Race Report #2, well, you would too.

Dear Diary,

I know I did a 13.1 mile trail run yesterday, but I had to HAD TO sign up for this 10K today.  It was in the city, and it was flat, and the course was a bit boring, but I had an agenda.

Nearly five years ago, I did my first 10K.  I can't find those results anywhere, but I'm pretty sure my time was nearly 2 hours.  I remember giving up after the first 2 miles and walking most of the rest of the way.  I finished late, and alone, except for Baboo, who came looking for me and "ran" in with me.  For some reason 1:53 sticks in my head.  Since then, I've done 3 stand-alone 10K runs, including this one today.

Today, I wanted to see how my flat 10K run would be.

1. I was tired.
2. It was in the evening (7:00 pm) 
3. We'd just driven back from Pagosa Springs, after sleeping badly on an unfamiliar hotel bed
4. I'd just done a crap-hard 13.1 mile trail run.
5. It was 99 degrees at the start, and slightly cooled off when some clouds rolled in, but not by much.

Why on early would I do a 10K today?

1. There was free ice cream in the park after.  
2. And pizza.  

Thus I present: The Chunky Monkey 10K, an annual event in Albuquerque.

So, I took off.  I saw a few familiar faces, and OH MY GOSH you know how hard it is to hold back?  To tell yourself "just wait...just wait...you'll pass her...don't blow out" and I did.  Baboo ran next to me (It was a recovery run or some such nonsense for MR. Thing, who ran 31 miles yesterday and had a badly blistered heel)

I finished, with a new PR: 1:06:34.  Then I had ice cream.  And pizza.  Then, the skies opened up and deluged, and we sprinted to the car, and headed home,

I'm pretty sure I'm going to sleep tonight.  :-b

So how was your weekend?

...

Oddly enough, it wasn't enough. A Race report.

Friday me and Baboo packed up the car and headed up to Pagosa Springs for the Devil Mountain ultra run. This is one of a series of runs designed to raise funds to get kids outside and what better charity is that?  The people that put it on really like trail running, so they aim to please.  It's a small race, like many ultras, very casual.  There is often no finish line, you just run to wherever they're pointing, and then someone hangs something around your neck--or-not--and you get to stop running.

I was signed up for the half marathon, since I"m still working my way back.  Himself the Baboo was signed up for the 50K.  I felt kind of glum going into this race.  It's hard to work your way up to doing regular marathons and 50Ks and then drop back to a half marathon, and watch others take off for the long runs without you.  For the rest of the day I felt kind of apologetic.

"Did you run?"

Yes, *hangs head, looks at the ground* I ran the half marathon.

I know that doesn't sound like something to complain about, but it's just that it's hard to lose so much ground after you've gained so much.  But I'm patient.  I'll get back there.  I've got a 50K and an Ironman planned for September, and a 100K 3 or 4 weeks after that.

So. At Devil Mountain, I was determined to get an overall half marathon PR, but when I saw the first climb looming up ahead of me, I thought, okay, guess I'll shoot for a trail marathon PR.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  We drove up to Pagosa Springs and actually found a hotel at the last moment, before leaving Albuquerque.  We made our way to packet pickup, and they gave us a kick-ass T-shirt:

This is a technical T-shirt, and I love it.  It's bright orange.  I have always been insanely jealous of the one bright orange shirt that Baboo had, and now I had my own.  So THERE.

Then we ate some good pasta (and here's grumble #1 for today: Pasta, even good pasta, should not enjoy a 2000% markup, especially if you're located in a strip mall, albeit a nice strip mall. But for the rest of you, if you like good pasta and don't care how much it costs, go eat at Nellos cafe.  It was a decent meal.

After eating, we drove to the start line, to program it into the Garmin and then headed back to the hotel, where I slept very little because sometimes I'm just princess-and-the-pea fussy that way on hotel beds.

The next morning I scarfed a half bagel and peanut butter, 32 ounces of gatorade, loaded up my hydration pack with Gatorade, and we headed out to the start line.  I watched Baboo take off, and tried to ignore other people's dogs running loose.  Now here's grumble number 2: I have a dog. I like my dog.  But I don't ever assume to presume that others will like her as much, and let her run amok, jamming her nose into people's crotches, trying to hump other LEASHED dogs, while I smile indulgently and repeat, oh, he won't hurt you.  That's beside the point, moron.  There's bears, and hemlock, and people who are a bit tense prior to race time so LEASH YOUR DAMNED DOG PRECIOUS BABY.

