Three Months Worth of Recycling and My Biennal Apartment Cleaning

Ever wonder what 3 months worth of recycling looks like? Well, wonder no longer:

This is the recycling that has been piling up in my kitchen since the city workers's strike started back in July. They are *finally* going to pick up recycling this week and I can't wait to put this stuff outside and get my kitchen back!!

In other cleaning-up-my-place news, I was struck with my biennial "I feel like cleaning" mood on Friday and did some tidying up and organizing. Apparently there is this new invention that's like a sponge on a stick and you put the sponge part in soapy water and run it across your floor. I believe they call it a "mop." So I tried that out and now have shiny kitchen and bathroom floors¹

Some other features of my newly semi-organized place include taking my shoe collection from looking like this:

To looking like this:

Although I do have to admit that even with a five-story shoe rack, I don't have enough room for all my shoes²

Also, I hung up a whole bunch of stuff on the walls, as seen here:

My two favourite pieces:

"Spirt Bear" by Joseph M. Wilson and
"Haida Killer Whale - Skaana" by Bill Reid

My friend Therese brought these two pieces,
which apparently I have not hung up straight,
back from San Fran for me.

The flower paintings were done by my cousin's husband and given out
as gifts to everyone at their wedding. The gingerbread man cutting board
was given to me by either my mom or my sister (I can't remember which).

This is my bragging wall... or, walls I guess, as I couldn't fit them all on one wall
(Go to the Flickr page if you want to see what each of these degrees/diplomas/awards are).

Of course, there are still piles of paper on various tables, chairs, filing cabinets and other available surfaces (photos not available³), but I'm sure I'll get around to cleaning them up in 2009, when the mood to clean hits me again.

¹Although the tile in my kitchen, like the paint on the walls and all the furniture, is older than me, so it still kinda looks like crap.
²Plus, there are four more pairs in my bedroom that I forgot to take a photo of and I'm too lazy to take a photo and upload it now that I've realized that I didn't take a photo of them.
³Because I don't want to document what a slob I am. Despite my claims to the contrary, I'm really not at all about fair and balanced reporting .

The saddest half marathoner ever

Click here to see photos of the saddest looking half marathoner ever.

Of course they didn't get any photographs of me *before* I hurt my foot, when I was actually running. Instead, I get three photos of me limping along, looking all sorry for myself.

In happier news, my foot now feels 100% better. It was getting very slightly better each day last week, then I played hockey on Sunday and it really hurt Sunday night, so I iced the hell out of it and by Monday it was 97.5±0.5% better. Anyway, lesson learned - if you ever plan to run a half marathon, train for it. That's right folks, you heard it here last.

Foot vs. Brain

In the battle between my injured foot and my brain's adenosine receptors, the adenosine receptors reigned supreme. Faced with the choice of hobbling all the way to the Tim Horton's on the other side of the building for an afternoon cup of coffee or resting my foot but forgoing my caffeine fix, there really was only one clear choice.

Limpy

So apparently you really are supposed to train for a half marathon.

Yes, once upon a time, I registered to run the half at the Royal Victoria Marathon under the mistaken assumptions that:

(a) registering and (b) announcing to the blogosphere that I have registered should be sufficient motivation to get me up off my butt and back into running.

Note to self: the above assumptions are incorrect. Two weddings (and all the associated events), a softball league, wisdom teeth extraction and my general delinquency this summer all combined to give me sufficient excuses to not train adequately. And by "adequately" I mean "at all." But I registered, dammit, and I was going to run come hell or high water.

Another incorrect assumption was my belief that carrying one's CareCard with them during events in which they have the potential to become injured will protect them from injury. As it turns out, carrying one's CareCard only prevents injuries of the severity that require use of said CareCard. Injuries that don't quite require medical attention are fair game.

Also, when someone says something like "If you injure a foot, Beth, make sure it's the left one. I've injured my right foot, so if you injure your left, we can drive Lauren's car together - you on the gas and me on the clutch - if Lauren happens to injure herself" is just tempting fate.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First things first. I should tell you about how we were 15 minutes late starting the race. There were 6 of us staying at my old roommie¹ Dani's new place in Victoria. Another lesson learned on this trip: 30 minutes is not nearly enough time to get 6 people up, dressed, fed and out the door for a race. But the time we arrived, the start line looked like this:

Just a few volunteers standing around. The thousands of people running the half marathon - long gone.

