When It's Cold Outside, I Got the Month of February.

traiiner workouts are a little blurry at 5 am.

Oh, Kids. It's been one of those rough weeks in the middle of January. You know? I still have a little cold. It's really not bad....And my hip still hurts, so running, the thing that saves me in the Winter, isn't a possibility. I did try to do a trainer workout on Tuesday after work and swim laps on Wednesday morning before work, but I realized I was pushing it. I've decided to take a couple of days of to give my cold a chance to leave me and to see if I can get my stupid hip to stop hurting.

So, much of this week, I've been in the slightest of funks. I hate being in a funk, and I decided to try and fix that...

First, I planned a daughter dinner date on Wednesday night with Coadster to the new'ish BBQ place in town. It was really nice. We had a great talk and ate good food. The cornbread was the best I've ever had. It helped a lot, but didn't completely kick it.

Next, I planned a little trip...Since we don't have tons of money right now, and we're trying to be better with spending in general, it is a little trip. It's also kind of an odd choice for someone who is losing her patience with Winter. We're going to Madison for Winter Fest in February.  Mostly, we're trying to find enough snow to CX country ski on, but I was checking things out and saw that they have a night time, fat bike, crit right downtown. It sounds like a blast. I've never ridden a fat bike before, and if I ever get rich, I do want to get one. John and my brother and myself are kicking around the idea of renting fat bikes to do it. It's one of those "races" that warns riders that they will be beaten if they take it too seriously. That sounds like my kind of race. If we just end up watching it, I will be more than fine with it. It sounds so entertaining. If we end up doing the race, it will be one of the new things I try this year...I always try to do at least one new thing a year.

Anyway, our hotel room, right downtown in Madison has been booked, our Friday vacation days have been approved and we're working with my brother on the best places to ski in the area, while, at the same time, checking places to rent fat bikes in Madison. Fun has been planned and funk has been lifted. I hope you all have a funky, but unfunked weekend.

No Such Thing as Tomorrow, Only, One, Two, Three, Go!

Like I said before, I got the Martin Luther King holiday off work yesterday. John always makes fun of me because every time I have a day off by myself, I have a list of a bout 900 things I want to do in that time. He used to worry that I'd be upset with myself, for not getting even half of the crap done, but now he knows I don't work like that. I'm excited to do all of the stuff I can't normally get done when I work all day, and I'm curious to see what I actually will get done. If I don't get 894 of those things done? Eh, it will all be waiting for me on another day.

So, yesterday started out great. I woke-up, made some tea and read my book for a while, made a grocery list, and got ready to head out to buy things to make eggplant parmesan for Monday's dinner and then stuff to make a pot of curried red lentil soup to go with the hummus and falafel pita sandwiches I was planning on making for dinner Tuesday. I was so excited at the prospect of a whole Monday at home, when I tried to start my car and all I got was crazed clicking noises. Damn! It was dead. I always thought if I had a new car, those kinds of things wouldn't happen in frigid temps. Apparently, I was lying to myself.

Oh well, I did some things around the house, made some lunch and watched House Hunters while I was eating it and texted Stinky to see if she had jumper cables. She did not, but she said she was free until 3, when she was going to meet her sister to work-out. Sweet! I tried the car a couple of times, because I'm a sucker for false hope.

After we got back from running errands, I read a little more, and then worked on some more stick people running drawings. I finally got it to the loopy flowy running stick person I wanted, so I painted it over the background I painted on Sunday. It is the first time I ever did a painting for me. It should match our living room perfectly.

Anyway, I did get the eggplant parmesan and the red lentil soup made and not much else. Eh, I'd hate to run out of things to do on my time off anyway....

Yo, Watch the Way I Navigate

Snoozing in the sunny spots makes the cats lazy(er).

Check this out. I'm blogging from home, which means I finally got my computer back. Yea! It's also better than before - now new improved with a bigger hard drive and some programs to keep the heinous malware out.

