Three Things Thursday

1.   I’m feeling MUCH better now.  FINALLY.  I was able to get in four miles last night and five tonight, so I’m feeling pretty good about being back at 100% by my long run this weekend.

2.   I thought I had finally broken the 130-pound barrier.  I stepped on the scale earlier today, and it showed 129.8.  I ran to get my camera, got back on the scale to take a picture for proof, and it was back to 130.4.  WHAT???  Stepped off scale.  Stepped back on scale.  130.4.  Stupid scale.

3.   I’ve had “Bennie and the Jets” stuck in my head ALL.  DAMN.  DAY.  Thanks to American Idol last night.  Did y’all see that chick perform that song?  I LOVE her!

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Four Days and Twenty-One Miles

That’s what this crap I’ve had has cost me so far.  I missed Saturday’s 12 miles, Monday’s 5, and Tuesday’s 4.  I finally started feeling better late yesterday morning, and I briefly considered trying to get in a few miles after work, but I decided against it.  I didn’t want to risk trying to jump back in too soon.  I’ve been completely ZONKED with this!  But I’m back among the living today, so I plan to ease back out there this afternoon.  If nothing else, these four days off have completely taken care of that nagging glute pain that I’ve had since January.  So there’s that.

(Oh, and Harley’s tummy is all better now too.  I don’t know what was up with that, but I’m glad it’s better.  That was ROUGH!)

If I had to get sick, I’m glad it happened when it did and not next week.  I’ve got a half-marathon PR attempt coming up on the 9th!  I hope I’m back to 100% by Saturday (surely to God I will be!) to get in one more good long run before then.

Success!

I’ve finally made it as a blogger.  I got my first spam comment!

Next thing you know, CSN will be contacting me about a giveaway…

Down With the Sickness

Last week when I came home from work and found D already home and in bed, I knew that was not a good sign.  He’s not your typical man when he’s sick.  He doesn’t get all whiney and pitiful.  He sucks it up and works right through it.  So when he goes down, it’s pretty bad.  I don’t know what he had because he never went to the doctor (He IS a typical man in that regard.), but whatever it was it only hung around a couple of days.

I’m hoping that will be my case too.  I was fine when I went to bed Friday night.  About 5:00 am Saturday I woke up with a sore throat.  It wasn’t too bad.  And it was okay because I had already planned to move my long run (12 miles) to Sunday anyway because it was supposed to storm all day Saturday.  So I went about my normal business just fine all day.  Last night when I finally sat down on the couch, in typical Pam fashion, I was asleep within a few minutes.  When I woke up around midnight, I could just feel it.  I told D right then, “I don’t know if there will be any running tomorrow.”

And, alas, there is no running today.  Instead, there’s lots of laying around in my fuzzy PJs with my blanket and drinking hot tea.

I’m not the only sickly one in the house right now.  Poor Harley has the screaming shits.  We knew he had a raging case of gas Friday night.  It was baaaaaaaaad.  He cleared the room a couple of times.  No cause for concern.  Dogs fart.  Then when I got up Saturday morning and opened their bedroom door, the stench nearly doubled me over.  He had left us several presents.  Luckily, they were mostly on the old area rug that was in their room.  We didn’t even attempt to salvage that rug.  It was rolled up, placed in the bed of D’s truck, and taken to the dump.  His tummy troubles persisted through the day yesterday and once through the night last night, and he’s even vomited a couple of times.  He doesn’t act like he feels bad.  He’s still running around and play fighting with Bella and acting like his normal goofy-ass self.  But he’s not eating or drinking.  I’m giving him ice cubes to make sure he doesn’t dehydrate, and I tried to give him some Pepto-Bismol, but that just ended up in an unsuccessful pink mess.  We’re at the 24-hour mark now, so we’ll see how he does today.  He probably needs to eat something, so I may try a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice today.  And if he keeps it up I guess we’ll be back at the vet tomorrow.  Which is AWESOME because I had been worried all weekend about what I was going to do with that extra $30 I had left after paying the bills this week.

A Guest Post from Bella

Hi everybody!  My name is Bella, and yesterday was my birthday.  I am two years old!  (My Mom is worried about what the terrible twos will bring.  She thinks I’m a pain in the butt now–she ain’t seen nothin’ yet!)

I’ve lived with my Mom and Dad since June of 2009 when they adopted me from the wonderful people at Eleven Eleven Bully Rescue in Dickson, TN, who saved me from being put to sleep in a shelter when I was just a baby.  Mom was heartbroken because Lucy, my older adopted sister, had just passed away.  I never met Lucy, but Mom tells me about her all the time, and I see her grave and rose bush in the back yard.  She knew she couldn’t replace Lucy, but she thought having another dog around might help the grieving process.  So Mom and Dad started scouring petfinder.com.  Mom wanted an older dog, but Dad saw me and thought that I was a cutie.  One afternoon, they came to meet me.  They had no intentions of taking me home that night.  Mom still had several other dogs at other shelters that she wanted to meet too.  But guess what?  An hour later, I was riding in the car in Mom’s lap on my way to my new home.  For real now, how could you say no to this?




I got home that night and met my big sister, C.C.  She didn’t like me very much.  I don’t know why.  I wouldn’t give up though.  Every time I saw her I tried to get her to play with me, but she just wouldn’t.  She would just slap me, spit at me, and run away.  How rude.  It’s okay though.  We’ve grown closer now.

When I first got home, I was pretty skittish.  I had only ever lived outside and in a kennel before.  I was scared of everything.  Especially the TV.  And the sprinkler outside.  It took a few days, but when I figured out that nothing was going to hurt me I started to explore.  And chew.  I chewed a lot of things.  Books, rugs, shoes, couches… Remember this?

I had lots of toys to chew on, but those just weren’t as much fun.  I could destroy those in just a few seconds. 

Mom and Dad spent lots of money on toys trying to find something to satisfy my chewing need before they discovered Kong and Nylabone.  I can chew on those for HOURS and never get bored.  Oh, and a basketball.  I can play with one of those for a long time too because it’s too big for me to get my mouth around.  I eventually get my teeth into it though.

When I was a few months old, I started itching really bad.  I would scratch and scratch and scratch but it just never went away.  I would scratch until I made myself bleed and until I was just so exhausted that I had to lie down and rest to catch my breath.  Mom took me to the doctor.  When it first started, it was only on my head.  The doctor thought I got into a bed of something at the park and got bitten.  Then when I started itching everywhere else he thought it was allergies.  When I started losing my hair, though, he scraped off some of my skin (OUCH!) and found out that I had demodectic mange. 

I looked pretty bad for a while, but once we started the treatment, my hair grew back in and I was back to my beautiful self in just a few weeks.

I saw way too much of the doctor when I was little.  In addition to all that skin stuff, I had to have surgery to make sure I never have puppies too.  It wasn’t so bad though.  They told me I wasn’t supposed to do much exercise for a few days afterwards, but I felt fine within a couple of days.  I had way too much energy to just lie around.

I ALWAYS have too much energy to just lie around.  But when I do, it’s often in some very strange places and positions.

Mom and Dad couldn’t keep up with me, so about a year ago they decided they needed some help.  They adopted my brother Harley to help occupy me.  Mom had always wanted two dogs, but Dad didn’t.  I changed his mind.  Me and Harley play and wrestle nonstop.  He was smaller than me when he first came to our family, so I usually got the better of him, but he’s bigger now and has learned how to hold his own.

All in all, life is good!  I have parents that take good care of me, a little brother to play with all the time, a big back yard to run in, my own futon to sleep on…

Did I mention I like having my picture taken?

Happy birthday weekend to me!

Three Things Thursday – Weight, Work & Weariness

1.  The weight loss is not going as I’d hoped.  First three came off quickly, but I’m STUCK. I haven’t been able to break that 130 barrier yet.  I’m doing everything the same as I did in the beginning.  Still running, still cross-training, still using sparkpeople.com to track everything.  I know I’m not underestimating my calories because frankly I’m not estimating anything.  I’m measuring everything and logging everything.  I’m making sure I get the right fat:carb:protein ratio.  My daily caloric requirement to maintain my weight is around 1800.  There are days I’m eating less than 1500 and burning 500+ more with exercise creating a nice little calorie deficit.  Yet it just ain’t coming off.  And bikini season is right around the corner.  I’ve even gone so far as to give up alcohol.  Since I started this on February 21st, I have had exactly one bloody mary and two beers.  If you know me, you know how drastic this is.

2.   I held interviews this week for an open substitute carrier position in my office.  There were exactly two applicants.  Funny how our unemployment rate in this county is right at 10% and everybody says they want to work but when an opportunity to work comes up no one takes it.  Guess it’s just easier to stay home and draw a check than it is to, oh, I don’t know… WORK FOR A LIVING.

