Running Year in Review

This has been a weird year. Aren’t they all, though? Let’s look at some of the big and awesome things that have happened this year…

It’s my first full year blogging and running. We bought a house. We lost Gary’s dad. Gary got a new job. We got a new furry family member. Lots of major life events. Lots of stuff to think about.

I have been rereading some of my blog posts from this past year. I’ve been keeping this blog for a year, and I don’t even hate any of my blog posts. I actually like them – I’m totally chuckling at some of these blog posts.  I’m not clever or witty and I don’t have great running tips or wisdom… or really, knowledge of any kind, but I think I’ve made a couple of friends whose blogs I look forward to reading so I can see what’s going on in their lives, and I hope maybe they like reading this blog to see what’s new with me.  So, thanks for reading!

When it comes to fitness progress, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on this year. Life went a little hay-wire halfway through the year and we’ve been rolling with the punches ever since.

Diet? Still a mess. I’ve made very few changes, but I do try out a super healthy meal like once a month.

Strength training/lifting? I’m starting to get more serious now that we have more space and a new work bench.

I haven’t lost any weight, although running has changed my muscles and trimmed off some fat. (This fact is distinctly noticeable when I take a few weeks off.)

I’ve gotten vaguely faster and have pushed the distances in my workouts a little bit.

I stopped worrying so much about pace and speed and instead pictured running workouts as time or distance spent running, which has put a major dent in my annual worrying quota.

RACES & EVENTS THIS YEAR!
Dash for Duchenne: new race for me, which means new course and new people to run with. My first mile was 14:42, but miles 2 and 3 hovered around 17 minutes with mile 3 being slightly faster.  What did I take away from this run? When I go out fast, I run out of steam real fast. Also, I had a great time running a sub 15 min mile and having random strangers cheer for me. See? All smiles!

Mudderella: Boy, this was the year for new experiences. I can’t believe I’ve done a mud run. It was physically and emotionally trying… my friend quit the day before the race and I couldn’t find the rest of the team (because I didn’t know anyone else) so I ran alone, and it’s super tough to do any of the obstacles alone. Lessons Learned? Lots.  Mostly about pushing my own limits and not relying on other people, you know, that kind of heartwarming stuff.

I made it halfway through Juneathon. The takeaway? June is hot. Do Juneathon in a different month. why, hello, Janathon…

The Color Run! I had lots of fun doing this race with my friend Kim – it was nice to run without really caring what my time was, especially when we were having a blast. It’s fun getting messy- not so fun trying to get clean. Not sure that I would ever do another color run, but definitely interested in more fun runs.

Seaside 5K: I ran with friends and family and finished with a PR! Definitely a race I will do again next year. They even have a half marathon for when I’m ready.

Merry Christmas, internet!

Hello again and Merry Christmas to everyone! Christmas really snuck up on me this year (but doesn’t it always?). I was all prepared with Christmas cards and presents, we got a real tree and decorated the house- and then all of a sudden, it was here and gone. We always try to make time for all our family and friends, which is tough when you have a lot of family and friends who live all over NJ, so you’re really trying to jam a lot of activities into a few days. Gary and I are planning our annual holiday get-together and now housewarming party for January! Can’t wait to have people over to see the place! We should probably finish our bathroom reno before they come though….

Gary and I went for a run on Christmas Eve before going to our first stop, my parents. It was cold and rainy. Much rainier than I expected. We went to a new park and ran one of the sidewalk loops and then decided to give it a rest because it was really rainy and my windbreaker wasn’t doing much to keep me dry.

Went out for a run this morning and then came back and lifted weights. Getting some use out of the weight bench! I pulled out the running plan I was using before we bought the house and went back to the beginning to start with some easier runs. The first one in the plan is a 1 min run/4 min walk X 5. I pushed a little harder during the 1 minute because a 4 min walk seems like a long time between intervals so I’d have more time to recover. Not a bad run, I figure it was between 1.5 – 2 miles. Cold and dreary out on the canal today, but at least I had some solitude! During the summer this park is hopping – hard to even find a parking spot.

Then back to lift some weights. I did bench presses, bicep curls, dumbbell rows, tricep dips and shoulder presses, 3 sets of 10 reps each. I still need cinder blocks or something because my feet aren’t even close to touching the ground when I lay on the bench! Today I just brought my feet up onto the bench. Today, I am relaxing and enjoying some of my Christmas presents before we have to go back to work tomorrow!

Hello from the void!

