Right, an update then

Last week started off a bit stressful, Sunday there were a lot of storms moving through the central Arkansas/Tennessee area........High winds, heavy rains, usual fall weather for the area but still doesn't make dodging the cars any easier.  There was one that spun out and hit a wall, and blocked off 2.5 lanes just a few seconds ahead of me as I was entering the Nashville area, sigh.......

Then there was a huge twitter rant that I went on about one of our company drivers on Tuesday night.  Actually there were two of the drivers that hadn't been into Penske before, the first one was great.  He parked at the stop signs in the drive like you're supposed to then walked his paperwork up to the security guard to find out the proper checking in procedure.  Very polite and professional.  Then while I and another driver were getting checked in and the trailers inspected the obnoxious driver shows up.  He stops at the stop signs but instead of staying there and walking up or asking how it works there, he then goes on to pull up behind the 2 of us already there and blocks off the entire drive so that those who don't have to get inspected can't get through.  Guard asks him politely to back up and the guy half-ass does so, still blocking off most of the drive then proceeds to curse out the guard.  Security then tells him he'll have to come back in the morning with acting that way and the jerk comes up to me ranting and raving about how he's calling dispatch and this is b.s., blah, blah, blah.  No sympathy from me, he was a jackass and they totally should have asked him to leave.  This crap makes the rest of us look bad.

Tuesday night was just cruddy all the way around.......the stupid driver, I put a 1.5" welt on my arm by catching it on the sharp corner of my truck door, Elsie threw up on the bed, oh, here I am blah, blah, blahing. enough of that!  I did threaten to go hug the first truck driver or border patrol agent I could find though, lol.

Yuck dirty windshield, but cool Landy that I saw when I was leaving out this week at Jacksonville.


I think it's safe to say my running mojo has returned.  Monday found me getting up before my driving day started and tackling some hills on a road I'd never ran on before at Columbia, TN.  Absolutely beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. Cool and overcast, near perfect. I was even sorta fast considering the hills :-).  4.01 miles in 37:12.

Wednesday, I waited until we got to Von Ormy to run around the industrial park just west of the Love's.  I say we because James went out and ran with me.  We ended up talking about my hating running back over the summer when I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon (which is today, btw) and he said most of my running issues probably stemmed from our problems and now that we were reaching a resolution that's why things were better with my workouts. Insightful man.  4.31 miles in 45:19.

Thursday........lots of stuff around the house done but still tons more to do :-(.  And I was incredibly moody and grouchy.

Friday--5.05 miles in 46:52. Cold!!!!!!!!! My knees ached afterwards when they thawed out. Great run though.  Took some more stuff to the consignment store, all the crap I had hanging in there that didn't fit or I bought for who the hell knows why.  Did my civic duty and voted. Ate sushi & sashimi  :). Just a good day.

Saturday--cycling ride that went horribly :-(.  Well the first 33-34 miles were ok but after that the 2 week layoff and high winds took their toll, grrr. 56 miles in 3:42.  It was another cold morning, brrrr.  Wasn't quite sure how to dress but knew not to bundle up too much.  Wore a long sleeve tech shirt, the HHH jersey, and armwarmers up top, with a bandana around my neck, then just shorts and the Arky 100 socks that were a bit taller. Just wished I'd had knee warmers but after 10 miles I was good to go.  Everybody else overlayered, lol.

Afterwards, I stopped by one of my training partners house and evidently I looked kinda rough because his wife was offering to drive me the 2 miles home that I had left, lol.  It was slow going but I made it :), then got here and bitched about how awful the ride was for entirely too long.  Yes there was an ice bath, followed up by a 10 minute hot shower.  My legs and butt are incredibly sore today though :(.  Treated myself to an avocado salad and more sushi though!  Oh and mint Three Musketeers mini candy bars, yeah too many of them.

