Scandal and Ambition

So before you get too interested. I'm not involved in a scandal...please. I hardly ever leave the house.

I'm fully addicted to the show Scandal on ABC though. I'm seriously considering recording it regularly so I don't have to wait until it shows up on the ABCPlayer on the iPad to watch it while I'm on the treadmill. That's some good TV right there. And then last night I watched Castle (also on the abcplayer on the ipad) and saw Abby from Scandal on Castle. Worlds colliding. Awesomeness. Love both those shows. I love Scandal enough to record it and watch it faster than during my runs..but Castle is perfect for treadmill watching so I'll leave that one there.  #scandal

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I didn't make any resolutions of course, because I hate to set myself up for failures. But I did get back on the treadmill regularly and I'm counting calories. It's paying off, I'm down about four pounds so far. I was a bit too ambitious though.I jumped on the treadmill whole hog and tried running. My knee was not too pleased. So I had to scale it back. Now I'm easing back into it. I am doing the treadmill preset programs - specifically the Weight Loss 400 calorie program. It makes me walk fast, walk uphill, jog a little and I'm not touching it for now. January is my easing-into-it month. February might be also. After that I'll start bumping up the speeds and working on redoing the Couch to 5k program. #ambition

See..scandalous ambition could have been the title too. Just trickery to make you read my mindless drivel. Ha!

Motivation

I can fully understand why bloggers I follow and really like (felt weird to say love here) don't always post every day. It takes a lot of work and coordination and brain power to post something that anyone wants to read every day. So, I will no longer mutter and complain if a blogger doesn't delight me with literary magic every single day. I certainly can't do it and I am no wordsmith, so it's rude and ridiculous of me to expect it of others. I am going to try to post as regularly as I can. It won't be daily, but maybe I can commit to weekly, without making any promises. I'm just going to try to remember the things I find important and write something about those things when I can.

I need motivation. Motivation to exercise, motivation to NOT eat the things I know I shouldn't. I did Nutrisystem a couple times in the past. Both times after I had a baby and couldn't drop the last few..ok 15 pounds. It worked really really well, but it's just too expensive to keep doing. I was able to do it, lose some weight, and then track my calories myself and keep up with it. But I lost interest at some point, I think running my last 5k last fall somehow gave me permission to give up all of it. I've still been using the treadmill over the winter, five days a week if I am able, but I know I'm overeating again. I don't know how to stop it. I intend to run the 5k on the Fourth of July again, the same race I started with last year. I would LOVE to trim my time, but last year my times got worse as I went on, so I don't know how to do that. I need to finish up the C25K program I restarted (at week 4) so that I'm ready, and I plan to start running outside in June to prepare. I am going to get back to that again tonight, as well as running outside to get used to that again. I wish I had the motivation and means to just fix all of this for myself.

Here's what I kind of need to figure out...
- what to eat the day before
- music to listen to as I run, it gets old fast, got suggestions?
- motivation to just keep going, it's not that far, I can do this
- motivation to STOP eating ALL THE THINGS!

What I really need is a personal trainer, and a personal chef. Some celebrity should gift those to me for a year or something.. Tori Spelling maybe...although I don't know that she can afford it..maybe J. Lo. She looks amazing after twins, I have to assume she had help getting back to that. I want whoever helped her do that. I don't want her body - I know that's unreasonable...but I could do better with what God's given me.

Happy Monday everyone.

The Muddy Monster

I ran in the Muddy Monster 5k run this weekend. It was a beautiful day. I am always sooooo surprised by how difficult it is to run outside. This was on grass and some gravelly trails, but mostly grass, it was really difficult. In some spots the path was sort of narrow so my speed was slowed and runners really had to watch the path for ruts and sticks, etc. So my time was much slower this time - 33 minutes and 18 seconds I think. I walked quite a few times also, which I tend to do apparently. I have a real problem motivating myself to keep running. What I need is a way to watch some TV show while I run these things...then maybe I could keep up a decent pace while distracted by mindless entertainment. Oh well, it was a fun run and a great weekend.

The race has a facebook page...alot of fun costumes and some really fun pepole to race with.

These two won first place. Very nice, excellent costume, and he was giving away candy. Love that they were so into the whole thing.

