just add tequila

Where did the weekend go??

First things first – I need to catch up on daily photos.

I grabbed my camera off the couch as I headed out for a 12-hour shift on Friday, thinking there wouldn’t be any photo opportunities in such a long day. Well, I walked out the door and captured this sunrise before I even started my commute! The sunset was equally impressive, but I wasn’t able to take any pictures as I was still at work.

On Saturday morning Tom and I went to a semi-local park to get our run in and then do some map work with an old orienteering map, since things like “taking a bearing” and picking the most efficient route to a control are like a foreign language to me.

Well, the run sucked. For starters, most of the roads in the park were closed due to snow, so we did five miles on one little stretch of road; I think we did the same loop five or six times. I could tell you for sure if I looked at the map on Garmin. Also, it was just one of those runs where my legs did NOT want to cooperate. Afterwards we hiked around in the woods for a bit, and (with a little help) he let me “find” three or four “controls” – I use quotes because the controls weren’t actually there anymore, but we went to where they WOULD have been. We’d have continued but we were both getting cold, so we headed home (with a pit stop at Tim Hortons for cocoa).

Dinner Saturday night was an old favorite, New England fish chowder. I love the recipe from Simply Recipes; I actually don’t think I made any modifications. I’ve made this three or four times now. No pictures because we inhaled it. Post-dinner we had some blueberry ice cream (seafood and blueberries, it’s almost like being back in Maine!) and settled in on the couch to watch some football.

We took the couch because, obviously, the chair was taken…

That’s Jed’s chair, and he doesn’t share well. (As you can see, I need more practice shooting in low-light conditions.)

Sunday brought our weekly long run at Letchworth; I did 8 miles, Tom did 12.5. On long runs (a new-ish concept to me), I struggle with going SLOW enough. My “normal” pace seems slow, in my head, so I think “why would I want to go slower?” I did my best to reign it in yesterday, though, and it really did seem to help. I was about 10 seconds slower per mile than last week when I did the same run (9:41/mi. yesterday) but it really didn’t feel bad at all. Yesterday was also the first time I noticed any correlation between heart rate and the way I feel when running. Bear with me, I’m still new at this. I noticed that every mile felt pretty good except mile seven. When I looked at my splits afterwards, during most miles my heart rate was between 160 and 165 – except mile 7, which was an average 0f 170. So, maybe I need to set the heart rate alarm on my watch to go off (on long runs) when I hit, say, 168? I’ve been trying to focus on pace, but maybe I need to focus on heart rate instead?

I headed to the falls to snap a few pics while I waited for Tom to finish up – just a few, though; my fingers were freezing! I’ve decided I need a tripod. (Not that it will help with the frozen fingers, but it’ll make my photos more clear when I’m shooting with a slower shutter speed. Though a tripod that somehow incorporated hand warmers would be pretty great.)

We made a quick stop for the Sunday paper (gotta have my coupons; I’m cheap), more hot cocoa (this is becoming a tradition, this “cocoa post-run” thing), then headed home for hot showers and homemade pizza. And more football.

So yeah: running, cooking, football. An uneventful weekend but in a good way – just the way I like them, sometimes.

On the list for today: a long-overdue haircut if they can squeeze me in (it’s been five months!), errands, and maybe a quick 3-miler?

Today’s workout: 4.0 mi., 36:03, average pace 9:01/mi.

Today’s pace was tough; I was able to finish (and probably could have gone a bit farther) but I felt like I really had to focus to maintain the pace throughout the entire run. I know it’s good to push outside of my comfort zone, but…woof.

Spent a bit of time today sprucing up the blog; it’s still not where I want it to be, but it’s MUCH closer. I have very limited knowledge of any sort of “coding” stuff, so everything takes me eight times as long as it should. I’m going to try ONE MORE TIME to upload a new header, and then I’m going to bed before I throw this laptop. I don’t seem to have enough memory to run a browser, Photoshop, and my other usual programs (AIM, iTunes, etc…) without things getting severely bogged down.

In other news, I ordered a DODOcase for my Kindle, and it arrived today! I’m in love with it – it reminds me of the Moleskine journals I love so much. Each one is handcrafted and the attention to detail is really fantastic.

Today’s workout: 3.0 miles on the treadmill, 27:47, average pace 9:14/mi.

Note to self: remember how good it feels to get a run in before work. Not the actual getting out of bed, or the actual running, but how much better you feel all day for having done it.

