Eliza’s Workouts ~ Week 9, Run 2

Today was SNOW DAY. Pretty awesome. I got off of work early and carved in a little time between frolicking about and cooking for the gym …  I intended to do five miles but only did three. I have a bit of a cough, and my lungs were burning. Otherwise, the run was fine; I watched General Hospital and thought about how much I enjoy when it gets written about over at Serial Drama. There were only a few scenes with Robin, Mac, Patrick, and the baby, but they made the episode worth watching. I used to watch this soap regularly during college and loved it a lot. Now it seems kind of like a parody of itself, as if soaps aren’t parodies enough in the first place. If you know what I mean.

I might try to run five tomorrow; I don’t know. Right now I’m full of curry and peppermint brownies and hot chocolate and snowy, snowy love. We’ll see what happens.

 

Eliza’s Workouts ~ Week 9, Run 1

And so it begins … the rest of the training (except for the last week) is 5 miles, 3 miles, 5 miles, and then the long run each week. 5 miles still feels a bit steep, but I’m going to forge onward.

My calves have been a bit sore since Sunday’s 7-miler. But I’ve been trying my best to stretch them over the past two days. They were definitely sore when I ran on the treadmill this afternoon, but not so much so that I had to stop. I was totally wiped out and assumed it must be almost over, and when I peeked at the distance, I’d only gone 2.7 miles and wanted to cry. But I told myself I could do it and kept going.

Somehow I made it through to the end. I caught part of an OCD episode of Oprah that literally almost made me ill all over the treadmill. I can’t say I buy into therapy for germophobes that involves them sticking their hands into public garbage hands, touching a stranger’s vomit, and then putting their hands in their mouths. WTF kind of psychiatrist WAS that? I understand that we have to confront our fears, but isn’t that a serious biohazard? Licking your fingers after they’ve touched someone else’s fly-covered vomit? It was truly disgusting. I think even Dr. Oz thought it was off the wall, but of course he was a good sport and did it, too! For the love of God. 

Today’s best running song was the theme song to The Greatest American Hero.

 

Eliza’s Workouts ~ Week 8, Run 3

Today’s long run was last week’s skipped 7-miler. (Next week’s is a 10K, so instead of that, I’ll run this week’s 8-miler. All of this makes sense in my head, don’t worry.)

I’d been planning all week to run at the gym, but I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to attempt it outside. I hadn’t tried to run outside since the shin splint debacle of several weeks ago. I have been really concerned with re-injuring myself in whatever way caused that hein pain. But it was such a beautiful day outside that I decided what the hell.

I plotted out my course on the online pedometer and hit the road. It was chilly but sunny and pleasant. I felt pretty good but started to get pretty tired around mile 5. But I charged through it. It was great to see so many people out on the streets, to see the birds around the lakes, to just be outside alone with the sounds of my music rather than the loud whir of a dozen treadmills and all of the feet hitting them around me and all of the gym sweat pouring down my face. I made it through until the end, and I am tired and it was hard and my legs hurt and I’m not sure I will ever enjoy running 7 miles in a row, but my shins feel okay so far. Phew. It was a beautiful day to run outside, and I’m glad I got to do it. My boyfriend ran 18 today (!!!), which makes 7 sound like small potatoes. It sure didn’t feel like small potatoes, though.

Best song of the day: “Holiday” by Green Day. One of my favorite running songs, definitely. I hope to run next week’s long run outside also, barring any kind of shin catastrophe.

 

Eliza’s Workouts ~ Week 8, Run 2

I decided to skip the short run of the week since I took a week off last week and am trying to phase back into training with three runs this week instead of four in the effort to prevent the splintering of the shins. So I ran 4.5 miles on Tuesday and 4.5 miles today and will attempt the long run tomorrow, God help me.

