20.something

Well, it's approaching the end of my day and guess what? I got my long run in after all. About 3:00 I decided to head out and run more miles and just get it done. And I really felt good, despite the temps and humidity and sun. What a difference a week makes. I ended up with 20.something miles for the day. My GPS is charging and I don't feel like getting up to look at it. :-)

And I have some catching up to do on my blog. Let's go back to Thursday. Eric got a kayak and that afternoon wanted to paddle from the Rec Center up to Lake Shady, a journey of about 14 1/2 miles. So I drove him up there.

He got the kayak in the water ...

and away he went.

He had a good paddle, and arrived safely in Oronoco. Kinda sore ...

Here's a photo of the new recipe for Raspberry Bread I made for Team R.E.D. There is raspberry jam in the batter, thus the whole loaf is colored.

Late afternoon, I went to a garden open house at the home of John and Suzanne Dinusson. They have LOVELY gardens.

Then it was quickly off to Team R.E.D. at the O'Leary home in Byron. The theme for the evening was "tropical".

The 6.17 mile run was HILLY.

10 hills. My legs were toast by the time I finished. I walked the last hill on 9th Street. I was worried that I'd trashed my legs for the race this morning since I'd run about 9.5 miles that AM, including 10 x 1/4 mile. Who knows ... maybe I could have run faster had I not done all that on Thursday. I'll never know.

Tom grilled up some delish kabobs.

A good time was had by all. Especially in our efforts to earn Bear's Den gift cards!

Wheelbarrow races! I elected to be a photographer rather than participate in that one. :-) Congrats to the winners ... Paul and Adam!

I got a new rear tire for my car on Friday (after a swim and lifting at the Y). I told the guy at the counter it was almost as bad as buying a house with all the stuff you have to sign. He laughed. :-) Sign something that says they can work on the vehicle, that they put the hubcap back on, that you need to come back for a lug nut recheck, that you are picking up the vehicle, the charge slip,  yadda, yadda, yadda,

Afterwards I met Jean, Julie ...

and John for lunch at Dooley's on Friday. It was good to see them, as always.

I had the salmon wrap from the "light" menu. It was very good. I just had the second half for supper tonight along with corn on the cob.

Tomorrow morning at 8 AM  at the RAC I hope to ride with some others (don't know for sure who is going to show up!). I'll see how much I have in these legs after today.

Well, enough for today. July is now all but over. Hard to believe. Summer will be just a memory in such a very short time.

Therefore ... enjoy.

Women's Race

A good day. And a new friend. :-) The day dawned a bit warmer than I'd hoped. And very humid. But ... what can we do? Nothin'. So I headed for Silver Lake with my 24 raspberry streusel muffins in tow to register for the 4-mile Rochester Women's Race, directed by my good friend Jeanne Block. She's pictured here along with my other good friend and pie baker extraordinaire Mary Dobberke. :-) Mary on the left, Jeanne on the right.

After a 1.3 mile warmup we were off to the start line for a couple trips around the lake (and a little bit more). In this race I always go out too fast and then crash and burn. Well, I have a really hard time throttling back on that first mile, but I knew I had it within me to run comfortable for the remaining three, so that was my game plan for the day. And I think I did a fairly decent job of executing it. My splits: 6:30 6:47 6:48 6:47. 27:11 (a 6 second PR) and third overall. There were 88 runners today. John Resman got a photo. This was at mile 2 I belive. Either 2 or 3.75. Look at all that nasty crepey 49-year old skin ...

Jeanne makes all the awards for this race, and she makes a LOT of them. 30 I think. This year it was footstools. She did a great job.

So what about a new friend? Michelle from Dallas. She's here in Roch for another year. She's got two little girls age 3 and 5. We chatted for quite a while after the race on a 2-mile cooldown along with race winner Mary Chestolowski (Congrats Mary!). She was running home, so I brought her stool to her later in the day and we chatted some more. That's Mary, me, Michelle.

After the race it was off to Brothers along with 16 other hungry runners for breakfast.

A great way to start the day. :-)

So Much To Do ...

I don't know where the time goes. So behind on blogging. I'll do a quick update tonight and a more lengthy post (with photos) tomorrow.

I am running the Women's Race in the AM. Then joining the long run folks from the RAC at Brothers afterwards. Please feel free to join us. I'm sure we'll all have stories to share.

Thursday morning I did 1/4 miles. Splits: 1:31  1:28  1:25  1:28  1:26  1:23  1:25  1:27  1:24. Felt good and it felt GREAT to feel good. I think I got my mojo back. :-) Then I mowed the lawn (another hour on my feet), made my raspberry bread for Team R.E.D. (good recipe) and cookies for Team R.E.D. and a salad for Team R.E.D. Yeah ... I went overboard. But I got rid of just about EVERYTHING. So all good. It was a good turnout, and a HILLY 6.17 mile run, Tom! 10 count 'em 10 hills! Photos tomorrow, or check out Tom's .

