wham bam thank you ma’am!

woah! what’s this? two posts in one day?
yeah…I’m not fighting off the Hubby for use of the computer. he’s back at work.

training planned called for 8 miles. and I was determined to do those 8 and I wanted to do them outside.

“ma, are you sure you want to run in this? count me OUT!”

I kept looking at the hourly forecast for the temperature.
it kept saying it would hit 40* by 11am.
it never did. and its still not currently above 40*.
I knew if I kept waiting for the weather to hit 40* I may run out of time (I have somewhere exciting to be at 5pm) and I may end up running in a downpour.
I just cowboy’d up and went for it.

it was probably about 36* the whole run.
I ran in my typical out fit. remember? the same thing I ran in for my 10K.
I felt a little chilly for the first 0.50-1.0 mile.
once I was in it though. I felt great.

(there aren’t any pictures of my run. sorry, I just don’t like having to carry stuff in my hands)

I ran solid for the first 2.5 miles. I felt quick. and when I looked at my watch I saw ~17 minutes. I didn’t bother working out what I ran that in, but it was probably my fastest 2.5 yet. my pony tail kept falling out, and I kept messing with it until finally I got it to sit just right. everytime I’m out on a run I always think, “I should have brought an extra hair tie, because if this one breaks right now while I’m trying to get my hair as tight as possible…I’m going to be SCREWED!” thankfully it never broke and I didn’t have to mess with it again after the 3 mile mark.

I kept up a good pace. starting out I was just thinking how far I had to go. it seemed very daunting to me, but once I hit that point where I started heading back towards my house and not away anymore I felt good. another thing that helped was looking ahead an telling myself “run to this block and then I’ll walk.” I would keep pushing it once I made it to “that block.” it was nice. I also took 2 shot blocks around this time. just shy of 5 miles. I feel like once they got into my system I had a bunch more energy. I can’t believe how well they actually work! I’m hooked!

I kept a solid pace from about 5 miles to 7 miles. when I hit 7 miles my upper abs starting cramping. it was the weirdest feeling I’ve ever experienced on a run. it was different than a side stitch. which I also got on this run, but was able to walk, let it go away and pick my pace back up without the side stitch coming back. as far as the ab cramping. I walked and let them chill out. picked up running. surprisingly running up my final hill to home released the tension in them and they didn’t hurt anymore.

I finished off my 8 miles in just over an hour with a average 8:30 pace.
I was very pleased with it. halfway through my run I was actually wishing it would start raining just a little to give me a sense of just what it feels like, but all I got was a misting.

I came home and immediately jumped into an ice bath with some chocolate milk and glucosamine.
after my ice bath I took a shower. first one in a couple of days. it was definitely time.

after I was fresh and clean I made myself a green smoothie!

I put soymilk, bananas, frozen mangoes, whey protein powder and a handful of spinach. I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn’t even taste the spinach.

funny story. Twogwotee is a tail chaser. I’ve never seen a dog chase their tail so much. I left the pups inside while on my run and came home to a bunch of this all over the place.

“hey…that’s mine!”

you can always tell how she’s been keeping herself entertained because there are little fluffs of hair all over the place. its funny to see her spitting out the tufts of hair.

overall I’ve had a great saturday! my run was awesome. it was the longest run yet and I think was able to keep a steady pace. I really need to get myself a damn garmin!

a day for the pony

I might actually get all caught up on recaps today!
this is my final one. nothing exciting has happened since this.
wednesday was again a decent day, weather wise and we decided to go out and visit the other boy in my life.

Slim!

he’s shedding his winter coat like crazy this time of year and so we brushed him out a little and gave him a little one on one time. it was obvious that he’d been rolling in the mud and dirt so while I brushed out his back Hubby worked on his mane. I had to make sure I stood up wind of the extra hair that was flying around. I’m really allergic to horses and didn’t take allergy medicine before we went out because in all honesty I didn’t expect to be brushing him. with all the extra hair on the ground it looked like I killed something out there. Hubby said I could probably brush for 2 weeks straight and I would still be getting hair off of him. so I just brushed off the dirt and mud and made him look pretty before I called it quits. I was covered in hair and started the coughing and sneezing and knew it was time to be done. I try to remind myself not to rub my eyes or skin after messing with horses or “ranch animals” period. well I did good on the eyes part, but my neck was red and itchy by the time we got back into town. ugh. shower time!

