Sunday, October 31, 2010

Evening Run at Memorial

Finally, Jodi and I got together for a run at Memorial Park and it was great. It has been awhile since the both of us have run together.

We met up at the adult playground late in the day and got to the stretching. I was still feeling sore from the Biggest Loser workout that I did on Tuesday. I know right, can you believe I was still sore on Thursday. I informed her that I'm not sure how well I am going to do, because everytime I run, I get feel it! But she actually hadn't run in weeks, months, so I wasn't too worried. We started our quick walk and then picked up the run. It felt good to run on the track instead of the sidewalks of my neighborhood or the road at the dropzone; it's easier on the knees. We ran until well after 2 miles before I had to take a quick break. This was a big milestone for me since I believe that was the longest I had run before. Even Jodi thinks it, too! She also noticed that yes, I am getting faster even though I know I can run better, faster. Stupid Bob Harper...okay, I'm just kidding Bob, I love you! We walked for a minute or more before we picked up the run again. This was a short run, because I was hurting. We had one more quick walk before we picked up the small run back to the adult playground. I parked far away and used the walk back to my car as the cooldown. We did a quick stretch and said our goodbyes. All in all, it was a great little 3 mile run. I need more of those for sure.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My Hump

I'm sorry for the cryptic title, but I decided to listen to old school Black Eyed Peas. This is not the new stuff that I don't particularly like; it's the good stuff that won grammy's and stuff. I titled this post My Hump, because as soon as, "My hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps" came on, I had passed a hump in my run, a milestone. And boy was my hump hurting.

I ran in my neighborhood doing the same run that Mal and I did last week. I did my stretching, walked around the gazebo and started running at 9:43. When I started running, my legs and butt were so sore from yesterday's Boot Camp DVD. I made it to the stopsign (turnaround point), turned around, and made it to the next stopsign before I stopped. In fact, I kept on running to make it an even 10 minutes at 9:53. Yes, that's right, I not only ran passed the second stopsign, but I also ran the mile in under 10 minutes. And I was feeling sluggish, because I was so sore and never thought that I would survive the mile nor make it in a decent time. Go me, for real, go me!

I walked for 2 minutes before picking up the run again. I also did the side run and around the roundabout to add more mileage. I walked when I hit the second pole, which is good for me. I decided to sprint at the third pole to the gazebo before walking for my cool down. So, all in all, I did 3 walks.

The only thing that I didn't like about this run was the fact that my ipod froze again (thankfully, it was right by my house when it went down). I don't know what's going on, but I'm betting it has something to do with the fact that I've dropped it two or three times (damn Cali).

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Back to the Basics of DVDs

The weather was iffy and the wind was super high all morning. Therefore, I decided to forego running and do some video workouts. Okay, really, I was going to do a yoga workout on On Demand for free and then run. However, as I sat on the couch, I just didn't feel like running.

I thought, "Hey self, why not bust out that Biggest Loser DVD
that you paid money for and haven't used yet?" I guess being unemployed and strapped for cash, I realize the importance of all my purchases now. So, I fired up that bad boy Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD with Bob this time, who I secretly love, but I'm not sure if he's gay or just super country nice. Anyhoo. This DVD is a 6-week program; the first week has a quick warm-up, 20 minute Boot Camp, and then a cool down. There is 4 boot camps in total, but I thought I would just do the first one to see how much he will kill me, annoy me, or just make me feel good.

The warm-up was really nice and easy, but at the same time, got me pumped up. The 20 minute workout was really hard on the legs. The only thing that was not good was I didn't have weights, which made the exercises less than what was on television. I used a vase for the weights and just switched it out the best I could until I had enough. After awhile, I just gave up and did the exercises without the weights. By the end, my legs were shaking and I was praying for it to end. The cool down had a yoga inspiration with maximum stretching. I liked it.

Did it work out my legs and now they are completely jell-o? Yes! Was I sweating like a pig at the end? Yes! Was I out of breath? Yes! Now, was Jilian's DVD better? I could barely finish 10 minutes of Jilian's DVD. So, Yes! Do I like Bob better? Oh God, yes! Will I do the full 6-week program? Maybe, we shall see.