Ahem.  Anyway.

There's something about trail runs I will never understand.  I was doing a half marathon with people who were runners, some of them fast runners, but many of them trained for this very hilly trail half marathon by running loops around their neighborhood roads.  WTF?  How is that training?  Anyway.  I took off, with the rest, and started my race

Now the half mary in trail ultras is often the bastard child of the trail ultras, kind of an afterthought, and there was no profile provided, so I made you one:


This based on the 50K profile, since we did their last 6.55 miles out and back. It's misleading. It starts at about 8000 feet, drips down into a valley/canyon thing at about 7500 feet, and then climbs up to 8100 feet at the turn around and only aid station.  I knew this, so I wore a hydration pack.  That climb looks really tiny on the profile, doesn't it?  Go ahead.  Take a look.

Why, it's only about a centimeter!  Hardly even!  Only a centimeter, even if it is at high altitude, and you know I loves me some high altitude stair climbing.  So then, it's about 1/3 of a mile or so straight up until the last brief, steady climb to the aid station, where you can pause for a moment and throw up, and then you head back.  The aid station volunteers, as always, were AWESOME, and they had watermelon, which I had thought I was allergic to for 2 years but just now found out I'm not so I'm a major pig for it anytime I see it.

I chugged 2 cups of heed and a cup of water, took a gel, and headed back.

I swear I didn't remember that downhill on the way out being that steep.

And of course, by then, the sun was out. Whew. It's one of the hottest years on record in Pagosa Springs. So, I power walked that last mile or two, until I figured I was 100 yards from the finish, and then I jogged a little ways.

Final time: 3:06, pace was 13:40ish, a bit slow for me but a PR as far as trail half marathons.  My closest to that was nearly 4 hours.  So, all in all, I was happy.  I have no cute pictures of my run like other people always seem to have but that's what I'm working on next: being able to do crazy shit and then still being cute enough to take a picture of myself (you know who you are.)

Except...it wasn't enough.  I felt bereft, sitting there, like I should be busy doing something.  I should still be out there on the trail, swearing and seething and asking myself why do I do this to myself, but instead, I was under a tent, cooling off, looking at my feet, feeling, well, unfinished.

I had some watermelon, and fended off the two unleashed dogs that were running around, humping and sniffing and trying to eat whatever they could while their owners chuckled indulgently...and then himself the Baboo came in, looking pretty strong, but I'll let him tell you all about that.  Here's his race report.   

The night of the race they put on a very nice feed and handed out awards, and I was 4/6 in my age group, 16/22 women, and 49/57 finishers, not dead last.  The woman in front of me was a good 20 minutes or more in front of me, so it's not like oh if only I hadn't stopped to pee at mile 7 kind of a thing.  I just need to train better, is all.

Next up, for the 2nd half of the year:

• The Chunky Monkey 10K, July 18th, cause you know I loves me some food-themed races, and yes, there's ice cream at the end.
• Socorro Chili Harvest Sprint Triathlon, August 7 (see?  more food.)
• Rio Del Largo 50K, September 11th
• Chips and Salsa Half Road Marathon September 19th (yet more food)
• REDMAN Iron Distance triathlon, September 25th
• Javalena Jundred 
• Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas, Marathon

Meanwhile, yeah, I know.  Train, train, train.

...

Yes, Virginia: Maple Exspresso Bacon Donuts exist. A Thursday 13

Dear Diary,

13.  About once a day a kid where I work has a meltdown.  You can hear them screaming and hitting walls; sometimes they run down the hall closely pursued by milieu counselors shouting into radios.

The units closest to my office are kids with Pervasive Developmental Disorders, like autism; the other unit is little kids with psychotic and mood disorders.  Some of them have been pretty badly abused, and if they had a low threshold to develop a psychiatric disorder, well, the abuse helped make it happen.

 They come unglued pretty fast, bolting away from their escorts, and run, sometimes they unroll the fire hoses and set off the fire alarm, trying various doorknobs as they go, pull pictures off the wall, (most are bolted on or painted directly onto the wall) and sweep things off counters.  It's a temper tantrum, cubed.
I'm used to it, I guess.  But there's always that awkward moment when I have a new family in my office and the screaming starts.

