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

The journey of a thousand miles...

...begins with a single step. Today, I made that step. I've always said I only run if the cops are chasing after me or if my life depended on it, two situations that don't normally come up. My mom- who became a runner late in life- sent me an e-mail this past week, part mocking, but maybe part serious, telling me about an update to a run she'd done the previous year at my alma mater. They were going to have a 5k on Friday night and then a 10k, half-marathon and full marathon on Saturday. Doing the Friday run and a Saturday event gets you a special medal, t-shirt, and happy feeling :) This got me thinking... And then I remembered- I have had to run for my life this past year! As a grad student in ag (trust me, I'll talk about this more), I've spent some time in my life on some seriously weird pieces of machinery, like the one you see me on above. There's a container for coolant on the outside of that machine, and on Memorial Day this year, my boss was driving the machine. It was 5pm, we had 10 plots left to harvest, and he reached back to check the coolant levels. As soon as he did, this white cloud emerged and EXPLODED. I literally turned around and ran, for what I thought was my life. Knocking down the wheat plots in an effort to beat the creepy white cloud, I was sure that my boss had been killed, or at least seriously injured. Half a field away, my fellow grad student thought he was going to be the only one surviving the drive back home that night. Everyone lived and my boss had a nasty burn on his arm, but I realized that yes, I actually have had moments where I thought it necessary to run for my life, so why not actually go collect a cool medal with my mom.

I'll be following the cool running "Couch to 5k" plan since for all intents and purposes, I am a couch bum in the running world! I looked at the plan before I left to go to the gym, but the numbers got a bit messed up. I did the "brisk" 5 minutes at a 3.5mph pace, then did 90 seconds jogging, 60 seconds walking for 20 more minutes. My walking was around a 3.7-4.0mph pace and my running was a 4.7-4.9mph pace, although my last jog I pushed myself to 5.5, just because I knew I still had it in me :D I went 2.5 miles and sweated BULLETS!

I followed it up with 20 minutes on a stationary bike, just kind of ambling as I read my Real Simple magazine.

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd