Project 365 Complete

On September 26th, I took photo 365 of Ollie for the completion of my Project 365. This was by far my easiest photo challenge, because I love taking pictures of Ollie. She's just so stinking cute that I can't even handle it. The hard part was keeping up on posting pictures. There was one point in the depths of winter that I realized I hadn't posted any photos for a full month. That was a fun afternoon of catch up.

There's a good chance I will turn this photo project into a booklet or a daily calendar thing. And I know I'll cherish these pictures if Ollie is ever not around. But just between you and me, she has promised to live forever and ever (or at least as long as I do), so I think we should be good to go.

Book Worm Inspired Photo Shoot + Boring Runs

I had taken Monday off from work, assuming that I would need some additional recovery time from racing + raging.  Lucky for me, one of my favorite people in the world, Kathryn, was in town from Michigan!!!  She has always been a huge inspiration to me artistically, especially with her photography.  She is actually part of my inspiration to start the Project 365 photo blog.  She had suggested that we do a super fun library photo shoot so she could get some more practice with her new camera.  Since I tend to l.o.v.e. the camera, of course I agreed.  I got dolled up in super cutesy, yet very Jeri clothes and we hit two of my favorite libs in town.  The future librarian in me felt right at home.

Here are some of my favorite shots she took.

My Harry Potter books and glasses taken while I was getting gussied up.  Seriously looove this picture. :)

It was super duper fun.  And of course I had to try my hand at some photography as well.  I had my little point and shoot, but it seemed to do the trick.  It doesn't hurt that Kathryn is seriously one of my most beautiful friends.  But you can see that for yourself.....yes.  Ok.

Can you tell she has a preference for b&w where as I crave the bright and bold?  ;)  To each their own.

After biking Monday with Aaron (and hauling some major ass *for me* in the middle miles of the ride), I couldn't get motivated to run on Tuesday.  Wednesday rolled around and I had planned on doing a tempo run.  Until I started running.

Dear IT Bands,
WTF?
Love,
Jerbear

They were a'screamin' fo sho.  After the warm up mile I figured I would just do an easy run, and also decided that I wouldn't do any speed work for the rest of the week to let my legs recover.  I guess I didn't factor in that even though I didn't push to the point of pain during the race that I wouldn't still need recovery time.  Ie:  I'm a dummy head. :)

I did 5.25 in 53:27 for a pace of 10:11.

Thursday I did 6 miles in 59:42 for a pace of 9:52.

I also lost a dear dear friend on Monday.  As I was exiting the wave pool at our local waterpark with Miss Kathryn, I noticed a tiny sliver of pink hanging on to my toe for dear life.  It was....my toe nail.  :'(  First I had to calm Kathryn and explain that this was a completely normal occurrence for runners.  Then I detached the toe from its tiny dangling thread and gave it a proper burial.  I said a few words, and tossed it in the trash.  RIP pinky toe nail.  You will be missed.

Black Toenail

5/16/2010-8/9/2010

Someone's Been Bit by the Photo Bug + Race Goals

Since I didn't have a photo yet for my Project 365, I decided to take my camera with me on my run tonight.  Grrrrreat idea, I managed to get some awesome shots as the sun was thinking about setting.  To be honest I was way more concerned with taking pictures than I was with running, so it was a pretty slow and leisurely 5 miles, but that's a-ok because I have a half marathon on Saturday!

I always wish I had a camera when I run up on this spray painted smily face on the trail.  It always makes me smile.  :)


Urban Wildland Half Marathon Goals*

Goal C
Do not have as horrible of a race as the death march of 2010.  Also, Sub 1:55.  Assuming nothing terrible happens, this should be a given.

Goal B
PR.  My current PR is 1:53:09.  Totally doable.

Goal A
Sub 1:50.  Again this is doable.  If the weather is right and I'm feeling like a B.A., this will be the goal I will line up with in mind.

*I'm not feeling creative enough to come up with a special theme for these race goals.  Perhaps these will be reserved for MARATHON!!! goals. :)  Nothing will ever top the Dinosaur-themed goals, however.

I think my race strategy will be to split up the race into 4 sections and try to run it with negative splits (per usual).  I'm thinking 8:45, 8:35, 8:25, 8:15.  Should equate to a PR.  I did get an email today from the race director with "hot weather racing safety instructions."  Dude, this'll feel like running in Antarctica compared to the last 1/2 I did.  :p  I'm super excited to meet up with Alyssa and tear up the town afterward.  Look out TC I'm coming for you!  PR or puke.  Heh.

