I think I’ll remember my own LIFE

My knee is still bothering me, but I refuse to let that get in the way.  I decided on Tuesday to do a fun run 5k at the mall this weekend.  Dressed up with jingle bells and reindeer antlers.  Fun times. 

The run is in support of the Arthritis Foundation, and if you feel in the spirit, Donations are always welcomed! 

I’m looking forward to this run.  I plan to dress up like an idiot and just have a good time.  I’m not concerned with my time or how well I do in the race.  I’m bringing my camera with me and just relaxing and taking it easy that day. 

Then, next week, J and I are doing a turkey trot.  Except there will be no trotting.  We’re just going to go walk the 5k.  It’s the same race we did last year, but unfortunately the parents bailed on us this year (doesn’t help that dad is in Bangkok and mom’s knee is hurting her) so it’s just the two of us this year. 

In other news…I have no other news. 

All I’ve been doing lately is running (or attempting to) and knitting Christmas gifts.  I am so ready to be done with gifts!  

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

After the race on Saturday I was supposed to catch a train to Wilmington and meet up with my sister and spend the night at J’s house.  Unfortunately, I’m a moron and left my phone at home and had to go back and get it before going to the train…and by that point I had missed the earlier one.  Stupid stupid.

Instead, I went home, got the phone, had a lovely breakfast with K and A, and then hung out with A for a few hours until the next train. 

While waiting for the next train we went and got pedicures (and oh my god my legs felt so great after that) and then just sat around watching TV and I worked on T’s sweater that was supposed to be given as a gift in less than 24 hours.  Way to wait until the last minute.

The entire train ride was spent working on this sweater.  Also, the train was RIDICULOUSLY SLOW.  At points we were going about 5 mph.  I’m not exaggerating when I say I could have run along side the train FASTER than it was going.  SO SLOW!

Anyways, still didn’t finish the sweater before going to bed that night.  I worked on it on the way up to North Jersey for T’s baptism.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything the last 20 minutes in the car I felt so ill.  Stupid car sickness exacerbated by the back seat. 

We got to the church and realized that L invited us to the MASS…and not just the baptism.  So like the good little Catholic girls we are, J and I (and JP) went and ate bagels at the bakery instead.  Seriously.  I felt like crap and didn’t want to sit through an hour long mass so we walked around instead. 

After the mass we went to the baptismal ceremony which was definitely long enough and had lots of readings during it so it was almost like going to mass. 

Afterwards we hung out back at L’s house and I showed L the sweaters.

Behold the Adorableness that is my niece:

The sweaters just added to the super cuteness…but seriously.  Is my niece not the most adorable baby EVER?

More later.

My brain feels exhausted right now.  So don’t expect much from me today.  Apparently a weekend of traveling does not make me feel refreshed and ready to take on the week. 

But…here’s a quick review of the race.  I’ll give a quick recap of the weekend later.

Saturday morning Iw oke up around 5:30 and we left the house around 6 to get downtown in time for our 7AM start.  Ugh…7AM races SUCK big time. 

It was humid and damp before leaving the house, but it didn’t feel too cold so I stuck with a t-shirt and capris.  I was so tired my fingers weren’t working.  I dropped my bagel half with peanut butter on it about 3 times before finally eating it.  I couldn’t get my number to pin on my shirt.   And my body felt like it was weighing an extra 40 lbs dragging me down.  It was not a good start to the day.

We get downtown and roads that were supposed to be open were closed.  All the parking decks were on closed roads and we couldn’t figure out how to get to any of them.  It was really frustrating that we specifically checked the road closures and these weren’t listed.  We finally just parked in a random monthly parking lot and hoped our car wouldn’t have a boot on it after the race. 

We got out of the car and I swear it was 20 degrees colder than at home.  I contemplated wearing a throw away shirt…but ultimately decided I would be ok in my T-shirt until the race started.  We walked up a hill to the starting line and I knew I was in trouble.  I felt like I was dragging my body up the hill and the race hadn’t even started.  We went to the port-a-pots and my nemesis defeated me again. 

