I put in protected background on the runstreak due to real names and subject matter.

The position is . . . oh, who knows.  I wrote the HR person and they're splitting the job in two and I'm on the short list for one of them.  Or something.  I don't care, just stay close to a gym. 

Not running.  6 more days to prognosis time!  Two quick miles of swimming on Saturday at the 50m pool then a mile of slowness on Sunday.  I've added a lot of back stroke to channel my Ryan Lochte but mostly to open up my chest.  I have some fun swim workouts planned this week as long as fun includes lots of not being at work when I do this workout.  I'll need at least 2 hrs because it's a lot of drills but varies enough to keep me off slow zen swim mode.  I hope I can get there tonight.

I'll write a Cardinal Tri recap but official times still aren't posted yet - actually, it's accessible but the link isn't public.  I backed into the address guessing the name of the file on their website.  The clock by the finish line stopped working 3 hrs in so I hope they post it soon!

How are things with you? 

I have my dog back with me after asking my dad to watch him while the house owner was in town.  I now own all the furniture in the house, the television, appliances, sound system, the whole thang for $1,000.  That includes the big arse king size bed that's like heaven to sleep on.  The kiddie furniture, I am going to give to a friend of mine once I can figure out how to get it to her in Terre Haute. 

On my first paid time off day since Thanksgiving, I transferred the title to the 94 Volvo to my Tai Chi pal and then headed down to Mammoth Cave with the Kiddo and her fiance for zip lining.  I'm very glad I had a Groupon for it and made reservations online using the Groupon code because the big storms caused an internet outage.  The office couldn't process any checks or credit cards but had their reservations backed up on the hard drive and since I had a Groupon, it was all taken care of and no worrying about needing to go to a bank.  I had a great time!!  It took a couple of weeks to talk my future son-in-law into going but by the second line, he was jumping off the boards, ready for even longer lines.  The whole thing took about 90 minutes and I laughed every time.  It was beautiful seeing the trees and land like that!  But because of my bad luck with cell phones lately, I didn't take any pictures. 

Afterwards, we saw The Dark Knight Rises and spoiler:  Batman has to get out of this pit by climbing so I'm wondering how the rope got set up and why they can't hoist people to the top by pulling the rope.  Anyway, he gets out by bouldering.  I think he would've gotten out sooner if he knew how to lead climb and t e a knot so if he fell, he wouldn't swing right into the well wall.  

But I had a good time at the movies.  Ate my weight in popcorn!!  That movie was long, almost 3 hours in the theater altogether.  I was wiped and ready to sleep by the time we got home and settled.  It was a great way to end an otherwise exhausting week. 

Reallllllll super quick . . . Xanga's Buyit is having a giveaway!!  On her regular blogging site, she's having a contest to give away a free Rock n' Roll Marathon or Half-Marathon.  Just comment on her site!  Yes, comment on it but remember, get the hell out of my way 'cuz I wanna win this.  Yes, I know I'm gimpy legged right now but runners are masochists.  I've limped through two marathons, I can limp through another!!!  Just kidding.  Kind of.

Linky Loo:  http://pattitucker.com/?p=5645

Link to the Rock n' Roll Marathon Series:  http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/

41 years old today pic for posterity from my crappy replacement phone I can't upgrade until August.  I guess I need to stop dropping phones into bodies of water.  It's blurry but not from me putting vasaline on the lens to cover up any wrinkles a la Cybil Shepherd.  Anyone making a Cybil Shepherd references has gotta be at least 40. 

And this was my 35 year birthday pic I posted to Xanga 6 years ago.  Oy, where'd all that red in my hair come from?  I wasn't running yet back then so it wasn't sun lightened.  That was the heaviest camera ever.

The running streak dies today.  After 231 consecutive days of running at least 1 mile a day, average of about 18 miles a week, my aching hip held me to a 1:25 10k and lingering pain.  The last month has resulted in way more painful runs than pain free and yesterday's race was excruciatingly difficult to complete.  I give my safety word.  I throw in the towel.  I fold.   I'll tell you the story of why I kept going later this week. 

These are going into a post at Run the Ville.  They're from one of the races I did this weekend, the Cardinal Triathlon!  I have a business card of the artist, he was really nice and had a ton of tats.  When I write the recap post, Xanga version with extra cursing, I'll namecheck him.  He went to California for animation work and came back a tattoo and screen printing artist.

Love the swag.  Check it out . . .

