Happy hour

I wrapped up last week with 20 total miles. It felt good to be back on track with my mileage. This week is going to be a little different. Art in the Park is on Sunday and I’m going to be using most of my free time to get ready for the big day. Like today, for example. After work I finished up three paintings of cocktails that I had started on Sunday. Instead of getting in a few miles I chose to prepare for the show. And these paintings are so happy and fun. I really enjoyed painting them. I like the colors and fun subject matter. I think these paintings would look perfect in someone’s kitchen, or bar area.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I attended a Bodyflow class at Gold’s Gym. It’s a blend of tai chi, yoga and pilates and it’s set to music. It wasn’t exactly a tough workout, but it was a nice change of pace. I really like doing yoga and I would love to take a yoga class, but there aren’t any offered when I’m free. There’s a Bodyflow Level 2 class on Friday and I think I’m going to try it out. I know nothing about tai chi, so that was a little awkward. I had to keep watching everyone to get the moves right, but it flows pretty quickly so it was tough. We used the tai chi portion as a warmup before diving into the stretching and balance of yoga, and the lengthening and toning of pilates.

I’m not sure what the rest of the week will bring in terms of running and working out, but I plan to go to Bodyflow 2 at least. I will have to get back into it next week!

Back in the 20’s!

I made it up to 20 miles again! It’s been several weeks since I was able to run at least 20 miles in a week. Things have been so busy, hot or just too chaotic to fit in more miles. I also could have been more motivated, but I wasn’t. This week I really stuck to a schedule and squeezed in 20 miles. Yesterday I went to the gym and ran an easy 4 miles. That went pretty well. Today I got home from work and decided to brave the weather and ran an easy 3 miles outside. It was still very hot out, but cooler than it has been all week. Frankly I was getting a little sick of the gym and needed a break from the treadmill. I wouldn’t have wanted to run more than three miles outside today, but I made it. I’m not sure if I will run again this weekend, but if I have time and energy I will try to!

Tonight M and I are going to see Captain America! I’m looking forward to going to a movie for a date night! Have a good night!

Running at the gym

I sound like a broken record, but the heat wave continues. Because I’m not acclimated to running in this kind of heat and humidity, yesterday I ran indoors at the gym again. I ran 5 miles and then did a weight lifting session with M. This time I eased up on the squats and my legs feel fine today. I plan to go to the gym again today and run 4 miles. That will bring my weekly mileage up to 17 miles. Not too bad considering it’s only Thursday and I have the rest of the weekend to continue adding more miles. I work this weekend so I wanted to get the bulk of my mileage in on my days off. I start my full-time hours next week so it will be interesting to see how I will work my training schedule around more hours of work. Most other people work full-time and are still able to train, so it shouldn’t be too tough, right?

I’m getting excited for Art in the Park! I think I have enough paintings ready to sell, but I painted two more little paintings of cupcakes anyway. I think they are so cute and someone else might really like them too! Cupcake art seemed to be really popular last year.

I also painted tiny 2″x2″ paintings and glued magnets on the back so that they can be hung up on the fridge. These were really fun to paint. They are so small that they didn’t take very long to paint and I could do many of them in an afternoon. I hung them all up on my fridge to see how they hold up and they looked and worked great. I hope they go over well at the art show!

 

Stay cool!

Getting things done

The heat wave of 2011 continues. I heard it’s going to be even worse tomorrow! Hopefully my air conditioning unit doesn’t die out from overuse. Of course it was too hot to run outside today so I went to the gym again and ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I don’t know if there is much of a difference between types of treadmills but the one I ran on today was better than the one I used yesterday. I ran at the same pace but it seemed much easier today. That might sound kind of crazy, but it’s just something I noticed. I also don’t like the little TVs that are on the front of the treadmill. I thought it was a great idea at first, but then I realized that the screen seems too close to comfortably watch anything on it. It more distracting than anything else, and not in a good way. Also, half the time it seems like they don’t even work. Is it just me, or does that happen to a lot of people?

This morning I went with my Grandma to have her cataract surgery. Everything went smoothly and I was back home by 10. Then I went to the gym. After that I ate some lunch and went to a few galleries to pick up paintings for Art in the Park, and then got my haircut. I got about five inches off and my hair is still long. I didn’t even realize how long my hair was until I saw it all laying on the floor! I think my new haircut is cute and it feels so much lighter and cooler. And in this kind of heat, anything helps! The rest of the day will be spent updating my website, blogging, assembling

Here are a few of the paintings that I picked up from the galleries.

 

 

Heat wave!

Wow, this has to be the worst heat wave Wisconsin has seen in a long time. The temperature has been in the 90’s since Sunday and the humidity has been through the roof. The heat index is well over 100 degrees right now – not safe for running outdoors! Despite the numerous articles about running in high heat I’ve read in Runner’s world and other magazines, I’m not going to test out their ideas in heat like this. Maybe if it was in the 80s, but this is just plain unsafe. So…no I didn’t get a run in on Sunday, but I did get my butt out of bed and went for a run Saturday morning. I didn’t do the six miles like I had planned because I didn’t sleep well Friday night and I had a garden walk to attend with my mom so I was running short on time and energy. I didn’t feel like running at all, but I compromised and ran 3 miles. Once I got out there it was actually kind of fun. I explored more of the wooded side of my neighborhood and I found that I really enjoy running in that area. I got so used to running my usual 3, 4 and 5 mile loops that it was nice to change up the route a little.

Like I mentioned, my mom and I went to a garden walk benefitting the emergency shelter in our area. People opened up their yards to display their beautiful gardens and some of them even showed their homes. It was fun to see the gardens and dream about having my own garden someday! My mom is a master gardener and really enjoys visiting gardens and plant nurseries (remember my Flower Factory post?) so we had a great time. After seeing some of the gardens we went to the Appleton Farmer’s market in downtown Appleton. My mom bought a big bunch of dill and I found some awesome sunflowers (I think they are my favorite flowers!). We stopped for a light lunch at a stand by one of the best restaurants in town, Ilangolo. We split a chipotle chicken crepe. It was delicious!

The rest of the weekend was spent painting and relaxing. On Sunday morning I stopped at the Neenah Art Show in the park, kind of the Neenah eqivalent to the Appleton Art in the Park. Unfortunately it was so hot that I just kind of quickly walked through, just looking at the booths as I walked by. I hope the temperature isn’t as hot in two weeks for Art in the Park! After that I met up for lunch with two of my best friends from college. We had a great time laughing and reminiscing over college stories.

Today I went to work and headed straight to the gym to run 3 miles on the treadmill. It’s still too hot to run outside. I hope it cools off soon. Stay cool my friends!

Exploring a new trail

Good news! I’ve been offered a full-time position at the nursing home. I will still be on day shift, but on a different unit. It will be more work, but I’m happy to have a full-time position. That will help paying back those good old student loans! haha But full-time job means less time for running and painting. I will just have to get better at juggling my time.

So far this week I’m up to 11 miles. I had an intense weight lifting session with M on Tuesday night. I ran one mile to warm up then I hit the weights. I’m still in the beginner stage of weight lifting so I’m never really sure how much I can lift. I think I squatted a little too much weight and as a result, my quads were sore for a few days after. I stupidly ran three miles on Wednesday after work, but my legs were dead. I decided not to attempt running again on Thursday so I took a rest day. Today I ran 4 easy miles in a new route. It wasn’t really a set route, more like I was exploring my neighborhood and ran for 40 miles. I figure that was at least 4 miles, maybe even a little more. I discovered a new trail right by my house. It’s not a big trail, in fact, its just a walking trail on the grounds of a large nursing home facility. There’s no more than a half mile of trail running throughout the property, but it’s completely wooded and nice for running in a more secluded area. And it’s so close to my apartment.

I plan to do a 6 mile long run this weekend. I hope to do it tomorrow morning because there’s a heat advisory for this area this weekend. It’s no fun running in high temperatures, so it will be best to get that out of the way as soon as possible. If I do get my long run in tomorrow, I will shoot for running another 3 on Sunday, but we’ll see how the weather is. If I can’t get out and run it will just leave me more time to paint!

