2008 Recap

I'm really not big on New Years Eve, New Years Day, or the resolutions that people make. I understand that it is nice to reflect on the past year and contemplate the good and bad decisions that were made to try to make the next year better. 2008 was extremely kind to me...

• I made it through my job flying solo at multiple meetings. I traveled to Mexico and Florida for work. I also got the standard raise and a performance-based raise this last year.
• I paced the Austin marathon last year and with my partner, Jennifer, won the Pacer Queen award.
• Chad and I got married and took a fantastic honeymoon in France. It was a trip of a lifetime.
• I trained hard over the entire summer only to become injured during the first week of my taper. It was humbling to have to put aside my goals at the last minute because my body would not cooperate.
• I made lots of new friends and reconnected with many old friends this year.
• Erin and Tara both moved back to Austin after living away for awhile. Overall throughout the whole year, it has been a great year spending time with girlfriends.
• We sold and bought a house this year and had our first Christmas together as a married couple in our new house.
• I am being treated for hypothyroidism (finally!) and other hormone issues and am finally feeling like myself again.
• I learned to cook lots of new things this year.

This year has brought me patience, confidence, more self-awareness, frugality, and overall a better sense of the woman that I am becoming. I can only imagine what the next few years will bring.

Happy New Years to everyone. Cheers!

Half marathon...and more

I'm get it. I understand. There is a difference between normal training for a race and training like Team Rogue trains.

With no disrespect to anyone who might be reading this who does not do this kind of training, I feel the need to talk about my 'medium long run' that I did last night. Fourteen miles is by no means the furthest distance I will run on a Tuesday or Thursday coming up in the next few months. It is, however, the longest weekday run I have ever had scheduled in all of my training groups so far to date. I remember when Mac had 12 on the schedule for a mid-week run during my first Boston training group and I thought he was insane.

I met Tara for the first 7 miles...my legs were feeling a little sluggish the first mile or so. We started to get into a rhythm and before we knew it our seven miles ended at a 1:03:26 or a 9:04 pace. Not bad. I ran the second seven miles by myself with my iPod. Since it was beginning to get dark, I guess I picked up the pace out of subconscious fear of the boogieman. My second 7 miles was 1:00:53 making my total 14 mile time 2:04:19 (or 8:53 pace).

It didn't dawn on me until I got in the car that my run was anything I would consider to be special. Then I started thinking...I know people who would love to do a half marathon in 2:04. I remember when I would love to run a 2:04. Then I realized that I ran the whole 14 in 2:04 and I needed to figure out what my time would have been for a half marathon at that pace. If I had been running a half marathon last night, I would have clocked 1:56:22. That is freaking cool! I reminded myself again that I did run a half marathon last night..and more. On a random Tuesday.

I am not a badass. I am faster than some people and slower than some people. However, running 14 miles a respectable race pace for my age group on a random Tuesday night is super cool.

You know you missed me.

It's great when people post on their blogs. When my blog friends stop posting for a while, I miss them, too. Life has been so full of things lately that blogging seemed like a chore. I'm close to being back to my normal routine, so hopefully blogging will be more routine as well.

Running Update - sound familiar?

One of the things I've been looking forward to about training with Team Rogue is to see how my body/pace responds to the high mileage. My normal easy pace has been somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30, depending on my overall fitness and mileage.

I remember reading all of the blogs of folks who participated in the high mileage build-up last summer being a wee bit jealous that their easy pace kept getting faster and faster. I was doing so much quality/speed work over the summer that I had trouble recovering in time to bump up my easy run pace. Every easy mile felt slow because my legs were always recovering from some brutal workout on the track.

Now that I'm building up my mileage without all of the quality workouts, I'm finding that my easy pace has started to drop...as in getting faster. The past 3 runs that I've done have been a 16 miler, a 6 miler, and an 8 miler. I did these three runs in 8:58 pace, 8:48 pace, and 8:55 pace respectively.

Do I expect every run to be under 9:00 pace? No, definitely not. However, I'm excited to know that three runs in a row have felt okay and have been surprisingly 'fast'. Hopefully my legs will continue to feel strong enough after this 60 week...70, 80, 86, 90, 90, 90...

Coffee Firsts...

I used a couple of our wedding gifts for the first time today...

Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder



It was very easy to set up and use. I followed the directions and used some whole coffee beans that I purchased at Whole Foods in their bulk bean section. I like how you can store the ground beans in the stainless steel bowl with the plastic lid they give you.

Cuisinart Brew Central™ 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker



The instructions were a little more complicated than the bean grinder, but I managed to figure out the water filter set-up and figured out how to brew a small batch of coffee. I like how there is a setting for 1-4 cups so that I get a hot cup even though I'm only brewing a little bit. I also like how easy this coffeemaker is to work, despite having a few bells and whistles over the basic coffeemaker. Plus, it's stainless and a little bit retro-looking for the kitchen.

The results? I liked my gigantic cup of coffee, though I think I'm going to experiment with the brands/flavors/grind setting/measured amount so that I get it exactly the way I like.

How do I take my coffee? No cream, just sugar (preferably raw sugar to get the yummy caramel/molasses flavor). My favorite coffee? Kona coffee, medium-dark roast.

Back at it officially

I am fully paid for Team Rogue Spring 2008 as of today. I have been officially training for 3 weeks and just finished a 55 mile week. This week is 60, on my way to 90.

Chad and I are also both officially registered for the Country Music Marathon in Nashville on April 25th. Soon after that we will be in Maui for a week...I hope I look really good in my bikini by then.

Christmas Pics are up

They are here.

The Move

We moved! Pics of the house are on my Picasa page, but there are lots more that have been taken since then. Our close date was on Dec 18, we had movers scheduled on Dec 21, and we had told our family that we would have them over for Christmas Day festivities. So...much to do.

We packed and packed and packed. I spend the whole day on Friday doing shelf paper and cork drawer liners in the kitchen to replace the nasty, ugly shelf paper that was already there. I also unpacked 90% of our wedding gifts and unloaded them all into the cabinets. We had already opened all of our wedding gifts and some of the items had already made it into regular rotation, but there were so many things that couldn't be opened because of lack of storage space in our old condo.

After the move, I spent the entire day on Monday unpacking while Chad had to work. I also spent half of the day on Tuesday unpacking boxes. We were able to put up the tree and decorate the living room by Tuesday night...finally, it felt like Christmas!

Here's Felicia posing in front of the tree.

Much Belated...Snow Pics

It snowed in Austin a while back (some places more than others). Chad and I were still living in the condo off of SW Parkway, and the snow there was thick enough to stick on the cars, roofs, and on the ground in a few places.

The snow on the roof did not melt completely until midafternoon.

On the ground.

The snow on the big houses behind our condos.

WWY loves the snow!

Lots to catch up on...but first...

This is my new favorite song to run to. Single Ladies - Beyonce. If you're reading this in Google Reader or the like, you can't hear it. Seriously, it makes me run faster, and I'm not even a single lady.

Week 2 - midweek check-in

I'm on week 2 of my 90 mile build. The schedule says 7-12-7-5-off-14-5 for a total of 50 miles. Last week I had to adjust my schedule and take Wednesday off instead of Friday, and this week has turned into the same situation. I had plans last night with a friend and knew that it would be easier to push the 7 and 5 milers to Thursday and Friday because of my flexible work schedule.

Monday - Tara and I ran 7 miles on Shoal Creek in the afternoon. It was freezing with a strong headwind as we ran north. BRRR!!!! We are tough chicks, though, so we finished just fine.

Tuesday - I needed to run 12, while Tara needed to run 10. I got my 2 miles in and met Tara to finish the rest of the 10 that we needed. We ran on Town Lake and used Chad's Garmin to free-run in South Austin a little. We went to Stacy Pool (which had water and a bathroom) while we wandered through Travis Heights. At the end of the run we were lucky enough to be able to run the trail of lights before it was open to the public at 7pm. I think we caught it at about 6:10pm, and it was pretty enough without every single light being on. Oh, and since it was so cold, it was the second day of running in tights in a row and was the sixth day of running back to back days. My hips were starting to hurt, which always happens when I have to wear tights.

Wednesday - off - I learned how to make crepes from a Belgian exchange student who is here in Austin staying with the family of one of my friends. It was awesome seeing the 'recipe' come out of her head...it is something that she just knows how to make. I got to practice making lots of crepes last night, so I know I have the cooking and flipping part down. Hopefully when I try to make them on my own, they will turn out just as good. We had them with Nutella, but I'm looking forward to making the 'sucre citron' version with fresh lemon juice and sugar. They sure were delicious!

