60 minutes easy

I had a tempo run yesterday where I could barely hold an 8:30 pace. This morning I had a 60 minute run at easy pace. I went out and felt really good and after 20 minutes I was still holding a 7:15 pace. This is NOT my easy pace (it is more like my race pace), but it felt easy, and much easier than the 8:30 pace yesterday, so good I just decided to go with it. I think it was a combo of being at sea level, wearing my old favorite shoes that I love from like 6 years ago, and knowing that there was a chance that at any point in my run one of the 500 people I know that live in the city could drive by. That kept me going, and I did see three friends drive by. I kept the pace up for about 55 minutes when my stomach rebelled against the risotto and short ribs I had for dinner last night. Tonight is a "track" workout that I will be doing at the park path instead of a track. Maybe I can do some 60' 400s.

Here I am on my way to my office at Starbucks where I will be working for the next two days. This is only because my mom still does not have wireless in her house. I feel a birthday present coming on. Notice the shirt. I always wear Obama when I come home, and I always get comments on whatever shirt from my collection I am wearing. Usually the uncomplimentary kind. Today I am going to keep track of how many I get - the good and the bad.

Outta here

After spending two plus hours last night at the airport immigration office, the company lawyer was able to request my permission to leave while I stood there and cried telling a made up story. I need 48 hours to get my permission since I wont have the visa until May 21, but since I changed my flight to within 24 hours of leaving, I had to white-lie my way onto a plane. And with a little extra cash I think it worked. I have to show up today 5 hours before my flight with the lawyer to get the letter and then head to another terminal to make my flight. If nothing goes wrong I will land in Houston tonight around 8. The lawyer will be getting some Kona coffee upon my return as he had to put up with me all last night asking over and over what percentage chance he thought I had to leave. It went something like this:
Me: Do you think I will get to leave?
Lawyer: Yes, I think so - dont worry
Me: Like what percentage chance do you think?
Lawyer: 50%
Me: Seriously? That isnt a dont worry situation.

5 minutes later:
Me - do you think the chances would jump to 60% if I shed some tears?
Lawyer - maybe to 51%
Me - It is worth a try

5 Minutes later:
Me: Do you think I will get to leave tomorrow?
Lawyer: Yes, I feel very lucky.
Me: I need assurances.
Lawyer: I assure you I feel very lucky
Me: Not helping. I liked it better when you gave me percentages.

And on and one for two hours.

I couldnt sleep last night becaues I was stressed about flying and I only have one xanax left and two flights to the next doctor. The pharmacy is out of everything right now with the crowds leaving the city so I am SOL. I decided to take it on the Hawaii flight since that is 4 times as long as the Houston flight, which means I will be drinking heavily starting at takeoff tonight. In my stress and worry I tossed and turned and all I could think about is how do I use this:

With this?:

Seriously people, we are in a flu pandemic and I am not sure how sanitary the oxygen masks are! On the flip side, in the case of an emergency does enough O2 get through my facemask to allow me to survive? It is already heard enough to breath with it on and in my panic I may have an asthma attack. I am having one now just thinking about it. After weighing the pros and cons of this from 4-6AM, I finally decided to get up and run. It was cool enough for arm warmers, so I wore my hot pink ones - LOVE THEM. I ran a 30 minute tempo and some strides. There were four people out running and one guy who was smoking through his facemask. I guess if you can get the cigarette through the mask the oxygen will be no problem

Update

This update is mostly for my family and friends who keep asking me what is going on, nothing to do with training other than the rest of the week it will hopefully be in Houston.
So here is the update as of 5:30 PM. After a morning of running around trying to update our websites with the current status of the swine flu, I decided to call Continental about the dogs moving in May. During my call I was asking if it was possible to get them both on the same flight to Mexico (which apparently is next to impossible) since noone is wanting to come here right now anyway. During the call she proceeded to tell me that they cant guarantee anything until an hour before the flight and that they may be stuck in Houston for a while. I proceeded to tell her that we were having an earthquake. Yes the first big one here for me – apparently a 6.0. We all went to the street (which is totally against the current rule of not having too many people in the same area so as not to spread the flu). I think God is laughing at us right now. I hope I dont get home to an apt that doesnt exist anymore. At least our furniture hasnt arrived.
At lunch I requested that we all be able to work from home the rest of the week. In reposnse I got an email from my boss telling me to get to Houston ASAP so that I can make sure I can fly to Hawaii to move everything. I am waiting now for our lawyer to call me back confirming that all is ok to leave tomorrow. In the meantime I am staying as safe as possible. Here I am at work. Not happy about the fashionable mask that the military gave me, but safe-ish nonetheless.

