Running in Beauty

time is relative

I scavenged this from Deene's blog. Apparently, all the cool kids are doing it. Goddamn peer pressure. hehe

I forgot to mention that you can only jot down 'one word' answers. Happy procrastination!

Yourself: Stressed
Your Partner: cuddly
Your Hair: greasy
Your Mother: gentle
Your Father: bastard
Your Favorite Item: ring
Your Dream Last Night: bombing
Your Favorite Drink: tea
Your Dream Car: dunebuggy
Your Dream Home: ecofriendly
The Room You Are In: dining
Your Ex: disgust
Your Fear: snakes
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: fertile
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: mom
What You’re Not: patient
Muffins: LARD
One of Your Wish List Items: garmin
Time: work
The Last Thing You Did: aspirin
What You Are Wearing: Queen
Your Favorite Weather: cool
Your Favorite Book: ceremony
Last Thing You Ate: cereal
Your Life: a mystery
Your Mood: anxious
Your Best Friends: laughter
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Powerpoint
Your Car: beat-down
What Are You Doing At The Moment: procrastinating
Your Summer: Diego
Relationship Status: superb
What Is On Your TV: trash
What Is The Weather Like:cloudy
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: minutes

etched in stone by carmen @ 5:23 PM 6 comments

literary regurgitation

I feel so. so. so.

fat!

I haven't done any running. I've been on the go every single day since Wednesday afternoon. I had a headache all day in conjunction with elevated stress.

I don't feel like running.

I'm not looking forward to this week at all. In Albuquerque for the conference. I'm steamed that I'm forced to stay there from Monday to Thursday. For pete's sake, I'm only presenting on Thursday! Why must I waste Navajo Nation money staying there only to sit on my ass doing nothing for the other days. My good conscience wants to go back to the office to work on stuff I have been putting off but my bosses are forcing me to be there all 4 days.

A waste of time and money, I say!

I am so annoyed when I think about it. To make matters worse, I have to pay up front for a hotel and all along I thought my program paid the tab up front. Instead, they have this system where tribal employees pay for their meals and lodging out of their own pocket and then submit the receipts later to get a reimbursement. It bugs me that I have to compromise my own budget for travel. We're the largest Indian nation for god's sake...you would think we would have an unblazenly simple system.

I'm in a bad mood.

Usually I go off on a list of things and people that have gotten on my shit list for the moment but I'll spare you the tirade.

*think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts*

etched in stone by carmen @ 5:13 PM 4 comments

Run Asdzaan! Run!

This Navajo girl is so loving running again.
An intimate letter to running will be added soon.

*I did not take the above picture but it's one that is widely recognized. It's a picture of a young Navajo lady running during her female puberty ceremony which we call her Kinaalda. (Pronounced Kin-all-DUH) I had one when I was 13 years old. I didn't run very far and I wish I had but the distance is usually up to the girl.

etched in stone by carmen @ 2:44 PM 7 comments

oversight

I've been kind of running. I just haven't been blogging about it. Mainly, it's because I'm not proud of the lack of time that I'm putting in but mostly, it's because I haven't had the drive to log into blogger and blog. I know...I'm one lazy mofo.

Since the 10k on Sunday, I've only run twice this week. Three if I include this evening's 3 miler. The first run was only 2 miles and some time on the bike because I arrived at the gym late. Yesterday, I put in 3 miles on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the bike, which I am counting as 2 additional miles.

I wasn't going to run today but I kind of have the bug for it so I'm going to satiate that runner's ache. I was going to attend a fashion event tonight. It's called "Fashion for a Cause" which is being hosted by Miss Navajo Nation and an AIDS awareness organization that my roommate used to work for. It's because of her that I know some gross sex slang that I probably shouldn't even know but hey, that was apart of her job. Education. :P

I didn't have anything else going on tonight and thought that I'd go to support the cause even if it meant having to endure some annoying mannerisms and behavior some models. Luckily, some friends of mine are going to the movies tonight and I decided to tag along with them instead--thus, saving me from mental moans and groans in response to some of the dumb things I hear the models say.

