Cupcake Connoisseur
Almost the weekend!
October 4 - Milwaukee, WI - 26.2
November 14 - Richmond, VA - 26.2
March 21 - Virginia Beach, VA - 26.2
Rest day for me!
I took a 2 hour nap after work yesterday and got 9 hours of sleep last night. Must have slept too much because I am so groggy and still TIRED today! Its going to be a struggle to get through the day. Mother nature must be arriving soon. Leaving around 2:30 today so we can see the train station one last time. HOPEFULLY we will be putting the deposit down - when I say "we" I mean dad. LOL.
I am kind of excited that I won't be waking up at 2:30am tomorrow. LOL. I think I am still going to get up early on Saturday for the long run- probably just my normal weekday time. Thankfully, the first long run of the training cycle isn't "that" long. Going to be pretty warm out there.
I need a nap.
Tessa – Who do you think makes the best praline and cream ice cream?? That is my absolute favorite. Wow, you mosquitoes must love your blood! I never notice bites on me! Core class is at 8:15 on Saturdays. I think I am just going to have to find another time to go..I don’t want 2:30am Saturday’s, either! And running after that would be WAY too hot. It was 80 degrees today before 7:30.
Run4kupcakes – Oh boy! You need a rest day!
Sandy - So, they talked about the Bachelorette this morning on the news. They are going to be showing the train station!! You'll get to see the inside
Happy Thursday! Almost time for a VERY long weekend for some of you. Lucky bastards.
Former Bad Ass
Morning. I have 5 miles and the weights I didn't do yesterday. Thought of going to OTF but the workout is not appealing to me.
Had a hectic afternoon, between driving back from court and the meeting. Everything went well and I get to keep my judge and analyst, yay. They only changed me the paralegal but the guy I got is a pleasure to work with. Overall, I'm happy.
Liz, that is a lot of napping!
Damaris
Trails
Lizzie you do have a TM now. Get what you can outside and finish later on the TM. I've done that and so has Damaris. If you want to build mental toughness a TM walk of 20+ miles does it. That's why the boring ass 50k on the rail trail was no big deal. At least there were a few other people, trees and at one point a deer running towards me that I thought was a dog.
Damaris with the way you and I cuss if we ever got together people would think sailors would be in town...lol.
I got my 4 in last night. The Queen bed in the little house has a soft mattress and it's killing my back. Not sure if I'll get the 3 at the gym or the 5 at home tonight...may just call it good.
Haha. That would be fun, though!
4.5 sucky hot miles for me this morning. Had a couple of walk breaks too. Sheesh!!!
Not much going on today. Need to write an executive summary for my project, but I'd rather be knitting. lol
I should not have taken yesterday afternoon off bc I just want to stay home now.
So BC/BS had some health challenge. You were to exercise 9 days out of 28 for at least 30 minutes. So I logged my 9 days and got $40 credit for some medical expenses (but I rarely go to the doc or get Rx) so IDK what I will do with the $40 credit. I really wanted to keep logging my activities but my 9 days are over so I need to pick another health challenge. WTF?? Should I select smoking cessation? lol.
Have a fun day everyone!!!
LOL Susan those health "challenges" are anything but challenging. The Nation here has a problem with diabetes which is common in Native Americans and they do a lot to try and help people BUT the convenience store here has very little in the way of healthy food choices and neither does the Casino. There is a Dollar Store but the closest grocery is 30 min away in Neosho and it's a Walmart. The one building I work in has 30 people and at least 75% are overweight with several in the obese category. It's sad. I've tried several times to get people to come up with me to the gym...walk a little around the track or use the personal trainer and lift a little weights....there are even recumbent bikes but no one has taken me up on the offer.
HCK – oh wow, 7 days in a row IS a lot! Enjoy your rest days!
Tessa – ugh sorry the streaming is slowing down real work progress.
