What works

I'm participating in Sarah's summer virtual retreat (If you're not, think about it), and the theme of this week is inside/out - what practices/habits can you cultivate to feel your best.  Having come back from vacation and then spent a busy day at work yesterday, I was thinking about the best of both worlds.  Vacation is a combination of novel and relaxing.  I usually get more sleep than usual, but I tend to eat a lot more and exercise a lot less.  Work is not alway so exciting and there are nights when I stay up waaaayyy too late for my early wake up, but I tend to eat healthier, be more active, and keep up with other activities I enjoy like playing the piano.  So if I could merge all the best of vacation with all the best of regular life, what would I end up with?  Here are the 9 things I consider essential components of an ideal day in the life of Chelsea.

1. Daily exercise - I get very crabby, very quickly when I sit around all day.  I'm like that pet that you thought you could leave in its cage while you were at work.  When you come home, I will chew your shoes, destroy two houseplants, and then use my tiny claws to cling to your head until you let me out for a walk.  As a side note, I've found that not just running but switching things up and doing yoga and lifting weights several times a week makes me look and feel my best.

2. Daily devotion - While I don't feel physically uncomfortable if I don't spend time praying and reading God's word, I feel... disconnected.  Starting my day with gratitude, learning from individuals who show good (and bad!) character through adversity and having an outlet to share my worries helps me focus on what is truly important in life.

3. Daily fruit and vegetables - To me a meal is not complete unless it contains at least one serving of produce.

Sorry, Ragu, you do not count.

 4. Daily music - Yes, 7 million Chinese 5-year-olds are better than me at the piano, but only 3 million are better than me at the first 20 measures of "I heard it Through the Grapevine".  Whether it's an hour or simply 10 minutes before I have to run out the door, I'm happier when I make music part of my day.

5. Daily desert - But not as much as what is still hiding in a sack under your kid's bed leftover from Easter (and last Halloween if you're lucky).

And not for breakfast.  Ummm, can I trade the candy
corn for some strawberry jam?

6. Daily novelty - Sometimes my life is busy and exciting.  Sometimes I feel like day after day is the same and I have nothing at all interesting to say.  Even if all I do is go to the sensory deprivation gym and sit at my desk at work and make Excel tables all day, I want to keep my eyes open for something new/interesting/novel.  It's that or use drugs.

7. Daily caffeine - This is where the drugs come in.  Now stop giving me a condescending look and pass me a Diet Mt. Dew.

I love you, too.

8. Daily (enough) sleep - On vacation, I could easily do 8-9 hours.  I think if I could sleep as much as I wanted every night, my body would naturally fluctuate between 7 and 9 hours.  In real life, I think never going below 6 and sticking some 9s in on the weekend to balance things out is pretty good.

9. Daily unstructured family time - I'm the kind of person who likes to schedule everything, but it never feels right to interrupt a good conversation (or Futurama episode) because it's "time" to read 1.5 pages of April's The Atlantic before I zonk out for the night.  I feel better when I get everything done before the evening so I can just relax and enjoy Daniel's company without feeling like I "should" be getting other things done.

So how about you?  Are you participating in the virtual retreat?  What do you consider essential components to your life?  

I'm about to go work on number 1 right now.

PS - Good news!  The fan is staying.
 

11 in 101

First off, good luck to MM and everyone running Boston today.  Hope you have beautiful weather and a great run!

Thinking about everything that has to happen in the next two weeks before I leave for a conference in Ft. Lauderdale is intimidating.  It seems almost impossible that in 30 days I will have prepared for and gone to the conference, come back, finished up projects, and be on vacation.  I know it will all get done, but wow.  So, riffing off of an idea from Sarah, riffing off the 101 in 1001 meme, I present 11 things that will get done or I want to do in the next 101 days*:

1. Finish my poster, analyses for a co-worker's poster, and analyses for my boss's talk, fly to Ft. Lauderdale for a week and participate in a conference
2. Attempt a 120lb (bodyweight) bench press
3. Go on vacation and visit family and friends in TN and NC
4. Celebrate my 5th wedding anniversary

I like this picture of us despite the fact that it has a random
arm in it and that I'm officially as pale as my dress.  

