Update and Belated August 2010 Recap

There seems to be a direct corrolation between my motivation to blog and my ability to run. Since I've not been running as much, and certainly not racing, I find that I don't want to blog about the negative so I just don't blog at all. The truth is there are plenty of positives in my life, and even the running is progressing. I ran 8 miles this weekend and it felt good. Yesterday I ran 3 miles non-stop @12:10 pace without really pushing it and it felt great. I still have a glimmer of hope that I'll run BCM in February, but I'm playing it by ear and will see how the Miami Beach Halloween Half goes first.

See more birthday photos

I celebrated my 32nd birthday two weeks ago, and that week was a blast. I took a few days off from work and fully enjoyed my birthday:

• Wednesday - Birthday lunch with coworkers at First Watch
• Thursday - Took the day off for some much needed me time. Started the day with yoga, then easy biking to get a facial. My sister came over early so I could spent time with my adorable niece, then went to PF Chang's for dinner when my parents arrived.
• Friday - This was my actual birthday and Jason took it off from work too. I slept in a little (7 am) and started the day with an easy 6-mile birthday run, then Jason and I had a lovely time enjoying the outdoors on our bikes and making fresh ice cream with my new ice cream maker :) We finished the day with the First Friday ride for civility, which was a huge success, followed by dinner at Ethos. I was exhausted and glad I could sleep in the next day.
• Saturday - Slept in and then went to the Trek Tri expo with Kelly.
• Sunday - Rode the bus to Disney to cheer and take photos at the Trek Women's Triathlon.

In other news, Jason completed his first Half Ironman Triathlon this weekend and he rocked it! He gets extra credit hard core points for doing it in Clermont (read hills) and in Florida in September (read hot and humid). It was brutal, but he got it done and is even contemplating a second one already :) I of course was there cheering him on, taking lots of photos, and volunteering. It was a very long day, but lots of fun and it made me crave running a marathon again. *sigh*

August Accomplishments

• 31 Photos in 31 Days
• 10 Day Real Food Challenge
• Began UCF Bike Bus
• Commute Orlando Author

August Stats

• walk = 42 miles (3 < July)
• run = 34 miles (7 < July)
• longest run = 6 miles
• bike = 218 miles (22 > July)
• longest ride = 16 miles
• total = 294 miles / 38.5 hrs (avg 1.2 hrs/day)

This Friday is the next night ice cream ride, and I can't wait. Join us!

Week 33 Recap

Jason wearing his "Polite Escort" shirt

Despite only running once, I had a great week. I more than made up for the lack of running with plenty of biking, including a really fun social ride with Bike/Walk Central Florida for the opening of "What Moves You?" (photos). Today was the inaugural ride of the UCF Bike Bus. Although we did not have any passengers, it was a great ride to AND from work. I'm thrilled to find there is still civility in humankind :)

I'm happy to report I got through the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge,and it went far better than expected! Granted, we already ate very little processed food before this, but we had to get creative with snacks and desserts and had a blast in the process. I'll post more details and recipes later.

Overall, a fantastic week and this one is shaping up to be great too. I'm seating on the couch relaxing after a delicious homemade meal of aloo matar still basking in the joy that was the bike ride home :)

Week Totals (rounded)

• run - 3.5 miles
• walk - 6 miles
• bike - 69 miles
• total - 8.5 hours / 78 miles

Workout Summary

See details on Dailymile

• Monday - biked 10 miles (errands)
• Tuesday - walked 2 miles (bus)
• Wednesday - biked 33 miles (work)
• Thursday - walked 2.5 miles (bus); biked 7.5 miles (art ride)
• Friday - biked 7 miles (errands)
• Saturday - ran 3.5 miles; biked 10 miles (farmer's market)
• Sunday - biked 1.5 miles (publix); walked 1.2 miles (publix)

Inaugural UCF Bike Bus Ride

After taking the Cycling Savvy course, I've felt empowered and more comfortable riding on the road. Some of our coworkers have ridden to work on occasion, but are not as comfortable riding down University Blvd. I have to admit that neither were we at first.

