Kate

I’ve been so lazy these past few weeks. I’ve barely run what I’ve planned to over the weekends and during the week… I’ve disappeared from the exercise spotlight.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head and my schedule around preparing for a new direction in my career. Currently, I’m a technology librarian who handles the website for this public library. I’m moving on to work in a K-3 school, as a Media Specialist (i.e. the School Librarian). It’s a new path, pretty scary and far from my house. We plan to move in the next year, which we would then be closer to the school I’d be working for.

With all this change, I’ve got a lot of paperwork to do. A lot of driving to get physicals, testing and other such certifications so I can work in a school. I always forget this part of a new job… the piles of paperwork and time spent running around to gather everything needed before the start.

I’ve been MIA from the gym for far too long. Luckily, with the new position I’ll be stopping at the gym on the way home from work 3x’s a week with my Mother-in-law. She is going to join the same place I belong to (the school is closer to her home & she is the school Nurse!) and we’ll stop on the way home to workout. It’ll be a great thing, because it’ll get me to go to the gym!

Tonight… I hope I can muster up these lazy bones and get them to the gym, even if it’s for a light workout.

I’ve been seriously considering eating less, so I can run less… hahaha, not going to happen! I’m 3 months away from my next Half Marathon ~ which is a very hilly and steep course… why do I sign up for this torture?

I woke up this morning at 6am and did get out of bed to run! I wasn’t asleep at the time, nor sleepy, but I have weird thoughts about running in the dark in the morning (or even during the bright daylight). So, I almost didn’t go out for a run.

My mind runs wild sometimes with fears of being attacked or something worse when I am outside, or now even in my home alone. My fears have started to take over, I don’t sleep and I’m always worried someone is out to get me. My neighborhood isn’t the best, but it’s not like there are murders everyday. Just people overdosing and dying or people breaking into cars… the usual stuff, ya know?

There are those times when cops show up, but overall I’ve seen more fires than anything since living there with my husband. We only plan to stick around a few more years until the market is better and we can sell to buy a house with a yard (we have a townhouse). I’m always worried though that I’ll be the first to get shot or murdered or be a random act of gang violence for someone to get initiated in. I really should stop reading the newspaper. When I am ignorant to the local issues, I tend to sleep better and feel more confident. They never report good things happening anyway!

I really need to put my fears aside and know that if, really if something every does happen… I will be ready to fight it off. I can’t live in fear every single day of being murdered or attacked. I’m strong, I can run fast on adrenaline and I’m not afraid to fight back. So, I think that could be enough to save myself from an attack ~ outside or inside my home.

Hopefully, I’ll never have to know what it’s like to fight off an attack. I worry about it every day, but I can’t do this anymore. It’s ruining my mental state and my ability to function. It comes and goes at times. Sometimes, I fear not, sometimes I want to be hidden away from the world. I can’t live my life being terrified to go out in public, or even sit in my home alone. I have to just live and trust that whatever happens it is in God’s plan. The one thing I’m not afraid of… terrorists. Go figure!

One good thing I’m looking forward to is going to California in a month! I will be out there for a conference for work. It’ll be a nice trip and change of pace for me. I just hope they feed us on the plane, because for the cost of the flight I shouldn’t have to pay extra for food too!

After just a morning run, I’m already feeling more confident… AMAZING!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 09/10/2008
• Time: 06:15:00
• Total Time: 00:20:45.13
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 10:22.84/mile

Just as we did returning to elementary school many years ago, I feel the need to write about my summer. It was rather uneventful, consisting of many days of work, or days off doing little things around the house. I haven’t accomplished much, but I intended to. Isn’t that enough?

In June, I began a training program to become a figure competitor (read: sometimes extreme dieting with intense lifting while little running and removing anything fun or social about life, especially if it includes eating food that is not chicken or protein powder, god forbid you enjoy a glass of wine) in part due to my knee pain stopping my running .

