Swim Like A Champion Today

My apologies that it has been so long between posts.  As a result of this, I am going to recite my 'training' from the last three days:
Saturday: Swimming (4,500 yds) and Running 3 miles
Sunday: Swim (4,000 m - lc)
Monday: Swim (2,000 m - lc)

Yes, a lot of swimming.  My knee has been bothering me a bit, so I have been trying to rest it.  I don't particularly like not running and over-swimming.  My body has a tendency to swell up when I do that and my legs lose the running training, but I would like to give my knee a rest.

A friend of mine sent me his marathon training program.  One of the [many] projects for this week is to download it and figure out how to apply it, countdown the days, etc.  Not to mention the Danskin triathlon is coming up in 6 weeks.

SIX weeks!  So soon.  My, how time flies.

I might run this week.  I still don't know.  I will have to think about it.  But the plan for this week is:
Spin class: at least once.  Probably tomorrow or Wednesday.
Yoga; at least one class
Swimming: Thursday p.m. and Fri. a.m.
Running: ???????

Runner's Knee? And MS 150 Thoughts...

No, I did not do anything athletically productive today.

BUT, I did finish ALL of my final assignments! FOREVER! Lord, this is the best feeling; I feel like I could fly!

And I volunteered most of the day Friday at the MS 150 Expo. It was awesome, and so inspiring. I am definitely signing up next year AND I am going to actively fundraise. This can and will be done...how thrilling!

Saturday I ran about 8 miles. We ran River Oaks and all of that nature got to me. I skipped a leg of the run and had Yvonne drive my from the Rose Garden to the Shell station because all of that nature (pollen) made me really nauseous. And my knee started bugging me in the middle of the run. I logged onto a couple of runners' blogs about it and quite a number said that Omega-3 supplemented prevent and lessen inflammation (in the patella. Which is what runner's knee is). Sounds odd to me....but I'll go for it. After all, fish is one of the best things for you. Even Jesus said so!

And now that the deliverable work is done (for now) it is time to focus on training! Plan for this week:
Swimming: 5X
Cycling: at least 1X (Wednesday a.m., most likely.)
Running: 1 Rice loop (3 miles) and hopefully long run this weekend. Depending on my knee.
Yoga: at least 1X

I've been icing my knee throughout the weekend; we shall see how this goes.

Tomorrow is the NAWMBA Appreciation Breakfast. Our last NAWMBA event for the 2009-2010 academic year. I CAN'T believe it. Where did the year go?

RBPC

Today through Saturday is the Rice Business Plan Competition: the largest business plan competition in the world.  I am working as a volunteer for most of it, and it is awesome.  I actually feel almost dumb....the ideas that these guys have are amazing!  We heard a lot today: everything from silent alarm clocks to get your full rem cycle sleep AND not wake up your spouse to a business plan for renting glamorous maternity wear so pregnant women would not have to dish out uber-dollars on clothes they might not every wear again.

Such creative stuff.

This week has been super busy.  I'm 90% certain that I will be selling jewelry come the summer.  And it has been gorgeous outside, so most of us have been conducting our team meetings and research projects outdoors.  And getting pretty sweet tans, if I do say so myself.  I guess there's something to be said for enjoying these last few weeks of freedom before returning to life!  I can't WAIT to go back to work, and yet I am so sad.  I cried at Gala, and I cried again a little bit today; this is our last RBPC as students.

Anyways, re-cap for the week:
Monday - swim (4K)
Tuesday - swim (3600)
Wednesday - spin class, calisthenics, and swimming again (3,800)
Thursday - swim (1,500)
I did not mean to do anything today due to working, but I had to deliver payments to coach Jason, so I hopped in the pool with the team since I was there.  We have a new coach, coach Kyle...so this makes 5 coaches!  We have a lot of fun.  Oh, I also posted a request for marathon training plans on facebook and got some responses, so stay tuned for news about that.

I'm taking tomorrow off to work (volunteer) for the MS 150 set up and more of the RBPC as well as resting my legs for Saturday's morning run.  I hope to use the time saved tomorrow to read, pray, and write, so I am excited.

Saturday's run will be River Oaks, my fav!  It is supposed to rain all weekend, though, so I am somewhat worried about the MS 150 riders.....we shall see how this turns out.

That's enough for me for one day.  I am checking out.  'Night all.

GALA!

Our Gala event was Saturday night.  And it was amazing!  I have never been to one of these types of events without a date, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I must have danced for 3 hours straight.  My feet and thighs are still burning.  And it was made worse by the fact that Mom wanted to do the Houston Heights Home Tour yesterday before we had post-Easter dinner with Reed & Allison and the crew.

