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October 31, 2005

Happy Halloween!

Well, isn’t it cool that it is Halloween. And isn’t the time change good and bad at the same time! It is good because I am actually able to wake up by 7:00, but bad because the sun is going down at 4:59 pm today and it will only get worse for a few months. But that is cool. It’s just a good excuse to start running in the mornings again. Today is a surprisingly nice day in Colorado – usually we have abominable weather every Halloween – in fact it often snows. But this year we got the bad weather a day early. Yesterday it didn’t get over about 50 degrees and it started raining around 5:00. But today it is sunny and nice and should be around 60 degrees.

I don’t think I wrote in my blog on Friday at all, so I will start there and recap the past few days pretty quickly. Friday was an exciting day. As I alluded to in my Thursday entry, I had a meeting at work. The purpose of the meeting was to give my two weeks’ notice. Apparently there is a rash of job changes starting in our community – first Alison, then Blondie, and now me. I was pretty sure I was about to leave for two weeks or so but didn’t want to mention it here until it was official, just in case. So that went well. I don’t think I’ll be working all that much for the next two weeks, but then I should have a very normal schedule. And I won’t be traveling any more, which is really good. I got out of work around 1:00 on Friday, came home and found a very hung over Matt, laid on the couch for a while digesting, and then drove down to Wash Park and ran 6 miles. Friday night we went to dinner with my brother and then went to the movies, which was nice and mellow. Saturday I had an appointment in the morning, then we did a few things for our Halloween party, and then we went to the gym to work out. I decided to take a day off from running so I just ellipticalled and lifted a little. We finished getting ready for our party and then hung out while people started to come over. The party was a big success.

Sunday we went to my favorite place for breakfast with our friends, which was nice, and then I went to the gym while the Broncos played to watch and work out. I ran 6 miles at an easy pace on the treadmill while watching the game, and then ellipticalled for 30 minutes. The game was great overall although there were a few scary moments when I thought we might lose it. In the end we absolutely kicked Philadelphia’s butt! Sweet. Then I went home, we watched two movies, and went to bed. It was so nice to have a day where we didn’t have so many plans.

Now it’s Monday morning, and I am at my favorite coffee shop. I am leaving in a minute to get my emissions test, so that I can register my car, and then I am heading up to Greeley for a meeting. When I finish there I’m coming back and going for a nice run. It should be a good day! I hope everyone is enjoying your Halloweens.

Posted by barb at 10:15 AM | Comments (5)

October 27, 2005

No Title for Today

I can't think of a single thing to title my blog entry today. It was kind of a boring day. I did a lot of laundry, felt kind of cruddy, cleaned up the house for our Halloween party (somewhat - we've still got a ways to go on this), ate some popcorn, blah blah.

I did have a good run. My orthotics are in the middle of being resurfaced, which is so essential as they are revolting, and falling apart, and all kinds of bad things. M. seemed concerned that I would be away from them for 2-3 days but my foot is miraculously feeling better so I think it'll be all right. Not a twinge, honestly. It is bizarre. I have really wide feet but in my new shoes I got the medium instead of the wide which I prefer. My toes went to sleep for a few minutes while I ran but I stopped to wiggle them and overall I like the more snug fit so much better.

I ended up with 9 miles, and lots of walking today. I am so tired right now! I am not like physically exhausted tired but more sleepy. However, Matty, who just went to the Avs game, is going out and I need to go meet them in 10 minutes so I am rallying. Or rather I am going to go and hang because I haven't seen Matt all day - I was completely passed out when he left for work and I was in Boulder when he was home. So that will be fun. I am not too into drinking but a snack sounds good.

I am kind of dreading work tomorrow. It should not be a bad day but I have a big meeting with the owners of the company. I will write about it when it's over. But wish me luck, and I hope everyone has a happy Friday! Because who doesn't love Fridays?

Posted by barb at 09:42 PM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2005

The Magic of Orthotics

Well, I feel like a bit of an idiot now. I was totally freaked out about my foot. And I am still wary of it, but ever since I started actually running with my orthotics again it has felt about 95% better. So, the lesson here is, when buying running shoes and running in them, listen to my physical therapist over my coach. That is not all that surprising. In any case, though, I am excited to get my orthotics resurfaced - I am heading over to the running store in a few minutes to do just that. Part of the reason I didn't like wearing them for a while is that they are disgusting - all the surface is coming off and they are just dirty and gross. I brought my original molds just in case he decides he needs to remake them. Let's hope not though - that would cost me $135 or so. I think that resurfacing is free, or if it's not free, it is close to it.

