A4bats: 05.2012

31.5.12

Thursdays - my new favorite day of the week

Thursdays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. Here's some reasons why:

1: No work on Fridays!. Thursday is the last day of my work week. Today was a very exciting day. I had a 'visit' with someone at Starbucks, a home visit and then... I lead this training on a topic that is very relevant but the most dry and boring subject on the planet. I took Alina with me for help and moral support. The feedback we got was that it was a helpful training. Super!

2: Circuit class! Circuit was fun tonight. When the teacher was going through the exercises they didn't look so bad, but I'm still feeling them. The hardest station of the night was mountain climbers. Remember how I felt about burpees? Same feeling for these things. Oy.

3: Zumba. I so totally look forward to Zumba all week long. I cannot believe I am saying this. Next I'll be saying I like heights or something.
I tried it one time with this girl and then came back to give it one more try. And then I never stopped. I love the music. I love the dancing. Plus, it really is the United Nations of the YWCA. (Sort of the opposite of last night at the theater.)

Tonight between Circuit and Zumba (there's a 15 minute gap) I went to run around the track. "See if you can do four laps" turned into "holly crap, did I just bust out a 10-minute mile?" It doesn't sound fast except for I wasn't really trying that hard so I sort of couldn't believe my 'relaxed' pace was moving that fast. I could really feel that extra mile of running by the end of Zumba class. I was hungry. And exhausted. And sweaty. Oy.

This week - where was I?

Monday was Memorial Day and I celebrated by riding my bike and having a grill out.

Tuesday was a nice day. I woke up early and headed out for a 4 mile run. I wasn't trying to set any land speed records, but wound up keeping a nice pace anyways.

Work was fine. I saw a dramatic sky on the way back from a home visit.

At the end of the day I had a special visitor in transit to Iowa. We checked out the local scenery including the Mississippi River. These shots are taken just down from where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi. All the water is way high right now.

I fond this note when I got home. Please explain why they didn't use graphite in the locks.

Wednesday was a fun day but very long. Sometime around 5:30am I headed out to the Y for High Intensity Water Running. It's such a great class. We did a new "leg intensive" workout that was really tough. I was so tired and so hungry afterwards.

I came home, prepared my plant for transport (yes, I belted it in) and headed to the office. On the way to work, I got a reminder of all the rain we had over the weekend. This field is supposed to be all grass. Right now, it's an addition to Lake Nokomis.

The little green house I have on my desk is almost entirely plants that were given to me. Their names are Sprout, Little Sprout, Amanda and Jessica. I don't have a name for this plant. Pinky sounds kind of weird to me. I'm taking suggestions although "John is my favorite cousin" probably wont make the list.

After work I headed over to see the Qat Lady. We went to Taste of Thailand for dinner. Their service is better than I remember. They sell pop in cans though. What is that about? Qat Lady has an affliction where she turns into a pumpkin if she leaves St Paul and comes to Minneapolis to see me, so it's been rough getting her to my favorite Thai restaurant.

I had been wanting to see The Amen Corner since I considered getting a subscription last year. I wound up not getting the subscription but Qat Lady did and she got me a special ticket for the show. Before hand, we went up to The Guthrie's "amber room" where I'd never been. There's no filter on my camera for these shots. I renew my sentiments about the river being way up too.

I told Qat Lady that "we're at the theater with all the white people", and it was a very white audience. (And you're all "You're at the theater, of course it's a bunch of white people.) I only noticed because the play was put on by Penumbra Theater Company. I really enjoyed the play. It had lots of signing. To be clear, some of the actresses had voices so powerful they could blow the walls off brick buildings. Fantastic.

28.5.12

Happy Memorial Day

First off, go ahead and make a donation to support my fundraising goal for Bolder Options. I appreciate your support.

Stage 1: Defeat
Around 6am, I did wake up. I'd been *dreaming* of a long run, mostly because I knew it wasn't going to happen. Once a month I become a sleeping monster and am unable to get out of bed for any reason. When I look at elite athletes, I assume they have better hormones than me and don't have this issue. Jealous.

Stage 2: Hope
As I sat on the couch, I kept thinking that even though it was really too hot to run, a bike ride would be fun. I knew my tires would be flat so I pulled the bike out of storage and finally learned how to use the bike pump. There's a little lever that locks the pump onto the valve stem. Turns out I'd been flicking that lever the wrong way. For like five years. (Hard to believe Dad is an engineer right?)

Stage 3: You did what? So I went out for a bike ride. Those of you from the Twin Cities know that Minneapolis rocks it as far as bike friendliness. Those of you not from here may have heard tell. It's true. I did this fifteen mile ride all on bike boulevards and bike trails. Side note here to the Gmap-pedometer team the "automatically (for cyclists)" option has some serious flaws.

First thing I learned - it's true what they say about mountain bikes. I got this bike when I was like 12 so I won't be too fussy. I'm seriously considering saving up for a road bike though.

Second thing I learned - this phone is not meant to take 1-handed pictures. This is what hard work looks like. My phone was all sweaty when I pulled it out. Oops.

It was a gorgeous day around the lakes and everyone was out to enjoy it.

Stage four: BRICK
I didn't do a true brick workout, but I did take a walk after the bike ride. I can't imagine trying to run after that.
Here's the other thing about this time - moving makes me hurt less and it makes the pain medicine work better. So once I find the energy, the most important thing is to keep going. Again, I imagine elite athletes just don't have this issue. It's one of the reasons I dream of being one someday.

I always know I'm almost home when I see the speed bumps sign. Someone actually said to me the other day, "oh yeah, you live on the street with those speed bumps". They're wild because they're huge. It's a special kind of speed bump that doesn't hurt the snow plows.

Stage 5: Rest
When I got home, I threw in a load of laundry and sat around for a while. Thank goodness for chocolate ice cream. Stoneyfield Farms: you rock it!.

Stage 6: Grill out for Memorial Day!
I did do a grill out. And by that I mean, my neighbor fired up his grill and allowed me to add my steak into the mix. I don't think he believed me when I said I like my steak rare. True story.

There were five of us all together. It was a fun crew and we had some hilarious discussions. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds living in an 144 unit complex such a fascinating experience.

Stage 7: What happens tomorrow?
Apparently, I have to go to work tomorrow? What is this work that you describe? I haven't been there in so long.
The "computers" are being worked on tomorrow so we can't "use" them until 11am. When pressed, the office manager said I didn't need to have my laptop in the office for this work so I heard: "you should stay out of the office until 11am" which means I'll be working from home.
At least it's not a full moon (that's a half moon but you may need to zoom in to see it)

27.5.12

Weekend workouts - where have I been all week?

Apparently, after Monday's long run I just needed a break from blogging. I don't know what my issue was. Maybe it was those 10 charts I audited on Monday. Oy.

Tuesday I did not run or do exercise of any kind. I worked 8 or 9 hours on Tuesday. I can't remember what happened but the photos suggest I was stuck in traffic all day. Here's how I felt about it:

Wednesday I also worked about nine hours. After I got up and did my high intensity water running class. We had a party at work. I can't show you pictures from the actual party, but here's some of the setup:

Thursday I worked Twelve Hours and it was a long day. I started with me sitting in training, continued with me sitting with my friends at Hennepin County and ended with me sitting at our annual meeting. Awesome.

After all that sitting, it should surprise exactly no one that I wanted to get my move on. I headed over to the gym for a very late workout. It was a hard workout as I pedaled the elliptical much faster than I normally make it go.

To cap off the night, I headed over to St Paul to see the Qat Lady and celebrate because she just took her boards and passed and now gets to write RN after her name. Boom! This is how Qat Lady looks through beer goggles.

Friday clearly I woke up on Qat Lady's couch and we headed over to one of our favorite establishments for eggs benedict and other awesome hangover food. I didn't do too much else the rest of the day. I was getting grumpy.

Saturday I sat on the couch the entire day. Or slept. And I decided to make this my step back week in marathon training. Nice planning.

Sunday I was feeling about as good as I did yesterday. I did head over to see my friends at the Farmer's Market. I still have eggs from last week but I can always use more bacon. Happily, I also got my butt off the couch long enough to do a 'sprint' workout on the elliptical. It worked.