Monday Mario

Hopefully it won't go to his head.

Boyfriend Apparently Communes With God

On Christmas Eve I planned what I would wear to the Christmas Couples Relay.  I figured it would be fun to be festive so I set out my carbon/red running skirt and a green top.  Boyfriend has a carbon/red running top so I asked him if he'd wear it so we could match and be Christmasy together.  In other words, I was excited about the race.

I woke up at 8 am Christmas morning.  I had figured if we left the apartment by 8:30 we'd make it up to Golden Gate Park in time for the couple's relay race.  Let me just say that the entire night the wind was howling, the apartment was shaking, and rain would be falling in spurts.  I secretly didn't have very high hopes of going to the race as Boyfriend had only very begrudgingly agreed and he said any really foul weather would cancel the plan.  

When I got up the wind was silent!  There was no rain falling!  I was very excited and got totally dressed and ready to go before getting Boyfriend out of bed.  About 2 minutes after I woke him up the wind started to pick up and rain started to fall.  As I peered out the window I realized that what was falling was a HAIL-rain mix attached to some wicked wind.  Even I wasn't so keen on going out for a 2 mile run (that also involved standing around waiting for your other relay half to complete their leg) in this weather.  Boyfriend gave me a look.  

And then as I stood there wavering about whether to let us off the hook, there was a flash of light.  And then THUNDER.  And with that any hope of attending the Christmas Blind Date Relays were dashed.

The ironic thing was within half an hour the weather was very much improved.  Within two hours it was blue skies and sunshine (which has lasted ever since).

Boyfriend must have been really good this year because I think his Christmas wish came true.

Side-Note:  This was a free, non-timed fun run so we hadn't paid anything and wouldn't have had any finish time.  So that part of it made it easy to let go.  I'll run in just about anything but I draw the line at lightening.  Of course, there was only one acutely timed thunder clap.  This makes me think that in the future I should ask Boyfriend to put in any other-worldly requests that I might have.

A couple of picture highlights from the morning:

When we first started opening presents, Mario did a full-on flop.  I think he was trying to act disinterested since there was no gift under the tree for him :(

We have a running joke that Mario has $10.00 to his name.  When we left NYC for San Francisco my aunt sent me a good-luck present.  In the attached card was a $20 bill and the note, "A little something for treats for Boyfriend and Mario."  We had a good laugh that Mario's share was $10.00.  We've probably spent his $10.00 twenty times over by now.  I'll make jokes like, "Mario said he'd pitch in his ten bucks for rent," or "Mario said he'll pay for his share of the vegetables," etc.  Well this year I spent Mario's money on a gift for us.  Bunnies poop.  A lot.

As I mentioned before it's pretty chilly in our apartment.  Boyfriend got me these snuggly socks to wear.  They even have little grippies on the bottoms.  I call them my frog feet.

After we were done opening presents Mario was in a virtual playground.  After weeks of pining over presents he was able to rip and shred and chew to his heart's content.  

In lieu of his ordered gift I prepared a Christmas breakfast feast for him.  Basil, carrot pieces, craisins, pellets, grape stems (with one grape still attached!), and a leftover butt of a broccoli.  Mario loves him some broccoli.  The broccoli log was the biggest hit!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas!  I decided to lounge around watching old Christmas shows the rest of the morning/early afternoon before heading out to dinner.  But I did go out for my first bona fide 7 mile run today!  I felt great and could have kept going a few miles more.  Time to start penciling out a marathon training plan!

Merry Christmas!

Mario's pruning himself for Santa

As I was eating breakfast this morning the intercom rang.  The postman said I had a package on the steps.  My heart flew!  It must be Mario's box!  I was so happy.  As I was leaving for work I picked it up.  It didn't look like a package from Bunny Bytes.  It was from my cousin.  For me.  Sigh.  So I'm happy my cousin can rest easy tonight in the fact her gift got here in time, but I'd honestly rather have had Mario's.  So I had Boyfriend pick up some basil for Mario and I'll give him a breakfast feast.  In the end, that's really the way to Mario's heart.  And we'll just have to take pictures with him, his present, and the tree when it finally gets here.  

Tomorrow morning I'm hoping that Boyfriend and I can participate in the Christmas Blind Date Relays put on by the Dolphin South End Runners.  It's going to force a slightly earlier than normal Christmas wake-up.  And it's probably going to be rainy.  So we'll see how it goes.  One of us is not a rain runner.  I'm not naming names but if you've read the last few entries you can probably figure it out.

I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  Have a great day with your family and friends.  Travel safe!

3 Days 'Til Christmas!

Running has been very soggy but going very well.  Sunday I had a rainy 6.25 mile run and today I went out for a damp 3 miler.  It wasn't windy so they were very fun drippy miles.  My paces have been quickening which I think is a function of the colder temps.  Depending on how I feel I'm thinking of stretching the "long run" out to 7 miles this week.  I finally feel like I've gotten my running mojo back!

January 1 marks a rise in race fees for a couple of races I'm looking at.  Big Sur is one of them (I'll probably register Christmas day).  The other is the SF Marathon and the attached two half marathons.  I was definitely planning on doing the first half marathon but am now tinkering with the idea of doing the full marathon.  Hmm...

My aunt sent me an email today that started off with, "You do know that you have managed to live in the top three most expensive cities in the USA?  NYC, SF and Honolulu?"  I'm not sure where she got the stats from but it sounds about right.  Yay (sarcasm)!

The other day I discovered that Amazon is offering a free holiday song every day in December until Christmas.  Go here to download all (soon-to-be) 25 of them.  I'm more of a Christmas Classics type of listener, but a few of them are pretty good.  There's always room for a new holiday song!

Yes, I do realize if Mario's out and the presents are out there is going to be some inevitable meeting of tooth and wrapping paper.  Last night in addition to eating up some corners he also chewed off the curly ribbon on one of the presents.  I had to grab the end that was hanging out of his mouth and for a second we had a tug-of-war ala-puppy dog mode.  It melted my heart a little.  