Figuring "thank goodness for chip time!" we took a quick photo and headed out:

Jo, Dani, Sheila, me, Lauren & Tim.

Well, Dani and I headed out. Tim went in search of the bag check to leave his jacket before he started, Jo and Sheila, who were going to run the 8K² rather than the half marathon went in search of its start line and Lauren, who ran the full marathon which didn't start for another 45 minutes, went with J & S. We ran 3 km before we caught up with the slowest of the half marathon walkers, that's how far behind we were. And we were reported by the cops... as we ran past one of the cops stationed along the route to control traffic we heard him say into his walkie-talkie "10-4, I've got two runners coming along here." I said to Dani, "They are onto us! Quick, run!" Hee hee.. running humour.

Around about the time we caught up with the walkers, I told Dani to go on ahead of me. I'm not nearly as fast as her and knew if I continued to try to keep up with her, it would spell trouble, so she went off on her way and I continued to run at my slower pace. The route was very pretty, going through Beacon Hill and then out at a road along the water. My body started to realized that I was really, truly going to make it keep running and, for a while, seemed OK with this decision. Then a pain showed up in my left foot, but it decided to try out my right foot to see if it preferred that location, and next transferred itself to both my knees simultaneously, followed by my lower back. A slight headache showed up, but I'm pretty sure that was because they had very poorly spaced water stations and I was getting a bit dehydrated. I grabbed two cups of water at the next water station, and then found there there was another water station very soon after. Weird. Finally, the pain decided it liked my left foot best out of all the places it had tried out and took up permanent residence there. At first I figured it would go away as it had before and kept running. When it firmly stood its ground, I decided that perhaps a 2 minute walk (instead of my usual 1 min walk for every 10 minutes of running) would help. It did not. Finally, around about the 15 km mark I asked myself, "Is it worth continuing to run on this foot that is clearly unhappy about being run on and risking a more serious injury that could put you out of hockey?" Once I phrased it that way, I knew what I had to do. I had to walk, or rather limp, the last 6 km of the race. After all, any form of exercise that isn't hockey is just off-ice conditioning, in my opinion. And so I limped. And limped. And limped. I limped so much that my right hip and ankle started to hurt from overcompensation. And yet I continued to limp. Because really, what else are you going to do? I certainly wasn't injured enough to stop at the medical stop (although I did think about it) and I had to get to the finish line, where my friends would be waiting for me.

As I continued on my way, I started to resent the volunteers who were positive, cheering on the runners and walkers with a "good job!" When I ran the Vancouver half, I found these cheers to be really motivating, but as I limped along, berating myself for not having trained more, all I could think is "You people are so insincere! I'm not doing a good job! I'm doing a terrible job!!" A few volunteers along the way did seem to notice my limp and the grimace that I'm sure was on my face and gave me a sympathetic smile and that was muchly appreciated.

In the end, I hobbled over the finish line, got my medal and, surprisingly, found my friends who had finished a half hour before me. And that was the end of the race I never should have run!

My plan now, as I sit here icing my feet⁴, is to take a small break from running. I may do the occasional run if the mood strikes me once my feet are healed, but winter is time to focus on hockey and skiing. Come the new year, I'll start thinking about the Scotiabank half marathon, which happens in June. But I'm going to train for it. No really, I've learned my lesson!

¹Firefox's spellcheck tells me that "roommie" is not a word, but suggests that I actually mean "commie" here.
²I say "were going to" because they didn't, in the end, get to run. As it turns out, the start line for the 8K (which started at the same time as the half) was already taken down by this point.
⁴I'm icing my left foot, which was the main injury, and my right ankle, which feels strained from having limped on it for 6 km, as well as everywhere else I've had to walk since then. My feet are the thermostat to my body however, so making them cold is making the rest of me cold too, despite being in my warm bed with two blankets and a warm laptop on top of me!

Feast or Famine Part Deux

Not unlike how I went from having no jobs to having three, I went from having no hockey team to being on two!

