Week in Review- Happy Easter Edition

Happy Easter to all!  


We're headed out to church at our normal time this morning and then over to Bluephies for brunch.  I love sweet breakfast foods like pancakes and French toast, and we rarely every go out to breakfast/brunch so this is definitely a treat for me.  Our TV died Friday night so yesterday was a busy one, running around getting that fixed and trying to set up internet/TV on an old laptop.  Hopefully our last day of vacation will be much more relaxing!

Here's the week in review:

S- 5 recovery miles in 49:00 (9:48 min/mile)
M- Strength training and yoga
T- 7.3mi in 1:07:00 (9:03 min/mile).  This was a repeat of the progressive tempo run I did last week.  Rather than going full out like last week, I moderated myself a bit and was closer to hitting the prescribed paces: 10 min at 9:03, 10 min at 8:34, 5 min at 8:13, 5 min at 7:40.  I was actually a little disappointed that I didn't run this as fast as last week, but I did purposely slow down a bit, and this was when I was still not feeling very well.
W- 5 mi with 10x1min fast in 46:40 (9:20 min/mile).  This was pretty much at the hight of not feeling good.  Luckily I turned the corner the next day.
R- Strength training.
F- 12.5 mi long run in 1:53:15 (9:04 min/mile).  I was very happy with this long run.  I actually ran most of the miles at a faster than 9 min/mile pace, but my warm-up mile and a couple miles heading uphill into the wind slowed my overall pace down to what it was.
S- 5 mi in 50:00 (10 min/mile pace).  Just need to keep reminding myself that this was a totally appropriate pace for a recovery run, especially after I did a long run AND did 1.5 hours of hard garden work.

The overall stats:
Running: 34.8 mi
Strength training: 2x
Yoga: 1x (Need to get on this one.  My calves are tight)

Stay tuned for a post on the beginning of the garden and a special back to work after vacation post about managing distractions when you work in front of a computer all day.

Edited to add: Check out the awesome mystery give-away over at Dr. TriRunner.

Give away

This has been a busy day so no regular post from me.

There is a cool give away on Jess's blog, though.

Oooohhh... pretty

Sarah over at Ghost World is giving away a really cool Rhodia calendar/planner. Love it.

Give away

Oh yeah, and Jess has an awesome trigger point foam roller give away. My butt could really use that right now.

First Garden Harvest

Hi everyone,

It's hot here. It "feels like" 96, which, even by the standards of places that are actually hot is hot. Which means the gym is going to be a real treat this afternoon because it's not air conditioned. There are fans and they keep the windows open, but it still gets pretty warm and muggy. I call it Bikram weight lifting. And the floor... well... try not to slip.

Fitness
I had a great run today after my day off yesterday. It wasn't super speedy; it just felt really good. And my piriformis pain seems to slowly be going away.

Food
We have our first harvest from the garden!!! Green onions.



I spent a long, hot, sweaty time weeding yesterday so these bad boys better be worth it. There's way more than we'll ever use so I'm going to try to get some of our church group members to take some. The rest will go to work with me tomorrow.

Fun
I won a contest on a blog. I enter a lot of contests on blogs because, really, what the heck, right? Some of the stuff I'm not even remotely interested in. But I won a copy of a book on Cranky Fitness that I'd probably actually pick up at the bookstore and read. I don't really believe in buying books unless you know you'll want to use them for reference, but I have no problems with being gifted with a free one. Thanks, Cranky Fitness.

Guest Post and Giveaway

Hey everyone!

Here's a snippet of what's going on in the blog world as it pertains to me:

I've got a guest post over on the blog See Jess Run.

And Zesty Cook is giving away a blog make-over. I'd love to personalize this blog more, so it would be super cool if I won.

The real update will come later.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

According to CNN.com, it's "Mostly sunny, 69-degrees"!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I can't wait to leave work in an hour and walk home. This morning was my first pre-work outdoor run this year. I can't even describe how wonderful it is to step outside without freezing my behind off.

I've been sticking to eating healthy the last few days with the exception of a SMALL death by chocolate sundae from Michael's Frozen Custard while having lunch with coworkers. I totally could have done a medium, but the small was just as satisfying, and it didn't take me an hour to eat it.

Exercise-wise, yesterday I walked to and from work and lifted weights. Today I ran 6.3 mi in a little less than 59 min- kind of slow- I guess I'm still recovering from the race on Sunday. I plan to run tomorrow morning before we leave for St. Louis but not while we are gone. This is vacation, and running on a hotel treadmill isn't vacation for me.

Normally I don't get into the blog giveaways BUT Eating Bender is giving away the cutest cup here. That "I'm confused- Oh wait, maybe I'm not" mug is perfect for me for the days it takes me 5 tries to get out the door to go to work.

I'm not planning to post while we're traveling, but I hope to have plenty of good pictures to share when we return. Hope everyone is having a lovely, warm Tuesday.

Secret Cupid Excitement

I got my Secret Cupid package last night from Amelia at AC/DC: Highways to Health. As you can see from the pictures, it contained a lot of tasty treats: a blueberry Z-bar, a coconut cream pie Lara Bar, a delicious dark chocolate bar, and several different varieties of tea. My favorite thing, though, is the Magic Muscles Massage bar (the white bumpy thing) that Amelia writes, "uses cinnamon leaf oil to heat things up and adzuki beans to loosen knots. Rub the bar where your muscles are aching and the peppermint oil will make your skin tingle." I haven't used it yet, but it smells wonderful.

Thanks again so much, Amelia. I hope to "see" you around here. And thanks to Lee at For the Love of Peanut Butter for organizing this.

Chelsea

The dreaded V-day

D had a roommate who maintained the best place to meet women was in the ice cream aisle on Valentines Day. If the very words "Valentines Day" sets your auto pilot to "nearest Ben and Jerry's," or even if it doesn't, head on over to For the Love of Peanut Butter to participate in her Valentine's Day Secret Cupid. Because everyone needs an anonymous gift from a stranger now and then...