Blah...

I don't feel like blogging today.

I got in part of my 45 minute Si6 workout this morning, but then the kiddo woke up and it was all over. :-) I managed to finish it tonight. I need to hit the books, but I'm having a hard time getting motivated. Sigh.

Austin Pic

Here are a couple of official pics from the Austin Marathon...

Most of the other "action" shots managed to catch me with my eyes closed!

I feel the need

The need for speed.

This morning - 25 minutes of Si6

Tonight -
Dreadmill - 21:26
Mile 1 - 12 minutes
Mile 2 - 9:26

Yes, you read that right...Mile 2 - 9:26

I don't know why, but I wanted to see how fast I could run a mile on the treadmill. I always get so lazy on the treadmill and rarely run less than an 11:00 minute pace. For some reason it just feels so much harder on the treadmill. So, I decided to see how long I could maintain a 10 minute pace on the treadmill. I figured maybe a 1/2 mile, possibly a bit more. But, a 1/4 mile passed. Then a 1/2 mile. I felt pretty good, so I sped up a little. Then a little more. By the end of the 2nd mile, I was sweating buckets and my heart was racing, but it felt good. 9:26. For me, on the treadmill or off, that's damn good. Next, I cooled down with slow jog for about a minute and then a walk for about 2-3 minutes.

Beautiful!

Today was a perfect day weather-wise in my opinion. Blue skies, crisp, cool temps...aaahhhhhh! BEAUTIFUL!

Too bad I had to spend it here at the library! Grrrrr..... It's days like today when I wonder what the hell I'm doing back in school. I miss my evenings, my weekends, my family time, my free time dammit! Today would be the perfect day to take the kiddo to the park...but NO, I had to lose my weekday motivation and now I'm paying the price.

Today is also Oscar Sunday. I love the Academy Awards! In fact, this will be the 1st time in 9 years that I have not hosted an Oscar party. Between having a Toddler and school, I just don't have time to watch the awards, much less host an event. Yep, in a few hours I would normally be preparing a HUGE pitcher of sangria and cooking yummy hors d'oeuvres and cute little desserts. Well, okay, in the past two years my usual feast has turned into Sangria, desserts and Domino's delivery. :-) Hey, it's harder to host with a kiddo! So...this year and next, my Oscar routine will consist of me watching the TV from my kitchen table. It's the perfect spot because I can see the TV, but then press the mute button and read my books during the commercials and less interesting awards. :-)

Tommorow, it's back to my routine - Si6 in the AM, running in the PM. Last week, I took it easy because of the crud. This week, I have no excuse.

Back in the saddle...

Well, maybe not saddle, but I was back on the treadmill! After fighting the crud for the past few days, I am feeling better. Not 100%, but definitely better. Last night, for the 3rd night in a row, I went to bed almost immediately after putting the kiddo to bed.

I hated to miss the Rodeo Run today, but I had class all day long. Both of my classes are kicking my butt right now. Marketing, because there's so much reading. Stat, because well, it's Stat and is confusing as hell. Until today, I thought my Prof was awesome. He works a lot of examples, which really helps me grasp all the concepts better. But today was brutal. He was showing us how to do our forcasting project and was just whipping through the Excel shortcuts and formulas....I was lost. I did feel a little better when I looked around the room and noticed that the faces around me looked just as puzzled as I felt.

So back to the Rodeo Run....It sounded like a good time was had by all. Huge congrats go out to SteveB for his 1st place costume and to June for her PR!!! After class, I spent some quality time with the kiddo who was all tired out from hanging out with her grandparents and cousins. She actually went to bed a little early, which allowed me to run on the treadmill. The hubby has to work all day tomorrow, so I knew I would not get in my LR tomorrow with Kay. I was having terrible withdrawals since I had not run since Wednesday.

It felt great to be running again! I started out really slow and gradually increased the speed. As always, I could not manage to run as fast or as easily as I run outdoors. But, I did manage to run the last 1/2 mile or so at a 10 min/mile pace. Here are the stats...

Running Stats
Conditions - Treadmill
Total run time - 46:23 minutes
Total distance - 4 miles
Pace - 11:32

Walked - 4:37 minutes

Have a great rest of the weekend!!!

The crud...

