loaded.

i'm eating myself silly. last night marks the first occassion in recent memory that i've ordered pasta for dinner.

and man, was it good. we ate at giorgione and i had OCTOPUS to start, and theni had the risotto with scallops, mushrooms and asparagus. i finished it off with PUMPKIN gelato. my friends, it was so much yum i could barely handle it.

normally, im all about protein and salad and super mostly boring. but not here, and not now.

if you're going to carb load, might i suggest NEW YORK for the occassion? yumster.


ps. i feel like a beluga whale with all this "stored energy." and now? i'm off to little italy to meet a bunch of friends and get even fatter.

cheers~

restless brains syndrome.

i guess this is one of the first fridays in a really long time where i've actually been OK to stay up late, seeing as my scheduled training run tomorrow is only 3 miles.

i'm a little bit freaking out, i have to say. all the articles i've read so far are like, DONT FREAK OUT. YOU NEED TO CONSERVE ENERGY. EAT MORE. RUN LESS. but it feels, like, really weird. i feel like i need to run at least 10 miles tomorrow.


but no.

so yesterday, i was scheduled for a 3 mile run, but instead, i ran 4, you know. and also?? i increased my pace. just to satisfy my crazy brains. i had visions of myself running around the SMU campus, but i didn't want to get lost and totally miss my appointed meetings, so i treadmilled it up and ended up racing myself, per usual.

so i think tomorrow will be a leisurely run. all the articles, books and etc. i've read SAID THAT IS SHOULD BE SO.



we'll see. my running leggs are itching to go.


here's my whole running log. yeah, i did that.

might wanna skip this one.

i did my last long training run today. the next long run i do will be 26.2 miles. i did 20 today relatively pain-free and i've never felt so good in my entire life.

yeah.

kinda like that.

so maybe i'll expand a bit. and also, guess what! only three weeks left of training and then I WILL BE DONE TALKING ABOUT MARATHONING! hall lay fvkcing loo yah.

ok, so aaron is shooting a film this weekend (the one he had to drop 10 lbs. for, making him extra scrawny and sickly-looking) so he opted out of the final training run (which is fine, he's good to go for the 'thon.) so i arranged to run with heather & brian, which is great because they tend to pace slower than me and i was hoping to do this last big one slow and stready indeed. oh and also? a much-needed change of scenery.

so we started in hermosa and the plan was to turn around at the marina. they even "hid" refreshments in the bushes to give us something to look forward to at 10.2 miles.

honestly, most of the run was pretty uneventful. it was BLISSFULLY uneventful because my knee pain that normally kicks in around 12-13 miles was dormant until 19.2. NINETEEN POINT TWO. i have never run more than 14 miles without having the onset of pain, and therefore, this will go down as MY BEST RUN EVER. im guessing the marathon will BE EVEN BETTER, but we will bask in the glow of this one for the next three weeks, won't we? OH YES WE WILL.

so anyway, i ran the slower pace with them most of the time. i would take my walk breaks and then have no problem catching back up to them. once we hit the turnaround point, i was feeling pretty awesome. i had my powergel and refilled my water bottle with powerade and we made our way.

we hit 11 and then 12 and then 13 miles and i was still pain-free, so somewhere around 13, i decided to run my regular pace. except, instead of averaging 10.5-11 minute miles, i was hovering around 9 minute miles for the final 7 miles. it felt so amazing. when i hit 16, 17 and 18 and was still pain-free, i realized i had been running with a high for about 5 miles and it was honestly, the best feeling ive ever known while running. i felt powerful and i felt energized.

by the time my knee pain set in, i was so close to the end it didn't even matter. i powered through and hit the 20-mile marker at 3 hours and 27 minutes (average of 10:22 per mile). heather and brian rolled in about 11 minutes later. yeah.

so what did i do different? well, last night i hung out at borders while aaron & eddie filmed the movie at our place (a story for another day). i just happened to pick up a book called "CHI RUNNING" it's AWESOME. it literally changed the way i ran today. i also got new shoes on tuesday (asics gel kayanos, my FAVORITE), i broke them in by running a 10-mile and a 4-mile run this past week, and they were probably to blame for a mostly pain-free run as well.

what i didn't do: pop ibruprofen the whole time. thank god. doing that scares me.

so there you have it. i just got done getting an hour-long deep tissue massage and i have a date for fat fish FATTY HOUR in a few hours and im going to drink some sake and CELEBRATE with heather & brian.

i am glowing.

miles on these leggs.

this is my legs on 18 miles of running and limping and shuffling and etc.



3 hours, 3 minutes & 30 seconds.

i sleep now.

i run in my sleep.

aaaaand i did my 16-mile run this weekend. aaaaand i didn't totally suck at it, which was a nice accomplishment. so now! i bask a little in the glory of accomplishment, and then! i prepare to run 18 this saturday.


