81 Days to 13.1

Today's Miles: 900 miles sitting on my bum; The Ab300; 20 min tempo run; 200 weighted arm exercises; 100 weighted walking lunges; 100 weighted squats

HOLY CRAP I'm tired!!!

My arms are so tired I can barely type (obviously not).

My lunge-er is lunged out.

And I think I broke my squatter.

However, my abs are feeling pretty good!! Maybe that means I should up The 300?

Maybe not.

Did I mention in that run down above that I had to wake up at 3:30a.m. to catch a flight, and that it is now 1:30 a.m. EST, and I'm still AWAKE!!! What's up with that?

I'll tell you what's up with that - way too much exercising late in the evening. It keeps me awake, despite my overwhelming desire to be sleeping. (And an hour long nap this afternoon.)

So why exactly did I combine a tempo run day with an insano-strength training session?

Because my dears, yesterday was Day 1 of a half-marathon training session, and yesterday I was supposed to start out with strength training. However, I had way too much work yesterday (and recovering from the weekend). So strength training did not happen. Today is Day 2 - and it calls for a tempo run.

In an attempt to keep with my training plan - I combined. You know...be efficient.

I will pay for this tomorrow.

SO - I know you're just dying to know why I needed to recover from the weekend!!

Did Mark and I throw a wild party? Get drunk? Stay up until 10 p.m. like a couple of wild kids???

No. 

I started my training program to become one of those sweepers in Curling. (You know, that Olympic sport where they slide a stone across the ice and a sweeper goes all Swifter crazy on the ice ahead of the stone....In other words, another backyard, beer induced game that made it to the Olympics like badminton.)

So here's your Life Lessons for the week:
(Lessons 1-5 had to do with porta-potties on a construction site. I only mentioned 3 in the blog but some friends piped in with 2 additional lessons.)

Lesson 6
If you dig a hole in East TN during the driest part of the year during a year when 80% of the country is in a drought, and the intent of that hole is to be a pond - it will never rain. However, if that hole was dug with the intent of building a house on top of it.....it WILL rain.

AndRainAndRainAndRainAndRainAndRainSomeMore.

Farmers.....You're Welcome!

I lost count at how many times the guys literally dug mud out of the footers with shovels. Or how many times they were pumped out. Or how many times rebar was installed/uninstalled/reinstalled. But the footers finally got poured.

Then it rained. AndRainedAndRainedAndRainedAndRainedAgain.

It rained 1 1/2 inches at our house on Friday evening and NOTHING at my Dad's house....1/2 mile away!!!

But Who cares? The footers are poured!! Right? 

Well, muddy footers means block masons can't lay block on them. So - we got to clean them off with a shovel, a pressure washer and brooms.

Ever.Try.To.Sweep.Water?



This was the end result of Saturday's efforts:

Looks like I just ran a Mud Run. Guess my excuse of not wanting to ruin a pair of running shoes for a Mud Run is now gone. Guess I'll have to sign up for one.

Doesn't think that looks to bad?

Huh! What do you think of those freaky whitey's?

But in the end, I guess it was worth it (?). It was necessary. Because the mason's showed up on Monday and now it's starting to look like something!!

And then it rained.AndRainedAgain.

I really hope the rest of the week is dry!

Gotta run.....and get some sleep.

Life Lessons

Today's Miles: none

I'm a bit tired tonight. I'm a bit overwhelmed tonight. I'm a bit overworked and over-worried tonight.

I think I'm going to change the name of this blog to "How to keep your marriage intact & growing, work full time as a traveling saleswoman, train for a half-marathon, act as your own contractor and build a house, and not go completely insane."

But that seems a bit much. Don't ya think?

I actually don't start training for another 2 weeks...which by the way Megan Reid Saylors....did you catch that? We're approximately 13 weeks from our half. Get your shoes on chick!

I'm thinking that the training for the half is actually how I'm going to keep my sanity intact....or at least in the same sand box. But I'm not ready for a hard-core schedule yet. Not with my 7 week on-the-road-13-hr-day stretch. I'm in week 5. 2 more to go. Then a week home....while my dear husband goes away for a few days for work. Uh...how did that happen? I'm home - and he's gone?

So, did you catch the 'build a house' statement earlier?
Didyadidyadidyadidya?

I feel like we've been 'building a house' for 3 years now. But we've not. We've only be 'planning to build a house' for several years.

We've graduated to the actual 'building' of the house.

The ground breaking began last week while I was in Wisconsin. I was so excited, so disappointed and so scared all at the same moment when Mark sent me that picture.

Excited because FINALLY!!! We're getting started!!

Disappointed because I wasn't there. Not sure what I would have done but sit around and watch my Dad move dirt and giggle like a school girl all day? But still. I wished I was there. I feel like I missed out on something.

Scared because Holy Shit! It's really happening. We've got a lot of things to do, to decide, to buy, to think about, to plan, to commit to. What if we make the wrong decision and are disappointed? What if it costs more than what we planned? WhatifWhatifWhatifWhatif.

I could bore you with every single detail of building this house....but I'll save that for my bestestestest of friends. However from time to time, I will try to impart some wisdom....just in case you are crazy enough to want to build a house yourself.

So - here we go....Lesson #1.

Did you know that according to code, you are supposed to have a porta-potty on site throughout the construction project? That means from Day 1. The very first day. Not Day 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. But Day 1.

Want to know why that's so important??

Because Murphy's Law dictates that someone will have to take a dump ON DAY 1. And without a porta-potty, they must utilize whatever Mother Nature provides...in our case, the woods.

And you know why that's such a big deal?

Remember when I told you about my dog that eats poop?

Oh no, don't worry. Even SHE has standards on what she devours.

However, the one that likes to roll in poop?  Well, he has no standards.

So here's Lesson #2.

It will take 2 baths in scented dog shampoo, 1 bath in Pantene, a wipe down with "dog wipes" (pre-moistened wipes used for quick baths), a wipe down with clorox wipes, a wipe down with straight vinegar, and a dip in the creek and clogged sinuses to take human poop smell off a dog.

Lesson #3.

Always have those things above and rubber gloves in stock - just in case the porta-potty delivery is delayed.



Gotta run.....