A Long Run with Some Ankle Annoyance

I can't even be bothered to look at my half marathon training schedule right now.  The thought of following structure right now just annoys me and I'd rather do my own thing, but obviously I need to make sure I do the important stuff on my way to Newport, RI.  My loose interpretation of any sort of training schedule is to make sure I get in my weekend long run as the #1 priority.

Today's long run was not very fun...

1.7 miles to the gym
4 miles of "rolling foothills" on the treadmill, level 4
1 mile of 1.0% incline on the treadmill
1.7 miles home
Total 8.5 miles of pain and there was some walking in there

I felt really out of shape and like my endurance just didn't show up for the party.  I've been thinking a lot about heart rate lately and I don't really understand all these online heart rate calculators where you only enter your age.  That's it?  It takes nothing else into consideration?  If that is the case, my target heart rate is 134 - 162.  My average heart rate on the treadmill today was 170 - 172.  This is not good.  I'm working really hard to do something (with less oxygen, therefore less efficiently) that should be not that hard for me, aka I'm not really in great shape right now.  I didn't need my heart rate to tell me that one though, that run was hard and now 6 hours later my ankle is killing me.  During the run it was just barely noticeable, but now it's really just screaming.  Good thing I picked up an ankle-specific ice wrap...

I'm still pretty sure this is still just a tendinitis issue, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.  The only real solution is to stop running for like 5 weeks and... well I just can't do that right now.  So my second best solution is to be good about icing it and stretching and wearing compression socks post long-run.  When I'm at work, I elevate it if it's bothering me by turning over my recycling bin (genius I know) but elevating only does so much.  I don't understand how I keep getting injuries from running when I'm not really running all that much or that often, it's just non-stop and annoying!  I think I will finally call a doctor this week, if only to just confirm my problem before not listening to the recommended prescription of rest.  After Newport, I'll plan on taking a good few weeks off if this is still an issue.  

Quickly - Go See Chihuly!

The Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is only here until August 8th.  We got up early and made sure we got to the museum when it opened on Saturday, but it was still a freaking mad house.  There were no less than a few hundred people in line for the exhibit and once we got inside there were massive crowds of people.  Here's a tip - buy your ticket online and you don't need to wait in line to get inside.

The exhibit is blown glass from small scale to massive scale.  I was amazed at how much was here, it felt like it kept going and going and it was all truly exceptionally impressive and beautiful.  Below are a few photos taken at the exhibit (cameras are allowed) but honestly you need to see this in person.  The photos do not do it justice!  I even saw some idiots touching the art - I would not recommend this, but every person there loved the entire display.  I've seen a lot of exhibits come through the MFA but this is by far and away my favorite one, so go see it before it's gone!

2 Dinners and 1 Dessert

Rainbow sherbert on Castle Island in Southie after dinner out with girlfriends.  The people watching at this place is like A-mazing.  People are doing the weirdest shit, and it's very hard to figure out any one's story.  Apparently ice cream and fried foods bring the masses together.

I'm sure that people were looking at us being like, "what the heck is with those girls?"  Whatever.  I love dessert.

Shamelessly, I went home and ate half of abe's leftover takeout for my second dinner.  My first dinner was not that great... we went to Local 149.  We started with fried pickles and other pickled things, and some fried cheese.  They were interesting starters, not your typical fried pickles or your typical fried cheese.  My entree was the braised brisket grilled cheese and a peach sangria.  The sandwich was just Ok, it was really greasy and small and not that special... and this is something that people Rave about.  Well, I love food and this was not one of my top sandwiches ever, it was sort of disappointing.  Even the onion rings were disappointing, they were pretty bland.  My meal was a solid C, but my sangria was a solid A!  I would give this place another shot, but it's not on my list of favorites.

Run Saved By The AC

This was my Saturday night, which was a lot of fun.  We had to take a picture at this bar because we're Never Ever setting foot in there again.  It's one of those places that we always try to like but in the end we just hate it and it's in like... a college area full of really weird college people.  I got to bed at 1am after various drinks - my personal favorite being the vodka and ginger ale spritzer thingy from our bar mixed by your's truly.  I love having a bar on-site, not that I drink a lot, but when I do it's so convenient.

This morning I woke up with No Desire to run at all.  My arms are aching from yesterday's Xtend DVD, my ass is mother effing sore from the Barre crap, and all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read a book (I know how lame that sounds but I love that activity).  So I made a compromise with myself.  I could do a little running indoors to avoid the oppressive morning humidity as long as I did hill work on the treadmill.  Deal.

