Monday, September 29, 2008

Two Monday Week

The only thing that got me up and moving this morning is the fact that I have taken tomorrow off work.

I am going to enjoy every minute of no particular place to be at any particular time and get all of my errands done that I've been putting off.

My weekend was a lot of fun, but a bit expensive.
Today is my daughter's birthday, she's 15. How did I get old enough to have a 15 year old? Over the weekend, I had a houseful of 14 and 15 year old girls. It was a lot of fun, but my house is now a disaster zone. Ugh!

Saturday morning, Angie came by and we ran 10 miles. The run went very well, leaps and bounds ahead of the disaster that was last weekend's long run...

Distance: 10 miles
Pace: 10:56
Average HR: 154 bpm

I can not express what a relief it is for me to give up my plan for a full marathon this year. I've had such a stressful year at work, and have really been struggling with my weight which is new for me. I haven't had a problem with my weight for years, but the lack of regular running has brought it all back fresh and new - for several months now. Just making the decision to try and get back to "normal" before I start any marathon training has taken such a load off my mind. I'm hoping that I can get back into a normal routine by the end of the year and shoot for a spring marathon next year.

I will, however, be running the Half at Columbus. This will be my 5th half marathon this year, with very little running in between. Grrr...

Angie and I went to see "Nights in Rodanthe" last night, and out for wine and Mexican food later. The movie was very good, but was more of a tearjerker than I realized it would be. I needed the wine to drown my tears!

Why, oh why can't I get stranded at an Inn with a guy like Richard Gere?
If it were me, the guy would either be a weirdo, or an arrogant jerk.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Hump Day Blah's

Remember when I said that a friend from work was going to start calling me in the mornings to make sure we both got in a workout?

Yeah, well, she wimped out.

I had to recruit another friend. She is not a morning person, either- but she is one of those freaks that gets up when the alarm goes off no matter what. She said she doesn't want to talk in the mornings, but she has been texting me every morning to get up and at 'em.

Yesterday, I blew her off.

This morning, I managed to drag my tail out of bed and get out for a 4.5 mile run:

Distance: 4.51 miles
Pace: 10:19/mile
Average HR: 154 bpm

Yay!

I had ulterior motives- we had some important guests at work today, a couple of senior VP's. I did NOT want to be late this morning! And, I also did NOT want to still be coming out of my sleep stupor during the 8am meeting. So, a run was a nice way to get me up and wake me up.

In other news...
Tomorrow night is the last 7th grade football game of the year (short season, huh?). After that, maybe I'll learn that there's more to life than work and hauling kids to practices...

I'll keep you posted!

Monday, September 22, 2008

*YAWN!* Is It Monday?

Every Monday sucks.
Today is ever so much worse.

Angie texted me an early-wake up this morning so I would get up and out the door. I would have rather stuck needles in my eyes (to quote SKelly) than get up and run. But, I knew I would be asked about it later so I got out for a measly little 2 mile run. I put off going out the door for so long, that is all I had time for.

Yesterday, Angie came by and we ran 9 very slow miles. Ran is probably a bit of a stretch. I can't remember the last time I had such a horrible run. I felt TERRIBLE! Luckily, Angie said she didn't feel so good on the run either (that, or she was trying to make me feel better about being so lame). We walked SO much. I think it was a combination of all the junk food I ate all weekend, and the lack of running last week.

After we got back to my house, I looked at the stats in my Garmin. Our average mile was around 13:00, and my average Heartrate was 134. 134!? That's all? I expected it to be really high, based on how hard I felt like I was working. So, now, was I just being a big old sissy, or is there something else that made me feel so bad? Maybe the lack of sleep the night before? Maybe the extra pounds I'm carrying around this week?

Based on that run, I'm thinking of nixing my marathon plans for this fall and focusing on (1) supporting Barbie in Boston, (2) tackling marathon #3 next year, pending me getting my sh*t together between now and then.

Monday, September 15, 2008

10 Rainy Miles

This weekend was pretty tame, but it was the best weekend I've had in a while anyhow.

Saturday morning, I skipped out on a 5K that my friends were going to because of my son's football game that afternoon. I was going to have to leave early and knew that I wouldn't make it if I ran the race.

Saturday morning, too late for the race, the coach stopped by our house to let us know that the game was cancelled. AARGH!

Well, my friends had a pleasant day, involving shopping and wine swilling. I went to the library and grocery store with my daughter. Ah, well.
Later, my daughter and I went to see "Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys".
My friends had never heard of it, but I LOVE Tyler Perry movies.

Sunday morning, Angie and I had planned to run 10 miles, but it was drizzling a little bit of rain. We decided to go ahead and go for it anyway.