I cannot for the life of me take a pre-race poop.  It just doesn’t happen.  It’s too early in the morning for me.  I’m not awake enough.  And my body is on an 8:00 pooping schedule…not a 6:00.  I just hoped the race would be short enough that it wouldn’t really bother me until I finished. 

We lined up in the starting corral and I just stayed near the back of my group.  I didn’t really want to get in the way of people gung ho about this race because I just was NOT feeling it.  All I could think was that in approximately an hour it would be over and I’d be done.  That was ALL I could think about. 

I put on my mp3 player to try and get me a little pumped up, but it wasn’t working.  I was chilled, it was starting to mist, and I just was not in the mood to run.  I psyched myself out before the race even started. 

The gun went off and I crossed the starting line about 2 minutes later.  I started my watch and started shuffling down the road.  There were a lot of people for the first mile and it didn’t start thinning out to a comfortable amount until almost mile 2. 

I didn’t really try to pass anyone in the beginning.  I just sped up or slowed down according to the people in front of me.  I figured this at least kept me from starting out to fast like I always do.  We hit mile 1 in about 14 minutes (umm…a little TOO slow even for me). 

At this point I started to speed up a bit (but seriously, I was just DRAGGING).  My knee was already bothering me.  The road wasn’t really flat.  It was going at a very slight incline (not enought to be noticeable except to my knee) and the road was pitched on both sides so unless you ran directly in the middle, you were running at a slight slant.  Again, neither of these would normally bother me, but they were killing my knee. 

We finally hit mile 2 and I stopped at the water station.  I tried to stretch out my legs and just walk a few seconds hoping it would help wake me up a bit.  I didn’t check my watch at the 2nd mile marker but I think I ran the mile in about 11 minutes. 

We turned off the main road and started our way back.  This road sucked.  It’s brick and when it rains (like it kind of was that morning) it gets really slippery and it hurts my knees on a normal day so it was really bothering me that morning.  I finally stopped and walked the last two blocks of brick road just because I couldn’t run on it anymore.  I almost wiped out 2 times on it and it just seemed like it was hurting me more time wise to run than to just stop and walk. 

I somehow missed the mile 3 marker so I have no idea how I did, but I’m guessing not very good.  I felt slow and oafish running that mile. 

Somewhere between the mile 3 and 4 marker I had to start playing mind games with myself because I was so sick of running.  I just wanted to be finished.  I wasn’t physically tired like I couldn’t run anymore or anything.  In fact my legs and lungs felt great like I could run another 5 miles, but my mind was just done.  I kept saying, run to the next traffic light then you can stop. 

Luckily, there were hot cops at just about every light and I refused to stop in front of them…so…I kept running. 

Unfortunately, around mile 4, my nemesis struck again.  I had to go to the bathroom SO BAD and there was NOWHERE to stop.  None of the stores were open, it was mostly houses on the road, and there were no port-a-pots.  I just kept trying to ignore it and keep running. 

The last half mile or so of the race is always the best.  You make a bunch of quick turns to put you on the road with the finish line and you can hear the people and you start to see more spectators cheering you on and you just know you’re almost done.  It felt great. 

Once you’re on the last road, there is a straight down hill section (which I would hate if I had just run the marathon b/c its too steep for that late in a race, but whatever).  I let the hill just pull me down (I felt so fast I felt like a Kenyan at this point!) without trying to slow down or anything. 

Unfortunately the hill ends about .2 miles from the finish line and I didn’t want to slow down so I was trying to hold the pace all while needing to poop and wanting to throw up from holding it in and running too fast. 

It was great.

I finished in 1:06:05 which was 6:05 slower than I wanted to be…but still better than I thought it would be. 

So, all in all.  Not a good race.  I was really disappointed how slow I was and my knee felt like shit for the majority of the race.  But, I finished and I guess that’s all the really matters. 

I also knocked off 4 minutes from last year so at least it was a PR.

Why did nobody tell me it’s only THURSDAY? 

Up until about an hour ago I was CONVINCED it was Friday.  Sigh. 

