cloud 9

I'm on cloud 9, y'all.  I just had the best run EVER!  As I whined in my past couple of posts, my September mileage has royally SUCKED with this past week being no exception.  I had little hope for today's 9 miler.  I don't know what happened to this once glass-half-full girl.  Apparently you take me out of my comfort zone and stick me in my running shoes and I lose all confidence.

I still didn't get the 7 or 8 hours of sleep I had hoped for, though I did at least turn my ringer off early on in the evening so as to not be disturbed.  I'm just terrible about getting proper sleep.  BAD KIM!  I did get about 6 1/2 hours.  For breakfast I ate a hard boiled egg, a whole wheat English muffin with reduced fat cream cheese, and a banana.  I brought along some Clif's Shot Bloks with me in case I needed a pick me up, and I headed out the door.

I wasn't sure where we were headed on this run as it was our first time hitting 9.  When they described the plan, I expressed concern over getting lost since I'm so much slower than everyone and since I have a penchant for getting lost.  A lot of my running mates have been on this team in the past, so they know the route.  Everyone was supposed to run a warm-up lap at the park before heading out, so my coach suggested that I run that warm-up lap later and go ahead and head out of the park so that by the time the rest of the group catches up with me, they will be able to guide me through the tricky areas.  It was the perfect plan and it worked!  I only got a little lost after they passed me, but I figured it out and made it work!  ha!

Here's the best part of it all...I ran the entire 9 miles without walk breaks!  I stopped once at mile 6.25 for a bathroom stop and then I had a couple of water stops, but they were quick sips and go...NO WALKING!  I averaged 13:29 - not great, but below the 13:45 marathon pace cap.

My last lap was a timed one, as always.  One of my teammates was still hanging around and offered to run it with me.  I warned her how much slower I was and she said no worries...she would use it as a cool down, so we talked...or rather I tried to talk while she talked normally for my last remaining 1.27 miles.  I actually managed to take 12 seconds off my time from last week.  Not bad for having added 2 miles since last week, either!

Confidence temporarily restored!  Cloud 9 feels pretty darn good!  I hope this weather sticks around as I suspect it had a lot to do with my success.  It's yet another reason why I need to make the transition to morning weekday runs.

Helloooooo October

So, September wasn't a good mileage month for me.  It all started with the headaches that plagued me for a week in the beginning of September.  Then I was plagued with the food poisoning for a week in the middle of September.  Then I was plagued with the depression for a week at the end of September.  So much for September.  Bye, Bye, Bye in the infamous words of *N Sync.

I used to be a fan club member.  It used to be a joke...sorta...maybe, well perhaps I liked to pass it off as a joke, but my friend Laura and I knew the truth.  She was a member too cuz I gifted her the membership.  We were both closet card carrying members.  Oh how we loved our boy bands.  It all started with Boyzone - a barely-known-in-the-U.S. Irish boyband that we had a slight obsession with after seeing them on a PBS special tribute to Andrew Lloyd Weber.  Then we moved onto *N Sync.  Those were the days...

One thing is for sure...October is gonna blow all other months out of the water where mileage is concerned.  I will have 55 miles accumulated in my long runs alone.  This is already 12 miles more than August and not taking any weekday mileage into consideration.  Let's go ahead and set a goal for me, shall we?  Let's make it an 85 mile month.  I am training for a marathon, after all!  I know this isn't a lot compared to some of you out there, but as a wise woman (That Pink Girl) pointed out to me on my last blog post - how many miles was I running this time last year?!  Uh huh...Exactly!  I've come a long way, my little lovebugs, so I'm gonna start focusing on that achievement and stop being such a negative nelly when sTuFf happens.

You know what else?  I have my second half marathon this month - October 24th!  How exciting is that?  This time I know what 13.1 feels like.  This time I have a time to beat.  This time I'm on my home turf!  Bring it Houston Half - I'm so gonna be ready for you!

I also have a little trip thrown in the mix.  My cousin Rachel is getting married!  My family is flying out to Scottsdale, AZ next weekend for the celebration!  She picked out a super swanky hotel for the festivity, but more on that later!  Yes, yes...since I will be missing my 10-miler with my running group, I will need to run it in Scottsdale.  No worries, though, as I have already started working on my plan of action for that puppy, but more on that later, too!

One more fabulous thing is happening this month...do you know what that is???  Meliska and Greggy-D will be welcoming their little bundle of joy!  I, personally, can't wait to meet the little fella!  I remember when they first told me the news that they were expecting - it's one of my favorite memories of our friendship!