Things have been quite busy lately – houses are really very demanding, aren’t they? and it’s cold out so I take a lot of naps. Last night I squirmed inside the couch cushions, covered myself with pillows and claimed that I had become part of the couch. I woke up this morning in the exact same position and wondered in the dark where the hell I was.

We’ve been doing lots of minor work on the house.  With the help of my dad, Gary and I have taken apart the bathroom and are slowly putting it back together. We bought a new medicine cabinet, vanity & lights, and they are currently installed and look AWESOME. It gives us so much more space in the bathroom. I spent a lot of time reorganizing the closets – finding just the right spot for things makes me giddy. It also makes me wonder HOW THE HELL we fit all this stuff in an apartment.

What else… we finished painting a desk and put it in the Lost Room, which still needs a lot of work. It’s going to be sort of like an office, music room, craft room, etc, but we are calling it the Lost Room because I hate calling it the craft room, or music room, or office. So cliche. Wait, is saying that something is cliche cliche? Oh, well. We bounced around a lot of good ideas for room names – it came down to the Lost Room or the missile silo. Now we need to come up with a good name for the house… something whimsical and haunting. I’ve got my best people working on it (Gary and my sister.)

For our first Christmas in the house, we bought a real Christmas tree! It really looks wonderful. I also made the Christmas tree skirt. Yes, I made that over the course of a year. I cut the pieces a year ago and then spent two nights THIS year stitching it all together. It’s also AWESOME.

 

I recentlly found out that Benjamin Moore has a series of historical paint colors, so I’ll be repainting EVERYTHING in colonial colors.

Gary got us a weight bench for Christmas! I need to get some kind of plates or boxes or something so my feet touch the ground but I can stop laying on the coffee table and actually do some proper lifting.

Still working out the kinks with my new running plan. I love running on the canal – It’s close, it’s flat, it’s local to a town so people are friendly, and it goes on for miles and miles. I had a fantastic run the other day- still using the 1 min run/walk intervals, and it’s working out really well. I’m enjoying the new sights as well. Much more interesting than circling the apartment complex over and over and over. Cons: It’s right next to the Delaware River, so it’s distinctly colder than more inland areas. Also not ideal for night running, and in the winter, all I’ve got is weekend running or night running. I am still thinking about looking for a lighted path, high school track, or even going back to the apartment complex to run on their sidewalks at night, but I haven’t quite gotten that far yet. So far, this new running plan of “thinking about doing stuff and running on the weekends” has resulted in a decline in running workouts and an increase in belly jiggle and discomfort in jeans. Like everyone else, Gary and I are pretty busy during the holidays, BUT I don’t have to work for a few days, so I can squeeze in morning runs, lifting and maybe a hike or two this week. My cousins and I talked about doing a 5K together sometime next year, so that’s cool!

Duo Workouts!

Gary and I have been taking a lot of time to get our house together. So far, we’ve made some minor changes around the house; new locks, new faucet, new bathroom light etc, and we’re getting the hang of the trash & recycling schedule, which I equate with being awesome at home ownership… although we don’t actually have a ladder, so the gutters are full of leaves. Gutters: “OM NOM NOM LEAVES”

We’ve painted some swatches on the walls to see how we like them. We haven’t gotten much farther than that.

There are several areas of the house that have become the depository for stuff we don’t know what to do with yet. The living room, kitchen & bathroom look pretty good (I think this is because we spend the most time in these rooms so we’re more anxious to make them look the way we want. Also, laziness.)

Last Monday I went for a run… before work. Yes, I went for a MORNING RUN. This is totally not my style, but now I live close enough to work that I can go for a quick run an hour before work and not be late!

I also ran on Sunday, which was my 30th birthday. Other than that, I haven’t run since my 5K. I took it easy on Sunday with a 1 min run/1 min walk for about twenty minutes. I drove down to the canal to run because it was flat and I wouldn’t encounter cars. While walking down my driveway I see a runner actually running on my road. I can’t tell if she’s insane or awesome. It does make me feel better about possibly running on the road. Also, she was wearing all black, which I know is crazy. My mom bought me hi-vis gloves for my birthday, so I know I’ll be better off then Maybe-Crazy-Running-Lady. I also chased a deer down the canal on my birthday run, which is my favorite thing that’s ever happened on a run so far.

We set up our weights and workout machines in the den in the basement and tonight we got a chance to come downstairs and work out together. I’m trying to incorporate more strength training into my routine for the winter with barbells and dumbells. Gary switched back and forth between the stationary bike and elliptical. I hopped on the elliptical first but could only muster about 3 minutes. Seriously, that thing separates the kittens from the cats. (our gender-neutral version of that one about the men and the boys, being separated and whatnot.)

