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!

Monday Mario

Okay, okay...It's a couple of days late. But pumpkins are Fall stuff not just Halloween fodder (I admit the sharpie faces sort of date them to Halloween). Mario was gracious enough to pose with the pumpkins. Since he didn't try to eat them, and after reading what happened at The Zoo, I have come to the scientific conclusion that rabbits do not want to eat pumpkins. And trust me, my rabbit will eat anything.

Sad, Sad Day

Today for the first time ever, I paid more than $1.00 for a package of Clif Shot Bloks.  Longtime readers will remember how I used to get them super cheap but then had the venue snatched wickedly away.  I've still got a few packets left from my previous stash but am dwindling low on my favorite flavor (Cran-Razz).  I had a 20% off coupon for Sports Basement and today went and picked up two boxes.  With the buy-12-packets-and-get-a-cheaper-price plus the coupon, each packet came out to be $1.27.  This means if my old source was still around I could have gotten 6.5 packets more for the same price.  I am very, very sad.  I will fondly remember the good-'ole-days when Shot Bloks could be had for $1.00 flat no matter how many or little you bought. If anyone out there knows of a $1.00 source please let me know.

I've been on one sad little 2 mile run since I last blogged.  It went very, very badly.  I'm guessing they'll continue to go badly until I get back into a regular running schedule.  It's strange because mentally I feel like I should still be able to go on 10+ mile long runs with no problem.  But I have to realize that my body has been out of the grind for almost three months now and it's time to start back at square one.