run this amazing day

sigh.   sometimes the only way you learn things are a REALLY bad idea is by doing them. we're sorry, Graham.  we still love you.  a whole lot.

I've been thinking a lot about my workout schedule/balance lately.  I do a lot of lifting, and when I was walk/running 2-3 miles and/or recumbent biking 30-40 minutes, I could lift 60-75 minutes, 6 days a week and have tons of energy.  Now that I've added cycling and tougher swimming to the mix, I think it's time to reconsider that balance.  The past 2-3 weeks I have been just ZAPPED of energy.  Part of it, I know, is that I haven't been doing a great job increasing my calorie intake on a steady and regular basis, but I think part of it is just that this new-to-me-sport of cycling is taking more out of me than I feel at the time.  I hop off the bike and feel great! Yay! Let's! Go! Play! but then later, or the next day, it's zzzz-city, and I'm the mayor of Sleepytown.   I've also had some crankiness in my right knee (unrelated to the IT band, more under the kneecap) which I think I've isolated to suddenly quintupling the workload on my quads.  I end...

Happy Monday, everyone!  I had a great - but sweaty - weekend here in 112* heat-index DC.  How was your weekend? Friday night I took another shot at the peanut tofu recipe from Lauren .  I did the tofu in slabs instead of cubes, and it held together much better!  I also managed not to burn it, so a big win on my cooking skills.   We ended up not pre-mixing and doing a choose-your-own-vegatable adventure.   There's tofu in there, I promise. Saturday morning I got up early and went up into DC to meet Kirstin for a bike ride.  We had originally planned on biking out to a brewfest in Leesburg, but decided that 8 zillion degrees was just a tad too hot to be on the very exposed W&OD trail, especially when we were going to follow it with drinking beer all day in the sun.  Instead, we did a DC ride, most of which was new to me - awesome!  We started out on the Rock Creek parkway & did a few loops - somehow we ended up in Maryland, then ...

1. Tequila shots plus me are almost never a good idea. 2. Why, yes, my rest day DID go well, thanks for asking. 3. We might be adding to our family this weekend. 4. Okay, maybe some actual facts.  I was a very picky eater when I was little.  I did not eat: pb&j, yogurt, fish, bananas, spaghetti with sauce, cereal with milk, and I hated it when my food touched.  I'm much better now, although I still eat my cereal dry. 5. I've decided to give up eating red meat.  It's actually been about 2 weeks since I've had any and I'm enjoying the way I feel without it.  I'm not making an, "I'm never eating red meat again" statement here, I'm just experimenting with my diet.  I'm also liking the way I feel after eating a meal with veggies and tofu.  Weird. 6. I'm either taking another rest day today, or I'm going to have an arms/back day at the gym.  My legs need another day off. 7.  Dammit, try to stick to the random facts. 8. I d...

1. I think I'm officially over-trained.  I've been feeling tired and sore all week.  My knees are bothering me.  I haven't been sleeping well, which turns into complete exhaustion by mid-afternoon.  My quads have felt strained for about a week now.  The heat is getting to me a bit, but I think that adding cycling into the mix has been wearing me out more than I expected.  Result?  I am taking a day off - maybe two.  I have a ride planned Saturday morning to a brewfest, and I want to be chipper and well-rested, not cranky and going up hills at 2 mph.  So, today, I am not going to the gym, I am not going swimming, I am not going to do one-legged squats while on conference calls, I am not going to ride to the bike shop to get a second water bottle cage.  I am going to sit.on.my.ass and let it expand. 2. I hate it when my dog is bad.  HATE IT.  Fortunately, he is almost never bad.  He has never chewed furniture or shoes or...

my girls (in NO particular order):   you all mean different things to me, but I love you all.  <3 p.s. if you could all try and congregate in one state (or one TIME ZONE, at least), THAT WOULD BE GREAT.  

I'm about 2 weeks out from cortisone shot insanity now.  This is what my test runs have looked like: 6/7: Cortisone shot. 6/11: 1M (9:02): still a bit achy from the shot but otherwise feels good. 6/14: 1.25M (9:12): a bit of pulling but no pain. 6/16: 1.25M (9:08): felt amazing. 6/18: 1.5M (9:00): tiny bit of tightness at the end. 6/21: 1.5M (8:54): some tightness throughout but no pain. I'm doing all these runs on a treadmill at the gym so I can carefully monitor distance & pace while concentrating on how I feel and my gait.  I know that once I get back outside - especially in this heat - my pace will suffer, and that's fine.  Right now it's more about getting going again.  Looking at this, so far, so good.  When I talk about tightness, it's more of an awareness of my IT band above my knee in the lower half of my thigh, but I haven't felt anything on the front/side of the knee itself, and I haven't had the trademark OMG WTF IS THAT pain that the IT b...

