Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A field trip to poop

Happy Hanukkah! I'm celebrating as soon as Eric gets home with the candles.

 I've sort of decided to follow Hal Higdon's Advanced Marathon training plan for the Myrtle Beach marathon, but possibly adjust some of the mileage and trade out the easy run days for cross training. So, in other words, it's a loose estimate of what I'll be doing, but don't look at the plan and call me out for slacking, because I know everyone really cares to put that much time into cross referencing the blog with the hyperlink above.

It called for three easy miles Monday morning. My knee felt off during/after my run on Sunday, so I decided to hit the elliptical for a 40 minute hill interval workout with, my favorite, magazine reading.

I'm pretty sure my knee was annoying me because my old shoes had approximately 428 miles on them, so this morning, I busted these babies out.

The new Brooks Adrenalines
Please ignore my orthopedic old lady socks, I don't like blisters.
Hal told me to run nine miles this morning, and I had a little anxiety, because that kind of seemed like a lot.  I've run more than that since the 50 miler (a grand total of three times), but those were all long runs, not just a midweek run. I don't know why I was freaking out, I just felt like I wasn't ready to dive back in to that early wakeup call and long miles in the dark. Plus, morning runs always just feel so much harder than afternoon runs.

I ended up with 9.25 miles before sunrise, and was feeling pretty good about life. Mentally, I enjoyed the run, but my legs felt totally sluggish and my heart rate was higher than it should have been. My average pace was 9:44, and I really struggled to even keep that up.

I blame not eating enough the previous day, and not eating before I ran. Anytime I eat less than an NFL lineman, I consider myself underfueled and my training suffers. I blame poop.


Apparently, a local Baltimore landmark is these Golden Poop Eggs, also known as Poop Epcot. They are named that because that's what they smell like. Yesterday, we took a field trip there, and it turns out that they are actually filled with poop.  Note: I did not plan the field trip to the Water Purification Plant.

Here's the poop before it enters the eggs, when they thicken up to make it easier to remove from the water. There are three kinds of sludge removing machines.



And then eventually you get this! 


MMMM, ready to bottle and drink.
The other teachers and I considered burning our clothes when we got home. I never lose my appetite, but I could barely choke down the yogurt I brought for lunch (a sad lunch to start with, I know). Thus, a slow run the next morning. 


You're welcome for the pictures.


On the bright side, the Civic got its first Christmas present last night! The bumper never looked so good. Thanks, Emily!

Eric thought the race organizers sent them to everyone, as an apology.
Do you have a unshakable appetite, or do you lose it easily? I'm weird because I have a weak stomach in the sense that I completely freak out about having to see any sort of needles, even on TV, yet my appetite never leaves me. 

15 comments:

  1. Man, that is a sweet field trip! If I ever come visit can we go there?

    Anyways, I am completely immune to bodily functions and horrible diseases and will often discuss them at lunch because I am a freak and work a terrible job. I will totally lose my appetite, however, if I feel like there are bodily fluids in my food. I do not do germs at all.

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  2. Oh no, no, no. My appetite never goes anywhere! If I lose it, I must be either really, REALLY sick or really, really upset. And even then, I'm talking world tragedy!

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  3. Wow, that is really pretty for a poop plant! What a gross field trip! I would have lost my appetite for sure, yuck!

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  4. I tend to lose my appetite with stress or if a Fear Factor commercial comes on. Nice job getting out there so early!

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  5. I never, ever lose my appetite unless I'm really sick. I would also never call a yogurt "lunch".

    That is the strangest field trip I've ever heard of, so well done.

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  6. I've lost my appetite maybe twice in my life. I'v never understood people who were "too upset to eat." Don't they know that being upset = heading for junk food?

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  7. My elementary school trip to the water treatment plant is burned in my brain. Also, there was a soccer field right next to it where we played ALL of our games. Yeah, our team was terrible, mostly because we couldn't breathe.

    The new adrenalines come in pink???

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  9. Was this field trip meant to punish the students for something wrong they had done earlier in the week?

    And no, I have an iron constitution. I could have eaten a slice of pizza while taking the tour...

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  10. that is disgusting, although i would have been able to eat afterwards. i got a stomach of steel.

    i just got my new adrenalines a few weeks ago!

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  11. Wow - why am I not surprised that Sarah loved this field trip? :)

    I'd say I'm moderate on losing my appetite. But, I don't do hungry well, at all. I get rather cranky.

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  12. I'm glad you all got your magnets before Christmas! Mine's been on the Jeep. I am in love with it. I can't wait for someone to ask me about it so I can tell them the story.

    The poop field trip seems really strange, but I'm so glad you documented it. Did it smell really badly in that place?

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  13. Emily - see her comment about burning her clothes after being there. My guess is yes, it was bad smelling. ;)

    I am sitting her drinking tap water trying not to vomit so I am thinking I do have a weak stomach. I hate to know the back end on how things I love are made, processed, etc. I love and hate the show Dirty Jobs. Ugh. Thanks for putting poop in my water in my brain.

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  14. Thanks for that, I am totally grossed out and so glad my water comes from a spring and not a water purification plant.

    I work in an operating room, I can see just about anything and eat at the same time. Not much bugs me except smells!

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  15. Yuk yuk yuk! I saw the magnet on Emily's blog earlier tonight and I was hoping you had one!

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.