Bill and Trav's Bogus Journey

This is where I was last night. I took my daughter and two of her friends. One of her friends was in loooove with William. Bill is the lead singer for "The Academy Is" and Trav is the red-headed lead for "We the Kings". They were touring with two little-known bands, "Hey Monday" and "Carolina Liar".

"Hey Monday" opened it up and was very entertaining. The sound was reminiscent of "Paramore", with the female lead singer. You know you haven't made it big yet when the band members have to help out with the tear down and set up of their equipment, as the first two bands did.

But, then came "Carolina Liar". I LOVED this band. They were a little quirky in their performance and sounded much different from the others. Very 80's new wave type sound. I even bought their CD after the show.

The headline bands were great, of course. I even knew some of their music. Well, we also listened to some of it on the way over, so I cheated a little bit.

I didn't get home until around midnight, and managed to make it to work this morning. There was no school yesterday or today, so don't worry about the kids falling asleep at school!

Am I a cool mom or what?

Tomorrow- Tunnel Hill 10 Mile trail run. This should be interesting... I still haven't ran all week. I have decided that if I'm not feeling a bit more normal after the time change, I'm going to break down and go to the doctor.

Here we go Again...

I haven't ran since Columbus.

There it is.

Do I have a good reason? It depends on who you ask. If you ask me... No, not really.

I haven't slept more than a couple of hours a night in several days. One day last week, I slept for about 5 hours and woke up at 3:30am. That was the best. Last night was the worst. Could I really have gotten up at 5am this morning and ran? Yes. I would have been miserable and tired all day long, but I'm miserable and tired anyway.

I called in sick yesterday and slept sporadically throughout the day. That was nice, but not practical for every day. I'm hoping that I make up for some of it tonight with a solid night's sleep - drug induced sleep. Hopefully, I won't be feeling too foggy tomorrow morning to get up and run.

Thursday night, I'm taking my daughter and two of her friends to see 'The Academy Is' at Pops. I also plan to work on Friday. Since it's an All Ages concert, I'm hoping it doesn't go on too late. It should be pretty fun, even though I don't know very much of their music. I'm still planning to somehow run two days this week before the Tunnel Hill race on Saturday...

I'll definitely keep you posted if that happens!

7 of 9...

Or, where does your motivation come from?



If you've been following along for very long, you've seen my weight creep up over the past year to what amounts to the largest that I have ever been. Normally, I can see the big picture- In the grand scheme of things, I'm not that big. I can still run, and run well when I do the training. (Although, if I were doing the training, the weight wouldn't be an issue).



The real problem I have is getting my lazy butt out of bed to do my running in the mornings. After work isn't really an option for me, as I have found over the years. I can workout in the evenings for the short term, but this can't be a long term solution for me.


Now, to find some helpful motivation...



I've watched some Star Trek in my day, but it has certainly been a lot of years, and I never really got into the Voyager series much at all.


About a year ago, one of the maintenance techs at work told me that he thought I looked like "7 of 9" from the Voyager series of Star Trek. Yeah, right, whatever... But, I don't really know who this is.


He asked me a few times after that if I had a chance to google and find "7 of 9", so I knew exactly what he was telling me. Let me interject: this guy is known to not be a creep.


Last night, a conversation with a friend made me think of this and I got on Google and found this "7 of 9" character. She is played by the actress Jeri Ryan, and is on many websites as one of the "hottest women on Star Trek".


Hot women on Star Trek? Who knew?


Anyhow, here's the photos, her and me:

















Twins, no?

OK. I'm blonde and I have full lips. I'll give him that. But, I don't see me wearing that skin tight jumpsuit. Nope, not right now.

Believe it or not, this has helped me with my motivation.
I think,
"Wow! Somebody thinks I'm hot!"
"Wow! I could BE that hot!"


Let's hope it sticks this time. So far, in spite of an initially reported loss, I've gained it back and I'm at 0 pounds lost for Viv's Independence Day Weight Loss Challenge.


But, I'll get back there. My plan is not to post a gain for the next official WI.

Columbus Half Marathon Weekend

Ahhhh, where to begin...

We had a great weekend. I started off from my house at 6:30am Saturday morning and picked up the other 3 chics that were running.

It was Angie's first Half Marathon and Shanna was attempting her BQ. At 21 years old, she had to run a 3:40.

I had gotten the primo hotel at the Hilton, for only $100. Yup, I'm an expert at sniffing out the deal. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel. The food was yum, and there was no 2 hour wait like there normally is before a marathon in many cities. Afterwards, we all four sat in the hot tub on Saturday night in extra running clothes that we happened to bring along. Nobody brought a swimsuit.

