Keeping Busy

My back is still not 100% since tweaking it on Saturday so I have been taking it easy.  Sunday I just walked 2 miles.  Last night I did another easy 2 miles.  My plan was to jog/walk it – just to get moving and loosen up a bit.  I started off and the first 5-10 steps were painful and I thought I was going to have to walk it.  Thankfully I found an easy stride and was able to run the 2 miles.  I wasn’t checking my pace or anything, just running along.  I finished in 16:20 with an 8:21 and 7:59.  Not too bad for what I thought was going to be a lot of walking.

After that I met up with Tracey and Mike to bike the trails.  I REALLY need a bike! I did successful use my watch with the biking setting.  That was an exciting moment.  One thing about my watch, it is pretty user friendly.  I hit buttons until it figures out what I am trying to do!  Rode 8.4 miles.  Mike had we averaged about 10.5 MPH.  I had it a bit lower, but I wasn’t stopping my watch when we stopped to decide which way to go, so I think it averaged in our downtime.  After that we headed to the bar for a few beers.  Glad I have active friends in the area! 

On my way to meet up with them, I stopped at the Goodwill store and donated 4 garbage bags of clothes and 1 box of stuff.  I have been meaning to donate this stuff since the move, but just never made it.  Well – all of it was sitting on the spare bed and I figured mom wouldn’t want to share a twin bed with a ton of stuff.  Ever wonder how you accumulate so many things?  I feel I donate 2-3 bags of clothes every 6 months – yet I don’t go shopping to buy new stuff – and my closet is still full – 8^th wonder of the world!

Leading me to my last thing – Mama Fritz and Auntie B get into town tomorrow!!!  Meaning I have to do a quick hide the mess clean of the house tonight.  They don’t get in until after 10 tomorrow, but we have plans to go biking again, then eat Fuzzy Tacos before picking up mama/auntie B!  The plan for when mama and auntie b are here – find me a couch!  I have been in this house for 4 months without a couch!  I’m ready to be able to stretch out in front of the tv after a long run.  I’m also excited for mom to see the house again.  She only saw it with the prior owner’s stuff in it.  Not that I have done any decorating or anything, but I am ready to start and that is what I need their help with!

Monday Report

My long run did not get to 10 miles this weekend.  Saturday I was out running by 8 AM, apparently that is not early enough when it is supposed to be 108 on the day!  I had my frozen water bottle with me, but by mile 3 I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  Went up to 3.5 miles and then turned around.  My plan was to stay between a 9 and 9:15 pace.  I was between an 8:45 and 9:10 pace at all times.  My fastest mile was mile 5 and that was after I made the decision not to do 10 miles and I just wanted to get back.  It is a good thing I decided to turn around early.  I was drenched in sweat and out of water by the time I hit home.  The last mile was a trot home.  I was spent.

Splits:

·        Mile 1: 8:57

·        Mile 2: 8:56

·        Mile 3: 9:06

·        Mile 4: 9:02

·        Mile 5: 8:45

·        Mile 6: 8:52

·        Mile 7: 9:08

This was one of the weekends I needed to be busy.  I really wanted to be in Illinois for everything that was going on.  It was Kyla’s 3^rd birthday and everyone got together for the party.  So many people were running the RNR – Chicago.  Luckily I found enough to keep me busy.  I got some studying done, did some running, cut the grass, baby shower, volleyball, had the neighbor boys over for a couple hours.  Now I just have to get ready for my mom and aunt to come down on Wednesday, that really snuck up on me.  Everyone has been so busy – I can’t believe July is almost over.  Some things are as good as they are going to get for now.

Here are some pictures from Kyla’s birthday!

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Uncle Bob with the B-man.

The picnic table Cousin Jason made for Kyla

BIKE

I need a bike!  Yesterday I met Tracey and Mike to ride the bike paths around Flower Mound.  Tracey is great about letting me borrow her second bike.  We were on the trails so a flat and paved, and just an easy ride.  Just over 9 miles.  Now I want a bike for riding around town.  I don’t want a fancy mountain bike like Tracey has ($1,200), or an expensive road bike (yet).  I want a bike to ride around the trails, to ride to my friend’s house, and to take out to the lake and ride.  It is a great way to cross train/get out without killing the knees.  Since I have so many friends in the area, I could just ride my bike over.  Both Lewisville and Flower Mound have some nice trails that connect and you can get in a pretty good ride on them.  Tracey knows them like the back of her hand, but she is not very good at signaling for turns.  After the ride I did sit-ups, push-ups, and lunges, watered the lawn, and made my lunches for the day.

