Challenges!

Monday, January 10, 2011

For those of you who care...

Thanks!

Thanks for coming back to read this after MONTHS (!!) of not posting on here!  I'm not lost, I have just switched over to a different domain.  I would have informed you earlier but it was a rather slow start, as I was kind of slacking on the blog for awhile.

So if you still care to read about my life, I'm blogging at http://caitlinrunning.com/!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was awesome.  Awesome eating, awesome training, awesome day!

After not getting in much exercise over the weekend (more on that later), I decided to start the week off right.  I had a great day of eating, getting in lots of water (read: going to the bathroom at work so many times I lost count), and ending the day with some great miles.  After work, Dustin and I went out to a new Mexican restaurant in town (good food, bad service, weird atmosphere).  I had the mango chicken but only ate about a third so I didn't have any excuse to talk myself out of running.

Dustin went to a round-up meeting (go cowboy...he's vice president at fair this year, which shows you how redneck we really are) and I headed to workout.  My stomach wasn't feeling very good as a result of TOM and ingesting a minimal amount of spicy salsa, so I decided that the treadmill at my work gym would be my safest route.

The downside of my work gym is that there is no air conditioning and the windows are all facing west, so it is hotter than HELL in there in the evening.  I kept all the lights off and hit the treadmill.  By the first half mile, I looked like I'd been running for hours.  Drenched!

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it long, but kept working on my intervals, not letting myself get off!  I ended up doing 3.7 miles before throwing in the towel and heading home for the night!

Ok, here comes the weekend workout excuse:  SNAKES!

My fear came to a head this weekend when my mother-in-law told me she saw a giant rattlesnake at the foot of our driveway, right where I had run past the night before.  Thus, no running on the road for awhile at home.  All running will be done in town before I go home at night, either outside on safer roads or on the work treadmill.  While Dustin assures me that I would still be fine running on our driveway, I prefer to stay away from any and all snake encounters.  Yuck!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Busy, Busy

So for the past week I've been extremely busy!  It's nice to feel needed...sometimes I feel like we have too much help at work, but this week a lot of people have been gone, giving me more things to do.  Also, I worked on both Saturday and Sunday for fire, getting in some awesome overtime hours!  Thus, my exercise has been slightly lacking.

Last night, however, I got in a great run!  I put in interval times/distances into my garmin (love it!) and headed out.  I finished 4.1 miles, and felt like I could go forever.  I'm really glad I've figured out the interval feature on the Garmin because it helps me to be a smarter runner.  On the treadmill I can focus on intervals and pace easily, but when I get on the road I tend to go too fast too early.  With interval timing, I can get in a great run using the run/walk method while getting in more miles than I would by pushing too hard just running.  (You might be thinking: DUH!  I'm a little slow sometimes.)

So I have my half-marathon picked out for October 30, but I haven't registered yet.  I'm not trying to back out, but because I hadn't been working on my base miles much before my actual training plan started (this week), I'm going to play it by ear as to how I do and whether or not I'm going to do the half.  If I can stick with my training plan and get in my long runs as planned, I'll go ahead and do the half.  If I don't (it's not a matter of CAN, it's a matter of WILL), I'm not going to risk injury by running the half if my body isn't ready.

I'll keep you posted as to how I'm doing.  I've got 6 miles lined up for this weekend, so we'll see how that goes!  I'm excited for it, if that's any consolation!

TGIF by the way!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Nightmares

So you know how I said I was DEATHLY afraid of snakes?  (Well, I might not have said it, but it was definitely implied!)  At work today there was a snake in the foyer, about to make its way into the office.  The only good thing about the situation was that the UPS man happened to walk in and scare said snake back outside.

I called Dustin and told him he has to drive 25 miles into town, pick me up, and carry me out to my car.  I don't do snakes.

Anyway, after that fun rant, I'm off to plug out 4 miles or so.  Except maybe I won't now, because a fire was just dispatched right where we are haying and have cattle.  Sometimes it pays working for the gov, because I know when things are happening.  I can go pretend I still fight fire!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Sunday Funday

Horrible title...sorry about that!

After my run on Saturday, I went to the store for some much needed groceries.  We have been trying to eat up some wedding food (read: pasta salad), but have finally either finished some of it off or have thrown it away.  It's been a week, and by now we are either sick of eating our weight in pasta salad and cut up fruit or it has gone bad.  We still have about 15 tri tips in the freezer though, and will be slowly eating our way through that for the next few months.

Saturday night was a bridal shower/bachelorette party for a cousin.  She's marrying Dustin's best friend, and although we've had issues in the past (not she and I, but just her in general...long story), we had an excellent time with our friends and ended the night at a new bar/grill in town.  I was proud of myself because normally, I'd be the one to stay out late and drink, but I capped my night off with water and drove home (I still didn't get home until 1:30!).

Sunday was a fun day for me.  Not fun in the sense that I got to do something new and exciting, but fun because I didn't have any expectations!  Our house is still a mess from all the presents and wedding stuff, and I slowly went through and organized *almost* everything while watching DVR'd episodes of Grey's on the couch!  What a great day!  I've been getting up and working on house/wedding stuff for so long that I haven't had a weekend day to just RELAX!

We also put together our brand new BBQ last night, so many great meals to come on it!  Yay!

A few more pictures from the wedding:

I'm looking pretty mischevious!


Just married!


My parents!


Have a great day!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Back in the Game!

I just pounded out 4 sweaty, grueling miles!  I decided that since my snake-filled driveway was giving me too many excuses to not run, I'd head to town and get my miles in on the treadmill.  It's been several months since I've stepped foot on a treadmill, but today I was just feeling it for some reason.  I did 3-1 and 4-1 intervals, and even though at one point I thought I might puke, it felt SO GOOD!

My half-marathon training doesn't officially start until next Sunday, but I'm going to do the first week twice.  "Long run" number one is outta the way!  Could be sad that 4 miles is my long run, but I think it's a pretty good starting point!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Life...and a WEDDING!

Where do I even start?  So much has been happening in my life that I can't begin to tell you what has been going on.  Here's a try:

I got married last weekend! It was perfect--a ton of work before, but so worth it in the end.  We had it right in our backyard, and about 400 people attended.  Crazy, huh!  That's what we get for having huge families and lots of friends!








Not the most high quality pictures in the world, but I haven't got many back yet.  I'll post more as they come!


As far as half-marathon training has gone....well, it's been non-existant.  I'm supposed to run in the Haulin' Aspen Half on August 8, but it's not going to happen.  I'm disappointed, but I know that I'm not giving up my dream, I'm just postponing it for a few months.  I already have another lined up for October 30, so official training begins on August 8!  Until then I'm just going to get in a few runs to get my mileage back up!

I was going to run yesterday, but as I was driving home a long, huge snake slithered across the driveway about 100 yards from the house.  Needless to say, I'm scared to death of any and all snakes and didn't leave the house for the rest of the night.  I live out of town and love running out there, but I think I'll be keeping my runs in town for a few weeks during the height of snake season!

That's it for now!  There is lots going on, but I haven't been around to blog about it!  I'm working on that and I'm going to make a conscious effort to keep up the blogging...it helps me stay accountable!