Time to reduce!

I think it's time! Yep...it's to hard to keep up with 2 or 3 blogs....so I'm moving everything to 1 blog...the other one! *smiles* I'll update running, riding, etc on that blog as well as whatever else is going through my crazy little head! Come follow me at Living!

http://livingthislifegiven.blogspot.com/

4 days of Core work...so far!

Man o man...I'm getting a jump start on some of my "New Year's Resolutions"! I've done 4 days of Pilates workouts. They are hard...especially if you are trying to do them correctly (which I am). I can feel my core, which I sure hope means I'm getting stronger. It's sad what just a little bit of core work can reduce you to. It hurts to laugh, but I'll keep laughing anyways!!*smiles* My hope is that if I keep working on my core, it will help me with the rest of training and my life in general! Here's hoping! My Goal is to master the teaser! Maybe by the end of the year I will be able to do the whole series of teasers without any help? Let's see....I'll keep you posted!

I have 3 Pilates DVD's to work from, and they are all hard...as suspect they should be. Pilates doesn't take a lot of time, but it does seem to work! WOO HOO!!

Just a random Thursday!

This morning I got up and did my 3rd day of Pilates Mat workout. Yes I really can feel my core now, no please don't tell a funny joke it hurts to laugh!

Jason and I had already decided to do a run today. It was supposed to warm up to about 38 degrees by 10 am and we thought that it would be the perfect time to be out running. It was also supposed to be sunny. Well it wasn't 38 degrees more like 33 and it wasn't sunny, it was overcast. We had a pretty good run though. It was hard converting the air from the cold outside into our warm lungs. I had a weird ankle issue (just weird pain) but it resolved itself during the run. It was probably from sliding down the snow/ice on the dog walk yesterday (ie: the dogs pulled me down to the ground so they could go say hi to a "new friend"). I did end up walking a little more towards the end to get ready for the last BIG hill. HA! Glad to be warm and cozy in the house now, just waiting for the shower!

Here is a link to the route we did.

Run Time: 42:11
Distance: 3.81 miles
Average: 11:04 /mile
Fastest Pace: 8:43 /mile
Climb: 256 feet
Calories: 499

Side Note: Doing this run means that when we go to Flemming's tonight, I get to enjoy the food and wine brought to the table! This is one HAPPY HAPPY Girl! It's Supper Club tonight!

Christmas Morning Run in the Snow!

What a wonderful morning. I woke up to it snowing here in Virginia. Yet again I get to have a "white" Christmas. The snow was falling in small flakes, but it was starting to stick just a little. I took Scout out for his morning walk and we enjoyed getting snowed on. The flakes got a little bigger, but it wasn't coming down to hard. Scout did all his Morning Business and we came back to the house.

I started thinking, it's not to bad out right now, and I don't know what it's going to turn into. Hmmm...if I go run right now I can get it out of the way and I'll be sure to get it in. I went into the bedroom and grabbed all my running stuff and got myself ready. I asked Jason if he wanted to come, but he was still cozy in bed. I took Scout with me, knowing that I wouldn't get 8 miles in with him, but I thought I could squeeze out at least 5 with him.

We took off and had a FABULOUS run! It was AWESOME running in the snow. I was probably trying extra hard to make sure I didn't slip on anything that my jaw hurts now from clenching so much. I did the Turkey Trot route with some extra loops, and Scout and I just ran around in the snow. At the end I took a quick picture to show we did it.

We got back just as everyone was getting up for Christmas. I toweled Scout off (and he was dirty from running in the dirty snow) and then got a quick shower before helping get Christmas under way.

I finally got a run in...

This weekend has been tough to run. With the Holiday Wine Club Party on Friday night, which meant Saturday was truly screwed, as I was hung over and dehydrated for most of the day.....plus so crazy tired it was impossible. Today I went to church to sing with my friends at the Christmas Carol Service and then to lunch afterwards.

But I made it to my friend Kim's house..finally...and changed into my running gear and off we went. Now I can't say that I wasn't hoping that secretly Kim would say...Nahhh, let's not run today lets just go get some Margarita's. I was going to make myself run in the hood if Kim decided not to run....but good thing she did want to run.

(Side note....I took like 6 pictures...because you know we can't have any double chin pictures on here...in most of them I'm always doing something funny with my back hand...not sure what...but there it is)

5 mile run in the wind and cold..

It was windy and cold, but not as windy and cold as it has been. So it was a nice run today. I'm so glad I got out there to do it. My friend and running partner Kim invited me to come run with her today, but I declined because I was feeling rushed. I thought a "quick" run in the neighborhood would suit my schedule a little better. So far it has. Hey and I didn't beg it off. WOO HOO points for me.

I saw a few things on my run that I thought I'd stop and take pictures of along the way, this didn't start happening until after the half way point, really 3/4 of the way point. Picture of the mostly frozen lake, the fountain in the middle is still going but the rest of the lake is glazed over, a Picture of my shadow, it was cooler when I was running along (but I can't run and take a picture so there you go), Picture of Rudolph, I love that they made their reindeer into Rudolph with a christmas ornament,and a Picture of the wind blowing the flag as I was trying to get up the hill

What's your temperature threshold?

