On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

Rain or shine, ready or not, the Indianapolis Mini Marathon is tomorrow. I can hardly believe that the whole training season is behind me already. I am excited to participate in this super fun race, but I have more than a little anxiety this year about my level of fitness. Training is always a struggle; if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. This year my difficulties were definitely multiplied. Busy-ness, stress, sickness, bad weather, and so on. I've been kind of going back and forth in my own mind about my strategy for tomorrow. Last year I had it all planned out - no pits for water or gatorade until I was at least five miles in (fortunately that allowed me to stay hydrated w/o needing to stop to go to the bathroom), run as long as possible & check pace every mile (I was able to run the whole distance at a 10-minute/mile pace which was actually a bit of a surprise to me), & save enough to sprint to the finish (I miscalculated here - you can see the finish long before you actually get there; I almost died b/c I sprinted WAY too early). Not a sophisticated game plan, but a game plan none the less.

This year I keep waffling. Do I just speed walk it? At a pace of 13:30/mile it would still be a decent finish time. Do I try to run the whole thing & just start walking when I get tired? Or do I plan out a walk one mile/run one mile kind of deal? And what do I wear? The shorts have been decided - they are my favorites & have proven themselves not to ride up or fall down. This is an exceedingly crucial thing to know about your shorts. It's a tragedy to have to continually hold them up or pull them down. Ugh!!! But the matter of shirt is undecided. I have a singlet from my running club (a singlet = a tank top like deal made of super great wicking material). It's a floppy kind of fit which isn't my favorite, but I want to wear it so that I identify with the group. Even though I didn't really make any super great new friends this year, we still have suffered a lot together ;-) So the question is this, will it be cool enough for me to wear a shirt under the singlet? Should it be long sleeved or short sleeved? And do I wear a junky old shirt to ditch at the finish? I know from experience that the 30-45 minutes you wait in your corral at the beginning of the race can be awfully cold, goose-bumpy minutes. And if it rains I will be very, very, very sad. And tempted to wear a trash bag. Not really, but still - who wants to get soggy?

Leave me a comment with your opinion on my strategy for running the race & dressing for the race. Your comments are thoroughly enjoyed!

GIRLS ONLY POST!!!!

Let me start this post by warning you once again, that if you are not a GIRL you should NOT read this post. Your corneas will burn & you will experience incredible pain!

Ahem. Moving on...

I have been doing a little research as the wedding approaches. As a couple we have decided that we are not very interested in the pill. I have ordered a book called, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" that describes a natural method of b.c. I was wondering if any of my readers out there have any knowledge of this book, method, etc. Any advice you could offer or comments you could throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

btw, the book arrived today & I had no idea from the tiny little picture posted on Amazon that this book would be so ginormous! With only 72 days until the wedding I'm not sure how I will ever get it read, let alone decide if that's what we want to do. So hopefully you guys can help me out ;-)

A Little Countdown Trivia...

As I'm about to wrap up the workday at my first job (today is a LONG two-job day), I thought I would post some Countdown Trivia for all of you:

8 months until Christmas Eve

78 days until our wedding!!!

8 days until the Indy Mini (I will now take a short moment to solicit your prayers that I do not fall ill anytime between now & then or post-race). Danke!

And only 6 1/2 hours until my weekend starts!

This weekend Mike & I have decided to try not to let our TO DO lists command all of our time. We have a short list of MUST DO's (that he unfortunately left with me & I keep adding to) & then we are going to try to relax. Ahhh...what a thought! He's just trying to keep me healthy. I did some Internet research (about 15 minutes of scanning articles) & discovered that there can be a link between intense exercise & suppressed immunity. Therefore, Mike & several of my family members are convinced that the long Saturday mileage is making me sick. Tomorrow we are only scheduled 7 miles & I intend to complete them & then take it easy. Maybe take a nap (or try to - I'm not much of a napper). We'll see how it goes.

What are your weekend plans? Anybody doing anything fun or out of the ordinary? ;-)

Well, whadaya know!

This year will be my 4th running of the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. When you send in your registration they ask you for an estimate of your finish time or a finish time from a similar race. They then analyze that data and assign each participant a starting 'corral'. They start with Corral A and go all the way to Corral V or W (can't remember for sure...). The first year I ran I just had a guess for my finish time. I was assigned to Corral U. Picture a crowd of about 35,000 participants & then picture me in almost the last spot. The way back of the back. I was literally behind thousands of people who just wanted to walk the course. Ugh - frustration. Beth ran with me that year & we joked that we ran an extra mile zigzagging through the walkers.

Then the second year I ran I think I was assigned Corral S. Autumn was with me that year & she didn't have a qualifying time so I went back with her assignment to Corral T. Moving up, but not much.

Last year, I ran alone. I had a qualifying time & if I'm remembering correctly I was in Corral Q. Once again, forward progress. And I had a very, very decent (for me) finishing time last year so I was excited to see what my corral assignment would be for this year's race. I got my assignment in the mail this week...