I got another two small paintings finished and I’m in the process of finishing up a larger painting. I want to have as much of a selection at Art in the Park so I’m really kicking it into high gear. Getting my new position has taken away several painting days in the upcoming two weeks so I have to plan very carefully. There’s a lot more work I have to do to make sure everything is set for Art in the Park.

Painting like crazy!

After a long break of running I’m back. I’m not exactly racking up record breaking mileage, in fact, last week my total was 12 miles, but I feel more refreshed and I’m ready to tackle more workouts and more miles.  Yesterday I ran 3 easy miles in the high humidity. It wasn’t fun, but I ran through it faster than I’ve been running lately. I finished 3 miles in 26:19, less than 9 minute pace. That’s encouraging. I was planning to run 5 miles today, but I decided to take a 3 mile power walk with my mom (she’s training to walk the half marathon) and hit the gym this evening for a weight lifting session with M. I will probably run a few miles for a warmup and then hit the weights.

I was reading through the latest issue of Runner’s World which features a large section on 1/2 marathon training. There’s a 10 week training plan for beginners, and I have about 10 weeks until the race. I was intrigued to see what the experts at Runner’s World recommend for a training program. The program doesn’t look too bad actually. The highest weekly mileage is 24, and that’s on race week, including the race. I’ve already done that! They recommend a ten mile and a tweleve mile long-run in preparation for the race. I’ve already done two 10 milers! I was starting to have doubts about whether or not I could complete the distance, but this training plan has given me a little encouragment. I can do it!

In non-running related news, I’ve been painting like crazy. This mmorning I pulled all of my paintings off the walls and out of the closets and laid them all out on the living room floor. My sister and I surveyed the artwork and made a list of other ideas for subjects to paint. I crossed two off the list today and I made a schedule for getting more paintings done before Art in the Park. Over the past 3 days I painted five paintings. What do you think?

This one is a gift for M. He’s a hot sauce lover! It’s going in his new apartment. 🙂

I want to complete another 10 paintings if possible. It sounds like a lot, but most of them will be very small. I’m getting really excited for Art in the Park! Hope you can join me.

4th of July weekend!

I’m back from a fun “extended weekend” up north. M and I went to his family’s cabin last Thursday night and came back Tuesday. I know I said I was going to run a lot while we were there, but I actually didn’t run a single step! I wanted to take a break and rest. I was feeling a little burnt out from running and needed to recharge my batteries. The cabin was a perfect place to do just that. Before we left for the trip, we made a list of all the fun things we wanted to do and we ended up doing them all! Basically we spent 5 days reading books, watching fireworks, going swimming, going for pontoon boat rides, going fishing, taking walks, watching movies and grilling food. M ran a few times and I rode my bike with him and we took several long walks, so we did get some exercise, but it was relaxed and fun. We had so much fun that neither one of us wanted to come back!

I even managed to find time to paint. With Art in the Park coming up in a few weeks I’ve been painting like crazy. I want to have as many new paintings ready for the show as possible. I’ve come up with many new ideas for paintings that I hope I can complete before the show. This year I’m hoping to have notecards printed up as well. Here’s a sample of a few of the paintings I’ve done recently.

Since I got back on Tuesday I started running again. I ran 3 easy miles yesterday and today. One of these days I will have to throw a long run in there to prepare for the big show down in September. It’s been a lot harder to find the time to run than I thought it would be. I think I should be running over 30 miles a week by now, according to the plan, but I can barely manage to get in 20 miles most weeks. I will have to work harder to squeeze more miles into my runs, though, I doubt that will happen until after Art in the Park. Wish me luck! 😛

Pizza pizza!

