Sunday, January 23, 2011

A Weekly Recap and A Look Back

I've been bad about keeping up with the blog, but on a positive note, I've been good about running!

A quick recap of the last week:

Monday was supposed to be Yoga Night, but Mother Nature had other plans.  We got something like 6 inches of snow which made the city streets more like a luge course (icy, slippery, icky) than roads, so in the interest of not totaling my car I opted to stay home and get a good work out by shoveling our driveway...twice.

On Tuesday, the temperature dropped into the single digits and stayed there for the rest of the week.  I stayed home and curled up under a pile of blankets.

By Wednesday, I couldn't take it anymore.  I dragged my butt to the gym and put in a quick 3 miles on the treadmill.

Distance: 3.0 miles
Time: 30:30
Avg. Pace: 10:10 (My heart just wasn't in it.)

My Warrior Dash team also finished getting their collective butts in gear and we snagged the last open slots in the 8:30am Wave for the Minnesota Warrior Dash in July!  Although it's technically not a team event, you're allowed to run with your friends and help each other out along the way.  We're talking about getting customized t-shirts with Top Gun-esque call signs on the back.  According to my teammates, my call sign will be 'Ringleader'.  I think I kind of like it!!!

Thursday was bad.  I should have gone to the track or the gym, but once I crawled into the house after work, I wasn't going anywhere.  The house was warm.  The windchill outside was -20.  The warm house won. Fortunately, the night wasn't a total loss.  I finally got around to doing a bunch of chores (deep cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom, etc.) that I've been putting off due to lack of time.

Friday was crazy.  I left work a little early so I could make it to the indoor track before they shut it down at 6pm!  Normally, the track is open 'til 8pm, but this weekend they were hosting an indoor marathon and needed the time to get ready.  It's never a good thing when you have a jam packed weekend schedule and your go-to place for indoor long runs is going to be unavailable.  I arrived by 4:30pm and by 4:45pm I was running.  At first, I thought I'd just do 3 and get out, but the weather forecast combined with my intense dislike for running long on the treadmill spurred me on to do the 7 miles I had planned to do on either Saturday or Sunday.  In order to get 7 miles, I had to do 25 laps of that track..talk about mind-numbing!  I had trouble keeping track of my laps!  Anyway, I had one lap to go and they were shooing people out.  I begged them to let me finish my last lap and surprisingly, they agreed to let me on one condition...I had to sprint the last lap!  Let me tell you, there's nothing like trying to sprint just over a quarter of a mile when you're tired, but I did it!

Distance: 6.99 miles
Time: 1:09:36
Avg. Pace: 9:56

I celebrated my success in true Furball fashion.  I came home, I showered, I went out and drank a beer!

I spent Saturday morning hanging out with the two furry babies who rule my life (seriously, the rabbits pretty much own me) and doing some not so fun tasks like laundry.  Later in the afternoon, I met The Husband at the gym and while he decided that he was going to run 7 miles on the treadmill, I did an easy 3 and then hit the studio for fun with free weights.  The gym we work out at is located in and owned by The Husband's employer, so I often see people I know there.  It turned out that on Saturday, I knew EVERYBODY there!  We saw his boss (who happens to be one of our Warrior Dash teammates) working hard on the getting back into running shape and we ran into another couple who we've raced with before.  In fact, I kind of blame them for turning me on to distance running to begin with.  In 2006 they wanted to do the Relay event in our local marathon and needed two other fools who were willing to do it with them.  Mr. Furball and I were those fools!  Back then, I was 26 years old, 20+ pounds heavier, and couldn't run three miles (at 12:00 min/mile pace) without walking for most of it, but somehow I ended up on their team.  The She part of this couple is an incredible runner.  She ran the first 7 miles in 56 minutes flat and handed off to me.  I took the next 3 miles like a total turtle and handed off to Mr. Furball who took on the next 7.5 miles (farther than he'd ever gone at that point) and then handed off to the He half of the couple to finish it off.  After watching people cross the finish line, I was hooked and so was Mr. Furball.  In fall of 2007 I finished my very first half marathon (in a time of 2:37:37) and two weeks later, The Husband finished his first full marathon in just over 5 hours (in miserable heat - go look up what happened at the Chicago Marathon the same day that year)!  I truly believe that somewhere during those 3 miles back in 2006, a runner was born, and she was me!  One year after my first half marathon, I set a PR on that same course (2:21:49) and two weeks later I was toeing the line at my first (and to date, only) marathon which I completed in 5:14:12.  I can't wait to see where I go next.

Distance: 3.0
Time: 30:00
Avg. Pace: 10:00

Today was all about fun as the Green Bay Packers did battle with the Chicago Bears for a trip to the Super Bowl.  We spent the day hanging out with friends and yelling at the TV in true Cheesehead style.  As an added bonus, the party hosts knew a certified massage therapist who was looking to make a little extra cash, so she set up her massage table in a spare room and offered massages for $1/minute throughout the game.  Hmm...sounds good to me!  I spent 30 minutes on her table getting the knots worked out of my back.  I can't tell you how long it's been since my last massage, but I can tell you that I think I'm going to have a standing date with this gal once a month from now until the end of my marathon training!

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