Cupcake Connoisseur
Just a reminder that we rock.
October 4 - Milwaukee, WI - 26.2
November 14 - Richmond, VA - 26.2
March 21 - Virginia Beach, VA - 26.2
7.1 for me.
When I got back from my run HCBF asked if it was raining out. Nope, just me raining in sweat. This was a tough one. Think that dewpoint was at 74. Plan is to run tomorrow and Friday (tomorrow being short short) and then taking the weekend off. Also not planning on running long this week..going for 30 miles. I like these weeks with no long runs I could be saying that because it is so damn hot outside!
We are doing beach, couple massage, and a nice dinner tonight Enjoying my guy
Sandy - BEFORE I forget...we picked up some "veggie fries" from the grocery store the other day. THEY ARE SO GOOD. Cauliflower and onion I believe are in the inside. They are made by "Birds Eye". Give them a try!!
Run4kupcakes - Nice workout yesterday!!
Tessa - MMMM ice cream. I guess you are right - after a marathon I’m not that hungry..I can only imagine how you feel after an Ultra!
Docket - Nice workout last night!!! This is cool, huh? NOPE.
Karen - How was the birthday celebration?! I wanted a picture of Riley eating his cake!!
Have a great day everyone!!!
Group power class this morning. Still shaking. Whew! Good workout. My fav instructor Tracey was subbing this morning, so that was nice. IDK how she does it--teaches 3-4 classes in a row. I would fall over.
Cards Against Humanity--my running friends play when we are together--OMG! Just roll on the floor hilarious!! So out of my norm--who thinks of these things???
Picked up a case of peaches to make more jam!! They are a little greener than I like, so they are resting in the sewing room so the pups won't eat them off the table. Because they would. Every single one.
Office picnic this afternoon. I wore shorts to the office. It's one of those places where shorts are acceptable, as long as there are no visitors and you are not in the lab.
Sounds like Pinelands was fun. Glad y'all had a good time.
Tessa--blueberry cobbler is yummy. Left you some in the fridge.
Morning! I have 7 with 2 minute @ 4% hills on the TM at 10K effort. Oy.
Liz, yeah, that's cool for May. We are normally in the 100 heat index range.
Susan, nice job on the class!
Damaris
As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.
Fundraising Page
WINE o'clock somewhere!
Heavens to Betsy, I am home! Except for the ending, it was a fabulous weekend. Here is a bit of a recap from me - MUCH longer than planned.
Friday I flew into Boston and had a LONG time to wait for Margaret as I posted Friday. Paced myself and met her just fine. We picked up the rental car and motored our way to Maine. Slight traffic but got in at sunset. Picked up some pizza and beer/cider and then met up with Susan and her husband. Chatted for a few hours until the MI contingent made it. Had fun chatting until about 1am. Crawled into my ROCK HARD BED. Oh well, luckily I can sleep most anywhere, and I did all three nights without issue. I snore, so they isolated me.
Saturday I got up and had coffee with the group before heading to packet pickup. Nothing too exciting. We decided we would drive up the coast a bit and go to LL Bean, lunch, then more of the coast. So 7 of us loaded into the mini van and headed out. Fun at LL Bean, spent way too much money. Next lunch. Though Margaret was out with her friend, we decided to have our big meal of the day at lunch. Seafood place, lobster rolls. It was good, though I realized I like crab more. Tried to drive up the coast, but the traffic was terrible. Headed back home and stopped for yummy ice cream on the way back, I opted for peanut butter, delish. Got back around dinner time, but we were pretty full. Took some pics of our Axe Murderers team. Chatted for a bit then played Cards Against Humanity as I believe Tessa mentioned. I had never played and had a blast. Funny, funny game. Headed to bed about 10pm.
Sunday, up early as our race started at 8am for the 50K. I gave it about a 5% chance of doing the whole thing. Couch to 50K isn't a good idea. We headed to the race, shirts on, axes in hand. RD got some pictures of us, as did others. Some funny looks, some fun comments. We were definitely a hit. I started the race with Tessa and Pickles and did the first lap together. The 25k lap consisted of a 10-11ish big loop and a 4-5ish smaller loop - which we ran twice for the 50k. They had the course marked every km, different for a trail race. Lots of aid stations so I didn't carry water and it was never an issue. Tessa was correct, I found the light with hummus tortilla wraps and salty potatoes. One stop had deviled eggs and I was in heaven. Tessa recounted well, there were lots of never ending rollers, but nothing that steep or horrendous, just relentless. Fields we went through were annoying as the camber was significant. I decided nearing the end of the first loop that surprisingly I was almost certainly going to go back out for the remainder. We finished the first 25k in 4:45, not bad for me walking the majority of it. The cutoff was 11 hours. No prob.
