18 again

Saturday's long run was 18 miles again. I think that my bike to work plans must be adjusted for long runs. I felt like I was running on concrete legs. It was much warmer than the week before and the run just felt hard. I don't think I could have done another 8.2 miles. It was the same routine as last week, first 6 with poochie, 2nd 6 with little boy, and the last 6 all on my own. I ended up at 2:56, for an average pace of 9:46/mile.

No more long runs until I get back from Russia. Well, I have a 14 miler scheduled for June 2nd, but that's only two 6 mile loops and another 2 miles. That's easy. Cut back week this week - 35 miles. If the weather (and the boys) cooperate, I should be able to bike to work at least twice.

We got the knee wall built and the window into the sun porch. Had our friends R & D over for barbecue, but the weather turned ugly cold, after having been nearly 90 when we were working outside. R is six months pregnant and so cute.

I ordered a SIM card for my phone that will work in Russia. And I hooked up with a travel service to order train tickets to St. Pete's on the 9th. I should have done that sooner. There isn't much left. The return trip doesn't look like a problem, though. I managed to navigate this, but have yet to figure out if "Билеты на поезд можно купить в интернете" applies to foreigners (It means "One can buy tickets for the train on the internet."). Given that all the tickets for купе (2nd class) are ~650 rubles ($25), and I know that they charge foreigners more, it's probably a domestic-only type of deal.

Bike to work day

5 miles this morning with the dog. It was alright. Then, mad preparation for bike to work day. I've had the intention to bike to work regularly on Fridays, but... life always seems to get in the way. little boy works tonight, so he rode his bike to school, which means that I don't have to pick him up after track practice, which means I'm free!

Biking was actually quite nice. It's about 6 1/2 miles to work from home, according to mapquest and its "shortest distance" and "avoid highways" option. It actually made a route that's quite doable, which surprised me a little. The country road seemed more quiet and less heavily-trafficked that I remembered from driving it. I would have been annoyed about the rain, but when Big Boy & I did that ride over with our buddies in Minneapolis, it was pouring the entire time. A few drops wasn't much to complain about. I got to see two rainbows, baby geese, two dead bunnies and a dead squirrel. The baby geese were nice.

Big Boy made his invitation for his graduation party last night. I'll get them copied after work today during my hunt for cheap diesel. I need to get the e-vite out as well.

Nice run

It was the most perfect morning for running today. Of course, it helped that when I got home and downloaded my forerunner, I realized I had my best 5 mile time ever, but still, the weather was awesome (and the dog was even fairly well-behaved, no tree climbing this morning).

5 mile tempo run with 1 mile warm up & 1 mile cool down (target tempo pace - 8:18)

Mile 1 - 9:32
Mile 2 - 7:53
Mile 3 - 8:07
Mile 4 - 8:03
Mile 5 - 7:34
Mile 6 - 8:06
Mile 7 - 9:14

5 mile time - 39:43, or 8K time - 39:30, which is a 35 second PR over the race I ran in March.

How did this happen?

I tell ya, only that first tempo mile felt at all hard. It was one of those days that make all those yucky runs fade into oblivion.

Prom 2007

18 miles

We're redoing the sun porch. SO ripped out the old single pane windows yesterday. Today, we (and by "we" I mean SO, her buddy Shannon, and Big Boy, with a little help from me) got the sliding glass door and fixed panel installed. Tomorrow, it's time to build a knee wall and install the 7' x 5' window unit.

I supervised and ferried children around town. little boy had orchestra dress rehearsal, then work, and then a birthday party to attend clear on the other side of the world. Big Boy has prom tonight. Think we can find a florist to whip up a corsage in like 15 minutes?

But before all that - 18 miles in 2:52. First 6 with poochie, second 6 with little boy, third 6 on my own and that last third was a lot slower. It is a really long way. But oddly enough, not as long as you'd think. Why did I do it? To see if I could, of course. And I can. Could I have run another 8.2 miles? It wouldn't have been pretty, and I'm sure some walking would have occurred at some point, but I think I could have.

Look mom, no cavities!

All three of us have had successful dentist visits over the past couple weeks. First was little boy. Luckily, he got straight teeth from somewhere and his adult teeth don't have the issues that his baby teeth did. Big Boy's are straight thanks to $5K worth of orthodontic manipulation. Mine are fine, possibly to be straighter in the coming months, we'll see.

Softball

Ok, I've been playing ball on a team of some sort or another for, well. How long has it been? Big Boy was not quite 1. That would make it 1990 when I started. That seems like a long time. So why am I still so bad at it?

I'd like to chalk it up to my general overall nature as a slacker, but it has to be more than that. Lack of hand-eye coordination? Poor eyesight in general? Big Boy was a spectator/1st base coach for last night's game. He says that I don't watch the ball (I do! I swear I do!) and I don't swing all the way through the ball (he might have something on that one). I also tend to watch where I've hit the ball instead of just hitting the stupid thing and running. I'd have outrun the throw to 1st on my last at bat had I done that. But no, I like to watch. Let's not even discuss my errors in the field.

There were two grand slams by two of my talented teammates - so much fun to watch. We won it 13-5 and the ump called the game at the end of the 5th due to darkness.

8 mile tempo run today at 8:30. Stupid Garmin or stupid satellites decided not to register the first 6/10 of a mile. I've done this particular workout a few times now (1 mi warm up & 1 mi cool down with 6 miles at pace in the middle) and I'm always surprised that I can keep the pace up that long. Next week's speedwork looks intimidating, too. 3 miles at 7:48 with half mile jogs in between and warm up & cool down for a total of 8 miles. I think I'll have to tweak that one a bit.

Big Boy is working on figuring out the college thing. UWM has accepted him and he's decided not to take a gap year, so it's on to Milwaukee. He said that his plan is to get good grades and try to transfer to UW-Madison. There's a plan now, at any rate. He's got to get scheduled for placement exams, which according to their website, only occur during May and once in June (on the day after his graduation). They must have other times available. I can't imagine someone coming in from out of town during their last semester of high school to take these things.

little boy turned 15 on Monday. He starts his job today. He's not nervous about the work, just that he won't have enough time to get his homework done. He's also a little upset about having to miss the extravaganza at Nigel's this weekend because he has to work Saturday.