 Last Friday pretty much sucked. It was crazy busy at work, because the new semester starts tomorrow and everyone waited until the last minute to take care of crap. Then, I also had a problem with my bank giving some other customer $400 of my money. I thought I got them to fix it on Monday, but then their website was down and by Friday, when I checked to make sure, not only was the $400 still gone, there were overdraft fees, because I try not to keep much money in my checking account. Sooooo, I had to go down to the bank on my lunch break and the guy told me he guaranteed that he would have it fixed in the next hour and he'd call me and email me to let me sure when that was done. He never called or emailed me. I was still feeling crappy from that mild bug I had and my hip wasn't healed yet either. Yeah, I know. Wah, effing, wah.

Anyway, I got home from work and John got off work early, so he could go to the store and get my computer set up before I got home. I really am the luckiest, most spoiledest girl in the world with John in my life. While John was running, I went out and got some Chinese take-out. We had a cocktail and watched the "Thin Man" after dinner. Talk about turning around a bad day...

This is the facility where we swim laps.

The rest of the weekend  was frigid. I was still feeling a little punky on Saturday, so I settled in to read the first Harry Potter novel. I heated up leftovers for lunch and then John and I went to the rec services building to swim laps. I get a sweet deal, since I work at the university and John gets a not so bad deal for being my one extra family member on my account. The services are pretty damn sweet. We get to sim laps in a University level pool and normally we got to use an amazing steam room. It's down for repairs right now, but that just means we have to settle for a gigantic jacuzzi with some of the strongest jets I've ever felt. Life is so hard...

After we went swimming, we decided to say screw cooking and went to Eastside Shorts for dinner. We always sit at the bar and our favorite bartender was working. We talked to him and one of the servers about books and music and what we were all up to lately. Then we went home and I made John watch the movie, "Holes". Eartha Kitt, Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver and Henry Winkler? What's not to like?

 

On Sunday I woke up with a migraine. I took my meds and laid around on the couch and watched a European cyclocross race online and then read more Harry Potter, while I waited for my migraine to disappear.

Since it was about 25 below with the windchill, neither John or I were up for working out outside, so we went back and swam more laps. We ran to the store and then I figured that if it was going to be that damn cold, I'd just go ahead and make some delicious comfort food. I made tuna noodle casserole with crunched up potato chips on top and then added a little heat with honey sriracha brussel sprouts. Here's to building up that Winter pelt!

Just as I was getting that overwhelming feeling of dread that comes to me every Sunday evening, I remembered. I don't have to work on Monday! Poor John works at a clinic and they don't get Martin Luther King Day off, but that just means I get the house to myself...Besides those annoying cats, that is.

Now I'm a Seasick Sailor on a Ship of Noise

Some very colorful food I made last weekend.

So, yesterday it was lovely. I got off work and rode my bike home and it was almost 40 degrees. I thought I would run a nice, slow, 6 mile route and most of the icy spots had melted, so I wouldn't have to worry about falling. I started running and everything hurt. I generally don't listen to the first mile of my run. The first mile is a liar. It always tells me I'm too tired, I'm cranky, I get weird phantoms pains that suddenly disappear it conspires against me and my run. So, I kept running, but even after the first mile, my legs and my feet were killing me and I felt dizzy and really tired. Normally, I like to blame everything, mentally, physically, emotionally, monetarily, mechanically, even the state of the union and weather, on menopause and hormones...And I'm usually right. This time, though, I think it was something else. When I was riding my bike to work today, my legs were still so sore and achy, I could barely pedal. I said something to John about the fact that I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat and I felt feverish. He said he had the same thing for a few days earlier. He said it never developed into anything bad and it felt like it was going away, so I'm hoping for the best.

I get a three day weekend (Yea, me!) and it's supposed to get bitterly cold again. Originally, I was going to try and get some serious running miles in, but now? Now, I will take things easy, read Harry Potter for the first time, watch some old movies (The Thin Man and To Sir With Love), clean the house a bit, and try to get a painting at least started and relax and get over my bad bug. I also now have an excuse to hibernate. I'm sure the cats will be thrilled.

