Insert Clever Title Here

I kinda spazzed out last night at kickball. There were a few things working against me:

• New medication
• I woke up early yesterday to get in a 5 mile run, since I wasn't certain kickball was going to happen (we've been rained out 80% of the time this season). The rain did not work in my favor this time, however. 
• We had a double header... against the same team, who is pretty good
• Our (2) games didn't start until 8:30 pm... and usually I'm in bed and winding down around 9:15pm, so I really didn't want to be there

It doesn't help that every week, we're always fighting to get enough women to play on our team. We always barely eek by with the required 5 minimum, which means that every single one of us is playing the field every single inning, while the guys get to rotate in and out, and the ladies never get a break. Don't get me wrong, I like to play, but I think I'm going to need to take the next season off to really focus on half marathon training. I'll try to find someone to replace me as short stop.

Running went well yesterday.

No it didn't. It went more like this:

Minus the whole stripping part.

I did find this article about running form interesting. It appears my natural stride is what's going to be most efficient for me after all, and I don't really need to give it much further thought.

Weird dreams continue. Last night, there were a few different ones, but the one that stands out most vividly right now involves me being part of a focus group at work reviewing new commercials where we fired the guy who has been acting as our spokesperson over the last few years... and replaced him with an animated version of him and used his voice. Pretty sure we can't do that. Also, the commercials were nonsense.

I'm so tired today. Here's to a much-earned rest day.

Nature Show

Well, I may not be getting any faster during my weekly runs around the lake, but I can't say I'm not enjoying myself. It just makes me so happy to see nature at work in the wee hours before I have to log into my computer to do my own work. Things seen today include:

• The otter! Like I said before, who can be sure if it's the same one my husband and I captured in this video, but I saw this guy swimming around today in roughly the same place with every lap I made around the lake. 
• Snail murder. I saw a stork-like bird carrying a giant snail in his long slender bill and wondered exactly what he planned to do with it. The thing was way too big for him to swallow whole. I didn't have to wait long, though, as he put it down on the ground upside-down, raised his head high, then slammed his giant knife of a beak right into the fleshy part of the snail. It was quite barbaric, and I didn't stick around to see the rest of the show. 
• A lady walking her cat... that was NOT the same lady and same cat that I usually see walking around the lake! Ok, much like the other lady, this one was actually walking her dog and was being followed closely by a small black and white tuxedo cat. I'm flabbergasted that more than one person has trained her cat to obediently follow her AND the cat's mortal enemy. I think if I were to take Kirbi on a walk with Joey, I'd never see her again. I might be ok with that.
• And - of course - more baby animals. It's baby duck season around the lake and I just melt when I see tiny fluffy little ducklings. Today, I saw baby birds of a different type - it's hard to tell from the photo below, but Mom is on the right and has a red bill. Her chicks are fluffy and are pretty much all legs.  

Alright, I know I need to start giving more substantial posts besides "Things Seen While Running," but I can't help it. I just want to let everyone know how much fun I'm actually having while running these days, which is a far cry from where I was last year while training for the Star Wars and Avenger Half Marathons. I say this now because I'm not feeling a ton of pressure, although I'm not sure why as I only have five months until the St. Pete Run Fest. I think I'm just not that committed to sub 2 anymore. 

Anyway, this wasn't the post I intended to publish today. Last night was monthly massage night, and I've got another great story to share about it. No, nothing will ever be as epically awful as this particular massage I wrote about last year, but this one was definitely... out there. I'll publish that one tomorrow. 

But tonight was supposed to be Kickball night and - just like last week - I saw thunderstorms in the forecast and decided to tempt fate by going for a morning run just in case the game was canceled. And I was right yet again! Tomorrow morning, I'm heading back to the gym for arm day. Hopefully my kickball skills aren't deteriorating too rapidly with all of this bad weather we're having. 

Ninja Turtle

I probably shouldn't have gone running this morning. The odds were against me having a good run for a few reasons:

• Yesterday was "Leg Day" at the gym. I usually don't work out at night, but I had to yesterday because I had a dentist appointment at 8am, which wasn't going to leave me with enough time to do my workout and get a shower in. I don't think I'm doing my leg workouts hard enough, though, because my legs felt just as fresh as any other day when I woke up this morning.
• The weather hasn't been all that great here in "sunny" Florida. Rain ruined my weekend Disney plans, and it's continuing through this week. However, my weather app told me that rain was only a 35% probability between 6 and 10 am today, so I decided to take my chances. The humidity was pretty awful, though. 
• Tuesday nights is typically kickball nights... and this week, my team was scheduled for a doubleheader. So normally, I wouldn't workout on a Tuesday morning because I've gotta be fresh to kick some balls.Yet with the rain in the forecast, I decided to take the risk and go for a run in the hopes that the games would be canceled (and, lucky for me, they were! I'd be pretty useless to the team tonight if they hadn't been).  

