run in my future

I am in ATL this week. Day One of a long week. Perhaps I should have used this time to go to the aquarium instead of sitting here by the fountain at Maggianos eating dinner/supper/lunch. But my day did not warrant a lunch so I was STARVING by the end of my day. I was headed to Panera when the call ofa spinach salad with shrimp sang out to me. So here I sit.
But my meal is done and the weather is wonderful. So I truly should head back to the hotel and don the workout clothes. I could do a loop by the hospital and make the most of this weather.
I wish I could remember where that park was that FRM and I went a few years back. That would make for a perfect run. Maybe the conceirge can point me in the right direction

Two weeks and TEN. Ugh!

observations from the road

I had this crazy observation from yesterdays drive to ATL that I was struggling to remember and then it hit me. And it works so well with my monday music musings. How is it that the only time I hear Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead on the radio is during drives to ATL. Most of the radio stations are country or Christian but somehow there is always a random station (or two I suppose) that plays the Dead and Pink Floyd. Go figure. And when you get to the greater ATL area they are never at a loss to find some REM

another sever weather watch

so the sinus pain seemed to disipate on thursday...  of course i did not get back home until sometime around 730 or so... i could have opted to go to the gym but truth be told it didnt even enter my mind after 3 days worth of face and head pain...
again last night was a good night i could have gone to the gym as well... instead i kind of picked up a rental car and then got gas in my car - drove back around and out of my way to SC and got gas for 14cents cheaper... no wonder there was a line at that exxon
and when i got home - which should have seemed early but was not - i spent a good 30 minutes putting yard items away - all the little buckets with sand and candles - into the shed... empty flower pots not yet filled with spring flowers - in the shed...  multi-coloured plastic adirondack chairs - all stacked up and in the corner by the shed...  i condensed as much as i could and moved to as sheltered an area as possible... i have been known to put some of the patio furniture in the house - there is still time for that i suppose...
then i watched The Outsiders... and i have to admit i dont remember as much about it as i thought i would - i remembered the bleached hair on c thomas howell, johnny in the back contraption thing and dying (sorry if you werent aware of that), and the church fire...  there seemed to be a lot more to it than that.. oopss...
form there i so wanted to watch apocalypse now - much to my surprise i dont know what happened to my VHS tape of the movie - all of my movies have gone missing - dont laugh at the movies in question on vhs that i cant find but....  apocalypse now, platoon, saving private ryan.... i wonder if i went through a non-violence phase and threw them out... not to mention i cant figure out how the vhs even works with the new tv...
so i read a book about mountain climbing in pakistan instead...  i do pick up the oddest things in the bookstore...
and today!  well the little guy and i were up at 530... he started making noise and the wind seemed to be kicking up...  turned out it was nothing just him wanting to go out and to eat so i went back to bed for another hour or so - and now we are just waiting for these storms to hit
it is actually sunny out at this very moment
it is supposed to clear up by the afternoon so my fingers are crossed for a bike ride later

sinus pain!!!!

i think it has passed....  but it will be better determined once i head back outside again today...
i almost feel like i am allergic to the office as my sinus pain builds up in the morning on the drive to work...
and dissipates by the time i go to bed at night...
what's up with that...
i havent worked out since my mild walk on Monday - the pain has just been too much - it is so distracting
so i need to get out there and work out the rest of this week if the pain has in fact passed...
in other  ahaa moments - learned 2 of the cttee members at yesterdays meeting are cyclists as well
and WTH Catherine?  bipolar really?!  I guess she didnt check in at St Brendans.... 

totally avoided the gym

can you say barometric pressure and my sinus cavities were at odds today
i knew they would be when the rain they were predicting over night did not really materialise around here
that kind of gloomy weather makes my sinuses and ears ache...
so it was lots of tea today, cough drops, grapefruit juice - and a slight overdose on snacks from panera but that had nothing to do with my sinuses - although the continual motion of eating and drinking does seem to keep them clearer...
so the gym did not happen
instead i came home finished my taxes - that was a joke - i should have finished them ages ago...
and then finished the ireland itinerary... i know i have let the learning process and planning process of ireland slack on the other blog...
it becamse more of a morphing word document over the last few weeks than anythign else....
i am pretty sure we are going to make reservations over this weekend - next weekend is Easter and the following weekend is Bermuda... so I better get them solidifed this week even if Sunday is ATL...
and that gym and run and race thing.... well some advil along with a long tall glass of water should address that for this evening...
heres hoping for a good nights sleep - i am beginning to think the dog suffers from insomnia....

