Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[striker1064]

Guys. I'm going to have real internet. We've been on 10mgbps forEVER, and this is going to be 500.

I remember making this jump! Are you prepared for websites to load before you've even thought of where you want to go?

 

[Herding_Cats]

I remember making this jump! Are you prepared for websites to load before you've even though of where you want to go?

I'M SO READY.

And our internet line is almost 0.25mi long, so with line-loss we have more like 7meg by the time it hits the house. It's so awful that when we try to stream the kids' away basketball games that there can only be that specific device online or it just buffers the whole time.

 

[Herding_Cats]

DD got her first race bib today! Half Mille kids fun run, and she made it (running) through most of it before she started informing me that she was tired and her tosies hurt and we need to walk.

 

[azrivest]

to your daughter's promising future of finding reasons not to run I can be an expert at that sometimes

 

[Herding_Cats]

Did my 2mi in DS2’s endorphin speed 3s tonight (ahh the benefits of wearing the same size shoe) and NOPE. They hammer in the spot on my Achilles that almost every shoe does Otherwise, it’s was an interesting shoe to run in. They feel completely different from my 1080s, and some of those changes (weight and responsiveness) were fantastic. But I also felt like my big toes were going off the edge of the sole, and that heel cup won’t work (and I knew that just walking up the driveway.)

I want to start figuring out what my next shoe is going to be so I don’t suddenly get to MW and have a bunch of dead and nearly dead shoes and no alternatives.

Eta: fit2run has a few colors in my size on clearance, but it’s all of the ugly (imo) colors, and doesn’t solve the problem long-term. But it would get me through mw.

 

[Herding_Cats]

training adjascent:

got my cricut out today to work on some ideas for my rapunzel and dopey skirts (and to put DD's name on her water bottle wit hthe vinyl she picked out) and i'm having all sorts of problems. I decided to try some of the sample stuff they sent with the machine instead of the vinyl on the cutting mat. Oh. Yeah. There's the problem. The front roller bar (the one that feeds the material through the machine while it cuts) is completely out of its hub on one end. So now I'm trying to take it apart with the random tools around the house (DH has all the good tools in his work truck) and have managed to strip out a screw that I HAVE to get out in order to take the housing off to MAYBE fix the issue. On a machine that I've used 5x.

ETA: just got off the phone with tech support and they're replacing the whole machine. Woohoo!

 

[Naomeri]

That’s some great customer service!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Weekly wrap-up because this coming week is the re-start of business, and NEXT week will be the ramp back to bonker-ville. Also, I "got to" work an extra day this week, and made somewhere around 1600 pies. My hands are basically dead, and my feet/legs have been screaming at me since Friday. Good times.

Monday:
Summer run club. I think DH went with us? 3.5mi easy-ish. First mile was definitely too fast, but we just have a hard time running together in general (even when he pushes the stroller to slow him down, it's not really slow enough for me.) Convinced him to run on the road beside the trail because the stroller just pushes way better, and the trail is pretty loose right now. ALSO, I managed to snag a night for our September trip that hadn't been available, so now we don't have to change rooms and we can all nap before MNSSHP.

Tuesday:
2mi easy. Well. It was 2mi anyway. I forget what I did, but my first mile was kind of easy, but mile 2 was 12:33, and that's more like the no-mans land between LR and M pace and not easy pace. Whoops! This is also the day the the 3 youngest kiddos ran a local race. DS2 finished in 18:32 (a 34sec PR from last year), DS3 was a little over 30min, and DD ran in the kids half mile run run (pics in previous post.)

Wednesday:
3.5mi EASY. Yes. I actually did it this time. 13:55 avg pace. Go me. It was also at 8pm because it was ridiculously hot and humid this week with a couple of thunder storms helping briefly with the temperatures and then making us pay for it with the swamp-like moisture in the air. (FYI, that wather sucks a lot to try and keep pie crust cold enough to work with.)

Thursday: rest day

Friday:
A day in which I made around 450 pies, and it almost wasn't enough. Ended up working about 3 hours longer than usual to get more pies done, and since I was limping when I got out of the car when I got home, AND we needed to get groceries, I decided that work today counted for my cross training. I was going to try for 2mi or a walk, but my legs and feet were too angry and surprise I got to make pies the next day.

