Saturday AM Run

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - I actually got to run on a Saturday. In the morning!

I'm working a new schedule at work where I have Friday's off, so my goal is to get my long runs out of the way on Friday mornings after taking the kids to school. However, for the 2nd Friday in the row, I've had a sick baby and had to change my plans. This Saturday, the Hubby was actually off from work, so I got to do my 1st Saturday morning run in MONTHS! Can I just say that the cooler temps were AWESOME! I swear it was right around 80 freaking fantastic degrees, which beats my Friday night long runs at 90 degrees any day!

I toyed with the idea of heading over to The Woodlands for a change of scenery, but opted to stick to my neighborhood route. It all worked out, because I timed everything just right and got to see the most amazing sunrise. I did vary the route a little by running in the back sections our the 'hood where new homes are being built. I don't usually venture back there at dusk - it's too creepy! Apparently, I'm not the only one....when I was about to finish my 4th mile, there was a lady running past in the opposite direction toward the back section of the hood. When she noticed a white van head that way as well, she quickly turned around. She told me that she didn't like running back there when those types of vans were there - she envisioned them as scary, kidnapper-mobiles. I had to laugh, because I've thought the same thing in the past. We ran together for the next mile and I have to admit, she was faster than me. But, it made me run a little harder and my average speed went from something like 11:35 to 11:20. And, it was good to have someone to talk to...running solo is okay, but it does get old! She's training for the Houston 1/2 in November and the full in January. We have kids close in age and we agreed that we needed to check out the neighborhood running group. I eventually had to make my way back to my house to re-fill my water bottle, so that ended our conversation but I did manage to keep that same pace for my last two miles. And, I caught up with the lady I had run with as she was cooling down! My pace was approaching the under 11-minute mark when I stopped to help a kid grab his runaway dog, so I ended at an 11:05 pace. For me, that's pretty good!

All in all, my 1st 7-miler in months felt terrific. I'm sure that had a lot to do with the cooler temps and the conversation. I felt great afterwards too! The only complaint is that my left foot has been hurting, right under my ankle. It started right before the last triathlon, but sort of subsided for the past week...apparently it has decided to return! Grrrr, I hope it goes away again!

I had the rest of the day (well weekend actually) to hang out with the hubby and kiddos. Good times!

Workout Stats
7-miles, 1:18:41, 11:05 pace (yay me!)

Workout recap

Just so I have a record....

Friday, 8/28 - sick munchkin = no long run. Went into work to make up some missed hours earlier in the week. Such a crazy week!!!

Thursday, 8/27 - Making up time from previous day, so no lunchtime spin class. Awesome swim - 1850 yds - that's over a mile! It took me a hour to do it and I did have some rest breaks in there, but the longest swim to date. And, about 95% of it was freestyle - yay me! (100 warm-up, 3x500, 50 in drills/form work, 3x500, 3x700, 50 misc.)

Wednesday, 8/26 - No run. Long day - funeral and then work.

Tuesday, 8/25 - Dr's appt at lunch, so no lunchtime swim; 30 minute swim, 900 yds, stopped due to lightening. Dang lightening!

Monday, 8/24 - Quickie 20-something minute dreadmill run - 2 miles, 10:34 pace

Sunday, 8/23 - Family time - no workout

Saturday, 8/22 - Evening run - 6 miles, 11:25 pace (I think) - Made DH take the kiddos to the pool with me to distract him a bit.

Friday, 8/21 - Run rained out - lightening again! - Had the day off and was gonna get a run in after taking the kiddos to school. But, had to take the baby to the doc again. Darn ear infections!

Thursday, 8/20 - Lunchtime spin class (Richard introduced fartleks to the class...and I thought that was just in running) and swim cancelled due to lightening (Grrrr....)

Wednesday, 8/19 - 20 min easy treadmill run

Tuesday, 8/18 - Unplanned rest day - no workout

Monday, 8/17 - post tri rest day

Hiatus

Yes, I have taken it easy for the last week. Well, that's about to stop - time to get back in the game! I will catch up the blog a little later this week, including my TriGirl race report.

In the meantime, please keep the family of Officer Jesse Hamilton in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the entire Pasadena Police Department. Officer Hamilton was someone my hubby not only called his co-worker, but also his friend. I know he will be missed.

RIP Officer Jessie Hamilton

1980 - 2009

TriGirl Sprint

It was a fun race....I met some goals, missed others...it's all good!

300 yd swim - 6:36
T1 - 1:50
Bike - 35:59 - 18.3 pace
T2 - 45.7
Run - 31:16 - 10:25 pace
Total Time - 1:16:28

Race report coming soon!

