I Need to Get Better at Bloggin

Obviously it has been several days.  Here is the running update:

Monday afternoon:  Decided to run a mile as fast as I could while blasting "Semi-Charmed Life" (Third Eye Blind), "Separate Ways" (Journey), and "Shake Me Like A Monkey" (Dave Matthews).  It is a pretty epic three song playlist and these three are all back-to-back alphabetically on my iPod.  I did this in 11:11.  The reasons I feel ok about this are threefold:  1) I didn't do any warm up walking; 2) I had already run about 2.25 that morning; and 3) I got a killer stitch in my side halfway through, and almost couldn't walk, so there was a pretty big sucking it up and powering through element to completing the mile.

Wednesday morning:  I almost didn't get up.  I am so over the 5:20am wake-up.  But I did go, and it was 58 degrees, and it was great.  My breathing didn't get as out-of-control as usual, and nothing hurt!  My kness just felt tired, which is much preferable to things being actually painful.

Wednesday afternoon:  It was a little hot, but I decided to take my precious Clara running with me!  She was totally amped at first, but then kept getting distracted by smells and her propensity to try to poop in other people's yards.  With all the slow downs, and the fact that her legs are about 6 inches long, we finished the mile in 12:30, which I think is great!

Wednesday night I went to Steve's jazz concert and the group did great!  They just played two tunes, but they are great ones (Splanky and Blue Skies)! 

Tonight I'll be rooting on my Cowboys to beat Texas A&M, and eating dinner at Mike's Place with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band!!

Hopefully an update tomorrow on how the Friday morning run goes, otherwise, I'll see you back here on Monday!

Dignity, always dignity.

Can I Stop Yet?

I am definitely hitting a wall with the running, and I'm sure it is 80% mental.  The whole group got out of sync last week (none of us ran on Wednesday!), and then we were all in various locations that were not Conway over the weekend, so this morning we got back on track.  I actually tried to run yesterday--we were suppose to go 2.75 miles last weekend, but I only made it 2.25 miles.  Which made me feel pretty bad, but it was after a LONG weekend, and I was alone instead of with the pack (and I knew the husband was back at home taking a nap).  I haven't felt like getting up to run at all for the last week and a half, and I hope I get over that soon.  But it only gets harder because I'm more tired, and it is darker and darker at 5:20am.

The run this morning was fantastic because we FINALLY got a break from the humidity.  It was about 54 degrees for the run, in the dark, and it was great.  I was hashed at the end (as usual), but felt way better than normal.  I am the slowest in the group, but I just put on my headphones and keep trucking, so it's all good.  I feel bad while I'm still with the pack when I have my tunes, but I get into my own head too much without them, so I just apologize and keep being rude!  We walked five minutes, then ran 25, then did a short cool down walk today.  We went 2.5 miles in the 30 minutes of quick moving, which is ok.  I'm worried about beating my previous 5k time on Oct. 9th, but hopefully the rush of being in a race will give me some speed!

The weekend was great!  We went to the University of Tulsa football game, and I got to see my cousin, who is at OSU (Go Pokes!) and my old rommie, and that part was great.  We left on Friday, and then the band played at the Owasso/Bartlesville football game Friday night, with great reaction from the crowd!  We watched the high schools march post-game, and Owasso, as usual, was amazing.  Their show looks like it will be pretty cool. 

More later!  I will have another running update on Wednesday (running for 28 minutes......kinda terrified) and hopefully more pictures of the quilt!

I don't have any relevant pictures, so I'll just post one of Clara, because she is the light of my life (it is actually kinda sickening.........but she is definitely the pack leader at our casa)!

Belated First Post!

I meant to post on here much sooner, but sometimes life just gets in the way.  Right now I am starting my sixth week of running, and I think I'm about to hit a wall.  I've been getting up at 5:40am on MWF and semi-early on one weekend day.  We've been doing various interval training scanarios and then a longer run on the weekend.

The run this morning was good until about the last eight minutes.  We (DF, AB, and MS) turned down a street and just all of a sudden got hit with humidity.  Even though it was about 68 degrees and still completely dark, it made the last few minutes tough.  We covered 2.5 miles in 30 minutes, and this included a 5 minute walk to start.  I am definitely the weak link (although it is probably as much in my head as it is physical) but I am super proud of myself.  Now, if only I could stop eating McDonald's so I would loose some weight, life would be grand!

On Saturday we did a warm-up walk, then ran 2.5 miles straight, without stopping.  This is only about the second time in my life I've done this, so I was VERY proud of myself!

Below are some pictures from other weekend activities over the past few weeks.  KJ and I hiked Pinnacle Mountain one Saturday when our husbands were busy, and we had a blast. We climbed up the "hard" side (it is pretty steep, as signaled by the sign.........it was really intense), descended the "easy" side, and then hiked back around the base to our car.  All told, it was about 3.5 miles, and I got some incredible pictures!

Also included are pictures of my most recent jump into sewing.  I've been able to do the basics since I was about 8, and we had an epic weekend of pillow making (thanks Granny!).  I tried making a skirt because my little sister (a link to her blog is on the left) has become fantastic at clothing, and I can't let her one up me.  After this weekend, and a failed attempt at a dress about a year ago, I have decided that clothes are not my thing.  The purple skirt turned out ok, but not great.  If you know me, you know that I'm a very ordered, rule following type of person, and quilts just fit that personality so much better!  And I loved sewing these four blocks!  It is a simplified Log Cabin block, and I just got inexpensive red, black, and white for my first attempt.  I'll keep putting up pictures as I get more done!  And for those who have used a rotary cutter, I managed to refrain from cutting myself with it!!

The 5k is three weeks from last Saturday!  Gulp.  I'm so excited!