A good day

Not too long ago I had a birthday. I received no gifts, technically. But there were wonderful things that happened.
1) I got my whole house clean.. Gifts you give yourself are the best kind
2) I ran well (see thewiredrunner.blogspot.com)
3) I heard the Wall Street Journal ran an article on FMD, "The "Rare" Disease That Isn't". Finally someone gets it.
4) I went out to eat with only two boys and husband, very easy. Oh, and very tasty. It was called HayJ's Bistro...so very delish.
5) I went on a bike ride with youngest son on a perfect summer day, on a perfect trail along the river, with a breeze.
6) I got birthday wishes from a lot of people
7) I can't remember all the other things, but I get a pass, since I am aging...
8) oh! Last but not least, I feel pretty good about the next year, unlike last year when I was so upset to be older. This is going to be my year of trying new things, taking risks. I am excited. At the very least it should be interesting.

What would you put on a billboard?

I passed a billboard today stating: "20 million people see this each year..."

If you could say one most important thing to change the world, what would it be? What would you put on that billboard?

synthesis of decision/eradicating the sludge

The movie Seven Pounds taught me that everyone is doing the best they can; I thought about people in my life I have been too hard on, what they have been dealing with, and decided to give them a break.

The Primary Sharing Time leader taught me that God did not intend for the Jaredites to camp on the beach for four years! He wanted them to move forward...but they refused to consult Him and stayed stuck.

C.S. Lewis taught me, "The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel."

A friend asked me if I was going to still go to law school. On the same occasion I realized my instincts of late have been very accurate, even to the point of uncanny. Dumb things like the exact time I am going to be released from a calling and what the problem with my iPhone ringer is (I am not technologically savvy).

Does all of the above seem connected to you? It did for me...I decided to give a certain person a major break. Somehow that decision brought others, hard and fast. (My not giving them a break was only making me stuck).

It is time to pick a date and study for the LSAT and to take a few online classes. At the same time I decided this study period will be much different than my last one. I will listen and go according to instinct, not a schedule or the books...I will still be the Mom I want to be, not putting my boys off. If they need me, they have me. Yet I am registered to take the test Dec 5.

So far, so good. Oh, and I am going to take a U.S. Constitution class too. And keep running, and keep working for that all elusive order in my home. But again, according to instinct...I need to hear and feel, moment by moment, that I am on track...or I get stuck.

Announcing new running blog

Apologies for those of you who have tried to keep up to date with my running and have had to wade through my political and religious stuff ( I am very, uh, convicted, in my opinions).

If you only want to follow my running, go to thewiredrunner.blogspot.com. As a fan of runwithjill.blogspot.com, I will try to record something wacky or intersting or boring about most of my runs, post pics of races, etc.

I will see you there!

E

O.W.W. (One Wired Woman)

Let's get the medical jargon out of the way first: I am wearing a King of Hearts monitor and a blood pressure monitor. They are checking for exercise induced atrial fibrillation, possibly secondary to the pericarditis already diagnosed. If I had atrial fibrillation, I don't think I have it anymore.

I feel much better today than yesterday and can't wait to get rid of one of the monitors, (the annoying blood pressure one, which gives my arm a "hug" every 20 minutes or every five if I don't be perfectly still).

On a lighter note, I just got an iPhone...which I am learning quickly. But I miss my CrackBerry badly as it got email much faster...I wonder about that and still have questions. If you love your iPhone, send me an email and teach me too! Cuz I have one.
Oh. I am still carrying my Blackberry because they couldn't transfer my schedule/planner over to the iPhone (BB never synched with computer).

So...I am going to do a long run today even though my left knee is warning me not to, just to see if I can induce symptoms. :) In other words, I don't think I will have any. To do this long run I will need to stay close to the front of the treadmill so my two monitors can sit on there and monitor me and not be jiggled while I jiggle. And of course I will have my Shuffle and the television on. I have no idea what I will do if the phone rings.

pro-choice equals pro-rape??? the missed story

I hope someone can make sense of this. It confuses me,

http://www.reuters.com/article/d%20omesticnews/idUSTRE54R37I20090529?rpc=60

There are always two sides to every issue, but I am pretty sure I am not seeing the other side here.

