So I froze to death all day waiting for my air conditioner to get fixed (and it did, thanks, maintenance guy and thanks co-worker for the loan of the probably prohibited space heater), and when I got home the.heat.was.on. Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! If anyone has been following my blog since the winter, you know that our apartment gets super hot and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it. This time, I think we are going to try to put in a maintenance request, though, because it took at least until January before it got this hot last year. I kind of doubt anything will happen, and I hate to make stupid requests, but it gets so hot it's hard to sleep, even with the fan on and the windows open.
Okay, whining over. I did 45 min on the elliptical this morning and that should be it for the day, exercise-wise. I have conversation partner tonight, and D's picnic got moved (again) to tonight so I won't really be able to go because I have a meeting at 4:30pm.
Thanks to everyone who has sent phone numbers. I really appreciate it.
Hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Gah! I'm not ready for fall
It decided to get cold last night. Our apartment is cold, my office is cold (the air conditioner is stuck on, but at least I have a space heater in here today), outside is cold. Seriously. The weather channel says it "feels like" 44 and we have a frost advisory for tonight. And it was 70 last weekend! Can't we ease into this???
I did get out and run this morning. 5mi with 4x800. I did the first and third 800s at 8 min/mile pace and the second and fourth at 7:50 min/mile pace. Not great because I was aiming for 7:30 min/mile. Problem is that I had no idea what that was supposed to feel like. I ran fast but not hard so I guess next time I have to go harder so I'm actually struggling at the end, not just wishing I could stop. I will also put the blame on the wind because it was really going.
So how did I give my phone a bath in my purse? I was carrying two plates of cookies into our leader meeting at youth group, and I put my water bottle in my purse so I'd have my hands free. What I didn't think about was that there's a tiny hole in the top of the bottle so air can come in. Well, that means water can also go out, which it did. I didn't figure that out until water was running down my leg. At that point I dumped the contents of my purse all over the floor. So wet + smacking into the floor = demise of the phone.
We did get new phones yesterday, and I have the same number so anyone who reads this who knew I had their number before... I don't any more so if you could e-mail me with it I'd be super appreciative. (Thanks to Jessica who already did). We had our phones for 2.5 years so we were due for an upgrade and got a pretty good rebate offer. Since we don't internet or text with our phones we were able to get a pretty cheap model. The guy was kind of pushy on the extra features but not too bad. The only thing that was a little over the top was trying to persuade us to get a second car charger when we only have one car. Oh well. My ring tone is called Whistling Wizard. That makes it all worthwhile.
I did get out and run this morning. 5mi with 4x800. I did the first and third 800s at 8 min/mile pace and the second and fourth at 7:50 min/mile pace. Not great because I was aiming for 7:30 min/mile. Problem is that I had no idea what that was supposed to feel like. I ran fast but not hard so I guess next time I have to go harder so I'm actually struggling at the end, not just wishing I could stop. I will also put the blame on the wind because it was really going.
So how did I give my phone a bath in my purse? I was carrying two plates of cookies into our leader meeting at youth group, and I put my water bottle in my purse so I'd have my hands free. What I didn't think about was that there's a tiny hole in the top of the bottle so air can come in. Well, that means water can also go out, which it did. I didn't figure that out until water was running down my leg. At that point I dumped the contents of my purse all over the floor. So wet + smacking into the floor = demise of the phone.
We did get new phones yesterday, and I have the same number so anyone who reads this who knew I had their number before... I don't any more so if you could e-mail me with it I'd be super appreciative. (Thanks to Jessica who already did). We had our phones for 2.5 years so we were due for an upgrade and got a pretty good rebate offer. Since we don't internet or text with our phones we were able to get a pretty cheap model. The guy was kind of pushy on the extra features but not too bad. The only thing that was a little over the top was trying to persuade us to get a second car charger when we only have one car. Oh well. My ring tone is called Whistling Wizard. That makes it all worthwhile.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Cell phone catastrophe
So I gave my cell phone a bath last night. And dropped it. So it is nonfunctional at the moment. I'm planning to leave in about 15 minutes to go to the store and see if they can fix it/give me a new cheap one. I've had this one for a little more than 2.5 years so I guess I did pretty well taking this long to destroy it. *Sigh* Here's hoping I can get some kind of cheapo upgrade or whatever. And here's double hoping they'll even deal with me because I think the plan is in D's name.
