Race report #2

Architecture for Humanity 5K
30:52

Way too early this morning the stove caught my favorite (okay, only) coffeepot on fire. The gas flames got too big for their britches and had an unfortunate meeting with the one plastic part on the thing, and now my stove is covered in melted plastic, the kitchen smells like crap, and I am down one coffeepot. The coffee came out fine, but when your favorite coffeepot has just caught on fire, there's nothing that can't be made better with some strategic cursing and a liberal splash of whiskey. So, at around 8am, I set off slightly intoxicated and pissed off to my second 5k race of the year/my life.
Long story short, when I finished the race I was no longer either of those things, so yay running!
This was an awesome race around the Charles River out by Harvard/Allston. The weather was perfect, sunny and breezy, and the course was almost all flat. I actually passed ten people (I counted), and though I only beat my previous time by a minute and am still running at around 10 min/mile, I was quite pleased.
Nacho and his friend Matt were there, which was a very nice surprise. They waited for me at the finish line and gave me high fives and back pats, which I must say, are even better than free race t-shirts (which I did not get). Hopefully will see them again tonight.
The Charles River Cleanup event was also taking place, and many of the volunteers participating paused their work and stopped to cheer and give high fives and yell encouragement to the runners. I realized then that running piddly short charity races is probably the closest I will ever get to my childhood dream of being a professional baseball player. And that's okay with me, it's probably closer than lots of people get to their childhood dreams of being ballerina astronaut pony farmers or whatever.
I'm starting to feel like running twice this distance is maybe not as much of an impossible feat as I originally thought. Not quite ready to try it out yet though. My new shoes are awesome, and what I originally thought might be stress fractures in both my ankles doesn't seem to have gotten any worse.
My back hurts, my feet hurt, my legs hurt, and I feel good.

Marathon Monday

This afternoon, as I was walking my L.A. to the gym after leaving work early for no reason, I was so inspired seeing all the marathoners limping back from the finish line. Many covered in big silver capes, like the superheroes they probably are.
So I went to the gym, pumped to slog through my typical three miles on the treadmill, only to find out, after I finished dressed, that I had not brought any socks.
After some considerable colorful language, I tried to give myself the "Do It Anyway!" pep talk, like I do when I forget my iPod or headband, but there is only so much insanity that one can pep talk oneself into. So I went home.
I think I either have to am about to have a stress fracture in my right shin. Still, I signed up for another 5K for this coming weekend, even though I haven't been able to run the distance since the last one.
This is probably a bad idea.

Motiva...what?

Since finishing the race, I've been having a really hard time getting back into my running. I know it's totally mental, I know. But it doesn't help. I was jogging along at my typical 10-min mile pace today, and it was the most beautiful evening in the Fens, and there was really no reason to feel like I couldn't go on. I was just so uninspired.
Then it hit me.
Run faster.
So I ran faster.
And it felt really, really good.
The downside is, I realized that my lack of motivation was only partly mental and also partly something wrong with my lower legs, so I had to stop eventually anyway.

I need some big fluffy cloud shoes to run in.

First race

Yesterday, I ran my first race, The Nashua Soup Kitchen Run for Food & Shelter. Considering I never thought I'd be able to run more than a mile and haven't intentionally run with another person since 4th grade track, this was a pretty big accomplishment. All I wanted to do was finish the race without stopping, and I did that. At the finish line, I almost blacked out, but thank goodness there were tons of free sandwiches.

My mom brought me to the race, but in typical my mom fashion, she went to Dunkin' Donuts and lost track of time so when I crossed the finish line, she wasn't there. Ohhh, my mom. She came wandering into the gymnasium about fifteen minutes later saying "I'm so sorry honey, I knew you couldn't still be running because I saw all these fat girls finishing and I knew you would have beaten the fat girls." She wouldn't stop talking about "the fat girls". I kept trying to explain to her that they were probably much better runners than I, and more power to them for doing the race, but she just wouldn't saying insensitive things in her outdoor voice. So I just sat on the grass for a couple minutes trying not to throw up and then staggered into the gymnasium to get some free food, even though I could barely hold up my plate.

I need to start running some hills. That's what made this particular race so difficult, is that it had a very slight incline right at the beginning and then again at the end and it was difficult to recover from.

In conclusion, 192/297, 31:06, 10:01 pace

Resolutions

So today seems as good a day as any to start a fitness blog. I kind of wish I'd started in a couple months ago when I first decided to get in shape, so I could actually track the pretty decent progress I've made, but alas I am lazy and afraid to be all gung ho about something I might forget, and then have evidence of my failure when I inevitably slink off in a cloud of shame and self-doubt.

New Year's Resolutions are a dime a dozen, and I usually don't take them too seriously, but this year I made two.
1. Be physically able to run 3.1 miles straight. I didn't have to run an actual race, just make it for that distance.
2. Drink more Guinness. I live in Boston, where everyone is at least a little Irish if only from bumping into real Irish people on the T, so this one wasn't going to be a problem.

Of course, I mostly forgot about #1.

Anyway, a couple months ago I was out on the town with a couple friends and as per usual we'd all had about seven too many Guinni (see, not a problem). Long story short, some Leprechaunesque dude gave my friend Jenna some crap about her hair for absolutely no reason, and made her cry. I tried to roundhouse kick him in the head, but failed miserably and had to settle for an emphatic "You sir, are SHORT!" and drag Jenna off while she hysterically tried to extract an apology from the loser.
I decided then and there that I must get in shape, if only to defend myself and my friends from the collar-popping douchebags who roam these city streets.

So I started running for serious. Again. I've started and stopped running/working out/etc so many times I can't even keep track. The most I'd run before this was maybe two miles at a time, and that was maybe once. I got a Nike+iPod kit and started the Health.com 5K program. I liked this training plan because it started me off with more jogging/running than the Couch to 5K and I generally like running, mostly away from things like my problems. I started with 3/2 intervals and eventually got up to 4/1 intervals with a mile pace of 13:10 and last night I ran two miles straight at 9:28. Not a huge amount of progress for almost three months and certainly not awesomely speedy, but it's the best I've ever done and I enjoy patting myself on the back and giving myself ice cream cones for my troubles. I got so excited about this, that I signed up for a 5K! It's in less than two weeks and I think I might be insane. We'll see.

Just about three weeks ago I started lifting weights. Thanks to this totally awesome site, I was able to wade through the testosterone-scented confusion surrounding weightlifting and devise a beginning plan to turn myself into an ass-kicking machine. After the initial mistake I made of doing three sets of squats and not being able to walk for a week (I actually called out of work because I couldn't climb out of bed), I think it's been going pretty well. Apparently the cure for squats is more squats.

In addition, I am trying to overcome my fear of the gym, particularly the scary scary weight room. I don't even know where it is in my gym, but if I can get used to the hamstery awfulness of the treadmill I can eventually ask a Friendly Staff Member where the weight room is and if it is scary. For now I will stick with the small & medium sized dumbbells and not mess with the big iron.

So, this is about where I am right now. I have no particular weight loss goals besides not wanting to weigh half as much as Shaq (several years ago Shaq anyway), and being continually able to fit into all the clothing I currently own.

And to drink more Guinness.