5. Finish analyses for two papers

6. Do a 150lb deadlift

7. Do a tripod headstand

8. Finish reading the Bible and create a guide to the Old Testament for my church small group
9. Invite at least one of two couples who live in our apartment complex to have dinner
10. Attempt a 30-day blogging challenge
11. Learn to play a pop song on the piano

Now it is time to inhale some applesauce, bundle up, and head to the gym.  What will you accomplish in the next 101 days?  Work goals?  Personal goals?  Fabulous vacations?  Feats of speed and/or strength? 

* By July 28, 2011

Bird watching

Last Thursday while I was getting some software updated on my computer, I looked outside and noticed two swans were swimming in ponds out by the marching band/ ultimate Frisbee field.  We get birds- including cool stuff like swans and cranes but mostly just nasty geese- passing through on their way north for the summer.  So I grabbed Kerri and another coworker and we braved the weather to check out the swans.

They were so beautiful and didn't seem to be bothered by people watching them.  I took about 10 pictures.  

Kerri brought her binoculars to get a closer look.

Although you can't tell from the pictures, the feathers were incredibly detailed.

Even though it was windy and gross outside, the swans just swam around the ponds peacefully... impervious to us... to the guy chasing geese off the flag football field with a net... not even moving their heads at all...

Because- as we realized after 5 full minutes of oohing and ahhing- they were fake.  Those incredibly detailed feathers?  I guess you can do a lot with plastic these days.  The groundskeepers must have put then in the ponds to scare away other birds.  I'm guessing it will work because they sure fooled us.     

Leaving nature alone, Friday night Daniel and I went over to check out the opening of the new UW Union South.

It's pretty fancy.  There's a bowling alley, a rock climbing wall, a movie theater, food court type restaurants, a bar/grill, concert space, and offices and meeting rooms.  Daniel is happy that he will be able to cut through it to get from the computer science building to the engineering building during the winter.

It was pretty packed, but we were able to catch a free showing of The Social Network.  Although I was obviously not a computer science major at Harvard, the movie did take me back to my undergrad days in the early 2000s.  The whole idea of spending a Friday evening watching a movie at the student union was reminiscent of Gator Nights.  I thought the movie was pretty good, but I did have a hard time watching any part with Justin Timberlake in it and not thinking "Hey! That's Justin Timberlake!  Wow!  Justin Timberlake is in this movie!"  Daniel didn't like the message it gave that good and innovative computer science is all about hacking and binge drinking and twizzlers.  But he did say they got the parts about Mt. Dew and Asian girls right.  He also plans to start writing all the solutions to problems he's working on on the window.

  

Skipping ahead to today...
It's 9:30am on Sunday, and I have the whole day ahead with no obligations.  Normally we'd be going to church now, but Daniel went in to work on a paper he's submitting to a conference on Thursday, and we've already heard the sermon so I decided to stay home.

On the agenda:

• Update the blog 
• Apply to a summer fruit/veg and a meat CSA - I've done the research.  Now I just have to get the printer to work
• Go through our "in box" and deal with mail, etc.
• 1 hour Dave Farmar yoga podcast
• Practice the piano
• Figure out what I'm going to bake for our church group meeting tomorrow night
• Walk to the store (I have the car, but it's beautiful out!) to get ingredients
• Update our budget
• Get lunch stuff ready for the week

If there's time:

• Work on my afghan while watching a movie/ Pushing Daisies?
• Do some vacation research?

Hope everyone in NC is doing alright after the crazy storms yesterday.  Get out there and enjoy some nature! 

Anti-mindfulness

I have a yin yoga DVD that's 70-minutes of hard core hip stretching.  You hold the poses for several minutes each.  It's intense, and I feel like it helps my recovery after a long run, but... it's kind of boring after you do it a few times.  So yesterday I turned it on with the volume on just high enough that I knew when to change the poses and did the routine while reading a book and drinking a Diet Mt. Dew.  I actually liked it a lot better that way.