UBC had announced in late summer that two of the ice surfaces at the torn-down-but-being-rebuilt-for-the-Olympics Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre were ready to go and so there would be rec hockey, but only a limited number of teams could join. And, as such, only teams where the majority of players come from a single group (be it a faculty, a club, a fraternity or sorority) would be allowed to register on a first-come, first-served basis. And being that one of my three jobs is teaching at UBC, I would actually be allowed to play in the rec league¹! Unfortunately, although we tried to do some recruiting, it didn't look like we could find enough players from my old Faculty to reunite my old team and, in the meantime, I was invited to join a team that plays in Coquitlam. But now it turns out that UBC Rec let my old Faculty join up with the Faculty of Forestry, as both Faculties are very small, to make a team. So now I get to play at UBC too²!

Hopefully all this hockey means that I will be in somewhat reasonable shape to run that half marathon that I'm not training for³.

¹Although I am only teaching from Jan to April, so I'm really hoping that they don't tell me I can only play during term 2!
²Provided, of course, that they count me as a staff member for the year, even though my course doesn't start 'til next term. Fingers crossed!!
³Weren't you supposed to be berating me to ensure that I stick with my training program? Shame on you!

The internets hate me

Since Telus isn't sending someone to fix my non-functioning connection to the internets until SATURDAY, I'm writing this posting up really quickly on my lunch at work. So y'all will have to wait for a proper recounting of my camping trip. Here are some pretty pics¹ to tide you over until then.²

And since I apparently work in 1997 and don't have Javability on my work computer, my apologies to all my Scrabulous opponents - I can only partake of our Scrabble games on occasions where I manage to either (a) insinuate myself into other people's homes to use their Java-capable computers with functioning internet connections or (b) trek with my laptop to a coffeeshop with wireless access. And did I mention that the only coffeeshop where I can access wireless that is within walking distance of me closes at 6 pm?

¹The pics aren't properly organized in my Flickr, as I uploaded them on shaky coffeshop wireless, which kept wigging out on me in the middle of my upload. So I think I have several photos uploaded more than once and other ones not uploaded at all. Stupid shaky coffeeshop wireless.

²Granted, I could write it up at home and then just bring it to work on my memory stick to post from here, but I've been much too busy to do that. Last night I had dinner and played with a Wii for the first time (clarification: first time playing with a Wii, not first time having dinner); tonight Alicia and I are going to pretend that we are training for our respective half marathons by going for an 8K run along the beach, then dinner; tomorrow I have coffee that somehow got upgraded to drinks (or maybe even dinner, I'm not exactly sure!)... and all that makes me tired just thinking about it!!!

I Must Be Crazy

Dani emailed the other day to remind a bunch of us that tomorrow is that last day to register for the Royal Victoria Marathon before the price goes up by $10. And, coincidentally, I had just been thinking about how the marathon is getting closer (it's on October 7) and I really should get on my training program (as beer league slo-pitch, while very fun, isn't actually that much of a workout!). And then I was shocked when I checked out the training program and discovered that I should be on week 5 already! Ack!

I figure that (a) registering and (b) announcing to the blogosphere that I have registered should be sufficient motivation to get me up off my butt and back into running. So feel free to berate me in the comments section to ensure that I stick to my training program, k?

Pacific Spirt Run 2007

You know what I think is a good idea when your foot is still sore from last week's half marathon? Pop an ibuoprofen and an acetaminophen and run 10K through a tree root-infested, rock-laden forest path. You know it sounds like a good idea.

This marked Dani's first ever race where it wasn't raining. Of course, the majority of it was in the forest, so you didn't really see the sun until the end, when you were already overheated. But then it clouded over right away so that we could freeze post-race. Good times.

I finished the race in 58 minutes, 47.8 seconds (pace = 5:53 minutes per km)* - 489th out of 924 runners (113th of the 283 females in my age category (20-39 years)).

As I mentioned before, I was on the Brain Research Centre team. The team was put together by a woman in, not surprizingly, the Brain Research Centre, and people just invited others until we had a team of 10 (the minimum needed to make up a team for this race). I only knew one person on the team, a member of my former "sort of" lab**. We had two strange coincidences on this team... first of all, my friend who had invited me to join the team just got a new summer student working for her... and it turned out that the summer student was on our team, having been invited to join by her sister, who is in the BRC. And then at the post-race brunch, I was chatting with another guy on the team and it turns out that his wife is a woman who works at the same centre as me, with an office across the hall from mine. Small. Freaking. World.