I really would like a rewind button for this day.  It is not making me happy.  It started out when I woke up at 6 and decided I wasn’t ready to wake up yet.  I woke up again around 7:45ish when K was leaving for work, and fell back asleep AGAIN. 

I hate rainy mornings.  I never want to wake up. 

I managed to get ready pretty quickly and was walking little O through the swamp that is the lawn here.  And I really need new safety shoes.  These things leak like a seive and my feet were SOAKED within 2 minutes of being outside.

Then, as I was driving to work I witnessed a fun accident.  Except not so fun.  Here is my pictorial representation of the accident.  I rock at drawing.  Except not so much.       Lalalala…we’re driving down the road.  Two cars driving exactly even next to each other because we like to piss off the people behind us. 

Lalala…I would like MY car to be where your car is!  RIGHT NOW!  So I am just going to turn into your lane even though you’re there. 

Boom!  Big collision.  And now we’re on the grass. 

I stopped and pulled over to be a witness and the hottest cop EVER responds to the call.  He took my statement…and my phone number.  I like to pretend that’s cop speak for can we go out sometime.  So he’s totally going to call me.  I just know it. 

Anyways, I was standing outside in the rain while giving my statement.  I show up to work a half hour late…and SOAKING WET.  So uncomfortable. 

The day has not improved much since then. 

Stupid not Friday!

Hope everyone else is having a much better day!

Ick I am sweating my ass of in here.  And even worse the door is closed because there is an audit going on in the room outside our “office” area so we are getting even less air than normal.  I would like to pass out now. 

Actually, I really just want to get some freaking water, but the water cooler is located in the room that the audit is occurring in and I can’t keep walking in and out of the room.  Sigh.  So thirsty.

I also was really looking forward to eating my yogurt for breakfast this morning…and I left it at home in the fridge.  Stupid fridge.  This has just not been my morning

Anyways, I need to go to the gym today, I’m thinking of heading over there now (I realize its only 9:15…but I’ve been here since 6:30…so it feels a lot later…and if I wait too much longer I’m going to be too hungry to run!).  I’m supposed to do 4 miles today (or however much my knee can hold). 

This week is technically a “taper” week on my schedule, but that’s because I was originally supposed to be running the half marathon…not the 8k.  So I’m attempting to build back up my workouts (since I was utter slacker last few weeks thanks to my knee) without killing my knee since I am running the 5 miles on Saturday. 

It’s been an interesting juggle.  Yesterday, I did some knee rehab exercises with C the trainer (ugh they hurt!) and just did about 20 minutes of cardio (10 on the bike and 10 on the elliptical).  Today is my only run of the week.  I’m aiming for 4 miles, but we’ll see what happens.  Tomorrow is upper body (oh my God I’m so weak!  I did an easy upper body workout last week and was sore for like 3 days) and Thursday is rehab day again.  Friday is NOTHING and Saturday is the race.

After the race, I’m going straight to the train station and attempting to catch the early train back to Delaware.  If I miss the early train, I’ll be sitting around the station for 2-3 hours waiting for the next one. 

I plan to pack A LOT of knitting and will hopefully get some Christmas gifts done.  I’ve got half of 3/4 of L’s gift done.  I made little T a gift that I was originally going to give as a Christmas gift, but now I think it will be a Christening gift which means I will be working on her Christmas gift next. 

I think tonight I will figure out what I’m making each person and organize my stuff.  Then figure out what I’m bringing with me for the train, and what I’m bringing with me for when I’m home, and what I’m bringing for the train ride home.  I need a bunch of projects to keep me occupied.  I have the attention span of a gnat and hate to work on the same project for too long.  I’m amazed I ever get anything finished!

Anyways, off to the gym, then back to some meetings.  Sigh.

I attempted to go for a run on Tuesday, and it was kind of a fail.  But not because of my knee necessarily…but more because of Daylight Savings Time (or the no longer saving time…whichever). 

Seriously, HATE when we fall back an hour and it gets dark at 5 in the evening.  Also, Ive said it before, but Virginia is quite possibly the most pedestrian unfriendly state ever.  At least the greater Richmond area is.  There are no sidewalks and very few street lights anywhere, and very few shoulders on the side of the road.  So, it’s very difficult to run here in daylight, let alone go running in the dark. 