Afterwards, I felt like doing a full yoga video or something else. I just didn't feel like I did enough. I turned on a Yoga for Abs On Demand 10 minute video. It felt good, but not great. My abs did burn a bit, but I was looking for more yoga stretching, too. In 10 minutes, you just can't get all that done. I think I need to just break down and buy a full yoga video and possibly some weights. Well, job first and then those items.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Winehouse Dropzone Running

I woke up this morning with a need to run...oh and to get home to feed my cats. But I decided to take on some running first at the dropzone since I haven't all weekend. I wanted to run on Sunday morning, but I wanted to be lazy and shower instead. So, here I am at 7 in the morning under a really cloudy sky...running. I did stretch beforehand, a good long 10 minute stretch, too.

If you haven't guessed it by now, I put on Amy Winehouse Back in Black to listen on my ipod to match the weather (dark, crazy, and may just puke on you from too much heroin). I did my standard warmup walk to the first stopsign before I started running and I ran all the way to the next stopsign. My plan was to keep on going, but hard drinking for the last two days and no running caused me to pretty much stop to walk. So, I walked, but only for a short period of time before I picked up the run again until the next stopsign. And I'm proud of myself, because I only walked (short walk) once on this back stretch. However, when I got to the front long stretch, I walked more than I originally planned. In fact, I walked 4 times all together and they were longer than I wanted.

I'm not sure what it is about this front long stretch, but I always get a really bad side cramp. On other runs, if I get a cramp, I just push through it, but this one is different. It almost feels like I have appendicitis, which causes me to stop and pretty much die on the road. I'm thinking that I'm going to change the direction so that I'm not doing the really long, hard, long front stretch at the end of the run, but instead, start it at beginning.

My cool down walk was quite a bit of a walk than normal, but I got a good 2.2 mile walk/run in to start my week. I plan to keep this up all week. I even brought home the Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD from the RV so that I can start some other kind of exercise. I really want my abs to be not so flabby and well, jiggling when I run. And I still couldn't pull off the low rider jeans or the Princess Leia slave outfit.

On a side note, my cats didn't kill eachother or pee on my new rug. I fed them and they are so happy to have me home. I missed those darn "fight to the death" cats.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Neighborhood Running with Mal

I actually did 2 runs in my neighborhood with Mal on Thursday evening and Friday morning, which is awesome. So, I'm going to create sections for this post.

Thursday
Mal came over kind of late, which put us pretty much running in the dark. Okay, it wasn't dark like the Galveston night run, but the lights were on in the neighbhorhood making it somewhat creepy. I am glad that I had somebody to run with or I probably wouldn't have run at all. It was also somewhat chilly, which really put you in the mood for Halloween. Anyways, back to the run. We did a quick stretch and started our warm up walk. This time, I remembered to bring my watch so that I can track the time on our run. We started the walk behind the house and around the gazebo, before we started running when the clock hit 7:11 and we were on the sidewalk. We ran all the way to the stop sign at my regular turnaround point before we stopped to walk. The original plan was to keep on going passed the Outlet Mall, but Mal was ready to just go back to the house. We did the sidewalk roundabout run before stopping to walk and we only walked a little bit before running again. Instead of going straight back to the house, we did a little side run just to add more mileage to our run. This is normally a 1.4 mile run, but we made it probably 1.6.

When we got to my house, we planned to walk passed it around the gazebo and through the back way before going in for the night. However, when we got to the gazebo, I heard my dog barking something fierce, which meant she was outside and I didn't remember actually letting her outside (IT had come over and let her out, but couldn't get her back in). So, we cut the cool down walk short.

Friday
Mal and I got up to do the same run, but we wanted to do some yoga before we started. However, my On Demand system was not working (stupid weather), so we got to the run. As we were doing the warm up walk, we felt the drops of rain. At this point, it was not bad since we were headed in the opposite direction, but we kept an eye on it. And in fact, the weather kept dry for our entire run. When we hit the sidewalk and the time reached 9:49 (yes, I remembered my watch again), we started running. We were thinking that we were going to go passed the stopsign and by the Outlet Mall, but Mal wanted to turnaround. I totally respect it and we ran all the way to the stopsign before we stopped to walk. In fact, we kept on going to the next big sign. I wanted to go to the other stopsign before stopping, but Mal wasn't having any of that at all. So, we stopped for a quick walk and picked it back up at the stopsign. We did the same little side route to add some extra mileage. And this time, we had more runs.

