Week in review- Breakfast at Tiffany's Edition

So the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's... not very much like the book.  Well, a lot of the things that happened in the movie also happened in the book, but the tone was completely different.  When we picked up the DVD box in Blockbuster, I thought "Uh oh" because the story was neither romantic nor a comedy.  But it was a cute movie, and I see why everyone goes nuts for Aubrey Hepburn.

Running on the other hand went according to plan.
U (3/21) - 5 miles easy in 48:17 (9:40 min/mile pace) + yoga
M (3/22) - Strength training
T (3/23) - 7mi with 10 x 1 min fast in 1:04:52 (9:16 min/mile) + yoga
W (3/24) - Spinning
R (3/25) - 6mi progressive tempo in 52:57 (8:50 min/mile)
F (3/26) - Strength training
S (3/27) - 11.5 mi long run in 1:45:26 (9:11 min/mile)

Bringing the grand total to 29.5 miles run.  2x strength training, 2x yoga.

I have to say, I think I'm really liking this 5 days on 2 days off per week schedule.  I've felt energetic and ready to push myself on every workout this week, and I'm waaaay more motivated to do strength training because it now fits in my normal workout time.  

My long run yesterday went pretty well.  The weather was much nicer than last week so I was a little disappointed that I didn't run faster.  However, the pace felt relaxed and easy the whole way, and I ran a negative split, starting out around 9:20-something min/mile and finishing with the last couple miles around 8:50-something min/mile.

I am having an issue I hope someone out there can help me with.  Both last week and this week I had a side stitch for almost my entire run!  It wasn't so painful I couldn't keep going (obviously), but it made me nervous to even take a sip of water until I was done (which wasn't really a big deal because it was 30 degrees out).  I'm not going anything different than on any other day of the week except wearing a waist belt with a water bottle in it (which I have done many times before with no problem).  Any one have suggestions for preventing this?  Or helping it go away once it starts?  

Otherwise yesterday was mainly a "get everything done" day.  I was tired by the end, but we have a clean apartment, clean laundry, and apple cinnamon muffin batter waiting for us to get back from church.  As far as making bread and gnocchi goes- didn't happen.  No potato ricer to make gnocchi and somehow we are missing the little paddle that mixes stuff in the bread machine (which I didn't figure out until after the bread dough was supposed to be ready- argh!- how do you miss something like that??).

Today should be pretty chill.  Run + church + brunch + making caramel apple oatmeal cookie dough to have for our church small group meeting tomorrow + yoga and piano + maybe a little reading and/or nap time in there.  The only 2 days of work this week!!!

Hope you all have a great Sunday.

Week in review

Here's a recap of last week's training. It was an easy week because I ran a 10k last Sunday, and it marked my first week of replacing one of my cardio sessions with strength training and my first week of "official" 1/2 marathon training.

U- Shamrock Shuffle 10k 49:30

M- 45 min full body strength training + yoga

T- 6mi easy in 57:00 (9:30 min/mile) + yoga

W- 60 min spinning

R- 6mi easy in 56:43 (9:23 min/mile) + yoga

F- 45 min full body strength training

S- 10 mi long run in 1:31:31 (9:10 min/mile)

Which brings the grand totals to:

Strength training- 2x

Yoga- 3x

Running- 28.2 miles

Comments:

I'm pretty happy with everything this week. The race exceeded my expectations. My long run ended up being much colder and icier than I thought when I left, so I was happy with the pace overall (about 55 seconds per mile slower than my "A goal" pace) and how strong I felt when I finished.

In completely unrelated news, I think dinner last night was a success! Here's the "table scape" pre-guests:

No pictures during the actual dinner because... well... I still feel kind of awkward about doing that. Anyway, we had some nice conversation and after dinner entertainment from their little girl who is perfecting the art of smiling, flailing around, and rolling over. I really enjoyed putting the meal together, and I hope they will indulge me in the opportunity to do it again. Until then... I'm on the look out for my next culinary victims.

And that's about it. It's a beautiful day out, and I'm going to enjoy it one way or another. See you on the flip side.

Smile

Not too much to report this morning. Words can't express how glad I am to see that it's going to get up to 65 here today. I've been walking home from work every day because it's sunny and beautiful and WARM. I'm not sure when I appreciated 65 degrees more: now or after a long hot Florida summer. The only thing that could make life better is one of these living in my back yard.