I bought Mario's main gift from Bunny Bytes this year.  It hadn't arrived yet so I gave them a call today.  They said the snowstorms have put them behind schedule and it was going to be express mailed out to me today.  I really hope it gets here by Christmas.  Not that Mario cares, but I want to be able to give him a gift he can actually be excited about on Christmas morning.

Monday Mario

I got Mario a couple of gifts this year.  Some of them are definitely all for him and some of them are more indulgences for me.  The above is a Christmas ornament I found which I thought was perfect for him.  I let him see his present so we could put it on the tree and enjoy it the next week or so.  The picture I put in the ornament frame is this one:

Mario had been chewing on some gifts and I yelled, "Hey!" He spun around and gave me the above look which clearly says, "What!  I wasn't doing anything!  It wasn't me!"

Today's Random Ramblings

Today I did a 6 mi loop of Golden Gate Park.  I'm not sure why, but 6 miles is a very round-number type of run for me.  I'm not sure if it is because Central Park was 6 miles around or if because given my pace it takes about 1 hr to complete a run of that length.  But I feel like I've accomplished something that I don't get if I do a 5 mile or 7 mile run.  This was also the first 6 miler I haven't had to take a walk break during since I've started rebuilding my base mileage.  Slowly but steady getting it back.

I recently discovered Threadless.com.  Well, I had heard of them before but only recently really looked at their shirts.  I fell in love with this one:

Sadly it's not available in the size I want.  Endless Sniffles.

I also recently heard about the Brooks promotion, "Dream."  Click on the link and play the video.  For every view it gets by December 21 Brooks is donating 5 cents to cancer research. It's got some cute snippets that runners will appreciate.

In addition to my regular job, I've recently designated myself Chief Temperature Engineer of our apartment.  During the winter, the back of our apartment (aka The Master Bedroom) gets hit with full sunshine the whole day.  This is wonderful because it becomes the warmest room in the apartment.  Conversely in the summer months the living room gets more light keeping the sleeping area a nice cooler temperature.  Anyhow, every morning I open up the shades in the bedroom, close the closet and bathroom door to minimize the amount of air that needs to be warmed up, and close the bedroom door to prevent the warm air from futilely migrating down the hallway towards the frigid living room.  We try to minimize using our heaters because they're electric and suck up money.  Just so you know, the temperature in the bedroom is currently over 70 degrees and the temperature in the living room is less than 60 degrees!  This Chief Temperature Engineer deserves a pay raise today!

The first book I borrowed from the library is "Bee Season."  It's not one I've been wanting to read in particular but it caught my eye.  When I was in NYC I went through a mad non-fiction reading frenzy.  So I decided to grab a fictional piece this time.

Since someone had difficulty with my link, the top I talked about in my last post that Boyfriend got me for Christmas last year is this one:

It's got hidden mittens, a hood with a pony tale port (it looks really stupid but if you've got long hair quite necessary).  I didn't use the hood during our run the other day though I did start off with the mittens on.  It's totally warm and snuggly!

I spent an academic year in Edinburgh, Scotland studying at the University of Edinburgh.  It was an awesome, wonderful year and I miss it so much.  I don't think I really appreciated it for everything it was while I was there.  The Edinburgh Marathon as well as the Loch Ness Marathon are on my lists of ones I want to do in my lifetime.

Edinburgh Castle

I actually started my journey to becoming a runner in Edinburgh.  I joined a gym close to my flat that year.  The gym had treadmills.  I used to go to the gym with friends during the summer during college (more to sit around in the jacuzzi and play in the pool) and one of my goals had been to run 10 consecutive minutes on the treadmill (mainly because I couldn't run a minute straight to save my life).  One summer it took me almost three months but I ended up doing a 10 minute run.  I was so proud and figured I could stop running forever.

Well, I had all sorts of time on my hands in Scotland so I decided to train to run 20 consecutive minutes!  Not because I enjoyed running, but because it seemed like something seemingly impossible.  I found a plan and stuck to it.  Then something funny happened.  One day I ran 20 minutes on the treadmill and I decided to keep going.  I kept adding on more time and more time.  Off the top of my head I don't remember what I was up to when I left Scotland but I think it was somewhere in the 40 minute range.  I realized I could do a 5K.  Then later I wanted to do a 10K.  Then a half marathon.  And as they say, the rest is history.

A sad fact:  I started off life as a treadmill runner.  I barely ran outside at all until I started training for my first half marathon (2.5 years after I started running).  So as it is, I never ran outdoors at all in Scotland!  Looking back (and now that I've been solidly converted to calling the hamster wheel a "dreadmill") I cannot believe I didn't run all over that beautiful city!  I have to go back one day and rectify that.

An interesting fact:  When I returned home from Scotland I watched "Braveheart."  I was horrified at how terrible the Scottish accents were.  I could totally tell who was genuine and who was faking it.  I've since lost that ability.  They all sound like awesome Scottish accents to me now!

Just When I Thought I was Tough...

Yesterday I got up and the sun was shining and the skies were blue!  There were some predicted "scattered showers" that moved through the area but shortly after lunch I figured it was safe to venture out for a run.  The weather at the time looked nice enough that I even threw on my sunglasses.  When I got out there was an ominous gray cloud of death hanging out which I guess I hadn't noticed from my apartment.  I decided to do a nice 3 mi out-and-back run.  The first 1.5 mi of the run was windy and chilly, but nothing terrible compared to the day before.

As I neared my turn-around point it started to drizzle a little bit.  After the more steady downpour of the day before I wasn't too perturbed.  A little later it started to rain harder.  And then, the rain started to hurt.  That's right, the rain had turned to HAIL.  We get hail in San Francisco!?  Remember, I'm from Hawaii so hail is sort of a very rare and odd concept for me.  It wasn't too large (maybe rice grain sized) but with the wind it really hurt!  Talk about motivation to pick up the pace.  This lasted about half a mile, then it turned into a hail/rain slushy mess.  I wasn't wearing quite as many layers as the day before so was pretty much an icicle by the time I got home.

So for two days in a row, my running clothes ended up hanging over the bathtub to dry.  I also treated myself to another mug of hot chocolate.

