Busy Weekend

This weekend was full of activity!

Friday night Dr. Z and I spent an hour reviewing kata at the dojo. I've lost my pop but I'll get there.

Saturday I went snowshoeing with JewishMom and two other women. We were original going to climb Algonquin, but one of the women wasn't in quite the physical condition she thought she was, so we turned around at the intersection of the Wright and Algonquin trails. It was less than a mile short, so we didn't mind turning around. Considering my soreness on Sunday, it's a good thing we did. It was still a 6.2 mile snowshoe.

Sunday morning I met Dr. Z at the gym. I kept it light since I hadn't run since my muscle pull two weeks ago. I did a light, leisurely three miles and called it a day.

Today should be warm enough to run. Of course, fitting that AND speedskating AND Karate should be challenging, to say the least.

Quiet Week

Not much new here. Thanks to stuff going on in my personal life, I haven't gotten in nearly as much training as normal. (I feel it too...bleh.)

I did make up with Sensei last night and assisted him in teaching the kid's class. I worked with a boy who's new but eager to learn and very focused. He was a pleasure to teach. Sensei didn't have time to give me any training afterwards, unfortunately, but at least things have been patched up with him.

Not sure what today's workout will be, but tomorrow is a long snowshoe up Algonquin. Yay!

Zoom!

It was even colder on the Oval today thanks to a strong breeze, starting out at a windchill of -15 when I got there. Even now Weather.com lists a windchill of -4. Once again, I sacrificed speed for endurance and bundled up in my ski gear. Even today I ended up having to take my ski parka off.

The upside of it is that with all this supercold weather, the ice is AMAZING. I had John Dimon sharpen my blades yesterday and...DAMN. ZOOM.

I followed yesterday's workout and did another hour of 2 pace/1 rest laps. I didn't want to expand yet since yesterday was my first real workout in a while and I'm adding Karate tonight. (Which I haven't been to in weeks.)

Speaking of which, I need to go off and write a note of apology to Sensei so I can patch things up with him before showing my face tonight.

Tomorrow is the gym, assuming Dr. Z is feeling well enough to go. I must admit that it will be nice to have a warm indoor workout after the past couple days of cold.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Brrr...windchill of -4 at the Oval today. It was surprisingly warm once I got going though. Having the sun out definitely helped! There was a nasty wind coming down the "front" of the Oval, but otherwise the ice was hard and fast with great glide. At least, for those of us who DIDN'T have to drop off their skates for sharpening afterwards. I was skidding all over the place!

Olympic Mike complemented my crossovers, which, well, when he gives you a complement or hell, even constructive criticism, you take it. In any case, I was stoked. I managed almost an hour of 2 pace/1 rest lap training. Considering how out of shape I am right now I am very happy with that.

Well, off to watch the playoffs. Speedskating and Karate tomorrow!

Changing Tracks

You may have noticed an...err...slight change to the look of my blog. Very subtle, I know. If you're not looking, you'll miss it.

Okay, sarcasm aside I have decided to change the focus of this blog from general ramblings of my personal life (which I've decided for several reasons to keep off the Internet) to my training in various sports. I thought that also updating the look would be fun.

So, enjoy the new focus and hopefully I'll have an update later on today's workout.

The Beat Goes On...

Not much new. Had another intense discussion with Dr. Z that didn't feel like it accomplished anything. Argh. I know he's in a very uncertain place right now and therefore can't make any guarantees, but it's still frustrating as hell. I just don't want us right back where we were before we broke up.

Other than that it was a pretty normal Monday. I skipped Karate once again, which was moot since Sensei never even showed up and Dr. Z ended up running class. Oh well. My leg needed another day of healing anyway. I'm going to walk 5K today and if that goes well I'm speedskating tomorrow. I'll also go to Karate if I can get up the stones to apologize to Sensei.

Have my dental cleaning in a couple hours...fun. God I hate the dentist.

Misery

Ugh. Didn't do much this weekend at all. Spent a lot of time with Dr. Z, who spent the entire weekend pretending everything was back to normal, which was very aggravating. I'm starting to wonder whether it's even worth it since he seems to have no interest in making changes.

Pulled a muscle or something running on the treadmill after work on Friday. That means although the skating oval is back in commission after being closed all week due to unseasonably warm weather, I won't be able to speedskate. Combined with my not being ready to deal with Sensei yet, I'm looking at another week stuck in the fucking house. I am going to walk so I get some fresh air.

Can I exchange this life for what's behind Door #2?

Thank GOD It's Friday

...seriously. I spent pretty much all yesterday afternoon continuing to hash things out with Dr. Z. It was exhausting and we still have more discussions to go.

