The Jog of Shame

Ugh. In my last blog post it had been a week since I last jogged. This time it had only been six days (ONLY SIX DAYS? I'm still kicking myself) and I felt like I got worse. Maybe I didn't wait enough time again after eating. But yesterday I only jogged about .9 miles and I had to fight off strong waves of nausea when I finished. I was gasping for breath so hard on the last block that I wanted to stop. Now granted, it was a loop, and the first half was downhill, the second half uphill. But Mike and I have done this jog before with far fewer problems. I must've been tired, or had not eaten well. I don't know.

I was so upset when I got inside. It's official: college wants you to be unhealthy. I have been living the wake-up-go-to-class-do-homework-try-to-find-time-to-cook-go-to-bed routine for a couple weeks now. My dreams of jogging every other day are far from realized. I simply could not find the time until yesterday night around 9:30 PM to go out and jog for 10-15 minutes tops, and I almost threw up.

This quarter I'm taking 15 credits and working a part-time job. Next quarter I'll only be taking 11 credits with the same job, and in Spring only 10 with the job. So I'm in the roughest times of my senior year right now. My goal might suffer a little this quarter. But the thing about it is, this is a hobby for me. No, it's not the kind of hobby where I obsess over it and nothing else. It's also not the kind of hobby that I want to drop, leave behind, forget about. I'm frustrated that I can't find or make the time to do this as often as I'd like. But I will have more time in a couple of months. And I'm just going to have to live with that for now.

Even if I was jogging every other day, I don't think it's realistic to update constantly. I mentioned that in my last blog. I think 1-2 blogs a week is appropriate for what I'm blogging about.

I don't know when I'm going to get out jogging again. Next week is looking like a lighter week than I've had all quarter, so hopefully I can get some good time in then. Mike and I have been consuming produce at a much higher rate than before, which I feel good about, and it helps my peace of mind that if I can't exercise as much as I want, at least I can eat pretty well. RIDICULOUSLY well for a college student, at least, even on a pretty low budget. We're working on buying more in bulk, less packaged foods... other little cost-saving tips. I wish I could be a Coupon Queen who saves 80% every time she goes grocery shopping, buuuut I'm not.

I have no idea how to end this blog. Honestly, it's a Friday night and I'm exhausted. So: the end.

Oh right, I have a blog.

Oops. Hi there! I actually got up this morning earlier than I needed to. I don't think you understand the monumental status of such an event. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. And I had a good reason for it. I haven't jogged since last Friday.

Yes, I jogged a few times after my last blog post, but I figured that if I posted EVERY TIME I JOGGED you would get sick of me and I would run out of things to say. (Did you catch the pun there? Run out? I'm so clever.) Then Week 4 of school happened and I have been buried in mounds of deadlines since then, especially since my campus job recently started. I finally got a light homework evening last night, and naturally all I wanted to do was cook, bake and watch TV. All of those were very good ideas. (I made acorn squash stuffed with quinoa, hominy and bell pepper, topped with nutritional yeast--AMAZING--and then blondies--you know, brownies without chocolate?--with dried cranberries and flax seeds. My taste buds were writing me love letters.)

So this morning I don't have class until 11:30, but I woke up at 9:30 to go for a run. I can definitely tell that I haven't run in a week, which is why I insisted on going today. I felt like if I waited any longer I'd be back at square one. I only ran for about 15 minutes before I had to stop, but then after walking for 5 minutes or so I pushed it and jogged two blocks uphill before walking home. Morning air definitely has a terrible feeling in my lungs--oh yes, it's the cheese grater effect back for more. Blaaah. I tried to breathe in through my nose, as some had suggested, but I think that will work better when I get back to the condition I was in last week. This week I was so winded that nose breathing just was not delivering the oxygen fast enough.

Anyway, I still need to squeeze in a shower before class, but I just wanted to say hi and, you know, I haven't forgotten about you.

With great sameness comes great lack of things to say.

