My RUN in with the law

So, this blog doesn't actually have anything to do with running, except for the fact that I'm no longer a good citizen in the eyes of the City of Albuquerque. Awhile ago I received a parking ticket for staying too long in a 30-minute loading zone. I forgot about this $20 ticket until a warrant for my dad's arrest came in the mail on Tuesday. (My car is registered under his name...) Seeing the warrant reminds me of two other tickets I received when Kenny was in town. We went out to lunch and then to see a movie and I completely forgot about my car parked in front of the office.

It was all my fault, I should have just parked in the parking structure, but I remember being very busy and going from interview to interview that day, so I parked in the convenient location instead. That's my excuse anyway.

Ok, so apparently if you don't pay your ticket within 15 days the price triples and you get the nice warrant. Well, with three tickets, all tripled in price, the total amount I owe the lovely City of 'Burque is $180. SO STUPID. I actually went to the parking ticket office and tried to get out of paying it because i was only a day - ONE DAY - late, and they wouldn't even budge. They shooed me away and told me to go to Metropolitan Court.

I go to the court and have to circle around about three times before I realize there's no place to park. I finally find a structure and the rent-a-cop there tells me I have to pay to park there. I tell him I'm not paying anymore money for parking. He says to park down the road on a residential. Lucky for me, all the residential parking places have the "Do Not Park Between 9am-5pm" signs. I finally find a place about 3 blocks down. I rush into the building with about 15 minutes to spare before they close and I'm greeted with X-Ray machines and another rent-a-cop (he may have been a real police though because I saw a nice gun on his hip). The 'cop' looks in my purse and tells me I can't take my cell phone in. I tell him 'fine, I'll leave it up here with you.' He says 'no, you can take it back to your car.' I explain to him that my car is three blocks down and I don't have time. Then he tells me that I can leave it with the hot dog man right down the street. Umm....hmmmm... NO!!!

I got mad and stormed out of the court, getting a little bruise on my hand because of how I slammed the door. I was furious - mostly at myself for not paying the stupid tickets as soon as I got them - but also for how the system is. I'm a good citizen and now I owe the city how much money just because i parked in one spot a little longer than I should have?

My gosh! I think the police and the city need better things to do with their time than walk around putting little yellow envelopes on people's cars...how about they go and
bust more paraplegic pot smokers. Real good use of their time.

Anyway, I took my frustration to Cake Fetish and threw $20 down the drain at Sandia Casino (I was feeling lucky enough to win back my $180!!) and called it a day.

....I didn't go running today, instead I cleaned my room and put up my new bed frame. Tomorrow the running will commence.

TERRIFIC TEN

Ten miles. No sweat (figuratively speaking of course...there was mucho perspiration going on this morning). Seriously though, this is the best I've felt running, especially for a long run. No pain, no huffing and puffing, didn't stop sweating and didn't get the chills, this was running! I saw three rabbits, two lizzards, a man running with only one arm, two hot air balloons, the smell of cereal being made at the Kellog factory (mmm...I really wanted come cereal!!)...I think I'm finally figuring this thing out!! I know it sounds silly, but it really didn't seem that far. I even came in a little under my 15 minute mile pace - woo hoo!!!

I think drinking more water throughout last week really helped, so I need to keep it up. I am pooped right now though. I could stay on this couch and sleep the day away, but I think I'm going to get up and go get some grub...I'm hungry.

:) I'm almost there...only 1 month and 25 days. I can so do this!!

....If you haven't yet (whoever's reading this), tell your friends and family about my blog and TNT website. I only need a little under $1,000!!!

Thanks for reading :)

I love my job

I do. I love my job. It's fantastic. I actually look forward to coming into work everyday. Even on days when I have to wake up early to do something I love it because I know I'm interviewing someone interesting, or doing something exciting. It's great.

Great. Great. Great. Fantasgreat even. Yes, I know that isn't a real word.

I lied yesterday when I said I'm not running less than 3 miles. I only ran two today because i didn't think I'd have time to get to my interview. Turns out I would've had time do get three in... darn. Maybe, just maybe, I'll go to the gym this afternoon. I highly doubt it though.

Time to get working!!!

mental 3

I think I stopped mentioning how far I was going on my weekday runs. I'm sticking to the magic number of 3 these days. I think I'm supposed to be up to 4 miles during the week, but I just can't get myself up that early... maybe tomorrow?

Today was hard. Really had. I don't really know why, all i know is that I was ready to quit about a half mile in. I took way too many walk breaks and wanted to turn around and go back. It was a mental run for sure. I pushed through whatever strange wall was in front of me and completed my three miles only 3 minutes past the ETA I gave my mom (she drives out and picks me up..how nice of her!).

This Sunday is another 10 miler. I'm working on drinking more water. As of 11:32am I've had 32 ounces. My goal is 100 ounces. I'm not getting nearly enough water during the day/week, so I'm going to try really hard to drink more h2o.

In other news, the new issue of the magazine is out. The new pic isn't online, so as soon as it is I'll put a link up to it.

That's all for now.

stinky

Running 8 miles makes you stink. I wonder why God made sweat smell the way it does. Couldn't he have made it smell like flowers, or rain? That way people would actually want to work out all the time? I'm telling you right now - I don't even want to be near me. I'm too lazy to actually get up and go take a shower (once I sit down after a run, i'm here for awhile).

Oh! It turns out I'm a "salty" sweater. Interesting. That means I actually have to eat more salt and drink A LOT more water throughout the week. It's good that I'm finding this all out now. What else? I can now say that I've ran from Tramway and Central to Tramway and Paseo del Norte. yikes.

I am so ready for a nap right now. I'm actually typing this with my head on the floor...mmmm sleep. I can't thought because I have to go shower. Like now. I'm doing the wine tasting fundraiser this afternoon...I really hope people show up. I know it's a little out of the way, but it's WINE!!! I made out really well with my Coaches fundraiser on Wednesday. On Friday I picked up a $250 check from them...SWEET!!!! I'm just barely at $1000 left to go. I hope I can do it.

Ok...it's seriously time for a shower.

guilt

I feel bad. I didn't go running this morning. I was up late last night from the fundraiser at Coaches (thank you to everyone who went - I should find out how much I made on Friday afternoon!!!), and didn't get to bed till about midnight. Combine that with drinking (I wasn't consuming water) and you have me sleeping through my alarm this morning. I really need to get back on track. Tomorrow. I will start tomorrow (can't tonight, going out to dinner for work).

Tomorrow.

Long time no talk. sorry

I decided to take this past weekend off because I had friends in town from college, and my boyfriend came in for several days. I figured one weekend off wouldn't completely kill my training. I did three miles last Thursday and two yesterday, for those of you keeping count.

Tonight is my fundraiser at Coaches, I really hope it goes well. A pretty fair amount of people have said they're going to come by, so I hope they do! I had a few rants I wanted to talk about, but I'm kinda sleepy and just don't have the energy (three enchiladas, beans, papitas, green chile and sopaipillas will make you a little groggy). I actually just made the statement that I wish I could marry green chile. That's how much I love it. Mmmmm.

Anyway. I'll go off on my rant about garage sales some other time. Yes, I said garage sales.

on the run

Ten miles. TEN miles. I ran 10 miles yesterday. Sure, I can feel muscles in my thighs, my arms and my back today, but it’s a good feeling. Sure, I wanted to turn on Paseo and skip out on three miles, but I didn’t. It feels good to accomplish something. I really wish I was faster, but the fact that I’m getting out there and doing this overcomes my longing to not be at the end of the pack. I’m going to have no problem running this in San Francisco. It kinda makes me want to try for the full marathon…kinda…

Yesterday was interesting though. Not only did we start running with 85% humidity - attractive, let me tell you - but around mile 6 or 7 I started getting chills while I was running and I stopped sweating. I looked it up (and from what people told me yesterday) is that I was probably dehydrated. From all the sweat I sweated out the first few miles, i probably should have had more to drink throughout the run. Not only that, but apparently there are sweaters, and then 'salty' sweaters. I may be on the verge of a salty sweater which means I should drink more sports drink type drinks while I run. .....SSOOoooo much to think about while running!

Two months and 15 days till race day. Heh. Race day. That’s a funny concept because I’m not racing I’m just running.

