This breathing thing O.o
I guess I never realized how much or how bad I wheezed while working out ... I just dealt with it. What's weird is I don't notice a lot of difference during the exertion, but my breathing during the recovery breaks is much easier ... Easier breathing = better and quicker recovery = able to do more = cool :-) (I had to go back to my college algebra books to find that equation). I need to remember to thank my doctor when I see him this week for my DMV physical.
Training Stats:
Yesterday - :-/ ... Well ... I thought about doing several things, but wound up doing yard work and meandering around the house and not much else. But my legs felt great after Saturday's run.
Today - 40 min stepper - 15 @ level 3, 15 @ level 2 and 10 @ level 1, followed by 20 min treadmill at a casual and relatively slow 3 mph walk.
Earlier today I did 2 sanity walks - first was 10 min slow pace, the second was 25 min moderate pace (3.3 mph I guess).
Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be doing spin class and probably back on the treadmill Thursday ... we'll see.
I've already mapped out the half marathon run Andrea and I will be doing in a couple of weeks ... and I'm working on the last several weeks of training runs we'll be doing. It feels like the marathon is looming right on top of me and I don't feel ready for it ... although it is 10 weeks away, that doesn't seem like much time any more.
And I am feeling a bit of trepidation. Last tine I completed my half marathon distance and the next week I tweaked my Achilles tendon ... The timing of the training is virtually identical ... but what are the odds of it happening again??
Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
I finally did it!!
I finally blew the perfect snot rocket :-)
@ Andrea - Sorry, I've only gotten good with my left nostril ... and I really thought you were on the other side of me ... and it's not like it hit you square, in fact if you weren't carrying your water bottle it might have missed you altogether ... but I never thought it would slide up the bottle so fast while you drinking out of it.
Training Stats:
It was a perfect morning for running ... Mid 60s, blue sky with wispy clouds, light breeze ... the relatively persistent drizzle was a bit annoying, but that was my nose, not the weather.
After pulling my hair into a ponytail and applying sunscreen to my arms and face I scrambled out of the bathroom looking like a Robert Palmer girl ... with a little less makeup ... and a mustache. Andrea was already at the house waiting for me ... ironically the the fact that I got out of bed 20 minutes late and started getting ready 20 minutes late somehow made me about 20 minutes late. Go figure. Anyway, we left about 20 minutes late (anybody surprised by that?) and got into our run / walk. Today was our first day at 15k, which would simply be our 12k route extended to include an additional 15.k downhill and a torturous 5k climb up the same hill which was akin to the steepest slope of the Andes.
As a side note - If I could go back in time I would convince myself to not get so out of shape in the first place ... then I go further back in time and prevent Sir Isaac Newton from inventing gravity so running hills wouldn't be so difficult. And for what it's worth, whoever invented hills in the first place is not really high on my favorite people list right now either ... but I digress ...
Total - 16.1k including warm up or cool down 2:1 for the first 4.5k, 1:1 up the first hill, 10 minutes with a 30 second nose blowing break down the hill, 1:1 ratio starting back up the hill, 1:1:1 (1 min run: 1 min walk: 1 min incoherent muttering) until my legs couldn't take it then we walked up the rest of the hill. Other than the 6 min run down the next hill the rest was a combination of 1:1 and 1:2 until we crossed the 14k mark then we walked home.
By far this was the best run we've had, although our pace suffered severely during the steep uphill ... and due to the fact that my lead felt like legs during the last 3k. Although the overall pace is off the 6 hour goal for a full marathon it would have been under the 7 hour deadline ... and if I factor in the 5.5 minutes of stopped and waiting time we had due to traffic signals (4 different signals) refilling my water bottle at the drinking fountain and receiving a text message it was very encouraging ... not great, but encouraging.
Non training:
After today's run Pam and I went for pedicures ... soooo relaxing, especially when the pedicurist did the foot / leg massage. It is an awesome reward for at least making a reasonable effort to stick with my training program.
A local sushi place reopened recently, but this probably isn't great news since they are very affordable and very, very good. I suppose if I start doing 2-a-days I might be able to eat there more often and not regret it, but other wise I'll need to refrain from indulging too much.
Otherwise my life has been pretty boring lately, but I guess that's a good thing.
@ Andrea - Sorry, I've only gotten good with my left nostril ... and I really thought you were on the other side of me ... and it's not like it hit you square, in fact if you weren't carrying your water bottle it might have missed you altogether ... but I never thought it would slide up the bottle so fast while you drinking out of it.
Training Stats:
It was a perfect morning for running ... Mid 60s, blue sky with wispy clouds, light breeze ... the relatively persistent drizzle was a bit annoying, but that was my nose, not the weather.
After pulling my hair into a ponytail and applying sunscreen to my arms and face I scrambled out of the bathroom looking like a Robert Palmer girl ... with a little less makeup ... and a mustache. Andrea was already at the house waiting for me ... ironically the the fact that I got out of bed 20 minutes late and started getting ready 20 minutes late somehow made me about 20 minutes late. Go figure. Anyway, we left about 20 minutes late (anybody surprised by that?) and got into our run / walk. Today was our first day at 15k, which would simply be our 12k route extended to include an additional 15.k downhill and a torturous 5k climb up the same hill which was akin to the steepest slope of the Andes.
As a side note - If I could go back in time I would convince myself to not get so out of shape in the first place ... then I go further back in time and prevent Sir Isaac Newton from inventing gravity so running hills wouldn't be so difficult. And for what it's worth, whoever invented hills in the first place is not really high on my favorite people list right now either ... but I digress ...
Total - 16.1k including warm up or cool down 2:1 for the first 4.5k, 1:1 up the first hill, 10 minutes with a 30 second nose blowing break down the hill, 1:1 ratio starting back up the hill, 1:1:1 (1 min run: 1 min walk: 1 min incoherent muttering) until my legs couldn't take it then we walked up the rest of the hill. Other than the 6 min run down the next hill the rest was a combination of 1:1 and 1:2 until we crossed the 14k mark then we walked home.
