Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011: The Year in Bling.

Dear Diary,

It behooves me to assure you that Sweet Baboo does, in fact, run roughly twice as many miles as I do in any given week.

As I recap my year (and idea I stole from SuperKate) I want to find some balance...so, I will write about my accomplishment and the food I ate afterwards.  That way you won't think I am some sort of health nut.

Finishing the Ghost Town 38.5
13. I kicked off the year when I ran the Ghost Town 38.5, which I finished faster than last year.  Then I ate a foot long Subway Albuquerque Turkey.

RR 50 miler medal
12. February, i completed the Rocky racoon 5
0-miler. My goal was to do it in less time then the last time I did it, when I walked the whole thing in 18 hours.  I finished it a hair under 12 hours.  Then I ate lots of Popeyes fried chicken and potatoes.

Run Through Time Marathon: Colorado.
...but the shirt was nice.
11. March, for my birthday, I ran the Run Through Time trail marathon in Colorado, which made me swear Like a sailor and hate Colorado. For a little while.  Afterwards, we had steaks.

I also ran the Green Dress Run, in March, a 4 mike trail run. I can't remember what I ate afterwards, but I know I ran there and then back home, adding another 4 miles.

10. In April, I ran the Albuquerque half marathon.  The last weekend of April and the first weekend in May, two consecutive weekends, I ran the Nashville Country Music Marathon, the Flying Pig Marathon, the Wisconsin Marathon, and the Kalamazoo Marathon. I PR'd at the Wisconsin marathon, which was cool, flat, and sea level, 4:47.   I did this to see if I could, and to earn two imaginary stars next to my name on my marathon maniac's page.  After each of these, I ate a lot but they were such whirlwind weekends I can't remember what. I also earned 4 more states toward my goal of running a marathon or longer distance in every state.
Jemez 50K award
9. Also in May, I completed the Billy the Kid sprint triathlon, and the Jemez 50k, which is the first 50k I had DNF'ed, in 2010. Good thing, too: the mountains of Jemez caught on fire this summer, stayed on a fire for a while, and are pretty much off my radar for running for the next few years. I also placed 2nd in my age division at the tiny Acoma Seed run, an 8 mile run through Acoma Pueblo territory, for which the placing prizes are Native American pottery. 
Acoma Seed Run Prize

Big Horn 27 miles.  I'm keeping
the socks, and wearing them.
8. In June, I began the 50 miler at Big Horn, and had to stop at miles 27 for being 10 minutes behind a cutoff.  After the race, while waiting for himself to finish the 100 miler, I ate a bratwurst, cheeseburger, and slaw.  I'm keeping the t-shirt.  Also that month, the Cherry Garcia 10k.  Afterwards, I ate ice cream and pizza.

7. July, I ran the Chunky Monkey 10k.  This, along with the Cherry Garcia run the month before, was held in the early evening, when it was about 95 degrees.  Afterwards, I ate ice cream, sweet breads, and pizza.

6. August, I ran the La Luz trail run, a 9 miles race that begins around 6000 feet above sea level and finishes at 10,800 at Sandia Peak. I met my goal of coming in under 3 hours.  I had green chile stew, a burrito, and other fine New Mexican fare.

Flying Pig Marathon:
The Finish Swine.
5. In August, I had the pleasure of walking the last half mile, along with several friends, of my good friend Mark's first hundred miler at Leadville.  During the summer I gained 5 more pounds because I just ate, and ate, and ate and stopped tracking my food.

4. In September, I crewed himself at the Wasatch 100 miler.  I also
The ankle that cost me Washington.
 completed the Bear Chase 50k and the Dam-to-Dam 10k.

Stupid ankle.
Stupid photographer.
3. In October, I twisted my ankle at the Defiance 50k and had to drop at mile
20. I'm keeping the vest.  I had to skip the Duke City marathon, to be safe, but ran the Pumpkin Chase 10k, getting a new 10k PR.  Afterwards, I had steak and eggs.

