Then I Ate a Huge Burrito

My long run did not happen this weekend. My original plan was to do a two-a-day run on Saturday. After a quick 4 miles with Josh and Lucky we had errands to run and a house to clean before Josh's b-day party. Oh and Husker game to watch. So the second 6-8 miles I was going to do just didn't happen. Before I knew it I needed to get those bacon wrapped dates made, spinach dip going and that baked brie baking.

It turned out to be a bit of a drunk night for myself and our guests apparently. Just goes to show that even though we're on the down slope to 30 we still can get crazy from time to time...evidence of the vomit in the bathroom we found the next day.  I was a total waste of space on Sunday. I basically was hating life.  Note to self...you can no longer drink like you did at 21. I think that is the last time I'm drinking for a little while. Beer isn't that fantastic that I cannot resist it and I'm just not really a big drinker anymore.

Monday was Josh's 29th b-day. I made him dinner, we went to the gym, but since it was his b-day I didn't want to spend hours running. Probably rude thing to do.

Last night was my night to get it in.  I left work and nearly got blown off the interstate. The winds were insane. Rather than do the running man I decided to run on the dreadmill. 

Time: 1:38   Distance: 10 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:49 min/miles

I stopped at 10 miles though I was planning on 12. My knees actually started hurting and swelling so I figured I better stop. Don't want to have to drop from the race in a week and a half.  (Bonus-I drunkenly talked Shanna into running the race with me! Yes!)  I couldn't really find a good elevation chart of the course so I used MapMyRun to make one myself.  It looks pretty flat to me, just how I like it!

After running Josh treated me to the Garden Fresco Burrito with Green Chili from Tres Margaritas...I ate the WHOLE thing. It was delicious. Oh and they made Josh wear a sombrero while they sang to him and gave him a weird red, white and green shot...yuck. Of course the one time I don't bring my phone or camera to take a picture. Drat!

Did you say PR!?!

Today something totally unexpected happen...that's right I set a new 1/2 marathon PR. I honestly was shocked while I was running and realized that I was going to PR.  Especially since I hadn't trained. But let me back up.

Last night Josh and went down to our friend Russell's house.  Russell, Josh and our friend Jason and I enjoyed some of my delicious homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Mmmm. Totally hit the spot. I went to bed early like a good runner while the boys stayed up. Unfortunately for me I was a light sleeper because when Josh came to bed it woke me up and I was unable to fall back to sleep for any significant amount of time. 

I rolled out of bed about 4:30 am, did my normal morning routine and jumped in the car to head to the race.  Once I got downtown I made my way to Civic Center Park.  I am glad that I had done this race before because there was zero signage telling people where to go. I was really surprised since the Rock N' Roll races are usually better organized.  I held onto my warm clothes as long as possible before heading to the corral. 

By about five after 7 am I was on my way across the finish line.  I was feeling good, not worrying about my pace when my first walk break alarm went off. I thought about ignoring it but decided hey, this is my plan and I should stick to it.  When we hit the only really steep hill around mile 4 people were dropping. The hill was hard but I powered up it. I remembered passing a lot of people in that same spot last year. 

A lap past the zoo, around the Denver Nature and Science Museum and I was already more than half way...still feeling good! At that point I looked at my watch and realized that I could probably PR if I just kept moving at about the same pace.  I didn't want to get cocky just yet.

Next up was Cheeseman Park. I remembered that last year there was a fairly long incline.  Not a problem I was still feeling great.  By the time I was half way up that it was time for a walk break and a my last gel.  This is apparently right where I missed Josh and Russell who had been waiting there to see me.  Once we were out of the park there was only a little over a mile left.  Even better it was flat with a slight downhill about a half mile from the finish and I was still on track to PR.

When I saw the shoot to the finish I sped up.  I breezed past the 13 mile marker and sprinted.  I was proud of myself for having enough energy to speed up.  I crossed the finish line and knew I had PRed and it felt good!

