Changing it up

I had a miserable day so I'm switching topics for a moment.  It started this morning when I woke up and didn't want to get out of bed.  The bed was so warm and cozy and I should've just stayed there.  But, I didn't.  I got up like a normal adult and went about my morning routine.  Everything was going great until it was time to leave and I couldn't find my car keys.  I knew they were somewhere in the house but for the life of me I couldn't find them.  I even called Ry and he didn't know where they were.  Searching ended up making me late for work, just by a few minutes, but still.  Then, when I got to work, I happened to check my bank account on my phone and noticed that I was overdrawn by 130 dollars.  WTF.  I looked yesterday and I knew I had enough money to cover my gas bill, with some left over.  So I checked the transactions and  I noticed that my student loan payment for the month had come out.  Here's the thing with that.  My student loans are basically ruining my financial life, but I'm handling them, because I have no choice.  The payments were fairly low until my income went up.  Apparently there's tons of crazy rules about how many years you can spread your payments out, and for ridiculous reasons, (none of my loans separately are not worth 30,000, even though altogether, they're worth 40,000... ridiculous) I can't spread my payment out past 10 years.  Well, last month there was some confusion with my loan payment, so I paid this months last month.  Technically the next payment isn't due to February.  HOWEVER, Salliemae, being the fantastic loan management company they are, decided to take my money for the month anyways.  THANKS GUYS! What it comes down to is that they took out the loan money even though it wasn't due.  As you can imagine, that didn't help my day.  I called and asked them to cancel the payment, and of course, they wouldn't.  A direct quote was, "you can call your bank and put a stop payment on it, but they'll charge you for it."  Because I really want to spend more money right now....really????  After that debacle, I accidentally spilled someone's milk in the fridge when I knocked it over with my lunch bag.  (Who leaves an open carton of milk in the fridge right by the edge???) Then at lunch I went to buy a water from the vending machine and OF COURSE, the water was sold out.  I was just going to get a diet coke instead, but wouldn't you know it, the machine totally stopped working.  Finally, I had a meeting after work so I couldn't even go home and hide in bed like I wanted to.  So, even though it's totally not healthy and against my working out plan, I'm eating crap tonight.  And I don't care! Mostly it's the money issue, but as you can see, I'm not in the best of moods and had to rant it out.

Decisions, decisions

Today the weather tried to be tricky and pretend it wasn't the beginning of January.  Apparently the rest of the week is supposed to follow suit, being up in the high 40s/low 50s.  When the weather is this nice in January you just can't pass up running outside.  Of course, I can't pass it up ever, since I don't belong to a gym or own a treadmill, but for the sake of this post, let's pretend that's not true. It was definitely a tough decision trying to decide between the woods and the beach.  They both have their high and low points.  The woods are close so there's no traffic getting there, usually you don't see to many other people so you can run in peace, and generally it's pretty quiet there.  BUT, there are a lot of hills, people tend to have their dogs off leash, and the terrain can be rough with the snow melting.  On the other hand, the beach is fairly flat, a gorgeous view, and there's enough people around to feel safe.  BUT, there's usually a ton of traffic getting there, it can get boring running back down the same road you just ran up, and there are a lot of other people around so you can get self-conscious easily.  What it boils down to really though is the woods are a loop with hills and the beach is straight and flat.
It was a difficult decision mostly though because I can't take the dogs to either of those places and be able to focus on the run.  That means I have to go out and walk the dogs first, and then get psyched for the run.  After walking it comes down to how far I want to drive and if I want to run up hills or not.  Today I wasn't feeling it, so I ended up going with the beach. Most definitely the best choice, I think.  As I mentioned before, I use the Charity Miles app to keep track of my time/mileage, as well as help out different charities.  Unfortunately today, the app recorded my time, but for reasons unknown to me, did not record the mileage so it wouldn't send the info through! Basically, even though I ran 3.4 miles for Stand Up to Cancer, the charity doesn't get the money because the app. malfunctioned.  I was a little disappointed when I got back to my car and found that out.  On the plus side, my music was working the entire time, so I didn't have to listen to my own horrid breathing patterns halfway through the run.  Breathing is really something I need to work on, I've been trying, but it's pretty hard! Anyways, I have a ton of 1st/2nd grade math tests to score, so that's  all from me.