What a weekend

My mom was right. There were lots of people who backed out of the race this weekend. In fact the whole race was cancelled. I went for a 9 mile run anyway and the streets were empty. Usually the main road here is closed off on Sundays, but they didnt close it off this sunday because they are controlling crowds and have put a stop to all social events and social places. They even cancelled mass, which in this country is huge. Restaurants are closing at 6PM and limiting the amount of people that can be in the restaurant at one time. They are also checking your temperature before flying out of Mexico and not letting you on the flights if it is over 100. I leave Friday and am a little nervous that something will happen and i cant fly.
The run this weekend was great - everything was empty. I have been trying to upload the photos, but blogger isnt allowing me to. I will try again later. I did a 2 mile loop through my neighborhood and then went off to Reforma by the park. I was about 4.5 miles in and two military people stopped me and handed me a mask that they asked me to wear. I put it on and had a hell of a time breathing with it. I pulled it off since noone was running or walking anywhere near me. Then I got stopped again by another military guy handing me a face mask so I decided to call it a day after that and ran home - only 9 in total. I felt a little crappy on the run and was struggling to keep an 8:45 pace, which the hypochondriac in me took to mean that I was getting sick, so I went home and rested the rest of the day, and I feel fine today. The run probably felt crappy because I had a hard workout the day before. I am staying away from gyms until this thing goes away and only running outside. I am also trying to stay away from people in general, which is proving to be much more difficult in an office full of them. But for the time being I am feeling flu free and washing my hands and using purel every hour.
So if all goes well I will leave Friday for Hawaii and am going to be looking for a race to do there. I am leaving the day before the Hon tri, which I am bummed about because I really wanted to do it. Although I heard the swimming was cancelled which would pretty much guarantee a crappy race for me.
And for any of you wanting to come to Mexico now, flights are dirt cheap and masks are free!

Update - photos came in...
Here is where the race was supposed to start this AM, next to the biggest flag that I have ever seen. I was pretty much the only crazy out there.


And here is our normally crowded street. The path goes on forever so it is perfect for running just not as fun with no people watching involved because I tell you what, that is what gets me through some of these long runs...

Swine flu?

I am trying to figure out how this happened. Somewhere in my really hard work week (almost 3 all nighters), there was a swine flu outbreak. I didnt realize this until I got an email from Chris asking me if the cold I had was gone (it is) with a link to an article on the swine flu outbreak in Mexico City. Walking home from work today the streets looked like Asia during the SARS scare with everyone in a face mask. How did I miss this? I am usually totally up on the latest health scare. I am a hypochondriac (not the kind that goes to doctors because I havent been to a GP since I went to my pediatrician when I was 18). When I got the two staff infections in hawaii I went to Drs on Call and they mis-diagnosed me, so I never went again. If I get sick here, all I can really do is go to the hospital. I am the type of hypochondriac that self diagnoses and self medicates. Usually with alcohol. It is used to clean emergency rooms so it can definitely take care of whatever bacteria I may be carrying around.
There is very little press about it here, so what I am learning, I am learning from searching US google and from panicked friends making sure I am still alive. The schools and museums are all closed. The race on Sunday sold out before I could register, but my mom thinks with this outbreak some people will back out. I am not sure I am brave enough to share the water stations with a race full of potentially flu carrying people, but athletes are supposed to be healthy right? The office sent out a mass email giving us great advice on how to take care of ourselves. It was in a ppt and the first slide said - if you feel sick go to the doctor. The second slide said - wash your hands frequently and cover your mouth when you cough. That was it. Really? Thanks for the help. I learned that in kindergarten.
All week in my meetings we had three people hacking up lungs complaining that they had the flu and we didnt think anything of it until we saw the scare in the news. I actually was the only one who didnt panic because I only really freak out if throw up is involved and this flu doesnt seem to have that. I slightly contemplated not going to the gym to run, but that was more out of laziness than protecting my health. I just went to get dinner and the waiters had the masks on but the cooks didnt. Hopefully the flu shot I had in september and the daily doses of Zicam will help keep me safe because I wasnt about to not eat my tacos. Pork tacos I might add - hopefully eating the animal that started the flu cant make me sick.