I'm also trying to ignore the fact that the weather has gone all winter on us again.  That rain I was complaining about on Wednesday?  That turned out to be a mini ice storm.  And yesterday there was the following exchange at the computer science welcome weekend pizza party I crashed:

Prospective Student:  So is there anything bad about Wisconsin?
Me: Um... the fact that it's snowing on March 26...

Despite the fact that it was 10 degrees with the wind chill when I left for my long run yesterday, it went really well.  I upped the intensity by running 10 minutes easy and then picking up the pace for 20 minutes and repeating until I was done.  I finished 12 miles (including the long hill up to my apartment complex) in 1:47:27, which was an 8:57min/mile overall pace and may be the fastest I've ever done a long run.  All the "fast" portions were done between 8:30 and 8:40 min/mile pace.

The weather should be much less craptacular for the next week.  We're climbing back up to highs in the 40s (and 50s!!!), and there's not too much rain on the horizon.  I'm excited for next Saturday when I'll be running the Black Earth 10-miler for the first time.  Should be a beautiful day.

Time to get off the computer and get ready for church.  Hope you have a relaxing Sunday!

Fall 15k Race Report

I guess I'll start my race report with my run yesterday.  I slept in until 6am, and then went out for an easy 5mi in drizzling rain.  Since this wasn't an A race, I didn't try to taper, but on the other hand, I didn't want to leave myself feeling sluggish this morning.  Otherwise Saturday was about chores, although I did go to a free yin yoga class at the local studio which was having an open house.  


Yin is my favorite kind of yoga because it doesn't require you to have any skill or flexibility whatsoever.  You just flop into poses for a long time and hang out until something starts to stretch.  Some people find it boring, but I think it's awesome.  Yoga is number one on my backup list of other things to be obsessed with if I ever have to quit running.

This is a picture of either 1) Someone doing yin yoga or 2) The beginning of this week's CSI Miami where the prima ballerina is found murdered backstage before the opening night of Swan Lake.


This morning I got up and it was gross and wet again.  I drove out to the east part of town to Warner Park for the race.  It was a decidedly low-key affair.  No timing chips.  Most people hadn't pre-registered.  I hung out with Kerri and some of her fellow TNT-ers until we were sent out into the rain to wait for the race to start.  No one knew where to line up or which direction to face, but someone came over and got us generally in order.  


The race started a little late because of all the same-day registrations, but it didn't matter too much.  Again there was no timing chip or mat, and some people seeded themselves... inappropriately, but the first part of the course was open enough to pass people.  There were tons of puddles and my shoes got totally soaked in the first few minutes.  After a short run through a parking lot we ran onto a sidewalk along a street.  This was kind of pain because it was hard to pass people and because you had to do a lot of puddle jumping because so much water was pooling at the end of the sidewalks.  Still my first mile times were a respectable 8:06 and 8:00.


The third mile went back into a neighborhood.  I admit to not paying attention to the scenery.  I was more concerned about fording the mini-rivers and not tripping, etc.  It started raining pretty hard at about this point.  The course had a few small hills here.  I finished mile 3 in 8:03.  We passed the relay trade-off and I saw Kerri and the TNTers again.


Miles 4-6 were hillier.  This was the "hardest" part of the course although I'd say the course was just hilly enough to make things interesting.  There were some decently tough uphills but then they were balanced out by long downhills where you could recover.  My next three mile times were 8:25, 8:10 and 8:20.


At mile 6.2 we passed the relay trade off again.  I was still feeling really good, like I was in rhythm and was saving up energy to speed up in the last mile.  Mile times for the last 3.3 were 8:07, 8:43 (I don't remember this being hilly, but I guess it was) and 7:55 + 1:50 for the .3.  I was able to speed up during the last mile, and I actually got raced by another woman in the chute.  I pulled ahead of her in the last stretch but she sort of snuck in in front of me at the end.  Which was kind of annoying that she beat me by 1 second, but on the other hand, her being there made me push myself through the end in a way I wouldn't have otherwise.  I yacked a little bit at the end, and I dedicated it to MM. 