Anyway I digress. I posted pretty recently so I don't have all that much to say. I got up around 7:00 this morning, drove to Boulder (terrible traffic - a semi fell over on the ramp to the highway to Boulder which caused about a 20 minute delay. And NPR is having a pledge drive, so I had to listen to radio with commercials! Ew. I convinced myself to run - God knows why this was a challenge as the weather was beautiful and I was heading to my favorite trail - and started out. I ran very slow on the first 3.5 miles (32:41), but at the turnaround I decided to stop being a slacker, since my foot felt fine, and my last 3.5 miles were more in the 29:00 range. That is much more like it. I thought for a second I would see an elite runner that runs on that trail occasionally but it wasn't her. I felt really good even though my back and my butt are pretty sore from yoga. So I guess I'll definitely run more than 20 miles this week - I'm already at 21 after three days. Sweet!

Anyway I am off to the store to see M., back to Denver to shower, and then down to the office for a meeting. Not too bad for a Wednesday. I hope everyone is having a good one!

Posted by barb at 10:05 AM | Comments (2)

October 25, 2005

Yoga Bears

That is what Matty and I were today - yoga bears. I know that is truly revoltingly cute but what can I say. Speaking of bears, I could really go for some gummy bears right now. Mmm, gummy bears.

So my foot is feeling a little better but I'm still going to Boulder in the morning to get my PT to look at my orthotics and possibly refurbish or rebuild them. The yoga really helped me stretch out all my muscles so that was beneficial no matter what. And I bought another ten class card so I need to go nine more times in the next six months! It was Matt's first real yoga class and certainly his first time doing hot yoga and he had a good time. He said that he would like to do it again, and in fact he'd like to go once a week. So hopefully he will. He did great considering it was his first time.

I also ran 4 miles today - just taking it easy for my foot - and yesterday ran 7 miles after work. I have decided that I don't care if I have a really low mileage week this week, if it prevents me from having no mileage weeks in the future. In that spirit, I'd rather drive to somewhere I can run on dirt than run from home, even if that means running less. I hope that I will be feeling loose and 100% healthy pretty soon.

So it is great to have a yoga buddy. Now I just need a few more running buddies and I will be all set.

I am running one of my favorite trails in Boulder tomorrow morning, before I head to my favorite coffee shop, and then go to my favorite running store, to see my favorite physical therapist. Well, he is my only physical therapist but still. It should be a good day, although after all that fun and excitement I have to have a work meeting, which is not my favorite thing!

I hope everyone is having a nice week!

Posted by barb at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

October 24, 2005

Lazy Sunday

Man, I had the laziest Sunday yesterday. At least I did work out a bit - 65 minutes on the elliptical plus some weight lifting - but other than that I spent most of the day on the couch. It was nice. I caught up on reading all my magazines, watched a movie, etc., etc. I was planning to go for a run but didn't quite make it = it was dark, a bit cold, and my feet were feeling really tight.

My feet were still bothering me this morning so I decided to sleep in and do two workouts later in the day today - one at lunchtime and one after work. At lunchtime I ran 3 miles (very slowly) on the treadmill and then ellipticalled for 35 minutes. After work I'm going to run down to Wash Park (a little over 4 miles to the spot I am heading to), meet Matt, and run 3 miles with him. That way I'll get 10 miles or so for the day which will be good. Then we are going home, showering, and driving to Longmont for dinner with Matt's mom. This is his last birthday event. We have a pretty busy week ahead of us but I really want to make it to yoga at least once. My calves have been so tight, which makes my feet hurt, which is bad. Yoga really helps me stretch out my calves. I may be able to go tomorrow - and if not tomorrow, then possibly Thursday or Friday. Now that the weather's getting colder I enjoy more indoor activities like yoga. I do need to see if the yoga studio will let me keep my pass even though it is expired. The fact that they expire yoga passes really annoys me so hopefully I'll be able to persuade them - having the passes expire seems to me to discourage people from buying them.

Hee hee, I was just on IM with Matt and convinced him to go to yoga with me tomorrow! That will be great. I hope he enjoys it!

Anyway I am just rambling about nothing today. What else is there to say? No, I did not mean for those two sentences to rhyme. This was a nice weekend with both happy and sad football results = CU won, the Broncos lost. Frankly, the Broncos were due for a tough loss, in my opinion. They keep getting ahead and then letting everyone back in the game way too much. Hopefully this will serve as a bit of a wake-up call that they really need to put people away, and keep playing hard for the entire four quarters.

I think that I have ranted enough. I hope everyone enjoys their Monday!

Posted by barb at 02:49 PM | Comments (3)

October 20, 2005

I like games

Well, I have been indirectly tagged by Alison to play this game and it seems kind of fun, so here goes.