Sunday morning, Angie was up and about at 3:30am and took a bath and put on her full make-up. It seems she couldn't sleep. *snort*

The rest of us got up between 4 and 4:30. We ate breakfast and dealt with getting dressed while trying to find a weather forecast on the local tv stations. No luck on the weather. We had to wing it from the weather forecast the night before. It was COLD! We left our hotel at 6:30am for the 7:30 start. Had no trouble parking the car and getting to the starting area, but then stood in line for the port-a-pots for 40 minutes or so. By the time we got out of there, there was no finding the pace team for Shanna. She had to run ahead and try to find them after the race started. She caught them by mile 6 (!!)

On to my race experience. It was so cold, I was glad to get started so I could warm up. At the start, it was in the mid-30's. I had worn my race ready shorts so I could stash my camera in the back pocket. Then, I proceeded to run the entire race without taking a single picture. Ugh!

When the race started, Garmin could not find the satellites. I didn't turn him on until I came out of the port a pottty, so it's partially my fault. The satellites weren't located until about 0.8 miles into the race. I did start the timer when I started and hit the lap button at the 1 mile mark, so I have all my split times, but I don't have the entire distance. Ah, well.

Angie and I had planned to run together, as long as she could get by without pain. We were together until around the 2 mile mark, then she told me to go on. At the next water stop, I caught up to her. She had somehow passed me! I went on ahead again, and caught her at the next water stop, again. So, I told her that we may as well just run together. She stopped at each water stop as she was still having pain and was trying to run through it. We were together at the 10K mark, and that was when her pain got to be too much. She walked in the rest of the race, and I went on ahead and finished.

I felt great the entire time. I think the cool weather was a big contributor to that. I wound up finishing in 2:16 and change. Not my best Half, not my worst. Considering the minimal training I'd done leading up to the race, I was very pleased with this time.

I waited nearby for Angie to finish. She wound up finishing in 2:48 and change. An automatic PR, since it was her first! We then sat in the sun for a bit before going to watch for the other two. Shanna finished the marathon in 3:40:48, a BQ!!! Barbie came in next in 3:52 and change, also a BQ for her, that's her second this year!

I used my camera to get a couple of "after" shots...

Here's me and Angie after our Half

And, Barbie and Shanna, the 2 BQ'ers!

Tag! I'm it!

I was tagged by Carly, which is good because otherwise I have NOTHING to talk about here. I have not gone for a run ALL WEEK.

My last run was the pitifully cut short 11 miler from Sunday. That's OK. One run a week is plenty, right? Ah well...

I'm running the Half in Columbus this Sunday, and I'm hoping I'll get it back in gear after that.

Six Random Facts about Me:

1- I am a musician. I LOVE music of all kinds. I started playing the flute when I was 9, and played all the way through school, including the marching band. I also was in the chorus throughout my school years and took piano lessons. I'm now a mediochre piano player, an excellent floutist, and a horrible singer.

2- I am a farmer's daughter. I was so embarassed about that when I was in high school. I don't know why- It's something I'm very proud of now. I always wanted to move to the city when I grew up. I haven't.

3- I enjoy silence. Maybe it's because I never actually get to be in silence. Maybe this will change after my kids are grown. I love music, and I indulge in some talk radio during long trips when I'm alone. But, sometimes, I'll just turn the radio off and listen to the silence. I did this during my last trip home from Chicago (a 4 hour drive).

4- I had my first boyfriend in Kindergarten. His name was Tony and we used to hide behind the seats on the school bus and kiss. I was devastated when my family moved at the end of my 1st grade year. My next boyfriend wasn't until I was in high school.

5- I am a freaky optimist. I almost always have a smile on my face. Only my close friends know that I'm not always blissfully happy. When I was laid off from my job in 2002, I took exactly one day to cry and feel sorry for myself. From then on, I knew that there was a reason for it. I was only mildly worried throughout the 9 jobless months that followed. And now, I recently celebrated my 5th anniversary at the best job ever. I was right!

6- I have my bellybutton pierced. I got it done when I was in my 20's and hawt, still after I had my kids. When I got mine done, it was not the norm around here like it is these days. I was cutting edge! I've often thought that a 34 year old woman with 2 teenagers at home shouldn't have her bellybutton pierced, but when I take it out my belly just looks plain. So, I've kept it. One day, when I get rid of this extra fat, it will actually look cute again.

Wow. I really had a hard time coming up with 6 things. I'm a dull person, huh? Who'da thunk it? I seem to entertain myself just fine!

Now, I tag all you peeps that seem to have abandoned your blogs recently: Kelly Donut, Ames, Jen-Elph, Delane, and DoriAnn.