By far this was the best run we've had, although our pace suffered severely during the steep uphill ... and due to the fact that my lead felt like legs during the last 3k. Although the overall pace is off the 6 hour goal for a full marathon it would have been under the 7 hour deadline ... and if I factor in the 5.5 minutes of stopped and waiting time we had due to traffic signals (4 different signals) refilling my water bottle at the drinking fountain and receiving a text message it was very encouraging ... not great, but encouraging.
Non training:
After today's run Pam and I went for pedicures ... soooo relaxing, especially when the pedicurist did the foot / leg massage. It is an awesome reward for at least making a reasonable effort to stick with my training program.
A local sushi place reopened recently, but this probably isn't great news since they are very affordable and very, very good. I suppose if I start doing 2-a-days I might be able to eat there more often and not regret it, but other wise I'll need to refrain from indulging too much.
Otherwise my life has been pretty boring lately, but I guess that's a good thing.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
It was either a sign from God ...
or a tmemptaion from the devil.
Yesterday started off pretty well - got some good work done on my project for work (emphasis on my ... Not the companies, not for the company. My project for me to train my drivers better), then Pam and I spent the afternoon together before I was supposed to meet my sister for spin class (emphasis on supposed to). We had a nice lunch before walking through the mall ... then came the intestinal pain, not horrible but bad enough for me to figure lunch was not agreeing with me. And then my nose started running again, complete with the sneezing fits.
Nothing worse than a runny nose with aching intestines ... except maybe an aching nose with running intestines. I left a message for my sister (and Pam text messaged our niece to get a hold of her mom) to let j=her know I was probably skipping the class. The visual of me projectile vomiting across the spin room didn't sit well with me.
Today was going fine until after I left work. The famous last words of "Let's stop by Sam's Club to get a few things" was pretty much my undoing ... I really, really hate that place - the crowd, the hectic environment, the rude people, the ambient noise level akin to a jet engine in a toilet stall ... I hate it. But just when you think it can't get worse, Pam's ex boss shows up acting like he actually cares about somebody other than himself and his atrocious "just for men" 5 minute comb through ego enhancer.
Ex boss - who we will from this point forward refer to as Supreme Jackass (or SJ for short), "Are yo working?"
Pam, "No ... Still can't. Anxiety & depression is still too intense"
I am trying to be cordial at this point and not snap SJ's neck and squirt his microbrain across the store like the festering boil he really is. Just the sight of him brought back 2+ years of horrible memories and feelings, but I am trying to be cordial.
SJ, "Oh my gosh ..." Which I interpreted to mean, "You know what? I don't really care, but if I pretend to be sincere maybe my conscience won't haunt me at night knowing that we threw you out like a plate of day old caviar and never thought about you again ... I wonder if the next Escalade I get should be Ivory with maroon interior or eggplant with ... Oh wait, they're still in front of me. I better hold this obviously fake smile for a while ..."
At this point my blood is boiling. I politely excused myself and walked off ... muttering to myself and freaking out store employees and customers, but I walked off.
After that things kind of went downhill ... I accidentally became one of the rude imbeciles I hate so much. The guy in front of us had set his stuff on the check out stand but left 2 cases of soda in his cart (which most people do). I put a divider on the belt so I could start putting our stuff up and he moved it ... I rather abruptly slapped another one down and began to transfer my stuff whe suddenly he's moving the cases to the belt. I felt stupid and apologized stating I thought he was leaving the sodas in the cart ... he wasn't mad. Now the lady behind us was starting to put her stuff on the belt ... No problem, but sh had 2 1/2 carts packed full of stuff and there was only room for a few things ... but she was stacking stuff and stacking stuff and when she realized she didn't have room for even the 1/2 cart she actually started pushing our stuff further forward and squeezing more stuff in there.
One of the things I went there for was razors ... my legs are just way too stubbly. The don't actually have the razors on the aisles, they have the "buy this product" cards that you take to the cashier ... the cashier then stares blankly at it before calling one of the many minions who does not have access to the supply room so he has to run around and find a manager who really doesn't care and carries the card around for nearly 10 minutes before finally realizing she has something in her hand that is totally interfering with her ability to send text messages or touch up her lipstick, so she nonchalantly meanders off the floor and comes back 4 minutes later saying that she could not find the razors but if we want to wait she could get a forklift operator to lift another minion to the top shelf and see if maybe they were put in the wrong spot ... but that's the system at its best ... unfortunately it didn't go that well for us and amongst all the furor my brain went into lock-down.
When the manager finally returned and said they didn't have the 14 pack of razors we paid for, but she could get us a 5 pack with a free "shaver thingy" I don't think I was too polite. I was now officially in a hurry because I was supposed to get to the gym so I could get a spot in the spin class ... but by this point I didn't feel like it. We wound up getting our money back for the razors and took off.
I did go to the gym and I did get a spot in the class and started my early warm-up as usual, but even my favorite music wasn't getting me into the mood, but by this time the room was packed and I didn't want to just walk out. Finally the instructor showed up and announced that the lady that followed her into the room saved her and made it possible to have spin class (it turns out the instructor forgot her shorts, but I'm not supposed to know that) but because the room was packed she wanted to know if somebody would give up a spot for her. Then the instructor found out that the desk overbooked the class ... again.
If it was a sign from God - Thank you. If it was a temptation - I failed. I gave up my spot. I had been riding for almost an hour and actually did a pretty intense ride for a self directed ride, but my heart was just not in it. I told the lady that she could have my spot when another lady ( a regular in the class) told me I couldn't do that ... that they had to go down the wait list. It's my spot ... I give it to her!! Leave me alone, mind your own business, it doesn't even concern you. Next thing I know there are three staff members in the spin room with clipboards all apologizing to me for me being displaced ... why don't you guys care this much when I'm actually upset about things?? I received no less than 7 apologies from 4 different staff members before I got out of the gym.
