Ommmmm

I didn't run during the week, but that's because I went my yoga retreat and did all sorts of other exercise including yoga (of course), hiking, and well, more yoga.  And ate really amazing healthy food.  For years I've seen the Appalachian Trail where it crosses over the Mass Pike every time I go from Boston to Schenectady or Schenectady to Boston.  Well, Kripalu was like 20 miles away from the crossing.  So, I hiked the AT!  OK, 1.8 miles of it (I took a wrong turn and hiked a part of a snowmobile path as well, I'm not gonna lie), but it was hilly and there was a snow cover.  So, though I didn't run, I think I hiked about 6 miles that day (out and back on the snowmobile path, then out and back on the AT when I refound it).  And that's my excuse for not running.

Back at home today, and it's vile out, so I went to the gym.  Not the greatest run because I didn't feel like waiting the full hour and a half/two hours after eating to run.  It was a little slow d/t slight cramps.  I wound up going slightly less than 5K in 35 minutes, then I lifted weights for like 20 minutes.  The new machines are pretty cool, but they are still weight machines.  Yuck.

One thing that I did at Kripalu that was really amazing was take this cooking class.  The guy who taught it was the Executive Chef at the place, and he said that all of their recipes are like 5-8 ingredients (not counting salt, pepper, and oil, which apparently aren't ingredients, they just are)!  It really inspired me to try to make some more delicious foods.  I mean, how long can it take to mix 5-8 ingredients?  I also bought a juicer today to see if juicing would be a thing for me. I made some kale/apple/cucumber juice and I gotta say, it was pretty disgusting.  A good taste to start out, but then the after taste of dirt.  More work required.

Davis Square Cramps

I thought I had waited long enough after eating to run, but I got about 15 min into the run, and got a really really bad case of cramps.  I was actually thinking I would do a longer run, going to the bike path, through Davis, and then down the bike path a little further.  I figured I could go for a half hour out, turn around, and come back.  Only, in Davis the Evil Cramps got the better of me, and I had to walk.  I thought about lying down on the side of the road and letting them pass, but it was kind of cold and muddy, and a gal's gotta have some pride, so I just walked for about 2/3 of a mile until they finally stopped.  Then I jogged home.  Total running time was 30 min, total distance was 3.1 miles, but I walked for that big chunk of the distance, and then jogged much slower after, since I didn't want the cramps coming back.  I gotta do some google research on these cramps.  Maybe I'm dehydrated?

Tuesday I'm going on a 4 day yoga retreat in the Berkshires at Kripalu.  I'm pretty psyched about it, lots of yoga, snow shoeing (I think, or maybe hiking?), reading, eating crunchy people food, and being all zen.  Hopefully it won't be too much zen-ness for me.  Yelp reviews say that you have to buy your coffee at this cafe there, so I've already bought some Starbucks instant :)  So, I'm not going to return a total hippy chick.

First Day of Spring

Spring started today, and it was nice out! I actually left the window opened for The Cats when I went to work (a bit over optimistic on that one, but they like their bird watching weather sniffing time). It was warm and sunny out, and I thought a perfect run day. Only, when I actually got to the Charles, it turned out it was actually "warm" out, and it was really windy. So, it wound up being a kind of short run, 2.88 miles. I'm not quite sure how long it took, I think I stopped my watch at one point (waiting for a light, totally legit) and didn't start again. Anyhow, I guess it was about a half hour.

Official results from Sundays race are in. I ran a 9 min 51 sec mile! Even faster than I thought I had done. Go me :). I passed a lot of people during the race. I want to know where those people usually run, because for sure it's not on the Charles!

Ras na hEireann Year 2

I can't believe I just ran the Ras na hEireann a second time!  And, even more exciting, I finally broke the 10 min mile for a 5K race :)  And, it's not a totally flat race, there's even a hill at the end.  According to my watch I did it in 30 min and 40 sec, which is about about a 9 min 55 second mile.  So, not that I totally blew the 10 min mile out of the water, but I was pretty happy about it.  Now that I'm so much more experienced of a racer :) I knew a little more about the crowds, and pacing myself.  It was pretty crowded at the start again, but I still did the first mile in less than 10 min, and I think that's the hardest since it has a lot of uphill.  When I saw the 1 mile marker, and looked at my watch, that's when I knew I could do it!  I did a little pacing on the uphill parts, and ran a little faster on the downhill.  I got a little caught by slower (!) runners, but all and all a good run.  The last .25 mile is all down hill (after the biggest uphill though) and I was trying to sprint a little, but I couldn't that much.  So, I def used it all up.  

