Month: April 2010

Where is my mojo??

Don’t know if it is the travelling of the past few weeks, the one too many glasses of wine, or what other many excuses I have to not get up off the sofa.  My modified workout schedule has become one that is pretty slim.  Yesterday thanks to the husband of Peas4dinner, I was able to pound out the 6 miles I needed to do this weekend, my long run.  I took a run by J’s school Earth Day project.  What a beautiful idea!! 

My entire body aches.  I thought that this long into my training season it woudl be easier.  I haven’t reached the point where I long to put on the shoes and just start moving.  Thanks to the last post though, I really had sone great new music.  Keep the suggestions coming please.   Peppy.  I need peppy.

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Raleigh-Durham-Craving a new playlist

Interesting how fate works.  I felt so bad yesterday because I didn’t wake up and go for my 40 minute run.   I had an afternoon flight down to Raleigh for a work conference.  Once I  checked into my hotel, I couldn’t have been happier that I waited till the evening to sweat.  The hotel has a lovely pond and walking path around it. I managed to go a little over 40 minutes with the second 1/2 faster than the first. Though folks, I am craving some new tunes on the playlist.  Can you help me out with some music recommendations.  Even one or two new songs will help.  Anyway,  I wasn’t so dedicated to actually wake up and visit the local Y this morning, but I did do some stationary biking and wine drinking…not at the same time.

Check out the photos from yesterday.

These boots are made for skating

Let’s get this straight, my neighbor is insane.  I don’t mind saying this cause she won’t ever actually read the blog.  Unlike Steve, who will read this, but I don’t like at all… but that’s neither here or there.  This neighbor comes home from a whirlwind shopping trip with skates and pads with a grin on her face from ear to ear.  Ohhh, did I ever NOT want her to bug me to get out there on my skates, practice, smile and generally foster a positive attitude about life.   Grrr.  But, late in the day she says, let’s go for a spin.  She starts talking about going to a skate park.  SKATE PARK??  Not only that, but she, in her (40 + old body) explains the etiquette and merits of skateboarding culture.  How these are the kids who respect boundaries and respect the board. I am shrinking further into my seat, into my fear zone of …. holy shit, just let me roll unsuccessfully with my husband down the street and make an ass of myself.  We get to the park…with the 5 -m 12 year olds.  Shame, I am telling you, shame.  I can hardly believe it cause I never thought I would ever be at a skate park.  I put on the Tron pads though my husband would hide his face in shme.  Without him, I knew I needed them to avoid a lifelong injury.   I was wobbly….at first.  I did a couple of laps and DID fall.  It didn’t hurt too much and really wasn’t too embarrassing except for grinning neighbor asking if she can help me up.  What the *&%$ is she going to do to help my iceberg ass off the skatepark cement?  My limit was 2 laps at a time.  My whole body would quiver by the time I was done with lap 2 due to muscle unrecognition.  But, I did at least 15 laps.  It was hell, but okay.  Neighbor didn’t want to leave, but it is a good thing myvoice of quitting reason prevailed and we returned home cause it ends up she was tired too (hah).  Now that I know of a new place where the seams in the sidewalk won’t take me out I am more motivated to get skilled in skating.  Thanks to the neighbor, I won’t have to do it alone!!!  Do you think she’ll stop her enthusiastic smile??  I personally doubt it.

Half marathon modifications

Tiptoe around the tulips on the lakefront, with me.

Whoops, I don’t think I was clear.  I never planned to do a 1/2 marathon, just the training.  While K, P, and others got on the bandwagon, I was sceptical that the race was something I actually wanted to do.  So, I registered for the training, but not a race.  What I did is register for the Soldier Field 10 miler.  This race is at the end of May.  I say all of this to explain why I needed to revise our running distances for training.  Seriously, a couple of weeks ago we were already at 9 miles and this weekend were supposed to run 10.  It didn’t make sense given our goals.  Once finalized, I will post the training schedule here.  In the meantime yesterday we ran 5 miles.  Why each and every one of those 5 miles seemed to kill us, I will never know.  The day was beautiful, the flowers were out, the lake was amazing.  Poor P has a hip injury which doesn’t help things a bit, but the rest of us have no excuses!!  We did finish the 5, I went home, did some gardening, had some Champaign, a nap and dinner at friends’.  What a perfect day.