Did you read this far?? If so, thanks ... and I'm sorry I wasted so much of your time whining. At least I included a sentence about training :-\
This picture pretty much describes my thought process by the end of the Sam's Club excursion
Yesterday started off pretty well - got some good work done on my project for work (emphasis on my ... Not the companies, not for the company. My project for me to train my drivers better), then Pam and I spent the afternoon together before I was supposed to meet my sister for spin class (emphasis on supposed to). We had a nice lunch before walking through the mall ... then came the intestinal pain, not horrible but bad enough for me to figure lunch was not agreeing with me. And then my nose started running again, complete with the sneezing fits.
Nothing worse than a runny nose with aching intestines ... except maybe an aching nose with running intestines. I left a message for my sister (and Pam text messaged our niece to get a hold of her mom) to let j=her know I was probably skipping the class. The visual of me projectile vomiting across the spin room didn't sit well with me.
Today was going fine until after I left work. The famous last words of "Let's stop by Sam's Club to get a few things" was pretty much my undoing ... I really, really hate that place - the crowd, the hectic environment, the rude people, the ambient noise level akin to a jet engine in a toilet stall ... I hate it. But just when you think it can't get worse, Pam's ex boss shows up acting like he actually cares about somebody other than himself and his atrocious "just for men" 5 minute comb through ego enhancer.
Ex boss - who we will from this point forward refer to as Supreme Jackass (or SJ for short), "Are yo working?"
Pam, "No ... Still can't. Anxiety & depression is still too intense"
I am trying to be cordial at this point and not snap SJ's neck and squirt his microbrain across the store like the festering boil he really is. Just the sight of him brought back 2+ years of horrible memories and feelings, but I am trying to be cordial.
SJ, "Oh my gosh ..." Which I interpreted to mean, "You know what? I don't really care, but if I pretend to be sincere maybe my conscience won't haunt me at night knowing that we threw you out like a plate of day old caviar and never thought about you again ... I wonder if the next Escalade I get should be Ivory with maroon interior or eggplant with ... Oh wait, they're still in front of me. I better hold this obviously fake smile for a while ..."
At this point my blood is boiling. I politely excused myself and walked off ... muttering to myself and freaking out store employees and customers, but I walked off.
After that things kind of went downhill ... I accidentally became one of the rude imbeciles I hate so much. The guy in front of us had set his stuff on the check out stand but left 2 cases of soda in his cart (which most people do). I put a divider on the belt so I could start putting our stuff up and he moved it ... I rather abruptly slapped another one down and began to transfer my stuff whe suddenly he's moving the cases to the belt. I felt stupid and apologized stating I thought he was leaving the sodas in the cart ... he wasn't mad. Now the lady behind us was starting to put her stuff on the belt ... No problem, but sh had 2 1/2 carts packed full of stuff and there was only room for a few things ... but she was stacking stuff and stacking stuff and when she realized she didn't have room for even the 1/2 cart she actually started pushing our stuff further forward and squeezing more stuff in there.
One of the things I went there for was razors ... my legs are just way too stubbly. The don't actually have the razors on the aisles, they have the "buy this product" cards that you take to the cashier ... the cashier then stares blankly at it before calling one of the many minions who does not have access to the supply room so he has to run around and find a manager who really doesn't care and carries the card around for nearly 10 minutes before finally realizing she has something in her hand that is totally interfering with her ability to send text messages or touch up her lipstick, so she nonchalantly meanders off the floor and comes back 4 minutes later saying that she could not find the razors but if we want to wait she could get a forklift operator to lift another minion to the top shelf and see if maybe they were put in the wrong spot ... but that's the system at its best ... unfortunately it didn't go that well for us and amongst all the furor my brain went into lock-down.
When the manager finally returned and said they didn't have the 14 pack of razors we paid for, but she could get us a 5 pack with a free "shaver thingy" I don't think I was too polite. I was now officially in a hurry because I was supposed to get to the gym so I could get a spot in the spin class ... but by this point I didn't feel like it. We wound up getting our money back for the razors and took off.
I did go to the gym and I did get a spot in the class and started my early warm-up as usual, but even my favorite music wasn't getting me into the mood, but by this time the room was packed and I didn't want to just walk out. Finally the instructor showed up and announced that the lady that followed her into the room saved her and made it possible to have spin class (it turns out the instructor forgot her shorts, but I'm not supposed to know that) but because the room was packed she wanted to know if somebody would give up a spot for her. Then the instructor found out that the desk overbooked the class ... again.
If it was a sign from God - Thank you. If it was a temptation - I failed. I gave up my spot. I had been riding for almost an hour and actually did a pretty intense ride for a self directed ride, but my heart was just not in it. I told the lady that she could have my spot when another lady ( a regular in the class) told me I couldn't do that ... that they had to go down the wait list. It's my spot ... I give it to her!! Leave me alone, mind your own business, it doesn't even concern you. Next thing I know there are three staff members in the spin room with clipboards all apologizing to me for me being displaced ... why don't you guys care this much when I'm actually upset about things?? I received no less than 7 apologies from 4 different staff members before I got out of the gym.
Did you read this far?? If so, thanks ... and I'm sorry I wasted so much of your time whining. At least I included a sentence about training :-\
This picture pretty much describes my thought process by the end of the Sam's Club excursion
Monday, March 7, 2011
Pretending it's the home stretch
because it basically is ...
I've exhausted my alphabetic book of excuses ending with zygodactyl zydeco zebras zipping zephyrs zealously ... next time I'll get the unabridged book of excuses.
Anyway - for whatever reason I'm having trouble finding a road, a hill or a track to run on, so today I opted for plan Q ... obviously plans B through P didn't pan out well either. I headed to the gym and found it crawling with my favorite creatures - gym rats. From the oblivious people who have no clue how to use the equipment to the obnoxious who seem to go out of there way to be in people's way or hog the equipment ... I opted for the stair-stepper - 30 min level 2 & 3 and feeling surprisingly strong and not winded.