I am not adverse to running in the dark if I have to (I know…I run in parks by myself, I’ll run by myself in the dark…I’m so going to be a statistic someday), I even have a fun reflective vest to wear when I run in the dark (thanks daddy!).  However, I am adverse to running in the dark with no shoulder or sidewalk to run on. 

I already feel like I’m testing fate by running on the roads in the daylight (that’s why I love running in parks so much), there’s no way I’ll do it at night.  However, I can’t run in the parks at night because the cops are apparently cracking down and making sure everyone leaves at sundown.

Sigh.

Which brings me back to my story I started this whole post out with.  I only managed to run a mile on Tuesday before a cop chased me out of the park.  It was actually kind of amusing, I tried to pretend I didn’t see him and start a second loop, but seriously, the loop starts/ends in this wide open part of the park with no trees, so it obviously didn’t work. 

The cop yelled at me before I even made it 5 steps into the trees and I had to give up my run.  Which sucked because I didn’t really get a good test of my knee.

The first half mile was very painful.  But it was weird, I passed the half mile marker and it was like a switch went off in my knee and it was fine for the second half mile, in fact it felt great.  I felt like I was FLYING during that mile  (please don’t laugh when I finished the mile in 11 minutes and felt fast).  But, as soon as I stopped running it hurt again. 

So, recap.  First half mile, super painful.  Second half mile, felt great.  Also, I’ve lost ALL my speed over the summer (what little speed I had).  Hate the hot weather (apparently I hate everything about this state and I should just move).  

However, my knee felt fine today, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill during lunch (ugh I know…HATE the treadmill too…but it’s either that…or play chicken with the tractor trailers on the roads here…and since we’ve already discussed the lack of sidewalks, the treadmill won). 

Again, the first half mile was excruciating…but then I ran 3.5 miles (at a 10:57 min/mile pace) and it felt great.  It felt better than great.  It was like the best run I’ve had in MONTHS which is weird since it was on a treadmill…but oh my god it was almost blissful. 

I even felt amazing afterwards.  No pain, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day.  Except for the whole hot and sweaty thing that lasted even after my shower. 

So, I’m slightly confused what to do about my knee.  Is it normal that it hurts for the first half mile of my runs?  No…not really…but then it goes away and I’m fine for the rest of the run which makes me think it’s not really anything serious so I don’t really want to go to a doctor to be told it’s all in my head. 

Not sure what to do.  Le Sigh. 

Anyways, hope everyone is having a fantastic day!

My knee appears to be doing ok this week.  I did NOT attempt to run this weekend which kind of sucks.  It was raining all weekend which is normally my favorite time to go running, but I was concerned I would slip and injure my knee again, so its been about a week since I’ve last run.  I’m starting to itch to get out there…so I think I will be attempting a run today after work.  I’m just hoping my knee holds up. 

The rest of the weekend kind of sucked as well.  We went to a halloween party on Friday, and I hate how all the costumes are all slutted up now.  So I went the opposite route.  I was a pirate.  But…I was a pirate with facial hair.  There is nothing less sexy than a female pirate with facial hair (and TWO swords…).  It was a great costume. 

Unfortunately, we went to a party with K’s co-workers and I knew nobody and I just felt so ridiculously awkward because nobody really talked to me.  So I stood there feeling like an ass.  Awesome time. 

We were supposed to go out the next night as well, but it was raining and we didn’t feel like standing around outside at my friend’s house with a bunch of people we don’t really know…so we didn’t go.  We’re so social. 

The next morning my ass of a dog managed to get into my gym bag and eat the peach rings I had in there (I’m not entirely sure WHY I had peach rings in there…I think I had them for my last long run and never used them).  Anyways, dogs and peach rings DO NOT mix. 

He was very sick Sunday.  I spent all morning cleaning up peach rings soaked in vinegar smelling vomit.  I never want to eat a peach ring again.  Actually…that’s a lie.  I really like peach rings, just talking about them is kind of making me want some…but at the time…the smell was making me never want to eat them agian.  So disgusting.  It was seriously the grossest sickness of my dog.  Ugh. 