I'm all, pay no attention to that.

But I can tell, by the way their eyes dart between me and the direction of the screams, that they are having trouble not paying attention to that.
I suppose everyone has some idiosyncrasies about where they work.  This is mine.  Oh, and the printer breaks down a lot, too.

12.  Suddenly Chloe from the Humane society decides to be finicky.  She hates her new expensive, high quality dog fodo; she isn't having it.  So, FINE.  I'll switch her back to the cheap stuff.  Whatever.  Dogs are truly the rednecks of the animal world.  I suppose cheap dog food is her equivalent of a maple espresso bacon donut.*

11.  This past Sunday I gut-checked the swim at a local lake, as part of an Olympic distanceteam  relay.  The lake was a bit choppy on Sunday, so the fact that I completed the swim is a minor miracle.  32:59.  It's a PR for me at this distance.

<< Team Badassery

So I finished, tagged off with Tiger Lily, who rode the 40k very hilly course, and then she tagged off with Cyan, who ran the very challenging 10k in a hair over an hour. 

Even with those stats we did not win.  We had a bunch of mountain people from Santa Fe and Las Alamos down to compete with, and they are wicked fast

I'm the red cap in the middle.>>

10.  I ate too much last week.  Gained a pound. Party's over.

9.  I am now more than halfway through with my MSW.  Now, I'M NOT SAYING THAT AN EDUCATION ISN'T VALUABLE.
I'm not.  But I will be happy to be done with this latest round of busy work and classes that I must attend even though I've recently passed their subject on a licensing exam.

8.  With regard to Chloe's pickiness, you may ask why I would allow myself to be manipulated by a dog who holds her breath until she gets to eat what she wants.
Well.
Here's why:

Last week, Chloe was outside while we were inside, and she was barking like hell at the ground.  We had just come back from a hike with our 3 and 5 years old niece and nephew.  When I looked out, I saw a 3' rattlesnake coiled up, just outside the window.

Eventually, it uncoiled and started slithering away.  I watched it carefully - from inside - slither alongside the house while Sweet Baboo called to find out that a local wrangler charged $160, for the trip. Then it turns out, we have a next door neighbor who has lived here for thirty years, and he used a pipe and a rope and dispatched it quickly.  He took it out into the desert and let it go.  I have mixed feelings about that.  But it's not in my yard any more.  We bought him a pie.  The neighbor, not the snake.

As you can imagine, Chloe got a reward too:

7.  Since then, Chloe has saved us from a resident small desert tortoise, twice:

I didn't get her another bone, but I did give her a pat on the head, told her she was a good girl, and took the tortoise (Larry) to a safer part of the yard.  That's what I'm calling him. 

6.  *these exist. And that's their spelling, not mine. I confess to being curious; were I a pork eater. But having seen too many episodes of House, I do not eat three food groups: pork, unpasteurized cheese, and uncooked fish.  I stalk danger in other ways, like driving on the freeway.

5.  I learned a neologism today for certain alternative "treatments" that have no empirical support:

Woo-ology. 

I'm not doing to say to which alternative treatments I apply this to, because no matter what I say, somebody somewhere is going to say, Oh, no Misty...that actually does work.  I know a guy who knows a woman whose brother in law used it, and...

AND I'm not interested in hearing about the 2 or 3 people that it worked for.  I'm interested in hearing about the majority of people in the controlled scientific study that it worked for.  Failing that, I don't think medicaid or insurance should be paying for it. 

Why am I telling you this.  Well, it's because I've been invited to a professional workshop in how to employ a type of Woo-ology.  It's all day, and it's a paid day off work, and it's free.  I'm dying to go.  I will no doublt spend the day texting mocking comments to others. 

4.  I actually did a long run on Saturday.  It wasn't all that long, and it took forever, but it's done.  This weekend, I'm doing some Devil Mountain half marathon thing.   IM training has begun in ernest. 

Bye-bye, lazy Saturday and Sunday mornings.  It was nice knowing you.  By the way, I'm HUNGRY.

3.  My foot pain appears to be gone.  It hurt right up until Sunday, and then stopped.  Maybe the kicking in the swim did something?  I don't care; it's gone now.  As uninspired as I was about IM Utah, I'm getting pretty excited about the Oklahoma Redman. 