I would also like to say that I really liked my bib number, which was 742. Seven is cool, 'cuz I was born in '77 and everyone knows that the meaning of life is 42. I think the only bib number cooler than mine was this one:

You can't read it from here, but he had written on it: "I run like the devil." Too clever!


*For comparative purposes, my pace on the half marathon was 6:50 mins per km and I came in 410th out of 626 women in my age category (30-34 years).

**I call it my "sort of" lab because although I didn't technically work in that lab, we collaborated with them and did a lot of our lab work in their lab space. A super fun lab... I still go to all their parties.

A Beautiful Day

Just got home from a lovely Ladies Night dinner - the second one in as many weeks. Last week, we made sushi; today, it was chili. For next week - hot pot! My friends in the dietetics program have realized that with summer almost upon us (and most of them spending their summers somewhere other than Vancouver), we have to make the most of these last few weeks before their spring course ends. And to us, "making the most" = good food.

I ended up having to walk home, on my still hurting foot, as the bus I was hoping to take drove by just as I was approaching 16th Ave. I was too far away from the bus stop to run and catch it, even if I hadn't been nursing an injured foot. Knowing that the next bus wouldn't come for 30 minutes, and that I was less than a 30 minute walk from home, I decided to walk... well, limp really, home. It was a nice night - the sky was clear, the air was crisp but not too cold, there was a bit of a breeze, but not crazy windy like it had been earlier in the day. As I walked past a school, I noticed a white plastic bag being blown around in the wind. It was, I swear to you, *exactly* like the bag that's blowing around in the wind in American Beauty - the one that Ricky tapes and shows to Jane and tells her about how it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. I even stopped and watched it for a while and I tell you, it was beautiful. And then, I kid you not, the next song on my iPod was U2's "Beautiful Day". That song always makes me stop and take in the beauty around me (I'm like Pavlov's dog with that song, I swear!). The lights of the city twinkling in the distance, the fragrance of the flowers in bloom, my knee starting to kill as I limp along, trying to will my foot to stop hurting. OK, maybe that last one wasn't so great, but overall it was a nice walk home after a super delicious dinner with good friends. I'm a lucky girl!

(In completely unrelated news, if anyone wants to see extremely small photos of me and Kelly from the half marathon, you can go to http://www.marathonfoto.com/ - you need to know my last name (do you know my last name?) and that my bib number was 8405).

My Foot Hurts

I suppose that is to be expected when one runs for over two hours straight, covering 21.1 km, all on the same side of the road, which is tilted just enough to screw up one's foot.

In other marathon news, I saw in the paper that the faster woman in the full marathon, Claudia Camargo, set a women's record for the fastest completion of the Vancouver marathon, finishing it in 2:35:50. In other words, in just over the time it took me to run 13 miles, she ran 26. She also came in third overall, which is also a first. Way to go, Claudia!

Also, on the cover of the Metro* was a story about a guy who proposed to his girlfriend when she finished the marathon. Isn't that friggin' sweet? I think I would like that. If I were ever going to get married again, which I'm not. Unless I run a marathon and then someone proposes to me... then maybe I'd consider it. I'm just saying.


*the free newspaper made famous here in my corner of the blogosphere for deeming me a socialite.

Half Marathony Goodness

In eight hours, I will be standing in a sea of 15,000* people, nervously awaiting the start of the biggest run, by far, I have ever done in my life! My bib with my race number is pinned on my new lululemon** triathlon*** shirt, my timing chip is firmly attached to my shoe and we have three different alarms set to ensure that we wake up in plenty of time to get downtown for the 7 am start. I've done my carb-loading (i.e., bellini last night, cinnamon buns today) and Kelly and I made a super delish dinner wherein I got to try brown rice spinach pasta and she got to try Yves veggie ground round. We also had some wicked delicious Indian spice tea that Kelly had brought with her (complete with warmed soy milk) and topped the evening off with garlic hummus & corn chips. I also treated Kelly to not one, but two walks to the grocery store this evening. First to get produce for dinner and second because Dani informed me that the grocery store had the "specially marked boxes" of Vector cereal where you get a coupon for a free Saucony technical shirt. So while I believe that $7 for small box of cereal is highway robbery, since I get a free $40 shirt, it makes up for it.