Lizzie – come on Friday is RIGHT! Glad the audit stuff wasn’t too horrible yesterday. Glad you got in a nice nap yesterday!! As for my weekend plans… not much, really. I’m cat sitting for my RB that lives in St. Paul so I will have to go over there every day Fri-Tues. Getting my hair did (FINALLY!! The mop is a disaster) on Sat. And that’s it! Kinda boring as usual. I have Mon-Tues off work but no plans. Might bike over to cat sit one of those days – it’ll be about 30mi round trip. Biking is SO much easier than running when it’s so super gross out. What about you? How is Ruger’s paw? OMG I’m excited to watch the Bachelorette and see the train station – that’s so cool!! Oh and they were saying “Virginia is for lovers”?? True??
Elina – awwwww I’m not sure what is more cute – the fact that mini-K said ‘da-da’ or that DH was the happiest person on planet when she did! Heart. Melt. Yes! Pics please? Would love to see her antics with the kit kat haha Supposed to get to 100* tomorrow with dewpoints in the 70s. Just gross.
Karen – so your extroverting with the party really has an ulterior motive? Hee hee. Teasing! Man, I would love to come float in your pool this weekend.
Cathy – ummm, yeah, .95? not sure I could do that haha. This watch I have been wearing goes to three decimals so it is very difficult to stop on .000 and THAT kinda bugs haha Totally cracking up at DD not thinking it was too funny about having a crush on the soccer players hahahaha Man, your sister found $20 on what I would imagine a fairly short run if she is just starting out again. Lucky girl!!
Damaris – glad the work changes are in your favor!
7mi for met this morning – 5 of those with speedier girls on the hilly route. Whew I was drenched. 68*/66* so not horrible but oh the sweat! I wish I didn’t sweat so much. I know plenty of you (and my friends) that don’t and I’m jealous. I’ve already had 16oz of water on my run, 20oz of Power Ade, a mug of coffee and 64oz of ice water and still no need to pee. It’s SO HARD to stay hydrated this time of year!
Kinda in vacation mode already! Just have to make it through tomorrow and then off until Thurs. No real plans, though. Cat sitting for RB so will have to head over to St. Paul every day but that’s it. Thinking I will run over there a couple days for a change of scenery. Plus, the river road has water fountains!! It’s going to be HOT!! 100*/70* - yuuuuuuuuuuuck.
4.5 sucky hot miles for me this morning. Had a couple of walk breaks too. Sheesh!!! Not much going on today. Need to write an executive summary for my project, but I'd rather be knitting. lol I should not have taken yesterday afternoon off bc I just want to stay home now. So BC/BS had some health challenge. You were to exercise 9 days out of 28 for at least 30 minutes. So I logged my 9 days and got $40 credit for some medical expenses (but I rarely go to the doc or get Rx) so IDK what I will do with the $40 credit. I really wanted to keep logging my activities but my 9 days are over so I need to pick another health challenge. WTF?? Should I select smoking cessation? lol. Have a fun day everyone!!!
I did that once and I got a card with the credit. Never used it. Sigh.
Running with the Turtles
28 min jog this morning. Kind of nice because I didn't break a sweat. Guess I should start hydrating for the trail race with DD on Saturday morning, it's supposed to be 80 degrees at 8 AM race start with dew point of 72. We will be under a heat advisory, Damaris.
Lizzie, the weekend has been slow in coming! Sounds like you needed some rest! I am excited about not waking up before 5 AM, so I imagine you are pretty excited. Yay on getting the deposit down for the train station!
Damaris, glad your meeting went well! Enjoy the 5 and weights. I need to do some weights.
Diane, working out on the TM does build mental toughness. DH thinks I am crazy when I run on mine, I stare at a wall. I do listen to music, I am not totally crazy! Enjoy your vacation! Sorry that your dad is not doing well.
Sue, wow, exercising 9 days out of 28. Sounds tough. Glad the review went well!