Splits courtesy of my Garmin:

Mile 1-9:33
Mile 2-9:38
Mile 3-9:27
Mile 4-9:23
Mile 5-9:44
Mile 6-9:45
Mile 7-9:36
Mile 8-9:06
Mile 9-9:42
Mile 10-9:33
Mile 11-9:38
Mile 12-9:23
Mile 13-9:03
Mile .25-1:54

Time: 2:05:10   Distance: 13.25 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:27 min/mile

So really I hit the 13.1 distance at 2:03:53. Which is awesome and a huge PR.  That is nearly 10 minutes faster than I finished this race last year and 2 minutes faster than Moab (which was primarily downhill).  But of course that's not what my chip time was.  Not gonna lie I'm kinda bummed I had to take the marathon medal even though I only did the half. Oh well. A medal is a medal.

Chip Time Stats:

Time: 2:05:09   Avg. Pace: 9:32 min/mile

Still a PR, but only by about 50 seconds.  Hey I'll take it! Maybe I shouldn't train more often. That or this run/walk thing is an excellent idea.  I really need to run a sea level race and I definitely be under 2 hours.  Hmmm.

I met Josh and Russell back at the car and we met my dad and brother Ted at Toast in Cherry Creek North. I was so hungry I had a really hard time deciding what to eat. I finally settled on the breakfast burrito with a pancake on the side. Definitely satisfied my sweet and salt craving.  As we were driving back to Russell's house to pick up Josh's stuff we passed by Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. Of course we had to stop for a celebatory cone. Mmmm.

My legs are a bit sore but I think that once I foam roll I'll be all good.  Woohoo for unexpected PRs!  As it turns out I may be faster than I give myself credit for. This is motivation to get my act together for my next race.

Walking is not giving up

This weekend I decided I wanted to get in one more long (using that word loosely here) run before the Rock N' Roll Denver Half Marathon this weekend. Being lazy and not wanting to experience the disasterous trying to run the Res (oh right the marathon is going on), that's ok I'll run from Roger's Grove (closed through October)-again (still ran 12 miles), Josh and I set out to do a few loops around the neighborhood.

Now I have not been training for this race.  I honestly haven't looked at the awesome training plan I created for myself in at least two months. Yeah I've been bad. But you know what? Life happens. Stuff comes up, plans change and it's not always possible to get in all your runs. With all of this going on I decided that I wanted to test out run/walking. Now I haven't purposely run/walked a race ever. Ok well I did walk when taking gels in Seattle and mid-race decided to run/walk Nashville (only because of the horrid conditions) but I hate walking during a race. It's always hard to motivate myself to start running again. Plus it's only 13 miles. I know I can run it without stopping, but at what speed this time?

So the test began. I set my Garmin to alarm every 11 minutes. That way I'd run for 11 the first time, walk for one minute then run for ten and so on.  Josh broke off and headed home after the first lap but I continued on.  Here are my stats:

Time: 1 hour 25 minutes    Distance: 9 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:29 min/miles

Pretty impressive pace for taking walk breaks isn't it? Now when I say walk, it's not leisurely it's a fast pace.  This helped me realize that walking isn't giving up and is actually a great option for finishing a race you're not really ready for.  We'll see how it goes this weekend.  If I can maintain the pace I did this weekend I'd be on track to beat my time from last year easily.  Then again, my neighborhood has like no hills.  Here's what the course looks like:

It doesn't really have rolling hills but from mile 2-5 it's a pretty steady incline. Then again from 8 to mile 11 before it heads downhill.  Eek. 

My bottom line for this race: Have fun. Enjoy the sights and don't worry about pace.

Two Years

Two years ago today I was just waking up on my wedding day.  I woke up sick and it was cold and rainy, but the best day of my life.  Illness, weather, none of it could have ruined our day.

I cannot believe how fast the past two years have flown by. It's been an amazing two years and we're ready for whatever the next 50 have to bring. I'm so lucky to have found the love of my life. I love him more every day. We spent the weekend celebrating and enjoying each other after Josh's work trip to England. I'm so glad he was home just in time to celebrate. Tonight we'll dance to our song, At Last by Etta James, just as we did two years ago. :-)

Happy Anniversary Lobster!

Summertime and the livins easy

Friday night was baseball night for the Van Kirks.  We met our friends Cassie, Monte and their adorable son Porter at Coors Field.  Not only did the Rockies beat the Cubs, they set a record in the 8th inning for the most consecutive hits in one inning.