Thursday - this morning I met Tara to run at 5:30 am. The fog was nice! We ran 5 miles together and then I tacked on two more to make it a seven miler. I'm relieved that I only have 5-14-5 left for the week! Oh, and running through fog makes your skin feel really nice. It was kind of like a steam bath, but cold instead.

Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes

I'm in the middle of packing up our condo. Most of the crap here is my crap. Chad's stuff other than clothes is mostly in boxes already. I didn't realize how efficiently I had loaded up my condo...seems like everytime I think I'm almost through with an area, I discover at least 2-3 additional boxes worth of crap. I think I must be about 60% finished because I'm at the point where I can start to see the end but know still have a long way to go.

This afternoon we close on the house. Wahoo! I plan to have a carload of easy stuff to take up to the house this evening. My goal is to get a bunch of kitchen stuff to the house tonight as well as the big computer and at least one of the big TVs.

Tomorrow we have the carpet cleaners coming to steam clean at 9am. I plan to clean and unpack kitchen items tomorrow morning while the rest of the house is unavailable for foot traffic. Our Time Warner appointment is between 1 and 5 so I hope to get a carload or two from the house around the lunch hour before they call and continue the unpacking in the new house after the carpet has dried. I also can work from the new house using my blackberry as a modem. I only took half of a day off Friday, so I need to get a legit 4 hours of work in at some point in the day.

Saturday we have the rest of the day to pack up my condo and have a Christmas party to attend in the evening. My goal is to be completely packed before the party, but I don't know if it will happen.

Sunday is the big move. We hired movers (thank goodness!), but there is a chance that all of our stuff won't fit into the truck. At this point in my life I don't like having to haul boxes myself. However, if it means that our movers can make everything in one trip on Sunday, I'm glad to take trips between now and Sunday morning to help transport the little stuff and our fragile items.

Running in Red

The topic of red running clothes came up this weekend on our long run. Brian saw Tara and I and noted that he knew it was me because of my red shirt. My response to a remark about red running clothes is always this - 'Red makes you faster'. It is the truth. If you are wearing red, it will make you run faster.

It's just a superstition that I have. Red is fiery. Red is hot. Red says you mean business. Red is a power color. Try wearing red during a race...see if you don't run faster.

Back to Rogue

I guess I can talk about my spring goals now that I have started running again. I took about 6 weeks off of running after St. George to let my legs heal. Once I could run again without any pain I started upping the mileage and have been running with Tara earlier in the day. It has been really nice to run starting at 4-5pm rather than having to wait until almost 6. There have been so many days that we have been done running by 6pm and can just chill out the rest of the evening. It's also nice to not have to run in the dark these days.

So, what's next? Tara and I have been talking about joining Team Rogue. We went to hear Steve talk about the upcoming season on Dec 9. I know that the high mileage training will work for me and I'm excited to already be building my miles. I completed week 1 of the 90 mile build-up last week and am now on week 2. So far, the only thing that has been painful was the overly-hilly 14 miler that we ran on Saturday (which was really 14.65 according to gmaps) and the freezing cold temps this week. Other than that, I'm not hurting with the mileage increase, yet. I'm looking forward to running the medium long run (12 miles) this afternoon.

I've sent Steve an email with my recent running history and a little bit about what I would like to accomplish this spring. I'm looking forward to talking to him at office hours next week about his thoughts on my running. My body's response to the high mileage training is the unknown in all of this. I know my body has handled multiple 65-70 mile weeks in a row with 2 quality workouts a week. I've peaked at 70 miles in two or three different seasons thus far. Ninety miles as my peak weeks should be a goal that I can shoot for, so hopefully my body will cooperate. If not, I won't be too disappointed about running fewer miles.

I plan to run the Country Music Marathon in Nashville. It is the weekend after Marathon Monday in Boston. I have no official time goal yet, but I know that this is not my ultimate goal race...I'm saving that for the fall. We'll just have to wait and see how my body responds to the training and see if I will be running 3:40, 3:35, 3:30 or better come April.

House Stuff

We've got lots of house stuff going on this week! Yesterday we closed on the sale of Chad's townhome...YAY! I've never been through the process of closing on a house, so it was somewhat interesting to sit in the meeting and listen to what happens. Being on the seller's side, we had it pretty easy. The couple that bought his house seem like nice folks and since they have been living in a 1BR apartment, I think they're really going to enjoy the extra space and the garage.

