Running With Friend(s)

Today, I met my partner from last term's running class with the hopes that we would both run better if we had someone to run with. Sadly, it was 80° and humid, and neither of us were very motivated.

I was supposed to run in 8 minute bursts, but never kept it up for more than a few minutes at a time. We even tried running some of the tree-lined trails, but I just didn't have it in me, and felt like I was slowing him down. We made another appointment for Wednesday, and I'm thinking maybe we should stick to the track, and maybe jump back a week in my schedule; that would have me running in five-minutes bursts.

Also: I forgot sunblock, and left the track for a three-hour math class, feeling red and exhausted. Awesome.

My bi-cycle's back, and I'm gonna be in trouble.

date: Sunday afternoon
destination: work at the Cinema
time: 35-ish minutes
distance: 6.75 miles
average speed: slow-ish
maximum speed: fast-ish

june total: 6.75 miles
year-to-date: 6.75 miles

After getting Foxy back from the painter last week and the mechanic last night, I rode him around the neighborhood a bit, but had to save my real ride until today. Opting to take it fairly easy, as I've been off the bike for some time, I rode to work with the caveat that Husband come and pick me up later.

It was a nice ride, and not too difficult, but it was fairly warm outside, and the air was blowing directly at me the whole way. I yearned for the luxury of a red light, but there was no joy. When finally I was able to stop a bit and rest, I was downtown, sheltered from the wind, and forced to stand in the sunshine while waiting for passing cars. None of this is a complaint, mind you, as I had a fabulous time, but I arrived at work starving to death, and was forced to inhale a huge burrito.

Also: my mommy bought me a cool new computer for the bike, which I've been waiting over a month to install, and it is cute and awesome, but the amount of information I get is limited. A few minutes into the ride, I thought about putting the old computer back on, but by the end of the ride, it had occurred to me that I spent more of the ride enjoying myself, and less worrying about my average speed. Hooray for bright orange, blobby bike computers!

Early to bed, late to rise. . .

As per usual, I skipped my run yesterday, and very nearly skipped it today, too. However, the pasta lunch, two candies, several handsful of popcorn, countless sodas and dinner at Wendy's—after a long day of alternating work and sitting—weighed hard on my conscience.

My sweetheart walked with me to the track, where we both ran, and I was able to check off another box in my exercise regime. You know. . . in so much as abject laziness can be classified as a regime, and so far as one can check off imaginary boxes.

In roughly four months, I have finally advanced to the page marked "Week 4." Fingers crossed, I'll have zoomed past my "Week 5" duties before Summer ends.

Running down a dream.

After eating an absurd amount of ice cream this evening, directly following dinner and Battlestar Galactica re-runs, I remembered I had to run today. When my sweetheart left for work, I suited up and gathered my stuff. After a brief tutorial on shoelace tying (which I've been intending to investigate ever since I realized I missed an issue of Runner's World where it was prominently featured), I headed out in the windy, cool early morning to run.

Again I was scheduled to run five minutes, then walk one minute, and repeat the madness five times. The workouts are designed to be 30 minutes, with steady increases in time spent running, until I can run for 30 whole minutes without feeling like I am going to die. Today, I was feeling noticeably better than yesterday, so I ran an extra five minutes, walked another minute, then ran three minutes at a faster pace in order to get to 40 minutes.

When I was finished, I was delighted to see that I had just barely exceeded 3.5 miles. I've run farther in the past (my farthest was the 10K Human Race), but my record was cleared when I bought a new iPod last year, so I get occasional pep talks from celebrities informing me I've met a goal or gone farther or faster than before which are not true. Alas, I need all the help I can get, so it was a small triumph to end my session and hear Lance Armstrong tell me that was my farthest workout to date. I should tweet him and say thanks. It was, after all, my farthest workout in over a year. So, you know: way to go, Scout.

Also: I established a new rule: any day I am running the same schedule as a previous workout (run 5, walk 1...), I have to tack a bit more time on. Hopefully I can both remember and actually achieve that goal.

