3^2=12?

Happy 12th, everyone! (And happy birthday to the Avenging Angle!) Three square runs (well, okay; a run, a walk, and one that was a bit of both) for me, with the 'lunch' and 'dinner' bits as my commute to teaching at the School of Fine Arts. (Adjunct Music Faculty = I only have to be there for an hour or two a week.)

(No RUI as I'm fairly certain carrying a beer around a high school is frowned upon, but I'm making up for that now. If you live in the southeast, you should go find an Atlanta Brewing Company porter. Mmm, beer.)

Hoofin' & Woofin', Part 2 (AA)

Ho boy. Long day. But I got in my last six miles of dog-walking!

Again, these were all from Homeward Bound Dog Rescue, based in the Twin Cities Metro Area. Once a week, on Saturday afternoons, they have an Adoption Event at a local pet store, usually a Petco or a Petsmart, in various suburbs. They're nice enough to let me borrow the dogs and walk them. Next week's event is in Maplewood, and based on the fact that five out of the seven dogs from last time were still there, I'd bet that a lot of these lovely individuals will still be available next week.

Here's who we had today:

1. Gaborik: A yellow lab, he's still a puppy (although the website says he's 3), and occasionally makes noise, but he has a lot of energy and does pretty well on a run. Here's a picture of him with Titan:

2. Brucella: HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THAT FACE. She's about a year old, a boxer mix, brindle coat, and absolutely adorable. She's not great on the leash, but someone with a bit of patience could ABSOLUTELY train her to be the perfect running companion. Brucella may pop up with a video in a couple days that will have my legs in it, hah.

3. Angel (no profile): I have no idea what Angel is, other than 'a dog.' She's smallish, maybe knee-high to me (I'm five-three/160cm), but honestly, she was an EXCELLENT running companion. She's also about four, so she's old enough to have settled down, and I'd recommend her to anyone. She apparently also loves being on people's laps.

4. Lilly: Oh, Lilly. She's four months old, half lab, half Great Dane (I think), and the only thing that could possibly be putting people off of adopting her is the fact that she's probably (with those parents) going to turn into a horse. She's very sweet, very good on the leash. She was happy to trot with me but I couldn't get her to run flat-out; she was probably tired, but a full-sized Lilly-trot would probably be fast enough for anyone.

5. Peanut: Same guy as last time, but I have a slightly better picture. He's kind of getting thin. I think he needs a forever home, people. He's an Italian Greyhound mix, very good at running, very cute. Not great at staying quiet, but I'm sure that could be worked on.

6. Sysko: Oh, Sysko. You're still an Aussie, you're still possessed of a ton of energy, and you're still extremely furry. But I love you anyway.

And, as a bonus, although I didn't get to walk him, Lochte, the Great Pyrenees puppy:

He's gonna get big, too.

Oh, and mileage:

OK, I'm going to eat and sleep now.

Hoofin' & Woofin': AA, Part 1

So, I'm halfway through a Hoofin' and Woofin' challenge--12 miles of walking shelter dogs--and I'm going to finish this afternoon at another adoption event, so I thought I'd post pictures of the previous event, such that anyone who wanted to see the dogs would actually be able to do so in a useful timeframe. Here are the seven I walked last time (actually, I walked Peanut twice but he only gets one picture) and links to their profiles on Homeward Bound Minnesota's page. I apologize for some terrible pictures; I'm an awful photographer. But they're all adorable! I promise! 1. Peanut (no profile): A tiny Italian greyhound mix, he's about 2, has a LOT of energy, is more than willing to talk to you, and would be a GREAT running companion, even on longer runs. A mile and a half was no big deal for him.

2. Hunter: A Chihuahua-Italian greyhound mix, in a lot of ways he was just like Peanut, but quieter. Also great for runs.

3. Boone (no profile): A mix of Australian cattle dog and something small, I really only have a crappy picture of him, but he was smart, VERY smart, and for someone who wanted to train a dog for agility courses, I'd recommend him. He was in the 3-4-year-old range and liked to run, too.

4. Titan: An older dog, mix of Lhasa Apso and Shih Tsu, I'm not going to lie: he wore me out. It was probably that I'd walked four dogs by this point (Peanut twice), but he still definitely wanted to run, despite his age. I don't think he'd be a fan of daily 20-milers but he was very sweet and certainly enjoyed being active, at least briefly.

5. Soda Pop (no profile): A beagle mix, Soda Pop is about five, and don't let the stubby little legs fool you: buddy wanted to go faster than I did. Super sweet, super cute, and I think he was one of the few who had actually been leash-trained.

6. Chloe: Chloe's about six but acts like she's about one. She's a big retriever mix (someone was a black lab in there) and she loves tennis balls like they're her job. She really, really likes to run and play catch, but she's a heck of an investment for someone my size. If, however, you love being walked by your dog (as opposed to the opposite), I recommend her whole-heartedly because she's very, very sweet! I didn't get a picture of her because my phone was not having a good day but if I see her today (I hope I don't, but still), I'll get one. 7. Sysko: An Aussie mix, and about seven, Sysko was also the kind of dog who walks you. He probably was a tad stronger than Chloe, and VERY happy about getting to go for a run. He didn't do the usual Aussie herding thing, though, which, I'm not going to lie, actually made me happy because it's difficult to walk a dog who wants to herd you.

Here's my distance walked/run thingy:

I'll post the second-half dogs to FB and then update with a post here!

July 12athon: AA (the 3-shower edition)

This month, the 12athon director (Iris) did something really nice: she allowed us to do the 'heat miser' edition. If one runs between 6-12 miles, one gets a point per mile PLUS full bonus-challenge points. Yeah, I didn't do that, even though there was a high of 88 today, complete with possibility of thunderstorms. I did the full 12 miles because I'm competitive stubborn not running on all cylinders me. But! I did the Three Squares Challenge: 4 miles for breakfast, 4 for lunch, and 4 for dinner. (And then failed to document time properly, but hey.) Here are my 3 garmin times. I could not, no matter how hard I tried, get a picture with the actual time stamp in it, and it's about 11:30 as I'm typing this and I'd like to get it posted before midnight, so . . . parol evidence!

That's the first 4 miles. Here's my time estimate, plus a map to prove I did Sisyphus. Sort of. It's a 0.15-mile loop.

It says I started at 7:16, which I didn't. It also says I only did 3.27 mi, which I didn't. I forgot to start the app on my phone which provided the map (seriously, Garmin Connect and I have . . . issues) until I'd been running about a mile, and I think my first mile was about 11:30? So math. I finished very, very close to eight. I wandered around for a little bit complaining about the humidity and the fact that I was vaguely drunk due to RUI double-fister (oh, yeah, I have a picture of that, too:

Seriously, I'm half-drunk, exceedingly tired, and writing this quickly, so forgive my scattered-ness. But I promise there's at least 3 oz of bourbon in that bottle. Because of the Sisyphus, I was going to be leaving it in one place anyway.) Anyway, here's lunch:

And here's the alarm I set to make sure I left early enough. I took about 15 minutes to get dressed and find satellites, so I finished about 1:40?

And the only proof I have that I did the last 4 miles after 4pm is the fact that I'm writing this damn blog post at 11:36 pm.

So yeah. Three Squares, Sisyphus, and RUI Double-Fister = 9 + 8 + 12 = 29 + 10% = 31.9 + 12 base miles = 43.9. I think. And yes, I did shower after each run, which is way too many showers in one day.

July 12athon: RWB

Dear Winter,

Was it something I said? I miss you. Please come back.

Love,
RWB.


Well, okay, actually it was pretty cool (79!) here today since it was cloudy and drizzling for most of the day. And it wasn't really much more humid than it has been on the days when the temperature's been in the triple digits lately, so the drizzle wasn't much of a deterrent. I saw at least a couple dozen other runners during my run in the middle of the day on a Thursday, so obviously I wasn't the only one who was happy to finally have some 'cool' weather!

