Thursday, April 29, 2010
vacay is upon us & an easy 6
This week I am supposed to do 11-12 miles for my long run. The problem is that we will be flying out early Saturday and I can't see myself running around a foreign island for 11 miles. I had originally planned on doing the long run today. I think I already wrote about this right? Anyway I had a normal work day, up at 3:15 am and doing a lot of lifting and physical work, ect. Plus, my wobbley knee is still unsteady! Who knows what this is? There is no pain, it just feel wobbly, weak, or unsteady. If I wear an ACE brace/bandage I am fine. weird. After my dad read about the knee on the other post he asked, "what the heck does a wobbley knee mean"? I honestly have no idea! It's just the word that pops into my head when I think about what my knee feels like feels like. Sorry. Anyway, I decided that I didn't want to do anything stupid and wobble my knee worse so I voted for a nice easy 6 mile run. It was great! who thought that almost 2 months ago I would be going for a fun 6 miles. The weather was perfect and it was super easy. I had to wear my ACE buddy and of course by the end my other knee was sore. Oddly enough the original wobbley knee (left) isn't wobbley anymore, just sore. Now I know why people take ice baths after they run! I have been icing every few hours when I am home so hopefully it will be fine for the trip. I am looking forward to getting in a few short runs, lots of swimming, reading, sleeping, eating, and relaxing on vacay! This may be the last post for a while. My phone will most likely not work on the island. James' phone will so maybe I will give a quick update.
spring tree
Here is that same tree from "signs of spring & seven miles". Look at all of the leaves!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerrytrail pic
This is part of the trail the I shuffle on. The lighting was terrible and the picture is awkward since it was taken quickly from my phone but you get the idea
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerryTuesday, April 27, 2010
busy busy!
I did yoga abs and Mrytle today.
I think I may have runner's knee. It feels like my knee is weak. Previously, I had been wearing an ACE knee bandage at work when I knew I was going to be lifting all day or on the latter. I forgot to wear it last week on an especially difficult day and since then it has been weird. I'm just going to ice it, wrap it, and probably only do an easy 8 miles Thursday. I have to do my long run Thursday becuase of vacay. No time to proof read or anything. Hope this makes some sense!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
week 7 recap
April 19 - 25
Training:
Monday: 30 minute. Due to my schedule I literally had no time for anything other than 30 minutes of running. I didn't even have time for a warm-up or cool down.
Tuesday: I went to visit awesome friend Jen and here precious bebes! They live about an hour away which means that I didn't get home until 7 p.m. I still had to get lunch and clothes ready for work and spend some quality time with the hubby and therefore didn't XT. There are no excuses for not cross-training but I'm not upset about it since this never happens. I did dance to songs on Yo Gabba Gabba with a toddler, is that a form of XT?
Wednesday: 40 minutes total (30 running). It was a great day. There were rumblings of thunder, crazy storm clouds, and the air felt electric. What a great day to be a runner.
Thursday: Happy Earth Day!!! My mom would sometimes take this day off of work because it was a special day. I grew up with motto "Earth Day is everyday"
Yoga Abs & Mrytle
Friday: Rest Day! it's funny because when I started training I hated taking a rest day. Now I feel like I need it.
Saturday: 10 miles!! total time 2:27 hours
Sunday: Yoga Abs, Mrytle, and shopping! wait, does walking around retail stores for hours count as XT?
Health:
This week started poorly. My husband and I made lots of poor food choices on Monday. It's still hard for me to not eat junk when he brings it home. I think it was easier when I wasn't training. Now I'm so tired all of the time I will just eat anything. Luckily the rest of the week was better. After my initial weight loss I have just hit this plateau where I eat too much or too little. I wasn't concerned about what I ate in the beginning because I wanted training to be my main focus. I think after vacay next week I will try to plan my meals better. I still 16.2 pounds. How crazy is that? You would think I would have lost a little more after I ran 10 miles yesterday!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
10 miles!
10 miles
Start: 7:55 a.m. Finish: 10:22 a.m.
Total: 2:27 hours
I started off feeling good except for my wobbly knee and this caused me to not be so great mentally. I kept thinking that my knee was going to wobble out of place and I was going to be stuck somewhere unable to walk. It sounds cheesy but I started up a mantra "I am strong, my body is strong" to bring the focus to something positive. Hey, if mantras work for Kara Goucher maybe they will work for me! About 2 miles into the run I arrived to a really beautiful place in the woods. There were mini fluff balls floating in the breeze and the light was filtering through the trees and dancing on the stream. It looked like a Fairytail Forest and I was content to drink it all in.
Let me clear up any confusion here. I say that I run on "trails" but it is actually a myriad of paved paths that extend for miles in the woods. I would run on dirt paths in the middle of nowhere but I fear that I may become lost. I am not that confident in my navigational abilities and the "map" on my GPS is meerly a line on a screen. Right now the park suits me just fine and I am usually passed by other people on my run.
After miles I finally came to the end of a trail and ended up running on a busy road with no shoulder. This seemed to break up the monotony of the run but after a half mile I was thrilled to be in the woods again.
On a side note, I am in love with my strawberry banana GU. I feel like a GU addict because I crave its sugary goodness and the boost of energy that it brings. I squeeze out every sweet sticky drop!
I was a tad bit annoyed that I stopped the Garmin for a potty break (there is a decent porta john) in the parking lot of one of the trail heads) and I forgot to restart it which messed up my mileage. Luckily, I knew where I had turned around last week at 4:50 miles and was able to deduce that my watch was about .20 miles off. Furthermore, the battery on the Garmin began to die around mile 7 but ended up having enough juice to keep going for the remainder of the run. The face read "low battery enter". It took me about 5 minutes until I realized that I had to press the enter button to clear the message. Duh!