Bad Moon Rising

I did not feel at all like running today, but I hosed out on Monday's run (after also failing to run either Friday or Saturday) because it was the first day of school, and because my running partner had to cancel, and because I am the laziest person on the face of the planet.

Despite my bad behavior, I went ahead and ran the five minute bursts I was scheduled to run on Monday. I didn't want to fall behind again, so I decided to push myself. About midway through the run, it was all I could muster to run four minutes in one go, so I did that, then walked for two minutes, then finished with two six minute runs. I figure it all comes out in the wash, and the important thing is that I wasn't sitting on my oversized butt reading an issue of Runner's World while chewing on ice cream mochi.

Also, it was hot and humid, and I was sharing the playground with a kid learning how to ride his bike without training wheels, so the run felt destined to blow from the get-go. I'm totally copping a squat later, though, and eating that strawberry mochi while watching Battlestar Galactica. Just try to stop me.

Feeling better.

I don't know if any other girls in the world have the same problem as I do: once a month, I begin getting frustrated, tired, cranky, and more down on myself than usual. Though that is common and fairly predictable, my problem is that I always forget it's coming, don't understand where my motivation went, and would fight you to the death, crying the whole way, for a cupcake. Chocolate, please, with vanilla bean frosting.

Luckily, when my monthly visitor does show up, I'm so shocked and perplexed, my anxiety and anger seem to dissolve, and I spend the next couple days apologizing to everyone I came into contact with for the prior few. I've considered getting back on the pill, as my system is fairly irregular to begin with, but I turn 35 this year, and the idea of sudden strokes and blood clots freaks me out far more than growling at passers-by while I devour everything in sight.

Today's run was indicative of this cycle more than any I can remember in recent history. I didn't feel like running the past few times, I had to practically push myself out the door, and when I finally mustered the courage to spend 30 minutes in the sun, I performed poorly and whined the whole time. I lowered my expectations for the past couple runs, but this time out, I found myself running just a bit longer each repetition; instead of just running in three minute bursts, after a couple of repetitions, I was running in four, then five minute increments. That's not too big of a deal, as I was running for five minutes at a time last week (and I should have been running for six minutes at a time this week), but it is always surprising to get my motivation back.

Now, if only I could release the death grip on the cookies.

lazy. . . lazy for feeling so. . . lazy!

Owing to both an inability to run at the level I was supposed to have achieved, as well as general laziness from my 10-whole-day summer break, I reset my running calender for the week. Instead of moving ahead of running days I never completed—instead, even, than simply restarting my week—I fell back on the previous week to buoy my spirits and advance my progress. . . hopefully.

Today's run was ten sets of running for two minutes, then walking for one minute. It was warm, it was freakishly humid, and I was feeling fatter and lazier than usual. Luckily, though—with the exception of nearly being mowed down by an inattentive Ford pick-up driver rolling nonchalantly through a stop sign while staring directly at me—it was uneventful. Accomplishing goals or getting verbal thumbs ups from my Nike+ are nice and all, but sometimes the best goals are simply getting off the couch and out of the house.







(I think my energy waned a bit there at the end!)

slackerdom.

Got a new tattoo on Thursday.

Supposed to run on Friday; didn't feel like doing any more damage to myself.

Supposed to run on Saturday; too lazy.

No run scheduled for Sunday: success!

Nearly forgotten run.

This was the run from my last day of jogging class. It was uneventful, but it was very warm. Humorously, it was supposed to be a very flat route in and around the Sylvania campus, but it began in an upward fashion, continued thusly, and pounded me for most of the "run".

I alternated walking with light jogging on the prodigious hills, enjoying actual running on the downhill stretches. Most of the final push back into campus, however, was downhill, but I was so broken from forcing myself up the unplanned hills, I couldn't even sustain constant downhill running.