SA Marathon
2. November, I ran the San Antonio Rock and Roll marathon. Afterwards, I had two separate meals at the San Antonio and Dallas Love Field airports, respectively. I had cheese, salmon, and wine; and cheese fries.  It should be no surprise that during the fall I gained 5 more pounds. I ran the 4 mile Thanksgiving Day run at the end of the month.
Holiday Lights on the Riverwalk, San Antonio.
1. December, I didn't do any more races.  But I made a resolve not to drink any more. I just got to drinking way too much. I also started tracking my food again and watching my portion sizes. I lost four pounds.

-----————

Predictions and plans for 2012 (warning: unreasonable optimism ahead)

I will be completing 7 months of internship in the acute psychiatric ward of a local hospital, two days a week. I am currently working out how my training plan will work around that.  I plan to run as many of the local 10ks and half marathons as 8 can.

I will be below 150 by March.

I will complete the Shiprock Marathon in May.

I will complete the Vermont 100k in June.

I will enter the lottery for La Luz again, and they will pick me.

I will receive my third AND FINAL master's degree in August, and then receive my LMSW, giving me more dtoletters after my name than Baboo has. buwahahaha.

I will be crewing for himself at Western States, Leadville, and Wasatch 100-milers, respectively. Very interested in company, if anyone wants to eat high sodium, fatty foods and be sleepless and hollow-eyed for 24 hours....hint hint...

I will be below 145 by the end of August.

I will be offered a fabulous, better-paying job closer to my house.

I will get two dental implants beforre the end of the year.

I will complete my first hundred miler at the Javalina Jundred in October.

I will on my marathon and 10k times, under 4:45 and 1 hour, respectively.

My daughter will finish job corps and start a newer, more stable life.

My youngest son will finish his first year of college and get a decent job while he finishes the rest.

I will be below 140 by the end of the year.

My hair will turn blonde, all by itself, and stay that way, without any need for chemicals.
Even though I didn't finish all 30 miles in washington, I ate.  This is
redvelvet cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.
This is a shrimp club sandwich and sweet potato fries at the Cheesecake
Factory, the best sandwich I ever had in my whole life.  

My legs will become naturally hair-free.

And my eyes will sparkle.

My breath will become naturally sweet, even first thing in the morning after I've drunk cocoa before bed.

And I, I will be completely and perfectly self actualized.

All right, fates. Time to get moving.



2011: The Year in Bling.

Friday, December 30, 2011

I like fancy french cookware, and you should too. Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13. I don't know if I've ever written about this before, but I have this whole, late 50s/early 60s thing going on in my kitchen. I've been buying things that are aqua- and jadite-colored. All thanks to Ebay.

12.  When I posted that snarky comment about having half a dozen readers last week i was horrified later to realize that it may have been seen as a thinly veiled beg for comments. That was never my intention. But I appreciate the comments, nonetheless.  I was especially horrified to realize that Jennie reads this, beaing as she is a published writer, teaches college writing, and probably in a lot of pain due to all my typos.
In my defense, Jennie, this is all written from an iPad. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

11. Little blind kitty is 100% kitteh, with or without the eyes. She gets the morning crazies, flips around turns somersaults, chases her tail, etc.  She has gotten into the habit of swatting my face when I talk.

Last Friday, I was lying in bed, talking to baboo, when I happened to notice her at the end of the bed, crouched, pointed in my direction, her little butt wiggling as she prepared for attack.

"Surely," i thought, "she's not about to--" and at that instant, she launched herself the length of the bed, claws unsheathed, toward my face.

Luckily, I deflected her off to the side, thanks to the single semester of Tai Kwan Do I had in college. Wax on, wax off. NOW DON'T YELL AT ME I WASN'T TRYING TO HURT HER IT WAS INSTINCTUAL.


 She shook her head for a moment, dazed, and headed over to chew on Baboo's ankles while he shaved.

10. Friday morning, after 'attack of the kitteh' subsided, i ventured forth. I love the weeks of Christmakwanzakah. There is so much room on the freeway I pretty much had it to myself.