2.  I have provided this link before, but here it is again: This is the basis of my training plans.  I move the Saturday runs to Sunday, and on Saturday I bike.

1.  #1 On hold for the Thursdsay morning workout.... the plan is to run to the pool, swim, and run back.  I have to get a total of 6 miles of running, and 1500 meters of swimming.  I'll change this when it's done and report on how it went. 
LATER: It didn't.  I overslept.  Oh, well.  I'll swim tomorrow, run later today.  Cheers!

...

The adventure--or insanity--continues. Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13.  My training is now focused on Redman in September, my "A" race for the year.  This is where I did my first half iron, and so I've seen the course.  I just have to do everything I did twice.  At Kentucky, my goal was to finish.  At Ironman Couer D'Alene, my goal was to beat the moon (moonrise that day was around 11:20.  I finished around 11:16 pm).  So, my goal at Redman.  Well, it's mostly flat.  There might be wind, or rain, but barring too much crazy weatherness, I've decided I'd like to come in before 10:30 pm.  We'll see.

12.  I've had to put a lot of stuff on hold this year because of grad school; it's severely limited my ability to train.  But it hasn't limited my ability to have completely insane ideas.  Having said that, I am considering the Javalina Jundred.  It's usually Halloween weekend.  The JJ is a 100-mile course that is six 15.5-mile loops and then a shorter loop at the end.  If you make it through 4 loops and then drop, you get the 100K "Wimp Out" buckle.
I totally want something that says I "Wimped Out" by only covering 64 miles.

11.  I will almost certain do the Ghost Town 38.5 in January.  Because I.  am an IDIOT.  But mostly because I like the folks at this race.  This year, I think we're going to find a hotel outside of Kingston or Hillsboro; since they hate runners so much there I won't burden them with my dollars.

10.  I am also considering the Rocky Racoon 100-miler this next February.  I've seen nearly all of the course, and run the 50-miler at Rocky.  It's cool, shady, and nearly flat.  Here's my race report on that.  You may recall that this race is where:  Alligators Exist.

In the Park.

9. The first weekend of December is Rock n Roll Las Vegas.  When we first did this a couple years ago, we thought that the run-through wedding chappel, that is usually before mile 5, would be a cool way to renew our vows.  We tentatively decided at that time that we'd do it at year 10.  That's this year.  So: Las Vegas, here we come.  Time to get out the Elvis and Pricilla outfits again!       

8.    Each week at work has a theme.
Some weeks, the theme was "solidly psychotic young children".
Another week it was "hey, can I drop off my PITA teenager in your psych ward?"

This week's theme appears to be, "hey, is it okay if I show up for my appointment 20 or 30 minutes late?  This has included people calling me 15 minutes after their appointment asking me where I was located. Then they get all pee-pee hearted when I tell them they have to reschedule.     

7.  I have an ambitious plan to try to run to the "Y" next week on Wednesday morning (3.5 milies), swim, and then run back home (total of 7 miles).  I'll write about how it goes.  It's not a flat run I'm contemplating.

6.  I've been blending cold watermelon into my Crystal Lite Peach and Mango Green tea, and drinking it after each run.  Oh. My. God.  It's unbelievably good.  I'm tempted to buy some more, cube them, and freeze them just for this purpose.  I thought was allergic to them, but it turns out I'm allergic to cantaloup melons, not watermelons.  Yumm.

5.  How creepy is this picture?  I ask you.  

I found it when I did an image search for watermelon.  

4. I'm all out of contacts.  Due to my tragic habit of procrastination, I'm wearing my big old nerd glasses until I make it to the eye doctor.

3.  I've learned that high winds make Chloe nervous.  Ever had a 55 pound dog jump up in your lap and try to curl up for protection?    

2.  Baboo bought me some slacks for work since mine don't fit anymore and YES, he is good at picking out clothes for me and NO, you can't, he's taken.

Anyway.  The pants have swishy flared legs. I didn't think I'd like them, but now I'm hoping the style sticks around for a while, because I like the swishiness when I walk.  I feel all cool, like I should be doing the Hustle.  If you don't get that reference, then you're probably too young to understand the occasional "hot flash" references I make here, too.

