1,2,3

Theres been lots of reasons why I've been failing at updating. First. I havent been running as much. The heat is truly kicking my butt. My 3 miles this morning ended up being 2, a hilly 2, but the humidity made it impossible for me to catch my breath. The hill I've become so accustomed to destroying? Yeah that was 1.5 into my route this morning and I was thankful to get 75% of the way through it, took a detour to walk and then ran down. 

What I found on my detour- a Rose Garden! I stopped, smelled the air, and took pictures :)

I also had a "so bad I don't want to blog about it" run last Tuesday. We had 50 minutes and KR and Huck convinced me we could do the 4.5 mile route...and the the people talked for 5 minutes and the pressure was on to do 10 minute miles. Have I ever explained how badly I fail at running under pressure?! I waived KR and Huck on after a half a mile, said I'd wind my way back to the store and started bawling. Yes, some of it was the oppressive heat and (again) humidity, but I still wasn't over the crap race the Saturday before and the news that my dad's once full thick head of hair was coming out in chunks, thanks to the chemo. As much as I try to stay cool and calm, the surface keeps cracking and with less pressure now.

The second and third reasons I've been a running slacker? Well, they make me much happier. I started biking to work, which is only 4 miles roundtrip, but, being Raleigh, you're either pedaling for your life up a hill or coasting down its backside. Along with that crosstraining, I've been following through with my self made promise to get more weights in. Sometimes its just 18 burpees in the lawn, but last night it was 1/3 of the p90x video that made me hate Tony Horton. For the record, we're doing better, Tony and I, thanks Huck :)

The last reason? Well, he's cute and fluffy and 5 weeks old and still mastering the pounce. It's super hard to wake up and not just let my little Wiley man play all day. The first day I had to leave him and go to work?! Slayed me! Now I get the anxiety women get leaving their babies to go back to work! But, we're getting into a routine now, and I'm fairly confident Wiley will live, and he's growing with minimal parasites on/in him :) and like I said, he's mastering the pounce!

I fear I might have to give up running outside soon. When it was 63, the coolest part of the day, and my lungs couldn't keep up?! No bueno! When I get into a real job, I'll probably check out these gyms that advertise for $10/month memberships and go run on a treadmill and take classes, too! Until then, I'll run as much as possible, keep biking to work (after my "saddle" heals some!), and fall in love with Tony. I've already agreed to do the bi's and tri's tonight, heaven help me! (UPDATE: did it. rocked it! WOO, baby!)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Yep...he might be cuter than Lucy, but don't tell the roomie!

Incredibly cute and maddeningly frustrating

Alright, let's start this off where I thought I would be gushing. This is my in my positively neon outfit for this morning's 10k. Huck and I signed up for the Run for Your Momma 5k/10k in the 10k division, obviously. If you can tell behind me, the ground is a bit sandy, the joys of running in Wilmington, NC. We came to his parents' place for Mother's Day and they live close by, so we figured we'd support a great cause (domestic abuse shelters), get a good run in, PR on a stupidly flat course, and originally, I thought my recent UNC-W alum cousin could run with us. She smartly declined, given the state of her liver last night and I'm thinking tonight, too!

 

Instead, what happened was the most frustrating thing to ever happen during a race. Huck and I realized the field was small enough, we could legitimately place in our age groups, so I told him to go run his race, I'd run mine. After about the first half mile, thanks to all the turns  on neighborhood streets, I'd lost Huck and most of the field.  There was one woman hanging out around me, so we chatted for about 2 miles, and got through a water and Gatorade stop. 

The numerous turns were easy to get through for the most part thanks to volunteers explaining just where we went since their little spray painted wooden stakes didn't match up with where the people were directing us. No big, right?

Until we got to a turn where the volunteer had his top half in a van, explaining where they needed to go to avoid road closures. We kept going on the road we turned down since we could see another white shirted person and runners on the street beyond that guy. Except... that white shirted man was watering his lawn and hadn't seen any runners pass by him, and the people running in front of us were 5k-ers. Cursed baby jogger people that only do 5ks actually came in handy! 

