um, so it's May...

wow, how the heck does that happen? eeep. Lots going on around here, let me tell you. No offers on the house yet, but the showings continue (and we have procured a helpful Saint to bury, just in case -- yes, I know we have to have actual faith in it for it to work).

We drove by the new house Saturday morning on the way to breakfast, and it has a foundation now, with pipes sticking out of it in all the proper places. The house two doors down has full walls and sheathing, so I'm imagining they'll move on to our house next. The building manager tells us the project plan calls for 130 days, but he's been finishing in less than 100. Eeeep!

We've started training for the AvonWalk in earnest. We did 4 miles walking last Saturday, and 5.5 on Saturday morning. We're doing the scheduled walking during the week on our own, except that I've been running until now, since I had one more half-marathon to complete the Love the Half challenge. Now that I'm done with that (more below), I'll switch to plain walking until July to make sure I work the proper muscles and get used to the different gait required for walking 39 miles in two days.

I've been working on upper body strength, with a focus on high reps and lower weights for bicep curls, tricep curls, lateral arm raises, boxing punches with weights, and chest raises. I've also been working on my (wait for it...) PUSH-UPS!!! I've worked up to 20 girly-style, and this week is when I start mixing in a few real ones (just a few!!). I'm also working on abs at least three times a week, with 50 crunches, 50 bicycle crunches, 50 reverse crunches, and now 20 full sit-ups. I know -- I'm freaking myself out here. And, we found a veggie/fruit stand guy about three blocks from the office, so we've been having fruit smoothies (fruit and protein mix and nothing else) for lunch. This week, I'm going to try the -- GULP -- veggie juice mixes. One of my friends has been having them and hasn't died yet, so I figured it's a good way to get a nice dose of veg into my diet. Of course, my reward scale-wise for this is (wait for it...) MAINTAINING. Sigh. Whatever. I'm going to keep at it and keep tweaking and I know results will be around the corner.

The boy has enjoyed his bicycle tremendously. He's asked for bicycle shorts and shirts for his birthday, and made me go out on a short ride (12 miles in an hour) this afternoon even though I had just finished a half marathon. And I'm glad he did, because we had a great time. He had a convincing argument, too -- he'd done 4.5 hours between hockey skills camp and team practice yesterday, so he said he needed a recovery ride. He said it would keep my legs from locking up, too. And I think he was right. I've been right as rain all afternoon since we got back. We'll see how I fare tomorrow, though!!

OK, so now on to the splits for posterity. SW Episode III is on Spike right now, and TDP DinoBoy is waiting for me to come sit with him, so it will be quick. The race was the Heels 'n' Hills Women's Half, and it was overall a pretty good race. Water stops were a bit too spaced out for my taste, and there were a hella lot more hills than I expected (Note to Self: Read the NAME of the race next time, smarty-pants). But, I finished in 2:21, so it wasn't my fastest, nor was it my slowest, and it was a nice way to wrap up the spring season.

I do want to give a big shout-out to my new friends Marianne and Amy, though. I was doing 10/1 intervals when I noticed I kept leapfrogging the same two folks, as is usual. But they were doing 3/1s, and seemed to be having a much better time than I was. And they were going at the same pace, ultimately, as I was. So I asked them if I could tag along after about mile 5 or 6. They were great company, and the race just flew by in these little short increments. We kept a good pace throughout, but then Amy had to drop back for a bit about mile 10. She insisted Mariane and I kept going, since she'd just been battling a cough and was having trouble breathing so she was walking way more than she was running, and she didn't want to hold us back. Marianne and I kept the same intervals throughout, chatting when we could and just keeping moving together when we couldn't. It was a good way to run the race, with a little company vs. just pounding out the miles on my own.

So, here's the splits:
Mile 1 - 9:38
Mile 2 - 10:24
Mile 3 - 10:23
Mile 4 - 10:23
Mile 5 - 10:23 (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!)
Mile 6 - 10:44
Mile 7 - 10:53
Mile 8 - 10:47
Mile 9 - 10:39
Mile 10 - 13:02 (I hit this one late, and this was when we said good-bye to Amy)
Mile 11 - 10:12 (less than a full mile, sine it had some of Mile 10 in it)
Mile 12 - 11:33 (last big hill/overpass before the finish)
Mile 13 - 11:16
Mile .1 - 1:27

So there you go. Is that pacing on the early miles freaky, or what?! I was cracking myself up when I reviewed it in the car. I'm wondering if i would have been able to maintain it if I hadn't met up with Mariane and Amy, but I doubt it. I was already starting to fade by that time.

Gotta run. I pinky promise I will update more often, if I can. And comment more. Peace out!!