Sandy, nice miles in the heat! If it makes you feel better, I normally sweat a lot. Haha, do you try to get your watch to stop on even mileage and have to keep running? Tiny baby steps? DD gets mad at me when I mention boys. Nice that you will have most of next week off! I will have Weds and Thurs off. My sister and her fiance are coming on Weds, we are going to the Def Leppard/Journey concert.
Tessa, that sounds like hell! Funny that you are noticing the network is slow due to the World Cup!
Elina, there are not many sports that DD will not try. Well, she doesn't like softball any more, not after they started fast pitch! When DH went to pick her up from soccer camp, he had her try to score some goals while he played goalie. Apparently DD kicked the ball harder than he expected and hit him twice, once in the face! He said that she has some legs. I don't normally run the same route on any given day, I make it up as I go. So there are always calculations involved anyway. It is a good mental exercise now, since none of my runs are the same pace during a week! Aww, cute about mini-K!
Karen, cutback week sounds good. Ooh, pool party? Sounds fun!
Cathy
I finally have a good picture...course it's at the beginning of the race as I'm sure I was a tired, sweaty mess, at least that's what DH said
6 very slow, very hot and very humid miles this morning. i woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick to my stomach. Hung out in the bathroom for a few minutes sure I was going to throw up, then lay down on the couch for a little while just in case I need to run to the bathroom. I finally started feeling better, but I apparently did something to my neck/upper back/right shoulder when lying on the couch, because it really hurt when I got up and went back to bed. To the point I couldn't get comfortable and couldn't sleep. Apparently I fell asleep at some point because I woke up to a hungry dog at 6. Feed him, took some ibuprofen for the back and went back to bed. The dog, who has not been to daycare in two weeks and thought he should have gone yesterday, started walking on me, whiny barking, and just generally being annoying. So I got up, exhausted and sore, and took him to daycare right when they opened at 7. It was already over 80 so I figured no run for me again today. Once I got home I decided to just go out for a few super easy miles and somehow managed 6. Then straight into the pool after. Back is still hurting a bit, but I think it will be fine in a day or two. Sigh.
I am racing an 8K Saturday and it's supposed to be 80 with a dew point of 77 at the start. I should normally be able to run about a 7:40-7:45 pace, so am going to go out no faster than 8 minute miles. I will obviously not be able to run a fast time, so hopefully I will have the self control to run smart.
Diane, enjoy your time with the family. I understand how you're feeling with your dad on oxygen and not being able to do what he used to. My advice (not that you asked) is to mentally accept that before you go and then just do whatever you can to enjoy the time with him. My dad and I talked a lot when I was there, gave each other book recommendations, etc. My family also likes to play games, so we had fun doing that too. On the one hand it sucks, on the other hand, at least we still have the opportunity to talk and hang out with our dads for a little while longer.
HCK, your upcoming rest days are well deserved.
Liz, holy cow on the sleep. I think you will be happier not getting up in the middle of the night to get the long run in before work. Like you said, it was easier when you were on your own and went to bed super early. Even getting up at normal weekday time on Saturday to run will get you done at a decent hour to still have your weekend free to spend with HCF.
Damaris, I'm thinking about quitting or suspending my OTF membership. It seems like the last several times I've gone, something has aggravated my PF (the burpees, anything jumping or plyometrics, possibly the all outs). I know they have modifications but I don't think about that until after I've done something. Of course that would mean doing strength training on my own, and we all know I'm not very good at that! Anyway, enjoy the easy run and the weights.
Susan, glad the review went so well yesterday! This hot, humid crap really makes getting a decent run in hard. 4.5 miles is a win in my book.
Sandy, 68/66 is bad enough, especially if you're not used to it. It's definitely enough to make you sweat buckets! I admit that weather felt awesome to me at my parent's house, but only because of what I've been running in here. If I had been used to this, that would have sucked. And yes, I do have an ulterior motive for the pool party! Not only do I want Riley to sleep through the fireworks, but daycare is closed next week since they'll be booked with boarding due to the holiday. Nice of you to cat sit for your friend.