Otherwise I managed a dry 5mi this morning. It's rainy and chilly here, but for some reason it's usually okay for a run at 6am.
That's about it, folks.
Otherwise I managed a dry 5mi this morning. It's rainy and chilly here, but for some reason it's usually okay for a run at 6am.
That's about it, folks.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Who am I? Martha Stewart?
Well, I've never been to prison, and my cookies are not perfectly round with the exact same number of raisins and nuts in each one, so I guess I'm not.
But I did make oatmeal raisin cookies today (and zucchini bread last week, remember?). These cookies were much more fun to make than the zucchini bread because I didn't have to wrestle with the food processor. It has that scary blade so it always wins.
Minor victory: I didn't eat any cookie dough. That's the benefit of baking right after lunch.
I had a productive and restful day yesterday, which is a nice combination. And despite Tim Tebow's brain rattling, the Gator game was good. The Badgers won, too, which makes my co-workers and therefor me happy.
No run today, but I did do the laundry, which is a workout in its own right, and a little bit of circuit-type strength training.
It's raining and is supposed to be chilly tomorrow... boooo. Oh well, fall is coming (I guess technically it's here) so I need to prepare myself mentally.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
But I did make oatmeal raisin cookies today (and zucchini bread last week, remember?). These cookies were much more fun to make than the zucchini bread because I didn't have to wrestle with the food processor. It has that scary blade so it always wins.
Minor victory: I didn't eat any cookie dough. That's the benefit of baking right after lunch.
I had a productive and restful day yesterday, which is a nice combination. And despite Tim Tebow's brain rattling, the Gator game was good. The Badgers won, too, which makes my co-workers and therefor me happy.
No run today, but I did do the laundry, which is a workout in its own right, and a little bit of circuit-type strength training.
It's raining and is supposed to be chilly tomorrow... boooo. Oh well, fall is coming (I guess technically it's here) so I need to prepare myself mentally.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Late night Friday, Lazy Saturday
So I got to go to my first major league baseball game last night. My coworker gave us two tickets because she couldn't go to the game last night and the person who was supposed to buy them from her backed out. We had great seats on the third base line and preferred parking right near the stadium. The Brewers won but the Phillies kept it interesting up until the end. I don't know how many other games we'd go to because the stadium is about 1.5 hours away, but it was a good time, and the price was right.
Even though we didn't get in until about 11:30 my body decided it was time to get up at 6:30am. I got a 6mi run in, hit the grocery store, and got a baby shower gift for a friend next week. I hit the wall at about 4pm and took a nap and right now I'm watching the Gators crush Kentucky while I wait for D to get home from work. All in all, a good start to the weekend.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Concerned white people, I give you your king
I wish I could take credit for that one, but it was all D.
Last night we went to hear Michael Pollan of The Omnivore's Dilemma fame. The most controversial thing about the whole talk was how long all the introductions went on (there were three, ugh). Basically he said not to eat junk food and a bunch of other stuff to make an already smug audience fell a little smug-er. Except the girl sitting next to me who was salivating over the Froot Loops and Pop Tarts he brought to show us what not to eat. I actually think the most interesting thing he said was that he let's himself eat all the junk food he wants, the only requirement is that he has to make it himself. Seems like a pretty good rule to live by if you ask me.
The only problem was that chancellors of UW Madison (ahem) like to hear themselves talk waaaayyyy too much, and we didn't get out until after the bus switched from the 15-minute schedule to the 45-minute schedule so we had to walk all the way home and didn't get in until about 10pm.
Then my body decided to thank me with a 4:45am wake up call. Normally I get up at 5am so it's not like it was that early, but I hate it when my body (read, bladder) tells me that on no uncertain terms that I am NOT going to coast through the next 15 minutes.
I got up and went to the gym for 45 min elliptical and weights. Nothing super exciting there. I'm glad to have weights done so I don't have it hanging over my head this afternoon. My original plan was to do it this morning because D had a school picnic, but that's been moved to next week because it's raining. Maybe I'll go chill out and watch the marching band if it's nice out or do some yoga or reading if it's not.
Tomorrow will (hopefully) be the UW game vs. Michigan State. Our plan is to try to find some cheap-o tickets after the game starts, but I checked online and they still have some to sell at the box office. I want to go to at least one game sometime, but it's hard for me to justify forking over $46 for a game I don't really have a personal investment in.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Take it and Run Thursday
I have been meaning to start doing these TIART posts for a long time (especially because I'm sponsoring one in November). It's a nice way to break up the monotony of "I ate this, I ran this, Work is busy..." that we all seem to slide into as we try to post everyday. It's also a good way to find new blogs and get your own blog a little publicity.
