« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »

October 28, 2006

crazy week

So two days ago we had six inches of snow (plus an inch of water underneath) on the ground and it was 30 degrees. Today it is 65 degrees and sunny, and the snow is almost gone! I swear. I have lived in New England before and I would definitely say the weather here is more bizarre. But anyway. Running in the snow is fun. I don't particularly enjoy running in snow with an inch of water underneath, because it gets my shoes wet, but it's not too bad.

But anyway. As I have slacked in my blogging thus far, I will go ahead and write about what I did this week.
Monday - 6 miles after work.
Tuesday - 7 miles before work I think. (This is a difficult exercise as I keep my running log on a different computer, and I am really really forgetful.)
Wednesday - 8 miles before work.
Thursday - 7 snowy miles before work. Snow still falling heavily, so pretty!! And wet.
Friday - 5 miles on slush, ice, snow, etc. at lunchtime. I took an easy day because I hadn't had a ton of rest recently and I knew today would be more challenging. Also I went to the chiropractor and so I couldn't do anything after work even though I had time. Speaking of which, he did an X Ray and that was so crazy! My pelvis is a disaster. But from the side, my spine is textbook. He may even use it as an example. And because I am naturally the teacher's pet in every possible way, I think that is totally sweet.
Saturday - I ran with RRB today just for old time's sake and because C. invited me, and as I had a mellow night last night, I could go. It was so fun! I am always scared to go lately because I only know like three people any more but everyone is really nice. And it is always fun to chat with C. and if I am not a total slacker next summer we have formulated a marathon plan which involves Chicago, a BQ, and then Boston 2008, so we can watch the Trials. How fun would that be!!
Anyway I am totally digressing. Here was our workout:
- Warmup and strides
- 22 minutes tempo (I ran with C. so it was easy and conversational but still faster than I normally run)
- 4 x half mile at 10k pace. Okay, I so did not run these at 10k pace. 3:20, 3:16, 3:17, 3:11. Yeah I really don't run 10ks at 6:40 pace, much less 6:22 pace! But hey, when you do so few workouts, you really need to make them count. Or at least that's what I tell myself.
- 10 minute cool down

It was great. I love running with the group and I really love running in Boulder, it is so pretty and after the run I can get the good bagels. Well, the good bagels for Colorado which compared to NY/NJ/really anywhere on the east coast are not good. But I like them! And now they have black and white cookies at the bagel place. However, I got one because I am obsessed with black and white cookies and it was not a very good one. It was more like a cookie shaped piece of pound cake.

Anyway that is about all. Matt is having a Halloween party tonight (I do not like Halloween or parties so it is totally his thing) so I am hanging out and maybe biking later before I have to dress up as a pirate. But I am hoping to be a running pirate somehow so that I can wear running shoes instead of slutty boots with high heels - I've got to run in the morning and I don't want to make my calves any tighter than they are!!

Happy early Halloween weekend!!

Posted by barb at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

pretty aspen

I love Aspen. It is so pretty there. Sadly I forgot to bring a camera so all I have to share with the world are mental snaps! Which are kind of fun by the way. Especially when you make your fiance pose for them. Unfortunately one cannot put mental snaps on flickr or other photo sharing sites.

Anyway driving to Aspen was nuts. Big snowstorm in the mountains. It took 4.5 hours to get there rather than the 3 hours and 45 minutes I had predicted. Vail Pass, which is always bad in storms, was especially nuts. Meaning semis parked all over the place and very slow, sometimes stopped, traffic. But I was on a mission! By the time we got through Vail traffic and conditions were much improved and most of the remainder of the drive was on dry roads. I had wanted to get there before it got dark, and that certainly didn't happen, but it was no big deal. Our hotel was incredible - they upgraded us and gave Matt a tray of goodies for his birthday - so that was a nice treat as well. I am a big fan of good customer service.

So Aspen is a great town for running. There are trails all over the place, and not just up the mountain or anything (and there is a lot of dirt which is good for my achy legs). I ran 6.5ish miles on Saturday morning and 7.5ish miles on Sunday morning. It was so beautiful both days. There were low clouds hanging over the mountains and the valleys were incredibly quiet. On Sunday especially I killed my legs by running up just about every available hill excluding the mountain. I found the best views at Smuggler Mine, which is just out of town and not nearly as far up the hill as I had expected. Even though it had snowed a decent amount, we also got a short but very pretty hike in on Saturday afternoon at the Maroon Bells. It was incredible to see the red mountains behind the snow, and to look down the valley where the river was still running - not frozen yet - surrounded by white. So pretty!! I can't wait to go back in the summer and do the same hike. I am sure the difference will be striking. And hopefully I will remember my camera next time!

