End of August!

So these posts are pretty boring, huh? I run, I lift weights, I get a new doggie and find out that her idea of a walk is actually a really swift jog-trot and that I need to be wearing my running shoes when I walk her.

Anyway, this is Emma. She's terrific and goofy and loves to eat and snuggle. Typical golden retriever. She's got dog toys scattered all over the downstairs and she's only been with us for six hours. I think it's love!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Yes, I have been AWOL from posting, but not from working out. Several days of weights and running at the end of last week. Then we headed over to Central Oregon for a short family vacation at Black Butte Ranch. My workouts were...relaxed, which is certainly NOT code for "non-existent." Biking, canoeing, hanging by the pool, and one single, solitary, gorgeous evening run combined with tons of sunshine to make a perfect vacation.

Arrived home late Wednesday night, lifted weights Thursday, and am planning a 5K jog with Kat tonight.

Tomorrow we meet a new doggie! Our old golden retriever, Sunny, died three months ago, and we have a very large dog-sized hole in this home. The new doggie, Emma, is around 9 years old and very active--loves to hike and run and chase balls and jump in and out of streams. We'll have to see how she does around the cats but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she's the one for us.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Swim team is so great. I love driving carpool, because the track is just sitting there staring at me while the kids are in the pool and HELLO why would I not run? Okay, sometimes I sit and read and put off running as long as possible. But not today, Zurg! Today I was awesome!

a) 1 mile easy (10 minute pace, if you're timing, which of course I was)

b) 11 repeats up and down the stadium stairs (a total of 1056 steps and about 7 minutes, if you're counting, which of course I was)

c) 1/4 mile medium-hard (8 minute pace)

d) 1 minute walk

Repeat c & d for a total of 1 mile medium-hard

e) And end with another 1056 steps

I know it's only 2 miles total and then the stair running, but it is a hell of a workout and I felt so great afterward.

Tomorrow: grunge garage weights and then a few more hours of blackberry cane eradication. 

Monday, August 13, 2012

YAY. Back to normal. 25 minutes of garage grunge weights, then two and a half hours wrestling with the blackberry vines that continually threaten to take over the back yard. Squat, cut, drag vine up the slope and toss on pile. Insert swear word as needed when thorns puncture gloves. Repeat forever.

I feel fabulous this afternoon. Yet another reminder that there is nothing wrong with me that a few hours of hard physical labor can't fix.

Friday, August 10 2012 and etc.

Friday: Ugh.
Saturday, August 11: 40 minutes of weights.
Sunday, August 12: Double Ugh. Planned to run a 5K lope around the neighborhood, but this stomach-whatever-grossness shoved running off the calendar. What the heck? It's not flu season, body.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Cool and cloudy again this morning, about 60 degrees at the track. I had a very easy, elegant, straightforward speedwork sort of thing planned, which I took from Kara Goucher's "Running For Women," page 215.

It's such a simple workout that there's no way to mess it up I only messed it up a little bit: 1 mile warm up, 2 X 1/4 mile hard/easy, then (this is where I went off script) 3 X 100 yards hard/easy, then a very slow 1/4 mile, then I think I did another hard segment and then I sort of jogged randomly and then I was just lurching around out there. TIME TO QUIT, my brain said, and so I did.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

...and on this date in history 25 years ago, the mercury hit 103 degrees here, a groomsman fainted, several ex-sweeties showed up (invited) at the church, and we got married.

Let's hear it for grunge lifting in the garage: I knocked off 30 minutes of intense weights this morning before getting Kat up for swim team. I swear lifting makes me faster when I run; it certainly makes it easier to run. Grateful that my body still works so well.

Tomorrow: speed work at the track. I might be thinking about running a 10K. And I might not.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Now that Kat is healthy again, we're back in the swim team carpool routine. I sat around for a while this morning, alternately glaring at the track and reading Tina Fey's "Bossypants", and then I dragged my butt onto the track for an easy 2 miles. I attribute the copious amounts of sweat produced to the humidity rather than my exertion, which was medium-hard, at best.

Felt really good to run on the track again, instead of up and down these dang hills. I wonder why I resist it so much? I know exactly what will happen--the first lap is like WHY? and then around Lap 3 I'm thinking WTF AM I DOING THIS FOR? and then I'm thinking WILL ANYONE NOTICE IF I QUIT? and then after that I settle into being happy. I was really, really happy at the end of the run today. Still feeling happy.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Crazy humid today. Not as hot as yesterday, though.

Lifted hard for 40 minutes. Fun!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Blergh.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

It's supposed to hit 97 degrees today, our first truly hot day, so my plan was to roll out of bed early and run 5K.

Instead, I dragged out of bed around 10.00, moaning and whining: sore throat, ear ache, sniffles. I put in 35 minutes up and down the neighborhood hills and trails, VERY SLOWLY, and feel a little better.

Women's Olympic marathon race is tomorrow. Go Kara!

Friday, August 3, 2012

My parents were married on August 3, 1942. Dad died a few weeks after their 59th wedding anniversary, Mom six years later. I felt adrift for a while afterward, as if my feet didn't stay on the ground. Something about being without parents, even as an adult, is unsettling for me.

Today's workout: 30 minutes of weights in the garage, a tiny bit of weed-pulling, an afternoon of hanging out with poor sick Kat watching Season 1 of Downton Abbey and replays of Thursday's Olympic highlights.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

So. Looks as if this will be my rest day. Kat has been running a fever of 103.2 since last night. I showered at 6.00, not knowing if I would be leaving for the emergency room/urgent care clinic at any moment. Instead, after a long time on the phone with the advice nurse, we're heading in for a late afternoon appointment.

I was really looking forward to tonight's run with Julia, but Kevin is out late tonight and I'm not leaving a feverish kid home alone. We'll try to do it this weekend, instead. Kat heard us talking about it and was all, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I ruined your run."

"Stop it, you silly cheese," Julia said. "It's not like you got sick on purpose."

It's a beautiful August day--cool this morning, warming up right now. Perfect running weather! I'll be back out there tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Hill repeats--aka short workout. Five minutes of warm up with skipping, sliding, kicking. Ten minutes of hill repeats. GARRRGGG. Sweat, burn, tweaked butt muscle, internal whining. Got honked at by Carole. Five minutes of cool down. Five minutes of lying on the back deck with Leo sitting on my stomach, running his claws in and out and purring madly, while I pretend to do core work.

Kat's cold is much worse. She hasn't been sick like this for a few years. 


Cloudy and almost cold this morning. Wore Catnip 5K shirt  for the first time. 


Tomorrow: running at Duniway and up Terwilliger with Julia.