I Did It... It Wasn't Pretty

Last Sunday was the Big Day, the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in New Orleans and we crossed the finish line in 3 hours 20 minutes 21 seconds.

The start was in the CBD and snaked around an entire city block, We were somewhere in the middle of the back of the line and it took our corral 29 minutes to cross the Starting Line. There were well over 20,000 people in this race and we met about a hundred of them standing in the corral and mooing our way to the front. Some were wearing the same shirt so I asked if they were a part of a club. No, this shirt was for runners who had completed 3 Marathons in 3 months. Any three consecutive months. Now we saw another shirt that read 50 States and asked about it. This man, in his 70s had run 192 MARATHONS in every state of the union. I'd capitalize the 192 if I could, for emphasis!

Here are R and P at the start of the race..... all fierce and ready to rock.

I found some sport tape at the Expo the day before and wrapped my right ankle and left knee is an effort to give them some added support. The good news is the ankle felt great the whole way through. The bad news is I have done some damage to the knee regardless the tape and by mile 9 .5 , I was in agony.

But Rachel and I slowed down to walking fast. Even at that, we were passing other walkers. I had no concept of the time that had passed and was determined I would cross that finish line in under 4 hours.

That was somewhere behind the the NOMA in City Park and as we approached the buiding itself, I saw hand-made sign reading ".25 miles".. Me: "REALLY!!!! REALLY???? It's only a quarter left???!!!!"

So we made a break for it and eventually ran under a huge scaffolding I mistook for the end...... Oh no wait.... keep going! Keep going!!!! So we plogged a little further and crossed.

YEA!!!!!!!! WE did it, now what do we do???

Here was the best part and now that I am more familiar with what to expect, I want to do it again.

After we crossed the finish line, we were handed or medals and limped away to where people press on you bananas and bagels and chocolate milk, Gatorade and water and fruit cups and oh, I don't remember what all...... Here is where I intend to linger at any future HM. I left that area WAY too quickly... big mistake!

But I was really hankering for that free beer and jambalaya we were promised. We hadn't eat much for breakfast and I was ravenous at this point.

We never found the free beer....... We finally found and I stood in a beer line that NEVER advanced for what seemed to be over 10 minutes. I saw people with cash in their hands standing there but never saw anyone ever leave the front with beer..... Meanwhile R and P went in search of food and came back with 3 styro cups of absolutely delicious jamba but they cost $5.00 each! Hmmmm... we clearly were doing something amiss.

We finally gave up on the beer altogether and tried to go back to get another water bottle or two but once you leave the gauntlet, you may not return.

So we found some bleachers and sat to eat and wonder where from that position do we have to travel to find the car park. I was wondering if my feet and knee would be able to transport me to the car! There were no officials anywhere to ask.... all the people along the gauntlet line were volunteers barking at the spectators to leave room for the runners to pass out of the way.

We eventually determined it would be faster to just walk across the park to the car than to walk the other direction to the bus line for the car park shuttle.

So the question immediately after the run was "would I do it again?" At that time, the answer was a firm no. But enough days have passed now and the answer is yes. I will and here is why:

I know better what to expect from all of it. The training, the actual distance, the prep the week before, pacing. clothing, and I had a great time. Now I want to do it again, only faster.

I know.... but another t shirt read

"Half Marathoners are only Half Crazy"

One Week and Counting

So.... the final week before the half marathon. I ran 7.5 today and have increased the odd interval to 2:1 from 1:1 and guess what! My feet don't hurt as much as they used to.

Now my knees are killing me. When did this happen????? My left knee especially and for te first 4 miles my right ankle felt like I had been sitting on it for hours and had a kink in it I could not shake. Eventually all the bones and muscles stopped complaining and by the time I hit 6 miles, I felt fine.

We check in on Saturday and get our numbers. The "race" begins at 7:oo am Sunday morning. We figure it will take approximately 3 hours 20 minutes to finish. I wrote the word in scary quotes because I don't see it as a much a race as an event for me. My goal is finishing upright and with the minimum amount of pain. Oh and under 4 hours. Even if I had to walk the final miles I can do this now.

Still, no weight has left the carcass.... muscles are more evident but the pudgy middle remains. Ah age. You are so cruel.