I think I've caught it! The hubby complained of a sore throat on Monday and now I have it. Grrrr....yesterday, my throat was sore and I felt all achey. By the end of the day, I was sneezing and had a runny nose. After getting the kiddo to bed, I went to bed too. No workout, no running, no homework. Just sleep. This morning, I feel about the same, but not any worse...hopefully, this stuff will be gone soon. I hate feeling yucky.

Another day

Nothing exciting to report.

This morning I managed to get in the 25 minute Si6 workout. Then, after meeting up with my group at school to work on our project, I picked up the kiddo and made it home around 8:45. Someone please tell me why I had to slow down to 20 mph and then to a dead stop over and over again on I-45 at 8:30 pm!?!? I just don't get it! Once the kiddo was in bed, I ran 2 miles on the treadmill. Now, it's time to hit the books for an hour. Thanks to my lack of motivation last week, I have some catching up to do.

Oh, and as I sit typing this, the hubby just called to let me know the in-laws were in town. They're staying with my sister-in-law tonight, but we're not sure about tomorrow and Friday. Guess I may not be getting in as much reading done tomorrow night and Friday night after all. Crap!

On a happier note, I received my new running skirts in the mail today! Yipee! I did try them out during my short treadmill run. I'll type more on this later...right now my marketing text is calling me.

Back to it

Time to get back into my Si6, study, work, study, run routine again. The 3-day weekend was nice, but it's over. Bummer!

Today is my Dad's birthday!!! Of course that meant a family gathering tonight, which left little time for running or homework. I have a feeling I will be making up for the lack of studying during the remainder of the week which will result in very little time for running. I'll try to squeeze in as much as possible though.

So today - 25 minutes of Si6 and that's it. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive as far as running goes. Then again, my group is meeting up on campus after work, so maybe not.

Just a couple of final things I remembered about Austin. Let me start by saying that Houston runners are very spoiled. We have great indoor accommodations before and after our marathon. Who cares about the weather when you have the GRB. Not to mention the huge breakfast waiting for us after the race. Second, we have awesome swag. Both the full and 1/2 marathoners receive a great medal, a participant t-shirt and a pretty nice technical finisher's shirt. (I know this wasn't always the case though...remember the joke of a medal from 2004?) In addition, the marathon finishers receive a glass stein/mug. In Austin, like many other marathons, you have to stand around in the cold before and after the race. Thermal blankets were only given to marathon finishers...the 1/2ers just had to be chilly. Finishers shirts? Only for the full marathon finishers! Post race food? Chicken noodle soup. Really! Hey, at least it was warm. Oh, there were cookies, bagels, pretzels and bananas too. But no eggs, bacon, biscuits, etc. And no tables and chairs to relax in. Yep, life is good here in Houston....the best part? No hills!!!

Flat no more! (Austin race report)

The Austin Expo was small, but organized. I managed to get my packet, check my chip and see all the booths in under an hour. I managed to show some restraint and didn't buy a thing. I did see Coach Gay from Houston Fit there...it was great to see a familiar face!

Sunday, I drove into Austin from the in-laws house in San Marcos. While there is plenty of parking in Austin, many of the garages seemed to be blocked off for the race. First, I parked in a parking lot marked "For Whitley Employees Only". Since I was driving my father-in-law's car, I was overly paranoid and found a parking garage instead. I touched base with running bud, Kay, before heading out in the cold. We knew several folks who were meeting up with the Austin Fit group at City Hall, so that's where we both headed. Funny, when I arrived, someone told me Kay had just left to find me. The crowds were building and I didn't run into her until around mile 7 or 8. I really needed to make a quick pit stop, but the lines were crazy so I opted to wait. By the way, the port-a-potties were a lovely pastel blue and pink color. Go figure, it's Austin!

I headed to the start with fellow fitters Gaye, Fred, Jo Anne, John and several others. We stayed in a team huddle to try to keep warm in the 32 degree morning cold. That's the gang below. Before we knew it, there were fireworks overhead and the crowd was starting to move forward.


I was surprised to already find a hill during the 1st mile. Little did I know, this was an indication of what was ahead of us! (You'll see that from my splits - they're all over the place!) Mile 1 - 11:40 - slow, but the crowds were pretty think here and there was a hill. During mile 2, I had to make the postponed pit-stop. The lines were only 3-4 people deep....as much as I hated to stop, I had to do it! As I was waiting in line, I saw some of the folks I started with run past. At this point, I stopped my watch and forgot to start it again until I reached the next mile marker and realized that my watch wasn't going. Doh! I also debated about taking off my long-sleeved shirt, but cooled down while standing there and decided to leave it on.

