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/

Gym Pet Peeve

A couple of weeks ago, BGR had a post about Gym Pet Peeves. I commented on that post saying that my gym pet peeve was being on the treadmill next to someone with bad breath. Well, I need to add another one. Tonight I was at the gym. I was supposed to workout this morning but Mr. Sandman had other ideas. Anyway, I'm on the treadmill, struggling through the Week 3 podcast. This is one of the reasons why I hate working out in the evenings. My belly has a day's worth of food in it. I felt heavy and bloated. Jogging was extra difficult. And I had the beginnings of a headache. Halfway through my workout, I get a whiff of a loud smelling perfume/lotion. It was a strong sweet smell, but not in a good way. Every time I inhaled, the odor was in my nose. It was terrible. I tried to ignore it and soldier on but I couldn't. The twinge of my headache started to become a throb. And I think it had to do with the loud perfume/lotion. I looked around trying to find the culprit but had no luck. The old man on the treadmill next to me kept looking at me as if I was the guilty one. I gave him a dirty look and kept on moving. After about 10 minutes, I gave up. I started cooling down. I had to get out of there. My head was throbbing as if the little headache was trying to become a migraine. And I wasn't having it.

You'd think people would use common sense and not douse their body in perfume before entering an enclosed facility that puts you in contact with a lot of people. I wish I knew who that idiot was. I would have given him/her the dirtiest look I could muster. And I'm an expert at giving dirty looks; I learned from the master -my Mama.

I hope to drag my tail out of bed tomorrow morning and hit the gym. I got to make up for my prematurely-ended workout.

New Year - Same Goal

Happy New Year everyone! What happened to 2009? I think I have whiplash the year went by so fast. My goal (not resolution) for 2009 was to run/jog in a 5k race. If you've been reading my blog (and infrequent postings), you know that I did not achieve that goal. But no worries. It's a new year and the same goal. 2010 will be THE year that I run in a 5k race. In addition to running a 5k, my new goal for 2010 is to run in 5 or 6 miler by Fall. Yep, I said it! Two running goals for 2010. And if I'm feeling pretty confident, maybe the Army 10-miler. *gasp!*

Today I was back in the gym after a 3 week break and it was brutal. Man, it's amazing how your body reverts back as if you've never worked out. This morning I grudgingly headed to the gym in the bitter cold. I'm just gonna to have to strengthen my resolve and get used to the morning workouts. Right now, the gym is packed in the evenings with all the New Year Resolutions I'm going to get in shape folks. They'll be gone by February if not sooner. Then I can go back to working out in the evenings.

I knew due to my hiatus, I couldn't start where I left off with The Chubby Jones running podcast. My last workout I was on week 4, not looking forward to starting week 5. So I decided to start with week 3. I remember week 3 being very do-able. Ha! Back when I was consistenly working out it was do-able. Today, it was torture. The 3 minutes runs killed me. Aargh! But it's okay. I'm just going to keep with it and before I know it, I'll be at week 5, cursing the treadmill and Chubby Jones. LOL!

Happy Running!