My overall time was 1:15:42, for an 8:08 average pace.  Pretty good for me for a "non-goal" race.  Other than being really wet and really cold, I didn't feel too beat up immediately after the race.  I got kind of nauseous again after lunch, though, and dosed up on my favorite no-fail anti-nausea treatment.

    
Oh yeah.  Not sure what I'll do exercise-wise tomorrow.  I don't feel too tired right now, but I might have better workouts the rest of the week if I take tomorrow off from at least running.  I'm looking forward to seeing the age group results when those finally come out.  Next up, the Girls on the Run 5k in November.  
   

Day 6:Yoga! Yoga!

This is the first day I rest instead of doing strength training.  Based on the recommendations of all my wise advisers (you guys!), I'm taking this week off from strength training.  This is less because I really push myself when I do weights but more because I don't want to 1.Tweak some muscle I didn't even know I had or 2.Drop something on some part of my body that I need for the race on Sunday.

I'm up at normal time today and am planning to do 45 minutes of yoga before work.  I haven't done yoga since last Thursday so I know I need some stretching out, and I'm hoping that doing yoga first thing will trick my body into thinking that I've worked out today.  So far I haven't been feeling the icky taper feeling- actually it's been kind of nice to back off- but I'm sure it will come before the end of the week.  Isn't the icky taper feeling a sign that you've rested enough and are ready to go?  I hope so.

I've really enjoyed adding in more yoga this training cycle, and I want to try to ramp it up a bit during the boring winter months.

Definitely need a pair of these.  *Bling*

Week in Review - The Birthday Edition

Yep, it's my birthday and I'm not afraid to plaster it all over the blog to get a few extra comments.  Since the BIG birthday as still a few years away (I turned 28 today), we are just having a small get together at our house this evening.  Basically I wanted to have an ice cream cake without turning into this guy

 
Such a classic.

Anyway, here's the week in review:
M- Strength training, yoga
T- 8mi with 5x1000m at 10k pace
W- 6.5 easy, yoga
R- Strength training, yoga
F- 4 easy
S- 13.1 race
U- 5mi easy, yoga

This was an easy week leading into the race, which you can read all about in yesterday's post if you are so inclined.  This week I'm going to play it by ear as far as if and how much speed work to do and how long I plan to do my long run.  I was wiped out from the race Saturday- way more than when I did my 20 miler- so this week is operation recovery and get ready for the final few long runs before the marathon.
 

Week in Review - The First Ache of Marathon Training Edition

Up to this point, I've been very lucky (actually I'm always very lucky) that I haven't had any aches and pains with marathon training, but in the last week I started to have a dull ache on the inside of my left knee.  It didn't hurt any more than any other part of me after my run yesterday, but I skipped running today as a precautionary measure and I won't run tomorrow either because it's a strength training day.  I feel a little sluggish from not working out today but I know that preventing a potential injury >> an easy 5 miler.  Plus there are lots of weeds in the garden if I feel the need to take some aggression out on anything.

So how was last week otherwise???

M- Strength and yoga

T- 8mi with 2 x (4 x 800m) 3:49 was my average 800 time

W- 8mi easy

R- 8mi with 2x15 min at marathon tempo pace.  The first was right on at 8:49 min/mile, the second was at 8:20 min/mile - more like wishful thinking marathon/ half marathon pace, yoga

F- Strength training and yoga (can you see a theme of being worried about my knee?)

S - 19 mi

U- Yoga.  Walking and weeding.

The totals were:

Run: 43 mi

Strength: 2x

Yoga: 4x

All in all not too bad.  I'm planning on running again starting Tuesday as long as my knee stays quiet.  I definitely don't want this to ruin my marathon chances.

