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By kilax, September 8, 2009 1:05 pm

Day One of Operation “Appear Awake at Work” is off to a rocky start.*

Can you even tell I have makeup on in this photo?!

I am probably setting myself up for failure by trying to wake up so early. Last night was one of those nights where the bed felt perfect and I instantly fell asleep. And I didn’t wake up once!** Not until this morning, when Steven was rubbing my arm (and I was thinking, “What’s he up to?!” Winky Wink.) then said, “Are you going to get up?” It was 4:05. My alarm had gone off at 4:00, and I hadn’t even realized it… yet had somehow managed to turn it off. Weird. Good thing he woke me up!

This weekend was so relaxing. I don’t recall the last time I’ve felt so relaxed. I got a full nine hours of sleep on both Friday and Saturday night, and felt refreshed and energetic all day Saturday and Sunday. It was really weird not to feel tired and crash and the middle of the day like I normally do.

It sure would be great to get that much sleep every night.

I had to wake up earlier this morning so I can make it to an evening appointment with my therapist (Yay flexible work hours!). I think it’s been a month since I last saw her. I canceled my last appointment because I didn’t feel like I had made much progress. And I didn’t feel like sitting there, complaining about the same old issues. It would just make me feel worse for, well, not having made any progress on the same old issues!***

It’s so weird to sit and talk to someone for an hour about how you feel and not have to ask them anything AT ALL. When I am talking to someone, I am naturally conscious of how much I am talking in comparison to them, if I am interrupting them, and if they look bored. Well, talking to a therapist throws all of that out the window. I can just go on and on about whatever I want, and they have to listen. Yippee!

The only problem is that I enjoy bitching to my therapist so much that I have a hard time remembering what she says. She has a lot of good feedback, ideas and analogies, but she tells me so much that I can’t remember it all. An hour is a long time! Maybe I should bring a notepad.

*I’ve decided it’s time to start putting some effort into my appearance again. I am sick of the “you look so tired” comments. I am tired, DAMMIT!
**I’ve been having issues with waking up often in the night, so this is awesome.
***I doubt some issues EVER go away.

Comments (19)

By kilax, July 12, 2009 3:05 pm

Welcome to week 4 of marathon training! If you click on the activity links after the dates, it will take you to the Garmin connect website for full stats.

Day 22 | Monday, July 6: Cross-train for 30 minutes Rest

Ugh. I felt mopey and was suffering from a sugar withdrawal headache so I did nada for cross-training and went to bed early.

Day 23 | Tuesday, July 7: Run 3 miles

I keep repeating this, but I absolutely have to start doing these shorter runs slower. I ran the first 1.5 and last .5 miles of this run with Steven. We started out fast and I didn’t want to slow down. I also don’t want to over-train though! I promised myself I would run slower on Wednesday, but Wednesday’s run never happened.

Distance: 3.01 miles | Time: 26:10 | 1: 8:49 | 2: 8:52 | 3: 8:25 | 4: 00:02

Day 24 | Wednesday, July 8: Rest

I felt frustrated (and sorry for myself) since the moment I woke up on Wednesday, so I took the night off to relax.

Day 25 | Thursday, July 9: Run 6 miles

Six nice easy miles, at a comfortable “conversational” pace – check!

Distance: 6.00 miles | Time: 57:01 | 1: 9:25 | 2: 9:29 | 3: 9:47 | 4: 9:35 | 5: 9:24 | 6: 9:19

Day 26 | Friday, July 10: Run 3 miles

Three hot, accidentally race pace, PISSED OFF miles.

The two highlights (low-lights?) of this run both involved kids getting into my way ON PURPOSE. I wish I was imagining this, but their actions were obviously intentional.

The first time I was on the loop around our neighborhood park. I saw two kids on one motorized bike coming my way so I got over to the right edge of the path. They started swerving back and forth and back and forth over the path, crossing dangerously close to me before quickly swerving out of my way. The kid driving gave me a malicious look. I think it is the same kid getting in the way of cars on the street two weeks ago. What the heck?

The second time, I saw a kid dribbling a ball in the sidewalk, so again, I got over in the right edge to get away from him. When I got near him, he made eye contact with me, then he dribbled the ball in front of me and I had to stop and jump into the grass. What the heck?

Parents, anyone, reading this, what should I do? I doubt it is worth saying anything to these kids, but it is seriously frustrating me. These are not young awkward kids trying to figure out sidewalk etiquette. They are being little sh*ts on purpose. Maybe I should just stick to the early morning hours before the terrors get out of bed. Or try REALLY hard to ignore it.

Distance: 3.00 miles | Time: 26:34 | 1: 8:54 | 2: 8:56 | 3: 8:40 | 4: 00:02

Day 27 | Saturday, July 11: Run 6 miles at marathon pace

I set my regular alarm for 6:00, but had to rely on my kitty-cat alarm clock to wake me up at 7:30. Thanks Data! (Funny thing is, he started waking me up at 5:30 on Sunday. He’s a kind of unreliable alarm clock!)

Look! A talking shoe!

