8 weeks until we wreak havoc upon Monterrey. Sally Syclone, Tornado Toots, Landslides Lumpy and Larry, Wiz le Whiteout, and The Pita Plague reunited (and it feels so gooooood…) outside of the U.S. borders. I sense trubble. Tomfoolery. Hijinx. Many, many shenanigans. Never leave out the shenanigans. They’re usually the best part.
I’ve been warned by all of my medical professionals NOT TO DRINK THE WATER!!!!! Toots, please address this issue for the non-Mexican gente, por favor.
Trail run today=wheeeeeee! I’m hoping for more of the same tomorrow. We’re doing an 8 week between marathons training plan that seems pretty easy, so I’m going to have as much fun out on trail as I can. We’ll still get in a 20 miler, but it’s really low mileage. Should be comfortable.
ONWARD AND SOUTHWARD!
Woke up early and ran and felt amazing…Dawg came with and acted like a doggy rock star. Will soon have running about which to post…
Not looking forward to Portland at all. I don’t see how I could possibly do well. We’ll hold on…and hold out for a hero. Yeah.
I hope to have fun.
That was my workout today. It’s supposed to make me faster. Yep. Fuh real.
I somewhat “enjoyed” my workout and was pleased and proud at the end, but damn, it’s hard to actually engage yourself with 7 x hill. It just is. Especially when the hill you chose has 4-8 gangsta white boys going in and out while you’re “whumphing” down the hill in front of their place. I was waiting with bated breath for the comments and hoots, but they refrained. Thanks, guys!!! Maybe you recognized my effort or my Chicago attitude. Either way, I busted ass today, simply hoping for a long term pay-off. We’ll see, I guess!
“It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment” -Marcus Tullius Cicero (Apparently this guy never RAN.)
“The Truth is that Running Hurts. No one gets faster without meeting their personal pain barrier straight on. No amount of junk miles, fun runs or affirmations are going to get you over the hill at the five mile mark in a 10k. However, what will pull you through is solid prep with hard hill runs and interval work.”
Manciata’s explanation of the Truth about Running
Wow, that may be the one truth I’ve read about running that actually feels true to me. I’d like to have no more junk miles nor too many fun runs, but let’s see. Oh, and if any of you would like to come to Portland (PDX for the airport geeks…) we’d love to have you. October 4. Ugh. It seems so close and so far. It seems like a good reason to visit the Oregon vineyards…
I’m a little lost about my running right now. I’m running because I can’t stop. And putting the heat aside, my runs have been coming along quite well and have actually been rather “pleasant”. I’m following the usual marathon training plan and about to embark on week #5. But, week #5 to what? I haven’t registered for a fall marathon except Monterrey and technically that’s supposed to be a ”just for fun, in honor of Pito, get back to my roots, 40th birthday celebration” marathon.
The possibility of running ANY of the marathons I wanted to try this fall has fizzled. I waited around too long for my NYC “Dear John”, in the meantime Chicago and MCM sold out and Dublin’s just not happening at all this year.
Continue reading ‘Lost? Or Amazing….’
I was supposed to do 5, but I cut it to 3 (3.3 according to Garmin!), because I felt bad for Schmedly, the Original G. Or Guinness, if you follow our doggie foolishness here at TAS. (OOOOOHH, I love that Toots and I have garnered an abbreviation!!!!!) I felt so bad! She was “un chien haletant,” which was a phrase I used in “Pomme à Pomme” in French conversation tonight. Google it.
Anyhoooooo, French conversation folks were here tonight, I ran earlier, Lumpy and I made a new friend, Guinness reinforced her “special dog” status because she speaks French, and all had a wonderful, relaxed evening. Or so I believe.
Last point: Dublin will happen next summer. No marathon; just French free travel. We would like to do 1.5-2 weeks in Ireland, then 2 weeks in Belgium/France (with possibly 2 free places to stay in France…); so if anyone is in for it……………………………………….yuh huh.
“Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we’ve put it in an impossible situation.” ~Margaret Mead
“What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.” ~George Eliot
I feel that George Eliot may have somehow spoken it best and been with us this past weekend. We had spoken and unspoken memories. We dealt with the past and looked to the future. We loved the now and regretted and wished for what we have known, yet what we will know.
How is it that we could be so very perfect? I am still reeling. We felt the past, we lived the present, we looked to the future. How does a single group do that? How does this combination of pasts, presents, and futures, somehow co-exist in perpetuity? How is it that we were/are/could be perfect????? Maybe that’s what I take away from this weekend…the dream of possibility…the ever possible dream…I could have run that race in such and such time…the belief that Bananas can bring clouds and wind…the ever loving crew that existed…the common dream of a woman that knew every single one of us intimately. Can I ever puzzle this out? Is this my life’s quest? I’d love to know. I’d love to think that Banana has somehow got it all figured out right now. I’d like to think that this weekend, for me, at least, was the beginning of yet one more quest. I am energized. I feel the fire. I am 100% focused.
