Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned.

Before today, it had been over a week since I last ran. In fact, before my lunch-break run today, my last run was the half-marathon. This thought pains me! To be somewhat fair, I took the day after off, and then I hiked ~8 miles on Tuesday and on Wednesday. I worked from 9am to midnight on Thursday. I have no excuses for Friday. My parents came to visit on Saturday, but that is a lame excuse. Sunday (my birthday!), I went for a hike and swam. On Monday I wanted to go for a run SO badly, but I was stuck at work until 8:30. The school gym closes at 8 and it's not safe to run outside alone at night where I live.

Anyway, the only time I could find to run today was at lunch, so I packed up my gear and the second it hit noon, I flew down the six flights of stairs to get to the gym. Then I realized I forgot my ID, which I need to get into the gym. Woops! Back up the stairs, then back down again. It was a good, solid run. I don't think I've felt that good on a run in quite some time. I felt powerful! Perhaps it was just my long absence. I ran 3 miles in 32:45 which is SUPER speedy for me. Anyway, it made the rest of my work day considerably better.

I'm signed up to run a trail 10k on July 17th. I don't know who I think I'm kidding - I've never run trails before. This could get interesting.

You know you've had a good workout when...

...you look like this:

A miracle that I still somehow manage to appear happy (I kid!).

Now don't get me wrong, I am an exceptional sweater by society's standards. It could be the dead of winter, I'll be sitting in a t-shirt, and I'll still have sweat stains. However, I would consider this t-shirt a mark of greatness. I nearly saturated the whole thing! Anyway, today I killed it at the gym - I ran 3.0 miles in 34:25, which is a good time for me. Then I biked for a while, and I finished up with 2.0 miles worth of intervals, working up to 6.2 mph (super speedy!) from 5.0 mph and then back down. One of the better gym workouts I've had. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the treadmill and gyms? Maybe not recently, but I hate them. Today was positive, though!

Also, this was my second workout of the day! After watering my garden this morning I went to visit a couple of friends I haven't seen in a while for a kayaking adventure! One friend lives on a lake, so we spent an hour and a half circumnavigating the shoreline and a couple of little islands. All in all, a pretty awesome day!

Let me leave you with some more post-workout views (because I know how much everyone loves a good sweat sodden t-shirt):

I like how the pit stain is indistinguishable from boob and/or back sweat.

This is my victorious pose!

P.S. - The back of the t-shirt reads, "Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees."

Getting faster, running longer!

Today I set out thinking that I would do a solid 1.5 miles, jog slowly for a few minutes, and then pick it back up and run one more mile, for a total of ~2.5 miles. I got on the treadmill and thought to myself, "This is a dreadmill day." I don't run with music and I don't cover up the display in front of me. Running may be a physical activity, but I think that it's equally mental. Every time I run, I try my hardest to best the display, and pay less and less attention to it. I say that it was a dreadmill day because I looked at the display after about 20 seconds. This was going to be a tough one.

The first mile was tough - and it often is for me. After running only a couple of minutes, 25 more just seems so impossible. It's not, and I know it's not, sometimes it just feels that way. In any case, I made it to one mile, and then I told myself that after 1.5 miles at 5.5, I could bring it down. Then I thought, "Bring it down? You mean let this machine beat me? Ain't gonna happen!" I ran to 2 miles. Just 2 miles? I did that yesterday, easy-peasy. How about 3? And how about I run it a little faster than I did last time? Sure. After 2 miles, I did ease it down to 5.4, then 5.3, then 5.1, and I ran until I hit the 3.0 marker at 33:19. That's the fastest I've ever run 3 miles!

Mile 1: 11:03

Mile 2: 10:53

Mile 3: 11:23

I obviously slowed down a bit in the end, but overall this is the fastest I've accomplished 3 miles, and I feel AWESOME! I am 26 seconds faster than I was on Saturday, and 1:41 faster than I was on Friday!

My goal a few weeks ago was to reach 202 lbs by November 2nd, which is a week from today. That's not going to happen, because I seemed to have hit a little snag at 208. That's quite alright with me, though, at least for now. Chaffing is getting pretty bad, though. I definitely need to invest in some better shorts.

Success!

FINALLY! I've made it back to 3.0 mile land. I did it a little bit slow (35 minutes), but I did it nonetheless! And with no walking breaks :)

What a great way to start the weekend! And I've been really good about keeping my nutrition within range and drinking all of my water. This is going to be a short post, because I really need to shower and do some work before my noon class. Farewell for now!