Our little trio turned around, ran up the main street we'd gone past and knew went to the finish/start line. People were cheering us on because we were the first 10kers to come through!...yeah, we crossed over the other set of timing stuff, yelled at the race director "WE GOT LOST!" He told us "its those headphones! You can't hear the directions!"

Yeah... I run with one earbud in when I'm on the sidewalks, so a race that forces me onto 2 lane roads through neighborhoods? You bed I'm keeping an ear out (literally) for cars and I guess "directions", but, as the Roomie said "audio cues?! What is this, Hunger Games?! No booming voice from above!"

It took me so much self control to not just tell the race director where he could shove my earbuds, so our lost trio turned around and just headed out the way we'd come. We decided we'd just add enough mileage to get to 6.2 and say "to hell with the course." 

This strategy meant there were no more water breaks, volunteers looked at us like we were crazy, and my favorite? When, after seeing Huck at the top of my mini-hill (like up 20 feet when my big hill is up 100), I knew something was seriously up. I told the volunteer that wanted me to run down a street to a FLIPPING CONE to shut the crap up, I'd gotten lost and didn't give a crap any more, so for the first (and last?!) time ever, I beat Huck across the finish line.

When every 10k runner got to talking, we realized nobody did the "right" course. What the race director had told us about running on trails? Never happened. Huck's GPS said he ran 6.5, I did 5.95 on my hacked course, volunteers were far away from injured parties, etc. One runner even said when this same group put on a half marathon, there were 3 water stops. After I survived my half, I was thankful for practically all 8 water stops! My 10 miler had 4 water stops... Huck and I were spitting mad, so we left to go meet my cousin for breakfast and said screw the awards. We didn't run the course, so why the crap does it matter if we got awards for our hacking? 

Worst. Race. EVER....and I've run some inaugural races and evil courses before!

What made my day better? When we went back to Huck's house, there was Cerra with her 7 puppies: 

We're pretttty sure Huck's male dog is the father. He's black, just like 5 of the pups!

See those precious little pups?! They were born on Wednesday, so these Friday night pictures are of literally 2 day old babies. They're squirmy and whiny and soooo adorable! Momma dog just lays there and accepts her duty as a milkmaid. 

But the best part?

Those are my two favorite men!

Wiley Mew is about 4 weeks old and his teenage mom had two of her kittens die and sort of gave up on this one, so he was placed in my arms by Huck's parents and it was instant love. Given that Huck has two big dogs that aren't used to cats, much less kittens, and my roomie is allergic to cats, I figured I'd just be surrogate mom for the weekend.

Until... we got back from the race today and for the 2nd straight hour, Wiley wasn't more than 5 feet away from me, a streak that's mostly been kept up all night, even when I was eating sushi for lunch, and Huck said "so... this can happen ONLY if you take care of it, clean the litter box, get it food, take it to the vet...but...because I trust you, we can take him home if you want." I had this tiny thing in my lap, so I couldn't do the same dance I did after a company said "yeah, we'll be making you an offer for a full time position in the Raleigh area this week, or maybe early next week" aka SUUUUUUUUPPPPPER EXCITED! 

 Sooo I'm a kitty mom! Wiley Mew (I named him, Huck and I went back and forth, his middle name was almost "Inigo" ) shall be called "Mew-Mew" until he stops making that sound, but we refer to him as "Wiley" in conversation :) The shirt I was wearing Friday night has become his baby Bjorn. I folded it in half hot-dog style, put him in the crease, and tuck the neck and hem under my arms so I can walk around while still snuggling. I made PB and Nutella sandwiches for breakfast like that today, so it works pretty well :)

Yeah, I think I'm going to like this...

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd (and Wiley)

Things that make me go run...

1. Pushup babies. Let's be honest here.
2. The defined leg muscles. Not just the calves, although seeing the side cut and the split calf muscles are nice, but when you get them in your thighs too :)
3. Waking up at 6:30 and realizing the temperature outside is 50. Just 50. When you know that moments of late spring are quickly fading, 50 makes a warmblooded girl like me put on my socks and get OUT ZE DOOR! 

That was my story Thursday morning, and I was so blindly happy, I just went out the door with the music, no tracking app started. I went right up the baby hill, got to the end of the street, turned around and did the big hill until I hit the other end of the street. I always try to make myself go beyond the apex of hills, so I went to the fire hydrant, turned around, and hoofed it home.

