Take It All

"Didn't I give it up
Tried my best
Gave you everything I had
Everything and no less"


 Summer, although somewhat at the end for most people, has been in full swing for me over the past couple of weeks or so.  For weeks not much happened, but then August starts and everything becomes super busy... and exhausting.  A lot of the busy isn't anything extra special, work and house stuff, but nothing earth shattering.  There are some notables, though.

Hubs' uncle and cousin visited us from Rio de Janiero Brazil.  Between work and everything else, we found time to share some great moments together.

My daughter Renee, Uncle Pedro, my grandson Evan, and cousin Ana Christina.

We managed to purchase tickets to Adele in concert. I was initially irritated that I could only purchase over priced tickets through an unaffiliated on line ticket agency and not through the venue ticket sales, but it was a concert worth attending. At first Hubs was thinking I was dragging him to a chick show, but he was pleasantly surprised.  Even though Adele was accompanied by her band, she could have easily sang without the band. She was THAT fabulous.  In addition, Adele's personality is nothing like her songs of relationships gone wrong.  The girl is genuine, hilarious (let the "f*** bomb" fly a lot)  and really connected with the audience.  She also dedicated  the song "Make You Feel My Love" to Amy Winehouse. The cool thing is that she had us  - the audience -  turn on the lights to our cell phones and cameras during that song.  I didn't get a picture of that, it would not have turned out on my cell phone, but the affect was amazing.

@ the SDSU outdoor amphitheater. Adele is down there, I promise. Not the best seats, but I'm glad we managed to get tickets without having to apply for a loan. 

I ran in the America's Finest City Half Marathon on August 21, 2011.  I honestly did not train well for this particular half marathon.  I guess my head wasn't into it as much as it was for the SDRNR half marathon this past June.  I did almost no speed training and it really affected my time.   My goal was to complete the Triple Crown series, since I had never done that before.  Done. Check. I have no mile to mile account of this race.  I just could not find my groove at any point in the race.  Sometimes it takes me the first couple of miles to get my bearings then I'm OK.  No groove.  I dragged.  No reason.  No good excuses.  Perhaps not being mentally invested in this race affected my performance.  I haven't looked at all of my stats, but this could possibly be my second slowest half marathon.   I must say that the support on the route (water/electrolyte stations, restrooms, etc) was well done.  I'm also loving the Triple Crown Medal.  I think this has to be my absolute favorite medal.  One of my friends said it looked rather Olympic.

I completed these three races...

... to receive this.

There were a few notables on race day.  Waking up at o'dark thirty so we wouldn't be late for the bus to the starting area was extra special since I didn't sleep well.  We had cool, overcast skies at the start of the race, which was somewhat of a bonus since August can be toasty.  The warm up and stretcing exercises with the track club was nice, and helped me to wake up.  During the race here were a couple of guys who were running ahead of me who stopped at the half way point to do burpees.  I'm not sure how many they did, I wasn't going to stick around to count, but they full on, proper burpees without looking tired.  Show offs...  I got it done in 2:30:00, and that included walking up part of the 6th Ave. hill.  It wasn't the hill that got me, it was just that I had no umph to spare even well before that late point in the race with one mile to go.  I actually felt like walking the rest of the race, but managed to focus on and follow someone just in front of me who was running at a pace I could deal with.

I'm having kind of a tough time bouncing back from this race.  I usually recover rather quickly from a half marathon, but I've been feeling rather lack luster since that day.

I've been asked to do review on this book:

I'm still reading it and will probably give a full review on my next blog post.  Several pages have been dog-eared or tabbed.  There are some great quotes and a few pet-peeves in the writing. I should have been finished reading it by now, but I haven't had much time to sit still and just read, or even blog.  I just need to remember to take the book with me to work and read it during my lunch hour.

