running

I feel good

3 Comments

(Na na na na na)  I have been checking things off my list left and right.  I ran (check), and while it wasn’t easy (since it was the first time since after work on Tuesday), it felt good to do it.  It threatened to rain the whole time, but mostly held off until I got back.  When I left the house, it was just starting, so I decided to only do two miles.  After the first mile, it had slowed to just a couple of raindrops here and there, so I figured I could get away with four miles before the downpour started.  At the end of the second mile, I had to the make the five-mile decision, and since the rain had stopped altogether by then, I decided to chance it.  At the end of the next mile (the one that made my four-mile run a five-mile run), I looked to the west, decided that the low grey clouds didn’t look that threatening, and took a left to add the one additional mile that extended my run to six miles.  As I came up the hill towards the house, those scattered raindrops began to band together, but within ten minutes, that fizzled out, too.  Those clouds were all talk.

I did some light cleaning (check), went to the library (picked up a P.G. Wodehouse book to listen to) (check), went to the bank to deposit an expense check (check), went to the office for about 15 minutes (check), went to the pharmacy (not on my list, so no check), and made a quick stop at Wegman’s to pick up an easy dinner.  The real grocery shopping can happen tomorrow.  Oh, yeah, I’m doing laundry, too.

See how productive I can be?

Better late than never

3 Comments

One week ago today, John and I got up ridiculously early (for a Sunday morning) (no, 5:20 is always ridiculously early) in order to get to DC (via metro) so he could run in the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run.  His training had completely derailed, since we had three feet of snow clogging all the paths and streets, and then when it finally melted, he got sick, he was working late, he had schoolwork – everything came together to make it hard for him to be ready.  He ran the Army Ten-Miler about three and a half years ago, but he hadn’t hit that distance since then.  And since he didn’t feel prepared, he was half-convinced the sweeper bus was going to pick up and take him out the race.  He had to keep up a 14-minute mile pace to avoid being picked up.  He knew (and I definitely knew) he’d do better than that, but that didn’t stop him from being nervous.

We go to the metro at Dunn Loring and got on the train.  Everyone who got on that train, at every stop, was a runner.  (They’re the only ones crazy enough to be going to DC that early.)  By the time we got into the district, the train was packed, and we all got off at the Smithsonian stop.  I wish I’d had my camera out because I looked back over my shoulder as we rode the escalator up and saw that the platform next to the train was one solid mass of people.  It looked really cool, but since I was part of that mass, I couldn’t get into my bag.  (I was playing sherpa, so I had the backpack to hold all sweatshirts, towels, water, etc.)

We followed the crowd from the metro to the grounds around the Washington Monument.  The race started in waves, so they didn’t expect all 15,000 people to be at the starting line at once.  The first wave was scheduled to go at 7:40, with the last wave at 8:00.  John was in the red wave, which I think was the second one.  All John had to do was pin on his number and go.  Of course, we’d just commuted in for more than an hour, so John (and every other runner) needed to find a port-a-potty.  Fortunately, there were tons of them.  Unfortunately, probably 7500 other runners had the same urge.  We joined one of the REALLY long lines and started to worry.  It didn’t look like it’d be possible for him to make it to the front of the line before the last wave started.  (It didn’t matter which wave he joined, so missing his wave wasn’t part of the worry.)

We waited in line for a while, and then he sent me off to find any alternatives.  I ran across 14th Street (near the starting line) and found another row of port-a-potties with NO LINES.  I raced back to John, waved him out of his line, and sent him running in that direction.  Feeling much better, he found me again as the next to last wave was starting, and we got him in the crowd.  And it was a crowd.  SO many people.  They were sent off, but they were packed in so tightly that they all walked for another few minutes.  So I walked along with them, outside the railing.

The crowd of runners (only one wave, I think)

John in that crowd. The race has started, but nobody's running yet.

There they go.

I found a great spot along the rail right by the finish line (I was already there when  I look that last picture), so, along with some other very enthusiastic spectators, I shouted myself hoarse cheering on the finishers.  Long before John came in, Erik and Margaret joined me at the finish line, bringing much-needed caffeine.  We cheered John across the line, and then headed for our meetup point.  Here’s Erik, convinced he can spot John in the sea of people:

And here’s John, triumphant and sweaty.  He finished almost four minutes faster than his last 10-miler time.