Mile 3 - 10:30
Mile 4 - 10:45

I definitely sped up a bit to make up for lost time while at the port-a-potties. Somewhere in here I managed to catch up with Fred and the crew. I managed to stay with them for a few miles. A few of these miles were a blur. I do remember seeing the 10K marker and wishing for a second that I was running a 10K. I also remember removing the long sleeves and wishing I had not worn tights. The minute we stepped into a shady area, I reconsidered...maybe the tights were a good idea after all!

Mile 5 - 11:05
Mile 6 - 10:43
Mile 7 - 10:56

Somewhere around here I ran into Kay and the rest of the crew I had originally planned to run with - Courtney, Giji, and Elizabeth. They were looking strong and as always, Kay was full of energy and hilarious comments. When we went up a hill, we'd hear "Well, I think that was worth another pancake!" from her. I will say that the crowds were pretty sparse through most of the way so far. However, there were some awesome bands along the way. I was happy to see that a few of these even had a female lead...and they rocked!

Around mile 8 or 9 Kay was ready to pump up the speed a bit. We thought we would go for 10:30 miles for a few miles. It didn't work out quite that way. There were a couple of pretty brutal hills in the next couple of miles.

Mile 8 - 11:51!
Mile 9 - 11:?? (I did something goofy with my watch)

We saw these ladies from Tough Cookie with the crazy pink hair right before we turned the corner and headed up a crazy-steep hill:


Mile 10 - 11:32
Mile 11 - 11:05

Here's a "hill" around mile 11 (I think)...I promise, it looked much worse in person. :-)


Miles 10 & 11 (I think) were the most scenic! We made our way through a gorgeous neighborhood on a hill. Think River Oaks with a beautiful hilltop view. At this point, my posse had spread out and I was running alone. But, I made conversation with some of the folks around me about the homes and the view which made the time pass quickly.

Mile 12 was awesome. We headed back downtown and as we did, the crowds grew thicker and louder. Around 12 1/2, we rounded the Capitol! This was my favorite part last year. However, last year, we still had the out and back stretch by the lake. This year, I knew this was the home stretch. I took a quick break for a photo-op (yes, I'm a dork) and then decided to kick it up a little.

Mile 12 - 10:43


Mile 13 + .1 - 11:11

Side note: Yes, my Mom would yell at me for slouching if she saw that pic! And no, That's not a thumbs up...I was in the land of t-sips, so I HAD to do the GIG'EM sign! Whoop!

In Houston, I was feeling flat toward the end. I didn't have enough in me to pick up the pace at the end. In fact, I even took a walk break in downtown Houston. In Austin, I felt great! Maybe it was the cheering crowds in downtown. I actually heard them this time...in Houston, I think I tuned them out. Or, maybe it was the perfect weather...it was perfect in my opinion! Or, maybe it was the kids I high-fived right at the end before the street was completely closed off. I don't know, but it felt great!

The new course was much tougher than the downhill course of previous years. However, it was much more scenic - which I loved! Even though the crowds were not huge, there was lots to look at which can help make the miles go faster. Of course, I can only speak for the 1/2 marathon. We split off at mile 10, so I'm not sure what the folks running the full experienced in their next 16.2 miles. I imagine they experienced lots of hills, which does make me happy that I was just running the 1/2. With this course, I don't think that I will ever do the full in Austin again. (Good thing I did it last year!)

Another plus - the fuel stations seemed to be everywhere! This is something I also remember from last year...I would have been fine without any fuel belt (I wore mine with 2 bottles). However, a few of the stations only had Power Aid and no water which wasn't good for taking Gu. Overall, I had a great time and would run the 1/2 in Austin again!

Also, when we finished, we were allowed to wait near the finish for our friends. This gave us the opportunity to see the women's 1st place marathon finisher, Moges Zebenaye from Ethiopia, and 2nd place finisher (and triathlete goddess), Desiree Ficker, cross the finish line. I've never had the opportunity to witness this and enjoyed every second. At one point, Zebenaye had a huge smile on her face. It was priceless. And after reading so much about Ficker and her performance at Hawaii Ironman, it was cool to see her cross the finish line.

