And so it begins

Last Friday, I registered for the Twin Cities Marathon. It's in the works, baby!

Saturday, I was scheduled to run 9 miles. And suprisingly, I did! Wasn't really feeling it when I got there in the morning, but decided to head out and see how I felt, it was going to be an out and back run. Ran the first 3.5 with a couple of women who were going to do 7, then actally caught up with another group that I knew was planning 9. We were pacing somewhere around 11 minute miles, which felt really comfortable, and I was good with that.

Turned around, we were all chatting and having a good time, and at about mile 6, I decided I wanted to push it a little more. I pretty much finished up the last couple of miles doing a 10 minute mile pace. Which pretty much made my day. And the best part: I was totally good the rest of the day - a lot of times when I do longer runs, I tend to crash and nap in the afternoon - and I didn't do that! Score!

I have a good training plan put together, which will encorporate both bicycling and running. I just have to prepare myself when I travel to put the bike in the back of the truck! Totally didn't get in the mid-week bicycle ride this week.

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On assorted other news - my mom and aunt met with my grandmother's doctor, and after grandma had told us that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's I guess the meeting went really well - if she does indeed have Alzheimer's, it is in the very beginning stages, and should be controlled with the medication she is now on. I hate to say it, but this grandmother has always been a bit of a confused lady, and what probably happened when the Dr. initially talked to her was that she told Grandma that it was possible that it was Alzheimer's.... and all she heard or understood was that it WAS Alzheimer's.

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I'm frustrated with Eric. I feel like the cranky mom more and more lately.... pick up your stuff, put your laundry away, and quit spending money you don't have. I got mad at him again last night... a couple of weeks ago, he spent about $500 on some more "fishing" items. Out of the joint account. Money that I had counted on to pay some bills. So I had to do some financial tap dancing, again. I was traveling at the time, and when I saw it on the bank statement, I spent about 20 minutes "yelling" at him on the phone (If you know me, I get more and more quiet when I'm angry...) with me basically telling him: Quit. Spending. Money. You. Don't. Have. And last week, he put another $150 on a credit card I had told him not to use anymore. So he paid $90 on the balance... It keeps going the wrong way. And I don't know what to do. And it seems that he just can't return any of the stuff he bought. How convenient.

So right now, I have a bunch of Post-it notes with the amounts we owe in diffrent areas (truck, boat, HELOC, Credit Cards) and they are on the bedroom mirror. So he can have a reality check on what we actually owe, instead of him having no clue, since he doesn't ever think about it.

And the credit cards are all put away, and hidden where he doesn't know where they are. Same with the "emergency" stash that he keeps dipping into because he is overspending his weekly "allowance". Yes, my husband has an allowance. It was one of the ways that we decided would help him manage money - I have no say about what he spends that on... because you have to have some money for that sort of thing...

Can you tell I'm about at the end of my rope? I told him last night I was thinking about disowning him. (Somewhat in jest... but you know....) He and his ex-wife many years ago went through a bankrupcy. You would think he would not want to go there again, and I'm scared that we are headed there if I don't get things under control.

On that note, I need to shower and go to work - We owe, we owe so off to work I go.

~a

A plan

My running coach sent me a training plan for the next three months. I didn't have the nerve to open it up to look at it. I think I'm kinda scared. But I am gonna look at it. And follow it.

Related to that... it was a long day, but I didn't let that be an excuse not to exercise. Even after getting in my truck at 6:15 this morning, driving 2.5 hours for a day of work meetings (form 9 to 4) then driving back and getting home, oddly at about 6:15 this evening. I put on my running clothes and went out. the thought in my head was an easy 3. Which actually turned into 4 miles. And even though I was trying to sit back and not push it.... I averaged 10:21 miles.

Sa-weet!

I feel like I have just been a bit of a lump lately, and I needed that.

On that note, time to hit the shower.
~a

Baby's got a new pair of shoes

I bought two new pairs of shoes this weekend, actually. A new pair of running shoes, because I'm gonna need them for marathon training, and our running group got a wonderful discount at the store we were at on Saturday.

