Update

So things have been kind of quiet with me lately.  Here's what is going on...

• I'm back running with Team Rogue again.  Even though I have signed up for the evening group, it looks like I might have to switch back to the mornings to have folks to regularly run with.
• I'm somewhere in the middle of my mileage build up...45-50 miles this week.  I'm loosely following the schedule right now so that I can still enjoy the freedom of the rest of my life.  If the schedule says 8 and I do 9, then awesome.  If it says 8 and I do 7, awesome as well.  As long as I come reasonably close and my body feels good, I'm not going to let it dictate my life.
• I'm going to San Diego the week of June 7-12.  Where we are staying should be a fairly decent place to run, so I'm looking forward to that week on my own.
• I have been reading.  I guess I can no longer say "I'm not a reader" when I have read three books in the last month.  Part of the reason is that I went on vacation and read a book and a half on the plane ride to Maui.  However, I can say that I got sucked into each book and thoroughly enjoyed escaping the television for entertainment.
• I'm a bit overwhelmed with the state that our house is in.  Chad and I like to take things out, but not put things away.  Therefore, we have all kinds of stuff on counters, tables, floors that just look so cluttered and messy.  We would rather rest or watch TV than put stuff back where they belong.  We have to get better about keeping our house neat.
• Ben's 'tumor' was not a tumor.  It was a fluid filled cyst that looked abnormal enough for the Dr to do a test on the cells he extracted.  The cyst totally deflated and we are in the clear for now.  If it comes back, we have to take him back in to the doctor.
• Felicia's tumor was a tumor and was removed yesterday.  Dr. Faught did an excellent job stitching her up...I was imagining picking up 'Frankenkitty' yesterday when I went to go get her, but you can hardly tell where her stitches are.  She is recovering as well as can be expected considering she was drugged, had gauze tape wrapped around her front leg, and an inch long incision outside of her ear.  An inch on a kitty head is the equivalent of a huge gash on a human head.  Yikes!

• Chad surprised me over the weekend.  We had been at the wine festival and I had taken him to a booth where a local designer (Cindy Chuang) had a display of her handmade purses, wallets, and scarves from recycled fabrics.  They were absolutely beautiful.  I had my eye on a woven straw purse that had been modified with a cute yellow patterned liner and beautiful lace florets from an old dress.  Chad went back to the booth on Sunday when I was at home still recovering from my cough and he bought the purse for me.  What a surprise!  I love it!

Alamosa Wine Cellars on Tempranillo

My mother-in-law, Karen Johnson, posted this link on her facebook page.  The video is the GO TEXAN Wine Cast - subject Tempranillo - starring Jim Johnson.  If you've been curious about Tempranillo, don't have a clue as to what it is, or if Tempranillo is one of your favorites, you might enjoy watching this.

What I think is hilarious is that Karen's Facebook note says that they asked Jim to wear a dark, solid colored shirt.

6:16 PM

Delayed gratification! :)

Veggies @ Blue Star Cafeteria

Lunch @ Wahoo's

Good Wednesday

Yesterday was a good day. Finally, I'm starting to come out of the woods with the chest cold. I still coughed and hacked from time to time, but overall my body felt much better and I coughed much less than the previous five days. I came out of the haze to be much more productive with a few work items that had been bogging me down as well.

I went to my first workout back with the team in the evening. I have to admit that I'm bummed that the group is so small. What this means is that there isn't anyone my speed. There seems to be several people in the 3:00-3:10 pace range, then a couple of folks in the 3:35+ pace range. I'm right in the middle with my 3:20 goal, and therefore ran by myself yesterday...boring! If it looks like I'm going to be running by myself, I'm afraid that I'll have to start waking up early again and join the morning group. The new stretching routine and exercises that Steve has implemented for the team are fine by me. I'm a bit hypermobile when it comes to flexibility, so I'm going to have to be careful not to over-stretch. I tend to stretch not only my muscles, but also my tendons, and in the past this has led to some of my injuries.

