A long day…

Well, at least it has kind of felt long although it has passed pretty quickly. I’m still frustrated over things at work, trying not to let them bother me…it’s this time of year. I am a spring/summer person. I live for the day the leaves start to change, the green, the freshness, the rain washing away the dirt and grime of winter, the flowers slowly starting to bud and open and perfume the air with their beautiful fragrances…the days start getting longer, each day gets a little warmer, neighbors that I haven’t seen all winter are now lingering outside longer to enjoy it and you get a chance to get reacquainted and all the fun and joys of the long summer days stretch endlessly ahead. There are summer festivals, live outdoor music, runs outside in shorts and t-shirts, road races, fresh fruit and veggies as the farmer’s markets open, flowers to plant…you get the picture. As fall comes I hear people talk about how beautiful the leaves are, granted, they are pretty, but it doesn’t seem to take much before they are blown off the trees, the make a mess to try to run through (and dangerous roads!), the rainy days are cooler and not as much fun to run in, the days are getting shorter and there is a bite in the air when you try to run outside, winter is going to get it’s cold grip on the earth soon and all the trees will be dead looking…people are bundled inside and you don’t see them for the rest of the winter except maybe in quick passing at the mailbox….this past spring one of my neighbors upon seeing me for the first time in so long stated he thought I had gotten married and moved out or something…I told him no, I’m much too smart for that….but I digress!! I just can’t be happy about the fall, particularly when I live in Minnesota and the days have gotten very cold, including an overnight low last night in the 20s. It was 23 degrees outside when I got up this morning. It SNOWED yesterday!! Yes, you read that right. Granted it didn’t stay, except a light dusting on some of the houses, but it was flurrying today as well. I had to dig gloves out to drive to work in. Tonight when I get home I’m actually going to maybe light a log in my fireplace. That’s the type of weather we are at. I don’t care for cold. I really don’t care for cold at all. I’m a wuss. No matter how many layers I have one, no matter how well I dress I’m always still uncomfortable outside on runs in the cold (and usually uncomfortable because I am wearing too much to move comfortably). I’ve done my first two treadmill runs of the fall/winter season for the 2006/2007 winter already. It will be many, many, many more I know too…and I’m already so bored by it I can’t stand it! I hate running on the treadmill. I ran on it once this summer. That’s it. And that run was only because granted, it was hot out, but I could’ve done it, but it was just easier cause I was already strength training anyway. I do need some more warm weather stuff so I can continue to attempt running outside on at least the less bitter days…

Tuesday Tempo Run

So yesterday was my last “hard” workout that I had planned for the remainder of my training. I had wanted to run a tempo of 10 miles, 7-8 at MP – 30, I didn’t quite get that unfortunately, I don’t have my Garmin with me here so I can’t get the exact paces, there were a couple sub 8 minute but the average was 8:22…still faster than MP I need for my sub 3:40, but it really felt hard…granted, I did 22 miles 3 days prior to that run, but still…I know, I know, I’m tapering now…and last taper I was chomping at the bit to get more running in, it was hard to cut back, but this taper I’m tired and looking forward to the rest. I like that I only have a 12 miler planned for Saturday (although to be honest I’m looking forward to training and runs being over and being able to just settle for a 10-15 miler on the weekends, I like being able to be done with a run in 2-2 ½ hours!! Longer just gets to be really long. I have a plan already figured out for my recovery and mileage during the “off season”…I have yet to decide on any spring races and such as I’m waiting till I see how I do in DC for that. If I meet goals, well, I have 2007 or 2008 for Boston, if I don’t, then I might have to find a fast flat course to get that qualifier on in the spring…So many things to think about but right now I’m just trying to find the confidence in my training that I should have, that I had last time but I guess when you have more of a time goal it’s harder. I don’t think I’ve done enough of the things I knew I needed to fix to keep on track this time around…but now it’s too late to do more. Anyway, enough of frets…this is a picture of my friends’ boys…they had pictures on Sunday. You can see how much they love each other!!

Last Long Run and Taper

After the frustration at work and then the computer problems Friday, through the weekend and still continuing, at least I can give an update on my running. I did my long run starting going up a hill, mostly about a 1.5 or so mile uphill, similar to the 2 mile climb of MCM in just under 3 weeks now…one part a much steeper run than I will be facing that day. The rest was mostly flat with again a bit of uphill at the end, similar to the end of MCM….

Mile 1: 9:16
Mile 2: 9:45 part of it up a REALLY steep hill
Mile 3: 8:58
Mile 4: 8:58
Mile 5: 9:27
Mile 6: 9:10
Mile 7: 9:04
Mile 8: 8:41
Mile 9: 9:48 water and gel stop
Mile 10: 8:59
Mile 11: 9:07
Mile 12: 9:32
Mile 13: 8:42
Mile 14: 8:34
Mile 15: 8:47
Mile 16: 8:47
Mile 17: 8:55
Mile 18: 10:05 another water stop at a pump stop, so took longer
Mile 19: 8:56
Mile 20: 9:12
Mile 21: 9:25 up a hill
Mile 22: 9:21

Total run time was 3:22 or something like that, 9:11 overall average pace which is 1 minute per mile slower than my planned pace…I would’ve liked it if I had gotten my paces up at the end of the run none of my miles were the planned marathon pace, but I did do a compare to my long runs from last marathon to this one and found this:

Long runs of 18+ mileage (with one exception for this training) and comparison paces.

M2M	Dist/Pace	MCM	Dist/Pace
10	20M 9:14	12	20M 8:55
8	18M 9:11	10	22M 9:19
7	20M 10:10	8	18.5M 9:11
6	14M 9:08	6	13.4M 7:46
5	22M 9:23	5	20 9:23
4	18M 9:19	4	16M 9:15
3	18.88M 9:08	3	22M 9:11

OK, I can't get rid of the big space in the table, and that's the best way to read the pacing, so oh well...took me long enough to get that done anyway. It's been a long time since I coded a table for HTML and I used to do them all the time!! The first column is the marathon and weeks from the marathon (10 weeks out, 3 weeks out, etc) the second is the miles run and the average pace...looks like I'm a bit better off from MCM...but does that mean that much?? I was only comparing 18 miles plus, and then added one more cause it was the 1/2 and I thought that was kind of important...

Anyway, of course the taper freak out is happening, the job thing isn't helping me much either, and I think I'm getting some kind of cold, at least I seem to have a bad kind of cough going on and that's really not good...sigh...I'm running my last semi hard run tonight. 8-10 mile tempo run and then just some other light intervals and marathon paced runs. Only 19 days to the marathon.

Job Frustrations

Not a real good end of week last week and leading into the weekend as I had a big update typed up on Friday night and while on-line something got into my computer and it seems to be slowly frying things as it sees fit. I had an update ready, typed in Word, I opened word and it closed on me, then I opened it again, it stayed open, I opened my file and it crashed...and everything is really running slow now, particularly my program I use for converting CDs to MP3s for use on my MP3 player…I think I’m going to have to take it in to the Geek Squad to let them look at it as I have no clue what is doing it and how to get rid of it. I can’t run my anti-virus (not that it’s updated anyway) as it closes every time I try to open it. It sucks. I’m going to back up more documents that I don’t want to lose tomorrow (no time tonight cause of work at B&N) and then I’m taking it in…hopefully they can fix it!!

This was the end of my week though. I’m so extremely mad and frustrated about my job that Friday I was ready to cry. First they change my hours on me so I can be available longer, basically this has translated to bringing files up to the 12th floor on occasion after 4:00 (something that my co-worker, is perfectly capable of doing and she is here till at least 5/5:30 everyday considering she’s not usually in till at least 9:30) it’s never anything specifically paralegal related…and Thursday we had a fire alarm go off at 10 to 4 on my floor. I was tempted to leave then, but good thing I didn’t cause I got back to my desk at about 4:10 and Tami (my boss’ boss) called me to bring a file up to her which I did. She specifically asked me to bring up the one with the full signed agreement in it, which none of them had yet, so I pulled it out of our filing and brought that up. That was around 4:15, I think came back to my desk, with a bathroom stop along the way, wrapped up a few things and OK, left my desk to head home around 4:20-4:25…oh, no, a few minutes early!! Apparently the file I brought was the wrong one (no, it wasn’t cause I made sure to put the signed documents that weren’t in it, into it, but I didn’t pull out and put the actual document being looked for on top of the stack of signed ones, but it was in the stack, and it wasn’t a real large stack of documents). Apparently I was called again and when I didn’t answer she went and told James (my boss) that she tried me at 4:15 and I wasn’t there. Umm, I was going from 12 back to 6 and a bathroom stop, and I had BEEN IN HER OFFICE at 4:15. So Friday morning James came and talked to me and I told him that I had been in her office, that I had talked to her about the fire drill, that it takes time to get back to my desk and hey, she doesn’t leave a message, how am I supposed to know she called? (Didn’t mention the message part to him). So now I’m back in the office today and I’m still angry about it. I need to look for a new job because I’m sick of this crap. My boss’ boss apparently has it in for me, and I’m sick of this having to stay 30 minutes later than I have been for a year and a half all because one person wants me here to haul up files, even though there is someone else perfectly capable of that. My co-worker was recognized for the work she’s doing on something else and given a special gift card for it at our legal retreat and while I’m here every day at 7:30 sometimes a bit after 4 (before they changed my hours) and rarely even take a lunch, and I don’t work and force overtime while my co-worker (nothing against her, I like her) takes at least 2 half hour breaks for cigarettes and another half hour or more for a lunch break, which she says she works through lunch, but she reads the paper and other news sources and such while eating, that isn’t working…she doesn’t get here till 9:30 or 10 most days and sure, is here till 6 or 7 (but 9-5 with no lunch is 8 hours, 10-6, etc), sometimes she’s out earlier too…and she claims overtime when she puts it in or leaves early based on staying later…I am really now so under appreciated and I just can’t take it anymore. Of all the things I see and deal with, I was happy and OK with things when I was able to work and leave earlier and now that’s been taken from me and they couldn’t care less and apparently I suck at my job and do it half-assed anyway…so what’s the point? My job satisfaction has taken a nose dive from being about a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1-10 to 3-4 or even lower some days and my boss realizes this and actually doesn’t want me leaving because of it, wants my satisfaction to be up there, but his hands are tied because of his boss. He tried to tell me she was stressed last week, well, you know what, yes, I realize she’s working long hours, long days (and she’s one that comes in later too, she’s not a morning person) but that’s not my fault. I didn’t cause the stress and I don’t deserve it being taken out on me.