This week's question (if you didn't follow the link) is about yoga and running.
I have actually started doing a little yoga sequence after my runs as featured in the latest issue of Runner's World. I was going to try to link to it, but it takes you to a video page, and it's kind of confusing to find the right thing. Oh well. Basically it's a triangle, pyramid (?), pigeon on each side and then happy baby and seated forward bend. It's quick and hits all the major spots.
I'd like to do yoga more regularly, and I'm hoping to add more in as the weather gets worse and my cabin fever starts to kick in.
I have a couple yoga DVDs: Rodney Yee's Power Yoga Flexibility and Shiva Rae's Yoga Shakti. Yoga Shakti is a great DVD, but it's kind of advanced for me.
As far as classes go, we had a couple great instructors at UF when I was there, but I haven't found anyone at the UW gym that I'm super crazy about. Plus the class times aren't that convenient. I've also done a couple classes at a local hot yoga place called Inner Fire Yoga. The power/Bikram classes are tough, but I love love loved the yin class I did once. Too bad it's so expensive. And honestly I don't have time for it.
Leaving yoga and moving on to running, I got in 5 mi this morning with 5x3min hard. That's a tough workout. The first two feel like nothing but by number 4 you're reeeeeaaaaallly happy to get through that last 30 sec.
This week's question (if you didn't follow the link) is about yoga and running.
I have actually started doing a little yoga sequence after my runs as featured in the latest issue of Runner's World. I was going to try to link to it, but it takes you to a video page, and it's kind of confusing to find the right thing. Oh well. Basically it's a triangle, pyramid (?), pigeon on each side and then happy baby and seated forward bend. It's quick and hits all the major spots.
I'd like to do yoga more regularly, and I'm hoping to add more in as the weather gets worse and my cabin fever starts to kick in.
I have a couple yoga DVDs: Rodney Yee's Power Yoga Flexibility and Shiva Rae's Yoga Shakti. Yoga Shakti is a great DVD, but it's kind of advanced for me.
As far as classes go, we had a couple great instructors at UF when I was there, but I haven't found anyone at the UW gym that I'm super crazy about. Plus the class times aren't that convenient. I've also done a couple classes at a local hot yoga place called Inner Fire Yoga. The power/Bikram classes are tough, but I love love loved the yin class I did once. Too bad it's so expensive. And honestly I don't have time for it.
Leaving yoga and moving on to running, I got in 5 mi this morning with 5x3min hard. That's a tough workout. The first two feel like nothing but by number 4 you're reeeeeaaaaallly happy to get through that last 30 sec.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Will it rain today?
I need to come up with more creative titles for my posts. That one is a step up from Daily Update, I think.
Anyway, I was a total sloth Monday after the race (How people can do Ironman and get out of bed is a mystery to me). Tuesday I did an easy 4mi and weights. Today was 45 min elliptical and weights. I kinda want to do weights at home, but I've just been reading this book called Never Eat Alone, and he author would probably frown on turning down a chance to work out around/meet other fitness-minded people. Not that that's going to happen because I'm going on 10 years older than pretty much everyone at the gym, but you never know.
It rained all day yesterday (after about 3 weeks of no rain, so we needed it), and it kind of drove me crazy. I'm an active person, and because I have a sedentary job, I neeeeed to mooooove periodically so I don't get cranky. I guess yesterday was good practice for me going into another winter because there are some days when you (okay, I) am unwilling to go outside any more than absolutely necessary.
Work threatened to turn into a giant cluster yesterday, but fortunately that didn't happen. Hopefully today I can focus on one particular project that should be easy and I need to do soon.
I started reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe yesterday with my conversation partner. She's seen the movie, but she seems to really enjoy the book. I forgot what a good story it was.
What else...? This is actually kind of a busy week. I've had something going on every night. Church small group Monday, convo partner yesterday, dinner with some friends who are leaving town tonight, tomorrow we are going to hear Michael Pollan speak, Friday evening is a picnic for a student organization D may join, and Saturday we may or may not go to the UW game depending on how much work D has and if we can actually get tickets.
Hope everyone else is having a good week!