Yep you're seeing that right, the Rockies decided to make the loss really hurt with 12 runs in one inning.  We stopped at The Gin Mill for a few hours afterwards before heading home. I was super excited to hit the pillow when I crawled in bed around 1:45 am.

My plan was to get up and head out running around 6 am.  Yeah that did not happen.  I rolled out of bed around 8:30.  I arrived at MacIntosh Lake just before 10. It was already nearly 80 degrees. By the time I hit 3 miles I knew there was no way I was going to get through 7 more out on the lake with zero shade.

Jumped in the car and headed to the gym.  Finished up the run there no problem. I tried my first Hammer Gel...not bad. Consistency was pretty good as was the flavor. What really sold me was that I had no GDF.

Stats:

Time: 1:37:16   Distance: 10.01 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:43 min/miles

Saturday night was ladies night! Thalia, Rachael, Sheila and I met at Thalia's before heading to the Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum concert. Oh Tim.....

The show was awesome! Wish we would have been able to get a bit closer. We enjoyed it nonetheless.  We made it back to Thalia's around 2 am.

Completely exhausted I still made it back home and up to Estes Park for a quick hike in Rocky Mountain National Park with Josh, my sister-in-law and my nieces.

The Luckiest

I'm the luckiest. I have such a wonderful husband. Look what he sent me just because...

Oh yeah and after happy hour with some of my favorite ladies I went for a run. Not going to lie my ankle and calf hurt the entire time...not horribly but I could feel them like a sore muscle. First time I felt like I could have just kept making laps around my neighborhood.  It really is amazing the difference between dreadmill and outdoors. I think I finally settled into a pace that was sustainable for me...at least for now. Need to bump it up to reach my half marathon goal.

Stats:

Time: 39:45 mins.   Distance: 4.14 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:36 min/miles

On the road again

By 4:10 am on Saturday we were on the road headed to the Westminster Park-N-Ride to catch the SkyRide to the airport.  I think I was nervous about the car purchase because I could not sleep at all the night before. Our flight was uneventful and we landed without incident in Dallas a few hours later. Mitch from Classic of Denton was there with our new car to pick us up! There it is, our new car! Of course it's not brand new, it's a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid.

We headed to the dealership and after a few hours of paperwork and listening to the finance guy ramble we headed out towards home.

We were starving when we hit Bowie, TX. We made it to Main St. and saw this cute little place named Nostalgia Antiques & Soda Fountain that said they had fresh sandwiches.  I have never been to a place quite like it. It was a restaurant and soda fountain inside an antique store.  My Grandma Walker would have LOVED it!

We got our sandwiches, chips, drinks and desserts for only $23.  Love that all meals came with dessert. So tasty. I definitely recommend it if you happen to be in Bowie.  Don't forget to write on the inside of the phone booth.  We jumped back on the road and headed towards Amarillo.

We drove through small town after small town before we reached Amarillo early evening. The one thing all these towns had in common...Dairy Queen. The smallest one was under 500 I believe, yet they all had a DQ. Texans love their ice cream apparently.

First stop in Amarillo...the Cadillac Ranch of course! It had been raining off and on all day so of course it was one huge mud puddle. It was much easier to walk in barefoot.

We cleaned up in a nearby puddle and headed back out on the road. We had only made it a few miles before a big red barn caught our eye. 

Yep we ate dinner at a steakhouse called the Country Barn. It was delicious. Quite possibly the best apple crisp ever. It also had awesome sinks like this:

Only in Texas.  We were planning on staying in Dalhart, TX which was about an hour and a half away so we needed to get back in the car. Of course we had to stop at a western store.  You know it's going to be good when this is out front.

I had no idea that cowboy boots and hats were so pricey! I don't think there was a pair of boots under $200 and we saw a hat that was over $1k! 

