Losing :/

I was doing really well in my quest to beat my boss, but then WHAM, mega migraine on Sunday.  I call my poor sister who came and took me to the ER, this time the BI.  I believe I have had a pretty thorough tour of ER's now, and liked the BI.  Larger than Somerville, much smaller than The General, bed was reasonably comfortable.  And, they had copies of my medical records so they didn't waste time making me pee in a cup.  And, apparently when I go there my doctor calls me for a follow up.

Anyhow, end result is I did barely any steps between Sunday and Tuesday, and am now 30000 behind.  That may be hard to catch up on, unless she just sits still for 3 days.  In an effort to catch up I decided to hit the gym today.  I did a slow run, 5 mph for the first 15 min, then up to 5.5 mph for the second 15 min.  Only 2.8 miles at the end of 35 min, so I walked a little more to get 5K.  Stewart was on, really funny.  Can't wait to get back outside, thought.

You can't win all the time.  You can't win all the time....  Serious hike planning for this weekend.

First March Run

That's a little lame, it's already March 6!  Last weekend I went for a hike with this LL Bean Meet-up. It was someplace new, so that was cool.  Really big group, though.  And when we started the woman in front of me was telling this other person about her recent bladder surgery, and how hard it is on the body, even if it is orthoscopic.  That was my first clue that it was going to be a slow one....  Should have just gone to the gym, but it was so nice out!

There's still so much snow, it's hard to run outside.  The sidewalks aren't clear and the Boston drivers are crazy.  So, back to the gym.  My boss challenged me on the Steps program, and she's on vacation this week!  I should be a good employee and let her win, but I'm like obsessed with beating her.  And it's only day one of a 14 day challenge.

Anyhow, I did 30 min on the treadmill.  When I got there the treadmills were pretty full, and there was this woman running pretty fast on one of them, or so I thought.  There was a free one next to her, so I want over there, and then I realized that she was running the same pace that I do!  Hey!!  I did 20 min at 5.7 mph, then realized I could go faster, so for the last 10 min I did 5.8.  It felt good, or at least like I didn't want to die, and I wound up going 3.1 plus a little miles, so I felt good about it.  I think I'm getting my aerobic conditioning back.

Winter again

That was a short reprieve.  It's totally winter again, there were snow flurries today, and we got an inch or two of snow yesterday.  Now everyone's numb to it.  It's like, whatever, an inch or two.  Can't scare me!  Traffic is still a nightmare, I'm starting to feel like I will always spend two hours a day in my car.  On the weekend I don't even want to go anywhere.  I have two meet ups planned for this weekend though, gonna try for some snow shoeing again Saturday, and Chinese New Year and Dim Sum Sunday.  It's the year of the Goat.  Mmmm, goat.

I went to the gym again today, it's actually worth the membership this year!  30 minutes on the treadmill.  Happily, The Daily Show was on for the first 22 minutes, so at least that was funny.  But then there were still 8 minutes after it was over, and I wound up watching the Weather channel, which isn't as riveting as it sounds.  There was a woman two treadmills down who I kind of hate.  I was going 5.7 mph and dying, she was going 7.5 mph and talking on the phone.  I bet she kicks puppies and doesn't recycle.

Anyhow, I went the usual 5K in 35 min.  I got my new Fitbit, and it buzzed while I was on the treadmill.  I realized that I get more points for wearing the Max Pedometer from work, so I'm all double pedometered for running.  It ruins the line of my outfit, but whatever.  I can be bribed for cash!

Spring Like!

It's a balmy 40 degrees out, everyone was outside at the Charles running.  There were a couple people (guys of course) in shorts.  Brrr, not me.  I had my patagonia ninja hoodie (with the hood down - convertible style!) and my Athleta lined pants.  Just perfect.  The Boston side of the river was a little soggy in a few places, but the Cambridge side was a mess!  Totally snowy, I mean, there was a woman cross country skiing.  I started to get worried that it was a little too much like trail running and I might hurt my ankle, so I wound up walking for most of the way on that side.  I admit I enjoyed it, but it's the short side of the river, so it wasn't that far. In total I think I went about 5K, I wound up walking about 3/4 of a mile of that, but totally legit.

