Thankful

This morning, I got up early and decided to make the most of my time by doing a yoga video at home instead of trying to get to the gym and then come home and get ready for work. I thought it would be a much better use of the time I had as I have been pretty stiff lately. My session went like this:

-Put DVD in and because it was freezing in the house, turn up the heater.
-Get started with the warm-up.
-The dog starts whimpering so I run over and let him out of his cage. Go back to warm up.
-Dog decides to help with my warm up by licking my arms while I am (ironically) in the downward dog postion. I ignore him.
-Realize that now I am moving, I am burning up and don’t need the heater on and go run and turn it down.
-Hear a giant crash in the kitchen and run in there to find the cat has knocked over the trash. Throw cat outside and resume video.
-Dog decides doing the plank is not hard enough and tries to play tug with my hair to make it more of a challenge for me.
-Finished video, guessing I actually “did” 30 out of 45 minutes.

If working out at home is this hard with pets, how on earth do you people with kids ever get anything done? I am in awe.

Turns out doing the yoga this morning was probably a very good decision as I got hit going through an intersection on the way to work. I would like to think being relaxed and loose probably helped me from getting hurt! I am ok, car will eventually be ok, and I am just thankful it was not worse….or that I was not on my bicycle!

Water Torture

I felt like this was my expression the entire time I was swimming on Tuesday. I take a lesson once a week with a coach and lately I have just been dreading it every week lately. Why? Because of this:

It is the bane of my existence. You see, I hardly kick at all while I swim. I use almost all arm strength. Trying to kick constantly is a lot like trying to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time. I just suck at it. So, to work on this I get to work with the kickboard. The good news is that I can tell it is helping, but it sure is hard to get motivated to go.

I enjoyed reading the comments on my last post about the time limits my running club is putting on some of their longer races. I think there are several sides to this story but basically what I need to focus on is just getting faster and more consistent and it will not be a problem.

A big THANK YOU to Leah at BecauseITri She ran a picture caption contest and I won a runner up prize of a dozen gels that I know will come in handy soon! Thank Leah!

Slow Runnings

Yesterday in the mail, I received my runnings clubs latest newsletter. On the front page, there was an statement annoucing that the board members had voted to put time limits on several of the club races. Their reasoning was that if you could not run a 13 minute mile, you were undertrained and should not be running. The other reasoning is that if you were slow, it was not fair to make the volunteers wait around for you to finish. There are now going to be cut off times at certain mile markers and if you were not there at that point, your bib would be pulled.

I am of several minds about this. Yes, 13 minute miles are slow. Being slow myself though my first reaction was anger. Obviously, if I am mad about it, then I just need to faster and it will not be a problem. Fair enough. Then I think about all of the people out there (not a whole lot, but still there are some) who are slower than me. I think if I got pulled off the course of a small local race, I would not come back. Is that the message we want to be sending to people? "We welcome all runners, but by gawd, you had better MOVE!!".

I guess I can understand large races having cutoff times, but this is a smaller local club (300 members or so) and something about it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't want people to hurt themselves trying to do distances they are not ready for, but I think in this society, we need to encourage people to come out and get moving.

What are your thoughts?

2009 Livestrong Austin

This post has taken several days to write just because there were so many thoughts swirling around in my head that I did not know where to begin. Livestrong was such an incredible event with so much emotion wrapped up into it. I guess I should have prepared myself for that but I was so worried about the hills and the bike riding part, that I never thought about how sentimental it would be.
There is so much I could write about the Livestrong weekend. I think the whole reason why I was doing this hit me in the beginning of the ride. It was one thing to pass someone in their 50's who had a "In Memory of Dad" sign on their back. It was a different thing all together to pass by two 8-10 year old boys with that kind of sign on their back. Sadly, they were not the only children I saw with "In Memory" signs on. That part was tough, but it made me really think and be grateful that everyone in my life who has had to fight cancer won.
In my head, this was going to be a one time event. I hate fund raising and asking people for money, but I will be back next year. It is too important not to go back.

LIVESTRONG AUSTIN!!!