Pickles had to drop at 25K and Tessa and I continued on. I had Tessa trot on ahead a couple of kms into the second lap and was fine/happy about it. Glad to be in my own head without worrying about slowing her down and just being able to plod ahead. Sometimes being solo for me is better, and this time was the case. Though I missed Tessa and Pickles good natured company and chatting that made the time fly by. The kms/miles went by uneventfully until I was 7 hours in. I calculated how long it would take me to finish (3 more hours) and had a bit of a mini panic moment. I rather loudly shouted "3 more hours, how the "F" and I going to do this "S". Loudly. Turned around and there were 2 guys right behind me. Oops. I did get a bit down then, feeling deflated.
Between the first bigger loop and second smaller loop was the start/finish. The group was there cheering me on and it was both encouraging to see them and depressing knowing I had another 1.5 hours or so to go. I went back out and was feeling kinda punchy and got a little nervous but plodded through. There were times I again felt somewhat deflated, but soldiered on. I finished up at 10:00:56. DFL and proud as hell of it. I DID IT, and with an hour to spare! Totally shocked I did. Wow, 31 miles is a long way, (My watch read quite long, over 33, but Margaret's read 31.) Admittedly I got a bit teary which surprised me. I didn't want food or beer so we took our two freebies and headed home. NO HOT WATER as Tessa mentioned. WTF, not a happy camper. Ate and visited and went to bed.
Monday Margaret and I were the last to leave and headed back to Boston. Our flights didn't leave until 7pm, so we parked the car at the airport and took the T into Boston proper. Did a few historical things and then had a nice beer/cider at a more local/non-touristy bar. Headed back to the airport which is where my trip went to hell in a hand basket as previously mentioned, I won't go into it again. It was totally my fault, but damn, what a pain. Talk about deflating...
Sorry this was soooo long, any of you who made it to the end, kudos. Much wordier than I planned. I did it, I am pleased, and I am grateful for such nice people in my life. Thank you all.
K
Kettle Moraine - June 2024
Beast of Burden - August 2024
Hennepin Hundred - Oct 2024
Javelina Jundred - Oct 2024
Great job on the race, Kat! Congrats.
Here are a few personals from yesterday. Read over the weekend, but too much to go back and do, sorry.
Lizzie, cute pic of you and HCBF on the beach the other day. Margaret and I passed a cupcake place in Boston, they looked delish, but we didn't stop. When do you head back? Enjoy the massage and nice dinner with your man.
Laura, training is draining. Glad the new woman is nice though.
Diane, congrats on your weekly mileage, that is fab. How did babysitting go?
Damaris, glad you got a "cooler" run in yesterday, enjoy tonight.
Sue, that goodness the storm passed you. Quite the fruit haul!! Sounds super yummy.
Karen, how did the birthday celebration go. Were the cupcakes from the same place when Lizzie was here, cause those were remarkable good. Do you have a pic of Riley and his pupcake? That is too cute.
Sandy, you are getting some hot hot hot weather too. Glad you got a little pool time with your sis. I take it your A/C is back on.
Cathy, glad you had a nice time visiting family.
Elina, 83 sounds heavenly...
Judy, it sounds like a lovely time!! What a thoughtful gift.
Tessa, fab report as always. Thanks for the company and encouragement. I couldn't have done it without you ladies.
HCK, nice tough workout yesterday.
So I am feeling remarkably good. Still stiff and sore, but not horrendous. Definitely not twice the sore of a 25K. Win! Work is getting to be a pain. Drama is never ending. You think with the upcoming changes things would chill out. That is working with 25 yr old girls though. I got more shifts for July, I am working most days. Will be nice to have some cash. The weekdays are only from 5-7pm, easy peasy.
I need to call on my purse, but they have it so I am not too worried.
It is nice to be home though, my pooches definitely missed me. We were talking about Petunia and how peculiar she is. Lights on but nobody is home. She definitely was frisky once we got back to the house.
Not much else. 4.5 weeks of work. Interview with the Austin place is the 11th. Just chugging along.
HUGE hot weather streak currently, I heard it is going to be record breaking. So far it is predicted to be 100 or over for the next 2 weeks. The 13th we get a break and it is only going to be 99.
Have a great day all.
Damaris – ummm, 88/76 there is NOTHING cool about that! Dang, nice job. Humidity IS the devil! I so agree. Hills today, eh? Man that coach of yours is tough lol
Tessa – OMG I loved your RR! I mea n extra loved this one. So funny. And, I, too, thought of you while running Fargo thinking about how I could remember everything like you do but no such luck. That’s great that you and Kat got to run so much together! Bet it helped the miles click by. Ouch on the falls! Oh, I’m with you. Not hungry AT ALL after finishing. All I grabbed at Fargo was a water. Agreed – shorts are only acceptable for UPS guys and mail carriers.
