My First Marathon

A marathon is quite the experience. I don't think that there is a more beautiful marathon to run than the Tucson marathon. But man, do you pay for that beauty. You pay with every step as you perform a 26.2 mile semi-controlled fall down a mountain. I spent as much time as I could reminding myself to look around and enjoy the time. The view is of the North side of the Santa Catalinas and no spectators for miles at a time. It's just quiet and beautiful.

I'm quite proud of myself over this one actually. I was so nervous the night before that I didn't sleep more than an hour. There was no need to be nervous though. Brian joined me at the half marathon mark and ran the last half with me. It was a real treat as we don't usually run together. He had kept telling me in the weeks leading up to it but I was stubbornly refusing to believe him: I had trained the hell out of this event. I was ready. I was at the peak fitness of my life I think. All it felt like that day was a little longer than usual training run.

I won't lie to you though. Everything you've ever heard about the last 6 miles is true. The mile markers seem to come at about 5 miles apart, and I almost had a mental break down when I saw the mile 22 sign. I could have sworn that we had already past that one and that sign was supposed to say mile 23. I don't like to think too long what would have happened to my disposition had Brian not been there, quietly laughing at my manic moment and reassuring me that no, the race directors were not repeating the same mile marker sign over and over.

I had the best 'curb crew' ever. My dad, Carolee, Steve, Denise and Ryder were there the whole time cheering me on and joining me for portions of the run. You guys truly made the miles go by faster. Thank you.

I'll close with some ripped-off pictures. I just love the first picture because the photographer caught Brian while he was trying to get out of the photo.

2008 Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving in Mesa. It stormed all the night before. I was resigned to not participating in the run, as it wasn't that important to me that I would run through a downpour. Steve and Denise showed up, ready to do their 2-mile event. Well, Steve was eventually ready to do his 2-mile event after some convincing and some borrowing of apparel.

The streets were soaked, but there was no rain falling as we waited for the 1-mile and then the 2-mile events to take place. Brian convinced me to do a little bit of warm-up running. This breaks a time-honored tradition for me. For the last 4 years, any warm-up infringed on my energy stores for the race. This year, 6.2 miles just isn't that long, so I needed to loosen up my legs.

This is the first year that they used timing chips for the Turkey Trot. I love timing chips. I can sit back and let the pushing at the start line happen without me. Brian still got up towards the front. He dislikes having to weave for the first 2 miles around strollers and walkers that push their way to the front of the line for some unknown reason.

And now I understand Brian's reasoning. For this entire race, I passed people. It felt really good to be making what felt like an effortless push to run steady and fast. I had an ipod meltdown at the beginning so I did this race in silence. Well... almost silence. Silence if not for all the huffing and puffing that people were doing around me.

I had meant to run about 10 minute miles for the first 5 miles and then push as hard as I could for the last 1.2 miles. So the first mile I was a little frustrated with how often I was getting stuck behind walls of runners running side-by-side. It didn't seem like I was working that hard, I was hardly even breathing. So I was sure when I got to the 1-mile mark, I would see 11 or more minutes on my watch. So I was pleasantly surprised - and then worried - when I saw 9:20. Oh well, it felt good, I would just keep that up and as soon as it got hard, I would back off the pace and still be able to come back strong on the last mile.

It was perfectly cloudy and cool, but I still got pretty warm and thirsty around mile 4. At this point, I was still right around 9:20 pace so I stopped and walked for a minute to have a cup of water. After all, my goal was just to break 10-minute pace.

So I start running again and around 5.5 miles, I see Brian. I wave to him because he's not even looking for me. He looks surprised to see me. I ask him how he did and of course, he has no idea. He doesn't wear a watch. (We find out later that he broke his P/R as well.) He tells me that I'm really moving. It doesn't really feel like it except when I hit the tiny little uphills. He leaves me with the last .2 miles to go and I put everything I have left into running hard up the final hill. I see a guy panic when he sees the hill and falter. I'm determined to pass him strong. I do.

There's a little bit of confusion when I see there are two timing mats at the finish. Which mat should I push stop on? In confusion (and maybe low blood glycogen), I end up pushing stop some time after I have crossed both mats. Oh well. It's chip-timed. They'll have that information online later that day.

I look down at my watch and am amazed. I have just ran a 58:07 10k. Almost 7 minutes faster than my previous best this February. My final pace is 9:22. My goal was to just break 10 minutes. What a great feeling that was. I felt great after the race. Perhaps I could have gone faster if I wasn't worried what that would do to the marathon a week from today.

It seems like running has been part of my life longer than the 4 years, 3 months that it has. I'm enjoying it more and more and noticing fundamental changes in my body in terms of bone and tendon strength. I've also noticed a huge difference in cardiovascular capacity. I'm excited to see what the next 4 years hold in store.

Committed

After keeping it a half-secret for the past 3 months or so, I'm openly committed to running the Tucson Marathon this year.
I'm still very nervous but my body is holding up extremely well in the training runs so here goes. December 7th is the big day. Check back after then for the update.

Financial Security

I recently happened upon a nice little article about the simplest tips on building personal wealth. http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105934/10-Reasons-You%27re-Not-Rich

These tips are simple, but very hard to live by sometimes. The greatest enemy to building wealth is our humanness. Of course we know that one of the best ways to build wealth is to not spend too much, but we are human. We want that iPhone and we want it now.

