Running

Who would have thought?

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is part 2 of 8 of a multiweek by Solid Savings">study of the cat art of Pierre Bonnard, a French painter (1867-1947). In this series I will feature Bonnard's cat art both before and after this painting, which is one of his better known pieces.This image is the second of two published by Zuffi, and dates from 1912: Image credit National Gallery of Australia, Woman With a Cat, Pierre Bonnard, 1912, oil on canvas, 30" x 30", held by Musee d'Orsay, Paris, FranceZuffi comments:The twentieth century boasts, right from its start, a large number of great artists who sincerely loved cats, but perhaps none had as much sensitivity and discretion as Bonnard. For the French master, a delicate artist who took his cue from Impressionism, which he reinterpreted with lyrical intimacy, the cat is the animal to whom one confides the secrets of the heart: the cat is not a mysterious symbol or an elegant arabesque, nor a slightly disturbing presence, but a tender, discreet companion. This painting, which in its balanced simplicity is rightly considered one of the painter's masterpieces, offers a subtle psychological interpretation of the relationship between a solitary young woman and a cat that appears at her side like a mute witness to her inner secrets.Or in the case of one of our cats, a not-so-mute witness. Ca Beere is a talker, as well as being a "face kitty" (fascinated with your face), and is alone among our felines in liking to have her belly rubbed.Back to Bonnard--to me this painting is kinda haunting but in a non-threatening way. I wonder what the girl is thinking, what the cat is thinking, what their lives were like, and what is really happening in this image. The girl is looking straight out at the viewer, but the cat seems to be studying something off to its left.The National Gallery of Australia site points out the usage of both circular and angular lines, and comments that the ...angle of the cat’s body, straightened foreleg and flattened ears suggests an animation lacking in the stillness of the woman’s body. Her slight lean towards the table and her steadying hand suggest she is waiting for something to happen.So I guess that Bonnard succeeded in creating a lasting image that meaningfully persists in our world a hundred years later.

In just the first week of our move to Orlando we’ve already located and visited our nearest Urgent Care. We really like to get to know our city quickly, but I hope we don’t become regular patrons…I should have asked about a frequent visitor punch card. Our new place has required some handy man work by David, as it did not have a single light fixture. Now 90% of David’s tools are still in Kansas City with my parents so while I used a plastic knife to open all of our boxes, David has been using a box cutter to do pretty much everything. We’re like MacGyver and a toddler. I didn’t touch the box cutter because I KNEW it would result in me getting injured. I am injury averse. In fact, I have {knock on wood} never broken a bone and only had a couple of tiny stitches due to a knee surgery in high school. David on the other hand actually broke his arm as a child, but didn’t tell anyone for a WEEK, so that he could continue playing at the lake. I am not sure whether he’s brilliant or insane, but he got what he wanted. This is also to say that he can endure a lot of pain {hmm maybe why he runs faster?!} and rarely complains. Have I relayed the time where he nearly cut off his finger and left me a voicemail that calmly said “Honey, I’m in an ambulance, when you have a minute call me back.”?! Thus Saturday when he came hunched over to me as I was unpacking with the statement “this isn’t good”. I was concerned, but knew there were no electrical tools insight and everything still appeared fully in tact. He had however managed to slice his palm open with the box cutter. {you’re welcome that I did not take pictures} Next he actually called his mom {a nurse}. Seriously he called his mom, he hates the phone so much I often think they wonder if he knows how to use it. Yup this was serious. We waited another 6 hours before actually going to Urgent Care because who wants to see a doctor when you can bleed to death in your own home. Luckily the place here was clean, quiet and SUPER friendly so within just an hour he had 5 stitches and we were able to head back to our little abode with no light fixtures and no cable… when I said I wanted to simplify our home this wasn’t what I had in mind exactly. How many times have you had to get stitches? Broken bones? Do you handle pain well? ----------------------------------------------Gratitude JournalMay 18 I am grateful for all of the amazing women I am meeting this weekend and the support of David for me doing these crazy things.

A few weeks back I did a post I called "Dehydration: Think 7-Up, Not Mountain Dew" wherein the color of your urine during and after an athletic endeavor is probably the best clue to whether you are drinking enough fluids.A run earlier this week and daily life brought that home again, and I wanted to point out how dehydration is not always obvious in the sense of causation.That run was undertaken during cooler weather, so I had no particular impression of copious sweating. But when I got home my short, shoes and sox were all pretty damp.Clue 1 ignored.That morning I had run early and only had drunk a single cup of coffee prior to the run. Then afterwards I had another cup of coffee, not a big glass or two of water. Clues 2 and 3 ignored.Then I set out to working on some stone steps in a new flower bed (I'll post separately on that cool project, with photos, when it's done). At this point I did sweat a bit. Yet I still did not drink much.Clue 4 ignored.Gradually I felt a strong headache coming on. I went to the bathroom to pop some Ibuprofen and figured I might as well pee while I was there.Think Mountain Dew, not Seven Up--heavy yellow and not much volume.I finally realized that I was dehydrated, and it'd had been creeping and building up throughout the day. Not the result of a major athletic effort but more or less a cumulative result of not paying enough attention to the clues that were obvious. As an athlete I should have known better.

