This taper isnt going as planned

I have a half marathon on Sunday. It is my last planned race until I start again with the 5Ks in February. I am going to be taking some time off running for a couple of weeks to focus on strength training, biking, and searching for a pool in my neighborhood. Normally I dont really taper for half marathons but since it is the last race I have for a bit, I decided to go ahead and do a week long taper. It sucks. I have been sick for the past two days with an upset stomach. Not bad enough to stay in bed, but bad enough that when I attempt to run at any speed whatsoever, I have to run to the bathroom. I tried running on monday. 4 miles. I couldnt do it. I hit 6.8 on the treadmill and that was the magic number to send me to the toilet. I am not kidding when I say I had to remain below 6.0 to continuously run for a couple of miles. Along with the stomach I still have an issue with my ankle. It doesnt hurt except for the first few minutes of running while it loosens up or when someone touches the part of my ankle where I am convinced a screw is coming out, but it is so swolen all the time. If you looked just at my ankle you would think I were preggers. I have to loosen my shoe and have to wear socks that are too big so it doesnt feel like the circulation is being cut off. Work shoes are another story. When I take them off, I have random lines all over my foot. It looks like a sausage. I have no idea what is going on with it. I really dont have too much pain at all, just the swelling and I am taking anti inflams to try and minimize it. I guess it is time for a dr visit. Hopefully bad taper = good race.

Is it still Christmas?

I finally remembered to take my camera out when I passed by our Mexico City Christmas tree. I guess this is what you get when you live in a concrete city. It is made of 100% scaffolding and has been up since the middle of November.

It even has little metal snowflakes and is sponsored by Pepsi.

I am all for holiday decoratinos, especially since it is the first metal tree I have seen, but it is January 7th and there is no sign of them taking it down. It took almost 3 weeks to put it up, so at this rate when my family comes in Feb, they will get to experience the Mexico City tree. I actually lived right across the street from this circle this time last year and I dont remember seeing this tree. I hope they dont leave it up year round, but maybe the economy is so bad here they cant afford to remove it.
Chris and I are headed to Houston next weekend to run the houston half. This race is my favorite and it filled up in about 2 minutes this year. Crazy! I have my last longish run on sunday of 11 miles and then it is an easy week next week. Chris has been tapering since he finished the turkey trot in November. I think he has run a total of 5 times this year and will still probably kick my ass.
Ok, now I need to go concentrate on what's really important in life...The Longhorns beating Bama in the game tonight. Hook EM!

Happy New Year's and 2010 Resolutions

Our first new years eve here in D.F. was pretty uneventful. We cooked dinner, drank too much champagne, and played Guitar Hero and American Idol. I also learned one of the traditions here is to eat 12 grapes at midnight (one for each chime of the bell). They represent the months of the year and if you eat a sour one, that month is supposed to be a bad month. I can't eat grapes that fast so my months were all messed up, and I also have no idea if any were sour since I couldnt taste anything but champagne. At one point there was a bonfire outside that we went to investigate, but that was our big event of the night. Here is Nola with her beads that she got while we were outside investigating. Apparently she shows enough skin to earn here beads. And she also looks like she got into the champagne without us knowing. Maybe that is where she got the courage to show her boobs for the beads.

Me cooking queso - yes we snuck in the contraband to make queso when we came back from Christmas and thankfully weren't caught.

After all the champagne was finished and the black eyed peas were eaten, I sat down to make some of what I will be accomplishing in 2010 and some of the things I learned in 2009. Let's start with 2009.
1) After a year of no pool and no place to ride a bike, I realize how much I really miss triathlons. Running has gotten better but nothing can replace a triathlon race. Hopefully 2010 will be my last year without them.
2) Concentrating nearly 100% on running and training at altitude has taken almost 2 minutes off my mile times. I am pretty sure I cant swim a mile to save my life anymore though.
3) Even though I am living in a place where it isnt really possible to do triathlons, I am having a blast experiencing the new culture, people and city that I live in.
4) Stomachs do adjust to the bacteria in a foreign country, but it takes 6 months.
5) A 1.5 hour flight home is waaayyy better than an 8 hour flight home, and cuts down on the amount I spend on xanax every year.
6) I miss surfing and the beach, but not the cost of milk and cheese in Hawaii.
7) It is much more fun to have a driver and maid than to do everything yourself.
8) I would kill for an all fruit smoothie from jamba juice.
9) I can be happy living anywhere as long as I have Chris and the destroyers to make me laugh on a daily basis.

