Yard Work and a RunnerBox

One thing I will say about our yard - any work makes a big difference.

The yard right by the street was lined in pricker bushes. They suck. There were also some giant bushes and a little tree blocking the front of the house.

After a long afternoon of work, it now looks like this:

It's starting to look like an actual house! I love how much more open it is now. Some of those bushes on the right will be coming out too. And just wait until the fence is up - it's going to be so cute!

I actually managed to do some Piyo this afternoon - I know, I'm proud of me too :)

I also got my first RunnerBox in months (I stopped it for a while when I wasn't working), and had fun looking through it.

I love new snacks!

I'll let you know if there are any stand out winners in the box.

And Buddy wanted you to know that he is a lap dog, even if he doesn't really fit.

Marathon Training Week 1

I am officially through my first week of marathon training! And I've already strayed from my training plan. Oops!

My summer running clothes somehow have no pockets, so I've had to get creative with my house key.

Monday: Monday was supposed to be a cross training day. I had grand plans to dig out my Piyo and, you know, actually cross train. But instead, I spent the entire afternoon at the laundromat, adding more and more quarters to the dryer that just didn't want to dry anything. It was fun.

Tuesday: 3 miles on the agenda, and I ran 3.14 @ 9:36 pace around the neighborhood in the 83 degree weather. It was humid, and I was not happy.

Wednesday: 5 miles. It was less humid than Tuesday, but still around 80 degrees out. I actually carried Nuun with me (I hate carrying things when I run) and finished my entire water bottle before I got home. 5.17 miles @ 9:48 pace.

Thursday: 3 miles. It was only in the upper 70s and it felt amazing after the heat of the last few days. 3.16 miles @ 8:58 pace.

Friday: Rest day! AKA yard work ALL day.

Saturday: 5 mile pace run. I wanted to keep my pace around 9:00, and the weather was on my side. It was in the mid-60s with a light rain - pretty close to my favorite running weather. 5.06 miles @ 8:59 - success!

Sunday: 6 mile "long" run. Ok, so here's where I messed with my training plan a bit. We're going to the lake house next weekend for the 4th, and while I don't mind getting out for some shorter runs while we're there, I'm not about to run the 11 miles that were planned for next Sunday. I swapped Sundays and mapped out a loop around the house for this afternoon.

It was more than a little rainy and much more than a little hilly (running in new areas I have no idea what to expect when it comes to hills).

The loop that I made ended up being 10.23 miles by the time I got back to the house, so I ran past the house (naturally) and ended up running too far before turning around (because math is hard after 10 miles). I ended up running 11.17 miles @ 9:53 pace.

As you can see, I am not good at deciding when to turn around, I always end up running more than I intend to. I'm feeling really positive about putting in my miles with the heat and the hills - watch out Steamtown, here I come!

Working in the Yard

We have a really big yard.

It feels bigger because it's been pretty much left to its own devices for the last few years. Once we get things a little more tamed, it won't be as difficult to maintain.

This used to be a huge, fenced in garden area. Now it's a big mess of weeds.

Tom mowed it the other day, but there was still a TON of dead grass and other plants. I have spent hours over the last two days raking the dead things up, and leaving piles everywhere that Tom later disappears into the brush. I've only made it about halfway, and it mostly just looks dead, but eventually it will look better.

This picture is obviously from a different angle, but you get the idea.

This tree has all kinds of problems. it apparently had a rough winter. 

After a lot of cutting and pruning, it finally looks like a tree again. 

There were a lot of dead branches, and there were tons of little shoots at the base of the tree that we cut back. Hopefully now it can focus its energy on growing up and filling out.

Can you see the broken part of our umbrella? It fell over in the wind during a thunderstorm the other day. It went through the screen door on its way down. If you look closely you can see our temporary duct tape patch. Very fancy.

Buddy has been supervising.

It's exhausting work.

I Almost Look Tan

Zappos is the best, isn't it? I ordered the correct size of the too small sports bra yesterday afternoon, and it was on our front porch when I got home from work today. So fast!

It was here in time for my afternoon run! Now, I know that afternoon is not the ideal time so be running when it's hot out, but there's no way I'm waking up even earlier to run and shower before work. I'm stubborn like that. And as for running later in the day, well, by then I have lost my motivation - and there are more bugs out.

Turns out I was totally spoiled by having my treadmill in the air conditioned basement. Right now it's out in the garage, so that would probably be even hotter than running outside. At least outside there's a breeze!

One of the things about running in a new area is that you never know what to expect when it comes to hills. There were a couple of seriously steep climbs during my 5 miles today, but what can you do? I'm just going to be a super-strong hill runner!

Both my new tank top and sports bra were great! The tank top is amazing, so light and no fuss - I didn't have to mess with it once. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a sale so I can buy other colors now. I can't very well get through an entire summer of marathon training with one lightweight tank top. At least that's what I'm telling myself!

Plus, I almost look tan in this color. It's an optical illusion.

I actually took water with me on my run. If you ask anyone who has ever run with me, you'll know that I never do that. I hate carrying things when I run. It's a good thing that I did, because I drank it all. It also gave me a chance to try out the new Plus for Nuun.

