running 1 Comment

Interval Training?

I’m feeling pretty good right about now.

Eariler today, I told Sheryl over e-mail: “Now, yesterday I did my Push workout again, for the first time in a couple of weeks. And y’know what I’m going to do tonight when I get home? I’m going to change clothes, feed the cat, and drive to Wildwood armed with some water and my iPod. Then I’m going to walk-jog the shortest trail. Cardio is my biggest obstacle, and I’m going to just DO IT already. Maybe I’ll find jogging fun. (Never did before, but there’s a first time for everything.)”

And that’s exactly what I did. Saw Aaron off to work, changed clothes, fed the cat, set some brown rice to cooking and some chicken to thawing, gathered up my wallet and keys and iPod and a camera with five exposures left and $1 in change (for water), and drove off to Wildwood Metropark.

I found an excellent parking spot, close to the trailhead; however, I failed to note what time it was when I arrived. D’oh! Anyway, I loaded up with my wallet, keys (obviously, since I couldn’t leave them in the car, could I?) and iPod, and went to decide on a trail.

Wildwood has about six trails, ranging in distance from 0.6 miles to 3.1, I think. I decided to take the yellow Meadow Trail, which was 1.2 miles. I thought that was fair to start a walk-jog routine. And away I went.

I’d decided that, instead of looking at my watch constantly, I would start jogging when whatever song that was playing got to the first chorus. I’d jog/run/whatever for one minute, then walk until the first chorus of the next song. That seemed like a good compromise.

Until I got to a.) The Pixies, who have two-minute songs, and b.) another band with a six-minute instrumental. That threw off my jogging cycle mojo hardcore.

About that time, I took a wrong turn down what wasn’t the yellow trail, so I ended up on a paved path. S’ok — I still knew where I was going, but I didn’t know exactly what distance I’d be travelling anymore. Since my mojo was thrown off and my distance gauge was no longer valid (since I forgot to bring my pedometer), I just jogged when I felt like it. ‘Let’s jog the length of this fence’ or ‘Let’s jog to the tree’ or something like that.

“That’s nice and all,” you’re saying, “but how did it GO?”

Surprisingly well, actually.

My first jogging stint was right out of the gate. Walked down from the trailhead, got on the yellow trail, started jogging. I really enjoyed it, and didn’t want to stop after my minute was over — but I did, anyway. Then I realized that I was winded. Bad. I hadn’t noticed while I was jogging, and I wonder how long I could have jogged before my body spoke up.

My next stretch was a little harder, and slightly embarrassing. A guy probably five years younger than me was on the trail in front of me when it came time for me to break into a jog again, so I psyched myself up to pass him. My keys were jangling in my back pocket, but there was nothing to be done about that. I was sure I looked like a total dork with my keys on one ass-cheek and my wallet on the other. Oh. well.

Approached, no problem. Passed on the left, no problem.

Pants started to fall down. Problem.

I didn’t even consider stopping to pull them up and cinch in the drawstring. Nope. Not an option; this is my jog-time. Instead, I yanked up my workout pants as I ran, trying to run faster to get around the bend and out of sight. They just fell right back down. I was sure this guy could see my underwear at this point, and I tried to be funny by making a frustrated gesture to the world in general as I hiked them up again and successfully disappeared around the corner. Once my minute was up, I had run waaaay too fast and winded myself even worse than before. But I did pull up my drawers and tie the drawstring tight. Guess that’s why it’s there — to keep your pants up while you’re running with keys and wallet and iPod on your person.

All in all, I think I had about four or five jogging stints and spent somewhere just over 30 minutes with my walk-jog. Next time, I’ll be more careful with checking the time and staying on the right trail. And bringing my pedometer.

After the walk-jog, I went back to the car, fetched my change and my camera, bought a water from the vending machine, used up the last few exposures on the camera I was testing, then got back in the car and headed home.

When I got home, the rice was done, which tells me I was gone at least an hour. That’s good. Finished making dinner (Szechuan chicken) and divided it into thirds: one for dinner, one for tomorrow’s lunch, and one for Aaron when he gets home tonight. Yummy.

So, how do I feel? Well, my quads were already sore from yesterday’s workout, and they’re even more sore now. My ass is sore. Actually, come to think of it, just about everywhere is sore, between yesterday’s PUSH workout and today’s interval training (if you want to call it that).

But I feel GOOD.

I’ve still got the memory of that I’ve-been-breathing-hard feeling in the back of my throat and my upper lungs, and I feel like my heart rate is still a little elevated (not much, but enough that I notice).

If I can do this every Tuesday and Thursday, and do it with Aaron on Saturday or Sunday, and keep up with my M-W-F PUSH workouts, I think I’ll see results. At the very least, I’ll feel better, which is part of what this thing’s all about.

P.S. – Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post or sent me e-mail. I really appreciate having friends and acquaintances who step up to help and know how to motivate me. You guys are teh awesome! ^_^

health & fitness 4 Comments

Fit versus Fat

My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t posted a Diet & Fitness Update in a while. That’s mainly because I didn’t feel like admitting to the entire internets that I’ve been slacking.

