a walk we did

Twogwotee and I went for a nice afternoon stroll today.
the weather was too nice not too.

 

I’m pretty sure when I asked her where her leash was…she was so excited I thought she was going to have an accident.

thankfully she chilled out enough to get a focused picture. but holy moly! she could hardly contain herself.

the little fishing ponds are still frozen over, but look at that gorgeous sunshine! it felt so good to be outside and no pressure to run well. just a nice smooth relaxing stroll. (don’t laugh) it was actually warmer outside today than it was in my house.

“mom! really? you let me off the leash in town? are you feeling ok?”

I let Twogs decide where we would go today and she chose the long walk, which included the walk next to the “zoo.” and look who was out for full display.

I’m pretty sure he did that himself. that ball is stuck on his brow tine. he must have gotten a little too rough when he was showing off for the ladies. well mr. you sure look silly now. good thing you don’t have any other bulls (elk) to compete with. I think you might just be laughed at. its almost like rudolph.

well duh!

I the bighorns.

and I love my puppy!

the creek is slowly opening up. maybe by next weekend it will be mostly open since next week we are sitting in the 50s for highs all week.

I think its time to change the park banners. come on! let’s think spring at least. the school even decided it was nice enough because the park was buzzing full of kid chatter and fun kid screams.

she’s half big dog. that’s Hubby’s half. if she wasn’t on the leash she would have went out there after the ducks.

“are we home yet? I’m pooped.”

and pooped she was. she passed out right after a big drink of water.

“seriously?! can’t I just sleep?”

we had a lovely 4.25 mile walk. very spring-y outside. birds chirping. sun shining! it makes me ready for spring.

when I went to check the mail box today I had a very nice surprise from Julie of Peanut Butter Fingers (check her out…she super gorgeous, has a great fashion sense, lives a healthy lifestyle, and makes a mean flourless chocolate oatmeal cookie!).

there may or may not be any of them left. and I may or may not have thought about hiding them from the Hubby.

THANKS JULIE!

I tried to lay down to take a little nap after my walk today, but I was too busy thinking about how I could rope my husband into taking on a 7-miler with me on Saturday. so…I came up with a plan he can’t resist (I hope). I asked if he would like to ride his bike next to me while I ran. he didn’t give me that “are you serious" look, so I think it must be a go! yippeee!

I just about died.

its true. I thought I was going to die right there in the gym today.

I am 9 days away from my first official race and still trying to decide whether to do a 5K or 10K. I’m leaning towards the 10K, just to push myself, but I still have time to decide.

I asked Janae (check out her cute blog!) for her advice on what I should be running to finish out this week and next. she gave me a quick little training plan.

today…called for 4 miles at a faster pace. and that’s exactly what I did.

quick side story. Hubby prides himself on being able to pass his physical fitness test which is 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. well…I’m sure I could do that too. I’ve never tried. its the running longer distance at that pace that I don’t know if he could do.

so…I’ve been averaging 9:20 minute/miles for my longer distances.

I did once push myself and managed a 8:45 minute/mile pace for a 5K (on a treadmill) but that was back before I got sick and had these fun little side stitches. and that’s the faster I’ve gone.

so when lil’ miss Janae told me to do a “faster” pace 4 miles…I thought…I’m going to shoot for 9:00 minute/mile pace.

did I hit it? no. but I came pretty dang close with 9:07 minute/mile pace. I ended 4 miles in 36:28.

I warmed up with a 0.5 mile at a 10:00 minute/mile pace…guess what happened??? side ache! OW! so…I stopped stretch out my side, rubbed it out and just went for it. my whole run I could feel it there, but it wasn’t bad enough to make me stop. I tried to focus on my breathing to keep it little and not turn into a huge thing. seemed to kind of work.

why I wanted to stop was I was exhausted. I was dying. I couldn’t keep up with myself, but I wanted to push myself. and push myself I did.

I did the first mile at 9:13 minute/mile pace.
the next 2 miles at a 9:05 minute/mile pace. I did have to slow down close to the end of mile 3 back to a 9:13 minute/mile pace. but that was probably only for 0.15 of a mile. then I bumped it back up to 9:05. I ran 0.25 mile at that pace and then pushed through a 0.1 mph increase every 0.25 mile.