I've got a conference I'm presenting for in another week and some days in Albuquerque. It's a Navajo Infrastructure conference aimed at providing infrastructure development information to our navajo communities. Of course, I'll be presenting about recycling and beautifying our communities. I went around town this morning taking pictures of roadside litter. About 80% of the litter or more is recyclable.

I'm using these pictures in my presentation.

In addition, I took some pictures of water bottles, aluminum cans, some local newspapers, and some magazines and catalogs for examples. I stopped by a friend of mine's office who works as an attorney because she said she had some magazines (gossip mags) that she needed to get rid of. When I got there, she said she forgot to bring them and instead gave me NM Bar Bulletin mags and one Cosmo mag.

I used the Cosmo mag in a picture along with my Runner's World, Her Sports, and some Avon catalogs. It's supposed to be for my paper recycling slide.

I just noticed what's on the Cosmo mag and it has SEX written all over it! Definitely, not material for my audience of community leaders and council delegates! haha I'll have to crop it.
BTW, I was elected as one of the Board of Directors (2007-2008)for the New Mexico Recycling Coalition!! My first real elected gig! I just got word of it today.

etched in stone by carmen @ 2:55 PM 4 comments

PR also means Pretty RAD!

etched in stone by carmen @ 4:57 PM 10 comments

A little taste of glory!

Other than the big mishap of getting confused as to where the starting line was because I was late and therefore did not step across the mat to activate my timing chip, the race was SUPER! About .1 miles down the way did I realize that I was not approaching any mat and was running on the wrong side of the course but didn't want to turn around and be Official. It was a mental thing.

I ran according to the time on my watch so I'm sure that the time I report is as accurate as a timing chip. Though I didn't beat my first goal of running a sub-1 hour 10k, I did however, only miss it by 9 seconds.

I ran the 10k in 1:00:08. Mile 4-5 is where I really messed up. I slowed down horrendously to stretch my hammies and that mile registered as 10:40. :(

Who would have known that a simple time out to stretch would make or break my goal! I'm still happy though!!!! :)

I took more than 6 minutes off my time from last year!

WOO-HOO!! (but I'm still bummed that my name will not appear on the official web results.) I do have pictures as proof, though. I'll post them later on today. Right now I need to shower and go eat.

YAY for MEEEEEE!!!

etched in stone by carmen @ 9:46 AM 4 comments

less than 9 hours til the 10k

I'm getting ready for my 10k right now. I ran a fast 3 miles today...something I should not have done as now I am kind of sore all over. And I should not have ran so fast after not running for five days. Oh well...live and learn.

I'm hoping to get a finishing time below 1:02:00. Wish me luck! I'll try to post some pics as well. Good luck to ann and phil.

I'm about ready to go to bed now. I've spent the last hour deleting my entire playlist on my mp3 player and reloading it with some old and new songs. I put my player on auto-shuffle and here are ten random songs that came up in honor of the 10 kms I will run. :)

1. "Never Die" by Tiger Army
2. "She's a Rebel" by Green Day
3. "Best Day Ever" by My Chemical Romance
4. "Kill Caustic" by A.F.I.
5. "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" by Blink-182
6. "Be My Lover" by La Bouche
7. "Touchdown Turnaround" by hellogoodbye
8. "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Gos
9. "Cupid" by Pistolita
10. "An Evening in Roma" by Dean Martin

so there you go.

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:40 PM 2 comments

GODDAMMIT!

I SOOOO don't even want to run anymore.

I sigh when I think about how many miles I have to run.

My runs have become sluggish and unfulfilling.

Am I ready for a marathon?

What the hell am I thinking?


Regardless, I have the New Times 10k this weekend. I haven't been running much lately so there goes any hope of a sub-60 minute race. ARGH.

And my dumb left ankle is starting to hurt. Sometimes I hate my feet. I know the way the pound the ground is the root of all my running problems. Sucks.

GODDAMMIT! ( I say that when I am so stressed.)

etched in stone by carmen @ 3:42 PM 6 comments

i'm supposed to have weeks like this or life wouldn't be fun.

