Random Running Related Ruminations...

Where is time going?  I can't believe we're already creeping up on Christmas (which means my birthday week is almost here too!) and I feel woefully unprepared.  Add on top of that the looming deadline of Tucson and a bit of an emergency trip to see family scheduled for right after Christmas and I'm feeling like a frazzled Fraggle (anyone else remember Fraggle Rock??).

If only I could run and glaze simultaneously my problems would be solved...you see I've signed up to run a half marathon in January...what was I thinking??  First, I am NOT a runner by nature...I hate/love it though...I'm miserable the first mile or two, feel ok for a mile or two, then feel exhausted for the remaining miles until I get home and my face returns to it's usual color (as opposed to beet red...which incidentally happens at other non-running random times since I'm an uncontrolled blusher).  Then I spend an agonizing 30 minutes or so using a foam roller (don't let the cushy word "foam" trick you...it's more like a rock hard piece of styrofoam) to bust up the knots in my legs.  Once all that's done I'm glad I did it.  However, the love part (even though I can't glaze and run) is that it is the ONLY and I really do mean ONLY time that my brain shuts off...I truly can't think and run...apparently I'm just focused on sustaining life and not falling on my face (did I mention I run like a Heffalump? more on that later) so tonight it let me avoid thinking about a particularly crummy conversation with a colleague that happened earlier in the day that basically involved me being told that my suggestions (the ones that are in my area of expertise and that I'm supposed to be providing as the main component of my job) were neither welcomed nor would be acted upon.  The only word I have to describe it is disheartened... By the end of my run I was too tired to feel anything other than pooped!

Tonight I wore calf compression sleeves (glorified leg warmers), full pants, a long sleeved top that zipped up the neck, gloves and a fleece ear band.  Yes, I live in Southern California...yes, I'm a transplanted Canadian...I'm not proud (and I'm highly concerned about my upcoming trip to the frosty North).

I mentally cursed the guy who ran past me in the opposite direction bounding along at twice my speed wearing shorts and a t-shirt covering more ground in one step than I do in four...see earlier comment regarding Heffalumpness...I'm not petite (5'10" to be precise with big clunky size 10 feet) and I still recall high school when someone made a comment about my tendency toward limp floppy wrists when I ran...let me tell you that I'm particularly aware of not flapping when I run now (although of course the only photo of me in a 5k was with floppy looking wrists).

My hands got too hot by mile two so I shoved my gloves in the back of my pants...ran the rest of the way home looking like the hunchbooty of Notre Dame...

All right, if you made this far I think you deserve to see some bead pics!  I finally managed to get some fun little poppies in my last firing...

And since I'm freezing my tush off, snowflakes seemed appropriate...

And it's been a while since I've made stars so a few of those made it in too...

I have a bunch of new shapes and patterns and old shapes that I haven't made in ages bisqued and just waiting for me to get them glazed so I have a busy weekend ahead!  Maybe I can even get myself coordinated enough to get another blog post up before Monday...a girl can dream...

In the meantime, cross your fingers for my attempt at something more than 8 miles this weekend...ouch!