Bleh Run

This whole week has been and will continue to be easy, school wise, at the very least. This week is the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAGs) in Las Vegas. As I am a geography major, all of my professors are gone! It's lovely that I don't have as much work this week, but I really function much better on a tight schedule. I need to have deadlines for myself.

That said, I didn't wake up until 9am, didn't do any work until 10:30, and didn't leave for the gym until a little before 1:00pm. I wanted to run at least 2.5 miles on the dreadtreadmill, but I really had to push myself to finish 2.0 miles. It seriously took just about all of my will-power not to hit the stupid 'cool down' button after 15:00. I don't know what it was (maybe the fact that I was back inside?), but I just wasn't feeling it. It should be warm enough for me to run outside for the rest of the week, so here's to hoping. I really just hate the stagnant, smelly air around me, the lack of scenery, the lack of sun, and the boring homogenous run that treadmills entail. I just can't take it! Well, I guess I can, but I really don't like to.

I've also been slacking on cross-training workouts and eating well. I confess, last night after dinner I ate a bagel and 1.5 doughnuts. I'll do better next time? I guess that's the best I can do.

2.0 miles, 21:50

Ouch!

So, I am sorry to say that I did not live up to my personal challenge. The first day, Sunday, I was unable to hit the gym. WOMP. What a bummer! I mean, come on... the first day? Well, I decided that I'm going to keep going with it anyway. It's a good challenge to push myself to complete. Yesterday I ran the first mile and felt a bit winded, so I slowed to a walk before running another mile. Two miles! That's pretty good, and, at the very least, makes up for a little bit of the mile I missed on Sunday.

I left all of my gym things in the locker room (I didn't want to bring smelly gym clothes to meetings, class, and work) with the intention of swinging by before the gym closed at 10:00pm to pick up all of my stuff. Woops! Next thing I knew, it was passed midnight and I was still in the lab, trudging through my work. I went home and tried going to bed, but my roommates distracted me until almost 1:00am! That's pretty early for the normal college student, but I like to go to bed early and then wake up early. I set my alarm for 8:15, hoping I would have the will to get up and run. I did not.

Instead, I lazed a bit and then went to class. My hardest class! Oh, woe is me... we were getting our last assignments back and I was so nervous! This was perhaps the hardest assignment yet and I only got a B on the previous one. It's also worth noting that the majority of the class works in pairs, while I somehow ended up working all by my lonesome. Anyway, at the very end of the class, we got them back. I got an A! Not only an A, but the highest grade in the class and the only A my professor has given out so far this semester! Rejoice. I could sing. I could dance! ...I coud run.

And so I ran. I impulsively headed for the gym, needing to let out my happiness somehow. I put on my dirty, smelly, and still wet clothes from yesterday's run and ran. The idea was a nice 2.0 miler. But then I said to myself, "I feel great! Let me try for 3.0!" At this point in time, I started to get a twinge of pain in my right foot, just below the ball of my foot. Weird location for a pain, I thought, but I tried to ignore it and I just kept running. As I came closer to 33:00 on the treadmill, I decided to up it to 35:00 (a nicer number, don't you think?). I got closer to 35:00, thought to hell with it!, and pushed the button until it read 44:00. I was running about an 11:00/mile pace, so that would put me just over 4.0 miles. Then the pain started to worsten. It felt like burning, stabbing perhaps. I kept running. Screw pain. YEAH.

Bad idea, turns out. Talk about behemouth blisters... this was no little guy. I expected to have a small blister that had popped while running. Nope I had a huge blister that wasn't even peaked yet. It even hurt to stretch after I was done. Woops! It's about the size of a quarter. With a penny next to it.

Well, it was bound to come sooner or later. It almost makes me even more proud of myself in a way. Kinda weird, but I have my first runner's blister, my first run over three miles (and longest run time-wise, both on and off treadmill), and I have the best grade in my hardest class! Seriously. AWESOME day.

I wonder if I should lay off the foot for tomorrow? We'll see how it goes.

Miles: 4.05
Time: 44:00

Early in the Morning

Running early in the morning is so nice. You can run uninhibited by those around you, because there really is no one there. When I woke up this morning, it was still freezing outside and last night's snowfall still covered the ground. By the time I left the gym after my workout and shower, nearly all of the snow that had fallen last night had melted and it was significantly warmer. It's cool to think that in so short a period of time the weather could change so much.