Epiphany

Today I had one.  As I was running the 3 miles around the lake I was thinking about how slow I felt like we  were going. Clearly I can run 3 miles in 30 minutes and it's well referenced that I do not enjoy it much.  Today I finally realized why.  Generally when I run, I am trying to outrun myself or the others around me. I don't do it on purpose, I guess it's just ingrained in me from high school track.  The whole point was to win, even though we rarely did.  I guess it just finally hit me today that the point of running, at least now, is not to win, but to go further.  I'm not in a race, I'm not out to prove anything and really, the time isn't as big of a deal as the distance is. (Within reason of course, I'm not going to run 3 miles in an hour, that's crazy.)  But I do want to extend my distance.  So today, even though we were going slower, I felt better, to the point where I was actually enjoying my run.  We did about 3.5 miles, which is not the most I've ever run, but today it was somehow, easier.  I didn't feel like I was struggling to catch my breath and I was actually enjoying myself.  In fact, if we had decided to keep going, I know I could've gone at least another mile or two.  This is big, because usually by the end of the 3 miles I feel like there's no way I could make it another step, let alone another mile.
Due to this epiphany, I am revamping my workout goals.  Which were probably not very clear in the first place but here it goes.  When I run, I am no longer running to beat my time, I am running to extend my mileage.  This means that I will slow down, I will run further, and I will enjoy the scenery as I go.  Sadly, the worst part of my run today was that my music app isn't working to the best of it's abilities, and died in the middle of the run.  In my opinion, there are very few things that are worse than running without music to guide you. I don't mind the rain or the cold, but I absolutely hate being able to hear my own breathing.  With music going, you can drown out the noises you make, but when it's quiet, I find that I end up focusing on the sound of my feet hitting the ground or the loudness of my breathing.  I think I got that problem all straightened out, so hopefully for the next run and those thereafter my music will be in working order.  Here's hoping.

Update: The Great Stew Chase

I try to never post more than once a day, let alone in the span of a few hours, but this warrants an update so that I might actually do it. My friends and I have been running 5Ks as you may know, and I would like to get through one a month.  That way I can keep up on my working out and not slow down on my running speed.  The problem with this is that it can be hard to find an affordable 5K especially in less than a month. However, for the month of February, someone has found a race right here in the city.  The only problem is that it's not a 5K, or a 10K.  It's a 15K.  That's 9 miles. In the freezing cold.  And I've looked at the race map and there are definitely hills. Three months ago I would've said forget it, no way am I running that, and not looked back.  Tonight though, I am saying the opposite.  I am going to run it, or run/walk it, and I am going to make it through the 9 miles. Starting tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. I will be extending my 3 mile run to a 4/5 mile run and a 2/1 mile walk.  This pattern will continue with increases in mileage once a week up until the week of the race.  Of course I will continue my shorter runs during the week but at least one run a  week will be getting longer.  So I guess I'll see you at the finish line.

Full disclosure

I hate working out.  Seriously.  It burns, it hurts, it makes me miserable.  Just thinking about getting up and having to go for a run makes me anxious.  Yet I still put on my workout clothes and I still take that first step, and then the second, and I keep going until I'm back at my car.  The best I can figure is that I hate working out less than I hate eating healthy. At least if I workout I don't feel bad about making cupcakes and homemade pizza for dinner. (That happened.)  Now, I didn't actually workout yesterday per se.  For reasons unknown to me, but probably because I stayed up til 11:30 the night before, I was wicked tired yesterday.  All I wanted to do when I left work was go home and take a nap.  Unfortunately for me, that's never an option.  When I get home I always have to walk the dogs first, so I know there's at least an extra hour that I have to cover before I do my thing. So, I walked the dogs and then at home, went over to good old Pinterest.  There I found a recipe for low-fat Funfetti cupcakes that I immediately decided I wanted to try.  Basically, instead of making the recipe off the box you take the dry mix and pour it in a bowl with 12 fl. oz of 0 calorie Sprite, mix, and voila, cupcake batter.  Since I didn't have Sprite I substituted my Clear Splash Blackberry/Raspberry flavored sparkling tonic water.  Overall the results were the same.  The cupcakes are fairly good but the bottoms taste a bit odd.  Not sure why exactly, but definitely a faster/better option for making cupcakes in the future.  I was also a little bit concerned about the taste after the tonic water so I added a little bit of non-fat powdered vanilla pudding to the mix.  Honestly, you can't tell the difference in the taste and if you didn't know it, you'd think they were made straight from the box recipe.
Well after making the cupcakes and knowing that I was making pizza for dinner, I felt sort of bad.  Sure, my lunch was a PB&J and some fruit, but still, overall, it was not going to be a healthy meal day.  I knew I had to do some sort of workout, but I was just not feeling anything too extreme.  I didn't even want to do my Just Dance.  I was seriously tired and feeling lazy, what can I say.  Luckily, then I found this. The at home couch workout.  Apparently created by someone from/on the Biggest Loser, this is a 24 minute workout that you can do using your couch as a tool.  The good part? It was fast/easy. The bad part?  A lot of the workouts require a resistance band which I, unfortunately, do not hold in my possession. I had to improvise a lot of the workouts, but in the end, I thought, better this than nothing. It may not seem like much of a workout but I can tell you that I definitely felt it this morning, especially in my arms.  If you're ever feeling super lazy, like me, I suggest trying this out.  It's fast and will make you feel a bit better about skipping a day at the gym etc.
We won't talk about the fact that today I've done little to no workouts and have eaten like a pig.  I'll burn it off tomorrow at the 8:30 am run.  I might even consider doing a second loop and making it a 10K.  We'll see.