While I have 100% respect for figure competitors and body builders, it’s just not a lifestyle for me. They have perfect discipline, which I do not. They also don’t mind going on and off diets, taking fat burners, cleansing, etc… Eating disorders are rampant on the message boards and the extremeness of it all wasn’t something I’m willing to do to my body right now. I would love to look the way they do, but I would also love to look like an elite marathoner (once again, I’m completely looking at opposite ends of the spectrum and want both, but I do always tend to lean towards the marathoner look).

A positive side-effect was that my eating habits have improved and my knee pain has all but disappeared. I still really feel that Michael Pollan’s got the best advice for healthful eating.

In August, I gave up that dream… but I found the more intense lifting strengthened my legs and my knee stopped hurting.  This was a big deal for me, because I love to run (I wonder why I say this, because during the act of running, I absolutely hate it!).

During the summer my weight went up and down continually. I am not happy with the added 7lbs I’ve been carrying for a year now (131+7=138), since my wedding last September. Luckily, I was 132lbs all last summer, but the week of my wedding I went up to be 137lbs on my wedding day. So, I haven’t “gained” weight, but if I lose weight I can always say, “I weigh less than I did on my wedding day!”. What a consolation prize!

Here I am, the summer is coming to a close. My goal of looking like a muscle-bound woman has vanished, but in it’s place a new found future of stronger running, healthier eating and a positive outlook with a great plan to get started… um, on Monday?  It wasn’t a bad summer, I tried something new, it didn’t work out. I try things all the time and then give up on them. I guess I’m just destined to be me, whoever that is.

I’m still going to attend the show I wanted to compete in, but as a spectator. It’s okay, because I’m more excited that I mailed the check to sign-up for the same Half Marathon I ran in 2007… and my sister-in-law is going to do it again with me!I took off most of 2008 from running, but I think that break brought me back to the sport with more knowledge, interest and fascination. This fall, I’m preparing myself to reach further goals than ever before when I compete again in 2009.

The biggest lesson I learned is that I need to see results on paper. While lifting, writing down or logging my workouts wasn’t enough motivation and changes were slow to appear. While running, I see my distance numbers rack up after every run. Watching my weekly, yearly or lifetime mileage tick up is the greatest satisfaction for me. It has been stagnate this year, but no longer…

The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.  ~George Sheehan

I’ve been reading a lot lately about maximing my car’s ability to go further on less gas, through hypermiling. Basically I’ve learned it’s how I should have been driving all along. Follow the speed limits, don’t race off the starting line, don’t slam on the breaks… All pretty basic ideas. It’s amazing how much I feel I’ve been able to go with taking these differences into effect.

Since I have taken a job in the past two months that has changed my commute from 5 miles to 15 miles each way, I have been very strict with my gas usage as it climbs to $4 a gallon. I try to spend $20 each week on gas, only to get to work. If I am at home, I’ll do my best to find ways to bike or walk to get things I need. This has saved me a bit, but it has also opened my eyes to how horrible drivers are in NJ!

While paying more attention to my gas consumption, I’ve noticed the consumption of others. At first, this aggravated me. People in huge SUV’s or pick-ups blowing past me, speeding 10-15 mph or more over the speed limit on a basic roadway. I started to get annoyed and mad at these people, but that anger has turned to sheer laughter.

My road-rage as disappeared. I’m more patient on the road. I’ve stopped trying to race to get everywhere. It saves you little or no time, at most maybe just one minute. I drive now to just get there safely with the least impact on my gas tank. I don’t speed off the line or slam on the breaks, but I do take my time getting up to speed to try to keep my RPM’s under 2,500. I also coast to lights, which could save you a lot of miles of gas!

People behind me seemed to be annoyed. They’re in a rush, to get nowhere. In the past two days, on my commute to work, I’ve been tailgated worse than I can imagine. I was going 47 mph, in a 45 mph zone, so clearly over the speed limit a bit. These people were so pissed they actually crossed a double-yellow line to get around me… then sped up to then SLAM on their breaks behind the person in front of me.

Through these few experiences, I just paid attention to where we both ended up. Needless to say, they were with me on the travel for almost the whole rest of the way. Every light, I pulled up next to or behind them about 10-15 seconds later. Did their speeding, slamming and illegal passing get them to where they had to go faster? In one case, I even got to the place (parking garage) before the other person.

Needless to say, one was driving a big pick-up, many others are up my butt with an SUV of sorts. Don’t people drive cars anymore? My car is a little Hyundai Accent hatchback. I like small. If I could get a mini-cooper or a 1-person car, I’d be happy. I’m holding out a few years for the new electric vehicles that will be coming of age in 2010-2012. Our goal is to eventually buy a house with property and get solar panels. Once this happens, our travel will be paid for by the sun.

So, now I laugh. I smile, wave and continue on my way. I know I’ll get there at the same time without spending more on my gas and car maintenance. I’ve got patience to deal with these people, instead of flipping them the finger, because I care about how much $ disappears from my wallet each week for travel.

Never in my life have I had to factor in gas costs as a central focus to my weekly $ allotment. It just happened, you filled up and kept driving. As a teenager, I used to drive the length of the beaches every night during the summer to relax. Now, you would have to look for me on bike - except the beaches are now more than 20 miles away… so just look for me riding around town with Bambi in the basket!

Links for more:

• Double your Gas Mileage (CBS)
• Wisebread (I love this blog!)
• Hypermiling becoming more Popular (TreeHugger)
• 100 Tips for hypermiling (EcoTracker)

I just purchased these Dopie sandals, before I decided to snowball my student loans with every last penny I have. This morning I started wearing them out, today to work.

There is a lot of information out there about walking around in shoes that mimic going barefoot. I have to say, even after a 1/2 hour of walking and wearing them, my foot stride has changed.

These are really dopie looking, but they are rather comfortable. I understand and appreciate the ability to be ‘barefoot’ in a pair of shoes. What I’ve learned is that almost, if not all, shoes/sneakers/whatever you wear on your feet all have a heel. Even flat shoes have a slight heel too. This isn’t normal and causes you to walk different and makes you a heel-to-toe walker by design. This is especially true for running sneakers which cushion the heel and make it easier to run heel-to-toe.

I won’t go into all that has been written about these ideas, but I will give you some links for more information. I opted for sandals to start because I could get them on Amazon for $39 (free shipping) vs. their online store for $55 + $12 s/h. Also, the sneakers are a lot more costly and with summer around the corner, I figured I’d see how it was to walk in their sandals. So far, I love ‘em.

Not only are they comfortable, they’re green too!

Links for more info:

• You walk wrong (NY Magazine)
• Barefoot Shoes (Ecologist May)
• Feet First (TimeOut)
• Worn Again (TreeHugger)

While I didn’t ride my bike to work today, I did something even better. It’s raining, it’s nasty out and it’s not a good day for a bike ride. Luckily, I was able to schedule today to work from home testing out some new database features on the public end, instead of internally on our network. So, while I couldn’t bike to work (which I’ve been trying to figure out a safe way to do this - but it would take 1 1/2 hours to do it…) I was able to save energy and stay home.

Hopefully the rain will let up this afternoon, then I can ride my bike to the gym and get in a good workout I’ve been slacking on all week.

Last night Chris’ team won the Battle of the Teachers! It was a lot of fun and I am excited to see him happy. He is a sub at the school, but hopefully in the fall he’ll find a job somewhere in this state. It hasn’t been easy. Lastly, I am shocked by how super-skinny all these girls were there. I don’t remember people being that skinny in high school. They say there is an obesity epidemic, but at this school the girls legs were the size of my arms. Talk about me feeling inadequate and overweight… and I’m considered average size! Sorry, a twinge of envy got me there.

Happy Bike to work day! I wish our country would make more advances quicker to get bike routes out there and make it safe for riders… I wish I could move to someplace that supports this idea!

Free Rice = http://www.freerice.com/

Excellent article from Melbean… Thanks!

I especially love this line:
“Running really is a metaphor for life,”
“There is always another mile. You just have to take it one step at a time.”