I lost my mind!

But only for a moment.  Maybe two.  I was actually trying to think of when I did my speed runs and I couldn't remember.  Now I do.  All this working!  I love it, hate it, like it.  
Saturday after I got some sleep (flew until 3am) then I headed to the gym for my speed work.  It's just too dang hot to run outside after 9am.  I am completely ready for Fall.  I only did 4X400's.  I started at 8.8 min/miles for the first 400, walked fast in between each one.  My next 3 400's were at 8.6 min/miles; 8.4 and 8.4 min/miles.  Much faster then my half marathon pace of 9.30min/miles.  I ran 10 min/miles for 2 miles before and after for warm up and cool down.  Total I was on the treadmill for one hour.  Not too shabby!

Sunday I worked a 12 hour shift in the ICU.  It was awesome.  I worked with some fabulous people that are awesome nurses.  I don't like working next to incompetent nurses - it makes me crazy and I worry about their patients.  Plus my running/Pilates/drinking/style/working and hanging out with buddy, Tera was working too.  Day went great, had good patients and put in a good day of OT.  

Today was Pilates athletic conditioning and errand running.  I feel tired and crappy from not sticking to my Paleo lifestyle and eating chocolate cake and popcorn.  I thought I'd feel better if I took a nap.  When I woke up - I had lettuce from lunch on my neck.  LETTUCE - ON MY NECK.  Not a fresh piece of delicious romaine - no, a wilted, moist old piece of lettuce from lunch. 

Completely indicative of the way I have felt for about a week.  A hot mess.  

Tomorrow is a 5 mile run with 3 miles at half marathon pace.  Another day with another chance to turn this mess around!!!

Last three days of fun.

Airplanes.  Utah National Guard. 

Audrey3.  Our magical money pumpkin. She's orange now and the damn plant has powdery mildew.  I sprayed it with milk but I think I'm going for the big gun tomorrow.  I'm going to spray it with a fungicide.  PLUS - the plant started growing again and we have 2 more pumpkins growing.  We have a total of 4 that I know of and 2 of them are on the sidewalk.  It would be more awesome without the white mil-dewy leaves.  

My view before I lay back and get my eyelash extensions refilled.  It's good for at least an hour nap and I love the no mess makeup.  

Blog on................

I'll get a dolla

I'll get that dolla when I'm paid.  Threw in an extra 6 hours in the ICU today.  I admitted a post op cardiac surgery patient.  That works pretty good for me.  I get to keep my skills fresh and see friends and co-workers I miss.  The patient did great too. Although if one more person said to me, "Can you take a heart?" I was going to loose it!!  I have taken care of post op cardiac surgery patients for at least 7-8 years.  If anything there was just some computer charting things that have changed that I had a few questions on.  I wasn't even hurt when the CT surgeon said, "Is she allowed down here?".  Hahaha

I didn't have to go in to work until 1pm, so I dressed in my running clothes and went to the Library.  I left the house with full intentions of going to the gym, but I spent too much time at the Library and then went to get some parts for my sports water bottle.  After that I had to get home to get ready for work. Dressing for the run counts, eh??  

The best news!  I was able to check out "Hood to Coast" DVD.  I've been wanting to see it for a long time and now I have it in my hot little hands!  

Hood to Coast

Hehhhehehehehe!

Other updates and good news.  

Audrey 3

Look at this pumpkin grow!  My husband put it in a basketball net and screwed some more hooks in the porch to hold it.  It's bigger then the one on the ground.

I feel this pumpkin needs a name.  Hmmm....Money Pumpkin??  

SCORE!

The best for LAST of the Great news!!

My niece is here!  My niece is here!  My brother Dave and his wife, Melissa had a little baby girl today.  I have no stats, just a name.

Lissett Hancock-Taylor

Can't wait to smell her!

PS.  I still iced my foot and kept a shoe on all day.  I'm breaking my arm patting myself on my back!

Blog on..............

Is that sweat?

Today was an example of working harder, not smarter.  It started out OK with a lab that I had to participate in for work, a trip to Ikea (only 15 dollars folks!) and then home to get a few things done and work out.  

The greatest!  I got this in the mail today.  I LOVE it!  Protein powder that tastes like coffee but not so high in protein that it will cause GI total stoppage.  Because that is no fun!

