Internet Down!

I have neither fallen off of the planet, nor neglected my blogging duties. Our DSL has been down since Saturday afternoon. Apparently, the good folks at AT&T are wiring up our neighborhood to go live on U-Verse soon and they just start cutting wires with no regard to which ones they are chopping. So, I have a lot to catch up on in bloggy world!

Let's see. Last Saturday was our last long run before the half. We went almost 8 miles at our best time yet! Problem is, my left shin is starting to act up again. I also ran alone on Monday for 4 miles and it did the same thing. I am hoping that by not running until this Saturday, it will be good as new. I really don't want to think about 13.1 miles with a hurt shin. I also don't want to think about causing a stress-fracture. 

On Sunday, we went to pick up our race packets in Roswell. I have to say, I LOVE the shirt!! It not only feels good, it looks great! Plus, we got really cool, glow in the dark "slap" bracelets. (You know, like the ones from middle school??) LOVE it!! We also drove the course. It doesn't look too bad. It's not as "flat" as they say it is, but it's definitely no hill of death! So, check out the swag:

My bib, the shirt and the bracelet!

Since the internet has been down, I have been passing the time reading a book. I really didn't want to start another book until the race was over, but out of sheer boredom, I did. I am reading, Little Lady, Big Apple by Hester Browne. It's the second book in a trilogy (of course) about The Little Lady Agency. It has been SO long since I read the first book that I feared not being able to follow along at first, but it was surprisingly easy to remember the main points once I settled in. I am currently about halfway finished. I probably won't finish it before Saturday, even though every time I say that, I end up finishing whatever I am reading!

I'm working tonight, all day tomorrow and Thursday and then I am "carb loading" aka, going to the local pizza buffet for the kid's spirit day for school on Friday and then going to work that evening. Don't expect too much from me until after the race is over. It's probably best that way so that you don't have to constantly read about my sudden panic and insecurities on the situation!! I can tell you that I will DEFINITELY breath a sigh of relief and relax once this race is over!

Made Me LOL

I really adore a good read. I like books that make me cry and the kind that suck you in and keep a tight hold on you. I also like books that make me (literally) laugh out loud. The book I am reading right now, Under A Vampire Moon, by Lynsay Sands has made me LOL several times. It's a very good read so far!!

Today, I ran 4.1 miles before I went to work. I really, REALLY wanted to fit in the 6 miles that I should have done for the past 2 weeks now. I had a plan. I took the tablet downstairs and went to Fox.com to watch a back episode of this season's Hell's Kitchen (I'm SO far behind). It was going pretty good except the sound and the picture were out of sync. That usually drives me bat-shit crazy, but I didn't mind it because I was in motion and it was doing a good job of keeping me distracted. I find that music doesn't keep my mind from wandering to how far I've gone or have to go or how long I've been going. I digress. So, a little over halfway through the episode, it starts to buffer. No biggie. However, it continues to buffer and continues to buffer and then restarts the episode almost all the way back to the beginning!! It all went downhill from there. I turned to Pandora, only to have it keep pulling up slow crap and it will only let you skip so many times before it becomes unresponsive! So, 4.1 miles is all I got in, but I'll call it a victory non the less.


I'm going to try to get up early to run tomorrow. It's kinda late now, so we'll see how it goes. At least I get off from work at a fairly decent hour tomorrow!

4 Miles and A Glass of Wine

I ran 3 miles yesterday before work and today I ran 4 miles after work. Surprisingly, I have had some pretty good times the past 2 days. I'm still nowhere close to where I need to be for the half, but it's some progress.

Yesterday, when I ran before work, was my first run after the sunburn I came back from Florida with. It's also the first time I've sweat since I had that sunburn, so when I ran, I noticed before taking a shower that the sweat was all beaded up on me in the sunburned areas. When I touched it to wipe it away, I realized that the sweat was actually trapped under the burned skin!! It was both fascinating and disgusting at the same time! Therefore, when I got home from work last night, I had to have Shane peel my entire back because it itched SO bad!!

Tonight, with dinner, I had a "mini bottle" of wine. Shane and I have been drinking wine with some of our meals lately. I guess it's just something you do as you get older, or maybe we're becoming snobby and sophisticated (yeah, right). Anyway, I had a Starbuck's Java Chip Frapp today at work and I only had about 8 or 9 ounces of water, so I was probably pretty dehydrated to be running 4 miles and I sweat a lot of that out, so that glass of wine has me a little woozy and sleepy!! Too bad we have such a busy day tomorrow, or I'd sleep in!!

Today Is...

National Running Day!!!

I started my day by going to work. Work wasn't too bad today. We had a pretty good "therapy" session. It might sound odd to anyone else to hear about work therapy, but there are a couple of people I work with that I have a really easy time talking to. One is VERY much like me (not sure how she feels about that) and the other has a similar lifestyle to mine. Either way, we spend the days that we work together bouncing around the things that make us happy, sad and annoyed. It's very therapeutic! Sometimes, I think I would otherwise blow a gasket or go certifiably insane without them. In fact, I saw a cognitive behavioral therapist for several months and she didn't make me feel even a fraction better than one day of "work therapy." Enough of that, though.

After work, I came home and cooked dinner. We actually ate dinner early tonight because I knew I needed to get in a 4 mile run and I wanted to give my stomach plenty of time to digest before the run. So, after getting the kids bathed and into bed, I played around on FaceBook for a little while and then got into my running gear.