Taking the Econ trail is an option, but no one should have to go several miles out of their way to feel safe. Jason and I want to help anyone interested in commuting to UCF by bike to feel safe riding down University Blvd, and thus the UCF Bike Bus was born :) We've successfully completed two recon rides with Keri, and Jason rode by himself on Friday without incident. We're now ready to make this official and take on passengers!

Please join us for our first official UCF Bike Bus ride this Monday, August 23. We'll be leaving the Cady Way Trailhead by the Fashion Square Mall at 7 am and picking up passengers along the way. If you are riding that morning anywhere along the bus route, we'd love for you to hop on when you see us coming even if it's only for a few miles.

Visit the Official Inaugural UCF Bike Bus Ride Event for more details and to sign up.

Coming up for Air

I can't believe I have not posted anything in over two weeks, so here's a quick post to catch up.

Photos

The daily photo project has been keeping me really busy. I can't ever do anything halfway, so after the first few they required a bit more planning. One of the photos inspired me to break out the legos and now they have consumed my life :) I still need to upload photos from the past few days, but you can see what I have so far in my 31 Photos in 31 Days Album. Check out the other pics in my Flickr Photostream too because I've been having way too much fun with legos :)

The word "Lego" written in Braille

Real Food Challenge

homemade granola

I took the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge starting on Saturday, which focuses on eating whole foods following these rules. We eat mostly this way already, with the exception of some vices (ice cream and candy), so this forces us to really pay attention to labels, and avoid heavily processed foods or things at restaurants that seem healthy but aren't. So far this has not been too difficult, but we've made all our meals at home. We'll see how we do when we go out to eat. One big challenge for me is bread. I love it so, and thankfully I found a great local source at the Winter Park and Maitland Farmer's Market. I really need to just make my own, but I keep putting it off. What I did do was make my own granola this week using this granola recipe from The Food Illusion, and it was amazing! I will never buy it at the store again. 

Running

I haven't been running much because of the foot and the knee twinges at me every so often. The last time I ran was last Tuesday. Something came up preventing me from running on Thursday, and then I got distracted over the weekend by legos, volunteering at the Celebration of Running 5k, and dealing with my broken iPhone. I have no excuse for yesterday; I just can't seem to get back into the groove of waking up early to run, and having to run in the dark doesn't help. I've also ditched all my racing plans for the near future, so there is no pressing motivation to follow a running schedule. I can surely tell that not running affects my mood, and I was a little down yesterday. I realized that it wasn't just the no running, but that all these little things have been happening that are out of my control and I don't like it when I'm not in control :)

Bike Commuting

I have been biking quite a bit on errands and to work testing out a new route for a UCF Bike Bus we're organizing. I'll post more details and a link to the site when it's ready, but check out this article at Commute Orlando in the meantime with some of the footage Keri took on our first test ride last Friday: Bike Bus: Reclaiming University Boulevard for Human Power. It went much better than expected, and we did another test ride this morning that went even better. We even picked up our first passenger today! We're getting pretty excited about the possibilities of this bike bus.

Social Cycling

We've been participating in and helping organize some social rides with Commute Orlando that have been a lot of fun and had great turnouts. The first was an S-Cargo ride to the Maitland Farmer's Market on a Sunday morning. We had over 2 dozen people, including some children, pets and inflatable penguins! Check out my S-Cargo Photo Album to see how much fun we had, and the S-Cargo video at Commute Orlando.

Last Friday we went on a night ice cream ride from the Cady Way Trailhead to Twisted Bliss for a yummy frozen treat, then rode through downtown Orlando. It was quite a site to see over a dozen bikes all lit up. Riding down Orange Ave in the dark on a bike gives you a totally different experience and perspective than in a car. It is awesome! Check out my Ice Cream Ride Photos on Flickr and Keri's Ice Cream Ride video at Commute Orlando.

Tomorrow night we're riding with the group to City Arts Factory for the opening of What Moves You?, and art exhibit about transportation including the Orlando Bike Kitchen. Check out this post for more details: Ride to City Arts Factory.

