Three Things Thursday

1. Running Diva Mom's Virtual 10k
I woke at 430am a little tired but knew that if I didn't get this virtual 10K done this morning I probably wouldn't get it in tomorrow - especially since I have plans to swim tomorrow morning!

So, I flew out of bed, changed, and was to the gym and on the treadmill by 445am. It's nice to live so close to the gym and now have 24-hour access to the cardio and weight machines. Before 24-hour access was available, I wouldn't be able to get on the treadmill until after 5 and there was no way I would be able to run this distance and get ready in time for work.

I will admit, doing long runs on the treadmill is not ideal and I do not recommend it to anyone. I know that I run faster on the treadmill then I do outside, so I crank up the incline to "try" to give myself a more similar workout to running outside. Today I had it set on between 1.5 and 2.0 for the entire run. This also helps with my knees.

Breaking the run down - The treadmills are set to shut down after 30 minutes, so I broke my run down into 2 30 minute sessions, and then completed the rest of the 10K. (Unlike some of you, I need more than an hour to run a 10K.) Here's how it looks:

First 30 min = 2.56 mi(11:42 pace)
Second 30 min = 2.64 mi(11:21 pace)
+ 11:34 min = 1.1 mi (10:30 pace)
Total = 6.3 miles

For some reason, I always have this habit of adding a .1 or .2 to my runs. Don't ask. I just do it.

Overall, it was a good run and faster than I expected. My last long run left my right groin feeling a bit twinged, but today all was good. My left knee was a little tight, but I know that with a little extra stretching throughout the day and using the foam roller tonight, I will be golden.

Love, love, LOVE, these virtual races! Did you participate?


2. Brad Paisley Concert
This past Saturday, the BF and I and another couple, went to the Brad Paisley Concert at the Ralph Englestad Arena (Fighting Sioux Hockey arena) as part of the BF's birthday celebration. Even though we were up pretty high, our seats were perfect - just off the corner of the stage.

Justin Moore was the first opening act and even though I didn't know many of his songs, he did a wonderful job and I really enjoyed his music. Then Darius Rucker (Hootie) performed and did an AWESOME job. I would love to see that man in concert if he started his own tour. What an amazing musician he is! Brad Paisely did awesome as well. The music was a little loud for his concert and all of his mad-guitar skills, but overall it was a wonderful show! We definitely got our moneys worth with 3+ hours of music!


3. A Well-Needed Break
Next week we have Thursday and Friday off for NDEA conference. It used to be required that teachers go, or stay back and work in their classrooms, but now it's not part of our contract hours, so many don't go. Sometimes I miss how it was my first couple years of teaching and choosing to stay back to do grades, progress reports, prepare lessons, etc. However, I look forward to having these two days off. It will make for a nice long weekend ... to get some grad school homework done.

Great Concert X 2

A couple friends of mine talked me into going to the David Cook concert last night. Now, I really like his music, but I didn't know if I wanted to pay to go see him, let alone do it on a school night. He was going to be performing at a smaller Venue in Fargo, the tickets were cheaper, and I just couldn't pass on the opportunity to hear him live. Plus, I LURVE going to concerts!

And the concert was AWESOME. Call me a geek, but I really thought it was great and we had a fun time. David Cook is really down to Earth and has a great sense of humor. He really connected with the audience. Here's some pics from DC's performance....

Backtrack a bit to before DC's performance.....

The opening act was a group called Crash Kings and I LOVED their music. Their more rock, but I love their sound and they have some real talent! After the concert I just had to pick up their CD, got their autographs, and took a picture with them. Super nice guys, and pretty attractive! Here's a pic from last night....From left to right.... Tony ... lead vocals with some mean piano/clavinet skills in there. Jason is the drummer.... and Mike, Tony's brother is the bass player. Here's a clip of one of my NEW favorite songs...



If you like rock, and get the chance to see them in concert, I HIGHLY recommend! I also recommend seeing David Cook, but that's just a given!

Fun times & good news

Fun times?!

My sister came into town Friday afternoon and a bunch of us went to the Hairball concert that evening. I don't know where else you can go to hear the best 80's coverband for 5 dollars and get a free drink card at the door!

After a late night out, we slept in a little, walked to the coffee shop, and then did some shopping Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we went to the Billy Joel/Elton John concert and had a blast! We were surrounded by a lot of "older" people, and I felt bad standing but I just couldn't help myself! The music was so fun, and we had some handsome gentlemen in our isle that danced with us! Ha! This was the second time I have seen Billy Joel and Elton John together, but it was Steph's first. It still is one of my all-time favorite concerts! After the concert we went to a nice little bar and had a couple martini's! Steph took some pics this weekend, so I will try to get those from her and post them later. What a wonderful weekend!

*****

Good news?!