After getting off the stepper I paced around the cardio equipment waiting for either a treadmill or an elliptical. I did get a good laugh watching all the people doing bizarre things that vaguely resemble exercising on the equipment, like the guy who was doing the gazelle leap at a very fast pace, but his feet were barely touching the treadmill, or the lady who had the treadmill at the max incline and was holding on for dear life. Eventually this lady finished her ... walk?? and had to do her ... stretching??? Of course the fact that there were now 3 people waiting for the machines made no difference ... I was first in line, the little angry gym rat in training had been waiting an entire 2 minutes and another guy was waiting at the far end of the row. Before the stretchy lady could finish her whatever she was doing (I actually think she got her foot stuck on the control panel of the treadmill) another machine opened up. I was about to step on when I saw gym rat jr in the mirror charging up behind me - like actually almost running. I wasn't willing to have a confrontation over a treadmill (and unlike a swimming lane, we couldn't share it ... sorry Julie couldn't resist ;-) ) So he jumped on the first machine just as the stretchy lady finally jumped off her machine so I didn't have to wait too long.
I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate walk increasing the incline for the first 20 minutes and then going back down during the last 10. Overall I'd say I accomplished what I wanted ... I just dread the gym rats (both male and female) but I did my best to ignore them and just enjoy my music and my training.
I've exhausted my alphabetic book of excuses ending with zygodactyl zydeco zebras zipping zephyrs zealously ... next time I'll get the unabridged book of excuses.
Anyway - for whatever reason I'm having trouble finding a road, a hill or a track to run on, so today I opted for plan Q ... obviously plans B through P didn't pan out well either. I headed to the gym and found it crawling with my favorite creatures - gym rats. From the oblivious people who have no clue how to use the equipment to the obnoxious who seem to go out of there way to be in people's way or hog the equipment ... I opted for the stair-stepper - 30 min level 2 & 3 and feeling surprisingly strong and not winded.
After getting off the stepper I paced around the cardio equipment waiting for either a treadmill or an elliptical. I did get a good laugh watching all the people doing bizarre things that vaguely resemble exercising on the equipment, like the guy who was doing the gazelle leap at a very fast pace, but his feet were barely touching the treadmill, or the lady who had the treadmill at the max incline and was holding on for dear life. Eventually this lady finished her ... walk?? and had to do her ... stretching??? Of course the fact that there were now 3 people waiting for the machines made no difference ... I was first in line, the little angry gym rat in training had been waiting an entire 2 minutes and another guy was waiting at the far end of the row. Before the stretchy lady could finish her whatever she was doing (I actually think she got her foot stuck on the control panel of the treadmill) another machine opened up. I was about to step on when I saw gym rat jr in the mirror charging up behind me - like actually almost running. I wasn't willing to have a confrontation over a treadmill (and unlike a swimming lane, we couldn't share it ... sorry Julie couldn't resist ;-) ) So he jumped on the first machine just as the stretchy lady finally jumped off her machine so I didn't have to wait too long.
I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate walk increasing the incline for the first 20 minutes and then going back down during the last 10. Overall I'd say I accomplished what I wanted ... I just dread the gym rats (both male and female) but I did my best to ignore them and just enjoy my music and my training.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Of Snot Rockets and Streamers
Day 14 of what will be known as The Great Sinus Flow of 2011 ... at least today hasn't been filled with the intense sneezing fits I've has pretty much every day since my last post.
Training Stats:
Will not bore with the details of the past couple of weeks, but I did train some ... unfortunately pretty much everything was cut short or otherwise altered due to the insane allergy symptoms I've been sufferring.
Today: 12k 2:1 ratio for the first 4k ... then came the hill. 1:1 ratio for the next 7.??k with a few walk periods longer than 1 minute ... and ending with a barely moving walk for the last 1k or so. My legs completely gave way one muscle group at a time ... and it was horribly obvious on the gps trainer as the running times gradually slowed from 11.25 min / mile (first 5k including the beginning of the hill) to 13.5 min / mile from the 10k mark to the 11.1k mark.
Total run / walk distance 12.25k total distance including warm up and dragging my tired @$$ home (aka a cool down) 13.5k. Despite taking more than the usual amount of sinus meds the Great Sinus Flow continued throughout today's run. I was not able to launch any true snot rockets due to the lack of viscosity of the flowage, but I did have a couple of streamers flapping in the wind before they wrapped themselves around my nicely braided hair like a sparkly and somewhat slimy decoration ... thank you dear for getting up early to do braid my hair for me. I also managed to soak the seven tissues I took within the first 5k. Once again the inhaler worked great - I did take one extra puff mid run ... It doesn't make running any easier, but it makes the recovery during the walks a lot easier.
The small victory of the run came between 10k & 11k. I promised myself I would run at least to the edge of town. My brain was telling me I didn't want to, my legs were telling me I couldn't ... the mental game, or lack there of, still plagues me ... but something pushed me ... that inner drive that I often lack didn't let me stop, and though the las several run segments were brutally slow, they were run segments.
Again I need to thank my niece Andrea for keeping me on pace. I'm sure she could run much farther, much faster if I weren't lumbering along beside her.
Non training:
My highs and lows have definitely had their ups and downs ... Work goes smoothly then it gets crazy then it gets intolerable then it goes back to crazy which suddenly becomes the acceptable norm because it's slightly better than intolerable. The only problem is it makes every other aspect of my life crazier and less tolerable than it should be.
I am really getting tired of the corporate philosophy of empty threats and broken promises. I resent somebody who has 3 years experience delivering packages or picking up garbage telling me that my 20+ years of school bus transportation experience is meaningless because their system is better. I'm mentally exhausted from getting my butt chewed for not having a report in on time when I was never informed that the report was due ... or that there even was a report, or a project or a meeting or whatever. Thankfully my immediate manager is awesome and has faith in my abilities ... she let's me take an idea and run with it. Sometimes they don't pan out, but more times they work the way I knew they would ... then corporate gets involved and tries to quash my ideas, my creativity, my spirit.
On a different side note. My company may be opening a yard in Alaska ... they will need supervisors to help run the show for a while. It may be my only realistic chance to see Alaska ... but I won't get my hopes up. I'm considered a slightly rebellious rogue, although my area director of safety likes a lot of what I do and how I accomplish it ... He just won't man up and tell the VP level baboons that I know what I'm doing ... Oh well.