According to Saturday’s weigh-in, I’ve gained back everything I lost in the past… *checks chart* …three months. Of course, I’m not going to take one day’s weight as gospel, although the Omron Body Fat Analyzer seemed to think I’d gained some fat, too. Granted, Aaron was on vacation a couple weeks ago, so we ate dinner out a lot, but that’s no excuse for me to stop exercising and start eating like I was never on a low-carb diet in my life.

So. Where to restart?

I’ve mentioned this before: if I want to BE a fit person, I need to first ACT like a fit person. Thing is… I’ve never actually lived with a fit person before. I don’t relate. It doesn’t compute. I don’t even know how to be a fit-person poseur.

I think fit people wake up early — like, 6am early. Yikes.
So, what time do fit people go to bed? Before 10:00?
Fit people are active during the day, and I can do that. I walk during my lunch break.
Do fit people eat seconds at dinner? Dessert? If so, what kind of dessert? How often?
Do fit people watch any TV in the evenings? I mean, beyond the news?
Do fit people play on their computers? For how long?
If they don’t do the computer thing, what do fit people do in the evenings after work?
Fit people work out after work, for one thing. How long is normal? Every weekday? EVERY day?
What kinds of activities do fit couples do on the weekends? Walking at the metropark? Or more?
Fit people drink boatloads of water. I need to drink more, but I do drink more than some people.
Fit people have energy, and seem to be generally happy. I can fake that. Eventually, I won’t have to.

What else do fit people do, as opposed to fat people? And, by “fit people,” I don’t mean the people you see on bodybuilding.com, who look waaaay more buff than I can ever imagine myself. I mean people who are of normal weight. Maybe slightly over, but not much. And I don’t mean super-skinny people, either (there are a couple of those in my office at work, and I’m convinced that’s just hereditary).

So, speak up, normals. What makes you different from me?

writing 4 Comments

Neglected NaNo

I want to write.

I have part of a story done — my NaNo from last November.. I need to do some character studies and some research and figure out what happens next.

Thing is, this is the second time in a few months that I’ve read my story, to get a feel for where I’m at… and still didn’t know what happens next. I can’t get excited about doing research on undead myths of various cultures, and I can’t get excited about writing background pieces, although both are very necessary at this point.

Maybe this is my social inadequacy coming into play. I don’t know what happens next in this scenario:
– man falls in love with woman
– man does (non-sexual) favor for woman
– man gets no love (so to speak) but stays faithful
– woman hears gossip that man is sleeping around
– woman gets pissed and sleeps with the gossiper, despite not having made her feelings known to the man
– man goes to see woman and gets an earful
– man walks out on woman mid-rant
– man refuses to do favors for woman any more, despite being in love with her

…And then? Who’s zoomin’ who?

Wait. This is my story. Am I not supposed to know what happens next? WTF?

It has a happy ending. I know how it ends. I just don’t know how to get there. The supernatural bits I can deal with. It’s the interpersonal bits I have a problem with.

Any ideas?

P.S. – It also sucks that I have these characters brewing in my head as anime/manga characters… and I CAN’T DRAW MANGA OMG. But how I want to. My heroine would look like Haruhi in makeup and goth clothes, and my protagonist would be a tall, lanky, pale-skinned bishonen type with narrow, evil-looking eyes.

What’s also funny? The setting of the story in my head is Bowling Green, even though I don’t mention it in the text.

podcasting 1 Comment

Podcasting Vacation

I finally did it. I posted a message on my podcast site admitting that I may or may not be continuing my podcast.

I just have so many other things demanding my attention. The LSM site. Genealogy (sometimes). Blogging. Housework (again, only sometimes). And I tend to be really unmotivated anymore when I get home from work. I haven’t even exercised in a couple of weeks.

I actually feel as if something’s been crossed off of my perpetual to-do list. Now I have room for something else, like finishing one of my stories or writing letters to my family or cleaning my desk or my corner of the bedroom. We’ll see which gets done first. Hmph.

randomness 2 Comments

Friday Five: Exclamations

I don’t usually do memes, but I liked this one, brought to you by  talcotts:

Favorite phrase when you have…

1. Eaten food that tastes bad
“Ugh!” Depending on the setting and company, that may be followed by a profane opinion of what I just ate, e.g. “That was fuckin’ nasty.”

2. Stubbed your toe
Sharp inhale as I wait for the pain to hit, then a slow, seething “Gmmarrrgh…” (It can’t decide if it’s a goddamn or a motherfucker.)

3. Become frustrated
“Son of a motherfucking bitch!” Or, if I’m playing Tony Hawk, “DO SOMETHING!!” Or, if I’m at work, I just become silent and turn on my iPod.

4. Broken something
Usually “crap,” but sometimes a “shit” or a “goddammit” pops out. Depends on how important of a something I broke.

5. Been cut off by another driver
“Fucking asshole,” followed up by as close of tailgating as I feel comfortable… which is usually laughable, I’m sure.