A Rainy but Warm Run

Today I got in a lunch run. When I  woke up, I was going to spin to make up for not spinning yesterday. There was no rush to get to the office, so I took my time getting out of bed. I even got dressed in my bike gear, but after looking online for some trainer workouts I decided that I would rather run today. And I'd rather paint the kitchen. And I wasn't awake, having had another bad night's sleep. So my new plan was to paint, then run, then go to work.

Painting the kitchen took way longer than I anticipated, and I think I'm a pretty fast painter. It was a nice morning though. The dogs slept and stayed out of my way the entire time. I slapped on primer with a roller first, then went back to do the trim,  It is probably going to take 3 coats to cover the red. Bleh. Hopefully the next ones will go faster.

About 3 hours later, I was done with the first coat and stepped outside to check the temps. It was raining, but relatively warm. Fine, I'll run in it. I put on shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, a hat and my arm warmers. It just seemed like I'd need them, being so wet out. But I soon ditched those because I was too hot.

I ran past the houses in my neighborhood where Christmas has thrown up. In the rainy daylight, it looks even worse than at night. I ran the first mile at what felt like a pretty easy pace, somewhere around 9:50. Then for the next mile my plan was to make it a tempo run and maybe try for 5K pace? But my pacing skills are really whack right now. I just haven't been running consistently enough. So, nearing the half way point, I was about spent. I decided I'd stop and breathe a bit and then do the same thing going back. Turns out I was running a little under an 8 pace, so no wonder. I walked for a few seconds. Then I headed back. The next half was even faster. After I turned the corner for the last mile to home, instead of stopping, I slowed to a jog until I felt somewhat recovered. Then I kept pushing up a hill and back into my neighborhood. I think my times for the miles that weren't during the tempo part were around 9:50 and 9:10. This is all averaged... I didn't wear my GPS since it was so wet out. It is supposed to be submersible for 30 minutes in 1 meter, but I didn't feel like worrying about it.

Right now, I'm stiff - very stiff. Yesterday after work I lifted in the short time I had before heading to dinner. I did arms and abs. This morning I thought my shoulder was going to explode while I was painting. It's all good timing though...a great jump start. I'm enjoying feeling sore again.

Week After Stuff-fest

I feel so fat. I know I've over-eaten these past few days. Best remedy for that? Running. (Oh yeah, and to stop over-eating.)

Running is a remedy for a lot of things for me, I've found. I have a lot on my mind right now, most of it weighing pretty heavily. I am really thankful that I can run right now and have that. Last night I tossed and turned in bed for around 4 hours. I can't help but think that it would have been awesome to get up and go for a run. Cold weather and time of night aside, it would have been good for me, and I bet I would have come back able to sleep. A few times in college or soon thereafter when I was driving very late at night, I saw people running. I remember thinking how odd it was...they must work a different shift and have to train at this hour. That is probably the likely reason, but I suppose it could have also been they were unable to sleep and had the balls to get up and go for a run at a most unconventional time.

Sunday I only ran 2 miles. I felt like crap. Tonight I won't have time for a proper spin, but now I'm going to do a quick lift session. I'm still sore from house stuff...good jump start I guess.

Day After Stuff-fest

I ate a lot yesterday. I know I did, but I didn't let it bother me too much. It's only one day.

Thanksgiving was ok. I actually have mixed feelings about it. For one thing, Shannon didn't get invited due to her and my parents bullshit they do back and forth with being mad at each other then not, then again, etc etc. I don't understand it. But I feel awful that she spent Thanksgiving by herself for what seems like no good reason, probably knowing that we all got together too. That would really hurt me if it were me. Second is the news I got from my parents that I should be screened for a condition my dad has, because they just found out from his cardiologist that it is hereditary. Dad lives with a thoracic aortic aneurysm, the same condition that killed John Ritter. Dad's is pretty much inoperable because of its location – the survival rate is less than 50% or something like that. So they just monitor it and he can't lift anything over 20 pounds. Anyway, you can take a blood test and see if you have the gene mutation that causes them. Then if you do, and as I understand it even if you don't because they haven't found all of the genes yet, you get chest scans every couple of years to see if one has developed or not. It's a silent killer, but you can scan for it and at least I guess prevent yourself from making it burst. This news was given to me right after we got there and I'm really not sure how to take it. I have been having very weird feelings about it all.  

Today I'm sore...from running I suppose, and painting. So I decided to forgo running or biking today and have just been doing kitchen demo prep. I moved every last thing out of the kitchen that isn't attached or still in use (appliances). It took me three hours. It was nice work though, and I feel really accomplished. I also finished the bathroom shelves that Greg started and have everything put back in now.

While I was taking a break from kitchen dismantling I did some leg lifts and also lifted. Felt good. I'm pretty happy with the schedule so far this week. I'm a little numb right now thinking about this aneurysm shit.