Wow, I can't believe this entire post is about food. You'd think I was hungry or something.

*I have this vague recollection from last year of hearing that there are about 15,000 people who run in the Vancouver International Marathon. I can't find this anywhere on their site, however, so I could be totally wrong.

**I bought it at the outlet store, so it wasn't *that* expensive!

***Yes, I realize that I'm not running a triathlon. But it has pockets in the back to hold my PowerGels. I *totally* need to keep my PowerGels somewhere, right?

One Week 'Til The Half Marathon

If you were at a certain birthday party on the beach today, you would have heard the following exchange:

Person #1: So, are you guys carbo loading?
Person #2: Do bellinis count?

Guess which person was me in that conversation?

Oops, I Did It Again

Pacific Spirt Run.

10K.

The Sunday after the half marathon.

As part of the Brain Research Centre's team.

I figure that this is the closest I will get to being able to call myself a brain surgeon.

Coffee-ground vomitus

Like Sarah, I'm sure that everyone is dying to know why I know about coffee-ground vomitus. What's that? You really aren't all dying to know? Well, too bad, 'cuz I'm going to tell you anyway.

Actually, it's not nearly as exciting a story as it could be. But I think it has to do with this guy:


On Sunday I went out for my 18 K run. Felt great. Finished my run, had a shower. Started to feel not so great. I think "oh, I'll be fine", walked to the grocery store. Start getting groceries. Start to feel really, really not great. Like intense stomach pains, extreme weakness. Do I drop what I'm doing and go immediately home like a sensible person would? No, of course I don't. I finish getting my groceries, pay for them, and walk home, having to stop a few times to lean against a pole and gather my strength. Now, I think that someone who just ran 18K should surely be able to walk 4 blocks carrying a few groceries, no? Apparently, not so much. When I got home, I dropped the groceries on the floor and crawled into the bathroom, as by this time I was having the most intense stomach pains - I could actually feel my stomach muscle contracting! - and nausea. Really, really nauseous. "I've been food poisoned by the Power Gel I had on my run!" I decided. On my previous 18 K, my Power Gel (vanilla flavoured) did wonders, but this time, I'd clearly been poisoned. How could you let me down so, Strawberry-Banana Power Gel??

Every so often, I would gather my strength and crawl out to my living room and get something to bring back to the bathroom with me - first a pillow, since lying on the bathroom floor is not all the comfortable. Then my laptop* to try to distract myself, and possibly summon assistance. The pain and nausea got so bad that I thought, "Well, I have 2 options. I can sit here and continue to sob from the pain, or I can make myself throw up." Whenever I've had food poisoning, I've always felt so much better after vomiting. My body knows when there is something bad in my stomach and knows that getting it out is the best solution. So I did something I've never, ever done before. I actually stuck my finger down my throat to make myself throw up. And thus, the coffee-ground vomitus. It actually looked just like coffee grounds! It was so disgusting that the sight of it made me vomit even more**.

Now, I have never seen or heard of coffee-ground vomitus before, so, being a little freaked out, I consulted Dr. Google. I was pretty sure that I didn't actually have yellow fever, which is the oft cited cause of black vomit, but other causes of upper GI tract bleeds were a possibility (coffee-ground vomitus is the result of an upper GI tract bleed of some kind, as the heme iron in the blood becomes oxidized by gastric acid, resulting in the lovely black vomit), . So then I decided that perhaps I should consult my personal physician, Dr. Kaede***. After a series of questions, she determined that a possible cause could be a bleeding ulcer, although it is odd for it to come on so suddenly (I hadn't had any stomach issues prior to this).

So, on Monday after suffering through a day of stomach pain (but no nausea, thankfully) at work, I went to a walk-in clinic****. I got a ride there from my personal nurse*****, who asked me the same questions as my personal physician and came to the same conclusion. Although she did point out that my ridiculously high caffeine intake (which is usually about 2 large travel mugs of coffee and a diet Pepsi per day, sometimes more) probably doesn't help the old GI tract. "But I've been drinking this much caffeine for 15 years," I said. "Yeah, and that's probably catching up to you now!"