What would have happened if we had not had this weekend? I wonder.I wonder, at least, for myself.
Please come up and be part of the question. Be part of The Crew. Be Us. Be Team Banana. The race is May 31, 2009. A good many posts will follow. I simply wish that any of Team Banana who can come up would please come up. I am fairly certain that I will need you. (Larry and Wiz…I have Rihanna themes rocking in my head…without end…)
Lumpy, G, and I ran a 2.7-ish run today. I felt the need to go hard, so Lumpy may say that I tried to kill him, but I can’t run every run at his pace, can I?!?! We’re now staying up too late, taking stupid photos of The Fuzz, and watching bad television. Yep, this is actually the life I envisioned for myself all those years ago. It may not seem like it on the surface, but it is. Even the red wine.
Let’s go back: when in 5th grade through junior high, I thought that I would be a photojournalist, adopt Asian babies who needed homes and would have 5-6 dogs. I never planned on being married. It never crossed my mind. Honestly. That’s what I believed for myself at that age. Who the hell thinks that way at that age, you say???? Me. Sally. So, this life with one dog and two cats and a crazy husband entirely are the life I imagined times ten. We’ll eventually have more dogs; that’s pretty much written in stone.
Today’s run was short and fast-ish. Lumpy and G came with me and did well, despite my urgency to bust ass. I plan on doing 10 tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much more wine we have tonight. Either way, I’m not worrying, I’m not stressed. It’s nice. I’m saving all of that for Dublin. It’s strange how I have this divisive line in my head. I will run races before and after, but I have in my heart that I need to bust it out for Dublin. It may be my last marathon. It may be the next of a few. I just don’t know. I can only try once I start. Therefore, I will give Dublin my heart and soul and my pain and my angst. Paris had a lot of it, but I realize reading back that I actually still have more to give. I didn’t think I did. I honestly thought I gave it all to Paris, but looking back, I gave a lot, but not all that I know I have. I do not yet know what it means to totally give in to the marathon. You’d think I would after five of ‘em, but there’s something there yet, that I have not tackled. We’ll see, I guess. Anyone who reads; please come along for the ride. Let’s see if this one breaks me. Let’s drink amazing amounts of beer in Ireland. Come on…you know you wanna…
I came down to Minneapolis to visit, eat, paddle and run with The Sally & The Lumpy. The visit? Long overdue. The eating? Always the greatest pleasure (thanks, Lumpy, for tending to us all weekend long!). The paddling? Out of this world!!! I have never done anything like it before, and it might become my next “thing”. Then there was the running….. I just wasn’t “feeling” it today.
I had an 18 miler to do and Sally had planned out a route for us. I ran the first 6ish with The Lumpy and The Guiness and that went pretty well. Then we met up with The Sally & Mika and continued running a little more. Eventually Lumpy & Guiness dropped out of “the pack” followed by Mika. So in the end it was just Toots and Sally. Eventually it just became “the end” of Toots. Don’t know exactly why but the yin/yang forces were not working with me today. I’m not exactly sure if it was fatigue but I just could not “get going” after the 1st 6 miles. I was hurting and not feeling 100%. I had this strong urge to let out this big BUURRRP that just would not come out. It was an uneasy and somewhat nauseaus feeling I had for the last 2 thirds of the run. To top it off I ended up with a huge BLISTER! A blister on my heel!!! With the same shoes, the same socks, etc., that I’ve been running in for months! I’ve never gotten a blister on this part of my foot! Anyways, the 18 miler took me down completely, that whole “mind over matter” thing was just not working in my favor today and when it was all said and done I ended up running only 17 of the 18 miles that I needed and walked the rest. However, I am somewhat proud of my ”battle wound”…check it out:
I missed my 2 longer runs (an 8 and a 12 miler) for week #12. Too much to do, I simply ran out of time. As some of you know there was a sudden change to my itinerary this past weekend…instead of being in Minneapolis running with The Sally and The Lumpy I ended up in Houston with The Tutus. My nephew got “The Call” for his double lung transplant. He was moved up on “The List” because his condition started to deteriorate very quickly these last couple of weeks. According to the docs…without the transplant, he would not have made it to Christmas. The transplant went well and he is recovering very nicely – he may even be able to go home later this week. After all of last week’s chaos of stress, anxiety, feelings of relief, the long drive to and from Houston, the queezy & nauseous feeling I had on the drive back and getting really sick Sunday evening once I arrived, then having to return to a long 10 hour work day today…let’s just say I’m done.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike running on the treadmill? I’m sure there was time somewhere…but I don’t know where it went. I ended up running my 4 miler on the treadmill at the apartment complex gym. It wasn’t good, it never is. The gym was small and stuffy even though the AC was on. It was too hot to run outdoors in the afternoon plus I was in unfamiliar territory…and I forgot my camelback (I originally meant to run 12 miles)…and really, I was just too tired. But, in the end, I got my 4 miles in.
