solar squirrel

My car got completely covered.

Look at how much snow we shoveled on the sides of the driveway

Todd next to the piles of snow that he shoveled.

I want a reschedule for the indoor tri!!!

Well - today we were basically snowed in. We were supposed to go see “We Gotta Bingo” tonight with some friends, but the snow was just insane so we decided to cancel. Instead Todd and I (and the cats) played in the snow. I have only gone snow shoeing once before and boy was it tough! We took the little trail in Todd’s yard to the park and then played around. There weren’t any other tracks in the snow - we were the first one’s there! Todd thought he was being slick and threw snow on me - MULTIPLE times. So I got back at him and went on a rampage throwing snow all over him. It was HILARIOUS because he had it all over his face and eyes. I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard at him. I tried to make snow impressions of my body in the fresh snow by laying in it, it kind of looked weird, though because my arms weren’t out all the way so it looked like a midget with a big body and small arms had laid there.  I sat on a few benches and made butt impressions.  It was a great snowy fun time!

The only bad thing about the snow is that it caused the indoor tri to be canceled. Oh well -at least I know ahead of time.

Here are some photos of our snowy adventures today:

When I was on the Youngstown half marathon website I checked out the times from last year and realized that I should be able to beat last year’s time.  I almost had a 9 min. pace - 8:46 - so hopefully I’ll be faster than that this year.  I’m not sure, though - my training has been pretty lame since I got sick and the longest I’ve ran since the 50k was 10 miles w/ SERC this past weekend.  So, we’ll see.  The main thing is I’ll be out with my friends.  E-speed is a freak and says she gets slower every year - watch her bust out a 7:30 pace this year.  Oh - and Todd is being his usual modest self and thinks he is out of shape, blah, blah, blah.

So - having said that, my goal is to be better than last year - even if it’s only by a few seconds!

This week I decided that I would start taking better advantage of my Bally’s membership so I headed to the Beachwood Bally’s for an hour long “Bootcamp” class Monday after work.  You know…going to a new class for the first time made me realize how difficult it must be for someone who is overweight or out of shape and is going to the gym for the first time.  It’s really an intimidating experience.  You wonder if you’ll be the fattest, or the most out of shape, or if you’ll be able to keep up with what the instructor is having the class do…  I mean - I was hoping for a super hard core workout - like - please - give me what you’ve got.  But it made me really think about what it must be like for someone to start.  I sure give those people credit.

So - having said that it was an AWESOME class!  An hour long - kind of a combo between yoga, aerobics, and kick-boxing.

Tuesday I ran 4 miles with Joe and tonight I swam for 40 min. with Brian and Frank.  Brian and me and this other kid at the pool did a ladder which was pretty good.  I like doing the ladders with Brian.  He and I swim at about the same pace and it definitely pushes me.  So I think I’m back on track!  I’m hoping to go to the Solon Sunday run this week because I miss all of the girls!

So much for training.

I woke up Wed. am w/ a migraine. No biggie - it’s not like I’ve never had one before. I went to work hoping that caffeine would keep it at bay - but by my 10 am meeting it was obvious not so. I left work around noon, went home and headed for bed after taking one of my magic migraine pills. About 3 hours later I woke up - migraine mostly gone - but sore throat and FREEZING cold. Great.

From there it was a sad state of affairs that continued into Thurs, Fri, and Sat. I seriously have not been that sick in YEARS. I had a terrible fever and I kept waking up every several hours to change my clothes because I had drenched them with sweat. My sister had been sick, too, so luckily she had ibuprofen, cough drops, soup, juice, etc. stocked in the apt. Otherwise I don’t know what I would have done since I normally NEVER take any type of over the counter crap. It got so bad that when I was laying on the couch (had to take a break from my bed - I think I was getting bed sores, even though Todd said you can’t get them in that short of time…) I started to see faces in the fabric design on the cushions. Hopefully the fever didn’t cause any long-term damage. I asked Todd to ask me some questions that would determine whether or not I had sustained any long-term damage to my brain. His response: “What’s the square root of 83?” Ugh. Like I would know that down to the decimal. Freak. That’s what I get for asking.

The migraine returned in full force Thursday and I don’t think I ever got rid of it fully until today - even still I can feel a faint throb of teasing pain letting me know I’m not fully through with it. The pain was incapacitating. I had body aches, fever, chills, coughing, stuffy nose, and the worst part - a non-stop horrendous headache. That headache was out of control. The pain would come in waves and it was like I could feel the pain surging through the veins in my head and when it would finally hit full force my head would almost recoil in response. The migraine pills could only do so much to dull the pain. And with all the other drugs I was taking I didn’t want to risk taking them unnecessarily. I didn’t want to risk brain damage and liver failure.

So that’s the story. Let’s see if I can get things together and get my workout routine back on track ASAP.

Actually, not really…but as we always said in the good ‘ol USMC “false motivation is better than no motivation at all!!” Today on the drive into work all I kept hearing on the radio was ’super Tuesday’ blah blah blah. Got to work around 8:30; meeting; then ran 4 miles at lunch w/some other NM folks; more work; testing; failed testing; then ESpeed called and I decided it was time to leave work.

ESpeed informed me that the Greater Cleveland half iron I’m planning on doing costs $130, so I might have to scratch that one. I just don’t see paying that much money for a race that I don’t care that much about doing. I’ll see what Toddykins says and go from there. (’Cause you know, I can’t make any decisions on my own!!) For now I’m going to keep my eyes open for another half iron that is around the same time but costs less. I wanted to do Greater Cleveland since it’s part of The Beast, so we’ll see.

Yes, it may seem a bit optimistic, but I’ve added at least the events that I truly do want to do.  There are a few that I’m willing to skip, but for the most part I really do see myself doing everything that I added to the list.  (Most of them I did last year anyway, and I think I’m in better shape this year anyway.)  I would like to place in my age group, but my main goal is to improve my past times.

So you’re probably wondering when I’m going to add my training info.  Well, you have to train in order to have info to add.  I have been a complete fat, lazy slacker since the 50k.  Tomorrow I will attempt to resume training and it definitely helps that the weather is supposed to be ‘warm’.  I did hit the gym after work tonight for a nice fat-burning 40 min. on the elliptical, though.  (Hey, it’s better than nothing!) 

…or so I thought. When I arrived Gret wasn’t even there - she had gone off to the mall with her friend. Dub wasn’t there either - she decided that her evening would be better spent with the recliner and the fireplace. So it was Katy, mom, me and Todd. We hung out for a bit, had some pizza, and I got my nails painted.

I think I might be the last person on the planet to start a blog, but never mind that - I need something to do with the 100 GB of space I have on solarsquirrel since I can’t seem to make the time to maintain it.  The main scope of this blog will be training (running, etc) and renewable energy.  Of course this will also serve as a spot for friends and relatives to keep tabs on my incredibly fascinating life.