Fat Girl Learns To Run

Sardines in a Can ---------- Day 270

After work today I took my normal train and got off a few stops later to visit a bike shop to get a helmet.  It is a good thing that I was not riding the train to the end of the line because the train was packed.  We were packed in like sardines in a can which I absolutely hate.  Talk about people being in your personal space.

After deciding on a helmet, I also purchased a bell and a seat bag for the bike.   Now I am all set for my bike ride on Sunday. To make things interesting, I decided to take another train home.  Changing my route allowed me to get some walking in.  I was surprised how much it warmed up since this morning.  The sweater that I put on this morning was definitely too warm to wear now.  That’s what I like about layering clothes, you can adjust to the weather.

Since tomorrow is my 2^nd group run in the program, I realized that I needed to wash some of my running clothes so I have something to wear tomorrow.  No rain in the forecast for tomorrow morning so it should be a good run.  My Hawks are playing again tonight.  They are tied in the 3^rd period.  I will have to watch how this one ends.

The Color Purple ---------- Day 269

It is not unusual for me to be tired after work but today I felt as though I could go to sleep as soon as I got home.  I was wondering why I was tired and thought it probably was due to my long compute home after my run yesterday. Travelling can really wear you out.  I think I rather have a longer commute to the group run and then have a shorter commute home. I will have to switch the routine next week. 

When I am tired for some reason I like to have breakfast for dinner.  It is like comfort food to me.  I was scheduled to run tonight but I was just too tired and it looked like rain.  It looks like a great day to run on Saturday.  At this point, as long it is not raining, I am happy.

My son has his prom this weekend.  I asked him about the details and he really doesn’t know.  He usually is the organizer for activities but since the others didn’t go along with his ideas, he just gave up and let others make the arrangements. His attitude is ‘just let me know when and where to show up’. When I asked my son what accent color he had for his tux, he said ‘purple’.  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.    

Going South ---------- Day 268

It’s finally getting warmer outside which is a good thing.  I decided to go to the mid-week group run downtown after work.  The meeting site has a totally different vibe than the site that I went to on Saturday.  I found out from Shannon that there were only about 20 runners at the downtown site on Saturday and the runners were really weren’t any pace groups.  On the other hand, the Lincoln Park site where I was at had about 100 runners and organized pace groups.  I am glad that I decided on that site.  My run tonight wasn’t that good.  It was interesting running south along the path.   We ran to Soldier Field and back.

After the run, I thought I would hop on the bus back to work.  No such luck.  The bus never came so I walked back to the office to get my stuff and then head home.  It was easy to get to the running site but getting home took a long time.  Next week I am going to the Lincoln Park site and see how that works out.

Rest Day ----------- Day 267

Per my training schedule, today was a ‘rest’ day.  Taking full advantage of not having to exercise today, I went out to dinner with a girlfriend.  Since I came home late and I need to rest up for a mid-week group run downtown tomorrow after work, I am not spending much time tonight writing.  Since the Hawks are leading 3 to 0 in the 2nd Period, I can go to sleep now knowing that they are in great shape to win Game 2.  At the rate that they are going, all their games should be on the road.

Color My Food ---------- Day 266

I was watching a segment on TV about summer dieting.  During summer, many fruits and vegetables are in season so the price of the produce is lower so it is more economical to eat healthy.   That is why summer is the easiest time of the year to lose weight.  You just need to stay away from all those tropical drinks.  For me the warm weather makes me want to be outside instead of sitting in the house.  This summer I will definitely be outside more than in past years due to all the running I need to do to prepare for the race.

Now here’s a question for you.  There are three dining rooms and each room is painted a different color.  One is painted red, one yellow and one a light blue.  In which of these rooms would you eat less in?  The correct answer is the blue room.  Eating in a red or yellow room would entice you to eat more.   Also the color orange also leads to eating more.  You all know the logo for McDonald.  And what color is it?  Red and Yellow.  It was no marketing accident that those two colors were chosen.  If you think about it, there are many fruits and vegetables that are red, yellow or orange.  How many blue/purple foods can you think of?  Blueberries, grapes and eggplant are the only ones that come to my mind.  Now I have heard of purple potatoes and blue corn but that is not the natural color of those vegetables.

