ONE disabling injury and 15 pounds ago....

(no idea how I came up with that title so just go with it.....)

Again I have gone much too long since I've posted anything so a quick recap to get you caught up.  Weight loss has been going pretty good.  Kind of hitting another plateau lately at 140-141 but that means I'm down 15 lbs from the beginning of the year.  I feel so much better about that!!

As for training.......below is a picture from the Monster Dash 10-mile (Oct 30th)

And here is a picture of our backyard, two weeks later, Saturday Nov 13th

So how do you think my past few weeks of training have been going.   Shitty, shitty....  1) because of the slippery, snowy trail conditions and 2) because my IT band has been giving me serious trouble, especially when slipping or trudging through snow.  

Mark has been amazing trying to keep me from freaking out but.....I'm still freaking out.   About 6 weeks ago I started having IT troubles when we would run past 15 or so miles.   Due to the major snowfall two weeks ago when we were supposed to do our second 20 miler, we did 10 miles in the snow (MISERABLE!!) and my IT was pretty tight by the end.   We drove home to do the second 10 miles at home where the trails were better but I didn't even make it 2 miles before I had to stop.  My IT was locked up and it felt like there was a knife shoved in behind my knee cap.  (^$}{!$&*}**&%#$*(%*!!!!!)

I've been taping, stretching, rolling, Adviling and havent run more than like 5 miles in two weeks.  Yesterday we went out for a 12 and I thought everything was feeling pretty good.   But again, mile 5 my IT started to freak out.   Inside my head I was just pissed but we continued the 12 miles, stopping about every mile for a very quick stretch since it was really cold out and we didn't want to cool down.  

And now this morning my entire IT band is on fire.   Treatment....no running until Vegas :( :( :(   I really think it's the only way I can get through it successfully.   I don't want to further injure myself and I have done enough training that I have the endurance.   I'm just so frustrated that I was on pace to give Mark and myself new marathon PRs for our wedding before we start the tough training for Boston Qualifying.   Our long runs have been averaging 9:20-9:25min/mi.   

I don't want to hobble through my wedding so it's off running until Vegas.   I'm a runner, take away the run in me and I'm miserable but I know it's the smart thing to do.   It's potentially going to cause me to slow my overall pace and probably struggle a bit more through the last few miles but I'm counting on adrenaline to carry me though and the ultimate goal for me is to successfully finish my first marathon as Mrs. Kuhn, hand in hand with my husband, and celebrate our new life together (not on crutches ;)

SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS SUGGESTIONS ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD DO FOR MY IT BAND BETWEEN NOW AND THE RACE, PLEASE POST A COMMENT.

Monster 10 mile recap

So training has been going ok (I think the last time I wrote we did our 16 or 18 miler) and we successfully finished our 20 miler with no nutrition issues.   Since I've been having knee pain issues we opted to his the Luce Line which is an old railroad bed that has been converted to a limestone trail.  So it was flat, soft and straight.  My knee held up pretty well until around mile 15-ish when I started to get tweaky pains from time to time.  (damn it....)    We managed to hold an overall average pace of 9:20-something so I was pretty happy with that. 

This past week was a step-back week so while our weekday mileage went up and the weekend went down, it was all Easy pace which was nice.  Unfortunately though we got stuck inside for an 8 mile day due to really bad weather so we did 4 miles going in circles on a short track and then 4 miles on a dreadmill.  yuck!

Last weekend was Halloween and since our training run was supposed to be 8 miles and we had a discount to enter the Monster 10-mile we opted in to that race and decided to dress up.  I had an old pirate costume and Mark bought a few accessories.  It was a lot of fun running as pirates and surprisingly the miles went by relatively quickly.  I think when your past long runs have been 16, 18, 20.....10 goes by pretty fast, especially when there are people in costume all around you to look at. 

We went into the race thinking I could potentially get a new PR but after the first two miles of what felt like a major shuffle-fest, I wasn't so sure that was going to be possible.  But once we got free of the pack we started averaging 8:10-something miles and I was feeling pretty good.   Not a super hard pace but moderately hard.  My knee started to give me problems around mile 8 so it was more of a mental struggle to get throught the pain the last two miles.  

We pulled in to the finish in 1:24:02...holy S^$! that was a little over 8 minutes off my old 10-mile PR.   And I think, had we not gotten caught up in the crowds of the first few miles, we would have even beat Mark's old PR of 1:22:--   Now granted if he wasn't running with me he would have blown that out of the water but still it was pretty cool to cut that much time off my own run.

Arrr maytee!!! :-P

I have not been logging my training miles/paces/heart rate very well and I do want to find an easy way to start doing that but luckily looking back at my past few seasons of run/tri training I do have evidence that my speed/endurance has improved.   I need to go back and review that from time to time because, like I think a lot of athletes struggle with, you never FEEL like you are getting any better, faster, stronger.   But the race results prove it.

And provided the body doesn't fall apart.....there may be a Boston in me one of these next years.  Cross your fingers for me please :)

Wedding updates have been posted on our combined, A Life More Complete, blog.

Marathon Training and Wedding Updates AND...another job added to the mix

Sigh....again I come to my blog with a thousand things to write about which means....I have no idea what all to say.  I'll try to slam down some categories and then go from there.

1) Training and New Shoes -
I really felt like training was going pretty well up through the Birkie Half marathon.  I felt great at paces faster than what is on our training schedule.  Then....we both spent nearly 2 weeks being sick.  The first week took us nearly completely out of the game.  Got in a few really easy runs but my sinuses were on fire and it just made me feel dizzy.   A couple runs I think I ended in a near panic attack because I was so %^@! frustrated at feeling like this cold was making me take steps backwards in my training.  Damn it.....
Plus I made the decision to buy different shoes than I've been in the past few years.  Mostly because I was fit for them and they are at least $40 cheaper.  So far I think they are ok.  Knees were heating up a little bit and damn near failed on me during our 18 miler last weekend but they seem to be recovering.   I just hope that the shoes I'm going to be running in (which are my old brand/model again) are going to be ok.  

