Wedding #1 of 3

The quick trip, but long drive to a small town in MN for a couple of friends wedding was well worth it. The bride and groom were friends from college. My sister and brother-in-law met me there, and we were pleasantly surprised to see our friend from Cedar Rapids, IA, with his girlfriend as well. There were a few others that we knew as well, and it was wonderful to catch up with them. The wedding was beautiful, the food was good, and the dancing was necessary! It was a great time.
1 wedding down... 2 more left this summer!

It was nice to sleep in a little bit this morning, as summer school is officially over. However, I went into school today to start cleaning things out. I don't know if I have stated before, but I have moved into my own classroom, one that belonged to a teacher that retired and left everything. I was there for a little over 2 hours today and got through most of 1 filing cabinet (of 4). I am glad I have 3 weeks to shovel through things, rearrange furniture, and get organized before school starts!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

OSN: 800M, approximately 20:00, 2:30/100M
200M w/u
4x100M
200M c/d
W4/D1 pushups = 69

On the road again...

I must say, the past three days of workouts have been quite successful compared to the first two days of this week.

Wednesday I had a super successful swim, working on some super speedy sprints. Boy, that's a lot of ssssssss.

Yesterday I went out for a late run. I had gone to lunch with some teachers to celebrate the last day of summer school, which kept me from hitting the gym right away. Then, I had to let my mini burgers from Applebee's settle in... and didn't get out until 530. Probably the hottest time of the day, and did I feel it. It was a short run, but a run none the less.

Today, I was able to sleep in a bit, but got up early enough to hit the open road before it got too hot. When I left it was about 71 degrees with a mild wind of 6mph from the NW. By the time I was finished, I was pooped. It was 82 degrees with NW winds at 15mph. I had gone out on a route that our cycle group has taken, and got about 9 miles into it and had to turn around due to construction. I was fine with it because I wanted to do at least 15 miles. But, coming back was a total bee-yach. Pardon my foul mouth. I was going north and west for about 4 or 5 miles and it was brutal. The wind picked up and there was an extra uphill climb. But, once I got as far as I could go west on that road (before hitting gravel) I turned south and was happy! The wind was mostly at my back. I had to stop and take a couple breaks and thought I would give you a sight of my ride...I topped off the ride with W3D3 pushups... totaling 80 today. I barely made it through them.

Tomorrow... a nice early morning run before I head out of town again. Yep. 4 hour drive to a small town in MN for a friend's wedding.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Thursday: ORN 2.2 miles, 12:16/mile avg.
Friday: OCN 18.1 miles, 1:19:28, avg 13.7mph
W3D3 p/u = 80

****UPDATE*****

Today: ORN 2.5 miles, 30:00, 12:30/mile avg.
68 degrees, sunny, with 66% humidity

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!

Feeling "With It"

Softball went later than usual last night, due to us hanging out in the parking lot after the games and having a couple beers to celebrate 3rd place. Well, the rest of the team drank; I socialized. Honestly. I was good.

I couldn't fall asleep before midnight and was up early for work. Needless to say I was very tired this morning and didn't know what my swim was going to be like today. But, I remembered my bag! :)

Despite the late night and lack of 8 hours of sleep, the swim was great. It has been a week since I was in the pool and I was excited. At first I didn't have anything planned as to what I wanted to do in the water. But, as I was warming up, I felt it was a good day to do some intervals and work on some speed. I warmed up for 400M, then did 4x50M sprints with 1 minute R/I, another slow 400M, then 4x50M sprints again, and then a 400M cool down. It felt great.

I then came home to do my week 3 day 2 push ups. not the funnest thing to do after a hard workout in the pool, but I persevered and accomplished the task with a whopping 72 push ups!

If all goes well, I will be able to do a short run tomorrow morning as well as some strength training (focusing on the legs) on the machines before the last day of summer school with the little kiddos. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow and be sunny and warm on Friday.... when I plan to get in a nice LONG ride out on the open road!

OSN: 1600M (didn't even pay attention to the time)
400M w/u
4x50M sprints with 1 minute R/I
400M free
4x50M sprints with 1 minute R/I
400M c/d

What do they say... you get faster if you train faster?