We close on our new house on Thursday afternoon. Now that it is getting closer to the actual date, I'm super excited! There is a ton of work that I have to do at my house to get packed up. We have the carpet steam cleaners coming on Friday morning, cable and internet appointment between 1 and 5 on Friday, and the moving truck is all set for Sunday morning. We'll probably be moving some things by hand on Thursday night through Saturday just because we are excited to be moving in. I can't wait to be in the new house and set up our Christmas decorations!

That's all for now on the house front. Wish me luck packing boxes!

Pounded by a Sledgehammer

My body was pounded by a sledgehammer. My bones ached. Moving my body was impossible. I may be exaggerating a little, but last night was so painful as I realized that a stomach virus was settling into my body. My stomach and intestines rumbled and grumbled for hours. Within 30 minutes, my headache turned into a shoulder ache turned into a backache turned into a full body ache. After a round in the bathroom screaming out to Chad after every embarrassing sound...'This is just wrong'...'I'm hurting my feelings.'...trying to control my laughing at how miserable I felt.

Immodium came to my rescue as I tried to crawl back into the couch and get comfortable. My bones continued to ache all evening. At my breaking point, I realized how badly I was hurting and begged for Advil. I tried to sit up and it felt like my bones were breaking in two. Of course at that point I started crying like a baby. What a mess!

An hour after Advil my body still ached and I took my temperature again and again...99.1, then 100.8, then 101.0. Yikes! Full blown stomach virus with fever.

Do I feel better today? Somewhat. My bones don't hurt, but my abdomen does. I had a low grade fever when I woke up - 99.1. I expect it will rise slightly during the day. My plan to get better? Sleeping, eating peppermints, drinking water and decaf hot tea, cuddling with kitties.

Tagged!

I got tagged by Diana, and since I obviously don't mind sharing, I'll continue the game.

Here's how this all works -
*Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog
*Share 7 random/weird facts about yourself
*tag 7 other people and link to them at the end of your blog
*let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment

Seven random things about me:
1. I was accepted to UT by the College of Engineering and by the School of Music (as a Music Performance major). I chose Engineering on a whim when I was finally forced to register for classes. I sometimes wonder how much my life would have been different if I chose differently.
2. I have never been stung by a bee, but mosquitos love me.
3. I can feel seasick when standing on a dock.
4. I held a couple of Texas age group state records in swimming when I was younger.
5. My senses of smell and taste are apparently well above average.
6. I attended Pond Springs Elem., Deerpark Middle, and McNeil HS all during their first year as a new school.
7. I regularly dream things that come true.

I tag:
Melissa - who needs one more thing to take up her time.
Mike - who probably has lots of fun random things to share.
Ken - who has been quiet lately.
Kate - who has also been quiet lately.
Leah - who rocks.
Erin - who I know so much about already.
Laurel - who is like and unlike her sister.

What's been goin' on?

I was reminded by Mike today that I hadn't blogged in a while. Here's what has been going on with me/us...

• We got an offer on Chad's house. We made it through the inspection and option period with the buyer, so now we're waiting on the close date to be scheduled by Dec 15. Yay!
• After we got the offer on Chad's house, we officially started our search for houses (even though we've been looking for about a year). We found a place and put an offer on it, contingent on the sale of Chad's house. We're beyond the inspection and option period on our new house, so we're looking to close on or before Dec 18. Woohoo!
• I've been running more and more without pain. I've done lots of 7 mile runs and even did a 10 miler this weekend.
• I ran the Turkey Trot. My performance was much better than I thought it would be because I've been injured and haven't done any speed work for about 2 months. I ran an 8:10 pace with the following disclaimers - I started a minute back in the crowd and had a crazy first mile weaving around folks. I was wearing headphones. I helped Monique push her double stroller up West Lynn. An 8:10 pace on that course with those disclaimers amounts to a 7:50 pace on a flatter course where I don't help with a stroller. Regardless, I'm extremely happy with the time.
• We had 4 Thanksgiving dinners again this year. I will not ever do that again if I can help it. Next year I'd rather cook at my house than have to eat 4 separate meals. I love our families, but sheesh! Enough is enough.

There's not much else...What do you want to know?