Bye Bye 2010 6+ miles

Cindi running down the levee w/ frozen puddles

I paid the sitter $20 to come out on this freezing cold morning and sit on the couch to keep peace this morning so I could go for a run. I checked the temps at 8:45am and wasn't all surprised at the 29F reading. Brrrr.... I took Cindi with me and off we went for a 6-7 mile run. I checked my Garmin at the half mile mark and apparently accidentally turned it off before it even got started. Oh well. The first few miles were a lot of fast, slow, stop with the pooch and I was getting frustrated until we got to the levee and I could let her loose. She didn't get fresh water since all the fountains along our route were turned off in case of frozen pipes and all the puddles were very frozen over. Probably a good idea considering how cold it was still after 9am. I leashed her back up at the two mile mark and we headed up towards upper park. She stopped to visit with the cows and to visit some other puppies along the trail and we finally made it up to the end of the parking lot at the cross so I could undo some of my many layers and get her some water.

 I'm loving the leash that has the clip so I can just hook her onto my hydration belt and run hands free. It also means I can hook her to a pole and she can't get away while I'm taking off my jacket and adjusting my ipod. It makes the first few miles a little harder because she wants to pull so much but once she gets her wiggles out she's a good sport and runs right next to me. I can't wait to take her on more runs this winter.

The trip back was pretty uneventful. She was such a good puppy and stayed right with me along the road moving off when I gently pulled her leash when a car was coming. She ran off leash again on the levee and had a little mini puppy play date with some other off leash fur-ends then we headed home. I loved the cold run  although I did miss my gloves and that wind was icy cold.

Pretty darn finish to 2010

That sweet spot

So far we've had a good week. I took Sunday off of running and Monday the rain came. I headed out when the hubby got home and about a half of a mile in the rain started. Cindi didn't like it but as long as we kept moving everything was good. We took off towards KK's house and the levy and when we turned East onto the levy the wind and the rain came on strong. It was a hard run but we had a good 2.13 mile run in then turned around to head for home when the rain got harder. I have to say it was fun to go out and run next to the channel and have Cindi off her leash and the route to myself. I loved having the wind in my face on the way out so I could push myself through it and to my back on the way back. Once we got back to the houses and turned off the levy the wind wasn't so bad. I got home, soaked, dried the dog and got on with my day.

Tuesday's weather was high clouds and no rain, light wind. We did a .75 mile warm up then some plyometric work on the baseball field. then we did 1200m intervals at 15 seconds faster than 1/2 marathon pace. That was supposed to be 8:30-8:45pace. Of course I hung with Vicki, Liz and Vince (or tried) and did way faster intervals I was shooting for, more like 8 minute pace. I'm sore today. But I felt really good when I was done. I'm going to be sad when this program is over and I hope for the best for all of us in this half since it is quickly approaching.

Today I will be running with Good Neighbor and Gehrig, slow steady and great recovery run from last night.

Thursday is my long run so I won't have to have a sitter. Liz, Vicki, Vince and their significant others will be headed to Tahoe for a ski weekend and need to get it done early and if I get a weekend off of getting up early. Maybe I'll even make it to church this week.

My whole dream of doing one legged squats with the kettle bell... didn't happen. I'm having some guilt over spending more money on myself but I'm afraid to do the kettle bell thing myself.

The Run Around

Today Good Neighbor and I went to KK's house to run with her on "her" route. Just beyond her house is the levy that goes all the way to 5 mile, the same levy I follow from the opposite side on our long runs into upper park. KK signed up for 5K program and she's going to do great! We took her dog Comet and Cindi and off we went. since I forgot to hit the start button on the Garmin (who needs a name) when we left I started it at the turn around and we got in about 3.3 miles with a couple of walk breaks today. The doggies were great. They stayed pretty close and when called they generally came running back. I hope that we ran off some steam since she hasn't been out for a run in over a week. OUCH. yea. But it was a nice recovery run for me and we had a nice girl time jog together. It was kinda cool to see the same old route from a new perspective, the clean air, the rushing water through the creek, the sunshine and beautiful park we live so close to. I can't wait to do it again.

