Relaxing & More Rain

I will admit that I was not in the greatest of moods when I got home from work last night. See I've had a really annoying sinus headache for days now, and the advil had worn off midway through the work day. So, I really wasn't happy that the kitchen was a mess and no one seemed to show any signs of doing anything about it (I should mention that I live at my parent's house). So, once again I had the pleasure of cleaning the whole kitchen, which is not my favorite thing to do. Have I mentioned I was in a rotten mood? So I decided that some relaxing was in order before bed, and tried out this wonderful video from Tara Stiles

Oh my goodness!! It made such a difference. I was so relaxed and fell right asleep, and got a great night's sleep (totally jumped onto the yoga bandwagon). I was really hoping I would wake up to a nice dry morning. Instead, it was still pouring, but I worked up the courage to go for a run in the rain hoping that my route would be flood free. Strike two. Half way around I found a lake that is actually Peachtree Creek across the road I wanted to run on. With a small change I headed up to Peachtree Road and Cardiac Hill, which is actually part of the route of my next race. Planning ahead!

By the time I made it close to home I was tired of being wet, and had to stop to carefully get out onto the street to get around a tree dangling from a power line (now I know why the power has been blinking on and off!). So, it was time to go home for a nice hot shower and an awesome bowl of oatmeal! One of the blogs I read is Kath Eats Real Food and she has a whole page of oatmeal recipes. I've been trying the oatmeal, almond butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and fruit (this morning it was blueberries!). It hit the spot! So yummy and filling.

One of my other favorite blogs has a core challenge that starting at Oh She Glows and I love a challenge! Besides it will help prevent injuries too!

Flooding down in Georgia

Well, I'm happy to say after 18 hours with no power things are starting to look up. You might have heard that it's a little soggy here in Atlanta. Okay, it's flooding. Big time! The golf course behind our house was completely flooded! My Dad said he's never seen anything like it in the 30 years they've lived in the house. Most people were not so happy about it, but the Canadian geese loved it!! I wish I had gotten a picture. It was great, and made me laugh, which I didn't do much of yesterday. Here are a few pictures from the local paper:

http://projects.ajc.com.coxnewsweb.com/gallery/view/metro/atlanta/atlanta-flood-aerial09/

Just to get an idea of what it was like in my area the pictures of Westminster is where I work (we rent space from the school on top of a nice big hill!!) and I live 4 blocks up from the picture of Peachtree Creek and Woodward (also up a nice big hill!!). I really like hills right now!!!

I was able to get my tempo run in this morning despite the fact that my usually route was partially under water (part of it is by Peachtree Creek). So, I had to make up a route as I went, and had to deal with my Nike+ sportsband's issues as well. Needless to say I was shocked when I saw the results. I knew I was going at a good clip, but I was expecting this. My hamstrings are still a little sore from squats and an attempt at power yoga Sunday. Here's the lowdown:

Distance: 3.87 miles

Total Time: 33:01

Average Pace: 8:31 per mile (what the heck!!!)

mile 1: 8:13

mile 2: 8:13

mile 3: 8:13

mile 3.87: 8:13

In case you're wondering how splits of 8:13 equal an average pace of 8:31 there were a few speed changes in between some of the splits (otherwise known as hills). Part of me is wondering if my Nike+ sensor is lying to me, but I don't have any other way of judging what I did.

Anyway, I had a light breakfast since the power was out, so I'm off to raid the kitchen! And then probably practice because I can't work =( which stinks. Oh, and probably read a good book!

Monsoon Season in Atlanta

Well if you're turned your TV on today you've probably heard that it's raining in Atlanta. Point of fact, it's been raining for 6 days straight now! While several friends have been joking about building arks it's getting to the point that it's just crazy. Schools are closing because of pipes breaking, people are losing power because of down trees, and even the interstates are flooding making it difficult to get anywhere.

All of this comes to at the beginning of our biggest training week, the week we run our 20 mile long run. I can't tell you how many little prayers I've put up hoping that the rain will stop or at least slow down enough that I can get my runs in this week. I don't mind running in the raining, but the storms this morning have been down right dangerous, and that makes me a little nervous. And to be completely truthful it would be nice to only be wet from sweating for a change and not rain, but if I have to, I do all my runs in the rain this week. I don't any other choice since I killed the treadmill 2 years ago (it wasn't replaced). I have to say though, for the first time ever, I am looking forward to the 20 mile run. I have been running better than I ever had. I ran in the entire 18 mile route except for a tiny bit at the end to help a teammate up the final hill (way to go Susan!!). It felt awesome, and it felt even better to look at my watch and see that despite what felt like a slow pace (it's about effort not pace!) my running time was 3 hours 16 minutes. Now I took time at water stops to make sure that everyone in the middle of the group was ahead of me (the mentors get weekly assignments to run with a certain part of the group), so I was out on the course for longer, but it was such a confidence booster!

To be honest again, my practicing has not been as focused the past couple of days either. I'm tired, which is probably more from running than anything else. It doesn't make practicing any easier though. Things that frustrate me while practicing seems to drive me nuts a little bit more when I'm tired. Like e-flat arpeggios. I don't recommend them when you're tired! They are slowly driving me batty. I think there are still positive things though. My teacher challenged me to start figuring out what I like about my playing. It's something I haven't thought of before because most of the time when I taking lessons the teacher is always telling me what I'm not doing right. I don't know what I do well, and there have been a lot of things going on lately that have made me feel like there isn't anything that I do "right." So, here goes. I really am starting to like my sound, especially when I've been working on my solo Bach this week. I have really good posture (got to love yoga & running), and my left hand is pretty darn good. I feel like I still have a lot of work to get to where I want to go. I need to make sure that I don't equate my self worthy with the lack of jobs or students that I have. I don't have any freelancing jobs at the moment, and to say that my student number is low is an understatement right now. The recession has been incredibly tough. I hope that changes soon, but I don't know that it will. I hope I'm wrong! But for now it's time to practice and stay dry! Monsoon season continues for at least another 2 days (although rain is forecasted for the rest of the week...)

Running in the rain continues

Do you see the theme this week? It seems to be monsoon season here in Atlanta this week. The team ran a very soggy 8 miles this morning, which actually felt really great when it I was running and disgustingly muggy when it wasn't. I got to start of the run with to of my fellow mentors (have I mentioned that I'm a mentor?) who are running the half, which was fun because I don't often get to run with members of the half team. Something about running miles to train for a full marathon... Anyway we had a good time talking about how bad FSU seems to be (myself and our co-captain are alums), Angela's love of bacon (to be honest I got it started), and so much more. I kind of took off at the end and just ran my heart out. Okay, not really, but it felt really good to pick up the pace a little since I've felt I've gotten a little to cozy with running a "comfortable" pace all of the time. I know it's not lazy, but I feel like I need to at least challenge myself just a little on some of my shorter runs. It felt really awesome!!!

Looks like next week's run might be a little soggy too =(. I don't mind for the shorter ones, but we have our 20 mile run next Saturday, and well, I would kind of like to be dry if I'm being honest. Although I'll take whatever we're given. You never know what might happen on race day...

I've started thinking about what I might want to do after Nike. Maybe the Atlanta half marathon Thanksgiving day? And which part of ING Georgia do I want to do? Any thoughts?