Lisa: Training, Weeks 9-12

I have not given up on the marathon training, or on blogging--I promise. But it has been a bit of a bumpy road.

4/11/06
Sarah and I ran four miles at Sugarhouse Park.

4/12/06
Sarah and I were supposed to run 7 miles along Highland Drive, starting at my house, but she fell asleep downstairs in the cave bedroom, I fell asleep on the upstairs couch, and Blake fell asleep on the downstairs couch. There was no functional, alarm-regulated sleep to be had by anyone. Ugh. Once we woke up, we ran as far as we could along Highland while still getting to work on time. It ended up being about five and a half miles.

4/14/06
We may or may not have run four miles at Sugarhouse Park on Friday. Neither Sarah nor I has any recollection of this, but it is on the schedule and I choose to believe that we went.

4/15/06
On Saturday morning, Sarah and I ran from the church on Holladay Boulevard to the end of the marathon route, which makes fourteen miles. Running on Saturday morning instead of Sunday night was good, but I think we both felt pretty crappy by the end. The crappiness was compounded by the fact that we figured out several days later that we should have checked the calendar, because instead of going 12, 13, and then 14 miles, we were supposed to have done 12, 14, and then 16. DOUBLE UGH.
For our carb-rich treat, we had Jamba Juices and bagel sandwiches from Einsteins. Delicious, but I felt a bit sick afterward.

4/20/06
We ran five miles at Sugarhouse Park, which is three and a half times around. We haven't figured out a better five-mile route to run regularly, so for now we are just walking across the center of the park back to the car once we finish the last half-lap.

For the rest of week 10, we decided to take a break. We were both busy, but more importantly I think we were feeling pretty burned out and discouraged. We were hoping that if we took a few runs off, we would return for week 11 rested, rejuvenated, and recommitted.

4/25/06
On our first day back on schedule, Sarah and I ran our five miles at Sugarhouse Park.

4/27/06
On Thursday night, we ran eight miles along the marathon route, starting at the beginning and finishing up at La Puente. I felt great! At the beginning, the running felt natural and easy, and I felt like I was really able to push the pace for the first time in a while. It was a great confidence builder to have a good longish run again--I think this was one of my top two runs, along with the five-miler on March 10.
129 lbs, 27% body fat

4/28/06
Just like that run on March 10, we followed the great evening run with a short run the very next morning, which is a bad idea. We knew what we were getting into this time, but because of scheduling issues this was the best plan we could come up with. Anyway, we were supposed to go five miles at Sugarhouse, but since I felt like I had about five tiny, simultaneous sideaches and a broken knee, I only made it 2.8.

4/29/06
On Saturday morning Sarah and I ran sixteen miles (back on schedule!) from La Puente to 9th South and State Street. We decided in advance--before Thursday's run, actually--to incorporate some walking in a structured way. We walk two minutes after every two miles. This worked out great, because the two-mile chunks seemed really manageable, especially when compared to the entire run. We were still running by the time we got to the car! Unfortunately it took us about four hours to run the sixteen miles, which seems really slow. I felt that we were keeping a pretty good pace, though, so I'm not going to worry about it too much.
For our carb-rich treat we had fresh raspberry shakes from Shivers. Yum!

5/3/06
To start off week 12, I ran five miles at Sugarhouse, which took about an hour and five minutes. My hair was too unbelievably hideous to be photographically archived, so instead you get to see one of the beautiful trees that was in blossom along the loop.

Sarah: How to Charm Me...

Refer to your rigidly structured Monday evenings as "Jack Bauer Hour."

Sarah: To My Big Brother

About a week and a half ago, my older brother Dave graduated with a degree in Physics.

Dave, I'm so proud of you. You were a great student, and you have never ceased to amaze me from a very young age with your varied talents and abilities. You have been a great big brother, since I was a baby and you'd sing the "I Love You" song to me, til you got me involved in the Century magazine, which has been a great opportunity for me to explore the world of publishing, as well as meet some amazing people, and now when you still hang out with me and ask me to go shopping with you. You've been a wonderful example of a stellar student and human being. I hope someday that I can be as honest about who I am, as kind to others, and as passionate about learning and improving. Thank you for being my friend.
Love, Sarah

Sarah: Getting Better at Sewing Straight Lines

So, remember how I used to talk about how I loved to do crafts, and I was always making things out of garbage, like a mobile out of cds, and a wallet out of postal envelopes?
And then remember how I completely stopped making stuff, and almost stopped posting on this site altogether?
Well. I have regained my lust for life, and finished sewing a purse.

I used this pattern

and followed the directions for the big bag on the left, that looks like a giant tote, but is in reality a generously-sized purse. I altered the straps to be a bit wider and maybe a tiny bit longer (seriously, what was this purse creation originally? I think the answer is: short, skinny-strapped Uggo.) and didn't include the layer of polyester fleece (for increased purse rigidity?) because, well, I didn't have any on hand and couldn't be bothered to buy some.

I used fabric that had purchased several months ago for a fraction of their original price. This is a closeup on the fabric, although the brown color is much prettier in real life.

So here is the finished product:

And showing the lining and inner pocket:

Things I am learning about my camera:
1. Moving at all, by the subject or the photographer, results in a fuzzy picture that may or may not be apparent from the screen of the camera.
2. Natural light really IS needed for quality photos.
3. I still have no idea what the icons on the Menu do. Perhaps it is time to read the manual.

Sarah: Mother of Two...?

I'm playing catch-up a bit, since I've been too lazy to take pictures off of my camera, but I babysat my cousin's two kids a few weeks ago while he and his wife traveled to Mexico with their baby. The kids were great friends and very well-behaved. Look how neat they looked for church!

I love that picture of them, so i was pretty bummed that it came out so blurry. Luckily, I was able to take more clear photos when we went to the park.

All that spinning wore Samantha out, so she slept on the way home.

Cute, huh?

Lisa: Training, Weeks 12-14

5/7/06
On Sunday, Sarah and I ran from the beginning of the marathon route to my house. We were supposed to go 18 miles, but only made it nine. We ran in the hottest part of the afternoon, which was dumb, and Sarah was feeling pretty sick and dehydrated. It took us 2 hours to go the 9 miles. Even though we didn't get the whole way, we still rewarded ourselves afterward with Funfetti cake.

5/9/06
On Tuesday I ran five miles at Sugarhouse Park, which took me an hour. The horrible stick-leg/bloody stump phenomenon strikes again!

5/10/06
Sarah and I ran five miles along the marathon route, from the top of 21st South to La Puente. It took us an hour. 131 lbs, 28% body fat.

5/13/06
On Saturday, we ran 18 miles: our longest run before the marathon! It took us three hours and fifty minutes to get from La Puente to the end of the marathon route. The last few miles were pretty hard, but we did surprisingly well! I think breaking up the run into two-mile segments really helps. Thinking about adding another eight miles is a bit daunting, though. Anyway, after the run, Sarah and I shored ourselves up with shakes and fries at Canyon Rim Park. 130.5 lbs, 29% body fat.

5/16/06
I ran 5 miles at Sugarhouse again, and again my legs felt like sticks.
129 lbs, 27% body fat

5/17/06
On Wednesday, I ran four miles down Highland Drive and back, past the Cottonwood Mall, for a total of eight miles. Not a bad run at all, if lacking in scenic appeal.

5/18/06
Thursday morning I went to Sugarhouse Park, but I only made it once around the 1.4-mile loop! I don't know if it was stiffness or injury, or because I had half a jar of low-carb peanut butter on celery for dinner the night before, or what, but I could barely move my legs. It was like I had no muscle tissue at all, just little tiny tendons trying really hard to pull my leg bones around. Ugh.

