Jan Totals

Numbers

• 64.7 miles by feet (47.2 miles running, 17.5 miles walking)
• 28 yoga sessions (or roughly 21 hours of yoga)
• 4 trips up the hill
• 12 days on antibiotics

Thoughts

• Man, that was lot of yoga. The yoga numbers will drop as I switch my focus to half-marathon training, but I should keep at it even at a reduced frequency.
• Half marathon training got off to a good start. Actually, since I changed my target race, I guess it got off to an early start (by two weeks). That just means I can get a few more long runs in before the race.
• Being sick sucks, but I'm thankful that it really didn't slow me down too much.

Plans for Feb

• Yoga 3x per week
• Sweetheart 5K Run
• Continue half-marathon training

Monday Madness

Here is is the last day of January and the second week of half-marathon training. On schedule today is 5 miles easy. I had such great luck last week running immediately after work that I planned to do the same today. It's typically a good 20-30 deg warmer that time of day than in the early morning and I have just enough daylight left to finish my run before it gets dark.

Then I looked at the weather forecast. 37 deg chance of rain/snow showers. Crap. It's not the 37 deg that has me unhappy, it's the rain/snow showers. Now I realize many of you are thinking "What's the big deal, it's just a little rain/snow. Get out and run."

Yeah, well I live in the desert. We get something like 11 inches of rain per year. Some of you are accustomed to running in "liquid sunshine". I, however, have developed an aversion to the rain/snow much like that of a cat. That's what's the big deal. And if the weather forecast is correct, this stuff is supposed to hang around for a few days. Shudder.

I'm trying not to freak out. Too much.

[edited to add: I did NOT run. Was windy, cold, rainy with thunder/lightning when I got home; the lightning was a deal breaker]

[Side note, my son who moved to the Bay area for college, complained to his father that we never taught him how to use an umbrella. It's not our fault. We never *needed* to teach him how to use an umbrella. That's how little it rains around here.]

Slight Change in Plans

Earlier this week I announced that I was training for the Albuquerque Half Marathon. Yesterday I learned that the local Run for the Zoo is adding a half-marathon. It's two week later than the other event. The Zoo runs are ALWAYS well organized (and for a good cause and awesome logos as seen in my t-shirt quilt). The other event, not so much. Read my report from last year when they routed us across a one lane foot bridge less than a quarter mile from the start line.

Anyway, since I hadn't registered for the other event yet, I'm training for the Zoo half-marathon instead. And I couldn't be happier!!

Training is still going well. Got in my Thursday run even though I didn't think that I would. And I got my 8 miler in this morning. Wore my new pink skirt too, sadly I didn't think to get a photo to share. Trust me it is very cute.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Med Accountability:

Wed: Yoga

Thu: 4 mile easy run

Fri: 2 mile hill walk with dogs

Sat: 8 mile long run

Let the Training Begin!

I'm officially training for the Albuquerque Half Marathon, as of Monday. Woot! Coach asked for my goal and I told him that my primary objective is to be able to run this race, finishing pain-free and uninjured. A PR would be nice, but not at the expense of the primary objective. And so it begins...

I got my training schedule and immediately felt that I was behind schedule because I didn't run Monday before work. Luckily, I was able to get out of work a little early and get my run in before the sun went down. One thing that I noticed was that my schedule has me running 4x week. I need to talk to Coach about that because I usually stick to a 3x week running plan for injury prevention. For now I will try to hit two of the three mid-week runs and consider the third a bonus. And of course, be sure to do the long runs on the weekend.

Monday: 4 miles easy.

I chose a dirt trail for this one and took it nice and easy. I was so happy to be running after work again even if I was kind of in a rush to beat the sunset. I ended up running a pace of 11:43.

Tuesday: 2 miles steady (at half marathon pace, 10:20-10:40) with one mile warm-up & cool down.

For this one I opted to run on a hard surface in order to to hit the steady paces. It seems I overshot my pace targets a bit and ended up at 10K pace instead. I attribute this to not having a pacing buddy with me. When the running group starts mid-week runs, it will be easier to stay on pace. At least I got the benefit of two faster miles. And it was a nice confidence boost for kicking off my training.

mile 1: 11:02

mile 2: 9:55

mile 3: 9:58

mile 4: 11:35

Next run scheduled for Thursday.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the Thursday run in, but that's okay. I have 8 miles on the schedule for Saturday, I don't anticipate any issues with that one.

p.s. Thanks for the compliments on the t-shirt quilt. I've given details on who created it to a few of you who asked if I had your email. For anyone else who's interested, just email me.