Serious Closing Message:
Up until last weeks run my long runs were something of a lark. I mean, I had my challenges, we all remember "Poncho Princess", but something changes when your mileage increases and you are out there running for hours. Let's face it, at 15 minute miles I was shuffling for almost 2:50 hours today! I don't care how slow I am going, that's a long time. The mental part becomes as hard as the physical part. It is challenging in the beginning to know that I will be out there for such a time, and towards the end I don't even feel my body (which is kinda cool and weird at the same time). There are highs and lows on every run now. I still love running and I have become much more serious about the whole endever. I ran 10 miles today, I am a runner
Friday, April 23, 2010
8, 9 Miles & Gadgets-Oh My!
What is in the box?
YAY! A Garmin!!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sleep!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Monday, April 19, 2010
Time Flies
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, April 15, 2010
another week almost gone
I started back up with my yoga abs dvd. My neck is feeling much better so I am trying not to overdo it. Oddly enough, my abs are much stronger now. Although I shake from the effort, I am able to hold all of my poses! The other weird thing that I noticed is that the rest of my body is much stiffer. This may be due to the fact that I haven't been stretching enough after workouts. All in all it feels good to back working on my abs with Rodney Yee
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 6 Recap
Training:
Monday: 30 minute run + 10 minute warm up/cool down. I keep falling short of 3 miles in 30 minutes. Today I ran 2.95 miles in 30 minutes. Ugh! I don't know what I can't just sprint at the end. I guess I am a little nervous about breaking my shuffle, sprinting, and injuring myself. After all, I obviously don't care about my time anyway (How You Doin 15 minute miles!) I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.
Tuesday: Yoga Abs DVD, short walk with pup. I had to keep it short today because I am going to see Third Eye Blind in a few hours.
Wednesday: 30 minute run + 10 minute warm up/cool down. I went super slow today. My knee is bugging me a little and I just felt like taking it easy.
Thursday: 15 minute walk, Yoga Abs, Mrytle
Friday: Rest Day and Yankee Game!
Saturday: In order to get my long run in today I would have had to wake up at 5 a.m. My other option was to run on Sunday, since I had nothing else planned. I was up late Friday night and decided that I would only run on Saturday if I was feeling "bright eyed and bushy tailed" This was not the case so I ran on Sunday instead of my usual day. I actually did no form of training today. In fact, I ate and sat at a Bridal Shower for the majority of the day! Congrats Monica & Paul!
Sunday: 9 miles! Start: 7:02 a.m. Finish: 9:12 a.m.
Health:
I've been doing well this week so I guess I can officially blame my carb overload last week to lack of sleep.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Busy day!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Need Sleep
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Blazin!
In addition I gave my pup a bath today! He's only 5 pounds and therefore fits nicely in the sink. I love when the weather is warm because I can give him a bath and take him outside to dry instead of torturing him with the blow dryer.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter Weekend
My hubby, Me, Trevor (brother), Julia (sister-in-law), Krystal (cousin)
My mom and Gloria (one of her sisters)
Uncle Tony- we celebrated his birthday
Week 5 Recap and Sleep Update
This week was a bit of a mess. By Thursday I was showing full fledged signs of sleep deprivation. For the full info see Background Info: Never Enough Sleep. I have been getting 6 or less hours of sleep for over the past month. Now according to the doctor, some people only need 5-6 hours a night, others need 7-8, I fall into the latter category. Can you tell that I have already had problems with this? I am usually pretty good about catching up on sleep on the weekends or taking a nap during the week but for over a month now I have just been going, going, going and I finally crashed. Early warning signs were the intense starch carb cravings i was having. Of course I think about pizza sometimes but I should have known something was wrong when I actually went out of my way to eat it on a Tuesday, in addition to wanting potatoes and white bread. Later in the week I was literally passing out for a few seconds/minutes at a time and my anxiety was starting to become slightly unmanageable. Not good! Finally, on Thursday I started to have a low grade fever, was barely moving at work, forgetting things, and I even thought I saw my dog run by in the living room in the morning even though he is gated in another room. That's when I knew that I desperately needed sleep. Thursday and Friday I took really long naps and went to bed early. I woke up feeling much better on Saturday and had the best run ever. I slept even more on Sunday and feel like myself again.
Training:
Monday: 30 minute run + 10 minute warm-up/cool down. It was really hot out today and I felt like I was going to pass out by the time I returned home. I guess I overheat easily. I am now going to bring water on every run no matter how short!
Tuesday: 40 minute walk. I was feeling super lazy today and could not force myself to do any form of DVD, ab work, or even my beloved Mrytle. I'm lucky I forced myself out of the door for a walk!
Wednesday: 30 minute run + 10 minute warm-up/cool down
Thursday: maybe walked for 15 minutes and slept
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 8 mile run! I forgot my start and finish times and I accidentally erased them from my Garmin (still working out the kinks) but I believe that I completed my shuffle in 1:52
Sunday: 30 minute walk & Myrtle
Health:
Monday: lets not even talk about what I ate today :/
Tuesday: today was even worse! I picked up pizza and garlic knots. oh well, at least I am still shuffling!
Wednesday: doing much better with my food choices. I did have cereal for dinner but that is better than pizza! I wrote this before I ate a box of Cherrio's
I gained a pound this week! Oh well! I don't even know what I ate for the rest of the week but I now know that the food choices in the beginning of the week were due to sleep deprivation.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Signs of Spring and Seven Miles
Please stay for the entire post. At the conclusion of my story you will be treated to my amateur photography skills, as I attempt to capture the first tiny signs of Spring!
My Grandpa was allergic to forsythia and I cannot help but to recall fond memories of him whenever I see it.
This tree obviously has no leaves yet but I will enjoy taking pictures of it weekly to observe the changes