There are 2 things that I noticed about these runs:
1.) Mal and I ran more on the second one. In fact we only stopped twice (for short time periods) during the second run (not including the cool down walk) whereas we stopped almost 4 times (much longer walks) on the first run.
2.) Since I have been running by myself quite a bit for the last couple of weeks, I have been working on my stride. It showed on our runs. I was considerably faster and I felt it. I could have easily made 1 mile in or under 10 minutes, which is a big deal for me. Normally, I would be lucky to run a mile in 10 minutes. I was easily 10-11 minutes a mile. Also, my legs look great, because working on your stride really works out your legs.

On a side note, Zach was reading this as I was writing and wanted me to write, "Zach is cool."

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Most Played Neighborhood Running

Apparently, I am titling my posts to coincide with my music choices on my ipod. Mainly, I'm listening to my ipod, because I have been running alone alot lately. Jodi has abandoned me for work and well Mal is Mal. However, Mal and I are running this evening together as soon as she gets done with the bookstore.

Yesterday, I woke up late (that's 8 o'clock for me...now that I'm unemployed) and thought, "Hey, it's time to get to that whole running thing." So, I found my shoes, did some light stretching, fixed up my ipod to sit in my shorts since I can't find my armband and wasn't wearing shorts with pockets, and got on my way. I chose my most played playlist, which starts with Gorillaz's Dare. That song really gets you going. I started walking and then got to the running. I chose to go the same path that I have been running in the neighborhood...0.7 miles to the stop sign, long stretch by the outlet mall, and then a roundabout back to the house. I'm not sure how many miles it is total, but I"m guessing somewhere in between 2 and 3 miles.

I ran all the way to the stop sign and kept on running. I can't believe I finally passed that darn stop sign. I made it halfway on that long stretch by the outlet mall before I stopped for a quick walk. I walked/ran, walked/ran all the way back to my house. In fact, I did better running and more of it then the last time. I added more runs if I walked and went around the back of my house instead of cutting the trip short. I also worked on my stride and getting much better. Go me.

Once Mal gets here, we will decide if we are going to do that same run or head to Memorial Park. I really want to try 6 miles, but Jodi won't be there tonight and Mal only wants to do 3 miles. I swear I'm gonna get better at this.

On a side note...TB found out I downloaded some local Houston rap songs by Slim Thug on his Itunes account without his knowledge. Slim Thug has some great songs that can be used in skydiving and to pump me up for running.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Thursday Running

First off, I would like to say that I did walk on Wednesday...with my dog. I figured that it wasn't that hot and it would be good for her. Well, it wasn't for me. Even though you get a great arm workout from walking my little devil spawn, Cali, it's not easy to walk her. She's all over the place. I tried to run, but she jolted and my ipod fell on the ground. I decided that I couldn't do the whole 2.2 mile walk with her and cut it short down the runway. It was maybe half a mile of walking, but it was good exercise nonetheless for both her and I.

Thursday, I woke up with a need for running. But as time flew by in the morning, I got lazier and lazier. Maybe it had to do with my women bodily issues this month, but I just didn't feel like it. However, I saw Potter taking off and just felt like I should be doing that, too, especially since I've been drinking a lot of beer lately. So, I got on my shoes and did some stretching before I set out on my run.

The plan was to run 3 miles, but as I started running, I knew that 2.2 miles would be it. I actually couldn't make it to the stop sign before taking a quick 3 second stop to catch my breath. What the hell was that all about? I walked more and more on this trip around the dropzone, because I kept getting a side cramp from hell (see post about Monday's run). It was not my best ever run, but whatever, it's still exercise.