I'm going to spinning this morning, then work, then piano lesson, then meeting D on campus for dinner before his midterm this evening.

We had a nice dinner last night- barbecue chicken on the Foreman grill with roasted sweet potatoes and salad. Lots of barbecue sauce and catsup were added to my plate after this picture was taken. (Mmmmm, catsup).

On that note, it's time for me to get ready to go. Happy Wednesday, all.

Week in Review

This was a pretty low volume, low intensity training week (only 23 miles and no real speedwork or intervals) leading into my first race of 2010- the Shamrock Shuffle. Stay tuned for my race report tomorrow. I don't have any real time goal going into the race. I just want to get an idea where I'm at to start the new training year.

Here's the breakdown:

Sunday- First strength training workout in a loooong time.

Monday- 6mi on the treadmill in 58 minutes with 10x1 min fast. 30 min yoga.

Tuesday- 8mi easy outside in 1:16:38 (9:39 min/mile). Strength training.

Wednesday- 60 min spinning

Thursday- 5mi easy in 47:30 (9:30 min/mile). Strength training.

Friday- 30 min yoga.

Saturday- 4mi easy with pick ups in 36:00 (9:00 min/mile).

Some random thoughts:

1. Strength training is a good thing. So is yoga. I feel much better when I do both of these things on a few-times a week basis.

2. I ran in shorts for the first time in WI in 2010 this week. This was also the first week I went out with out my heavy coat, mittens, and a hat. It was beautiful. That picture on the lake would not be happening now. I'd be up to my waist in very cold water.

3. I'm flirting with the idea of actually cutting back on cardio by one day each week. I know it probably seems crazy to those of you who pile on the miles (and have great race times to show for it), but in the spirit of non-competitiveness, I think I'm might be able to bring some more intensity to my runs if I take an additional rest day each week.

Here's my rationale: Normally by my Saturday am run, I feel like it's the end of the week and I'm kind of dragging. Part of the reason I've been doing my longer runs on Tuesdays is that I don't feel like I have much oomph at the end of the week to knock out a good long run. However, I had an awesome run this morning after taking yesterday off. Obviously I'm coming off a fairly easy week, but I felt like I had an energy for my run that I haven't felt on a Saturday in... maybe ever. My plan would be to run Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, spin Wednesday, and be "off" Monday and Friday. An added bonus to this would be that I could make Monday and Friday my strength training days, and I could hit the gym during the morning when it's less crowded and my body is conditioned to work out, leaving more time for yoga and LIFE after work.

The spell has been broken

I am officially out of love with the treadmill. I jumped on it yesterday morning for my run, but it only took 30 seconds for me to decide that whatever the weather was like, I wanted to be outside. And yeah, it was foggy and mud city, but it was warm (31!!!) and wonderful to move forward for a change. It's supposed to rain the rest of the week, which will be fun. Rain + melting snow = everything turns into a lake. But it means winter is almost over. And that makes me so.very.happy. Ah.

Strength training day 2 was good. It was kind of fun to be back at the gym in the afternoon with the regular cast of characters including tattoo guy* and everyone getting ready for spring break, including the guy who was walking around drinking out of a gallon jug of OJ. I am much less sore than on Monday.

I had a fun history lesson yesterday at work learning to use the VAX, which is the original computer network our office started with back in the 80s. It was like I was in Back to the Future, although instead of going back to 1955, I was going back to 1985. D (who is a computer guy and thinks it's hilarious that we still use that thing) told me I should ask our computer guys if its circuits are made from narwhal bones.

Last night's dinner was pan grilled pork chops with pineapple salsa. I made this one a little "semi-homemade" by subbing canned pineapple salsa for fresh stuff (you aren't going to see a fresh pineapple in WI in March). I also added a side of cole slaw and couscous.

We don't have pork very often, so it was a nice change. Seems more like a summer recipe so I'm not sure why it ended up in Cooking Light this month, but it was tasty all the same.

* Tattoo guy has a picture of a Jessica Rabbit-style sexy nurse on his arm that he says is a picture of his wife, "Well, not her body... but her face."

Critters

That was a picture of baby hedgehogs yesterday, courtesy of The Daily Squee. The problem with that site is that you have to wade through a lot of lame pictures:

Exhibit A)



Okay, great, I've seen a cat before.

