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February 28, 2005

Busy Busy

This is such craziness. I have so much going on right now and we are leaving for Europe on Friday morning and I am busier at work than I have been in a year and a half! I like it though. The only trouble is that I am going to need to get up at 6:00 and run every day this week because I really do not have time to be running after work.

So here is the weekend of running. Saturday I ran like a crazy person, although I was not quite as crazy as some of my running friends. I met 3 people at 7:00 am at the location of our workout. We ran about 6-6.5 miles. Then at 8:00 we had practice where we did a warmup, cooldown, strides, and 8 x 800 meters at 10k pace (these were 3:30-3:20 for me). Damn at the end I was tired! The three people I met ran for another hour after practice but I was toast. That was about 13 miles (may have been slightly longer but I'm going to call it 13).

Sunday we were going to ski and I had no running planned but we didn't go to bed until midnight so waking up at 6:00 was just not in the stars! Instead we went to the zoo which was a lot of fun. We saw many cute animals, lots of fish in the new Tropical Discovery area, and tons and tons of monkeys! I love monkeys. My stomach has been bothering me for days (at the party we went to for RRB Saturday night, it was so swollen and it really hurt), so when I ran Sunday evening I knew it could be troubling from a stomach perspective, and it was. I ran for 10 minutes before I had to make a pit stop, then ran for 20 more minutes, had another pit stop, and then ran home. It was a 40-minute run which I am logging as 4.5 miles. I am really happy with my mileage from last week which is 58.5. This is good because the next two weeks will be very short due to being in Europe. I'd like to run 45 miles or so this week and 30 miles next week. Hopefully I will not eat too many french pastries!

This morning I knew I would set a good tone for the week if I got up, and a bad tone if I didn't. So I drug myself out of bed (is that right? or is it 'dragged'? No idea), and ran my 8 mile loop. I was a bit slow as I expected but in a cool twist of fate did not have to stop for a single traffic light the entire run so I still made reasonable time in my quest to get to work before 8:30.

So my friend V. and I were discussing marathon training on Saturday and I want to see what different people think about this question: How many 20+ mile runs do you need to run in order to run a decent marathon? If you have input please comment. We really do not know - my answer right now is one or more and that's just because for my marathon this past fall I didn't run any, and that was definitely bad.

That is the news for today - now it is back to the grindstone!

Posted by barb at 9:29 AM | Comments (3)

February 25, 2005

Quick Friday Update

Yay, it's Friday! I am excited. As much as I like my job now, I still love the weekend.

So here's what's up with running - nice, albeit windy, 7 mile run today around 2:00 pm. It's been warm at the end of the week which has been great - today was definitely shorts weather and I could have been in a tank top except for the parts when I was running straight into the wind. I did the same run I did earlier this week, and I did it a lot faster (who knows) so I added on by trotting around the grounds of my high school. I can't believe it was almost 10 years ago now that I was a student there, although those kids definitely look young to me now. Crazy.

Anyway tomorrow I'm meeting some RRB friends in Boulder tomorrow morning at 7:00 to run 6 miles before our workout, we all want to get our long run out of the way tomorrow because we have a RRB party tomorrow night (and I want to because we're skiing on Sunday). I'm looking forward to it, I should get 14-16 miles in tomorrow which will be my longest run in a while. I think it should be nice out again.

I am off to visit my mom at the hospital, she is about to be released but she sounds bored so I want to go see her while she's still there. Then I think Matty and I will have a mellow night since for some reason we are both exhausted today. I am looking forward to hanging with him - even though I see him every day now I still really look forward to going home and seeing him there. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by barb at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

Sleepy Run

I was so tired when I woke up at 6:00 this morning but I knew that if I didn't run then, I wouldn't be able to get a decent run in today. My legs were surprisingly sore when I got out of bed - probably from using different muscles than normal holding the dog yesterday. Last night my quiet evening of laundry did not materialize, Matt decided to take me to the Nuggets game. It was lots of fun and we were leading by 25 in the end of the third quarter so we just went home then so I could do laundry (all my running clothes smelled terrible, it had to be done). I did not get as much sleep as I was hoping for but I much rather go out and have fun than chill out and do laundry anyway.