Wedding Shoes, my usual brand



New Shoes for Training, new brand

We had our first long run LAST weekend.  (Strangely enough we are starting to call anything up to 13 a "run" and if it's over 13 it then becomes a "long run")  It was a 16 miler so we plotted out a fairly flat course around the lakes and down the parkway.  We had a good breakfast before we left and I brought 3 gels to take about every 4 miles.  Everything was going pretty good until mile 13ish.  SMACK!  (Who the hell put that wall there???)   Our bodies were going downhill fast.   My problem was more that my knees and ankles were starting to get weak and very sore and Mark was out of fuel.   The last 3 miles were awful and we had to walk a bit. 
Some definite adjustments when we did our 18 this past weekend and luckily it was much cooler weather.  I had caffeinated gels with me and a pack of Sharkies as a solid food.  I probably took 4 miles to slowly suck on those and actually finish the pack and I think that made a big difference in keeping my energy up better than just gels.  

Please send happy, healthy, unpainful thoughts for my knees at this weekend's 20 miler...

 

New Work - ZapEvent Marketing -
Work has been going great and we are looking at some definite growth over the next year.   The scary/exciting part for me is that I've decided to transition myself out of the customer service roll and into strictly Marketing (note....I have little Marketing background!)   It's going to take me some time to get my feet under me and figure out what exactly I need to do to be successful in 2011 but I think I have great support from Jeff to make it happen.  Some days I get really nervous about being able to be successful at it but I'm going to give it my best....

More New Work - Examiner.com -

My Profile Pic - I'm up in a tree and NO
I'mnot being impailed through the
shoulder.  The short branch in front of
me just lines up nicely with the one
that's behind me :)

As if I didn't have enough going on already, I submitted an application to be the writer for Examiner.com specifically about Minneapolis Geocaching.   And I got accepted!  It's not something you do for the $$ but it's a lot of fun researching ideas for articles and getting to do profiles on my local geocaching friends.  Some days I get stressed about the fact that I basically added a 3rd job and get sick of not being able to just sit and watch TV some nights.  I am going, going, going until 11pm just about every night lately.

Some days between ZapEvent work, USAT work and wanting to post an Examiner article AND having personal items to do (clean the house, laundry, lawn/garden work, misc projects, wanting to actually cook dinner, keeping up on blogs, paying bills....see my problem?) I just feel like my head is spinning and at any given moment I'm not fully focused on any one thing.   

Diet -

Been pretty good with eating healthy on round 2 of the 3 month "diet".   I do really hate calling it a diet since I'm hoping it's more of a reduced calorie learning experience so that when I reach the end of my weight loss I can maintain my weight with continuing to eat better.

I've been stuck at 143.5 for like 3 weeks now and it's driving me nutz.  While looking at healthy recipes in my Runners World Magazine, I got all obsessed with wanting to buy healthier food but since our money is really tight we don't buy fresh groceries as often as I would like.  I told Mark a few days ago that I wanted to get a subscription to Clean Eating.

He earned SERIOUS brownie points when I came home yesterday to the latest Clean Eating Magazine and all the ingredients for a watermelon salad recipe I pointed out that I wished we could try.  I was so excited to actually get to make a new healthy recipe for us :D

Wedding -
Not much real planning to do any more without the reception so we're basically just down to making sure we have all of our outfits in line.   Mark picked up his wedding shoes this past week so we are going to use them for short, clean runs to get them broken in between now and the wedding.  I picked up my tulle and some other shiny, sheer fabric.  I've got some fun ideas for my veil but now just have to figure out how in the heck to actually put it together.

The Course Map and Elevation Chart are also available now if you are interested in seeing the RnR route.  The second half is a LOT of twisting and turning but luckily the final 6 miles are nearly all at a nice downhill grade.

You can also sign up for runner tracking HERE if you are interested in keeping an eye on how we are doing on the marathon.  We will be running all of the marathon together so you will only need to really get updates on one of us :)

I'll finish with this cute picture of my Maverick tearing apart his favorite toy.....my roll of paper towels.

He's too cute to be mad at :)

I think I'm ready....

Ok so first things first, I assure you my brain is still 100% focused on our upcoming marathon wedding :D :D :D  but the tides are turning in my head.

I think I'm ready...

To put a 70.3 on the schedule again next year.  

This past year I feel was smashed, beaten and spit out after Ironman.  I think I had such issues during training and during the race that I just wanted to be far, far away from focusing on triathlon.   It seems like it became all that I was.  I was nothing but someone in training for Ironman.  I am so much more, I enjoy so much more, I needed time physically, mentally and emotionally away from the whole thing.

But there has been so much buzz about Ironman amongst my friends since many of them did IMoo last weekend that I'm getting anxious to have another big triathlon goal on my schedule.   Don't get me wrong, I think pigs will fly before I set foot on the IMoo course again but I'm sure in a couple years we'll investigate doing another full somewhere else. 

Proposed Target: The inaugural Ironman Muncie - July 9th, 2011

Marathon Training has been going pretty well.  Last week was our first easy week.  Every four weeks we have a low mileage week with a lot of EZ in it.  

My EZ pace is supposed to be 9:46/mi and Tempo is supposed to be 8:15/mi

With the weather getting much cooler (most days are in the 50-60s F) I can definitely feel the difference in my training.    Oddly enough my heart rate has been much lower during long runs and my pace has been a bit faster (yay hoo!)  Tonight we had a 6 miler with the middle 3 miles being tempo.  The first mile hurt!  I was really hoping it was too fast and sure enough, it was about 7:40.  We eased up a tiny bit but my heart rate was pegged in the low 180s.  Second mile 8:06.  Final mile 8:04(ish).   The average came up to be 7:57.  Sa-weet!  Sub 8 :)

I still wish we would get ourselves into the gym more often to strength train.  I know how important it can be but just haven't quite had the motivation to drag ourselves there more than about once a week.

