Tonight at training we did a little fartlek training.  Fartlek, while fun to say (and allows for several unbelievably bad jokes and puns) is a type of training where you vary the pace significantly during your workout.  So for us it was, we’d sprint or run hard for half a lap and then take it easy on the second half of the lap.  We did this around 10 to 15 laps.  I lost count so it could have been less.  I’ve been taking it easy because my knee has been feeling a bit stiff.  And we did all this in nasty weather.  It was super windy and raining so bad it hurt.  When we were getting ready to finish up, we saw this huge blueish green light that we all assumed that it was lightning.  It wasn’t.  After the flash, we looked around and the entire area around us was dark.   It was a transformer that blew.  And it didn’t just blow once it flashed 3 times.  We were at the Seattle Pacific University track.  So that meant that all those colleges kids that were diligently writing term papers, probably lost it all.  At that point I was happy I wasn’t them…

Tonight I’m taking a break from NaNoWriMo.  In four days I’ve written 7871 words so far.

And as for Where in the World is Winnie, I’m going to have to say she headed to Mexico City first and then from there she headed to Antofagasta, Chile and after that she took off to somewhere in Brazil… But I don’t know where yet…

I don’t think I’ve ever written this much before in my life.  In two days I’ve got a word count of 3973!  Only 46,027 words left.  What the heck… I’ll try and knock that out this weekend.  Yeah, probably not.  But I am having fun with this and it’s definitely pushing my creative limits.  Hell after this, I’m gonna write a stand up comedy routine.  That’s right Mom… get ready.  All our family secrets will be dragged out of the closet (I’m talking to you, Dad’s boyfriend) and made fun of for all to laugh at.

But honestly, I think this month will be filled with running, writing and reading.  I see very little knitting in November.  It seems like it will only happen on Tuesday evenings.  Unless I skip out to go to a NaNoWriMo write in.

Since I’ve already written over 1950 words this evening, I’m going to close with my favorite news story of the past week, Judge Hecht is resigning as a superior court judge. He felt that, “in order to uphold the integrity of the court system of which I feel strongly about, I do not believe I have any choice but to resign.” And that he intends to “to keep fighting to reverse this injustice and reinstate my good name. But I will do that independently of attempting to remain on the bench under the current situation.”  I’m sorry, am I to understand that this vending machine soup loving, prominent cyst having, fat ass diabetic with a skin condition was still getting paid up until recently?  And am I also to deduce that he thinks he’s innocent?  I need to know, what’s is that parallel universe like?  Am I a super rich super model and Aaron Peirsol(he’s the one in the middle) is my husband?  Because if that’s the case, then count me in.  Just tell how to get there.

I spent about 3 hours this afternoon writing.  And I’m pretty sure it’s not good writing.  But that’s not the point of NaNoWriMo.  The point is to write.  Even if it’s bad.  Just write.  But I gotta say, it’s tiring.  I cranked out a whopping 1950 words today. I may revisit it and try for a little bit more.  I think writing during the week is going to be difficult.  So what ever extra I can do during the weekend, I think can only help me.

On a sad note, Judge Hecht was found guilty.  I wonder if there’s vending machine soup in the big house?

Sorry I haven’t posted in a bit.  My hard drive died Monday night and I took it in to be fixed on Tuesday.  I’m hoping and praying that it will be done today.  I’m starting NaNoWriMo on Sunday so I’d prefer to type instead of handwriting.

And now the quidditch homework – it’s a fill in the blank:

Hi Magpies!
Boy this has been a crazy week! I have been so busy and haven’t had much time to post! So, I thought I’d do a quickie to tell you about my plans for the weekend! Saturday, I am planning to knit like a fiend and eat lots of candy with Kink and Jimbo. If I have time, I might also do some laundry since I haven’t in a long time. Sunday will be spent running and writing and maybe some napping if I’m lucky!

I hope you all have a great weekend too!
And here’s the second half of the homework – Where in the World is Winnie?  I’m gonna take a shot in the dark, based on the clues… She’s at the home of the Appleby Arrows, Appleby village.  I’ve never been there but I hear it’s lovely this time of year

I was half watching the local news when a story caught my attention.  Now the story was not that unusual – a superior court judge in Tacoma (Judge Hecht) is accused of patronizing a prostitute and felony harassment.  I mean, can you name a judge that hasn’t been accused or these things?  It’s not so much what he’s accused of that caught my attention.  It was his defense and a few other comments he made while on the stand.