Manifestacion

These are photos outside of my office window today of the manifestacion going on here. They are all in front of the US Embassy and I am not sure exactly what they are saying as the only word I can really make out is Obama. It will make for an interesting crowd to run through today. Hopefully they will still be there so i can read all of the signs they are holding. Right now the only one I can see is one that says the government protects pedofiles, and I can only see half of it so I am not sure whose government they are talking about. See the cars in the street. They havent moved in hours. Good thing I walk to work. Ok, im off to go run/stalk before he leaves today.

And now I can stalk him in Mexico

Here he is with Calderon.

My day started out like this - on my walk to work there was a huge crowd outside of the US embassy protesting so it took a while to get through. This isnt odd as there are protests every three days, but it was more crowded than normal. Then my 10:00 appt arrived 30 minutes late saying that the roads are all closed and traffic was horrible. I asked him what was going on and he said that Obama was in town. WHAT??? How the HELL did I forget that. In my delirium last night I must have forgotten what today was. Yes, Obama is in town and I could hardly wait to get out of the office to start my stalking er running. I know where he is staying (the only presidential suite in Mexico City that has bullet proof windows) and it is right on my run course. Or a half mile off, but I could use the extra exercise. Thank god Mexico had daylight savings this past weekend because I wouldnt normally be able to run this late at night. I forgot my camera, but the roads were blocked off and there were cops everywhere. I ran by the hotel a few times until one of the guards with a machine gun asked me if I was lost. Knowing I had no money for a bribe if I were to get arrested, I quickly ran home. And I will be back tomorrow. With some cash. After all of these illnesses it finally felt good to run. I have been able to eat which has definitely helped and all week I have really been able to push hard.
During my workout yesterday the HR lady emailed to tell me round two of the visa photos were rejected because you couldnt see my ears and there was a shadow on my cheek. These people are picky! So i went back to the same photo place today with my hair all braided and pinned up (so not a pretty look) and I demanded a free re-do. The third set came out with a shadow under my eye (which could also have been circles from me being so tired) and in order to not get them rejected I had to have the circles scrubbed out. My first experience with photoshopping is on the visa photos. I will have to post because they dont look anything like the tired me. I plan on going to bed tonight before it is tomorrow so that I can run a little bit further tomorrow in my stalking session.

Guitar Hero

Every time I come back to Hawaii it rains the entire time. This trip was no different. It has been cold and rainy since I got here and I have not been able to set foot on the beach. The good news is that it has made it much less painful to do all of the errands that need to be done before moving. We made the trek out to the new Target, the petstore and of course to Lululemon. We also made a pitstop at Best Buy where we picked up Guitar Hero. We have been playing non stop since there isnt much else to do. Chris started out on the guitar and immediately got bood off stage. Then he went to the drums and no luck there either. Finally he found his calling singing and we were able to get through the songs together. Now I am addicted - good thing I leave tonight to go back home. Here I am trying my way for the first time. I am on a balance ball - does this count as a core workout?

The hood came on when it got really stressful...

We had dinner plans that night, but when Chris took the dogs out, I took one last turn to practice and was caught when he got back. NO comments about the pig-stye of a house mom - we are preparing for a move!!

Needless to say there has been no surfing (too cold and rainy), but I did hear that the Hon Tri is a run-bike-run since the jellyfish will be out, so I am still considering racing it when I come back. here are race photos from last weekend - can you tell that I am going to die? I dont usually look like I am in this much pain when I race (even though I usually am). But I did get to wear the new silver zoots for the first time in a race and I loved them! Hopefully next time they will help me pace a little bit better.

VIsa Update

I woke up this morning to this email from HR....
I just wanted to let you know that your pictures were rejected because you eyes look closed :). So I hope you can schedule once you are back to the office to take new pictures. I will give you back the old ones so you can give them to your friends lol
Perfect - I will try and do better next time.