I was so happy when the treadmill finally clicked over to 4.00 miles and I could hit that cool down button.

it’s a gorgeous day outside. I woke up not being able to decide if I wanted to run outside or in the gym. I knew if I ran outside, I wouldn’t be able to hold that 9:00 minute/mile pace and opted for the treadmill this morning.

I told myself I would take the pup for a walk to enjoy the weather and that’s exactly what we are headed out the door to do….right NOW!

I need YOUR help!

I’m having major issues and hoping YOU can give me some home remedies you use to prevent my problem.

I talking about SIDE STITCHES here people!

I can’t run more than 5 minutes without dying of a side stitch and I HATE having to stop and walk. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing slowing the treadmill down in a crowded gym when I feel like everyone is staring at me OR going from looking super confident in my running to walking on a super crowded road.

before I even started this morning I felt my side stitch. not good.

I walked and felt the little twinge.

I walked some more. I ended up walking for 45 minutes (a relatively quick pace and a incline) before I finally felt like my side stitch was gone. and it was, so for the last 15 minutes I attempted to run a faster paced mile. I ended up finishing out the hour with 5 minutes running, 2 walking, 4 running, 1 walking, 1 running, 2 walking cool-down. no sign of a side stitch. so WTF!?!?!

I’m hoping that you all know how to prevent them.

I’ve googled it. I can’t keep track of my breathing. when I inhale and what foot is planting. if I do that…I forget to breathe (silly, I know) and tend to get a side stitch on the other side of me. I’ve tried taking deeper breaths. no such luck.

any suggestions?

meadowlark skiing

we got to carve some turns today!

but first, let me start out at the very beginning.

we woke up to this.

fresh snow! I was just hoping it was snowing on the mountain too!

what turned into a BIG group ski day…quickly went downhill and numbers dwindled.

my sister was planning on driving up from casper this morning to join us. she called @ 645am. I checked the road report and webcams. the roads said they were clear, and the cameras looked clear. so I told sister to head this way.

I texted Mom, who was coming from Cody and was bringing sister’s skis and poles, that everything was a go.

about an hour later sister calls me back and tells me she’s turning around. she’s apparently been on snow packed roads the whole way. Mom then called and asked if we (Hubby and I) were still going and we said yes, so she continued on.

it took a little longer than expected, but we finally made it to the ski hill.
sorry, no pretty pictures. it was snowing and slightly socked in, so you really couldn’t see much from a distance.

mom had beat us to the hill. she immediately came over to the truck when we got out and said, “I’m not skiing. I forgot a coat.”

Hubby had extras, but she still passed. so…it was just me and Hubby suiting up for the day.

After Hubby having 2 knee surgeries (on the same knee) in a year…he was a little anxious to get out there, but also a little nervous.

 

To make us all feel a little better, he wore his knee brace.

that’s his “mitten peace sign”

this was their version of a half pipe (sorry its kind of hard to see, move the computer screen back and forth a little to see what we saw )….I’m pretty sure this is just a creek bed.

no, I didn’t wreck. I don’t wreck. I was waiting for the sun to come out and work on my goggle tan. unfortunately…the sun played with us all day and we never got a full glimpse of the sun.

I’m in heaven!

Hubby however, does wreck.

Hubby found some neck deep powder! or maybe found a nice rock to scratch up his board (its tough to see, but look within the yellow. you can see what was coming off the bottom at the lower part of the picture). uh oh. I always tell him when he gets mad about something new being “ruined”… “if you wanted to keep it “new” keep it in the box and put it on a shelf!”

the giant hole! it was the best part of the day. we were just laughing like crazy. he was truly stuck. I tried to pull him out, but he almost pulled me in.

he was covered in snow.

our family moto is every day on the hill is a great day, some are better than others. today was one of the better days! it was snowing all day, but it wasn’t cold. in fact, I had too many clothes on and I didn’t have any layers more than I usually do. fresh tracks on EVERY run. the snow was soft. the powder was great! wasn’t crowded at all. it was just a great day spent on the mountain with my #1 man!