I would add to this article that it is so much easier to grow wealth than to create it. Not having any monthly payments frees up almost all of your income to invest, or to buy that iPhone. At that point, you've deserved it, you've done the hard work to get to that point.

Enjoy.

It's all in my head

The long-standing notion of why a runner could only run so far and/or so fast was that lactate built up in the muscles and thus, created a physical barrier to how far the runner can go. There were other theories, but they were all about some sort of physical limitation to endurance.

Great theories, but it turns out that these physical limits have been very hard to measure consistently. The researchers in this article think they know why: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--12848-0,00.html

These researchers think that your mind is doing all this stuff to your body, not the other way around. They think that basically, your mind calculates what it thinks it can do and how long it can do it for and then forces that to happen.

I've felt this forced end before in several runs. It's the time that I really just want to stop although I'm not out of breath, I don't feel overheated and nothing is hurting. I just have this overwhelming desire to stop running immediately.

This is good stuff. This means that if I can convince my brain that I'm in no danger of dying if I run 26 miles, then I will be able to do it. I'm not sure it's that easy, but so far it has worked for shorter distances. The first time I ran 18 miles, the 6 miles that I ran THE NEXT DAY seemed like the shortest, easiest miles I've ever done. I'm convinced it's because my brain was all ready for feeling like I did on the 18, but I never got there.

Perhaps this is where good old-fashioned meditation comes in. If I can get the positive and confident thoughts to the front of my brain before I embark on a run, perhaps the calculations made about how long I can go can be affected.

Happy running.

What I did this summer

Other than spending way too much time in Japan for work, I was able to take a week-long road trip with my lovely husband.

The impetus for the trip was the SPIE photonics + optics conference in San Diego. I know, sounds fun, huh? Brian was scheduled to give a talk on 'A planar "on-chip" refractometer using an organic light emitting diode light source and an organic photovoltaic detector' at the conference.

Brian decided that we should have some more fun leading up to the conference, and I suggested something with a shorter title than his presentation had. So we ended up camping for two nights at Sequoia National Park.

The weather was beautiful and there were plenty of these massive trees to look at and... well, yes... hug.

Now for a little tree lesson. First - the coastal redwoods - the tall ones, those are sequoias too. Specifically "Sequoia Sempervirens". That species contains the tallest trees in the world. We didn't see those on this trip. But, a little over 400 miles from those trees, you'll find Sequoia National Park. In this park, sequoia refers to "Sequoiadendron Giganteum", or the giant sequoia. These trees are the largest individual plants by volume in the world. The largest tree by this standard is the General Sherman.

The trees aside, Sequoia Natl is still a great place to do some camping and hiking. To view the trees, the park has put 40 miles of maintained trails around the grove containing the largest of the trees. This makes for very scenic hiking.

And... She's... Down.

I was so dead-set against the idea that my painful throat could possibly be strep that I refused to think about it. Until the middle of last Wednesday night. This is when it started to feel like swallowing would be okay if I could just get around the 7" chef knife that was lodged sideways in my throat. I'm not even exaggerating that much. It was some of the worst pain that I've ever had.
Luckily, I have a very generous friend who happens to be a doctor. Said friend is so generous that she offered to see me the same day that I pose questions to her about the white nasty-looking stuff on my throat Thursday morning. I'm convinced that I'm being a terrific wimp but a combination of Brian's nagging and all the web sites that list horrible complications of untreated strep, finally cajole me to take her up on her offer and drive across town and let someone stick a swab into my throat. (Did I mention that said generous friend was also covering for another absent doctor that day? I'm talking GENEROUS. Thank you, friend.)
Anyway, after the medical assistant had gathered enough of my germs on the swab and taken it back for THE TEST, I started filling out the forms for the doctor. This was kind of a funny part because the forms are asking about medical history of me and my family. This doctor happens to know my family. Even the crazy ones. So when the form asks about any known mental issues in my family, it's hard not to write something like "duh" in that blank. But I refrain so the form is completely professional.
So in waltzes the doctor looking pleased as punch because... I have strep. She pledges to me that she doesn't look happy because of my suffering but rather she thought she would never hear the end of it if she had talked me into coming to her office for her to advise me to "go home and take some aspirin and rest". I also think there was a little bit of glee because of how adamant I had been that "this could not possibly be strep throat, because I've had that before and I know, this is not strep".
Two days of antibiotics later, and I can swallow without excruciating pain. Another day and I can swallow without excruciating pain without even ibuprofen! And on my next-to-last day of antibiotics and I can almost remember what feeling good feels like.

Lessons learned:
1. 15-hour work days are not the best idea if you "feel something coming on".
2. It's okay to take ibuprofen when you are in pain.
3. When you're sick, you are SUPPOSED to sleep a lot. Let go.
4. I have one of the kindest friends around. Thanks doc.

Tiananman Square

Here are Brian and his parents with their very serious "Chairman Mao faces" on.
This is actually a picture of Tiananman Gate which is across the street from the square.
A very interesting place. Very historical and I thought, emotionally-charged place. There were lots of people that were "fixing their camera" for long periods of time. I guess it's known that there are plain-clothed police in the square listening for any sign of dissent but it was still weird to actually be able to spot some of them.

The Great Wall!

What an amazing experience. We just got back from our China trip and everything seems kind of like it was a dream.

