In preparation for our European vacation, Dan and I went through his clothes this past weekend to determine what he had that still fit and looked good, what needed to go to the tailor, what could be donated and what could just be retired to the trash.
Somehow the stars aligned and we were both fully gung-ho about going through his entire wardrobe! It's a good thing too, since I don't think we've done a major clean out in the entire 7+ years we've been together.
We took some breaks to really admire some treasures from Dan's college days:
But overall we stayed on course and ended up with a huge donation to the local Goodwill :)
Now we know exactly what he's got, and where we need to focus our efforts on the shopping front :)
So many good things are coming up including 3 glorious days off of work!!! I heart government holidays. Especially this one, because it's the official kickoff to Summer!
Besides that, Dan and I have plans to catch the Hangover 2 in the next day or so. We're also going to head up to Boulder on Sunday so that bright and early Monday morning we can run the Bolder Boulder!
It's pretty munch the biggest race that I've ever participated in and I've wanted to run it for the past 2 years. It's a 10K and over 50,000 people are signed up to run it this year! It's the biggest 10K in the US.
Besides being in one of our favorite Colorado towns, we'll know a bunch of people running it this year, so it should be a great time!
Even though my training since the Colfax half has gone a bit down hill over the past few weeks, I am still hoping that I can PR in this race. I never was able to write a post on my first 10K back in April, but I'll try to get to that before this race happens. I also have a 5K to write about, so I'm a bit behind.
Basically though, in order to PR I have to run this puppy in less than 57:46 (a 9:19 pace). Dan is also going to run it, so I'll keep you posted on how he does :) I'm sure well, because his training has pretty much consisted of yoga classes, swimming and an occasional light quarter mile jog with the dog!
On the agenda today: Work, 5K treadmill run, BodyPUMP, then perhaps a movie date!
Also: Happy Last Day of School Dan!! (I'm just slightly jealous, but when you're on your 8th summer of this, it gets a bit easier) :)
Do you have any plans for the upcoming holiday weekend?
My sister posted the following comment and I decided to make a post out of it, because I am bad at referring back to comments and I thought this would be good to remember:
I'm not sure that I got a runner's high, but I did feel like I kept myself in "the zone" for a lot of the race. I was really struggling through a lot of it to keep my speed around where it was, so that may be why I didn't hit it, but who knows.
I didn't stop to pee at all during the race and that was a huge concern of mine! I did hop into one of the hundreds of port-a-potties they had at the start area right before the race started. I think that this was really helpful. I also only went to about half of the water stations (I think 4 in total) that they had along the course. I felt really hydrated throughout the race and really just used them as a way to take a short walk break so that I could recharge and run faster.
I also took a Shot Blok around mile 6 but it made my stomach hurt so I didn't take any more. Usually they help me out, but I think since the race started so early in the morning, my body was just not very used to having something like that at the time.
On Monday I felt really sore... my legs and hips were really tight and I seriously considered working from home that day. One of my toenails also hurt. I was actually afraid to look at it after the race because I thought it was going to turn black and fall off like I have heard runner's talk about, but so far it has just been a bit painful and that's it! The good news is that each day my muscles feel a bit less sore than the day before. I've talked with friends who have done races this length and they say that it will take at least 5 days to fully recover.
Hopefully that's everything! When's your first half Melis?
Here's my bib that I picked up on Friday at the expo. It's the first one I've gotten that has my name on it. I'm pretty sure that it means that I have entered into the big leagues of racing.
The race started at 6am and this is what the view looked liked from outside of my hotel room when I got up. Do you see that glare? That my friends, is rain. Not the best of circumstances if you are going to run your first half, but I just layered a lot and tried not to think about it.
Here are my friends Randi, Chrissy and Shannon at the start of the race.
The course was pretty flat overall and took us around the Denver area.
I'm not going to lie. It was hard and far! The longest run I had done in my training was 11 miles and I was hurting a lot at the end. The best part about the route was after mile 7 when we got to run through a fire station. It really helped motivate me to go faster. While I had a stretch goal of coming in under 2 hours, I knew that coming in under 2:05 was going to be hard for me, so throughout the race I pushed myself to run 9:40m/m or under. I was able to do that for all but four of the miles and I came in just under the 2:05 mark!!
Here we are at the end of the chute that leads out of the finish! I am so proud of us for running our first half!
Now for the results! I did end up running .09 miles more than I had too, but all in all, I am really happy with my numbers. My splits from my garmin looked like this:
My official time was 2:04:42 and I had an average pace of 9:32!!
