Tag Archives: running

Harder Then Usual

22 Mar

Do you ever have a day where your energy is lower than normal and you just have no motivation to do anything, let alone exercise? That was me today, blerg.

I’m not sure what happened…I woke up, had no energy, but hey, its morning who has energy in the morning? Only crazy people that’s who! lol I figured I’d be fine once I ate but no-go with that. I ate, waited a half hour, went to the gym and I swear I thought I was gonna fall off the treadmill when running my sprints – now that would have been embarrassing! 😛

Normally my cardio days are my “better days” at the gym, not because I’m necessarily better at cardio then weights it’s more that at least on cardio days I know for sure what I’m doing and am not worrying about my form or forgetting something. Plus, I’m not having to deal with the funny looks from the guys in the free weight area who always start off smirking at me like it’s a joke I’m lifting weights and then turn to contemplation as they realize I’m using 20lbs weights for some of my moves and seem to actually know what I’m doing. *rolls eyes*

But today, even as I started on the treadmill I knew it was gonna be hard, my yawning was a good indication of that lol and the fact that getting my legs to move at even a light warm-up jog pace was seriously hard work.

Here’s what I do when running on cardio days:

I jog for 3 minutes to warm up at 4 mph, then I sprint for 30 seconds at a pace of  9 mph, then I go back to jogging at 4 mph for 1.5 minutes, then I sprint at 9 mph for another 30 seconds…it keeps repeating like that but eventually my sprints get up to a speed of 9.5 mph. After I have sprinted 8 times I cool down. In total I’m on the treadmill for 20 minutes – not too shabby, right? Well, every cardio day I have to do better then the cardio day prior, on Monday I did 4 sprints at 9 mph and 4 sprints at 9.5 mph so today I should have done 4 at 9 mph, 3 at 9.5 mph and 1 at 10 mph but it soooo didn’t happen. 😛 Since I was really having to push to stay on the treadmill at 9.5 mph I was certain if I upped the speed on the last sprint I’d be screwed…and embarrassed when I fell…and possibly injured. 😉

I was mad at myself when I got off the treadmill, mad I wasn’t able to somehow magically push myself to do that final sprint at a speed of 10 mph, mad I almost didn’t make it through the last sprint at 9.5 mph, mad that instead of enjoying the run like I usually do my head was filled with negative thoughts about how tired I was, how I just couldn’t do this today, how I felt like I was gonna throw up, how I should just skip the run cause hey, nobody will know, *rolls eyes* Sure, if nobody asked me how my run went nobody would know if I skipped it, except…I would know, and talk about screwing myself up for next cardio day…if I can’t make it through my run today then on Friday I’d have that in my head, the mentality that I can’t do it anymore, it’s too much for me, I’m too slow or too weak or too lazy or too fat or too something and then not only would I be working to keep pace with the treadmill I’d be fighting an even harder battle against my own brain and it’s negative thoughts – I’m not sure that’s a battle I know I can win.

NC says a big part of pushing yourself at the gym is getting past all the bullshit in your head, pushing past what your brain says is your limit, he also says the days you don’t want to go are the days you have to go. Anybody can work out on a day they feel great, have loads of energy and are psyched for it. But to go and push yourself in the gym on a day where the planets aren’t all perfectly aligned and you’re not in the perfect place/mood to exercise, those are the days that show you what you can make yourself do, that’s when you see your strength and get past your mental blocks.

I don’t know that I actually got past a mental block today, I barely made it through that last sprint, and since I didn’t up the speed I feel like a bit of a failure, at the same time, I know if I had upped the speed I wouldn’t have made it through the entire 30 second sprint, so, isn’t it better to do the sprint at 9.5 and do the entire 30 seconds instead of go at a speed of 10 but only make it to say 15 seconds? Although! Maybe that’s my mental block? Maybe if I had pushed it to 10 I would have found some deep well of energy or perseverance or pig-headedness that would have helped me force my way through the 30 seconds, crap, now I really wish I’d tried the 10 mph…

I’m not sure why I bottomed out today energy wise, I have been eating according to my food plan this week, no cheating! Yah! Which means I’m getting lots of protein (119.9g today), a decent amount of fat (47.9g today), low-ish carbs (113.4 g today, ok fine, higher then they should be by 13.4 grams, so shoot me! 😛 ), I’m staying hydrated, I’m following all the rules so, what gives? If following the rules means I’m gonna lose all my energy mid week and suck at cardio then I’m screwed cause as we all know from my performance at the gym today, I’m not so great at pushing through to new achievements when I have no energy, is anybody? Maybe I’m just extraordinarily lazy, well ok, yeah I am, but I mean even more lazy then even I realized – which would be scary lol 😀