Getting up in time to do a Sunrise/Sunset Challenge didn't seem like anywhere near as good of an idea at 5:30 this morning as it did when I went to bed last night and I ended up resetting the alarm for 7:30 and going back to bed when it went off. I almost did a Sisyphus by accident because I was waiting for a UPS package that required a signature and running around my block seemed like the best way to avoid missing the delivery person, but I'd already done a mile and a half to go walk a friend's dog and given how little running I've done in the last month because of the heat, an extra mile and a half so that I could get a Sisyphus sounded like a lot! Well, okay, and I was also planning to run 6 and bike 6 and biking in a small circle 24 times sounded like the sort of thing that might possibly definitely result in insanity.

I guess I must have had my foot off the ground in
this picture? I don't remember doing that (I was really
just focusing on getting a semi-legible picture of the
watch), but I can't think of any other reason why my
foot appears to be so much larger than the umbrella.

Some Numbers:

Miles Run: 6

Miles Biked: 6

Total Time: 1:42:16

Pairs of Shoes Worn: 2

12athon Challenges Done: 2 (Bi-Curious, Naturalist)

Butter Eaten Today: 5T (fried eggs at breakfast and lunch, corn on the cob at lunch and dinner, and a snack that probably most nearly falls in the 'cookie dough' category)

Swag!

So this month I won the 12athon drawing! Go me! I'm pretty sure it was because I was long-distance mentally bribing the chickens. Took a lot of mental energy, you know.

Here's what I won:

Clockwise, from top: A "Gone Running" magnet sign, TrueLemon Lemonade mix (10-count), Clandestino banana bars in milk chocolate (brown), plain (white), and dark chocolate (dark brown), and TrueLime sachets (32-count).

Oh, and also one of these:

That's right, a 12athon shirt! It's awesome.

So far I have tried the TrueLemon's True Lemonade mix and the 12athon shirt, so here are my (glowing) thoughts on them.

The shirt--which is a New Balance NDurance short-sleeved tech t-shirt, screen-printed by Family Fun Club is everything it's cracked up to be. Fits well, a little long in the body so none of what my sister-in-law calls 'inadvertent bellydancing.' Does exactly what it's supposed to do: wicks. The printing is really nice and clear. The website was easy to navigate, and the gift card was easy to use. I'd recommend buying one of these shirts there.

Well, I mean, you can't get them anywhere else, but I digress.

The True Lemonade is awfully tasty. List price, I think, comes to 40 cents a packet ($3.99 for a box of 10), which is comparable with things like Crystal Lite Pure. It tastes . . . well, as I said to RWB, it tastes pretty much how you wanted Minute Maid lemonade to taste: not as sickly sweet and actually a little more lemon-y. It does taste a titch like stevia as, unsurprisingly, there's stevia in it, but I actually like the taste of stevia, so it's not a problem for me.

Here's what the packaging looks like--not really surprising:

And here is an excellent example of AA's blue period what it looks like mixed up. (Also the upper right-hand corner of my piano. No, it did not leave a ring. I didn't leave it there long enough to sweat.)

I'd recommend it, probably with some potassium salt thrown in, for a Gatorade substitute, and without just for drinking (which is what I've been doing with it). It's available both at TrueLemon's website, linked above, or at a lot of grocery stores.

June 12athon: Tipsy Edition (AA)

*hic*

No, I think I'm sober now. Maybe.

So the problem with being, well, me, is that I get drunk off of one beer. A double-fister RUI (12 points!) is therefore a bad idea.

I did it anyway.

On the left is the lightest beer I have in my house: New Glarus's Two Women. I kid you not. (In hindsight, I probably should have stolen Mr. Angle's hard cider, but there was only one left.) On the right is a mint julep, such as it was: bourbon, ripped-up mint leaves, a ton of ice, and some powdered sugar added after the fact, shaken a lot and definitely not stirred. It tasted just fine, thank you.

