Friday 24 June 2011

So it turns out I'm worse at blogging than I am at running :-]

I tried the first week of C25K. I really did. But after two days of running (and I was really proud of my distance!) it hit me. The shin splints, that is. So it's been a couple of weeks now that I've been hanging around the house playing facebook games and feeling like a big fat blob.

All is not lost though - I may not be heading to Vegas this year (sorry Brandy!) but I do want to go next year - hell, I'll be 40! And I've reacquainted myself with my bike - something that the kids can do with me and it's been saving us some gas this week! Which is good, because all my Vegas money has been finding its way into my basement (figuratively speaking, of course!)

I also tried very consciously to eat better today (she said, as she scarfed down her Kraft Dinner for supper...) I had a chicken wrap and a plate of veggie sticks for lunch. Yum! I'm going to keep trying that for a while. Who knows? Maybe I might even stick with the blog for a while. ;-)

Wednesday 8 June 2011

I'm back....I don't know for how long, but I'm back!

So I took a week off. Things were shit, life was too busy - I'd forgotten what it's like to have two kids in two different sports! And the worst part was the weather.

I knew I had to get my ass outside if I wanted to accomplish any kind of real running, so I downloaded the C25K app for my iPhone. It's a version that allows you to make your own playlist (something that we've already established in a previous post - I need my hard rocking tunes!!!) So I did my very first run in ohhhh, a good few years. And guess what? My legs f@#$in' hurt! Tready has spoiled me! In Tready's defense though, I actually kept running and I think I only walked once when I should've been running, and only for about 10 seconds.

Oh yeah, the other cool thing about this particular app - your own music plays, but it goes "ding ding!" every time you switch from walking to running and back, and a  voice will say "walk" or "run" so you don't lose track. It also tells you when you're half-way.

So - 5 minute warm up, 5 minute cool down, with alternating 90 second walking and 60 second running for 20 minutes in between. (It actually works out to 31 minutes, to be precise!) Listened to Sixx:A.M. (surprise!) and covered about 2 miles (or 3.2 km). It's about 15 degrees Celsius out there, sunny, with a beautiful light cool breeze. And I don't know when I'm doing day 2!

Saturday 28 May 2011

It's the music.

So I did a mile this morning (lazy, ha ha!) because I didn't get my Tready time yesterday. I thought I'd bang off a quick run as soon as I got up, as it seems that if I don't run R!F!N! once the thought enters my mind, I start coming up with distractions to keep my lazy ass on the couch. And because I was "only" doing a mile, I thought I'd skip the iPhone and just fire it off.

So what I discovered was this: If I don't have something blaring in my ears while I run, I'm not distracted from how stiff my hips feel. I'm not distracted from that burning feeling in my calves at about minute four. I'm not distracted from how winded I feel, and ergo, how OLD I feel on there. I don't feel invincible. Crank something with the perfect beat into my brain though, and I'm unstoppable. Lesson learned. I may be deaf by the time I run anything of consequence, but dammit, I'll make it. :-)

Side story: I was going to go into the local YMCA's spring run to do my first race, until I realized I have yet to run any kind of successful distance outdoors. I ended up compromising and signing up for a half mile instead of the 5K. When I did that, I thought, well, that's a mighty manageable distance even for The Boy. So I asked the kids if they wanted to come with me, and they said why not? (Or is it Y not, har dee har har!) Then I thought, well if the kids are coming with me, suck it up, Hubbs, we're making it a family event! (Heh heh heh!) So that is how my family is participating in its first ever running event. We have real numbers and everything! We go starting from the Y at 10:30 tomorrow morning, so if anyone local is interested in cheering us on, feel free!

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Damn you, Dj Ashba and your extensive live guitar solos!!!!

I tinkered with the mix again and I've almost got it! I got 2.5 miles in 46:05. I started with "Lies...", then the whole Sixx:A.M. live album, then "Smile" and back to "Lies". Unfortunately, I ran out of miles before I ran out of music, so I might try adding .2 miles next time.

The other cool thing tonight was that I only had to stop once in that time. My legs kept wanting to give out every time I heard "You can lead him to the ambulance" during Dead Man's Ballet. Think that's a hint? Surprisingly, somehow I broke through that song and made it through the rest without a hitch.

I realize I haven't been blogging much about fitting in running with, well, running! As in running The Girl to soccer every Tuesday and Thursday, and whaddaya know? The Boy's golf lessons are Wednesdays! How the hell (or maybe more accurately, WHY the hell) would I subject myself to that? I'm still asking myself that question. See, I did the kids' sports registration day thingy at the mall back in March, and the PLAN was that The Boy was going to be in soccer. I managed to time my pregnancies to fully maximize the benefits of two kids whose birth years play soccer at almost the same time on the same night. Hell, they were even going to be playing at the same park (that is until the Assiniboine effed that plan up for EVERYONE!) But The Boy got this brilliant idea that he wanted to play football. And then he got there and insisted, no, he never said he wanted to play football. He didn't want to play soccer (though he was so good at getting girls' phone numbers last year), and I insisted that dammit, he was going to do something if it killed me. It might yet. Anyway, he's whacked a ball with a club a few times the last couple of summers, so I convinced him to sign up. Then it turned out his lessons would be at a course on the north side of the city. On the other side of the river. Fortunately for me and a few thousand other people, the only two streets that'll get you there are now open, so maybe there's hope for us yet.

Now I just have to wait for the running track to open.... :-)

Monday 23 May 2011

May 23, 2011 - Twitchy butt muscles!

Now there's an attention-grabbing headline, eh? ;-) I just did 2.5 miles in 45:08 doing yet another Sixx:A.M. interval batch. I had a little trouble with the second-last song (or the last running song, as it were). I warm up with Lies of the Beautiful People at 2.4 mph, then go through the whole Sixx:A.M. Live album at appropriate speeds for whatever song is on, but I needed one more song to wrap up the running portion, so I tried This is Gonna Hurt (and it did!) but it was too slow. I'll have to give 'er another listen. I wrapped up my cool-down with a trip back to Lies. Hey, if it works... <drooldrooldrool!>

Monday 16 May 2011

May 16, 2011 - Life IS beautiful!

Two miles. 35 minutes and 30 seconds. The sun is shining. The birds are singing....okay, now I'm just getting stupid (it could be the lack of blood flow to my brain because I went so far lol!) I did my Sixx:A.M. intervals again. Seriously, man, you gotta try it! Let's face it - I've (literally!) come a long way. Two months ago, a mile just about killed me. Thank you Nikki Sixx, Dj Ashba, and James Michael. (Okay, I'd find an excuse to thank them for anything. Have you SEEN them?) >:-)