Anyway, I was a total sloth Monday after the race (How people can do Ironman and get out of bed is a mystery to me). Tuesday I did an easy 4mi and weights. Today was 45 min elliptical and weights. I kinda want to do weights at home, but I've just been reading this book called Never Eat Alone, and he author would probably frown on turning down a chance to work out around/meet other fitness-minded people. Not that that's going to happen because I'm going on 10 years older than pretty much everyone at the gym, but you never know.
It rained all day yesterday (after about 3 weeks of no rain, so we needed it), and it kind of drove me crazy. I'm an active person, and because I have a sedentary job, I neeeeed to mooooove periodically so I don't get cranky. I guess yesterday was good practice for me going into another winter because there are some days when you (okay, I) am unwilling to go outside any more than absolutely necessary.
Work threatened to turn into a giant cluster yesterday, but fortunately that didn't happen. Hopefully today I can focus on one particular project that should be easy and I need to do soon.
I started reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe yesterday with my conversation partner. She's seen the movie, but she seems to really enjoy the book. I forgot what a good story it was.
What else...? This is actually kind of a busy week. I've had something going on every night. Church small group Monday, convo partner yesterday, dinner with some friends who are leaving town tonight, tomorrow we are going to hear Michael Pollan speak, Friday evening is a picnic for a student organization D may join, and Saturday we may or may not go to the UW game depending on how much work D has and if we can actually get tickets.
Hope everyone else is having a good week!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Zoo Run Run
It always amazes me how tired I am after racing a 5k. It's just three (.1) little miles, but I'm dead tired right now. As tired as I would be after having done a 12 or so mile long run. Maybe more. I guess that means I pushed myself.
Anyway, I actually met both my conservative (less than 26 minutes) and "good day" (less than 25:30 minutes) and finished in 25:05, which was an 8:05 min/mile average pace. This was really good for me considering that the middle mile of the course was really hilly. Other than that, I was consistent with my pacing and ran the first and third miles in 7:59. I wish I could have pushed just a little bit harder at the end, but I have that getting sick thing that keeps me from giving the kick that my body has but my stomach doesn't.
On a completely different topic, we cleaned out the garden yesterday. D picked all the carrots.
And I got the squash.
This is all of it, including the monster zucchini and space ship squash I picked earlier.
I'm going to be honest with you and say that I have absolutely no idea how to cook any of this. Except the zucchini. That big one is currently spread out in 5 pans of zucchini bread. I don't even like zucchini bread because I don't like zucchini, but I figured it would be easier to give away this way, and I had a lot of flour and sugar that were just hanging around. Here's the recipe I used if you do like zucchini bread. I did the lemon flavor for two loves and cinnamon for the other three.
I think we are going to give the pumpkin looking ones away to our church small group for fall decorations. The rest... I dunno. I don't know what I'm going to do with all those carrots, either. We do eat carrots pretty well, but dang... that's a lot of carrots.
Anyway, I hope you are all having a fabulous Sunday. I would totally take a nap right now except I don't want to burn down the apartment.
Anyway, I actually met both my conservative (less than 26 minutes) and "good day" (less than 25:30 minutes) and finished in 25:05, which was an 8:05 min/mile average pace. This was really good for me considering that the middle mile of the course was really hilly. Other than that, I was consistent with my pacing and ran the first and third miles in 7:59. I wish I could have pushed just a little bit harder at the end, but I have that getting sick thing that keeps me from giving the kick that my body has but my stomach doesn't.
On a completely different topic, we cleaned out the garden yesterday. D picked all the carrots.
And I got the squash.
This is all of it, including the monster zucchini and space ship squash I picked earlier.
I'm going to be honest with you and say that I have absolutely no idea how to cook any of this. Except the zucchini. That big one is currently spread out in 5 pans of zucchini bread. I don't even like zucchini bread because I don't like zucchini, but I figured it would be easier to give away this way, and I had a lot of flour and sugar that were just hanging around. Here's the recipe I used if you do like zucchini bread. I did the lemon flavor for two loves and cinnamon for the other three.
I think we are going to give the pumpkin looking ones away to our church small group for fall decorations. The rest... I dunno. I don't know what I'm going to do with all those carrots, either. We do eat carrots pretty well, but dang... that's a lot of carrots.
Anyway, I hope you are all having a fabulous Sunday. I would totally take a nap right now except I don't want to burn down the apartment.
