Things that happened this weekend

1. My children and their Halloween Trick-or-Treating friends bounced around like pink/purple/blonde bits of fluff scavenging easter eggs out of our backyard.

2. We had really, really good Thai food and Guiness for dinner on Saturday.

3. I finished spinning up the first half of 1 lb of dyed Corriedale for my first major spinning project.

4. Ironman got a new bike,

which means...

5. I now have a new bike*! Well, new to me anyway. 

Hopefully this will motivate me to actually do something with said new bike, thereby getting my generous rear in gear. So to speak.

In any event, yippee!

*Both my wheel and my bike are now Canadian. Awwww.

How not to train for a half-marathon

1. Start training about 4 months ahead of time and get a fairly consistent schedule.
2. Lose a couple of long runs to Thanksgiving and general laziness.
3. Go home for two weeks over Christmas and run maybe three times.
4. Have your longest long run (12 miles) occur two weeks before race day.
5. Come down with a cold 5 days before race day and don't run at all.
6. Arrive at the starting line on Sunday morning saying "What the hell".

Despite all that, my race yesterday was way better then I had any right to expect. I had a complete brain cramp and thought I beat my time from last year, but I checked results this morning and discovered that actually, I was 7 min slower this year. Big deal. Given the amount of training I did, I got off easy.

It was a gorgeous day for a run. I try to not be too humbled by the fact that the top women marathone runners finished twice the distance in less time (!). Hey, I've got at least 80 lbs on most of them. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I was still in the top 50% of my age group, which pleases me. And my pace was pretty consistent throughout. It's amazing - I did 12 miles a couple of weeks ago that was an absolute death march after mile 7, and ran 13 yesterday and enjoyed* most of it.

Thankfully, Ironman did not beat me. Of course, he ran twice the distance too. I actually had enough time to get my stuff, my finisher's t shirt, change my clothes and wander out to the course before he came in. His race went pretty well too, but he missed qualifying for Boston by a mere 3 minutes. He was annoyed. Now we're just both stiff and sore - thank goodness my work environment includes elevators.

Next post: a finished, 2 day (!) Morning Surf Scarf guaranteed to cure winter doldrums if Houston had any. Today, with sun and upper 60s it's not necessary, but maybe in a few days it will get cold again and I can wear it.

* Which is to say, I wasn't grimacing in pain the whole time, but enjoying picking out rabbits and listening to the music along the way. The spectators for this event are fantastic - there are rock bands, DJs, a marching band, even a drum section set up along the course. Makes it all go by so much more easily.

Please send Gillyweed, stat!

Yesterday I swam for a long time. A very long time. 112 laps worth of a long time.

Why did I do something so silly? Because I'm scheduled to complete* this event in less then two weeks time. And I needed to at least swim the distance once before hopping in to Lake Travis.

I can say only three things about the experience: 1) I hope I'm faster on race day, 2) damn, am I sore today and 3) doing 5600 yds in a 25 yd pool is damn boring.

*Note I did not say "race". Because I will be participating, not racing.

A change in plans

For the last few weeks, I've been making a concerted effort to be more consistent about my training. Part of this has meant starting up yoga again - before Devil was born we went to yoga twice a week. When she was about a year old, I started going at least once a week, running from our house to the gym. And a couple of weeks ago I finally got my act together to start up again.

So Tuesday mornings I now get up at 0:00 dark-thirty and run 4 miles to the gym, where I arrive, dripping sweat and thoroughly awake, just in time for yoga class at 6:00. Then the fambly picks me up, we drop the kids off at daycare, I shower, cram some food down my gullet and hop onto the bus for a nice long nap on the way downtown. It's something that is only possible if I do it every single week - the habit is the only way that training ever happens for me.

However...I suspect that tomorrow it is not to be. You know, given that that little blip in the Texas coastline - the one right smack dab in the path of TS Edouard - is my current location.

Ironman's company has already announced that their campus will be closed tomorrow, which means no daycare for the kidlets. So maybe we'll all hang out at home and play in the rain. Maybe I can finish off the 2 oz of Maldives left and free up that mixing bowl again. Or maybe Devil and I could dye a bunch of yarn. Some many things, so little time!
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July FOs:
H^4 spinning - finished 7/31 and not yet blogged because I need to send off the package
Spiraling Coriolis socks
Brambler (finished knitting, but not yet blocked/blogged - does it still count?) (probably not)