Slow & Steady Wins the Race :-)

Such a long busy neverending day, and there's more of them coming.  I can't wait until Friday night!  Ran 3 miles at the gym track around 9pm, 1 minute walk breaks after each mile, then some weights.  Still far from 100% but I actually felt like a human being today which was a relief.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to normal.  

Another ridiculously long day.  On the TM at 10pm, just did enough to count it as a work-out day. 2 miles running, 1.25 miles walking, 3.25 total.

Day #33.  40 minutes on the elliptical at the gym while watching Community (definitely not my favorite episode).  Intervals of difficulty 5-10 1 minute each x 6.  Everyone think good thoughts for me tomorrow at 10:30am - its my big presentation!  

SUCCESS!  I successfully presented my R&I and I think it went pretty well!  Thanks everyone for the good thoughts!

Afterwards I rewarded myself with a mid-day run on Burke-Gilman trail, 5.5 miles, walk breaks after 2, 4, and 5.  Maybe it was the distance, maybe it extending the time between walk breaks, but I got sniped, and it made me very disheartened.  Knee started acting up from 4-5.5 and especially right at the end.  Made me sad because I'd been feeling so good lately.  I hope that this is just the ITB getting used to this amount of stress and doesn't mean I'm going back to the beginning.

Celebratory dinner with Jordanne and Justin, then decided it would be fun to swim so I did 21 laps (1,050 yards) at the pool with Justin, sat in the hot tub and sauna, lovely. 

Day #35.  30 quick minutes on the elliptical, no time this morning because cleaning and getting ready for Jordan and Rachael to come up!  Time to celebrate!

Day #36.  3.6 miles around the neighborhood in the FF, was very cautious (aka SLOW) and scared the whole time after Friday, but it was fine.  Walk breaks after every mile.  Then went to the gym and did an hour of Centergy with Lisa.  Finally 30 minutes on the elliptical while frantically trying to read our book for book club next weekend!  Now time for work and football.  I'll probably work during the actual football and watch during the commercials :-)

Day #37.  20 minutes on the elliptical, some leg weights, then ONE MILE swimming!  Yep, new record, 36 laps!  Did 18 laps, 11 laps, then 7 laps without stopping.  Had a pretty bad headache by the end, not sure if it was a goggle problem or an oxygen problem.  Justin did a mile too!  I was very proud of him.

Day #38.  6 miles at the gym track!  1 minute (1 lap) walk breaks after each mile, plus stretching after 3, 4, & 5.  Yay!  

30 minutes on the elliptical, some weights. Feeling sluggish.

Day #40!  Shall I go for 50?

5 lovely miles with Lisa at BPA (on the way, on the way back went streets because of the dark creepiness).  I pushed the wonderfully sweet Denali in the BOB the whole time, LOVE IT!  NO walk breaks (although I was slow), this run made me feel so good and optimistic!  

I was totally feelin' like a lazy bum content to watch trashy tv off the dvr (aka jersey shore) but I finally forced myself to the gym around 8pm (yeah yeah yeah, I go to the gym at 8pm on a Friday night, well now at 9:30pm I'm going to transcribe some interviews, so take that for fun weekend fun!).  Felt sluggish and so full from dinner, but I listened to Born to Run and read race reports until my phone died and was quite content on the elliptical.  After that there was no going on without the entertainment though, so I rounded it out at an even 50 minutes and quit.  

I have a fun Valentine's Day surprise day o' fun planned for tomorrow (lucky for me I don't think my husband has ever read my blog so no risk there!), hope everything works out that I've got planned! :-)  

8 great miles this morning around 8am, was coooold.  Wore my gloves, ear thing, and fleece the whole time (took my gloves off for 1 mile and then put them back on!).  Was aiming for 7 but wasn't sure I could do more than 6 so was very pleased with this!  45 second walk breaks at 2, 4, 6, 7, so lessening those too!  Yay! 

Splits: 10:47, 10:07, 9:49, 9:42, 9:28, 9:22, 9:26, 9:19

TT (with all walking, total 8.58 miles): 1:27:44

THEN took Justin on our surprise Valentine's Date Day!  Washington burritos from fake Muchas, Harry Potter 7 at the $2 theater (I think I shed even more tears this time!), dinner at the #2 Chinese food restaurant in Seattle (they lied), and a TRAPEZE CLASS!  My calves are SO sore from hanging from the bar and I literally cannot walk and fear for walking tomorrow!  I am definitely no natural and won't be appearing in Cirque du Soleil anytime soon, but it was still awesome!

Check out a video of my trapeze practice here, or check out a video of the catch here. I couldn't figure out how to embed them, I'm not that smart!

One hour centergy, 20 minutes elliptical. Book club fun - Land of a Hundred Wonders. Pretty good, quick read.

One hour group power with Jordanne, sooo tired, going to be so sore.  Planned on running but was too hungry, came home and made some delicious Vday coconut chicken, delightful!  My evil husband gave me too much candy and we shared a whole box of chocolates!

Day #45.  So sore today, abs still killing me, hamstrings, arms, sore!  4 miles at the gym track, walk break after 2, second mile all fast, fourth mile 'speed-ups' 2 laps on 1 lap off.  Both of these miles ended up being about exactly 8:14, which I thought was interesting.  Walked until hit a walk mile afterwards.  

5:30pm (my night class was canceled so I took advantage!), 5 lovely miles outside with Cooper (his first run of 2011 I think, poor little guy!).  NO walk breaks!  Started pushing around 1.5, pushed the rest of the 2nd mile, 3rd mile, and especially the 4th mile.  Did 1 whole regular loop to try to add back in some hills, Lincoln City will be hilly and I need to be ready!  Ran until it was completely dark out, lovely full moon, so cold I never even thought about taking my gloves off.  With walking 5.4. 

Splits: 9:48, 9:04, 8:31, 8:08, 9:08

Pleased with this run, I am!

36 minutes on the elliptical.  Had already eaten these calories worth of the rest of my vday gummi bears, so I knew I had to make it to the gym!  The gym makes me mad because there are 5 TV's but 3 of them are usually on the SAME basketball game.  And you have to go ask some huge jock guy who really likes basketball to change it.  But I sucked up my courage and got to watch Community. 

Getting some wisdom extracted tomorrow...

Took a full sick day today, which allowed me to go do my data collection in the schools this morning (for my own research project) and get a lovely run with Cooper in in the middle of the day!  5 easy miles around the neighborhood, today was garbage day so it was annoying dodging all of the cans everywhere.  Did I mention NO walk breaks again?!  I am feeling better and better, hope it keeps up!

TT: 48:23  AP: 9:38

Splits: 10:14, 9:43, 9:29, 9:23, 9:10

Then went and got my wisdom tooth out (that's right, tooth not teeth), and it was sooo quick and easy I am so glad I decided to be awake.  The worst part was the shot in the roof of the mouth and then sitting there listening to the sound of the saw.  Now I just wish it would stop bleeding! 

In other nonrelated, yet bad news, my computer has decided to stop charging itself.  So I can now only use it when its attached to the cord.  That is going to be a HUGE inconvenience. 

Woke up and it was SO BEAUTIFUL out this morning, gorgeous blue sky, no clouds, just lovely.  So made some fabulous plans: tennis, dog park with Cooper, and golfing.  Loaded up the car with Cooper and headed to play tennis.  5 minutes after starting to play we were back in the car.  Although the temps were cold they weren't unbearable (about 42) but the wind was whipping and BITTERLY COLD.  Horribly horribly cold.  So there goes the whole day's plans.

30 laps at the pool later on (dragged myself there only for the streak!), 1500 yards.  Today focused on sprints (100-150 yards at a time) instead of distance in a row.  Heart rate was definitely at exploding levels.  Felt good.  

Day #50!  I made it!

Another beautiful blue-skyed, yet freezing, morning!  Lovely run around the neighborhood, 8:20am, frost everywhere, so I ran on the side of the road with the sun as much as possible.  Walk breaks at 4, 7, 8, 9.  Felt the knee at 7 so started doing walk/stretch breaks every mile and stopped doing the hills.  Sprinted for the last .6 or so. 

Entire thing including the walking (total 10.85) was 1:47:22. 

Splits:  10:16, 9:51, 9:53, 9:34, 9:51, 9:42, 9:16, 9:46, 9:19, 8:59, 8:50, 7:54 (.4)

Sadly I skipped Centergy, I need to do my long runs on Saturday!  Then we were off to the dog beach (Cooper had a wonderful time), the famous Red Mill (was in Man vs. Food and #1 burger in Seattle but it was totally overrated, except for the thin mint milkshake which was the best thing I have ever had!) and some bingo (no I did NOT win). 

Great day!  Until now, when my knee is bothering me and making me sad. 

Even though I had the whole day off somehow I only packed in 2.5 miles walking on the TM at the very last minute (aka 9:30pm).  In my defense, I did an hour's worth of yard work earlier in the day (our yard looks awful!), so that should count too!

Tuesdays are SO long.  Early morning class, meeting, conference call, afternoon class, evening class, gym.  Somewhere in there it was snowing outside.  Ridiculous, can it be spring already?  They're saying something about 6 inches later this week, we'll see about that!  

6 miles at the gym track, I guess that means Sunday's run wasn't too damaging to my knee!  :-)  2nd mile was tempo, 4th mile was 1 lap on 1 lap off, both were around 7:53.   Walk lap after each of the fast miles.

