How 'bout a courtesy flush, please?!

Okay, last blog for possibly a while.
Today started out mundane. I just didn't have any pep in my step. None of the songs on the radio got me in the mood to workout. I went anyway and met Susan at the Y. No T'knesha, but you'll read about that when you pan down the list. I don't believe it was the rain, just the cold that took it out of me.

Remember all that health food I ate a few days ago. I managed to run a coworker out of the restroom before she even got in the doorway. I apologized to her, citing that someone had moved the magic spray can out of the stall and onto the counter before I realized it. But I did spray afterward. She said she would go ahead and wait until all the aromas had evaporated. Agreeing, I instructed her to check the second stall when she goes back in there because the person that was in there with me may have succumbed to the fumes and passed out. She laughed. I was serious. If it weren't for my immunity, I would have passed out too.

Even the guys in my shop share bowel movement stories with enthusiasm and pride. One gives full reports. The other just brings the stink back with him. Their exchange often reminds me of my days in the Corps. When we were on field operations, sometimes we wouldn't have the luxury of a toilet muchless a can of deoderant at your disposal. One place was an actual base in the desert. We had a "head" - bathroom for you civilian. A community shower and a row of 10 or 12 toilets. No stalls, just toilets. Yes, you could be doing a number two when someone else could walk in and sit a few johns down from you doing their business, if not right next to you. It was awkward at first, but we got use to it. Soon you're trading recipes. In bootcamp we had stalls, but we weren't allowed to close the doors. One girl did and the Drill Instructor kicked it off the hinges and it landed on her head as she sat there. Needlesstosay she ran out, trousers around her ankles, refreshed and with a new sense of purpose. I don't think I peed for two days.
The heads we had in Thailand were a luxury of sort. The construction guys were nice enough to make an elevated platform with 5 separte stalls. You could see a person's feet and their head if they were standing, so they were just tall enough to cover you as you sat. Toilet seats on legs were positioned ever so cautiously over a large hole in the floor. An industrial strength trash can liner tucked under the seat and extended down to the 50 gallon drum below was the best part. Because before sitting down, you had to kick it a few times to get all the flies to fly out. And when you sat, you just hoped one wasn't a slow flier. At remote sites, its just you and you're entrenching tool. Find a place to cop a squat and pray the wildlife stays at bay. The challenging moments are usually on the side of a mountain where you focus is split between balance and a straight shot so you don't hit your boot. I had thighs of steel, I tell ya. I never had a problem, but one girl gave the infantry a show one night, due to them having NVGs - Night Vision Goggles. She would have never know if they hadn't started hooting and hollering.
Oh well. Those snipets of my career may seem horrible to you but those were some of the best days of my life out there. I'd do it again. But I can't and won't go back for a memory. I'll just make new ones with you all.
Hope I didn't gross you guys out too much. Just felt like reminiscing a little. I'll miss seeing you guys at the meetings. Til then, "How 'bout a courtesy flush!"

Better an outcast than... dead.

Well as you can see, this is my third day in a row. I am trying to make up for the next two weeks in case I can't blog. I cross trained this morning. It helps to have a home gym. I roll out of bed and onto the bench. I can start to see physical changes that I had once before but never followed through with to see what the final change would look like. Now I have no excuses to quit at my usual three month deadend. Plus I have a dress that I use to wear and would like to wear it again. Did I just say dress? This exercising is making me delirious.
I felt bad about eating that burger so last night I went to the store and grabbed as many fruits I carry and bags of lettuce and spinach and had a buffet of fruits and veggies for dinner. I should be quite regular come Friday. I had broccoli and cauliflower for my snack at work and I got the funniest looks. I told them I was taking one for the team while they ate their candy bars.
If any of you enjoy reading memoirs or books period, I am reading a book called: The Looniness of a Long Distance Runner. The adventures of a Londoner training to run the New York City Marathon from scratch. I forget the author's name, but it is hilarious. It begins, 'This all happened because I was drunk.' He goes on to explain his experiences in the gym, his first race and running in the countryside. 'Runners are...outcasts', he claims, ' but we are the ones that find the dead bodies in the woods.'
Ah well, my day is winding down. I am eager to run but it's too cold and my anxiety gets the best of me when I am in a hurry to reach the outcome. In this case, the marathon. I must keep myself from doing too much, too soon. Or too little, too late. Whichever.
Toodles!

Hey all,
I have to write fast because since I use the library computers - don't have one of my own- I can't download the easy way to see who wrote a new blog so I clicked through each one. Now I have twenty minutes. Here goes...
Ran this morning with T'knesha and Susan. Felt real good this morning. I see that when I am warmed up, I run so much easier. I trotted up a hill and they asked if I ate my wheaties before the run. I didn't realize I had trotted past them cause my mind had wandered for a moment until I heard them talking. This running is starting to get easier. Next...
Phobias. I drove back home after the run and had to cross the spillway. I love seeing all that water; makes me think of the ocean and the beach. But I literally get nauseated when I see the water in a choppy state. If it is calm and lapping with an easy breeze, I'm fine. When its windy and the waves are large and choppy, I have to turn away. Not sure why, but this led me to analyze my other quirks, idiosynchracies and phobias.
Fingerprints on glass - can't stand seeing it. Refuse to touch the glass of a door.
Checkouts - If my items are on the conveyor belt - I must be in line with them. If they move ahead of me while the other customer is paying, I get annoyed. ?
Sneezes - When other people sneeze, wipe their hand(s) and proceed to touch you or something of community use. (I carry around hand sanitizer)
Water - large bodies of water. In order to swim successfully, one must give up control of some sort to be able to go with the flow. Not willing to give up that much control. Still can't watch A Perfect Storm.
Music - must have radio on in the bathroom so I can sing along to upbeat songs in the morning. Its my coffee, if you will.
Reality T.V. - Hate to admit it. I have become codependant on certain T.V. shows. Must watch The Amazing Race, Apprentice, NCIS, sometimes Survivor, Top Model and Desperate Housewives. And currently, The Contender. I got a soft spot for Sly Stallone. It must be an Italian thing. Love spaghetti too, but I digress.
So now that you know a little about my craziness, not that you didn't already figure it out, I hope you can look at yourselves and say, "Hey, I'm not that bad. There is someone crazier than me."
So to all of you who are a plum shy of a fruit basket, I bid you good night.

Scales are evil.

Hello everyone!
I enjoyed seeing all of you on Saturday on the levee. Hopefully Matt didn't catch a widescreen shot of the tookas as I ran by. I tried to run for an hour this morning, but I got distracted. There is a new housing community being built behind the one I currently run in, so I decided to stretch my legs there. I have noticed lately that I am able to get in a zone and jog comfortably without much thought to it. At this point of the run, that is where I drifted to just as I hit upon a patch of mud about three inches thick. I slipped and slided for a good minute before I could get my bearings and managed to slog my way out of the moistened quicksand. Looking down, i was disappointed of the mud on my once clean shoes. And after stomping didn't work, I proceeded for the next 35 minutes to try and find a way to get the mud off. Every hundred feet or so, I would find a lawn with grass long enough to glide my feet through, but everyone there is so lawn obsessed that they were few and far between. Found a puddle and realized after jumping in that I would need these shoes to run with Susan and T'knesha tomorrow. Damn! I jumped out. Annoyed, I just ran home.
I had an appointment this morning. Annual check up. The doctor said I was as strong as a horse. Normally that would be a compliment, but the smile she had on her face made me a little uneasy. One look at these thighs, she probably thought I was part equine. Anyway, she said that my Blood Pressure's good.... 90/60. But I need to get more iron in my system, I am at 11.9 when I should be between 12 and 16. Oh! She made me get on the scale! Fully clothed with shoes! How evil. I wanted to tell her that I ate breakfast and my clothes should be deducted but I refrained. I try to avoid scales if at all possible, but I couldn't avoid this one. Let's just say if we were stranded in a remote place with no food... I give you all permission to eat me. There's enough to go around.
Gotta go, Library is closing soon. Blog ya later.

Siesta for Everybody!

I got up this morning to meet Tknesha at the Resevoir Y. We decided to run inside on the treadmill. After a brief walk, I speed up to a jog. I chose the machine in the corner and directly in my line of view was a woman on the stair climber. Or rather, her butt was in my line of view. Granted, it was a side view, but when I run I must look forward or people around me will think I have vertigo from all the falling that would occur. I can't run to music, but I am able to zone out and go to where my thoughts live. Which brings me to my question: Why are the stairmasters and stairclimbers always placed just so that your derrier is facing the uncurtained window?! At The Club on Lake Harbor, if you have ever driven by after sundown, a smorgasboard of backsides are on display flexing and contracting. If this is suppose to be cheap adverstisement for the gym, you would think they would only let people with the tight bums on those particular machines. Yes, I would look, for the sake of art. But if I see someone's tush in comparable size to mine just rockin' away in the window, my first thought is, "I'm not going there so my untoned butt can be on display!" When I went to Fleet Feet to get my shoes and I ran on the treadmill, the clerk didn't inform me of the camera, nor did I see it when I climbed on. She directed me to get off and look at the monitor to study my gait. When that video ran, I was mortified! As she spoke about my stride, I just kept starring at my ass on the screen. I honestly didn't realize it was THAT big! I mean I had an idea, but when you're carrying it around and its in a spot you don't see as often... for crying out loud. My butt is on film! I couldn't tell you if I was a pronator or not. Don't even know the names of the shoes I run in. All I could think of was how... wide... I was. Just trotting along without care in the world. I began to think of all those drivers that passed me by as I ran curbside. Oh my gosh! Could that be the real reason I haven't been kidnapped yet? The Kidnapper is only stalking me until I lose enough weight where he could actually lift me into the van. Great. I'm too fat to be abducted.
I hope they taped over it. Although, I can imagine them being sadistic, waiting til the end of the day to replay all the runners to laugh not only at their immense girth but the overpronation and inability roll heel to toe. The white van could very well be them seeing if I am using the shoes!
I know you think I am paranoid or psycho, but honestly I am not either or on any medication. I am not chemically imbalanced. Just emotionally enhanced.
I better get back to work. They might think I went on siesta.
Boy, do I need a siesta.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

To give you insight to how I start my day, I awake between 4:45 and 6:15 depending on my schedule. The first thing I do is say a morning prayer. After, I get a cup of water and head straight for the bathroom. Once there, besides the lights being turned on, the most important thing is the clock radio. Music must enter my day. In a weird way, I kind of let it determine what kind of a day it will be by which song I hear first. Somedays I can't find a good song to save my life, others, the hits keep coming. 98.7 is usually the best. If I can hear Hall&Oates, Michael McDonald and either a Billy Joel or something I haven't heard in ages, I know it will be a good Day. Today was average. Every station was on a song break, which is good, because I had to meet Susan for our WOG.
Tknesha joined us, which I enjoyed. The more the merrier. We did the same 4 mile length as last week. When Susan and I did our first run it was a cold morning. About 30 degrees. I overdressed and had four layers on top and two on the bottom. Needless to say, I was sweating the first quarter mile. All I could think was "I'm gonna catch on fire." My craziness coupled with my ego prevented me from speaking up and saying I needed a walk break. Hot and out of breath, I was still enthusiastic. Things could only get better, right? Well today, I was moderately dressed and left my ego at home. "Can we stop and walk?!" No studdering or panting at that point. I often compare myself to an old cadillac. I have to warm up before I can get going. I can't start off very fast, but once my second wind hits, I'm good. So I am usually panting pretty heavy in the beginning.
Afterward, I got home and turned the radio on. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Befitting, I think. And you know; today was a pretty good day.

WHO NEEDS A SHOT?

