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August 30, 2006

run, bike, bike, sleep

That has been pretty much the last few days. I did have an amusing attempt to mow our friends' lawn (they're out of town) on Monday but I could not get the mower to start for the life of me. Oh well, Matt is doing it today.

So today and yesterday I ended up running 7 miles and commuting on the bike. Not too exciting. Monday I had a great commute home and I think it was my first ride home that was right around 20 minutes - usually it's about 24. I think it was the cooler temperatures, they were just delightful. It is hot again but not nearly as bad as it was earlier this month - I think the high today is 89 degrees and after today it'll be cooling down for the rest of the week.

Also I must say that I am thrilled to be having an upcoming three day weekend. I think some more sleeping in is in order. Also we are racing on Monday so if I am feeling strong I will go for another sub-21:00 performance (it's a 5k). However this course is quite a bit more challenging than my 20:56 course early in the month. I am feeling good though!

I am taking off in a few so I think that is all for today. Tonight we are cooking salmon and taking it easy, which will be nice. I am a little tired from running before work every day so far this week!

Posted by barb at 4:42 PM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2006

solid week

Somehow, in spite of myself I seem to be approaching the 50 mile week again. I don't really know why or how except that I really love my new running surroundings, and the weather has improved dramatically! Which is great. It was a perfect training weekend. I didn't get up until 10:00 on Sunday and it still wasn't too hot on my run. How delightful.

So both Friday and Sunday I ended up running 9 miles due to miscalculations in the routes. Sunday I miscalculated badly as I was planning on seven instead! But I'll take it and I felt really good which was certainly nice. I even picked it up a bit in the last few miles. I still think that if I want to run a half marathon in the next six months or so I need to be running up to a 12 mile long run, but I think I may get there. Especially now that it is almost college football season and that means I get to go to Boulder sometimes, where the running is awesome.

We had a fun mountain bike ride on Saturday morning as well. We only rode about 12 miles on a course which is a gradual uphill for six and a gradual downhill for six. It was a little rainy so we were muddy at the end but it was really fun and I love how the canyons look when it's cloudy. It is hardly ever cloudy here so I think we have a different perspective on overcast, rainy weather. It is very different and nice as opposed to being something we deal with a lot and are annoyed by. Anyway I digress. I had planned on a brick down at the canyon but M. decided not to ride the canyon twice so instead we went home and I ran four miles a few hours after we started our bike ride. My legs felt fine but I think this is because I never do a traditional brick where I bike, then immediately start running with just enough time to change shoes and shorts. One of these days I'll get around to trying that. And I swear one of these days I will swim. I think maybe in the winter I will be more likely to do it since it's cold and dark outside. Right now it is so awesome to be outside that I want to run and bike!

That is about all the news. I ran an easy 5 this morning and I may run again - like three or four miles - after I mow our friends' lawn (they are away on their honeymoon). I also have to fit cooking a simple dinner into the equation but that should be easy since Matt is not getting home until 8:30.

Also, my dad has given me a new goal for the fall - get published in one of my favorite football columns. I don't know. I think it may take more obsessive research than I can spend, but I'll give it a try!

Posted by barb at 4:05 PM | Comments (2)

August 25, 2006

hooray for the weekend!

I am so happy that it is Friday. For some reason it has been a long week - I blame my lingering exhaustion from last weekend - and I am so excited to mellow out, lay on the couch, train, and generally relax.

Running has been going well. My feet are tight but I've been trying to wear sensible shoes (when you are 5'1" sometimes you just want to wear high heels!), stretch out a lot, and I've really been needing to get a tennis ball to roll my feet on for quite some time now. Perhaps I'll work on that one this weekend. You wouldn't think it'd be all that hard.

My frustration with summer in Denver peaked yesterday, when it was 95 degrees, so I ran on the treadmill while watching daytime television. It is weird running on the treadmill sometimes. When I haven't done it for a while (and I don't remember doing it for several months) the first four miles are absolute hell. It goes by really slow, I feel like I am dying, and I think I am horribly out of shape. After four miles I feel great though, and I just want to make it go faster! So after seven miles I was okay with my treadmill experience.