Today’s run felt like it lasted 4.5 hours. I watched the embarrassing episode of Inside the Actors Studio when James Lipton had Dave Chappelle interview him for two hours. Usually (not always, but usually) only the greats of acting or directing or whatever get two hours. I don’t really want to hear James Lipton talk about how “ravenous” he was for women as a dance student compared to the gay men he studied with or how he was a pimp in Paris or how he wrote epic poetry at the age of three. That is unnecessary. Dave Chappelle tried his hardest and did a good job. The whole thing just made me uncomfortable. Best Inside the Actors Studio of late — Daniel Radcliffe. I know. I couldn’t believe it either. But he was shockingly funny & charming (Radcliffe, not Lipton, obviously), and you should check it out if you can.

The good news is that my shins didn’t bother me during the run, and they feel okay now. Hallelujah! I was so empowered by running 4.5 miles that I came home and took down all the Christmas lights I strung earlier this week because I strung them up backwards like an idiot and there was no way to plug them in. Now they are twinkling outside and are making me very happy.

Best running songs of the day — it’s a tie between “Old Fashioned Wedding” from Annie Get Your Gun and “What Would Brian Boitano Do?“

 

Eliza’s Workouts … Week “8″, Run 1

Technically, this is only week 7 for me because I entirely skipped last week. But it’s week 8 on the schedule, and to minimize confusion, I’m going to go ahead and call it week 8.

I did not run for 9 consecutive days. I threw in the towel and decided to sit out all of Thanksgiving week because my shins were killing me. As in, I’d be sitting perfectly still, and shooting pains would flame through them. It was not good. It was wonderful to skip the week of training but also horrible. I slept miserably. I felt gross. I stretched every day, but I didn’t ice. I ate my way through the week: Thanksgiving food and sweets and movie popcorn (twice) and Milk Duds and bleargh. I was ready to try again today even though I was very, very nervous.

I ran 4.5 miles on the treadmill today, and while it was slow and felt eternal, as usual, it wasn’t too terribly painful. My shins feel okay right now. I am not sure if they are “healed,” but I guess I won’t know until they start killing me again. The long run of my skipped week was 7 miles, and this week it amps up to 8, which I’m going to try to do this weekend.

What I learned after six straight weeks of training and then skipping a week is that I need to do this for my mental health as much as my physical health. I hope that the week off helped my shins, but I’m glad I did it also because it reminded me of how much better I feel when exercising and how this is something I really want to stick with.

Today’s best running song was “Don’t Know Why You Stay” by the Essex Green, which I first discovered via Sweet Juniper a few years ago, and my life has been all the better for it since.

 

Burnout

I was supposed to run 4.5 miles tonight. I didn’t go running tonight. I’m not going running tomorrow. I might running the next day after work. Or I might go see Role Models with my kid brother instead. I just don’t feel it right now. What I do feel are my shins, which still hurt. What I do feel is sick and tired of the whole process. What I do feel is still gross and out of shape as witnessed in the full-length dressing room mirror at Old F-ing Navy yesterday. I think I need to give myself Thanksgiving week to not try to bend and break every day’s schedule around the gym. Maybe this is just a temporary Case of the Mondays sort of thing. I’m not quitting, but I just need to stay home tonight, make a stir-fry, and read What I Saw and How I Lied. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes day by day.

 

Eliza’s Runs … Week 6, Run 4

I cannot believe I have made it through the first six weeks of this training schedule. Holla! Today’s “long” run called for a 5K race … I thought I might try to run 6 again but instead I decided just to run a 5K. Having the long run of the week be shorter than the mid-week runs (4 miles) was kind of weird, but I was down with it, largely because my shins still feel like someone’s been beating them with a baseball bat.

