Where in the world did my motivation go? I just can’t seem to find it anywhere, not even in fancy black dresses! *sniff sniff* So, like, it’s been cold and snow has covered the ground for the majority of this week. In fact, I haven’t run at all this week, just did workout videos inside. After attempting to go run on the snow-covered ground, I realized that it was just not going to happen. My feet were cold and starting to get wet, so I went inside and worked out to Jillian Michaels, but it’s pretty amazing how long a 27-minute workout can be. I would much rather go running (wait, did I really just say that?!). But right now, I just want to go bake something with chocolate in it. That doesn’t involve sweating, right? Unless I stand next to the oven for awhile. Sigh. I ran two miles last week. Really, I did. Shouldn’t that be enough to motivate me? BLAH!!!
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
I had the most awesome dream the other night. David and I were in England in front of this really beautiful fountain at night, and I had on a fancy black dress and was SO THIN! And then I woke up. C’ est la vie. But really, you should have been there. It was great. But it may have been weird to have you all there in my dream. No offense, but you may have spoiled it. After all, it was a romantic getaway for me and David. But you may have commented that I looked great in my dress, and I would have loved that (and then told you to get lost, with love of course).
Anyway, enough talk of dreams; let’s talk reality. And the reality is, I have some really crazy news to share. Most of you reading this already know it, but I still can’t get over it. So here it is: Saturday, I ran two miles. Not terribly exciting, right? But you don’t understand! I RAN TWO MILES! And you know what? I didn’t have to stop (except that I stopped in between miles because at the time, I didn’t know I was going to run two). I wasn’t winded while I was running. I just kept going. Wanna know what was going on in my head? Maybe not; it’s probably scary. 
But I was just thinking, “This is weird. I’m running The Mile and I’m okay with it.” Before I began running though I started feeling nervous, kind of like I used to feel before I ran The Mile in grade school, except not quite as frantically nervous and panicked. But I reminded myself that I didn’t have my PE teacher’s approval to gain, no grade to think about; I was just running because I wanted to (which is pretty crazy in and of itself by the way). So, yeah, I like, ran and junk!
Now here’s the frustrating part. I had these visions of an 8 or 9-minute mile floating around in my head, thinking that I had been working out for awhile and surely my time would be around that. Well, I was sorely disappointed. The time for my first mile was 11 minutes, 29 seconds. The time for my second mile was 11 minutes, 10 seconds. I did better in grade school! But I’ve been thinking of a few things that may help me out. The first one is that I need to figure out something different with my breathing. What I had been doing was inhaling every time I stepped on my right foot, exhaling on the left. When I picked up my pace, though, I thought I was going to hyperventilate so tried to slow it down and breathe deeper but was having a hard time concentrating on that and running, so I think I need to practice it. The second thing I think will help is to run faster. That sounds like a no brainer, eh? I don’t think I was pushing myself enough during my training days so on Saturday when I picked up the pace a bit, I could definitely tell I needed to push a bit harder. The third thing I think will help is to shed a few pounds. The lighter I am, the faster I’ll move, right? And then I may be able to wear that fancy black dress and be thin! Maybe shedding some poundage won’t land me in England though, but we can just pretend. There’s gotta be a slim Lisa in there somewhere! (I think I ate her!) So my friends, that is what is going on in my world of running. This week may be a bit harder to get my actual running in because we had lots of snow this past weekend. But, I found some helpful information on running on snow and ice, so I might just give it a try (or not).
Today’s run was…AWESOME! I could have gone longer except I had to work. Who knew?
A limerick:
There once was a girl who was flabby.
And her running was terribly shabby.
She ran out in the cold.
Which was really quite bold,
Now her ‘tude shines forth awfully crabby.
I was having trouble finding rhyming words, okay! (and actually I just wanted to stall because I really don’t want to work out today…)
So yesterday, I had this conversation. It didn’t go very well, but in the end, I won, which is what really matters in arguments, ya know? But this conversation wasn’t with just anyone. In fact, I don’t know that you could really call it an “anyone” at all. It was with Exercise. And he was mean. So I blew a raspberry at him and told him to leave me alone. Here’s how it went:
Exercise: Hey Lisa, it’s been since Saturday that you worked out last. If that’s the case, you really should push yourself today.
Me: Well…I don’t know. Mondays are always hard for me to get going. I’ll probably just wait until after dinner this evening.
Exercise: Yeah right. You know that won’t happen. You have to clean up from dinner and you’ll want to spend time with David and relax. There’s no way you’ll want to exercise!