I just don’t know, I’m kinda at loose ends about what happened, about why I tanked out energy wise, about why I didn’t force myself to try the 10 mph. Sure, it’s easy to blame the not running at 10 mph on the whole no energy thing, but is that a cop out? Could I have done it if I’d tried and not let myself convince myself I wouldn’t be able to do it? I know when I was on the treadmill running, coming up to that last sprint I knew without a doubt I couldn’t run it at 10 mph, that I didn’t have enough left in me to make it…but now that it is hours later I’m filled with self doubt…I hate self doubt, it’s such a downer. 😛

Guess I’ll just have to push even harder on Friday (my next cardio day) and see if I can make it to 10 mph that day, no! Not see if I can! I Can! I will make it! Look out 10 mph, you’re miiiiine! (maybe if I start psyching myself up for it now it’ll be easier to overcome the mental block on Friday? lol 😉 )

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Running On Blisters

20 Mar

I have these totally awesome boots, they are tall, have buckles (two on the foot part and one at the top outside), they are black leather, they have a two inch heel, they are hawt and make me feel sexy when I wear them. Normally I wear them with a skirt so I can dress up a bit without freezing my legs off but on St Patty’s night I wore them with a pair of jeans that went over the boots, not tucked in to the boots cause on me that just looks stupid lol. I tried getting a sweet pic of them but have you ever tried taking a pic of your own legs while wearing a pair of shoes or boots? The angle just doesn’t work lol so I have a pic of one of the boots sitting on my roomie’s futon, trust me when I say they look waaaay better on me then on the futon…

My sexy boot

I bought these totally awesome boots on my birthday in December as my present to myself, such a great present I might add lol. Each time I have worn them they’ve been super comfy, kept my legs warm and like I said earlier, made me feel sexy. I had never really thought about it but I always wore them when I was driving to my location and any walking I did in them was for short distances and usually on the arm of a man. I didn’t think about any of that when I chose them for my St. Patty’s night out, I just wanted to look good – duh. lol 😉

By the end of the dancing portion of my night on saturday I wanted to weep my feet hurt so badly, they were practically burning with pain and all I wanted to do was take off my boots that I was now cursing and never look at them again. Of course every girl knows that when you go out for an evening you make a pact with your shoes and never ever ever take them off, no matter what kind of pain they cause you cuz those random girls you see walking barefoot and carrying their shoes? Eewwww! Nasty! Nobody should ever want to be that girl, *shudder*

Once I was home and my feet were once again walking flat on the ground I quickly forgot about the pain my feet had been feeling and was once again in love with my boots lol. But something unexpected happened…blisters! That’s right, the stupid boots gave me blisters on both my feet, on the balls of my feet! Ya know, that nice cushy soft part on the underneath of your foot? That is where I am blistered on both feet, ugh. This didn’t matter on sunday as the blisters don’t really hurt and I easily ignored them but ooooh man, I sure as heck felt them when I was running on the treadmill today, not pleasant!

It was really only during the sprinting part of my run that I truly noticed them, and it wasn’t so much a pain that I was feeling as an “ick”, it’s just a weird icky feeling running on blisters, cause you know that strange squishy feeling is actually liquid sacs on the bottom of your feet that are having pressure put on them and *face grimace* that’s just gross. ugh.

It got me pondering all the other things women do for fashion, or just plain looks. We go through so many little grooming rituals that cause pain, and sure the pain is fleeting and easy to ignore but uh, when did going through pain of any kind for cosmetic purposes become so common place?? And why do we accept the pain high heels bring us, and tight restrictive clothing, and push up bras, and all those other things we do and wear as normal? Acceptable? Some kind of twisted right of passage?

Now, don’t go thinking I’m going all hippy on you, I’m not going to stop threading my eyebrows, or shaving, or wearing those boots or accidentally stabbing myself in the eye with my eyeliner (on an almost daily basis I might add! lol) cause I like the results of all those things, I like how I look (on most days) when all my grooming rituals and clothing choices come together…I just wish there was a little less pain involved…and squishy liquid filled sacs on the bottom of my feet *shudder* Seriously sooooo gross!

Tags: , , , , ,

I’m A Runner?!

