Fill In the Blank Two-Days-After-Friday

This was supposed to be Fill in the Blank Friday, and I started it on Friday, but didn't get around to posting it until now.  Fill in the Blank courtesy of Run On Riot.

1. I am looking forward to SUMMER.  This has been a wild school year, and I am looking forward to 10 whole weeks off.  I may work a few days here and there as needed, but nothing regular.  I will enjoy running and biking and visiting friends.

2. Something kind of embarrassing that I still love anyway is... this one's tough.  Maybe that I'd eat buttercream frosting or peanut butter straight out of the jar?  I can't think of anything really embarassing.

3. My favorite car is...I'm pretty happy with my current car, a 5 year old Ford Focus sedan.  It's still in fabulous shape, it gets good gas mileage, and best yet - is fully paid off.  When it comes time to replace it, I'd get a new Ford Focus hatch because they look pretty nice or if money were no object, an Audi A3 would be nice (I hear Audis are not so reliable).

4. If I could pick one type of weather to live with for the rest of my life it would be  This is a tough one.  My ideal weather would be like 50s-70s for most of the year, but I could deal with a couple months of hotness.  While I am from the land of snow, I really only love it for skiing.  Let's face it, NJ gets snow often enough but apparently has no idea how to handle it.  And I hate driving on poorly maintained roads (that doesn't mean throwing SAND onto a snowy road.  Ahem, this also includes not taking care of potholes, NJDOT).  At least in Western NY they knew how to clear the white fluffy stuff off the roads.

So I'd say probably something between Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but not too far south that I have to worry about regular hurricanes.  You could probably also talk me into the Pacific Northwest, but I've never been there.  Proximity to skiing for at least 2-3 visits a year would be nice too.l  I'm not really sure if this climate exists.

 Saturday's weather was PERFECT: 60s and sunny.
5. My favorite thing to do after a bad/stressful day is to come home from work (weekends aren't generally stressful) and run it out (or spin or bike or boot camp).  This or running some errands will usually distract me from the stressful situation at least for a little bit.

6. This weekend: Friday night: long dog walk.  I had a lazy Saturday morning, long dog walk, filled up my flat bike tire (hopefully I don't need a new tube), went for a bike ride with the Mr., got a friend's baby shower gift.  Sunday I got in a fabulous 5 mile pace run then went to said baby shower.  Walked around a little village festival taking place immediately behind our apartment and picked up some fabulous jerk chicken, collard greens, and plantains from one of the food booths.  Did 3 loads of laundry.

7. If I were a color, I'd be something in the tan/brown family because I like earth tones.

Some phone photos from the weekend:

 Flowering Trees on Friday night walk

Saturday Cauliflower Mac n' Cheese, recipe from Mark Bittman/Runner's World

 Saturday night new (seasonal) Victory beer

Molly enjoying some porch time Sunday afternoon.

Look Closely: stalker photo of a life-sized Care Bear in our back parking lot.

and That is all. 

Grumpy Speed Work

Hello again!  I really hope I can get myself back into posting more regularly soon.

Monday I had off from work; it was nice to have a day home after two days of driving.  I got in a 9 mile run, did laundry, went grocery shopping, emptied the dishwasher, and then because I'm crazy, I went to an hour of spinning with a friend that night too, then I made dinner.  I'd say it was a productive day!

I ran 9.02 miles without music.  I made myself a route that included some hills, just for fun.  There were so many pretty flowering trees to look at along the way. 

It was also 80ish and humid with clear skies.  I did not wear sun screen (hey, it's not as hot as Florida, and the sun isn't as direct!), and as a result my shoulders and upper chest were sunburned.  Guess it's time to start wearing sunscreen while I run again.  I got more color from that run than I did the whole time we were in Florida (I was good and used sunscreen in FL though).  I had a pineapple roctane gu around mile 4.3.  It was my first time trying the flavor, it was recommended to me by the bike shop guy where I buy gu.  He claimed it tastes like pineapple soda; I guess I'd agree- maybe I'd say it tastes like pineapple soda with a little salt in it.

Tuesday I took a day off since Monday was a tad cardio-intensive.  I did go for a 45-50 minute walk with the dog and the dude before watching the Buffalo Sabres hockey game.  Watching the game was a bad idea, they lost badly to Philly (2-5).  No Stanley Cup for Buffalo this year.

Wednesday I had a long day of work and was looking forward to spinning in the evening.  I got to the gym a little early, ready to pedal my little heart out only to find out my gym card was not in my wallet.  I realized I left it in my handheld water bottle pouch from Monday night.  The one other time I forgot my gym card last summer I was still allowed in with my license (also, they recognized me), and just signing my name on a sheet of paper.  Apparently the policy changed or the student worker at the desk was new...she wouldn't let me even with my license and/or my ID card from when I was a grad student there.  I hoped someone else might walk in to the office and veto her decision.  I asked, but she also wouldn't let me be a guest of my friend who was already in the spinning room (and I was bringing water for my friend because she forgot and I had no way to get in touch with her).

I was pissed and this put me in a foul mood.  I had planned to spin and do some speed work on the treadmill since it was over 80% humidity out and running in that just isn't pleasant.  Additionally there was a possible thunderstorm rolling in...

...and I didn't feel like running in a downpour.

There was not enough time to drive home and get it and get back for spinning... and I didn't want to see that girl again last night anyway.  Luckily the rain held off and those dark clouds passed (but the humidity stuck around). I went home and changed into my running shorts but was still stewing and sat on my butt for over an hour before getting out the door for a run.  I finally did though...

I ran 5x800m at 10k pace with 400m rest intervals.
My goal pace was in the 9:41-9:49 range based on a hopeful 2:14-2:16 half marathon.

I did a .65 mile warm up (random, yes), then banged out 9:35, 9:09, 9:26, 9:28, and 9:38 (second half of that last one was even up hill!) splits.  After the final 400m rest interval, I slowly ran for almost half a mile. 
Total: 4.87 miles in 51:33.

Despite my grumpiness earlier in the evening, I was very pleased with my speed work. ESPECIALLY considering the humidity.  I felt sweaty just stepping outside, let alone running in it.  And my Heart Rate was an average 163 to boot, which is pretty good for me during 1. speed work and 2. heat.  Even without the heat, I'd be happy with that HR.  My HR peaked at 183 while running that uphill portion at the end.

And just to end with another picture, here is a grainy cell phone picture of some pretty tulips I passed while driving to the gym:

How's your running/biking/yoga/whatever going this week?
Who's signed up for spring races?

Exercise while away from home

We'll see how this post works out, I'm trying to post by email from my phone from a hotel room in NC...

While I didn't stick to my training plan exactly this past week, I think I did a pretty good job of getting in some runs, etc. while away. I tried not to get too stressed about it, but also didn't let myself make tons of excuses and weasel my way out of exercise.

I didn't bring any equipment with me, but all you need is a carpeted surface for crunches/planks/pushups, and a chair/bench/solid bed footboard for tricep dips.

Sunday 4/17: walked maybe a mile and a half while visiting friends in NC.
-Did a plank sequence (center plank on forearms and side planks on each side), 50 crunches, 20 lower ab things

Monday 4/18: drove 9ish hours to FL.
-Longer plank sequence (30 sec @ center, 15 sec @side, reaching arm down and under stomach x8, 30 sec at center plank, then repeat for other side).
-50 crunches, 25 lower ab things
-15 tricep dips

Tuesday 4/19:
-ran 3.15 miles (easy)
-10 chest pushups, 10 tricep pushups
-walked on beach a little
-walked a mile-ish after dinner

Wednesday 4/20:
-ran 7.02 miles (long)
-walked around museum for an hourish and walked around a shoppy area for 2ish hours (yeah, I'm counting it for something)

Thursday 4/21:
-walked around a zoo for a couple hours
-15 tricep dips
-45 second plank
-40 crunches, 60 oblique crunches

Friday 4/22:
-ran 3.68 miles (tempo run)
-walked on beach a little
-leisurely swam a couple laps/treaded water in deep end of pool

Saturday 4/23:
-50 crunches, 50 bicycle crunches
-drove 10 hrs from FL to NC.
-Ran 3.05 miles on hotel's fitness center treadmill. Wanted to run longer but we got to hotel later than planned because of traffic and fitness ctr closed at 9. I ran until 9:01 pm. Got in .6 mile warm up, 2.25 mi at half pace (10:20 at .5-2.5 incline) and .2 mile cool down plus walking the fitness center key back to the front desk.

While my supplemental crunches/planks/etc were not as intense as my usual spin and boot camp, I'm still happy I was able to squeeze some of that in.

Happy Easter! We'll be driving the rest of the way home tomorrow with the rest of the northeast, yippee!

Florida Running

Running in Florida is tough!  I went from running in 50 degree weather in NJ to 80ish (in the morning, anyway) and super humid in FL.

Instead of starting off my Florida running with a long run, I decided to do an easy shorter run Tuesday morning before doing my longer run Wednesday morning.  I ran 3.15 miles Tuesday...sort of easy miles, with an unintentional faster mile in the middle. 

Wednesday's long run was 7.02 miles, definitely at an easy pace.
I stopped to photograph a little lizard friend on the sidewalk, and an armadillo (dead, I think, but I didn't poke it to find out).

Also, tried to photograph the ocean on my phone before heading back, it's not a great picture at all though.  See the tiny bit of water in the distance?  Ocean.

I decided to stop here because the arms for the railroad track came down and a train crossed seconds after this picture. Also, in between this picture and the ocean is a highway, and I wasn't going to run along the highway!

I also stopped around 4.3 miles to have a strawberry Clif energy gel (not bad, but didn't taste exactly like the strawberry Shot Bloks to me...kinda tasted like strawberry jam, and unexpectedly clear-ish, not red in color).  I only had a banana before my run and I think I was sweating faster than I was drinking my entire 21 oz of water, so I thought it might be a good idea to eat something before I got home.

I can't fairly comment on the consistency, or compare it to gu, as the energy gel was very warm from being in my tank top pocket and with the sun on my back for a portion of the run.  I think even in cooler temperatures, it might be a little less dense than gu.


It wasn't too hot at the start of my run, but very humid and as it is Florida, there is tons of direct sunlight and few clouds.  By 9:30 it was 78 already and by the time I finished my run it was 82.  I don't know the last time I was so sweaty.  I tried to take a picture of my sweaty self, but the picture did not fully capture my glistening sweaty skin, and I'm not sure anyone wants to see that anyway.  So here is my sweaty hat instead.

Gross!

Meanwhile, Molly Waffles has been enjoying some time by the pool:

Cell phone reception for data really stinks here at the house (not as much in town) and I don't want to spend too much time couped up inside on the desktop computer, so I'm a little behind on my blog reading/commenting (and posting).  Hope everyone is having a good week!