Oh Yeah...

And I had to run the 800s in dangerous conditions...the path I was running on had parts of it completely covered in leaves....man are leaves slippery on asphalt...definitely harder to run on and require careful stepping!!

Is Yasso for Real?

Can anyone tell me, from experience, if Bart Yasso and his theory are for real? Cause honestly, I think he must be smoking crack…yes, you read that right. According to Yasso’s theory running, what is it, 8-10, 10-12? 800s at a preset pace is a good predictor of how fast a person can run the marathon. If I understand the theory correctly, if you can run and hold a set pace for say 10 of them (10 is the number that most comes to mind) you can run a marathon at that equivalent, so if you ran 800s at 4:00 pace, you could run a 4 hour marathon, in theory. Recovery I’ve always heard is either half the distance, 400, or a recovery time of the distance you ran (4:00 800, 4:00 recovery), I typically just go the half distance and end up about 30 seconds less on recovery than on the repeat itself with a walk right after, light jog and then a walk just before starting the new one…I originally was even going to do these on a track, unfortunately the two tracks near me had football practice and while I still probably could’ve used the track, I didn’t want to interfere, so I chose to run around home and used my Garmin, but I even switched it over to metric so I wasn’t running half miles, but true 800s. I have a path near me that is just under a half mile around, so I have to run just over one loop around it for my runs and it’s pretty consistently flat except for a bump where there is a bridge…I set my Garmin for 10 of them, not knowing what my foot was going to be doing and figuring that was good for the confidence boost I maybe needed, I wanted to hit these at 3:35, my hoped for marathon pace. First a mile warm up, and foot felt fine, not tinges of anything so that is good. Then I did my 800s…

800 1: 3:37
800 2: 3:15
800 3: 3:15
800 4: 3:28
800 5: 3:25
800 6: 3:23
800 7: 3:22
800 8: 3:54 – this one was off, didn’t lose signal, but I know where I should’ve stopped and Garmin had me keep going, so no idea what was wrong, but pace felt about the same as the others
800 9: 3:23
800 10: 3:23
800 11: 3:24
800 12: 3:24

OK, there is my typical inconsistency, although I could say it looks almost to average around the 3:25 range…hence my assumption that Yasso must be smoking crack cause there is no way I’m ready to run a 3:25 marathon…the only thing about his theory that hits me though is that last training cycle, I did a set of 10 or 12 of these and pretty much ran 3:42s and that is what I ran for my marathon…sigh…OK so I wanted this to give me confidence and I don’t know how these made me feel!! But at least the foot is better. It must’ve been a pulled muscle like I was thinking, how I pulled it no idea, but I’ve been icing it and it’s feeling fine now. I iced again tonight just to be safe and will continue icing it into the weekend…I did get a different kind of weird ache along my upper quad or hamstring, not quite groin area, no idea what that might be, but it wasn’t till later in the run and could be cause of the colder weather later and tightening up. Anyway, just wanted to get this in tonight so I could not think about it tomorrow when I’m sure I’ll be swamped at work. Oh, and finished 11 miles in 1:41 or so...not a bad night. But I still don't believe/trust the times, even though I know my Garmin is on, I've tested it over measured distances...

Worries...

OK, on the injury update, my foot, still not 100% but I ran 3 yesterday morning and they were sore but not terrible. I worked all day in heels to keep it from hurting as bad and then I went for a 7 mile run (debating turning it into 8 or more but wanted to keep it light in case it hurt worse) on an out and back, limestone, flat trail…so it was softer etc…I had some slight pain for the first 3-4 miles but then it didn’t seem to be there or it went away…I think I loosened it up and it was fine, which leads me more and more to believe it’s just a strained muscle (how I strained it I have NO idea but whatever!!) and nothing more serious. I got up this morning and skipped the morning run just to be safe and while it was a little sore walking around, it didn’t feel too bad. I iced last night and again this morning and I’m going to take some Vitamin I before my run tonight just to be keep it feeling good.

Now, I’m so freaked about the idea of my time for this marathon. No idea where my confidence in myself went, but it’s so gone it’s just not even funny anymore. I feel like the idea of trying to run 8:12 pace is just unfathomable…if I can barely run 9:16 for my long runs, what am I think carrying the faster pace? Plus this is the same pace I had for my last marathon for my long runs and we know that didn’t get me a 3:35 so how can I possibly think I can run it this time around? Tempo runs have been worse, intervals, probably about the same. This week is also my final hard week before taper. I’m running Yasso 800s tonight. I’m shooting for 10 at 3:35 pace (maybe 12 depending on foot etc). If I can hit them all at pace or under, then I’ll feel a bit better, if not, well, then long run will tell me more. I’m going 22-24 on Saturday, going to start with a run up a hill and then down back into the lakes area that I like run, 2 loops around them and then back to the car which should be about the 24 miles (the chain of lakes run two loops is 21 miles). I’d like to average 9 minute miles or better…might as well put it all into that run as then I have 3 weeks to recover.

Weight, yes, yes, I know I’m not fat, but I want less body weight to carry for the 26.2 miles. I was yesterday 9 pounds above my goal weight (and 7 pounds above what my last marathon weight was) and today I’m finally back to within 5 pounds, but I don’t see myself losing 5 pounds in 3 ½ weeks…I could be back down to the weight I was at my last marathon, but I just wanted to be even a bit less, just to have less to carry. It’s going to be even harder to lose during taper as I run less too…sigh…why do I have to have these freak outs going on?? It’s too early for them…

Weekend Update and Whining

Things have been too hectic to manage to get updates done yet again…getting frustrated by this!

Saturday

OK, long run ended up being 16 miles, had wanted to do 17 but I got going late and was running pathetically slow…I’m so jealous of all those running at faster paces, sigh…and some of them aren’t even planning to run the pace I’m running. It makes me more worried everyday about my upcoming run. Anyway, I did 16 miles starting up a hill and through Burnsville to Lakeville and back, pretty hilly course, some on sidewalk, but thankfully most an asphalt surface alongside the road so I didn’t have to worry about the camphor surface and such that I often deal with on roads. However, by the end of the run, last 3-4 miles, my foot was hurting. I’d had this pain prior to my first marathon but have no idea what caused it then and what might be causing it now. It’s along the lateral part of my foot, along the bottom. It feels like a muscle pull or bruise and isn’t in any way related to the arch or heel. It was painful, and I decided I’d stop at 16 miles, the last few miles were pathetic, a lot of walking, but overall pace of 9:16. Not good. Last mile was only good cause it was down the hill I had started running up. Nothing like a mile downhill to help out your pace.

After the run I went to my sister’s and had my friend Shawn meet us there and then my sister, her boyfriend Brian, Shawn and I all headed to my company picnic at Valleyfair. Weather was nice, which is unusual for this time of year but I was happy that it was the way it was. Learned how rude the youth of today are too. Apparently when people are walking slowly in front of you and you want to get through, the appropriate way in a 10 year old mind isn’t to say excuse me, but to push through and yell move when someone won’t move. I didn’t win any prizes. They didn’t have as good of prizes this year either as there has been a shift in the control of the company and the big boss that was there giving them out last year is no longer here…ah well.

Went out later that night for a couple of drinks and seeing people I hadn’t seen in a while. Nothing too big, but had a few more than I planned cause my friend decided we needed shots…thankfully it wasn’t too bad. She crashed at my place and I woke up early enough for Twin Cities Marathon.

Sunday

Here is a picture of the finish line right here...it is a pretty cool finish...almost all downhill from just after mile 25...not a bad marathon, I may have to run it some year, although why should I chose to run 26.2 miles over a course I could run anytime I want to when I can go other places and run??

Marathon day and the day was perfect for viewing, but not so much for running. Highs were close to if not over 80, but for the elites it was just about perfect. We watched the 10 milers, had a coffee and then got back in time to see the elite finishers come across the finish line. We stayed in that area long enough to see the first woman cross around 2:30 and then headed back to mile 22 area where MNFirefly and UglyToes were so I could meet and say hi to them, chatted a bit, watched the race and then got a quick picture. The four of us watched and cheered till the 5 hour pace group came past but by then Devi and I were hungry so we headed to an area to eat and had really good paninis at a place called Bread and Chocolate…what more do you need?? Afterward I went home and cleaned up in my garage and nixed the run I had contemplated because my foot was still sore so I chose to rest it a while yet. My house was a terrible mess too, so I ended up just trying to clean and relax a bit on Sunday before going to bed early because I was exhausted.