Friday, September 18, 2009
YAY Friday
YAY! It's Friday. Even though this has only been a 3-day work week for me, I'm still happy to be off tomorrow. This morning was 45 min elliptical and weights. I decided to knock out my weights workout before work so I can hang out and listen to the marching band practice this afternoon. They are actually pretty good, and I hear them all the time from my office so it will be fun to actually watch them do their show.
No big plans for the weekend. Chores, errands, garden clean up, watching the Gator game, probably the 5k Sunday, making zucchini bread with our monster zucchini. Anyone doing anything exciting?
No big plans for the weekend. Chores, errands, garden clean up, watching the Gator game, probably the 5k Sunday, making zucchini bread with our monster zucchini. Anyone doing anything exciting?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Lovin' 5 mi
I'm back from a blog break while my parents were visiting. We had a great time and saw a ton of stuff around Madison. I still did some running, but I try not to be on the computer too much when I'm not at work, so no blogging.
Today's run was pretty good- 5mi with some random pick-ups. 5mi is my favorite distance right now. I really like my 5mi route, and it's the perfect distance for before work- enough to make me feel like I did something, but not so long that I either have to get up reeeaaaallllly early or make a mad dash for work when I get back.
Otherwise life is pretty normal. I'm ready for the weekend even though this is only my second day back at work. I guess that's probably a pretty universal feeling.
Today's run was pretty good- 5mi with some random pick-ups. 5mi is my favorite distance right now. I really like my 5mi route, and it's the perfect distance for before work- enough to make me feel like I did something, but not so long that I either have to get up reeeaaaallllly early or make a mad dash for work when I get back.
Otherwise life is pretty normal. I'm ready for the weekend even though this is only my second day back at work. I guess that's probably a pretty universal feeling.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fun with Mom and Dad
5 points if you know where that picture was taken :).
Today is a rest day, and I'm definitely ready for it even though I took a few days off earlier in the week.
Yesterdays' run was 7mi with 2mi at projected 5k race pace. I felt like I got into a groove that was kind of tough to sustain but I could have pushed myself for one more mile, which is I guess what I'm going for. Anyway, I did the first mile in 8:18 and the second in 8:19 so my conservative goal for the race will be to finish in less than 26 minutes and my "It would be great if" goal will be to finish in less than 25:30.
There are a lot of things I could say about this, but I've decided to enact a new blog commandment, "Thou shalt not complain about thy running on thy blog." So I won't. Those are my goals, and I'll be very happy if I meet/exceed them.
We had a fun day dragging my mom and dad all over Madison yesterday. We saw the farmer's market, did the capital tour, had lunch on State St., sat out on the Union Terrace, walked back by Babcock Ice Cream (and made it in right before the football crowd- whew), and stopped by the garden for tomatoes on the way home. It was about a 5mi walk all together so we were pretty tired and ready to veg out with some college football when we got home.
Today is a relaxed morning- I'll probably run out to Target and Trader Joe's pretty soon- and the zoo and the Arb. in the afternoon. I have my first official youth group meeting tonight from 5pm to 8pm so hopefully that will be fun.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Regular Day, Easy Run
I had a nice easy run again this morning. 5mi in about 49 minutes. It's easy to for me to get in a funk and say, "Well, I was running my easy runs at a 9 min mile this time last year," but because my tempo pace isn't really that different I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say I've just gotten better at running my easy runs truly easy.
Tomorrow I'm doing another short run to try to test out my 5k pace for my next race. I don't think I mentioned it but I'm planning to run The Zoo Run Run 5k on the 20th. I doubt I'll register for it until the morning of, but that's at least the plan. Anyway, I have no idea what my pace for the race should be so I'm going to do a 2mi time trial tomorrow to develop some realistic goals for my performance. Ultimately I'm doing it more to see where my fitness is and because I haven't raced in awhile, but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.
Work has been relatively calm these last couple days. I even got to read a couple interesting papers about regression to the mean this morning. And it looks like the first paper I worked on was accepted- with revisions- to a journal. Very exciting.
Also, my parents are coming this weekend. Hopefully they are having safe, fun journey down from Minneapolis as we speak.
Tomorrow I'm doing another short run to try to test out my 5k pace for my next race. I don't think I mentioned it but I'm planning to run The Zoo Run Run 5k on the 20th. I doubt I'll register for it until the morning of, but that's at least the plan. Anyway, I have no idea what my pace for the race should be so I'm going to do a 2mi time trial tomorrow to develop some realistic goals for my performance. Ultimately I'm doing it more to see where my fitness is and because I haven't raced in awhile, but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.