Some pics after the race. The Driskill hotel...it's beautiful and reminds me of why I love downtown Austin:


The kiddo and I back at the Grandparents. Yes, they were all still in their pajama's when I got back:

The kiddo with Grandma and Grandpa before heading to the outlets for a fun day of shopping:

Hills suck!

Last year, Austin was all about the ice. This year, it was all about the hills. Somehow, I did manage to beat my Houston 1/2 time by about 30 seconds - hills and all! (2:26:52) Due to a watch mishap, I didn't realize this until I checked my time a few minutes ago! :-) I am psyched about that!

That's all I have time for right now. We just made it home from the in-laws and I have a 2:00 pm appointment. I'll give a full report later tonight!

Ho hum...

Nothing exciting to report. I am so excited that I am getting my hair cut and highlighted this afternoon! Yay, no more roots! And, the weather is looking great for Austin! Low around 32 at the start, warming up to the low 40's by the time I'm done running. I'll probably start with shorts, a short sleeve dri-fit shirt with a long sleeve on top and the all-important gloves. By the afternoon, it's supposed to warm-up to the mid-60s which makes for an awesome afternoon of shopping at the San Marcos outlets!

Last night, I did the 10-minute Si6 abs workout. Oh my God, talk about a painful 10 minutes! I wanted to steer clear of the squats and lunges until Sunday, since my knee is still hurting. I also ran for a quick 20 minutes on the treadmill. After my 1st mile, I was really feeling good. Even the knee felt pretty good. I really wanted to do 40, but I REALLY needed to do some cleaning and homework! I have to admit that our house has been a mess since school started and I just couldn't take it anymore! Between family, work, school and running, cleaning house has been booted pretty low on the list of priorities these days. I am seriously considering finding someone who can come in and clean thoroughly every couple of weeks!

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Good luck to everyone running Austin, I hope to see some of my fellow bloggers, Striders and Houston Fitters out there!!!

Running LOST

Last night, after the hubby headed to work and the kiddo was asleep, I hopped on the treadmill. Any excuse to watch LOST! I ran at a comfortable pace for 3 miles, then (just so I could catch the end of the show) walked for another 5 minutes. For some reason, that weird pain in my knee is lingering and seems to be worse than last week. It's not a horrible pain, but I can tell the knee is not a happy camper. It seems to be under the kneecap, which is a new to me. I've had the ITB issues and kneecap pain, but this is different. I took an anti-inflammatory this morning, so hopefully that will help.

I woke up early enough this morning to get in my Si6 workout and a little marketing reading. Yesterday was the 1st day I've missed in my Si6 workout in the 3 weeks I've been doing the program and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss again. However, the dog and kiddo had other plans. For some reason the dog was being whiney, which woke up the kiddo. Then, the kiddo wanted me to lay with her and well, she never went back to sleep. Maybe I'll better luck tonight....but, I still have a ton of reading for school, so we'll see!

Oh, I almost forgot...yesterday, I received an e-mail from the folks at Skirt Sports. They were having a sale!!! A good sale - 50% any skirt with their signature "Smooch" pink! So, I bought these:

I also bought a pink top that will match either skirt. I am so excited and can't wait to wear them! I wanted one in every color, but I figured I better make sure I like the way these fit and move before stocking up.

Workout Stats

Conditions - Treadmill

Total run time - 35 minutes, followed by 5 minutes walking

Total distance - 3 miles running, .35 walking

Pace - 11:40 running, 14:17 walking

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Zzzzzzzzz

Ever just feel like you need some sleep? That's how I felt all day yesterday. It was a busy day at work and I felt like I was dragging all day.