Tonight while eating dinner with my friend and running partner Kim, instead of running in the crazy windy cold, we had a discussion about that the temperature threshold is. For cycling her threshold is 27 degrees. I'm not nearly as brave as she is...I HATE BEING COLD! My cycling threshold is probably about 40 degrees for a road ride, and 34 degrees for a mountain bike ride (I could probably go out in lower....but it's not likely). I think we decided that 22 degrees is the threshold for running.

So you have to understand that I live in the SOUTH. It doesn't get that cold in the winter....often. Today when we were planning to run it was 32 degrees out, but with the wind chill it was brought down to about 22 degrees. I got wind burn from walking my dog in my full length wool coat! Tonight it's supposed to get down to feeling like it's in the single digits! WHAT??? Again I live in the SOUTH!

So a road ride is 40 degrees, a mountain bike ride is 34 degrees, and running is 22 degrees. Now that the parameters are set it's time to get moving. But not tonight! *winks*

10 Mile Big Block Run

So my usuals didn't really want to run with me today. Well they wanted to run (some of them) but they didn't want to go 10 miles. Chris bailed on me, because he wasn't feel good. Kim and Jason didn't want to go as far, and Bob decided once I got there that he wanted to do less with Kim. Luckily Jess responded back to my email that she wanted to run. So I met Jess at the start of the greenway, after the other 3 started (without waiting an extra couple of minutes). We had GREAT RUN! In fact it was so awesome to be running 10 miles and having fun and enjoying it. I think I am a cold weather runner....even though I complain about being cold at the beginning! *smiles*

I actually feel like a runner today. Like going out for a 10 miler is no big deal, easy and fun. Running is fun??? How did this happen? I still get sore and a little tired, but I love it. Too much I think!

Jess and I at the end of the run. It's was cold and raining at the end.

Savannah River Bridge Run

What a Great Run!

Savannah is a Interesting City. I started off the weekend thinking it would be more like Charleston, but it's more gritty, more down to earth and maybe a little less "Cool", but it was so much FUN!

Jason decided that he did not want to come to Savannah and do this run, this year. No worries though, because my friend Chris was up for the challenge! Unfortunately, or Fortunately (depends on how you look at it) my car was still in the shop from the Pre-Thanksgiving wheel running over incident. So I still have the rental car, which is what we took down to Savannah. Nice to not use up miles on either my or Chris' car's. We did make a quick stop to South of the Border, cheesy little stop over. I will have pics up on my other blog! I think we left Raleigh at about 9:45 and got into Savannah around 4:30- it took as awhile to go up the road, but it was fun!

We kept hearing how hard the bridge would be to run. I thought nothing of it. People said Cooper River was a hard bridge, and we didn't really think it was. Well Folks, it was a HARD bridge to run!! It was a fairly steep incline and a very LONG incline! Ohh and you had to do it twice, run over and back! It was AWESOME! Hard, but AWESOME! Ohh and I got a PR! So we all know I'm not fast, but I'm proud of what I can do! Earlier this year when I did Cooper River (remember not as hard) it took me 1:11.51, this run took me 1:08.49. YAY me! I'm hoping this year's Cooper River will have me cutting a little more time off. Savannah also only had 5,000 people total doing the 3 runs (5K) (10K) which I did and the double pump (5K) + (10K). Savannah also had free beer, not good beer but free and stew at the end, along with banana's, oranges, and some weird danish thing. Ohh and a little sweat towel. They are my best friend! They had extra, so I now have 5 of them!!*smiles* You can see me sporting the towel in the pictures above and below.

Big differences between the two bridge runs

1. Incline (degree and distance of)

2. going over the bridge once vs. going over and coming back

3. 40,000 people vs 5,000 people

4. Free Beer and Brunswick Stew at the end vs Free Bagels at the end

Splits for my run which my run meter said was 6.31 mile.

mile 1- average 11:24, fastest 8:38, climb of 21 feet

mile 2- average 11:05, fastest 8:43, climb of 21 feet

mile 3- average 10:49, fastest 8:45, climb of 184 feet

mile 4- average 10:04, fastest 8:37, climb of 54 feet

mile 5- average 11:36 , fastest 9:03, climb of 106 feet

mile 6- average 10:15, fastest 8:55, climb of 82 feet

mile 6.31- average 11:32, fastest 9:35, climb of 0 feet

TOTAL- AVERAGE 10:54, FASTEST 8:37, CLIMB of 873 feet, CALORIES 873

This run also had some great costumes! To those who wear costumes while running, good on ya. I'm no where near being able to do that. I swear I just sweat to much for that! A couple of my favorites are these:

The Tortoise and the Hare

The Reindeer Girls

Run around the NC Central Campus...

(The last of the Fall Leaves...most of the trees are bare)

Today I met my friend Kim at her work (at the Wildlife Commission) for an afternoon run. We decided it would be nicer in the afternoon than in the evening. It's been getting cold in the evening. Brrrrr cold. Kim finished the Philly Marathon a little over a week ago, and she is doing AMAZING.

Anyways, it was a beautiful day for a run and we had a great time catching up on all of what's been going on in our lives. 3.37 miles, 37:53 min, 11:14 pace, 190 feet climb, 464 calories burned.

(Frost on the Roofs this morning.....brrrrrrr)

Ohh and I'm now in Official Half Marathon Training again. The Shamrock Half is 16 weeks away! It was a short break, but I'm glad to have a goal to work towards during the winter months that makes me go out and run.