Weekly Training Log - Week 3

This was a pretty dang good week even if I missed my scheduled run on Saturday. Here is how it broke down.

Sunday - Three miles of suck around the neighborhood. At this point I still think it is a fueling issue.

Tuesday - Three more miles of suck at the lake. Why is this so hard lately? Arrggh!

Wednesday - A-ha! Breakthrough day. I was tired and starving after my Weight Watchers meeting after work but I knew, because of upcoming plans that if I wanted to get my four days in I had to run tonight. So, onto the evil, "I will suck your will to live", treadmill. I know some people have no problems with treadmills. I, however, loathe them. I would rather run outside in cold, pokey rain and dark then be on the treadmill but it was getting late and I am not real keen on the late night outside runs. Surprise, surprise....it felt great. The pace was slow but I plodded through my three miles without feeling so dang tired like I have been. Why did this feel so much better then most of my runs lately? Pace. I slowed down. I think my problem has been going out too fast and then getting fatigued. We'll see how this theory plays out.

Thursday - An invigorating yet relaxing yoga class. I am getting good stretches but am also walking away feeling.......I guess the word would be "cleansed". Plus, I get to see my dear friend Liane every week since she is taking the class too. Bonus!

Saturday - I had a five miler on tap but woke up too late before I had to get out the door for the Enumclaw Chocolate and Wine festival. I told myself that I would get on the treadmill when I got home. The day ended up being much longer than I anticipated and when I walked through the door at midnight I was in no mood for getting on the treadmill. Where this turns good is that I got out the door and ran my five miles today and felt strong and good the entire time. Again, the secret was pace. I started to feel really strong and felt my pace kicking up and when I noticed this I forced myself to reign it in. Longest run since September. I might have my running mojo back.

Mysterious Ways Indeed

While doing laundry the other day I noticed what appeared to be a Ticketmaster ticket stub that had gone through the laundry. It was in a tight little clump and had been fused together so I couldn't see what event it was for. I was disappointed because I still save ticket stubs and I figured this was one Kevin or I had lost for good. Oh well, no big loss.

Cut to this morning when I see another two clumps come out of the dryer. This time I can read a little of what is on the tickets. I can make out "Qwest" and "June 20". Oh no! Those weren't tickets to a past event at all, those were my much coveted, I finally get to see them after all these years, I am so excited, tickets to see U2. At Qwest field. On June 20. Son of a bitch.

How the hell can tickets for an event six months in the future end up in tiny clumps in our washing machine? Last I saw them they were sitting on Kevin's office desk. Do you think Ticketmaster can or will replace those tickets? Do you think we are screwed? Am I destined to never see U2 in person?

Weekly Training Log - Week 2

I am still having trouble with the fueling issue. Tuesday's run was great. I felt stronger then I have in a long time. Maybe I can replicate some of the food intake from that day before I head out for my 5 miler tomorrow.

Sunday - 4 miles on the perfectly flat path beside Lake Sammamish. Harder then it should have been.
Tuesday - 3 miles at the lake that felt fabulous. Faster and stronger then I have been in awhile.
Thursday - Skipped yoga this week. I was feeling light-headed and kind of off so I went home and crawled into bed. This pleased the kitties.
Friday - 3 miles at the lake. These did not feel fabulous.
Saturday - 2 miles that sucked more than 2 miles should. I only did this one to get myself used to running four days a week and to ramp my mileage up slowly.

Shooting for 14 miles next week and a yoga class. Wish me luck.

Thawed

Things finally feel normal again. I can feel my mind becoming sharper. I can focus more on my job at work and am actually really productive again. I am not sitting at my desk fantasizing about just running away some where quiet and alone where I can sleep and read and not have responsibilities for about a week. I don't want to cram my face with junk food in a vain effort to keep myself awake and moving. I feel my shoulders pulling away from my ears and the smiles coming easily now. It took a few weeks before my version of normal fully returned. God, I missed it.

I never knew exactly how burned out I was until this whole school thing was over. Well, school and then the holidays really. By the time Christmas was over I just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I looked back at last year's calendar and the last weekend I had nothing planned was July 18th. Even then I think I was busy packing and getting stuff ready for the move. Now I don't mean this to be a pity party; I know I brought all of this on myself. I did social things I wanted to do and school was also a choice. My responsibility for it aside, it was still draining and exhausting and just too much.

The most valuable lessons I was taught in school weren't about accounting or the business world. They were about how everything in my life gets thrown off balance if I don't get enough sleep and some time to myself without every day being scheduled. I just have to keep those lessons in mind as I move forward.

Weekly Training Log - Week 1

Since I am training for another half-marathon and have some running goals I WILL hit this year I am going to start posting my weekly miles and other work-out stuff. Hopefully this will help keep me on track and motivated.

Monday - Ran three miles at the lake after work. Slow.
Tuesday - Ran three miles at the lake after work. Slow.
Thursday - One hour yoga class. Good leg stretching.
Saturday - Ran three miles in neighborhood. Slow.

The runs have been a struggle for me so far this year. I don't know if it is because I have been running more in January then I did in December or if it is the reduced calorie intake from the Weight Watchers plan. One more week doing things the way I did them this week and if I don't feel stronger on the runs then I will revisit the fueling issue.

Adopt A Vine Finale

Last Saturday was our final Adopt-A-Vine session in Wenatchee and this time we got to bottle, cork, label and capsule the wine.

Here we are at the bottling and corking machines. We are bottling 2007 Columbia Valley Syrah. It was yummy; technical wine term you know. The corking machine was fun. I only had premature corkage one time.
Next we moved to the labeling machine where you had to be very careful to line the bottle seam up just right so we didn't make their wine look like it was labeled by monkeys.

Here is Kevin putting the capsule on the top of the bottle. This was my favorite activity of the day. I could see how you could get into a real rhythm with this and it just looks so darn pretty when it is done.

We also got to bottle our own magnum of the syrah and we just couldn't pass up that chance. I filled the bottle, Kevin corked it, I capsuled it and when our custom label arrives from the winery we will both label it. Any takers to help us polish it off after it sits for about six months?

On our way out we paid one last visit to our beautiful little syrah vines.

We had such a fun time going to the winery and participating in all these sessions. We learned quite a bit about the wine making process and got to drink some tasty wine in the process. I am going to miss our little treks to Wenatchee, the friendly people and the friendly dogs at the winery, the fabulous jewel of a restaurant Smoke Blossom, and the amazing bakery Anjou. We seriously might just make the trip for the bakery alone. It is that good.

New Obsession

I have become obsessed with the weather page of the paper. Not with the temperatures at home or around the country or the forecast for the week; my obsession is for the Sun Schedule. Every time that I look at it I see it grow by a minute or two. It makes my little shriveled heart smile to see the days getting longer.

Tomorrow, we Seattleites will have exactly 8 hours and 46 minutes of daylight. Today we only had 8 hours 45 minutes. It just keeps getting better. Soon I won't have to run in the dark after work and I might even be able to lose a little Pacific Northwest pallor. I might even be able to check "stave off Rickets" off the to-do list.

Under the Knife

The New Year's running resolutions are off to a rocky start as I had expected. Yesterday I had my surgery to remove the two boob blobs that I wrote about in October. This has made even the idea of running kind of uncomfortable.

Everything went really well with the surgery and I was back to work today. I have been almost entirely pain-free; in fact, the worst part was the IV. Apparently I have tiny veins. Good thing I chose "drink more wine" instead of "become heroin addict" for one of my 2010 goals. That coin flip went the right way.

The surgeon was kind enough to show the blobs to me when she was done stitching me up. I wish I had thought to bring a camera into surgery with me because they were kind of cool and then I could share pictures with you. Bigger than I thought, but then again they were in bottles in liquid so they were probably magnified.

It feels good (well, psychologically at least) to have those gone and I can go about my life lump free. I just can't wait to get to wear a real bra and start moving normally again.

2010 Goals

Well, it's a new year and a chance to hit the re-set button on a few things. Here are the goals for 2010.

Running
I am recycling my three gently used running goals from 2009 and reusing them here.
1. 5k PR.
2. Run a minimum of 650 miles.
3. Half-marathon PR

Health
1. Lose a minimum of 40 lbs.

Personal
1. Visit one new place in state I have never gone before.
2. Visit one new place out of state I have never gone before.
3. Travel outside of the country. Offer excludes Canada.
4. Drink more. We buy WAY more wine then we drink so Kevin and I are trying to drink 52 bottles this year. Combined. Not 52 bottles each.
5. Complete 40 hours of volunteer time.
6. Take four different classes. No actual school learnin' here. Just fun stuff.
7. Find and learn, I am mean really learn, 10 new entree or side dish recipes.

I am trying to do all of my goals as SMART goals which, if you aren't familiar with them already, are: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-constrained. With that in mind, I came up with the specific cooking goal but I am not sure that is the best way to measure it. What I am really going for is "learn to cook" but that doesn't fit the SMART goal pattern. Any other suggestions for how to incorporate "learn to cook" into a SMART goal?

Good luck to all my fellow resolutioners, goal-setters, and theme-builders.

* Edited to fix my counting error. Geez...counting to seven is hard.