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May 31, 2007

The BB, Getting Ready for the Tri, etc.

Well it has been a busy time of getting back into the swing of things, but now that I don't have wedding planning or school to worry about, I actually have a lot of free time! I think I still need a bit of time just to relax, however, as last night instead of biking per my plan, I laid on the couch watching Showtime series on demand. Cable is truly an evil invention, but you know it was really fun!

Anyway I am sure my loyal readers are dying to know how the Bolder Boulder went. Well, dying may be a bit strong but I am sure several people are curious. Overall, I guess I would say that the race went okay. Not great, not bad. I ran a 43:58 (my official time is a 44:07 which is annoying but I think I just picked a slow finish chute). Last year my time was 44:04 so while I did beat my time, I really felt that early in the month I was in about 43:00 shape. Now obviously I would much rather have gone and laid on the beach for two weeks than staying home training, but I do think it had a bit of an impact on my performance. Of course there is also the fact that after two weeks of really low mileage I also did kind of an anti-taper for the race.

Anyway here are the splits, per my memory (my watch stores splits but I can't figure out how to view them):
Mile 1: 6:55
Mile 2: 7:06
Mile 3: 7:13
Mile 4: 7:11
Mile 5: 6:58
Mile 6: 7:00
Last .2: 1:31

Mile 3 is always my worst mile at the Bolder Boulder. I don't think it's that hard (mile 4 is probably the toughest mile) but mentally I always get off my game a bit. I felt terrible through mile 4 as well but luckily I didn't slow down all that much! When I went through at 7:11 I thought maybe I could salvage the race instead of continuing to slow down, and I feel that I kind of did. So that was a good time. It is always a bit tiring so I was kind of worn out for my barbeque that we hosted afterwards, but that was a lot of fun too.

I was pretty sore Tuesday and Wednesday and made sure to run a light, slow 5 miles on Tuesday morning. Yesterday I ran an easy 7 miles and also bailed on biking which probably turned out to be a good decision, although really who knows. Today I ran an easy 8 miles and felt more energetic but still didn't have much speed in my legs. And tonight I am doing kickboxing with a girlfriend, which should be fun! I used to do classes all the time, before I became obsessed with running, so we'll see if I've retained my coordination.

That is about all the news for now. I really need to bike twice this week (right now I'm planning for Friday and Sunday), and I should really bike three times next week so I can be ready for my tri in 3 weeks. Luckily I think the weather (and hopefully my energy levels) will cooperate!

Posted by barb at 11:05 AM | Comments (1)

May 24, 2007

i'm baaack....

Well, this will be a short entry but I would like to say that honeymoons rock!! We had a fabulous time in the Caribbean but it is nice to be back home with a few more days off to get everything organized and sorted out. It does seem a bit cold here, and strangely there isn't a waiter coming by giving me fruity drinks, but it's still nice to be back.

I am kind of a big loser but I actually ran on every day but one of my wedding and honeymoon vacation, including 8 miles on my wedding day, which is totally sweet! I was really proud and frankly glad that I did run, as I tend to get a little hyper if I don't run which is not good on a busy, stressful day. I am kind of feeling fat and out of shape right now as I definitely ate a lot on the honeymoon and didn't run very much but I think I will be feeling good soon. Hopefully in time for Monday, which is the Bolder Boulder. A nice 10k race is always a good way to close out a couple weeks of vacation!

Anyway I will write lots more about the last few weeks, but wish me luck getting back into stride for Monday!

Posted by barb at 7:00 PM | Comments (4)

May 10, 2007

break from the blog

No, I am not taking one of those hiatuses people take sometimes (is that right? I don't think I've ever tried to type the plural for 'hiatus'). But I will be out of pocket for about a week and a half starting tomorrowish. The wedding is on Saturday and then we will be off to the US and British Virgin Islands for about 8 days. We are lucking out with the weather which is nice, and I have enough minions (I just love that word) running around doing stuff that I actually had time for an 8 mile run this morning and an 18 mile ride this afternoon. I've been working on my cadence on the bike and I think it is really helping me be a faster cyclist, as well as a cyclist with happy knees! Now if I could just get rid of this sports bra tan, I'd be in really good shape. Biking and running are not so conducive to losing the tan, and I'd much rather be sporty and have tan lines than just lay around.