Seaside 5K Shenanigans

Gary, his mom & I drove down to Maryland on Friday night for our 5K. My sister offered to come pick up our kitten and take her home for the weekend because I was worried about leaving her for the weekend. Our other cat, Zooey, is a pro at being left alone. A big bowl of crunchies and she’s good to go. However… she’s getting a little hefty and I think she’s overeating or stress eating – we came home to find she’d thrown up a little pile of undigested crunchies. I’m going to increase our playtimes a bit so we’ll get some exercise and bonding time.

Wendi came to pick up Gus and sent us tons of cute pictures all weekend. It was probably after the tenth picture of Gus sleeping on Wendi’s shoulder that we began to face the fact that we might not actually get the cat back.

We got a good night’s sleep and headed to Ocean City for the 5K. Aunt Kara and I planned to alternate running and walking for 1 minute for the entire time. Gary said he was going to stick with us, but I knew he wanted to zoom ahead. I do believe his only goal for the race was to beat me. He claims that he just wanted to run a good race, but if you think about it, he thinks I always run a great race, so if he beats me, therefore he also runs a great race. See, it’s a compliment!

The weather was a bit chilly at 7:30 AM when we left for Ocean City. There was some kerfuffle about the race start time, as one website said 8:45 AM and another said 9:15 AM. There was also shenanigans about the food at the end of the race – the website clearly said candy, but all they had were strawberry Gushers. Race organizers, that is not candy. Some of the goodies they had last year were not available this year, like bagels and soda, and that was kind of a bummer since I talked it up so much to the new racers. We did get beer though (last year it was two tickets and this year we only got one, not that it matters to me but I’m just saying.) Maybe this year the photographer will actually post race photos – the photo website has nothing from last year’s race and they haven’t answered my emails. These are my gripes. and now on to sunnier shores.

We got to OC, caught up with my running buddy Lauren, and tried to work out the jitters before starting. Gary stuck with us for about two seconds before he pulled ahead. He got a good lead on us and kept it the whole time. This year the race seemed to go much faster than any 5K I’ve ever run before! I think the pacing of the Run 1/ Walk 1 system worked really well for me. Mile 1 went by pretty quickly, Mile 2 I could feel myself start dragging a little. Kara and I tried to chat with each other about running but I was finding myself very out of breath during the walk portions. She was kicking butt though! Totally didn’t seem tired at all. We kept up with each other pretty well, she definitely pushed me to run faster. We took an extra walk break at the halfway point, waved to our friends as they passed us on the way back to the finish line, grabbed some water. I think I wanted to take an extra minute during one walk break but we didn’t. Mile 3: my legs were getting sore. Not training started to take its toll! It was challenging, but I kept thinking that I was there to push myself. We found Lauren and our moms about 1/4 mile from the Finish waiting to watch us cross. At that point I kept running through the walk breaks – we saw Gary finish ahead of us, then Kara & I crossed the finish line at the same time. She didn’t even seem tired, but I was like, “Ok, let’s find somewhere to sit down.”

We had our beer, water, bananas, etc. Took some smiling “I Did It!” pictures and hung out in the tent. Eventually they announced that all the 5K runners had finished and they were posting the times. Gary finished in 48:56. Their printer was running out of ink and some of the lines didn’t print too clearly so it was tough to read my name, but I found Kara’s name and I knew I was next to her- we finished at 49:42, tied for last! (We actually weren’t last, the printer ran out of ink and didn’t print anything else after my name!) HEY, THAT’S A PR! Last year I ran 52:15 at this race, and my previous best was 50:10. Yeah, someone runs a sub-50 5K! High fives were had all around. We took off our shoes and ran into the ocean.

Seaside 10 miler/ 5K Goals Have Changed Drastically

The Seaside 10 miler/5K is this Saturday in Ocean City! I’m doing the 5K (obvs) with Gary and my Aunt Kara. I am so excited they signed up for this with me! Kara has been training like crazy, but Gary and my training got knocked off track a few weeks ago when we started buying our house. I haven’t actually run in a few weeks, although last week I mowed the grass for the first time with our self-propelled lawn mower, and chased it up a few hills in the back yard for some short hill sprints.

