1 day left!

Yay - I just dropped off my pledges and preregistered for the Breast Cancer run tomorrow. I managed to raise just 6 dollars short of $400! Yay! And (bonus) it turns out we get team shirts after all...how cool is that? Somehow it all worked out.
Our team is meeting tomorrow morning at 9 and the run is at 10.
I'm going to run for my Mom's friend Shirley who is recovering from chemo right now.
I can't wait - I feel as though I'm using my powers for good...

And then breakfast with J...I have been promised taters.
MMMMMmmmmm....I like taters.


Later taters...

4 days till race day

I went to belly dancing class last night - man, what a workout!
My knees and calves and abs are very stiff. I have all kinds of cool jiggly moves to practice - it's a lot of fun. AND I stepped on the scale this morning out of curiosity and I'm down to 130!
Wohooooo!
I haven't weighed that since I was a kid. I've was always a plump child and adult until I started working out and eating well a few yearsa ago and once I dreamed of weighing 125...many years ago at my largest (Just about 180 - which for short little me is a lot). And honestly where I am at now is fine. More than fine - I feel great...if I lose a few more pounds then whoopeee, but I'm happy and healthy...and THAT is what it has been all about the last while. I'm not dieting anymore, I'm just *living*.
Wow. I feel very proud of myself :)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow...it's my day off at my lab job so I can get up and have a nice long run in the sun before heading off to may last ever (YES) pledge drive shift at the community station.
Then on Saturday...I'm doing nothing. At all. I'm going to veg like broccoli. It's gonna be great.

And Sunday? Well it's the breast cancer run.
Yay...I'm nearly at my goal of raising $300.
Last chance to pledge you guys! Hop to it :)
Come on...I'm running 5K, toss me some change!

Sigh

So yeah.
I was going to run this morning but my alarm didn't go off.
Grrr.
So I slept in and was late for work. My whole day is thoroughly screwed up.
So perhaps thursday then. I learned last week not to bellydance and run on the same day so I won't run tomorrow, althtough I might walk to work.

Note to self - take it easy

On thursday my legs and knees hurt in a new and slightly scary way - not the sore muscley way but the "easy girl you really pushed it" kind of way. I have to remember not to run on the days I have bellydancing class - my knees just aren't cut out for all that.
Today? Well my knees still twinge and ache a bit in those odd ways and my calves are a bit swollen, so I didn't run today...I'm not going to go and injure myself. I know I can run the distance I need to next weekend, and I dont' want to really hurt myself. I don't feel too guilty about it, as I'm off to hear some good music this weekend, so I will dance up a storm I'm sure, but right now, my knees are politely asking me to still take it easy.
So I will.
Have a nice weekend!

Stress release

Ah. This morning I got up and did my usual run, only faster and venting my stress out my legs. Yesterday was a huge stressful nightmare and I was very glad to vent my stress physically and reset my mind. I felt much better afterwards.

Priobably looked like a raving nutter while I was out runnung, but I felt great all day.
Now I must be off to belly dancing class.

Jiggle jiggle.

Busy busy...lazy lazy

Yup...this working all day working all night thing is exhausting. I didn't run this morning, BUT I did walk to work AND walk and extra 20 minutes to my friends house to check on her cat before work. So, a 50 minute walk is OK...not quite the same as a run...but that is for tomorrow (promise). Today was cold and crummy (~3 degrees) and I couldn't drag my ass out of bed until too late to run and stretch and still make it to work.


I'm a little bummed out as some of my race team members didn't get their pledges in on time or forgot their race fee so we don't get team shirts...*sniff*. I put in so much work to be sure I exceeded my pledge goal by the deadline...and no shirt for me. We might see if we can get our own made up, or ge them early and iron on some letters or something...bummer. The whole reason I joined a team for the race was to get a team shirt.
Oh well...I've still raised over $200 for a great cause, and running 5K will be a good thing for my bottom. Instead of my usual walky runny thing I'm going to see if I can run the whole race...even if it's slowly. Last 5K race I nearly did...wonder if I can now?