So this morning I had a slow, uneventful 9 mile run. I was tired, my legs hurt, it was cold, blah blah. I had a little speed-racer thing with these people in the park that passed me, I felt that they did not appear to be serious enough runners to pass me so I had to run fast for a while and pass them back. When I was home stretching and told Matt about it, he thought it was hilarious - runners and their ridiculous egos.

Tonight there will be no second workouts even though I am slightly behind where I'd like to be from a mileage standpoint this week. We are going to dinner with some friends at one of my favorite italian restaurants in Denver, I am so excited! The restaurant is also a half block away from the best ice cream place in town so hopefully we can resist that temptation. Although I have not been eating too much crap lately and I do think that it would not be the end of the world to have some ice cream. And Matt has never been there which is close to being a tragedy.

Well that is the running news. If I can drag my lazy butt out of bed in the morning I'll run maybe 7 miles tomorrow. Then practice on Saturday and skiing on Sunday which means a possible day off, we shall see!

Posted by barb at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

Bringin' the Crazy

Well today I brought the Crazy on my run. No, I did not go nuts or start talking to myself or anything, I bought my loveable, adorable, but completely insane dog Bomboo. She is such a sweet dog around her 'pack' which is me, my mom, my stepdad, and my brother, but everyone else she hates with a fiery flaming passion. Anyway, today my mom is in the hospital having some minor surgery so I went over to her house to entertain Bomboo while she was in the hospital. I decided to knock out two birds with one stone - entertaining the dog and getting my run in. Bomboo is a great runner. The most I've ever run with her is 8 or 9 miles but I think she could do 15 easily. Of course for about the first mile she was absolutely gonzo and I got as much of an arm and shoulder workout as a leg one, but she calmed down and for the rest of the run she was remarkably good! My mom lives in the middle of suburbia but if you know where to go there are some very nice dirt trails so we headed to those and ultimately met up with the Highline Canal Trail, which is one of my favorite places for long runs because it's dirt and has mile markers. I timed my fourth and fifth miles out there and they were 8:40 and 8:35 which I was happy with. I am calling the run 8 miles (72 min) although based on my timed pace it was probably a little over 8. I had such a good time with the dog that I might try to do this again sometime.

Tonight Matt may be going to the Nuggets game, in which case I'll probably go to the gym after work and do another quick workout. Then I will go home and have a fun, exciting night of laundry. I plan to go to bed very early so I can get up tomorrow and run, I have too much going on after work to slack off tomorrow morning!

Posted by barb at 2:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Why am I so hungry????

This is annoying. I am so damned hungry and I feel like I have eaten a house today and it has not really helped! I guess I really have not eaten all that much - breakfast, lunch, and a snack - but I seriously feel like I could eat two more lunches. Okay so I say that but now I am starting to feel a little bit full as I just finished lunch about 2 minutes ago. Sometimes it just takes a minute. Thank heavens, I think my manager would think I am going to explode if I ate another thing today!

So yesterday at around 3:00 I drove to the gym, getting a wonderful speeding ticket on the way, and ran an extra 4 mile run just for fun. I felt pretty good and watched Dr Phil which I had never really watched and maybe it's just the closed captioning but I thought it was kind of funny! What kind of person would go on his show knowing he will just yell at them the whole time? Strange.

This morning I planned to get up and run but I didn't sleep well at all last night so I just stayed in bed. I am still kind of tired so I am hoping to get some good rest tonight and tomorrow night. I was going to run after work but then I figured lunchtime would be a more efficient use of time although I could not get out of here for long enough until about 1:30 pm. I drove up to my high school which is very close to here for a run at the resevoir which was really nice although I thought it was going to be really cold - however in reality it was quite warm. So warm in fact that I made ghetto shorts out of my pants. The resevoir is a great place to run although in the winter/spring it is muddy. It's a great place to spot deer and today I saw 4 of them. That is definitely something that never gets old!