So cheers to October - I just know it's going to be a fabulous month!

What's going on for you this fall???

the whine

Ho hum, ho hum....I'm not really ready for this 9 miler on Saturday.  I've not been a good runner this week.  I've kinda been in depression mode.  It happens from time to time.  My weekend didn't help matters.  I should have bounced back when my car problem was solved for significantly less money than I had feared.  I should have bounced back when my all too generous parents insisted on buying me a new dryer to replace the one that broke because I refused to let them pay me back for the groceries I bought them to replace the ones I ruined with the whole refrigerator fiasco.  I should have bounced back when Autumn finally showed up in Houston (if only in the mornings and after the sun has set). 

Shoulda woulda coulda.  It's just a mood.  It will pass. 

I didn't run on Monday after work because I was in a bad mood.

On Tuesday, I was all geared up and headed out the door when my cell rang.  It was a work call - a problem - and it took over an hour to fix.  Once it was fixed, there was about 10 minutes left of day light. 

On Wednesday (yesterday), I headed out for what I had hoped would be at least 4 miles, but ended up being only 2.5.  About 2 miles into my run, I had to go to the bathroom.  I headed home to take care of business with the intention of finishing my run when I was through.  The dogs were whining, so I put them out.  I got a drink, I let them back in...then voila - it was dark.  This whole early darkness thing is taking its toll on me, I think.

I ordered my head lamp and my flashing safety light.  They will be here on Friday.  I think I need to switch to morning running.  It feels much cooler out in the mornings still than it does in the evenings.  Whatever happens during the day doesn't get to affect my morning run and I wouldn't have the weight of the day holding me down.  I want to make this transition for next week.  It would mean getting up early again which means going to bed early again.  That's the tough part.  I'm so bad about going to bed early...about getting the necessary sleep.  Sleep and hydration are two of my biggest issues.  *sigh* 

Oh and when I did settle down after my run, my knees ached so bad.  It wasn't my usual runner's knee issue, so I think it was related to the changing weather.  My knees are fickle that way.  They have been that way for years - ever since I've had my surgeries.   Thankfully when I woke up this morning, the aching was gone.

Okay, I'm done being a whiner.

At least my audio book is REALLY REALLY GOOD.  It's called Hide by Lisa Gardner.  I find myself purposely driving around at any given opportunity to listen to it.  I'm getting into this whole audio book thing.  I'm even contemplating downloading one onto my iPod and listening to a book while I run.  I have an email out to my friend Greggy-D to get his thoughts on this since I know he has done it before.  Sometimes I blank out when I run and don't even listen to the music playing in my ear, though, so I wonder if I would do that while listening to a book?  I would have to switch out my shuffle for my nano so that I would have the option of going back to music if necessary.  So many thoughts going through my head...

On a whole different note, we are moving a customer this week with the last name that is the same as the city he is moving to.  How odd is that?  Just to make matters more interesting, Jay did research and discovered that the city's founder and our customer have the same name.  They merely roamed the earth 215 years apart from one another.  I had the move coordinator ask the customer if he was related to the city's namesake (cuz you know how we are stalkers) and found out that it's purely coincidental, but that the customer fully intends to use his last name to his advantage.  Jay and I demand a recount (or...um...at least a DNA sample) because this is just too weird of a coincidence.

Oh...and this morning, I accidentally sprayed my hair with spray deodorant instead of hairspray.  I was just glad it didn't turn my hair white.  It was kinda funny.
Okay, that's all I have for you for now.  Enjoy your evening and my apologies for all my whining.

oh Coco (and I ain't talking about Chanel)

As I'm sure you've caught on by now, when my parents travel, so do I - to their house to dogsit.  Don't feel sorry for me.  Really.  It would just embarrass both of us.  Me for seemingly complaining (because it's really all for show) and you for not knowing that I'm just being dramatic for entertainment purposes.  =P

This past weekend was slightly unique because an extra dog got thrown into the mix.  Normally it's just my two rugrats plus the Oliver.  Younger sister Linda and her husband Craig had planned a weekend getaway, however, BEFORE my parents had planned on their own little last minute jaunt.  This meant I inherited the responsibility of watching the Coco. 