14 Mar

The weirdest thing happened at the gym last week, yeah yeah I know, it happened last week and I’m only now relaying the story? What’s with that?! Remember all those posts where I mentioned what a lazy ass I am? There ya go, that is your explanation – notice I am so lazy I didn’t even have to type out a full explanation? I just let your critical thinking and problem solving skills take care of all of the work for me lol  😉

Anyways! The weird thing. Hmm, first you need a bit of an explanation of the layout of my gym, it’s actually a Rec Centre (not that that should matter but I guess some people are gym snobs, and all I have to say to that is Really? You are proud you pay more then me per month for your sweat location? Whatever! lol) So, because it’s a Rec Centre they have the workout equipment spread through out a bunch of rooms, it’s kinda annoying cause it’s almost impossible to complete your workout in just one room, and well, I’m lazy, remember? Most of the cardio machines are in one room, there are 4 treadmills, 3 elipticals, 2 rowing machines, about 4 upright bikes and 3 reclining bikes, 2 steppers and, um, I think that’s it. The rest of that room is filled with some weight machines and a little free weight section. This means when I go to do cardio I’m usually in that room but every now and then all the machines are filled up and since according to my new work out regime I’m currently only using the treadmill for my cardio if all the treadmills are taken well I’m kinda screwed, and annoyed lol. There is however a room mostly devoted to spin classes but around the perimeter of the room there are 2 treadmills and a couple other cardio machines, they are kinda hidden and a lot of people don’t like using the machines in that room cause the spinners are all snobby about being in spin class and shoot you snotty looks if you go and use a piece of equipment in there while they are in class…uh hello, focus on your own workout there buddy instead of glaring at me for trying to do mine! harumph!  😉

Something else about spinners is that they get to class ridiculously early and instead of resting, or stretching or something in preparation they actually climb up on to the bike and start peddling, at a totally decent pace, I don’t understand how they don’t get worn out before the class starts since some of them are sitting there peddling for a good half hour or more before the class – I tell ya, spinners are a special breed lol. 😛 Anyways, I was having to use a treadmill in the spinning room cause all the other ones were in use and spinning class was only about 5 minutes from starting so there were a lot of people sitting on the bikes. I had to walk past some of them to get to the sign up sheet on the wall for the treadmill and due to the angle I suppose it could have kinda looked as if I was walking towards the front of the class. Well, this lady who is (I am assuming) new to spinning asked me a question as I passed by, I had my earbuds in and music blasting so I took out an earbud and asked her to repeat herself. She asked me how to use the screen and buttons for the bike, like I would know? I stared at her blankly for a couple seconds and then without my even thinking about what I was going to say the words “oh, I’m not a biker, I’m a runner, I have no idea how to use the controls on your spin bike, sorry.” came out of my mouth…

Uh…”I’m a runner“??????? What in blue blazes is with that??? I’m not a freakin runner! Sure, I use the treadmill, and yes technically I run on it but…I’m not a runner…runners are lean, and in shape, and well…really lean and in shape and I’m not either of those things. Nobody would use either of those words to describe me, not in a million years! And yet, somehow, that sentence came out of my mouth.

As I continued walking to the sign up sheet my mind was boggling at what my mouth had just said, I was waiting for someone to point at me and denounce my claim to be a runner but nobody did lol. Then, as I was walking back past the lady who asked me for help I heard her talking to the person next to her and she was saying how she had thought I was the instructor and that’s why she asked me for help…What?!?!?! Me?? The spin instructor??? Uh, they are ridiculously in shape (well, all the ones I have seen are), how the heck did that lady think I was a spin instructor?? It’s like the world got shifted on its axis that day. lol

I have to admit, it made me feel good about myself and my weight loss that some random stranger thought I could be a spin class instructor cause well, duuuude, that’s gotta mean I’m looking kinda fit right? Course, when the real spin instructor came in I looked like the most out of shape person ever in comparison so I’m sure that lady who asked me for help will never make that kind of mistake again, not now that she knows what a real spin instructor looks like lol 😛 But hey, I’ll take the unintended compliment anyday. 😀

Like I said, that happened last week and since then I keep pondering this whole ‘being a runner thing’. I mean, could I be a runner? What is the definition of being a runner? Do you have to run a certain distance or a certain speed a certain amount of times a week to be considered a runner? I dunno…and while I suppose I could google the question and get an answer I’m not sooooo curious I’m about to sort though a bunch of Yahoo! answers lol. I think…and I could be way off base here…but I think I just might be turning in to a runner…not a professional one of course, but a semi-decent non professional runner. I can get some fairly decent speed, and every time I run I go a bit faster, I’m running 3 times a week, well until this week where now it will be 6 times a week and I dunno, to me that seems to indicate I’m turning in to a bit of a runner, what do you think?

Tags: , , , , ,

Newer Entries →