Overall: 1385/3779
20-29F Div: 227/774
Females: 650/2409
My muscles are so sore tonight and I am super exhausted because I didn't sleep very well last night. But I've taken it easy today and had my fair share of Advil today and hopefully tomorrow I'll feel closer to 100%. Now I'm off to bed :)
One of the things I've done to keep myself accountable is join a running club. I would say that all in all I am not a 'joiner' so I may not keep it up past the one season, but it has definitely allowed me to find new places to run and keeps me running at times that I haven't necessarily wanted to.
The club is currently training for the Garden of the Gods 10 Miler. So, we've been training there for the past few weeks. It is really, really hilly, but pretty much one of the prettiest runs ever.
I took photos of some of the views on my drive home the other day and thought I would share.
My camera phone pictures definitely don't do it justice.
if you've never been here, I highly recommend visiting this beautiful, free and open to the public park. It is one of the best places to visit in the Springs.
Hopefully you have a pretty run planned this week. Happy running :)
Over the holiday season I found Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred DVD for around $6 at Target and picked it up. In February, right around the time that I started my training I decided to give it a try, but I only lasted a record-setting one day! I think that my heart wasn't in it, but still... one day out of 30 does not bode well for traits like consistency and dedication.
Last week I decided to pick it up again and stick with it. Today is day 8 and I've only skipped one day (Sunday). Dan told me that Jillian would tell me, "No Excuses", but I feel like the 9 mile run I did that day was a good trade off.
I plan on doing 10 days on each of the three levels. Since each workout is about 25 minutes, I have been able to do one before I get to work each morning. Charlie gets really confused during the ab portions when I am down on the floor. It took me about 5 days to teach him not to come stand over me during those parts of the work out.
While I'm pretty sure that my abs won't be looking like Jillian's at the end of 30 days, I am getting better at doing push ups. What's most important to me though, is sticking with it for 30 days. Since consistency isn't really my thing, this is a good challenge to take on. Now I am off to Shred it!
Dan and I rand our first 5K together a couple of week's ago! It was so much fun. As you can tell from all of the green, it was a St. Patrick's Day weekend race. Can you see us in the picture below?!
This was a really fun race downtown and it was actually a 5K, unlike my Turkey Trot experience, which made it even better :)
Besides actually being the length that the race said it was going to be, my run was so different from my first Turkey Trot. Mostly because I have been working really hard on running consistently lately. But also because I was able to use my Garmin throughout the race which really helped me to control my pace and not get caught up in what everyone else was doing.
I went into the race wanting to run it in sub 29 minutes, but running with a lot of people can be pretty motivating, and I was able to blow past that time and finish in 27:38, which is a 8:54 avg pace!! I felt pretty exhausted at the end of it, but was really proud of myself overall for doing better than expected! I ended up placing 45 out of 222 in my age group and 222 out of 1,241 for all female competitors!
Even though I am not running races to place or have the fastest time, I do love seeing improvement in myself overall. Looking back at my Turkey Trot run, I remember having to walk at times and I finished with a 10:26 pace. It's awesome to know that all of my training is actually paying off in a tangible way :)
Dan also did well for not training at all. He finished in 28:14 which is a 9:06 average page, coming in 506 out of 937 male competitors and 69 out of 111 in his age group. For not training one bit, that is pretty awesome. Even though he did well, it has taken a bit of work to get him to agree to sign up for another race. But I think I'm pretty close to getting him to sign up to run the Bolder Boulder 10K with my over Memorial Day weekend. I'll keep you posted :)
While Charlie didn't attend, he did stay in the St. Patrick's Day spirit.
Last week I posted a list recapping all of the projects we were able to complete at the house in 2010. Here's a look at all of the things I'm hoping we can accomplish in 2011.
1. Paint our fence... (I referred to it's current state in this post, and it has not changed much since)
2. Hire a tree trimmer to take care of some tree branches outside of our expertise
3. Hire an electrician to remove some old knob & tube wiring that's still in our attic
4. Have insulation added to the attic roof
5. Remove wallpaper from the 2nd bedroom and paint
6. Have the remaining carpet removed downstairs and refinish all of the wood floors
7. Paint trim in dining room
8. Touch up paint in our bedroom and the sunroom
9. Paint wall under the stairs
10. Have front porch steps fixed and apply stone veneer
11. Remove rotting wood under front porch and replace with lattice
12. Install shelves in the downstairs linen closet
13. Pick out new paint colors for house exterior and paint
14. Have quote done for kitchen renovation in 2012
It's a lot, so even if we just get half of this list done I'll be happy. With a house as old as ours, I'm surprised I could keep this list to only 14 items!
So, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to charts, graphs and statistics. This video shows a pretty interesting visual representation of wealth and life expectancy progression throughout the world from the early 1800s to present. I thought it was cool so I'm sharing.
Thought I would do one more 2010 recap in photos to capture the year in one post (last 2010 post, I promise). It was really a fun year all together and seeing all of these photos in one place, reminds me that I should really blog more throughout the year to capture all of these events.
Every year I start off by making a list of all of the things I want us to accomplish on the house as the year goes on. This year, we may have diverged from that list a bit, but really made a lot of headway nonetheless.
Here's a recap of what went down throughout the year.
February: Installed a new garbage disposal and a new bathroom faucet
May: Bought and installed a new water heater after ours died suddenly
May: Started a service to rid our lawn of ant colonies so they don't start coming inside
June: Trimmed trees around the house, cleaned out the garage and cleared the dog run
July: Painted the sunroom
May-October: Cleared out and revamped the right of way in front of the house (this deserves a post in its own right, which I will try to get to soon)
September: Bought a rug for the sunroom
October: Routed the sewer line and had the furnace inspected
November: Scraped the popcorn ceiling out of the 2nd bedroom and tore up and removed the carpet from the room.
November: Had insulation added to the attic eaves
December: Bought a new couch!
As the year goes by I never think that we are doing enough (I have big goals), but when I look back I feel like we actually managed to accomplish a lot. I'll share our 2011 goal list in the next few days. It's pretty optimistic, but I'm a glass half full kind of person and can't help myself.
I try to make a goal each year of reading at least as many books as I did the year before. This year, I made it by the skin of my teeth. I had to throw in Bridge to Terabithia last night in order to make it, which is kind of cop out, but still resulted in matching number of books read in 2009, so I'm okay with it. In my defense, I'm in the middle of about 5 books, so I blame being easily distracted to the last minute goal completion.
The books above outline what I read last year. I track everything on Goodreads, which if you have not been to is a great site that allows me to keep track of what I read when, and what I thought of books overall.
My favorite book of the year was Born to Run, but The Help and the Steig Larsson trilogy were also really entertaining reads. For 2011, I am going to try to diversify my reading a bit to include some new genres.
Here's a quick recap on my thoughts on the books above (as a general rule, I only give really horrible books 1 or 2 stars):
Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall: Fascinating book about a serious group of runners, featuring the Tarahumara tribe of Mexico. Whether you are into running or not, I recommend the read. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. (5 out 5 stars)
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown: This is the third Robert Langdon installment and is pretty consistent in tone and pace with the other books. This one focuses mostly around Freemasonry and takes place in Washington, D.C. I liked it as much as I liked The Da Vinci Code (4 out of 5 stars)
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Patterson: A book from my childhood. It doesn't hold the same appeal to me now as it did then, but still a good read for a young adult book.... and a really quick one. I think I blew through it in an hour. (4 out of 5 stars)
City of Thieves, by David Benioff: This is what I'd call a comedic tragedy. It takes place during WWII in Leningrad and follows two unlikely heroes, as they go off on a seemingly impossible hunt to find eggs in order to secure their freedom. It's definitely the most unique war story I have ever read. (4 out of 5 stars)
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins: The third and final installment of The Hunger Games series. I thought it was just as good as the other two books and was surprised by how much I liked the series. Sad to know that the series is over. (4 out of 5 stars)
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett: I'm definitely not the first person to have read this book in 2010. As I'm sure most of you have heard of it, I will keep it concise. Loved the characters and the writing in this book. (5 out of 5 stars)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson: Same as above, I'm sure most of you have heard about this series as well. I loved it. You definitely have to get through the first few chapters of the first novel to get into it, but once you do, it unravels into a really fascinating story. The last two books are pretty intense from a pace perspective. There were many times when I did not want to put the books down. (5 out 5 stars)
Shelter Me, by Juliette Faye: I started this book in August and did not finish it until the day before yesterday. It centers around a woman in the year after she is widowed unexpectedly with two small children. I think the premise of the book was good, it just never really kept me interested. I think it was well written, but perhaps to sad overall to really keep me engaged. (3 out of 5 stars)
Second Chance, by Jane Green: The 1st of two Jane Green books I read this past year. She is a british author, who pretty much writes a lot of chick lit. This was my favorite of the two books I read of hers. It follows a group of friends who are reunited through a loss after years apart. It was a quick read and entertaining. (4 out of 5 stars)