And a pair of bicycling shoes. And pedals. Anneke has finally gone clipless, after talking about it for about two years. Eric and I brought my bike to the store on Sunday for them to put on the new pedals, and to have them show me how to get in and out of them on their trainer. Then they had me ride for a bit (on the trainer) and checked the fit of the bike, and looked at the adjustment of the seat and handlebars. And it was spot on. I guess I did something right!!!!

This weekend, I started over, or recommitted, or whatever you want to call it. The scale was creeping up to a scarier place, and it had to stop. I actually spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend, cooking, cleaning, prepping food, and getting rid of some of the crap I have around. I tell ya, sometimes it's hard to stay on track when your husband can pretty much eat whatever he wants with no ill effects.

And I will have a new training plan on Saturday, so there's no looking back.

~a

greetings and salutations

It's definately been a week.

Went for a great run last Monday after work... went and explored another park in my area, and got in about 3 miles. Felt great.

Then the plague set in. Headache, sneezy, stuffed up. Can we say YUK! And I just was feeling sluggish all week.

Good news is that I got up to meet my running group on Saturday morning. I wasn't sure how things would go, but figured if nothing else, I would walk. I ran. Set the pace for the 4 of us in the group, probably doing 11 to 11 1/2 minute miles. And when we had gone about 3.5 miles, we were back a Lake Como, and I decided to kick it up a step. 10 minute miles. For a mile and a half.

Not bad for the sicko who hadn't run since Monday!

I talked to the running coach of the group, and we are going to work on putting together a 6-month plan with the goal of running the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall. We'll put together a 3-month plan, encorporating some bicycling in it (to help prevent another knee injury), then will do a 3-month marathon training plan starting in July. It's gonna happen.

Other than that, things have been kind of quiet around here... work keeps throwing meetings and activities at me that are in town, and I have not gone out of town for work since the beginning of February. I spent two weeks jetting about the country for "fun" but it's been kind of weird not to have gone anywhere for work. And my boss is in town this week, and using my company vehicle to save on rental car costs, so I'm in town all week too. I'm sure things will be starting up soon, but I'm enjoying my time at home!

Eating has been kind of okay - I'm back to almost where I was before all of the vacation. The past two days I have been doing well with all Phase 2 south beach foods, but then I have book club tonight, and I am not sure what will be served. Gotta work it into real life, right? I'll accept it, and move on, and get up and exercise in the morning. No biggie.

On that note, gotta get moving and out of the house.
~a

Crappy food and no exercise make Anneke a cranky girl

Wow.

stepped on the scale this morning, knew it would not be fun, but I needed to get some accountability going. And there it was. It scares me that that number can go up like it does.

I'm guessing the beer and pizza last night didn't help. But that was an end to two weeks of really "eh" eating. And I didn't exercise at all last week.

So what's been going on, you ask? Well, Feb 27th to March 8th we vacationed in Florida, staying with my parents in their 5th wheel for all of that time. I did actually get out and run 4 mornings, and they were all pretty awesome runs - the last one being a little over 6 miles (6.8 according to my garmin) in an hour and four minutes. My best time for a 10 K race is an hour and 4 minutes, and this felt like a easy run for me... in fact I consciously slowed down a couple of times because I thought I was going too fast for a long training run.

Then we were home for 3 days. And then on the 11th, we caught a plane to Atlanta, rented a car, and drove to Columbia, South Carolina, where my stepson was graduating from basic training. We got home yesterday afternoon (the 14th) and having been gone for so long, I didn't want to scrounge through the house for food, and I wanted some non-family interaction, so we had an inprompto pizza night at a local bar.

Ugh. That's about all I can say about that.

Anyway, I know I have not updated in a while. Life has gotten a bit crazy, and I had to give up something, and it was mostly trying to not log on to the computer at night after work (and I can't blog at work).

So other interesting things that have happened in the last month:

My niece won a literary contest. It's a program through the national library of congress where school age children write letters to authors about how reading their book changed their outlook on things. And she won in her age group in the state of Oklahoma, and then it gets reviewed at the national level.

I fell down when I was running one morning in Florida. Kind of scared the crap out of me... I hit a big rock sticking out of the ground with my toe, stumbled, flailed about, figured I was gonna biff, tried to tuck and do as little damage as possible, and ended up landing on my shoulder and hip on my right side. All of my clothing survived, along with my i-Pod, and only scraped up the side of my right hand. I was more shaken up than anything. Which is definately a good thing!