Well, yesterday the participants in tomorrow's triathlon were informed the entire shebang's moved to a new location an hour away from the original race site.  ACK!!!!  Whatever.  I'll do my best considering I just got off work (grrr) and got my period a week early (GRRRRRRRRR) and haven't gotten any news about the new job I supposedly was landing (GARRRRGGGHGHHRRRRR).  And I'm turning 41.  : )  That's alright.  I think I'm aging pretty okay for a me type person. 

Anyway, this cracked me up and since I can't be in San Diego, I shall con these comics vicariously through nerd videos.  Awesome job, Comedivas!  Bella.  Oh, goodness.

http://www.comediva.com/bamf-girls-club

I think tomorrow I'll show up in cutoffs, flip flops and a t-shirt and with all my swim workout stuff.  And maybe I'll curse more in meetings to let off some steam.  Day 2, no word yet.  Le sigh. 

My physical therapy evaluation got bumped - my insurance needs a doc reference to cover it so okay.  I'm seeing a top notch running doc, though.  He'll MRI and X-ray me properly and hopefully I'll get an answer on this hip problem.  I limited myself to one mile and weight lifting today.  The mile was on a 2.5-3.0 incline and stayed around 5.5 mph (11 min mile).  Felt okay. 

Other than that, I'm just slowly cleaning up the house and playing with my ever so floppy dog.  He's adorable and has developed the habit of bringing his food to the living room to eat, bowl and all.  He'll carry it and put it in front of the television then chow down when I eat dinner.  That little son of a bitch waits for me to eat!  How sweet! 

Flop on, floppy dog.

Well, no phone call.  Yet.  I'm hoping the first day back from vacation for the CFO was extra busy so the company couldn't call me and offer me a position.  Or there was a horrible phone outage.  Or a virus got their computers.  Right?  Meh.

Let me get the other "meh" out of the way.  I've made an appointment with a sports physical therapist to get evaluated again.  The 12 miles was way too painful to avoid looking for treatment.  I've got to figure this out before I do some permanent damage to myself.  I'm fine for anything under 10 miles but longer mileage and I'm cringing in pain.  No pain = No pain.  In fact, gain becomes negative with pain, dammit.  There's pushing to the limit and there's freakin' agony.  This hip thing is agony.  I'm hoping it's not arthritis, that maybe there's a bursa sac that needs to be drained.  Gimme a cortisone shot!

That said, I still ran a mile today before 30 min of weights/core.  I'm not that smart.

Onto the topic at hand, fresh Turkish figs were on sale and I grabbed 'em up.  Oh, heaven!  This week, they're my favorite fruit and not just because they were cheaper than usual.  I can eat them fresh or as a grilled brie, ham/or fake ham/halved figs sandwich.  And light on the brie, too, since it can become too oozy over all the good stuff.  Hot fig!  I've never attempted to make fig jam before because they just don't last long in my company.  I hog them up.

10 fresh figs estimated about 300 calories:

This is my happy place today.  Figs.  TYFYT.

Today's run sucked so hard, I'm going to pimp it out and charge premium.  It hit 93-94 during my last 3 miles and I was getting a big headache so I took it to 1min walk/1min run the rest of the way.  If I took it any harder, I think I would have made myself nauseated, I felt a chill come on and that's usually the warning sign for me to hold back.  It's my fault, I didn't get out at 6am like I planned.  I didn't get out at 7am, either!  Just super late. 

Yesterday, I got my 1 mile run and an open swim at Deam's Lake.  My tongue and lips got a little numb from spitting out so much lake water.  I saw FISH!  I grazed a fish in a shallow section where I had to pull my stroke up or I'd scoop up sand with my hands.  I have no idea how far I got but the water was bathtub warm.  I hate that.  I like the water cool, keeps me focused. 

I also gave Kiddo's Volvo away yesterday.  One of the women who was in my Tai Chi group has just had a string of bad juju.  Her cancer's in remission but she lost her job, her husband got laid off and is working temp, neither could get health insurance then an uninsured driver sideswiped her car.  I got one of the relays fixed and balanced the tires before I gave it to her.  The mechanic said it should last a good year or two more.  Things will hopefully move in a good direction, her husband will get his teaching license in Indiana soon and even though her son had to be pulled out of college due to lack of funds, he's landed a good job that will help them get by.  And through all this, she's kept the Tai Chi group going.  She's hoping with me getting a new job, I'll be able to get back into the group.  I hope so, too.  Good thoughts to her.  She is mighty strong but she can certainly have more things happen in her favor.