Today Boyfriend and I went on a 4.5 mi run.  He talked me into wearing something he bought me for Christmas last year.  I have to admit that today was the first time I ever ran in it!  It's a fairly heavy-weight top and before I went full cold-weather weenie on myself it was something I didn't really see myself wearing unless it was 40 degrees out.  There were a few moments during the run it was a little much for me.  I tend to like to under dress for the weather because I hate heating up mid-run (as a comparison, today I wore that top and a skirt versus Boyfriend who wore tights, base shirt, pull-over similar to mine, hat, and gloves).  But I have to admit I wasn't nearly as overheated in it as I thought I'd be!

I remember the days when 45 degrees sounded positively heavenly and balmy.  When I was in college one of my friends who had gone to school in Colorado called to say that it was 65 degrees out and he was so happy he could wear shorts.  "You're wearing shorts in 65 degree weather?!"  In Hawaii, 65 degrees is a darn chilly day.  When I moved to Scotland and NYC I finally understood where he was coming from.  I guess being in California is sliding me back to the Hawaii end of my temperature rating.

In semi-exciting news I finally got a San Francisco Public Library card today.  I've been meaning to go for almost a year.  I mean, how many times in your life do you sign up for a public library card (this is my third)?  I used to get tons of books in NYC to read from the library and am looking forward to doing that again.

Monday Mario

Last week Erin at "The Zoo" called her bunnies organic garbage disposals.  Mario also does his part to keep the landfills clear.  Here he is nomming down on some grape stems:

I ravage you grape stem!

Other examples of "table scraps" Mario also gets are peels, lettuce butts, and the outer layers of the cabbage.  He seems to like the grape stem almost as much as the actual grapes.  Almost.

San Francisco "Winters"

I grappled with a strange thought this morning.  Have I become a cold weather weenie?  I am a self-admitted warm-weather weenie.  I hate to run when it's hot.  I always thought I was part snowman because I just melt in heat.  I used to say that my ideal running temperature was 44-47 degrees Fahrenheit.  I've always thought that's the perfect temperature where you can wear shorts (or a skirt!), a light long sleeve shirt and never feel like you want to push up the sleeves.

Well today in San Francisco it was about 50 degrees.  With the wind chill factor and the rain it was probably hovering somewhere in my "ideal running temperature" range.  And you know I had the darnedest time trying to get myself out the door.  It doesn't help that our apartment is always freezing.  We've got terribly insulated windows, skylights that let in the cold, and a horrible heating system.  When you feel cold inside it's always hard to imagine how cold it must be outside.

I also usually quite enjoy running in the rain.  It's terribly hard to step out the door when it's pouring, but I never mind it if I'm already running and it starts to rain.  But today something about the cold and the rain just made me drag my feet to get going.  

I finally got out and did 4 miles in cold, windy, rainy conditions.  Ironically I was listening to a Runners Loungecast episode entitled "Winter Running" (guest starring Miss Leana!).  The people were chatting about 20 degree and -10 degree runs and here I was dragging my feet in the high 40's!  I thought fondly of my running days in Syracuse, New York.  I once did a 14 mile run in -15 degree wind chill driving snow and the Gatorade Endurance in my handheld bottle F.R.O.Z.E.  Whatever happened to my tough cold weather exterior?!  I guess everything is relative.

Leana reminded me of a favorite quote on the podcast today.  "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.  -- Ben Zander"

In the end I remembered how much I love running in the rain.  Granted a nice warm rain is so much more fun than cold, driving rain.  I got home fairly soaked and freezing.  But I had some warm noodley soup for lunch and then had this for dessert:  

So I've been officially welcomed into wintry weather here in California today.  Now that I've gotten my feet wet hopefully the next one won't be quite so hard.  

My sincerest apologies for the above post to all of you who are presently dealing with frozen Gatorade.  But I figure since I did my own bit of bitter cold running, I'm going to enjoy the occasional gripe about above-freezing winter runs.  I spent 3 mos in running shoes that looked like this:

I will admit that they were some of the happiest running months of my life.  I did most of my runs after work so it was always dark and usually snowing.  I strung together two video clips of running at Green Lakes in the Syracuse area.

I only did one run by the lakes while I was there (I didn't have a car so drove there the one day I had a rented car when I got back from a road trip).  The majority of my runs were done on sidewalks in the Syracuse University area, in the dark, in the snow.  It was amazingly peaceful and I miss it a lot.  In fact, I will take a Gatorade-freezing cold snowy run any day over a sorta-cold rainy one!  I miss the sound of crunchy snow as I run.

Garmin Revived + Zoo Bunnies

Since Sunday I've managed 3 mi on Monday, 2.1 mi Thursday, and 6 mi today.  It's sort of nice not having any plans when I set out to run and just do whatever feels nice for that day.  I haven't really been upping the mileage too much so will hopefully slowly start to do that next week.  There's supposed to be a nasty weather system moving into the area this weekend so I'm crossing my fingers it won't be too terrible.

On the Garmin front, today at mile 3.77 Garmin beeped to tell me it was running low on battery power.  It happily lasted for the remainder of my run.  I just calculated that I was able to run 50.5 miles on the last full charge (plus three hours of non-GPS watch mode at the Turkey Trot).  That is roughly 8.8 hours of running time which puts it back in an acceptable range.  So I guess the firmware update did it's thing!

Boyfriend and I took our first trip to the San Francisco Zoo this week.  It's a cute little zoo and was amazingly devoid of people.  It was almost eerie at times.  But the lack of people made it quite enjoyable (just take a friend so you don't find yourself all alone in the maze-like configuration at a zoo where a guy got mauled by a tiger last year).  I spied these wild little beasts and had to take their pictures:

The "Rabbits and Guinea Pigs" habitat was huge!  And really, I saw a pretty sad spectacled bear who was sitting in a concrete enclosure not quite double this size who would probably appreciate a little real turf to sit on.  Mario explained to me that clearly rabbits rank higher than exotic bears.  