Here are the instructions:
1) Go into your archives.
2) Find your 23rd post.
3) Find your 5th sentence (or closest to it).
4) Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules.
5) Tag five other people.

Here is the sentence:

I am generally not a fan of chiropractors but mine is really great, I trust him and frankly enjoy hanging out and chatting with him!

That isn't very exciting, is it? Except that it reminded me that I need to make an appointment soon to go and pay a visit to said chiropractor. Maybe I will try to go next Thursday when I will be hanging with a friend in Boulder. My chiropractor has a nice new office and he seems to be doing well which is nice for him.

I don't have five people to tag, because most of the people I know are elite running bloggers and they have been tagged already, but Matt and Betsy, if you are reading this you should play too!

That is about all that I can think of writing at present. I haven't run yet today. I was going to run at lunchtime but I didn't want to be sweaty and disgusting again and the run in Greeley is boring me. So I will get a run in before I buy groceries tonight. I am looking forward to it. It will be short since I am time constrained but that is fine for today! We are going to make a nice white fish with coconut red curry sauce tonight so I hope it will be delicious.

Have a good day, everyone, and I will write something more compelling tomorrow.

Posted by barb at 01:15 PM | Comments (1)

October 19, 2005

Peak Foliage

The term 'peak foliage' has such different meaning here than it did for me in New England. I remember going for runs in college where so many leaves had dropped on the trail that it looked like you were running on candy. Mmm, candy.

In Denver, it means that I ran by a fence on a golf course that had at least three colors of leaves, which is big time foliage! Pretty sweet. They were actually really pretty and I wanted to take a picture of them.

Anyway, while I ran today I saw some foliage. I ran 8 miles in 70 minutes. It was nice. I went moderately fast. My legs felt kind of tight. I feel like a third grader trying to write in the journalistic Hemingway style right now. At this point in time, I am sitting on the couch and coveting the candy that Matt got for his birthday. But that would be so rude of me to eat it! I am totally into sugary candy right now. As opposed to chocolate candy. He has Skittles and Starburst and jelly life savers (okay those are gross, but the other two are very good!). Although the whole candy discussion makes me want to run next door for some really premium candy. They have the best swedish fish ever.

Boy, am I all over the place today or what. I am finally feeling like a human after sleeping for a solid 8 hours again last night. It is nice. Although I could still stand to take a little nap this afternoon, time permitting. I do need to run to the grocery store to shop for dinner tomorrow night however.

Today's run was good. I have been feeling good consistently for the past three days which I am enjoying. I have not been as good about lifting and cross training this week as I was last week but I will attempt to get better. I am loving the weather right now, it is perfect for running!

Posted by barb at 02:15 PM | Comments (2)

October 18, 2005

No Time to Run

More and more I feel like I hardly have time to fit in 40 miles a week, much less the 50 or so plus cross training and weight lifting that I would like to be doing. Especially now that I know I must strengthen my hamstrings! Last week was just barely over 40 miles which is just sad. I don't even know what I could cut out. I guess I could go to less social events, but I do enjoy them for the most part. I really should take a minute to compliment the weather, I complain about it enough. Today it was just beautiful, yet again! It was about 78 degrees out when I finished my run (about 25 minutes ago), sunny, just a slight breeze, and even in Greeley it did not smell like maneuer! I guess it's supposed to cool off tomorrow but even that would be okay.

So yesterday, we waited for the cable guy (for the cable internet) to come for two hours, and he did not show. What a bastard. That service is so freaking overpriced, it works sporadically, and when it does not work the technicians do not show. I am going to call and yell at them again when I have my wits about me. Hopefully this will at least get us a discount on our ridiculous monthly bill.

I was so freaking tired yesterday. It put me in a terrible mood and I am so stressed out about finances, buying a house, selling Matt's condo, and our future that it is making me depressed. I didn't run early in the day as I had a truly awful morning, and when I got home from work I tried to nap for two hours, with no luck. So we went to the gym after the window for the cable guy to come was over, and Matt ran about 4 miles and I ran 6 on the treadmill. I felt a lot better after working out and last night I do think I slept for about 8 hours which has done wonders for my attitude but I am still really stressed and upset about everything, it is just that now that I'm rested I feel like I can probably handle it.

Last night's run was 6 in about 51:00, I ran 7:30 pace at the fastest and 9:05 pace at the slowest so that was pretty solid. I didn't feel like going any faster than 7:30 pace but it didn't feel too hard either. Today, I decided getting up early to run would be disastrous so I ran at lunchtime. This is pretty disgusting - I don't think they have showers here, it's about 80 degrees out, and I just ran 7.5 miles at a pretty solid pace. I smell so damn bad. I don't even know what to do about it - I guess I will just hope the people I am meeting with at 2:00 don't notice. And then I will shower as soon as I get home.

