Me and Cindi Lu

We had a great short run (Laura and I) the dogs ran a bunch. Started at the cross took the trail to the lake then around and back. The doggies played in the water and ran and ran and ran. At one point Cindi was coming at me full speed when Laura's dog tagged her and she spun completely around. Sort of scared me for a minute. Not even dazed she kept right on playing. Cindi is such a good companion and she is learning so many things every day. She sleeps at my feet. She patrols the house. She loves the boys. She loves the hubby more than me, but thats ok. I'm so thankful I found her and rescued her. I couldn't imagine our lives without her.

Do you have a running (or stay at home and warm your feet) companion? What makes that "companion" special?

Where is your favorite place to run?

Tomorrow I'm meeting Laura at at the "cross" in upper park so we can run with the dogs tomorrow. I love running in upper park even with all the hills and trails that don't really like my klutzy nature. I will try to take the camera in the morning so show you how beautiful it is. My hope is that it will make me stronger AND we need to get ready for those SF hills. So where do you love to run. Where do you go to feel free?

Do the Hokey Pokey and you Turn Yourself Around

Hollywood my 8 year old was messing around in the car swinging his arms around nearly missing his brother. His Brother asked him to stop several times with no response. I asked him to stop several times with no response. His brother finally got tired of it and hit his hand when it swung past his face. Hollywood got mad and I could see that he was going to his his brother. I quickly said "Two wrongs don't make a Right". He did respond quickly by putting his hand down looking at me out the corner of his eye and saying, "but three Rights do make a Left". What a brat. Let me tell you, he is just like he daddy.

Now whenever one of us is off track I say "3 rights make a left" and that's the cue to look in a new direction. I think I need a new direction, or at least a new goal to refuel the passion for running, for staying healthy, for being an athlete again. Today the wind is whipping. The thing I hate MORE than anything is the wind. In 15 minutes at noon, I'm going to do 30Day Shred. I haven't run since last Wednesday and I'm going crazy. Emotionally I'm spent... but tears still fall when I think of this friendship that is falling apart or my uncle who is so sick, or my Grandma, Aunt, cousins, mom who are all waiting for answers that may never come for my Uncle Larry. Its heartbreaking and I need a new outlet. So its time for me to turn around and look in a new direction. Maybe some runs with time not distance, maybe some time just for me to cruise, maybe more speed work, maybe a lot of things to refuel.

Have you come to a crossroads or a road that is leading you down the wrong path lately? What did you do to "turn yourself around"?

Tina {heart}'s these

I read SHAPE last night cover cover at 1am when I couldn't sleep. I love this months profile on Jenny McCarthy. She's funny, down to Earth and an advocate for Autism. I love all the little workout moves too. Lots of things you can do at home if you don't have access to a gym. My kinda workout for sure. I don't pick it up every month but I definately pick it up when I'm feeling like I need motivation.

Runner's World Magazine. OHHHH I read this cover to cover at least 5 times the first few days I have it. Then I go back and check out all the ads. I dog ear the articals I will read over and over and over. Sometimes I cut out training plans or ideas for interval or hill workouts I'd love to try.

My {heart} my Mizuno wave's. They love my feet as much as I love them. I rarely get blisters and with such small feet, size 6.5,I have a tendency to roll my feet out. With these my feet don't do that! With the Nike Pegasus unfortunately they do and I paid the price with IT band issues. ugh.

I {heart} Fleet Feet Chico. This store is more than just a specialty running store. Its a place I can go and feel at home. (crazy I know) I get the Cheer's thing going. I walk in the door and everybody knows me. Scary hu? Everytime you spend $250 you get a $25 store credit! I get those credits quite often. Going through shoes every 3 or so months and the 4 training programs I've been through so far in the last year and 4 months sure add up. Ohhh and my very nice Garmin watch too. I could go on and on. Alan and Susan are awesome. I love the rest of the staff too. Because of them I have found a wonderful run family.

Speaking of I'm off for a Wednesday night run with FF! Running is Cheaper than Therapy.

Trail Less Traveled and my walk for a cure

First a shout out to Ed who ran the Paris Marathon Sunday morning. He took in his first sub 4hour marathon despite the crowds and cobblestones. I'm sure when he gets home you can read all about it here. We're so proud (and so jealous) but can't wait to run with him again soon.

Trail Less Traveled. This trail run took us up and around the hills overlooking (kind of) Lake Oroville. My plan was to have no goal, to just go out and have fun, take my time and cross the finish line. Some of us ran the Quarter marathon and some of us ran the 5K. I took off too fast into the race and when I hit "the hill" I was dragging. This hill just kept going and going and going. Vicki said it was about .6 miles or so of up, up, up. You look around the next corner for a reprieve. There wasn't one. At 3/4 of the way up I had to walk. I was walking faster than I was running. It was so awful and all I wanted to do was throw up. Thank goodness I didn't. When the top came I was so relieved!

The rest of the race was a lot of up and downs but just enough to push me but not so much as to make me cry, which wouldn't have taken much I'm sure. I caught up with Susan and we talked for a while. There was these guys who popped out of the bushes. I hadn't seen them before so I think they were taking a potty break, LOL. We kept them motivated for a mile or so making them run if we got too close to them. It's funny what a girl behind you can do for motivation hu? By the time we got to about 5.5miles I passed the boys and kept pushing it home. I came in at 1hour 6 minutes and 46 seconds. That's 10:12 a mile. Not great but not bad for the first trail run out of shape.

