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I’m Going To Be A Champion!
Click the image to read Allie's hilarious tale about running in Texas.
In less than 2 days, I’ll be running my first 10k race. I have a few concerns:
1. I’ve yet to run that far. I’ve only gotten up to ~5 miles.
2. The race starts at 7:30am. Not a morning person.
3. I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Now, I’m hoping that the adrenaline of being in a race will help me get over that hump of that last mile. Also, I have to make sure I don’t get caught up in the moment of the race where I get competitive and have to “beat” someone else, otherwise I’ll speed up my pace and will have nothing left for that last mile.
With the race starting that early in the morning, that might be a good thing. It’ll be cooler outside, which is a good thing for me as I don’t do so well in the heat. Also, I might just be sleepy enough to not realize I’m in agony at mile 5.5! Somehow, I don’t think that will work.
I’m a bit anxious for Saturday just because I don’t know what to expect in that last mile. My goal is to finish in 1:06, based upon an 11min mile, which is what I’ve been consistently doing at the 5 mile distance, but I usually need a ~1min stretch break halfway through due to tight calves and therefore I pause my watch. There will be no pausing on Saturday as it’s chip-timed, so I’ll have to keep track via my own watch with no pausing to verify the time.
Wish me luck!
Joints Update
Well, it’s been 2.5 days since I haven’t had any artificial sweeteners and my body (except for my right hand) is back to 100% no joint pain. I attribute my right hand still being achy to old volleyball injuries and computer use.
Carolyn + Artificial Sweeteners = BAD NEWS
Wondering how the rest of you fared with your own experiments?
No More!
I’m finished with artificial sweeteners.
I stopped drinking diet soda a while back, but I never knew how much the artificial sweeteners affected my joints until this weekend.
As you know, I went to a family picnic and rather than take a bottle of wine (my usual) or drink beer (bloat city), I decided to take some Mike’s Light Hard Lemonade. Ninety-eight calories each? Sweet!
I discovered the problem yesterday: artificial sweeteners. That’s what makes it so low calorie.
It’s also the reason that nearly every joint in my body hurts today. I had some on Friday, a diet soda on Saturday with a few more Mike’s yesterday.
My body feels like I’m 90 years old. I HURT. Working out was a damn struggle today and after a 3 mile run, I’m not only wiped out, but nauseous. I’ve taken 6 ibuprofen already today, and it’s barely taken the edge off.
There’s no scientific proof that’s what the problem is, but I’m pretty sure I have some sort of allergy to it. My mom doesn’t consume artificial sweeteners for the same reason: her joints don’t hurt anymore since she stopped ingesting the stuff, and it seems I’m the same way.
So, no more! If I’m going to enjoy an adult type beverage, I’m going to stick with wine, or vodka limeades (made w/real sugar). I’m not saying they don’t work for you….but they most certainly don’t work for me.
T-Minus 6 days to the 10k! Eek!
Happy Friday!
Heading down to a family reunion with a cooler full of drinks, a salad for the bbq, bug spray and my drinkin’ hat.
Gonna be a fun weekend.
Happy Friday!
Pain In The Neck
I woke up on Monday with a crick in my neck, which developed into a giant knot in my left shoulder.
Since, I’ve been putting on Biofreeze, massaging the heck out of those knots and taking liberal amounts of ibuprofen. I should also back off on my running, but the treatment I’m doing now seems to be working well.
Why am I not backing off on the running? I have a 10k to run in next Saturday, July 24th! The New Year’s resolution that I’ve been putting down for 4 years now is finally going to get done!
I’ve gotten comfortable doing 5 miles now…so I figure in the next 9 days I will be able to get up past the 6.2 miles needed to finish the 10k in a respectable time.
I skipped running yesterday because of the heat and to give my body a break, but it’s back to it tonight with a 4+ miler and then my weight routine. As I progress towards the half-marathon distance, I’m realizing just how hard it is getting all those miles in each day. I’m not a morning person and the week I tried to exercise before work was a complete and utter disaster. I was rushed, I was sweaty all day and I was also ravenous all day. I’d rather be ravenous when I’m sleeping.
Now that I’m getting close to an hours worth of running 4-5x a week, I also have to fit in the strength training that’s helped keep me injury-free this whole summer (aside from the volleyball thing). The woman that did the strength training class just got married and will be moving to Wisconsin in August, so no more classes! Now, I’ve come up with a lower body and upper body routine that’s working somewhat well…when I do it. I just need to set aside 2-3 days a week where I will do the strength stuff in addition to the running. Overkill? Not really…at least it doesn’t feel that way.