The countdown is on!

Holy crap, my next tri is just a few days away!

I haven't practiced transitions - and I still need some work on these!
I am still pushing off the pool wall - there are no walls in the open water!
I never bought a new tri top - 'cause I am sick of wearing the same one over and over!

Aaaauuuggghhh!

Okay, I'm calm now.

Actually, I am feeling pretty good about the upcoming tri. I've gotten in a couple of OWS practices (although I'd still like more), my running is getting stronger and my biking is not so bad either. Unless the conditions are just crazy awful, I think I will do just fine!

My goal for the swim is to just finish. Well, okay...my goal is to actually freestyle a majority of the swim and maybe finish in the same time I finished Memorial Hermann. I don't know if that's realistic since Memorial Hermann was a pool swim. But it was a sucky, slow pool swim even for me! And, let's face it, my freestyle is coming along but my sidestroke is still faster. (Weird, I know!) I've upped my swim schedule from 2 days each week to 3, which I really think has helped.

My goal for the bike...to be faster than Memorial Hermann (18.7 mph). TriGirl has a nice flat course, so I am hoping that I can maintain a decent pace. My only concern is that there are several turns...Memorial Hermann had very few turns. However, when I did TriGirl in May, I was still pretty slow on the turns on my bike. I've been practicing turns, so that I don't have to slow down to 12 mph every time. :-) And, I've continued to hit the lunchtime spin class when the work schedule allows, so that has helped with my endurance.

My goal for the run is to maintain a 10:15 pace, which is fast for me. I *think* I can do this. At TriGirl in May, I maintained a 9:50 pace. However, that run was only 2 miles. I think I am pretty consistent an maintaining that pace over 2 miles. Memorial Hermann had a 3 mile run and I maintained a 10:37 pace. Something about that additional mile after swimming and biking makes me doubt my ability to run faster than a 10 minute pace. (God, can you imagine me in a 1/2 IM or an Oly? All kinds of freaking out would be going on!). But as a side note, I seriously think that if I had worn my Garmin at Memorial Hermann and known my pace, I would have pushed myself to go a faster.

So there you have it...now bring it!

A Wiggly Day

Warning: this isn't a running related post...just thought I'd get that out there before you read it. :-) If you don't have kids, you may not wanna read this. Trust me on this.

Ahhh rest day - gotta love it! The hubby had to work, so I took the kiddos to church and then went searching for a sleeping bag for the kiddo to use at tomorrow's indoor camp out at school. Academy had 3 girly sleeping bags - a plain pink one with teddy bears on it, Dora the Explorer and Hanna Montana. On the academy website, they also had a Disney Princess sleeping bag, but that one was not in the store. Can you guess which one she picked??? Yep, Hanna Montana! I guess my girl is getting to the age where she's too old for Dora...yet, in my opinion, is still a little young to get the whole Hanna Montana thing. At least Hanna Montana might last her a few years. You know, before she thinks HM is lame and moves on to something else. Like punk rock.

Once the hubby made it home from work, we hopped in the car and headed downtown for The Wiggles concert. Yeah, you read that right - THE WIGGLES. We took the kiddo to see them 2 years ago. She was at a good age to see them, but still too young to realize that those were REALLY The Wiggles. This year, she's on the cusp of considering herself too old for The Wiggles, so we thought why not take her one more time? Kids grow up way too fast and next summer, she'll probably be begging us to take her to see Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Coldplay or something. We had great seats, but there would be no mosh pit here...lol, ever try to crowd surf on toddlers? Not easy.

Here's the kiddo with her Wiggly souvenier...

yes, she has a talent for picking out the most expensive one at every event we've ever been to.

This show was no exception.



Here she is with her sign. The Wiggles make a point of reading each and every sign in the audience!

Can you tell we've been to see The Wiggles before? We were prepared, lol!



The baby stayed with my parents, but in retrospect I think he would have loved all the lights, music and dancing. I have to admit, when the show started I realized that I was actually excited. The first Wiggle walked out - the purple one, also known as Jeff and the kiddo looked at me with an "OMG THAT'S A WIGGLE! A REAL WIGGLE" look on her face and I looked at her (probably with the same expression) and said "IT'S JEFF!" They came out together in the "Big Red Car" and the crowd went crazy. I'm not just talkin' the kids here people...the grown-ups went apeshit too.

The madness begins...The Wiggles in their "Big Red Car"


More singing, dancing and good times!


