Like girlfriend, haven't really worked out lately...been very bad. I did some Wii Fit on Friday and Saturday, which I guess is good, but 2 days of nothingness = bad. But anyway, we did some good hiking today in Rocky Mountain.
We went up to 12,000+ feet and probably hiked over 3 miles total. Not too bad.
Reviewing September goals tomorrow as well as my October goals.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
T = Fail
So I haven't blogged in forever. Yes, I fail here. I just haven't made it to the gym yet.
However, boyfriend and I did make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park today and hiked around for a few miles and some steep inclines and at ass-high altitude.
More from me tomorrow including:
- a recap of my September goals
- the October goals
- a photo or two from our adventures today
- hopefully an actual freaking workout blog
But for now, sleep 'cause I have to be at work at 4:15am. Boo.
However, boyfriend and I did make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park today and hiked around for a few miles and some steep inclines and at ass-high altitude.
More from me tomorrow including:
- a recap of my September goals
- the October goals
- a photo or two from our adventures today
- hopefully an actual freaking workout blog
But for now, sleep 'cause I have to be at work at 4:15am. Boo.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Frustrating Math
New job (up early + late lunch) * dinner issues ((food anxiety * late hour)/lack of decent protein in house) + early wake up tomorrow for said job - workout buddy = no gym time for me today. :(
We've discussed how life is not good for me if I take more than two days off from working out. Hopefully I can get back on track tomorrow after training day two. Hopefully. *siiiiigh*
In other news, I am now supporting my ill-paying hockey watching career by becoming a barista at Starbucks. I feel so disloyal to my favorite coffee shop EVER (colorado local what what), but T needs money and the world's most humongous coffee shop happened to be hiring and can work with my scorekeeping AND writing jobs (in that i can work mornings/early afternoons only). I'll put the upsides only, as I'm trying to stay positive over here ...
1. I'm making money. This is good, as my bank account is the lowest it's been since ... forever. Boo.
2. If I even maintain just 20 hours a week, I can get health and dental insurance that will undoubtedly be cheaper than the $156/mo I'm paying now.
3. I get a pound of coffee or box of tea free ... per week. This means that I could in theory hook all five of you readers up with coffee/tea at some point. Or a pound/box to give away to your respective zillions of readers. What what.
Sadly, I can also think of a few negatives, but I'm restraining so as not to post them. Trying.
We've discussed how life is not good for me if I take more than two days off from working out. Hopefully I can get back on track tomorrow after training day two. Hopefully. *siiiiigh*
In other news, I am now supporting my ill-paying hockey watching career by becoming a barista at Starbucks. I feel so disloyal to my favorite coffee shop EVER (colorado local what what), but T needs money and the world's most humongous coffee shop happened to be hiring and can work with my scorekeeping AND writing jobs (in that i can work mornings/early afternoons only). I'll put the upsides only, as I'm trying to stay positive over here ...
1. I'm making money. This is good, as my bank account is the lowest it's been since ... forever. Boo.
2. If I even maintain just 20 hours a week, I can get health and dental insurance that will undoubtedly be cheaper than the $156/mo I'm paying now.
3. I get a pound of coffee or box of tea free ... per week. This means that I could in theory hook all five of you readers up with coffee/tea at some point. Or a pound/box to give away to your respective zillions of readers. What what.
Sadly, I can also think of a few negatives, but I'm restraining so as not to post them. Trying.
Running in Wichita
Just went running along the river in Wichita. It was really nice although ridiculously humid. I hate humidity. I hate it.
Anyway, ran pretty well for a distance of 1.64 in 14:08. I felt really good throughout the whole thing, sometimes taking some stairs along the path.
More tomorrow, hopefully.
Anyway, ran pretty well for a distance of 1.64 in 14:08. I felt really good throughout the whole thing, sometimes taking some stairs along the path.
More tomorrow, hopefully.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Running...
