Book Review - Spring 2011

Spring reading: April 1st - May 31st.
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons. I am not sure where I got this book. It was interesting. The story follows the life and relationship of a grandmother, mother, and daughter and the grandmother's homeopathic healing in a rural city. I would recommend this book for something different.

The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. Great book about a restaurant in it's final summer season on Nantucket. It gives you great insight into the restaurant business with a love story. Highly recommend.

The Love Season by Elin Hilderbrand. Another book set in Nantucket about the relationships with best friends and parents. This is my 3rd Hilderbrand book and I love them all. Great fast beach reading!

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This is fictional history about Dracula and his origin. It was a long book and you had to pay attention to all the characters. It was really interesting to learn about Vlad Dracul. I definitely would recommend this book, especially for those interested in vampires!

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser. 1997 Pulitzer Prize fiction winner. An interesting book about a man with a dream of making people happy with restaurants and hotels set in the early 1900's. Unlike other PP books, this had a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. A good book if you need a change of pace.

Cleaving by Julia Powell. This is the famous Julia from Julie & Julia. It is a few years later and she is crazy! By crazy, I mean having a long term adulterous relationship, sleeping with strangers to easy her pain, and then becoming a butcher. I do enjoy her honesty, but it is a difficult book to read. She is a great narrator, just be prepared an unhappy story.

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. A book about Elizabeth I before she became queen. It is a historical fiction. If you love the Royals, this is a great book!

Enjoy!
-ELH

Happy Birthday Auntie

I hope you have an amazing day today!

xoxox
ELH

Thursdays run

Right now, running is really hard for me. I don't know what is going on, but my legs feel tired the whole time and can't get into a rhythm. I did stop and walk way too much and had to adjust my socks because I was starting to get a blister. Fun times! Hopefully, this funk won't last much longer.
9miles in 1:16.26
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:18
Mile 2 - 8:18
Miles 3 - 8:24
Mile 4 - 8:32
Mile 5 - 8:28
Mile 6 - 8:27
Mile 7 - 8:31
Mile 8 - 8:35
Mile 9 - 8:48

Cool down walk with Molly - 0.67miles in 14:35.
Enjoy!
ELH

Workout update

Sorry for the lack of posts - painting is hard work and we have been busy with family and friends. Then blogger had problems. I know, lame!

Tuesday, May 17th - off day since I painted for ~10hrs!! Painting the hallway and dining room. Lots of work...

Wednesday, May 18th - I am starting some of my marathon prep...trying to get up to speed for the real training that will start soon. I am going to run 3 days a week and cross-train another 2 days. The three runs will be a long run, a short temp run, and then a speed run. The speed run is actually going to be fast 30sec pick-ups after a 40-50 min run. I like this idea because my legs will be fatigued. I was inconsistent with the track workouts for my 1/2 training, so I am hoping the pick-ups will keep me motivated. Today was my first pick-up run. I did 4miles -
Mile 1 - 8:14
Mile 2 - 7:59
Mile 3 - 8:19
Mile 4 - 7:55 (still having problems with consistency...argg!)
Pick-ups - 30sec fast run, 60sec easy walk - 5 times.
33 sec - 0.08miles with a pace of 7:02
32 sec - 0.08 miles with a pace of 6:47
31 sec - 0.07 miles with a pace of 7:25
31 sec - 0.09 miles with a pace of 6:04
31 sec - 0.08 miles with a pace of 6:36
total miles was 4.83. I liked the pick-ups, but again need to be consistent!!!
Cool down with Molly - 0.51miles in 10:51.

Thursday, May 19th - another off day because of more painting...only painted for ~8hrs. My hands hurt.

Friday, May 20th - 9miles in 1:14.51 - this was my longest run in awhile. It was hard and I did have to walk a few too many times to catch my breath and because my legs were tired. It was also hot. I started at 8am. I guess I have to move to 7am start time!
Mile 1 - 8:37
Mile 2 - 8:11
Mile 3 - 8:21 (this is the hilly mile, pretty happy with this time!)
Mile 4 - 8:06
Mile 5 - 8:15
Mile 6 - 8:22
Mile 7 - 8:14
Mile 8 - 8:17
Mile 9 - 8:20
Cool down with Molly - 0.54miles in 10:54.

