The most wonderful time of the year

No, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. Not by a long shot. Kayaking season is!

As you might have heard, I still can't run. But surely my old lady hip won't keep me from kayaking. Trea and I first kayaked on a trip to Puerto Rico in 2009, and we loved it so much that we bought our own 2-person kayak a few months later. We live in a little town with lots of small, calm lakes, and one of our favorite things to do in the summer is take the kayak out and paddle around and just listen to the quiet.

The first time we took the kayak out, I bought a couple of waterproof disposable cameras, and we just got the pictures developed YESTERDAY. Because we're organized and on top of things over here. It was so fun to see three summers' worth of pics -- 2009, 2010 and last year.

Kayaking fun in 2009!

The lake where we go is gorgeous, and we usually just paddle around the perimeter, admire the beautiful houses, daydream about someday owning a lake house and look for cranes. We LOVE cranes. They're the pelicans of Arkansas.

Summer 2011

Summer 2011. We both slimmed down and got better hats since 2009.

On hot summer weekdays, if we can both leave work on time, we'll pack a cooler with a picnic and have a quiet dinner on the water while the sun goes down. It's a nice change of pace, good exercise and so tranquil. We love the lake, but we don't like most normal lake activities like skiing or tubing or wake boarding, so a real boat with a motor would be wasted on us. We just float and paddle and chat and hang out. With no phones, no TV and no distractions. Just peace.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Hot blooded

I don't know why my post titles are usually bad cliches or song titles. This one's brought to you by Foreigner. Google it, kids.

Anywho, marathon training is underway, and I have my sights set on Memphis in December. But in the meantime, it's still August. And it's hot. So hot that, as I'm running, I picture calming, happy thoughts, like my shoes melting to the pavement or those True Blood vampires walking into the sunlight as their skin melts off and they burst into flames. Not the Twilight sparkly vampires; the spontaneously combusting barbecued ones. Seriously. It's that hot.

I had to work early Saturday morning at the time when I would normally be running to beat the heat. So instead, I had to do my long run later in the day. Trea and I ran 8 miles at high noon. It was 94 degrees with a heat index of 104 and not a cloud in the sky. Also, no shade on the course we chose. Geniuses, we are.

When we started out, I felt fantastic. My last few long runs have been awful because I've been struggling with early morning nutrition. But Saturday, I had finally cracked the code. I had an egg McMuffin and half a small coffee from Mickie D's as soon as I woke up, a banana about an hour later, and half a Powerbar and 1 ShotBlok a few minutes before my run. I had energy! But not too much! I was so looking forward to a strong 8 miles. It had been cloudy all morning, and I thought we would get lucky with overcast skies. Not so much. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the sun broke through the clouds and was merciless the rest of the day.

I realized immediately that I needed to scrap my plans to hit a certain pace and just focus on getting the miles done however I could. I normally start drinking after 10 minutes and then sip every 5 minutes after that. But on this day, in this heat, I drank every 3 minutes exactly, and I was sweating like never before in my life. It was so hot that I even ran in just a sports bra and no shirt. My abs were not prepared for that, but it was nice not to have a soaked shirt blocking what little breeze there was.

After just 3 miles, I was already running low on water. I always dilute grape G2 with water and ice in a 22 oz. Nathan handheld, and it's usually fine for me. But I wasn't even halfway through my run, and it was over half gone. Trea always sweats a ton when we run, so he recently started running with a Nathan Endurance hydration vest. It holds 70 oz., and that still wasn't enough for this heat.

We stopped to walk for a minute around 3.25 miles. The sunshine and heat was making my heart race, so we had to take a breather. We decided to run to Orchards Park because it has a covered pavilion where we could get out of the sun and rest a while and refill our water bottles at a water fountain. When we reached the park, we were at 4 miles and still had 4 to go. We would have preferred to cut it short and finish the miles at night or early the next morning, but we still had to get back to the car. Might as well run it. We stayed at the park for several minutes, I'm not even sure how long. I had three ShotBloks and topped off my water bottle twice. After only 4 miles, Trea had already drank 50 oz. and refilled his pack too.

The rest of the run is a blur, but not because it was fast. I was sipping yucky water fountain water that was the same temperature as bath water. I'd had sweat and mascara in my eyes since mile 1. I had applied SPF 50, but I felt like I was on fire, and I could see poor fair-skinned Trea turning pink. Around mile 6, I stopped for walk breaks about every half mile. It was so hot that when we waited at stoplights, we would try to hide behind the skinny line of shade cast by the pole. I would run along slowly, but doing OK, until we reached shade. Shade trees were like magnets. I could immediately feel the temperature get cooler when we passed under a tree, and my feet would refuse to go forward.

We had stopped and started so many times that Trea's Garmin time was screwed up, so he was just following my time and pace with my watch. For the last mile, I called out updates for us every quarter mile. "We're at 7.5!!" And Trea would respond with fist pumps in the air. "Just another quarter!" More fist pumps from Trea. "EIGHT!!!" And we high-fived like we had just finished a race. I'm sure we looked insane.