On Friday, Linda called me on her way home from work.  To be honest, Linda calls me almost everyday on her way home from work, so this was not out of the ordinary.  I just wasn't able to talk to her because my dad and I were talking, so I told her I would call her back.  About 30 minutes later, she called the office number asking to speak to our dad.  Um...rude, but okay, so I made him go take care of her which ended my conversation with my father.  Their conversation was brief and shortly thereafter, I headed out the door, calling Linda as I left.  I asked her if they had left the house yet and she said they were backing out of the driveway right then.  I asked if she wanted to meet me somewhere and I would take Cocopuff over to my parent's house.  She said she had asked my dad (that's why she had called) if they could drop her off at the office and he could bring her home, but he told her it would be closer to Lake Charles for her to bring Coco to the house herself.  She also told me she didn't want to inconvenience me.  How in the world can it be closer??? What inconvenience?!  My dogs were at my parent's house, so I had to go retrieve them anyway (for the one night).  We agreed to meet up at Walmart and then they did the drop off and headed on their way.  Coco was so sweet in the car.  She rode to my parent's house in the passenger seat, so calmly...so unlike my own beasts.  I prefer to remember her like that instead of who she became when around The Others.

I'm thankful my parents got to witness the domination that occurred under Coco's regime.  This way nobody (and by nobody, I mean Linda) could accuse me of making up stories.  Basically, she was a bone hoarder and an instigator and got put on time out (sent to the cage) while the other dogs got to frolic and play. 
Saturday night was our only night all together...5 little monkeys sleeping in a bed.  Oh yeah...it was like that.  You see, we all know I begrudgingly admit my two little love muffins sleep with me.  Oliver splits his time between his dog bed and my parent's bed, so naturally when I dogsit, he does the same...half the time he is in his dog bed and half the time he is up on the bed with us.  Coco sleeps with Linda and Craig.  So...who was I to disappoint all the dogs?!  Poor blind Penelli just wanted to sleep.  Oliver just wanted to lay his big giant head on some part of my body and the other two...well let's just say I'm shocked one of them just didn't pee on me to claim me as their own.  There was a lot of yelling, there was some growling, there were some threats of caging and eventually everyone settled down.

I did have some funny moments to share from our weekend together and even some pictures!  First of all, both Delilah and Coco are caged when the humanoids leave the premises.  My parents keep a cage at their house and whoever is there gets to use it, but with both D and C over there, I had to bring my cage over there for when I was out galivanting around. The funny thing was that Coco would go into my parent's cage first and then Delilah would join her as opposed to going into her own.  That's a lot of dog for one cage.

I caught a couple of pics of Coco and her bone hoarding.  She was so concerned with one of the dogs stealing her bone while she was eating that she brought it into the laundry room with her and then put the bone inside her food bowl while she ate around it.

Here is a pic of her bone hoarding in case you didn't believe me.

Here is a pic of Oliver.  It was hard to come by as every time I tried to take his picture, he would get up and walk away or turn his head.  He was playing hard to get, so this one is a little blurry.

Then there is the Delilah.  It's a very up close and personal picture because she was...well...um...up close and personal.  Sometimes she thinks she is a lap dog.  =/

And then last, but not least, there is my sweet Penelope.  I find this picture to be so precious!  I'm not sure why I can't right side up the picture...I've tried, but it still posts it like this.  Oh well!

Okay, I'm done discussing dogs (for now).

Making a Menu, let's start with quiche

I've gone way too long without losing any weight (I have maintained, though, thankfully).  I know I mention it here and there.  Now it's starting to bother me.  I haven't deserved to lose any, mind you, so I'm not complaining in that "I'm doing everything I can and it's not coming off" kinda way.  I've let stress get to me.  I've let poor planning lead to poor decisions.  I've confused improper hydration for hunger.  BUT, that was all yesterday.  Today is a new day. 

Last night, after I finished restocking my parent's refrigerator (as a result of one of the weekend's incidents), I got back into the spirit of my menu.  That is to say...I continued with my plan of preparing food for the week.

I started off by making some guacamole.  This will be used for my lunches.  I bought some La Tortilla Factory whole wheat (lots o' fiber) tortillas and my plan is to have guacamole, spinach, turkey roll-ups.  I will eat this with a side of veggies - sliced cucumbers and colored peppers - and I'm thinking of having some strawberries and maybe a Kroger Carb-Master yogurt.  I made my guac (though I didn't think to take pictures) with avocados, fresh squeezed lime juice, diced tomatoes, diced white onion, minced garlic, and Adobo seasoning.  I pretty much have an Adobo addiction, by the way.  I use it on just about everything.  My mom thinks I'm nuts because then everything tastes the same, but I beg to differ.

Next came the quiche.  Since starting South Beach (well over a year ago), I always make my quiches crust-less.  Normally I put meat in them, but this time I decided to go veggie.  I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, diced up white onion and tomato, and then sliced some mushrooms.