Me: Can’t prove it! Maybe I will! I might even do something pretty hard, like Billy Blanks!
Exercise: You won’t either! You’re a sissy!
Me: Them’s fightin’ words! You better watch out!
Exercise: Whatever! You don’t scare me!
Me: Oh yeah? Well THHHHBPT! (that’s a raspberry in case you didn’t know). I’ll deal with you tomorrow!
Exercise: Fine! Be that way!
Me: I will! Now get!
Whew. It didn’t go well, but I held my own. (and just between you and me, I didn’t end up working out yesterday. In fact, I ate a hotdog during a movie with David, but it was okay because it was on a whole wheat bun. But there’s no way I’ll tell Exercise about that. I’d never live it down). So, um, that’s what happened with me and Exercise yesterday. Today though, we seem to have made amends and I ended up working out. Not to Billy Blanks though. I Wii’d it. Super Hula Hooping sounded a lot more fun. And I threw in a little kung fu as well. To top it off, I went on a bike ride on Mii Island and fell off a cliff. That’s dangerous living! I probably burned more calories that way though, right? Not quite as tiring as Billy Blanks, but a workout just the same. In other exciting news, we recruited another good friend to join our running ranks! Hi Cara!
That’s all for now. I will keep you all posted on me and Exercise. That makes for some good blogging; just throw in a good argument every now and then to keep people coming back for more. Juicy stuff!
I ran today. The end…
Okay, okay! I know I can’t just leave you hanging like that so I’ll fill you in on the nitty gritty. What have I been up to this week? Amidst flurries and mud, I actually found time to run. But when the flurries were bad, I worked out inside. Yesterday the sun was out and it was such a nice day, if not a bit cold, so I got all decked out in my running gear…and took a nap. Yes, I did! I’m not exactly sure why I was so tired but I could hardly keep my eyes open. The bad part was that when I woke up I felt like I hadn’t even taken a nap at all. And then I had to work when I woke up too. Blah. Today though was a good run. I am still doing week #4 of Couch to 5K. It seemed a little easier today than before. Yay! I am planning on running again tomorrow and Saturday. Sunday it’s supposed to be cold and snowy again. I’m definitely looking forward to spring. And here’s a news flash for ya: I just realized that I’ve worked out everyday this week so far! Yippee!
Stay tuned for more workout/running updates and maybe just for kicks I’ll throw in a recipe or two or something totally random just to keep you coming back for more!
I just have to say it. I’m pretty pleased with the title of this post. Say what you will, I think it’s catchy. But why am I talking about gyros to begin with? Because, yesterday we got lamb meat!
“Great, Lisa, but what’s the big deal?”
Because! I’ve wanted to get lamb meat for a long time now and can’t find it or am too stingy economical to buy it. However, one of David’s coworkers went to Kansas City the other day and purchased some for us that was pretty reasonably priced, for lamb meat that is. And so I’m excited! (you’ve probably noticed by now that it doesn’t take much to get me excited, does it?). I will probably not be fixing gyros though despite the catchy title. I’ve been in the curry mood and when we have company over soon I will probably fix this recipe. Along with this. And then a salad. And maybe something for dessert. I was looking for some Pakistani/Indian desserts to make but a lot of them call for some really strange (to me) ingredients. So, I may just skip the authentic dessert and stick with American or maybe I’ll go out on a limb and just have fruit for dessert *gasp!* But then again, I like to take chances.
Yesterday, I didn’t end up running outside because it was pretty cold and it was flurrying pretty badly. So, I ran 4.5 miles inside…on the Wii…in place. Unfortunately, there is a pretty significant difference between running and actually going somewhere and running in place. But! It was something at least. The other night after I finished flipping my pancakes (which were NOT a flop, by the way!), I did Billy Blanks Ultimate Boot Camp. Surprisingly afterward, I was not as sweaty and tired as I usually am. I told David I should do it again because I felt cheated. The next day, I felt a little sore but decided to do it again and oh my ouchness! I didn’t get much done the rest of the day and had to take a nap. When I woke up, it hurt to move. My skin itself felt sore. So, anyway, that whole part about me not really feeling like I worked out very hard? Yeah, you can ignore that.
