« October 2006 | Main | December 2006 »

November 30, 2006

a week later

Well, reflecting back on Thanksgiving a week later, I think it was a great success. Everything turned out great and I think all the family members and friends who came over had fun. The Turkey Trot was not an unqualified success but I do feel good about it - I ran a 27:33 this year, which is 16 seconds slower than last year. But I guess we can't always PR. I do feel that I ran hard and I am satisfied with my time - I just didn't have a PR in my legs that day. The race is only four miles, and I ended up with 10 for the day just because of running back and forth doing turkey-related things, so on Friday I was sore and a little tired.

Here is a summary of the last week:
Friday - sore, sleepy, etc. 5 miles on the treadmill followed by 20 minutes on the recumbent bike.
Saturday - 10 miles on the Highline Canal Trail. This was an awesome, totally beautiful run. I had a fabulous time and ran mostly negative splits. Then I swam for about 15 minutes at the gym.
Sunday - 6 miles running, followed by about 50 minutes biking outside. It is good to know that even if it feels warm while you are running, it is a good practice to put on more clothes for biking, not take clothes off! I was frozen. But it was so nice to get out on the bike again.
Monday - 8 miles at lunchtime. This was a nice run, I felt great and the weather was perfect.
Tuesday - 7 miles in the morning. Nice out, nothing too remarkable.
Wednesday - 6 miles in the snow! So fun. I love running in fresh snow. It had been snowing for about 12 hours when I ran, and continued snowing all day. I didn't go to lunch so I had time to bike for a little over 30 minutes and lift for a while also. That was fun, I had not lifted in ages!
Thursday - I haven't run yet. I was happy and comfortable in bed at 6:30, so I stayed there! This turned out to be a good decision as it was very cold overnight (I thin the low was about zero) and everything turned to ice. Running on ice is a good way for me to fall over! So I am running on the treadmill this afternoon, I am thinking an easy 7-8 miles while watching trashy talk shows.

This weekend I am officially rejoining RRB for the third time, I think. Yes, I have issues with commitment. I think it will be good. It's nice to have people to do long runs with. And workouts. And it is fun to meet new people in any case! I think the group is looking to run the Chicago Marathon next year which is perfect, as my current plan is to run Chicago and qualify for Boston, and then go to Boston for the OT's in 2008, which is the day before the 2008 Boston Marathon. Everything will fall into place perfectly as long as I can do some long runs next summer. Which I think should not be a problem, and may even be fun!

Posted by barb at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2006

serious stuff

We are working on some pretty important stuff today - what to cook for Thanksgiving. Because this is our first year in our house, we decided to host Thanksgiving for the families. It is very exciting but a lot of responsibility! Generally I am not a big fan of holiday foods (i.e. I hate turkey) so I am trying to make the menu traditional yet with some things I enjoy. Such as a delicious, non-traditional corn bread stuffing. Because how good does that sound? So good! Anyway that is going to be a lot of work but I am really looking forward to it, I love cooking.

Anyway things have been somewhat hectic around here. I flew to Minnesota for work Sunday night and got back last night. I have just been a world traveler lately which is always somewhat tiring but this was not a bad trip. I got to finish a book (Running with Scissors). I started another book again - I had put it down because although it is really good it's really dry. So it's always nice to have quality reading time.

I had a great run in Minnesota yesterday morning. I did the same one as I had done the last time I was there, and I got quite a bit farther around this big lake in the same amount of time. I am calling it 7 miles although who knows. This morning, I also ran 7 miles, because it was what my schedule allowed. I can't decide if I'm tapering for the Turkey Trot or what, so tomorrow I'm either doing 5 or 8 miles. Last year I don't think I tapered at all and I ran fast. But I kind of want to run faster this year, so that may require some rest beforehand. Last year was a 27:17 which is pretty fast for me, so if all goes well I am shooting for under 27:00 (the race is four miles long). We'll just have to see how it goes.

In other running news, I signed us up for a 10k the weekend we are in New York. That should be fun - I love running in Central Park! I never run that well there - I think I'm always kind of fatigued and possibly a little hung over - but it is a lot of fun.

That is about all for today. My goal this week is to blog more than once but we'll see how that turns out!

