. . . Again!
The heat wave is coming, and it heated up this week culminating in a horribly humid Friday with quite the short storm that night. Lucky for me that ushered in nicer weather for my virtual race the next day.
Joining Kim @ Kimrunsonthefly and Deborah @ Confessionsofamotherrunner, and finishing my annual Fourth of July race virtually this year.
Workouts update
- Monday: 3 miles easy, Dogwalk, Yoga (30 min)
- Tuesday: Dogwalk, Yoga (20 min), SB (20 min), Pilates (30 min)
- Wednesday: 3 miles easy, Dogwalk, Arms (20 min), Yoga (20 min),
- Thursday: Dogwalk , Pilates (30 min), Yoga (15 min)
- Friday: Dogwalk
- Saturday: Virtual Firecracker 4 (1 mile WU, 4 miles race, walking back up hill 2.5 miles, 3 mile CD), Pilates (20 min), Yoga (20 min)
- Sunday: Dogwalk, something more at some point . . .
Mileage: 14 (NC)
JY = Jasyoga
PB = Killer B
TM = Treadmill
YFR = Yoga for Runners*
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike
YFPR = Yoga for Pain Relief
YTU = Yoga Tune Up Lower Body*
*Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links; I will make a small amount of money if you buy through these links
Running Update
Monday: intention — easy recovery run
This was the earliest I’ve gotten out so far! The rain had cooled things off, too. My focus this week was the graduating class decorations. A decent run, although legs felt heavy. I managed to squeeze in Yoga outside in between rainstorms for the win — but did I mention I got poured on on the run? It’s all good, a warm rain is almost always welcome.
Wednesday: truly easy run
I kind of kicked myself for not making today my virtual 4th of July race. Cloudy, cool, just a touch humid — perfect weather for a Summer race. They’d predicted rain in the morning (it did eventually start, after my run) and possible thunderstorms. So 4th of July it will be. Nothing terribly memorable about this run — not always a bad thing.
Saturday: intention — Virtual Firecracker 4; pay attention to turnover, breathing, and push a little
My “training” (aka my dry run last week) helped me prepare pretty well for today’s long run + virtual race. I got out fairly early, but of course not as early as I wanted to, mostly because I didn’t want to get up at 4 am — which is probably what I would’ve done had I run the real race.
I took an easy warm up mile. Then I (mostly) ran downhill for 4 miles, although I won’t lie: there were quite a few photo breaks on this run. Which might explain why it was 3 minutes’ faster than last week’s dry run. Overall it was the slowest time for this race, which is hardly surprising. Almost negative splits, and the last mile (with the steep hill) was the fastest mile I’ve seen in a while.
Walked back uphill 2.5 miles (I tracked it this time — just curious). Then I finished with a cool down of 3 miles. Yes, 8 miles running (but not consecutively) + 2.5 miles walking. I lucked out because the cloud cover held almost the entire time I was out there. Not long after I finished it there was not a cloud in the sky. In fact, I finished around the time the race would have normally started.
Favorites of the week
I went to see my mom again this week, by myself. No dog drama, still many hours in the car, but always good to see her. Feels so wrong not to hug her, but I’m grateful that where she lives has kept her so safe through all of this.
Bandit has officially been with us 4 years now. I joke it seems like 10. He is not the easiest of dogs, but thankfully has become so much easier with time.
It kills me that had he had better care in his first two homes, he could have been an awesome dog. The first owner — well, we won’t go into that. His second owner loved him, but she didn’t give him the structure and discipline dogs need to feel secure. Maybe it was also her husband, she was getting divorced and couldn’t keep her animals, which was how we ended up with Bandit at 8 years old.
No one meeting him now would ever suspect the dog he was in the beginning. Mr. Judy posted a photo talking about 4 years of begging — only in the first few months it was a struggle to get him to eat at all — I guess I have a longer memory!
Once in a while he still goes on a short hunger strike, but they’re fewer and farther between. Most of the time he spends his days begging for pretty much anything — cucumber or steak, it almost doesn’t seem to matter!
Thanks to Coco @ Runningwithperserverance, I got the bee in my bonnet about Disney+ and Hamilton. Except we don’t have cable, we have a TV, a Tivo, and antenna and that’s it. Thanks to Mr. Judy we were able to sign up and watch it yesterday. He got Disney+ on his laptop and connected it to our TV. We both enjoyed it!
How did you celebrate the Fourth (if you do)?
