Always seem to be starting over...

I don't even know how many times I've started over this year alone. Probably around five. I guess that's good in a way - I fall off the horse, I eventually get back on. I just want to stop falling off already. Seriously, enough is enough!

I was going to go for a run today, and mentally I was really feeling it, but after last night's atrocious run, I decided a little bit of rest wouldn't kill me. The plan is to wake up and run tomorrow morning before it becomes too hot out, shower, head to the beach with my lovely sister (lathered in SPF 50), relax at home, and then meet up with an old friend. This is the plan. I'm hoping to do a 1.0 mi warm up, some interval training, and a 1.0 mile cool down. We'll see how that goes!

I also weighed myself this afternoon. Granted it was midday and I'd had about 4 cups of water and eaten two meals, but I'm just going to accept that as my weight. It's probably fairly accurate, and I'm terrible at remembering to weight myself first thing in the morning. I am currently 209.8 lbs. Heavier than I'd like, but hey, look on the bright side! It's still 12.2 lbs less than when I started, right? I'm going to keep telling myself that. My goal is to be under 200 lbs by my 21st birthday (June 20th). I think 10 lbs in a month is a fairly reasonable goal... gotta stop eating those brownies, though ;)

Feel the burrrrn!

The sun burn. You would think that after getting burnt once already this season (and badly, might I add), you'd think I'd learn. But no. Back of my legs, and my shoulders a bit. Ouch.

I wanted to go for my run before I went to the beach this morning, but my sister failed to wake me up when I asked her to, so I went this evening at around 7:00, knowing full well that this is a terrible time for me to run. Like real bad. I never eat right on days where I plan on running in the evening (don't ask me why), and today I did a poor job hydrating. Plus, I'm just a morning person. I do everything better in the morning.

In any case, I planned a 3.5 mi run around town, and ended up walking for a short leg, thus cutting it to a 3.3 miler. I ran into a friend (ha! Get it? Ran into? ...Anyway.), which was cool! Cutting the run wasn't why it was bad, though, I just felt like crap the whole way. Literally, the entire time I either had side stitches, pain in my left knee, or pain in the used-to-be-blister-that-I-thought-had-healed. It ended up being a 12:27 pace. Meh.

To better days and better runs! At least I got out there, right?

Mileage: 3.3
Pace: 12:27
Total Time: 41:05

An end to an unannounced hiatus

Hello, again, running universe!

It's been a while, and I've really missed being here.

It all went down hill for me when I got violently ill for three weeks starting at the end of March. Then I got healthy, but I made up a million reasons not to run (finals, mostly). Cut to mid-May, and as of yesterday I hadn't ran in about a month and a half. Well, that all changed today!

This weekend I was in Massachusetts moving into my new apartment (and now my whole body aches from the lifting). I decided that it would be as good a time as any to pick up where I left off. Yesterday was my first full day back in NY (where the parents lives - here until early June), and I wanted to run but my legs were so sore from the hundred (well, it seemed like a hundred) trips up to my new third floor apartment.

Today I had to run a very important errand (send the keys to my roommate in Texas before she flies out for Mass), and I decided to actually run my errand. I ran the 1.25 mi to the post office, mailed the keys, and ran home. I ran slowly, but I did it! And it was more than I expected to be capable of, after 1.5 months of practically no physical activity. So I'm back to running, and hopefully this summer I will dominate the streets!

Off The Beaten Path

Weigh-in didn't go so well, as expected. Nothing I can do about the past, so there's no use crying over it. What's done is done, I just have to put in a better effort today and tomorrow!

LW: 206.8
CW: 209.4
CL: +2.6
TL: 0.0

Looks like I'm starting over!

Besides the weigh-in, which I knew would be a downer (my own fault), today's been going okay, I suppose. I'm finding it very difficult to motivate myself to do anything, seeing as though I practically have no schedule this week. I was going to go for my run this morning, but I decided to wait until it warmed up a bit. I ended up mapping a 4.0 mile run (ambitious, eh?) and heading out a little after noon.

Today's run was eventful, to say the least. Lots of things happened. For example, some teenage girl called to someone inside her house, "Hey, look at that girl jogging!" I was a bit offended, for no legitimate reason. I'm running, not jogging. I just happen to run very slowly. Then I got to a street that I thought I was supposed to go down, but couldn't because of construction. I hung a left, and ended up realizing that I was on the correct road. Then I turn right and OH SHIT. Look at that hill! How did I not look at the elevation gains/losses at mapmyrun before I left the house? Well, no turning back now, so up I go.

This is almost the end of my first mile, and I'm making pretty good time. The road is a circuit, so basically it's just a big circle. I figure, at the very least, there will be a nice downhill for the second half of the circuit. What? The road is a dead end? Okay, I'll just keep going anyway. Over the river (or brook) and through the woods, as they say. It was a nice break from running on pavement. Soon enough the circuit resumed (I suppose the middle segment had been closed off many moons ago), and I continued. Then I took a wrong turn somewhere and thought I was really off my course, but I just kept going, although I was a little frustrated with myself because I couldn't properly record my splits. When I got home and remapped my route, I realized I was a block off. WOMP. Oh well.