1.  I'm so glad to be running again.  I'm a bit worried about a pain I have on the top of my right food after each run.  I has that "sprain" kind of feel but it's on top of my foot and I only feel it when toeing off straight forward.
Hopefully, it will turn out to be nothing.  I'm not up to being injured again.

Ten years later, I've learned I can do anything. A Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13.  Everyone has made such nice comments on my pictures from last week.  And I would also like to add that I didn't photoshop a single one, like I usually do. 

12.  Things I said at work this week:

• I can't commit your son to a mental hospital just because you tell me to.  I have to at least meet him.
• Well, how long was the blade on the knife?
• I can't "make" the insurance company agree to pay for this. 
• Do you have a ballpark idea of how many times you've been suspended?
• You know, some children find it traumatizing to live in a homeless shelter. 

 11.  Cash has a new family.  They adore him.  He also has his very own boy.  They took him for the weekend to see if he would be a good dog for their family, and he fit in nicely.  He jumps up on their roof, and they don't care.  They think it's great that he wakes them up in the morning.  It's all about fit.

10.  Current weight: 156.

9.  I went in the  hike this past weekend with SweetFace.  We got some good mom/son time in.  Here was the route, which went to the highest peak in the area:

8.  My trek up and down Sandia via the La Luz trail has taught me that if I ever want to do the La Luz trail run, I'll need to start training early in the year, because, damn, that was hard! I was all gasping and panting at the top.  The downhill was easier, but I ran out of water a few miles from the bottom.

7.  I never know how to put stuff like that into WeightWatchers under exercise.  I don't think just "hiking" covers it when you climb nearly 4000 feet in 4 hours.  I always have to put it in as part jogging, part hiking, and part stair-climbing.  I do so love my Sunday long workouts, though: they provide me extra WW points to burn throughout the week.  Yeah, I know.  I'm a sucker for a token economy.

6.  Today is my tenth wedding anniversary.

Last year, I posted a song that pretty much sums up how I feel.
Ten years ago today, Baboo says I looked very very nervous.  I was nervous.  I was about to walk the aisle, and not for the first time, either.

What if he was only pretending to be nice?

What if he became a big giant deuchebag right after I said "I do"?

But he's not, of course.  He didn't.

And I simply adore Sweet Baboo.  I adore looking at him, his smile, and hearing the sound of his voice.  I love his hands. I love the big giant running shoes that are all over the house - they are adorable.  I'm in awe of my mountain man, who can run up and down above 10,000 feet.

I love how he grits his teeth and looks very intense when he's doing mundane things, like tying his shoes.  He makes everything in my life better just by being in my life.

I love how tiny I feel when he puts his arms around me.

 Ten years ago, I said "I do".  And I did.  And, I still do.

Three years ago, I made a post about my 7th wedding anniversary, and what I said then still holds true today:
In the past ten years, I've proven that anything's possible.  I can run up a mountain.  I can swim across a lake. I can cross 50 miles on my own two feet.  I can live happily ever after.  Me.

Happiness is within all our reaches.  All we have to do is close our eyes, take a deep breath, and jump in the water.

Or run up the trail.

Or whatever.

 And that's your dose of "Awwwwwww" for the day.   

 

5.  Baboo bought me some clothes as an anniversary present.  Size 10.  BOOYAH.
Oh wait, did I say it yet? SIZE 10.  That is just one size larger than what I wore when I graduated from high school.  I'll take it.

4.  I treated myself this week to an old friend: Nong Shim Bowl Noodle.  This stuff is like crack for me.  I can't keep it in the house.  Just knowing it's there, I must have it.  something like, 7 or 8 points for one of these.

3.  I'm enjoying having a dog in the house now.  I'm in serious danger of becoming a dog person.
Chloe's personality has changed a bit now that she's an only dog.  She's rambunctious, but less naughty.  I let her on the couch.  I shouldn't do that, but Baboo does so, what the hell.  They're his couches from before we met, kind of in rough shape.  When we get new ones, though, some day: No way I'm letting her up on the couch.

Nope, No.

Okay, maybe I will.

Yeah, I probably will.

