Have you been training?

I don't hide my so-called running. But I don't talk a lot about it either.

That said, more people in my crowd know about it, and they'll occasionally ask me about it in a group setting.

Someone mentioned something yesterday about the marathon coming up. One mom I don't know very well (who is trim and fit-looking and undoubtedly much faster than me) was surprised and said this: "Have you been training?" As if I'd be attempting a distance like that without training.

It's incidents like that that make me realize I'm not ready to go on maintenance yet. I'll probably never look gaunt like a serious runner. Nor do I necessarily want to be skinny-skinny. But I still feel the contempt from in-shape people who don't really know or understand. Of course, some people are just naturally contemptuous of others anyway. It's impossible to eliminate getting "attitude." And it really shouldn't matter anyway. When I get in my Zen places, it doesn't anyway.

Today's run: 45 minutes. No music. No measuring mileage. No walk breaks. Just getting out there.


Side effect of training and other busy-ness: I'm losing my reputation for quickly responding to people.

A friend asked me today if I were mad at her because I've been slower to respond to her emails. Of course not! I don't do that. I'm undoubtedly passive-aggressive in some ways I'm not self-aware enough to recognize -- but I don't do that. Some women (yes, it's invariably women) I know do. They try to tell you they're irritated with you by answering your emails less quickly or more briefly. It usually takes me a while to get that message. Because I Never Do That. The speed at which I respond to an email has absolutely nothing to do with my feelings toward the sender. It has to do with what's going on in my life or whether or not I'm near the computer. And how easy the question is to answer.

Maintaining

Tiffany says maybe I should just stay where I am rather than to get in fights with the scale.

She's probably right.

One of the great things about the eYou plan is that food loses its power to torture you. Or, rather, me. The worry is that focusing too much on losing now, when it's so darn difficult, will give food its power back. And I really don't want to do that.

At the same time, if I can lose more from around my middle, I probably should. It's not a healthy place to have fat accumulate. And it's, of course, where the vast majority of my excess remains.

I do have vain reasons for wanting to lose more from the middle. There are lots of nipped-in dresses I just can't wear. At the same time, I don't want my figure to look too comic-book, and that could happen as well.

Running: I'm doing a run during my son's baseball practice. I'll undoubtedly report on the oh-so-scintillating details of that after I actually do it.

Running update: I got some strange running in this afternoon and evening. It was about 45 minutes total -- in fits and spurts.

Speed up instead of slowing down

I got 40 minutes of running in today.

A new mental trick worked pretty well: Whenever I wanted to slow down to a walk, I sped up instead. Surprisingly, that worked pretty well.

Trader Joe's finds

1) Frozen pomegranate arils. No, they're not as good as the fresh ones, but they're certainly convenient. Even at $3.99 a bag, they're comparably priced to the fresh ones. So I can have my pomegranates out of season, if I want.

2) Almond butter with flax seeds. My 14-year-old has a life-threatening peanut allergy. In the last five years, he's has two emergency room trips while in the middle of anaphylaxis. During these episodes, his throat begins to close. Both times, the exposures happened at someone else's house; both times, I was also there, fortunately. Also, fortunately, these reactions take some time to develop, so we had plenty of time to get to the hospital and he never had to use his Epi-Pen. Each reaction was spurred by his accidentally consuming probably about 1/4 of a peanut. He's really good at avoiding exposures, but accidents can happen.

This almond butter is going to help us avoid any at-home accidents. My kids don't like most almond butter, but this is an exception.

Kings of Leon, Black-Eyed Peas

OK, after having confessed my bizarre and sporadic fondness for a terrible band like Nickelback, I know I have lost what little musical credibility I have.

But that's not going to stop me from spouting off more.

First, the Black-Eyed Peas. Oh, sure, they're fun in a really, really stupid way. But their ratio of garbage to decent songs is just too high. They have a couple of songs that I can tolerate; otherwise, I change them faster than Coldplay.

Now, the Kings of Leon. The first song I heard by them was the "Sex on Fire" single. Which is really interesting musically but sort of creepy and embarrassing for my adolescent children lyrically. So I dismissed them. "Use Somebody" didn't strike me as any better -- probably more mainstream and just as banal lyrically.

Then I found their back catalog.

Wow.

Now, I don't want to be one of those people who hates "new stuff" from a beloved band. But, since I didn't know them at all before the latest album, I don't think I'm one of those people.

Dancing in the car: My three youngest children have a new fixation on dancing in the car, hoping other drivers will notice. The 14-year-old sits, cringing in the front seat, and doesn't take part in the foolishness. Not surprisingly, it's generally just men who notice their silliness.

There's definitely something socialized into women where we just don't look around as much as men do. And, as I discovered, there are reasons for this. At the same time, I think it's unfortunate. We miss out, I think -- and not just from seeing my kids acting like goofs.

Shut up and run

I had big plans today -- 17 or 18 miles.

I went with a dear friend, who is faster than me.

But, I couldn't stop talking to her.

I don't normally talk when I run. I'm either alone. Or with people I don't really have that much to talk about. Nothing against them -- I just don't know them all that well. I have a natural reserve in those situations anyway. But this running buddy had me talking a lot -- there was a lot to talk about.

But the combination of going for a long time and talking while I was doing it was just too much.

So I lost it at mile 12 and walked the last two miles.

It was irritating. We weren't going that fast. I just have to shut up.

Kitchen: I'm on a new cleaning kick. My kitchen. It is immaculate right now. And it is going to stay that way.