Indoor Tri Pics

**slightly overdue but I wanted to share these**

Amy and Nancy - best attempt at a bathroom shot. From the neck only, we had our swimsuits on!

Our evil timer/trainer. :D

Before it got rough. **sigh**

Between the bike and the run. Amy looking awesome. Little did we know we were going to rock the run. :D

Proud Finishers!!

Pics from Boca

The ceremonial toasting pic. We are lucky enough to have great friends to travel with and also lucky enough to have these toasting shots from several parts of the world.

We are so happy to be in the sun.

Not a great shot but we made it to the beach.

Current pic of Wendy, a rarity! She's adorable!

Toasting from the National Croquet Center. Do you see fancy earrings and ring? They are by Zanne. I just feel faster when I wear them.

Boca golf

From the top of the windy Lighthouse at Jupiter

Today's Learnings

y I am capable of 4.2 miles after 8 days off.
y Those 4.2 miles after 8 days off will very likely suck.
y Even slower actually IS possible.
y My lunch date with PF Chang was not a good idea pre run.
y PF Chang does not taste nearly as good later.
y PF Chang is hereby banned unless the run is in the books.
y New Enells make me very very happy and keep the girls close to the chest (because the bounce stops here!)
y Enell now comes in bright red. :D
y My foot feels better but maybe not 100%.
y Some runs are just harder.
y All of your thoughts and prayers are really, REALLY appreciated.
y 10k on the 10th of May is coming up fast. Are you ready??? I have a few things to do...


I'm hoping to feel bloggy again soon. Thanks everyone, for your support.

Bullets from Boca

I'm back from Boca... what a place.

A couple of items:

• I did 10.26 miles with Amy and Art before I left. 2:07 ~ 12:24 pace. Slightly faster than I can usually hang at this distance. I'll take it. They really helped to push me along and keep me going. I actually dropped an F bomb during this run. My apologies, not my normal MO.
• Started the trip in Ft Lauderdale and did lots of walking around, eating and drinking.
• Met Wendy at 7am up by Boca Raton and did an incredibly hard 5 miles (probably because of the 10 miler, the flying, the walking around and the drinking, yah think??? oh ya, and the humidity KILLED me. ) Wendy was an absolute doll and let me walk whenever I needed. She also let me talk whenever I needed. I'm thinking of making her my therapist. hee hee. She was totally adorable driving up and her hair is much longer than I'd expected. She said I was taller than expected :D Thanks for making the drive with Dewey and coming down to see me!! (hopefully will post a pic when I get my act together)
• Somewhere during the run my foot started to hurt on the top up toward the toes. I tried loosening laces to no avail. Unfortunately, the pain has persisted, and I am officially putting myself on the injured reserves. Any ideas what this could be? Too much walking around on terrible feet?
• We toured the Flagler Musuem and lighthouse at Jupiter. We also toured a couple mansions on the waterways and took some boat rides to really see some of the amazing boats and mansions and enjoy the sun. Wow. Always amazes me how big the world is and how differently people can live.
• We lucked out and got an amazing suite at the Boca Resort for the business part of the award trip. Even had a party there the last night.
• One of our evenings was spent at the National Croquet Center. I had no idea how much fun it would be. My husband and I won several matches - lots of teamwork and strategy.
• We had some forced fun team building events that we survived (although these gave me the clue that there was something really wrong with my foot) and played golf on some amazing courses. I also got a few minutes at the beach on the last day. These trips are so jammed packed with activities, that they aren't very relaxing, but I am very very blessed and fortunate to have experienced all this, and to have won this trip to boot. It was also grand getting to run with Wendy.
• Despite all this, I'm not feeling very bloggy. I've got some personal stuff going on that sometimes takes over. I try not to bring it out here but thoughts and prayers are always appreciated. Also doesn't help that my foot is hurting and I don't know what it is or how long it might last. I had almost peaked for the HM training with two 8's and two 10 mile runs. Hopefully I can take some time off and be back with a couple more 10's.
• I will try to catch up (laundry and blogs, but I seriously doubt I can read everything) and hope to post some pictures soon.
• Congrats to the Boston homies. You guys inspire me so so much.
• ALL of you inspire me so much. Thanks for giving me a place to meet all of you and be inspired every day.

I'm No Kenyan

Just in case there was any confusion. No, I'm a big, big, slow, slow, white girl. I tried to go out and run a little faster. I thought there might be pain, but you know, proportional pain. Go a little faster, have a little more pain. This was more like the kinetics of Dilantin. Not Linear. Not Proportional. Hard to take. I kind of felt like I don't deserve Garmie. I considered packing him up and just sending him to someone more deserving. I guess there's always the next run, right? Now, where's my club?

1 - 11:10
2 - 12:00
3 - 12:20
.2 - 11:34
3.2 miles ~ 37:45 ~ 11:48 pace

I'm planning to do a long run tomorrow (with Amy and Art) and a quick girls night (with Amy) and then it's off to Boca Raton. I'm not sure if I'll be on while we are gone, but I am planning to run with Wendy while I'm there. I can't wait. Hope to have stuff to share when I get back.