Went to a Twins game in Florida. Spring training, of course. It was fun and a beautiful day to be outside watching a game.

I got my taxes done, and we got refunds from both state and federal. And they are in the bank... okay, so they are gone already (we went on vaction, you know!)

My dad had his 70th birthday. They had a celebration for him in Florida, in the park where they spend two months out of the winter. Mom organized a spagetti feed.

My stepson grauated from basic training - Eric, Eric's mother, and I flew down to attend family day and graduation, and my parents drove up from Florida. Curtis' mother (Eric's ex-wife) and Curt's cousin were also there, and we all spent Thursday (family day) together. It was very weird. As Eric put it, he never thought that he would spend an afternoon bowling with his son, his wife and his ex-wife. And on the last game, both his ex and I bowled a 107.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sure there's more stuff, but I need to get ready to meet a friend - we're going hiking this morning. gonna try to work off some of that beer and pizza!

~a

box of clothes

I have a box of clothes sitting in our spare bedroom.

Mostly pants, all size 14 or larger. They are going to get stored away, and hopefully I will not need them again.

This weekend consisted of a lot of cleaning and organizing. Seriously.

I swept and mopped the kitchen. Cleaned the bathroom. Stripped our bed and the guest bed, washed the bedding and remade the beds. Did 8 + loads of laundry. Organized my husband's closet, including cleaning the floor. Got rid of the dust Rhinos under our bed. Tried on a bunch of clothes, and evaluated if they fit, were too small or too big, and put them away appropriately. Sewed buttons on my husband's shirts. Organized some extra buttons so now if I need one, I can find them easily!

And I cooked.

soup. Chili. muffins. pancakes. eggs. hot cereal. coffee. tea. hot chocolate (no, did not eat all of that, some was for Eric.) I wanted to make some food that I could take with me on the road trip to points west (Northern Minnesota, North Dakota) this week. Pretty much a dog and pony show for work. Woo. Definately no hoo there.

I'm just kind of worried about hotels. I guess there is some sort of Ag convention, and the admin person was having a heck of a time finding us places to stay. Not sure if I'm gonna have a treadmill, and it's supposed to be COLD, so I don't know that I will get outside.

But on a happy note, it appears my appetite has come back. I was worried, actually. How do you eat when your body doesn't crave any food? And you have to eat if you are going to work out, otherwise you have a nasty tendancy to get light headed and pass out... which was my fear this last week - I was in pretty bad shape Thursday after all of my activity (clearing out the snow dam in the driveway - or perhaps it should be called damn snow).

Just wish me luck in ND this week. I hear there are drifts up to 20 feet high. Glad I'm not driving by myself.

~a

Not Hungry

that's me.

And it's kind of weird, and starting to concern me, actually.

I followed my plan yesterday. Made myself a smoothie which I had on the way to the work meetings, and when I was done, I was full. Stuffed actually, which I found a somewhat pleasant suprise, as a lot of times I want a little bit more. Talked to one of the hotel staff, and made sure to order myself a salad for lunch.

Lunchtime rolls around. I'm still not hungry. But since I specially ordered the salad, I thought I should eat some of it. Now usually, I completely clear the plate of food when I get a salad. But this time, I just ate about half. And the diet coke I took to drink with my lunch - didn't finish the can, because I couldn't deal with the extra volume.

that's all I ate yesterday.

And it's Thursday morning, and I'm still not hungry. While I can't deny that not being hungry should really help in the weight loss arena, I know it's not healthy for me.

Not sure what to do now. Other than I'm heading off to work with a packed lunch bag. I might have to force myself to eat something. Scary.

~a

Day 2 BOT

It was a pretty good day yesterday.

The work meetings went pretty well, and I stuck to the plan. On a side note to that: The pants I was wearing yesterday were too big.... I kept trying to tighten the drawstring on the waistband, but they were, yes, too big.

So this morning, I went throught a number of pairs of pants, trying them on, and the ones that were too big got put in a box. I don't know that I am necessarily going to get rid of them - I know I should, so I don't have "something to fall back on" but last time I did that, I had to eventually go out and buy bigger pants. And that also sucked. But right now they are in a box, and will be stored out of sight. Because, you know, sometimes things happen.