Later I decided that maybe I should invest in a shoe with a little more stability for my long runs.  I sat for two hours on the web researching.   Finding the right shoe is so confusing.  I decided to stay with Saucony because of the fit. The men's 10.5 is perfect for my foot for running.  I know, I know, I have big feet.  The problem is, is that they are narrow.  Women's shoes tend to get wider the longer they get.  It's taken me years to find a shoe that fits width wise and still protects my toes.  After considering heel drop, weight and overall stability I decided to go with the Guide 5.  I headed over to the local running store to try a few on.  I also tried on the Hurricane.  The Hurricane has a lot more stability.  After walking around with one of each on, I went with the Guide 5.  They only had one color in my size. 

Red and Gold?  I got them anyway and then changed my mind when I saw how much cheaper I could get them online.  I thought I was all ms. smarty pants and ordered some and just an hour ago I realized I ordered the Ride 5 not the Guide 5.  Big difference.  I sent the online store an email but we will see how long it takes to fix that snafu.  Of course the color choices aren't that much better online, but I think I'm going with this one:

KAPOW!  I guess I'd rather have bright colors then oddly boring. I even have an outfit in mind to go with them.  I don't know about you, but having a great outfit makes me run faster!

As far as running today, I planned a 3 miler.  Just an easy 3 miler with no walk breaks.  Easy 10 min/mile pace.  I really like the rhythm I got into when I was running down the hill yesterday with no walk breaks.  I wasn't pushing myself too much, but keeping a good pace.  I do tend to plan out a training plan and then tweak it as I go.  Now I am going to start taking out walk breaks on the slower runs.  It may bite me in the ass, but it really feels nice.  

So I went to the gym and did 3 miles on the treadmill.  Of course I had to go up a little bit every minute.  I think I ended with a 9:20min/mile pace and it still felt controlled.  I tend to hunch over whenever I'm stressed or tired.  I worked hard to keep my shoulders back and down and cadence up.   Overall it was a great run.  Unfortunately it took me a little longer at the gym then I intended and had to rush off the treadmill, change from shorts to yoga pants and get to the studio.  

Well that was a case of a poorly planned sweat machine!!

Am I the only one that sweats like crazy after a run?  It's almost like I need 45 minutes to an hour to bring my body down and stop sweating, and I mean profusely!  Even showers don't stop it!  By the time I got to Yoga I was a few minutes late.  I don't have a lot of yoga experience, but I love what it does to help my running so I try and take a class occasionally.  Tonight I was struggling to keep up AND dripping with sweat.  Dripping.  I wiped off my face and neck 2 or 3 times and finally just took off my glasses because my face was so wet I couldn't keep them on my face.  The girl next to me kept looking at me, but I couldn't tell her facial expression because I couldn't wear my glasses because I was pouring sweat!!  

I am going to try to not do that again.  I did get a good workout.

Audrey3 update.  

We have two large watermelons growing.  They double in size about every 4 days.  One is on the ground - on the right and the other is growing right outside our front door, on the left.  We have rigged a net to keep it from snapping the stem off.  It's a lot of work for some random plant that just started growing, but now it's just a challenge.  We have to be one of only a few in the entire world that have a pumpkin plant strung along the top of their porch with a pumpkin you have to duck under to get to our door. 

I like to call it, unique.

Blog on.............

Audrey 3 update

We have fruit!


Our errant magic pumpkin plant is finally growing fruit.  I think it actually slowed down the plant part too.  We have it stringing across the top of our patio now, thinking it would go all the way across and down the other side, but we will see.  


See HERE.

Little big bigger then a baseball.

This is the concerning one.   Just as you walk out the front door - tada!!  

It would make all the sense in the world to cut it down, but why?  Who else has a pumpkin growing from the ceiling on their porch?

This is the view as you walk out the door.  Last night my husband slung a net around it while it was small to prevent any cracks in the stem.  That is a bungie cord that I snapped onto our porch hooks and the vine is growing around it.  I had no idea pumpkin plants were this tenacious.  

I'm really hoping that one day that pumpkin does NOT knock on the door and yell, "FEED ME"!

Blog on.............

Hot and Lazy

Since I have been home from work last Tuesday, Matt has been in California working.  Even though I miss my husband, I have been enjoying the lazy days.  All my workout clothes thrown on the bed with my favorite blanket and computer.  I laid in bed a lot and browsed the Internet, snacked and napped.  It was a good recovery from that long stretch of flying.