I headed to the gym this afternoon after a long day of doing schoolwork and settled in for my 3.1-mile run. I discovered a new TV show while doing this. Of course I’d heard of The Real Housewives of Orange County, but I’d never seen it (or any of the Real Housewives derivations) until today on the treadmill. OMG, how I have lived until now? It’s so terrible that it’s good. I caught what I think was the season finale (a wedding, lots of drunkenness, lots of big blonde hair, big boobs, veneers, and so forth) and a little bit of a reunion show on which it was revealed that said wedding cost between $300,000 and $500,000. Oooooooo-kay. Who are these people? Who watches this show? I don’t know. But I think I now watch this show. I swear it made me feel better about myself. That might be sick, but it’s true.

Which is just to say that I tried to focus on this show’s money and mayhem instead of the horror of my shins and my crazily slow pace and my ridiculously Hot Face. I’m glad it was on. I’m glad week six is over. I hope I’m not permanently maiming myself by continuing to run on these shins. My boyfriend is running 16 miles tomorrow and I should just stop complaining. Best running song of the day, one of my all time favorite songs in life: “The World Spins Madly On” by The Weepies.

Tonight we ate shrimp, pineapple, onion, and bell pepper pizza from the best pizza joint in town and made mint chocolate chip brownies. 10 weeks to go!

 

Eliza’s Workouts … Week 6, Run 3

I’ve decided not to run outside until my shins feel better. Maybe this is a dumb strategy, but I cannot imagine that pounding the pavement will do anything to help them. So the treadmill it is.

Last night I hit the gym for my third run of the week, a four-miler. I stretched all day long. I stretched my calves in the office bathroom. I pointed my toes and drew the letters of the alphabet in the air while I sat at my desk at work. I slung my leg backwards onto my dining room table, top of my foot pressed down onto the table top. I have done the most bizarre stretches known to man in the attempt to help these damn shins. I also took two Motrins about an hour before going to the gym and hoped for the best.

The run itself wasn’t too bad! Sure, there was some soreness, but nothing too heinous. Luckily, I had my beloved Ugly Betty to keep me company. Oh, how I love that show, even in closed captioning. I felt that season two was a bit uneven, but it’s really been hitting its stride again this year. It’s best when it focuses on the relationships between Betty and her family members and the people at work, and any episode that showcases both Justin and Mark is alright by me. This is such a funny, heartwarming, smart show.

Meanwhile, my favorite running song of the night was “So What” by Pink. I enjoy Pink. The “long” run of the week is supposed to be a 5K race, I guess to provide race practice. I am not doing that, but I might just run a 5K in order to have a little rest. Next week amps up to 7 miles … which should be interesting on a tummy full of fried turkey.

 

Eliza’s Workouts … Week 6, Run 2

And … the mid-week 2-mile run. Not too fun. At the gym in the afternoon. At least I had Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett on Oprah to keep me company. Although Brad was sporting a weird hairstyle and very unfortunate facial hair. My shins & calves hurt like m-f-ers, I cannot lie. I hope I’m not making them worse. I am stretching and icing, stretching and icing, lather, rinse, repeat. I was a wee bit nauseated while running, but I attribute that to the early Thanksgiving lunch we had at work today and the consumption of two large rice krispie treats for dessert. I don’t have much else to say about this 2-miler except I lost an earring in the locker room, went back for it later, and someone had turned it into the front desk. Which was nice. It made me feel a little better about my gym comrades after one of them expelled such foul flatulence in the treadmill region that I had to hold my towel up to my nose to avoid vomiting on the spot. I think that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button looks interesting and pretty good, although I find that movies that make me reflect upon mortality are more unwatchable the older I get. I should probably be in therapy for this reason along with many others.

 

Eliza’s Workouts … Week 6, Run 1

This morning, I woke up early to hit the gym for the first run of the week, a four-miler. The gym is such a bizarre place in the morning. I don’t feel completely awake enough to truly focus on what I’m doing or hone in on an awareness of my surroundings. It wasn’t too bad, I guess. I was able to drown out lingering shin and calf pain by focusing on Good Morning America and my tunes. Today’s winning song was definitely “Score Tonight” from Grease 2. Nothing like a little Johnny Nogerelli to motivate a person to keep running.