Some reviews I have read said that they wanted to add more water when they used this, but I couldn't even taste a difference (it's unflavored). I don't really know if it made a difference since I wasn't doing a long run, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have some extra electrolytes while I was running in the heat.

Buddy's Big Adventure and New Running Things

Buddy went on an adventure this afternoon. I had an order from Brooks (yay running stuff!), and when the FedEx man came to the door, Buddy bolted. He visited a couple of neighbor's houses and played keep away for a little while before Tom sat on the grass and Buddy came running over. Brat.

Needless to say, we need to work on his off-leash training.

I had my first official run as part of my marathon training plan today. It was only 3 miles, but in the 83 degree weather, that was fine by me. I just kept telling myself that these painful runs in the heat will make cooler weather running feel SO much easier.

This is my new tank top I bought from Brooks. It's super lightweight, and has a nice flowy fit. I'm excited to take it out for my run tomorrow.

I also ordered a new sports bra since mine are a little ancient, but I didn't read the reviews as well as I should have, and it doesn't fit. Boo.

We don't currently have a washer and dryer at the house (well, we have a washer, but we don't know if it works, and it's not super useful on its own), so I spent forever at the laundromat on Monday. Do you know how many quarters it takes to start a medium sized washing machine?

15.

You read that right, 15 quarters!

I'm pretty sure the last time I went to a laundromat it took maybe 5 or 6 quarters to do a load.

Some new goodies from Nuun arrived on Monday, I'm excited to try out the new Plus for Nuun - I'll have plenty of opportunities this training cycle!

Buddy is getting a little less freaked out when we leave the house, though he's still crying like we abandoned him.

He likes to keep us close.

A Humid Run and Yard Work

Holy cow it's been a busy few days, and we're just getting started!

I made it out for my first run in our new neighborhood yesterday. It was also the first run since the race last weekend - there have just been so many things going on!

It was a pretty warm and humid day, but I went out without a real plan, and ended up having a really good run! There are a lot of rolling hills around the house, but not much traffic, and plenty of shade. I ran just over 4 miles at 8:58 pace - and it didn't feel like I was killing myself.

Marathon training official starts on Monday - I took this week as a moving/rest week in between training cycles. Hopefully that means I'll be ready to go come Monday.

Tom has been having fun getting new things. He got this grill which took us far less than the estimated 4 hours to assemble. It's currently the only way we can cook anything - thank goodness it's summer!

And he got a fancy new lawn mower.

Tom would like me to point out that he is in fact wearing pants in that picture.

We have a lot of lawn to mow.

And that's not even all of it! The yard is looking much nicer though. We spent most of the day working on clearing out the overgrown garden areas and picking up trash and sticks.

For now, we're trying to find a balance between not feeling like we're camping (though we are sleeping on the mattress on the floor since our box spring didn't fit up the stairs), and not unpacking very many things. The work is going to start on the house fairly soon, so we don't want to unpack just to pack things up again.

We're all a little tired from all the changes.

The Last Few Days in Pictures

Tuesday after work I arrived at the new house to find the sellers hadn't gotten rid of their dumpster yet.

The closing took longer than expected, so I wandered around the yard for a while until Tom got there with the keys.

Then the tv/internet people and the movers came (and so did some rain).

I drove down to the vet to pick this guy up:

It was a stressful day for him, and he's still a little confused by the situation. He's a little clingier than usual and cries a lot when we leave him in the house.

But he seems to be settling in alright.

We are still figuring out where we put things (it's in that box with those other things, where did you put that?) and this house is going to be more than a little bit of a project, but it's exciting to finally move in! We'll get it all sorted out at some point.

Limbo

We're in a weird state of limbo right now. The movers came yesterday and packed up the house, and after much sweeping and vacuuming, we handed the keys over to the new owners. 

We spent the night at Tom's parent's house and Buddy spent the night boarded at the vet. Luckily he loves it there. 

Tom will be closing on the house while I'm at work this morning and then things will get a little crazy. We have 3 cars between us so getting them to the house  will take a couple of trips, I have to pick up the dog, the movers are delivering our stuff, and the internet people are coming to install our TV/phone/internet. 

It's going to be a long day. 

It's Happening

After talking about it for almost a year, it's finally happening - we're moving! The movers will be here in the morning and we're mostly ready for them.

Buddy does not like all the packing activity. Change is stressful.

So, the movers will be here in the morning to pick up our stuff, but we won't actually be able to move into our house until Tuesday. It's a whole thing. Buddy will be hanging out with his friends at the vet for a day so he's not underfoot and/or stressed while the movers are there. I'll pick him up on Tuesday to bring him to our new house!

He'll be more excited on Tuesday.

So that's the plan for the next couple days. Don't be surprised if you don't hear very much from me this week.

Walkway Half Marathon Recap

I ran the Walkway Half Marathon this morning!