So anyway, Aspen was fun. Yesterday I woke up early and went to work instead of running just due to a hectic schedule. I ran 6 after work and it was a perfect fall afternoon - shorts and a short sleeved shirt kind of weather. This morning I ran an easy 7 in cooler temperatures. I really want to be sure to run early the next few days as apparently it is going to be really windy in the afternoons. And after playing in the pool at the hotel, I am into swimming again. Of course I say that a lot and hardly ever actually swim, but I am going to attempt it this Thursday and see if I can keep it up one day a week through the winter.

Posted by barb at 2:11 PM | Comments (1)

October 20, 2006

Aspen, here we come!

I am so, so, so excited! We are leaving for a weekend in Aspen in a little under two hours. Hooray!! I love Aspen and I have not been there in over three years. It is going to be a great time. I guess it has been snowing in the mountains all day, so happily we will be doing all of our driving (or at least the great majority) while it's still light out. It should be a nice, quiet weekend up there as ski season hasn't started. I am very excited to run, relax, eat good food, window shop, and check out some great scenery.

I ran 8 miles again this morning. I wore my winter running outfit again but it was actually way too warm for it so I ended up taking off my coat, gloves, and ear warmer. But after that it was pleasant. I woke up about 10 minutes early today just to get into work earlier since I am leaving early, so it was pretty dark. So dark (and I was so out of it, I guess) that I fell down the stairs of our front porch. Well, I didn't so much fall as I did slip my foot wrong and sit. Luckily I was so out of it that it didn't really hurt! I guess I will have a nice bruise on my butt sooner or later.

It is a big weekend for marathons (well, Chicago is this weekend) so I am excited to read about all the marathon action when we get back. I hope everyone who is reading this has a great weekend!!

Posted by barb at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)

October 19, 2006

since when is it winter?

Being in a community of bloggers that is primarily on the East Coast, I am sometimes perplexed by how different our weather is here. For example, I just read that Beth has not put on tights yet, but this morning I was trotting around in my winter running gear. And by winter running gear I mean my thickest tights, my hooded top (which is one of the best things ever although it makes me look like a pin head), and a coat. And when I got back I was still cold enough that I could not form words correctly. I'm sure we'll all get there, I'm just perplexed that I'm there so much sooner than especially my fellow runners in Boston. Humph.

Anyway I slept well last night but because of getting up and running (8 miles by the way, really nice clear morning), I am seriously about to fall asleep just sitting at my desk. I tried tea, I tried a snack, and really nothing is making me feel more alert and less like I may pass out. Although I do stretch and do push ups in my cube sometimes, I think napping would definitely cross a line.

Matt and I are driving to Aspen tomorrow afternoon and I am so, so, so excited. It is going to be great! I think it will be cold and snowy there but that is so pretty! We can wander around and shop and eat good food and do all kinds of fun stuff. How exciting!

Yesterday I took a day off from running - Matt and I talked about going for a little run after work but my stomach was a disaster (cheap, greasy chinese food is not good), and so was his, so we didn't. I did elliptical for 95 minutes while reading magazines. One can read many magazines in 95 minutes. There were two great articles in the New Yorker I had - one about this guy who escapes from prisons and one about the science and progress of childbirth. I don't know if other people do this but when I don't run, I feel guilty and then I obsessively do push ups and wall sits and stuff while watching television so I also did 75 girl push ups last night and a variety of other core and leg strengthening exercises, and I even did some crunches! I hate crunches. But I felt guilty enough that I did them.

I am still totally undecided about my running future. I'm going to a workout with my old group next Saturday and I guess I'll see how that goes and maybe try showing up more often. I think if I did speed work once a week all winter, I'd be in much better shape next spring. Then I could try for my 1:37 and how sweet would that be! Pretty sweet.

Posted by barb at 3:07 PM | Comments (3)

October 17, 2006

running in the dark

Why is it that everyone feels faster when they run in the dark? At least everyone I've talked to about this. I always feel like I am smoking fast when I run in the dark. I feel smooth and efficient and Fast!!! Who does not love that.

Anyway I had a meltdown about work yesterday and I was mad and upset and pissed and everything when I started running and at the end I was still mad and upset and everything but I felt a lot better. At least I felt that I could get through it. Just a word of advice. If you are an English major and that is your passion, don't go into IT. Not even for a few years. You will hate it! And then you will set a standard of living for yourself which is somewhat unattainable when you want to go back into your vocation. But I am taking steps to get out. Sometimes it is frustrating when I think about how long it will take, but at least I am on my way.

Anyway last night was a fast 6 miles. That was fun. It was really dark by the time I finished, but that is nothing compared to how it will be in a few weeks! This morning I was really tired so I slept in but I should have time to run at lunch, I am thinking 7 or 8 miles and maybe some lifting. It was beautiful here yesterday but today it is turning cold and I guess it's going to snow tonight, so I am definitely running tomorrow morning because fresh snow is one of the best running conditions ever. I can't believe it is already almost the end of October, but time flies when you are really busy!