So the run I just did was pretty sweet. I ran on this Poudre River Trail again, which has a marker every half mile (except it skips one in this area with a lot of construction). I got bored after a while on the way out and started timing my splits, which were right around 4:00 for each half. I didn't even feel like I was laboring, so at the turnaround (at about 3.7 miles), I decided to pick it up a bit. I ran the first two miles back in 7:45 each. Then I ran the last 1.8 miles at a slower pace, which worked out to about 8:45 pace. That felt really slow and easy. So that is pretty solid for an old slow babe like me - in fact I do feel that I am getting a bit faster again. I still need to start getting on the track but at least doing some up-tempo stuff does seem to be helping.

That is about all of the news. We have so many plans this week I am going positively crazy - tonight we are going to a Maker's Mark event with my parents, tomorrow we're having dinner with Matt's parents for his birthday, and Thursday we're having friends over. Friday we are supposed to go to a party but I just can't imagine that actually happening.

Posted by barb at 12:50 PM | Comments (4)

October 17, 2005

Busy Birthday Weekend

Wow, this has been one crazy weekend. I am so tired. I almost took today as a sick day to recover, except that I don't have sick days so it would be a vacation day. And today has been one disaster after another!

Anyway I will start at the beginning. Friday night we went to dinner for my dad's birthday which was lots of fun, and lots of delicious food. I hope he had a good time, and I think that he did! Saturday I woke up early and ran 4 miles, then wished Matt a happy birthday and gave him his last gift (a CD he's been wanting), and then we headed up to the mountains. We got to the hotel, I realized I forgot my swim suit as always, and we checked in for our massages. My massage therapist was actually an elite runner back in the day - no one anyone probably would have heard of, but he was sponsored and stuff. So that was cool. He also had a bit of a PT background so it was a really informative massage. He told me that I have a pretty serious imbalance between my quads and my hamstrings, and that I really need to work on strengthening my hamstrings. He also said to stretch more and to lift more in general. Good advice! He did a great job.

After our massages we got dressed for the wedding. Now I have been annoyed by this wedding for the last 6 months, because this couple was getting married on their one year anniversary, which is truly obnoxious. The wedding itself proved to be equally annoying. However the music at the reception was awesome and we danced all night! Luckily some of our friends went to the wedding as well so my friend B. and I commiserated on how annoying everything was, which also helped.

Sunday morning we got up, laid around for a while, and went to breakfast with our friends T. and B. on the way down from the mountains. When we got home, I baked cupcakes for Matt's birthday as the carrot cake I tried to bake on Thursday turned out to be pretty gross! The cupcakes were delicious so that was good. Matt watched the Broncos game (and they won!! woo hoo!), and I went for another 4 mile run, because it was all I had time to do. This weekend was not my best running weekend ever.

Anyway the game took FOREVER, and we were supposed to be at a sushi restaurant nearby for the surprise party I planned for Matt at 5:30, but at that time there were still around 10 minutes left in the game and Matt did NOT want to leave. I finally convinced him to go and we went to the restaurant. He was very surprised and seemed to have a great time!

Now I am just exhausted. We each had a cupcake when we got home, and I think that they had so much chocolate in them (they were very rich) that the caffeine in the chocolate kept me awake until around 2:00 am, and the alarm and then Matt woke me up from around 6:15 to 7:30. Then when I went to email my client to say I could not drive to Greeley today because Matt had to take my car, our internet was down. It has been a truly bad day so far. But hopefully I will get to go for a run in about 45 minutes, and that will make things a lot better!

I hope everyone else had a good weekend and is starting to dry out. I am about to go read blogs and find out!

Posted by barb at 09:43 AM | Comments (2)

October 14, 2005

I'm So Excited!!!

And I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control
And I think I like it

Does anyone know what fabulous 80's tune I am referring to here? That is actually not my favorite song from that group, but it is the one that I keep singing in my head today. It is such a good day! And let me tell you why.
1. Great run - 9 miles. Felt good. Getting faster all the time!
2. I think I have dropped a few pounds. I always feel strange writing about weight loss in a running blog, when our sport is so dysfunctional about weight, but trust me I could stand to lose several pounds. It is not a big deal but I know it makes me feel better on my runs when I'm lugging around a bit less weight.
3. Delicious coffee and coffee cake for breakfast, what could beat that?
4. It's Friday!!! Woo hoo!
5. It is my beloved daddy's birthday! He is turning 60 today, but I think he does not look a day over 50.
6. Matt's flight is currently in the air, on time, and he will be home in about 3 hours, and on the ground in a little over 2 hours. I am so excited to see him!
7. I may actually finish my work sometime before 1:30 when I have to leave for the airport. That would be really good news.