The shock was having to do pushups after workout. I don't do pushups. Oh well, I sucked it up and did 'girl' pushups from my knees with the best form that I could. I think I will make an effort to build my upper body strength so that I'm able to do all of my pushups the normal way by the end of the summer. On the other hand, the 'sit ups' if you want to call them that, were totally wimpy. I do situps and ab work at home that are so much more intense than the ones we were told to do, and more reps of them. I'm going to keep doing what I do at home as well.

We had a delicious dinner thanks to Chad's help. I'm focusing on my nutrition this summer, so it has been great to eat my choice of dinner every evening. What may be sad to some of my veg/vegan friends is that I'm prepared to publicly announce that I'm eating fish again. With the removal of wheat from my diet, I'm finding that I don't have enough food choices vs time in the day to prepare them to be such a strict vegetarian/vegan. I'm only eating fish that I feel comes from a responsible source, so you won't find me eating fish at just any restaurant or elsewhere. I also have been eating some dairy, but have done my best to keep it organic or from other responsible sources.

The final great thing about Wednesday...Kris Allen won American Idol! Hooray! His performance with Keith Urban (at first I wrote Tim McGraw, but I must have been flaking for a moment, sorry) was fantastic (and you know Country music doesn't really do it for me). Also, I must say that Kris's voice sounded better than Keith's. When it came for the celebrity performance with Adam, the performance with KISS was not as awesome as it could have been. That entire performance was just so awkward. Adam sounded great with Queen, and I definitely think the Freddie Mercury comparisons are valid. Anyhow, yay for Kris.

Music Change - Ain't No Sunshine - and some American Idol talk

In honor of the American Idol finale tonight, the music change is Ain't No Sunshine, as performed by Bill Withers.  I used to hate American Idol and swore that I would not watch it this season.  The singers were just too good this season to resist.  Before I go into the comments below, I want to state that I have enjoyed both Adam's and Kris's performances throughout the season.  I want Kris to win, have liked him more since the beginning, but also appreciate the glam rock influence from Adam Lambert.  He can definitely pull off a beautiful falsetto.

Kris Allen performed Ain't No Sunshine last night as his first song (his choice of previously performed songs from earlier in the season).  Last night he was so good, despite the judges obvious attempt to sway the voters.  They were telling him and America that Kris was so 'deserving to get that far' as if he didn't have a legit chance to win.  Oh, the preparation for disappointment was sickening.  They also trashed Kris's second performance as being too small for the stage and such, but I found the performance to be a refreshing change of pace.  Four talented musicians jamming onstage with their instruments is at times much more palateable than the smoke, mirrors, and stage lighting that often influences us on what an 'entertaining performance' is.  Strip the lights, cut the fog, sit the artists down.  Maybe America has been fooled by the judges and can't actually hear for themselves.  Adam wasn't all that great on song one or three last night.  The middle song - the Sam Cooke song, A Change is Gonna Come - was great, but I think the judges were way too nice in their comments on Adam's other songs. 

In terms of originality, some might say that Adam is the real deal and what the show really needs.  Not really.  Adam has his 'Twilight' look with the 'guy liner' and over done make-up.  He definitely is original looking, but he is just trying too hard.  Don't get me wrong, I definitely appreciate that he is a fantastic singer and he is entertaining.  I just don't find him as interesting or original an artist as everyone is making him out to be.  His 'original' renditions of the songs performed are actually copycat versions of other (arguably more interesting) artists' interpretations.  His "Feelin' Good" was an imitation of Muse's recording, his 'Mad World' sounds just like the version done for the Donnie Darko movie, though I have to admit Adam's studio recording is pretty great.  His Ring of Fire that got everyone in a tizzy because it was 'so weird' was not the first time it had been performed that way.  It is an extremely similar version to the way the artist Dilana performed it on the show Rockstar Supernova, though it was definitely sung with a much different level of vocal talent.  (scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the music if it interferes with any of the videos)

So is Kris original?  I think so.  He successfully performed in the finale, not only singing but playing the piano and guitar.  The instruments weren't just put there to show he is multi talented, he can actually play them as an integral part of the performance.  His voice may not have the range or 'flare' that Adam's has, but there is an honest, pure sound that comes out every time he sings.  You don't feel like you are looking at a 'canned performance' or an overdone broadway show every time he hits the stage.  He plays lovely, interesting versions of songs without trying to pass them off as some uber-cool fake renditions that are less appealing.

