Feb 13, 2002

I’ll be back in the saddle tomorrow. I promise! I’m so happy that Mardi Gras is over. Yesterday was hellish. I actually allowed myself to be persuaded to go out Monday night after working for ten hours, and, yes, okay, I had a few drinks. Okay, a lot. Duh! Definitely no more drinking until the marathon! Well, maybe one drink on Kristina’s birthday in a couple of weeks. But THAT IS IT!

Yesterday, we had to get up at 8:30 a.m. to watch a parade and that was after Monday night’s marathon drinking and dancing (Chris warned me about dancing before the marathon – that’s how he hurt himself) and we had to walk the 2 miles or so down to where we watched the parade. My toes have blisters, my arches ache, walking is not easy. Oh great! But last night, I soaked my feet in one of those massaging heated water bath things, and I felt immeasurably better afterwards. Tonight, I’m going to put some Epson salts in it that I just bought. Heaven!

Tomorrow I’m going to do my 6 miler, then the 4 miler on Friday, and then there’s the half marathon on Sunday. I should check the weather forecast. Hope it’s nice!

Feb 11, 2002

Not much of a run today. Had a 4 miler scheduled, but what with my soreness from the weekend, and my blisters from Saturday night, I just wasn’t in the right frame of mine (nor body) to run. Tomorrow’s definitely a day off, but Wednesday will be my 6 miler. No problem. Anyway, a little extra rest before Sunday’s half marathon can’t hurt, eh?

Feb 10, 2002

Ran my 12 miles yesterday! Actually, I think it was closer to 13. Ran for almost 3 hours. Ran all over Uptown New Orleans, it felt like. Ran to the park, around the park, to the levee, down the levee, up and down the fly, back around the park, and back home. Whew! No pain except my knees were achy but they’re okay now. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny, but not too hot.

Then, the parades had started. Watched the parades with my friends, had some beers. Had lots of beers. Watched more parades. Drank lots more. Went to Bourbon Street, kept drinking.

So, that was all the drinking I’m doing this Mardi Gras. I feel fine today, though. The only problem is, we walked so much yesterday that I have blisters on my toes. Gotta take care of those today with the blister block bandages I bought.

Only three more days of this madness…sigh…

February 7, 2002

A lovely, wonderful, much-needed run this morning. And 6 miles, too! My longest mid-week run yet! I remember just a few weeks ago, 6 miles was my long run! My, how times change. Ha ha. Took me 1:23, but I think I ran a bit over six miles. Yay! I ran a 10K this morning! Yay!

Running six miles has always been a milestone for me. I never felt serious until I ran 6, and there’s a strange reason why. A few years back, there was a commercial for some faucets or something (on HGTV, no doubt.) It showed a woman running through the rain and mud and streets, and afterwards, she rewarded herself with a luxurious bubble bath in her fancy tub with its fancy (naturally) faucets. She talks about how she pushed herself to run six whole miles, and now she deserved this relaxing soak. When I used to see that commercial, I thought, “six miles, what a moron” but now when I do six miles, I think “I need a bubble bath.” Okay, not really. Unfortunately, we only have a shower at our apartment. 🙂

Only a little over a week until the half marathon! I can’t believe it! I’d love to just do it in less than 3 hours. I don’t think that’ll be a problem, since I did 11 in 2:38, just add another 2 miles onto that. Uh oh. Hmmm. That’s about 23 minutes. Yikes! Well, I won’t be taking the long breaks every 2 miles like I did in that training run, so I think I can do it.

Completely off the subject…my oldest friend Kristie is moving to Boston! Ack! Her first time moving out of Baton Rouge (except for her 6 months in London)! I’m so proud of her! Yay! Of course, she’s way more adventurous than me, so I shouldn’t be so patronizing. She’s been to Thailand and Mexico, and went to Scotland and Ireland alone when she lived in London. I’m way too big of a wuss to travel alone (except to London) and you wouldn’t catch me vacationing anywhere without indoor plumbing. Anyway, she got a job in Boston and is moving at the end of the month! Wish I could visit her to watch the Boston Marathon, but ah well, it’s the day after London…maybe another year!