July 2010 and Week 30 Recaps

I cannot believe I've been eating only vegetarian food for over 4 months now and I don't really miss meat. I occasionally crave something, but it quickly passes and I feel much better about what I consume these days. I still need to wean myself off sweets and other processed convenience foods, but for the most part we do ok. Training this month was hindered a bit by the development of plantar fasciitis and a bike fall that kept me from running for 2 weeks. I did plenty of biking and it seemed to help maintain my fitness as I was able to jump back into running this week without any problems. I'm reevaluating my goals for the rest of the year and focusing on having fun. I have a 5K race this weekend, the same one in which I placed last time, and I'm not sure what to expect because of the break. Maybe the rest will work in my advantage :)

Goals for August

• take one photo each day with my iPhone [Flickr album]
• 95% homemade meals (eat out 4-5x times)
• Cool Summer Mornings 5K #3

July Accomplishments

• Completed Cycling Savvy Course
• Camping by Bike
• Place 3rd in my Age Group at Cool Summer Mornings 5K!
• Ran Watermelon 5K with family
• 2 months living without a car
• 4 months of eating vegetarian
• 89% homemade meals (10x restaurant food; avg 2.5x per week)

July Stats

• run = 41 miles
• longest run = 11 miles
• walk = 45 miles
• bike = 196 miles
• longest ride = 41.2 miles
• totals = 282 miles / 40.5 hrs (avg 1.3 hrs/day)

2010 Goals Progress

To be on track, percentages should be around 58%

• run/walk = 586 / 700 miles (avg 84/mo; 21/wk; 84%)
• cycling = 748 / 1750 miles (avg 107/mo; 27/wk; 43%)
• tri 2010 challenge = 1351 / 2010 (67%)
• total exercise hours = 253.5 / 365 hours (avg 1.2/ day; 69%)
• 101 things = 19 / 30 done (63%); 11 in progress

Week 30 Totals (rounded)

• run - 9 miles
• walk - 7 miles
• bike - 75 miles
• totals - 92 miles / 10.5 hrs

Week 30 Workout Summary

See details on Dailymile

• Monday - biked 22 miles (work + bus)
• Tuesday - walked 2.5 miles (bus)
• Wednesday - biked 12 miles (doc/errands)
• Thursday - biked 32 miles (work)
• Friday - ran 3 miles; walked 2 miles (bus)
• Saturday - biked 9 miles (farmer's market)
• Sunday - ran 6 miles; walked 2 miles (errands)

For the Joy of Running

I finally got to run today! Yay! After 2 weeks of 0 miles of running, I ran 3 miles around Lake Eola tonight. It was super humid and my Garmin didn't cooperate, but I didn't care because I got to run! And there was NO pain! To say that I am super excited is a major understatement. This run reminded me of why I run and put my priorities into perspective.

I had lofty goals of getting faster and becoming a marathon maniac this season by running 3 marathons in 90 days, but none of that seems important now. The only thing I care about is that I keep running for the joy of running and for the rest of my life. Races come and go, but the pure joy I experience when I run will only last for as long as I take care of myself and never forget why I do this.

I started the season with a new faster running group, running 3:1 intervals, and doing track work. Things were going great; I was enjoying the runs and the new routine and felt really strong. Then I developed Plantar Fasciitis and that put an end to speed work and hills for a while. My first thought was how this would affect my training and if I'd be able to try to run a 5:15 marathon and become a marathon maniac. I was initially bummed when I realized I may have to give up on my goals, but then I realized that I was asking a lot of myself for no good reason. Sure it's good to have goals and push myself beyond my comfort zone, but not at the risk of injury.

Three weeks ago I decided to switch back to my beloved 2:1 group halfway through my 11 miler because I was struggling in the heat and there was no reason I should be running a long run as fast as the 3:1 group. It was wonderful and it reminded me why I was doing this. What good is it to get faster if I can't make it to the start line of my next race?

At that moment I was at peace with my decision to step back my pace and run for the joy of running. Everything else melted away and I no longer cared if I didn't get to run a particular time. Then I fell off my bike and I couldn't run, so I took a week off to heal, enjoyed some non-running activities and it was wonderful. I hadn't really had a break between seasons, and it felt good to rest and fill my days with other things. One week quickly turned to two and then I got antsy. My head began to fill with fears and doubts, and it made all those race plans seem even more trivial and arbitrary. I just wanted to run!