I made a sample of a Lone Star for an up-coming class at the shop.

This is all I intend to do as a sample but I will ring the entire quilt with more stars around the perimeter and make it larger. So much so I might not be able to quilt it myself. That's okay..... there are so many splendid machine quilters in this area, I will hire one to the job for me. This is a quilt I want to keep for our bed (king) so size is an issue. The fabric here is mostly from Kathy Brown's new Abigail line. Very talented artist just over in Baton Rouge.

I have the Seasoned Quilter on the machine right now and will go finish her up this evening.

I got a little depressed this morning while searching for something in the closet where the quilts hang, waiting for quilting. Depressed because of all the unquilted tops, lined up and stagnant. There are so many more in the works as well that will soon end up that black hole. And so many more I thought I wanted to make but it is getting ridiculous now.

There are 6 huge quilts in there, all identical except the fabric selection, that are making me really crazy. I was hoping to have them done LAST YEAR!!!!!! Ha! Fat chance. They DID make a real dent in my stash but not enough of one to make me less crazed.

I have to get more finished before the growing season starts up. Once that happens, I will be so far behind. Yikes... jus thinking about it makes me nervous.

I better go talk to the chickens

Man, Did It Rain Here Yesterday!

Which in truth is a very good thing. I only hope the deluge didn't wash away the carrot seeds we sowed Thursday. "We shall see what we shall see." ~Lucia Lucas

This, however, has curtailed my running schedule somewhat. Two weeks from today at approximately this hour of the morning, I'll be heading to the starting point of an adventure. With my cousin, who instigated this and my daughter who aides and abets me in all areas of nonsense, by my side (and possibly on either side dragging me across the finish line) I will plog 13.1 miles.

What else can I relate? Oh yes.... this! We started a new BOM at the shop

So cute!!!!

and I rushed home Thursday with my packet and feverishly began tracing the fusible and sorting out all the designated fabrics for the different pieces (oooh so exciting!!!!) and fused everything down. Did I say everything? Yes... I am very thorough. I began carefully cutting the pieces out and laying them down on the pattern. Oh it was looking so cute! That's when it dawned on me that I had fused all the pieces to the front of the fabrics, instead on the back. Where it is supposed to be fused.

Nobody tops me when it comes to stupid! So after Georgia rushed me new fabric and fusible, I concentrated and did it right the 2nd time. I have a good excuse for being distracted, though.

I love Netflix streaming and recently they uploaded the Frasier series. I never watched these back in the days it ran on TV so picture me in the workroom, crying with laughter while cutting out those shapes. This show was hilarious! It isn't often that I laugh out loud during comedies but lately this one and The Big Bang Theory have really gotten me roaring. Again, I am late to the party because anyone I ask if they'd seen these say, "Yes. Years ago!" Gee.....

Hey, ever get the Wolfermans English Muffins catalogue in the mail and wonder if they are worth trying out? The answer is a strong affirmative. They are wonderful! And so many varieties to choose from, you will be in a quandary as to which to try first or next. Have fun!

I can't believe how quickly this short month February is passing. Even with the leap day, it's gone fast. Mardi Gras is in two days and once more I will avoid all parades with reckless abandon. Instead, I shall hang out with the chickens and throw them stuff! They are as silly as any parade goer I've seen, except they don't lift their shirts. They surround me and jump up to grab stuff and cluck at me. Seriously, if they could talk, I swear it would be the line, "Throw me something!" And I do! And just like parade crowds, what I throw is never enough! So I throw more.....

Hey, that's how I roll.

If you do go parading, stay safe. If you don't, come join me on the Back Two.

Visualizing the Possible

I ran the 10 miles again today , with three weeks to go to the Rock n Roll Half Marathon. By the ninth mile, my knees were hurting. Mmmmm that's a first.

At around mile 5, I was feeling very good, smooth running up and down small hills. I had to rub my feet a few times as well but I am really used to doing this now.

I changed my route up a little, too, running past horse farms on a very hilly lane. No traffic to speak of.

Now that I feel more confident I'll actually make it to 13.1, I am beginning to "visualize" crossing the finish line. I try to "see" it off in the distance as a beacon, a goal. I would like to cross it strong and running but we'll see how it goes.