For the 2009 Indy Mini I have been assigned to Corral G!

Unfortunately this is also the year that my training has been plagued by a busy schedule & frequent illness so my finishing time will probably stink, but WHO CARES!!! I'm starting in G!

Foolproof Dieting Tip!

How To Loose 10 Pounds In One Weekend!

1. Get up and put in 13 miles (walk, run, whatever your pleasure)
2. Go to a birthday party barbecue packed with family & friends; while there, play numerous rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose & Freeze Tag.
3. Eat a late supper consisting of a Subway Flat Bread Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwich.
4. Wake up at 4 a.m. with a vicious stomach virus.
5. Spend the next 36 hours unable to leave your home, sipping water, diet sprite, & eating 2 whole pieces of toast.

Voila! On Monday morning (if you're like me) you will have lost 10 pounds!

*In case you're concerned, I'm back to work today feeling about 96% normal. Still a little fatigued & terribly embarrassed that I called in sick to both jobs AGAIN on a Monday. If my bosses didn't know me better, they would have me pegged as one of those girls who goes out & parties it up all weekend.

Wahoo!

I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to make a short little post to say one very important thing...

the wedding is only 100 days away!!!

I'm just a little excited.

Tons of stuff has been going on since my last post. I was sick (again!), work is on over drive at both jobs (hmmm...is that why I was sick???), & I'm trying a new vitamins + immunity boosting yogurt + backing off on my training in hopes that I don't get sick any more. Anybody out there have any additional good health tips for me?

Gotta jet...maybe I'll catch up soon! ;-)

Bring on the weekend!

I just gotta say, the last couple of days have been very trying. I just gotta tell you about all the silly, kind of funny, crazy things that have been going on.

• I got a call yesterday that our wedding invitations were in. Yay! I went to pick them up & just about screamed when I saw them. Our names are printed in the body of the invitation & then they are also printed along the left margin, going up the side of the invite. Wouldn't you know that the margin line read "Mary & Mike". UGGHHHH! I never ever ever go by the name Mary & it didn't even occur to me to specify. So back to the printer they go. Thank God there will be no additional charges.
• I had to work at my second job yesterday. I got there & one of the other part-time techs stopped by to say hello while she shopped. She also wanted to inform us that she had gotten text messages from several of her friends who said that they had heard on the news that there was going to be some sort of gang iniation in town last night. The gang 'recruits' were supposed to hang out at Wal*Mart & shoot three women in the parking lot. I don't work at Wal*Mart, but she wanted to warn us b/c she thought maybe any parking lot would be dangerous. Nice! Just what you want to hear. Her friends also said that they had heard the story on the news. One of my co-workers called her daughter to ask her if she had heard about it & the daughter said it had already happened & one lady had already been shot. We all moved our cars closer to the building & made a plan to leave together. I called Mike & my parents & asked them to watch the news while we kept an eye on the internet for reports. The whole thing was hogwash. And an additional stress that none of us needed. I've been especially nervous about gang stuff lately b/c there's been some graffiti in my neighborhood. Yucky stuff, but I just gotta trust the Lord to take care of me.
• Then I got to work this morning. Oy. We were notified by our landlord that our electric bill was messed up & our power could be turned off. That was an interesting research project. Who do I call? The utility company? Someone at corporate? WHO at corporate? I work for a ginormous international company so where do I even start? Well, I got that one tackled & I found someone to take care of it. Hopefully we won't be in the dark anytime soon.
• I checked my direct deposit b/c today is PAYDAY! Yay! Except I shorted myself 40 hours of pay due to a typo. Not good folks, not good. So I had to track down how to take care of that. By typing in my employee id incorrectly I shorted myself & probably overpaid someone else at another location. What a mess, but I should get a check by Monday.
• They sent me a new desktop. Yay! Except now I have to figure out how to transfer all of my files from this computer to the new one. And then call IT to set up the printer. And resolve never to type again while I'm eating so that my new keyboard won't get full of crumbs like this one.
• My boss went on vacation yesterday & we have received two inquiries for two new customers. They ask all kinds of impossible questions regarding charges & fees, etc. & I have to try to answer them. We haven't had a call like that in months. What else will happen while he's basking in the warm Florida sun?

Ok, I know. Enough griping. It's just amazing how everything happens at once! It makes me so grateful for the weekend. It also makes me grateful that I can pray & ask the Lord to set a watch over my mouth & give me the grace to apologize when I get sharp with my co-workers. I'm sure you all understand the struggle that can take place when someone makes constant demands on you or behaves in a very passive-aggressive way. Yep, gotta have some divine control when those kinds of evil shenanigans are going on.

I hope you all have a wonderful, restful, & productive weekend! I'm going to get some miles in (3 today, 11 tomorrow, & 1 on Sunday), go with Beth to get her dress fitted, meet with the cake lady, celebrate my sweet g-pa's b-day, enjoy a couple of worship services, & hopefully get something done around the house.