Nothing too special today, except I ran pretty well. We took a slightly new course today that totaled out to be 1.94 miles. I ran it in 18:17 for a pace of 9:25. Not bad. It was hilly as hell, but that should be expected in Colorado.
Start a 2 day trip tomorrow. Hope I get some time to work out. Then I go home to Minny!
Start a 2 day trip tomorrow. Hope I get some time to work out. Then I go home to Minny!
And I Ran ...
... I ran so far away ... Gotta get away ...
And now since you have that earworm, the blog post.
Since we didn't end up running later yesterday, we went for a run this afternoon in the time between What Not to Wear and Jeopardy! We mapped out a 1.93 mile course (that includes that bitch of a hill, arrowhead way) and ran it. That course actually is really hilly - it sucks.
Regardless, I ran it in 18:24 for a 9:32.02 mile. What what.
And now since you have that earworm, the blog post.
Since we didn't end up running later yesterday, we went for a run this afternoon in the time between What Not to Wear and Jeopardy! We mapped out a 1.93 mile course (that includes that bitch of a hill, arrowhead way) and ran it. That course actually is really hilly - it sucks.
Regardless, I ran it in 18:24 for a 9:32.02 mile. What what.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Nice workouts today
I was in a lifting mood today...not sure why.
In any event, girlfriend and I headed over to the gym. Later than we wanted, but still got there. And of course, parking lot started filling up, so we decided rather than have a long session of mediocre lifting, we decided to up the intensity of our lifting.
Read girlfriends blog for what we did.
Then we went for a walk after delicious sushi lunch and decided to play a little softball at the park. I miss doing that.
Run for tomorrow.
In any event, girlfriend and I headed over to the gym. Later than we wanted, but still got there. And of course, parking lot started filling up, so we decided rather than have a long session of mediocre lifting, we decided to up the intensity of our lifting.
Read girlfriends blog for what we did.
Then we went for a walk after delicious sushi lunch and decided to play a little softball at the park. I miss doing that.
Run for tomorrow.
Random Gym Day
So this post probably should have been a little earlier today, but Brandon and I were still unsure if we were going to run or do another gym session or not. However, we ultimately decided no. So, he's down watching CSI: Miami and I'm starting season previews and watching The Hills. And yes, I'm marginally embarassed because of it, don't worry.
Anyway, I realized I hadn't blogged yet so decided to get on that.
We went to the gym early today - around 10:45am which was almost too "late" if you consider the crazy times at the gym. Silly lunch rush. Because of the crowds, we ended up having to do some higher weight than normal so we did the smarter thing and dropped the reps. So, we did:
- 2/8, 1/6 dumbbell bicep curls
- 2/10, 1/8 standing, bent over rows
- 2/10, 1/6 tricep extensions (using the rope on the cable machine)
- 2/10, 1/6 seated rows
- 1/10 turkish steamrollers (or turkish sit-ups or whatever. someone around the fitosphere talked about these a while back but i forget whom)
A little while after we had lunch (mmm, $1 sushi!), we decided to go for a walk to the park. For a change, we brought our baseball gloves, a softball and a bat so we messed around with that for a while, tossing the ball, hitting each other fly balls, etc.
See, two workouts and we were even pondering a third. We're crazy, I know.
Anyway, I realized I hadn't blogged yet so decided to get on that.
We went to the gym early today - around 10:45am which was almost too "late" if you consider the crazy times at the gym. Silly lunch rush. Because of the crowds, we ended up having to do some higher weight than normal so we did the smarter thing and dropped the reps. So, we did:
- 2/8, 1/6 dumbbell bicep curls
- 2/10, 1/8 standing, bent over rows
- 2/10, 1/6 tricep extensions (using the rope on the cable machine)
- 2/10, 1/6 seated rows
- 1/10 turkish steamrollers (or turkish sit-ups or whatever. someone around the fitosphere talked about these a while back but i forget whom)
A little while after we had lunch (mmm, $1 sushi!), we decided to go for a walk to the park. For a change, we brought our baseball gloves, a softball and a bat so we messed around with that for a while, tossing the ball, hitting each other fly balls, etc.
