Five for Friday

Okay, I apologize in advance for this post since I'm a little buzzed up so I will bombard with a bunch of photos. Yes, I actually remember to take them every now and again.

1. Bellin Run - I have not done a race recap for this and let's just say there is a reason why. I have run this race the last 5 years and while I love running the same course as some amazing world athletes and every type or run/walker there is, it just didn't do it for me this year. They hit 20,000 registrants on the mark but I was not able to meet up with anybody I knew and it was humid from the start. The temps were great but I forgot to bring along my nutrition and endurolyte pills and it failed me. I struggled from the get go with heavy legs and the humidity hit me about 2.5 miles in and I had to take a few walk breaks to get me to the finish.

 I felt the spectators this year were lacking in support as compared to prior years. Although there was an outside Zumba class about a half mile in, the crazy crossfit people doing burpees around 4.5 miles and some really annoying guy that had way too much energy for me that day seemed to be around me the entire race!!

I still PR'd by about 4 minutes but it was hard earned.

5K Split: 28:48

Time: 58:37

Overall: 4624

Gender: 1645

Division: 261

I was at least able to run into some people I knew after the race at the Fleet Feet tent and it finally started to sprinkle. It felt so nice at his point in time! I do love the amount of sprinklers the residents have going during the race and I think I managed to go through all but one. And the ice at mile 3.2 was amazing, it went in my bra immediately and lasted until the finish.

2. I love it when my flowers bloom, Asiatic lilies are probably my favorite and they are just starting to bloom. I had white in my bridesmaid bouquets and oriental in mine, if only the damn rabbits would quit eating those ones!!

3. My container garden is actually turning out this year! I live in the city and the rabbits are ridiculous around here (see above point), so I tried to do containers on our deck last year and the drainage sucked in those planters and I kept forgetting to water them. This year I am watering these at least once a day and they have a cool reservoir on the bottom to help contain extra moisture and I am loving it. Pretty soon I will have cherry tomatoes to eat. I planted Big Wisconsin Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Red, Yellow and Jalapeno Peppers, Green Beans and Zuchini. Pretty soon I will actually get to enjoy the fruits of my labor!!

4. The Longest Day - Being with Kim and Rachel this year was amazing.....I made sure to make it out for the 5am start (although it was cloudy and could not see the sunrise) and I stayed all the way to the end at 9pm. I was happy to actually be able to run in the evening as last year my foot had issues, which was the same the issue I had after my marathon...go figure, and I logged an astonishing number of 31.5 miles. This paled in comparison to the 42 and 48 miles they ran and I am just amazed at their strength to keep running no matter the adversity. We got a bracelet for each mile we ran and I definitely racked those up!

Mother nature gave us all kinds of weather to deal with on this day..... humidity, thunderstorms, wind and sun.......we ran through it all. I was a little scared to see that after an hour in the rain my feet looked like old man feet! It seriously hurt to walk on all the folds of skin, who knew I had that much extra skin on my feet.

5. We are  having some crazy storms here tonight, I went to watch my brother play softball and only a few minutes after I got there, it was coming!! The weather was calm and then within seconds it was 30mph winds creating a sandstorm in the infield. This was about 30 seconds before it hit.

Round 2 then came awhile later and we all decided to head home but the lightning with the sunset made for some cool effects.

And this had been my life for about the past year with my car, I'm too cheap to get it fixed so I use GPS or guestimate my speed....just a little harder to do in this situation!!

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday!! I only have to make it through 2 days next week and then I will be living in paradise for the next 5 days or so. I cannot wait to spend time at my cottage finally this year and literally not have any advanced technology! That is unless I make the 20 minute trek into town to try and find some wifi....best excuse to get out of work and on call emergencies!

Three Things Thursday

Just a few things happening around here lately and things I've been excited about.

1. The Longest day of the year is tomorrow!! And I will be celebrating in the best way any runner could be, spending 16 hours on a track cheering on/running with Kim (Life in the Twin Lane) and Rachel (Running in Real Life) while they run in circles. I know I will log many miles, but that will pale in comparison to how far they will run and the feat they are accomplishing. They are becoming all-stars for Alzheimer's Awareness. If you haven't donated yet, there is still time to do so. Just head over to Kim's blog for the deets and get yourself a spot in their raffle. They have some amazing prizes!! I CANNOT WAIT!

2. Rest days have become project days for me lately, usually that project is to get my house in order and clean it up! I have managed to get planting done this spring, setup my container gardens, organize my office and actually reclaim our spare bedroom. It was really bad and had not been touched other than as a dumping ground in a really long time.....as in my wedding dress and husband's suit were still lying on the bed and have not made it to the dry cleaners. That was only about 10 months ago...whoops.


