It's what you make it

We had a sub instead of our usual step instructor this morning and I was a total grouch for the first half of class. We started late, the class was boring, and I wasn't getting a good workout. Stupid lady. Then, halfway through the class something clicked. I was mad at myself for eating too much crap last night and felt like I needed to get my butt kicked. But the person ultimately responsible for kicking my butt was me, not the teacher. I wasn't getting a good workout because I wasn't trying. In the second half I totally kicked it up. I added jumps and impact and got my arms moving. I was sweaty and gasping in minutes. It is a good lesson for me to remember, because a lot of times on the road I end up in a class that is less than optimal.

I can always work harder and if I don't get a good workout in the end it is always my fault.

Other people's vacations are fun too

This week is school vacation week, which meant that I've gotten to have some fun with one of my favorite people- my Mom! Even though I am working, my job now is pretty flexible the weeks I am working at home, so we have packed in some good times.

Yesterday morning I got up super early to get in a hour on the bike. It was super windy and my legs were dead from 4 hard days in a row, so I wasn't feeling it. And yet, 3 hours later after some work and breakfast I thought bootcamp would be a good idea. I made it out alive, but barely.

Then I was off to August, to let my friend Lucy, who is in cosmetology school, experiment on my hair. My Mom and I were a little nervous because neither of us do much to our hair. But we figured there would a supervising teacher in the room and we could always dye it back to a normal color. I refused to let my Mom take a picture of my in foils. Then I promptly snapped one of her.

It was pretty interesting to watch all the students, and a little creepy because there were a lot of fake heads everywhere. In this end we were both happy. My hair basically ended up looking like it does naturally at the end of summer, with lots of nice super blond highlights. Best of all Lucy straightened it for me. I love my hair straight, but always get bored half way through the process and give up.

pretty straight hair, which is now a frizzy mess thanks to fit club, a run, and 2 hours under a bike helmet.

 After some more work at home, I brought my mother to fit club. It is a group of us that meets every Wednesday for a workout and then usually drinks after. We had a great LIVE zumba session last night followed by a 30 minute Body Pump Class. I got thoroughly sweaty and then did not change before heading out to Jimmy the Greek's.  I am sure everyone in the restaurant appreciated my red face. Wednesday night is $5 martinis and free manicures. Since it was free, I was daring and currently have bright purple nails.

This morning was another early wake up for a 30 minute hill run before I took my Mom on the bike path to introduce her to the amazingness that is Scratch Bakery. We did a nice easy 10 miles in the sunshine. It was slower and shorter than I would go on my own, but sometimes it is nice to slow down to someone else's pace.

At Scratch I, as usual, drooled over everything before deciding to split a 9 grain everything bagel with fresh herb cream cheese. And for dessert (because every meal needs dessert, even breakfast) an almond horseshoe. We met up with friend Vicky, and took our food down to eat on the beach. I still can't over the fact that I have been to the beach multiple times and it's only April! Before we got back our on bikes my Mom surprised me with a piece of confetti cake. She know about my addiction to frosting and this looking amazing. I am totally impressed that I managed to get it home in one piece, and that I have made it to 4:30 without eating it yet.

Our last excursion was to buy me a grill. I have been looking at grills for almost month and decided to finally suck it up an buy one before grill season is over. We bought it, loaded it, unloaded it, and set it up in time for a (very) late lunch. Grilling on the patio and afternoon cocktails? Love it!

So thanks for having vacation Mom because I had a lot of fun too. And now I must chain myself to my computer until about midnight and do some work.

I'm going to have to make some changes

I finally realized 2 very important things today, and I mean hugely important. I'm sure you'll agree that I probably deserve the Nobel prize.

1) To get faster, I have to run faster. I've been annoyed with my slow times lately, but continued to slug through the same long slow runs every week. Surprise, surprise running long and slow is not going to make me faster. I have to do what scares me, change my routine. This morning after a miles swim, I headed to the track. My goal: 8 x 400. If I bothered to do "speed work" before I'd run by repeats slightly faster than my slower recovery run. Today I gave my repeats everything I had, which meant that I had to walk in between them. Yep, I walked during a run and the world didn't end. In fact, the average pace for the whole workout was about my average page for a normal run.

2. To get faster I also have to lose some weight and to lose weight I have to stop eating so much. I've been avoiding the scale lately, telling myself I will just keep track of my weight by how my clothes feel. Well I've been spending a lot of time in sweats, so I could convince myself that I hadn't gained weight. And everybody needs to indulge sometimes right? Well sometimes had become everyday and my favorite jeans are tight. Time to crack the whip.


In other parts of my life, I now hate mulch. One of my neighbors came over yesterday to let me know that the condo association does not take care of mulching (aka your garden looks like crap, please fix it now). Mulch, I figured I could handle that. So after the track I went to the store and bought some mulch. The bags looked big, I got 3 bags of lovely cedar mulch. I got home spread those 3 bags, and realized I'd done about 1/4 of my garden.

Back to the store. 5 more bags.

Back home. Spread 2 of the bags. Hear a neighbor come over and clear her throat. "I hate to tell you this dear, but we can only use black mulch. The red is a fire hazard. They'll make you get rid of it."

Seriously?

Is there such thing as unmulching? I was going to have to figure it out.

Back to store. Return 3 bags of cedar mulch. Buy 9 bags of black mulch. Regret that I told the clerk on my first trip that I was strong and didn't need help loading the mulch.