So I felt all right although in spite of eating breakfast and a snack I felt a little bit weak and light-headed in spots. I really do not understand this but I guess I'll try to eat more when I'm hungry even though I am still definitely full-figured for being a middle-mileage type of runner. I ended up with 7 miles for the day and I do not think I'll be running again later although I might go to the gym and lift weights to avoid traffic. My fantastic boyfriend is cooking dinner tonight so all I have to do is show up! How great is that. I am pretty sure I'll be starving for whatever he makes!

Posted by barb at 3:23 PM | Comments (3)

February 21, 2005

Runnin' Fool

I am still feeling so good about my running right now! Which is nice since I was a bit down in the dumps about it at the end of last week. I am a little stiff today but I really don't feel bad at all.

Here is the weekend and Monday in running:
Saturday: RRB workout. I thought this workout was going to be really hard but D. changed it when we got there and it was actually almost too easy. At the end I felt like I practically could have done the entire thing again. We did three segments of running (plus warmup, cooldown, strides, blah blah): 12 min half marathon pace; 8 min 10k pace; and 5 min 5k pace. I ran with my friend C. who just ran a 1:39 for half in Austin. I've decided if I can run 1:39 in May I will be really happy so I decided I'd hang with her. I think we ran about 7:10-7:20 pace for that segment which is a bit fast for half pace but we were in the right zone for C. so I thought it was cool. The rest of the time I have no idea what our pace was but it felt good. I am always amazed at how good I feel in workouts when I don't go out too fast! Because the workout didn't really involve all that much running I think I only got about 7 miles for Saturday which kind of disappointed me - for the rest of the day I kept debating if I should go run again. However I decided to go to REI, hang out with Matty in Boulder, etc. Saturday night we went to karaoke with some friends which was lots of fun.

Sunday I got up at around 8:00 (I hadn't slept enough but it was really bright out so I just got up) and ran 12 miles. I really need to start doing some long runs of 13-15 miles for my half marathon but this was okay for now. My joints started to hurt a little bit at the end so by the time I had run 12 I was ready to be finished. The rest of the day was pretty mellow which was nice.

This morning I woke up very grudgingly at 6:20 for a 6 mile run. I felt like I could have gone farther but there was no reason to. I may run again this afternoon - I'm definitely planning on lifting and possibly cross training - but we'll see how I feel. I am very happy with the past week of running and I'd like to have another good week this week before I take two easy weeks for the trip to Europe. Speaking of which, Europe is so soon! We are leaving in less than two weeks. I can't believe it. I am so very excited!

I hope everyone has a great President's Day (I know I am enjoying the lack of traffic today) and a good week!

Posted by barb at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Friday Doldrums

I am so bored right now! I really don't know why. I think I am just having a 'blah' kind of day. Which is not too bad a thing but so it goes.

Last Friday I had a truly awful run, made worse by the fact that I had forgotten my socks. This Friday I had a fairly crappy run but it was not nearly as bad as last Friday, so I guess I will be thanking God for small miracles. I ran at lunchtime today and that is part of the problem with the running. The gym way down here by my work (not the one I go to in the mornings or after work) is in such a bad area for running. It's just a big ugly office park with concrete sidewalks. Blah. Not only that but it is crazy hilly! I trotted around the area for about 4 miles (probably slightly less but I know a few other runs this week have been slightly over), which is not much of a workout but I've been running a lot this week and we have a pretty intense workout scheduled for tomorrow. After running I thought about lifting, cross training, running more, but decided to take a nice long steam instead because it's good for my skin and my well-being. It felt great!