At one point, two of The Wiggles - Sam, the yellow Wiggle and Murray, the red Wiggle - came out into the audience. Parents were scurrying around getting their cameras ready (including us). Fortunately, we were sitting on a wide row and both of the guys walked right past us and the kiddo got to give each one a high-five. She was ecstatic! In the row in front of us, one kid was so excited that he kept jumping up and down when Sam stopped to tell him hello. Sam put his hand up in the universal "gimme a high five" sign, but the kid kept jumping up and down. Finally, the kid realized what Sam was doing and he stopped just long enough to give him the high five before continuing to jump up and down. Hilarious!

My camera has that annoying delay...Here's the kiddo with Sam, the yellow Wiggle.

He was bending down more, but my camera missed the moment.


Damn camera!!! I clicked right when the kiddo was giving Murray a high five (you guessed it, he's the red Wiggle),

but with the camera delay I missed the moment.

Grrrr...but, you can tell from the look on the kiddo's face that she is super happy!


I have to admit, I am envious of The Wiggles...not because they get to live out their dream of being musicians and perform on stage night after night with their entourage of dancers, making kids all over the world happy. No, that wouldn't be why. It's because these dudes (four of them) are freaking GENIUSES! They were all musicians, some were trying to start a college rock band. The children's music they created was originally just a project for their college early childhood education program. When they came to the realization that they were getting nowhere with the rock band, they went with the whole Wiggles thing. In fact, there's even a rumored "fifth Wiggle" much like the Beatles had a "fifth Beatle".

Now, they have a long-running television show, close to 30 dvds, multiple platinum cds, Taiwanese and Latin American versions of their show, and now there are "Wiggles World" areas in theme parks all over the country (including Fiesta Texas in San Antonio) and "Wiggles World" is even branching out to theme parks in Dubai. They had to replace the original Yellow Wiggle a few years ago, but are still going strong. And don't even get me started on all the products - dolls, lunch kits, backpacks, t-shirts, books - you name it. They have employees in both Australia and Dallas, and they even have their own recording studio. Geniuses, I tell ya!

Yeah, sign me up to be a Wiggle.

Tri training continues...

Sorry for the long post...just trying to catch up!

Thursday, 8/6

Thursday I was back to my usual T/Th two-a-day schedule. You know the one - spin at lunchtime, swim after work.

Spin class was the usual brutal workout - this time there was some major climbing that I was quite sure my quads would feel it later. (And they did!) I really didn't want to go to class and I wasn't feeling "it" at 1st..but, Richard is a great motivator and great at getting the class pumped and before long I was cheering on my "team" and kickin' ass on the bike.

For my swim, I decided to take my chances and try to swim at the neighborhood pool. Doing this would give me some family time before the kid's bedtime. The only problem is that the pool is often full of neighborhood kids and I don't feel I get in a good, quality swim. It's a gamble. However, as summer has gone on, I've noticed the pool being less and less crowded, so it was worth a shot. When I 1st arrived, I was worried...there were kids and people all over. But, most of them were in the shallow end of the pool and many began to leave. Fortunately, I did get in a good swim! With the exception of 2 asshats who decided to swim laps perpendicular to the lap lanes for awhile, I had the lap lanes to myself. It didn't go as well as last Thursday with my freestyle breakthrough, but it did go well...much less sidestroke and much more freestyle.


I think that I have made some progress in my swimming by swimming more often in the past few weeks, but I think I should be further along by now (if that makes sense). I keep telling myself that everyone progresses at a different pace and that things will eventually "click". We'll see. At least I know I can cover the distance at the tri!

Workout Stats
Spin class - 50 minutes
Swim - 1 hour, 1500 meters - warm-up, drills, 300x2, more drills....



Friday, 8/7

Typical Friday - work, family time, long run. Last week, I thought I'd be running 7 miles. This week, I changed my mind - it would be six and that was final! My quads were feelin' the spin class from the day before, so I was a little concerned. But, once I got going it was not bad at all. In fact, the temps didn't even feel that bad. At first. By mile 3, it had hit me - it's frickin' hot!!! I varied my regular routine and hit the neighborhood gravel trails for a couple of miles, just to help the ol' joints a little. I maintained an 11:20 pace until my final 3-miles...as usual, I slowed it down at the end. My average pace was 11:34. Compared to last year, this isn't too bad...but obviously, I still have a lot of work to do.

Workout Stats
Long run, 6 miles, 11:34 pace (hot, hot, hot!)


Saturday, 8/8

Tomorrow is going to be crazy busy...church, shopping with the kids, nap for the baby, laundry (yuck!) and then THE WIGGLES CONCERT! :-) Because of that, I decided to do my Sunday brick on Saturday....not like Saturday was any less busy, but it just seemed to fit in better.

I really didn't want to go out and do a brick. I wanted to hang out with the kiddo and hubby while the baby was in bed and watch a movie or play a board game. But, the hubby convinced me that if I didn't do my brick, I would feel guilty tomorrow...yeah, he knows me so well! So off I went for a short brick - 8 miles on the bike, 2 mile run. There was nothing too exciting to report about the brick, except for a discovery - wind bites on the bike, but it rocks on the run. It was hot as hades, which I don't feel too much on the bike except when there's also a headwind. On the run, the breeze helped the heat seem a little more bearable. This was the last brick before my tri next week and overall, I was pretty pleased with the results.

Now I am tired dear readers. Plain and simple - T-I-R-E-D! Time for me to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a rest day and trust me, I will ENJOY it!

Workout Stats
Brick - 8 mile ride (16.5 mph), 2-mile run (9:55 pace)

No more yankie my wankie. The Donger needs food.

Just a quick goodbye to the man who gave us laughs, tears and everything in between. While movies seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, I have to say that I can’t imagine my tween (long before some marketing genius created the term) and teen years without the movies of John Hughes.

Seriously, the 1st rated R movie I saw in a theater was Vacation…my older cousin Lisa took me and my younger cousin to see it when I was 11 years old. We got to stay up late and felt so grown up. Next were the movies about my generation – Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – awesome stuff! I can remember seeing Pretty in Pink at Greenspoint Mall (before it became “Gunspoint”) with another younger cousin. And of course there’s the other stuff – Mr. Mom, Weird Science, Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, She’s Having a Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I’m sure there’s some I’m forgetting.

John Hughes gave my my 1st movie boy crushes:

Pretty boy Jake from Sixteen Candles

Blaine with the great smile and bad boy Steff from Pretty in Pink

and cute jock Andrew from Breakfast Club

And surely, I am not the only one who thought the dress Andie created in Sixteen Candles was the fugliest creation ever? Maybe that’s the real reason Blaine forgot he asked someone else to the prom, lol!

The great thing about movies is that they live on forever. We may not have John Hughes and more of his hilarious creations, but we have the DVD, Blue Ray and whatever comes next.

RIP John Hughes and thanks for the memories.

Hump Day

So glad the week is 1/2 way over!!! Hallelujah sweet baby Jesus!

It also happens to be the hubby's birthday! In order to not have to workout in the evening, I ran on the treadmill at the Y during lunch. I wasn't feeling much like doing intervals...I just wanted to run! So that's what I did. I warmed up for about a half mile, then gradually started increasing my speed. I held my speed steady around a 10 minute pace for the the next couple of miles and then gradually slowed down until it was time for a cool down.

The hubby likes birthdays to be low key, so it was just us and the kiddos, presents and a cake. Personally, I like to celebrate birthdays, so I don't get that, but whatever! We let the kiddo pick out what we were having for dinner - pizza! Huge surprise, right? So pizza it was...I think it's safe to say that I maxed out my calorie intake today.

Workout Stats - Wednesday, August 5
Treadmill run, 3 miles, 32 minutes, 10:40 pace

It's only Tuesday???

To make up for my missed swim on Monday and because I knew I'd be working late, I headed to the MP pool on Tuesday morning. I ended up in the same lane as last week, which meant I got hit by the current created by the water coming down the pool slide. It doesn't sound like it would be that much of a current, but everytime I was finishing up a lap, I'd end up bumping into the lane divider, lol! I shared a lane with 2 folks who were with a group that meets every Tuesday and Thursday to do drills. Apparently, there's a member of the group who is a pretty knowledgeable swimmer and has coached her kid's teams...she comes up with drills to work on each week and sometimes they just work on distance. They invited me to meet up with them when I can and they also run a loop before swimming...cool beans! Unfortunately, I spent so much time gabbing that I only did about 800-900 meters!

I had some errands to run during lunch to prepare for the hubby's birthday, so no lunchtime spin class for me.

Workout Stats - Tuesday, 8/4
Swim - 30 minutes, ~800 meters

Missed Opportunities..