This morning I got up reasonably early and ended up, somewhat in spite of myself, running 9 miles. I thought I had done this particular route before but actually I hadn't so when I got back at 1:24 I was kind of perplexed - I didn't think it should take that long. But it did, which was good as this was my longest run in six weeks, and I am still contemplating a half marathon in September so just in case I need to be increasing mileage. Usually I don't bike to work on days where I run over seven miles, so that was kind of challenging when I tried it out today, but not that bad. It has seemed to make me abnormally hungry and I had to run out and buy snacks, but I guess that's not terribly surprising.

I am wearing a new pair of test shoes (for the running shoe goliath that shall not be named here) and I really like them so far, actually. And the best thing is that they are Bronco colored, so I can wear my test shoes with pride and high hopes for the home team. Speaking of which we are going to the game this Sunday - it's preseason, but still, SO COOL - and I cannot wait! I think I will wear my test shoes to the game.

That is about all the news. We are doing some biking in the morning with M. and I may cut my ride shorter than theirs (12 miles as opposed to 24) and attempt a brick type of thing. Wish me luck!

Posted by barb at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

running in my sleep

I think this was the title of Leilani's old blog. This is very appropriate for how I felt on my run this morning. I literally don't remember parts of it because I was still in dream land. And I almost fell asleep in the steam room this morning! I ran around 6.5 miles and I did not feel all that slow but I was right around an hour which is not the worst, but not the best either. It was nice being able to ride into work without worrying about my faulty tube today, although today was one of those commutes that kind of drive me nuts. There were people all over the bike path and I constantly felt that I was about to run someone over, or be run over myself, or generally I kept thinking something bad would happen. I made it in one piece though, so that is always nice.

I am still so tired. I have to think it is partly still the weekend festivities and partly the heat. It is still so hot. I know I am a broken record about it but it's been over 90 degrees almost every day for several months. I think it is making me lethargic and grouchy. And I know it makes me dehydrated!

That is about all the news. Matt and I were thinking about going for a bike ride after work but the heat has caused us to postpone. I think I am cooking some Chinese food and then we are going for a walk. It should be nice!

Posted by barb at 3:14 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

equipment problems

Sometimes biking drives me nuts. So I try to replace my tube last night, and with Matt's help I am almost there. Except then we realize that the tube is way too big for my tiny wheels and the guy at the bike shop gave me the wrong ones. What a pain! So I drove here today and at lunchtime I took my wheel into the bike store for them to give me the correct tubes, and to have the bike shop guy install the tube. It didn't look too hard but he did say my tires are pretty tight on my wheels. Now I am somewhat legally parked but I am stressing about getting a ticket or having someone run into my bumper for the rest of the day, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I am essentially still recovering from this weekend's wedding. It was a ton of fun but there were many events and I am just exhausted. Sunday was such an incredible waste of a day just due to fatigue. I ran 3 miles! How sad. I am almost depressed about it just because Sunday has always been my long run day, and if my long run is only 3 miles, I am in serious trouble. Luckily I did run 8.5 on Saturday but I don't think it makes up for my ridiculously weak effort on Sunday. It is still ridiculously hot here. Today's in the mid-90s and it's supposed to be even more hot tomorrow. Yucko.

Anyway on to more positive topics. I did run almost 45 miles last week, which is good. My bike is now operational again which is also good. I had a nice 7 mile run yesterday. Today I am planning on ellipticalling for an hour and running 5 miles which will be a solid day of workouts. And I do not have plans for any night this week which is the best news ever! I can just hang out, possibly do our laundry, and continue to rest up for what will be hopefully a more productive weekend. I think we are planning a nice mountain bike ride on Saturday morning, which should be nice. I'd also like to run 10 miles but who knows how that will go.

Posted by barb at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

another land speed record

I am just doing well on the bike lately, and today I wasn't even running 15 minutes late. In fact I was early! And I still beat my best MPH, to get an average of 18 MPH on my ride to work. That is sweet. I should mention that although there is lots of starting and stopping on the ride, the way to work is usually about 5 minutes faster than the ride home, just because when I ride to work it's downhill and when I ride home it's uphill. And I am tired and hot at the end of the day. I think my speed record for the ride home is seriously like 15 MPH or something. And I felt like I was hauling that day. My all time worst ride home was like 12.8 - that was one of the hundred plus degree days and frankly sometimes I just have no motivation whatsoever.

