99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, 99 Bottles of Beer...

will NOT be our running song. Because I mean, by the time we got to 95 bottles of beer I think the running would get pretty difficult, what with the loss of motor skills and the dehydration and all. But Danny and I need songs to sing while we're running! I suggested Bohemian Rhapsody, but that might be a little too operatic for how stuttered and heavy our voices will be on the footfalls.

...Am I blogging two days in a row? My god, I AM! Fancy that.

Danny and I went on another nearly five mile run today, in my new shoes! I was advised not to do that while I'm still breaking in the shoes, but given the alternative of a five mile run in my old shoes... no-brainer. And I actually feel a million times better now than I did after our first five mile run. IMPROVEMENT! Breathing still pretty dang labored though... and I probably should not have filled up on pasta an hour before we left. Oops. But we looked gooooood in our spandex shorts.

Noticing some ankle issues that may be corrected through the shoes breaking in or may require a brace. My left ankle one summer swelled up inexplicably on a walk, and was painful to the point I was nearly crying. Doctor had no real explanation and was like, here, have a brace! I do have heat edema (my legs/ankles/fingers swell up in hot weather) so that might have aggravated whatever mysterious sprain or something I had at the time. But anyway, that ankle still bothers me sometimes, and it was screaming at me today during the run. Shhhhhhh. This is the story of my red left ankle.

Running again on... Tuesday I guess. So there may be an update there. In the last week I've lost about three or four pounds of my spring break weight (two weeks of pizza and alcohol and sitting on yer butt will do that to ya)!

Eye of the Tiger, Man.

This song reminds me of grocery shopping in my old neighborhood in Seattle. It would always play in the QFC by my house, and it was so hilariously overexuberant for a simple grocery trip. I wanted some boxing gloves and fancy footwork, punching out the rows of Hamburger Helper and dancing around the tumbling displays of apples. But more importantly, I think it is the absolute best motivational song for working out.

It was my birthday on Saturday, and through the generosity and support of my family I was able to afford two very important components that contribute to my new goal (which I will get into in a minute)... new running shoes and an MP3 player. I have been complaining about my shoes since Day 1. You all know this. NO MORE! I got some sweet Saucony shoes that feel like clouds and help me push off with each new step. I'm breaking in both of these beauties today... although I have not yet downloaded Eye of the Tiger to aid me.

The aforementioned goal relates to how I'm graduating in less than two months and have no goals. "Pursue internships and jobs" is pretty much what I'm telling people. Which means, "I am scared shitless of the real world; these seem like good ideas." So since I don't want to face the job market and the student loan payments in my future I decided to settle on personal goals. You know, those friendly, unintimidating things that make you feel good about yourself. And it was about time I set a running goal, since I've been aimlessly wandering and not progressing. I have been running in my absence from this blog, but I haven't progressed. That is, until Tuesday.

My wonderful new roommate Danny is like my much more pleasant and infinitely more attractive Mickey, the gruff New York attitude trainer from the Rocky films. With his company and motivation we accomplished a nearly five mile run on Tuesday (about three times longer than I've been running lately and almost twice my longest run... how embarrassing). We stopped a third of the way through to check out Fairhaven Runners, where I got my shoes yesterday. (We also checked out the hot sales guy.) My legs and hips have been paying for that run ever since, especially because I was in my old shoes, but I was so amazed that I actually went that far. Danny is training for an 8 mile downhill run on Memorial Day weekend, so at least once a week we'll be running together. That way, if I wuss out running on my own, I'll have to make up for it when we work out together...

So, I'm back, aaand hopefully here I will remain, because of my goal: work my way up to a marathon. I don't have a goal date set for this, because I don't know anything realistically about pacing myself. But if I am capable of doing a five mile run now--which is only 1.2 miles away from a freaking 10K--I don't think this goal is impossible. I'm on my way.

"Why you runnin' like b****** with your tail up?"

I censored the title for the benefit of any kiddos who might be looking over their parents' shoulders while they're on Facebook. It's a lyric.

I'm pretty sure anyone who saw me in the Rec could not guess what I was listening to last night. I mean, would you guess (AND HEY IF YOU DON'T LIKE CURSING PLEASE DON'T CLICK THIS AT ALL, THE VERY FIRST LINE HAS A BAD WORD!):

Cypress Hill, Lucy? REALLY? But it's awesome workout music. Oh man it really is. It pumps you up and it has a really good beat. I was on one of those evil stair machines at the time I decided to turn this on and I was instantly revitalized!

I've been trying to push myself harder at the gym. I want my progress back. One of the problems is that I need to have a really good pre-workout snack, keeping in mind I can't eat anything for 90-120 minutes before a workout. Otherwise, stomach cramps just wreck me and I physically can't continue. I often roll right out of bed and out the door, workout clothes in the bag. I'll maybe eat an Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie 90 minutes before. But that is not sufficient workout fuel, and I usually leave the gym not overworked but hungry. I'd rather leave the gym exhausted, but the stomach rumbling gets embarrassing and I can also get a little dizzy from physical exertion without enough fuel.