I went down to the juvenile detention center.  I feel awkward being there during the holidays. I have to do something called a mental status exam, and ask someone how they're feeling, what's your mood? And, I mean, how are they supposed to respond? They wanted to be adults. They tried to be tough, and then the cold reality slaps them in the face: it's Christmas, they're kids, and they're in jail. My mood is low, thank you very much.

9. Sweet Baboo and have taken to staying in bed late on weekends during this unusually cold December. This is bad because we get to running late, if at all. Joining us are the three cats, perched strategically at points on the bed so that none of them are too close to one another (they don't get along). 


The trouble is that there's lots to do in bed these days other than, well, the obvious. While Baboo was away at OBC, i put in Apple TV, and bought him a harmony remote control for everything.

Even I wouldn't wear these. And I. Am lazy.So now we just watch netflix, or listen to music from The Cloud. We also have cable, and wi-fi, so...I am beginning to understand while greater and greater proportions of Americans are becoming obese. And why adult footed pajamas are being sold on TV.

8. Eventually, though Sweet says in his own, mild manner: were you planning on runnung today? And as I am sitting in bed in running clothes, I have to admit that, yes, that was the plan.

7. Ok, i will come clean and admit that I was nearly 10 miles under my planned running last week. I blame procrastination. And laziness.  And the diarrheah I got this weekend during which I said, oh yeah, that,s why I can't eat corn.

6. So far for this week, I am on track. But I have lost so much base.  New Year's Day, we are having a 50K Fatass that we have so far termed, Kelly's Fat Ass because of the person that organized it.  NOT because she has a fat ass.  Just because she organized it.  It'll be interesting to see how much base I have left.

5. The New Mexico Board of licensing git it together and said yes, you have spent at least 2000 hours face to face with clients, we will give you an LPCC lisense. If I pass a test by 7/2012, I get to keep it. 

4. Here is another reason to hate me. Himself, the Baboo did all his Christmas shopping for me at Williams-Sonoma. I've gotten more interested in cooking in the past few years, and now I have very cool stuff to do it with. II have silicone tools and enameled cast iron.  Like many of the things Baboo has gotten me, they are things I wouldn't have gotten for myself because in addition to the fact that I. Am Lazy. Comes the fact that I. Am Cheap.
I am loathe to spend lots of moneu on myself. I am always looking for the cheaper, faster way to get things done, even given my own level of vanity.   For instance, I just bought an epilator, which I will be reporting on, soon.  But fancy French cookware, well, that's the kind of stuff that Baboo buys. For me. I got him a new GoPro Hero.  

3. My envisioned future of accidentally stepping on a small blind cat has come true.  I spend a lot of time staring at the floor as I walk through the house.

2. Okay, I am just going say it.  I hate foreign movies.  Nothing fills me with more bitterness than picking an interesting movie through Netflix and hearing the somber overtones of the backstory in Finnish or some other language.
I'm an uncultured boob, I know. But at least I know myself. If I wanted to read, I'd buy a book.


Part of the exercise room.
1. This week I was feeling a little burned out on work. Maybe it was the sneering teenager gang banger who was trying to avoid jail by telling me he felt depressed.

Maybe it was the 2% raise I got, the first raise I've gotten after two years of service which, given that the cost of living rises around 3% each year, is essentially a pay cut from an already abysmal salary. This after giving me a stellar annual review. 2% is the maximum amount you can get.

Maybe it was my "Christmas bonus," which was one of those huge coupon books they use to force me to get my students to sell when I was a teacher.  Eventually, even the most interesting jobs get old if you feel like you're not valued, and are paid the same as a first year school teacher despite having three masters degrees in your field.

Yup. 2012 will be the year of moving on.

...

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Just imagine there are pictures: thursday 13

Dear Diary,

The wind is blowing like crazy outside and I am curled up under a quilt with Sweet Baboo, three cats, and Tom Waits keeping me warm. Getting up to put the promised pictures of the exercise room profiles of runs, and such, would involve leaving this all behind. Sooooo...placeholders for now.

don't you know there's no devil; it's God when he's drunk?

13.  Friday, two mothers and their respective children showed up at 3 pm, each claiming a 3:00 appointment.  Unfortunately, they were both correct: someone had double booked me.  I saw one at 3, and the other graciously agreed to wait until 4. 

Lunch had been Lean Gourmet Swedish Meatballs, and the package of Trader Joes Peanut Butter Goodies cookies that my Secret santa left in my inbox.  Urp.  I started eating Lean Gourmet because it's all I really have time for, and at the BX, it's about 80 cents.  NO, i do not want to know how high in sodium it is, or that there is a list of ingredients with chemical names longer than Moby Dick.
 It's food. It's cheap, it's portion-controlled, and it's pallatable.

12.  Saturday, I ran about 4 miles on the trail.  My legs felt heavy, which was attributed to the lunges and squats I had done during the previous week. Then, i went to a holiday party with the people who work with Baboo.
Each year I make the same potlock meal: curried yams, and brown rice. It's vegetarian, it's yummy, and it's wildly popular. I take home an empty dish.   But here's the thing: only Sweet Baboo's coworkers, psychologists, eat it.  My fellow counselors or social workers don't touch it. Ever. What's up with that?

11.  Sunday, I did 14 miles of a planned 50K FatAss that will be held on New Year's Day.  Here is the profile:

*placeholder for missing run profile here*

10.  Monday, Lunch was Lean Gourmet flatbread.  It wasn't bad.  It was the size of my hand.  I recognize that this is a normal portion.  Also on monday, I found out that the kid whol told me Friday I'm not fucking going upstairs with you for an assessment was hospitalized over the weekend. I told her so.

9. Also on Monday, it snowed. Again. We have had an unprecedented amount of snow so far this winter. Right now, as I'm typing this, the wind is howling and more snow is coming down, and they have closed I40. 

Now, New Mexico I thought we had a deal: you give me moderate, sunny winters, and I look the other way regarding the whole dust thing.  What happened?

*placeholder for snow pictures here*

8. Tuesday, I went to a local hospital's psych ward to see a kid that had tried to escape. He went over the wall around the facility the day before carrying, of all things, his lunch box.  
Also on Tuesday, I couldn't find my car keys. Anywhere.  I finally went outside to see if I left them in the car, and behold: they were there. 

In the ignition.

With the car running.

Yes, that's right. I parked my car at noon, got out, leaving my car running in the parking lot for four hours.  In th parking lot of a mental hospital. Have you ever done anything so stupid? I say you have not.  

Tuesday's lunch was Santa Fe Beans and Rice (Lean Cuisine).

7.  By the way: Lollicup.com Sugar-free flavoring syrups for coffee.  I'm just sayin'. It's the secret to me being a morning person.

6. Wednesday, the lunch of the day was shrimp scampi from Lean Gourmet. That night, we ate with folks from my the office at a local steakhouse, and the starters menu had calorie counts after each choice. It. Was. Horrifying. Few starters were under 1000 calories. I wound up having a 6 ounce fillet with sweet potato fries, and steamed brocolli.  I was very proud of myself. 

5, Most of the people I work with are in their mid-twenties. It was an interesting evening.  I found out things that I never knew about my coworkers.  Like, nearly all of them are half my age. 

4. Also wednesday, i had to caution an adult who wouldn't shut up and let me ask about their kid. It was all, me, me, me.  I get that people with disordered kids are grateful to find anyone who will listen to them but I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD. I DO NEED TO HEAR ABOUT THE VOICES IN JUNIOR's HEAD. 

3. Also on Wednesday, I made the following law, called GeekGirl's law no. 5150: 

if you name your kid Chaos, don't complain to me about his behavior.  

Ever.

Also, Greek Goddesses. I'm just sayin'. Greek mythology is a soap opera, so you're asking for trouble by naming your kid after one of the principle players.

Unless you're Greek, and then it's okay.

2. Also on wednesday, i discovered that 1) all seasons of 'Bones' are on Netlix, and 2) apple tv has closed captioning.  Thus, my new winter running is in place, in my new exercise room.  Bliss!!!

