MIA

Why? Because of the Olympics! I can't believe it either, but I have been watching almost everything so have not had any time to write. Also, this past weekend we had some visitors. The Ryersons from NYC and my mom and her friend came in as well.
Here are the NYC peeps arriving. First time to Mexico City for my brother and first time ever to Mexico for his wife. They dont look too scared to be here do they?

The weekend was jam packed of eating, drinking, and activities. Here is a photo from Lucha Libre. The Mexican version of the WWE or WWF, or whatever. I am wearing the mask of Rey Misterio. The dude who got in trouble for steroids.

Never been to one of these, but it is even faker in person than on TV. My brother sat beside me reciting every one of the moves the wrestlers were doing while my boyfriend stared at the ring girls.
Saturday was shopping at Bazar Sabado - Polly with her best purchase...

There will be more photos posted, but these are from my phone since I have been too busy, or lazy (whatever) to upload from my camera. Or you can go to facebook where I spend all of my spare time these days to catch the minute by minute trip. Other highlights were the futbol (soccer for you americans) game and the fight that our driver almost got in. I gained 5 lbs since they arrived which in my book is the sign of a great vacation. Now my Lent is starting a few days late (dont worry, I will tack on some time after Easter) and there is no more alcohol for us. I am a little scared. But as a wise person told me, if you go to the doctor and you fill in the box that says 10 drinks a week, and that is a conservative answer, it is a good time to back off the booze.
On the training front, things are still going. My first race this season is on the 7th and is just a 10K, but in Mexico that is harder than a half marathon at sea level. My PRs arent going to happen here, but the races are excellent training for me and give me a good idea of where I am at physically. 10Ks here for me are about 10-12 minutes slower than at sea level (I am REALLY affected by the altitude), so my goal is 55 minutes. Gotta write it down for it to happen right?

TGIF

Apparently the blog powers that be decided to give me the stomach virus that is going around Hawaii when I wrote that I missed living there. All week I have been unable to eat without pain afterwords and havent been able to digest too much. And for the past two days I have had a slight headache. None of this is enough to keep me from going to work, but has kept me from running more than twice this week. At least it is the weekend.
And it is a big one. Other than the holiday that isnt, the opening ceremonies for Vancouver are tonight. I am not a huge fan of the winter olympics other than the skiing/boarding and hockey events, but I always get excited for them because that means we are only 2 years away from the Summer Olympics. Chris and I had a discussion about this - being from Canada, he wants to record all of the Olympics. I want to record Project Runway and Lost. I did record all of the summer olympics but only because I am glued to the TV during every possible event and most of my favorite shows are on summer hiatus. I told him if he will actually sit through everything including ice dancing and curling then he can record them. I think I won this discussion.

What a weekend

We packed a lot in this weekend, or else we are extremely lazy other weekends.
Friday night - Phoenix! All I can say is if you get the chance to go, GO. It was one of the best concerts I have seen. Definitely made up for not seeing Cake. It didnt make up for not being in Hawaii, but you cant win em all.
Saturday night we met some friends out for some mezcal tasting. And some grasshopper tasting. I thought they were roaches at first, but was quickly corrected. Here he is all innocently fried before I go in for the chomp.

My friend and I (me)? I forgot my English grammar.

These are much better. Alfajores! Our friends found a new store that opened with these Argentine sweets. YUM.