No races this weekend, just hoping to get in a long run.  10-12 miles at a 9:00 – 9:15 pace.  Then a baby shower/volleyball.  Baby shower's down here are way more fun then the ones I went to in Illinois. 

Picture is from Too Hot to Handle.  I think my clothes are soaked in a mixture of 50% sweat and 50% water.  I’m not sure what point this picture was taken, but I don’t look too miserable! J.

Three Things Thursday –

1.      No volleyball tonight – we didn’t make the playoffs.  So instead I am meeting some friends to do some biking.  We are just doing the flat/paved trails around Flower Mound.  I’m glad Tracey has an extra bike that she lets me use.  It is definitely nice to have friends that want to meet to go biking/running/walking and not for happy hour.  I would much rather do this then sit at a bar.

2.      Long run - I am bound and determined to get in a long run this weekend.  I am hoping for 10-12 miles.  Saturday is supposed to be 106, therefore I want to start my run by 7AM.  I am thinking I need to bring 2 frozen water bottles on this run.  I have another 15K before the Hottest Half, but I still need to get in more long mileage.  I am hoping for a 9:00 to 9:15 pace. 

3.       Must eat healthier – My eating has definitely gone to crap the past two weeks.  I have been going out to eat a lot and just getting food from the café downstairs.  Yesterday we had so much food for Bill’s retirement stuff, and then when I went out last night we had fried food.  Today I made a chicken, avocado, tomato and lettuce wrap with a whole wheat tortilla.  I also have grapes for my snack.  Much better. 

Busy-ness

This weekend was definitely not boring to say the least. 

Friday night I went over to meet the neighbors.  We cooked out and just chilled, then went to the park.  Very nice people and it was great to get to know the boys on their turf and just to have a comfort level with the whole family.  The oldest boy spies on me and wanted to know where I was the other night when I wasn’t home. 

Saturday was the Little’s volleyball tournament.  They had a great turnout and tons of food, drinks and prizes.  I ended up playing on two teams and it got HOT out there on the sand.  My face definitely has a nice pink tint to it.  The second team I was on ended up being stacked.  To the point of the playoffs they had to split us up, because there would have been no beating us.  I played pretty good most of the time.  With my second team, I got to play back row and dug just about anything hit my way.  The tournament was fun, but after that I pretty much crashed.  I left by 8, which is unheard of for a Little Party.

Sunday was the Too Hot to Handle 15K.  When it started out, I thought we were going to be lucky.  There were a lot of clouds and it actually wasn’t all that hot for July in Texas.  I am using this race and the Summer Bath 15K as training runs for the Hottest Half.  I haven’t been doing much distance at all, so I needed motivation.  Other than the 10K last weekend, there is only one time I have ran over 6 miles in the past month.  Started off feeling pretty good.  Felt strong the first 5K and ran good at the turn around.  Hit the 10K mark still feeling strong.  At mile marker 7 – crash and burn.  I knew I was in trouble.  At this point it was HOT HOT HOT.  And I was dragging.  The event was great with water stops at least every mile, sprinklers and cold towels.  First two splits were extremely consistent after that not so much.

5K – 27:11

10K – 54:14 (27:03)

15K – 1:23:30 (29:16)

In my defense, my July goal was to finish this race in under 85 minutes (check).  However my math skills were sub-par and I had 85 minutes being an 8:45 pace – not so much.  The last 5K that I was crashing during I was doing the math and knew I could relax and still finish under my goal.  I just didn’t realize the pace wasn’t what I thought.  Last year I finished in just under 90 minutes (1:29:21).  About a 6 minute improvement so I will take it.  Then on to the beer tent where I ran into a bunch of people I knew and talked about running a lot.  It's what we do. 

The rest of Sunday consisted of going to lunch with Jen then a pool party with other volleyball people.  It was great because they live less than 1.5 miles from me.  Everyone wanted to know why I didn’t just run there.  In the future I might.

This week’s training plan:

Monday – 4 miles

Tuesday – 2 miles, lift, and spin

Wednesday – 4 miles

Thursday – 3 miles

 Friday – AM spin?