OOOooooo!!!! EXCITING news regarding fundraising: Wine Tasting on Sunday, August 19, from 2pm-6pm at Anasazi Fields Winery. We’re asking for a donation of $10 (more is ALWAYS accepted!) and that includes a wine tasting and appetizers. AND there will also be a raffle for several gift certificates to places around the city: $75 to Scalo’s, $50 to La Provence, $30 to Il Vicino, $25 to Bumble Bee's Baja Grill, a free yoga class, a four pack of sundaes at I Scream Ice Cream, just to name a few. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Send me your e-mail if you want me to send you an invitation (you don’t need an invitation to go, but it’s fun to get in your e-mail!

So, I’ve got two fundraisers coming up. Wine Tasting (August 19, from 2pm-6pm) and Coaches Sports Grill (August 15, from 6pm-9pm). Both are a fantastic way to fundraise because not only are you helping me reach my goal, but you’re getting food, wine, goodies and hanging out with people!

lost

No motivation.

A little recap

I forgot to blog the last few days so I'll be brief. On Tuesday I logged in my two miles and felt fantastic afterwards. Better than fantastic even, I was energetic and just generally felt good. The good times lasted until I went to a tequila tasting at the Rancher's Club in the Hilton for lunch. Then the good feelings were replaced with being stuffed with too much ridiculously good food...and a slight buzz. Free tequila and free delicious food? Yes, please!

So that was my Tuesday.

Wednesday I had "off" and I was going to do yoga, but I forgot to bring my stuff with me, so yoga went on without me. Last night Natalie came over and helped me make baked goodies for my bake sale on Saturday. My house smelled like chocolate chip cookies and funfetti cupcakes. I'll admit that I ate some of the dough/batter. It was tasty!!!! I even managed to make them taste good despite the fact that I forgot, half way through, that I needed to adjust for the high altitude here. Natalie, Kenny (via the phone) and my Mom talked me through it though.

That was my Wednesday.

This morning I woke up at six, put on my shoes and hit the road. It turns out that it takes a good mile to a mile and a half before my lower legs aren't tight. After that, it's all good. The humidity is driving me up a wall though! Silly Albuquerque monsoons.

After work today I'm meeting my mom and my cousin Maria Elena to go a women's football clinic at UNM. Yes, I'm going to a LOBO function. Don't worry Aggies, I plan on using the free shirt they give me to clean my very dirty car...I"ll take pictures. At this little function there will be free beer, wine and food. As an Aggie, I know that we don't ever, EVER, turn down free alcohol. Therefor, I will "drink it to the Aggies till I wobble in my shoes..."

....sorry about all the running talk, I'm sure it gets boring for my two loyal readers. I'll try to be more clever in the future!

Back on course

Yesterday I got up with the pain still taking over my lower inner left leg. I went to meet the TNT group with the intention of running only a little bit of the 6 mile half marathon run. My plans changed when me and my new running buddy, Terri, started on our way.

I'm happy to say that we did the run/walk just as the rest of the group did. After about 2 miles, my legs both completely stopped hurting. She is amazing to run with, we sometimes would run over our 4 minute mark and end up running for about 5 minutes. Not only was she motivating, but she is fantastic about diverting attention from the run, and pain, and the heat to other things such as: What are you thankful for? What makes you smile? What do you see? It was great.

Not only did it feel fantastic to run again, but the view from where we ran was gorgeous. I almost wish I could have done the full marathon run just so I could see more of the city. I could see the all the way from the Rio Grande to the Sandias. On Sunday mornings it almost looks like the city is holding its breath is it waits for the sun to peak over the mountains and come through the clouds. Everything seems fresh and alive. I love it.

Speaking of fresh, if you like blueberries make your way to CostCo. They have some of the sweetest, plumpest and best tasting blueberries I've ever had. MMmmm I put them in my cereal today. Delicious!

During the run we started talking about the problem with celebrities these days (among other topics). This one got to me because these young adults (Lindsay and Paris) are role models for girls whether they like it or not. If they don't have any consequences for the stupid things they're doing, how will teenagers know that drunk driving and using drugs is NOT ok??? They won't. They'll see that they can get away with it at least one time with nothing happening to them. I feel very passionate about this and I kinda wish there was a way I could do something about it. There has to be something done about the fact that there are people driving around right now who've been convicted of DUI's at least 20 times (or read it here from the ABQ Journal). Come on!!! That's just ridiculous.

....I think that's the most I can do for that rant for now.