But I digress. Running in the morning is just the best. Fewer people. Fewer cars. Less sound. Fewer distractions. Running in the gym is similar in that there are few, if any, college students willing to wake up and go to the gym at 7:00 am. This morning was a good run for me (I usually don't run on Thursdays but as I couldn't yesterday...). Two girls, who looked more like twigs, got on the treadmills next to me and started running about a minute before I did (I took a minute or so to stretch). I was so proud of myself for the following reasons: I was able to run at a constant speed for 20:00, and then I pushed myself to complete the 24:00 to finish up 2.0 miles. The girl directly next to me ran for about a mile, walked for 5:00 and then she ran faster than she was capable and soon had to slow down to her original speed. I know I shouldn't be paying attention to other people and their runs, as they really have nothing to do with me, but it helps me reaffirm my runs in some ways.

Firstly, just because I'm fat doesn't mean I can't be in good shape. When I started, my max runs were only 1.0 miles and on rest days I had to push myself to do 0.5 miles. With those girls running next to me, it helped me to remember that I shouldn't care what I look like versus what they look like: at the end of the day, I have better endurance than they do. Now, my average run is 20:00 instead of 12:00. I think that's pretty cool. Secondly, I know my limits. I'm okay with running 5.2 mph. I know I'm not a super-fit-103-pound-cross-country athlete. I'm okay with that. I'd rather be able to run for an extended amount of time at my pace than burn myself out at someone else's. That's important to remember, as well. So thank you, skinny girls. You helped me learn an important lesson today.

I realize that I have no goal for the moment, and I really should. My next goal will be to run 25:00 at 5.3 mph. I'll step it up a notch and challenge myself, but I know how far I can feasibly push myself. I'd like to transition to have 24:00 be my average run time.

Also, just as a side note, I am completely in love with my spandex. New water bottle is cool, but the spandex were definitely the better investment.

Building Endurance

Today I semi-reluctantly headed out the gym. Part of me didn't want to run - I think I was afraid of not performing well. I hopped onto the treadmill and set it for the usual: 12 minutes with a 1.5 incline at 5.1 mph, giving me a distance of just over a mile. This is the way I normally do my workouts. I set the treadmill for 12:00 because running a mile is usually pretty simple for me, but sometimes I really have to push myself to run just one mile. By setting the machine for 12:00, it allows me to feel out my run so that I'm not let down or disappointed in myself because I wasn't able to run the 2.0 miles I'd wanted to. Usually I add a few minutes as I near the 12:00 marker when I have a good grasp of how my run is going. By the way, I completely forgot I'd planned to do intervals today. I think that I may be over eager.

Anyway, today I decided to try something new during my run. On a treadmill, I find it very difficult to focus on anything BUT the digital numbers in front of me. I don't listen to music when I run and I don't cover the treadmill with a magazine or a towel. I don't know, part of me feels like that's cheating. So I've always had this internal struggle: how do I overcome the mental obstacles that keep me from running as long as I can? I know that my body is capable of running 30:00, I proved that this summer when I went for my daily runs.

As of a couple of weeks ago, the longest I had run on a treadmill was 15:00 minutes. Then one day I wowed myself with a 2.0 mile run (24:00). Earlier this week I realized that I had met this goal without even noticing, and set a new goal for myself: run for 25:00. Yesterday I just kept running. And running. And then 25:00 minutes was over. Today, I had the aspiration of running a mile, and if it was going well, 1.5 miles. As I started my run, I got to thinking about how this mental monster was keeping me from achieving my goals, and how I wasn't okay with that. Blocking the numbers in front of me wouldn't help me overcome my problem, it would only act as a surface solution. I decided to try something new. I was on a treadmill in front of a window, so I started counting as people went by. This gave me a task and kept my mind busy and focused, something I found incredibly difficult to do on a treadmill. Every time 15 people walked by, I would allow myself to look down and check on my progress - if I thought I could hold out for a while longer, I would up it to 30 people.

Soon I had been running for 20 minutes, and I realized that the physical hardships that had kept me from running longer durations all came from my mental obstacles. I would have gone further, but I forgot to up the time and by the time I realized, the machine had already gone into cool down. I walked for about 3 minutes and then decided to run for an additional 6:00. This would give me a total time of 36:00 and a total distance of 2.5 miles. Today was officially my longest run in one workout, the longest amount of time I ran in one workout, and the longest span of consecutive running on a treadmill. If I had gotten to the add minutes button soon enough, I could have been my longest continuous run ever, outside or on a treadmill, but I suppose that will have to wait for another day.

The hardest part about today's run was the chafing. I've started to realize that if I run more than 2.0 miles, the frictions really builds up and burns my inner thighs. Today was the worst, but I convinced myself that the pain was minimal and that I should just keep going. It really wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, but even walking home after my workout caused me a lot of discomfort. I decided that it was time for some spandex, and so I set out to Dick's Sporting Goods with my lovely roommate to find a pair of shorts. While I was there I also picked up a CamelBack water bottle, which I think will be a lot more user-friendly for me while I'm running (Nalgenes are terrible at the gym, and splash guards don't help much).

