The stars are in my favor...

or so far they are in my favor. Ok, so I'm not one to read horoscopes however as I sit here at work with nada to do I'm surfing the blog world. You know check one friends blog that takes me about 2 seconds to read (Erin your posts have always been longer than this), obviously that's not going to get me through the work day so what does one do...move to the links section of the blog. Oh, goody more surfing to do. http://www.josegringo.com/ I have no idea how to do the link stuff for my blog so if you want to clue me in great if not, kiss it;) This is Joey's blog whom I've met one time however, in the blog world I feel like I know him well. He was kind enough to post horoscopes for 2007 from the onion...(http://mobile.theonion.com/content/node/56706). His outlook not so good...but this blog is about me so whatever. My year is posted below and let me tell you I think it's going to be a great one!

Cancer June 22 - July 22. 2007 might finally be the year when you take your life into your own hands and begin doing something proactive about your future. Keep checking back here to see if that's indeed the case.

I agree with the onion...things are already going my way! Hope yours is as good as mine!!

Argh!!!

I have made the decision to get back into the dating game. Yes, I'm admitting this on my blog but seriously it's time. I won't be doing the online thing this go round...just not my story. I have figured out the top 5 things I look for in a guy. Laugh all you want but looking at my ex-boyfriends and the boys who broke my heart...not a one of them would have passed the top 5 test. I have to keep these things in mind so that I don't get distracted by the trivial things that won't stand the test of time. Basically, I'll throw this out to all of my friends see who they know.

top 5 qualities a guy must have...
1. Honest
2. Reliable- this tends to be a tough one?
3. Sense of Humor- please make me laugh
4. Athletic- I HAVE to run he's gotta understand that & I don't want a lazy boy
5. Kind

Once all of that is said and done there will have to be chemistry which isn't something I can explain. Now to find this guy!!

Side note- Dear Precious Wiley stuck in Mexico with nothing to do please notice I've made a posting record for me- 7 posts in 1 month. Yahoo!!

It's Nothing Really...

Well, here we are another holiday season is here. It just dawned on me today that this weekend is really the last weekend for me to get all of my gifts out of the way. Thank goodness my family is still small, no marriages, no procreating going on...so all in all the shopping can wait until the last minute, which may be 12/21. I hate using my 2 days off from work on this kind of stuff. Yes, I really am that selfish.

I don't have anything exciting to tell you about. This is the time of year I like to hermit. I'm not big into the holidays, in fact I skip half of the parties I'm invited to. Not because I don't love my friends or want to see people I just need my time alone. I've got to think about the past year get everything into perspective- the positives/the negatives...what needs to change, what's already changing...where am I in my list of things I wish to do in my lifetime. You get the picture.

2006
It has been a good year. I won't bore you with details just the major one. My major goal for 2006 was to buy a condo. When I made this decision I was un-employed and no job on the horizon. I was cracking up when writing this down, but somehow managed to pull this off in early spring time. Don't get me wrong this place needs some work, but I finally feel like Austin will be my home for a very long time and coming from a commitment phobic chic this is pretty big!!

2007
I haven't figured out this coming year quite yet, but apparently quitting my job seemed to be a good way to start;)

MGP Run- 18 Miles

2nd LAB run for this training season was on Saturday. Thank goodness I decided to recommit myself as I needed to for my mental health on this very important training run.

We were set to run the last 18 miles of the marathon course. Couldn't tell you anything about the course. It was a very grey day and running in packs when you're the same size as a munchkin leaves little room for site seeing. For some odd known reason I was very GROUCHY on this run. No rhyme or reason just was.

So run time: we're doing 3 mile warm-up and 4 sets of 3 miles at MGP (marathon goal pace) with a 3 mile cool-down. As always the warm-up is anything but that...it's more like tempo run.

3 mile warm-up is on Exposition up to 35th, cross Mopac (this is always fun in the dark), lft on Jackson- that's it for my memory on the course. This took all of 24:50 which is 8:17/mile that's faster than my mgp is supposed to be...oh joy!
1st set of 3 miles
1 mi- 8:04 oh, f-word this isn't good
2 mi- 8:08 seriously
3 mi- 8:20 right on!
break water (love the breaks every 3miles- they're teaching us to breakdown the long race into small segments- this actually helps)
2nd set of 3 miles
1 mi- 8:16
2 mi- 8:13 i'm not supposed to get faster
3 mi- 8:07 i'm screwed
break water
3rd set of 3 miles
1 mi- 8:09
2 mi- 8:08
3 mi- 8:05
I'm in trouble if I don't figure out how to pace. Good news 2 more months to figure this out.
final set of 3 miles at mgp
1 mi- 8:12
2 mi- 8:29 WTF?
3 mi- 8:19

3 mile cool-down- 27:23
Grand Total 2:31

The last set and I was really falling apart mentally and physically. I have a few guesses on this one. It was warmer when we started and got chillier as we went. I never got that warm. I need to invest in some halfie-tights (don't know the technical term but maybe you know what I mean). My quads were cold and tight from the wind which didn't make running any easier...not looking to make this any harder than it already is. Guess 2 needed more food. I was starving after this run. I am NEVER hungry after a long run, today ready to eat peoples arms and legs. I did venture out and drink some poweraid mixed with water while on this run...I'm always scared to try new things because I know what happens when my body disagrees. Not the case I was craving sodium today.