HELLO, my 9 loyal readers! It's been awhile! As the title suggests, I haven't been able to think of anything to say here recently. I haven't pushed myself to much longer distances, but I have definitely retained the benefit of the previous workouts, to where the same length and intensity workouts are much easier for me now. Mike is also improving, having a much easier time running and I'm pretty sure he's losing weight. We don't have a scale so it's hard to say for sure. Maybe he just appears svelte because I've been working out alongside him so I know the exertion he's going through!

I'm also fairly certain that my runners' legs are coming along nicely. I think it might be too soon to do a second set of pictures though. Yes? No? I'm not sure if I'm just perceiving my legs as looking nicer or if the effects would actually be noticeable in a photograph. Well, if you're dying for pictures I could oblige.

My blog just turned a month old on Saturday! And Mike turned 29 on Sunday! We were going to jog then; didn't end up doing so but we did go on a bike ride! ...A bike ride to get a burger. Hey, it was his birthday. And I had a veggie burger, because I don't do the whole meat thing, although it still left me feeling gross. I don't doubt they cooked it on the same grill as the regular burgers, but they must've also injected it with lard or something. It's a Gardenburger brand Gardenburger! How can you add fat to that?! I even opted out of the "special sauce." Me and fast food just don't mix.

So at this point we haven't jogged since Friday (although that was a nice urban jog of about 1.8 miles, the first half gradually downhill and the second half gradually uphill). It is of note that that's about .4 miles longer than we've gone before (at least as a consistent run without walking or stopping). I'm hoping to go out in about a half hour. It's rainy and cold tonight. Not sure where we'll go, but where ever it is, we'll certainly look dramatic with our wet hair and beads of sweat mixed with beads of rain on our faces.

My triumphant return!

...Okay, there's not much to triumph about. Basically, I haven't jogged in several days because I got a four-day promotional job that consisted of me circling Bellingham about 5739 times on foot, sketchy tricycle, and (first time for me!) Razor scooter, spreading the word about a giveaway for college students. But you know, cheap tricycles and Razor scooters are not really Bellingham-friendly modes of transportation. Both of them are just terrible on hills and in rain, both of which I encountered more than once during my employment. All of it was absolutely exhausting; I generally couldn't walk at the end of the day. I let myself stop jogging for the duration of the job because my legs retained (or gained?) plenty of muscle from all the work, not to mention all the calories burning from never stopping or sitting down! I have to give some credit to the Razor scooter, which I vehemently rejected in its popularity when I was a kid. MAN did I feel the burn in my quads from balancing on one foot while pushing myself furiously up sidewalks with the other!

So today, a few days after the job ended and I regained the ability to walk without cringing (thanks in large part to the second pedicure of my life--soooo relaxing), I finally ran again! I was worried that my jogging endurance might have gone down a little, but I did that 1.4 mile section of the trail near my house with no problems! It was even a surprisingly warm and sunny day, which we haven't seen many of up here recently, and which makes it a little bit harder to keep up the pace. I got a huge full-body blood rush when we stopped running. I almost needed something to lean on! It went away quickly though. Was it runner's high? Maybe I should look up exactly what this runner's high thing is supposed to be, anyway, before I keep going around claiming I've experienced it.

I was all set to jog back, too, but Mike wanted coffee (which is available for purchase in the park!) and we ended up walking the whole way back. I'm still glad we got out at all, though. Mike's breathing also seems to have improved a lot since we first started! It's much easier for him to jog the trail now. We're both doing this without walking or stopping: a straight 1.4 mile jog. Granted, it's a casual pace, but it's definitely jogging.

On Mike's aunt's recommendation, I entered a sweepstakes a few weeks back to try and win a pair of Vasque Mindbender trail running shoes! Eagerly awaiting the results of the contest now... I'm sure they're only giving away one pair, and hundreds if not thousands of people entered, but my chance is as good as anyone's, right?

Not much else to report other than that. School started up; senior year! We're going to try waking up early to run in the mornings before class. We'll see how that goes...  I am definitely not a morning person. Happy autumn, everyone!

A TMI post. Because there just had to be at least one.