Man it gets dark on 287 through rural Texas.  Of course we were too busy playing with our Sync system to notice that we were suppose to turn to get to Dalhart.  Figuring Boise City, our back-up wasn't far we continued North.  Yeah, Google Maps lied to me.  Boise City was not only not in Colorado, but it only had two motels and neither one of them were that appealing.  Here's where we ended up:

It may not have been so bad about 40 years ago but it was gross...totally rundown. At least the sheets were clean. Both Josh and I checked before setting foot in them.  I kept my flippy floppies on at all times outside of the bed.  Needless to say we never need to go to Boise City, OK ever again.  We got outta there asap.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We made room for the new car in the garage. My poor little Honda was kicked to the curb.

I did a quick run around our neighborhood. There was a bit much indulgence this weekend.

Time: 31:09  Distance: 3.29 miles  Avg. Pace: 9:28 min/mile

Total stats for the week:

Time: 2:19:55  Distance: 15.04 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:18 min/mile

I almost forgot! We went up to Ft. Collins to pick up our chickens from the farm. 

We are part of the Jodar Farms CSA so we get four fresh, natural, cage free chickens a month. Yep, I held a chicken.

A Newsed Car?

We're thinking about buying a new car. This weekend was a good example of times when an SUV would just be much more convenient and useful.  We spent the 4th soaking up the booze sun at Lake McConaughy. It was at 100% for the first time in more than 10 year but more on that on a later post.

Josh's Subaru was great for the dirt roads and we were able to get it down to our beach campsite. The real problem was the lack of storage space. Had we been able to fill it to the top of a hatch we may have been able to fit Lisa back in our car so Shanna didn't have to drive to our house to drop Lisa off.  Oh well.

Of course our primary requirement for the new car would be it cannot be a HUGE gas guzzler. Now SUV and gas guzzler are basically one in the same but the new hybrids do open the options a bit.  We'll also be buying a used car. It just seems silly to buy a brand new car which loses it's value as soon as it's driven off the lot. Our top two contenders:

Toyota Highlander Hybrid

My Dad and Liz have a Highlander that they bough a while back and I really like it. I've heard it's like a minivan on stilts (Russell) but I don't care. It gets good mileage for an SUV and optional 4WD. I'm not really worried about the recall that happened this year. Most of them should have been fixed right now and if not, maybe we'd be able to get a screaming deal and then just get it fixed on our time.

Ford Escape Hybrid

This one gets even better gas mileage than the Highlander but it's still a Ford. I know they are have been working really hard to improve their quality but I still remember when Ford stood for Fix Or Repair Daily. 

Of course since my little Honda gets great gas mileage (awesome for my 81 miles/day commute) and it's worth basically nothing as a trade-in we'd be trading in Josh's car.  This would also mean Josh is the primary driver of the new one...boo...but on weekends and in bad weather it would be all mine.  This weekend we may venture out for a test drive to determine which we like better. Then we'll shop until we find the right one at the right price. There are about a million other things we could spend money on right now (hello air conditioner) but Josh's car is starting to wilt and we may as well trade it in while we can still profit.

Rolling with it

This week I found out my friend Heather is getting married! Yeay! She met her fiance Dan just a few months before Josh and I started dating at a house party we went to. I remember going back to the sorority house that night and talking about that cute guy she met. Last year they had their beautiful daughter Kylie and unfortunately I was unable to go to her baby shower since she lives in Boise...sad. Needless to say as soon as I got the date for her wedding I booked my flight to Boise!  I'll be heading there the weekend of Sept. 17-19th...yep the weekend after getting back from Europe. I'm going to be one tired chica.  It's also the same weekend as the Crossroads Half Marathon.  As excited as I was about the race, Heather's wedding is way more important.  So my next half won't be until October.

Last night I took to creating a training plan for myself with thoughts of training for the Arizona Rock N' Roll Marathon which is in January.  Not that I really want to go support the state of Arizona and their ridiculous, racial profiling, anti-immigration law, but it's an available winter marathon. Anyway, it's that or Vegas which is in December but I won't have vacation time until the start of the new year.  So I set out to create a training plan which is almost done. Heather just ran her first half so we'll see if I can talk her into heading to Phoenix for the race with me. My plan is based off of the Runner's World Less is More plan which has only 3 days of running. One speed workout, tempo run, and long run. It's all about quality and not quantity which works well for me. I'm also going to continue to cross-train and take a couple rest days per week.  We'll see how it goes.