What did we learn? 1. Don't run at noon in August. Trea drank a total of 120 oz. while we were out, and it took two days for his shoes to dry. Not worth it. 2. Be flexible with this training plan. As long as we get the workouts done, it doesn't matter what day they happen. 3. Also? If a hot 8 miles is this tough, 26.2 is going to be a serious test, both mentally and physically. Thank goodness it's in December!! Bring on the cold!

Wordless Wednesday

Summer is here!

Time for Farmers Market,

For creek splashin'

And cool, sweet rewards after a hot weekend run!

The grass is greener

Today, in a feeble attempt to preserve my sanity and to keep myself from fleeing to the southernmost tip of Florida, I am thinking of happier things. Instead of January, I am thinking of June. Patiently waiting for a time when temperatures will be higher than the wind speed. Picturing myself here.

Instead of here.

Back at Flamenco Beach, where the sand is as white as my husband and life is perfect.

Summer.
A time of sundresses, flip flops, open sunroofs and green leaves. When the whole neighborhood smells like fresh cut grass and charcoal smoke.

When Country Time lemonade commercials come on every five minutes and the sight of kids jumping in a lake brings tears of joy to my eyes.

When we sit on the swing outside and watch the hummingbirds bicker until the bats come out.

And every weekend smells like Hawaiian Tropic instead of Vicks VapoRub.

Not a photo of me.

In the summertime, the grass is greener and I can run in the daylight until almost 9:00 p.m. I can run down my favorite path without fear of slipping on ice or freezing my nose off.

So even though it's months away, I'm (im)patiently waiting for June. When I can actually follow my training plan instead of being snowed in and I can run whenever and wherever I want.

And then I'll blog about being too hot.

*Special thanks to Lawgirl for tagging me with the Stylish Blogger Award! I'm not sure what it means, but I'm happy about it!

Santa-Cali-Gon Days

Three years ago, when Trea and I had just started dating, we decided to hop on his motorcycle one Saturday and drive to Independence, Mo., to visit the Truman Presidential Museum. And because Trea was driving, we spent the entire day experiencing the journey, rather than focusing on the destination, and when we finally arrived at the museum, we barely had time to look around before it closed. As we were leaving, a museum employee asked us if we were in town for the festival.

Me: What festival?
Him: Santa-Cali-Gon Days.
Me: Santa what?
Him: Santa-Cali-Gon Days. Y'all should go. It's awesome.

OK, random stranger, you talked us into it. We went to the festival, and we LOVED it. We had no money and had not planned on staying the weekend, but we decided to be spontaneous and just go with it. There was a carnival, carnival junk food, tacky crafts and Mark Chestnutt in concert! We had a fantastic time. And since 2007, we've been reminiscing about our perfect weekend at Santa-Cali-Gon Days and dying to go back.

So to celebrate Trea's 30th birthday and to relive the good old days, we spent Labor Day weekend in Independence. We stayed at a breathtaking bed and breakfast -- a 110-year-old mansion that was the highlight of our trip.

We had a lovely suite, complete with a sitting room.

And we woke up each morning to fresh brewed coffee right outside our door.

And went downstairs to a full three-course breakfast at our private table.

And then we went to Santa-Cali-Gon Days.

Because where else can you get chicken on a stick.

Practice your dart skills.

Win a sweet prize for your girl.

See Scooby end it all.

Test your manly muscles.

Stir funnel cake batter with a DeWalt drill.

AND ride a ferris wheel.

Only at Santa-Cali-Gon Days. 

It was just like it was three years ago.

We went back to the Truman museum and saw the replica oval office.

Just like three years ago.

We love Independence, Santa-Cali-Gon Days, and, of course, Harry Truman!

Stay cool

This August heat is intense, and I've been trying all kinds of things to stay cool and still run three days a week. And I mean CRAZY things. Like getting up early! And going to the gym instead of running outside! It's insanity!! Those of you who know me know that I do not get up early. I don't do anything early. The fact that I'm able to hold a job that requires me to be anywhere before noon is, I'm sure, shocking to my parents who spent over half my life dragging, bribing and threatening me to get out of bed. I am a night owl. So why does my alarm go off at 4:40 a.m. two days a week? Because I must run before the sun comes up and before the weatherman starts saying things like "heat wave" and "heat index." Getting up early is challenging, but running when it's under 80 degrees is so worth it!

And last week, I discovered that I can tolerate the gym. Who knew?! I LOATHE the gym. I've always been one of those people who will drive straight through the gym parking lot and go home when I can't find a good parking spot. (Others do that, right?) But when it's 97 degrees and the heat index and humidity are out of control, I will try anything. It turns out that the indoor running track isn't all that bad. I can't imagine ever running on a treadmill and not injuring myself because I'm such a klutz, but the indoor track is OK when I'm in a pinch. True, it's boring as can be and I have to run 10 laps to equal a mile, but I just can't argue with air conditioning in August.