The highlight of the trip for me was The Great Wall. It all seems unreal that I was actually standing on this centuries-old structure.

I hope this is not the section that they run the great wall marathon on because it was very steep stairs the entire length of this section, no flat parts here.

Spaghetti & Beanballs

Brian and I ventured out a little from the usual oatmeal and bean burritos tonight. We made Spaghetti & Beanballs from Veganomicon. Some of the strangest-sounding recipes in this book make some of the tastiest food!

At first, Brian expressed a little hesitation. Then when I pointed out that they were completely smooth and devoid of any gristly bits that you get with meat or sausage, he grew to like them. In fact, by the end of the meal we were both in agreement that we liked them much more than sausage or meatballs. Of course it could be that we are completely brain-washed by Isa's funny and energetic recipe introductions... I really recommend the cookbook to anyone that likes to experiment with food.

Bon appetit!

Resting metabolic rate

I had to post this little blurb because I know I've been victim to believing this before...
When I first started dating Brian, for example, I was amazed as to how much he could eat and remained as thin as could be. "Lucky him", I'd say to myself as I tried to refrain from eating that second brownie.
After a few years, this darn voice in the back of my head - you know, the one that uses reason - keeps telling me that perhaps Brian's body type has a whole lot more to do with his perpetual motion than anything he's got going in his genes. And it turns out that reason prevails again.
The following summary appeared in a Runner's World blog:

Don't Read This If You Want To Blame Your Metabolic Rate For The Extra Pounds
Many overweight people blame their resting metabolic rate for their problems, insisting they just weren't meant to be lean. Those folks won't like this new report from the well known Pennington Biomedical Research Center. The researchers followed 10 lean and 10 obese women over 14 days, measuring both their resting metabolic rates (RMR) and their total daily energy expenditure (RMR plus movement calories). Result: There was little difference in RMRs between the lean and obese women. However the obese sat 2.5 hours more per day than the lean, stood 2 hours less, and moved about half as much. The difference amounted to about 300 calories per day. And that, of course, is equivalent to 31 pounds a year.
Source: Obesity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18223609

LDM 2008

Brian and I traveled to East Mesa this weekend to participate in the Lost Dutchman Marathon events. While none of us actually do the marathon, the whole family participates in three of the five races.
Missing this year was Steve and Denise. Steve, everyone missed your exuberant cheering for the runners. And Denise, I thought about you about a zillion times while I was running (especially the dirt hill at the turnaround - arrgghh - the hill). I forgive you for not being there this year (9 months and 7 days pregnant, after all) but you were sorely missed.
Dale, Barb, dad and Carolee participated in the 2 mile fun run/walk. Barb mentioned after the event that she is interested in walking the 8k next year. (I have to write that down here in case she suffers from amnesia next year.)
I ran the 10k and barely squeaked into a new P/R. I feel really calmly happy about it. Last week, I had a long conversation with myself concerning my expectation that every race will be better than the last, and beating myself up if it's not. It seems to have worked because I didn't even look up my last P/R to compare it with as soon as I got home. Now this is an attitude I can carry with me until I'm 85.
The big news is of course, Brian. We all blew it again and left the race with everyone forgetting that Brian would most definitely be receiving an award at the awards ceremony. He earned himself 2nd in his age division - 4TH OVERALL!!! He's freaking insane! Brian finished the half in 1:24:25 - an average pace of 6:26 per mile. This from a guy who was telling me he wasn't prepared to race this distance.

And while I'm away...

...Brian will play.

I gave Brian an auto-darkening welding helmet for his birthday this year. (Well actually, Chrissy gave Brian the helmet which I had purchased before hand since I'm in god-forsaken Northern Germany.)
It looks like he likes it and wears it everywhere. Even to brunch with his parents.

What's left of the wall.

I went to Berlin last Sunday and got to see where the wall was. There's a chunk of it saved outside of a store right near Brandenburg Gate. You've probably seen Brandenburg Gate before. It's the big arch that is always behind Hitler in his speeches.
Anyway, it's very cool and kind of unbelievable to stand in a spot that has changed so significantly in my lifetime.
It was kind of a quick trip but while we were in Berlin, we also saw the monument with the big gold angel on top and olympic stadium.
The weather was nasty though so we only got a little bit of time to walk around when it wasn't raining and absolutely freezing.

Sunny Tomato Pickin'

Look who I caught feeding Sadie tomatoes from the garden...
I don't believe any of the complaining now about Sadie stealing them.

Mesa Turkey Trot 10K

I finally pestered Steve and Denise into joining us for Mesa's Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot events.
Denise had the idea of wearing the crazy hats. I think that it paid off because some photographer took our picture at the race for a local newspaper!

Brian and I both beat our personal records for the 10k at this race. 39:18 for Brian! He was 33rd out of 2,224 overall and 2nd in his age division! Hooray for Brian.
As for me (drum-roll...) 64:55! (watch-time) Hooray for me. I have moved from the 90th percentile to the 53rd percentile in three years!!!
There's too many exclamation points in this post so I must end now!!!