Kris may not win tonight, but I sure hope he does.  And yes, I actually picked up the phone and voted last night (dorky for sure).  I got in as many votes as a could before I got tired of hitting redial.  I probably logged in 15-20 votes for Kris.

Catch Up - Work, sleep, TV!

We've been back in town since Sunday at noon and it seems like time has passed so quickly since then.  I'm hardly caught up to where I should be.  I've been a total zombie with this cough going on.  At work, I was doing my best to speak during a conference call in my crazy, weak, on-the-verge of coughing voice.  When my boss joined the call and heard me, he laughed in shock to the fact that he could hardly recognize who it was on the phone.  I was told to take a nap and recover :).

So, what else has been going on?  Well, the only good thing to do besides work, nap, and drink fluids is to catch up on the DVR recordings from our vacation.  No, we haven't done laundry or cleaned up the house, we're too busy watching all of our season finales.

Spoiler warning - If you're catching up on your shows as well, don't read on.  I might spoil something for you.

Here's what we have been watching - 

The Office - I'm sure they want us to think that Jim and Pam are expecting.  I love how much America loves Jim and Pam :).

30 Rock - We had missed the last two episodes, and they did not disappoint.  We just started watching this show this season.  The first episode or so that we watched were just okay, but when we got into the characters and realized the subtleties of some of the humor, it has become a regular 'fun' show that we watch.  We usually pick other shows to watch on the DVR first, but when we need a shorter show to entertain, it never disappoints.

Survivor - Oh man, we had to miss the episode where Coach was kicked off during our vacation.  Chad hadn't heard any news about it, but an unnamed friend of mine who reads this blog :) had posted something on Facebook about it and somewhat spoiled it for me.  We watched the Coach episode on Sunday in time to watch the final episode on Sunday night.  I didn't want JT to win.  I actually liked Stephen's strategy and (probably due to the way he was edited) thought he was more of the mastermind of who to vote off each week.  He also had the guts to put his neck on the line and vote out people on each blindside instead of hiding behind the votes like JT.  After every vote, JT always looked like the good guy and Stephen was made to look like the villain, when they both agreed that they worked together for the plan.  

The Amazing Race - This one was spoiled for us during our vacation.  The final leg of the race took the final 3 teams to the island of Maui (where we were vacationing), so in the papers on Monday morning, there was news of who had won the race and how it went down.  It was a bummer to know the final result while watching the race, but it was fun seeing where the teams went for their route markers and knowing where each one was on the island.

Lost - What a great final episode!  (Keith, thanks for posting a spoiler warning on your blog.  I read the start of it and then saw the word 'spoiler' and was able to wait until last night to watch the finale without any knowledge of what was to come.)  I don't have anything to say that is different than Keith's blog other than Sawyer is my favorite character, not Juliet.  I love how flawed he is, and despite that, how he typically follows his heart when it comes to making decisions.  I would also like more background information on Richard next season.

Grey's Anatomy - We were two episodes behind, but I hadn't really heard any spoilers about the episodes at all.  Granted, this show is entirely predictable with what is going to happen with each character, but I totally figured out each episode before each 'twist' or 'shocker' occurred.  I knew that Izzie and Alex were going to get married instead of Meredith and McDreamy.  Of course they would.  That way, the never-ending saga of Meredith and Derek in love but destined to never be together, could last another episode.  There was no way that Grey and Shepherd would finally seal the deal.  In the last episode, when they first pulled the cover off of John Doe's face and I saw the blue eye and mouth of the bus victim, I instantly knew it was George.  Ask Chad.  I paused it, reversed the picture, and announced it right then and there.  Dang it...I spoiled the whole episode for the both of us!  We watched the whole thing knowing that it was George on the hospital bed, and it was very anti-climactic.  That disappointment and the fact that Meredith and Derek got married on a post-it was totally lame.  Stupid.  Anyhoo...It is still a show that I like to watch, and I still think that Christina is the best character on the show hands down (well, Christina and Alex both are).

