wojelah

Back to the gym, FINALLY! Work buddy and I are committed to going before work MWF, and the most awesome smittywing of the killer ab exercises has shown interest in a weekend workout. So yay, all the way around. I think I may attempt to fill the interstices with yoga DVDs.

I found last time that keeping a tally really, really helped - so feel free to ignore anything that's tagged "running," if this bores you to tears.

The only parts of this morning's run that did not fail:

1) smittywing's lovely and sympathetic 6 AM wakeup call so that I COULD NOT oversleep.

2) I am not dead. I sort of wish I was, but I'm not.

The remainder:

I left my house at 6:30 AM. I got back at 8:40. I only covered 5.5 miles, door-to-door, which is MAYBE 2.5 miles an hour. I walked the ENTIRE second half and stopped in to walk aisles at Rite Aid for five minutes half a mile from home. There is ALREADY a heat advisory in effect: the heat index is 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 deg. Cel.), which is to say that it's 85.7 degrees Fahrenheit (24 deg. Cel.) with 72% humidity.

I am aware that there's probably more positive here than I'm considering at the moment, and I'll post about it later, or at least try and get out of my head and into a post why -exactly- I feel so unhappy about it. Right now I want to curl up in a ball and quit, because I have been entirely pwned by southern Louisiana in August. Instead, I'm going to take a cold shower and get on with the day.

The more time I spend on the treadmill, the more I become unhealthily addicted to my mp3 player and my earphones. The player's a Zen Stone, and is perfect for this - it's teeny and light, and I wrap the armband around my wrist instead. The earphones are Sennheisers and wrap around my ears so that they do not move, EVER, which is great.

The best thing, though, is the music list - there are songs that keep me trundling on, no matter HOW craptacular I feel. Many of them are the result of your recommendations here - thanks! I have also learned that the goofier the music, the better apparently. Here's the top baker's dozen, in no particular order - the ones I pray show up for the last mile, the last hour, the last whatever, so that I can stumble along to the finish line on their energy.

I've linked to audio clips or YouTube vids that use the music - about the videos? I make NO CLAIMS as to the vid. I just went looking for the song. (I make no claims to having good taste in music, either. Most of these I love deeply anyway, but they all pretty much have a strong, quick, steady tempo and a solid beat, plus lyrics that make me think/laugh/get distracted/focus as needed, so that I can coax myself through another session.

( The list. ) What's on your list?

1) I would be more impressed as you speed down my residential street with your bass blaring loud enough to shatter my eardrums at 60 feet, if you were driving anything other than a cherry red MINIVAN.

2) Running: Ten miles today. The overall run was a very mixed bag and hardly my best job to date, but I am taking ten miles to the bank and just relishing that because ten miles is A LOT OF MILES and also more than FIFTEEN K  and I am just excited my body can DO that.

I finished in three hours, twenty minutes, more or less - the actual time spent moving was somewhat less, but I'm not subtracting because the last hour, I had to stop for 30 seconds every ten minutes, because it was that or just giving up outright, and hey, that's how I have to bargain with myself sometimes.

I knew getting started it was going to be a tough run - I was tired from the get go and starting later than I'd wanted b/c I'd gotten tied up at work, and I hadn't eaten much since lunchtime. I did have Powerade, but I think it may be time for energy gels to start making an appearance, because purna? I think I understand about the bonk, if the bonk is the equivalent of wishing there was some way a hole in time and space could just open and swallow the treadmill because then you'd have an excuse for quitting. Halfway through the last hour, said hole could've swallowed me too and I wouldn't have complained. I did follow a pattern speed-wise, but I fast-walked a LOT more than usual - I didn't really track it, after a certain point, because I was too busy just trying to convince myself to move. I've started cheering myself out loud at certain points, which I recognize as ridiculous, but it kind of works.

