It's raining, it's pouring

And I'm glad I swapped my workouts so I ran yesterday and am going to the gym this morning.  I was a little worried I'd still be fatigued after my long run, but I hit my intervals (4x5min fast with 2min recovery) right on pace.  The first one was a little slow- around 7:40 min/mile, but the last four were all in the 7:20-7:30 min/mile range.  This is probably slower than the oracle would predict for me for 800m repeats, but I'm doing them on a regular running path with some minor ups and downs- not a track- which slows me down a bit.

The other excitement is that... drum-roll, please... I got approved (probably extremely reluctantly, lol) to take a second week of vacation time.  One of the perks of working for the university is that we get a lot of vacation time.  One of the non-perks of working for the State of Wisconsin is that we had to take off 8!!! unpaid days in the last fiscal year.  When I got my leave statement for May I realized that I had 3 weeks of vacation (only one of which could be rolled over) and 2 unpaid days I have to take before the end of June.  It's a strange problem to have, but, even though we technically have all this time off, it's always hard to get away.  Especially because of D's school schedule.

I felt guilty asking to take two weeks off in a row, but 1.It's really the best time for us because it lets us extend our vacation (Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point, woot!), and 2. Gives us some down time to prep to have visitors for Memorial Day weekend.  But I got approved.  Work days to vacation countdown: 4!!!!!!

Last night's dinner is probably the last real recipe I'll make before we leave: Asparagus and smoked trout fritatta (see sidebar for recipe):

I did use asparagus, but replaced the smoked trout for the last two slices of prosciutto we had in the fridge.  This was tasty, but not very filling so you don't see pictured the orange and two packets of oatmeal that went with it.  It was also a 2-alarm meal because I set off the smoke detector and then set one of our kitchen towels on fire with the broiler (The pretty one you gave us for Easter, sorry Accessory Fairy).  Sorry, neighbors!

Well, it's about time to go be productive. 4-4-4-4-4-4-4 days to vacation!  Oh yeah, tonight is our second volleyball game.  Wish me luck.  This time I will successfully serve during the game.

Duality

The natural
Baby spinach and lettuce coming in (bottom right).  Moving up in the picture, a row of broccoli and a row with two sweet potatoes.

Baby spinach, lettuce, and onions (looking at the other side of the plot).

Baby broccoli close up

 Baby sweet potato plants
Before:                                                                And after:

In sum, we pulled a lot of weeds, turned over three new beds, planted broccoli, the two sweet potato plants, pickling cucumbers and some pumpkin seeds, and harvested a green onion (featured later).  We have about three rows left with plans for tomatoes, carrots, and winter squash.

The Unnatural:
Goose rage - For those who aren't acquainted with geese, they are mean and not afraid of anything.  The ones here are Canadian geese, and they stop by to have babies, which makes them even meaner.  They will plant their flock in the middle of the road and not move for anything, and if you decide you'd like to walk or jog on "their" walking path, they will hiss at you and sometimes actually chase you away.

24-flavored barbecue sauce- Yes, we bought Dr. Pepper flavored barbecue sauce from a hardware store.  No, we were not in Texas.

The mere existence of this product caused Michael Pollan to schedule three extra therapy sessions this month and Jamie Oliver to scream the F-word and punch a kindergartener (but apologize immediately after).  Don't let them know there's an A&W Rootbeer flavored barbecue sauce, too.

Truthfully the nutritionals on this guy aren't any worse then your run of the mill barbecue sauce (for better or for worse).  D said it pretty much tasted like barbecue sauce.  I guess his palate isn't nuanced enough to get the other 23 flavors from the Dr. P.

It was used to make D's lunches for the week.  Barbecue (I'm getting tired of typing that word) chicken pizza.  But it's healthy because I used whole wheat dough and a green onion from the garden, right?

Well, I'm headed out to run.  I was planning on strength training today, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I don't want to waste a lovely day (even if it's 34 degrees air temp!) inside.  Have a great Monday, all.

Week in Review- The Wild Goose Chase Edition

Yes, this morning I was chased by a wild goose.  Well, maybe lunged at is a more accurate description, but it was enough to make me wonder how long an angry goose could sustain a 10 minute mile.

Edited to add: Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.  Thanks for helping keep the world from descending into chaos!

Without further ado:
U- Rest and yoga
M- Strength training
T- 6mi with 5x hill repeats
W- 6mi easy
R- 7.2mi with 40 min tempo at 8:22 min/mile pace, yoga
F- Strength training
S- 14 mi in 2:15 (9:39 min/mile pace)

Bringing the totals to:
Running: 33.2 mi
Strength training: 2x
Yoga: 2x

Consulting the great oracle that is the McMillan Pace Calculator with my 1/2 marathon goal pace plugged in,

 My long run pace was right on, but my tempo run pace was a little slow.  Part of this was because I got a monster side stitch about 1/2 way through.  Does anyone know what a steady-state run is? 