From there, we hopped the metro out to Ballston to have a yummy brunch with Erik and Margaret at Whitlow’s, and then we went home, where both of us collapsed of exhaustion, even though only one of us deserved the rest.  🙂  Go John!

I have priorities, really I do

1 Comment

And they don’t include working after I get home on a Friday evening for several hours.  But I promised myself I wasn’t going to talk about that.  Instead, I’ll mention that Roxy got so excited about the pieces of lamb fat she was going to get that she repeatedly walked herself into the narrow dead end between the arm of the couch and the wall.  Head first.  She doesn’t like to back up, so she’d stand there, tongue out, tail wagging, with her nose just barely over the arm, until I nudged her backwards with my hand on her chest.  Like three times.

John is in the office pretending he’s Brian May, and I’m pretending I have time to check some of my favorite sites before my eyes close.  We don’t have any plans this weekend (other than the usual light house cleaning, lawn mowing, grocery shopping, and something (I know there was something else I wanted to do, but did I write it down?  Say it with me.  No!)), so I hope to run and relax.  And relaxing had better include catching up with my favorite online people.  Also my new favorites, thanks to a recent thread at the Dooce Community and, of course, Spoke’s Blog Love series (first day here).

Before I go to bed, this is for Mom, Sandwich Stealer (not that one), Jess, and other people I could name but will not.  Today.  Just you wait.

I think the point of mentioning my priorities in the title was so I could say I still have mine, and I think they’re in the right order, but I need to work a lot harder at figuring out how to make them happen every day.  Or most days.  I feel a bit overwhelmed, and not by anything bad, but by not being able to make time for all those little things I like to do.  But I will.  I will figure it out.

Collapsing now

Leave a Comment

You know, I didn’t run 10 miles today, but I’m completely exhausted.  Getting up at 5:20 on a Sunday morning is not natural.  It’s evil.  But it was a good day.  Beautiful morning, once the sun came up.  John did great, beating his time from the Army 10-miler by 4 minutes.  Come back tomorrow for more about today, including pictures.  Going to bed now.

Short Saturday post

Leave a Comment

This is getting to be a habit.  The short posts on Saturdays, I mean.  We had a nice leisurely morning.  I ran six miles (takes me forever to do that) while John mowed the lawn.  I got back in time to help him pull up dandelions in the front yard.  Ate a quick breakfast, took a quick shower, and then we went to DC to pick up his race packet and have lunch.  DC was mobbed, of course, since it’s the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival, but we got a good parking space on the south side of the Mall, right at 12th St.  And then realized we had to walk to 4th and F to pick up the race packet.  Not the best planning.  Had lunch at Elephant and Castle (mobbed for lunch even though it was 2:30), and then headed home.  It was much later than we planned, but I guess that’s how it goes.  I went to Costco to pick up Roxy’s medicine and then bought new shoes from the Naturalizer outlet nearby.  I might still check out Nordstrom’s tomorrow since they carry Dansko and Sofft.  The Clarks outlet was disappointing.

A recap of my day is not the most exciting reading, but it’s all I can think of at the moment.  I’m tired and we’re getting up at 5:20 tomorrow morning.  I’m going to bed.

Oh, the cherry blossoms are all gone.  Not out here (there are lots of cherry trees still blooming around here), but in DC, they’re all green now.  I’m sure that’s a huge disappointment to the thousands of tourists in town this weekend.  It was a beautiful day, though, and DC looks great in spring.  The sky was almost a September blue.

Busy weekend ahead

1 Comment

Eventful, at least.

Okay, you got me, there’s only one event, but I have things to do!

