Day 5/6 of Marathon Training

Today I did my long run, on the treadmill at Riverpoint Sports & Wellness because I was over on the West Side to get a pedicure with my friends Jessica and Jena. (We went to Nail Time at Montano Plaza-- it's where Jena always goes and they were very good. They're a bit on the expensive side but in my opinion, well worth it.) I ran 4 miles; I alternated my pace but overall my time was 44 minutes. I always run faster and get more of a workout on the treadmill; it's my preferred way to run but I try not to do it too often because I need the altitude and incline training that's more in line with a real road race, and my dog Venus can't exactly run with me on the treadmill.

I signed up for the Run for the Zoo 5K tomorrow. I'm not in race shape but I figure it will give me a good starting time to build off of. I've never done the race but I've heard it's a fun time.

Speaking of races, I received some bad news: our group did not get chosen in the lottery to run the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. :( I'm so bummed because I was really looking forward to it. My sister and I are going to pick another marathon to run around that same time period. So for now I'm training for a marathon, but I'm not sure which one!


Yesterday was a much-needed rest day. I was so busy I didn't get time to run; plus it was time to give my body a break anyway!

I took Katie to the physical therapy vet and they said she is doing very well in her progress of recovering after surgery. :-) They put her in the water treadmill for a little bit and she loved it, even though she usually hates water! They also showed me some exercises to do with her on a fitness ball. The vet pinched her front paw with pliers and she felt a little bit of pain; the vet said that's a good sign for sensation returning to that leg that they were worried about due to nerve damage. So that was great news, and then I brought Katie into the office with me. She was pooped and I think a bit overwhelmed by the visitors; she basically just slept by my desk until I took her home. Everyone at work was so concerned about her and happy to meet her; it was sweet.

After work I did some much-needed grocery shopping and household goods shopping at Walmart. Boy do I hate Walmart and I usually try to avoid it but the vet had said to get Katie's heating pads there. I got $130 worth of other stuff as well! I finally have some food and paper towels and stuff.  When I got back home I did Katie's electro-magnetic therapy treatment while I finished watching the movie Conviction. It is based on the true story of a woman who went to law school solely to prove that her brother, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole, was innocent. It was very inspiring and happy-sad; I found myself crying! I would really recommend it. It was nice to see a movie about lawyers that seemed realistic, although there were a few things that didn't make sense or seem right to me about the process (but I don't do criminal law so I'm not sure.) As a bonus Juliette Lewis has a small but great part in the movie, and I love love love her.

Hilary Swank as a law student preparing to free her brother from prison

Oh, Juliette -- you're so good at playing crazy people!

My BFF Jessica was on a bowling date and she asked if I wanted to meet up for drinks. So I met her at Anodyne downtown. It's a pretty chill place with an eclectic crowd, mostly hippy-types and students. I was in really relaxed clothes and it was funny to walk down Central by all the girls decked out in club clothes. We had a nice chat and a couple drinks and then I went back home to go to bed! That was my Friday night-- I sure am getting old.

Day 4/4 of Marathon Training

Today I did a speed interval run along the ditch bank with Venus. I included six repetitions of two minutes of running as fast as I could, interspersed with jogging, some walking, and some regular running. It wasn't ideal-- I would have liked to steadily alternate minutes and pick up my non-sprinting pace, but it was hard because I'm out of shape, so I'm just glad I did it. :) Overall it was 40 minutes and I think about 3.5 miles. It was a sunny, hot day and I went at about 5:15 pm.  It was a hard workout but a good one!

After the run I went to look at the apartment that my former landlord is renting out. There are some good things about it and some bad things about it but for the price I think it's a good deal, and what's most important is that he doesn't care about the pets, and the place has a fenced, private "backyard" (more like a big dog run, but, that's fine for our purposes. ;)  I am pretty sure I'm going to do it.  I may spend tomorrow looking at a few other places to be sure -- I can never make up my mind about anything though so I should probably just jump off and do it.  My current lease ends May 31st and my last month's rent was paid in advance, so I think I'll sign up for the new place starting May 15th, which gives me two weeks to move everything out. I am a bad procrastinator and I hate doing practical things like moving, so, hopefully this will be ideal. 