I fought it the whole way, and never really relaxed into the run - my breathing definitely gets tight as I move from the second to third hour, but today I just felt tight the whole way through. My body -felt- like it had been fighting, too - this is the first time I've finished a run and actually felt, forty-five minutes after finishing, like I'd been beaten by powerful people wielding large sticks. A couple of hours later, I actually ache less than last week - certainly my arches aren't as bad, but that could be in part due to the reduction in actual running time. Right after I finished though, I really just wanted to curl up and die. Instead, I took a cool shower, and it seems to have helped.

The pattern, roughly, for a value of run = flail.

1st mile: walk 3.1 mph 2 min; run 3.1 mph 1 min;  run 3.2 mph 2 min (repeat)
Miles 2-4: walk 3.0 mph 2 min; run 3.1 mph 3 min (repeat)
Miles 5-7: walk 3.0 mph 1 min; walk 3.1 mph 1 min; run 3.1 mph 2 min; run 3.2 mph 1 min (repeat)
Miles 8-10: walk 3.0 mph 2 min; run 3.1 mph 3 min (repeat)
Fall over, wish cabana boy was there with ice bath and fan and chauffeur was waiting outside.

As in, the version that doesn't come with self-indulgent whine. Sorry about that - and thank you so much for helping me get my head screwed on straight again.

Running today: 5 miles - that's half - HALF - of what I'm supposed to cover on the next long run (10 miles). It's also just under a 10K, and smittywing just brought it to my attention that I have already run a 10K in one go - and then some, since I've run for seven miles and nine miles, and a 10K is around 6.2 miles. Nine miles was possible and as a result, ten has (prospectively, anyway) lost some of its ability to inspire terror. I need to update the mp3 player with some new stuff to watch.


Getting started was hard - I sort of struggled through the first two miles, and then clicked in for miles three and four. Mile five required some self-cheerleading, but wasn't too bad, all told. Afterwards, my left ankle is sore, and I have that weird cramp across the back of my left calf this time (instead of the right), but both have diminished significantly with ice (thanks, purna!), so I think I'll be ok tomorrow for the 3 mile short run. All told, I'm still running a 19 minute mile: I finished in 1 hr 35 min 5 sec.

1) I love this icon SO MUCH. Text is actually a quote of Ron's, from Book 6, which makes me happy, putting it with Hermione's picture, which started out as Hermione on the OOTP movie poster. monanotlisa did a BEAUTIFUL job - and there's more gorgeous HP icons of hers here. (WARNING: Some of those icons contain spoilers for the last book!)

2) Warning: There is a post of dog pictures in the offing, because Sunday was beautiful and we spent the afternoon at the park, and Molly's just ridiculous. Also tolerant.

3) Today? Was not my favorite day.

( Cut for whining and RL nonsense. )

4) The major upside of today? I RAN NINE MILES.

( I aten't dead. (Points if you know where THAT's from.) )

It's pretty cool, adding it all up like that. Now I'm taking an aspirin and taking myself to bed.

Seven miles today - for real, given wonky treadmill issues last week.

First mile on the elliptical, at as low an incline as I could, with moderate resistance, b/c someone was on the treadmill - seventeenish minutes

Six miles on the treadmill, at an average speed of 3.0 mph - finished in two hours. The five minute pattern was basically walk 2.5 min at 3.0 mph, run 1.5 min at 3.0 mph, run 1 min at 3.1 mph; occasionally I'd do two minutes at 3.1 mph. The last half hour, I let myself walk 20-25 seconds at 2.8 mph, then moved back into the same cycle.

The last half an hour was HARD. Probably next time (w00t, NEXT TIME) I'll switch over to the playlist - Eddie Izzard, though high energy, was just not sufficiently inspiring to provide assistance. Still - I ran 3.5 miles, and walked another 3.5 at a good clip, and was done with everything in under 2 hrs 20 minutes.

On the way home, it occurred: 7 miles? is MORE than a quarter of 26.2 miles, SO: today I RAN more than an eight of a marathon and COMPLETED more than a quarter of a marathon. Considering that I started learning to run at ALL in December of last year - that's awesome. Just. Plain. Awesome. WAHOO!

