But 5.3 at a decent pace of 9.56 minutes per mile. I was surprised at my pace because it’s been a while since I’ve run because I’ve been obsessively working in the garden. I guess yard work is good for maintaining endurance. You know what else it’s good for? Weight loss.

I’ve been trying so hard to get under 130 pounds for years. Years, I say. No luck. In December I even topped over 140. Honestly, kind of way over 140. Shut it. I’ve run upteen marathons, have been lifting weights and watching what I eat. Yet nothing. Nothing has worked. Not a thing. I’m a freak.  But give me a shovel and a sledge hammer and set me loose in the garden for 12 hours a day and I end up at 128. Who knew it would take 3 weeks of digging and rock breaking? I’m exhausted but I’m so stoked that I’m volunteering myself for slave landscaping labor so I don’t gain it back. Because the second I even think about training for a marathon I’ll gain ten pounds. I’m sick like that.

Oh well, the running workouts have resumed. I have a trail run scheduled for Thursday afternoon and an 11-12 mile run scheduled for Saturday morning. Go me, I’m just determined to gain that weight back. But maybe I’ll just start on the vineyard AND run at the same time. Just maybe that would work. And some leg torture. I kind of miss the videos.

I am so tired right now, I have no desire to even get out of my office chair to brush my teeth and go to bed.

Enough with the videos already. Okay, okay. But I’m on a roll and I’ve forgotten all the ways of grammar and spelling.

Seriously, this workout kicked my butt. This isn’t even all the workouts, but multiply it times three and Runner Susan was whipped.

Upper Body & Lower Body Feb 26 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Upper Body Weights, Feb 24 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Upper Body Weights. Feb 17 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Hi. Remember me?

I haven’t had much to blog about lately. I have been working out, I just haven’t had the initiative to put on paper – or, monitor, I reckon.  Well, until last night – I did 45 minutes of easy running followed by 6 x 400m at 2:04 – 2:20 with 30 seconds recovery and 10 x 100m at 18 – 25 seconds with 10 seconds recovery. It’s all good until you shorten my recovery periods. Five months ago that workout would have been easy – but not now, holy crap Internet People, – the speed work totally kicked my butt. I have so much catching up to do. What was nice is that I ran with 3 other people who were really fast, and that was challenging. I love the track and the speed workouts.

Video to come of the track workouts soon, but here are a couple videos from last week. The first video is the bike fit followed by a few pictures. I’m not sure if you can tell if the seat looks better or not, it feels better though. It was windier than windy too.

Remind me I need to get some spanky pants that don’t have that squiggly white line on them that make my thighs look like they belong to a water buffalo. The second video is just a portion of my leg torture from last Thursday.

Feb 6 Windy ride from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

squats feb 5 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Finally, I feel like I’m getting back in shape after the holidays. Sunday I ran, yesterday I ran again for 3 miles and then did 9 x 100s, forcing myself to run moderately (AKA slow) – between 18 – 24 seconds each, and today, Internet People, was extreme arm & ab torture with a 40 minute bike ride thrown in just for fun. And yes, my seat is too low – especially with the new stem – I’ll get my chef on that right away.

Arms & Abs Feb 3 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Seat too low from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

I made the mistake of getting on the scale today – I hadn’t weighed myself since before the holidays – which might be a record for me. I’m the type of person who likes to weigh 5 times a day. Yes, I do know that is wrong. But what makes me mad is I was fine BEFORE I got on the scale. Now I’m all ticked off because I’m ten pounds heavier than I thought I was. Oiy. I’m not going to obsess, I promise, I’m just making public note.

And that note initiated 3 workouts today. One hour of weight lifting, almost one hour of riding and about 30 minutes of running. Yes, that is correct. Running. Running with a capital G for glorious that reminded just how much I missed it. I’m guessing the run was around 2 miles – nothing exciting, but the weather was perfect and it was relatively pain-free. Pain-free is good. Pain-free means I’m sticking with the short stuff for a while until I’m sure my foot won’t break off from all the extra weight it’s carrying around.

Blah, blah, blah and moving on. So, I ordered a pair of Newtons, and since I had to fork up a kidney to get them, I’ve got my fingers crossed that they will be magical. Magical marathon shoes. Wait, I didn’t mean that. Magical fast shoes. There, better. I know I said no marathons this year – but this brief moment of missingrunningness is making me think a fall marathon might be in my future. Or not. Maybe. Short races are good. Short races are good. I must keep telling myself that.