Yesterday was pretty chill other than running.  I read, napped, and cleaned.  Today has been much more productive.  I have finished two loads of laundry, run 5 miles, eaten breakfast, and put together this lovely blog post for you and it's only 8:38am.

We are planning to do a bunch of work in the garden this morning so stay tuned for tomorrow's post on things natural

and unnatural

When will it end???

Remember how I said that "Oh, I'll be better prepared for my 1/2 marathon in a month because I'll have nice warm weather for my next few long runs?"

WRONG

So I get to enjoy this for 14 miles this morning.  I heard yesterday we might even get some flurries.  Awesome.  Will it ever be summer????

On to another non-complaining topic, the dinner party last night was actually a lot of fun.  The friend who hosted the dinner is Chinese and she made tons of delicious dishes- (plus meatballs and salad for the Americans- just in case), and the conversation was good and came easily.  It makes me really really really want to host my own party.  She didn't use space as an excuse (she and her husband have exactly the same size apartment as us plus they have a 2-year-old) so neither can I.  I will use being busy as an excuse for the next few weeks (workdays to vacation countdown: 5!!) but after that, it's party time!

Well, I need to put on my big girl tights and get out there and enjoy May in Wisconsin.  Have a great Saturday, all!       

Friday!

Yay!  Friday!  Workdays until vacation: 6.

Not much exciting going on around here.  My tempo run was pretty good yesterday except that I got a horrible side stitch about half way through.  I was able to tough it out and finish, but my pace was a little slower than I would have liked: average 8:22 min/mile during the 40 minute tempo part.  This morning I'm headed over to the gym for some strength training.  It's supposed to rain, and I'm always happier to spend a nasty day in the dungeon gym than a pretty one.

Last night I went to TJ's for groceries for the next week.  It's always hard to figure out the right amount to buy the week before vacation.  I don't want to get so much that stuff spoils while we are gone, but I don't want us to get scurvy for lack of fresh produce.  I also stopped by the library to pick up a few things:

Not sure how I feel about Jared Leto about Steve Prefontaine (My So Called Life, anyone?), but that's the good thing about the library- no monetary investment required.

Dinner was another Cooking Light pasta dish (see sidebar for recipe).  We've gotten a lot of mileage out of the May issue of CL, and there will be more to come next week.

Tonight we're having dinner at a friend's house, and tomorrow I'm gearing up for another long run.

Madisonians, help me out: I'm trying to find a packed dirt trail to do my long runs on.  I know there's the Military Ridge trail, but it's kind of far from me.  Is there anything closer?  Is it worth it to drive all the way out there?

Well, gotta get it together and start another day.  TGIF!

Highlights

• Indian buffet "cat's away" lunch
• New projects on the horizon at work
• Serious progress on my conference poster
• Finally, after almost a year working on it, hitting slightly below my goal weight this morning.
• No rain during my run
• Beautiful weather and two good walks
• Light out early and late
• Forgetting what -5 feels like
• Cooking my first fried egg

• And only breaking one yolk

• Tempo run this morning
• 7 more work days until vacation
• Big plans for the garden this weekend

Rain, rain, go away

When I woke up this morning, it was raining so hard I was thinking I'd have to run on the treadmill.  If you were a reader back in January and February, you know that I do enough treadmill running in those two months to last all year.  Luckily I think it's lightened up enough to go outside.  I don't mind getting a little wet, but I'm not going to be drowned to get in an easy 6-miler.

My 6 miles easy with 5x hill repeats yesterday was good.  I don't have any lingering soreness that felt like it could develop into something worse, but slow definitely felt like the right speed to go.  I know even though I don't feel particularly sore or tired, I'm still recovering from the race.

Last night we had leftovers for dinner and then played our first volleyball match.  I was trying to find a picture to add in here, but guess what?  When you Google "volleyball" (and don't even get me started on "beach volleyball") you get a lot of hyper-sexualized images.  And one picture of a volleyball.  Nothing even remotely appropriate!  Do I hear a collective "Um, of course" echoing from the blogosphere?  Well, it came as a surprise to me at 5:45 this morning.

But back to our game: It was My Arms Hurt Real Bad (my team) vs The Navy Seamen.  The weather was beautiful and the sand felt great on my bare feet.  And guess what?  I'm better at volleyball at 27 than I was at 13.  Not much better, but I hit the ball over the net a few times, and I even managed 2 successful serves (unfortunately that was after the official playing time was over and we were just goofing around).  Anyway, we were close on the first game, won the second, and lost big time on the third one.  I'm looking forward to our game next week, but I need to practice- especially serving.

Well, I'm off to run.  Have a great Wednesday, all!