Monday

Skipped the morning run cause I decided I was going to rest the foot yet and would try to squeeze something quick and easy in before meeting a friend for dinner…ended up deciding it was nice and I wanted to run at lunch time, so I started out and had a lot of pain (thought the foot was better cause I was wearing heels so was feeling no pain). Frustration of not getting a run in put me in a bad mood and a crazy Monday had me in even less of a good mood…work is just straining me right now for lots of reasons and really none of them good. I used to feel good about my job and not dread coming in, starting to feel the dreads now. Of course I got home and had a call from my mom that put me in a worse mood cause I was just already in a bad one and didn’t want to deal with things she was asking me…then the friend I was meeting for dinner got there and I feel terrible cause I was a despondent crab most of the night. Not the me he is used to seeing and I knew I probably should’ve cancelled with the way I was feeling and have been feeling. I was company for no one!! In fact after he dropped me off, he got out of there quickly. Dinner was yummy though, we went to my favorite place, and then went to Home Depot and Menards to find a ceiling fan for my spare bedroom for my cousin to install when up here this week (the reason my mom called me). I picked one out and am still debating though as there were two I kind of liked and am now questioning if I should’ve gotten the other one.

Fan A – More modern, not sure it goes with the room, but it has 3 60 watt bulbs in it, only 5 blades, but is 36” (room is small 10 x 11) so should be a good size for the room.

Fan B – Traditional look so should just blend into the room, only one 30 watt bulb, 6 blades for better balance, 32” should still be OK for the room

I really like Fan A, can get it online I found for the same price as Fan B actually, but the price difference didn’t bother me, it’s just whether or not one would overpower the room or not. The room has dark green carpet and lighter colored walls and all woodwork is dark…I also really liked a diferent fan for my own room that would go really well with Fan A, but Fan B pretty much goes with what I have in my room (not that that makes a difference)...decisions decisions.

I did ice my foot when I got home and then went to bed.

Tuesday

I got up and foot was still sore, but I did a quick 3 miles and it didn’t feel too bad, felt less sore running downhill…I’m still not sure what is causing it and what I should do. My plan was 10 Yasso 800s tonight, hoping to inspire confidence in myself for my marathon. Now I’m not sure what to do. This time I was even going to a track to run them. It would be a total of 10 miles. It’s either that or I just try an easy run on a soft path of another 5 or 6 tonight and then do the 800s tomorrow, which would then make doing a tempo run on Thursday out of the question, and if I do it Friday, that will make my long run on Saturday a bit difficult…although tired legs and the long run might be a good idea…I just want to be sure to get the intervals and the long run in this week. Those were my last two key workouts planned for pre-taper week.

Unfortunately I’m still crabby feeling today…I feel bad for my behavior last night though and need to apologize to my friend for being such a crab. Particularly when he insisted on paying for dinner…should’ve been me buying considering my mood!

Oh, and I iced again after my run, before I went to work today.

Rudeness in America

So yesterday I went to Target on my lunch break to pick up yet another pair of headphones as mine keep managing to end up with a loose wire, I swear I am going to be more careful with this pair and not ruin them in 3 months as at $10 a pair, that isn’t a cheap way to deal with things!!

Anyway, while I was checking out, I witnessed a situation in which many Americans probably find themselves in everyday and I wish I had reacted or responded. This was the situation. I went to the cashier to pay, there were two people in front of me along with an older man (I won’t call him a gentleman cause frankly he wasn’t) was finished with his transaction and had apparently paid cash. He was writing down something on a piece of paper and the cashier had put the money in the drawer and taken out his change and receipt and was in the process of trying to hand them to him. She was thanking him and was being very polite (some cashiers these days are a bit rude, but this girl was not) and trying to hand his money to him so he could move on and she could help the next customer…he was not paying her the slightest heed and was still writing on this piece of paper. She gets his attention saying here is your change and he barks at her “put it down can’t you see I’m busy?” OK, I work part-time as a cashier/bookseller a couple of nights a week and I see customers like this on occasion, thankfully more often than not I’m dealing with nice people, but crabs do come through, and I can’t say anything because I’m working…I wasn’t working here and I so wanted to say something to the effect “she was being nice to you, you should be paying attention to what is going on and take care of your personal business when you are away from the registers and not holding up the line.” Or something to that effect…the main reason I didn’t say anything though is because I was so far back it would’ve bee hard for me to get the man’s attention and he was of the type that he would’ve not cared anyway…I was always told to respect my elders, this man was older, probably mid-70s, but I’m sorry, being older does not give you the right to be rude to people, particularly when it’s a situation that you do not have to be in. If you are out in the public, you have the responsibility to at least be civil, if you’re crabby, stay home. Happiness and smiles are contagious, but so is rudeness and a person that can’t treat others with a little courtesy and respect, and treat someone as “beneath” them just because they are serving them is not appropriate ever. I’m of the belief that every person should have to work at some point as a server and/or cashier in retail or something. Just so they can see and realize how the job is and how much harder it is made by rudeness that is unwarranted. This is probably the same man who would kick a dog that walked too close to him and people like this ought to be shot. OK, so that’s not very nice, but just think how much better the world would be if things like this weren’t tolerated. I am going to make a point to say something from now on anytime I see a customer being rude to a person that is helping them. A cash resister screwing up is not the cashier’s fault, a price not being on an item is not the cashier’s fault, prices ringing up wrong are not their fault…a little decency and politeness could go a long way…

Alright, now running…this morning I got up and ran 6 miles in the dark…treadmill was not an option this morning. It just wasn’t appealing. However tonight after work I’m going to run another 3-4 (or maybe during lunch) on the treadmill just because I feel like it. My miles right now, after this morning’s run sit at 45 for the week. Tonight I’ll be at 47 or 48. I’ve decided tomorrow’s run will be most likely 17 (was debating 16-18 so I’m taking the happy medium) and next weeks will be my last long run at 22-24. I have a company picnic at Valleyfair, an amusement park in my area, tomorrow and running 24 miles and then trying to enjoy the picnic and free rides would probably not work well, so I’m going with the shorter run this week, recovery from the 20 last week and then will rest on Sunday and watch the marathon. Next week is a few less miles than this week, but still the intensity of my Yasso 800s planned and a tempo run for one last hard week and then the following Monday starts taper…wow…it’s coming up, it almost can’t be soon enough and it almost is too soon…

Thursday Tempo Run and Adventures in Treadmilling

Well, I got up early this morning (4:45) so I could get a run in so I can meet up with a friend tonight after work, I might sneak in a quick run before she gets there, but if I don’t, not a bit deal as on my plan I had for 12 mile tempo run, but had decided to only do 10 and ended up doing 11. This morning was on the treadmill too. The weather wasn’t too terribly cold, I could’ve handled it, but it was dark and that I just couldn’t stomach this morning. Running in the dark seems to get to me in a weird way. I wonder if anyone else experiences this, but at least morning runs (not sure if I notice it at night or not) in the dark I get a vertigo feeling occasionally, like the road is spinning in front of me, or at different angles or something, it’s just a weird feeling to describe and I decided I didn’t want to deal with it this morning for 10 miles…so I came to the gym and used the boring dreadmill and had to deal with MP3 that is acting up, I think I need yet another new pair of headphones. Don’t they make these things better these days? The wires are loose and it sucks…So anyway, I got on the mill around 5:30 and set out for 10, but set it to 11 just in case I wanted to go further…One thing about the mill is I can control the pace, started out first mile warm up around 9 minutes and put it for a 3% incline, unlike the 1% I usually use to counter the movement of the belt…it was a bit hard but not too bad, I kept it there when I increased the speed for my tempo part…planned 8 miles at 7:50 pace, I bumped up to just under 8 minute pace and stayed on the incline for another 1.25 miles, approximately what the distance is of the first hill for Marine Corp (at least from what I can determine, whether or not this incline is a similar grade, I don’t know). I was able to manage it and I do think I’m going to run a few more on inclines of maybe even a bit higher, just to be sure I’m mentally ready for it (I have planned long run to go up a long hill on Saturday). I was at 9.4 miles when suddenly the treadmill came to a dead stop…no slow decrease cause the time ran out or anything, just stop. I almost fell off it (was going at a 7:45 or so pace). So annoying as I was just about to the cool down miles. I switched to the one other mill not in use (there are only 3 in my small gym) and that one was so hard to run on…my legs felt like dead weights on it, I had to set the incline to 0 which I never do. This one was recently repaired too. Something is definitely wrong!! At this point I realized the other mill was back in action, showing a screen at least so I rounded out the last .6 I needed for 11 miles on it and called it a day. However the incredibly annoying thing is I don’t remember what my time was at when it quit!! I am gauging by the clock that I ran for about 1 hour and 32 minutes that gives me an approximate pace of 8:20 for the 11 miles and the tempo part I know I kept the miles under 8 minutes, I was up to 7:30 at one point and probably came close to averaging the 7:50 I had wanted to. Although I will admit to a few quick stops without stopping the mill for water and powerade…so I probably didn’t quite run the entire 11 miles…mill is just so freaking boring!!

I did end up out for a short run last night after an easy morning 5 miler too, 4.5 last night for 9.5 for the morning and now Wednesday run and I’m at 39 miles already for the week with a 20-24 miler planned for Saturday…I’m just keeping higher mileage for now as I might cut the run a bit shorter on Saturday (16-18) and I want to be at at least 65 miles this week…if I’m over, no worries as I have plenty of time to recover. Next week I really do need to try to get in to see Madonna to work on my leg (she’s the massage person who did an awesome job last time, she’s a bit expensive but soooo worth it).

Anyway, better start my work day…so much to do and no idea even where to start!!

