Boooooo.

Evidently, when you turn 29, you begin to fall apart. At least that's how it's worked out for me anyway.

It all began on Monday, with a slight sore throat and generally feeling poopy. At this point, it has spiraled into the cold/flu/sinus infection(?) to end all others. I will see a doctor this afternoon. I simply cannot handle one more sleepless night or snot-filled tissue (my whole nose/mouth area is coated in vaseline and is still dry and crispy from all the nose-blowing).

I hope you're all doing better than I.

Hopefully soon, I'll be back to my normal self again, so that I may go back to my regularly scheduled (running) program.

Give Thanks.

I know I haven't been around much lately. I should have written about Saturday's fantastic 4 miler! But, with the holidays and work and... you understand... Anyway, the slow running show is going on the road again. Back to Tennessee, friends, to visit family this time around. I do intend on getting some more running done while I'm there (I have to take advantage of their thick air while I can!)...

I intend to visit with family and friends, and perhaps slip into a food coma at some point. I'll get to visit my very own nephew, who I haven't seen in nearly a year (I am so ashamed) and my brother and sister-in-law. I'll get to spend time with my parents and their pets, in the house where I used to live. I'll get to visit with grandparents and aunts and uncles and the weather will be mild and splendid. It'll be like a trip back to September, for running purposes at least. And, at the end of it all, I have to turn 29. 29 on a Sunday.

29.

Jeesh. I'll have to re-visit this topic later, I can already tell...

So, believe me, I know how easy it is to be cynical at this time of year. It's really easy to complain about how radio stations play Christmas music non-stop and about how your neighbor has had their lights up for 2 months already... It's easy to get angry at how commercial things are... It's easy to be angry about traffic and shopping and anxiety over not knowing what to buy...

But, because I have enough anxiety (did I mention, 29?) already, and because this is actually my very favorite time of year, I am going to try to focus on what I have, rather than what I lack. On who I am, rather than who I want to be.

I wish you all a very pleasant holiday.

Oh. My. God. Becky. Look at her butt.

This is going to be quick because I just worked for about 12.5 hours today, so I can hardly stand to even look at the computer right now.

However, I heard a story on the radio this morning that was just too good to pass up. Coincidentally, this story was squeezed between "All Christmas Music, All the Time" which started yesterday, NOVEMBER 12---but that is a story for another time.

Apparently, a recent study was conducted in which the shape of girls bodies were studied along with their brain activity. The findings showed that girls with a large difference between waist circumference and hip circumference had more brain power than their less curvy (nay, skinny) counterparts.

In other words, curvy girls be smart!

I like big butts, and I can not lie.

Obviously, this is HUGE news for me. All this time, I've been trying to get my butt to shrink. I thought my not-small butt was just there to annoy me and make me look ridiculous in jeans! I had no idea trying to make it wither away would adversely effect my brainpower!

No, not really... I knew all along that brains*beauty = a universal constant. It's nature's way of making it up to all of us who were "blessed" with curves. "OK, here you go, that's one super-sized badonkadonk butt with a side of 1600 SAT." Thanks for that one, Universe!


Be sure to check out Pokey's race report! She just finished her first Half Marathon! Congrats, Pokey!

This morning's 6AM run was pretty fantastic, folks. I might turn into a morning runner after all. But my Garmin died... perhaps it was threatened by my earlier post? More on this later.

I'm not sure I want you talking to me...

Lately I've been doing a lot of blog reading (and not as much running as I should be doing), and our good friend Vanilla has just bought himself a lovely Garmin Forerunner. I wear my own forerunner religiously, and I get VERY ANGRY when I forget to charge the battery or have some other ridiculous technical difficulty recording my run.

That being said, I think my Garmin would be more effective if the Virtual Parter came with a few pre-programmed options rather than just the typical "beep-beep-beep":



Having my watch shout insults at me would certainly be more effective in encouraging me to move faster than that annoying beep. But, I may just get angry and throw it into the woods.

The sad thing is, if my Garmin could talk, it'd be telling tales on me for sure. It'd probably talk all about the entire week that it stayed safely in its drawer, not once getting out to feel the cool breeze across its face... (I did mention this little week-long hiatus, but I was hoping no one noticed)...It'd basically have its own little stand-up act going, talking about my latest attempts at running.

Sad, but true.

Today I drove to a nice park near home to do a "2 hour run". Yeah... it ended about "1 hour in". I was very disappointed, and I feel like I've let myself down a bit. I admit that my running schedule has been a bit relaxed lately, and I think it has to do with a couple of things:

1. I need a goal. I had a goal when I was working with the team. Now my goal/plan is all up in the air... it isn't good for me.
2. SoxFan is still injured... This is a pretty poor excuse, I know, but he keeps me running on nights when it's cold and dark and I just don't feel like it.