Saturday – 10-12 miles & volleyball party

Sunday – 3 mile recovery run

Technology –

So much of life is dependent on technology.  I am not techie at all.  I haven’t had a computer or the internet in 5 years.  For the past year and a half, I had the internet on my phone, but that is about it.  I don’t know how to use iTunes, a DVR (or other recording device), I have never used an iPad, netbook, kindle, etc.  I have a DVD player only because a friend gave me an extra they had.  Many people make fun of me, but I thoroughly enjoy my simple life.

My sister is currently looking at running watches and it amazes me just how crazy they are.  I have the Garmin 305 and I LOVE it.  I probably use about 3% of the features it has, but it definitely serves its purpose.  Somedays I seriously don’t know what I would do without it or how I ever survived beforehand.  It is an extension of my running shoes.

That being said, lately I have enjoyed running completely unplugged.  No watch, no music, nothing.  It is very freeing.  I know my running routes enough to have a general (or exact) idea of the distance I run, but other times I run unplugged a different route/area and just run.  We focus so much on statistics – how many miles this week, what was our pace, what was our splits, etc.  Sometime you have to be reminded that running is FUN and not supposed to be (only) work.  Ever need that reminder, sit at a park and watch the kids play.

500

I just looked at my daily mile account and realize that I have run 500 miles so far this year!  My goal is to do 1,000 miles in 2012.  I know that the second half of the year I will rack up more miles because of Goofy training, so pending no injuries, I will run over 1,000 miles this year.

I also like daily mile because it tells me that with my 500 miles I have burned 15lbs or 300 donuts. 

Go me!!!

Speed Work –

The loop outside my house is a tad over 0.40 miles.  I did 5 loops for 2 miles of speed work.  My splits were as follows:

·        Loop 1: 2:42

·        Loop 2: 2:37

·        Loop 3: 2:32

·        Loop 4: 2:36

·        Loop 5: 2:32

I was really hauling on the last loop.  I new my time after the 4 loops and I really wanted to be under 13 minutes total.  Add it all up and you get 12:59.  Woot woot!!!  Then I did a mile cool down – so I got in a total of 3 miles for the day.  Also got in some sit-ups, push-ups and lunges.

I cut my whole yard (front & back) before the run because I knew it was supposed to rain and it really needed to be cut.  We did get probably 20-30 minutes of decent rain.  Glad I didn’t water.  While I was out cutting the lawn, the neighbor kids came over and asked if I wanted to come to a BBQ party on Friday.  The family is grilling out and asked me to join.  Figured I could make one dish and split it between Friday (cookout) and Saturday (Alzheimer's volleyball tournament).  Now trying to decide what to make, trying to think of a purple treat (Alzheimer’s color is purple) – if I can’t come up with anything creative – grape jello it is.

Tonight I am skipping the gym.  If it is not raining I will get in 4 or 5 miles and then do some cleaning and studying.

Back at it!

This weekend I got back to racing after having a few weekends off, and it felt great.  The Dallas Running Club had the Independence 5K and 10K – free race.  I did the 10K.  The weather wasn’t too bad, could have been a lot worse.  It wasn’t too hot, but it was pretty humid.  Per usual I went out a bit too strong, but my goal was to be under 53 min (8:30 pace).  I wanted it to be nice and steady, but whatever.  I am not too sure of my time.  Watch said 52:26.  They were having some timing issues (didn’t even do awards) and said results would be posted on their website.  Website shows 52:03.  I like their time better even though I don’t think it is right.  But I do have to say I think it is consistently wrong for everyone.  I followed Kelly the first half of the race – all the way out.  I passed her right after the turn around and she followed me all the way back.  My time on the website is a few seconds faster than hers.  Felt pretty good and I am not as worried about Too Hot to Handle 15K next weekend  I have two 15Ks coming up as training for the Hottest Half.

After the race, I met my friend to go ride the trails at Lake Grapevine.  This is the first time I ever went mountain biking.  Rocks, tree roots, bridges, dips, grooves, the whole thing.  It was pretty intense and pretty cool.  I only got one new mark; after going off this small ledge, my foot slipped off the pedal and the pedal came around and got me in the back of the leg.  Blood and all, but it’s not too bad.  My arms were sore from holding on and all the bouncing.  It took me a bit to get the gears figured out, but I had a ton of fun.  We were out there for well over an hour and it got hot!  So then we went and got some beers!  And then I took a nap and was back out.

