You know I drunk all that beer, right? Yeah. I had nothing at all to do with food until about 3pm, other than wishing my flatmate wasn't cooking a greasy fried breakfast. But when I could face anything, I had:

• Beef & Tomato Pot Noodle and a can of 7 Up
Oddly, although the Pot Noodle is listed on Animal Free Shopper, and the vegan I mentioned in yesterday's post will eat them despite being seriously lactose intolerant, the allergy advice on the side says it contains cow's milk. I can only assume they've been fiddling with the recipe, the bastards. But there's nowt like a Pot Noodle for repairing a hangover. Also, I chose a 7 Up, made by Britvic, rather than a Sprite, for does not the gospel according to Scroobius Pip say, 'thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products'?

• Jacket spud with fried red onion and mushrooms
Not very imaginative but did the job.

• Erm, that's about it.

Seriously, bad hangover. I have spent the rest of the day pottering around and doing small things, like sewing.

i just managed to set off the smoke alarm (by turning on the wrong ring on my cooker and slightly melting the non-slip rubber bit round the bottom of the grater) ... and burst into tears.
It's just possible i'm a bit overwrought ... the mega-emotional Doctor Who didn't exactly help with my mood that but i thought it was very good (i'm not saying any more to avoid spoiling anyone who hasn't seen it yet)

I'm a pretty good cook. My souffles don't sink (although apparently I can't work out how to do an acute accent), my roux sauces are never lumpy, I can make three types of pastry (although I never do). But I cannot make custard.

Each time I make it, something different goes wrong. Tonight I merely spilled custard powder on the worktop and then boiling milk all down the inaccessible side of the cupboard where it will fester horribly for evermore. More usually, it's lumpy or I burn it onto the bottom of the saucepan. I don't know what it is about custard, but it is clearly far too difficult for me.

What are you unexpectedly rubbish at?

Hmm, I guess that was OK, but not exceptional. ( But I don't want to spoil you, all the same )

Er, and that's it, really. Nothing much else of substance or depth that I could see. But can't wait for the Christmas / New Year's specials, all the same!

Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.

So today I ran in the Iron Girl 10-mile race in Tempe, Arizona. This was my first ten mile race ever.

My friend Mary, who was going to walk the 5K race that was being held at the same time, came to my house the day before, and we went to the expo to get out bibs, chips, and goody bags. Just like last year, the set up thing to "Make your own goodie bag." In other words, they laid out whatever was going to go in the bags, and we got to choose what we wanted to go into them.

After getting home, I cooked a pasta dinner for us, and then set up my gear for the race. I showed Mary what to do to get ready, this being her first event ever. We went to bed by 9 PM, and I was asleep by 9:30. I woke up at 4 am, before the alarm went off, and took care of my morning stuff. I woke Mary at 5:30 (she had less to do because she was walking in street clothes and didn't want to eat breakfast), and were out the door by 6:05.

We drove to the light rail station, and took the 20-minute ride to our destination, thus avoiding the problem of finding a parking space at the race site. It was probably the most stress-free trip to a local race I've ever had.

I found a vendor who would store my sweatshirt hoodie in his booth; this race doesn't have drop bags. Right before I took my warmup run, I left the hoodie there.

I ran one mile for a warmup, did a few strides, and it was time to get into the starting corral. This year, the 5K and 10-mile racers all started together; in past years, one or the other group started 15 minutes before the other.

The 10-Mile race was two loops around Tempe Town Lake, essentially between Rural Avenue and Priest Drive, on both sides of the lake. That meant we went over two bridges, twice each. (I found that I don't care much for races that do two loops around the same course.)

The loud speaker sounded "Ready, set, AFLAK", and we were off!