Cold Weather + Event Shirts = ??

Something cozy to snuggle in!!

Like many of you, I have way too many cotton running shirts from various events that I've participated in. I never wear them, but it's a shame to get rid of them. I was going through my closet recently and realized that some of them are actually pretty cool looking. I'm particularly fond of warm colors, so I gathered up several shirts with interesting emblems that had warm colors in them (plus one that I wasn't crazy about but worked with the color scheme) and shipped them off to be made into a throw size, t-shirt quilt.

I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. :-)

What do you do with your event t-shirts?

Turtle Powers....Activate!

Saturday was the debut of the 2011 season for my running group, Turtle Club. The group starts several years ago as a small club of about six runners. Yesterday there were sixteen of us, and apparently another four that just couldn't make it on that particular day.

The majority of the group started out with a 30 minute run. I stuck with my marathon friends and did six miles easy. I would have suggested a slightly longer run (7 or 8 miles) except that I had been battling illness all week and really didn't want to push it. In fact, I wasn't even sure I'd make it out at all the night before, but felt good enough to give it a go when I woke up.

The larger group usually sticks together for the first mile, then everyone breaks off at their own pace (with a few pace groups that stick together), but by the time we had hit the half mile point most of the short distance runners had dropped us like a hot potato. I suspect this is foreshadowing of things to come - I'll be spending another season at the back of the pack. No worries, it's fun back there and the company is great.

At the conclusion of our run, four of us (the two that I trained with all winter plus faster runner who is running a marathon this coming weekend) stuck around a little longer. This little group of winter warriors met for breakfast. After running with them all winter and tracking them like crazy on race day, I really enjoyed hearing tales of their marathon experience.

Biggest surprise for me was when my marathon friends presented me with a gift that they picked up for me at the expo. It's a pink Brooks PR running skort. I was not expecting that at all! It fits well, has a zippered pocket in the back, plus a pocket on the leg of the compression shorts underneath. Pardon the lousy camera phone photo, hopefully I'll be able to model it soon.

The larger group of Turtles is nice, but our small group of winter warriors is really something special.

edited to add my MED accountability for the week:

Mon: yoga

Tue: 0.5 mi walk, 2 mi hill run, yoga

Wed: yoga

Thu: yoga

Fri: 1.5 mi walk

Sat: 6 mi run, yoga

Sun: 2 mi hill walk

Stylin'

When I get tagged, I usually don't end up doing the post not because I don't want to, but because by the time I get around to it, I can't find the information from the tag. D'oh! Anyway, was tagged recently by both Sunflowers 'N Daisies and Trying is for Little Girls, and am playing along this time.

The rules of the tag indicate that I need to link back to the person who awarded this. Done! See up above. Then share 7 things about myself. Okay, here we go:

1) I am lacking depth perception, therefore I'm lousy at things like parking in the garage, catching a frisbee, hitting a tennis ball, etc. This means I also can't see in 3D even with the 3D glasses at a movie theater. Luckily, running works out just fine in the 2D world that I live in.

2) I've melted not one, but two tea kettles on the stove by walking away and forgetting about them. Husband bought me one that whistles so that this will never happen again.

3) I also burned up a bamboo steamer the same way. Sadly, they don't make steamers that whistle.

4) I drive a 2009 diesel VW Jetta Sportwagen and I love it. Today's diesel isn't like the diesel from 30 yrs ago. It's quiet and has low emissions. I get about 35mpg around town, better mileage on the freeway, and it has almost as much storage space as my old SUV.

5) It's easy for me to find motivation to move every day, because I can now, and there was a time when I couldn't. I experienced a few years where it was difficult to stand for long periods of times due to vericose veins caused from child-birth. Had them treated in my mid-thirties. Shortly afterwards, I experienced a full year with difficulties doing normal daily activities due to an auto-immune disorder which is currently in remission.

