Gobbler Gallop + Christmas shopping + Family time = Great Weekend!

Thursday morning I messaged Lana & Michele at 7:30 to make sure the 10K/5K Thanksgiving day run (or as K refers to it - The Gobbler Gallop) was still on & they both responded back with a "YES," so I slid my cold-gear on, & headed to the rec center. It was misting rain & pretty darn cold! But it warmed up real fast when I pulled into the parking lot and saw about 15 cars! YAY! Running buddies :-) My daddy (The Flash) was there to lead the run & take pictures.

Lana & Michele

Lana & Michele finishing strong!

Group picture of some of us "Gobbler Gallopers!" :-)

So we took off down the greenway & the two groups split & I realized there were only 5 of us doing the 10K. Me, Lana, Michele, David, & Mike. When we got to the halfway mark I realized I wasn't doing all that hot. I felt like I was pushing it pretty good, but my time wasn't reflecting that. It appeared that I was running right around 9:30 miles. I expected much better? Oh well... it's Thanksgiving... at least I'm out here! I must have picked it up on the 2nd half because my finishing time was 54:40. 8:49 pace. I was pretty disappointed, but then I again I never get too torn up over stuff like that. I got a great workout & burned quite a few calories so I'm cool with it!

I came home, brewed some coffee, took a hot shower & got ready for the family Thanksgiving in Sherwood, TN! I got to see my cousins that I don't see much so that's always great. I got to see Megan, Laura, Sammy, Steve (from New Orleans), Stacey, Lisa & last but not least my sweet sweet grandmother "Ma." Here is a pic of me & Mom just after stuffing our faces.



So later that evening I came home & K came over & we got hungry around 9pm again! We headed to Crockets & shared a few brews & food. Friday I met K @ T's house & we met up with some more friends at Fast Jack's. I drank too much wine & we had to go home early :-/ Saturday was a slow, dreary day. I went to visit with my parents & Sat night K & I hit the boro for some big-time Christmas shopping! We finished up G's & his parents' gifts & then ate at Romano's Macaroni Grill. Sunday we went to church, then after church it was O'Charleys! Do ya think I ate enough this weekend? I haven't weighed since then for fear of the damage I've done! Sunday night I took the plunge & got my new running shoes. I know myself well enough to know needing new shoes woulda been a great excuse to keep my lazy butt from exercising this week.... so I did not allow that! "Self... you know you want to do a marathon. You know you need shoes to train. Buy the shoes & quit being a tight -@ss!"

Today I ran 4 miles at lunch. 35:37, 8:54 pace. It was cold! My hands got numb pretty fast - I do not think I dressed appropriately! Then I very reluctantly went to the dentist. I had prepared myself for a nice little root canal but got lucky and we're going to try just a filling for now. So when I got home I was in such a good mood I took Hattie for a 1.6 mile walk & boy did she LOVE it! :-)

Lana Tagged Me!

Rules:-- link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog-- share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird-- tag 2 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs-- let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.


1. I got kissed (more than once) by a boy at my first junior highschool dance & went along with it because he was a 9th grade football player. My parents found out and grounded me from all school dances until I got to highschool.

2. When I was a junior in college, I went on my first ski trip for a week to Steamboat Springs, CO with only one person out of about 40 that I knew. She was my roommate. We ended up making tons of friends, ski'd our @sses off, & got certified as CSBA! WhooooopEEEE! When we got back home, I dumped my boyfriend of 2 years & experienced the "real" side of college.

3. I started riding a road bike in March of 2007. I worked my way up to riding my first metric (Harpeth River Ride) just 3 months later & went onto complete my 2nd metric in October! Something I never found possible when I first started riding and just 15 miles was a huge challenge!

4. I love shopping by myself.

5. I hate dry skin.

I tag Bethany & See Joe Run, See Joe Swim!

New Blogger in town!

Today is a rest day for me. Tomorrow I am planning on participating in an unorganized/partially organized/ partially supported 10K run from the rec center. Lana, Michele and I were going to do a run in Nashville but things got too complicated and decided we'd run here for free. The great part is... we've got several peeps coming to join us! I'm looking forward to it. Now if we can just get the rain outta here!!!

