Bike Ride

Jill and I enjoyed a 21 mile bike ride this morning. What a BEAUTIFUL morning. Larry and his group have a perfect day for their long ride.

It is a struggle to get out of bed, but I ended up wondering why I don't do it more often (of course, I am already getting up at 5:00 every morning to work out). It reminded me of my days working as a Ranger at Devil's Lake. One summer I worked the 6am to 2pm shift. In my opinion it was the best shift since you got to enjoy the solitude that the park offers. Plus driving around to the smells of bacon and eggs wasn't bad either!

Of course Jill's company made it even more enjoyable.

I can't help but think of.....

Time to enjoy the weekend!

Jenny and I got our 2.5 hour run done today. It was actually 2:26, but we agreed that the missing 4 minutes wouldn't cause us to not finish the marathon. We did run 16 miles at a 9:08 average pace, so I can live with that, but it was tough. It turned out to be much sunnier than I expected, which meant hotter. Plus, I didn't bring my sunglasses or visor... I hate that! Of course, it was better than Jenny who didn't bring her water bottles. Now on to yard work. Yeah!

Spifying up the Blog

It was time for a little updating of the blog. You will now find that the picture at the top of the page is actually a slide show!

I also added a link to the weekly morning running poll. Those of you who run in Sparta in the early mornings can go there and participate.

I got roped in to doing a sprint triathlon, so now I am training for that AND a marathon! Geesh! Not sure what got in to my brain... oh yeah... she goes by KwikTrip Girl!

Run Swim

This morning I got reacquainted with Christy and Katie. They were happy to see me (I think) until I told them that I needed to do a pace run. I knew in their hearts they were thanking me, even though they were complaining the whole way. Sometimes tough love is the best kind.

This morning was also my first one back in the pool. I made the mistake of mentioning to Jill that I would be willing to be the swim leg of a triathlon team. I was happy to find that I can swim a half mile, although in a lake with 50 other bodies fighting against me, it will be much more difficult.

It did start me thinking though... in the long distance I will probably be swimming against people who also know how to swim well since I believe it is the swimming that deters people from doing the longer distance. This would take away my advantage. So, maybe I should think about doing the short triathlon individually. In the shorter distance my swimming is an advantage because there are more 'weaker' swimmers. It is the biking I hate - even if it is only 11 miles. I would do the longer distance individually, but for me it is the biking that deters me. Hmmm..... something to ponder.

How to drink water while running

A brutal hill workout with Jenny and Kristi this morning. Ran up Gale Rd (Christy's future home site) 8 times. If J and K hadn't yelled at me to do more, I would have been happy with five. The chant "This will make me faster" wasn't helping.

Here is a video I found on running tips. I think the most useful part is at the end where they show how to drink water from cups while running. Fast forward to about minute 8. The rest is okay. Why they chose a busy street to film this on, I will never know.

Another One Bites the Dust

Well, I am very sad to say that our newest running partner, Molly, bit the dust today.

Molly - is (was) the newest member of our household. Even though she walked on all fours we found herself quickly falling in love with her. That is until she started pooping on our floor when we were gone. In case you haven't figured it out, she was a dog we adopted from the local pound. She was a sweet dog in almost every way except that she had a severe case of separation anxiety which seemed to worsen rather than improve as we tried to work to desensitize her. The good news is that the pound said that she is a very good candidate for a rescue since her only issue is the separation anxiety. They will be able to work with her on it.

I am sure Jenny is secretly saying (Thank Goodness!). There were several times during our morning runs where Molly spied some type of creature and took off to tree it, nearly cutting Jenny off at the knees.

Molly did help me struggle through this morning's humid run. Jenny and I were both suffering from our speed work the day before and I was dealing with lack of my usual amount of sleep due to taking 5 boys to the Loggers game. Nate must have running in his genes because he and his two friends won the Tidey Whitey race!

Eating My Words

I was all psyched for this morning's blog. Mike had given me some great material. He had e-mailed me earlier in the week and said he would be joining Jenny and I at 6:00. When I replied back that we were planning on doing speed work, he quickly responded that he would go at 5:00 instead. What a wimp!

Well, this morning after saying hello/good-bye to the the 5:00 group, I saw Christy and Mike run by. As I patiently waited for Jenny and Kristi, the song 'Should I stay or Should I Go?"



