Anyone still out there?

I guess my marathon training has gone down the toilet. I would feel bad, but Matt hasn't been running very much either.

It's times of change and upheaval at our place of employment and by the time we come home all we want to do is eat Trader Joe's chocolate mint wafers and watch Kell on Earth (me) or BSG (him).

Exercise? Isn't that what we do when we pull the girls off of each other?

I know, I know

I am fully aware that I have not run all week. I wouldn't feel guilty about it if it wasn't for this blog. Which, I guess is the entire point of me starting it in the first place.

It's just when things seem to fall apart, the last thing I want to do is get on a treadmill. A date with Leslie Knope is much more my style.

And just so you know, this weekend is already a throwaway. I'm making pies WITH MY HANDS for my mom's birthday. And so, yeah, I think you see where this is going. Yum.

Bumps

Guests and family and a few other things have halted my running at the moment. I am not giving up, however. Just taking a teeny break.

Doing it again

I didn't think there would be another update on this blog ever, ever again.

Honestly, the race was so NOT FUN that I was ready to quit all this, just like I quit all the other exercise routines I start. But then I thought about my three readers (hello!) and about how much I want to go to New York and so I took myself to the gym and started over again.

It was as if everything was telling me not to go. Marina was sick with a fever, so there was guilt about that. Then I forgot my water bottle. And the water fountain at the Y wasn't working. (Is that even legal?) Every little thing I took as a sign to just go home.

But I made it to the treadmill, and instead of concentrating on how long it takes me to run two miles or how long I can run without stopping, I just started running. And after a few minutes, I didn't feel tired at all. I was actually, OMG, having fun! And so that feeling, I imagine, is what Matt feels all the time. It only lasted me a total of four minutes, tops, but, hey, it's a start.

First race photo

6 a.m. and ready to run.

Weirdest 5K, ever

Man, do I hate running.

Maybe I just hate outside running where machines can't tell you how fast or how far you're going. Because this race felt like it took forever. And, as it turns out, it did!

Instead of marking a standard, 3.1-mile course, this race was actually four miles. See, but nobody knew that because there were no mile markers along the way. Only after I crossed the poorly-marked finish line did I find out that, yes, there was a reason why this run was sucking so hard. Because it was four miles!
(The race organizers later apologized for their mistake online and renamed it the Super extended 5K.)

So in the end, finishing in 57:20 wasn't quite as bad as it originally seemed back when I thought I was running the slowest 3 miles, ever.

And the best part of the run had nothing to do with my music selection, but it was when I was halfway through and I saw Matt walking in the grass with both girls in his arms. When they saw me, I was running, not walking, and for a few tiny seconds, everything felt right.

Guess what?

It's raining.
And there's no signs of it stopping in time for the race.

DRAMA!

What will I do?

Last run before the race

and I have no good music WHATSOEVER programmed for the big day.

In fact, I owe my amazing time today (two miles in 30:10) to the fact that I was so distracted from trying to find something decent on my iPod that I didn't notice I had run an entire mile without stopping.

That's a lie. I totally noticed.

Another thing: I had been factoring my five minute warmup in my two mile time. Now, I walk for five minutes, stop the treadmill and then start again.
So it's not like I actually improved my time by two entire minutes, but let's pretend that I did.

Back to the music. Maybe it was my mood, or the fact that I had so many things to do that I had to write a schedule out for myself that was broken down in 30-minute increments, but nothing was inspiring me at all.

Also? Can I address this portion to VH1? I like to watch music videos in the background while I run and MTV stops playing theirs at 8 a.m. So I am forced to watch VH1. And guess what? Every time, EVERY TIME the exact same videos come on. I don't mind Rihanna all that much because she has some fun fashion happening. But is playing the exact same Train video twice in on hour really necessary?

Sorry.

Anyway, I was plugging along, ready to slow down. But then my absolute, number one most inspirational running song of all time came on my iPod. I've neglected to mention it before since it's kinda played out, but every time I hear "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend, I'm instantly motivated. See, I like to try and put my foot down every time you hear the drum beat, and that means I have to go faster.

I wonder if 45 minutes of this song is a good idea for Saturday?

Time Crunch

Today is the first day I am too busy to run. Training pushed to Thursday.

If I was Matt, I would totally be worried about how this would ruin my 5K. But I'm not.

Even though I drank half a bottle of wine last night

I still made progress on my workout today.

My two miles clocked in at 31:50 and my 5K time was 46:57.

Mostly what I learned is that my "NYC2012" iPod playlist is pretty terrible. I put a lot of songs that are too slow or have too many tempo changes and I wasn't very inspired. So midway through my run, I shuffled the contents on my entire iPod and realized that the harder a song rocks, the faster I'm going to go.

Super!

Matt was signing up for a bunch of races this morning. (He decided to run the Rock 'N' Roll marathon in June, woooo!)

Anyway, not wanting to be left out, I signed up for my very first 5K. AND IT'S THIS SATURDAY!!