I met Lana at Casa Mexico for lunch. Oh and guess what - good report at the eye doctor! I am allowed to try contacts again starting tomorrow for the first time in 6 weeks! YippEEEEEEEEE!!! She said my eyes look 98% better and I'm changing contact solutions. She's got me using Clear Care which is a peroxide based solution with no preservatives. You must leave your contacts in it for at least 6 hours in a specially designed case. Then rinse them with saline prior to putting them in. Ok, so that's more trouble than I'm used to. But if it will get me outta these glasses....... I'LL DO IT BABY!

My good friend, Bethany has created herself a blog! Bethany & Jeramy are expecting their FIRST baby in March! "Ce.......lebrate good time, COME ON!!" :-) If you have a chance, please welcome Bethany to bloggy-world!


Here is a pic of Bethany completing her first 5K race! Great run!

Oh... and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I can't WAIT to commune with sweet potatos for as long as I like! Yummmmmm!!!!

4 mile floater feels good!!

Beautiful weather (71 degrees in TN today!), lovely red, orange, & yellow leaves cascading down one at a time, nice breeze, and knowing in the back of my mind that in 48 hours I will be stuffing my face with all the sinful carbs & dessert a southern Thanksgiving has to offer!!! Those were the thoughts running through my head as I shared a slow, stress-free, run with my sister Lana today at lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed it, accept for a few stomach issues that set in around mile 2. We had not planned on running together but we were emailing each other at work & I get one from her that said she was about to go do her recovery run and this was about the time I was headed to change for a run also. So I call her and we decide to share the run! Good call! She didn't wear her garmin, but I did manage to start & stop my watch to see how long it would take. We did the 4 miles in 37:02 = 9:15 pace. I'm cool with that considering how easy it felt!

I found some Merrell running shoes in my closet that are really geared more towards trail running, but I gave them a shot today instead of running in my asics. I've probably only worn them 5 times, total! My hip hasn't hurt me yet, but I did a slow, short run so there could be a number of reasons why!

Oh! And guess what!!! I've been wanting a trainer for my road bike.... but I'm a bit of a....... hmm.... we'll just say I try to play it pretty conservative when it comes to spending money!! :-) I want to train on it this winter on some cross-training days so that I dont have to start over when it's warm enough to ride on the road. Well..... I shoulda known..... K was generous enough to get me the hookup on a bad-@ss trainer!! K has a "way" of always making sure my athletic needs are met. Whether it's surprising me with a new pair of SIDI road shoes in the Shoney's parking lot on a lunch break, or breaking out a sweet Polar heart-rate monitor 2 hours before our first half-marathon together, or actually finding me a road bike (free of charge) to ride for 3 months to see if I would enjoy cycling. So, Lana, & Michele, I'm looking forward to suffering on our trainers together very soon!!! :-)

I left work early today... not a lot going on, office is pretty empty & my stomach wasn't feeling so hot. It's so pretty outside today I'm craving to take my dog out for a walk and play a little with her! Check out this pic of Hattie!

Time to retire the Asics...

Today I wanted to go long. I decided I would try for 10 miles. I actully got in bed at a decent hour - before 11pm and had a very calm, relaxing, non-eventful Friday night. I did, however, work late for the 5th out of the last 6 Fridays. That's getting old real fast! :-(