Right now photography is taking the edge off my tattered nerves. Thank you Pam for getting me this camera. I'd like to post about 638 photos ... actually, it's my blog so I can do what I want, but I'll stick with 5 of my favorites over the past couple of weeks.
OK, I lied ... It was more than 5, but I like them all. The Sushi chefs noticed I was taking pictures of the food, so they made a happy face for me to shoot. The squirrels were following me around ... cool. Oh well. Thanks for reading.
Training Stats:
Will not bore with the details of the past couple of weeks, but I did train some ... unfortunately pretty much everything was cut short or otherwise altered due to the insane allergy symptoms I've been sufferring.
Today: 12k 2:1 ratio for the first 4k ... then came the hill. 1:1 ratio for the next 7.??k with a few walk periods longer than 1 minute ... and ending with a barely moving walk for the last 1k or so. My legs completely gave way one muscle group at a time ... and it was horribly obvious on the gps trainer as the running times gradually slowed from 11.25 min / mile (first 5k including the beginning of the hill) to 13.5 min / mile from the 10k mark to the 11.1k mark.
Total run / walk distance 12.25k total distance including warm up and dragging my tired @$$ home (aka a cool down) 13.5k. Despite taking more than the usual amount of sinus meds the Great Sinus Flow continued throughout today's run. I was not able to launch any true snot rockets due to the lack of viscosity of the flowage, but I did have a couple of streamers flapping in the wind before they wrapped themselves around my nicely braided hair like a sparkly and somewhat slimy decoration ... thank you dear for getting up early to do braid my hair for me. I also managed to soak the seven tissues I took within the first 5k. Once again the inhaler worked great - I did take one extra puff mid run ... It doesn't make running any easier, but it makes the recovery during the walks a lot easier.
The small victory of the run came between 10k & 11k. I promised myself I would run at least to the edge of town. My brain was telling me I didn't want to, my legs were telling me I couldn't ... the mental game, or lack there of, still plagues me ... but something pushed me ... that inner drive that I often lack didn't let me stop, and though the las several run segments were brutally slow, they were run segments.
Again I need to thank my niece Andrea for keeping me on pace. I'm sure she could run much farther, much faster if I weren't lumbering along beside her.
Non training:
My highs and lows have definitely had their ups and downs ... Work goes smoothly then it gets crazy then it gets intolerable then it goes back to crazy which suddenly becomes the acceptable norm because it's slightly better than intolerable. The only problem is it makes every other aspect of my life crazier and less tolerable than it should be.
I am really getting tired of the corporate philosophy of empty threats and broken promises. I resent somebody who has 3 years experience delivering packages or picking up garbage telling me that my 20+ years of school bus transportation experience is meaningless because their system is better. I'm mentally exhausted from getting my butt chewed for not having a report in on time when I was never informed that the report was due ... or that there even was a report, or a project or a meeting or whatever. Thankfully my immediate manager is awesome and has faith in my abilities ... she let's me take an idea and run with it. Sometimes they don't pan out, but more times they work the way I knew they would ... then corporate gets involved and tries to quash my ideas, my creativity, my spirit.
On a different side note. My company may be opening a yard in Alaska ... they will need supervisors to help run the show for a while. It may be my only realistic chance to see Alaska ... but I won't get my hopes up. I'm considered a slightly rebellious rogue, although my area director of safety likes a lot of what I do and how I accomplish it ... He just won't man up and tell the VP level baboons that I know what I'm doing ... Oh well.
Right now photography is taking the edge off my tattered nerves. Thank you Pam for getting me this camera. I'd like to post about 638 photos ... actually, it's my blog so I can do what I want, but I'll stick with 5 of my favorites over the past couple of weeks.
OK, I lied ... It was more than 5, but I like them all. The Sushi chefs noticed I was taking pictures of the food, so they made a happy face for me to shoot. The squirrels were following me around ... cool. Oh well. Thanks for reading.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
What a difference a breath makes ...
Does anybody mind if I start off with a rant?
Well, it's my blog and you can't really stop me ... but you don't have to read the next paragraph if you don't want to.
When did everything become an illness needing a diagnosis, a syndrome or other catastrophic condition? And when did every condition have, or even need a support group? Why do people need to be told they can still live their lives if they suffer from ... ??? ... whatever? Recently Pam and I both had sleep studies to check for sleep apnea (no problem with that diagnosis) ... the video they have you watch prior to the study is HORRIBLE and included the typical statements of "I thought I was the only one" and "I learned I could still live a productive life..." Oh brother. So now we are going to the "class" to learn how to use our CPAP machine and it was HORRIBLER!! And of course there is the sleep apnea support groups.
So why am I ranting now?? Yesterday I go to the doctor to get my DMV physical and to discuss a couple concerns, including the fact that I often wheeze (not gasp for air, not cough out a lung) when I am exercising. No biggie, he doesn't seemed concerned and prescribes me an inhaler (which is what I was hoping for). Because I didn't recognize the brand name I looked it up online. I could not believe it ... "Over 30,000,000,000,000 people have learned to live productive lives with EIB..." EIB?? Do I really need to be diagnosed with something to understand I wheeze a bit when I exercise? Do people really need to know it's called Exercise Induced Bronchospasms before they decide to tell the doctor? I've wheezed during exercise my entire life, some days worse than others. I figured if I want to get the most out of my training I should ask the doctor for help ... I don't care if I'm the only one in the world ... I don't need a support group ... just give me my medicine and leave me alone!!
OK - rant over. And I lied ... it was 2 paragraphs.
Training Stats:
I believe I said in an earlier post that I wasn't going to mention the little things I do virtually daily, but things do add up. Virtually every day I do some core work (of course I'm feeling a bit guilty saying that today because I haven't done any for the last 3 days), virtually every day I do several minutes of stretching, pretty much every work day I do at least a 30 minute "sanity walk" and a pretty good pace - sometimes an hour or more depending on what my schedule is. The miles add up and I just wanted to give myself a little credit for it.