HCK – nice 7! It’s way too casual around here in general, IMO. But no managers ever say anything. I don’t get it.
Lizzie – LOL on bangin cupcakes! How were they? LOL on raining sweat. Yep, that’s me, too!! Especially in that dewpoint – WHEW!! I like your weekly mileage plan. You deserve the “rest” – in quotes because you are still doing PLENTY of miles. Awwww your day sounds just lovely. SO HAPPY you are getting some beach time! Cool, thanks for the tip on the veggie fries – I will check them out!
Cathy – nice weekend workouts! You are really getting some use out of your new bike. So maybe I missed something but are you doing your training now by minutes instead of miles? Are you following a plan already? I’ve started putting one together for the fall. We had rain and storms overnight so it was plenty humid this morning but not super hot. Temps and humidity are slowly dropping this week. Should be pretty nice for my long run on Sunday so I’m happy about that.
Kat – OMG that’s awful about leaving your purse. What an ordeal!! And unwanted cost!! Must be the post-race mental fog. Glad your mom could help you out with a hotel room. What a pain. I loved your weekend recap!! Not too long, silly, I could keep reading. Glad you are pleased as you should be – 50K is a freakin long way!! Hope you are resting well. How do the legs feel? What’s next? Can’t wait to see you in a month!!
Elina – 13 hours at work??!! How do you run after that?? I’d be exhausted and just flop into bed. Nice job following the plan.
Judy – that sounds like a LOVELY trip and so sweet of DC.
Sue – great job at class. Love that shaking feeling. So different than cardio for sure. OMG you are jam making fiend! Hope the pups don’t figure out how to open the sewing room. Have fun at the picnic! And I’m guessing you are NOT wearing knee high tube socks with YOUR shorts haha
Karen – finished The Breakdown yesterday. You are right, not quite as good as the other but I still enjoyed it. Even though I thought it was a bit far-fetched! Just downloaded Try Not To Breath that a friend recommended. How were the birthday celebrations?
Biked to RBs (~3.5mi) ran 4mi and biked home. Steamy out there but not super warm. We should be out of the 90s for awhile and it’s supposed to get slightly less humid as the week goes on. Fine by me!
My sister and family are back in town today and tomorrow so hope to meet up with them after work. So happy it’s Wednesday already!!
Sandy, oddly there was no extra cost to my stupidity. The tow back was covered by AAA except for the $20 tip I gave to the guy. I get the best AAA package since I drive to races frequently. Yes, cannot wait to see you!!!
Running with the Turtles
45 min easy this morning. Temps were OK though the humidity was high (for me). It was drizzling a bit, I could have used more drizzle! Tomorrow morning will be my first "jog", I am looking forward to it! I finished a book my RB leant me, "First Ladies of Running". It's really interesting and inspiring. Hard to believe that fairly recently women weren't allowed to run in races and people believed women couldn't run long distances (like anything over 2.5 miles!). It was so unusual to see a woman running that one woman was asked by a police officer if she was OK. We've come a long way fairly quickly.
Lizzie, aww, glad you are having a good time with HCBF! I have started coming home super sweaty also. I missed that. Veggie fries, eh? I wonder if I could sneak those to the kids! Yes, the plan that I am following goes by time. Which is different for me. There's more of an emphasis on running by effort vs trying to hit paces or a particular mileage. One of Lydiard's goals was to learn how to run a pace that you can sustain. Somewhat important. I have a book, "Healthy Intelligent Training" which goes into detail on Lydiard's philosophies. But the plans aren't readily available. I purchased one through Running Wizard. It's pretty cool because it uses the Final Surge calendar, which is what I was using with McMillan. Not cheap, but I will see how it works for the half. If it works well, maybe I will get a full marathon plan and share with you. Though the recommended length of a Lydiard plan is 24 months due to the long aerobic conditioning phase, which would probably be too long for you since you like to race so often! This is funny, my fast co-worker did a 10 mile run on Monday, it was in the 80's. He was hot, so he started doing a run/walk about halfway through. He still averaged 8:23 min/mile, his slowest mile was 9:19. How does one do that?
Damaris, a hill workout! Awesome! I have the feeling that if you work some hills into your routine then you will be unstoppable.
Kat, awesome awesome race! Congrats! It sounds like you really pushed through. Sorry about the hassles coming home! I am glad you are recovering well!
Kupcakes, that is a tough workout, regardless of the conditions!
Tessa, wow, awesome race recap! I don't know how the aid station volunteers can handle that music blasting for hours. I would hate that! Funny that you were off by an hour. It sounds like you had a great trip, very nice that you saw Niagara Falls!