After a night like that, Sunday's run was rough. It started out bad, and continued along much the same, but it was full of entertainment. I forgot my water, so I had to stop and get some at 7/11. After I had paid and walked out, I opened the bottle to realize that it was mineral water. Gross! I dont drink it normally, but especially on a run it wasnt going to help. Every time I tried to open it I got spewed on by the unsavory crap. After a few miles I realized that I couldnt go faster than a walk and looked up to realize that I was behind a huge group of people in a protest walking through downtown. If I had been all there mentally, I would have figured out a way around them, but I wasnt, so I got in line behind them. I found out we were protesting bull fighting after hearing the chants over and over. Finally we got to my turn so I left my protesting friends and headed back home. When I got about 2 miles from home I saw another group of people stopped and realized that there was some sort of motorcycle convention. I am not lying when I say there was 2 miles (from this point home) of streets (and sidewalks) flooded with riders. I had to dodge the crazies on the sidewalk all the way home. I have never seen anything like it and wish I had my camera with me so I could show some evidence of the parade.
Once I was totally over the run I realized I was almost home. We finished the day with some home made sliders, onion rings, queso, guac and salsa. And a saints win! It ended much better than it started.

Sad

So I just saw that Cake is playing on Oahu. This is yet another of the many times that I am sad I am no longer there. Maybe the Phoenix concert tonight will make up for it. A little.

WTF?

That is all I have to say about the Lost 2 hour premier. I got to work this AM and had an IM from my boss saying to call him to discuss Lost. We talked for a good 15 minutes about our theories that are probably both wrong. There is tons of stuff on the internet about other peoples' predictions who are smarter than I am, so I may jump on one of their bandwagons. here is one of the longer ones I read. i also hear that the writers do not plan to wrap it all up and will leave us hanging on to our own ideas of what happened, sort of like they did in the Sopranos. That. is. just. great. I have been waiting 2 years to find out what is going on here and I may never know for sure.
Day 2 on the treadmill was no better than day 1. I know I have a tendency to not run in a straight line, which is why I try and run on the street lines. It is also one of the reasons I have to run alone. This happens when I walk too. I remember one time I was walking with my mom around the park and I kept getting mad at her for bumping into me when I realized I was the uncoordinated one not going straight. I work hard to go straight, but apparently 2 weeks off made me forget everything. I couldnt go on a straight line today. ON THE TREADMILL. You know what this means? Every 12th or so step was half metal/half moving part causing me to lose my rhythm. I am hoping one day very soon I remember how to run.

Week one - check

It was my first week back last week, although I still didnt run. I started p90x and biking and oh holy hell my body hurts. I am one weak woman. I like feeling like this though, because I know my body is working. Hopefully this gets easier soon and I get a little stronger. Yesterday was a holiday, so I had three days to do nothing but trainer ride, p90x, watch tv, and cook. Chris and I made a much needed trip to costco where we proceeded to buy out the entire store. I then spent the next two days cooking good meals and baking some very bad for us peanut butter and chocolate cookies and banana cake. Thankfully Chris is at home during the day and will hopefully finish the cake and cookies before I get home. Sunday night was a relaxing night with a good meal and the grammys - by far my favorite awards show. All the others I watch the red carpet and nothing else.
Today marks the end of my no running term, and I plan on easing back into it with a 45 minute easy run*. Although I am not sure I could do much more than that since my legs are so sore. A busy next few weeks are on tap - three sets of visitors, the premier of Lost (finally I can end my obsession after this season), and lots of running. I cant wait!
*Update - I went on the treadmill at lunch today and I think I forgot how to run. I hope I remember soon. Glad I was the only one in the gym, and VERY glad noone had a video recorder.

Starting back up. Sort of

I took an entire 8 days off and it was great. But coming back, even from just a week off, has been really hard. I tried every day this week to get up early, but when I have been used to going to bed at 11 and sleeping until 7, 5:30 comes really early. So the workouts are happening after work, and the first one was yesterday. I am doing the p90x program with daily cardio, but I am not doing any running until either next week or the following week (depending on how my ankle feels), so the trainer is going to get a lot of my time. I did abs and shoulders and back yesterday and an hour and a half on the trainer. I could barely get dressed this morning. Surprisingly my legs are hurting more than my arms are. I trust that I will get back somewhat quickly since I didnt take off too much time, but my body is not happy with me today.
I will be posting before and after pics from the training program, but not until the "after" happens. Happy training!