Random review of the week

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and wonder what have I done all week?  Then you start remembering and you realize you did quite a bit?  That's what happened to me yesterday morning, so here's my random review of the week....

Why whine when you run, when you can WINE?

Wednesday showed me once again why wine and running should always go hand-in-hand.  Run Away Shoes, a local purveyor of running shoes, puts on a once-a-month fun run called the Run 'N Wine.  This takes place at a semi shi-shi local wine shop/bar.  Although I tend to wonder every time I go what the happy hour patrons think of having a bunch of folks in workout clothes hanging out smelling up the joint, that thought became more persistent this week as the weather pushed into the 90s - and we still went running in it.  So, not only were we just mildly smelly and sweaty, we were really pushing the envelope.  Luckily, because of the warm weather, it made sense to sit outside to enjoy our free wine after the run, so the nice breeze that swept through the area no doubt cleared out any odiferous offensiveness.  Despite the temps, I enjoyed running with a couple friends at a nice, slow pace.  Now if only I could get to the other running store's Pub Run to give that a try....

Change in Training Plan

Having run two weeks now on a Wednesday after my Tuesday speed workout, I have come to the conclusion that I should stop that.  So, with next week being a down week mileage-wise, I am going to be switching to my Plan B training schedule, which will mean running Tuesdays and Thursdays mid-week, instead of Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It will also mean switching my long run to Saturdays instead of Sundays, and adding Sunday as a short, trail/recovery run.  This more closely mirrors my schedule from last summer and gives me that day after speed work to recover.  I am going to miss running with my friends at the Wednesday Morning Group Run, but I figure I can always join them for coffee after.  I think this is one of those cases, where I really need to think of what's better for me.

Time to Row Further Downstream

My rowing workout on Thursday was fantastic - really felt good - and made me think I should start considering upping the time I spend on the rower.  So, starting this next three week cycle, I am going to stop rowing for distance and go for time.  Since it takes me about 31 minutes to do 6K, I am going to do 35 minutes for this cycle, and then either next month or the next three week cycle, I will up my time by five minutes.  I'll do this until I get sick of rowing, which I am guessing will be somewhere around 45 minutes - although ideally I would shoot for an hour.

Karate, Dinner, and a Treehouse?

Thursday is also the kids' karate class day.  There is nothing like going to a karate class and listening to the instructors drill the kids on how they are NOT supposed to use karate on their siblings or friends, and then go outside after class and have them immediately start pretending to karate chop one another.  Something is not getting through.  Of course, I guess LG feels a bit bad about this, because he had no sooner gotten into class this week than he raised his hand and confessed to the instructors that he had kicked his sister in the eye a couple of days ago.  Now, that had actually been an accident...a case of wrong place at the wrong time, but it was nice that he felt some guilt about it.  After karate, we got invited to friends' house for a super, yummy Egyptian vegetarian feast (the kids had noodles with pesto sauce).  It was so tasty, I may have made a pig of myself by having three helpings.  Despite their green noodles, the kids barely ate as they were too enthralled with the treehouse being built in the backyard that was almost complete and certainly playable.  It actually made me feel a twinge of backyard envy that they have something so cool.  I mean, I wanted to play on it.  Given the size of our trees, we have a ways to go before we could do something similar.  I don't know....what do you think?

First Hill Hike Workout

My hill workout on Friday consisted of a two-mile running warmup, followed by "power hiking" at a 10 percent grade for 40 minutes.  Unfortunately, that only got me two miles, so clearly more work needs to be done here.  Hubby has this little power hike shoehorned into my schedule every three weeks.  Additionally, he wants me to substitute one or two long runs for this, as he thinks I need to work up to being able to do this for two hours.  Ugh.  I guess he thinks getting up the side of the Jungfrau will be tough.  Who'da thunk?

We Braved Brave on Opening Day

Yesterday, the kids and I also went to see the movie Brave. I can't remember the last time I went to a movie on opening day...in fact, I am hard pressed to remember the last time I went to see a movie.  While the movie was okay, it seemed a little too adult for my young crew, and while funny in spots, it lacked the constant humor of Cars or some of the other princess movies I have seen recently.  The kids swear up and down they LOVED it, though, so I guess that's good.  I don't know if it is just an opening day thing or what, but the movie theater handed out Brave coloring books and crayons to the kids.  It made me feel marginally better about spending our life savings to pay for the film and popcorn.  We may not be able to eat for a while, but at least they'll be able to color.  One little annoying development in my movie watching world is LG.  This is a kid who since his eyes could first track to a screen has been mesmerized by what he saw.  If nothing else, I could always count on him to sit in a screen-induced stupor when a movie was playing.  Well, no more.  The whole movie was spent with him leaning over to me, saying, "Mom, why did she do ....?," "Mom, why is the bear there?" or - my favorite - "Mom, look there's snow."  Since when did he become such a movie talker?  Clearly, we have a little etiquette to work on.

Happy running!

Kids admiring person in chicken suit at
random weekend festival we found.