Color Me Rad 5K

This past Thursday I picked up our packets for the Color Me Rad 5K. Me, Bridgette, and 4 friends were to do it - and this year we had high hopes we'd actually get to participate rather than just driving forever and being turned back at the starting line.

The night before my one, very pregnant friend said she was not going to be able to do it. And morning of our other friend was also unable. But the rest of us went on. And even managed to get my brother Devin to say he'd go. So after eating some pancakes and fruit for breakfast we headed off in my garbage-bag covered car, picked up Devin, and drove a good ways to get to the event. But this year we didn't sit in traffic until right near the parking lot. After we parked and were getting readied our brother Rory came over - as he and his friends had parked just several cars away.

Around 1pm we went into the corral and stood near the front. After several announcements that the start was just "moments away" they had us jump up and down and did a 10 second count down and then we were off and followed a pace car. Not sure why the car was needed, other than to make sure no one exceeded 8mph - which is what the announcer said the car would be driving at.

The course was at a large concert venue, and thus we were only "running a small portion of 2 miles" on the jaggedy-rocked surface. 2 miles of 3.1 miles is actually pretty substantial. The ground was precarious and required watching each and every step, lest you wanted to roll an ankle -- which our one friend did. And we proceeded on without her though she kept going despite the injury. After a purple color station I was still pretty white as no one had directly pelted me with the colored corn starch. At the green station it was liquid dye and I was shot up pretty good on my right side. A short bit later I stopped into a port-a-john for a pee break -- one advantage in being in a concert venue parking lot.

I carried a water bottle with me and made sure to drink it often as the sun was beaming and it was 80+ degrees. Bridgette told me I looked a little flush and I made sure to kept hydrating. At the water station I took a mini water and refilled my bottle. After the orange station, where again no one thru anything directly on me, Bridgette walked with me as I needed a break. Devin and our friend Cara went on together, running like champions. We reached the edge of the parking lot and got to get off the lava rocks and actually run inside the concert venue. We traversed asphalt paths up a hillside, crested the hill, then back down and around and back up again. On all uphills we walked and I hydrated. It was pretty toasty feeling in the sun.

In the final stretch we popped back out into the parking lot area, but on the other side of the venue. Fortunately we remained on pavement. We ran thru a liquid yellow color station, and since we had separated from the large pack, were quite open to being readily sprayed by all people, especially an over-eager 7-ish year old who got me pretty good at waist height. (Which was better than how Cara said she fared as he had sprayed her straight in the face.) My left side was well covered with yellow. We went thru an area that had a few spectators and that made me think of a joke: When potatoes watch a concert what are they called? Spectators! (Spec-taters). Right after that we were handed a color bomb packet and made our way up the final stretch into the finish line area that was just a large cloud of purple. I held my shirt over my face and ran thru, luckily not directly pelted there either.

We grabbed some water, a Clif bar, and found Cara and Devin then waited for Tiffany. She finished a short time later - happy to have completed her first 5K ever. We stood for about 10 minutes then headed back to our car. We got our "after pic" to compliment our "before pic" then headed home, happy to have participated and gotten colored rad.

Total Workout: 5K! 3.1 miles, plus the walk to the start and back which was 0.4 miles total.

This was baby girl's first completed race, and I think she liked running for the most part. After relaxed later in the afternoon I developed a bit of a headache though; the kind I get from sunshine and exercise. So I worried I had pushed myself too hard. But I made up for it the rest of the day by just drinking H2O and reading David Sedaris outside on my back porch.

Accentuating the baby bump, as per Bridgette's preference 

New Miles: 5K (3.1) + 0.4 = 3.5
Total Miles: 1493.75
Miles Remaining: 6.25
Weight: 135.6

Walking my way to the Final 10

In the morning I was supposed to volunteer at a friend's golf outing fundraiser, but I because too lazy and not in the mood to wake up at 5:30am and so I didn't go. It felt sad since the thought of helping out made me feel good, but staying home and doing whatever I wanted felt better. I feel like a bad person for being selfish. But in the afternoon I slightly made up for it by walking with Ryan to the local park to check out the memorial fundraiser basketball tournament. We saw some friends we knew and participated in the raffles. The walk was just over half a mile there then back. Total Workout: 1.25

Early evening walk around the neighborhood for 1.0 miles.

Later in the evening Ryan and I went to the Arts Festival to see Ralph Stanley. We ate a funnel cake and drank Lemonade. Ryan's dad came by on his bike and hung out with us for a bit. We stayed for part of the show and walked back to our car. Total Workout: 1.25+

New Miles: 1.25 + 1.0 + 1.25 = 3.5
Total Miles: 1490.25
Miles Remaining: 9.75
Weight: 137.4 (Guess that's what pigging out out a high school graduation party will get you!)

Art Walk

The Arts Festival started today and halfway through lunch I remembered so I went out and I wandered around it, passing a large number of food stands, a slightly less number of art stands, and hearing the musical act. It was chilly, so I wore my jacket, but it was nice to be out and wandering around.

New Miles: 0.75
Total Miles: 1486.75
Remaining Miles: 14.25
Weight: 135.2

Back on Track

Life has been busy and I haven't gotten a chance to walk or run. And the one opportunity I had on Saturday I didn't realize it was my last chance to work out for a while until all my free time had passed. I wrapped up the weekend late Sunday, too late to walk or run. But it made me all the more committed to running on Monday.

Realizing that soccer is now over means Monday evenings are now free - this realization put me more at ease.

