Thanks, sabaray!
Excellent, FallGirl! And Alan Webb is one of my favorites!
Glad it was a good experience FallGirl - I’d love to hear more about specific drills or whatever you do in the group!
Is no one else bogged down with yard tasks like me?! I spent at least a couple hours on my hands and knees digging leaves out of myrtle, pulling grass where it doesn’t belong, etc. - spring gardening = hours of labor! Not even close to being done - the list is growing longer of outside tasks to do…I have to tell myself that this is good exercise too - I just can’t find the time in the evening to do this work, walk the dog and exercise - I’m running out of hours! Already not eating dinner till 8:30 when I finally make myself “give it up!”
I should be bogged down with yard tasks, but I am basically ignoring them. I think I will probably have to hire someone! You’re a far better person than I am, abasket!
It might be good exercise, but I am over doing yardwork. 3 hours on Sunday raking up stuff that appeared over the winter, weeding crabgrass, and trying to dig the moss out of my lawn so I can plant some grass.
I’m ready to just hire someone. Then I might have a shot at having a halfway-decent looking yard.
Kudos, abasket! I need to get going here. Mr. BF’s back hurt on Sunday (phew, he is OK now!), so we relaxed instead of going after the weeds. We need to redo the lawn in the backyard, and I’m not looking to that project. My deck needs a good scrub - the Douglas firs were busy dumping pollen all over the place!
We are paying someone to paint our large deck - at least I got out of that one! Not nice of me, but I was so overwhelmed yesterday with all the work to do outside (yard and outside house “repair” needs) that I started taking photos and sending them to my husband as a way of saying to him, “look! These things need to get done!” The budget will allow only so much to be “hired” - we recently had to replace two kitchen appliances out of the blue so the checkbook has taken a hit!
Admittedly, I care a lot about how my house and yard look - inside and out - can’t stand things to be sloppy, uncared for, out of whack! Which is why I probably end up with 20,000 steps+ regularly once the weather is nice - I’m constantly DOING work!
Yeah, I’m feeling overwhelmed. 
I don’t do yard work. My husband does a lot of it and we have a great handy man who does the staining/painting etc. I sometimes feel a little guilty, but I just can’t handle anything more than my job and my running.
We have what was a cedar deck but after 2 decades, it was time to replace the deck surface. We went with a laminated synthetic and wood composite. Best move ever. Each season, just brush it with soapy water and rinse. So easy! And it perfectly matches the remaining cedar railings and bolsters. Gives me more time to play out back :).
We have a stone deck with slate tiles. They are easy to wash using MNK’s approach, I just need to wait until the stupid firs stop shedding!
Yes, because we live in an area with LOTS of trees, we have regular rounds of pine needles, maple “helicopters” (each tree drops them at different times!), beechnuts, ginko seeds, etc. - like a dang forest preserve!!! I do love being outside and I don’t mind doing the work really - as long as time allows - I just have a hard time fitting it in - H does some too, but to be honest, we have a cottage 3.5 hours away that he would MUCH rather be working on - so once the weather turns nice - he’s a goner! The “3 year” plan is to move to a smaller yard (not smaller house necessarily - NEED my indoor space!) so that we CAN spend more time at the beach than cutting grass at home!
Ok, whining done for today.
So I did weights and fluid running this morning. I told my trainer about the 5k and he said - well, you can go much faster! I said - I know, but the feeling of my heart pounding and being out of breath kind of freaks me out which is why I tend to stay with strength based stuff because I can always muscle through. So he had me do some sprints and corrected my form, and then had me jog at my 5k pace. To my surprise, I was a lot faster. I knew I should intersperse with running faster when doing Couch to 5k and the like but I just thought faster was the operative word versus all-out sprint.
It’s back to being cold again today and my joints are feeling it.
I managed to clean the kitchen though (light clean not any kind of deep clean)… which is more than I’ve been able to do in quite a while. Mr R has been doing all the housework and taking care of me for months (on top of working full time) and I know it’s taking a toll. I have the day off so I wanted to try and do something to make his life easier. Unfortunately, my back is killing me again now but it felt good to get up and do something.
On the bright side, my classes are over now (well, kind of… I took incompletes and have to finish my term papers) so I can concentrate primarily on getting my body into proper working order.
Sounds like you have a good trainer, pizzagirl!
Michael- I hope your deck wasn’t manufactured by my last company! I handled all the recalls. The composite decks can have some “issues” with deterioration that wasn"t visible until someone fell through it. My sister’s Trex deck (not my company’s product) in the Philadelphia area still looks great, though.
I didn’t run last night after all, decided to just take it easy. I have some blisters on my feet after the marathon and it looks as if I’m going to lose a toenail (the same one I lost after my first marathon) so my feet are a little tender. Tonight we’re going to a Running Form clinic at the local running store. I could use some tips, I think I have issues with my gait. I am very loud when I run, slapping the pavement. I’ve tried to stop but haven’t been successful. As H says, though, I’ve been doing fine with the way I run so far so maybe there isn’t really a problem. Still, it will be interesting to hear what they have to say.
I am way behind on spring clean-up and outdoor chores! Hopefully the weather will cooperate so that I can get a lot done this weekend.
H rebuilt our deck last summer with the composite material and we love it. I sure hope we don’t end up having any issues because I’m really happy with how it turned out and it cost a fortune (and pretty much took up H’s entire summer with the building project).
That sounds like a good move C3Baker - isn’t is quite common to truly “rest” your body after a marathon?!
After all my whining this morning I gave myself permission to pick up some food for dinner so I didn’t have to cook and got a 3 mile run in. Plus one full bottle of dandelion “weed b gone” spot spraying on the lawn - so I DID do some lawn work - a little cooler today here - mid 50’s - I’ll do more attending to garden beds tomorrow when it’s mid 60’s.
Aww, you deserve some carryout for dinner, abasket. Yard work: it’s never done. We do have someone here to cut the grass because the variety, St. Augustine, is thick, long, and tough as nails. It eats mowers.
PG, working with a trainer on the running is a great idea. I’ll be curious to see how it helps. I’m not sure how I would go about finding a trainer, being the DIY runner. I’m going to look back into a yoga studio. Wish me (and the fellow participants) luck
Your running group experience is very encouraging fallgirl. Yay for the support you’re getting there!
I thought I wouldn’t get my steps in today so I banked a FitBit PR yesterday of 30,000 with running about 4 and a bunch of walking. Fortunately, the obligation has evaporated and I was able to take a nice long walk in today. I need to make up for some slow days last week.
Since both kids are out of the house, I’ve been doing the prepared foods thing too. Feel it is healthier yet less expensive then eating out each night.
Another track night - 6x400s. Going to be hitting track intervals hard the next month and a half. Colder and windier than I expected. REALLY hate the wind while running or biking. Especially hate the wind on the track. Track running should be 75 and above, sunny and no wind.
A few folks wanted to know the workouts we are doing in my running group. Here is the link to the program:
http://www.restonrunners.com/index.php/programs/women-s-training.
I am trying something new at our house - “Plated” - they ship you a box of ingredients each week for however many meals you want with instructions to prepare the meal. You choose what menu you want in the box each week, you can opt out of a weekly delivery at any time. We eat out a lot simply because it’s hard for me to come up with ideas that we both want to eat. I’ll let you know how it goes. I get my first box Saturday.
Two pup walks today, TRX and Barre class. The Barre class today used resistance bands instead of hand weights - very different. I actually like doing two classes in sequence - I feel warmed up after the first class - all my creaky joints are loosened up. I am tired though.