Jogging Through the Neighborhood

Two runs down and no calf pain - not that I thought there would be since I did everything right and took ample time off. The other good thing is I don't actually feel too out of shape. I think I had gotten into pretty good shape training for the Philly half, so a couple of weeks off didn't hurt me too bad. I can tell my endurance is down, but I don't feel like I'm falling all over myself like I do sometimes after an extended break.

We ran with the Inside Out group tonight - Tassie came along. She's the worst pacer ever and always wants to be in the lead, even if her tongue is dragging on the sidewalk. Marty tried to slow her down at the end because she seemed so tired but the second she had runners ahead of her all bets were off. Under any other circumstance I think I would have been scared of an animal heavily breathing immediately behind me. One of the guys also suggested we put a bumper sticker on her that says, "Makes Sudden Stops" after nearly getting clotheslined for the second time.

Oops.

Off to watch The Office & 30 Rock on the DVR from last week. Can't stay up that late on Thursday nights.

Fishy Fishy

This morning as I was walking out the door at 5:30 Marty said, “You are going to hate the workout.” Just what you want to hear, bleary-eyed on your way to the pool! It’s a good thing Marty never tells me the workout beforehand. I hear it the same as everyone else, on the wall right before we set off.

For the past 2 months I have been swimming very sporadically. It’s the off season and I was letting myself sleep in if I wanted to. In October I had several weeks of zero swimming, but that slowly moved to at least once a week and in November I even had a few twice a weeks in there. December 1 was my date to get back into a training groove instead of the whatever-I-feel-like groove I had been in. So in the water with everyone else, Marty announces the set after some warmup/drills/builds: “1,000 for time.” I think all of us thought we had misheard him…what?! “Yup, 1,000 for time,” then he went into an explanation of why this is a good benchmark set while we all hung on the wall trying to quickly wrap our minds around it.

Anyways, I had no idea what I could do with my recent lack of swimming, but realized my swim has improved over the year so hopefully some of that fitness still remained. Off I went, was able to keep count, and touched the wall in 13:30 after a solid but not all out effort. It took me about a 25 easy after to calculate what that pace was per 100 (my brain was a bit fuzzy - 1:21) and when I realized, I was stoked! I didn’t do a 1,000 test set last year but I would bet money that it would not have been 1:21 pace at this point in time. It’s fun to see improvement! After the 1,000 we then did some 400’s descending – tough workout this morning!

After work I’m planning on running for the first time in several weeks. Just 20min, but I’m excited to get back out there. I’m ready to start training again and looking forward to next year’s races.

I had to do a little editing on the comic below - erase the cigarette because of course Marty doesn't smoke. Also, Marty is much more fit than this guy, but this is what he does when we don't get in quick enough. Just kidding :)

Wine, Cheese and Chocolate

We had a great time and late night at a wine & cheese party last night. The chocolate fountain was also a big hit and I think I ate a few pounds of cheese throughout the night. I'm not a big wine fan, although the sweeter, dessert wines are pretty good - so I drank beer instead. How uncouth!

Some of you over the past couple of years have asked why we left Florida, more specifically Orlando, and moved up to North Carolina. I think the picture below is pretty compelling and one of the reasons why we wanted to get the heck out of there.

Thanksgiving Vay-Cay

Ahhhh, gotta love the 4 day weekend! It feels like Sunday but I still have the weekend ahead of me! So far we've had a great Thanksgiving vacation. Yesterday morning Marty ran the Cary Turkey Trot and had a pretty good showing for his current fitness level. Tassie and I cheered on the runners (she cried again when Marty went by and she realized she wasn't going with him), and we got to talk with Rebecca and Scott DeWire for a bit after the race. They're moving to Philadelphia in the next few months with their very cute baby.

In the afternoon I was going to ride the trainer and then realized that would be the stupidest thing ever since the weather was so nice. I talked Marty into hitting the greenways on our mountain bikes instead. I was thinking maybe an hour max at cruise pace. But when we got close to Umstead, he convinced me that we should go through Umstead - which not only adds several more miles but a lot more hills. I said sure, why not? Then when we got to Harrison, he convinced me that instead of taking the straight shot home, we should try and find the greenway again. Ooookaaaay. This ride ended up being 1:45, with many hills and a very out of shape rider on a 40 lb mountain bike - I was whupped at the end! I had just enough time to stick my sweet potato casserole in the oven and shower before heading over to my sister's where we all proceeded to stuff ourselves silly.

This morning we had master's practice and a few other showed up (including Beth and Oscar) and we did a typical 'Fast Friday' workout (lots of short fast intervals with lots of rest). I'm hoping these workouts help me get out faster next year with the good swimmers so I can try and hang on longer. Off to breaky at the Food Factory with the gang and then Beth and Oscar came to our house to meet Princess Tasmania and her bff Cider. It was great to hang out with the two of them since I feel like I know them through their blogs. Now they only need to follow Beth's family's lead and move south!