Make Me a Supermodel - Yes, I watch it.  It wasn't a finale or anything, but I'm shocked that Jordan went home.  I thought for sure she was going to make it till the end.  Now it has to be the British guy for sure.  As long as it is not Sandhurst with his squinty face.

The Hills - Yes, another stupid show that I feel compelled to watch.  Finally Stephanie screws up royally and is going to have to be fired.  She is such a flake.  I also like how Lauren is being edited to look like the responsible working girl.  I'm sure she works very hard at what she does (if it is a real job at all), and I get tired of seeing her try to 'party' with her friends.  She looks like a fish out of water sometimes when she is in a party scene...either she looks fake drunk at times and is trying too hard to have a good time or at other times she is drunk and says stupid things and gets way to dramatic about someone else's relationship.  Another episode aired last night that I haven't watched, but I'm sure the Justin Bobby/Lauren thing is going to be prominent and hopefully Stephanie will cry a bunch when she is fired.  

Other shows to catch up on or watch in the next couple of weeks - 24, American Idol(We watched a little bit last week in Hawaii with our folks, so we know Gokey left, thank goodness.  I like Kris.  Adam is such a dork.  He is not original in any way.  Most of his super cool performances were copies of other artists interpretations of those songs.), So You Think You Can Dance (season premiere this week!  My favorite summer guilty pleasure show!), Big Brother (I'm going to try to resist this show, but I love love love it.)

I watch way too much TV.

Cough Cough Cough...back to the grind.

Ugh.  I have a chest cold.  It started on Friday during our vacation.  Imagine a throat tickle and coughing through a snorkel set...very interesting.  I tried not to let the coughing impact my ability to have fun on Friday and Saturday, but the flight back Saturday night, the jet lag, and another 24 hours has hit my body kind of hard (I actually had to take medicine - shock!).  

Today is supposed to be my first day back training with Team Rogue and I'm going to have to miss it.  Bummer.  The 'rule' is that you can run with a cold if it is in your head, but if it is in your chest, don't mess with it.  In 2005, I ran with a chest cold for a while and it turned out to be walking pneumonia...no fun, though the prescription cough syrup was heaven.

Also bad news for the week, I discovered a bump on Beans's left cheek that feels like a tumor.  It definitely is not one of those whisker follicles, so he is going in this afternoon to have it looked at.  We already know that Felicia is going in to have a tumor removed from her ear next week.  Now we might have two tumor kitties.   :( 

Ahihi Cove

Snorkeling

Black Sand Beach

Ocean

From the lava tube at Waianapanapa State Park.

Onward to Hana

We're on the road to Hana and the Seven Sacred Pools.

Music Change - Cheeseburger in Paradise

In honor of our restaurant tonight. Though changing the music from my
phone means that I can't tell if it is playing correctly. Y'all let me
know if it doesn't sound right. Sleep tight.

For Jon

Waves + Surfers on Kaanapali Beach today.

Morning View

Aloha and good morning! We're on the beach/lawn again today. Woohoo!

Beach Reading

It's pretty good so far. I finished a book that I was halfway through
plus an entire extra book on the flight over to Maui. Now I'm reading
this book, which is delightful. That, and it mentions Carly Simon in
it on page 80. Carly Simon times four this week. Second book in a
row that mentions her. It's more than wierding me out at this point.

For Tara

View from my lawn chair. Waves, palm trees and Lanai in the
distance. :) Trying to get rid of my runners tan today.

Third time for Carly Simon

I know Erin H and Tara read this blog...Ladies, when you read our new
book club book and get to the Carly Simon part, think if me and my
blog posts this week. How wierd is it that I've been blogging about
that song and it appeared as a reference in the book? BTW, I finished
the book on the plane today.

Three Carly Simon mentions in the same week...very wierd.

For Katie

"Umbrella" drink...my empty local beer glass with umbrella for effect.
Cheers!