My niece Amber, (Hubs side of the family) who was training for her first triathlon for later on this year, ended up with a femoral fracture, similar to what I went through back in 2008.  She had a similar surgery, too.  In her case, what caused the break to manifest further was a freak accident where a kid (playfully) jumped on her after she completed a brick (training).  There's speculation that she had the beginnings of a fracture, but the kid jumping on her caused a dislocation and possibly contributing to the fracture.  Surgery was on  8/19.  She's  going through a lot of what I went through and I've been talking to her a lot.   I keep reminding her that she will get through this and complete a triathlon, but I know that sometimes it's hard to sit still, be happy and heal while all of  your friends are out there training. I feel for her.  Been there, too.

My niece Anne, my brother's eldest daughter, is officially engaged.  I'm not sure when they're planning the wedding and any details, but we'll attend if they have a big to do. Anne will be the very first out of all of my nieces and nephews from both sides of the family to get married.

Anyone till there?
I hope to get back to regular blogging soon.

Song from Tuesday, August &, 2011:
Heaven - Los Lonely Boys


PEACE

Heaven

Summer is finally in full swing in my neighborhood.  Going to the beach, backyard barbecues, early morning running before the heat kicks in, outdoor concerts and visiting with family and friends is on the agenda.

Speaking of backyard barbecues, Meg - Meg Runs and her husband Steve (Boy Scout) hosted a blogger meet up at their home.  It's so funny how we live within such close proximity to each other and have never met.  We've probably been at the same run events, either running or spectating, but have never bumped into each other.  This time the happy occasion of Jill - Run With Jill and her son visiting California was just what we all needed to meet.   Also in attendance were Chris - The Manly Runner and his girlfriend Alycia, Anne - Run-DMZ, Cindi - AKA Alice and her husband Michael (Walter), and  Glenn - The Running Fat Guy.   Hubs manned the camera and managed a few great picture.

 I was able to catch up with Anne. 

"Walter", Meg, "AKA Alice", "Boy Scout"

Meg's back yard is enchanting.  It reminded me of what my grandparent's house used to be when I was young.  I was inspired. 

 Boy Scout manning the barbecue as Meg looks on.  The grilled pizzas were awesome.

Photo op with Jill.  

We had a good giggle about Victor Newman. :)

 All of us

 Left to right: Jill, Meg, Steve, Chris, Alycia, me, Hubs, Anne, Glenn, Cindi, Michael

I'm wishing I had more initiative and snapped photos, but I was enjoying the company of wonderful friends.  It's kind of funny how somethings just fall into place and you just know you're going to get along.  Hubs made the comment that we're always going to events, parties, and homes of people I have never met in person, but through the internet.  I have trusted that these meet-ups are going to go well, and that no one is extremely off kilter.  There are no overtly bizarre stalkers or ax murderers in the bunch.  The evening was lovely, conversations flowed, and we left feeling warm and fuzzy.  I appreciated how Meg and Steve made everyone feel so welcome, and it was fun having everyone together. 

Running?

Oh yeah, I run.

Last week I fit in about 20+ miles, even though Daily Mile says 19.5.   There's about 3 unaccounted miles that I never took the time to log in.   On Saturday I ran 10.5 miles with the track club up the hill that goes to Fort Rosecrans.  It's a long, gradual hill, and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I was done.  I've never run that route before.  One year I think we were out of town when the group ran that route, and the next year I was cruising because I was still getting over the broken foot debacle, made it to the first water station at mile 3 and went back to the start at Harbor Island. It felt good to get over yet another hurdle.  I need to maintain at least 20 miles a week, which can be a challenge with a wacky work schedule, but  It's doable.

It wouldn't be summer without an outdoor concert.  This year was Los Loney Boys joined with Los Lobos for fabulous music and a great time. Having decent seats wasn't too shabby, either. 

Of course, since this was somewhat of a stay-caytion, we had a room facing the bay...

Still not a wake yet, but so glad to be there! No, I didn't go out for a run. 

