fighting for the ice

today was long run saturday.
I guess I consider a 10K a long run.
my training plan called for a 10K race. well this is small town WYO and we rarely have any races, so I did a 10K at race pace. since I have ran a 10K race I knew what I wanted to aim for my race pace.

I headed out from my house.
I still don’t have a garmin so I use dailymile to plan my routes. but I used pretty much the same course I did for my first 10K race. I had the option of running the hilly portion right of the bat, but I chose to save that for the last 1.5 miles of my run to see how my legs would react to hills with some fatigue in them. they definitely screamed “what are you doing?! we’re fatigued, duh!”

we managed though and I only had to take a few walking breaks (and none of those were on the hills), but I made sure to push myself and not let those walking breaks last more than 1 minute. I did have to stop a tie my shoe at one point. grrrr…

I felt good, except going up the hills. I just kept thinking “this is killing my time. there is now way I’m going to be close to race pace.”
I was wrong. I was right on with pace.
I finished 6.3 miles in 51:32. average a 8:10 min/mile pace. my 10K race pace was 8:13 min/mile. I feel like I’m getting better and stronger.

eeeks…only 3 weeks to my first 1/2 marathon race.
eeeeks…only 2 more long run saturdays before my first 1/2 marathon.
let’s not talk about it. it makes me nervous.

the exciting part about todays run.
it was outside and….

I ran in a t-shirt and shorts!
no long sleeve or gloves required!

it was a little windy and I felt chilled at the beginning, but once I got going and warmed up I was perfect! and less sweaty when I got home.

the sun is still shining!

once I got home it was ice bath time.
I have to fight for my ice.
Twogwotee LOVES the ice. and if I’m not keeping a close eye on her she eats the ice out of the bath tub. I had to run into the bedroom real quick to grab something and when I came back she was munching away. you ask, “why don’t you just lock her out of the bathroom?” well because she’ll whine the entire time I’m in the bathroom. so once I beat her (not really, please don’t call animal protective services!) away from the tub and got her to lay down I jumped in for 20 minutes. I must have had the water a little colder than usual because I still had ice when I was done. and just like typical Twogs fashion she was trying to eat what was left. at one point she actually attempted to put 1 paw into the bath tub to get to the ice. that’s when I decided it would probably be easier to scoop out some ice cubes to give to her otherwise the bathroom and Twogwotee would be one soaking wet mess.

ya think she’s trying to tell me something?
”ma, seriously…its too dang nice NOT to go to the park and play some ball. come on! have ball, will travel. PLEASE!”

so, I better get off of here and give the pups some attention. they were good (no new digging holes) in the backyard while I was gone on my run!

over the hill

and through the Bighorn National Forest to Momma’s house we go. even though Mom wasn’t home we raided her house!

we headed over there last night after Hubby got home from his super important job interview. the weather was super crummy on our side of the mountain. it was snowing/raining, cold, cloudy. just not fun.

the puppies didn’t seem to mind the weather. they embraced the fact that we had rolled the window down for them.

FYI: there is still plenty of snow on the mountain.

once we got to the other side and headed back down the mountain we got some gorgeous sunset views.

Hubby woke up bright and early for his other exciting opportunity. He was going through the testing process for another position. same career field again. he left the house about 640 and was home around 900. he had to wait until 2pm for his interview. so we killed some time by driving around looking at a few houses that were for sale that we liked that we saw on the internet. we are getting ahead of ourselves yes, that’s why I’m not falling in love with any of them.

we also went out to lunch. Mom’s house was empty of food since she’s been gone so much. I was excited though because it gave us the opportunity to go to my favorite sandwich shop in Cody.

so delicious! I wanted to go there again for dinner, but we left Cody too early to get dinner.

to kill more time we walked downtown Cody.

irma hotel.

the drive home was peaceful. and pretty. we saw some wild horses running free. best. sight. ever! they are so pretty to be able to roam free. sorry no pictures.

we stopped to let the puppies out to potty and all the wanted to do was romp.

happy puppies!

we made it home safely. we’ll know more regarding Hubby’s interviews by the end of the week.

I went to the gym. I shouldn’t have expected much out of myself today. I woke up this morning extremely light headed. I felt like I had been drinking all night and woke up with room spins. it was awful. it never really got better all day. I accomplished my 5 miles and did some weight lifting, but it wasn’t all that great. hopefully tomorrow is much better. I came home and downed a protein shake because I felt like maybe I was just short on my protein. I’m not really sure. we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

it’s a big day

I woke up with all the motivation in the world to go to the gym for some solid cross training. I chose to wait for Hubby to get up to see if he wanted to join, even though I already knew the answer. in turn I lost complete motivation.

