Two for Tuesday: Foggy Run & Daily Challenge Fun

Foggy Soggy Run

I got to sleep in a little this morning and still go for a morning run with 2 people from my group who came to my side of town. I was hoping to run 3 miles at half marathon race pace, but the ridiculous humidity from the fog made that impossible. It was probably for the best since my hips were all achy, but they certainly felt better after the run and 20 min of yoga/streches. I think they just needed to loosen up. While my average pace for the 4 miles this morning was 11:23, we sped up considerably at the end and our last mile was 10:04! I'll take it :)

Daily Challenge Fun

I'm having a lot of fun with the Daily Challenge, and I'm currently on a 50 day streak. The last two challenges from the Pleasant Pauses track were quite hilarious, so I thought I'd share.

Today's challenge was to practice drawing or writing with my non-dominant hand and compare that the dominant hand. I took a sticky note, folded it in half, drew a little house and tree, and wrote the respective words on each half with each hand. Not only was my dominant hand better, but the other took twice as long. I was surprised at how difficult this was. Here's a pic of the results. I'll let you guess which is my dominant hand ;)

Yesterday's challenge was to recite 1 tongue twister. The site gave a few examples, and I tried them all to hilarious results. Good thing no one was listing. These things are always tough for me because I already have pronunciation issues because my first language is not English. These two -- Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets, or She sells seashells by the seashore -- are particularly troublesome/funny because I always mix up the "sh" and "ch" sounds.

Two for Tuesday

#1 Crankyness - I've been really cranky today. It's probably because I didn't run this morning, since I ran yesterday, but I also slept in and didn't even do yoga before work. Then work started off badly and it's just been one of those days. I've been craving comfort food all day. Or maybe it's taper madness.

#2 Taper - Speaking of taper madness, it hasn't really hit me as bad as usual. Perhaps it's because I'm treating this as another training run and focusing on having fun like I did at OUC, so I barely even feel like I'm tapering. Sure, every day or so I exclaimed to Jason that "OMG I am running a marathon on Sunday," but it's almost like a ritual, not really freaking out about it. The only thing I fret over is my racing strategy, but I'll probably just wing it that morning.

I'm prioritizing sleep this week, so off to bed I go :)

Two for Tuesday: Hills & Lil Sis

Hill Repeats

We did hill repeats this morning and it was a hell of a workout. It was really tiring because it's been a while, but I love how they make me feel and get my heart pumping. I must admit I've become fond of hills :) I never thought this day would come, but I can really see the benefits of doing hill repeats and I feel really strong. Every race I've done this year with hills has been a piece of cake. Ok, that is not entirely true because they still pose a bit of a challenge, but I am not afraid of them at all. I know how to run hills now, how to conserve energy, and they don't exhaust me. In fact, my next marathon in January will be on a hilly course and I'm kind of looking forward to the challenge.

Little Sister's Birthday


My little sister turned 31 yesterday and we went to dinner tonight with the whole family to celebrate. I cannot believe that my baby sister is already in her 30s, married, with 2 kids. In my head she is still 18; that would of course mean I'm still 20 lol I think I'll keep on living this fantasy ;) Her kids continue to be as adorable as ever, and Bella sure knows it. Alex is all giggles and starting to steal her thunder, so she has to keep bringing attention to herself any way she can. She's a smart cookie that one. It will be interesting when he is talking and walking too. And with my sister's birthday behind us, it means there is only 2 weeks until Christmas and the end of 2011 is near. Time sure flies when you are having fun! :)

Two for Tuesday: Penultimate Run & Race Packet

#1 - Penultimate Marathon Training Run: I ran 4 miles easy (11:51 pace) this morning with my group. This will probably be my last run with my group before the race; I plan to sleep in on Thursday and running on my own whenever I wake up -- sadly that will likely be 7 am. It was still pretty humid this morning, but there was a nice breeze that made it really pleasant. The run felt great, but I'm really starting to worry about the weather. It is almost December and it still feels like August should. I am really hoping for a miracle and sub-60º at the race start. At least it's supposed to be partly cloudy and we'll be running next to a river, so I'm hoping for a nice breeze to make it feel cooler.

#2 - Race Packet: I very kind soul from Marathonfest went to Melbourne yesterday and picked up a ton of race packets, so I just had to drive a few miles to her office today to get them. The race shirt this year is blue with short sleeves, and I love it. I was worried it would be too big because someone said they were unisex shirts and theirs was too big. Despite ordering an x-small, I got a small and it fits perfectly. I'm so excited that I'll get to wear it to run after this race :) Last year's long sleeve shirt was nice, but I rarely wear white and it's really not cold enough in Florida for long sleeves most of the time. After seeing my race bib, I started to get (more) anxious and second guessing everything. But then over dinner I somehow settled on an even more aggressive goal. I'll have both pace charts with me and listen to my body. I'll write a whole post about my race strategy later, but the gist of it is I want to enjoy the first half at a comfortably hard pace, and then push to finish strong.  We'll see what I'm made of soon enough.