**Keep August 15, between 6-9pm open...there is a tentative fundraiser at Coaches Sports Grill!!!

today's horoscope for ME

The mere fact that I write horoscopes makes me not believe them, but I still like to read them and get entertained with something when it actually pertains to my life. Take this one from this week's Alibi:

Aquarius: Consider writing an entertaining advertisement about yourself in order to attract the resources you'd like to play with. Or think about buying the domain name "showerblessingson[yournamehere].com," then setting up a website where the world can send you business offers, marriage proposals, free gifts and invitations to travel. The point is, Aquarius, that the upcoming weeks will be a perfect time to get very aggressive and highly specific about asking for what you need. rev up the fun-loving parts of your imagination.

How fun! More yoga in an hour...wwweeeeee!!!!

yoga 101

Things to know about yoga:
1. Bring your own mat
2. It's going to hurt
3. It's going to hurt a lot
4. There will be muscles used and stretched that you didn't know about
5. You will sweat without moving a single foot
6. Your legs will shake
7. Old women (they could be your grandma) will also take the class, which will shut your inner whining up for a whole 30 seconds.
8. It's still hurting.
9. It will feel good
10. You will be relaxed
11. The best part of the entire class is the very, very, very end.


I like blueberries.

Mmm Mmmm Puddin'

Kudos to my mom for buying some very tasty Chocolate/Vanilla swirl pudding packs by JELLO. I'm not one to be a fan of sweets, but that little pack hit the spot just now.

Thought I should mention the 1/2 mile I ran today. Woohoo! I walked about 1 3/4 miles this morning and threw in the little jog. It felt weird. It felt like I was trying to hard to not let it hurt when I ran, so instead it was throwing off my stride. I need to work on making it feel natural again. I suppose a half mile is better than nothing. Maybe I'll get up to a mile by the end of this week.

....and sometime this week maybe I'll actually get my butt to a yoga class like I've been talking about. I need, desperately, to stretch more. I also want to start cross training. Lots of things I want to do. I just need to do them!!!!

It's raining outside. I wish I could open a window so I could hear and smell it.

Strong six miles!!!!!

Yesterday I woke up early and drove out to Santa Ana Casino for our 7 am run. I got there feeling a little 'ify' about running, since i haven't ran for two weeks and every time before that my lower legs have felt awful. I wanna show you the route:
*Just for the record, it took me a half hour to figure out how to take this picture from a word document and turn it into a JPG. The geek in me is starting to shine through! Sorry it's still so small though - that's the biggest I could get it!!!*

Ok, so what you're looking at is the route we had for Sunday. I wasn't feeling confident enough to actually run, so I decided to walk. Luckily I found someone to walk with; her name is Terri and for six miles we got to know each other. We pushed each other to go further. Since we are both doing the half marathon we could turn around at the first water stop (the first green star - four miles out) which would make it a a round trip of 8 miles. Since I haven't done anything for the past couple weeks I wasn't sure how my legs would feel doing 8 miles, so we decided to walk an extra two miles (completely up hill - the second star on the map) and catch a ride back with the water stop people.

So, we did it. We walked the six miles, we didn't die and my legs didn't fall off. AND, the most exciting part (well there were four exciting parts) were:
1) We weren't actually THAT far behind everyone. I'd say that just by walking we were only a minute or two behind the runners. Not too shabby.
2)I met an awesome new friend, and I hope we can motivate each other.
3) We got our own form of a Tiffany's necklace when we got to the top of the hill - a delicious brownie!!!
4)I felt better yesterday than I have since before I switched my shoes for the first time!!!

After yesterday I'm feeing confident in continuing with my training. I'm still going to take it easy - no need to jump back into running, I think I'll walk a mile and try running a mile tomorrow, maybe. We'll see.

In other news, my fundraising has kind of hit a wall. Next month I'm having a Ben and Jerry's ice cream fundraiser, so I hope that'll get me a little more towards my goal. I'm also going to have a Lemonade stand at a garage sale in about two weeks. Who doesn't love lemonade on a hot Saturday afternoon?! I'd like to have a bake sale, but I think the fact that I can't actually "bake" may be a problem.

Well...this has been a pretty lengthy blog, so I'll write more tomorrow after I see how my run goes.

Thanks for reading!!!!

Time till the run: 2 months and 28 days...I can make it!!!