Despite having just worked out last night, fighting humidity, and being anxious about kickball tonight, I had a pretty decent run! My Mizunos are working out really well. And I got to see some cool things at the lake:

• I'm pretty sure this turtle I found could out-run me. 
• Remember when I saw a lady walking her cat? I think I ran into her husband, who was also walking a dog and was closely followed by the same cat. I will try to get some video of this next time because it's absolutely hilarious and adorable. 
• Speaking of video, I also saw an otter! My husband captured video of this otter (or maybe it was his brother/mother/cousin... not sure how many otters live in this urban lake in Florida, but methinks it can't be that many...) on his cell phone two weeks ago when we went for a walk. I caught a really quick glimpse of this one swimming today, too quick to get another video. But if I can get my husband to post his otter video to YouTube today, I'll link to it here.

UPDATE: Here he is :)

I'm glad I'm back on a morning workout schedule for the rest of the week now and will head back to the gym for "Arm Day" tomorrow. I know it's Global Running Day tomorrow, but it's going to be raining here and I don't think it's wise for me to have back-to-back running days just yet. It's a bit too early in my half marathon training. 

I may be overdue for a rest day, but there's no such thing as a true "rest day" on the Whole Life Challenge - you have to do at least 10 minutes of exercise every day. I've been sprinkling in walking as active rest in order to get my points for the WLC.

If you're also doing the WLC, leave a comment and let me know how you are handling rest days. Are you active? Or are you just sacrificing points? I'd also love to hear how everyone is celebrating Global Running Day too!

Balls

Before I jump into my kickball update, I wanted to remind you that I'm featuring a giveaway to win a digital kitchen scale. You can enter to win on my giveaways page.

Last winter, I joined my neighborhood's kickball team. We play in a co-ed community league on Tuesday nights, and I'd say we're pretty decent. We ended the season in second place out of four teams but got booted out early in the playoffs, so we decided we needed to form a summer team to earn redemption. I agreed to come back to the team since I'm not fully in my half-marathon training regimen yet, so I'm not worried about depleting my fitness bank right now. Fall may be a different story though - I'll be 100% focused on running.

We had a good time last winter, but there was one team who really made the game... less fun. While I certainly can appreciate anybody who displays a competitive attitude and a desire to win, they took it to an extreme level. Arguing about the rules with us. Giving the ref a hard time. Not laughing at my self-deprecating jokes. It got to the point where I actually dreaded playing them, which was every three weeks since it was a small league. It wasn't just our team who felt that way - we'd run into members of the other two nicer teams in the league, who'd ask us to "give 'em hell."

They kind of remind me of these guys:

The mean team *almost* went undefeated during the season (they lost twice, once to us and once to another team), and they did end up walking away with the trophy at the end, so I suppose their style of "play" works. But I don't know, it's adult co-ed kickball. S'posed to be fun.

So when I got the summer league schedule, my stomach dropped when I saw that the mean team was returning - and we'd be playing them in the first game.

Tuesday night was our first match, and I was hoping I was going to be able to walk away from the game saying I was pleasantly surprised by their behavior. Especially because we recruited new members to the team, and I didn't want their first experience at kickball to set the tone for the rest of the season.

But no. It turns out that their team hates playing us just as much as we hate playing them, and they pulled out all the stops. Dropping foul language. Standing in the baseline so that our runners couldn't get to base on time (and I'm not sure how the ref missed calling them on these occasions). Even after the game was over (which they won), they actually pulled the ref aside to complain about US.

When my husband, who happens to be the coach of our team, saw this behavior, he marched right over to the two mean teamers yelling at the ref and asked to speak with them personally. When I saw what he was doing, I went over to back him up. Even though I came into the middle of the conversation, I could see his old Resident Assistant "let's talk about our feelings, let's not resort to five-year-old behavior,  and let's use 'I' statements so we can resolve this as adults" personality at play.

God, I love him.

The mean teamers weren't having it, though. Seriously, I've seen drunken college students respond better to confrontation then these "adults."

For example, Ben tried to explain to one particular mean teamer how his aggressive behavior had actually made Ben uncomfortable at one point - to which the mean teamer's girlfriend replied "We're not here for your comfort." Wow.

But - in between petulant outbursts - I did understand that they were angry at one of our own teammates, who apparently trash-talks his way throughout the game to other players and also argues about the rules when it isn't necessary.

Although I've never heard or seen him do the things they were accusing him of, I don't discount their objections. He's the most intense player on our team. In fact, had I not known him BEFORE we played kickball together, I might have assumed he was one of the Mean Teamers. It's unfortunate, though, because outside of kickball, he's an absolute teddy bear. He was one of my first friends in the new neighborhood, super welcoming. Loves kittens. Volunteers his time at charitable events either playing a pirate, an executioner, or Lord Voldemort. His wife is one of my favorite people, too. I probably would have been too intimidated by him to become his friend if my only exposure to him was at kickball. Just goes to show, you always gotta put your best foot forward, especially around people who don't know you.

So we agreed we'd have a sit-down with our rogue teammate, and they agreed they'd also try to come to our next game more peaceably. I think their attitudes towards Ben and me clearly demonstrate that it's too late to sit down over a beer with everyone and put the past behind us, but hopefully we won't have to deal with this every time we play them in the future.

Besides, it's definitely too late for me to do anything over a beer because the Whole Life Challenge starts up this weekend.