Monday Mario

Continuing with "Favorite Mario Moments" today.  These are pretty short and have no great accompanying photos:

Once when I was washing the dishes Mario was lounging on the carpet in the middle of the apartment.  Suddenly I heard Boyfriend yell, "Look!"  I turned around in time to see Mario 1/4 of the way into a dog-trick "roll over."  His little front paws were up in the air and 'round they went.  His head just sort of followed along.  I guess there are probably rabbits that do this all the time and lounge around on their backs, but Mario isn't one of them so it was pretty cute.

Another great Mario moment happened when Boyfriend asked Mario to binky for him.  Actually Boyfriend started pumping his arms up and down in the air and shouted, "Show me your hydraulics!"  Mario, as if on cue, popped one foot straight into the air.  Chloe used to do straight-up-in-the-air-binkies but these are a lot rarer for Mario.

I finally remembered to get Mario's Christmas decorations up in his cage.  I bought these for him and Chloe a few years ago.  They are chew-safe.  Of course neither of them were interested in chewing them so I took them down when the season was over.  Last year Mario finally decided to mutilate the snowman a little (far left).

Speed(ier) Run

This morning I went to join the running club for their Sunday run.  I was sort of on the fence about it because the person who has been leading my pace group is out of town.  But I decided to show up and if everyone was a speedy hare I would just do a solo run.  

I latched on to the group that seemed to think they were the slowest (still faster than my usual pace choice).  I'm glad I gave it a go because we ran 5.3 miles at a sub 10:00 min/mile pace.  I have not done a run that averaged less than 10:00 min/miles since the end of July!  We even had a few mile splits that were 9:30 min/miles.  I guess I have a little bit of "speed" in the legs after all.  So my running is making steps in the right direction.  Besides the nice pace we had some good conversation which is the whole point of group runs.

Bullets

I have a bunch of random things floating around in my head so will do the handy bullet list today.

• This Sunday I once again joined the running club and we covered about 5 miles.  I'm excited because I found a great hill which I'm going to train on when I get into the thick of things for Big Sur.  It's pretty steep and I think about a mile long (exact measurement to be determined later).  The nice thing is there's a dirt path along the road so I don't have to pound the pavement going down.  And of course, running up it will be the real goal.
• I joined Netflix for a trial period.  Two movies I recently watched were "Running on the Sun" and "Run for Your Life."  Both were good and I recommend them.  "Running on the Sun" was really fascinating.  These people run Badwater which is something like 135 miles in scorching heat.  If you've ever wanted to see people truly pushed to their physical limits, this is it.  I will never complain in a marathon ever again.
• This deserves it's own bullet point because "Run for Your Life" made me really want to run the NYC marathon again one day.  I participated in 2005.  It was the NYC Marathon carrot which turned me into a runner.  I set the goal of running the NYC Marathon when I could just barely eek out a 5K.  It took me two years, but I got there.  I will say with 100% certainty that my experience in the NYC Marathon was the crappiest run of my life.  I hit the wall very, very hard.  To say I enjoyed myself the last 1/3 of the race would be a flat out lie.  I like to say I no longer fear death because of the NYC Marathon.  I felt SO incredibly bad, there was a point if I had dropped dead on the spot I really would not have cared.  I was uncharacteristically angry when I finished (even though I set about a 30 minute PR that day).   I was angry at the crowds.  Angry at the other runners.  I was angry at everyone (this personality change was by far the worse thing about my experience...I've had some painful runs that left me feeling elated at the end)!
  
• I swore I would never run the race again.  This was not a fair statement because really, the race itself was great.  The crowds at NYC are incredible!  The race was well organized!  After 2005 I had guaranteed entry into 2006.  I entered mainly because it was my backyard marathon.  I developed horrible shin splints prior to the Safaricom Marathon in 2006 and this ended my NYC 2006 dreams.  I deferred entry to 2007.  But when the time came to register for 2007, I don't remember why but I didn't do it.  And I really regret it now.  For one, I lived 4 blocks away from the shuttle bus pick-up and a little over a mile from the finish line.  Do you know what it would cost me now to stay in midtown Manhattan around marathon time?  Also, I had guaranteed entry.  Now I'll have to enter the lottery and stand less than a 50% chance of getting in.  But I think enough time has passed that the horrible memories from that day have started to subside and I'm beginning to see the race for what it really was.  I'm not sure when but sometime down the road I'll throw my name in the lottery.  It probably won't happen for years and by then it will be a great ode to the city that made me a runner.
  
• There's a present I want to buy for someone on Amazon and the total is $24.99.  I need one more cent to qualify for free shipping.  I have spent the better part of the day trying to decide what other thing I can buy to get the free shipping.  So far nothing comes to mind.  If you know of anything on Amazon that is $1 and qualifies, please let me know.
• I usually get Mario some sort of chew toy, treat or bunny toy for his Christmas present.  This year in addition to something he can actually appreciate I have found the perfect present for Mario (which is really a present for me in disguise since Mario could care less about it).  Stay tuned.
• Have you guys heard of the Plus3Network?  You sign up for free, log miles/activities and big corporate sponsors donate money to charity.  Pretty neat.
• I had a nice 5 mile run today.  I only got out there three times this week so decided not to try for six today.  I figure I have another month of base building before I start some sort of structured plan for Big Sur.  So far so good.  I'm slow as sludge but getting my endurance back.

Monday Mario

Here are some images from the de-woodchucking of Mario.  One question that was asked was whether there were any rabbit chewing toys.  The answer is an emphatic, YES, and Mario's got them.  He can chew to his heart's content on his snazzy willow tent and various other things.   He sometimes chews appropriate things, but I think he prefers the walls (or the idea of breaking rules).

The first night Mario got put in his carrier four times.  I try to only keep him in for a couple of minutes, though if he acts like this he has to wait to be calm before he's released (don't want him associating bar chewing with release):

I'm not sure if Mario will learn not to bite the walls. At the very least putting him in the carrier seems to distract his brain long enough so that when he's released he goes on to do other things.

Let me out!!

Okay, tantrum over.  Look how cute I am!  Please let me out?

Fine, kiss my bunny butt

And once he's out, Mario likes to show the carrier who is really the boss around here.

By sitting on it.

