Shorts In January

The first run after the second cold (or whatever it was) in one month is in the books. It was slow, but it felt good. I took it very easy and set the Garmin on heart rate alert at 167 bpm to make sure that I keep it easy. Under 167 bpm HR translates for me into an 11 something min/ mile pace.

For the first time in months, I took the puppy out on a run with me. I was kind of unsure, how she will be able to keep up and I was shooting for five miles (and ended up with 5.33). Well, Karma-girl did a great job and hardly was trouble. I am sure that once she is getting used to running with me again, it will be even easier to take her along.

Besides of being out running again and spent some quality puppy time, the best thing about this run was the weather outside. These days, we have a daily change between ice, rain and whatever else comes along. Today was PERFECT! It was in the 50s, sunny and no wind. I wore a long sleeve and SHORTS!!!! Shorts in January! This winter doesn't resemble anything that I experienced so far in South Carolina, but today was a glimpse of our regular winter... With an hour fresh air and sunshine today, I think I will be able to survive the forecast of crappy weather over the next couple of days without falling into a depression.

Can't wait for spring to come. I miss the color GREEN!

Tuesday Tidbits

1. I don't want see this crappy weather anymore, but it doesn't look like it's going to get better anytime soon... More ice on Friday... Oh joy!
2. After feeling drained for over a week, I start to feel human again... And my feet start itching (no... I am not talking about athlete's foot) and want to RUN... Tomorrow, I will do an easy run! YAY!
3. Not working out for the last couple of days, but already feeling better, made it possible to have social commitments two nights in a row... I have a dim memory of a time where I had a social commitment every night of the week. It was fun, but for the long run, I prefer my new fitness lifestyle.
4. The D.N.R. All-Stars are officially registered for the Palmetto 200 relay! Today's e-mail trail back and forth makes me look forward to this race already. Currently, I am up as runner #3 with a total mileage of 14.1 over three legs (3.4 - easy, 3.1 - easy and 7.6 - hard), but we are still early in the game!
5. I try not to freak out about the Myrtle Beach Half... Que sera sera. Whatever will be, will be.
6. I used to be a complete music snob... Stressing "USED" here... At the Grammy awards last Sunday, I didn't know half the people being honored and maybe 2/3 of the people that tried to make an impression with a skimpy outfit on the red carpet.
7. Planning a wedding is tough... Planning it on a tight schedule is tougher... Just sayin'.
8. I think it's time for a new laptop... The laptop I am currently using goes into it's 8th year... All the time my point was that as long as it still works, why replace it. Over the last couple of days I changed my opinion on this a little... I think in favor of my sanity, it's time for an upgrade... Like wireless... Crazy - right? ;-)
9. Speaking of crazy... Last weekend while grocery shopping, I felt a little crazy (yeah right!) and got me some Greek yogurt after every health blog out there is gushing about it... It's yummie... I can only recommend it.
10. There are a couple of possible additions to my tentative race schedule for 2010: 3-6 Reedy River 10K, 5-29 XTERRA 15K and 8-14 XTERRA 7K.

Picking My Battles

Have I mentioned recently what an awesome fiance I have (Oh yes, in case you didn't know yet, we got engaged a couple of weeks ago!)? Well, in case I haven't, I just wanted to let you know that he is AWESOME... Taking care of me a lot.

This morning for example while I was in the bathroom, he took my assorted crap (purse, snacks, external hard drive that a co-worker lent me) that I haul to the office on a regular basis, started the engine and worked on getting the ice of my windshields. AWESOME, RIGHT? YES! And since I know he does this with the best intentions, I didn't start up our age old discussion about letting the engine run while the car is just sitting there. You know, sometimes you just have to pick your battles in a relationship and this one wasn't worth discussing one more time because there are just some basic cultural differences that creep to the surface sometimes and we both won't waiver from our position.

Even though I think of myself as mostly aware of these intercultural differences, sometimes stuff just slips out way too harsh (... in my Germany military tone ;-). But I don't seem to be the only one overreaching in this matter. I think it was in the February 2010 issue of Runner's World were Bernard Lagat described an incident while at the training camp in Germany. He returned from a trail run and started his car and let it warm up while stretching. According to his description a German was yelling at him and because of the language barrier he didn't know what happened until he told the story to some Germans that explained it to him. A co-worker on a business trip in Germany once told me a similar story.