Fort Bowie National Monument

 
Because the town of Bowie, Arizona was a little bit of a let-down, we decided to check out Fort Bowie National Monument. So we drove about 10 miles south of Bowie on a increasingly rough road to reach a parking lot at the trailhead of the Fort Bowie trail. There was a sign that pointed to "Historic Fort Bowie, 1.5 miles".
After hoofing it about 3/4 mile, we came upon the original cemetery but it only had one original headstone in it. It was still kind of cool though. After another little bit of walking, we came to a reproduction wikieup. We took a few pictures (on Roman's camera, sorry) and then moved on. Finally we arrive at the remains of Fort Bowie. There is a cabin there with a park ranger that can answer all kinds of questions. He explained to us that because of the lack of water for hundreds of miles, the spring near the Fort was an important resource to defend. Of course, it was originally the Apache's spring so that is who the Fort was stealing, er defending the spring against. Anyway, lots of bloodshed and fighting over this spring. It was a large fort with lots of people. It would have been so weird to be there back then. So isolated, it would be like going to live on Antartica but it seems so mundane now. Anyway, here's a picture of me in front of the remains. In the glare of the sunlight you can see the original steel flagpole which was kind of neat that they preserved it in the same place as the old photos show it.

Bowie, Arizona

Brian, Roman and I headed down to visit Bowie, Arizona the day after thanksgiving. Let me answer some questions you may have concerning this trip.

#1 - Where?
Bowie, Arizona is a VERY small town near the Arizona-New Mexico border. It is about 2 miles from I-10 and doesn't see many visitors.

#2 - Why?
As everyone knows, Bowie, Arizona is the birth place of the fictional character Rambo. It seems that Germans, or at least the German that was in the car with us, is way into Rambo and remember the mention of Rambo's home town from the first movie. It seems that Rambo was born to an American father and a German mother. Perhaps that is why it is interesting to them? Beats me.

It turns out, and this may be surprising to some of you, that there is NOTHING to do in Bowie. Half of the buildings are boarded up and the other half seem to be the target of the town's pyrotechnic teenage population. There was a mini-mart that was open and had the friendliest lady working the counter. She was happy to tell us that Bowie doesn't really have much and she herself lives in San Simon down the road. But her mom was born in Bowie and still lives there, bless her soul. This lady was really sad to inform us that there was not a single Rambo monument in the town. So after eating at the Subway on I-10, we took some pictures and went to Fort Bowie National Monument. Here's a picture of the main street of Bowie though to give you a sense of what the town was like:

Fondant!

Finally the shower is over and the cake doesn't have to be a surprise anymore.
For Chrissy's wedding shower, I made a cake with fondant icing. Now before you go making fun of my lumpy cake that you see in the picture, let me explain that the cake is a Rice Krispie treat cake. Chrissy's mom used to make her cakes out of Rice Krispies so I thought I would make her her childhood favorite. I now know that her mom just piped icing on the edges but I thought it would be fun to have the rice krispie part inside be a surprise to Chrissy when it was cut.
I've been wanting to experiment with fondant for a while so this was the perfect opportunity. I looked around online and found that most people hate the taste of fondant and it is used only for looks. The worst tasting fondant is apparently the Wilson brand one that is sold already made at stores like Michael's (I've never tried it, just read a LOT of complaining about it). A few more hours of looking and I finally found a recipe that people seemed to like. Even better, it's main ingredient is marshmallow, which fit the theme of the cake itself quite well.
The final product turned out to be delicious and even with a warning to the guests that the icing may be more for looks than taste, I noted mostly empty plates, including the icing.
I encourage anyone to try this. With normal smooth cakes, I think the look would be very professional but pretty darn easy. Here's the recipe for anyone who would like to try: http://www.members.cox.net/shelleydevere/WhiteChocolateMarshmallowFondant.html
Happy baking!

Brian's 10 Mile Race

The results are up and I just had to post about Brian's incredible run yesterday. He clocked in at a 6:22 pace. That's one second slower than his record 10k he did back in May!
Apparently he went out too fast at the beginning so he was light-headed at about mile 5. He was determined to stay ahead of some random guy that he picked that was pushing the pace from behind. Anyway, he did it, he's still alive and after some time laying on the sidewalk immediately after the finish line, he was still able to come run the last mile with me. What a guy.
BTW, this race was fast. I mean fast. Where do these guys come from? Out of 415 runners who completed the 10 mile race, an amazing 19 of them broke 6 minute pace.

Get Moving Tucson 10-Miler

After almost 3 years of 10k races, I participated in a 10 mile race today. Phew. Those extra 4 miles are just amazingly hard.
It was a very enjoyable course though, winding through downtown Tucson and through the UofA campus. It almost took my mind off the punishment that I was dealing to my legs. Of course I was so stressed at the beginning thinking that there is no way I was going to be able to run 10 miles. But once again, my negativity failed to get the best of me. With only a few walk breaks in the last two miles, I managed to put together a pretty good time.
It always helps to have Brian come back for me and this time was no exception. I found him chatting up the water ladies at mile 9, ready to hand me a gulp of water before diving into the talk about how I was going to 'take the guy in front of me'. Well, I don't think I took anyone that last mile but I did complete another race with a smile. That has become my goal because it is almost guaranteed that I'll get the announcer to remark on how I'm "still smiling after 10 miles".
The best part of the race before the finish line: Going over three bridges downtown. What fantastic scenery.
The best part of the race after the finish line: Easy. Chocolate-covered bananas!

Sushi

Tonight was my first try at making sushi. It came out pretty darn good. I later found out that the art of sushi is cutting things really small. I can do that next time probably.









I put cucumber, avocado, green onion and mango on them. Brian didn't like the mango at first but then he ventured into wasabi territory and really liked the sweet and spicy together. I think we'll try again soon.

"Hey There Delilah" Madness

So I thought that I was the only person that thought that The Plain White T's song was just plain creepy. It doesn't sound sweet, it sounds like Delilah has no idea that this guy is drooling over her 1,000 miles away.
It turns out that lots of people think the song is kind of creepy. For the best response to the song check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXlX5t1K6X0 (the lyrics are worth watching the lame video for). The song has even got it's own Wikipedia page.
That will give you something to think about the next time you're enjoying this sweet song, you sicko!

More Pictures of Kayaking

Breck so generously posted select pictures that he took to a website. Already it's hard to remember that I was in this beautiful place. Enjoy!
http://www.cladesign.com/vancouver/orca.html

Vancouver Island Kayaking Trip

I'm back from a freakin fantastic four day trip to kayak with the orcas. It was a great experience and one of the most serene vacations that I have ever taken.
I'm still waiting on some pictures from a fellow traveller on the trip but here's a sneak preview of some of the scenery and silliness experienced.

Zacher Family Slumber Party - Part 2

Due to popular demand (Jen)... a review of slumber party part 2.



This episode of the slumber party was held at Denise's family cabin near Payson. Since this was the last week in July, of course it was a brilliant idea on the part of Steve and Denise to move the party out of the valley.
The weekend was marked by lots of relaxing, a hike under Tonto Natural Bridge, making custom pizzas, playing a very personalized version of Monopoly, a visit to the fish farm and of course, lots of button pushing. I, for one, had a fantastic time with all the events. Looking forward to part 3!

Warning; Post entirely about running

A fair warning to those of you who are less than interested in running in general.
For those of you still with me, I have to describe the weird thing that happened this morning while doing intervals.
So two weeks ago, I ran my fastest 400m interval ever - 2:01! This was faster than my previous PR by a whole second, and faster than my "average time" by about 10 seconds. I was hugely psyched and couldn't wait for the next week's session to see whether I could match it again. The weekend after that though, I promptly came down with a chest cold. (Weird I know - In the summer? Who gets colds in the summer? This was my first.) So the retry had to wait another week.
This morning I got a late start and my legs were quite sore from lifting weights yesterday. I resolved that I would get out there and do my best although I suspected lingering coughs and chest congestion were going to make it very difficult. So it was with great surprise when I pushed stop at the end of the first 400 and registered 1:58 on my watch. 3 seconds faster after being sick? This was getting weird.
So I told myself to slow it down a little or I wouldn't make it through the 3 more 400s that I had planned on doing.
The second 400 felt much slower, I was guessing 2:08 would be my finishing time. I pushed stop on the watch, looked down and saw 1:49.89. I came to a stop and my mouth dropped open. I quickly began calculating all the ways that I could be screwing up pushing start and then pushing stop. Brian wasn't there yet so I ran back to the car to get my cell phone to record these times. Brian showed up around that time and laughed as I tried to figure out how to write a memo on the phone. After explaining to him that I may never see these times again, he reminded me that there were two left and I trotted off to do them.
I was sure the last two couldn't break 2 minutes, I was just too tired. But I did! I ended up with 4 amazing times (for me) that I'm sure will carry me for at least a year.
1:58.48
1:49.89
1:52.37
1:56.21

Brian's Humongous Carrot

The other white meat

Brian has always kind of chuckled when I quote this old pork ad. I just thought it was my amazingly humorous delivery.
It turns out that he's laughing because the whole thing is a sham! Pork is not the other white meat. It may look kinda lighter than beef but nutritionally, you might as well have yourself a big old slab of cow.
My RealAge newsletter the other day sent an email reminding me that as a general rule, red meat should be limited to one serving per week. AND... AND... that pork counts as red meat!!! Can you believe it?
Now I know that some of you out there are saying "duh, bacon". But you have to realize that I'm just about meat-illiterate and it never occurred to me that there wasn't also a "bacon cut" on a cow. You know, bacon was just the most ridiculously fatty part of the pig. I thought that the health aspects of bacon had more to do with the cut than the animal.
Luckily I don't really like eating pig so now it is pretty easy to convince Brian that we should never eat it again. BUT There is this fantastic Losbeto's near us that makes beef green chile burritos that I don't think I could go longer than a week without. So I guess we know how my once a week quota is going to be filled... until I convice them to make a chicken green chile burrito!

On cheesy running songs

There's something about hard physical exercise that makes even the cheesiest of things seem so emotional.
Lately, one of my favorite running songs is "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Crazy right? While I'm sitting still here writing this, I can hardly stomach the thought of piping Eminem directly into my ears.
But when I'm out on the road and I'm hot and I'm tired and I have less than a mile to go, I fast forward to this song and it is just so darn motivating. It starts with a very cheesy instrumental part, then he starts talking about how hard life is or something like that and then there's this snippet: "oh there goes gravity". I swear that gravity does let up for a split second after that line and I feel great.
Later on in the song there's some line like "feet fail me not cuz maybe the only opportunity I got". I know, I know. I hope that everyone out there is rolling their eyes. At that point I always have a little thought about how lucky I am that I have such a healthy body that always comes back from the abuse I dole out.
Inspiration can be found almost anywhere.