Song from Saturday, July 23, 2011:
Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

PEACE

Running In Circles

I'm kind of wondering... what happened to Summer? I know other parts of the country are experiencing typical Summer weather, but we're not. Cool, blustery, drizzly, more humid than normal weather is what we have right now. It's actually perfect running weather if you plan on an easy run, but for everything else it's kind of a damper, pun intended.

My new workout schedule is going OK. The only problem I'm having is pool time. The pool I want to go to isn't opened when I have the time available, and now that it's summer the swim lesson sessions occupy most of the pool. The gym pool is available and usually crowd free, but every time I swim there I come away with irritated, red eyes, and I wear goggles. It takes a days to recoup from that! Ick! I'll have to start looking around for another near by pool that does not require membership.

I trekked out to the gym for intervals per my new schedule.  I thought it might be easier to keep track of the intervals on the treadmill instead of taking it to the streets.   One minute warm up, then I did 4 sets of intervals x 6 minutes moderate pace and  3 minutes faster pace. Lows at about 5.2, highs at about 6.5 and 7. It was just OK. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm taking it slow. I cooled down off the treadmill and walked around the gym track for 5 minutes. Stretched afterward. 
3.46 miles
37:00 minutes
10:41 pace

I'm still working on nutrition. Something is off kilter, but I can't figure out what it is, yet. In the past I could pin-point exactly what was throwing me off and make adjustments, but this time I can't. I'm attempting to eat as clean as possible, using less processed foods, eating out less, no fast foods, no junk foods, keeping on top of my water intake, and so on. I've been tracking everything on Daily Burn just to make sure I'm on top of the macro-nutrients. I'll probably track my nutrition for a month. I find tracking nutrition to be tedious, but it's helpful when trying to pin-point what my weaknesses are.

Robin over at Running Circles Around Turtles featured me on her blog yesterday.  (Check it out!) I was honored that she she featured me and what I had to say. Most of her interviewees give concise, short answers. Ummmmm... I was a bit wordy by comparison, but there's a lot of explaining to do. I was pretty excited to see the interview on her blog and how she took the time to enlarge and bold certain words and phrases. Pretty cool, Robin. Thanks!

 At the 4th of July run, I saw a friend from the track club who I had not seen in a few months.  She actually remembered my sea green and white Pearl Izumis, and asked why I wasn't wearing them.   They have been retired to gardening duty, and this is what they now look like:

They're so beat up, but still one of my favorite pairs of shoes!

Yesterday's Song:
Morning View - Greg Howe

PEACE

Good Vibrations

While I was not blogging, here are just a few of the activities I participated in:

An excuse to party.
My brother came into town for a few days, joined us for a track club run (which just about killed him because he was *ahem* showing off and went out too fast.) The next day we had an impromptu barbecue, otherwise ALL of you would have been invited. My dad, in true retirement mode, brought a case of beer, his Jack La Lane juicer, a ton of fruit and a Costco sized bottle of rum. A good time was had by all.

My bro donning the SDTC shirt that I made him buy.

Dad chillin' with a brew.

Erik and Sam jammin'.

Sam taught me how to play this instrument.

Spending time with the kid.

It's all about getting to lick the spatula after mixing up the chocolate chip cookie dough. Yes, we baked in the heat of the summer, no air conditioner.

Downloading about 900 photos from Evan's Fisher-Price camera. No kidding. 900+. MANY of the pictures were like this one:

Wonder what he was eating prior to this picture?

Making a discovery...

Fake toenails! I had no clue there were such things!

Dragging my husband to the beach at the crack of dawn on Labor day to boogie board, just so we wouldn't have to deal with the crowds. It was awesome.

See? 7 AM on Labor Day at Mission Beach!


Surf's up!

The fake toenails looked good at the beach. My big toenails are not grown out from when I lost them during marathon training back in April.