Posted by barb at 3:22 PM | Comments (1)

November 16, 2006

lots of news, and why I vanished for a week

I can't believe I have not blogged in over a week! No wonder I just have not felt that my self-absorbed and narcissistic side hasn't come out in a while. Anyway there are a few reasons why I have not blogged, and they are as follows:
1. I am lazy
2. I have blogger's block sometimes
3. I left for Kentucky to visit my grandparents last Saturday and came back a day late and completely fried on Tuesday morning.
4. Since I got back I have been in recovery from extremely early mornings on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. When I am really tired my brain does not quite function properly.

Anyway enough with excuses. Running is good lately and I am also cross training a decent amount which I enjoy! I have already been swimming twice this week. I have two awesome new pairs of goggles (No, I don't need two, but I had to buy a pair so I could swim in Kentucky and I really like them so I haven't taken them back as planned), and a cute new suit! There is nothing like apparel to get a person fired up about swimming. I am definitely already feeling less like an alien in the pool which is good. My hair has not reacted well but I think that is okay for now.

Here is a brief rundown of my workouts over my blogging hiatus:
Thursday, 11/9 - ran 7 miles in the morning and swam after work
Friday, 11/10 - ran 8 miles in the morning
Saturday, 11/11 - travel day to Louisville, KY. No training :( I hate taking days completely off. Especially in Louisville where every food product is fried, covered with cheese, or made with 8 pounds of sugar. Oh well, sometimes these things cannot be avoided.
Sunday, 11/12 - 8 mile run in Louisville, KY. Louisville is a great running town in my opinion. They have this system of three parks or so that are all connected and they are really big and pretty. They do not have a lot of dirt trails in them but nothing is perfect. This was a fun day because I got so lost! Luckily I found a coffee shop and asked for directions. I think running is a great way to explore a city.
Monday, 11/13 - 7 mile run in Louisville. Did not get lost. So pretty, lots of hills. I found a house on the market with a brochure and decided we are insane for living in Denver when real estate is so cheap there. Anyway, after I ran I picked up my grandma who is ADORABLE and we went to her gym so she could do aqua aerobics and I could swim. She is 91 and she rocks aqua aerobics! It was great fun and I really enjoyed meeting all her friends.
Monday evening I tried to fly home, but my flight was cancelled due to weather in Chicago (one should never connect through Chicago), so I ended up staying over and getting up at 4:30 am (which is 2:30 am my time) to catch my flight home. So tired!!
Tuesday - Totally exhausted but also doing penance for taking Saturday off and for eating fried and sugary food all weekend. Ran 8 miles. I cannot say that I felt delightful but I enjoyed the run. Went to the gym and swam afterwards.
Wednesday - Slept in to continue my recovery, and ran 8 miles after work. I felt good enough to run 1-2 miles over my plan which was nice.
Thursday - Ran 7 miles very easy. So slow, but nice. Pretty sunrise also. I love running in the mornings! I am tentatively planning on a swim after work but it all depends on when I get out of here and how traffic is and whatnot, because I also have to possibly pick up our Thanksgiving turkey at my mom's house and get gas and maybe go to the grocery store. I would like to do it though.

This weekend we do not have a whole lot planned - watching some football, I am going to practice Saturday morning, getting ready to host Thanksgiving in a week (eeks!!), running with our friends T. and C., etc.

Also, just because this is already a novel, here is something kind of funny. My dress came in the other day and since all my bridesmaids needed to get measured for their dresses we went down there and I tried my dress on. And apparently I have large ribs! It would barely zip over them. I guess a lot of girls who grow up at altitude have big rib cages. I am just glad it was my ribs and not my butt!

Posted by barb at 1:19 PM | Comments (1)

November 8, 2006

good day in Colorado

So, Colorado has a democratic governor, which is great! And nationally things are really looking up. I know I should not let politics get me down, but I really feel a lot better about our country today than I did yesterday. Of course the fact that the voters of Colorado chose not to extend civil rights to homosexual couples is revolting to me, but we will take the good things when we can and hope that next time people will be a little less fearful (of what I cannot understand but who knows) and a little more equality-minded.

Also, it is freaking almost 80 degrees today. I am perplexed but in a good way! Yesterday it was beautiful and I even rode my bike to work. Today I didn't but I had a really nice walk from my parking spot.

