making lemonade. . .

I had a horrible day! Not just a bad day. I mean sinus pain, bratty kids, though I was going to cry in the middle of my lecture horrible. I barely made it through my workday without tears (or murder) but I made it. I was supposed to go running, during 4th period I definitely considered not going. Boy am I glad I did! Today's Podrunner track was the big one, run for 20 minutes nonstop. I didn't think I was going to make it. I figured about half way through I was going to have to stop and walk for a few minutes. I thought that there is no way that a girl who just 5 weeks ago could barely run for 60 seconds was going to run for 20 minutes, but I DID IT!!!!! I made it through the entire 20 minutes without stopping!!!! That is huge for me! I'm not scared of my 5K anymore thanks to today's run. I know that I can do it! I have 15 more days and that means about 7 more runs and I'm going to rock them out!

I came in and once I finished stretching I called my Megan to tell her my news. I got her voice mail and proceeded to burst into the tears I had been holding back all day and thank her for making me do this. I really didn't think I could do it, in my heart of hearts I never thought I would be able to run one mile not stop, I hadn't done it since high school, but today I ran nearly two!

That's progress people. . .that's lemonade!

Yay for me!

Shhh don't tell, I'm blogging while my 1st period is working! I'm having them make a flipbook of 10 of the biomes and the cycles for matter in the environment. So I figured I would use this time to do something productive too! :-)

I had a great run yesterday! No really it was great! I smiled while I ran and that has never happened before. I really thought yesterday's run was going to be really hard. I'm still using the Podrunner First Day to 5K plan (and honestly I can't stop telling people how awesome it is! Anyone can use it and succeed) so I'm still running on intervals. Well I'm on week 5 (week 5, run 2 to be exact) and the schedule for my run yesterday was a 5 minute warm-up fast walk, a 8 minute jog, a 3 minute fast-walk, a 8 minute jog and a 5 minute cool down. To be honest I was kind of freaked out by the 8 minute sections, really up until this point the longest stretch that I had run was 5 minutes. So to say I had some trepidation wouldn't begin to cover it! But I did it and it was great! I still run at a snails pace, but at least I'm running! Now Wednesday's run will be the true test, I'm scheduled for a 5 minute warm up, 20 minute run, and 5 minute cool down! That's 20 minutes without stopping, without slowing down, without quitting! Say a prayer that I make it because the IDEA of running for 20 straight minutes seems insurmountable!

On another note I got a few new running toys! :-) I bought two running skirts from target and I have to say I am enjoying them a lot! I am not a person who can exercise in pants, I get too blasted hot, but my running shorts make me feel NAKED! Megan suggested a running skirt, she did her Half in one and had no problems. So before I went and spent $60 on the nice Nike version I bought the $20 version from target. A lot of the reviews I read on the target skirts were negative regarding the length of the compression shorts, but given the fact that I am super short I though I would probably be okay (and I was!) So running skirt I give you two thumbs up!

The other new toy I got was a running water belt thing (yes there is probably a technical term for this, but well its me and I don't know it!). I had tried a camelbak waist pack last week and it was just too much, the stupid tubing kept getting in my way and I was having to adjust the pack my entire run. For walking it would probably be okay, but not great for running. So on Saturday I ventured back to Dick's and found a waist belt by Nathan's with just a water bottle. Its great! It also has a zippered pocket that fits my ipod, house key and chapstick (because I cannot run without my chapstick, no really I'm serious!). My only complaint isn't really even about the pack, more about my odd frame. I have to belt the pack around my skinny part (Megan I can hear you laughing from here) so that it doesn't slide up! (Oh for the rest of you the skinny part is my natural waist, its my favorite part for Megan to measure when she does my measurements because compared to the rest of my measurements . . .well its the skinny PART!) The overall look with the pack strapped around my skinny part and the running skirt and the mini pigtails I was rocking yesterday was pretty amusing. I'm sure the people riding by me in their cars were wondering what was wrong with that girl, but oh well! I'm out there, I'm running and for once I don't really care!

So everyone (that is my 5 faithful readers) say a little prayer that I survive Wednesday. If there is no blog by Wednesday night you may want to send an ambulance over to Brightmore to scoop me up off the road, oh and could someone please pick up Riley from daycare too! Thanks! Love you bye!

Phone Fight

This weekend I got into a fight with my cell phone! I love my blackberry! Seriously I don't know how I ever lived without it. I love it so much Chris got one this weekend! Anyway in our excitment over our new twin blackberries (yes Megan, Chris and I are now phone twins like you and Joe, sorry i made fun of you for it!) we found a new program. Blackberry App World, yay, one stop app shopping right from your phone. Well not yay! Apparently Blackberry App World hates my phone because right after I installed it it started being glitchy and my internet started to act up and in my world that is a NO GO! So I tried to uninstall it, no! I tried to hard reset (take the battery out), no. Chris did something to the host tables, no! So finally tonight I resorted to my backup plan, the one thing I did not want to have to do, reseting to a previous save on my harddrive. Knowing I would lose the last 3 months of my blackberry existance I plugged in and restore back to March 5! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Do you know how much information I have added to my phone since March 5?!?!? A whole freaking lot! And now its GONE! So if you got a new phone number or moved since March 5th I need that info again! Pronto people!

Thanks Honey!

Chris came home for a weekend visit from BNOC on Friday! It was so great to see him since he has been gone for a few weeks. After his deployment earlier this year I knew I would be okay and these 7 weeks would streak by, but it was a nice suprise that he was able to come home halfway through. So this morning I asked him to come for a run with me so that he can see how I have progressed since starting my 5K plan. Really if you think about it, when I started this nonsense I was only able to run for 60 seconds at a time, today I ran for 5 minutes at a time. I know I still have a long way to go, but hey I had to start somewhere!

Anyway Chris and I got geared up and got Bean situtated with GoldFish and his own water bottle of juice and took off. We did a nice 3 miles in about 40 minutes. Poor Chris has to run very slowly to keep pace with me, but I really appreciate the effort! I felt a lot better about my run today than I did on wednesday when I started the new route, so hopefully in another two weeks I'll feel great! :-)

Thanks again honey!

My pre-5K 5K

It seems like every day I find new and interesting things that my nike+ kit can do. Today I learned I could use a mapping feature to map running routes on my computer instead of driving around like a nut job watching my digital mileage display. Anyway so I mapped out a new route today that the computer is calling 3.15 miles (more on that later). So after work today I drove my new route, just to check out the terrain and make sure that there were no big hills or other hazards. Finding none I went home and changed and started on my run. Lets just say it seemed a lot more doable on my computer screen than it did to my feet! But I did the entire thing and felt good until I got home. I get very excited when I'm running and can see my house, it gives me a burst of speed and definitely helps make it that last little bit. So I make it to my driveway and go to turn off my ipod and notice that my Ipod only says I went 2.9 miles! WTF!! I had intended to go 3.1, I drove the route it was 3.1, but according to my ipod it was not! Instead of settling for a 2.9mile run I took off down the block, determined to get my last .2miles. I finally finished and this time when I went to turn of the pod it definitely registered 3.1 miles! It took me 40 minutes (13:30 pace), oh well at least I did it right?!?

Because Cory Neil told me too. . .

I had a great run today! :-) I ran 2.7 miles with an average pace of 12:30! That is huge for me! :-) I left Riley at daycare and went for a solo run and it was awesome. I wrote of my awesomeness on facebook and Cory Neil said that I must blog, so here it is. :-) My only issue at this point is I'm getting a little bored with my route. I've been running the same route for almost two months, its convenient and the right length and time, but really I'm bored! I think I may take a drive around the hood (yes that's right I said hood) tomorrow and checkout some new routes.

I also went to Dick's today and got some Body Glide (that sounds way dirtier than it actually is) to prevent chaffing and body stickage issues. I also got a Camelbak because solo running means no jogging stroller and no jogging stroller means no water bottle and a running momma is a thirsty momma. Wednesday is my next running day, we'll see how it goes on my new course! :-)

One step forward, two steps back. . .

Today was Monday so that means today was a running day. I have been getting better and actually kind of enjoying my running lately (a tiny little bit) and I know that not every run will be a great run, but today totally SUCKED!! And honestly I think its my fault, or more to the point my diet's fault. Now this is not to say that I am on a diet, I don't diet, but with Chris gone again I don't cook as much. So that means yesterday I had SpecialK for breakfast and lunch and then a big salad with crab meat for dinner. Whats missing you say. . . well I found out today it was protein in a big way. I'm on Day 3 of Week 3 PodRunner 5K, today should have been the easiest of my Week 3 runs since its the last one, but not so much! I only made it through 4 interval sets before I bonked, oh and I bonked hard! I managed to keep up my walking speed, but there was no way I was going to make it running through the last two interval sets. Oh well. Not every run can be great, but my race is approaching and I'm getting really nervous! Literally its a month away and I can't run one mile without stopping yet! Oh shit son! Wednesday I'll start Week 4 and I'll make sure I increase my protein intake between now and then. :-)

Blog Facelift

Oh and one more thing. . .the blog needed updating, hope I don't confuse anyone! :-)

Still running. . .still sucking at blogging!

The past week has been a blur. I remember Monday, I remember Friday and I remember being very busy in between, but that's about it! Its always this way during this time of year (ramp up to finals) and I am always exhausted. Add to that Chris left on Thursday for BNOC (or as I like to call it E-7 school) and I'm playing single mommy again. At least my running is starting to get a little better. Don't get me wrong its still hard as all get out, but at least I feel like I'm accomplishing something. Hell Tiger Woods came through my speakers at me the past two runs and told me I had just run my fastest mile! Today Riley and I ran 2.74 miles in 37minutes, which is about a 13:42 pace. I am still running intervals, so I'm still concerned that when my run comes I'm not going to be able to run without stopping. Oh well Megan will just have to drag me!

Anyway on to the rest of the day. Time for a shower and going grocery shopping and things. Speaking of things, I've been selling things on eBay! Seriously people by my stuff to the tune of $270 dollars! I'm still shocked! So I'm going to take that money and buy a tiny laptop! :-) Today I'm going to go check them out, I know what I want, just need to find it in town! :-) Yay for me! :-) Love to all my faithful readers! (the 4 of you who read this!)