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January 31, 2008

january

Less than 12 hours left in January. Not that I am wishing my life away, just this horrible, freezing cold, bill paying, depressing, what have I got to look forward to, nothing month.

February has got to be better. Not even that cinnamon heart holiday is going to bring me down. It’s not January and that’s what I am clinging onto.

This January has made me realize I am really not cut out for winter running. Sorry, let me re-phrase that. I am not cut out to run in frigid arctic conditions. It is not enjoyable. I am meant to do other things, I just know it.

So, I start fantasizing about what I think I am meant to do. Like win the lottery. I am drawn to instant riches, rather than work long and hard for it. I am not one of those people who would appreciate it more if they worked for it.

Then I spend countless hours spending my winnings. After I prove I am a good person with charitable donation, set up parents up on an around the world cruise and take some friends out for a slap up night on the town. It’s all about me, me, me. I purchase houses in foreign lands. Sexy cities like Paris and New York. Tropical villas in Bora Bora and St Barts. A cultural retreat in Tuscany. I learn a new language with ease. Buy shoes til my closets explode. Take a lova or two.

Me and my new lova, apparently I dye my hair brown.

Then I realize it’s still January, I haven’t bought a lottery ticket and I have to run tonight and it’s discovery channel cold out there.

Posted by Ali at 1:35 PM | Comments (7)

January 25, 2008

cooper

I heart Anderson Cooper. Yes he is an intelligent-supa-sexy-silver-fox, but today he has moved up to new heights in my book.

The CNN anchor posted on his official blog that he would no longer be reporting on the death of Heath Ledger. He explains that until the official toxicology report comes back, there is nothing new to report.

I couldn't agree more. I think the media are making a circus out of a very tragic situation. Enough with the speculating and rumors.

Here is what he had to say.

Posted by Ali at 4:22 PM | Comments (6)

January 22, 2008

stubborn

I am stubborn.

Maybe it’s all that irish blood cursing through my veins, inherited trait from my mother or just good old fashioned pig-headedness. Whatever the reason or source I am as stubborn as they come.

What makes it worse is the other charming characteristics I team my stubborn side up with. There is complete and utter lack of patience. This little beauty runs rampant at work. I can not fathom why it takes someone 2 days to respond to my emails. So, I carry on without them. Cause let’s face I am always right so there is no need to wait for them to confirm my suspicions. The reason diets don’t work is not my love of all things carbohydrate by my impatience. If I decide to lose weight, the next morning I step on the scale and shock, horror I am not at my goal weight. I console myself with a bagel.

If stubborn and impatience weren’t the perfect couple, I invited don’t-tell-me-what-to-do to make it a happy threesome. This one is probably the worst. Even when I know something is not going to end well, I am not backing down. I’ll prove you wrong even if it takes me 10 years. I’ll be right eventually.

Luckily I was given a wicked sense of humor, great hair and amazing gift picking ability to counteract my dark qualities. Otherwise, quite frankly I won’t be cute and funny but a bitch. There are people out who are shaking their heads thinking cute and funny? Ah, haven’t seen much of that. Well, to you I say, try returning an email in a timely fashion. If it wasn’t for these three pesky traits I could have (you are welcome) been perfect. But no one is perfect, I sleep easy each night knowing I come damn close.

When someone points out a grammatical error on my blog, my first instinct is to use it like I did hairspray in 1987. Then I took a deep breath, a big swig of gin vodka, slapped my ass and thought what would CJ Cregg do?

I am not changing my blog, using spell-check, proofreading or checking facts. I like all my little errors, they add character, make me endearing and what’s a blog without character? Well it’s boring.

Posted by Ali at 3:00 PM | Comments (9)

January 21, 2008

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Yesterdays long run was the coldest I've ever been. It was -27/-17 out. That's cold. It took less than 2 minutes for my nasal hairs to freeze. Then you go numb. Then your face feels like it's going to crack open. Which seems like a better option that the pain of it freezing.

We did 12 miles. It was crazy. I kept thinking why am I doing this. I would of said it out loud but my face was frozen in position. The bright side, yes I found one. I only stopped once at the first waterstop. Then ran the rest of the run without stopping, not by choice, but through fear of freezing to death.

Posted by Ali at 6:00 PM | Comments (10)

January 18, 2008

I was recently a victim. Not of a terrible crime, or meaningless accident. I wasn’t held against my will and forced to listen to recruitment videos.

No I was the victim of judgment.

Don’t get me wrong I believe people are entitled to their opinions, and we have the right to voice them. I just never thought I’d hear that judgmental tone used on me by this person.

It was shocking.

Although I frequently allude to my own superiority, with a know-it-all attitude, I realize I am not perfect. I make mistakes. Regularly. Most of my days are spent drowning in a pool of self-imposed torture questioning the things I do or don’t do. I examine, reflect, study and scrutinize. As you can imagine this is exhausting and leaves very little time for implementing and change. But as a wise man once said it’s the thought that counts.

So on reflection, after my bout with judgment I have decided to recant some of the judgmental thoughts I have had and see them in a new light.

The wearing of shoulder pads/lyrca/a mullet/fur is a personal fashion choice.

Just because you don’t bathe everyday, is not a reflection on your overall personal hygiene.

Giving him another chance after he cheated again means you are a forgiving optimist, not stupid.

You drive fast, ignoring lights, other vehicles and the highway code because you are a busy important person.

You are social and do not have a drinking problem

If you call an addiction a passion you are zealous not in denial

If you are over 30 and the only furniture you have is a futon and a tv, you are minimalist, not a loser and I want to date you.

They are not fake just very pert.

