Archive for the ‘running’ Category
Although it would appear that I have abandoned this blog… well, I guess I did! Anyway, I’ve been using DailyMile and Twitter to keep track of my training and other runners’ training and posting small, quick updates and haven’t really had the need, time nor interest in keeping my own blog updated. It just really isn’t necessary. I like the quick, abbreviated posts I can make on Twitter and I love the camaraderie and tracking abilities of DailyMile. In all honesty, I don’t think anyone reads this blog except… well not even my Mom! 
So if updates are few and far between, now you know why. I’m sure if I end up having more to talk about other than my training and quick updates, I’ll be back. If not, then you know where to find me!
How do others find time to balance their online presence(s)? And I’m not talking about those special few who are able to make a living out of it. Clearly, the majority of us do not.
… as in “feel like”. I started feeling a bit of a scratch in my throat on Sunday, but ignored it. It was still there Monday morning, which was also when I couldn’t figure why I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. My throat got progressively worse as the day went on, as did how I felt. Yesterday, I had a fever, still had the sore throat and still felt like shit warmed over. Today, pretty much the same, but at least no fever. I’m going to the minute clinic to get a throat swab and to get some antibiotics. I’ve been using my sinus irrigater (sp?) every morning and night — and this morning, I coughed up some pretty nasty gunk from the back of my sore throat after irrigation. Hence the decision to go to the dreaded clinic. I go to the minute clinic at CVS for things like this because it’s so damn hard to just show up at my doctor’s office and get in to see her spur of the moment. Plus, if this is strep, I don’t have time to wait until July for an appointment.
Tomorrow? It’s the Track Shack Corporate 5k in downtown Orlando at 7:15pm. My office has been planning on participating for over six months. I designed our team shirt. Am I running? I have no earthly idea at this point. I feel tired just getting up out of my chair. The SO has threatened to keep me at home if things don’t significantly improve. If I can’t go and run, I will be extremely disappointed and pissed. I need a punching bag. Except, I don’t know if I have enough energy to punch anything.
Speaking of crap, we had the godson this past weekend. Well, actually, Friday evening through Saturday afternoon we had him. He’s always great; he’s 2 and-a-half but has the greatest attitude and always seems to be in a good mood. The poor thing got the shits on the way as we were taking him home to his mommies. We had to pull over and change him twice. (The car smelled like baby shit until yesterday.) Just as we pulled into their subdivision, he pooped again. This time, it was massive. We zoomed in, got him out and handed him over, crapped pants and all. Actually, once we got inside their house, I volunteered to change him (I’m a saint, apparently). With me in front removing his pull-ups, his one mommy on one side and the SO on the other, we all said a collective, “WHOA!” as the pants came off. There was poo all the way up to the poor kid’s navel. I think I used an entire container of wipies getting him cleaned up.
So although there’s been a lot that’s been going on around here, at this point, I’m too poopy (as in attitude and general overall feeling) to write about it. Maybe I’ll get around to it later, post-antibiotic. For now, send good ju-ju so I can run the 5k tomorrow night!
You’d think I’d forgotten this blog was here, wouldn’t you? Actually, I hadn’t forgotten, I’ve just been a wee, little bit side-tracked.
Launching an online presence is still a daunting task, but with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it’s really gotten a lot easier to reach a target audience. With that being said, I’ve been busy creating another site and establishing my online presence for that site. Having two Twitter accounts can be a lot like juggling; you want to make sure you’re tweeting from the correct account — and as a rule, I don’t retweet my tweets from one account to the other (at least not without a full disclosure). I’ve not hidden the fact that I am the same person behind both accounts, but one is for me personally (@ChariD), and the other is for my business, Intrepid Athlete Designs (@IntrepidAthlete). The Facebook page for Intrepid Athlete is here. If you’re so inclined, please become a fan!
Anyway, I just wanted to update the blog and make sure that all 1.5 of my readers knows what I’m up to and that I haven’t forgotten about this place.
I’m still running, just keeping up with keeping up and I have a couple, maybe three 5k races coming up. The first is the Corporate 5k in downtown Orlando on April 15th. The next is April 24th (maybe; I still haven’t registered) in Winter Park and the third is the Walt Disney World Expedition Everest Challenge. That one includes an obstacle course interwoven throughout the race — should be interesting. We have a 2-person team — my friend Jenn and I. Our team name is Twisted Sisters. Yes, it fits. We have matching Intrepid Athlete necklaces (2 discs) with our team name. We’ll also be wearing matching Bondi Bands which are red with white skulls all over. We’re stylin’ — get back now.