I also got out on the old tri bike this afternoon with Alysia - lots of chatting and a little biking :)

And oh yeah, in case you're wondering about the push up challenge, here's the status. After week 4 you take another test and I was able to do 35 consecutive push ups. But lets just say the last 10 are maybe not full push ups, but whatever. Onto week 5 but I realize that this test now puts me at the level 1 schedule for week 5 - I had been on the level 2 schedule for all the previous weeks. And after week 5 you take another test and if you don't do 45 consecutive push ups, you have to repeat week 5....you may see where I'm going with this. I think it's possible I might be stuck at week 5 for awhile, maybe forever?? But from just several weeks ago when I could only do 12 push ups, I think my improvement is pretty good.

Sammy Save-Up

Sammy Save-Up was what Marty called me today after he challenged me to a 100 yard race at the end of our swim workout this morning. When he initially said “let’s race this one” I said, “whatever” because Marty can do under a 1:00 pretty much anytime he wants to. So he said he would do it one-arm. I agreed and then realized after the first 25 that it was going to be very difficult to beat him! How embarrassing! I saved my kick and really turned it on the last 25 yards so I could get ahead and win the dumb thing. And that’s when he declared “Nice job, Sammy Save-up” Hey, a win’s a win :)

I’m so glad it’s a 3 day work week! We’re doing Thanksgiving at my sister’s who lives in Raleigh with a couple of her friends – I’m in charge of the sweet potatoe casserole…I’m pretty sure I can handle that. Marty is doing the Turkey Trot on Thursday morning in Cary and once again Tassie and I will be out there cheering everyone on. I had another massage yesterday and my calf is feeling great, but I figured I might as well wait until next week and make sure it’s 100% before jumping into anything. Friday morning we’re having Master’s an hour later than normal and Beth will be joining us! Then we’re going to hit the Food Factory for breakfast afterwards – it’s always my motivation to make sure I swim Friday, although I have been known on some occasions to just meet people for breakfast and skip the swim. Not often, though!

So Cute

Yesterday Marty and I had a nice day together. We went shopping so I could try and update my ugly winter clothing and Marty ended up with a couple of sweaters, also (which he was later complimented on by a waitress!) Then we went to Umstead so he could run and I was going to take Tassie and Cider for a walk (we're dogsitting this weekend) but that proved to be way harder than I thought it would be and I ended up driving them back home and then going back to Umstead for a walk before Marty was done. Tassie started it all because she started whining and cry-barking when Marty took off. This got Cider excited and they both were pulling like crazy and they almost took me down. Then when they started to calm down, another bundled up runner who looked very similar to Marty ran by and the whole process started over again. Instead of getting my shoulders ripped out of their sockets I called it a day for the double doodle walk.

Later on we decided to have date night and we headed to the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Raleigh. This is where the 'so cute' title comes from. We were eating our pizza, deep in conversation when a cute little boy comes walking from the bathroom and gives Marty a half wave - the type of wave little kids give when they are a bit embarrassed but still want to say hi. Marty immediately jumps up (to my surprise) and exclaims: "Hi Stephen! How are you?! This is my wife, Bri!" Then he turns to me and says, "Stephen is in my Kung Fu class." Stephen just stood there with a shy smile, probably because he was talking to an adult other than a parent in a restaurant. He was beyond cute. Marty asked him if he was here with his parents but no, he was there for a birthday party :) Wonder why Marty didn't get invited?

Once Stephen left I could not stop laughing. The whole situation with Marty starting Kung Fu and being in a class with 8 years old at the beginning (at least his friend Dave is also in there with him) and then to meet one of the classmates out - it was hilarious.

Boring is as boring does

The lack of blogging is in direct correlation to the fact that I feel like I just don’t have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about. I’m still plugging away at the hundred pushup challenge, although after last nights I could barely swim this morning. I had to do sets of 18, 22, 16, 16, and at least 25. I’m glad no one was watching because I’m not sure I did full pushups at the end of some of those, and my 60 second break between the last round ended up being 10min. There is no way I’m going to finish this 6 week stint and be able to do 100 consecutive like the plan promises, but I figure I’m able to do way more than I ever have in my life so I can at least stick with sets of 15 or so after this is all done.

This weekend is Ironman Arizona and good luck to all those who have stuck it out this late in the season – wow! Marty has a few athletes racing and our friends Brooke and Nicolai will also be out there. Last year Brooke did IM Florida, was hit by a car at the beginning of the bike, waited and filed a police report, and still finished in a 10:43! Hopefully, she has some better luck this Sunday.

I gave Tassie a bath last night. See, I told you I got nothing go on…