Saturday, May 21st - Brunch with friends and then we walked around downtown in the heat, supporting our local hockey team. The owners are trying to sell the team :(

Sunday, May 22nd - More painting....5hrs! followed by our nieces 1st ballet recital and GAH's playoff soccer game. They lost :(

Monday, May 23rd - Just and easy 4.17mile run in 33:53 and some good ab work after.
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:13
Mile 2 - 8:08
Mile 3 - 8:03
Mile 4 - 8:04
0.17 with a pace of 8:01.
Nice splits!
Cool down with Molly - 0.53miles in 10:09.
Very happy with this.

Tuesday, May 24th - Cross-training workout and some yard work. Compact chain 10 -> 5 reps (repeat 10reps at the end) with 10lb weights. 7 times - 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 fast squats. I decided to do this outside and was eaten alive by the bugs! Good times!

Wednesday, May 25th - pilates core challenge and lots of house cleaning! The house is coming together. I will post pictures soon!

Tomorrow is going to be a long run. Somewhere in the range of 10miles.
Enjoy!
-ELH

Wedding

Last weekend we went to a really lovely wedding. The church was covered in pictures of the bride and groom and their families. It was a wonderful event.
This is one of my favorite pictures...love the shoes and the colorful flowers!Enjoy!
ELH

Happy Birthday...

to my 10 year old nephew!!

I hope you have an amazing birthday!

xoxox
Aunt E and Uncle G

Monday's run

Monday, May 16th - Getting back into running!
6.01 miles in 50:27.
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:39 (pacing myself)
Mile 2 - 8:28
Mile 3 - 8:46 (this is the big hill. At one point my pace was 9:14!)
Mile 4 - 8:11
Mile 5 - 8:12
Mile 6 - 8:06
The last half felt really good. I am trying to control my breathing, the first half had lots of hills so this was difficult. The second half I got into a good groove.
After, Molly and I walked 0.54 miles in 10:18.

Now on to paint prepping....
Enjoy!
ELH

Last weeks workout review

Sorry for the lack of posts. I was going to write one but blogger was down:( and then life happened.

Sunday, May 8th - off/rest day! It was a nice lazy day full of Water for Elephants, dinner with my Aunt and Uncle, and then hockey! Love the Red Wings!!

Monday, May 9th - boot camp with Stephanie. I am trying to work on increasing my plank time, so I passed on the mile run.
32 push-ups in 2 min.
10min plank!
Then we did lots of walking lunges, step-ups on a park bench, and calf raises. My legs felt like mush the next day!

Tuesday, May 10th - Bikram yoga! I decided to walk to class. 90min of hot yoga and 3.37miles of walking. Great workout, but very tired.

Wednesday, May 11th - boot camp with Stephanie.
34 push-ups in 2min
~4ish min of plank - I was playing with different positions and just stopped when the last person was done.
1 mile run - 6:55!!! This is my best mile time! Very exciting.
We did some compact chains with 10lb weights. I did 10 reps -> 8 reps.
3min of 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 fast squats. My best is 3 sets and 5 push-ups. This time I did 3 sets, 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, and 1 fast squats. Improvement!!

Thursday, May 12th - Run day. It was really hot, so I had a few walk breaks. I did stop my watch during the breaks. I did 4.42 miles in 35:12.
Splits -
Mile 1 - 7:53
Mile 2 - 7:59
Mile 3 - 7:57
Mile 4 - 8:03
Last 0.42 had a pace of 7:51.
It didn't feel as good as the times are. Need to work on this.
After I "coached" the beginning running work.
We did 3 min easy run, 3 min walk, 3 x {6min run, 3min walk}, and then walk back to our cars. We did 3.30 miles in 44:21. Pretty good!

