Wednesday, Thursday - November 10 & 11

Wednesday - decided to sleep in, ran 4 miles on a freakishly dark Town Lake trail after work. I started a tad bit late, around 5:30pm, and by the time I was making my way around, it was pitch black! Kinda spooky. No watch, no Garmin.. just me running.

Sidenote - I had to stop by Adrian's on my way home and I had the pleasure of seeing my hunka hunka husbands on the way :) Matthew, AJ, and Steve were running up Far West. I parked a few streets ahead and cheered for them. I gave Steve a special Foho "hug". Searched for Dee, but couldnt' find her. There were so many runners out, I had no clue. It was a nice ending to a good day.

Thursday
Time: 5:30am
Duration: 1:53:13
Workout: 10 miles of hills
Distance: 10 on the dot
Weather: a bit chillier, low 50's
People: Chuck and Peter and later Carolyn, then alone
Comments: Eeek. Hills. I don't feel in shape for hills quite yet, so my pace was ungodly slow... but I got them in. I started out with Chuck and Peter and was doing fine until we started climbing. The hills weren't bad, but I haven't been running them so I couldnt' keep up. I got to run with Carolyn for a few miles after that. Then I turned around and this is where the fun began.

I turned around too early by accident. I didn't read the rest of the directions that said to go to Rae Dell/Arpdale. Instead, I turned around as soon as I saw Arpdale, so I was about 2 miles short. I didn't notice this until Carolyn was gone and I had already started backtracking. We were doing an out and back, which you think would be easy. I started back and was immediately lost. I ended up running where I thought we should go and couldn't help but giggle because this was the place Dee and I got lost last year. I convinced her to run all the way down to Manchaca!! It was a funny, all time moments for us. I tried to recite her phone number, cause I wasn't sure if I could find my way back. I was running on Curto del something, Cinnamon, etc. I saw a Team Rogue person and thought I was going in the right direction, but when I didn't recognize the street names, I decided to go back to Lamar and try over again. Luckily, this made up the two miles that I was short. I finally got back on track using the map portion of the directions. Got to Rogue, showered, and made it to work :)

Tuesday - November 10, 2009

Time: 5:15am
Duration: Not sure, Garmin died :)
Location: Rogue
Workout: 8 easy
Distance: 8 - Garmin died
Weather: Nice and cool
People: Chuck, Peter, Emily, then later Kim and Stephanie
Comments: I had set out to plan to run my Tuesday and Thursday runs with Chuck and his peeps. I think he's faster than I am right now, but want to get my dang speed back so anyone pushing me is a great thing. We started out, and it felt ok, and after about a mile, it felt pushed. Not pushed bad, but I know if I were running solo, I wouldn't be running as fast. It wasn't uncomfortable to where I couldn't do it, so I think it was perfect. They were running 10, so at around the 4 mile marker, I turned off to do 8 as they had about a mile out and back they needed to do to get to 10. Steph and Kim were at the water and I didn't think I could hang, but decided to see how long I could go without them dropping me. I made it the entire time, and felt like I was pushing a tad bit more than when I was running with previous company. Good stuff, but Thursday, I'm going to see if I can hang with Chuck and company for the entire run.

Glad to be back in it, and I'm finally shedding the Hawaii (before and during) weight so I'm hoping the speed will come back.

Yay for running!!

Week 1 - Totals

Monday - 4
Tuesday - 7
Wednesday - 0
Thursday - 8
Friday - 0
Saturday - 9
Sunday - 4

TOTAL - 32 miles.

Friday - Monday!

Friday - OFF - never got around to running.
Saturday - 9 miles, 7 with the Cookies and 2 with Dee.
Sunday - 4 miles easy
Monday - 4 miles easy.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Time: 5:30am
Duration: 1:26:37
Location: Barton Springs
Workout: 8 mile easy run
Distance: 8.33 miles
Avg Pace: 10:24
Weather: Weatherbug showed 40 when I left my house
People: Team Rogue, ran with Stephanie for a few miles
Comments: Since I got 10 hours of sleep, waking up at 4am felt great. I had plenty of time to pack my clothes for work and eat breakfast on my way to the workout. We ran from Barton Springs to Exposition and back on the back roads that I take home from work. I can't wait until I get my groove back. I ran by myself, and at the water stop about half way, Steph slowed her run down to run a few miles with me. It was nice catching up, but I would rather not slow anyone down. I'm actually enjoying pushing myself on the runs solo and trying to catch and play games with myself on not letting people get out of my sight.

I'm going to run my 4 miles I skipped on Wednesday tomorrow, shhhh... I don't want to skip workouts, and I don't think changing out days will matter, not in the first week. REALLY looking forward to running with my FOOLS on Saturday morning. Just an easy 10 miler, then it's into week 2!!!