Nuff Said.

I think my biggest accomplishment yesterday was running. a little over 3 miles. I wanted to take it somewhat easy, because I have not exercised, I hate to say it, for a week and a half. And it was good. I ran into two folks from my running club there, and me taking it "easy" had me running faster than both of them. Me. I know! Not the slowest one out there! But definately room for improvement.

And I'm considering a gym membership again. A good friend of mine is the lead Personal Trainer at the community center near me, and I just might have to join so I can have her kick my butt on occasion.

Today's food plan:
Breakfast: Smoothie
Lunch: (They are having pizza buffet for lunch at the work meetings) I plan to order a salad off of the restaurant menu. MMMMM Cobb Salad (minus the bacon)
Dinner: Probably Tacos. I have some great Whole Wheat tortillas from TJ's that are South Beach.

~a

"I'm just a stomach flu away from my goal weight"

yep. Watched The Devil Wears Prada this weekend. Funnily enough, as I was couched out with the flu... the whole shebang, nausia, tossing of cookies, headache, body ache, chills. Good times.

I was feeling better yesterday, Monday, so I sucked it up and went to work. And it kind of wiped me out. Last night was another repeat of couch sitting, chills and body aches. Took a hot bath and crawled into bed.

The good news is - I feel almost human this morning. Other than the fact that I'm nervous about eating. Hmmmm, sick, and south beach diet. What do you eat???? Ummmmm, chicken broth, tea, applesauce (no sugar added, of course).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But otherwise, things have been kind of "eh".

I didn't exercise at all last week. It was just too frickin' cold. Didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, where it was warm and toasty. Evenings last week were spent cleaning/organizing as we had our annual party on Friday. "Thank God the Holidays are Over" was a good success. I figure we had somewhere around 50 people show up throughout the evening. and I allowed myself a break from the GADO for the night. Someone brought home-brew porter. I had to have some!

As of this morning, I am down 18 pounds since I started trying to follow SB in October. I'm prettty happy about that, but need to keep going.

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and yes, I know I have not updated in a while. This is what happens when you get new technology that allows you to check email, facebook and blogs without getting on the computer (iPod Touch), when work does not allow you to access blogs, and when the last thing you really want to do when you get home is fire up the work laptop, as it seems that your husband is always on the home computer (as he has no access to the internet at work) when you want to look at something.

I'll try and do better. I need a place to keep myself a little more accountable.

Plan for today:
Smoothie for breakfast
Who knows for lunch - it's a work meeting where they are providing food...
Dinner: Salad, as I have a bunch of lettuce (red, romaine, green leaf) that needs to get eaten up.

and I will be packing my workout bag with me, with plans of running at the Metrodome tonight. I will need to see how the day goes and if I am wiped out again... but I will have my things!

ta
~a

Better, but not perfect

But I can live with the better.

Had dinner out on Saturday, and I stuck to the lean protein (chicken) and ate all of my veggies, some of Eric's veggies, and avoided the bread, the potato and the alcohol. And I did look pretty good if I do say so myself.... I managed to get my hair into a pretty elaborate updo. It only took about an hour and a half...

Sunday, was okay... I ate a couple of SB muffins I had made, and was pretty good, until my friend and I decided to go to the movies. We went to see Valkyrie. It wasn't bad. It was actually quite interesting, and you were still hoping that they were going to succeed with the plan, even though that's not how it ends. Kind of like watching Titanic, actually... you know it ends badly, but you still hold out hope. Oh yeah, and what's a movie without a large buttered popcorn? Not exactly on the South Beach plan. But there could be worse things. And I actually didn't finish the whole thing. I got full and stopped. Chalk one up for me. Okay, half.

Tonight I went to Book Club, where the host had made calzones. So I ate the filling, and a little of the bread (but not much), and drank lots of water. And avoided the box of Christmas goodies that was passed around. I was full, and didn't want anything. Okay, I wanted a cookie with a peanut butter cup in the middle, but I didn't cave in. And I am quite proud.

