What's Really Going On

What's Really Going On

I'm falling way off the running bandwagon. I am beginning to feel like since I will never be a great runner, why do I even bother? Why not stew in my mediocrity and just get by on okay mileage and okay workouts? Why not just race for fun?

But, I don't race for fun. There are many ways I can have fun and let me just say, racing is not at the tippy-top of the list.

This is likely just a phase brought on by the limbo region of life I am currently occupying. I can't wait until it's time to leave my job, so I can then start trying to find a part-time job with the 3 weeks I have between then and school beginning. Until I get that part squared away, I will just continue to feel anxious I think.

PLUS, I have no running plan until 6 weeks before my goal race and apparently, things go to pot when I have no plan. My mileage is wack. When I do run, I likely run too fast. Getting out the door to run is just not that easy anymore.

Waah, waah, waah, complain, complain, complain.

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Things that are crazy

Things that are crazy

I started this year off in a relationship. It had began in October with more curiosity than enthusiasm, then came the usual relationship-starting elation and happiness and then came harsh reality. I ended that in February; it was a reality that was not for me.

In March, I met a friend of a friend and that started off super duper well for about 3 weeks before he indirectly ended it. Being dropped is never fun.

And so, I had pretty much called it a wash and decided that I didn't really need to date.

And then, it started getting warm and school was done and dating seemed like a good idea. Except, I had nobody to date and no prospects. And this was quite frustrating and I once again took the attitude of well, whatever.

That one thing led to another thing which led to an unexpected thing and me meeting a guy two weeks ago. I like him very much and he feels the same and so, that's where I've been: spending time with the new guy. I will call new guy J-Hova. Why not.

I just wonder how many cycles of "like" one can go through in their lifetime. And this brings me to this nifty video that J-Hova showed me today. How true is this?

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PhOTHD #1 - GS Circuit

PhOTHD #1 - GS Circuit

Welcome to Photo of the Day, an attempt to get me to blog more and document my summer of freedom (from school).

Today's photo is of me performing part of the general strength circuit training I've been doing for the past couple of months. I am doing tricep dips off of a bench.

No, I do not use that Body by Jake machine over there. My mother likes to buy workout equipment that she never uses. I thank her for the treadmill, this workout would not be possible indoors without it.

If you look closely, you can see that I am very sweaty. I thought about taking a photo of the sweat puddles that I leave on the floor, but the batteries on the camera died before that could happen.

This is likely the final time I will do this particular circuit. It is definitely the final week. Next week, I start hill circuits. But, before that I have a 5K to see where I'm at.

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In Crush News

In Crush News

The movie wasn't the best, but introduced me to the most beautifulist thing in the world, Sam Worthington. *drool*

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Watching, Waiting

Watching, Waiting

I signed up for the Walk to Empower 5K (formerly known as the Y-ME race) through my workplace. I didn't realize that this race no longer did chip timing or even the old school bib timing. Unless you were the first man or woman across the finish line there would be no glory for you. They race organizers did at least designate sections for the runners and the walkers and that probably would have worked out okay enough if I hadn't waited an hour for a bus that then had no idea about the detour for the race and ended up taking me way out of the way of the actual race.

So, as I am jogging to the back of the corrals (which are filled with thousands of walkers with the runners waaaaaay up yonder), the race starts. Crap. I spent a lot of time trying to force myself in front of the mass of walkers, but there were always more. I started my watch as I crossed the start line, but I was still pretty much left to walking until I spied a couple of fathers with their pre-teen sons attempting to catch up to the runners, so I started following the path they made. And even at that, there was still just a lot of jogging and dodging. This lasted for perhaps 0.4 miles until I finally saw people that were actually running. Score! Of course, I could also see people running on the other side towards the finish already. F*ck!

I had no time to go to gear check and so I had to carry a weighty and voluminous jacket with me the entire time which only left one of my arms with mobility. I made my way through the runners and just continued passing and passing people and wondering how long this was going to take me and how stupid it was to be racing, but not really. I passed a coworker of mine that had actually started pretty close to on time, but not because he started with some walkers, in the final 0.4 miles and stopped my watch at 27 minutes. I have no idea how long the actual race was because on the map the 5K and the 3 mile walk ended at the exact same location...riiiiiight. And some of those 27 minutes was spent slogging and I had to make super shortcuts of the course just to get around many of the walkers and there were no mile markers, so pretty much it was a randomly hard effort on a random day.

The point is I've been coming out of life-induced sporadic training and doing my new strength stuff and I'm just trying to be patient with my training so I can totally smash my 5K PR in September. That whole thing about marathon training making you slow is so very true. Some of my most recent easy runs have been in the 10:15-10:30 minute/mile pace which is a minute faster than most of my training runs during marathon training cycles. I even go sub-10 in certain instances. I just feel faster and I'm not even doing any speedwork or race specific training yet, just easy miles and my general strength circuit (which I think is quite helpful; thanks Running Times!). The suspense is just killing me though. Wondering how truly fast I will be and how I will handle the race specific-training when the time comes for that in mid-August. I was kinda hoping today would be a test of sorts, but nothing lined up correctly, so I have to wait until the end of May when I plan to do a 5K at the conclusion of my general strength training and before I move on to hill circuits. I just want to get a comparison of sorts.

Sorry, I am so boring in this one post of the month. School will be done soon and I hope to have more energy for things like blogging then.

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Men are dumb, outgun those suckas

Men are dumb, outgun those suckas

After two days without running for various reasons (waking up late followed by drinking followed by blah) I knew I had to get my long run in today. I wanted to get in my second general strength circuit this week, but long run totally trumps it, as it should.

Yesterday was unseasonably warm with highs in the 70s and today was cooler, overcast and rainy with highs in the 50s. Today was definitely better running weather. I was hot just standing around watching other people run yesterday.

So, I get on my things -- my running skirt and long-sleeved top, hat, cheap-o gloves -- and head out the door. Today was also a better day for running because I wouldn't have to duck and dodge all the people that would've been out enjoying yesterday's weather. There were some runners, walkers and a few cyclists out on the path.

My run was going along the way they've been going along lately: sub-10 minute first mile followed by successively slower miles topping out around 10:40. It's not a great way to run, but that's how it's been going. Anyways, I'm out running along having runners pass me since I am apparently the slowest person on the entire lakefront for today and feeling woefully turtle-like when I come up behind a guy that's running slower than I am.

I move to pass and he doesn't hear me because my footfalls are silent and his are not. As I move ahead, he looks over and sees it's me, a chick in a skirt and says "Oh no! You're not getting ahead of me!" He speeds up in an exaggerated manner because he's just joking. I laugh and tell him that the sad thing is that this very thing happens to me all the time.

I pass again and go along my way, but notice that I can hear the scraping of his shoes against the pavement at a faster rate and so, I speed up and hope he'll stop trying to keep up with me. He doesn't stop and I'm already tired since I've run about 7 miles out of my planned 10, but I keep going in hopes he'll just give up. I get to the mile marker in 9:40 which is entirely too fast for my long runs and decide to just let him have it.

So, he runs past me and says something about how I can't keep up with an old man and within 200 meters he stops running to talk on his cellphone. I was thinking wow, what a jackhole. Some men really cannot get over themselves. And I totally believe I could've dropped him if I wanted to ruin my day of easy running. But, I'm proud that I realized that it just wasn't worth ruining my training just to teach someone a lesson.

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My Thing

My Thing

My brother asked me the other day if I was still running. I gave him a look that said "Of course, duh!" And he said that was good because it's my thing and everyone should have a thing.

And it just so happens this thing has me doing some other things that I didn't think I would be. There will be more on that at a later date when stuff is finalized. But, needless to say running has made me a more confident and focused individual and has made me enjoy this thing called life a great deal more.

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