Progress Report - Week 3.

A better running week. My 2nd place in the cross country caper was the highlight.

Total miles: 23.3 miles

Furthest Distance: 5.5 miles

No weight loss this week!!

I did a kick-ass 5 miler last night with Colorado Running Company. The guy I was running with (at the head of the "slow" group) said we were running about 8:30 min miles which is pretty good for me over that distance.

Off up to Keystone tonight for a ski weekend. Hopefully no falls this time. I think I will take a lesson tomorrow. DHs friend from DC is joining us tomorrow & Saturday, so should be fun.

Good intentions....

So I started the week with the intention of abstaining from alcohol until Thursday night. My reasons for this have nothing to do with a desire to remain sober, but everything to do with calorie intake. Anyway, an old friend of DH's is in town for a conference this week and came over for dinner last night, during which I managed to polish off a bottle of wine by myself. Great start to the week!! And then there is Jack Quinns tonight. I thought I would just do the run and shoot off early tonight but as DH and his pal are now planning to do the run as well, they are sure to want a few beers afterwards. Ah well, so much for good intentions. I will just have to run extra hard on the two runs I have planned for today.

My time for the Cross Country Caper was 33:29. I'm happy with that given the yukky conditions.

Another run in the snow..

So DH forced me to go out running again today. I really didn't want to go as it was snowing, windy and cold. 22f the same as yesterday but it felt much colder due to the wind chill. We headed out on the Santa Fe trail from Woodmen Road, north toward the Air Force Academy. Again I left DH straggling behind. I waited a couple of times but after a while decided to go for it because it was too darn cold for hanging around. I'm not sure how far I went before I turned around but it was probably about 5k. On the way back it was better as the wind was behind me and it was generally down hill. I must get me a Garmin Forerunner so I can work out how far I am running!! When the weather improves I am going to pick up the distance.

Cross Country Caper

I woke up Saturday morning with a hangover from hell. I looked out of the window and it had been snowing. "great day to stay in bed" I thought to myself. Then DH says, "what time is the run?". Me: "what run?". DH: " the 5k you signed us up for". Me: "oh, we don't have to do it if you don't want - it only cost 10 bucks each". DH: "It's up to you, but I'm happy to do it". So I crawled out of bed at about 9:15am (the race starts at 10 and it's a good 20 min drive to get there) and say "OK let's do it before I change my mind". It has more or less stopped snowing but it is a chilly 22f and no sun in sight. We make it just in time, as I think I know where it starts but I am totally wrong. We eventually find it. When I get out of the car I comment to DH "look there's some crazy SOB running in this weather in shorts and sleeveless top". On closer inspection I realise that it's Brownie in a feeble attempt to try to look macho to prove he isn't gay. So we set off, DH goes charging ahead as he is determined to beat me as I beat him in the last two 5ks we have run. I take a while to warm up, but once I get in my stride I feel GREAT! I pass DH after the first hill and keep him in my sights (behind me) all the way. Hills usually kill me but I managed to run almost all on this race. The last one kicked my butt and I started to walk, but when I turned around and saw DH catching me up, so I made one final push. The last section was downhill so I kicked out and increased my lead. As I crossed the finish line I heard the organiser say "you get a prize". Me? What for? I never win anything! In the excitement I forgot to look at my time and then I was waiting to cheer DH in. I then looked at my watch and it said 34 something, so I guess my time was 33 something, which given the weather conditions, hangover, and damn tough course was pretty respectable. It turns out I got second place in the women's class. It was a pretty small group so I'm not letting it go to my head. However, I had thought I would be miles behind everyone as I expected only the stalwart/really good cross-country runners to turn out for this one. Before the race they said they were doing the awards inside. So we waited for ages by the building and then someone came over to tell us that they had decided to do the awards at the start. Great! I went back over and got my prize - a Colorado Running Company mug and a $25 gift certificate from CRC. (sorry this is all one paragraph but my enter key is not having any effect in getting the cursor to go on the next line).

Monique's farewell...