Whoo-hooo!
Today I decided to run 4 miles, even before I got to the gym, and I completed it successfully. And I wasn't feeling like crap! Usually I feel terrible and sluggish during the run and welcome the end, but I didn't rush it. I just trotted along concentrating on endurance not speed. Although the first mile, I have to admit, I did try to catch up to the guys, but my thighs are still afraid of heights and far-be-it from me to send them into shock. My breathing is what hampers me the most. I have to remind myself over and over to breath in through the nose and out the mouth. Halfway before the first mile I find myself slack-jawed and panting. Breath in, breath out, tuck my hips under so I am not leaning forward to much. (I learned that watching the movie about Steve Prefontaine; tuck your hips forward and it's easier to raise the knee. It takes some getting use to, but it works for me.)
I'm gonna have to write a little faster because, I am famished and upon entering this library, I could pick out that someone in the computer room has eaten spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I can only imagine... ah food, my favorite.
Anyway, what I did learn about myself is that it was sooo much easier to run the first three miles because there were all of you that I was going to see along the way. When there was no one to cheer on or vice versa, I had to entertain myself, which can get confusing because I forget where I left off. So I see now, that I do need the positive reinforcement on the run to help propel me forward. There was only a handful of us today, I'll be floating on a cloud come Chicago, no doubt.
Now that I have an idea of everyone's age, height and date of birth, I think I'll share a little more. Yesterday at work, I attended a wedding shower for a co-worker I am not too familiar with. The other girl that works in my shop - who loves food just as much as I do- was in the same boat. So we went half on a cordless can opener. Needlesstosay, the bride got two can openers yesterday, so we gave her the receipt to exchange it. Well we couldn't go empty-handed and just eat the free food, we have scruples! There was a bachelorette party later that night, but I said I wasn't going. The ladies in my shop tried to convince me to go, at which time our resident biker...I'll call him Fred, decides to pipe in. "Yeah, take her with ya. She needs a shot! Somethin' to make her come in to work skippin'!" A shot of lovin' is what he meant. Once the blood drained out of my face and the laughter died down, there really wasn't much else to say. I told him I was fine, but he humphed with a shoulder shrug and went back to work. This is the same man who pointed out the other food lover and told her she was fat too! I commend his wife for putting up with his blatant honesty all these years.
So instead of the party, I chose to get some extra sleep for the long run. It paid off. I think I ran pretty well today. In all honesty, I did wonder how my running would have been after a shot. Oh well, I promised myself I'd be a good girl. No more shots. But some days I'd settle for a placebo... or a one of those Flintstone Vitamins! Whatever it takes to keep that pep in your step Marathoners! I'm off to get some spaghetti and Flintstone Vitamins. WOG on!

Sharing is caring

Hello Everyone.
I have printed out a copy of the Chicago Marathon Registration and will send it in Monday. ( I'd do it by credit card, but I am not so sure about these library computers.)
As for my training, I ran with Susan C. on Wednesday morning which I needed. Running next to someone will help me keep pushing myself or else I would just slow down or stop. This morning I did my weight training. I have a weight system that works off of a pulley system. I am able to do most of the exercises on the list but others I have had to improvise. It has a total amount of 100 lbs to lift, but when I put it together myself, I missed about 40 lbs sitting in the corner, so if I ever lift more than sixty lbs, I'll have to join the gym. But I will take advantage of the YMCA for the classes like aerobics.
Anyway, have you ever had a co-worker or a friend that just had to involve you in everything? I have this co-worker that likes to share more than I am willing to be a part of. As we're driving to lunch, she begins to dig a finger inside her mouth, poking around behind her molars. Unfortunately, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked what she was doing. She explained that she had this sore in the back of her mouth that was quite swollen and it was bothering her. "Well if you keep touching with your finger, I would expect it to be sore." is what I said. Fortunately for her we were at a red light, so she leans over, mouth agape with the help of her index finger, trying to show me her puss filled sore. I backed away in a sudden jerk hitting my head on the passenger side window. "Hhee iii, Hheee iii?" See it, See it? is what she was saying for all those that don't work in the dental field. "I believed you when you told me. I don't need to see it!" She returned to her side of the car and seemed disappointed that I didn't share in the awe and amazement of her sore. She's shared other candid moments with me such as this and at first I just took her as crazy. The more I get to know her, she is quite clearly certifiable. But in all honesty, when I encounter someone like this, I make myself stop and think, have I done something similar at some earlier time? Have I unknowingly shared too much with another person so as to make them leary of me? In retrospect, I recalled numerous moments! There was that time at the beach that included beer and a stolen paddle boat - it was returned. No need to go into that right now. You get the point. If there is any lesson I learned for this week it would be, sharing is caring, but at a comfortable distance.
I'll share more with you as the days go on.