Ventidue!

22 miles on the schedule fo rthis morning, successfully completed! 

Not painless, nor easy, but done.

It was warm and humid.  Probably mid-60s at the start, upper 60s at the finish.  And very sticky.  A little bit of mist/drizzle right before we started, but then that just hung in the air. 

My pace was okay, though my final 2 miles were fairly slow (basically the same pace as mile 1, which is usually my slowest).  But by the time I was at about mile 18, I was very ready to be finished. 

Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of vehicle traffic over the last few miles, so I also had to run on the slope of the road, which sucked.  And I also ended up running a whole lot of it alone today.  Blah. 

My legs are very achy right now, more than 6 hours after I finished.  The most pain seems to be on the back side of my lower left calf and my right foot -- both the problem toe, the swollen bump/cyst thing, and something new that seems undefined but painful.  And this is all after an ice bath even!

And I ended up with chafing near both my shoulders from the straps of my sports bra.  This doesn't usually happen and it's the same bra, so I don't know what the story was today. 

But after the run and my ice bath, hubby and I went out for Mexican food and I loaded up.  I ate about 3 bowls of chips all by myself, a lot of salsa and about half our order of guac, and I cleaned my plate -- mango salad and I ordered my usual avocado-artichoke enchilada, but I asked that they DOUBLE it so I actually got (and ate) two enchiladas.  Yum! 

Then I went shoe shopping for new shoes for tomorrow (very excited!!).  Got two pairs of black shoes, one casual for travelling and one for work.  But I do not recommend going shoe shopping for work shoes after you've run 22 miles and you have a very tender problem toe.

Got home and threw in some laundry, then went for a 4 mile walk with my local bestie.  Sounds healthy but it wasn't -- our destination was this place that's build-your-own ice cream sandwiches.  You pick the cookie and ice cream flavors.  I felt indecisive so I had two diff cookies (vanilla sugar and white chocolate cranberry) and two diff ice creams (cake batter and blackberry cobbler).  YUM!!!! 

I think with all that food, I put a dent in my 2400 calorie deficit from this morning's run!  Anyway, since I'm unemployed, I'm going to fold some laundry and make a lovely dinner for my sweet hubby.  I'm going with a recent recipe fave -- an orzo/eggplant dish.  And I'm going to make my lunch for tomorrow.  And then hopefully very early to bed (no nap today, which is usually a must for me after anything over about 20 miles), and I've been asking hubby to give me a legitimate serious leg massage for about 15 minutes before bed.  They are tight and they hurt some.  I think tomorrow might be even worse. 

I might skip camp in the morning in favor of sleeping in and getting ready for my big day!  Hope they know I'm not handicapped, even if I'm walking funny...  Feel very nervous but mostly excited! 

Piling on the Miles

I was afraid to post about this last week b/c of a nagging fear that maybe the wheels would come off this week, but so far, so good.

Last week (2/13-2/19), I had my highest mileage week EVER of running.  54.9.  As I've posted before, I'd been close to that for odd circumstances a couple times (a week where I had to go long on Sun and Sat), and legitimately a couple times.  But this was legit and higher than ever.

Not high mileage for some (I have a few friends who are regularly in the 80s every week, which I can't fathom), but I have done about a dozen marathons where I've peaked at mileage in the mid-40s, and had most weeks in the upper 30s.  This is huge for me. 

This past week was recovery, and I'm feeling the high miles from last week a bit, but no real pains.  Just some general aches and tightness.  I seriously need to add in some yoga.  Right now I'm about as flexible as a dry piece of dead wood.  But at least I'm not in any real pain.  It's just all so stiff. 

But even scarier than hitting 54.9, it looks like I'm about to do it again.  Looking to the coming week, we have 22 on Sunday, 9 on Tues, 7 on Wed, 10 on Thurs, and 7 on Sat, plus 5 optional on Fri.  That totals up to 55 if I don't do anything on Fri. 

I'm about to go into my 3 highest mileage weeks ever.  55-60, then 52-57, then 57-63.  And then the numbers will drop a bit.  Looks like it'll be about 38, then 48, then 50, then tapering. 

Assuming I get my scheduled 5 in tomorrow and my 22 on Sunday, February 2011 is going to be my highest mileage month ever.  I'll be knocking on the door of the 190s.  Wow...

All this running had better pay off with a kick @ss PR in Boston!

Evidence of my Oddity

I am not a "tech" person in any sense of the word.  I've got some basics down, but I'm slow to adopt new technologies.  Well, in an effort to clear my stuff off my computer at work, I decided to send my personal account an email with a list of my internet favorites.  Is there a better way to export that data?  I don't know.

