"I'm gaining strength, trying to learn to pull my own weight..."

Long run this morning.  I'm heading to NYC in a few hours, but since I will be away from my lovely Macbook for a few days, I wanted to post quickly before I leave.  I briefly considered bringing my Macbook with me, but last time we went on a trip together, I left it on the El at O'Hare, almost missing my flight and giving my mother a coronary in the attempt to rescue it (mission: successful).

Incidentally, are we sure that a rest day is a good thing?

I can't help but feel like I'm more sluggish and that the run is more difficult after the rest day.  I guess the data doesn't really support that theory, but it certainly feels harder...and that has me worried for my ability to finish the actual race after my eventual taper-down period.

Despite the low dip, I managed to run the whole time.  The bottom of this graph represents about 11'30" and the top is 10'23".

I'll probably up my teeny-tiny-not-even-supposed-to-exist runs to 1.5 miles this week (previously 1 milers).  I'm bringing my Pilates DVD to NYC, though I'm not 100% committed to prostrating myself in my friend's living room.  We'll see...

It's tore-up from the floor up.

I've decided to adopt this entry's title phrase as my next integrate-into-my-everyday-vernacular language project.  The quote is from the movie Juno, which the date and I went to go see last night.  Spectacular movie; if anybody is contemplating whether or not to see it - do.

The date itself was okay - I did end up going for a quick run beforehand, and managed to arrive only a few minutes late.  The guy used to be a runner himself, actually, so he gave me some nods of approval when I told him the details of my training schedule.  I felt bad talking too much about running, since he was injured in an accident over the summer and can't run anymore.  Let me rephrase that.  He's capable of running, but because his lawyer wants him to get the most possible money out of the lawsuit, he is not allowed to run for fear of a brutal cross-examination when the case goes to trial.

No spark, though.  End of story in my book.

Guitar Hero III came in the mail on Friday!!  I stayed up until about 4:30am playing it (in fairness to myself, I only started playing at 12:30am).  So far, I've beaten the game on easy and I'm on level three on medium.  

I'm becoming horrified at the idea of eventually reaching a level of difficulty for which I have to spend time practicing these songs before I can beat them.  I keep thinking of the scene in the Guitar Queer-o episode of South Park when Thad plays an "acoustic" rendition of a Guitar Hero song on his Guitar Hero guitar...which consists entirely of the sound of buttons being pushed and the clacking of the strum bar.  

I'll say it, and I dare anyone to defy me: There is no redeeming artistic value to the development of Guitar Hero skills.

Pre-Date Running: Advisable?

I'm contemplating a quick run before going on a blind (well, J-) date tonight.

Pro: I felt the benefits of an extra short run when I went on my 25 minute-r yesterday.

Con: If the date goes really poorly, I might have less stamina to make a break for it.

After my disappointing showing for Sunday's long run, I've been considering adding two more runs a week, with the extra runs being about 1/2 the time/distance of the regular ones. This week is my experiment with that idea.

Someone recommended adding hill work to my schedule every ten days or so...giving myself an easy run one day and then just running up and down a nearby hill a few times. It sounds like a good idea, and I already know I have a really hard time running hills.

To this end, I've been doing most of my pilates sessions this week with the "Buns and Thighs" portion of my 10 Minute Pilates DVD to build up my hill-vanquishing muscles. And yes, I feel ridiculous for thinking about my buns and thighs as "buns and thighs."

I wish Sir-Mix-A-Lot would make a buns and thighs work-out video.

I bet his terminology would be better. Although the "workout" might just consist entirely of eating bon-bons and shaking "that healthy butt." ...Might not be so bad, actually...if I didn't have a hill to conquer!

Incidentally, I've just come to the daunting realization that I'll be staying with friends in NYC on Monday and Tuesday of this week when I'm supposed to be working with my pilattes DVD. Not sure how I will manage to do this with minimal embarrassment, but I think it will involve headphones, a mini-DVD player, and 3:30am. Just a hunch.

The Redemption Run (Appropriately Christmas-Themed?)

Well, it's the day after Christmas and I'm back at work; as a good Jew-ish girl, I spent Christmas at home on my couch with a rented movie. I did add a short run to the training schedule yesterday because I was bored and figured I might as well jog towards the movie rental kiosk. The extra run was only for one mile, which amounted to a little more than ten minutes.

This morning was the first scheduled run of the week. I managed to run (almost) continuously for 2.1 miles (a little more than 1.95 miles, according to gmap-pedometer). That's the same distance as my horrible Sunday run and in much better time, so I'm happy about redeeming myself slightly. The hills got me this time, too...I had to slow down and power-walk two blocks when the uphill incline was particularly steep on my way back.


The first dip corresponds to jogging-in-place in front of the DVD kiosk, and the second dip is the walking-up-the-hill portion.

Incidentally, my Nike + congratulated me today for my "longest workout yet." Thanks, Nike +! I knew I paid you for something...

If I have the time/energy tomorrow, I might go for another quick 1-miler. I suspect it might be good for my endurance to log the extra miles, and 1 mile is short enough that I'm not tiring myself out for the longer Wed/Fri/Sun runs. I might try to make it a speed run, even!

I'm really noticing the positive effects of all this activity in my daily life. I feel like I'm in a much better mood during the day, and I'm certainly proud of myself for working towards something substantial.

Second Week of Training

Second verse, same as the first [almost].

Monday: 10 minutes pilates
Tuesday: 10 minutes pilates
Wednesday: 25 minute run
Thursday: 10 minutes pilates
Friday: 25 minute run
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 2.5 mile run

Miles this week: ~ 6

Starting weight: 151-152
[I need a better scale...this IKEA $5 thing is is not up to blogging standards]

Sunday, the first long run

Yesterday marked the day of my first ever long run; also known as the day I realized that it might be difficult to run ten miles at a time fifteen weeks from now.

As you may remember, I was thinking a few days ago that due to my incredible ability to run/jog more than 1.5 miles at once, perhaps I should increase this week's long run to 2.5 miles instead of the planned 2 miles. I decided against this in the end, since I'd already worked out the training schedule.

A poker friend of mine, A.M., - who has submitted a mail-in entry to the Cherry Blossom 10-miler but has not heard back yet - came over to my apartment at around 1pm so we could jog together. I mapped out a cute little route on gmap-pedometer.com. I strapped my new Nike + armband to my arm, and off we went.

Perhaps it was the hills (I'd been avoiding inclines all week), perhaps it was my feeble attempt at making conversation with A., perhaps it was the fact that I wasn't listening to any music (to facilitate said feeble conversation), perhaps it was some flaw in my training plan, but I was winded a little less than a mile and a half in to the route. Eventually, I had to resort to walking in between bouts of jogging...which I realize is the way some people train for these things, but obviously I'd been hoping I'd be capable of running the whole thing straight through.

Also, my Nike + sensor fell out of my shoe as I power-walked up a hill...I discovered it pretty soon afterwards, so that was fortunate. I guess packing tape is really not a reliable way of affixing that sensor to my Aasic, eh? I bought a lacelid on eBay, but the guy shipped it poorly and all I received was a ripped envelope...a new one supposedly will not be arriving until next week or the week after [along with GUITAR HERO III YEAH BABY!].

After the run, A. and I unwound in my apartment for a bit with some pear pie. As I have been eating nothing but pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and still was only 1/4 of the way through), I was grateful when A. ate two slices and consented to take a third one home with him.

I'm a bit worried by my inability to finish the shortest of my long runs. This has caused me to realize that it might actually be physically impossible for me to run 10 miles by April 6th... Still, I'm going to stick to my training schedule, and hope my body will catch up.

Saturday: Rest Day = Pie Day

Saturday is my day off, according to my nifty sixteen-week training schedule. I celebrated it by sleeping until 3pm and then baking a television-inspired pie.

See, one of my favorite new television shows is Pushing Daisies on ABC. If you have not seen it yet...you must. It's adorable, Burtonian...just lovely all around. Anyhoo, the show is about a piemaker. The piemaker has an undead girlfriend who regularly (and anonymously) bakes a pear pie with gruyere baked into the crust for her grieving aunts. This pie looks SPECTACULAR every week, and I reached a breaking point with last week's episode ("Corpsicles"). I could no longer fantasize - I must bake this pie.

[Try as I might, I could not find the image-that-broke-the-jogger's-back of one of the aunts actually biting into the pie, so this will have to do.]

Having never baked a pie before (ever), I started with some background research. Incidentally, I think this show should be getting paid some kind of royalty from the pear industry, since half of the links I found to "pear pie" mention something about being inspired to bake such a pie by this show.

In the end, I decided to bake this pie recipe with this crust. I used Bosc pears, and it took six large-ish pears (about 4.5 lbs) to make 5 cups. Pears are outrageously expensive now, and since I cannot bring rotten pears back to full ripeness with the magic qualities of my touch (a la the piemaker), I think I might use canned pears next time? I doubt that would work, texture-wise...perhaps I will just have to abstain from making them every week. Also, I didn't have time to chill the dough for 4 hours, so instead I just put it in the freezer for one hour.

I made two main changes to the recipe - instead of using 1 tsp cinnamon, I used 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 nutmeg. Second, I didn't sprinkle the sugar mixture on each layer; instead I mixed it up with the pears. I also left out the lemon juice, but only because I forgot to add it. Also, it didn't even occur to me to grate gruyere INTO the pie crust dough, but I will definitely do that next time.

Here's how it came out:

Not bad for my first pie, right? It is really, really delicious. Seriously. I wish you could try some.

Run # the 2

Second run today! A bit easier than the first one, although in the beginning I was feeling a strain where my leg connects to my pelvic socket. (IS there such thing as a pelvic socket? I took AP Bio in high school, not anatomy.)  I figured I'd run a bit more and see if it got better, which it did. I'll have to be a bit more careful about stretching for my long run with A.M. this weekend.

Here's the nifty run data from this one:



My average pace got better, so that's a plus.

I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed with Nike + today...I still love the equipment, but the actual run graph they show me on the website today is waaaay cooler than what you see here...my pace varied a bit more today, and the graph has lots of ups and downs (cue French accent: HOW LIKE ZE LIFE.)

Look, see?  

THAT'S what I want in my nifty animated mini-graph.

Anyhoo, tomorrow is my rest day, but I might do ten minutes of pilates anyway. I do feel the muscular benefits of it, but next to the actual running it feels a bit like cheating.

Speaking of cheating, GMAPS says I only ran 1.63 miles. Why they always tryin to hate on me? Maybe I'll calibrate the Nike + tomorrow.

First Run!!

I love you, Nike +!

Twenty Minute Run = 1.8 miles according to my Nike + (straight out of the box), 1.67 miles according to GMAP pedometer (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/)...Since I'm inclined to believe I may have been a bit inaccurate tracing my route, it's probably somewhere between 1.8 and 1.7. Not horribly miscalibrated!

And look what I can do with my run data:



That four extra minutes is when I finished my workout and stretched, but apparently didn't exit the Nike + Program. I wanted to finish my Rooney song, okay? I didn't realize this was going to be a problem.

Looks like I'm running about a 13.5" mile right now (although when I ended my workout, it told me I was at a 15" mile? Not sure where the change came from). My goal is a 12" mile, but that's for the whole 10 mile race.

I guess I should have figured that 20 minutes would amount to almost two miles at my slow, out-of-shape, middle-school-Mojo pace, but now I might have to change my two mile "long run" for this weekend, since I already practically ran that. Maybe I'll up it to 2.5.

Be proud of me. Come on, it's okay.

Incidentally, the Nike + website is pretty nifty...you can join "challenges," and your miles get added to your individual or team record. I've joined up with a male v. female running challenge and a "Run for Dr. MLK challenge." The first is a team challenge (men v. women...in case you didn't figure that out), and the second is an individual challenge.

Fun times!

I'm going to be so ridiculously late for work!

I wish someone would invent an air-warmer I could put over my mouth so that winter didn't shred my lungs so much!

Apple: Kudos, okay?

Let me tell you why Apple is going to continue to take my money:

Because their products are THE. fucking. SHIT. Okay? They are awesomeness embodied in circuits and hard drives, and I cannot help but empty the contents of my wallet in their waiting, greedy little hands.

I just got my refurbished 2G iPod Nano ($79 refurbished!) in the mail today, which enabled me to fill it with playlists and check out the Nike + sensor thingie I got.

I had a tiny little heart-attack-of-joy upon plugging in the sensor.

Immediately, a new menu option showed up on my nano (which is joy-attack-worthy in itself) which allows me to pick a workout by units of time, calories burned, or distance run. I am told that there will be automatic audio encouragement, which I can also request by pushing a button. AND I get to pick a "power song" that the iPod will automatically play if I hold down a button.

Add to that the fact that the software will track my progress from day one to race day; and if any of you got one too, we could have virtual races and compare our times online.

I just don't even know. I don't have the salary to be this kind of biotch for Apple, but there's not much I can do when they make stuff like this.

The first week of training begins

My first week's schedule is also known as "Easing Into Having a Physically Active Lifestyle Again." The week's activities:

Monday: 10 mins. pilates
Tuesday: 10 mins. pilates
Wednesday: 20 minute run
Thursday: 10 mins. pilates
Friday: 20 minute run
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 2 mile run

Starting Weight: 154 (I'm 5'5")

I looked up some sample training plans for running 10Ks (about 6 miles), and they say that you should include three days of strength, flexibility, and cross training, hence the pilates. In two weeks, some Tae-Bo will be mixed up in there, too.

My Nike + Sports kit arrived in the mail yesterday!!! Now I'm just waiting for my nano, my armband, and my lacelid (for the sensor, so I don't need Nike + shoes). I'm hoping they come in today so I can fully utilize the Nike + performance tracking feature, but I'm going to have to start running tomorrow no matter what. I'm determined to stick to this schedule unless my body absolutely will not let me.

For motivational purposes, I changed all of my desktop wallpapers to images of cherry blossoms (it automatically changes once a day). I didn't realize it, but the shower gel I just started using is cherry blossom scented. If I'm not careful, this could lead to some kind of unhealthy sexual-floral fixation.

Mostly writing this down for myself...

Training goals:

* Start training this Monday, or as soon as I get my iPod/Nike + thing (but no later than next Thursday)
* Run 5-10 miles per week for the first three weeks
* Run three miles at one time by the end of the first week of January
* Run six miles at one time by the end of the first week of February
* Run nine miles at one time by the end of the first week of March
* Run ten miles at one time by the end of the second week of March
* Spend the rest of March improving my time - I need to run at least a 14 minute mile to stay in the race, so I'll shoot for a twelve minute mile.

I'm going to run a 10-miler!!

I'm not sure what sudden stroke of insanity hit me this morning, but I registered to run in a 10-mile race in April.

Okay, back up. Cut to yesterday.

This guy from our office sent out an email about the D.C. Cherry Blossom Race, which happens in the midst of the D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival on April 6th. The race apparently takes you through this gorgeous path lined by blooming cherry blossom trees, and is so popular that it fills up within 24 hours of registration. The race comes in 5K and 10 mile denominations, so I figured I'd run the 5K, which is very manageable and would give me a reason to jog over the winter.

As I sat in front of the registration this morning, about to pay my fee for the 5K, I thought about how 5K REALLY wasn't THAT long...about 3 miles, right? I doubt it would take more than a month to train for such a thing. How was a 5K going to keep me motivated to run through ALL THREE MONTHS OF WINTER plus March and April? Runners in the 10 miler are REQUIRED to run at least a 14-minute mile the entire way, or they get kicked out of the race. THAT is some motivation right there.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was signed up for the 10 miler.

I'm trying to rope some friends into running it with me so that we can train together. I've already got one friend who's in, and it would be awesome if Kathryn (my roommate) wanted to do it, since that would be the ultimate exercise-buddy system. I'm thinking we'll run on our own during the week, and maybe get together for runs in increasing increments of distance on Saturdays and/or Sundays.

This is the greatest physical undertaking I've ever been on...I've never run two miles in a row, let alone ten...but I'm really confident that I can do it. I figured - what better way to document the experience than start a blog??

Naturally, I will be doing a bit of shopping this weekend, and starting on my endeavor on Monday. On my list:

* Real jogging clothes. Right now, when I DO jog (the last time was probably a month and a half ago) I jog in PJs. I need to man up and get an actual jogging shirt and pants, preferably something that will not cause frostbite as I expose myself to freezing temperatures this winter.

* iPod Nano and Nike +. That thing looks so cool, and the performance-tracking feature would be really great. I think I might get it on eBay, since I already have a regular iPod and resent having to buy an entirely new one just to get this kit.