Week in Review - The Sweet and Spicy Edition

I guess it was the hot, rainy weather we've been having compared to last year's drier cooler temps, but the garden is just not producing the way it did last summer.  Our carrots didn't grow.  Our broccoli grew and bolted in one week.  The tomatoes look bedraggled.  Fortunately our butternut squash, pumpkin, peppers, and onions are doing well.  The pumpkin plant is humongous, and we even found one little green pumpkin hiding in there.  I guess each year in the garden is different, and you get what you get.  This year we got this:

Green peppers, sweet peppers (which, if you are in Madison and want some, just let me know), and one tiny head of broccoli.  Last year we had so much broccoli!  It's really kind of sad considering all the work we put in to it.  Oh well.  At least we'll have some zesty sandwiches.

On to running and other workout considerations:
M - 5mi easy recovery from long run last Sunday
T - Strength training
W - 8mi with 2x(800,600,600) at 5-10k pace (Interval paces were: 7:40, 7:23, 7:22, 7:47, 7:41, 7:45 min/mile)
R - 8mi with 40 min marathon tempo (run at 8:48 min/mile average pace), yoga
F - Strength training
S - 18mi with miles 9-12 at marathon tempo (did all of them in the 8:50-9:00 min/mile range) in 2:53:00 (9:37 min/mile overall average)
Su - 5mi easy recovery.  Yoga

I'm feeling good about my training overall.  The next two weeks will also be high mileage, and then I'll cut back for two weeks- the first will be recovery, the second will be for a 1/2 marathon fitness testing race.

The only thing that concerns me is how slow my long runs are.  My goal marathon time is 3:50, which is an 8:48 min/mile average pace.  Do you think that- based on the speed I'm doing my long runs- 3:50 is too aggressive of a goal?  I know you're supposed to do long runs slower than your goal pace, but is 45 sec/mile too slow?  Should I try to speed up my long runs?  I usually finish faster than I start, which I know is good...  Any advice would be welcome!

Week in Review- Ben Franklin Edition

Why Ben Franklin?  Because I was early to bed last night (although not so early to rise).  I was in bed reading at 7:30pm, asleep by 8:30pm, and  I didn't get up until almost 6:20am.  After more than two straight weeks of getting less than 8 hours of sleep every night (and no naps), I had some serious sleep debt to pay, and it felt so so so good to sleep in.  Part of the reason I got to sleep in is not so good, though.  My right shin was really bothering me yesterday/last night, and I made an executive decision not to run today.  It's probably just tight, and seems to benefit from Advil, stretching, and icing, but I thought at this point my normal Sunday easy 5 miler would probably do more harm than good.  So instead I'm planning to hit the gym with D today.  I'll re-evaluate the shin situation tomorrow and either run or elliptical depending on how it goes.

Week in review:
U- 5mi easy in 47:17 (9:28 pace), yoga
M- 8.5 mi with 3 hill repeats in 1:18:45 (9:16 pace)
T- Strength training
W- 8mi tempo in 1:12:11 (9:02 pace).  20 min easy at 9:33 min/mile, 15 min moderate at 8:24 min/mile, 5 min moderately hard at 7:42 min/mile, 5 min hard at 7:19 min/mile.
R- 5mi easy in 49:15 (9:51 pace), yoga
F- Strength training
S- 12.5mi in 1:53:30 (9:05 pace)


Brining the grand totals to:
Miles run: 39
Strength: 2x
Yoga: 2x


This was a big week for me on top of a lot of weeks of building, which I think contributed to my shin pain.  This week will be a cut back week in preparation for my 8k race on Saturday, and the next week will also be a cut back to recover from that race and get ready for the 20k the next week.


Otherwise I just have normal Sunday chores to do.  It's a beautiful day, and I'm looking forward to planting starting some new seeds in the garden.  Have a great Sunday, all!

