First things first, the winners of a pair of tickets to the Margarita Festival in Tampa are Elliot W and Chris B.  Congratulations, I’ll email you your tickets tonight!

I also want to check in on my journey to a 10K.  This last week was not as successful as the first 2, I’m going to repeat the week.

Sunday was my ‘long run’ of 3 miles.  It was also Mother’s Day and I talked my oldest son into going with me to meet a running group and do a trail run. Happily, everyone there was really nice and I had a great time.   Unhappily I forgot that trail running in Florida often means  running in soft sand which totally and immediately wrecked me.  I have no idea how far we ran because I brilliantly tried to use a new to me program to track mileage but didn’t actually mess with it to see how to use it before starting to run.  Brilliant!  I decided to turn around and head back, and found that we had gone pretty far, but I really doubt it was 3 miles.  And also, we made a wrong turn on the way back because if I’m in the woods I kind of have to get lost a little.  Especially if there are witnesses.

I wasn’t too torn about not making my 3 miles since the terrain made it feel like about 30.  I without a doubt worked harder than if I had done 3 miles on the treadmill!  But then Tuesday I didn’t run do to poor planning on my part.  Thursday I did run but instead of 3.5 miles on the weekend I only did 2.  Blah.

So here it is Tuesday again, the first day of my running week.   I’m calling a do over on last week and following the same plan again.  I have a lot of the same things going on as last Tuesday, but this time I’m buckling down and not letting things get in the way.  Like writing this in the morning instead of trying to fit in writing at night.  🙂

Do you have a backup plan for when things come up and throw you off schedule, whether it’s a running schedule or something else?  If you are following a training plan do you have a problem with doing a week over if you do not have a hard date (like a race) you have to be ready by?

There’s a rumor going around that margaritas are Tampa’s drink of choice.  I have no idea if that’s true or not but I know if I had to pick a poison tequila is by far the tastiest!  Maybe it comes from spending so many weekends in Tijuana when I was younger or maybe it’s just that good, I don’t know.

Regardless, if you are also a fan you really need to join my out at the Tampa Bay Margarita Festival coming up Saturday, May 24th. There will be margaritas with Sauza (an old favorite of mine), Cabo Wabo (a favorite of everyone’s) and tons of other different tequilas. Bud Light’s Lime-A-Rita will be there and if you aren’t a tequila fan there’s Coronas and HRM Rex Goliath wine. And also, apparently there will be naked turtles there. Strange but true.

Of course they have to keep your designated driver happy too, so there will be lots of music and games and the evening will be topped off with fireworks. Los Lonely Boys will be headlining the show and there are plenty other bands starting after the gates open at 1:00.  I for one cannot resist sitting on the lawn listening to  live music, I can’t wait. Here’s a sample of one of the bands, Thomas Wynn & The Believers. Try and tell me this and a margarita isn’t the definition  of a perfect chill weekend.

The festival will be at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and is being put on by the same people who did the Tampa Spring Beer Fling so I expect it will be a blast. Which is why you want to go too, right?  You can get your tickets here, they’re $15 now or $20 at the door for general admission or for $85 ($100 at the door) you can VIP it and your ticket will include all of your margaritas.  Sounds good to me!

What could be better?  How about winning a pair of general admission tickets? I have 2 pairs to give away, I’ll announce the winners here Tuesday the 20th.

Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received two VIP tickets to The Tampa Bay Margarita Festival in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

So, will you be there?

I said that I was starting a 10K running program and that I’d start doing a weekly update, I bet since you haven’t seen an update you think I quietly skipped out (again), right?  Wrong!  So far so good, no skipped or moved runs at all.

I decided it would not be a cop out to add a cushion week in before starting the actual plan since it had been a while since I ran and I didn’t want to give myself an excuse to quit the first week!

