My Awesome Run

O.K., let me just preface this with the fact that I am SLOW. I'm not going to pussy-foot around the issue. The only way I would ever qualify for Boston would be to keep running (possibly the same pace that I am running at now) until I reach the age where I get AARP discounts.

With that being said, I had an awesome run last night!!! My boys got tickets to go see the Houston Astros so it gave me a rare golden opportunity to go out for a long run during the week. I put in 10 miles on Saturday and cracked out three hills at Waugh and Memorial and then ran the eleven ramp parking garage three times. It was HUMID and nasty. My shoes were making squishy sounds when I finished. So with a day of rest on Sunday (Amen!), I headed back out to Memorial Park to see where my feet would take me on my second long run in under 60 hours.

As I headed out of the park I literally ran into my buddy Geoff who was on his mountain bike. He rode along side of my while I ran and told me all about his race up at the Rhode Island 70.3 race a few weekends ago. It was a great warm up because I kept the pace where I could still talk. After 20 minutes, I had to head along the bayou and Geoff had to turn for home. I had been keeping up on my hydration and it was time for some S-caps. Once down along the run path that follows the bayou, I was rocking it out on the iPod and glancing at the Polar to notice that my pace was faster than normal, but I was feeling really good. I made it into Downtown and crossed over the bridge at Bayou Place and headed back on the other side of the bayou. I stopped briefly at Elenor Tinsley Park for some Pina Colada Shot Blocks and to finish the water in my HEB bottle of water and toss it in the trash.

The sun was setting now and the breeze was picking up. Man it felt nice! I kept to the path and ran up and down the hills and under the stinky Waugh Bat Bridge. Our bridge may not be as famous as the one in Austin, but it smells twice as bad. I crossed over to the other side of the bayou at Shepperd, had some more S-Caps, and ran back up Memorial to Waugh where I had jumped on to the bayou path and started cutting back through the apartments and condos on Jackson Hill and Blossom back to park. On the last little stretch on Crestwood I saw a few bats flitting up near the tree tops. One of my "power songs" came on the iPod (Seal-Amazing[Kaskade Remix]) and I picked it up on the last 800 meters back to the car.

Time-- 1:43:32
Distance--9.62 miles
Expenditure-- 1043 calories
Average Pace--10:46
Average HR--155 bpm
Average % VO2 Max--77%
Average Temperature--91 degrees

The great thing was that I felt AWESOME at the end of the run. I have a track workout tomorrow to work on my Yasso 800's and a 14 mile run on Saturday. I hope that I can get some quality bike time in on Sunday. The summer has been hard with the kid at home and I have 4 weeks left until the Austin Triathlon and 8 weeks left until the Longhorn 70.3 race.

We are back at the Astros game tonight so I better go find something to eat since I am allergic to everything they have at Minute Maid Park except the bottled water.

Later Gators!

Liz

And now a public service announcement...

I usually do not post any political views on my blog, but I just really could not resist.

Later Gators,

Liz

Time for Some Campaignin' | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Argh! My head hurts over this...

Gads,

I have great pals, but right now I am in a place where I either need to consider removing myself from their presence or just keeping my mouth shut and keep smiling. I love them to death and that is where I think that I have hit the wall. I see them doing and saying things that causes me pain because the words or the actions are not moving them forward in life, but at times backwards. My husband keeps telling me to forget them all and just focus on the family and right now he may be right, but I don't want to just up and disappear and most of these people I see at least once a week for some reason or another. I don't want to stop being their friends because right now some of them really need a friend. The issues are self esteem, relationships, commitment, reliability, selfishness, ego, pride, maturity, and gluttony.

It hurts me to watch these people that I love to do the things that they do. I want to say something, but I don't want to hurt them or "burn the bridge". If I don't say something soon, would anyone care enough to intervene? Some people I know have already written my friends off and have washed their hands of them or worse yet I have seen my friends become the butt of jokes.

Randy Pausch stated in his famous "Last Lecture" that we must "find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it." Well, I have seen these people at their best and now I am seeing them as they spiral out of control to some of their worst behavior. I just keep telling myself to be patient. Keep loving them. It will get better in time. But right now it is painful.

Ok, later gators...

Liz

Blog Funk

Ok, Ok, yes, I have been absent...

I have been busy and I have been lazy. I have been avoiding my blog. I got a few days behind in reading some other witty blogs and I had a bunch of stuff on my plate such as getting the Kiwanis Kids Triathlon, that I am the race director for, off the ground and running and then I had the funk start in. I just had no desire to blog. I had a few things to take care of at home such as keeping some people happy that I was not doing anything that related to triathlons and cleaning the house for imaginary house guests. And then it happened...I got sucked into playing on-line games. At first, it was just Pop-it, then it Sweet tooth, and then (sob...) I sucumbed to Word Whomp!

The more I played Word Whomp! the more I would kick myself for being a bad person with a degree in English that could not create enough 3 to 6 letter words from the six letters that I was given to fill all the blanks at the top of the page. I have a minor in Linguistics and I can't get the gopher past the first F--k'n carrot of extra points!!! At least with Ma-Jong Safari I could collect all the animals and win points to be able to grant tokens to other players. With Word Whomp! I am failing miserably!

Ok, have have been doing more than playing Word Whomp! I sucessfuly pulled off my third Kiwanis Kids Triathlon with 128 kids between the ages of 6 and 13. I met Viv out at the Jeff & Brede's Triathlon when I was working on the bike course. I put in three good solid run workouts last week of 6.8, 9.6 and 12.1 miles along with a track workout. I went and saw The Dark Knight (not for kids!) and LOVED it. And, I got the house pressure washed, the carpets cleaned. and the tile and grout cleaned as well. I had to pay someone else to do the last part, but I had to move all the furniture and that was a mess.