I'll be thinking about all the Boston Homies. You guys have a great time and drink up the experience. (Bill, Nitmos, Reid, my speedy friend from Iowa - Jennifer) Good luck to everybody racing this weekend no matter where you are. It's not about the finish. It's about that you're out there and you had the courage to start. Y

Blogger Love

Has anyone been noticing the blogger love that is starting to happen? I've been wanting to do a post on this for a while. (not THAT kind of love, Marcy :P) Bloggers have been important for a while. Tech companies check out the bloggers to see what they say about their products. Political blogs have long had the attention of the media, analysts and candidates. Are running blogs finally getting discovered?

I mean Vanilla was practically adopted by the Clif people when he mentioned their new recovery drink. I've also heard he is test driving some fancy schmancy bad-boy Pearl Izumi shoes. I'm guessing that the Clif people (doesn't that remind you of some long ago civilization of really handly folks?) are under the assumption that some people actually read Half Fast. Hmm. (More about what the Clif folks are up to here.)

Then Pokey had a wardrobe dilemma that caught the eye of the lovely Meredith at Brooks Running. Soon Poke had some cool Brooks pants that were the right weight and made her look and feel the right weight too. :D

Viv also had a Brooks-type emergency. She had a hard time getting her favorite Brooks shirt washed because she wore it all the time! I think the lovely Meredith came through again, and sent Viv another one for rotational purposes.

Bev used a Lara Bar in a race and posted about how great it worked for her. Someone lovely at Lara caught this and sent her a big box full of Lara heaven. They even have a blog and a great statement on their website about supporting blogging as a means for people to express themselves and communicate with the entire world. How cool.

Now this isn't universal. Afterall, I posted about how much I am totally digging G2 and even had Jeter pace me in a virtual race which gets thousands (or something like that) of readers. I've also posted shots of me (or maybe it was some other hottie who looks like me) guzzling gatorade on a tough run. No calls from Gatorade, no special day with Jeter. :D YET. (but I might be testing some Propel soon) No calls from Bondi people either, although I've long professed my love of the Bondi-Band and I know all the sweaters agree with me. That's okay. Love 'em anyway. The mother load? Someday, I'm convinced I will be the official spokesperson of Enell bras. These bras literally saved my exercising life. The bounce stops here. When you're big like me that is a big big deal (get it? two bigs?)..... oooh, but I digress.

But, I have to admit, I wasn't posting those things in hopes of freebies, just cuz I like the product. And maybe it will save some other "big big" girl's exercising life? And isn't that the cool thing about the bloggers? We give each other a lot of advice and talk about what works for us. We also ask questions when we can't figure out what to do. Occasionaly, we find some gems for ourselves. And now the marketing people are starting to see that we share advice, purchase based on advice, generate traffic, etc. Pretty cool.

I'm already a Brooks shoe die hard and a Clif fan. They work for me. I rarely stray. So in fact, these posts and these generous acts didn't sway me to purchase more. (well, I am inclined to find some Clif recovery cabern-ade) But, I am really excited to see what they mean. And so I am returning the favor. And isn't this better than paying someone to blog about your product? It's been about helping someone or saying thank you for mentioning us, we're glad you like us. I actually like these companies more, because they are reaching out to the bloggers in this way. I'm willing to bet others feel the same way. Thanks for showing the bloggers some love. Y

All pics pretty much stolen from other bloggers sites without permission. Let me know if you have a problem with it. :D

I Have No Idea

I took the weekend off to eat, I mean recover from that 10 miler. :D Weekends are starting to be busy with soccer and soon Tball. Soon we will be like the rest of the world with numb buns from all the games.

We also have carried on the tradition of my husband's grandparents... Saturday night family meal. It takes some time but we have made it important and I really enjoy it, good food, good wine, good company. I also think it's good for the kids.

Sunday was a little more relaxing, I actually spent more time on the couch in the middle of the day than I have in a long time, just enjoying the Masters. It still involved multiple up and downs with laundry, feeding and showering and refereeing kids, but it was nice. We also went to our Broadway Series Sunday night: Putnam County Spelling Bee.... very enjoyable. Everyone's busy, right?

Today it was 50 degrees and beautiful.
1 - 12:05 - I'm wishing away the whole run as I do an old familiar route that seems to take for.ever. STOP.THAT.RIGHT.NOW. Why do I do that. I have no idea. (But I did stop the wishing away and just enjoy the day and the fact that I was running)

2 - 12:15 - Construction dude who obviously was not working very hard from the amount of clothes he had on.

3 - 12:20 - Big nasty hill but I tried to think about other things. It ended up fairly steady. How this happened, I have no idea.

4 - 12:06 - Overheard a cell phone conversation - "well they picked up that john in New York and he was court-ordered to pay $855" - I swear I actually heard that from someone walking on the sidewalk as I ran by! I really have some ideas, but no actual comments. hee hee

.57 - 10:54 - Nancy's version of sprinting to make that traffic light. I actually have a best pace achieved of 7:15. Seriously. I have no idea.