This is a week where running can take a number or choke.

I haven't been feeling it all week. I misplaced my headphones a week ago and finally went out to buy some a couple days ago. I have yet to try them out. You have to have some serious focus to run without music and the last couple runs I did before my big hiatus were done without music. I just ran out of things to think about.

I voted in my tribal elections yesterday. I didn't bother with Arizona or county elections because of my own personal political opinions which I will not bother to mention because this 10-minute blog will end up going the whole hour.

In short, the Navajo election affects me the most and therefore, was the most important to me. We had a race between the presidential incumbent, Joe Shirley Jr., and the woman who was trying to become the first elected female Navajo Nation President, Lynda Lovejoy. In the end, I voted for Joe Shirley.

There was a lot of controversy (aren't they all) surrounding this particular race because of traditionalists who say that the Navajo Nation should not have a female leader or chaos would ensue...the end of the world and culture kind of thing. It's amazing she even made it through the primaries. Sadly, this just goes to show how much of our tradition is being lost if people are willing to put a woman in office despite oral tradition and teachings.

Don't get me wrong, I think women are capable leaders. WE have very influential, smart, and ambitious women who work for our Tribe. However, when it comes to leading our great nation--it's a warrior's responsibility. A woman's responsibility should be to lead in the home. Afterall, it is her children that will become the future leaders of the nation. If she's a good leader in the home, then we will have great leaders of the future.

This is just how I view it from my cultural perspective.

And I'm sure that our male leaders who run into problems at the office end up venting to their mothers anyway and asking for advice. hehe


BTW, Joe Shirley won. (whew)

Oh yeah, the baby shower went great over the weekend. Here is a picture of baby Adezdiin (pronounced "Uh-dez-DEEN")--our shining light.

etched in stone by carmen @ 9:33 AM 1 comments

Slow Start but so worth the drag

I awoke early this morning to make up the 1.8 miles that I was not able to complete yesterday. The night before, I was overconfident in that I thought that I could possibly run 3 or 3.5 miles. I should know myself better than that.

3.5 miles at 6 o'clock in the morning? Who the hell am I kidding?

My alarm rang at 5:55am but I wasn't able to pull myself from my covers until 6:15am. I groggily walked to the window and looked out to see how light/dark it was out. Everything was well lit but the streets were still covered in shadows. I walked outside my door and stood for a minute to gauge the temperature.

Frankly, I was trying to reason that it was way too chilly to run a couple miles. Unfortunately, it was not cold enough to justify a missed workout.

So I walked back inside and changed into my running clothes. Laced up my smelly shoes. I noticed that my left ankle was still a little sore from the yesterday's run but I thought that a couple miles wouldn't compromise it's ability to perform. Yes...looking for more excuses. hehe

Finally I set out at 6:40 am without a sweater. About 0.3 miles into the run I regretted going out without a sweater but I didn't want to turn back around so I continued running. Conveniently, my route heads east first.

As I mentioned in previous entries, Navajo people have been instructed since forever that one greets the dawn by running in the eastern direction. The Holy People (our deities) are out and about at this time and those that can wake up early enough are the ones who receive their blessings. I felt really good running into all those "luxuries of life" this morning and before I knew it the grogginess and my near-frostbite wore off. (I'm exaggerating about the frost bite but I felt like my arms were going to shatter at the slightest tap.)

Sometimes, a Navajo individual can shout out into the dawn as they are running. The shouts are like a Woo WOO! type of sound. It lets the Holy People know that you are out and it identifies yourself. I forgot to do that this morning. Most people would feel silly but I've gotten used to it.

My younger brother (by Navajo clan kinship) is teaching me how to properly pray in Navajo to the gods early in the morning. Pretty soon, I'll be a pro and I can appropriately pray for the right things just prior to an early morning run. Sweet!