> Countdown to Launch: 4 Days, 11 hours, 21 minutes, 58 seconds

Two for Tuesday: Recovery & Sickness

#1 - Running / Recovery: Recovery from Sunday's half is going well.  The ice bath on Sunday really helped, as did wearing my compression shorts/socks on Sunday and during the train ride home on Monday. My legs feel fine, but my glutes/hips are still a bit sore. I've been using biofreeze and The Stick, and did a bit of yoga after my run this morning. This morning's run was tough. I woke up with a headache and seriously considered going back to sleep, but I knew my group was expecting me. After my warm up, there were none of them in sight and I was once again reconsidering my choice, but then 2 showed up and we headed for the hills. Perhaps hill repeats 2 days after a race was not the best idea, but the pace was easy and I did find. I could tell I am not fully recovered because it felt like I was exerting a lot more effort than usual to just maintain a 12 min pace. It was also absurdly humid, so that didn't help, and then it rained on us for the last mile. At least I got it done, and that is all that matters.

#2 - Sick? I've felt crappy all day. That headache I woke up with overstayed its welcomed and hung around all day along with an upset stomach. I managed to make it through lunch at work (a smoothie because it's all I could stomach) but had to head home after my last meeting at 2 pm and promptly took a 3 hour nap. I felt a bit better when I woke up, but still not like myself and I am still feeling a little off. I think eating restaurant food for 4 days straight, plus half a package of goldfish on the train ride home, did a number on me because my body is not used to that much sodium. Hopefully a good night's sleep tonight will fix everything :)

Two for Tuesday: Race Recovery & Geocaching Streak

#1 - Race Recovery: I woke up feeling like I got run over by a bus, so I stayed home from work. I slept until 10:30 am! That is unheard of for me and I've no idea when was the last time I slept past 7 am, but it was just want my body needed because I feel much better now. I didn't do yoga like I wanted to because of sleeping in, but I did ride about 4 miles to run a few errands. The easy spin may have actually helped. It sure was hot though and very windy. The foot and knee are feeling much better, but the foot is still giving me a little trouble. I don't plan to run again until the Corporate 5K on Thursday and will play it by ear until the Run for the Trees 5K on the 23rd. I do need to run a magic mile sometime this month, but I want to wait until I'm in the best possible shape to give it my all.

#2 - Geocaching Streak:  I was going to stop my geocaching streak at 10 days, mainly because finding a cache daily will become harder the longer I do this unless I have time to drive/ride to a new area. However, since I was home and already out running some errands, I decided to go find a nearby cache that was only available on weekdays during business hours at the Downtown Orlando visitor's center. I never knew this building was there and it's a great idea for a cache. So that makes 11 days in a row. Now I feel like I have to make it to 2 weeks. lol I think I'm a little obsessed :)

Two for Tuesday: Candlelight & Vegetarian Update

I'm going to stick with Three Things Thursdays (instead of Tuesdays) and add Two for Tuesday because I like the alliteration :) Today's quickie post will be a brief update on our efforts to live by candlelight and eat only vegetarian meals.

Candlelight
I'm so glad the month of no artificial lights is over. I know I could have turned on the lights during April if I really needed to, but I like achieving goals I set, so I stuck with it for 30 days. I enjoy living by candlelight, but it's no fun doing certain things in the dark (e.g. shaving, some cooking, picking out clothes, or finding a small misplaced item). We're still making the most of daylight and candlelight as much as possible, but I won't hesitate to turn on a light when I really need it. While I can still shave, cook, and find misplaced items with candle light, it is inefficient because it takes longer to feel my way around or light more candles than to flick on the light for a few seconds. One thing is for certain, our eyes have grown accustomed to the darkness; we recoil like vampires when we turn on the lights. We've notice how bright and harsh artificial light is, so we'll continue using candles and only use artificial light sporadically. 

Vegetarian Diet
We are still going strong at 34 days with no end in sight. We haven't really missed meat, except for the occasional social gathering, so we don't see ourselves adding it back into our diets anytime soon. I do not know if it's all mental, or the amount and variety of exercise I've been doing lately, but I feel better and seem to have more energy. It could be that this diet allows me to exercise more and that is where I am getting the extra energy and good feelings.

The month of Jason cooking is also over, so I have to step back into the kitchen. I am actually excited about cooking again. I think all I needed was a little reprieve to re-energize, plus cooking vegetarian meals is not the same old same old. To avoid getting burnt out again, we're going to take turns planning meals every week and both help with the prep when cooking meals -- since a big portion of cooking vegetarian meals is chopping tons of veggies :)

Not only do I feel good physically, but I feel good knowing I am doing my part for the environment and fair treatment of animals. The food is also tastier and more diverse. This article, Meat Versus Miles: Why Less Meat is Better Than Going Local, showed up in my RSS reader this morning, and it is very timely. We are doing both, but sometimes we have no choice but to buy our stuff at Publix due to timing, supply, etc, so it's good to know that giving up meat is having that much more impact on the environment.