11 miles and counting

Today's run at Arastradero was what could be called Dee-licious.

6 Miles and counting

6 miles today and some fun facts to go with it that have nothing to do with anything.

#1 My dirt filled yard is now the community litter box and smells like poop

#2 The local rockery (place that sells stepping stones, gravel, sand, paving, etc.) has a huge truck sized weighing scale that is pretty darn accurate with only little me standing on it. I think I weigh 5 lbs more than high school which considering all the running makes one think, wtfuh. Kinda goes along with this thread.

#3 The 5 gallon jug of water in the back of my car which was supposed to save my life in case of disaster, leaked and now my trunk smells like old musty cardboard

That's about it. Back to studying for finals next week.

You Know What's Tiring

thinking you're back on track finally one week and then realizing the next week you have to lay off again. It's become boring.
Back is sore from physical therapy and whatever else. Need to lay low again for now.

In good news, my crew did massive quantities of work on Saturday for me. The yard is, again, a huge huge mess, but this time instead of being filled with useless junk, it is filled with material that I need to start my projects. And the raised planter is done. Chris and I finished putting it together yesterday. We are going to be the self sustaining commune that I always wanted to be one day. Anyone wanna join?

Queen for a Day

Workout skipped today. Body is ultra sore (ultra sore. heh) from physical therapy with martial arts practice on top. I do intend on running the Baylands tomorrow morning if my body has calmed down. Also, if the smoke has dissipated from the recent fires too. It was pretty thick here today which was another reason I didn't run outside today. 

But even more exciting is that tomorrow is Phase 2 for working on my yard. My yard started as a big pile of doggy poo laden lava rock mess 2 1/2 years ago when we bought the place and not much has been done with it since except a lot of trips to the dumpster shoveling out the doggy poo laden lava rock mess.But that was a year ago.
Recently, I tackled the whole monster again, dug out all the weeds, rototilled dirt, and generally prepped it for the real thing. And of course, destroyed my back in the process. 

(Yard with weeds and a sundry of crap including stair rail on the deck)

Tomorrow we have a van rented (no trucks available) so we can buy gravel and sand for the path that I have planned out and hopefully some more landscape dirt and a bunch of 2x4's so I can build my raised planter.

 But what's funny about tomorrow is that I have two "workers" who will be following all my orders. Having learned a hard lesson a few weeks ago, I will be leaving the heavy labor to Chris and Todd. They have both graciously agreed to do all this hard work under my watchful eye. And really, I'm not exactly an easy boss, so this is most gracious indeed. I'm very excited to see what progress we can make. 

Not very runner-ey is this. Maybe I should start a new blog. I am trying though. I plan on doing Diablo in a few weeks. Short distance of course, and need to plan on an end of summer goal. I believe I still need to stick to 25K max for the rest of the year to allow my back to fully heal. That won't be very easy if I am able to comfortably hit 25K by the end of summer. I still love reading all the ultra blogs and being there with folks vicariously as they hit their highs and lows throughout their races. It's so fun and amazing to hear about. I really can't wait to get back to it, even as I slog through 5 milers wondering how in the hell I can ever make 31 miles or 50 ever again. I have my eye on the prize yet. :)

8 Whopping Miles!

That's my total so far for the week. The goal is..hmm....let's see. 5 on Friday.....6 on Saturday.....19? Can I do it injury free? Ooo, excited.

And just because, me and my glamorous cousin. She runs too. Or at least she used to.

Trainus Returneth....or something

Update: So it turned out to be a 5 miler instead of 6, but it was fuuun. I held to a slow plodding even pace, even on the downhills and flats, and was able to consistently hold that the whole way, even on the steeper hills. The longest breaks included having to fix my ankle brace and the other to say hello to a beautiful Malamute. Because it was going so well, I chose to forgo that last mile and save it for the next time. I really needed to have a happy run for once. 

I'm back in town so there's nothing to do but get back on the treadmill so to speak. My back has never fully recovered from my previous stupidity, but nothing too severe. Mild ache and a lot of stiffness, at least today. Tomorrow, I"ll hit Arastradero and try a 6 miler and just see how that goes. If it's like anything I've done recently, it will be torturous, painful, and disappointing. Gotta love it. 