Here is the only bad news: my carrot cake did not turn out well. I am going to throw it away in a little bit, but it makes me sad to do it because I know Matt really wanted a carrot cake for his birthday (which is tomorrow). I do have lots of yummy cream cheese frosting, however, which is the best part of carrot cake anyway, so I am thinking I'll go get a cake mix, bake a normal cake, and put the frosting on that cake.

Anyway about running. There wasn't too much of excitement that happened on my run this morning. The weather was gorgeous, which was nice. I was in pants and long sleeves and got really hot - I could have definitely run in shorts. It was not one of my fastest times (partly due to some digestive issues), but I felt good. I think I will be needing some new shoes soon, as it has been a while, but other than that things are peachy. I am getting excited for the Turkey Trot this year - I want to try to run it faster than normal (hopefully around 7:00 pace) so I'm going to try to tailor my training towards that race. That is about all the running news for today. If Matt feels like running later, I would join him, but other than that I am done working out for today!

I am off to take a shower, I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and weekend!

Posted by barb at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Carrot Cake

Well, I just made my first homemade carrot cake. I am not too optimistic about it = it kind of looks funny! Hopefully it will taste okay, and with enough cream cheese frosting I think it just might.

Anyhoo, I ran 5 miles today up in Greeley at lunchtime. It was nice and I felt pretty good on the return so I went a bit faster. I finished in just a little over 45 minutes. There is a nice bike path there and it was cool to run by a lot of new houses - Weld County is the fastest growing county in America, apparently. There are some huge houses there, with pretty views.

After work I was contemplating a second workout but this carrot cake took a bit longer than I expected, and my couch was so inviting. So that did not quite happen!

I will be running in the morning, then doing some work - then I will go pick Matt up from the airport which should be nice! Also, tomorrow is my dad's birthday (Happy Birthday Daddy!), then Matt's is on Saturday (Happy Birthday Matt!) - busy, busy weekend. We are getting massages on Saturday so I am so excited and it should be a nice birthday treat for Matt.

That is the news for now!

Posted by barb at 08:15 PM | Comments (2)

October 12, 2005

Jury Duty, Time off to work out

I feel like I had some good stuff to say earlier today, and now it's kind of gone! I am a bit bored. And I think it is about time for Matty to come home, for sure. He has been gone for more than long enough! Tonight I went and wandered around the mall for a while just because I didn't want to go home and have Matt not be there. But I am fine. I just miss having him around!

Bomboo left today around lunch time so things are very quiet around here. It was so much fun (and so much work!) to have her around, I really enjoyed it. Jury duty today, I did not enjoy so much. Although I read over half of the new book I'm reading (On Beauty, Zadie Smith's third novel). I don't think I like this one as much as I liked her first novel, but it's definitely better than her second.

Since the jury stuff ended around lunchtime, I had plenty of time to work out a lot - I ellipticalled for 65 minutes, lifted legs, and then ran 9 miles at Wash Park. My run was nice and I felt pretty good. However, this is kind of funny. I was running behind this girl, getting ready to pass her, and I knew she didn't really know I was there since she had her iPod going. She totally farmer blew on me! It was pretty gross but it only got on my arm. Speaking of which I need to wash my arm off! She seemed to feel bad (as I would too), so it was not a big deal. But that is the down side to tailgating someone who is wearing headphones.

My legs are tired and they kind of hurt now, so I'm relaxing on the couch. My new favorite show, the Martha Stewart apprentice show, is on in 5 minutes so I am all excited! I am also making a frozen pizza which should be done in 20 minutes, so I am fired up for that. Pizza night and Martha, what could top that?

Posted by barb at 07:47 PM | Comments (4)

October 11, 2005

Snowy October

This year has been truly bad in Colorado, from a weather standpoint. Which I guess is good in a way - the worse it is, hopefully the less people will move here! It is amazing, and not in a good way, how crowded it is in the Denver area now. And yes I have the right to complain about this because I was born in Denver!

My level of motivation is pretty low right now, at least from the perspective of running and working out. Having my dog over is great but I don’t sleep very well when she is here for some reason. I was awake at 5:30 this morning for a while and then when I had to get up at 6:45 it was downright unbearable.