Cinco de Mayo 10K

Brian and I ran a Cinco de Mayo 10k on Seis de Mayo this year. It is a really beautiful race and we had perfect weather to make it extra nice.
Unfortunately, I haven't felt so good the past couple of days. I must have caught a little bug somewhere. When I got to the one mile mark, I had felt like I already had run for eight miles. Not a good thing.
So I walked more than I've walked in any other race in my life and finished slower than any 10k I've run in my life. At least I was still enjoying myself and enjoying the beautiful course. It was a pretty tough one to run because of the hills but I walked most of those and just ran the downs.
Brian came back for me like usual. He was a huge motivation and talked me into passing by three people that I had no intention on passing before he met up with me.
Speaking of Brian... He ran a personal best at 39 minutes! That's fast!
Now for the Mexican breakfast... They ran out. They're going to be getting a letter from me about that. I was very disappointed. Maybe next year Brian will get a plate for both of us as soon as he finishes like I suggested.

Inspiring post for Brian

See Brian, even when you have nothing interesting to say, you can post a really awesome photo. (I did not take this photo. Seriously, did you think I was that good?)

Guitar and cello?

Brian is all excited about doing a guitar/cello duet together. Since neither of us are musically talented enough to do composition, this ought to be very interesting.
Anybody out there want to consult on how we get this going? (I should mention that I have a very limited range of notes that I can play on the cello and I can't do any of that vibratto crap :)

Zacher Family Slumber Party

Part one of 2007 Zacher Family Slumber Party was a blast. We all participated in a tour of the Pima Air and Space Museum, a Segway tour of downtown Tucson, Sunday morning pancakes and horseback riding. It was a very busy and very fun weekend. I can't wait until part two...

My own marathon

Yesterday I went out for a long run. And I mean LONG.
You see, I ran 13 miles yesterday, the length of a half marathon. Brian asked me why I did it. That part was obvious; I wanted to see if I could. I think that has been my whole push to run that distance. Just to see if I could do it.
It takes me a really long time to run 13 miles. Way too much time to think about what I'm doing and why.
So when I got home, I was an interesting mix of happy and sad at the same time. I was happy. I mean, I ran 13 miles! I have been saying that this is the longest distance that I will ever run in my life. It's my own marathon. Sad because I realized that getting there was all the fun. I have no desire to repeat that feat in a race now. Maybe ever.
My knees are tired. I know all about muscle soreness but this is joint soreness. There is no pain but there is definite soreness. Now, if you examine my motivation to run for the last 2-1/2 years, you'll note that it has been all about health. That's why I'm jogging races instead of run-walking them, right? To be exact, it's about my health when I'm 70 or 80. I want to be doing things right now that will make me at the top of my game then. I realized yesterday that the feeling in my knees is most likely not going to be good for me when I'm 80.
I read somewhere a quote from a doctor that said if anyone is running more than a 3 mile run, they're doing it for reasons other than health. I think that he means the wearing parts of running overcome the cardio, muscular and skeletal benefits of running at around 3 miles. I think that I agree with him. Maybe the distance varies a little from person to person but I don't think you can exceed 10k distance without doing it for a different purpose.
So am I going to run longer distances than 3 miles? You betcha. Because I don't think that it is causing damage (or else I would have some kind of recovery times) for me to run 10ks. But I don't think that I'll go longer than that. I can work on my 10k time for the next 10 years and be perfectly happy. Besides, an hour out of my day for a race or training? That's something that I can live with for the next 50 years of my life.

Lost Dutchman 10k 2007

Denise and I ran the Lost Dutchman 10k today. I was so very worried about the amount of wind and the temperatures from the day before. I thought it would be a very hard day. But luck was on our side; the cloud cover kept the sun off of us and the wind was gusty but not constant.
I'm awaiting pictures from others that are smart enough to remember to bring their cameras. Until then, Steve took this on his blackberry in the car prior to the race. You'll have to wait for the picture where we look exhausted :)

Super Bowl Luck

I entered a Super Bowl pool at work this year.
I bought two squares for $10 and guess what... I won! Twice! I won $200! It made watching the game so interesting that I actually watched the whole game. Well, maybe it was actually my very cool neighbors that I drank beer and ate Chinese soups with that made it fun.

Running Socks

These are a pair of running socks that dad got me for Christmas this year. They are probably a $50 pair of socks but they are really awesome.
Somehow, they get what feels like an inch of cushion under your feet without changing the fit of your shoe. All the cushion is under your feet and the thickness of the sock gets thinner on top -- without any seams.
And what are the cool little tabs on the back? I thought they were for cushioning your heel against the shoes lip but I think that Brian came up with a better idea: they keep your sock from slipping down your heel.
These are great socks and I recommend that everyone get a pair no matter how much they cost!

9.75 Miles

Phew.
I thought I was stuck at eight miles.
I only have six weeks until I am attempting a half marathon at the Lost Dutchman (13.1 miles) and I was getting seriously worried that I was stuck at eight miles.
I'm pretty tired but thanks to my friend Lorien and her information about glucose absorption rates, I'm doing great. Maybe I'll make it after all...

Life imitating art (or Steve having a bit of fun)

Holiday Brunch

The morning after the company party, we drove up to Phoenix to have the annual Zacher holiday brunch at Gainey Ranch. Lots of really good food like always. The highlight this year for Brian was their chicken waldorf salad and for me it was the mint chocolate cookies. What a great time.