I'm aiming for 70 mile peak, might even go all out and try for 80 if I can get used to the early morning runs :)

Wednesday, 11/04/09

Week 1 of Team Rogue and I can tell it's going to take me awhile to get used to this new schedule. I'm NOT a morning person. Tuesday, I made it to class, but ended up coming straight home today and going to bed at 6pm. Yes... I made an executive decision to back out my normal Wednesday poker game with the guys because #1 I left all my money in Hawaii, and #2, I was exhausted from work. I proceeded to come home, undress, and crash from 6pm till 4am the next morning. 10 hours of sleep... ahhh...

No workout.

Tuesday - November 3, 2009

Time: 5:30am
Duration: 1:01:43
Location: Rogue
Workout: 7 mile easy run with 4 strides
Distance: 7 miles (or on Map My Run 6.65)
Avg Pace: 8:49's or 9:16's (will wear Garmin for more accuracy from now on)
Weather: 50, nice and chilly but perfect for running!
People: Team Rogue, but ran alone
Comments: First team workout, woo hoo! I got there about 20 minutes early, played with the rope, attempted to stretch by watching what others were doing. I went to Happy Office Hours last night and decided to start with the 60 mile macro. I think I'm going to do the 70 and see how long I can keep it up :) Macro showed 4 for today, but once everyone convened, the shortest option was 7. So I did that. Pretty happy with how the run went. It felt good to run again. If the map was accurate, I ran 8:49's which is a shocker! I didn't believe it, so I mapped it out online and came out with 6.65. Even then, 9:16's is WAY faster than I've run in the last year!!

Maybe to running solo chasing people will do me some good. As people passed me, I tried to keep them in sight as long as I could before someone else would pass. Looking forward to this season.. it's gonna be a good one :)

Team Rogue - 1st workout!

Ok, it was only 4 miles alone, but 1 down, how many more to go? Nothing really to update other than I've let myself do what I promised myself I wouldn't after Ironman training. That's to lose the fitness I gained, get fat again, and get slow :(

Time: 4:45pm
Where: Town Lake Trail (I still don't like the way Lady Bird Lake sounds)
Distance: 4 miles
Pace: Awful 43:39 for 4.17, pathetic, 10:28's.
Script: Nice and easy (thank goodness)

I've got my work cut out for me this go around, but looking forward to it!

Next up: Finish the Hawaii pics over the next two weeks and trying to make working out at 5:30am a fun thing :)

Looking forward to making new friends in the morning.

Hawaii 2009 - Day 2, October 23rd

Friday, October 23rd.

We had slept with ALL the windows and doors open. The night weather was perfect. It was just cool enough to use both the sheet and comforter and not be too hot or too cold. The sounds of the ocean crashing against the rocks just a few feet away was nice. We both woke up incredibly early, since our body clocks weren't set yet. Poor Adrian never really got adjusted, but I think it only took me a few days. And I'm a sleeper and he's not. We woke to a beautiful vision of the sun and the ocean.

Every morning, we'd see these people. They'd go and go and go. And really early in the morning, 6am. We leisurely got up, loaded Adrian's bike and some clothes. I took a running outfit in case I decided to run while Adrian was pre-riding the course. That was all we took. We made it to the race site. I could post pics for everything, but will put the details in our Flickr account. The hotel wasn't that spectacular, and we were happy with our decision to not stay in a hotel or condo for our trip. We decided that since it was a once in a lifetime trip, we'd go all out and find something secluded and beachfront. Our place was perfection. We were within a mile from the town of Paia, we could see the beach and walk to it within 2 minutes. The host hotel was nice, but not $350 a night nice. There was a nice atrium in the middle, but that was about it. Adrian picked up his packet, and later in the day I picked up mine for the trail race. Adrian pre-rode the course, and I decided against the run, cause I didn't want to get sweaty for whatever we were going to do for the rest of the trip. I hadn't been exercising up to this trip as it was, wasn't about to start.

Adrian pre-rode the course, and I decided to venture out to a shopping strip. I found the dress I wore to the luau, got Adrian some swim trunks (which happened to be a great idea. He wore them the entire week!) and the flower I wore in my hair the entire week, a papaya to eat for breakfast, and the coffee that Adrian's mom requested. By the time I got back, Adrian called and was done riding the course. Perfect timing!!

I picked up my trail race packet and noticed that only 5 girls were in my age group! At that moment, I had wished I had done more training and not let my base from the Ironman slip away, but figured, if I could just beat 2 out of the 5, I could finish top 3. Uh, and we all know that's NEVER happened. I was kinda excited. More to come on this later.