At one point, I was separated from my partner and had no idea where I was in relation to the school. For the most part, I go to school and come directly home. Where most of my fellow students know the neighborhood and local landmarks, I don't even know street names or general directions. When my partner turned out of view, I decided that was the perfect occasion to cease running and give myself up for dead. Then I rounded the same curve, realized I was simply approaching the school from a new direction, and picked up my pace. I even took a slightly longer route back to class, knowing it to be predominantly downhill.

When it was all over, I washed off my face, loaded up on water and juice, and enjoyed a potluck with my fellow classmates before saying goodbye for the term. I hope I got an A.

Here we go again.

date: Monday, June 8
goal: run 5 minutes, walk 1, repeat x 5
temperature: cloudy, 67°

Week three of my training schedule begins with the quote, "Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals." Despite the fact the words were uttered by a momma-loving, cow-hating lunatic (and despite using the word that when the word which would have been more correct-er), I decided to heed the advice and go for the run I was scheduled to take.

After last week's debacles and sad showings, I contemplated recycling Week Two's training schedule, and running in shorter bursts for the same amount of time. Perhaps, had I stuck with that decision, I wouldn't be dead now. But I am dead, because that run which I just ran, absolutely killed me.

It didn't help that the school near my house was still in session, so I had to run on the street, which can loosely be defined as "rolling hills," though is more accurately defined as "up and freaking down and up and freaking down over and over again." Sometimes it's a nice run: there are trees and patches of shade; and sometimes the cars don't try to kill me. However, I need to stick to flat land any day I'm adding time to a run. It's strenuous enough on my delicate, tissue-paper-like disposition to run while contemplating whether or not I can keep it up for one whole minute more than usual. Throw "rolling hills" into the equation, and I begin looking for passers-by to whine at. Yeah, I know, I'm complaining about Henry Ford's grammar, and I'm ending sentences in prepositions. This paragraph has also gotten strangely long, and I'm barely hiding my apathetic, sympathetic, eventually-diabetic ways, but it's okay, because I died miles ago. Feel free to use bad grammar upon my epitaph. I deserve it.

Sunday, Achy Sunday

No running, as promised. I did 30 minutes of Wii Fit yoga, though, to stretch out my terrifically tight muscles, and it felt lovely.

Also: I took some street-legal drugstore drugs, and drowned my sorrows in iced tea and pasta at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Okay. . . I also ate the husband's spumoni in addition to mine, but that's hardly a new event; when declining his dessert to the waiter, I have been known to quietly hiss, "no, honey, you want your ice cream, remember?"

We run on Saturdays, too.

date: Saturday, July 6
goal: run 4 minutes, walk 1, repeat x 6
temperature: warm, humid

O! Sweet Justice! Remember yesterday when I all but collapsed on the floor of the gym and declared, "Thank fracking Jeebus I don't have to run tomorrow"? Ha ha haha hahahahahaha. . . uh, eh, haaaahhhh. I woke up this afternoon, following eight delicious hours of sleep, actually gazed longingly at my math books, then shot a cursory glance at my training schedule.

(Insert long, whiny air-leaving-a-balloon sound here-ish.)

Following some ridiculous reviewing of chapters one and two of algebra (pretty much the same sad, sorry stuff your mind can conjure when considering 7th grade algebra), I laced up my shoes and headed to the playground down the street for today's workout. Surprisingly, I felt a bit better than yesterday, and I managed to finish each of my repetitions despite a constant ache in both shins and strange shoulder and inner-elbow pain (seriously, what is that place called?!). It hurt, but I pressed through, and I did what I set out to do. And I feel like the better person for it. Granted, I'd have felt like an even bigger, better-er person had I not then gone home and ate myself out of house and apartment, but I wouldn't be the girl I am without an unabated adoration of cheese-flavored snack foods.

Roughly one hour following the disemboweling of Vietnamese sandwiches, tubular American potato chips and butterfly-shaped French cookies, I was on top of the world. Three hours later, mind you, I was clutching a bottle of Tylenol, massaging old-lady-ointment into my legs, and whining for my mommy. She never showed.

