We Don't Need No Education

I sacked out at 8:45 last night. Sophie was out by 8:30. I was going to watch some TV but decided that last night was the rare occasion that I can get into bed early so I figured why not. I'm the early to bed early to rise girl and I need my 8 hours last night.

I was up by 4:15 to go to the gym. Happy Monday.

Actually I wanted to run at least 3 slow miles but my knee started hurting so I stopped and got on the elliptical for 15 minutes and then the bike for 10. The pain is behind my knee, where the hamstring meets the calf. If I turn the wrong way I get this stretchy tender feeling (if that makes any sense). It's not a sharp pain but a "watch it" pain.

I did mostly upper body weights and a few light weight leg exercises. My knee is not currently bothering me only when I step a certain way. So I will ice tonight and hope it's all better tomorrow morning.

I need it to please hurry and get better because I'm too far into this training to get injured.

My brother e-mailed me this morning and asked if I wanted to go see Roger Waters The Wall next year. Tickets were going on sale at 10 am.

I'm a big Pink Floyd fan. I grew up listening to classic rock courtesy of my dad. It stuck. I dig some Journey, Moody Blues, REO Speedwagon to name a few.

So July 10, 2012 I will get as close as I can get to seeing a Pink Floyd show live. It's not Pink Floyd the band, just Roger Waters who was an original band member, I believe he owns the rights to The Wall which is why he can tour and so the show.

Show is in Charlotte so we'll have to work out the logistics of travel later (kid and dogs). And I'll most likely be pregnant but pregnant women can still rock out to some Pink Floyd.

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year and I'm making great progress with my Christmas shopping. Not quite done but I still have a few more weeks before my own personal deadline.

When the Crap Hits the Fan

I was planning on getting up and running this morning. My week is going to be kind of messed up because Wed. (my 8 miles) my husband has to be out of the house by 5:30 am so there is no time to run unless I get up at 3:30 and make it to the gym right at 4:00 when it opens.

That's still an option.

Last night just as I was roasting some red potatoes and getting ready to fire up the grill, my husband got the dreaded call that shit was spilling into the river. Literally, shit.

Because I don't know too much about the specifics, I do know that it means that the pumps he rented to the customer failed or didn't turn on like they were supposed to, to pump the sewer, which means it started flowing into the river. Not good. At all.

I rarely see my husband get so stressed out but at this point I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Because he is the sales rep, he must go and do damage control with the customer. So he takes off about 6:30 and it's just me and Sophie for dinner. I ending up eating a sandwich and Sophie chicken nuggets (mom of the year award right here).

Poor guy didn't get home till 1:30 am (Columbia, SC where his customer's site is located, is about an hour and a half away). Once he got home and into bed I had a hard time getting back to sleep and then my mind kept racing for some reason. Anyway we both didn't sleep well, I'm sure he was having nightmares about last nights fiasco.

So today ended up being a rest day like originally planned, which turned out to be a good thing because I am sore from yesterdays weight session.

I did cross train but I also ran 2 miles - sort of a recover run - and did the elliptical and then weights.

So tomorrow I will run and then see what to do about Wed. I have another half marathon on Saturday in Charlotte, NC - the Thunder Road Half Marathon.

Charlotte is home to the Lowe's Motor Speedway and Nascar Hall of Fame so that is why it's named Thunder Road. Plus we have Paramounts Carowinds theme park and there's a roller coaster called Thunder Road. But I don't that the race is named after the roller coaster.

So I need to make sure I don't over do it this week because Charlotte has a lot of hills. Plus we'll be traveling with child and dogs so it's not like it's going to be easy going, it's going to be tiring and stressful but we're staying with my sister so it's automatic baby sitter while we run (Ricky is running the 5k).

Ultimately I'm glad things worked out like they did, I needed the rest anyway. My right heel has been bothering me ever since the Mrytle Beach Mini Marathon.

Time change is both good and bad. I love when the sun rises early, helps me get out of bed. However getting home when it's dark out is going to be a little depressing. Grin and bear it, that's what I do.

Potty training blitz starts at daycare this week. So this past weekend I was trying to get Sophie all excited and get her in "big girl panties." She tells me "I not a big girl, I'm a baby." This isn't a good sign.

How much do you push till you realize maybe she's just not ready? Maybe daycare will have luck. She likes the fight me tooth and nail while she seems to tow the line with her teachers. This will be interesting.

Last night when she was bathed, dressed and ready for bed. We snuggled. It was wonderful. I cherish these moments.

Happy Halloween!

I don't have any pictures of my little black kitten because she did NOT want to wear her costume this morning. Hopefully I can get some this evening, with a little bribery. It's going to be a busy evening of me picking her up from daycare at 4, rushing home to try to get her to eat some dinner, in her costume and then out the door for some trick or treating (praying it doesn't rain). I don't like it when Halloween falls on a weekday, not as much fun and I wish I could take the day off of work to do some fun things. I guess I should save it for when she's older.