I wait at the walk-in clinic for an hour and fifteen minutes so that the doctor can ask me all the same questions as I had gone through with Dr. Google, Dr. Kaede and my nurse. And then ordered a test for H. pylori******, the bacteria that causes ulcers. I wish I could have just ordered the test myself and saved that hour and fifteen minutes.

On the plus side, I was given the option of either a breath test or a blood test. Obviously, being even more of a needle-phobe than I am a vomit-phobe, I opted for a breath test. The drawbacks are that you have to fast for at least four hours and that you can't take any antacids before the test*******. A small price to pay for keeping needles out of my arm, in my opinion. So I went for my breath test today... they made me drink some radioactive drink and blow through a straw into a tube. As far as I can tell, the radioactive drink has not given me any superpowers... yet. Test results should be back in a day or two. I'm really hoping it is H. pylori, because it's fairly easy to treat - just a week of antibiotics and you are good to go. If it isn't that, who the hell knows! And I don't want to be dealing with this - it's not fun to have constant stomach pain and I have a half marathon to run in less than 3 weeks, but right now I can barely walk the three blocks from the bus stop to my office.

Also, my mother is convinced that I am hemorrhaging to death. She is sure that somehow running 18K caused my internal organs to be ripped apart and my death from blood loss is imminent. So now, on top of the non-stop stomach pain, I have to deal with that guilt that I'm worrying my mother. The stress of that is enough to give me an ulcer!

*You know you are an internet junkie when...
**This will not be a surprise to Sarah, who gave me the nickname "Flush" after that party in high school were I was puking and I kept flushing the toilet mid-puke because I didn't want to look at it.
***OK, she's not actually my personal physician. She's a friend of mine who also happens to be a physician
****Since I don't actually have a family doctor. I'd been going to Student Health Services, where I had the best doctor EVER, but I can't go there anymore since I'm no longer a student.
*****OK, she's not actually my personal nurse. She's a friend of mine who also happens to be a nurse.
******See picture at the start of this posting, which seems like ages ago!
*******I got to take the antacid (which is actually an H+, K+, ATPase inhibitor - a pretty powerful antacid) after the test, but it didn't really seem to help at all anyway.

I <3 Hydration.

So I ran 18 freaking kilometers today. All the way around UBC campus on SW/NW Marine Drive and all along the beaches there. In 2 hours, 1 minute and 43 seconds. I couldn't believe it. Last week it took me 2 hours and 5 minutes to run a mere 16K. How did I improve so much? I'm pretty sure that it's due to the fact that I actually brought water with me on this run. I hate carrying things when I run, so I bought one of those water bottles that comes with a belt and a holster so you can wear your water bottle. It's amazing what a little water can do on a 2 hour run! I also had a Power Gel that Danielle gave me to try - after the 1:50 mark, my legs were starting to feel like lead and I knew it was it was time for a little glucose action. I really liked it - it was vanilla flavoured and tasted kinda like pudding. Mmmmm, pudding. I think it also helped that it was beautiful and sunny out, there were so many people out running, biking, walking their dogs, and I was just totally pumped up for a good run. Something tells me that things won't be quite so nice when I do my long run next week out in Calgary (wait, scratch that... I just checked the forecast... while it is currently -3 degrees C in Calgary, they are predicting +11 and sunny for next Sunday... that won't be so bad!). Plus, when in Calgary I have a promise that mixed drinks will be waiting for me at the end of my long run...

In related news, I discovered when I got home from my run, that my training program actually called for me to do 12 km today, not 18. D'oh! Oh well, it was a great run! Perhaps I'll scale it back to 12 next week instead.

Also, Sarah & her friend Deepa went to Bowen Island while I was doing my long run. I've never been there before, but I hear it is beautiful. Can't wait for them to get back so I can hear all about it!

Quick, But Legitimate, Post

Did a lot of running around today. Both literally (i.e., 16 friggin' kilometers!!) and figuratively (after my run, I had to shower, grab some fruit to get my blood sugar back up and water to re-hydrate, run off to a meeting for the study that I'm participating in, then back home, grab a quick dinner and touch base with Sarah about her trip*/nylon delivery service, and now I'm quickly writing this before I head off to GM Place to watch the Canuck game! Live! Row friggin' 2!!** I know you are jealous. And I know that you know that I know you are jealous. Word to your moms.

