On The Ball

Header is in reference to the ball I've begun using as a desk chair in my oficina. I'll have a six pack by next week.

I ran a bunch this week and I'm really proud of it! I've also been really cognizant about what I'm eating and doing a good job with that too. Except we had a friend in from out of town last night which meant copious amounts of alcohol. I had an entire pitcher of Hammerhead Ale from McMenamin's, then at few glasses of wine. This all makes for a zenlike morning for me. At least I had salad for dinner and didn't partake in dinner #2 that all the boys had at 1 a.m. (Why do they do that? How can they do that?) I sat there and watched them eat and then distributed aid to a guy at the restaurant that had an apparent heart attack while we waited for the ambulance. I'm not kidding. I was drunk off my fanny, and suggested we do CPR. Then I realized the guy was conscious and that was not necessary, which ended up being hilarious in hindsight. Honestly I was the only person taking any sort of action! The waitstaff had called the ambulance but the people they was having dinner with were all very nonchalant, drinking their wine and acting like they didn't know him. The fucker was laid out on the ground and no one was down there with him!!! Anyway, I didn't save any lives, but I at least felt like I helped the guy out a bit.

Drama!

So, I probably had enough calories in this morning's breakfast to negate all of the good stuff I did this past week but here's the report:

Mon - nada
Tues - 6.7 @ 8:19
Wed - 4.8 @ 8:21
Th - 3.88 @ 9:51
Fri - 8.13 @ 8:36
Weekly total = 22.79

Here is what my running log looks like:

So I may put in some more miles tomorrow, but definitely not today. All of these runs were even keel, Thursday's was a leisurely run through some neighborhoods, crowded sidewalks and a lot of stops & some hills at the end. Friday was longer than I wanted and by the end I was really sore. I rounded that run out w/a lifting session at the gym, all upper body, then I ran home.

I'm sore.

PS - learn CPR!!!
PPS - here's kind of what the night looked like....

Work/Life Balance

I mentioned that I am a nerd with spreadsheets, so I'd like to share a little tool I've used to analyze where I spend my time and to redistribute as necessary when I'm not feeling balanced. It is a work in progress, but I can share it w/you if you leave your email address in the comment*. I can't figure out how to upload a document to blogger (anyone know?).

Do you have any tools like this? What is your current w/l balance and what is your desired w/l balance?

*Disclaimer: I am not an expert at excel or work/life balance, so don't take anything too seriously.

Few Times I've Been Around That Track

...and its not just gonna have been like that...

I'm dreadfully posting another picture that make you think twice about my sanity. Every kid likes to be a ham, but what the hell? Why did I pose like this and who allowed me to do so. This was from the 1992 track photo shoot (my freshmen year of h.s.). As you can see I really was the tiny one - no chest and more legs than I have today.

This has to be the most ridiculous school sponsored photo taken to date. Great composition with the hospital in the background too.

So....back to present day.

I went running a little while ago and it finally felt absolutely GREAT. I ended up going 6.7 miles because I wanted to make up for the threee day hangover vacation I took and because it was one of those days that you wanted to keep going. (RE: hangover...I'm too old for this. I was literally incapacitated on Sunday, then yesterday was still dehydrated and felt like crap. I hate it!)

So, the stats on today's run:

Mile 1 = 7:34 (understandable, this is downhill)
Mile 2 = 8:19
Mile 3 = 8:36
Mile 4 = 8:54 (don't know why I slowed so much here)
Mile 5 = 8:30
Mile 6 = 8:13 (I intentionally tried to hit a neg. split)
Last 0.7 = 8:04 (I stopped at mile 6, stretched for 15 minutes, then ran this bit home, uphill, but I must have had more energy left after stopping)
TOTAL MILES = 6.7 @ 8:19 pace

Anywhoo - I am pleased with the way this turned out and how I felt. I felt really good. Weather outside is perfect - low 60s and sunny.

I wanted to add in last week's speed because I forgot:

M = 3.5 miles @ unknown pace, my Garmin died
T = 0.0 miles
W = 3.6 miles @ 7:58 (I intentionally went fast & it kinda sucked)
Th = 3.6 miles @ 8:55 (I intentionally went slow & it was a breeze)
F = 3.99 miles @ 8:28 (I think Goldilocks/Stella found her groove)

If you're in Portland, go out there and tear up the Springwater Corridor...there's something in the air today that is working...

Good Old Days

I have been running for a long long time. I scrapped these photos from the glory days back at T.L. Handy Intermediate and Bay City Central High School for your viewing plaisure. I took pictures of these pictures while I was visiting home (Michigan) this year. It is kind of taking me a while so I'll spread these out across posts.

Have fun!


This puts us in 8th grade, so Spring of 1991. The quality here is horrible, but you can still distinguish the big hair - I am 2nd from the left in the 2nd row. Our shirts said "No Speed Limit" - because that's just how we rolled. I think we were the Wildcats. Our head coach was Jolie Doty and that guy was her boyfriend. They were only like 22 years old at the time but they seemed so old and awesome. I ran everything from the 100 m dash to hurdles to the 800. Our schools consolidated the year prior so we had inherited this awesome facility that used to be the high school's. The track was great, the pool was great too. I swam this year too but haven't found any pics.