And just because... I present Mr. Chips Kitty Fantastico!!!!

Trainus Interruptus

It's been over a week since my gardening debacle and I had my first successful gym trot on the treadmill this morning. Not quite 100% but feeling mobile and stronger. I'll definitely need some more time to get back to my pre-gardening body. But this week I am being given another hiatus from any serious form of exercise, which is fine, but I wish the circumstances were better. My cousin (dad's youngest sister' daughter) is in bad shape from her second bout with ovarian cancer. The Higuchi clan in the Bay Area is shuffling down, en masse, to the Los Angeles area to see how we can help. Sounds like they are now relying on any alternative therapy to help with her condition. Chemo is apparently no longer an option.

The following are chinese herbs that I will be taking down with me:
Ling Zhi Xia Cao Tea
Anticancer Lin (pills)

The following pills on their own have also been found to help:
Dong Chong Xia Cao (cordyceps)
Ling Zhi (japanese mushrooms)

And a kind friend just dropped off a book that he thinks is a good resource for prevention and therapy:
Outsmart Your Cancer (Alternative Non-Toxic Treatments That Work) by Tanya Harter Pierce

Cancer is a rare thing in my family. And because of who it has affected, it hits closer to home than any other illness that has befallen a relative or friend in recent years. I feel for my dad who I feel might be affected most by the injustice of a younger family member being stricken more ill than he in his late 70's But there is hope still. I'm mostly glad right now to be going down south to visit instead of just sitting miles away by the telephone. I have this idea that it will feel better to be useless 5 feet away versus useless over a 100 miles.

Lesson Learned

At the acupuncture clinic this afternoon getting a treatment from my teacher....

Me: (a bit despondent and weepy) "So, yeah, I screwed up my back this past weekend. My fault. I was stupid. But, since then, I'm in pain, I have insomnia, and yeah it's stupid but I'm really really depressed. I was getting so much better and now this.  I need needles and an herb formula real bad."

Dr: (in somewhat broken english) "My husband does this. He work outside like he 20 year old boy and next day he look like this (mimicking him trying to get out of bed) and in pain. I tell him, 'You can't say ANYTHING. YOUR FAULT!!' I understand you depress (she says to me) but you do it.

Me: (me snickering,  along with my 4 other colleagues who are observing the treatment.)

I got it. I got it. And it was such a classic way of slapping someone out of their self pity. Thank god for people like Dr. Zhu. She's good peeps. 

How Gardening Kicked my Ass

I have a back yard full of dirt and about 10 weeds. I dug out the rest weeks ago. Meanwhile, the soil level is too low, my back deck is full of garbage making us look like fancy trailer trash and I was in a Saturday frenzy to finally tackle all the stuff I should have tackled oh...say.......over a year ago. 

So I did.

I rototilled in about 44 cubic square feet of dirt, I broke apart a wooden pallet that somehow traveled with us from the old apartment over 2 years ago and has just been sitting against the house. I tore off the awful screen door off the front of the house and sawed it into pieces. Gawd it was hideous and useless. I sawed up other pieces of rotting useless wood that were strewn about the yard. I organized our random pieces of potted plants, emptied out dead ones, and re-potted suffering survivors. I hauled all aforementioned junk to the dumpster. I tipped  the garbage can on one such outing and was unable to pick it up again due to the weight until a kind neighbor helped me out. I removed 2 bars (the kind that goes in a closet) and hauled them away. Those damn things (1 out back and 1 behind the front door) have been there for 2 years. What is wrong with me!

I also re-glued in some trim around the fireplace, did a touch up paint job in the same place and cleaned the whole floor downstairs since it was filthy. 

There is so much more work left to do, but it looks 10 times fabulous-er because of my toil. However, I probably did too much as today my run with Chris was cancelled due to sore bones and a very very sore back. Not good. Instead we walked around the baylands which I love. Either way, it looks like it's a take-it-easy  week for me. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage. 

Good Luck Miwokers. I'll Think of you Tonight.

To kick off your fabulous weekend, I will wish you luck as I drool over my other "boyfriends" tonight at the Concord Pavilion.

There are admittedly many things that I have not been able to let go of when it comes to the 80's. Duran Duran is probably the biggest. I love them. I love them. I looooooooooooove them.