See, two workouts and we were even pondering a third. We're crazy, I know.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
5K #7 of the Season
And yes, technically this was #8, but yeah yeah. Whatevs.
So. We drove up to Buena Vista, Colo., yesterday to pick up our packets for the Autumn Color Run. This was my last run of the season last year and PRed with a 26:27, still my fastest race to date. I really liked this race last year so Brandon and I decided to do it this year. It's a great course - yeah, it's at 8,000 feet, but it's a nice straight line for 3.1 miles and slowly drops a few hundred feet over the course. Awesome? Yes.
After battling our food anxiety issues for dinner and some pre-race hot tub soaking, we spent the night in Salida which is about 30 miles south of Buena. It wasn't the best night's sleep and I definitely didn't want to get out of bed, but get out of bed I did. We packed up our stuff, loaded the car and went back inside for the hot breakfast (go holiday inn express, man). Some watery yet dry (how that happens, i don't know) eggs, papery bacon, instant oatmeal (at least it was quaker), bruised banana, crappy orange juice and coffee-milk, we were on the road back to Buena.
We got to Buena, parked and walked to this one park. The park was the race end and where we warmed up.
Brandon getting his warm-up playlist going on the ol' iPod.
Us pre-warm up.
We started to think we needed to poop, but the line at the port-o-potties was RIDICULOUSLY long. Luckily, the race director told us about another bathroom in another part of the park. A permanent bathroom.
Yay for actual restrooms at a race!
Sadly, I couldn't really poo, so I decided to try and warm up some instead. After some dynamic stretching (not plyometrics ... but kind of. i forget the name of them. did them for hockey all the time), some jumping jacks and some regular stretching, I decided to try and poo again. I was only marginally successful.
Since my bowels were not going to cooperate, I said a quick prayer to the running gods and asked if they did anything for me that race, they'd let any urges to go to wait until AFTER I crossed the finish line. I said this while we were walking back to the race central part of the park ... passing the port-o-potties. We saw people getting on the bus already, but I snapped a quick shot:
Only two port-o-potties for this race. Yeah, it's a small one.
We hopped on the bus (almost late! oops) and were driven 3.1 miles away to the race start which was officially outside of the city limits in random unincorporated Chaffee County.
Getting off the buses. Yes, that's Brandon in black.
Start was at an abandoned drive-in. How cool is that?
Pretty! View from the start.
The race people who were at the start got word of the time (or something) on their walkie-talkies, some Boy Scout shouted "GO" and we were off. As everyone was on the right side of the street, I was smart and immediately headed to the LEFT side so I was running against traffic, not with it. I also made sure I was in the margin as the county road we were running down wasn't closed to cars. I almost took a few pictures of the cars, but didn't feel like taking the time to do so.
Being on that side of the road meant I could see the spray painted mile markers on the street. Because of those, I'm pretty damn convinced that NO RACE has proper mileage signs. Or at least no race in Colorado. I saw the one mile marker painted on the ground and then, at least a good five minutes later (judging by the songs on my ipod), a sandwich board saying that there was two miles to go. A tenth of a mile in five minutes? Yeah, I'm not that slow, thanks.
Regardless, I kept running. The conditions were almost ideal - high-40s, but a little sunnier than I'd like. I passed a few people along the road which is always nice, but not too many. Once I got a bit more into town, I saw the stop light that's near the park. However, I kept my pace as I know distances can be deceiving. I didn't start to get really excited until I saw my car which was parked about three blocks away. Still, I didn't start my kick until right about the turn into the park for the finish. At that point, I saw Brandon coming back toward the course to try and get a picture of me finishing, but I told him no and just sprinted onward.