I have not yet mustered up the courage to change out my busted tube but it doesn't seem to be deflating the front tire so I guess I'll do it this weekend. Or tonight because one of our friends is going to be around and he gets flat tires constantly so I think with his supervision and/or assistance it should be easy. Bikes are scary! You never have to change a tube on running shoes.

This morning was a rockin' morning for me workout-wise. I ran 7 miles, two laps around the park and back plus a little trotting around the neighborhood. I am in search of one of the big houses they've built in our neighborhood that is gorgeous and I want to show it to Matt, but I can't remember where I saw it. As an aside we live in a desirable neighborhood where there are a few undesirable little houses that developers buy, tear down, and replace with enormous, million dollar monstrosities. I would have no issue with this but it is a historic neighborhood and some people have no respect for fitting in with the style of the neighborhood and build these hideous modern-looking houses that do not fit in at all. It is really bad and I think everyone will regret them in a few years.

So when I was running this morning I did my second lap of the park at what I would call slightly picked up pace. I timed one of the half miles and it was like 4:14 so I am not even talking tempo pace here but it felt good to pick things up a little bit.

And as you may be able to tell, I had a very strong cup of coffee this morning and I am wired and super chatty!! That is all for now, I am off to chat at someone else.

Posted by barb at 9:43 AM | Comments (1)

August 15, 2006

Sometimes, you just need a kick in the pants

This morning I was trotting along at a glacial pace, like I have been recently, when all at once I was passed by five people including two 45 year old women, a few random guys, and a twelve year old. That was just what I needed to pick up the pace a bit! I hung on behind the women for a half a lap of the park and after that I was doing okay - passing people here and there instead of being passed, feeling good, and all that stuff. It was nice! So maybe I haven't been physically feeling bad, just mentally being a bit lazy. It's understandable at 6:00 am.

That was good. Anyway I ended up with a nice seven mile run. Followed by my fastest commute yet! Woo hoo! I averaged 17.9 MPH this morning. I felt great. I know part of all this feeling-goodness has to do with somewhat cooler temperatures which are just blissful. Then, just to be compulsive, I did the elliptical for 35 very, very easy minutes while reading a gossip magazine, followed by lifting. I am somewhat proud of this as I lifted hamstrings which I desperately need to do (like most runners) and hate doing. I don't know why but the hamstring machine always feels terrible. But I got it done.

Now I am getting ready for bed - Matt's in Vail for a conference - and it is so quiet. It's weird. I'm planning on running maybe 5-8 tomorrow morning, depending on when I get up. And I am not sure what's up with my commuting situation. I was pumping my front tire this evening when part of the tube popped off. Not like the rubbery part, the part where if you push down on it, air comes out of the tire. So I may have a flat in the morning and of course I will not have time to fix it before I go to work. That may be a fun activity for tomorrow evening - changing my first tube on the road bike - or it may be fine! I guess we'll see.

Posted by barb at 9:37 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

weekend in the woods

When all else fails for the title of a blog entry, alliteration is good. I swear I've been sitting here pontificating on a title for this entry for a good 15 minutes. I think I had a title while I was biking in this morning but in the intervening two hours, I've lost it forever.

Anyway camping was fun. I like car camping. I had never done it before but it's way easier than back country camping - there is no hauling of stuff, they have bathrooms, and you can keep food in the car in air tight containers so that you don't have to stay up at night worrying that bears are going to attack you.

Saturday morning I ran an easy seven miles and then we headed up to the mountains. I also bought new shoes on the way (I rarely get to drive through Boulder, or to Boulder, so I hardly ever have the chance to get shoes and mine were trashed). Hooray! I love having new shoes. We probably got to our camp site around 3:00. We set up our tents and went for a short (four miles or so?), easy hike. The drawback of a nice easy hike in this area is that it's heavily travelled by horses, and horses create lots and lots of excrement. It was a really smelly hike. But it was nice to get out there and it wasn't too hot which was just awesome. Then we cooked dinner, had s'mores, and hung out until around 9:30. Matt and I forgot our sleeping bag pads which is very bad as the ground is hard. But I still slept all right.

