Two Runs in as Many Days :)

Check it out, dudes - 2 runs in 2 days, with a total of 8.5 or so miles covered. Not bad, if I do say so myself...

After the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of shrimp and cinnamon rolls with our friends the Painters, my family and I headed to midnight Mass (which used to actually be at midnight). In an unexpected turn of events, I ran into some old friends from high school whom I look up to. Literally.

They're much taller than I am. Get it?

One of them has been getting into running the past few years and rather than just answer my "how do you get motivated to run?" question decided he'd make me run way more than I wanted to, so we set a running date for the day after Christmas. He met me at my parents' place at 9am the morning of the 26th, at which point we did a little stretching and made our way down to Redondo Beach pier and then to Hermosa. There and back, including the walking parts, ended up being about 7 miles all together. The running parts totaled approximately 1:09 and we were gone about 2 hours (we may have taken a bit of a chatting break at the end of Hermosa pier, which is much longer than it looks).

According to Death (one of Mike's many nicknames, and one particularly appropriate considering what he put me through yesterday), the key to running is smiling. A lot. He told me most of the time we were running that I just wasn't smiling enough. Apparently I also need to find some woods to run through and trails to run on, where there are no people and lots of nature. Not surprising coming from a kid who once told me of an ambition to run a bunch of people over with a lawnmower after spending 5 hours walking through crowds after World Youth Day. Long story.

The aforementioned "Death" aka Mike Fend.

Not sure I'm entirely convinced by his theories, but I do plan to visit Colorado sometime to visit and I'm sure he'll make me run on at least one of these awesome trails and maybe then I'll change my mind. We shall see.

After our run, I squeezed in a quick lunch with another high school friend and hurried off to the airport and caught a plane to Nashville via Salt Lake City. I planned to wake up and go running again this morning where it was colder, but when I got up it was almost 50 degrees so I had to postpone. I spent the day with one of my old roommates from college since the friend I'm actually here to visit has not yet returned from Christmas with her family (you'll see and hear more about her soon, I'm certain, as I will force her to run with me while I'm here) and then, once I got home, it was finally cold!

I figured I could either try to get myself to wake up early enough for it to still be cold enough in the morning or I could go for a little nighttime jog... so I chose the latter. The neighborhood seemed pretty safe and I hadn't really done anything healthy all day (guac & tacos for lunch, then mini corn dogs and popcorn and Junior Mints for dinner at the movie - not good choices for running), so I geared up in my UnderArmour cold gear and got ready to head out.

Love me my cold running gear!!

The first 2/3 of my run was wonderful! I cannot tell you how much I miss running in the cold. I really dislike being hot, so running in 30 degree weather (or less) is as good as it gets, cuz no matter how hot you get, you're still cold. It's pretty much the greatest. I was just thinking over and over again how awesome it was and how it would be nice to live somewhere cold, but then how much of a pain it would be to move again, etc., and then the mini corn dogs and popcorn and Junior Mints hit me. Not good choices for before running, in case you were curious. I started feeling pretty bad so I stopped running after 16 minutes and walked the rest of the way. All said and done, I probably only ran/walked 1.6 miles, but - as always - better than nothing, right? And it was nice and cold!

Can't wait for some more running in the cold with Stephie, and maybe her former-Army boyfriend who has apparently decided it's his new mission to whip me into shape. In 5 days. Good luck, my friend...

Motivation Needed

And the lameness continues.

No excuses, but I haven't really done much running recently. I'm just kinda lazy and really enjoy blazing through TV shows in way too little time.

I did run on Monday, as planned, but I did not run again until Friday, and then we only ended up having time for an 18-minute, 1.7 mile jog.

My running buddy from Friday is on the top left.

I thought I had a running date for today, but holiday plans decided to get in the way. I did end up dragging myself off the couch to go, though, which I'm relatively impressed with. I had my little bro drop me at the beach and I ran about 3.5 miles along the coast in 38:45 or so (pit stop in the middle not included in the time) and then walked the last 1.5 back home (I thought about running at times, but it was very sunny and warm so I just walked).

All in all, I'm definitely failing at this training thing. I mean, the whole goal of signing up for the half marathon was to get me to exercise more, which has technically been a success even if the training is pretty much a failure.

But this leaves me with a question for all of you who are runners/who like exercise: how exactly do I become one of you? I mean, I'm usually glad I went when I go, but how do I get to a place where I actually want to go? I need your wisdom...

Lameness

I know, I know. I'm lame.

Last week, I ran on Monday and didn't run again until Saturday morning. Both times I ran 3.1 miles, for a grand total of 6.2 miles this week.

In my defense, I was pretty exhausted all week from having to work last Sunday (aka I worked 11 out of 12 days Dec 2-13) and I didn't do anything else either. It's not like I ditched running to go do fun things. I ditched running to lay on my couch and not even have enough energy to watch TV at times because it would require paying attention. Not that that's really a good excuse.

In happier news, I actually almost feel like a normal human being today, on the second day of the weekend that I actually get to enjoy this week. Yay team!