^ ^ The delicious brew that accompanied tonight’s grilled chicken salad for dinner. I picked this up at Whole Foods on Saturday – not gonna lie, I was initially drawn to the packaging. It’s a cute little bottle similar to the one Red Stripe comes in, and the hot pink label pulled me in. I’m a sucker for good design. Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was, with certainty, a flavor that I would like, and some encouraging words from the guy in the beer department sealed the deal.

~

Have you ever noticed that Subway occasionally “reinvents” an item on their menu to make it more marketable? Case in point: I usually order a 6″ turkey sub with provolone, toasted, and I add jalapeno peppers (among other vegetables). Today I saw a “turkey jalapeno melt” on the menu. Upon further inquiry I discovered that it’s just a turkey sub, with cheese, and jalapeno peppers, toasted. Seriously?

I bought it anyway.

But still.

(PS: Subway, if you’re reading, bring back the turkey bacon avocado. Which was really just a turkey bacon sub, with avocado. So I guess what I’m really saying is…bring back the avocado. Kthx.)

(I can’t figure out how to put the little tilde on top of the “n” in jalapeno. That’s going to bug me. Perhaps, then, I shouldn’t have used the word “jalapeno” six times in this post.)

Over the past few days, I’ve been playing quite a bit with the new Kindle Fire my parents got me for Christmas! One of the things I really like about its color screen is the ability to subscribe to magazines digitally. Less piles of magazines/paper in my house = good.

On the car ride to Toledo, I got lost in the January 2012 issue of Runner’s World. There’s an article about reaching your “This year…” goals, and this blurb about racing farther stuck with me.

(screenshot courtesy of runnersworld.com)

The first time I completed a half marathon (Lake Placid 2010) I tried to follow one of Hal Higdon’s plans, but life got in the way and I sort of half-assed my training. I do remember completing one long run of 9 miles, at an 11:xx pace, but that was it. I also had no “base” to begin my training; I relied solely on his plan to get me, essentially, from zero to half. I was able to run the first 8 miles of the race, and ran/walked (mostly walked) the rest. My time: 2:40:30.

The second time around, again in Lake Placid, 2011 – I didn’t train at all. Don’t ask me why. I think I ran three times total in the months leading up to the race. My head just wasn’t in it. I (reluctantly) decided to employ a walk/run strategy straight from the beginning, and while I was severely underprepared, it ended up being a smarter race for me and I finished with a chip time of 2:32:32.

And now here I am, more than six months out from Lake Placid 2012, and I can run 8 miles at a 9:31 pace? It sure makes me wonder what I’m capable of if I stay consistent. I’ve only been running 15-20 miles per week; based on what I’ve been reading, I’d like to increase this and be somewhere in the 30-40mpw range by spring (March-ish) – when training really “begins.” I want to be confident in my ability to complete the distance, and focus more on getting faster.

Lunch today – a “superfood” salad from Whole Foods, picked up in Cleveland on our way home Saturday. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about it. The dressing was kind of boring, and I’m not sure I liked the texture of the predominant grain (wheatberries?). I’d like to recreate it, perhaps with some quinoa, and a dressing with a bit more flavor, maybe something sweeter – balsamic vinegar?

Tomorrow’s a 12-hour shift, and I’m unprepared in the lunch department, so it’ll probably be a Subway day. Subway – yum.

Today’s workout: 8.0 mi., 1:16:26, average pace 9:31/mi.

I think sitting in the car so much over the last few days took a toll on my legs. I felt fine for the first four or five miles, then around mile 7 I bonked pretty hard. I had originally planned on attempting 10 miles, but cut it short. I’m okay with it. Today’s run brings me to 21 miles for the week.

I took a few pictures post-run, which brings me to my first Project 365 photo!

I got lucky with this gorgeous rainbow; I had been taking pictures of the falls for a few minutes when it started to rain- just about the time Tom finished up his run, so we got in the car to come home when I looked to my right and saw THIS! I made him pull over (erm, asked nicely?) and I snapped a few shots.

I’m lucky to have such a gorgeous place to run within a ten minute drive of my house. This time of year we aren’t running on any trails (too muddy), but the roads through the park are calm – the speed limit is 25mph and there isn’t a ton of traffic this time of year.

Of course, if this amounts to anything, I might be stuck on the treadmill for a bit in the coming days…

I’m one of “those people” who gets excited about snow, though, and we’re sorely overdue. Bring it on!