A nice evening with temps in the 70s. I drove to the track. I walked a lap to warm up then I jog/ran a lap. I stretched and grabbed water. I ran 1.0 solid in 9:50 - which did feel decently challenging and it made me feel better that it was a decent pace. I grabbed water. I then did 1.0 miles walking 100m then running 100m alternating - and I did that in 12:00. I followed it up by doing a lap solid running and one final cool down one by running half and walking the final 200m. Total Workout: 3.25 in 37:55.

I wore my belly band for the run as I finally have a little baby bump to support. I clipped the Sansa clip on it and listened to the news. After a bit over 2.5 miles my left lower back started hurting, but I decided that was going to stop me. Perhaps it should of, but I often like ignoring the signs  my body gives me to stop something especially if I am so close to completing it. And thus I kept running. With the final 2 laps I did my belly started hurting a little, but not much. That one I paid better attention to, but I didn't stop since I was wrapping up my workout. I did 3.25 because I wanted to get my total mileage back to a nice round number.

I ran at the track for the main reason that the last time I went running it made me have to pee. The track is a good running haven as they have port-a-johns there. The nice thing about tonight's run was that, other than those few aches and pains issues, I was perfectly fine running that whole time.

New Miles: 3.25
Total Miles: 1486.0
Miles Remaining: 14.0
Weight: 135.0

Lunch Walk

Walked to the Farmer's Market and bought 10 pierogies. Walked to the ATM. Walked back to my desk. Total Workout: 0.75 miles in humid 80+ degrees.

New Miles: 0.75
Total Miles: 1482.25
Miles Remaining: 17.75
Weight: 133.0

Lunch Walk

Went out into the 80 degree day and walked 1.0 miles. At night coached

New Miles: 1.0
Total Miles: 1481.5
Miles Remaining: 18.5
Weight: 132.2

Lakecation Walks

Thursday, May 23 - Before leaving for vacation I measured out the walk to the local ice cream store, and it was a perfect 1.0 miles away. A great motivator for a walk was to the ice cream store for a vanilla malt milkshake. During the return walk back the motivator were the oncoming rain clouds. Toward the end it started drizzling but I beat the downpour back. Total Workout: 2.0 miles.

Friday, May 24 - In the afternoon Ryan said he wanted to walk with me. When we set out about 4 minutes later he was sluggish and said he was done after I said we'd walk half a mile and back. We turned around early but fortunately there was a house for sale past where we were staying so we walked the other direction for a little to check it out, and then back. That helped round out the mile. Total Workout: 1.0 miles.

Saturday, May 25 - Two of my friends and I headed out to the gift shop, which was a bit past the ice cream shop. It was a very brisk pace so a really hard workout. On the way back I had to pee and luckily there was a port-a-john at the ice cream store and we took a pit stop. Total Workout: 2.5 miles.

On Monday I had a debilitating migraine that left me sleeping and laying around all day trying to re-coup, but it continued on Tuesday. I made it thru work and then napped until Bridgette came over and we talked for a few hours.

New Miles: 2.0 + 1.0 + 2.5 = 5.5
Total Miles: 1480.5
Miles Remaining: 19.5
Weight: 135.4 on 5/27. ...But then because I was so migrainey and couldn't eat all day as well as my body just bouncing back from overeating for 5 days I weighed 133.4 on 5/28.

Bump in the Middle

After just a few hours on my feet my dogs were barking (or as I also say, my puppies were yapping) and I sat down for a number of minutes to relax. I knew I wanted to walk 1.5 miles though so I didn't let my tiredness deter me and I got onto the treadmill. I walked at 4.0 for most of my walk but then bumped it up to 4.1mph.

I listened to The Moth and played Solitaire and got pretty sick of Solitaire but really enjoyed The Moth stories.  Total Workout: 1.5 in 22:19 246cals 1%.

Also, as of last Wednesday I have formed a baby bump. The baby decided "Bam! Look at me!" and it popped itself out in my middle. So now I am into the new phase where I am starting to look pregnant. Well, more so just looking a bit awkwardly fat more so than pregnant. But I know it's a cute baby bump and that's really all that matters. Plus, if people think it's fat they won't touch me and I'm quite alright with not being touched by people.

New Miles: 1.5
Total Miles: 1475.0
Miles Remaining: 25.0
Weight: 133.2

Tired & Hungry

With temps in the upper 80s none of the kids wanted to run during soccer. Asking then telling then  getting them to do something was like pulling teeth, and unsuccessfully at that. The fastest they ran was for a water break. I survived 1.5 hours of that and then went home and walked. I was pretty tired from all the standing and pretty hungry from all the non-eating, but I went out on a walk anyways. I chugged along and did it in 15:57. Then I happily sat grabbed some food and sat on the ottoman. Then I pried myself up and did the dishes (fun!) before returning to the couch to catch up on my PBS shows.


New Miles: 1.0
Total Miles: 1473.5
Miles Remaining: 26.5
Weight: 132.4

Track Walk

Ryan went out to play music and I went to the track. I walked 3.0 miles in 56:01. Half way thru I took a water break, then after the next lap I took another one. Then I finished up my walk. I decided to try my foot at running a little, since I haven't tried that in a while - I did the 100m straight away down - took a wee break. Went back and rested 20 seconds. I did them in 26-28 seconds. Then after 2 more I was feeling good and figured why not make it so I ran half a mile. And so I did 4 more - seeing how running with some speed felt. And it felt almost completely fine - except for actually feeling my stomach area while running. I did the 3rd one in 25 seconds. For the final one I tried to go faster and I did that one in 22 seconds. I then thought about taking a bit of a cool down walk but felt like I was done, so I got some water and stretched out a few minutes and happily went home.

New Miles: 3.5
Total Miles: 1472.5
Miles Remaining: 27.5
Weight: 133.4