8 Days Later,

and I've only had one solid nights sleep, a couple of "better" but still kind of restless nights, and the rest more mid-sleep insomnia. On to Lunesta. I'm not thrilled, but I'm so exhausted, I'm in no position to argue. I'd do just about anything for my old 7.5 hours, two nights in a row.

I need a plan.

I've been in survival mode for so long now, I'm not sure where to start. First, I think, is getting a solid week of sleep under my belt. Second, get back to logging my food, no matter *what* I eat. Third, start moving regularly again. This week is the last week of my Q1 Training Plan. I'm not really capable of jumping in and doing it all with such a long slack period, but I can try to do something, every day of the schedule. Fourth, I have to bear down and *prepare.* I have a half marathon in about 9 weeks, and I am so so so *so* not ready. But maybe I can pull it out.

Chi Running!

Despite only 4 hours of sleep last night (back to the Ambien, for sure), I made it out to the New England Multisport Expo for a 2-hour Chi Running training clinic this morning. The short version: having someone actually demonstrate the technique, and then help you position your body, is really essential to getting this. I've tried figuring out from reading the book, and I wasn't even close -- although I was at least conversant with some of the concepts. The leader, a NH certified Chi Running instructor from TriTek, is one of those guys who looks like he runs effortlessly, floating over the ground. He had awesome legs, too! His two assistants were also terrific, and I really enjoyed the class. I'm seriously considering signing up for one of their full day clinics next month.

My own notes, as to the steps to find the proper position and technique:

Open chest, under collarbone.
Pelvic tilt in and up.
Move hips back.
Align - ear/shoulder/hip/ankle.
Soften knees.
Lean from ankles.
Roll heels up, place feet gently down.
Lean into the stride and run.
Before shifting gears, re-check alignment.

Seven hours!

10:30-5:30. I would have preferred to sleep longer, but it was solid, uninterrupted sleep for SEVEN hours.

I want to cry, I'm so happy.

Now, the trick is to do it again. Tonight. With*out* the ambien. Cross your fingers, chickens :-)

Off to breakfast and the never ending search for the "little black dress" for tonight's party for yet another TBTSNBN. I hope I will even get in a run, too!

Mourning Doves cooing around the open bedroom window this morning.

'Vertible top *down* on the way to work.

Bright sunny skies.

And I slept! Not entirely through the night, I tossed and turned, but I didn't wake up to full consciousness. Cross your fingers gang, this might be helping.

Maybe I'll even be rested enough to go for a run tomorrow. I hope so!

The Vernal Equinox

So caught up in my exhaustion, that I missed blogging about one of my favorite days! Thanks for the reminder,Tink, and good luck to you at IMAZ, you're going to ROCK!!!

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

Robert Frost (1874–1963)Two Tramps in Mud Time (1936)

ARNICA / ABSOLUTION / AMBIEN

(Poetry by Miranda Field)


No mortal ever learns to go to sleep definitively. No baby, animal or
vegetable, intends to sink his vehicle in so soundless a lake. In such
cloudy houses, shadows take the shape of something "put to sleep." Any
oblivion is a field or maze a creature grazes in for private reasons. The
edible flower taken from its bed to the table expires on your tongue, and
this is what we mean by sense of night and utterly internal to itself.

To go to sleep, I think of the bodies in their reservoirs, painstakingly
changing from opaque to phosphorescent. How all the while distracted
Nature pours a perfect solvent on their experiment. I take a half-pill, a
paradigm ignites, a moving sign in rain. I take a whole, the flame grows
lower. One and a quarter, it’s just a flicker. No sense asking who I am
then. Swinging from its dead twig in a bush, the aura-like cocoon, lit up
by winter sun— the least of its worries the worm.


My sleep issues have gotten worse, if you can believe it. I walked out of the Doc's office this evening with a script for Ambien. I hope it does its thing, and I can re-set my internal sleep clock. Wish me luck, if I don't start getting some complete sleep soon, I don't know what's going to happen to my training plan and goals for the year. It is virtually impossible for me to get up and out, when I haven't slept well.

More yummy veg cooking!

Sweet Potato Curry

Ingredients:

1 can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 small or 1 big sweet potato cubed (I pre-baked mine a bit for sweeter flavor)
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
any other root vegetables, chopped (I added a carrot and part of a turnip)
soy or fish sauce (to taste)
cooking oil

Warm up some cooking oil in a pot, cook onion until softened. Add garlic and curry and stir for 2 minutes. Throw in the rest of the vegetables and stir until coated. Add the coconut milk and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. Season with soy/fish sauce. Serve over rice (I like brown basmati).


NB: This is even better on subsequent days. Yum, yum, yum, like comfort soul food, with an Asian splash. Who needs those awful marchmellows and loads of butter and sugar in their sweets, this is FABU!

Dinner Last Night, or, Mojo Part Deux

My sister sent me the following email, titled "Dinner Last Night"

Jxxxxx: "Where is Auntie going to sit when she gets home?"

I just adore my big boy :-)

Mojo?

A weekend with *the* boys;

A really good feeling yet hilly long run Saturday morning;

A new yoga studio;

A warmish late winter day.

*Maybe* its back. Shhhhhhh, don't scare it :-)

Rabbit!

I am so so SO glad February is over. Hopefully March brings sweeter days, sweeter temps, and maybe I'll finally find my mojo again.