A Weak Week Recap

Hi all, sorry about not posting, but I have been running. I'll just give you a quick recap now and get back to regular programming soon.

I tried running on Wednesday last week at Veterans, but I think a few things kept it from going well. First, last Sunday I tackled the Five Mile Trail and may have had a little too much fun running down the hills. My shins and calves were quite tender last week. Second, I think I laced my shoes too tight. Third, my back was SUPER wonky on Wednesday and I could never really find a balanced stride when I was running. It's weird, I felt like I was lopsided, which, according to what I know about chiropractic stuff, I probably was. Either way, I lasted a solid 15 minutes before giving in and calling it a night. I felt like I was running on stone legs from the knee down. That's not so comfortable.

But I went right out again on Thursday, this time with Caitlin at Miami Meadows. I'm not sure how long we went, but it was good. Caitlin kicked my butt big time, and Emalynn decided that neither of us were going to run much longer when she became very "vocal" about her dislike of the evening's festivities.

Then I hit the road again on Sunday afternoon at Juilfs. I ran for 24 minutes straight, no walking. Yay! That felt good. I even did a little off-path running, just to see how I managed. I like it. It's almost like I was concentrating so hard on not tripping or spraining an ankle that I forgot to be tired. I immediately remembered to be tired when I got back to the paved path. I also remembered I had to pee.

So that's that. The weather is fall-like here in Cincy, and it's making me eager to get down to business. I'm actually excited about it!

Shout out to Mr. Purulent Smile for his major running accomplishment this weekend! Next stop, 5K!

Non-Stop 5K At Juilfs With Caitlin And A Blowout

Oh good god. I'm so wiped right now. First, yesterday I did Jackie Warner's lower body workout on my lovely DVD. As my Facebook friends already know, I've been acutely aware of my butt today. Why? Because it has been screaming in pain all day, along with my quads. Ouch-ee! It's the "good" kind of pain though ... not injury pain.

Big news though. Caitlin and I rocked 3.1 miles tonight at Juilfs without walking, including two hills. I believe it kicked both of our butts (which made my sore one feel all that much better), but we did it and that's all that matters. It's the longest (time and distance) either of us have run straight, ever. It took just a bit over 40 minutes.

Here are some screen shots provided by Caitlin's phone. (By the way, I've confirmed that my iPhone's GPS is inaccurate. BOO!)

Map of our path at the park

All the stats. I'm loving that distance.

The elevation map. This is not what I pictured.

I also had a pretty interesting day in a way that has nothing to do with running, but I think the pictures are funny. I blew out a rear tire on my way in to work today. I was on the highway, traveling at 65+ MPH, but was very fortunate that the blow-out wasn't a violent one. No accident, no scary moments, all is well. And since my tires were 15,000 miles over what they should have been and were dry rotted, I had to dish out some serious cash for four new tires. Ouch.

Anyway, here are the pictures of my tire. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I could have patched this up with some duct tape.





But I'm here and alive and just ran 3.1 miles straight. Tires schmires. =)

I Love Juilfs In The Wintertime

Well folks, I don't have many positive things to say about running for the time between my last post and now. In fact, it's been pretty crappy. I'm hoping this is as low as it goes in the land of discouragement. It's cold. It's snowy. It's difficult to run outside, not enjoyable to run on the treadmill, and nearly impossible to get motivated to do any of that. All I want to do is curl up on my couch and watch movies; that's what winter is all about, right?

I clearly have some self-work to do and decisions to make about how to handle this winter issue for the next 2-3 months (!), and you may see posts about it. But for now, I'm going to share pictures of Juilfs from one of my past two runs there.

That's right! Running at a park! That's because the citizens of Anderson Township (formerly me) pay hefty property taxes so the running paths at their parks get shoveled and salted during snowy weather. Praise the citizens of Anderson Township.

I drove around to a few of my favorite outdoor running locations to see if any of them were cleared. Juilfs was my last stop, and lo and behold, it was clear and I was so happy. I drove home, geared up, and headed back to the park, home of my early days of running.

