push up

High Five High

3 Comments

I did it!

I high-fived a fellow runner!

My “Praise Your Fellow Runner” mission started back in October.  Since then I haven’t written much about it but I have continued to give huge grins, thumbs up, and “great job” encouragement to every runner I pass.

But I was still working up the nerve to go in for the high five.

The stars must have been aligned on todays run.  Tate and I had already passed this one women a few times (more on that later) and she had given an open smile in response to my grin so I had a hunch she would be receptive.

As we approached each other I worked my way into position.  Then I gave her a heads up by putting my hand up a few strides ahead of time and…

CONTACT MADE!

The best part was, she high fived Tate as she passed him just after me!

I did a little victory dance and proclaimed to Tate, “you don’t know how happy that makes me!”.  His response? “You don’t know how much I love you because that makes you happy!”.

It was a good run.

We did the Monticello-Saunders Trail, which is an awesome 4 mile up and back (you may recall it from Thursday’s post).  At the turn around point Tate and I had the following conversation.

She said: Sometime I want to run this route twice.  I think it would be an easy 8 miles because your last two miles are downhill.

He said: Want to do it today?

She said: Kinda, not really.

He said: Let’s do it! Come on, what else do we have to do?

She said (reluctantly): Alright…

A mile later we stuck a compromise.  We decided to turn around and head back up a 1/2 mile from the parking lot.

This was an excellent idea because

  1. 7 miles seemed like a more reasonable undertaking given my milage lately
  2. I did, in fact, have other things to get done today
  3. The first 1/2 mile from the car is the steepest!

I was a little overdressed but overall it was perfect!

The 7 miles took us 64 minutes and that includes a few minutes of walking on the second time up.

My  pre-run strength and Pilates workouts came courtesy of Exercise TV.  Both workouts were super straight forward (a little boring) but challenging.

The 10 minute Pilates routine can be found here.  It is definitely an intermediate workout.  It’s fast paced and challenging but nothing more than the basic 6 or so Mat Pilates moves (very few variations).

The 20 minute strength workout can be found here.   Although the workout is kinda boring, I did really appreciate the trainers language and explanations of exercises.  I am going to start using the cue to “blow yourself away from the floor” when doing a push-up in my classes!  It’s a great reminder to exhale during the exertion and provides awesome imagery to help make it a little easier.  Also, his “baby biceps-big biceps” (or something close to that) curl is killer!  You’ll have to do the workout to find out for yourself. 😉

Dinner time!  Happy 5th night of Chanuka!

Home Sweaty Home

Leave a Comment

I am sitting on the living room floor of our new home in Charlottesville, still sweaty from a run.  I opened the computer to listen to music as I did Pilates and stretched but when I realized we were picking up some internet I figured I better jump at the chance to blog from home and skip my planned trip to the coffee shop this afternoon.  Our internet should be all hooked up by Wednesday.

This week has been crazy and really difficult and in the midst of it I took a bit of a blog break.  But I am back at it now!  Things are starting to settle down a tiny bit here, although it is still going to take some time before Charlottesville is home, we catch up on sleep,we find community, we landscape our house, finish moving in, I get a job, Tate purchases and opens his chiropractic clinic, and we get over the stress of being homeowners (or maybe that one never goes away).

Within this crazy week I managed to go for 3 great runs and do my “Shred” dvd twice.  On Thursday I did the level 3 and it was, finally, seriously challenging.  Loads of time in plank/push up position and my abs were so sore on Friday.  It was awesome.  Unfortunately, I seemed to have done a little something to my left shoulder while moving and it just keeps getting worse (and that workout probably didn’t help it) so I am going to take at least a few days off from upper body exercises.  Instead, I am going to focus on running and Pilates.

This weekend has been nice.  Friday night Tate and I went walked downtown for the last of the summer’s Fridays after 5. The Downtown Mall was lively with street performers and booths and there was music in the pavilion.  The most unique thing we saw was a pole dancing bingo contest.  Yep, that’s right.  There was a pole set up on Main Street and people did a move that was drawn out of a hat in order to get a mark on their card.  These ladies and gents (I saw three men on the pole) were not unfamiliar with a pole and some of the moves were quite impressive (there was no nudity whatsoever, have you heard about this trend of pole dancing for fitness? I think that’s were most of these women got their experience).

Yesterday was spent at Montecello, Thomas Jefferson’s estate just outside of town, for the Heritage Harvest Festival.  It was the perfect fall day and a really nice event.  There were tons of lectures and demonstrations on everything from container gardening to preserving food through fermentation and a tasting tent with dozens of varieties of tomatoes.

There was also a silent auction where I made out like a bandit.  I spent $87 on $670 “worth” of goods!  Excellent for me, not so great for the cause.  Attendance seemed really good but people weren’t really bidding that much and there were a lot of items.

I bought a $30 certificate from Albermarle Baking Company (I hear it’s delicious), $100 certificate from CitySpa (ahhh, I need a massage!), 3 dance classes at Studio 206, and a month pass at ACAC (a very nice gym, so I have heard) complete with personal training sessions, nutrition consultation, and a two week guest pass.  And the money went to the Piedmont Master Gardeners, a volunteer organization that spreads info about farming and gardening.

Well, it’s another busy day with lots of shopping and cleaning to be done (the story of my life lately).