Yesterday's run...

Was hard. Whoever said you don't lose your running fitness for weeks, lied.

That or running in the evening after I'm fully awake is bad for me. My brain protests EVERYTHING !

Also my knee has been... Weird to say the least. I hope it gets its act together. Ain't nobody got time for that!! (Sweet brown =amazing)

Pic is Harlie post run, staring down a squirrel.

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Sweet Nothing

I LOVE this song. LOVE. Matter of fact this whole album. Great running music. Anyone want to go see Calvin Harris with me???

It's been a slow week running-wise, but a great week paleo-wise. Real life (i.e. work) has taken up a ton of my time

But I did do the rhythm and blues 5K.  And despite walking 2 out of the three miles with Hill and Aaron (love finding people - still did a 15-something/minute mile).  So even if I wall ALL of San Diego...that'll be under 18/miles. Score.

So yea. Short post. Old job/new job transition is killing me.  I've discovered startbucks americanos.  Espresso and water for the win!

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New Page on the Blog!

Run Brit Run! My run keeper log!

In other news, things I LOVE about running. The amount of calories burned per run.  I use a heart rate monitor so I can be accurate (online calculators over inflate the calories I burn), and this mornings 45 mins was 400 calories. 

In other news, things I HATE about running.  Everything else.  Seriously who invented this as a sport/hobby/whatever.  This should only be used to escape death. i.e. lions, tigers and bears. 

Not even criminals.  Just hand over your purse.  Save yourself from the running.

But I digress.I knew I needed a cardio change, because I don't burn those kinds of calories anymore biking...or ellipticaling (it's a word on britdoeslife).  And I used to...like several years ago used to. So that at least makes me happy.

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On to the next one...

"On To The Next One" - Jay-Z, The Blueprint III

...
[Jay-Z]
I move forward the only direction
cant be scared to fail Search and perfection
Gotta keep it fresh even when we sexing
but don’t be mad at him when he’s on to the next one

Freeze
Somebody bring me back some money please

I’m on to the next one
On to the next one (6X)
..

Despite the cold madness (cold still winning btw) I can only mope around for so long.  I can't change Vegas and I'm looking forward to hearing about the other half of my team's journey in Honolulu this weekend.  

But I'm gonna put cycling up on the shelf for a while, so in the meantime I'm thinking of tackling something I've despised since I started doing it a year ago in December.  

BRITDOESRUNNING! Get excited!....Or rather, get scared. 

I received my long awaited pay raise this morning and since it was retroactive to April, my one year anniversary, I had a nice chunk of change to play with.  So I :

-paid off half of my laptop (responsible)

-put a lot in savings (responsible)

-signed up for a few races (straight up pure foolishness) 

SO! come November 22, December 9 and February 10....I will be:

 Turkey trotting a 5K....

 Jingle belling a 8K

And half marathoning 13.1miles....gulp.
With a goal of finishing. Running, walking or otherwise...let's not get crazy.

Ugh. I should probably get some new shoes.


Whose with me?!?

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runkeeper and other nonsense

This mornings route made me admit 2 things. 

1.  It's only day 1, but I think runkeeper is a better app than map my run. gasp!.  Doing eight sets of 2min walk/2min run got us to a full run of 2.99 miles versus lets sets and less total time running tracked by mapmyrun.  So begrudgingly I have to admit Lillie was right and mapmyrun was inflating our milage.   I hate being wrong. 

2.  Despite the heat, sweating and general grossness of outside. I love exercising outside now.  I can't imagine being on a treadmill and it makes it really hard to goto the gym outside of spin class.

Plus I'm afraid of this.

Ridiculously tired.  Maybe an East End run tomorrow....or maybe just sleeping in.


Oh and for Hillary and non-cyclist readers :)  I didn't know I was getting all cyclist terminology specific until Hill pointed this out. Whoops. From wikipedia's glossary of cycling: 

SAG wagon

Support motor vehicle following long races or recreational rides to pick up riders unable to complete the event. See also: food stop and SAG station. In racing events, typically the main group of riders will ride as a peloton and can be served by one or more SAG wagons trailing behind. In large recreational rides, there may be thousands of riders spread over much of the course, so ride organizers may employ roving SAG wagons to locate and assist stranded riders. It should not be confused with a broom wagon used in bicycle racing. A cyclist in distress is happy to see the SAG wagon as it may enable him to continue riding. No racer wants to be "swept up" by the broom wagon. For him, the race is over.

 

And its related word

 

SAG station

A location along the course of a long mass-participation recreational ride providing mechanical and/or medical assistance to riders in need. Volunteers at the SAG station may also dispatch SAG wagons to assist riders stranded along the course. A SAG station may also function as a food stop. "SAG" (most commonly written in all uppercase in the United States but without capitals elsewhere) comes from a 1930s British expression about riders "sagging" off the back of a group.^{[citation needed]} It was adopted in the 1940s when road-racing restarted in Great Britain to mean a following vehicle into which riders sagged when the effort became too much and they dropped out of a race. SAG is sometimes described as an acronym for 'support and gear', 'gear' referring to: mechanical support.

 

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Which is cheaper?

 I thought about this recently. Which is cheaper?

Sunscreen, butt butter, deodorant, halo headband, HR monitor, CO2 and dispenser, wireless speakers, GU's, gloves, bike shorts, bike jersey, socks, bandana, road ID. Not pictured: helmet, gatorade, extra tubes, hand bike pump, floor bike pump, bike rack,  tire levers, clip in shoes, water bottles, oh and BIKE.

Shoes, socks, HR monitor

Clearly, I started with the wrong sport!!! So expensive!!! And I just added new tires and new tape since white handlebar tape starts to look real crappy after 1000+miles.

So I've been slacking....not on doing life and whatnot. But on blogging...my bad. But alas...

Doing life included:

• a morning run with Lillie and harlie today.  
• a brick  (hehe -@ made up tri words) with Andrea last night at Memorial Park. 
• general loitering/clothes washing/cooking (important things when I run out of work out clothes and healthy food.  I end up at TacoC in a 1998 Holland Middle School perfect attendance t-shirt) 
• Old school fitness connection spin class (more cardio, less cyclist pretentiousness)

Ok, back to paying the bills

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Race Against Violence Recap!

So the Saturday Wrap Up:  The important part to note is that I'm not last.  Haha!  And we ended up walking the majority of it, so at least I know I walk faster than at least two people.  So the day in random pictures.... (above) the race results.

 The crowd before the run.

 The bike ride back to HQ.  Since we decided to be uber hippie commuters and bike to the ride start, Harlie's only option for getting back was a kangaroo-esque pouch situation. I'm sure the car behind us at this light thought we were ridiculous.

After the 5K, brunch and some loitering at Urban Bicycle Gallery we headed out to try a new to us trail along Braes Bayou.  It was pretty awesome, and I'm definitely going to be on that trail again!

And today..after my mosquito laden run this morning, I signed up for!

 The Tour De Houston!.....60 miles....I need to bike like every day this week....ugh.

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Running = Still evil

Dear city of Houston,

Harlie would like to request a doggie water fountain to be installed at cleveland park. Kthanx

In other news running still sucks but we did 30 solid minutes of 3:2 running! Go me + Lillie + Harlie

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Top of Ye Olde Morning To Ya!

So at the request of Lillie, who's text went something like: R u ever coming back to my side of town to run again?

I got up drove to the loop and went running. 

Running for me and probably Lillie as well, goes something like this:
1.  5 mins of walking (love),
2.  10 mins of run/walking (don't love but okay),
3.  7 mins of run/walking (loathe)
4.  final 3 mins of run/walking (hate).

Generally I chant some song along the lines of running = stupid + other adjectives that suit me at the time.  All per couch to 5k plan, but i don't think they add suggested emotions like me, just sayin'. 

Anyhoos I was happy/surprised to learn that our route was about 1.5 miles. So that was pretty cool.  I can moonwalk a mile and a half on a bike, but I'm hoping to be able to maybe run that by the 5K at the beginning of March.  Yea, signing up for a 5K, sometimes I don't know who I am anymore.  But at this exact moment, whoever I'm pretending to be is going to sleep.

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Ye Olde C25K & Weigh In

So I woke up, went to HQ to find Lillie sick and not wanting to workout so I drove back home to the park by my house.  Its actually super pretty and pretty empty, so I love this park!

 Anyhoos, things I've learned this morning:

wet shoes suck.
avoid puddles.
t-shirts do sway votes, lol.  Unfortunately Ellen Cohen doesnt need your vote anymore, elections already happened.
And God doesnt want me to run. See path below

I need to call the COH or something.  So the weight in, which I did before I ran.  I've been in this area before, so I'll get excited when I hit 235, havent been there in a while and I'll think I'm actually making progress.

So yea a little progress, but a long way to go.  Ok off to work now.

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