I actually did quite well on that run. I did two complete running laps, plus a few yards, including two runs up Beast Hill (check back to some of my April blogs if you need a refresher on Juilfs and Beast Hill).

I did it! I ran up that friggin' hill twice. I took the advice of one of my coworkers and just put my head down and ran. That was a little hard for me since I've been practicing keeping my head up and looking in front of me since I started this mess 10 months ago. But it worked and I'll be trying it again soon.

So, enough of that. Now for some pictures.

Not run-related, but as I was getting ready to go, someone insisted I stay at home.

She almost convinced me.

Halfway up Beast Hill, looking down the west side of the trail.

A little further up Beast Hill.

See the sledders? I almost asked if I could have a go.

Looking down the east side. Praise be to the clear paths!

Basketball and volleyball courts

More sledding and some wicked lighting!

After the run, I came home to make my carrot cake for someone else. Mmmm...

The end!

Resting Restlessly And Running

Talk about unexpected outcomes. You know how you always hear how exercising gives you more energy and helps you sleep better? Well, it's kind of true.

Kind of.

See, my energy and sleep deficiencies didn't come didn't show their ugly heads until I stopped exercising. As my eloquent coworker Rob pointed out, exercise is like heroin--you don't realize what it's doing to you until you try to stop. (A heroin addict will have to attest to this, as I have no experience on the matter.)

I hit a huge wall this week, my first without vigorous morning exercise in a month. It's been hard to get up in the morning, hard to stay awake (and FOCUSED) at work, and hard to keep my legs from being all twitchy and antsy all day and night. It's been even more difficult to go to sleep at night and stay there. The sleep thing--not cool. I have a slight obsession with getting enough sleep and nothing kills me more than to lose it in some way. Talk about crabby and dysfunctional.

I've been drinking coffee in the morning to fight the drowsiness, and I haven't "needed" coffee since I started boot camp. Seems a bit backwards, doesn't it? Getting up earlier and exercising before the sun comes up appears to be the perfect recipe for a caffeine dependency. Not so much.

The weirdest thing is that I wasn't a bad sleeper before boot camp and I didn't think I had low energy either. Did boot camp create these monsters or did I just not realize they existed until I took the drug away?

So, why the lack of exercise? Well, because I was told to rest. The ABC trainers encouraged campers to rest during this "week off" (it's a week off for people who are returning to the next session) and not do anything too strenuous. I guess muscles need time to recover. I did some scientific research on Facebook this week to survey my expert friends and uncovered some excellent information. Thank you Marathon Chris and ABC Brian for piping in and explaining that the most important thing to do is to listen to your body. Rest or not. Well, I'm listening to my body, and it turns out it's totally over this "resting" thing. It wants to move!

So, I made it move. And it may have helped ... a little.

• I ran on Monday
• Had trouble getting to sleep Monday night
• Took Tuesday off entirely
• Really had trouble sleeping Tuesday night
• Intended to get up early Wednesday to try the workout videos on my on-demand exercise channel
• Opted instead to sleep in to make up for the lost sleep the night before
• Ran Wednesday
• Slept much better Wednesday night
• And then skipped my planned workout this morning

Half win, half fail.

So I need a plan. And I think I figured it out this morning. I need to workout in the morning on the same day I plan to run in the evening. Two workouts, one day. That way I get to sleep a little later on the day after exerting myself the most. Think that will work? I hope so. I'm trying it tomorrow for the first time, so please hound me if I offer excuses for not getting up early on Friday morning. NO EXCUSES!

Why, oh why is it so hard to get up and exercise when all I have to do is change clothes and move into the living room instead of driving 10 minutes down the road?

So, next topic: running! Wheee!

It's been great to get my legs moving again. I missed running. Unfortunately, I think my body got used to not doing it, and subsequently got used to not doing it while I was in boot camp. It seems as though I had built up some endurance for my thrice-weekly two-mile run and lost it during my 4-week "break" at boot camp (where I only ran about a half mile daily).