My time? There's a reason I love this race - 27:45. Nine minutes faster than my first 5K this year. 15 minutes faster than the 5K portion of the tri, but I'm not counting that. :-p It's kind of upsetting because had I finished in the same time I did last year, I would have placed second in my age group. *sigh* Still, I'm proud that I pulled that time out of my ass because I haven't done under a 9:00 mile yet this year and still have issues getting under 10:00 at times.
Even though Brandon had some issues with his time (he so finished before me though the official time won't say that due to some mishap. sucks, but i guess it's an unfortunate result of it being a VERY small race), we were still both happy about our races.
Though the Autumn Color Run is tentatively our last race of the season (*tear*), we still have possibilities on the horizon. For me, the biggest thing will be keeping up with running because I kind of stopped last year (partly because of ditching the bodybugg and just eating lots of crappy food without exercising) and it's been a total bitch getting back into it. It especially sucks because it's been a year and I'm still not back to the point I once was.
Oh well, someday, right?
So. We drove up to Buena Vista, Colo., yesterday to pick up our packets for the Autumn Color Run. This was my last run of the season last year and PRed with a 26:27, still my fastest race to date. I really liked this race last year so Brandon and I decided to do it this year. It's a great course - yeah, it's at 8,000 feet, but it's a nice straight line for 3.1 miles and slowly drops a few hundred feet over the course. Awesome? Yes.
After battling our food anxiety issues for dinner and some pre-race hot tub soaking, we spent the night in Salida which is about 30 miles south of Buena. It wasn't the best night's sleep and I definitely didn't want to get out of bed, but get out of bed I did. We packed up our stuff, loaded the car and went back inside for the hot breakfast (go holiday inn express, man). Some watery yet dry (how that happens, i don't know) eggs, papery bacon, instant oatmeal (at least it was quaker), bruised banana, crappy orange juice and coffee-milk, we were on the road back to Buena.
We got to Buena, parked and walked to this one park. The park was the race end and where we warmed up.
Brandon getting his warm-up playlist going on the ol' iPod.
Us pre-warm up.
We started to think we needed to poop, but the line at the port-o-potties was RIDICULOUSLY long. Luckily, the race director told us about another bathroom in another part of the park. A permanent bathroom.
Yay for actual restrooms at a race!
Sadly, I couldn't really poo, so I decided to try and warm up some instead. After some dynamic stretching (not plyometrics ... but kind of. i forget the name of them. did them for hockey all the time), some jumping jacks and some regular stretching, I decided to try and poo again. I was only marginally successful.
Since my bowels were not going to cooperate, I said a quick prayer to the running gods and asked if they did anything for me that race, they'd let any urges to go to wait until AFTER I crossed the finish line. I said this while we were walking back to the race central part of the park ... passing the port-o-potties. We saw people getting on the bus already, but I snapped a quick shot:
Only two port-o-potties for this race. Yeah, it's a small one.
We hopped on the bus (almost late! oops) and were driven 3.1 miles away to the race start which was officially outside of the city limits in random unincorporated Chaffee County.
Getting off the buses. Yes, that's Brandon in black.
Start was at an abandoned drive-in. How cool is that?
Pretty! View from the start.
The race people who were at the start got word of the time (or something) on their walkie-talkies, some Boy Scout shouted "GO" and we were off. As everyone was on the right side of the street, I was smart and immediately headed to the LEFT side so I was running against traffic, not with it. I also made sure I was in the margin as the county road we were running down wasn't closed to cars. I almost took a few pictures of the cars, but didn't feel like taking the time to do so.
Being on that side of the road meant I could see the spray painted mile markers on the street. Because of those, I'm pretty damn convinced that NO RACE has proper mileage signs. Or at least no race in Colorado. I saw the one mile marker painted on the ground and then, at least a good five minutes later (judging by the songs on my ipod), a sandwich board saying that there was two miles to go. A tenth of a mile in five minutes? Yeah, I'm not that slow, thanks.