Have you seen Hamilton? Do you want to?
If you adopted your furkid, do you celebrate their adoptaversary? Bandit’s is easy to remember. It was July 3rd.
ICYMI: Are you pondering life’s big questions, like why are you here? This short meditation will calm and ground you, and get you in touch with your heart’s desire. Watch it here.
Coming up on Tuesday: Do you have pet names for the houses in your neighborhood? We do! On Friday I’ll share some of my Summer running hacks and how I’m adapting to the Summer heat. Don’t forget that Skirt Sports is selling off its inventory, so check out the sale here — inventory & prices are decreasing!
Chocolaterunsjudy 
I have pet names for neighbours – The Funny Man is my friend Gill’s name for the man with the flag who comes out if you park outside his house (as you are allowed to). Poor old Bandit, I have had animals come to me weird from previous owners and it’s so sad, although my two now are flighty and were born in foster – but their mum is still flighty (and only 4m older than them!). Their gotcha day was 1 Dec which is easy to remember.
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Actually, I remember Lola’s gotcha day, too. It was Sept. 1. Chester’s birthday. We literally got her when he turned one year old.
Well, Bandit IS lucky that he landed with us for his final home.
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We watched Hamilton last night. I loved it! We probably won’t watch anything else on Disney+ tho, so that will go away at the end of the month.
My son’s GF just adopted a dog whose owner passed away. She’s a nice dog but part Akita and does not like other dogs. We tried to get her and Cocoa together and that did not work out well. She also has terrible separation anxiety, so she’s been started on prozac. Poor thing. You wonder what happened to her in her previous home.
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I’m going to look around, but we definitely don’t plan to be keeping Disney+ either.
Aww, that poor dog. Bandit has separation anxiety, but for him it’s more about being anxious, thankfully he’s not destructive. Although it’s been a long time since they’ve been alone . . .
We don’t know Bandit’s complete story, but we know a fair amount. It’s just sad. He has so many good qualities. At least he’s a heck of a lot better than when we adopted him, so there’s hope for your son’s GF! It took a long time & a lot of patience though.
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Nice job on your virtual run. It’s hard for me to get motivated for those but completing them still feels good. I don’t have pet names for other houses but I could. Looking forward to seeing yours. Thanks for linking up!
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No, definitely not the same but nice to have a little push once in a while.
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I’m glad you enjoyed Hamilton! I’ve been hooked on the soundtrack for years and was glad to finally see the show. I have and love that Skirt Sports top too! I also bought the dress but was disappointed that it doesn’t have any pockets! I think your mom looks great in that photo — glad you got to see her.
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I had tried listening to the soundtrack a long time ago, but it really didn’t move me. It was different with the dancing & the staging & I liked it much more than I was prepared to!
SS did make one dress with the cleavage alley pocket (but not those back pockets).
My mom is very judgmental about physical appearances. She’d hate the way her stomach looks. Good thing she doesn’t read the blog. 🙂
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Our Sat run had 100% humidity. It was tough. I guess if it were sunny, it would have been worse.
I saw Hamilton on Broadway but I did subscribe and watched it again. I did enjoy it. Although I did my homework before the first time, I could concentrate on all the words more the 2nd. Will watch it again most likely. I love the songs.
No don’t have names for my neighborhood house. I only pay attention to flowers. Lol.
I think we got Champ March 2. No didn’t celebrate.
My hubby went boating yesterday. My vacation was being home alone. But I am there today. Glad to be able to escape the heat.
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Well, my saturday was the same as your saturday (although I did start much earlier). I thought the weekend was pretty nice, all things considered.
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I started at 7 am and it was 66 degrees but 100% humidity. Ugh. Don’t know about today since it is lovely by the water. Wish I could skip work this week.
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I started a little bit earlier than that. The humidity truly wasn’t that bad (remember, I lived in TX — it makes you think about humidity much differently). Today isn’t humid down here either, but there were no clouds & it heated up quickly.
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100% is as bad as it gets. But it is wooded there and very wet from the rain the night before. I’ve raced in Florida in May so have faced worse. Shouldn’t complain. Better than ice and snow.
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I haven’t watched Hamilton yet but I’m planning on doing that sometime this week since I’m off work. I have heard that it was really good!
Awesome job on your virtual run! I know it’s not ideal but still a good way to celebrate the holiday.