My legs just aren't very happy with what I've done to them by reintroducing running. More specifically, my calves aren't happy. Even my shins have joined the pity party a little bit. The leg strain is really reducing the length of my stride and my overall endurance. I'm currently running at about the same pace as the 90-year-old man that was walking at Veterans last night. No joke. I only passed him because he slowed down to turn around and see what the thundering noise behind him was (my locomotive breathing and pounding footsteps). He did offer a "Lookin' good! Drink lots of water!" as I sputtered past him. So sweet.

So, I've got some re-conditioning to do, looks like.

I have good news, though.

1. I ran 0.76 miles straight without stopping last night.

2. I know this because I downloaded a new app for my iPhone last week in preparation for my return to running. It's the app counterpart to the most amazing website. Thank you, coworker John, for introducing me to MapMyRun.com. Have you people heard of this yet?! Please check it out. You can plot your runs and enter your run data on the website (either as a registered [free or paid] user or as a non-registered user). The site uses a Google-like map and you just click to add your path and it tells you how long the route is. It looks like a normal road map, but you don't have to follow the roads to plot your path, which is SUPER helpful for me, the park runner. Also, if you register, it'll keep track of your data for you over time. The iPhone app just uses GPS to automatically plot and measure your route for you. Then it stores all the info (including calories burned, distance and time, and pace) on the website. WOOHOO!

(This is how I now learned that the "1-mile" path at Juilfs, one of my favorite parks, is not a mile. It's a bit short, which explains why my mile times there were always so phenomenal. Booo! But, but, but ... the path at Veterans is exactly a mile. Yippee!)

So, as you can tell, I've been running without Mr. C25K this week. I have not abandoned him; I was just experimenting with my new toy. I will return to him tomorrow, now that I know how long my running routes are. I'm ready to start busting through these puppies!

Remember, keep on me about the morning workouts. Please and thank you!

I'm M-m-melting!

Yes, the amount of sweat that pours off me during and after these boot camp workouts genuinely does make me feel like I'm an ice cube in a hot frying pan. But, it seems as though the weight is melting off me as well. Excluding today's measurements, I've lost about another 4 pounds since Tuesday. I'm averaging a loss of about 1.5 pounds every two days. Whoa.

Today, on the other hand, the scale showed me back at that 4+ weight again. Please tell me how I could gain 4 pounds overnight. Really. I want to know. This is where my distrust of scales comes from. Can I attribute the large weight fluctuations to my extreme mass? I know everyone's weight changes throughout the day, but 4 pounds? Really?

Okay, moving on ...

I'm going into my fourth and final week of Adventure Boot Camp (a.k.a. the reason for my weight loss success over the last month), and I'd like to look back at the last few days.

As I mentioned in my previous posts -- and I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it -- I've been battling a few "ailments" recently. I'm happy to say that the summer yuck/cold is almost entirely gone (just a little coughing here and there), the stiff neck is no more, and my back is at about 80% (I'm still feeling a little twisted). I feel free! Wheee!

I skipped boot camp on Thursday to "recover" a bit, and I'm sure glad I did. I woke up that morning in time to leave for camp, and standing up was no easy feat. Friday morning I was ready to roll, so I did. Unfortunately (for me), we did partner work for the entire workout. I'm not a fan. I think I've mentioned that before. I'm just not comfortable 1) having someone else rely on me to perform, and 2) relying on someone else to perform. It's not like a team sport; that I love. This is different. I wish I could explain it better.

Anyway, Friday's workout didn't leave me totally spent, and since I didn't have to go to work, I decided to go for a little jog at the my beloved Juilfs Park, which I haven't been to in a long time. I popped on my tunes and just started running without Mr. C25K to hold my hand. Ladies and gentlemen, I ran somewhere between 2/3 to 3/4 of the way around the mile track without stopping. WOOHOO! I also only did one lap instead of the normal two, but hey, I had just worked out for an hour. Geesh.

Here's a map of Juilfs, complete with my awesome Paint lines. Red = run. Blue = run/walk.

Borrowed from the Cardinal Soccer website.