Week in review

I got absolutely no running in last weekend. I had a great long run (12 miles) with AnnMarie that Thursday before but the streets were not plowed in a way for me to go run in a strange area and feel like I could safely move out of the road if I needed to, that and lots of old people up there driving just don't watch out for little ole' runners like me. So we did a lot of walking and climbing and sledding. We had a nice weekend together and spent genuine quality time with the fam. Love that. we got back into town late on Sunday but Monday flew by before I got a run in. Tuesday night was speed work and I felt pretty good out there but I had a rumbly tummy and felt a bit tired. I pushed through and had a good night of hard running. One of my 1200m intervals was at 7:38m/m pace. That is GREAT for ME. I'm the resident slow poke. I just didn't feel right by the end. I thought I must have been hungry but by the time I got home the stomach flu/food poisoning had set in and I was miserable all night. I will spare you the details but it was not pretty. Exhausted and hurting I stayed in bed ALL DAY on Wednesday and Thursday I went out for a run but the lack of food in my system for 36 hours absolutely played a part in my heading back to the house after a quarter mile. Friday I took up with Laura at the 4 mile mark of her 10 mile run. We did a nice 6 mile run together and missed most of the rain. Saturday was our long run with the FF Training team and little group o' girlz; Liz, Vicki, AnnMarie, Patty and myself had a hard time getting warmed up but after dropping Patty at the 5 mark so she could complete her 10 miles we made it to the 6.5 mark, took some GU and headed back to finish 13 miles. I felt really good from mile 8 to mile 12 then the last mile I wasn't sure if I could finish. I just tried to keep up with the girls. we stretched really really well and headed home.

I had a revelation today though.

Cheeze ITs are so yummy! I love them! Oh yea, I'm not eating wheat products anymore (again). Damn those Cheeze Its! Now I wonder how they found their way into my house? someone is trying to sabotage me. Its my own conspiracy theory. Ohh... and then they went and bought PIZZA! Damn them and their Carbohydrate and Grease loving little bodies. I guess I'll have soup. =(

Who am I again

Ahhh.... I thought I would have more time now that the kiddos are back in school. I'm stopping by for a minute to take note of whats going on this week. I took Monday off just doing some ab work since I as sitting for some friends since their daddy was having surgery. Ouch... While he was there his wife saw some other friends who were there having a baby. So that was my day yesterday. The Wilhelm kiddos went home then we ate home made chili. Yum... of course the hubby was at work since OT comes by so rarely these days he went ahead and took it. That put him on three days straight. Nice for the paycheck not so good for Mommy's sanity. Wasn't I just complaining that he was home for 13 days straight and driving me crazy?

I really wanted to do kettle bells last night but that didn't happen so with some ab work at home I hope it will be enough. I wanted to go Wednesday but I babysit so I'm going to call and see if they are doing a noon class. I'm running with Jenni, Gehrig (in the jogger), Cindi on the leash and maybe our friend Kari too. Our own little Wednesday running club. Thursday is rest and abs and I'll have to do my LONG run of 11 miles on Friday since we'll be leaving for the lake that night for the weekend. I hope to get out and run for a little bit on Saturday and take Sunday as a rest day.

Food. I'm so bad. I need to be better. I'm not eating enough, I'm not taking in the calories. I thought that our $300 at Costco would hold out but it all lasted like a week. 24 yogurts devoured by two little boys. I think I've had three... I love the peach ones... so do my boys. They don't like the blueberry and that's all that's left. What the heck. I need to go back to oatmeal in the morning to get me on track and keep me from being STARVING at 10 or 11. I shouldn't be drinking soda at all, I didn't even LIKE the Coke I had last night... why did I drink it? I have no idea. I need to go back to no soda while I'm training (except for when I go to La Comida because the water AND the ice tea tastes like blech!). I need to be consuming more calories and eating more sweet potatoes and potatoes and brown rice and beans. I need to drink more tea and water.

I'm really enjoying this program so far. I like all the plyometric and core work we are doing to enhance our strength. I love doing to kettle bells and the running for time instead of speed or distance. knowing that I need to set aside 45 minutes instead of 4-5 miles just makes more sense.

I've had a few months of emotional turmoil, a lot has come out in whining here and I'm sorry about that. Part of that is that I REALLY need to get my thyroid checked. I guess I should stop typing and call my endocrinologist hu? I also have several moles I need to have removed especially since I had melanoma once and should be SUPER vigilant about that. I kind of bury my head in the sand but it seeps into my dreams and freaks me out so I haven't been sleeping much lately when I should just go take care of it hu? emotionally.... I don't know how I would deal with it so I procrastinate. Mostly I'm afraid the doc will tell me to stop running outside and I don't want to hear that. I already douse myself in sunscreen everyday. What else can I do? especially in the summer... These things have started to consume my thoughts and affect my mood. I'm working hard to remedy that.

