Congratulations to Qat Lady - My day in sound and pictures

530am - I do not have an alarm sound.  Sorry. I hit the gym (finally) and had a nice Water Running workout.

800am - I wound up at work.  I love it when people come visit me in my office. 

1200pm we had a team meeting.  It went like this:

Shortly after the team meeting, we had a webinar.  It was so, um, well I started to take pictures of the other people in my webinar room.  The only one that won't get me in trouble (meaning I swore not to post the rest on the internets) is here:

I used my time wisely and learned to use the exposure program and built in filters on the camera on my phone.  I'm having more respect for it becuase the camera on my iPod is such a POS.

4:50pm time to leave.  I had a very important date.
Song blaring on my car stereo Imagine Dragons - It's Time.  It sure is time!  And Mary J Blige - Aint Nobody.  Yeah you are!

5:30pm Qat Lady - Congratulations!  I'm so proud of you. 

Followed by "let's go get cake!" and the reception.  The sun was setting and it was all very pretty.

Then we headed back to our cars to go to the restaurant.  Song blaring on my car stereo: Macy Gray feat Velvet Revolver - Kissed It and Mates of State - Second Hand News.  

We had enough food for ten people at Buca; very nice!

Inching and crawling my way back to humanity

So - I'm still sort of sick.

Working out on Sunday was a mistake.  Big mistake.

Sunday night - I did not sleep.  Boo!

Monday I went to work late, but not so late that I would get in trouble, then I left an hour early.  (An hour early was an 8 hour day instead of 9.)  There was no exercise.  I was so tired. 

Monday night I made a concerted effort to sleep.  Harry Potter audio books on the iPod are wonderful!

Today I'm feeling much better.  Sort of.  I had three visits today which is a lot (almost had four).  I got Thai Food for lunch which is the biggest win ever. 

Then I had to go deal with my eye clinic.  My eye clinic could be it's own blog post.  They were overcharging about $200 for my contacts.  I do get a lot of them, but they're not that expensive.  Eventually everyone agreed that I was being charged the wrong price and we did some math (8 X 35) and then I reminded them I get a discount for purchasing in bulk.

Best part of my day was sitting on my patio for the last two hours of my work day.  I was actually quite productive.  I had to do a mountain of paperwork before the end of the month and I was much more productive where no one could knock on my office door.

The sun setting was very pretty and I snapped a few pictures:

Sunday workout - This crap is still in my lungs

For quite a while my workout schedule has been:

• Sunday - whatever I felt like at the moment, pray for a long run if I didn't do one Saturday
• Monday - Circuit Plus (that means a longer class) and Pilates
• Tuesday - hopefully running, sometimes resting
• Wednesday - High Intensity Water Running.  It's sick that I use that class as a 'recovery' day.
• Thursday - Circuit and Zumba
• Friday - Supposedly running, but that was mostly determined by the availability of a running buddy.
• Saturday - Maybe a long run, usually resting, sometimes Pilates and walking.

Since I'm supposedly training for another marathon oy I decided I needed to revise the schedule to include some actual running.  I also had an honest talk with myself about long runs.  I have always been most successful at doing long runs on work days and not on weekends.  I do the lions share of long runs alone, meaning I don't need to wait for the weekends to run with friends.  I do better if I have some scheduling motivation to haul myself out of bed at 5am and get going.  (Get this run over with so you can go to work!)  I imagined a new schedule for myself that looks like this:

• Sunday - Speed workout; Core workout; stretching
• Monday - Long Run (morning) and Pilates (evening)
• Tuesday - Recovery Run, backup for long runs in case of bad conditions
• Wednesday - High Intensity Water Running.  Maybe I'll take off the water belt sometime.
• Thursday - Run (morning), Circuit and Zumba (evening).  Zumba is fun and I can go as hard or easy as I want.  It's like it's own recovery run.  Plus, Friday I can sleep in.
• Friday - Not sure how I want to use this day.  I will run with my running buddy on days we're both free.
• Saturday - Also not sure how I want to use this day.  There is a Pilates class on Saturday and I love the teacher.  Maybe one last run if I need more miles for the week.

 My first Sunday Speed Workout was rough because this sinus infection from hell got into my lungs and is still there.  I read this article from Runner's World to help me pick a speed workout.  Most speed workouts are done on a track and most tracks are either 200 meters (1/8 mile) or 400 meters (1/4 mile), and most speed workouts are done in intervals that can be easily measured on those tracks.  Yeah.  I run on a track that is 1/6 mile.  Suck it. 

I chose the "tried and true" Option 2 because it was the most accessible to a track that is 269 yards around.  I "sprinted" (I use that term loosely) 1 lap and slow-jogged 1/2 lap.  I walked between laps 3,6 and 9 instead of jogging.  Because I couldn't breathe.  I'm thinking that's actually a sick thing and not an out of shape thing.  Trust me, it feels different than just out of shape.