Mario, Tree...Tree, Mario

Black Friday

If you've wanted to try Atalanta's great running skirts, now is the time to do it!  They are having a great Thanksgiving sale.  Enter the code YOUGOGIRL and get 25% off everything (code good through Monday, Dec 1)!  Above I'm sporting the carbon/orange commitment skirt and the sherbet strength top.  I love the products (you can stuff so much into the pockets and the skirt doesn't bounce at all!) and the customer service with this company is second to none.  Seriously.  They also manufacture everything here in the USA.

I am also very happy because Black Friday means that I can officially get publicly excited about Christmas.  As mentioned before, I love Christmas.  I would listen to Christmas music all year round if it didn't drive everyone around me crazy.  On Wednesday I happened to turn to one of the preprogrammed radio stations in my car and was delighted to find out that they had started their 24 hour Christmas music program!  Suddenly I start to look forward to my commute!  This week iTunes even had two great free Christmas songs for download (check it out if you haven't already)!  I love holiday commercials!  I even had a dream a few nights ago that I had gotten down all the boxes of Christmas decorations to start getting the apartment festive.  Well on today, the day after Thanksgiving, people do not think you're annoying or a freak to be excited about Christmas.  I'm planning on putting on the carols and setting up the tree later on tonight.

I went on a 2 mile run today on the sandy shoulder of the Great Highway bike path.  My right shin (the one I chronically have problems with) is already starting to complain a little with my increased mileage.  The right shin is something I've learned to live with the last few years.  So far the left shin that I busted in August feels great.  I started my icing regimen and am going to keep close tabs on how the leg is doing.  Oh, and for the first time this season I listened to holiday songs during the run.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I got up super early to volunteer at the Turkey Trail Trot in Golden Gate Park.  I handed out bibs (it's amazing how many people pay but don't show up!) and got food ready to hand out.  I received one of the nifty race t-shirts (see above graphic) for my time.  After standing on my feet for 3.5 hours I commenced on my own personal Turkey Trot and ran 5 miles in Golden Gate Park.  After my early rise I feel like it should already be dinnertime, but alas it's barely outside of the lunching time.

Mario and I hope that everyone and everybun has a great Thanksgiving!  Time to get stuffed!

The big gobbler and Turkey Trot prizes

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck...

When we were driving across country last year Mario developed a little problem.  He started chewing on walls.  Rabbits are funny in that they can ignore something for YEARS and then all of a sudden decide it's a great chewing toy.  Once this happens they don't stop.  Unfortunately for us this habit carried over once we settled in our current apartment.  Thus far a loud "Hey!" or "No!" or hand clap will stop Mario dead in his tracks when he starts to do something he knows he shouldn't.

As a rabbit owner I know it's my responsibility to make sure everything Mario can touch is chew-friendly, but there are some things you just can't easily bunny-proof.  I only get a little annoyed at Mario because I know he knows he's not supposed to be chewing on the walls.  That's the part of it that drives me nutty.  I can say this with certainty because when I had two buns and one of them was misbehaving only the guilty rabbit would jump around at attention when reprimanded while the innocent bun went on with whatever they were doing.

That's right:  Bun A has jumped up onto the sofa, Bun B is lounging by the fridge.  I clap my hands and say, "Hey!"  Lo and behold Bun A jumps quickly off the sofa and gives me a "I wasn't doing anything!" look.  Bun B continues lounging.  They are smart little cuties.

I'd like to submit my first piece of evidence against Mario:

And another:

When I start to hear the tell-tale chewing and give him an aural cue to stop, he quickly jumps 180 degrees around and looks like this:

Pretty innocent looking, huh?

But after you stop looking at him the chewing sound eventually starts up again!  I have to start taking better measures to break him of the habit.  There are a few isolated areas where he's gotten the paint off of the wood, but I'd like to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Beginning tonight as soon as he starts chewing he's going to get marched to a time-out in his pet carrier.  Last night I put him back in his cage when he started, but I hate to associate his cage with bad feelings.  So carrier it is!  I will let you know if this little project works or not.

Hey!  Stop!  That's private!  Who said you could take a picture of that?!  (The rabbit equivalent of hand in front of camera lens)

I apologize that the running news has been pretty minimal lately.  I went on a 2 mile run yesterday.  Today my right shin feels the teensiest bit tender so I took the day off.  I think all of the steep, STEEP downhill running on Sunday caused some strain.  I'm hoping to do 5 miles Thursday, an easy 2-3 miles Friday, then back to the group run Sunday.  I was going to make this my first 5 day running week since the shin catastrophe of August, but will hold off at 4 days of running for at least another week.

Monday Mario

Continuing with my favorite Mario moments:

Mario loves to eat. My nickname for him is "Chunky Monkey." He'll eat most anything if it is presented to him as food. He has slowed down a little and is a little more discriminating in his older age, but when he was younger he'd eat first, think later.

My parents were over visiting once and my dad was eating an orange (my dad eats usually eats an apple a day and Mario loves him and the never ending apple peel source). My dad asked if the rabbits could eat the orange peel. I have no clue if this is a bad thing to do, but I told him he could try.

Mario came running over as my dad approached. The fuzzball can sense a treat coming. He grabbed the orange peel out of my dad's hand and commenced gobble-down action. Chloe refused her piece. Mario had been chewing the peel for about 5 seconds when all of a sudden he stopped.

His nose began to wrinkle and twitch. You could tell he didn't quite understand what was happening. He then began doing something I've never seen a rabbit do and have never seen Mario do since. He started hitting himself in the face with his paw. None of the normal rabbit-cleaning-it's-face action. He was smacking himself. It was hilarious.

He did end up eating a little more of the peel afterwards.

I don't have a picture from the actual incident but here is one of Mario and Chloe waiting for their share of the apple peel bounty after my dad had his nightly snack:

Skirted Group Run

I have been pining over joining a running club for the last year.  I was a member of a great group in NYC and really missed the company and chat on the run.  Today I finally got up the nerve to venture out for a group run.  We ended up doing about 7 miles (see above picture) through Presidio on trails I didn't even know existed.  I'm planning on going next week and if there seems to be a nice contingency of runners in my pace group I'm planning on joining.  Hopefully it works out because this seems to be the only running group in San Francisco that has runs that fit into my work schedule.