Today: 12k - 1.5:1 for the first 5k - 1:1 for the second 5k and walk the last 2k. Total distance covered 13.1k including warm up and cool down. The inhaler made the running so much easier. Andrea and I kept a pretty consistent 11 min / mile pace during the run sessions ,,, our fastest was 10:15 / mile pace for 2 early sessions. Our walk sessions were pretty consistently 3.3 mph. Of course all this changed on "The Hill"
"The Hill" is the enemy. Someday I will defeat my nemesis ... until then we will do battle at least once per week - maybe more often if I am feeling like a glutton for punishment. With my EIB under control I can wage productive battles against my steadfast foe ... I hope you noticed my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek and my rolling eyes as I was typing that last line ;-)
Non training:
My doctor is really happy with my blood pressure. He is very happy about my training. He is a little disturbed by my diet - but I was honest and told him I was pounding the empty calories lately. He told me I wasn't alone, that many people suffer from Empty Calorie Syndrome and that they can lead productive lives after changing to a nutritious diet. Then he suggested a support group ... Just kidding - I was chuckling out loud when I typed that, now Pam and the cats are staring at me like I'm nuts. My doc does want me to eat better, but other than that has no complaints about how I'm doing.
And of course I'm still enjoying the new camera :-) Today's pictures: A hawk in flight, our cat Smokey, our cute Little One, and out little Yetti kitty ... in reverse order because I'm too lazy to delete and re-upload the pics and I don't want to take the time to retype the sentence, although I just did more typing explaining that I didn't want to retype it than I would have if I had just typed it over again.
Well, it's my blog and you can't really stop me ... but you don't have to read the next paragraph if you don't want to.
When did everything become an illness needing a diagnosis, a syndrome or other catastrophic condition? And when did every condition have, or even need a support group? Why do people need to be told they can still live their lives if they suffer from ... ??? ... whatever? Recently Pam and I both had sleep studies to check for sleep apnea (no problem with that diagnosis) ... the video they have you watch prior to the study is HORRIBLE and included the typical statements of "I thought I was the only one" and "I learned I could still live a productive life..." Oh brother. So now we are going to the "class" to learn how to use our CPAP machine and it was HORRIBLER!! And of course there is the sleep apnea support groups.
So why am I ranting now?? Yesterday I go to the doctor to get my DMV physical and to discuss a couple concerns, including the fact that I often wheeze (not gasp for air, not cough out a lung) when I am exercising. No biggie, he doesn't seemed concerned and prescribes me an inhaler (which is what I was hoping for). Because I didn't recognize the brand name I looked it up online. I could not believe it ... "Over 30,000,000,000,000 people have learned to live productive lives with EIB..." EIB?? Do I really need to be diagnosed with something to understand I wheeze a bit when I exercise? Do people really need to know it's called Exercise Induced Bronchospasms before they decide to tell the doctor? I've wheezed during exercise my entire life, some days worse than others. I figured if I want to get the most out of my training I should ask the doctor for help ... I don't care if I'm the only one in the world ... I don't need a support group ... just give me my medicine and leave me alone!!
OK - rant over. And I lied ... it was 2 paragraphs.
Training Stats:
I believe I said in an earlier post that I wasn't going to mention the little things I do virtually daily, but things do add up. Virtually every day I do some core work (of course I'm feeling a bit guilty saying that today because I haven't done any for the last 3 days), virtually every day I do several minutes of stretching, pretty much every work day I do at least a 30 minute "sanity walk" and a pretty good pace - sometimes an hour or more depending on what my schedule is. The miles add up and I just wanted to give myself a little credit for it.
Today: 12k - 1.5:1 for the first 5k - 1:1 for the second 5k and walk the last 2k. Total distance covered 13.1k including warm up and cool down. The inhaler made the running so much easier. Andrea and I kept a pretty consistent 11 min / mile pace during the run sessions ,,, our fastest was 10:15 / mile pace for 2 early sessions. Our walk sessions were pretty consistently 3.3 mph. Of course all this changed on "The Hill"
"The Hill" is the enemy. Someday I will defeat my nemesis ... until then we will do battle at least once per week - maybe more often if I am feeling like a glutton for punishment. With my EIB under control I can wage productive battles against my steadfast foe ... I hope you noticed my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek and my rolling eyes as I was typing that last line ;-)
Non training:
My doctor is really happy with my blood pressure. He is very happy about my training. He is a little disturbed by my diet - but I was honest and told him I was pounding the empty calories lately. He told me I wasn't alone, that many people suffer from Empty Calorie Syndrome and that they can lead productive lives after changing to a nutritious diet. Then he suggested a support group ... Just kidding - I was chuckling out loud when I typed that, now Pam and the cats are staring at me like I'm nuts. My doc does want me to eat better, but other than that has no complaints about how I'm doing.
And of course I'm still enjoying the new camera :-) Today's pictures: A hawk in flight, our cat Smokey, our cute Little One, and out little Yetti kitty ... in reverse order because I'm too lazy to delete and re-upload the pics and I don't want to take the time to retype the sentence, although I just did more typing explaining that I didn't want to retype it than I would have if I had just typed it over again.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
So let me go down the list of excuses...
Long day at work ... Yep
Headache & sinus issues from the wind ... Yep
Long day at work and wallowing in the corporate BS ... Yep
I'm tired, didn't have the best night of sleep ... Yep
I'm supposed to take it easy because I'm pregnant ... Well, no - So I don't have all the excuses covered, just most of them. The point is I really didn't want to go to spin class tonight and I had many reasons to justify not going ... but I did.
2 hours of spin - 1 hour pretty tough self directed and one hour from my favorite drill sergeant.
Non-training
My personal little world of bus driver training took a turn toward the retarded today. I was sent a mandatory updated training presentation that is absolutely hideous and looks like it was done by a 3 year old. I'm going to take 4 minutes and put together a power-point presentation that will get the point across and doesn't insult the driver's intelligence ... maybe the area director of safety will appreciate it, but I'll still have to show the retarded one because it's mandatory.