I spent most of today finding out what I’ll need to be able to do everything this weekend.  I got shoe recommendations from my friends online and found stores that carry those brands, I talked to the vet about how to switch Roxy’s medication correctly so we (hopefully) avoid seizures, I picked up the new prescription from the vet, and I figured out how we’re going to get to DC and where I’ll watch the race with Erik and Margaret (who I’ll be emailing soon) and where we’ll meet up with John again for Sunday’s Cherry Blossom 10-miler.  So tomorrow, I’ll buy shoes, John will do homework, we’ll pick up Roxy’s new medication, and we’ll run down to DC to pick up John’s race packet.  Quick trip.  And we’ll drive, of course, not run.  That’s for Sunday.  And then, we’ll get up absurdly early Sunday morning (so I’m sleeping in tomorrow, but I will run at some point during the day), drive to the nearest metro stop, metro in to the race, have a late breakfast with our friends, and come back and finish our Sunday at home.  Hopefully being lazy.  And at some point, we’ll mow the lawn.  And maybe mulch a flower bed or two.  Or not.  That doesn’t sound very lazy.

Pardon me while I announce what is obvious by now.  John is running in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler Sunday morning, so anyone who reads this and is in the area is welcome to join me, help cheer on John, and then have something to eat.  I wish you were all nearby.

John walked in the door just a couple of minutes ago, almost too tired to hug me hello, so I’ve started the rice and I have to go stir up my stir-fry.  He needs to eat well and get plenty of sleep for the next couple of days.  That should happen every day, for both of us, but you all know how hard it is to make that happen.  We’re better about the eating well.  Not so good about the sleep.

Not as bad

2 Comments

Today was not as bad as yesterday.  Different, certainly.  And I kind of forced it to be better.  The day still started too early, and I was still on my feet all day, but after I collapsed into a chair during our lunch break, my coworker brought my sandwich to me, unasked, so I could spend the entire break off my feet.  He’s a nice guy. I had already decided not to run today (SO hot outside), so that automatically freed up some time once I got home, but unfortunately, about an hour of it was taken up by work stuff that came up during my commute.  (It kinda sucks when your whole team is spread out across all four time zones.  We all rely on each other, and that means we have to be available when the guy in Seattle needs help (for example).)  I’d planned to take the dogs to the dog park, but by the time I was free to go, it was almost sunset (when the dog park closes).  So that was out.  I spent some time with them in the yard, but it’s not the same.  (For them.  It’s about the same for me.)  Anyway, I forced my day to be better by making sure I had time to myself (and I ordered Indian (my favorite) for dinner).  I thought I’d make it Internet time, but it turned into TV time instead.  I watched a couple of shows John has never been interested in.  He gave up on Flashforward after the third episode (I should have), and he never even started Cougar Town.  Stupid name, but I like the show.

I’m having DVR priority issues again.  Why does every show I want to see come on Tuesdays at 10?  We record Southland and The Good Wife every week, and we want to keep up with V, but it comes on at the same time.  So annoying.  We’ll have to resort to hulu.com for V, I guess.  (Yes, we watch a lot of TV.  Someday, I’ll list our shows by night they get recorded, which is a mostly meaningless piece of information to me.  I don’t care when it’s on.  I just want to make sure it gets recorded so we can watch it later.  The DVR is the greatest invention EVER.)

Anyway, it’s after nine and I need to head in the direction of bed.  Which reminds me…I’m expecting my sleep to be interrupted tonight.  John said Roxy had a seizure this morning before he left for work.  Normal length, and it was a cluster (one followed by another), and if she follows her pattern, she’s already a little overdue for the next one.   We’re still investigating switching her to a new medication.  We’re looking for other (cheaper) ways we can get it.

Oh, was that John’s car door?  He mentioned he might get out of class early tonight…

Yeah, not his car door.  A neighbor’s.  I’m tired and I need to go to bed, but I just started to browse through my regular sites and I miss having time to play on the Internet. Yes, I’ve said it before, and yes, I could have this evening if I’d skipped all the TV, but it’s too late now, and I’m tired.  So, Internet, I’m sorry I’m neglecting you.  Forgive me?

All I can do is complain

4 Comments

This is a problem.  But I need to get it out of my system.  Feel free to skip this post.  EVERYTHING SUCKS.  That’s a little harsh.  LOTS OF THINGS SUCK.  I have to get up absurdly early (5am is absurdly early) to get to work, where I have to stand all day in dress shoes (I’m going shopping this weekend for better shoes), and the only time I have to run is in the evening, which sucks both because I ache from standing all day and because it’s been unseasonably warm these last few days, and running in the heat is NO FUN.  The weather will cool off around Friday, so I have that to look forward to.  But I didn’t get home until after 6, and I didn’t get back from my run until almost 8, so we only just finished dinner (it’s 8:45), and it’s basically time for me to go to bed (after I shower) so I can get up at 5am tomorrow and do it all over again.  THIS SUCKS.  And the alternative to the DC commute thing is to be out of town for weeks and weeks on end.  NOT OKAY.