Lesser Trail

date: Friday, June 5
goal: run 4, walk 1
temperature: overcast, warm

Today was the last real day of my jogging class, and it was fairly warm outside, so our teacher crafted us a run on some shady roads and trails. I knew yesterday that I would have to run today, but that didn't seem to keep me from running twice, playing Wii, and going for a walk. Suffice to say, I did not have it today.

My goal was to run four minutes, then walk one, and repeat for at least 30 minutes. Starting out, that was easy enough: my partner and I were first out of the gym, trucking along at a respectable pace, and making some pretty good time. It was certainly the first time we ever led the pack in class, but it wouldn't be long until that ended, as we started out on a downhill. Amazingly, with our slack plan of running the downhills and walking the uphills when we could no longer run up them, we stayed ahead for over two miles. I'll just assume everyone else got lost, and chalk that up to my superior map-reading skills.

Back at school, we were lapped just as we nearly finished, and I lied down on the floor, thrilled to be done with running for the week, and anxiously looking forward to a lazy weekend of studying for my math final Monday.

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Since my bike, Foxy, is still at the powder coating shop, I've been wandering back and forth in the beautiful sunshine, awaiting an exercise outlet. Bike riding is nice in the sunshine, but running most certainly is not. Alas, I have been running in bursts when the weather is not too terrible, and when forced to do so because of my "Jogging for Health" class.

There is only one week left of classes in Spring term, so Wednesday I was supposed to do a sort of exit interview for class: I was to run one mile and compare it to my time from the first week of class. Foolishly, though, I signed up to give blood that day, and had to opt out. Luckily, it was a 90° day with relatively high humidity, and my usual jogging partners looked like death when they were finished, so I felt as if I had fallen in to a vat of pink cotton candy. Cool, pink cotton candy.

Today I had to make up for my absence, and was delighted to see the temperature was only 71° and the weather was overcast and slightly drippy. Thunderstorms and lightning were imminent, however, so I laced up and headed out for a quick mile. The result was 10'18", which is nothing to write home about; the previous time was 11'51", making a two month improvement of 1'33", which is nothing to sneeze at. I meandered home satisfied, woke the husband, and proceeded to eat a nutritionally terrible lunch.

Feeling bad about the lack of substantial exercise compounded with a veggie burger (with bacon!), potato chips and an enormous diet cola, I played with my Wii Fit for a half hour, then attempted to watch television. The stupid National Weather Service, however, kept interrupting my even stupider re-runs, so I was left again to ponder my intake versus exercise. When the thunder and lightning abated, I decided to run again today in order to get in my usual 30 minute workout I missed yesterday.

After falling behind and being improperly motivated most of the term, my current jogging pattern is to run for 3 minutes, walk for 1 minute, and repeat for half an hour. It's a slow work-up to running for 30 continuous minutes, but I have done the same six week schedule a few times now, and it works surprisingly well. Clearly it works better than I do, though, as I've done the program a few times now. I ran/walked down to the local elementary school, completed 32 minutes of 8 repetitions, then decided upon a walk to the grocery store to cool down.

Despite the earlier rain and still-overcast skies, the temperature was now close to 80° and the humidity was even higher than earlier. The walk was nice, but I was overheated and barely breathing in the pea soup. I slowed down, lollygagged my way down the hill, and jumped up to pull on soaking tree branches as I went under them. The lovely little showers probably made me look like a mental case to drivers, and the goofy smile sealed the deal.

I arrived at the store happy, cooled, and damp. I bought fruit to make myself feel better about later snacking decisions and batteries for my calculator, then headed back out the door, only to find the rain had returned in full force. No jacket, no umbrella, but still pretty warm, I walked back up the hill in the pouring rain, savoring a juicy organic peach and washing away the sweat of the day. I don't remember the last time I was out in a summer rain storm, but I do remember sitting on a porch in Portland back in 1996, amazed by the mere existence of one, and considering moving to the Pacific Northwest.

And look at me now.