So, I woke up without the aid of an alarm around 7:15-ish. Had the urge to just "get it over with." So, I let Hattie (my cocker spaniel little girl) out and she takes care of her business while I fix myself a half piece of wheat toast w/peanut butter & honey for a little fuel. I gathered up my cold gear (42 degrees), fleece vest, gloves and ear warmer & dropped off a bottle of propel at the halfway mark of my route. I did two loops of 5. From the end of my subdivision, down Shed Rd, Right on Ragsdale Rd, Right on Bushy Branch and back to my house is precisely 5 big ones. So, off I go. I'm feeling pretty good on the first loop but right around mile 4 I'm noticing significant hip pain which has been a problem on almost every run since I ran a half marathon in September completely untrained and unstretched, etc... Not smart. I fight it off and finally get to the halfway mark, gulp down some propel, contemplate for about 4 seconds on going on back to my house since it was 1/10 of a mile from where I was and decided I'd better not think too long or I'd make that turn. First 5 miles completed in 45:50. So off I go on another lap determined that I'm going long today. Mile 7 and I'm feeling BAD. I have pain shooting from my left hip down through my left knee. We're talking.... lightning bolt pain! I suffer for about another half mile or so and finally cave in and allow myself 2 minutes to walk. I feel like such a failure when I do something like that. I take off again and at mile 8 I get a side stitch! Ugh.... this is turning into a disaster. So I let myself walk that off for 1 minute and that's IT! No more wimping out!!!! You're better than this Holly! So basically for the last mile I did the ol "Just run to that mailbox & don't think about the rest" plan. Point to point running just to get me there till I'm finally done. I walk for about 4 minutes to cool down. I stretch paying special attention to the left hip. It's hurting. I haven't bought new running shoes in almost a year. Typically I should get new ones every 6 months if not more than that. However, over the last year I've bought a house, did a huge-@ss upgrade on my system at work that consumed about half the weekends of my entire summer, and had other things such as laziness keep me from busting out the miles. I think it's definitely time to retire the asics though. I'm hoping this could be some of the problem with my hip???? Total time for 10 miles = 1:33:03 for a 9:18 pace.

I think I'll pop a few Aleve, stay off of it for a couple of days and buy new running shoes!

Early 4 miles

Today I got up at 4:30 and met "the group" at the rec center for 4 miles @ 5am. I had originally planned to try swimming after the run until I realized it might not be a great idea considering the fact that my eye doctor has me out of contacts and only wearing glasses for... let's see.... I'm on my 5th week. Yeah, it started out being a viral infection & it seems I'm having a tough time shaking it. They were red again this morning... this could be due to lack of sleep. At any rate, I figured chlorine is not a good thing for the peepers at this point.

So, we took off around 5:10am through the greenway, out into town and back to the rec center for a 4 mile loop. I forgot to get the time or avg pace from the garmin owners of the group. They were in a rush to splash into the pool! This is the first time I've done an early run in a long time - I've been avoiding the cold & doing training runs at lunch when the sun is out!

So, next on the list? I'm thinking a longer run for Saturday. We shall see!

Serious Consideration for CMM

For the past 2 weeks I have seriously considered taking the plunge and doing a full marathon. I really don't know exactly what has driven me to this point, except that it's something I've wanted to do for more than 2 years. So far, I've completed 2 half marathons. St Jude's Memphis half and the Murfreesoboro Middle half. I've watched my sister, Lana complete two full marathons and she is currently in training for her 3rd. Wow, I'm so impressed! My friend, Michele is also on her 3rd! These girls are going for a sub 4-hour this time around. I can't say I'm going for a specific time at all. My theory is if I cross the finish-line that will be a miracle! I wanted to do a really cool marathon in the late spring-time, to minimize below freezing training runs. However, the selection is not all that plentiful. The only one I could find was the San Diego Rock n Roll. That sounds like a blast. But I think I would be in San Diego by myself! So, I finally decided I'd go with the local event and simplify it. I'm doing Country Music Marathon in Nashville, TN. Yep, that's right - April 26, 2007. I plan on using the famous FIRST training plan to get me there. Go ahead and kneel down on your knees and let the prayers begin!

So, we'll start with this week. Sunday I met Lana at the rec center for a 5 mile run. A nice, relaxing 5 miles. 9:34 pace. It was refreshing to have company on a run. For the last couple of months all my runs have been alone except for a select few. I'm getting tired of my IPOD songs. After the 5 mile run, I showered and our family all met at my parents house for 1 awesome dinner for my nephew Bo's birthday. Bo turns 6 tomorrow. Time flies.

Monday was rest. I firmly believe in rest days..... and honestly look forward to them! Today I skipped the rain and did a 6 mile run at lunch. 53:41 - 8:57 pace. Tomorrow is a rest day and Thursday I'm meeting Lana and Michele at the rec at 5am for a 4 mile run & another frigid attempt at a swim. Let's hope the lifeguards are good and awake! Swimming is my biggest challenge yet. Someday I'd like to think I could do a triathlon, but I've gotta get my boo-tay in the water and learn a stroke or two!

I'm looking forward to next week. Lana and I are wanting to hit the mountain bike trails again before work and our goal is to try and get in a weekly routine. This is great for cross training, not to mention just plain ol fun!