There is one thing I can do to try to make things better, and that particular thing will start happening over the weekend.  And next week.  Soon.  I just don’t expect change to happen quickly.  UGH!

Well.  I feel better.  Thanks!

Roaming the Internet when I should be outside

8 Comments

Thanks to this post at Three Word Chant! (punctuation theirs), I think I’ve found my new favorite place to go for a chuckle.  Check this one out.

I found that link because I’m in the middle of organizing my bookmarks.  Again.  (And that means I have to go to every single bookmarked site to see if I want to keep it.)  When I organized them last time, I put all the blogs I read in one folder, in alphabetical order.  When I have free time, I go through the list in order.  But I’ve had so little free time lately that I haven’t been getting far down the list, and I’ve inadvertently been missing some of the sites I used to read daily just because their names start with letters in the second half of the alphabet.  Then I feel bad for neglecting them because that reminds me of always being stuck at the back of the line (for lunch, for assemblies, for field trips) in the elementary school because my last name started with an S.  Now my last name starts with a B, but that hardly matters ’cause no one asks us to line up in alphabetical order anymore.  Anyway, I’m over that, but I don’t want to treat my favorite blogs the same way.  So now, my favorites are in a Daily Blog folder, separate from the rest.  Yes, I play favorites.  And I need to update my blogroll, but that will have to happen on a day that’s not so beautiful.  Because why am I inside?  It’s gorgeous out there!

I have to shower (ran six miles this morning – go me!) and then go to the library.  I need books on CD for my super-long commute (now that I’m not carpooling anymore).

Also, I am totally losing my mind.  There was something else I planned to write about, but I have NO idea what it was.

Lying to your kids and the dog park (not related)

Leave a Comment

I went for a long run this morning – yeah, this morning.  It was awesome.  I don’t have to be downtown most Fridays, so I enjoyed sleeping until 6:30, running in the cool morning breeze, and watching the sun rise.  More like squinting ’cause the sun wasn’t high enough for the brim of my hat to block it.  But it was nice.  On my way back, while trudging up the hill to the house, I saw my across-the-street neighbors packing the trunk of their big SUV.  I asked (unnecessarily, ’cause duh) if they were going away for the weekend, or, after a glance at the overstuffed car, a year (like I can talk).  Mr. Neighbor, rather than half-shouting his response across the street like a normal person would, walked over to me and told me, in a low voice, that they’re taking the girls camping, but first, they’re going to surprise them with a day at King’s Dominion.  Now that is a very cool surprise.  And from the look on the teenager’s face as she put her stuff in the car, she’s going to be way happier about the day at the amusement park than the camping.

John got stuck in horrible traffic on his way home from work, so I took the dogs to the dog park around 6:30.  Riley had a wonderful time, as usual, and Roxy stuck to my heels like she was glued there, as usual.  I met a nice family who’d just adopted an adorable dog.  The dog is about a year and a half, a rescue, and the prettiest little thing.  She’s about Roxy’s size, black all over, with long, thick, golden retriever-ish fur.  They adopted her last Saturday and this was their first time with her at the dog park.  They (mother, grandmother, daughter, son) were all really nice.  I’d like to run into them again sometime.

Oh, how I ache

4 Comments

It was a beautiful spring today, all budding green trees and cherry blossoms, but by the time I got outside to enjoy it (and run), I was one big ache from standing all day.  I can handle the talking all day (not much of a stretch for me, plus I drink lots of water), but standing ALL DAY LONG in heels (even low ones) makes me ache all over.  The only shoes I want to be wearing for that long, while standing, are my running shoes, and I think even that would get achy (ache-y?) after a while.  So running this evening started out pretty rough.

The cops were out in force when I left work today.  All the way down Constitution Ave, they were ticketing cars parking along the curb.  (Parking there ends at 4pm for rush hour.)  I saw one woman dash across six lanes of traffic, in the middle of a block, to plead with the officer writing her a ticket.  For a second, I thought she had to be crazy to run across Constitution like that, with so many cars on the road, but then I realized rush hour is the best time to do it.  We were all basically parked.

