The Barn Party

There's not much happening at our house today.

We were up a tad late at our friend's party last night. Buddy too. Plus, the three of us slept in the Scamp, so we didn't get the best night's sleep.

(I don't have a current picture of the Scamp, this is from our road trip...somewhere in Canada last year)

It was a lot of fun though, good food, beer, fire and a rather dangerous game called Stump, which I did not play. Buddy and I were just spectators.

It was just a little fire ;)

Stump is a terrifying game that involves flipping a hammer in the air, catching it and hitting other people's nails into a stump. They also had a fire burning in the stump, because fire.

This is when they decided to use the leaf blower to stoke the stump fire.

Buddy was all dressed up with his new vest, a coat and a light. He is pretty tired from the late night.

Party animal.

And, just like at home, Buddy waited by the door of the Scamp for Tom to come back. 

He's just a little obsessed.

One sentence per picture

How Buddy and I spent most of my rest day on Friday.

He still loves the sun, just fyi.

Buddy is the same size as a medium child, in case you were wondering.

Tom did some alterations, and now buddy has a snazzy new vest.

Post-run stretching, Buddy style.

I have been wanting to try this for a while - it's really good!

NY beer with Oregon coffee - how can you go wrong?

This afternoon we are heading over to our friend's house for a barn party. It's supposed to get pretty chilly later, so we're digging out our winter gear. I guess it's that time of year!

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Throwback Thursday and Puppies!

A little Throwback Thursday action for you from senior year of high school:

I cannot now, nor could I then, ride a skateboard.

Also: I still have this sweatshirt somewhere.

I, um well, I didn't do anything today. It was super gloomy and gross outside, so I wasn't very motivated.

That's not entirely true. I did some laundry and the dishes.

And I got a run in.

Me, my treadmill and Gilmore Girls = a winning combination.

This is Buddy's "why are you taking my picture instead of playing with me?" face.

I started reading In the Blood, by Lisa Unger. My mom and I have both read most of her books. They're easy reads, and very entertaining thrillers. The first book of hers that I read was also one of my favorites - Beautiful Lies. Check it out.

Aaaand here's some cute puppies because that's all the exciting news I have for you.

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Let's Talk Speed

It has taken me a long time to realize that speed is mostly mental. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely physical limitations when it comes to running faster, but a lot of the time, it's my mind that holds me back.

I used to warm up at a very slow jog. I thought, "I'm slow, so I have to start out slow." This past year I have come to realize that I don't have to be slow - it's a choice.

In the last 7 months alone I have taken my half marathon time from 2:16:26 to 1:58:05.

I'm not breaking any records, but I don't think I'm slow anymore.

These days my warm up is faster. I have found that I can run comfortably at speeds that used to feel like sprinting. I think part of the reason for this is running with a group. Running with other people definitely makes me run faster than running on my own. But I also started doing speed work for the first time since high school cross country, and I think that has made a big difference.

You can find speed workouts with a quick internet search, but these are a few of my favorites:

Fartleks - A funny word (it means "speed play" in Swedish) that is a good place to start. It's an easy way to add short bursts of speed into your workout. Pick something up ahead, a mailbox or a tree, and run faster until you reach it. Then slow down and pick your next mini-goal line. 

Progression Runs - I especially like doing these on a treadmill. Start out slow and gradually bump up the speed 1/10th of a mile every so often and see how fast you can go. Worst case, back the speed off a bit until you're running comfortably again. I have really surprised myself with how fast I can get going sometimes during progression runs.

Mile (or any distance) Repeats - Run/jog a warm up, then run two or three miles (or other distance) at 5k or 10k pace - it should be a challenge, but you shouldn't feel like you're going to die - with recovery jogs between miles. The breaks make the miles less painful, physically and mentally.

Tempo Runs - Tempo runs help your body get used to running at faster speeds for longer periods of time. Run a warm up, 3-5 miles at a set pace (I love the treadmill for this because I'm terrible at holding a consistent pace on my own, which I need to work on) and a cool down.