At 6:05 I decided I better take my opportunity to run with someone while I still had it. So I ran to catch up with the Cousins, but had to call to them to stop. See! This is why I need to do speed work.

Of course the newbie, Kristi, was kind enough to send an e-mail explaining she had a stomach bug. Which left me wondering "Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to? But the phone number 867-5309 did not work!"

New Idea

My later start time has made it difficult to blog. Too much of a rush showering and getting out the door for summer school. However, tomorrow I will definitely blog since Mike has given me some nice material to work with.

Today I went to the dark side and joined the walkers. I am going to try and do this on my non running days. It was a nice morning to start this ritual, but don't worry, it won't replace my running.

I have found a new marathon idea for the group... taking a cruise in Alaska or Caribbean and run in each port for a total of 26.2 miles! Sweet! http://www.runningcruise.com/

A nice 6:00 run with Elyse and Jenny (Yes, I am rubbing it in!) We decided that we need a nickname for Kristi B. Referring to our fellow runners as new Kristi and old Christy probably isn't politically correct or at least doesn't make for cheerful running partners. And Kristi with a K or Christy with a C is too long to say as we are huffing and puffing a way. I am sure this is one that Mike will get right on. We all know how inept Tom is at coming up with nicknames, so we can't give this one to him. Plus, it is quite apparent he is a "user". He just uses us when he needs companionship on long runs, otherwise we aren't good enough for him. His pink Ipod is more important than our cheerful conversation or maybe he just got tired of hearing groans instead of laughs after one of his many jokes. Tom - I don't think new Kristi has heard the grape joke yet.

Good luck at the Stampede or the Butterfest Tent!

Speed Work

Just Kristi and I this morning at 6 am. Jenny sent me an e-mail with excuses, but I think we will need to run by the golf course sprinklers some time soon anyway. If I remember Mike's rule correctly, it doesn't matter if you have an excuse or not.

So, since I had Kristi to myself and she is too new to complain (we still have her believing that she is LUCKY to run with us - hah!) we did speed work. We warmed up by running out BC and then to the track where we did 1 lap at fast pace (under 2 minutes) and 1/2 lap walk repeated 5 times. It was painful, but went a lot faster with someone sharing the pain with me. Thank you Kristi!

We got a lot of laughs out of the cheerleader who was NOT happy that she had to "run" laps. At the end she was being made to finish the required number of laps. I commented to her fellow cheerleader that was the acting task master that she was pulling my 9 year old's trick of walking as slow as possible. In a 9 year old's mind this is a way of punishing YOU. I told the task master that she she tell her friend that she tell her I said she is acting like my 9 year old. She found that pretty funny. Sadly, this teaches me that I will still be dealing with these tactics when my 9 year old is 16.

A small group, but a new runner! Another cousin was added to the cousins. Christy's cousin, Allie, came. I am afraid us old ladies may have scared her off - with our pace not our early morning, no make-up GOOD looks!. Hopefully she will return!

We added on to the "New Route" to make sure the New Yorker will continue to run with us. I was thinking this morning... "When is the new route no longer called the "new route'?" I suppose when I come up with another one, although in a small town this becomes more and more difficult to do.

I just found a new web page with everything running. Well, not everything running, but it is a quick place to see blogs on running: http://running.alltop.com/

Last Bakery Run

A sad day today - the Bakery's last day. A tear came to my eye when I reached in their cooler and realized that I was taking the last Diet Dew. It felt like they were saving it just for me.

We beat the rain and got 7.39 miles in. I still am struggling, but glad I did it.

Wausau Running

I explored Wausau in the mornings this week. I got out two mornings while in the historic town for a meeting. I forget how fun it is to explore a town while running. Plus, I leave my Garmin at home and just enjoy the adventure.

Wausau was particularly great because of all the "painted lady" Victorian houses from the lumber Baron days and the slightly new ones of the early 1900's. I didn't even mind that they were all located on a very steep hill. So, I got a good hill work out in while viewing the historic beauties. Yes, I was thinking about you all. I found it was much easier to run hills in a new town.

The weather was glorious too... cool, but sunny and calm.

New Picture

Did you notice there is a new picture at the top? Courtesy of Wendy's Facebook page!

A nice albeit FAST run this morning. Thankfully Elyse stayed back with me while Sandy and Jenny took off. Those half marathoners just keep on rubbing it in, even after the marathon! But it did feel good to see that I can still run under a 9:00 pace! Plus there was a REASON why I was struggling.