 

I whisked 4 eggs in a bowl and then I added 1/4 or so of Light Mayo and whisked that in.  Now it looks kinda clumpy, but that's okay.  Next, I added in 1 1/3 cup of reduced fat Mexi-blend cheese.  Finally, the onion and tomato were tossed in.  Oh, but wait...and I seasoned it all up with...YES, YOU GUESSED IT...Adobo.  Take that, Mom!  =P

I took a corningware round dish and sprayed it with Pam and then threw in some Spinach and the sliced mushrooms.

Then I added the egg, cheese, onion, tomato mixture on top and put it in the oven on 350 degrees for an hour.



Once it came out of the oven, I remembered I hadn't had dinner yet and decided a slice of quiche isn't just for breakfast, so I divided the dish into 4 servings and had me a piece.  Delish!

So, breakfast this morning is a slice of this little piece of heaven, a banana, and a handful of almonds. 

Some dinners being planned for this week include - shrimp & oatmeal (a play off of shrimp and grits) and fig pizza.  Both ideas taken off of blogs.  I'm getting gourmet experimental and it feels good.

What's on your plate?

flush this weekend down the toilet

I did not have a very good weekend.  It makes me sad to think about it because usually I wish the week away to get to my beloved weekend.  Honestly, Monday couldn't have come fast enough.  How sad is that?!

It all started Friday night...er...Saturday morning.  AND that makes me mad because I had a really nice Friday evening with my parents.  They were in between out of town trips and my mom had invited me over for dinner.  I dined with them on grilled steak, brussel sprouts (don't judge me), and a baked sweet potato, and then we watched tv together.  Granted, they were catching up on shows that I had already seen, but it was nice mommy, daddy, Kimby time, so I loved it.  I finally went home and caught up on Mafia Wars and Sorority Life for a bit and then went to bed way too late - around 11:30.  This meant 6 hours of sleep before my scheduled 7 miler with my running group the next day.  I don't really want to get into too many details, but let's just say there was an hour of unpleasantries from 1:30am to 2:30am dealing with unexpected and unwelcomed text messages from someone in my past and then follow-up repetitive doorbell rings (5 to be exact) which meant dogs barking and chaos before that someone finally bought a clue and left me alone.  I'm thinking alcohol was involved.  Regardless, I was upset, angry, tired, rattled, annoyed and this meant it took me a while to go back to sleep.  Needless to say, my 5:30am alarm went off way too soon.

My 7 miler turned out to be 7.5 miles and I kinda cheated at that.  I took one little short-cut otherwise it would have been about 8.25 miles.  I never claimed to be an over-achiever and since the schedule said 7, by golly...they were lucky to get 7.5 out of me.  This time we left the park and so this time I got a little lost.  I had to ask a park employee on a golf cart to help me.  =/  I'll know for next time.  It was challenging because it was quite humid out and when the sun came out, it came out with a vengeance and I forgot my visor.  The good news is that this little cool front that came through is supposed to last through this coming weekend, so my 9 miler coming up should be under better conditions.  After my run, I went home to shower and get ready for lunch.  I waited a bit and text my sister where we were going and she text me back that they weren't going.  Well they were the only ones in town, so it hurt my feelings.  I text her back with "ok" and a minute later she called me and apologized and said she felt bad, but that they could eat with me if we went somewhere a little later and if they ate something light cuz they had plans later that afternoon.  I told her I had already eaten.  She said, "in the last minute?"  I said yes.  I was clearly pouting (and lying).  She apologized again and I accepted her apology and so we had family lunch after all at ol' faithful BJs.  I then set out on some of my errands.  There was the library, then there was birthday present shopping for several birthdays - Lauren's, Cathy's, and my dad's.  I didn't finish buying all the presents.  I went back to my house to get my dogs and bring them to my parent's house and I threw something in the dryer really quickly (you know, to iron it) and accidentally broke it...the dryer.  How?  Well, about 8 years ago or so, the knob broke off that you turn to start the dryer.  No worries, I just use a plyers to turn on the dryer.  Well after years of doing this, I snapped off the little thing I was using the plyers on.  Now, it appears, I have no means of turning my dryer on and off.  Can you hot wire a dryer?  =/  So, I gathered my belongings and my pups and headed to the parentals' house.  I got the dogs all settled and then went to get a pedi.  Afterwards, I went back to the house to get ready for Lauren's bday party.  When I headed out to leave, I noticed a river of transmission fluid beneath my car.  That can't be good.  =/  I ended up taking my mom's car to the party. 