If you get the chance, please do go check out Intrepid Athlete and let me know what you think. I also wouldn’t be too upset if you ordered a necklace or two. 
Just a quick post — I had wanted to share this earlier, but LIFE got in the way!
Sunday morning when I woke up, I was famished — I’d run the Lady TrackShack 5k the day before, and we’d cleaned the entire house afterward. I know — woo-hoo Saturday, eh? Anyway, I decided I wanted french toast. The SO is a Type 1 diabetic [diagnosed at age 6 and been on insulin since], so we don’t have things like regular bread or pasta in the house. What I did have was some great wheat-free, gluten-free brown rice bread which was sweetened with fruit juice. Of course, I didn’t get any photos, so you’ll have to imagine how it looks. Also, the SO threw out the bread wrapper so I don’t have the brand — but everything in the recipe was obtained from our local Publix, so it’s not a scavenger hunt finding the ingredients.
Caitlin has been waxing poetic for the past month and a half about using pumpkin in everything. She had stocked up during the holiday season, as here in Orlando, things like that are considered “seasonal” and they tend to disappear during the rest of the year. HOWEVER!! I searched our local Publix and found small cans of both Libby’s canned pumpkin and an organic brand — both for $1.59 per can. I bought a can of the organic canned pumpkin; both brands had the same ingredient: pumpkin, but I like the idea that this one was organic.
So, I took one egg, a cup of vanilla soy milk, 1/2 cup of the canned pumpkin, a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice and whisked them all together using a fork in a small mixing bowl [for added flavor, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract -- of which we were out]. Then, I took two pieces of the brown rice bread [which is VERY dense] and dropped them in the mixture and let them soak. Meanwhile, I heated up a small frying pan in which I had sprayed some canola-based cooking spray. Once that heated up, I dumped both pieces of soaked bread into the pan and cooked them to my liking.
I plated them up with a small tab of real BUTTAH on both and some Vermont 100% maple syrup. It was outstanding. Adding the pumpkin to the mix gave it a depth of flavor that really added some good creaminess that would have normally come from adding fatty milk to the recipe. It definitely left me feeling full and satisfied.
So yeah, you can make healthy french toast for breakfast and you can make it taste like real french toast!
The Lady TrackShack 5k was held this past Saturday morning. It was clear, sunny and brisk. The course was through tree-line neighborhoods and over cobblestone streets along the areas surrounding Mead Garden in Winter Park. The trees protected the runners from the consistent 16 mile-per-hours winds that were buffeting the Orlando area. There were some nice “hills”, one water area and a nice neighborhood lady offering free coffee out in front of her house. They even had an all-girl live band playing great music as we ran out and as we returned to the finish.
This race had starting corrals based on pace-per-mile; it also included walkers. It relied on the common sense and good intentions of the runners and walkers as to which corral they chose. You can see where I’m going with this. There were no race officials gently encouraging anyone to get into the correct starting corral. Hence, those of us who did line up correctly at the end of the 9 minute-per-mile corral [based on our pace-per-mile] found that once the race did get going, we had to literally run at a 13+ minute-per-mile pace as we bobbed and weaved to get around walkers who lined up in the 7 and 8 minute-per-mile corrals. I had originally decided that for this race I was going to try running negative splits. Alas, that was not to be as I wasted quite a bit of energy trying to get out to open road that never materialized.
Having sinuses and lungs full of left over gunk from that virus we came down with last week didn’t help either. But I’ve found that my lungs have an almost super resiliency thanks to running and that even though I was aware of the crud in there, it didn’t cause me much grief and certainly didn’t keep me from running. The air was chilly, as it was in the low to mid 50s, and there was little to no humidity — that can tear up some lungs — and I saw several young women breathing hard and wheezing, but I felt good and my breathing wasn’t an issue.
Here are my stats, via my Garmin:
Distance Time Total Time Pace
1 Mi 10:41.1 10:41.1 10:42
2 Mi 10:32.11 21:13.21 10:33
3 Mi 10:41.14 31:54.35 10:42
0.2 Mi 1:49.52 33:43.87 9:08
I’m a member of the Big Pants Family!
I find that when running, I generally look way better in my head than I actually do in reality. Photographic evidence has time and again proven this out for me.
The course seemed a little long, but it was really enjoyable. There were 2077 women participating. I came in 86th out of 235 in my age group [45 - 49]. It definitely wasn’t my best 5k, but it also wasn’t my worst.