I am not sure what our plan is for tonight but if Matt has something going on such that he won't be around for a while, I may run more, but if not, I will be absolutely fine with today's workout. This weekend I want to do something really fun but I don't know what that is, so hopefully we'll be able to think of something!

Posted by barb at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Dangerous Times

So things are a little bit dangerous in Denver right now. There is some guy who has sexually assaulted five people in the last week or so, right around our area. As such I have been forbidden by my very caring boyfriend to run in the morning or at night in our area when it is dark outside. This is an irritating situation but this guy is dangerous and as much as I think I am tough and fast I am no match for a big scary dude. So this morning I drove down to the burbs where my gym and office are, and ran from there. It was fine. I ran 8 miles (again! this is quite the pattern this week!), and it was nice, albeit a little chilly out. The only problem I have running down here is that it is more stops so it takes longer overall to get up, drive, run, get my coffee fix, and get to work. However it is absolutely for the best. I just hope they catch this guy soon! In addition, there are way more sidewalks to run on down here instead of dirt which is hard on the feet. But it's cool.

Now let me just rant for a minute. This guy apparently has a very extensive history of this type of crime and yet was released after serving only 13 years of a 20 year sentence. It has made me think a lot about the purpose of incarceration and of our criminal justice system. In my mind, there are two purposes of incarcerating someone: punishment and rehabilitation. However, it seems to me that if a person will get out of prison or wherever and be a danger to society, then they should not be released. I don't know. All I know is that it sucks to be afraid to walk around your neighborhood.

So running this morning was good - Blondie aptly commented yesterday that I am much more upbeat and positive about my running this week, which is absolutely true! I am not sure what I will do tomorrow yet, I might just do a run at lunchtime so I don't have to drive to the gym at the crack of dawn. We are as of yet undecided about skiing this weekend due to the fact that it's President's Weekend which means all the Texans come in to ski.

Hope everyone enjoys their days!

Posted by barb at 9:08 AM | Comments (3)

February 16, 2005

Belly-Aching

I think that sometimes when someone is belly-aching it means that they are whining, no? I can definitely have my bratty moments but at present I am referring to my actual belly. Of course the problems I am experiencing right now are due to my own stupidity. Last night I ate a huge bowl of cereal at 9:00 and went to bed at 10:00, which meant that during my run this morning, my belly was not at its best. That behavior is definitely not recommended! I can't say it was all due to me not being as bright as I would like to be however. Sometimes I am too busy. After work yesterday I went straight to the gym and ran 4 miles and then lifted weights. Then I rushed home, said hey to Matt, and rushed to our neighborhood pub to meet a friend I had not seen in far too long. He is such a good guy and now I am obsessed with setting him up with my friend M. so we will see how it goes. Anyway I hung out with K. for a while, drank 50 seltzers since I am off the sauce, and then got home around 9:00. I hung out with Matt for a while and then went to bed right at 10:00 as planned.

This morning I got up at 6:00 and ran my normal 8 mile route, making two (oh yes, good times) pit stops along the way. Damn that was brutal. No more cereal for me late at night! It was a fine run, although it was cold, cloudy, and windy which is not my favorite running weather.

Tonight we are off to all-star related stuff, I think it is like an expo or something, and then tomorrow I will get up and run maybe 6-9. In an aside, tomorrow night we will actually be staying at my apartment (this is almost never done - I haven't slept there since November) because on Friday, my dear beloved brother is moving and he will be taking all of my furniture except my kitchen table and my bedroom furniture. After Thursday night my apartment will be mostly useless unless I can find a cute new couch. Which is fine, but it will be kind of nostalgic to stay there while there's still furniture and a big TV! Yes I must really love that kid because he is taking the TV too.

Anyway I am feeling really good about running right now (and actually feeling decent about lifting, I think I am getting a bit stronger!) and I am just biding time until I can run my half marathon in May. I am very excited about it!