 

Week in Review- Going to Seattle Edition

Friday at work I found out that my abstract (and the abstracts of two coworkers who submitted them) were accepted for posters at the Society for Epidemiologic Research conference in Seattle this year.  Now I can take the (hopefully) because it is firmly in list of things I'm looking forward to.  Not only am I interested in the material presented at the conference, I'm excited that we will be near the touristy area and able to sneak in a trip to the Space Needle and Pikes Place Market in the after-conference house.

Now to the running week in review:
U- 5mi easy.  Not sure how long it took because I didn't bring my GPS.  Yoga
M- 7mi with 4x 3min hard, 2 min easy.  Didn't do my best job pushing myself through the intervals, but I'll have a chance to make up for it this week.
T- Strength training.  Yoga
W- 7mi progressive tempo.  Much better than last week.  I hit or was faster than all my prescribed paces.
R- 5mi easy.  Didn't take my watch again.
F- 12.5 mi long run in 1:58:30.  It took me a long time to feel warmed up during this run.  I was off pace by about 30 sec/mile compared to my normal long run pace, but I chalked it up to it being cold and early.  It was still in the long run pace range according the the McMillan running calculator.
S- Strength training.

Bringing the totals to:
Running: 36.5 mi
Strength training: 2x
Yoga: 2x

Not too much more to say about this week.  It had it's high points and low points, but it was a good training week all in all.  I'm still feeling healthy and motivated to run, which is good.

On the other hand, my schedule is still all out of whack.  I never got a nap yesterday, and we were eating dinner last night at 9pm.  I was back up at 5am to get in a run before church, and I have a TON of stuff to get done today: Church, meeting about our summer trip to Mississippi, bake two cakes for the desert fundraiser on Tuesday evening, and be back at 5pm for youth group.  Wish me luck!  Definitely no nap this afternoon.

Hope you all have a great Sunday.

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.

New Year's Resolutions 3 Months In

We've just finished the first 1/4 of 2010 (!!!!) so it's time for a resolution check in.  In a way it seems kind of silly to think about new year's resolutions after the second week of January, but because I'm semi-interested in actually keeping them, I'm doing another check in.

1. Put away everything after I use it- Hmmmm... I'd say I'm getting a C+ in this one.  For the most part I get dishes washed after I use them and I'm not leaving my clothes in a pile on the dresser.  But sometimes I do.  And that sometimes is becoming more frequent.  I need to get on this one.

2. Focus at work - Wow, this one definitely has peaks and valleys.  Some days I'm totally on.  Some days I'm a distracted child.  Playing music seems to help when I'm doing tedious stuff, but I still have the bad habit of checking "just one blog in Google Reader" while I'm waiting for a long program to run.

3. Get out of my comfort zone when it comes to exercise and eating healthy - This one deserves at least a B+.  After years of thinking I had to do cardio 6+ days a week, I've cut back to 5, and so far it's been a great decision.  Two strength training sessions a week allow me to 1. Recover from a though workout, 2. Prevent injury, and 3. Tone up a bit.  So why have I resisted doing this for so long?

4. Have more fun with more people  - I'm still an introvert, but we did have our first dinner party, and I really enjoyed it.  The next few weekends are going to be busy, but I definitely want to do more dinner parties and social stuff in general.

5. Take more pictures - Maybe, because anything greater than 0 would be an improvement.  I still don't know why I'm resistant to it.

6. Keep in touch - Boo.  Another fail.  I'm good at calling my parents once a week, but there are a few of you out (I don't think any of whom read my blog) there that I'm soooo lazy about calling.  I miss you!  I'm sorry I'm a lame friend/family member.

7. Music - Yes!!!  Piano is going well (except that I haven't practiced much this week due to feeling yucky every evening).  I really enjoy playing an instrument again.

8. Waste less time - Hmmmm... I think this has been pretty good.  I'm trying to do yoga and piano every day after work rather than... say... watch Say Yes to the Dress, but sometimes (like this past week) I just collapse on the couch in a puddle.  Oh well.