We're Here

Help!

Vacation?

Beans: This doesn't look like a vacation to me!

Back to vacation music - Surfin' USA

The Hawaiian reference in this song "Waimea Bay" is not a beach on Maui.  It's on the North Shore of Oahu, and in the summer of 1993 I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon there and jumping off of the big rock into the ocean.  

Enjoy.

Serendipity - Music Change

Tuesday - I was tempted to change the music on my blog to the Carly Simon song referenced in my post. I didn't because I thought it would be a little much to have 'I bet you think this song (post) is about you' blaring while reading a rant.

Today - I blogged about my experiences in Hawaii. One of the things I wrote about was the trip I took as an adult chaperone in 2003 where we spent 31 days there. One of the details about that trip that I would like to share with you was when I had to drive a student to the airport to go home early while we were on the island of Maui. I voluntarily missed the hike down the Haleakala crater to drive her. Her name was Julia and she is the only student in 30 years or so that has ever chosen to go home early. The homesickness got to be too much, I guess. Even though I missed the hike that day, I was able to experience it with Chad on our trip in 2006. It was awesome.

So, to my surprise, I'm shopping in Whole Foods and I run into the student, Julia. We recognize each other and she places how we know each other. I had to laugh. We talked about Hawaii and I mentioned that I was going back to Maui this weekend. She said she has had the chance to go back to the islands since 2003 and spend a few weeks there.

Just as I'm walking to the checkout, smiling about what a coincidence it is to run into her on the same day that I blogged about the trip, I hear Carly Simon's voice coming through the speakers. 'I bet you think this song is about you'...aahhhh! Two blog coincidences back to back.

Such funny timing...hence the change in song. I'll put it back to Hawaiian music very soon, but I couldn't resist.

Old Man in the Brown Chair

Beans resting after chasing Miko all morning. His paws are in the
air. Don't know how he knows to elevate his legs when he has had a
tough workout.

My Partner at Work

Maui on my mind

(Rainbow off of the Kaanapali coastline on Maui - June 2006)

Some of my Hawaii history...

This trip will not be the first time I have been. Hawaii and I have had somewhat of a love affair since my teens. Just after my sophomore year in high school (summer of 1993), my dad sent me away on a trip for high school students in the area to study environmental science. The trip was put on by a teacher at Anderson High School, Jeff Schwarz, and involved getting course credit. We spent a total of eighteen days on three islands (Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii) hiking, swimming, snorkeling, studying, and seeing the sights. I learned a lot, got a rockin' tan, jumped off of waterfalls into natural pools of water, and hiked to see flowing lava and got close enough to poke a stick in part of it that was flowing. There was so much more to the trip. We only got to visit three islands that year because hurricane Iniki had blown through the fall before and ravaged the island of Kauai. To say the trip was life-changing is almost an understatement. I can pinpoint moments of that trip that made me into the woman I am today. I can see in my mind many of the first sights of that trip.

My dad and Rose travel to Maui (and other islands now and again) every year, sometimes twice, so I have visited with them on several occasions...December of my senior year in HS and got to take my friend Erin, a family trip with my brother Chris, family trip with the Tietz family, family trip with Chad, Chris and Kim (where my niece was conceived), and I'm sure once or twice that I'm forgetting to list here. I also visited Kauai with them on a family trip.

When I was a teacher (summer of 2003), I had the good fortune of getting to relive the environmental science trip again by being a teacher chaperone on the trip with Mr. Schwarz. This time I was an adult, I got to drive a van, and we visited four islands in 31 days. Again, this kind of trip is life-changing. Lots of hiking, lots of snorkeling, kayaking the ocean to see the Napili Coast on Kauai...and on and on. As an adult, I definitely appreciated what I was doing more than I did when I was fifteen.

Cut to today - Sometimes a family trip to Maui means seeing all the sights, especially if we are traveling with friends or family who have not seen the island. Sometimes we spend more time on the lawn chairs at the beach in the sun/shade. Regardless of what we do next week, I'm ready to return to the ocean breeze, the powerful sun rays, walking around in a bikini worrying about tan lines, and eating the uber-fresh Maui pineapple.

