Winter Waddle (or more like Struggle...)

Ok so the holidays have been eating up a lot of our spare time the past few days so I'm a few days late in posting a few updates.

1) Mark and I went to the Tonic Sol Fa Chrismas concert last Monday.  Those guys are incredible and seriously funny!   Greg...you and the plastic snowman had me in tears I was laughing so hard!

2) We also went to see A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theatre on Wednesday.  That was by far the best production we've seen there so far in my opinion.  

3) Saturday we went out for a geocaching event in Waconia and also saw the Holidazzle parade in the evening (post-Winter Waddle).  You can catch the recap of those on our other blog

4) But the main reason for writing today is to recap on the Winter Waddle 5k.  Mark and I have been completely sloughing off on our workouts and enjoying a break from it all.  Although once we get past the holidays I need to get back into some sort of routine.  Feeling fat and lazy!!   And wow did that 5k kick my arse!  Granted these were very different conditions than I was expecting.  
Here's the starting line:

It was 20 something degrees I think and the race was at 4pm.   The run route was actually on a golf course AND I was not prepared to be running through spots of up to 6 inches of snow!   You can tell they went through and groomed the trail but the loose snow and breaking through the top layer as you were running made it pretty much impossible to get up any kind of speed.  

Mark managed to run backwards for a few seconds for me to get this picture.  I would have fallen flat had I tried that manuver

After about 1/2 mile, a lot of people had to stop and walk.   I managed to keep moving but only because I had Mark to pull me along and after about 1.5 miles we figured out (along with pretty much everyone else) that it was WAY better footing to run in a single file line and follow the tracks of the person in front of you.  

I wish my heart monitor battery wasn't dead.  I would have liked to know what my average was for that race.   At the end I estimated somewhere in the 180s.  Ugh....yeah that was tough!  Quite the experience, likely to not be repeated :)

Here is the sheet showing our final times.   WAY slower than what my "in shape" times but like I said, the super soft footing took a toll on everyone.  For reference, most of the 5ks I've been too, the winners come in around 15:30 - 17:00 total time.  At this race, the winner came in with a final time of 21:23.

The past two nights Mark and I have been gift wrapping for donations at the Barnes and Noble at the Galleria.  We donated the money to Home for Life.  I think our final total on the two nights was $193 so I was very happy about that.  Likely we will be volunteering with them again on Saturday this weekend at the Mall of America.

Next up.....the ALARC Ice Dive!  Yes I have committed to freezing my entire body in the name of fun and insanity on Jan 1st.   Mark and I will be jumping with my friend Jessica's husband Andy.  He is a newby diver too so it should be fun.   Jess gets out of it with the excuse that she's pregnant :-P

Hopefully I'll have a post-Christmas update this weekend and also start updating my race list on the right-hand side of my blog for the tentative 2010 races.

Merry Christmas!!

Learning Curve

So I have a few minutes here at the end of my day and thought I would take the opportunity to update the ol' blog.
The new job is going fantastic.  I am getting the hang of things and enjoying getting involved in some of the new development projects.   Surprisingly even with a few crappy snowy days the past week or so, I'm not getting too stressed about the commute. 
I'm so excited for Christmas this year.  Well 90% excited.   I've 'bah-hum bugged' my way through the past few Christmases since life was a little stressful and emotional.   But this year I am very excited to spend time with Mark and his family and have him spend time with mine as well.  The reason for the 90% as I'm still bummed out about not having much of any funds to spend on Christmas.   I have to give these small gifts to everyone and I hate that.  I love shopping and wrapping (and having the cats tear my wrapping!) and having piles of gifts for everyone to open.  But this year is definitely slim and for that my 100% goes down to 90% but that's still about 85% more excitement than the past few Christmases :)
I'm still trying to figure out out to motivate myself back into the gym.  Mark and I have both found that we've fallen into that winter "rut" that so many people do and just lack the enthusiasm to find a way to work it into the already short days.  It is eating at me more and more that I feel "bleh" and need to get back into a routine of lifting and cardio so I feel better about myself.
Sort of along that lines, Mark and I have also been in many discussions trying to figure out how to be the best support system for each other when it comes to racing.   We both are very supportive of each other and we both (well a little more on my side) have lingering issues of jealousy when one of us is doing an event and the other one isn't.   I think most all athletes have a hard time being a spectator to some degree.  It's hard to watch anything and not want to be participating.  I've been a gumble bum about feeling like I have to sign up for everything he does and that does two things 1) doesn't give him me supporting him along the course and 2) sometimes puts me into a race I am not excited about doing, just so I can say "I did it too".   Part of me thinks that if I'm standing around as a spectator, other spectators don't think I'm an athlete and that reflects negatively on me.  I look like just a lazy spectator.  (yeah, yeah i know it's insane but maybe some of you other athletes out there can relate). 
For any of my readers, please drop me a line or comment if you have any feedback on this issue.
For now we are really looking forward to racing together this next year but we are also going to be careful to add in a few events that we don't do together.   I think it may just be a learning curve where we get used to the fact that we don't have to do everything the other one does.  I think it will also make the races we do together that much more special.
A few more random notes:
- The cats are doing well although it's very obvious that Maverick doesn't like me not being home all day now.  Some nights when we are at my place he is very needy and needs me to hold him all the time.
- We were at the Tonic Sol Fa holiday concert last night and, as always, it was fantastic!
- We have tickets to go see Christmas Carol at the Guthrie tomorrow night.
- It's fun that Mark and I both enjoy going to shows, musicals, concerts together and we have been getting some great deals at the Guthrie. 
- I actually finished another book!   I know, I know...can you believe it?   I've become a reader!  Since Mark and I have been together, I've finished "It's All About the Bike", "Dewey", "All Creatures Great and Small" (audiobook I listened too on my commute) and am currently reading "The Man Who Swam the Amazon".   I've definitely found that right now I prefer non-fiction where Mark is more of a fiction reader.    He's got this monstrosity of a book he's reading right now "Under the Dome"  That thing is like weight lifting!
- We helped Michael and Cari (Mark's brother and sister-in-law) move into their new house last weekend.  That was a long time coming for them
- Last weekend we also volunteered for Home for Life at the Mall of America and might be going again on Sunday the 20th.  Waiting to hear back if they need us and it's possible Lisa might bring Olive for me to hang out with and show off next time (yay!!!)  And she also said she'd be willing to bring one of the Dobermans for Mark to handle.  Haven't gotten a response yet but my guess is she'll say she wants our help.

So tonight it's off to Target to pick up a few necessities and maybe one 'want'.  I honestly can't afford any 'want' items right now.  Even groceries puts me in the red on a monthly basis.  But thankfully the new job should help resolve that a little.  Plus Mark offered to buy groceries if I make him meals.   DEAL!!!  Especially since most mornings I can get away with putting a bowl of cereal in front of him :-P  But I'm more partial to bagel sandwiches.

I've got a bunch of pictures from some of the items I mentioned above but I'll try to post those tonight in a follow up entry.