both wrong. The Axiom 3 is a shoe I've worn forever before I switched to the Dyad. It was almost always the only running shoes I had. I'm alarmed that I can't find them on Brooks website 'cause that means they're not making them anymore.

After the run I walked up to the gas station to get some ice for an ice bath. Sitting in the car, even for two blocks, would have made me stiffen up and defeat the purpose of the ice bath.

Holy cr@p! The water comes out of the tap cold at this time of year. I actually had to run a little hot water so I could sit in the ice bath without my feet freezing. I cried a little when I got in so I know I did it right. I tried to call Gramma to take my mind of the pain. Her line was busy. Amanda was asleep. Booo.

Technically this is a step back week so after that 'run' (I did walk a lot at the end) I've got like two more miles this week.

It's still really light at 6pm too. Wow. Now, if only I can convince someone to eat Chipotle with me....

Marathon training: I want FOOOD

I've officially given up on not eating out. And we're just going to forget the idea ever even happened.

I spent most of the day laying on the couch making up for the hour of sleep I'm about to loose tonight and recovering from lastnight's trauma.

I did get up and go to the gym to finish out my miles for the week. (I only needed 2.9 more.) I did the "hill" setting on the elliptical since I didn't actually run up any hills this week. I'm counting it but I'm not totally convinced it's the same as hill training.

I think I've mentioned before that I have an excel sheet that keeps me in line as far as marathon training. It tells me how long my long runs are each week, the total number of miles I need to run, counts how many hill work outs I complete, and counts how many times I lift weights or cross train. (Yes, I am a nerd but it's useful.)

I also have it set up to count my overall miles and tell me which days I run the most miles. Right now I've run 170 miles as part of marathon training. Here's the breakdown:



It's also the weekend so that means a linkfest:

• Food labels explained. My head is spinning.


• Best. Idea. Ever.


• To all my friends in the health care industry, Turns out we're using emergency rooms correctly for the most part. To all my friends in the policy making fields, please note:

  E.R. visits don’t necessarily cost more than primary care visits: “In fact, the marginal cost of treating less acute patients in the ER is lower than paying off-hours primary care doctors, as ERs are already open 24/7 to handle life-threatening emergencies.

  Perhaps the system could be improved with alternatives for the 'less acute' patients?
  


• Go drink coffee. YUM! And it's good for you!


• Top 100 sites on the web


• ::Steps up on soap box::Best Pro Life argument for health reform I've read. Thanks Amnesty International! ::Steps down::

Fire Alarms in My Building - Totally Scary

My building has hard wired fire alarms. A smoke detector in any unit can activate the whole building's alarm. And it is loud.

This very loud alarm is working though because it went off today. At 7:00pm or so. It's gone off a couple times before but stopped after a few seconds. So I went out into the hall just to do a cursory inspection. And I was met with a ton of smoke.

(Where is my cell phone!?!)

I called 911. It started out as a calm call until I started looking around my apartment for things to take out to my car incase the place really did catch fire. I might have made the 911 operator a little nervous when I mentioned it was a 3 story building with 12 units. Four fire trucks came.

As I was on the phone with the operator some other neighbors came by and said it was a cooking fire. It did smell like grease. Well, I guess not fire so much as cooking error where the grease smoked like mad. (Doh.)

So the fire department showed up. (Why no one else called 911 I have no idea. Seriously, they don't mind false alarms. Just freaking call.) The fireman and firelady inspected the unit and the fire alarm system. The first truck waived off the rest of the trucks so we only met those two.

And then I met my new neighbor Zack who apologized to all us for the excitement. (Welcome to the building dude.) A baby-boomer-ish aged neighbor came down while Zack was explaining he'd tried to fry catfish. "You need cooking lessons." Thank god someone can laugh about it. I was still pretty freaked out.

I also wish I'd met Zack for the first time wearing something other than sweatpants and an overlarge shirt. (Yes, I was settled in my comfy clothes for a night of doing nothing.) My vanity can suffer for my personal safety.

A friend told me I should offer Zack cooking lessons.

Not Eating Out = Not Really Working

Here's the chain of events that is my undoing this month:
Sunday: Run far. Hang out with Kelly (had a nice time). Cleaned like a mad woman. (Like four hours of cleaning. My place looks great now, come on over for a visit.)
Monday: Tired and sore. No working out. I took a walk at lunch with a co-worker and smelled the french fries from Burger King. Ate many things I was hoping would sate my desire for fries. No luck.
Monday night: Dreamed of French Fries.
Tuesday: Went to the gym. Spent for ever on the elliptical. Still dreaming of french fries. But I did not overeat. I think I had Chipotle for lunch because the elliptical mileage was almost my long run mileage.
Wednesday: Again, there will be no working out. Went to KFC for lunch. Succumb to french fry desire. Shortly thereafter discover that Chipotle burritos, while the size of my head, actually have fewer calories than the yummy goodness that was my KFC meal. Leave work. Eat bacon with Amanda. Learn how to poach eggs.
Thursday (that's today): Wake up. Turn the alarm off and go back to sleep (as it should be). Wake up again. Go to work. Leave work at 2pm. (First day all week I worked less than 8 hours!) Stopped by Turtle bread and got rolls for the weekend. I can now only purchase fresh bread from a bakery. None of this loaf crap anymore.
Went to the Y again. Spent an even more ridiculous amount of time on an elliptical today. I decided since the distance I did today was basically the same as my long run distance on Sunday I'd have more Chipotle. Plus, clearly this no-eating-out thing isn't working.
Tomorrow: Am planning on practicing poaching eggs. We shall see.