I’m running Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.  I may switch that to a Saturday here and there since a weekend run is a weekend run, but no other editing.  My add on week was a 2 mile, 1.5 mile, then 2.5 mile run.  This week I did a 2.5 Tuesday and 2 miles tonight.  So far they’ve all been barefoot and on the treadmill.  Sunday I’m meeting a running group (never did that before) and will do a 3 mile trail run.  That’ll be fun!  My oldest son is going with me so I know I’ll finish, I don’t run with anyone else often so when I do I don’t even notice the miles because it’s something different.  I’ll wear my minimalist shoes for that and maybe for all of my ‘long’ runs because the 10K I think I’ll be signing up for is a midnight run and I was told the turnaround part is really dark.  I like barefoot but not in pitch black conditions!

I’ve been doing yoga after every run and though I can’t say it’s been easy for me to finish all the runs I can say I haven’t been sore anywhere or had any real issues finishing.  I just have a horrible habit of looking at the mileage every 2 seconds which make my runs seem to take FOREVER.  I’ve been listening to Zombies, Run!, Rock My Run, and podcasts and it makes a big difference.  Especially if I hit on a really funny podcast.

My one fail has been cross training.  I haven’t been.  It’s part of the plan and I need to get started on it. I wish my Radio Flyer looking bike wasn’t messed up, that would make cross training fun.  I did go kayaking last Thursday, that counted as cross training for certain, even if it was a run day!

Lots of other great non-running things have been happening too. I’ll have to give an update soon on the garden, the chicks, our newest farm-y addition and some other things like a giveaway to the Margarita Festival coming up in Tampa!

Are you training for or starting anything new?  How’s it going so far?  I love the first few weeks of pretty much anything, it’s always so much fun to start something new!

Last weekend I went to an award ceremony for the Zombie Film Festival, and the week before I went to their second premier night to watch a bunch of short films, all about zombies (as you may guess).  What fun!

What is a Zombie Film Festival?  Participants get 30 days to create a film and all films have to contain certain elements.  I know these had to have a particular quote, a zombie joke, a plunger, and a few other items.  It was really fun to watch for the requirements in all of the different films.

After the award ceremony the second Friday there was a really fun punk band, The Funeral Dazies.  All of the members were zombies, and body parts did occasionally fly to and from the stage, but I’m sure they were basically nice people.   Here’s the band, a stray body part, and the awards announcer. They look nice, right??

So how did I know to go see all of this awesomeness when you didn’t even know it existed?  I have an in!  I know a really great group of people who happen to have just started a film company, Atone Films.  Their film, In Vain, won an award!

Here’s the link to the short film, check it out! Then go over to Atone Film’s new Facebook page and let them know if you like it!

The lead in the film happens to be the guy I’ve been seeing for many a year, do I know how to find the good guys or what?

Are you a fan of zombie films?  Do you think 100s of slow, shambling zombies are scarier or just one or two fast, parkour type zombies are scarier?  I guess it depends on how fast you can run…

I have a couple of confessions to make.

1. I haven’t run, done yoga, or much of anything else for about 3 months
2. I also haven’t written much because I operate on a switch, my motivation is ON or it’s OFF across the board
3. I have a serious commitment issue – I’ve been running off and on for years now but I’ve never got much over a 5K an I’ve never once committed to a running plan.
4. I am one of the most excellent people you will meet at making excuses about why I don’t want to get on and stick with a plan, and also I’m most excellent at making excuses.  Even about things I want to do, and then I convince myself (pretty easily) that my excuses are actually truths.

So, ya.  That about sums it up.  I’ve decided not to do that anymore. Again. Sound familiar? But this time I’m going to try a couple of things I’ve not tried before. Because you know, that thing where if you keep doing the same thing over and expect different results…  I’m about 2 more times from being committed.

I chose a plan to get to a 10K and I’m committing to actually doing it.  I usually have preconceived reasons of why I might skip a night or why I might not finish it.  Yes, really.  This time I wrote it all on my calendar and I’m not making any schedule changes or skipping any nights.  If my run doesn’t happen until midnight or if I have to get up at 5am to get it in, so be it.  I looked at a bunch of plans and decided to go with Hal Higdon’s novice 10K plan.  A lot of people swear by him and the plan includes cross training and such so there you go.