To get to the good stuff:







The secret is that D. is the one who is actually into this stuff a lot more than me, so every once in awhile I'll hear, "Hey! I've got some good squee for you." from the other room and I can check it out without having to waste time on a picture of someone's cat laying next to their other cat. Seen it.

Let's see... I'm going to spinning this morning and then I'm going to remember (I hope) to come back home to let the treadmill fixin' guy in to replace the speed sensor. We actually had someone out a few weeks ago who replaced the circuit board but had the whole thing back together before he told me he didn't replace the speed sensor. Huh? So I said I'd give it a try and call back if I thought it was still running fast. Well, it is. For example. I can run 7mph on the treadmill at the gym (any gym- this is true at UW and at my in-law's gym in TN) or outside for awhile. It's about my tempo pace so it's not easy but it's do-able. On my treadmill 7mph with no incline is an all out sprint. So hooooopefully when they replace the speed sensor it will feel more normal.

The other exciting thing that happened yesterday is that I got to look at my retinal photographs. Evidently I have a tiny cup (where the optic nerve comes in- this is a good thing), and a blonde macula (not bad or good- just that blonde people tend to have a lighter colored macula). I get to keep the slides, but I have no idea what I will do with them, haha.

Otherwise things are normal city. Hope you all have a great Wednesday.

Shhhh

Don't let anyone find out, but I think I've finally almost dug myself out from under a huge pile of confusing data requests and projects that must be done NOW so I can finally spend some time focusing on my own projects. I spent yesterday finishing up some data requests that weren't *too* bad/time consuming, AND I was able to pass off a data request that probably would have been a bear to our new statistician (thanks, K!- if by some freakish chance you ever find this). Even though these things are not the most important part of my job, it feels great to finish them and check them off the list. So the question today is... do I dedicate it to working on an important project just in case I get dumped on again (I already know about something that's coming down the pike, just not sure when), or do I completely finish another "easy" project that's been hanging out in the queue for far too long? I'm leaning toward the latter because I just want it to be DONE rather than smiling up at me, saying "Hi, I'm still here!" every time I look at my project list. So yeah... if I could get that done... and the "bad eye" selection done... and the final nevus table done... before I have any other data requests... I'll be golden.

Spinning was good yesterday. I think I'm back to feeling 100% energetic again. This morning should be 7mi on the treadmill.

The other exciting accomplishment yesterday was I made it through the day without drinking soda (but not without coffee *shudder*). I did chew a little gum, but it wasn't too bad. I like soda, and I like gum, but I need to face the facts (for like the third time) that they seem to bother my stomach. Actually, I don't notice it too much when I'm drinking/chewing gum on a regular basis, but when I quit I feel a lot better. So recently I've been having some stomach issues, and I've decided to quit again. It's a little hard psychologically, but because I continue my caffeine stream I never feel bad when I quit. Oh Diet Mt. Dew... you're so good to me... you're so bad for me.

And that's about it. Have a good Thursday, everyone!

Better

Thanks for all the "get well" wishes yesterday. I'm definitely feeling better today. Maybe not 100%, but good enough to resume all normal activities. I'm up early and am planning to go to spinning this morning, then work, piano lesson, finish laundry, leftover beef stew for dinner, and a grocery shopping trip.

The work potluck was good yesterday, mostly because I'm down to one serving of chili that I'm taking for lunch today. Yay for coworkers who willingly eat leftovers.

That's pretty much all I've got. Anyone else think all winter Olympic sports can be divided into two categories a)Really dangerous (ski jump/luge/moguls) b)Really strange (curling)?

Always moving, never going anywhere

That's the story of my workouts for almost a month now! The last time I ran outside was when I was visiting my parents in FL from Jan 8-12- unless you count numerous sprints for the bus. This morning will be cycling in place, which I actually prefer to cycling on a road because there is music and no cars. Today's theme is supposed to be "anti-Valentines Day". Should be entertaining. The guy who teaches the Wednesday class always has a good music selection.

Yesterday's long run was not as peppy as last week's, but I stuck with it and got it done. Again, I really like doing my long run early in the week. It doesn't seem like it takes up much more time than a regular run on a Tuesday, but doing my long run on Saturday- maybe because I'm already getting up later- seems to eat up the whole morning. Plus I think it helps with the "I did a long run so I deserve to eat a bunch of junk food" urges I sometimes get because- yes, I eat more on my long run day- but it's more likely to be real food than a sundae.