The problem with all this is supper. Running for an hour, then squeezing in 15-20 minutes of weights can easily put me out of the house until 7:30pm…then I have to cook supper! As I like to cook, good meals take time. Tim’s complained a little bit on how late we have supper…but 1) I’ve always eaten dinner late and 2) I don’t want to use convenience foods all the time.
So, I need to get my ass out the door after work as soon as possible to get my miles in. I don’ t know how I’ll do it this fall when I’ll have to get in 2+ hours of running in at a time. After this 1/2 marathon, I think I’ll still stick to the 5-6 mile runs for fitness sake…I just don’t know how people who run 10+ miles on a regular basis can do it, other than being faster than my 10 minute mile pace. But this short, stocky German/Polish chick can’t run that fast. I’m not built for speed…I’m built for endurance!
* * * * *
Got my first big haul from my CSA yesterday and there’s a TON of stuff I’ve never had before: Rainbow Swiss Chard, Collard Greens and I have no friggin idea what to do with them. Research found that Chard can be used like spinach, so I’m going to make some ricotta/chard stuffed shells for supper tonight (which will be at 9pm, at this rate!). With cheese, pasta and tomato sauce, how could it go wrong? Fingers crossed!
Lazy Independence
I decided earlier in the week that I was going to not go anywhere this weekend.
June was a blur of activity; going out of town, events, weddings, you name it. I haven’t been that socially busy in, well, ever!
So, this weekend, I’m staying home…ALL WEEKEND. I’ve turned down at least two invites to parties/bbq’s and will turn down any others that arise. I’m going to stay home, be a lazy bum, and do nothing.
‘I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be.’ ~ Peter Gibbons, Office Space
I might sit in my lawn chair with a book, I might venture over to the Elm Creek beach and lie about, I might play video games, I might go for a bike ride, I might cook some fabulous food…I might do all of these and more. But I’m not holding myself to any of it.
Going to be a great weekend!
Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!
Music.
Har Mar Superstar's "Dark Touches" on hot pink vinyl. Sexy.
We FINALLY got a turntable yesterday. And by “FINALLY” meaning that I’ve been without one for 16 years. I’ve kept all my vinyl from back then and I’ve purchased (a LOT) more in the interim, but when Tim was out and about yesterday with his boss, he found this gem for $50 at a “pop culture” store. It’s 1/2 price of what it would cost new, it’s been recently refurbished (new belts and whatnot), PLUS it has an upgraded head cartridge! So I came home to Tim sitting on the floor, huge grin on his face, listening to a bunch of my old vinyl records.
So now, I really want to get some headphones and lay on the carpet staring at the ceiling listening to records. Would be worth it to pick up the Beatles on vinyl for just this purpose.
* * * * *
I have to get a wisdom tooth pulled today. Not looking forward to it, but, since it came in straight and the only thing wrong with it is that it has decayed to the point where it needs a filling (and my dentist thinks it’s not worth putting fillings into wisdom teeth), so it needs to come out. Lucky for me, the lower wisdom tooth hits the upper molar too, so it doesn’t have to come out either.
I just hope I’ve recovered enough to drive to Des Moines tomorrow for my fun weekend with my friends S and K!
Dystopia Fatigue
This blog post on NPR explains just what bothers me with a lot of popular media; it’s just too depressing/repulsive.
Quote:
I have dystopia fatigue from too many depictions of humanity that are so cynical and so empty that they cease to speak to me.
It’s why I can’t get through many episodes of shows like Breaking Bad or It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, or to a lesser extent, Trailer Park Boys. The characters are either so morally bankrupt, cruel, ignorant and downright nasty to one another, I can’t waste my brain cells trying to make a connection to these people. Not everything I watch is sunshine and rainbows, but there’s some redeeming quality to them. Something good eventually happens to make it worth my while. I think it’s a huge reason why I can’t stand reality television; the people on there are just horrible.
And yes, I watch Glee and I love it.
I’m going to focus my time and effort on things that aren’t doom and gloom. Because right now, with the BP oil spill in the Gulf and seeing those poor animals suffering in the filth and the livelyhoods of the people in that region going down the tubes and the government isn’t going to do a goddamn thing about it (because oil is worth more to this government than dead animals and fishermen losing their jobs) just makes me upset.
Thus, onto happier things!
Also, because songs like this make me happy:
My favorite Beatle.
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