Friday, May 13th - off/rest day! I needed it.

Saturday, May 14th - We had an early wedding, so I just took Molly for a walk. 1.75 miles in 31:04. We did a lot of eating and drinking, so Sunday turned into an off/rest day!
Enjoy!
ELH

New Bed

When we were looking at paint colors for the guestroom we noticed that the bed had some mold growing on it! Gross!! I have never seen GAH act so quickly. The bed was in the carport with in minutes!
We went searching the internet for deals on mattresses with cheap delivery fees. We checked out Overstock.com and found a bed with great reviews, in our price range, and shipping was $1! Yes, $1. Very exciting.
The reviews said the mattress comes rolled up like a burrito and takes a few minutes (some said days) to fully expand. Intriguing. GAH was home to receive the package and took some cell phone camera shots. Kind of neat! Yes, we are a little nerdy!
It took only a few minutes to fully expand. I did take a nap on it and slept on it one night. For a guest bed, that gets little use, it seems perfect!

Enjoy the pics!
-ELH

In the box.

Rolled up tightly!

Not sure about this...

Ah! Looks comfy.

Red Paint

As you know, I am slowly painting the inside of our house. 2 rooms done! Dining room, living room, hallway, and Master bedroom are left to do. We originally pick "cappuccino" for the dining room (it has Wainscoting that is white and will get a fresh coat of "cream"), hallway (chair rail will also be "cream" with cappuccino above and below), and living room (no chair rail or Waisscoting).

But what about the Master? Currently it is a brown and white (like our guest bedroom) and we had picked out "peanut butter" to paint it. After talking to my in-laws the recommendation is that we need a color besides brown in the Master, especially since the other rooms are colorful. My parents, really wouldn't be much help with colors, since every wall in their house is white-white!! Granted, the house is old and has plaster walls instead of drywall, I think it looks very nice with the hardwood floors. Colored walls wouldn't fit the age of the house. I digress.

MIL suggested red! Our bedding has red flowers on it - just small accents, which you can see from the picture. She suggested taking a the sham to Home Depot and color matching the red. The bedding is Martha Stewart, so we might be able to find a paint chip online...

We do have cranberry colored and chocolate brown sheets that we rotate. So red walls might look good. GAH thinks the whole wall should be red. I am not on board with that. Fortunately, we don't have any "empty" walls. Two walls have large bedroom furniture on them (cherry wood), the other has the bed, and the last has 4 large closet doors, so the red shouldn't be too overwhelming.

What are you thoughts on our plan? Any advice about red paint??

The next paint project is going to be the hallway and dining room, so you have plenty of time to let me know your thoughts about red paint! and for me to post some before pics.

Enjoy!

ELH

Saturday's run

Today, we decided to do 6miles. 2 miles easy warm-up, 2 miles fast at 7:35 pace, 2 miles easy.
We were sort of successful.
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:35
Mile 2 - 8:19 (too fast!)
Mile 3 - 7:55 (pretty much all up hill!)
Mile 4 - 7:30
Mile 5 - 9:48 (tired legs and a huge hill that I walked up)
Mile 6 - 8:29

Happy with it, but want to work on being more consistent.

Hope you all have a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow!
-ELH

Workout review

Monday, May 2nd - Boot camp with Stephanie
Mile run 7:18 - I didn't have my running buddy Mike who helps push me to under 7min. I was the lead runner...
32 push-ups in 2 min
5 min plank
Weights - 10lbs - Did lots of arm work and my arms are feeling it.


Tuesday, May 3rd - Bikram yoga! This class was really hard for me. I pushed myself and at the end I was exhausted and soaked.

Wednesday, May 4th - More boot camp
Mile run 6:57 - no Mike, but a husband/wife team was there. The husband is like 5min/mile runner and the wife was on my heels the whole time. It was great motivation! Thanks!!
36 push-up in 2min
5 min plank - think it is time to start increasing that time. The record is held by a middle schooler at 21+min. I had the record at 20+min. I want it back!!
3min of jumping jacks. I don't know about you ladies, but my bladder hates jumping jacks! Not fun.
We did lots of arm work with our weights (10lbs) to finish the class.