Lessons learned:
On days I exercise I actually eat much better and tend to stay in my calorie allotment for the day. (Yes, still on the calorie restriction. The scale said I weigh less than before the KFC which shocked the he!! out of me.)
On days when I biologically feel hungrier (all women understand...) the best way to manage the beast is to work out first thing in the morning. I can't explain it but I don't get as hungry when I start my day that way. (I know, you'd think I'd be starving after running for over an hour.)
The real reason I wanted to not eat out is it's so much harder to count calories accurately. Luckily (or tragically, I haven't decided) many national chains like KFC and Chipotle are in my iPod program so this argument is moot.
Holy crap, a two piece chicken/side combo (with a diet-zero-calorie drink) is the same amount of calories as a Chipotle Burrito, guacamole and half bag of chips. But sometimes, the fried chicken is just soooooo good.

Running, eating and exercise balls

Running: I ran seven and a half miles yesterday and (miraculously) found a path in Minneapolis that was not covered with ice or puddles. Said path did have a few steep but short hills that were much more fun to go down than up. I can now say I fully support the 40th street Greenway Project (because that's essentially the route I took to Lake Harriet). By the way, I was at Lake Harriet where I haven't been since marathon training last year.
I'm fairly tired today. Not sure if I'd be this tired if I hadn't cleaned for four hours after running that far. But it's possible. I was planning on running or going to the gym this morning and am feeling bad for not going. Although perhaps running the day after Long Run Sunday is not the best plan in the world.
I was thinking about giving Lake Nokomis another chance tomorrow. (It's had significant ice issues.) But it's cold out so I might go spend some quality time with an elliptical instead. (I find irony in the fact that I'm cold on the warmest day since November but ran outside in January and February with some amount of enthusiasm.)

Eating: Did you ever have one of those days where you wanted to eat everything in sight and lot's of stuff that's out of sight too? I'm having one right now. I've decided that every once in a while the calorie restriction can get blown to hell without a problem. It wouldn't have been so bad had I actually exercised today.

Exercise balls: I'd been thinking about getting an exercise ball as an office chair for some time. I got much closer when my neighbor told me he'd just pulled the trigger and bought one and was adjusting nicely. So I went to Target tonight and bought one. (They're on sale by the way.) As I was driving home I kept thinking, "I really want to try it out tonight but what if it's too big to fit in my car all blown up?" I quickly decided that I could slightly deflate the thing if the need presented itself. My trunk's fairly big anyway. So I inflated the ball and I'm sitting on it right now. I'm glad Steve told me not to panic if the ball deflates and needs more air a couple times in the first few days while it stretches out. I'm also glad I read the things that say to start using it as an office chair for 30 minutes a day and build up to the entire day. We'll see how it goes over at the office tomorrow. Maybe I can start a trend.

Bonus: Linkfest

• Why I got the exercise ball in the first place. I'm also considering one of those rubber mats for standing. I tried standing for a few minutes at a time but I always forget to stand back up. Maybe it's a process. Maybe I should get a second ball for at home on the weekends. (Hey, exercise ball instead of bean bag chair Kelly!)


• Obesity caused by bacteria? It's a nice article and nice to think about reasons weight gain may be for reasons besides being a bad person and eating too much.


• Want! I don't even know why, I have a place to stash my iPod and cell phone instead of the dash board. I just think it's cool.


• Geopolitics made easy. Bonus points to anyone who can properly identify Transnistria without using the internet. I didn't realize about "Somaliland" either. You'd think I'd be more educated about that region given the huge Somali populations in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Time to learn I guess.


• This picture is for my pooky bear. Safe for work unless you laugh so hard you snort coffee up your nose.


• This image is for Amanda who, sadly, doesn't read my blog anymore because she only gets internet on her iPhone.

Bonus Bonus: What's Liz Listening To Now?

• Snow Patrol - Run. Not actually a running song, but still great. (Light up, light up, as if you have a choice)


• The Be Good Tanyas - In Spite of All the Damage, a really nice slow acoustic song. Great vocals and good instrumentals too.


• Lady Gaga - Bad Romance, just in case there's anyone left who wasn't clear on my love for this song. Rule of thumb: Lady Gaga song = a good running song.