2.  Yesterday, I went to the mental health unit of a juvenile justice center to assess a kid.  While there, I had a brief meeting with an examining psychologist, and couldn't help notice that the report he'd signed off on what authored by someone with my credentials.  So at the end of the meeting, I siad, "so, one more question: how does one get a job like this?"  Bold, I know.  But I love doing this work.  I'd like to keep doing it, and working for the juvie place would be a state job, better pay.  More on this as it develops.

1. Today, and tomorrow, I'm taking a vacation day.  I'm going for a run first thing.  Then--who knows?  I hear that sometimes on vacation, people don't even schedule things.  They just do what comes up.  Sounds like fun.  I thought I'd try it.

....

Psych hospitals are not summer camps. thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13.  This week I actually started feeling like an athlete again.  It started last week on Tuesday when I joined a bunch of the Albuquerque Roadrunners for the weekly La Luz run training.  I'm now able to keep most of the runners in sight.  They don't get so far ahead of me that I'm alone in the wilderness. 

12.  Friday, we found out that one of our local running shops was going out of business :-(
and they were selling their stuff 50% off  :-)
Sweet Baboo and I met over there after work.  Turns out the skinny bitches had already made a run on the place, so what was left was for me: I snapped up some Moving Comfort size L shorts, coupla bras, coupla running tops.  Oh, and there was a pair of women's size L CWX compression running tights.  My old ones had a hole in them.  Awesome!

11.  I've discovered that the perfect shoe for me is a man's size 8D running shoe.  Seriously.  I put in 16 miles over the weekend in a pair of men's New Balance 759s, size 8D, are my perfect running shoes.  Not a single hotspot.  

10.  Sunday, we went for a 10 mile run up in Northern New Mexico.  It was a nice out-and-back that went from 9200 feet up to 10200 feet.  Up that high, it was cool out. 
Most of the trail was totally runnable, but there were a few marshy areas where my feet were completely soaked.  Quite a few stream crossings, too.  The fun part was when we were headed into the last mile down to the parking lot, and there were people walking up the trail toward the lake, which is about a 1-mile walk.  They were huffing and puffing and asking us if the lake was very much further? and women were fanning themselves. 

9. Very soon, monsoon rains will begin.  These occur on and off throughout July and August, and comprise about half of our annual rainfall here.   

8.  Gosh, I can't believe how much fitness I lost over the spring semester.  After Sunday's 10 mile run, my body was kind of in shock, like I'd run a marathon.  I'd fall asleep, and then leap up and eat a whole bunch.  then sleep, then leap up and again.  It was weird. Clearly, I have a lot of work to do. 

7.   The weather report says it's raining outside right now.  It is not.  Is there someone I call?

6.  Current weight: 156, and holding steady. 

5.  My MIL is coming next week.  She is someone I truly like spending time with.  I realized, I needs to do me some cleaning.  Sweet Baboo will be at the Leadville Training camp this weekend (I can't go, since it encompasses two work days getting there and coming back) so my weekend will be spent cleaning.  Luckily, I love to clean the Dream House. It's one of my favorite things. 

4. Each week at work seems to have a theme.  Last week was "can I drop off my irritable teenager week," to which I replied, uh, NO, this is a psychiatric hospital, not a summer camp.  This week seems to be the week of kids who are truly, truly in distress. 

3.  Speaking of which, I'm going to get on my soapbox here for a moment.  "Moody" does not need to be medicated.  Teenagers, by virtue of their developmental level, naturally frequently change from zero to bitchy in a matter of minutes, and then back to happy just as fast.  It doesn't mean they're bipolar.
Bipolar disorder requires actual, real MANIA, which involves euphoria and at least a full day or more giddiness and sleeplessness, that losing sleep that THEY DO NOT MISS.  If a kid stays up all night, and then is tired and cranky, or sleepy the next day, that is not mania.  If a kid has a pissy, negative outlook, that is not mania. If a kid stays up all night to play video games with a friend who's sleeping over, that's not mania. 

Bipolar disorder is all the rage now, and they are giving kids very heavy-duty antipsychotic drugs with very serious possible side effects to control them. If someone is trying to diagnose your angry, oppositional kid as bipolar without mania, find someone else.  Of the 100+ kids I've seen come through with "bipolar disorder," I've only seen 4 that actually had it. 
It's a fad.  Ride it out.  Luckily, in my job, I get to change their diagnosis to something more appropriate.