Racing and Babies

I learned a very valuable lesson in the race this past weekend. I need to work on pacing - BAD. I used to be so good at it and people would come up to me thank me for pacing them. But as I have started only working on my running and gotten faster, I realize that I cant pace anymore. The run went down like this. Weather was pretty nice - about 55 degrees (which is freezing for Houston in April). I had still been feeling sick from the stomach bug thing I caught, but not awful. Before the start I got in a little warmup that upset my stomach, so I figured I would save it all for the race.
And the start - I felt pretty good at the beginning and just stayed the pace with the people around me (people who were supposedly running 7:30 pace). I was doing great until I got to mile 2 and saw the time. 12:58. Holy crap I went out way too fast and am going to die. AThat was all I could think. nd who the hell were these people who said they were running 7:30? They cant pace either. The time should have read about 15 minutes. Just before the clock I was feeling good, but after I was toast. I couldnt move my legs and felt like I couldnt breath. I looked at my garmin the pace was slowing. I kept slowing to a walk (i know, totally lame - i hate walking). I was going this way (slow jog, walk to get my heartrate down, slow jog) until I got to mile 3. At that point I knew i could suffer for another mile. I finished in 34 and my goal was 30, and I know I can do that with proper pacing. The miles went like this according to Garmin - 6:30, 6:28, 14ish, 7:14. Again, I need to learn to pace. And I need to learn not to listen to my head when it says I cant do something. I have never been very good at that, and I am going to work on this. The post race party was one of the best I have been to. Nachos, migas, pizza, jamba juice, smoothie king, (i could go on forever - remember Houston was the fattest city in the US) and BEER. I was going to take a picture of my friend and me after the race, but I had two beers in my hands and didnt want to risk spilling one.
My brother had a race this weekend in NYC and did so well - he is getting faster each week. He did a 7:36/mile - he knows how to pace.
And finally over the weekend I went to visit one of my best friends who just had a baby. Her name is Stirling and she is perfect. I want one. I really wanted one until she told me about her labor. Here she is with her first picture with Obama. My friend's husband is not an Obama fan and he was not too happy when I showed up to the hospital wearing this shirt.

America's most wanted

This is so not a training post but has to be shared. I got an urgent call from my HR lady today saying that I had to go to the immigration office by 1:30 to confirm I am who I say I am so I can leave the country Friday. WTF? It is 1:00 and traffic here sucks worse than LA. So I made it just in time to meet my really nice lawyer. Apparently they were trying to get the letter released that says I am allowed to leave and come back and my signature on my passport was a tad different than on my paperwork. Yes, this is true. My signature changes yearly, it has never been a problem before.

So after clearing this up I asked when my FM3 would be ready - I have been here for three months taking paychecks and still no work visa. He had to pull me aside to tell me the situation because apparently there is some shady sh*t going on here and he didnt want the immigration official to hear. I guess with where my Visa sitation is now, they wouldnt release me from the counrty if they heard what he told me. Apparently it is ready to go and all I needed was a photo and to answer 1000 questions about how I look. I have no idea if my nose is a little to the left or right or if my eyes are close together or far apart, but after I got the photos back I know that I resemble a serial killer.

I normally take ok photos in these situations. Not anything frame worthy, but definitely nothing I am embarrassed to take out....until now.
Here is the latest mugshot....In my defense I was given 100 different directions about how and where I needed to look with about 10 strong ass lights on me so I was sweating and could barely see it was so bright. Plus I was told no smiling, closed mouth and look serious. Really? I dont take directions well apparently. I look like I just got busted for making crystal meth in my house in the boonies.

When I gave it to my HR lady she just burst out laughing and said that noone but immigration needed to see it. Then she promptly showed it to the girl she was with.

Here is my passport photo - not too terrible for one of these types of documents.

Here is my DL - again, not totally embarrassing.

So the good news is I can leave the country with my passport and the approval letter, but when I start using the Visa in May, the photo may cause some problems with customs and questions may arise about. I thought about retaking it, but it was already $120 pesos and there are worse things to worry about. Like whether or not the dude on the corner is going to steal my last $120 pesos causing me not to be able to even buy this photo.