1.7 miles to my gym at a moderate pace
3 miles of the Rolling Foothills on level 5 on the treadmill
1.7 miles home in a relatively easy pace
6.4 Total - my longest run in ages and all without my Garmin

This run wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be, running in the air conditioning - while boring at times, was so much better than running in the dreaded heat.  For the first time in a couple weeks, I didn't want to kill myself half way through my run which is a major success in my book!  Hopefully, I can keep this bargaining going with myself.

Xtend Barre: Lean & Chiseled

I have a handful of workout DVDs from Jillian Michaels, yoga, pilates, P90X, and now Xtend Barre: Lean & Chiseled.  I'm not sure what spawned this brilliant idea that the new barre method workout was a good idea for me but I do love ballet and the long lean muscles that it brings.  This is an hour workout if you do the entire thing, but it's broken up into sections:
Warm Up 6 minutes
Upper Body 11 minutes (need 3 lb. weights)
Barre 23 minutes (need a chair)
Core 10 minutes
Cool Down 5 minutes

I am feeling rather weak and out of shape lately - the idea of going to the gym and taking a strength class sounds too overwhelming because I'm really That weak right now and because of that my motivation is really lacking.  I bought this DVD about 2 months ago, but never got around to trying it out.  Today I did the Barre, Upper Body, and Core sections for a total of 44 minutes of ULTIMATE PAIN.

The woman on the video kept saying things like, "small movements, small motions...etc... lots of small things" and it turns out the small movements are the ones that burn the most.

The Barre section is entirely legs and butt and was easily the best part.  I loved this section, it is challenging yet the movements are very simple.  By the end of it my legs were shaking, and at that moment I knew that doing this kind of workout at home was much better than subjecting myself to a full 1.5 hours of hot yoga where I wouldn't be able to correctly do even half of the movements.  In the first 3 minutes my legs were burning, so after 23 minutes I kind of wanted to die.

The Arms section was surprising.  You only need 1 - 3 pound weights, which is way less than I usually use.  I didn't even know that I had 3lb. weights in my closet, but luckily I did.  The movements here were also very small and simple, but it was really hard even with such wimpy weights.  This section could have been a little longer, by the end I was hurting but I was hoping for a little more even though by now I was covered in sweat.

The Core section was really good - a combination of pilates movements that brought the good burn.  I'm trying to weigh on which is harder - the Jillian Michaels 6 Week Six Pack DVD or this one.  They are very different, and I think I can't really compare due to the style differences but they're both very good.  I liked that this one was only 10 minutes so I can always fit it in, but at the same time is 10 minutes enough?  Sometimes it's not all or nothing, sometimes you just need to fit in a quick and effective workout - it doesn't need to take over your entire day.

I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

Hot Summer

I got a haircut.  It's strikingly similar to the haircut I had before.  Imagine that my living room is 90 degrees right now and it's 7:30am - it looks even better now right?

This heat around here will not quit!  It makes looking nice really hard, and looking halfway decent is a really good day.  Makeup melts off, hair goes flat, clothes stick to body (The AC is never on in the stupid train).  Never fear, we have 3 AC units running in our apartment with 1 fan (it's still 84 in here right now) - conserving energy is not really our thing, we're much better at conserving our moods and spirits.  If we lost power right now, we'd high tail it right out of here to the first hotel even at Boston prices to stay cool.  We aren't good with the heat or the cold, we're very high maintenance when it comes to temperature and I'm Ok with admitting that.  My dream is to walk around with one of those little fans with a squirty thing to mist oneself with - all day long.  This dream just emerged today, but I think it's an achievable one.

Two more days of this heat wave.  Two more days of people losing their shit over the hot weather.

My hot weather tips: run early - like before the sun even rises, hydrate all day long even if you aren't going to be outside, wear loose clothing, reward yourself with an ice cream if you can find a place without a crazy line, do not swim in a public pool unless you want to swim with a dead body, kiddie pools work better, wear deodorant people, and don't waste your time with makeup...

Perverts Are Not Welcome Here

Having a public blog, I understand that everything I put out here really is just sitting here for anyone and everyone to view at their leisure.  I really don't have anything to hide: I'm not a criminal, I'm a good upstanding citizen with not even a speeding ticket in the past 10 years, I don't litter, I always recycle, I say Thank You to the bus driver.