My usual method is to tell no one when I start something like this because that way when I quit before I finish no one will ask me about it. This time I even told my sisters, so there is some built in shaming if  so much as skip a night.

Also, I’m going to do a weekly check in here to keep track of my progress.  Probably boring for anyone else to read but this blog actually started as a running journal way back when, so it works for me.

Finally, it’s about time for a new mantra.  I’ve read this one on the internet a bunch of times and it seems to about sum things up for me at the moment.

So here I go, off to find out what happens if I actually start something fully committed to doing it by the book. Wish me luck, and feel free to be part of my shaming team if I come anywhere NEAR to making excuses.  Which I won’t.  🙂

Do you ever have an issue with following through on commitments you try to make to yourself?  Do you have any suggestions on how to break through the limitations a person puts on themselves?

I can’t believe the Spring Beer Fling was almost a month ago! I’ve fallen so away from writing (and running) lately that I never got around to writing a review of it, which is bad because it was great for so many reasons!

We didn’t stay until the beach ball drop because Walking Dead(!!!)  but we got there at 12 when they opened and stayed until almost 6.  I really didn’t expect to stay so long but it could not have been better weather to be out in all day and the bands were great.  Basically we rotated between standing in the grass in front of the stage, to the tables looking over the river to the tables in the (shaded) VIP section to the grass in front of the stage….

Since we got there at lunch time the first thing I wanted to do was eat.  OK, the first thing I always want to do is eat, but whatever.  There were quite a lot of really great food trucks and vendors but I ended up getting the WokStar Rainbow Noodles at I Wanna Wok . Excellent choice!  the people who took our order and made the food were super nice and any time I get to eat with chop sticks I’m pretty happy.  But better than all that – the food was amazing.

Oh, and there was beer.  I have to admit, I didn’t try much of it as I was the driver of the day but we were there plenty long enough for me to try the Deep Eddy Vodka Eddy Palmer.  Sweet tea vodka, club soda, lemonade and lemon?  Ya, I’ll have one+ of those.  My parents went with us and my (non-drinking) mom had more than one of them – that tells you they were amazing.

And of course there was music all day long.  The Pretty Girls, The Heavy Metals, the Intoxicators were all great.

Weren’t there?  Well, there’s always next year!  But if you don’t want to wait that long the same people who put on the Spring Beer Fling are having a Tampa Bay Margarita Festival May 24th!  I may have some tickets to give away for the festival soon, so keep an eye out if you’re interested. If I have a drink of choice it is beyond a doubt tequila so I can’t wait!

I haven’t been running at all lately, but tonight I did a nice slow barefoot mile on the treadmill and then did some yoga and I am feeling amazing.  Someday maybe I’ll be one of those brilliant people who wake up in the morning to run and then feels great all day but not quite yet.

Here’s the yoga I did tonight, very easy and perfect for right before bed, especially if you work at a computer all day like me.

 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ejZxy7Doc?rel=0]

So why am I running on the treadmill inside when it’s absolutely beautiful outside?  Partly because I’ve fallen so out of the running habit it just seems easier to do if I stay inside.  But also partly because we have a wild hog with lots of little baby hogs in our neighborhood at the moment.  These things stand as tall as my shoulders and of all the animals I’ve run across since moving to Florida these are the scariest (on land anyways) just because of their huge size.  They tend to be seen a bit after it gets dark, just about when I like to go running.  So, no running outside for me this week.  The HOA hired a trapper to come and get them and hopefully bring them safely somewhere else.

OH and I’ve also seen a FEW alligators in the last week not to mention a few people have told me they’ve been seeing a bunch of snakes lately.

And people think a few rattlers, scorpions and killer bee swarms in Arizona are bad. I don’t know about anyone else but I am not feeling at the top of the food chain at the moment, and I don’t think being vegetarian has anything to do with it.

