Thursday, November 30, 2006

Life could be worse.........

you could be a penguin!

I watched March of The Penguins.........you know that movie about the penguins that is narrated by Morgan Freeman? Ya, it was very up-lifting...........not!

I was expecting a great documentary about the wonderful little life of a penguin.....cute, monogamous, and full of vigor. That's not what I got. I was sad for those little birds. I think marathon training is difficult? These things are traveling 70-100 miles every 3-4 months! Not bad for us, but for an animal that waddles and has no hamstrings that is a difficult, lengthy task. I will say though that the next triathlon I do, I'm gonna belly slide out of the water onto the beach because that just looked fun!!

After they travel all of those miles to their breeding ground with thousands of other tuxes, they spend valuable time fighting among themselves (the females do the fighting, because there are more females than males) to gain the attention of their mate. Then they do their thing then wait for the egg. Once the egg comes, mom is outta there. Wow.......shopping? lunch? pedicure? manicure? Nope............it's back the 100 miles they just traveled to try and find some food. Once they get to the sea, they might get eaten instead of eating!! Yikes. Then they travel back to dad and baby who has been living on dads feet for the past 2 months (by the way dad can't stand still, has to keep moving to stay alive, ya know not freeze!) to feed the little one.

Then dad leaves..................little poker? watch the game? have a few laughs with the guys? Nope, back to get more food.

This is crazy. Couldn't they come up with a better system? I'm just sayin'..............why? Maybe I missed that part...............I probably did!

Oh well, just remember when you have to drive 15 minutes to the grocery store, spend an hour with screaming kids (yep, that would be mine), and clicky carts, then bust your bank account, then load it up and drive it home to spend another 45 minutes putting it all away, that you could have just been standing in the dark with a baby on your feet with 1,000 other people in the cold, blizzard of winter in the South Pole walking in a circle to try to stay warm, while at the same time trying to not kill your child by stepping on them (well, maybe you have to worry about that at the grocery store too!)

I'm just sayin'.......................be happy mon!!

On a training note.................things are going pretty good. My body is achy and not liking the constant pounding. I really miss tri training. The constant running is boring to me. My mind constantly wanders and it's nice knowing that with tri training you really only have to focus for a little while (in my case with sprints, and olys) before you move on to something else. I have self-diagnosed myself with E.I.A.D.D. Exercise Induced Attention Deficit Disorder. The only medication for that is training..............so I'll plug along.

Only 2 more scary runs left until we are onto the best part............ahhhhhh the taper! Saturday calls for an 18 mile run (yep, we are expecting a snow storm and 32 degrees for a high!!) 3 hours on a treadmill is going to not be very good for my E.I.A.D.D. but I will do what needs to be done. Then in 2 weeks will be the 20 miler! Yikes.

I still question what the last 6.2 miles on race day will be like after only ever running 20 miles. That continues to be more #1 burning question. 16 miles last weekend felt like someone had taken my legs off of me and put gumby's back on!! The last 3 miles were a struggle. It took some walking and some pain at the end to get it done, but it got done. So, I will survive I guess! But, my dream of Ironman is being pushed out of my mind each time I run one of those "long runs". It's tough, and it has to be, I would think, a huge mental training program to complete that type of distance. Anyway, it's not a dead dream, but a dark one for right now.

Tah, Tah for now

Enjoy Life knowing that the best Life is yet to come!


Thursday, November 02, 2006

DONE, baby, flat out DONE

Training is going great. Ran 13 miles on Saturday in 25-30 mile per hour winds along the lake, that was a trick and a treat!!! Ran 4 Tuesday, then 7 this morning, 3 tomorrow and 10 on Saturday. I can't believe I'm over 1/2 through the training for Disney!!! It's crazy!!!

I will say that after 13 miles on Saturday.......

I.WAS.DONE.

In the past I've been able to say, "that wasn't bad, actually I feel I could do some more"............not the case on Saturday, nope I was flat out DONE! I came in the house kicked my shoes off, grabbed some liquids and crashed to the floor for about 15 minutes. Then I sat in a hot tub for an hour! No lie. I. WAS.DONE!! Thank goodness for the in-laws taking Winks and The Bug for the day, or I would have been lost!

I did the mileage without my partners who opted to treadmill it in lieu of the wind. I just cannot entertain the thought of running on a conveyer for over 2 hours!! Not happenin', not yet anyway!!

Weather looks no better this weekend. And it is snowing now. 6 inches expected by morning. Isn't Lake Erie great??

In the academic corner of my life............

ALMOST.DONE.

Tomorrow is my final day, and I'm super psyched about that. I have had visions of playing with the kids, running when I want to instead of when it fits in the schedule, preparing scrumptous dinners, making crafts with the kids, sleeping in a bit since I don't have to get up and do the hair and dress up thing, getting my hair colored any color other than 'grey root #705, manicures, pedicures, Christmas shopping, yoga........................the list is long and fun!!!

ummmm yeah............

then................

notepacks for next semester are due Nov. 20, nursing needs a guest lecturer Dec. 4, power point presentations need to be in by Dec. 1, Fall 2007 schedules need to be in next week (yeah that one irritates the fly by the seat of my pants personality too.....haven't even finished 2006 and we're talkin' about 2007, come on!!), CPR re-cert needs done, I need Cont. Ed. units by the end of the year............................the list is long and not fun at all!!!

So again I ask.....will time ever, EVER be available to purchase at Wal-Mart?? You know 19.99 per 1/2 hour right next to the no-doze would be great advertising!!!

Ha!

Yeah!

Um-hum.....right......I know......

never.gonna.happen!!.................

I'LL.NEVER.BE.DONE!!!