Yes, you read that right.  I ran 7 miles today.  I did a 5 mile run on Friday which was supposed to be my "long run" and was only planning on doing five tops today.  But we did a little bit of walking up some of the steep sections so overall it felt really good.  Huzzah!  There were a fair bits of ups and some serious downs so I'll probably do an easy 2 miler tomorrow.

I attended today's run in my new Atalanta running skirt.  I've been a longtime fan of Runningskirts.com skirts but have been hearing a lot about Atalanta skirts and decided to give these skirts with shorts under them a try.  I have to say I am very happy with this new company and their great product and am looking forward to more runs & skirts.  I think I'm more of a briefs-under-the-skirt gal than a shorts-under-the-skirt kind of person, but there will definitely be days when the shorts will be handy.  So now I'm addicted to two brands of skirts.  Help me.

Garmin, Yay & Monterey

To update everyone on the Garmin issue:  I called Garmin the day after my post and explained my problem.  The tech suggested doing a software update (which I was very dubious would help at all) but also said that since it was just out of warranty they would fix it for free!!  I updated the software and lo and behold the problem seems to be resolved.  However, I'm not running high enough mileage to figure out quickly if the battery life is really better.  So what I've been doing is every night I turn the Garmin on and start the timer and just let it run.  I call this the Garmin-Run-Down (GRD).  The GPS is on and I'm presuming that since the GPS is on, the pull on the battery is about the same as if I was running around with it on.  Granted I'm sure there is a little less power being used if it's just sitting there since it's not calculating paces but I'm hoping it's a close estimate.

On the first charge post-update I got 60 minutes of running time plus 11:06:32 GRD.  The next night I had 20 minutes of running time plus 12:57:52 GRD.  Today I plugged Garmin into the computer to download my run, forgot about it, and accidently recharged it.  So I'm doing a full GRD tonight.  I don't know any other way to do this.  I'm just afraid I'll run with it for a few weeks, decide it isn't working as well as it used to, but then Garmin will say too much time has passed to get it fixed for free.  Do you think GRD is accurate to actually running with it?

Switching gears...

Monterey Bay Coastal Trail (29 miles long total!)  

Boyfriend and I spent the past weekend down in Monterey.  Boyfriend was there on business and I tagged along for a mini vacation.  The weather was gorgeous this past weekend.  I had some awesome runs on the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail.  I am totally psyched to run the Big Sur Marathon in April.  The views were amazing.  Since I grew up in Hawaii it takes a lot to make me say that about ocean vistas.  

One highlight of the trip was seeing the Monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove.  The butterflies winter there and gather en masse.  There must have been thousands of them.  I only had my regular little 3x optical zoom camera so the picture isn't the greatest.  All the brown in the picture isn't leaves, they are all butterflies!

Monday Mario

Today I'd like to tell Chloe's story.  Chloe is my little Easter Bunny.  I traveled out to Connecticut on Easter Sunday 2004 with Mario in tow to pick out a friend.  I adopted Chloe from Rabbit Allies of CT.  

I sort of went over the early days of trying to introduce the two rabbits in the last Monday Mario post.  As I mentioned, Mario became very aggressive after his hormones wore off.  He seemed to hate Chloe.  He loved to chase her and nip her.  I was on the phone with Rabbit Allies often trying to get advice.  Eventually Mario tolerated Chloe enough to co-habitate with her.  However things were never love songs and roses for the two of them.  At least once a day (and more often a few times a day) Mario would chase and nip her.  I talked to a few rabbit rescuers who all assured me that this was perfectly normal behavior for some rabbit couples.  Do they snuggle and groom each other?  Yes.  Then they're bonded!  So I let them be (with frequent time-outs for Mario when he got too grumpy).

Christmas 2004

My nickname for Chloe was "Care Bear."  She was so sweet and forgiving.  Mario would chase her all day and then at night he'd flop down next to her and ask to be groomed.  And she'd oblige.  Mario would very, very rarely groom Chloe.  It seemed like such a one-way street relationship.  But she never complained about it.  Chloe was less of a people-person than Mario and didn't even seem to enjoy having her head or cheeks rubbed.  Once I picked her up to carry her somewhere and she gave me a little nip to ask to be put down.  I told her, "I can't believe you'll stand up to giant me but won't bite Mario back!"

Chloe was incredibly delicate and dainty.  A real girl.  Mario is sort of big-boned and not so graceful and Chloe was the exact opposite.  She was almost like a cat.  Unlike Mario who you can hear coming, Chloe walked around on silent feet.  She'd leap up with cat-like agility and would do dainty little yoga stretches.  The thing that was really Chloe's was the art of the binky.  She loved to be let out at night and would streak around the room at high speed.  It was almost as if she couldn't control herself.  Sometimes she'd be grooming herself and all of a sudden pop a foot into the air. When she landed she'd have a look on her face like she didn't quite understand what had just happened.  

In November of 2006, I was looking at Chloe and thought she looked a little bloated.  I gently palpated her stomach and discovered that she had a large mass in her belly.  She was eating and pooping like a champ so I didn't think it was any sort of blockage.  I immediately knew it had to be some sort of tumor.

I took her to the veterinarian who at first brushed her off as an over-fed rabbit.  But as soon as we got her out of the carrier the mood of the visit changed.  An x-ray showed that Chloe's entire abdomen was filled with a tumor.  It was biopsied and came back as anaplastic sarcoma.  The veterinarian said that there was no treatment.  Chloe lived a little over a month longer before passing away a few days after New Year's 2007.

I always thought of Chloe as Mario's rabbit.  I had gotten Mario for me and Chloe for him.  I'm not sure if Mario would have been a gentlebun with a different rabbit.  But if he's a grumpy bunny with all rabbits, we couldn't have asked for a better match than Chloe.  She loved him unconditionally despite his mean streak. 

I found this video of Mario and Chloe.  It is actually a rare vision because when they were outside of their cage they never lounged around together.  You can see Mario's "it's all about me" attitude as he demands to be groomed.  I also stuck in a little clip of Chloe doing one of her little hops.  I never got a great clip of her going binky crazy.  She was always either too fast for the camera or did the best of the fireworks before I got my camera ready.

