It's a Proven Fact

that I blog more when a) I have two seconds to rub together, and b) I have my Garmin handy to give me data and feedback on my running. Without the empirical data, I feel like I don't have anything to say about my activity, and since it's been AWOL for so long, and things have been covered in crazy around here, the blogging has been near-to-non-existent. Hopefully since we uncovered the Garmin deep in the center console of the Pontiac and have cut out the weekly airplane commute I will have more to say around here.

Today ended up being a good run of 7.5 miles, with a little more on the end to walk it off and cool down before reaching the front door. I didn't have any goals for today's run except to go longer than I did last week, which was 5.75. I still haven't isolated a goal race for the fall, although I'm thinking hard about it. But I want to be prepared in case the goal race ends up being an early spring marathon, so I need to be pumping up the mileage just as a preemptive strike. Also, I know I want to do the Love the Half series again and those are starting up soon, so I need to work my way back to that distance at a minimum.

Anyway, today's run was an easy effort, with the intention as I said to go only a little longer than last week. I am going to have to get used to the streets around the house again, since that is going to be my playground from here on out. No more runs in Boulder, or Denver, or any other place. So I took the long loop north and west of my house. It hits two parks on the way, so i had a chance to stop for water and didn't have to carry my own. The Elder Child and hubby left at 6:45 for a Scout event, and TDP DinoBoy is with his godmother, so I really had the morning and wasn't in too much of a rush to get out the door except to beat the sun, which I knew was going to be relentless this morning without any clouds for respite. I left a little after 7:00 so it was light out but still mostly cool in the shade.

I had the Garmin and the iPod, but I tried not to pay attention to the timings of my laps. Tried, but failed. I know there's a lot going on that would make my overall times slower (hello, 170s...) but it's still tough to see 10:40s and 10:45s on the Garmin when I used to see 10:15 and on occasion even 10:05 for longer runs. But I'm not going to worry about it, really. I'm going to just get the distances done for the meanwhile, and focus on nutrition and on the other program that we've started (the other program, with Shaun T, who made me cry yesterday morning when my glutes seized up every time I tried to stand up), and let my fitness grow through the fall. I'm thinking my times will speed up naturally if I start dropping weight using these intervals.

anyhoo, splits from today are below for posterity. Not sure what happened there at Mile 6 -- I had to wait at a light forever, so I'm thinking the autopause didn't engage, or I have no idea. There's no reason that lap should be so glacial when the rest are more or less averaging about a 10:45. Eh, no worries, right?

Mile 1: 10:42
Mile 2: 10:54
Mile 3: 10:44
Mile 4: 10:22
Mile 5: 11:07 - uphill climb here, plus I slowed down to talk to some cyclists
Mile 6: 10:48
Mile 7: 11:54 - wtf?
Mile .5: 5:22 (10:45 pace)

Big Changes

More details to follow as soon as everything is finalized. For now, the executive summary is that I am no longer traveling! I get to work from home 100%, with only a few short, scheduled trips each year. This is AMAZING news, and it was definitely part of the long-term plan, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

This is going to have an impact on everything in my life, the least of which is my activity, running schedule, eating, etc. I will, ostensibly, at least, have the ability to join a running group again, and actually participate in the weekday runs (ie. SPEED workouts!). I will, ostensibly, also have the opportunity to get into the pool on a regular basis. I will, ostensibly, have more freedom in my schedule by eliminating the 6-7 hours I spend weekly getting to-from the airport and between the cities where I work and live.

For now, though, I leave you with the current project around these parts, which was (painfully and very humblingly) previewed today, but officially begins on Monday, as a joint venture/challenge between me and the Hubby:

The Next Big Thing

I. Cannot. Wait!!!

Celebrating 15 Years of "The Look"

So, my mom does this thing when she goes to weddings. She says she has a way to tell if a marriage is going to work or not by seeing if the newlywed couple has "The Look." The ceremony is unimportant -- yes, it's nice and all the right readings are done, and the words are said, "Love is patient, blah, blah, blah..." That's not what's critical. The first kiss is nice, and you can tell a lot about the couple by the kind of kiss it is -- prim and properly chaste or open-mouthed and kinda skanky-hungry for church -- but that's not what foretells the future. No, the moment of truth, according to my mother (who has been married for 46 years, by the way) is at the reception. She waits until the bride and groom have their first dance, and then she watches.

During that first dance, my mother watches to see where the bride's eyes land when the music starts. She watches to see where the groom looks. If the rest of the room disappears when they look into each others' eyes during that first dance, they have it. They have "The Look." The Look that says that no matter what comes next, it all comes down to the two of them. Nothing else and nobody else matters. Nothing else in the world exists -- there is nothing in the world at that moment besides the two of them, locked in step with each other at the beginning of their lives together.

My husband has never been comfortable dancing, and while I spent many a night in clubs dancing to 80s music, we never really danced together when we were dating. It just wasn't something we did; it wasn't our thing. We had more fun at the ballpark, at the movies, at the hockey rink, or just hanging out with friends. But, on our wedding day, after the ceremony, first kiss, and pronouncement of us as husband and wife, after the sweltering open-air convertible drive across town (complete with horns honking and people cheering and waving to us on the streets of Arlington), after the mariachis finished playing, we did dance. And we gazed at each other during that dance, and the entire universe melted away. When the song was over, I looked at my mother, and she had tears in her eyes. I didn't even have to ask. I could tell by her reaction, that, yes, we had The Look.

In the 15 years since that first dance, we've had our share of ups and downs. Sometimes it seems that there are more downs than ups. Sometimes, things are going swimmingly and then we get knocked down with a harsh reality. Most days, though, we just mosey along and have a pretty normal, pretty satisfying life. But throughout it all, up, down or happily in the middle, we've always known that at the end of the day, we have each other. We have the life we've built, with each other and for each other, and that is all that matters. We have our home and our family, and he has me and I have him.

And sometimes, not often, but sometimes, we dance together.

Happy Anniversary to my husband of 15 years. You are my love, my life, my soul and my heart.

rough patch

hey there! kinda had a sucky week. I won't go into it here again, 'cause it will likely make me re-live it and make me sad and gloomy Gus all over again. I'm trying to work through it, the only way I know how, one day at a time. and every now and again take stock of the blessings in my life instead of on the trials.

I have decided that I need a race to work toward, though. Without one, I'm kind of floating, flittering, not targeted or focused. So that's the goal for this week, to sort through and determine what kind of race I want to do -- do I want to work on speed and try to beat my 10K pr? do I want to brave the water again and try to do a late-season sprint tri? do I want to do another marathon? and if so? when and where? so many questions, so many things to consider.

Meanwhile, I'm running when I can and walking when I can and (as usual) trying to watch what I eat. and I'm just doing what I need to get through one day and to the next one. It's going to get easier sooner or later, it just has to, and I just have to hold tight until it does.

ORN -- 5.78 miles in 1:01:39 -- felt slow and sluggish even though it really wasn't. It was just so hot by the time I left that the sun was beating down on me and making me feel slow.