I've been working on this killer literature review for this class I'm taking.  Yesterday I finished the bulk of the body of the thing, so it now just needs a little fiddly work done on it. So, it will stop taking over my weekends, and just be something I work on a little every day.  For a Puff D, it's a lot of work!

Post Blizzard #2

Blizzard #2 was pretty tame.  Only like a foot of snow, just really windy.  Now is too cold out to be running outside, it's like -6 F which is just cold.  I shoveled my car yesterday when it was warmer out (16 F ish) and I wasn't really cold at all.  Of course, I wore my Patagonia Ninja Hoodie, that's probably why :)  We're expecting more snow tomorrow, 4-7 inches I've heard.  I have 14 appointments scheduled at work tomorrow, so I actually hope that we won't be closed.  Too much rescheduling!

I was getting a little cabin fever topped with tired-of-writing-paper-itis today, so I had to get out!  I decided to test the tendon and go for a run again, just a few days after the last one.  It was a pretty good run!  30 minutes, I started at 5.5 mph for 2 minutes, then bumped it up to 5.7 for a while, then up to 5.8 for the rest of the run. Total distance 3.17 miles, so a little more than 5K.  It was immensely boring, of course.  I got rid of cable at home, so it should be cool to watch on the treadmill.  But all they have is news and reality TV.  I felt really good running for most of it, nothing hurt and aerobically it felt good.  Of course, the last 5 minutes I was still just dying for it to end.

5K!

Snow snow snow.  I was listening to the weather report (as I was sitting in traffic) and it was "snow tonight, just a dusting. Tomorrow, more snow."  There's supposed to be another blizzard on Sunday, which will be the first time in like 50 years that there have been two blizzards in one winter here!  We're up to like 6 feet of snow, and all since the end of January!!

I've seen some intrepid souls out running, but I think they are nuts. The sidewalks aren't all clear and drivers are so cranky.  It's hazardous, and slow.   

I went to the gym today, and I was pretty psyched because I finally ran for a full 30 minutes again.  I started at 5.0 mph for a minute, bumped it up to 5.5 for four more, and then up to 5.7 for the rest of the run.  It was seriously boring, and a little tiring, but my tendon didn't hurt and I did ok aerobically. I didn't really want to run any faster, but I was fine at that speed.  Yay!

I'm planning to go snow shoeing on Sat morning before the next big storm.  Good way to get some exercise, and way more fun than the treadmill.

It's Winter

It's been storm central here.  There's so much snow, no one knows where to put it!  The city has "snow farms" where they are driving truck loads of snow to melt.  Crazy!  On the bright side, I got one snow day this week and two last week, which was pretty awesome.  And, I only have to uncover my car, which isn't that much shoveling.  The dark side has been the traffic.  Today I got in my car at work at 5:23 and at 6:00 I was still about 2 blocks from Northeastern.

Anyhow, with the snow and ice and freezing cold (it was -2 last night!) it's been impossible to run outside, even with my ninja wear.  I did go snow shoeing for an hour in the Fells last weekend, which was pretty awesome.  And I went to the gym last weekend and spent an hour on the elliptical, which was beyond boring.  Today I decided to hit the gym again, and run!

It was tough.  I started at 5.5 mph for 5 min, then bumped it up to 5.7 for about 20 min, then I had to go back down to 5.5 again.  Then I slowed to a walk at 28 minutes.  Total time on the treadmill, 30 minutes, total distance 2.58 miles.  Which proves that it's not always 5K on the treadmill.  It was hard.  I've clearly lost some aerobic conditioning.

I iced my tendon and my right  IT band as soon as I got home.  Right now it feels ok.  But maybe I'll ice again before bed.