• Yeasayer - O.N.E. A Facebook friend posted this song in his status update and I took a listen. Love it. Amanda said, "oh, maybe we found a group that we both like". Right now Barenaked Ladies is the only group we have in common. Although our tastes do otherwise overlap. They're just not the same. I'm Acoustic Sunrise (and Lady Gaga apparently) and she's The Current.


• Norah Jones - Chasing Pirates. Very nice.

Up Big Hills

Today, I began hill training in earnest. (It's really more impressive if you turn on the elevation feature and see I ran UP a 200 foot elevation change and then up another 75-100 feet a mile later.)

Those of you familiar with the Twin Cities will note this route is in St. Paul. I took my running gear to work and ran at the end of the day. (Nice thing about the winter is it's not too hot to run in the afternoon.) I was super pumped at the end of the run so I came back and talked to Pam, our receptionist who is also a sometimes runner. Currently the plan is to do this once a week, at least until I run the pig with Deb. Note that the hill on that half-marathon course changes 500 feet. (Yeah, now you see why I need to train.)

I went to the gym last night for weights and did, among other things the one-leg-dead lift and lunges for quite a long time. So my, um, up-hill running muscles were already on the road to fatigue. By the time I got time climbing hills today I was glad I can take tomorrow as a day off from running. I'm not sure I'll be able to move when I wake up.

After the run I talked to Amanda on the phone (ha, "talked" got typed as "stalked" at first...). Amanda also ran today. This lead to a good conversation about running music.Plus , when I finished my run, Pam asked me what I listened to while I ran. I sheepishly replied "music with bad words in it". Which is true for some of the songs I listen to but not all of them.

So, typically Amanda's and my taste in music has a sizable overlap but is generally different. (I could make a ven-diagram if you need clarification.) For workout stuff, we typically enjoy similar music meaning anything with a good drum section. Amanda told me I should "burn her a disk" of some of my songs. (Reminds me of mix tapes.) I lean towards using Skreemr for all my Mp3 needs. (I have a strict "don't ask" policy about the legality of the whole thing.) In honor of Amanda's request, I'm sharing some songs with you. (Clicking these links will play sound but you can save these links as Mp3's if you have a similar "don't ask" policy.)

• Paul Simon - The Obvious Child: A great song from Rhythm of the Saints and no bad words makes it even better.
• 4 Minutes - Madonna although it's actually several artists, Madonna just gets most of the credit. This song has a big part in the Get Smart remake.
• Remember the Name - Fort Minor. This one does have a couple bad words but not so bad for hip hop.
• Temperature - Sean Paul. This song is more fun in the summer but it's nice to pretend.
• Burnin' Up - Jonas Brothers. I see nothing wrong with this and feel no shame.
• A Little Less Conversation - Elivs. Amanda, that's totally for you.

After the run I came home and had a big bowl of pasta. (I know, usually runners have pasta first.) Then I went out with Cheryl to see Elephants, one of the movies at OmniFest. I realized I'd seen the movie before but it took on a whole new world to me now that I've seen Avery Brooks in other places. (He's the narrator of the movie.) After that, I picked up my teenager from work and gave her a ride home.

Marathon training and not eating out

I did my long run yesterday, seven miles this week. (It's hilarious to think there's a week coming where that will be the short run of the week.) I did not have my Chipotle yesterday which means I have two Chipotle deferrals to use during my month of not eating out. (The first time I did this I remember about the second I decided to not eat out someone brought Chipotle takeout to wherever I was and I've been funny about it ever since.)

Today I did not run. I did go to the gym and do weights and the rowing machine. I'm trying to do a weights workout at least one day a week. That's something I didn't do last year and I think it'll make a nice addition to the training. Last year I also dreamed that I'd actually run five days a week and this year I recognize that the mileage can stay the same and be done in four days of running. (This week it's 20 miles and the longest single run is 7 miles.) After weights, I went to the hot tub which I use as my "reward" for a workout since I'm not rewarding myself with wontons and egg drop soup like I'd also do.

I always try to weigh myself after the long run, which was a pretty positive result after the 7 miler in the cold and ice. I decided, for some reason, to weight myself again today and I was literally 3.5 pounds heavier. Please explain. It's kind of hard to actually track my weight when it goes up and down like that. (Just to clarify I didn't have a big meal yesterday and didn't eat much today either, certainly not 3.5lbs of food.) A side project of marathon training is restricting my calories slightly so the training actually makes me loose weight. I have no idea if it's working since my weight fluctuates so much every day. (Although I'm not giving up on this calorie counting thing just because the scale is a little crazy, or I'm crazy on it.)

The month of not eating out: Sneak Peak

March will be my month of not eating out. No Chinese food. No restaurants with friends (but you can come over and I'll cook for you). Basic exceptions to the rules are Chipotle is allowed on long run days (once a week not counting step backs) and coffee is generally allowed. (I can't believe how infrequently I have coffee now compared to other times in my life.)

