The Pup

I’m officially a mom as of Friday, when I can pick up my darling girl.  I think it’s come down to Reggie or Mo (short for Morgan) for the name.   I went to see the puppies this weekend and they are absolutely adorable.  My baby girl is quite a large pup and she’s continued to get even cuter with each passing week.  I can’t wait to bring her home.

Today I purchased this neat camera/video recorder which will let me upload short films to the blog.  Be prepared – in about a week the blog will probably be inundated with Reggie/Mo videos.  In preparation, I’ve read one book (“How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With” – it was very informative) and I’m working my way through another book – “Good Owners, Great Dogs.”  I am learning all about body language, how to properly train the pup and what to expect.  Feel free to  chime in with any additional suggestions.

A Slight Setback…

Unfortunately I caught some kind of bug about a week ago and it has taken me a full week to recover.  It was the weirdest combination of symptoms – I initially came down with a horrible fever.  I got the chills and crawled under numerous blankets but despite being incredibly chilly, I was sweating bullets.  That lasted for about 24 hours.  Then I got a really bad cough and sore throat and generally felt very fatigued and nauseous.  This continued for another several days.  Finally, a week and a day later, I feel good again.  There is spring in my step and my head isn’t pounding.  Unfortunately I think at least one of my co-workers caught my sickness.  Ugh, total bummer.

Trying to be smart about my health, I had to take a week off from training.  I ran for the first time in a week on Monday and felt like death for the entire six miles.  I was also crawling at a 10:00+/mile pace. Unfortunate but at least I got some miles in.  Yesterday I ran at lunch and felt awesome for about four miles (I was hauling at about an 8:40/mile pace) and then died for the last mile.  Overall I was at a 9:00/mile pace.  Not horrible but now I’m ready to get back into shape and am thinking I might do some intervals on Thursday and aim for 11-12 miles this weekend.  Good thing the marathon isn’t until the end of May!

She Likes To Hang Out In the Dirt

It's A Girl...

Marathon Training Update

Despite the crappy weather this weekend – it was raining on and off and probably ranged in temperature from about 58 to 62 (with lots of clouds and wind) – I was able to get in some decent runs. My long runs are still a little slow for my liking, but all that is going to change shortly now that I’m focusing on running and have finished up my aerobics. Saturday I went for an 11 miler and made the mistake of running east on Broadway Street from downtown for about 2.25 miles. I ran through Sherman Heights to Stockton until I almost hit the 15. Definitely not great scenery – I was scared I was going to get stabbed on several occasions, but then I came back into downtown and ran around Embarcadero.

Sunday and this morning I was able to get decent shorter distance runs in – Sunday I did 5.5 miles at about an 8:55/mile pace and this morning I made it 5 miles at an 8:43/mile pace. Slowly but surely I am feeling a little bit quicker. This weekend hopefully I will be able to get in at least 12 at close to a 9:00/mile pace. I might venture out to the track tomorrow evening to get in an interval workout…that will be a true test of how out of shape I am. Stay tuned!

And Then…No More Debbie Every Day

Last Thursday I completed my vigorous six week aerobics training program with Debbie Siebers. After four straight weeks of six days a week “Ramp It Up” I was just about ready to vomit when the exercise started. I chose to blast Britney Spears throughout my training, so now I can pretty much choreograph an aerobics workout from start to finish for 59 minutes when I hear Britney belt out the beginning of “Gimme More.” It was a long and monotonous ride, but a good change from training for a run and gave me a new appreciation for aerobics. It can be pretty tough, believe me. Thanks Debbie for toning up my muscles and I’ll smell ya later!

A Whirlwind of Activity and Slacking on the Blog

I apologize to my three loyal blog readers that I have been a complete slacker on writing new posts over the past week or so. However, it’s been a busy 10 days and I have been devoting my ex-work time on the computer to things like looking for new apartments and Googling dog names. As an executive summary, within the past week I have decided to move from my luxurious East Village pad right across the street from Petco Park to a location TBD and have also put down a security deposit on a new yellow lab pup. I’ll be picking her up March 15th.

My awesome roommate Sara is moving in with her (almost) equally awesome boyfriend Todd shortly. After a couple weeks of deliberation, I decided I am going to get my own place, which gives me the flexibility to do things like get a dog if I want. Which I decided in short order I wanted to do. I grew up with great labs – my parents are also parents to Avery and Tucker and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with them since childhood. Needless to say, there have been incidences – particularly me leaving the Dove soap on the ledge of the tub, which Tucker decided to eat and then get extremely sick from – that have been bumps in the road, but overall I’ve loved Jackson, Sprocket, Tucker and Avery throughout my 28 years. Next will be another female yellow: Avery Jr.? Reggie? (West Coast) Bramble? Scout? MacKenzie? So many name choices, only a couple weeks left to decide. Please feel free to comment with suggestions.

On the housing front, right now I am thinking it will likely be in the La Jolla/Birdrock/North PB area. Closer to the beach – which is good for running and dog walking – and hopefully still a relatively easy commute to work. I still have work to do in this area – keep your fingers crossed I can take advantage of the crummy economy to get a good deal on a 1 BR apartment that’s pet friendly.