Tron Attacks

I can’t believe how exhausting skating a block can be.  My husband walks down the street holding my hand while I attempt to skate.  I cautiously and very clumsily take tiny itty bitty steps.  Every day I get a little more confident.  I can go a little further, still not up to doing it alone though, thank goodness for  the good hubbie.   

Yesterday I decided that I would put the knee pads on that I bought from Sin City Skates so that I could finally let go of his hand and not worry about getting hurt.  I put them on and was excited to begin when my husband starts laughing.  Really?  Okay, I know I looked a bit like a character from Tron, but seriously, wouldn’t he prefer I actually get out of this unscathed.   I took off the knee pads.  They really cover 1/2 of my leg, so I can sort of see how I might look super silly.  So, I stuck with the elbow and wrist pads plus helmet. I still looked like a goof ball, but at least the hubby could stand me.   Can’t wait to get even better….that will be a while.  I wonder why my shins hurt so much when I do this??

Whip it Good

You are going to be so surprised. I watched Whip It this weekend. You may remember, I had….shall we say… an experience with Roller Derby a few months back. I can still feel the twinge in my hamstring. I think the combination of the movie and the 10 out of 10 weather this weekend got to me. I decided I really do want to learn how to skate. I looked up local roller skate stores in Bloomington, Indiana where we spent Easter weekend and was pleased to find Rolling Thunder Fun Factory on 17th. Veronica was a wealth of information and helped me make the decision to forgo the iphone I have been dying for for a few years and give into the idea of learning how to skate. My daughter also caught the bug and we sprung for some skates for her as well. I bought outdoor wheels so that I can practice in the tennis courts near the house. So, in addition to my attempts to continue “running” I’ll be putting on the skates so that come next winter, I’ll be ready for some derby. I still think it would be a blast. I put the skates in and since I didn’t have any of the pads this weekend, my husband let me lean on him as I tried to skate up and down the driveway a couple of times yesterday. I tried again today. I figure if I can get on the skates a bit at a time, by the end of the summer maybe I’ll be able to go up and down the street without falling!! If you have any tips or learning hints, let me know.

Things you shouldn’t do on April 2nd

I couldn’t stand the idea of the 6 mile run hanging over my head all weekend.  Despite the fact that there was 3/4 of a bottle of wine missing from the night before, I woke up this morning and decided to get the 6 miles behind me.  There were….errors along the way.  Here they are not in any order of importance:

  1. Don’t be an idiot and drink anything but water the night before a long run.
  2. Dont wear running sweatpants the hottest day of the year.   There is a fire warning out there for goodness sake.
  3. Don’t eat two pancakes and drink a cup of coffee before you run.
  4. Don’t stay up till 3 am the night before.
  5. Don’t forget your inhaler.
  6. Don’t forget sunscreen, cause by 9:00 your skin will be burnin’.

I did finish, my slowest run yet, but I missed K and P horribly.  Even though I have a policy to not talk during my runs, their company is welcome and was missed. 

Now on to an afternoon of hiking at Spring Mill.  There are friends who are clamoring for some mill ground corn meal. 

Beautiful southern Indiana.   Yay.

Leonard Springs, Photo by Bob Ostermeier

 Can’t wait to hit Upland Brewery later!!

Call me April Fool

Recap of yesterday’s torture.  1 mile warm up.  My favorite part was when the walker passed K and I as we “ran”.  What twisted world is this?  Then “run” as fast as you can for a 1/2 mile.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.   Killing me softly and this ain’t no april fools.  I did have an interesting conversation with K though.  Up till now she fully plans to do the Chicago Olympic this summer.  I just don’t feel like I am that interested in working that hard.  Call me lazy if you want, but please, I have a life outside of working out.  So, we may sign up for the sprint distance training instead.  I think we’d have a blast training together.   I wonder if this is going to be another training program that I sign up for the training and don’t actually do the event.  The other fun thing today was that I got a ocmment from a former Windy City Roller on my roller derby write up.  Half makes me consider doing this next winter during the coldest of the cold.  We’ll see.  I still have all those pads.