I really need to get myself in shape if I'm going to survive the half marathon. Because right now, I'm not doing so great. At least I'm running.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Modest Running

Since I'm unemployed right now and staying at the dropzone almost every night (okay, every night), I have been doing quite a bit of dropzone running in the early morning. Monday was no different. I decided to hit up the same route I did on Sunday, but this time, there was no fog, no mood. It was just pretty and not as hot.

I stretched, put in some Modest Mouse, walked it out, and then off to the running. I made it farther than the stop sign before I had to take a break to walk. It was the same as Sunday, run/walk, run/walk, run/walk some more. I tried to do less time walking and more time running, still building up my endurance. The morning was not like the foggy morning from Sunday, but it did have fog on the ground. It was kindof cool and made it seem like I was running along the English countryside, which went well with Modest Mouse in my ears. I had a plan to run from the Hart's house all the way until I reached the stopsign for my turn in point, but I got a really bad side cramp that felt like I had appendicitis just bursting through my stomach. This caused me to walk again.

I usually stop to walk at the 2.2 mile marker, but since I added some more walking, I decided to run until I reached the huts. That made me feel good about my morning run.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Foggy Sunday Morning Run

I haven't been able to run all week due to the flu. It was like a freight train had hit me full force and then went back for seconds. It was ugly. Needless to say, today was the only day that I could actually run. And what a morning to run. It was not hot...that's the key, not hot. It was nice and chilly and foggy. What's great about foggy runs is that you don't see the distance that you are running. You don't see that stop sign that you plan to start your walk in the far off distance that looks like a dot. In fact, you are running and then BAM, there's the stop sign.

I decided that I didn't want to tell anyone at the dropzone that I was running, because I really just wanted to run alone. I had to work out some stuff in my head and I wanted to work on my stride. I started out stretching and a warm up walk to get my blood flowing. I had my ipod turned on and I spent the walk trying to figure out what would be great to hear while running. I accidentally turned it on to Love Actually soundtrack, which is not normally music that gets you pumped for running. However, it fit the mood of the fog and chilly weather. It actually motivated me to run faster, especially Dido. I could start to feel it in my legs, because I was really working my stride. I picked up the pace and before you knew it, I was ready to walk. I walked some more; I ran some more. I looked at the beautiful morning sun peaking through the fog. It was great and I never felt like I had been running. I love cold running and have been waiting for this time of year.

The total dropzone run was about 2.2 miles and my legs are feeling it now. I can't wait to have more morning runs like this one today and I have a week off to do just that, while I wait for my new job to start. I'm slowly building it back up again.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Rasta Running

I decided to run in my neighborhood on Friday morning even though I was by myself since the weather was still really awesome. I didn't want to wait for Jodi to get off work and well, I wasn't sure I would have time later on in the day. So, I did some stretching and plugged in my ipod. I chose Bob Marley as my inspirational running musak; it just seemed to fit the situation.

I walked around the gazebo to get myself warmed up before my run. You can call me a dork, but I'm a firm believer (and Jilian Anderson, too) in warming up before any exercise. When I hit the sidewalk on my main street, I started my run. It's still slow, because I'm easing myself back in to this whole running thing. The music I chose was different, but good. I tried to picture myself running on the beaches of Jamaica, but unfortunately, that made me think of how hard it is to run in the sand, bogging me down. So, then I just imagined myself running on the streets of Jamaica with the palm trees and the blue Caribbean ocean on my left. Well, that whole vision thing works really well when your eyes are closed. However, running with your eyes closed in your neighbhorhood is like asking for disaster. So, the vision thing only worked alittle bit.

I did make it to the stopsign (my usual turnaround point) without stopping, but I had to walk as soon as I got there. One thing I forgot when I was complimenting the weather and running in this great weather is shade factor. Memorial Park is about 90% covered with beautiful big shading trees, but my neighborhood is about 90% not covered (or at least my run path). So, when I reached the long stretch to the turnaround point stopsign, I was hit with direct sun the entire way. It takes it's toll on you for sure.

Big news though...I didn't turnaround at the stopsign; I just kept on going by the Outlet Mall and back through another way into the neighborhood. It was all directly covered with sun. By the time I reached the stopsign where I would cross the street and head back into the neighborhood, my shirt was off and wrapped around me. It was becoming too hot (black shirts are never a good idea to run in...EVER). I managed to walk run, walk run the whole way back to the house. I'm not sure how many miles I did, because I don't have my really cool GPS mile tracking watch that I want so bad (hint hint, mother). I'm going to take an educated guess of 2 miles, but that's a rough rough estimate.

On my way back to the house, I saw my shadow. WHOA! Where did these love handles come from and why are they so big? I used to not have the love handles unless I wore low riders, but my little short running shorts were well above my hips even covering up my tummy. I mean they were just sitting there yelling at me, "Hey you! Have another pie. I need some friends." So, everytime I saw my newly lovehandles that I'm sure can be seen from space, I started to run again until I was tired.

All in all, it was great to go beyond my norm even if it's not the mileage that I'm used to. I really need to buckle down and get ready for this whole half marathon thingy.

On a side note: I participated in the Texas Women's State Formation Skydiving (Belly) Record held at Skydive Spaceland on October 2-3, 2010. There were 40 ladies on Saturday, but 38 on Sunday. We broke the original record of 30 Texas women on Saturday with 36 women. Then, we added some more. On Sunday, we had broken the record with 37 women and turned a point (sequential). So, we broke 2 records in one skydive. The very next jump, we added the last girl waiting to be on it and broke it again with 38 women and a sequential point (another 2 records). All in all, we broke 5 records in 2 days, which in itself is a record. I'm so very proud of all the ladies that participated, especially the SDH girls and our videographers. YAY us! Next year, we go bigger.

Friday, October 1, 2010

And I'm Back...For Real

All week, the weather has been beautiful, amazing, almost Spring like, which in Southeast Texas, we don't get in September. Usually it goes from core of the earth hot to mildly cold (for us Texans, that's anything below 70), with wind and cloudy weather. So, to get Springlike weather this time of year, i.e., sunny, blue skies, light humidity, and 80 degree weather, well is a miracle. I wanted to run all week, but Jodi kept canceling on me due to work. And by the time I drove the ingested highways from my now new (at least) 1 hour drive home, I'm tired; I just want to lay on the couch. I have stayed away from beer though (during the week). Plus, I just bought Glee, the first season and I'm completely addicted.

Okay, back to my point. Last night, Jodi and I finally met up at Memorial Park to do a 3 mile run (1 lap). I was worried about this run, because last time I tried to run a mile, it didn't go so well (see last post). But I was determined last night and the weather gave me new hope. Jodi got her schedule changed, so that we can meet early, which meant that there was actually parking when I got there, lots of parking. She actually got there much earlier than myself (unbeknownst to me) and did 1 lap around the park in her toe shoes. We did some serious stretching and I for sure stretched out my back. We walked to her car and then just a little bit of the way before we started running. This was the first time we started running earlier in the lap.

We ran a full 1.5 miles without stopping. She even showed me how she wanted me to start running when I get up to speed again. We talked about her competing next year in Nationals and well, everything. I actually didn't feel like we ran 1.5 miles, but then she started to complain about her right toe in those new toe shoes. I was feeling pain in my bottom right back (thought I got it with the stretching). Finally, we got to a point where we needed to rest, because her toe and my back was just bothering us too much. So, we walked and walked and walked. We did pick up the run again, but quickly stopped. Her toe was really bad. Even I felt like running more, but she had stopped for me on so many occasions to deal with my injuries (old age is a bitch!), so it didn't bother me. We mostly walked the 3 miles around the park, but it felt good to exercise.

The best part of last night was the temperature combined with running. I had noticed that on the run, I felt that I had more energy. I felt like I could run so much more when previous runs during the summer, I felt like I could barely make half a mile. It felt empowering in a way. When we got done and stretched, I didn't feel like I ran a marathon. I felt like I could keep on running. I was sweating and hot, but I didn't feel like death had just touched my heart and said, "Okay, maybe next time, I will get you, but I'll let you live just this once." I drove home with my convertible top down (don't get many days to do this, because it's either too hot or too rainy) to meet my husband for some celebratory beer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Don't judge me!