Hip Hop: Runner's Delight

I said a hip hop,
Hippie to the hippie,
The hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop, a rock it
To the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie,
To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.

In case you're not familiar with that prolific piece of prose, I'll let the Sugarhill Gang explain it to you:

And in case you still don't get it, here's the old lady from The Wedding Singer:

So what's the moral of this post?

My hip hurts. And I hip-hopped on the treadmill this evening during my third set of 5-minute/90-second run/walk intervals.

This is the second time this has happen in the middle of a run in the last, oh, 3 months? The other time was with Caitlin on the Little Miami Scenic Trail.

And it hurts. It makes me limp for a few days. If anyone has any insight on hippy-to-the-hippy-to-the-hip-hip-hop pain, let me know.

Okay now that I think of it, it might be above my hip joint but still within the hip-bone area that I allegedly have (I have never seen my hip bone; I'll believe it's there when I see it).

Oh, and I did some random arm-lifting-strengthening-slimming-whatevers when I got home from the gym. And some Just Dance yesterday. 

Sooooo...that's all. Enjoy "Rapper's Delight"!

The Cure For Shin Splints

I FOUND IT!

I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Nay, nay...

I found the double pot of gold at the end of a double rainbow.

Even better than that, I have found the cure for shin splints! I still need to do some more tests to give my discovery a bit more weight, but I believe it. 

I hit the gym after work tonight and started my latest running workout regimen. (5 minute warm up, run 5 minutes, walk 90 seconds, repeat 5 or 6 times, cool down.) My shins were doing the usual cramping, but nothing huge. I got through 2 intervals and had to take a little break for...something.

When I came back, I decided to give the rowing machine a go. It's always intimidated me and it's right in the middle of everything and I don't like being watched while I'm doing something unfamiliar. (I've gotten over my aversion to being watched while running on the treadmill. I would prefer that someone not watch my fat flop all around, but I figure the "Wow, that fat girl is running...impressive" factor wins out over the "Look at all the jiggling!" factor.)

So, here's a rowing machine:

 

LifeSpan Fitness Rowing Machine. Image from Amazon.com.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the proper form is to start from all squished up (legs bent, arms forward), drive with your legs then pull back with your arms. Then you pull yourself back up into a ball and start over. 

Actually, here's a video showing proper movement:

So, when you pull yourself back up into the ball at the end, you use the straps around your feet to pull, thus using the shin muscles, along with others I'm sure. IT' TOTALLY STRETCHED MY SHINS OUT!! (Something I've found very difficult to do.)

After my little rowing experiment, I hopped back on the treadmill and felt like I had new legs. "New legs, Lieutenant Dan! New legs!"

From icanhascheezburger.com, of course.

No shin splits whatsoever. Too bad I had worn myself out on the rowing machine and doing a few arm thingies. And too bad I just wanted to go home. I could have run for ages after the miracle machine took away the shin splints! 

I'm a miracle worker. 

Oh, what did you do tonight?

Hmm...not much. Just did a little running and, you know, found the cure for shin splints!!!! OMGGGGGGS!!!

And that's all I've got. I'm freezing. Time to drink some tea and eat some cookies.  =)

Ketchup Blog

I'm way behind on blogging so I'm just going to catch up with a list. (Read the list and you'll be rewarded with pictures at the end.)