Last Wednesday, when I was using the foam roller as part of my TriPower routine, I was rolling out my right leg, behind the knee and outside the knee and something "popped". It didn't hurt, but tingled a bit. Later when I was going down stairs to check my laundry, I noticed something very exciting. My right knee was no longer popping when going down the stairs. In the past, it's just been so "normal" for my knees to pop going down the stairs, but it never hurt. I just learned to accept it as a part of "having bad knees". I don't know what that foam roller did exactly, but I was thrilled! I am so excited to see how these workouts from TriPower are going to help me with my training!

After my sister left this morning, I just had to take advantage of the nice weather. It was 59 degrees, sunny, and a little breezy. I ran without the knee sleeve, very slow and with a lot of walking, but completely pain free! You have no idea how excited I was! My running legs are not as strong as they were prior to my injury but soon they will be stronger than they ever have been!


Today's Workout:
Run 3.55 miles outside
(sunny & 59 degrees with light breeze)

Girls weekend with a Concert!

Here's a quick recap of my workouts this week. It sure feels good to be getting back to a routine after the past couple of weeks!

Monday:
The only workout I did was 2 hours of shoveling 17 inches of heavy snow. That was enough for this chica.

Tuesday:
I ran 3.1 miles on the treadmill. My knee was fine, but started feeling a little tight about 2.75 miles in.

Wednesday:
I hit up the pool for a 1 mile swim while I was still in Bismarck. It felt good to get back in, since it had been about 2 weeks since my last swim. I started Jillian's 30-day shred over again with day 1 today.

Thursday:
After completing day 2 of Jillian's 30-Day shred, I popped in a trainer dvd and went away on the bike for approximately 50 minutes. Afterwards, I did a about 25 minutes of pilates and threw out a few cuss words while getting to know the foam roller.... youch. Reminder... check back early next week for a product review!

Today:
I woke this morning at 445am, trying to get back into an early morning routine. I was suprsed to feel rested and ready for a good workout. I did Day 3 of the shred, had a bowl of cheerios and 1/2 a banana and then hit up the gym. I ran 2.5 miles (with sprints at 7.5mph) and then jumped in the pool for 1000M. I used to do this a lot in the evenings last school year, but it got to be so late since the pool was only open for lap swim in the evening from 8-10pm. This workout felt great overall but I was pretty worn-out when I finished the swim. The knee felt good through the entire run. I am hoping that my newly found friendship with the foam roaller is going to make a difference!

I have done pretty well with eating better and cutting back on the high calorie coffees for the past few days. I truly do love my Dunkin' Donuts coffee with splenda and sugar free creamer, so this transition won't be too big of a deal for me. I have been able to get about 8-8.5 hours of sleep each night. I am sure this has a lot to do with not working at all this past week and no schedule. I hope to be able to continue this once school starts back up again next week.


Well, I am signing off for the weekend. I will be spending the weekend in the cities with my sisters and mom. We've got big plans for this evening... Britney Spears babay!!!! I know you all are soo jealous! This is part of my youngest sisters Christmas gift! I am so pumped! It's been so long since I have been to a concert!

If you could go to any concert, which one would you choose? Another one that I would really like to go is Coldplay!

Super Stoked!

So one of my bestest friends (you read that right) emailed me last week wondering if I would like to go with her to hear one of the bestest (again, you read that right), and most hottest musicians ever! I am SUPER STOKED! We are going to hear Jonny Lang! He is a Fargo native, who started his career performing in bars at the young age of 16. Now he is pretty well known all over! We got to see him at a casino in MN many many years ago... and it was awesome then!

I am counting down the days until August 26th! That is the day the little kiddos start back up at school, but all is good. No worries. We won't be partying it up; we are just looking forward to an awesome show put on by a one-of-a-kind artist! No replay of our freakin' fantabulous times we had on that exact date a year ago... even if she is my whiskey drinkin' partner!

Did I mention he is quite attractive? With funny faces and all.
There are other attractive musicians that do the same... like, John Mayer. It's a sign that they are ... hmm... attractively-talented-musicians-that-makes-funny-faces?!

If he is coming to your area, seriously think about checking out his show. He is awesome!

Morning workouts

First of all.... guess who is coming to Fargo?

Yeah!



I was up this morning at 4:30am. Should have been up earlier to eat some oatmeal or something because a mile into my run at about 5:15..... I was super hungry and it was oh so distracting. This was what definitely factored into my choice to stop after 2 miles. That and giving me more time to do my strengh training because I didn't know how long it would take. Now I know that I could have run another 15 minutes. I am feeling sore all over... but a good sore. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day before my big "mini-tri" saturday morning.

I really do enjoy the morning workouts better than the evening. I was able to leave work today and just go home. And that is what I did. With the addition of taking a 1 hour nap. I guess I was tired!

And now I am checking blogs and switching back and forth between the Nuggets game and Grey's Anatomy... Go Nuggets!

Signing off,

"Sporty Spice"