Today ... will be a better day ...

Last night we had our softball tournament. I was quite disappointed with our short season to begin with, and then to finish it off with a 2-game tournament? Both our games were played against a division 3 team (and we are division 4). The first game we were able to get a good lead in the 2nd inning but the 3rd inning was out of control and the umpire was inconsistent with his calls and very blind. We are lucky a couple of our guys weren't kicked out of the game. The second game was just as rough, with some bad calls, but we were able to pull through and take 3rd place overall!!

It's funny because half of our team consists of teachers, mostly high school teachers. Last night our first baseman (who was a high school teacher but took a new job this summer), was hassled by a member of the other team. He had jumped to reach a ball, dropped it, and said "that's okay, we play fair" in regards to some bad calls. The member from the other team shouted "I saw the grade you gave my child!" ... he replied with "I saw the child who earned the grade." I can't believe a parent would talk smack like that during a softball game. I just had to chuckle at his response.

--------

Today, I have my gym bag packed for a long swim after work. I through the bag in front of my door, this way to make sure I don't forget it like yesterday. *see previous post*

Today, will be a better day!

Still Undecided

On my sidebar is this weeks "training" plan. Now, keep in mind I am attempting to train for the Lifenet Triathlon, although I haven't fully decided whether or not I am going to do it. I am leaner closer to the side of NOT participating. Thus, for the following reasons:

• They have upped the price this year
  
• The registration cite is still unavailable
  
• The training has been inconsistent...
• I have been gone for the past 3 weekends, and
• will be gone for 4 out of the next 6 weekends before the tri
• And it just been crazy busy with finding a house to purchase, finishing up summer school, moving into my new classroom for next year, and the meetings/training for this coming fall have just begun.

This week hasn't helped matters either. Sunday night I had my gym bag packed prior to heading to bed. On Monday after teaching the little kiddos, I was planning on hitting the pool for a short but quick swim. Then I was going to get on the bike and take advantage of the nice weather. Well, I had forgotten that I had a meeting scheduled with my principal to go over some things for the fall, and that didn't get finished before the lap swim hours were up. Damnit.

Then, I just decided to go for a run.

One would have thought I hadn't run in months. My legs were sore this morning. I packed my bag before work this morning with the idea of swimming today. I drove all the way downtown during noon rush hour, and realized I forgot to grab my bag as I left my apartment this morning. Damnit.

I didn't want to ride bike because I have softball tournaments tonight and like I already stated, my quads are a bit sore. I need them in good shape for sprinting the bases. Damnit.

I opted for a nice 3 mile walk.

This, my people, is why I try to make up a schedule, keeping in mind my work schedule, the weather, softball, being out of town, meetings, etc. And when two not-so-great days happen in a row, I can only imagine what the rest of the week will be like.

Blech.

I hope to be back tomorrow wiht a better attitude!

Family Trip in Pictures

This past weekend was wonderful. We have been to Lake Itasca State Park before, but it had to have been at least 15 years since! The weekend consisted of a lot of relaxing, a bit of walking and hiking, grilling, games, cards, ladder golf, rest, and a lot of laughs! Here's a handful of pics from my camera.


Mississippi Headwaters....
My family... minus me. hehehe.

The beginning of a 2 mile hiking trail... that was beautiful, but full of bugs!
Steph and I kayaking on Lake Itasca. It was a gorgeous evening!

Leaving for the weekend... again!

Tomorrow I leave town for a long weekend with the family. Me, my two sisters, and my parents will be spending the weekend at Itasca State Park. With that note, you will not see or hear from me in blogland until late Sunday.... I hope to get some great pictures this weekend!

On a side note, I checked me mail today and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. I received my gift from placing 9th in Viv's Weight Loss Challenge. What was my wonderful gift, might you ask? These beauties.....

I can't thank Viv enough for putting on such a wonderful challenge and Running Knitter for the wonderful socks! I am going to brag about them forever! They are so comfy and I absolutely LOVE the color! Thanks again!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See you on the flip side!


Tuesday:
OCN - 19.5 miles, 1:36, avg speed = 11.8mph
Wednesday:
OSN - 1200M, 30:00, avg. speed = 2:30/100M