I'm baaaaaaack!

Seriously, everyone should just take the whole month of December off. It's so busy! How are we supposed to work AND do holiday stuff?!
Anyway, just because I haven't been writing, doesn't mean I haven't been running! Goodness, I'm impressing myself!
I have officially graduated from running on Orinda Circle to running on Cameron Park Drive! YAY! Orinda is too hilly, and not long enough. Cameron Park Drive is looooooong and straight.
Today was my first official day of tackling the long straight beast. Let me tell you, I'm proud of myself, but I have also never experienced pain like this before!! I made it about 3/4 of a mile. I think I could have gone further, but I've taken a few days off so my calves are kind of tight.
Running on a main street is much more entertaining than a side street. There are the usual honks and whistles, but also barking dogs in cars that fly past you on the road. Then, there are the random items you find on the side of said road.
I found 4 roadkills (said a prayer for each one), a mattress and a couple beer cans. Please note that I live in a pretty nice area of Cameron park. I didn't expect to find a mattress, and was tempted to sit down and take a breather! Just kidding. I don't need to contract any STD's from the side of the road.....
Of the aforementioned roadkill, one happened to be a poor little skunk. While my heart bleeds for these defenseless animals who didn't even have a chance, my nose wasn't so sympathetic. And of course, it was smack dab in the middle of the bike lane, where I was running. I smelled it before I saw it, so I waited for traffic to pass and made a WIDE circle around the poor thing to avoid any possibility of the smell following me home.
You know, humor aside, I really don't understand why there is so much roadkill. I ALWAYS brake for wildlife (and any moving thing for that matter). Are there really people out there who just don't care?? I can understand if it jumps out in front of you, but for those who don't even flinch their foot towards the brake, shame on you.

So I'm realizing I have a little over 3 weeks until the big race, and I'm not as prepared as I thought I would be by now. Darn those holidays!!! I'm hoping to kick it up a notch this month, becuase I really want to be able to at least jog the whole route of the race. I don't care if I place, or if I'm last. I just want to finish!
You know what else I want to be able to do? Meet my fund raising goal!!!! I've come up with a FAB idea, and I hope my fellow PETA Pack Members can do something similar.
I am hosting a Spaghetti Feed on January 17th at 12:00pm. The cost is $10 per person, a reasonable amount I think. There will be red sauce (meatless of course) and white sauce spaghetti, garlic bread and salad! I think it will be an amazing way to raise funds while having fun at the same time! So far I only have 4 confirmed guests, so I'm sending out invitations today. If you live in the Sacramento (or Bay area!) area, please email me if you would like to come!
Enough blabbing, I'm off to eat a post-run smashed white bean and avocado club sandwich! YUM!

And as always, please donate whatever you can using this page:
http://www.active.com/donate/PETAPack/jencar

Thanks guys!!!

Today's Run Playlist:
* Christina Aguilera's Greatest Hits Album "Keeps Gettin' Better"
(pretty much all the songs on the album will pump you up!)

Wow. It's been a while.

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in forever. Thanksgiving commanded all of my attention for an entire week, then I turned 24 on December 2 and had 2 days of partying! What a blast. But don't think I've been slacking! Ok, maybe just a little......
According to our training schedule for the PETA Pack, we are supposed to do a combination of running and "cross-training". Cross Training is basically anything that is not running, from my understanding of it. Apparently this gives you a "break" from screaming calves. My personal trainer read my blog and told me to do one less day of running, one more day of cross training per week due to my rebellious calves. Unfortunately, since my little Thanksgiving break, cross-training is pretty much all I've been doing. I've found myself so incredibly busy that I will say to myself "no worries, I'll run when I get home from doing xyz", however when I finally return home from xyz with all the crowds and the traffic, I am so exhausted that even thinking about running makes me want to crawl into bed.
However, I know I have to start again, and I plan to do that today. From now on, I will put my running days on my calendar, along with all of my holiday season engagements. Then they will have the same validity as my lunch with the mother in law. I wouldn't just flake out on lunch with the mother in law would I? well.....no, of course not!
In other news, the whole cross training business has been really confusing until now. When I asked our Coach and Personal Trainer for some ideas on what to do on those days, he mentioned yoga, weight lifting, and swimming. We have a pool, but it's December here in the foothills of California, and for those of you who don't know, that is the opposite of pool season. Next.
Yoga has always been an interest of mine. Ok, so maybe I took a class in college. Once. And got a D. But I enjoyed it! So I recorded "Pricilla's Yoga Stretches" on our tv, which involved a 60-something year old lady teaching "basic" yoga stretches. Easy enough. So i settled down on the floor in front of my tv, awaiting Pricilla's instructions. All I can tell you is that woman can contort her body in ways that no senior citizen should. My husband came home as I was attempting one of them, and burst out laughing. I was attempting what most school-aged children would call "the bridge". You lay on your back and using your hands and feet, contort yourself into a bridge with an arched back. This is much easier when you are 10. So I gave up after abour 15 minutes and decided Pricilla was too advanced for me. Next.
Finally, I found something I was good at. I've always known I was good at it. I can shake my booty with the best of them. So now, my cross training involves dancing. I put on a good song with a beat (mostly Pussycat Dolls, Britney or JT) and shake my booty for 20 minutes of cross training! It's good exercise and it's fun! I highly recommend it. Also a good excuse for goin' out on a Saturday night. "I have to get my exercise!"

So that's all the news on the exercise front. On the fund raising front, I am officially at 16% of my goal!!!! I couldn't be more excited! I have plans for a bake sale at some point, so if you are interested in helping with that, please let me know. Without further ado, I hereby announce with my extreme gratitude my contributors:

* Scott Browning: $11
* Beth Levinson: $150

I cannot begin to express how much this means to me. PETA is an organization very close to my heart. It has changed my life. I saw my first video about vivisection in 2007, and immediately stopped eating meat and stopped buying products tested on animals. I know that to the world, I am just one person, but to one animal, I might be the world. Thank you SO much to the people who have donated.
To those who have not, ANYTHING you can spare goes directly to the animals. It is completely tax deductible. Please think of the helpless animals this holiday season, and give them a little bit of hope for Christmas.

I changed the URL to my fund raiser page, so here is the new one:

http://www.active.com/donate/PETAPack/jencar

Thanks so much guys!!!