3.  I’ve been a little down lately.  Every year since D and I started dating, by this time of year we’ve had big plans for an exciting vacation.  In 2006 we went to Hawaii.  In 2007 the Virgin Islands.  2008 Vegas/Grand Canyon and Destin.  2009 Barbados and Destin.  2010 Cabo San Lucas, Destin, and Las Vegas.  And there are always little weekend trips here and there too.  We just financially can’t swing it this year.  Our nephew is getting married in Gatlinburg in June, so that’ll be a few days in the mountains, but I really don’t count that because if it wasn’t for the wedding I wouldn’t give two shits about going to Gatlinburg.  We should be able to go to Destin at the end of summer again because it’s within driving distance and doesn’t cost nuch at all, but to be honest Destin has kind of lost its zeal too.  I desparately need a change of scenery.   (Yes I realize how shallow this makes me to be so bummed over this, and no I don’t care.)

Amazing Run, Hot Wings, Cold Beer, and a Bad Movie

Those 10 words sum up my Saturday perfectly.

It was an absolutely stunning day yesterday.  When I left the house at 10 am for my 11-mile run it was a gorgeous, sunny 53 degrees.  I knew I wanted to make a big loop around town, and I knew it would warm up some, so it was time to break out the ol’ “fanny pack”!  (IT’S A FUEL BELT, MICHELE!  FUEL.  BELT.)  There’s nothing really to say about the run other than it was what every long run should be.  My legs, lungs, and heart all cooperated to make it a very enjoyable 1:57:59 (I’ll save you from doing the math:  That’s a 10:44 pace.)  I just started running and ran until I was done.  I didn’t walk one step of that 11 miles and even ran fairly even splits.  This run did make one thing quite clear though:  SPRING IS IN THE AIR!  Along with the pollen and the smell of freshly cut onions.  It was a very snotty run.  I had some very decorative streaks on my black shorts by the end of it.

Afterwards I met my sister (who is still truckin’ right along on her C25K program!  Two weeks done!) for a girl’s day out.  Neither of us had any money to blow, so we window shopped for a while, decided we were both starving, and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  Seriously, what better way to refuel than hot wings and cold beer????? 

The bar is right across the parking lot from the theater, so we walked across the lot (and a big shout out of THANKS to the waitress that chased me down to give me back my debit card I left on the table!) to watch a movie:  Red Riding Hood.

OH.  MY.  WORD.

Let’s just say if I had known what I was getting myself into, there would have been a lot more beer beforehand.  It was horrible!  It was one of those movies that sucks so bad that it makes it almost funny.  The cheese factor was off the friggin’ charts.  (Yes, they actually used the line, “Grandma, what big eyes you have.”)  If you haven’t seen it yet, DON’T!  Wait till it comes out at Redbox.  And only get it then if you have a promo code for a free movie.  And NOTHING better to do.

When a bad movie is the worst part of your day, you know it’s been a pretty darn good day.

Ten Ways I Break The Rules

I know, I know.  This post is sooooooo yesterday.  But here’s the thing.  I’m a busy girl!  Sure I had time to spend hours reading how all of y’all break the rules, but I didn’t have time to sit down and hash out my own post.  In case you missed it, Beth, b.k.a. SUAR, started all this with this fun post.

Without further adu…

1.   I watch ENTIRELY too much television.  Just take yesterday for example.  I worked all day, came home, ran, took a shower, cooked supper, and that put us at 7:00 on the dot.  Just in time for American Idol!  After that, there was The Office, then South Park reruns on Comedy Central until I fell asleep on the couch at about 9:30.  Two and a half hours of watching mindless TV.  And this is not an isolated event.  But who can blame me with so much quality entertainment at our fingertips?!

2.   I still deep fry certain things.  Approximately 90% of the time I eat very well and am careful about what put in my body.  But some things are still sacred.  Oven-baked tater tots SUCK!!!

3.   I cuss like a sailor.  It just makes you feel better.  Really.  Go on.  Try it.  Next time you stub your toe, instead of cringing and saying, “Oh, darn, that hurts,” shout the F bomb at the top of your lungs.  I promise your toe won’t hurt as bad.

4.   I don’t always wash my makeup off before going to bed.  This stems from my bad habit of falling asleep on the couch instead of getting in the bed when I start feeling sleepy.  If I wake up on the couch and then go wash my face, it wakes me up and I am forever trying to get back to sleep.  This is only an issue on the evenings I don’t run or spin because I always shower after that anyway.

5.   I drove my Corvette every day for a year and a half without registering it.  I took the license plate off my Altima and slapped it on that ‘vette and prayed I didn’t get pulled over.

6.   During this, the era of hybrids and greenness and sustainability, I now drive a gas-guzzling Tahoe.  I hate it.  13 MPH.  That shit’s gotta go.  And it will be, very soon hopefully.  The Tahoe was only bought so I would have something to drive while D does some work to my ‘vette and sells it this spring.  As soon as it is sold and I get that H3 I’ve been wanting, the Tahoe is gone too.  Yeah, we’re kind of car poor these days.  I really don’t know why we have so many, but we’re in the process of whittling it down.

