General Status, Blogger Hookup & Gratuitous Cuteness

General Status
I wish I had more to report besides my astounding mediocrity and continued battles with injury, but alas, I do not.

Basically I'm doing as much as I can to train... which at the moment is barely 1-2 times a week. Pathetic, I know. But it is what it is and life goes on.

Lest I despair too much over my impending failures to PR (and *gasp* to potentially DNF), I keep reminding myself of two things:
- I'm not going to do myself any favors by training through injuries, so I've got to chill
- Baby Bear is only going to be this amazing little package of baby goodness ONCE, so quit worrying about my races and enjoy him

Blogger Hookup
We stopped in Wisconsin on our way to visit family in Minnesota this weekend for a quick visit with the always fabulous (and temporarily on blogging hiatus) Wylee. As luck would have it, the newest member of her family happened to be there too!

Just to prove once again how amazingly sweet she is, she wouldn't let me go without a bouquet of lilacs cut from the outrageously beautiful trees that surround her charming home. They're my absolute favorite and made the hotel room feel a million times more welcoming.


Gratuitous Cuteness
Baby Bear doesn't seem to feel the same way about Martha Stewart as his momma.

Will Work for Chocolate

So, newsflash. This whole running thing? I suck donkey balls.

Big chocolate salty ones.

Just gutted out a crappy 3 miles on the treadmill. It's a glorious 60 degree day with no wind to speak of, and I'm dreamilling because I can't justify pounding the pavement with all my current injuries (hey guess what?! my shoulder started acting up again too! that brings the total number of simultaneously non-cooperative body parts to 4! 5 if you count the blister on my 'this little piggy had none' left toe!)

I've already accepted the June sprint is a wash. All I want to do is finish... my grand plans for finally finishing a sprint in under 2 hours are so out the window. (Although I will admit if I can't beat least year's pregnant time I'll be seriously ticked at myself.)

I'm having massive doubts about the half-marathon in August. I'm a month into my training plan and already nearly 2 weeks behind in the scheduled mileage. I'm doing what I can when my injuries allow it, and it's already starting to feel like that won't be good enough to get me through 13 miles.

I was already assuming I'd have to walk the aid stations at a minimum. Today I accepted I'd probably end up doing some version of a run/walk race. If you'd asked me a couple months ago I'd have said no way, but now I'll be thrilled if I can even pull that off.

My doctor insists that the effects of the pregnancy hormones on my joints should have long since worn off, and feels that can't possibly be related to my sudden onslaught of injuries. But I can't believe for one minute the pregnancy didn't have something to do with this. I'm doing barely any real training and falling apart at the seams.

On the bright side, I found something to help motivate me to get through the little training I can manage. Even though I'm barely scraping out 2-3 miles right now, it takes me so long I'm burning over 500 calories and very much feel the need for planned recovery nutrition afterwards.

Enter my latest impulse purchase...

I balked a little at the $23 price tag, and I was a little nervous because the last Clif recovery product I tried (orange mango) made me gag, but I've gotta say they NAILED it with this one.

Worth. Every. Penny.

Good enough there will likely be days I'll do the damn workout just to have the chocolate milk recovery goodness afterwards.

(Oh, and I recommend going ahead and mixing it with milk instead of water. YUM.)

Molasses in January Ain't Got Nothin on Me

I have a question.

I'm not built for speed. This is not a secret, or a surprise.

So, I've optimistically decided that must mean I'm built for endurance (side-stepping the obvious conclusion I'm really not cut out for this at all).

Here's the thing. Since I started getting back into running this spring, I've noticed something odd/weird/new/interesting.

Running has never been "easy" for me, but before I got pregnant it has become, let's call it "tolerable." I knew starting over would entail some major suckage and it pretty much has. My HR is too high, I fatigue too easily, I breathe too hard, my form falls apart too quickly... and that's all at a blazing 13:30 pace.

But the last few LSD workouts I noticed something interesting happening pretty consistently around the 30 minute mark.

My HR eases up a little, my breathing becomes less labored, I lose that explody-head feeling and I go from 'ohdeargawdpleaseletitend' to 'huh, maybe I can go a little longer.'

The problem is that, aside from all these nagging injuries (which are keeping my workouts on the short side), it's still pretty early in my training plan and by the time I hit the 30 minute mark I'm so close to done I don't get a chance to see if I really can keep going.

Is this normal? Is my engine just so darn slow to warm up it's not happening until 30+ minutes after I start running? Or does it just take that long to numb to the suckage?

My Roots are Showing

I'm packing up and heading downstate for the weekend to help my mom move into her new house. I'm in for a weekend of bad grammar (did you know "wash" has an "r" in it?) and Nascar references, where folks think they're living high on the hog if they're drinking Budweiser Select on a Saturday night.

(The liquor stores in my home town have not - I am not making this up - ever heard of the beers my husband and I drink. And they're not THAT obscure. Some of them aren't even imports.)

Even though I was born and raised there, these trips back home are always a bit of a culture shock for me. I guess I just wasn't cut out to be a redneck. My brothers, on the other hand, have embraced it wholeheartedly.

For instance, one of them holds titles in bowhunting and wasn't going to come to my wedding because I had inconsiderately failed to account for deer hunting season when choosing the date. And I almost got my ass seriously kicked by his wife once by suggesting that Nascar was not technically an important part of life.

My other brother... last time I saw him a few years back he was maybe 30 and was displaying a disturbing lack of, well, teeth. And he named his son after Dale Earnhart. (And I don't care if I spelled that wrong. I'm not even going to bother to check).

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd share a few of these with y'all. Because while these are not technically anyone I know, I stand a damn good chance of seeing one or more of these things in person this weekend.

Redneck Grill

Redneck Pet Carrier

I'm ashamed to admit this picture exists of one of my cats. But at least it was a better beer.

Redneck Wedding Reception

This reminds me of my cousin's wedding. She didn't do an actual keg stand, but probably only because there was no keg. She did parade into the reception holding a beer and cigarette in one hand and her baby in the other. Very classy.

Redneck Dog House

This was not taken at my childhood home... but the only reason I know that is because those aren't my dogs. I so wish I was kidding.