I should cover yesterday’s run first. Not too exciting – I ran 4 miles with Bomboo, the dog, in the morning. The weather was horrendous – it was around 30 degrees out and sleeting while we ran, and it had been sleeting for about 12 straight hours at that point so it was really wet and I soaked my running shoes and my feet. Bomboo had a great time, though, and it was nice that there weren’t too many other people and dogs out and about. I saw two other runners and maybe three other dogs. After work yesterday I contemplated a second run but instead walked about 2.5 miles with Bomboo. She seemed to enjoy herself. At that point it had been sleeting for over 24 hours so the puddles were even more out of control!

Last night my friend J. and I went to the movies and saw a chick flick, In Her Shoes. It was pretty entertaining although as much as I want to say it was a really good film, I do not think that it was. The Cameron Diaz character was so unbearably awful that when she became good (I guess you shouldn’t read this if you don’t want to know what happens – whoops!!), it was kind of unbelievable. Not only that but it was so predictable that I don’t feel like it matters if I divulge what happens at the end. Not that I will, because I won’t. But it was fun and we saw some previews for some other chick movies we want to go see, with our without our boyfriends. Speaking of boyfriends, Matt seems to be enjoying himself in South Carolina, but I miss him! I can’t wait for him to come home. Unfortunately I have not gotten a lot of stuff done with him being gone, I have been so busy.

I haven’t run yet today – I had to help a friend get to the south part of town this morning – but I took Bomboo on a one mile walk. I am going to run with her when I get home from work. I think we may drive down to Wash Park and run there so that I can get gas, and so that we can run on a dirt surface. It should be fun and I am looking forward to it! Tonight I am going to hang out on the couch with my hound dog. And then tomorrow it will be back to some harder work with running – a double – and jury duty. Bomboo is going home tomorrow so I should have a lot more time to work out.

Posted by barb at 01:07 PM | Comments (4)

October 09, 2005

Me and the dog

Well, I took Matt to the airport this morning at 8:00, and now it is me and my mom's/my dog for 5 days. Actually it is me and Bomboo (the dog) for three days, and just me for two days as I am not keeping her for the whole week since I will be going to Greeley for two days this week. We are having a nice time so far, I am on the couch with her (don't tell Matt that she's on the couch) and we're watching the Broncos game, which is going well so far. It's almost halftime and it's 14-7 Broncos. And the Redskins just got a big penalty which is sweet! I don't know what is going on with them lately but they're playing really well. In fact it's been a good Colorado sports weekend so far - we went to the CU Buffs game yesterday and they won as well. Also, the CU cross country team won their home meet (this was not a big surprise).

It is so strange that Matt's the one traveling for business and I'm staying home! He'll actually be gone for 2 nights longer than I'm normally away for. I miss him already but I hope he enjoys his week - he flew into North Carolina, where he had never been, and right now he's driving to South Carolina, where he's never been either. So far I have a lot of plans for the week which is nice. Tomorrow I'm going to see In Her Shoes with a few girlfriends because it is a chick flick that our boyfriends don't want to go to. It's cold and rainy here right now, and tonight it's supposed to start snowing. We may get as much as a foot of snow in town tonight (although this is highly unlikely). Tomorrow the high will be in the 30's! Bomboo will enjoy it, as she likes cold weather, but it's a bit too cold for me personally this time of year.

Anyway, I digress mightily from the running topic. Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day and I ran 4.5 miles in the morning before we went up to go to the game and stuff. It was a nice recovery day as I really did run 14.5 miles on Friday! Today I was planning on running on the Highline Canal, but I was too thirsty by the time I got there so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I would not normally do this, but it turned out to be a good idea. I ran a kind of tempo run which is why this was good - I never do speed workouts by myself so this was nice to do. I ended up with 7 miles, three of them up tempo and some running at 6:30 pace, which is like flying for me. It was sweet! I love watching football while I run.

I also lifted weights after running. Talk about bizarre - this was my third lifting session for the week which is at least 2 more times than I normally lift in a week. I don't like it but it is nice to feel stronger. After the workout I went to my mom's, we got her a cell phone (her first one - it is very cute), and then picked up the dog. This was one of the higher mileage weeks for me in a while so that was definitely a good thing!

I hope everyone who is racing, has a good time racing tomorrow! I will be running, working, and hanging with my hound.

Posted by barb at 03:29 PM | Comments (1)

October 07, 2005

Making up for yesterday...

I have been doing a lot of this lately - making up for the previous day's slacking off by running a lot, and twice, the next day. I've only run 3 days so far this week but my mileage is tied with last week after 5 days of running. If that makes sense at all. And in fact I plan to surpass that figure as I will be doing a double today. I should be guzzling water right now, and unfortunately I am not doing as well as I should on that front, but I plan to make up for it soon.