The winning combo

So I finally realized last night why I run. Why I haven't quit, like I've quit so many other exercise plans. I don't love to run, honestly, anyone that says they do, I think is lying at least a little bit. I love how I feel afterwards, I love how it feels to finish a race that other people are in..and to finish ahead of a lot of people feels great. But the running part, it's generally awful. But..I figured out why I do it anyway. It's something I've finally figured out that I can do for myself. I keep myself on task, I'm not a slacker about it, I hate it when I let anything get in the way of my regular treadmill time. Also, let me be clear - I'm not running a 5k every night. My treadmill has programs that let me burn X calories in X time and I typically choose the 400 cal/40min program which involves plenty of walking. I run a little faster during the fast parts and according to the treadmill I burn around 450cals. I also watch tv on the iPad while I'm doing it - I'd quit for sure without that. Anyway...that's the thing. I do it because I want to, it's sort of my "thing" and I don't want to stop doing it. Also, it works. My legs and behind have never looked so good.

I'm running in the MuddyMonster next weekend and I think I'm going to dress up. Maybe a bumblebee...from what I've heard about the facebook photos..I could have a shot at a costume prize if I make just a little effort. It doesn't start until 10 which I love and it's all trails and grass, which is soooo much better than road running.

The other part of this combo is yoga or pilates or piyo or some sort of core exercise. I actually WANT to get out my Tracy Anderson post pregnancy DVD and see if i can do more of it now. I've been taking a piyo class at a local gym and so far I really think its working. It's slow progress, but I believe it works. So I think I'll take at least one more session of the class and then I'll have to decide if its still worth the hassle of going to class, or if I can find a suitable pilates/yoga/something DVD to do the same thing. I think actual yoga or pilates poses are key though, so i'm hesitant to give it up. We'll see how it works out.

Random note. I love RunKeeper I know Dooce mentioned it on her blog recently, which I thought was pretty cool, but I was also like HEY I USED IT FIRST. It's a really nice program, and it works on my windows phone and so i have my music, runkeeper and phone all in one, which is awesome. It tracks your gps location and pace and elevation as you run, then it maps it all out for you online, which you can then share with others. It's just cool.

Okbye.

I did it. I ran a 5k.

I ran my first 5k this morning. 30:48 is my time. I was hoping for a 30 minute 5k, because I think that's the average, and I want to be at least average. Heh. It was hot, and hard, and I did walk for a short bit while I had a drink. And the description about it being FLAT wasn't entirely accurate. There were uphill parts..but it was ok. There was also mention of entertainment... A man on a bicycle with a boom box strapped to the back is NOT entertainment. But that was ok too. I made it, I ran it (with a brief walk) and I made it in a decent time. All that running and training and I have something to show for it. My number, and a free shirt, and some pictures (proof) and the knowledge that I did it. I DID IT!

Run Run Run

I think I'm going to register for a July 4th 5k run. Is that surprising to anyone else ? I shock myself with that statement. I ran on the treadmill last night though and I just got on, turned on Lie to Me on the iPad and ran for 33 minutes (walked 2min for a short warmup) for about 3 miles. I didn't get tired or bored (thank you iPad/Netflix) and I felt great afterwards. So I actually think I might be able to run a 5k. Huh. Who knew.

Running: The perfect playlist

I think I finally discovered the perfect playlist for running. Last night the toddler "stole" the iPad I usually use to watch Bones through Netflix. Rather than cause tears and screaming, I took my iPod Touch and selected songs for a running playlist. I figured that it's only 30 minutes of actual running, I didn't need music for the warmup walk or cooldown if I ran out of songs. So..let's see..what songs would be good for running.

Avril Lavigne: Girlfriend
Sir Mix-A-Lot: Baby Got Back
Black Eyed Peas: Boom Boom Pow
Warrant: Cherry Pie
Vanilla Ice: Ice Ice Baby
Limp Bizkit: Rollin' (Uncensored of course)
DMX: Up in Here
Kelly Clarkson: Whyyawannabringmedown
Tag Team: Whoomp! There it is

Will Smith: Men In Black
Alien Ant Farm: Smooth Criminal

I didn't get to all the songs above, but I'm fairly the confident the ones I didn't hear would still be awesome to run to. The 30 minute running part of my very last C25K program went super fast. I even ran an EXTRA MINUTE because  Baby Got Back was on and I couldn't stop.

A couple others I might consider adding to the list:
EnVogue: Free Your Mind
Will Smith: Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
No Doubt: Hey Baby
Kelly Clarkson: I Do Not Hookup

It turns out that my rules for music when running is that I need to be able to mouth along with it - obviously I can't sing because I'll die of exhaustion, but I can lip sync. I found the other awesome part of the C25K app for my iPod - extra programs! There's a 35 minute run and 45 minute run option, so you can still have the prompts to warmup, run and cooldown, without being in any week/day schedule since I've passed the program. Those will really come in handy once I can try running outside. If the sun comes out. Ever.