Work and the conference call were less stressful than I'd imagined. I still have a "pressing" project I feel like will never end, but I'm fairly confident I'll have it finished this morning so I can move onto the 1000 other requests I've been ignoring to finish this. Oh! the other exciting thing is that I got to see a copy of my first journal article that will be published. All that stuff is proprietary so I can't share it on the blog (because I know you are dying to read about blood pressure and retinal vessel measurement), but it's definitely exciting for me.

Otherwise I have my third piano lesson tonight, and I'm planning to make Southwestern Mac n Cheese from An Edible Mosaic, which I saw first on Saran's blog. I have a feeling this will be a huge hit.

Stay warm out there all- and stay safe if you are in the Mid Atlantic bracing for Snowmageddon 10 or whatever number blizzard you are on for this year. Have a great Wednesday, all.

Sweet

That was what my long run was yesterday. It was only 10 miles, but it's only the second time I've done a double digit run since (I think) last March. Unlike on Saturday, I felt really strong and relaxed the whole way through, and I didn't have that post long run fatigue either. I felt totally normal for the rest of the day. Also, I like doing long runs during the week. I know I couldn't get away with doing an 18 miler on a Tuesday before work, but once the sun starts coming out earlier, I think I could definitely get up to 12, which is a fine distance for a long run since I'm not planning on doing any races longer than a 1/2 marathon. Whew. It feels so good to have running go well again. Especially after last year.

Unfortunately I did not "be all I could be" at work yesterday. It's not that I spent the whole day stalking people on Facebook or anything- I had a productive meeting and got a concrete sense of what I needed to do for a project, and I figured out how to make a new kind of graph in SAS, but I didn't really focus the way I should have. I had a really good week for focusing last week, and I know I can't be 100% on every day. Maybe the run fatigued my brain more than I realized. Anyway, I had some insight on what I need to get done today over night. Hopefully things will go better.

Last, I need some fashion advice. Our church is having a dance next Friday night (the 12th), and I have no idea what to wear. I was told that women mostly wear party dresses although you see a range of everything from "I wore this to Homecoming" to "I wore this to football practice". Note, this is not just for the high schoolers, it's for everyone, and we are going with some other couples from our young married group. I looked at the Ann Taylor Loft website because I have some gift cards and 20% off coupons there, but I didn't see anything that matched what I *think* I'm looking for. Any suggestions for good places to shop for such a thing? So many stores are coming out with spring clothes, but it is definitely not spring here (although it looks like the weather won't be too bad that day- forecast is for highs in the 20s).

Well, gotta get ready for spinning. Have a great Wednesday, all.

Brrrrrrr

I'm not trying to *complain* about winter because I said this year I wasn't going to *complain*, but I am going to state that it was really cold out yesterday and it's really cold out today (-2 air temperature) and I would prefer that not to be the case.

Yesterday I had to go to the computer science building to get some paperwork signed with D, and when I tried to take the bus back, it was so packed with lazy undergrads (the ones who just take the bus up the hill- you know who you are) that I had to walk all the way back to my building. Yeah it was only a mile or so, but a mile or so when it's 4 degrees out (or whatever) is a long way to walk. I spent the rest of the day at work chilled, and when I got home I had to get in the shower with the hot water cranked up until I could thaw out enough to put on my yoga clothes. Okay, okay, rant over.

Despite having a darn good week of running so far, I'm planning to do the elliptical today. I really want to run, but I'm really paranoid about doing too much too soon (especially since I'm trying to more speed work) and getting hurt. So elliptical it is. (BTW, when I did my "speedy" session at the end of my run yesterday, I got all the way up to 7.9. Maybe one of these days I'll venture into the "8s", haha. Definitely uncharted territory.)

Tonight's restaurant week dinner is at Ocean's Grill. I've been there once before for a restaurant week lunch, and it was very good, so I'm looking forward to going back and trying something different. I've been cooking, too, but nothing very photogenic. We made a hash brown/egg casserole on Monday evening (needed to use up eggs and potatoes) that would have been better if I'd used packaged hash browns rather than trying to make my own like the recipe suggested. Wednesday we had pizza, and last night we had chicken tamale casserole.