Tuesday, September 26 Intervals

I did my final hard, long interval workout tonight and am fairly happy with the results. Next week I plan to run a Yasso 800 workout of 10-12 with 400 recoveries to see if I can hold them for my marathon pace. I have a hard tempo run planned for tomorrow and 2 more long runs of 18-24 and that’s it for the training…then I have to taper and focus on that last couple of pounds of weight loss!! Yes, I do appreciate what you all are saying, and I know I look fine, although I wish that pooch would go away!! But it’s specifically trying to move less body mass over the course (and a little idea in my head wondering if I could get back to high school track weight, which I have come very close to, I was only 2 pounds above it at my last marathon). Anyway, I did a 1 mile warm up and a 1.5 mile cool down and recovery half miles. Splits are:

Mile 1: 7:11
Mile 2: 6:34 – no idea where this came from
Mile 3: 6:25 – this one I know was off, lost signal briefly
Mile 4: 7:34 – this one was a bit off as when it loses signal, I’ve noticed it tends to overcompensate on the next mile, considering this one was a lot downhill, I just don’t believe it was that slow (unless I was that tired after those other two!!)
Mile 5: 7:03
Mile 6: 7:12
Mile 7: 7:06

Not bad considering the goal I had for myself for yesterday was 7 x 1 at 7:15 pace. I averaged 8:57 for 12.5 miles total workout and it didn’t feel too bad. The first mile was even up a tough hill (intentionally planned that way) the second one was pretty much a flat, I say pretty much a flat because while there is a bit of downhill on it, there is also a bit of uphill. Overall not a bad training run. The weather wasn’t bad either, a bit warm as storms looked to be moving in, but thankfully held off till I was done (and then I don’t think they ever materialized). I was glad I had long sleeves on though as it did get a bit cool. I got home just in time to watch House and then I was tired so I crawled into bed and read for a bit and turned off the light at 8:30…yeah, I’m pathetic, so what!! I had my alarm set for 5:35 so I could be up and out the door before 6 and get 4.5 miles in before work…Well, I woke up and looked at the clock and thought it said 5:37 (actually my clock is 10 minutes fast so I had it set for 5:45 alarm) so I knew the alarm was going off shortly, well, it didn’t go off and I looked again and checked to see why it didn’t go off, well, my clock shows a dot for PM at the bottom and AM at the top and when I flipped to the alarm time, it was a different dot (I never remember which is which), so even more confused I moved closer to the clock (I wear glasses and didn’t have them on while in bed) and realized it was 9:47, not 5:47 like I had thought…I still had a whole night to sleep! Yeah, I was tired did I mention that?? So I did get up for my AM run, ran a total of 5 miles because I had a bathroom urge and realized I couldn’t hold it till I got home and knew there was a public bathroom close that I could run to, and since it added a bit extra distance, I just finished the 5 miles…I was at a 9 minute pace, not a bad run, kind of cool this morning but not terrible. I might get a short one in tonight as well, we’ll see. Thought I was going to have to go to Home Depot to get a ceiling fan that was going to be installed tomorrow but plans changed so I have more time to procrastinate on looking for and buying it, so why go look now?? I can go home and get some stuff done at home first!!

Training Dilemma

OK, so my long run this week is planned for 24 miles. I did 20 this week, I planned 20 miles, 24 miles, then 20 miles for the last 3 long runs…this week is going to be tough as I have a company picnic at an amusement park near me on Saturday, I can probably wait on going there till 12, but that still means getting up earlier than I’m happy with and getting a lot of miles before walking at an amusement park…Sunday won’t work for it either because I’m going to watch the Twin Cities Marathon and I doubt I’d get it in after watching that (although I might try)…I considered just doing 16-20 this week and doing the 24 the next week but that’s 3 weeks before my marathon and I’m not sure if doing that many miles that far out would be good or not (I’m also considering just doing 18 for the last long run anyway). Decisions, decisions…

So for last week I got my 59 miles. Going into my final hard week of training I’m at 496 miles for training for this marathon at 5 weeks to go (officially 5 weeks from yesterday I’ll be running my marathon). I was at 538 with 5 weeks to go in my last marathon. I don’t know if the quality workouts have been there, but I have had two half marathon PRs and a predictor has me running a 3:39:45 based on my half, which I know isn’t the best half I could’ve ran. It’s leaving me too much anxiety and time to think. Last week I was having hamstring/ITB issues, at least it felt that way, right now it seems fine, I’m questioning workouts I have remaining and what more I might do…this week will be my highest mileage week ever with about 70 planned, although I might not do all of that mileage, I’ll hit at least 65 though, unless something unforseen happens…It’s way too early to start fretting now!! My other fear is my weight, I was thinking I only had 4 weeks left to lose, but regardless weight this morning is 6.6 pounds heavier than I want to carry on marathon day. So time to focus on what I’m eating and get the junk out of my diet. I need something to stop me!! Where is my self control…I was doing well maintaining about 4 pounds above what I wanted to weigh, that was going to be easy to lose (at least in theory)…ughh…

Intervals, Long Run & Expensive Taste

OK, didn’t get time to update on Friday so had to wait till now, Saturday night, so I’m combining runs this week.

I moved intervals to Thursday this week because I was going to be still recovering from my half I figured and I’d be in a place that wasn’t bad for a tempo type run as I was away in Northern Wisconsin at a resort for a legal retreat, more on that later. The run on Tuesday was 10.25 miles with an average pace of 8:45, that’s much slower than the 7:50-8:00 pace I plan for tempo runs, but I guess I had a fast tempo run on Sunday of a longer distance so I can accept it. I have to remind myself this week that I am running the miles but I’m also recovering from a half marathon. My plan was for 60-65 miles this week, and I have down to try to get 68 next week…we’ll see. This week is going to fall short, depending on what the run is tomorrow. Monday I was traveling and didn’t run. Tuesday I had the tempo 10.25 miles through trails and on soft gravel, which is why it was a bit slower…then Wednesday morning I got up and ran 4.3 miles at around 8 minute pace with the resort manager, got home, took a nap and then ran another 6 easy to loosen up. Thursday was intervals, in the rain, it wasn’t as cold as I thought it might be, but was cold enough, and there was some wind up that made it a bit more uncomfortable. The run was 6 x 1 with .5 recovery, plan was for 7:30 pace and a mile warm up and cool down, but I turned it into a 12 mile run.

Mile 1: 7:09
Mile 2: 7:20
Mile 3: 7:33
Mile 4: 6:54 (this one was off, lost signal a bit, probably 7:10)
Mile 5: 7:49 (was partly up a big hill and into a cold wind)
Mile 6: 7:31

Not a bad run all things considered.

Friday I planned to run a morning 4 and an afternoon 4 or 5, but it was cold and rainy and I hadn’t slept well because of a tight hamstring on Thursday night, so I decided to just run 6 in the afternoon, but things were so tight, hamstring or ITB, not sure which is bothering me, but something is bad…I decided it was better to rest it and be ready for the 20 miler I had planned for Saturday.

Got up and not bad weather, a bit cool, but humid and not rainy so it felt comfortable, I was even a bit warm at times. I wanted to run something that would give me uphill at the beginning to prep me better for my marathon but unfortunately didn’t quite get running up hill as much as I would’ve liked, but I got at least a little bit. I averaged a 9:30 pace for the 20, slower than by plan but I did have a couple of stops in there for a stretch, bathroom break and a few water fills, so I was probably closer to 9:15. It felt OK but the ITB (I think that’s what I have finally decided is the problem) was really starting to bother by the end. I’m going to use a heating pad again tonight, stretch a bit more tomorrow and then hopefully get a run in tomorrow to finish out the week, but it’s going to be tough because of the stupid schedule I got at B&N, they are actually expecting me from 10-3…this irritates me as it’s right during the Vikings game. I had to work the first Vikings game and last week I was in CA and not able to watch it (at least not at my cousin's) I ALWAYS work Sunday nights if I work on Sunday…I’m so frustrated and annoyed by this….but I think I’m going to have to keep this job…I have too expensive of taste…a friend and I were at Galleria tonight, and that’s not a cheap mall, and we went to Tiffany & Co. I had never been in there before…I have never liked diamonds…I had never seen a Tiffany diamond before…and while I still don’t want anything with diamonds, I found emeralds that I LOVE…I want my emerald ring from Tiffany…I think to get what I want it’s going to cost me at least a grand…ouch…

Official Results

372nd out of 9395 finishers for top 4%
61st out of 5755 women that finished for top 1%
8th out of 858 for my age group for top .9%

A friend pointed out that my finish of 8th out of my age group put me in the competitive runner’s finish, I really hadn’t thought about it till I managed to get those statistics, that is if I’m doing the calculations right…who would’ve thought. I believe I was in the bottom third of runner’s for my first marathon. It’s amazing how things can change and how just the right training and motivation can really move you. Just a year ago my big goal for a half was to break 2 hours and my big goal for a marathon was to break 4 hours…now I’m focusing on getting a Boston Qualifier and really curious to see what I can run a half in if I train and focus on just that race.

I ran competitively in high school. I joined track when I was in 7th grade and due to a limited number of runners for varsity, I somehow ended up on varsity in 7th grade, I think I ran a total of 2 junior high meets my entire track career and I lettered from 7th grade through 12th. I feel I maxed on my potential in 9th grade with my best times of 5:40 for the 1600 and a 2:30 or so for the 800, I ran right around 60 seconds for the 400 and those were my events (although usually my 800s and 400s were relay legs, those were my best solo times). I ran very sporadically after high school and actually went only to the elliptical trainer for a time for my cardio, I didn’t really like running, but then 4 years ago I had a PT suggest running and listening to books on tape while on the treadmill (I liked the elliptical becasue I could read while I was on it), I was back on after that…and then I found one on-line group and eventually a few others and started talking running with people…4 years ago I said I’d maybe run a 5K someday, 2 years later, and a month after I turned 30 I ran my first marathon. It wasn’t great, my time was a 4:48…but I ran and finished with really poor training. Then just after my 31st birthday I ran and finished in a 4:42 or so…again not great, but going down…Chicago that fall was a 4:20 and then the break through training of this spring that led to my 3:42:53 current PR. I’ve also improved my half marathon 2:14 to a 1:44 (of course the first one almost doesn’t count as I ran it after having ITBS issues during peak training). I don’t run a lot of races, mainly because they are kind of expensive around here and I’d rather spend the money on running shoes, but at some point I'm hoping to try some shorter distances and see what else I have in me. That will probably be the goal I have after I get my BQ and run Boston. Although next year I really do think I'd rather just run shorter distances and have a bit more free time, but it really is unreal the results you can see though, when you put your mind to it.