Josh and I ran around our neighborhood last night. I have to say it was not my finest run.  It was only 3 miles but felt like eternity. It was my first outside run since Nashville and I could feel it. The treadmill is awesome because it keeps you at a steady pace. Last night my pace was all over the place. I ran as slow as 10 min/mile pace all the way up to 8:43 min/mile pace. Yeah, all over the place and panting the entire way. I'm not sure if Lucky's tongue or mine was hanging out further.  I felt so out of shape. Of course Josh was there to remind me that I've been injured and I'm out there doing it. It's going to take a little while for me to regain all my fitness. At least that is two runs this week for a total of 7 whole miles. Haha. I'm considering trying to get in a run early early tomorrow morning before we head to the lake but I'd have to be out the door at like 5, not sure that's going to happen.

The Sinking City of Venice

*Only five month late*

To Review the Rest of the Trip:

Rome

Florence

Pisa

Cinque Terre

Bologna

Verona

I've said for years that I had to get to Venice before it was completely under water. Now of course I know this will not happen in my lifetime, but each year it does sink and I wanted to make sure I got to see it before it was a huge mess. 

Can you see the excitement on my face?  Yes, I was freezing.  This is the only day on our trip that I felt the weather was almost unbearable. It was snowing and really cold.  I was really wishing I hadn't lost one of my gloves in Florence.

We road on the water bus to San Marco and ventured down this extremely narrow street to get to our hotel. 

Check out the classic Venice decor.  Eek. 

We didn't really have any plans so we just headed towards Piazza San Marco. Pizzaza San Marco is the main square in Venice. It's home to St. Mark's Basillica, the Doge's Palace, the a super cool clocktower.  It also is the most likely to flood portion of the entire city.  When we got there the raised sidewalks were setup and there was about 3 inches of standing water. By the end of the day it had subsided. Here are a few pics:

We were chilled to the bones so we went to find something warm to drink.  We had been looking for a cake shop that was in our Time Out Guide, but of course it was no where to be found. So we stopped for some delicious treats and cioccolato caldo.  This was not just any hot chocolate, it was literally like a Cadbury bar had been melted and poured into the cup.  Had we known how to say whipped cream we would have.  It may have been easier to drink or eat with a spon.  We drank what we could but we were both on serious chocolate overload.  I know you're thinking wow, too much chocolate for Jess..amazing.

The second part of our day we headed to the famous Teatro La Fenice.  It's burned twice and been completely rebuilt.  Here's a couple pics we snuck. 

We were disappointed that there were no shows going on, but I suppose we could always go back another time. After quick nap we headed to dinner at a local restaurant by another theater.  It was the first restaurant that didn't look shady and was affordable.  It wasn't so bad.

The next day we went to Verona which you saw the review of already.  On the way there we cruised through this great outdoor market.  Wouldn't it be nice to get this fresh of food all the time?

Our final day in Venice coincided with the celebration of Befana Festival.  It is a celebration of the Ephipany.  The morning started off with a very special boat race.  This race's competitors are all middle aged men that dress up as witches.  They looked pretty great.

At the conclusion of the race they brought a large stocking and hung it from the Rialto bridge.  To Josh and I this seemed like a combination of Christmas and Halloween.  Good kids get candy from the witch and bad kids get coal. 

We were cruising around town and happened apon a gondalier who was willing to cut us a deal.  So off we were on our Venetian gondola ride.  It was pretty cool cruising around the Grand Canal and seeing the amazing buildings from a different perspective.  We even had tourists taking our pictures.  Here are a few of our favorites from the ride.

After our ride we continued to cruise around town. We headed across the Grand Canal to Dorsoduro.  We got to see Piazza San Marco from across the water and another beautiful church, Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. I also walked the path of part of the Venice marathon.  I don't think that it would be much fun, very narrow streets, occasional standing water, and tons of ramps over all of the bridges.

What's the best way to savor your last evening in Venice?  Starting it drinking a cafe and Prosecco on the water watching the sunset. 

Beautiful.

We enjoyed dinner at a tiny little place on one of the canals.  It took us almost an entire hour to find it again and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the place so I couldn't tell you the name of it. It was pretty delicious and the staff was hilarious! 

And like that our trip was over.