Have you ever run into wild animals while running or just out and about in your neighborhood?

Last week I went to ElectroDash with all 3 of my kids (12, 14, 20) and my oldest’s friend.  Not one of them are runners, but when I showed them the ElectroDash 5K website  it took them all of 30 seconds to be all in. Since it was a Friday night and I work in Tampa I had them meet me out there and we all drove in together to save on the parking fee.

The older two ran ahead and I put my 12 year old in charge of when we ran and when we walked.  This was not a run made for dashing through, this was a run made for having fun and stopping to check things out.  We ran the run and stopped to look at some of the lights, and I found that my Children of the Corn were all in total no photos mode .  They decided it would be great fun to avoid a good picture at any cost the entire night. Also, I had auto-flash on my camera. Oh well.

As much fun as we had during the run I think we had even more fun afterwards. They had a DJ, lots of techno music, and lots of random glow-things being thrown into and by the crowd all over the place.  Even my 12 year old, who’s favorite thing in the whole world is to show how bored he is at anything that mom suggests finally broke down and got into it.

Now that’s a win!!

If you want to go you can see if they are coming to your area here.

If you go wear lots of glow-stuff and stay for the after party. I heard them mention they had beer somewhere too, but since I was doing the family thing I didn’t go look.  Oh, and a tip that may be obvious but I didn’t even think about, turn the flash off on your camera before you get there!

A little while back I mentioned how I had read about a great defense against slugs. What I read is that chickens are great for eating bugs, they can get an out of control yard (mines not.  Mostly.) in control in no time.  Cool!  But, you know, who would go buy chickens when they live in a neighborhood with a crazy strict HOA?

So I kept reading and asked my dad to find out about the HOA since he used to be on the board or something.  I read that chicken poop is great for gardens, and chickens in general are great for composting.  Not the birds themselves (gross) the fact that they scratch around all day pooping nitrogen and eating things like weeds and bugs.  The scratching and eating part helps break down everything into a nice compost.

Also, I read they don’t really take all that much time.  Once they’re big enough to move outside into a coop anyways.

Also, my dad found out for me that I can have a limited number of hens, just no roosters.

And so I went and got 4 little tiny baby chicks. Look how these 2 have grown in less than 3 weeks!   Nugget (my daughter named her(?)) already has a comb on her head!  I’m afraid that may mean she’s a he.

The didn’t even have feathers when we got them, just fuzz and now they are in an awkward in between stage.  Still cute though!

This weekend I build the coop, I’m pretty excited about it since I’ve never made anything like that before.  Another adventure!

So far the chicks have been fun and my kids are already thinking a little more about where their food is coming from, without any prodding from me at all.  Have you ever had chickens or other outside birds?  Would you?

Living in Florida so rocks.  Especially being right outside of Tampa, they have SO many great things going on all of the time.  You need yet another example?  How about Taste of South Tampa coming up April 13th at Hyde Park Village?

It’s a chance to sample offerings from a variety of local restaurants, breweries and lots more.  Keely & Curley Winery is going to be there!  I love their blueberry wines. Actually I went to a tour there once and they have a lot more than just blueberry wines! There’s also going to be coffee brewers, beer brewers, pizzerias, grills, it sounds like a little bit of everything.

One place I’m excited to learn more about is The Florida Cane Distillery. They make micro-distilled vodkas entirely of Florida ingredients. How cool is that? Check out these Florida flavors!

I think you should go.  So do the folks at Taste of Tampa, they gave me 2 general admission tickets to give away!

Enter here to win, the winner will be announced April 2nd!   a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can follow Taste of South Tampa on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date on who all will be at the there, and you can get your tickets here. Tickets are $35 in advance with discounts if you are under 21, over 60, or in the military.

Oh, and if you’d like a little bit of good karma to go with your good times then you should know that a portion of this events profits are going to Metropolitan Ministries.

I received two tickets to the Taste of South Tampa 2014 in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway.  As always, my opinions are all mine.