Sunday morning we all got up, packed our stuff, and did an eight mile (round trip) hike to a nice lake where we had lunch, and then came back down. I would not say it was a particularly challenging hike but the scenery was really nice, and the weather was perfect. When we got back home I was pretty tired but I made it out for around three and a half easy miles, just to say I ran for the day, because sometimes I get obsessed. The rest of the night we hung out watching old Sex and the City episodes and basically laying around, which was truly awesome.

And this morning I woke up feeling very rested (this is quite rare!) at around 6:15, and ran six miles. It was nice and I actually felt very energetic, although I'm still not breaking any land speed records. Tonight they are short women for the volleyball team so I will be showing up which I cannot say I'm particularly looking forward to, but I'm sure it'll be fine. And that is about all the news. We are having house guests this weekend for our friends' wedding and our house is a disaster so I think we will be very busy the next few days just making it somewhat presentable. I really think after this weekend things will be slowing down considerably which will be delightful! Maybe after all this I can actually train for a half marathon or something.

Posted by barb at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

uninspired week

I think I have had this screen open about four times this week and just haven't posted anything. It is very overwhelming at times. And sometimes it is like what can I say about my training. Well, I ran every day at 10:00 pace. I am not kidding! It is weird. I don't feel like I'm going all that slow (although my legs do feel tired), and all my 45 minute runs take 50 minutes, my 54 minute runs take 60 minutes, and so on. Which I don't mind except that I don't leave much of a cushion for myself in the mornings when I'm getting ready, so if I run for an extra five minutes, it makes me five minutes later to work. Thus today when I ran eight miles, I was eight minutes later getting in! Which is still just not the end of the world.

It's been a pretty typical week for me. In fact I just looked at my running log and I ran the exact same distances last week, just one of the days was switched. This is really bad, as I have been told by several coaches, but when my legs are tired I have no imagination.

I did have a good ride with M. last night, which on top of commuting gave me about 31 miles of biking for the day. For me that is a ton so I am proud of it. We did a few hard laps around the park where luckily their attention span for speed limit enforcement appeared to be approximately one day. On our second hard lap (with an easy lap between of course) I think we averaged about 21 MPH which for us is excellent. I am especially proud of M. who has been injured for about 9 months and appears to be turning the corner to health. I am so happy for her, it really sucks to be injured.

This weekend will be really nice. It is the last weekend before our friends' T and C's wedding, which will be totally packed with events. I am a reader in their wedding and apparently the pressure is getting to me because I had a dream last night that I forgot to bring my reading and couldn't find it anywhere and it was very bad. Tonight I think we are having a low key night - I may go along with Matt when he hits some golf balls and that is about it - and tomorrow late morning we are going up to the large national park in our area to camp. It is the perfect way to camp for me, as we are car camping, which means I have time to run on Saturday and Sunday. I really enjoy camping and getting into the woods but anything that makes me miss two days of running is just kind of upsetting to my life balance. It has been so hot that I just can't wait to get up to the higher elevations for even a night.

That is about all the news, except that it turns out I did get seventh in my race on Sunday. I was third in my age group (I'll tell you what, 25-29 has got to be the most competitive age group in the area), so I may even get a prize!

Posted by barb at 9:15 AM | Comments (1)

August 6, 2006

sub-21:00!

I don't have much time to write at the moment, but I wanted to make a quick update after my 5k this morning. As you may be able to discern from the title, I ran well! 20:56 for what someone told me (I'm not sure) was seventh place. It was a fun race. I do like all womens' races, although since it was somewhat small I ran the last 1.5 miles or so by myself. There were a lot of really nice spectators, though, who were very encouraging.

The course was basically 1.55 miles out (uphill) and 1.55 miles back (downhill). I ran 6:44 - a lot of people went out fast and I passed a ton of them later in the first mile - 6:55 - I was kind of hurting in this mile and wished I hadn't gone out quite so fast - 6:39 - going downhill and feeling better, hoping to avoid being passed in the third mile - and 38. I am really happy with my time especially considering that I didn't get a ton of sleep, nor did I really eat too well last night (crappy reunion buffet food, yuck).

So we'll see if I was really seventh sometime tomorrow, but even if I wasn't I am really pleased. I am running another 5k on Labor Day - almost a month away - and even though that course is harder I am hoping to break 21 again. Maybe I should do some speed work for a change between now and then :)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend, and Happy Birthday to my mom!!!!