Cathy, crappy Saturday weather racing solidarity!
Coaching testimonial: "Not saying my workout was hard but KAREN IS EVIL."
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MiniK pic of this morning ( ); as per ladies' request
Will be back here after the run
''What will happen if I run up the hills? Ah, volcano muscle soreness!!'' (c) Margaret
''Who needs quads anyway!?'' (c) Damaris
Karen I'm convinced jumping caused my PF so I don't do any and it's gone now. I call my parents every Sunday and my dad and I email financial info back and forth as that's what he's interested in and knows a lot. We used to talk guns but he can't shoot anymore so he sold his. DH bought one and my brother has another one.
On Sunday, I ran the Bay of Fundy Marathon in Lubec, ME. The race goes across the border into Canada and back to the US and it's very scenic. It is also very hilly. Of course...
After the Martha's Vineyard Marathon, we had a bit of time to train before Fundy and also to do some hill workouts. I am glad my coach gave me the workouts she did because my legs, albeit slower than a limping turtle parade, were not sore during or after the race. And contrary to Martha's Vineyard, my knee and ITB were silent; I had no issues whatsoever during this race. Well, except the slowness, lol.
We flew into Bangor, ME, the closest city to Lubec, on Friday night. We stayed at a nice small inn near the airport and then drove to Lubec after breakfast. I am from a relatively small island in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, the smaller of the Major Antilles), but have lived most of my life in big cities (San Juan, Miami, Honolulu). Lubec is a very small city, even smaller than what we have in PR and probably the smallest I've ever visited. The few restaurants there closed at 6-7pm on Saturday and nothing was up and about after that.
We had reserved a room at the Peacock House, a nice bed and breakfast in Lubec, within walking distance from the expo location at the school and the finish line by the water (although everything was within walking distance). It was perfect and the room was gorgeous. I would recommend this place to anyone coming to visit.
Views of the room and from the room:
After talking to the owner and letting her know we were in town (it was early and she was still prepping the rooms), we walked to the school to do the expo. There we picked our bags, etc., but the bib had to be picked up in Canada, to give the runners a chance to cross the border into Canada and the border into the US, get checked on each list and pick the bib up. The shirts were tech material and long sleeve, each distance with a different color. The bib pickup in Canada assures the runners that there was no need to carry the passport during the race. The Detroit Marathon should learn from this experience and do something similar for their international half and full.
After that, we walked around the town, and took some pictures.
Here is Canada for when we crossed and got our bibs:
Back in Lubec after a nice lunch in one of their restaurants. The food was amazing. I cannot eat shellfish, but I had some very nice burger bites and fries.
Touching Canada from the US. You see that mountain behind us. That's the course!
We had dinner at one of their restaurants (before 7pm) and went back to our room to get ready. We went to bed by 11pm with a wake up call at 5am. I slept maybe two hours, if at all.
We woke up and got ready. We took the car to the school and each got into a different bus (hubby for the HM, me for the full) and headed to our respective start lines.
The start line for the marathon is in the West Quoddy Park and this was behind us as we started:
The race has a 10K, an international half marathon, the marathon, and an ultra (I think it's a 52K). Had I realized there was a 52K, I would have signed up for the it. The difference is that they start at the school and run to our start line for the full, and then turn around and run the marathon. The half marathon started in Canada already in Campobello Island, also known as fucking hilly land, and ran back to the United States. All races ended at the finish line by the water.
While we waited to start I ate my typical breakfast of two Krispy Kreme donuts and a Mtn Dew, cheered on some of the ultra runners that ran by us to the lighthouse and back to run the marathon, and waited.
The bibs had chips on them, but the race was gun timed; it just needed the chips to get your time a the finish line without anyone writing down the bibs. It is a small race, with around 170 marathoner finishers, maybe a handful of ultra runners, and the bulk of the race was the half marathoners, but I don't think there were as many as double the marathoners. But as you can see, the race is very scenic. The area is gorgeous.