Wedding update: Mark's wedding marathon shoes are waiting for us to pick them up down in Lakeville and we are working with a small company to get our visors embroidered. Then I need to get the veil done :) I'm excited my best friends Jess and Beck wanted to have a bachelorette party for me. We are having dinner and going to Shout House. Nothing crazy, just food and fun with hanging out with the girls. And kind of unfortunately it's the night before we have now all but signed up to run the Monster Half Marathon the next morning :-P



Weight loss has been going well.  I've been using the Livestrong.com Daily Plate again to track my calories since Sept 5th.   The plan is to intake 1200 calories + any calories burned in exercise.  I have gone over in calories a couple days but most days I do really well.   Mostly my sodium and sugars.  Protein too but I don't take that as a bad thing.  I think I'm down about two pounds but haven't done an official weigh in yet to compare.  Stay tuned.....

This weekend we have a big all-weekend Geocaching event (GeoCoin Fest) so we'll cover that on our other blog.  We will need to squeak in a 12-miler at some point too.  Next weekend we are signed up to drive over to Cable, WI for the Birkie Trail Half Marathon.  They have awesome medals you can see on the website.  I'm super excited to do another trail event.  Although I'll be doing it in my old road shoes.  Can't afford new trail shoes right now but I'm watchin' deals on Sierra Trading Post :)  Mark's buddy Steve is coming to run as well so it should be a fun road trip.  Hey Steve.....I call shotgun!!! ;)

Anyone else going to be at Birkie??

No Longer Obsessed

Well as anyone that is within 1000 mile reach of me, you got my obsessive PLEASE HELP, VOTE FOR US!!! messages last week for the wedding contest.   I'll spare the details and let you read more about us and our wedding contest HERE.   We are still waiting to see if we won, we were in 2nd place and really couldn't figure out the couple in 1st place so we are hoping they were a fake or they totally cheated!!  Results were supposed to be posted today but no luck.....stay tuned.

We have been out running a lot lately and have officially written up our training plan betweeen now and Las Vegas.   It likely won't include too many actual events because money is well beyond tight but have a few in mind.  We can get into Monster Half for free because of our volunteer hours and we've been eyeballing the Birkie Half Trail Run as well.  1) because it's a huge trail run and 2)...is has a sawheet medal!

Work has been....work.  Don't get me wrong I do enjoy what I do but spending time in a cold little cubicle with very little human interaction and really annoying office environment "things" makes me want to "Pull a Slater" (which is what a lot of people seem to be calling it after yesterday's national news), I decided that I needed to request a change.   Since it's a small company, there are currently no benefits including no holiday pay so I opted to ask for days at home.  For now we discussed allowing me two days a week to work from home.    :D I can't even tell you how much happier that makes me.  I worked from home for a number of years and I miss my own environment, the stress-free-ness of my own desk, being able to throw in a load of laundry, work with my kitty on my lap, not have to bring crappy microwave meals for lunch, being able to open the window and get FRESH AIR!!!!  So my sanity has been spared a bit.

Totally different subject...I'm very excited that this Saturday is the annual open house at Home for Life so I get to go spend a few more hours there and cuddle with all the animals and my sweet girl Olive.   Not sure if I posted this before but here is a photo from our last visit last month where my sister came along.

Deb and Lily and Lily's friend Kate get to join us at the open house and I hope they enjoy getting to see the facility and all the great work they do to care for these animals.   And of course meeting my sweet Olive :)

(look out....left field!) We haven't been back to the pool in a LONG time.  Last time I did laps anywhere was maybe once since Minneman on July 4th.   Now that we are getting more settled into one house together, I think we are just enjoying that we can choose to sleep in so we haven't made it up to the pool just yet but I'm pretty confident one of these days we are actually going to regain the WANT to go swimming and then we'll fall back into a 2x per week rhythm for over the winter.

Quick Post: Please vote for us! 20 Fabulous Weddings Contest

20 FABULOUS WEDDINGS CONTEST

WE NEED YOUR VOTE!! OUR STORY ABOUT HOW WE MET RUNNING AND HOW WE ARE GETTING MARRIED RUNNING IS A FINALIST IN THE "20 FABULOUS WEDDINGS" CONTEST!!

PLEASE VOTE FOR US EVERY DAY FROM EVERY COMPUTER YOU HAVE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW!

PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO VOTE FOR US AS WELL! WE'RE CURRENTLY IN SECOND PLACE!!

VOTE ONCE PER DAY FROM EACH COMPUTER YOU OWN FROM NOW THROUGH AUGUST 6TH


CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR WEBPAGE AND VOTE FOR US!

Living With Dogs

Rule #1 - Nothing that is food, smells like food, looks like food, or is nearby to food can be put anywhere below 5 feet of the ground. Made the mistake of putting a bag of baking items in a reusable bag in the closet. While we were gone, one/two of them opened the bifold door and ripped apart the tupperware containers of sugar, flour and even the Hershey's cocoa powder. Mark and I were pretty much already at the end of our sanity ropes by time we got home and saw the mess. Truffle (our miniature pincher) was COVERED in flour and cocoa powder. (BUSTED little girl!!) Lesson learned....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark and I have been working non-stop to get me moved into his house. He's been doing some remodeling projects and I've been trying my best to consolidate everything from my townhouse. We've also put a bit of time into re-arranging things for the dogs to now have access into the basement. It seems things are all falling into place and our stuff is all fitting together pretty well. Moving just is never fun. I'm so excited for us to be in one place but so much of his stuff and my stuff has to be STUFFED into a storage locker. I did a more detailed write up on our A Life More Complete blog that should be posted soon.

Diet - out. the. window. Another product of moving. Our time has been so cramped and half my kitchen is in boxes so in the past 4 days, 3 of them included pizza and pop. I know when we get settled and the kitchen is in one piece and we have money to go buy decent groceries again we'll be back to our normal eating healthy routine. This morning I woke up feeling so "blah" that I dug out the last two pieces of frozen chicken and am going to do just that with mixed veggies for dinner.

Training - see the above response to "Diet". Another reason I'm feeling totally "blah!" We have put moving/cleaning/remodeling as priority #1 and therefore we haven't run, swam, biked, lifted in like two weeks.