Tomorow: sushi with Kathryn and Mitch and John.

Keeping With The Resolution

.. to get my closet filled with awaiting tops to get quilted, I have pinned the Six Halves Makes a Whole Quilt top on the machine and have finished 2 out of 9 rows. This is slow going but I am in no rush. (As long as I have it off the frame in 7 days!)

Linda Kay and I taught this as a class last year and each made a sample using different fabric schemes. I went, naturally, with batiks.

This is going to be heavily quilted with feathers and spikes. All the colored pieces will have simple wavy inlines and I'll let the heavy stuff show on the large expanses of background neutrals so they don't pop off so obviously.

We started off the day weeding in the raised beds. I have this sneaky suspicion that Spring is coming very early this year and I don't want to get caught with beds of healthy weeds! We received our seed order form Parks today and I am eager to get the seedlings started. Not yet! Not yet! I know.

John pruned all the peach trees and gave them a spray. We are planning on planting 4 avocado trees shortly as well now that we have found a good reliable source of them, cold hardy varieties for our location.

Last week I started to cut back severely on carbohydrates to see if that diet could help knock off some of this unshifting poundage I am carting around. The first two days were a snap but day 3 was weird.... I felt light-headed & ravenous and yesterday was strange, too. I've been eating eggs, cheese, meat, butter like crazy, etc but no substantial starch at all and at this moment I would gladly drink 4 oz of orange juice except for the fact that I have come so far and don't want to mess it up.

We ran 5K again today and I felt fine. I have not been hungry today since I ate 3 thick slices of bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. It's nearly 5 o'clock and I am thrilled to learn that carrots and rutabagas are low carb roots. Thrilled because the garden is teeming with these veg and I want to eat them! That and kale.

Have I lost any weight? well... maybe two pounds. That is still in the range of daily fluctuations so I'm going with .... let's give it 2 weeks before I make any claims to success.

Now, why am I doing this? Because I don't want to haul any unnecessary weight around a 13.1 mile track!

More Shopping!

I read somewhere recently that a real must-have in the kitchen is a rice-cooker. I had one years ago.... many many too many years ago and have no idea where it went. It must have been during the years we lived overseas....... But it was a cool device and after reading that declarative statement, I thought to myself, "Self. He's RIGHT! You SHOULD have a rice cooker for no other reason except then you would never have to clean up the over-spill that happens every single time you boil rice!"

I had to make pit-stop at Wallyworld a few days ago for catfood and as I passed the appliance section, that voice popped into my head, "rice cooker......rice cooker....." and I said to myself, "Self! Wake up from your daydream and look at that rice cooker!" So I checked that 4-6 they had to offer and settled on this one by Rival. It's small, only cooks up to 6 cups of rice but I can't remember the last time I cooked more than 4 cups. (oh yes I can! I made pot-load for gumbo in December and yeah, that boiled over as well.)

Anyway, with just 2 people to cook for, this one is perfect in size and price. $13.47. Even if it was a complete disappointment, that is not a hefty sum, right?

and I made brown rice that night. Now, I love rice in all colors (did you know there is red rice?) and I especially love the nutty brown rice but I hate that it takes so long to cook on the stove-top. Not any more.

The little cheap $13.47 Rival cooked the brown rice in less than an hour. I think I am going to go buy another one as a back-up.

Oh yeah, ain't it cute, too? Looks like an alien robot.

Running: Yesterday was the first time to run since the 11.5 miles. It takes my old muscles that long to recover and not feel absolutely miserable. It actually felt pretty great. So much so that I ran 2:1 splits. Plog for 2 minutes, walk for 1. And really I can drop the "plog" reference. I am truly running at this point in time. Smoothly, rhythmically. Here is an area I pass: I call the meadow.

Back to the Applique

After taking quite some time off, I am back at the applique and was surprised to find I had made this many of the Jacobean applique last year:

The photograph doesn't show the true deep purple of the background, but you can tell how vibrant the other colors against it. It glows.

When I was at the shop last week, two of the fellow Sharp Needles came in and showed me this new applique BOM, Funky Chickens from Fat Cat Patterns, with the most whimsical chickens I've ever seen.