I’m guessing it’s never good to blog while half asleep and typing with the power book propped up on a pillow while stuffing the face with a granola bar. I can only imagine the typos I’ll see in the morning.

So what else is new? Insomnia, no, I’m a pro at that. Oh, I unclipped out of my pedals today and I wasn’t even thinking about it. While I was on the road. With traffic. And my mantra wasn’t “I’m going to die”. How about that? Only ten miles, but progress. Thank you Roller Gods.

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Must stop typing and start sleeping.

My ass is going to hurt tomorrow. Also, I’m thinking eventually  I’ll need to write something with content, and not just post videos. But I’ve been very lazy lately. So while I think of words, you can watch me die in this video. And die without a visible six-pack of abs because the layer of seal blubber won’t budge from around my waist. Damn stupid fudge. Life is so unfair.

Abs, Squats from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

If you have time to watch this, then you need to get off your ass and do a few sit ups. I haven’t even watched it all the way through yet.

Arms & Abs from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

More torture in 2009 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Yeah, I know – I do girl push-ups. So what?!? I hate push-ups. Hate them, hate them, and hate them. I’d eventually like to graduate to real push-ups, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

This damn sinus crap won’t go away. I finished the antibiotic (mostly) and I was feeling better, but the headaches that accompanied the previous infection have recently and mysteriously returned. I’m lucky like that.

And now I’m a little freaked out because we watched the news the other night and there was a segment about a lady who had surgery for a brain tumor. But during the surgery, when they went to remove the tumor, they pulled out a worm. A real, live, honest-to-God, seriously a worm. In her brain. And it was moving. And still alive. And it freaked me out. Seriously. And she got it from eating undercooked pork. But that was good for the lady – because apparently, brain worm is better than a brain tumor. Who knew? But it’s bad for Runner Susan because she has a worm (all bugs really) phobia and is a borderline hypochondriac.

So you see where this is going? Michael didn’t cook us a good old-fashioned turkey on Thanksgiving; he made a lovely citrus-marinated pork rib loin. And it was tasty, but now I’ve totally convinced myself I have brain worm. And every time my head hurts I think I can feel it moving. And eating my brain.

more leg torture from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Every time I think I’ve finally whipped this sinus infection and have a fantastic workout, I find that the following two days after I’m totally whipped. Today’s videos are efforts from this mornings 4AM leg torture – and on days like today, I’m not sure what’s worse – the torture or the getting up at 4AM. This was my first workout since the 35-mile ride on Sunday and I was especially tired. Again. I’m tired of being sick AND tired.

I divided the videos up into three – the first squatting at 105 pounds (I think), the second is a hamstring workout, where I look like I’m about to spontaneously combust, and the third is five full minutes of the completely awful weighted ball ab routine – unless you are totally bored, you don’t have to watch it all – I haven’t yet because the grocery awaits. Again, my exciting life continues.

If you want to get really creative, hit play on all three at the same time and have way too much of Runner Susan going on.

legtortureabroutine from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

leg torture hamstring from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

weighted ball abs from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Today we did arms and abs. Call me a weenie, but I really didn’t want to go to the track and do 400s in the cold. I know, I complain when it’s hot AND when it’s cold. I’m temperature sensitive that way.

Today involved straight-legged bench work and a horrible plate dragging, ab crawling thing. We’ll call them Aussie drags. Thanks Ewen, those were fun. Not.

For a comparison, you’ll see how painful and torturous the Aussie Drag is for me and then you’ll see Cindy fly through them like she’s been doing it since she was a baby. Yeah, I know when I’ve been whipped.

Drag from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Cindy Drag from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

I ran the slowest five miles ever this morning. At one point I was going so slow a walker passed me. Massoman even finished and circled back in his car to make sure I was okay. I was. I even saw a shooting star through the fog; I love early morning runs.

I’m good with the slow pace today because my plan is working. And just what is my plan? I trash my legs Monday through Thursday for two hours in the forms of leg torture, weight lifting, running or cycling, I recover Friday or Saturday with a Cherry Berry trail run or an easy ride, and Sundays I race or do a long run. I’m not sure if this is a good plan, but it seems to be working so far, although ‘so far’ has only been 2 weeks.

Now about that 1:59:59 half marathon . . . the race people have me down for an official time of 2:05 and now I don’t know what to do. I’m pretty good with my watch and I am always within 2 or 3 seconds either way of the chip time, so I’m a little confused how I could be five whole minutes off. Michael says I should use my watch time because he witnessed as the race people messed around with the clock after the race started. But I’m an “official” type of girl; I need to see things in writing to satisfy that “I really did it” feeling – especially when it comes to a PR and running a sub 2 hour half even if it is by only 1 second. So, now I’m really bummed.