I started keeping track of what I eat, which has been an interesting experience. (Do you realize how many calories are actually in candy? Bread? Spaghetti? Food from any restaurant?) I realized that I eat practically no vegetables if I'm not cooking them. It's not acceptable to rely on Chipotle is a vegetable source. I do eat fruit but still not as much as I should. It's also much easier to track how much I eat when I know what's in everything.

I've decided to go for a whole month of not eating out a couple of times before. The first time was just after my kitchen was finally done and that time it was mostly a financial decision plus I'd literally eaten out for a month and I was sick of it. The second time was last summer during marathon training and that was partly financial and partly a weight loss measure.

I was going to go to Chipotle today but I decided to skip Chipotle today and keep an extra Chipotle day in reserve for March. (How's that for motivation?) After running, I spent some time watching the hockey game and playing on the internets. I scoped out some recipes and went shopping.

First dish of the day is Tomato Lentil Soup: I don't have one recipe to refer you to here. I have several. I refuse to use canned tomatoes or tomato paste in my soups so this tomato soup recipe has good instructions for roasting the tomato and onion that become the base of the soup. This one has good instructions about adding the lentils and other seasoning.

In my house tomatoes get their own cutting board and their own knife so the juice and ooze doesn't contaminate anything else. (I hate tomatoes but I have been craving this soup like you wouldn't believe.)

Lots of onions in the soup too.

Yes, that is an entire head of garlic roasting along side the veggies. That actually got used in a couple different things.

An ingredient not listed in any of the recipes in sugar. I used brown sugar in my soup. It may sound odd, but I just needed a little something to cut down all the acid from those fresh (and no longer gross) tomatoes.


Next up was Lentil Pea and Potato Curry. This time I totally left the tomatoes out. (That was predictable.)
This was the last dish I made so I kept forgetting to take pictures. Here's the finished product. Anyone know where I can find some naan in the Twin Cities?



Apparently I was craving red foods today. I got beets to roast because I was watching a television show where someone was cooking them and they looked good. (No, seriously.) It helps that it's one of the few foods grown locally that I can buy right now.
This one was almost the size of my head. Are they supposed to be that big?

Roasting tip: let the tin foil be your friend.

I only have so many jelly roll trays (what some of you may call a cookie sheet). One was being used to roast the tomatoes so the beets had to marinate for a while.

But an huge amount of beets roasts down into practically nothing. It's so good. They taste like potato chips.

Now I just need to clean up. (I'm gonna lay on the couch a while longer before I go do that...)

Running and panic attacks

Usually I run to stop having panic attacks and calm down. Today not so much apparently.

• Morning:I woke up and ate a large breakfast. We'll call that mistake number one.
  
  Well, no, let's go back. My alarm went off at 6:15a and I was jarred awake thinking, "oh my god, I have to go to wor... wait, what is today? It's not work. What is today? I have to go run." Once I turned the alarm off I realized I was happy in bed (sorry ladies) and that I could just stay there. (See, when the St Paul runners come to my side of town I feel much more pressure to get out of bed, but when they're over on the other side of the river and they have each other even if I don't come, I feel much less pressure to drag my tired butt out of bed.)
  
  So I slept 'till 9:30 and it was awesome. And then I had a big breakfast which was a mistake.
  
  After the breakfast I sat around and played on the computer. I talked to Chris in Seattle (thanks Facebook) for a while. It must be great to live in a place where you can see grass and plants and stuff. Wow.



• Run!In the early afternoon I went for a run around Lake Nokomis. Now, part of the panic was my fault because I should have just picked the distance I wanted to go ahead of time and stuck to it. I did not. Part of the Nokomis run was to investigate the ice situation on the path for tomorrow's run (with the St Paul girls). The lunch I mentioned earlier was not happy about being tossed around on a run. The ice situation was much better on some parts of the lake. The puddle situation in those spots was absolutely out of control. The path was packed and between the puddles and the ice and the people I didn't get up to a nice pace, or even a regular pace which ultimately led to the panic attack.
  
  I thought then it would be better to run a lap around the back of the lake (on the other side of Cedar) which was way less crowded. Sadly the puddle situation was wicked over there, but very peaceful running.



• Post run fails and wins:When I came home I tried to take a shower. (And you're thinking "tried"; how'd you screw that up?) There's no hot water. I mean there's hot water but it's not actually hot. It's just warm enough to be not cold. This has been happening at my building a lot this winter. Mostly on the weekends. And no one knows why.
  
  After failing at the post-run warm up shower at home, I headed over to the gym where I sat in the hot tub for a while. Nice. Then I went to Chipotle and got a chicken burrito. With the guacamole. And I do not regret it.
  
  Now I'm sitting at home watching the olympics (who knew curling could be interesting to watch) and Office Space (which Beth really needs to watch) and relaxing.