Sunday (today)--yesterday I ended up dozing off early then waking up and staying that way until nearly 4am.  Which would have been ok, but I can't stay asleep past 0800 usually, today I was awake at 0730.......so decided that I needed to run.....but was having a hard time finding any of my gear, lol.  Or even my coordination. Or a brain.......yeah took me a bit.  But my socks matched at least, unlike last weekend.  Although I did walk out the door in a short sleeve shirt and immediately turned back for a long sleeve one which ended up being a cycling jacket because I couldn't find a matching long sleeve tech shirt that wasn't packed away.  Got in 4.25 miles in 42:47, recovery run from yesterday.  Didn't I already mention I was sore, lol.

Almost ready!  This pic is very indicative of how long the process was to get ready this morning, lol

 

On the trail.  And I even coordinate :), just a mish mash of brands.

 The Trapiche Oak Case Malbec is my favorite, followed by the Alamos, both inexpensive too which is very nice.  The Pascual Toso, however, HORRIBLE!  3 sips and I poured it down the drain.

This porter was good though.  My favorite is still the java porter draft from the Hog Haus at Fayetteville.

my week in technicolor (somewhat)

Cool car, I40 Crowley's Ridge, AR

I wanna go play too!!! I65 TN

 An accident ahead?

Nope, just broke down in the middle of the intersection. Lewisburg, TN

In the crosshairs, I65, Tennessee

Slight delay in Jackson, TN on I40.  Some idiot threw their cigarette butt out the window, grrr

I40, Mississippi river bridge, earthquake reinforcement construction



I30 near Mabelvale, AR......cluster due to the incredibly inane left lane restrictions. 

photo finish?

I finally moseyed on over and purchased the photos from the Tupelo 14.2 miler that I ran back in September.  For once not too terribly bad :-)

Bamarunner & I out on the course. The "tattoo" on the ankle is a stickon, no ink there as of yet

This photo really doesn't show how bad I was feeling, thank goodness.

If you zoom in there's a squirrel in the middle of the drive

I used to drive one of these back in 2001-2002 when it was an Atlas Carriers truck.  Gotta love Peterbilts. I very much miss driving one and pulling parts into the Denton factory.



The local zedonk.......yes, it really is a zebra/donkey mix. Zoom in on the legs and check out the stripes.

Did y'all notice my new & improved header pic?  A friend took pity on me and fixed it since I'm quite hopeless with photo editing. Thank you again :-)

I might whinge......

and I do.........a lot.  But that's a tendency I'm trying to curb.  Honestly, receiving what may be the last email ever from a friend has a very sobering effect on a person. So yeah, past time for me to stop with the negativity and actually enjoy life.

With that note, the past 2 weeks I've been decluttering like crazy, making countless trips to the consignment store, trashing what can't be sold or given away in good conscience and a yard sale this morning to get rid of even more "STUFF".  What didn't sell was immediately hauled off by a friend for a charity of one of her friends, yay!!!!!!!!  All except the books, I'll take them to another charity next week.

Next week or so, I'm making the rounds to ASU-Beebe and UCA to gather up my transcripts and speak to somebody about actually finishing up my bachelor's degree with online courses or Saturday classes. If I switch to a business administration degree and they won't make me take any classes over (it has been 11-12 years since I was in college) I should be able to finish up fairly quickly. Not that I want an office job and I do enjoy what I'm currently doing but I very much want to have more options available to me in case I do decide to move away from trucking.  And let's face it, I'm a 41 year old woman with sleeved arms, I'm going to have to work extra hard to get hired by anybody.  No grumbles, it is what it is and I think I have enough references from very good friends that will help but no blinders on, it will be difficult.

My running mojo seems to be returning but I've not gone out for speed or distance, just shooting for 3ish miles 3-4 times a week.  It's a good thing I'm not going for speed though, I'm SLOW, lol!!!!!  But it does feel good kicking my day off with the nice little endorphin buzzies again.

Leaving y'all with a couple of vids from another desert island band pick, 12 Rounds. 
WARNING: these are not for the easily offended, there are graphic images!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So don't click on them at work or if there are kids around!!!!!!!!!