2.  On a completely unrelated note, much to my embarassment, I discovered this week that when your toenail turns black, there's actually black stuff in there.  This was discovered during a pedi this week.  ew.  I know.  You're welcome for the visual.   

1.   I've been asked to put up a picture of Chloe., who I can't stop calling Sadie.  I've been trying, but she's very very wiggly.  it's hard to get a picture of her.  Here's what I have so far.  Enjoy.

1.

Wear your underwear, ya freak. A Thursday Thirteen.

13.  This week Baboo was talking to a guy who is not a runner or athlete, and they were talking about health and whatnot, and the guy said, casually, "well, you know, most guys our age are on Lipotor." 
When Baboo told me that I said, What?  what guys?  None of the friends we have are on Lipitor.  And Baboo answered, in all seriousness, "our friends are freaks, Misty"
Hah.  Freaks.  My friends are freaks.  FREEEEEEAKS!  I like that. 

12.  I recently tested a new watch for Timex that I think would be awesome for sprint triathlons.  It has 2 features I like: first, you can set it to remind you to drink and eat at planned intervals.  So then, say, every 15 mintues it will chime a little tune, and when you look at it, it says DRINK NOW.  There's also one that says EAT NOW.  The second thing I like about it is that when in Chrono mode, you can just tap the screen to go to the next lap.  So, no buttons, no looking at it.  Just tap.  I've tested it in training, so I'm going to test it in a sprint soon.

11.  I also recently tested another Tech4o watch.  I tested one with a built in pedometer a couple years ago, which I was very pleased with.  The pedo watch was dead-on for walking, with about a 2% error ratio for distance, and then from that it would calculate pace, etc. 

So, the Tech4o people sent me a woman's heartbeat watch to test.  It has a heart strap.  I still have another quick test to run, but so far, it's not going well.  The first time I used it, my heart rate, when I looked at the watch, would say 35, and then 200, and then 210, and then 79.  Sometimes it just stopped working for a while.  I tested it on a cool 4-mile run around the neighborhood.  I'm going to test it again soon and let you know how it goes. 

10.  On Tuesday, we started our crazy hot hard afternoon workout by running up to tower 2 (see profile, below). It was fun, and I felt like a kid again, touching the tower and then running back down the hill. 

9.  This week's training plan (14 June - 20):
Tuesday, run 4 miles
Wednesday, run 4 miles
Thursday, run 6 miles
Friday, Yoga
Saturday, 2 Tramway loops
Sunday, 14 miles Long slow Flat run

8.  Next weeks' training plan (21 June - 27)
Tuesday, run 4 miles
Wednesday, run 4 miles
Thursday, run 6 miles
Friday, Yoga
Saturday, 2 Tramway loops
Sunday, 16 miles Long Slow Flat Run

7.  About once a month or so, the lunch ladies at the psychiatric hospital where I work show up at my door, and ask me if I want an egg mcmuffin.  they make them with cheese slices on a big old home-made biscuit.  What am I, made of stone?  then I entered it into Weight watchers: 9 points. Ulp.  Next time, I'll have to say, "sorry, I've already eaten".

6. Sometimes, I hate how condescending artificial intelligence is.  We couldn't find an entry for substitude. Did you mean substitute?

5.  About an hour before doing my Tuesday night trail run, I did another experiment: I ate some instant grits.  I am pleased to report that they sat very well with me, and I think enough of the carbs got into my system that I in no way bonked on this run, which was done with temps in the low nineties.

4.  I am now mad at the Caldera marathon, and next year, I will kick its ass.  Stupid caldera.  I'll show you.

3.  There has been a recent spate of people with motorcycles riding them into the open space.  It's somewhat analgous to someone racing around your local park, tearing up the grass, scaring the squirrels and kids.  They race around, scaring the crap out of people and animals, and by the time the police show up, they're gone.  I'm going to contact the open space people and see if there is some sort of barrier we can erect to keep them out. 

2. My tuesday night runs, (profile, above, of this week) I've been doing with my Vibrams.  I'm trying to toughen up my feet. 

1.  Besides grits, I did another experiment this week.  In case you're thinking it, I'll save you the time: My hopethesis that running without underwear would be comfortable was not supported.  Step, Step *tug* Step, Step *tug* Step, Step *tug* Step, Step *tug*... .

no, no need to thank me.  That's why I'm here. 

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