This probably goes without saying, but when I got home from work yesterday I wasn't into running. It was kind of cold and my stomach felt revolting. Which are bad excuses but they seemed good enough at the time! And in any case, I kept figuring that I can run a lot when Matt's out of town next week, because I will not have anyone to hang with when I get home from work!

So this morning I truly made up for the slackage by running 11.5 miles. It was moderately cold when I started, which reminded me that I really need to get new running gloves very soon, but it warmed up and by the time I finished it was pretty pleasant - maybe like 50 degrees or so. However I'm a terrible judge of temperature, so who really knows. My legs and lungs both felt good so I was happy with it! However I am starving right now as I have not eaten all that much today.

Matt should be getting home from work within 10 minutes or so and I am going to run 3 miles or so with him, to give me an almost Alison-like total of 14.5 miles for the day. I will probably run short and easy tomorrow and then long again on Sunday, when I have lots of free time since Matt is taking an early flight out to the east coast, which makes me sad!

Good luck to all the bloggers that are racing this weekend, and on Monday! Knock 'em dead!!

Posted by barb at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

Showering is overrated

Or at least this seems to be my implicit philosophy on showering over the last week or so, as I've noticed. Seriously, it takes so much time and especially when I work out twice in a day it does not seem like something I'd enjoy. I think that my motivation here is twofold: 1., I just spent a lot of money making my hair the color I want it to be, namely not gray, and I want it to stay that color for as long as possible; and 2., I have been so busy that while I shower there are about a thousand other things I should be doing.

Last night I ran 3.5 miles, for a total of 11.5 for the day, and had to be coerced into showering because Matt said it was gross not to. Then we made this delicious glazed salmon for dinner, I baked cookies (which were all jacked up - at high altitude it is imperative to follow the high altitude recipe modifications), and then we watched a truly disturbing film. It is so cold now, it's strange going from bare feet and shorts and tank tops to jeans and sweaters and wool socks. It is neither here nor there for me but I do enjoy sleeping in the cooler temperatures.

This morning I decided to show up at work at an ungodly early hour, and work out/run later on in the day. I recently got back from a cross training workout - 65 minutes on the elliptical while reading an In Touch and a People magazine - talk about trashy magazine jackpot. I also lifted legs again because I like how they look when I lift a lot, and it seemed like maybe it will make me faster someday. After work, I will go home (Matt is already there, as he ended up working from home most of the day today), and go for a 3-5 mile run. I think it will be nice to have an easy day of running after yesterday's hard core kind of day.

I'm not sure what we're up to tonight, but tomorrow I may work from home, try to get a few things accomplished in the disaster that is my life, and then we are going to dinner with a couple we know and hardly ever see. I need to figure out where we should go - they live in the burbs and don't go to a lot of fun or trendy places. However, I am feeling poor and don't want to spend an arm and a leg, so it should be a fun challenge!

Posted by barb at 04:03 PM | Comments (2)

October 05, 2005

Cold Weather

Well, fall has truly arrived in Colorado, which should make those of you on the East coast a little happier - as weather generally moves East, I believe, maybe in a few days it will cool down in your neck of the woods as well!

Yesterday was my cross training/weight lifting day, which was nice. I tried hard not to feel too guilty for not running. And I guess I did all right. I much prefer cross training days over days where I do nothing at all! And it is always nice to lift weights once in a while.

This morning I actually got up before 7:00 which is seriously amazing for me right now. It is sad that I can't wake up like I used to, although when I sleep for 8 or more hours a night, I feel so much better all day - I don't get that cloudy feeling in my head in the afternoon. I am also more likely to resist eating bad things. I ran 8 miles very slowly - my 8 mile course that I ran in 1:10 last week, I ran in 1:16 this morning! But it felt nice so I went with it. It was cold enough that I wore pants and a long sleeve shirt, and when I got back and tried to type an email my hands were frozen. I keep losing my running gloves so I really need to buy a new pair or two, and I need to stop losing them! Like most everything in the world of gear, they are expensive but I really enjoy having nice little running gloves.

Today I got a wild idea that maybe I could fly out to Boston and run Tufts on Monday with Alison, Blondie, Audrey, and whoever else is running. So I checked on some flights, but unfortunately the cheapest flight I could find was about $500. That is a bit much. Next year I'll plan ahead and show up, though!

Tonight I think we are going to cook some healthy, quick, and delicious salmon for dinner and possibly go to the movies. I am contemplating a second run, since I'll get home almost an hour and a half before Matt does today, but I will see how I feel.