6) I started running, learned to swim, & bought a bike all around my 40th birthday. Over the past 5 years I've completed sprint and olympic distance triathlons, metric century bike rides, 5Ks, 10ks, & half-marathons. Trust me, if I can do this, anyone can.

7) I quit drinking alcohol entirely in early April 2010 and have honestly never felt better. You never know how strong you really are until it's the only choice you have.

Finally, I'm supposed to award 4 recently discovered great bloggers. I'm going to skip this part. Not because you're not great bloggers, you are. It's because I'd have a hard time just picking four and it always seems I'm one of the last to be tagged, so many of you have already done this.

Have a great weekend folks!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1) The Cal dining crew. Even though their website is down and I haven't paid for it yet, they took my order over the phone to deliver a Birthday Care pack to my son who's away at college. Really outstanding customer service.

2) Healing. Started the day yesterday at Urgent Care. It's amazing what antibiotics, plenty of fluid, and good night's rest can do. I'm feeling better, not great, but better is a good thing.

3) My dogs. Dogs love their masters unconditionally. Every day I strive to be as good of a person as my dogs think I am. And they live in the moment. Every walk is the best walk ever. Every meal is the best meal ever. Today is the best day ever.

4) My cats. Cats are different than dogs. But by snuggling up and not saying a word, they've taught me that just being present is enough sometimes.

5) My friends and family. I'm still crazy about my husband after nearly 22 years of marriage. We have two children who are turning into amazing young people; I've very proud of both of them. I have running friends, church friends, school friends, work friends, blog friends, all of whom are pretty darn wonderful and supportive.

6) Being able to make a difference. A friend of mine from college was diagnosed with ALS 2 years ago. Early next week her battle will come to a close as she is removed from the ventilator. A fund has been set up in her honor to help families dealing with late-stage ALS to receive much needed home care. I've sat by helplessly as this terrible disease wreaked havoc in the lives of my friend and her family. Now I can do something to help others.

Ready for a new season

This morning was beautiful. 41 deg, a downright heat wave compared to the single digit and low teen temps that we've been experiencing in the mornings lately. I wish I would have had time for a longer run, but two miles up my hill and back was all that I could fit in before needing to get ready for work. I'm amazed at how easy the hill seems now. It was only a few months ago that I had to stop one or more times to get to the top. And a few months prior to that, I wasn't running at all due to issues with my knee.

I'm crazy happy that my running group officially starts back up this Saturday. I've run with my marathon friends to help them out, and now I'm ready for my own season to begin. I haven't registered for any races, but added some target races to my sidebar. The sweetheart run (5K or 10K) is on my 46th birthday. Definitely hope to do that one with Husband. There is a 10-miler in March that I would like to try. I've never run that distance in a race before. And if my knee cooperates, I'd like another shot at the Albuquerque Half Marathon. It's not particularly scenic, but the course runs along familiar territory and that is often a mental plus. The race I'm most hopeful about is the Dirty Half Marathon in September, a trail half marathon in the foothills of the Sandias. This is assuming that the race happens again this year, last year was it's first running.

There are other things I hope to do this year (including a trail event in CA), but I learned last year not to plan too far in advance. The most important thing for me is to stay injury-free so that I can keep running.

Six Thoughts Sunday

1) Husband was blushing from the comments to my facebook post about our ten thousand waves excursion. I don’t think he reads my blog regularly or he’d be blushing from these comments as well. He told me that he first thought of this 2 years ago, but didn't know if I'd enjoy it. Finally scheduled a day off coinciding with Son's flight back to CA, and decided to put the plan in motion and surprise me.

2) After not running all week (yikes!), I got out for a 5 mile solo run today. I miss my running partners, but have been cheering them on as they Rock-n-Roll to the marathon finish line in AZ. At the time of this writing, they are almost there…

3) I have completed 17 yoga sessions in the first 15 days of the month. Each session ranges from 35-55 minutes in duration. Using 45 minutes as an average, I’ve completed 12 hours 15 mins of yoga in 15 days. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a LOT of yoga to me.

4) My Garmin seems to be completely dead. I’ve resigned myself to buying a new one. Just need to decide whether to replace it with another 205 or spend more money on one of the newer models. I’m leaning toward sticking with the tried and true 205.

