Truck is Running I am NOT!

I think I have been out to kill myself this weekend. I ended up out late with dinner and a movie Friday night. That put me a bit down to start the weekend. As I tossed and turned that night I kept hearing the house creak with the high wind gust in the early morning hours. I thought to myself I am going to just sleep in. Well 7:45am I woke and thought I can’t do this I need a run so I hurried and got ready to run. OKAY HERE you go Ney me in tights, I hope no one gets sick looking at this.

I met the group which consisted of 11 people all high end marathons runners. We headed out and I was on pace with them for a while but then started dropping off. I ended up with one guy and ran together for a while. A while meaning till mile 10 at which point I was beginning to hurt and told him to take off and get a good finish. He did and left me at that point. I am now the last person in the group out there just trying to get back. I ended up with again 13.1 miles and in this case the fastest time of the year. I was hurting.

I got home and showered, changed and headed to my parents. My brother in law was coming to town to help me with my truck. We started working on the truck around noon on Saturday and did not stop until after 10 pm. By the time I drove home, showered and cleaned up it was midnight when I crawled, yes crawled to bed almost in tears. With the run and working that hard on my truck my legs, arms, chest, etc all hurt and ached. I could not even lay on my side as my legs touching were in pain. The night sucked as I was either waking up due to the pain in my body for over tired or I was coughing. Yes I have worn myself down enough I was now fighting a cough again. 


I could hardly sleep and got up about 8 and came down to lie on the couch and watch some TV. I was barely there a half hour and my mom called. She said where are you? Your brother in law is here and ready to finish the truck. I quickly changed, picked up a few more parts and headed again to my parents to work on my truck some more. We worked on the truck and when ready we hit the key, VROOM it came to life so pretty it was amazing. I now have my truck back in the garage and I am driving it again. It has the following, Rebuilt Transmission with Corvette Shift Kit, New Starter, water pump, battery, cables, seals, and of course the new ENGINE. YES I might be a nerd but I have other talents also as you can see. Mostly the desire to save money and the ability to fix things that I tear apart. 

I came home been to softball practice, and then met a friend at a health club and played some 2 on 2 basketball for an hour. I think my body is now yelling at me as my legs are hurting, I am feeling week, I am coughing and generally wiped out. SO now my dilemma? DO I go play another couple hours of basketball tonight? HMMM I have a couple hours to recoup yet before I have to decide.

Truck Update

When my engine went I thought it was the transmission breaking. I had been babying it for over a year. Sometimes it would slip and or yank when shifting. I have been waiting to spend the $1800 to have it rebuilt till it broke for good.

I did some talking this week to a friend and it got me thinking. He got me thinking and we did a bit of calling around. Well it would cost me $1000 to have the transmission rebuilt if I brought it in. So I could save $800 by taking it in and out myself. Again here I go again. So yesterday I ended up spending 3 hours taking out the transmission, transfer case, cross members in the frame and all drive lines.

The transmission will be rebuilt this next week with all new parts and a corvette shift kit. Today I pushed the truck out and sprayed everything I could reach with degreaser. It soaked for half an hour and then I used a power washer to spray and wash the whole engine compartment. I then laid down on the ground and sprayed up under the truck the best I could. I was very happy with how much grease and grime I got out of the truck. In the pictures the first is a picture un-cleaned and the front differential is black. In the second you can see it is aluminum colored now that it is cleaned.

Running Thoughts

I been emailing with a friend and thought I would post the reply I sent her. This way a few others that are runners will see this and maybe be inspired also such as Ridiculous Chick, and TB

It is a special engagement movie so you might have to drive to it. :( Stinks but I think you will think it is worth it. Here is a hint. When the credits start rolling though DO NOT leave. After the credits there is more movie and insight with the runners and what they have done after the marathon. When I went most of the theatre left but we were in a group and sitting and chatting an WOW more movie came on. The 26.2 miles of hell is hard and damn it I am starting to think of another one. It is an awesome way to test your body and your mind.

There is ABSOLUTLY nothing wrong with running a 12:50 pace. In the movie one guy ran that pace for the marathon. Guess what it was like his 5th marathon and he loved doing it just to prove he could, and the shirt :). Your speed can be changed with the right training, such as intervals, and farklets. Search on those and if you do them beware they SUCK but do increase your speed. As for me my current pace came fairly natural over time as my lungs and muscles increased. I currently hold around an 8:30 pace most times. I have held 6:47 pace for a 5k and my marathon with 9 miles of walking ended up at 11:50 pace.

I had flirted with running for over 10 years. I found myself at an age of under 30 breathing hard to walk into work. So I began running .5 then 1 mile a couple times a week. Worked up to a couple miles then would quit. Then pick it up again just to quit again. I had done a 10k in those years and it hurt and I quit. Well then 4 years ago decided that my son wanted to run a 10k so we trained together. During that time I met a young gal that was a temp at the hell hole Addroc. She kept emailing me to come run with her and her group she was starting. I eventually started running again and when I got to 3 miles, felt ok, I went and joined her group. The first day it was me and 17 women. :) I met and became friends with a couple of them that I still run with weekly today. They ran slow with me and kept encouraging me along. Today I run with them and others. PACE does not matter. I run with a guy that can put up under 3 hour marathons now. When he is with me he is encouraging and out for a walk but the people you meet are what it is about.

You might live in a small community and can't Google and find a group. The groups I belong to don't really have any web presence. Here is where I connect with them. One is at a local health club and the other runs out of a local running attire store. So if your looking for a group to run with go to those places and ask if there are any people that meet there to run on a weekly basis. They will be glad to hook you up with people that like to run. We encourange and it is always a blast to meet someone new when they show up at the group. GUESS what new stories to learn. :)

Also do not worry about starting with a group and then being gone for a bit. Go make the contacts and then when you get back home join back up again.

KEEP RUNNING