Saturday:
5mi LR I worked, and then took a nap. And then packaged up 5 pounds of zoodles for the freezer because my garden is out of control! I've been moving my long run from Saturday to Sunday for some reason....stuff keeps coming up, but from a timing perspective, it kind of sucks because then I run Sunday-Wednesday and then end up taking 3 days in a row off most of the time. Also used some coconut oil and a butter knife to do my version of graston scraping on my calf and foot because ow. I think it helped because it was a lot less angry on Sunday.

Sunday:
5mi LR(ish). OK. So I'm dumb and keep doing the same thing. But DH and DS1&3 wanted to go to a baseball game, and I needed to get my miles done in a certain amount of time. Long run pace shouldn't be faster than 13:00. I pinky promise that I'll do my runs on Monday and Tuesday at easy pace, okay? OK. So long run day. I came home from work and immediately put my running stuff on, found a water bottle and got out the door. Timetable and all. Mile 1 was decently slow at 13:20. And then I decided to change my intervals from 30/30 to 45/30 for a couple of miles and see how that felt. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either. I did runners math, and figured it would take around 40sec/mi off, and decided to shoot for 12:30-12:40 pace and if I started to fade we would go back to 30/30. Mile 2 was 12:30, and mile 3 was 12:24. Then I decided I would do another half mile at this pace (12:40 pace....thanks gravel road), and then jump back to 30/30 BUT I would use the 180spm playlist because I needed some new music, and DH wanted to know when I would be back because they didn't want to be late. That mile was 11:56. I walked through a couple of the run intervals/uphills after that for cooldown purposes, and got home just in time for DD to wake up from her nap and have a meltdown while DH and the boys left. I put my feet up a way for 10min, and iced my calf and foot.


So. My easy days need to be easier. And if I'm going to push the pace, my "hard" miles need to be harder. I think? If I run un the upper 13s/low 14s it's definitely easy. But when I start pushing the pace into the mid-low 12s there's definitely some effort there. So I probably need to look at a longer run interval if I'm going to get that pace down instead just keeping the 30/30 I've been using. Or just not worry about speed right now (which is probably the smart thing, but it's so boring to run everything easy.)

 

[Herding_Cats]

Also: I feel like I’m finally “back” for running. I’m not forcing myself to go for runs right now, I’m kind of wanting to run on my rest days, and I feel like I’m coming back at a reasonable rate from what winter and spring were.


Also, this is what post-Dopey letdown + seasonal depression looks like for me apparently. For future reference. In, ya know, 6 months.

 

[The Expert]

Woohooo for getting back! I'm not there yet, but you're inspiring me to try.

ETA: just got off the phone with tech support and they're replacing the whole machine. Woohoo!

That’s some great customer service!

Yep, my experience with Cricut has been great as well. They actually provide useful troubleshooting help and once they identify a problem they can fix, they fix it. Often by sending brand new unit. And in my previous home, I was only about an hour up the freeway so mine would arrive the next day. Love them!

 

[Herding_Cats]

*laughs nervously*

just booked our plane tickets for spring break, and it was like.....$800 "cheaper" to fly out on Thursday night instead of Friday or Saturday. So now I need to come up with a plan to solve all of the pricing/logistics issues to present my idea of running the Sunrise half marathon (which is like 20min from Ft. Lauderdale) the day before we go on our cruise. He doesn't like the idea of ride-shares (we are pretty rural and they are mostly not a thing where we live except during maximum tourist season) and rental cars are pretty $$ for the size we'd need.

I'm looking at vrbo/airbnb rentals because a hotel room is going to cost at least that much, and I don't necessarily want to be crammed into a hotel room for 3 days before being crammed into cruise ship rooms iykwim. But also, he's going to want to go places and do things, so maybe hotel savings could be rolled into a car rental? A quick look shows rental cars are going to be ~$350, and hotels ~$1200, so if I can find a rental for less than $900, it's a wash, right? If you're a hardcore planner like me, pls feel free to weigh in on this.

I feel like being signed up for a spring race (where there's no snow) will keep me training after Dopey, and help my mood and such during the winter. But I also recognize that it's a bit self-centered to be going on a family vacation and being like "oh hey guys, I'm gonna get up at 3am and go run a race and then be not-at-maximum-functionality for a few days when we go on this big trip."

 

[The Expert]

I say do what YOU want to do and figure it out. As for the car, do the math. It's not just the cost difference between the hotel and the AirBnB, but also the cost for your alternative transportation (be it ride share or whatever). Also if you need a larger rental car for kids, car seats, etc, which means you'll also be going with XLs or larger options ride share wise. I suspect the numbers are going to come out in favor of renting the car.

 

[GollyGadget]

Another vote here for running the half if that’s what you want to do. It’s only a few hours from one day of vacation. Your family can sleep in or hang out on the beach if they’d rather. I always look for races that coordinate with my vacations.

The last time I cruised out of fll (which was many years ago), we stayed in Hollywood. They have a nice beach area and at the time had a free trolley to take you into town if you wanted better restaurants.

One more thing, sunrise has an outlet mall with a character warehouse. It’s much less chaotic than the ones closer to wdw.

 

[Herding_Cats]

So now I need to come up with a plan to solve all of the pricing/logistics issues to present my idea of running the Sunrise half marathon (which is like 20min from Ft. Lauderdale) the day before we go on our cruise.

He didn't say no. But he did point out that I *have* to be functional on Sunday when we get on the boat and go on the cruise. No making it such an all-out effort that I'm hobbling around, which I completely agree with. It would be very unfair for me to run so hard chasing a time right before a vacation where we have a lot of activities planned. This means I will need to start planning logistics and rental cars soon, while there is still some availability.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Weekly wrap up. It was a good week. DH has been an absolute gem about putting DD to bed or making dinner while I run.

Monday: 3.5mi easy, then biked/paced DS2 after he go out of work for his 20min tempo run. I was able to keep this pretty easy with 13:30 pace, and kept my HR in zone 3 for all but 2min of this run. DS is fast. I joke that he's twice as fast as I am, but it's not really a joke. 20min of tempo for him was just over 3mi compared to my 40ish min. It was basically DARK when we got done, so I have a noxgear light clip ordered to add on to my vest since I'm 90% sure I'm going to have to do pre-dawn runs this fall.

Tuesday: 2mi easy.13:46avg pace. Nothing much to report here. This is a "run OR cross train" day, and I'm hoping/planning on swapping it out for some lifting at some point.

Wednesday: 3.5mi 4mi easy. Because apparently I can't run and math, and turned around waaaay too late. 13:55 pace, and this run felt like work. Probably because I keep running on Sunday instead of Saturday, and have a long run, medium run, short run, medium run in a row. Plus standing on concrete for hours at work. Oh, and it was HOT again this week. All of the joys.

Thursday: rest

Friday: crosstrain rest again. I worked about 2 extra hours today because we were "behind" on our pie numbers, so we ended up making ~500 instead of our usual ~300. We averaged 72 pies per hour for the day, so really it was just a day of trying to keep up with my coworker. My legs were shot when we were done, but not nearly as angry as my hand which was basically frozen in a cupped-palm claw from making a thousand dough patties.

Saturday: 5mi LR rest. We road-tripped to Detroit for the day to watch an afternoon Tigers baseball game. Super fun. Cabrera got a hit, Badoo hit a homerun, and it was the only game in the series that we won.

Sunday: rest 5mi LR. We ran out of cherries at work, so I got done sooner than usual, which meant there was time for me to come home and accidentally fall asleep on the couch for about an hour. After dinner (which has been the usual timing lately) I headed out. Spoiler alert, this run felt SO GOOD.

I decided to take advantage of my "fresh" legs to do a little bit of speedwork during this:
--Miles 1-3 were easy (13:39, 13:37, and 13:36) and then I changed from 30/30 intervals to 80/30, with the goal of being sub-12 pace, since 12:00 is approximately my marathon pace.
--Mile 4 was 11:49. 80sec running feels a LOT longer than 30. What a surprise!
--Then I decided to do a half mile at 80/30, but at 180spm. Because I need to work on my turnover, and I really have to focus on that at the end of runs. This was 11:06 pace, which is HM pace, and it was work.
--Kept the 180spm turnover, but dialed the intervals and effort back to 30/30 for 13:21 pace to start to bring things back down.


I'm excited to see the medals today.

Tangentially, DH is going to run with me on Friday morning so he can earn his 10k medal from last year's W&D box. And he asked me to order him some shokz for when he runs. I think he's starting to buy into this whole running thing a little bit. Plus basketball season is only a couple of months away, and he wants to be in shape for that.

 

[azrivest]

Spoiler alert, this run felt SO GOOD.

You seem to be enjoying running again!

 

[Herding_Cats]

You seem to be enjoying running again!

I really am. And honestly, I feel more like myself than I have in awhile. I feel like DH is seeing a difference too (and I make sure to point it out to him and also tell him things like you need to help make sure I keep working out when winter comes) and that's part of the reason he's been so fantastic about taking some of the evening chores off my plate when I need to go for a run.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Week whatever of this ramp-up plan. 6.5 weeks until it turns into actual Dopey training. Whoa. Now that I counted that out, that's all?

It was another generally successful week. A few things got shifted around to account for weird work hours (since I'm now starting 2.5 hours late on weekdays) and kid-free date-days.

Monday: 4mi easy XC practice went way over, and then I didn't get into work until 11 (instead of 745/8am.) A few other compounding factors at work, and I didn't leave until after 530, which is super late for me. I knew this would probably happen, so I switched this into Tuesday. Counted it as "cross training" for time on feet, on concrete, because we were running a 3-person pie crew. My legs were soooo not happy with me.

Tuesday: crosstrain 4mi easy. This run felt like trash, but I knew it would since Sunday had felt so amazing. Paces were on-point for easy effort (13:47), and my hr was fine (only 41sec above zone 3), but ugh.

Wednesday: 4mi easy. DS1&2 went to XC team camp, so I had no babysitters for daytime hours, and we decided to go to the fair to see the animals and eat fried food. This was a late decision, and to ensure I got my run done, I did this on the treadmill. It wasn't horrible, and DD bothered my a lot less than she did back in the winter/spring. I ran 4:30/:30 intervals because I hate constantly pushing buttons, and it came out to 14:05 pace. So, very easy. AND my cadence still stayed up, which I was nervous about since I started season 2 of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" on prime. (Great show if you like angsty teenage dramas.)

Thursday: rest day. Check! Dopped off DS3 and DD to grandma/grandpa's house for a couple of nights.

Friday: cross train. DH and I had a NO KIDS date day, where we drove down to Grand Rapids and visited the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. So fun! Lots and lots of walking, and nearly perfect weather while we were there since it was low 70s, slight breeze, and cloudy. (That turned into a small rain shower to crank up the humidity, and sunny to make things horribly sticky later. Then we did a little shopping for ourselves and for the kids, and headed back home. It was a long day, but sooooo nice. However, having both myself and DH home on a Friday really messed with my mental calendar.

Saturday: 6mi (really 6.3mi since DH wanted to earn his 10k medal from '22 W&D.) Woke up at 4:30 for no reason, and decided to get up at 5 so I would be fully awake for this pre-dawn-starting run because I got called in to start working at 9am. Got the light clip for my noxgear vest; that works well, and I only had to adjust it a little bit. DH let me dictate the pace on this run, mostly. After 2.5mi he started to get a little antsy, and it showed in the pacing. Goals for this run were to run the first 3ish miles easy, and then when we got back to the pavement (there's a section that's dirt road) we would pick up the pace to around 12min/mi, and then do a smaller section .....mile 5-5.5ish at 11:30, and then cooldown the last 0.7mi or so (the last part was going to require running math, and I was close-ish I guess.)

So here we were cruising along at 13:40 pace for the first 2mi when DH finally feels warmed up (or something) and mile 3 is just over 13:00. Hey babe. Slow down a little. When we got back to the road and the pavement, I reiterated the plan to shoot for 12:00 pace, and then 11:40ish for a specific section before we turned back for home.

BIG fail on my part here. Mile 5 target of 12:00? Nah. 11:25. Why not jump from easy/LR pace to HM pace? Once I realized that we were so far past our target pace, it just became "well we are just gonna run a lot faster on that last partial mile." 0.82mi of mile 6 was 11:06 pace, and I was dying. But at least we nailed the cooldown. And then I went to work. And then went grocery shopping. And my legs and feet were killing me. Woo!

Sunday: rest day, but I might pop out for a 2mi trot or something depending on how my legs are after work.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Other items to note:

-I stopped in our local fleet feet and tried on the 1080v12s that I thought wouldn't work. They WILL work. Too bad the colors I "need" for my costumes don't come in a wide. Maybe the 13s that I'm anticipating coming out any day will have purple in a wide....

-DH really wants to get a "dark sky" castle pic at the half in January. I explained all of the things that would make that difficult, and some specific details as relates to me doing dopey. But it's something I'm willing to train for; I think I need to be able to run 11:30 pace until we get to the castle to make it there at the transition between nautical and civil twilight. I think with appropriate planning/training/strategies for the other races this may be doable.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I know some of you are MORE than ready for this, but I’m not.