Since Christmas, I have lost 3 pounds. Nothing earth shaking, but it is a step in the right direction. I now need to not skip two days in a row of exercising. Tomorrow morning, I will get up and ride my bike in the basement. I have stuff on my iPod to keep me amused.

I've been having fun with my new iPod touch. I downloaded some podcasts of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and started to listen to one at work today. After some loud chuckles and snorts, I decided I couldn't do that - my cubicle neighbors might think I was having some sort of episode... and it was hard to concentrate on work.

Eric's gonna be gone this weekend, and I plan to cook up a storm, to get some meals in the freezer for myself, and I am gonna clean, clean, clean, as we are hosting the 12th annual "Thank God The Holidays are Over" party the next weekend. Should be fun as always.

On that note, if I'm going to get up in the morning, I need to be off to bed.

Ta!

~a

New Year

And what would it be without some resolutions? I'm not that big on resolutions, and why do they need to start on January 1st?

How about some goals?

How about one goal?

I want to run a marathon this year.

There's some various assorted things I need to do to get there, which I suppose could be resolutions: Eat better, lose weight, exercise more. but I know I'm not going to reslove to exercise at least 30 minutes each day. Because, you know, life tends to get in the way, and you need to be flexibile, or things are too stressful. Blah, blah, blah.

I'm about ready to hop back on the South Beach bandwagon. I kind of threw things out the window a bit since Thanksgiving. Like drinking too much beer. and eating Christmas goodies. And more wine than is "allowed" on the diet. Yeah. Spent Boxing Day (I work for Canadians...) recovering from my hangover on the couch in the living room. Drank too much wine at my husband's Aunt's house on Christmas, but I think it was the shot of Tequilla that did me in.

So it starts. Eric and I are going to Florida on February 27th. I would like to drop a few more pounds before then, and I want to make some inroads on building up my endurance. So from now until then (8 weeks or so) I am making a vow to not have any alcohol. Partly because of Christmas, but also for the fact that I seem to be drinking more wine to compensate for the sugar I am not eating. Hi. Can we say swapping one addiction for another?

And I'll try to get here more to write. Seems to make me more accountable for some reason. Whatever works, right?

~a

Sugar Hangover

That was me this morning.

After a long day - I caved and stopped at the drive through at McD's and got a small eggnog shake. I remember them from when I used to work there, and I REALLY wanted one.

And I woke up at 4 this morning, feeling as though I had drank too much alcohol. Yep, the dreaded sugar hangover.

So why was it such a long day????

1. Slept on the hide-a-bed Monday night. Mom was in the guest room. Grandma was in our bed. Eric was on the couch downstairs...
2. Eric had to plow snow at 5am. Which meant that he had to get up at 4am. Since he was sleeping on the couch downstairs, I set my phone alarm for 4am, to make sure he was up.
3. Mom and grandma were at the house because my aunt was having surgery on Tuesday. She was having her gall bladder removed, and they had found a mass on one of her kidneys that they were not sure if it was cancerous or not, so they operated to remove the mass from the kidney at the same time (one anesthesia, one incision, all of that)
4. Sat at the hospital for the majority of the day. I left as my aunt was going into recovery, after the doctor gave us an update that the mass was benign, around 5pm. I needed to drive my grandma home, and she lives about a hour and a half away.
5. Drive through rush hour, got grandma delivered home, and headed back. About 8pm, I decided to run through the McD's drive thru. They forgot to give me a straw, but I managed.

Today:
Detox.

~a

Morning

It's amazing how you feel after going for a run in the morning.

I kind of had to talk myself out of bed... but it is a little easier when you are alone in a hotel bed, rather than at home snuggled up with the hubby.

Kind of proud of myself - got up and ran 3 miles this morning on the hotel's treadmill. It's to counteract the 6 hours of driving yesterday. I thought I was looking pretty good in my workout clothes, and headed to the exercise room, where I was able to snag the only treadmill. There was another guy there on the elliptical. And when I was done and leaving he told me: "good job!"

It will keep me going for the rest of the day.

~a

December, already?