9. Read real books - I think I've also been pretty good about this one.  I read Soul Searching, which is an academic book about the sociology of teenage religion in America.   And Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is (I guess) a classic.  And I'm in Leviticus in my chapter a day Bible reading (and what's more serious than regulations on mildew?).  In fact I don't think I've read anything without any redeeming value in awhile.  So hopefully I'll get my library request for U is for Undertow soon.      

10. Do a better job on the blog - I think so.  At least this one is a work in progress.  I've changed up the layout a bit and am trying to post every day and add more color and pictures (which this post is completely lacking).

All in all, I think I deserve a C+ or B on resolution keeping, which is pretty good considering I'd actually forgotten what some of my resolutions were!

Did you make any resolutions this year?  Do you still remember what they were?  Have you kept up with them?    

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.

And there was much rejoicing

As you might guess from the title, my race went really really well yesterday. The short story is, on a tough course, on a fairly windy day, I ran a 31 second 10k PR and fiiiiinally broke 50 min for the 10k, finishing in 49:30.

Here's the long story.

Traffic was bad and we got there later than we'd planned. Packet pickup was easy, but I didn't have time to warm up before the race start.

Mile 1: We took off slightly down hill. I passed a lot of people who should have started further back in line. Then we headed up the monster hill. Going out it wasn't too bad because it's less steep. You crest one hill, have a little break going downhill, and then have one more uphill part before you start down a steep decline. Mile 1 time 8:10. Also, at this point I noticed that my GPS was going off waaaaay before we hit the mile marker. This made me a little nervous.

Mile 2: Pretty flat. We got some wind coming off the lake, but because we were running parallel to it, it didn't really slow me down. Mile 2 time: 7:25. I was a little concerned by this because I was afraid I'd blow up on the way back. I was feeling "in the groove" though so I just hung with it. GPS went off way before mile marker again.

Mile 3: Still flat. Almost to the turn around. Passing a lot of people. Some chaos at the water stop because wind was knocking the cups over and spashing water everywhere. Mile 3 time: 7:33.

Mile 4 and 5: Pretty much the same as mile 3. We got both head and tail wind as we were coming around the lake. Mile 4 time: 7:48. Mile 5 time: 7:45.

Mile 6: Back over the monster hill. This way is steep. The race got tough for me here because I got passed by a lot of people going up the hill. I just kept telling myself "even effort, you'll catch them on the way down". And for the most part I did. It's funny that as uncoordinated as I am, I pass a lot of people on downhill stretches. I felt a lot better after the downhill, but I had no idea what my time was at that point. I'd only been checking my watch at the mile markers, and I knew I was somewhere around an 8 minute mile. We turned the last corner, and I saw the clock at 49:4X. I was completely shocked that I had the chance to break 50 min for the first time, so I picked it up and finished hard, passing people right at the end. Mile 6 time: 8:24. Last .2: 2:30.

Overall official stats were 49:30min (7:58 min/mile average) finish, which I was very very happy with (not to mention surprised). My GPS tells a slightly different story. I guess I wasted a lot of time/distance passing people at the beginning, because it shows I ran 6.35 mi in 49:35 (7:48 min/mile). If that's true, I ran the same pace as my 5k PR in the fall on a tougher course. Pretty good improvement. Either way, I guess I'm not so out of shape after all.

I have one more shorter race in April, but the next big one will be the Madison 1/2 Marathon in May. I'm hoping that this is just a taste of what the running year has in store for me.

Today is a rest day from running. I'm doing some strength training in the morning and hopefully some yoga after work.

Take care, and have a great Monday! Thanks to all of you who stuck this post out to the end to share in my excitement.

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.

Chill

Whew. Yesterday was quite the workday. Because we run a longitudinal study, we are often interested in change over time. Mostly we are interested in incidence of a disease/condition, which, mathematically and from a data set-up point of view, is not that hard to do/understand. But disappearance of a condition is. Especially when you're trying to keep track of what's going on in two eyes. I worked from about 7:45 to noon trying to set up the data for one outcome. At that point I took a break because I knew what happened in the next hour or so was going to set the tone for the weekend. Either I was going to figure it out, and the rest would follow, or I wasn't going to figure it out and therefore have to stress about it and/or work on it all weekend. Fortunately I hit the jackpot at about 12:30, celebrated by eating lunch, and finished setting up my other outcomes.