Holiday Party

Our company party was last Saturday night. I would post a picture of Brian and I but most of you already got a picture of us that night (it was our christmas card picture). So instead, I'll give you a picture of Carolyn taking a picture of me. It was a fun night with lots of good food, conversation and dancing. It's kind of nice to see your coworkers all dressed up and acting (almost) like adults.

Tucson Marathon Relay 2006

Year three of team Relative Insanity.
This year the team is only 50% relative but we had stellar substitutes to help us get through the day.
Everyone did fantastic and it was such a great day.
What a blast!

A Real Family Portrait

This is as close to a "family portrait" as this family gets. We're just not the Olan Mills kind of people.

Consider this your picture holiday card.

Turkey Trot 2006

This is me waiting for the start of the 2006 Mesa Turkey Trot. This one was a little sad because Brian couldn't run with me this year. But he did get to stand around in the cold and take pictures of me standing there like a dork. Yay!

The whole thing came out okay. I still died at mile 4 but this time I had a good reason: When I started, I saw a lady that I ran behind at the Lost Dutchman 10k last Feb. I can't believe I recognized her but she has a very distinctive run so I was positive it was her. Anyway, I asked her if she ran the Lost Dutchman and she did so I said that I was going to try to be hanging right behind her. And I did. For 3 miles. And then I couldn't. MAN, had she gotten faster or what? I guess someone did a little better training than I did this summer :)

So I did quite a bit better than last year but only in an irresponsible way. I have known for a while now that I could go a lot faster if I walk/run but I'm doing this for fitness and keeping a moderately high heart rate for a longer period of time is much harder, so it's got to be better for you, right?

Facial Recognition

Over at myheritage.com, you can upload a picture of yourself and it matches you with celebrities that look like you. I'm not sure about this, as I don't think that I resemble any of these people. Brian thinks that the Sally Field photo is 'almost eerie' in its likeness.



Just for completeness, I tried to match Sadie's face. No luck. I thought maybe Lassie would be in their celebrity database...

Eight Miles!

In three days, I have made a miraculous recovery from my head cold. So miraculous that I thought that I would try to do some running again today.

Wowee! I ran eight miles! (I keep spelling it out because it seems so much more significant that way than just typing the measly one-character 8.)

I have to say that eight miles is about twice as hard as 7.3 (my previous longest distance). I feel pretty good though. And I have a really neat fine grit of salt all over my face that I keep trying to lick off.

Now I have a step-back week (where I decrease the number of miles I run so that my body can recover) and then start stepping up again to a maximum of 10 miles! I can't believe how far I have come in the last two years. And to top it off, I am injury free so far.

The tortuga conquers!

Sick

Boy am I clever. When I posted "Jet Lag", I didn't even realize that I was using the literary technique of foreshadowing. I am so clever that I missed it until now.

Friday I flew back from Germany, in a race with the cold developing in my head. I woke up Friday and thought that my throat felt a little funny. I thought maybe it was the overload on cigarette smoke that always gets my sinuses in an uproar whenever I am in Europe. By the time I was flying over Nova Scotia, I realized that I was developing a full-fledged head cold.

Landing at the Dallas-FortWorth airport was the second most painful thing I have experienced. Second only because I had to take off again about an hour later. I kept checking to see if blood was pouring out of my ears yet but I made it home with eardrums intact.

Being sick is pretty awful. The only good thing is that I don't feel as guilty when I sleep for 12 hours, wake up just in time to go to Taco Bell and finish eating just in time to go to bed again.

Jet Lag

I got back from a one week trip to Japan last Wednesday.
I am beat.
I don't know why I do just fine heading out to any place on Earth and then die when I get back.
I mean, I spent 26 hours traveling to Misawa, Japan and I woke up the next morning feeling fine. I spent the next week going to bed at normal times and waking up at normal times. Everything was great.
Then I came home.

For some reason, now I can't fall asleep at night and can't stay awake during the day. I'm taking melatonin at night so that I can sleep but after 10 hours of enforced sleep, I wake up feeling like I need to sleep for another 10 hours.
I shouldn't be complaining, I could be sick on top of jet lag. Then I would know that I am definitely not superhero quality.

Flagstaff

This is Brian (or at least his feet) after he ran a super fast half marathon at 7000' elevation. I ran the 5k and couldn't imagine running another step. They sure don't have a surplus of oxygen up there. My lungs felt almost bruised after this one.

Optimism

When I started out on my jog this morning, it was 75.1 degrees F and 61% humidity. Hardly conditions to be ecstatic about. But this is almost 10% lower humidity and 5 degrees cooler than it has been in weeks past. Combine that with the fact that there was pretty good cloud cover and a slight cool breeze, and I was grinning.

This summer, I'm supposed to be running six miles on my long runs (Sundays). As Brian points out, I completely made up that rule. I'm not denying that. Most days for the past two months I've been lucky to eke out three miles. Today I was finally able to do 5 miles. I am ecstatic!

After two months of just not feeling so great after running, I had again started wondering about the hidden heart defects that I had that were making this so dang difficult. I was sure that the next day I went out I was going to keel over dead because there must be something wrong with me; this... shouldn't... be... so... HARD!

Today at the 4 mile mark, the sun came out, I turned so the wind was at my back (and I couldn't feel it) and I started to get hot. Really hot. My heart rate started to climb. I decided that I would not run the full six miles. But I was still smiling. Because now I remember that it does get better. I can do this. I will do this.