I happened to run 1.9 miles this morning--making up for the deficiency yesterday. I feel even better about the fact that I was out so early. :)

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:59 AM 4 comments

time to dust of the pepper spray

I was supposed to run 7 miles tonight. I fell short by 1.8 miles because let's face it--daylight savings time is NOT on my side. It gets dark by 6 pm and it's only going to dark faster as winter mozzies on into the Southwest. I'm lucky that my training classes get out by 4 or 4:30 pm but I've had things on my agenda for the past week that things are b-a-n-a-n-a-s!

I don't know what I am going to do once my training workshop is over because then I'll be stuck at the office until 5 pm. What I've been doing is getting 1.5-2 miles out of the way at lunch and running the remainders after class is out. I know that in most magazines, trainers laud this approach because it reduces your chance of injury.

However, I feel like I'm cheating my body out of getting a good workout when I break up a run into segments. But as long as I get that one long run in during the week right? Isn't that what counts?

I'm making up my miles tomorrow morning at 6. I have to be extremely careful because I run by myself--especially in this town. Gallup has more than it's share of "lost souls" wandering about at all hours of the day and probably night. In fact, I passed about 3-4 inebriated men walking along the street this evening. Guess I'll have to carry the pepper spray with me tomorrow morning.

AS for the Halloween party, I don't have any pictures to show for myself. :( And I was being camera shy myself so I doubt my friends got any pictures with me in it. Some of them are here in town right now at a birthday dinner for a colleague but I can't bear to miss Grey's tonight. I'm so behind that I don't know what the heck is happening. I might as well wear a paper bag over my head.

This weekend is my niece's baby shower. I still have a lot on my planning plate. I have to by things for goodie bags, prizes, and props for the games. My sweetie is renting a car and he's coming to my house this weekend. I'm so excited! I haven't seen him in three weeks!! This long distance thing is so very hard!

Another friend of mine is due any day now and I'm thinking of organizing a shower for her since she tells me that no one has offered yet. Yet another friend is due next month. So many pretty Indian babies!

etched in stone by carmen @ 6:51 PM 3 comments

For the past week, I've been in training to learn how to use a new project tracking software for our division. It's supposed to make our departments more accountable for the projects that we undertake and to make information regarding these projects more accessible for the vendors and the public involved.

The first day we covered the very basics of GIS which was way easy since I still remember a thing or two from my GIS course I had taken two years ago. Now we're actually getting into the project tracking application. It's fun--for me that is.

Although, I am a bit groggy from last night's festivities. I went as a hardcore My Chemical Romance groupie. I had the greasy mop of messy hair going that was accented by a bright red headband. I had on black eyeliner lining my eyes. For the emo/goth look, I smeared on some bright red eye shadow from Manic Panic and some coal eyeshadow. Then I dressed my lips in bright red lipstick. I simply wore my old MCR t-shirt, some black pants, and my old ratty black Chuck Taylors. I found some old black gloves lying around and I cut the fingers off of them and it completed my ensemble. It was awesome. hehe

My friend Heather thought that I looked more like a geisha.

Anyhow, we had some food and played a very exciting and fun-filled game of Taboo. My throat ached afterwards from all the shouting. I was the belle of the ball because I miraculously shouted out "Pavarotti" from only two clues: 1) he sings and 2) he's fat.

I mean, how in the world would a rural Navajo girl know about Pavarotti in the first place? haha That's what they were puzzled over. But hey, I've watched one too many informercials for the 3 Tenors album when I was younger.

Another friend, S, was up at one point giving the hints and one of his words was "festival". He gave "enchilada" for one of his hints and we were like WHAT??? How the heck do you get enchilada from festival? haha His justification was that they have an enchilada festival in Las Cruces, NM but I thought it was funny. haha

Prior to all the fun, I did get my 5 miles in and a little more. I ran on the trail again and I think I need to wait another week before I run the trail again because it makes my ankles all sore from the uneven terrain. I run the risk of twisting my ankle everytime I hit a large or unexpected bump.

I registered for the New Times 10k yesterday. I'm determined to finish in one hour at the most but my secret goal is to finish sub-60 minutes.

Hope you all had a good halloween!

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:32 AM 4 comments