some recovery fuel? yes please!

did I make up in pictures today? I hope so, and I hope you don’t fall asleep either.

speed workout tomorrow? probably.

nothing exciting

since we got home on wednesday from our trip to 7200 feet (did you miss it? you can check out monday and tuesday/wednesday recaps) I haven’t done a darn thing. I knew that we would be home early enough wednesday that I could get in the gym or go for a run outside if the weather allowed. but I didn’t do either one. I just couldn’t find the motivation even though I knew come thursday it would kick my butt. and it did.

it was looking to be a nice day out so I allowed it to warm up a bit before I headed out. I hadn’t eaten anything all morning and I’m afraid that was my first mistake. I had drank my pre-workout supplement and could feel and hear it sloshing around in my belly the whole time I was out. my legs and calves were super tight. I didn’t perform well. I was super discouraged when I got home. I cut my run short and had to walk a long distance. so I knew to feel better I had to do something. I ended up going to the gym that night and seeing if I could do any better on the treadmill. sure not. I still had tight legs, and felt like my cardio had been shot. I could barely hold a 9:00 minute/mile pace. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been running almost 6 miles at this pace…and I couldn’t even do 1? I pushed through it. I got 3.3 miles in 32:00 minutes. not exactly what I wanted, but it had to do. I stretched out and came home.

friday…I was hoping for a little better of an effort and hoped to feel better. Hubby had to work Thursday night, so when he got home from work Friday morning he promised me he would go to the gym. ok…I’ll wait and treadmill it today. I had to go into the “office” to do a background investigation, but that lasted all of 2 hours and then I came home. I decided to lay down and take a nap around 230pm. I thought, I’ll get an hour in….I actually got 2….oops. Hubby woke up at 430pm with me and got ready for the gym. I took my workout supplement right before we left. its usually supposed to sit in my system for 30-45 minutes. it sat in my system for maybe 15 minutes before I climbed on the treadmill….I headed off on a “I’ll run until he’s ready to go” run, but I got a side stitch (not fun!) about 5 minutes into it. I walked. I was mad. I let it subside and cranked it up again….but it returned. I gave up. I was ready to go. so I waited patiently for Hubby to finish.

I was so sad, that I decided it was still nice enough to go out for a run and I thought I would have plenty of daylight left. so as soon as we got home I grabbed the pup and we headed off. only I still got the side stitch again! grr….very frustrating. I wasn’t doing anything differently than normal. I chalked it up to me not letting my pre-drink settle in my belly enough. the pup and I finished 2.78 miles in 26 minutes. I had to walk a little and it was mostly uphill. but I still finished with under a 10 minute/mile pace. it was a little colder than usual and I didn’t wear my vest. although the only thing that was cold was my legs and I didn’t realize that until I got home and then started to warm up and they started itching….oh yeah…and maybe the purple coloring when I got home might have had the Hubby worried.

today, I saw that it was suppose to be a high of 39ish, so I waited until after I was positive that the Wyoming Cowboys were going to lose to BYU (should that even been a question?) before I left. I made sure I had eaten and given my belly plenty of time to digest (cookies a hour before still might have not been a good idea) and drank my supplement 35 minutes before I headed off. I still got a side stitch within the first 0.5 mile. I walked again. I just want to be able to run without resting! I (and the pup) ran my little 5K loop +1 mile with the added distance to and from the house. I ran it the opposite direction. won’t do that again. there is a killer hill that I walked up. I was whooped. I think I would gradually go up rather than run straight up 1 giant hill! I ran the loop in just under 30 minutes…which will be my goal for my first 5K…a sub 30 minutes. totally do-able! I ran the whole thing in 41 minutes. still not what I wanted, but that’s ok.

tomorrow is a day off of running and I will consider it cross training! we are headed to hit the slopes at a little ski area. Hubby is getting to go and he is super excited!

sorry for the lack of pictures…I had to get my feelings, frustration, sadness out somewhere. next week is a new week (and I think worse weather which may put me back in the gym for runs) and I will push hard to get better at my runs.

I will be sure to make up for lack of pictures today in tomorrow’s post!