Rainy Turkey Day

Yesterday I took the day off. It was very nice to get some things done around the house that have been neglected. I did errands in the morning when it was dry...and therefor missed my opportunity to get outside for a run. It was really cold and raining/sleeting the rest of the day. So I hopped on the bike.

I watched some music videos and did my best to spin. I was pretty tired. Every time I tried to push myself, I'd have to stop. Meh, to be expected I guess. It's been a while and this is the "getting back into it" phase.

Today my neck and shoulders and even arms are sore. I think my neck and shoulders are sore from the bike, but my arms are probably sore from painting. One of the things I got started yesterday was painting the bathroom closet and its shelves. It's amazing to me how such a small room can be so complicated and take up so much of our time.

Anyway, today is Thanksgiving. I'm happy to start the eat-fest day with a good run, burning some calories. When I got up to make the cranberries, it was pouring. Even though it's 61º, I didn't want to run in a downpour. By the time I was done making the cranberries and putting another coat of paint on the shelves, the rain was a sprinkle. So I went out, for the first time since last Monday I think. The run went really well, I was surprised. I was glad to be able to run in warm weather, for my lungs' sake. Yesterday's coldness was shocking, and I'm sure I would have coughed for 3 hours afterwords if I had ran in it. I think it's going to get really cold again soon, so my ideal acclimation scenario probably won't happen :). I really feel my soreness from yesterday – time to pop some Advil.

And now it's off to Dayton for Thanksgiving. Greg's Grandma isn't going to be able to make it. She's having some urology issues so can't make the long trip. So, Greg is going to drive separate and follow his folks when they leave and spend the night up in P-burg so he can visit his Grandma tomorrow (and win Grandson of the Year Award!) I'm really really super sad to have to be by myself tonight and tomorrow. I'm dreading this evening. But then I think about his grandma all by herself and realize I have it easy and I should suck it up.

Spinning - kicking off the new schedule

This morning was my first workout following a new schedule I came up with. I didn't have to rush to work, so I didn't have to get up too early at all. I got out of bed at 7:10 and was on the bike by 7:30. This included letting out the dogs, feeding the dogs, changing into my gear, and a minor (user) hiccup in hooking up my laptop to the screen and speakers.

I decided to just hit shuffle and ride to whatever popped up from my preliminary spinning list, which ended up being: Panic Switch, Ænema, DOA, Harder Better Faster Stronger, Everlong, whatever track 10 of the Queens of the Stoneage album I have is, and Tom Sawyer. Ænema is just awesome for hills, or slow heavy pushing. So was DOA - a very good hill song. I kept changing things up among short sprints, seated climbs and a couple of bigger climbs.  I was pretty exhausted 2 songs in...I am really out of shape.

One thing I noticed today about hills with the fluid trainer verses a spinning bike is that the fluid trainer is much closer to how hills feel on the road. I guess the obvious difference is there is no fly-wheel that gains momentum like on a spinning bike. Setting the trainer to a level and then changing my bike into a gear that made me have to stand up felt so close to a hill. It was hard and I felt like gravity was working against me. The friction stayed. I was initially a little worried about successfully replicating hill climbs from spinning classes of yore, but now am pretty certain that I can make that trainer and bike do a pretty nasty climb for me.

I rode for about 33 minutes I think. Good enough start I guess. Tomorrow is running...

Work vs. Workout

Since I didn't leave work until after 6:30 last night, I didn't want to hop on the trainer when I got home, soon followed by Greg. It was time for dinner. Work is awful right now. So busy, so many demands, and all of it with near impossible-to-make deadlines. My head is spinning trying to keep it all together. Unfortunately my workouts always suffer when things get like this, and they were already suffering when work was slower. I'm not proud of that nor do I really see it as 100% of an excuse. I feel like other people make things work anyway. My problem is I am still lacking a lot in the motivation department and have lost momentum. Perhaps if I regain that, a day like yesterday wouldn't be followed by a night like last night.

Today I decided to not worry about it too much and brought my running stuff to work. As I see it, yesterday was my day off. That's fine. But that means I have to do something today. However, more deadlines, last minute art changes, unexpected French translation needs and bitchy printers (I don't blame them) left me working too late through lunch for the hungry belly. So, it's after work for try #2. I'm just going to do it and not think about it.

On the weight front (I just saw that label and thought about it), I haven't lost anything. I'm not one bit surprised, and I suppose even happy to have not gained anything given my inconsistencies the past few weeks.
Onward I stumble...

Rain

Cold, rainy weather does not improve my running or otherwise daily mood. Today's weather was a little wake-up call to the facts that: Yes, I live in Cincinnati. And yes it's November. And this is what it does in Cincinnati in the cold months, starting in November. Bleh.

I think this is going to be my first winter in a long time without gym access. That means on days like this where I wouldn't step my wimpy foot outside except to run to my car, I will probably find myself biking on the trainer when I had planned to run. (I love running in the rain, but not when it's below Warm degrees.) Biking is my only indoor cardio option since I no longer have access to the sea of cardio equipment at The Gym. OK, Mason's Community Center didn't have a sea of equipment, more like a puddle. But I will miss the elliptical machine and the Tool station on Pandora as a different, very awesome workout option. I plan to translate those great workouts into my also cardio-benefiting Home School Spinning.

Just some ramblings about cold weather and rain and how much of a fan I am of it (not much). I need to figure out a fun way to power through the drab months, since I can't seem to move away for a few.

Hills or Pancakes - Loveland's Terrain

I should be glad that Loveland's terrain is so diverse. If I want a pancake flat surface, I can run on the bike trail. If I want crazy hill climbs, I can go in any direction away from where my office is and expect to exhaust myself. However, today, only the third run in since the half, I needed something moderate for the IT band. It would have been nice if there was something in between. I really didn't want to run on the trail, so I opted for the roads. But, there just isn't that far to go around Loveland. It's not big, not the flat part anyway. What can I expect; I'm a stone's throw from a river.

I went towards downtown and did a little loop forced by the fact that I didn't want to climb the hill out to Goshen (O'Bannonville), nor the huge hill to Branch Hill-Loveland. Going back west on Loveland, I turned onto Loveland-Madeira to avoid going up West Loveland's huge hill. Once on Loveland-Madeira, I only ran to Kroger...after that the road climbs and then falls again. Heading north, the streets run out of sidewalk about a quarter mile from my office. All in all it was a 2.6 mile run at 9:26 pace. I stopped a few times at lights and to stretch. Felt pretty good, but my cardio is definitely suffering.

So it's either hills or pancakes. And actually, this is all very good news if I'm going to be training from the office this winter, because I hills will definitely help me to get stronger. It will be fine once I'm back in my routine. I look forward to the 4 mile hill loop I've done maybe once before: Loveland-Madeira --- South Lebanon --- West Loveland. I think either direction is probably equally brutal, but I've only done that order. The last time I ran it, I hurt my calves and gave myself a little case of plantar fasciitis and couldn't run for a bit. So I need to give a couple more weeks before the conquering begins. I should name this route...hmmmm... it's a triangle. Kind of an obtuse scalene triangle...but that's not too catchy of a name.

Re-acclimating My Butt

Today was an exhausting day at work. Most of the afternoon was spent at the mall at a floor set for SGH...two hours on my feet in heels, listening to debates about merchandising and metals-plastics-rimless hierarchies. I was drained when I got home. So I decided to exhaust myself further on the bike.

I haven't been on the bike in weeks. Every day when I let the dogs out, I see it. Patiently it sits, facing the TV, perfectly upright and calm, hooked into the trainer, bike pump nearby. I turned on the TV, got my laptop hooked up and woke the chain from its slumber. I wanted to ride hard, but short in order to get my butt used to the saddle again. So I queued up mtvmusic.com on which I think I have officially given up. My playlists won't load and the quality, sound and video (most importantly sound) is pretty awful. It worked for tonight though. I really don't think I need the video part of it. It would be ideal, but I'd sacrifice video for sound for sure.

I warmed up to The Story (Brandi Carlile). Then it was Muse: Uprising, Katy Perry: Hot and Cold, Foo Fighters: All My Life, Silversun Pickups: Panic Switch (by far the dumbest video ever), Muse: Resistance, Cold Play: Viva La Vida, Kanye West: Better Faster Stronger.  It was the same list as I've done one time before, with some variation. But this time, I rode pretty hard. So what if it's been weeks off the bike, there's no time for taking it easy. I had a great time. I bumped up the fluid trainer's gear to the middle one, and stayed in my middle gear which allowed me to do sprints and out of the saddle hills by changing the back gears. I followed the rhythm of the music, something I've never been able to do in a spin class, and pushed moderately hard. My heart was pounding the entire time. It was a great time. There is nothing like some music and good exercise to make the day better.

I believe my butt was happy with the amount of time for Re-Acclimation. (Female computer voice: 'Butt Re-acclimation, 40% complete'). I should work on some playlists to have on my laptop or phone I guess. I definitely need to find some more music and variety. Something to work on this weekend.

Lunch Run #2

Christen and I went out during lunch for a run on the trail. Since she hasn't ran since...well the last time we ran together which was quite a few weeks (if not months) ago, and since I'm making my comeback after not running for two weeks and am having a lot of stomach issues, we took it in chunks. We decided we'd run fast and then walk when we had to. So that's what we did for a total distance of about 2.3 miles.

The new Garmin I got works well. I am still figuring out things with it. For example, I know there is a feature that stops the overall time when you slow down to walk or if you're stopped at a stoplight. You don't have to push stop and start again when you start running again. The time is called out separately as rest time and I think doesn't effect the overall pace shown. But I couldn't figure out how to get that to work today. There might be a setting you have to enter, i.e. when pace drops below 11:00 per mile, put the time in the rest segment. I'll have to refer to the book. I'm going to have to refer to the book a lot until I figure out all of the nuances.

Last Sunday I managed to get out for a one mile run. This was my first test of the Garmin, as well as the first run since the half. The Garmin is huge. I don't know anyone with smaller wrists than me, but I still don't have to have it in the last hole, which I found funny. It is surprisingly comfortable. However, it does hit my sticky-outy wrist bone and that starts to hurt. So I might just have to move it up my arm some, away from the bone. In my...I don't know, let's just call it quest for getting faster, I ran pretty hard. I've decided that most of my runs will be like this, as much as I can handle, except for longer distances. Before the balance was mostly longer distance slow. Now I'm going to do shorter distances fast, with long slow still happening to keep a good base, just less of them. We'll see if that nets anything. Not sure else how to approach it.

Plans and Such

It's been almost two weeks since the half marathon, and I haven't run 1 mile. Nor have I biked. In fact, I've not done much of anything except worked. Working in, not working out. :(  This is not exactly how I had wanted it to go.

Part of the problem was work (many consecutive 10 billable hour days). Every day like clockwork I get a bad tension headache in my neck and jaw. I'm tired of it! (Ironically, a run would probably help get rid of it!) The other part was motivation. I get pretty sad/down after races as eventful as a half, where there are weeks invested in training and planning for it. This one was no exception. I finished, was happy and disappointed all at the same time (which was weird and I still feel weird about), and was left feeling pretty empty with the question in my head every day: now what?

I guess now I'm trying to address it. Now what?

First things first - It's time to start running again! I need to start running again. This has been a long rest period; I'm sure my IT band is fine by now. Plus, I have a fun new GPS watch to play with! I partly bought that for motivation, but it didn't have quite as big of a spark as I had hoped it would. I am still looking forward to using its features and having more freedom on my routes again.

Second, plans/aka motivation... My eyes are on the Pig. I go back and forth about full or half. I feel like I'm copping out by not doing the full. I've done a full and would still like to run more full marathons. And this is the home town marathon! But.... then I think about how I want to get faster. The Pig quite possibly could be a slower marathon than Columbus was for me, and I don't ever want to do one slower than that. I would need to know I could do better, which means I'd have to train for pace at the distance rather than just the distance. That's scary when you're a mortal. Back to the half... it is such a more manageable distance! It's still an endurance challenge, but nothing like a full. I know I could keep improving my speed and would have a great time working on that. I feel like it would be very rewarding. Back to the marathon... I could do one later in the year, after the Pig is done. I could aim for Columbus again in the fall - that is such a great race.  Hmmmmm...decisions!

I think for now I'm going to break things up in chunks. From now until the end of the year, I want to nail down a routine, which will include running, biking (indoors) and lifting/core. When I think about running, I get pretty excited thinking about getting faster. So I think I'm going to start there for now and see what happens. It's time to do some real work!

November, and I'm starting to slide.

First off, I'm am/was fantastically thrilled with my half marathon results. I killed it. 8:55? what the heck? I'm really happy with how I felt, and my ability to maintain my stride over that distance. I really wish I had a pace clock so I could see how varied my splits were... I have a feeling there were slightly erratic. ah well. I couldn't have been more pleased with my race.

Secondly, It's Novemeber. And I'm going to say now that I've officially been on my weightloss, trim down, eat better kick for a year. If I need an aniversary date, I'm going to say Novemeber 1st. And in the last year I've come down from 239lbs to 183. 56 lbs have come off my frame. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and wonder what I would think my 229lbs self would say about my 183lbs body. I can see the difference in pictures, but I don't feel like I've changed that much. Perhaps because it was a slow process. But I'm reminded everytime I get into my closet, just how big I used to be. There is no way I can wear anything in my closet that fit me this time last year, without looking completly rediculous. This is good and bad.... Good as a reminder of my progress and becuase I get to re-outfit myself, and bad because I NEED to re-outfit myself. Clothes get expensive when you need to buy a lot! :)

Ok, that's the good, now here's the bad. I really feel like my eating is getting out of control. I've been chosing poorly, snacking feverishly, and consuming greater portions. I really need to reel in my eating. I've been taking it easy since the race, for my body's sake, but my activity level is dropping at the same time. Double Whammy! Thank goodness Halloween has past. Hopefully the quantity of candy sitting around will start to wane.

I need to find the balance again. I need support and accountability again. I'll try to make my blog updates regular. No more excuses! I have more weight to lose! 175 here I come