Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I'm Here...Really!

It has been a little crazy this last week. The girls went back to school, my husband's video card went out on his computer, I've been working for a couple of hours after school, and I've been running, and running, and running.

I thought when the girls started school I would have a bunch of time during the day. Up until the last two days, I really haven't sat down for a rest while they were gone. I've been catching up on house projects, attending a meeting two hours away, meeting friends for coffee (only once), and editing. At 2:55 pm, I find myself wishing they would be at school just a little longer so I could get one more thing done.

I will say, it is nice to have the house cleaned up for a change. While there are plenty of spiders and dust bunnies lurking in the shadows, I don't cringe if someone drops by unannounced and we are able to find what we need when we need it.

Well, almost everything...had we been able to find the startup disks to my husband's computer, it wouldn't have sat in the repair shop for over a week. It is hard when both of us work via computer. His hours are somewhat set while mine are flexible but with deadlines. He got my laptop during the day, and I got it at night. Needless to say, I've been pulling some late nights here lately, with no end in sight - although that is a good thing. At least the work is there.

So, finally, the running. The weather has turned cool once again which makes for some pretty good runs. I did an 8 mile tempo run today at a pace I was pretty happy with. With the "free" time during the day, I'm able to get the runs in at a decent time rather than waiting until after 4 pm to get out. Well, with the exception of Sunday.

Sunday, I wasn't sure I was going to get a run in at all. We needed to be at church by 9:45 am, which means leaving our house at 9:15 am. Having been to a get-together the night before until 11 pm, getting up and out the door to run 10 miles extra early wasn't going to happen.

We didn't get home from church/grocery store until 2 pm and I was working from 4 until 8 pm. So, once I got home and got the girls to bed, I changed into my running clothes and headed out the door around 8:45 pm. I usually start my run heading west and was treated to a gorgeous sunset. I ended up running around town twice with a loop around the school added in at the end.

I enjoyed watching the stars come out and the peaceful quiet of the dark. I think my adrenaline was going to because I ran at a faster pace than normal although the Garmin didn't show that. I started it before it locked onto the satellite and it showed my first mile was run in 13 minutes (I tried to start slow but not quite that slow).

Between Sunday's run and today's, I'm feeling a little bit better about running. I'm just not looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I'm at the point where the mileage is ramping up but the marathon is still a ways away. You just can't quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I just have to take one day at a time and I decided that instead of a strength workout, I'm going to spin, which gives me a really good challenge and workout. The classes will be starting in two weeks although a couple of us have been meeting and spinning on our own.

On another subject, we got together with a bunch of friends Saturday night at their house on a local river. Next door, there was a big family party complete with a face painter. The owner of the house invited the kids to come over and have their faces painted. I was thinking a little rainbow or butterfly on their cheek. Check out what we brought home...






It was like we had the cast of Cats running around the yard! The kids loved it!

Hope your running is going well. Take care.

5 comments:

Nik's Knacks said...

Wow! Those are some serious cat faces! Very cool.
Miss you guys. Anytime you have a Hacienda hankering, let us know :)

Mom on the Run said...

We miss you all, too!

Regina said...

I was going to say I bet the kids loved the face painting, and you verified that!

your evening run sounds heavenly. I would love to run at night if I wasn't so exhausted.

Joe S said...

Running at 8:45p? Geez, I'm thinking about going to sleep by then. :-) Good for you.

Mom on the Run said...

I should have been going to bed because I overslept the next morning, waking up at 7:45 with 10 minutes to get the girls ready for school and out the door. They made it just in time.