Vanity and ultrarunning are not mutually exclusive. At least not to me: Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13. I truly, truly, truly believe that I may commit some sort of violent crime if I have to watch any more of thise Aflak commercials with the pidgeon in them.  Major medical, Booyyzzzzzz.

12. I have basically been off training since the San Antonio marathon and, oh, by the way, people love telling me about the guy that died during the half marathon. Non runners are almost gleeful about that.

 Which leads me to make the following observation: In any group of more than 20,000 people doing anything, one of them is likely to die. It's statistics  

11. I had my hair done last week. I used a groupon. Meh. Not so thrilled about the results. It's kind of brassy. Jim, oh Jim, (my usual hairdresser) I will never stray again, I promise. Not even for a groupon. i like the cut, though. I pretty much get the same cut now. I have a picture of the cut I want on my ipad, and I just flash it to my hairdresser(s) and say, "that's the cut."  Apparently it's an easy cut, because it turns out the same way each time.

10. Saturday, I got waxed.  Yes, one of those waxes.  It shouldn't be much for an ultrarunner but it was. I had a groupon.

The girl who did it was all chatty, and she would pause in her talking just long enough to rip...  She was all, so what do you do for a living? RRRRIPPP.  Oh, really? I had another customer this week that RRRRIPPP! does the same thing.  RRRRIPPP! hey, you're doin' great!

It was the most painfull one I've done, since I hadn't done it in three years.  But it was also the fastest.  

Waxing is so cruel. At first, you're all, hey, that warm wax feels good, this won't be so bad, I think, and what's that? A muslin strip? So now you'll HEYYYY!  OW! OW OW FUCKING OW!!!

RRRRIPPP


I asked her if she had seen 'that scene' in the movie, 40-year-old Virgin, and she said, Did you know they really did wax him?  

RRRRIPPP.

9. I started a new 50 mile training plan.  I tried to talk mini baboo into doing it.  He had lots of questions about trail running, but so far, is not interestested in running with his mom.  Go figure. 


I'm trying to figure out a way to upload my training plan, in case anyone is interested.  

8. Monday we had a nasty storm here, and I stayed inside all day and burned wood.  I called in lazy.  Actually, I called in snow. I can barely see here,  I said, and then writhed in the guilt of my lie. Luckily, I was saved when the major freeway that takes me to work was closed down.  See? It really was bad out. i relaxed, and read on the couch.

And waited. And then....about two in the morning, Sweet Baboo came home. He has been gone all month. I showed him his Christmas prresent: new components, many of them Apple, set up for streaming movies and listening to his favorite music, whenever he wants.  He was less interested on the gift and more interested in the giver. 

7. As part of my Year of Vanity, I bought a curing lamp and Gelish stuff to do my own gel nails. I'm hard on my nails, and these are fantastic.

6.  Also, the skin experiment hS been successful. i've managed to get rid of a lot of spots through a careful regimen. Yes, yes, I know, it's what's on the inside that counts, blah, blah.

I was asked recently about marathoning (probably because I keep a whole buttload of my medals hanging on the wall in my office) and I told them, truthfully, it all comes down to the math.  I have to eat less, or move more, and I LIKE TO EAT. Vanity trumps laziness, yet again.

5. Meanwhile, along the same "vanity trumps laziness" thread, in my desperate bid to be the world's biggest 'Johnnie come lately' I started doing the Power 90 workout this week. I like it. I can only do five pushups in a row. That's up from last year, when I could do three. Still, I like it. 

I parent my pets like I parent my kids: You
got yourself up there, you can get yourself
back down.  I don't care if you're blind.

4. The other thing I did this week was switch over to a mac. I've had it with Microsoft. I bought a mini mac and a wireless keyboard and trackpad, and it just uses my tv as a display. I also bought a CD/dvd superdrive, and spent considerable time ripping Baboo's favorite CDs to The Cloud.

3. Blind kitteh is doing well. She even climbs up into the Christmas tree. Here's a fun fact for you: blind kitties always climb back down backwards, that is, they descend butt first. She likes to chew on my feet while I'm putting on makeup. From the two teaspoons of kitteh formula she was taking in six weeks ago, she is now eating a full can of cat food a day, plus some dry. 

2. I will begin running on the treadmill during the week. I have always said: i don't mind running in the cold, or the dark, but bitter cold plus dark, well forget it.  And those Holiday edition Hershey's kisses aren't going to burn themselves off.  I'm still at 156, and my butt feels big.

But anyway.  I like running on the treadmill.  The key is to tip it up a little, so that there's some incline. That shortens your stride and makes it a better workout.  

1. My next year is going to be somewhat barren of travel, at least for a while. I have to complete an internship, which will last 8 months, and so that will keep me busy 6 days a week. I will graduate in August, so I'm planning on doing something special for the fall to celebrate.  I might try my hand at another 100K, or I might try to do an Ironman again.  I'm still in the planning stages.

...