Cleaning out some closets and drawers. My husband got rid of a bunch of old and beat up cotton race t shirts, amongst other clothing items. I got rid of a bunch of old work blouses, tops and these:

I did three back to back twelve week Body For Life challenges in 2000 and 2001, lost 30 pounds, got my body fat down to 16%, and all's I got were these lousy t-shirts. By the way, I'm only 5'3" and the t shirts they sent me were XL. I think I wore them as a night shirt a few times, then they ended up at the bottom of the drawer. The program itself is good, and once I figured out how to make it work for me, then it was great. Would I recommend BFL to everyone? Yes and no. It's not the end all in workouts and each person has to find whatever workout plan works best for them. Just about any reputable workout plan is good. The trick is that you just have to do it. There is a lot of work involved. PS... I'd love to be back at 16% body fat, but it's more work than I want to do right now.

Because everyone's a winner!

"Where the surf meets the turf at Del Mar."

No race pics. I was too busy not betting. LOL.

Signing up for the Shelter Island 5k on November 8, 2009, you know, the race that has a full on champagne brunch afterward? Yeah, THAT one! AND I plunked down the cash for the Silver Strand Half Marathon on November 15, 2009, the run that goes from Coronado to Imperial beach and is mostly FLAT.

Wanna join me?

WATCHING AS THE KID RETURNED TO SCHOOL AS A FIRST GRADER!

The obligatory first day of school photo op.

Yesterday's song:
Reason To Believe - Rod Stewart, The Youngbloods

PEACE

Penny For Your Thoughts

...It's more like my two cents

Miscellaneous blab:

Summer has finally arrived in Southern California and we're all complaining how hot it is! I know we're rather spoiled here, but guess what? It is hot! When it gets into the 90s on the coast, which is usually the coolest place to be, it's in the 100s everywhere else. I sought refuge in the air conditioned gym to do my "track" workout*.

Brief gym rant:
To the woman next to me on the treadmill at the gym: Get off your damn cell phone! Even with an iPod plugged into my ears and Nickleback's "Burn It To The Ground" is blasting away, I can still hear your conversation! ("But I love you more... but I love you even more... but I love you more than that"...) PS: Ease up on dousing your entire body in vanilla scented cologne. I wanted to pass out. After my 10 minute warm up on the treadmill next to vanilla cell phone diva, I switched to another treadmill.

I would like to see more run events with chipped timing. After the 4 mile Fire Run on Sunday, I turned off my GPS after I made it out of the finishing corrals, giving me extra time and distance, and it came out to about a 9:02 minute mile. Technically, I finished under a 9 minute mile, probably about an 8:55 minute mile. When the results were first posted I was given a 9:06 minute mile. I just rechecked my results and I now have a 9:07 minute mile finishing at 36:25. I know it's a few seconds, but when you're looking for PR's and improvements every second counts. I think I've blogged about this before, but with so many more people running, the margin for error in manual time recording goes up. Can someone explain to me how much more complicated is it to come into the here and now and have all races chipped? If it's expense, I'd love to be given the option to have a timing chip and pay a few extra bucks for it.

I have an appointment with radiology and my endocrinologist scheduled for next month. These appointments include a DEXA scan (bone density testing) and a mammogram. I'm not quite sure if the endocrinologist is going to order more follow up tests, as he did last year. Good times ahead...

Popsicles, lemonade, and Propel are being inhaled at an alarming rate my house as I type...

Cupcakes. I need to hit up a bakery. There's no way I'm baking anything right now. I just want one and I'll be fine. It just takes one to get the craving out of my sytem.

Photo from Women's Day

My friend Rich, the guy who ran with me at the Fire Run 4 miler, has been seen at my blog before. A few years ago I made him a pirate (Jack Sparrow) costume coat:


My brother will be in town for a few days. I've invited him to run with us and the track club on Saturday morning. It should be interesting. He's one of those uber fast types with a whole lot of energy.

Mel of Tall Mom On The Run is having a giveaway for her 200th blogpost. The swag is a Pearl Izumi running shorts. Go on over and enter and please mention that I (Irene of Magazine Smiles) sent you!

