Just Not My Day

I'm not having the best day.  I woke up about 3:45 this morning with a stomach ache. I though that it was probably just from being hot or hungry so I got up and went to the 5 am yoga class.  Bad idea.  I had to leave the room early for fear of vomiting.  I got showered and dressed, still feeling like total crap.  I walked out to my car and something seemed a bit off. I walked to the passenger side to discover that my window had been broken out.  A rock had be thrown through the window so hard that it totally shattered my window and hit the opposite door, knocking off the light cover.  Seriously?  At this point I started tearing up. I already felt like total ass and now this.  UGH!

At this point I decided that I need to let Pete and Lisa know I was going to stay home.  I almost tossed my cookies right there in the parking lot.  I picked the glass off of my seat and drove home.  I still haven't cleaned it up yet.  I just got off the phone with the police department. They informed me that there have been 20 Honda Accords stolen lately and the 1997 is the preffered model.  Flipping fantastic.  She said to take every precaution.  Well duh, I already lock the doors and park in crowded places.  Short of never leaving the garage, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.  I guess it's good that the car wasn't stolen.  There is my positive spin on the situation.

Oh yeah and PT yesterday, also bad news.  They referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.  Now not to worry, it doesn't seem that I'll need surgery on my ankle, but they are almost positive I have a stress fracture.  I have an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday.  First I'll have to get x-rays.  If they do see the stress fracture, I'll have to wear a boot.  Booooo.  I was given a range from anywhere in between 3 weeks and 8 weeks.  That would mean I'd basically be limited to the pool for exercise which is just a total bummer.  It could be worse, I'm not fighting for my life like Jason.  Who by the way, is making some really positive progress but is not out of the woods yet. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Until then I'm resting, trying not to get pukey and cuddling with Lucky.

Procrastination at it's Best

The time is now 2:33 pm and I have yet to pack a single thing for our trip.  We leave early on Friday morning and the last thing I want to do right now is pack.  I'm dreading the process.  Just look at the huge pile of laundry I just finished.  Would you want to tackle that?  Yeah, me either.  If I just keep procrastinating maybe it will magically be put away and my backpack all packed or maybe Lucky will put it all away for me.  A girl can dream right?

So here's what's left to get done before we leave on Friday:

-PACK-Now I just have to figure out what to bring. I don't want to look like a sloppy American but want to be comfy.
-Pack up Lucky for the kennel and Hil's house. Drop him at Happy Tails.  (Never thought I'd miss a dog, but how can you not love this face?)

-Gather gifts and such for dinner at Shana's house on Christmas Eve
-Fit in a 75 minute run (Probably on the dreadmill since it's still snowing outside.)
-Return memory sticks to Wolf Camera
-Enjoy the ride to Italy.

Sounds managable right?  Hopefully I won't be up super late tonight.  On a positive note, my cold is almost gone!  I've now gone an entire hour minute without coughing.

Snot Very Pretty

This weekend was just not my weekend. I'm hoping that I just had a bad one because I have such a fabulous vacation in just a few days.  I can also taste the gelato it's so close.  But back to the bad weekend.  So I've been sick, thanks Lobster, for about a week now and though it's slowly getting better (I'm pretty much like a leaking faucet instead of one turned all the way on) I still feel generally crappy.  Which lead to me having to cancel on two of my favs Sarah and Lisa on Friday night. 

Now this was just the start.  I was already feeling down about that when I went to meet with Erin, my new nutritionist at Momentum Health.  That appointment was actually super helpful and informative and I'm very grateful for Erin working with me. So you ask what went wrong here?  Nothing major except somehow in the past three months, I've replaced 2 lbs of muscle with fat.  How this is possible I'm not sure. So regardless of what the scale says, I am in fact getting fatter even though I'm holding a steady weight.  Man I'd rather gain weight (muscle of course) than been losing and gaining fat.

Well then it was time to have some dinner.  I was just chewing a piece of pizza when one of my teeth decided it had been used quite enough and broke.  Seriously?  I mean WTF, who loses a quarter of their molar eating pizza?  Must have been a sign from the diet gods that I should not have been eating pizza in the first place. Of course do I have a dentist in Longmont?  Ha...