You see... It's actually against the law to do that in Germany out of noise pollution and environmental considerations. So if you get up in the morning and your windows are covered with ice, you scratch the ice of your windshields and then you start the car. If you have to wait at a railroad track for longer than 30 seconds, you are required to cut off your engine.

Did you know, that letting the car run on neutral for 5 minutes uses up as much gas as if you had driven for one mile? Just sayin'.

Well, people here are complaining about gas prices night and day, but let me tell you something... you'll never hear me complaining about gas prices in SC - EVER!!! Why?? According to this web page the lowest gas price in the Spartanburg of the last 72 hours has been 2.37 USD/gallon for regular gas. If I compare the gas price around my parent's house to that with 1.379 EUR/ liter ( 7.86 USD/ gallon with a 1.5 exchange rate) you might see why I am pretty relaxed about gas prices in SC. Besides, I don't think it's a basic human right to drive an V8 and if you hear yourself complaining to much about gas prices, you might wanna think about getting a more fuel efficient car.

This aside, there are just some things ingrained in our brains, based on where we grew up and how we have been brought up that won't ever change. For my (awesome) Terry, it is convenient to warm up a car and he thinks it's better for the engine to do so especially in cold temps. For me, it's just a whole lot of waste of gas and money plus it harms the environment.

People have a lot of opinions all the time and for that you must not even have grown up on different continents. Some things will always remain a hot topic and other things we just have to agree to be different... Not better or worse, just different.

Caught Up...

I can't remember the last weekend I have been so UNPRODUCTIVE.... Well, I guess being unproductive is all a question about definition... At least it's Sunday night and I am all caught up on every reality show out there plus several "movies we love". And since that is not quite enough, I am watching the red carpet show for the Grammy's as I type this.

You might have guessed it by now..... I am still not really feeling so well. For the last couple of days, I have been dealing with a headache from hell and was having a temperature on and off. Finally this afternoon, I started to feel better and Terry and I even took a little stroll around Furman Lake to catch some fresh air. I joked around and told him, that this going to be a preview of us in a couple of decades (hopefully)... We are both not so much the walking peeps... And he even less than I am.

As usual when I am not able to workout as usual, I get all jealous while being outside and seeing other people running or riding their bike. But I have to be patient here for once. By now I think I might have started up to fast and to hard the last time I recovered from the cold. Even though I feel fairly good right now, I'll give myself another two days of rest before starting up easy.

Alrighty peeps.... The Grammy's are on and Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John are the opening performance... I will get my award show fix now for the season! ;-)

Warning: RANT Is Coming In

It's Friday and I should be happy since it's weekend. FINALLY!

Instead, I am pretty grumpy.

The cold that started to creep up on me again made me bed bound on Wednesday. Yesterday, I felt better and went to work again. Today at work again, but didn't have a good day and instead of getting better, I was getting worse. So I stopped by the plant nurse and got a prescription for antibiotics. And here is were I started to get really grumpy. I HATE taking antibiotics. On top of them making me sick to my stomach, I really don't believe in taking antibiotics for a cold since a cold is a viral infection and antibiotics treat bacterial infections. On the other hand, I have been struggling with these non-specifics symptoms for way too long now, that I think, I will just have to suck it up and take them. Of course you can ask me now, what my problem is, since I got it prescribed (and the doctor is always right). Well, I grew up with antibiotics being the last resort for a doc and around here it's the first thing they do. Besides the stomach issues that I get from taking them, I don't like the idea of getting resistant against antibiotics and when I really really need them with a big bacterial infect that the body can't handle on it's own, they won't work anymore.

Call me paranoid... Whatever. I will take them this time... Promise... Terry will kill me, if I don't... Nevertheless it sucks... And I am grumpy... And I think I already mentioned that several times.

I haven't been working out since Tuesday and I won't unless I am able to breath properly again. I took the doggy out for a short walk on Wednesday just to catch some fresh air and started wheezing... Just the thought of running right now makes me mentally collapse with exhaustion. Hopefully by Sunday (and with the help (?) of my trusty medication) I will be able to resume some sort of physical activity... Even though it's probably not going to be the 15 miles that I have on the plan.