Sunday I was surprised that I felt as good as I did - considering the running and biking, and then partying for Nat Nat and Scuba's birthday.  I stayed much longer than anticipated.  I was able to do an easy 4 mile run, and get in some sit-ups/push-ups/lunges.  Then I made food for the next few days.  My newest culinary attempt: Pan-roasted chicken with green beans and potatoes.  Came out pretty good and was easy as heck to make.  Something a bit different than my regular grilled chicken.

Overall I had 25 miles on the week which is pretty good for me as of late.  I can’t tell you the last time I had that many miles in 1 week.  I am on track for my mileage for the month.  I think I am going to do some speed work tonight. 

Five for Friday

1.       Weekending – Independence 10K, bike ride and Nat Nat’s Birthday.  Independence 10K – Goal: Under 53.  That is not all that close to a PR.  Want a steady pace, to feel like I could keep going, and maybe even negative splits.  Then I am supposed to be going mountain biking with my friend Tracey. 

2.      Cooking - I’ve kind of been in a rut with my cooking.  Still cooking all my meals (no frozen meals or anything), but I have been bored with everything.  Nothing sounds good or jumps out at me.  Yesterday I spent time looking at blogs for some more ideas.  I am going to try this Pan-roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans and Potatoes.  I also found some home-made/clean chicken nuggets that I am thinking about trying.

3.      Perspective – life is all about perspective.  All of my Illinois peeps are talking about how hot it is up there.  Last summer was officially the hottest summer on record (beating out 1980) in Dallas – we had 40 straight days with temperatures over 100, and a total of 70 days with over 100 degree temps.  And I was training for the Chicago Marathon.  I know I am a cold weather wimp; just like they are hot weather wimps.

4.      Thoughts/prayers/good juju – seems like shit has been hitting the fan lately for a bunch of my friends.  Just a few examples.  GP fell and broke her hip on the 4^th.  She was in so much pain, but didn’t want anyone to call 911 because she didn’t want to go to the doctor.  Stacey had gotten them Kenny Chesney tickets for Saturday and that is all GP has been looking forward to for months.  She is so upset that she is missing it.  GP is in surgery as I type.  Julie’s dad has been in the hospital fighting and aggressive infection.  Kathy has to go back for more surgery/work on her brain aneurysms.  So many people have been on my mind lately.

5.      Goofy – I have officially made my Goofy training plan.  I took a combination of Hal Higdon’s Intermediate II plan and my current race schedule.  I have a couple 15K (Sat) and Half (Sun) weekends that I think will be good.  Also, another friend from Texas said she signed up so I will have someone to train with.  It starts August 20^th and is more than 750 miles.  Yikes!

Yard/House

Tuesday we got out of work early and Wednesday we had off.  I took full advantage of both days to get a lot of yard work done and some good miles.  Tuesday afternoon I went to town with the weed whacker.  It is probably my favorite outside ‘toy.’  I taught myself/figured out how to do the edging around the sidewalk and get the grass that is growing the cracks (garage and sidewalk).  Still room for improvement, but everything looks 100% neater.  Put some grass killer in the cracks to hopefully stop that from growing.  I ended up going through both batteries for the weed whacker.  Still have more to do.  Then I watered the crap out of my lawn.  I planned to spray weed killer the next day and knew that I wouldn’t be watering for a day or two.

Wednesday after my morning run I did a ton of yard work.  I sprayed some weed killer.  One side of the lawn has a ton of crabgrass and dallisgrass.  Pain in the butt.  I think I am going to have to spray once a week for awhile.  Once that was done I was de-grassing my mulch.  The one place I don’t want the grass to grow, it is!  Dad needs to come down and put an edging in around the landscaping.  I got about 80% of one side done.  It took well over an hour and my hands have tons of tiny cuts, but I am trying to get the grass out at the roots.  Then I sprayed more grass killer over it to get the stuff I missed.  Note to self – get gardening gloves.

Dallisgrass

While I was out, my neighbor said I could do his when I was done with mine.  I told him mine would probably take a year to finish, it is that bad.  He came over and we talked for awhile and I feel 100% better about my yard.  The prior owners weren’t the most neighborly people (I sense from talking to both neighbors).  This neighbor was talking about how the prior owners didn’t water the yard in probably two years.  There was never any grass, the ground was always cracking and it basically looked like shit.  The only thing that grew was weeds and they never cut them.  He said at one point the weeds were up to his knees.  He says I already have the lawn looking better than it has in years and that it is going to take time since it was such a mess previously.  I guess now I am pretty proud that there is a lot of green growing.  I have about 60% of the lawn doing decent (aka – I am OK with the progress).  The raking certain areas helps.  Need to fertilize. 