Elina, 80 degrees felt pretty good compared to 98. Hope you made it home after the long day!
Judy, wow, sounds like a spectacular trip! Welcome back!
Sandy, just saw that you posted! LOL, on the banging cupcakes. I had some weird thoughts when I read that also. Yes, I started following a Lydiard plan. It is a 24 week half marathon plan. Exactly 24 weeks to the race I was considering, so I figured it was fate. See more info above in Lizzie's personal. When is your next race?
Cathy
Cathy, I have run hills before (at OTF, mostly). Didn't feel a difference. I still suck in flat and hilly races, lol.
Kat - oh good glad there was no added expense!! I just recently (well, last fall) got AAA as well. So far so good and I will keep it for SURE. Glad you are feeling pretty good! That's great you can get some extra hours in - a 2 hour shift should go by fast.
Cathy - thanks for the explanation on your next plan. 24 weeks seems long but then I just looked and that's what I'm writing my next plan for LOL. I'm almost certain I'm going to do Richmond. Just have to sign up, book flights and check with a certain forumite to see if there is room at the Inn hee hee. Oh, wait, I also have a half in Salem Willows, MA in Sept. Have you read Katherine Switzer's memoire (or maybe it's a biography, I forget)? It's so good! That's where I learned about how quickly we have evolved in the running scene. I consider us of this age to be on the cutting age of both the running boom and the Internet haha
Not sure if you got GEICO where you live, but GEICO covers all of that too so we don't have AAA and use GEICO only. Glad that wasn't an extra expense because that would have sucked to boot.
Revisiting the hearing I survived last week. I can't believe they want to continue fighting this issue and I can't believe I have not lost yet (this is a complex issue and everybody is against us and we are basically arguing this alone - for justice, lol)
Mighty Mouse
Amazing racing you gals have been doing! Congrats to you all!
I’m encouraged about the toe. Tuesday I ran 60 minutes out on the trail and the toe only felt the last 5 minutes. I saw a doe, a bunny, catbird, red wing blackbirds, osprey, cardinals and assorted other birds.Our trip south was a AAA road trip. They definitely get some great things and got us some lower cost stuff as a result of the AAA connection.Happy runs, All!
Where is the "any" key?
judyruns
4.5 easy easy miles this morning. Second to last day of school so after tomorrow there should be much less traffic on the neighborhood roads - yay. Yesterday's OTF was fun. The coach that does that one is super motivating and it was a small class so she was calling people out (like me, more than once) to get us to push harder and start back running after recovery sooner. I ended up with 3.25 miles there after running 5.25 earlier in the morning. And today I'm a little bit sore from the non-running part of OTF. It's really obvious I've been neglecting strength training and pretty much everything but running.
This morning after running I've been working on the running group. We open registration Friday, so I put together an email with an early reg discount code, added a few things to the website, and sent individual emails to a few people that have shown interest in the last couple months. I'm weirdly more excited than I should be that registration is opening. We don't start for almost two months, but I am excited now. Still a bunch of stuff I need to do with sponsorships and advertising, I'm going to be busy the next few days.
Judy, welcome back. Your trip sounded great! So sweet of DC.
Tessa, great race report yesterday. Between that and all the pictures on facebook, it's obvious you all had a great time.
Kathryn, I loved your writeup. As a coach I may have to steal "Couch to 50K isn't a good idea," that made me laugh. I am so proud of you for finishing even when it got so tough towards the end. Oh yes, the cupcakes (if I get off my lazy butt today since I didn't get them yesterday) will be from the same place. I didn't realize it at the time, but that place is just two doors down from the store we start/finish our runs from.
Liz, fun day for you ahead! I have to admit I got sidetracked yesterday and never made it to get the cupcakes and pupcake. This morning I said something to DH before he left for work about birthdays being over and he came back with "birthday week," so I may try to get down there today. He loved the movies - right now on Xfinity the first one is only showing with commercials. And what about when they're no longer available???? Not a worry anymore.
Susan, nice workout. Love that "still shaking" feeling after a tough one.
Sandy, the guy with the tube socks....I can't even. Fashion didn't end in 1978! And we're all thankful for that, except maybe tube sock guy. Glad your temps are coming down a bit, we're settling in for four more months of misery.
Cathy, I'm really interested in your training this time around. I mentioned taking their training but that probably won't be until next year at the earliest. Sorry I couldn't get that done beforehand . You'll have to keep us posted on how it goes and how prepared you feel, if you think you're improving, etc.
Okay, breaks over, gotta get back to it. Thank goodness I don't have a real job!
Coaching testimonial: "Not saying my workout was hard but KAREN IS EVIL."
Upcoming races: Hennepin Hundred - October 2024
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