12 Rounds "Pleasant Smell/Business
12 Rounds "Holed"

Random movie night

Ok, I have a tendency to like quirky movies, especially foreign films (hey Canada counts as a foreign country!) and if they have a rock music theme, well so much the better.  This brings me to a movie I rented last night from Hastings--"Suck".  Oh yeah, there's also vampires :-))). This movie had me literally laughing out loud, very cool picking out the various iconic rock n roll images and I'm sure I missed quite a few.  Plus it starred Alice Cooper!!!!!!!!!!  Do you need any more reason to watch?

Belated and then some

Last Sunday was the Arky 100 at Sheridan, AR which marked the 3rd century in a row for me, 4th for the year total..........so why in the world would I want to do that? Great company and to say I could, lol........With the offer of transportation with the same group from the Memphis century, how in the world could I say no????????? 

I'm not necessarily feeling like a giant recap here but the morning started out cold!!!! Goosepimply, rode for 5 miles before warming up cold, then it was really pleasant, then it got really hot--as in 94F hot, yuck.  Shouldn't complain too much because the previous 2 weekends were nearly perfect weather-wise but it still took it's toll.  Gorgeous route, great roads for the most part, lots of rollers, hilly enough to make it challenging.  Too bad my feet especially the left one felt like they were on fire the last 27 miles.  Oh and the right knee I screwed up at Tupelo?  yeah it was twinging before we even started, grrrr.  I've since taken the entire week off from workouts to try and rest it up and let it heal because I was limping for the rest of the day.

So how'd it go?  Faster than the previous 2.....5:15 saddle time, just under 6 hours total.  Minimal time at most of the rest stops and I pretty much stuck myself to the wheel of Steve, T's husband who is also one of the fast guys who decided to hang with us slower riders, for the first 50-60 miles.  I finally learned from the previous 2 centuries to not pull the line so much, lol.  Several of our group were struggling a bit though and while I stayed back with Tim for a while after we started splintering off, I kept looking at my time and mileage and thinking I could beat the Big Dam Bridge time.  Felt bad about not slowing down with him but that time goal was entirely too tempting.  Met a local rider who allowed me to draft in with him to the 80something rest stop, introduced myself but he was wanting to hang out there longer than I was so took off solo......got passed by a group, tried to hang on but couldn't for more than a mile. Oddly there was one of them who I passed on the hill, when he caught up with me again a few miles later he explained that he had a busted cable so didn't have any low gears for the climbs, ouch!!!!!  Caught up with a couple more riders for the last 6 miles and they drafted off me for the rest of the ride......I was struggling though, my left foot was absolutely killing me and I kept having to unclip and flex the foot as much as possible. 

My new nickname is pink tape girl.....I'd wrapped my feet with pink KT Tape to try and help alleviate some of the foot pain (my plantar fasciitis is rearing its ugly head again, grrr) and I had several people ask what it was and how it worked so hopefully there will be a few more converts.

Afterwards, pizza and beer at Dam Goode Pies, mmmmmmmmmm.  Too bad we don't have another century lined up for this weekend, lol.

other photos

 Middle Tennessee scenery

Approaching the sinkhole on Hwy 46 in Tennessee going southbound

The sinkhole going northbound

Detour around the bridge damage on Hwy 46 near unincorporated Santa Fe Springs

Detour around Santa Fe Springs on a different day.  There's one sharp turn where the bumper of your truck drags the ground.  Very pretty road though

My hair in it's natural state, albeit better behaved than usual



LMAO!  Lola the truck is in the background

My usual work wear, soooo attractive.........Or not, lol

Austin, TX in the rain at rush hour

This guy was using his tanker as a giant tanning reflector. He'd stand that way for a few minutes then switch sides

Awesome place to eat at Canton, TX



Pic of my abs this morning.  Still a pudgy belly but there's definition showing in the upper part!!! That's not even a sucked in belly there.  2 weeks of the facebook ab challenge and results already, yay!!!

BDB & other photos

Worn down bar tape on Buffy after a hard summer of training

The new tough looking black bar tape, I like very much!!!

Cute trike at the bike shop

Back of the jersey

The 2 trains that held us up for 15 minutes, grrrr

The yellow stuff in the cup is pickle juice. Yes it really is!

Fat Tire draft post ride, mmmm

Bacon, cheese, scallion covered spicy fries with ranch dressing, post BDB meal