frizz: to (cause hair to) form a mass of tight curls.
fart·lek An athletic training technique, used especially in running, in which periods of intense effort alternate with periods of less strenuous effort in a continuous workout.

Ok, now before i tell you all about the running let me pat myself on the back and share with you my success at collecting Duncan’s pee.

photo 1

TMI!

Well I didn’t necessarily rock it out of the park…the first attempt started out sensational, he lifted his leg and I slipped the jar under. I heard the sound of the stream hitting the bottom of the jar and thought it was gonna be smooth sailing from there on out but the little bugger kicked the jar out of my hand as he was done and the valuable pee spilled out! I know now to hold the jar tighter next time. Lesson learned. Mind you it was pouring rain out and all I could think was that the rain drops would taint the specimen anyway leaving this whole challenge for naught. Luckily the doodle had “more to give” and I spent the next 10 minutes catching a squirt here and a squirt there. Hopefully enough for the lab to do a complete work up.

So now that i’ve shared too much info I’ll tell you all about my 3 mile treadmill workout.

I actually only ran 2.99 miles. But that was the least of my worries today.

I actually only ran 2.99 miles. But that was the least of my worries today.

I completed a Fartlek workout. Fartlek is Swedish for “speed play”. I walked for the first minute to warm up and then changed the speed every quarter mile from 5.5 mph (11 min per mile pace) to 7.5 (8:34 min per mile pace). My average pace netted out at 9:50 (min per mile). But it’s nice to know I could hold out on those sub 9 quarter miles. The biggest issue with today’s workout was me forgetting some critical items at the gym. A) a pony tail holder! Holy frizz-fro batman! I sweat so much and the hair went AWOL! B) my nice little iPod shuffle and sport ear buds. I ended up using my iPhone and those sub-par white ear buds that come with the phone and of course the phone took a spill and slid down the moving belt. I didn’t even stop running to get it because I knew i’d not want to get back on to run the last 1/2 mile. A nice gentleman kindly picked it up for me and put it in the little cubby on the treadmill for me. God bless him.

Total time was just 29:33 (clock counted backward from 60 minutes which is why the photo says 31:27) but I felt EXHAUSTED! Sweaty but happy. It is a great feeling to go out of the comfort zone and hit those 8:xx paces….even for just 1/4 mile chunks.

I don’t know if you’ve all read this yet but sadly a beautiful young woman/mother/wife named Meg was struck and killed while running yesterday. You can read more here. Please run on Saturday if you can. Take a moment to realize that this could be any one of us, say a prayer for her family and then enjoy your run.

Okie doke. I’m off to bed. 2 down 3 to go!!!

Question: What have you ever forgotten when going to the gym? Sneakers? Pants? 

This has been a very long Monday of what is going to be a very long week! 1 down….4 to go…
My morning started with the painters arriving almost 40 minutes early! I hadn’t even had my coffee or showerd! But I wasn’t going to complain since i’d rather them early than late. So I put a few drops of moroccan oil in my hair, brushed my teeth and then I took Duncan to the vet. He had a cut above his eye that got infected and he’s been having some other issues that I wanted to get checked out.

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Quick stop at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru so ma could get some coffee before I went to the vet

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I hope they don’t have to take my temperature

$100 later and we got some antibiotic ointment for his eye and a plastic “specimen” cup that I’ll be hovering under him tomorrow morning when he pees. This should be interesting.

photo 3I dropped him at my friends house to keep him out of the painter’s hair and then headed to work. Have I mentioned how much I hate that my commute is an hour and a half?!

photo 4

Why the K for Koffeecake? What am I missing?

12 hours later I arrived home with the doodle where we discovered the living room was a sea of drop clothes and tarps. Um, where will I eat my dinner if the couches are covered??

1545014_10202906257879148_1914699090_nLuckily the painter got my bedroom done so at least I can sleep away from the chaos.

photo 5

this works

Today was a messy day. Looking forward to my run tomorrow.

Question: Have you ever lived through a house painting job or other renovation? Do you have a pet? Dog or Cat? 

Oh lordy! I’ve been cleaning and packing up my rooms in preparation for the painter who begins painting EVERY SINGLE ROOM in my house on Monday. He said it’ll take about 5 or 6 days. Needless to say it’s been a bit like an archaeology dig. I keep uncovering candles, vases etc COVERED in dust. I’m actually planning on tossing a lot of the stuff. Note to self: No more fake or dried flowers like EVER. And may I say that I’m REALLY going to need my runs this week. I have so much anxiety just thinking about what COULD go wrong. I’m trying not to “spiral” as my boss says.

photo 2

Buh-Bye!

