solar squirrel

This morning Todd and I did a brick workout - we rode our bikes 18 miles and then ran ~7.5 on trails. I forgot how GREAT it feels to run after biking! (that was sarcasm). It was tough! The first 3 miles of the run were kind of painful, and then it felt pretty good. My Garmin battery died (my own fault - I haven’t charged it since I got it) at about mile 4, but the bike averaged 17 MPH. Not too bad for the first time out this year. Plus I was being careful not to go too hard since I knew we were running afterwords. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to do another brick before the duathlon on Sunday, it’s ok - I’m sure I’ll have my competition cut out for me. I will allow Elizabeth or Janet to beat me - anyone else - look out.

Today Elizabeth and I went to a rain barrel workshop at Shaker Lakes Nature Center. It was really cool! We each made a rain barrel that will hold 55 gallons of rain water that we can use to water plants and flowers (basically we can do everything except drink it). The barrels that we used were donated from a local Italian food vendor - so they were used to hold olive oil and olives! Yum! I am going to let Todd have it since I don’t have a place for it and since he has a lot of plants that will be able to benefit from the water. It was funny because it wouldn’t even fit in my trunk! I had to put it in the back seat - that’s fine, I don’t mind. It’s better than driving an SUV.

We were acting like ‘dumb girls’.

I went to a BAWB event today after work. (Actually left work early to go). It was pretty interesting. The speaker, Rinaldo Brutoco, was pretty impressive. He said a lot of things that I wish more people were in line with - like the fact that there is no such thing as clean coal, and using corn for fuel is the dumbest idea since the Hummer. One of the things I was most impressed with was his passion for socially responsible business practices. When I say socially responsible, I don’t mean donating money to the food bank. I mean really thinking about what you do every day with regard to its impact on things in the future. He spoke of his relationships with his vendors and how it was truly a partnership, not a competition. He talked about looking at the entire product lifecycle, which so many companies fail to do. (designing with non-hazardous materials, components that utilize less energy, packaging that is lighter and made of recycled or recyclable materials, using less resources in the manufacturing of goods - water, electricity, etc - providing a mechanism to reuse your product once it’s use is up, can it be recycled, refurbished, etc.)

The main point of the talk though was discussing the transition from fossil fuels to renewable or alternative energy. He slammed nuclear power and coal power - which I thought was awesome. He also discussed climate change and how imperative it is that we make drastic changes today.

All in all pretty good reason to leave work early.

I’m 2 weeks down for my 6-week body makeover. Today is the first day of week 3 and I’m right on schedule having lost ~3lbs so far. Although, for all I know that could be water weight…in all honesty I generally fluctuate about 3 lbs from day to day, but hey, I’ll take the loss! Like I said, my goal is to loose 6 lbs total.

Today I ran 4.5 at a 7:22 pace during lunch and then did a 45 min cycling class after work. I usually don’t run on Mon, but I was so motivated by my friends who were doing Boston today that I figured I would go out and run too. All of the SERC people did incredible. I’m so proud of Elizabeth, Dawn, and Janet. You girls ROCK!!!!!

First:  quick update on my car.  The wannabe pimp guy actually fixed it!  And for free!

Second:  Sat. am. Todd, Dub (my grandma) and I went to W. Va. to visit my uncle and his gf. in their newly built log cabin that they completely built themselves.  When I say they built it themselves - I mean - REALLY built it themselves.  To the point of actually chopping down the trees themselves that were used to build it.  Amazing.  They also cut down the trees that needed to be removed to build their driveway; built the cabin with the help of 2 other people after stripping the logs themselves; did the electricity, foundation, roof, windows, EVERYTHING.  The coolest part to me was the fact that they don’t have water piped into the house.  They have this huge cistern that collects RAIN WATER!  I was completely amazed and made uncle Mark show me the water inside of it as well as trace the piping from it all the way to the reverse osmosis filter for the drinking water.  I was so impressed with everything.  My uncle Mark and ‘aunt’ Dorothy are 2 of the most incredible people you will ever meet. 

Uncle Marc’s Cabin

So I took today off because I felt like a 3-day weekend and I also had a few things I needed to get taken care of.  One being my moonroof on my car is acting weird.  If I have it opened when I turn off the ignition, it is supposed to automatically close.  Well, now when I turn off the car, it starts to close, and then it re-opens - and it will continue to close half way, then re-open, back and forth until I push the button.  To be honest - I don’t care if it closes automatically or not.  I just don’t want to be out somewhere and have the thing stuck open.  Well - now I’m sitting here at the Mazda dealership and this guy is trying to fix it - I don’t even want to know what the heck he’s doing…it’s a company that is outsourced by Mazda - so this guy had to come here to look at my car.  He pulls up in this totally CHEDDAR Chevy Cavalier that is trying to be pimped out with tinted windows and this big ugly wording on the back of the window - HELL NO.  So now this guy is sitting in my car - STILL - and obviously if he hasn’t figured it out by now, he probably has no clue………..

I am sitting where I can see him out the window.  I bet he’s thinking to himself “I have no clue what I am doing…or how to fix this…”  Well he needs to hurry up because I have better things to do than sit in a Mazda dealership all day!!!!!

Stay tuned for an update.

I usually don’t run on Wednesday’s but the weather was too gorgeous for me not to get out there so I ran an easy 4 today to the golf course and back. The golf course is in the middle of this big development of ‘custom’ homes that we always make fun of when we run past them. They seriously all look exactly the same…like some weird assembly line of houses or something. Anyway, it’s a nice run because there is a wide paved trail and very little traffic.