This weekend can't get here soon enough! The goal is to have me and the kitties staying at the house starting Saturday. We will gain ridiculous numbers of hours a week back that we currently are spending driving back and forth between houses so training and eating better will be so much easier. Plus we are working to get my townhouse rented out so the extra income will allow us to crawl out from underneath our credit card max limits.

And I can get back to wedding reception planning <3

Legends 5k and My First Annual 29th Birthday

Seems like I'm on a two week posting routine.   Honestly I think about writing just about every other day but by time I get home and have time, the mental energy is gone to sit in front of the computer. 

Let's get the 'blahs' out of the way first.

Work:

Don't get me totally wrong, I love what I do, I just can't stand WHERE I have to do it.  I knew it would be hard for me to transition back into an office again but now that the weather is nice, it's sucking the life out of me.  Have to stand up if I want to see out the window, none of the windows open, the other people in the office chew their food like they were born in a god damn barn and I live off frozen meals or cans of soup.    I know I could get out and walk or whatever for a break but it's isn't as refreshing as you think walking up and down Washington Ave by yourself.   And not to mention all the driving I have to do while Mark and I continue to have to maintain two houses.  I literally get only minutes outside in the fresh air before it gets dark.  Otherwise I'm in my office or my carThere may be a day in the future where I can spend some days working from home and that will help and I desperately hope that when we get our own office, I have a window I can open right next to my desk!! I'm not an indoors person and I got to have my home office and my windows and my kitties and my run breaks all the time for over 3 years so lately my routine is doing nothing but severely depressing me. Bleh....ok moving on....

Memorial Weekend:

Mark and I had a ton of garage sale items on my parent's sale again this year.  I was super excited that I sold my road bike before the sale even opened.   Listed it on the Craig's List ad and a guy responded Tuesday, came out to see it Wednesday night and paid cash.   I couldn't believe both of our old mtn bikes and my road by were sold by the end of day 1 :) 

Memorial Day we went to the Gunther's House for their "Mixed Up Tri / BBQ party"   They were doing a group ride, transition, group run, transition, group swim.   We opted to sleep in a bit and skip the bike but we got there in time for a 5.5ish mile run and then a swim across the bay (about 2/3 mi).   It was our first time getting back in the lake this year so it was nice to get back in and get used to lake swimming again.

ALARC Legends 5k

We planned for this race to be our last "tune-up" leading up to the William A Irvin 5k (our goal race).   We knew it was a smaller race and the way things had been going at the other small 5ks we have been doing, we knew there was a chance to place well again.   Especially since there was a partnered 10k which a lot of the faster runners there were doing.  I was focused on my overall time but I knew it was going to be hard to get a fast time since this course was hilly and we've been racing flat courses until now.   The first few hills shot my heartrate up pretty high but we got on the limestone trail before mile 1 and stayed on it until about 2.75 maybe.   My body calmed down a bit from the hills once I was on flat ground for a bit and I realized I was first place female. (sweet! but will it last.....)  Somewhere around mile 2 I could definitely feel I was losing steam and the HR wasn't coming down from 190.  The last .2 or so was back up a somewhat small grade and then to the finish.   There was no "push" into the finish but I still managed to cross as the first female and landed a time of 23:58 - AVG hr 186.

-

Minneapolis Marathon:

We volunteered as course marshals for this event the day after Legends.  We might run the 5k event they have here next year but we'll see.  (I have a bit of an issue with the group that runs this but I'll keep that to myself.) We were around mile 4.5 which was perfect.  We got to see everyone go by and then we were off to chase down Mark's brother Michael as he was running his first full marathon.   We saw him right around the wall of mile 20 and then again at the finish.   He did awesome!   I know he really wanted a 4hr marathon, I did too when I ran my first one but it's harder than you think and the sun came out to heat him up midway through the race which didn't help anyone I don't think.  I always look back at my first marathon, not happy with my time but I try to remember all the things it taught me and apply them to my endurance runs.

My First Annual 29th Birthday:
We started the celebration by going out with our Groupon coupon to Forepaugh's Restaurant in St. Paul.  It was this great old house converted to a fancy restaurant.  We picked up a cool geocache in the area before our reservation but I'll talk about that in my post on our "A Life More Complete" blog.

-

The morning of my birthday was just another morning, followed by just another work day.   First time in years I went to work on my birthday.   Would have taken the day off but trying to preserve the vacation days for the wedding :)   Thanks to my birthday showing up on all my "friends" Facebook accounts I got a ton of bday wishes on there all day long which was great.  Also a few phone calls and text and emails :)   That evening we went out for dinner with my parents at Houlihans.   I was uber excited that I got a DSW gift card from Onyx the cat, an Olive Garden gift card from mom and dad and the best of all....Mark got me a gift card to Sanctuary Salon Spa to get my hair done!!!!  OMG you have NO idea how badly my hair has been needing a makeover.   Long story short, I made it all of two days before I made an appointment for my fancy new 'do.  Love it!!    I also got a great Fuschia plant from Mark so now my patio actually has color :)

 

Wedding:

Things are still progressing on the wedding front.   Throwing $$ in all directions but things are slowly coming together.   I think I'll start trying to be more consistent and post wedding updates only on our "A Life More Complete" blog and/or the wedding webpage on The Knot.com.  If you all follow me on Twitter, I usually send out a note when I update either of these pages.

Training:

Has still been pretty much run focused and even that has been suffering due to lack of time/energy lately.  My bike is being picked up from the shop tonight probably.   Had the crank arms looked at and basically they said the true fix is to buy new ones ($170-ish) but for now the temp fix is lots of lock-tite.  Sigh.....

Masters swim is now offering outdoor evening swims at the New Hope pool Tues/Thurs nights so starting next week we are going to try for that option the next two months and see if that is better on our schedule.  I think we can stay up later much easier than we can get up earlier while we are still doing the two house thing.

Next up:

This weekend we have the Manitou Triathlon.  That should be interesting considering we haven't really done any bricks and only one lake swim.   I think our multisport season this year is going to be based around fun and not speed.  And I guess that's ok. buy my competitive subconscious tends to make me feel crappy about not being in top shape for tri's this year.