My, Are Those Cello Eyes?

Surprisingly, I am not the instant world-wide cello playing sensation that some would have expected of me.

When I first started playing, 20 minutes daily seemed sometimes like a very long time. I would swear that the next time I looked down, there would be blood pouring from my left fingertips and my right shoulder would be entirely detached from my body. Lately it seems that 20 minutes goes by in a blur. Often, my first notice of the clock during my practice sessions reveals that 40 minutes have already passed.

Now if I could only figure out how to keep my rosin covered fingers out of my eyes, I could continue to read music for longer than 40 minutes.

CELLO!

This is me playing the cello (or pretending to because Brian wanted me to look at the camera). I have wanted to learn to play the cello for a long time and finally this past week I went and rented one.
I love this age of technology... My music stand is there to my right (the bed) and behind me is my laptop with ITunes which is playing accompaniment to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The only other thing needed is my cup of Propel and I'm off and running, or cello-ing that is.
So far I can play: Jingle Bells, Old Macdonald Had A Farm, Twinkle, Matthew's March, Christopher's Tune, Hot Cross Buns and Au Claire De La Lune. Of course, all these songs have their squeaks and moans but I'm definitely making progress.

Brian's Studying Chair

Brian got a new chair to study in. Now I get my chair back so that I don't have to sit on the exercise ball! 

SINKS

Even rarer than DINKS lately, this couple has become SINKS.
Brian started summer school at Pima to do some review for his big return to UofA. This time he'll be enrolling as a chemistry major. I wish him luck and admirer his energy.
As for me, I'll hope for some homework-less weekends this summer and fall so that we can still do some fun stuff.
I'll probably be reading a serious amount soon so welcome all book recommendations (except mysteries that is :)

(First) New Furniture!

Isn't it awesome? The above includes our Todd Oldham vinyl couch as well as Sadie's new pink shag bed (so she wouldn't be jealous).
The below is our new recliner that is really cool except for the head grease pad which I had to put on to make Brian mad.

Bird Nest

That's adorable, right? A dove nest on our neighbor's back porch.
Wrong, it's funny. Those clear plastic things are bird spikes, they're supposed to gouge the birds in case they try something like this.

Evaporative Cooler

Brian and I finally installed an evap cooler. Now we're enjoying ice cold air on the cheap!

Daruma

The thing in James' arms is a daruma. I just like the picture. You're not going to get an explanation.
So Brian is criticizing me for not giving an explanation, I'm just going to give a link here to his highly up-to-date and complete blog: http://brianzacher.blogspot.com

Sadie's Easter Bunny?

The morning after Easter, I went out for a little jog and when I came back, Sadie was eagerly trying to put this cute little bunny ON my feet. Sadie was so proud of herself she could hardly contain her excitement. She was wiggling around like she didn't have any bones in her body. I assume now that what I was doing to avoid getting the bunny put ON my feet looked much the same. After much cajoling, I convinced Sadie to put it on the patio and to come inside with me so that I could give her a treat for being such a good dog.
Finally I worked up the nerve to go outside and discard the poor bunny. I grabbed a broom and dustpan and slowly approached. I was dreading having to try and move what I thought would be an icky, squishy bunny into the dustpan. When I prodded it with the broom, the bunny was as hard as a rock. Rigor mortis was fully in effect. I discarded the bunny and then went inside to try and stop squealing.
That's when it hit me.
Sadie was a bunny-catching imposter! There is no way she could have just killed this bunny and for it to already have full rigor mortis. Since she was asleep in the bedroom with me up until 45 minutes prior, she could not be the murderer. Phew! My dog didn't kill a harmless bunny. But what she did was much worse. She was taking credit for the neighbor cat's handiwork.
I have to say I'm ashamed of her. I thought she had stronger integrity.
Sorry about the ickiness factor of this story. But aren't you glad I didn't make you think too much about the part where my dog goes and picks up an hours old bunny corpse?

Easter Eggs

My mom came down to my house for easter. I love dyeing eggs but for the last few years, those little tabs that you dissolve in vinegar have been hard to come by. I just keep finding these fancy kits like the sponge kit that we used here. Not as stinky or messy and thus, not as much fun.

Kevin got married

I just keep falling more and more behind on this blogging stuff.
Kevin got married back in late March. He was so nervous, excited and goofy.
They both looked like they had a lot of fun that day and I think that this guest did as well.
Happy marriage Kevin and Marti!

Lost Dutchman Race February 19, 2006

I can't believe that I forgot to blog about this!
This is Denise, Brian and I after we completed the Lost Dutchman 10k (or half marathon in the case of Brian).
It was a beautiful race with perfect race-day temperatures. That is, after the sun came up it was beautiful temperatures.
This was the first time in my life I have actually trained for something physical. I never participated in sports when I was growing up so had never had the experience of trying to improve my performance.
For this event I actually had an 8 week training schedule and except for a 3-day travel episode in the middle of week 4, I stuck to it. It was a tough schedule but it was intended to improve speed.
It seemed to work. I improved my per-minute mile time by 1 and 1/2 minutes!!! Although I can't maintain that training intensity all of the time (I was beat most nights toward the end of training), I am excited to keep trying periodically to boost up my training level and see what results.