Then last night I found out that there are some major changes going on with the account I support at work so now I'm trying to sort all THAT out.

I can NOT wait for the weekend, even if I have nothing planned.

Wednesday Blues

God do I hate Wednesdays. Mondays and Tuesdays you're still fresh from the weekend, and Thursdays and Fridays you can see the weekend in sight, but Wednesdays are kind of in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't help that Wednesdays are my big meeting days.

To be more upbeat, I had a hell of a run today. It was tough and I felt like I was sucking wind the entire time, but I managed a 27:09 5K despite wind gusts of 30-40 miles an hour. I didn't feel like running because I've been super-depressed since Monday, but I forced myself to go because it's the last day of our Indian summer before we go back down to the 20's and now I'm glad I went.

Yesterday the handyman came and fixed the basement door, making it less drafty without purchasing a storm door. (Although I do eventually want storm doors on both doors, I'm more than happy to save that money right now.) He also looked at the crack in the basement ceiling and said that it didn't look like water damage to him, so I should be fine to patch it.

Well, that's it for now. There's a whole thing with Karate but I just don't feel like getting into it. Maybe tomorrow.

A GOOD Monday?

Well, it's a damn productive one so far, anyway. Friday was so good that I was already ahead on some of my Monday work. In addition, I took advantage of the Indian summer (46 degrees, but rainy) and went for a morning run. 5K in 28:10. A horrid time for summer, but okay for off-season, I guess. (She said grudgingly.) I would have broke the 28:00 mark if the sidewalks hadn't been so damn icy. (Also, I'm just realizing I haven't run since last Tuesday and that was on a treadmill, so I guess not bad after all.)

Called the village and it turns out that they do NOT do Christmas tree pickups, so I will have to Chainsaw Massacre my tree (currently sitting in the backyard) until it fits into my car and take it to the dump. Joy.

I also have to call ORDA and find out if the skating oval will be open. It *IS* refrigerated, but you never know.

Yay! Weekend!

Went skating last night for the first time in over week. It felt good, but I could definitely tell I had lost some of my leg muscle. A middle-aged woman introduced herself to me telling me that someone had told her about me. I can't believe I'm already a name at the rink.

Dr. Z arrived at the rink earlier than expected. I saw him watching and promptly did a faceplant on the ice. I am Teh Suave and Sexy. I did a few more laps so he could watch and then packed it up so we could go to dinner. We ate at Pasta la Vista, and I finally got to use my gift certificate. The prices on the bill were much higher than on the menu, which was weird. If I hadn't had the certificate I would have raised a stink, but I let it go.

Dr. Z and I had yet another tough discussion. Well, it was mainly me laying some ugly truths on him, but yeah. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

In other news, today is going to be ten degrees higher than yesterday. And the next four days or so are going to be even warmer - yay!

New Year, New Me

...yeah right!

I always hope for that, but the truth is people don't really change, in general, including me.

The holidays were pretty good, all things considered. The Christmas Eve party rocked, as always. This year's featured drink was pomegranate martinis. As with last year, the Partridges kept refilling my glass. As with last year, I was the last non-twenty-year-old to leave.

Christmas I went down to MomTook's. We just hung out for a bit and then went to Geritol's sister's house for a huge ham dinner. Yum! I almost never get to have ham, so it was a real treat.

Took the rest of the week off work, which was nice. I thought it would drag by with nothing to do, but I ended up being surprisingly busy. I went up to Plattsburgh on Friday to do my Christmas shopping during the after-Christmas sales (Sweet) and picked up VeggieSis a set of dishes and a set of wine glasses. I also bought toys for PoopsALots I and II.

I went straight from there to MomTook's, and this time it was prime rib, twice-baked potatoes and yorkshire pudding. Okay, people? The ribs literally FELL OFF the meat it was so tender. Probably the most amazing meal I've ever had, and I'm including $40 filet mignions in that statement.

Saturday was the big get-together, we were all running late (I had a GAZILLION things I was trying to get done that morning), except CrazySis who, uncharacteristicall was an hour early instead of her usual hour late. We grazed on food all day, opened gifts, played Pictionary and watched the Pats game. It was an amazing time. I finally headed home at 10:30, and none too soon since I (sssshhhh...) nodded off at the wheel a couple times on the way back.

Oh, and my gift? MomTook pulled my name and bought me an amazing set of Cuisinart stainless steel knives with sharpener. It also includes a set of steak knives in a detachable mini-block. It's absolutely beautiful and the stainless steel with black block (instead of wood handles and block) is totally my style.

New Year's was really quiet. I patched things up with Dr. Z on New Year's Eve and we had makeup sex, so that's one way to ring in the New Year's. More on that later (not the sex, you pervs), but I've already written a book.