So I keep going, down another dirt road, until AHOY!, my supermarket! I know where I am now... and only 2.0 miles to go! Ha. I wasn't laughing. In keeping with the running off pavement theme, I took a detour through a park over another dirt path until I came out of my little residential bubble and hit the urban jungle that is Worcester. I was then annoyed at the noise and the wind pushing against me. Soon after I turned out of suburbia, my left calf started to cramp up, but I managed to finish all 4.0 miles without any real problem. My total time was a bit slower than I would have liked (okay, a lot), but I can't beat myself up too much. I've never run 4.0 miles outside before, and I've only done it once on the treadmill (and treadmills pace you, you don't have to work at it).

4.0 Miles: 48:46
pace: 12:08

I also decided to run in my first race! A group (no idea which one) at my school is sponsoring a Green 5k, with all proceeds going to the Regional Environmental Council. Good cause, and a good goals for me. It's about time I ran my first race. Plus, I'll make everyone else running feel better, because they won't have to worry about coming in last place :)

Grocery Store Layout

Does anyone besides me have a problem with the layout of grocery stores? It's something that's been bothering me for a while now. Typically, the produce section is one of the first parts you walk through. Great. I love that! Inundate me with fresh fruits and veggies, giving me less room for the non-essentials. It's seriously awesome.

But what's right in between the entrance and the produce at just about every grocery store I've ever been to? Baked goods. Breads. Muffins. Doughnuts. Cookies. Cakes. TORTURE. Whose idea was this? They're a terrible person. I've never been tempted to buy any of these over-priced goodies (but it's not will power that prevents me from loading up, it's the price), but the smells drive me INSANE. Carbohydrates and sweets, and any combination of the two, are my downfall. I could eat bread all day.

This is something I've been meaning to rant about for a while, and I made a mental note to write this post as I was filling my basket with fruits and veggies. I am also really tempted to just bake a cake (baking=love), but I will not!

Tomorrow's my weekly weigh-in, but I'm not expecting anything good. Sadly. This has been a bad week for me food-wise. My friend Cameron made me dinner last night to celebrate my fellowship. Think quiche. With lots of cheese. Also brownies. Three of them. Leftover quiche for lunch. Very bad. Wednesday night is my weekly dinner with another friend. Fried eggplant. Terrible. WOMP. I need to be more conscious about what I put in my mouth.

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

Another 3.0 miler in the bag!

I've got so much running (haha) through my mind right now, I don't even know where to begin! I just got back from my second 3.0 mile run this week (and my best to date). I had to drag myself out of bed in order to go, and at first I was only going to do 1.0, then I thought, "eh, whatever, 2.0 won't be so painful." Then I saw other runners hitting the pavement and internally yelled at myself for wanting to quite before I was good and tired. So I finished up the 3.0 and did it in pretty good time! My splits are are the end of the post.

So I've been waiting to hear back about this really incredible and really competative fellowship for about three weeks, and it's been slowly killing me. My classes are very computer intentisive, so I spend up to 10 hours in the lab a day doing work. This isn't bad because I'm overworking myself (I really love my work), but because that means I constantly have access to e-mail. Oh, you think I have self control? Maybe when it comes to food (well, not yesterday, but we'll get to that later...), but definitely not in this case. I refreshed my e-mail at least once every ten minutes (usually more like every 5) for the past two minutes while sitting in front of a computer. Anyway, last night I finally convinced myself to just relax and watch a movie. Both my roommates are gone for the weekend, so I have the house to myself. A little peaceful alone time.

I picked out Dan in Real Life, which just made me kind of depressed. Not what I was going for at all. The movie completely turned me off to the idea of going out later in the night. I resigned myself to check my e-mail one last time before going to bed. Lo and behold, it was there. The e-mail I had been waiting for was sitting in my inbox. I opened it and could barely read it. My eyes found the word acceptance and I just laughed for three minutes straight. It was a beautiful thing. I felt like I could run a marathon (it's a good thing I did not try).

Anyway, this put me in an incredible mood for the rest of the night. I called my family, went to Barnes & Noble and bought a couple of books in celebration (I'm a huge nerd, if you couldn't tell), and then went and met up with a friend. Then we ordered pizza. WOMP.

Oh well. Slip-ups happen. I also ate a large amount of chocolate, which is just not good in general, but it also means I slipped up in my not-eating-candy-challenge. I just have to get on the horse again and keep riding. Which is why I dragged myself outside for a 3.0 mile run in 34 degree weather. That probably wasn't such a hot idea. I should have gone to the gym, but I thought it was warmer out when I left the house. I can't really run in cold weather, it aggravates my asthma. Now I'm breathing heavily and coughing a bit. Remind me not to make the same mistake next time!

Okay, I'm out. Gotta head back to the lab. Happy running!

Mile 1: 10:51
Mile 2: 11:50
Mile 3: 11:01
Total: 33:42 (a.k.a. AWESOME)