Trying to get back into it...

Vacation really, really took away any enthusiasm that I had, but I'm really, really trying to get back into my running. I was on a nice streak there. I had planned to run yesterday, but I was just so busy with work, being my first day back after vacation, that the only time I could squeeze in a run was at about 4:00pm before I picked up my daughter. Unfortunately, it was way too hot at that time. I have a feeling it will be the same story today. I will try, though. I just can't deal with the heat. I'm slow enough as it is, but the heat just makes me run like a turtle!

Will be back later today to post any results. I'm not giving up at all. It's just been a tough couple of weeks not having a regular schedule. And with this being a short week, it's not making it any easier.

Not feeling the Run Love today

Ugh, I'm s.o.r.e. from Monday's long (for me) run. Still. I've been stretching the last couple of days, and felt that I could give my run a try today. After the first mile, my left outer calf really started to hurt. I pushed it slowly for another mile, stopping for a stretch break twice, and finally deciding I wasn't going to push it any further. I'm kind of bummed about it because I really wanted to get in one good final workout before we leave for our long weekend on Friday morning. I most likely won't get a run in until Monday. I'll bring my sneakers and Nike+ with the hopes of running this weekend, but I'm not sure I'll be able to sneak away for any length of time. We will be doing lots of walking, so the weekend won't be without exercise, but it also won't be without good food, too ;) I just need to keep reminding myself that in order to have the good days like Monday, I need to have days like today, and if I pushed myself to injury, then days like Monday would be few and far between for quite some time.

Here's the run in all its unsatisfying glory:


I guess the good news is that I went to WW today and was down 1.2 lbs, even after a small splurge of a slice of pizza, ice cream and cake at a bday party last night. I went in with a plan to eat the smallest slice of the large pizza, lots of salad, and a small serving of cake and ice cream. I guess I can be proud that I followed through with it.

Song of the day: Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar

1...2...3...FOUR!!!!

Yep, I logged FOUR miles this morning. I didn't run all of it, but I did run about 3 miles of it. I'm pretty proud of myself. That was the first day of my Nike+ 1/2 Marathon training, and I love going into my training profile on nikeplus.nike.com and seeing that bar all filled up with accomplishment. Here's my run:

And I ran outside on the track. This is my first time doing that since I started running about a month ago. I actually really liked it much, much better than the treadmill. The time FLEW by. A minute on the treadmill drags by, but a minute on the track is like a blink of an eye.

I was quite nervous about running in public. I like the fact that in the basement nobody can see me. I can wear just a sports bra and my shorts/skirt, and I don't have to care about the flab on my belly bouncing around or the shorts riding up. When I got to the track, nobody was there. It was pretty gray and windy and ready to rain at any second. One girl showed up as I was starting my workout. And then an older man came and walked a mile. As I was leaving one other girl showed up to run. I know nobody cares what I look like, and frankly, I don't care either. I wore my shorts with bike shorts underneath, and if they rode up, oh well. I did spare everyone and wore a tshirt :P

New Feature:

Song of the day: Goodbye to You by Scandal

Saturday Night Fun!

I really wanted to accomplish my 6mile weekly goal, and since I had such a short run on Monday due to the heat, I was shy about 0.5 mile. Now, I wasn't gonna get all sweaty and have to shower for such a short distance, so I ended up doing my longest run yet. Some Saturday night fun, huh? I guess that's what happens when you're an old mom. LOL! I'm treating myself to a mojito as soon as I shower, though. So, it's all good.

Here are my stats for tonight:

My eating pretty much sucked today. I'm not sure why. I had a late breakfast, and then I had nothing healthy in the house for lunch, so I ate a Bagelful - totally wasn't satisfying because I was so hungry. I did have a healthy supper of lean steak, grilled veggies and a little rice. My jello is brewing and should be just about ready for me for my before-bed snack. That's totally a bad habit, but I've switched to sf/ff jello or a 100 cal Kettle Corn. Much better than what I used to have.

Actually, since I've been running this past month, most things are much better than they used to be. I still have the old family drama, which is not suitable for my running posts, but I'm handling things differently, more calmly, looking at the big picture and trying to not be angry about things that I can't control. That's the best I can do, and running has been a great stress relief for that. And the new clothes! I'm totally enjoying shopping again. My wallet isn't enjoying it, but it's nice to finally have some in-style clothes that fit and look somewhat decent on me. I don't want to buy too much because I'm hoping my weight keeps dropping. I've only lost 4 lbs so far, but my face is thinner, my old clothes are looser, and even if people don't notice that I'm looking a bit thinner, I feel like a completely different person. And runner's high aside, that's really what gets me running.

DH is in the garage installing his Father's Day gift - a new air conditioner. For the garage. That's what he wanted. I wanted Pyrex for Mother's Day, and that's what I got. Oh well. He practically lives in there now that he bought his new table saw. We won't even get into the cost of that (care to know - google Powermatic), but he's hoping he goes on strike in August so that he has ample time to use it. Pray for me - I work from home, and I like my current, lonely schedule :)

Gadgets

I am so not a gadget person. I don't get all excited about the latest cell phone or video game or any of that, so this is quite surprising to me that I made such an impulse purchase. After reading about Roni's experience with the Nike+ iPod, I decided I had to give it a try. I'm nowhere near purchasing a Garmin, so for $30 this seemed like a nice fit for my beginner level. One catch: I have an iPod mini and to use this gadget you need an iPod nano. Hmmm, haven't I been wanting to upgrade for a couple of weeks now? Just another reason to splurge!

