Common Sense Life Lesson #452

The better care that you take of yourself, the better you feel.

I stayed up late last night, drinking wine and eating french fries.  It was a fantastic evening, and I figured that if I didn't feel up to running this morning I could just wait until tomorrow.  I woke up earlier than planned and felt great.  Then I started running.  I don't know whether it was the lack of sleep or the late night food and drink (probably both), but I felt terrible for most of the run.  Today's run rivaled the "all you can eat Indian buffet" day (which, strangely enough, was also a 12 mile run.  Apparently I am not meant to run in 12 mile increments). I continued, partly because I didn't want to have to try again tomorrow, and partly because I decided that it would be a great day to test out my mental strength, since the physical strength thing wasn't working out so well.  I finished (slightly slower than normal, but I'm giving myself huge kudos just for running) and magically felt a million times better.  I'm just happy it's done.


Today's run was 70% mental, 25% the musical stylings of Lenny Kravitz and The Backstreet Boys, and 5% physical (really, just the fact that I was conscious).  I should make that into an inspirational poster.


14 days to go.  Not gonna lie, I may have started hyperventilating when I saw that.

If you reach Chippewa, you've gone too far

Those that know me know that I have a terrible sense of direction.  I also have a terrible sense of time.  Typically, this works out fine for me and I just wander through life, slightly oblivious but happy.  

I planned to run my 20-mile run in Buffalo, since I'm visiting my parents for Easter break.  My dad and I mapped out a route the night before (and he tried to make the route as simple as possible, due to the aforementioned lack of a sense of direction), and I even wrote the route down to carry with me just in case.  I felt pretty confident in myself.  About 3 miles in, my mp3 player died (you would think I would have learned my lesson by now, but yet again I forgot to charge it) so I was stuck listening to the sounds of the traffic and my brain.  After awhile, I got the sinking feeling that I may have missed my turn.  I wasn't sure though, so I just kept running.  I knew the turn was about 40 minutes into the run, but since I didn't have music as a reference point for the passing of time, I had no idea how far I had gone.  So I just kept running.  It eventually dawned on my that I was carrying my cell phone, and therefore had a clock the whole time.  I had been running for over an hour and a half (you know, only 50 minutes past where I was supposed to turn).  Whoops.

As I debated what to do, I decided to turn up Chippewa (for those Pittsburgh people, it's similar to the South Side).  I ran past beer bottles, piles of trash and an old man who started yelling at me.  The entire street smelled like beer and it was actually pretty depressing.  I was able to get myself turned back around and headed toward home.  On the way back I found the park that I had completely missed before (mind you, it's not a small park at all), and started to run around the track at the park.  At that point I needed water, and thought I remembered drinking fountains at the park.  Those that have gone camping with me know that I become slightly hysterical at the thought of being without water.  Food?  Fine, I can live without it.  Water - that's a different story.  When you don't drink water, you die.  So I ran around the park, saw that the bathrooms were closed for the season and started to get freaked out that they might have turned off the drinking fountains (mind you, I was in the middle of the suburbs, I was not going to die of dehydration).  When I finally found the drinking fountain I joyously filled my water bottle and looked at it - the water was nowhere near clear.  I thought about this for a minute, then dumped out the bottle and tried again.  This time it was closer to clear - worked for me.  I decided that if it was going to kill me, it was better than dying by dehydration (did I mention I get slightly dramatic 15 miles into my run?).

The rest of the run was relatively uneventful.  It was strange not actually knowing how far I was going.  I kept trying to calculate how far I had gone based on time, but every time I tried to add the numbers I got a different answer.  So I just headed for home and decided that I would calculate it at home, then run more if necessary.  I put my route into the map - I had run 22.5 miles.  This will be the only time in my life that I can say I accidentally ran 22.5 miles.  

21 days to go.  You know, I'm beginning to think I can actually do this thing.

Here goes

Alright kids, I'm trying to pump myself up to go outside and run 20 miles.  Here are some of the drawbacks...


It's 20 miles...that's a lot.