Hell, after the first slurp, it tasted more than fine.

So RWB had mentioned doing the Bi-Curious, as she is lazy, and I am also lazy, and in addition to being lazy, at a bad point in my training cycle (otherwise known as the 'I don't even know when my next race is!' point). So I said, HEY, I'LL BE AWESOME AND DO THAT TOO. So I did.

Here's my bike. It is an awesome bike, if 'awesome' is defined as 'comfortable.'

As a bonus, you also get my helmet and my trash and recycling bins.

Six miles of biking (actually, 6.12 miles):

And one mint julep later, I was so. not. sober. Of course, I still had six miles to do on foot, and a whole beer to drink. Yeah. Bad plan. Did it anyway.

I got home, babbled at my husband for a bit, and tried not to fall over in the shower.

Oh, and I think I haven't successfully claimed the Naturalist bonus for this quarter and I always pretty much wear the same shoes (Saucony Kinvara 2s, 4mm drop), so:

(Yeah, that's the same picture as always, but I haven't bought any new shoes yet, so.)

12athon (12) + Bi-Curious (7) + RUI Double-Fister (12) + Minimalist (4) + multiplier (2.3) = uhhhh . . .

*maths*

37.3?

Sure!

SOBRIETY IS OVERRATED.

June 12athon - RWB

Happy 12th! I woke up not feeling particularly well this morning, so I opted for the Bi-Curious challenge since running 6 miles sounded a lot more doable than running 12 at the moment. I ended up walking about 4 of the 6 miles anyway, but oh well:



The bike ride to the post office and back to mail a package wasn't bad, though. And this was the first time I'd used the watch for cycling, so that was kind of exciting, even if it didn't carry over the 'stop when I'm stopped' setting from the running mode and continued ticking along through the traffic lights.



And, for a few extra points, all in the Merrell Barefoot Dash Gloves, which do not glow in spite of appearing to do so in the picture. They are, however, awesome.

Happy trails to you . . .

. . . until we meet again? Today is apparently National Trails Day, and because of that, there was a 12athon Bonus run! 3.2 miles, on (unpaved) trails, for 3.2 points, and dressing as your favorite trail icon for an extra point. I did not do that, but I do have a picture of my favorite trail icon, if by 'trail icon' you mean 'wordless sign.'

(I think the guy is saying something totally safe for work.) The nearest trails to me are in a park that requires me to pay to park, and I'm not okay with that, so I normally run there, but I was not really into running 3 miles to get to trails, to run 3 miles, and then 3 miles home, so I drove 20 minutes (11 miles) to find another park. And ta-da! I found an unpaved trail!

Well, okay, that was actually a little thingy that went from one parking lot to another but from there I was able to find standard unpaved trails, with grass and weeds and mud and the occasional pile of rocks. I didn't get a picture because I'd put my camera back in my car by that point, so you'll just have to believe me. But you don't have to believe me on time! I can prove that.

I promise there are lots more posts coming; RWB and I did the Madison (Half) Marathon last weekend, and that meant LOTS of baking (no crap, 3 separate recipe posts coming, and a few reviews of crud), but for now, I will leave off here.

Syttende Mai

So, weirdly enough, this is not the first time I've run a distance dedicated to a Constitution Day, although the last time was for the US Constitution Day, which is September 17. I even have an ugly race shirt from it! But more importantly, I was supposed to run 5.17 miles today, for May 17, and I did:

But let's talk about what I had to do to get the Norwegian flag picture, which will hopefully net me another point. Yeah, a single point. I live in the northern 'burbs of the Twin Cities, and I googled the Norwegian Consulate because if anyone knows anything about the Twin Cities, they know that there's a Norwegian Consulate in town. Maybe. Um. So I went to the location, and there was nothing. No flags, no sign, not even a listing in the directory. Oh well. So I did get a picture of myself at the Norwegian Consulate:

And, um, for the record, I paid $2 to wander around downtown for 20 minutes, looking for the consulate:

And once I realized it just wasn't going to happen, I googled 'Norwegian cultural center,' to see if I'd have any more luck. I didn't, but I found a nice Norwegian Lutheran church, called the Mindekirke, and figured that would probably work, or at least have some Norwegian outside. Or something. Got there, and success!