First thing Saturday morning instead of running with my team, I was at Comfort Dental in Boulder numb for almost 3 hours.  The verdict, apparently my last dentist didn't fully drill out a cavity before filling it. So it continued to grow and caused the tooth to break. Right now it's been filled so that I can head to Italy with a complete tooth. When I get back though it's time for the dentist and a crown.  Boooooooo.  Did I mention I hate dentists offices?  They smell of rubber, tooth dust and gingivitis.  Blah. (No that is not me in the picture.)

Luckily I got in some good laughs with Tawsha during our business meeting later that afternoon.  I'm pretty sure she was more laughing at me and my feeble attempts not to drool and speak normally even though half my face was numb.  Regardless, I can always count on her for a laugh. In fact I think last week my abs hurt from laughing with her so much.  Well that and this stupid cough.  Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?  (Tawsha that's for you ehmmmmmmmmmmm ok?)  I am really looking forward to the Wedding Preview Event even though I will be in Moab running my little heart out during the 1/2  marathon.  I have total faith that someday sooner rather than later, Tawsha and My Big Day Planner are going to be emensly successful. 

I spent Saturday night trying to infect the city of Boulder with my cold.  Aaron, Amanda and Kelsey joined me at Borders to wrap gifts for donations.  We actually wrapped quite a few books and such, the final tally...$38 and some change.  Really?  We had one lady alone who we wrapped 10 items for.  She left $1.  Come on people...it's for cancer.  Speaking of which, I am seriously lacking in the donations department.  I still have a long ways to go, please donate, right after the first of the year is just fine.  Thanks.

Sunday was actually the best day of the weekend.  Other than nearly breaking a toe when my baseboard moved two inches in an attempt to maime some of my poor toes, I finally got in the run I was supposed to do on Saturday morning.  Since I didn't have the team to run with and I was feeling super unmotivated, I just did the loop around our neighborhood twice. 

Time:  60 minutes    Distance: 6.28 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:33 min/mile


I'm not going to lie this was a hard run for me.  I took everything I had not to stop and walk.  I was wheezing, I had snot all over my face and I was hacking like a smoker the entire time.  I was so glad that there were only a few other people on the path.  I looked like a preschooler who had been hit hard by the boogieman.  Yuck.  Once my run was over (Thank God) I entered the house so that Josh could be present for a 10 minute serenade of coughs.  I think he really enjoyed it.  But hey, on the bright side, it makes me feel good to know that even when I'm sick I can finish a 10k in under an hour.  I have come so far from the summer of 2008. 

The rest of the day was spent going to four different stores looking for a new digital camera.  We finally bought a new Sony Cybershot at Wolf Camera.  So glad that's over.  One less thing to do before the big trip.  We headed to Dad and Liz's house for a family dinner before they took off to Costa Rica.  It was a good thing I went on that snotty run because my dad warmed up some Hanky Pankies aka Shit on a Brick and then we had Indian food. Love Indian. 

Weekend is now closed and not a minute too soon.

Stupid Cold

I thought that I had avoided getting Josh's cold by leaving town last week.  No such luck. It's hit my hard this week.  With too much to finish at work before vacation I've been pushing through.  I have not however been exercising, which I hate.  But my thought is that if I rest then by Saturday I'll be feeling well enough to do our team run.  Rather than pushing it during the week and prolonging my illness, I'd rather rest and just get in the long run.  So rest it is.  Now if I could only sleep through the night.

And I'm off....to Vegas

Last night I had an awesome tempo run. I actually think I need to speed up to really feel the burn  Here's what I did:

5 minute warm-up @ 10:07 min/mile pace
20 minutes @ 9:22 min/mile pace
5 minute cooldown @ 10:07 min.mile pace

Total Time: 30 minutes   Distance: 3.12 miles   Average Pace: 9:37 min/miles

After the nice short run I went home to a sick Josh and made some delicious chicken, black bean and corn enchiladas.  The rest of the night was spent preparing for my trip and spending some time with my boys before I had to head out this morning.

Now I'm sitting in the airport right now waiting to board my flight to Vegas.  Man this morning came way too early!  I knew I had to get up at 4:30 in order to be able to eat something real quick, load the car and get to the airport on time.  Well apparently my brain decided that I should wake up at 2:30 am instead. after about an hour and a half of restlessness I was finally able to sleep for a whole half hour before my alarm went off.  Needless to say I'll be sleeping on the plane. Too bad it's such a short flight.

