Run it OUT Solo

It felt good to run the trails this morning. Six easy paced miles.. around 10:30 per mile. I'm happy to say, Celina is now joining me running on the weekends. We both like to go our own pace and distance. This is the reason we run Solo. I'll probably never be a group runner.  

This little dogie of ours, she likes all the branches she can find. We have a lot in the back yard and her favorite thing is to bring them inside and shred them. I suppose it's better then shredding our furniture. 

I forgot how messy dogs can be. Rain is the worst, big muddy paw prints. 

Happy Saturday. 

Friday at 3:30...

 I am looking forward to 3:30pm. My work day will be OVER around 3:30pm today and I can not wait to start the weekend! It's going to be one of those 
L O N G work days. I'm not complaining.. the work is all good but it's a Workout of a day and I will be exhausted, laying on the couch all night getting through Season 5 and 6 of Games of Thrones. I will finally be done binge watching TV after I am all caught up to the current Season 7. I'm sure that will be a bit of a sad day. Like all good things, this too shall end. It must for me to get back to not watching sooo much TV. 

I'm not really sure of the point of Instagram but the kids all use it ALL the time. 

Other then being kind of fun with all the photo filters. I have no need to send pix to my friends. That would just be Weird! 

Like this one.. 

Maybe I should talk about my lack of running. 3 miles, that's it for the week so far. I plan to change that number on Saturday and Sunday. We are done with the rain days and the warmer temperatures will be back into the high 60's and low 70's. My kind of weather. The biggest reason for my low running miles so far this week? My back and my sides just are super sore. To the point where I'm taking Advil all day long from the minute I get up to night. Rest is far more important then pushing myself to do more then I should be. Plus, I've had all this TV to watch. 

Can you do the stand to sit test?

Everyone gets up and sits about a million times a day. It's a great fitness test to see if you can go from sitting on the floor to standing without using your hands/arms to assist you. You can't just fall back either, it has to be controlled up and down, a smooth motion. The more you touch to help you up or down the lower your fitness. Just count every thing  you touch to help you get up and sit on the floor. 

It might seem simple at first, its surprising how difficult it is when you try. Something so simple as sitting, something everyone does all day long can be very challenging for some. 

I can do this with ease. I am always surprised at just how many people, young and older can not do this test or have a really hard time not touching anything at all. How fit are you? Test yourself by sitting on the floor cross legged and stand up. Then sit back down with crossed legs. Did you touch anything? If yes, how many times? Every day fitness can be improved. Just this simple sit and stand test, you can do daily and keep improving your fitness. 

If you can not get on the floor, try standing from a chair with out touching anything and keep going from there. 

We have more rain this morning. I'm not going to melt but I sure don't feel like going for a run. I've been slacking since Monday or was it Sunday? I do notice my feet do not hurt in the morning when I come down the stairs. All that running is tough on my feet. Rest days are needed and I know if I give it a rest, running will be fun for me again and I will enjoy it even more. I just can't take too much time off. I don't want to lose my fitness. Not to mention, it sure helps burn those calories. 

What have I been doing with my rest time? Watching TV. I am still watching Games of Thrones, finished season 4 and then on to 5 and 6. Maybe once I get all caught up to the new season I will stop this binge TV watching. I only like being addicted  to exercise, not laying around watching TV. I tried to run or jog in place while watching TV but that only lasted 5 minutes. 

I've also been spending my time playing with this big puppy. How is it that she is getting so big, so fast? She is almost to big to carry. No longer my little baby. 

It's off to work.. daily exercises done, and cookies are baked. I'm guessing, I'll  need an afternoon nap or I should go for a run or bike ride, just depends on the weather. 

A marathon of sorts

I spent and entire two days glued to the TV. I am hooked on Games of Thrones and I hate to admit it but I wasted two full days on a TV marathon, watching hour after hour of this series. I'm done with Season 1, 2 and finished up 3 at 10pm last night. It was not the kind of marathon I normally do. I still want to watch more even though I hardly moved from the TV for two days. I can not wait to watch Season 4, 5 and 6. I'm hoping to pace myself better and not over do it. Instead of going for a run or biking I sat and hardly moved. You could say it was a much needed two days of rest. My back and sides to ache all the time.  Maybe a little down time watching TV and doing nothing else was okay? I just can't keep doing it. I have a life to live, while all the Characters on TV are dying. 

While it was nice to be able to indulge in TV watching and doing little to nothing else, it's back to the real world and back to running. I have a busy work day ahead so I'm running only a few miles this morning. Ease back into moving and ease back into real life. 

I did manange to peel myself away from the TV for a few hours last night. Logan had soccer pictures then the three of us went to dinner at Doolittles and ate far too late at 8pm for a Monday night. 

More of my favorite trees are in bloom. It should be a pretty run seeing all the flowers along my path. 

Project done but not my run

It's done. The fence along the back of the yard along with the gate is finally finished and Zoey had the run of the yard.  We decided to just have a non-see through fence in back because other wise we were concerned Zoey would bark at passing people/dog walkers on our path behind the house. 

It was nice coming home from working not just two hours, but three Saturday and finding Zoey running free in the yard. She still likes to be hooked to the chain out front but I hope to get her to stop that soon. It's a pain having that chain catch around every rock and bush out front. 