This is January

So, being the grabby stitcher that I am, I immediately pulled some fabrics off the shelf at the shop and paired them with what I have in the stash of leftovers and have begun making this BOM as well as the Farmer's Wife and 4th of July by Judy Niemeyer.

All this is ok because while the word 'bored' doesn't ever apply in the world of quilt-making, for me it is fun to take a little time off from each project in order to see it again later with fresh eyes.

Well, I am pleased and pained to report that yesterday I plogged the entire 11.5 scheduled miles. Pleased that even though I was fairly exhausted at 9.75, I continued to the bitter end and only had to take the shoes off for a quick massage. Pained in that although the feet made it through this time, the calves were whining and the knees weren't happy either. I hobbled into the house after walking around another 2 miles out with the chickens just to make sure I didn't cramp up.

I will definitely walk another few miles outdoors today as well. I am worried that tomorrow it's going to be bad. With me it usually follows that the real pain occurs two days after the exertion.

I have managed to weigh one pound less this week than the last 400 weeks. I wonder if this is because I have cut back on all the coffee. It isn't the coffee; it's the half and half. So if I am drinking only half the half and half I used to, it follows that I have taken in fewer calories that are normally consumed every week. Nothing less has changed. I look the same. One pound doesn't register to the eye. Oh well. whatreyagonnado?

Well. It's Been Quite a Day

It started off with a passel of puppies.

8 black standard Poodle puppies to be exact. The mother of St. Tammany's Greatest Techie (AKA UberGeek) has a Poodle which just became a mama-dog to the sweetest litter on the planet. 8 squirming sausages all eager to latch on and grow except the runt, which has her work cut out for her as the others are so much larger and aggressive & basically hog all the available faucets.

She was warm in her own box but didn't stand even a fighting chance against the others, until the Vet said to take the others away totally and let her have as much as she could take in. I really hope she makes it. Mena, the mama, is the perfect mother. She dropped 6 of the puppies alone and took total care of them and then popped out two more. She doesn't make a fuss when we people interfere with nature. She is so good-natured about the whole process and this is her first time.

When I was a first-time mama, I was snarling at everyone. And I only had one!

I got home in the afternoon after stopping by the quilt shop to get some binding fabric. YOU KNOW WHAT MEANS!!!!

I finished the sample of the Pick-Up Sticks from Kathy Brown's Strip Smart Quilts Book and will sew on the binding tomorrow so I have it for the shop on Thursday. We have a Demo Day on Saturday with Kathy Brown showing her new Fat Quarter Cutter ruler and I was really hoping I would get in done in time.

And Kat came home for Spaghetti dinner with a sauce made from the garden. (summer garden, that is) Tomoz she is going to help me clean out 2 closets..... a Christmas gift!!! yippee!!!!!

I ran 4 miles yesterday and am gearing up for 11.5 next Sunday - Monday. Since I got off schedule over the holidays (c'mon... tell the truth.... would YOU run on Christmas Day and New Years day?) I am still working towards getting back on the Sunday long day runs....

This means I should be training Tuesday and Thursday and long runs on Sunday but I work on Thursday which make the schedule awkward.... so I go Tuesday Friday and (usually) Long Run Sunday. 11.5 miles..... man.... that sounds so far. And now I don't, won't have Rachel with me. Just the Ipod.

Ok.

Kathy Brown Is Coming to Town

I bought her book, Strip-Smart Quilts and the bizarre ruler I think back in August..... don't remember exactly and have been diligently clearing the decks to make time for one of the quilts in it. Pick Up Sticks is her version

And I am making it with Thimbleberries in autumn colors. I know, it's closing in on Spring but I am still sticking to my resolution of whittling the stash down to a more manageable size. It is so large, I still cannot see much difference.

(I can say the same thing about plogging and my thighs... but let's not go there, shall we? At least for this morning, I shall be foward-looking and completely optimistic.)

Anyhoo, Kathy Brown is coming to the quilt shop on Saturday, Jan 14 and I want to have this on hand to show her. I doubt I will have it quilted as well, but you never know.

I intend to take down the Christmas trimmings and tree today as well. Give the whole house a good dusting. That and another 5K.

Such a busy bee!

