My Journey to 13.1 or From Couch Potato to 20 K

Rough Going

Progress has definatly been slowed as over the past month and a half I've had bronchitis, a sinus infection, and an ear infection. All. At. Once. I had to take three weeks off from running, but was able to hack (pun intended) some swimming.

Last Saturday, though, I was able to get out. And get out I did. I managed to do three miles on the Ohio River Greenway along the (wait for it) Ohio River. There's a paved walking path that runs along the top of the levee for a few miles and it's got a great view of the city on the other side of the river. It was the first chance I'd had to try out my fancy new running shoes. I'd invested some money in a pair of Nike Lunar Glides. It's the first pair of real running shoes I've bought and I was impressed. While the fancy insoles that the salesgirl talked me into caused me to roll my ankles out (yikes!), the shoes were like running on pillows.

On Tuesday I got back to the Y and had a great run, I did 2.8 miles on the treadmill, and with the insoles removed, my shoes performed beautifully. Wednesday had me feeling a little bit sluggish and I only got 2 miles in. And, unfortunately, Thursday had me feeling in not a running kind of way. Today it was apparent why. I'm sick. Again. This will make the third time since Christmas and it's got me bummed.  I'm hoping it's just a mild crud, but that's not the way these things have gone for me.

On the upside, I have a shorter term goal to work for, the Run For Your Lives5K in Indy on June 23rd. It's a 5K obstical course race complete with zombies! Check it out here: Run For Your Lives.

 

280 days 'till Memphis.

A Boring Update

Things have been going well, I'm lucky to have been blessed with a body that responds very well to exercise. I've gone from a 1.3 mile half hour to a 1.9 mile half hour, my blood pressure has gone down, and my working heart rate has gone down. And? The best part? I've lost 5 pounds. The downside is that I plateau very quickly, so I have to keep thing mixed up. Maybe I have more of my dad's athlete genes than I had originally thought.

This weekend has been a bummer, though. I have bronchitis. Again. This has slowed me down, some. I powered through a fast walk yesterday but had to skip today. Sitting in the not-so-urgent care clinic for three hours was all I could handle. Hopefully I will be able to manage some swimming tomorrow, and get that in before the curtain climbers descend on the pool.

I'm getting a decent tax return, so I have the "new shoes" thing in the bag. I guess being poor has its benefits.

Only 306 days to go.

 

My Journey to 13.1

I've been absent from my blog for around a year, and a lot has happened. I left Indianapolis (good riddance), moved back to the Louisville area, found a guy, lost a guy, and discovered I was intrinsically unhappy. This wasn't really a big surprise, but I'd done a good job of distracting myself and coasting along on life's highs, instead of being really happy. I guess I'd convinced myself that I was happy without really being happy. As much as I hate to credit him with anything, I have to give the last dumper (let's call him "Dumper") credit for kicking off this journey of self discovery.

In short, it's time to find out what really makes me happy.

The easiest and most obvious thing to fix was my decent into couchpotatodom. Enter my old friend, running. The local Y was running a January "no fee to join" special, it was time to take the first step. Saturday I signed up and immediately jumped on the treadmill. My first jaunt was unimpressive, at best. Fortunately I have been gifted with a body that responds incredibly well to exercise. Five runs later I've improved my distance by a half mile, my heart rate has slowed, and I'm running at longer intervals. I've added a pre run lap swim to my regime and that has actually seemed to improve my runs. Plus, the therapy pool is awesome for stretching. I've also seen an improvement in my mood and a drop in anxiety. Runner's high, indeed!

Today I set a goal, I'd like to run the St. Jude  half marathon in Memphis in December. That's 20 Kilometers, or 13.1 miles. I have 317 days to get it together.

I'm going to need some new shoes. 

I Can't Feel My Toes, Mommy

It's been a long few weeks. As is tradition, my asthma and allergies have exploded. It's ragweed season and it's been a warm fall, so while I'm not deathly ill like last Fall, it's not been fun. Things should turn around this week, though. Tonight we're supposed to get a good frost. Like a below freezing, bring the plants and small children in kind of frost. My lungs and sinuses are rejoicing. I'm happy, Winter is my favorite time of year and it's on it's way!

And, yet, there is a reason to NOT celebrate. Around six o'clock tonight I decided it was a bit nippy in the house so I decided it was time to switch on the heat. The thermostat said 60 degrees, it was chilly. I switched on the heat, waiting for the click and the rush of air from the vents. I got nothing. I turned the thermostat up to 75. Nothing. I turned the switch on and off. Nothing. I turned on the air conditioning, turned it down to 50 and waitied. Whoosh! I was rewarded with a rush of cool air. I turned the switch to heat and was again plunged into silence. I trudged down the basement stairs and stared down the furnace. The stove was on, so the gas was working. I switched a switch on and off. Or off and on. Nothing. I stared at the old-fashioned fuse that was plugged in above the mysterious switch. Nothing. I poked it. Nothing. I went upstairs and gave the landlady a buzz.