I got my abstract okay-ed at work, and I hope to get it submitted today. The submission deadline is Monday, but I like to do it a little early just in case something weirdo happens. This turned out to be both good and bad. I'm super glad to have it done, but my brain got that "I'm done" signal and wanted to start the weekend yesterday. Not good. I still have a lot of stuff to get done today, and I want to feel the happy "done" feeling on all that as I go into the weekend.

TGIF, everyone!

I need something to warm my heart

Because it is 6 degrees air temperature (-8 with windchill) right now. And in 25 minutes I get to stand out and wait for the bus. I got spoiled by the balmy spell in the 30's over the weekend, but this is a helpful reminder that we still have a lot of winter left to go.

And that something to warm my heart is that it has been confirmed that we have spinning! today. YAY! I do the spinning workout with the triathlon club so it's always HARD. And it will be especially hard today because I haven't done it in probably 6 weeks. One thing you can say about Wisconsin is that they/we are experts at making outside activities fun inside. My run went well yesterday. I did 6.75 mi with 20 min of faster running at the end. I'm always scared to move the treadmill up into the 7s, but lately I've been pleasantly surprised that "scary" paces aren't actually that bad after all. Hopefully this will translate to faster running outside when that day finally comes.

Last night's dinner at Inka Heritage was really really good. I had ceviche for my appetizer, a lasagna dish with yellow pepper sauce for the entree, and a churro with chocolate sauce and lucuma ice cream. Lucuma, which I had never heard of before, has a maple/nut flavor and was maybe the highlight of the meal. Unfortunately it only grows in subtropical climates so there goes my idea to add a tree to the garden this summer. So good. So looking forward to our other restaurant week dinner on Friday. So worth blowing 2 months worth of dining out budget on two meals, haha.

Work is kind of stressful right now, although I'm trying not to let it get to me. I have two big projects that have to be finished by Monday (and Friday would be better), and little things keep getting dropped in my lap. Plus I'm having problems with an Excel file that gets corrupted every time I try to open it with SAS. Fun stuff. But I'm making a deal with myself that I'll get as much done as I can during normal hours today and tomorrow, and if I have to stay late to finish tomorrow evening, I'll do it.

I can't stay late today because it's my first piano lesson! So excited about that. I played the oboe for about 10 years (6th grade - senior in college) and I miss playing music. The problem is that I'm in a weird place for learning to play. I'm great at all the "right hand" stuff and can read treble clef really well, but I can't read bass clef at all (actually I usually start reading it as treble clef, which obviously sounds horrible). So I'm hoping some lessons will help me figure out what to do to balance things out and give me some inspiration to practice.

Looking forward to the elliptical

Which is a little sad, actually. But I'm tired of the treadmill, and I need to do something different. Only a few more weeks before my beloved spinning class will start again.

Not much to report other than I made the best looking omelet of my 4-week omelet making career yesterday. So good that I was actually motivated to get the camera out, take a picture, load the picture on the computer, and load it onto the blog. (I give you guys who do lots of pictures so much credit).



No tears anywhere- oh yeah.

I'm going to cut it off here before this gets any more inane. Happy Wednesday, all.

2-2-2-2-2!

Two more days of work before Christmas vacation!!!!! For better or worse, I have a ton of stuff to do so the time should pass quickly. Aside from a little bit of wrapping and some last-minute ornament assembly, I'm done with all our Christmas gifts. The apartment is (reasonably) clean. All that's left is for D to finish his exam Tuesday afternoon, pack, and leave. Can you tell I'm getting excited?

Yesterday was a nice mix of productive and relaxing. On the productive side, I got the apartment cleaned up, did a bunch of laundry, and put away a few things we still had outside. On the relaxing side, I worked on some ornaments, cleaned out my in-basket, and updated my address book while watching some of Season 1 of 30 Rock that I checked out from Blockbuster. I love that show- especially the doctor. So funny.

Saturday I went to my first hot yoga class in a long time. A yoga studio near us offers community classes on Saturday afternoons, and I've been meaning to check one out. I took Inner Fire Flow, and it was great! I was a little worried about it being too hard, but it wasn't. I mean, there were a lot of things I couldn't do... or couldn't do well... but it was "I could work toward this" hard rather than "I hate this, I want to go home" hard. I definitely want to try to go regularly after the break.