Summer is flying by! I can’t believe the 4th of July is next week already. I’ve been so busy at work that I’ve hardly realized a third of the summer has passed by. The weather has been so cold and rainy lately that it doesn’t even feel like summer weather either. It felt like a long spring. Luckily all the fun things I have planned to do this summer are still to come! Here are a few of the fun things I plan to do:

• go to M’s parent’s cabin for the 4th of July weekend
• go camping in Door county with my family
• Art in the Park 2011
• a girls trip to Door county with my mom and sisters
• a trip with M to Eugene, Oregon to visit friends

I can’t wait to do everything! This weekend was my sister’s graduation party. We had a wonderful time celebrating her graduation from high school with family and friends. My aunt is a fantastic cook and catered the whole party. She made a delicious chicken marsala, marinara with meatballs, caprese salad, lettuce salad, garlic bread, fruit salad and more. My sister baked a wonderful graduation cap cake. It was a two tiered red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and a chocolate graduation cap on top! She is such a talented cake decorator. I predict that she will be a famous cake designer someday. The whole party was a blast. The food was delicious, the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was relaxed. A perfect graduation party!

Last week I only logged 15 miles over the course of three 5 mile runs. This week I plan to do a little better. I’m actually up to 13.5 miles so far. Yesterday I ran 5 miles and today I went for a 3 miler around my parents’ house. After the run, my mom and I took a walk around the library in the city. Yesterday M and I ran 5.5 miles around our neighborhood. It was such a beautiful day! I hope the weather holds out for this weekend because M and I plan to be outside a lot this weekend at the cabin. We want to go on some long runs out in the country!

Tuesday night for dinner we made a homemade pizza. I bought a pre-made thin crust at the grocery store, added a little olive oil and pizza sauce and topped it with mozzarella cheese, red and green peppers, sliced tomatoes and pieces of bacon! I spiced it up with a little basil, garlic powder, ground pepper and red pepper flakes. It was awesome! The combination of flavors really works well and I’m starting to really enjoy a little spice with the red pepper flakes.

Last night we ate with my sister and her boyfriend. We had so much food leftover from the graduation party that we have been eating the leftover pasta, garlic bread, fruit and salads. It is still delicious even a few days after!

Alright, I’m getting packed and ready to head up to the cabin for the weekend. It’s going to be quite an extended weekend – 5 nights! I will give a good report when I get back! Have a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Enjoying a day off…

Today is my only day off of work this week. I worked last weekend, all week, and then I have to work this weekend too. So I am really enjoying having a little time to myself. I actually accomplished a lot this today. I worked on some paintings, ran 5 miles in the pouring rain, went to the grocery store, met M downtown for lunch, and stopped at a boutique shop downtown.

The weather has been so rainy lately. I think every run I went on this week has involved some degree of rain. Today I started out running in a light mist and by the end of the run it was pouring. I got completely soaked but I had a blast! It was great to run in the rain actually. The temperature was perfect, low 60s, and the rain hitting my body was really refreshing. I felt great on this run, unlike yesterday’s run. Yesterday I got home from work and ran 5 miles, but I ended up stopping to rest twice. I have no idea why I was so weak, but I just couldn’t keep going. I had to slow it down a lot and take a few breaks to rest my legs. I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch at 11am (I start working at 6:30am so 11 is a little more than halfway through my shift) and I was probably running a little low on fuel. Next time I want to run 5 miles after work I will have to remember to eat a snack in the afternoon! I also ran 5 miles on Monday after work. That run went well.

I know I said I was going to do a workout on Tuesday but that never happened. Things got in the way and it ended up being too late to run a workout by the time I was free. It wasn’t the end of the world though, because my legs were still a little sore from last week’s workouts. I might need to incorporate workouts more slowly to allow my legs to adjust to the new stress.

This weekend is going to be quite busy. I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, M is moving to a new apartment so I will be helping him move, and my youngest sister is having her graduation party on Sunday. It’s going to be a jam-packed weekend, folks! I would like to say I will run this weekend, but I know I won’t. There just won’t be time for it. But next weekend there will be time!

I had a dream last night about painting tomatoes, so that’s just what I did. I woke up, had several cups of coffee and painted a picture of tomatoes on the vine. I think it would work well in someone’s kitchen. I also finished up one of the doughnut paintings I was working on a few weeks ago.

Art in the Park is coming up in a few short weeks and I have to get a booth-ful of paintings ready for the show. I got the map that shows where my booth will be and it turns out I will be in almost the same spot as last year. In case you don’t remember or didn’t stop by, my booth space is around the perimeter of City Park in Appleton, about halfway down North Street. I can’t wait for Art in the Park!