I'm a Blog Slacker!

And a running slacker.

I didn't have any running to post about last week because, well, I didn't run enough to talk about it.

So, Angie and I made plans to run on Sunday- 11 miles.

Tomorrow is my son's birthday- he'll be 14. Saturday, we had the required cake and ice cream for the party. Then, I proceeded to pig out on chips, cookies and candy most of the evening whilst watching movies. I'm not really sleeping at night, so this seemed like a pretty good plan.

When the time came to get up for the 11 miler, I was laying there trying to think of ways to get out of it. I didn't come up with anything convincing.
Angie showed up at my house at 6:30am and we were off for our run. I felt pretty good, amazingly. We ran at a really good pace for the first 4-5 miles, like under 10:30/mile average. And, we walked a few times, mostly because Angie was having some minor pains.

After about the 5th mile, her knee really started hurting her. She asked me what she should do... run through it, walk, give up and let me go get my car and pick her up?
Fortunately, I've never been injured, so I had NO advice for her. I offered to go get my car and come back for her, and she said no- she wanted to get the miles.
At about mile 7.5, we gave up on running and walked the rest of the way back to my house. She felt great besides the leg, and was extremely frustrated.

Angie is planning to run her first Half Marathon with us next Sunday in Columbus, and now is getting understandably concerned. I told her that her best bet is to rest this week and see if she is up to the run on Sunday. I don't think she is going to listen. She is one of these crazy people and thinks she HAS to run if it says to run on the schedule.

Barbie's foot is bothering her pretty bad for the past couple of weeks.
Angie is having pain in her leg.
Shanna is planning to qualify for Boston, but just told us this week that she probably won't go to Boston even if she does qualify.

UGH! Why are we doing this, exactly??

Band on the Run 5K, 2008

Saturday morning, I ran a 5K to benefit a local High School marching band- the band that I was a part of, back in my Band Rat days...

This was the race's second year. Last year, it was H-O-T at the start of the race, and sunny. This year was much nicer, probably around 50 degrees. I felt strong throughout the race, the course is nice and flat, just around some neighborhoods near the new high school. I felt strong and passed several people in the last mile. The last half mile, there was a girl who I thought I could pass, but every time I got close she sped up too. I wound up finishing 10 seconds behind her, in 27:47.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Pace: 8:57 / mile
Avg HR: 168 bpm

Of course, she was in my age group. And, of course, she was 3rd place in our age group (10 year splits). Aargh!
I finished 4th out of 7 in our age group, and 30th out of 50 overall. *Sigh!*
Last year's time would have put me at 23, in the top half.

Ah, well, I was still happy with my time. I was almost exactly 1 minute slower than last year, BUT I'm also 20 lbs heavier this year. To me, that means I will be much faster after I drop this weight if I keep up with my training.

After the race, of course we visited a local winery. This week was my turn to get crazy out of control. I absolutely did NOT want to go home... I wanted to party all night. Apparently, I started randomly calling a couple of my friends to meet up (and drive Angie and I around). I did find a taker, but she just took us out to eat to sober us up. Thanks, Connie! :-)

We skipped our planned 11 mile run on Sunday. But, Angie did learn something about me. She called Sunday morning, and I told her I didn't feel like running. Neither one of us wound up running at all that day.

Later, I told her that I probably would have gone for the run if she had tried to talk me into it. Yes, I told her that for my own good. Next time, she won't let me off quite so easy. It may not have been pretty, but we should have ran those 11 miles anyhow.

TGIFFF!

I am so thankful that today is Friday.

I'm still struggling with getting up to run in the mornings. Yesterday, I slept too late, AGAIN, so I had to run my planned 7 miles last night after work and after walking the dog...

Distance: 7.0 miles
Pace: 10:34 min/mile
Average HR: 163 bpm

It's pretty clear, based on my elevated heart rate, that running in the evenings is tougher for me than morning runs. Now, if I could just get my night owl tendencies under control...

On top of everything else, now I'm stressed about my dog. I took him on Tuesday to get neutered, FINALLY (he's 4 years old). For whatever reason, he has started to get aggressive. I think it's excitement more than aggression, but it ended with him biting one of my son's friends in the driveway last night while they were playing basketball. Luckily, it's not a litigious family and it was more of a nip than a bite. Cocker Spaniel vs 15 year old neighbor boy - not a matchup I want to see again. My remedy to this- more walks and longer walks with the dog. Good for me, good for him.

On tap for the weekend-
Saturday: 5K race, followed by a trip to a winery (of course)
Sunday: 11 mile run with Angie.