5) Daughter was starting to feel better after three days sick with Strep and got her hair cut on Friday. She had about 4 inches cut off. It looks super cute on her. She also bought a dress for Winter Ball. I'm heading out soon to meet her at the fabric store to see if we can come up with a way to modify/personalize it. Should be fun!

6) Today I was thinking about something. Sometimes the idea of a long run (9 or 10 or 12 or 13.1 miles) or running up a hill seems daunting, but the idea of taking just one more step often seems achievable. And really, that's all it takes. Just one more step, then another, and another, until you reach the end.

MED Accountability:
Fri: yoga
Sat: yoga
Sun: yoga, 5 mile run

The Surprise

We dropped off Son at the airport for a 10:15 flight and said goodbye again. This made me sad although it's worth mentioning that I'm very proud of him and happy that he is doing well on his own. But I still miss him when he's gone.

We came home and I was told to be ready to leave by 12:15. And make sure that I had a good lunch before we left. I asked if I needed to do anything to get ready. The answer was no, we just needed to leave at that time as we were expected to be somewhere at a certain time. Oh, and maybe bring my knitting.

When we got in the car, he told me we were headed to Santa Fe. The knitting was to give me something to do on the drive, but instead I just enjoyed the scenery. The farther north we went, the more frequently we saw patches of snow on the southwest corner of the hills. It was really pretty.

In Santa Fe, we needed to fill up. We took my car, which is diesel, and finding a gas station with diesel proved to be a bit challenging. I've never had a problem near Albuquerque, but apparently in the Santa Fe, it is a different story.

With a full tank, we headed up into the mountains. About 5 minutes before we arrived at our destination, he got a phone call on his cell from Ten Thousand Waves. Apparently we had an appt at 2:00 and had been advised to be there a bit early and hadn't shown up yet. We informed them that we were running just a bit late (due to the diesel hunt) and were almost there.

What is Ten Thousand Waves, you ask? It is a mountain spa resort that is designed to feel like a Japanese onsen. They have both communal and private baths (outdoor hot tubs) and offer a large array of spa and massage services. In the paragraph above, I linked to their facebook photo album. Humor me, if you will, and take a peek so that you have a better understanding what this lovely resort is like.

I've heard great things about Ten Thousand Waves and was excited to learn that this was our destination. Upon arrival, we were given kimonos, directions to a private outdoor hot tub, and escorted to the changing rooms. It wasn't until we were in the the hot tub that he informed me that he had scheduled us for a full afternoon of services and this was just the beginning...

They notified us (through an intercom system) when our time for the soak was almost up and directed us to wait in a lobby area. When we checked in at the lobby, they instructed us to head to the sauna. From there, two therapists took us to a large double room with two massage tables. We were cocooned in hot, herb-soaked linens and given a head/shoulder massage while the herbs seeped into our skin. When that was over, we were instructed to take a COLD shower to close our pores.

After the cold shower, back to the tables for a long therapeutic massage. My therapist spent most of her time working out some tension in my right shoulder. It wasn't exactly fun at the time, but I must say that my shoulder is feeling much better this morning. So it seemed to have worked well for me. After the massage, we were covered in hot oil, sprinkled with salt, and given a salt scrub. After this another shower and some instruction not to use soap for the next 24hrs to give the oil time to really penetrate the skin. From there we had the option to visit the sauna again (which Husband did, but I declined). And then back to the dressing room as our afternoon services were over.

All tolled, we were pampered for about 3.5 hours. It was a wonderful and relaxing afternoon together and a real surprise. That's something I'd probably never splurge on for myself. Experiencing it together was quite special. I'm still not quite sure what gave him the idea to surprise me like that on this particular day, but it's most certainly an afternoon I won't soon forget...

Friday, finally!

This has been one of those weeks. I knew it would be bad from a work perspective (and it was - three full days of face-to-face meetings). I've had the added stress of Daughter being sick again (Urgent care Wednesday, treated for strep, still not feeling well two days later), and Son packing up again to head back to California for spring semester. I've been struggling to be my exercise in, and haven't had time to catch up on blogs.