All in all I'm very pleased with my training season thus far. I had been toying with the idea of starting with the 3:35 pace group on race day but now I think I will start with the 3:40 group. I hated the way I felt on the final MGP set on Saturday and think I'm better off a little slower. 26.2 miles can be very long!!

THE WARHURST

When I looked at my schedule for the week I like to have died when I saw Warhurst set for Thursday. Usually Tuesday is the harder work-out and Thursday easier...that easy business is all relative I assure you. The last time we did this work-out I could barely get back to the Annex I was in so much pain. Granted it was my first work-out after a 2 week vacation which consisted of no running.

Here are the details
Warm-up to Austin High
1600m- 10k pace (on track)
Deep Eddy mile- tempo
1200m- 10k pace
Deep Eddy Mile- tempo
800m- 10k pace
Deep Eddy Mile- tempo
2X400- FAST

Ok, so everything started off fine I'm always nervous before these work-outs because I never know if I can actually do the thing at the paces I need to hit. I wasn't kidding when I said my marathon goal was lofty and my macro-schedule is based on that goal.

1600m- 7:22 (too fast- 7:28)
Deep Eddy Mile- 8:08 (too slow- 7:55)
1200m- 5:41 (too slow-5:36) No idea how i'll get through this thing.
Deep Eddy Mile- 8:20 ( i suck)
800m- 3:44 (dead on!)
Deep Eddy Mile- 8:27 (now i really suck)
400m- 1:47 (oh yeah!)
400m- 1:50 ( i would like to die now)

As I've said in previous posts I am the caboose of this group and today was no different. Sisson gives me a high 5 at the end and for some odd known reason I thank him. His response is to laugh AT me. Note when dealing with Sisson he is always laughing AT you never With you and you love him anyway. Thank goodness he has Ruthie!

I was beating myself up about the Deep Eddy Miles since I sucked so bad on them and I'm thinking how in the world am I going to hit my marathon goal when I can't tempo this stupid friggin' mile. I decided not to dwell on this fact because I really have to believe in this goal in order to achieve it. So let's take a look at the times from the first Warhurst work-out. Side note- the first time we did this work-out we were working date paces and not goal paces.

1600m-8:05 (too fast 8:15)
Deep Eddy- 9:00 (too slow- 8:44)
1200m- 6:08 (too fast- 6:11)
Deep Eddy- 9:47 (seriously?)
800m- 4:08 (too slow- 4:07)
Deep Eddy- 9:45
400m- 2:00
400m- 2:00

He said I would get stronger and He is right. Game on!

Non-Paying Tenants

Ok, so another cold early morning start. I soooo did NOT feel like getting out of bed today. I mean a Fartlek run on a 7 mi loop I could do that on my own...BUT I remembered my commitment to myself so I drug lazy bum out of the bed, bleary eyed and all. I start getting dressed and out of the corner of my eye I spot THE MOUSE darting under my chest of drawers. OMG!! I did NOT need to see this thing alive. I'm trying to kill it with D-Con I had no interest in laying eyes on this thing while it was still breathing. Lucky me I still had the broom in my room from cleaning up the other day, as if this is really going to help. I am standing on my bed with the broom screaming at this furry creature as if I'm really going to kill it. I think the broom was my moral support.

Apparently, this D-Con stuff is lethal and mice/rats eat it and about the 4th day their dead. I want to see this free loader dead. I promise I'm not an animal hater but this non-paying tenant has chewed/ruined 3 pair of shoes and eats my cliff bars. The store is usually out of my favorite kind. It's war at my house!

1 Day Down

Alright- so mission accomplished this morning! I'm proud to announce that Wiley, Banana and myself met at the Hike and Bike Trail for a run. It was one cold friggin' morning. Wiley wanted me to tell him a story but my face was so frozen I couldn't move my mouth to talk. Once I dropped Wiley and the dogs off at the footbridge I started to get some feeling back in my hands. Dear goodness am I glad I dug the headband out of my drawer...my ears would have fallen off otherwise.

So hopefully this Monday morning thing can become a regular Monday morning run. We probably need to tell Banana to be there by 5:55am...which means 6:00am for normal people. We love you anyway just the work thing;)

1 Day Down- 2 hard quality work-outs and a LAB on Sat. We can do this!!!

Re-Committing!!!

Really the title says it all. I've got to recommit to my goals. Ok, so the only one the cyberworld knows about is my marathon goal of 3:39 which I should be able to do, BUT I've got to get my head back in the game. The past 2 weeks have been anything but running. I would like to blame Thanksgiving for this since 2 of my work-outs I wouldn't meet with my running group. This of course resulted in a tailword spin in the wrong direction. I've come to realize I'm a lazy person (will be working on this shortly) if I'm not meeting people for my runs I don't do them. Now keep in mind I don't sleep well when I don't workout and for some strange reason this doesn't motivate me to get off my ass and go do it anyway.

Starting Monday morning (it will be 29 degrees) I will get my sorry bum out of the bed early and take care of my 60 min run!!!

The other commitment I need to work on is figuring out my career, ok, so not the whole thing but start taking steps in that direction. I have an idea and I've started my school application process but will need a part-time gig as well. I actually think I know what the part-time gig will be it will require more committing. Now it just looks like I'm talking to myself on my computer...bizarre!! The New Year is going to be great!

Wiley- I got your comment;)