[Edit] The race had an official time limit of 2:30 (15 minutes per mile). Only three finishers took more than 2:30; the last runner finished in 2:45:00. In previous years, the cutoff was 2 hours (12 min/mile); that's slightly faster than my 6K PR, which is the reason that I haven't run this race before. One of the race organizers told me last year that if you finished the first 5 miles at or under the pace limit, you would be allowed to finish the race; they had a timing mat at the five mile marker. Only three runners took longer than 2:30, with the last runner finishing in 2:45:00 [End of edit.]

My goal was to finish at 2:05 (12:30 pace), and I would have been ecstatic to finish at 2 hours or under. By the same token, I would have been really bummed out if I had taken more than 2:10 (13 min/mile).

My Garmin said that my time at 5 miles was 1:02, so I knew that I was on track to meet my 2:05 goal, but I also knew that I was not going to have a negative split, so the 2:00 goal was out the window.

My official time was 2:05:08, as Maxwell Smart would say, I missed it by that much. But that's so close to my goal time that I consider that I met the goal.

I finished 580 out of 621, and was the only runner in my age group. In fact, I was the oldest runner in the race by three years.

There were a few young women (my guess is that they are in their early to mid 20s) who were playing leapfrog with me during the las few miles of the race. At about the nine mile mark, I told them, "Are you going to let a 67-year old woman beat you?" That spurred them on, and all five of them finished ahead of me.

I am so proud of my friend Mary. I had given her a walking training plan four weeks ago; it was fairly simple: walk three days a week, with a day of rest after each walk (which meant that she had two rest days after the third walk). The first week was 20 minutes, and increased 10 minutes a week, culminating in one hour in the last week (but for only two days). She told me that she had measured the distance at 2.8 miles the last day. She said she expected to walk the 5K in about 1:10 to 1:15, but I told her that she would finish it in under one hour. Her time was 57:50, she came in 66 of 75 in the 45-49 age group and 727 out of 783 overall. As I said, I am so proud of her for sticking with the program and finishing the 5K. What makes me even prouder is that she said she is planning to keep on training.

Now I love Italian food and I am sure that they feed their babies very well indeed.
However I am not sure that this particular baby food product will take off here:



Click this:

www.nifeislife.com/horse-meal-puree-plasmon-2x80g-p-1887.html

Foods:

• Fruit & Fibre with soy milk
• Carrot pate, avocado and houmous butty
On an olive and sun-dried tomato focaccia from Arkwright's, the deli over the road. I believe they get them from Real Patisserie up on Trafalgar Street. Obviously it's not labelled, but I asked the woman who runs the place, who's probably been asked that sort of thing before, and she reckoned they were dairy-free. Also extremely tasty; I'd say it was an improvement on the original HAT.

• Snacks as previously described
• Tempeh Crumbles, potatoes with onion & shallot, peas
The tempeh recipe was from VwaV again. It's tempeh with just about the entire contents of the spice cupboard in it, and allegedly sausage-like. It was rather more like eating some sort of crumbled savoury flapjack, but I can see the potential of tempeh as a thing with a less weird texture of tofu. I'm not sure I'd make this again, though.

• Some bottles of Old Peculier
Which might not be vegan - took a guess at it as a bottled beer, and according to barnivore probably failed. Mind you, I was drinking with a full-time vegan friend who wasn't worrying about it.

• A couple of draught pints of Doom Bar
Definitely not vegan, but I don't think the Caroline had any bottled beers except Newky Brown which isn't vegan anyway. Also I'd had some beer by then.

I went out to the Hob, and there were some bands on; the first ones perfectly acceptable but not overly exciting slightly emo metal, the second a really very good doom metal bunch called Dead In The Woods from Nottingham and the third a seriously impressive, fast and tight hardcore band called Gasmask Terror, who I find from that are French. The drummer was amazing - there are several ways to play a fast beat with nowhere near as much effort as it sounds to a non-drummer, but he wasn't doing that, he was playing full beats very fast, while always looking like he was totally on top of it. And one of the guitarists had hair down to his hips, which I'm always pleased by. The Hob remains a funny old place, with so much of it in such a shitty state, but you get good bands there. Once the bands had finished the place emptied fairly quickly as people went to the Caroline, or other more salubrious places. There are two cubicles in the ladies; one has no seat and and the other has a seat held together with gaffer tape, the tiled walls have been painted black and then more-or-less scraped clean again leaving the grout still black, and neither of them had any toilet roll in all night. Expecting that sort of thing from the Hob, I'd taken some with me. And then we went to the Caroline once the bands had finished. Pretty much a fail on the vegan beer front then, last night, but a good night out.