First, his defense.  He says he can’t have sex.  He even brought his doctor up on the witness stand to testify to this.  His doctor agreed with his “I can’t have sex defense” and added “diabetes, a chronic skin condition, obesity and erectile dysfunction, as far back as 2001.”  Nice doctor.  “Yeah, he can’t get it up.  And he’s a fat diabetic who can stop itching.  Would you want to sleep with him?  Apparently even he doesn’t want to sleep with himself.”  Now I know the doctor was a witness for the accused.  So he was probably told to lay it on thick.  But what the heck does the chronic skin condition have to do with getting a little lovin’ from a male prostitute?  I’m assuming he added that as the cherry on top of the sundae of his testimony.  But wait, there’s more from the doctor.  He even added that Judge Hecht had a “prominent cyst.”  Two words:  ewwwwwww and ewwwwww.  They showed Judge Hecht and I can safely say, that cyst wasn’t on his face. One more time Ewwwwwww.

They also brought a couple of antique dealers to testify.  Apparently Judge Hecht was a former antiques dealer.  Ok, I can see calling a few business associates to give a statement as to what kind of guy he is.  But at one point an antiques dealer by the name of, and I’m not making this up, Linda Lick, said that he used to frequent a now closed adult film theater.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  She screwed up and let the cat out of the bag.  Wait for it… the reason he liked to frequent the theater was for their vending machine soup.  Here’s the quote from the News Tribune, ““He loves the chicken soup at the vending machine,” Lick said, smiling. At the defense table, Hecht smiled, too.”

Where do I begin with that?  No one’s buying “the chicken soup in the vending machine is out of this world” story.  It’s call Cup-o-Soup.  You can get it any 7-11, quickie mart. And I’m pretty sure you can get it at  every rest stop in the continental United States. And if you think the only place you can get it, is in the vending machine at the local “whack shack,”  you should not be on the superior court.  I’m just saying, you’re judgment might be a bit cloudy.  I don’t like touching vending machines in general.  I can’t imagine what kind of “things” are living on a vending machine in a porn theater.  I wonder if the vending machine chicken noodle soup is what lead to his diabetes, a chronic skin condition, obesity and erectile dysfunction and perhaps even his prominent cyst.  Hell, that might not be a cyst.  It could be where he’s been hiding his soup since he can’t get it at the theater anymore.

Thank you God… thank you for this awesome story.  And I thought my life was bad.  I don’t have a vending machine soup addiction.

Today was our long run day.  We started with a quick 15 minute fitness assessment.  We had to run around the track at our normal run pace.  At the end of 15 minutes we recorded the number of laps we had. I had gone 5 laps ( 1 1/4 miles).  Then it was off for our 9 3/4 mile run.  I started strong and felt great.  By the time I got to around the 5 or 6 mile mark, I was starting to ache.  So I ended up doing a fair amount of run/walking for the last 3 miles or so.  But  I finished it.  I did it in about 2 hours.  So not bad for someone who doesn’t like to run.

I’m a little worried about my knee.  It’s a bit stiff and achy.  I took some advil and I hope that will calm it down at bit.  After all that pain, I really want to try some barefoot running and see if that helps.  I would definitely use it in my training.  I don’t know if I’ll ever run a full race barefoot, but I think you need to try everything out to see what works for you.   It can’t be all that bad if the NY Times is writing about it…

1-Where’s Winnie game! OK so from what i can gather, Winnie started her trip over in New Zealand.  Dunedin… Larnarch Castle, I believe.  Then from there, she headed back over to grab some fresh maple syrup.  And if you ask me, it ain’t maple syrup unless it comes from vermont.  I think she stopped by Burlington Vt, the Dakin farms.  I have a feeling that’s not where she is, but, like I said, if it’s not Vermont maple syrup, you need to put it down and walk away.

2-Teaser for your spoilee! Ok, here it is…

Wait… what the heck is that?  You’ll find out soon enough

3-Your first Quidditch experience. Well, I’m apparently not real great at Quidditch. But I’ve got heart.  The first time I played I was way too slow and I was on one side of the pitch by the time the snitch and the rest of my team was at the other end. Even though I was 6 steps behind my team was so encouraging and cool, that I had to keep trying.

