My Waterloo

Good and bad yesterday, good and bad...

The Bad
Yesterday morning's long was an awful, icky, horrible run, in a place where Betty and I usually have wonderful, fun, easy runs...East Mission Bay Park where there's a flat path that goes to Crown Point on Mission Bay and back (7-ish miles on the path). I thought I'd run the path, and then a couple of miles farther, through some of the residential area, which would include one small hill, and then back. The bay is a great place to run. Usually, there's usually a cooling breeze and lots of pretty things to see (the bay, the boats, the boys) and interesting people to watch (the tourists).

My goal was to run for about 90 minutes. Given my times for the last few runs, and that we were running on the path at Mission Bay, I figured I'd be running about 9 to 10 miles.

So, how'd I do? 7.82 miles in 1:36:52 (12:23 pace), which included a potty-stop (coulda used two) and several walking/water breaks... Ewwwwww.

Here's my list of lame excuses...

1. It was humid -- This is a really lame excuse...we ran at 7:30am...62º, 78% humidity... which IS humid, but COME ON...62º? I should have no weather complaints...Gah!
2. I was tired -- I had one of those nights where I woke up every other hour or so, wondering if it was time to get up yet.
3. I had a funky-tummy -- Turbo and DramaGirl spent the night at the cousin's house, so Walter and I went out to dinner at Indigo Grill...really amazing food. We split some ceviche, a grilled romaine appetizer...I mean, who ever thought to grill lettuce? But it was amazingly good...and we split an equally good pork-porterhouse which included some fabulous onion rings, something mashed and some grilled/spicy oranges. Since we split everything, it shouldn't have been too much food, but these are clearly not foods I'm used to eating everyday...oh yeah, I had two glasses of wine...which also goes to explain #2 and which resulted in the need for potty-breaks throughout the run.
   
4. I'd run pretty hard on Sunday -- This too, is really lame because at no time yesterday did my legs feel tired...it was all mental. I thought I was going to have a lousy run due to 2 and 3, so I did.

Ah well...I'm going to take today off from running. I've run four of the last five days...that's a lot for me. A day off will do me good. I think I'll do some yoga and strength conditioning with the WiiFit and the free weights in the garage (since Walter cleaned the garage out last weekend, and now I can get to the weights).

The Good
Got this email from Momma this weekend...

Hey Herd,

How fun would this be???? Mamma Mia is showing a sing-a-long version. I know, how cool!!!!

Wouldn't it be fun to go as a herd and sing our way through? So, if you're game...

Monday matinee at Grossmont Center
1:00 (it's bargain hour too!)

Meet out front at 12:45??????
Who's with me?

Momma

Not a big ABBA fan. But an afternoon with the herd is always fun, so I took DramaGirl and we went to the sing-along. The lyrics to the Abba songs are subtitled, which enabled me to sing along...because really...who knows ALL the words to ABBA songs? I know, "Mamma mia....blah, blah, blah, blah." I always thought that "Dancing Queen" included the lyrics "You can Dance/You can fly..." Did you know that it's "You can jive" which I guess makes more sense, but seriously...JIVE????

Some highlights...

1. The movie crowd consisted of a maybe 100 women and two men. What does that tell you?
2. 20 minutes (I exaggerate NOT) included a preview of HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC 3...Oh JOY!
3. As the subtitles appeared for the first song, D1 (Betty's daughter), noted that she had a Disney movie at home with a bouncing ball that had words too.
   
4. The lyrics to most, if not all, of ABBA's songs are way more perv-y and sexual than I ever knew. "Does your Mother Know" is all about flirting with an underage boy. In the opening song, Amanda Seyfried is singing about finding out who her FATHER is, and is singing the song "Honey, Honey" which includes the line "...and now I know what they mean, you're a love machine," which is a little, shall we say, ODD.
   
5. Daisy and Momma know ALL the lyrics to all the songs...Me? I was reading the whole time.
6. Really? They worked a song called "Super Trouper" into the musical, but couldn't work in "Waterloo?"
7. Betty and I were wonderful back-up singers on "Super Trouper" (Su-u-u-per Trou-u-u-per) and another song were she kept hitting my knee, so that I'd know when to sing "uh huh."
8. In one number Christine Baranski and Julie Walters use vibrators as microphones...not sure how I'm going to explain that one to DramaGirl if she ever asks (I'm praying she doesn't...but if she does, I'm sending her to Momma to explain)
9. DramaGirl told me afterward she was happy to not be sitting next to me during the movie because she could hear us singing and thought it was funny, but embarrassing.
10. Pierce Brosnan really CANNOT sing.
    

It was, however, an awesome way to spend the afternoon. There's a rumor of going again, and I would since now I know some of the lyrics and could really belt-it-out, but I think I'll have a cocktail or two beforehand next time. It'll help me sing...really...