Argh! A friend just posted "51 days" on my facebook. That is 51 days until the Nike Women's Marathon. 51 days until my first marathon. 51 days until I will be out there joining all the other 20,000 crazies running a ridiculous amount of miles.
I want to throw up just thinking about it.
In other news, it sucks major ass being poor. We are super-duper poor right now, and to cut some costs, my husband is going to cancel our gym membership. When he told me this last night over the phone, I started crying. Yes, I know. I am a big baby. But the gym is my me time. Unlike tons of other folks, I actually go to the gym. And I go pretty frequently, 3 to 6 times a week. And not just to use the treadmill, but I use a lot of their weights machines and dumbbells and barbells and ellipitical machines and bikes.
We talked about it some more this evening, and I started crying again. I don't know. It is what it is, and if we can't afford it, we can't afford it. We pretty much have everything I need at home, and I can modify a lot of the exercises to make do with the things we don't have.
My main concern is that I will go bat-shit crazy at home.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Planks, no, not the stupid planking craze
A few months ago, I made a goal to be able to hold the plank position for 5 minutes. When I first started, I was able to hold it for 2 minutes.
I haven't been doing any real core exercises to focus on being able to hold it for longer. I've just been doing my regular strength training in addition to my running.
Well, I timed myself today, and I was able to hold it for 3.5 minutes today. I have to be able to do it twice in order for it to count. (I know. I'm a bit psycho.) I kick ass. Maybe in a few more months I'll be able to meet that 5 minute goal.
I've got a half marathon this Saturday. I've been doing a run/walk method for my previous long runs because I was dying doing runs longer than 10 miles. It's been going pretty well.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do for the half. Part of me wants to try to run the whole thing. The other part of me wants to try the run/walk method to see what kind of results it will yield during a race. We'll see.
I haven't been doing any real core exercises to focus on being able to hold it for longer. I've just been doing my regular strength training in addition to my running.
Well, I timed myself today, and I was able to hold it for 3.5 minutes today. I have to be able to do it twice in order for it to count. (I know. I'm a bit psycho.) I kick ass. Maybe in a few more months I'll be able to meet that 5 minute goal.
I've got a half marathon this Saturday. I've been doing a run/walk method for my previous long runs because I was dying doing runs longer than 10 miles. It's been going pretty well.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do for the half. Part of me wants to try to run the whole thing. The other part of me wants to try the run/walk method to see what kind of results it will yield during a race. We'll see.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Bring it, river!
I woke up this morning and started getting ready to go to the gym. However, I could still feel some soreness in my right hamstring from the weekend. I took an extra rest day on Monday. And well, it truly was hard, but I forced myself to take another rest day today. Better safe, than sorry, right? I'm thinking I might give it another rest day tomorrow as well. And possibily even another one on Saturday if it's still feeling iffy. I've got 16 miles (yikes!) scheduled for my long run, and I could always push it off til Sunday.
Since I was up early with nothing to do, I figured I better go and vacuum out my car before it got too hot. I have no idea when the last time I vacuumed my car was. It was pretty gross. It took me about an hour to thoroughly vacuum my car. But it was pretty satisfying to hear stuff flying through the vacuum hose at the speed of nastiness.
Martin got me this pretty nifty tool free from AAA. You know those tools. The ones you can use to slice through your seat belt and break your window out if you ever find yourself trapped in a sinking car. For the longest time, it's been kept in its box in my center console buried behind a bunch of crap.
There was a ton of stuff in front of it. Wipies, tissue, McDonald's receipts, gloves, beanies, etc. (Don't worry. I vacuumed all those crumbs/dead leaf particles (?) later.) I figured if my car and I ever started going underwater, I would be a goner trying to get handy tool out from beneath all that crap, much less still have time to take it out of the box, pull it out of it's bubble wrap and read the instructions.
So in order to be more prepared I took it out. Whadaya know, it's a flashlight, too! Unfortunately, when I pushed the button to turn it on, it didn't work. I also saw that the pointy window-breaking part looked pretty soft, like red rubber. How that would be able to break a car window beats me, but, hey, I'm no engineer.
Before I tossed the box, I figured I should give the instructions a once over. Hey, it's a manual flashlight! You turn a lever for a few minutes and it works! And what's this?! Always keep the protective cover on the the sharp pointie thing (if you can't tell, I'm paraphrasing here) when not in use.
Ooooooohhhhhhhh! Now that makes sense! However, it took me several minutes trying to remove that red thing. It was on there pretty good. So when I put it back, I left it off partially so it would be easier to rip off. I would imagine every second counts when icy cold waters are rapidly rising over your body.
I put the tool back in the bubble wrap and placed it in the driver side door. I am now prepared if my car ever plunges into a body of water. Or if I need a flashlight to find my bank card that slipped out of my pocket during a midnight run to Jack in the Box.
Since I was up early with nothing to do, I figured I better go and vacuum out my car before it got too hot. I have no idea when the last time I vacuumed my car was. It was pretty gross. It took me about an hour to thoroughly vacuum my car. But it was pretty satisfying to hear stuff flying through the vacuum hose at the speed of nastiness.