I still need to get better about cross training, and stretching, but at least I've made some progress when it comes to pushing myself to run faster. As Tom constantly reminds me, "You're faster than you think you are."

Do you do speed work? Do you feel like your mind slows you down?

Weirdly excited to run on the treadmill

Yesterday was a rest day, and I take my rest days very seriously (mostly).

I spent a lot of time slogging through that packet of paperwork - I'm finally done - and Tom and I talked houses. The house we have looked at a few times pretty much needs an entire kitchen, so we were looking at appliances and how much it would cost to make it a kitchen we would be really excited about.

Turns out we have expensive taste.

Buddy takes the sunshine very seriously.

I was weirdly excited to run on my treadmill today. Don't get me wrong, I like running outside sometimes, but since my challenge had to be outside, I didn't really want to do it.

Five happy, sweaty miles done - at 8:45 pace! I was pretty excited about how good I felt running at that speed, running faster is finally getting easier! :)

Gilmore Girls kept me company, as usual. I'm addicted.

And I'm trying something new for dinner.

That's pork loin with apples, onions and honey. I found the recipe HERE. I mostly followed it.

I haven't done much cooking in the slow cooker, so we'll see how it turns out.

#RunWithKara Success!

Happy Sunday!

We had a pretty slow morning (thank you extra hour of sleep!), watched a bunch of the NYC Marathon (how amazing are the elites?!), and did a quick clean of the house for a showing this afternoon.

Tom and Buddy hung out in the big shared yard while people looked at the house, and I headed off to Rockefeller Preserve to knock out the last miles of my marathon challenge.

Apparently the people only looked at the house for about 5 minutes. Probably safe to say we won't be getting an offer from them.

My car wouldn't start (thanks battery), so I took the Jeep instead.

It's a little different than driving my car. I get some really funny looks when I climb out of it - people don't expect me to be driving something like that!

I don't know if you watched the NYC Marathon this morning, but we had similar weather up our way. The wind was crazy! I was on mile 3 when I saw some branches the size of my leg that had fallen on the trail. I stuck to the more open trails after that and kept an eye out for any falling branches.

I didn't see/hear any.

My mileage seems to have caught up with me this week. I spent most of my run with a tightness/cramp in the arch of my foot. I actually stopped, took my shoe off and massaged it a bit in the middle of my run.

I managed to push through the wind and ignore my foot long enough to finish up the last few miles I needed to complete the challenge.

Success!

Tom is amazing and had already replaced the battery in my car by the time I got home. He's nice like that :)

Did you watch the NYC Marathon? Have you ever run it?

Running in the rain

There are some days the world seems to be telling you not to run. It's generally best to ignore it.

I had a dream last night that I jumped off of something and broke my shin.

When I woke up, it was just starting to rain.

And then my car decided that it didn't want to start. I might need a new battery soon.

After it finally started, I opted to go meet up with the group and hope that the car was feeling cooperative when we got back. I figured the worst case scenario was that I would have to ask Tom to drive over and come help me.

We had a surprisingly big group today, especially considering the weather, and the fact that the NYC Marathon is tomorrow. The weather got progressively worse during the run, and our pace got progressively faster as we tried to get back to our cars as soon as possible.

The last mile was spent talking about all the things we were looking forward to when we finished. Seat heaters in cars, coffee, breakfast, and hot showers were the major topics of conversation.

My car started on the first try (hooray!) and Tom had a towel waiting for me by the front door when I got home.

I'm now at 19.7 miles of my 26.2 for the marathon challenge. Just 6.5 miles to go! Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, but dry, so at least it won't be pouring on me for my last run of the challenge.

I've been spending a lot of quality time with my Pro Compression socks since I'm really upping my mileage this week.

I have big packet of legal-speak (for a possible business opportunity) that I have been meaning to read for a while now. I finally sat down and started it this afternoon.

Legal-speak is boring.

We have someone coming to look at the house tomorrow, so we have some tidying up to do in the morning. We get advance notice of showings because of Buddy, which is nice.

I hope you're having a good weekend!