Orange County and Mickey Mouse

Alright, the much owed recap of my week…debating on doing this in parts, we’ll see how long it gets!! And what is it about a 75+ year old mouse anyway??

Thursday

I woke up and was contemplating getting out of bed when the phone ran. Mom had arrived in Sioux Falls earlier than anticipated and was offered a chance to catch an earlier flight, so I got up and got myself together to meet her sooner…unfortunately didn’t quite get there soon enough to meet her at the gate, but it wasn’t too long before I got through security and met her, grabbed some cash and, at mom’s suggestion, got a beer, even though it was only 10 am…OK…we caught our flight and arrived in Orange County on time, headed to baggage claim and met Connie and Edie easily…Edie is my great aunt and Connie is her daughter that my mom was close to and grew up with. We headed to Connie’s and relaxed, visited some and then had a great dinner of chicken and shrimp kabobs on the grill with some really good chardonnay…some more visiting and then an early night.

Friday

I woke up around 7 still on Minnesota time so headed out for an easy run. Ended up doing 4 miles and then grabbed a starbucks before heading back to the house, showered got ready and then mom and Connie drove off in Connie’s Lexus SUV and I took the Lexus coupe and we went over to the expo. They were heading back to visit after the expo and I was meeting a friend for lunch. The expo was nice, had some good stuff, but the line for the merchandise was a bit ridiculous. There was a line to get into the store and then an even longer line to buy stuff…I did get a cute top that has “Get your ears in gear” on the back and my Mickey Mouse ears with the half marathon logo on them, along with the finisher’s pin. The shirts were nice long sleeved technical shirts which is very nice as well. I then headed over to California Pizza Kitchen to meet my friend 5K who I know from an on-line running group I’m part of…lunch was good and we had a nice visit and then it was back to Connie’s where we went and hung out by the pool for a bit and then had dinner of yummy ribs and backed potatoes…Connie is too good to her guests, I’m sure I gained weight while out there!! After lunch we had to head to Brea (we were staying in Yorba Linda and Brea is just the next town over) to pick up my cousin who is in the marines and stationed at 29 Palms, he had a ride into the city over the weekend and chose to come spend it with us. Another fairly early evening as we were still tired and it had been a long day.

Saturday

The plan for today was the beach. We got up and called Edie to plan for meeting her and headed to her place to pick her up on the way to Huntington Beach to hang out and relax. The beach was great, it was a tiny bit cooler than we might have liked but it was nice, waves were high and we watched the surfer’s and I took a bit of time to wade in the water…then we wandered and shopped a bit before heading to Newport (it was kind of a joke to go there since I’m a closet OC fan) and wandered a bit there before finding a great Italian place to eat at Fashion Island, an upscale mall. We even had a great bottle of wine that I introduced everyone too, it had been my friend Leesa’s and my favorite when in Italy. Dinner was fantastic and then we headed back to Connie’s for an early night, had to be up by 3:30 to make it over to the race by 4:30 (a 20 minute or so drive) before they closed roads.

Sunday - Disneyland Half

Wake up at 3:30…ouch…and everyone chose to come with me, even though no one wanted to get up that early!! We piled in the car at 4 and were parked at Disneyland by 4:30 and headed to the staging area. I had somehow been assigned to Coral A, right behind the elites and thankfully it was looking to be a great day. The weather was cool, probably high 50s, no wind and no humidity. There were 12,000 registered for the race and it was set to be a pretty flat yet nice course. Mom, Connie and Nick hung with me till about 5:30 and then I went to use the port-a-potties and headed to my coral. I was into the coral just before they were cutting people off and making them go to the last one!! No idea how they gave out coral placement because it was not by time from what I could tell!! It was quite packed too. The race was set to start at 6:00 and they had guest speakers including the race director and the mayor of Anaheim and some great music, namely the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean which is a great pick me up. They then had the “special guests”, Mickey and Minnie started the race while Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto were on the monorail just above the start. I even managed to high five Mickey and Minnie on my way through the start! Then I noticed Nick to the side and Connie waving at me, didn’t expect to actually see them till later in the race so that was a nice surprise. I clicked off just over 8 minutes for the first mile, it was quite crowded and many people of course not placed well, but by mile 2 it was thinning out, an advantage of being at the front!! I came out of California Adventure and headed into Disneyland and saw my family off to the side, it was good that I told them I was going to stay to the left and I stuck to that!! Through Disneyland I saw all of the characters except Mickey and Minnie, including a fantastic Captain Jack Sparrow…out of the park and I saw my family again and then headed out for the not so exciting part of the course, but they had marching bands and cheer squads, some dancers and other groups out there to entertain. It was a nice course, fairly flat and I was clicking off good miles, although a bit fast when I had two at 7:20, plan was for a 7:42 average (marathon pace minus 30), the next few were around 7:40s and then started slowing a bit toward the end, the problems with being faster earlier and chit chatting a bit with a few other races. We ran around “the pond” along the river and then into and through Angel’s stadium where they actually announced your name coming into the stadium. After coming out of there we were around mile 11 and then on, back through California Adventure and when I saw mile 13 I managed to kick it up a bit for the finish, and saw the family again…mom even got a few decent pictures. I dashed in, and found Mickey at the end, I wanted to give him a hug, but settled for a high five…had my chip removed, got my medal, my mylar blanket and headed to the food stand. Another advantage to finishing early, no lines and no lines at the massage place either!! I got a massage and then got back and found my family. I grabbed my phone, called my dad and we headed back to Connie’s. When we got back I was able to get official results…my garmin had me running 13.4 miles, a 1:44:16, that makes sense that I was at a longer distance considering the weaving, this also got me a 7:46 pace, only 4 seconds per mile slower than hoped for. Official results had me at 1:44:12, 7:56 pace, 372 overall, 61 for my gender and 8 for my age group…I haven’t seen how many total finished, but not bad. I’m pleased with the results, although I know I can run a half faster than that. My training has been geared toward a marathon though, not the training I would need for a faster half…something to look at though. I know I’m not maxed on a PR there. The race was very well organized, especially for a first one, the expo wasn’t great to deal with, but the race itself was fine. It was a nice course, the weather was good, crowd was a little light in places, but not bad, and the weather was great. I would definitely recommend it for a fun place to run and a nice race…great shirt and medal too!!

After the race we went back to Connie’s, I showered, we ate a bit, then napped and watched football before heading to Edie’s birthday celebration. I met more family that I haven’t seen in 20 or more years and it was a great day…it sucked that we had to leave the next day though.

Monday

Flight home was uneventful, we sat next to a nice gentleman that designs theme parks for a living…and told me anytime I wanted to make a trip to one he’d get me in for free!! Nice huh?? After the trip I was ready to be home and relax, but I had to drive to northern WI for a work conference. More on that later though.

I’m Going to Disneyland…

Really and truly I am…I can’t believe I actually leave already tomorrow morning. Wow…Last night I got home and had been planning an interval workout, but in review of my workouts to date I’ve been very lax on my tempo runs, so I decided maybe I should do an easy tempo instead…the thought was 5 miles with 3 miles at a tempo pace of sub 8 minutes, preferably at least MP – 30 seconds. It took a while to work up to the idea I was going to run, but when I finally figured out it was fairly nice out, I got myself out the door and warmed up with a first mile of 8:37, a little faster than normal warm up but it felt good, then the tempo miles,

Mile 1: 7:50
Mile 2: 7:30
Mile 3: 7:28
Mile 4: 7:40

Cool down mile was 7:57…guess I didn’t quite slow down as much as I had thought. And yes, that’s for a total of 6 miles, 4 at tempo pace. I finished the third and figured why not. The first mile was actually on that kind of monster hill that I battle occasionally, that’s the fastest I’ve ever ran up it. I’d say the hill itself is at least a third of a mile, maybe more, and the grade is fairly steep so I felt very good hitting it at that pace, if it hadn’t been for the hill I’m sure the mile would’ve been at close to 7:30. The other miles were over, basically flats I could call it as it’s hilly but just as much uphill as down I would say. The run felt really good though and I finished in 47:09. Not too bad for 6 miles. The only real bummer about the run is the fact that fall is definitely in the air. I know a lot of people enjoy this time of year, but me, I'm not a cold weather girl, this same type of day in the early spring is awesome, as it means days are warming up, things feel great, but in the fall, it feels cooler, things are cooling down and cold is coming...I don't like that. I so enjoy early spring, but I dread early fall...I got home, ate some food quick and then packed up the stuff that I think I’ll need for the weekend. I still need to throw in a gel or two, of course into my checked luggage, what sucks is for this short of a trip I would not normally check a bag, but I pretty much have to now since I have liquid items I need to bring…oh well. What do you do??

Anyway, I was sleepy this morning and I didn’t want to go out in the cold so I stayed in bed and figure on a quick 3-4 miler this afternoon before I have friends come over for dinner maybe, then tomorrow I fly and Friday I want a very easy 3 miler to loosen up the legs before going to the expo and getting my race packet and meeting a friend for lunch hopefully. Saturday we are going to a beach, I don’t care which beach, I just want to lay in the sun and see the ocean…maybe wander through some shops and eat dinner by the ocean. Sunday a very, very early start since you are supposed to be to the start area by 4:30, yet the race doesn’t start till 6…yikes. I don’t normally eat till an hour before I run…guess breakfast will be a banana and peanut butter sandwiches, an old tried and true standby, I’m going to miss what has become normal for me these days with my kashi waffles and egg, but what do you do??