This successful run leaves me really anxious to do the final timed mile at ABC on Friday. I can't wait to run this week, period. I'm going to tackle those before-camp laps like I wish I could have over the last week. Watch, it'll pour down rain or something. Faaahhh-bulous!

Rain shmain though. It was raining on Saturday morning when I headed to the "Off the Beaten Path" workout for ABC. I get soaking wet anyway, so what's the big deal?

Oh yeah, about Saturday's workout. Not bad, not bad. It was quite the experience to be there with so many other women. My boot camp is kind of small, I think, compared to the big camp in Oakley, so having that many people together to workout is a new experience for me. It was challenging, too. We did some running in between workouts and did a lot of work on our hips. That really seems to exhaust me quickly.

In fact, I have a picture to share of me in the midst of a strenuous hip workout.

Preface #1: Brian, I snagged this from your Facebook photos and cropped it to just show me in a huge field of people. I'd be happy to take it down if you like.

Preface #2: At this point, everyone else is on hands and knees doing a "fire hydrant" exercise. I guess I needed a break ... or needed to say "hola" to Allah. Maybe a little of both.

Woohoo, back sweat!

We also did a big set of exercises using a band around our ankles. Ooooh, I like those! Talk about working muscles that don't get worked so much. Surprisingly, I'm not sore from those.

I can't wait to tackle this last week of ABC. I'm ready to kick butt with the final timed mile on Friday and I'm almost ready to try this strength training thing on my own, and to get back to C25K (and maybe jump up a week!) I think I'll try following workouts on my Training On-Demand cable station three days a week. I just discovered that Jackie from Work Out has her own stuff on there. I liked that show, so maybe that'll keep me engaged (corporate word ... patooee!).

I'll keep you posted on this week and definitely let you know how the timed mile goes. Unfortunately, I still can't really do a push up, so that number won't be improving at all. Baby steps.

Breaking Free From Codependency!

Guess what I did today? Well, most of you already know from Facebook, but I totally just ran a 5K at my wonderful Juilfs Park. 3.1 miles. I called the park to confirm the track distance today and figured out that measuring 3.1 miles is quite easy. Running it is a different story.

This is a huge milestone, people! In fact, it's two huge milestones. One, I finally did more than the usual 2 miles. Two, I did it all without Mr. C25K, with whom I have a a relationship that was slipping into codependency. I found myself starting to think I couldn't run without his help. Well guess what! I can!

To top it all off, I just did it with some pretty impressive times. You should note that I don't think I've ever, EVER run as well as I did tonight. Not even when I was fit--oh wait, I was never fit.

Heh.

Anyway, here are my lap times (forgive the inaccuracy of the first two ... I haven't figured out how to use the lap feature of my phone's stopwatch):

Mile 1: 12 something
Mile 2: 26 something
Mile 3.1 (5K): 40:47

Congrats to Leslie for guessing so close on Facebook! WEEE! You're More to Love Running famous now! Shut the front door. Still in disbelief. I also stretched my first running interval out to over 3:30. I can run over 3 minutes at a time. What? Oh, and I'm pretty sure I did a few more that were over 2 minutes long.

And, I feel amazing right now. Nothing hurts. I cooled off quickly (I'm actually freezing because I'm sitting on my balcony) and with little sinus resistance (a topic for another post).

Now, it's important that I point out that it wasn't easy. Yes, the weather was great: it's a cold and drizzly kind of day. Yes, I was itching to run after an icky personal day yesterday and this morning. But yes, I had to work hard.

And ... it worked.

I did a lot of talking to myself:

"Just let your legs work; they'll tell you when to stop. Breathe. Keep going. If you stop at that tree, you're okay, but if you go to the next one, you're awesome. Just run, just run, just run, just run. Do it. Go. Run. You're doing great."

I always hate hearing how positive self-talk can help you, but I knew from the other day that negative self-talk can really bring you down. So, I thought what the hell, let's give it a go.

And ... it worked.

