Amy

Training like I do is a labor of love. I know a lot of people think, "Why bother?" I'm obviously not going to Win. Maybe I can eventually win my age group if it's a small event and not many of the fast folks turn up. But I'm certainly no kind of competitive. So it's love of what I'm doing alone that drives me to keep going. To devote my Tuesday nights to run workouts. To get up at or before 5am on Wednesdays and Thursdays to run (or, in other times of the year, swim). And most notably to get up early both Saturday and Sunday to run. As a result, I almost never sleep in past 6am on any day anymore. (I have to get up at 6am anyway to feed the animals.. this time of year, though, I CAN sometimes go back to bed for a while after the feedings on Sundays, and run a little later in the day, if the weather is cool enough.)

So I actually look forward to the Friday after Thanksgiving, as a day I can sleep in. Even if I sleep in some on Sunday, I can't really sleep well, because I know that I need to eventually get up and run, and if I wait too long, I'll be hungry, and then I'll have to eat, and then wait until that settles before I can run. So my sleep is either nonexistent or iffy on sleep-in Sundays. But today? I could just sleep in. No run. Fed the pets at 6am (thanks, body, for waking up no matter what, with no alarm, to feed the pets), then back to bed. Nothing looming over my head, making me unable to sleep. No chores or duties vying for my attention. Just sleep. The pets even settled back in and didn't pester. It was beautiful. I didn't get out of bed until after 10am.

And then Matt made me go out shopping on Black Friday. I hate shopping and I hate crowds of insane shoppers, and so I always want to hole up in the house on these kinds of days, but somehow Matt, who never wants to go shopping, invariably needs SOMEthing vitally on Black Friday. I think he does it just to torture me.

But it was still a fantastic day. Slept late. Lunch with the guy. We lived through shopping. Tidied up the house. Made lots of good progress on the sewing room cleanup. And now settling in for dinner before an 18 mile run tomorrow morning.

Thanksgiving itself is too crazy with plans and people and Trots and whatnot. This is the day I can truly reflect on how thankful I am for everything that's so fantastic in my life.

(And as a bonus, I still have an entire weekend left ahead of me!)

I didn't really plan on doing the Turkey Trot this year. Karen had implied she wasn't going to advise we run it, what with being right after San Antonio and right before a long and hard Saturday run, and I was a little sad because I've done it every year since 2004. Then she said as long as we didn't race it, we could run it as our Thursday run, with a warmup and a cooldown, so I signed up. And as she recommended, to make sure we didn't let ego step in, I signed up untimed, to discourage me from racing it. Yay, another long-sleeved white Turkey Trot shirt!

Met up with a couple of the Team (+Matt) to do our 2 mile warmup, then we all went our separate ways before the race. I needed a portapotty, but hadn't left myself with enough time, so I figured.. 5 miles.. I can deal with it for 5 miles. Since I wasn't racing, I decided to start farther back than I normally would, and got into the chute just behind the 9-10 minute mile sign. With a lot of dogs and strollers and people who looked an awful lot like they intended to walk. I figured I'd regret it, but .. eh.

Gun went off, very, very slowly walked to the start line, then started to run right before the line. And sure enough, my first mile was spent dodging and weaving and ducking and darting. Shoulda started further up. I mean, I wasn't racing, but I still wanted to run my pace. Anyway, that spread out after a mile, and it was fine.

Karen said no racing, but if we wanted to do progressive pace, we could. She said start at half marathon goal pace (HMGP) + 1 minute, then take off 15 seconds each mile, ending at HMGP. For me that would mean roughly:
9:00
8:45
8:30
8:15
8:00

I figured if I felt good, I'd aim for that. But when I started running and was frustrated from the dodging and weaving, I decided to say "screw my watch" and run purely on perceived effort and how I was feeling. So I never checked my pace or tried to race anyone or do anything other than just run and feel good. I did hit the splits on my watch, though, for my records. And my first mile was an 8:59, which, hey, was what Karen said to do. And then.. my second mile was an 8:15. Oops. But the weather was picture perfect, the day was beautiful and running just felt effortless. Even with the hills.