Here's the sound track to my workout:

• AC/DC - You Shook Me.  Good steady beat helped me keep a steady pace.
• Flo Rida ft Sia - Wild Ones.  I love the opening.
• White Zombie - More Human Than Human.  I tell iTunes to start this song around 0:58 and skip the intro.
• Shinedown - Sounds of Madness came on while I was stretching.  Awesome.

After the speed torture was over, I then did several laps of drills.  2 foot hops are from the devil.  Lunges are hard.  High knees - oy.  I did all the hard ones first.  Then I did a lap of cross overs, a lap of 'kick butts' and ended with a lap of running backwards.

Next up was the ab workout.  For fun I threw in the side lying leg series.  I also got the idea that I could still do a gymnastics bridge since I spent most of my childhood in that position.  Turns out I am not that strong.  I thought it would be my arms that were too weak but it's actually my core.  I got an exercise ball and used that for support and then I was good.

Wordless Weekends - Optimism

There's only two in all of Minnesota. Wahoo. 

Having fun at the Birchwood. I just came for pie. 

Holdover from winter. 

This is a color picture. Just so you know how the weekend went. 

Lilies of the Valley loved all that wet crappy weather though. 

Minnesota closet switch over from Winter to Spring/Summer clothing. Closet in process. 

All my clothes in process. 

Closet after. One bag of clothes will be donated to Good Will as a result of this purge. 

After a very hard workout. This crap is still in my lungs.

An unexpected fit of cleaning

10:00pm is a great time to start cleaning right?  In this house, any time I have the energy is when it gets done.  I knew that I needed to load the dishwasher and run it tonight.  Somehow that turned into so much more.

I cleaned out all the old food from the refrigerator and wiped the goo from all the shelves.  Refrigerator is now very empty.  You see the only real fresh food produce is the strawberries.  There are two kiwi that are not pictured.

The mammoth project of the night was cleaning out the freezer.  It's no secret that anything I cook gets put into single portion containers and frozen.  And sometimes, forgotten about shortly afterwards.  So much frozen food.  I found some old potato soup (when did I ever make that?), some lentil sausage soup that's too spicy to eat, and a lot of couscous salad.  Couscous salad freezes fine.  I haven't found the proper method of re-heating it.  I think I need to add a bit of water when I microwave it maybe?  Probably why it never gets eaten.

 
Two bags of trash later, the freezer is very empty.  Half of what's in there is frozen water in case I ever take another ice bath.  Not pictured is the freezer door full of frozen berries (majorly on sale at the co op). 

Dishwasher Tetris - Level 99.  (How does spell check not recognize Tetris as a word?)  It's full from all the tupperware I liberated from my freezer.  I actually made a point of starting the dishwasher while I was awake just because it's so full I want to be able to hear if anything goes terribly sideways.

 

I hand washed some dishes that either wouldn't fit or can't go into the dishwasher, wiped down the counters and swept the floors.  Then I re-organized my towel and napkin drawer because it was sorely in need. 

After the kitchen was done, cleaning the rest of the place was a breeze.  I even folded and put away laundry that had been on the drying rack since last Sunday.  (Like a good Kentucky woman, I leave my drying rack out all the time.)  I did not vacuum.  I figured I was probably treading on my neighbor's patience already with all the noise from banging around in the kitchen.  Running a vacuum at 12:30am was probably a little too much.

Now the house is clean.  Below is a - well, it was explained to me but doesn't translate well to the blog.  I was told it can go on any door in my house and it's a blessing.  A friend got it for me when she was in Isreal.  The same friend got me my plant, Sprout for my 27th birthday.

Nice clean kitchen.  The stove and counter-top is almost never empty.  The stove usually has at least a kettle on it.  The counter almost always has a cutting board as a permanent fixture.  I went all out.

Dishwasher is running great so far.  It's been on for a while and sounding perfectly normal so I'm assuming we're all systems go in there.

 

I'll leave you with some music that became my theme songs for cleaning tonight:

• Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody.  Oh Whitney.  I wanna dance too.
• Mates of State - Second Hand News.  Not quite the same as the originally but addicting nonetheless.
• Andy Grammer - Fine By Me.  Speaking of addicting.
• Jackie Greene - Close To You.  If you listen to your heartbeat...
• Pitbull - Game On.   Definitely an encouraging song for cleaning.  I hope I didn't wake up the neighbors with it!

At least dinner was great!

I'm still working my way back to health, but feeling better every day.  Today, I mostly feel tired.

I woke up (and I use that term loosely) around 8am and had breakfast.  Shortly after that I was on the couch for my morning nap.  Best part of the weekends is waking up, having a big breakfast, and then going right back to sleep.

Around 11am my morning slumber resolved itself, although I was still sleepy and grumpy.  I headed over to the gym to make peace with the elliptical.  I went easier than I normally do and coughed quite a bit, but I lasted the entire time just fine.

Today is my one Friday per month to work.  The meeting today was less entertaining than usual.  The boss of my lead at the county thought I made a good point about something.  (Hilarious because I was just making an off the cuff comment.)  It was a fine meeting because I like everyone there.  Next time let's bring the funny a little more.  And get done earlier.

Next up was grocery shopping.  Goal 1 was to get supplies to try a lentil soup with some form of pasta (I went with Orzo) added in for some quicker to digest carbs.  Goal 2 was to get more vegetables and just see if I could eat them in the next couple of days.  I have sort of a freshness mania with my ingredients which ultimately leads to me not having a lot of fresh stuff around unless I have a plan for it.

I headed home and started on all the cooking.  Turns out Car Talk is just as entertaining while chopping vegetables as it is on the exercise bike.  I made the lentil soup first.  Lentil soup is basically all prep.  Chopping carrots.  Chopping onions.  Chopping peppers.  Measuring out the spices.  Soaking and rinsing the lentils.  As soon as that stuff hits the pot, it's all done.

Then I went on to my dinner for the evening.  I used this recipe as a jumping off point to do something totally different.  I steamed kale and green beans and then sauteed two kinds of mushrooms.  In the end I put all of that together with sesame seeds and the sauce mentioned in the original recipe.  It was a lovely side dish to the big steak I ate for dinner.

For anyone who knows what I mean, tonight was also the 19th episode of this season of Fringe.  I feel like this should have been a two part episode.  Part 1 - get everyone out of the amber.  Check.  Part 2 - actually save the world.  How do you not show me that part?

Dear Pollen - I may owe you an apology

It turns out what I thought was allergies was the start of a raging sinus infection.  Oy.  It's been a rough week.

Monday I did not one but two trainings at a senior housing campus for staff to deal with residents basically being rude to each other.  When you move to a senior housing campus, it's like going back to junior high. Consider yourself warned.  I did go to circuit and Pilates and felt basically human until I lay down to sleep.  I have no idea what drugs I took, I'm thinking it was Benadryl that ultimately did the trick.

Tuesday I worked for a few hours because I had a special meeting at the county to attend.  Ha!  I'm on a pilot group.  After our agency all staff meeting I was sent home for sounding like a barking seal.  I was coughing and it was disgusting.  I spent the rest of the day on the couch.  At the end of the day I finally realized I had a fever.  I also realized this shit is in my lungs.  Not good.  Nyquil was totally used.

Wednesday I had to go to work for a little while because of a meeting that could not be rescheduled.  I scheduled it originally so I couldn't complain.  I'd planned to stay at least long enough to get all the equipment set up for the meeting and the video cued and ready to go.  After that, I really could've left someone else in charge.  But the healing power of DayQuil is not to be underestimated.  I wound up working a half day.  (Until the drugs wore off.)  I went home, took a second dose of DayQuil and spent time with my couch.  I took Nyquil again too; just in case.

Thursday which is today, I felt like I should at least try to work most of the day.  Great success.  At the end of the day I headed out to see Kari and get my hairs cut (thank goodness; it's about time).  Then I realized I need to go to the gym basically every remaining day this month to get my good behavior discount.  I hit the gym and decided to do a 'light workout' on the bike while listening to Car Talk.  Best idea ever.  Highlights include 'the girl who bought a jeep so she could drive over the speed bumps at work' and something about crows feet.
I didn't cough crap up nearly as much as I expected which is good news.  It probably means the crap in my lungs isn't nearly as bad as the last time I had crap in my lungs and couldn't run for a couple weeks.

Pollen: I hate you!

Oy.  I don't normally get allergies but this year has been a mess.

If you need a reference, this video sums up my day.  (I shall never breathe again.) 

I did some research on allergies this year and basically it's bad everywhere.  It's bad in Minnesota.  Our nebighbors to the west in North Dakota are getting nailed too. Sucks to be in Cleveland (when doesn't it though?), Chicago has it pretty bad, even our friends in Massachusetts are having their issues.

In my research I learned there is a website called Pollen.Com.  I dispute the "low" pollen rating today.  Maybe this is just residual from yesterday.  Oy.

 

Wordless Weekends - look at the flowers!

Exercise + Chaos = Eat Steak

My day was basically a nice one, but so wild and busy.
5am I woke up and tried to make sense of the dream I was having.  Someone was trying to get away from something.  It wasn't good.
530am I showed up to run with Running Beth (who obliged my need to start at 530am when there was a rare opportunity for her to sleep in).  Beth's street looked like this:

 
645am I wound up at home and cooked an awesome protein fest for breakfast.  (This becomes relevant later in the day.)  I got ready for work and headed out.

820am I called family.  I reiterate - hug the people you love.  Call the ones who don't live near you.  (What is the deal with people not calling because they're afraid of bothering someone?)

830am Meeting number 1 starts - it was a largely entertaining meeting full of people I like.

10am The "Workshop/training" that I was leading commenced.  I'm used to a room full of people with ten side conversations going on.  The new element was that all of the conversations were in English.  Usually ninety percent of the side conversations I hear are in Russian.  Training went like this:

Source http://adamsmith.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/773470nov18.jpg

1220pm I showed up at the office for about 10 minutes.  I turned on my computer long enough to print something.  I also got to see my former clinical supervisor who was the only calm person I'd seen at work so far.

1pm Remember - Lyndale Ave bridge does not exist at the moment.  Find a different route.  I left the office and went out into the world.  Working still.

300pm I worked for another hour or so from home.  I also finally ate my lunch.  (Good thing breakfast was so filling.)  Work closed at 4pm today for the end of Passover and there was no way I was driving back to St Paul after my last visit.  Work was basically a nice day but full to the brim.   I have another training on Monday, that starts at 9am, for which I still need to create an evaluation tool and make about 100 copies.  I'll do that early Monday I think.

415pm  So totally nap time.

530pm I went to Circuit.  We did these burpees called 'side crunch burpees'.  It looked like this video except at the end of the jump, we had to wind up back in a squat.  They were quite challenging.
After Circuit, I stayed for Zumba.  After Zumba I had a remedial lesson with one of the instructors. The dance steps that are in 4/4 I'm cool with.  The steps that are in 3/4 are quite baffling.

900pm Time for a steak.  And awesome cheese from Wisconsin.  And a glass of wine.  Nice end to the day.

Wednesday - Not what I was expecting

This day was, um, well.  Instead of writing was I was planning let me just say this:  Hug the people you love.  Call the people you love who live far away. 

Also - know the difference between the dish soap and the hand soap (it's green too) when loading the dishwasher.  Otherwise, this could happen to you:

Running: All about hills this week

I meant to wake up at 5:30am and go for a run, or at least hit the gym.  Somehow, sleeping to 9am seemed like a better idea.  (It was 30* and windy.)  To mitigate my morning sloth, I ran one of my St Paul Hill Routes after work.

This is a fun route, and one of the first routes I tried when I genuinely added hills to my training routine.  There's a very long hill, quite steep at the bottom, and a second shorter hill.  And then, I got to do down which is my favorite part.

Here's how the run worked out for me - I hit a loooong light at Fairview Ave and Ford Parkway and a second light somewhere on Snelling Ave.  I also hit a light right in the beginning at the bottom of the hill.  Otherwise, I kept a decent pace running up the hills and a great pace running down them.

 
Before the run I updated my playlist.  Here's some tunes that are new or "new to me" that I've been enjoying:

• Sunshine - Jonathan Edwards.  Definitely not a new song but a recent addition to the playlist.
• Undisclosed Desires - Muse.  I'm getting to know Muse more and I like them so far.
• New Mother Nature - The Guess Who  This has been on my playlist before, when I started running becuase I rock out to this song.
• Do My Thing - Estelle ft Janelle Monae.  Neither artist is new to my playlist, but I love the idea of them together.  Because I can.
• Wild Ones - Flo Rida Ft Sia.  Hey, I heard you were a wild one.  It's like they were writing about me.

On a related note - has anyone tried the "exercise" channels on Pandora?  If so, what's your experience been?

Monday running - a new hill route

I've been feeling like I needed to run more, so I decided to forgo Circuit tonight in favor of running this morning.  I also decided seven miles, while awesome, may be a bit too long for every single day.  So I tried a new route.  And it has a hill.

The "hill" section starts just west of Lyndale, with a hill up to Lyndale, on Lyndale, and all the way across 50th until I crossed back over 35W. 

This route also afforded me an excellent view of some serious construction.  The Lyndale Ave bridge over the creek is closed *ahem* "torn down and awaiting a rebuild". Please find a detour.

Here's a profile of the route.  The hill is for real.  Plus me route ends on a down hill which is always the point.  (Since I live in the low ground it's actually impossible to end going up hill.)

Can you tell I got stopped at Nicolette Ave and then again at Portland Ave?  Those two big dips aren't from slowing down up the hills.  They're from stopping at red lights.

I did still go to Pilates tonight.  My hip flexors were clearly getting a little out of shape and need some attention.  Oy.