While yesterday it was cloudy, chilly, windy, and perfect for marathoning in June, the sun came out before the start and it was warm for race day. We are both very sunburned from the race and the sun was pretty strong throughout the second half of the race. Of course, I forgot my sunglasses in the car.
Miles 1-6
Miles 1 to 6 take us from West Quoddy into the bridge to cross into Canada to Campobello Island. We were off and I had noticed my watch started the satellite very quickly for being in a new place, but I didn't think anything of it until I got to the Mile 1 marker and my lap had not sounded. Doh, I had it on Treadmill mode, crap. I had to decide whether to leave it on TM mode and lap it manually or turn on the GPS so that I could have elevation data. I elected to do that. Missed around 0.02 of mileage but it was worth it. So the whole race I had to add 11mm to the time and 1.02 to the distance to know where I was. At least that kept me busy.
The rolling hills started from the get go. I really don't recall anything flat on the race, it was either going up or going down. The rollers were long, and I had been warned that this race was hillier than you think. So, my plan was to run/walk 5:1 to leave legs for the second half. It worked for the most part, until the hills got so long, I just walked the uphills after mile 15.
Splits: 10:58, 10:47, 10:27, 10:34, 10:40, 11:07 (crossing the bridge into Canada).
This was the less hilly part of the race. According to the race website, the total elevation gain was 2400ft. My watch had 2200 ft and that is without the first mile.
Miles 7-13.1
Campobello Island is very hilly but gorgeous. I kept my run/walk strategy, saw my husband as he was returning back to the finish, and walked when I needed. There are no mats in this race, but I think I crossed the 13.1 at around 2:25 so nothing too fast, nothing too slow.
Splits: 10:27, 10:38, 11:01, 11:41, 11:06, 10:41, 12:56 (fixed shoe).
Miles 14-26
Here is where I decided to walk the uphills. Many around me were doing the same. They were getting long, it was getting hotter, the area was very pretty, and we stopped more to take pictures, fix shoes, help people.
No matter how much I walked or stopped, I kept run/walking with the same people the last 10 miles of the race. Two guys that were ahead of me and I would pass them while running and they would pass me while I walked. The splits here remained in the 12s with the extra walking, with the exception of when I stopped to fix the shoe, which made those slower.
At Mile 23, I walked a hill much like this one, and I was sting by a bee. I had three bees on top of me, hovering. I wonder if they thought my colorful outfit was flowers. That was fun...not.
At Mile 24, one of the two guys "running" with me stopped and we could tell he had some issues, so we stopped with him and made sure he was OK. Sounded like he was cramping and not fainting in the heat, so we said our goodbyes (the other guy and me) and kept going.
At Mile 26, I passed the guy and tell him come on, let's run until the bridge (he was struggling then and not running anymore), and he did. We ran to the bridge, walked into the US, and as I passed through the border, I yelled "I'm an American, open the gate", like I was Elizabeth Shoe in The Saint. Always wanted to say that.
After the bridge, my new friend and me started running, but he had more in the tank than me. He finished around 15 seconds ahead of me and I crossed the finish at 5:24:56. I didn't see him in the results for the marathon, so I wonder if he was either in the ultra, the half, or the early marathoner (walkers). Either way, we kept each other company and made each other run faster. Well, "run".
The medal was handmade and nice, albeit small. Very pretty overall:
Hubby took a bunch of pictures of me at the finish. This is my favorite.
This was a great race and even though I came in with no PR or fast expectations, I was still surprised at the hills, lol. The hill training we did this time helped a lot. I was not sore and the quads felt like they had run nothing at all. I am sure if I had run more uphills than I did, the story would be very different.
Having said that, hoping Missoula in three weeks is as flat as they say. Three hilly marathons in a row is as much as I'll take!