That Time of the Month

No not that.  Ew.  “That Time of the Month” is a montlhly linkup that my friends over at Ho Ho Runs and Taking the Long Way Home have started.  It’s where we can all air our current frustrations.

But you know what?  I actually DO have a current frustration that is related to the real that time of the month.  I assume you’ve all heard about the chick that ran the London Marathon sans tampon to *ahem* raise awareness?  I’m sorry, but that’s just disgusting.  One of the commenters on an article I read about it said it perfectly when he commented, “Next time I take a shit I’m not going to wipe my ass to show solidarity with my brothers that don’t have access to toilet paper.”  There are acceptable ways to raise awareness.  Free bleeding is not one of them.

And the list goes on…

• My CSA was cancelled.  At the beginning of the year I paid $225 for a half-share at a local organic CSA.  His yield had been terrible.  With my last experience with a CSA, we got no less than a bushel basket full of goodies every week.  This time (a different farm–the original one doesn’t do CSA shares anymore) after five pickups everything combined probably wouldn’t have made one full basket.  He made lots of excuses about rain and flea beetles and then not enough rain… then one Friday night before our scheduled Saturday pickup he called to say that they were cancelling the CSA and refunding the customers and admitted that it was because he’d bit off more than he could chew.  But when we got there, we were only refunded half of what we’d paid for a share.  I get that there’s risk involved with a CSA, but that risk is supposed to be due to nature and crop failure and such–not due to a man’s inability to deliver.

• Japanese beetles have been destroying my knockout rosebush.  It went from bursting with beautiful blooms to being riddled with beetles and dead, brown, eaten leaves in the matter of a few days.  As soon as I saw the first ones, I asked for advice on how to get rid of them.  The most environmentally sound option was the trap bags.  They seem to be working.  I’m sure a chemical pesticide would have been faster, but I’m not about to spray that shit out there where we and our dogs hang out.

Fuckers

• I hate Training Peaks.  Back… oh I don’t know, a couple of months ago?  Right before I really started running again… Runner’s World discontinued their free running log, so I had to find another one.  I’d heard several people talk about Training Peaks, so I started using it.  I hate it.  Yeah, it has a lot of bells and whistles, but I don’t need those.  All I need is something to keep track of my weekly and monthly mileage, my cross-training, and my shoe mileage.  As best I can figure, it only keeps track of weekly mileage and to get your monthly mileage you have to just add it up yourself.  The cross-training function is pretty decent, but I can’t find anywhere at all to keep track of your shoe mileage.  When you post a workout, it asks you which shoe you wore, but nowhere that I’ve found does it tell you how many miles you have on your shoes.  I’ve had to start an Excel spreadsheet for that.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.  It’s free.  Who am I to complain?

• My 6-year-old Garmin 305 died this morning on my run.  We had a nice long relationship, and I knew it was coming.  She’s been limping along for a while now.  I’ve had to do lots of hard resets lately when she just wouldn’t come on, taking way longer to find satellite signals, battery just not lasting as long as it used to between charges, etc.  I charged it last night before my run today, and after about 3.2ish miles, it just wouldn’t stay on.  It showed it had a full charge, but it kept turning itself off.  Luckily I was on an 8-mile route that I’ve run often so I knew where I was and what my mileage was.  I just don’t have an idea about my pace.  (But judging by feel, I probably don’t want to know anyway.)  I ordered a replacement watch today.  I ended up getting a Garmin 15 just because it was one of the cheapest ones.  I’d loved to have had one of the nicer models, but I just don’t have a spare $349+ laying around right now.  And that brings me to another frustration…

RIP

• I actually ordered a backup GPS about a year or so ago.  A Bia Sport.  Who has since gone belly up.  So now I have a pretty blue 2 oz paperweight sitting in the drawer since its GPS function is no longer supported.  I know this isn’t new news, but it pisses me off every time I open that drawer and see it in there.

• As I mentioned in my last post, I recently ordered the Beachbody 21 Day Fix Extreme workout DVDs.  I was almost to the end of the second workout and the damn DVD started skipping and eventually just froze up.  There are no obvious scratches on it, but neither the third nor fourth workouts will start either.  They’re sending a replacement free of charge and not even making me return the defective one, but still.  IT’S IRRITATING.

Frozen… and not even the kind I can sing along to.

So what about you?  What’s grinding your gears lately?  Join Holly and Wendy’s linkup here!

Perfect Timing: Enter Beachbody! *Insert Shameless Plug Here*

I’ve really been trying to focus more on strength training for several reasons.  One:  I know it’ll help keep me at a lower risk for injury.  Two:  It’s important for chicks in their middle 30’s to do strength training to maintain and/or lose weight.  It can’t be all cardio all the time anymore.  And Three:  Muscles are hot, yo.

Now here are two other seemingly unrelated facts for you.  One:  I’ve recently happened to become friends with a BeachBody coach and distributor.  Two:  (And I’ve mentioned this one here before a time or two…)  I’m currently doing a long-term fundraiser for a local animal rescue.

And here’s where those two facts tie together.  When I posted to my fundraiser’s Facebook page asking for pledges for this month to be made as donations to the rescue, this friend very generously offered to donate her proceeds from her BeachBody business to the rescue for the month of August!  If you’ve ever wanted to check it out, now is definitely the time to do it.  I’ve been curious about the Shakeology products, but never tried them because I didn’t realize they had vegan flavors and–even if I had known–they’re pretty pricey.  But they’ve got a special going on right now where if you buy a month’s worth of Shakeology product you get either the Cize or the 21-Day Fix DVD sets for free.  So for the price of the Shakeology, I’m getting the mix, the 21-Day Fix workout DVDs, and I know that the rescue is getting a portion of that sale, so it really doesn’t seem like such a bad deal now!  I’ve done some of the P90X DVDs, so I’m excited to try this series as well.  If you’re interested in checking out anything from the BeachBody line, shoot me an email, I’ll put you in touch with my friend, and she’ll help point you in the right direction!