And I just kept getting faster. At one point I saw Lori just in front of me, so I ran to catch her. Right then, Karen passed me, and I picked it up a little to chat with her for a few seconds until she flew off. Then I mentioned to a girl that I'd been leapfrogging with her for a mile or so, and we chatted for a while. I told her about the hill at the end. She just moved here from Houston, and wasn't too fond of our hills. Then I passed Lindy and chatted briefly with her. And then before I knew it, it was the turn for the final nasty hill (thanks, Steph, for cheering me up it!), then a downhill to the finish line, with Matt and Joleen cheering crazily for me. Matt told me to kick it in, I yelled back that I wasn't racing. As I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch and saw my last mile was a 7:43. Oops. I didn't INTEND to be racing.

Actual splits:
8:59
8:15
8:13
7:45
7:43

Total: 0:40:59 (8:10/mile)

Granted, this was much shorter than the San Antonio half, but it's amazing how different two runs can be. The weather was better, I just felt better right from the start line, and a pace that felt effortless at the end of the Turkey Trot was unachievable during any mile in SA. Runs like today are what make running worth it. And it seems appropriate that I would have such a great run on Thanksgiving.

Dutifully did my 1 mile cooldown, then milled about chatting with so many people I knew, and drank some of Matt's mimosa at the Texas Iron parking garage roof party.

Too bad I didn't run timed! This was my second fastest Turkey Trot, though the course last year was short, so it may actually be my fastest. Maybe I just go faster when I remove all the pressure from myself, because I'm not racing. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you for.. being you.

Whew. Done with everything except the stuff that has to be done tomorrow (rosemary fan rolls from scratch and bacon-sauteed green beans). Here's my reflections on tonight's cooking:

- Came home from work and my house was all clean. 5 minutes later, the kitchen was filthy again. I'm not a clean cook.
- I think I made some sort of bechamel sauce, but I don't think I did it well. I think too much liquid ended up cooking off, so it was still tasty, but didn't cover quite the surface area it was supposed to.
- It's amazing how so much swiss chard can cook down to so little final product.
- It's harder to mash potatoes with a potato masher than with a hand blender thingy.
- The contrast between the inside skin of a sweet potato and the potato itself is beautiful.
- Even with a ton of past evidence that my cooking goes much more smoothly if I actually.. prepare all the ingredients ahead of time, somewhere that never happens for me, and I end up juggling too many things that all need to happen at once and it's a either a disaster or very nearly so.
- There's no such thing as too much gruyere.
- Matt needs to get off his high horse with his, "Did you just eat butter?" Yes, some got stuck to my finger when I was cutting off a tablespoon of butter, and I had nothing to wipe it on, so I ate it. You may judge me when you're not licking mashed potatoes directly off the masher, likely ingesting far more butter in the process than I did.
- Mmm. Butter.

I had no time to post when I felt okay earlier today. And now that I have a second to sit down, I feel like crap, and there's nothing I'd rather do than go crawl under the covers and go to bed, leaving myself a ton of stuff to do tomorrow morning before going to work.. so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Days like this are why posting every day is a bad idea.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by this week, so I decided to write down all the things I needed to do so that I didn't forget anything, and could plan out when to do what. And I think that just made me MORE overwhelmed. But I brought it on myself, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Ask me if I still feel that way Thursday around 1pm.

Monday night:
Make dinner
Make banana muffins
(Maybe make applecake?)
Get kitchen into more usable state
Do laundry
Tidy house in preparation for cleaningfolks on Wednesday

Tuesday:
Work all day
Run home from bus stop to be home when my ride gets there to take me to my run workout
1 mile warmup, 4 hilly miles at marathon goal pace, 1 mile straights and curves, 1 mile cooldown
Come home, shower
While waiting for Matt to bring home dinner, prep swiss chard
Make applecake if I ran out of time to make it Monday night
Go to bed as early as possible, because..