The Other Woman, by Jane Green: My least favorite read of the year, but a quick beach read if you need one. It follows the relationship between a girl and her soon to be mother-in-law, as they move through engagement to wedding and beyond. (3 out of 5 stars)
Junky, by William S. Burroughs: Dan brought this one home and I picked it up one day and finished it pretty soon after. If you ever need a reason not to do drugs, you should read this book. While it's a little to anxiety producing for my liking it was well written and an interesting look into 1950s drug culture. (3 out of 5 stars)
Barefoot, by Elin Hilderbrand: A fun beach read that takes place in Nantucket. I loved the scenery of this book and would recommend it if you're looking to remind yourself of Summer. I also like the characters although the story could have had more to offer. (4 out of 5 stars)
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, by Lorna Landvik: This story spans a group of friends' relationship over a series many decades. I liked to see how the times effected each character and really liked how each developed. A fun book that reminded me of the Ya Ya books. (4 out of 5 stars)
Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See: While I liked Snowflower and the Secret Fan more than this book, I still found it to be good. It focuses on two sisters' transitions from wealth in Shanghai to being immigrants in Los Angeles. It was somewhat sad overall and dragged at times once they were in the US. (4 out of 5 stars)
On Thanksgiving morning I participated in my first Turkey Trot. It was a 5K to benefit one of the local YMCAs in town and my first 5K! My friend Randi and I both participated and Randi's husband Ryan cheered us on and even better, held our stuff :)
The race started at 9a and the temp was 12 degrees so I decided that layering was extremely necessary. I think I ended up with 2 bottom layers and 6 layers on top along with gloves and one of those hat bands. I actually think I over did it with the top layers and could have stuck with 4-5 and been fine. Plus, by the end of the race I fully hated the gloves I was wearing and thought about throwing them off. They were just $1 target gloves and not fancy running gloves so that might be why.
Here's Randi and I at the start (I'm pretty sure the better picture is on her camera). We decided to line up with the 10 minute mile pace group.
We started out strong and spent the first few minutes winding around and passing people. I thought we were going to do awesome, but then Randi started to have some breathing issues (most likely because she didn't train outside). I hung out with her for the first mile or so and then decided to just go at my own pace in an effort to get a sub 30 minute time. After that I was pretty touch and go. The only mile marker I was able to see was the 3rd one, so for most of the race I had no idea how I was pacing myself. My best bet is that I started out way too fast because during the 2nd mile (or what I think the 2nd mile was) I kept on having to stop to walk.
I'm glad I was able to see the 3rd mile marker though because I totally picked it up after that in an effort to make up for some of the walking. I ended up crossing the finish under the 30 minute mark, so I was really excited!
Here I am walking through the shoot to drop off my time tag.
After that I walked back to the finish to see Randi cross. I managed to see her but wasn't able to get a finish line photo.
After a while of waiting around the results posted and I came in at 29:24! I was really excited that I actually met goal and came in under 30 minutes.
That was until I checked the official race results online the next day and saw the following:
Briargate YMCA/Kaiser Permanente Turkey Trot 2.8M
2.82 Miles
November 25, 2010 in Colorado Springs, CO
As you may already be aware, the course was inadvertently cut short during the race which made the course 2.8 instead of 3.1 miles (the outlined course is marked off as a 5K). The YMCA and Colorado Springs Police Department apologize for this error and will be sure to correct it for next year.
2.82 miles!!! What a rip off! So basically what I thought was a really awesome time actually wasn't that great after all. My overall pace was 10:26, so I was pretty bummed. However, looking at the bright side, I came in 60th in my age group of 25-29 out of 121 women. 1,744 people participated and I was 931 overall and 391 out of the 919 females that participated. Plus my time beat the average pace of 31:28.
All in all I am still a bit bummed out about it though and am thinking about finding another true 5K to run in the next few weeks. It was a really fun experience though and gave me a good taste of what races are like. I think in the future, pacing myself and not letting the race pace me is going to be my biggest challenge. And, even though the race didn't really end up being the 5K that was promoted, I still want to participate again next year :)
Hi and welcome to my blog! My name is Ashley and this blog helps me capture all of the things that are going on and that inspire me in my daily life.
My life is busy and full. It mainly revolves around the beautiful state of Colorado, my job in the crazy world of advertising, my boyfriend of 7 years, the 106 year old home that we share, and of course, our precocious 4 year old golden retriever Charlie.
Most recently I started running and am currently training for my second 1/2 Marathon!!
If you're here for the first time, hi! If you're back for more... thanks for reading :). Feel free to leave me a comment so I know I'm not talking to myself
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