Cardio Cheer!

It's been a while since my last update, but my cardio is a lot better than I thought it would be at this point! I have built up my running endurance and each time I can run about 1/4 mile longer than I could the time before. When I get up to two miles, I am going to start working on getting my time down. I'll be able to run a 5K in no time!

As far as the sundress thing goes, if I keep this up, next spring I should be able to pick out some pretty cute ones! Right now, most of my pants are starting to look baggy. I am going to have a good excuse to go shopping in a month or so.

This week I knew that I would not be able to go to the gym on Thursday because we were planning on going to a baseball game with our friends. Since Tuesday and Thursday are our gym nights during the week, we decided to go on Tuesday and Wednesday instead. Tonight we are going to volunteer, but hopefully I can do some cardio on Saturday and go to the gym again on Sunday!

Since they closed down our favorite free gym on post, and the other gym has eight hundred people trying to share thirteen benches, we decided to go get a free week at Gold's Gym. The layout is ridiculous and it is unbelievably overpriced, but I do like the little girls room they have tucked away in the corner. I was able to run in piece while watching Wolf Blitzer next to a large woman who was talking on her cell phone and walking on the treadmill slower than she probably walks to her mailbox. Wasting $70 per month? You're doing it... pretty well akshully.

Iz Your Frigerator Running?

My fridge is not actually going anywhere, but I searched for "running" on Photobucket and found this gem. Also, that fridge could possibly outrun me at this point, depending on how tough those little legs are.

I have still been running a couple/few times each week, trying to get better at it. It doesn't seem like I am much better, but I do take a little longer to improve in just about everything. One thing that has changed... I went on a bike ride on Monday night, which I have not done for a couple of weeks, and my usual route kicked my butt. I am sure that fridge could have gone farther than I did.

I guess I need to mix up my running and biking nights. So much to think about! On the bright side, I am slowly getting smaller and stronger, which is a big plus. I must be doing something right.

Once I go out on a run, or jump on a treadmill at the gym, my mind kind of goes blank. I want to just run until I can't run anymore to see how far I can go. Problem is, the distance I can run is not growing. Everything I read says that I should aim for a time limit instead. To start out, alternate between running and walking for 20-30 minutes. Maybe that will help me feel like I am improving more than busting my butt for the first 15 minutes, then dying slowly on the way home.

Garrison Keillor Says It Best

"And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
"Good luck with that, sir.
"Meanwhile, the casual revelation last month that Mr. McCain has never figured out how to use a computer and has never sent e-mail or Googled is rather startling. It's like admitting that you've never clipped your own toenails or that you didn't know that toothpaste comes out of a tube because your valet always did that for you. It's like being amazed at the sight of a supermarket scanner. What world does Mr. McCain live in? Where does he keep his sense of curiosity? My 94-year-old mother has sent e-mail. Does somebody plan to show him how it's done and will they explain to him what "LOL" means?"

Pow! Bam! Smack!

When I was a "tween" I did not bother with New Kids on the Block and whatever else those other girls were going crazy for. I know this has something to do with the fact that I am the oldest child and I did not have anyone to mold me into a cool kid. My youngest sister just turned 12 and she gets obsessive over things like Hannah Montana and High School Musical like every other 12-year-old out there.

What did I choose to focus my pre-teen obsession on? Batman, of course. Batman everything - from Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney to Adam West and whoever played the Bat in the awesome cartoon. I watched it all and actively drooled over every version of Batman and Robin. I had posters all over my room and spent my time daydreaming about being rescued by a man in a bat costume and his teenage sidekick. I watched reruns of the old Adam West show every day after school, then laid in bed and used my imagination to put myself into the episodes.

So imagine my excitement when I could drool over Batman again, at 26-years-old, without being considered nutty. I watched Jon Stewart interview Maggie Gyllenhaal a couple of days before I saw Dark Knight. She talked about how exciting it was for her to be rescued by Batman, even though it was on a movie set. She had never gotten into Batman when she was younger, but now she is a convert, and she obviously has a bit of a crush on the superhero now. Just like me! I would have cut off my right hand to be in Maggie's spot when I was 13.