We also talked about automatic sprinklers.  Yep – looking at about $3,500 - $4,000.  That is going to have to wait until next spring.  Can’t afford that at the current moment.

I get frustrated because I want my lawn to look nice.  I don’t want to be the crappy neighbor or house on the block.  I grew up with a beautiful yard.  Yes, growing grass is different in Texas, but still.  At least I know it is getting there.  I don’t have a ton of time to devote to the yard, so it is going to take awhile, but I am on the right track.

Two for One Thursday – today will be two separate entries. 1 –running/food. 2 – yard/house

Long-ish Run

I have been slacking in the long-ish run department.  I rarely get over 5 miles anymore.  I know I have a couple races coming up that will force me to get in some higher mileage, but I need to do some on my own too!  So taking advantage of getting July 4^th off work I decided to get in a long-ish run.  With the spirit of the holiday I did 7 in the morning and did another 4 in the evening (7-4).  I got up early enough that it was only in the upper 80s when I started.  Felt perfect out.  I was working on going out slow keeping a steady pace.  The first 3.5 miles I ran in 30:51.  On the way back I was feeling good so I pushed it a bit more.  I was really hoping to finish right around 1 hour, and was definitely hauling in the end.  Nearly a 2 minute negative split!!!!

First 3.5 miles – 30:51

Second 3.5 miles – 28:53

Total time 7 miles – 59:44

After that I did a lot of yard work and things around the house (more about that next post).  I waited until about 7 PM to go out for the next 4 times.  I was definitely tired and not exactly feeling it, so I did a nice little run walk.  Didn’t wear my watch so I am not too sure about the time, but I either way – I did the 4 miles.  11 miles on the day.  Not a bad way to spend a day off.

I made a cold salad for lunch today – It has lentils, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, and avocado.  It is supposed to have orange peppers in there, but the store was out.  A little bit of lime juice on top and you are good to go.

July Goals – Re-do

My July goals seemed pretty lite to me, so I decided to add to them, and here is the expanded list.

·        Run 80 miles

·        Independence 10K – around 53 minutes (8:30 pace)

·        Too Hot To Handle 15K – around 82 minutes (8:45 pace)

·        Go to one of the Run On – Weekly social runs.  Something I have seen recently that I want to check out.  Wednesday nights

·        750 push-ups

·        1,000 sit-ups

·        Furniture shopping/decorating

·        Finish reading my AU 66 books – take test in August

June in Review –

This month flew and I bet that July is going to go even faster.

·        Run 85 miles – Only ran 72.  I pretty much took the last week of the month off.  I needed a break to rest up and get some stuff done around the house.

·        500 push-ups – check – and that is not counting the push-ups done in lifting class 

·        500 sit-ups – check – well above that.  Again – not counting the sit-ups done in class

·        Open Roth IRA – CHECK!  - Finally!

Yesterday there was a lite rain/sprinkle, so I went for a run completely unplugged.  It felt great, no watch, no iPod.  I know my running routes well enough to know turn-arounds and how far I went (3.5 miles).  A very refreshing run.  Because of the rain it was only in the low 90s and the rain kept me cool.  Then I did some sit-ups, push-ups and lunges.  I also came up with a new spreadsheet for tracking workouts.  I use dailymile for my running, but still want to track other workouts.  Just like how I LOVE making lists, I also LOVE making spreadsheets.  They make me smile J.

Happy Tuesday – we get out of work early today and having tomorrow off will be a nice little break.  Hoping to get in some mileage, some studying, and some yard work.

July Goals -

I will do my June recap shortly.  I forgot my sheet of paper at home that has the sit-ups and push-ups listed on it.

July Goals –

·        Run 80 miles

·        Independence 10K – around 53 minutes (8:30 pace)

·        Too Hot to Handle 15K – around 82 minutes (8:45 pace)

·        Furniture shopping/decorating – Mama Fritz and Auntie B will be here to help.  I have $$ to spend and walls to decorate.

The race times for this month are based on my goal for the Hottest Half.  I do not want to push it these races, I just want to cover the distance at a decent pace.  I want to be around 8:45 pace for the Hottest Half, so these are training runs.

I was so successful at taking it easy the end of June, I feel completely lazy.  Time to get back at it!