Hmmmm. Okay, just a random dump of things:

Thanksgiving was good. Went to my sister's house in Oklahoma. The drive sucked, but what can you do. We drove part way on Tuesday, and stayed with a friend in Kansas City. We went for a run on Wednesday morning, which was good - although she said she was slow. Yeah. Like she runs 9 minute miles slow.... me, I can relax and do 11 minute miles. Got to my sister's at about 12:30 on Wednesday. Drank wine, ate some deserts, but did pretty well sticking to South Beach foods. Good news is: I didn't gain any weight.

We got a new cat. White, male, about 5 months old. Name is Ashland. We are calling him Ash. Eric's mother had him - she rescued him from someone who thought he was too rambunctious, and was going to do something dire. Edie also thought he was a bit too "frisky" so we took him home. Need to train him not to sleep on Eric's head at night. But he's very friendly, mellow, and cute!

Shower. Wasn't done when I took a shower this morning. Eric said he was going to finish it today, but I will believe it when I see it.

My stepson decided on a different career path... he's joining the Army. I guess his sister and brother-in-law talked him into it when they were here at the beginning of November. I think it will do him good, and give him more of a direction. At this point, he's going into avionics repair.

I ran a 5K. I kind of had it in the back of my head that I wanted to run a PR(Personal Record), but after not really doing any training since the half marathon... I didn't. I didn't do too badly either - I ran it in about 30 minutes. 9 1/2 minute miles or thereabouts. My best time is about 30 seconds faster than that.

I signed up to be busier next year. I am going to be on the board of the Jaycees again. Well, as a non-voting member - I'm going to be the secretary. I decided I wanted to be more active, and I thought if I was on the board, it would make me be more involved. It's also that I want to help and support my friend that is going to be president next year.

And that's about all I can think of. Other than I'm still doing pretty well at the South Beach thing. The pants I have been wearing are all too big. But I have a bit more to go before I'm in the smaller sizes that I already own. And I don't want to buy anything that I won't be wearing for that long.

~a

still no shower

but I have a functioning tub. Thank god I can still bathe.

I could do the rest myself... but then Eric would get all cranky on me, that I wasn't doing it properly. I'll give him until the weekend. Then it's my turn.

Went to a Yoga and Cooking retreat last weekend.

First time I've done yoga. Not completely sold on it, but I don't know that it was exactly "intro" level. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing. I felt clumsy, and felt like the instructor was singling me out that I was "doing it wrong". Yeah. Didn't make me want to do it again with that instructor...

And the cooking. Holy carb fest. Yes. I broke. And ate ice cream with home-made hot fudge sauce, chocolate crepes, and carmalized bananas. Topped with candied walnuts. And I had a second helping with a glass of wine.

But my friend and I got up and went for a run on Sunday morning. Well, a run/walk. We went out intending to do the 6 mile loop, but she got a massive charlie horse in her calf at about 2 miles in, so we turned around and walked back. But at least we got out there! I gotta get my rear in gear if I want to do a 5K in a couple of weeks, but it's still crazy at work. I know, excuses...

On that note, I'm off. I'm meeting someone at 7am, and it will take me about an hour to drive there in the morning. The excitement never ends.

~a

Remodelling.

My parents came and stayed for a week.

They only live an hour and a half away, but I asked if my dad could come and (help) fix the hole in our shower wall.

So they came. Dad also brought the power washer, and washed my window trim on the house to get rid of all of the loose and peeling paint. While he worked in the bathroom (taking down tile and drywall, working on some plumbing, putting up new drywall, insulating, glueing up a shower surround) I workd on getting the windows primed and sealed, cooked all sorts of South Beach food and meals with my mother, visited about 12 grocery stores, and made several trips to the hardware store.

It was a busy week.

And yes, I did say South Beach. I'm into my 4th week, and as of Monday, I was down 11 pounds, which puts me into the 170's. My pants fit. I wore a pair of size 12 pants to dinner last night even...

And even though I keep obsessing about food - can I eat this? Ooooh, that looks good, wait, it's not on the "approved" list... it's actually going very well. I'm not having insane cravings.

We will see how it goes when I start logging miles on the work vehicle next week. Driving definately sucks.

On that note, I need to see if the shower surround is ready to be caulked. I want to take a shower!

~a

Vacation

I'm sitting in yet another hotel room.

