C-c-c-cold

Hooray! Once again (and maybe for the last time?) its COLD! Well, not cold-cold, but at least chilly-cold! The house is at 69 right now. As the first one up, I had the pleasure of shutting all the windows in the house to maintain what heat was left. And to think, I turned on the a/c in my car yesterday because it was raining but still super stuffy!

I convinced the roomie to come out with me. I had my little route all planned out, and I did it, but I definitely walked more than I wanted to. I'm getting there, but not quite at the pace I'd hoped, I still have 3 weeks to build up to 3 miles :) My GPS tracker decided to be fickle again, so I have no clue what my pace or time was, which is kind of freeing. Will definitely do Sunday's run on a treadmill- no GPS to mess up there!

The worst part of the run was the headache I gave myself. I realized I've been making a couple stupid mistakes (thanks Mr Clean!), including forgetting to eat real dinner the night before. Who says cupcakes don't keep you going?!?! I also didn't fuel up before going out this morning, and coffee only takes you so far! Definitely learned lots of lessons, so, like I said, actually looking forward to Sunday's run. 

With the roomie on the run came 2 other things: Lucy and a camera! Enjoy the pictures, but please, ignore my hideous "this is me, running and feeling like crap" faces!

Hooray! COOLER WEATHER AHEAD!!!

Warming up, just outside the house

Lucy!

Oh what's that? Yeah, I think I'm thirsty, too!

Turned around!

srsly...let this be done...

Oh hi. Sorry all the drivers get to see my tired face!

Maybe?

Getting there...

Hooray!

LEAP!

I have the superwoman outfit at home, but sometimes you just need to practice your flying form :)

Yeah. Typical running face. Not pretty at all :P

Random guy riding his bike...and the roomie's shadow of her taking a picture :)

Lucy. To scale :D

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Scary Skies

Scary scary tornado-ready skies today as I went out. I figured the worst thing that could happen would be getting rained on, in which case, I'd run FASTER, and put my phone and iPod in the shorts closest to my body to keep them protected from the rain. Somewhat unfortunately, the only moisture came from me! Its downright sticky here :P It hit 80. Does the world not realize Halloween is right around the corner? Oh the childhood trick-or-treating memories I have, ruined by the coat I needed to protect myself with! 

I'm a bit off the plan, so I ran 1.1 miles, walked for a song, then ran another .5 miles. I realized I do much better when there are other people around. As I was going *down* the evil hill, I ran into a suuuuper toned girl and her dog (poor furry dog, probably made for Alaska, not neverending NC summer!) running *up* the hill! Feeling her plight, I told her "good job" and got some extra spunk in my step :D My normal sprint down the hill was derailed by PINE NEEDLES! I was so scared of stepping on one, having it be so wet that I would lose my footing- have I mentioned my parents gave me the middle name of "Grace" as a cruel joke???- and lead to a hobbled me. Instead, I slowed down, carefully picking steps, losing my momentum. Ugh, I should never stop for walking, even if my abs do start to hurt during the run.

On a much more personal note, one of the main reasons I've always been intrigued by running is because of a dear friend I had in high school. My typical teenage job was working at a Midwestern food chain called Culver's. Oh the weight I gained with free/cheap burgers and ice cream! I knew some of the people that worked there from high school, including one girl, Laura. She played girl's soccer one year, until she moved to track as her spring sport, so I knew her briefly from JV soccer. Laura was a natural at running, kicking butt at cross country meets in the fall, and dominating long distance races for spring track. Her true mettle came out one day, tho, after she ran a half marathon. We'd been swamped at work, and were constantly texting and calling her, BEGGING her to come in and bring us to full staffing. After going and running 13.1 miles, she came in at noon and closed, roughly an 11 hour shift, all on your feet, all having to be nice to customers, not an easy feat, even on your best day. 