Earlier in the week I had mixed feelings about Friday. On the one hand, my workweek is over. But on the other hand, it means we are taking Son to the airport in the morning and saying goodbye again. Originally, I expected that I would be dropping him off at the airport by myself. Husband asked if I'd like him to come with me. Yes, I most definitely would! Then later he told me not to make any plans for Friday afternoon. At first I thought maybe he had scheduled a delivery or something and I needed to be home to sign for something. Then it became clear that he has taken the day off and has some sort of surprise planned for me.

At this point, I still don't know what the plan is exactly, but I look forward to finding out what the day will bring...

MED accountability

Sun: yoga

Mon: yoga, 5.1 mi walk

Tue: yoga

Wed: yoga

Thu: yoga

FYTO and MED

This morning I joined my marathon training friends for their final long run before the Rock-n-Roll next weekend in Arizona. Although I was a late entrant, I decided to dedicate 3.1 miles of the 5.2 miles that I ran to The Boring Runner's Freeze Your Thorns Off (FYTO) Virtual Race.

Thankfully, It wasn't quite as cold as last weekend, today it was about 31deg when I started. A fitting temp for a 3.1mi race, no?

My marathon runners were doing 12 miles today. They devised a T-shaped route where I could walk out about 1.2 miles to meet them, then run their final 5 miles or so with them. Although this was a virtual 'race', my pace was determined by my friends. They must have been feeling pretty good, because my Garmin says it took me about 33:47 to run 3.1 miles. That's a 10:54 pace, which is a good 25sec/mile faster than what we've been running on these long runs lately. [edited to correct overall pace]

Speaking of my Garmin, does anyone know if it is possible to replace the battery on a forerunner 205 or if I should just give up and buy a new Garmin? I've had this one for about 4 years, and lately the charge only lasts about an hour anymore.

Finally, I'm going to list my activities starting on the 1st for Move Every Day (MED). In the future I'm going to try to list this out at the end of each week or so. It's worth mentioning that the kundalin yoga sessions that I do have a lot of movement and are generally 35-50min in duration. I started with the goal of doing it 3x per week, you'll notice that I've done it almost every day and twice on a few days. I think I'll up my goal to 5x week yoga until the weather warms up and I can resume my normal morning walks.

sun: yoga

sat: yoga, 7mi run, yoga

mon: yoga x2 (am & pm)

tue: yoga x2 (am & pm)

wed: 2 mi run, 1 mi walk

thu: yoga

fri: yoga

sat: yoga, 1.2 mi walk, 5.2 mi run

Three Things Thursday

1 - I have joined JoLynn and others in committing to MED (Move Every Day)! This means that I vow to move every single day for at least 30 mins. It can be anything including walking, running, yoga, bowling, cycling, etc. I'm off to a good start, but next week will be a real challenge with an anticipated crazy work schedule. Of course that's what makes this so wonderful. Now I have an extra reason to find time to move every day!

2 - I ran yesterday up the hill and back down. It was pretty darn cold so I was dressed like a pink ninja in my balaclava, black tights, and pink sporthill pullover. Got a few funny looks, but was definitely dressed appropriately for the weather. Oh, and that hill is mine I tell you, all mine. Ha!

3 - I didn't get a lot of entrants in my give-away, but that just means the chances were higher for those of you who did enter. The winner selected by Random.org was Groover who said "One girl's trash is another girl's treasure ... right? I just rediscovered Yoga again, too, and fully understand the AM/PM addiction. But, hell girl, how did you get into the possession of these? I've never done Kundalini Yoga but heard a lot about it. Would love to find out more and give it a try. And you do know who I am and where I live, right?" Yes, of course I do. And the DVDs will be on their way to Australia once I get your mailing address. Hope you enjoy!

Return to Yoga (part 2)

So as you gathered from my last post, I'm not all that good at staying focussed on yoga while I'm doing it. And I'm not that great at it. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not able to enjoy it. Or at least I enjoy most of it. So much, in fact, that I've done it twice a day (AM & PM) several times already. Shocking, isn't it?

With that being said, I have also verified that two of the DVDs in my collection just aren't doing it for me. One of them is too hard, and the other seems too weird. While I like my other DVDs quite a bit, I have no desire to do these particular ones ever again.