She returned my call an hour later, came over, stared down the unit, and called her furnace guy. The furnace guy showed up, landlady in tow. After some banging and clanging they gave me the bad news. The furnace needed a part. A part that could not be obtained at 8:30 at night.

They wished me well and got the hell out of my icebox.

I survived five days in Louisville without heat after a January ice storm knocked out the power, but that was in a new house. A house with new windows and carpet. I suspect my drafty, wood floored apartment will not fare as well.

 

Send blankets.

 

So Maybe it is Rocket Surgery, Vern

There's nothing worse than finding out you're NOT totally rocking your $8.50 an hour job. Nothing.

My background with performance reviews is a little sketchy, as, for the five years I was a paramedic at Harrison County EMS, I didn't once get a review that I hadn't done myself.  As our raises weren't merit based, no one took the reviews seriously. The supervisors had, them, taken to handing us a blank review and telling us to fill it in ourselves. This was really good for my ego as I was consitantly above average. On everything.There was nothing I couldn't do better than my co-workers. My ambulance was cleaner, my patients were more satisfied, I was altogether a better life saver than the average medic.  I don't remember getting a review at Rural/Metro and you'd think that ambulance services, whose employees have precious lives in their hands,  would take quality control a little more seriously. And as I was the only manager at Wendy's that wasn't a failed piss test waiting to happen, I rocked. So, it came as a huge suprise that I didn't so much rock. I am above average on absolutely nothing. I was left to imagine that a poop flinging monkey could run a cash register better than I could.

It's performance review time at The Bakery. This means that the management is walking around with stacks of confidential paperwork and pulling us aside for chats in the dining room. My number came up yesterday afternoon, after the shift from Hell. Fortunately the reviews were drawn up ahead of time and not on the spot as the management was, at best, feeling kind of frazzled. Of course, this could have worked in my favor as I had stayed, without complaint, an hour and a half past the end of my shift. Plus, I'd like to think I worked my ass off. I'm a team player, oh yes!

So, on to the review. It's puzzling to find that things you thought you'd been doing so well, you're not really exceeding at. I apparently fall short in the friendly and perky department. I don't meet The Bakery's standards for smiling and remembering regualer customers' names. This is, quite possibly, not a big suprise. I did think, however, that I was kicking ass in the busy work area. But, strangely I'm not. My constant, obsessive compulsive driven, wiping and tidying is not enough. It's possible, though, that these standards which they have set are not set on a relative comparison but rather are truly set to some unreachable standard. Perhaps everyone else I work with sucks and I just happen to suck a little bit less. I'll go with that. Yes, I suck less than anyone else that works at The Bakery. Maybe, in six months, I can lookforward to, again, rocking the mediocracy.

The Internet is a Big Black Hole of Time Suck

 

I'm supposed to be working on a project for my nutrition class. I cannot express my dislike for this project. These are the things I'd rather be doing than working on my project (in no particular order):

1. Cleaning the cat litter box. I don't call him Stinky for no reason.

2. Cleaning the bathtub. Those of you who were privy to my cleaning lady experiment know how much I dispise this.

3. Cleaning the kitchen floor. Again with the cleaning ladies.

4. Cleaning out my car. I'd take it to the detailing place down the street, but as my passenger's side door doesn't open as a result of being t-boned by a distracted driver I'm hesitant to do this. Plus, it seems lazy and I'm poor.

5. Vacuuming my area rugs.

6. Sweeping the cat hair tumbleweeds out of the corners.

7. Cleaning the toilet.

8. I already did the dishes.

9. Taking out the trash.

 

On the upside, I'd also rather create a blog post, watch Dateline on ID, and, of course, surf the web. My list of entertaining websites is long and distinguished. I thought I'd share a few.

 

In no particular order (because ordering them would be too much like homework):

 

1. Jen Lancaster's blog at Jennsylvania

2. Allie Brosh's blog at Hyperbole and a Half

3. Natalie Dee's cartoons at Natalie Dee

4. Cakewrecks

5. I Can Has Cheezburger

6. Twitter

7. Facebook

8. LouisvilleMojo

9. Amazon

10. 11 Points

11.  People of WalMart

12. Think Geek

13. Exploding Dog

14. Williams-Sonoma

15. 27b/6

16. Things My Girlfriend and I Fight About

17. Awkward Family Photos

18. The "Very Serious" Forums

19. Puns

20. Bored at Work

21. Look at That F'ing Hippster (NSFW)

22. M thru F

23. Lovely Listing

24. Engrish

25. Hacked IRL

26. Threadless T-shirts

27. Woot

28. Pink Cake Box

29. Food vs. Face

30. Sephora

31. Hockey Fights

32. Typepad

33. NASA

34. Awkward Family Pet Photos

35. Hubble Site

36. Rotten

37. Food

38. Food Geeks

39. Daily Squee

40. EPBot

 

See what I'm up against? And the list only grows. It should also be noted that this list doesn't include things that are majorly embaressing or just plain inappropriate.