Gear West Duathlon and lots of updates!

Geocaching update:

Last weekend we went to the spring MnGCA event and had a really great time.  For more detailed information on our adventures in Nerstrand Park, check out my post about it on our "Life More Complete" blog.  Below is a fun picture of Stage One of a LONG 3 stage multi you'll have to read about.

Wedding Update:
Again, more info on our "A Life More Complete" blog post but what I can add here is that we have been concentrating on decoration ideas.  We found that since we are both a touch creatively-impaired, it seems to help if we page through wedding magazines and play off what we see in pictures.  Latest ideas, there will be mile-marker type signs involved in our walkway to the main reception that will showcase some fun pictures of us.

Financial Update:
Yuck, yuck and more yuck.   Still struggling more than we would like on this front.  Fortunately we just got through the garage sale and managed to make just under $800 at that but the unfortunate part is that a few days ago my air conditioner at my townhouse went on the fritz and will need to be looked at next week.  (Weekend calls start at $200 so we decided to stick out the warm days and give the cats extra cold water)  We're hopeful that it's just in need of freon but due to the weird noise it's also making there is worry that it's a problem with the compressor.   Best I have heard is a minimum of $1200.   The universe doesn't seem to want to give me a break.   So if you could all send some luck my way I'd appreciate it.

Racing update:
Last weekend we had the Gear West Duathlon.   Weather was great!  We weren't going to "race" by any means but basically make it a great training and then hopefully win at the raffle.   Mark's brother was also racing and we found a few other friends by the start line so everything was starting ok.  The first run leg I held back a bit and paced with a friend of mine Sarah.   I rarely run into her so it was nice to get to catch up a bit.  After about half way through I pulled ahead to run a little faster and came into the T1 feeling pretty good.  Here's me getting out onto the bike.  I look happy....this will soon change....

I settled into a comfortable pace.  Nothing too hard, just a comfortable ride and pressed up the hill that was somewhere around 6 and began the downhill after the turn.  All of a sudden it felt like my left foot came unclipped so I tried to readjust.  Something felt odd and I looked down to see my entire left crank arm attached to my shoe and NOT my bike.   Long story short I spent a long time pulled over until a gear guy came by and helped me fix it as best as possible.  Neither he nor I had the right size wrench to fully tighten things back together so I just had to soft pedal on my left foot the remaining 12 miles.   It came off 2 more times and I ended up stopped quite often to tighten it up best I could.   

Now those of you that have been reading since last summer know I have a bit of "history" with biking.  Psychologically this little incident took a major toll on me.  I rolled into T1 so far behind I could hear them talking about where the final biker was behind me.   I got off my bike and fell into a panic attack.  Mark was already done and when he saw me in transition and thought I had a fast time, I began to freak out even more as I just got mad and told him I hadn't started my second run yet, I was no where near done.   The "pissed-ness" was radiating out of me and I couldn't calm down enough to breathe normally and had to give in to walking a few times.   I was emotionally beat up.   I began to think about all the issues I had last summer and how this was the first race on my NEW bike since Ironman (and we all know how well that went) and this is the NEW bike that I paid a lot of money for.   How could I still be having bike problems?  What the hell?!?!

My wonderful friends all spent a few minutes consoling me after I crossed the finish line.  That was where I couldn't hold it in any more and just broke down.  It shouldn't have been that big of a deal but I think due to all the problems I had last year, having another major problem was detrimental to my mental state which took me physically out of the field.  Mark being the wonderful supporter he is helped me walk it off and remember that life will go on :-P  Below is a picture we took while waiting for the awards and prize drawings. 

Training Update;
Everything is still pretty much focused on the 5k time for the Irvin 5k.   Although we are starting to get a little worried about how warm it might be since it's an evening race.  We've been back in the pool now at least once a week and last week actually made it twice!   I keep forgetting we have a sprint tri coming up in two weeks so we're looking to find a few nights to get back into the lake too.  Tomorrow a friend of ours is having a Memorial Day Tri BBQ where we will get in a group run and a group lake swim so we'll see how that goes.  Funny how every summer it takes a few times in the lake to really get used to it again.

Other Update:
We got out on our mountain bikes today for our first real mountain bike ride.  It was my first true mountain bike ride and I found out that my instincts are that the bike will react like my road bike which is very much NOT the case.   It will take a bit for me to learn how the bike manages certain types of terrain and how to tackle different obstacles on the track but I enjoyed the ride.   It's so much fun to be off road and get to see a lot of areas you would normally never go.   

Ciao for now ;)

No swimming or biking but running! Housing, wedding and training

I've been trying to get around to writing this for a week or so now but as usual, the few times that I do get time to sit still and think about it, I don't want to do anything other than NOTHING.  So while I may skip some details of the past few weeks, I'll try to get you caught up again.

Trail Mix 50k relay - This was a really fun race.  Granted the near perfect run weather and fantastic trail conditions probably had something to do with it but I would definitely recommend this one to anyone.   I was happy with our time (Mark held back to run with me) and just enjoyed the great run.   It was a relay that we did with my friend Mandy and Mark's friend Steve.  It was a little different in that we all started at the same time, ran the same distance and our times were just added together to come up with our final result.   I ran the 7.75 in 1:15:55 which was a 9:48 pace.   Considering trail runs are harder and I wasn't really pushing for speed, I'll take it.

Run Training - Been going pretty well although mentally I'm feeling under conditioned since I haven't been doing any strength training which is one of the first things that was drilled into my head by my trainers and coaches.   We've been trying to run 5-6 days a week with a long run on the weekend and a speed training day usually on Wednesdays.  The long training is longer than typical 5k focus training but that's because we have a few longer fun races planned and would like to come out without injury.   Next being this weekend at the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon.   I've done this race the past two years and this year is extra special since it's their 30th anniversary and are giving out finisher's medals.   Yes....I am a swag snob :-P

Diet - So while we kind of let the diet go loose on what was supposed to be the final few weeks leading up to Mark's 40th Birthday (ps we had quite a fun weekend so checkout the blog write up on that) I did manage to weigh in last week at 144.5 lbs so I have technically reached my goal but I have decided to try to spend the next month leading up to MY birthday to continue the diet with a small change to now budget in calories lost from workouts to get down to 140.   I can tell my clothes fit better but I worry a lot lately that some of that weight is muscle loss.   I have only been running for the past few months.  No swimming, no biking, no weight training.  It's eating me alive that I have no drive to squish any of this into my schedule.  I want to WANT to do these things but I'm just too worn out and tired.   Which leads me to my next topic...