So when I got to run today, it was amazing. I didn't care about anything else but the fact that I was out there running again and it felt effortless. Now I am adjusting my expectations and will be content with becoming a half fanatic or not. If I am able to fit in the training to still run the Space Coast Full marathon, I will. But I am not going to put any pressure on myself to make that happen. I am going to enjoy running and the rest will just be a bonus :)

Racing Against Mother Nature

Today's bike ride home was an adventure, but this time it was all my doing.

Since I still can't run,  I convinced myself to bike to work this morning with the promise that I'd take the bus home if my knee protested or if the weather didn't cooperate. My knee and I were feeling good this afternoon, and the radar showed the rain was nowhere near yet, so I left work on my bike even though the heat index was supposed to be 100+. I was immediately assaulted with a wall of heat, and I felt ill.

I convinced myself that biking home in the heat was a bad idea, and that it surely would start pouring on me any minute, so a mere 2 miles later I turned left on Rouse to catch the bus at Colonial. I waited at the bus stop for about 15-20 min, and the bike racks were full! Ugh! So I trek back to the trail, thankful that it has cooled off a bit. This is probably due to the thunder I hear in the distance and the impending rain.

I tell myself that I can take the bus at Goldenrod, so I take the long way that adds an extra 1/2 mile to my trip when I get to the bridge. I am still too early and would have to wait another 15-20 min to catch this bus IF it even has an open bike rack. I reason I'd better use that time to make some forward movement before the rain arrives, and so I keep trekking along.

As I cross Semoran and turn onto the Cady Way trail, the air feels much cooler and the clouds look much darker. I pray I can make it home before it starts to rain, and I speed up in an attempt to beat mother nature. With about 4 miles to go, I see the biggest and loudest lighting strike ever. It's surely near me and I now fear for my life. I consider calling Amy to rescue me, but with only 3 miles to go and still no rain in sight, I don't want to inconvenience her unnecessary. Plus I figured it would take me about the same time to rush home from the mall as it would to wait for her.

While the clouds still look menacing, and there is the occasional rumble in the sky, the rain has stayed away and I'm almost home free. I urge the light to turn green at Colonial, and I speed off as soon as it does; of course, I catch every red light. After I turn onto Livingston from Primrose, I see what looks like a wall of rain in the distance as I near Bumby. I take off my glasses in hopes that I am seeing things. No such luck. Sure enough, the rain catches up to me at Bumby and I get drenched during the last mile of my ride home.

I arrive home 2 hours after my departure from work, starving, cold, wet, and looking like a drench rat.  Had I ridden home without the detour in the first place, I would have missed the rain, thunder and lighting, and been home at least 30-45 minutes earlier. Oh well, you live and learn.

ETA: And of course, as soon as I finished writing this, I got an email alerting me of a severe thunderstorm warning. I'm so glad to be home where is dry and away from the lightning :)

Week 29 Recap

My right knee still hurts from the bike fall last Sunday, so I've not been able to run for a week. I tried yesterday, but the pain is still there. I am past smelling the roses, and I am now rather frustrated, but I know patience will pay off in the end. However, I biked 36 miles over 2 days this weekend and it was a lot of fun. I'll be posting all about it soon. The plan for this week is to take it easy in hopes that the knee will heal in time for my 13 miler this weekend. If I am able to run, I'll be stepping down to a slower pace group to ease into it, and may walk part of if.