 

To the sites I've just sent traffic to, you're welcome.

 

Back to the paper.

 

Look What I've Done with the Place!

I woke up this morning and found this in the kitchen:

 

I put the toaster away, but it did little to improve on the situation.  The pile of The Bakery leftovers in the corner needs to be attended to and  there's a tea bag float ing in that coffee cup.The obsessive cleaner in me was horrified, the denier in me wanted to ignore it some more. I gave over to the cleaner and tackled the mountain of scuzz.

 

In other news, I love my whistling teapot:

My living room:

(That's a pile of cat toys by the couch)

My roommate:
(He does have a nasty habit of playing in the toilet, leaving wet paw prints on the seat)

And my CLEAN kitchen:

 The dining room is, however, a work in progress:

Needed: Dining room set and book cases, I have nowhere to put those boxes of books. On the other hand, the liquor store boxes do make for some original decor.

It Ain't Rocket Science, Vern

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I think the lack of stimulation in my life made me unbearably boring, at least to myself. I started a job (finally!) in July and I've been plugging away at it since then. I've started as a slightly-more-than-minimum-wage cashier at a restaurant that I'll call "The Bakery." This is to protect me from the people I work with, and for. It's been a good time, not having any real responsibility is kind of freeing, in a way. Of course, with no responsibility comes little pay.  Are the cookies stacked evenly? Yup! Are the boxes stocked? Yup! Is the coffee hot and fresh? Of course. No one dies, no one gets hurt. Well, except when my hand slips while cutting a bagel, or my pre-no slip shoes phase. While the dour black New Balance shoes won't light the fashion world on fire, they do keep my ass (and face) off of the ground. That's a bonus.

The people I work with are fun, the people I work for seem to treat the grunts well. The pay's above minimum wage (when did minimum wage enter my vocabulary?) and I even got a bit of health insurance. I'm re-learning customer service, and then remembering why I've kept away all these years. For the most part, The Bakery is located in an upscale end of town, so most of the customers are well heeled, but have mastered the art of eccentric. One gentleman requested a loaf of sourdough bread without any holes in it. Really? "No holes?" I said. "Yep. No holes," he insisted. No holes. No. Holes."Well, I can't...'" I trailed off. Then I smiled and nodded my head, "No holes!"

 

I hope I was right.

 

The Awfulness Never Ends

So, wow, I checked my page statistics and I'm getting, on average, one and a half views a day. So, good job family and friends. Spread the word!

So I'm reading the book What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell.This is exactly the sort of reading I enjoy. It's a collection of his writings for the New Yorker. Each chapter that you read makes you feel a little bit smarter, or at least a little bit more prepared for Jeopardy. He has a chapter in the book that talks about why people "choke." As in freeze up, lose their composure, and eventually lose at what they're doing. This brings me to Last Friday's speech. Choke. O'. Rama. I had done well during my usual practice sessions, but the minute I stepped up to the podium, it was pandemonium. My note cards were written in Japanese, my visual aids were cumbersome, at best, and, at worst, messy. A bowl of rice is not easy to manage when your hands are suddenly not your own. I suspect I was talking too loudly and way too fast. The subject of my speech was "Microchipping Your Pet," something I know enough about, anyways. I surely could have faked it, but even with all the information at hand, I choked. Cue the uncontrollable giggling and mumbling under my breath ("Who wrote these notes?"). Fortunately my instructor decided not to record this set of speeches. Like most bedroom activities, this was best kept off film. 

This speech class seems to be good material for my blog and I'll be a tad sad when it ends. Plus, my instructor (who can apply eyeliner better than I could ever dream of) is wildly entertaining. After this class, it'll be nearly 100% dour, science and math professors. I'll have to find a new source of entertainment.

Get Away!

My favorite quote of the moment: "She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short." --Brian Andreas in Storypeople. Mr. Andreas is an author, but moreso a unique artist. His work can be found on Storypeople.com.

Tax refund time has come and I'm planning an adventure, maybe it's not the sane thing to do, but sometimes you just need to look out your window and see something else. A change of landscape, if you will. Spring Break is coming up and I was on the prowl, not so much for a destination, but for cheap airfare. The destination was incidental to the cheap tickets. My search took me to Denver, Colorado. $107 each way, nonstop, even. "By yourself?" My  mom drilled. "Yes." "What will you do there?" my dad asked. "I dunno, see stuff," Was my answer. "Like what?" "I don't know. I know the Denver Mint is there and a few stadiums, and...oh yeah, the mountains. Maybe I just want to know that I can walk to the window and see something else." Anyone that lives in Central Indiana knows the scenery doesn't change much. It's a corn 'n' beans/snow rotation. The ground is so flat you can see the horizon in places. While there are places less like Central Indiana than Colorado, the price is right. I haven't booked a hotel room yet, but the price seems right there, too.

Suggestions on sightseeing are welcome.