When you have gone to a restaurant, how many times have you been served on blue plates?  Nothing comes to my mind.  Basically, food doesn’t look good on blue plates and restaurants want their food to look good.  Color plays an important part in our food consumption.  The next time you go to a restaurant, notice the colors around you.

By the way, I am still angry about my short hair cut.  I probably won’t be over it until my hair is at least an inch longer.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow ---------- Day 265

After Church this morning, my son and I went for a bike ride.  Since I haven’t been on my bike for a really long time, I took it slow.  My son was a good sport and slowed down his pace so I could keep up with him.  We rode our bikes about an hour.  Just like running, it is best that my son and I don’t bike together since our pace is so different.  It will take awhile before I feel comfortable on my bike.  I am just going to have to get on the path early in the morning when there are less people on the path so I don’t have to maneuver around people.  The thing I learned about running is that you start out slow and then push yourself a little more each time.  This is the approach that I am going to take with cycling.

When I got home and took off my helmet, I saw some red stuff on my headband.  My first thought was that it looked like blood but then realized that part of the inside of the helmet wore off on my headband.  It is time to get a new helmet.  I remember seeing several listings of cycle places in this one magazine we got with our CARA packet last week.  As I was looking for a cycle place close to me, I saw an advertisement for the Chicago Half Marathon.  Since I was still on a high after riding my bike and not crashing into anyone, I signed up for the race in September.  I tell you, this running stuff is becoming addicting.

I had one of those days on Saturday where my hair just got to me so I made an appointment to get my hair cut today.  I told my hair stylist that I wanted a lob (which looks like a bob but is longer) and asked him if he knew what I was talking about and he said ‘yes’.  He then asked me how short I wanted my hair cut.  I told him that I would tell him when he combed out my hair.  I was surprised how rough he combed out my hair.  When my hair looked straighter, I told him how long I wanted it.  He proceeds to cut my hair.  For my bangs he blows them dry and then uses a straightening iron on them to make sure that the bangs are straight.  As he was doing this, he slightly touched my head with the iron causing me to say ‘ouch’.  This is not going well.  As I looked at the hair when he was done, it was so short.  I was pissed.  He told me that he cut it where I said and then evened it out and that when I straighten my hair it will appear long.  I was still upset about my hair and told him so. My hair was at least 2 inches shorter than I indicated.

When I got home, I immediately started to straighten my hair to see how long it would actually be when straight.  It still was way too short.  At this point, I was fuming so I called the salon and told them how upset I was and to take me off their mailing list and that I was never coming back to the salon.  I proceed to tell the woman on the phone that when you walk out of a salon you should feel happy about your haircut and not be upset about it. The woman on the other end was very nice and said that I could come in and have another stylist look at my hair.  I told her that I had a good cut but it was cut too short and there is nothing else that someone could do to my hair.  When I put my hair in a ponytail it looks like a little turd which is not a good look.

With this bad hair experience, I have been in an angry mood all day.  I am going to have to run hard tomorrow to get rid of this anger that is inside of me. At least the Blackhawks won their game this afternoon. 

Day 1 of Training ------------ Day 264

Today I actually woke up before my alarm.  I think it was my fear of oversleeping since today was my first day of training.  After getting ready, I drove to the meeting place for the group run.  I wasn’t really sure where we were meeting since it was along the lake and there really wasn’t an address.  Luckily I found the place because I saw the pace markers being lined up.  After I parked my car, I walked towards the meeting area and saw some of the girls who were at the kickoff on Thursday.  At 7:00 a.m. we were instructed to stand behind the pace marker we thought was the correct one for us.  The lowest pace group left first to run and then the others followed.

