Month: January 2016

gait: Cville training week 3

/ courtneyweigand / 1 Comment

I meant to take some interesting photos this week… but failed. Probably because most of my workouts were in my apartment building’s tiny gym and I don’t know what happened Saturday. I broke down and bought a new Garmin watch last week. My old Nike watch wasn’t working and although the Apps work well, I like being able to just look at my wrist at any time and see my milage and pace. I’m still figuring out all the functions…

Monday: 3 miles, 2 at an easy pace with a mile faster finish. A lot of the sidewalks are clear, but each intersection is a massive snow bank you have to climb over in order to cross the street so this was another treadmill run.

Tuesday: 5 miles, 1 mile warm up and cool down with some speed intervals in the middle. I stuck to the treadmill again as the sidewalks were still a mess.

Wednesday: Cross train day, did some Nike Training Club workouts, core and yoga

Thursday: Rest day, I really like the two days of rest right now, but starting next week I bump down to one.

Friday: 3 miles, 2 easy with a fast finish

Saturday: 6 mile long run. I finally ran outside again. It was a little cool but very sunny and most of the sidewalks were clear. I ran up Massachusetts Avenue to the Observatory clock and back, I clearly need to continue to work on running hills.

Sunday: Rest

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make: oven bake clay necklaces

/ courtneyweigand / 1 Comment

Last September at the H Street festival amid the booths of crap made in China I found a lady selling hand crafted necklaces that I liked. I bought one for myself and my friend Catherine bought one too. Soon after Catherine found a tutorial on pinterest on how to make similar necklaces with oven baked clay.

I had some grey Sculpey clay on hand from when I took a shoe making class way back when. So that is what I started with, only later on a trip to Michaels and JoAnns did I discover the wide world of oven back clay. The other popular brand is Fimo. They both come in a variety of colors including a few that are speckled. I bought some that were granite like and sparkley, which cuts out some of the painting later on.IMG_1780

The process is pretty easy, but took a few tries to get a consistent size and figure out what looked best.  It was a lot like playing with play dough. I rolled a long noodle and then cut it in sections with a box cutter. Then using a skewer I poked holes through the middle of them. Bake according to the package, which was not very long.

When they come out they will be hard, but still with a little give. You can sand them a little after baking if needed. I taped them off with painters tape and used craft paint to jazz them up.

To finish I threaded the beads on to a chain. I bought chain and clasps at Michaels as well and assembled the necklaces. Needle nose pliers help a lot in this process. Also a little patience.

To gift the necklaces I made small felt bags. I’ll show you how to make them soon!

gait: Cville training week 2

/ courtneyweigand / 1 Comment

Monday: 3 miles: 2 @ easy pace, 1 @ faster pace

Tuesday: 5 miles: 1 warm up, 3 miles of intervals (3 min fast, 2 min recovery), 1 cool down

Wednesday: Cross training day, I did a weight lifting plan designed by my sister, I lifted a little heavier than my usual 5-10 lb dumbbells and felt plenty sore the following two days.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: 3 miles outside before the Blizzard started, it was a cold run on very salty surfaces. It was supposed to be two at easy pace, with a faster finish, which I think I did just because I was cold and wanted to get home.

Saturday: 5 miles at an easy pace. I ran them on the treadmill due to the blizzard going on outside. The first time I went down to the gym there were three women looking rather comfortable on the only treadmills in our building. I did some ab work while I waited, but as it seemed they were getting in their long run I left and came back in the afternoon. Five miles go by fast when you are watching people and animals try to brave a snowstorm out the window.

Sunday: Sunday was a scheduled rest day, but with 22 inches of fresh snow on the ground I had to get out and check it out and visit some friends. We ended up walking about 9 miles in the snow, which turns out it is rather exhausting. I woke up with slightly sore legs today.

Total miles: 16

gait: Charlottesville Half Marathon

/ courtneyweigand / 1 Comment

In  June of 2012 I ran my first half marathon, the Zooma Annapolis. Spring 2013 I ran two half marathons, Rock ‘n Roll DC and Nike Women DC, followed by the Woodrow Wilson half that fall. Spring 2014 I again doubled up with Rock ‘n Roll DC and Nike Women DC. Then I was burnt out for awhile and didn’t race again till I tried the Marathon distance Rock ‘n Roll DC in the Spring of 2015. The marathon wasn’t the best experience of my life. Rainy, cold, and 26 miles, woof.

After 4 years of Spring long races I start to get the itch to start training around Christmastime, but after three years of Rock ‘n Roll DC and lots of running the same routes around DC I was looking to expand my racing experience back outside of the city.

I asked one of my coworkers who lives outside of DC and has done more of the regional races what his favorite spring half marathon was. His first suggestion was the Historic Half in Fredericksburg, VA, but it is in the middle of May and I was looking for an earlier race. His second recommendation was the Charlottesville Half Marathon. The April 2nd date not only is in the right time frame, but is also the weekend after my birthday, which makes it a perfect day.

Neither Brian nor I have been to Charlottesville before so exploring a new area for the race and for the weekend is also a big plus. I’ve been told the area is beautiful and hilly. While running hills is not my favorite, they do give me something to focus on while running.

I started my training this week. Other than a lunch time run I cut short on Tuesday due to the 20 degree wind chill I had a solid first week. 12 miles total, an hour of yoga, and a cross training/weights workout. I ran some hills on my four mile “long” run and I’ll definitely need to do that every week to be ready on race day.

 

make: stockings

/ courtneyweigand / 2 Comments

I’ve been making a lot lately, but a lot of my makes were for Christmas gifts. Therefore I held off sharing them till now. Hopefully they are still inspirational.

I meant to share the new Christmas decorations Brian and I made in December, but you know how December goes.

While I have a large tub of Christmas decorations and an artificial tree, Brian had zero decorations other than what he made with me. So after hanging two Courtney stockings in the apartment we decided to make new stockings we could hang together.

I have a small stash of felt so I thought that would make a good base. I kinda of eyeballed the sock shape. I sketched it out with chalk first and the cut them out. From there we both had free use of all the craft supplies.
I decided to stick to felt and did some decorative stitching. I used the blanket stitch around the outside and added a hook for hanging.

Brian’s is more mixed media. He used acrylic paint for a tree, sewed a felt piece on and used fun ninja turtle fabric for the hanger.

We hung them right where the modern household without a fireplace hangs their stockings… above the TV.