5/20/06
Saturday's run was SO much better. I was in California with my mom, and I ran nine miles along the beach from Asilomar to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and back. The weather was ideal and the views were amazing. My legs were still pretty stiff, but the air felt rich and the run was totally manageable. It took me a bit less than two hours all told.

Lisa: office

Continuing the painting saga, I painted our office a few weeks ago. The color is a bright grass green, and it turned out REALLY bright. I like the color a lot, but I'm still getting used to it. It's very invigorating, which I guess is good for an office--maybe I will be lots more productive.

Here are some before and after pictures for you:

I do like how the green looks against the yellow of the hall.

When I saw the green paint with our red desk, I realized the colors matched our stuffed George and Martha perfectly! Not that there are any little Smiths on the way at the moment, but wouldn't a George and Martha nursery be AWESOME? Keep an eye out for George and Martha merchandise for me, would you?

Sarah: Obi Wan For Century

Dave asked me to create packaging for the magazines that different members of our magazine staff have worked on. I thought it would be cool to have obi-inspired "belts" around the stacks of magazines.

Having recently fallen in love with Duck Cloth, I decided that this fabric would be perfect for the project: it is heavy duty, doesn't fray a lot, holds its shape well, and my local fabric store carries a variety of colors. I chose a bright red and a sage-y green. Joann's also had some skinny ribbon on sale, so I picked up a few spools (3 spools for $.99!) in the same colors.

Since I've been wanting to try out some home screen-printing, I thought this would be a great project to try out, since it'd make the packaging a little more interesting. I grabbed an image of a bonsai tree from a Google image search, and went to town using this tutorial. I didn't take any pictures of the process, just of the finished product.
Some notes on screenprinting using this tutorial:
- The Mod Podge takes many hours to dry. Dave and I both needed to wait almost 24 hours for the Mod Podge to dry before we could begin printing.
- Mod Podge is water soluble, so rinsing your screen after you screenprint (in case you wanted to save your screen for later) is not an option. Using paint or something else that would block out the screen but not wash off could be a better solution. I decided that the destruction of my screen would encourage me to make another pattern.
- It seems like more abstract patterns (like my bonsai that didn't need to be exact) did better than more precise patterns (like the words that Dave attempted to print). One could try a finer screen than $1 super-generic brand nylons.
- Do not, under any circumstances, use red Sharpie to outline your pattern on the screen. Dave and I used white screenprinting ink, and his red marker bled, making his phrase pink. No good.

I put contrasting ribbons around each obi, and offset the screenprint because... I thought it looked better that way. People were nice and acted like they liked them.

So that's the two different colors (again, the colors are prettier in real life, I keep taking pictures at night in my semi-dark apartment), a closeup on the screenprint, and then the back. At Lisa's brilliant suggestion I opted out of sewing the back shut, and instead just pressed all of the edges (yes, this was a sew-free project), and then used double-sided tape to close up the back. The effect was nice, and the construction was pretty easy.

Lisa: Training, week 15 to the end!

5/23/06

I ran 3 miles at Sugarhouse Park, which took about 45 minutes. I think the shorter runs are to let our bodies heal up as much as possible before the marathon. It hurt to run, and I have to say that it felt more like injuries than just muscle soreness.

131 lbs, 28% body fat

5/27/06

Sarah and I mapped out a five-mile route on Gmaps Pedometer, which is a handy little tool. The only bummer part is that the maps don't show elevation, so we ended up running uphill quite a bit. It was no biggie, since the weather was gorgeous, sunny, and cool.

5/29/06

On Monday I ran eight miles along Highland Drive and back, which took roughly an hour and a half. I wasn't too sore, which was good, and the weather was chilly but nice.

5/30/06

On the Tuesday before the marathon--the last pre-race run!--I took 45 minutes to run 3 miles at Sugarhouse Park. The run wasn't bad, but it still didn't feel easy. I think those long runs really took a toll.

131 lbs, 26% body fat