The route was around 3 miles and I figured it was just a good "loosen up the legs, kill some hills" before Saturday's planned flat 10k. No clue on time or pace, and sometimes you just need to run, get out of your head. I mildly give up on getting out of my head, so now I just take those worries and pray. I figure that's more productive!

Up next? One of the most frustrating events of my life, which was followed by quite possibly the cutest event. Trust me...there's already 20 pictures of the cuteness!

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

A good run

Like I mentioned here, I've been in need of a "good" run! I made a 10k training program for the roomie in light of the 10k we're doing in June, so I offered to run with her for some of the days. She'd had a bad run on Sunday, too, so we were ready to attack our Tuesday run, wraaarrrgh! She was short on time, having to work a morning shift, couple hour break, and then go to her normal store to finish up for the night. End result? We had to run at 1pm, not my fave time to run, but WHATEVER, this was going to be a GOOD run!

I used my super-secret-awesome trick to keep cool by folding over a hand towel I'd wet with water and then tucking it under my shirt on my neck, held up by bra straps, thus keeping me mildly immune from the muggy slightly overcast afternoon. The funniest part? The roomie's phone said we were going further and faster than mine. Accidental scientific survey :/ Unfortunately, I think mine was a bit closer, which makes our run less bad@$$tic, but when you consider we stopped at lots of stoplights, our pace was closer to my average :)

Pretty sure, based on how I'm walking today, I pulled something during the run. Nothing hurt when I was running, I stretched out like a pro to baby my achy knee, but today I swear someone tugged on my right glutes! I'm meeting friends for dinner and AVENGERS!!! and have warned them I'll be sporting some awesome compression gear :)

Ignoring SC this week (what's new?!) and instead of doing a tempo run, will just run a 10k this weekend in Wilmington and probably 4 miles after it to make it an even 10 :) I might do a couple easy miles tomorrow to keep my miles up without getting too burnt out.

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

PS- my baby hydrangea plant has new baby LEAVES!!! This is the blue one, super excited its not dying :)

Bad runs --> bad blogger

Ok, so I admit that when a run doesn't go how I really want it to- or it happens so flipping early that I forget I did it by the time most people's days start- I don't want to talk about it! Last Wednesday (score one for getting it in before the 1 week date!) Huck and I were out the door by 5:30 for our little jaunt. SC told us to go do 4 miles, but I was a bum and didn't map out a route before, figuring that Huck, battling some sort of ailment, wouldn't join me and I could do the run later in the day after I'd mapped it out blah blah blah. But! He joined me, and I punted on where to go.

Thankfully he lives near NC State, so even at o'dark 30, we had lots of well lit sidewalks, trails and side streets to run on. We did a little loop, then curley cued around, retraced our steps some, and then headed up this slightly evil hill on campus before going home. The route was only 3.2 miles, not 4, but we kept up a 10 min pace, which took a lot over hills like Dan Allen! The short little hills are fun to train on, because you can see the ending and just power through it.

The "bad" run came on Sunday. I was a bad runner and just didn't go on Saturday, even though I had an event I could've gone running at with people I know and even like! But its rare you can just sleep in on a Saturday and I'm usually an 8:30 Sunday church girl. Usually... I worked Saturday night for a place an hour away from home and after pounding LOTS of coffee and Mountain Dew to keep me alive through work and driving back (in the rain, where NC drivers just fail...flashers?! WTH?!) I stared at the back of my eyelids, gave up and puttered around the internet until 1am... so my grand plan of running before 8:30 church went out the window!

I decided on 11am church and planned out my run...and did other random home things...and finally got out the door at 9:30 and realized my awesomely planned out 4 miler would result in a pretty ripe me walking into the sanctuary. I realize God loves everyone, regardless of how badly they might smell or tired they might look after 4 miles with 2.5 killer hills, but I like getting dressed up for church on Sunday, so my 4 mile route got scrapped for the simple 1.5-er. Only, I full blown RAN up the .5 mile hill. RAN. Got into a ZONE and destroyed it! ... and then got to the top, wanting to throw up and realizing that the "oh, this isn't too bad" 75 and slightly humid it'd been when I walked out the front door now felt like a straight up sauna!