Oh, and I've mentioned before how important loud music is to me while I'm running. I breathe very, very heavily and really loud, and when I can hear myself breathing, I tend to try to quiet it. Not good. Well, there were breaks in my playlist today where I could hear myself breathing. Today's solution? "Get over it, Beckey. Breathe as loud and obnoxiously as you can. Make people look."

And ... it worked.

So, I'm freezing and starving so I'm going to call it a blog night. Here's something to look forward to, though. Today I decided to sign up for the Redlegs Run for Home 5K. It's a 5K run sponsored by the Cincinnati Reds. Rumor is you get to run across home plate when you finish. How cool. Thanks to Jacqi and Allison for reminding me of this run, and to Sarah and Nikki (and maybe Jeff) who I will be forcing to run with me. Love you! I'm friggin' paying to run? Are pigs flying yet? Oh that was a few weekends ago, right? Right.

HAPPY RUNNING!

External Motivation

I didn't want to run yesterday. Well, I wanted to run but I didn't feel like running. I wanted to sit on my couch. Does that make sense?

The weather was perfect for running, my body was ready for it, and I wanted to be otuside, but I wasn't mentally present. And the results made that clear. I ran at Juilfs and didn't make any changes in path or interval times. But my legs started hurting right away (maybe I started too quickly) and all I could think about whas how I'd rather be somewhere else. It's kind of hard to keep a positive attitude when that happens. I did a lot of internal yelling at myself instead of the usual internal coaxing and encouraging.

Needless to say, I finished a little behind my last two successful runs, but I'm still under my initial goal. I finished two miles in 27:30 and I didn't cut any running intervals short. I actually was still able to convince myself to run a few meters over on about half the runs, which is good. But Week 3 still seems so far away. I'm struggling to see how I'll ever be able to move on from Week 2.

So, how do I stay motivated to keep running after iffy workouts like that? There are several motivators, but today I'm going to focus on the external motivators. This blog follows this week's trip to Atlanta for work, which included two plane rides (there and back).

Let me tell you, you don't know uncomfortable until you've been a tall, fat girl wedged into an airplane seat for even the shortest flight. In fact, this unfortunate fat-girl situation is one of my top external motivators, along with not fitting on amusement park rides, and exceeding weight limits on anything intended for normal adults (e.g., trampolines). This humiliation is unbearable. Really, weight-related embarrassment is pretty much the only kind of embarrassment that gets me down. To top it all off, these three "I don't fit" situations usually happen with some sort of audience.

Now, I would never suggest that roller coaster manufacturers re-design their seats to meet the needs of the obese. (Airplanes are a different story and I address that below.) For those of you who don't know, I spent three summers working at Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park, and one fabulous summer at Coney Island, it's little-yet-older sister. I spent many moments explaining to guests why they couldn't ride if the "bar" didn't click, even if they thought they could hold on throughout the ride and not fall out. (Morons.) "Why can't they just make the seats bigger?" they might ask. Well, because then kids and people of a healthy weight might fall out and there's no reason to risk someone else's safety so fat people can ride.

Tall people, different story -- you didn't chose that. Weight is a choice, unless affected by some sort of extreme health ailment, in which case you shouldn't be riding rides at all. (First PKI-er to name the 5 safety restrictions in the comments wins!) I know, controversial topic, but I am both tall and fat and feel I can speak openly about this because of my experiences. But I'm open to hearing your thoughts.

Back to planes -- is anyone comfortable in an airplane seat? Really, I want to know. If no one is comfortable, then I can stop my ranting and move on. But what's the harm in creating, I don't know, two rows of seats tht have higher arm rests and deeper and wider seats, especially if you charge those people just a little more? I'm not talking about first class seats here. I don't want extra service or squishier seats or my own private bathroom for $200 extra. I want butt, hip, and knee space for $50 extra. You could even make me check my bag if you wanted to. Just a thought.

So, sorry for the rant. It's not like the seat situation is the only thing about flying that makes me uncomfortable. My ears pop constantly, I get ill on the descent (fortunately just the decent), and I'm in constant fear of how my body will react. You see, I'm not afraid of flying like most people are. There comes a point when you just have to realize that if your plane crashes, you're likely going to die. Worrying about it is not going to help. Just relax.

