Step Away From the Cake

I was attacked!!! It's true - attacked!!! I could not believe it!!!!! I ran through the backroads of Waimanalo. These are literally country roads with no sidewalk/shoulder and very little traffic. In this picture they are the roads you see along the base of the mountains. This area is agricultural land, lots of flower farms, horses, and dogs. Well, this area also has lots of loose chickens. I'm running down this road when a hen and her 4 chicks are trying to cross the road except 1 chick won't leave the bush at the side of the road. The hen keeps running back trying to get this chick while the other chicks stand in the middle of the road. I'm running towards her watching this and wondering how she's going to get everyone out of the my way. She is starting to get frantic, running back and forth between the 3 chicks and the 1 chick. Finally, I'm about 20 feet away, when she suddenly spreads her wings, sweeps the 3 chicks into the bush with the other 1 and comes af

Today was run day, and I did, in the heat. My little thingy says the temp is 76 right now, bull. It's got to be in the low 80's already and it's only 9 a.m. Anywhoo. Last night both hubby and I got home late from work and didn't feel like cooking so we went out to Outback Steakhouse. Hubby had never been there and had to order a blooming onion. While I love those things, I hate them!!!!! So we had a couple of beers and dinner and chatted and it was really nice. Once we got home I realized I had drank a little more beer than I thought and I was buzzing. So off we went to bed to try and sleep it off, I had a long run in the morning. I got up around 4:30 and realized I was not in great shape, uh oh!!! Went back to bed to try and catch some more zzzz's. Finally around 6:30 I got out of bed and really didn't feel so hot. Considered blowing off the run but said to myself, "self, no way!! You are going to run." So after coffee and something light to eat I dra

I have to cover this cause it's been on my mind a lot , you'll see why. A couple of days ago, IronBenny did a great post on his wife, Nytro , and hormone issues (both of whom have excellent blogs btw). Anyway, this is something I deal with every month, not to Nytro's extent, but a lot. When I woke up this morning and felt that dull ache in my lower abdomen I wanted to scream!!! This whole monthly cycle is really becoming a huge issue for me and I'm not sure why. I have always taken my period in stride and it's never slowed me down, but the last 1-2 years has been increasingly worse. The whole month revolves around it and it's pissing me off. During I get pretty severe cramps. My doctor told me to take ibuprofen, this actually stops the hormone and makes the period lighter and shorter. That does work, great! Except.... After taking ibuprofen regularly for 3-4 days as soon as I stop I get rebound headaches - really bad, for 2 days. That sucks. The week after is my

one day after my claiming how it was getting easier to get up in the morning, I didn't :( It's okay though. I actually scheduled my week to allow either Thurs or Fri off, my choice each week. For some unknown reason Thursdays are really hard for me to get up. Fridays I bounce out of bed, but Thurs, eh not so much. I was up really late last night too (at least for me). There was the 2 hour American Idol finale (yeah, Soul Patrol) and the 2 hour Lost finale, both of which I had to watch. AI was good but I think 2 hours is an hour too long. It would have been awesome if it was 1 hour. Clay Aiken was freaky looking (both of them) and that whole thing was just weird. Prince was, well, Prince. He is a freak but a great singer/songwriter and there is something bizarrely attractive about him. But it was okay and I'm glad Taylor won. I got online early (4 p.m. my time) to try and find the results and I have to say folks on the boards were really good this time. I could not find the

I know, that's a little boastful but I'm extremely pleased with myself. Since I have no trouble beating myself up when I'm down, I decided to really pat myself on the back for doing good. Please feel free to skip this since it is a bunch of "I'm so wonderful." It feels great to be back. I'm back to the point where workouts are not a problem. Sure, I'd still like to stay in bed in the morning, but getting up is not that huge an issue. This morning was swimming and running. I went to the pool and did 500m in 250m splits: 6:46 and 6:30. That's about 2:50 per 100m, not too shabby. I need to get to about 2:30 but I have some time yet. After that I went for a run. Now my Y is located in a totally cool place. It's located right next to Ulupo Heiau, that's an ancient Hawaiian temple. It's a very cool place and if you are spiritual at all you definitely get a feeling that this place has power. Thankfully, this was not a temple where humans were

I came up with a great title for this post. Now I can't remember it!!! It's a bitch getting old I tell you. Got up this morning and did some weights then jumped on my bike. Woo Hooo!!!! I've decided to add weights back into the mix since 1) I'm female, 2) I'm female over 40, 3) I want to lose fat not muscle, 4) I'm totally vain and love the way my arms look when I lift weights. So I was up before the sun (but just barely, it comes up so early now :) and lifted some weights. Then I hoped on my trusty stead and headed out on the road. It was cold again this morning, though not quite as cold as the other day, and since I was only doing 10 miles, I figured I could wear my long running pants and a long sleeve shirt to ride. The shirt was fine and kept me nice and toasty. The pants, ehhh, not so good. Bike shorts are called that for a reason and I will respect that reason from now on. Anyway, I was a little short on time so I only got in 8.7 miles in 42 minutes - not

You know that commercial from Nissan (I think); Shift attitude, expectations, assumptions. Well, I think I've managed to do that; Shirt Attitude!!!!!!! It was a great weekend. I got all scheduled training in - Yeah!!!! A run on Saturday; a bike ride on Sunday; swim and run this morning. I'm smoking!!!! I came to some realizations: I can't use my HRM as the only indicator of how I'm training. Over the weekend I got: Just a quick aside here. I ordered this book used from Amazon.com about 2 1/2 months ago. I waited patiently but never received it. I e-mailed the seller 3 times and she never responded. Finally, I filed a claim with Amazon.com and with 10 days I had my money back. Just thought you'd like to know. So I got this and started reading it and a couple of things dawned on me. A) This book is not for me, at least not yet. B) Friel supported my contention that HRM's are not the be all and end all of training. C) This book will come in very handy next year wh