Posted by barb at 8:55 AM | Comments (1)

February 15, 2005

Trotting Around

That is kind of how I felt about my run this morning = just trotting around for the hell of it, having a good time. I was definitely tired when I woke up. I need to stop thinking I can get by on 7 hours of sleep a night. So back to princess mode and sadly back to insisting upon going to bed at 10:00!

So this morning I ran an easy 7-7.5 miles (not quite sure) and did a variation on a route I was kind of getting bored with, so it made it more interesting which was nice. It was all foggy and cloudy out which in Denver is moderately rare (although it has been more common lately) so it was nice. It was kind of starting to snow when I finished up and I think it might snow an inch or two today. It has been nice not having snow on the ground but of course that can't last forever!

After work I am heading to the gym to run 4 more miles, lift weights, and possibly cross train if time permits. I have to meet a friend at 7:30 for a drink so we'll see. I really need to go to bed at a reasonable (well actually at a very early) hour tonight! I need to be up early tomorrow to run since we are going to some event for the basketball that is making Denver a crazy place this weekend.

Posted by barb at 8:50 AM | Comments (1)

February 14, 2005

Fun Weekend, Crappy Running

I just had a great weekend. Unfortunately the weekend did not involve nearly as much running as I would have liked. Friday after work I considered running again but succumbed to laziness, reading, and going out. We had such a great time hanging out with friends and doing a little pub crawl on Colfax.

Saturday I woke up around 10:00 or 10:30 and ran 11 miles. It was fine and a good start to the weekend but unfortunately that was it for the weekend. I had big plans to run in the morning on Sunday which fell through and then it was really windy so I did not exercise at all yesterday. I got really upset about it which on the one hand was stupid but on the other hand, unplanned days off really suck in my opinion. I end up stressing out all day about how I haven't run so by the time I decide I'm just not running I feel terrible about it instead of enjoying it. We had a really good time nonetheless in Fort Collins and we did take a drive and check out the course for the half marathon I'm doing in May. So that was productive and I did feel good this morning while I was running but I'd rather not take another day off (especially an unplanned one) for quite a while.

This morning I ran my normal 8 mile loop. It was fine, unremarkable. The weather was nice and warm. I felt good enough that I thought about extending it and doing my 11 mile run but I wanted to get to work early enough that I could justify leaving right at 5:00 today to get started on Valentines Day stuff. Since we are going to Europe we are just cooking dinner and chilling out which I am really looking forward to! Tomorrow I would like to get up and run 7-8 and then run 3-4 after work as well, possibly also lifting weights. Since I sucked last week I need to work hard this week!

Posted by barb at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)

February 11, 2005

'I need to stop eating retard sandwiches'

This is a kind of funny thing my friend M. has been saying a lot lately as he keeps inviting this girl who is mean to him to our social functions. Today I am kind of saying that to myself just because I feel so crappy and I am trying to figure out why. I was just perusing my running log and frankly I cannot understand why I feel like crap now and I felt fine this summer when I was on a plane twice a week and training at sea level four days a week. And running upwards of 70 miles a week!

I had a very ill-fated workout at lunchtime today. The plan was to run 6 miles on the treadmill but at the outset I was put in a foul mood because I realized I forgot to put socks in my bag after I did laundry. I HATE running without socks. Not only do I have super-stinky feet but it feels weird on my orthotics and I just do not like it. At that point I almost didn't run, almost didn't work out altogether which in retrospect may have been smart. Instead I ran a truly craptacular 3 miles on the treadmill, all the while feeling absolutely positively terrible. This is supposed to be a cutback week and all but come on! So now I have the dilemma of whether I try another workout later on (around maybe 5:30 or 6:00) making me a true running geek who prioritizes running over my social life or do I go to a party that work people are having. Frankly I am not into the party at all - Matt's cousin has a long layover in Denver this afternoon so he is going to the airport to meet him, and I hate going to social events alone when I do not know hardly anyone. So while I feel like I should go to the party I really don't want to. I'd much rather go home, run again, and then just go out later with Matt and our friends that I actually know.