In three different short trips to the track, in between weight machines, I did about 2 miles yesterday. That's still not very good, and I remember doing 3 miles (with a break at 1.5) more than once last year. However, since I am adding in weights and stairs, I am exhausting myself on multiple levels. So I'm trying not to get too down about it.

This song pushed me to make the final trip back to the track. I'm pretty sure I almost threw up when I was done. I was at the gym for like an hour and a half. Oh well, it was worth it.

DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Cardio machines. I don't like to use them most of the time, because as I've mentioned the treadmill makes me dizzy, and many of the other ones you really set your own pace on (like ellipticals: I'm in charge of moving them, so no matter how much they up the resistance, I inevitably end up slacking and just going reaallly slow and not working out).

One thing I do like to use is the stair machine; either the old-school ones that look like a staircase or the ones with two levers for your feet and varying resistance. The old-school ones obviously just keep moving, so you can only slow down if you press the button to do so, just like a treadmill. The newer ones are such that the higher the intensity, the less resistance, so you will basically just end up standing on the ground and having to do more work to get back up if you don't keep moving. I love those!

But okay, aside from my love of stair machines, there is a problem with my using any cardio machine, and that is the calorie counter. It is hard when working out on these not to glance over and get some satisfaction out of seeing it negate the donuts or pizza or beer I might've had recently. But I find it to be soooo inaccurate! The ellipticals will often tell me that at the end of a 30-minute workout I have burned close to 300 calories, and a 20 minute workout on the stairs will say something like 100 or 120. Okay, that makes sense maybe, because the stair workout was shorter. But I sweat about twice as much on the stair machine. More sweat and breathing harder probably means I'm burning more calories, right? I don't sweat much as it is, so for these stair machines to get my hairline wet is impressive. And hence I just don't believe them, but I so want to.

The problem is what they take into account: they ask for age and weight. No height, no GENDER, nothing else. I could be a 6'0" male that weighed 125 pounds (eek) or a 5'6" female that weighed 125 pounds (which I am), and there is no way the two of us would burn the same number of calories in the same workout. So I call bullshit!

Well, enough about numbers and calories and liiiiieeeesss. I went to the gym today and did 30 minutes on an elliptical-like-thing, I actually have no idea what it was haha, then my usual round of weight machines for toning and then a mile of jogging! I took one lap of walking at the half-mile mark (a lap on our track is less than 1/10th of a mile) and I felt I could've kept going at the end of the mile. That's good stuff for me. Stress is fantastic fuel for working out and I really could've stayed at the gym longer, though I might've regretted it in the morning.

I was so looking forward to my workout that I forgot to mail an important package before the post office closed, but frankly I'm quite okay with that.

I also got to break in the new spandex shorts I bought to wear under my Soffes. So now I have no fear of revealing my underwear to the dozens of basketball players below the track, or anyone when I'm stretching, or doing those ridiculously suggestive hip machines. You know what I'm talking about. They're like stripper training, for god's sake, and if you don't have tight shorts on under your loose shorts, you might as well be a stripper right there in the gym. I can feel good about buying myself running-related things. It doesn't feel like splurging. It feels purposeful. I feel pretty purposeful about this running thing.

I'm working on these scrawny legs. They will be something. They will be magnificent! Mwahaha!

"You can't outrun your way of thinking."

Well, I was listening to Fugazi's 13 Songs album while running today. The song "And the Same" has a line that goes "This is a bullet you can't outrun.../Your way of thinking..." Or that's how the lyrics seem to be written. But I always do this thing in my head with lyrics where I try to match up which clauses are really supposed to go together. Because you know how sometimes in a song, two lines will run together, and you just wonder which ones are supposed to go together and which ones are separate? Anyway, the intention seems to be "this is a bullet you can't outrun," but then what is "your way of thinking" just doing out there by itself? So I like to think it means both "This is a bullet you can't outrun" and "You can't outrun your way of thinking."

...Wow are you still here? I don't think I would have put up with nonsense writing like that myself. MY POINT is just that I like hearing lines about running while I'm running. Actually Fugazi has a song called "Long Distance Runner" too... haha!

Okay seriously though. I was just in the right kind of mood today I guess, because when I turned on 13 Songs I just started running and I tuned out of it listening to the music. I don't know how many laps I did. I think I came close to a mile without getting exhausted. I knowwww I was doing so much better before. Running indoors just seems more taxing. But hey, running is running. And progress will come. There's so much going on with work and school and friends that working out is becoming something I do just to stay active, and is getting less goal oriented. If I felt capable of taking on and sticking to a challenge, I probably would.

I feel sort of like this is a big blog about how I set goals and then revise them to fit my comfort level so that they're not too inconvenient. But hey, life is life. I'm still at it, at least. I know for sure that my improved circulation from running is keeping me MUCH warmer in the winter, even later that day or the next day. I used to always be cold. So see, there IS some improvement! I'm not dropping out.

Well. I'm Embarrassed.