• My third grade teacher, Mrs. Chalk, didn't like ketchup. So if our class needed a "catch-up day" (ketchup day) she liked to call it mayonnaise day.
• Apparently, I can't spell mayonnaise without help from my computer.
• Seeing a pattern here ... this might not be such a succinct list after all, given my easily-distracted mood this evening. Ooh shiny ...
• I'm running a 5K this Friday ... in a Halloween costume. It's the Cincinnati Run Like Hell.
• It's my friend, Mr. PurulentSmile's first 5K and I'm uber excited for him. He's going to murder it. 
• Sarah is running it too! Yay!
• If you're in a donating mood, please consider using my friend Leslie's donation page for the Run Like Hell 5K, which benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Here's the link to her page. She's $160 away from her $500 goal. Oh, and her team (which I'm a part of) is called Marissa's Miracle, named after her daughter. Read Marissa's story on the page I linked above.
• My costume is almost ready. I'm taking two yards of tulle (the stuff that goes under tutus) to work tomorrow to get help from my crafty coworkers. I'm not crafty. Have I mentioned that? Then I'm getting a bunch of latex gloves from my cousin Thursday. (Have you figured it out yet? I'm guessing no. Hehe...)
• Tonight I met Caitlin for my last run of the week before the 5K. It went terribly for me.
• Here's when you know you have a great running buddy: Caitlin looked at me when tonight's run was over and said, "I was hoping you'd have a bad run tonight." Errr...thanks?  =)
• What Caitlin did was reiterate some advice I gave her a few weeks ago when she ran a 5K and met all of her goals (no puking, no walking, finish in under 40 minutes). She had a bad workout that week and was a little discouraged. I told her it was good because she got the bad run out of her system. See, bad runs usually travel alone. One and done ... for a little while. That one bad run could be REALLY bad and could REALLY discourage you, but it's only going to happen once...unless you let it defeat you.
• Speaking of the 5K Caitlin did, it was the day after my 30th birthday celebration, so I opted out. (recovery ... whew) But I did go to the run as a spectator, which I love. It was a beautiful day and I had the pleasure of bopping around the course with a fancy-pants camera dangling around my neck to play paparazzi for Caitlin. Super...super...FUN! Pictures below!
• I love that Caitlin wished a bad run on me. Punk.
• Caitlin is kicking my a$$ in running, more and more every time I see her. We tried speed intervals not too long ago. I failed miserably. She busted butt. And she may not realize it, but that one speed workout has kicked her normal running speed up a notch or three.
• In fact, everyone is kicking my a$$ in running. I'm slowing down. I'm not working out as much as I'd like, I've gained a little weight, and I'm just not improving my speed. I could work harder at this.
• I need to return to the land of losing weight. I've noticed a difference in the amount of effort required now versus when I was 6 pounds lighter.
• It's getting cold and dark out. I hate standard time. Seriously, someone give me a good reason why we should ever NOT be in daylight saving time. There is NO good reason. It should be all year round.
• Cold + Dark + Gaining Weight + Boredom Sneaking In = I'm joining a gym. Probably tomorrow after work. The gym down the street has some pretty good annual plans, but better yet, they have EXTREMELY reasonable month-to-month plans. I'm going to try to make nice with the dreadmills (read about my first treadmill experience here). I'm also going to take a body pump class. Basically synchronized lifting with a room full of people.
• I am extremely proud of my two running buddies. They're doing such a fabulous job and, as I've said, are completely annihilating me in terms of running ability and improvement.
• I can't spell annihilating either.
• I'm getting to be a very delinquent blogger, so please follow me on Twitter if you're the Twitter type. If you're not the Twitter type, my tweets show up on the right hand side of my blog page. I'm trying to improve the frequency of my posts there to compensate for my poor blogging habits. Plus, I often re-tweet or quote some really useful and insightful tweets from Runner's World, Women's Health, Eat This Not That, and other Twitter resources.
• This is a mighty long list, but I think I'm finished for now.
• This is my first blog post as a thirty-something!

And now pictures...

These are from the Warrior Run.

Caitlin before the race started.

At the start line. (Caitlin is in pink.)

At mile 1. This was the prettiest race course ever. Through a super cute neighborhood with fall leaves everywhere. =)

Finish line! (Caitlin isn't there quite yet.)

There she is! She had to elbow and shove her way through a pack of walkers. Atta girl!

Caitlin's cheering section. Her husband Jesse (pointing toward their hidden child in the stroller, Emalynn). To the left in the red plaid is Jesse's brother Jason. To the left again, creeping over Jason's shoulder, is Kevin, Caitlin's twin brother.

The paparazzi!

And here's a collage of pics from my 30th birthday party. I didn't party like a rockstar as I intended (due in large part to me going "too big, too fast," if you catch my drift. But I got to see most of my most favorite people in the world, no exaggeration here! Thank you for celebrating with me, peeps. Love you all!

Happy birthday to me!

Meet My Treadmill

I didn't run for 32 minutes straight today, but I'm considering it a victory anyway. The fact that I actually put my running gear on, traipsed through the snow, went to (got in my car to drive 15 seconds to) the workout room at my complex, and ran is a victory in itself. The stairs leading from my second-floor apartment are covered in ice, as is my whole parking lot. I could have died, folks.

But, I risked it all and moseyed on over. I also took advantage of the sunshine and took a picture of my workout room.

See my new pants? Aren't they fabulous? LOVE THEM!
Now, to work on my posture. Hold stomach in for pictures, Beckey!
(But check out my running gams in those pants!)

So, this picture makes the room look huge. There are two treadmills, 1 elliptical, 1 stationary bike, and 1 "nautilus" all-in-one machine. If you look carefully, you can see the lines on the mirrored wall and then figure out how small the room is.

I didn't do a full 32 minutes today for several reasons:

1. I'm having trouble finding the right speed. Today I felt like everything was too slow to feel natural. I got up to 4.7 before it even felt close. I think my legs were ready to go today.
2. It got hot. I've lost all my tolerance for heat. Ugh, and I worked so hard to get it in the first place.
3. The other treadmill wasn't working and a girl came in shortly after I started, wanting to use it. She got on the bike instead, but I felt bad (and wanted an excuse to stop early), so I only did 20-ish minutes of running (with a 2-ish minute walk break in there somewhere).
4. I really, really would rather have been running outside. It's only halfway through December and I can already tell this winter thing is going to be a huge downer in the land of running. Blah.

I only got two runs in last week, too. It's been awhile since I've slacked off like that and it felt really strange. Guess that's a good feeling to have, right?

That's all I have today. Good luck to you all running in this nastiness. As always, I welcome your insight on the topic.

The C25K Initiative: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I can honestly say, with no exaggeration, that I never thought yesterday would have happened, especially more than 10 months ago when I started the Couch to 5K program.

Well folks, this is a picture of what victory looks like:

Well, pretend I remembered to take a screen shot of the app when I actually finished the program, instead of the next day. Elapsed would say 40:00 and Remaining would say 0:00. It happened, I promise. See the green check mark on 9.3?

On Monday, December 6, 2010 at approximately 6:45 p.m., I, Beckey, the author of More To Love Running, ran for 30 minutes straight and completed the Couch to 5K program.

Omigosh! Ahhhh!

Okay, okay, wait a minute. Not only did I finish the program, but I finished the program on a treadmill. On a treadmill running next to some dude I didn't know. Running next to some dude I didn't know who didn't have headphones on and therefore could hear me huffing and puffing and hear my thundering steps.

We're talking HUGE victories here, people!

The most amusing part to me is that I didn't even get a chance to celebrate yesterday because I was busy being a Beckey Crocker failure. I came back from the workout room to the task of making hoards of red velvet cupcakes for my work's holiday bake-off. Let me tell you now that I HATE baking on weekdays. There's a reason: if something goes wrong, there's NO recovery time.

There is, however, an extremely helpful mother. I didn't have sugar or cupcake papers. I was soaking wet with sweat, still in my running clothes, and exhausted. My loving mother rescued me, though, and delivered the sugar and papers. Whew. Thanks mom!

So, this day after my baking almost-catastrophe, and after the cupcakes are iced, I'm officially giving myself time to get excited about my accomplishment.

I FINISHED! WHEEEE!

Er ... now what?

Friday Night Treadmill Party

Two days later, she finally posts about her first treadmill experience.

Sorry folks. I'm late. I know you've been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting ... with baited breath.

As the daylight of summer quickly fades into the crap-darkness of winter, I can clearly see that running outside after work is going to get more difficult, especially since I seem to be staying in the office later and later these days. So, since I got out late Friday and since I wanted to test the treadmill in my apartment community before push came to shove, I gave it a go.

I figured most people my age in this community would be out enjoying Halloween parties and not working out, and therefore the equipment would be free. I was right! There are also two treadmills in the workout room, and though I don't like the idea of huffing and puffing and thumping and staggering next to someone, at least there's a greater chance a treadmill will be open.

Anyway, it didn't go too badly. I expected to struggle with finding an appropriate pace for myself and with the mechanics of machine-aided exercise. I didn't expect to finish 25 minutes without stopping. I was right. I did make it to 20, though, and I think I could have done 25+ if I was wearing short sleeves. I overheated a bit, which a friend of mine warned me about. Even though I powered through the hottest of summer runs, getting hot on a treadmill with long sleeves on is different--no breeze.

Do you have any tactics for staying cool on a treadmill?

The first 5 minutes went so quickly; the second 5 minutes also went well. After that, it was a struggle. While those first 10 minutes flew by, I spent the second 10 minutes staring at the clock. I got bored. I had my headphones and a window in front of me, but elected to not turn the television on. That may have helped.

How do you fight treadmill boredom?

I kept my speed at 4.3 for 16 minutes, then bumped it down to 4.1 until minute 19, then back up to 4.2. What's your go-to treadmill speed? I stayed at zero incline the whole time. Hills? Pshh ... NO! =) Anyway, at least I know I can do the treadmill through the winter if need be. I don't want to skip outside running altogether, though, because I still like it much more.

I'll be running at some point today, if I can get myself off the couch. No, I will run today. I just need to decide how much. The Thanksgiving Day 10K is getting closer and I'm starting to bug out a little about the distance. Should I practice a longer run a few times or will I be okay? I mean, it's not like it'll be hot out or anything. And if I get tired, I can just walk with everyone else.

Okay, so a rather dis-jointed, uninspired post today, but I wanted to mark the occasion of my first treadmill run. Until next time ...

Keeping It Short

Let's see if I am actually capable of a short post. My money is on no.

I ran today. It was fun. The weather was nice and I felt good. Heck, for a hot minute I even thought that I might try to bump up to Week 3, just for giggles. I even got as far as to look at what Week 3 involved ... and that's when I decided against it.

HOLY COW! What a huge jump in workout intervals! Week 2 is run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes. Week 3 reads as follows

5-minute warmup, then do this twice: job 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, job 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes

Uhhh ... a minute-and-a-half to THREE MINUTES?! That's a bit ridic, no? I might ask my friend Jeff (Jeff, pay attention) to make me a timed music mix with his amazing music editing skills. I'm thinking of doing a 2-minute run followed by a 90-second walk -- that'll help me bridge to Week 2, right? So yeah, Jeff, if you're feeling adventerous, have at it. No musicals please. =)

Well, I did run Week 2 today and did smashingly, again. Finished with 3:10 on the clock and walked a little more of the track. I now have a new finishing goal: get to the next entrance before Mr. C25K says, "Workout complete."

Okay, that's all! I'll try to run Thursday. I'm traveling for work Tuesday and Wednesday, but if I get back in time on Wednesday, I may try it then. But, eh. We'll see. The good news is I still miss getting to workout if I have to skip it. That's all that matters at this point.

Do you workout while traveling? I know a lot of people do, but I think that requires experience with a treadmill, which I don't have yet.

Little Victories, Episode 1: Today's Run Sucked

Well, it's true. Today's run was not fun. I had several elements working against me today, and I almost succumbed to the most vicious one: laziness. But, I didn't. I went to the park and I finished the workout. Little victory #1: Left the house. Little victory #2: Finished the run.

Let's see, here's my list: tired from moving, sore from painting (squatting, reaching, rolling, etc.), queasy and uncomfortably from cramps (sorry guys), sleepy from being waken up by my screeching and fighting animals, and a little congested from one allergy or another.

So yeah, despite all that, I got up and went. And I hated it the whole time. This is no, "I'm so glad I went because it all got better when I started running" story. Legs hurt, stomach hurt, arms hurt, COULDN'T BREATHE!

Little victory #3: First run of the season in high humidity (86% on my Weather Channel app). With that, I'm officially not looking forward to running this summer.

Let's continue the whining, shall we? I actually cut my second to last running interval short by about 5 seconds. Pathetic. Why not just go the last 5 seconds? It's not like I wouldn't have recovered somehow, right?

On that note, little victory #4: Running the last leg even though I excused myself from doing it after the second to last leg. I did it slow, and it hurt, and I whined internally the whole time, but I did it.

Little victory #5: Despite my whining and moaning and lack of oxygen, I somehow managed to finish only slightly behind my normal pace. Two miles in 28:20 (instead of two miles in 28:00).

Finally, little victory #6: I felt great after and for the remainder of the day. Lesson learned, again. And I'm glad I got to run after having so many days off (haven't worked out since Tuesday).

Sorry for the rant. Let's call this a slump. I think my future motivation on these crappy days will be to step back a "week" in the workout. I could have done Week 1 today and finished fine. It would have been less painful and I wouldn't have been so close to quitting. But is that okay? Do I allow myself that concession?

What about you? I still want to know when you know you need to walk instead of run. Do you ever give yourself an easy workout?

Next run: TBD.

This is the last week of the moving fiasco that is April. Things will be getting easier. I am considering giving myself a try at a treadmill workout. I haven't tried it yet. What should I expect? Easier or harder?