List'ning to Muzak, Thinking 'Bout This 'n' That

Well, I did my first Winter trainer workout of the year today. I set my alarm, stayed in bed and sighed for about 15 minutes and then got up and wandered around looking for the pages of my Arnie Baker workout, filled a couple of water bottles, got the mini speaker for my iPhone ,and then FINALLY remembered to grab a sweat towel (EW!) I did my first workout that took just under an hour. These particular workouts get progressively harder and longer as you get further along your way to the end of the 3 months. Each week you are supposed to do the two work-outs on the page and then ideally you are supposed to do a road ride or two on the weekends (apparently, you aren't supposed to live in Iowa in the Winter). I don't LOVE to work-out indoors on the trainer, but it makes me so much stronger on the bike, and I do love to sweat it out in the morning and listen to music and have some alone time.

I know I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know, but I'm weird. I like being weird, which is good, because I can't help being that way. When I was on the Culinary Ride, I was talking to an acquaintance who owns a spin studio. She was telling me I should take a class there and I tried to explain to her that it's just not my thing. I'm not a structure person, and I'd usually rather workout by myself (preferably outside). I do ride outside with friends, but generally, it's a fun ride where we aren't trying to go fast. I can ride with John when I'm trying to go harder and work on drafting and jumping when he jumps and that kind of thing, but I'm not a fan of pack riding. I know it's good for me to get used to it, but I don't feel comfortable and I have a hard time focusing when I work out with other people and I can't talk, so I feel rude when people try to chat with me. This woman who owns the spin studio didn't believe that I could work as hard by myself as I could with others in a class. She said she needs motivation from other people and music to go harder.

I don't need other people for motivation. I push myself hard and I listen to music, but I like my own music. Having to listen to Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or music I just don't like, would really take away from my workout. In other words, I'm an old curmudgeon, set in my ways. I think it's great that people do what motivates them and makes them happy and most people I know are motivated by working out with other people or going to a class, but that's not me. I've always needed my alone time and I have that attention span issue that makes focusing and socializing extremely difficult.

As we enter into the ass end of Winter, I hope everyone finds what motivates them to play and move and have fun.

How I Wish You Could See the Potential

 I went on three very different runs this weekend. Each run seemed to have its own unique personality. As I mentioned earlier, I took a half day of vacation on Friday. It turns out that I was very smart to do that. The day was about 40 degrees and misty and foggy.  A perfect day to run. I did my first run longer than 6 miles for the first time since March. I was worried that it would kill me, but I went nice and slow and ran through the cemetery and it was all sufficiently quiet and creepy and beautiful. It was warm enough that some of the ice was FINALLY melting from the sidewalks and streets. I would run long stretches and not see much ice at all and then I'd hit lower lying areas where the ice was melting and even slipperier than they had been the day before.

By the time I finished, I ran 7.95 miles and I was good and tired. It was a great afternoon off.

This is on a lawn right off the bike path. I wanted to photograph it before all of the snow melted and it disappeared.

The next day the temperature was dropping and the winds were picking up. It had snowed lightly overnight. So, I ran around 9 am and the wind chills were already getting pretty low. I ran 6 miles and some of the areas where the snow had melted in the warmth of the day before, had turned into slick, sheets of ice, covered by the light snow. At one point I found my front foot sliding, while my back foot came up and kicked it. I have no idea how I stopped  myself from falling, but whatever I did messed up my left hip a little and I've been walking with a slight limp ever since. It's not bad, and I'm sure it will heal right up, but it could have been a lot worse...

On Sunday, I waited to run until the actual temperature was about 5 degrees and the windchill was about -17. You know, because I wanted to make sure it was warm enough outside...I wasn't going to run very far, but I do like to get outside at some point every day, because it makes me happy and I have always gone running outside when it is that cold, so my body is used to it.

Anyway, I did my 3.4 mile run and went up my street and didn't try to run on the sidewalks, since most of them were just too damn icy. I came back on the bike path and it was nice and sheltered from the wind. I also figured out how to put my phone in a jersey pocket and then put layers over it, so it wouldn't get too cold and stop working. I had music the whole way. Score! I probably overdressed, but it would have been pretty dangerous to underdress.

This concludes this segment of Adventures in running. I hope you all had some of your own outdoor adventures this weekend, no matter what your weather was.

I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie

It's time for my December stats post. The weather was so much nicer back then. Running was a lot easier and we were actually able to ride road bikes outside. Sigh.