So running is going well this week. Yesterday I ran 7 miles before work and then commuted on the bike. Then later on, since it was still really nice and warm, Matt and I went for a walk. Today I ran about 6 miles (for some reason I was going really slow, I do not know why). Tomorrow I am running in the morning and then swimming in my sweet new goggles after work. They are special goggles for girls and they are pretty, hooray!

In more exciting news Matt signed us up for the Turkey Trot today. This is probably my favorite road race - late start, great course, and I always run well there. I cannot wait!! Especially because this year I can run to the start.

That is about all the news for today.

Posted by barb at 2:46 PM | Comments (1)

November 6, 2006

back in the saddle

Well, now that we had a delightful weather weekend, I was able to run in shorts twice and get back on my road bike after a month long (or so) hiatus. How great is that! I still never know what to wear on the bike. I am always freezing when I start out and boiling hot when I finish. Real cyclists have these cool arm cover things that I may invest in at some point, if I ever start riding in the cold more often. They also have foot covers (and apparently duct tape the front of their shoes) which I think would be a great idea.

So here is the weekend in running and whatnot.

Friday - 5 mile easy run.

Saturday - 9 mile workout. Warmup; 3 x 10 minutes at tempo/sustained/tempo pace; 4 minutes hard; cooldown. Ouch. This was so hard. I am still sore. It was awesome! Since the group split into two workouts, C. (coach's wife who is totally my running hero) was coaching us and she gave me some great tips especially on the uphill portions of the workout. My foot is always a disaster and I think one reason for that is that I always run on my toes when I run uphill. When I don't do that it puts less pressure on my calves which in turn makes my foot hurt less. I was proud of where I was in the group - I was running with a faster group than I thought I could really handle, but I finished kind of at the same place relatively as I started, so I guess it was okay.

Sunday - very easy 7 miles. The group had a long run on the schedule but I am not ready to handle the quality I did Saturday followed immediately by a long run, it would destroy my foot. And since I am not planning on any long races until March at the earliest, I think it's smarter to focus on quality over quantity. Who knows. I guess I should ask D. about it (the coach). Anyway I got restless in the afternoon - the Broncos game was making me antsy (Sorry Beth, but I guess it was our turn to win!) - so I took my bike out for about 35 minutes of riding. I rode almost 11 miles in that time, which was a speed PR of 18.5 MPH or so. It was windy but I felt good and it was really fun. Sunday afternoon is a quiet time to bike, although there are a lot of walkers who enjoy taking up the walking and biking lanes.

I have not run yet today as I decided to sleep in. It is supposedly beautiful outside so I am pretty fired up to get out there. And the good news about sleeping in is that I'm running from the gym so I can lift after. Sweet! And possibly spend a few minutes on the bike (just inside) depending on how long the run ends up taking. Should be a good day!

Posted by barb at 12:42 PM | Comments (1)

November 2, 2006

I finally swam!

Yes, only months after I started talking about it, and a week after the last time I said I would definitely swim, I swam last night. Hooray!! The great news about this is that I had to go to a different branch of my gym because the one I normally go to doesn't have a pool, and while I thought it would take forever to get there it was actually only about 15 minutes from where I park. How sweet is that! This means that it is so much easier to go swim after work than I thought. Also, the pool was nearly empty when I got there, which is great because I am not fast at all and sharing lanes is not good. I swam for about 25-30 minutes. I really enjoyed it except that I really need new goggles. Mine always leak even when I smash them onto my face and create raccoon eyes that last for weeks. So I think this weekend I am going to get some of the face mask goggles that triathletes generally wear. Then I will be even more motivated to swim!

This has been a good workout week for me. I've run 29 miles in the first four days of the week plus swimming and a bit of ellipticalling. And when I say a bit I really mean it - 30 minutes total over four days. I am feeling good although I am constantly famished. I'm running with RRB again this Saturday and I am very excited about that. Hopefully it will be nice out by then - this morning when I ran I think it was about 20 degrees. Which is fine but it's a little colder than I would like, especially since at practice although we run a lot (and much faster than I would otherwise) there is more standing around. Also we are going to the CU game afterwards and cold football games are not fun!

That is about all that is going on. Matt was out of town for two days in Minnesota so I am excited to see him when I'm done with work. We are having our friend M. over, who is bringing pizza because she is awesome like that, and watching the new Grey's Anatomy, which is so exciting! I love that show.

Posted by barb at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)