After work, I headed to my 1st official Strider meeting! That certainly woke me up! I got to see fellow bloggers Vic and Bill again, and I finally met Pony! I saw Steve B too, but didn't want to yell across the room at him. I met a lot of other great folks and had an awesome time. I am so excited to be a part of such an phenomenal group. As I was driving home, I wondered - if we took the number of miles each person in the room has run in their lifetime and added them up, how many miles would that be? I can't even fathom the number. Anyway, next time I will have to plan a little better. I had to leave the meeting early to pick up the kiddo at my parent's house, so I missed most of the HRM training...and the food! :-)

Last night, I had planned to do 3 miles on the dreadmill. But, after visiting with the parents for a bit, checking out my Dad's new truck (very nice!), then stopping at Wendy's for a grilled chicken sandwich, it was after 9 pm when I finally made it home. I put the kiddo to bed and made lunches. Then, I remembered that I needed to get the kiddo's valentines together! After signing and assembling them, it was almost 11pm! So, the dreadmill was out for the night. And, by then I was really dragging, so I decided that getting up early for a workout was not in the cards either. I slept in a little this morning and feel much more energetic today. Maybe, I can squeeze in some miles tonight after the hubby is at work and the kiddo is asleep.

Lookin' Good!

Today is the 1st time I've even thought about looking at the weather forecast for Sunday's 1/2 marathon. I guess it's good that I've been super busy. Normally, I'd be obsessing about it by now. Per weather.com, it's supposed to be partly cloudy and around 43 in the morning with a high of 64. After last year's starting temp in the high 20's with drizzle, I am more than happy with the prediction!!! Of course, as always, I will take this with a grain of salt. A lot can happen between now and then, so I won't get too excited yet.

It's Tuesday! I have an eye doctor appointment tomorrow, a networking luncheon on Thursday and a 1/2 day off on Friday...so, this week is going to go by really fast! I love that!

Monday morning I did the 45-minute, killer Si6 workout again. More squats, lunges, floorwork, resistance bands...in other words, more hellish torture from the evil one. It is starting to get easier though. Before I know it, I will be moving up to the next level called "Burn it Up". That title alone scares me a bit.

This morning I woke up extra early to do the 25 minute Si6 workout. I needed something quick, because I wanted to get to work extra early to prepare for a training class. I was all ready to teach when the class ended up getting cancelled. Grrrr... Oh well, at least I'm prepared to teach it next time. Tonight, I am heading to the campus to check my Stat homework, then it's on to the Strider meeting. I wish I had my Garmin with me, but that can be the subject of an entirely different post...

That's all for now. After my long rant and pity post on Friday about my diet and weight, I have decided to start a seperate blog strictly for that purpose. Feel free to check it out if you want, but I think you'll find it boring. It's more of way to hold myself accountable than anything. Now, I won't have to bore you with my guilty feelings from eating candy or breakfast tacos!!! :-)

Yuck!

Another day of dreary rainy weather! It's the kind of day that makes me want to crawl under my desk and take a nap. However, I've been swamped at work, so that's not happening. Whatever. It makes the day go faster.

The weekend was a bit of a blur. Friday I fit in the 45 minute Si6 workout after the kiddo was in bed and then finished up the reading for my Marketing class.

Saturday, I was in class all day. I have to admit I was a bit envious of those out there running Surfide or the P2P 5-miler! After class, I did the grocery shopping before heading home. Did you know that the Kroger on W. Gray has live music and wine samples on Saturday evenings? :-) At home, I managed to squeeze in the 25 minute Si6 workout, before watching Talledega Nights with the hubby. I like Will Farrell movies. In fact, Old School is one of my favorites, but for some reason I fell asleep about 1/2 way through.

Sunday, I met Kay at the park at 7 and managed to get in 2 loops around the park. As always, Kay kept my butt going at a pretty speedy pace. I was huffing and puffing, Kay wasn't. Overall, it felt great to push it a bit. I was still able to hold a conversation, but it wasn't exactly easy. Later, the kiddo and I went to play group and then met up with some friends from my high school days and their kiddos for lunch. After hanging out at home for a few hours, I had a "Working Moms Meet-Up" at the Daily Grind. It was my 1st time there and I liked it. My coffee was great and it was kind of quiet. It would be a great place to study...much better than trying to think over all the loud music at Starbucks. The hubby was nice enough to put the kiddo to bed and I ended my day by watching the Grammy's for the 1st time in years. I loved all the performances, especially JT's! However, I could have done without the Dixie Chicks. I don't know, I used to love'em, but now they (okay, Natalie) just gets on my nerves. Sorry. Through most of the show, the hubby was asking, "Who's that?" Actually, at times I didn't know either. Sounds like a sure sign that we're both getting old.

Oh, and 1 week 'till Austin! I am ready to get there and get this one done. But, it's not the end of training for me. I'm planning to run Lucky Trails next month. Hell, I have to have something to keep me motivated to run. Sad, but true.