I, on the other hand, get motion sick in cars and some amusement rides at the drop of a hat. Literally, that fast. The smell of a car and its airflow, even when it's sitting still, will ruin my day. Right Sarah? Mom? You've both experienced this first-hand. So, every flight since my first, which was just in February 2008, I've been petrified of uncontrollable vomiting and what have you. But, so far so good. Either my body doesn't react to plane rides that way, or my ritual cranberry-vodka OR Dramamine really helps (not both at once, I promise). Praise be to Dramamine.

So, on that note, a few slightly unrelated photos:

Here's a picture of me waiting for departure at the Atlanta airport from a previous trip.

My fearful expression is a dramatic reinactment of my first ever flight.
Oh, and this was from my trip to DC to see New Kids on the Block, October 2008.
Be jealous.

Atlanta airport, again from a previous trip.

Okay, so what have I learned. I've learned that my exercise efforts between Februrary 2009 (my last flight) and this past week's flight have not made airplane seats any more comfortable. In fact, I should have known that because I haven't lost more about 8 pounds in the last year's worth of working out. Tell me how it's possible, at my weight, to go from stagnant to working out and not see any results? I'll most definitely address this in a later post. Oh, and running when you don't want to is not fun and I'm not likely to get results when doing so.

So yes, I'm ending on a negative note. Boohoo. Please come again! =)

Another Positive Post ... And A Few Pics

Are you totally sick of my gushy positive posts yet? Well kiss it, because this is another one.

I had another GREAT run today and I'm feeling so hopeful about this whole "project" of mine.

Tuesday's run at Veterans felt good, but I didn't have a way to really measure my progress. Today I returned to Juilfs to see how I'm doing. Well, I finished my normal two laps (one mile each) with 3:10 left on the clock.

For the win!

My last run at Juilfs was last Tuesday and I finished with 2:36 on the clock. So, whoa, big improvement in a short period of time, I'd say. I think I need to up my target of 2 minutes left. Seems a bit weak now, right?

I've been trying to run a little bit -- a really litte bit -- faster, and also continue running for about, oh, 3 to 5 seconds after the walk alarm goes off. That adds up I guess. Oh, and the running down hill thing is way fun. =)

Anyway, I'm not going to drag this out today, but I do have some pictures from Juilfs. I'm continually impressed with the quality photos I can take with my iPhone!

The best playground ever!

From the top of Beast Hill. I generally run coming toward the camera.


This is where I start running. Look how pretty the sky was tonight!


AHHHHH! GIANT SHADOW MONSTER!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Wedgie Picker

Hey, hey, hey! So, I had a FANTASTIC run today and I'm so friggin' excited! What a pleasant follow-up to Sunday's monster run, right?

The weather was perfect: cold, sunny, no/very little humidity.

I was feeling good, too, and was definitely ready to stretch my legs out.

The scenery was beautiful: green and springy, and I followed a very fast-walking wedgie picker for the second mile. I swear he picked his wedgie at least twice on that lap and played with his underwear in between picks. No, he wasn't beautiful scenery, but he made me laugh out loud every time he did it. (Don't worry, my mid-workout laughs sound like dry heaves, so he was clueless.)

Anyway, I was worried at first because I started walking at a quicker pace than I usually do, and my shins started cramping pretty much right away. Never good. Then, I caught a peek of an old softball teammate (HI MICHELLE!) and that just made me happy.

Ahhh, then the best part: I ran full throttle down Beast Hill's sister, Loch Ness Monster Hill.

Weeeee!

My tactic until today had been to run down that hill on my toes to help stretch out my shins. But today I felt like running fast, so I let gravity do the work and let it loose. Way. Fun.

Oh, and one more thing. Seeing as how my last two runs haven't been exactly fun, and those last two runs were "backwards" runs at Juilfs, I turned my path back around and went the "right" way.

I'm never going backwards again.

I'm happy to discover that the backwards tactic could have been the reason for my poopy exercises, and not just my lack of progress. Whew!