Riding: 167 miles.

Running: 61miles.

Swimming: 5.3 miles

Books Read: 5. Much less than the last couple of months, but in my defense, the books I read were, very, very big. - "An Unnecessary Woman" Rabih Alameddine, "The Bone Clocks" David Mitchell, "NW" Zadie Smith, "The Stranger's Child" Alan Hollinghurst, "Unbroken" Laura Hillenbrand.

Drawings and paintings done: None. Although, I've started on sketches for my next painting. I have some more work to get them where I want them, but the fact that it's basically a stick person, gives you an idea of my "talent".

Blog Posts Written: 17. My computer dying will probably affect December and January, but hopefully not February.

House Projects Done: Well, um, you know...We bought a couple of things and then got overwhelmed by them.

Stories Written: None, but I do finally have a few ideas cooking and as soon as I get my computer back, I'm sure I'll be right on that...

So, there it is...Or was. We'll see if I can keep from getting so overwhelmed and if I can blame more things on not having a computer at home this month. My guess, is that it's probable...

Everyone Knows I'm in Over My Head

It's dreary and rainy here in Iowa today. I just gave myself the treat of taking a half day off tomorrow, so my mood has picked up considerably. If you have the vacation time, I highly recommend it.

Our current, dingy popcorn ceiling and 70's style fans.

So, I know I keep talking about us working on our kitchen this Winter, but then we get overwhelmed and say, "Screw it. Let's go for a bike ride." We did buy new, sleek looking ceiling fans, but that was the fun and easy part. This weekend, we went to Menards and got tons of plastic sheeting. We've read that scraping off a popcorn ceiling is dirty, messy business and we'll have to cover everything in our kitchen. So, now we've taken away our excuse of having to go get the sheeting before we start the project. I'm sure we'll think of some new excuses not to start the work. We're creative like that.

My kitchen when I first bought my house. Faux wood, cigarette burned counters are gone now and cabinets all repainted.

The Days Get Longer and the Nights Smell Green

Another holiday weekend. I could really get used to these extended weekends...In fact, I AM really used to these extended weekends. That working 5 whole days in a row, could be pretty tough for me this week...

We started out New Year's Eve after work on Thursday. I met John at the Dublin Underground for what they call Irish New Year, but what I call old people New Year. In Ireland, its midnight, when it's 6 pm here. It's perfect for us, because we don't have to stay out very late.

 After we celebrated the New Year, we headed to the restaurant where Stinky was working and we got dinner and were able to see Stinky before she took-off on her first cruise on the 2nd of January. We also gave her a ridiculous tip.

 We got home in enough time to tend to the critters. Archie missed us so much, he made John put him on his shoulder and walk around the house with him. We got to bed around 9:30. Happy old people New Year!

The first day of the New Year looked like this: Woke-up around 6, had a mild migraine, took some Advil, went back to bed. Woke-up again around 9. Watched a European CycloCX race on-line, drank tea, read a book. Went swimming for an hour, got home, made spinach artichoke ravioli with Alfredo sauce that I put some artichoke hearts and kalamata olives. Read some more, went on a 6 mile run with the sun setting on me and then we headed to a friend's house to watch the last part of the Rose Bowl. Which, as it happened, was the only part to watch. Pretty much a perfect first day of the year.

January 2nd was really nice too. I took a break from working out, but I ran many errands instead. John and headed to Menards and got things to work on the kitchen. We're hoping having the stuff we need in the house, will keep us from making even more excuses about getting the work done, but we'll see about that...

Coadster came home a day early. John and I were going to go on a date, but since Coadster was there, we asked her if she wanted to make it a family date. She was all for it. We had a lovely meal, a couple of cocktails and then went home and watched the DVD of  "A Walk in the Woods".  It was a very lovely family date night.

Into the Blue Again, After the Money's Gone

 On one of the last days of my blog's 10th anniversary, I give to you my end of the year post for 2006. Holy cow! What a difference 9 years makes in a girl's life:


Oh, what the hell. We only have a few days left, so I thought I'd take a little look back at the year 2006 through photos. I'm also going to attempt a miraculous feat here - I'm going to try to find something good in everything that happened. Wish me luck.

