Hello

I don't know what I'm doing with this blog. Which is rather par for the course as I don't know what I'm doing with myself most days. I do what I can.

All I know is that I've been told I should blog more. And I've been itching to write. I know I abandoned this last year. Let's just say I lost access to a lot of stuff when Facebook suspended my original profile for daring to place a dollar amount donation goal on my page. (Either that or someone was so offended by my posts, they reported them.)

So, bear with me while I figure out where I'm going. I'll be back soon. Until then . . .

Mid Week Training: Hill Repeats #1

Please forgive the influx of posts you're about to receive. Now that I have pictures, I can get caught up!

Now our mid weeks have gone from conditioning to hill training. What is hill training, you may ask?

In short, it's a mild form of torture.

There's a hill just down from Brookside Club House that runs parallel to the Rose Bowl loop. TNT members call it the Hard Knock Hill.

I can say I was extremely nervous. There had been talk about aqua jogging being done instead since I was still battling my shin splints, but I found myself at the bottom of the hill staring up and up and up.

We were supposed to run up and then walk down. Gaily, Janet, and I got to walk because we're injured turtles. But don't think it was an easy walk. We moved at a good pace.

The first two times were decent. The hill couldn't really compare to the area I live in and the massive, steep hills I've dragged my butt up before.

The third one, however, started to ache in earnest. I'm pretty sure my calves were revolting against the incline.

Nevertheless, we made it through all five, even if we were the last ones to be done.

Next week is six!

Practice #5: Seventy Five Minutes

We have come to our last day of timed runs. Next practice starts the mileage. I'm excited and nervous, but this week was a big week. For several reasons.

First of all, I went to Run With Us Thursday morning and was fitted for some insoles. Now, I've had orthotics suggested to me, but I have a good reason for being iffy on those. I don't have pain every moment of every day. If simple walking were painful, I would consider them, but since the pain is only during running, there's really no reason for them. I tried a few and ended up with a pair of Superfeet. Thursday night, when I went for my run, there was some pain, but it was so minimal compared to everything I've felt that I hesitate to call it pain. Either way, I was able to actually run one-one intervals!

I cried at the end of the workout because I realized I can really do this.

Saturday morning, when we met, it was freezing. I kept moving with a patch of sun, desperate to stay in it, as evidenced by my different positions in these photos.

We got updated on our team fundraising total. (Hopefully, Tink will be all the way at the top by the end of the season.)

Then, the mission moment was mine to give. Since my friend Katie is a leukemia survivor, she is my honored teammate. I was worried I would start crying while I told her story, but luckily I was able to get through it without any tears. (Afterward, our LLS chapter head, Sarah, told me she knew the type of leukemia Katie had and started crying, thinking I was giving an "In Memoriam" moment.)

Bombur the Mascot

If you guys don't remember, I used this gif in the beginning of my journey to describe how I felt running.

Let's be honest, that feeling hasn't changed.

Now, you all know how much I love anything Tolkien, especially The Hobbit. (You're going to get a background story here, Just go with it. I'm an English major; it happens.) When I saw the first "Hobbit" movie, I noticed this guy in the background during the dinner party just eating. Everyone is staring in awe at the key Gandalf gives Thorin, and this guy is staring at a hard boiled egg in his hand. The food has long been cleared away, and he somehow has food in his hand and is chewing in the background.

This is Bombur, descendant of the Dwarves of Moria. He is introduced in the first chapter of the book as "immensely fat and heavy" (which is good for a dwarf) and later they describe him running for his life as "poor Bombur, who was fat, and staggered along with the sweat dripping down his nose in his heat and terror." He is constantly described just so throughout the story, and his portrayal in the movie was perfect.

So, when I saw this snippet at the beginning of the second movie, I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard. And, of course, it reminded me of this:

But it gets even better! I was watching the Behind the Scenes featurette for this (yes, I am that person) and the actor actually ran with that huge fat suit on. Peter Jackson told everyone else to run as fast as they could and then told Stephen Hunter to run faster. And when everyone else laughed and doubted he could do it, HE PASSED THEM BY! They did four takes and each time, he put the speed on and went for it.

Bearing that in mind, I decided he needed to become my running mascot!

And a friend of mine agreed to draw Bombur in TNT gear for me. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you Katherine's wonderful art!

He even knows how to rock the cowbells!

I am absolutely in love. He's going up on the sidebar of this blog. I think I will have to bring him along to the actual race too!

Go, Bombur, go!

Mid Week Practice: Conditioning #4

Last week of conditioning! Woo hoo!

Not really, because I actually enjoyed all of the exercises we learned. I always felt like it loosened and stretched everything out. Hill training is coming next and just the name sounds scary.

Scott was our head coach tonight. And only one of my teammates and I showed up. It was a very low key evening of conditioning.

(I can't resist the dwarves and I'm not going to apologize.)

We did one rep of most of the exercises. The three of us were having trouble keeping count and we had the ever constant threat of stray soccer balls coming toward us. It was a good night, if a little short.

Now on to hill training. (Yikes!)