Posted by barb at 04:20 PM | Comments (3)

October 04, 2005

Cross Training Day

Well, in life sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. And those are my words of wisdom for today! Brilliant, I know.

I have had many appointments today. One I will mention next week if it went as well as I felt it did, and one hair appointment. It is so depressing to get my hair colored all the time, not because I am young and fun and want crazy highlights or because I want to try being blonde, but because all my hair is turning gray! Yikes. Anyway all my gray hairs have been banished which is sweet.

From a running standpoint, yesterday was a good day - 10 total miles in 4/6 double - but all night my feet felt kind of tired and crunched, can't really explain it too well, and this morning before appointment number one I did not feel like running. I planned to go around lunchtime and still didn't feel like it, so I decided to go to the gym, elliptical, lift weights, and read this chick lit book that I have been obsessed with. So that is what I did. I decided that it's good not to run sometimes, and it's good to crosstrain, and most of the time I can't find time to go to the gym so it was a good thing to do while I did have time. However I still feel guilty (if you couldn't tell) so I'm trying to get over that.

Right now I am catching up on some work stuff and I'm on hold trying to book tickets to New Zealand in the spring. We want to book a certain type of reward travel because I have so many miles, so they are trying to find some eligible flights. I am kind of a princess about it but New Zealand is so far that I'd really prefer to fly business class!

Now I am off to clean the house, our real estate agent is coming over tonight to tell us what we need to do before we sell. Busy, busy bees we are!

Posted by barb at 04:22 PM | Comments (1)

October 03, 2005

Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio

Oh, the joys of traveling. Because of my favorite (or rather most convenient) airline's hub/spoke structure, and the fact that it doesn't fly directly to Cincinnati or Louisville, we flew in to Indianapolis, drove to Louisville, then on Sunday drove to Cincinnati, and drove back to Indianapolis to fly home. The three cities are in a mostly equilateral triangle with legs of 100 miles each, so it wasn't that bad but we did spend a lot of time in our rental car. At least it was a nice car!

However, the weekend was lots of fun. We hung out with my awesome grandparents and parents, ate lots of really good food (and the best ice cream in the world), saw where Maker's Mark bourbon is made, ran a 5k, went to some beautiful parks, etc., etc. It was a very busy weekend and we didn't have much down time at all!

From a running standpoint it was a good time, although I feel that to burn off all the Graeter's Ice Cream, I should have run about 30 miles a day. Oh well, it is time to be a little less of a pig for a while!

So we got into Indianapolis at 4:00 Central Time (actually it's Eastern but they don't do Daylight Savings in Indiana, so it acts like Central), and drove straight down to Lousiville. Because we went into EDT, we lost an hour and ended up arriving at the restaurant for dinner around 7:10, about 45 minutes after my parents/grandparents arrived. It was great to see them! They all looked so good and my grandma is amazing for being 90 years old, as is my grandpa considering that he is 89.

We got up the next morning at 7:00 which felt very early - it was like getting up at 5:00 am Denver time, and because Louisville is so far to the west in the Eastern time zone, it was still dark out. We drove to the start of the race, got our packets, and I went for a little warmup. The field didn't look all that fast, so I thought I could do pretty well, but I decided to run with Matt so that he could make his goal of a sub-30:00 5k. The race was in a very pretty section of town with lots of awesome old houses. It was really fun to check out the houses while we ran. The course was pretty hilly - the first mile was more downhill than uphill, the second mile was more uphill than downhill, and the third mile was fairly flat. We came through the first mile in 9:54, the second in 9:58, and then Matt started having some trouble with his stomach so he walked a few times in mile three but turned it on in the end to finish in 29:54! He was very excited and I was really happy for him. He did a great job and attained his goal in spite of adverse conditions.

I ended up with 5 miles for the day (one mile warmup, one mile cooldown), and it turns out I may have been able to win the race - in which case we will have to go back next year!

After the race we went to the Maker's Mark distillery which was both fun and educational. Bourbon is mainly composed of corn, which is so crazy. Isn't it amazing that you can take a bunch of corn (and some other stuff), grind it up, and put it in a big vat with some yeast, and it turns into alcohol. Wow.

The next day I got up at 7:00 again (ouch!) and went back to the same area to run. It is so pretty, I ran by all these awesome houses and then into Cherokee Park, which is an amazing park. I can't even describe how awesome it was. There was all this mist on the trees and it looked like I was in a big valley all by myself.

So anyway it was a lot of fun. This morning I got up at 7:00, ran 4 miles, and came into work. After work I need to run an errand or two and then run again. Should be a decent week actually, with very little time in Greeley.

Posted by barb at 08:54 AM | Comments (3)