- The kid's school year continues to go very well. Yesterday when we picked her up, her teacher said she'd been dry all day. I said, "Oh, great! So when do you think we can ditch the pull-ups?" She said, "Um, you did. You sent her without one on today..." Indeed, my husband had done that by mistake - but she ROCKED it. In fact, she stayed dry for about 24 hours. So today we tried again. And sent her with extra pants, undies, and pull-ups. I really think she can do this! Her biggest obstacle is that she can't get up and walk to the bathroom or say, clearly, that she has to go - but she can actually do both in her own way, she's physically capable of being potty trained, and she's just so damn smart... We're on our way!
- Today I believe we will be signing the final paperwork to be submitted so that she can be one step closer to getting her AAC device! She's had two therapy sessions using it now (everything up until two weeks ago was evaluation vs. actual therapy) and she is doing incredibly well with it. I just cannot wait until she can communicate more clearly with us. Her speech is getting better and better, but her frustration level is at code red -- so this is going to be excellent.
- There is an exciting new resource for vegetarians (me! lacto ovo me!) and vegans in Atlanta - the Crack the Plates Atlanta Vegan Guide! It has a listing of every vegan, vegetarian, and vegan-friendly restaurant and grocery store in the general Atlanta area. It's a work in progress, so feel free to submit suggestions (I submitted Radial - and look, it's there now! whee!). I absolutely love how veg-friendly Atlanta has become. I've eaten at or shopped at many of the places on that list, but there are so many more to explore!
- I have a new Tivo and it is ridiculous how exciting I think this is. Tivo made me an upgrade offer I couldn't refuse ($50 for Lifetime Service on the old box, free wireless adapter, multi-box discount, and Hulu Plus for 6 months) so I went for it. Plus my old box's dual-tuner functionality was messed up because of some changes to our cable service, and I missed being able to record two shows at once... If you're wondering "But Marla, how do you afford such frippery?", well, we don't pay for cable - it's part of our condo fee - so this is very worth it for us, although I am waiting for the first post-Tivo cable bill because I think we have to pay a bit extra for the new HD service we now have. ANYWAY, I caught up on Grimm, I'm now watching Community, and I just love how HD TV looks. Yes, I love TV. I admit it! I do! I am looking forward to the new TV season cranking up - in particular, I'll be watching Revenge, Once Upon a Time, How I Met Your Mother, Hart of Dixie, MAYBE Revolution, Grimm, The New Normal, American Horror Story: Asylum, and...probably whatever else my Tivo can hold.
- Speaking of gadgets, yesterday I ordered a new cell phone. We use Virgin Mobile, so our monthly bills are really cheap. The first phone I bought was $50 on Black Friday and was totally good enough for what I needed - but of course I craved an upgrade. So I saved up every $5 Amazon gift card I earned from Swagbucks (referral link!) as well as a few GCs I earned elsewhere and some extra dollars I earned around the Internet. That plus the phone being on sale meant that I was able to buy a $200 phone for $30. HTC One V, I can't wait to get you! I also went on eBay and bought a new case and screen protector, but I'm really hoping the phone will squeeze into the jogging armband I already own.
- I'm back to running. My back has been hurting, so I haven't pushed it as much as I'd like, but I am trying to run at least 20-25 minutes a day, three days a week. My new goals is to eventually be able to run a 5K without walking at all. I am inspired by Sheryl Yvette and her ability to run 15 miles without walking. If she can do that, I can do three. I CAN.
- I'll be introducing Kari Chapin, author of the excellent Grow Your Handmade Business (referral link!), at the Decatur Book Festival in a few weeks. VERY exciting - can't wait to meet her and hear her tips for crafters like me! Also hoping to catch Dame Darcy, Kevin Henkes, Patrick McDonnell, and Leela Corman, among many others. Wheee!
- That about sums it up, I think.
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Random Roundup - August 21, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Weight Loss Update - July 13, 2012
On Friday, January 13, I wrote about my Weight Watchers/weight loss journey, and I promised an update in 6 months. Well hi, I didn't actually plan this, but it's EXACTLY 6 months later and I'm going to let you know how it's going.