Okay, now I see it...we are all looking at the murder of the abortion clinic doctor, which totally obfuscates the issue. The doctor is the victim, taking the focus off the fact that the abortion clinics in the above story are condoning rape. They get to go under the radar today.

If only life were a treadmill, I would win

I couldn't even find the workout I was thinking of, so I just did what I could remember.

My thinking was that if I am right and everyone else is wrong (ahem), then, as soon as my heart calmed down and in NSR for a WHILE, then my training should kick in...especially since I still tried to run during the whole 3 month plus episode.

Basically, tonight I was tired of being depressed and I felt much better physically, so I tried it. "It" is some theory about 800 meter times and marathons, not mine, but goes something like this:

Come up with your fantasy time for a marathon. In my case that is 3:33:33, (courtesy of a friend who rode beside me on her bike for 16 miles once and decided how fast I could potentially run). Then you convert that to minutes for an 800. When you get to the point where you can run eight of them with the same amount of time jogging between, you are supposed to be capable of running your fantasy marathon time.

So I think it goes like this:
jog for 3:33 seconds, run at 8.4 mph for 3:33 seconds. Repeat 8 times.

Now. My last marathon was 4:40:15, Boston. Yes, I am saying that is not representative or even worthy of factoring in...

So I did it on the treadmill...now I know I need to speed them up about ten seconds each because I was on the treadmill. And I know I may have misfigured the whole thing (I figured 8.45 mph is about 3:33 for a half mile, which is slightly longer than 800 meters...so I set it a 8.4)...

I had lots left in the tank for last 800 meter so I ramped up the speed to 8.6, then 9.0, then 10.0, then finished out the hour with a 7.6 mph for three minutes. All on the treadmill of course, running basically in place, and in the afternoon, my favorite time to run. So next time I try it I will ramp it up to 8.6 and see if I can still do 8 repeats...eventually I must bite the bullet and take it outside to the track. Actually, if I take 10 seconds off, I must run 8.65 mph...I'm still thinking that is slow for being on the treadmill so I will set it for 8.7 mph after some good rest days, or even in a couple of weeks, and try it again.

I feel about a million times better than I did the day BEFORE the Boston marathon...I just hope it isn't a total fluke. My chest hurts only slightly from the residual pericarditis pain and definitely NO atrial fib today or in the last week.

Addendum. Okay, here it is. I am supposed to run ten, not eight.

"Plan 2: Run Yasso 800s
We learned about this amazingly useful workout in a casual conversation with Runner's World race and event promotions manager Bart Yasso, and first wrote about it nearly a decade ago. Since then, literally thousands of runners have told us at marathon expos or in e-mails that the program has worked for them. With the Yasso system, you run 800-meter repeats on a track in the same minutes/seconds as your hours/minutes goal time for a marathon. (So if you're looking to run 4:30, do your 800s in 4 minutes and 30 seconds.)

Runners are drawn to Yasso 800s by Bart's unforgettable name, the simplicity of the workout, and word-of-mouth success stories.

Doug Underwood is one of those Yasso fans. A runner for just 3 years, Underwood completed his first two marathons in 3:55 and 3:53, and then was bitten by what he calls the "Boston bug." He wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and was willing to train harder to get there.

The core of his program: Yasso 800s. Since Underwood needed to run a 3:30 to reach Boston, he ran his Yasso 800s in 3:30, building up to 10 of them in a single workout, taking a 3:30 recovery jog between the fast 800s.

Underwood finished his goal race, the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon, in 3:30:54, good enough for a race entry to Boston. (Boston Marathon organizers offer runners a 59-second grace period beyond the strict qualifying standards.) "I credit the Yasso 800s with getting me there," says Underwood, who also made sure to log plenty of long runs. "They are tough workouts, but they do the job. If you can run 10 of them at your goal pace, you have a great chance of achieving your marathon goal time."

What you should do: Run Yasso 800s once a week. Start with just four or five of them at your appropriate pace, then add one a week until you get up to 10."