This is also the last week of school before Christmas break (waaaaayyyyyy more exciting to me now that I'm a teacher, by the way), and my goal is to run on Monday AND on Wednesday, and then hopefully on Saturday when I'm back in Torrance.

So anyways, short & boring post to note a short & boring week. Here's hopin' I'll have something more interesting to say next time.

Colleen out.

Distractions

Today wasn't too exciting of a run. Rose Bowl loop (as usual) in 34:04 (which isn't particularly impressive) with the roomie. But hey, it's a run. It counts.

The fun part of today's run, however, was the topic of discussion. Of course we talked about work for awhile -- mostly how tired we are already because of Open House yesterday and how tired we're going to be by the end of the week when we have our work party. And of course we both have friends having parties that night as well... And people are coming over here the night after... It's going to be a long few weeks...

But then we started talking about Rachel's fake Instagram account. Her friends have been giving her grief about not having one so she started one on her birthday this past weekend and is kind of using it satirically. She's trying to think of the most cliche Instagram things she can and post them with as many super-obnoxious hashtags per photo as she can, starting with her birthday latte two days ago. So we spent at least half our run brainstorming.

I couldn't actually find her on Instagram, but I imagine her first post looked something like this.

We talked about taking pictures of the food on Friday, doing a Throwback Thursday involving her engagement, putting together a collage of roomie running dates at the Rose Bowl, maybe some corrected grammar mistake in a student's paper, and perhaps one of those pictures in the mirror before she goes out. We also talked about appropriate/ridiculous hashtags for each one.

[I apologize if anyone takes Instagram super-seriously and is offended by all of this, but neither of us has time for that... so we just talk about it instead...]

So anyways, I realized when we were pretty close to being done that I had been perfectly distracted for at least half the run. Not even just partially distracted, but wholeheartedly not thinking about breathing or my tired legs or anything. I call that a win.

Kristy, we're gonna need to find something equally awesome and distracting to talk about come Jan 19...

Titles are Hard to Think of...

I really did not want to go running today.

I probably should've gone running yesterday, but I didn't, using carpooling with the roomie and saving the environment as an excuse. And yoga on Tuesday was rough - not even because we did anything particularly difficult or anything, but just because my body is apparently mad at me for some reason.

This afternoon, I was curled up on the couch in my office after school falling asleep and just dreaming of going home to my real couch and spending the rest of the day in a TV coma.

But no. Last time I ran was Monday and two days off is pushing it. So I went.

Course I forgot regular socks. Again. Luckily, I wore boots to work today so I was wearing socks - socks that would look ridiculous with my running capris and probably keep me too warm, but still socks. So I went running dressed kinda weird.

I was less self-conscious about it than I thought I'd be, actually, and in the end decided I didn't care if people thought I was dressed weird. I was running, and that's what was important.

I also needed some extra motivation today so I racked my brains for something really important to offer my run for. And not that I'm happy that a friend's mom is in the hospital, it definitely gave me more reason to keep going. I even ended up going an extra mile and a half! I did the first loop in 32:07 (not the fastest, but still pretty darn good... for me...) and ended up running for 51 minutes all together. Well, I walked at the end of the loop while I debated whether to keep going, but I ran most of it.

And, lucky for all of you, something kind of interesting happened today that has never happened before. Two things, actually. (1) I passed 4 people who were running -- I didn't count the people walking -- and (2) no one passed me. That has literally never happened to me before. I think all the people who are real runners must've just been going the opposite direction on the loop today, but it still makes me feel a little special. So I'll take it.

One last running observation/question that I keep meaning to mention but keep forgetting, especially directed toward you veteran runners out there: do you have issues with snot? Honestly, I feel like every time I go running I start out fine but then at some point find myself unable to breathe and needing to blow my nose. I never think to bring Kleenex, but also that seems a little weird and where would I put it and what would I do with it once I used it? So, any wisdom you people have to share -- I'm all ears. Help a girl out...

Just What I Needed?

So, I definitely failed again and didn't run on Saturday. I had all intentions of doing so, but apparently being 25 means my body really doesn't like this whole quick-turnaround, travel-across-the-country-for-two-days, stay-up-all-night business. It just wasn't havin' it. I spent Saturday on my parents' couch watching football, lesson planning, and reading Mockingjay for the third time.

I did, however, run this afternoon. It was painful in ways I didn't expect, but I did run a majority of the time and finished the loop in under 40 minutes. And, hey, I went, so that's something.

When I went last Sunday with Becca and didn't end up running much at all, I was having the same sort of pain -- not exactly a sideache, cuz it's in the lower abs, but kinda the same sensation. I'm not exactly sure what it is. Last time, I attributed it to eating too much too close to running. This time, I finished lunch at least 2 hours before I went and all I had was pad thai and an apple. So I dunno.

I did have a little revelation, though. I had my hair done up all nice for school in these cool twisty bobby pin things and I didn't feel like taking it out, so I just ran in it. And it didn't fall out and it was actually kinda comfy - didn't pull as tight as a normal rubberband. So that was cool. 

I might have to try running with my hair like this more often.

And that's pretty much that. I ran. It wasn't great, but it happened. I guess that's better than nothing. Yay me!