Does the dancing count as training?!  Ha.  Well, perhaps not, but the 4 miles we walked for the Heights Home Tour definitely counts.

Jan and Me: High 5!

Oh, and that dress that I am wearing?  That would be my high school prom dress.

Yup, you read that right, folks: MY HIGH SCHOOL PROM DRESS!  From the Memorial High School Class of 1998 prom 12 years ago.  


Yes.  12 years.


And it still fit!  And is still beautiful in style!  I got my hair blown out and my makeup done: I felt like a princess.  It was wonderful beyond words for everyone to get all dolled up.  We had so much fun.


Okay, so in a wrap-up for the events over the past few days:
Saturday morning: 10 mile Heights run
Sunday: 4 mile Heights walk for Heights Home Tour
Today: Swimming; 1.5 hours.  I will give a report on the amount later.

I just checked the calendar, and there are 54 more days until the Danskin Triathlon in Austin.  Yikes!

Last Class!

I am writing from my final Public Policy class right now!

Yes, I am actually IN class. I justify this post due to the fact that we are talking about blogs right now in class. So I am only implementing what my Professor is saying.

No yoga this week. And I doubt any other swimming will be done. I had a lot of stuff to do yesterday afternoon at school, not to mention that last night was FOLLIES!....so, I swam yesterday from 12:15 - 1:15 or so. It was awesome; I had the entire outdoor pool to myself and swam 3,600 yards.

As an added bonus, I got a sweet tan base. As an added major error, I got a cap ring tan line. I did not realize that I wore my swim cap so low on my forehead. "What is a cap ring tan line?" you ask. Well, let me describe mine for you: I have a super dark brown horizontal stripe across my forehead that is about 1 inch wide. It is located about half an inch above my eyebrow line and one inch below my hairline. After swimming I used about 25% of my bottle of foundation to cover it up. Yikes.

I also have super white goggle eyes. I make quite a sight, let me tell you.:)

Our Gala dance is tomorrow night! I am so excited. I promise to at least semi-report how it was, but before then Yvonne and I will be doing a 12-mile Heights run tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

Jarheads or Bust!

That's right, people. It is official!

I REGISTERED AND AM RUNNING THE FULL MARINE CORPS MARATHON!

Eat my running shoes. My card has been charged, I have the registration confirmation in hand, and I have already been assigned a number. There is no turning back now!

I was really stressing over this. I told Mom this morning that I had a strange dream about the MCM marathon registration process: I dreamt that I was pacing until 12:00 p.m. Eastern (when registration opened) and then could not log on via my PC. I tried every computer in the house, then every computer in every house on our street, and still to no avail.

I finally logged on (no, I do not remember how, nor on what computer) to find that, lo and behold, the marathon was full and registration was closed.

Nooooooooooooo!

And then I woke up. Isn't that strange? It's almost as bad as those poor souls who dream about Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint decks.

Sheesh.

To celebrate and to rev this bod in further training gear, I swam a ton today. 6,100 yards. That's right, folks; you read that right: I am a machine! I gave all the thoroughbreds a run for their money. Of course, they are going super-slow and resting since they are in uber-tapering mode for the Zones meet this weekend in the Woodlands, but that is beside the point. I was a thoroughbred pacer for the day. How sweet life is.

Toodlepip!

Gracious, has it REALLY been a week? My bad. Time just got away from me, I guess.

OK, OK, well, it was Easter. And I was out of town visiting some of the millions of cousins (although these are the cutest!) and spending time with them on their breathtaking New Mexico farm. Uncle Chris and Aunt Jamie bought a postcard-looking piece of land outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico and have built a lovely home there for themselves and their three kids: the twin terrors and Rebekah Rose. It was so much fun hanging out with them.

As for training: I did a ton of swimming last week, but since I didn't blog it, I don't remember the amounts. Oh, well. I am back on the wagon this week.

Today Megan and I swam with the Masters of Disaster! It is awesome and we'll do it for every p.m. practice from here on out. Zones are this weekend in the Woodlands, so, luckily, the thoroughbreds are tapering and I am not so intimidated! We swam 4,000 yards in 80 minutes. The 13x 100 yd set almost made me sick, though. Did not need to do that to myself on a Monday after Easter candy to boot.

Plan for the week:
Swim: 5x (including today)
Cycling: 1 spin class - Tomorrow
Run - 10 miles; long run Saturday morning
Yoga - ???

So, what is the 'Toodlepip," you ask? Giacamo, Luciano, Rebekah Rose and I watched Disney's Tarzan for the first time! And 'Toodlepip' was one of the character's lines. It was such a cute movie! And a great way to detox from a mucho delicioso, huge Easter dinner.

Til next time, tally-ho!