Pictures:

*placeholder for missing exercise room pictures here*

1. Okay. Here it is, my 50-mile running plan.  I hope this formats right. I used to code in HTML and am perfectly capable of creating a table, but why do that when I can copy and paste from Numbers?  
Recall: I. Am Lazy.

Week of:      Week. M.    T.     W.    Th.   F.    S.    Su.   Total
Dec 5, 2011 1 0 2 2 2 0 8 6 20
Dec 12, 2011 2 0 2 2 4 0 10 6 24
Dec 19, 2011 3 0 2 2 4 0 12 8 28
Dec 26, 2011 4 0 2 4 6 0 14 8 34
Jan 6, 2012 5 0 4 4 6 0 16 10 40
Jan 13, 2012 6 0 4 6 6 0 18 10 44
Jan 20, 2012 7 0 4 6 8 0 20 10 48
Jan 27, 2012 8 4 8 6 0 0 10 8 36
Feb 6, 2012 9 4 8 8 0 0 22 10 52
Feb 13, 2012 10 0 4 10 8 0 22 10 54
Feb 20, 2012 11 0 4 10 8 0 24 10 56
Feb 27, 2012 12 0 4 10 6 0 10 8 38
Mar 5, 2012 13 0 4 12 8 0 0 31 55
Mar 12, 2012 14 0 4 12 8 0 24 10 58
Mar 19, 2012 15 0 4 12 8 0 26 10 60
Mar 26, 2012 16 0 4 10 8 0 16 10 48
Mar 5, 2012 17 0 4 6 6 0 10 6 32
Mar 12, 2012 18 4 3 2 0 0 50 59

Each week I will post that week's running plan and the actual mileage, making me direrctly accountable to the half dozen people who still read this blog :-/

Last week, i was 2 miles short on my training plan.  This week, i was 2.3 miles short. 

The week day runs are all treadmill. The weekend runs are all on the hilly trails behind our house.

Ta-daaaaa!

...

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Difficult weeks are difficult: a Very Special Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

I am four days late, so I'm adding four extras.

13. Fresh on the heels of saying I won't be traveling much this next year, Sweet Baboo's name was picked in the lottery for the Western States 100-miler.  Himself told me some time back that if he was ever picked he would attemp the Grand Slam. In ultrarunning the Grand Slam is Vermont, Leadville, Western States, and Wasatch.

12. Vermont is a state I don't have in my Marathon+ distance medal collection. It turns out that at the same time as the Vermon 100-miler is the Vermont 100k. So--you guessed it--I'm now registered for the fun run.

11. Both himsef and I have obtained apps to track our points. We will be following training plans modified from the Training Plan generator at the Santa Clarita runners club website.  We will also be incorporating a high degree of strength training. I will be using Power 90 and eventually P90x. Not sure what Himself is using. 

10. I started watching "Breaking Bad" on streaming Netflix. Which, by the way, is DA BOMB. Netflix is. It was jarring to see the high school where I used to teach featured in a movie. Oh, and that credit union in the first episode? That's the Rio Rancho library.  
The first few episodes, I told Himself, I'm not sure what is worse about this guy's life...his new circumstances, his cancer, or the fact that he drives an Aztec.

9. Back in black.  When I went running Sunday for my first "long" run since the San Antonio marathon, I was pretty fearful. I took off most of November from training. I was a sloth (although, I was a pretty sloth with nice skin and nails.)   I am fortunate to live in a nice part of town where I can run on a paved path that is almost completely protected from car traffic, or on the dirt next to that, or through some pretty quiet neighborhoods, or up into the foothills of the Sandia Mountains.  All of these options imvolve hills.  I figured I would suffer. Instead, I had a great 11 miles of running, including some hill running that I didn't know I had in me. 