Feb 6, 2002

Didn’t run this morning. I could offer up all sorts of excuses as to why I didn’t run this morning…it was supposed to rain (though it didn’t, I at least got up to check), my left foot is a little sore (true, not sure why), it’s been a tiring week at work (yes, yes, blah blah blah), etc, etc. But really, I was just having too nice of a time sleeping. For the past two nights I’ve actually been having very vivid dreams. Last night I dreamed about my dad, which is always nice, it’s like seeing him again. But there again, no excuse for not running. I think I may just be a bit intimidated by 6 miles in the morning, never done that midweek before.

No matter what, I will do it tomorrow morning. Will just not do a shorter run, and do my 12 miler on Saturday, and get right back into training.

Then was thinking about how Ian is going to run twice a day to get his miles in, and I can’t even manage to run 4 times this week. Sigh.

Feb 5, 2002

Rest day today…but it’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning, so that may end up being a rest day too. I don’t care what anyone says, I am not going to run in cold rain! Now, summer rains are another story, but not winter rain. I knew last night that there was rain forecast for tomorrow morning, and considered running my 6 miles this morning, but really, I just wanted to sleep. Who knows, maybe it won’t rain tomorrow! Whatever the case, it should be clear by Thursday morning, so I can do my 6 miler then. Just one less short run this week. Maybe.

Anyway, I don’t feel terribly guilty if I miss a short run this week. Work is providing plenty of cross-training. Packaging up packages, bringing in heavy boxes of beads, etc. Hard work!

February 4, 2002

Oh, I forgot to mention one last really cool detail of my run on Saturday…when I was done, I had salt on my forehead! How exciting! I felt really tough after that. 🙂

Today I had a nice, easy 4 miler. I can’t believe how easy four miles is now. Took 54 minutes. It was cold this morning, so the first mile or so my (bare) arms were freezing but they thawed out soon enough. Love my “new” armband radio “borrowed” from Ren and Gary. They left early this morning for Thailand, so they won’t be needing it. Let me mention here that Ren is a little strange. She called this morning at 6:45 (good thing I was awake) to ask me to lock her apartment door. (They live downstairs from us.) Now this wouldn’t normally be a strange thing, but she was worried that the cabdriver they had to get to the airport was going to go back to their apartment and rob it. Sigh. Never mind that there’s a locked iron gate that he’d have to somehow break into to get to their apartment. Never mind that cabdrivers take people to the airport all the time and you don’t hear about a rash of cabdrivers robbing houses. Sigh. An odd girl. But I locked up anyway. 🙂

February 3, 2002

Okay, now I’ll add a few more details…

I did end up with a tiny sunburn. Not much. Thank goodness I put on sunscreen, or else I’d probably be fried. Next time, I’ll be sure to reapply. Running in LaFreniere Park was really nice. The loop, as I’ve mentioned, is 2 miles around. The first mile is kind of boring, as it goes alongside the back fences of houses and next to big soccer fields and such. During the first few loops, there were some little kids playing soccer, which was mildly entertaining, and some older guys playing touch football, which was slightly more so. Ha ha!

The second mile is what really makes the park though. It goes around a reservoir, up a teeny hill, down past a bird sanctuary (!), next to a little “river” with ducks swimming in it, by another pond, and back to the beginning. Parts of the second half are shady, which is a relief. The first mile was made more bearable by knowing the second mile was coming up. Another good thing about the park was that they have the quarter miles marked, which gives you something to run to. I like noting my quarter mile times, because it helps me keep my pace.

There was some guy at the park, running the opposite way I was. He was running faster than I was, and I passed him twice (at least) on every loop I made. I wonder how many miles he ran? I don’t even know when he started. He must be training for a marathon too. Maybe I’ll see him at the Mardi Gras Marathon. I can’t believe it’s only two weeks away!

Last night, Ren and I went and saw “Amelie”, that French comedy. The cinema we saw it in was so uncomfortable. My knees were already sore from the run, and all I wanted to do was stretch them out, but I was so cramped, that it was impossible. It’s too bad, because I really liked the movie, but I feel like my pain was hindering my enjoyment. This morning, my knees don’t hurt, but my calves are pretty stiff. Must stretch later.