Thursday, May 5th - Running
I did 4.42miles in 35:59
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:06
Mile 2 - 8:13
Mile 3 - 8:10
Mile 4 - 8:06
and the last 0.42 had a pace of 7:57
I guess I wasn't as tired as I thought! It was pretty windy, so this is great!

I then "coached" the beginning running group at work. Today's workout was -
3min walk
3min run easy
10 x (2min run, 1 min walk)
3min walk

We did 2.67 miles in 36:07.

Friday, May 6th - off day!

Enjoy!
-ELH

office

I am painting the inside of our house. I finished the guest bedroom and the office in the last two weeks. It was a lot of prep work and really waiting for paint to dry before the next step!
I am very happy with how everything came out.
The office was a yellow baby's room before GAH bought the house and we decided to keep it yellow. GAH had the 8 color crayon box growing up, so we have a small pallet to work with!
On a side note - the master bedroom is tan and cream colored which matches our light brown and red bedding. GAH is campaigning for red instead of the tan! Have to think about that more...

On to the before and prep pictures -
The walls were full of holes and painted over pealed paint, so we had lots of mud work...

After....
The blue chair is the only chair the cats are allowed to scratch (GAH would like it to be noted that they scratch other furniture)! It is disgusting (reason for the blanket), but it serves a purpose.I did hang up our diplomas and we still need window treatments. Previously there were metal mini blinds and drop cloth type curtains - GROSS! Any suggestions??

-ELH

April Mileage

I ran 34.80 miles in April. This is about half of what I have been doing, but I am not upset about this. My left foot has been bothering me and I was giving my body some running rest.

Total for the year - 244.45 miles!!
Enjoy!
ELH

Workout update

Monday, April 25th - 1st day of prepping the office for painting. I spent many hours sanding and cleaning the walls. No really workout, but I was sweaty from all my effort!

Tuesday, April 26th - I did my own version of boot camp!
6min of 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 fast squats. I did 7 rounds and 5 push-ups in the 7 mins. An improvement of 5 push-ups compared to last week.
Followed by the Compact Chain with 10 lb. weights, starting at 10 reps, going down to 5 reps, and repeating 10 reps.
I finished the workout with a set of abs. Felt pretty good during the whole workout.

Wednesday, April 27th - Pilates core challenge in the morning and then a walk with Molly and GAH before meeting friends for dinner. We did 1.77miles in 37 min - it was hot and Molly got tired and walked slow towards the end.

Thursday, April 28th - off day. Lots of manual work. Sanded the walls, washed the walls, painted the second coat of yellow paint, painted the 1st coat of white on the base boards, doors, and window. I also made Ina Garden's Chicken Bouillabaisse for dinner! It was a long day.

Friday, April 29th - Went for a run and a very fast paced "cool down" walk with Molly and GAH. It was my first run is almost a week. It was hard, but felt good. Need to get my head back into running...marathon training starting soon!
Splits
Mile 1 - 8:09
Mile 2 - 8:17
Mile 3 - 8:16
Mile 4 - 8:05
4miles in 32:49

Cool-down walk was 1.77miles in 30min (7min faster than Wednesday's walk!)

Saturday, April 30th - Walking with GAH and Molly. 2.13 miles in 40:42. I also finished putting the office back together!

Sunday, May 1st - Running with Stephanie. We did 6.02 miles in 50:00. The course was very hilly and it killed me. I had to stop and catch my breath at 3.5miles (the first half was downhill....) I couldn't get my breathing under control. I am sure we will and this route to our training plan!
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:01
Mile 2 - 8:20
Mile 3 - 8:03
Mile 4 - 8:25
Mile 5 - 8:23
Mile 6 - 8:35

This week is full of workouts and no painting!
Enjoy
-ELH

Happy Birthday...

to my nephew Lukie!!Hope you have an amazing day!

xoxox
Aunt and Uncle E & G