I'm thinking that my next run will be the Tufts 10K on Columbus Day weekend.  I mean, for sure I want to do that one, but I'm not sure about any more 5K's.  On the one hand it was nice to push myself a little here.  On the other hand, I've now done 4 5K's (not counting the Dirty Girl when I was sick) and I'm not sure if I need to keep doing them.  Maybe if I ever make some running friends I will think it's a good thing to do more of in the future....

Don't want to jinx it, but is spring coming?

Fresh Pond is rough with the cramps, or maybe it's just when I decide to run things in reverse of my usual way.  It's finally a spring-like day out today!  It's like 45 degrees out and sunny!  So, of course I decided to go for a long run.  I wanted to go on the dirt path at the end of the bike path, but of course that's covered in snow, so I wound up just going to Fresh Pond - it's right by Trader Joes and my fridge has like 5 things in it, and two of them smell funny.

I don't know who I was kidding with the long run.  I got 20 minutes into the run (and I wasn't even going fast because it was a little slushy and slippery in some places) and I got all crampy and grose feeling.  I tried to run through it, but then was like "it's so nice out, I'm still going to go 3 miles, why torture myself?" So, I walked a little more than half of it.  It was sooo nice out, and I was walking at a pretty decent pace, though I noticed that a white toy poodle with bright blue boots was still walking faster than me, so it was definitely not running.  I'm still counting it d/t effort.  Everyone should get a trophy sometimes (I guess I could be a helicopter parent).

Yesterday's Run

It's still freezing out, which is starting to grow old now that it's March, so I headed back to the gym.  I had to talk to the front desk people anyhow, because I got a new credit card, so I asked about classes.  Apparently in May or so they are going to have spinning and other classes!  Kind of cool.  Of course, IDK if I will be going to the gym in May, much nicer to go for a run outside.

Anyhow, I did the usual 30 min on the treadmill, the first 5 minutes at 5.5 mph, then up to 5.7, then 5.8, and back to 5.7 for the last 5 minutes.  Again it turned out to be 3.14 miles.  Wonder if they will get new treadmills that will have you going a different standard distance, no matter what?  I wasn't going to lift weights, but they got these new weight machines that are pretty cool - they are hydraulic or something, and there's some instability built into all of the machines that help work the little muscles (or something).  Cool.

Ice Climbing

Ice climbing was in fact utterly terrifying.  I'm glad I did it, but I think it may be one of those: ice climbing, check! types of things.  It turns out that you don't just put crampons on your regular boots (how cool is it that I wore crampons?) you have to rent boots and crampons.  The boots are plastic shell types, with a softer insert.  We wound up hiking about a mile and a half, uphill, in the snow, with a pack, in these pretty uncomfortable boots to get to the waterfall that we climbed.  I was pretty happy with my aerobic condition, because I did the hiking without any real problems, except that my feet were pretty uncomfortable.  The way out was super easy, and probably took about a third of the time.  It was really nice, the sun was setting and we could see the observatory over Mt. Washington.  But, between the hiking in uncomfortable boots and the climbing (which pretty much involved kicking ice with my feet, then hitting it with the axes) my legs were killing me!  So, I didn't run for a week after. Just went again today.

It's been cold still, and they are saying it will remain pretty cold through March.  So, I went back to the gym.  Still don't see any evidence of change there.  I did 30 min on the treadmill, starting slow at 5.5 mph, then bumped it up to 5.7, 5.8, 5.9 for about 15 min, and then 5.7 for about the last 10 minutes.  It was a little over 5K in the 35 min, but now I'm sure it always is on the treadmill.  At first my ankles and legs were really sore, but then it was like everything got back in the groove, and it was fine by the end of the run.