Week Totals (rounded)

• run - 0
• walk - 18 miles
• bike - 36 miles
• total - 54 miles / 9.5 hours

Workout Summary

See details on Dailymile

• Monday - walked 2.5 miles (bus)
• Tuesday - walked 2.5 miles (bus)
• Wednesday - walked 7 miles (Universal)
• Thursday - walked 3 miles (bus)
• Friday - walked 2.5 miles (bus)
• Saturday - biked 15 miles (Cycling Savvy - Orlando Tour)
• Sunday - biked 21 miles (S-Cargo Ride)

Stopping to Smell the Roses

I have not done a single workout this week, other than incidental exercise -- walking to the bus stop and at Universal. After I fell off my bike last Sunday and realized I would not be able to run for a few days until it healed, I opted to make lemonade out of lemons, take a much deserved week off, and have some fun. So we took Wednesday off from work and spent the day at Universal/IOA. The knee is healing, but the foot is still nagging. I may have a hill spur, so I'm going to go to a doc to get a real diagnosis so I can heal and not do more damage. Wednesday was an amazing day, and I plan to take it easy this weekend and enjoy it too.

We woke up at 6:30 Wednesday morning. After a big breakfast, we hopped on the bus to Universl at 7:45 am. We almost missed it, which would have sucked because it only comes once an hour. We arrived at IOA just after 9 am and headed to the Harry Potter land. The line to get into the land was already long, but we got passes to return for priority access at 11:20. In the meantime, we rode a few rides with very little wait: SpiderMan, Doom, Cat in the Hat, Seuss Train, and Poseidon's Fury.

We walked right into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at 11:15 and headed straight for the Castle and the Forbidden Journey ride, which had an hour wait. The line moved quickly, and I am sure we didn't wait that long. The inside of the castle was really impressive, specially the projections of the characters. The ride was amazing and very well done, but I was not as impressed with the land as I thought. It's just not Disney :) It was crowded with longe lines just to get into and browse the various shops, so we left, ate some lunch then headed to Universal. We saw Shrek 4D, which was pretty good, then ate some Dipping Dots. Why have I never had these before? Yum!

We took a break from the sun and let our feet rest while watching Inception on IMAX, and eating some popcorn and curly fries. WOW! The movie was incredible and had an amazing cast. I am already plotting to go see it again. After the movie, we headed back to Universal for a few more rides before dinner and the concert: MIB and Mummy. Dinner was shared tofu bowl at Moe's with some chips and salsa.

With no more ways to kill time, we headed to the concert early to rest in A/C and met up with Aaron before the Weird Al concert started. The concert was pretty good, although I could have done with a few less costume changes because I did not care so much for the videos they played while they transitioned. We were exhausted and wanted to hop on an earlier bus, so we left the concert early. We got home at 11 pm, promptly passed out, and slept like a baby. I think I'm too old to pull an all day of fun, but it's worth it every now and then :)

Week 28 Recap

I already posted yesterday about the best part of last week, so I won't repeat myself. Also, I updated my Bike vs Bus post to include scores for each criteria. Check it out and let me know if you would score them the same. Which would win for you?

Before cycling class yesterday, Jason switched the pedals on my comfort bike so I could try out my new sandals. I forgot I was clipped in and fell off my bike within the first few minutes of class. Doh! In addition to the road rash, there is some bruising and a big welt. I won't be able to run for a few days because the impact makes it hurt; it doesn't hurt to walk, but I cringe every time I bend it and put weight on that leg when going up or down stairs.

I'm a little bummed of course, but I'm not letting this ruin my awesome mood leftover from the weekend. I only have to make it through one more day of work, then we'll enjoy another long fun-filled day at Universal. I am sure walking around theme parks all day Wednesday will be more than enough exercise and I rather take it easy this week and still be able to run 13 miles next week.

Week Totals (rounded)

• run - 10 miles
• walk - 9 miles
• bike - 32 miles
• total - 54 miles / 7.5 hours

Workout Summary

See details on Dailymile

• Monday - walked 2.75 miles (bus)
• Tuesday - ran 3 miles; walked 4 miles
• Wednesday - biked 30 miles (work); walked 1 mile (publix)
• Thursday - ran 2 miles
• Friday - walked 1.5 miles (bus)
• Saturday - ran 5.1 miles
• Sunday - biked 3 miles (plus on and off for 3 hours at bike handling class)

Accomplishments

• Place 3rd in my Age Group at Cool Summer Mornings 5K!

Goals

• Have fun! =) I am cutting myself some slack this week and enjoying life :D