It’s been a little bit like when I first moved here (13 1/2 years ago)….a bunch of trips to the Home Depot where I think I Aisle 1 should just be named after me at this point. I bought a bunch of new light switch plates and some new lamps for the living room, some wood blinds, sink faucet and a wall sconce for my bathroom.

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$60 faucet + $350 for plumber to install faucet = time to date a plumber next?

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new lamps to help the dark corners. I wasn’t sure about them at first but the thought of dis-assembling, re-packing and returning them to Target seemed to daunting, so….I LOVE THEM! LOL!

It rained ALL day! So I took the dog to the pet store just to give him some excitement. Of course he was very naughty last night….for the first time ever he went into the garbage and left a mess. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of it.

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So I thought I’d “punish him” and make him stay in the way back of the Jeep (on our ride to the pet store mind you—punish, this wasn’t. lol!)

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is she feeling ok? What happened to my co-pilot status? It blows back here. Better give her my pathetic sad face. Oh right, I’ll just lean my chin like this…

Of course as soon as I went to back out of the driveway and saw that pathetic face I let him come up and ride shot gun with me. I’m a sucker.

Today’s “long run” was only 6 miles. Good thing because I have so much to do….I just don’t have time for a 20 miler. Thank god those are a couple months away! Although I have enough stress to reduce to last 100 miles easy.

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It felt like a nice easy run (except for the wind) but apparently I need to slow it down. I’m trying to keep long run days 60-90 seconds slower than race pace and I’m looking to keep a 10:40 average pace on race day (NJ Marathon) which means my long runs should be 11:40-12:10 min/mile pace (although I think that’s REALLY slow). My pace today was 10:22! I guess when a long run is only 6 miles it’s easier to feel fresh the whole time. I’m sure when it’s a 16 miler I’ll be right between 11:30 and 12:00 min/mile pace for sure.

On the training schedule for the week…
Monday: cross training which will probably be my trampoline and some resistance band work.
Tuesday: 3 mile fartlek on the treadmill at lunch because I already know I don’t want to get up early. Wednesday: OFF (Maybe just a walk of a few miles)
Thursday: 4 miles at an “as you feel” pace
Friday: OFF (Maybe just some stretching and foam rolling)
Saturday: 4 miles easy pace.
Sunday: 8 miles easy pace.

Question: How was your weekend? Did you clean? Was there dust? Are you a pack rat? Neat or messy?

 

Yesterday, I woke up before my alarm (it was somewhere around 5am) and within a minute of me being awake my power went out. At first I wasn’t too alarmed, I didn’t have to worry about the alarm clock waking me up since I was up but then I realized that without power my Keurig coffee maker wouldn’t work!

no-coffee

 

It went from bad to worse. This also meant no heat! Yikes! The temperature: 5 measly degrees! I laid in bed for another 2 hours until finally it was time to figure out how I was going to deal with this crisis. I took the dog out and then rapid fired texts to some friends to see if anyone was up and would let me come take a hot shower at their house. I checked the thermostat in my house and it was 47 degrees by this point. As soon as I received a response that I had a friend nearby with power I did what I knew would calm me down….I went for a run.

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5 degrees outside….47 degrees inside….either way i was gonna have to bundle up.

I’m glad I went. It was cold and windy for sure but I came back calmer. I immediately grabbed the dog and a change of clothes and we drove to my friend’s house where Duncan milked the situation for a boatload of cookies and I showered and got ready for work.

froze

doodle milking face

I checked online at the power company’s website and it said power should be restored by noon. It was now almost 11am and I really needed to get to work. (My boss understood that I’d be late but appreciated that I didn’t come to work unshowered). I drove home to drop the dog off and low and behold the power was back! So I made a quick cup of joe in a travel mug, left the cookie monster and drove to the bus stop and eventually made it to work by 12:30pm.

I actually have to be thankful for the whole debacle because there was no way I was getting out of bed to run at 6:30am when I was supposed to go. So waiting to secure a friend with power allowed me to get that 3 miler in at 8:45 which is so much more humane =)

Today I ran another 3 miles only I wore one less shirt and one less pair of pants since it was a balmy 16 degrees! I took the day off since I had a doctor’s appointment, so I ran at 11:30am.

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there’s one less shirt and one less pair of pants on today due to the heat wave

I am always reading about running stride length and cadence (foot turnover). So I decided to see how many strides per minute I actually ran for my regular average pace (which was 10:30). I did the test 3 times and each time it was 174. Not sure what that means. I just like the way the word sounds. If I had a baby girl I think I’d name her Cadence. =) So that’s all I have to say about that. If you’ve got any insight to this whole foot turnover/stride length stuff do tell!

Question: Is it too soon to start thinking about the weekend? What’s your take on cadence?