last-minute training for my first half marathon

Last winter my husband said we should do a half marathon this summer.  Sure, I said, it was months away, I had plenty of time to prepare.  Well, now it's just a couple weeks away, and I'm trying to do whatever I can to get ready.  My goal?  Just finish the thing.

I have been trying to incorporate the recommendations from Chi Running, and I'm really pleased with the effects so far.  I need to go back through and do the actual lessons, but little changes are even helping.  Running is easier, and my body isn't falling apart on me.

A few days ago I ran 90 minutes and felt pretty good.  I focused on keeping my lower abs working and keeping my elbows from swinging in front of my body.  This helped my posture and I believe it also helped make breathing easier.

legs up the wall pose

Then after my run I dunked myself in a cold bath (which I could only tolerate for a minute) and then later 15 minutes of legs-up-the-wall pose.  Recovery seemed good and quick, and that's awesome.  Planning for my next long run on Sunday, if I can muster it.  I want to work up to running 2.5 hours.

Making hydrangea blooms blue

I love hydrangeas.  Yes, they're old-fashioned (which perhaps is a bad thing to some folks) but I find them beautiful.  When we bought our house 4 years ago, there was a large mophead hydrangea bush in front of the house.  It wasn't in great shape, crowded out by overgrown junipers, and it bloomed in pepto-bismol pink.  I don't like pink, and I don't like pink flowers.  But as I said, I love hydrangeas.

So I got rid of the nasty junipers and added 5 more "Endless Summer" hydrangeas.  These are mopheads that flower blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline soil.  All that pink made it clear what I was dealing with.

I tried to be patient about this, adding pine needles as mulch and a bit of aluminum sulfate a couple times each year.  I don't like going crazy with chemical amendments.  And now, my patience has paid off.  Approximately ten percent of the blooms are purplish, but the rest are blue.  Yay!