I did manage to clean things up before Matt got home tonight.  I hate coming home to a messy house and so I try to have things cleaned up before he comes home from out of town.  The black spots on the carpet by my bed? That is Ted hair.  We vacuumed 3 times today.  We have brushed him over and over again.  Poor guy.  Poor vacuum.

Another look at Audrey3.  I put a bungee cord up for her to grow along the porch.  We'll see if that works.  I'm pretty sure it won't hold a pumpkin, but I like to see how far it will grow.  I'm fascinated by how big it is!!  Nothing we planted in the garden is busting out like this.  Maybe I should plant my garden in the front flower beds?

Left a little later then I wanted to this morning, but I made it to Liberty Park to do my speed work.  I did Yasso 800 Speed work.  When it comes to running and training it seems that everyone has an opinion.  I've read that they are a waste of time and don't predict anything.  As far as speed work, I love them!  I can push myself without dying.  I am up to 6 X 800. The way I do them is I warm up with a 1/2 (which is 800 meters) mile walk/jog and then run as a pretty good pace for 1/2 mile.  My training pace calculations put me at an 800 meter time of 4:20.  Today I did anywhere from 4:02 to 4:45. After each one I walk for a bit and then slow jog for 1/2 mile.  I finished my 6 miles with an average 11 min/miles for my recovery and around 8:30 for my 800's.  Not too shabby and I burned 612 calories.  Woot Woot!

Today after my 2nd 800, I really needed to pee.  I passed the restrooms when I was running an 800 and I thought I'd make it around again.  Not so much!  The park is big and has wonderful running and bike paths.  About the time I finished my 800 I knew I needed to hit the pottie.  I walked through a short cut to the bathrooms but alas, I'm getting old and barely made it.  Meaning I peed my pants a little.  TMI?  I wouldn't want any other runners who have this happen think that it is totally unheard of.  Luckily it wasn't too much so I finished my run then got home to shower - instead of running errands.  No one wants to smell like pee!!!

It was definitely a beautiful day!  It was almost 90 degrees, but this park has awesome water fountains and I was able to stay hydrated and kept pouring water on my head.  Love the dry heat!

By the time I finished I was hot!  You can't tell in my pic, but I'm pretty wet with sweat.  That worry wrinkle really bothered me when I took the pic, but now that I look at it again, it's not too bad!  At least the braces come off in 3 months.  That will feel so good!  

I came home to shower and do some housework.  It helps to have some music to jam to.

This is the cable that is attached to our stereo/DVD player in the living room.  It's definitely old, but it works and I hate spending money for something just because it's newer.  Unless it's running shoes...of course!!  

Matt gave me a new iPod Nano for my birthday this year.  I find it almost too small.  I need to get a wrist holder so I can quit dropping it.  Trying to hold it and change songs etc, I feel like Zoolander with his little phone!  (great movie BTW)  I took this picture because it's funny how tiny the iPod is and how huge the cable is.  It works great!  

Shootings:

Most of today has been spent rehashing the shootings in Colorado.  Lots of posts on Twitter and Facebook addressing the tragedy.  It is horrible.  Unfortunately I see tragedy way too often.  This is just bigger proportions.  The family that looses a loved one to an accident, sudden illness or a personal attack hurts just as much, but society is a little complacent about these deaths.  Victims who die because they were hit by a drunk driver do not get news channels everywhere to proclaim that alcohol should be banned.  

Accountability cannot be legislated and neither can kindness and compassion. We can only do our best to be kind and compassionate and hope that our Karma is catchy.  

I really could go on and on..but it really is just my view of the world.  Someday I will post on my views on politics.  Maybe. 

Sending peace and love to all the victims and families of tragedy.  All of them.

Blog on...............

Little Shop of Horrors

This plant, which shall now be known as Audrey 3 is what we have guessed is a pumpkin plant. I have mentioned her briefly in a previous post. Matt and I have no idea why three pumpkin plants started growing in our front yard flower bed. We don't carve pumpkins at Halloween and have no idea where the seeds came from. 


I can be a little eccentric at times and I wanted to ride this out. Of course Matt, the linear thinker, is insistent that we keep them trimmed up. Plants aren't suppose to touch concrete or house!! (and I'M the OCD one!)


There is no fruit yet but lots of "male" flower buds. It grows a foot a day and I need to figure out a place for it to go.


I'm enjoying watching it. See where this high risk crazy behavior takes us!


Go Audrey 3!!

Blog on........