Back home. Scrape up as much cedar mulch as I can and put it into as many containers as I can find to give to my Mom. Lug mulch bags from trunk to garden. Curse the fact the bags are wet and heavy. Dump it and spread it as quickly as possible. Vow to start a mulch hating club. Who's in?

Boston Marathon Madness

I had a wonderful day and half in Boston and am reminded why I absolutely love the Boston Marathon even though I will probably never be fast enough to run it. There is just this wonderful spirit that takes over the whole city.

This was my first trip back to Boston since I moved last October. It was strange being back- like I'd never left and like I'd been gone forever at the same time. But as soon as I met up with my former roomie, Kristen, I felt like we'd never been apart. She even wore her Christmas present that I finally gave her, even though they were earmuffs and it was 85.  That is why I love her.

The expo was huge and wonderful and overwhelming. I was running around like a kid in a candy store (sorry Kristen who was trying to stay with me). I saw 2 of my Reach the Beach teammates, ate 20 million samples of different types of bars and gels and gummies, and drooled over a lot of expensive running clothes. I got to see Dean Karnazes who is like Mr. Muscle. When he shook my hand I saw a million muscles in his forearm that I have never seen on anyone else. The man is jacked, but surprisingly tiny. Speaking of tiny, I also hear Desiree Davila speak about fueling and hydration. She is so little! But the highlight of the expo was definitely getting getting to meet Katherine Switzer. I couldn't believe the time she spent with each person who came up to her. She was warm, inspiring, and simply lovely.

Yep that's me and Jen and KV Switzer!

It astounds me that just a generation ago women weren't able to enjoy the thing that I love so much. I don't know if I would ever have the courage to break down such entrenched barriers, so I am truly in awe, and eternally grateful, to those who did. Rock on Ladies.

Monday morning I was up almost as early as if I was running. I wanted to get my workout in before I went to spectated. I did one of my favorite 6.5 mile loops by my old house, and all I could think was how glad I was that I wasn't running the race. Even at 7:30 it was HOT. I swung by the Y for a quick strength workout and shower and then headed into Natick. I settled on the curb with my coffee and bagel thin, ready to cheer my brains out. And I did.

There is so just something about this race. I was almost crying at several points because of the love and energy being directed at the runners. As the wheelchairs and disabled athletes went by first I was reminded again of how lucky I am to be healthy. I may not be fast, but I have 2 functional legs.

Elite Women. That is some serious power.

Elite Men.

I stayed long enough to see Jen go by. She looked sweaty but strong. Go Jen! And now I am home sunburned and inspired.

Feels like summer

I had an unexpectedly great first half of my weekend. I am an uber planner so I like to start planning  my weekend starting Monday and start to freak out if I don't have plans by Thursday. This week I had no plans until yesterday afternoon, but it all turned out okay.

My friend Breezy called when she got out of work yesterday and asked if I wanted to meet at Brian Boru's because they have a great deck and it was a nice day. I of course said yes, and off I went. It was pretty darn cold on the deck (it is Maine in April!) so we moved inside, but still enjoyed our beers. We decided to head toward Pepper Club for dinner, but were in such the happy hour mood that we stopped for another beer (or 2) at other bars on their way there.

This morning I got to go for a bike ride with my friend Heather. We met via a Craig's List ad looking for biking partners more than 7 years ago. She moved 2 years ago, but now that I'm back in Maine, we're only an hour apart. It was great to catch up and the miles just flew by. 40 miles seemed like 2! Oh how I wish I had more people to run/bike with.

We ended with a stop at Scratch Bakery for lunch. Everything there is completely amazing, but let me tell you that nothing is better after a sweat session than a sea salt bagel. Except as we got our food I looked at my phone and realized it was already 12:20. My friend Breezy was picking me up at 12:45 for a baseball game. So I then attempted to rush home while eating a bagel and drinking an iced coffee. Considering I have trouble staying on my road bike normally, the fact that I didn't crash was a major feat.



Back at home I jumped into some normal clothes, threw on a baseball hat to ride my helmet hair, hugged Heather and jumped into Breezy's car.

At the game I promptly proceeded to rehydrate with beer. Baseball is way more fun with beer. Also, there *may* now be a public video of me dancing the YMCA with Slugger the mascot.


I wanted a Seadog Biscuit, which is really the whole reason to go to game, ice cream between 2 chocolate chip cookies, and covered in chocolate chips. But I had to admit that I'd wasted an awful lot of calories on beer, so I settled for fat free coffee yogurt. I do appreciate it that the ball park had a healthy option. It makes it so much easier to make better decisions when you can still have some sort of treat.



And now I made myself come home, make a healthy dinner, and get some sleep so that I can head to Boston right after my run tomorrow.

Trader Joe's is Trying to Kill Me

Last night I had planned to go to a triathlon swim event because my first triathlon this year is less than a month away. Last year when I did my first 2 tris, I just jumped in without any coaching or advice. Since I thought I was going to drown in the swim, I thought some expert advice would be a good thing. It was advertised as a lecture, so I brought myself (in jeans and ballet flats) and a notebook. Turns out it was a CLINIC. Everyone else was in a bathing suit! Oops.

So I left and went to Trader Joe's instead. I made a wonderful and terrible discovery. Trader Joe's is onto the amazingness that is Biscoff spread and they have their own version.

They don't even  try to pretend that this is remotely good for you. Cookie butter. Yep that about sums it up. This means serious trouble for me, because the only thing that keeps me from eating even more Biscoff is that it is so darn expensive. But now I can get all the calories and yumminess for half the price. Darn you Joe!