Incidentally, my loving (and hopefully not imaginary) readers, if you want to pledge to the breast cancer run, please do. It's for an amazing cause. If you want to pledge to me that's fine too, but it's the cause that's important. Please go to the Run For The Cure link on the right of my weblog and follow the links...pretty please ?

sunday sunshine

On sunday I had a beautiful run IN THE DAYLIGHT! :)

It was warm and sunny and there were tonnes of poeple out on the paths by the river enjoying the sunshine. I ran across the river and on the walking paths towards the university, and it was beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then it was home and busy busy busy...but it was nice to fit in this just for me before I made a tasty breakfast of waffles and custard.
Waffles are VERY good for you...all that fibre. Yeah...and the custard was full of omega 3 and calcium. Yum...

Music to run to: Fat Boy Slim - Best of, Chemical Brothers - We are the night

Eeees chilleeeeee yeeeeees?

Eet eees so veeeeery coooold today my dahlings.

So instead of running in 1 degree weather I went downstairs to the crosstrainer and did 40 minutes. I'll admit it wasn't the most enthusiastic workout ever...probably about 32 minutes I was actually trying, but I did it. It's good for me. I took it easy yesterday as my back is still abit sore form the bellydancing class I started Wed night - I have some practicing to do for next week, as I'm not very coordinated in my jiggling yet. I'm hoping to ge ta nice sunny afternoon run in on Sunday. It's been a while since I've run in the daylight!

I was so pleased to hear that someone I work with who was encouraged by me learning to run and started out himself is now able to run 5 minute stretches too. He is only out for 35 minutes total, but he said his high blood pressure is no longer high...and his daughter has been running with him too. Another coworker wants to start too. It's contagious.

Cool!

Soon we'll all be running!
Muahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaa!


Music to exercise in the basement to: Ursula 1000 - Ursadelica

The world has an attitude

Some days I wonder....

I woke up before my alarm this morning, in a glitteringly good mood, cat purring by my head. Got dressed, grabbed some music and water and went out to run - nice weather...about 15 degrees and cloudy. Went down by the river where I could watch the birds and see the sun rise on the water.
Then about 5 minutes into my run I realised I forgot my inhaler and had to adjust my pace to keep my breathing relatively regular, as my lungs were sqeaking abit. I managed to find a pace that was doable.
"OK, this is good" I thought, "no prob".

Then it started to sprinkle rain.
"Just a bit of deweyness" I thought and smiled. As I ran, it was actually nice and cooled me off, and I said "aha! a little rain can't hurt me".

Big mistake.

The sky opened up in response and it POURED rain on me for the last 15 minutes of my run. Because I was already out and on my way back towards home there was nothing for it except to just tuck the ipod into my sleeve and mumble as I ran a long in the rain, glasses all drippy and fogged up and shoes squelching with every step.

The warm shower after felt *so* good and cheered me up a bit...but I'm not sure why the world is insistant on trying to ruin my mood some days - it seemed to be taunting me today. Now that I'm all dry and sipping warm coffee, it is all fine again, but I was beginning to wonder there for a bit.

Perhaps I should not say things out loud and invest in that good rain coat I've been talking about.

Music to drown by: The Crystal Method - Vegas

Panic run

I gave myself a super adrenaline boost this morning by accident.

On my run I've decided to stick to the road now, as it's quite dark out now when I run in the morning and I'm not feeling too safe on the wooded paths I usually run on at the edge of the river. It's all semantic, I know, as it's the same time of day as before, and there's only ever one other lady out, and she's running too...when it's really dark our I just can't see ahead or into the trees, so I can't be sure it's safe as I run. And I'm scared of the dark too...so it doesn't help.

This morning, I was feeling moody sticking to the roads so I thought I'd skip in and run the brief 250m or so section down right by the river through the trees as it's so beautiful and the geese are on the river...but it was way too dark and spooky and no light was getting through the trees and I felt as though there could be a whole gang of people there just waiting for me and I wouldn't know until I was trapped and couldn't get out and I basically freaked myself out...and then the song serial thriller came on my walkman...which I misheard as serial killer...and so I literally surged with adrenaline and sprinted full out through that section and back out to the road where I caught my breath! I'm an idiot I know. I think I'm just going to have to stick to the road as boring as it is... It's funny as I don't know why I feel safer on the paths when the sun is up during the summer...I just do. My city is generally a safe place...I just felt like I was tempting life too much, you know?