I'm headed to Vegas for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacy Annual Midyear tradeshow.  This is going to be my first show in Vegas since leaving Sycamore Kids.  It's going to be so strange not having Alan there to enjoy margaritas after a hard day of setup and delicious Indian food from a hole in the wall place that I can never remember the name of, but can always find.  It should be a good time though.  We do get to stay at the Bellagio.  Not to worry, I'll post pictures of my hotel room.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get a room on the fountain side, but I probably won't.  That's ok, I'll still feel like I'm living in the lap of luxury.

I'm the only one out there until the rest of the crew joins me on Sunday.  Josh's parents Jim and Nancy are going to be in Vegas this weekend too.  Nancy is running the Las Vegas Rock N' Roll Marathon with hopes that she'll qualify for Boston.  I wish I were running it, at least the half but I'm making sure that I'm not pushing myself to do too much.  By the end of this year (really in 10 months) I'll have run two half marathons and two marathons.  Anyway, I'm going to tag along with Jim to cheer her on.  I think she'll be able to qualify.  In order to qualify she'll need to finish the marathon under 4 hours and 15 minutes.  That's an average pace of about 9: 45 min/miles.  When she does, Josh and I are planning to head to Boston to cheer her on in the ultimate marathon.  It's the one that every marathoner strives for.  Me, it's not even on my radar yet.  In order to qualify I'd have to be able to run a marathon in under 3 hours and 40 minutes.  Eek!  That is fast.

Almost time to board which means it's almost nap time!

Running By Comparison

Last night I did my first interval training workout. I’d been looking online for treadmill recommendations but hadn’t really found one that was just right for me, so I made up my own 35 minute workout:

5 minute warm-up at 5.5

1 minute-6.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-6.5

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-7.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute- 7.5

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-8.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-7.5

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-7.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-6.5

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-6.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute 6.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-6.5

1 minute-5.5

1 minute-7.0

1 minute-5.5

1 minute 7.5

5 minute cool down-5.5

Total Time: 35 minutes Distance: 3.5 miles Average Pace: 10 min/mile

(Not to bad considering 22 minutes were at 10:54 pace)

I was definitely sweating. Usually when I run on the dreadmill I set it for 6.2 and just run at the same pace for the entire run. Doing intervals really helped make it fly right by!
 

This is all part of my goal for a healthy training season and faster marathon. Last year other than a few track workouts I didn’t work on my speed at all, especially after I was injured. Needless to say when I crossed the marathon finish line in 5:06:57 I was a bit disappointed. I though finishing in 4:30 would have been no problem, but when I got injuried I also lost a lot of speed. I am proud that I finished and faster than a lot of people, but being so close to making it under the 5 hour make up until the last 10k when my knees gave out was really hard to swallow.
 
So speed work, lots of cross-training and only running three days a week is the plan. My weekly schedule will look somewhat like this:

Monday-Rest (The perfect day for rest)

Tuesday-Interval workout

Wednesday-Cross-train and weights

Thursday-Hills or Tempo Run

Friday-Rest

Saturday-Long Run with the Team

Sunday-Cross-train and weights

Hopefully this will help me pick up speed and stay healthy. I’m also going to meet with the nutritionist Erin who came to our Biggest Loser kickoff at Tawsha’s. She’s going to help me make sure that I’m giving my body enough of the right nutrients. With her help and tracking what I’m eating on SparkPeople I think I’ll be fueled properly to handle all of the exercising.

All this brings me to comparing myself to other runners. Every since I started running I’ve found myself comparing my speed and distance to others. I tell myself all the time that I’m still a relatively new runner and I have come sooooooooo far since I first started running. I’ve run over 2000 miles June of 2008 and I can pace well under 10 min/miles for 11 miles. My first mile took me about 11 minutes and 11 miles was out of the question. I can run faster and long than some people but nontheless, every time I hear about someone finishing a ½ in under 2 hours or a 5k under 25 minutes I get a little sad. Even when Josh ran the Turkey Trot super fast I though man I suck, I really need to step it up. Of course I was also very proud of him.  :-) I know that there will always be someone who can runner faster and longer than me, but that little voice keeps telling me I need to be better. I suppose it’s not necessarily a bad thing, it does keep me motivated. What I’m trying to focus on for the rest of marathon training is making sure I stay healthy and enjoying the company of my awesome new teammates.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Since Thanksgiving has now come and gone, it's time to move immediately to Christmas of course.  Josh and I have started to try to have our own holiday traditions that we do every year.  His family likes to sing Christmas songs every Sunday during Advent, but since I'm not much of a singer, I'm not so hot on that tradition. One tradition we can on are Christmas cookies and A Year Without a Santa Claus.  After putting up our tree (we really need to collect some more ornaments), drapping our stairs with garland and hanging up the wreath outside it was time to get to the good stuff. 

