Three Things Thursday

Weekly recap as my only post is getting kind of boring...

I'm cribbing Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem.  I started following her for the title of her blog only, had to be a farm girl.  Little did I know she was a TRUE farm girl generations of cowboys and ranchers in Montana and a super runner and just a fantastic to read blogger!   One of my uncles and aunt live in Plains Montana and have been inviting me out, their latest ploy was, you could run a race.  Her pictures make me want to start looking for a Montana Road trip!  My family, gotta love 'em!

So three things I'm happy about:

1) I gave up Diet Coke in January.  It's been good.  The first week was tough, the withdrawal from all the crap in them was a week worth of headaches and crankiness.  I'm not giving up caffeine, just Diet Coke.    Decided I'd give coffee a try.  Hooo boy, good stuff!   Now I'm slowly figuring out hydration with the coffee.  It tastes best hot and black with a little bit of cream.  However, it doesn't stay hot long and I slug it down like a beer after a run.  And it always seems wise to get a large.  Then I get cold in the chilly office and get a second so that's 40 oz of fluid in 3 hours... and well not always so good when I run between 11 and 1.   All in all I feel bunches better!

2) I'm adding in weight training for reals!  Squats with the bar in that contraption thingy (oh you didn't expect me to know the technical terms), Deadlifts, various leg and ab machines.  Seems like the squats and deadlift are two most recommended.  Of course planks!  I'm up to 90 seconds!

3) After years of fearing pressure cookers, my mother used to use them a huge giant pressure canner/cooker and smaller one.  The spinning hissing pressure relief valve was a thing of nightmares. Jennifer bought an electric one, and when I go over for one of our workouts her house smells amazing.  I bit and bought one.  The first meal is being pressure cooked tonight.  Teriyaki chicken.  Smells pretty good, waiting for the dogs to start milling with their noses in the air.

Sincerely,
Beth, never a bad thing to try something, or three things, new!

Weekly Recap 2/9 - 2/15 Final

	Run	Walk	Bike	Notes
9-Feb		0.6
10-Feb	4.3			ARC / Weights / Yoga
11-Feb	5.1			Plank 30 / 40 / 60
12-Feb				NYC
13-Feb	4.3			Intervals / weight / plank 60 x 4
14-Feb	6.5
15-Feb

Monday -  Non running day, TRX cancelled, so I went for a massage.  How is it 50 minutes on a massage table takes the blink of an eye and 50 minutes on the treadmill is eternity?  It's not fair!  Giz whined enough to get a walk around the block.  

Tuesday - Run at lunch, skipped speedwork because Jennifer and I were going to do intervals on the treadmill.  Enjoyed the run on my usual route, sometimes it's like coming home going right out of the guardshack.  Sure the wind was strong and coming from the North so the last mile was 1/2 up hill into the wind and it was 1/2 downhill into the wind.  The sun was out and it was fantastic!  I'll take that!!

Intervals didn't happen, 30 minutes of weights and 30 min on the ARC trainer happened.  Yoga also happened.  OMG that woman is trying to kill us, I swear.   Lots of planks and down dog, what happened to an hour of corpse pose?  HA!  

Sadly neither one of us won music bingo at Fat Bellies.  However we did get asked if I was Jennifer's mother.  She's never going to let me live that down.  Yeah the cheaters do age me a bit...   That poor girl, she said "Are you two mother daughter?  Sisters?"   

Wednesday - Faith met me for a run at lunch.   Nice sunny run with good conversation!  Started out with Faith saying I'll barely make a 10:30 pace, I've learned this is code for 9:30.  We ended up at nearly 10 pace.  I'm sure I slowed her down.  Whatever, if you run with me you know I like an easy pace!    Couple of Mikey B sightings, thanks for the invite, sub 8 pace would kill me after a mile, plus I wouldn't be able to bitch...  HA!

Three planks with Mike B one I got back to the gym 20 / 40 / 60 seconds.  Eventually one of us will push the over to over a minute?

Gizmo was so not interested in the walk, he went and wanted to cut through the park and head home.  I think he is finally tired of the snow?  One of my friends takes all his pups out for a romp in the woods every morning.  One morning his eldest, Amsey, didn't want to go.  He didn't push the issue.  When he got back with the other two, Amsey had passed.  I worry about this with Gizzy, he is 14, that is old for a boxer, they live 8 - 10 years.  I honestly think he is just tired of the cold.  I hope for spring only to get some warm weather into his old bones.  

Thursday - NYC, I am not used to these days anymore.  When it was once a week I managed, now ugh, torture.   I was able to get on an early train and home at a reasonable hour.  Fortunately Giz wasn't in the mood for a walk, or he knew I was exhausted.  Went to bed early and happy for a few more hours of sleep.

Friday - Intervals with Jennifer on the treadmill.  I'll say this is a nice way to do them.  7:30 pace for 1/4 of a mile @ 1% grade. The mill forces you into the pace.  We did 4 intermixed with 10% grade hills for 1/4 mile with 1/4 mile rest ( walking pace) between.  I'm eyeing upping this to 1/2 mile...  All in all a good workout.   We did some weights after and planks 4 x 60 seconds each, well Jennifer did 2 minutes for her first, and the next 3 were 60 seconds.  I have to get over that minute hurdle!

