The Barbarian Challenge

You know, my Spidey Sense told me to back out of this thing, but I stayed apart of it because my brother was so gung-ho.

Two words: absolute hell

Yes, I am embarrassed in hindsight about how much whining I did and how my willpower dissipated when we were expected to scale three areas of a mountain with our bare hands. If it wasn't for my bro (who was in full beast mode the entire race) and some new friends, I would have quit, no doubt. But this makes me see that maybe there is something of a fighter in me, even when I don't see it. Because no matter how much I whined and wanted to quit, it didn't happen.

Beginner 10K Program - Day Whatever

35 min run...sluggish initially but improved in the end.

Thy name is SLOTH

I don't know what has gotten into me lately. The lack of motivation is unbelievable. I've got the race from Hell coming up soon and I can't even make myself go jog!

Unbelievable!

FIREFLIES!!!

I SAW TWO FIREFLIES TONIGHT!

Beginner 10K Program - Day 5

Run 35 min

So hopefully today means that I'm back!

Got 2 miles in today! Went out with my nephew, who is a natural at sprinting. He's never run for a long time before and he got winded before I broke a sweat, which surprised me a lot! He is so much smaller than I am and younger so I thought he would last longer than me. I guess it's true that being in shape isn't necessarily a size issue!

Slow restarting...

Well, I was supposed to start the Beginner 10K program from where I left off, but was asked to go walking with someone I know. Said individual was 30 min late and walk was called off. I had already rescheduled the 10K program in anticipation for this walk. I was dressed and everything. So technically, this isn't an issue of my unwillingness to do the workout because I was trying to humor someone that was essentially a no-show.

C'est la guerre.

THE VOW

I'm making a promise to myself that when I get to where I can run for an hour without taking walk breaks, I am going to get myself a Garmin. A cheap Garmin...possibly refurbished...but a Garmin nevertheless!

Wow...I'm behind on these posts

Well, to catch up, I did two races this month: a Mother's Day race that benefited a local orphanage and a Race for Cancer the following week. I was dressed as the Statue of Liberty in the Race for a Cure with a sign that said "I want my aunt liberated from cancer." I won best costume and got all the free trail mix I could stand.

It was great!

And here is my trophy:

Run for a Mom Fun Run

There was a 5K, but I decided to do the fun run since I am doing another race next week. Normally it takes me 17-18 minutes to run a mile. This time? 14:32, baby!

Muscle soreness remedy breakthrough!

I think I have a natural remedy for muscle soreness! Last night I mixed 2 oz of pure peppermint extract into 32 oz of liquid soap. I showered with it after boot camp yesterday. Normally, a workout like that would have me bent over for days--even with pain meds--but I was in virtually no pain this morning. Two regular ibuprofen got rid of the leftover soreness and I am as good as new for under $10 for enough soap that will last me weeks!

Boot Camp

I did a trial boot camp class yesterday. The instructor could be Gillian Michaels' sister. It was hard and at times I worried that I wouldn't make it through. But the toughness is what I need to train for this next race.

I think my training schedule will need some tweaking.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!

If any of you are old enough to remember the 90s show American Gladiators, "Nitro" has created a 5K & 10K obstacle race that is in several states. I made a post on their FB page to bring a race to the South. He asked me to recommend places to host a race. I campaigned for the race to be in my state, but he is leaning towards ATL. I told him that whatever he does, I should get some free race entries for contributing. I still can't believe I got emailed by NITRO! I had a mega-crush on him when I was a kid!

Beginner 10K Program - Day 2

Attacked a hill today! Whoo-hoo!

Beginner 10K Program - Day 1

All I had to do was a 20 min run, which was fine by me.

The new "Girls' Night Out"

It turns out that my sister-in-law is interested in running, too. We are planning to do an out-of-town 5K together. I'm hoping we can get a couple of other women to go and stay overnight. The plan made me realize something: the re-branding of Girls' Night Out.

Whenever anyone thinks of Girls' Night Out, it always begins with a bar where women get sloshed and ends with said group performing terrible pedicures on themselves.

But a GNO involving a race? Now there's an idea! I am so excited about the prospect. Instead of getting sloshed, everyone is figuring out how to attach energy chews to the inside of their gear. Debates on the pros and cons of fanny packs the way we would talk about wearing white after Labor Day. Encouraging words and prayers instead of typical gossip. That sounds like Heaven!

I'm on board with this new GNO, and I hope it becomes my new norm!

Beginner 5K - Day 34

To begin on a slightly tangential note to those responsible for the changes to Blogger.com: I hate them.

Anyhoo, I didn't do today's workout. Poor timing and general sloth were the culprits. Better luck next time. I thought I would knock this week out, but it shows how much I don't like this plan if I can't even stay faithful to the final week.

Beginner 5K Program - Day 31

I skipped Day 30.

But today...today I was determined to go to the track. In fact, it felt like an absolute necessity. I did two miles straight for the first time ever (kinda stopped caring about the distance after that two-mile bit). But I do know for a fact that I at least ran two miles.

Yay!

Beginner 5K Program - Day 29, Part Deux

Changed my mind and decided to do Day 29 today.

1 hr 18 m walk/run; Technically it wasn't 35 minutes of straight running, but since the walk part was only a minute, as far as I'm concerned, it was 35 of straight running. In high humidity. Ended up in hill country because of construction. Glad it's done!

Beginner 5K Program - Day 29

Day 29 has been moved to another day. Have I complained about how much I don't like this five-day-a-week program? I have? Well, you are going to get more complaints. Tough beans.

ONE MORE WEEK OF THIS CRAP-HAPPY PROGRAM! I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to the 10K training program.

Ugh!

On the bright side, I have been working on my graphic design skills and am getting better at creating clip art, so the Fall Chick should look pretty great!

Of course, the Spring Chick on this site is fabulous, too.

The fallibility of scales

I decided that I would make another attempt to document my weight loss/gain/whatever so that I can use it as a guide to tailor my training plan. There are no photos of models motivating me on this; if I am smaller, I can run faster and that is what matters to me.

So this morning, at the time I have determined that I weight the least (since weight can fluctuate as much as six pounds during a day). I weighed myself six times within a five-minute window--four times in the exact same spot--and got five different weights. My pet came in the room, I "gained" two pounds. Pet kicked out of the room, lost a pound. Pet came back into the room and walked in front of me, lost two pounds. Pet allowed to stay in room. Pet left room voluntarily...gained almost two pounds.

I wonder how much of the weight change involved my blood pressure going up in anger about the fluctuations. I'd better do my measurements now before some cosmic force causes my equator to expand.