Sunday, April 22, 2007

All running and no food makes Aimee a tired girl

I guess the point should be made that it wasn't my intention to not eat until 5 o'clock last night, it just sort of happened.

I got up in the morning to check on hedgie before heading to my soccer game. Had everything gone well, I intended to stop and grab a granola bar on my way to the field. Can you guess how things went? Right. Ms. Zelda was trying to hibernate again so the time I'd alloted to stopping for snacks had to be reassigned to making Zelda better. I felt really bad about leaving her to go to my soccer game, but she seemed to be in better spirits and moving around, so I figured I'd be in the clear.

It was during the soccer game, I think right after I got clocked in the jaw (it was a complete accident, but it still sucks) that I realized how light headed I was. This was a little strange. I mean, I've been sick, but I've been feeling better. That's when I realized that I hadn't eaten anything all day. However, I didn't want to let my team down, so I played most of the full 90 minutes trying not to show my obvious fatigue.

After the game, I hit the gym for a quick jog of 4 miles before heading back to Paul's to check on Zelda. She was doing much better. I sat down and got some work done and before I knew it, it was time to get going to the movies.

Driving to the movies I was once again reminded that I hadn't eaten. Luckily the theatre is right next to the Farmer's Market, so I grabbed a quick bit before heading to meet the ladies.

Moral of the story: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because you never know when you're going to remember to eat again.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Mission Accomplished!

So it took a lot of energy, but I just cranked out 9 miles and I feel fine. This is a great load off cause I was nervous that all this slacking would make me a bad team member. I think as long as nothing else goes wrong (fingers crossed) and I buckle down I'll do fine.

Sweetness!

Blisters + virus + more blisters = Aimee really worried she's not going to be ready for Wild Miles

I thought I was in the clear after the sushi passed, but there were more plans up the pipe. Plans I do not care for. Friday morning, I walked home from my boyfriend's house. It's a really nice walk, probably 2.5 miles. No problem. However, my sandals, which for 2 years have fit perfectly, decided that they didn't want to fit right anymore. The result, these strange cresent moon shaped blisters on the back sole of my foot.

Don't get me wrong, I love blisters. I love popping them. I love it. In my next life, I'm going to be a dermatologist cause blisters and pimples are fascinating in my book. But these blisters were different. They were placed in such a fashion that I could barely walk without excruciating pain. Every step I'd press down on them and they were on fire.

After they'd gone down a little, I was ready to get back to a run on Sunday but I caught a virus. My temperature was a chilly 94.7 degrees and my body ached. My head was swimming. All I did all Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was sleep.

Needless to say, when I woke up Wednesday, I was pumped that I felt better. I had a job interview and I was packed and ready to go running after. That plan got dereailed when the shoes I was wearing cut up my feet/ heels to the point where there was blood everywhere. Thank God, I wore pants. I would have felt like a complete ass if I'd worn a skirt and the back of my legs were stained red. Yesterday the blisters were still to painful to touch. Today however is a new day.

I've got some hard core running planned for the rest of this week and the upcoming week. There's a lot of lost time to be made up. I just hope I'm ready for the race.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Crave the pain was a way better name

So this weekend felt good, until... and there's always an until isn't there? But let's start with the good.

As expected, I was dragging on Saturday morning. We didn't get home from the movies until 1:30. Waking up the next morning at 7:00 was not my idea of fun. However, soccer is my idea of fun, so everything evened out. It was a hard fought battle, but we ended up losing 1-0. We had so many opportunities but couldn't convert. That's always so frustrating.

After soccer I hightailed it over to the gym to put in my am run. 4 miles at 6.7 mph. I'm happy with my speed thus far, but I want to keep pushing to go a little faster. In the evening, I squeezed in 3 more miles just running around the neighborhood, it was sweet. Then there was much sleep to be had. Hoo-ray!

Oh, also, I guess it was Friday, Paul signed up to be one of our Wild Miles volunteers. He's requested to be on one of the legs I'm running. It will be nice to have his beautiful face greet me. He's already talking about how he's going to trash talk the other runners. That's all in the spirit of things. In other Wild Miles news, they posted leg maps. That's nice so we can familiarize ourselves with them. They keep switching up the length of the legs though which makes things a little difficult. I think I've gained two miles. It will be a blast though. I get to use my headlamp for christ sakes!

So anyway, Sunday I got up and put in my 4 miles in the morning again. It was a nice relaxing run as the gym was pretty empty for the Easter celebration (in LA, go figure). But I'll be damned if they don't keep running ads for this Enviga sports drink. I'm not buying it, both in the sense of I don't buy it's claim nor will I actually pay money for it. Here's an idea. You want to burn calories, you're at the gym. Take a lap!

Then Paul and I put ina good hour of tennis. I really love tennis. It's a great stress reliever, plus I like that it's an activity that Paul and I both enjoy. Paul HATES running. I've tried to get him to run with me a few times, but he has ankle and knee issues not to mention our good friend gout. So, I don't bother him anymore.

On the way home after tennis I noticed a billboard on Fairfax of a guy wrapped in the insulating blanket. It's clearly a runner who's finished a marathon. In the bottom corner, tiny as can be, it says cravethepain.com. Crave the Pain? Now that's a website for me. I was disappointed though when I got home and cravethepain.com is acutally goruneasy.com. I was certainly mislead. The name however, was my only disappointment. It's a Reebok sponsored website (similar to the Nike Top 20 on myspace) that allows people to post favorite runs in their area. I love resources like this. You have my thumbs up.

You know what doesn't have my thumbs up? Me. I made a poor dinner choice last night of Supermarket Sushi and I PAID for it, both in the financially and painful gassy way. Damn, I thought I was going to have an alien shaped like a spicy california roll jump forth from my midsection last night. Today was equally as bad. I've been nursing some saltines and gingerale but I haven't felt good enough to go for a run. I haven't felt good enough to leave this couch. Thank god for The Amazing Race, Heroes and South Park. Delightful.

Happy running to everyone else.

Friday, April 06, 2007

The plan is working

So, I stuck to my guns and did 3 mile runs in the morning and evening both yesterday and today. Go me!

Tomorrow's morning run will be a little harder as I'm seeing a 10:40 (already way past my bedtime) showing of "300." Then I have soccer at 8 am on Saturday. There will most definitely be a nap in my future.

Also, I got my laptop back! It only cost me $700! Happy Day!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Cha-cha-cha-changes

One this mornings' run (yeah!) I started rethinking the training regimen that I had created for myself for Wild Miles and realized that it may have been a little ambitious. I think that I was trying to change too many things about my workouts (locations, number, etc.) that it became a little intimidating. So, now I'm going to dumb it down.

The new plan is still two a days (I think it's important that I get used to running twice a day as I have two legs on Saturday) however, I'm going to start with fewer miles and concentrate on building speed. I'm starting out with 3 mile runs in the morning and afternoon. Every other day, I'm going to add a mile to one of the runs. We'll see how that works out.

You'll soon discover that I'm wonderful at making plans, but not so wonderful at following through. I hope that changes. I'm like the car rental company in that episode of "Seinfeld." I know how to take the reservation, I just don't know how to hold the reservation.

Heroes will be the death of me.

Where have I been? Damn, I wish I had some fun exciting explanation, but I have been tied to my computer watching NBC's Heroes. Seriuosly. I haven't run in about a week cause I've spent all my free time watching this show. It has a hold on me. But, I must break free.

If you don't hear from me by this afternoon, call the power company and tell them to shut me off. It's for my own good.