Regardless, I kept running. The conditions were almost ideal - high-40s, but a little sunnier than I'd like. I passed a few people along the road which is always nice, but not too many. Once I got a bit more into town, I saw the stop light that's near the park. However, I kept my pace as I know distances can be deceiving. I didn't start to get really excited until I saw my car which was parked about three blocks away. Still, I didn't start my kick until right about the turn into the park for the finish. At that point, I saw Brandon coming back toward the course to try and get a picture of me finishing, but I told him no and just sprinted onward.
My time? There's a reason I love this race - 27:45. Nine minutes faster than my first 5K this year. 15 minutes faster than the 5K portion of the tri, but I'm not counting that. :-p It's kind of upsetting because had I finished in the same time I did last year, I would have placed second in my age group. *sigh* Still, I'm proud that I pulled that time out of my ass because I haven't done under a 9:00 mile yet this year and still have issues getting under 10:00 at times.
Even though Brandon had some issues with his time (he so finished before me though the official time won't say that due to some mishap. sucks, but i guess it's an unfortunate result of it being a VERY small race), we were still both happy about our races.
Though the Autumn Color Run is tentatively our last race of the season (*tear*), we still have possibilities on the horizon. For me, the biggest thing will be keeping up with running because I kind of stopped last year (partly because of ditching the bodybugg and just eating lots of crappy food without exercising) and it's been a total bitch getting back into it. It especially sucks because it's been a year and I'm still not back to the point I once was.
Oh well, someday, right?
7th 5K of the Season
Hooray, the 7th 5K of the season, quite possibly the last one I will be doing for the year 2008. *tear*
This 5K was called the Autumn Color 5K. Since it would be like a 3 hour drive to get there, we overnighted in Salida last night. Attempting to find good food was not easy and I ended up ordering some crappy ravioli. However, a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub helped me out. We then retreated to the room and chilled out. I played some poker and had some amazing hands, which I figured would be a good omen for the race.
Slept like shit though. There were a lot of weird noises in the hotel that woke me up, which is surprising, since I am usually a ridiculously sound sleeper. This I figured was a bad omen for the race. When we dropped our stuff off at the car, there was a fire truck and an ambulance outside. I immediately knew there was a heart attack or something in the hotel, and sure enough, I hold the door open for two paramedics who were wheeling out Old Man River on a stretcher. He was breathing, luckily.
We ate some Holiday Inn Express breakfast, which wasn't too appetizing, actually. I had some eggs, bacon, yogurt, banana, and oatmeal. We then took off for the drive up to Buena and the race.
We got there and immediately headed for the porta-potties, as we tend to do. Time was a little shorter, but we managed to stretch and get on the bus to get dropped off at the start. This race is unlike any I have done to date. There is no starting line; just a Boy Scout volunteer that says "go". The course is also a straight line; they bus you to the start and you run to the finish line where the bus picked you up.
So anyway, the bus dropped us off and after a minute or two of dinking around, we heard go and were off. I was so startled by it I couldn't even get my Nike+ thing going, which didn't matter anyway, because again it wasn't working. *tear*
I juggled with my iPod still and was able to get my running playlist on. And I was finally in the groove. Shortly after the race started my shoe came untied so I had to tie that, goddammit. Got knocked out of the groove of course, but settled in quickly.
When I saw the 2 mile to go sign, I was in disbelief. I didn't feel like I was running that spectacular, but I had an idea, and when I'm 13 minutes deep into my running playlist, I knew I wasn't running a 13 minute mile. Then something happened to me that really hasn't since the Rockies 5K. I settled into a consistent pace. I was able to hold a steady pace through pretty much the whole rest of the race. It was awesome!
I saw the finish and picked up my speed. I crossed the finish line not knowing my time, but hearing about 10 seconds after that people were in the 27 minute. I tried to go back for girlfriend to get her camera, but she was pretty much right behind me and she crossed the finish line in 27:45. We were both pretty happy about our times and went to get some post-race goodies and wait for the official times to get posted.