It was a pretty good run. Better than I've had recently. I think it's possible that it's because I was a little emotional during the beginning of the run. I'm still not sure if I was mad, hurt, upset or all of the above, but I spent the first 2 miles running straight through while I worked it all out in my head. I was playing some pretty aggressive music on the MP3 player. I never did work it all out, but I felt a little better. I walked for a few seconds a little after 2 miles and then ran some more. I usually don't sweat much, but I was seriously a sweaty mess this evening. 

Hope you did something fun and active for National Running Day!!

Can You Feel The Heat?

Today was my first "long run" for the half training. A 4 mile run. Can't be too bad, right? Wrong! The high today was 92 degrees, occurring at 3:45pm. Would you like to know what time I ran today?? Oh, around 3:30pm. No, I have not lost my mind, (well, you know...) I have a couple of reasons why I ran so late. First off, I generally try to get my runs in early in the morning. The earlier, the better. However, Shane and I got to talking last night about the trail and his concerns for my safety and I kinda decided that I didn't want to run at 7am. It is rather lonely and deserted on the trail. I could have run later, but Shane had an interview today at 9:30am and that kinda trumps my run. So, I could have run at 10:15 when he came back, but today was registration at the dance studio and they closed at 11am. Therefore, you see my problem. 

So, while we were already out, I decided that if I am going to have to start having accurate mileage no matter where I run, I needed to break down and buy a GPS watch. It's nothing fancy, it doesn't even have a HRM or anything, but it does the job. Well, it will do the job a little better when I can operate it with complete ease.

It's a Soleus GPS 1.0--I would have gotten the pink one, but Shane protested

We also went grocery shopping for the next 2 weeks. This put us home at around 2:30pm and Shane had to be at work at 5pm. So, after a long lecture on dehydration from Shane, I set out to run my 4 miles and get it over with. I really don't want to do any of the long runs on the treadmill if I can help it. The half isn't going to be on a treadmill and I need to stay conditioned to the outside.

Thank God there wasn't much humidity today or I probably would have keeled over! It was hot as HELL!!!!! I stretched and loaded up my belt and got ready. I had the GPS and the HRM on my wrist (yes, I looked like a douche). I hit the start button on them both and took off. Ok, a few minutes in and I realized that the GPS watch was giving no distance readings. Crap!! Then, I realized that there are 2 different start buttons to hit. I was unwilling at that point to go back and start my mileage over, so I'm actually not too sure of just how far I ran today. I'm pretty sure it wasn't completely 4 miles. From the point I started it to the turn around and stop, it read 3.51miles. It was probably closer to 3.7 and that was fine by me!! I think I would have passed out if I had gone the full 4. I know that the next thing I need to add to my running gear is a water transport system. I won't lie and say that I ran a lot of those 3.7 miles, it was probably closer to a mile or mile and a half run and I walked the rest. Even my fingers were sweating! I was a little concerned because toward the end, my fingers started swelling and turning red. I have no idea what caused it, but I definitely did not like it. I was super happy to get home and into the shower, not to mention down a Gatorade. 

I hope I don't have to run in the heat like that again and I really miss my running buddy. I never thought about how much safer I feel with someone else there.

Busy Day!

Last night, before bed, I read some more of City of Lost Souls. It is getting better. I actually tore through several chapters before falling asleep. I'm about halfway finished, so maybe it's taken a turn for the better.

Today was the busiest day EVER!!! We started the day by dropping Gabriel off for his last day of Pre-K. Then, we had to head over to Evelyn's check-up at the pediatrician. The paperwork for that seemed to take forever!! She had a really good check-up, though. She can answer 4 year old questions and is in the 50th percentile in both weight and height. Now, if we could just get her potty trained!!

After the Dr, we stopped for biscuits and then headed home. We really only had about 20 minutes of time at home before we had to leave again to pick Gabriel up from school. We let the kids play on the playground for quite a while until we had to leave, yet again, for my optometrist appointment. I've never had my eyes dilated before, but they were today. I can tell you that it was not a fun experience. I really didn't like not being able to read and the light sensitivity (especially the sunshine) was awful. My eyesight has only changed slightly and I was happy to get new frames. You know, the kind that don't pinch my nose!! I should have them sometime next week. Shane's appointment was right after mine and so we left the optometrist two slightly-blinded people with two children in tow.

The balloon release

The last scheduled event of the day was Gabriel's graduation from pre-k. It was a carnival themed event. The kids sang some songs and got diplomas. Gabriel got an award for "most energetic" which translates to me as, "least likely to sit still." They released balloons and there was a small reception afterward with cupcakes. We stayed around long enough to be social with the other parents and the teachers.

Don't you just love pictures where everyone is looking all over the place?!

My best friend, Missy, came to the graduation with us, so after the party, we went out to eat at Chili's. It was nice to catch up since we don't get to see each other much. We had a great dinner and then we went home.

I had a free RedBox code texted to me earlier in the day, so we stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home to rent a movie. As much as I love getting free rentals, I do hate that everyone gets them on the same day and so you can never have a great selection unless you go right when you get the code. Either way, I rented The Woman In Black with Daniel Radcliff. Shane seems to think I have a fondness for psychological thrillers, but in reality, there wasn't much of a selection to choose from. So far, it's not too bad of a movie.

Turns out that I'm watching it alone because Shane's eyes are still dilated and he came home and went straight to bed like the kids!! I didn't get a chance to fit in my second training run for this week, so I guess I'll be trying my luck at 4 miles on Saturday morning with only one run this week under my belt. I think it will be OK, though. At this point, I'm pretty used to 3 miles...what's one more?