The American Coot

Here's a drawing of an American Coot. It goes along with my current series of quickie illustrations of birds that I see and admire on the Bay Trail. 

These ones are definitely one of my favorites. They are really bizarre looking if you really pay attention to them. At first glance they look like regular ducks, but when you look closer you'll notice their fat, round, egg-shaped bodies, and tiny wings. Much like a kiwi bird. Their feet are ginormous and strange. They don't have webbed feet, but instead have these wacky flaps that act like webbed feet in the water, but like normal feet on land. 

I see them a lot on the bay trail. Mainly by Coyote point or by the little pond by the Embassy Suites in Burlingame. 

In other news, the weekend was great but I ended up eating something that set my stomach on a fiery fury. So much pain and fire that I even had to take part of the day off Monday, and even when I was working I had a hard time concentrating on anything BUT my burning stomach. I think the culprit was the raw onions I devoured for dinner. Sometimes raw onions and garlic wreak havoc on my system, but it seems to be Russian roulette, and hey...I REALLY love onions and garlic.  I need to ease off that though.

Yesterday's run was pretty rough. I did 6 miles, at an average of 10:27, so even with a rough run that is still way better than I could have dreamed of a month ago!! I just felt really drained, I hadn't eaten enough the past few days, and I feel like all my healing energy went to my stomach instead of my legs. They felt sooo heavy. 

Today's run was a bit of a turn around. I finally felt better this morning, and even though I had to wake up at 5am, my legs felt more energetic. I wasn't feeling AMAZING, so I figured I wouldn't be breaking records. Since I didn't think I would be breaking records, I decided to add a small 80 foot hill into my 10 mile run. By the end I started feeling very slow, but turns out that slow feeling to me now is a 10:30 min mile. :| Two months ago, this feeling was probably a 11:30/12 min mile. 

Today's Run

I guess I regret doing that hill now because my first 5 miles would have been under a 10 min mile, and I THINK I could have broken a 10k pr. I can't believe that I'm hitting actual miles under a 10 minute pace. I can't express how excited I am. 

Tomorrow I have an 8 miler, and it's going to be hills hills hills! I've also been doing some slow weights, maffetone style, to try to get some strength and muscle back that I may have lost. And by weights, I mean doing 5 squats and 5 deadlifts with my 18 and 26lb kettlebells whenever I cross by them. This way, I am never sore from them, but I am still doing a bit of strength work. I have to EASE into this, because I want to play it really safe before the race. Feeling good about my plan though!

My babies!

Anyway, I need to run (not literally) to work now, but I will be doing another post later this week! Stay tuned!