Between my overwhelming crush on Batman and the pictures of Health Ledger that I would tear out of tween magazines and hang all over the place, I was in young-Cali heaven for 2 1/2 hours yesterday. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever get as excited as I used to... it might not be hormonally possible.

A Whole Mile

Just like I thought, when our friend came into town, the running was put on hold. We got a fair amount of exercise from running around DC and going tubing all day, but we also took in an unbelievable amount of beer calories.

Yesterday I decided that I was taking too long to get back into it, so when we went to the gym I jumped on the treadmill. I ran my ass off for a full mile, which I was pretty excited about. There is some improvement there! When I go to the gym again this week, I will try to go 1.2 miles without stopping.

There is good news from the sundress front. I was digging through my closet for some clothes (but they were all in the laundry, because my housecleaning goes the way of my running when I have guests) and I came across a blue sundress that I bought for our wedding rehearsal dinner four years ago. In fact, it was exactly four years ago to the day. Our dinner was on July 19th, 2004 and I tried the dress on on Saturday, July 19! Ha ha... weird.

Anyway, I put on the dress and it looks great! Better than it did four years ago! After a little shoulder tanning and a pedicure, I will be ready to show it off.

The Joy of Icing Calves

My first day of running left me a little beat up for the next two days. I had no idea that my calves would give out on me like that! After a night of Tiger Balm, tons of water and stretching and bags of frozen vegetables, I was much better.

Yesterday Ashley and I went for our first run together. We went down to the George Washington Parkway since it is flat and beautiful and it has mile markers. We started our running and walked when we got tired. We went about three miles like that, and I was exhausted by the time we got back to the car.

I was more discouraged by the end of this run than I was the first time. It seemed to tire me out more and I think that is because 1) it was after a full day of work and 2) my legs were still recouping from my first-ever run on Monday morning. I learned a less this time and went home and immediately stretched and iced my calves. They feel much better this morning.

It was great having someone to run with. It was less boring and I pushed myself more. I did not want to stop running too early, so I would go just a little farther than I wanted to. It was also much easier for me to go on the run in the first place. We planned on going, and I didn't want to wuss out on her.

My next step is to find a 5K that we are both interested in running. I am thinking that it should be two months out. I am confident that we can train to run a full 3.1 miles by the end of August. Then we can move up to bigger races, like a 5 mile, then 10 mile. I am not going to think any farther out than that.

My friend is in town for the next two weeks, so it will be difficult to work my runs into this altered schedule. I just started, so it is way too soon to lose this spurt of motivation!

Day One: Strangely Nervous

It turns out that I am afraid of running. I have never been very successful at it in the past. Usually I put on my workout clothes, then go sprint until I can't move anymore and don't try it again for a very long time. There were a lot of things that I have done wrong in the past, so this time I am trying to be a little more prepared.

Before I went to sleep last night I told myself that I needed to get up this morning and go on my first run. No sleeping in, no hangover, no excuses. Apparently I made myself so anxious that I kept waking up during the night and looking at my clock. It was that same feeling I get when I am starting a new job or taking someone to the airport and I am terrified of being late.

The sixth time I woke up it was finally 6:30. I threw on some yoga pants and running shoes and my MP3 player, drank some water then left the house. My expectations were pretty grim. I figured that I would run past three houses, then stop to walk. Hopefully I could do that for twenty minutes, then crawl back home. Instead, I started running right out of the door and ran all of the way to the park that is about 7/10 of a mile from my house. I rested for a minute, then alternated walking and running back home. (I mostly walked up the hills and ran on the flat part. Running up hills is not fun.)

I am definitely not sprinting at this point, but I am not jogging either. Somewhere in between. And I don't totally suck at it! 7/10 of a mile right off is not bad for someone who doesn't run EVER.

So overall, I feel pretty great about my first day running. Not only did it burn some calories, but it also got me out of bed and moving early on. I ran off sleepiness and a faint hangover. I haven't been as tired and lazy today, and I drank much more water than i usually do. When it came time for lunch, I wanted something healthy because I did not want to undo the work I did this morning. If I can keep this up, I will be in summer dresses in no time.