Work has been relatively calm these last couple days. I even got to read a couple interesting papers about regression to the mean this morning. And it looks like the first paper I worked on was accepted- with revisions- to a journal. Very exciting.
Also, my parents are coming this weekend. Hopefully they are having safe, fun journey down from Minneapolis as we speak.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Lucky 09-09-09
No runs yesterday or today :(. I guess I've had whatever was going around. Kind of a combination of a virus and the fact that I think I'm allergic to my hedge (I put some flower clippings inside). But I'm feeling much much much better today, and I'm planning to get caught up on weight training this afternoon.
Work has been busy, but I'm kind of enjoying my project today. I spent a bunch of time figuring out how to make SAS make pretty (and readable- very important) graphs. This is not always an easy feat because SAS output looks way more 1989 than 2009. It takes a little thinking, but it's more relaxing than frustrating, which I needed today.
Speaking of which, it's 09-09-09. That has to be lucky, right? The radio station we listen to is playing "9" songs all day. I haven't tuned in, and I can't think of that many "9" songs- Revolution No. 9, Love Potion Number 9... that's all I've got- so maybe it's kind of a sporadic thing.
Anyway, I'm excited because my parents are on a plane flying to the Midwest right now. I'm excited to show them around Madison, and I hope they don't get lost trying to find us. Our Garmin GPS AND Google Earth show our apartment in a different place than it actually is (take that, stalkers) so getting here can be a little confusing.
No new pictures lately. I'll have to get some of our UFO (I mean patty pan) squash when we harvest those. Oh! question for the bloggosphere: Do any of you have a food dehydrator you would recommend. We don't want something $$$$$, but I'm thinking we could make squash chips and dried tomatoes with some of our harvest??? Suggestions/ recommendations...
I leave you with this:
Work has been busy, but I'm kind of enjoying my project today. I spent a bunch of time figuring out how to make SAS make pretty (and readable- very important) graphs. This is not always an easy feat because SAS output looks way more 1989 than 2009. It takes a little thinking, but it's more relaxing than frustrating, which I needed today.
Speaking of which, it's 09-09-09. That has to be lucky, right? The radio station we listen to is playing "9" songs all day. I haven't tuned in, and I can't think of that many "9" songs- Revolution No. 9, Love Potion Number 9... that's all I've got- so maybe it's kind of a sporadic thing.
Anyway, I'm excited because my parents are on a plane flying to the Midwest right now. I'm excited to show them around Madison, and I hope they don't get lost trying to find us. Our Garmin GPS AND Google Earth show our apartment in a different place than it actually is (take that, stalkers) so getting here can be a little confusing.
No new pictures lately. I'll have to get some of our UFO (I mean patty pan) squash when we harvest those. Oh! question for the bloggosphere: Do any of you have a food dehydrator you would recommend. We don't want something $$$$$, but I'm thinking we could make squash chips and dried tomatoes with some of our harvest??? Suggestions/ recommendations...
I leave you with this:
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Update on the Worms
Morning, all.
No run for me today. Yesterday was a cut-back long run. I did 7.5 miles in about 1:09, which is about a 9:15-ish pace. I'm not quite back to where I was this time last year, but I'm feeling like my endurance is improving and I'm not running soooo slow. Part of it is that I think I'm figuring out how much I need to eat to be in a bit of a calorie deficit but not be totally exhausted.
A little update on the kitchen composting. After one week of putting about 1/2 of my vegetable kitchen scraps in the compost, I still don't detect any smell. I can't really tell if the worms are "working", but they are still alive. They kind of freak out and dive for the bottom of the bucket when I pull them out into the light, so I can't tell what they are up to in when I put them back in the dark. Hopefully munching on banana peels.
I think I'm going to run out to the garden in a few minutes to collect some carrots for beef stew tonight and some more flowers from my hedge.
Did I mention that on here before? I bought some flower seeds, but they really turned out to be seeds for a hedge with flowers on it. And then it got top heavy and they all fell over! Oops. Just when I think I have 1/4 of a clue what I'm doing, I realize I'm still completely lost.
Anyway, I hope everyone has an awesome Sunday. I may or may not attempt to make marinara sauce on my own this afternoon. I don't think I'll try to can on my own, but I may try to make it and freeze it in baggies. We shall see...