It has been a few weeks, but I did actually do the 5k I talked about awhile back. It was slow, cold, and miserable. My usual running partner, Julie, had some pathetic excuse like being sick and was not able to run, although she did show up and was an excellent sherpa as she lent me headphones when mine broke and had an extra pair of gloves when I realized my hands were going to freeze off.
The run itself was uneventful except my foot really felt like it was on fire the whole time. I ignored it and kept on, but kept having to walk more and more and was pretty frustrated by the whole thing. It was not until I got home and examined it that I found this:

I have never had a bruise on the bottom of my foot before. I remember stepping on something a day or two before that really hurt but had forgotten all about it until that moment. I felt a little better about my constant walking and miserable time after that. It is still a little sore, but I am going to attempt to redeem myself this weekend at Austin Livestrong.

I have signed up to do the 5K run on Saturday and the bike ride on Sunday. I am excited not about the running or the riding, but about maybe getting a chance to meet Fatty. Oh yeah, that Armstrong guy will be there too…..but FATTY! Seriously, this guy is a rock star and I am stupid excited about being at the same event he is at. I am even considering purchasing a new camera that is thin enough to go in my jersey pocket for picture opportunities. I have actually wanted one for awhile, but this may be the reason I get one!

If you have not donated to LIVESTRONG yet and would like to, there is still time. Please visit my page here.

Princess Grace, I Am Not

I am not someone who is known for her gracefulness. I am constantly tripping over my own feet and hit the ground a lot. I am used to it. Last Sunday I was playing tennis and was actually thinking about writing this blog entry and talking about how when I play tennis, I actually do feel graceful. It was going to be a wonderful, flowery, feel good post about running and leaping and just feeling great.


I obviously tempted fate and gave the gods too much of a good reason to point and laugh.

You see, I was VERY focused on getting to the ball as we were down in the second set and I really wanted to win. Not to mention I was serving this game, and I refused to lose a game where I was serving. I was flying back and forth across the court like a champ and getting back things I never should have been able to reach. In other words, I was feeling fantastic about myself.

The cross court shot came fast and low. I ran hard, hit the ball….and then ran straight into a metal fence. More specifically the metal fence POST. The next few seconds were pretty black and then slowly changed to fuzzy as I staggered around. I now understood the term “punch drunk” a little better. I do think the first clear sentence out of my mouth was, “Did we win the point?”. Alas, no. I did get the ball back, however, my partner was a little more concerned about her idiot partner having brain damage than she was about the getting the ball back. She has really messed up priorities.

I was able to clear my head enough to resume play although we did lose that set. I was just achy enough that the blow was not that bad. All I could think about was a bath and ibuprofen. Two days later I am recovered, and just talked to my tennis partner about playing tomorrow. She suggested I get football pads first.

Ready for the weekend!

First of all, I will apologize to Powerbar. They did send me a nice letter in the mail along with two coupons to try their new crap replacement for my cola gel blasts. Ok, I should be open minded about the raspberry flavor and since they are free, I will try them. Never the strawberry banana though. Yech.

I have started back on my swimming lessons and I can tell a huge difference from swimming on my own all summer to having someone sitting there with a stop watch. I need to figure out a way to keep that drive even when I don’t have a coach there telling me to speed it up. It was nice to report to her that since starting lessons with her, I took almost 6 minutes off of my swim time from my first triathlon to the same one a year later. That is kind of crazy, but you have to take into account that there was absolutely no swim training before my first tri. After that appalling first swim, I decided that would be one part that I would not be able to “wing-it” and needed help.

I am running ( I use that term VERY loosely) a 5K this weekend. My only goal is to do it faster than last year. I have no idea how long it took me, but I have a feeling it should not be too tough to beat it.

LIVESTRONG Austin is in a few weeks. I have been taking a few spinning classes to help get ready and I forgot how much I really love those classes. I love the pounding music and seeing how hard I can push myself without worrying about having to have the energy to ride back home. It is just fun and I feel like I grin like an idiot the whole time. It will be good to keep with those through the winter when I usually slack so hard on my biking because of the lack of light in the evenings.

Is anyone else having a week that is dragging??