She was pretty tired out last night. Must have been from all the freedom = running around checking out the entire back yard multiple times during the day. She was OUT last night and I had to carry up stairs to her bed. She just could not get up. 

I felt a little like that too when I was done working Saturday. Running six trail miles then going to work for three hours just exhausted me. It was kind of like running a four hour marathon. Only I didn't put on 26.2 miles of running. I pretty much just sat on the couch for an hour and watched season 1 of Games of Thrones. Last night, I finished Season 1 and watched the first episode of Season 2. I think HBO is only letting cable viewers watch this for the weekend and then you have to pay to view. We'll see if its something I can not miss to watch. I already pay enough to watch TV and I'm not sure I need to watch more TV then I do already at night. 

Our two front crab apple trees are now in bloom. I just love spring when all is blooming. I really need to plant some tulips for next year. A neighbor has a ton of yellow tulips and they look super pretty. 

Last night, Logan had his last indoor soccer game. They won. He almost scored a few times, but did assist on two goals with great passes. 

Thought I'd share this random photo of a wild turkey I took a few weeks ago. I saw the male with all his feathers fluffed out, but I was not quick enough to get a photo. 

I'm not sure what I want to do this morning. Run.. (its not only raining but I hear thunder, where there is thunder there is lightening.. or should I just wait to bike?)

I have a confession.. I got this bike just to do a triathalon or dulathalon a few years ago. I have yet to do a race in either. I'm want to race but then I don't. I suppose the money you have to pay is kind of stopping me. Not only the money but I know I can do the distance no problem. It just a lot of effort to pack up all and do a route I'm not familiar with. I'm just not that into it. The dualthon was either yesterday morning or this coming Saturday. Guess I could go check the website just to find out. If its next weekend, I still have time to change my mind. I do want to check this off my bucket list. I just wish I was excited to do this race. It feels more like I'm forcing myself to do this and it just doesn't feel fun. 

Hum... it's next weekend. I still have time to do this and check it off my bucket list. $60.... hum? Will I, won't I? 2 miles run, 14 miles bike and 3 miles run. Done! 

We are super Lucky!

We are lucky to have a 70+F day in April. I can not believe the nice spring we are having. I love it!!!! Makes me happy that we have nice weather to enjoy. 

I'm working both Saturday morning and Sunday. I scheduled work at 10am just so I could fit in a run before working. 

 Six miles at the local park. Celina came with to run because the gym was closed today for cleaning. She started after me so we both ran alone. She only wanted to run once around the lakes while I made three loops around and around. 

 I probably should have saved up some energy for working but I didn't. I felt tired but still had some energy to finish working and then come home to clean our house. 

It feels good to finally sit down, eat my lunch, catch up on my blogs and relax. 

Friday night I wanted to try a new pizza place. A Chicago style pizza, called Tommy's Chicago pizza. It was pretty good. I would like to try the stuffed pizza too. This was delicious and we will be back! 

While waiting for our pizza I read the paper and found out Culture Club is playing at the Myth in Mpls thi summer and Billy Idol will be here too in July. They both are over a weekend so that means I'll be stuck in town if we want to go. I'm so undecided??? 

Everything Purple... Prince

On the spur of the moment Friday, I wanted to do a road trip. The kids and I both had the day off so we headed out to visit everything Prince. 

First stop on our Friday road trip was to Minneapolis, First Avenue to Prince's star at First Avenue where he played many concerts back in the early days. I never did see him in person but he was a part of my high school years, Purple Rain. 

I'm not exactly sure we should be taking selfies and smiling? 

 We made our way to the memorial, up close to  Prince's star. 

 So many flowers and everything purple.

After our stop in Minneapolis, we drove out to Chanhassen to Paisley Park. 

We parked about a mile away from the Paisley Park. We just followed the crowd of people walking. News trucks, with reporters lined the area. 

I had never been out  to this area before and was surprised at how close to the main busy road Prince lived. Right across the street was a daycare center. How strange to think he lived in this Industrial Park with General Mills manufacturing just down the street. 

We walked along the fence and looked at all the stuff people left. Tons of flowers, purple balloons, some photos, a place to leave a message on the fence.. just a little of everything out there. 

This big camper van, from the police came through the crowd and drove into  Paisley Park. Do you think its to gather evidence? 

 After we left Paisley Park we drove the mile to Walgreens. Where Prince was last seen picking up pills. I'm guessing the pills that caused his death. Since it was the last place he visited, we also stopped into the Walgreens. 

 The kids and I were hungry since we didn't have lunch. We were on our road trip all across the cities for the day so what do you do but pick up snacks. Since we were at Prince's Walgreens. We picked up popcorn and some ice cream treats. I hear he really liked ice cream. At the check out counter I asked the old woman being the counter that was dressed as Minnie mouse if this was the Walgreens Prince went to. She said" I'm not allowed to answer that;!". Okay then... which to me means of course he was there and it was the drug store that he purchased his pills. The weird thing is she immediately got on the phone and said like code Blue or something like that into it and hung up. I'm like, we are out of here. That was too weird. 

Oh and I noticed this MN reporter. Amy something from the news.