Searching for a house - Now that Mark has a full time job and is no longer a contract worker, he has provable income and we have been working with my past saviors (during the buying of my townhome AND the refinance after my divorce) Chris from Bell Mortgage and Tyler from ReMax.  They are doing everything they can to help us get everything in order to sell my house, rent out Mark's house and buy ONE house for us to live in.  Keep in mind with 5 dogs and 2 cats that I will NOT EVER let come into contact, we have a few unique needs but nothing that crazy.   Some days I just fall to pieces being so tired of maintaining two house and 7 pets.  It's so much driving and wears on me mentally, physically and emotionally.  I know Mark has the same moments from time to time as well.   So having one house just sounds like the ultimate answer right now.   One house, one set of house payments, less time on the road, more time for the pets, more time for us.....   I feel awful right now that I'm never home with my cats.   I am the type of person that feels sick if I don't get fresh air so I feel horrible that I'm not home to give them time with me and with the windows open.   I'm having a horrible time being ok with having to go into a stuffy cubicle every Monday through Friday but that could be a whole different blog post.  I love my job but I literally feel sick thinking about being in cubicle conditions for much more of my life.   I need fresh air, I need sunlight....(at the right moment I'll likely want to blog and freak out over this issue to all my readers but for now I digress)....There's one big problem, we can't make a move until we can figure out how to come up with about $8,000 for a downpayment.   We just don't have it anywhere, nor can we save that kind of cash while maintaining two houses and trying to get married.   I'm very nervous that this is going to keep us from being able to get our new home :(  So much is really on hold until we can figure this out or find a way to borrow the money.  Stay tuned...

Wedding plans - are going along but not too quickly.  Again, not much time and not much money.   We did spend this evening at Atlas Grill for a complimentary tasting session.  Wow, the food there is unbelievable!  Plus the "tasting" was basically a full 4 course meal for both of us.  We are considering this location for a special party before we go to Vegas for the marathon but nothing set yet.  We are also going to a wedding band expo on Friday night to see if we can find Mark a ring.   And I'm trying to find the time and energy to put together our info on TheKnot.com but just haven't gotten to it yet.

So that should get you up to date for now.  As with my last few posts, I really am going to try to get into a habit of posting shorter posts more often!   Please send us good luck to either win the lottery or "accidentally" come into an extra $8k that doesn't have a catch of some sort!

Money, money, money! Outbound that is...

As usual things have been crazy and the only reason I have time to catch up right now on my blog is because I'm stuck at Walser waiting for my car Engine light to be checked.   Ugh....another who knows how many $$$.  Luckily my deductible is $100.   Money has been going out much faster than coming in lately.   Yes I did make the decisions to put the mountain bikes on my credit card AND buy the Tri bike so I guess about $1600 is not necessary outgoing money but oh well.   I am getting a tax refund but on the flip side Mark is going to have to pay in.
While we're on the subject of money, Mark and I have been attending wedding fairs and small expos we've been invited to and getting more ideas on things.   Here's what we've got so far:

1) Found a great cake place last night in Edina (Queen of Cakes) that we think we are going to sit down with and talk about cake designs and options for late night cupcakes to go with the snacks around 9pm
2) Think we have a pretty good idea of what we are going to do with our "wedding party" to celebrate before we take off to Vegas.  Details will come later as I don't want to ruin the surprise until we know for sure
3) We've got the colors pretty much figured out for our decorations/flowers but need to start talking with different florists to see who we want to use.
4) Putting down the deposit today on our reception site (The Garden Room in Eden Prairie)
5) I need to find running shoes for the marathon/wedding.   Being as I'm going to be completing the marathon in them, I'm pretty particular on which brands/models I'll buy but I need to find ones that are white or mostly white with a pink that matches my pink top.   Then at the same time we need to try and find all or mostly black running shoes for Mark.   I love Asics and Mark runs in Mizunos.  Anyone have ideas on where to look?

Not much new on the housing situation.  Our mortgage guy is looking through our stuff now to determine what we need to do to get our credit in line and apply as soon as Mark has his first pay stub or two and we are meeting with the realtor next Thursday over coffee just to start talking about what we are looking for so he can have that in the back of his mind.

So in terms of training I've been really stressing out.  We just don't have the time to get in anything but running.  We are so exhausted from driving all over the place that we don't have the energy to get up really early in the morning to run before work (and then have one of us have to run home before work) or get to the gym to strength train.  That is the biggest stressor for me.   Ever since I first started training for anything, trainers and coaches drilled it into my head that if you want speed to run, you need to incorporate strength training.   We haven't been in the gym for probably a month.

Last night we went for a tempo run around Lake Calhoun.   Without my Garmin (it died...) I have no idea how fast I'm running and we figured I should be running 50 seconds between the 1/10 mile markers.  Well unfortunately they are not clearly marked all the way around the lake and I knew I was just about right on during the first mile.   Then I lost the markers for awhile, my heartrate was in the high 180s, low 190s and I caught a set of markers and I was sure I was running them at a 1 minute interval.   I was beat and I wasn't keeping my tempo pace (so I thought) so I pushed hard and when I saw the next 1/10th was close to a minute again, I basically had to slow nearly to a walk for a minute to catch my breath.   I don't know what my body/mind problem is but that was a bonified panic attack.   Never EVER had them before last year's training.   I was devistated that I didn't think I was on pace.  
I finished the run feeling like I was going to die, knowing I basically ran a race and not a tempo run because I thought I wasn't going fast enough.   But as you can guess by my wording, what I THOUGHT wasn't right.   I actually ran a 5k in 24:28(ish...couldn't look at my watch right when I stopped because I was dying so I think it was about that)   That was about a minute or so faster than I was supposed to run and 1:10 slower than my final goal I want to run at the Irvin 5k.  So I've got two months to figure out how to shave off 1 minute and 10 seconds (pray for me......)