*yay! only 4 more days 'til she's here!

**I've never watch a game from the lower bowl of GM Place before. So stoked!

Vancouver International Marathon!

I just registered for the Vancouver International (half) Marathon! I can't believe I'm actually going through with this!!! I must be crazy!!!

Training is becoming more challenging because (a) now that I have a job, I have a lot less time* for things like running and (b) my long runs are becoming, well, really long. I do my long runs on Sundays (or sometimes Tuesdays, if Saturday nights turn into a gong show). When my long runs got up to 12 k, I thought I was going to die. Then Danielle pointed out that I should be following the 10 and 1 plan (run for 10 minutes, walk for 1, repeat)... so I tried that the next week, when I had to run 14 k, and I felt sooo much better! The only problem was that I absolutely abhor looking at my watch when I run. It just totally stresses me out worrying about if I've run my 10 minutes or not. And it was Danielle to the rescue again! She suggested making a running playlist for my iPod that has 10 minutes of music, followed by 1 minute of something to walk to. So I put together a playlist of running music**, with 1 minute intervals of classical music for walking to... and it soooo rocked! Last week's long run was 16 k and after the 1 hour and 55 minutes that it took me, I didn't feel like I wanted to die (which I did after a mere 12 k of running straight) and I didn't have to get all stressed out looking at my watch... I could just relax and enjoy the beautiful sunset***.

Speaking of which, I should get out there and go for a run right now. Just a little 6 k today... no biggie. I can even return my overdue library book on the way. Hooray for multitasking! Try not to miss me too much while I'm gone. I'll give you a discussion topic to keep you busy in my absence: What songs should I add to my running playlist?

Oh ya, and just for the record, here's the route of the half marathon:

Ya, I must be crazy.

*yup, still haven't figured out how people with jobs get anything done.
**my playlist is heavy on the Groove Coverage, which is the best running music EVER!
***the giant holes in the ground where they are building the Canada Line were less enjoyable to look at.

Five Somewhat Related Things

1. I did my 16K run on Tuesday, because I really didn't feel up to it on Sunday, and I had a late work day, followed by a dinner meeting, on Monday. I have been ravenously hungry since Tuesday. I feel like I've done nothing but eat since then.
2. Speaking of eating, a friend of Danielle's came over last night and made us the most delicious dal for dinner. So. Freaking. Delicious.
3. Speaking of delicious, a new Tim Horton's has been built that is even closer to my place than the one on Broadway. They build those things ridiculously fast... on Saturday when I went by there, there were construction workers inside building the place, and it was open by Monday. It has been open since Monday and, would you believe, I haven't been there yet? And did I mention that it is right next to the liquor store*?? But that's OK, I'm pretty sure that I'll get there soon because...
4. ... it's only 7 more sleeps until Sarah gets here!
5. Then it's only 5 more sleeps until we go to Calgary. Dave is meeting us there. We are staying with Justin. I am assured that hijinks will ensue.

*i.e., one stop shopping

You Can See The Clouds In Front of the Mountains From My Office!

Thoughts on my day:

• because there was a chance that I might have to stay late for a meeting this evening, I decided to get up early* to go for a run before work as I didn't want to run in the dark after getting home late. Apparently someone is unfamiliar with the concept of "spring forward." I got up at 6:30 a.m. and it was pitch fucking black. But, being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to have my breakfast/make my lunch/do the dishes/pack my bag for work before I ran, thus giving it time to get light out. And I got into work by 9:30 am, which is half an hour earlier than I had expected to.
• Apparently there is a reason that "free coffee" isn't a listed benefit. I discovered today that apparently the kitchenette on my floor has a coffee maker that is just for show. My hallmates** informed me, when I inquired about the coffee making situation, that "it's just for desperation" and the coffee maker in the main office, three floors below us, is much better... well, you would have to be quite desperate, not to mention very creative, to make coffee on our floor, as there are coffee filters, but no coffee***. So I went to the main office for my morning coffee, but their coffee maker is quite small and since I'm sure that satisfying my coffee dependency by continually making pots of it is not in any of the support staff's job descriptions, when I required an afternoon caffeine jolt****, I made the trip to Timmy Ho's. It's a long, convoluted, subterranean route to the Timmy's... a series of tubes, if you will, not unlike the internets.
  