I might have a chance to post a little quick message before I take off, and if I get access to a computer anywhere after my race I’ll try to post, but if these things don’t happen, it will be next Wednesday at earliest that I’ll have time to do any updating. I leave tomorrow at 11:40 and come back around 5:30 on Monday and immediately am driving to northern Wisconsin for a work “legal retreat” at a resort up there until mid-day Wednesday at which time I’ll be driving back and probably crash, but I’ll try to get at least a race report written before I crash. Ah, Sunny California…

9/11 Remembered

OK, I wanted to post yesterday but a lot of things were going on both with work and some personal stuff that I’m not sure I’m ready to post about yet…although I might make some comments.

Anyway, I got up for an easy 4 mile run (changed schedule once again) and tried out my Nike Zoom Elites. I’m planning on wearing them for the marathon and I really wanted to try them first. They feel a little less cushy than my Structure Triax, but definitely lighter, my run was just an typical easy one over a typical route and I ran it 30 seconds per mile faster than normal…So anyway, after the run I got ready for work.

I got to my desk, settled in, changed my day calendar and started working…a bit later I glanced at my day calendar and saw the big “11” on it…I knew all along what the day was. I’d been thinking about it for some time, but it really didn’t hit me till I saw it on my calendar. I went to CNN.com to read headlines and pulled up the video clip they had of coverage from that day 5 years ago…the day that changed this nation so much. I watched only as far as the second plane hitting. I still have the clip up, but I don’t think I can bring myself to watching the towers crash down. I have video tape footage from 9/11 that I haven’t watched. I taped it to save in case some day I had children and I wanted to show them what that day really means and why it’s so important to always remember the one day that this country really came together, the day that other countries reached out and showed their support, caring and understanding too. The day that everyone was happy and proud to claim their American heritage. Even now 5 years later, things have gone so far downhill from that day, the politics, the freedoms, the change, it’s horrible. I wish people could look on that day, remember how it was, and remember that it brought us together. I still remember I was e-mailing with a friend something about work and not enjoying the job and he said something like be thankful you don't work in the WTC, and I was thinking what, so I went to cnn.com and other news sites and nothing would come up, so I turned on my radio (which I normally do in the morning anyway but hadn't gotten that far yet) and heard the news that the towers had been hit...and I still distinctly remember the DJ, he went by the name Van, saying "Oh my God, the tower just fell"...I was in a state of shock...I went to an area that had TVs during lunch and saw the replays of both towers falling and just could not believe it. I had been there when I was 11, and you could still go to the top of the towers at that time. I saw the Statue of Liberty from the top of them...It's a tragic day and tragic event and now we have movies and TV series and all kinds of things pushing agendas and all the political propaganda, and this all bothers me. Iraq and 9/11 are constantly repeated together and people are supposed to continue to buy into the link…They are two different things and I think the people who died on 9/11 deserve to be remembered and thought of apart from those that have died in Iraq, and those that have died in Iraq should have their lives remembered as separate from 9/11…but unfortunately the politics have to come in from both sides. And it makes me glad to live in a free country (well as free as we can try to claim these days) where I don’t have to follow the leader, I can believe what I want, and not what is force fed to me, and I can try to find out the reality of things and not just what I’m told by the media. I also don’t have to affiliate with any of the parties, because let’s face it, neither of the ruling parties are doing much that is that great. And they both just keep warring with each other. Maybe if everyone could work together instead of focusing on keeping this great power that is bestowed on them, we could find a way to focus inward on the problems inside this country and stop trying to fix everyone else…sigh…To those that died on 9/11 and those that survived to the loss of a loved one, or even survived one of the attack sites, you’re in my thoughts and prayers.

Chain of Lakes Long Run

Long run day…And a cold turn to the weather...nothing like upper 70s early in the week and even mornings I was still in shorts and today I was in tights and long sleeves, although most people were at least in shorts, I'm just too cold usually for that...short days, cold weather, winter is here, OK so it's only fall, but I'm a spring/summer girl...I don't like this time of year! Thank God I'm going to CA on Thursday!

Plan, originally was 20 miles…I was 4.5 miles in and feeling really good, although running a bit faster than planned, I was going to do 20 miles and then as good as I was feeling, I started thinking about my half next weekend…and I realized I want to run as good a one as I can, so I decided to cut the run short and actually “taper” a bit for this run. At that point I heard my name yelled out, I saw a good friend of mine and stopped just before mile 5 and we chatted…and 25 minutes later I finished mile 5 in 35 minutes…yeah, talked longer than I figured we would, but that’s OK. I continued on, I was running the Chain of Lakes, approximately 10.5-11 miles depending on which paths you use in your run. I decided at that point to finish the chain and do between 10 and 15 miles. I made it to Lake of the Isles and ran it twice and then finished a bit harder on my last couple of miles and finished 13 miles. It felt good and after the run I again ran into my friend who had seen me on my finish, (she had done 10, I was a mile ahead of her when I saw her) we ran over to Whole Foods and I bought a few things then headed to the Farmers’s Market for some nectarines and was pleased to find out my Cortland apples are ready so I bought a bag of them as well, and visited with my friend that works down there for a bit. Then I headed home, took a bath, crawled into bed and took an hour and a half nap, got up, made dinner and am now getting myself ready for work…well, after I finish this I really need to get ready for work!! I decided against the 25K tomorrow and instead am doing a shorter run which will put me at low 40s for the week, I’m cutting next weeks workouts a bit easier to rest the legs, will run a hard half, take a couple of days to recover and then 3 hard weeks to the taper for my marathon…I can’t believe it’s coming up so quickly.

Mile 1: 9:41
Mile 2: 9:07
Mile 3: 9:16
Mile 4: 9:32
Mile 5: 32:44
Mile 6: 8:43
Mile 7: 8:45
Mile 8: 8:48
Mile 9: 9:26
Mile 10: 8:47
Mile 11: 8:28
Mile 12: 8:26
Mile 13: 8:15

I’m going to assume the 33 minute mile in there was actually about a 9:00-9:15 pace, so averaged a 9:05 or so for the run…not bad…

Friday, September 8 Intervals

Well, I managed to get up this morning at 5:10 and after the typical dinking around and not getting going like I should, had to brush teeth (normally something I do after the run, not sure why before this morning) and make the bed (again something for after the run) and finally did make it out the door at 5:23 on my GPS…I had been dreading this workout all week, I really love interval workouts, but I don't like mile repeats, I prefer the half mile ones, after having pushed back the workout from Tuesday to Thursday and then skipping it, it's no wonder I was killing time to not go out...when I got out, I knew I really only had time for 5 x 1 miles this morning, which I think is part of what I was doing in my dinking around, so I set up the intervals for that, did a 1 mile warm up, stretched a little and then did my miles with the following splits:

Mile 1: 7:17
Mile 2: 7:08
Mile 3: 7:22
Mile 4: 7:05
Mile 5: 7:01

Goal I had written down when I started the schedule was 7:30 pace, obviously I’ve been going faster than that, it’s better than the last ones so I’m happy about that, although I will admit that most of them had at least a slight downhill and not much uphill (number 4 I was shocked at cause it started on an uphill) so that does help. This morning was cool, but very humid, cool full moon was setting, but it’s hard running in the dark. I hate that the days are getting so short so quickly. I was begging the sun to come up but it wasn’t up till after 6, I was getting a very strange sensation of vertigo running in the dark. This morning I didn’t bring my MP3, haven’t done that for a few runs now cause it’s causing me problems (I think the headphones are bad yet again, I’ve been through 4 pair with this thing!) so I ran without…I did see a few other runners and eventually a couple of walkers out. There were 2 girls and then a third that joined them and I think they just did laps around the block…I saw one other girl at one point too on her own…nice to know I live in a neighborhood that’s safe.

Looks like another busy weekend…I have to work tomorrow night and Sunday night…I so HATE that!! I’m also attempting to do my long run tomorrow at 20 miles. Yes, 20 miles…That was the plan last week and I only got 18.5, I know I should cut back this week but I think I feel OK enough that I’m going to do that even with the hard 9 miles today (OK, only 5 of them were hard, but I did an average pace just under 9 minutes for the entire run). This week is going to be done on a fairly flat course though, the chain of lakes in Minneapolis, twice, and water stops so I don’t have to wear my fuel belt…all this in prep for my half next weekend…I’m going to try to keep the pace around 9:30 or slower just to give my body a rest, then a slight taper next week and a hope of running the half at an 8 minute or so per mile pace. My half split at my marathon in June was 1:50, 8:24 pace, I think 8 minute is feasible…we’ll see how I feel that day though.

Busy Labor Day Weekend

Alright, so it was again a busy weekend and I didn’t get the free time that I would’ve liked but oh well.

Friday

A friend of mine had a birthday on Thursday so since I was working I told her Friday I’d take her out since I was running on Saturday anyway, she could drink and I’d drive her around…another friend of ours she hadn’t seen in a while since he works early in the morning (3:30 am) most days so I had him come over to my place and hang out for a bit with us, he even brought his guitar and played and sang for us before we went out, then he went to sleep at my place since it was closer for him to drive to work from there anyway and we went out and met a couple other friends of mine for a few drinks and just to hang out. We were all kind of tired and called it a night around midnight.