Well we had a blast on Friday night. Monique is a popular girl and it seemed half the City employees were there. We started at the Thirsty Parrot at 4:30pm. Then we headed over to Southside Johnny's at about 9:00pm because Martini Shot were playing. Everyone raves about them (including many hashers). They started off well with a rendition of Take On Me by AHA and I was the first one out on the dance floor, then they must have played some heavier stuff as I have stiff neck from head banging, but then they deteriorated into rap (I hate rap) and I soon got bored. Went home at about midnight pretty drunk from endless rum & cokes.

Sad Day

My very good friend Monique is leaving work today to go to live in New York. I will miss her. We are going out for leaving drinks tonight. I will probaly get drunk.

On another note, I have told a couple of people at work that I am probably moving to DC in the summer and now it is around the whole darn office. I should have know better.

Week 2: Progress Report

Miles Run: 12

Other workouts: power hour; cardio express; snowshoeing; muscles; turbokick

Weight loss: 1lb

Not a good running week as the race on Saturday was cancelled and Monday was a holiday so I missed my usual lunchtime run. The weather over the weekend was also not very conducive to running as it was sooooo cold. I made up for it with other indoor workouts, all of which are kick-ass.

Snowshoeing

We went snowshoeing yesterday and had a wonderful time. It was only 10f but it was sunny and no wind, so perfect conditons. I was recommended a 6 mile loop called Lovell Gulch up by Woodland Park and it exceeded expectations. A beautiful trail throught the trees coming out onto a ridge which had fantastic views of the back side of Pikes Peak. It was hard work but fun - 6 miles is tough going in snow shoe!!

A couple of photos below. I was wearing a lot of clothes to stay warm, hence the vague resemblance to a yeti!

Race Cancelled

Well my race tomorrow is cancelled. Apparently the race organisers and search & rescue couldn't even get to the pavilion to set up the staging area because of the snow & ice. i can't tell how disappointed I am!!!

Instead I will do my usual hour of power 9-10am, followed by cardio express 10-10:30am. I also have the option of a muscles class 8-9am and yoga 10:30-11:30am. Yoga is not my strong point as i am not very flexible (a good reason to be doing it, I hear you say!!).

I had a great work out a lunch doing turbo kick. It's a new class that has just started. It's like kickboxing/aerobics on speed. The instructor was impressed at how quickly I picked things up and asked me if I have ever been a dancer. If you knew me you would find that hilarious. I am not the most graceful/flexible of creatures although I do have pretty good rhythm, balance and co-ordination. I told her it was years of aerobics, step aerobics and, more recently, kick boxing. It was super fun and was warmer then running!!

We're going to the movies tonight to see "Perfume" - the story of a murderer. It stars Alan Rickman whom I adore. It's showing at our small downtown theatre which shows more artsy films. It's the only place I like going because you can get drinks at the bar and take them in with you! I also prefer to support the small local businesses when I can.

Progress Report

This is not a full week as I only started my new regime on Monday:

Miles run: 15 approx. (I haven't started timing them yet).

Other work outs: intervals class; muscles class and turbokick.

Weight loss: 3lbs.

I need to increase my running distance but that's difficult at the moment as the only time I really have to run is during my lunch hour. And with the bad weather we are having (yes, its snowing again today!!) it's hard to get motivated at the weekend as well. I am waiting to see if the first run of the Winter Series is going to be cancelled tomorrow.

I am happy with the weight loss, but putting it into perspective, it's only half of the 6 lbs I gained over the holidays!!

I am going to invest in a garmin forerunner so I have a more accurate record of my mileage and time.

Just found out that my usual gym is having the aerobics floor resurfaced next week (about time too!). That will effect my Monday night intervals class and next Saturdays hour of power/cardio express (was planning on doing a 5k then anyway).

Starting up on the basketball again next Wednesday. Can't wait for volleyball to start agian.

So I had a pretty kick ass muscles workout yestereday. Idecided to push myself harder then normal and use heavier weights. My arms were shaking by the end of the work out. The only thing Ii had problems with was squats, not because my legs were tired, but because my neck & shoulders are still sore from my skiing fall and having to have the heavy bar across my shoulders was painful.