In the last few days I have learned that PMS and jogging should never go together, at least not when you PMS like me. (I decided PMS could be a verb, too. Just roll with it.) My worst PMS symptom is sore boobs. Sore boobs + sports bra (see also: garment that is primarily designed to flatten, but in no way support, your chest) = very unhappy Lucy. If there is no one running towards me (since I look completely ridiculous doing this), I end up flattening my chest with my fists as I run, just so I can stand to jog without wincing. If anyone knows of a miracle sports bra to fix this problem, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, TELL ME! I'll probably have to wait awhile to be able to afford it... but it'd be good to know about.

Despite my... predicament, Mike and I braved the ever-greying, approaching-autumn overcast skies and drizzle to jog along the South Bay Trail again. Mike has a (distant) history of asthma and smoking, so in our first few weeks as runners, he's been having a rough time with his breathing. We're both breaking down barriers all the time, though, and we were able to run the whole 1.4 mile course to the park without stopping! Then we walked around the park and half a mile back down the trail before running the last mile. This is definite progress for him, and quite good for me too, since I haven't done anything like my three-mile jog of frustration lately.

I am now completely wiped out. I meant to eat, do dishes, shower, and go get some groceries--in that order--after we got back from the jog. I ate a little bit, and then my body disabled my brain and decided it needed a shower (dishes be damned, apparently). I didn't realize I was supposed to do the dishes first until I turned off the water at the end of my shower. I'm so clean now that I can't bring myself to do the dishes! And my legs hurt so much that groceries are going to have to wait, too. Plus it's still raining. But the progress is good enough for me.

I wear my jogging shoes at night.

So last night, after a rather uneventful, gloomy, rainy day, Mike and I decide to go jogging. In addition to it being gloomy and rainy, it was then also dark. Normally I would protest, as even though I'm a native Seattleite, I've never gotten used to cold and rain--still hate it. However, the thought of the exercise spreading warmth through me, the same way a nice mug of hot chocolate does, put a smile on my face. I figured if there's anything I could enjoy in the rain, especially after dark, it would be jogging.

Face-sweater?

Sure enough, the rain pouring down my face as I ran was refreshing. It also made me feel like I was working harder. I'm not a face-sweater. ...Face-sweater? Hmmm that didn't come out like I wanted to; it sounds more like a robber's mask, or a sweater someone's grandma knitted Santa's face onto. No, what I mean is that during physical exertion I sweat from my armpits and back. That's usually all the sweating I do, so I don't get the dramatic Gatorade-ad style dripping face syndrome (especially not in bright green), which I typically associate with someone who's really pushing themselves. The rain provided that illusion for me. Anyone I passed last night must've thought, "There goes a brave, hardworking American." Okay, maybe not.

But the rain also adds to the idea that I'm in the midst of a cinematic masterpiece, running towards my long lost love, or away from a serial killer. A little imagination is always good for your endurance, I think. Anyone I passed might also have thought, "Go! Keep going! Don't stop! You can achieve your dreaaaammm!" They probably stopped right there on the sidewalk and applauded, tears of admiration streaming down their faces and mixing with the cool September rain. Or, you know, not.

I've noticed, though, that running at night seems to be harder on my lungs than daytime running. It must be the cold air, or maybe it's the dampness, but I get lung cramps instead of side cramps or anything else. I can push through them, though. I have to stop for side cramps, but the lung pain is just a nuisance. I also get an increased presence of the lovely cheese grater effect in my esophagus, or wind pipes, or whatever. I'm going to have to figure out how to remedy this, as fall and winter are a-comin' and nothing--including my sobs and futile attempts at harnessing the sun and pulling it closer--is going to stop them. I'm certainly not stopping my running just because it's cold out. It's going to be a game of chicken between me and the weather. Who caves first? Stay tuned. 

Back from Outer Space.

Okay. I'm back. I had to take a few days to retreat into my little cave of self-pity. The housing issue has been quite stressful. Where I smartly used my running to combat stress last week, I avoided it for supposedly the same reason this week. I sort of regret it, but at the same time, sanity is important, and the sidewalks and trails will always be there when I'm ready for them.