I spent a few minutes during my run this evening playing with a neighbor’s dogs.  This neighbor lives at the opposite corner of the neighborhood from us, but I run by their house most days, and I’ve met their dogs a few times.  Vader is the sweetest black lab.  Adorably friendly, low energy, nice dog.  Their other dog is an energetic yellow lab named Xena, who was the most adorable puppy.  I know, they’re all adorable, but she really was.  So when I went by, Vader met me at the top of the fence.  He jumped up to reach me and licked every part of me he could reach (mostly my arms,  but a few swipes of his tongue got my neck).  Xena, though, proved herself to be the smartest dog I have ever met.  She had a tennis ball in her mouth, and when she jumped up and put her paws on the fence, I reached for it so I could throw it for her.  She pulled her head back and jumped on the fence, and then crouched down in the same spot, put the ball on the ground, and rolled it to me in between the slats in the picket fence.  I picked it up, threw it, she fetched, and on her way back, she jumped on the fence again (kinda bounced off it) like she was marking the spot, dropped down, and rolled the ball out to me again.  We did it over and over again until I decided I need to keep running.  So smart!

And that reminded me of the little girls I met last week when I was running with the dogs.  We were coming down the sidewalk towards a little girl and her dad, and when she saw Roxy and Riley, she ran behind a tree and told her dad she was scared.  I slowed to a walk and reeled the dogs in, but as we got closer, she crept forward.  I stopped and asked her if she wanted to meet them.  She looked at her dad, who said it was okay, and she came over.  She shied away from Riley (he’s way too big for little kids, even though he loves them (to EAT! (Except not really.  The eating part.  He does love them, and he’s pretty gentle.))) and went straight for Roxy.  Now, Roxy doesn’t care about people as a rule, but she doesn’t mind being petted by kids, so she just stands there.  Tolerating it.  She’s the perfect size, though, so kids always want to pet her.  It’s her destiny.  Or her doom.  Or, you know, just something she has to deal with.

SO much better

2 Comments

I’m still sniffling (and snuffling) and coughing, but so much less, and I feel SO much better.  I ended up working later than I planned (again, I know), but I still had an hour of daylight when I got home, so I went for a short run with the dogs.  It felt really good, and I feel really good.  I thought it might never happen again.  I didn’t do any cleaning tonight, though – wait! Not true.  I cleared off the island.  But there’s a lot more to do, so that’s how I’ll be spending the next two evenings.  Probably.  I should.  I’m sure I will.

No internet again today.  I miss my blogs.  It seems a little ridiculous to think that I may have to set aside dedicated internet time the same way I set aside exercise time or reading time.  But hey, if that’s what it takes…

Lately, I’m getting all my news from the POTUS Sirius radio station (110 – “Politics of the United States for the people of the United States”) in the mornings and a handful of Washington Post headlines throughout the day.  Not as well-rounded as I’d like, but that takes internet time I don’t have.

I just made a resolution to stop complaining about not having enough time to play on the internet.  Starting…now.

Our local WETA channel is showing Ed Sullivan’s Rock and Roll Classics, a DVD set they’re trying to sell.  It’s something I’d love to have, but for now, it’s making it really hard to turn the TV off.  John is glued to the screen, and I keep running back and forth so I can actually see The Turtles or The Young Rascals.  I’m ready to settle in for sleep, but PBS keeps pulling me back in.  Such a bad influence.

I knew the way you know about a good melon

2 Comments

The produce guy at Wegman’s praised my apple-choosing skills today.  Good to know I have a fallback if my current job doesn’t work out.  I’m not sure where, other than the produce section of a grocery store,  I can market this new-found skill o’ mine.  I also noticed that finally, as of yesterday, there is NO MORE SNOW in the front yard.  It’s mid-March – if it snows again (this season), I’m moving south.

I finished Run today.  Loved it.  I think I’m going to head for something lighter next, like maybe the next book in The Dresden Files series.  Mindy is using my book list (see Books and Movies in the sidebar) for inspiration so she can take a break from her school reading.  That makes me very happy.