• Up next:Later on the agenda is loading and running the dishwasher and going to Target. I've finally destroyed my Sony headphones. I can't remember how long they lasted. About forever I think. Anyone have a good earbud for running? The iPod earbuds fall out of my ears when I run with them. The sony headphones (earbud with the plastic hook for your ears) are the best but the cord is so looong. (It matters because it bounces around when I run.) I liked the Nike headphones with the two length cord but the plastic hooks that fit over my ears fell off making them totally useless. We'll see what my options are this time.

And a brief linkfest for you:

• Sarah Palin's greatest hits: It's usually not nice to laugh at people (I can see Russia from my house) but if you need some entertainment...


• Someone tell me What is Krill oil? Something I may want to investigate?


• A look back in time: What's this internet thing?

  FTA: The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.



• My camera battery needs a charge. Look at this in the mean time


• Snail WIN. How's that for inspiration?

Popcorn at 10:30 = The Perfect Dinner

I planned to run this morning. I quickly forgave myself when that didn't happen.

For not having any home visits and very few phone calls, work was a complete zoo. Mostly in an "I like my job and I'm very busy" kind of way. I did get to have Chipotle for lunch. I think I'm trying to set a record for the number of days I can be restricting calories and eating Chipotle. This could be an awesome plan but it could be slightly unrealistic. I stayed at work a little longer than I planned to. See the zoo comment.

I went to the gym a little after 8:00p and (miracle or miracles) got a sweet parking spot. I was planning on doing a weight workout but all of these ellipticals were free so I decided to do my run tonight instead. And run I did. Watching the Olympics while running on the elliptical is like taking rocket fuel while working out. They had the skiers on and they were flying down the hill so I was hauling tail on the machine watching them. Although I slowed down when I saw the men's 10,000km race and the guy who got disqualified. That was sad. (I feel a little pull for the Netherlands' athletes since I ran my first marathon in their country.)

I'm planning on doing my long run for the week (six miles) tomorrow morning at Lake Nokomis but that might get moved inside due to the weather. The thing I remember about marathon training is there's only so long I can spend on an elliptical before I get so bored I want to peel my fingernails off just to see what'd happen. And February is too early in the year to be at that point. But being on an elliptical is so much easier on my knees that I feel I should do it every so often just to give my body a break.

It's getting light a little earlier and staying light a little later so marathon training is getting better. It's easier to run outdoors than it was last month at this time. And it's not quite as painful to go to the gym (see above about the awesome parking). I'm also thinking about how I can add a good hill workout to the regime. I feel like Montreal Ave in St Paul is my best chance for a good hill workout but I also feel like the first time or two up the hill may give me a heart attack. I'll have to think about that one some more.

Runners on Ice: Runners encased in ice

Here's the thing about the TV that my pooky bear gave me: it cuts off the corner of the screen and I can't see exactly how many seconds are left of the hockey game. Hurry up clock. Sometimes it cuts of the top or the bottom too.
GO USA!!!!
I'm not sure why the TV does that. Although she said that she had to take it back a few times to get the thing fixed so maybe that's why.

I had a great day. Here's how it went:

6:00am Ohmugosh whutimizzit? A moment later: why is my alarm making noise? And another second later: I have to get out of bed to run. (What was I thinking when I agreed to this?)

6:30am Find Beth and Robin at Lake Nokomis before sunrise. It was forecasted to be 12* for the low. So I dressed for running in 12* (wool socks and sock liners, tights and sweat pants, cold weather running shirt, jacket, gloves and hat) and it's a good thing I did. Because it was cooler than that. And super humid out. (Yes, humidity can by a problem at 12*.)

We could actually see a (well, in the water it'd be called a thermocline) an event in the fog over the lake, like where it stopped being so foggy about 20 feet above the lake. So the more we ran the more we sweat, which didn't evaporate becuase of the humidity and then it all turned to frost which made us cold, although it provided some awesome pictures.

After running I enjoyed a hot shower. Remember this summer when I thought ice baths were the best thing ever? Yeah, I don't remember it either.

10:00am I had an huge breakfast after all the running: a fried egg sandwich with two fried eggs and three pieces of bacon. YUM!

11:00am I did my taxes today. It took about an hour, maybe a little more. Sweet. Then I started cleaning and by cleaning I mean that I shredded a freaking ton of paper. And then I broke the part of the box that holds the hangers of the hanging files. Which tells you how many papers I had to shred.

2:30pm Was I shredding papers that long? I sat down for a few minutes. Then my teenager called me and I gave her a ride home from work. It was nice to see her.

4:00pm I went to the Y for a soak in the hot tub. Evidently the hot shower earlier wasn't enough.

5:00pm Dinner at Chipotle with my neighbor Steve. His burrito was packed with way more ingredients than mine which made me feel dainty and feminine (while eating a burrito the size of my head).

7:00pm I called Mom and Dad and talked for a while.