What I really don't appreciate is people who have fetish fantasies who pray on innocent bystanders thousands of miles away.  The thing is that there are so many fetishes and obsessions out there that you can't possibly predict what is going to turn that jackass on the other side of the country on.  For example, things that definitely don't turn me on: girls who sweat.  Things that definitely turn someone else on in a forum with photos of sweaty girls (most of whom are just runners like me, nothing sexual about running while fully clothed).  So you see, sometimes there's nothing you can really do.  My advice is to just check your blog traffic if you have a blog, or just make sure all the public photos you have of yourself are sort of locked down or in a place you consider to be more private than not.  I was pretty horrified when I saw that 149 people had come to my blog in one day through a linked photo on a really inappropriate forum that I posted here last year during marathon training that 99.9% of the population would not find interesting at all.  I mean, there was nothing nice about this picture at all.

This is something that people probably deal with all the time, people much more amazing looking and talented than me.  I took down that photo, and the traffic from that site stopped.  I reported that website to Flickr, although I doubt they will do anything about it since there were at least a dozen similar forums going on with similarly disgusting people posting images and links to totally unknowing women.  I want my blog to be public because if i wasn't then I wouldn't have an audience, how does one keep the perverts away?  I mean, I could limit my photos but I really don't post all that many as it is.  Advice here is welcome.  Perverts are not welcome.

Hat Review

I'm not at hat person at all, they're something I never even owned until recently.  I don't look good in hats, but I've found that during my morning runs nothing is more useful.  They keep my hair back and out of my face, and I don't even have to brush it to get it all back and up there.  This particular one is marketed as a women's fit running hat that is ultra light with sweat wicking and breathability.  I think that it lives up to all those claims.  It was around $20 - $25 and although it wasn't free like my previous black Chicago Marathon baseball style hat from a Bank of America expo booth, it's a much better choice for sweating my ass off in the summer - obviously it's highly visible as well, and it comes in at least 3 other colors.  I got mine at City Sports (and I used City Sports Bucks!), but I'm sure you can find them at most running stores.  I'm in love.  (Note: this image was majorly re-touched because nobody wants to see my skin when it's This broken out combined with no makeup and unwashed and being like 9am - it was scary)

And this is my other hat:

It may or may not be a shark.

The Time I Almost Died

Today was a rough day for me.  I got a horrible night's sleep and then set out on a "long run", but really that meant that I was hoping to hit 5+ miles.  I should have left earlier because it was just too hot out there for me by 10am (I'm loving my new running hat by the way, it's not as warm as my regular old hat).  I started on a bike path for the shade, and then decided to run down a main road to get to the river.  There was a crosswalk, and there were no cars coming on the double lane near side so I crossed to the median and waited for the cars in the next two lanes to stop for me to continue.  A car stopped for me and I waved and walked a bit and then I was half way across the crosswalk when all of a sudden a car came barreling down the road at 50mph right for me (speed limit is probably around 30).  He didn't slow down, didn't even try to avoid me in any way.  I quickly took one step back to get out of his way because at that speed it was either move or die. I would have been dead if he hit me, and I felt the wind whoosh right by me.  This wasn't like all the other times that people almost tapped me going very slowly, this was really traumatizing for me.  I was practically in tears and decided to just deviate from my plan and run home.  On the way there, I passed that same douchebag gray convertible that almost killed me.  If I had my phone I could have walked right up and taken their picture before yelling at them.  At the time, I quickly memorized the license plate but forgot it by the time I got home of course.  It was the scariest 3 or 4 seconds of my life thus far.

I don't know what lesson was learned here.  Look both ways?  I looked dammit so I don't know.  Maybe just expect that everyone is trying to take me out every time I get out there?  I just ordered myself a RoadID bracelet so that when I am eventually flattened by some jerk driving a sports car, someone will know to call my husband or parents.  I've become much better when it comes to paying attention to my surroundings while running but accidents happen and people get distracted easily in general.

Something I do know is that I would have had a lot of regrets if I died right then and there and that makes me really upset as well.  There is nothing that I regret in life in general, but I'm definitely one of those people that sort of pushes things back and off for a while until I feel like the time is Right.  For example, I've wanted a dog for at least 5 years now and where is it?  Where is my dog?  We could have found a dog friendly apartment to live in for the past 3 years but we never got around to it.  What about all the places that I wanted to go to and see and all the things that I never got to do?  I've never really been to Europe before... I've never been to Canada, or even Nantucket!  It was always important to me that I see Korea at some point in life as well, but that also became somewhat less of a priority in my life over the years.  I wasn't thinking about how I wished I was thinner, or less acne prone, or smarter, or anything like that.  I don't think I'll feel guilty over missing a run or a stretching session for the next few months.  I don't think this experience changed my life forever, but I think for a short period of time I will have a different outlook and be more proactive about life goals.