MARATHON TRAINING IS SO MUCH FUN!

total running miles this week: 35
total "other" miles: 9.5
total miles total: 44.5

hot damn.


333.4 total training run miles down, 150.2 to go.

gu! such a funny word.

the last time i attempted to do a 16-mile training run, i failed miserably. the stupid IT band pain started up around mile 11 and i was only woman enough to power through to 14.4 miles before i threw my hands in the air and gave up. it was quite devastating, actually, and i am still a little haunted by it.

since then, ive successfully completed a 12-mile run (alone, i might add, as aaron was doing his play) and a 14-mile run. so i'm feeling apprehensive, but fairly excited, about my upcoming 16-miler this friday.


in addition to a delirious sense of certainty, i also have the following items accompanying my on my big run:

• (1) husband of hearty fortitude
• (1) BRAND NEW VIDEO iPOD NANO in silver, natch
• (1) hot new playlists on above-mentioned nano (courtesy of husband)
• (1) sexy knee strap to alleviate IT band inflamation
• (3) different types of energy items (not all will be consumed at once)

• (1) bottle of accelerade
• (1) new pair of asics (2000 series)
• (8) capsules of Vitamin I (ibruprofen, that is)
• (1) renewed sense of confidence

so i guess, if nothing else, i am good at buying stuff to make myself feel better about myself.

why i love marathon training. no, seriously.

so i'm starting to think that all the insanity of training for this marathon is finally making sense. ponder the evidence, if you will.



1. i "get" to eat all the damn time. granted, i'm gaining weight in weird places and my jeans are getting too small in the quads (as a bonus they are LOOKING "really big," according to my chiro. um f*ck you very much, dr.)



2. i've been getting more massages than a squirrel has nuts, which i have to tell you, DOES NOT SUCK. does not suck at all. in fact! today i had probably the most amazing massage of my entire life. to be fair, there have been times when i've had THE BEST TACO BELL TACO OF MY ENTIRE LIFE or BEST CAN OF UNIDENTIFIABLE CANNED FOOD OF MY ENTIRE LIFE, but let's be honest, i was probably pretty drunk at those times. my point being, this may or may not have been the best massage of my entire life, but when juxtapose the fact that i was up at 6a to run 14 miles today, the relative AWESOMENESS probably triples. nay, quadruples. (get it? QUAD....right.)



3. every week, i do more by 9a than most people do all day. [insert weird creepy glee here]



4. i'm starting to become "familiar" with venice & santa monica beach bums, runners, cyclists and SAVE THE [WHATEVER] campaigners. i get to be a psuedo beach person without losing my, well, soul. ....SCORE.



5. unlike my quads, which may or may not be huge and may or may not fit in my jeans, my calves are looking pretty badass. i rather enjoy watching myself flex and unflex them in the mirror at the gym. did i just admit that? well, it's true. additionally, new side-of-the-thigh muscles are emerging and if i stand at the right angle in the right light, you might mistake me for someone pretty awesome, such as bruce jenner. actually, i hope you don't mistake me for bruce jenner, maybe someone a little less, um, manly and QUADly.

here comes a sucker.

my post-run* saturday was a particularly productive day, as evidenced by the awesome blog posts i scraped together for your reading enjoyment. in fact, it was so productive that i managed to watch 3 solid hours of big brother after dark, read approx. 18 big brother blogs, take a nap, eat some delicious boxed thai food and then! only then! was i able to actually leave my house to amble over to the hole-in-the-wall nail joint 1.5 blocks away from my house.


i haven't been to this particular fine establishment in about a year, and i guess a lot can happen in 365 days. they had added some pretty impressive new amenities. such as! massage chairs! people magazines from the current calendar year! a flat screen tv with cable access! etc! also! whilst getting my nails did, the kindly korean lady asked if i wanted her to massage my road-weary feets and calves longer. um, hellz yeah i did! so she went about 10 minutes longer than usual as i sunk into a state of zen-like nirvana.


at the end of it all, i floated over to the old-time ATM to take out some cash to pay for what i thought would be a $12 pedicure, and hey! you know what? it's actually $28, please. uh. i guess that's why she specifically asked if i wanted to sit in the massage chair vs. the regular chair and then that's why she specifcally told me that the 10-minute extra massage would actually be "ten dollah" more. maybe that's why they said top secret things about me in korean and then giggled about it way longer than they should have. (giggled all the way to the bank, sucker!)

i guess the old adage still holds true. there's no such thing as a free korean massage.

and/or maybe i should leave my "here comes a sucker" t-shirt at home next time i pony up to get my nails did.



*ps. i did actually run 1o miles and then go to the gym for a half hour to work on my fitness before morphing into a couch blob, just so you know.

scene of the crime:

it's about that time.

