Awesome and Pathetic

Awesome is the new Truckee Community Recreation Center, complete with this very cool suspended indoor running track:

I like the desk on the corner (doesn't it really look out of place?), complete with hand sanitizer and kleenex.  I'm especially fond of the kleenex, because my nose just runs and runs and runs when I exercise -- I think it would be frowned upon if I were to blow snot rockets left and right inside.

Pathetic is my first attempt at running here.  I forgot my inhaler at home -- this, coupled with the fact that I really haven't run in something like 3 weeks meant that I was a wheezing, tight chested mess within a half mile (6 times 'round the track!).  After 2 miles I had had it and took my sad coughing ass back home.

I did manage an afternoon yoga class (no farting! I was kinda disappointed).

I'm off to a GREAT start!

Training begins . . .

So, in true Bootchez fashion, I started off my marathon training by . . . missing my first day's run.  Lovely! I submit the fact that it is freaking cold here in Tahoe, but I guess I'm going to have to counter that reality pretty damn quickly, or the only "marathon" I'll be participating in is by watching Top Chef Marathon on Bravo.  That will not do!

This lack of interest is not unexpected, though.  I am always a slow starter, especially after taking a couple of weeks off.  It is sooooo easy to slip back into that, "What?! Me exercise?" frame of mind.  I'd hate to think of 40 years of lazy-dom all gone to waste.  I've just gotta get out and run a few runs, then my feeble brain'll kick in and be all "Remember? You loove this stuff!" And I'll be well on my way.

With that in mind, yesterday I checked out my town's new Recreation Center, which is so new it barely has a website.  What it DOES have, however, is an indoor running track, 12.something laps to the mile, 7 days a week, $3 a pop or $20 per month (along with Nautilus-type machines -- I am sooooo regretting my hugely expensive, 18-month-commitment gym membership right now!).  Way back when, I began my little running career on just such a track, just this time of year.   I don't remember being particularly frustrated with running around in little circles (over and over and over again), though at the time I think I was primarily frustrated with making my body run for 90 seconds WITHOUT STOPPING(!!), so who knows how I'll feel about trying to crank out 5 or more miles.  Right now, the cold is too much for me to face (I know my tune will change quite soon, I *really* don't mind it once the first mile or so is under my belt), so I will be hitting this track later this morning for my first go-round.  Yes, I will.

Instead of running yesterday, I bit the bullet and signed up for some serious Bikram Yoga.  Thankfully, I have quite a bit of experience with this discipline, having spent about a year or two (years ago) going to class 3-4 times a week.  If yesterday had been my first time, I might have been a little dissuaded from returning because the guy in front of me had the worst case of farts I have been witness to in such a venue.  No exaggeration, in a 20 minute span of time the guy must have farted more than 5 times -- big, loud, ass-fluttering windy things that precipitated a HUGE giggling fit on my part.  Seriously, farts are funny just about all the time, and if it's inappropriate for a 42-year-old woman to laugh out loud when the 3rd boom comes flying out, well then so be it (at least I've got the right kinda job!).  By the time the 5th or 6th (who's counting?) slipped the questionable hold of his cheeks, I could barely hold the Tree Pose due to my increasingly audible giggles.  If you know anything about Bikram, you know the next pose is "the corpse" pose (more fits of laughter from me), followed by -- I shit you not -- the "wind removing" pose.  I'm all, "Well, that ship has sailed . . . " and it was pretty much over for me at that point.

I am very mature.

What tomorrow brings

This coming week signifies the end of my self-imposed physical break, and the beginning of my marathon training.  Tomorrow morning I am getting my shit together and making a commitment to some serious (2+ times a week) bikram yoga, plus break my running fast with a little 3-miler.  I don't feel like I'm rarin' to go or anything but I do feel as though I've been missing a little something in life, maybe a little anxious to DO something physical.  I certainly haven't been missing any meals or anything, as my waistline will attest to, so I guess that adds to the anxiousness as well.

