Yeah, I'm feeling GOOOOOD today! I had my ten miler today, and it went
fabu! We volunteered for Love Em or Leave Em. That race has REALLY
grown in three years, and it was much better organized. We got free
entries to the Firecracker 5k, which is one of my favorite races. We
did registration, so we were done by 9:30. We went by the Starbucks
booth and had a sample of the skinny cinnamon dolce latte, and then I
took off. I ran around Greenlake then down (and up) Stone Way. Roy
took the car and parked at Fred Meyer in Ballard and biked to Speedy
Reedy and met me there. I ran down to Montlake then turned around to
run back to Fred Meyer on the BG Trail. I didn't want too many hills,
since I'm just getting my sea legs back. The first five miles sucked
the big wongarino. I couldn't quite figure it out, but the HR was
high, my legs were heavy and I just wasn't feeling great. Finally I
decided that since it was actually quite warm, I'd take off the
stabilizer I've been wearing and Hal-ay-freaking-lou-yah! I couldn't
BREATHE enough! It was like suddenly I was "normal" again. I handed
it, dripped with sweat (it's neoprene, so it also dehydrates the hell
out of me) and handed it to Roy (who was completely grossed out that
my sweat touched him), and tied my jacket tightly around my waist to
hold in my "parts" so they wouldn't fall out. Hampton needs a bra of
his own, I think. What a HUGE difference! Suddenly I could breathe,
and therefore my heart didn't have to work overtime to get poorly
oxygenated blood to my poor legs! The cramp in my quad stopped, and I
just felt "normal!" Sure, my legs felt all ten of those miles, and I
have a very tight IT band singing a sad song at me right now, but
that's more like "after effects" of running ten miles, not "Oh I have
lost all my fitness and I suck and I am starting to kind of not like
this running thing" which is what I've been feeling lately. I've had a
few "okay" runs, but most of them have really been challenging.

So I think my Love Em shirt will just be tied around my waist (since
it's a large and looks like a dress on me) and the stabilizer is going
to be retired. I ended up running 10.8 miles, then hopping on the bike
and doing almost 3 just to spin out my legs and see if my cold weather
gear was going to suffice. It was warm today, but at that point it was
VERY windy. Worked great. So I'm not dreading out first bike ride any
more.

Went out to Todai afterwards and I inhaled some sushi and made short
work of them mini-desserts. I love mini-desserts. I can have
cheesecake, chocolate cake, flan, a cookie, and a peach tart and it
all just equals one normal dessert. Plus they are very cute. I noticed
that the sushi has also become mini-sushi. Hmm. I actually didn't
inhale as much sushi as I normally do.

While I was running my cutey husband had a bag of candy hearts, and
every once in awhile he'd hand me one that said "True Love" or "My
Love" 'cause he's sweet like that. It was very endearing.

Oh and I did NOT get a pinch flat, which makes me feel all macho or
facho or fecho...what's the female term for macho? The last time I
changed a tire was on my mt bike when I put road slicks on it, and as
I recall that was a multi-hour job and did include a variety of very
colorful terms. In fact, I think the EPA may have sent us a warning
letter because I turned the sky over our neighborhood a deep purple
with my noxious language.

OOOOH! And on the way home I saw two deer; a big buck and his squeeze!
They were beautiful! I do tend to get all squealy and "Look! LOOK! OH
MY GOSH! LOOK!" over wildlife. I also saw a hawk eat something out of
the sewer reservoir (altogether now....awwwwwwwwwww), and a BIG blue
heron take flight (yes, I know they're as common as pigeons but I
think they're beautiful and REALLY cool looking when they take off),
and a dead rat. Well, that last one wasn't quite as a cool. It was
sort of dead...and ratty looking and I almost stepped on it as I ran,
but um, the others were neat!