I had lots of fun at Lauren's.  I got to finally see my Meliska - it has been ages!  I got to finally see Lauren - it has been since the Bearkat Bash.  I got to meet some friends of Lauren's - all super nice.  I hope they weren't uber annoyed with all of our running speak!  I left there and went home after 11pm.  I was exhausted.

On Sunday, I was kinda lazy most of the day.  I just had a nail appointment at 1pm, so I did that.  Then I went grocery shopping cuz I planned a killer menu for the week.  I brought all the groceries to my parent's house.  I stuffed everything into their fridge and then watched Lifetime movies for the rest of the night.

This morning when I woke up, I noticed the fridge was open.  Everything inside was warm.  My fresh mozarella cheese I had just bought, my other shredded cheese, my shrimp, my turkey lunch meat, my ham, my yogurt, my eggs, all of my parent's stuff - RUINED!  I told my dad I was replacing everything when he called me this morning.  He told me not to, but I am...well most things, at any rate. 

I had to come home and wait for the tow truck to get here, so while waiting I cleaned out the refrigerator and made a list of what I need to buy.  Speaking of the tow truck.  I called the repair place at 8am.  They told me they would have a tow truck dude call me to schedule a time with me for the pick-up of my car.  Sure enough, 5 minutes later I got a call from the tow truck dude.  We decided on 9:30am.  I got to the house around 9:15am and started cleaning out the fridge.  At 10:20am, I made a phone call to discover that the tow truck dude had a blow out and will be here in another 30 minutes.  Nice communication.  I don't mind him being late...I mind him being 1.5 hours late without letting me know.  RUDE!  We are already off to a great start. 

At least it's a pretty day.  Too bad I don't have any lunch or dinner cuz my menu is ruined since I don't have any groceries.  I don't have to come home during my lunch break and deal with these mongrels, though, since they are getting their attention now.  Guess who is grocery shopping during lunch?!  Yep...me!  Oye...

Lessons learned:  if the knob breaks off your dryer, replace the knob & don't force things into a refrigerator and hope the door stays shut

How was your weekend?  Hopefully less eventful.

***Update:  Turns out it wasn't transmission fluid, it was coolant or something that is orange.  Transmission fluid is pink.  I guess now I'm color blind.  Whatevs.  So, with the tow (he was 2 hours late, by the way) and the fix, it's a $350 problem solved kinda deal versus the $1000 to $3000 nightmare I was fearing.

****More Update:  I replaced a good portion of my parent's portion of the groceries for $60.  Forget about my groceries...we'll save that for another day.

the power of suggestion

Apparently I'm easily swayed by the power of suggestion.  Who am I kidding?  I'm totally motivated by the thought of another medal with the added bonus of more race experience before my big day.  Funny how my big day used to be a half marathon and now that's small potatoes compared to my BIG DAY full marathon.  This, however, makes me remember how I have a BAD habit of not giving certain things in my life their proper respect.  A half marathon is a HUGE deal.  Two half marathons is a year is fantastic.  What do we think about three?  Yes, that's what I'm talking about here.  My friend Melissa forwarded me an email today about Houston's first all-girl only (no boy's allowed) half mary happening on December 12, 2010 - RunGirl 13.1.  Of course, my initial thought was that there is no way I can do this because of my training schedule with my running group.  My second thought was to look at my calendar and see what my scheduled mileage is on December 11th.  I'm thankful for second thoughts because I discovered it's a "recovery" week and we are only slated to do 14 miles.  Ha!  For the record, after I just typed that I laughed because of the word only.  There is something wrong with looking at 14 miles and thinking of it as only, but considering that the next weekend is a 22 miler, I'm sure you are on the same page with me that 14 miles sounds like a walk in the park in comparison!

I started getting that same feeling - excitement, adrenaline, a little bit of anxiety all mixed together - that I got when I first thought about signing up for my Chicago Rock 'n' Roll half.  I knew this meant one thing....JUST TO IT!  I went ahead and signed up.

So, yeah....the girl who just started running in January...who did her first 5K on January 31st, will be running her 3rd half marathon on December 12, 2010.

The cool thing is that there are 7 weeks from The Houston Half to RunGirl 13.1.  That means 7 whole weeks to track my progress and to strive for improvement.  Then, there are 7 more weeks from RunGirl 13.1 to the Chevron Houston Marathon.    This is just enough time to get my head in the right place, work some more mileage, stabilize my pace, and hydrate!

What's your next race?