I'm gearing up to do some elliptical and treadmill running at the gym. Next Monday I will not be awake and blogging at 5:51AM. Woohoo!

You know it's cold when the digital thermometer stops working

Our digital thermometer stops working when it's somewhere less than 10 degrees. I would have thought 0 degrees, but I just checked the Weather Channel and it's 5 (feels like 5) so we know that thing likes being outside in cold weather as much as I do. I'm pretty sure I spent less than 2 minutes total outside yesterday. I should probably start taking vitamin D.

I did a treadmill run yesterday with 10 x 30 sec fast, 30 sec easy. Today will be some elliptical.

Actually this winter has been much easier on me so far, even though we've had monster snow and really cold temps. I think I've made peace with being inside in the dark all the time. I think my inner lazy child is enjoying all the sitting around.

One of the things that's seemed to help this year is doing yoga DVDs at home after work. It allows me to de-stress and move around after sitting all day, and it seems to work better than walking on the treadmill. The ones I've found that I like are Power Yoga for Flexibility (Rodney Yee) and Yoga Shakti (Shiva Rae). Some of the poses on Yoga Shakti are totally impossible but she's got some good beginner stuff on there too, and I'm moving into being able to do some of the "regular" series. My mom also sent me a Denise Austin (the one selling potatoes on TV) video called Mind, Body, and Soul. I tried it out last night (not the "soul" part because D got home and I didn't want to dance around in front of him, although I totally would have if I had been alone) and it was pretty good. There's a bunch of good balancing stuff like dancer pose and warrior 3, and a bunch of stuff where you lift your leg forward or backward. I swear I do not possess the muscle that allows you to do that.

I've asked for a couple other yoga DVDs for Christmas this year to round out my collection, and I'm also thinking about getting 30-day Shred. Anyone have opinions about Shred? It seems to be pretty popular on the internets. Or suggestions for other good DVDs?

Quick one

Morning!

I have exactly 9 minutes to get this post done so I can hop on the treadmill for my run. I really don't have time to sneak in a post at work this week, and with all the holiday preparations/events in the evening I don't have time for one then either! This is why procrastination = bad.

Anyway, I did get a run in outside on Saturday. I was considering staying in on the treadmill, but then I looked at the weather forecast and remembered, "Oh yeah, this is the first day of the next three months of my life." So I bundled up big time- really too much- and set out to do my 6mi loop. I hesitate to call what I did a run. It was more like an all-terrain winter adventure. The conditions on the roads and sidewalks were mixed. I had everything from fallen tree limbs to packed snow to dry sidewalk (why UW are the sidewalks nicer than the roads after a snow?) to sidewalk glaciers. It probably took me an hour and a half to get all the way around, but I did it and was happy for that.

Yesterday I did 45 min on the elliptical and then hopped on the treadmill to do 20 minutes fast. When I set the pace, I thought, "There's no way...", but actually I hung on and made it the whole 20 minutes. I had a minor crisis of faith at 6 minutes to go, but by the last minute I was able to bump the speed up. Yeah, the calibration was probably wrong because this treadmill was way faster than our treadmill at home (although I'd had 45 minutes to warm up so that couldn't have hurt), but I felt pretty awesome after I was done. I've felt a little bit down about all things healthy eating and fitness wise lately and this run really gave me a boost.

Also on the bizarrely good at a sport front, I bowled 124 in a game last night. We had our church small group end of the year outing last night, and I gave away our gifts and ornaments (still not being disclosed because there are a few people who read this who will be getting them) and people seemed to like that.

Anyway, I'm now one minute over my time limit! I must fly! 10 days to Christmas!

Monday, Monday

Thanksgiving countdown: 2 days

Tonight we're having a Thanksgiving potluck with our church group, which should be a good time. We are bringing salad, drinks, and pumpkin bread, and there will be ham and all kinds of other goodness.

I was afraid this week was going to drag by, but it looks like I have quite a bit of work to do at work, so it makes the time go by quickly even though there aren't many people in the office. Still, I'm super excited about the holiday and our trip to Minneapolis.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my slow long run post from Saturday. I feel like I need to clarify a few things, though.