Daylight Saving Time started today, but it’ll probably be Tuesday before I’m used to it.  It’s almost nine, and I should be thinking about getting ready for bed (I plan to get up early and run, if it’s not raining), but it doesn’t feel nearly that late and I’m not remotely tired.  Those tiny insignificant issues aside, I’m thrilled about the time change.  I need more hours of daylight.

I forgot about this part of spring

6 Comments

The rain is messing with my running plans.  It was raining hard this morning when the alarm went off, so we slept in the extra hour and I went straight to work.  When I got home from work (less than an hour ago), it was raining enough to keep me in.  It’s supposed to rain into the evening, slack off for a little (when it’s too dark and too late to run), and then pick up big time over night and all day tomorrow.  So even if I wanted to get up super extra early (we’re already getting up extra early to meet Jess and Chuck at a book sale in Maryland) to run tomorrow morning before we leave, I couldn’t ’cause it’s supposed to be pouring cats and dogs.  I like rain and everything, but I was on a roll!

</whining>

It’s Friday, it’s the weekend, I get to buy books tomorrow (Hi, I’m Zannah.  I read.), and I get to hang out with people I like.  And I can sleep in on Sunday.

[Pause while I peruse my bookmarks.]

I really and truly just gasped.  Out loud, by myself.  I think I found the house I’m supposed to live in.  At the very least, I need lots of money and an interior decorator who can read my mind and find these pictures years from now when I can afford to redo our entire house.

Go here and read this.  (You don’t have to.  Next time I’ll ask politely.  But it’s a nicely written post about being alone during a power outage.)

I’m done for now.  I have very important things to do, like going through my books and writing down titles I’m missing and authors I love so I can look for their books.  I think we’ve already discussed my need for lists.  I can browse through a book sale forever, but if I don’t bring a list, I might browse right past something I’ve been looking for because I didn’t recognize the author.

Today, I am a noodle

1 Comment

Wow.  Check this out.  It’s a (short) public service ad from Sussex Safer Roads about wearing your seatbelt.  The music, the slow-motion…I got a little teary.

And if you weren’t moved by the seatbelt ad, be inspired by 40 inspirational speeches from movies cut into one 2-minute speech.  🙂

I was searched the internet for inspiration (of the non-movie speech kind) and didn’t find any.  I’m sure I didn’t look hard enough, but I lack the energy.  The guy I trained today took all the energy I had.  He’d leave the room for a break or for lunch or something, and I’d just slump back into my chair.  I got home a little on the early side, so I went for a run, but that didn’t go as well as Tuesday’s run.  I don’t feel invincible today.  I feel like a noodle.  A cooked one.

Lest you think I only blog about convulsing dogs…

4 Comments

…(’cause it sure feels like that sometimes)…I’ll write about something else.   Like how disgustingly good it feels to run when you’re in the third or fourth or fifth mile and you’ve gotten past the REALLY tight calves and you’re running slightly downhill and “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie starts to play and you’re singing along (through the panting) and you know you’re  hungry, but it’s not that long before John will be home and you can hug him (I can hug him – nobody gave you permission), but maybe not until after the shower ’cause no one appreciates a sweaty hug (and did I mention that my fifth mile is mostly downhill and I was flying?), and then we’ll grill hot dogs for dinner.  ‘Cause it’s spring!  Close enough, anyway.  It was 63 degrees out when I left the house to run this evening.

I finished The Road the other day (Sunday, I think).  I know Mom and Dad thought it was the most depressing thing they’ve ever read, but I liked it.  Yes, it was a bit (a lot) depressing, but that doesn’t make it a bad book.  I definitely want to see the movie.  And now I’m re-reading Bel Canto.  I love it.  It’s beautiful, it’s lyrical, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m in a Frank Sinatra song (“You’re much to much, and just too very very to ever be in Webster’s dictionary”).  Anyway, I love it.

Up early

10 Comments

I guess I was awake anyway, and getting up at 5:15 is something I need to start getting used to, but I wasn’t ready for that this morning.  I heard something, and pretty soon after that something resolved into the sound of Roxy convulsing.  I dashed downstairs and found her under the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs.  Poor thing.  I pulled the gate off of her, made sure her head was free, and waited it out.  It was a normal seizure, no cluster this time, and she took her usual half hour to shake it off.