What a great summer weekend. Friday afternoon I played hooky.  We took G to a dog park nearby that has access to a little river, where the dogs can splash and run and generally make a mess.  G had no idea what to do.   I'm scared.   Look, Mama, I can swim! It was great for G to do some socializing with other pups - this was his first trip to the dog park!  We put him in the far back of the car on the way home, but he really didn't like it there....   I want to sit in the front with YOU GUYS! Here I come! After we hosed him down, we went to see Toy Story 3.  It was really cute, but I'm not sure the 3D was worth it.  Plus we missed a bunch of good previews by seeing the 3D version.  Boo! Saturday morning I got up early for a ride, and had just enough time to squeeze in 20 miles before I had to get dressed and pick up a friend - for a baby shower!  It was a great afternoon. College buddies! Sunday morning I had planned a 40-50 mile r...

1. Good news: as of yesterday, I've managed to vacate 25lb of doritoes and Miller Lite off my bod since December (being injured sucks).  Bad news: lady funbags still the same size.  GRR. 2. Tabs open in my Safari window all day: Yahoo inbox, Facebook, Gmail inbox, Google Cal, b-school site, dailymile, and Google Reader.  Sometimes I close Google Reader when I need to get actual work done.   3. When I was little, my favorite color was purple.  I had purple carpet in my bedroom. 4. I check my bank account online almost every day.   5. I believe my dog will never die.  I have to. 6. I didn't like pb&j until I was 29.  Until then, peanut butter only. 7. I like Pages better than Word, but Excel better than Numbers. 8. I spend a lot of time while lifting looking at how my ass looks in the mirror. 9. I hate it when people talk to me in stores.  I generally hate shopping in stores. 10. I really really REALLY R...

This week's Thursday things is featuring some serious blogger love! 1. Lauren over at Failed Muffins sent me an email earlier this week asking me if she could interview me for her blogger highlight series .  The opportunity to babble to a totally new audience?  Hecko yes!  I think Lauren and I started stalking each other's blogs right about the same time, and she's super good fun people.  Check her out. 2. A few weeks ago, Brittany  put something up on twitter about going to back-to-back spinning classes.  I love new things that make me want to puke & die, so I asked her if I could tag along one week.  We were supposed to go last night, and we ended up postponing until next week due to no space being left in the class, but I wanted to highlight her anyway because she is a kickass chick who just finished her first 50-miler. 3. And today, I'm really excited to be going on a bike ride with Heather , who has inspired me in a real way to bust out o...

Lauren sent me a tofu recipe to help me check off a June goal. Step 1: buy tofu. Step 2: Touch the tofu.  Don't be scared.   Step 3: show the tofu who is boss...   ...by getting the liquid out.   Step 4: cut into cubes.  Mine fell apart.   Step 5: put cubes in hot pan.  Mine turned into tofu crumbles while they cooked.   Step 6: sprinkle stuff on, to disguise tofu.   Step 7: put 6 million random ingredients in a food processor, along with lots of peanut butter.   Step 8: stand back in case it explodes.  Let someone else push the button.   Step 9: put everything in bowl and mash it around.   Step 10: make it look delicious so someone might want to eat it.  Hide tofu under noodles.   Step 11: pour big glasses of wine in case it tastes really really bad.   Additional note: make sure you have proper supervision when dealing with tofu. He doesn't know he's too big to sleep on the step now.   Don't tell h...

This is a blog about running, right? I had a cortisone shot last Monday.  Dr. P said not to run until Friday.  After talking with him, I'm changing my running strategy.  Before, I was rocking the walk/run.  Now, I'm gonna rock the run/stop.  On Friday, I got a treadmill, walked for 2 minutes, ran a 9:20 mile, then walked for 2 minutes.  That's it, peace out, end of story.  I spent the weekend cycling.  Yesterday morning I had a sports massage, and my dude really focused on my IT bands - re: tried his hardest to hurt me while I chattered away.  Everything felt pretty stretched out, so I decided to do another test run (HA!  I punned!).  I spent an hour or so lifting, and then hopped on a treadmill.  Walked for 2 minutes, ran 1.25 at 9:12 pace, walked for 2 minutes.   I think this is going to be a good strategy for now.  I've been following a walk/run plan since I got hurt 3 months ago, so I know I have the running...

But first, let's take a good long look at what I'll be sporting at the gym today. HA HA!  Hope that was worth your life, Mr. Bee! Note: I had been awake for less than 30 seconds.  I am not always this beautiful. Additional note: I am very overdue for an eyebrow (among other things) wax. NOW.  For the rest of the weekend!  After my lovely ride yesterday, we went to a restaurant in Del Ray that I've always wanted to try because I hear it's amazing, Fireflies .  I am pleased to report that it was quite delicious.  I am also pleased to report that I ignored all of the healthy menu items and had a cheeseburger with bacon & BBQ sauce and it was the best recovery meal EVER.  I can't remember the last time I had a big, greasy cheeseburger.  I barely made a dent in the fries though, and they were the yummy crispy baked kind.  Mmmm. After that, we drove up into DC.  The original plan was to park on the Mall (HA, I know) and walk around t...