So I turned around, easily jogged down the hill and back home and reminded myself to not be a bum! Run early, run the route, get the results you WANT!

The romie had a bad run on Sunday, too, so we plotted to run together, because sometimes you just need a good run!...which I'll save for tomorrow :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!
-Syd

PS- http://bit.ly/JaisAy  <-- why I started crying during the Tarheel 10 miler

Bargaining for the Win

I'd gotten so used to the SC plan telling me to do an EZ 2 miles on Mondays that I just thought that's what I had to do again for Monday, and when I got home and was comfy in my chair, ready to destroy the kitchen cook more, I definitely got to a sad face when I went to confirm my target pace, and maybe finagle the run for Tuesday, not comfy Monday night, and discovered this week is all short runs but Monday was an EZ 4, not 2!

By this time, Huck, who had done p90x and biked over to my house to run with me and would have to bike the 3 miles back to his place when we were done, was game for 4. We bargained back and forth, played with routes on mapmyrun, and settled on a flipping hilly 3. I got out of my comfy cooking clothes and actually put a damp wash cloth on my back and tucked into my bra straps to help keep my cool. There's a heat wave rolling over Raleigh this week and I'm so not used to this running in 77+ heat! (Side note- its supposed to hit 90 multiple days this week, so maybe its kismet that no long runs this week mean less time to be in the heat, but still get acclimated to running in it... sneaky sneaky!)

Huck and I didn't talk about pace for this run, but he'd basically echoed KR's sentiments of "there's no reason for you to run 11 min miles when you can run 8:30s during speedwork for a mile and not collapse by the side of the road" at lunch on Saturday, so I was bound and determined to keep up with him. Did I mention that he'd already been working out for 75 minutes before we started running?! Total point of personal pride to not let this pre-tired man beat me! I just didn't want to run 11 min miles- I'd take 10:45s and say the heat and the hills were my lesson, so I was alright when, at 7 minutes in, the GPS app told me we were doing just that, 10:45s.

The route was running one street end to end, plus a little beyond one end to make it 3 miles and still have a long cool down to look forward to. The I wasn't used to the first part of the run, but it was an uphill, turn around, come back down, down, down, kill the evil hill I always mention, keep going, turn around, run down the hill, the end.

People who train on flats crack me up. In fact, I signed up for a race Mother's Day weekend and since its within running distance of the beach, methinks it'll be pretty flat. Can't WAIT to destroy that 10k!

Anyway, the second time I heard our pace, we were at the bottom of the long evil hill, and we'd dropped down to 10 min pace. I literally laughed outloud to Huck who was a few strides ahead of me. Normally, I'd yell at him about being a bad pacer, but I knew he was just pushing through, and it challenged me to a) keep up with him instead of slowing him down and b) get into my own little uncomfortable groove. I definitely couldn't keep a conversation, but I could eek out "you okay?!" every now and then.

At the 2/3 point up the hill (trust me, I've run this road way too many times to know just where I get to look forward to a break in the hill), Huck doubled over, and I kept running, but I was the good gf and turned around to see how he was doing. He waved me on, so I kept trekking. Before we got to the top of the hill, though, he had passed me again, but he had to stop again at our brief moment of flat, and when he told me "I feel like $***", I told him to just walk back, I'd pass him when I'd turned around. Yes, this sounds mean, but he told me to come run with him that night and "kick my @$$!"


I cheated the turnaround a bit because I knew Huck was back there struggling, and I figured that knocking off .2 miles when I had these hills around me wouldn't make or break me. I'll add it on to another run this week! I picked up the speed down the final hill when I realized I was due any minute for another update to say I'd been going for 28 minutes, so I wanted to finish the roughly 3 mile course before I got that notification. Final stats:

Like I said, warm night, flipping hilly, but I pushed. I feel great this morning, and my little damp washcloth helped keep me cool. It was great to have when we walked back on the cool down. My face turns into a salt lick when I run, so clearing that off and having a cool relief made a world of difference.

Gotta go put my big girl suit on! Not one but TWO interviews today!

Here's to the next TV Timeout!
-Syd