Beginning of the End?

My recap of my first M-F push is as follows:

M = 3.5 miles
T = 0.0 miles
W = 3.6 miles
Th = 3.6 miles
F = 3.99 miles


Every day I ran the same route. As boring as that may sound I actually like the routine, being the same spot and comparing it to how I felt yesterday or the day before at the same time. I'm sure I'll get bored with this eventually.

As this is my first real week getting my shit together, I spent a decent amount of time formulating plans and charts and graphs to forecast and track actuals. It is really nerdy and embarrassing and dorky and exciting all at once. Screen shots to follow in the next few days!

I'm taking today off and leaving in a minute to join Jen and Zach for happy hour. Jen did 17 miles today so I suppose deserves the gorgonzola fries more than me!

I wish I was going to be America's Next Top Model...instead I'm in the running to become America's Next Plus-Sized Model.

White People Like Marathons

This entire site is hilarious, but the following article is very appropriate for this forum:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/27-marathons/

Which reminds me, I still need to order pics from last year's race....

Randomness...

Just like McCain did to Palin, like Obama did to Biden, and then Jim to Pam....I GOT TAGGED.

6 random things about misself:

1. I f'ing ROCK.

2. I used to be a bus driver.

3. I collect junk and love any thrift store, garage sale, flea market I can find.

4. I work from home which means I'm stealing company time all day long. And I talk to myself too.

5. I'm crazy.

6. I was the runner up pick as the actor-double to the little possessed girl in Poltergeist III. I was 10 and devastated when my almost brush with Hollywood (in Chicago) was stolen right away from me! I did get asked back months later to "sit in" which meant that my mom and I wandered around the set and talked with actors all day. It was *awesome*!

I would tag someone else except I know that no one reads this. How sad, huh?

Love,

Emily

Nolte Fever

God love my mom for sending me links to Nick Nolte stories. Did you hear that his house recently caught fire? Need the scoop....check it out here: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b32877_nolte_house_fire_what_hell_happened.html

I am fascinated with Nick Nolte. I do not understand how he could go from the sexiext man alive to this:

I never had much of an opinion on the guy until I saw this 20/20 episode that followed him around for a day and highlighted his health regimen. There he was on screen, a frazzled mess with a daily routine of downing 150 horse pill vitamins and testing his own blood. WTF?

Be well, Nick...be well.

Oh Crap

Here we go again! Inspired by a fantastic race yesterday I signed up today for next year's Portland marathon! 2009 baby! I know that Maritza and Jen are doing this too so I am really excited to have a crew to track training with.

I met up with Josh at miles 8, 10 (8 and 10 are the same place, after a turnaround), 13 and 21. He'd prepared 4 disposable bottles of HEED powder for me to hand to him at these spots and he says they were the trick in his not cramping up. I am amazed and so proud of how well he did, as I drove from mile 21 back to the finish I got all choked up, overcome with emotion. Totally cheeseball but that's what these things are all about. I found out later that he was doing the same thing after I left him at 21. (He doesn't know about or read this blog, so I'm not worried about embarrassing the poor guy now...)

I went for a quick run today but the damn Garmin failed me and batteries died right away. Not really sure how far I went but I think about 3.5 miles. The weather is just perfect right now for running....low 60s/high 50s and cool/fallish.

(Side note: I am not really in the market for a baby right now but I'd like to give him/her the middle name "Bacon", like Perry Bacon from the Washington Post. I absolutely needed to get that out there.)

For the legions of people who lay their eyes on this site - I must advertise that I get an awesome discount on Garmin products through my employer. Let me know if you're interested and I'll work it out for you! I've already done this for 2 friends and saved them good $$.

Peace.

Coffee Break aka Crushing It

I think I might like this place.

I had been running consistently a couple of weeks ago before I moved. I also was doing spin class and bikram and I felt great. Then I went to Las Vegas and negated every bit of training and progress that I've made over the past decade. It was bad; and by bad I mean fun and by fun I mean bad.

I ran along the waterfront yesterday and the day before. Both days felt not so good. I haven't even looked at my pace on the Garmin, partially because I don't care and partially because I don't want to know how slow I was going. I was slow and felt crappy and had stomach cramps and the works. But, at least I was out there trying.

My MO over the next few weeks is to just get my body back into things. Run frequently and slow and just go with what feels right. After that I may kick into full gear or decide to do more of the same. I feel like I'm starting to enjoy running again for what it is. After the marathon I honestly changed my feeling about running - I wanted to avoid it at all costs. It felt obligatory, and my body still kind of hated me for what I'd done to it. I may not be designed for marathons. I have a couple of other goals in my head that I'm going to think about for a while.

We'll see what happens...