19 December 2012

Where's the love for Android?

So there is a really cool app that I would like to download but apparently it's only for the *I* market.......come on creators, designers, and companies, there is more to the phone market than the iphone, give us android owners some love already.

Oh and the app in question that has sparked this grumbly post? The Stylebook app! Check it out, if they ever get around to making it available for my phone's operating system I am downloading it immediately.  While there sign up on the waiting list so hopefully they will get around to creating one much, much, much sooner. Huge thanks to the always well turned out and immensely talented author Gail Carriger via her Retro Rack blog for creating this want, nay NEED, for something I can't have.

13 December 2012

Overdoing it?

I might be overdoing it on the music posts but I'm kind of excited about finding some new to me tunes after being a bit stagnant in that department for a few months.  Hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am.



Don't these two sound gorgeous together? 

10 December 2012

It only hurts for a short time

Wasn't it just a few days ago I was rambling on about PB's vs PR's? Why yes, I think it was ;-).  Anyway this past weekend I decided on the down low to tag along with Speedy Girl to her 5k even though I can't really afford any luxuries right now.........and yes a race is a luxury at the moment after all of Elsie's vet bills this fall, I am still trying to dig myself out of that and she needs to go back for another round of antibiotics and tests. However it was kind of nice treating myself to a race after so long and I was kind of curious about where I am at competition running wise.  

This brings me to the race......it was the first annual Frozen Feet 5k in Conway, AR and while the weather didn't quite cooperate with the race name it was certainly kind of nice to not be freezing while standing around waiting on start time.  It was slightly humid but the sun stayed behind the clouds so that kept the temperature down to a manageable level.  Since it was a spur of the moment kind of decision I hadn't looked up any race info until we were on our way over and it was a bit of sticker shock to find out the registration was $30, fairly steep for a 5k.  We didn't get any shirts that morning but they did say they would send them to us, the junior auxiliary was trying not to have any overages which I can't blame them for and while I'm not necessarily wanting to add to my collection I do want a shirt for that price!  

The course ended up being a familiar one since they used the Women Can Run 5k route! Can't say I blame them since it is already marked and all but darn it those 13 turns are a pain in the arse especially when you are trying to shave off as much time as possible.  As usual there was a jackrabbit start but I just let them go and did my own pace since I was fairly sure the super quick start would catch up to most of them within the first mile.  Just settled in and started reeling people in, listening to their labored breathing as I did so.  It ended up being a smaller race and I was able to keep track of where I was at and where Speedy Girl was at--I know I could never keep up with her but was wanting to know where her position was at because I knew she would be either 1st or 2nd female overall.  

As the first 2 miles clicked by I was feeling strong and while I was working hard I wasn't in the state that most people around me were judging by their breathing.  It was just after mile 2 that I started feeling my right shoe lace starting to loosen up--the shoes I was wearing are bad about coming untied but I had triple-knotted them prior to the race but evidently it wasn't enough, I kept running on but it got loose enough that I had to stop and re-tie it with 4/10 of a mile left to go, and two girls and a guy that I'd passed zoomed by me.  Unfortunately it was the shoe that I'd attached the chip to and I had no choice but to stop, visions of the shoe flying off into someone's yard and having to chase it down was haunting me lol.  

So a very quick stop to lace a shoe and then I was up and after the trio, no way was I gonna let them finish ahead of me!  I do think it surprised them that I caught up and passed so quickly but I was on a mission and I was highly peeved at myself and my shoes........it was at this point that the finish line clock came into sight and I saw the seconds in the 40s clicking down (up?) and heard Speedy Girl yelling at me that I was 3rd female so I managed to find another burst of speed and pushed on as hard as possible because no way did I want that to turn over into the next minute!  Talk about hitting the puke zone, ugh.

My previous 5k pr of 23:20 was set back in 2009 and the Women Can Run race on the same course back in the spring was 23:53 so I was hoping for a sub 23 best case scenario.........my official chip time Saturday was 21:50, a personal record of 1:30!!!!!!!!!!!! I never dreamed I could hit sub 22, it is still mind-boggling that I did it and that's with losing 10-15 seconds because of the damn shoe lace.  My splits for the first 2 miles were fairly even (6:56 and 6:54), mile 3 would have been close to the same--there's a huge spike upward in the graph from my garmin.   And yes, I placed 3rd overall female which was a minute and one second behind S.G. who took 2nd.  I am extremely appreciative of her sharing her training and schedule with me because it kept me pushing hard when I had no reason to do so and certainly toughened me up mentally. 


09 December 2012

Earworm!

I think I might have a new earworm obsession in the form of Willy Moon. Warning: there is "adult" language so be careful about clicking play in the presence of kids or those easily offended ;-).




05 December 2012

PB vs PR

So I do a little bit of running here and there--you might have noticed from my sidebar that there's not much in the way of racing going on but I still like to get out and do a nice little speed workout occasionally to remind the legs how it feels to go fast (relatively speaking).  My training partner by the way is just a wee bit on the fast side--she was first overall female in a recent half marathon at a pace per mile that is faster than my 5k personal record--so when I do a specialized workout with her my goal is to at least try and keep her within sight (usually doesn't happen, lol).  Today ended up being a 1 mile full out after a warmup, recovery slog, then a half mile full out again............My personal record for the mile distance is 6:43, well today I managed to eke out a 6:35, not a record since it wasn't a race but most definitely a personal best.  Why yes, I was quite stoked to see that time, at least after I got my breathing back under control.  Even better was that I did a 3:10 half mile after the recovery slog (slow jog).  Yes, my friend's time were quite a bit faster but hey, a person has to have a "rabbit" right? Makes me wonder what I could do in a 5k right now.

02 December 2012

Movie recommendation

Stumbled across a great indie horror film while browsing through Netflix last night during my bout of insomnia.  Not too heavy on the gore, fantastic acting by the entire cast and WOW, I did not recognize Kelly McGillis until the credits were rolling!!!!!!



"Stake Land"

The Second Hand Pledge

This is such an awesomely cool idea from The Citizen Rosebud.  More and more of my wardrobe is consisting of vintage and second hand items (especially the leather garments) so this definitely fits in with my current lifestyle.  Even a favorite pair of boots was purchased at a vintage shop in the UK last fall.

How about you, will you take the shop second hand first pledge too?

http://www.thecitizenrosebud.com/p/blog-page.html


Hi there December

Can you believe it's December already? Where ever has the time gone? After a couple of weeks of late-fall, early winter temps Mother Nature has decided that we needed some spring-like days here in the south.  I'm not going to complain too terribly much because I've been constantly shivering due to keeping the thermostat set at 68F in order to save money.  Yes, I realize that's not cold to some people but I also keep the air conditioning temp set at 75-78F during the summer so this is a bit of a shock to my system.  And how nice was it to be able to run outside in shorts and a jog bra comfortably on the first day of December........yep, not complaining at all, lol.

I had a gorgeous picture to download from a Thanksgiving walk but apparently I've exceeded my 1 gig storage limit so no photos until I get that sorted out.  Oh, and no promises about how often I am going to update the blog because that's certainly worked out so well in the past, HA!

In the meantime, enjoy a song from The Heavy that was featured on last season's "Being Human".  Good stuff, both the song and the show (one of the few I have the patience to watch).