I made a deal with Hubby that I would buy lunch if we rode our bikes to get it. he agreed. I had this giant misconception that it was actually nice outside. I only used about and 3’x3’ window to check the skies. bad idea. as we left the house I claimed I felt rain drops. but then I thought “seriously? you’re just looking for an excuse out of this when it was your idea. cowboy up!” so I did, but then I really started feeling rain drops and it wasn’t a light misting. so our bike ride was turned around and we only did about 15 minutes. it rained the entire time to and from lunch. our quads were burning from our little bike ride and I declared that I should do more bike riding to strengthen my quads. Hubby agreed with that one too. we still went to lunch, but drove the bug instead.

just for your viewing pleasure. dorky puppy and Hubby since he got the beer to put in her paw (even though the beer was my idea).

after lunch we came home to watch Secretariat. great movie! I wanted to do something that would pass the time for Hubby’s big event so he would keep his mind off of it.

I think it worked.

Hubby has a permanent job now. a job he loves. but he has a BIG job interview today for a different position, but in the same career field. something he has always strived for. he was pretty chilled out all day.

then it came time to change and shave. he started getting anxious which in turn made me anxious and gave me nerves. its out of my control. I’m just praying he does a great job with his interview and God will let happen what is suppose to happen.

look who I found in an interesting “bed” while I was packing.

I asked Hubby if he wanted me to foam roll his back side. seriously. that’s exactly what I asked. ooops, I really meant lint roll even though the foam roll would feel better.

all pretty looking! I didn’t want to make him take his coat off again. he had already done it a couple times.

I had mentioned packing. we are going on a short trip. for another exciting experience for Hubby. we’ll only be gone 1 night.

I’m pretty sure this is the smallest bag that’s been taken on an overnight trip. and it has Hubby and my clothes in it! plus workout clothes for both of us. Hubby is required to workout tomorrow, I’m not. I’ll see how the wind and weather is and decide from there.

Did I mention that I am hoping to take this bag only to the Bahamas next month? lots of bikinis. and minimal shoes. actually Hubby and I will both carry a bag like this on the airplane and pack one giant bag to be checked. seeing how the stupid bag fees start with the first bag anymore we try to travel light. it worked when we went to Hawaii for our wedding and honeymoon. and we ended up just buying a bag there to pack all of our extras to get home, plus somehow we managed to not get hit with bag fees!

I’ll definitely be posting tomorrow. we have a pretty drive tonight to get to our destination.

gorgeous day!

it was a very gorgeous spring day in northern wyoming.

this morning Hubby actually tagged along with me on my 5 miler I had planned. he opted to ride his bike along side while Twogs ran with him. I waited until about 930 this morning before I headed out and it was plenty warm. my t-shirt was soaked when I got back to the house. I jumped in for an ice bath immediately after returning home because I could feel some stiffness in my hip. it was gone when I was done with my ice bath, but I gave it some extra love with the foam roller.

it was too nice of a day to be stuck inside and luckily today is the first day of Hubby’s “weekend.”

we met up with one of Hubby’s co-workers for a giant puppy play date.

 
this is Lyla and Abby. Abby is the golden retriever.
looks pretty similar to Twogs.

we took all 4 of them out to Welch Rec Area and let them play in the river and in the fields. let’s just say all 4 puppies will sleep good tonight. I know our two are currently passed out on the floor.

there were some pretty gorgeous views of the Bighorn Mountains too.

just another sunny day out on the river. I actually wore a tank top today! bam!

I think this was a “you’re suppose to go find the birds” kind of talk. its hard to get her to go out in front of us when we’ve been training her to walk right next to us while we’re in town. I think she’s kind of confused sometimes. but she’s extremely eager to please us. we’re a proud Mom and Dad…most days.

Hubby and I came home, grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs. we are relaxing watching the Rockies game.

Hubby’s exciting stuff happens tomorrow! yay!

relaxing sunday

I woke up feeling horrible.
I wasn’t sick. I just slept like crap. tossing and turning all night.
I usually sleep for an extra 30-60 minutes after Hubby leaves for work. but unfortunately that did not happen today. I was up at 0730.

I spent the morning catching up on laundry and cleaning out my closet. its so nice to have it organized. I can actually find clothes in there now.

I watched the Rockies game this afternoon while curled up on the couch with this little lady.

after the Rockies game was over (they won!) I took Twogs for a walk. my training plan calls for stretching and strengthening. Hubby said he would go to the gym with me tonight when he got off work. I still wanted to get a few recovery miles on my legs after yesterdays 8 miles even if it was just a walking pace.

it sure was nice to see a turn around in the weather. today is pretty windy though. but nonetheless warmer and sunnier than yesterdays dreary day.

Twogwotee enjoyed the sunshine!

look at that! the pond is completely melted. there were even people fishing when I walked by. not sure if they were having any luck.

what happened to the sunshine?

the storm clouds made me shorten my route just slightly because I wasn’t dressed to be walking in the rain. at one point it did start to sprinkle, but not enough to get us wet.

oh look there’s more sunshine. and my beloved bighorn mountains!

I came home and was starving. I remember that I had bought some mangoes at the store the last time we visited and chopped one up to munch on.

I’m not really sure how mangoes are suppose to taste. I liked it. and I’m not even that sure if they’re suppose to be more like apples when they are prime or more like a pear.

Hubby has some exciting stuff happening this week. I’ll try to keep up on it all. tomorrow is suppose to be the nicest all week. maybe another bbq day?