I just ordered my Vibram classics.  They should be here in a week or so!  I went to REI and they didn’t have my size.  I tried them on and I can see there’s going to be a bit of getting used to it.  It took moving of toes to get them into the right spots.  But once they were all set, they were really comfy.  It really was like being barefoot with a little bit of protection on the sole.  I can’t wait to give them a real life try.

Also,  I just wanted to post this link:  Norawas de Raramuri.  It will live on the left side of my blog.  If you can please donate to them.   This is the non profit that Caballo Blanco started and he spoke about when I saw him speak a couple days ago.  Even if it’s only $5.  Every little bit helps.

If this half marathon goes well, I may start up the one race a month challenge on January 1st.  If I do, I’ll try and set up a donation type deal.  For every race I run, donate a couple of bucks to Norwaras de Raramuri.    Besides, if you donate think of the karma points.  You’ll get the parking spot right in front.  Perhaps, you’ll get out of that speeding ticket.  Or you may even win the lotto (Grandma Buck I’m gonna need you to work your magic on that one).

I went to see Caballo Blanco speak at the Seattle Running Company.  He was going to do a run with the group but he couldn’t as he was running a few weeks before and cut his foot open.  It didn’t start off well.

First, the guy who lead the run, just said, “Ok let’s go.” and he was off.  I know I’m not the fastest runner around and I would have happily done the run at my own pace if I knew the route.  As far as I could tell, he never told us what the route was.  He just took off.  And by took off, he was not stopping for red lights and dodging in and out of traffic, with a group of 20 or more people following him.  How is that ok?  If something was to happen to one of the runners, Seattle Running Company would have been at fault.  By about 7 blocks of this, I was left behind.  I felt angry and disappointed.  Apparently these runs are a part of their Seattle Running Club and you need to have a pace of between an 8 -10 minute mile.  This would have been great information to have posted with the information about the run with Caballo Blanco.  Had I known that information, I would have done my own run before and then gone to the presentation.  It was also not a very inviting group.  I felt like an ass for even trying to join in on their run.  I have issues with the attitude that Capitol Hill has.  It’s that “I’m hipper than you, and you should be thanking me for even faking not paying attention to you. Why are you here anyways?” attitude. I apologize hipster.  I’m sorry I’m not as cool as you.  My credit card isn’t maxed out with skinny jeans and several pairs of oversized sunglasses.  So, you’re right, I’m not as cool as you.  I don’t have to wear a name tag at my job.  I won’t be shopping at Seattle Running Club.

So when I got back to Seattle Running Company I was fuming.  I ended up running around Capitol Hill on my own.  Which, by the way, I had way better company than I would have if I actually went on the run with them.  I sat down and as soon as Caballo Blanco started to talk, it was really hard to continue to be angry.  He talked about the race, he talked about the book, he talked about how he has been keeping the race going and all the things that he has been trying to do for the tarahumara.  Barefoot Ted was also there.  He hung out towards the back.  I get the feeling he was there to support his friend not take some of the spotlight.  I will definitely take a lesson or two from Ted.

Caballo Blanco then answered questions from the group.  One guy asked how he gets his caloric intake for his runs.  Another guy asked about pinole.  Someone else asked about what he runs in and what shoes he prefers.  One guy was curious about the race. I believe he was asking because he was thinking about running it.  I would love to just go there to be apart of the race.  I don’t want to run it.  At least I don’t think I want to run it…

I never thought I would be able to get past the 5k mark.  But I did.  I’m up to 7.5 mile!  I did it in roughly  1 hour and 40 minutes.  So that’s a 13:30 a mile.  I’d like to get that down to an 11 or 10 minute mile once I get into the groove.  But for now, I’m thrilled with that time. Here’s a link to the map and elevation of our run.

And I also found out that Barefoot Ted, who was featured in Born to Run, is local and gives instruction for barefoot running!  I may have to take his intro course at some point.  Perhaps at the beginning of November.  After the 5 mile I could feel my knees start to ache.  I feel like it was because I had been doing 2 miles of a downhill run.  So I’m hoping he has some ideas on how to help that.