Running at lunchtime today, for a value of lunchtime that = pretty late in the day, actually.

3 miles in 59:30, which does not seem like a phenomenal time, except that in about a week, I've managed to increase speed enough to shave off 30 seconds, and for me, that's worthy of a wahoo!

Today: Upped both the total time spent running and the time spent running at faster speeds.  

1st 5 min: 1 min walk at 1.8 mph, 1 min walk at 3.0 mph, 2 min run at 3.0 mph, 1 min run at 3.1 mph
2nd: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 2 min run at 3.0 mph, 1 min run at 3.1 mph
3rd: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 3 min run at 3.1 mph
4th-9th: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 1.5 min run at 3.0 mph, 45 sec run at 3.1 mph, 45 sec run at 3.2 mph
10th: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 3 min run at 3.1 mph
11th: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 2 min run at 3.0 mph, 1 min run at 3.1 mph
12th: 2 min walk at 3.0 mph, 2.5 min run at 3.0 (last 30 sec folded into cool down)

It's back to feeling good again - I really am not tiring until about 35 minutes in, and my breathing is steady and even. 3-4 minutes of walking to cool down and I'm comfortable. YAY!

First, I will steal shamelessly from smittywing and say: Snap Cup! Go put your name down so I can tell you to your face how incredible you are. Lots of people seem to be having a rough summer - share the happy. My link is here.

Second: Running:

3 miles today, for a weekly total of nine. Same pattern as yesterday. Today was both harder and easier - I wasn't struggling nearly as much, and my breathing's starting to even out. It sounds weird, but I can feel my lung capacity expanding. I have also learned that 1) I hate running in shorts; 2) happy music makes me run better; and 3) there's something weird going on with my left knee that means I need to keep my stride pretty exact. Re: #3: nothing painful - just that I can sort of feel things twist in ways that are probably bad to repeat if I'm not very careful to keep my feet pointing forward. It's harder than it sounds, given that I tend to walk on the outsides of my feet. Is there something I can do about that?

ETA: Third: I left work at 10:45. PM. Grr.

Fly-by running post, because this week is nuts in ways both good and bad, some of them tied to how some really smart people simply fail to evolve basic survival skills and expect the rest of the world to care for them/pick up their slack and it is. not. cute.  In fact, it makes me want to beat said people with sticks.

Ahem. This means I have lots of things I want to comment on/read/etc. and so if you get totally random comments from me on Thursday night, it's b/c I finally have alone time with my computer. :)

Went running  at lunch time today b/c college roommate and her husband are in town and oh my god, I wish I lived closer to them, because they are just GOOD people. The kind of friends you don't ever have to worry about seeing you in your pajamas with your hair insane, because they already seen you in every mood and status you possess. I love them, and I'm so glad they're here, and between this and tripping to omglawdork's, and new internet people of awesome, I'm just feeling thankful for that. Sometimes I look around and wonder how they all - you all - happened, because I live in my head and know what a pain in the ass I can be. And then I realize that hey, you all are cool, so if nothing else, I get your awesome by contamination, and that's spectacular.

So. Running: three miles, as per the good Mr. Higdon's plan (thanks, purna!).  Did the whole thing at 3.0 mph or slightly faster (except for a short warm-up period), which meant I pulled off 3.0 mph in <i>just</i> under an hour. Walked 2.5 min at 3.0 mph/ran 2.5 min. Running speed for the 2.5 minutes was 3.0 for some cycles, then towards the middle I went to 3.1 mph for the last minute of the run, and right in the very middle, went up to 3.2/3.3 mph for 30 seconds. No pausing, and no praying for death, and right now I feel pretty good! I've decided that the "short" runs during the week are going to be for working on speed, and then the "long" run on Saturday is going to be for working on not dying, so it's ok if it happens at a slower speed. Wahoo!