I dream of running

Last night I had the craziest dream involving an ultrarunner houseguest, my father (who passed away nearly 10 years ago) and the idea of running, but I never ran more than a few feet in the dream. On one hand I want it to have this weighty symbolism, but I'm sure it was just a brain dump. I've been thinking about running so much lately and doing very little of it (other than the rainy trail miles on Sunday) that this was probably my mind's gentle reminder. Time to hit the trails for sure. Time to do, not just dream.

I'm so ready.

Yes, I am

Okay, I'm biting a Melissa Etheridge line to finally come out of the fitness closet: I am nearly 60 days into P90X and I love it! The time commitment is HUGE, but I feel stronger than I have in a long time and I think my running is/will benefit from it. I'm still figuring out my race schedule for the year, but I do know that I have a trail half coming up in May and I need to get on it!

In other news I am super duper jazzed about seeing the boys in a little over 10 days. Its been a long time coming and I'm really excited to share the experience with KJ (and to run on the beach!!!).

The whole world is watching

Yesterday (hell, the whole weekend) was AMAZING! Sometimes I really love living in the DC Metro area. We were about 1.25 miles away from the Capitol behind the Washington Monument, but we felt every moment of pride and excitement right along with those actually seated/standing at the Capitol. I'm still awestruck and sleep deprived. More later...

Happy New Us!

KJ and I spent NYE playing RockBand with two of our favorite people. I broke out of my public singing shell and handled the vocals because I just couldn't get the hang of the other instruments. You'd think someone who dances/skates/trail runs would have better hand-eye (hand-foot?) coordination, but not so! Our friends were gracious enough to allow me to hog the microphone and to indulge us until 4 AM. The perfect low stress way to sing in the new year. ;)

On New Year's Day we took two of the pups to Maple Tree for some quiet and outdoor bonding. It was coooooooold, our wood stove had a few "technical glitches", our neighbors in the woods indulged in a little 11 pm drunken target practice, but overall it was really beautiful. At night we could see miles of stars that seemed so close we could nearly touch them and during the day we took the dogs out for a ramble on the Appalachian Trail.

We also made a few agreements (resolutions? who keeps those anyway?!) with each other and with ourselves. So, here's to a brave new beginning to 2009.

Beautiful things

This weekend I received several really wonderful gifts: a bottle of vegan wine, an adorable photo of my nieces and nephew, and a gorgeous day to run and hike with KJ and the pups (the quest for zero impact was not entirely successful, but the few gifts we gave/received were incredibly thoughtful and useful).

Saturday was the clearer, but slightly cooler day of the weekend and it was perfect for a jaunt out to Great Falls with the dogs. Initially I had planned on checking out the towpath-Billy Goat A-towpath loop, but there was too much foot traffic and Billy Goat A is not safe for the dogs. Instead we parked across from Old Angler Inn, dropped down to Berma Road and then picked up an uphill segment of the Gold Mine Trail (to the Great Falls Tavern> Billy Goat C). The weather was perfect, Sascha and Hippo were reasonably well behaved and I got the opportunity to run a little in my new Roclites. Great day, great company, fantastic little shoe.

No Impact - A Christmas Without Gifts

This gentleman was on Democracy Now this morning discussing his family's Christmas without presents. I feel vindicated (not that I really required it, maybe validated is the better word choice) for our nearly no present Christmas. We've bought gifts only for the kids and for the dogs, but are not exchanging gifts amongst the adults in my family--its better this way, the pressure to spend spend spend is gone so instead of shelling out money that we should be saving we will spend our Christmas day enjoying each other's company. Win-win.

What next? Good question...

On the running front I'd been considering two upcoming longer options: HATRun 50 K (now full) and the Bull Run Run 50 Miler. Both runs are fairly early in the year and both would have required me to get off my rear end right now. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet as I've semi-settled into shorter running bursts during the week interspersed with strength training days and hanging out with KJ and the dogs. BRR is still under consideration since the lottery doesn't open until late next month, but HAT is sold out so clearly that one is out.

I've also wanted to run in my hometown again so I've been looking at the latest addition to the RnR marathons/halfs: Seattle! As silly as this may sound, I've been avoiding marathons--yes, I've been running far longer distances and for longer times, but there's something about me being so slow now that is resisting the speed work and tempo runs required to get me back into a road race. Have I whined enough yet? For sure.

The real answer is I'm not sure what's next--there are a lot of races coming up and a lot of miles still to cover so I'll think about it a bit more, get a few runs in in the meantime and get back to that.

I *have* decided that I need more dancing in my life though. I don't yet know if that means finally taking a belly dance class or getting back to my old standbys: jazz, modern and ballet?

Today one of my horoscopes says this:
You are a star, as evidenced by your full calendar. Today, examine the force behind your gift. It is not by accident that you excel on stage.

I'm not sure that means anything other than that I need to learn to take a compliment and that my hoop dancing exhibition at the work talent showcase may not have been as silly or as bad as I'm assuming it was. So, cosmos, thanks for the reminder.