For as happy-go-lucky and schoolgirl cheerful Laura could be, she was often deeply sad. Of course, there were the many times I let her copy my AP/IB Bio workbook because I knew she'd worked an evil shift the night before, but she would still be sad beyond the level of a girl as gorgeous, talented and smart as her should be, even if she hadn't done her homework or studied for a test. A few conversations I had with her were depressing, but having had a great life, but still had things that made me depressed and sad in high school, I thought nothing of it. After all, we both had great friends as support systems, and despite the divorced parents, we knew at least one of them would always be there for us (thanks, Mom!). 

On October 28, 2005, however, the entire world realized just how sad this young woman had been. Her car was found at the bottom of a cliff in my hometown. The little red car she'd worked so hard to buy had literally split an oak tree in half as it sailed off the road down the ravine. If the impact hadn't killed her, the coroner found a lethal dose of cough syrup in her system. The opening manager at our work called her parents when they found what seemed like a goodbye from Laura on the front counter, only to have her parents discover she hadn't shown up for school, either. A hiker in the woods on the morning of the 28th found her car and alerted authorities. 

Much publicity has been made about the "It Gets Better" project, with prominent gay figures pleading with LGBT teens to keep on living through high school because it gets better. While I realize this is a message aimed at LGBT individuals, I think it would resonate with so many teenagers contemplating suicide, for whatever reasons. At 17, Laura hadn't yet gotten to experience truly falling in love, crazy fun parties in college, conning a boy into asking you out, Facebook stalking said cute guy who asked you out, landing an amazing job, graduating from college, getting married to the boy who keeps falling for your traps, making him the proudest man alive with your new baby, traveling the world, and so many other milestones, interspersed with sweet little memories, and yes, some bad times that, like all things, pass.

From the Journal Star : Laura Craig had everything to live for. The 17-year-old Richwoods High School senior was an honor roll student and a champion cross-country runner who also had an artist's hand in ceramics and sculpturing. But beneath the polished exterior was a troubled teen. Craig, who authorities say had a history of depression and had been treated for it in the past, was found in her mangled car at the bottom of a ravine in Detweiller Park on Oct. 28 "


It gets better.

-Syd

Sunday Runday

Muwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I win :) 

My mind has officially taken control over my body and the mental block between knowing I can run a mile and actually RUNNING the mile has officially been broken :D My official feeling? Just look to the left ! And for the record- I know the guy in the background and the hand gesture is the NCSU Wolfpack sign, just with the mouth pointing at me, but yeah, this was a couple beers in (hooray for Big Boss ).

Anyway, my success came with the insight of both KR and KB. KB reminded me that it was just a matter of lung strength and mental toughness to really go the distance. KR agreed and said I should just go to a place where I had no landmarks, no way to tell time or distance, and just go. They both said I should just run until it hurt and I needed to stop, and see where I was.

While running lots of errands yesterday, I took a shortcut through an unfinished housing development and realized the plentiful sidewalks and even more plentiful asphalt with 0 houses would be perfect to just go and go. Hooray for housing boom and busts? There weren't lots of people or traffic, but man, the houses were beautifully landscaped! I will definitely be going back there, taking my camera, and hopefully just running freeeee! 

But yes, I just went listened to some good tunes with my iPod secure, keys secure, and a GPS tracker on my phone in my pocket. I wore black shorts and a black jacket, so I was uncomfortable fast, but blamed it on the black in the 1pm sun. I wandered around, running away from random bums (just one), towards things that looked interesting and gave me the chance to be on asphalt, not concrete sidewalks, and didn't look at my distance until .94 miles. I took my first walking break after a long hill at 1.21 miles, walked for only 2 houses worth of land, then wandered back. I could've gone longer, but once I saw my car, it was hard to turn away, what can I say? I sprinted (on Summer Music Ln, hee hee) to my car, but it didn't click the way my sprinting usually does. 

OH! The other things I tried were improving my form. From KB, I concentrated on keeping my hands lower, around my hips, not above my belly button. She'd talked about working on my breathing, too, but KR really suggested I try breathing through my nose. It definitely slowed me down, but I felt a million times less exhausted. 

Phew. That's a lot :) Off to get clean and keep being productive this Sunday! Lucy has been quiet... TOO quiet! Teaching the roomie to make yummy bread this afternoon :D

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

PS- GO BEARS! Stupid Panthers, making me miss out on da bears!

This one time, in Texas...

Greetings :D

Authentic Texas BBQ Lunch :)

Its not that I’ve forgotten, because I haven’t, its just that I had some major important things happen and talking about running <<<< prepping for a big-girl interview and flying to my 35^th state! True story, before Thursday I’d never been to Texas! Now, I still have the soil on my interview shoes!

I wasn’t so sure about the location, as even the employees admit that its in the middle of nowhere, but its under an hour to a Target, Walmart Supercenter, movie theatre, Sam’s Club and any chain restaurant you could want, but a town 15 minutes away has a Wally World, just no groceries. Other major cities are within a very easy drive for a night or weekend of big city fun (including a town with all 4 major sport franchises coughgoRangerscough) so those fears are eased. Oddly enough, there was also a woman at this site that’s from Illinois, so once we established that, we chatted away and that calmed a lot of my reservations about Middle of Nowhere, Texas.

Of course, this is all assuming I’d get the job, and who gets the job on their first interview?!? My big sister has imparted the sage wisdom on me that her extra 16 years on earth have taught her and she tells me that she “prays that God opens the doors that are supposed to be open and makes you okay with the doors he’s shut in your face”, which is what I know the right thing.

I’d originally thought that I could knock out my 2 miles on Thursday night, clearing my head after landing at 7:30 and getting to the hotel with a fitness center. So so SO glad I didn’t do that because I unexpectedly went to dinner with potential coworkers! Instead, I decided last minute to go running on Thursday morning, saving room in my bag. And yes, for less than 24 hours on the ground, I have a backpack, half full, and a tiny duffle bag, pretty full. I’m a girl and have to look nice, which is hard with ALL THIS HAIR!

Anyway…I went Thursday morning and curse my mind. Getting past that mental barrier of running a mile? I couldn’t do it, not with the stress, anxiety, etc etc, so instead of pushing it, I just tried, did 20 minutes at paces that didn’t make me want to hurl, and went home to continue with my pre-interview prep. I’m not giving up, though. Saturday seems like the perfect day to go try this. KB reminds me that getting past the 1 mile straight barrier is all in my head. To outsmart myself, I will bring an iPod (curse the treadmill sound systems!) and cover distance measurement for a while. I’m way more focused on this than I was on Thursday, so I’m way more optimistic, and have faith in the power of positive thinking J

Here’s to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Torture at the hand of KB

Remember how I said I probably wasn't doing crosstraining yesterday? KB convinced me to do the craziest thing I'd done at the fair, and it was SUPER EXHAUSTING! I gained a new appreciation for all the water walking hamsters out there after 20 minutes doing something like this kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IQcvXt59UE&feature=youtube_gdata . 

Both KB and I emerged, totally worn out! We battled each other into corners, flopped around, and generally enjoyed being 5. Both Fred and my mom are convinced I never aged past then, so it worked :)

I didn't end up eating anything deep fried, although we breathed in the smell of fried oreos, pb cups and churros. Ate a plain old gyro for dinner. I thought I'd get some roasted sweet corn, dipped in butter, but wasn't hungry at all! We stuck around to watch fireworks, then went home to rescue Lucy!

KB is stalking which caramel apple she's going to pick out, as Fred and Mr. Clean keep a watchful eye :)

The torture continued today as I went running with KB. She has a Garmin GPS watch, so I just tried to keep up with her! This week's plan, btw, is KICKING MY BUTT!!!! Increased running time each day this week is a big step up from the doting of the weeks prior. We did a 10min pace for 8 minutes, and when we got to the walk, I made the fatal mistake of actually stopping! My mental resolve was dunzo :( The 5 min walk was alright, but I was a weakling on the downhills of the 8 min run back. KB compromised and let me walk, with the promise that once we got on the street (we'd been on nice little trails) back down to her apartment complex, I had to SPRINT to the turn in. AGREED! I LOVE sprinting, except for the whole pain thing and wanting to just throw up when I'm done.

Insight, courtesy of KB, include: limit arm/hand movement and try to keep the hands towards, well, your jean zipper, except when sprinting ; a renewed focus on slow and steady breathing ; my weakness isn't from muscles/bones or cramping, but my lungs being out of shape ; DRINK WATER! EAT BANANAS! ; Maybe try doing a 9:5:7 or 10:5:6 run:walk:run breakdown since my resolve dies after walking. Its still early, so I welcome all feedback and am pretty excited about what could be :)

So excited to just do my 2 miles on Thursday before....FLYING TO TEXAS! It'll be my 35th state, even though I'll be on the ground for less than 24 hours. Might even wear my cowboy boots while I am on the ground :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Laid Out

See Lucy up there? Yeah... that's how I feel when it comes to running these days. The wall has been hit. I'm officially moving into phase 2 of motivation by planning which 5k I'll be doing :) KR and I will be doing one Nov. 20th. We're debating between a Turkey Trot at a lake or a Monster Dash where there's a costume contest, despite being 3 weeks after Halloween!

With no iPod, I went to the gym yesterday afternoon, hoping to distract myself from the increased running time by watching the Vikes and 'boys. Alas... not only did my machine have sound so background noise drowned out normal talking and sound, but the one TV showing NFL at 5pm was way over by the weight lifting areas. I got to choose between 2 TVs worth of bullriding, X-game-ish stuff or talking heads. Utter ugh to ALL OF THEM!!! Working out on a treadmill, though, made me push my speed, especially during the walk breaks. 

Crosstraining is off the menu today because I'm giving blood then dragging Fred to the State fair :) Yes, I realize that demands more crosstraining, but I'll be concentrating on regaining the lost iron, hee hee!

Thing 3

Bad things come in 3's- right?! If this is the case, then I'm great for a while. After the losing of the keys and the breaking of the iTouch, I came out of the 3rd thing much better than the first 2! I was sitting at a light yesterday, when someone 2 cars behind me didn't stop in time, so he rammed into the car behind me who then ran into me. We pulled over into the parking lot of a gas station and the driver of car number 2 immediately got out of his car and started screaming at the at-fault driver. I called 911, got frustrated at their inane questions, waited for the men to stop screaming at each other, and tried to figure out if my jello legs were from running the day before or nerves from the shock. 

The nice ambulance that took away the injured party

All in all, there were 2 cop cars and an ambulance and fire truck that came to asses the situation. We got a driver information form, I realized the cop that responded was the same one from my crash 2 years ago, the ambulance took away the passenger from the middle car (I turned down a ride to the hospital in the ambulance), and then I was on my merry way. It took a couple hours, but I got over it, and the lab tech invited me out to dinner with her husband, so it wasn't that bad!

Campus was crazy due to the open house this morning, but once I snuck to an out-of-the-way lot and made it to the gym, I had a nice easy 30 minutes on a bike to loosen up the legs. Nothing hurts from Thursday's run or yesterday's crash- major YAY! I'm on track to run Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday this week- a BIG week!

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Sydney

Shiny Splinters

Let's start this out with a quiz (and yes, that is the distinct shattering of a broken iPod touch).
Did I break this ...

A- Dropping it at work for the 3rd time and completing the already cracked (but previously functional) pattern?

B- Running on a trail because I don't have an arm band and my hands get tired/sweaty and omg 30 minutes sometimes takes FOR-EV-ER!

C- Walking into the house after a long day with too much stuff in my hands ?


Sadly... the answer is C. Just a total blond moment :( I've dropped it a few times, and nothing major's happened, but this was from a pretty substantial height onto the concrete walkway from my car to the door :/  Seeing when the budget will allow for a replacement. Probably will get a refurbished replacement. I didn't like the touch at first, but since I got games like Angry Birds, I've gotten spoiled by the touch screen. The good news, the Apple man assures me, is that I don't have to re-buy the apps :) I think that's the only one I paid for and I have gotten way more than my 99cents from it!

My run today was pushed back thanks to the morning rain. Yep, I'm officially not that hardcore to run in spitting rain! I went after work on a nice little greenway trail in Cary. I have a distance/pace tracker app on my phone, so I used that today, went 2.58 tracked miles and had a pace around 12 minutes/mile.


I was *so* not feeling it. Afternoon, lunch was many hours passed, the rain had thrown me off my game and routine, and I could feeel myself dragging. I pushed it during one of the 5 min. runs and I know I slowed way down during the walks. 


BLEGh.... need to stretch out well tonight. I think this is me hitting a wall...

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Still not really "fall"...

HI!

I’ve been distracted with the writing (and research for it) that I get paid for, but I’ve still been keeping up the training ;) My Sunday run was kind of fun because I came home, sweaty, RED and just exhausted. Fred didn’t know what to do with me!  The running: walking ratio has gone from 1:1 to 2:1, so its getting a bit tougher :P  Sunday’s run was just the 2.6 mile route, but I did the full 3 mile route yesterday. I’d been doing the 5 min warmup as part of my route, but did it separately yesterday. Oh, and I’d left Lucy with Fred at home on Sunday and dragged- literally- her along yesterday. 

Lucy usually is a fickle eater, waiting until she’s ready to eat her breakfast or dinner, then burping to indicate its post-meal-snuggle time, always rummaging around the kitchen to see if we dropped something while making dinner (which was potatoes, greens and pork chops last night :D Super easy to feel like a stereotypical Southerner!) since she’s the perfect height to get under the cupboards. She might come visit the roomie and I when we eat around the TV, and after mealtimes in the dining room, she wants to see what all the big kids are up to at the table, so after the clinking of silverware has faded, she starts chirping up. In general though, Lucy doesn’t really beg, so we were surprised to see just how worn out she was last night after the 3 miles: she begged for more of the kibble she usually sniffs at for an hour or 2, and of course, picked up scraps that might have ended up on the kitchen floor :/

After the panting super hungry dog, I’ve decided no more Lucy on the runs! I really felt her pain yesterday. Up to now, I haven’t had much pain after an outing, but yesterday was a real challenge. Right after a run, if I didn’t stretch , I’d have some left leg shin splints. Yesterday, however, I felt it in both legs as I was going. KB and Mr. Clean told me on Monday night that you just have to run through them, so that’s what I did! I tried sprinting down one of the hills, but it’s a frickin’ long hill and after 2.5 miles, I didn’t have it in me! Came home, iced up and took a few ibproufen. By the way, a fried egg and cheese sandwich cures all :D

Super exciting story coming next week!

Here’s to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

The neverending summer...

Its 78 outside now and it will be hitting the mid 80's today. Even stranger? It will come close to 90 in my hometown today- in CENTRAL ILLINOIS! I never thought I'd be happy to have it be cooler in NC, but, as the roomie reminded me, the cold spurt and then back to heat is part of Carolina falls. One day it will just be cold, until February when it will get warm for a couple days, go back to cold and then one day it will be 80 for the next few months. And repeat...

Yesterday was the last equal walk:run workout, so I upped my mileage to the full 3 miles, or rather, 4.98km. The roomie and Lucy came with me, and while they walked, I jogged as prescribed. While I was turning in 14 minute miles over the 2.6 miles earlier in the week, with the longer distance yesterday, I put in a bit quicker pace :D 

The Wolfpack are playing again and they've got a strong first half going, but we saw that last week, so NO hopes up! My Fighting Illini are in Pennsylvania today, too, but I fear what Joe Pa is doing to them!

Off to read more paper's for the thesis as I get pretty for a picnic with Fred, KR and others :) Oh yeah, Fred is my boyfriend, he's tall, smart, good dancer, and like me, wears shoes that are double digit sized :D His shoes are flanking one of mine, just so you can see how HUGE both sets of our feet are!

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

A big "enh"

The roomie warned me this would happen. North Carolina likes to tease you! It was nice and cool last week, I was prepared to bust out the boots and sweatshirts for the rest of the year... and then on the run yesterday, I was SWEATING! Its supposed to hit 80 today. This is me back to going "what the heck?!" about NC weather again! 

I'm sticking with my current outside route, and don't worry, I left my keys at home, hidden in a little spot where I wouldn't think anyone would try to take them. Nobody tried to come in the house while I was gone, so it worked out. To map my route, I use gmap-pedometer.com . Below, you can see how it tells me how far the route is , so I can change it to increase or decrease the mileage. You can either save the route or share the link, which makes it a lifesaver when I'm trying to decide on a route with a friend, so they can see what/how we're going. 
 
Another lifesaver feature with it is the elevation maps they have, like the one above. You can see my current route has a quick downhill, then pretty substantial uphill, main level path, and ends on a nice downhill. I realize races won't be this easy, but if you run my hometown's Steamboat Classic,  they set it up like this- begin on an uphill, flat 2 miles or so, then end on a downhill.

My 2.6 miles went fine yesterday. Nothing great, nothing awful. I was listening to a new mix of music, and I ended up skipping lots more than I actually listened to. I have just a little soreness in my back, but nothing some good stretching can't fix!

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

A $150 run...

I was scared/excited to go out yesterday for SO many reasons!
1- I was going outside, no treadmill!
2- I'd have a companion in the form of the cute little monster :)
3- I was doing a 2.5 mile route, which will probably be my training route for a while.
4- Looking at the calender and training plan, I realized I could do my 5k before Thanksgiving, making logistics easier on everyone involved (especially since I don't know where I'll spend Thanksgiving. The two options now are either a) MUCH COLDER than NC or b) MUCH WARMER than NC)

but then...
a) I thought I'd eaten lunch soon enough ahead to let everything be settled but no no no, so I started feeling nauseous about 1/3 the way through
b) when I got home, wanting just to curl up and let the tummyache pass, I realized I'd dropped my car key and clicker, so now I couldn't get into the car where I'd locked my house keys, despite standing right outside the house!

No worries, Neighbor Gail to the rescue, but I thought I'd walk the 2.5 mile route again, maybe I'd find the keys?

No luck.

The roommie and I walked the route again this morning and with fresh eyes on me and new eyes on her, we couldn't find them :( I called all the apartment complexes along my route, and people with Nissans are missing keys, but the only Ford keys anybody had found had an extra keychain in them :/

KB's tip was to loop one of the millions of hair bands I have through the key and then slip it on my wrist. The roomie's suggestion (courtesy of Real Simple) was to take a binder clip, unhook one of the metal parts, slip your key on there, then reassemble the clip and attach it to your shorts or whatever works.

Lesson learned! At the Ford dealer in town now and getting a new clicker and key. Hooray for technology that demands my key and clicker are $150 to replace. breathing I have the $$ but it still sucks to have to shell out :P

Still feeling good, physically, even with the 7.5 miles I've walked/run the past 24 hours.

Here's to the next timeout!

-Syd

Happy OCTOBER

I waited to post until the NC State/ VT game was done yesterday. I did my 2 miles in 26 miles, with .3 mile warm up/cool downs, upped the running times from 90 seconds to 2 minute segments, so I took the pace a bit easier. Man, the time ticked by during the beginning of the game. As a State fan, it was a great beginning! Too bad the defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory :(

Might do yoga today for my crosstraining today. Haven't reallly decided- its between that or total body sculpt!

I got another chapter full of edits from my thesis, so that's where my writing must focus now :( NFL will entertain me today as I watch my faves in pink ;) There's something hilarious about ripped men in pads slamming into each other- in HOT PINK shoes and gloves so KB and the roommie are entertained.

HAPPY OCTOBER! North Carolina finally got the message that its supposed to be cold since its fall and going out to church this morning, I cursed a bit at the cold, until I remembered I'd been praying for it! A high of 60 for tomorrow? YES, PLEASE! My sweaters, turtlenecks and BOOTS have been waiting for me since April!

Here's to the next timeout!

-Syd