Beef and Mechanics

I slept until 12:30 yesterday. I admit it.

I have been feeling slightly not "right" for about the past 2 weeks, and I had a hunch that my body was trying to tell me that if I didn't slow down and get some rest, I was going to be sick soon. I ignored it, of course. I proceeded with my crazy weekend, including steak on Friday, steak on Saturday, and tacos on Sunday.

"Hello, coronary bypass? Yes, I'd like to make an appointment for 3pm today..."

In addition to my overly carnivorous meal plan, I also began Saturday with a trip to the vet for psykko (a.k.a. Nikko), followed by a pretty hard-core trip to the grocery store for coupon hounding, immediately followed by dinner out with my boyfriend's family. However, considering it was a Saturday night in the DC Metro area, there was nothing short of a 45 minute wait. I promise that I wore sensible, sturdy shoes, but no orthopedic shoe on the face of the Earth can shelter my chronically injured right knee/calf/ankle/foot...LEG...from pain when faced with a 45 minute wait at Texas Roadhouse.

Needless to say, I was a little grumpy by the time we sat down. Dinner was enjoyable, and we had to cut out a little early to make it to Hooters in time for our date with Randy Couture and Brock Lesner. Of course, we left late, as is our typical M.O., and got to Hooters WAY too late to get a table. This was about 28,475,639 times more irritating than having to wait 45 minutes for a table at Texas Roadhouse. However, we couldn't miss this fight because we are both UFC junkies...so we stood.

And stood...

And stood...

Are you noticing a pattern yet?

Yes, we stood for 3 HOURS. Around hour #2, I think I cracked a tear. Around hour #2.5, I think I heard my feet cry out for help. It was miserable. Finally, after Randy Couture was defeated, we ran out the door and quickly made it to the car so that we could take a load off of our feet. I started up the car, then proceeded to have a 10 minute asthma attack with no rescue inhaler. The Gazelle was ready to drive me to the ER. Poor thing.

I survived the asthma attack (obviously), and we started on our way to stop #3 for the night, my friend's birthday celebration at a local bar. We drove all the way there, only to find out that there was a $10 per person cover, and they didn't allow hats. Not even girl hats. Are you SERIOUS??!! It was drizzling all day, and I wore the cutest hat...it was my only savior on a day like that. Ok, I could have went to the car and gracefully ditched the hat. However, with a $10 cover and no confirmation that my friend was even still AT the bar, we went to the car and waited to hear back from her. 12:00AM...no answer...12:15...still no answer. We went home.

On the way home, I began hearing this eerie metal-on-metal grinding noise coming from my brakes. Hello $500 brake job. So...when I was finally able to drag my butt out of bed yesterday, I dropped my car off with my mechanic to be fixed. I love car maintenance expenses.

So, I ate too much red meat, got sick, and I'm anticipating a huge bill from my mechanic. Hopefully at least my run this afternoon will be good.

The 10% Rule???

So the rough plan between now and July 12 when I jog The Boilermaker is to run as many smaller races as possible, gradually working my distance up to a 10K by April-ish. My runs presently are only consisting of 2 mile runs at lunch on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, and usually a longer (3-4 mile) run on Saturday or Sunday. In 2 weeks, I plan to start banging out 3 miles on my lunch hour rather than the 2 that I’m presently doing.

Since I am not a professional runner (pfffftt…that was an understatement), I don’t know much about training for a 15K. My loving sister (who drops her cell phone in the toilet sometimes) gave me the training program that she followed for her Boilermaker training last year. However, I know that I can’t start that program until 12 weeks out from the race. In the process of searching for a running log that would interface with my blog, I found the fabulous Log Your Run website, and it is a website that jogging dreams are made of. Not only did I find a really cool little blog gadget that will show my current week of running for all to see, but it also keeps track of my records, personal best, race results, shoe mileage, weight…this website is my new BFF (sorry Karie).

I went backwards and logged 2 months' worth of runs into my new personalized running log (thankfully I had this info already because I'm an accountant and basically exist on this planet to create spreadsheets for everything...jogging included). Upon entering my past runs, I started poking around at the reports. This was the first one I found, and I was a little disturbed:



I was alarmed immediately by all of the red bars. Upon reading the fine print, I found out about the 10% rule. WHY hasn’t anyone ever told me about the 10% rule?! I’m outraged.

Sorry knee. I hope you'll forgive me. I didn't know.

Hobby vs. Job

At least once a week, I wish that I could be a professional hobbier. I can't even imagine the pure bliss involved with earning a living by doing something that I truly love. My only problem would be deciding which hobby would successfully keep my interest for long enough. As I get old(er), I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm a bit impulsive. And have a slight case of ADD.

There was the soap-making phase. What started out as a small soap-making kit purchased at one of those canned craft stores, turned into a small-scale soap manufacturing company (sans customers) right in my very own dining room. Within a 2 week period, I had made every size, shape, and scent of soap imaginable. I quickly realized that I hated bar soap, I didn't even use bar soap, and that along with me, most of the American population had switched to using the more convenient body wash form of soap many moons before I started making my crafty little bars of soap. I'm usually a day late on these things anyway, so I wasn't heartbroken.

Then there was the paper-making phase. This was a good one, and I actually still have some leftovers of my paper-making phase. The process of paper-making is really messy, but it is actually very fun and relatively simple. The only problem with paper-making was that I couldn't afford to keep replacing my blender every other day. Those things get expensive.

I'm presently involved in couponing as a hobby. This seems to be a pretty inexpensive hobby, and in the end, I actually save money. What a concept. The problem with couponing is that it is fairly time-consuming, and my hand cramps up after cutting enough coupons for myself, my family members, and all of my coupon buddies. Carpal tunnel could be an unwelcome side effect of couponing. Something to think about.

Jogging is my longest-running hobby. I have somehow managed to stay interested in jogging for almost 6 years (despite a rigorous CPA testing schedule, college classes and tests, full-time job, injuries and physical therapists). Considering how well I know myself and my sporadic hobby track record, 6 years is impressive. Although this makes me feel proud to have accomplished a little bit of personal focus, I am becoming concerned about jogging lately.

My sister (who regularly drops her cell phone in the toilet) has completed 2 Boilermakers so far. We were both late-bloomer runners (well...she's a runner, I'm a jogger), but she has really excelled. She mentioned the race to me for 2 consecutive years before I finally decided to do it. In the weeks leading up to my registration yesterday, I have been fairly consumed with thoughts of the race. I have the elevation map posted on the wall next to my desk. Considering my history of becoming hobby-disgruntled and quickly throwing in the towel, I'm concerned.

Is my hobby going to turn into less of a hobby and more of a job?

And so it begins...

I'm terrified. I just registered for the 2009 Boilermaker 15K. Although I have been running (ahem...jogging) for about 5 years now, I have never attempted to tackle a race of baby brontosaurus proportions. My previous races have been more of a Deinonychus than a Brontosaurus.

In addition to not having ever run (errr...jogged) a race of this distance, I have also never jogged during the height of summer (July 12) over massive rolling hills. Uh yeah. I'm more of a "find the flattest 3 mile course and mosey through it" kind of gal. However, today I registered for the race and bought the t-shirt. There's no turning back now. I mean c'mon...I bought the t-shirt. What kind of a tool bag would I be jogging around in a 2009 Boilermaker training t-shirt with no intention of actually participating in the Boilermaker?

The race looks like this:



And, I'm scared of it.