Wednesday:
Wake up at 4:30am to get in 5 mile run before work
Work all day
Come home and make mashed potatoes and swiss chard and sweet potato gratin
Make dinner
Get out all dishes and linens and whatnot for tablesetting

Thursday:
Wake up at ?am and make roll starter, so it can rise for a few hours
Prep green beans and chop onions
Go do Turkey Trot at 9:30am
Be social for a very brief time afterwards
Come home, shower
Finish rolls
Make green beans
Bake gratin and mashed potatoes
Set table
Coordinate rest of meal arriving around 12:30
At some point hopefully, eat
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Robyn came through town very briefly on Thursday night. Leslie called me to say Robyn was going over to her place, if we wanted to go meet over there and hang out for 45 minutes or so just to say hi. She also warned me that she was wearing a very bad outfit. I said to put her at ease, I would also wear a very bad outfit.

Oddly enough, with no planning, they were both Christmas-themed. I'm pretty sure I won, though.



I don't even think it's possible to lose with Christmas-lobster socks.

Sorry, Leslie.

It seems many of the Big Bloggers post holiday gift guides, recommending products they like (or are schilling for, if you're jaded). I thought, "I know some people who do stuff.. I could do the world's shortest and least-comprehensive holiday gift guide ever!" The lame-assness refers to my post, not to the recommendations contained herein. These are all people I know well and like and trust, as far as creativeness and quality go. My name is Amy Bush, and I endorse these products and/or services. (I have not asked their permission to schill for them and so expect to receive no compensation, but I will not refuse any if they want to buy me cookies.) (Or if they want me to take their names out of my lame-ass holiday gift guide, I'm willing to do that, too!)

Jewelry

Stick Lizard Designs



Laura sells her jewelry through etsy, and also does commissions if have an idea or want something a little different from what she's got up there. Her pieces (many of which can be seen here) are amazing and intricate. And I would think that even if she weren't my sister!

Photography

AzulOx Photography



Josh is a fantastic photographer and does a great job of putting you at ease (for those of us who haaaaate having our picture taken). He'll work with you on a location you're comfortable with and has all sorts of lenses and lights and whatever things photographers have that make pictures look amazing. Holiday card pictures, event photos, engagement or baby pictures.. check out his portfolio and drop him a line.

Personal training

PLBT Fitness

Pam Tobias, CI-CPT


A new year is almost upon us. Is one of your resolutions to take control of your life and your fitness? Pam can help you do that. She's a mobile personal trainer, and she'll come to you and bring her arsenal of equipment and toys to help develop a fitness program that works for you. She's an incredibly caring person who believes that fitness can be fun and wants to show others that, as well. So if you want to improve your fitness, or give the gift of increased fitness to someone else this holiday season, drop Pam an email.

Baby hats

Little Baby Bat



Summer makes unique hats and hair pins for babies and adults, in vibrant colors and characters. Her hats are adorable and a great gift for folks with babies who want to stand out in a crowd.

Cakes/cookies/desserts

Sweet Stirrings



Laura-Kate designs and bakes custom cakes, cookies and desserts. As her image gallery shows, her skills are already impressive, but she's now going to pastry school to hone those skills even further. I can attest to the fact that her products are both delicious and beautiful.

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Okay, I'm tired and that took way more effort than I anticipated, digging up links and pictures. :)

I have many other talented and creative friends, and they should feel free to advertise their products or services here. I know I've barely begun my Christmas shopping, and I'll take all the suggestions I can get.

I dunno if my recommendations will get business for any of these people, but I figured if anyone's looking for any of these things, or ideas for gifts, I'd throw them out there. Happy shopping!

We periodically replace large chunks of machines at work with new chunks of machines. When we do that, we have to come up with names for the new machines. I imagine most large, corporate places name their machines something generic and formulaic (windows-pc-01, etc), but we pick large groups of names along some theme and assign names from there. Coming up with those name spaces is fun, but a lot of pressure, because you know you have to live with those names for several years before those computers age out. In the past, we've had hats, snakes, whiskeys, Austin bars, muses, Simpsons characters and words pertaining to welding. Sometimes one of the most fun things about the names is trying to figure out WHAT the theme is.

I've recently been involved in the name-choosing for 4 different sets of machines. First set, obvious for me, but it made me happy to pick them. Second set, I had to look many of these up, but they make me giggle every time I see a reboot notice on one of them. Third set, pretty obscure, but our third round of these names. Fourth set.. either you get it or you don't.

