Thursday

I reluctantly got up at 4 am this morning for the 5:15 run.  Not too many people at the workout considering how hot it's gonna be this evening.  Karen seemed a little agitated about the number of people missing.  Sounds like she may nix the afternoon workouts and go strictly with AM because of the heat...hopefully it will cool down even a little, soon.  She is worried about people's safety when it so hot.  The little weirdness in my right glute/hip/groin was completely gone this morning.  I did a warm bath with epsom salts last night and used the foam roller this morning.  My run was slow pace wise but spot on effort wise today.  However, it looked like everyone was slow.

On the horse side of things, Riley had his massage today and Amy wondered if he had a little upset stomach since he was cranky and he has been kicking out a little when I ride.  I ordered him some special "whole food" treats to help with that and got him some Aloe Juice for his feed.  Other than that, he is doing great.

I had the pleasure of sending Judge Biscoe (the head of Travis Co. commissioners court) an email, as did a group of other horse people in Austin regarding the sad state of the footing at the Expo Center.  The County is refusing to pay for additional sand in areas where it is needed.  Apparently the flood of emails were very effective and the footing is being taken care of right now.  Too bad the City of Austin isn't as reasonable.  I'm sure the people that run the facilities owned and operated by the County were not happy to get the call from the Judge!

"Get off the Internet"

That was one of the emails I saw on my work email last night.  It was a mass email sent out to all employees during Michael Jackson's Memorial.  Apparently critical functions were failing because too many people were on line (and not working).  I thought it was pretty funny!!

Why I love my job!

I have a photo from work I really want to post - it sums up the worst part of my job. However, knowing how the internet works, it would catch up with me in a bad way so instead I'll sum it it up in a few words:

a guy who turned 21 today goes out drinking to celebrate. He ends up depositing all of his alcohol and pasta dinner - maybe pizza on the floor of my office. EMS comes to get him and while they are holding him in a semi-standing position, I have to pull his vomit soaked pants off.
As EMS says - what a great birthday - $700 bill from EMS, $3000 bill from the ER and a PI. Yay!!

Struggling...a little

Saturday we did a 10.5 mile run from Coach's house - then a dip in the pool, food and silly games. The run sucked - 80 degrees and high humidity but the fun part was just that fun. I felt like I rehydrated pretty well as well as drinking plenty on the run but by Sunday I had a persistant headache which I couldn't shake. I blew off my 5 mile run.

Monday - still feeling tired with a little headache. Continuing to work on food choices and hydrating.

Tuesday - woke up Tuesday afternoon feeling great. Drank my usual Accelerade pre run and had hopes of a good run. It was hot, a little humid and windy. I set out at a conservative pace, carried water, took some Endurotabs but unfortunately by mile 5 it was falling apart. A little dizzy and lightheaded. I stopped and ate some Sport Beans and got going again. At the 6 mile water stop, I ate the rest of my sport beans and 2 more endurolytes and drank some water. Felt OK but slow on the remaining 2 miles. Because I ran so slow today, I did not have time for a core w/o. Will do that on Wed.

I'm thinking my iratic diet is not helping so I am starting a food diary to make sure I'm getting enough of everything and to be accountable. I'm thinking of completing my food diary for a couple of weeks and then checking in with Meredith to see where the problems are.

Plans for the rest of the week - 5 miles Wednesday AM, 10 miles Thurs AM (both at a conservative pace no matter how good I feel), lunch with a friend whose visiting from CA on Friday.

Spa Friday

Got my hair colored and cut and then considered taking a nap on the
salon's super comfy sofa. Decided on a pedicure instead. What relaxing
way to catch up on trashy magazines and come out looking better than
when I went in.
Went home and made some delicious homemade chicken salad.

Sleep

So does the fact that I woke up to my cat crashing around in the kitchen while she was looking for a snack at 2:30am and then didn't go back to sleep until my alarm went off at 4am mean 4.5 hours was all my body needed?

I broke down and gave her a can of cat food at 2:30 in hopes that she would eat and go to bed.  No such luck.  She was busy getting on and off the bed and drinking water and then the obvious trip to the litter box the rest of the night.  I think she lay down for 20 minutes total. Obviously she needs more activity during the day because she never bothers me when I sleep during the day.

Broken record

I have tried hard to not obsess over my weight and despite people kindly telling me that they have never thought I should not be running in only a sports bra, my weight is creeping up in a bad way.  I know perfectly well why and the only way to get it under control, is for me to eat better food and be less lazy.  It's July 1st and I am going to try once again to get things in check.  However, I am not dieting.  I am eliminating foods from my diet that don't contribute to good running...cake, cookies, chips.  I figure if I am careful but not obsessive, I should be down 5-8 lbs by September.

In other news I have been doing well on my runs...we got an extra down week due to the heat and are enjoying slightly cooler temps.  Keeping on top of my hydration.  Am going to be doing the 5:15am runs on Thursday from now on.

Took Meesha to the vet today just to weigh her...6.15lbs.  Yikes.  However the tech thought she looked really healthy despite the drastic weight loss.  She continues to eat fairly well and is active.  She thoroughly enjoyed the ride in the car.  Stopped at the Manor Farmers market and got some tasty yellow cherry tomatoes and peppers.

Silver dog enjoyed a 30 min run today and then a nice cool bath and roll in the dirt.