Little Coffee Bean Cardigan

What has Irishred been up to while she's been gone?

Dissertating!

Cooking!

Running!

Knitting!

I'm refraining from regular posts until I can move beyond angsty dissertation related posts (it's going better than before, my adviser only wants to cut one of the two chapters I sent him...). So I'll try to post knitting, cooking, and running projects in the meantime.

This spring I finished a stash busting project for my nephew, Rhys. He's adorable and growing fast. At 5 months, the 12 month size just fits.

Here is the Little Coffee Bean Sweater:

Adorable isn't he? Yup, my nephew is cuter than yours :) I used a left over skein of Cascade 220 superwash (blue) and some Cascade Heritage Paint sock yarn (multi colored).

The cascade was left over from this sweater I made for L:

Smokin' by Jared Flood from Son of Stitch n Bitch

The design is based on a smoking jacket.

It's so nice to be able to knit things for the adorable men in my life.

Sabino Canyon Sunset Run 2012

Saturday Luke and I both ran the Sabino Canyon Sunset Run. The 12K begins at 5:45 and heads straight into a canyon. By the time you hit the turn around and head back, you're greeted with beautiful view of the Arizona sunset. The route has 500 ft elevation - rolling hills in the beginning and then straight up for the last .8-.9 miles until you hit the turn around. The biggest challenges for me last year were dealing with cramping after I hit the turn around and had to run down hill.

This year, I've been running this as a weekly run pretty much all spring. I'm much more comfortable with the hills and now that I know the route, even the long hill doesn't see that long.

The day of the race we had a cold snap and temps in the 60s. Chilly, but a nice respite from the temps in the 80s and 90s, and perfect for running. I ran this much faster than I expected and I credit the cooler temps and no over heating to my faster time. I finished in 1h 14 min. Respectable, considering most of my other runs have dropped down to 10:30-11 minute miles. More importantly, I felt good the whole way. Every hill was fun and I had no cramping or other GI issues. Luke came in w/ a 8:22 average pace - something I'm really, really impressed with.

This is a great local run and just one of the many local runs I've participated in over the past year. Tucson has a really  wonderful running community of all ages and running/walking levels. They have a bunch of small races capped at under 500 people. Once you've been to one, you start seeing a lot of familiar faces. It's nice to be part of such a small and excited community.

Next up on the race calendar is the Cinco de May 10K with a mariachi and breakfast burritos at the finish! I ran this last year and it was a great run through a beautiful neighborhood in Western Tucson. After that, I'll be doing a the Tucson 5,000 5K with my mom on Mother's Day morning. The race is at the park I run around on a daily basis and I'm excited for another (hopefully less dramatic) event with mom.

CSP 5 mile, now with photo-goodness.

I think this is my first really attractive race photo. They were also given to all participants free of charge, which I think makes the Tucson Everyone Runs events the best I've ever done.

Don't I look happy and smiley? (this was before I hit the sand...).

Catalina state park 5 miler

This morning I took part in a 5 mile trail race in Northern Tucson. The course is raced clockwise in the spring and then counter clockwise in the fall. With all the stomach problems I've been having I did this just as an easy run rather than a race . It was a beautiful course and I had a lot of fun.

Course: 5.2 on trail, one point had 90-some stairs to climb. Mostly sand and packed trail.

Time: 58 min

Gear: skirt sport speed silk skirt, brooks long sleeve tech tee, Adidas socks, brooks cascadia, Nathan hydration belt, sweaty band, sunglasses

Fuel: 14 oz water (only took 2 swigs due to stomach), uneaten spots beans

Felt: Good! This was a fun run that I will definitely do again. Small and well organized.

Best part: organizers handed out packets of sunblock.

Lesson learned: running in sand give me side stitches.