Posted by barb at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2006

slacking on the blog

You know sometimes even I wonder how interesting my running is to the rest of the world, when it fails to fascinate even me! Needless to say I have not found my running to be particularly fascinating over the last week. Not even compared to how fascinating I find obsessively reading online about whether or not my favorite contestant on Project Runway will win! Anyway I do have an excuse for my lack of blogging last week. In fact I have several:
1. last minute business trip
2. Dad's birthday on Saturday (Happy late birthday, daddy!!)
3. Matt's birthday on Sunday (Happy late birthday, matty!!)

Somehow even with all those disruptions to my lifestyle I managed about 50 miles last week. Don't ask me how, because I have no idea, except that yesterday I really felt great and added on a bit. Yesterday was a fun day to run. Perfect weather. The new marathon in our town was going and I got to see the leaders come through miles 17-21 or so. I think it is always fun and inspirational to see a marathon in progress, and it made me really want to run one soon. But I think January is too soon to run a decent one and I'd rather not relive my great marathon blowup of 2004. So I think I will plan ahead and train and run my 20 milers like a good marathon training type of person.

Anyway that was fun. I had one of my best runs in probably the last three weeks or so yesterday. The second lap around the park I was hammering and feeling good. All my other runs last week were fun but not too remarkable. The low point was probably running on a crappy old hotel gym treadmill after eating dinner on Thursday. The high point was definitely Sunday.

Today I have yet to run as I was exhausted this morning (cooked dinner for 13 people last night as part of birthday festivities - this is very tiring!). I am going as soon as I blow this popsicle stand. I think a nice easy 5-6 miles is in order, as I am pleased with last week's mileage and I think I deserve a recovery day with lots of stretching afterwards. Hopefully I will be blogging a bit more this week!

Posted by barb at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2006

Sweet PW

So sometimes a PW (or Personal Worst if you do not speak the language of running) is not a bad thing. I ran a 5k on Sunday in about 33 minutes. Which is a PW by over three minutes (over a 5k I ran last year at this time while pacing someone). Now why, you might ask, was Barb reduced to a PW? Did she suffer a dramatic injury? Is her illustrious running career over? Did she gain 100 pounds over the weekend? Well, luckily the answer is no. To all of those crazy questions. The reason I ran a PW this weekend was that I participated in the largest Race for the Cure in the United States and the goal of this race is not to run fast, it is to donate to a great charity and to support friends who have been affected by breast cancer. Honestly it is miraculous that we were able to run at all as usually the race is so crowded that everyone shuffles very slowly. Anyway that was fun. Lots of good free stuff too including about 17 bottles of Propel, which is very addictive and highly delicious.

So that was fun. That was also all of the running I did yesterday - 3 miles at 11 minute pace. Luckily today I came back with 7 miles at 9 minute pace, and on Saturday I had run 10.5 miles at just under 9:00's. I also cross trained for the first time in a little while - 45 minutes on the elliptical yesterday and 20 minutes today. I feel like I am certainly in decent shape right now, and I am so pleased that I have started doing long runs in the double digits again. Now this weekend I hope to increase my long run slightly again, time permitting as it is Matt's birthday weekend. Happy early birthday, Matty!!

Anyway last week was another 50 mile week (okay, I was half a mile short, but close enough), and I feel good! I love running. I especially love running in the fall!

Tonight we are going to the Broncos game to freeze our butts off (we have had a dramatic weather change and today it was 40 degrees and raining all day). Delightful football watching weather. And that is about all the news that's fit to print!

Posted by barb at 4:24 PM | Comments (2)

October 6, 2006

pretty morning

I saw a great sunrise this morning. Daylight savings will not be over for three more weeks (which seems really late to me, but hey I like it staying light after 5:00), so I will be running in the dark quite a bit and I think one of the benefits of morning running is definitely seeing the sunrise. One of the drawbacks is that I can't see my clothes so I lay everything out in advance and this morning I was boiling hot.

Yesterday I ended up, oddly enough, doing a double (7 miles in the morning and 3 miles in the evening), just because Matt was running and it sounded like fun. So today, even though on Fridays I normally run a bit longer, I just did an easy 5 miles. My weird hip thing seems to have disappeared so tomorrow I'm going to attempt maybe 12 miles or so just to see how it goes. I would like to get some swimming in this weekend but I often think that would be a good idea, only to see it fall by the wayside since I do not love swimming. I am thinking about joining the local rec center because it has a pool, it's close, and it's cheap. I think that might provide me with some motivation to swim if I can bike or trot over instead of getting in the car and driving for 15 minutes.