We left and decided to drive the West side of Maui. No plans, just playing it all by ear. We finally got to see what we were expecting. Beautiful ocean views, gorgeous views of nothing but lush green beautiful Hawaii. We stopped at all the overlook sections, took pics galore, and enjoyed the drive. We ended up going to the Maui Ocean Center and got suckered into that. We made the best of it, but it was definately NO Sea World. Very boring and a waste of money to say the least. We ate a yummy lunch at the Beach Bums Bikini Bar, and had an awesome waitress. Adrian had a wrap and I had fish tacos. During the drive, we stopped at some beach access parts and threw on our swimming goggles (yes, for pool swimming and tri's, not snorkeling goggles) and went exploring. We saw a fish. Ha! But it was fun and adventurous. I didn't have my swimsuit with me, and we stopped at one place, but just couldn't see spending $40 on a bathing suit, when I had packed 4, but they were all at the house! So I just threw on my running shorts. We stopped a few times to swim, but most of the day was driving and stopping at all the places to look at the views.

Adrian was adamant about getting the entire island to abide by his picture taking rules. When we were at the Maui Ocean Center, they had the guy standing there wanting to take your picture then charge you an arm and a leg to buy it. When he approached us, Adrian asked that he use our camera. Of course he declined, in which case Adrian grabbed the nearest couple and we exchanged pics. We took a pic of them with their camera and vice versa. We did throughout the week. Every time we'd see a couple, we'd exchange pics. Of course, everyone jumped at it, since it was a chance to get a picture together. Worked out perfectly.

We ended the night with our hoity toity dinner. We went to Mama's Fish House for dinner. Everyone I talked to beforehand and from what I read on the internet said it was the best place to go. Not so much for us. We aren't the hoity toity couple. The waiter wasn't very nice. He was pissed off he didn't get the 12 top next to us, but instead got us. You could tell in his attitude, not pleasant whatsoever. We went all out, as was our motto for the trip. Adrian ordered oysters, and 6 came out, and were the size of a nickel. Pathetic. I guess we're used to Texas sized, but he claims even the flavor wasn't even to die for. I got the popular crab and lobster filled fish, and he got a pasta dish with scallops, shrimp, and other sea creatures. When he asked to have the broth on the side, waiter cringed, but grateful that he did. The meal wasn't that great. It was good, but not $162 good. We would have rather eaten at the place we ate the night before. Too hoity toity, and the food didn't match the price tag.

Went home and to bed. This night, I couldn't sleep cause we had let some mosquitos in and they were bugging me all night. I was restless. As soon as I fell asleep, Adrian would wake up around 2-3am for his middle of the night potty. I love sleeping with him, literally :) He ALWAYS wakes up in the middle of the night. And every night he did, he'd wake me up with... "Pah-cilla." He says it just soft enough to barely wake me. "Pah-cilla... Pah-cilla.. you awake?". He says this until he wakes me, which is funny. Then we're both awake, end up cuddling and go back to sleep. Nothing sexual, just cute moments that I love. One cute way that he can tell is I'm playing possum, which I do is that he says he loves me to see if I'm awake or not. Sometimes, if I just pretend to stay asleep, he'll give up on the "Pah-cilla's" and turn over and go back to bed. But lately, he's gotten smarter and follows up the "Pah-cilla", with a "Pah-cilla... I love you." And I can't help but grin... and my cover is blown, and he sees that I'm awake. One of the things I love about us :)

Hawaii 2009 - Day 1, October 22nd

These next several blogs are more for Adrian and I to attempt to save all of our memories. Will be long, and I don't except many friends to read :)

We arrived in Maui, Hawaii at 3pm Hawaii time (Austin time of 8pm). I think we were still on a high from actually being there that we weren't tired from the long flight. We got off the plane and oddly enough, the people weren't too pleasant. Adrian asked one of the security guards where the oversized luggage was and he was pretty snooty with him. We were too happy to have him ruin our day. We picked up the rental car, got our luggage packed and were on our way. It smelled like poo, literally. There was a funky smell in the air. We later found out there was a sugar cane factory nearby and they smog from the manufacturing was giving off this awful smell. So our first impression of Hawaii was crappy people and stinky! The scenery looked like El Paso or Lubbock. All dead landscaping. What the heck? Where's the clear blue water and mountains of green lush???

We arrived at our cottage and it was PERFECT. We parked in the wrong spot by accident and came in the walkway and were greeted by the people that tend the estate. Extremely nice! She showed us to our cottage and took our pic and told us everything we needed to know. We quickly unpacked, showered, and went to search the nearby town for something to eat. We found a place called Paia Town Market. What an awesome little restaurant. Wait staff was awesome and the food was excellent. I ordered Mahi Mahi (first time) and Adrian got the salmon. Delicious food and the atmosphere was laid back. We walked around afterwards and realized it was the perfect little town to be next to. No hotels around, lots of tiny shops, tons of locals wandering around aimlessly, and it was just nice and cozy. We both had an awesome nights sleep. We were finally exhausted. Great first day!