Tonight is speed work. Dads coming down to watch the boys. I'm going to go a bit early and warm up. I'm planning a blog about ... my achievements (running and non-running) and my goals for this year. I know none of the other blogs are talking about "That" so by the time you get to mine you will be GOOD and SICK of hearing it. LOL

I really want to talk about Kristin Armstrongs blog but you are all bored so I'm going to sort through my thoughts and feeling and hopefully have a post before the weekend. Read it and let me know what you think.

such a slacker

I am I am I am. Yes I am a slacker. The hubby was home for 13 days straight from work. CRAZY! and I feel the need to entertain him and clean the whole stinkin' time. No bloggy time for me. BUT I have been out for a few runs and Cindi is much better on the leash, well after about a mile anyway. Our computer died so that's another reason why I haven't been here. We just said OH WELL and replaced the hard drive and it works, but without my itunes library what am I to do? I will be very unhappy to lose it all so I won't even PLUG in my nano for fear that it will all disappear. Not sure yet how to remedy this situation even though I should have backed it up, I'm just glad my pictures are on the external hard drive I got for my b-day.

Yesterday was our first long run of the half marathon program. We did 10 miles and it seems VERY weird that it didn't seem long at all. LOL. A year ago I would have CRIED when they said 10 miles. I did wake up with a headache before hand and forgot to take Advil. By the time I got home and we visited with some friends from out of town I was exhausted and my head was in full blown migraine mode. I could just lay in bed and hope I didn't throw up. Not a good evening at all.

The hubby went to work today and I'm ready for a break from the kiddos all ready. tomorrow I'll run and do kettle bells again. Missed Friday because I was in the bay area visiting with Grandma then checking out a really cute Coach Purse at the Outlet with the BFF and didn't make it back to Chico in time. OOPS.

and SLOW it GOES

I kept hearing (thanks Liz) that after a marathon you're in that speed zone (10 minute miles) and its hard to get out. Yea, I did my worst 10K time today and I was hurting. We were averaging 9:10 or so not bad but not really good either. My last 10K time was round 56:06 or so. We did the standard park loop and I run that route (generally in reverse though) about once a week so it is not really fun for me anymore. Actually its kinda of dreadful... knowing what we'll be doing. I didn't have an ipod today since Cindi ate my earphones and standard ipod buds don't fit in my ears. I was on my own with some companionship from Patty, Vicki and Liz.

OMG it was SO SO cold that my windshield had about a half inch of ice to defrost this morning and it took water, a scraper and 15 minutes of defrost to leave a little hole to see while driving so I wouldn't be late. I'm from California... AND from the valley, and we're just not used to this. It was easily 25*F or so and we didn't even leave til 8am or so. It never did seem to warm up and I'm hoping this isn't what its supposed to be like all Winter because its going be a long 10 weeks if it is.

This sinus issue was not fun either but at least Liz was not feeling good too. did that sound bad?We stuck together through it all and I skimmed in a whole two seconds in front of her. My hope is to up the mileage and condition my body for those longer hauls and to work in a little more speed work and hills (maybe Thursdays) to get my speed up too. I also need to work on core and building my bone density levels by ugh... using kettle bells, before May when I have my dexascan. Hopefully it will be better than my bone scan two years ago. My IT band didn't hurt so bad today but I will be sure to stretch and roll anyway. I did buy three new pairs of socks since my old ones are finally falling apart (4 years old and all). Jenni calls them cloud socks. I agree.


Oh yea and the hubby and the surgeon killed an ENORMOUS amount of ducks this week. Like so many that its kinda disgusting. Really. He was so excited and giddy to get the text last night inviting him to go on a hunting "date" that I teased the hubby about having a boyfriend. I decided to renam the surgeon, he's now the Bro-Friend.

Here is the tentative plan for the week:

Sunday-FMH3 (Flying Monkeys Hash House Harriers) run in upper park with Cindi (4-5 miles)
Monday-rest day from running but maybe Kettle bells with the girls at 5:30
Tuesday-Speed work that night with FF training
Wednesday-easy run with Jenni and Gehrig (and Cindi) maybe and head to the bay area to see Gma and Aunt and if I'm lucky some old friends.
Thursday-Easy run in my old stopping grounds of MTZ. (4-6miles w/ some hills)
Friday-another easy run down by the bay and maybe Kettle bells that night (4-6miles)
Saturday-long run with FF training.

Ready to run again

I did a whole half mile today. WAHOO! I was afraid to take Cindi out on the streets so I stuck close to home today to see how it felt and to see how out of control she was, and it was FREAKIN' COLD TODAY! Yea, she's pretty crazy but I've had her on a leash at home so she goes with me everywhere and she's getting used to being on it and sticking close. I think tomorrow I'll take her in the car to the kettle bell information thingy at Fleet Feet and then to the park for a two mile run. See how she really does. My legs are getting itchy for some miles let me tell you. I'm ready and willing. I'm not sure if this will be an especially fast or slow couple of miles but I'll tell you when we get back (and after the hubby heads out hunting without the fat dog). I would invite others to run with us but it may be TOO embarrassing to watch me and Cindi working together for awhile .