All Lucy, All The Time

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It's the Lucy show, starring the world's cutest black and white cat (who could still stand to lose a few pounds)... LUCY!!

The first photos are of our living room--we're obviously big fans of the Halloween holiday. The pirate was in Lucy's chair and she decided to befriend him. That, or we're seriously not paying enough attention to our cats. Regardless, she's decided to nest there, and won't budge from the spot.

Lucy with her pirate Happy kitty!

These photos are of a mattress in our hall. Lucy was thrilled with the height and slept there non-stop.

I'm Queen of the World!!!

And lest anyone think we've forgotten Olivia, here's a picture of her from this summer, checking out the breeze from the bedroom window.

The Last of the Business Cards

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Do you ever procrastinate on something to the point of ridiculousness? I'm usually pretty Type A about attending to the details of life, but I apparently have some sort of unresolved mental/emotional block toward ordering business cards that prevents me from taking even the first step in that direction. Probably something that happend in my childhood.

I have FOUR cards left. Four. And I've got a book signing/workshop presentation the 2nd weekend in Novemeber and I'm a featured speaker at a writers conference in Atlanta the 3rd weekend in November. Hmmm... think there will be any immediate need for cards in my future?

I know why I'm waiting. I have 2 cards I use - one book oriented and one business-writing oriented. I'm reviving and updating the book card, but what's happened is the woman who designed my cards has gone a different route. So what used to be a quick call on my end - "Linda, I need more cards" has now morphed to mega-hassle proportion in my mind as I must take her image, erase some text, add others, find a new printer, etc. (Yes, it will probably take all of an hour once I sit down and do it, but I'm finding any reason to avoid doing that, including early voting today.)

The other card, my business card, needs an overhaul as well - new background and something... something... on the back side. I'm meeting tomorrow with the friend who designed this card and little does she know of my plans to ambush her and beg help with a new design.

Cards before the book signing--that's the goal.

Best Run of My Life

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Dear Blog Readers,

I had such high hopes for today's blog. After an incredible run this morning (which I'll get to in a moment) I was full of energy and ideas . While soaking in a tub with a 10 lb bag of ice this afternoon, I mentally drafted a humorous "How to Take An Ice Bath" blog. Coming out of the tub, I peeked outside where Blair was building our Halloween set, to find our neighbor's 6-year-old son "helping" him. He had run inside to get his plastic tool kit and was helping "hammer" and "drill" the wood, all the while talking non-stop in that excited, high-pitched voice kids have, asking what else Blair needed help with. Kicking myself now for not having grabbed my camera.

I made some yummy sweet potatoe french fries and planned to blog the recipe. But alas--it is 7:30 PM and I do believe the effect of today's run have kicked in, making me sleepy and hesitant to blog anything that requires any real effort on my part. Bottom line: you lose. Apologies.

Today's Run: Oh. My. God. Today's 20-mile run, our last really long run before the marathon, is one for the history books. I think it's fair to say it was my best run EVER. I checked off twenty miles like I was whipping out a 5 mile run. When I got to mile 16 and still felt not only fine, but really, really good, I knew it was a bright day.

What accounts for the stellar run? Who knows. I ate horrible yesterday, including 2 fudge brownies and almost no water, not to mention almost 6 hours spent stuffed inside a car as we traveled to a family reunion in Fayetteville. I ate my body weight at dinner, with a plate of spaghetti, a salad, two bowls of cereal, handfuls of nuts, and two cups decaf coffee.

The run didn't start out great for me. I felt tired the first four miles. But something clicked after that and everything fell in place. Part of it was I didn't try to run race pace, and instead focused on a nice, steady pace. I thought I would come in 20-30 minutes off my race pace but I must have picked up speed somewhere in there, because I ended up with a 9:12/mile pace (3 hours, 3 minutes)--only 3 seconds slower per mile than race pace.

The weather today made me grateful to be alive--beautiful Carolina blue skies without a cloud in sight, sun, no wind, and 50 degree temperatures. Setting out water this morning for the group, I passed a huge, beautiful buck off to one side of the road. I stopped the car and we stared at one another for 10 seconds before he ambled away. And while running Owl's Roost Road, Chris and I passed two does quietly eating grass in a side yard bracketed by trees. They were beautiful.

I'm going to make a list here in a second of everything i did today, just to try and replicate the magic. However, what it really comes down to is some runs are good, some are a struggle. I lucked into a great rhythm today (thank you, Chris) and everything just clicked.

Okay, here's what I did:

  • Steady run Thursday night, no running Friday or Saturday
  • Dinner on Saturday: spaghetti, salad, cereal - 6:30. Two cups decaf: 8 pm.
  • Light stretch morning of run.
  • Tagamet and 2 Advil-- 2 hours before run
  • First Gu - 1 hour 20 minutes
  • 2 more Advil - 1 hour 45 minutes
  • Second Gu - 2 hour 20 minutes / 1 orange slice

Sigh--I'd pay good money for a replica of today's run at Richmond. We'll have to wait and see...