And I don't especially like the revelations that today's run brought me to, honestly. The fact is, it wasn't ever the team, it was just me. I could do it! I could do it because I was putting in the miles, and I was improving. And it wasn't ever SoxFan. Sure it is great to have a running buddy to keep you going, but it was always just my body and my legs doing it. So when the time came for me to "leave the nest", so to speak, I feel like I've fallen flat, because I felt like I needed the team or SoxFan to be able to do it. And in reality, I don't. It's only up to me.

So this week, I'm going back to basics. I'm leaving the Shuffle at home for the hypnotic sound of steady breathing and running shoes on asphalt. I'm running my old school route, the one I've run a thousand times. Somehow I've got to shake this huge psychological barrier that has been thrown up in front of me ever since I left the team.

Best of luck to Pokey, who's out running her very first Half-Marathon tomorrow!

And on the 1st day, she ran on water.

Woohoo! And I'm back on the running train (after a quick week off to mourn my divorce from TNT, sadface).

Despite the frigid (ok, that's a bit of a stretch) temperatures in Denver, I ran home from work today. I'm not sure it was worth the trouble, as I ended up running in the dark on a road with many potholes and no shoulder into oncoming traffic uphill both ways in 6 feet of snow.... nevermind the fact that I had to catch a ride into work today with ol' Brokelegs McSoxFan and now I have to drive to his house to pick up my work clothes and such.

The run wasn't terrible, though, once I got started. It was only about 3 miles, but weeknights are for short runs, right? I am happy with my nifty new UnderArmor shirt (with super awesome thumb holes so my sleeves stay in my gloves). I had a nice pace the entire time, though I forgot to hit the lap button after my initial "walk for 7 minutes" routine (argh). I swear, I could qualify to play MLB based on my capacity to adhere to superstitious rituals alone!

When I got home, I finally remembered to upload my Garmin.

I can say with all honesty: despite appearances, I did not do my 4 mile run on Sunday in Chatfield Reservoir, as shown. I think I heard a story once about someone walking on water, but I promise, it wasn't me.

And, last but not least, I have discovered yet another hilarious blog for you all to enjoy. It is not running/sports related, it is simply hilarious and great for making you snort at work. And it appears to have a HUGE number of readers, so if I'm just now stumbling across something that everyone else heard about last year, please forgive my ignorance and let the finger-pointing and laughter commence.

That'll be $6 + the remaining part of your joy, please.

First, I have to apologize to SoxFan. The poor guy is still crutching around, and his ankle/foot now looks like someone made a balloon out of a latex glove. Except it's purple. And yellow. And a bit green. And he just sort of limps around on it in this terribly pathetic way (which may or may not be a ploy to make me feel guilty for poking fun at him last week), so I'm feeling guilty for poking fun at him last week. It definitely is not broken. After I wheeled him into several walls at the doctor's office, he finally had an x-ray to verify that.

So, due to my recent divorce from the TNT team, and since my nightly running partner is on the DL, my nightly runs have been dwindling. I am leaning toward shifting my focus from Phoenix to Nashville (maybe 13.1 m in Phoenix and 26.2 m in Nashville?) This inserts an extra 3 months into my training time, so I am also in need of a new training plan.

For the time being, I'm planning to stick to my TNT training schedule as best as I can, though I don't want to overdo it if I'm currently training for the HM in Phoenix. But, if my ultimate goal is the FM in Nashville, should I train for that and treat the HM in Phoenix as a training run? Who has the answers to these questions?

Even though my running life is in complete disarray and the disorganization of it all is about to KILL me... I did manage to go for a run yesterday. I did 4 miles in just over an hour at Chatfield State Park. Note to self: Do not pay the $6 to get into Chatfield State Park so that you can run on their concrete trails-o-torture using their useless-drawn-by-a-5-year-old map (unless of course you enjoy being lost). The idea was to do 2 hours and 8 miles... Obviously this attempt was a massive failure. Oh well... a poopy 4 mile run is better than no run at all, right?

Making the run slightly more enjoyable was the addition of my fancypants new running fuel belt. It's the greatest. It goes like this:

***You're running... you're running... you're... THIRSTY... no sweat, you have water and your favorite gatorade flavor right here on your hip! ***

No more running "just another 2 miles" to water. It's RIGHT THERE WITH YOU! No more carrying sharp little pointy packages of GU in your sports bra. That's what this HANDY DANDY LITTLE POCKET is for. Ah, the joys of new running gear. Coming soon: NEW SHOES!