Mmmmmmmmm sugar cookies.  When I was little my brother Tom and I always made sugar cookies with Grandma Walker.  Decorating of course was second only to eating as many as we could.  RedHots always topped the trees and there were plenty of sprinkles to go around.  Tom usually licked his finger and touched every cookie he could until I pushed him away.  No one wants Tom cooties on their cookies.  Haha. 

I've found that things don't change all that much.  Josh and I both ate dough as we cutout our Christmas trees, snowmen and stars.  Letting them cool was so hard!  To keep my occupied, I sang along to A Year Without a Santa Claus.  The Heatmizer and Snowmizer are my favorite!  Once the cookies were cooled, we quickly frosted and decorated them mainly so we could eat them finished product.  As you can tell we don't have the Martha Stewart touch.  So delicious...in fact I think I need to eat one right now.

Now that I've enjoyed my cookie back to business.  Every year Longmont has an outdoor ice skating rink in the Pavillion at Roosevelt Park.  Finally after two years we made it over to the rink.  Now the last time I went ice skating was with Jess Cutler during Greek Week my freshman year of college.  We went to every single event that week so that we could earn housing points for room selection. As it turns out we had tons of fun doing them all.  Ice skating was a lot more difficult than I remembered and Jess and I fell on our butts more than once.  This time I was a little more graceful though both skates stayed on the ice at all times.  Josh did his best figure skater impression.  We pretty much has the entire rink to ourselves which was really nice.  Neither one of us fell down...I don't think my already sore butt could have taken a fall. 

What a great way to start off the Christmas season.  After ice skating we went for some Italian food...Italy is so close!  Off to make dinner and head to the gym for an interval workout. 

Ghostly Time at The Stanley

Saturday was here before I knew it which meant it was time for another team run.  This run was optional because of the holidays.  There are a handful of us ready to take on the Eagle Trail though.  It's so nice out there. Very quiet.  In the spring there's a lot of wildlife. We just had a short 45 minute run.  This week was the first week I've run 4 times in a long time. I think that I'm going to do a good 3 runs/week plan with 2 days of hard cross-training and two rest days. I think my knees will appreciate it.  Total mileage this week was just about 15 miles.  This will be the least mileage I'll see until it's time to taper.

Grandma and Grandpa Walker hadn't been to our house in almost two years and wanted to make sure they came up to see all the work we've done.  They brought Margie and Audrey along for the ride.  After a quick tour of all of our improvement projects, we decided to head up to Estes in the hopes of finding some snow for Margie.  Since she grew up in Hawaii she has to get her fill of snow when she can.  Estes Park is just about 25 miles or so from our house.

Our first stop was The Stanley Hotel.  It's beautiful and best known for the movie The Shining.  Apparently the film wasn't actually filmed there but the mini series that followed was.  We had lunch in at The Cascades Restaurant.  It's the same restaurant where the bar scene from Dumb and Dumber was filmed.  I tried an elk burger with sweet potato fries. It was pretty delicious.  Grandpa, Grandpa and I also enjoyed some wine with lunch. I love nice weekend days when it's perfectly acceptable to have wine at lunch.  After lunch we got ourselves signed up for the official ghost tour.  Since we had almost two hours to kill we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park.
RMNP is huge.  We just did a driving tour since it was getting colder and the winds were picking up. We did however make a stop at the snow play area for Margie to get a bit of snow.  We also stopped to take a look at the Estes Park Valley.

