See Diva Run

Our roof has been in need of replacement for a few years. Mr Diva replaced the garage roof a couple years ago, but it took him 2 years to complete the project. This led to the occasional outbreak of marital hostilities until the job was done. At which point it became my job to find a roofer. Last year, roofers were so buy they didn’t return calls. This year, the roof started leaking, but I was so busy, I wasn’t making the call. This week, a roofer left a business card on our porch. He lives on our street and business has slowed because of the economy, so he did a little networking by leaving cards on porches. I e-mailed him late that evening, he came by and gave us an estimate the next day, and the following day the roof was replaced. The whole process was amazing to me because if the house were on fire, Mr Diva would probably still wait until the last minute to get up and leave. All of this quickness was impressive. Fast, professional and well done. If you are in the Seattle - Everett - Snohomish area and in need of a new roof, I highly recommend Allways Roofing. Leave a message if you need their contact info.

Last week I went to boot up my laptop, but it never got beyond the HP screen. This happened to me in 2004 right before the hard drive failed. I learned a valuable/painful lesson about taking backups. I decided it was time to start looking for a replacement, and decided to go with the Dell XPS M1530, preloaded with Ubuntu. For you non-geeks, Ubuntu is a variant of the Linux operating system. Diva doesn’t do Windows I’ve installed Suse Linux on my last few laptops, which has worked well for the most part, with the exception of being able to play DVDs or use my wireless card. I’m happy to report that my new laptop does those things quite nicely. I also bought a Western Digital My World Book hard drive which is accessible over the network, so I can back every computer in the house up to it. We have a lot of computers, so this is a good thing. I’ve successfully moved all 10,000 digital photos to my new laptop, and to the backup drive!

This was my second week of Focus-N-Fly. I got into trouble on Tuesday when I didn’t check the schedule and ran 3×7:00 instead of 3×6:00 at maintenance pace. I wasn’t feeling great to begin with, and that didn’t help. I ran 3×6:00 on Thursday, but was feeling good on Saturday so I opted for the 3×7:00. Next week calls for an increase, but I think I’ll do one more 3×7:00 before I move up. I’m being overly cautious, but I really don’t want to start over again. Better to be careful.

Today was a beautiful day. I walked downtown to have lunch at Grilla Bites with my friend Michelle. She gave me a ride home just in time for my walk with Cherl. Where did we go? Back downtown. I got 8.5 miles of walking in today. Right now walking is much more satisfying than running.

Wishing you all a good week. I promise I’ll use my new laptop to visit your blogs soon!

Last 7 Days

* You exercised 10 times on 6 days, for 7.1 hours, and a total of 31.38 miles.
* You did flexibility 1 times on 1 days, for 0.2 hours.
* You did other (rowing) 2 times on 2 days, for 1.1 hours.
* You ran 3 times on 3 days, for 2.1 hours, and a total of 11.28 miles.
* You did strength training 2 times on 2 days, for 0.5 hours.
* You walked 2 times on 2 days, for 3.2 hours, and a total of 10 miles.

As I mentioned in the “I Heart Brooks” post, I won a 90 day membership in the Focus-N-Fly training program. After reading their information, I wasn’t sure if it was something I can use, as I’m hardly in shape to be training for a race. I wrote and explained my injury issues to them, and that I wasn’t really concerned with training for a race so much as I want to return to running without getting hurt again. To my surprise, I got a lovely e-mail from Tom, asking for information about my injuries and running history. He thought he was overwhelming me with questions until I overwhelmed him with answers, including some to questions he didn’t ask! He created a plan for me that fits into my existing schedule of rowing 3 times and running 3 times. The biggest difference is that he has me running a little faster, with walk breaks mixed in. I finished my first week of the program, and felt pretty good about it. I still can tell that things aren’t right on my right side, but they aren’t really bothering me during the workouts.

Last 7 Days

* You exercised 10 times on 6 days, for 5.4 hours, and a total of 25.74 miles.
* You did flexibility 2 times on 2 days, for 0.6 hours.
* You did other 2 times on 2 days, for 1 hours.
* You ran 3 times on 3 days, for 1.9 hours, and a total of 10.08 miles.
* You did strength training 1 times on 1 days, for 0.4 hours.
* You walked 2 times on 2 days, for 1.5 hours, and a total of 4.86 miles.

On Tuesday I ran my first workout, which included a warm-up, followed by 3×5 minutes at maintenance pace, with 1 minute walk breaks, followed by a cool down. On Thursday I ran 3×6@maintenance. I repeated that on Saturday. Next week, I’ll go to 7 minutes. I’m rowing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (I worked late and missed this Friday). I got 1 Triathilates workout in, too. It was my best week since January.

My apologies for dropping off the blog radar again. When I get my workouts in, it pretty much eliminates my online time. Working late, and technical difficulties with the laptop didn’t help! I hope you are all well and enjoying spectacular runs. I look forward to reading about them when I start catching up!

I was in a committed relationship with Brooks running shoes for a long time, but I allowed myself to be seduced by the Nike+ system. I had quite a fling with Nike, which culminated in “the Portland adventure“. Flings are fun, but they aren’t permanent. When it ended, Brooks was willing to take me back. As a sign of my devotion, I joined the “Brooks Run Happy” program last fall.

Each week they give prizes to the people who run the happiest (which is to say, the most), but they also have random winners. I only managed to get one workout in last week, but I was still selected as the random winner. How cool is that? I got to choose an item from the Brooks Nitelife line. It was a tough choice because they have a lot of great stuff. Since I have a lot of reflective clothing for cold weather, I decided to go with the Nitelife Tee, which would also look pretty good during the day!

In addition to the Nitelife item, I won a 90 day membership to the Focus N Fly training program. Maybe they can keep me running without injury for 90 days. That would be pretty cool!

I think I’m finally over the flu that has been keeping me down for the last couple of weeks. The 22 hour work day probably didn’t help I was so excited about my win, that I was motivated to hit the rowing machine for 33 minutes, and then do some strength & flexibility work. The plan is to try a run on the treadmill Tuesday after work. My last run was on 2/21, so I’ll be starting over again.