Saturday

Long run of 20 miles planned. I got up around 9 and had breakfast of 2 nutrigrain egos and a scrambled eggbeater with cheese and some water. I headed out for the run with a fuel belt of 1 bottle of water and 2 of powerade (I could’ve find my 4th bottle) around 10:15 and decided to run to my office and back…about 8 ½ miles on other trips I’ve taken, but I went a slightly different route and it was at a little over 9 when I got to the place to turn into the grounds, I went down around the office and around the little island that is in our pond and then back which had me at 10 miles to head home…it was a bit warm but not too bad, and at this point I finally ate one of my fruit leathers I had with, this should’ve told me something…I was heading back and not feeling quite as good as I had been on the way there…I got close to my house and hit the 18.5 mile mark and was so thirsty I couldn’t even consider going on without some water and with my house right there, I just didn’t want to stop and drink and head back out, so I bagged the run at 18.5 and realized I definitely need more than the breakfast and one fruit leather to make it 20 miles and 14 ounces of powerade and 7 ounces of water are not enough to drink when you are out in somewhat warm weather (70s) for a 20 mile run…gee, wonder why it didn’t feel so great. But I did manage to average a 9:11 pace, not quite what I wanted (was shooting to negative split running at marathon pace at least the last 8 miles) but was good I guess all things considered.

Mile 1: 9:07
Mile 2: 9:08
Mile 3: 9:09
Mile 4: 9:10
Mile 5: 8:58
Mile 6: 8:53
Mile 7: 8:44
Mile 8: 8:10
Mile 9: 8:57
Mile 10: 9:09
Mile 11: 9:02
Mile 12: 9:19
Mile 13: 9:35
Mile 14: 9:14
Mile 15: 9:19
Mile 16: 9:33
Mile 17: 9:46
Mile 18: 9:38
Mile 18.5: 5:23

After the run I took a nap and vegged most of the rest of the afternoon till friends came over and we went out and I drank about 2 too many cocktails that night.

Sunday

Got up and recovered enough to head to my friends for her son’s first birthday party. With myself, her, her parents, her husband, her two kids, 2 friends of theirs and their 2 kids and then all of her husband’s brothers and sister-in-laws (3 of each) and their kids and his parents (each couple has 3 kids I believe except the one with 5) there were about 9 kids under the age of 5 there and just too many people!! We had good pizza and cake though and then I headed home and had a friend come over as I was going to grill t-bones, we had that baked potatoes and asparagus and then later some angel food cake and cookies and cream ice cream I had around the house…yummy dinner. And my friend works at the farmer’s market and had been working that morning and brought me the most gorgeous bouquet of 2 dozen roses…I love flowers…particularly roses…we ended up watching a movie and crashing a little early as I was tired from the night before and he had to get up early.

Monday

Got up and did a little cleaning even though it was finally a nice day and the sun was out I spent a good part of the morning inside. I finally went for a run around noon of 5 miles and the legs finally seemed to shake off the heaviness they had been feeling and I got an average pace of 8:30 so not too bad. Got home and a friend had called, the one that works at the farmer’s market, he had left stuff at my place and was going to pick it up and asked if I wanted him to bring me some corn from the market for dinner, which sounded good so he did and I also made some baby potatoes I had left over from the market that I put in the oven with fresh basil and oregano and threw some chicken breasts on the grill….we ate and then a friend came over and the three of us and her dog went for a walk around Lake Calhoun, after which we went back to my place, she went home and he and I watched some TV and crashed early since I had to get up…

Tuesday

Catch up day at work, so much going on it seems…ughh…I had planned my interval workout of 5 or 6 x 1 mile repeats with half mile recovery yesterday, didn’t go in the morning as I was tired and just didn’t feel like doing it yesterday afternoon, so instead of did the 8 mile tempo run I had planned for Thursday and cut it down to 7 miles…plan had been for 6 miles at 8:00 pace, well I managed to average an 8:17 and got close to 8 minute miles for 5 so I called it good. I’m trying to relax the legs a bit this week with my half now just a week away….

Mile 1: 8:53 warm up
Mile 2: 8:09
Mile 3: 7:54
Mile 4: 8:05
Mile 5: 8:03
Mile 6: 8:05
Mile 7: 8:53 cool down

So busy weekend and now I really need to get to doing some work too!! One nice thing about yesterday though, I had come home to find a bag of snack size Hershey bars in my fridge and a 1/2 pound bar on my pillow...I am going to get so fat, but I love that I was thought of and given such a nice treat. I love surprises like that.

Great MN Get Together

The Minnestoa State Fair Draws approximately 1.5 Million Every year...Tuesday there were 106,000...


Just a quick little update before my day gets way too hectic…My last week in review was OK, my body was dragging by the end of the week so it’s good this is a fall back week. Last week I had wanted to be close to 60 miles, I ended up with 56, same as the previous week…all because of that change from my run on Thursday, but that’s OK. I still have a few weeks. This week is easy, I had planned 40 miles, but I think I’m only going to get 35, depending on if I feel like running tomorrow or not and I’m fine with that. I might end up with 3 days off of running this week, but when your body needs it, it tells you. It’s a good thing this week was an easy week though as I just had too much going on and have been tired all week. I was up later than planned on Sunday watching a movie, Monday I was tired and took a nap and went to bed early instead of running, Tuesday I ran in the morning but was busy at work all day and then made a trip to the Minnesota State Fair for the Poison/Firehouse concert. Now I know I’m going to hear something about that one, yes, I did say Poison and Firehouse. I have a friend from South Africa I have mentioned before, he LOVES rock, he has played in rock bands and is quite knowledgeable about rock music, all of the hair bands of the 80s are part of his music he loves and he never had the opportunity to see most of them because they didn’t tour to his part of the world. And right now Poison is on a 20 years of rock tour (of course you have to question the 20 years when they haven’t had a new album since the 90s but oh well!!) and they played all their good stuff, although unfortunately Bret Michaels isn’t looking as good as he used to…but oh well. I had seen Firehouse at a small venue a few years ago and they are very good live so seeing the two together was actually quite fun. And Glen got the chance to witness the Great MN Get Together, or as I like to call it, the Great MN Pig Out (and most people don’t need to be there eating the crap), he experienced cheese curds, a foot long hot dog, mini donuts and I let him taste the great gelato I found. We didn’t get the Sweet Martha's Bucket of Cookies or Deep Fried Candy Bar or Twinkie on a stick, but that’s OK…Every year there is something new on a stick and the most fattening foods you can imagine. My favorite place though is the birthing center…they have animals giving birth and babies from day old to just a few days. We saw a calf that was born that morning, day old pigs, sheep, chicks, ducks…all so cute!!

After a late night I didn’t feel like getting up early yesterday but got into work and did a strength session during lunch and an easy 6 mile run with a friend yesterday afternoon…it was over hills, but very easy (about a 10:30 pace, I’m fine running with her on recovery days though, keeps my legs fresh and relaxed since my recovery pace is sometimes a much faster pace and slower can be good). To bed early last night and up for a 4 miler today that my legs are still loosening up from earlier this week, so a 9:10 pace, but that’s OK. Going to be a long one today though. I’m here till 4:30 and then working tonight at B&N…oh well.

Busy Weekend

And no time for posting. I kind of hate that. Anyway, I had my long run of 16 miles on Saturday, it didn’t quite go as I had hoped, but I still managed an OK pace. My plan had been 8 at MP + 60 and then 8 at MP, but the 8 planned at MP didn’t happen…first mile I had to take a longer break because the last water stop before the 6 mile run home was busy…ughh…but I still managed to get the whole run in (even with a few stops for traffic and the business around Lake Harriet, I have to remember that and stop with the running later in the day through the busy areas!! Sigh…Pace was 9:11 overall though, which is still MP + 60 so not bad. Had a busy rest of the day by meeting up with friends and going to a place on Lake Minnetonka for dinner and a few drinks, hung out there until I mentioned something about the naked guy in the shower that dances at The Saloon, a well known gay bar in downtown Minneapolis…well the girl driving thought that sounded like fun and we decided to run into downtown and hang out a bit. It was early when we got there so we stopped by Gluek’s and said hi to a friend there and took advantage of some cheap drinks (courtesy of Cordell) and then off to the Saloon we were getting tired so didn’t stay long enough for all the real interesting stuff to start up, but there was one quite interesting feature of the night witnessing the two guys having sex over in the corner of the bar…this isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed something like that though. Last time was a guy and a girl, this time two guys, so I guess now I’m due to see two women…the interesting entertainment of the downtime life though.

Sunday was an interesting day. My friend from South Africa (SA) is a huge rugby fan and South Africa was playing New Zealand (his favorite team) on Saturday and a friend of mine could get the broadcast so she recorded it and we hung at her place (I was dog sitting while she was out of town) and he was explaining rugby to me. He was the one with the tickets for the Vikings on Friday (which was a fun evening and yay, we won, they have yet to lose when I’m in the dome…hmmm…) so it was a fair trade…I’ve decided rugby is football on speed with some hockey (there were a few fist fights) thrown in. Gotta love rough sports!! I had gotten a 7 mile run in early in the day and then a walk around Lake Harriet so good exercise day.

This week is an easy week, 20 miler on Saturday and maybe a race on Monday, but for the main week, I’m just running easy, was going to do 4 or 6 yesterday but was really feeling tired so I just vegged and got up this morning for an easy 5. Tonight I’m going to the state fair, taking my SA friend to see it and to the Poison concert…yes, I know, but hey, they were good in their day, and he loves rock and most of these bands never toured in SA so with his birthday being this month, I bought tickets and said we could go. Great thing is he even managed to get us free state fair tickets so we will go tonight to see the big pig, eat deep fried cheese curds, all the food on a stick and who knows what other junk, take in a little of the fair and then watch the concert. It should be fun. Tomorrow I even get to sleep in a little as I’m just strength training since I’m running an easy 6 or 7 tomorrow night with a friend.

Tempo Thursday on Friday, August 18

I was done with the bone density scan by 5:30, got my Target Gift card, will learn the results of my scan by sometime next spring when the study concludes and should see results from the study as well, but in the basic look, she said my ankle bone tissue looks very good in comparison to what some people end up with, it’s spongy matter versus the more dense bone further up.

I got home and due to massive storms I ended up bagging the run last night…I wish I had been able to get pictures myself of the black, black clouds moving in…some areas had massive hail too. This is a picture I found on-line, you can see the hail is at least tennis ball sized! Thankfully not in my area. And this other picture is not near me, but it's the color sky I saw as I was driving home!! It started to pour 1 1/2 miles from home and I just prayed no hail would hit me before I got there!

I didn’t want to get up this morning but since yesterday became my day off I ran this morning, my tempo run of 9 miles (planned 10, but was OK with just 9 and 7 at faster pace instead of just 6).

My first mile was warm up, last was supposed to be cool down. I wanted to have an 8:00 minute mile going, although faster I would’ve been happy with (MP – 30 would be ideal and it’s what I’m working toward). This is a fairly hilly place that I run in, one of these days I’m going to get some pictures. Anyway, mile 3 was going up some hills and just after that fast mile 2, so I guess I can see why it was slower…although Mile 5 was over the biggest, longest hill (probably close to .5 mile of uphill at a good grade) and I was 20 seconds faster over it than I was last week which pleases me. The rest speak for themselves.

Mile 1 - 9:20
Mile 2 - 7:45
Mile 3 - 8:31 (hilly area and don't think I was awake for that last one!)
Mile 4 - 8:00
Mile 5 - 8:17 (big hill)
Mile 6 - 7:48
Mile 7 - 7:59
Mile 8 - 8:03
Mile 9 - 8:39

So rest of the weekend is a 16 mile long recovery run, recovery from today, but I plan to do at least the last 6 at MP just to test myself. I might take it over an easier course though, just to give the legs rest. Then an easy morning recovery on Sunday and probably a second run on Sunday afternoon to finish up my 60 mile week…unless I have time to get a 2nd run in tonight before I go see my Vikings in action…go Brad!!

Ummm

…I was really bad this morning…I mean really bad…I was going to get up and run 10 mile tempo run, but I talked myself out of it. I let the alarm go off and was awake, but chose to go back to sleep for another hour and was then going to get up and run a fast 5 miles. Nope, didn’t do that either. I got up, put my contacts in, got my GPS going, and then crawled back into bed for 2 more snoozes. I feel like crap of course because of it. I'm used to a morning workout of some kind and not doing one throws off my system. I’m running after work, still not sure how long or how far though. After work I’m getting involved in a research study. I am an MDRA member (Minnesota Distance Running Association) and as a member I get RunMinnesota magazine bi-monthly…last month’s I actually read, on-time and everything and they had a thing in there looking for subjects. It’s a distance running study on women and to qualify you had to be 22-35 or something like that, run 35 or more miles a week and I think that was about it. I meet these qualifications so I contacted them. It is a bone density study and this is something I’m interested in as some research seems to show running as building bones and some says that women need more calcium when running…Anyway, I go in for a bone density scan and questions being asked tonight. It’s at the University of Minnesota, which shouldn’t take me TOO long to get to if I leave early enough from work, and then I’m probably going to run somewhere around there just so I can save time and let traffic calm down before I head home. I also get a Target Gift Card for participating so that’s cool too. Now just trying to figure out miles for today…I planned on doing 10, 6 at 8:00 or faster pace. Now I’m thinking I’ll go about 8, probably the same plan though for pace, then tomorrow I’ll run maybe 6 instead of just the 5 I was going to do, and maybe I’ll even run a bit on Sunday just to recover from the long run and take Monday off…next week is a cutback week anyway. I’d just like to be close to 60 this week because next week is a bit of a cutback and the week after is my half, wow, already, and then I’m gearing up for the last hard cycle before the marathon…

Embezzelment??

Last night I met with a guy from Home Depot about my deck. He was going to come to my house last night, but he had been in my neighborhood earlier in the day and had taken a look because he knows there can be weird issues with associations so he wanted to see what the deal might be and from the stop he could tell me right away that they wouldn’t be able to do the work as it didn’t meet their minimum requirements. Home Depot doesn’t do deck work for under $4400…so I asked him how much he thought it would take, based on size and the wood they use which is guaranteed for life (not like the cedar they are supposedly doing on mine) it would be probably $3100 or less…and when I told him my dad’s estimate on the materials to redo it at $500 he said that sounded about right and suggested if it was possible to spend the $500 and 12 hours on a weekend he would recommend doing that (if I can get around whatever the Association requires for licensed contractors and all that) I also told him I had been told the permits would cost $300-400 and of my figuring on it being $100, he said that $100 sounded right for Edina and the project I was looking at. He also told me that he had looked, the posts were fine, there were a few boards that could be replaced but that that balcony was in no danger of falling down anytime soon (the note I had been given was that it was in dire need of replacement and would be one of the first done). So nice huh? Would this be embezzelment?? Something is going on, that's for sure, and that something is defintiely not favoring the residents of Manor Homes of Edina. Someone on the board or maybe the entire board, is trying to pull a fast one and I’m really ticked now…not sure how to proceed on this one, but I think everyone needs to go. They have been squandering money for way too long and giving assessments here and there that are ridiculous (like the $410 I had to pay 2 or 3 years ago for a garage door because they decided to replace all of them, even though the only ones that really needed to be replaced are ones that had panels in them, which mine did not) and the $510 assessment this year because they didn’t have enough in the reserves, or didn’t think there was enough cause they overspent, from what I can determine, on landscaping. Next summer we are supposed to have our road resurfaced…I wonder how much they are going to charge us for that one. I don’t think the association fees I pay cover anything. We used to have good snowplow service but the place we had last year, the few times we needed it, sucked. We used to have good lawn care, now I swear it’s never cut and when it is, it’s not cut enough to even notice it (definitely not the once a week it used to be done). Oh, also the Home Depot guy told me he would recommend waiting till spring, that I there is some dry rot and I could do some repair work, but he thought it would be better to replace it as it will eventually need that and it would keep from dropping the value of my home. And this was from a guy who can’t do the work anyway…so I know he’s not telling me bad information!!

I decided on my run this morning (I needed it!!) that I’m going to draft a document up for the board to read, I’m going to make my requests on the bill and everything for this deck they are trying to force me to replace, I’m going to require the name and information on the person that did the inspection that said mine was so bad off, also going to find out how many estimates were received and I’m going to let them know in no uncertain terms that I’m doing the work on my own, when I decide it is necessary and that any increases in our fees and/or assessments in the future I will want to see itemized spending details to know exactly why these things are necessary. If we don’t have the money, don’t do the work! And if any of this isn’t met, well, I do know some attorney’s and I’ll have the whole board investigated and impeached if need be!! This is ridiculous. I so wish I had a house instead of a condo…

On another note, isn't he adorable? My friend's son, he'll be one in a few weeks.

Tuesday, August 22 Intervals

Well, I did sleep last night, not long enough since I had to work, had I been home I would’ve been in bed much earlier…and while early on customers sucked last night, at least the ones I dealt with at the end of the evening were pleasant and made the last couple of hours go fast. I didn’t get enough eaten last night to fuel for today either. Dinner was a bagel and peanut M&Ms…yes, not the best but it was what I had since I was at the store and hadn’t had anything to bring. Sleep is good though…I hate when it eludes me.

Today, 5 x 1 mile repeats. Actually on my plan I had it written still for 7:45 pace…OK, so not as terrible as it turns out, but while running them, I thought of last week and the 7:00 or so I managed to probably average and that is what I was trying for…1 mile warm up, a little stretching and off:

Mile 1 – 6:51 (fairly even in ups and downs for the hilly pieces)
Mile 2 – 7:34 (a bit hilly but again seemed even, was very disappointed in this one)
Mile 3 – 7:09 (still bummed not 7, but better than last one)
Mile 4 – 7:19 (not sure what happened)
Mile 5 – 7:09

So seems 7:10 was better thought for the average. OK, yes, eating wasn’t good last night and each mile was over a slightly different section of road, although honestly why that one was so slow…I mean it was maybe a bit more uphill, and there was the van incident (decided not to run that section again) but still. Oh, and half mile recoveries and 1 mile cool down for total of 9 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes, just under 9 minute average. Doing a 6 mile easy recovery tonight with a friend…

Working out other things right now too. Think I have the roommate thing resolved, going to discuss with a friend tonight, but I think she is going to move in with me end of October and I’m going to stop with the people I don’t know (at least for the 9 months that my friend wants to live with me, no she’s not pregnant, that’s the time frame she wants for deciding to find and buy a place).

In other news though, my association has told me I need to replace my balcony, at my expense and they were good enough to find me a place to do the work…at the cost of $4500…This deck is 16 x 5…they plan to do cedar…this is a deck that is painted…my dad does woodworking, he priced it out with cedar and without…he found materials should come to about $900 for cedar and about half that for green treated lumber which is better and lasts longer particularly if you are going to PAINT IT (why have cedar if you paint it??). Is someone gouging us…I think so…Oh, and they are planning to have the work completed yet this fall, by September 15, and we have 30 days after that to pay for it…yeah, $4500 in less than 2 months…cause I’m rich and just have money laying around for things like that!! Ughh…it’s a non-necessity item and I’m not doing this this fall (can’t afford it anyway) and I think it’s way too high a price for that. Especially in just hearing what others have maybe paid on things like that. I want to have my dad do the work, but he’s not a licensed contractor, trying to find a way around that…I would trust his work and know he’s not gouging me, he probably wouldn’t even charge me enough…ah, the joys of an association…but then again, you live on a city street and a city can assess stupid things to you too that you have to pay for. It sucks though as I had it worked out if I have a roommate until next summer I can have one major loan paid off and big chunk of another gone as well. I’d LOVE that…and then something like this crap comes up…sigh…