I'm looking forward to upping my mileage again trying to hit 25-30 miles a week through the spring. Summer will include a 10K program and a 5K in June, the Avon Walk for Beast Cancer (more info on that below) with my friends and then the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October while training for the CIM again.

This summer I will participate in my 6th Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in SF. 26.2 miles on Saturday and 13.1 miles on Sunday to raise awareness for the fight against Breast Cancer. Each year I have a new reason to walk. This year my Uncle Larry has been re diagnosed with cancer and this time it won't be an easy fight. Actually it is eventually going to be terminal. Chemo and surgery will help him hold on for awhile but eventually the cancer will take over. My biggest hope is that finding a cure for Breast Cancer, that my Mother in law is a survivor from, will be a key to finding a cure for cancers like Pancreatic cancer that took my Grandpa, Leukemia that took my Uncle James, and stomach cancer that is effecting my Uncle Larry.

This charity is more than a walk to me. It's a family affair. My Aunt Sandy (Uncle James' wife, Uncle Larry's sister), my mom, my Grandma all do so much for me to walk. They are throwing this huge Bunco party for me and last year raised an amazing $2100 toward my two walks. So if any of you are in the bay area and would like to come hang out and play bunco on June 13th give me a call. I'd love to see you. My family is so amazing. My Mother in law and her friend Jewels have had wonderfully successful yard sales that have raised as much as $1200 for me in one day. My friend Jenni and I are having fundraisers to ensure that we both walk including a local bunco game here in Chico. You see that this is more than a walk, its a mission for me. I am thankful for every day that I spend with my family and friends, thankful for my health and thankful to have the power to help.

mom, me, Aunt Sandy in Long Beach for my 5th AWBC

On the Road Again

I had a great run with Laura last night. It was 3 easy and gratifying miles. We took the trail along One Mile and just turned around at the 1.5 mile mark. We didn't use watches or worry about speed. We both did a little venting and got some perspective from eachother. We thought, hmmm maybe more than just a run. Maybe next week we'll go out for a glass of wine or a cocktail. Sounds good to me!

I'm not really training for anything specific. I have a few shorter races coming up and I'd like to do well on them. My plan is to keep the miles up by doing a long(ish) run of 8-10 miles every week but we'll see if that happens!

Tonight the boys are going to my parents so I can run the "Trail Less Traveled" 1/4 marathon. Can't wait!

So heres to good runs with great friends, to new and exciting races (first time trail run for me) and some re-setting of goals and dreams.

Fast(er)

I did speed work last night with the fleet feet crew and I felt like I did a year and 3 months ago (slow). I guess I couldn't have been going too slow because for the most part I was keeping up with Vicki, at least til the end and she had an excuse too. She gave blood before the workout. We did a warm up to the park, some stretching and the directions. The temps were warm in the 70's with high humidity for this time of year. Took some getting used to. Today we would be doing 2 minutes easy running, 4 minutes hard x3 out then do the same back. So that was 36 mintues total. We definately did negative splits even though Vicki's last 4fast was a lot faster than mine. I had to hold back for fear of making a fool out of myself by puking on the side of the road in front of the mens softball team.

Don't you hate it when you just "have" to go faster than the two snotty girls in front of you but they are such BITCHES that they intentionally stay right in front of you! UGH! Mine was pure compeditiveness and they were just being snotty, catty, bratty Bitches, looking over their shoulders making sure I wasn't on their tails. They stopped at the fence where we started our workout but we still had two minutes to go, and then saw me keep running so they had to "sprint" ahead of me to be in front. What the hell? I am so going to kick their asses next week when I'm back to being me. We jogged back to the store and stretched and drank some water. I saw them leave and had this urge to flip them the bird... but I'm nice (on the outside) and refreigned for the sake of Susan and Alan who's store we were occupying and probably didn't want a brawl in the middle of it. I'm such a big talker. That would have been the ULTIMATE April Fools Joke.

Ain't no April Fool

I wanted to finish March strong. Well at least running. Yesterday I did level 1 of Jillian Michaels 30day shred then ran with the Couch to 5K group last night. They walked to the park, Ran 3min, walked 1.5min, ran 5min, walked 2.5 min then did it again. It was 12 minutes out and 12 minutes back. totoal of 16 minutes of running which is more than most of the runners had done before. I got to see Peg (my mom's friend from work) and Kari who I ran on the levy with a few weeks ago. I'm so proud of them!

Today I'm sore in my shoulders and arms. I should have stared with 2pound weights instead of 3. I know I'm a total wimp. But I have also lost a lot of strength since I've been on these antibiotics. I am having trouble opening jars and lifting things that were always easy for me before. I can't wait to be off of them.

I am running a speedworkout with Susan and the FF group tonight. I figure I won't be out in the sun so I won't break out in a rash. Although I did get eaten alive my mesquitos last night. I will spray bug spray on myself before I go out tonight. I'm excited and nervous. I may even run a couple of miles before hand to get my miles in before the 6.55 mile trail run this weekend. Its been a month since I've run that far! Of course Tracey and I did come in 2nd for the womens relay teams so that could boost my moral.

Ed leaves today for PARIS! We are all so excited for him. I can't wait to hear all about it. GOOD LUCK ED and Terri! Have a fun and safe trip. They will be running the 5K the morning before the marathon too. Of course they have all the other sight seeing plans on the table too.