So we'll see. I may end up with three miles in the log today, but I might have 9 by the time the day is over.

Posted by barb at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Semi-Motivated

Well I have moved from being de-motivated to being semi-motivated. I actually had a great 8 mile run last night, I was hammering for at least 5 of the 8 miles. I was really surprised at how good I felt and at how easy it was to run relatively fast. So that is good news! Last night I also lifted weights for the first time this week (my soreness from snowboarding is almost over now). So that felt pretty good too.

This morning I got up at 6:05 and ran a very easy 7 miles. It was about 20 degrees out so I was cold almost the whole time but it was not too bad. I thought about running less this morning but I just kind of sleep-ran through it and it was fine. It was weird though, I keep having nightmares so every morning for the past several days I am awake but just kind of unsettled when I wake up. I hope that will stop!

Tomorrow I'd like to run 6-9 miles in the morning, same on Saturday, and then my long run Sunday. Everyone from my running group is either in Austin or Vancouver, WA this weekend so there is no practice to skip!

I hope everyone is having a good week.

Posted by barb at 8:44 AM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2005

De-Motivated

I am kind of not terribly motivated today. I don't know if it's the weather (sunny but still cold), fatigue in my legs (I've run 50 mpw or slightly over) for the last four weeks, general fatigue, or what. Maybe I am just lazy!

In any case it's 4:00 and I haven't run yet, as planned. I decided to sleep in and also decided that I shouldn't run any doubles this week. I have been feeling fine but my feet are kind of tired and a cutback week is usually a good thing every now and again. However I would like to do a decent long run up in Fort Collins on Sunday. Maybe like 13-14 miles, along the course for the half marathon I have planned on May 8. This course is supposedly a gently downhill almost the whole way so I think I could get a half marathon race PR. The fastest half I've ever run in a race was the first half of my marathon which was like a 1:47 or something so I know I can beat that by quite a bit. I really think I should be able to run a 1:40 or so.

So after work I am heading to the gym from which I would like to go for a 7 mile run in the rich peoples' neighborhood, then possibly lift a weight or two if I am not still too sore, and afterwards I think a trip to the steam room is in order. If I'm feeling especially motivated I'll hop on the bike for a bit. I always read about how much cross training everyone else does and it is making me feel somewhat like a slacker. Today is about the only day for the rest of the week where I'll be able to cross train (unless I ski Saturday), so I really should do something. Blah, I am sick of winter.

Posted by barb at 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

February 8, 2005

Nothing Exciting

I have definitely had a boring day or two. Run, work, get neck rubs, eat, sleep, blah blah blah. The only excitement in my life right now is planning this weekend, which should be fun, and planning our trip to Europe. Last night we were perusing the Britain and France books and trying to find a good place to go in the English countryside. I kind of want to go to the Cotswolds. We were thinking Stratford but in the one book about Britain the author says that Stratford is like the biggest tourist trap in the world or something. But he sounds jaded and he has been everywhere a zillion times so I just don't know what to think of that. Paris, however, just sounds so amazing and beautiful that I can't wait to go there! I have already told Matt that he must go running with me once or twice in the major cities because it will be so much fun.

So that was the excitement of last night (and if anyone has some fabulous little town in the English countryside that we should go to, or the French countryside really too, let me know).

This morning I woke up before the alarm went off for some bizarre reason. I think I am FINALLY over this terrible cold I had a month ago! I ran 8 miles (my favorite run from Matt's house) and beat my time from last week by a minute so I was feeling really good. It was nice. Tonight there will be no more working out for me as I am still a bit sore from Saturday - but I am much better - and I am making some chicken enchiladas which I think will be good. Tomorrow I believe Matt is playing poker so I am planning on two runs and weight lifting. It should be a big day of working out!