Randomly funny note worth mentioning:  I have "liked" Dallas White Rock Marathon on Facebook.  Today they posted some of their favorite photos from the race last December.  Of course I flicked through them to see if there would be any of yours truly (there wasn't).  I was shocked at how many of the photos had runners in sweats/pants/long sleeved shirts/hats/gloves!!!!!!  Please just glance (or scroll) to the sidebar here for my photo where I'm wearing my usually green tank and shorts.....and am soaked with sweat.  Unreal.  Crazy Texans. ;)

I <3 me a good bridge.

This bridge is a personal fave.

Gotta admit that SoDak does give some killer sunsets.

I'd be willing to bet that the extreme humidity is the magic behind it's beauty. 

It'd better be good for something.

An Open Letter to Running

Dear Running,

On occasion you are the cause of my bad days, but more often than not you are the remedy for them.  Thanks for that.  By the way, I will be cheating on you this weekend with your hot brother Racing.  Hope that's cool.

xoxo

Jerbear

Obviously I was having a crappy day yesterday.  I almost cancelled really fun plans to sit around and mope instead.  I got home from work, threw on my running shoes and hit the road.  Within 2 minutes I was back to normal.  There's something special about running.  Perhaps it was the fact that the humidity was less than 60% for the first time in a looooooooong time.  80 isn't so bad when it's not a sopping wet 80.  Mind you, I was still sopping wet, but that's neither here nor there.

I did 6 miles in 58:42 for a pace of 9:47.

Speaking of cheating, I've been doing some blog cheating.  I started my Project 365 on August 1st and am going strong on Day 5.  Feel free to check out my photos so far.  I'm already having photo regret about yesterday's photo....... it should've been my surprise sushi picnic, or the mini golf hole in one I never got.  Dang it. ;)

Occasionally Procrastination Pays

After doing some major rearranging with my running schedule this week to accommodate my social life, I had vowed to wake up and do my tempo run before work on Thursday.  Thursday morning hit and there was no where I'd rather be than in my big ol' comfy bed.  Two hours later it was time for work.  A quick look at the weather report and the ominous clouds in the sky, made me realize very quickly that I had made the wrong choice.  The skies opened up all day long.  I figured I was resigned to the treadmill for my tough ass tempo run.  When I left the office at 8pm, I was surprised that not only was it not pouring rain, but it was cool!  Like mid-60s cool.  Take that procrastination.

Because of the insane rain (good band name, no?) I had to run some "laps" around a parking lot about a mile from my place, because the trails were pretty well flooded.  That actually ended up working my favor because I was out running later (aka in much darker conditions) than I typically allow and this area is way better lit.  I'm a tough B, but probably not that tough.

I had 7 miles with 5 at tempo pace of 8:05.  I had originally created this training program off of a 23:00 5k (which I was sure I would get this summer).  Well I never got there, so I've been revamping my tempo times slightly so that I don't...uh...die.  Instead I gave myself 8:10-8:20.  This tempo run was 1000 times better than last week's.  Granted last week I had company, which was nice, but talking while trying to run hard, does not work.  Neither does running in intense heat and humidity (for me because I'm a total wuss).

I ended up having one of the best runs in a loooooooooong time, which makes me super excited about next weekend's Urban Wildland Half Marathon.  I'm going to attempt to chase down Alyssa for a PR if the weather permits.  If I've learned one thing this summer is that it's not worth it to try to PR in hellacious weather. :p

I did the 7 miles in 1:01:18 for a pace of 8:46.  Tempo pace--8:17.
1. 9:52

2. 8:06
3. 8:19
4. 8:17
5. 8:28
6. 8:17
7. 9:59

Apparently I run lopsided and only kick my right leg while traversing the mud.  Neat-o huh? :)

In other news (I use that as a lead in for a lot of my paragraphs, has anyone else noticed that?  Apparently I want to be a broadcaster....heh), I'm going to start the 365 Photo Project that you may or may not have heard of.  Basically you take one photo everyday for a year.  Sounds simple enough, but I imagine I'll hate myself more than twice in the 365 day span for taking on the project.  I'm very interested in photography, and have no training/education but it's something that I love, so I figure this will help expand my skills and give me the motivation to further education myself.  If anyone has any suggestions about this project, or what would be the best place to host the images (ie:  a blog, flikr, etc.) please let me know!  I'm starting August 1st, so nothing like leaving it to the last minute.  Procrastinators Unite....Tomorrow.  ;)