I've really buried the lede here, but I did the unthinkable Sunday. I ran for 20 minutes without stopping for a walk break!!! I don't even have enough exclamation points in my little computer to express how awesome it feels to know I can actually do this. Granted, I haven't stayed on my training schedule because it has been extra hard for me both to do the work and also to make time for it in my life. I've been running for close to three months, but I'm only on week six of a 10-week program! However, even though I'm taking the remedial route to build up my endurance - it's happening!! When I started running/walking intervals in May, I could barely run 60 seconds at a time. Now I can run for 20 minutes. It's a turtle's pace, but at least I can finish. Right now, my focus is not on speed. I'm only focusing on pacing myself to make it to the end of each workout without giving up.

Last week was SO exciting! Level five of Podrunner interval training has three iTunes mixes, and you're supposed to run only once to each mix to complete your three runs for the week. (Most weeks only have one mix, so up until now I've run to the same mix three times in a week, and my running goal has been the same for all three workouts.) However, this past week - level five - looked like this:

Mix One:
5 min. warm up
5 min. run
3 min. walk
5 min. run
3 min. walk
5 min. run
5 min. cool down

Mix Two:
5 min. warm up
8 min. run
5 min. walk
8 min. run
5 min. cool down

Mix Three:
5 min. warm up
20 min. run
5 min. cool down

I can't believe I did that! I almost didn't even try mix three. I thought I should probably repeat mix two just to make sure I could handle it and very slowly work up to mix three and the dreaded 20-minute run. But I felt good and rested, and I ran at the gym so overheating wasn't an issue. This week I'm supposed to work up to 25 minutes of sustained running, and there's no doubt I can do it. Most of the time running is a huge challenge for me and by the end, every step is labored. But I have had a few glimpses at what strong running feels like, and Sunday on mix three was one of those days!

I think it helped that I got my first issue of Runners World last week, so I was totally inspired by all the stories I read.

What was even better is that I just started subscribing, so I got the August issue in the mail and then the September issue came in the mail the very next day! I was glued to my new magazines all weekend right up until the big 20-minute challenge. I know I still have to work up to a 5K and a 10K, but my triumphant run and shiny magazines have me thinking crazy thoughts...like a half marathon. Can I do that one day? Why, yes, I think I can!

What I do when I'm not running

Photography

I have a fabulous camera (Nikon D60) and a beautiful dog. But no matter how hard I try, I can never get a decent picture of Bella. I have friends (you know who you are) that take beautiful pictures and their dogs sit patiently, very still, while they're photographed.

Bella stays at my heels with a toy begging to play.

She's also very interested in tasting the camera.

When I give her commands to make her pose, she refuses to look at me.

So I have to make a funny noise to get her attention.

A few days ago, I finally learned the trick: immense patience and a massive zoom lens.

Gardening

Trea has been working every weekend lately, all weekend, to make our yard beautiful. He built a new flower bed and has planted tomatoes, basil, parsley and oregano. (The squash didn't survive.) It's so exciting to be able to cook with things that we've grown!

And soon we will have basil year round!

RunKeeper

It was tough to say goodbye, but I've already found a replacement for Nike+. Trea discovered the RunKeeper app for iPhone and talked me into trying it out. For the bargain price of $9.99, I can use GPS to track my runs, and it doesn't require calibration like Nike+. RunKeeper shows me my route, displays my time, distance and all sorts of fun stuff. I call it the poor man's Garmin. Here's what a run looks like when I log onto the computer.

It's awesome because the app sends the info from my phone immediately, and I don't have to sync my phone to iTunes in order to track my progress. It will also upload my stats to Facebook and Twitter as soon as I finish a run. I might do that one of these days when my stats are less embarrassing. It seems to be more accurate than Nike+, which is good, but at the same time, it's disheartening. Nike+ told me I was going farther and faster than I actually am. Here's a screen shot of the app after a run. 14:07 was my average pace! Yikes!

In my defense, it was crazy hot and I walked a lot more than I normally do. However, even if I had run more, I'm still a slow runner. I just didn't realize how slow! But I'm glad that I have a new gadget that seems to be working. It may seem silly to spend so much time to find something to analyze my workout, but counting my mileage and tracking my average pace is what keeps me going. Seeing those miles add up and seeing my pace improve (in theory) gives me the encouragement I need to go out and run another day.

Yesterday, Trea and I went to our local Farmers Market for the first time ever! I can't believe we've lived here for so long without checking this place out. It was a beautiful Saturday, and we were up early enough to beat the heat. I think we were the only people there without a dog. 

We got some fresh bread, okra and the most gorgeous heirloom tomatoes I've ever seen. Today, Trea made caprese sandwiches with these beauties on ciabatta, and they were amazing! When tomato juice drips down your elbow, you know it's good. Ah, the taste of summer!