And once I got done with that phone call I turned on the hockey game and here we are. Plus now I'm talking to Amanda on the phone hearing all about her weekend and all the things that happened after I bought her Tex-mex on Friday.

My Running Playlist

As a runner, I'm always looking for more great music for the iPod, especially on those long loooong runs (which won't be happening for at least another month or two). Here's some of what I'm currently listening to (all of these links have sound):

• Burden in my hand by Soundgarden.


• He's a Pirate (theme from Pirates of the Caribbean)


• The Obvious Child by Paul Simon


• Waking Up in Vegas by Katy Perry. (This song make me think of Amanda.)


• Remember the Name by Fort Minor


• You Don't Have to Believe Me by Eric Hutchinson


• 4 Minutes by Madonna


• Human by The Killers. For some reason I always picture running around Lake of the Isles when I hear this song.


• Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga songs are my new guilty pleasure.


• Fire Burning on the Dance Floor by Sean Kingston

Any good ones I missed?

Running in the slush and sun

Side note: I love watching the Olympics!

Related to running my life, I freaking love my laptop from work. I really like that I can work at home. Trying to run in the winter just didn't work last year. (You can tell all the times I wasn't running because it coincided with long absences from blog writing.) Now with the lap top I can go to work, leave in the middle of the day and go for a run, and then do some more work at the end of the day.

Today I left around 2:00 and went for a run at my usual spot. I was yak-trak free for the first time in what must be a month or two. There was some snow and some slush but enough concrete and enough footing that it actually felt good to be without the trax for a while. Although by the second lap of running in the slush my knee was beginning to protest. (It's ok little knee. We'll take a day off tomorrow and see how that goes.) It was a gorgeous day with tons of sunshine and about 30*. I had fun running in only one pair of pants. When it get's really cold I wear running tights under my sweat pants.

It was good to go for a run and not have a heart attack after all the crap I ate yesterday. Amanda and I went to The Blue Door and basically ate grease in a few different forms. When I woke up I felt like I had a freaking brick in my stomach. (That's from all the meat I ate yesterday.) Maybe I went faster today because I needed the iron. (I can *almost* explain why runners need more iron than every body else. I'd say I get it right about 80% of the time.)

After the running my teenager called me and had me take her over to Uptown. Can I use the "report a pothole" feature on the city of Minneapolis website to report all of 31st street? Nicollett Ave wasn't much better, especially around 35th. What the heck happened to that road. I actually had to check and make sure I didn't have a flat tire at one point.

To cap off my productivity I did laundry tonight. Usually I do laundry once every two weeks so I was way ahead of schedule.

dude, write on your blog....

Yeah, I've not written anything for a while. (Woops. Sorry about that.) But pairs figure skating is on tonight and that's not so interesting to me. (Show me the Luge and the speed skaters. Oooh, and the skiing.) So here I am.

Last week was my "rest week" for the marathon/half-marathon training. Is it called a rest week? Step back weeks? This is the schedule I use. I'm adapting the long runs because the Flying Pig comes way before I hit the 13 mile long runs in training. I'll make the long runs get longer faster but keep the weekly mileage the same. You may notice there are no 13 milers on that first training program. This is the second training program that I'll do this summer that has all the big long runs. (In the winter the only thing I remember is how much fun I had doing all those long runs.)

I started off this week right with a run at my favorite stomping grounds (dude, they plow it) with Beth. Thanks again for coming to Minneapolis and dragging my slow butt around the lake. We can cross the bridge anytime you want!

(Oooooh, speed skating, great.)

I then actually had to work today. (Funny story, so did Beth.) I was at work for a few hours, but it's snowing so I decided to drive home before it got bad. I may drag out the laptop and do some more work tonight. It was actually nice to be at the office for a while when it's totally quiet and there's no expectation to return emails or voice mails.

I stopped at Chipotle again. I think I'm trying to set a record for consecutive number of days I can eat Chipotle. A friend (who I guess will remain nameless unless they want to introduce themselves) showed me this calorie counting program for the iPhone (iPod Touch) to help people loose weight. I decided I'd give it a try. Mostly I just write down what I ate and how many calories are in it, and then how much exercise I did and how many calories it burned. There's some pre-programmed food in it (Chipotle is in there) and some pre-programmed exercises so there's less guessing.

Basically my little program told me if I ate 1700 calories per day instead of 2000 I'd loose a pound per week. And then I can add the calories I burn from exercise back into the calories I can eat for the day. Why'd I bring this up when talking about Chipotle? Turns out it's possible to eat Chipotle and still limit calories. Somehow it's not so hard to skip the last meal of the day when lunch was 900 calories.

I thought it would be interesting since I've never really tried to keep track of the food I eat. I also wanted to give it a go since I think it'd be easier to run faster if I was lighter. (Maybe I'll be able to keep up with Beth then.)

Other lessons learned:

• My boss keeps all these chocolates in her office that I love to come in and eat. 45 calories per little piece can add up.