4.57 miles ~ 55:03 ~ 12:02 pace

I also took on Bev's pushup challenge last week and did 45 girlie pushups in 1 minute. I won, only because Bev decided she is not eligible (something like 60 real ones in a minute? holy crap) and apparently the hardbody was on vacation. Yeah me, even if by default. :D

Sweet

I did 5 miles with Amy on Wednesday and they felt great. We had a great time chatting and the miles just slipped away. We ran around Gray's Lake and it was packed with people.

I hadn't felt that good during a run for awhile.

5 miles ~ 1:00:39 ~ 12:02 pace

Today, we did 10 miles in the sleet and drizzle.

Snow is in the forecast so we picked out a window and went for it.

Nothing like a girlfriend to help get you out there when it would be so easy to stay home and eat left over pizza instead. :D

Also, nothing like a girlfriend to keep you going when it gets tough.

They hurt a little more than the fiver.

10 miles ~ 2:15:10 ~ 13:28 pace

It's been a while since I could put a 10 miler in the books.

Sweet.

Even sweeter? Amy gave me my cool spotted Spibelt from Runner's Lounge.

Apparently I'm an active lounger.

Double Sweet.

Thanks guys!!

Monday -
Jerk Stair Master ~ 5 min vo2 max test. ABOVE AVERAGE. You may remember that earlier this year the stair master at the gym actually earned the jerk distinction after telling me that my vo2 max was below average. Proof that persistence and name-calling sometimes pay off.
Bike ~ 13.1 miles
Strength/Weights ~ 25 minutes

Tuesday -
Run ~ 3.1 miles
I got to the gym with limited time (story of my life) and realized I had shoes but no insoles. WTH? I ran without them. Dedicated or moronic? You be the judge. My feet definitely didn't feel right and everything felt weird afterwards. I would not suggest this (likely this advice is really not necessary as most of you are probably smarter than this) nor will I do it again. I had to play lots of games to finish. It was ugly but I did it.

Still struggling with GI issues. It's likely a virus cuz the hub and kids have had a touch of it too, but this is getting ridiculous, and old, very old.

Looking forward to running later today with Amy. :D

In personal news, I took my (oldest) baby to kindergarten round-up. This and him learning to read are freaking me out a little bit. I am excited for him but I hate that he is almost too heavy for me to lift. He's growing up. He says he will always be my baby and will still sit on my lap even when he is way too big. We'll see how long that will last. I'm trying to be secure, insightful, nurturing, understanding and guiding, due to this. No pressure.

The little one told us the other day that he had "so sad eyebrows" in a picture. Hilarious.

Plans for Florida and Scotland trips are progressing nicely. I'm looking forward to both and they should be very different trips although each will include some golf. Also, I am going to take a class at Harvard through work in May. That should be pretty cool and hopefully cool places to run...

Lator Gators.

8 in Pictures

Friday

8 miles ~ 1 hour and 42 minutes ~ 12:51 pace

12:19

12:30

12:31

12:23

12:35

13:29

13:48

13:25

Obviously the hills at the end eat me up, but this is slightly better than last time I did this route, although similar: mid 12's until I hit the hills. They must be making me stronger. Part of me wants a different route, part of me wants to just keep improving on these nasty hills.

Even though it got hard, I didn't have to play any til the next light pole games. I just ran. There was ice on the deck in the morning, yet it was 60 degrees and I was in shorts. I ran for Doug and Wendy and Gotta Run. I knew they wanted to be out there, and I thought I owed it to them. Here is what we saw:

My legs came out of the shade.

Brooks kicks. DUH.

Early hill in mile 1

Vase Envy.

Somewhere around mile 2.2

Signs of Spring

Mile 3 - 4

Oh, Dude.

Around Mile 4

Made.His.Day.
All the boy's in the nursing home are going to hear about the young gal
that wanted his picture. He said, "Be careful out here."
Adorable.
Mile 4



Jr High kids running sprints.

They looked SO young.

Mile 4.5

Tracks

Mile 5.5

Gu Bridge

Mile 6

Muddy Bike Path

Mile 6.5

Home Sweet Home

March Stats

Nice improvements but they can not come at the expense of weight training. I can see where I need to improve my focus. I know this doesn't look like much to a lot of you, but this is where I am and it isn't on the couch. :D It's supposed to hit 57 in a few hours - oh joy - I'm hoping to run for two hours later today.

Sounds like there is a lot of interest for a 10k on the 10th of May - see previous post. (YES MAY, this is actually meant to be put on the calendar as an incentive and get you out the door doing some training for the next few weeks). It's too bad Nitmos can't figure out how far to run or what day. I should make it more clear. :D

As always, I'm pleased and humbled that you will get out and run with me. Hope we have some creative CAVE PEOPLE. I'm already thinking about resurrecting my outfit.

Announcing 10k on the 10th

It finally came to me what we need for our club. A virtual race of course. For those of you struggling with motivation and needing a carrot, get your club out, start beating on the bad attitude and the negative self-talk, and get this bad boy on your calendar.