Fall down, go BOOM

I'm officially done with those flip flops and the stairs. Slipping and falling down half a flight of stairs twice is totally unacceptable. This time the welt is on my ass - I was black and blue within an hour this time. Even sitting in my chair at work hurts (though in a bruised butt sort of way, not in a broken tailbone sort of way - the bruise is clearly only on my right "cheek"). Its funny cause of the swelling, I feel off balance.

I feel like I stuck my face in a cat

Yeah, I know that phrase doesn't make much sense unless you know about my allergies. Ug...cats and the eye itches.

Anyway, on Friday, I came down with "Kristin's plague" - well, that's what we're calling it around here. She had it first and gave it to the rest of us, so it gets her name. My throat itched; my head hurt; I coughed; I sneezed. It sucked. Yesterday evening I started feeling better. The headache went away.

Today I woke up feeling almost good. My headache was completely gone, and the amount of gunk in my throat seemed remarkably diminished. Plus the weather outside was perfect. So, I decided to go for a long bike ride out on the Katy trail. I was hoping to ride for between 3-5 hours. Let's just say, that didn't happen. I made it about 2 hours instead. By 40 minutes into the ride, I wanted to start scratching my eye balls out. Even though we've had an abnormally large amount of rain, the trail was dusty and buggy and full of pollen. My eyes ached by the time I had gone for an hour. I stopped, rinsed my heads, and then tried to rinse my eyes. It helped a little.

Then I decided today was a day to cut it short (well, shorter) and head back at that point. By the time I got to the car, I was dying for relief. Luckily I had napkins in the car. I doused them with water from my water bottle and did my best to clean out my eyes.

When I got home, I immediately took out my contacts - BLISS!

jogging

"You're probably jogging right now, but..." Why did this question bother me so much? My friend certainly didn't mean to insult me when he left me this message yesterday. He was just trying to tell me where to meet him after I got done with my run. I'm sure he wasn't consciously thinking that I am a jogger rather than a runner, but ouch.

I'm not a jogger. I don't really know anyone who goes out for a "jog." I think that perhaps people who only run during other sporting activities think of slow running as jogging. I don't really know any runners that do. Jogging isn't really trying. Its bouncing, lumbering. Its certainly not steady. Its not getting your heart rate to 190 bpms. Its not racing. Its not what you do at a 5k, a half marathon, a marathon, or even a training run. Its not even what you do on a short recovery run. Jogging is not what you do to recover from an injury.

Yeah, I'm slow. My half marathon was slower than the fast people's full marathon. Running a mile in 12 minutes is an achievement for me. Hills hurt, and they make me slower. Three miles has been a long run lately.

Still, don't refer to my runs as jogs. I don't jog. I run.

Running Under the Arch

Today for the first time, I ran under the arch. I've never run downtown (well, outside a race) before. It was pretty amazing. I ran from work to the arch and then around the arch grounds and then back to work. The garmin was great - I knew I had gotten my three miles in, and I know what my pace was. What was particularly interesting was stop lights. Most of my running routes do not involve many stop lights. In the city today, I hit pretty much every light until I got to the Arch grounds.

Running on the ground themselves was pretty amazing. I was surprised at the number of runners I saw (I left work at 4 for my run). It was fun to see all the tourists wondering around the grounds. As I started my last mile, I decided to run down the arch steps to the river and back up.

I was actually pretty sore from my Monday run/training session with a friend. She's certified as a personal trainer, and if she lets you work out with her, you get free training. I hate squats, but man, are they good for me.

So, I was kind of slow, but I'm still recovering. Plus downtown is surprisingly hilly.

Miles: 3
Time: 39:12
Avg: 13:04 min/mile

Work Out

I have a sad secret little confession to make. I watch Work Out on Bravo. I know, I'm ashamed.

Anyway, last weeks episode has raised quite a controversy. Jackie (the owner of the featured gym) fired one of her trainers after he came to talk to her because she and the office manager had been making fun of the breast implants on one of the trainer's clients (apparently the office manager was the one who made the jokes - but Jackie was laughing). The blogosphere seems outraged that she would be part of making fun of a cancer survivor and that she fired the trainer for refusing to drop the issue. While I agree that's not good, I have to say its pretty terrible any way you cut it. I would be horrified if I knew that the owner and manager of the gym I pay very good money to get trained in were sitting in their office watching my workout and MAKING FUN OF MY BODY!

I don't care whether that woman was a cancer survivor or just had breast implants because she wanted bigger boobs. I don't care whether she had every part of her altered with plastic surgery. If there is one place where a woman should feel comfortable that the people she pays aren't going to making fun of the way she looks, it should be at an exclusive gym. I'm sorry, its disrespectful no matter what.

Also, I don't really care whether Jackie was making the jokes or not, she was laughing at them. And, appologizing to the client's boyfriend and apparently, not repremanding the woman who made the jokes - not cool. Jackie is trying to get obese people on board with her "Sky Lab" project, but what overweight person wants to work out in a gym knowing that the gym manager very well might be making fun of them behind the glass wall - and knowing that the owner is laughing right along? Not me. Women have enough body issues. We don't need to have gym staff laughing at us as we try to tone up.