I’ve been dreading this 5K for a while because I wanted to run it faster than I did last year. It was my first 5K, and I’d hoped that the year of training since then had made me slightly more athletic. Honestly, I’ve gained muscle and weight. Haven’t lost a pound, haven’t really gotten any faster. I am able to run for much longer, though. I remember my first few times out running at the apartments when I would say, Ok, run to that tree. Now I can run circles around that tree! I’ll be running to a tree so far away I can’t even see it when I start running. It might take me half an hour though.

I have been talking to my Aunt Kara about the 5K. She found a great training plan that works for her (1 minute run, 1 minute walk) and she was wondering what my plan is, if she’s going to be able to keep up with me. It got me actually thinking about my plan, because I totally don’t have one anymore. I have been obsessed with getting a PR… but then I came to a realization. My husband and aunt signed up for this race with me. I will probably have more fun if I just hang out with them and stop worrying about my time. My parents & Gary’s mom are also coming down to watch us run!

OK, now I need your help with something: there is no safe option for running in the dark at the new house – it’s a very woodsy road and there are no sidewalks or shoulder. I would rather not run on a treadmill because it just flat out bores me. Any ideas about places I might go to run after work now that winter is setting in and it’s getting darker? I’m going to try to incorporate more strength training but I just really want to run. There are some schools around so I will try to inquire about running on their tracks. Otherwise I’ll be going back to the apartments to run on their sidewalks!

Moving on Up

We closed on our house on Friday, and moved in on Saturday, and it went off without a hitch.

OK, there were a few hitches.

We had a problem with mortgage people going on vacation and not finishing things up for us… Like it was down to the wire, I had the pen in my hand at the lawyer’s office and it was fixed in the last few minutes.

We had a lot of friends and family come to help us move, and we got so much accomplished! I am super grateful for all the help. But they all got to see what happens when you tell Sarah that she can’t carry two drawers, but a man can because he knows how. I may have yelled, “Don’t start that shit with me!” and made a silent promise to myself to lift more weights and do more push-ups.

We run our 5K in two weeks! I know I don’t feel ready – we still have stuff at the apartment, and I feel like I should work on getting the house ready instead of running now. I’ve been running back and forth carrying things to and from the cars just to get the blood pumping. Not expecting a PR but hoping to feel relaxed enough to have fun running with my family!

The new kitten is doing well, sort of unfazed by the new digs. Zooey on the other hand- not excited about the change in scenery. This room is much smaller than the room she used to have, and it’s still a little too messy to let her roam free. The two cats haven’t met yet and I think it will have to stay that way for a while.

Things accomplished in the new house: 1) painted cabinets (thanks Mom & Wendi!) 2) installed new bathroom fan/ light (the old one was really loud) 3) set up wi-fi (definitely the most important; although nothing will get done now that we have internet!)

Other “fun” house things that have happened:
– I accidentally posted this whole thing to the wrong blog a few days ago and didn’t realize right away.
– Our sewer line was clogged and we didn’t know it… until I did wash and it backed up into the basement. YEP lots of cleaning with bleach yesterday.
– The oven doesn’t really heat up.
– The washer broke.

DID WE BUY THE HOUSE FROM THE MONEY PIT OR WHAT.

Gus / Evie: Welcome to the family!

Yesterday morning I arrived at work, said hello to my fellow co-workers, sat down at my computer, and heard a tiny meow.  I thought, hmmm… that’s different. The police had found a cat wandering on the side of the road and my co-worker had brought her to our office to hang out.

KITTY

She’s totally in good shape, so it’s clear that Mama-cat took really good care of her. I’m not sure how she got separated from her. Hope Mama’s not too stressed without her kitten.

  

We sort of subverted the normal order of things and just decided that one of us was going to adopt her instead of making her go to an animal shelter. I plied my husband with cute kitten pictures, but it wasn’t necessary – I think we both knew she’d be coming home with me. We originally thought it was a boy, so we named him Gus, and then we found out she was a girl, so we decided to officially name her Evangeline (Evie for short) but we’re going to keep calling her Gus as a nickname, cause it’s cute.

She went to the vet where she was dewormed and tested negative for FELV/FIV (feline leukemia /feline aids, which can be common in outdoors cats). The vet estimated that she was about 5-6 weeks old, although based on comparison with internet cat-sites, she looks and acts more like 4 weeks. She’s totally good with wet & dry food, but I think she misses her Mama-cat! She keeps trying to nurse on our arms. I feel bad that she couldn’t stay with Mama for longer, but we’ve got her now so I’m doing research to figure out feeding. Glad she’s old enough that she doesn’t have to be bottle-fed. I’ve never handled a kitten this young without its mom and the vet wasn’t super helpful with recommendations. I also put a stuffed penguin and warm blanket in her kennel to keep her company. I found her sleeping on the penguin this morning. A-dorable.