Posted by barb at 8:41 AM | Comments (1)

February 7, 2005

Boarding is B.S.!

So I went snowboarding this weekend for the first time in 12 years. This activity is definitely not recommended! It was kind of fun for a while until I fell and landed on my head which has made my neck absolutely kill me for the last two days. But I did complete one full long run and that was enough! I don't think I will be boarding again any time soon. I am pretty good at skiing and to me there is no reason to mess up my head, neck, arms, shoulders, abs, and back if I don't have a really good reason to do so.

So anyway on to the weekend in running. Saturday morning before we went to the mountains I ran an easy 4 miles. I had planned to take the day off but I had time so I figured what the hell, I might as well just go ahead and run. I felt pretty good and it was nice to have an easy, short day of running.

Sunday morning, the day after my fateful boarding adventure, I woke up at 6:05, drove to North Boulder to my friend C.'s house, and went running with her, her adorable dog, her boyfriend D., and another lady I had never met who was really nice, J. We went out on some trails to the area around the Boulder Resevoir which is a great place to run. C. is training for Boston but right now she's tapering for the half marathon in Austin on Sunday so she wanted to run 12 miles which was perfect for my currently not outstanding level of fitness. We had a great time chatting and the run was over before I knew it! It was pretty cold out (about 27 degrees for the entire run) so after we finished up I headed straight home and took an extremely long shower before we headed to our friends' Super Bowl Party. I was pretty stiff all day from boarding of course but after the run my legs felt fine. I do feel that even though I haven't been doing jack for speed work I am in decent shape right now. This week I ended up with 55 miles which is my highest total since September 2004 so that is great news!

This morning I wasn't sure how I would feel what with the soreness situation, especially considering that usually one is more sore two days after an activity than the first day after. However I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm went off and freaked out - I forgot to pay rent! That is the problem with having an apartment but not really living there. So I got up and did a short (I'm calling it 4.5 miles) run with my rent check. As long as they think I dropped off the check late Saturday I should not have to deal with any kind of a late payment penalty. During the run I felt fine and I am a little bit stiff now but I think that is to be expected.

That is all the news for now. I am excited to catch up on everyone's weekends!

Posted by barb at 8:45 AM | Comments (15)

February 4, 2005

Back in the swing of things

Well I am finally feeling like I am in decent shape again. It is a good feeling - I think that being at altitude consistently for a month or so has really helped. This morning I ran 8 miles and felt really good the whole time, which makes me really happy. There is really not too much else to report as far as running or working out, except that tomorrow I will be boarding and hopefully running 3-4 miles and then Sunday I'll be running 12 with my friend C.

In other, more exciting, news - we booked our trip to Europe! We are going to London and Paris March 4-14. I am so excited!! I think that it will be such a fun trip. Matt has been to Europe many times but the only place I've ever been is London so I am really looking forward to doing some more exploring.

As far as the rest of the weekend goes - Go Pats!

Posted by barb at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2005

You are getting very sleepy....

I am somewhat hypnotized at the moment by formatting reports. However I am also just tired! I do not know why, but I wasn't tired last night at 10:30 when I wanted to go to bed, so I stayed up later, and then once I did go to bed, I couldn't sleep very well. I feel like I woke up at least every hour. So the plan to get up at 6:00 and run was moderately (well actually, very) thwarted. I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed at 6:50 and somehow was running by about 6:57. I did not have much time because it usually takes 35-45 minutes to get to work and I prefer to get in by 8:30. However I would have felt lame running any less than 4 miles. And realistically since I ran 10 miles total yesterday even 4 would have felt semi-lame! So I ran 5 miles in about 43 minutes. I was feeling pretty good although I did get passed by some fast girl. I tried to hang on for a minute but she really seemed to be hammering. So that was this morning. I am sure part of the reason I was tired is dehydration. After I run at night (ran 6 miles last night) I have a hard time getting properly hydrated for a run the next morning.