Oh. Hi there. Didn't see you for TWO MONTHS. Ughhhh. I failed. The end of the quarter rolled around and I just... yeah. I went to the gym in November and maybe like.. once in December? And then I went to Indonesia and went on the treadmilll once for like 20 minutes. And now I'm back and school's starting up and I started to wonder why I feel so lazy... UGH. I really felt justified in letting it go at the end of the quarter, because I really was overwhelmed. But then over break I didn't keep up, and I could say I felt justified not exercising in Indonesia, except there was a treadmill and stationary bike and weights RIGHT IN THE HOUSE. So I just fail.

But I'm back. Really. The second day of school I went to the gym, then took a day to rest and be sore, then was still sore on Friday and went to the gym again, and now I'm still sore from both of those combined days. And I love it. I'm happy. Part of the motivation problem is that the Rec Center, where I'm sequestered until this terrible thing called winter lets up, is on the other side of campus from me. In the summer I could leave my house and begin a jog right outside my door. But as I had mentioned in previous posts, I don't have Under Armour or the money for it, and there's currently a couple inches of snow on the ground. I'm not a winter person. I also hate our indoor track (see also: I feel like a betta fish in a glass running around this tiny little thing) but I'm not sold on treadmills. I run differently on them, because, well, I'm trying not to fall off. I also get WILDLY dizzy upon dismounting. Sooo I've been doing things like the stair machines and the silly ellipticals, and the thing that I DO like about going to the Rec, the weights. I don't do weights if I'm just jogging around outside. So that gives me a chance to work out my arms and develop different muscles in my legs, which incidentlally became complete TWIGS while I was off not working out. Working to fix that now. At least I've got 6 months to get a "beach body" right?? Never mind that I'll need an interview body more than a beach body in six months... Wait, what's an interview body? Whatever.

SO ANYWAY. It's my great hope you'll hear more from me now. I'm also taking fewer classes, so I really have no excuse not to work out. It's built into my schedule three times a week at the moment. Hopefully I can figure out how best to run indoors, since more than just generally working out, my interest DOES lie in running. I've lost most of my progress and am easily winded and super discouraged about it. Maybe I'll jump on the Couch to 5K program? Who knows.

When the rain beats against my windowpane

It's fall. It's definitely fall. It's rainy and somewhat cold, though not quite the kind of cold where you can haul out your winter coat. It's still too cold to go out without any coat though, and just barely warm enough you can get away with a good sweatshirt. It's definitely cold in the mornings and at night, and that's when I tend to run.

We're all well aware that I don't have high-tech running gear. I have Skechers shoes from Marshall's and cotton shorts and useless sports bras. I don't have any fancy moisture-wicking temperature-regulating fuse-with-your-skin-and-make-you-aerodynamic running gear. And I hear that's what you need in the winter. Well, not need necessarily so much as strongly desire. Staying in shorts works for awhile because the body gets quite warm running. But somewhere around 45 or below that stops being an option. So then you break out the sweatshirt and sweatpants, and your body heats up like normal, and now your face is frozen and you're sweating through your clothes and the sweat is reaching the outside temperature and then pressing back up against your skin. So you're freezing and sticky and uncomfortable. Is that the sort of thing you roll out of bed in the morning looking forward to? Well I don't.

So I've decided to move my jogging indoors for the season. We have an indoor track at Western that is open during the general hours I tend to run, and its made of that nice cushy track material that's so much better for your joints than concrete. But the scenery sucks (a basketball court below; how marvelous...) and it's SO SHORT. It takes 10.5 laps on that thing to make a mile. The brain protests that sort of thing.

"Lucy," it says, "you've gone around this track four or five times. That's over a mile. You're tired. STOP!"

"No, brain," I say, "it's only been half a mile. Quit being such a wuss."

"Are you sure," my legs inquire, slowing down and growing heavy.

"It has.... to have been..... longerthanthat," sputter my lungs.

"Dammit." I'm suddenly exhausted. "You win."

So, there's that to contend with. But the other good thing about the gym is access to weight machines! I like being able to diversify what muscles I work. I love stairs and stair climbers. I went to the gym frequently in the spring and one of my goals then was to work up my arms and chest a bit and try to do a push-up.

That's been another goal of mine. A friend told me about the One Hundred Pushups challenge and I'm intrigued. I haven't decided whether to pursue that or not. If I do it, I want to really do it, holding myself accountable. One of the reasons I didn't do the Couch to 5K plan (aside from that I didn't hear of it until about a month into my running) is that I'm scared to apply myself to something that requires routine, when as a college student on any given day I might have to sacrifice a few things I'd planned to do in favor of homework, or sleep. I don't think I'm ready to take that on yet. Maybe in winter quarter, when I'll be taking fewer credits, I'll commit to something like that.

In summation (as though this was some big classroom speech) I haven't stopped running, but I've moved it indoors. It's a little easier to keep track of my distance progress that way, since I know exactly how long the track is, how many laps in a mile, etc. I think it'll work out well. I've made it this far.