( Cut for long lists.. )

About 8 more weeks until the Houston Marathon. At that point, I'll take a little bit of recovery, then transition directly into Ironman training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I'm excited to get back into triathlon training.. 8 months of pure run training can definitely cause some burnout, and cross training helps mix it up a little.

What I'm most apprehensive about currently is the bike. No, not my slowness on the bike, though certainly we all know how I feel about that. But trying to figure out routes to ride for 5 hours, especially those times when I can't find anyone to ride with me and have to ride 5 hours alone. In addition to being potentially boring, I've become a little bit gun shy about being out on the road with cars, when there's so much anti-bike sentiment out there. I didn't choose that phrase randomly..

Passenger in a car shoots cyclist in the back because he "hate(s) cyclists on the road."

I'm a good rider. A safe rider. I wear a helmet. I don't ride on major roads if I can avoid it. I don't blow through stop signs or weave about randomly. But that doesn't stop idiots like this guy from shooting someone like me, simply because I'm there, and they hate all cyclists. And some cyclists ARE bad. I work on campus, I see some of the worst of them here. No helmets, riding in flip flops, not even slowing for stop signs, riding the wrong way on the road, riding on the sidewalk.. I know some cyclists are idiots, some are cocky, some go out of their way to exert their "I'm right, even if it puts me in danger" attitude. THOSE are the cyclists that people see. The ones that give all cyclists a bad name.

So I'm a bit nervous about getting back out on the road on my bike. I'd say I'd just do 5 hours of Shoal Creek/Great Northern loops, but.. I know people who've gotten assaulted on Shoal Creek, too. We shouldn't have to live in fear in order to stay in shape.

Many months ago, shortly after I'd decided to have the Houston Marathon be my "A" race again this year, Matt said he was considering riding to Houston that weekend, rather than going in the car with me (like a sane person). He just kinda mentioned it in passing, and I didn't think much of it. Over time, he mentioned it off-handedly to people.. then mentioned to me that he'd talked to Jamie about it and Jamie thought it was a good idea.

This is when I started to get a bit concerned. Now, I have no problem with Matt riding to Houston. He's a good cyclist, he's a safe cyclist and while I would, of course, worry about him, under normal circumstances, it would be fairly standard worry.

Except that the next day, I would be running a race I'd been training for for.. 8 months? The day when I was supposed to be relaxing and getting mentally focused, I'd be constantly wondering where Matt was and how he was doing, and wondering whether he'd end up with a mechanical problem he couldn't fix, and I'd have to go drive out and pick him up. Basically, I could see myself being a basket case on top of already being a basket case. It didn't seem like the day before Houston was going to be a calm and centered time.

But I'm a good wife. Matt and I support each other, and he really wanted to do this. So I didn't say anything and mentally planned accordingly.

Yesterday, Matt mentioned something about the hotel Friday night. I said I hadn't reserved the hotel Friday night.. just Saturday and Sunday nights, since I was planning to drive down Saturday morning. He said he was planning on riding there Friday. And then he'd be there Saturday to help me do all my pre-race stuff and whatnot. And a huge light came on for me.

He's a good husband. He knows that riding to Houston the day before my A race wouldn't be good for my head. I just didn't give him enough credit to assume he knew that, and I was too stubborn to say anything.

Extra night booked in Houston hotel: Check.

I have a serious google reader problem.

Used to be I knew some people who also had livejournals, and I friended them and read their journals via my "friends" page on livejournal.

Then I met people who had other sorts of blogs.. blogspot, wordpress, etc. In order to read those, I'd have to remember the URL, or make a bookmark in all the various browsers/places I might be using. Then I started reading other kinds of sites that updated daily/regularly. The whole thing just got to be a huge time-consuming mess, but that didn't diminish my commitment to it in any way.