Lastly and most importantly, I finished the two miles with 2:36 on the clock!!! That's 36 seconds faster than my personal best so far.

WOOOOHOOOO!

If my math's correct, that brings me to a 13:42 pace.

I feel victorious today. I'm fired up. I'm going to celebrate by wrapping up my third pass at Week 2 -- and starting Week 2 again next time I run. Ha! Yeah, I still feel like I'm going to die when I'm at the end of my 90-second run, so I'll do this week a few more times until that feeling passes. I will say that I think I could do with shorter walking/recovery intervals. I'm catching my breath a lot quicker now. Another victory! Yippee!

Okay, I need to get off here, so let's see ... next run? I'd love to say Thursday, but I don't want to commit because I'm in the home stretch of moving out of the old apartment. If I'm in a crunch on Thursday, I'll pass up running. If I'm in good shape, I'm all over it.

Moving Backwards?

Don't worry. The title of this post doesn't mean I'm regressing in my running abilities. In fact, I ran at Juilfs today and finished my two miles with precisely two minutes left of C25K Week 2; I am still holding steady at a 14-minute mile pace.

Give me a moment -- it still blows my mind that I can actually "run" two miles. Clearly the founders of my athletic self-esteem -- my elementary and high school gym teachers -- were "you can do whatever you set your mind to" kind of guys. Thank you, Mr. B and Mr. Jamoke (alias).

*I do want to explore how to and how not to encourage children to physically push themselves and to stay fit. I'll tell you now that letting them get away with whining, walking instead of running, and sitting out of gym class is not effective. Prime example, right here.*

Anyway, while I didn't lose any ground in my progress today, I didn't move forward, and that's frustrating to me. I like to see improvements. That's the best motivator, right there. Unfortunately improvements take work, and work takes motivation, and motivation takes improvements.

Poop.

So, my first set of questions: How do you stay motivated? Do you exercise simply for the joy of it? How do you get through those days or weeks of zero progress? What about setbacks?

Back to the backwards thing. Like I said, I ran at Juilfs today, my tried-and-true favorite childhood park. But, to test things out a bit and to shake up a routine, I ran it backwards.

Now isn't that a fun mental image? I'll let you sit with it for a while before ruining it. Fat girl ... breathing like a freight train ... red, red face ... stumbling backwards down a hill. Go ahead and laugh. I would!

Okay, time to focus again. Today, I ran the opposite direction on the path. I figured the Beast Hill is a long, slow incline and it's counterpart is a steeper, shorter incline. Why not run/walk down the long one and run/walk up the short one? Well folks, it was nice. It didn't improve my time at all (again, discouraging), and it didn't make the 90 second run feel any easier, but it kept me from trying to drag my butt up Beast Hill. And I got to run downhill, which is way fun -- kind of like Phoebe running on Friends.

I don't know the moral of today's experience. I changed my path to avoid a challenge and finished in the same time anyway.

Question set #2: Do you avoid challenging courses or do you take them head on? How's that working out for you?

Next run should be Thursday. Venue undecided. Let me know if you'd like to join!

Excuses, Excuses ... and Meet My Park

Happy Saturday morning, readers!

First, I’d like to apologize for my poor showing so far. As I’m sure happens with many ambitious bloggers, I started with a bang, full of hope for my little plot of websphere, and quickly fizzled out. Well, I have an excuse: I’m moving this month – more specifically next weekend – and I’m a bit preoccupied. I got the keys to my new place this week and I just can’t keep myself away. I love the new place so much that my poor little running habit has been packed away in one of the moving boxes and I’ve had some trouble finding it. Well, I found it this morning; it was packed in the same box as my grasp on reality and the cat nip. Wouldn’t you know it, my blogging commitment was also in there. Geesh.

Anyway, this is the perfect opportunity for me to share a little more about myself:

I’m a rationalizer, an excuse maker, and an abandoner.