Miles 1 and 2 were nice, no rain to speak of and the time was passing quickly.

Mile 3- We picked up an extra dog. He decided we looked like a lot of fun and proceeded to follow us for the next 7 miles, even in the rain, all the way back to my house.

Mile 3.5-10 - This is about the time the rain started to pick up. By the end of the run, it was raining pretty hard and the wind had picked up. It was kind of nice to run in the rain, but we did a lot of walking after the rain started. I'm sure the people that were passing by us on their way to church thought we were a little crazy. They were probably right. I had to loan Angie a towel for the ride home, and dripped on the floor all the way through my house to get it.

I am glad we went ahead and went for it. If we hadn't done that, I would never have done the 10 miles and would have missed yet another planned run. So far, week 1 of my revised training plan is complete, and I did all of the runs that were planned for the week. Maybe the switch is finally flipped and I'm making my comeback. (I hope)

Sunday evening, Angie and I went to see "The Women"
It was a pretty good movie, but I think they could have made it better with the caliber of stars that were in it. What has Meg Ryan done to herself? She looked so much better before the lip injections, etc. Annette Bening was gorgeous!

Before the movie, we had a glass of wine at the local winery. After the movie, we went for Mexican food. All of those calories burned during that 10 mile rainy run, we ate and drank them away.

It was totally worth it.
Totally.

(I came home afterward and watched a couple of episodes of "I Love the 80's" on VH1.)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Football!


IS BACK!

Today, once again I put off my run for no reason besides laziness. I did manage a short run, but that was NOT my planned 13 miles. It's time to face facts. I am not at the level of training that I had planned. Obviously.

I just worked up a 13 week training plan that would still have me ready for Memphis. I'm giving myself a couple more weeks to snap out of this before I scrap my marathon plans for this year. I really don't know what is going on with me this year. I can remember when I used to be psychotic about running my miles- I've even gone so far as jumping on the treadmill at 11pm on a Sunday night to make sure I get those last 3 miles for the week...
I don't know what switch I need to magically switch in myself, but I sure hope I figure it out soon.
Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Chicago for 2 days of meetings. Changing my routine is usually a bad thing, but I'm hoping this time it will be enough to snap me out of this funk.


I did mention 7th grade football pictures a couple of weeks ago... After yesterday's game, my son's team is now 3-1. Woo! They won yesterday's game 24-8.

He's #76:
And, another shot- strutting back to the stands after a job well done. One day, I'll have to post a video of this. His post-game strut reminds me of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.





Friday, September 5, 2008

The Gauntlet

has been thrown...

Two friends from work and I are attempting to lose weight. Since we've been talking about it forever, we've decided on a friendly wager- pound for pound. I have the least to lose, but I'm not letting that stop me. I'm still going to win this challenge.

Besides, it's going to be getting cold soon, and I don't want to have to pour myself into Goretex to run this winter...

That dang running suit was far too expensive to not be used just because of excess blubber!

And, Barbie managed to find a candid shot of my daughter from Monday's race. She really enjoyed watching the finishers come across that finish line.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Labor Day 5K

I feel obligated to put a little somethin' here about yesterday's 5K.

The way I ran yesterday does not deserve to be put out here for everyone to read about. Which is exactly why I must say something about it.

Some of you may know that my BFF is the race director of this race. She puts on a great race, and it has a terrific turnout, considering the size of the town. There are a TON of fun-runners. This is probably because every kid gets a trophy.

I showed up at the race earlier than usual, since I had to get my daughter all set up to help. She was helping with the results- writing down the race numbers as people finished. I started my race day morning as always... Going back and forth to the bathroom.

Finally it's time to get this race over with. The first mile was in the shade, and there may have been a gentle breeze. I felt great, and finished that mile in under 9:00. Great, maybe I'm back to a halfway normal pace for me!

Nope. I slowed considerably once we got in the sun and never got the good feeling back until the race was over. I couldn't bring myself to drink anything yesterday morning, so I think I may have been a bit dehydrated, too. I wound up finishing in 29:24 (according to Garmin), and was greeted by my daughter at the end of the chute with a "You're slow, you need to run faster." Gee, thanks, but I already knew that. Ah well, it was good enough for 2nd place in my age group:

OK, you caught me. There were only 2 people in my age group. But, I'm claiming a 2nd place anyhow! I can't help it that the other 30-34 year old women were too lazy to get out there and run a race yesterday morning.

By the way, isn't my new skirt the best?

Now, I know what you are thinking... I have ran slower 5K's this summer. You are right- I have. But, I truly was not feeling it yesterday. I can't remember the last time I have felt that bad during a run. I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too much (ok, at all), but I just felt drained. For now I'm calling it "sugar overload", due to my horrendous eating all weekend, and moving on.