I'm starting to think of 2010 and what goals I'll have for the year, running and otherwise.  I am not much for New Year's resolutions (and, in fact, hate the holiday so intensely that I would MUCH rather spend it tending to puking drunks of all ages in the ER than do almost anything else) but I think I'll be preparing a goal list anyhow, because somehow writing things down and then letting the world (or whoever!) know about them does seem to make it that much realer and maybe make it that much likelier that I stay committed to the goal.

Or not.

I have already committed to my very first goal, running a 10 for '10 10K on January 1st, a virtual group run being hosted over at Of Running and Parenting.  This seems like a good way to start!

Trying to get the blogging thing together

Jeepers, I am CONSTANLTLY thinking Oh!  should write a blog post about . . . . whatever, yet it doesn't seem to be happening.  Certainly the past month of limited internet access has had an impact, as well the fact that my plan of constant iPhone postings kinda went out the window with a. the annoying need to type on that tiny little keyboard and b. the fact that any post from said phone was either misformatted (wtf with the linebreaks?) and/or would refuse to post both texts and photos (and unpredictable about it to boot), thus causing lots of carefully typed writings to poof! disappear.

Now I'm back in Marin, and while I have my computer, plus access at work, I don't have internet where I live so I still have plenty of excuses reasons while it's still difficult. Waah waah waah, I know.

Also, I am taking a break from running for a bit.  I finished the last half happily, did a few runs here and there after that, but don't start my marathon training till the week after christmas.  I decided a week or three of minimal (if at all) running just to give my ol' bod a little break would be a good idea.  I dunno if that's part of the "training" that runners do, but I have taken up to 2 or 3 months off every year (that winter stuff is a BITCH) and feel that I have been the better for it.  So pretty much no running for me until dec 28 or somewhere's around there.

Meanwhile, I am trying to get caught up with my Google Reader (400 posts? is that possible?) and back to commenting on everyone's posts.  I have over 500 (!) pictures from my road trip, and will work on putting together some posts with those as the backbone, 'cause MAN O MAN did I see some lovely sights, and had a great time to boot.

So whilst the scarcity of posts of late might appear to be an indication that I am loosing interest in this thing, nothing could be further from the truth.  First I think I'll get caught up on what everyone else has to say, then I'll try to get caught up on what I have to say.

I'll be back!

Oh, and check out Rachael's blog, where she's got a cool giveaway going, and because she's got a great, funny, inspiring bit of blogging to read.

Home!

Home to four feet of snow in the driveway, a six foot burm, a new-to-
us snowblower that underperforms, a tree across the road taking down
power and phone lines, no power, no Internet ... Happily, after a few
(!) hours of shoveling, we cleared the driveway enough for the truck
to fit (just), the power came back on maybe ten minutes after we
finally called it quits and headed indoors, the fallen tree did no
damage (even though it did fall partially in our yard) -- and we even
hacked off the top and now have a Christmas tree!

So now I sit in my pleasantly warm home, freshly showered and in comfy
clothes, STILL typing crappy blog entries from my phone, no other
Internet (damn!!!), contemplating future blog entries, studying
vacation photos, so glad to be home after the snowy drive here from
Bishop! I'll try to get some interesting posts up in the next few
days, get caught up with everyone elses' blogs, get my fat ass back
into the gym and the yoga studio, and try to remember how I managed to
run in this weather last year. I've got nothing on my training
schedule for the next couple weeks, but my training plan for the
marathon starts right after christmas.

Reality check!!

The past week (text version)

... has been spent in my favorite little place on earth. Hopefully
there's a photo here!

I just returned to cellphone range (temporarily, anyhow) after a week
of communication blackout ... Aaaahh, relaxation!

Short, sweet update ... Death Valley Half? PR, baby, at a blazing
(unofficial) 2:20! Death Valley?? I love the dessert more and more
every time I go. Lots of 4 wheeling, hot spring visitation, fine food
and beautiful vistas.

I hate typing these on the phone, mostly because every time I post to
the blog it does either texts or photos but not both. So I'll save
race reports and lotsa photos in the next fivesix days, plus omigod
I've probably got hundreds of posts to read! I will, and, by the way,
I'm not dead!!!

(a few people thought I was. Sorry, guys!)

The past week

Redrum! Redrum!