• Sometimes it's worth the extra calories to eat the whole milk yogurt. It's almost always worth it.


• I'm amazed at how much more full I feel after meals when I'm paying attention to what I eat.


• Other than last week (when I felt like crap and didn't want to go grocery shopping) I ate way less crap when I had to think about what I was eating.


• I don't always stay under 1700 calories (or under 2,000 when friends take me out and provide alcohol) and I've decided that's totally ok. I can look at this as a data gathering expedition and not see myself as a failure or needing to give up if I don't do exactly what the software tells me.
  


• Speaking of, Beer has a lot of calories, more than my yogurt, or my eggs. But sometimes, it's yum.


• Lentil soup is a bowl full of yum and fits well with this eat fewer calories thing.


• It's much harder to count calories when I didn't prepare the food. The big chain restaurants are in this program, but the local restaurants (hello Chinese food) are not and food I eat at my friends' house is similarly missing. (Although you should all keep making me food.)


• It's much easier to feel full when I run in the morning. (No, seriously, my body just uses food better the rest of the day. I can't explain it.)

(China has never won a figure skating gold medal? I am shocked.)

A long overdue Photofest...

I have long been partial to the trackball because it requires so little wrist movement. (It's all I can do to avoid a joke about shiny balls. Oh. Woops.)


This must have been Superbowl Sunday. On of the best tastes on earth is minorly stale popcorn. I like to pop it in the morning and let it sit out all day. It looks soooo good I could almost eat the picture.


Another pair of earrings. I realize those would be uninteresting if you're a guy.


Taken after my "at home you-tube videos workout" these are my weights. Yes, they are yellow.


Say hello to my iPod. (Seriously, sometimes it's whatever is laying on the table next to the camera.)


I have one of the white macbooks that attract all manner of dirt and grime from hands and wrists so I have a protector on the thing. It's starting to peel but it's worked like a charm for the past couple of years.


Me after a run. Runs in a Minnesota winter absolutely don't count unless you come back with icicles in your hair.


Yum. 'Nuff said.



Another iPod. Yes, I do own several.


This hat was, um, accidentally mailed to an associate who already had one from jumping in a freaking lake on new year's day so it was gifted to me. Sweet. I'm actually wearing it right now. Maybe that means I should turn up my heat.




Best running food ever.

Sweet!

A brief interlude from the snow outside:

I'm buying my plane tickets to Austin to see my cousin get married this summer (congratulations Brian!). I was going to use the voucher from MLK day. I went to cash in the voucher. There was another $300 voucher sitting in my account from last year. I have no memory of that earlier voucher. But sweet! Now I just need to save up my vacation days to go some place fun.

I have a place or two in mind. Where do you think I should go?

A brief linkfest

• This is how I feel when I run. Although it's been snowing so long I'm not sure I'll ever run again. Booo.


• A Rhode Island therapy cat accurately predicts when residents are near death. It's creepy until you think about it and then it's kind of comforting and cool.


• My birthday wish list. Some of these are pretty spendy so you might need to buy these gifts in pairs. If we're prioritizing, powerskips first, then hover scooter. Skip the robots and anything with a gun.


• The clothing diet: no new clothes for a year. I read that and thought, "well shoot, I could do that but I need running clothes and shoes more often than that". Oh well.


• Timelapse of snowfall. It's cool. And what Minnesota has looked like and will look like for a while. Seriously, when will it be summer?


• Following the snow theme In the south attendance at the grocery store before a snow storm is mandatory.


• What's your city's nickname? City of Lakes, Flying Pig and Queen City are not on the list.


• And finally, some of my favorite commercials from the super bowl. The Fiddling Beaver. Mind = now in gutter. Anything with a killer whale is cool. Dave, Jay and Oprah. Win. Doritos: Minneapolis: this one wasn't that funny but was created and filmed by some guys in Minneapolis. And finally, the Denny's Chickens. Guess where I'll (not) be tomorrow.

Such a Southener

Ok, right off the bat, there was a type in my title that I'm glad I caught. (The first H got typed as a K at first. That wouldn't been embarrassing.)

This is the weather report for the next few days. I was watching and Sven just told me it's gonna snow through Tuesday, stop on Wednesday, and snow again Thursday and Friday.

So, good southerner (I grew up north of the Mason Dixon Line but well south of the "Waffle House - IHOP" line) that I am, I heard the word "Snow" on Friday at work and spent some time checking out the weather. Originally I hadn't planned on taking home my work lap top, just thinking about keeping weekends totally work free. After consulting the weather, I realized I might want to spend some time working from home on Monday and packed the lap top.

The thing about the cultural south is we stay inside until the snow has fallen and the (one or two) plows get out. We check the weather and plan ahead. Busiest time at the grocery store? Right before a big snow storm. There will be no milk, no eggs and no beer for you. The good news is all of your neighbors have been to the store too.