7.   I wear my Night & Day contacts longer than the approved 28 days.  I haven’t gone blind yet.

8.   I don’t do self-breast exams.  I don’t know why.  I just don’t.

9.   I don’t donate blood.  I know I really should, but I’m such a puss when it comes to needles that I just can’t bring myself to do it.  I pass out when I have blood drawn at the doctor’s office anyway.  I’m afraid I’d go into a full-on stroke if I had to lay there with a needle in me for as long as it takes to give blood.

10.  I tan in a tanning bed and I lay out and don’t wear sunscreen.  Except on my face.  I get freckles on my nose if I don’t.

How do YOU break the rules???

Wordless Wednesday

Just call me Old MacDonald

Race Report: Sounds of Spring 5K

The Sounds of Spring 5K was a small race put on locally for the sole pupose of helping out one family.  Their son (who looked to be around 7 or 8 but I’m no expert on kids) is hearing impaired.  Their insurance company has denied their claims for a hearing aid, and they couldn’t afford to pay for it on their own.  Enter the running community.  All proceeds from this race went directly to that family so that their son would be able to hear the Sounds of Spring.  (It was announced at the awards ceremony that the family would be receiving a check for a little over $2,800, which should cover the entire cost of the hearing device.)

I had but one goal for today:  break 28 minutes.

The race started at 8:00, and I got there around 7:30.  I left the house a little early because I wasn’t exactly sure where the church that was hosting the race was located, and I wanted to be sure to allow myself time to find it, check in, take my race t-shirt back to the truck, stretch, etc.  While I was doing all that, I found my friend, B, that I had talked into registering for this race!  Yay!  So we chit-chatted and she introduced me to A, another friend of hers that was there.  After just a few minutes they announced that it was time to start making our way to the start line, which was probably a quarter-mile or so up the road at the top of a huge hill.  Seriously.  HUGE.  Like we were getting winded walking up it huge.  So when everyone made it to the start line, the race director yelled GO, and off we went.

I FLEW down that hill.  It was so steep that I seriously couldn’t keep from it!  But little did I know that when it leveled off that was IT in terms of elevation.  The rest of the course was pancake flat.  I slowed down tremendously after that initial decline and was running where I thought I needed to be to get my sub-28.  It wasn’t until my Garmin chimed mile 1 that I realized I hadn’t slowed down enough.

Mile 1 – 8:19.  A very unsustainable pace for me.  Woops.

But I tried to look at it from the “banked time” perspective.  I honestly didn’t feel like I was going that fast.  But it would catch up with me later.

Oh, and B?  Yeah, this was her first 5K ever and she had already passed me.  (Note to self:  Stop recruiting people unless you know they are slower than you.)

I am always so surprised at how much harder it feels for me to run on totally flat terrain.  It defies all logic, but I swear it’s true.

Mile 2 – 9:01.  Perfect.  Now just hang on to that.

And I do hang on to it for approximately 10 more seconds, and then I feel the too-fast-too-soon catching up to me.  I glanced down at my watch somewhere around 2.25 and see my pace has slowed even more to around 9:20.  Not great, but it’s enough to still get me a sub-28.  And then we rounded the final curve that put us straight into the wind.

F-word.

I hate wind.  I mean I really, really, really hate wind.  But I just hunkered down and plugged along as best I could.

Mile 3 – 9:34.  Positive splits, anyone?

When I finally saw the finish line, I knew I had met my time goal, but I kicked it in (what little bit of a kick I had left in me) anyway just to make sure no one passed me right at the finish.  (They didn’t.)

Official time – 27:51.

YAY!  Goal achieved!

After I crossed the finish line, I met back up with B (She KILLED her first 5K with a time of 25:47) and we just stood around chatting with folks and stretching until everyone finished the course, then we went inside for the awards ceremony.

I’ll spare you all the details up until the 30-34 female age group.  Some fast chick got first place, and B got second!  BIG YAY FOR B!  (Addendum to note to self:  If you continue to recruit people who might be faster than you, make sure they are not in your age group.)

And guess who got 3rd.

Go ahead.  Guess.

YUP!  It was me!  😀

Try not to be too jealous of my awesome prize.

I finally got to hear my name called at an award’s ceremony!  (I technically had a podium finish in my last 5K, but it wasn’t recognized, so it didn’t really count.)

While I’m overall happy that I met my only goal, I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t exceed it by more.  If I hadn’t started out so fast, I feel like I could have held on better in the end.  Ah well.  Rookie mistakes.  I’ll do better next time!

Me, B & A after the race.  I am obviously incapable of NOT looking like a total two-bagger in photo these days.