I had become so worried about the whole situation that I think I was worrying myself sick, as two days ago I started to get a scratchy throat and became unusually tired in the middle of the day. I resigned myself to bed and family comedy ("My Wife and Kids" on DVD) for the rest of the day, throwing in fresh fruit and Emergen-C for immunity. The next day the scratchy throat was gone (yay!) but the tiredness was in full force even after 10 hours of sleep (boo!), so I stayed at home all day and did absolutely nothing. That turned out to be a brilliant plan, as I feel perfect today.

I baked a vegan chocolate cake! I have a vegan friend who is always cooking and baking delicious things, and the first time I had her vegan chocolate cake I was hooked. "VINEGAR?" I sniffed, as I watched her bake. "VINEGAR cake?" "You can't taste it," she assured me. She's right. You absolutely can't. And if you're a dark chocolate maniac like I am, vegan chocolate cake is definitely the way to go. Something about eggs, or milk (is there milk in regular cake? See how much I know about baking, haha) makes conventional chocolate cakes seem milk chocolate-y, but veganize it and you will be amaaazed by how rich, moist, and black-coffee colored the cake will be. I also then made a broccoli-cheddar soup, which Mike and I both adore. I used unsweetened soymilk (but still regular butter and cheese--I'm not vegan, I just try not to eat a lot of dairy) and it still came out fantastic. All in all a good food day.

Speaking of food, I think I should address that a little bit. I'm vegetarian. I have been for nearly nine years now. It was a personal choice based on my own ethics, not diet or religion or anything else. I'm not the best vegetarian in the world, though. I don't mean that I cheat and eat meat (it completely stopped being appealing to me after a few months), but rather that I just don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. I probably don't eat a lot of protein either. Processed foods are enough of a trap for the average American, but for vegetarians, it's just so easy to eat frozen tater tots or tortilla chips all the time. Who wants to take the time to stir-fry up some tofu or make your own veggie burgers? I'd like to be a lot better about how I eat, but both Mike and I are basically poverty-level. I haven't had a job since last November. I have a job lined up on campus for the fall, FINALLY, but it's still very part-time, and I'll be a full-time student as well.

You can't deny produce is expensive. You also can't deny that anything the "average American" considers expensive is EXTREMELY expensive to me. Tofu used to be $1.00 or $1.50 for a one pound box; it's now usually double that. Those recipes that "feed a family for around $3.00 a serving" don't impress me. Bring it down to about 75 cents a serving and we'll talk!  I'm exaggerating a little bit... but there's a reason the Rice and Beans Diet or the Ramen Diet are staples of college cooking.

Ahem. Anyway, my point in going into all that is that even though I've taken "before" pictures showing my weight, it's entirely possible that I won't lose much or any weight in this venture. I simply don't have the income or the time right now to eat as well as I would in an ideal world. I'm eating broccoli-cheddar soup, for goodness sakes. It's got broccoli in it, but it's no health food. (By the way, the recipe says it takes an hour to do? I'm slow and it took me about 30 minutes. So don't believe them.) But then, as I addressed in the first post, I'm not overweight. I don't need to lose weight. I've read that the way you eat is much more impactful on weight loss than exercise. But I can at least get my body in decent working order. This is not a weight-loss goal. This is an "I can do anything if I just commit myself to it" goal. This is an "I can run past people without getting winded" goal. Any weight I lose would be merely by coincidence. I'll document it all the same.

SO, tonight I finally ran again! It'd been I think four days--maybe even five. Ugh. But we jogged about .8 miles on the sidewalk in the dark. I had an unusual new pain: the fronts of my shins. As in, my shin bone. How does THAT work? I have no idea... it was kind of bizarre. But I pushed through it and it's not bothering me anymore. I've noticed my right calf is a bit tighter than my left, but I think it's my dominant leg and I probably push off harder with it. I'll just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get any worse.

Thanks for putting up with my lull, which was followed by this extremely long and possibly boring multi-topic blog.