So glad that you were able to see your mom! 🙂
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We usually watch a movie that has something to do with the revolutionary war on the 4th. I love 1776. For years it was on tv on the fourth, and then it wasn’t, but now we own it. Also The Patriot is another favorite.
I’ve been trying to get down to my mom for a couple of weeks but we had so much rain it wasn’t easy. That day was perfect.
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Wow I remember when you got Bandit. Cannot believe it’s been that long already. We saw Hamilton in Chicago 2 or 3 years ago. It was amazing. There’s only one nickname for a house in our ‘hood. The “pumpkin house” because of the color its owner painted it. It has since been sold and repainted blue-grey but it will always be the pumpkin house. Haha!
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You should have seen our house in TX — we eventually painted it bright yellow with orange trim. It was a largely hispanic neighborhood, so not so much out of place. I loved it!
Of course we moved here not too long after we did that; always seems to work that way.
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Four years with Bandit already? I remember when you first got him. I’m SO glad you were able to give him such a great, loving home. Our Fourth was nothing ground-breaking, though we did get to do the 5K race we’ve done in the past. Our oldest’s bday is today (the 5th), so at least that hasn’t been too out-of-the-ordinary this year.
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How nice to do a real race (and all the AG awards!).
My paternal grandpa’s birthday was the 4th. He was my only grandparent born in this country. So my thoughts were on him & my dad as I ran sat. Happy belated birthday to your son!
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I don’t have cable either, which is part of why I haven’t figured out Hamilton. I’ll get there eventually. Cleavage alley made me chuckle. Friend and I were just talking about boob/sock money and whether pandemic will end that.
Bandit is so stinkin cute. I didn’t remember the story of how he came to live with you. Glad he landed in the perfect furever home
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You should be able to get the app on your laptop. So either watch it that way, or if your TV can take an HDMI cable, you can watch it on your TV — although apparently it wasn’t completely a user friendly setup. Our TV is ancient, though. The thing literally weighs like 100 lbs.
I wanted to get rid of Bandit for MONTHS. Seriously, I was desperate to get rid of him. He came at a time in my life where I was already under a lot of stress. I guess there’s something to be said about waiting things out. 🙂
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I also have Tivo and love it!
I love that picture of Bandit looking up at you. 🙂
Back in September I won lottery tickets to see Hamilton. Only I got a bit bored and left during the intermission. I will watch it again this week.
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I remember you not being thrilled by Hamilton! I did really enjoy it. But sometimes you just have to be in the right mood.
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I guess I was expecting it to be like a “regular” musical. I’ve seen The Lion King (various times), Cats, Aida, and Phantom of the Opera so Hamilton was very different.
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I knew it wasn’t a regular musical. We both really liked it, though.
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Haha, I did not know that and that is why I was very surprised. Oh well.
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Congrats on your virtual race! Its nice to be able to do those races when you want and where you want. Although these days its really tough to find a day with decent weather anyway!
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I was lucky to finally get a decent day (or Darlene didn’t think it was that great).
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It’s hot here in PA too, Judy. Incredibly, I passed 2 women running in long tights this morning! Wowzers, that has to be HOT!
Thanks for sharing photos of your Lola and Bandit. It gave me my “dog fix” and made me smile this morning.
Going to check out your meditation video right now.
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Tights? Really! I’ve seen that a few times in hot races & usually on young girls with great bodies — oh well, whatever floats your boat, I guess.
I’m glad the photos didn’t make you sad. Cats & cat photos still make me somewhat sad & it’s been about 18 months since we lost Giz. Of course, that may also have something to do with not having any cats.
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I just had to put my new Garmin into service. My old 735 went bonkers and I had to admit it was over. Oh well.
It’s crazy you are still celebrating seniors by you! We are almost going back to school at this point.
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My Garmin is only a year old, and it works just fine — except for this one glitch! Suddenly it’s consistently going nuts with the floors. Weird.
In the south you guys start & therefore end much earlier than us (I remember from TX). The school year doesn’t end until the end of June up here.
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I’m happy you got to see your mom. We’re planning to go see mine next weekend and I can’t wait. And you’re right, it’s going to be very hard not to hug her.
Wow, four years already with Bandit? I remember reading about the trials and tribulations you had with him when you first adopted him. He’s come a long way thanks to your patience and love.
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Have a great visit with your mom! I’m planning to try to see mine again at some point this month, because I’m not sure what will happen when the weather turns colder again. Whether or not visitors will be allowed inside. Probably not. Winter is a long time up here!
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