I was late getting out of the house so I forgot my Garmin.  I realized today that I REALLY depend on it for pacing and motivation.  Easy jog warm up.  I would guess a 9:15 pace.  About 15' of drills.  Didn't get to do much of the fast pacing ... the humidity just zapped my energy.  My first mile was 7:14, however I was on a 6:50 pace until I sucked up someone's cigarette smoke and had to walk for a bit.  The second mile was unfun and I pulled up.  Then I easy jogged back to the car.  Still a decent workout.  Have I mentioned that I hate summer?

Oh, and I have a 20 ft branch from our maple tree in my garage.  :o

Pics of the landscaping and the new garage addition are here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=nvyi8p6.8fa22x6e&Uy=-9uf93v&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1

I am HOWLING over this .....

Another night of sub-par sleep.  Ugh.  Coached track workout tonight.

Called coach this morning and explained that I was dragging already and maybe tomorrow might be a better day for a 3x1600 + 400 workout.  He agreed.  I'll still do a short run today with a coupla 200M pickups but I think that's going to work better with the amount of energy available here.  Let's put it this way ... I'm not sure I was alert enough to be driving my kid around.  :o

Well, thanks to my MIL's encore performance, I needed to take the broom out for a ride this afternoon.  I think I went a little harder at this run than I had planned but there was some serious aggression to burn off.  AND, it worked.  I felt more like myself afterward and I'm thinking a good night's sleep is on deck.  I hope.  I think I'm going to get run into the ground tomorrow.  Literally.

BTW, my MIL is a total crotch.  Just my opinion.

Technically a rest day.  However, I am boldly embarking on a trip to the aquarium with two toddlers.  Yes, count them, two.  I figured it was better than watching my house slowly get dismantled.  We'll see.  DONE!  Not so bad except his little friend's temper tantrum on the way home.  Funny part about it is her tantrum made Jack howl with laughter.  And that made me laugh.  Was that wrong?  ;)

I'm coming off an emotionally exhausting day where I watched my mother in law once again mow over my husband's plans without so much as a thought to how he felt.  I've learned to mostly stay silent on these issues and let him handle the demon but I saw how PO'd he was yesterday and I helped stoke the fire.  It resulted in a brief, terse conversation between the two after all plans for the day had been obliterated by his mom and her husband's selfish, stupid and short-sighted decisions.  Frank and I were up REALLY late sorting the day out so that he could find some peace with it.  I am proud as a peacock with his actions/decisions/confrontations because in the 12 years we've been together, this is the first time he stood his ground with this old bat.  For the most part, I've learned to deal with her but her stoopidlty flares up everytime Frank's sister and the kids come in.  Thankfully we won't see the old peeps again this week.  And we're going to see the kids and Eileen on Wednesday.  :)

I feel like I slept through this trainer ride.  Still feel like I could go back to sleep any second.  Rough night of sleep between the storms and the snorer. 

Yet another day on deck with the in-laws.  Ugh.  I come from a small family that didn't like each other very much.  These large, loud gatherings just wear me out.  Add to it that Jack didn't nap yesterday and is extremely cranky today doesn't help.

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to my friend jnieuwsma who finished IM UK today in 11:32:11!!!!

HA!  Take that!  I felt GREAT out there today.  I tried to keep at the 9:07 pace but I just felt good so I went with the flow.  WAHOOOOOOOO!  This now leads me to believe that I am completely allergic to hot, sunny weather.  Give me your cool, overcast days and I will deliver a stellar workout.  :) 

Time to go get clean and endure the in-laws.

What an amazing day it is out there!  Chicago has about 10 perfect days a year and I believe this was one of them.  I dropped Jack off to play with his little girlfriend Ava (though she likes cars and trains more than he does I think).  Met Brett a short time later and headed out.  Fun ride.  Learned more stuff, which is always good.  Picked Jack up, ate lunch and when he went for a nap, so did I.  Delightful!

Side note:  Outside of the obvious, can someone explain to me what so many fully-grown adult men do for a living that allow them to go to the forest preserves during the work day?  I've marvelled at the forest preserve activity for YEARS (exclusively male but age ranges from young to old, cars range from nice to pickup) but riding through there during what seems to be a "peak time" ... well, it seems to me you really have to need it bad to go that route. 

Thankfully Jack woke up hungry and breakfast is almost out of the way.  I'm hoping the landscapers will be here soon so I can place the trees and get on with the day.  Planned agenda: Early to the gym to make up my speed work run, then Target, then the Farmer's Market.  Busy morning.  And OWS tonight.

I started the run early .. by 9:15.  Warm up was fine but I could not hold the 7:47/mi pace.  I backed it off to 8:13/mi and that was still a stretch.  I think people were staring and pointing at the enormous amount of sweat pouring off me.  Ick.  Anyway, I did the best I could today.  As a bonus though, the gal behind the desk at the gym told me I had a nice body.  "I see a lot of women here, some super skinny, some really muscular and I don't really get it.  You have nice balance."  Considering I am still so bloated that I feel like a Macy's Day Balloon, it was good to hear.