But he’s fine now.  He’s all back to being his annoying self again.  Seriously, he’s so lucky I haven’t just dropped him off at some corner.  He’s so irritating.  If he wasn’t so cute and loving he’d just drive me nuts. 

I also finished my mystery socks…and I LOVE them.  However, I can’t tell if I’m just INFATUATED with the sock yarn…or if I really like the pattern.  Or possibly both. 

I’m trying to decide if I want to post the pictures now, or just wait.  They’re going to be a Christmas gift for someone (still haven’t decided who), and I’m not sure if I want to post them before the person receives them.  I’ll think about it. 

I also started my sister J’s Christmas gift and my sister L’s gift.  Still trying to figure out the rest of my gifts.  :-)  However, I feel on top of things.  I’ve actually started gifts in OCTOBER (in face one is already done) and I’m almost done a few more.  At this rate maybe I’ll actually finish all my gifts on time (unlike last year when my dad got his gift on December 30). 

Last but not least.  My Football Fairies kicked ass this week.  Yay winning!  Unfortunately, my Pretty Pink Princesses got their asses kicked.   But, luckily, I’m still in first place in my division because the guy under me also lost.  Yay first place!  However, I need to start scoring some more points in my games or I’m going to be in trouble when playoffs come around!

Also, YAY EAGLES!  And a small yay Phillies.  At least you didn’t get completely eliminated yet.  I still have faith!

OK.  So now that I’ve talked about 50 million different things.  I’m going to go back to work (argh…sucks getting here at 6:30 to meet a vendor who STILL hasn’t shown up). 

Have a great week!

I hate the news.  I really do.  I hate how it’s almost always depressing or disturbing, and very rarely is it good news.  However, I also have this overwhelming need to know what’s going on.  EVERYWHERE.  About ANYTHING. 

Lately, I’ve been sucked into this horrific story about a 15 year old girl who was gang-raped at her homecoming dance while TWENTY people just stood there and watched (or participated).  I’m horrified.  I’m heartbroken, and honestly, the whole story makes me want to cry and vomit at the same time. 

Most women at some point in their life (right now it’s about 1 in 4) will face some sort of rape or attempted rape in their life.  And most women have had times in their life when they’ve been made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe around a guy, even if nothing is physically done to them.  Now take that horrible feeling and imagine what this poor girl is going through.  I’m not kidding when I say that I cry everytime I read something about it. 

It’s sickening. 

And I’m not really sure how to make a segue here, but I don’t really want to end this post on something so depressing.  So…this is my terrible segue. 

Running has been going pretty terribly.  I went on an easy run on Tuesday and almost killed myself.  It was fun.  Except the exact opposite. 

It was an easy 2.5 mile tempo run.  The course I run on is a trail and has a couple of rolling hills.  Nothing super tough, and I run over about 3 “bridges” which are really just some 2 x 4s put together to extend the path over drainage ditches and a small creek.  I was running along trying to keep up the pace (oh my god I’m EVEN SLOWER now from doing all the long distance training and not as much speed work) and running about an 11 min pace (sad that that’s my tempo pace I know haha) and my knee just gave out from under me mid step while crossing one of the “bridges”.

I stumbled and fell over the edge of the “bridge” and landed on my head and shoulder about an inch from a huge rock.  It hurt a lot (I can’t even imagine if I had HIT the rock).   I got back up and tried to keep running but my knee wouldn’t hold me up. 

I could walk with barely any pain, but the minute I tried to run…my knee stopped working and sharp shooting pains went through my knee.  Same thing again the next day.  My knee feels a couple of twinges if I step wrong while walking, but not really anything awful…and it’s much better today, but I can’t run for the life of me.  Luckily it’s not giving out on me anymore…but its definitely painful when I attempt to run. 

So what the hell just happened to it? 

I’m trying to rest it until this weekend and will attempt to run again either Saturday or Sunday.  If it doesn’t work out I guess I’m going to a doctor?  Argh. 

So I’ve been playing on the computer and knitting (and eating more than I should be haha). 

Anyways, I finished a sock a few days ago…now I just need to start the second one.  And my mystery socks are almost done…I just need to finish the foot of the 2nd one and do both toes and I’ll be done.  I kind of like knitting both socks at the same time instead of starting and finishing one, then starting and finishing the second.  It’s a lot more satisfying when you finish them at the same time

Anyways, here’s a picture of the finished sock waiting for it’s match to be made.  I’ll post the mystery socks as soon as I’ve finished them this week hopefully. 

 Again, my camera phone sucks at taking pictures.  But the yarn is an orange, gray and burgandy color with glitter!  Yay glitter!  It looks like fall colors.  I liked the yarn better in the ball then I do in the sock, but it’s not terrible.  :-)  And the sock itself is kind of fun (although not as stretchy as ribbed socks usually are). 

Anyways, have a great day today!

You know what’s fun?  Trying to buy a coffee and being told your debit card doesn’t work (you know…your debit card that you KNOW has money in the account).  Really, its pretty embarassing to be told you can’t buy a $3 cup of coffee because you “don’t have the funds”. 

Then, you check online on your phone to see what’s up with your account, and you’re told they’re offline right now and you can’t access the online banking.  So, then you go straight to the ATM to make sure you really DO have money in there and nobody took it or anything and it turns out you really do have more than enough to pay for a $3 cup of coffee. 

So, not only did I look like an ass that didn’t have $3, I also don’t have my cup of coffee.  So not happy right now. 

However, at least I had a good weekend.  J is down in VA for a few days this week for work, so she came down on Friday evening and we hung out for the weekend.  Friday was pretty quiet.  By the time she got here, she was super tired so we didn’t really do much.  Just watched a bunch of episodes of Family Guy (apparently they play like 6 episodes back to back on Friday nights??) before going to bed. 

Saturday we were supposed to go see a friend’s band play at a festival…but the weather was not happy, and apparently the guy who organized the festival…didn’t really organize the festival and it was a big mess and only like 10 people were there…so we were told to not even come.  So, we went shopping for a while and then went and watched some movies at home. 

That evening we went to a roller derby double header and it was really interesting.  I’ve never been to a roller derby game/bout/match/thingie and didn’t really understand it.  The first match made sense.  I understood the points and the fouls and things like that (probably b/c the other team wasn’t very good so didn’t really score AT ALL).  But the second match thingie made NO SENSE AT ALL.  I was so confused.  A girl would get pushed down by the other team, and then she was the one that would end up in the penalty box.  And the points made no sense at all.  I was so confused. 

But, it was still enjoyable even if I had no idea what was going on.  That happens a lot to me.  I’ve learned to just accept it and do my best to follow along. 

Sunday was spent watching football.  Always fun.  Even if none of my teams did well.  And both my fantasy teams are losing AGAIN this week.  So not a fan.  I seriously think I had the lowest scoring game of my life in the one league.  It’s terrible. 

So, hopefully the Eagles win tonight and at least then all my teams won’t have failed haha.

Today started out as a new low for myself. 

I woke up around 6:30 and was getting ready for work.  I sat on the bed to put on little O’s leash, and I woke up 1.5 hours later.  Awesome. 

Lucky, Oscar doesn’t really enjoy mornings either so he just went back to sleep as well.  We went for his walk at 8:15 and I made it to work around 8:45 (ha…STILL on time).   Go me. 

Ugh, so not my finest moment.  But I totally blame it on the Phillies.  Took WAY too long to win the game and I was up way past my bedtime and I was extra tired this morning. 

But yay Phillies!

Anyways, I’ve been slacking off way too much with my running/exercise.  My knees start aching really badly when I’m not getting out enough and they are KILLING me today (seriously…whose knees bother them when they DON’T run????).  So, I guess I need to try and do some more running today.  Sigh.  So not feeling it. 

However, I just promised myself that if I run the 4.5 mile loop at the park today I’ll go get a brownie from the book store.  They have the most amazing brownies and I haven’t had a brownie in so long!  This way my knees will be happy…and so will my belly. 

Anyways, not much going on…so back to work I go.