It was back to the hotel for the ghost tour.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect but since I hadn't toured The Stanley before I thought it'd be pretty interesting.  When we first started planning I really wanted to get married in Estes and have our reception at The Stanley, but it was a bit out of our price range.  First stop was a brief history of the hotel in the tour office.  Then it was off to the ballroom and music room.  Apparently when there had been a gas explosion about 90 years ago, one of the employees fell right threw the floor into the ballroom. It's said that it is risidually haunted, meaning that often guests and employees hear music and people talking in the room even when there are no events going on.

We went into the smoking and billard rooms.  The smoking room really did smell like cigars even though the hotel has been smoke free for several decades.  It had a beautiful stone fireplace in it. 

Next stop was Room 217.  This is the room where Stephen King actually wrote The Shining.  He had checked into the hotel during a vacation with his wife.  While there he and his wife reported that they had some paranormal experiences.  The hotel was his inspiration for the book.  Here are a few more pictures from his room.

Jim Carey stayed in the same room for three hours.  After three hours he went to the front desk and demanded to be booked anywhere else in the town.  He waited outside until a car came to pick him up.  Something must have really spooked him.  He won't say what happened to this day.

Right outside that room is what they call the vortex.  A lot of people apparently get very dizzy and some won't even stand in the area.  I feel a butterfly in my stomach but that's about it.  At the top of the stairs I did get a bit dizzy.  The forth floor is reportedly the most haunted.

The 4th floor is were the nannies and children stayed while at the hotel.  The tour guide had the kids try to get the ghostly children to come out.  There really was a cold spot in the middle of the hallway where people were holding out their hands.  I caught this pictures, but who knows. Other than the cold spot and some tingling in between my fingers, I didn't feel or see anything.  I find that I'm a bit of a skeptic. 

It was fun touring the hotel and learning about the ghost stories.  I would like to stay there someday.  We tried for our anniversary but everything was booked.  Maybe next year.  After the tour it was time to head back home.  They dropped me off and headed back to Denver.  It was a great visit with the family this weekend.   Hopefully we'll see them over the summer sometime.

Forgetting Dad

Tonight Josh, my brother Tom and I are going to see my Uncle Rick's film Forgetting Dad at the Denver Starz Film Festival.  We all had a chance to view it when we were in California for my mom's wedding over the summer but I want to make sure I am there to support my Uncle Rick at this screening. He's flown in all the way from Germany for it.  He's lived in Germany for as long as I can remember but he never misses an important family event.  He even surprised me and flew in for our wedding last year.  Anyway, the film has been playing festivals all over the world and was even submitting to Sundance. Unfortunately it was not accepted this year, but it has won awards world wide.

Forgetting Dad is about my grandpa, Richard Minnich.  When I was 6 years old, he was in a car accident and developed amnesia shortly thereafter.  At the time I didn't fully grasp the situation. I just knew that when he came to visit for my First Communion the following spring, that he was a great playmate. We even did multiplication flashcards together because that is what we were both learning in school.  We practiced cursive together and played games for hours.  He seemed like he was one of the kids and would much rather play with Tom and I than be with the adults.  I remember him travelling to Omaha with us on the same visit to see my Grandma and Grandpa Walker. He loved every moment he spent gardening with them.  There is even a great picture of he and my Grandpa Walker in their straw hats.

I don't remember what he was like before the accident but the rest of my family does.  His amnesia has impacted my mom's side of the family greatly.  When my mom, aunt and Uncle Rick were in high school, Grandpa Minnich remarried and had two more sons, Justin and Matthew.  I never really got to know them well, because at the time of the accident, Justin was just 8 and Matthew was just 4.  After the accident Grandpa and Loretta divorced and the only time I remember being around my uncles was on a brief weekend visit when I was 13.  That visit was also the last time I saw my grandpa. My uncles, aunt and mom have all struggled to understand what caused his amnesia and why he hasn't gotten his memory back.

Grandpa Minnich is now remarried and lives in a remote town in Oregon.  He was unable to come to my wedding because of heath issues, but still sends cards that he draws on and lovely letters.  Someday I hope that I'll see him again and come to know him.  Until then, all I have is the film which opened my eyes to what everyone else was going through when I gained a playmate but everyone else lost their husand and father.

I'll let you all know how the screening goes tonight. It's showing twice, once tonight and an afternoon showing tomorrow.  You can view the trailer here.  I tried to get a big group of Josh and I's friends to go, but so far I've gotten little response which is disappointing.  Oh well.  What's important is that Josh, Tom and I will be there for him.