Incrementally Speaking, I'm Okay

When I started this plogging, running around the block was out of the question. I couldn't make it to the end of the block, much less around it. 30 minutes seemed quite an achievement. Then 5K was an accomplishment.

Then going at it 3 days a week and looking forward to it seemed ludicrous and yet I passed that test a month ago.

So the 6.5 mile a few weeks ago made a 'mile-stone' in my thinking. Up til that point, I sort of thought of this whole plan in a negative way. "If I can can make it to 3 miles, I'm not doing bad at all!"

"If I can just get to 5 miles, I won't be a slacker for not going out yesterday. Or the day before. Slacker."

"If my feet don't give out at the 4 mile mark, it'll be a miracle!"

And here we are with just over 2 months to go and I can't believe how differently I look at the whole adventure.

This is similar to what I experience in quilting. When I first started, the idea of making a full-sized quilt seemed ridiculous, but I did it. Slowly. Then I made another one. It's been 26 years. Now, when I see a pattern or project, I automatically look at in terms of blocks. I break it down into it's elements and it doesn't seem so daunting a prospect.

A friend showed me the Civil War Quilt at the beginning of this year. This is a Block of the Week that stared back in January and every Saturday morning a new block and instruction was posted. They are all 8" and I thought that was a good idea. I didn't know how long it would hold my interest but making one 8" block doesn't take a lot of time. An hour, tops. Who doesn't have that time?

So, being me, I started making two color schemes. This is the reproduction fabric BOW

Just nine blocks there. But now I have two stacks of 51 blocks each and the year is almost finished. If I had not taken that first step and then the next, one foot in front of the other, sure, the time would have passed but I wouldn't have much to show for it.

And now two months into the plog-cycle, I look a little different. I feel a lot better and I look forward to something I can hardly believe is true.

I'm going to put that sticker on the back of the car, if I cross the finish line.

And don't be surprised if I change the if to when!

8 Miles, I Got It!

Today was the 8 mile plog and I did it with my daughter who is planning on joining us on this quest. It was much easier covering the required mileage with a partner to keep me company and make the miles pass more swiftly.

I worried, rightly, that my foot trouble would reappear and I was wasn't surprised when the tenderness started up in the 3rd mile. At 4+ miles, I thought perhaps it something to do with my running posture so I straightened up better. That helped but the damage was done......

At 5+ I asked if she would pull on my toes after I showered later and R asked why not try it right then and there so we stopped the clock and I plopped down on the asphalt. She was not gentle either as she grabbed the little piggies and squeezed. At least it sure didn't feel as though she was being gentle. It hurt like crazy but it worked!!!! Like a light switch, the pain was GONE.

And that lasted another couple of miles til it started up cramping again. So we repeated the procedure. With 1.5 miles left, we passed by the house to get a drink of water and felt good to do the last bit and took off.

I made it to 7.5 and the pain was back but I finished and stretched. It feels very good to do the 8 but the balls of my feet are very tender and achy. Only 3 miles on Tuesday, Thursday and I think 3.5 on Sunday (Christmas) but I will probably go for 4+ just because I can.

One thing I find easier each passing week is spending the time it takes to do this without feeling as though I have other things more important to do. I never thought I would write something like that.

I've Been Committed

Ahahahahah it's not what you might think!

I have committed MYSELF to the half-marathon officially.

I have my receipt to hang on the wall to taunt me and my schedule of training to invigorate me. What is really weird and slightly amazing to me is my desire to do this overwhelming me.

I am worried that my feet will be my trouble and hopeful that the problem will simply go away. I look forward to each day I "get" to plog and am frustrated that occasionally the weather or life in general (LIG) gets in the way.

In the meantime, whoo-hoo indeed

6.5 Done and Done!

That is the goal today and I will be starting in another hour or so. The temperature is warmer than it has been lately and I think more muggy as well so I wonder how that will play into my stamina.

I wore the Asics the other day wandering around and they feel very nice on the feet but the proof will be in the plog, right?

So I have my route all mapped out in the the local area. I sould do just over the 6.5 miles if I make it all the way.

Update: So That's done. All was going well til around 3.75 miles and the right foot began to throb. Once that started, I did the ususal shifting in the footfall trying to ease the pain but nothing really stopped it.