No run for me today. Yesterday was a cut-back long run. I did 7.5 miles in about 1:09, which is about a 9:15-ish pace. I'm not quite back to where I was this time last year, but I'm feeling like my endurance is improving and I'm not running soooo slow. Part of it is that I think I'm figuring out how much I need to eat to be in a bit of a calorie deficit but not be totally exhausted.
A little update on the kitchen composting. After one week of putting about 1/2 of my vegetable kitchen scraps in the compost, I still don't detect any smell. I can't really tell if the worms are "working", but they are still alive. They kind of freak out and dive for the bottom of the bucket when I pull them out into the light, so I can't tell what they are up to in when I put them back in the dark. Hopefully munching on banana peels.
I think I'm going to run out to the garden in a few minutes to collect some carrots for beef stew tonight and some more flowers from my hedge.
Did I mention that on here before? I bought some flower seeds, but they really turned out to be seeds for a hedge with flowers on it. And then it got top heavy and they all fell over! Oops. Just when I think I have 1/4 of a clue what I'm doing, I realize I'm still completely lost.
Anyway, I hope everyone has an awesome Sunday. I may or may not attempt to make marinara sauce on my own this afternoon. I don't think I'll try to can on my own, but I may try to make it and freeze it in baggies. We shall see...
Friday, September 4, 2009
Last Long Weekend of the Summer
Whew. Work has been really busy lately, but I know if I actually want anyone to read and post on this thing I need to take the 5 minutes or whatever each morning and actually update it.
I did the elliptical Wednesday and Today and a 5 mile interval run yesterday with 5 x 3min fast.
I'm really looking forward to the long weekend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, and this will probably be the last time D and I get to hang out with out school hanging over his head (although he has to take the GRE again tomorrow morning. Yes, again. Yes, they really do throw out your scores after 5 years. Yes, it is a racket).
We don't have anything major planned, but we'll probably finish off the last two places- Wollershiem Winery and Cave of the Mounds- in our Southern Wisconsin tourist discount book.
Anyone else doing anything exciting for the last weekend of summer (sniff, sniff)?
I did the elliptical Wednesday and Today and a 5 mile interval run yesterday with 5 x 3min fast.
I'm really looking forward to the long weekend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, and this will probably be the last time D and I get to hang out with out school hanging over his head (although he has to take the GRE again tomorrow morning. Yes, again. Yes, they really do throw out your scores after 5 years. Yes, it is a racket).
We don't have anything major planned, but we'll probably finish off the last two places- Wollershiem Winery and Cave of the Mounds- in our Southern Wisconsin tourist discount book.
Anyone else doing anything exciting for the last weekend of summer (sniff, sniff)?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Garden Insanity
Whew, it's been a busy two days at work, but I'm going to take a little breather this afternoon to post on here.
Today:
Distance: 5mi
Type: Tempo
Time: 25:03
Pace: 9min/mile
This was much better than my tempo run from last week where I pretty much ran myself into the ground. My first two miles were right around 8:35 and my last mile was at 8:18. A little fast on the last mile, but it was nice to pick it up.
Yesterday:
Distance: 4mi
Type: Easy
Time: 39:18
Pace: 9:50
We got a lot of good garden clean up work done this past weekend. I knew it was going to be bad, and I was kind of hoping we'd find this
rather than the tons of volunteer tomato plants and blooming broccoli that were taking over. We had fewer tomatoes this week but we have a lot of carrots and random squash that are ready to harvest. I'm not even sure how to cook some of the squash we grew. Patty pan squash anyone?
Today:
Distance: 5mi
Type: Tempo
Time: 25:03
Pace: 9min/mile
This was much better than my tempo run from last week where I pretty much ran myself into the ground. My first two miles were right around 8:35 and my last mile was at 8:18. A little fast on the last mile, but it was nice to pick it up.
Yesterday:
Distance: 4mi
Type: Easy
Time: 39:18
Pace: 9:50
We got a lot of good garden clean up work done this past weekend. I knew it was going to be bad, and I was kind of hoping we'd find this
rather than the tons of volunteer tomato plants and blooming broccoli that were taking over. We had fewer tomatoes this week but we have a lot of carrots and random squash that are ready to harvest. I'm not even sure how to cook some of the squash we grew. Patty pan squash anyone?
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