walk around the block

LH and SJ are doing a long road race on Saturday...  LH wants me to do the 10k with her.  It is NOT going to happen.  She has also decided that she will not be doing any runs this week.  So last night we did the 2 mile walk around the mall.  At least that's how long I think it is because my foot pod battery died and I forgot to replace it.  It was a good walk.  Oddly my heart rate looks to have averaged higher yesterday than Sunday.  BUT I felt like I worked harder on Sunday.  Not sure where that all came into play. 
Today I am planning on getting a BRICK in at the gym.  I just need to hold steady to my plan....
Tomorrow may just be an afternoon walk again.  Thursday I'd like to donate blood but don't think I will be back to the area in time...  And then Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be more BRICKS....
Next week I am not in the area so need to give it some consideration on how best to keep moving!

only 7 days

i read that if you break your workout routine for as little as 3 or 4 days you have a good chance of stagnating or even regressing in your progress...  and given that it has only been 7 days since my last workout i can say there may be some truth to that... 
with yesterday's haircut i wasnt going to work out... you know what?  i really should have... the weather kicked in something miserable and i never really made it out of the house... sitting in the dark with the lattern on for a good couple of hours...  if i had known that were to be the case i should have just gone and ran to my hearts content and my hairs disarray instead of thinking i may have gone out on the town
today was going to be walk with SH at a new trail i had found on-line last week... but sitting in the dark at 11pm - which was the case for a good few hours - we opted to not follow through with the walking plans
however when noon approached and all the weather channels indicated the day was to get better we decided to change up our plans and head on out
so we covered 4 miles on Tom Short Rd and oops finished it up with some pizza
it was good workout just to be able to get out of the house
this week i ma home again so i am thinking what the next 7 days workout will look like... 
3 weeks til holiday so best make the most of it

little guy and i have miraculously gotten ourselves sucked in to the neck and neck of the last day of The Masters...  having watched McIlroy play last year in his win of the Wachovia/Quail Hollow/Wells Fargo Championship - I am cheering for him....  Bacchus is sprawled out in the sun on his red blanket - wonder if that is any indication of whom he is cheering for...

Auntie Em.....

OMG -they were predicting rain for yesterday afternoon into evening...  i wasnt really paying attention and the storms that blew through were amazing...  rain, wind gusts, thunder, lightning, hail, power outage... 
we were going to go to a new trail today to go walking but given there was still no power at midnight it was uncertain as to what our morning would entail... also not too sure what would have fallen along the trail...  i may want to go walking along the river but i sure dont want to have to lug along a machete to cut my own way through the brush...
so instead i am sitting on the couch watching the morning news, waiting for my coffee to brew...
the day will most likely entail some work, some banking, some cleaning and ultimately a workout...
i spent most of yesterday's storm time - before i lost signal on my computer - working on the Ireland itinerary...  probably will find myself sucked into that again today  :)

In other storm news - there was an American Dog Breeders Association in Morganton yesterday.  Spectators were hit by lightning and one of the dogs was killed.  How sad...  I think - didnt they see or hear it coming.  But then I was on the phone when the first lightning and thunder made itself known and it was pretty startling and seemed pretty darned close...  So sad... 

Rob Lowe... thanks for the memories

So the cover of this months Vanity Fair was brought to my attention recently.  I mean from the looks of it, there wasnt much energy needed to be put forth on my friend's part to bring it to my attention.  It reminded me of a picture I had on my little bulletin board I tore out of People magazine way back in the day.  It was a much younger Rob Lowe with a longer 80s-ish do and muscles...  Incidently he was on the beach in that picture as well I beleive. 
I was joking recently with a friend and her husband (OK, he's my friend too, but...) that she and I should read this on our upcoming girls' holiday.  It would get us away from the vampire books her husband is getting pretty tired of us reading.  AND if my memory serves me correctly there will be some politics thrown in there as well - DNC scandal and West Wing - take your pick.  It was kind of a tongue in cheek comment.  I didnt really see myself making an extra effort to go to Barnes & Noble to pick up a book on Rob Lowe by Rob Lowe - even if the book store is walking distance from my office.
BUT as fate would have it - wouldnt you know that there was a copy of the magazine at the salon when I went to get my hair cut this morning.  Usually I spend my time there talking to the Carrie that cuts my hair (when spelled out there is little confusion as to which Carrie I am speaking of but in the spoken word - that can lend to much confusion).  But I wanted something to look at to distract me.  I didnt want to talk about how much I have been on the road over the past few months.  I didnt want to talk about work.  I just wanted some distraction...  And there was Rob gazing out at me from the cover of a randomly placed Vanity Fair....  So she let me read and comment as she was colouring and cuttting (yes, went a bit more blonde in preparation for the summer).
It starts off in the first person present.  Of course you expect for an autobiography to be told in first person but in the present tense.  It wasn't Rob today refelcting back on his audition for The Outsiders.  It was written almost as it was happening.  And it was engaging. 
I am sucked in...  And pleasantly so - it reminded me of my long lost movie trivia side - it used to complement my music trivia side rather well.  And the idols of my youth - Tom Cruise before he went off the deep end....  Charlie Sheen before HE went off the deep end...  Patrick Swayze - well I guess a reference to him going off the deep end would be in bad taste.  He spoke of Francis Ford Coppola. - who I had no idea won his first Oscar as co-screenwriter of Patton.  He spoke of Francis Ford Coppola and Apocalypse Now.  He spoke of Martin Sheen.  All as he recounted The Outsiders.  A movie I think I saw for the first time on HBO as I was babysitting K&T in their infant stages.  And they all seem somewhat relevant today. 
It was a nice way to spend the morning - pampering myself and resting my brain. 
I will be going out on Netflix to see how I can get myself a copy of The Outsiders to watch - even if it is a tear jerker.  And I will go on to be one of those people that has actually never read an S.E. Hinton book.
But later this month, I will be picking up a copy of Mr. Lowe's book and carrying it with me to read on our flight to the girls' holiday.

