Hill Reconnaissance

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I dragged Blair out for a walk yesterday to scope out potential hills near our home where I might do hill work on days I don't feel like driving into Greensboro. There are plenty of hills near where I live. The key is finding hills:

  • Where the chance of hillbillys driving by in pick-ups and yelling "Whoooooooo--babeeeee!" are minimal.
  • In an area where people prefer to follow town ordinances and have their wild-eyed, growling, leaping dogs on a leash versus standing on their front porch and yelling at me, "S'okay. He don't bite hardly never."
  • With low enough traffic that exhaust isn't an issue, but enough cars around so that if someone thought about doing something funny to the running girl, they'd think twice.

Distance is also an issue. There are short, fast hills around here that meet the above criteria but I'd also like to find a half-mile incline to run. We scouted out a few possibilities yesterday. Enough so that I have no excuse not to go out and get some hill work done.

All that being said, I am loath to get out and run by myself. I've got friends in GSO willing to meet for runs, which is great. But on the days I just need to get in a few miles, I always turn to the treadmill. Perhaps a belated New Years resolution is for me to run outside by myself at least once a week.

There is a blond-haired woman I see running around town all the time. "You should talk to her," said Blair. I agree, but how? I usually see her from a window inside my house and I have to wonder what she might think if suddenly a strange woman burst from a home and started chasing her up the street.

It might work. I could have Blair stand on the porch and yell after us, "S' alright. She don't bite hardly never."

Cheers,

Dena

Dena's Writing Room: The Unveiling

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Note the sour apple green ceilingOn a scale similar to that of the transformation reveal on The Biggest Loser, today's blog proudly brings you (pause for heralding trumpets and distant "hurrah's")... the unveiling of Dena's new writer's room!

As you may recall, our poor woe-begotten writer was feeling less than creative in her beautiful upstairs office, necessitating a change of view and entire room re-do. What used to be the downstairs guest bedroom is now Dena's new writing room. Note the word choice: WRITING room. Not office. Not a place dominated by invoices and paperwork and conference calls (although, as you'll see, those all have their place). Instead, a room meant to provoke thought, inspiration, creativity, and--God willing--a completed novel by year's end.

First on our tour is color. Working off the map, we chose a classic turquoise for the walls and a yellow/sour apple green for the ceiling. [Props to Blair for scraping the popcorn sh** off the ceiling--what were people in the 70's thinking?]

We picked out neutral carpet and brought down the green and purple plaid chair from upstairs with the intention to slip-cover it, but I'm kind of diggin' the contrast so for now, it stays. 

My intent is to fill the room only with things I love that inspire me. A whimsical lamp made by a friend, blown up artwork of my book covers, a cat mat we found almost a year ago that's been sitting in our closet, the pillow my sister gave to me for Christmas one year when she about 8 and I was 14, chimes that used to hang in my grandparents home. If it doesn't make me smile, it doesn't get in the room.

One thing making me smile wide is the desk Blair built for me. There are a number of abandoned thick wooden doors in our attic. Blair took one, sawed it down to size, added legs, stained it, and put a glass top on it. Voila! Instant writer's desk. I'm mad for it.

 And of course my very favorite thing--Lucy cat snoozing in the corner.

Now, back to that office business. The fact is, it doesn't make sense for me to keep a writing room and an office--too much stuff spread over too many areas. My solution is to divide this room into quadrants. The desk Blair made me faces the front window and is the writing desk. NO OFFICE WORK done at this desk. Only pen, paper, laptop, warm light, and coffee mug. Anything else is a distraction.

Behind me, in the corner by the fireplace and side window, will be the office space. I'll set-up a second desk with file cabinets, printer, stapler, three-hole punch... the works. We're still desk shopping at this point, trying to figure out how to best utilize that corner space. An L-shaped desk would be ideal, but there isn't much room between the fireplace and the wall.

There are plans for the room. Blair is going to build me bookshelves next to the writing desk. I'll need to get curtains at some point, although I'm loath to close off any part of the sun and a little nervous that adding them may overhwhelm an already overwhelming room.  But I'm in no rush. Part of what "blocked" me from writing upstairs, I think, was that it was so perfect. Everything in place... an ideal little set-up that I wrote not a creative word in. I had to leave the house and go to Panera for that. When I set up a card table in the front bedroom, surrounded by boxes and beds and unhung pictures... bingo. Words flowed. So I'm being cautious about insisting that everything be in place.

Meanwhile, I am loving the new space.

Training for a May Marathon - Alone

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Received an e-mail this week from our trainer. She's starting a new marathon training program January 13th to prepare us for a spring marathon. I plan on running the United Healthcare Marathon on May 2nd.  But I don't think I'm going to particpate in the training.

I've been turning it over in my mind. I LOVE training with a group and the idea of everyone training without me already has me feeling sad and left behind. But here's the deal:

  • Weekly runs are on Tues/Thurs nights. Tues is probably at the track but Thursday is likely on the roads, in the dark. Even with a headlamp, not my favorite type of running.
  • Long runs are scheduled for Saturdays at 9 AM. I'm a morning runner. Having to wait around until 9 am to run not only trashes my entire morning, but a large chunk of my afternoon, especially when drive time home is factored in.
  • Blair and I are traveling to Egypt in the Spring and will be taking Thursday night courses, so I can't attend at least half of the Thursday night runs anyway.
  • And finally--I'm worried about burn-out. I run the May 2nd marathon b/c it's fun to run a local race. This is a hilly course (and probably hillier this year than last as the venue is being moved from GSO to High Point) so I don't run it with a time-goal in mind. I want to train hard for my fall marathon, and am concerned if I push myself to do full all-out training this spring AND summer, I'll just be sick of running by the time the fall marathon rolls around and not in a good mental state for it.

Last year we had a small group that self-trained for the May marathon. We did long runs together and ran hills once a week. We started training late, near the end of February, and still managed to be in decent shape for the race. So as much as I'd prefer to train with my group, I think I'm going to sit this one out. I'll need to push myself to run hills at least once a week, then I can do long runs either with the Blueliners (a group that meets every Saturday morning at 7:30 am and runs 8-12 miles) or call around and see who I can find. There's got to be some local runners training for this marathon who will need to get some long runs in. Or if I bring my own supplies, maybe the training group will let me sneak in with them for a couple of the longer runs. God forbid, I can try to run them by myelf, but that's a last ditch option. 18 miles all alone is not pretty.

Meanwhile, for anyone keeping score (Oh wait, that would be me) here are a couple of 2008 stats:

Total miles run in 2008: 1294.5

Total # of Yoga classes attended: 118

Wish I could push myself to pull out another 5.5 miles today for an even 1300 miles run, but it's not going to happen. Lots to do and I'm doing a 9 mile run tomorrow with the Blueliners to kick off the New Year. "9 at 9 (am) at the Blue line."

Wishing all of you a glorious end to 2008 and much happiness in 2009.

Dena