But I'm on vacation..... and I needed to let my husband nap for a bit before we go out to meet some folks for dinner.

We are in Kentucky, because Eric had a Muskies Inc. meeting here, and I decided I wanted to go with him and hang out. So we flew in to Lexington on Friday, and drove around, in the rain. Stopped at the Daniel Boone National Forrest Visitor center, in the rain. Found our hotel room, in the rain. Went to meet up at the hospitality area, in the rain. And went and got some dinner, again, in the rain. It rained on Friday!

Saturday, I dropped Eric at his meeting, and headed back to the hotel to see what they had for their continental breakfast. Um, donuts, Sunny Delight and Coffee just were not what I was looking for. So I went back to our room, and managed to fall asleep again. When I got up, I was up and out to find one of the hiking trails in the National Park. I hiked for about 3 1/4 hours, and covered about 9 miles. And yes, I was tired...

After that, I noticed that I had missed a call from Eric saying he was done, so I drove straight there, then we went back to the hotel so I could shower. We then went for a drive through more of the National Forrest, then out to dinner and then I was back to the hotel for sleep.

Today, we went out fishing with one of the local Muskies Inc members. And caught nothing. But it was a beautiful sunny, blue skies day out on the water.

Tomorrow, we go home. I hear it's snowing. Yippee.
~a

It's never easy letting go

We had to put Alex (my 15-year old cat) to sleep on Saturday morning.

After I crawled into bed Friday night, I heard her making a very strange noise, and she was laid out on the floor, whezing and unresponsive.

And she never got up. The whezing went away, finally, but she had one pupil much larger than the other, and was just limp. She was breathing, and her heart was beating, but was completely limp and unresponsive. It was about 11:00 at night

I put he into bed with me, and cuddled with her all night, and we took her to the vet in the morning, where they said that it looked like she had had a stroke. And that the best option was to put her down, which was pretty much what we expected.

But it was hard letting go. And as I wander around the house this weekend, I just start thinking about her and crying at odd moments.

Rest peacefully, my kitten. I love you.
~a

Success.

I finished.

8 minutes faster that my PR. (Personal Record) And that is just completely amazing.

Two hours and twenty five minutes.

I had a hard time not crying at the finish line. I owned that race. If you do the math, I averaged 11:01 minute miles. Next time, I will do sub 11-minute miles.

It was a beautiful day for a run. One of those nice crisp, coolish fall days, with sun peeking through the trees on the trail, which were decked out in amazing fall colors. I vascillated on what to wear, but ended up wearing a running skirt, and my Moving Soles T-shirt, and it was perfect.

I'm a little sore today, since I didn't take enough time to stretch after - I jumped into the car pretty much right after the race to drive home - in time to hurry and get ready to go to a wedding reception. People there were amazed and astounded that I had run a race that morning and I was still there.

That's what training will do for you.

On some associated news, I've decided to try South Beach. Yep. Drinkin' the Kool-Aid I am. Bought a book at Target, and will be reading up on it today. I started the morning with an egg white omlette with garlic scapes, tomato, and fat free feta. Very tasty. I'll need to make up a list and start some planning today.

~a

Nerves

In 36 hours, I will be milling around the starting line.

I'm not sure if I am nervous or not.

I know I can do it. I know I can make it the 13.1 miles. And I don't feel all that nervous right now.... I have been training for 12 weeks. Okay, there was some slacking in there... but I honestly feel like this is the most prepared I have been for a longer race. I've done two 10-mile races, and two half marathons. I have in my mind, a goal to PR this race. Which means I should finish in under 2 hours and 33 minutes, which is slow for most running the race, but that would be fabulous for me!

I think the thing I am most nervous about is the starting chute, and knowing how much I tend to panic in crowds. At least I will have the support of friends to protect my back from being jostled. Yep, irrational phobia girl here.

On another note, Eric took the cat to the vet today, because she has been losing more weight, and is getting kind of bony. The vet thinks she has an overactive thyroid, so hopefully we can get her on some meds to get her to a healthier weight, and so she has some energy! She is 15 years old, so she will never be kittenish, but I would settle for her actually moving around the house and not sleeping all the time.

I need to check the weather forecast, and pack for all running contingencies...
~a