Taking a break

Ha! That's funny. I've been on an "unofficial" break since early February. This is to announce my official break. I will not be training until I get my knee checked out. My knee is consistently getting worse and I don't want to add to the problem. This morning I walked on the treadmill and even that was a little painful. I am hoping that it's nothing serious and that I'll be back on path to my 1st 5k in no time!

Conversation with Darrius #263

Today is my birthday. I wasn't expecting a present or anything. My birthday is at an awkward time. We just had Christmas and Valentine's Day is around the corner, so I don't ask for anything. I just make sure I have a really nice Christmas present to hold me over until Mother's Day. I get home from work and to my surprise, Alfred hands me a gift bag. Inside are lotions and bodywash from Bath & Body Works. As I'm going through and smelling the lotion, Darrius and I have an interesting conversation about my gift.

Me: Oohhh. Black amethyst. Smells good.
Darrius: Let me smell.
I hand the lotion to him so that he can get a whiff.
I pull out the shower gel and body spray.
Me: I see a theme here. Amethyst is my birthstone.
Darrius: Oh yeah! And you're black.
Me: (laughing) Thanks Darrius.
Darrius: You're welcome.
He pats me on the shoulder and walks away.

Conversation with Darrius will start appearing regularly on my blog because sometimes I can't believe what comes out of that child's mouth. You have to read it, to believe it.

It's my Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Rantings of a S.A.D. person

This rant was spurred on by a bad hair day, a bad skin day compounded with cold weather and the threat of more snow not once but twice this week.

As many of you know, I am not a fan of cold weather. I hate winter and all that comes with it. Last year, I was in serious winter funk and decided that I wouldn't let winter get me down this year. I knew that it was more than a winter "funk" and diagnosed myself with S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder -a form of mild depression due to changes in the season). The internet is a wonderful thing. All of my symptons matched that of a person suffering from it. I did some research and found out that for people that suffer from a mild case of SAD taking a Vitamin D supplement and buying a SAD lamp (artificial sunlight therapy). I started taking the Vitamin D  and it seemed to be working. I don't have the lamp but after the last couple of days I've been having, I think I'm going to need one. Over the weekend we got a little snow - around 4 inches. Not too bad. It didn't cripple the DMV like the 20+ inches we got in December. Before we got the latest batch of snow, it was on the 50s. It was so nice. And then POW! back to the 30s and then snow. Yeah, big change. We went from spring-like weather back to winter in the blink of an eye. Mother Nature is such a tease.

Yesterday (Monday) was an awful, awful day. I don't know if it was a case of the Mondays or if the Vitamin D pills have stopped working.  I was having a bad hair day, bad skin day, bad outfit day. I had a terrible night that woke me up and it took me a while to go back to sleep. I ended up oversleeping. When I walked outside, it was cold and icy. I slipped a couple of times walking to my car. Then I had to scrape ice off my car. I was wearing the wrong boots so my feet got wet because I had to stand in unmelted snow to scrape the ice off the passenger side windows. By the time I got to work, I wanted to close my office door and cry. But unfortunately, my office mate showed up so I didn't have the luxury of giving in to my mini-breakdown. I don't think I said one word to anyone yesterday. I went to the mall during my lunch break and bought a couple of books and had Chik-fil-A for lunch. That helped a bit. Other than the trip to the mall, I stayed in my little corner of my world and waited for 4:30 so that I could go home.

Today's Tuesday and I'm still feeling like crap. More snow today and into tomorrow. I heard that we're getting even more snow this weekend. And it could be a doozy. I hate winter. I feel like I'm being held hostage by the weather. I feel like I can't do anything that requires me to step outside my front door. I'm at the point where when it's sunny, it doesn't help my mood. If the temp is less than 45 degrees, I feel terrible. I need warmth, heat. No amount of layering is going to provide that.  I don't understand people who love winter. I look at them like they're crazy. What's to like? Having dry, itchy skin? You have to bathe in lotion so that you aren't scratching inappropriately throughout the day. Forget having good hair days because any cute style hair you had leaving the house is now flattened by your winter hat. Pale, sallow skin that you can't add a hint of color to because your face is so dry and flaky that wearing makeup exacerbates the problem? And let's not get into trying to navigate around snow, ice, unplowed streets and terrible drivers. Oh yeah, winter is just wonderful!

To get through the rest of this atrocity called Winter, I'm going to buy the sun lamp and double up on my Vitamin D pills. I'm going to do whatever I can to distract me from the misery of this weather.

The bears have it right. I wish I could hibernate through winter. I would find a nice, cozy cave and hang a side that would read: Do Not Wake Until Spring.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

Last week, I decided to sign up for the 2 day Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. It's two days and 39 miles. My goal is to raise $1,800. The money will provide care to those who need it most. Tomorrow is my first day of training. I will be updating my blog with my training and fundraising progress.

Please visit my page and make a donation. http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/Marquetta

Thanks for your support.

Back to the starting line

This week I made the decision to backtrack and start my 5k training from the beginning. This morning I trained starting with the week 1 Chubby Jones podcast. I figured since I haven't been consistenly training since December, I'm not at the level I should be. And I don't want to injure myself by trying to do too much. That said, I'm glad I made that decision. I huffed and puffed during the 1 minute interval runs this morning. It's amazing how it's like I never did any training. So I'm back at the starting line but I'm okay with that.

I'm also training for the 2 day Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. We'll see how successful I am with intermingling my walk training with my 5k training.

To visit my page and make a donation, click on this link: http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/Marquetta

Thanks for your support!

Injinji Socks

Great news! My quest for comfortable running socks has come to an end! Thanks to a great friend who's also a runner, I have discovered the Injinji Socks. My friend bought me two pairs of socks for Christmas and I just tried them for the first time today. At first, I was skeptical. They reminded me of gloves for feet. It felt weird having each toe in its own individual slot. The longer I wore the socks, the less I noticed that my toes weren't touching each other. During my workout today, I felt no rubbing, my feet weren't overheated and it was 100% comfortable. Yay! The socks are a little pricey - $12 for one pair. But I think it's completely worth it.

Visit their website at: http://www.injinjistore.com/