Martin got me this pretty nifty tool free from AAA. You know those tools. The ones you can use to slice through your seat belt and break your window out if you ever find yourself trapped in a sinking car. For the longest time, it's been kept in its box in my center console buried behind a bunch of crap.
There was a ton of stuff in front of it. Wipies, tissue, McDonald's receipts, gloves, beanies, etc. (Don't worry. I vacuumed all those crumbs/dead leaf particles (?) later.) I figured if my car and I ever started going underwater, I would be a goner trying to get handy tool out from beneath all that crap, much less still have time to take it out of the box, pull it out of it's bubble wrap and read the instructions.
So in order to be more prepared I took it out. Whadaya know, it's a flashlight, too! Unfortunately, when I pushed the button to turn it on, it didn't work. I also saw that the pointy window-breaking part looked pretty soft, like red rubber. How that would be able to break a car window beats me, but, hey, I'm no engineer.
Before I tossed the box, I figured I should give the instructions a once over. Hey, it's a manual flashlight! You turn a lever for a few minutes and it works! And what's this?! Always keep the protective cover on the the sharp pointie thing (if you can't tell, I'm paraphrasing here) when not in use.
Ooooooohhhhhhhh! Now that makes sense! However, it took me several minutes trying to remove that red thing. It was on there pretty good. So when I put it back, I left it off partially so it would be easier to rip off. I would imagine every second counts when icy cold waters are rapidly rising over your body.
I put the tool back in the bubble wrap and placed it in the driver side door. I am now prepared if my car ever plunges into a body of water. Or if I need a flashlight to find my bank card that slipped out of my pocket during a midnight run to Jack in the Box.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
New Rules, Sub 9 Mile and Run/Walk
I got The New Rules of Lifting for Women. The author comes off sounding like an asshole with his "I'm right and everyone else is wrong attitude," which is pretty annoying. However, I've been following the workouts (designed by another guy), and I am quite pleased. I've done them 3 times this week. And my arms are usually sore the next day. You only do five exercises, and they go pretty quick. I was able to finish each workout in under 30 minutes. I think I can stick with this.
This Thursday was supposed to be a rest day, but I actually felt like running, so I headed to the trails to work on some hills. A half mile into my run, which starts off with a one mile hill, elevation gain of almost 300 feet, I saw a guy flying down. I was feeling miserable wondering how I managed to run up this hill nonstop in the past. I gave my usual smile and wave to the guy. And then he started CLAPPING for me. How kick-ass is that?! That totally boosted my morale, and I managed to make it up that hill. I hope that guy wins the lottery.
On the same run, in my last mile, I actually ran an 8:43 mile! Yes, it was going down that same hill I spoke of above, but still! Other than on the treadmill, I've never run a sub 9 mile. I'll take it.
I had been feeling down about my past couple sucky long runs and posted on the NWM facebook page for advice. A few people recommended the run/walk method. I had to get it out of my head that walking = failure. With a new mindset, I headed out on my ten mile run this morning. I took a one minute walk break after every ten minutes. And guess what? It turned out to be my best time ever for this route! Crazy! And when I was done, I still felt like I could still do a few more miles. (10.36 miles in 1:54:11, 11:01/mile avg pace)
I fueled on fun-sized Snickers. After I ate one on my walking break (how sad must that have looked?), I saw two beautiful runners coming towards me. Not wanting to look like a complete loser, I started running again. Both guys gave me a huge smile and in sync raised their hands high at me. I returned the smile and raised my hand, too...clasping the Snickers wrapper. Nice.
This Thursday was supposed to be a rest day, but I actually felt like running, so I headed to the trails to work on some hills. A half mile into my run, which starts off with a one mile hill, elevation gain of almost 300 feet, I saw a guy flying down. I was feeling miserable wondering how I managed to run up this hill nonstop in the past. I gave my usual smile and wave to the guy. And then he started CLAPPING for me. How kick-ass is that?! That totally boosted my morale, and I managed to make it up that hill. I hope that guy wins the lottery.
On the same run, in my last mile, I actually ran an 8:43 mile! Yes, it was going down that same hill I spoke of above, but still! Other than on the treadmill, I've never run a sub 9 mile. I'll take it.
I had been feeling down about my past couple sucky long runs and posted on the NWM facebook page for advice. A few people recommended the run/walk method. I had to get it out of my head that walking = failure. With a new mindset, I headed out on my ten mile run this morning. I took a one minute walk break after every ten minutes. And guess what? It turned out to be my best time ever for this route! Crazy! And when I was done, I still felt like I could still do a few more miles. (10.36 miles in 1:54:11, 11:01/mile avg pace)
I fueled on fun-sized Snickers. After I ate one on my walking break (how sad must that have looked?), I saw two beautiful runners coming towards me. Not wanting to look like a complete loser, I started running again. Both guys gave me a huge smile and in sync raised their hands high at me. I returned the smile and raised my hand, too...clasping the Snickers wrapper. Nice.
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