1. I didn't feel fatigued on my run. I just ran really slow. If I had felt bad and ran slow I wouldn't have been too concerned, but because I felt good and ran really slow, I was wondering what was going on.

2. I think I overstated how difficult my workouts were. I do a FIRST-type workout schedule where I do 3 days of "hard" running, plus one easy run, plus two days of cross training. It's just that my cross training is spinning, which is a code word for intervals, but it's not really the same as running intervals, ya know? Also, I don't do as many intervals as most of you do. I might only do 2x 1mi or 4x800, so my workouts aren't really though from that standpoint, and my daily runs are usually around 5 or 6 miles with a long run of less than 10 miles- so again, not that tough. I want to work on building up endurance again, but I want to focus on speed first because I'm SO SLOW it takes me FOREVER to do a long run.

And maybe it was just a flukey thing. Again, thanks for the input. This is actually an easy week until my last race of the season on Thursday. I did spinning today, but it was with the easy instructor :).

Fun Friday

Sorry I was lame about posting the last two days. It wasn't that I was even super busy or had absolutely nothing to say... I just didn't get my act together to post.

I did spinning Wednesday, 4mi easy today, and 5.5 mi with 2x1 mile hard yesterday. I don't know what the deal is with my pacing/where I'm running. I really felt like I was giving even effort- maybe even a harder effort on the first mile- but I finished the first on in 7:59 min and the second in 7:41 min. Don't get me wrong, I was super happy with the second mile, but what's up with the first one??? I warmed up, did drills, focused, and pushed myself hard all the way through to the end. I just don't know. I usually run pretty even splits when I race. Meh. Someday I need to suck it up and do an interval workout on the indoor track to see if the problem is with a) me or b) the ground. I'd like it if it were the ground, but if it's me, I need to figure something out so I don't "waste" my first interval running slow. A longer warm-up? Hmmmmm.....

Otherwise my only excitement was lucking into what I hope is a really cool Christmas gift for my parents. I actually put it in the mail yesterday because I was too excited to wait, and I wanted them to have it before the holidays. Can't say what it is because I know they occasionally read this.

This will be another somewhat busy weekend. We're having dinner with some friends this evening, and I have to go help bake pies at a neighborhood center with some of our church high school kids tomorrow morning. I doubt the FIU game will be televised out here so I don't have to worry about missing football.

I'm getting excited about Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you all have a great Friday.

Surviving Spinning

Whew. We had another tough spinning workout this morning. Actually it was a repeat of the killer workout we had a few weeks ago. We got to pick if we wanted to do something new from the regular Monday instructor or an old workout from the regular Wednesday instructor who was covering today. We chose old. Big mistake. I recognized the first song and knew we were in for a world of tough. At least there was no race pace, but I think 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off is my new least favorite phrase to hear.

Yesterday wasn't super exciting. I feel like I spent the whole day at church between the actual service, a training I had to attend in the afternoon, and high school youth. At least I had a chance to start playing around with my Christmas ornaments this year. It's not my favorite ever, but I think they will be pretty easy to knock out. I can't tell you what they are because some people who read this are getting one (whether they like it or not), and I want it to be a surprise.

Quickie Post

Hi all,

Thanks for the moral support about the frustrating day at work yesterday. Today has definitely been better. I've been able to buckle down and get some stuff done/figured out that will hopefully allow me to go forward with my project more quickly.

I had kind of a cruddy spinning workout this morning. The workout itself was good, but my body just wasn't into it. My legs did not want to go fast on the sprints, and I felt kind of blah. My average watts at the end of the workout was about normal, but that's more a testament to the fact that our Wednesday leader puts together some great workouts than anything I did. Doing a half-way job on one of her workouts will still kick your butt.

Part of the reason for the cruddy workout was probably just that it was a random cruddy workout (we all have 'em) and part is probably because I'm back on the weight loss bandwagon. I kind of backslid this last month. I thought I was happy with my weight and ready to move into maintenance land, but at the end of the month I decided that no, I wanted to keep working on it. When I decided to lose weight I made an A, B, and C goal (A is the lightest) and I'm 2 lbs over my C goal. Even though being in weight loss mode kind of stinks, it seems silly to stop now- especially because losing weight so far has helped me look/run/feel so so so so so much better.

Enough of that, but I know some of the other ladies who read this are trying to lose some weight, and I want you to know I feel your pain.