I did do my 42 minutes of run 5 walk 2 though...although I was pretty out of breath by the end. I don't normally run all out in the middle of my run...

And on the weekend I did lots of walking...went for e 3 hour hike with Jay on Sunday through the woods across the river. It was so nice...and daylight out too...

Music to sprint madly by: Prodigy - Fat of the Land

Rainy days and catflexing

This morning I woke up, hit snooze....hit snooze again and then remembered the dialog on Cranky Fitness (thanks Crabby) and got up to work out. After I was ready to go I looked outside to see an absolute pea soup of a day - foggy, misty rain at about 10 degrees.
"screw that" I thought and went downstairs, put on some loud music and hopped on the crosstrainer machine for 45 minutes. It was far less interesting and harder to keep up my speed than being outside, but I did my workout. AND I stretched out fully and did some situps after. The cats were annoying me to no end (after watching me exercise the whole time from the top of the bookshelves...lazy critters) so I picked up Geek and tried to do some arm curls with him just to see what he'd do.
He was not amused and wriggled to freedom -BUT at least he left me alone to stretch after.
I had to laugh, as when I was snooping on the net this morning before work I ran across a book linked to in the comments on Cranky Fitness' entry for this morning - a book on "Catflexing". It's all about working out with your cat...apparently mine won't go for it, although the photos on the back of someone lunging and donig pushups with a cat on their back made me smile, as I'll admit to having done both of those things on a number of occasions...mostly when Geek won't leave me alone while stretching or exercising. It appears that only *he* can pick the workout though...plus I just don't think I'll go there for the sake of fitness! It's just a bit too far into the crazy cat lady realm for me...

Ah well. Rainy days and cats seem to go together well don't they? :)

Workout tunage: At War With The Mystics (Flaming Lips) and Endangered Species (Nikodemus).

Footnote: Later today:MAN are my sides and back stiffening up. I forgot how much you move your back/arms on that damn elliptical. I'm not used to it anymore, And *different* muscles are sore...wish I knew a good masseuse...

Long dark thirties

This morning I got up to run, and it wasn't so bad. J worked literally all day yesterday and was up again at the crack of dawn for more work (poor guy). I tried to be encouraging before I ran off, but I don't know how coherent I was at 5:15 in the morning...I hope his day is better today.

It's darker now in the mornings. It's still warm tho - I can still run in shorts, tank top and zip up shirt, but I had to turn on the function on my watch that lights up the display when I move my wrist about. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to read the display as I ran to know when to run/walk without concentrating on it so hard I'd probably trip over something and fall down...
After 1 stint of 2.5 min walk and 4.5 minute run I thought "I can do more" and went back to 2 minutes walk and 5 minutes run for the other 5 times. And it was fine...almost too easy. Maybe I need to start running faster? Or maybe I'm just finally back to where I was before the holidays and not feeling as though I may die when I run longer distances is such a pleasant surprise.
I think I'll start to log what I listen to as I run too...for my own curiosity.

Now if I could just convince the sun to come up BEFORE I'm done my run it would be even better. It's nice looking and all and light out by the time I"m done, but I have to run on the road as I'm not comfortable on the secluded woody paths in the dark on my own - and that is much more boring...and slightly less safe for different reasons now that I think about it. Not a lot of cars out when I'm out, but I think I'll have to invest in a running jacket with reflecty bits on it just in case...I've been eyeing one up for a while now.

Music to run by: Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out

Running, and canoeing and bears, oh my!

I got to run at the lake this weekend (and I ran friday before we left I might add!).

Wow. I love running up there! Jay and I went for a walk in the rain too - it was really nice.
Running through the trees with critters and such to watch is so inspiring. I even saw bats up there at night- never saw one of them up there before!
Although I'm not sure I've ever eaten that much in a weekend before in my life, I did do a lot. J and I even went for a 2 hour canoe ride this morning...it was beautiful...and although there were bears about, what with it being berry season, we never ran into one at all...

I also got to visit with a friend of my parents who is just recovering from her breast cancer treatment - I'm inspired agian for the run, and wonder at her strength. Although she'd be embarrased to know it, I'm running for her in September.
Her treatments went well -after the mastectomy, other surgeries and chemo they seem to have caught it all - she'll be OK. i want good news for other breast cancer patients too...