I'm a total bargain-hunter, so I searched and searched for the best deal on the 6GB vs. the 4GB. I really wanted to the green, since it's my favorite color, but since I only have less than 1 GB on my current 6GB mini, I went with the 4GB that only comes in silver. Not a huge deal, I'll just get a green case for it ;). Then, I couldn't find the Nike+ in stock anywhere around here. For some reason, I stopped in Circuit City on my way to pick up Cecilia, and I almost bought it there, but I started feeling guilty for spending so much $$. I had to pee, and Target was right next door, so I ran in there. And of course, I checked to see if their website was wrong about having no Nike+ in stock. Well, it was my lucky day! They had one hanging there, just waiting for me to grab it. And bonus - get a $15 gift card when you buy the 4GB. So, I bought that and then used the gift card to help fund the $30 Nike+.

So, onto my run. It was great!! Best run yet. I decided I was just going to listen to my own music (note to self: make some decent 35 minute playlists!!!) and run 3: walk 1 until I hit 2 miles. Well, since I don't have Nike+ shoes (I have my ugly, but fantastic, NB 882's) and I didn't calibrate the Nike+, my mileage was a bit off. I opted to do a 2mile program while running on the treadmill. The treadmill said I did 2 miles in 31 minutes, while the Nike+ said I did 2.5 miles in 31 minutes. Either way, I seriously trimmed my time time and I completed all of my 3:1 intervals with a 5 minute warm-up and a 4 minute cool-down. See for yourself:

So, yeah, totally cool, but not entirely accurate...yet. I've always had a feeling that my treadmill was a bit off (it's old and clunky and not really of the highest quality to begin with, which is why I hope to hit the real roads soon!). Plus, the online software has some really cool features like training and goals. Oh, and the best part is on-demand voices telling you your stats as well as Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods congratulating you when you PR. Definitely worth the $30 IMO, so far.

Even though I didn't run until 9pm tonight, I made it a point to go sit on my deck with my book and a mojito because I was looking forward to it all day. It's almost 11:30pm, I'm beat, and I'm ready to go watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy (I'm so behind on my viewing!). I feel great, had a great run, and I'm hoping I can shed 1+ lbs before I leave on vacation next weekend. Going to have my jello and cool whip now because I totally earned it. Plus I think I have about 5 pts to use up...oh, wait, I just used 3 of those on my mojito. ;)

The Most Perfect Ending

I just had the most perfect ending to a pretty good day. First, Cecilia went to bed tonight without a hitch. Not even a wimper or cry for "mumma" when I left the room. She blew me a kiss and that was the end of it. And after that, I made myself the most delicious mojito and sat on my deck, listened to the beautiful songs of a nearby bird and read my book until just now, when there was no longer enough light. It was fantabulous! I can't remember the last time I went out and just relaxed on my deck, by myself, just me. It was probably about 2 years ago when I was 8 months pregnant, and I would hardly say that it was relaxing (if you've been 6-9 months pregnant in the summer heat, you know what I mean). So, it's been a long while. And I was dying to do this for the past few weeks, but DH had been re-supporting the deck, so it wasn't stable enough for us to go out there. All I can say is "Ahhhhh".

As for my running, I did the C25k W3D1 workout. I didn't really know what to expect since I didn't check ahead of time, but I was quite surprised that we were jumping from 90 seconds of running to 3 minutes of continuous running. I didn't stress; I just took it slower than usual, made it through the workout easily and threw in a 2:1 and two 1:1 (run:walk) intervals at the end. I struggle at the beginning of my workouts and labor a bit, but once I hit that 20 minute mark, I get the extra push to do a bit more and make the most of the workout since I've made it so far. Body felt good, legs felt good, I pushed towards the end of the 3 minute intervals, but overall a great run.

After that, since I was dripping with sweat beyond belief, I decided to go to my mom's and do a few laps in her pool and cool off...oh, and I needed to pick up Cecilia there too. It's quite convenient that there's a pool there. ;) I hopped in, did 2 sets of 10 laps, mainly because the little one wanted me to throw her around and needed some attention. I could have done 16 laps continuously, but she just wouldn't wait for me anymore. Oh well, it was a bonus workout.

Ate great today. Down 1lb for the week. Just overall calm and collected and I'm not letting my messy house ruin that mood.

I think I'm in Love!

Yep, I'm running in a skirt. Sounds crazy, right? Well, I thought the same thing. Apparently, they're becoming quite popular, and seeing that I haven't been on the running block very long, I never even knew they existed. Really, it looks like a tennis skirt with bike shorts underneath, but you know what? I don't really care because those little bike shorts DO NOT RIDE UP! Hallelujah! I got it at Target for $19.99 after reading all the positive reviews it was getting. I bought a large, and it was too big. Crazy big in the waist. So, I returned it, but they didn't have the dark blue with light blue shorts in a medium, so I got the black skirt with pink shorts. I'm totally looking forward to getting the dark blue, though, since I think they had it at our other Target.

So, I may look like a sissy girl in the skirt, but who cares. I'll wear them until my thighs slim down and I can hopefully find a normal pair of shorts that don't ride up.