Now for what I WILL be doing in 2010
1) Smile every day and enjoy life as it happens.
2) Do not stress about the things I cant control and be a little more laid back in life. Really hard to do for the type A person that I am.
3) Since 2010 will be another all running year, I want to set some PRs in all distances, 5K, 10K, Half marathon and Full marathon. Once I get my schedule set I will have actual times that I will be training towards.
4) Eat healthier. We dont eat poorly and almost always cook at home, but we can all improve right? I am lucky to live somewhere where fresh fruit and vegetables are plenty and cheap and I need to be sure and eat them at every meal. I will still have an occasional krispy kreme though.
5) Really have a plan for 2010 and stick to it. No excuses. I am not moving anywhere (hopefully) for the next 12 months so I can concentrate on what I need to do to hit my running goals.
6) Watch the mouth. I cuss like a sailor.
7) Pack lighter. I dont know when I started to pack my entire closet since I used to be such a light packer, but Chris and I are both working on packing less.
8) No more drinking an entire bottle of wine. Especially if it is a school night.
9) Do not take Chris (or really any friends or family) for granted. I am lucky to have every one of them in my life.
10) Shop less, save more. Shopping for me is really all about clothes, shoes and equipment for running and triathlons, but shopping is shopping and I can do without.
There are more, but 10 is a good number for now.
Here's to a fab 2010 for everyone.

New year, new photo

New years resolutions and photos will be posted tomorrow, but I had to post the awesome new photo that Chris did for me tonight. He has literally spent 4 hours creating this and I love it. Welcome to 2010 blog!

Christmas Highlights

We are finally back from a whirlwind week in houston that consisted of a lot of eating, drinking and the occasional run. Lots of fun with family and friends was had. Some of the highlights are below.
Before we came in town my mom promised to stock the house with plenty of food. My favorites were the clemintines since we dont get those in Mexico. By myself I ate almost four of these boxes. At first my mom got mad since I wouldnt leave any for the rest of the family, but then she started to worry that there was something wrong with me since I couldnt stop eating them.

One of our favorite parties was the white elephant party that our friends have. Here is the winner of the dirty elf outfit. The requirements of this gift is that you have to wear it the rest of the night and then come the following year dressed in it again in order to give it to the lucky guy (or girl) who will win it.

And the winners of the couples Christmas sweaters. So cute.

Christmas eve dinner is always with the same family. These are just the appetizers.

I hope everyone's holidays were full of lots of fun with family and friends!

Training was just extended two weeks

So apparently it only takes one glass of wine to twist my arm into an unplanned activity. Actually I hadnt even finished the glass when I agreed to run the Miami marathon. It is two weeks after Houston, so I am pretty much just going to suffer through January. I can take time off in February. Maybe I will be able to skip a hard training on Valentines day and actually hang out with Chris for once. I have no clue what I just agreed to do, but I am in Miami now and it is close to 90 degrees and 90% humidity, so I am in for a world of hurt. At least it will be another state for Chris to check off his list. I think I would have much more fun just doing a repeat trip at the W and watching the race from the bar. I was at dinner tonight with our agency when the talk turned from marathon to reality TV and I found another girl who knows as much as I do about the trash. She did give me some info that I am sure I would have learned from Perez if I werent on a plane last night. Kourtney with a K had her baby last night. I have no idea why I care. I also care that I missed the premier of Keeping up with the Kardashians. I am hoping that the BF didnt stop DVRing it to opt for the football games, but I can imagine he did. Especially since Bridezillas was recording at the same time.
On a better note, I was downloading the photos from NYC and realized I apparently didnt take nearly as many as I thought I did. I think it was because I was in charge of the camera this time and Chris wasnt. I actually only have three.
Fighting with my mom about taking off my sunny gs while trying to take a nice scenic shot in front of the park and holding my gap bag filled with our race tshirts.

Here is the only shot of the race. Apparently Chris and my mom thought I was running much slower than I was, so they missed me. They did catch my bro. Although he is mighty hard to miss standing in at a whopping 6'4" and wearing a Vandy hat that looks like a 1940s football helmet. I actually have the same one, but it is reserved for the house and races where I really want to get noticed.

And finally here is the tree shot. Chris's first time to see it. Probably because I was still trying to finish the race.

Im off to bed now so I can get up early and run along the beach. I miss the days when that was actually a normal occurance. Now I have to get up early so I can beat the traffic to get to the gym on time to run on the treadmill.

Cat's out of the bag

Earlier this year I was planning on running the vegas marathon. Chris signed up for the half and I signed up for the full. Work got in the way and I decided to push it back to the half marathon as well. Then around october when I sprained my ankle, my brother invited our family and his wife's family up to NYC to celebrate her 30th birthday. I hesitated for about 5 seconds while I contemplated the following: Half marathon in Vegas that I couldnt really train for properly because of my ankle, or great time in NYC with our families. It was a surprise that we were coming, so I couldnt post anything and sort of just stopped talking about vegas all together. I didnt get to run Vegas (I hope to run it next year) but we did run a 10K in Central Park. The race was rough for me (hilly and frrrreezing) and I was a little hungover from the birthday festivities the night before. But I managed to put on mulitple colored layers (picture running jacket over hot pink arm warmers) and get my butt out of bed to run. I ended up running a 51 something. Not great, but the hills were killing my legs at the end. After the race I finished up with another 8 miles to complete my long run for the week. The rest of the time was spent eating and shopping and I promise to post pictures later.