Posted by barb at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)

August 3, 2006

holy tired legs, batman!

I swear, sometimes I just overdo it and maybe it is just out of boredom. Like, well I have an extra 30 minutes here, I might as well work out. Yesterday I did another workout like the one on Monday that made me really tired - commute on the bike, 65 minutes on the elliptical, and running after work. I only ran 4 miles but by that point I was amazed that I was still upright.

My wasp sting is slowly healing. The last day or two my left arm has been quite a bit larger than my left. It has also been itchy, hot, and bright red. So gross! It was kind of tough to bike with it because it feels much better when it's elevated - and of course thus much worse when it is not elevated.

I feel so bad for all of you on the east coast. Our heat wave has finally broken but that's just because it's there now. It has been a miserably hot summer here but at least it's a dry heat! I hope it will cool off soon.

I don't think I mentioned this before - because I've been trying to avoid thinking about it - but we are going to my 10 year high school reunion this weekend. I think it will be somewhat fun. I am very excited to see my friend A., a high school friend, who called me last night and confirmed my growing suspicion that she is in fact pregnant!! How exciting. It is so weird and so very exciting when your first friend is pregnant. I am just so curious about everything and so excited for her.

That is all the news that's fit to print. Today I am taking it somewhat easy - 6 mile run plus commuting on the bike - so that hopefully I feel a little more peppy before my 5k on Sunday.

Posted by barb at 8:49 AM | Comments (2)

August 1, 2006

this would only happen to me, and other ranting and raving

Hoo boy I am just in the mood to rant and rave today. There are several items on my list but I will start with the most pressing one, otherwise known as this would only happen to me. There are several people who have been reading my blog since its inception and might remember an incident about two years ago when I was running along, minding my own business, and a bee flew up my nose and stung me in the nostril. It is such a funny visual that I still laugh about it even though at the time it hurt quite a bit. Now fast forward to last night, at the end of my 5 mile run, when I was running along literally less than two blocks from home, and what should happen but a wasp flies up to me and stings me in the armpit!! Now come on. This is just not even funny. Not to mention the fact that wasp stings are significantly more painful than bee stings. It kept me up for probably an hour and a half last night because it hurt so much, and today my entire upper left arm is swollen, painful, and itchy. And bright red. I am kind of wondering if I am allergic - which would kind of make sense just given how often I've been stung, bitten, or otherwise recently. I think I'll see if it gets better or worse tonight, and if it gets worse I'll most likely go to the doctor tomorrow. I think I will also ice it (which seemed to help quite a bit last night) and take some anti-inflammatories.

Now on to other topics. Today marks the beginning of a very irritating trend in Denver where the police will be giving speeding tickets to cyclists in Washington Park (my local park where I ride and run) for going over 15 miles per hour. I was talking to Betsy about it - actually one of her teammates forwarded her the story - and I guess they have been cracking down quite a bit in New York as well. Now as much as this sucks for me, it really sucks for New York cyclists who do not have many other options - I really don't think it is very safe to bike around the streets of Manhattan. While I would prefer to bike on a path or in an enclosed park, because I am scared of crashing, it would not be the end of the world to bike on the streets here.

However, there are a few points. First of all, 15 MPH on a road bike is pretty slow. It's not really a workout pace at all. It would be the equivalent of ticketing runners if they went faster than a 10 minute mile in my opinion. Secondly, I believe the real problem is not cyclists going too fast but misuse of the cycling paths and lanes by non-cyclists, dog walkers, and the like. The only times I've felt that I might hit someone while biking is when there are three roller bladers side by side, taking up the entire bike lane, or someone is walking along in the bike lane and cuts in front of me. I don't think that requiring cyclists to ride slower will fix these problems, but I do think that people who misuse the bike lanes should be warned and ticketed if their behavior could cause an accident.

That is the extent of my ranting for today. Yesterday I had quite the workout schedule - bike to work, elliptical at the gym for 65 minutes, bike home, run 5 miles. Today is more relaxed - bike to work, run 7 miles, lift, and bike home. I am pretty tired so I plan to go to bed early, as long as my arm doesn't hurt too much, and get up early and run tomorrow.

Thanks for reading about my crazy luck and my cycling issues!

Posted by barb at 1:06 PM | Comments (1)