Everyone should strive to improve themselves, if plastic surgery helps and you want to look like a lion, good for you.

A grown adult still living at home shows really strong family ties.

Just because you can run fast does not mean you are boring

Forgetting to eat means you are forgetful not weird.

If the conversation always seems to revert back to you, you are worldly with vast experience and numerous exciting stories, not self absorbed;

Being a vegetarian with strong views on animal rights while wearing leather shoes is not a contradiction, I will take you seriously and not call you a fake-bean-sprouting-tree-hugger.

There are such things as a coincident.

Posted by Ali at 12:53 PM | Comments (5)

January 16, 2008

clarification

Last nights speedwork at the track kicked my butt. I was feeling superior from my superfast Sunday run and the ease at which I did last weeks 400s. I admit I approached this week's 600s with a tad smuggness.

I got bitch slapped back to reality. Apparantely I am human, and a slow human at that.

I am going to blame my foot pain. That's the beauty of running, when things don't go right, when I don't perform as impressively as I would like, there is always an injury to take the fall.

To set the record straight, no I am not pregnant. Matty's 'girlfriend' is. I am not 'officially' his girlfriend. According to the restraining order and numerous letters from lawyers I'm not supposed to call myself his girlfriend ... official or unoffical

Posted by Ali at 3:14 PM | Comments (7)

January 14, 2008

family time

We had a 10.5 miles long run this morning on a really hilly route. My run was great. Better than great! I was able to hold a 9.30 or less pace for almost the whole run. There was one big hill in the middle of the run where I was closer to 11 mins and the last mile was pathetically slow. The hills and distance had killed my legs.

Average pace was 9.49 min/mile. Superfast!

After the run, I headed over to my parents house for breakfast. My best friend lost both her parent in the last week. They died 7 days apart. It's incredibly sad, but makes me very thankful of what I have got.

Posted by Ali at 9:34 AM | Comments (6)

January 10, 2008

boston

Vanilla has news that Katie Holmes will not be running Boston this year. Devasting, I know.

I don't think Matty will run Boston either. Sigh

Posted by Ali at 5:26 PM | Comments (4)

January 9, 2008

the primaries

Is it just me or have politics suddenly become interesting?

I sat up til 1am watching the New Hampshire primary last night. I have no idea what so every about primaries, what they are, or how they work. I don't even live in the country.

I blame three things. I've never really gotten over The West Wing ending, on some level I think the candidates are characters in the show. By the way, if I was on the show I would be CJ Cregg. The writers strike. There is nothing else to watch. Anderson Cooper. He can make anything sexy.

I am not endorsing an candidates as yet, even if they are on Oprah's favourite things list. At the moment they all seem better than what you currently got.

Posted by Ali at 1:04 PM | Comments (6)

January 7, 2008

my plan

Winter training has officially begun. I have to admit I am neither physically or mentally on board yet. There are at least 10 other things I would rather be doing. Yesterday morning at 6.30am, I would rather have been sleeping. Instead, I did my first long run of 2008.

I would like to get faster this year. There are numerous well researched and proven theories on how to do this. I have chosen not to refer to them. I could ask our coach. I haven’t done that either. The reason for this is two-fold, they might make me do something I don’t really want or like to do, and second I believe I am an expert although I have no tangible proof just a voice in my head telling me I’m right.

Here were my two options yesterday ….

Run 10 miles slow, taking frequent breaks but getting double digit mileage in.

Or

Run 8.5 miles at a face pace and not stopping (very much*)
*there was a train and bathroom break where stopping was nonnegotiable.

So I opted for 8.5, see the beauty of my faster plan is I get to run less. I ran with someone a little faster than I normally run. We averaged 9.41 min/miles, which for me is fast. It felt good, till the last two miles when I wanted to stop, curl up on the ground and die. I lost my faster buddy on the hill at the 6 mile mark. When I saw her pull away, secretly I was really happy, I thought, yes now I can stop and walk up this stupid hill. But I didn’t.

I’m not sure which way is better, building endurance or speed. Please feel free to tell I'm wrong or stroke my ego and praise my decision. Those who praise will be my favourites!

After the run, a friend and I made a little trip across the border to Bath and Body Works. Where I bought copious amounts of this body scrub. It should be illegal it’s so good. Trust me it’s the most wonderful experience you will have alone in the shower!

Posted by Ali at 2:10 PM | Comments (11)

January 4, 2008

confessions

**warning** don't let the title mislead you. I won't be confessing to any of the good stuff here.

Our office administrator is away at the moment, I cover payroll and accounts receivable while she is gone. I am trained in graphic design and marketing. I have absolutely no idea about accounting. I fake it really well.

I have faked other things.

A friends mother died on New Years day, I went to the visitation yesterday. They had the 'line' . I do not like the 'line'.

Our Winter training group started last night. You know you haven't run very much when 4 miles seems long.

I spent most of Wednesday photocopying and printing labels for the above winter program. My office was covered in paper, booklets and labels that have nothing to do with my job or the one I am fake covering. No one said anything. I am thinking of starting my own business and using my office as HQ.

I watched celebrity apprentice last night and I loved it. On the shame. Do not hate me.

Posted by Ali at 3:44 PM | Comments (5)

January 1, 2008

happy new year

I found a link in my favourites called 'blog'. I wonder what that is? So, I clicked it, and it lead me here!

I am guessing from the layout, that looks vaguely familiar, that I type stuff in, just like this and then hit publish. How exciting! I wonder where it gets published to?

It's time to get back. Back to blogging, back to running, back to training. I'm back.

Posted by Ali at 7:18 PM | Comments (11)