Post Marathon Life

First Thing First: Corgi enjoying the great outdoors

 Five days without exercise (Monday - Friday after the marathon) was enough to drive me nuts.  It was great to come home after work everyday and have cheese and crackers and wine and enjoy episodes of Real Housewives while cuddling with the corg.  Just about as good as running.

Saturday morning was beautiful and I had the chance to bike with my dad at North Park.  I biked 13 miles at the speedy mile pace of 4:42.  Haha.  It was a little hard at times because there was a walk-a-thon, so people were walking about twelve across.  I enjoyed biking and it was hard getting up the hills.  I decided I should try to do more of it this summer and drag my husband along.

Dad with nice bike

Me with the purple RoadMaster, purchased at a church flea market for $20.  Gets the job done.

The rest of Saturday I purchased flowers and shrubs for our house and planted.  I am attempting to grow lettuce, eggplant, hot peppers, green peppers, tomatoes, basil, rosemary and chives in our backyard.  If one of those plants come in I will be happy.

Our Home

That night, we went to the Pirates game with a group of friends.  It was such a pretty night, and it was really cool to walk around the area where I finished the marathon less than a week ago.

The bridge in the background is where the final 800 meters started

Sunday morning, I ran 5 easy miles around the North Allegheny Intermediate School with my dad.  It was so nice out and it felt great to  be running again.  My hamstring felt better after I ran, and as of right now, I don't have any pain.  I did some abs as well.  We got coffee at Panera afterwards and I took a shower, got dressed, and put on makeup for church in a record 8 MINUTES.  We arrived at 10:31 for 10:30 mass.  Not too bad.

This morning, I got to the gym at 6am for 30 minutes on the elliptical and some abs.  It felt great to get cardio done so early in the morning.  I did the hill setting and it did its job.

Very excited for tomorrow....I get to meet Kate at North Park for a run after school!  I am also excited because I am making salmon burgers.

Only 11 days until summer vacation/being a nanny begins!

Birthday Girl

This past weekend was my birthday.  Which is why I am not blogging until now.

The BEST way to start off your birthday weekend is with a sunny, fast, 22 miler.  This may be one of my most favorite runs this season.  I woke up and got out to the lake around 8am Saturday.  I was meeting a friend for part of my LONG 22 mile run.  I was planning on running at a normal pace, hopefully under 8 minute pace - feels fast to me. 

Does anyone else run really fast when they are mad about something?  I was feeling quite frustrated with something that happened the past week, and I think I needed this long run to help myself feel better.  Seriously, I will never pay money to see a therapist in my life because the long run is all the therapy I needed.  The more I can take my anger out on the pavement and tire myself out, the happier I feel and the smaller my problems seem.  To sum it up, the first half of my run was done at 7:54 pace and the last half was done at 7:32 pace.  It felt AMAZING to run that fast for my longest run and not crash at the end.  I felt pretty spectacular, especially since my anger had gone away after I finish my run.

The birthday weekend was very fun.  I have pictures to put up, but not with me...I am at the Panera in Tarentum waiting to go to a work event this evening.  Saturday, I was pretty wiped out from the rest of my run.  I met my dad for coffee at Borders, then spent the day doing laundry.  woohoo.  That night, Jordan and I got takeout and watched a movie so I could rest my legs.  The birthday morning was spent in the best way possible: running with Penny and Jordan at North Park.  It was an interval workout for them, since 7 miles would be a little long for them both and they needed walk breaks.  My legs were heavy!  We had a delicious Panera breakfast and went up to the mall to make some birthday gift exchanges.  Jordan got me some really cute clothes and a Pandora charm for my birthday, sadly, some of the clothing did not fit right.  The rest of the day we spent at his mom's house celebrating both my birthday and his brother Alex's birthday.  They had tons of delicious food (as usual!) and made some excellent drinks.  I had a great time!  On the way home, we stopped and visited with my parents and I got more clothes and some new candles.  YES!  We went home to cuddle with our corg, the perfect way to end the birthday weekend. 

Monday was back to reality!  I ran 6 miles at 8:32 pace in the AM around home, in the dark.  Tuesday came and I lifted in the morning and did a 12 mile workout that afternoon.  It was tough.  I had 8 5.5 minute repeats at tempo (6:44) with 30 seconds rest.  Does anyone know how short 30 seconds rest is???  It was a good workout.  My splits were between 6:38 pace and 6:46 pace so I was happy and relieved that it went ok.  I immediatly chugged some chocolate milk and drove to my hair appointment, wearing spandex.  I know I am odd.

This morning I did an easy 5 miles on the treadmill while watching Desperate Housewives.  I was extremely sore!  Hopefully I will be ready for the hills tomorrow. 

I might buy the vibram five fingers with some birthday money....still thinking about it!

Happy President's Day

Corgi in the snow!
I had no idea we were supposed to get a snow storm today. Usually I stalk the weather on my Iphone constantly, but somehow I did not notice the Winter Storm Warning today. Needless to say, I was not able to do my mile repeats on the track this afternoon :(.

I was a little bummed we had school today, but it was a nice, relaxing day. I started the day at Club Julian to lift and it was a great workout. What is equally impressive is how quickly I can lift, shower, put on makeup, fix my hair, and get dressed in the morning. If I get there by 6:30, I can do my lifting routine, take a very short shower, make my hair look presentable, change, and leave by 7:25. Then, of course, it's off for the usual bf at Panera.

Our attendance was much lower at school , since many of the kiddos have parents or older siblings off work and school. We talked about presidents and began working on our Honest Abe hats. The funniest thing was explaining to them that the first presidents actually wore white, fluffy wigs because they thought it made them look handsome. They thought that was great!

During dismissal, all the parents/grandparents/siblings informed me that it was starting to get icy out, and knowing that I have a fairly long commute (50 minutes), they told me I should leave sooner than later. I took their advice, taking my gym bag with me and knowing that the track workout was out of the questions. The roads weren't too covered during my drive home, but the roads were definitly a bit icy in spots. I was relieved to get home just fine, and layed down with Penny on the bed for a while to think what I should run instead of the mile repeats. I just may have fallen asleep for 20 minutes.

Penny advised me to go for a 5 or so mile easy run, and do my hard workout for the week in the morning on the treadmill, especially since there would be a good chance of a two hour delay - which means I don't have to leave the house until almost nine o'clock. I bundeled up, face mask and all, and stepped out into the winter wonderland. The roads were covered in at least two inches of snow, which fell in just the last hour!

The first four miles were just fine and I was really enjoying running in the snow, which was coming down in soft, thick flakes. With two miles left, the wind picked up and the snow turned into hard, round, icy balls. It hurt so bad to even keep my eyes open, so I tried to stare down at the ground completely hunched over - I looked stupid and it didn't even work. I honestly think the next time that happens I might wear ski goggles.

Here is a picture of the road after I finished running - look for my feet prints!
One of the nicest things about running in the snow is being DONE running in the snow - for example, coming inside and making french toast and drinking chocolate milk for dinner with your husband.

Any good french toast recipes? I just put together four eggs, vanilla and almond extract, cinnamon, and milk and dipped 8 pieces of bread into it. We loved our breakfast for dinner!

PS Two hour delay tomorrow! Yes!