And, to prove I was there (yes, that's my forehead and wispy hair; I cut out my eyes, which were in the original picture, because I was making a really funny face):

Oh, wait, that's not a Norwegian flag. Oh! But I have one of those, too! Kind of. It was on the wrong side of a door, but . . . style points?

Happy Constitution Day!

12athon: Month 4 (AA)

Last Sunday I ran 14 miles, which I thought was pretty awesome and impressive. (For me.) This week I'm supposed to run 16 miles, according to the chart I'm pretty much making up as I go along, and since I'm supposed to do 12 today anyway, I thought, HEY! MIGHT AS WELL DO 16 AS 12, AMIRITE?

So I suited up, got my hand-held water bottle full of electrolyte drink, got my fruit-snacky-things, etc. It was great. For about two miles, and then my right hamstring, which has been a little cranky lately, said, "No."

I said, "Um, yes."

It said, "No. No, you are not doing sixteen miles, and at this point, twelve is laughable."

I said, "%^&*." (Well, not really, but you can translate.) So I finished out my 4-mile loop (I was planning on running it 4 times anyway) and considered what else I could do. I mean, according to the chart, I'm supposed to do six or seven miles today anyway, so . . . OH! Right! Tri This.

So I ran two more miles--and by 'ran' I mean 'kinda jog-walked'--and then grabbed my rollerblades, since they were right there in the garage.

Um. Okay. I suppose here I should explain a little bit of my history with rollerblading. Back in April of 2001, which, yes, was eleven years ago (I was eighteen and stupid) I went rollerblading, went down a hill I shouldn't have, skinned the hell out of both knees and my hands and elbows and probably parts I'm not remembering, and smacked my back into a wooden guard rail, necessitating a trip to the emergency room. Fortunately, everything was fine, for varying degrees of fine, but I've got a giant scar on my left knee because of it, and slightly-messed-up hips. (No, there's no picture of the scar on my knee. It's pretty gross, though.)

Anyway, and I live in a place where I have a driveway that looks like this:



So rollerblading for me involved a significant amount of 'walking' on the grass and, you know, prayer. I didn't fall, though! Yay! Four miles of that.

Then I had to dig my bike out of the basement, which was just annoying. I'm on the short side, so getting a bike up the stairs is a matter of leverage that I just don't have. Got it up, eventually, though, and of course both my tires were flat. And of course the bike pump had the wrong attachment on the end, and I couldn't find the box with all the bits in it. (Mr. Angle's bike has the other kind of valves.) But hey! The mini-emergency bike pump had my kind of valve attachments, so I got my arm workout for the day in by doing that. *sigh*

Anyway, two quick miles on the bike--after a half hour of prep work, feh--and I was done!

Also I wore the same shoes as last time--Kinvara 2s, 4 mm drop:

And I did all of my running/blading/riding on a trail:

And, last but not least, I managed to get some excellent work in on my farmer's tan:

It's about time to switch to tank tops, methinks.

Anyway, numbers!

Miles jogged: 6 (in about 1:30, but I can't prove it)
Miles rollerbladed: 4 (in about an hour; stupid walking)
Miles biked: 2 (in about 14 minutes)
Total mileage: 12 (of course!)
Challenges: Tri This (9) and Naturalist (4) and Woodsy Owl (4)
Injuries from various activities: 3 (2 rub marks from rollerblades, 1 pair of pants that finally gave up the ghost in an indelicate spot--that's an injury, right?)
Songs listened to: About 20, but about twice each
Weirdest song to run to: "Holocaust of Giants," Rasputina (musical number--geddit? eh?)
Calories consumed at dinner: I don't think I can count that high