It's the Super 5K, which I am assuming is in honor of the Super Bowl. And it's around Mission Bay. I'm sorta freaking out right now. But the following is what Coach Matt suggested:

Monday: 5K
Wednesday: 2 miles
Saturday: race

Bring it.

A 5K, just because

Following the gluttonous day I had on Thursday, I pretty much kicked ass on the treadmill the next day.

First, I ran 3.1 miles, which is a 5K. My time was 48:15.
Also? I was able to run for 10 minutes in a row, followed by some other long intervals, but I stopped counting.
And then? I shaved 8 seconds off my two-mile time, running it in 32:08, if I remember correctly.

And right on schedule, as always, is the cold. It always happens when I start getting back into an exercise routine, I get sick. But since Matt advised me to take the next two days off, I'm hoping I'll be OK on Monday.

Still, my most important lesson learned was that Lady Gaga does not make for good running music. She may be fun for dance parties, but the beats are slower and more erratic than you'd think.

Is it too soon for a bad day?

This blog is different than my other one because I'm not going to sugar-coat anything.

When I write about the girls, I learned that people want to read about cute and not about how Ella can be so stubborn and moody and it's not uncommon for her to throw pancakes in restaurants.

So it is with complete honesty that I will admit to having a total bad eating day. Already. And it's only day four.

I had a huge salad at lunch and then tried some of Matt's Pad Thai. Then we took the kids for a pizza dinner because some new place opened by our house. And, though I could have opted for the salad bar, I did not.

The silver lining I will find in all this is that last week, I wouldn't have cared as much as I should have. But now I am full of shame. SHAME!!!

And because of that, no song tonight.

The hump

For me, the second workout after I haven't exercised for a while is the most difficult. And today the tradition continued. It was hard for me to really get into it. I felt heavy and slow. Also, I had to exercise at work which is awkward on so many levels I'm surprised I actually made it through the door.

But I finished.

And I actually ran two miles in 32:16, which means I shaved two minutes off my first time.
Stats: ran five minutes in a row twice, then two minutes in a row twice over the course of that time.

My best song was Phoenix's "Lasso," inspiring me to keep running even though I really wanted to stop.

Here's a clip of that song when it was performed in San Diego. I was reviewing the show, so I had cushy seats in the stands, otherwise I would have been right there.

Now, for the why

Because my coach, Matt, told me to take the day off today, I think I'll explain why I have chosen to run a marathon across the country when there are plenty of good races here in San Diego.

Matt is a Boston guy. He grew up in the area. His friends and family are there. He loves its sports teams and its food chains. (Dunkin Donuts! Papa Gino's! Friendly's!) So obviously if and when we travel, we usually end up in Massachusetts.

The problem is, I love New York. So many of my closest friends live or have lived there at one point. I've seen amazing shows there, including the time Sleater-Kinney played a pretty small club right before the band broke up.

But Matt has never been to New York with me. There was a time I was there for Fashion Week and tried to get him to come for a few days but he refused. His logic is if he flies to the East Coast, he may as well go to Boston. So I'm basically screwed.

The other day I asked Matt what it would take for him to go to New York with me. And kinda joking around I mentioned the NYC marathon and he said that, yes, he would go to New York if I ran the marathon.

So that's what got this plan going.

There are already some sticking points, however. Like the marathon is in November. And 2012 is an election year. So Matt is already saying he'll probably have to work.
Also, you can't just show up and run the thing. You have to get picked in a lottery. So chances are I won't even qualify. But whatever. It's too early to worry about that now.

Instead, I will leave you with a little Sleater-Kinney. Please note the name of the song is "You're No Rock 'N' Roll Fun" and it is completely, totally dedicated to Matt.



Tomorrow's goal: two to three miles.

What the hell? Or an introduction

Six months ago, I was on a roll.
I was eating really well and exercising about four times a week and had lost about ten pounds.

But then I just stopped.
I'm not sure what happened. I can blame it on how we were suddenly making less money and had to move away from the most perfect house on the planet. There's also one night when I ate a donut after midnight and after that, we went to Boston and then I just stopped working out. I just stopped caring.

So obviously I gained all my weight back. I can just feel that if I don't take control of this now, I could end up being one of those women who has to get cut out of her house because she's so big.

So it's time to change my pattern.
Usually I can be really good for as long as six months, but then I kind of slowly revert back to old habits of eating too late at night and watching too much TV.

This time I'm going to have a goal. A ridiculous goal. One I can't even imagine because it's so preposterous. I want to run the New York City marathon in 2012.

Matt, as we all know, is a runner. He runs all the time. He's the fastest runner at our work. All he knows is running. His goal is to get back to the Boston Marathon before he's 40, which is kinda soon. (Hee, hee.) And because Matt and I are kinda competitive (No, I can type faster), I figured trying to get to NYC would be a good motivator to get in the best shape of my life.

So today was the day I hit the gym. And this blog will hopefully chart my progress from now until November, 2012.

On my first day back, I did two miles in 34 minutes, 15 seconds. I ran for five minutes without stopping twice in that time.
My most motivational song is totally, totally embarrassing, but this blog is all about honesty, so here it is: