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