A good day training yesterday. I ran 5k at lunchtime at a steady pace. I then ran another 5k in the evening at Jack Quinns at a pretty fast pace. I ran with 'I like Your Boobs' who is a much faster runner then I am usually but he is recovering from a knee operation. We were both motivation for each other and agreed we would have run much slower if we had run alone.

It was great to see everyone again after my months break from JQs and concurrent banishment from the Hash.

I need to start increasing my distance again and doing some speed work. I read Tiffany's blog about doing 400m splits and thought I might try that. I have a friend who does this with a group of runners down at the CC track on Thursdays at noon, so I may join them tomorrow. When I was at school I could run 100 yards in 14 seconds, which would equate to a 61 second 400m split. However that was nearly 30 years ago!! Today I will take a break from running and do a muscles class at the gym.

DH went to the hosptial last night to get his injury checked out. Apart from the insane bruising nothing serious, other then a bit of amenia (all his blood is in the bruise!!).

Help needed

How do I put a photo into my profile so that it shows when post. It asks for a url but I don't know how to do that!!

Back on Track

Yesterday I ran at lunchtime and went to the gym for an intervals class in the evening. So my first day back on track went pretty well. I didn't time my run but I know it wasn't particulary fast. The forecast for the weekend is another snow storm so that may affect whether or not I do the 10k on Saturday. I know, I'm a wimp!

I hope to run at lunch today, although I have to be at City Council at 1pm. Then Jack Quinns tonight. The first time I will have been there in a while. I hope the trail dries up a bit today, it was very slushy and wet yesterday.

I've been trying to plan my running/cycling schedule for the next 6 months while still in Colorado. If any of you know of any races that aren't on the Pikes Peak Road Runners web site, please let me know. I also would be interested in a duathalon. Triatholons are out for me as my swimming sucks!

Goals for 2007

1. Run a road 10k in under 50 mins (PR 52:16 Classic 10K).

2. Run a road 5k in under 25 mins (PR 25:48 St Pats Day 5k).

3. Run my first half marathon.

4. Run my first full marathon.

5. Lose 20lbs (to include the 5lbs I put on in the last 2 weeks!!).

I will provide updates on my training every Friday, or thereabouts. I plan to do the first of the Winter series this weekend which is a 10k. I can't sign up for the whole series as I won't be able to make the next run as we are skiing (Snowfest).

Can anyone recommend a device for tracking how far and how fast I am running. In particular I want something that tells me my pace while I am running. I think Garmin do something like that and I've also heard of something like Oni?

Skiing Adventure

We had a pretty good time in Breckenridge last week. I didn't get out to ski as much as usual as I was entertaining my sister who doesn't ski, hence lots of shopping!!! I still managed to get a few hours skiing in during which I had a pretty spectacular fall. I was skiing horseshoe bowl, which is a double-black, and lost my footing on a turn near the top and proceeded to hurtle about 200 feet down the side of the mountain. I could see there were no rocks or trees to impeded my passage so I just lay back and enjoyed the ride. My attempts to try to stop my fall were pretty futile. It was actually a bit scary and when I eventually came to a stop I felt like lying there for a while but thought I had better get up to let my husband and brother-in-law, who were at the top of the run, know I was still alive. I then hiked up to retrieve one of my poles while hubby and BIL collected my other pole and skis, which were scattered along the hillside. This incident did not enhance my love of skiing. Fortunately my only injury is neck and shoulder muscle strain. The next day hubby also had a bad fall and landed very hard on a sharp rock. Fortunately he landed on his butt as anywhere else could have been really nasty. He now has an enormous black-red bruise which goes from his lower back, covering the whole of his left butt cheek, to the top of his leg - about 18" long by 12" wide. Ouch!! I also took my sister snow shoeing which was great fun and much safer!

New Years Eve Photo

Better late then never. Here's a pic of me and my sister before we went out to party on New Year's Eve. We brush up pretty good, eh!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

And may it be a healthy and prosperous one to all those who read my blog!! We had a fun time at the Famous on New Years Eve with my sister, her hubby and a couple of friends. Also there was Chucky Cheeks and Allnighter with some of their friends. When I work out how to download the pictures from the new camera I got for Christmas I will post some photos!! Didn't make it to the Rescus Run 10k but did go for a good long run in Monument Valley.