RIP Garmin

Garmin got charged two days ago.

Yesterday I went on a (fabulously nice) 2 mile run.

The run took 20 minutes.

Tonight I turned Garmin on and got a LOW BATTERY WARNING.

Sniff.

So I used to get 9.5 hours on a charge and now I'm getting 20 minutes.

I think that means Garmin has officially died on me.

I'm calling Garmin tomorrow to see whether or not the fabulous customer service I've heard about is an urban legend.

I have heard tales of just-out-of-warranty Garmins getting fixed for free.

I hope they take pity on me.

Garmin Woes

My slow but steady running comeback has been going much better this week.  I'm taking my time building up mileage.  I'm pretty sure my next race will probably be Big Sur in April so I've got lots of time to build a solid base.

I signed up to be a volunteer at the Turkey Trail Trot on Thanksgiving.  At first I was going to run it, but remembered the creed to try to cut back on these race fees.  So I figured it would be just as fun to volunteer.  It's just going to be me and Mario this Thanksgiving and while he's awesome company I don't think he's going to squeak out "Happy Thanksgiving!"  So it will be nice to get to say this to people in the flesh.  If anyone in the area is running it, let me know so I can look for you!

I have some sad news about my favorite running pal, Garmin.  The last month or so I've had an inkling that the battery life wasn't quite what it used to be.  For a while I was running almost 50 mile weeks and I only had to charge Garmin every week and a half or so.  Lately I've been piddling around 3-8 mi weeks and it seems like Garmin dies every week.  But I guess since I was running so infrequently lately I haven't really been able to digest this back-of-my-mind concern.

Yesterday I headed out planning to run 2-2.5 miles.  I powered Garmin up and it immediately flashed me a "low battery" warning.  Once long ago I was out in the middle of a 10 mi run when Garmin told me at about mile 6 that the battery was low.  I was so upset because I had no clue of my exact mileage where I was running without it.  And I was determined to run 10 miles exactly that day.  Luckily Garmin lasted another 45 minutes and I was able to do the 10 mi run with Garmin faithfully reporting all the vital stats.

So when Garmin told me he was feeling sort of low on power I figured it would be okay because the run would only take about 20 minutes.  But Garmin flat out DIED on me 7 minutes into the run.  I was doing a quick out-and-back run in Golden Gate Park and wasn't quite sure where the 1 mi turnaround was.  I do know where the 1.5 mi turnaround so ran to that point before turning back.  So the great news is I had an awesome 3 mi run (which I wasn't expecting to attempt so soon) but the bad news is I am pretty sure Garmin is on the fritz.  I'm fairly certain I charged it very recently.

So I charged Garmin yesterday and made a note of it in my running log and will keep using it 'til it dies to figure out exactly how much battery life I'm getting nowadays.  The sad thing is I checked yesterday and I bought Garmin at the end of October 2007.  This means my 1 year warranty expired about 2 weeks ago!  So instead of being able to resolve this for free, according to the website I would now need to shell out $90 for repairs.  Grr.  I am so mad at myself for not really paying attention to the flashing red lights in my mind weeks ago.

I am really hoping that since I've been running so infrequently lately, I think I'm getting less mileage out of it but in reality more actual time has elapsed between charges.  But I think this is just wishful thinking.  So sad.

Monday Mario

I thought I'd try to write down some of my favorite Mario moments.  One of the chart-toppers I wrote about a while back.  Check it out here.

One of my first photos of Mario (I used to stick him in the tub before I fully trusted him to run around the apartment while I was busy cleaning his cage)

Here is another great Mario moment which requires some back story:  

When I first got Mario he wasn't neutered.  I adopted him from a shelter that wasn't very adept at rabbit adoptions.  There wasn't even an adoption fee.  He was a "free" rabbit (Side-story:  Mario ended up being the most expensive "free" rabbit ever.  I paid $50 in train tickets to go to Connecticut to get him, gave the shelter a $45 donation since they brought him to the train station for me and also gave me a cat carrier to transport him home in versus a cardboard box, $80 well-bunny exam, $160 neuter surgery, $100 fee to do blood work to check if the anesthesia was okay for him.  That's right, the "free" bunny was $435 -- which is why I strongly advocate adopting from an organization that does all this for you pre-adoption.  Usually the fee ends up being about $75.)  I got him neutered after only a few weeks together because he was very, err....Amorous.

Truth be known, Mario was in love with me.  I actually sort of miss those days because the guy couldn't get enough of me.  Someone had to distract him when I wanted to leave the room because he wouldn't stand for it otherwise. He'd follow me around like a puppy and lie between my feet when I did the dishes (Not that Mario won't do this now, but it's sort of like he grew self-will and can decide when he wants to or not).  He HAD to be by me all the time.  But of course there was a lot of unwanted humping, nipping, displaying of body parts better left hidden, and urine spraying.  So I knew we had to do it sooner than later.

Another key reason to neuter Mario was that I wanted to get him a companion.  I mean, the guy could barely stand to let me me out of his sight. I felt so bad leaving him during the day.  To make a long story (which I shall tell one day) short, I adopted a spayed female (learned my lesson and adopted from a private rescue group) to be his friend.  Chloe deserves her own post one day so I won't say much about her today.

The rabbit rescuer I got Chloe from advocated introducing them ASAP even though Mario was only about 1.5 weeks post-surgery when I got her.  If you've ever tried to bond two rabbits, it is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of patience and time.  But the rescuer thought that since Mario still had some hormones circulating it would make him more interested in her (and since she was already spayed there was no chance of having any Mario juniors).

So I would put them in the bath tub (neutral territory) together for about 30 seconds to start off.  Then I'd separate them.  Easy peasy (ha!).  Anyhow, during the early introductions when Mario still wanted to populate the world with little moustached bunnies, he was very excited to have Chloe in the tub with him.  He wanted her in R-rated ways (this faded and turned to aggression when the hormones disappeared).

