Smug Marrieds: Face Lift

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Sunday night, 5:40 pm. Harris residence. Christmas trees - fired up. Cats - snoozing.

Blair - relaxing in library. Dena - front room watching TV. All is well on nigh. Until...

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Dena: Blair! Blair, get in here! Now!

Blair: Why? (He no longer reacts to cries of panic, me having cried wolf one too many times during our many years of marriage. Sad.) 

Dena: I'm getting sucked into an infomercial. My powers to resist are fading. Get in here. 

Blair: What's it for?

Dena: I'm not sure. Some sort of face-lift-botox-stand-in-alternative-to-chemical-peel thingee. You can put it in the freezer. Looks cool. 

Blair: You don't need a face lift. (Sound of Wall Street Journal rustling as he turns a page.)

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Race Planning for 2013

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I don't think I've ever run a marathon where at the end of it I didn't declare, "That's it. I'm taking a break--no more marathons for me anytime soon!" Then I eat half a pizza, drink some (okay, a lot of) beer and am planning my next marathon before the sun sets. 

Things are looking different this year. Something in Richmond broke my spirit. I'm tired. I've been running two marathons a year for the past 5 years. I need a change.  

No marathons are one thing. No racing is something completely different. I need a goal. Without one, I won't run. Or won't run hard enough or long enough to keep my conditioning. I've worked hard to build speed and endurance and I'm not willing to let all that just go out the window. 

So I've spent the last couple of weeks stalking race web sites. Particularly a lot of ultra and trail race web sites. Here are a few I'm considering: 

The January races all appeal to me but there is the small problem of I haven't run over 10 miles in a long run since Richmond. I need to start getting in some 15 and 20 mile runs in the next few weeks and I'm not sure I'm ready for them.

I've got a couple of shorter distance races coming up--Run at the Rock this weekend with my friend Christie and a holiday 5K. I may end up skipping the longer January races and maybe do some serious training for the NC half. Or I may just wing it and show up at the start line for everything and see what happens.

Or I may just drink some beer and see how it goes.

Cheers,

Dena 

National Novel Writing Month Wraps Up

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Remember how freaked out I was about attempting NANOWRIMO, the challenge that asks you to complete a 50,000 word novel during the month of November? 

As of this morning, I have just under 600 words left to meet my 50,000-word goal. Tomorrow morning I plan on completing the challenge and wrapping up a month of "Oh-my-God-this-is-great-why-didn't-I-do-this-before-no-wait-this-sucks-I-suck-my-writing-sucks-this-is-hard-I-want-to-quit-wow-I-had-a-great-writing-session-I'll-never-stop-doing-this-no-wait-I'm-sick-of-this" roller coaster writing drama. 

Here are a few things I learned during my month of NANO'ing: 

  • I do my best writing early in the morning, fresh out of bed. Stumble to my office, no e-mail, no Internet, no anything. Sit. Think. Write. 
  • That being said, I can write anywhere, anytime. To get my NANO words in this month I wrote at the gym, in my car, at the doctor's office, in a hotel room the morning before I ran a marathon, at coffee-houses and occasionally at home at night.
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