The thing about Minnesota is we act like we don't care about snow storms. We don't plan our grocery trips around them. We go grocery shopping during the storm. Or wait 'till after. We don't cancel school or close work. Ever. As somewhat of an outsider, my interpretation is that Minnesotan's like their bragging rights about dealing with snow and cold. Planning ahead for snow storms would give the storm too much power over us. So we ignore the weather and complain about the traffic.

(Side note: the "Bud Light House" commercial is pretty good. The Snickers commercial is clever but doesn't speak to me as much. Ok, the Doritos one is pretty good too.)

I still plan ahead for the snow storms and go to work after rush hour is over.

Maybe I should go back to watching the super bowl commercials.

***Update - I found this article right after I wrote this post. So I'm coming back to add it. This is what grocery stores look like in the cultural south when snow is predicted. Do I know my people?***

So I had this dream and now I'm registered for the marathon...

I realized last night as I was falling asleep that registration is now open for the Twin Cities Marathon. Apparently that thought influenced me because I had this dream... Someone I knew took me to the starting line of the marathon (in my dream it was the Twin Cities Marathon, but the course totally wasn't our marathon) and cheered for me. The course took us through this castle/labyrinth/something and I kept going through it the wrong way and getting bounced back to the beginning. Understand now that I'm running through the halls trying to keep up with the marathoners. And every time I got bounced back I had to wear some different costume, all of which were hot and involved a lot of fur. It was like ground hog day on an acid trip. And I was getting further and further behind everyone else. I also remember one other part of the course that looked kind of like Cathedral Hill and my friend was there too. I don't remember actually finishin the marathon in my dream but I'm sure I did or I woke up from thinking about running in all those costumes.

Today, after all that, I decided to actually register for the marathon. (Hey, now I'm economically invested.) I also registered for the Flying Pig Half Marathon, known by some as Hill Training. I was thinking about running the Minneapolis Half Marathon like last year but I think I've spent enough on race entries for one day. (Though, seriously, to all of you from Minnesota the Minneapolis Half or full Marathon is a great race and a great course.)

This has been a rough week for running and working out in general. Between the snow and my attitude about the gym in the winter, not much is getting done. I might try just going for a walk this weekend. Walking in the snow is fun right? It's not supposed to be that cold.

Going Crazy not Running

Just for the record: I want to run. I'm going mildly insane with all the ice we have up here. I was actually glad when it snowed today because it'll mean a snow pack to run on instead of, well, ice. (Hey, it's still winter. I'll do almost anything to avoid the gym.)

Speaking of doing almost anything, it really did snow today. I was mildly traumatized by the five or six accidents I saw on my way back from a home visit today so I decided not to venture out once I got home from work. Instead, I did four exercise videos. I started off with Eight Minute Buns because, believe it or not, that one's actually the hardest. Next I did Eight Minute Legs. It was hard for me to do it with the chair, much easier to stand up straight and hold my arms on either side of me. It must be all that gymnastics I did when I was a kid. Better balance without assistance. Then Eight Minute Abs which is almost as hard as the buns. And finally, Eight Minute Arms with 3lb weights (because it's what I have here). This was the easiest by far. I could keep up with the repetitions on every exercise. I think the guy who does the videos sounds positive and encouraging. Is that weird?

At work we finally got our new laptops and I got my first taste of Windows 7. I must say, it's pretty nice. I think I'll always be a mac girl, but Windows 7 has a much better user interface than XP. I tried Office 2007 too. I'm not loving the ribbons. But I did figure out how to turn them off entirely so that made me happy. Plus, dude, I got a laptop for my job. Awesome.

Other than that, I've done some playing on the web, although not much. Here's what I've come up with so far:

• For the Bolder Options runners and The St Paul Runners, it's time to sign up for the Ragnar Relay 2010. Remember, this year Bolder Options is the charity receiving the proceeds from the race which makes it even better.


• To Jenny and Aunt Elaine When I'm rich I'll buy you one of these. No one else will understand the penguin reference.


• Amanda, here's how to make your own pho. Sorry, I couldn't find one with seafood, but my co-op does reliably sell squid so at least I know where to buy that ingredient.
  Also for Amanda if that other aquarium ever gets too big, here's one you might like better.
  And finally, Yo, Amanda what are you doing for the super bowl? I can bring any one of these bacon-snacks. Remember the one I made last year?


• To Eric of all people, this made me think of you. I think it was the Weber Grill.


• For all the Minnesotans reading this, check out our state's average IQ.


• For everyone, do you know the difference between kitchen devices and midevil torture tools? I got 90%. This just made me laugh.


• For ME! Want. That's actually pretty inexpensive. And Really want!. Maybe that's the case I'll get for the new work laptop.


• For, well, just here Squirrel proof bird feeder.


• And finally, 65 open source software downloads that someone claims will do something incredible. They look good but I got distracted when I couldn't make the entire article appear on one page.