One option would be to run another half marathon soon and make sure I run it under 2 hours so I have a new, new PR. There is one coming up on November 23rd that is along the Trinity River similar to the Fort Worth half. The only problem is I’ve committed to a 20-mile bike rally on November 22nd and I’m not sure if I could PR in the half marathon the day after a bike rally. I am also running the White Rock Half on December 14th, but that is so far away and I’m afraid it might be 100 degrees again – chances are slim that it would be  – but it’s Texas, it could happen.

Last night was filled with thunderstorms, pacing donkeys, snoring husbands and reoccurring nightmares. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep . . . and I am a person who very much needs at least eight hours of sleep. I’m special that way. So when I got to Cindy’s gym for squats and ab work I was really, really, really, really tired. Either that or sweet little Cindy was channeling the Devil. You decide. Here’s a small portion from hell at the end of our five billion hour abdominal routine.

Ab Torture from Hell from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

After last weeks squatting routine, I swore I would never squat again. I was sore for five days after and I complained every single day. I know you find that hard to believe, but I did. Then on Sunday during the last two miles of the half marathon, when I was ready to throw in the bag because I had used up all my speed, I found a little bit of hidden power and strength and was able to finish with a respectable time (for me) by lifting my legs with my quad muscles. My mantra for the last two miles was lift, lift, lift . . . I was able to turnover my legs and not succumb to the temptation to walk. So, with that in mind, today we upped the squat weight to 105 pounds – which isn’t a whole lot – but enough to slowly build a little more strength.

My body responds really well to lifting weights. I know the general rule of thumb for endurance athletes is to lift light and do a lot of reps, but I tend to run better when I lift heavier. I’m curious to know what you Internet People thing about weight lifting and running?

Be warned, the following videos may show a little more cheek than you want to see. You’ll see me squat 105 in the middle of the first video. (Katy, that’s the ball tooting not me.) Also, the scorpion stretch is not the most pleasant thing I’ve ever done – much harder, and louder, than squatting.

Just Shoot Me Now 2 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Scorpion Stretch from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

(Ignore the static cling in my shorts.) Today we started adding some weight back into the leg torture.  I tapered off the heavier weight before the marathon and it was time to add it back in – it felt good to lift weight again, even if it wasn’t too heavy but felt heavy. Does that make sense? These reps were super-setted with lunges and box hops; I just edited them out so you could get the full squatting effect. I left the some of the lunges in; just because I was so fatigued I had to drop my weights. And, also, because I stink at editing. We didn’t video the first or last set of squats.

12 – 45 lbs – warm up
12 – 65 lbs – 12 box jumps
12 – 75 lbs – 12 box jumps
12 – 85 lbs – 12 box jumps
12 – 85 lbs – 50 lbs walking lunges
12 – 85 lbs – 50 lbs walking lunges
12 – 85 lbs – 30 lbs walking lunges, dropped weight on second set

Followed up with 6 x 25 sets of in and out abs and stretching. Now I have an easy hour of riding. . . I’ve just got to figure out how my behind is going to manage this because my glutes are screaming.

Squat-o-rama from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

I’m back at it, but new and improved. Meet my new BFF, Adam – he’s a football player and if you’re mean to me or Cindy he’ll tackle you. Sweet Adam is a little shy about becoming a celebrity, but I told him he’d get the hang of it in no time at all!

Full Body Torture from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

I’m a little worried. Not about the marathon, but about my lack of preparation for my upcoming trip. I have nothing to wear and the lack of interest in going to Nordstroms to remedy this situation is starting to be a little concerning.

My lack of personal hygiene is also concerning. I sit at my desk on the computer after running and lifting weights and pretty much stink like a heathen who ate a rotten corpse for breakfast. It’s bad when I have to barter with myself about showering. One day the UPS delivery guy even took a step away when I signed for a package.  I’m not sure what is going on inside my demented little head.

I need to fix this. I’ll buy some hair products. I’ll give myself a pep talk. Shopper Susan = True Love. Rowdy doesn’t seem to mind though, he loves me stinky or not. Of course, he does have rotting teeth breath, so he can’t be biased.

Technically not, I only promised no more Leg Torture videos . . .

Arm Torture from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Arm Torture #2 from Runner Susan on Vimeo.

Ab Torture from Runner Susan on Vimeo.