It is nice and warm inside my parents house (and inside this fuzzy bathrobe), and dang cold outside (my 'welcome to Buffalo' present yesterday was snow).


I'm on vacation mode...so the motivation to do anything is pretty much nonexistent.


The good thing is this is my last long run...you know, before the reeeeallly long run.  I'll let you know if I survive :)  


22 days to go.  

How to Avoid Being Hit On at the Gym

Are you tired off testosterone-fueled men always approaching you at the gym?  Are you tired of men constantly following you around, strategically choosing machines right behind yours, or staring at you every time you walk by when all you want is to get your workout and go home?  Following are some surefire tips to make sure you do not get hit on at the gym.


Step One:  Choosing your wardrobe
  It might be tempting to choose cute workout clothes, especially because there is such a great selection out there.  But if you want to avoid becoming eye candy to all those sweaty guys, look no further than your own wardrobe.  You know those old t-shirts that are covered in stains from cleaning, painting, gardening or whatever other activities you wouldn't wear nice clothes for?  Those sweat pants that are a few sizes too big, the ones that you would never wear out of the house because they make you look 3 sizes larger than you are but are oh-so comfortable?  Now is your chance to wear them in public.


Step Two: Making your entrance count
  I tend to go to the gym straight from work, so I'm often wearing non-gym clothes when I walk in.  I don't know why, but apparently there is something about a girl in jeans that makes every man stare at me when I walk by (it doesn't help that I have to walk by the free weights to get to the bathroom).  There are two ways to handle this.  You can pick and choose based on mood, or if your personality is more comfortable with one method then feel free to stay in your comfort zone.  The first option is to avoid eye contact at all costs.  This is more difficult than it sounds, because there are often men everywhere.  You can try to look down, but you also have to be aware of where you're going so you don't walk into one of them (which can often be misconstrued as flirting).  The second option is to stare them down.  You have to be very careful with this one, as intense eye contact is often perceived as a show of interest.  You might have practice in a mirror to get down the look - it's one part anger, one part indifference, one part coldness.  Like I said, this might take practice.


Step Three: Working out
  While working out, there are ways to make yourself very unapproachable.  First of all, don't worry about sweating, in fact, sweat as much as possible.  If over half of your shirt is dry, you're doing something wrong.  Wheezing, coughing and clearing your throat is definitely encouraged.  Don't be gross or rude to those around you, just do it enough that no one would want to be any closer to you than they have to.  When it comes to listening to music, do it as expressively as possible.  Lip syncing is encouraged, as well as the occasional air guitar (if you can do it without falling off your machine - you wouldn't want to be mistaken for a damsel in distress).


  Now if after all your efforts a man still approaches you...I got nothing.  




32 days to go.  Wait...what?

Life is Good

Fun Fact: I should be doing my taxes right now.  Instead I made granola and now I'm blogging :)


Last week finished out strong - I ran my 10 mile run in Buffalo, so it was kind of a run down memory lane.  I ran past my old high school, the mall, the nursing home I used to work at, and other stores and restaurants that gave me nostalgia.  When I ran past Ted's Hot Dogs, I craved loganberry so badly that I could taste it (for those of you who don't know what loganberry is, it is a drink made of basically pure sugar...it's fantastic...in small doses, unless you're 11 - then you can drink an entire 2-liter in one sitting).


This week has been kind of crazy.  I'm going to visit a friend this weekend, and didn't want to have to figure out routes and take time away from hanging out to run.  So...I decided to fit 7 days of marathon training into 4 days...and I did it!!  I ran 5 miles on Monday and Tuesday, 10 miles on Wednesday (I switched my 18 mile run to next weekend because I do not have time to run 18 miles in the middle of the week), and ran 6 miles tonight.  Surprisingly, I feel really good.  A big part of that, I'm sure, is that work was really calm this week.  And tomorrow we're going to Chuck E. Cheese, so I will definitely get in my cross training :)


Alright...on to responsible things (does reading other peoples' blogs count as responsible?)


37 days to go.  I gotta start posting more.  These days seem to be dropping waaaay too fast.