My body felt fine so that's a good thing.... I'll keep going and see what happens. Next Sunday is 3 miles and then 8 miles after that.

Yippee. Still, I get 2 weeks to heal the sole.

I Am Not Obsessed. Really. I'm Not

Remember the issue with the painful feet at mile 2.5? Well, I plogged several more times at 30+ minutes or so with no problem and then Tuesday it happened again at mile 1.75. What to do, what to do?

It apparently has something to do with the tiny bones that glide just at the point where the ball of the foot ends and the toes begin. Tiny little bones but oh so crucial to walking. I read that it can happen that the get banged up but I have never never ever had this pain... exxxxxxcept this one time when I wore heeled boots and worked from 9 am to midnight on my feet..... retail and when I sat down in the car to get home, I could not stand on the ground. I was literally helped up the steps, in tears. I had no pain until I got off my feet and tried to stand. It was amazing in the intensity and I have forgotten this til now. That was some 37 years ago.

So, back to the present. I read that a small insert of gel might help cushion the area and we headed back to Academy where I was helped by a running elf. I was also told that Nike shoes, well this one perhaps most specifically, are not really designed for distance but rather for workouts and fashion. And on softer surfaces. The soles are cushy on the heel but made lightweight for speed, not support and distance. Well, that would have been useful information three weeks ago, before I plonked $70 down!.

Not to worry..... I bought small insert for the front of the foot and will do my short distances (under 3 miles) in them and bought a pair or Asics for distance. And another insert (whole shoe) for them because I bought a pair bigger than my foot to accommodate the thick socks and better toe wiggle room. The 10s were tight already.

I also learned something interesting.... in the Nike, there is a small symbol on the sole. It is the Nike Sensor symbol and I knew that because that is the device I was given for my birthday. Under the insert on the left shoe, there is a hole to slip the device into instead of in a key pouch that rides on the laces. Pretty slick! If I buy another sensor I won't have to move the pouch back and forth between shoes.....

I guess, while I am NOT obsesses, I am devoted to this mission. I shall complete a HM in March.

Hmmmm.... Breaking in Shoes....

It doesn't mean what I think it means. I have been plogging along in a pair of Sketcher rolling walkers all this time. They are heavy and make you feet roll as you go which is nice and I do like them but I didn't think they would see me through 13 miles. Also they get hot. Or rather, hotter as I go but that might have something more to do with the thick socks I wear.

So, I bought a new pair of running shoes. Nike LunarGlide + and went for a run this morning. My first run in these new shoes and it was my Sunday run which, sticking to the schedule meant 5 miles.

Ok, these shoes are so light-weight and airy after the Sketchers I was flying! It felt so great! But I realized after some 8 minutes that the Nike lozenge wasn't recording the "mileage" correctly. I had done this route enough times to know when the 1 mile mark shows up and I was way past it and reading .68 miles.

Now my vision isn't great at 6am and bouncing up and down doesn't improve matters but I was finally able to focus on the small numbers that measure my "speed" (or lack thereof) and it said I was going at a speed of 22 minutes per mile. Running. I can walk faster than this. So something was clearly not right with my little device.

I stopped to look at the pouch and saw that I had put it on up-side down. I flipped it right and kept going.

Still, I figured it wasn't tracking anything correctly and wondered how I was going to calculate the distance after this amount of time had passed.

It didn't matter.....I decided I would just go til I had completed the 5 and measure it out later. I knew how long I will have run by then... that is useful.

But around 3.5 miles, both balls of the feet started to hurt.... terribly. I kept going.... scrunching my toes and running on the knife edge of the feet and doing what ever I could do to minimize this discomfort, all the while worrying 1. did I just waste $70.00? 2. What if I have done permanent injury? 3. Will it always be this way? 4. Why didn't I "break in the shoes? 5. What was I thinking?????

I limped home but I did the miles and just now went to measure the actual distance.

5.45 miles whoo-hoo indeed. I can't believe I am doing this. A few months ago, the thought of plogging 5 miles was laughable. A few weeks ago, the thought was worrisome. Today, the thought is entirely doable and I (can't believe I am writing this) actually look forward to the 6.5 the Sunday after next!