45 minutes on the elliptical.  Of the 5 precious TVs at the gym, 3 of them (that's right, THREE) were on that New Adventures of Old Christine show.  REALLY?!?!  Unacceptable.  So I listened to the whole soundtrack of Wicked and pretended I was watching it again.  Love Wicked!  A lot of hype around here about not much snow. 

This was just a torture workout, I don't know why.  Just was not feeling it today, sat in my car in the gym parking lot for like 10 minutes just content to listen to my audio book - I did not want to go inside!  Then I did not want to run, and every lap was so torturous to keep going, I was so bored, so hungry, and just in general not feeling it.  Just one of those days.  I'm somehow shocked I pumped out 5 whole miles.  Did lunges, squats, plank, push-ups after 1 and 3.  Later walked 2 miles on the TM while watching some terrible TV I'm nice enough not to subject my husband to!  

In other news I made a delicious new crockpot dish: chicken breasts, black beans, carrots, and a few red potatoes - cover in salsa and cook all day. Serve over spinach with a little new salsa.  Delish.  

10 minutes on the stairclimber (that thing is dangerous! I almost fell a few times!), weights (the bane of my existence), 5 minutes on the elliptical.  Quick and to the point workout. 

The good first: 11 miles around the neighborhood.  BRRRR.  25 degrees probably, I don't know how people who live in actual cold climates do it.  I did some work this morning to try and wait out a warm-up but it didn't come.  I was wearing 2 pairs of pants, 2 long-sleeve shirts and a fleece, ear wrap, and gloves.  Pretty ridiculous.  Took the fleece pants and fleece top off at 4 (water too).  My knee needs to freaking suck it up and get over itself so today I only allowed walk breaks when I absolutely needed it which was at 6 and 9.  

TT: 1:45:07   AP: 9:33

Splits: 10:14, 9:53, 9:50, 9:18, 9:29, 9:19, 9:27, 9:19, 9:12, 9:43 (the almost hit by a car mile), 9:21

The bad:  At mile 10 I was literally about 6 inches from being taken out from a car, which really shook me up.  I am very proud of myself for practicing my deep breathing and not just totally bursting into tears.  This lady had plenty of time to see me, she had a stop sign, I kept looking at her waiting for her to make eye contact with me that she saw me but she was just looking to the left for oncoming cars and never once looked straight ahead or to the right.  When I finally realized that she wasn't going to see me EVER I screamed my head off and tried to bolt across the street.  I think the screaming got her attention and somehow her front left bumper missed my left knee by about 6 inches (as if my left knee doesn't have enough problems going on as it is).  She stopped and had that horrified expression on her face and rolled down her window and said she was sorry, but what can you say to that?  Oh its okay you almost killed me, maybe you should stop at stop signs and look where you're going next time?!?!  I walked for a bit and almost just went home but I knew if I went home I would start bawling telling the story to Justin and I really wanted to get in 11 so I finished up.  Yesterday a car backed into my car in the neighborhood and cracked the whole bumper (luckily he was nice and left a note, and this is a much much MUCH more forgivable offense than almost killing me) so overall I'm a little annoyed with the drivers in my neighborhood.  I stay in our neighborhood so it will be low-traffic and quiet!  Green minivan lady, you are on my list.

(Lisa if you are reading this ignore EVERYTHING I wrote, our neighborhood is fantastic and you should buy that house and move here!!!!!)

Update - two hour marathon tennis match later (which I sadly lost 7-6, 7-5, SO CLOSE!).  I am going to be hurting big time tomorrow. 

So sore today from my tennis match last night, especially the calves and obliques.  I have a black toenail too, for once not from running!  Went to swim, but for some reason was so popular and circle swimming is so not my style (especially with 1 guy faster than me and 1 guy way slower than me = recipe for disaster) so I just did 5 laps (250 yards) then did 30 minutes on the elliptical instead.  Then one hour Centergy.  

I woke up in the middle of the night last night because my ankles were sooo itchy.  Put some aloe on (in the dark), went back to sleep.  Woke up, shower time, cue scream.  With blotchy red marks all over my arms and legs, I am an alien.  Fast forward 3 hours of waiting at urgent care later, and they have confirmed what the internet already told me - I'm allergic to penicillin (including the amoxycillin they had me take after I had my wisdom tooth out).  SO ITCHY!!  And did I mention ITS ON MY FACE??????????  Oh yeah, and it will take 3 days to go away.  Lovely.  The major danger is if I ever accidentally take it again, apparently.

Fast forward a little more, ran 4 incredibly sluggish miles around the neighborhood with Cooper.  I'll blame it on thinking about how itchy I was and the 2 Benadryls I had just taken beforehand.  I wore a hat and shielded my face so not to scare the kiddos.  :-)  TOO ITCHY!