Betsy and I have been obsessively planning our future in racing which is good because right now I am not racing all that much - and most of my races are on kind of a whim so I never taper or have goals. Which in some ways is good but in some ways is bad.

So here is the plan - one half IM triathon per year, and one marathon per year. I am not sold on the marathon-a-year concept as my last marathon was enough to last me 2 1/2 years but maybe I will be convinced. So in 2007 we want to do this whole Boulder series (sprint, Olympic, long course) an the NYC marathon. 2008 is Vineman in northern California and a marathon TBD. And yes we have a spreadsheet and I think we could race until we are in the Masters division if we use the spreadsheet and compete in all the races. So we'll see how it goes! Of course if we want to do NY next year, I really need to get on this 1:37 half thing so that I don't have to subject myself to the whims of the lottery system.

Anyway I hope to have a great weekend and I hope all my blogging friends do too!

Posted by barb at 12:25 PM | Comments (4)

October 3, 2006

Buckling Down

After my weekend of pleasure reading, and faced with the stark reality of coming back to work, I have decided I really need to get serious about my career change. So I have busted out my GRE book and I am studying. It seems odd to study for a standardized test, since to me they are kind of like aptitude tests, but not having taken a math class in many years it is something that must be done.

What I have discovered so far:
- I am good at reading comprehension
- My vocabulary is surprisingly weak considering how much I read, and how relatively good an education I have
- I am scared of math after my long layoff!

I actually enjoy the studying so far and it's going to be nice to learn some new words. A lot of the words are ones I have heard of but I just didn't know what they meant. It is just nice to do something that exercises my brain rather than just my legs!

But on to exercising my legs. I had a nice 6 mile run yesterday, then lifted a bit, and then after work met M. for an 18 mile ride. She just got back from a super hard core adventure vacation and it was nice to hear about all the stuff they did. They did a great mountain biking trip and they hiked through the Grand Canyon. Go M!

This morning I woke up before the alarm went off for some reason, and then I ran a nice 7 miles. I felt good. It was so dark when I started out! But it was pretty warm. They keep saying it is going to get fall-like and for the last week or so it has been really warm. I am still contemplating my January marathon idea but I just don't know. My hip feels weird, so I have been foam rolling it like a madman. If I can get it to feel normal I may have a long run in my future on Saturday!

Posted by barb at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2006

Sometimes I miss New England

Well even though I constantly moaned and complained about New England when I lived there, I really miss it in the fall. I miss rain and trees and pretty cross country courses on nice soft dirt and wood chips and leaves and stuff. Especailly given CU's cross country course. Which is very challenging but most of the vegetation is cactus. I am not kidding. Anyway, how cool was it to see one of the top DI teams racing on their non-scenic course yesterday? So cool! I guess I will start with that. I only saw the women's race and one of CU's women just dominated. She was out in front from the gun to the finish. I have actually raced at this meet, in the open race, in the past and I can say the course is very tough. There is a very steep hill that both the men and the women have to run up twice. It is short but it's one of those thigh burners, it takes a while to recover from. Anyway that was really fun. There were a ton of people there and the atmosphere was very exciting. It made me really miss running cross country in college, all the teams running around warming up and cooling down. The only difference is that those guys (I saw a lot of them warming up and cooling down since I was running while they were running) are so fast! I think their warmup was faster than my race pace.

So that was fun. Both the teams should be very competitive this year, so it was fun to see them early. And nationals for cross country (not NCAA but like USA Nationals) are in Boulder in February 2007 so I may see some current and former team members when I go spectate there. It is cool to have a few high level races here - I think it's kind of rare just because who wants to race at altitude.

So seeing CU run was fun. Before I went to watch the meet I ran 10 miles on South Boulder Creek and the surrounding areas. It was a great run and I think I ran the last 5 miles at about 8:00 pace which is solid. It was hot this weekend - another thing I should have mentioned which I think was tough for those racing as the women raced at 11:00 - but it was nice.

I ended up with barely over 50 miles for the week which I am really pleased with. I am toying with the idea of running a marathon in very early 2007 so it's good to get some amount of volume going although I don't know how my feet and IT bands would hold up over a few 20 plus mile runs. Today I had a 6 mile death march. It was hot and hilly and I was very happy when it was over. But I am really happy with my running right now so I am not too worried about an occasional death march. I would like to start getting in the pool someday, but my friend M. is back from vacation so I think I have some more biking in my future. Which is always a good time.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I am sad that mine is almost over but it has been really nice and quiet. I finished two books in the last several days, watched some Six Feet Under (we have been getting it on NetFlix and I'm almost done with the whole series), and ate good food. All fun things.

Posted by barb at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)