Today, the flurries have let up a bit, so I’m planning to run outside. Not 4.5 miles though. That would probably take me quite awhile. I still plan on doing week 4 of Couch to 5K. It’s just stinkin’ cold out there. To all you runners in cold climates, my hat is off to you. I guess I better quit whining and go tough it out. Before I do that though, I just remembered a dream I had Saturday night. I dreamed I ran, not 3, not 4, not 5, but 6 whole miles, and I did it without stopping! When I told David, he chuckled and said, “It’s just a dream.” Grrr! The nerve! I would love to be able to run 6 miles without stopping (hey, I’d love to run a mile without stopping!), so I better get off my duff and go practice. Ciao!
Okay, so I have a confession to make…I didn’t go running today or yesterday (gasp!). But, I really do have good excuses reasons. We got busy with school yesterday and I had to work late both nights and, well, the weather was bad today. So there! I also had oodles of bananas in my freezer and not a whole lot for breakfast in the morning so decided to make some banana pancakes. The only problem is that I doubled the recipe and have about 5 gallons of pancake batter (the original recipe already made a lot, something I didn’t realize when I was measuring the ingredients), so I may be up awhile flipping pancakes before I get to bed. And just as a side note, I am a notoriously bad pancake flipper. A lot of times I flip too early and the pancake breaks apart on my spatula (pronounced “spatoola” ) or I flip it on top of another one, or hit the side of the griddle. Hopefully, I’m a better writer than pancake flipper though! I thought I’d make good use of my time and come blog a little bit in between flips
Before I get to bed tonight, I’m planning on working out. My plan is to do Billy’s Ultimate Boot Camp. Now, there’s no need to tell you how that makes me feel as you are probably already scarred by my picture after a previous booty kicking. But, no matter. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. And right now, I need to go flip some pancakes. Hang on a sec!
Okay! I’m back! Nothing burnt, nothing spilled (much). My 5 gallons of pancake batter is slowly dwindling. You know, maybe I should have actually tried out the recipe first before making so many…but I always do that kind of thing. Most of the time, it works out pretty well. One time, I decided to make a new kind of pizza that (to me) sounded really good and hey, you can’t go wrong with pizza, right? Erhm…the pizza was SO GROSS! Wanna hear the ingredients? Pizza crust (okay, that sounds good), dried plums (they’re prunes, people! Don’t be afraid of the “p” word!), balsamic vinegar (what in the world?), garlic (intriguing, no?), chicken, and cheese (nothing wrong with those, right?)
[Brief pause for a quick pancake turn]
So, back to the pizza. Yeah, let me just say that by the time you blend “prunes,” garlic, and balsamic vinegar, lather it on pizza crust, throw on some cooked chicken breast, and patch it over with cheese, you’ve got something really scary on your hands. Yes, my friends, that is what the cooking world would refer to as a TOTAL FLOP! Blech! But how in the world did I start on this rabbit trail? This isn’t really sticking close to topic (but I did say the word “flop,” which is similar to “flip,” which is what I was doing with the pancakes, but I digress…).
Well, I must be signing off or my poor neglected pancakes will burn. More updates later on in the week, so stay tuned for more!
Hello all! I decided to update and encourage you all by posting my progress on my blog. Isn’t that so exciting? Let me tell you what I did yesterday. I ran. Wow! Who knew? But, it wasn’t just any run, you know. This is technically week two in my Couch to 5K program. However, after looking at what I was going to be doing, it didn’t look challenging enough, so I decided to skip ahead to week four. First is a 3-minute jog, then a 90-second walk, then a 5-minute jog, then a 2 1/2-minute walk, then a 3-minute jog, etc. That first three minutes went by very slowly and let me tell you, I treasured every second of that next walking period! Then came the 5-minute jog. I was really dreading it but made it all the way through. It helps to have some techno music playing in the background. At any other time, I don’t like techno, but it helps keep me going when I run. By the end of my training session, something interesting happened. Not only did I make it through my very last 5-minute run, but I felt like I could keep going! I realized it wasn’t so bad after all, so you know what I did? I kept running…for another 10 seconds…and then I decided to call it quits for the day. After all, I had to, uh, work or something like that. I didn’t end up running today, although I planned on it. My morning was a bit busier than expected. However, I plan to run tomorrow, weather permitting as we are supposed to have rain and/or snow over the next few days. But, my fellow runners, stay tuned for the next installment on my journey. It should prove to be interesting at the very least, humiliating at the very worst, and comical all the way around. For some helpful tips on exercising and eating right, I highly recommend my fellow runner and very good friend, Elizabeth. She has an excellent blog on all things fitness. Check her site out and encourage her too! She ran/walked 4 miles the other day! What a show off good example!