In a nutshell, and to save you from having to read my blather if you don't have any interest in doing so, it is going extremely well.
This is a really long post that will be continued...after the jump!
In a nutshell, and to save you from having to read my blather if you don't have any interest in doing so, it is going extremely well.
This is a really long post that will be continued...after the jump!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
The Second (5K) Goes Down a Little Easier - April 14, 2012
This morning I woke up way too early in the much too cold (oh how my blood has thinned since I moved from Massachusetts to Georgia - it's embarrassing!) to run my second "official" 5K.
I mean, I ran a 5K on Wednesday and hit a personal best, but I was all by myself so apparently that doesn't count.
Today's 5K will probably be my last race for some time. It cemented that I simply do not like racing against anyone but myself. It wasn't a fluke - I still don't like the crowds, the jockeying for position, the unknown route (yes, yes, I could have gone before the race and learned the route - for various reasons, that wasn't feasible either this time or last time). I also don't like feeling competitive in a situation in which I am simply not a competitor (yet) - racing brings out my "I am not good enough" feelings for a minute, before I realize that I have been running for a mere 11 weeks - and nine of those were the Couch to 5K program. I have only been running three miles at a time for about three weeks, and I still can't even run that without walking (but never stopping and always walking as fast as I possibly can when I take a break for about 10 seconds at a time).
That said, and despite the fact that today's race was on an uphill incline for much of it, so I walked, I still hit my best time ever. Did I win or place? Nope. Did people I know beat me handily? Yup. Did I run a 9:21 mile? Heck yes. Did I run a 5K in less than 30 minutes? 29:10.
I am doing this for exercise - to improve my body inside and out. My next goal is to run 12 miles a week for a while. At the moment I'm at 10. I'll do 10 for another week (or more, if I feel like it). Then 11. Then 12. I don't actually want to run a 10K or a half-marathon or a marathon. I don't want to run for that distance or that length of time. But I do want to be able to run as fast as I can for three miles. I would love to run an 8 minute mile. I think I might be able to do that sometime, if I stick to this.
But I also want to mix it up. This summer is going to be hot and I probably will switch to DVDs and indoor activities for a while (and playing at the pool). I am a runner, I feel strong, I feel proud - but I don't think my goals are the same as most runners.
Then again, I might get annoyed enough to train for a marathon, just to prove the haters wrong. I've done that before...
Go me.
I started uploading one picture a day to 365project.org/marlatiara - usually one that I also upload to Instagram. There's no real reason why I'm doing both, except that I am. Feel free to look.
I mean, I ran a 5K on Wednesday and hit a personal best, but I was all by myself so apparently that doesn't count.
Today's 5K will probably be my last race for some time. It cemented that I simply do not like racing against anyone but myself. It wasn't a fluke - I still don't like the crowds, the jockeying for position, the unknown route (yes, yes, I could have gone before the race and learned the route - for various reasons, that wasn't feasible either this time or last time). I also don't like feeling competitive in a situation in which I am simply not a competitor (yet) - racing brings out my "I am not good enough" feelings for a minute, before I realize that I have been running for a mere 11 weeks - and nine of those were the Couch to 5K program. I have only been running three miles at a time for about three weeks, and I still can't even run that without walking (but never stopping and always walking as fast as I possibly can when I take a break for about 10 seconds at a time).
That said, and despite the fact that today's race was on an uphill incline for much of it, so I walked, I still hit my best time ever. Did I win or place? Nope. Did people I know beat me handily? Yup. Did I run a 9:21 mile? Heck yes. Did I run a 5K in less than 30 minutes? 29:10.
I am doing this for exercise - to improve my body inside and out. My next goal is to run 12 miles a week for a while. At the moment I'm at 10. I'll do 10 for another week (or more, if I feel like it). Then 11. Then 12. I don't actually want to run a 10K or a half-marathon or a marathon. I don't want to run for that distance or that length of time. But I do want to be able to run as fast as I can for three miles. I would love to run an 8 minute mile. I think I might be able to do that sometime, if I stick to this.
But I also want to mix it up. This summer is going to be hot and I probably will switch to DVDs and indoor activities for a while (and playing at the pool). I am a runner, I feel strong, I feel proud - but I don't think my goals are the same as most runners.
Then again, I might get annoyed enough to train for a marathon, just to prove the haters wrong. I've done that before...
Go me.
I started uploading one picture a day to 365project.org/marlatiara - usually one that I also upload to Instagram. There's no real reason why I'm doing both, except that I am. Feel free to look.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
My First 5K - March 24, 2012
Well, I did it! I completed my first 5K!
Here are my stats: http://www.rundouble.com/#map/634280
I ran the entire thing in just over 32 minutes, and my pace was 10:18/mile. This was not only my first time running this particular route, but it was my first time running a route that was anything but flat with perhaps a few gentle but frustrating hills. This route had HILLS. I ran some of them, I walked some of them. This was also my first time running for that long a time and that long a distance - last Thursday I completed week 8 of the Couch to 5K program and ran 2.76 miles - if I hadn't had this planned, Monday would've been my first 3 mile run. (Instead it will be my second!)
What sucked was that although I drank a ton of lemon water about an hour before I headed out (trying to balance hydration with a need to pee - TMI, perhaps, but before the race I still had to hoof it over to a local fast food shop...), I still became dehydrated. First the back of my throat went unbearably dry - but I've dealt with that before. But then I got...THE PAIN. The evil, awful pain. I know this pain well, I've dealt with it many times before. And one of the very first days of the Couch to 5K program, it also struck - but for a change I was very determined and didn't throw my hands up and say "running sucks, this sucks, I quit."
What I'm talking about is a knife-like pain in my ribcage - and it gets worse if I run, makes it hard to breathe, and is all together rather miserable to experience. It's been suggested to me that it is related to hydration and I'm fairly certain that is exactly what it is. But I've been so on top of being hydrated during my training that it has disappeared completely and I thought I was in the clear - but the truth is that when I run on a regular day, I leave my house and start running within minutes, where today I had to get to the venue, wait around, get situated...and too much time had passed. I guess I didn't plan very well, and I'm not advanced enough to carry water with me - so when the pain hit, I had to walk for a longer stretch than I usually walk. And of course once it all clicked in my head, I noticed empty cups on the ground, looked back, and sure enough I'd run past the one and only water station on the race route. Damn.
At first I got really upset. I thought I'd blown the whole thing and I was really disappointed. Then I took a deep breath and I walked as fast as I could. And then I tried sprinting. And eventually adrenaline took back over and the pain faded to the background and I was back to running - I think that saved my time, and I think that my overall time would've been SO much better without that setback. Oh well - a lesson learned for the next 5K I'm doing in a few weeks. (yup)
What else have I learned so far? I don't think I like running in crowds. I don't like figuring out how to navigate someone who is too slow in front of me or a cluster of people I want to pass. I don't like that big mush of people at the beginning. I don't like realizing I need to walk and navigating to the side. I prefer the runs I've been doing that are usually just me or just one other person. And I don't think - at this time - that I'm interested in pushing to a 10K or beyond. Probably.
On the other hand, I did end this 5K feeling absolutely amazing, not too terribly exhausted at all. I like this distance, I like this pace. I like feeling this major sense of accomplishment. I love looking back over the past two months and seeing how far I've come and how fast I've gotten. I love finally feeling in shape - I think I'm in the best shape of my entire life at this moment, actually.
When the race ended, I was in a daze, trying to cool down and keep moving and fill out my scorecard (in my shakiest handwriting ever) and figure out where the hell I was. I stumbled around trying to find water and failed for a while until my AMAZING friend Lindsay (click that - her blog is awesome in general and in that particular post is a picture of me with the fam, pre-race. no really, CLICK IT) and her gorgeous girls found me and helped me figure out what I'd done and get hydration and a banana and find my husband and my girl (who both cheered from the sidelines as I ran past them twice!).
But really, truly, I felt - and still feel - great!
So. Onward and upward. One more official week of the Couch to 5K and then I may try the program to improve my time or just keep on running three times a week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll try to push myself to run a 10K sometime in the fall. Maybe.
Here are my stats: http://www.rundouble.com/#map/634280
I ran the entire thing in just over 32 minutes, and my pace was 10:18/mile. This was not only my first time running this particular route, but it was my first time running a route that was anything but flat with perhaps a few gentle but frustrating hills. This route had HILLS. I ran some of them, I walked some of them. This was also my first time running for that long a time and that long a distance - last Thursday I completed week 8 of the Couch to 5K program and ran 2.76 miles - if I hadn't had this planned, Monday would've been my first 3 mile run. (Instead it will be my second!)
What sucked was that although I drank a ton of lemon water about an hour before I headed out (trying to balance hydration with a need to pee - TMI, perhaps, but before the race I still had to hoof it over to a local fast food shop...), I still became dehydrated. First the back of my throat went unbearably dry - but I've dealt with that before. But then I got...THE PAIN. The evil, awful pain. I know this pain well, I've dealt with it many times before. And one of the very first days of the Couch to 5K program, it also struck - but for a change I was very determined and didn't throw my hands up and say "running sucks, this sucks, I quit."
What I'm talking about is a knife-like pain in my ribcage - and it gets worse if I run, makes it hard to breathe, and is all together rather miserable to experience. It's been suggested to me that it is related to hydration and I'm fairly certain that is exactly what it is. But I've been so on top of being hydrated during my training that it has disappeared completely and I thought I was in the clear - but the truth is that when I run on a regular day, I leave my house and start running within minutes, where today I had to get to the venue, wait around, get situated...and too much time had passed. I guess I didn't plan very well, and I'm not advanced enough to carry water with me - so when the pain hit, I had to walk for a longer stretch than I usually walk. And of course once it all clicked in my head, I noticed empty cups on the ground, looked back, and sure enough I'd run past the one and only water station on the race route. Damn.
At first I got really upset. I thought I'd blown the whole thing and I was really disappointed. Then I took a deep breath and I walked as fast as I could. And then I tried sprinting. And eventually adrenaline took back over and the pain faded to the background and I was back to running - I think that saved my time, and I think that my overall time would've been SO much better without that setback. Oh well - a lesson learned for the next 5K I'm doing in a few weeks. (yup)
What else have I learned so far? I don't think I like running in crowds. I don't like figuring out how to navigate someone who is too slow in front of me or a cluster of people I want to pass. I don't like that big mush of people at the beginning. I don't like realizing I need to walk and navigating to the side. I prefer the runs I've been doing that are usually just me or just one other person. And I don't think - at this time - that I'm interested in pushing to a 10K or beyond. Probably.
On the other hand, I did end this 5K feeling absolutely amazing, not too terribly exhausted at all. I like this distance, I like this pace. I like feeling this major sense of accomplishment. I love looking back over the past two months and seeing how far I've come and how fast I've gotten. I love finally feeling in shape - I think I'm in the best shape of my entire life at this moment, actually.
When the race ended, I was in a daze, trying to cool down and keep moving and fill out my scorecard (in my shakiest handwriting ever) and figure out where the hell I was. I stumbled around trying to find water and failed for a while until my AMAZING friend Lindsay (click that - her blog is awesome in general and in that particular post is a picture of me with the fam, pre-race. no really, CLICK IT) and her gorgeous girls found me and helped me figure out what I'd done and get hydration and a banana and find my husband and my girl (who both cheered from the sidelines as I ran past them twice!).
But really, truly, I felt - and still feel - great!
So. Onward and upward. One more official week of the Couch to 5K and then I may try the program to improve my time or just keep on running three times a week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll try to push myself to run a 10K sometime in the fall. Maybe.
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