Friday
Slim in 6 workout - 45 minutes

Saturday
Slim in 6 workout - 25 minutes

Sunday
Conditions - MP, 41 degrees
Total distance - 5.8 miles
Total run time - 1:02
Pace - 10:41!!!

TGIF!

Friday. Finally. I'm ready for it to be here.

Last night, I went to WW. I gained .25 lbs.

It's time to re-focus folks.

I have been so inconsistent with my diet. Here's the pattern: I do great for a week or two and lose a couple of pounds. Then, I throw it all out the window for a few weeks and screw up everything I just worked to do. Next thing I know, 2 years has passed along with 2 years of paying for WW, and I am at the same weight as when I started. I would seriously hate to see how much weight I would gain if I didn't run and workout! Most people say, "OMG, all that running you do! You should be able to eat what you want!" Yeah, you'd think so. But, I seem to remember a little something from Economics 101 called the "Law of Diminishing Returns". Funny how you do end up using this stuff in real life after all, isn't it?

So I need to make a decision.

Either get back to eating right (not dieting), or just saying "screw it" and eat whatever the hell I want. Seriously. No grey area. No in-between. One or the other, because I am tired of this cycle of "Woohoo, I lost 3 lbs", followed by the horrible guilt of eating things I know will sabotage my diet. I seem to constantly go back and forth between the two. It's not that I can't eat the bad foods at all. I can. I just have to get back to eating them in moderation and balancing them with the healthy stuff in between. I guess it just bugs me, because when I was on WW before, it seemed so easy. I ate what I was supposed to and the weight came off. Sure I had a chocolate bar or a Coke mixed in there every so often, but I wouldn't go too crazy with it. I would balance it out with more veggies at dinner or earn more activity points. So why does this seem so hard now? I know how I feel when I gain weight and I know how unhappy I am when I move up a size....so, I know what decision I need to make. Eat right. I just need someone to tell that to the part of the brain that allows me to reason with myself. The part that says "It's okay, a couple of chocolate chip cookies won't hurt" followed by, "While you're at it, wash it down with a REAL Coke". :-)

So anyway, I did workout last night. 25 minutes of Si6, followed by 25 minutes on the treadmill, followed by 40 minutes of Marketing reading. (Damn those Marketing chapters are long!)

Holy Crap!

Anna Nicole Smith has died. I'm not a fan. In fact, I've always thought she was a bit, um, out there. Maybe "train wreck" is more fitting. But, I felt bad for her when her son died last year and it seems that she was already beginning to have a rough year. The person I feel the most sadness for is her 5 month old daughter.

WTH?

This has been a weird morning. First, the kiddo came to sleep with me in the middle of the night. (Bad habit, I know!) Everytime I tried to get out of bed this morning, she woke up and gave me that "Mommy!" cry and I would have to lay back down. No workout, no studying this morning! Next, I try to fix my masthead, which has not been working since I was forced to switch to the new blogger last week. It didn't work...damn new blogger. Then, I am standing at Starbucks when I feel a wave of nausea come over me. I hurried to the ladies room and I didn't get sick, but thought that was odd. It might be the new mulit-vitamin I started taking today. Who knows? I feel better now, but the stomach feels a bit off. Finally, I get to work and realize the key to my office is IN my office. I had to ask our maintenance man to let me in. All in all, these aren't terrible things, but the combination of them all on the same day make me wonder how the rest of the day will be. :-) Better, I hope.

As for my workouts, let me catch you up.

Tuesday
I decided to give the next level of the Si6 series a try on Tuesday night. This particular workout is 46 minutes. Oh my God! This workout is more of the same exercises as the first one...a lot more. Plus, the evil woman added an arm workout with a modern-day torture device and a grueling session of floor work. I swear after the arm workout my arms felt all rubbery. It reminded me of my gymnastics days when I had a good workout on the uneven bars (which I sucked at by the way!). I actually had to take a rest toward the end of the floor work, because my glutes and hammies were screaming for me to stop. Oh wait, that was me screaming. See, I had to stop...I didn't want to wake the kiddo. I just knew I would be sore on Wednesday, but was suprised to find that it wasn't as bad as I expected. And the knee felt just fine both during and after the workout...well, except for the creaking sounds both of my knees made every time I did a squat or a lunge. I've noticed that before. Is that normal?