Next up is the Trail Mix this Saturday.  We are running it as a 4 person relay team.  50k total but each of us run about 7.75 miles.   Mark, myself, my friend Mandy and Mark's buddy Steve are doing it together.   Should be a lot of fun as I'm getting more and more into the trail running thing.   Although trail running takes MUCH more out of me than road racing does.

And I didn't get into the ING New York Marathon so unfortunately I won't be running that with Mark but I did decide that I still wanted to do something long distance so we can kind of train together.  Although I can't keep up with him so we'll be doing more support roles while training for these two.  I'm going to do Surf the Murph.  It's a small race in terms of field size but I've heard it's a great course.   It's a trail run south of the cities and is the weekend before New York.   I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do the marathon distance or the 50k (31ish miles)   I've read that the marathon course is a slightly different route and is actually harder terrain than the double loop 50k so I have to think about that.

For now, I have to go grab my rental car and head to work.  (Should be about $123 when I pick up my car later.  Would be more if not for my service plan)

Wedding and Biking and Triathlons...oh my!

The weeks have been busy as always and when I do finally make my way home, I just can't pull myself up to the computer to write up a blog entry.   I find more and more lately that staring at my computer all day makes me uninterested in looking at it in the evening, especially when we have so little time to sit still as it is.  But I really do think about catching my blog up just about every day.  Maybe sometime soon I'll find a pattern that will make me more consistent :)

Mark and I have been back in the pool a few times and have promised ourselves to get our butts back to Masters in April.  He's been working on bilateral breathing and I'm trying to concentrate on technique.   Still not done any biking but I'll touch on that more here in a minute.  Running has been the bulk of our exercising and it's been great since the weather is finally getting nice.  We are in the base week of a 5k training plan aimed at the Irvin 5k on June 18th.  Unfortunately due to our crazy schedules we've missed the sunny early evening and get stuck running near sunset but I just try to breathe and remember that hopefully somewhere in the next year our housing situation will be resolved.

This weekend is ALARC core class Saturday morning, a MNOC orienteering event at Hyland park in the afternoon, Wizard of Oz at the Orpheum that night THEN Sunday morning an LTF Indoor Triathlon again in Maple Grove, the big wedding expo in the afternoon and possibly a bike ride on our new bikes after that.  More about the "new" bikes in a minute.....

Quick note on that, Mark has landed a new job that he will start in a few weeks and will becoming an employee of the contract house so we should be able to start looking at qualifying for loans in another month of two.  I think I mentioned this before but we want to stay somewhere on the west side of the cities and need a two level house.  Cat level and dog level :)

This last weekend we volunteered for the Team Ortho Get Lucky 7k which was fun.  We did packet pickup at Kieran's new location in Block E on Friday evening and stuck around for a drink and dessert.  Saturday morning we course marshalled on the west river pkwy and thought we could take off for a run right after that.  Unfortunately we got roped into a few other volunteer jobs and didn't get out of there until noon.   Due to needing to get ready for evening plans we didn't get in our run.   Mark went gaming with the boys and I was out for Girls Night with Joni and Deb.  Always a fun time to catch up with them and we tried out the new JJ's Coffee and Wine Bar in EP.  Great place to hang out for a simple dinner and glass of wine and great service.

Sunday we slept in ( yay!! :D) and headed over to a small wedding fair in Chanhassen.   I think we came out with a few good ideas and even won a 50% discount on DJ services which we think we are going to take advantage of.   It's always fun to walk around those expos sampling too many pieces of cake and telling people about our destination wedding and waiting to see if you get a "wow fun!" reaction or a deer-in-the-headlights "what the hell would you do that for?" look and a "oh, wow, that's nice" reaction.  I personally like getting a mix of both to keep things fun :-P 
We do have the big Twin Cities Wedding Fair coming up next weekend and after that we are going to start making some decisions and probably putting down the depositn on our reception site.  I think the Garden Room is still coming in first place due to the great space and price but we'll see if we find anything else.   Still struggling with that to do for the wedding party for the reception in terms of their attire....

Diet has been going ok although we have been letting ourselves slide quite often here and there but still feeling like progress is being made.  Maybe just a little slower than I would like.   One thing I taught myself again (for about the 20th time) is NOT to go running on an empty stomach.  We tried to go for a 3 mile tempo run last week around Lake of the Isles after work and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch.  Horrible stomach pain and thought I was going to puke a few times.  Argh....  hopefully I've learned THIS time.
I have come to what has been a barrier for me in the past.   Last week I weighed in at 145.5.  145 has been a sticking point I have gone down to and back up again a few times now over the past years so it will help me physically and mentally to get below that number.  Yesterday....still 145.5 (sigh...)   I think my body naturally wants to stay at 145 and getting below that is going to be hard to do and maintain.  And maintain enough strong muscle for racing so we'll see if I get much below it in these last few weeks.

And Mark and I made the decision to buy mountain bikes and start adding that to our repertoire.  Since we've gotten into trail running, this will now also get us into off road triathlons and adventure racing as well.  I am a complete novice at real mountain biking so this is going to be a learning experience for me.  Hopefully one that doesn't include any broken anything on my body!

And i'm looking at buying a tri bike.   I just CAN'T tolerate the idea of ever getting back on my road bike.  It's a mental thing but I think I would break into tears if I had to use that for another season.  So I found a barely used 2008 Felt S32 for sale and long story short, I'm picking it up tonight and putting down a deposit to try it out for a week.  I want to try it out and get some opinions on the price he's asking.  I've been told from two sources already that I shouldn't pay more than around $700 for it but he's asking $925.   But I'll work negotiations once I decide it will work.
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And to finish off, my random little story of the week:
I had gotten another betta fish a few weeks ago and one day we were sitting near the tank and I looked at it....looked at Mark and said "uh...where's my fish?"  He had no idea.  I thought maybe it died and he was nice enough to flush it for me before I saw it but that wasn't the case.  After much confusion and a little investigation, I figured out that I left the tank lid open and he jumped out, falling to his death in my recycling bag.   The bag was all crumpled up too since the cats were trying to get at him but they failed.   We found the poor little thing dead in the bottom of my paper recycling.   I was truly bummed but learned never to underestimate a normally docile betta.