8. Mundane story from my life. On my run on Sunday I came upon a guy standing by a pickup full of chopped and split cedar, with a wife and two young children inside. This is a common sight near where we live...they pull far off the road and sell wood. Once a year year, we buy a truckload. I stopped and talked money, and then called Sweet Baboo, and told him where the guy was parked.  Baboo advised that he would head for the ATM and then meet the guy and lead the truck to our house. I told the guy to hold out for about 20 minutes and then took off running through a neighbood, still bearing north.

While I was crusing, Albuquerque's finest men in blue showed up to chase this young family away and THANK GOD THE POLICE ARE KEEPING US SAFE FROM GUYS SUPPORTING THEIR FAMILIES HONESTLY but somehow, he still managed to track me down.  

7. What makes this worthy of a post is this: "tracking me down" involved getting my attention as I was running along the trail that runs next to the boulevard. Then he pulled over, and chased me on foot, up a street into a neighborhood. I don't respond to whistles, ever, and couldn't hear him yelling since I had my headphones on. Kind of a funny story. Or not. Anyway, that type of persistance definitely deserves rewarding, so I hopped in the pickup along with the wife and babies and steered him to our house.  We got our our wood, and he got his money.  Win, win.

6. When we went out later, we saw a mass of flashing lights down the road. Guess they found some more guys selling wood to save us from SWARM! SWARM! SWARM!

5.  I have a secret santa thing at work. The person whose name I chose likes 49ers, kit kat bars, strawberry mint gum, and skulls. Skulls? Where the hell do you buy holiday skulls?

4. This weekend, I put on 18 trail miles. They hurt. I have lost a lot of base.  I have to get that back.   It was cold out there.  

3. And then Monday, it snowed again. For the third Monday in a row. Goddamn it.  I moved to the desert for a reason. Cut that shit out.

2. Did I say Netflix is the bomb? I did.  Well, it is. We watched all the "Breaking Bad" episodes. Now we're working on "Parks and Recreation".

1. Blind kitty has turned into a slightly less cute and slightly more feral moving cactus. On the advice of Dread Pirate, aka "the cat lady" (who is saved, albeit just barely, from the label "crazy cat lady" by the unfortunate loss of her fourth kitty last month) i just wrap the little blind bastard up in a towel and make a little kitten burrito when I have to do eye drops. Yes, she's adorable. Yes, she makes holes on my hands. But then she climbs up on me, purring, and slumps against me, a limp, liquid purring wad of cute. 

0. I am lazy, lazy. I would have published this Thursday, because I normally do that at work. Then a transformer next to my office building blew.  I'm told it was spactacular and I am SO PISSED that I missed it. i heard it, though. A loud hum/roar and then...nothing. No lights, no phone, nothing. Oh, did I mention that the door locks in our facility are electric?  Um, yeah.  Luckily, only one kid made a run for it. Now, all employees in our facility are hands off the kids unless a kid is a danger to self or others, and then they arer specially trined in safe, non-injurious restraint.  Running toward a busy street qualifies as danger to self, soooo, 6 point restraint, on the ground, in the front, the kid is screaming, GETTHEFUCKOFFMEIMCALLINGTHCOPS!!AAAAAHHHHHHGGGG!!GETTHRFUCKOFFME!!!!  
 oh, and by the way, this is a generally residential neighborhood, with curious onlookers walking by.  While adults hold a kid down and, eventually, the kid gets a shot in the ass by a nurse.  

-1. The next day, we had no internet.  Al day. 

-2. I am fat, fat, fat.  I need to swallow a balloon or something.

-3. I have the winter exercise room of my dreams, thanks to Sweet Baboo, who spoils me rotten. Flat screen, mounted on the wall, the treadmill, a nIce thick rug, and it's nearly empty otherwise. There is a computer attached to the flat screen and it has my Esther E. yoga vidoes, as well as my Power 90 and p90x videos on it. There's also apple tv in there.  Yeah. I'd hate me too. But remember, can't have him. He's taken. Did I mention the upper body work he's doing? Hubba, hubba.  Pictures soon.  Of the room.

...

Moved.

 I'm no longer involved in multisport or endurance sports. I've started my own business, a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety d...