Dear marathon training program,

Where does it make sense that when you run upwards of 25 miles a week that you are allowed to gain weight? Shouldn’t the fact that I’m running circles around my former, skinnier self be enough to put me in the Nicole Richie pre-pregnancy weight class? Does it make sense that I have a growing paunch-belly even though I have no actual BABY inside me?? About as much sense as lindsay lohan getting a DAY of jail time for being a coked-out car chaser, you stupid hard core bastard.

Ps. I love you, please don’t hurt my knees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear every single kind of food in the universe,

Please stop looking, smelling and tasting so good. Stop making me hunger every single one of the 24 hours in a day. Especially 3:45AM. No one should be hungry at this hour. Even if you’re stupid drunk and at a pizza place. Well, maybe just then. And only then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear labor day weekend,

Get here faster. Momma wants her palm springs pool vacation, like now. K THX BAI.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear car,

Fix your stupid blinker before someone rear ends the living hell out of us. It’s getting scary and I don’t want to do one of those arm-outside-the-window moves to signal that I’m turning left. I’d rather get the living hell rear ended out of me. Yes, I’m THAT adverse to arm movements whilst in a moving vehicle. I blame the “FLUME” ride at Valleyfair in Minnesota.



Story for another time.

Are you still here? Go fix yourself already!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear co-workers,

I’m so glad you are all just as inappropriate as I am, and some of you, even moreso. I love you all the most. Except for YOU, the one who seems to have lost their personality somewhere along the way, and YOU, who sounds like a pig getting slaughtered when you laugh (shut your door already). The rest of you, I love.

Ps. Thanks for the drinks. You know what? Thanks for the memoooooorieeeeees too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear big brother 8,

please continue to be awesome. i don't think it's possible for you to be any more awesome, but if you could muster a up just a little more awesome, that would be enough awesome to make me explode, and that would make for really great TV. like i told one of my big brother fan friends, sometimes i'm actually convinced that I am on big brother and you are all WATCHING me. it's this kind of warped reality you bring to my life, so thx. oh, and also, please replace every instance of "awesome" in this letter with "soul-sucking."

K THX BAI!

milestones.

i did my longest run ever today. we logged 15 miles in 2 hours, 25 minutes and 30 seconds. it went surprisingly well, minus the nagging knee pain that appeared at about 14.3 miles.

i have to say, it felt awesome getting to 13, and the 14 and then achieving a new "1st."

now we're off to a wine tasting and then some good old hollywood bar hopping to celebrate that which is awesome. plus, we'll be cheap dates considering we burned all of our daily calories already today. awesome tooooown.


15 miles and 7 weeks down...... 11 miles and 11 weeks to go.


marathon me, baby!

i could eat horse.

ruby: ill tell you what
ruby: i could eat horse

tenna: I am STARVING too and I ate breakfast and a snack
tenna: did you work out this morning?

ruby: yes i ran 4 miles
ruby: and it was painful
ruby: because i had too much wine last night

tenna: that's probably why
tenna: HAHAHA
tenna: do you want a granola bar?

ruby: no im hungry for horse, like i said

tenna: like specifically for horse?

ruby: yes. preferably horse breast
ruby: white meat

tenna: with a nice gravy?

ruby: that's sick
ruby: but yes

tenna: eww, ok I am dry heaving over here!

foam rolling.

i spent a good portion of yesterday in anxious anticipation of waking up at 6a today to go for my training run. see, i knew that i had fabulous something something going on tonight, and tuesday is a training day, which by my math 1+1 = means a sistah has gotsta get her ass out of bed early and log the good miles, goddamnit.

so i did. i woked up, jumped outta bed directly INTO my shoes, sleek black shorts & tank and was two blocks away before i even know'd i had woked up. and! green day was on the mutha effing iPod. ya heard that? punk rock for breakfast, b*tches.

ok i will stop talking like that.

anyway, it was just a four-mile loop, and it was actually quite nice out, so it was no thang, no thang. no thang but a chicken WANG.



additionally, i got a foam roller in the mail yesterday and spent a good portion of last night rolling out the tight areas in my IT bands, calves and lower back. f*cking love my foam roller. so much? i'm going to sleep with it tonight. maybe.





NOT LIKE THAT YOU DIRTIES!

ps. self myofascial release SOUNDS dirty, but it isn't. MFR deets



so, obviously, my run today was magical. just ... magical.

i haven't actually run outside in quite some time (treadmill, much?) and all i kept thinking was, hey this is pretty neat, i should do THIS more often.

like, a duh.

running crazy.

assuming my friend can definitely get me an entry bib, i do believe i just commited to running the NYC marathon.

my eighteen week training schedule officially starts on monday 7/2.

i logged 7.7 miles today. only 18.5 less than an actual marathon.

holy shit.

additionally, i am planning to jump out of a plane this summer.

crazy, much?