Week 6 and 7, Wedding Updates and Training

I feel like I start out this way alot but once again I'm behind in blog posts!  I think about writing all the time but just don't seem to actually get around to it.  So I'll apologize if this one is a little "jumpy" in topics!

The diet is going ok although we have been letting ourselves slack a little this past week.  Last week I weighed in at 146.5 which I was happy with.  But this morning after two days of overeating I was up 1.5 lbs.   Argh!   But I guess the good thing is that I know why I didn't lose weight this week.  It's my own fault and now I just have to work to correct it.

Run training has been going ok.  Since the weather is finally getting up in the 40's (F), Mark and I have been outside for a few good runs.  The current plan is to concentrate on 5k speed but get our long runs up to 1hr 30 min before the Lake Minnetonka Half on May 2nd.   I know I still owe you all a list of which races we are signed up for :)

This past weekend Mark and I did the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon at the Eden Prairie club.   I think had we not signed up and paid for it ahead of time we may not have made it there.  Motivation and sleep has felt low lately and I'll get into that more in a minute.   The indoor tri was 10 minute lap swim, 10 min transition, 30 min spin, 10 min transition, 20 min treadmill run.  I knew I couldn't push too hard on the swim or bike since training in those areas has been lacking but I was basically ok with how my swim went.  The spin was ok, just found a comfortable mid-level pace where I could still talk and managed to keep my legs moving.   I have been on a bike seat MAYBE 2-3 times for a spin class since IMoo.   The bike was really what makes me regret all the time I wasted on that one stupid race.  But someday I'll come out of that funk and maybe accept my finish.  May require a good psychologist but definitely no budget for that.

I digress....

The run was the one real spot I felt (and I think the same goes for Mark) that I could really try to push a little.   I started off at 7.5mph and felt pretty good only being 0.5mph behind where Mark was but of course as he increased his speed, I had to throttle back to 7.0 for the last few minutes and then bumped up to 8.0 for the last minute or so.   Heart rate average was somewhere in the mid 180s topping out at 193.   Here's a link to the results if you wish to see:  LTF Indoor Tri - EP

We also have been passing back and forth this nasty head cold over the past month and that's been our reason/excuse for not getting back to swim training at Master's in the mornings.   I am feeling increasingly guilty ever day I'm still not going to swim training but at the same time I am SO tired in the mornings that getting up seems much more painful than another hour or so of sleep.  We do still enjoy going to Core with ALARC at least once a week for strength/core training.

I am looking forward to the trails clearing and drying up soon as I want to get out for some trail runs.   I'm looking forward to giving that more of a try this year.  Just to mix it up a little and it will also come in handy for our other adventures of adventure racing, orienteering and geocaching mega events that will be talked about on our combined blog. 

Wedding plans are going pretty well.   I had the thought of unveiling the plans more grandly than this but I think I've got to just find one of those planner pages to fill out and keep you connected to as I make updates!   (Suggestions anyone other than The Knot.com?)  So the countdown clock on my blog is headed for Dec 5th, 2010.  For those of you that don't know, we have decided to run the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon that day and get married at their "run through" ceremony.   Go to the website and click on Entertainment and then "Run Through Wedding Ceremony"  We run/walk to mile 3.5 where about 50+ couples will either be getting married or renew their vows under the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel, we kiss to seal the deal and then take off to finish the marathon.   We met running, got engaged on a run and now will get married on a run.   We wanted to do something different and unique and what would be more fitting?   We are planning to come home and have a reception dinner and dance probably the following weekend.   We have checked out a few venues, one in Eden Prairie right now is the front runner.   The top choices we looked into were Guthrie Theatre or Mill City Museum (can we say WAY expensive!?!) and the MN Zoo (which will be closed for rentals next winter for construction).  

Kinda bummed that money is coming in the way of doing something downtown since we both also have a love for going to downtown shows and restaurants but I guess it's more important we try to save some money to hopefully get a house together.

Currently we still aren't in a place financially to be able to house hunt so our motivation and sleep has been lacking to due the fact that we still need to do a LOT of running back and forth to end up in the same spot in the evenings and keep the cats and dogs taken care of.  Hopefully we can at least start looking before we get married as I think it will be slightly depressing to be looking towards our first anniversary and still have two separate houses.

So this weekend is a fun 5k for St. Patrick's Day.   OSE Shamrock Shuffle.  Results to follow....hopefully less than a week later :-P

Week 3 and 4

The past few weeks have been a little trying on the diet since we had quite a few things going on.  So the past two weeks basically ended up a wash.  No gain, no loss.   Sigh....   I'm trying not to invision any changes showing up tomorrow either and I guess I'm better off with no expectations and be surprised.

We've been out running a few times which has been refreshing although I still struggle with feeling like my athletic ability is ever going to be anything worth anything.  We've also been to the pool a few times but no adventures on a bike seat (which will likely crush my mental stability to a pulp for awhile) 

We are hoping to get back in the pool on a regular basis starting in March with a new morning swim training routine.   Running just happens whenever possible and we try to fit in strength training once a week. 

I'm feeling a little spratic today in my writing but I wanted to get something down.  The lack of sunlight and mileage driven on a daily basis definitely takes a toll on our free time.   And yes I'm sure you've noticed most of this entry is "us" and "we" (and I love it btw :)

Wedding plans are slowly taking shape.  We are going to a few wedding expos over the next few weeks and will hopefully find some fun creative ideas and then I can give a better report on the plans.   In the meantime, you'll all have to watch my wedding day countdown clock, make your best guesses on why we chose the date we did and be patient until I have enough to "unveil" to you.   :)