Bloggers block.  67 days til' the half marathon.  Endorphins
a bit on under drive. Forgotten keys one day and phone the next at the office.  Computer mouse ‘freezing’ on/off all
day.  Tuesday’s running workout delayed until late afternoon (argh!). What’s going on? 

Well yesterday SuzeB told EndorphinGirl™ that Mercury is in retrograde.  Ah, that so must be it.  At least it seems to explain the reason for the forgetting part and yeah the bloggers block too, hmm and maybe even the frozen mouse. Although that’s a bit counter because THEY say (whoever they are) that when Mercury is in retrograde one’s intuition becomes stronger and coincidences can be extraordinary.  Perhaps that is sort of true because EndorphinGirl™ knew she was going to forget her keys at the office!  And it is winter so a frozen mouse is not unusual! (Chuckle!)

Bloggers block or not, the blog must be written.  Don’t worry she is not going to spend the entire blog blogging about Mercury in retrograde, but she may or may not address that situation again.  Instead today’s topic will focus on EndorphinGirl™’s marathon training progress.  Well it is only 67 days til the day!  And despite all of the above situations noted in paragraph one, she needs to keep progressing in her quest to complete the half marathon in May. (Yes May 2013!)  So even if she didn’t get a chance to do her running til late afternoon, it too must get done.  Her mantra today was borrowed from Nike ‘Just do it!’ ‘Just do it!’ ‘Just do it!’ And she did.  She fought back against Mercury, who was kicking butt there for a little while (remember paragraph one) and she just did it. Painful or not!

So what did she do?  Okay so here’s the blog - progress is being made.  Not only progress but also some serious milestones.  As some bloggees may recall, EndorphinGirl™ loves to exercise, especially outdoors.  However, running is not her favorite pastime.  Yet in the recent week she’s been averaging 4 miles a run.  In fact today she put some good tunes on the iPod, and really got those retrograde endorphins moving.  Okay are you ready for this – she ran 48 minutes on the treadmill.  This is huge.  Like really huge.  She went over the 4 mile mark.  That finish line, you know at the 13.1 miles point (otherwise stated 21.0824 kilometers which frankly sounds better) is in sight.  And she ran on the treadmill no less, which is her less favorite running spot.  [Oh, by the way, her daughter’s tip helped with reaching this milestone too - "cover the clock on the treadmill, try not to check it and crank the music."  EndorphinGirl™ managed to NOT look at the clock for 43 minutes because she was listening to some cranked music!]

Now for those who are serious runners, perhaps the 4+ miles is not so big a deal.  But think about it.  For someone whose exercise happiness does not entirely center on running long distances - running this distance while Mercury is in retrograde was pretty cool!  Right back at you Mercuy she thought and kicked Mercury’s butt in return!

Okay so what else?  Yeah, EndorphinGirl™ is sort of on the fence as to whether she sticks with addressing the distance of the marathon in miles or kilometers.  The former number 13.1 is big enough and the latter number 21.0824 can be exhausting to think about.  So what she is likely going to do is use the bigger number once the half marathon is over.  Okay okay maybe this is just a maybe idea!  :)

In case you are wondering how the @asics are faring in the running training, especially at that awesome 4+ mile distance,
well read on.  Honestly, the shoes have certainly fixed the talipes cavus (remember HS Latin!) but now the metatarsalgia have been a bit tender after a long run.  Okay, you must be saying enough with the Latin – yes metatarsalgia = balls of feet – yes in Latin.  Joking aside, the 'mets' are a bit tender.  So EndorphinGirl™ has had to do the serious Epsom salt soak after each run.  This helps. 

So as far as the @ascis, the overall rating is pretty good, but to be fully rated after the 21.0824 kilometers run.  Oh scratch that she meant to say after the 13.1 miles run.  And given some reference to Nike above she may 'just do it' and check out Nike shoes for talipes cavus metatarsalgia runners!

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Today's image will further solidy Mercury's retrogade.  It is the 'biggest' EndorphinGirl™ image drawn yet, even the dumbbells she is holding are large.  Coincidence?  Perhaps?  But it seems even EndorphinGirl™'s Artist(son) was affected by Mecury because without any prompting he made a bigger-than-her- typical-self version of EndorphinGirl™.  Just sayin'.

Until next time, watch out for Mercury and keep on endorphin!

EndorphinGirl™

                                                                    [Countdown: 67 days]