Are you ready to Neti?

For the past 5 days I have been sick. Sick sick sick sick sick. It started on Tuesday and is yet to end. First I came down with one ailment and while I was actively treating that, I came down with another. Yippee! This sickness is the one that Lauren got over Christmas. The one I so strangely refer to as "shark flu". This has created quite the problem in my training program. Instead of going to the gym, I wanted to go home and curl up, suck my thumb and have my mommy scratch my back.

We're close... get over it.

With the council of my both my sister and my super savvy and in-shape friend, Jennifer, I decided I should take it easy. My take on it was that I wanted to run. I wanted to be in the gym. So yeah, there is something wrong with me mentally as well.

Regardless, I just felt I needed to run, but knowing my mental capability I was certain I would run .5 miles, feel sorry for myself, and eat the gym.

So Thursday I rode a bike and lifted weights while Friday and Saturday I did nothing. Nothing but neti pot that is. Have you ever heard of the Neti Pot? OH my goodness. What a freakish contraption. Although illegal in most states concerned with sanitation, the great state of Virginia has been selling them like hot cakes since the shark flu struck. (It's not a real illness. Don't google it, Mom).

Because the Neti Pot (not unlike children) is better seen than heard, here is a picture my also sick husband took of me using this strange yet wonderful piece of not so modern machinery.



If you look too closely you will see a drop of snot-water falling out of my nose. Yes, thats the medical term for the substance. Normally the warm salt water goes in one nostril ('noscril' if you are of the Whitlow/Barnett persuasion) and begins to come out of the other side. The first time I tried it, I blacked out. But Jeff says that I was screaming "Oh dear God... I'm drowning" in a panicky voice. I doubt that.

So- all weekend I was dreading the 8 miles I owed the treadmill and realized that with all I had "going on" it would be best to just let that worry go. So when Lauren and I hit the gym tonight, I promised myself I would do as well as I could and stop when Lauren stopped. Thankfully she sprinted 8 miles while I wogged 6. 6 is better than none and I will get better. Oh yes, I will.

And if you are reading this wondering where the pictures of Colleen and Dan are, keep scrolling. Keep scrolling and God bless.

Colleen and Dan are Married- Sneak Peak

My husband's uncle Dan got married this past weekend and I was able to be one of the photographers there! Dan's wife Colleen did all of the decorating with a few of her friends. It was impressive!


Next to the cake all night was the cake topper from Dan's parents wedding. How cute! And the cake itself... well the top layer was carrot cake, the middle was vanilla and the bottom was chocolate. Something for everyone!


Colleen and Dan's wedding ended at the beach so I stole their flowers and took them out to the sand.

At the closing of the night I got this close little moment. :) Thanks so much Colleen and Dan for the great night and letting me be a part of it all! Plenty more to come!

8 Mile without Eminem

Monday marked a monumental day in my running life! Lauren and I ran 8 miles. 8 MILES!!! Well, she ran 8 miles, I wogged 8 miles.

By the way- whatever mental picture you have of me "wogging" is 100% right.

What I learned from this run is that the way you fuel your body has a HUGE impact on how your body preforms. For example- eating fast food to nurse your hang over is not going to help you the next day during your run. Let's just say I was running rull slow.

The worst part of the run was when it was over. Sound strange? If you have ever run a race or run long distances for the first time know what I may be alluding to. The extreme aching of your joints letting you know you just did something you body wasn't supposed to. The fact that if you bang your feet together accidentally you squeal with pain. Or the insane (how to say this sweetly) the running runs. The treadmill trots. The... you get the picture. BUT I tell you the runners high is almost enough to get you through it without rendering yourself cripple from the craps.

Next week is 8.5 and its only a matter of time before we do the full 10 miles! But first Lauren and I will be doing the Valentines Day 5k. I asked the husband if he would like to do it with me. I asked to be nice... :) We plan on making shirts and need help with ideas. Lauren think "Barnetts make the best lovers" is a little crude. So help us out by leaving a comment below!

Cheers,
Robin

2:39:35

The magic number for the next twelve weeks will be 2:39:35. That is the slowest time the ten miler was completed in for the 2009 race. I REFUSE to go any slower than that. No... I take that back, I REFUSE to not finish. I don't care how my cream filled innards have to move to get over that finish line it has to happen. An added bonus would be not being last. Eeeembarassing!

So... end of '09 recap.

Birthday- 2 feet of snow. Thanks mother nature. New camera equipment. Thanks Jeff!

Christmas- So fun! We survived the first married Christmas and got to spend it with both my family and Jeff's family.

New Years- May or may not have fallen asleep around 11:00. Jeff says he kissed me at midnight. I don't think that counts as consensual. Just saying...

Brad and Katie's Wedding- Jeff looked adorable in his tux! For some reason this wedding brought back BIG time memories of our wedding- which was almost a year ago. This was good and bad. I have now had 3 (count them - 3) dreams about doing my wedding over. In the dream I am actually knowingly doing my wedding over again. This last time was because I wanted to wear my hair down. And I wondered why there were only 10 dream people at the THIRD one... Even my dream guests are sick of me.

ANY way.

We have twelve weeks until the 10 miler! I say "we" because my sister and I are recruiting like mad! So far I have recruited every smoker and person on crutches I can find to join us at the race. I did mention I was trying to NOT come in last, right?

Over the holidays Lauren and I slacked off of our strict training schedule. Lauren was hellaciously sick with something we decided to call the Shark Flu. Yeah, its time to pick on another animal. While Lauren was sick I was... stuck in the snow? Traveling? Making up excuses not to run? Yeah, the last one.

The funny thing is is that I did not run for 10 days and I felt like I had been sitting on my tush eating twinkies, watching a TV show of other people eating twinkies for a month and a half. So in reality, we did not slack too bad, but boy did I feel it today! I am glad to be back and focused on 2:39:35.

Allow me to leave you with this one bit of advice. NEVER run in boy shorts. Ther gon gitcha.

Lemon out.