1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

Mrs. 1500’s Half Marathon – Episode 3

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To read this journey from the beginning, go to the first post.

Hi there, Mrs. 1500 today.

This week was 3 workouts of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking. Various kerfluffles womped up my schedule, and I wasn’t able to stick to working out with the girls exclusively.

Fast forward to this weekend, and I spent it with The WoWs (Mr. and Mrs. Waffles on Wednesday if you recall from last week’s update.) We went to several delicious breweries in the Northern Colorado area, but I limited myself to just a taster at each so I could still drive.

Our friends B and L hosted Friendsgiving on Sunday because they’ll be out of the country for actual Thanksgiving, but still wanted the meal.

So that’s a bit of a negative, although I was conscious about what I was putting on my plate.

Motivation was down this week. Several unexpected things happened in my regular life. Sunday’s run was definitely the worst of the week. It’s more fun when I can run with the girlies at 100-Mile Club.

While the Waffles were here over the weekend, we threw around a bunch of other half marathons in different cities, so I’m still undecided which run I will do. Suggestions are happily accepted – I’m looking for as fun a run as you can get when you must run 13.1 miles around May 2019.

The Workouts

You know what’s even more boring that working out? Reading about someone else working out.

I squeezed in an extra workout during Week Two, and Week Three is looking much the same. I prefer to run at 100-Mile Club (shoutout to Mr. Finn for being there every single day!) and the girls will run with me a bit, then fall back or go with a friend. I just keep plugging along, and sometimes Gail runs with me. (Thanks for keeping my mind off the run, Gail.)

The app only has the allotted days in it, so I simply run the same day again. IDK how long this will work for, maybe as the weeks progress I get more days to workout.

RAGBRAI Anyone?

One of those unexpected things that happened in my regular life freed up some time next summer, so I guess I’m riding RAGBRAI with a bunch of people next year. (You always ride with a bunch of people, it’s a bicycle ride across Iowa with 20,000 of your closest friends.)

A glamour shot of Iowa

If anyone is interested in participating in this, let me know. It’s a super-fun ride that we’ve done 5 times in the past (including once when I was pregnant.) Iowa is NOT flat – you’ll find some hills no matter what the route. But you are THE BIGGEST THING that is happening in every town you arrive in, so literally everyone comes out to greet you.

Church ladies in Iowa bake THE BEST pies, and every town is having a fundraiser when you ride through. You can eat your way across Iowa and never have the same pie twice!

Anyway, maybe I should stop talking about pie…

The Stats

  • Weight: 178.0 (down 2.6 overall)
  • Workouts Complete: 9
  • Workouts Enjoyed: 0

So I’ve been bouncing around weight-wise. I weigh in on Tuesday morning for these posts, but somehow on Wednesday I’m down way more than on Tuesday. I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed in below 180 for the first time during this adventure. Doubly so since we had a brewery tour with the Waffles and Friendsgiving.

We shall see what happens next week. Stay tuned…

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Comments

  1. wow, 2000 miles seems far. a friend of mine did that once too, a long time ago. it seems that days off isn’t so much a problem in training as taking weeks off. something is always better than nothing on a given day. i worked out 8 days the past 2 weeks and am now getting thought the warm-up straight through. we’ll see what the long buffalo winter brings.

    good luck.
    freddy smidlap recently posted…Has Anybody Seen My Fitness? It Must Be Around Here SomewhereMy Profile

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  2. You literally could not pay me to do RAGBRAI. Riding 50-100 miles all day then drinking heavily at night for a week? No thank you. Iowa is beautiful though, so if you like doing the above it’s totally worth it. I ended up coincidentally camping in Harper’s Ferry when RAGBRAI ended there in 2017. What a sight to see all the bikers go by! They were so happy to be almost done and dip their toes in the Mississippi.

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  4. Woooo! Go Mrs.1500, go! Kuddos for you for keeping at it… the first couple weeks are hard as you adjust and make space in your routine for a new habit like running. I suck at running, but the effort to do the Couch to 5K app (I wasn’t as brave as you) was worth it. Celebrate every completion of a training mod and it’s great that you’re repeating some – good way to build up endurance.
    I’m glad the local friends and the girls are running with you – much more fun with company.

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  5. Mrs 1500 – how about the Victoria Falls half marathon!!! (https://www.vicfallsmarathon.com/). Or to give it its proper name Mosi-oa-Tunya (‘the Smoke that Thunders’). What other half marathon lets you run along side one of the natural wonders of the world. Plus you get to visit us. And Mrs C makes awesome pie…..

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  7. That’s awesome that you have done RAGBRAI and are going to ride it again. It is not my idea of fun, but I did one day 6 years ago, I just can only handle so much beer…however the slip and slides that people created along the way were fun. The little towns pull out all of the stops. The hills are really no joke, my home state is definitely not flat unlike our neighbors to the west. Good luck on your half training!

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  8. I’ve done RAGBRAI! And my 73 year old father has done it 15 years in a row now! (He’s a native son living in NY now). Ton’s of fun. I actually didn’t drink too much since I was more worried about physically completing it and rising super early to beat the heat and humidity. Mr. Pork Chop!
    Now I’m married, working full time with little kiddos… ah… one of my many the purposes to FIRE… to get back to RAGBRAI!

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  9. I feel super compelled to comment on this post. I lived in Denver for 20 years and just moved back to Iowa in July with the plan to chill the pace of our lives and cash out of the red hot housing market while we could. We grew up watching RAGBRAI come through the towns we lived in and then moved away. My husband and I finally did the whole week in 2010 and it was exhausting and a blast. Mostly because we got $hitfaced most nights. That was the year Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy was testing out the market. 🙂 Needless to say now that we are back home we’ll do a day or two most years. I am also a runner and you might want to check out the Mt. Charleston Vegas half marathon that looks nice if you train for downhill and build up your quad strength. I’m signed up for the full and am already questioning my sanity-ha! Finally, I follow your blog because “technically” we are FI but I can’t quite break free of the golden handcuffs but I’m inching towards critical mass where a change is going to need to happen soon. Good luck training!

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    • RAGBRAI is so fun! The last time we did it a couple years ago, there was even a microbrewery truck halfway through the ride every day. Beer magically makes all of that leg pain go away. Maybe we’ll see you on the road this year?

      Golden handcuffs are strong indeed. My advice is to take a sabbatical to get a taste of FIRE life. Maybe you’ll never want to go back?

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