florida, a couple runs, gym, and not enough sleep

this week and last weekend were pretty jammed packed. I was in florida, with ME, visiting ME's cousin JH and her husband MR. lots of food, bevvies, fun and shopping was crammed into 3 days. did I mention lots of adult beverages?

yeah. all class, I know.

many many thanks to JH and MR for their hospitality! I had a great time and look forward to when you guys can come and stay with us!

anyways... since getting home I haven't slept much and I'm dead tired from the exercise I've gotten in this week. so much so, that I was woken up this morning with a cold paw in the face and the saddest "Why haven't you feed me yet?!" eyes you've ever seen. at 7:30am. 2 hours later than she normally gets me up... which means I slept through my alarm, gym appt, and a howling cat. fine start to my day.

this week I ran Wed morning with HE.

distance: 4.75M

time: 49mins

pace: 10:10/M

calories: 490

notes: was really warm. ran in capri pants and wasn't chilly at all! pretty good considering it has snowed this month. felt good to run after such a lazy and boozy weekend.

Wednesday night was a late soccer game at 11pm. had a terrible touch, like there was cement in my feet and my ankles had fused. it was a good 50min run though but didn't push hard enough to feel the dry heaves come on.

Thurs morning I did a gym trip with KT

completed Jillian Michaels Making the Cut day 1. minus the cardio stuff involving the threadmill. too much of a pain in the ass to hope on a treadmill for 1 min of sprinting and then have to wipe it down afterwards. didn't realize how out of shape I'd gotten. the 5 circuts were hard. like really hard. I had to stop doing mountain climbers for a few seconds so that I wouldn't barf my yogurt and granola breakfast. yogurt barf is gross. worse than regular puke. Jillian would have probably yelled at me and called me a baby. I would have deserved it too.

in other news:

christmas shopping has begun in earnst. need to find a good hidey hole to stash my treasures that ME won't find. I'm thinking his sister's place might be my best bet. bought a pair of Spanks to wear with the disco ball dress on Saturday's charity dinner. I don't know where the Spanks put it but keep doing what you're doing! shoes are going to be an issue for that dress. might need to check out the mall on Saturday. last night I went and saw New Moon and it was delightfully cheesy and bad and I loved it. sorry Twi-Hards, it's not brilliant literature, nor a particularly good movie but I embrace the cheese and enjoyed it all the same.

happy belated thanksgiving to the Americans out there and enjoy your Black Friday shopping!

dream I had + two runs

I now have an Official Dream Interpreter. here is the first dream dissected via IM conversation:

LH [5:33 PM]:
so... spider dream
LH [5:34 PM]:
I dreamt that I was vacuuming and ME and HE (his sister) were there and there was this huge massive spider and I got all stressed and had to vacuum it up 'cept I had the thin nozzle attachment on the vacuum and the spider was really really big
LH [5:34 PM]:
and I was afraid it wouldn't get vacuumed up
LH [5:34 PM]:
and it would crawl down the vacuum tube thingy and on to me
KT [5:35 PM]:
*shudder*
KT [5:35 PM]:
i hate spiders
LH [5:35 PM]:
but ME was like "just do it!" and I did and the spider went "Ka-thunk"
LH [5:35 PM]:
and got sucked up
LH [5:35 PM]:
but I could see all its legs wiggling frantically at the end of the vacuum tube before it got properly sucked up
LH [5:36 PM]:
I wonder what it means...
KT [5:36 PM]:
let's look it up
LH [5:37 PM]:
where?
KT [5:37 PM]:
maybe you are the spider, and the vaccum is
LH [5:37 PM]:
hahaha
KT [5:37 PM]:
apparently dreaming about spiders is good luck
KT [5:38 PM]:
Spiders in a dream are a sign of general good luck; to kill one signifies good news. If it was spinning a web, it augurs approaching money; if it was climbing a wall, it's a harbinger of success in all that concerns you most deeply.
KT [5:38 PM]:
hahaha
KT [5:38 PM]:
or: Spiders in a dream are a serious danger signal This can mean female intrigues aimed at ensnaring men, and refers to the cold, calculating nature evident in some women.
LH [5:38 PM]:
but what about sucking it up thru a vacuum!!!???
KT [5:40 PM]:
there are no details on this specific dream
LH [5:40 PM]:
damnit!
LH [5:41 PM]:
the intertubes suck at dream interpretation
KT [5:41 PM]:
maybe the spider is one of your goals, and you being afraid to suck it up is being afraid of failure, and then the sucking it up is you acheiving that goal, and the wiggly legs struggling is the final obstacles you overcome in reaching your goal.
LH [5:41 PM]:
I like you better. I think you'll be my Official Dream Interpreter from now on.
KT [5:42 PM]:
good
KT [5:42 PM]:
please bring me dreams on a regular basis
LH [5:42 PM]:
will do.

runs this week...
tuesday -
distance: ~4M
time: ~34mins
pace: ~9:10/M
calories: ~400cal
notes: good run, was listening to tunes so that's why I was going so fast (for me). did the usual loop outside of the neighbourhood and it was chilly. legs felt good but right hip started to malfunction around 3.5M. has felt ok since then.

wednesday -
distance: 3.5M
time: 35min
pace: 10:00/M
calories: 300
notes: easy run this am w/ HE. love that she keeps me honest and gets my ass out of bed. no leg/foot/hip pain. was warm this am and I was overdressed w/ a fleece on! thanks HE (for the runs and company and hard work!)