Then I discovered google reader. I could just toss all those blogs and rss feeds into google reader, and it would tell me whenever any of the things I followed were updated! This appealed to my laziness. However, it also Enabled the voyeuristic and obsessive part of me. Because now I could easily just add any old blog I wanted, even if it wasn't necessarily something I had great interest in. Which has slowly snowballed into me having 118 subscriptions in google reader. I just now checked the number. 118! And that's in addition to my 126 livejournal friends (most of whom never update).

Some of them are friends' personal blogs. Some are personal blogs of friends of friends, who I've never actually met, but we have common interests. Some are daily shirts for sale, some are daily pictures.

Several web comics, some bad fashion blogs, a couple big name bloggers.

Recipe or food sites, several blogs of parents with kids who have CDH, which I have only a not-oft-seen-in-person connection to. And some famous people.

And many others, obviously. If I think it sounds even vaguely interesting, in it goes. Sometimes I'll realize it's not stuff that interests me and remove it later, but mostly I just spend some time each day going through the new posts, usually quickly glancing over and past the things not closely related to me, enjoying the comics and recipes, enjoying catching up with my friends' lives, enjoying bad cakes and clothes, and feeling like a big ol' voyeur.

But if we didn't want random people to read our thoughts, we wouldn't put them out here for random people to read.

Hey, anonymous people. Who's out there reading this?

I have a severe case of in-between hair. When I cut it, I thought, "It's just hair, it'll grow back." And it is. So.. very.. slowly. I thought my hair grew fast, and maybe it does, but... guh. It feels like it's barely growing. It's starting to curl at the back of my neck, and is feeling vaguely mullety. Mulletous. What with all the layers she put in the short hair.

But! It's coming back. I can ponytail the very back. And I can almost tuck the front behind my ears. Biiiiiidin' my time.

(First post from my Droid. Slow going compared to a full-sized keyboard, but neat to be able to post from the living room.)

Short version: Goal not achieved, PR achieved. Sort of. (More on that later.)

( Detailed version.. )

Slept in a little: Check
3 mile easy run with strides: Check
Packed bag: Check
Gotten head in game: Well, we're still working on that one.

The Team and I are hitting the road to go do the San Antonio half marathon tomorrow (and two folks doing the full). I just keep telling myself this is not my goal race, and I don't need to worry about it. I'll do what I can do and use it to practice mental strength when things get tough. It'll be my first Rock and Roll event, and I'm prepared to be overwhelmed by the size of it.

And no matter how it goes, by this time tomorrow, I'll be done. (Unless it goes really, really, really, really badly.)

Aaaaand I'm off!

Every time I doubt my cycling ability, I'm just going to remember this picture. And think, "Well.. at least I've come a long way from there!"

And my bike has gotten a bit sexier.



Old bike picture is courtesy of a flurry of scanning of some pictures I recently found. To see the whole set, click here. Be warned, there's

Jazz Hands!

Okay, NaBloPoMo.. I don't like you, and you don't like me. I'm struggling this year. Posts are forced and uninteresting. So since you're being a pain, I might as well try to use you to my advantage somehow.

We have this room in our house. The room that's not the bedroom and not the office. It's the Other room. It's part sewing room, part workout-stuff room, part.. miscellaneous Other stuff. On the best of days, it's a bit of a disorganized mess. But I've allowed it to really get bad lately. So I'm going to post pictures of it, even though I find them horribly embarrassing. And I'm going to post pictures again at the end of the month. And hopefully that fact will inspire me to clean up sometime between the two postings. I have high hopes! As a bonus, that gets me a post for today, AND a post for sometime at the end of the month. Yay!

So here's the current state. It's not normally this bad, and I could have made it better before taking the pictures, but I thought it'd look more impressive if I showed it at its absolute worst. I may have even thrown some extra crap in there that isn't normally there, for effect.

Sewing stuff. Vacuum cleaner. Clothes that need to be given away. Clothes that need to be put away. A billion bags.


Dress dummy, chewbacca backpack, old yearbooks and D&D manuals and photo albums. Filing cabinet. Giant jar of pennies buried under purses.


Old, very defunct pet gate. Many costumes. A currently-too-small wetsuit. More sewing stuff. Wrapping paper. More bags. Empty shoeboxes. An aerohelmet.