I thought about donating them to the local library, but then I decided to "pay-it-forward" and do a give-away. So...up for grabs to one of my readers are the following two Yoga DVDs in gently used condition from my personal collection:

Maybe you're an avid yoga follower and want to try something new. Maybe you've never tried yoga and want to give it a go. Maybe you love other workouts in their collection and want to try these specific ones. Whatever the situation, my loss is your gain. If the winner enjoys these in a way that I haven't been able to, that's great. If the winner learns that these aren't really their thing either, that's fine too.

Entering my give-away is simple. All you need to do is find something out about these or other Ana & Ravi workouts (perhaps check reviews on amazon) and leave a comment on this post telling me why you are interested in checking them out. It's that easy!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fine Print:

• One entry per person.
• If you are a regular reader/commenter (aka, someone I will recognize) feel free to enter no matter where you live. However, if you are a lurker/infrequent commenter (aka, someone I will not recognize) please refrain from entering unless you live within the USA.
• I'll choose someone randomly on Thursday. I'd love to be able to get these off in the mail on Friday if I can get the winner's address quickly.

Return to Yoga (part 1)

Recently, one of my marathon friends mentioned that he was going to add yoga and strength into his routine. This reminded me that I have taken quite a long break from my yoga DVDs over the past several months. I decided to turn that around with a goal of add yoga back into my routine at least 3x per week for the next month.

When I originally got started with yoga back in 2008, I took a few classes and determined that Hatha yoga was too slow and boring. Without knowing too much about the various styles of yoga, I decided to try something else. I looked at reviewed on amazon for various yoga styles and decided to try Ana and Ravi Kundalini Yoga. Yeah, you read that right. The extent of my research was checking reviews on Amazon.com.

Anyway, I found a good deal on about half a dozen of their DVDs through a combination of ebay and amazon. Together, the DVDs together were about the cost of a month and a half at the gym. It seemed like a good deal even though most of the DVDs that have several sections that I don’t care for. They conveniently have a Matrix option that allows me to customize which parts of the DVD to include in each workout (and which parts to skip) which works out well for me.

Anyway, I now have a few yoga sessions behind me after returning to it. Here are my thoughts thus far. I also noted which DVD I put in and which sections I included in my workout.

Session 1: Yoga Beauty Body. warm up, set 1, set 2, & deep relaxation

“There must be three dog toys under the couch. I better get those out now while I’m thinking about it”

“Half the stuff they say is crazy talk. Connect with your inner. What does that even mean?!?”

“Are you kidding me? I think I needed to modify the last 6 poses. I suck.”

“There is a LOT of dog and cat fur on the rug. I really ought to vacuum. Wait, what did she just say to do? Crud, where's the remote? I need to rewind.”

“Did she just say not to let anyone or anything cause us to doubt ourselves?!? Hahahahahaha. How funny, since my inability to keep up is causing me to do just that.”

"I don't remember this workout being so difficult. I must really be out of practice."

“I’m sooooo not flexible or strong. And I can’t relax. No wonder I took an extended break from Yoga.”

Session 2: Beginners and Beyond. warm-up, set 2, & deep relaxation

“Wow, my arms and my abs are quite sore from yesterday. That must have been a good workout."

"I'm glad she just said to go at your own pace, rest if you need to, and begin again when you feel ready. This is killing me.”

“I like what she just said - don’t focus on what you think the pose is supposed to look like, but to experience it right where you are – Okay, I can do that.”

“I think I get it now. This isn’t just about exercise; it’s about being present. When my mind wanders, I shouldn’t follow it.”

“I feel strong, stretched, relaxed, and somehow more peaceful”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have skipped set 1. Actually, maybe I’ll do that part later today. Next time I do this DVD, I’m definitely doing both sets”

“You know...there are a few DVDs in my collection that I really don't care for. I should pay-it-forward and do a give-away" [likely foreshadowing for a future post later this week]

So there you have it. I'm not the typical yoga type. But I'm working on it. And I really do feel better afterwards. Having said that, I have a few questions for my readers.

• Can you think of a yoga DVD of any style that you think I would *love* and therefore should consider adding to my collection?
• Have any of you also tried Ana & Ravi or other Kundalini yogi DVDs? What do you think about this particular style of yoga compared to others?