Food Court Adventures

Things that I ate today:

Sarku Japan - Chicken combo.  Abe calls this the "Cat on Rice".  It was good, not very cat-like at all.  It was also $6 which means that it's by far and away the cheapest dinner out with a friend that I've ever had in my life.  Natasha and I planned on eating this - it was a premeditated food court visit.

Pinkberry - New salted caramel flavor with mochi and yogurt drops.  Warning: this is very sweet.  I should have gotten a mini size for something this rich in flavor.  No regrets though, I almost finished the entire thing.

Tomorrow's eats can't possibly be this random and delicious.  I'll try to eat a vegetable or two...

2 Workouts in 1 Morning

Last night I got about 3 hours of sleep.  I was restless, I was annoyed, and my back was fucking killing me.  When my alarm went off at 5:30am the last and oddly enough the first thing I wanted to do was go for a run.  At that point of the morning when you're already having a terrible day, you might well lace up those sneakers and hit the road because if you don't, you'll only feel worse about the day ahead.  I'm telling you, the run itself was not that great, but it was so much better than having to slug through a run in 92 degree heat like I saw so many insane people doing this afternoon.  They were probably all thinking, "damn, I shouldn't have hit snooze this morning, dammmmn!"  I'm starting to notice the same runners on different routes now, it amazes me at how man people are up and able to function at such an ungodly hour.

The splits are pretty blah, but there were hills involved this time at least:

After my run, I popped in Jillian Michael's 6 Week Six Pack.  I was running pretty low on time at that point and couldn't do the entire dvd, but I did a good 20 minutes of the 30 minute session (I skipped the warm up too, warming up is boring).  This was actually a really good set of exercises.  I hit all the major areas of the core and the exercises weren't too difficult, but they were very targeted and specific.  There are two different sessions - beginner and advanced (all you need is a light weight), I did the beginner this time around but may move up the next time I do this one.  I've had this dvd for like... a year but this is only the second time I've done it!  I recommend it for anyone looking for a seriously quick core workout with exercises you don't come across everyday (no standard crunching).

At lunchtime I spent 15 minutes looking at and trying on shorts at City Sports but to no avail.  I am just getting over the whole "my legs are fat and cellulitey" complex that I've always carried around, so I've been wearing shorts during my morning workouts.  This weather is just way too hot, and I finally gave in.  It's actually been going pretty well, but finding shorts that fit is hard.  Other things that are hard for me to find a nice fit in: bras, jeans, pants, hats.  I tried on 3 different brands of shorts but none of them were good.  Currently, I have 1 pair of Nike shorts and 1 pair of CS compression shorts.  I think that I will have to go to a bigger sports store to find a larger variety.  On the upside, I had $7 CS bucks so I bought a new pink running hat.  Maybe I'll remember to take a picture tomorrow of the bright ass pink hat that is going to be bobbing down the sidewalk before the sun even rises.

How Do You De-Stress?

We almost have the house, it's not very far away from being 100% guaranteed.  Everyone is like, "aren't you so excited to be buying a house?"  Answer, "not really... more stressed about the entire situation."  I'm glad that we're finally making a good financial decision and buying something at an awesome mortgage rate instead of renting an apartment that we loathe, but leaving a nice area and moving into the 'burbs is really scary.  I am sure it will be fine - there is a Chili's down the street that we're both beyond excited about (for reals) and there are a lot of overall positives.  On the other hand, it seems like the amount of projects and things that we need to think about (even though we didn't buy a freaking fixer upper) is really stressing me out.

Obviously not all of the items will be done immediately, but some of them are a real must - like we need a freaking refrigerator (the sellers decided to take it last minute).  I'm completely overwhelmed with the tasks at hand being a first time homeowner.  In complete and total honesty, the most I've ever done is paint a room and replace a light bulb or two.  It's getting to me.  I'm feeling really worn out and this process has been really hard on us, there are things that we already disagree on.  

My running has been going much like the house process: slow and agonizing.  You'd think that maybe having this extra stress would get me out there more for longer runs.  Instead, what I'm finding is that I'm still getting out there 3-4 times a week but each and every time has felt hard, slow, and not very fun at all.  I've been incorporating light weights and a longer stretching routine (especially before bed), but so far I'm not feeling any benefits besides soreness.  I'm feeling really frustrated in life and it's funny how that carries into all areas not just one part.  My solution to this starting tomorrow is trying to take my focus off of feeling good - I know that probably doesn't make any sense.  This week I will integrate some hill running, because that will be pretty slow anyhow.