Last night since Matt was out and about I decided to really take my time at the gym so I also lifted for a good 15-20 minutes (this is a ton for me. I hate ifting with a fiery flaming passion). I also sat in the steam room for 5 minutes. This was nice but frankly it is exhausting to get home at 8:00 and have to still eat dinner, I don't want to do it very often. Although I do want to lift once or twice a week.

The five miler this morning will probably be my only workout today - I'm going over to my mom's house for lunch today and then tonight we're going to dinner with my dad and stepmom. I am pretty okay with it however. My goal tonight is to go to bed by 10:30 so I can get up at 6:00 tomorrow and get a decent run in before I go to work. I decided yesterday that I'm going to try snowboarding on Saturday so I need to pick up a board after work. Hopefully boarding won't make me too sore to run 12 on Sunday!

Posted by barb at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2005

Running Withdrawl

Well now that I was on my crazy running 3 times in 24 hours tear, and now that as of 9:00 this morning I have not run in over 24 hours, I feel weird! Weird in a good way actually. My body feels pretty rested (except for the fact that my princessing out was thwarted last night because I stayed up too late). Today I will be doing another double. I wasn't planning on it but I have a meeting at work from 4:30 that is scheduled to run to 5:10 but that I have a feeling will run over, so I'm going to do a quick 3 mile run at lunchtime and then run maybe 6-7 after work. I'd like to lift at lunchtime as well but we'll see how quickly I can do it.

I do just have to write a little blurb about the movie we saw last night. We ended up going to see Million Dollar Baby because we thought that The Aviator was too long for a school night and Hotel Rwanda would be too depressing. HA! MDB was the single most depressing movie that I have ever seen. I think I cried for like the entire last hour of it.

Tonight I would really like to do some reading or something intellectually stimulating. Usually Wednesday is my TV night (pretty much my only one) because Alias is one - I am obsessed with that show - but I don't think it is on tonight. However I think it will be a busy night because I need to do my second workout and then I really believe I should go to the grocery store. Oh, the joy of being an adult...

Posted by barb at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2005

Famished

I do not know why but I am so hungry today. Of course I have run 3 times in the last 24 hours but I really haven't run all that much. I guess I didn't really eat a big dinner last night either but it wasn't terribly small. Oh well. Right now I am having my second breakfast (which is only a power bar type of product), and I am looking forward to lunch! Luckily I will have over 24 hours off between now and my next run. This morning and last night the inside of my right knee kind of bugged me for a while so it won't be bad to have a little bit of time between runs.

Anyway here is what my runs actually were. Last night I drove home from work and ran 5 miles. So that gives me 9 miles for yesterday. I felt really good and think I was running about 8:30 pace. Then I got up really early this morning and ran 7 or 7.5 miles. It was pretty cold outside this morning so when I got out of the shower my legs were all red and splotchy and basically disgusting. I didn't really think it was all that cold during my run - maybe about 20 out - but that was bad.

Today that will be my only workout because we have some plans to go see Hotel Rwanda tonight. Well, either that or The Aviator. But it is SO LONG. I am in princess mode this week and insist on sleeping 8 hours a night which makes it hard to go see some crazy long movie on a Tuesday. This is a busy week - we didn't do anything last night but tonight we have the movies, then tomorrow Matt is going to have dinner with his mom, then Thursday we are going to dinner with my parents, and then Friday we are making dinner, and Saturday we're going skiing/boarding. Saturday night my friend is having a birthday party, then Sunday morning I have plans to meet a friend from my running group to run 12 miles, and then there is the Super Bowl. Hoo boy, it makes me tired just thinking about it! But it will be fun. Hopefullly I will fit in about 50 miles although I might be a little short due to skiing Saturday, unless I can run afterwards.

Hopefully someday I will lift again, possibly tomorrow. Now I am back to work!

Posted by barb at 9:42 AM | Comments (1)