Of course I start to get worried about the half marathon in two (!) weeks. Coach said that I won't loose anything at this point, but how long of a break can one take without loosing the fitness? I think I read somewhere that up to a week should be fine. But I also catch myself adjusting my goals... From "it'll be nice do to the race in around 2:10h"to "comfortably crossing the finish line". In additional to all of the above, I am one of those people that need to be over-prepared in order to not go crazy at the starting line and even being overly prepared that doesn't prevent pre race jitters and a squirrly stomach.

Seriously, I don't know what I can ask my body to do after two colds within one month in the last third of half marathon training. And I guess I just have to suck it up once more and keep on looking forward to a weekend in Myrtle Beach that I am going to spend with a lot of nice people including several members of the relay team, instead of focusing all my energy in coming up with race scenarios.

Sick and Tired - Quite Literally

.... Or the weekend of skipped workouts.

All last week, I felt like something was up. I just felt tired and cranky and unmotivated.

The weekend started on Friday with a skipped trainer ride. I was set on doing this workout even though I had a very short night before. After I left my chiropractor appointment Friday after work, I just felt exhausted and went pretty much straight to bed.

Saturday started early with a 6AM wake up call and being at the race site for the Greenville News 5K at a little after 7AM. The volunteering was fun, we did the Kid's Run and time flew by, but three hours on my feet in the cold just left a mark. The planned six miler that I did right after I left was cut short a little and slow (even for me), but at the same time laborious. Well, I didn't have a crappy run in a while so maybe I was just due having one. I called it another early night.

Sunday started off as usual with a nice breakfast and church. They called for rain and raining it did... Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. When I finally dragged my feet out of the door, Terry and I were discussing possible routes... I had the crappiest attitude towards running (that didn't happen in a LONG time) and when the rain all of sudden turned from a little drizzle into pouring down in buckets, I turned on my heel and went back to bed.

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat and just did a little strength workout in the evening. Today more sore throat, but still went to do my swim in the morning... Over the course of the day, the sore throat developed into a full blown (pun intended) sinus infection. Coach said to reduce my workout volume in order to give my body more rest, so I won't get "sick sick"... I don't know, if we are not already past that point.

Needless to say, that I am frustrated... No, I am FRUSTRATED!!! I just barely recovered from this cough and now I am in for round two? Really, I shouldn't be surprised because one after the other in the office is getting sick and with my workout load, I am not surprised that my immune system is showing me the finger. Myrtle Beach is just three weeks from now and time is ticking away...

Also, my goal of being back to 125 lbs by the end of the month has been moved to the end of my priority list. While my body is trying to fight this infection, the last thing I want to do is cut calories, but I make sure to reduce my junk calories as much as possible in favor of good (in a nutritional sense) food. Still I have been steadily coming closer to that goal again and I am not worried about it, it just (most likely) is not going to happen until the end of NEXT month.

Happy Feet - PLEASE!

For a couple of weeks my feet hurt... Sometimes more the soles, sometimes the toes and other times the top... Through in a little ankle pain for good measure and you find a sweet little pot-pourri of aches and pains. I don't think that there is anything wrong with my feet per se more that there is just some general soreness going on.

Thinking about it, it's not really a big surprise. I ask a lot of my feet with all the running, the squeezing in the cycling shoes and still wanting to wear cute high heels every now and then. Fortunately, I don't have any blister and black toe nail issues and hopefully, I don't jinx myself with stating this here. But sometimes, I am also not really sensible when it comes to taking care of my feet. I was already achy all week and then Thursday night comes around, we haven't been dancing in weeks, I didn't have a workout on the plan and so we set out for some booty shaking. Close to two hours of dancing in high heels was sending my feet over the edge and while I was lying in bed last night trying to go to sleep, my feet were yelling at me, if I was crazy or something and why I wouldn't let them alone every now and then!

So today, I went to work in sneakers... It's Friday right? And they already feel a little better... I might even treat them to a little massage later on since I will be asking a lot of them once again over the weekend. Tomorrow, I will be on my feet volunteering at the Greenville News 5K and also plan on getting 6 miles in. Sunday will be a mix of road and trail for 10 miles... I kinda look forward to that one!

That's the plan anyways... Happy weekend everyone! ;-)