Wednesday
Since I was planning to run, I only did the 25 minute Si6 workout. The muscles were a little achey from the previous day's workout, but not too bad. Next, I ran 3 miles at an easy pace on the treadmill. I felt a bit of protest from my right knee and left shin, but nothing bad enough to make me stop. Overall, it was a good run. Oh, and it gave me an excuse to at least watch the first half of LOST. I love that show! I'm so glad it's back on....I've missed the Thursday morning LOST meetings at work where we analyze all the hidden links between the characters and clues. Yes, dear readers, we need a life! :-)

Life live to the fullest?

Wow, I have been asked to write a letter to my nephew. He has his church confirmation retreat this weekend and will read the letter there. This is my hubby's, sister's oldest child. I've known him, well, since the day he was born. Now, he's 15, in high school and about to be confirmed.

At first, I had no clue what to say. I mean, I am proud of him - he's a great kid, stays out of trouble, makes good grades and is very athletic. Quite a role model for his little brother. Finally, I decided. First, I told him how proud I am of him and how fortunate I feel to be a part of his life. Next, I told him that life can be tough, but by setting goals and working hard, he can accomplish anything. Finally, I told him to be sure to live life to its fullest. That made me think....hmmm...I'm giving this advice, but am I living by it?

Sometimes we get all tangled up in life. Rushing here and there, never stopping to enjoy the little things. We wake up in time to get ourselves and the kids ready for the day and rush to work. There, we work hard all day then rush home to be with the kids, only to find ourselves getting consumed with stupid but necessary tasks like making dinner, cleaning house, doing laundry, etc. We hurry through helping kids with homework, getting them ready for bed with just enough time to workout or get ready for the next day. The next thing we know, our alarm clocks are going off and, ready or not, we have to do it all again. And again. And again. I'm not really trying to complain...well, not too much anyway. I guess I'm just realizing that I have a tendency to get all stressed out about the minor things. Writing this letter made me realize that I have to REMIND myself of exactly what I was telling my nephew! I wish I were the type who could live life with reckless abandon...even just a little. I try to pretend that I do, but in all honesty, I don't. So, that is my goal for this new year...live life and enjoy it. Don't sweat the small stuff and all that crap. :O) I need to practice what I preach.

Then, I remembered this. You might remember it in the form of a song a few years back. Words to live by!

Where in the world....

is TX Runner Girl???

This is the pic from our luncheon with the Gov last week. Do you see me? Hint, I'm wearing a dark suit. :-)

Afternoon fun!

Yesterday, I left work early for an appointment. Lucky for me, that appointment was over by 3:45 and I was able to head to the park! It was a gorgeous day - blue skies, sunny and around 65 degrees. My intent was to do a recovery run at an easy pace, but the weather got to me and I started out way too fast. Before I even made it to Beck's Prime, I could tell that I was getting a bit too fast and needed to slow it down a little. Apparently, I didn't slow it down too much, because here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 10:25
Mile 2 - 10:29
Mile 3 - 10:56 (yep, all the way to the 3 mile marker!)

Total time - 31:10

That's honestly the fastest I've run 3 miles in well, a long time. So even though I thought I was going to take it easy and probably should have, I'm pleased to see that I could get a better pace and still feel like I could go faster if I wanted.

Next, I headed to the library (much earlier than if I had been at work until 5pm!). I managed to get in 1 1/2 hours of stat and marketing before heading home. All in all, it was an awesome day!

I wanted to get in a Si6 workout in this morning (that would be Day 2 of Week 2), but my right knee has been bothering me and I didn't think squats and lunges would be a good idea. I first noticed this annoying little pain last week on the treadmill. I kind of tweaked my knee, but the pain went away quickly. I've felt it a bit off and on since then, but nothing major. Last night, it started to feel achey and when I woke up this morning it was pretty stiff. Hmmm...maybe that faster run yesterday wasn't such a good idea afterall. :-) I don't know what to make of the pain, but I will try not to push the knee too terribly hard before the 1/2 in Austin next week.