We've had 2 of the last 3 trainees pass their drive tests. I'm now in the unusual position of having too many drivers and not needing to do original classes for a while. That means a lot of field observations ... with my new camera :-)
Did I mention that I got a new camera? ... Very cool. I've been hawk hunting and got a few other goo pics ... I'm trying an experiment her to see if I can upload a photo ... if you see a couple of birds then it worked ... if not then I'm sulking and muttering by the time you're reading this.
Headache & sinus issues from the wind ... Yep
Long day at work and wallowing in the corporate BS ... Yep
I'm tired, didn't have the best night of sleep ... Yep
I'm supposed to take it easy because I'm pregnant ... Well, no - So I don't have all the excuses covered, just most of them. The point is I really didn't want to go to spin class tonight and I had many reasons to justify not going ... but I did.
2 hours of spin - 1 hour pretty tough self directed and one hour from my favorite drill sergeant.
Non-training
My personal little world of bus driver training took a turn toward the retarded today. I was sent a mandatory updated training presentation that is absolutely hideous and looks like it was done by a 3 year old. I'm going to take 4 minutes and put together a power-point presentation that will get the point across and doesn't insult the driver's intelligence ... maybe the area director of safety will appreciate it, but I'll still have to show the retarded one because it's mandatory.
We've had 2 of the last 3 trainees pass their drive tests. I'm now in the unusual position of having too many drivers and not needing to do original classes for a while. That means a lot of field observations ... with my new camera :-)
Did I mention that I got a new camera? ... Very cool. I've been hawk hunting and got a few other goo pics ... I'm trying an experiment her to see if I can upload a photo ... if you see a couple of birds then it worked ... if not then I'm sulking and muttering by the time you're reading this.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The workout that tried not to be
Just popping in for a quick note - my Ambien is already kicking in, so if I start to sound all gibberishy you'll know why.
Yesterday - nothing specific to training, but my legs felt great and I had energy enough to get a couple of small projects completed around the house.
Today I had no intentions on running hills in the wind - my back up plan was to ride my spin bike. I got to the garage and find that everything that could be adjusted on the bike had been adjusted ... kind of got it straightened out and discovered that the pedals were filled with the debris so my shoes wouldn't clip in ... but that was an easy fix and before you know it I was riding. A little ABBA, some Neil Diamond, a little George Harrison and I was really starting to feel good. I took a drink of water and my apparently super long finger snagged the wire to the mp3 player and it shot across the garage.
The garage ate my mp3 player!!
I won't bore you with elaborated, dragged out descriptions of me and Pam crawling on the floor looking under and around any logical place the device could have reasonably landed. Well, it turns out that it flew back and smacked a tripod leg which was behind and to the right of the bike. From there it ricocheted and made virtually a 180 turn and landed between a box and a table on its side, after it passed over a small bag of stuff. I probably couldn't slide the stupid thing such a tight area from 6 inches away but I managed to fling a bank shot perfectly into place.
I've also learned that hummus is dangerous. If you eat too much after eating curry chicken or a salad with lots of jalapenos you will find out exactly how much your intestines are capable of holding. I personally think they should call the stuff Hummers because it just seems to plow through your intestines despite what you may have eaten earlier.
Yesterday - nothing specific to training, but my legs felt great and I had energy enough to get a couple of small projects completed around the house.
Today I had no intentions on running hills in the wind - my back up plan was to ride my spin bike. I got to the garage and find that everything that could be adjusted on the bike had been adjusted ... kind of got it straightened out and discovered that the pedals were filled with the debris so my shoes wouldn't clip in ... but that was an easy fix and before you know it I was riding. A little ABBA, some Neil Diamond, a little George Harrison and I was really starting to feel good. I took a drink of water and my apparently super long finger snagged the wire to the mp3 player and it shot across the garage.
The garage ate my mp3 player!!
I won't bore you with elaborated, dragged out descriptions of me and Pam crawling on the floor looking under and around any logical place the device could have reasonably landed. Well, it turns out that it flew back and smacked a tripod leg which was behind and to the right of the bike. From there it ricocheted and made virtually a 180 turn and landed between a box and a table on its side, after it passed over a small bag of stuff. I probably couldn't slide the stupid thing such a tight area from 6 inches away but I managed to fling a bank shot perfectly into place.
I've also learned that hummus is dangerous. If you eat too much after eating curry chicken or a salad with lots of jalapenos you will find out exactly how much your intestines are capable of holding. I personally think they should call the stuff Hummers because it just seems to plow through your intestines despite what you may have eaten earlier.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
If you can't say something nice ...
...write a blog entry
Training stats:
Pretty much every day was some form of modified, substandard, less than adequate ... insert appropriate expletive ... due to a solid week of Santa Ana winds. These lovely winds ran me through the entire range of emotions from horrible headaches to nausea to insane brain fog.
OK, I know those weren't emotions, but I also felt disappointment, frustration and irritation both with the weather and myself. And for the record, I did do some training, but not enough to warrant mentioning in a training blog.
Today was Long Slow Distance day - 10k 1.5:1 (mostly ... although we reverted back to 1:1 uphill and toward the end). Total distance was over 10k, but the actual "running" distance is a difficult to estimate because of either a gps glitch or my pudgy fingers hitting a wrong button or me possibly having a blond moment ... don't know. According to a couple different mapping sites with the warm up and cool down we covered about 10.6k. Because of a sinus malfunction caused by the afore mention winds stirring up again, we cut the run aspect of the trip short by about .5k and we had about .5k warm up which means we should have registered 9.6k ... but my gps said 9.4 on one screen and 9.2 on another ... whatever - it was the best run yet - the most consistent pace even uphills. Best guess is we averaged just under 12 min miles, but I won know for sure until until I transmit the info from my gps to my computer.
Non-training:
Ummm ... Not much. The wid really saps all my energy so both work and home life were more lethargic than usual. Friday I was in a horrible brain fog all day. I left work early, did a little shopping for necessities (jalapeno string cheese) and went home to take a 2+hour nap.