How do you deal with stress?  I hear yoga is good for this, but yoga scares me and that is one of the activities that I really don't want to go to alone.  I've been drinking a lot of wine, but that isn't really helping anything besides making it easier to pack up the remaining bottles (if there are any).  I am just overwhelmed and although it doesn't keep me up at night (unlike Abe) but it just leaks into other parts of my life instead while I'm awake which is also no good.  The worst part is that it's really not going to get any better anytime soon either!  I'm sure it will only be worse once we move in - scary.

  

Going Straight To My Ass

Yesterday I ran 3.5 miles before work at a comfortable pace and then did weighted squats 2 sets of 12 with two 8 lb. weights.  One may think that I am in decent shape and 3 sets of 12 should be no big deal.  This morning brought a whole world of discomfort!  My butt was freaking killing me all day even after a long stretching session before bed.  Getting up and sitting down was bad... walking to the printer was bad... the fact that this is happening is bad.  I really need to make weights part of my weekly routine.  I'm currently reading a book on running that is not very good, but a couple of the stressed points are that 1. you should do weights 2x a week (squats, lunges, upper body) and 2. do yoga 1 or 2 x a week.  Those two items can help you avoid injury and get through long hard races - both of which I need.  I probably should have done my squats without weights for the first week and then slowly incorporated them, but I'm no genius.  Hopefully I can stick with this and get stronger, avoid injury, and firm up... I really need some firming up.  I plan on ending my gym membership pretty soon so I need to learn how to do it on my own for a little while.  I'm the kind of person that always does better with someone else there telling me what to do and how often to do it, on my own, I get really lazy.  If I had a secret nanny cam on me while I was working out in my living room, it would be really embarrassing really fast.  Just having an instructor in the same room as me makes me push so much harder, but I'm going to have to deal with that just for a little while until after we move and I can join a new gym or... continue to mostly run and wish that I did more weights and yoga.

The gelato that I'm holding in this photo is the best gelato that I've ever eaten, it's also the only gelato that I've ever eaten but I loved it to death.  It's cherry yogurt gelato from some little pizza joint in the Encore in Las Vegas.  If yoga was this good, I'd be able to touch my freaking toes.

4th of July Weekend Wrap-up

Happy 4th of July weekend to all 15 of my blog readers!  I hope you all had a nice relaxing time and ate a lot of delicious food.  I had a really annoying cold the entire time but I still went out and had some fun.  On Friday, we got out of work early and met with a mortgage broker (snooze) and hung out with my parents for a little while before laying low in preparation for the rest of our weekend.

Saturday after a disastrous short run, we went to a local BBQ to celebrate a friend's birthday and the almost arrival of his baby.  He's a chef and fed us the most delicious cheeseburgers and homemade sausage, it was like a lot of meat, vegetarians were not welcome at that party.  Ok, they were welcome... technically there was one there, but I have no idea what he ate.  Is beer vegetarian?  I heard a rumor that certain beers are not, but I guess I'll never really need to know the answer to that.  We had a lot of fun but it was a long day out in the sun and I was really happy when we arrived back home.

The first thing we did on Sunday was go to our friend's bakery to rob them of all their pastries.  I ate like 4 before we even got out of there, they're so tasty.  Once Abe dragged me away from the croissants, we went to our friend's house on a lake where I ate and drank from the second I got there to the second I left.  It was just a nonstop rotation of foods.  I can't even remember everything that I ate but I'll try - chicken wings, pizza dip, pulled pork, brie and apple grilled cheese, a hot dog, pasta salad, stromboli, chicken and broccoli, salad, crab cakes, sweet tarts, and 2 glasses of sangria and a beer.  The grilled cheese was made by Natasha and the green apple and brie together was like a dream.

After we stuffed our faces for 6 hours, a ton of people climbed into a boat and we headed out to watch the local fireworks.  I'm not really someone who cares for fireworks but these ones actually were pretty spectacular.

The best part about these fireworks was how insane everyone around us was.  There was patriotic music blaring from everywhere and there were probably a few hundred boats on the lake to watch, I've never seen so much boat traffic before.  It was pretty awesome to say the least... so nautical.

Today on the actual 4th, I slept in late and went for a way too hot and sweaty run where I felt some congestion in my chest and I was also sorely out of shape.  We had to prepare our apartment for potential tenants to come through, so we cleaned like mother effers... well I cleaned like a mother effer for like 3 hours: organizing, dusting, washing floors, throwing stuff out, etc.  It was exhausting, but at least we have 3 window AC units blasting to keep us mostly cool and I finally found my compression socks that had been hiding for the past couple of months so that's cool.

I would pay a million dollars to have the rest of the week off from work.  Instead, I have a week packed full of meetings (WHY?!) and poor person packed lunches.  Maybe I'll treat myself to a few morning runs too!