Monday I was supposed to meet Jenn at the Nat for a swim. It's the last Monday they'll be open before closing down for maintenance....in other words, my last opportunity to swim 50s before TriGirl. Once they re-open in September, they'll be set up for short course. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to turn off my alarm clock in my sleep after hitting the snooze button once. I may have been extra sleepy due to the munchkin waking up 2x (damn teething!) and the kiddo waking up 3x (dunno what happened!) the previous night. I dunno, but I woke up at 5:45 - there was no way I'd be able to get dressed and drive to the Nat and still have time to swim more than about 20 minutes...it hardly seemed worth it. Grrrrr.... I felt bad for flaking out on Jenn, but I am sure she understood.

I packed my running clothes so I could head to the Y on my lunch break and run 3 miles on the dreadmill. However, that didn't work out either. The hubby offered to meet me for lunch, so I didn't mind missing that workout! :-) Of course that meant I had to run on the treadmill when the kiddos were finally in bed. Naturally, the kiddo had other plans for me. I put her to bed, then headed downstairs to do the usual stuff to get ready for the next day - make lunches, wash bottles, get clothes ready, etc. Every 5 minutes, the kiddo would call me and tell me she really needed me to come to her room:

"I need to tell you something!", she'd say. When I'd get to her room she'd tell me, "I have to go potty" or "Hannah pushed me on the playground...I forgot to tell you earlier", or "I love you". Yeah, that last one was cute and I am sure it won't be long before she feels the opposite towards me, but seriously..it took me 2x as long to get everything done. It was 9:40 pm when I got on the treadmill, so I ended up doing a wimpy 20-minute run.

Workout Stats - Monday, August 3
Treadmill Run - 20 minutes, 10:42 pace

Weekend Re-Cap

Saturday, August 1

Saturday was my rest day, although with 2 young kids there really isn't any rest to speak of. Any other parents know what I'm talkin' about.

We started the day by heading over to Peanut Butter Jam at Market Street. This was a fun festival for the kids...booths were set up with all kinds of fun activities and crafts for the kids and there was a fun kid's band. The kiddo enjoyed the crafts, but both kids especially enjoyed running and playing in the water. One thing neither kid seemed to enjoy was Readi Clinic's Run E. Nose....seriously, a dude dress up like a nose? Ewwww!

Next we headed home for some lunch and down time. Then, we headed to Missouri City for my cousin's baby shower. Needless to say, it was nice to sit on the couch and unwind once the kids were in bed!

Sunday, August 2

Sunday, the kiddo and I headed to Palm Beach at Moody Gardens with a friend and her daughter while my parents watched the munchkin. He's had a fever since Saturday thanks to his 3 new teeth that are coming in, so we decided to let him stay out of the sand and sun. The kids had a great time riding the water slides, playing in the sand and running through the splashpad. I'll post some pics when I have a chance.

Later that afternoon, I headed out on my bike for a brick - 10 miles on the bike and a 3-mile run. It took me a little while to really get into the groove on the bike, so it was slower than I would have liked. As usual on the run, I started out too fast and paid for it later. My average pace for the 1st miles was 10:10....not bad, but considering the heat, it was too fast. As I ended my 2nd mile, I was down to a 10:26 pace. By the end of the run, my pace was down to 10:38. The goal was to only walk at each mile, since that's where the water stations will be at my next tri. However, the heat got the best of me and I ended up taking another walk break 1/2 way into mile 2. After my brick, I thought about it - I was in the sun all morning and probably didn't hydrate well enough. I am hoping that I am well rested and well hydrated on race day, so that my performance is much better than it was yesterday!

Workout Stats - Sunday, 8/2

Brick:

10 mile bike - 16.2 mph

3 mile run - 10:38 avg pace

Friday Night Run

Yeah, you know you're a grown-up with kids and no life when you only have your Friday night runs to look forward to. :-)

I started my run later than usual. I intended to run 7 miles, but it was dark by the time I was done with my 1st 3. I ended up shortening the run to 5, because I am a big ol' chicken and don't like to run the neighborhood loop after dark. There are too many dark places and well, even though I live in the fairly safe world of suburbia, I am not naive enough to think that nothing bad could happen. Ya know?

The worst part of the run was the humidity - 88%. The temps were supposed to be cooler, but I couldn't tell. It was fricking awful! Usually in the evenings I have to contend with the heat, but the humidity hasn't been too bad - until today. To be honest, I was happy to stop at 5 miles...the 1st 3 weren't too bad. In fact, my pace was slow but consistent and I only walked a few steps to drink some water. The last two miles were hot, but I maintained the pace and took one walk break. Not the best run I've done, but certainly not the worst...humidity and all.

Next week, I will get in those 7 miles! At this rate, it's going to take me forever to get into the double digits.

Workout Stats - Friday, July 31
Neighborhood run - 5 miles, 57:20, 11:28 pace