Unfortunately, something happened. Girlfriend's time got posted,but mine wasn't on the board. We then finally found it, and it said 28:17. The endorphines that I felt were gone. I was downcast and sad, because in my mind, nothing matters other than the official time that is posted. To make matters worse, when we tried to talk to someone about possibly getting my time changed, they balked at the idea, even though it was obvious that I finished in front of girlfriend.
We determined that I finished in between 27:00 and 27:30, roughly 30 seconds ahead of the girl. We called it 27:17. I ran the time of my playlist and it added up. So I'm ok with that. It's a PR obviously, which feels amazing. And it is a good feeling knowing how well I actually ran. I can keep working at it and keep improving.
This 5K was called the Autumn Color 5K. Since it would be like a 3 hour drive to get there, we overnighted in Salida last night. Attempting to find good food was not easy and I ended up ordering some crappy ravioli. However, a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub helped me out. We then retreated to the room and chilled out. I played some poker and had some amazing hands, which I figured would be a good omen for the race.
Slept like shit though. There were a lot of weird noises in the hotel that woke me up, which is surprising, since I am usually a ridiculously sound sleeper. This I figured was a bad omen for the race. When we dropped our stuff off at the car, there was a fire truck and an ambulance outside. I immediately knew there was a heart attack or something in the hotel, and sure enough, I hold the door open for two paramedics who were wheeling out Old Man River on a stretcher. He was breathing, luckily.
We ate some Holiday Inn Express breakfast, which wasn't too appetizing, actually. I had some eggs, bacon, yogurt, banana, and oatmeal. We then took off for the drive up to Buena and the race.
We got there and immediately headed for the porta-potties, as we tend to do. Time was a little shorter, but we managed to stretch and get on the bus to get dropped off at the start. This race is unlike any I have done to date. There is no starting line; just a Boy Scout volunteer that says "go". The course is also a straight line; they bus you to the start and you run to the finish line where the bus picked you up.
So anyway, the bus dropped us off and after a minute or two of dinking around, we heard go and were off. I was so startled by it I couldn't even get my Nike+ thing going, which didn't matter anyway, because again it wasn't working. *tear*
I juggled with my iPod still and was able to get my running playlist on. And I was finally in the groove. Shortly after the race started my shoe came untied so I had to tie that, goddammit. Got knocked out of the groove of course, but settled in quickly.
When I saw the 2 mile to go sign, I was in disbelief. I didn't feel like I was running that spectacular, but I had an idea, and when I'm 13 minutes deep into my running playlist, I knew I wasn't running a 13 minute mile. Then something happened to me that really hasn't since the Rockies 5K. I settled into a consistent pace. I was able to hold a steady pace through pretty much the whole rest of the race. It was awesome!
I saw the finish and picked up my speed. I crossed the finish line not knowing my time, but hearing about 10 seconds after that people were in the 27 minute. I tried to go back for girlfriend to get her camera, but she was pretty much right behind me and she crossed the finish line in 27:45. We were both pretty happy about our times and went to get some post-race goodies and wait for the official times to get posted.
Unfortunately, something happened. Girlfriend's time got posted,but mine wasn't on the board. We then finally found it, and it said 28:17. The endorphines that I felt were gone. I was downcast and sad, because in my mind, nothing matters other than the official time that is posted. To make matters worse, when we tried to talk to someone about possibly getting my time changed, they balked at the idea, even though it was obvious that I finished in front of girlfriend.
We determined that I finished in between 27:00 and 27:30, roughly 30 seconds ahead of the girl. We called it 27:17. I ran the time of my playlist and it added up. So I'm ok with that. It's a PR obviously, which feels amazing. And it is a good feeling knowing how well I actually ran. I can keep working at it and keep improving.
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