Hubby wanted to ride him, but Slim still had a sore on his back from where the blanket from the winter had worn. so we’re still letting it heal. but Hubby had no problem jumping on him bareback. Hubby tried to get on with no assistance from me, but Slim wasn’t having it. so I offered to hold Slim. I was worried he was going to throw his head, so I braced myself when Hubby jumped on, but nothing. He just stood there. I think Slim loves me more than Hubby.

Slim is a great beginning rider horse. he doesn’t have an ounce of buck in him. I feel very comfortable around him and even last year I was brave enough to go out and saddle and ride Slim without Hubby around. Hubby likes to rope around and off of slim. he evens ropes Slim. he usually doesn’t mind. Hubby will rope Slim’s head and feet while I’m riding and while some horses wouldn’t allow it, Slim just walks on by. he reacts a little different when there’s not a saddle on him.

side story: Hubby tried to use Twogwotee as a roping dummy and now she’s terrified of the ropes and will literally jump into my lap in the chair at home when Hubby literally just touches the rope. on wednesday, I felt like Slim was doing the same thing when I was walking him by Hubby to rope Slim’s back legs. he would spin around and end up right in front of me…as much in my lap as a horse could be.

“you talking to me?”

I’m not brave enough to jump on him bareback. even if he does have a bit and reins. my legs just aren’t strong enough. hmm? maybe riding Slim for an hour could count as a cross training day.

ain’t he pretty?

see the reins? they’re mine obviously. they are purple and pink. I got Hubby a similar pair for his birthday only his are just bright pink black and gold. He forgot his at home this day so he resorted to using stealing mine.

this is Slim’s buddy. when we took Slim out of the corral to the trailer the other horse went crazy. nah-ing and “whinning” (that’s a weird word and probably spelled wrong. but just think of all the horse noises). he was happy to have Slim back. they are both older horses and both very sweet and gentle. this guy will walk right up to ya. that’s the kind of horse I want. one I don’t have to chase all over the place. kind of like Slim (if you have a bucket full of grain).

well folks. I’m off for an 8 mile run. I’ve waited long enough for the weather to warm up. I really want to get some long runs accomplished outside and not on the treadmill. this will tell ya how small sheridan is. I’m running from one side of town to the other and back. for 8 miles.

all about the puppies

we took a day to take the puppies for some quality exercise on Tuesday.
Hubby also wanted to see if our little girl, Twogwotee would chase birds.

We went out to an area outside of Sheridan where we know are pheasants, ducks and geese.

it was a gorgeous day. earlier that morning Hubby actually went for my 4.5 mile run with me and he was in charge of the dog since it was his idea to let her run off the leash. so by afternoon when we got out to Welch it was well into the 60’s.

all suited up. both dogs have on vests to protect their bellies from getting scratched in the brush. Twogwotee also is wearing a pack that we got for her for when we going hiking and backpacking. Hubby ended up carrying it for the most part because Twogs wouldn’t run as fast or as good with it on. Plus, this stretch of land is right on the river and we can’t keep the pups out of the water.

looking upstream and downstream.

oh look…there’s Twogs with her pack on.

I knew keeping them out of the water wouldn’t last long.

if you look. they are both carrying the “dummy.” one can’t just be better than the other.

they were shaking. but couldn’t resist the water. the water couldn’t have been very warm. but we played with them out of the water to get them warmed up and dried off.

in just about every other “group” photo of these two Twogs is licking her nose. silly puppy.

we did manage to flush a few pheasants and scared the crap out of all of us. Twogs needs some work on the idea of flushing birds, but she gets the smell and knows and tries to find them, but usually ends up accidently flushing them and scare her. poor thing. the puppies were definitely pooped after their play day.

we drove around looking for some prairie dog towns and came upon a definite sign of spring in wyoming.

this little fella’ had to be only a few hours/days old. he could barely stand up. still a little wobbly. cute little thing though. there are little baby calves all over the ranch land surrounding sheridan. its definitely spring. plus its been raining for a few days straight now.

I just hope the weather holds off for tomorrow. I have 8 miles to accomplish and would prefer to do it outside in semi-nice weather.

I have 1 more recap coming!
it involves this guy!

hubby’s birthday

oh boy.
I do so well blogging daily. then we do something super exciting and I actually have something worth blogging about. then I have to fight off Hubby for use of the computer.

Hubby’s birthday was last sunday the 3rd.

we spent most of the day doing nothing.
I didn’t have any super special planned until the night before.
nothing too exciting was happening in sheridan. and he received all his gifts prior to his birthday.

I got him an armband thingy for his ipod. he loved it!
he also got new reigns for the pony.

I told him we had to be ready to go at 1pm.

not very often that we both get completely dressed up.

its even more rare when I get to wear my special bracelet I received from Hubby for Christmas.

Hubby had to drive because I was wearing my “sexy boots.” little difficult to drive. I told Hubby we were headed to the theatre. I was surprised when he went to the correct one and not the movie place.

we went to a play!

it was very comical.  as we were waiting for the doors to open I noticed the older crowd filing in. like old enough to be my grandparents! I started to get a little worried about what this play was really about.

within the first 5 minutes of the curtain opening the f-bomb was dropped a minimum of 10 times. I knew we would be a-ok. it was hilarious! a great play. I would go back and watch it again. it didn’t end how I expected.

basically this play “the dead guy” (or is it suppose to be underlined?) is about this guy who’s given 1 million dollars to spend in a week, but he has to die at the end of 7 days. the next 7 days are filmed for a reality show and the audience (fake audience, not the real one) gets to choose how he dies. overall, I had fun and I’m pretty sure Hubby did also.

sometimes I feel like my date ideas are more stuff that I want to do rather than something Hubby has made clear he wants to do. remember our valentine’s date?
I said something to Hubby about this too and he responded with “well I feel like you would feel like this is stupid.” well its not! ok?!

Hubby has had 5 days off in a row, so we’ve been busy doing different things. I’ve been keeping up with my little training plan quite well. although after my run outside yesterday I began to feel a slight twinge in my shins. I got shin splints in high school playing soccer because we started early practicing indoors on a concrete floor. not good. when I looked to see what was planned for today I was thrilled to see a rest day and a cross training day tomorrow. I’ve got 8 miles planned for saturday so we’ll see how I feel before, during, and after that run.

I’ll recap some more tomorrow.

coming out of the closet

I’m currently sitting outside in my backyard blogging away.
it’s gorgeous here today. current temperature 66*. looks like there might be some rain clouds rolling in, but I’ll take a nice thunderstorm!

with thursday being opening day of the major league baseball season I have decided that I should come out to the world.

I’ve always considered myself a closet rockies fan. I’ve been a rockies fan since they were an expansion team in 1993. I was there, at the game, the day the team mascot Dinger was born. I, er, we try to make it to a few games each summer. I love the boys of summer and am thrilled they are back!

all of the “kids” (my sister, me and Hubby) got rockies jerseys for christmas. I figured no day than opening day, which was yesterday for the rockies, was a better day to debut it. I *heart* tulo!

as I mentioned a few days ago I’ve started doing some insanity videos and jillian’s 6 week 6 pack dvd. I am not sure which one has made me sore, but something must be working. I took the day off from running yesterday and did another insanity dvd. I was incredibly sore from doing it the first day. but it felt good to get my muscles warmed up and moving around. after I finished insanity I moved right into jillian’s dvd. holy burn! my abs still kill me. I hope this shit gets easier!

I woke up this morning knowing that today was going to be warm. I had 7 miles planned. I was worried about how well I was going to go considering I’ve had that sore hip issue. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to run on the treadmill or outside. I feel like the treadmill keeps me a little bit more accountable for my pace. and I feel like when I run outside I’m slacking. so after a few hours of waiting to see if it was ever going to break 30* I headed for the gym.

I foam rolled my hip a little extra and stretched out more prior to jumping into my run.
I ran the first 2 miles at an 8:41 min/mile pace.
I ran miles 3 and 4 at an 8:34 min/mile pace.
I took two shot blocks at 45:00 minutes (still messing around with this stuff).
I ran 4-5.5 miles at an 8:27 min/mile pace. I had to crank to make 7 miles in under an hour (my little mini goal) so I finished out the last 1.5 miles at an 8:00 min/mile pace.
I finished 7 miles in 59:30.

my energy levels felt really good. I felt slightly out of breath, but I wasn’t dying. another 6.1 miles at that pace probably most likely won’t happen, but these next few weeks will be a good indication of what I am looking at for my 1/2 in 5 weeks.

my hip. it felt sore. my shoe actually came untied just after about 5.5 miles and I was terrified to stop to tie it, but I did and was able to jump right back into my pace with no hip issues. it was once I started my cool down and got off the treadmill that I could really feel the soreness. I foam rolled my hip like crazy.

when I got home from the gym I took an ice bath. that has done wonders. I can actually move up and down the stairs with little to no pain. I don’t feel anything while I’m walking. its perfect!

so more cross training and more ice baths!

tomorrow is Hubby’s birthday. and I have no idea what to do. I’m still trying to figure out something special.