Today Pam and I went to Tri Running (my new favorite store in the whole world which opened in town a month ago and we just happened to stumble across it last week) to buy some socks (my new favorite socks in the whole world ... both moisture wicking and very comfortable) and some orange flavored Sport Beans (my new favorite snack in the whole world for running). Then we both got pedicures (at my new favorite nail spa in the whole world) - the massage portion of the pedi felt soooo good.
So in the end I guess I did have something nice to say - today was pretty good. And it was very nice to go to 2 different businesses where they remembered my name, asked how I was and made me feel welcome - I think they used to call it customer service, but I'll have to check the history books to make sure.
Training stats:
Pretty much every day was some form of modified, substandard, less than adequate ... insert appropriate expletive ... due to a solid week of Santa Ana winds. These lovely winds ran me through the entire range of emotions from horrible headaches to nausea to insane brain fog.
OK, I know those weren't emotions, but I also felt disappointment, frustration and irritation both with the weather and myself. And for the record, I did do some training, but not enough to warrant mentioning in a training blog.
Today was Long Slow Distance day - 10k 1.5:1 (mostly ... although we reverted back to 1:1 uphill and toward the end). Total distance was over 10k, but the actual "running" distance is a difficult to estimate because of either a gps glitch or my pudgy fingers hitting a wrong button or me possibly having a blond moment ... don't know. According to a couple different mapping sites with the warm up and cool down we covered about 10.6k. Because of a sinus malfunction caused by the afore mention winds stirring up again, we cut the run aspect of the trip short by about .5k and we had about .5k warm up which means we should have registered 9.6k ... but my gps said 9.4 on one screen and 9.2 on another ... whatever - it was the best run yet - the most consistent pace even uphills. Best guess is we averaged just under 12 min miles, but I won know for sure until until I transmit the info from my gps to my computer.
Non-training:
Ummm ... Not much. The wid really saps all my energy so both work and home life were more lethargic than usual. Friday I was in a horrible brain fog all day. I left work early, did a little shopping for necessities (jalapeno string cheese) and went home to take a 2+hour nap.
Today Pam and I went to Tri Running (my new favorite store in the whole world which opened in town a month ago and we just happened to stumble across it last week) to buy some socks (my new favorite socks in the whole world ... both moisture wicking and very comfortable) and some orange flavored Sport Beans (my new favorite snack in the whole world for running). Then we both got pedicures (at my new favorite nail spa in the whole world) - the massage portion of the pedi felt soooo good.
So in the end I guess I did have something nice to say - today was pretty good. And it was very nice to go to 2 different businesses where they remembered my name, asked how I was and made me feel welcome - I think they used to call it customer service, but I'll have to check the history books to make sure.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Showing improvement ...
Whether I deserve it or not ...
Training Stats:
Nothing major during the week :-\
Today - 10k 1:1 ... actually 9.25k 1:1 with .75 walk home. Several 2 minute walk breaks and one extended 5 min run (it was downhill, but it was 5 min run). Once again I need to thank Andrea for helping to set a good pace and putting up with my old age ailments. Today my legs felt great for the entire run until the last .75k but my heart rate peaked at 170+ several times and did not want to come down ... maybe I just overheated or maybe including the steeper hill took its toll ... or maybe the fact that I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine last night have had something to do with it ... oh well. I still did better than last week.
Non training:
My personal stress has dropped over the last couple of weeks (stressing personal stress, work stress is still up and up and up and level with a slight dip then up some more). I had a follow up to the follow up optometrist appointment - a vision density test I think they call it. So I've found out that my vision is actually better than it was 6 months ago - My peripheral vision and visual acuity is at least average - maybe slightly better than average except one small area in my left eye which isn't bad. So because I did so good on the tests (and because I'm seeing a shadow in my right eye) he dilated my pupils ... again!! And after searing my retina with the exceedingly bright light he told me there is absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes ... in fact they look better than they did a few years ago ... when I wasn't seeing a shadow. In fact there is nothing to explain or indicate that I'm even seeing a shadow.
So does this mean I'm just going nuts??
Never mind - don't answer that.
I haven't done any writing (other than blogging) lately and my imagination is getting a little itchy. How do you scratch your imagination? O.o I just haven't felt motivated by the recent Faith Writers topics, but my excess verbiage pressure is building and the emergency release valve is eventually cause me to spew bountiful bits of bloviation on unsuspecting readers ... I just hope it doesn't cause any permanent damage when it eventually blows.
Training Stats:
Nothing major during the week :-\
Today - 10k 1:1 ... actually 9.25k 1:1 with .75 walk home. Several 2 minute walk breaks and one extended 5 min run (it was downhill, but it was 5 min run). Once again I need to thank Andrea for helping to set a good pace and putting up with my old age ailments. Today my legs felt great for the entire run until the last .75k but my heart rate peaked at 170+ several times and did not want to come down ... maybe I just overheated or maybe including the steeper hill took its toll ... or maybe the fact that I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine last night have had something to do with it ... oh well. I still did better than last week.
Non training:
My personal stress has dropped over the last couple of weeks (stressing personal stress, work stress is still up and up and up and level with a slight dip then up some more). I had a follow up to the follow up optometrist appointment - a vision density test I think they call it. So I've found out that my vision is actually better than it was 6 months ago - My peripheral vision and visual acuity is at least average - maybe slightly better than average except one small area in my left eye which isn't bad. So because I did so good on the tests (and because I'm seeing a shadow in my right eye) he dilated my pupils ... again!! And after searing my retina with the exceedingly bright light he told me there is absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes ... in fact they look better than they did a few years ago ... when I wasn't seeing a shadow. In fact there is nothing to explain or indicate that I'm even seeing a shadow.
So does this mean I'm just going nuts??
Never mind - don't answer that.
I haven't done any writing (other than blogging) lately and my imagination is getting a little itchy. How do you scratch your imagination? O.o I just haven't felt motivated by the recent Faith Writers topics, but my excess verbiage pressure is building and the emergency release valve is eventually cause me to spew bountiful bits of bloviation on unsuspecting readers ... I just hope it doesn't cause any permanent damage when it eventually blows.
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