This weekend I’m going to visit my uncle in his newly built cabin in W. Virginia! Todd and my grandma are also going - I can’t wait! I’ll take pictures and post them - they built it themselves and they use rain as their source for water. (Oh - that reminds me, Elizabeth and I are going to a rain barrel workshop next weekend to build rain barrels!)

Week 1 down on the 6-week body makeover.  So far so good!  I am shooting for 1 lb. a week weight loss.  I think I’m right on track!

This was the first weekend in a while that I didn’t have to spend basically an entire Saturday with my group members working on my school project. We decided to do a website since I am seriously sick of power point and word. (Sadly, our website has a ppt. embedded in it, and you guessed it - it’s viewable only with $M i.e. - LAME!) Here’s the link. I only have a few more weeks left of school and then I get like a month off. Todd and I were thinking of going camping, maybe somewhere in Michigan. Not sure yet.

Training is going well. This was my first week trying to eat right and I did pretty well until last night when I went to a co-worker’s surprise B-day party. It was at BW3 and I ate 2 cheese sticks, a wing, and an onion ring and 2 huge beers. My stomach was definitely not happy with me after the 10 mile SERC loop this am. I think it was a combination of dehydration, not eating right, and bad beer (I drank lite beer last night - WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!!??) Today at the SERC run E-speed brought the singlets and skirt that I ordered - they are sweet! Can’t wait to wear mine as soon as the weather gets warm again.

On a completely different note - Dawn was cracking me up - I told Todd what she told us today and Todd’s exact words were: “I cannot imagine any circumstances under which 5 miles would be considered a long bike ride”. LOL!

 Training totals from last week.  I think the indoor tri is coming up next weekend, right?  Who’s doing it?  I think I’m still in…

Weekly training recap (3/31- 4/6):

Monday: Bike (medium effort) 8 miles
Tuesday: track workout at lunch - 8 x 400; 1 mile warm up; 1 mile cool down
Wednesday: swimming
Thursday: 6 mile run at lunch
Friday: spin class at work- difficult ~ 12 miles
Saturday: rest
Sunday: ~9 mile trail run w/ Todd - difficult

Weekly totals:

run: 19 miles
bike: 20 miles
swim: 1 mile

My friend Cliff who I sometimes join for a run at lunch recently did a ‘contest’ where he took his beginning body fat percentage and then had (I think) 6 weeks to try to improve it through exercise and nutrition.  Sounds boring, right.  We all know that working out and eating right is what makes you healthy and attractive.

Fast forward 2 months later.  Cliff pretty much looks the same.  (I obviously only see him w/ clothes on - he could have toned up his abs or whatever, but I don’t know.)  The incredibly interesting thing is that his running SPEED has had an amazing improvement.  Last year at this time I could have ran with him no problem, actually, I was probably faster than him.  This year I am struggling just to keep with him during our track workouts!  He is SO MUCH FASTER!  I seriously think that it’s a result of his healthier eating that has allowed him to get faster.  He lost like 4% body fat during his contest.

This got me thinking, what if I were to actually make a conscious effort to eat healthy and proper portions for 6-weeks.  I basically already eat pretty healthy, but if I were to do what Cliff did I would have to monitor caloric intake and also protein, carb, and fat proportions.  I think I can do it for 6 weeks.  My main goal being to get faster and as an added bonus possibly get a nice butt for this summer.  I already figured out what my base-line calorie intake should be and it’s a depressing 1400 calories a day.  (This doesn’t include any exercise).  Unfortunately I generally eat 1400 calories in one sitting, so it’s going to take some serious adjustment on my part.  Let me say up front that by no means do I plan to make this a ‘lifestyle change’.  I work out enough that I can easily maintain a healthy weight and still eat (no joke) whatever I want and however much I want.  This will be an experiment to see how much of an improvement in my fitness I can achieve by modifying my eating habits.  So I’m going to try it.  I started on Friday, but let’s call the official starting date Monday 4/7.

Stay tuned…

I long to live in the suburbs, a 2-hour drive from work, but how else can you live in a gated community with heated sidewalks and the best shopping around? The houses are larger than I would need, but it’s what everyone else has and I honestly believe that bigger is better when it comes to property values. To make the commute easier I would get an SUV…I know they aren’t as good on gas mileage and emissions as my 4-cyl Mazda, but my Mazda can’t haul around all of the things that I would need in a new house. I would have to buy a riding lawnmower (always wanted one of those!) Besides - tailgating is SO much better with a big vehicle. Speaking of which, I can’t wait to grill up some burgers! There is nothing like some good ol’ American cow. Mooooo!

What is the deal with all this talk of global warming like it’s bad? Hello! If it just warms up a little bit that would be great! I really need to work on my tan for this summer and I want some warm weather. Why do you think air conditioning was invented?  That reminds me I need to get to the mall and buy a new bathing suit.  The brand I really like isn’t being sold anymore because of some child labor thing.  Seriously - these people should be happy they have jobs!  It is because of our generosity that they have work and they need to quit complaining.

I don’t care about the rain forest, water or air quality, pollution, or my endless consumption of everything unsustainable.  It’s a problem that I won’t have to deal with in my lifetime.  If I want to see an endangered animal, I’ll go to the zoo.  I’ll just buy bottled water in plastic containers if the water is bad.  I’m unwilling to make any sacrifices for future generations.  This is the me generation and I’ll never be satisfied.  I will consume and buy it with credit if I don’t have enough now.  I will take and not give back.  And if you don’t like it talk to my rich, white republican husband.