I am off work until August 9 so am hoping to do a little road-tripping next week. And get a bunch of stuff done around the house. And keep up on my blogging. :-)

A HUGE thank you to Dr. Mederic Hall (triathlete extraordinaire) for agreeing to be medical director for the Rochester Half Marathon. Really appreciate it Mederic! And thank you Kari Justin and Jennifer Meyer who are now volunteers for the race as a result of being bleaders as well. And we need LOTS more help. Please shoot me an email if you can help. We need lots of course marshals in the early miles ... which involves standing on a street corner with a brightly colored vest on assuring that the runners proceed 1) safely, and 2) on the course.

Had a nice lunch today with Jean, Julie and John. I was the odd one out with a name that begins with "R"! We ate at Dooley's. I had the salmon wrap, which was very good. The other half, and my fries, are still in the fridge. I think that will be lunch tomorrow. Afterwards, I stopped by the library for a book and quickly walked through the RACE exhibit. Very thought provoking. I really need a lot more time to really do it justice, though. I think I will go back.

From Troy Amdahl (he gave me permission to post it): Dear Family and Friends: Thankfully we found a buyer for our Rochester home. However, as part of the deal we agreed to take in a house in Foxcroft on trade. It is a nice 4 bedroom, 3 and ½ bathroom house with over 3500 sq/ft and a three car garage. We have no need for this house. In hopes of selling it quickly, we are going to offer at a “fire sale” price, just to move it. We are going to try and sell it personally for 30-45 days to be able to significantly reduce the price, before listing or renting it. I was originally listed at $379,900. When the buyer of our home was motivated to buy our home, he lowered it to $339,900. My current realtor recommended listing it between 319-329K. If you know someone in a position to buy it quickly, we will sell it for $289,000, very firm. We appreciate you forwarding this to anyone who may be sincerely interested and a capable buyer. There are some photos on the link below. Thanks, Troy and Kris Amdahl http://www.weichert.com/29585186/

Well, I'm off to bed. Talk at you Saturday!

On The Mend

Well, I think I'm on the mend. :-) Yippee!! At least I had a decent run this morning in Byron with Paul, Tom and Bri.

We ran the progressive mile workout. It was really muggy. Paul said 97%. Drops of sweat were flying off my fingertips the last couple miles. Paul is our taskmaster for this workout. And my GPS was dead so I don't know what my last mile was 'cause I couldn't keep up with Paul. The deal-e-o ... hang on as long as you can. So ANYONE is welcome to join us. Mile splits: 10:01 8:57  8:28  7:56  7:26  7:02  ?? Paul ran 6:28 and I'm guessing I ran about 6:40 judging from how many seconds I think it took me to finish after he did. Then we do a 1/2 mile cooldown back to Tom's house. When I got back to Rochester, I ran 2 of my one mile out-and-backs and then another 2 1/2 minutes to get to ten. We'd run 7.77 in Byron. Good workout. Considering. :-) Afternoon workout: 22.77 mile bike ride. Beautiful day for biking. Wunderbar!!

Thank you to those that picked up trash last night around the golf course: Jean, George, Erin, Andy. :-) It was a muggy, sticky night to be doing that chore. Thank you!!

People are starting to firm up their plans for Boston 2011. And that's what I'm going to start working on tomorrow too. Lodging. And do a little looking at airfares as well. It's going to be a road trip to remember!!

I think I'm going to be running the Women's Race (4 miles) on Saturday morning if my body keeps cooperating. Probably won't be able to run the time I did last year (27:17) but I'll do what I can. It's so weather-dependent for me. Hot and muggy? I crash and burn ... big time. Yes, even in a 4-miler it can get ugly. Jeanne asked me to make some of my Raspberry Streusel muffins for the race. She always has homemade muffins post-race and great awards and door prizes. It's a great event. All thanks to Jeanne. :-)

On my plate for Thursday: An afternoon haircut. A garden open house. And testing a new Raspberry Bread recipe and rounding up a tropical outfit for Thursday night's Team R.E.D. I found a cheap ($11) tropical bikini at the mall this afternoon.

But I don't know if I dare wear a bikini top to R.E.D. (With shorts!) I also had a 45% off coupon for GAP. A one day only coupon. It totally made my day when a size 2L (long) khaki pants fit. I guess the only good thing to come out of this GI stuff is that I'm not gaining weight. :-) I ended up buying a pair of low-rise boot cut black dress pants. Boot cut usually isn't my thing, but these fit nicely.

This illustration ...

Notice the nose of the triathlon bike (the white bike) is almost directly over the bottom bracket (center of the crank), which allows for a more comfortable, aerodynamic position riding in the aerobars.

was in the Gear West latest email. It shows a tri bike superimposed on a road bike. Pretty good illustration I think . I am still very happy with my road bike purchase.

From Gary at Youth for Christ: Colorado Peaches and Pears are coming to Rochester in just over 3 weeks. The fruit will arrive around August 23rd. For more information on our 8th Annual Sale, please check our website: http://www.rochesterareayfc.org/

I noticed these beautiful HUGE hibiscus just up the street from the O'Leary's. Gorgeous. I love flowers. :-)

Enough for today. Until tomorrow then ...

HOT!!

There's no other way to describe it. Hot. Sticky. Windy. Summer. Soon enough we'll be complaining about the cold ... No workout (really) for me today. My GI system wouldn't allow a morning workout. Late afternoon I lifted at the Y and then walked 2.75 while the others did hills and/or speedwork. Yes, there were some that did BOTH on a day where the heat index was over 100 degrees. Crazy!! On the hills ... Tom O', Paul, Tom W, Noah, Mike, Roger, Joe, Sara, and me (sort of anyway).

A good turnout for a day like this. Joining us at Brothers were Randy, Andy and Erin.

I chatted with Bill Nevala at the Y and he said he'd like to volunteer at the Rochester Half Marathon. Of course!! And we need LOTS more volunteers. If you can help out (we need lots of course marshals), shoot me an email.

Eric bought a kayak over the weekend. He took it on its inaugural paddle today on Lake Zumbro and the Zumbro River. He really enjoyed it. He's got more plans for tomorrow.

I really had a low-key day today. After work, I just lounged around the house. Took a nap. Read magazines. Played the piano. Watered flowers. VERY low key for me. Didn't even bake anything. :-)

Thursday at Team R.E.D. we'll be at the O'Leary's. It's "Tropical" night. I'm not sure how I'm going to dress for that one. I'll work on something though. There's got to be something in this house that's "tropical".

Well, I'm hoping to be able to run at 5:30 AM in Byron, GI system willing that is. So I believe it would be in my best interest to get to bed.

Quote for the day: "What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." -- Aristotle

Good night.

Monday, Monday

I started the morning with a pretty pathetic 7.18 mile run. Not feeling good again. But ... I ran 4 miles of it with Marie Boyd. She was doing a 50-minute recovery run after a hard 2 hour run yesterday otherwise there's no way I can keep up with that fast gal!! It was fun to chat with her about kids, training (her tempo run and speedwork ... she's coached by Benji Durden), weather-related travel mishaps, ... She's a nice gal in addition to a very talented runner. After really bad Thursday, Saturday and now Monday runs, I really need to have a good one to build some confidence. Maybe tomorrow. I hope.

Tomorrow (Tuesday): Trash pickup around Soldier's Field at 5:30 pm at the parking area across Broadway from Snappy Stop. Let Jean know if you can help out. Thanks!! Also ... hills (if you dare, with the weather forecast as it is) at 5:00 or 5:30 starting at Soldier's Field. I'll be there about 5, but will just toodle around WITH MY WATER BOTTLE (hint, hint ... bring water!) as I just don't do well with that much exertion in that kind of heat/humidity. Hopefully, we'll congregate at Brothers' afterwards. It's been a while. Yet another option ... Trail run with Jim Mason and company. Meet at the Nature Store/entrance to Whitewater State Park, at 6:15. Then tour the wonderful hills and valleys of the park.

Here's a link to Tom Woo's Lumberjack 5K photos with our race team. Tom ran a 18:03. Super fast!! Good job, Tom. :-)
 
At long last, here are last week's 40th anniversary of All Comers' photos: 

Today's baking: banana bread with chocolate chips and walnuts, and blueberry bread. I'm thinking I will NOT enter cookies in the fair this year. Those fair judges just do NOT like my cookies. Supper? Corn on the cob and a pesto pasta. Boil penne pasta and throw in some veggies, cut about the same size as the pasta, during the last few minutes of cooking time (I used sugar snap peas, green beans, and a red pepper).

Drain. Toss with pesto and some lemon pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese if you like. Super easy.

Corn facts (since my polls are about sweet corn): 1) There are always an even number of rows. 2) Corn is a grain, not a vegetable. 3) There is one ear of corn per stalk. 4) There is one strand of silk for each kernel on the cob. There 'ya go. :-)

There are some prior year Med-City Marathon T-shirts for sale at the Y for $2. Get 'em before they're gone.

Last night I took the boys to DQ after Matt and I rode and before he left for Winona. We all had cones.

And so it goes ... Good night. ;-)