Saturday - Took advantage of the warm temps and the beginning of the latest snow storm, Neptune, good grief...  Guess it is better than hurricane Nemo from this past summer.  Anyhoodles, I had a really great run, it felt great while I was running and I was pretty darn close to being sub 60 min for a 10K, which is really good for me for a race and excellent for a training run.  Huh, maybe this speedwork stuff is paying off?

One of the fun parts of my run was meeting up with 6 or 7 Mystic Velo club cyclists.  They are insane, way to cold to be riding on the roads.  They looked super happy or maybe, like me, their mouths were frozen into a smile?  Great job guys!

Sunday - Knitting and binge watching Sons of Anarchy!   I finished a couple Dragon Scarves,  a red (with green eyes) and a green with red eyes.  The green guy is on the blocking board - next week I'll snap some pics.  For now here is a not so great one of the first guy.  It was a fun pattern and my husband had a grand time poking fun at me in my granny glasses knitting and watching biker bad boys.  

It's a Dragon Scarf!  - he has green eyes now

We shoveled out what snow we did get, it wasn't a bad storm snow accumulation wise.  The wind?  Oh crikies, this old house was pretty drafty!  Grab a dog and a quilt and snuggle!


Sincerely,
Beth, kinda getting tired of winter, no really, she is....

Weekly Log 2/2/15 - 2/8/15 -- Final

	Run	Walk	Bike	Notes
2-Feb				Shovel
3-Feb	8.3			Triple Tuesday
4-Feb	2.6	2.4
5-Feb				Arc Trainer / Weights
6-Feb	4	1.7
7-Feb		2.3
8-Feb	5.1	2.2

Who names a snow storm Linus?   Well it lived up to its name blanketing us with another 8 + inches to keep the existing snow warm and toasty... 

Monday - non-running day for me and after Sunday I was pretty sure I was never going to run again,  and thought about it and remembered I clearly fall smack dab in the middle of Dr. Daniels 3rd category of runners, no natural ability simply a desire to run.  As Seth said a while ago, "just run". Gotcha, just run silly girl. 

No TRX with Joy's wicked driveway.  I did go into work.  I don't get much work done at home, with all the distractions.  It was a fun drive into work!  The hill that threatens to kick my ass when I ride my bike in nearly did Vinnie in when the vehicle in front of us wasn't going fast enough to get up and over the snow packed asphalt!  We got to the top and all was fine, and he did well on the next two hills.  I just imagined pedaling my heart out on these hills once the weather warms to biking temps and the snow goes away.

Enjoyed shoveling out the apron of the driveway when I got home.  No I'm not being sarcastic.  I really do like being outside.  Got that all done and the side walk.  Wow, that snow was heavy, good work out.

Tuesday -  Went to the gym, really didn't want to, Orlando questioned if I was going out, Mike was on the treadmill and convinced me I didn't want to go out into the slop by luring me with a story!  Always up for a good story.  Cookies work too but not so much while running.  After staring at the controls for a few seconds Mike clued me in to what buttons to press and asked me the last time I was on a treadmill.   Hmmm, it had been a while, perhaps April 2014?  Really not my thing.  The story was good!  As I slowed down the treadmill, Mike 'suggested' another mile, thanks for that. 

Next up was Run and Yoga with Jennifer post work.  I was happy to see the pug crew in their sweaters!  So cute, so different from 70 lb big dogs!   The plan was intervals on the treadmill 1/4 mile distance warm up / speed / recover / hill/ recover / speed / speed / recover / hill / speed / recover / hill / cool down.  Twice on the treadmill in one day!  Crazyness...

Wednesday - Tired and sore.  I slept like crap exacerbated by Gizmo having to go out at 2 a.m.  The good thing was the perk is back in his step!  He had a yeast infection in his ear, nothing terminal, pshew!  When anything is the least bit off with him and it gets him completely out of sorts.  Poor guy. 

Quick lunch run 2.6 miles I'll finish up the rest of my daily miles walking Gizmo!  The roads are better than yesterday, hopefully much better tomorrow... oh wait more snow for Thursday?

Thursday - Lunch run in a snow globe, it was beautiful!  Huge flakes all over the place.  I'll not mention the wind, just how cool it was to run with all those huge snow flakes!  4 fun miles!  It was a little slippery and yes a bit chilly.  

Jennifer and I bagged hills at night.  The wind chills were going to be wicked.  She promised to do hill intervals on the treadmill.   I hoped Gizzy would not want a walk, I did, I really did.  He had some soft whines and when I shifted in my chair he was up and bouncing around.  Struggle to get on his sweater, he really did need it, it was COLD, holy wow.  All the slushy parts froze and it was nice and slick too.  We had a couple of skating sessions and neither one of us fell.

Friday -  ARC trainer with Jennifer.  Huh, interesting contraption, definitely mimic stairs.  

Saturday - Sometimes it's just best to lay low, and that's all I have to say about that.

Sunday - 5 miles at the beach with the girls and a walk with Giz.

It will be open soon!!

Sincerely,
Beth, sore from shoveling or maybe yoga, hard to tell....

This week back on track!