You’ve probably seen enough tweets and pictures now to know that this weekend is Blend 2013! I promise not to drive you crazy with posts, but had to give a quick shout out to Vega and Lock Laces…so many brands are providing great swag, but I’m working with these two to spread a little extra love this weekend.You know all about my love affair with Vega, so I promise not to rub it in repeatedly that we got more goodies this weekend and my belly is so happy. Of course this time I am able to share the love with all of the attendees and a fellow ambassador Heather! Even if you aren’t sure about using Vega, you gotta checkout the free Thrive Forward Sport Edition Videos. Tony Horton among other trainers and athletes in the videos provide helpful tips about the entire spectrum from endurance athletes to strength training. I believe my nutrition will always be in progress and I love these for keeping me excited about WHY! Lock Laces was a great sponsor for the Spring Challenge, sending a pair to every participant. Both David and I have been using them in all of our workout shoes since then and I am excited to not only test them out on hike, but get them in the hands of some other crazy workout women to see what they think . REMINDERSI’m also super excited to say, the Clean and Lean Challenge sign ups where blowing up, so I may have to cut off registration…don’t wait! This challenge is all about finding what works for you, in the meantime don’t forget to join the Under Armour Clean and Lean team to start getting feedback and motivation! Fingers crossed tomorrow I will be doing a 10 mile run at altitude…hope these ladies are strong enough to carry me back if I drop dead. ---------------------------------------------------Gratitude JournalMay 17I am grateful for sponsors who make it possible to keep following my passion and find out where it may lead.

I may have a problem. Or it could be that I'm cured. Puzzling either way.Today The Hub and I went for a walk at one of the malls considering it was kind of chilly outside. It was supposed to be a run day but I was being a cold weather wimp. Good long walk at Colorado Mills.The problem - we came across a huge discount shoe store yet I did not buy anything! This is still disturbing hours later. It's not that I didn't not see anything I liked. I browsed, tried on a few and left. No regrets.big hmph!Normally I would have spent much time in the store, experienced increased heart rate, maybe a little sweat and swiped that plastic sucker a few times and left with a few too many pairs. Maybe I'm getting senile or it's the running that's taken care of the jollies that used to come from hoarding shoes.Whatever. It turned out to be a good day anyway.Tomorrow I'll run in my old shoes.

My arms were powerless. My body hung squirming from the bar. There would be no more pull-ups today. Had the urge to rediscover the puke threshold sabotaged the rest of the workout? Or was it that these weeklong breaks between workouts keep forcing me to take a step back after a step forward? Maybe it was just the heat. Yesterday's visit to the Sand Run Parcours Trail occurred on Northeast Ohio's return to summery weather, with a temperature in the high 70s, which is probably the hottest it's been during a run this year. Can you say "sweaty mess"? I knew that you could. Although running the par course has become a weekly event this month, breaks of five or more days between runs remains a fairly regular thing, because obviously these short runs are really tiring. My own frustration over my lack of consistency sometimes causes me to do something really stupid like seeing if I can get myself to puke by starting off the workout in a near sprint. By the time I got to the pull-up bar, my body felt wobbly. It seems those prescribed walk breaks along the course help you recover from each exercise before getting to the next station. Furthermore, I had forgotten my watch, which I use to time my recovery between each rep at the pull-up bar, and I know I usually spend a good five minutes there. Instead I rushed myself and wasn't able to match my previous outings. My arms crapped out after six pull-ups. OK, maybe it was more like five and a half. By this time, sweat was spurting from my brow. My body sagged like it had a sad. My mind wandered to cope with the total bummer that were the remaining exercise stations. Do you know what this nice weather reminds me of doing? Running barefoot. I haven't done that in a really long time. Doing 10 push-ups felt the way it would if you were William "Refrigerator" Perry but had the arms of Kate Moss. Leg lifts seemed to be rupturing my quadriceps. Forget about not embarrassing myself on the balance beam. In the end, though, it was another course record, shaving a full three minutes off last time. Sadly, the puke threshold eluded me.

Adjusting the 100 day plan : Doc, I plan to run the NYC marathon in 2014 & the Yonkers 1/2 marathon in September of 2013. How can I use your plan to

All this week leading up to softball, I’ve been annoyingly bouncing around like a fool and counting down the days left until our first game. Normally on gchat to my friend Jon who is also the team coach. This is Jon, one of my closest friends and coach of our team I’m sure Jon wanted to wring my neck. Softball pretty much signals the start of summer for me, and it was so good to be back on our field playing under the lights last night. Most rec league sports teams in DC have to send an intern to squat on the Mall all day long to reserve a small patch of grass to be used as a field, but luckily, we have a permit for a real field down in Southwest that has lights for when they sun starts to set. We got to work pretty quickly putting a hurting on the other team. The final score was something like 16-3. Team mascot Marley watching from the sidelines I played a so-so game. My first at bat was awesome. Got a really solid hit – a two-run RBI single I believe. My second at bat was pathetic. I was getting annoyed at the pitcher’s inability to throw a hit-able ball and started swing half-heartedly at a lot of really, realllllly bad pitches. And third at bat I reached on a fielder’s choice. I pitched relief in the 6th inning and threw pretty well. Glad to see my pitching managed to not get rusty in the off-season. (Then again, it’s a slow-pitch league, pretty much just need to lob the ball over the plate.) And of course after the game, we headed over to the Tune Inn for our traditional post-game celebration. Our team Tune Inn jerseys So glad softball is here and thrilled summer is unofficially here too! The post Tune Inn Softball Season Opener appeared first on Jess Runs.

Mango Madness is the next race in the 2013 HURT Trail Run series. It is 10+ miles and travels through the mountains of the Tantalus trail system. The "plus" usually means there's a bit of 'madness' thrown in...a detour, a...