About Me

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Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Nancy. I decided to retire early and my last day at the Fire District was December 31, 2020. My dream to do this pigs 'n poultry thing full time started on January 1, 2021. So far so good...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

A little rest

This week has not been so great for training. My back has been pretty messed up all week and have had a couple of visits to the back-cracker and also had a massage. The pain was pretty bad on Thursday so I knew that I would not be running - so I decided at that point to lay off the running for the rest of the week and start up again on Tuesday. Today I'm feeling SO much better and the pain, what pain? Just a little soreness and that's it!

I really need to be more mindful of the signs that my body is sending off - oh the pain of it all! Will be continuing some core training which should help my back and probably should do some overall strength training as well - even just a little will be better than what I have been doing which is NOTHING. Well, until this week.

Just came back from a ride to meet Robin at Starbucks for coffee - which I rode a long route to Starbucks and then afterwards I went over to Walgreens to pick up my prescription. It was good to catch up with her - the last couple of weeks I have been feeling somewhat blase.

Now I am looking forward to getting back to training...and getting PSYCHED again!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Need Inspiration

Another week of training...My back has been misbehaving for the last few days and I have had a couple of adjustments, but the soreness still lingers. The fortunate thing is that when I run it doesn't hurt. The movement seems to help - sitting for long periods of time is not good, which makes being at work not so great, not that it is great to begin with.

This week I do a Tempo Run on Thursday, but since I have a massage scheduled after work I might just have to change my run to Friday instead and run after work. I have never done anything other than Easy runs or the occasional Speedwork, so this Tempo thing should be interesting. It will be nice to do something a little different, so I'm looking forward to that.

My chiropractor said that if I work on core training then maybe my back will be better. Fine, I get it, I'm going to be more diligent with core training, blah. I don't know why I'm so resistant to core training or any other training. I guess I better get over THAT mental block. If strength training and core training will help my cycling and running you would think I would be all over that! I'll have to start TODAY.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

More Miles This Week

This Sunday I will rack up a total of 15 miles for the week as far as running. That's mostly because I had to change my long run from last week to Monday because of the ride we did on Sunday. It's all good though, I will be back on track next week - and will probably go back to my regular work schedule of 8:30 - 5:00. I'm getting to the point where I need to run more and I don't have enough time to run on the treadmill at lunch anymore. I might be able to continue EARLY runs at work when the weather is bad, but otherwise I may just wait until I get home and run with Tom.

I've been feeling somewhat depressed this week and I suppose I may be pushing a little bit too much, but I know that in the end this will all be worth it and this is just part of getting to that goal.

Psyched!

Monday, February 16, 2009

4 MILES BAY-BEE

Okay, so I thought that I would have a total mental block...I have never run more than a 5K in the less than a year that I have been seriously trying to become a runner.

Today was the big "test" - Tom and I went to Klineline to run the trail out and back (going to the 2 mile mark and turning around) and my gosh, I actually did it! It was so awesome! I'm pretty sure that the shoes are making a huge difference, I didn't feel so tired or anything. Especially after yesterday's rides that we did. My training for the week is a little messed up, but I'll just do an easy run tomorrow...I think I'm supposed to do 2 miles. That will be a piece of cake! I'm starting to like this running thing!

WHAT mental block? I'm REALLY psyched now!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Pretty Good Week

This week was pretty good, did my runs as I was supposed to and actually showed up early on Thursday to run before work. That was a good move on my part - it took about 45 minutes which included my warm up and cool down to complete my workout. Did a little strength training one day and rest yesterday and today. Tomorrow is the Worst Day Ride and I'll push my run to Monday which will mess up my week, but that is to be expected once the cycling events start up - those take PRIORITY.

Overall, feeling pretty good, although a little tired. I think I might do too much... :)

I'm

PSYCHED!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Treadmill, Dreadmill...

This is MY baby....
A couple of months ago I had an email exchange with one of the guys at work regarding riding on a cycle trainer and how it is the devil in disguise. Out of curiosity I asked him how treadmills are classified...he said they were "cake" compared to the cycle trainer. At the time I had no argument for him as I had not had much experience on treadmill. However, now that I have had ample opportunity to "log" miles on the treadmill, I'm starting to think of that contraption as the dreadmill. The first week or two was fine, easy...almost fun. Now it's becoming a chore and something to force myself to do. I still won't ride on my trainer, but I have to continue using the DM if I want to continue my quest to run at least 6 miles.