The year started out very mixed. In February, one of our kinda/sorta neighbors died. He was also a beloved history professor and father. It was sudden and awful and Coadster took it very hard. I'm not sure if I can find much good in that; but we also got our digital camera around the same time and could start documenting all the wonders of Iowa City. Okay, I realize I'm fudging on this very first one, but you try to find something positive in a really wonderful man dying.

T. S. Eliot wasn't kidding, April was by far the cruelest month. Our neighborhood was rocked by a tornado and to this day, it looks so stark without any trees. I've thought a lot about the good in this one and it's easy. No one in our town died or was injured. Seriously, nothing else- not even the money, the terror it created or inconveniences matter.

My summer was spent catching-up in every way imaginable. I had to juggle money and time and sanity. (and I had very little of that to mess with, as you well know) In the end, I feel that I did a lot of things half-assed, (sorry about how little time I spent in the garden, K.) but it was still all good enough and we actually had a lot of fun too.

In July, after too much wine, I decided it would be a great idea to ride the last day (50 miles) of RAGBRAI. I've been very careful about what I've agreed to ever since. It was hot, sweaty, my ass was sore for several weeks after, and though earlier in the week my friends rode with Lance Armstrong's entourage, I didn't see any sign of John Kerry on the road to Muscatine.

It was also crazy and fun and I am oh, so glad I did it. Would I do it again? Um, only if I had the proper bike and gear and enough water.

In August, the girls and I took a trip to Minneapolis to see one of my many friends named S. and get away from the tornado reconstruction that was still going on. After we got back, we found out that our toilet had been running the whole time we were gone and my water bill was almost $400 dollars. Apparently, I was supposed to learn some karmic lesson about finances this year, but I'm not sure what it was. Please don't rat me out to the universe, I don't want to have to keep losing money until I say "uncle" or "now, I finally get it."

The Fall came just as quickly as the Summer and I found myself caught-up in teenage hell. Stinky had her thirteenth birthday party that went all kinds of out of control and my treat bag from it contained many new gray hairs, a need for blood pressure meds, and a pronounced nervous tic. I also learned one of those difficult life lessons - no more teenage parties ever!

Finally, the year ended much better than it started. A couple of my family members let me borrow their copies of old family photos to scan. It has been so great. I'm still not quite through with that project, but I don't think it will go much further into 2007.

Now, I'm looking forward to the new year and hoping it's much safer, happier, less expensive and freer from natural disasters than 2006.

You and Me Burning Matches

Well, we've had some weather here in the last 24 hours...Actually, almost ALL the weather. It rained, it sleeted, it ice pelleted, it was windy, it snowed...Okay. I guess I mean we had all of the BAD weather.

It's supposed to get a lot colder in the next couple of days, so I woke up this morning at 5 and went running on the fresh snow while it was still 27 degrees out, with very little wind. I forgot how much harder it is to run on snow, than just running on pavement. If you ever want a killer calf work-out, run uphill, in the snow. Yow! Since I've never run on a treadmill before, I have plenty of good cold weather gear and even before I had the proper gear, I've been running in below zero temps since the 70's in my big, bulky, cotton sweat pants. So, my body is used to it.

All of this is leading to (FINALLY!) my month of December. Usually, December is my "off" month. After a full 9 months of different kinds of racing, I need a month to not train or race and just do whatever I feel like. Last year, we were training for CX Nationals in January, so I made January my off month and started doing real training in February. It really set me back.

Since I ended up taking both October and November as "off" months this year, I decided to use December as a build-up month. I've been trying to be healthy about building up my miles for running and swimming and I've only done bike rides, when it was possible to ride outside. Next month, I'll start increasing intensity, and distance for running and swimming and I'll start doing my Arnie Baker bike trainer work-outs twice a week. It will be interesting to see how next racing season plays out.

A World Where Roses Bloom

Well, kids. My computer died a couple of days before Christmas, so I'm left blogging only at work. John asked a co-worker if we could pay him to work on fixing it and it's in his hands now.

Since my Christmas weekend was so amazing, I thought I'd do a weekend stats post. 