Then I went to meet my friend Carey and her husband Sonu at Gecko's in Nob Hill. It was originally supposed to be for the purpose of picking up some things I accidentally left in Carey's car yesterday, but she invited me to have dinner and drinks with the group of anesthesiologists that Sonu was meeting with (he is in the last year of his anesthesiology residency at UNM).  We sat out on the patio and it cooled off and it was a lovely evening to do that!

Then I went to see my friend Jessica's new casita she's renting in Nob Hill. It's really cute--small but practical, and it has wood and cute trim and painting, etc. And it costs less than the place I'm considering. I thought about trying to find something like it but it doesn't have an enclosed yard.

Finally I went bowling with Jess, her sister Richelle who is in town to help her move, and a guy that Jessica is dating. We like to go to Holiday Bowl on Thursday nights because there's karaoke, cosmic bowling and $4 pitchers. Definitely a young crowd though-- high school and college. It was fun but I bowled terribly and stayed out too late!

Oh, today I had a meeting with my financial advisor and I wrote out a big check to my mutual funds company so that I can invest money for the future instead of keep spending it. Go me! :-) I have to really live off of a budget now, something I'm not used to at all, and I'm going to try to keep saving up more money.  Living in the new place will be almost $300 a month cheaper than my current place, and my current landlord was raising my rent by $100 so it will now be $400 a month cheaper! I still have to pay some of my mortgage after my own tenants pay their rent, so alltogether it's rather pricey but not nearly as bad as if I stay where I'm at now. I also plan to axe my gym membership at Sports & Wellness because it's way too expensive, and join Planet Fitness for only $10 a month. Plus I'm really going to try to cook more instead of going out so much and spending so much money on food and alcohol when I'm out, but, that is probably going ot be the most difficult goal to accomplish because it seems like I always have something going on.

Finally, I've lost two pounds in three days. :-) I still have so many more to go but it feels good to get a start at it, and I know I've lost them the right way, so they won't be coming back if I keep this up!

Day 3/3 of NWM Training

Today I ran almost three miles with my good friend Carey (2.83 according to her Evo). It took us 32 minutes, which is an 11 minute per mile pace. I realized how very out of shape I am - she kicked my butt! ;) I need to keep running with her for the challenge!

Me, Carey, Venus and Tux at the Doggie Dash a couple years ago

We ran on the ditch bank near my house and then to some lateral ditches that were hard to maneuver because they were narrow and on the edge of water with tree trunks sticking into the path. We had my dog Venus with me and Carey is like a dog whisperer- she can get Venus to behave, not go after other dogs, not pull her arm off trying to get into the water, etc. I am really trying to learn how to do that because I tend to let Venus run wild.

We went running after work, at about 7, and then we went to Ezra's Place with Carey's friend Darbie (who's a vet and an awesome person--it's the first time I'd met her). Ezra's Place is this little hole-in-the-wall dive (it's actually in a bowling alley, Rt. 66 Bowl) in the North Valley (4th & Montano-ish, across from Smith's).  Carey is in love with their food, especially the fish tacos. I had Ezra's Salad which came with grilled asparagus and avocado, yum. There was an acoustic guitar player who was playing folk versions of the Eagles and other bands. At one point only the three of us were left in the place and he kept asking us for requests and not knowing how to play them (Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows). He said he had a repertoire of over 19,000 songs and Darbie jokingly said "Not 19,000 cool songs, apparently." It was really fun. Then when the restaurant stopped serving alcohol we moved over to the bar in the bowling alley and Carey was delighted to find a Photo Hunt video machine; she loves that game. (To me both photos always look exactly alike!) Our name for the scoreboard was CarDarTa and I kept saying "Ta isn't really doing much to win these points." ;) 

It was a really nice time and we stayed out (in our running clothes -- Darbie was in her riding clothes because she had just come from the barn) until 11 pm which I hadn't been expecting. I need to spend more time with Katie-dog! It is so hard on the weekdays when I work and then go see friends. I will give her extra time this weekend. It was nice to hang out with Carey, which is a kind of rare thing these days, and to meet Darbie. I need to really keep running hard and watch what I eat-- I think the fact that I'm about 25 pounds overweight has a lot to do with my slow performance on runs! I haven't weighed this much in my whole life! :-( But I'm determined to get into the best shape of my life, ever. :-) Thirty seems to be a good age to do that!