On Sunday I had a really awesome road run (3 miles). After about 1.5 miles it started feeling really comfortable and about a 1/2 mile within finishing almost effortless. Tom said I had found my groove. That was exciting! It was so good that my recovery was very quick and I was breathing normal within a short period of time which in the past has been unusual for such an effort.

It's been at least a week since I have felt any real pain in my foot...so I must be all healed now. In fact, my foot even feels good! The bunion is a little bothersome, but not so much that I slow down. This is a very good progression and it's only February. Still a few months away from the Du and I'm feeling pretty good about everything.

My long run which would be this Sunday - but is being switched to possibly Monday - is to be 4 miles. I'm a little nervous about this because I have only been able to do 3.1 miles (a 5K). As before this is my mental block, but then this whole running thing is a mental thing. I can't allow the pain that I feel early on in my runs to cause me to second guess my abilities...I know what I can do, there are just times I want to give in because my legs are aching a little or my foot is cramping or whatever and those times are very hard to run thru sometimes.

Today was that sort of run and to make it even better it was on the treadmill. I finished 1 mile and just had to do one more. Last week I quit early because I thought I was too tired. I guess I was just tired of trying - what a whimpy-ass attitude! As I ran today I kept last Monday's ride in my mind and decided that I would not give in so easily so I upped the speed and elevation and kept at it and even really kicked it out for the last quarter mile. It felt good to have worked it thru and now I know that when I go in early on Thursday I have the ability to do a good run and not be a wimp.

It's so hard to believe that one year ago I could not even run 1/4 of a mile. Now I'm doing 3 miles pretty easily and will be moving on to running 4 miles by early next week. I should find a good route for that particular run - I don't want to try it out on the running machine.

In looking at the training plan it looks as though I'll be upping the mileage, changing the type of workout AND adding a day of running so I may have to re-think how I will be doing them. Next week I will start doing Tempo runs and I believe that distance is to be 4 miles at Tempo....YIKES!! No more easy two miles here and three miles there...I already miss those days ;)

I smell a duathlon in my future...

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Feeling Better

This week I felt pretty sluggish - probably the affects of having been following this training plan for almost a month. It's all a mental game at this point. Had a not so great time getting into running this week at work on the treadmill so I decided that I would give myself a break and not push the plan this week and repeat last week as much as possible.

1.5 miles on Tuesday, awesome lunch ride - Wednesday, 2 miles on Thursday, treadmill walking on Friday and a huge ride yesterday. Today Tom and I ran a 5K route which ended really well. I'm pretty happy with that. We'll see how this week goes - right now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get 3 miles on the treadmill and still make it back to my desk in time. 3 miles takes about 38-39 minutes for me to run as it is already...I'll have to get super organized on Thursday and just do as much as I can during that time - it's the best I can probably do with the time that I have allotted, but better than not doing anything! I guess I could arrive EARLY to work and run on the Treadmill and just have a nice long lunch....oooh, there's an idea!

I'm PSYCHED!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Mixed Company

Today was totally different as far as company goes while I was on the Treadmill. The whole shift ended up in the work out room - I spent 30 minutes with the duty crew which included Kristan thank goodness! They were sweatin' and gruntin' to P90X. Which by the way I got to experience yet a different workout, crazy!

I ran 1.5 miles, mostly at a 1% incline. I don't know why I thought I would do that, I think I'll do something different on Thursday. I finished the second mile by walking. As anal as I can be, I'm not going to beat myself up over this, I am/was tired. I just need a little more rest!

Tomorrow is bike day and I'm sooo looking forward to that! I think I'll ride to Salmon Creek and come back via Betts Road Bridge. An excellent plan!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Double Whammy!

Sunday is my "long run" day and at this point long is more than 2 miles. All is well though, got my 3 mile run in today by running the Salmon Creek Trail with Tom. After couple of miles I started to feel pretty good and the last mile was actually the best! I felt pretty good at the end - so good that I decided that a short bike ride would be kind of fun - just the loop from our house to Fred Meyer and back which is less than 5 miles. There were actual shadows which meant there was some sunshine or something like it. At 40 degrees it was still chilly to be riding without jackets, but I didn't want to lose momentum. I just changed into cycling shorts and kept my two tops on from my run, brrr. Did a leisurely ride, which only took about 19 minutes and really got my hunger going. We stayed late after church for a "quick" meeting and then finally got out around 1:30. It was all good and I'm looking forward to getting stronger, I'm pretty sure that means strength training. Ugh.

I'm PSYCHED!!!