Movies watched: 4. One in the theater - STAR WARS! Duh. It was a fun family movie. 3 DVDs - The Hangover (nothing like watching an inappropriate movie with your kin on Christmas Eve, P. S. I Love You (yeah, I know it's super cheesy, but who cares), The Nativity (a bizarre, goofy, British, Christmas movie starring a certain Hobbit.

Christmas presents given and received. Who cares, really. The most important thing was having all that time with John and my kids and their boyfriends...Although, the ceramic fox spoon holder thingy that Coadster got us, was pretty adorable.

 Best Christmas tradition - Sushi for lunch.

Food made - Creamy pesto tortellini with bread and many spreads, veggie lasagna with salad and many choices for salad fixin's, turkey melts with ginger,cashew, carrot soup, black bean quinoa enchilada bake, French toast, and many, many snacks.

Games played - 1 Cards Against Humanity. Nothing like playing innapropriate games with your kin on Christmas night.

Playing done: 18.5 miles of running, 26.7 miles of bike riding, and 1 mile of lap swimming.

Dates gone on: 1 After Coadster went to Des Moines on Saturday, John and I decided to have dinner and drinks at Kalona Brewery. Pretty damn festive, huh?

Books read: 1 ended and 1 started. "Unbroken" is the one I started and it is an engrossing read. It's written almost like a screenplay.

Cat annoyances? Too many to count.

I hope your holiday weekend was amazing as mine...Except the whole cat thing.

Ooooohh, She's a LIttle Runaway

My girls around Christmas time when they were much younger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Well. I have one more day to get through at work, and then I get 4 days off. Yea! Today I will use an old blog post from the first year I started this, 10 years ago. It's about running outside at Christmas time and adorable, naughty pets. Enjoy:

Winter makes running so much more interesting. Besides the fact that I have to wear about 50 layers when it's cold, it's almost always dark out by the time I go running after work and I can't see very well in the dark. One night last month while I was running, a cat came up to me on the sidewalk right off of a driveway and meowed. I meowed back and we had a little conversation. I looked up and a woman who I assume was the owner of the cat was standing on the other side of her minivan looking extremely concerned (what? WHAT?!).

On Saturday I had another encounter with someone else's pet while I was running. I was nearing the top of that hill on Rochester Street when this cute teenaged dog came running almost right into me. She didn't attack me, she just wanted some attention. She was the sweetest Viszla and so I stopped and looked at her collar to see if there was an address from that neighborhood where I could take her home. I found an AKC tag and another tag with her name, Kimball and a phone number with an area code that I couldn't place. I figured I'd try to keep running to see if she would go home but she just kept following me.

She had no concept of cars or traffic or death, evidently and she would just run into the middle of the street when she heard or saw something that interested her. I tried to yell at her and sometimes she would listen and sometimes she wouldn't. After all, I wasn't the boss of her. All the cars that almost hit her, stopped and gave me those awful shaming looks and rolled eyes through their car windows because they thought I was her owner. One car even stopped and rolled down their window so I could defend myself. They were sympathetic and we were all at a loss as to what to do. So, they drove on and I tried to run in more residential streets with less traffic. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and I stopped and grabbed her collar and walked her to my house the 5 or 6 blocks left. She was so sad that she couldn't run around and play in the traffic.

When I got home with her, I called the number which got me to someone in Oregon. She gave me the owner's address and phone number in Iowa City. I called them and got their voice mail. I drove to their house with the dog because I thought maybe they were in the neighborhood somewhere looking for her. No one was home. We went back home and I tried calling again. Kimball parked herself at Stinky's feet because Stinky was eating tortilla chips and the snack dust was raining down all around her.

I had to pick Coadster up at her friend's swim meet and then we were going to be gone most of the day, so I called one more time with no answer. Then I had to call the animal shelter. I felt like shit taking her there but I'm not allowed to have a dog in my apartment and I didn't know when we'd be back. I left one last message at Kimball's owner's house to let them know where she was and gave the animal shelter all her info when they came for her.

When we got back we had four voice mail messages from Kimball's owners. First they were still looking for her then they called to tell me the animal shelter called them and then later that night they called and thanked me and offered me money for taking care of her. I think they were just happy nobody stole her because she was so damn cute.