Feb 2, 2002

Just finished my 11 miler. Only took 2:38, including breaks every two miles to drink water, stretch, try to choke down some GU. Probably, without the breaks, was more like 2:25 or so. Woo! But ooof, do my knees hurt. Going to lie down with bags of ice on my knees in a little bit, after I take a Vioxx. Beautiful day for a run, though I think I have a bit of a sunburn. Even better, a armband-radio-tan-line. Attractive!

Will post more about the run later…

Feb 1, 2002

Woo! No run today! Slept late! Very nice. Today, the temperatures dropped. Thank goodness. It was getting unbearable. The humidity was foul. It did not feel like January. This will be much better for my 11 miles tomorrow. I may end up doing 12 miles, though, since I’m using a 2 mile loop. It may end up being too taxing for my brain to figure out how to just do 11. Actually not, since the quarter miles are marked on the loop, but still.

I can’t believe it’s only two weeks until the half marathon. Eek! I’m volunteering at the expo on Friday night. And I’m getting off work early to do so. Yay! Maybe I’ll meet some nice people. Sucks about Chris not being able to run it, though. At least I’ll have some good supporters this way, though. Gotta look on the bright side!

I made Ian’s recipe last night, but with lots of changes. For instance, I didn’t look in my cookbook ahead of time to see that it takes two hours (two hours!!!) to cook chickpeas, so they were left out. Next time I’ll remember that. But it was delicious anyway. Basically it was just chorizo and peppers in a broth served over rice. Yummy!

January 31, 2002

No time to post. But did my four miles this morning. Thank God for my break tomorrow! Yay! Happy Pam!

Sad Chris, though. He’s injured. Can’t run for a few weeks. Must get physical therapy. On the bright side, at least he can walk at the pace I run, if nothing else. Thank goodness I’m so slow!

Tonight I’m trying out Ian’s Chickpeas with Chorizo recipe he has on his site. We’ll see how the Pam version turns out, considering I hate onions and can’t afford saffron. Oh, and have to substitute chicken bouillion for vegetable stock. Oh yeah, and I don’t know measurements in grams, so it’ll be a guess. 🙂

January 30, 2002

Good run again today, but I’m so tired now! I definitely don’t like doing my long runs on Sundays. Lesson learned. I suppose, though, if I kept running on Sundays then I could run Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or something, but if I’m going back to Saturday long runs, like this coming weekend, I have to do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which is tiring. On top of the craziness of work right now. Ah well, now at least I only have one day left to run and then a break on Friday!

So, this morning, I ran 5.3 miles in 1:14. Not great, not bad, I’m happy with it though. I walked a bit at the beginning, as my calves were a little sore and I wanted to get them warmed up before I ran. And then I walked a couple of times throughout the run, but nothing major. I definitely ran most of it, which is good. More than 3.5 miles of it. Also, I think I have a new friend at the park. There’s this man who runs around the loop also, but the opposite way as me. So we passed each other 5 or 6 times this morning, and he always says hello. Nice!

The weather here has not been very cooperative, though. It’s January, for goodness sake! It’s supposed to be cold, even in Louisiana! But no, we’ve got 70 degree mornings and highs of 80 degrees. Granted, I would kill for that in the summer, but winter exists for a reason! I guess this is the price we pay for having a relatively mild summer. And anyway, it really is gorgeous outside. Blue skies, breezy, the whole lot.

Only ten weeks and two days until I arrive in London! Yay! I can’t wait! I got an email from my friend Marianne, who I’m staying with. She was one of our flatmates when we lived in London. She’s lots of fun, and fortunately, she doesn’t live far from Liverpool Street, which is where the Stansted Express goes to. Or something like that. I suppose I should be more concerned with how far it is from the start of the marathon, but really, it’s the loads of heavy luggage I’m worried about.

Oh yeah, and Paco, our landlord here at the office said yesterday that he thought I had lost weight. Woo! That’s a nice boost to the old ego!

I have a new plan for this weekend. Seeing as Chris isn’t supposed to run, I think I’ll just stay in New Orleans and run around the park where my 5K was last weekend. It has a 2 mile loop, which I can do 5.5 times. I’ll figure out the logistics later. But Ren, who is going to Thailand for 6 weeks in a week or so, wants me to stay in town this weekend, so I’ll make her come with me. She can run some of the loops with me, and just lounge around the rest of the time. Bring a book or something. That way, I’ll have an incentive every two miles. Hope she goes for my plan!