We were both up and irretrievably awake, so running, breakfast, and getting to work all happened a little earlier than usual.  Not a bad thing, I guess.  We took the dogs for a long walk yesterday afternoon (I really like taking walks with John.  And the dogs.  I need to convince him that we should make it a habit.  Even if it’s just a weekend habit.  I like it.), so my legs weren’t completely unprepared for this morning’s run.  I was a little stiff, but it felt really good.  Best thing?  It wasn’t cold.  Yay!

5 miles? Not so bad.

7 Comments

SPRING!  I know it’s not spring yet, but it’s starting to look like it.  It’s sunny, it got up to 50 degrees, we ran a race, the dogs spent the day outside, and I almost opened some windows.  More progress on that tomorrow, hopefully, since the high is supposed to be 55 (!).  It’s been a very cold winter, and I am SO ready for it to be over.

For the last two and a half weeks, ever since John coaxed/supported/shamed me into registering with him for the 5-mile race, I’ve been dreading today.  I wasn’t at ALL prepared to run 5 miles (high winds, snow and ice on the sidewalks, and being forced to run in the neighborhood streets are my main excuses), so my plan was to run as much as I could, counting on adrenaline to help a little, keep a steady pace, and then if I need to walk, try to walk only for one minute and then jog for at least three minutes before walking again.  So I had a plan.  I also took a peek at last year’s race results and I knew that at least a handful of people took between 70 and 85 minutes to complete the race, so I was fairly confident I wouldn’t be last.  But you never know.  Maybe those people decided never to run 5 miles again so they didn’t bother registering this year.  I told John (who wasn’t feeling all that great about it, either) to look for me around 60-67 minutes.  Closer to 67.

It was a beautiful morning (and it’s been a beautiful day), but pretty breezy, so it was still plenty cold (wind chill in the upper 20s, I think).  We joined the crowd at the starting line and John asked me where I wanted to fit in: front, middle, or back?  Definitely not the front (I’ll get trampled, plus I’ll just be in the way of all those super-serious, super-fast runners), and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be in the back (why start there?  I’ll get there eventually on my own), but in the middle, there’d be all the psychological pressure of watching all those runners pass me along the way.  I said something to that effect to John as we threaded our way to the back of the first third of the crowd, and he said, “Well, you know what it’s like.”  I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean that I should be used to watching runners pass me.  Pretty sure.  🙂

The course took us through neighborhoods in Ashburn John and I don’t typically see, and there were a few people out cheering us on.  There was a big hill near the end of the first mile, and just after it, a woman shouted from her front porch, “It’s all downhill from here!”  She was mostly right.  There were a couple of times the course doubled back on itself, so I could see that I wasn’t actually last, or even that close to last (definitely in the last third, last fourth, maybe even last fifth – I’ll post numbers when the results are up).  One of the times we doubled back, though, I saw a guy juggling.  While running.  He had 5 (maybe 4, but I think five) red balls in the air at once while he jogged up the hill.  Pretty cool, very weird.

Just after the 3-mile mark, I realized I was doing better than expected, averaging about an 11-minute mile, and I started daydreaming about finishing in under an hour.  I wondered if John would even be looking at the finish line that early.  (Of course he would.  There isn’t much else to look at.)  Any walking I did was for less than a minute and not all that often (4 or 5 times total), and I was still on track at the 4th mile, so I ran the entire 5th mile and managed to pick up the pace at the very end, enough to feel like I was going to throw up as I crossed the finish line.  That’s the way to do it.  🙂  It passed, quickly, and John was there, and my time on the clock was just under 55 minutes.  I don’t remember exactly what, but my official time should be lower since it didn’t start until I crossed the starting line.  My watch said 54:24.  You know that means?  That I can do that without training for it?  It means I can do better.  And it was fun and I liked it and I won’t be afraid to do it again.  Another side effect: my fear of 10Ks disappeared.  I can DO this.

I just checked.  Results have been posted.  My official time (matches my watch exactly, for once) is 54:24.  Out of 280 women, I finished 241st.  John finished 197th out of 316 men with an 8:45 pace.  My pace was 10:53.

I can do better than that.