But I was making the list and I tried to categorize my favorites.

First, there was a list of accounts/personal.  This includes links to the login screens for my email accounts, my high school class data page, a flicker photo set from our wedding in Italy, and a caring bridge page for my local bestie's sister, who has cancer (she's only 30 and has stage 4 lung cancer, even though she's never smoked). 

Then, predictably, there was a legal category.  Links to Texas statutes, online legal research sites, etc.  And a couple more personal ones -- my fave Supreme Court blog and something called "courtoons" which are legal cartoons that post infrequently but usually make me laugh.

Next was my category for running.  First and foremost, my garmin homepage, but also my fave pace calculator (cool running), my fave predictor (McMillan), and a running magazine.  And there are also links for two friends' garmin homepages, a local race photographer's site, an age-grade calculator (b/c I'm odd, mostly to use to compare my times to Adam's, since he's younger and male), and no meat athlete (vegetarian blog kind of site).

Then there is my Italian category.  It includes my favorite online dictionary and verb conjugator, several pages devoted to our local Italian Club, one link to Runner's World in Italian (wasn't sure if this should go under running or Italy), an English language magazine about the province that we most like to visit (the province is Vibo Valentia), and a few of my favorite English-language blogs about life in Italy. 

I have a category for blogs.  Three friends in real life, one devoted to the Bachelor, and several about life and/or running.  Mostly ones that I read fairly frequently, though I don't always go through my favorites to get to them. 

And I have a category for local stuff.  The site where I can pull the police log for my neighborhood, a general crime blog, other things directly related to our condo association, a couple sites devoted to local dining, a link to the city where my husband works (which has lots of fun special events), a couple local blogs related to news (loosely defined).

There is a category related to eating and/or vegetarianism.  Not things I check often, but some things about Christian vegetarianism, ethical vegetarianism, and local eating. 

And there's a kind of random category of news/research.  This has a link to MSN's page summarizing headlines from Africa, the newseum page that shows newspaper front pages from around the world, my favorite "easy flag identifier" (when I see a flag and don't know where it's from, I use this website, it lets you search by how many colors, whether it's stripes, stars, animals, etc.), and the CIA world factbook site. 

All that makes sense to me.  In fact, if I look at my about me page for this blog, running, Italy, legal stuff, etc., it all seems very logical.

Then there was the category I never expected to have to create.

I sadly have an entire category (containing more links than I care to admit) devoted to ... grammar.  And this category has more links than the eating/vegetarian category, and more than my news/research category.  Yikes.  Fun sites about apostrophe abuse, a blog of "unnecessary" quotes, and more.  Oh, who am I???  Very, very odd.

If I Were...

I can't remember where I read this (so I can't give credit, but it's not mine), but it was such a fun set of statements to complete, that I thought I'd do it.  Feel free to do it on your own blog. 

If I were a month I’d be October.  Marathons.  Good weather.  Close to time to go home for Christmas.
If I were a day I’d be Saturday. 

If I were a time of day I’d be 7:00 p.m.

If I were a font I’d be Copperplate.  My choice for lots of stuff related to our wedding.

If I were a sea animal I’d be a sea lion.  Or a sea cow.  Probably a sea lion.

If I were a direction I’d be South.

If I were a piece of furniture I’d be a dining room table.

If I were a liquid I’d be water.

If I were a gemstone I’d be a sapphire.

If I were a tree I’d be an evergreen.

If I were a tool I’d be a hammer -- because of its dual nature to push things in and pull things out.

If I were a flower I’d be a gerber daisy.

If I were an element of weather I’d be summer breeze.

If I were a musical instrument I’d be a harp.

If I were a color I’d be blue.

If I were an emotion I’d be satisfied.

If I were a fruit I’d be a strawberry.

If I were a sound I’d be the patter of running feet.

If I were an element I’d be Gallium -- and melt in your mouth AND in your hand.

If I were a car I’d be a convertible.

If I were a food I’d be a cupcake.

If I were a place I’d be Malta.

If I were a material I’d be sweat-wicking.

If I were a taste I’d be uncomplicated and vegetably.

If I were a scent I’d be a baked good.

If I were a body part I’d be a wrist.

If I were a song I’d be sung by James Taylor.  Or Steven Tyler.  Or NKOTB.

If I were a bird I’d be a black-capped chickadee.  I'd like to be a sun conure, but I'm just not.

If I were a gift I’d be somthing practical and regularly used.

If I were a city I’d be Rome!

If I were a door I’d be have glass panels through which you could look out at the sea.

If I were a pair of shoes I’d be comfortable but stylish flats not made of animal products.