It is purely coincidental & happenstance that next Sunday, after Thanksgiving Pie Day, I only have a 2.5 run to do. So hopefully, with this week and next being easy runs, the shoes (if they are the problem) will be broken in and I have a better time of it.

You Didn't Miss Me...

... but I'm back......

It's been a busy few months and I think the rest of the year will go the same way. Hopefully 2012 will be calmer. at least til the election really gears up.

I've been working on, among other things, the garden, several quilts and watching a shower be refitted. It has taken quite a long time and is still not finished nor will be for another week but hey..... I have time. Lots of it I hope.

And I have been back to plogging. Now it's plogging with a Purpose. My cousin, who inspired the foray into plogging some months back (if you recall) told me about a Rock and Roll Marathon which will be held in New Orleans in March next year and that she was coming here to run in it. They also sponsor a Half Marathon and I think 5 & 10Ks as well.

sooooo... I said I'd go for the HM. My only goal is to finish it in under 4 hours. If you are seen to be going over that time, they pick you up in something called a Sag Wagon and I ain't gonna be seen in that. So a 4 hour 13.1 "run" is the goal.

She gave me the website for Galloway running and I am using his schedule for training to finish and I have been sticking to it! She recommended that I try what she does: ie she walks for a mile and then runs for a mile* and has this timing device that tells her when to stop and start each minute. I went by Academy to buy an Interval Timer but the only one they had was made by Everlast. I should have known. *Whoops! That should read MINUTE, not mile

I got the batteries into it and set the timer to 1 minute intervals. When the minute was up, the racket this thing made was amazing. The "vibrator" was as loud as the alarm on my phone and the bell sounded exactly like the one you'd hear at the end of a boxing match! Well, that was never going to work.

My daughter gave me another device that is made by Nike. You slip the gadget, a lozenge the size of a keyfob, into a pouch that attaches to you running shoe and the app on your cell phone calibrates and monitors the distance you go. It also tell you your running speed and averages your time. Pretty slick and very accurate! It plays music off the ipod as you go and tells you when you reach the halfway mark, what the time distance is and how much farther you have to the finish. It does NOT alert you to the One minute mark so I have to hold it in my hand as I run and time myself. That is a bit of a nuisance as I never get it right. I'll be going along and think "well that's been 55 seconds" but when I check, it's usually closer to the 32 second mark. and I think Omigosh..... I have 27 second to go ....... will I make it????? Plog plog plog... By the time I finished 5 ks or 3 mile or 45 minutes, I was tired! I'm 52 and out of shape, alright??? But I'm doing it ! I'm doing it! Plog. Plog . Plog. BTW>>>> My daughter is going to come here and do the HM with me!!!!!

So I have been fretting that with less than 3 months to go before the HM, I will not be physically ready to do this! A week ago, I was worried that I was going to have to go for 4 miles on Sunday and 5 miles the Sunday after THAT! (you train in increments) ...... and this is the Eat Drink weekend and I've been doing plenty of that, let me tell you!

But this is Monday morning, 5:15am and I did the 4 miles as the sun went down yesterday. Next week is 5 miles. And I have to say: I'm actually looking forward to it. Strange as that is to write, I really do. It was as though that 4 mile was a mental brick wall..... I was really concerned that I was going to falter.

Back in the days of college life, I ran every day. The farthest I ever ran continuously was 5.25 miles for a "cause" I don't remember now. People sponsored me 25 cent per mile and I had to run around a track as many times as I could for one hour. 5.25 miles and I remember not even being tired but I was 20 yrs old back then. and probably 25 lbs lighter as well! That is something that hasn't shifted an ounce since I started this, much to my sorrow. not one ounce.

And the hardest thing back then was putting the shoes on. Once I got that done, I figured I might as well go out the door! The easiest thing was convincing myself that one day off would not kill me but it always did. If I took one day off, it was easy to then take off anther and getting back ON the schedule was twice as hard. It's all psychological.

These days I don't beat myself up. (I let Life do that...trust me.. Life doesn't need your help) If the day does not permit me to do the required miles/minutes, I just do them the next day and I don't scold myself. But since I have a goal, (the HM) and the day will be here (soon), I really have no choice but to get out there and not embarrass myself.

Hey I figure it's like this: Get Up, Dress Up and Show up. Then the rest is up to me.