So, yeah, the boob jokes were unacceptable whether that girl had cancer or not. And, as the owner, Jackie should have told her employee so without being prompted by the boyfriend. I think I am far more offended that she apparently didn't see anything wrong with making fun of the way a client looked as long as she didn't know that client was a cancer survivor.

Still, I'm not boycotting the show, yet (though I would NEVER go to her gym). I used to like it, and I'm hoping that it get better again.

toys and accidents

I boughts myself a new toy yesterday. Something I've been wanting for a long time. Something that I found onsale for about $100 less than I'd previously seen it on amazon. I bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 305 at REI. At $164.99, I couldn't pass it up. Before buying it, I did my research to figure out whether it was worth it to upgrade to the brand new Forerunner 405. While the 405 looks great, I decided to stick with the 305 for the price. The main upgrades for the 405 (which is about $200 more expensive for the model with a heartrate monitor) are its size and the fact that it connects to your laptop wirelessly. Now, as a girl with a pretty small wrist, the size difference really doesn't matter to me. I'm not going to be wearing either one as my "everyday" watch like some guys might. As far as weight goes, the 305 is less than an ounce heavier.

I love it. I've tracked two workouts so far (a 2.75 mile walk and a 3.39 mile run). I love being able to see exactly what my pace is. I love being able to see my heart rate. I love having an easy tracking system with motion based. I'm particularly proud to see that even with walk breaks my average moving speed (stopped at 2 lights) was 12:09 minute miles. That's awesome for me with the walk breaks. I'm super excited about the purchase and being able to just run and find out later what the distance was - especially with the multiple moves coming up. Its going to be great since I won't know the running route distances like I've known (well, been guessing, but guessing almost exactly right) my current favorite routes. I feel like the garmin gives me a lot more freedom.

On the accidents side - don't worry I wasn't involved - just watched in happen. As I approached a stop light in the park, I slowed down and was going to wait for the light to change. The runner on the other side of the street ran across to the median. The car that was on my side saw this other runner (I assume it was the other runner cause it was pretty clear I was stopping at the light) and stopped her car even though she had the green light. BAM - a bicyclist ran into the back of her car. Now, the biker was pretty pissed (he had some right to be - the car had the green light and stopped), but still, if the biker had been paying attention, he wouldn't have hit her. The car didn't really have many options; it could: (1) keep driving and hit the stupid runner who was crossing against the light, or (2) stop and let the runner go by. Clearly, stopping was the better option. If only the biker had been paying attention. As I ran off (after the light had changed), the driver and the biker were still engaged in an argument about how stupid the driver was. Fun stuff...

Guess now I know why bikers hate runners.

Doing Something

I've posted about this before, but I want to do something. I've never met Elden or Susan (and I probably never will), but Elden has touched my life in profound ways. I read his blog daily, and it has been a source of much amusement. I've laughed with him and now I'm crying with him. Anyway, this is my little attempt to help.

His friend Kenny set up a place for donations - Here's what Kenny had to say:

Dear Readers of Fatcyclist.com,

This last week has been truly tragic learning of the down turn of Suzan’s illness. As I read these comments left by all you good people, the over all theme is the same. “What can we do for Elden, Susan and their kids?” I decided it was time to stop wondering and time to start doing. I set up a bank account in Elden’s name at a local bank here in Utah. It is linked to pay pal. The pay pal account is winsusannelson@gmail.com . If you don’t have a pay pal account you can also donate by going to my business’s website http://www.kennysphoto.com and clicking on the link in the middle of the page, where you can donate with the credit card of your choice. Please know that all funds collected will go directly to this bank account and after a two month period will be given to Elden, Susan and Family. Elden is unaware of this account, until now, of course. I’m not sure how he will react to this comment, but if he removes it, I’m going to continue to put it back on his blog and I invite you as fatcyclist readers to also put this on your own respective blogs. I truly believe that we bless our own lives, when we help others, so I hope that Elden will allow us to help him through this very trying time in his life. He truly has touched each one of us, through his writing and his friendship.
Respectfully yours,

Kenny

This isn't tax deductible and its not going to research. The money will go towards the Nelson family - taking care of Susan.

I wonder what a palm reader would say about me now

I've had my palm read twice in my life. Once was on a bus in Vietnam - by a girl who wasn't a professional. I liked what she told me -- I would be rich (not my parents, not my spouse, but me), I would have one great love, and I would have the opportunity to travel for work.

The second one was at a bar in this city. She guessed that I was in a creative field (she was SHOCKED I was a lawyer) and predicted I would be changing career directions in the near future.

Both of them remarked on how smooth my hands were (yeah, I guess I'm not used to manual labor).

I wonder what the would say if they saw my hands now. My hands can no longer be regarded as smooth. As my friend Jenny said - no boy wants to hold my hand. The rock climbing has left me with torn calluses, ripped up fingers, and short jagged nails. I'm proud of my hands now.

Then, there's the fact that I can't turn my right hand over (stupid broken elbow). I wonder what that would tell a palm reader...Maybe when I'm in the 'burg I should go to the scary palm reader place and find out.

My Heart Hurts