Weekend

This weekend was fun, but busy as usual. Friday, I planned to watch a movie and have a glass of wine after the kiddo went to bed. But, the kiddo had other plans...she didn't want to go to sleep! So, I layed down with her and ended up falling asleep for the night around 9:30. The good news is that I slept until 7 am on Saturday! (Sad when that is considered sleeping in.) The kiddo is actually starting to sleep until 8am, so maybe one day I will be able to adjust and sleep until 8 am too.

Saturday was a library day. Nothing interesting to report.

Sunday, I met fellow blogger & Strider buddy, June, at Memorial Park at the crack of dawn. Houston Fit red group buds, Kay and Pricilla, also joined us. It was chilly, but overall not too bad as we headed toward downtown via Allen Parkway and back via Memorial for a 10-miler. It was great to have a group of girls running together again. We did a lot of chatting along the way...everything from work and school to future races to triathlons to well...girl stuff. It was fun! Even with the gabbing, we managed to maintain a nice, faster-than-normal-for-me pace. We're all planning to run 1/2 marathons in the near future and looking forward to continuing the running until the marathon training season starts up again in a few, short months. And one of the best parts - there was sunshine! Yes, the sun is out again. Hallelujah! I was beginning to forget what it looked like.

Later, the kiddo and I went to our play group. Much later, we all headed to a friend's house for the Super Bowl festivities. I can honestly say I missed most of the game. Between going up and down the stairs with the kiddo and gabbing with the girls there, I think I looked at the TV screen for a total of 5 minutes. See as how I am not much of a football fan, that's my kind of Super Bowl party!

Running Stats
Conditions - Chilly (40)
Total run time - 1:56
Distance - ~10 miles
Pace - 11:36

Thank you for registering for AT&T's Austin 1/2 Marathon!

I received my confirmation! My bib # is H1125. I'm looking forward to heading to Austin and running the brand-spanking-new course.

Such a tease

It was too freaking good to be true! I was sitting at my desk yesterday afternoon, turned around to look out the window and I see something that I almost didn't recognize - sunshine! And blue skies too! I guess I should have stared a little longer and really savored that moment, because 30 minutes later I looked again and it was gone. The blue skies were once again replaced with those all too familiar grey skies. Damn tease. That's all it was. Grrrrr...

Not much to report today. I managed to squeeze in 3 on the dreadmill last night. Earlier, before picking up the kiddo, I went to WW. I lost a whopping .25 lbs! But hey, considering what I ate at the luncheon in Austin on Wednesday and my occasional snacking on Valentine's Day candy at the office, I'll take any loss I can get. My goal for February is to lose 4 lbs. I think that's a very realistic goal.

This morning, I completed Day 5 of SI6! So far, so good.

In other news, the Wallow is out for me this weekend. The hubby wants to go fishing on Saturday and the only time my Mom is able to watch the kiddo is in the morning. Since I desperately need to finish my Statistics homework, I figure it might be best for me to utilize her babysitting time to head to the library and just do my long run on Sunday. I also know there will be many Saturdays ahead when the hubby will really want to go fishing, but won't be able to because I am in class all day!

Have a great weekend and good luck to everyone running the Wallow tomorrow.

Enough Already!!!

Like everyone else here in Houston, I am sick and tired of this crappy, drizzly, cold weather! Well, everyone except Vic, who seems to actually enjoy this. All I can say is that it makes for some miserable runs and for some horrific commuting. Grrrrr........

The trip to Austin was actually fun. My company ranked #32 out of the "60 Best Places to Work in Texas". My boss and I got to take a pic with the Gov. Although, I am not a huge R.P. fan, I will say that he was very nice...of course, it does help that he is an Aggie. WHOOP! We made it back to the office around 4:20 and I was instructed to go home. The weather was crappy, so running at the park was out. Instead, I headed to the library. The normally 1/2 hour trip ended up being 1 hour 10 minutes. By the time I got there, went to the restroom and sat myself down at a table I heard "the library will be closing in 20 minutes". Damn. So, in 20 minutes, I made my way over to Starbucks where I attempted to study with the loud classical music playing.

So I am rambling. Sorry! Basically my point is - I didn't get to run. I did however get to read a chapter of marketing. I WILL squeeze in at least 3 miles tonight. After the 1/2, I've decided that my mileage needs to be 15-20 miles per week and I will need 3 more miles to make the 15. I did squeeze in the "Slim in 6" workout again this morning. Woohoo, day #4 is done.