The Masters

Yesterdays observation was there sure were a whole lot of groups of golf obsessed guys throughout the restaurant at breakfast.
It wasn't until dinner that I learned that this hotel is only about an hour from Augusta. Mathematically that doesn't seem right. But I guess its close enough.
The younger men seem to be sleeping in today. This mornings groups are an older demographic.
Me? Of to meet a machinist first thing. Hah - Christian Bale comes to mind. Well it will be another full day at this end. Hope to get back in time to get the little guy from his resort visit.

Waffle House

Sure, had lots of time this evening to make it to the gym and cover at least an hour of a workout. Instead ended up heading directly to the hotel after work. And then went directly to dinner with the client. MAN did I eat a lot at dinner. The gym would have been so much better for me. Fired green tomatoes with pimento cheese. Mini pork ribs. Country ham and spinach dip. Grilled yellowfin tuna, arlic mashed potatoes, sauteed vegetables, red pepper sauce garnish. Closed down with a pineapple and cream cheese spring roll with vanilla ice cream. YUMMMM!!!! So much for healthy eating on the road.

And my little bit of Americana... Waffle House in view of my hotel room window. What was it the pecan waffles that were so good?

all quiet at this end

so much for those attempts to get to the gym this mon and tues before business travel
monday night was a work late type of deal - printing things for yesterdays meeting etc
on my way home i was going to have that tire pressure light/tire pressure checked...
got distracted with the nice weather and NOTHING happened i mean NOTHING

we were woken up in the middle on the night on Monday - what the heck is that noise?  how do i know if a tornado is headed my way - no cable no internet...  the drive in to work was even worse - felled trees, lights out, street closures...
tuesday didnt see me at the gym i had to prep for today and the rest of this week

OH and i had to pack and do some other craziness of getting ready...
this weekend is a haircut day - that does generally preclude me from hitting the gym
BUT it is supposed to be in the 80s so i am thinking the hair will just have to suffer the effects of the helmet even though it is a haircut day...

i think next week is a full home week - yay!

I See Progress!!

YAY ME!!!  One thing I miss about training with my trainer is her way of being my cheerleader.  I watch trainers when I am at the gym and it makes me miss Paige.  I don't see any of these trainers cheering on their clients when they are done with a routine.  But one thing I have learned from Paige and even though I am no longer at that gym is to celebrate my successes on a regular basis.

Today's YAY has a lot to do with what I accomplished in my training but also just in what I accomplished with my day.  First off work is getting the best of me - as noted by my thoughts to go on by the office earlier today.  It has been that way since the beginning of the year.  Actually it has been that way since October.  So today's sense of "enough" and being able to do other things was a great reward.

From there I went to the park and did a quasi-brick.  I call the park workouts quasi-bricks because even though I hop off my bike, run with it through the parking lot until I get to my transition station - there is still a delay before the run.  That delay is called laoding the bike up on top of the car and locking it in prior to the run.  I did 6 miles on the bike under 30 minutes and was pleased with some of the out of the saddle intervals I threw into the workout in the progress.  There are some real life streets near the park I want to try out as well but that did not happen today.

From there I did a 2mile walk run.  I am slowly getting better with the distance and timing of the run segment in the workout.  Iwas quite pleased with my outcome.  A new personal best with both miles coming in just under 14 minutes.  OH stop laughing - for me that is good.  I am hopeful that the race in July will see me running a full 2 miles at the end of the triathlon.

Tomorrow I find myself back at the gym.

The rest of today was spent watching a soccer game oh and figuring out the pressure of my tires... 
Overall a good day.  i do beleive I hear a long hot bath beckoning to me.

high five!