• I'm hoping that walking through said series of tubes to Timmy's, as well as taking the stairs up and down to my 6th floor office a few times a day will counteract the nonstop sitting and snacking that comes along with a computer-based office job, so that I won't gain 50 lbs a minute.
• I'm listening to the Canucks game on the radio as I compose this posting and this brings up two things: (a) I saw on their website that the Canucks have called up relative cutie Nathan Smith from the Manitoba Moose, and (b) the Canucks are playing the Wild and I can't hear Shorty or Larscheid say the name "Carney" without giggling. I keep picturing a carnie rather than Carney.
• while waiting for the bus this morning I learned that, apparently, Matt (whoever Matt may be) is ripped and has 3 nipples and someone else "luvs to spooge":
• After two days at work, I'm interesting in learning how the hell anyone gets anything done when they are working 8 hours a day on things unrelated to blogging and emailing? Anyone have any idea?
  

*Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are.
**Is that a word?
***There's instant, but I won't dignify that by calling it coffee. Hey, does anyone remember the brief period when Tetley made instant tea? What was up with that?
****as my early afternoon diet Pepsi just wasn't cutting it.

A few unrelated things

(a) So, I went out for a run today. Just a little 14 K*. In a torrential downpour. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoy running in the rain... You get awfully warm running and the rain is delightfully cool. There are only two drawbacks: (1) I get a lot of water in my shoes when the puddles are too large to jump (which they certainly were today) and having wet feet kinda sucks, (2) my hair turns into a knotted rat's nest if it gets anywhere near rain. How knotted, you ask? Take this for example - after my run, I was applying a half a bottle of conditioner to try to work out the knots in my hair. And apparently, in addition to not being trusted with knives, I should also not be trusted with my own hair. Check out the wound I received from trying to run my fingers through my knotty, knotty hair:



That's a hell of a hunk flesh to be ripped from one's finger!! My poor, poor finger!!

(b) On Friday night, I went to see a talk by Nobel Laureate, Carl Weimann. He talked about his research for which he won the Nobel Prize (he and his colleagues produced the first true Bose-Einstein condensate). Here is a picture of the "velocity-distribution data of a gas of rubidium atoms, confirming the discovery of a new phase of matter, the Bose–Einstein condensate." (taken from Wikipedia... I'm just including it here 'cuz (1) it looks cool and (2) it's in the public domain, so I can).

He also talked a lot about science education, as that is what he was recruited to UBC to study. The best part of the whole talk was when this completely belligerent audience member asked a series of long and rambling questions, including a diatribe about how he didn't believe any of what Dr. Weimann said about what makes an effective educator since we all know that being a dynamic speaker is the only thing that matters to being a good teacher, "SO ANSWER THAT MR. NOBEL LAUREATE!"**... to which Dr. Weimann responded there is plenty of solid data to support what he's said about education and so, "You can either say that you don't believe evidence or you can say that I'm right." Ha ha! Take that, belligerent audience member! Here's a pic I snapped at the talk - Dr. Weimann is the guy on the right:

(3) I bought a wicked pair of news shoes. For work. Ha ha... I just love saying that. Work. As in a job. As in employment, with a paycheque and benefits and challenging responsibilities and the need for appropriate footwear. I decided to buy a simple pair of black heels, ones that will go with pretty much any outfit I might wear to work. But, being the sexy shoe-obsessed girl that I am, I bought really shiny black shoes that are ever so slightly too high to be exactly considered conservative. Yes, I'm edgy like that.

After I bought my shoes at the trusty Payless, I strolled around Kingsgate Mall (I'd never been there before) and stumbled upon a shoe store that must have fallen from heaven***. Never before had I seen so many platform boots! Boots that make my boots look like nun's shoes. I was also very pleased to see that cork wedge heels are in fashion for another year... my eBay shoes will come out of mothballs once the rain, rain goes away!

(4) Damn, I was sure I had something else I wanted to blog about, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I'm going to blame the trauma of my above mentioned hand injury for this lapse in memory.

*That's over 8.5 miles for my American readers.
**I'm not even joking... the audience member actually yelled that, while pointing emphatically in Dr. Weimann's general direction.
***The "heaven" in my world my vary from yours.