Sunday's song:
Like A Virgin - Madonna - Barbie2be

PEACE

*It was too hot to run outside on an actual track, so I used the virtual track on the computer readout of the treadmill instead.

Fire

Guess what I'll be doing Sunday morning?

Wednesday's song:
Your Possible Pasts - Pink Floyd

PEACE

Let The Children Play

Yesterday

Activity: Run
Date: 08/10/09 06:33 PM
Distance: 2.90 miles
Time: 0:30:15
Speed: 5.8 mph
Pace: 10' 25 min/mile
Calories: 277

In addition to working out at RU, I did a 30 minute easy run much later on at the bay after another Runner's World Magazine wear test running shoe distribution. I ended up with these:



I'll keep you posted on how I do with these. So far they're OK!

Today

Activity: Run - Treadmill
Date: 08/11/09 12:00 PM
Distance: 3.11 miles
Time: 0:30:00
Speed: 6.2 mph
Pace: 9' 38 min/mile
Calories: 285

I did the interval workout B gave me. It was killer, and my calves still aren't recovered from last week's long run with the track club, so I had to do the last few sets of intervals a tad slower. The treadmill I ended up on was programmed to shut off at 30 minutes, and I needed to be on there for 34 minutes. Had I known this I could have planned better. Most of the treadmills aren't programmed like that. Oh well. Since this sort of threw off my rhythm, I just did a cool down for 5 minutes at a walking pace and called it a day.

Tuesday afternoon with a friend

"See, Alee?"
"Cars go really fast down the slide!"

"Wheeeee!"

"Can I come in?"

"Jump!"

"Bye-bye!"

Yesterday's song:
Life Is Good - Kenny Chesney - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

Dream Of The Blue Turtles

Activity: Run
Date: 06/27/09 07:48 AM
Distance: 5.24 miles
Time: 0:55:43
Speed: 5.6 mph
Pace: 10' 38 min/mile
Calories: 501



The track club run started at Harbor Island, but I opted to go only as far as the Embarcadero at Ash St. and back. I suppose I could have gone further with some of the other runners, but I don't have any thing longer than a 5k planned. I really don't need to pound out the miles right now. This week BiM actually let me post a map of where we ran. Our run went in a different direction today because another section near Spanish Landing is prepping for a Tri tomorrow, and they're already setting up, otherwise we probably would have run in that direction. I felt OK for this run, I was running at a good pace, not fast, but I didn't want to wipe myself out, either, especially since I had a good (hard) workout at RU yesterday. My running form is off, and I suppose it will take a long time to correct it to almost normal. Someone volunteering with the track club was kind enough to take pictures today, and I'll post those as soon as they become available.

Other stuff:

A brief conversation with my grandson this morning upon looking at the cover of an April issue of The Reader, a San Diego free publication:

The Kid: "Mimi?"
Me: "Yes?"
The Kid: "What's that a picture of?" "Is it a lizard?" "It looks wrong."
Me: "No, that's a sea turtle."
The Kid: "Did you know that when turtles flip over they become boats?"

It's finally starting to feel like summer.

Thursday's song:
No One Ever Told Me - Wheat - Barbie2be

PEACE

Summer Girl

TIART:

"This week's theme is ... Gearing Up For Summer. With the really warm summer temperatures around the corner, it is time to dust off our warm weather gear, tips and know how in order to transition and run well into summer. Share your best tips for how you transition from cooler to warmer temperatures as well as stay cool during those hot weather runs."

Aside from the usual tips of staying hydrated, running earlier in the morning before it gets too hot, or after the sun goes down, DO NOT forget the sunscreen, preferably with an SPF of 30 or higher, and reapply if necessary. I prefer sunscreens that are water-resistant. I currently use Kinesys, but I'll use the kid's Banana Boat in a pinch.


Tuesday's song:
Survivor - Destiny's Child - Run-DMZ

PEACE