I am so glad I shuffled aroung my list of things to do.  Having looked at items for work I can to the realisation that I am in a good place for the things that need to be done this week.  Cant check them off as done!  But they are in a refine and complete pattern that is acceptable for a Sunday.
In the process realised I have the time to finally get to one of my friend's son's soccer games.  I have gone to a number of KP's son's games - mini-soccer, little league, basketball, football... WOW!  A whole bunch.  Sadly I never find a way to get to one of KF's kids' games.  They are a little younger so the opportunity hasnt been as great.  However today there is a game at 3.  And I will have time to get in a bike and run before heading over to the fields. 
Now that's what Sundays should be all about!

get the heck outside...

so it is supposed to be in the 70s today and i have gotten myself so into liking riding at the gym that i am torn between that and yucking the bike up on the jetta - the i have a new tailight cover and had a really expensive/complimentary bath jetta - i know i need to take the bike out... 
the more the bike is on the road the more i am inspired and motivated to upgrade my bike at some point...
so now i have to juggle all the logistics...
it is 930 - technically i can get dressed and go to mass - 1045 to 1145
ride my bike/brick from 1 to 3
then i need to do some work for work 3 to 5
and then some ireland stuff ...
it could all be quite achieveable
the other rotation is go to mass this evening and get work done now - since that the piece that is taunting me the most, i may go with that line up instead...
best lug the computer to its docking station and get focused - working on a laptop from the couch does NOT accomplish anything...

that was pretty tasty

had a little less creamy and a little more veg feel to it but not bad

pumpkin

did i talk about this last week?  that i read a running magazine article on how pumpkin is one of those foods you are supposed to eat?  well guess what i realised in retrospect - since eggs are on that list as well???  some variationof pumpkin pie or pumpkin custard falls within the range of good to eat...
now of course a pie or custard is going to have a whole lot of sugar and cream in it as well - so that verges off the healthy for your range but think of all the other variations with eggs you can make that dont require the cream or sugar or cheese..  i make eggs with all sorts of savory items on a regular basis so why not throw some pumpkin in the mix?
at the moment i have my first attempt of this cooling on the kitchen counter
we shall see how it turns out - of course the dilema that is ever present in my kitchen - if it is good i may not be able to recreate it because i am not too sure all that i did with it - 3 eggs for 4 servings, i know that much - but i did throw in some fat free vanilla yogurt i had left lying about and i dont know the amount of pumpkin that was left over from the yogurt experiment earlier this week and then the spices - oh just dashes of nutmeg and cinamon but who knows how much...
i really should try to be more attentive to those details if i want to share these finds with others - oops...

4 weeks left

so remember i siad i was going to get in the pool this past week - i did decide to switch that up to a brick routine instead...  i am enjoying it...  i had forgotten the peace of sitting and riding and riding and riding...  and let's be honest the cardio studio with random movies playing is quite entertaining in the process
i need to regroup though on the days i will be available to get to the gym and apply this approach...

little dose of protein

hidden in a snack.  i went to the gym late morning early afternoon.  did 8 to 9 miles on the staionary bike - the one from the other day not the one from the other night - funny how the pace and length and ease is different between the two.  AVATAR was on the video as i rode.  and i listened to a bunch of music in the process.  wonder if that contributes to ADD.
from there i went to Target - got some dog food and laundry supplies... and as always i bought a few more things in Target.  this visit's purchase was mango scented bath wash and body butter...
and then i went on to get the car serviced - there was a moment there that i thought the $325 worht of damage was going to be more - thankfully the guy came back with costs and time commitments in line with my expectation
while waiting for the car i decided i was getting hungry - the apple and skim milk after the workout did well but what else did i want?  actually i wanted sushi but given the day and solitude i opted for tuna fish...  i made something like a tuna pate or dip - can of solid white tuna, low fat cream cheese, dill, garlic powder, balck pepper, and some sun dried tomoatoes pureed together with some multi grain crackers... ia m enjoying the snack...  the dog is going crazy wanting some - the red wine treat as a result of yesterday goes rather well too....

will speak to the workout later

join me at my pitty party

Today I woke upwith 3 items on my agenda. Leave home early to prep for a meeting at 930 that was scheduled at the last minute. Try to squeeze in some document review for a new client that has questions. Finalize presentation for large client meeting next week.
And in the rush to get out of the house and to the office I backed right into my mailbox with my rear taillight! I am still pretty pissed and upset on so many levels because of it. In conjunction with that spill I took the other week that my karma/chi/aura is all out of whack.
I am burning out. Read my posts this week. The lack of sleep. Just not a good sign.
I expressed this and was told that there was plenty of time to get things done. But I beg to differ.
So my Saturday will be spent at the dealership getting the car serviced. Going to the office to get the minor details from my to-do list addressed. AND I really need to go to the gym to clear my head.
I am on the road again by Wednesday and must admit that I am looking forward to it.
Tried out the primal scream this morning. Think I will go with the serenity prayer this evening.