One of these days I will actually get to turning this into a Packer Room. I have several signed photographs including the jersey you can see framed in the background. The pile of stuff on the right I need to make a trip to goodwill to get rid of the stuff we no longer need. I'm getting annoyed with how much stuff we tend to accumulate and my hubby hates it when I get in this mood. He's afraid of what I might get rid of that he could use once in possibly the next 10 years or so. And I thought I was a pack rat!





3. Cheap Beer - Saturday I met Sarah out as they were celebrating her hubby's birthday and as I arrived to the bar it started to pour out. I was tired and figured I would just stay out for one or two and I checked out what was on tap. Nothing great so I went for the usual Budweiser and asked for a pint, the bartender kindly asked if I wanted a mug for a dollar instead, ummm....... HELLS YEAH!! I was so thrilled for dollar beers on a Saturday night the idea of just a few quickly dissipated from my head. And then the camera came out and this was the only decent pick Sarah could take of us. The flash from the phone makes us a little ghostly.

Meaningful Miles

Well I'm back from about a week hiatus on blogging. I just didn't feel like I had much to say and I was enjoying living in the moment and taking in all that life has to offer. I am really trying to work on the balancing act of having a career, maintaining a healthy relationship with my husband, family & friends and keep up with triathlon training. If anybody ever told you it's easy they are lying!

I have definitely learned a few tricks in the process and this week I was able to turn in my best week in a long time and possibly ever! I did fail in the swimming and strength slightly but I'm encouraged I was able to pull this off and maintain a good balance.

My miles were broken out as follows:

Running          19.19 miles  

Biking             41.75 miles  

Swimming       1200 meters

Strength              1 day        

It helped to have 5 of my workouts be with a group or friend so it made the time go by quickly and also was great to spend the quality time with them. I met Sarah for a bike ride on Monday night. Tuesday night I ran with the Fleet Feet fun run group and then met Michelle for a swim at the gym. Wednesday was the monthly fun run for pacesetters, a local running group to which I belong, and ran in a downpour with Sarah, Matt and John along with plenty other brave souls followed by subs and sundaes. Saturday the same group met for the Pacesetters training runs for the Fox Cities Marathon, they vary the courses up and you actually run on sections of the Marathon course so it's great to get familiar with it now. I failed at getting pictures at any of these events so I will try harder to be better with that!

I also managed to not be a bum after logging the 11 miles on Saturday morning, Sarah and I stopped at a bakery and we both snagged up a Maple Bacon Donut to try and some other fresh goodies. Vito got all the big chunks of bacon off it since I don't enjoy the fatty bacon pieces, I like mine crispy. After I was showered I hit up the local farmer's market, headed over to my sister's so my bil could fix my car and I played with my nieces and nephew in the meantime. On my way back I stopped at the meat market and the grocery store before making it home to figure out some dinner. My legs were beat but I still made it out for Sarah's husband birthday and we had a blast. I'm sure she will post a few crazy pics of us from the night.

I rewarded myself with a few purchases of running gear for a hard earned but fun week. Here is to the start of another great week! Summer is finally here and it's definitely helping my mood!

 

Tuesday Tidbits

Hey hey, it's another Tuesday and this week it is not the start of the work week. Thankfully it seems less chaotic at work already and I've managed to start this week off with the right foot. I have gotten in two workouts on Monday and will be getting in two today. Let's hope this week keeps up this way. I only have 10 short weeks until my Olympic distance triathlon and I'm feeling a wee bit undertrained at this point.

Lately I cannot seem to get enough of this sandwich at lunch, this literally has been my lunch for 75% of the days this past month and the trend is continuing! It's a slice of Vermont White Cheddar cheese, some turkey, one tomato sliced, 1/2 avocado and sometimes spinach on a wheat sub bun.

Sarah and I finally managed to get together for a weekend run and it was going to be a late one. We decided to run on Sunday over Saturday due to the weather being about 10 degrees cooler and no chance for random thunderstorms. We were going to go in the morning, but I was a little tired and lacking energy in the morning thanks to an extra beer than I should have had the night before. We eventually made it work at 8pm and I was actually looking forward to it. I got to bust out the headlamp and we managed to stay cool the whole time. The clouds were amazing and I captured this on top of the hill before our turnaround. The blur adds to the mystique of the picture I think.

I am looking forward to tackling the Bellin Run this week Saturday and will be pushing for sub 1 hour and maybe even around 55 if conditions are favorable. Hopefully another PR will be in the books for this year and it's sad to think it may be last road race for awhile.

Do you prefer morning or evening runs?
I definitely enjoy evening runs but I feel accomplished when I do manage to get in a morning run.