Friday, June 23, 2006

This is a quick post from the road. So far I'm managing to get my miles in even though I'm traveling for work.

To recap this week...
Tuesday - 4 miles
Wednesday - 6 miles
Thursday - 6 miles

Here are the totals...
June goal - 77
Miles walked so far - 61
Miles to go - 16

Monday, June 19, 2006

What's green and goes "squish, squish" ???


Me on my walk on Sunday. It POURED on Julie and me yesterday. Fortunately, I remembered to bring my green emergency rain poncho. 89 cents from Target's camping section....great idea, self (patting myself on the back). But the poncho only fell to my waist, so my lower half was soaking wet, including my shoes and socks. At least I was better off than Julie who almost lost her contacts because so much water was pouring down into her eyes. We managed to walk 6 miles in the downpour. Then later that day after I dried out and changed clothes, I went back to Target and bought six more ponchos. Bring it on!!!!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Got in another 6 miles today. I'm meeting Julie at the little Econ on Sunday for another 10 miler.

June goal - 77 miles
Walked so far - 35
Miles to go - 42

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

June goal - 77 miles
Walked so far - 29
Miles to go - 48

Silly Alberto has prevented me from walking outdoors....so I did 10 miles on my treadmill today....the most miles I've ever walked on my treadmill. In fact, when the time display got to 99 minutes, it just automatically shut down - which surprised the heck out of me! Here I was trucking along and BAM....it stopped! :) I found the 10 miles on the treadmill to be much more of a mental than a physical challenge. Physically I could have gone much longer than 10 miles, but mentally I was going a bit crazy! I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon & American Beauty to pass the time.

Lightening and Wind and Rain, Oh My!


5:00 this morning was when we first felt the impact of Alberto reaching Florida. We awoke to torrential rains, crazy wind, thunder and lightening. It felt like a movie set where they generate the effect of a hurricane. No damage and we never lost power, but it was enough to keep us up until about 5:50 am, at which time we feel back to sleep.

Alberto is bringing heaving rains to Orlando all day today, so I'd better get my treadmill set up if I hope to get any miles in. And let me tell you, I NEED to get miles in!

Yesterday afternoon I got a little freaked about the storm so I went grocery shopping and stocked up. Taking my groceries out to the car, I got caught in a DOWNPOUR that left me soaked to the bone. My poor groceries got soaked, too. I'm still getting used to the quantity of rain we get in Florida. It's amazing.

I managed to drain some water out of our pool yesterday to accommodate the heavy rains. It turned out to be simple. I was just afraid that I'd get the water draining and then wouldn't be able to stop it. You're NEVER supposed to completely drain pools in Florida because our water table is so low that an empty pool will essentially turn into a boat and float out of the ground. The water is what holds the pool in the ground. If your pool pops out of the ground, you're looking at a minimum of $50k to repair it. Ouch!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Welcome Alberto

We have our first named storm of the season...tropical storm Alberto. In honor of Alberto, I shampooed my hair. I managed to get in 5.5 miles today before the pre-Alberto storm rolled over our house. I'm trying to not care about hurricanes (although my nervous nature makes this a bit tricky sometimes). There's nothing I can do about them. If a hurricane comes, oh well. I've got my food, my water, my tarps, my flash lights, my emergency radio, and my hurricane and flood insurance....so bring it on Alberto! Just don't dump 30 inches of rain on our house in 1 day like you did in Cuba, that would suck. To put that into perspective, Seattle gets an average of 38 inches of rain per YEAR....parts of Cuba just got 30 inches in 1 DAY. Oy.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Remind me why I agreed to walk 60 miles?

Sometimes breast cancer is the only motivation I can find to lace up my walking shoes and drag my lazy butt out the door. I really should have done this 60 mile walk before I moved to Florida.

I did 5 miles yesterday and thought I was going to DIE. It was 90 degrees with humidity and the route I walk has zero shade with blacktop that radiates heat back at you. I know I have to train in hot conditions because that is exactly what I'll be facing during the actual 60 mile walk...but DAMN it sucks!!!

I travel to Seattle a lot for work and when I go on walks in Seattle it is soooo much nicer than Florida. I can do 5 miles in Seattle without even breaking a sweat. But in Florida, by the time I get back to the house I'm verging on heat exhaustion and my face could easily be mistaken for an over-ripe beefsteak tomato with a severe sweating problem. At this point I really don't know how I'll handle a 15 mile training walk in weather like this. But, I'll keep at it and maybe I'll get used to it.

My training goal for June is 77 miles and I'm pathetically behind schedule. Between my travel schedule, my cold, and the unbearably hot weather, I've only managed to squeeze in a measly 13.5 miles so far. By Sunday night I hope to bump that number up to 25 miles. Wish me luck.

June goal - 77
Miles walked so far - 13.5
Miles to go - 63.5

Monday, June 05, 2006

Guess who's back????

I'm back from 2 weeks in Seattle. And what did Seattle give me? A terrible cold!!! So tomorrow morning I'm pounding the pavement again after 1+ week(s) of minimal walking. It's heating up in Central Florida, so I'm going to walk early tomorrow morning.

We just had a thunder storm and the pool water is reaching dangerously high levels. I hope to drain some water out of the pool tomorrow. I am a bit nervous about this, as I've never done it before. When we lived in the rental house I could have cared less how high or low the pool water level was....it wasn't my pool nor my house! But now that I actually own the darn thing, I guess I'd better take care of it! And not that I don't value my hubby's contributions to this family, but staying on top of household issues such as the pool water level aren't high on his priority list...which I totally understand. It just means more work for me...boo hoo

I just heard on the news that over 2,300 strikes of lightening have hit Orlando during this evening's thunder storm. During the storm my hubby was - jokingly - trying to get me to run around outside with a mouthfull of tin foil while swinging a golf club. Silly hubby!

I'm getting some quotes on some other projects around the house - painting the exterior, installing a paver patio, landscaping, irrigation system, exterior lighting, interior lighting, etc. So many projects! I also have to get the house re-keyed this week. We're getting all new door knobs and locks as well. The previous owners had sub-par taste and we're sick of looking at bright yellow fake brass knobs.

'bout time for bed!