Anyway I am a bit of a stress case right now although I don't really feel too bad. It'll be weird to not run much over the next week or so, but when we get back I think I'll be ready to jump right into a taper for the Bolder Boulder, which should be fun! I really feel like I'm in good shape right now, but I know my fitness will take a hit while I'm on vacation. Luckily that is what June is for - I think I should be able to get in really good shape then, without school and wedding planning to take up my time. Very exciting. I am really looking forward to my first triathlon which is in about a month.

And that is about all the news right now! See you all in a week, I am excited to catch up and hear about Beth's training, Meghan's exciting news and her boot camp, Becky's sweating through another DC summer, etc., etc. It is a great community we have here and I'll miss not being able to catch up every day. Of course not so much that I won't enjoy being totally off the internet for a week and a half :)

Posted by barb at 5:41 PM | Comments (3)

May 7, 2007

barb = stressball

I am so stressed! This week is going to be very busy and there are many moving parts and things to be done and all kinds of stuff. But then it will be over and I will be Relaxed Barb for two weeks which will be sweet. I am going to try to blog every day this week, but who knows. If I don't it may be a while until I'm back. But anyway in spite of all the craziness I had a good week of workouts last week including an RRB workout. It had been a while but I fell right back into running pretty well and enjoying my group. There are three of us that are the exact same pace so it's fun to run with them, and to know what type of pace I should be running. Back when I was in the group for the first time (before a few sabbaticals) I ran by myself most of the time just because I was in a weird place in the middle of the group, so it's nice to have a few people to run with for my workouts. I also had one ride last week and I did a few days of spinning for 30 minutes or so.

Yesterday I had a nice 10 mile or so long run. I am really not sure the type of pace I was running as I think I was going a lot faster than normal so it's certainly possible that I ran 10.5 or so, but I don't think I was going any faster than that. And today I did a nice easy 7 mile recovery run this morning. As soon as I get out of here for the day I am heading to the gym to lift a bit, just so I don't lose my lifting fitness for the next two weeks while I am very busy/out of town. Since I have been running a lot, I've been trying to eat as much as I feel like I should even though stress is definitely making me lose my appetite. Which just means I must be pretty stressed as it is very rare!

I am off to get huge on the weights, I hope everyone is having a nice week!

Posted by barb at 4:53 PM | Comments (2)

May 1, 2007

where did my motivation go?

I am really struggling to motivate to complete the last few tasks for my class this semester, I'll tell you what. I know I have a lot to do in the next 8 days or so, and yet it keeps falling to the bottom of my to do list. I am not sure why - maybe it's the nice weather, maybe it's the wedding, it could be my fatigue from my bachelorette weekend and from generally trying to work, train, and go to school. But I need to motivate! Someone please crack the whip here. Tell me I really need to work on my school stuff tonight instead of going biking, even though it's 70 degrees and beautiful out!

Oh well, we can't win them all. I sincerely believe that I will finish my assignments for school - I just might not put a 100% effort into them. And that's okay.

So what has been happening then? Well, I have been running a good amount - just over 50 miles last week including a 10 mile long run and a 6/4 double. I think now that it's biking season I may also start tracking biking mileage. Oh how fun, two numbers to obsess about! Last Sunday I did go for a 19 mile ride which was a good time although we have found out that sadly one of our primary trails is really flooded!

This week is going well so far. I ran 7 miles after work yesterday on the Highline Canal trail. It was gorgeous! I did agility drills and lunges after. Then I wondered why my butt was sore this morning. Yes, really I did. This morning I ran 7 easy miles as well. Right now I am heading out of here to go for a bike ride, probably no more than 15 or 16 miles of easy spinning.

That is all for now!!

Posted by barb at 4:50 PM | Comments (0)