Usually these nasty character traits only rear their heads when I’m dreading something. For example, there was a time (most of my life, actually) when I didn’t like to exercise. Shocker! I’d rationalize not going to the gym by saying, “It’s not like the gym is helping me at all,” or “Skipping step aerobics isn’t going to make me gain weight.” I’d skip a workout with excuses like sore muscles, menstrual cramps, lack of sleep, a broken fingernail, or a happy hour with friends. Then I’d get frustrated at all my excuses and lose hope of getting back on track because of all my skipped workouts, and finally, I’d give up. A perfect example: I once signed a three-year contract for a gym and only used about 9 months worth. I’ll get into that more later.

Here’s the difference this time around: I’m enjoying running. The excuses I make now just make me sad and more eager to lace up and hit the pavement next time. I actually encountered this phenomenon with my step class; I liked the workout, I liked the cheesy ‘80s music, I liked my classmates and I hated missing class. (I’ll talk more about step class in later entries. Bottom line is it’s fun and a great workout.)

There is a significant problem with skipping a few running workouts that I didn’t experience with step aerobics. Missing a run really sets me back in my progress: I feel like I have to go backwards to continue moving forward. Skipping a step class meant I didn’t get better, but I certainly didn’t lose progress by missing one workout. Skipping a run means it'll be all the more difficult to complete the same interval next time, let alone increase intensity, as dictated by C25K.

Speaking of C25K, I finished my first round of Week 2. (Week 2: 5-minute warm-up walk, then alternate 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking for 20 minutes, then cool down walk for 5 minutes.) This one kicked my butt, and I’m already planning on at least another two bouts with this “week.” It’s hard. I struggle to finish the 90 seconds of jogging, especially since it always seems to happen on a hill.

I’m running at a local park. I basically grew up at this park. I played softball there for 10 years, skinned my knees on its sidewalks, got the wind knocked out of me by falling off the jungle gym, got sand in my shoes and hair and eyes, received electro-shock therapy from the static generated by the friction of the slides, flew kites in its muddy fields, pretended to play tennis on its courts, and sweated all over every blade of grass within its fences. Ah, the memories…. Truly, I do love it there. It’s home, and what better place to embarrass myself as I learn to run?

Anyway, the run/walk/bike path is a mile long, which allows for convenient distance measurements, and it meanders up and down a seemingly slight hill. Somehow, no matter where I start running, the C25K dude being piped through my iPhone headphones always manages to tell me to run up the same friggin’ hill. It’s a gradual incline and lasts for approximately 90 seconds of my running speed. Perfect. Geesh.

The beastly hill at Juilfs Park

At least I’ve made it every time so far, mostly because my ability to talk myself into things is quite strong. (Unfortunately it’s not a strong as my ability to talk myself out of things, but it’s still strong, nonetheless.) I purposefully quicken my breath and start leaning forward as I approach the hill. That seems to help a bit. It doesn’t help the craaaazy shin splints that I can’t seem to escape, but it helps with momentum and breath control. (Shin splints will be a recurring theme and, again, I’ll talk about them later.)

Go ahead and throw 100 – 150 extra pounds of weight on your shoulders and see how your legs and lungs feel after running uphill for 90 seconds. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Ha!

So back to what I was saying: I’ll be repeating Week 2 a few times, I’m sure. I just need to stay on track with my workouts. It’s going to become increasingly important that I stick to a three-times-a-week regimen as the weather gets warmer, too. Ugh, even thinking about running during a Cincinnati summer brings flashbacks to high school gym class and that one dreadful year of “summer gym.” I can feel my chest clogging with humidity now. Gack! Cough! Heave!

Excuse me. Ahem.

So, huge blog. Sorry. I just have so much to fill you in on, and I will. I must learn to balance background information with current affairs. Oh, and since you’ve been introduced to my excuse-making habits, please, please, please call me out on it. If you see me drifting toward rationalization and abandonment, don’t let me get away with it. Please and thank you.

Progress report: I'm finishing 2 miles in about 28:40 (1:20 left on my 30-minute workout when I finish the second mile). So that's a 14:20 1-mile pace, right? Hmm, better than high school. Interesting.