It was cloudy when I got to the park, so I was excited, thinking I wouldn’t be running in the sun. That quickly changed though! I got really hot right away. I was too lazy to put my hydration belt on, and ended up stopping at the car THREE TIMES for water. Yikes. I need to wear the belt next time!

The deceiving skies…

… quickly turned to sun!

I took a photo of my awesome bruised wrist to share with you all. I look forward to running as one of the few hours of the day when I don’t have to wear the stupid splint and wrap.

Pace runs make me so nervous and stressed out. I feel like I am constantly looking at the Garmin to keep on track. I feel guilty if my pace goes up at all. I much prefer the method we used for the half marathon – just putting the miles in, at ANY pace. I know this is the way to becoming a better runner though!

Distance: 6.00 miles | Time: 53:15 | 1: 8:55 | 2: 8:52 | 3: 8:57 | 4: 8:49 | 5: 8:55 | 6: 8:40 | 7: 00:03

Day 28 | Saturday, July 12: Run 11 miles

I found a new out-and-back trail to try near our house, but was concerned about getting too far out on the trail away from a toilet. The park by our house has a loop that goes by three separate toilet facilities (!!!) but I am getting kind of sick of running there. When I told Steven my dilemma, he suggested I run to the park by our house, then do a few loops there, to change things up a bit. I have always been a bit nervous about running on the shoulder of the street (especially with a 55 mph speed limit!), but it went well, and it was fun to run somewhere different for the first and last 2 miles.

Not driving there created another dilemma though – I couldn’t bring extra water. My hydration belt (this one) only holds maybe… 16 ounces total? And it LEAKS. I was definitely dehydrated today. I have been looking for a belt that holds more water, or a hand held water bottle, or maybe even a camelbak. Actually, I am really interested in camelbak, but worried about my back getting all sweaty and gross. What do you like to use for hydration? Have any of you used a camelbak?

Edited to add: My brother-in-law was disappointed that I didn’t mention I tripped over him and five of his friends on my way out the door that morning. So… Andrew (my BiL) was in town with his friends for a Cubs game on Saturday and the Brewers game on Sunday, and they all stayed at our house. It was fun seeing him and his friends, and finding spots for all of them to stay (three couches, one bed, one air mattress, and one sleeping bag!). Data enjoyed sleeping on their dirty sheets after they left. Ew Data, ew.

Distance: 11.00 miles | Time: 1:49:58 | 1: 9:42 | 2: 9:38 | 3: 10:24| 4: 10:08 | 5: 10:09 | 6: 10:03 | 7: 9:58 | 8: 9:46 | 9: 9:56 |10: 10:08 | 11: 9:59

Week Summary: 29 Miles

I seem to have fallen prey to the “I can eat anything I want, I am training for a marathon” mentality. Well, if that were true, would my jeans be this tight? My diet has been disappointingly junky lately, and feeling restricted by my wrist and moody all week surely didn’t help. I get through my runs just fine, but know I could perform better if I ate better, and lost a few pounds. I haven’t mentioned it, but I took my weight loss tracker off the site awhile ago, and stopped weighing myself. I didn’t want that to be a focus during training. I want my focus to be on feeling healthy. I’ll get there.

The end of week 4 means I am 25% through the training program! The marathon will be here before I know it! I just found out you can track the racers online during the race, so I will make sure to post all of that info closer to the actual date.

Comments (15)

By kilax, February 22, 2009 8:04 am

(See previous versions of Data’s World on the “Photos” page – 1, 2, 3 and 4.)

Data’s been a little sh!tbox since we arrive home from Colorado on Monday.

We walked in the door and he didn’t even say hello. Now, I know this is typical for many cats, but not for Data. He is always purry and happy to see us when we get home (i.e. he wants to be fed).

Since then, he’s been running around like he OWNS the house. Like we just happen to be people who stay here from time to time.

Every night, he waits until I am walking away from him, then he runs up behind me and jumps on my bare legs to bite me.

On Friday night, I was laying in the bed taking photos of Steven’s awesome bruises (that’s just how weird I am), when Data jumped up onto the bed, bit my arm, then grabbed the camera cord with his teeth and ran away with it. I had to laugh, but also wondered what his deal was. And of course, this was after he got in trouble for getting into Steven’s closet and knocking everything down off of his shelves.

And as always, he always wants me to be awake. Besides waking me up early in the morning, he tries to wake me up even if I am taking a nap. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have the free time to take a nap, but couldn’t enjoy it, because someone (not Steven) was purring and meowing in my ear the whole time.

Conclusion: My neighbors are too nice. They visited Data at least 5 times while we were gone for 4 days. THEY are the ones spoiling him. (Ha ha).

No, really. We always miss Data when we travel and look forward to how sweet he is when we come home (sweet because he misses us so much). But now that people are coming over to take care of him, it’s not such a big deal for him anymore. I am happy our neighbors are generous enough to come over and fed him, play with him, leave us notes about how he was doing.. and leave us cookies too! I just need to understand that he won’t be as sweet when we get home, because he wasn’t as lonely.

And yeah, and probably wouldn’t kill me to play with him a bit more each night so he isn’t runing up after me and attacking  me, in his attempt to play.