One night after their short date, I took Chloe out of the tub first and put her back in her cage.  Then I got Mario out of the tub.  Instead of putting him in his cage, I put him down in the middle of the apartment to give him some play time for the night.  Mario must have thought that provocative Chloe was still in the tub.  As soon as I set him down he made a racing bee-line back to the bathroom.  I heard a loud BAM.  A second later a slightly dazed Mario came walking out of the bathroom.  I wish I had a picture of the look on his face.

I  lifted this from the video I shot of my NYC studio before I started packing it up to move across country

My tub had a sliding glass door.  I had closed it after taking Mario out.  He had thought Chloe was still inside and that the door was open and tried to jump into the tub when the door was closed!  

Men do stupid things.

Chloe & Mario c. 2005

Shear Genius?

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments and for putting up with my woe-is-me post. In the end I'm very grateful to be out there running pain free. That's what really matters. All of your good thoughts must have worked because today I had a great 2.5 mi run. It didn't feel as easy as it normally would for the distance and pace but it also didn't feel like I was trying to race a half marathon, either (this was the distinct feeling I was getting earlier this week)! I definitely could have kept going which is where I want to be now.

In other news, I had a haircut today. I was planning on doing something drastic (e.g. going from several inches below the shoulder to above the shoulder). I told the stylist that my only guideline was that I was still able to pull the hair back in a ponytail since I run. I think she interpreted this to mean, "I want my hair to look good in a ponytail," because she talked me into keeping it a little longer (about an inch below the shoulder). She said if it were shorter it would look all chunky and funny when pulled up. I don't care what the ponytail looks like! I'm running! In the end, it's a great cut (and she's right, it makes a totally cute ponytail) but I think next time I'm going to keep my mouth shut and just tell her to chop it off. I was reading Audrey's blog and realized if it got too short for a ponytail I could always do pigtails! Cute!

This is what Mario thinks about 2.5 mi runs and haircuts:

Wave your paws in the air! Wave them like you just don't care!

Physical Education Flunkee

This past week I got out on three 2 mi runs. This was the first time I've run on two consecutive days for over three months. All of them were really hard. Some of them I had to walk. I can't believe how I'm going so slowly for such a short distance and my heart and lungs feel like I'm back doing interval training again. Not that I was ever delusional about this, but I am obviously not naturally athletic.

When I was a kid I was the one who could never run the full prescribed distance in PE without walking.

I remember once we were getting tested at the standing long jump in the 5th grade. My teacher said I had one practice jump and then one that counted. I did my first jump. I'm sure it was pathetic. I did my second one. My teacher looked at me, lowered her voice to a whisper and said, "I'll give you one more chance." I'm sure that third one was no better.

In the third grade we had to do as many sit-ups as we could in a minute. My friend was the naturally athletic one who always represented our school at track meets. She did forty-something in one minute. I could barely keep her feet held down she was pumping so fast. When it was my turn, I did four. F-O-U-R. Looking back now I cannot even imagine how pathetic this was. She was really nice. She told the teacher I did four but all the other kids who thought they heard her say "four" that I had done "twenty-four."

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that when I lose fitness I start way back at zero. And my zero is way, way down there. I was telling Boyfriend what a hard time I was having on my little two mile runs lately and he said, "Wow. I never realized. But you work really, really hard when you're training for a marathon." I never really thought of it, but I guess I do.

I know consistency is the key to getting my endurance back but so far it hasn't gotten any easier. I'm planning to do maybe a 2.5 mi "long run" tomorrow.

Bloks & Bunnies

To answer a couple of questions:

Shot Bloks are carbohydrate/electrolyte fuel for runs. Sort of like concentrated solid gatorade. I used to run with gatorade and would take a couple of gels, but for about a year have been using mainly the Bloks with plain water for runs.

Mario is happy to be a little ambassador for rabbits. I never once thought about it, but if someone out there is inspired to give a bunny a home partly because of their contact with Mario & other rabbits through blogs, I think that's pretty darn awesome!

I've gotten a few questions lately about bunnies as pets. I definitely encourage anyone interested in getting a rabbit to check out the House Rabbit Society. They have a lot of very good information about rabbits. While you're there I'd also encourage you to check out the "Adoption" link on the right-hand side of the page. Mario is a rescued rabbit. I got him from a city shelter in Connecticut. I did some volunteer work with the NYC chapter of the House Rabbit Society for a couple of years. I really believe in rescuing your pets versus buying them from a pet store or breeder. There are so many wonderful bunnies out there waiting for a home. Many of them were bought when they were irresistible baby rabbits and after the charm wore off they get dumped at local shelters. Besides city shelters there are tons of independent rescue groups which often take in rabbits slated to be euthanized and give them good foster homes until they can find a forever home.

There are a lot of great perks of adopting a rescued rabbit. Besides the obvious one of giving a rabbit a second chance, many are often already spayed or neutered. Trust me when I say this can be a very costly venture if you end up paying a veterinarian yourself. More importantly a foster parent can usually tell you a lot about a rabbit's personality. Are they mellow or hyper? Friendly or loners? What type of foods do they like? What type of toys? Are they good with other animals and kids? In a way you take a big gamble just picking out a cute fluffball at a pet store.

To answer the specific question posed: Chances are when you get a new rabbit it will at some point pee on your carpet. Rabbits are very easily litter box trained. But that said, they will go through some growing pains (even if they're already adults) as they learn. I can vouch that Mario will pee in his litter box 100% of the time. Rabbits use their poops to mark territory so it is normal for not all of that to end up in the litter box. Luckily, rabbit poop is hard and dry so it's easily swept up. Mario will poop outside of the litter box mainly on the first and second floors of his cage. He rarely poops outside of his cage (in "my" space). I'm sure all rabbits are different. I've heard that there are rabbits out there that always poop in the box. I'm sure there are bunnies out there that love to poop all over any area they are allowed to roam.

I think rabbits are awesome pets. They are clean like cats. They don't bark like dogs. They have individual personalities and make you laugh. The vast majority I've met are affectionate and enjoy human contact.

There are a lot of fellow bunny owners who read this blog. Please feel free to leave any comments of advice you think may help someone who is interested in getting a rabbit. And definitely if you're interested in getting a bunny please feel free to ask questions or email me!