As we were running, I was surprised to see so many running groups from other organizations running on the path.  I ended up talking to the girl next to me for most of the run so the 4 miles went by rather quickly.  I also think that I picked the correct pace group because I wasn’t dying after running 4 miles.  The thing about running early in the morning is that I was home before 9:00 a.m. and had the rest of the day to do stuff.

Tomorrow is my cross training day.  I have decided to ride my bike as my workout.  Now for those who know me, I don’t cycle so riding my bike is a big deal for me.  I wonder how far I will be able to ride?  We will see tomorrow.

 

The Party's Over ---------- Day 263

Earlier in the day I was thinking about all the things that I wanted to get done when I got home.  By the time I got home, I was just drained and didn’t feel like doing anything.  Guilt overcame me because I really needed to do some weight training today.  Without really thinking, I changed my clothes and did my workout before I would talk myself out of doing it.  I did feel more awake after my workout but that lasted only about ½ hour and then I was tired again.  At this point, it just doesn’t make sense to try to be productive. I am just going to go to bed now and get up early to get some things done before my group run tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow officially begins the 12 week training period for the Half Marathon.  In the packet that I received yesterday was the training schedule for all the days during the training period.  This time I am really going to try to do what is indicated for each day.  This means no late Friday nights for me for most of the summer.  It shouldn’t be too difficult since I always seem to be tired by the end of the week.  Besides that, my social life is pretty dull.

The Kickoff ---------- Day 262

Tonight was the kickoff of the Half Marathon training at Goose Island in Wrigleyville.  We had the back room reserved for the group which was very large.  As people started gathering, CARA handed us our packets which included the training schedule.  Since I was one of the first people there, I got to meet the new CARA Training Manager, Meg, who chatted with our table for awhile.  When more people were there, we headed out for our fun run of 3 miles.  You know you are training for a serious distance when 3 miles is considered fun.  Before we were about to run, Shannon arrived so we were able to run together.  On the way back, another girl, Mercedes, joined us to bring it home.

Back at Goose Island, we got to use our ticket for a beer.  As we were drinking our beer, various people associated with CARA spoke to us to tell us about the program.  At the end of the talks, which were short, there was a raffle for some items.  Unfortunately, I was not one of those people who won something.  The group then started to disperse and head home.

According to the schedule, we do 4 miles on Saturday.  We also need to do runs during the week.  It is going to interesting how all this works out for me.   My only wish is that I stay injury free during the training program.

Groupon Day ---------- Day 261

Today my son used the groupon I got for him for some beauty treatments.  The only thing was that the location of the salon was in the city and we live in the suburbs.  The plan was that my son would drive part way and then take the train the rest of the way.  I would then meet him there after work.  When I got to the salon, I saw my son sitting on the chair with some of his hair cut.  I totally freaked out when I saw that his hair looked like a mushroom.  Being the nosy mom, I went over to the chair and asked if the stylist knew what he wanted.   She said ‘yes’ and I mumbled underneath my breath that his hair better look better when I get back  I then left the salon and did some window shopping along Armitage Avenue.  My big purchase was 2 pair of running socks.

When I got back to the salon and saw my son, his hair looked good.  Since the stylist was cutting his hair in a way that seemed very odd to me, I’m glad that it turned out ok in the end.  After we settled our account, my son tells me that he needs to be at a band rehearsal in an hour.  This involved us power walking, riding a train and driving in rush hour.  I don’t know how we did it but he was only about 5 minutes late for rehearsal.

As I mentioned before, I am still on the Hawks bandwagon.  It helped that they won last night and are moving on to the Western Conference finals.  Next opponent will be the San Jose Sharks.  I would really like to watch the games but they last past my bedtime and I need my sleep. 

Tomorrow I am scheduled for a 3 mile run with the Half Marathon group.  Lots of rain is predicted for tomorrow.  I just hope it doesn’t rain during our run.  Now off to bed to rest up.