Workout clothes. Shoes. Goggles. More bags. Even more bags. Sunscreen. Swimcaps. A rubber chicken.


Wish me luck!

I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but my family is just fantastic.

My parents still live in the house I grew up in, Matt and I live about 2 miles away, and in between us, about a mile from each, are my sister and John. We all get along great, we see each other often, and it's just kinda sickeningly wonderful. In a really snarky, sarcastic, obnoxious kinda way. My whole family is very similar to me, so if you don't like my sense of humor, maybe don't come to our family gatherings.

Tonight we went out to dinner for my dad's birthday. My mom had declared a general ban on having our phones out during dinner (Matt and I are still showing off our shiny toys, and my dad is still in the honeymoon phase with his iphone, and Laura generally has hers out). However, someone found some excuse to bring out their phone after the meal, and before we knew it, everyone had theirs out. And mom couldn't object, because she was playing with Laura's phone. Mom is.. very new to smart phones. Like, tonight was the first time she'd played with one. And she has zero text messaging experience. And she's actually a really good typist, but.. maybe needs some practice on the iphone keypad. Here's the conversation we had via text message while sitting at the same table.

Me: Hi, mom!

Mom:
Jo amy

Mom: Go Amit

Mom: J
J

J
J
J
Hi amuy

Mom: Jo amy

Me: Jo mama!

Mom: How you be

Me: I be good

Mom: Ooi love u

Me: Oooooi love u 2

--

Needs a little work, but she'll get there!

Happy birthday, dad!

One of the major things that I changed in my life to lose weight was to eat out less. I started making dinner most nights, making breakfast every day, and taking my lunch to work. So I was fairly surprised when I added it up, and realized I still eat out, on average, 4-5 times a week. On Tuesday night, both Matt and I have evening workouts, so he'll pick up dinner from Chipotle on his way home (mmm, burrito bowl). A few times a month, I'll go out to lunch during the week with my mom and sister. And then the weekend is where I grant myself a little more freedom.. Matt and I will usually meet up for post-workout brunch both Saturday and Sunday, and we'll typically eat out or get take-out Saturday nights.

Adds up quickly.

According to this 2002 article, the average American eats 4.2 meals outside the home, so I guess I'm right on average, and was way above average before. I think I assumed, based on how often I see others going out to lunch (often every day) and going through drive-throughs and getting coffee and a muffin from Starbucks, that people ate out more often.

So how many times a week, honestly, do you eat out/get take out/order in?

When Matt and I met, neither of us was in any way physically active. We both liked hiking, though rarely did it, and that was about it.

Did we both have buried in us the Ironman potential, even if, at the time, we didn't know exactly what an Ironman was? Or what all exactly a triathlon entailed? Did we both have that unconscious desire, and we could sense that in each other so we were drawn together? Or is it just completely random that we both became interested in it after we met?

It's not a huge percentage of people that do an Ironman, and even less that do more than one. What're the odds that two of them would end up as a couple, when they were both computer-gaming slackers* when they met?

*Note: We're still computer-gaming slackers. We just have less time for it now.

One of the reasons I love this time of year is for Thanksgiving auditions. For many, many years, our family had basically the exact same meal for Thanksgiving every year. Which was great, because it's all stuff we loved and knew. But as I've gotten older and got my own place and learned to really love cooking/baking, I've been branching out more. However, I really don't deal well with situations where a meal is depending on me to make something, I'm making that something for the first time, and that something doesn't turn out well. So Matt gets to suffer through all of my pre-experimentation to test out recipes.

Last year I tested out apple pie, turnip gratin and a corn and wild rice casserole, all of which made it into the final actual Thanksgiving meal.

Tonight I tried a creamy scalloped potato dish that.. really didn't turn out great. The proportions were all wrong.. way too much potato, not enough saucey stuff. And I'm not sure that it was compelling enough to try again to get it right.

Also tried apple cake, which I'd been meaning to try for a while, and inspired by Kristen's mediocre experience, but hope for the future. It turned out quite delicious, and I think I'll cut a slice for the mom and make her try it, as she's my most reliable feedback on whether something is worthy of ending up in the Thanksgiving meal. (Matt will eat anything.)