Friday afternoon I made the drive up to Poughkeepsie to pick up my bib & shirt. It was kind of a pain, but there was no race day pickup, so what can you do? The drive was over an hour, and then it took me another 15 minutes to successfully make my way into the correct parking area.

The expo was actually pretty big for the race size (2500 runners between the 5k, half and full marathon), and packet pickup was a breeze. I wandered around for a few minutes, but wasn't really in the mood to chat with expo booth people.

This morning I was up at 4:45. The plan was to leave as close to 5 as possible (they wanted people there 90 minutes before the race), but I didn't end up leaving until almost 5:20. The drive up was pretty uneventful and they had lots of volunteers to keep parking organized.

Even though there wasn't any race day packet pickup, the race did not start on time. We were about 15 minutes late - pretty common with the races I've run lately.

People are not good at lining themselves up according to pace time. There were people in front of me who walked the first hill in the first tenth of a mile - stopping to walk in the middle of the pack of runners - at least move over before you stop!

There were a couple of narrow areas in the first mile, and that, combined with the walkers, made the first mile my slowest. After we got off the road and onto the (paved) trails I started making better time.

Speaking of time, I broke the #1 rule of racing today - don't try anything new on race day. I tried the goal pace setting on my watch for the first time and quickly learned that the only stat I had available to me was my current pace. So, for the entire race I had no idea of the time and was dependent on mile markers. Not ideal.

The course was really pretty and very well organized (it was the first year for the half and full). There were water stations (and NUUN!) every 1.5 miles and lots of volunteers along the way to make sure no one got lost. The race claims to be "fast and flat," but according to my watch, it was hillier (938 feet!) than my last race!

I felt pretty good for most of the race, but at mile 9 I was hit by a killer side cramp. It hurt so bad I actually stopped for a few seconds to try to get it to stop.

The rest of the race was good, though it was starting to get hot out (not that it was cold at any point, I think it was around 70 degrees when I left the house).

I finished in 1:59:24! It's not a PR, but considering the heat (and the side cramp), I'm happy with it.

Aaaand I didn't take any pictures until I got home.

The medal is pretty cool - it's wood!

And now back to our regularly scheduled packing.

Packing and Running

Things are busy busy around here!

Unless your name is Buddy, and then it's just business as usual.

My training plan has flown out the window and I'm getting a few miles in where I can. I find myself saying things like "well, at least I'll have well-rested legs on race day" and "maybe this extreme taper will make me run faster." Positive thinking, no?

My run today was a fun one. I ended up running 5 treadmill miles (it is super gross outside - hot and humid) and felt great! This is the complete opposite of my final run before my last race. That run left me feeling tired and not ready to run. This run made me feel good about racing in a couple days.

Race day is in two days and moving day is in four. No big deal, right? We're living in a sea of boxes (because we finally started packing) and I'm trying to find the balance between getting things packed and leaving enough things in the kitchen so we can still cook dinner.

Buddy is thoroughly confused about what's going on, and he doesn't like the look of all the boxes. Once he's free to frolic in his new yard, I know he'll be happy, but for now he's pretty concerned. Moving is stressful for everyone.

Now I'm off to take a break to watch the Bone season finale. I hate finale episodes because I don't do well with cliffhangers - I want to know what happens right now!

Priorities

We actually started packing today - for real! 

The buyers came by for one last walk through (mostly to measure things), so we were trying to at least look like we were going to be moved out sometime soon. You know, in a week. 

I was supposed to have a 5 mile run today, but packing was a higher priority. I'm trying to balance packing and running this week since I have the Walkway Half Marathon on Saturday. Someone asked me the other day why I signed up for this race when we have so many other things going on. They didn't think about the fact that I had signed up months ago and had absolutely no way of knowing when we would be moving. 

Buddy and I hung out outside while the buyers were here so he didn't jump all over them. He couldn't figure out why we were just sitting on the grass. And he didn't appreciate my pictures. 

He absolutely refused to look at me, no matter how many times I said his name.

This packing business is making moving more real. We've been talking about moving for almost a year, and now it's happening! It's both stressful and exciting :)

Morning Miles and Procrastinating Packing

Sorry I'm so all over the place lately. We've been busy with work things, packing and planning - I'm still not sure how we're going to get everything done. One day I'll get back to posting more often than you care to read, and then it will be full of running updates and home improvement projects!

I woke up early this morning to meet up with two of my weekend running buddies for some extra miles. We ended up running just shy of 11 miles. It was my last run with the group for a while since my next race is a week from today and then we're moving. It's going to be about an hour long drive to meet up with them once we move, but I'm planning on making the trek for some of my longer runs during marathon training. Miles go faster with friends!

I spent some time boxing up some of my loose things in the basement and re-taping the boxes that I never bothered to unpack when we moved from Alaska. I also boxed up some books and found a bunch of bags/backpacks that will soon be full of things.

I found this picture from my derby days while I was packing things up in the basement.

I'm the one not on the ground.

See those shelves? There were (more) books on them earlier! I'm celebrating tiny victories today, it helps me feel productive.

We keep telling Buddy that he needs to pack up his toys, but he's about as good as we are about packing.