Down Time Rant

I'm not naming names. If you are reading this and think I'm talking about you, maybe you should take an extra day off of running just to be sure I'm not. Sort of like that Carly Simon song.

I just don't get why some people have jumped right back into marathon training mode. For those of us who ran Boston/Nashville, today is just now the 15th/10th day post-marathon. Some of my teammates are back to running 10+ miles a day and are already at 60/70 mile weeks. Forget the 10-15 days post-marathon, they were right back at it within a few days of their race. WTF? Well, really I get that there are reasons they have started running so much, but those are issues they can work out for themselves.

Most everyone I know who ran Boston/Nashville raced for a PR and gave their full effort or were forced to deal with hot weather that also took a toll on their bodies. These are also people whose idea of a taper...oh wait, we're calling a taper a 'peak phase' because we're not really lowering our mileage all that much...is running 40-60 miles all the way up through the week of the marathon. Umm...have these people forgotten that your body and mind must rest after a big race? All major athletes take a break. 10 days (or less) isn't really a break.

I get that everyone has their own needs and everyone gets to start back at their own pace and mileage levels. I get that we all have to start running again soon and that the 'high mileage' is part of the game. What I don't get is why people's actions don't reflect what has been told to us over the years....you cannot run an 'A' race over and over every 6 months (or in this case less than 6 months if you count from December to April). Why the hell are people jumping back in to a high load 10-15 days post PR marathon? WTF?

Running is awesome. Running at a particular training intensity must also be respected (mentally and physically). In my opinion (and if you are upset about this post so far because you know I'm talking about your last 10-15 days, why don't you just go ahead and ignore this next part), heavy legs, tiredness, any of that crap at this point in the season is just asking for trouble later in August. Why in the world should any of us feel tired 10-15 days post-marathon? We should feel rejuvenated, refreshed, ready to start back at the higher intensity in the coming weeks.

I'm just sayin'. I'm doing my thing and what's best for me. It is hard to see time and time again how people get tired, injured, and a little pissy come mid-July. They wonder why running is not as enjoyable as it should be. The answer is this - Your mind and body are tired because you never took that break like you were supposed to.

Rant, rant, rant.No one wants to hear about how much people are training right now. Our official training program hasn't started for a reason. It's much better to enjoy running later in the season because you took your break than to enjoy running now and pay for it later.

Whatever...I'm gonna go on vacation. I'm gonna run some. I'm also gonna lie on a chair and do the 'Sadie version' of eating bon bons. When I get back from vacation I will hopefully be rested enough to train full force again with the high miles and enjoy it as much as I did last season.

always a good time for you and i

I guess I forgot to update everyone on the music choice for this week. To help remind everyone to chill out and enjoy their little vacation from running (and in honor of our upcoming Hawaiian vacation), I've chosen some Hawaiian music. This song comes from the Facing Future album and is a favorite of mine when I want to get into the island mood. For more info about the artist and the song lyrics, you can visit the links below.

Enjoy!

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Henehene Kou ʻAka

Shake it, Shake, Shake it

Did my post-marathon shake out run yesterday. Ouch, did it hurt! It was 5pm, hot and muggy outside. I wore a cotton shirt (awesome!) to remind me of what it was like when I was a newbie runner. Really, I didn't want to get another shirt dirty for the week. Did my regular 3 mile loop in the hood. Little bit of residual hip soreness, but my quads were the big killer. I had no idea my quads were still holding onto some funk.

Anyhow, the legs felt much better after the run.

As part of my little break from the marathon and mini-recovery, I've committed to start strengthening some of the muscles in my body that need to be in better shape...glutes, quads, hamstrings, balancing and stabilizing muscles in my foot/lower leg, and abs. I did lunges, side-stepping squats, calf raises, jumping drills, one-legged exercises that I learned from Molly, and some ab work. I felt really good afterwards and as expected, this morning my legs are sore (in a good way).

I like running three miles and doing strengthening exercises. It's fun :).