The week thus far

alicemvp-low
Sunday: We went to school for the cross country awards. Season is over… Alice got the JV MVP award!

Monday: 22 mins elliptical, full circuit

Tuesday: 8 mins elliptical warm up. A sucky mile. Abs. That night I was taken to American Stage theatre by a friend to see This Wonderful Life. It is a 1-man, 1-act production of It’s a Wonderful Life. He does some voices and other characterization, but is mainly George. Christopher Swan was wonerful, very moving. I knew it was a 1-act but did not know it was a 1-man show. Very impressive!

Then I got home and DD2 wants to be quizzed for her social studies test. Which she hadn’t studied for. Which is coming up Thursday. How come when Mommy isn’t home kids forget to do their homework?

Good news though — our NEW BED got delivered while I was away. A Sleep Number bed. I came home to a new bed with fresh, clean sheets, a new matress pad, and a tired, happy husband.

Wed: I skipped the gym to clean the kitchen. I find I need an extra day each week to play catch up every now and then. Especially after being sick last week and out last night — and I knew we’d be gone Wed night again too.

father-daughterWed night was the Jingle Bell Run in downtown St. Petersburg. 3 miles with music, santa, bells, dogs, kids - a family walk/run that is a lot of fun. No clock though, so I told Alice I would wait at the start/finish and time her. We knew a few other people running and got to talk to about 10 friends that night at the race. That was sweet. Lots of red and white striped socks, santa hats, etc. Alice came in at 3 miles, 23:09. Just behind her 23:10 5k PR.

Oh, and BTW, she was invited to join the varsity track team to run the 2 mile.

Thursday: 8 min rowing warm up. 2 miles on the dreadmill. Walking lunges with 8 lbs. Squats on the BOSU. Tricep kickbacks and bent over rows with 8 lbs. 21’s with 10/8 lbs. (switched part-way through.)  Abs with a 4 lb weight on BOSU. Brian finished his workout the same time I did and we layed mats down next to each other to stretch. That was sweet.

Tonight I got all organized for holiday cards. Found the envelopes, found the Sharpies, photos are printed. I’m ready to rock n’ roll this weekend. I also have to take DD1 to temple for a friend’s bat mitzvah, help DD2 get together with her science fair partner, grocery shop, laundry, pack for winter break and drop off the recycling. And need to find a gift for my in-laws. Digital picture frame? We have a party Sat night and our anniversary on Sunday. Yawn, boring slow empty weekend again ;-p

Congrats to cousin Justin on his engagement!! Love you!

Music Monday

What I ran my 3 miles to this morning:

Jet - Are you Gonna be my girl? (warm up)

The Fray - Over my head (warm up)

No Doubt - Spiderwebs

Michael Jackson - Wanna be Startin’ Something

Nickelback - Rockstar

Britney Spears - Piece of Me (Junior Vasquez & Johnny Vicious radio edit)

Kelly Clarkson - I do not hook up

Christina Aguilera - Fighter

Paramore - Misery Business

Martika - I Feel the Earth Move

Black Eyes Peas - Boom Boom Pow

Young Love - Find a New Way (Cool down)

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Race Weekend recap

Brian hasn’t blogged about his 10K yet. He’s probably waiting for me to get photos and video off the camera. Which I need to do because it is full between his 10k, Alice’s 5k, and tonight Wendy tests for her yellow belt in Karate (3rd level) and tomorrow Alice sings at school. Lots of photo opps at our house!

disney-smFriday: Alice ran in the Walt Disney World Cross Country Classic. It’s the first time she ran varsity for her team. A girl on her team rolled her ankle earlier in the week, so she ran JV and gave her varsity spot to Alice. It was cool to have her first varsity run be at Disney, but it’s hard to know you’ll come in slower in varsity being one of the forerunners in JV.

They added a bit of a hill to the course this year. ALSO it was record high temps in Florida (for Oct.) with a heat index of 103!! She ran a 24:41. We all went back to the hotel and showered, changed, and ate dinner at the new Paradiso 37 at Downtown Disney. North and South American combined.

Saturday: we enjoyed the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. We also enjoyed the rest of EPCOT, but we chose that park because of the food that weekend.

(Scroll below photo - more race recap!)

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Sunday: Brian ran the Race for the Taste 10k briafter-smstarting at Disney’s Wide World of Sports and finishing at EPCOT. At the same time there was a 3k at EPCOT, and I could not believe people walked 3k 20 mins slower than Brian ran 10k. This is supposed to be the last time Disney holds the event. At the finish line they had a selection of food from the Food and Wine Festival. Most runners don’t want empanadas after running a 10k at 7am in oppressive heat, but the strawberry shortcake seemed to go over well.  I don’t want to steal Brian’s thunder and tell you his race time, but he took about 4 mins off last year! pluto2smAfter the race, we showered, packed up the hotel, and spent a couple hours at the Animal Kingdom getting cooled off on the Kali River Rapids tube ride. Then we headed for home and the piles of laundry.

Monday: I had to come in to work early to help a client, so I went to the gym late. My friend Carmen was just getting there for Zumba, so I decided to join her even though I knew it would make me late for work. I never tried Zumba, but I like to dance and I like working out in classes occasionally. the teacher was fabulous! She had tons of spunk. She hardly spoke at all, and didn’t really pick apart anyone’s dance moves or help us individually. She just stayed on the stage, blasted great music, taught us new steps, and moved on. It was all just sweaty fun. Now - a day later - my calves hurt. Which is so dumb considering the running and karate I do!

Tuesday: I had to skip my workout for a morning meeting. Tonight I’ll be at Wendy’s karate testing. It’s usually an entertaining affair with black belts performing their moves alongside the little ones just starting out.

Have you ever tried a Zumba or karate class? What’s the best exercise class you’ve taken?

Running at the park

I took advantage of slightly cooler weather and ran outside this morning. Here is what slightly cooler means:

Temp 79 degrees, humidity 89%, dew point 75, heat index 82 degrees.

I went to the park that is 1 mile around. I walked a quarter mile to warm up, ran a mile, walked 40 seconds, ran a 2nd mile. Then my calves were really tight - probably from yesterday’s squats and lunges - so I stopped to stretch and did 15 pushups on the bottom of a park bench. Then I walked 1/2 mile and ran 1/2 mile - for my 3 mile total. I didn’t have to stop for a drink, but I did have to stop for my calves, darnit.

Tomorrow night is the 5k that determines if Alice makes varsity XC or not. 7th grade varsity certainly sounds impressive, but I don’t think her school is very competitive. On the other hand, they did go to state last year.

Gotta go figure out what to wear to work today. I wish someone my size would trade closets with me for a month just for variety :)

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Back on C25K

Over the past couple months I’ve let the heat take its toll on my workouts and I was pretty much convinced I could no longer run 3 miles without a walk break, so I returned to the C25K program. I figured a program from someone who knows what they’re doing is better than me taking a stab in the dark. I started with week 3 today, with a slight modification.

Today’s Run

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 90 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 3 minutes
Jog 90 seconds - I brought this up to 2 mins.
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 3 minutes - I brought this up to 4 mins.
Walk 3 minutes

And this was my view!

8-31-09park

Was about 78 degrees.

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