I do well working for 1-2 hour chunks with a short break in the middle, so it's very taxing on my brain to push for hours straight. BUT, I feel super accomplished and able to put everything aside for the weekend knowing I'm ready to go on the rest of the project Monday. And I had something tangible to send to my boss before I left yesterday.

Last night we had dinner at Essen Haus, a German restaurant known for serving beer in a giant glass boot.

We didn't partake in that, but any place that brings you soft pretzels with mustard dipping sauce as the "bread basket" gets major points from me. It was definitely a lot of meat + lots of carbs meal, but that's what got our ancestors through the winter. I think it would be a good place to take family members when they visit. I doubt there are many places to get a good schnitzel in Orlando or TN.

We also watched The Prestige, which was a good movie, but the end kind of creeped me out. I partially blame it for the dream I had that my supervisor's daughter disappeared, and we were searching for her in a huge cargo net jungle gym with live monkeys that were pulling our hair and stealing our stuff. Def. not what the movie was about, though.

Today's plan is to get in a short run with some strides during the laundry rotation this morning. I went down to put my first load in at 6:20am, and someone already had one going! That's some dedication. It's cool and drizzly out, which always reminds me of Christmas time growing up in Florida. Fortunately the rain isn't expected to last through tomorrow.

Otherwise it should be a pretty chill day. I want to do some yoga to continue to stretch out and maybe drop by the thrift store. We have a huge St. Vinny's in town that's actually supposed to have some pretty cool stuff.

Hope you all have a productive and relaxing Saturday.

TGIF

At least I think I'm glad it's Friday. I have a lot to do before I'll feel ready to disconnect my brain from work for the weekend. I haven't slept super well the last two nights- visions of the cumulative incidence of microaneurysms only were dancing in my head- so I hope I can hit a hard stopping point by the end of the day so I can truly relax. Like this

I think all my computer-related back and shoulder problems would be gone if I could stretch like that.

No run planned for this morning. I decided that, although it isn't BAMF, it would be prudent to take today off before my race on Sunday. No, it's not the Olympic Trials, and no, I probably won't PR or anything, but I still want to go into it feeling fresh, not like I'm at the end of the week ready for a rest day. So I'm just going to do about 30 min of yoga before work and an easy run tomorrow with some pick-ups.

Don't you wish you could do that? I'd hate to see what would happen if he lost his balance, though.

Last nights dinner was a tasty reheated lamb and chickpea tagine.

I actually made this in the crockpot rather than on the stove (well, everything except the couscous). It tasted great both times, and I'd definitely make it again except lamb stew meat is really expensive. I think you could do chicken or beef, though. Tonight is dinner out night. Not sure where yet.

Time to go see if I can still touch my toes. Have a great Friday, all.

Refreshed

Yep, that's what 2.5 hours of couch time on Saturday afternoon will do for you. I hate to "waste" my Saturday afternoon sleeping or reading, but I always find that if I give in and chill out for a little bit, I feel sooooo much better. In fact I felt so much better I cleaned up all the kitchen cabinets and wiped down all the easy to miss surfaces like the top of the fridge. And I'm ready to go and in a much better mood today.

Today we have church, our last membership class (yay!) and the youth Super Bowl party. I'm also planning on getting in some yoga, piano practice, dusting, vacuuming, and going through my sewing/craft stuff. And I don't feel any resentment toward that list. YAY for rest.

Otherwise not much is going on. No run today. I feel energetic enough to do one, but I'm not sure my body is ready to handle 5 days in a row with my increased mileage. Plus my run yesterday, even though it was slow, felt unusually hard. I just need to throw myself into yoga and cleaning, and I won't feel so lumpy.

Hope you all have a great Sunday!