Anyway, we got home, had breakfast, cleaned up (ourselves, not anything silly like the house), and then John had to stay close to his computer since he’s on call to work today.  I talked to Jess (we’re making lots of plans), and then we filed our taxes.  John wants to buy an external hard drive today (and I need a new Scalzi book) AND I really want sushi for dinner, so we’re heading out soon to do all (at least some) of that.  The big decision for the evening is whether we eat out or bring sushi home (and snuggle in for TV or a movie).  Tough call.

Links within links within links…

5 Comments

The end of the workday couldn’t get here fast enough for me.  Nothing against work, but I really wanted to be home.  And now I am, and now it’s Friday night, and now I have to face a 5-mile race in the morning.  If I can treat it like a regular workout, I should be fine.  I just don’t want to finish last.  Please don’t let me be last.

You know how when you look something up in wikipedia, you end up clicking this link, then that link, then this one over here, and back to this one, until you end up reading an article that has NOTHING to do with the first one you read?  (I know you do.)  That doesn’t happen to me as much out of wikipedia, for some reason.  I tend not to click through, or at least not through as many layers, on other websites.  I wonder why.  Well, I don’t, for whatever reason, but I did today, and I found this blog post about an old Newsweek article from 1995 about how the internet won’t last.

How did I get there?

I’m glad you asked.

I started at the latest post on John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, and clicked on the link there to an article from Laptop Magazine where he was quoted about what technology he uses now that  makes him feel like he’s living in the future.  That article links to the Three Word Chant blog post that found the 1995 Newsweek article (and makes fun of it).  It’s this last link (or the first one, several paragraphs up) that I want you to read, but the Laptop Magazine article is interesting, and Whatever can be entertaining.  Have I mentioned that I love John Scalzi’s science fiction?  I’ve read Old Man’s War and The Android’s Dream, and I really liked them both.  Wish I had another of his books to read now that I’ve finished Ender in Exile…

Failure of a ponytail

11 Comments

Complete and utter failure.  Worst ponytail EVER.  I took the dogs for a short jog this afternoon, and for the first time in months, I put my hair into a normal ponytail instead of the double-decker thing I’ve been doing (which has been working just fine).  Because the ponytail wasn’t tight enough, it slid down the back of my head, freeing all the shorter hair in front to flop around in my face.  I couldn’t just tuck it behind my ears (over and over and over) like I usually would because I was wearing my ear grips to keep my wittle ears warm, so I didn’t have ears behind which to tuck the hair.  Behind which.

John has been in the driveway all morning replacing the rear brakes on the mustang.  It’s not supposed to be this hard.  That’s true of EVerything he does to this car.  Except when he replaced the drive belt a couple of weeks ago.  That one went pretty well.  He got the driver’s side done, but he’s having trouble compressing the piston back into the caliper on the passenger side.  I’ve been googling the problem, but he’s got the right tool and he seems to be doing all the right things.  He’s not ready to assume the caliper has seized yet, but if he can’t fit the new brake pad in, he may have to replace the caliper.  And that will mean he won’t be going to his cousin’s new baby’s christening.  Because it will take the rest of the weekend (bleeding brake lines, replacing parts, adding fluid, etc) and he won’t have a car to drive until it’s done.  So we’ll see.  But if he does go, he’ll leave for PA tonight to spend the evening with his family and then drive to Long Island with them Sunday morning for the christening.  He’ll stay with his parents in PA Sunday night and go to work from their house Monday morning.  So I won’t see him again until after work on Monday.  On the plus side, I’ll have Indian for dinner and watch movies he’s not interested in.  But that’s only fun for one night, not two.  Oh!  Speaking of movies, we watched 500 Days of Summer last night.  We both really liked it.  Joseph Gordan-Levitt was fantastic, and while we didn’t like Zooey Deschanel’s character as much, she was really good.  John couldn’t decide if he thought she was really attractive or not.  He said he wasn’t sure if he’d call her beautiful, or even pretty, but he wants to keep looking at her.  So at least he thinks she’s interesting.  I think she’s very pretty.  She’s got that blue eyes with dark hair thing I’ve always liked.  Like Liesl in The Sound of Music.  🙂  And I will watch the musical number (from 500 Days) at least three more times before I put the movie back in the mail.