Loaded grillers

I'm currently watching T.V. and I just saw a commercial for Taco Bell's loaded grillers.  Generally I don't like Taco Bell and I rarely go there, but those look delicious.  I would definitely eat 5 or 6 of them without regret.  and be ashamed of it later.  But they do look good, which is not something I thought I would ever say about Taco Bell.  I'm sure the urge will pass, but in the meantime, I'd probably eat one or two if someone were to bring them here.
This morning when I got up I had no plans to run today. I know that's not the right mindset at all.  Usually people wake up and say they're going to get a ton of stuff done, and then turn around and do not do it.  My mind apparently works the opposite way though.  As I said, I had no plans to run, mainly because I got into my car and this happened.
Yes, you are reading that right.  It was almost 7:30 am and it was 8 degrees. Let me be clear, that's Farenheit, not Celsius.  When I saw that I said to myself, no way are you going running today, you can go home and play Just Dance instead. In fact, all throughout the day I had no intentions of doing any hardcore working out.  It's not exactly that I'm lazy during the day, but I do a lot of traveling.  I don't have a set classroom so I spend a lot of time walking up and down stairs to pick up my groups of students.  That in itself is quite a workout.  Usually by the time I make it to the 3rd floor my lungs are burning.  (You try carrying your entire days lessons and work around with you and see how you feel!)  Moving right along here, when I left school this afternoon it had warmed up significantly to a balmy 25 degrees.  I still had no intentions to run, but I changed into my workout clothes to walk the dogs.  Then a strange thing happened. After I walked good old Nala, I went to take Stella out. Suddenly though, I was driving to the beach ready for a run. What??????????  I had zero plans all day to run and now here I was going towards the ocean and pumped for running.  WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME????? Of course the beach was cold, but we made our trek down to Nahant and back, in just under 30 minutes. I'm going to pretend that I didn't eat cookies and drink chocolate milk when I got home.  Now I'm sitting here watching How I Met your Mother and listening to Neil Patrick Harris sing Dirty Deeds. Which is making me wish I had that song on my running list.  As well as some Motley Crue.  I need to get a serious reality check here. Those would be terrible running songs.

1st run

Happy New Year!
If you're making a resolution, good luck with that.  Personally, I skip the New Years resolutions.  Oddly enough, I tend to give something up for Lent and follow that 40 day rule.  I find it easier than making a resolution because I tell myself, it's only 40 days.  Usually by the time the 40 days are up, I find I no longer want what I gave up anyways, so I don't go back to it.  I'm not really highly religious, so I don't know why I follow the Lent rule, but it works for me which is really all that matters.
To start this year off right, a couple of friends and I signed up for a 5K/10K.  I commend them for getting up after a long night of celebrating and coming out to run.  It was a really nice day out, but awfully cold.  I think the temperature was somewhere around 32 - 35 (Farenheit of course.)  Thankfully the course was almost entirely flat.  The streets could've been set up a bit better as there were cars coming towards us and at one point, we were running on a major 2 lane highway, which was open for normal driving.  The race itself was set up nicely.  We started and ended at the Lowell Elks Club, they had timing mats that told you the results immediately after, and there was food and drink.  All in all, a nice run, better than some of the big name runs I've been too.
My goal when I got there this morning was to beat my time from the Jingle Bell Run that I did back in December.  That was also a 5k but there were a lot more hills. That being said, my time from the Jingle Bell Run was  31:09 at a 10 min pace. My time from today was 30:54 at a 9.5 min pace.  So I did beat my last time, but not by a lot.  I was hoping to come in around 29 or 28.  I probably could have gone a little bit faster than I did, but there's always next time. I think I"m going to start adding a mile onto my training runs and work my way up to a 10K.  Maybe by the last race of the series, in June, I'll be able to do one.  And now, as always, some pictures.

Before the race.  Two of these lovely ladies ran the 10K. Way to go girls!  The rest of us just stuck to the 5K.

Sadly, we didn't get a group shot for the after.  The medals were wine stoppers!