I carved my pumpkin yesterday, it's a fish skeleton :) I'm proud of it. I have to admit, and I promise I'm not a weird o, but carving a pumpkin is very therapeutic. If you're stressed or angry, just take some knives and slice into that bad boy!

My husband went to freeze his butt off fishing yesterday and caught a bunch of trout and red fish.

Friday night my father in law shot a big 10 point deer. They already have one deer head mounted on the wall and many skulls, my mother in law is trying to figure out where this big head is going. It's currently in our garage freezer till my father in law can take it somewhere to get mounted. Out of sight out of mind.

There will be a whole lot of deer meat in our future because they like to share.

Actually I'm not a big fan of venison. Sure I'll eat some venison spaghetti and my husband likes the summer sausage but I think the meat is a little too tough for my taste. Although we did have a tenderloin once that turned out really well - we marinated it for like a day. My favorite though is the venison bacon. It's thick and salty (and lean).

My in laws do hunt and to be honest I'm an animal lover so the picture above disturbs me slightly. My husband says it's regulated (so you can't shoot Bambi and the deer has to be a certain size). He also says its population control.

I'm not a vegetarian and I do eat meat. I know that some meat processors in the US do not treat their animals right and therefore I try to get meat that I know the animals have been raised humanely. For me it's out of sight out of mind but I will never hunt and if Sophie or next child wants to go with Daddy when they get older then I won't stop them. It's just not something I would want to do but then again I just grew up differently.

Looking forward to some venison bacon though.

I am sore today. I did a very intense weight training session at the gym yesterday. I didn't run and for that I'm proud of myself because after 17 miles I know I needed to change it up.

So I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes on the stair climber.

Next I concentrated on legs, knowing that today would be a rest day. Then I did a bunch of upper body and some kettle ball.

My legs are not sore. My arms and back are.

Thankful for the rest day.

Happy Halloween!

Weathermen Are Liars

Yesterday morning I woke up, checked the weather, and decided it would be an awesome beach day. According to weather.com they were forcasting 85 degrees and 20% chance of rain. Perfect day!

I should have been a meteorologist. I could totally botch the weather and still have a job because when we got to the beach it was cloudy and storms were brewing off the coast. We even saw a potential water spout. After 2 hours and no clearing in our future, we packed it up and headed home.

On the way home it poured. Like flash flood poured. I guess that was the 20% right there. For the rest of the afternoon it was cloudy. Sun tried to peak out yesterday late afternoon but overall it wasn't a great day. Thanks weather people, the things I could have gotten done around the house. Oh well.

Then of course today was supposed to be the rainy, crappy day. I even forwent the morning run on the trail because they said there were going to be morning showers. Wrong again forecasters. Seriously, to be wrong half the time and still hold a job, I missed my calling.

Oh well, Sophie still had a blast at the beach yesterday.

Onto training:

Saturday morning I did my 9 mile long run. It went pretty well, it wasn't as cool as the damn weather people originally forecasted (you see a theme here). Instead of the 69 degrees we were supposed to have, it was 72 when I started out and kind of humid.

9.01 miles, 1:26:15, avg pace 9:34

Spilts:
Mile 1 9:24
Mile 2 9:28
Mile 3 9:40
Mile 4 9:28
Mile 5 9:47
Mile 6 9:51
Mile 7 9:38
Mile 8 9:18
Mile 9 9:33

I felt good overall but kind of tired. I feel like if I took the day before off like my training called for maybe I would have felt better. Not sure, but I do know that I hate running in warm humid weather. It zaps the energy right from me. Ready for Fall. I say that a lot but I'm ready for it to be cooler in the morning. 

Yesterday I had a rest day mainly because my legs felt tired when I woke up and we had decided to go to the beach. When we got home I was going to head to the gym but my poor husband got called in for work due to an issue with one of his pumps. He didn't get home till 8:30, poor guy. Then I was going to go on a walk with Sophie but to be totally honest, I was tired and lazy so we just hung out and played.

Today was cross training day and I did my first cycle class in like a year. It was tough but a good tough! My legs welcomed the change. I then tried to get a couple of miles in after but was legs were a bit wobbly. Plus I have to keep reminding myself that cross train days should be run free.... that's kind of difficult but I need to remember to give myself a break.

Before cycle I did some weights and then I did some more weights after cycle. A great workout overall. So I'll be ready for my 3 miles bright and early tomorrow morning! Actually it won't be bright and early, it'll be dark and early.

It was nice to not have to go to work today and I'm looking forward to a short week this week. Also next week I'll be at Edisto Beach Friday through Sunday with my in-laws. Summer is ending which makes me sad because I love going to the beach so much but again, I'm ready for cooler weather!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!