Today may very well be my proudest running day!

Mini Goal Met

I've been thinking about the goal I set for myself all week. Running 25 minutes straight on a treadmill is daunting, especially when you hate treadmills and haven't been running outside in quite some time. I'm out of shape. Well, I guess I can't be out of shape if I've never really been in shape. But you know what I mean, right? Last summer I was able to run about 25 at a time (I usually fluctauted between 22-28), but I couldn't event imagine running the same distance on a treadmill. The treadmill is my demon!

So all week I've been thinking about running for 25 minutes, and each day that I've been running, I've pushed myself, but never hard enough. I've been running longer intervals (longer than I'm used to with the Couch to 5k program, at least) and pushing myself to get in about 2.0 miles each time I hit the gym. This morning I woke up very tired (I only got 7 hours of sleep, and I know my body needs at least 8), and I had to drag myself out of bed. I procrastinated a little bit, but I got myself to the gym and on the treadmill. My goal for the work-out was to run a mile, at which point I would evaluate how my run was going, and add more time if I wanted. Everytime the treadmill was about to send me to a cool down, I added a minute. Then I had been running for 25 minutes (!) and I allowed the machine to cool me down with a brisk walk. At the end of my walk I decided, HEY! You can run more. You've pushed yourself before, push yourself again. So I added another 5 minutes of running, totalling 30 minutes and 2.5 miles. That just may be the longest and furthest I've run in one workout!

Another exciting thing is that in my past two work outs before today's I've ended with 0.5 miles at 6.0 mph, which is something I've never been able to do before. I think tomorrow I'm going to do 2-minute intervals at 6.0 mph. We'll see how that goes!

Progress! Change! Woo!

Sometimes I feel silly while running on a treadmill. Every step I take my gut and my love handles just bounce up and down. I'd like to be able to see myself run, I think I might get a kick out of it.

Anyway, I haven't written in a while,but that doesn't mean I haven't been running! It was nigh impossible over break (roads too dangerous and no gym), but once school started up again the first thing I did on Monday the 12th was head to the gym. I ran a mile at a 12:00 pace to see how I'd do. It was a little bit tough near the end, but I got through it without too much difficulty. I think that I could have kept going, but I didn't want to push myself too much. Tuesday I went back to the gym and struggled through a half mile. I've never really run on consecutive days (I was doing the couch to 5k program which had full rest days), so this was pretty big for me. I pushed myself to finish a half mile, but I knew my body didn't want to go much farther than that.

Wednesday I rested, and Thursday I headed back to the gym. I set a goal of 15:00 (1.25 miles), and by the time I got there, I decided I was comfortable enough running that I should keep going, so I pushed my goal to 18:00 (1.5 miles). I just kept going until I got to 20 minutes - it required a bit of an extra push, but a run should be challenging. I was so proud of myself, I almost threw my hands into the air at the gym, but then I realized that I might embarrass myself a little and refrained.

After that hard run (my longest treadmill run! wee) I took Friday off and got swimming lessons from my friend Annie on Saturday. I always thought I could swim, you know, I can move from Point A to Point B in a somewhat timely manner. We spent almost the whole time on breathing and form. Damn! It's hard. It was fun, though, and a pretty good work out. Before, I never really liked to use my legs when I swam and she made me, so my legs were a bit sore. I went to the gym again on Sunday and ran a mile (all of my runs are set to a 12:00 pace on treadmills). Monday I went swimming again. Tuesday no gym. Woops.

Now Wednesday. Wednesday was a day I was proud of. My goal was to run for 15:00. At about 12:00 I was starting to feel it, and I pushed myself to make it to 15:00, and I made it. I did my cool down walk and two minutes into it, I thought to myself, "I think I can run more, and I want to!" I finished my cool down, and then reset the treadmill for another 9:00. It was hard to stay motivated mentally, and my eyes kept wandering back to the timer, but my body was totally fine with it. I required a bit of a mental push around 7:00 in, but I just told myself that only 2:00 were left - I had already run for 22:00, what's another two? Awesome day at the gym. Not my longest uninterrupted run on a treadmill, but the most distance I covered by running on a treadmill. Pretty cool! Running for so long made me a couple of minutes late to work though. Woops again! They didn't mind, luckily.

I usually go to the gym before class, but I have to do a load of laundry and I wanted to write a post because I haven't written one in forever, so I'm going to go around lunchtime. My goal for the day is 8:00!