Now I have to get caught up on everyone else's blog and resist the urge to play more Word Whomp!

Later Gators,

Liz

My new MOTIVATION MAN...

Enrique is doing a nice job at the side of my page motivating me, but you might recall an older post about what motivates me on those long workouts.

Well, let's just say that I am a sucker for a handsome man (Christian Bale) in a suit. Don't get me wrong, I like 'em hot and sweaty in workout clothes as well. But clean them up, and deck them in pin stripes and I'm a goner. Traveling in Italy was nice. Let's just say that the Italian men know how to dress well.

Oh, only 9 MORE DAYS UNTIL THE DARK KNIGHT HITS THEATERS!!! I am seeing it on IMAX!!! Whoo Hoo!!!!

Later Gators,

Liz

Amazing 4th of July Fireworks!

What an amazing day in sports history! I have always loved swimming and I have always loved the Olympics. As a kid, I was glued to the television during each set of Olympic games. I loved it even more that my dad was there at the games working as a photo journalist because he would bring home the coolest souvenirs and photos for me. I got stuff that no one else would end up having in the neighborhood such as trading pins, t-shirts, back packs, and autographed pictures of the athletes.

One of the sports I always love to watch during the Olympics is the swimming events. I watched the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics closely because there was a girl who was swimming that was only a few years older than I was and we had the same last name, Torres. I was only starting my competitive swimming stint, and I was so impressed at how fast she was and the news articles about how she and Janet Evans spent hours and hours each day in the pool in sunny California swimming laps in practice.

I was impressed again in 2000 when Dara Torres came out of retirement at the "old" age of 33 and pulled an amazing 5 medals from her swimming events. She was just a small part of some of the reasons that I started back to competitive fitness with cycling, swimming, and triathlons. If she could do amazing things like what she pulled off at the Olympics at an age when most people would be insisting you retire from the sports world and take it easy, then there was more that was possible.

I had read about her recent attempts to get back into racing shape for the Olympic Trials. The hours of work, the need for surgery to relieve nagging issues in her shoulder and her knee. The cadre of people she depended upon to keep her swimming. The comeback after having a child. Facing the doubts that she did not have it in her.

And then there were 53.78 amazing seconds in swimming and sports history.

Congratulations to Dara for being dedicated enough to put it all out there on the line and to qualify as the oldest Olympic swimmer in history to participate in the games. I will be watching the games rather than boycotting my television.


Hope you had a great 4th of July,

Liz

Hmm...It makes me wonder....

I hope that I am not a complete head case but when I run or ride my bike by myself (which is quite a lot!) I think about the strangest things. Of course I think about the list of things that I have to get done and the things that most everyone else thinks about (you better switch lanes Ms. H2 driver because there is no sidewalk or shoulder and I can't play "Chicken" with you!) but then I stumble on some REAL DOOZIES.

Here is what was running though my mind while I was out running this evening:

1.


Why is it that cartoon characters only have 4 fingers? And why do they always wear gloves? (This was prompted by a discussion that I heard on the radio.) I started thinking about the fact that no one today really wears gloves unless it is cold. Why did gloves go out of fashion? When did that happen? Where could I go to buy a nice pair of gloves that would not look like I was going to prom? Would Nordstroms have them? Would it even be acceptable to wear gloves today or would people look at me like I was a weirdo? Is the way we dress today too casual to wear gloves?

See the stream of conscieness thinking???

2.


Here is my next internal monologue after remembering passing the A&F store at the mall earlier in the day. Did this guy have to wax? Wow, those pants are really low? Does anyone really wear their pants that low in front outside of Brazil? Who do I need to thank for giving the gals a little "beefcake" to look at? Do other men feel dirty, embaresed, unable to measure up when they walk past these big photos the same way we chicks feel when we walk by the suggestively posed manaquins in the window of Victoria's Secret? Wow. Those pants are low. Nair? Whoa! OMG!!! Just saw a guy in red running shorts that were THAT LOW IN FRONT. NICE!!! Wait, he seems too confident. His chest and abs are almost too good. I bet he bats for the other team. Dang it!

3.

Why have I not lost any toenails? What am I doing differently than everyone else that keeps my toes intact? Yuck, I just thought about the blog I read and the post about some guy who made a necklace out of the toenails he lost. Double Yuck! Is it because I get my shoes big? I keep the nails trimmed short, could that be it? My socks???

4.

Speaking of socks... Why do men wear black socks to work out in? What's with that??? I thought black socks were to be worn with dress pants or slacks of the same color. This look is only one step away from the odd neighbor who mows his lawn in the bucket hat, a wife-beater t-shirt, Bermuda shorts and black socks. It looks goofy.


5.


Hey, were you looking at me? Yes, you. Were you sneaking a peak? Did you like what you saw??? Was it HAWT??!!?? Or were you looking at that Mercedes Maybach that was approaching from behind me and just passed? It was the car, wasn't it??? DANG IT!!!

6.

Hey, you! Yes, you! Olsen Twin look-a-like. Slowly, put down the hand weights and please find a meal to eat. Yes, I am sure you think you really do need to work out, but you also need to realize you need to eat. If that dog on the leash over there got away from his owner, he could take you down. That Jack Russell would snap those arms like they were twigs. If I had a Pop-Tart I would give it to you, but I don't eat those. Take my Clif Shot. TAKE IT!


Well, that ended my run. So I guess I must be strange, but at least I'm out there running....and thinking....and running....

More musings to come.

Later Gators,

Liz