San Antonio Half!

Hardcore training continued until race day. I drove to Dallas to meet up with my friend Colby on Friday after work. Saturday morning, we grabbed breakfast and south. We arrived in San Antonio and went straight to the expo to check in. After check-in, we decided to explore the city a bit before dinner. We took the boat tour of the Riverwalk and did a little shopping. For dinner we met John, Annette, the Golemis, Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Bruce and Annette's friend and her parents at an Italian restaurant on the Riverwalk. After dinner, we all headed to our hotels/homes to rest up for the big race. Sunday morning was race day! Colby and I left the hotel in full race gear, ready to Rock and Roll! We met up with Annette and headed toward our corral. This race was extra special because we had our own cheering section. Every few miles, John, Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Bruce, Mrs. Nancy and Mr. Ronnie were waiting and cheering big! Even though the race was in November, the Texas heat pounded down. The race crew was ready with extra water stations, water sprinklers, sponges and ice cubes. At about mile 10, my knee started hurting really bad. I had to slow way down. I finished the race at right at 3 hours. When I finished, I got my chocolate milk and headed straight to the medical tent for ice on my knee. All  of the others had finished and were waiting. We all met up and headed down to el Mercado for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. After lunch, I headed out to Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Bruce's house to enjoy the beautiful scenery and great company and a shower! Overall, it was a great 2nd Half Marathon Weekend! 

Riding on the boat! 

Boat driver! 

Dinner

Dinner

Racers

Ready to run and cheer

Glad he got to come! 

Ready! 

Look at all of those people! 

Running in front of the Alamo! 

Some of our fans! 

We got medals! 

Libby ran her first half! 

Jayhawk finger puppets! 

Yay for finger puppets! 

Had to have a little birthday fun for the birthday boy! 

Love! 

Personal Trainer...

Well I had my first lesson with JoEllen. I survived. Barely... Let's look at the gym first. It is a giant building with metal exterior and NO AC. At the front is a row of stationary bikes. To the right is the weight section. The middle is a giant mat. This gym also teaches Jijitzu. At the back there is a big roll up door, near the door is a set of three pull up bars, rings and other random things. Let's just say it's intense and very intimidating.

Day 1, she took it easy on me. I still whined. Started out with 20 minutes on the stationary bike then I did a rotation of 5 ball drops, 10 push-ups and 15 kettle bell swings ---- 11 times!!!  Yep, I was sore...

Day 2, she still said she took it easy on me.... Lies Lies Lies. I started by doing 10 minutes on the bike, going fast. Moved to the back and did a increasing rotation followed by a decreasing rotation of ball drops and ring pull ups. If that didn't make me sick, we moved on to riding the bike really fast for 1 minute, running down the street and back followed by 10 burpies (squat, kick your legs out and jump up high reaching to the ceiling). Yep I did that 10 times... I thought I was dying. I got home and was completely soaked from sweat, red face and blisters on my hands.

It took an incredibly intense turn. I am going to try to get up and run tomorrow. If I don't make it, I'll run 2 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday. I may not survive this race. Or if all goes well, I will dominate this race!!!! We shall see!!!

Love!

Bumps in the Road

    Well since my last post, I've been doing terrible at consistency running. Let's get all of my excuses out of the way...
1. My calf muscles hurt.
2. I'm too tired to move much less run.
3. I was out of town.
4. I'm just too busy.
5. My body is not moving. Like every muscle in my body has tensed up and is not moving.
6. It's 114 degrees outside which is too hot to run.
7. It's discouraging not being able run with your friends for 3 of their 12 mile jog.
8. There's no good time to run. I like sleeping as late as I can in the mornings.
9. It's early.
10. I ate bad.

    Ok, I could go on, but I'll spare you. Last Thursday night, I was running with my friend Angela. She was trying to go 17 miles. I was going to join her for 5. Well I held her up instead of joining her. It was over 100 degrees outside, after dark! That was our major hold up. We made it about 2 miles, and I was majorly struggling. Basically, I moved my intervals from 4 minutes running / 1 minute walking to 3 minutes running / 2 minutes walking. Angela would run her 4 minutes then turn around and come back for me during her walk. Once we started my 5th mile / Angela's 10th mile, my legs stopped working. As much as I tried, my run turned into a walk. We both changed our intervals to 1 minute running / 1 minute walking. Angela was so sweet and cheered me along... We made it to my house and both sopping wet with sweat laid on the floor and cooled off.
     At that moment I realized my running this time is harder than ever before. I guess a lot of factors contribute to that, but it's just not cool. So I texted my friend JoEllen who is a personal trainer. We are doing a lot of exercises that strengthen your core. We'll see how it goes...

Love!

Goodbye Weekend Sleeping In, Hello Race Training...

So it has begun! Half Marathon #2 for 2012 is scheduled! San Antonio, November 11, 2012. I decided this time I was going to document my training-- the good, bad and ugly. I am planning on documenting each days wins and losses. Here goes nothing! Week 1 - August 13 - 19, 2012 I started the week out and woke up early, put my running gear on and headed out the door. I was shooting to run / walk 3 miles. Well, in Louisiana August is one of the hottest months ever. We were predicted to have storms which means HUMIDITY HUMIDITY HUMIDITY. So pathetically, I only made it 2 miles, but I was happy I made the choice to get out of bed and go. Tuesday, I gave myself a break and slept in. After the day ended, I rode a quick 3 mile trek on my bike. This is really bad and I'm working on it. I didn't run again until Saturday and I did 3 miles. Sunday, I met some friends who were running 15 miles. I ran my 4 in 43 minutes with them. Forgot to mention, I bought new running shoes on Saturday. So far so good with the kicks! After the 4 mile run, I went on a 10 mile bike ride. My legs are pooped! Goals 1. Run comfortably at a 11 - 10.5 minute pace. 2. Strengthen core 3. FINISH the race!!!! Stay tuned for exciting running adventures! Love!

Let's Build a Patio... Day 4

Yes, this is one of the longest home projects I've done in a LONG stinkin time! I made like 12 wheel barrow loads full of gravel from the front yard to the backyard. It was exhausting, and I didn't get anywhere. On Saturday, my friends the Camerons came over and helped me. At this point, things started moving FAST! We filled where the gravel was to go very quickly. Then realized that we have a ton of gravel left. Soooo now we have new projects....... Until then... Enjoy!!

Let's Build a Patio... Day 3

We got ROCKS!!!! Technically called "pea gravel" ... but who's getting technical ... And yes, they dumped it straight on the driveway. And no they couln't get any closer and yes I forgot a tarp.

... now I get to move them to the backyard ... Oh lucky me!!!!!
Love!

Let's Build a Patio... Day 2

Phew! I'm tired just thinking about this... So John came in on Friday, and we went to Home Depot and racked up on sand. We stopped at WalMart after looking for large stepping stones to fill in because we knew we would be short on bricks. We found 4 cute ones along with plain ones. We woke up Saturday and started the project. In order to get to the bricks, we had to clear a nasty pile of firewood, flower pots and trash. In the process, we found several friends....

Yep, 6 snakes... John thought we should keep them and let them go.
Anyways, we spread sand then laid bricks and mapped out where the stepping stones would go.



After all of the bricks were in place, we pushed the sand in to make grout. Then blew it off and sprayed it with water. John got us some landscape lumbers to lock all of the bricks in place. We got some metal landscaping pieces to line the walkway.





Stay tuned for finishing the landscaping border and filling the gravel in...
Love!