other exercise -
tuesday - volleyball, 1hr, with no subs and a player short. but we won!
- 1/2 hr extravaganza walk at lunch w/ TOM, KT, HJ
wednesday - soccer 50mins.

morning run

Ran the outside of the neighbourhood with HE
distance: 4.7M
time: 47:5o-something mins
pace: 10:10/M
calories: almost 500
notes: hebrew! that's what I'm going to call HE from now on. hehee! take that google ad bot! btw: HE (hebrew) has a blog here. yeah. so about the run, it was good. watched the sun come up. felt much better this morning that monday morning. ran in my ancient blue saucony's and they are pretty much done. time for a replacement. ME says I should scale back on the shoe buying. what does he know? he's a boy. boys don't get the shoe thing. plus he buys running shoes at like every race expo we got to. something about how they are cheap. wait. huh. maybe I should be buying shoes at expo instead. I need a race to sign up for so I can buy shoes. suggestions??
right. back to the run. frosty and cold this morning so my first mile was at like 8:20/M because I was shivering and needed to warm up fast. I even went back for my fleece vest it was so chilly. glad I did because I was comfy for the entire run.

Glee is on tonight (squee!) and so is Top Gear (double squee!).

Oh and I might buy a car today.

google ad bot

apparently is in Hebrew now. (not kidding, I recognize it, I look at a lot of localized text and that is definitely Hebrew). enjoy!

in other news. sore throat. creeping around the edges. I hates the sore throat. in the book I'm reading (AVD: brigadoon!! I can't stop!) people die of the morbid sore throat. hope I don't have that. sounds morbid. I'm going to take 3 ColdFX (http://www.coldfx.ca/) to keep the morbid sore throat at bay. aww hell. I just googled morbid sore throat and according to Ruddy's List of Archaic Medical Terms morbid sore throat seems to have been invented by the author of the book I'm reading. seriously. AVD, you get this. I know you do. insufferable.

weekend activities and morning run

saturday run (haha I just typed rum)

distance: 7M
time: 1hr 8mins
pace: 9:45/M
calories: ~800
notes: longest run since the 1/2 a couple weeks ago. solo. felt really good. no pain, no tiredness. probably helped that I ran about 40mins before sunset, when I tend to feel the best. I ran up at mom and dad's to the conservation area. did a 2.2km loop and headed back towards their place since it was starting to get dark. I jammed my right ankle on a root but aside from some localized tenderness at the bottom of my tibia on saturday night, it's been fine. (whew! lucky!) after stopping to get some water, I headed up the highway and back and did mom and dad's street a couple times to get 7M. it was a good run. definite runner's high afterwards. also was my first run in the new shoes- Saucony ProGrid Xodus in blue.

aren't they sexy? :o)


on sunday we did family photos in Goderich. Claire from Claire K Photography came up and did our pictures. we had a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the pictures! P.S. go check out www.clairekphotography and see the work of Claire K > she takes beautiful photos! she's awesome, hilarious, wonderfully creative! thanks again Claire!


monday morning run w/ HE
distance: 4.3M
time: 44mins
pace: 10:10/M
calories: ~400
notes: didn't feel so great this morning. maintaining what should be an easy pace for me was hard. woke up with right ear and throat sore. not a cold sore but swollen/pressure sore. was likely just the way I slept. right hip was also tight which makes me think that it was more how I slept. so glad HE dragged my ass out of bed. I felt better after the run, even though my legs and body felt (and still feel) heavy. as the coffee goes into me this morning I'm started to feel better and better. the massive, heavy, carbolicious supper I had last night probably didn't help. mmm cheesy potatoes....

the plan - see that? not in all caps.

last night's run:
4M around the neighbourhood
38:00 mins
avg pace 9:30ish/M
effort: 2M @ E (easy), 2M @ goal M(marathon)
pain: none aside from nausea
notes: ran in my new trail shoes on people's grass or rocks instead of the sidewalk to make it a bit more of an authentic off-road experience. I hate the people with freakin' slippery faux brick driveways. they should be banned. almost ended tits up in the rhubarb three times. fuckers. shoes were great though. socks were sucky and I got a blister from them. they are now for after run feet warming. never. ever. for running. ever. otherwise it was a great run. I started out a bit too quick instead of taking my time and warming up so the first M was 9:30ish pace and the mile 2 was 10:30ish and then I kicked it up for some tempo work for a mile and then took a 2 min recovery jog and then gave'er again. miles 3 and 4 were 8:30 and 8:15ish. I wanted to barf by the end but that's what mile repeats are for according to the Best of Running article in this months Runner's World.

now for the plan (formerly THE PLAN) update
I needed more than 24hrs to recover from the Niagara 1/2. instead, I took one week off. at this point I need to evaluate the p90x lite approach for weight loss or instead build a solid base for a spring marathon and use that to lean out. if I'm going to attack a BQ, the weight loss is a must. sucks for soccer and hockey b/c I'll get pushed around more but it'll make me quicker over 42.2kms. I think p90x lite might be too much for me as I dial up the base mileage running. that said, core work and strength training will be essential for me to BQ. I need to be all around strong to hold my form through a marathon. so it's eval time... review the p90x dvds, rummage through the wealth of other fitness stuff I have for alternatives and come up with a new THE PLAN. the training schedule posted at runbayou is really interesting. it uses periodization which is cool since I've never done anything like that before. so investigating it for use for the spring marathon training plan. in the mean time, the plan is for the week:
M- run medium
T - volleyball and run or strength train
W - soccer and easy
R - hot yoga and easy
F - easy
A- long run
U- rest.