Dear lovely friends-listers!

I am unlikely to see the new Doctor Who special until tomorrow evening, as I do not have a functioning TV and watching it on my tiny netbook screen on iPlayer probably won't be very satisfying.

Please, please, if you post about Doctor Who tonight or tomorrow, put it behind a cut tag to avoid spoilers. I currently know nothing about the episode other than the title, and I'd really like it to stay that way until tomorrow evening.

Thanks!

I would like
to apologize
To the earthworm
I hacked in two
In my garden
Forgive me
You were so helpful
And so right under my shovel

So I just realized that the main reason I never listen to music while I'm walking along is that there's some sort of broken connection or something in my Discman, meaning that in order to make sound come through my headphones I have to kind of push the plug at a specific angle with my thumb, which is tiring and also means that I have to hold the thing in my hands while I walk along because it doesn't work if I put it in my pocket or in a bag or something. And now it's cold and rainy and I am sick of the walk to and from work like I can't even tell you, and it would be nice to have music coming into my ears from my pocket without the need for constant vigilance.

So I thought I might get an mp3 player. My main thing is that I don't want to do Shuffle or Random Play, I want to do albums and playlists, because I like listening to specific songs/lists on the way to work and I listen to Shuffle like all the time at home. (iTunes DJ, I mean, I beg your pardon.) My other main thing is that ideally I'd get one second-hand, because OH GOD THE LANDFILL AND THE TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND THE COLTAN AND OH GOD. But then I also hear that iPods break the instant they're out of warranty, so maybe I don't want to get one second-hand. But maybe I do want to get one second-hand, just not an iPod?

I put myself in your hands, you guise. What should I do?

ETA: Okay, stand down, people, problem is solved. And thank you mr_altariel!

Do you guys know the Decatriathlon world championships is on in Mexico? There's just a bunch of people doing that crazy thing (ten days, one ironman tri a day) and there are two Hungarians still in competiton! One of them, Ferenc Szőnyi placed third last year and hopes to finish similarly this year.

That guy finished 3rd last year, as I said, and finished strong. He was okay and smiling at the finish, sporting 10 intact toenails and walking fine. The following day he rented a car and went off exploring Mexico with his support team.... The guy who came first was clearly seconds from passing out and all the other competitors had several injuries...

I checked out his blog and found something that felt as if I had written it, apart from the fact that I cannot run hundreds of kilometers :)
(translated here from Hungarian)

I love challenges.
I love testing my limits.
I love looking back and saying I have done that.
I'm a recreational ultrarunner and triathlete.
It feels awesome when you cover the distance, fight the elements, run hundreds of kilometers just on the strength of your own too feet, and when you finish, you still have the nails on your toes, and you can walk up stairs the next day and not look like a 100-year-old....that you are still a MAN(human). A man and a winner.

THAT is exactly what I sorta idealize. To do extreme endurance stuff and remain "human" and "humane" the whole way and after the finish too, in every respect. Not get injured, finish strong and able, and care about the others around you.

I'm not saying it's not heroic or hardcore or both to finish a race against all odds, pushing through pain and ignoring tears and blood, staggering or crawling across the line in agony if need be...Yep, total hats off to you guys ever having done that. But still... :)

Cause there's snow on the ground and we're racing today!! lol Last race in the snow was Valentine's Day...so 9 months ago (user pic). Didn't need the Yak Trax that day but think I just might need them today. So very glad the fall series has an 1130 start time.