Our current cat, Zooey, is quite frightened by the sight of the new cat. So far they have had one chaperoned meeting, and Zooey got all puffy-tailed and skittish. Zooey stared at Gus. Gus looked at Zooey. I made a noise. Zooey scrambled back into the bedroom. We gave her tons of treats and positive attention so she would hopefully associate the kitten with good things. She seemed ok afterwards. It’s like she can’t smell the new cat at all in the other room. We’ll be moving next week, so they’ll have more space and we won’t have to worry about Zooey feeling like Gus is horning in on her territory.

What Would You Do? If a Train Blocked Your Race

http://www.runnersworld.com/races/watch-marathoners-stopped-by-passing-train?cid=social32511966

I guess I’d be the only one to flip off the train as I ran in front of it? Does that sound like an anger problem?

Update: More research on this incident proved that the race organizers had made an agreement with the freight company that no trains would pass on those tracks during the race. Guess someone made a boo-boo. It’s completely maddening but it’s really not important enough to risk your life.

Active Weekend & the Evolution of Packing

Gary and I are still in the midst of packing and biding our time. Closing on the house is less than two weeks away and then begins the Great Move of 2014. We have now thrown out our couch, which wasn’t coming with us to the new house anyway, and we are slowly replacing its void with boxes. I am sort of but sort of not looking forward to the nights before our move, where we’ll have to reposition all our furniture so that the big stuff will be closest to the door to put into the U-Haul.

What I am really looking forward to in a giddy kind of way is unpacking and finding new homes for all our stuff. I find some weird pleasure in picking just the right spot for an item, and I step back and admire how it brings the whole room together, and the light shines through the Headpiece on top of the Staff of Ra, and it reveals the location of the Ark of the Covenant.

Mainly I just want the seller to leave so we can start moving in. She’s a very nice lady and she’s taken really great care of the house so it’s in really good condition and she was really excited to find out that I bake and prefer to let clothes hang to dry and will continue to put birdseed in the bird feeder, but she never lets you leave a conversation after you say good-bye the first ten times, and I’m glad she’s moving across the country because, let’s face it, she loves this house, and I’m sure she’d be unhappy if she ever found we were going to change anything (not that we’re planning on changing anything… are you reading this?). I’m a little awkward about taking ownership of things that once belonged to other people. Sometimes they resent the way you are using said thing, even though it totally belongs to you now, and imagine if they knew you threw it out (!) or painted it? They’d act like you accidentally released the demon they were hiding inside it.

This weekend wound up being a very active and outdoorsy type of weekend. We had envisioned lots of time spent at home, smiling and packing. That’s exactly how I picture it, smiling and packing. and there’s sunshine. and classic rock. In reality, we are sitting on the floor in our pajamas and watching Netflix and not wanting to move because there’s so much left to do.

I ran on Friday night, I think I did 1.69 miles in 28 minutes? Somewhere around there. I dug in the WordPress archives to find a blog post I read from Must Love Jogs about lacing your shoes differently for different foot ailments – I finally remembered to try the high instep lacing. I think it helped, because my foot didn’t fall asleep when I ran. My quads were killing me after my Tuesday run, and they were starting to hurt again at the beginning of the run. I was listening to music and a quick song came on and I don’t know why, but even with the quad pain I tried to match the pace. The more I picked up the pace, the less my legs hurt? Yes, that sentences ends in a question mark, because it doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m not going to argue with it. My lungs were less than cooperative, but my legs didn’t hurt so much.

Saturday: We drove up to my folks to visit and go out to dinner for my grandfather’s birthday. We were planning to stop along the way at a few different events and go apple-picking, but we did none of those things and instead spent a lot of time driving around. Driving around and seeing new sights is something I find very relaxing and wonderful, especially as fall starts to set in. We met up with some Carrie & Mike & friends to play disc golf, which is maybe our new favorite sport.

Sunday: I met up with Carrie & Mike & other assorted relatives and friends to bike through Duke Farms, which was awesome even if my bruised bones regret it completely today. We biked up ridiculous hills (ok, sometimes we pushed our bikes up the hills) to see a pet cemetery where Doris Duke buried all her pets, including a camel named Baby.

Gary stayed home to hang out with a friend, but that fell through, so he packed some kitchen stuff. Glasses, bowls, plates; all packed. Most of the stuff from our bookshelves is packed, but I keep forgetting that stuff still lurks behind the cabinet doors.

Lots of stuff.