Have a great Sunday everyone!!

"Nor is it at all allowable in Philosophy, to bring in a Deus è Machiná at every turn, when our selves are at a loss to give a Reason for our Thesis."


I've got a real nerd-on for tonight's Dr Who. Even though Dr Who always goes:

- Tardis door opens. Doctor either in Serious On A Mission mode OR jumps out grinning like delighted three year old.
- Something happens: divers alarums
- The doctor takes charge and is not questioned, even when doing this aboard someone else's ship. If questioned, use MultiPass! MULTIPASS!
- Someone is in love with the doctor, but It Can Never Be.
- No, wait: EVERYONE is in love with the doctor, but It Can Never Be. Uh! Doctor! UH!
- The Doctor speaks very, very quickly and places his foot on the console of the Tardis when things get shaky.
- Mmmm. Tardis.
- Hang on! What's that planet / species / spaceship doing there!?!?
- It's ok! Nobody can get into the Tardis!
- Oh. Tardis gone.
- Wait! There are a lot more aliens than we were expecting!
- Mmmm. Sonic screwdriver.
- The doctor screams in agony so we get to see his Man Pain. BLEED ON THE CROSS FOR US, DOCTOR!!!11
- Someone attempts genocide.
          - If it is someone on the doctor's team, he talks them out of it.
          - If it is the doctor, we get to see How He Was Only Doing It Because
            He Has Seen It Done To His Own People And Is In So Much Pain, and
            we also get to see How Much Narrowly Avoiding Being A Genocidal
            Maniac Hurt Him and How Much He Has Learned From It.
          - If it is the aliens, they all die in a fiery ball of aieee / are exiled to the
            Dimensions of Poo, after we get to watch them have all that is dear
            to them ripped from their very souls while they writhe in agony.
- Someone gives a speech about how amazing the Doctor is, and how grateful we should all be to him, all the time, for everything, and how kind he is, and how he's like totally clevoror than you.
- The troublesome aliens grudgingly concede that the above point is valid, but they still think he smells and shall return in a hundred years with a bunch of mates, just you see.
- O NOES! A loyal, but physically unattractive follower of the doctor has given their life to save him! However, they do get the chance to die in the arms of the doctor, who maketh his face to shine upon them, and he gets a bit more Man Pain, so it's win-win really.
- Tardis door closes. Doctor alone with Man Pain OR grinning like idiot, hurtling towards fresh disaster.

The doctor comes equipped with not one, but four deus ex machinas:
- his handy pass
- the tardis
- his sonic screwdriver
- his immortality.

And, yanno, really great hair.

It's 6 in the morning here and I've been up for an hour getting ready to head out to Annapolis for some little podunk 5K. My goal: beat the first 5K I ever ran, which was also the first time I had run three miles in years. 44 minutes, baby. Now I'm just waiting for dawn to break and eating some oranges hoping that I won't fall asleep at the wheel. If I'm never heard from again, you'll know I died in pursuit of personal running mediocrity. That dream will live forever.


Just to make this a fun chat post and not a back_track needs to stop whining ihr Arsch off post, what part of running would you gladly give up?

All you <censored> who say you wouldn't give up any part of it, well, I got no words for you.

ETA

I went looking for my (in the damn wind) headphones and managed to POKE MYSELF IN THE EYE, HARD. Let me tell you, internets, the trials and tribulations of my life.

I wrote in a previous post about deciding between training for a half or a full after my 5K on December 5th. For a couple of reasons, I've decided that IF I am healthy (I've had some knee pain the last week but it's getting better quickly) at the time that the official week one of training starts (Jan. 11), I will train for the full. (Actually, the marathon is the Cleveland Marathon and the date to sign up for only $65 is Jan. 8, so I might decide 3 days early.) I'm going to base build between Dec. 5 and Jan. 11.

( More details and a question about extending the taper a week )

TIA for your advice/sharing similar experiences!