One Hour Runner COMPLETE!!!

If I do say so myself...What an accomplishment!

This is the actual path that I ran today.

I can't believe I actually did it. I wasn't feeling well, had a splitting headache, but I went anyway. I really wanted to finish the program this weekend so it had to be tonight. I'm not going to lie, it was tough. As a matter of fact I stopped at 51 minutes and had to walk it off, my negative..I can't make it..it's too this...I'm too that.. voice in my head before I could finish the last 9 minutes.

Here is another thing that makes it amazing. Let say you, the reader are an average sized person, 15-20 pounds give or take to what your weight should be. Now, pick up 7 sacks of potatoes and run for hour and you'd be me.

Oh and an amazing second point...after completing C25K a 9 week program and then the OHR program which was 10 weeks I didn't shed a pound. Life's a bitch huh?

So the question now becomes...what's next? I've been reading one of Runners World's books the Complete Book of Women's Running and there is an intermediate program in it that somewhat follows the same training as OHR with a few differences.

For starters it's a 16 week program instead of 10. It has 4 scheduled runs per week instead of just 3. It goes something like this:

For weeks 1-8: Each weekly run on day 1 and day 3 are always 30 min.

30, 30, 30, 35

30, 30, 30, 40

30, 35, 30, 45

30, 35, 30, 50

30, 35, 30, 55

30, 35, 30, 60

30, 40, 30, 60

30, 45, 30, 60

For the next 8 weeks you add a day, fartleks (speed play), and hills.

30, 20, 30, 30, 60

30, 20, 35, 30, 60

30, 20, 40, 30, 60

30, 20, 45, 30, 60

30, 20. 45 (middle 20 fartlek), 30, 60

30, 20, 45 with hills, 30, 60

30, 20, 45 (middle 20 fartlek), 30, 60

30, 20, 45 with hills, 30, 60

I don't know, the last 8 weeks sound serious. Am I that serious about running? What happens when summer comes again and I can barely walk in the heat let alone pull off an hour?

I think I'll end up doing a tweaked version of this. After all I'm only running 3 days a week, sometimes 4 and bumping up to 5 seems like a marriage, far too much work.

I'm also reading ChiRunning. Who knows maybe something will come of it. Stay tuned.

Hairspray

So...I go with a friend to see Hairspray. It was at a dinner theater, the food was pretty good, the dessert bar was another nail in my coffin, and then the curtain rose.

Within the first 30 seconds I was ready to walk out. Here comes this full grown woman on stage and starts singing in this whiny baby voice and the first thing I thought of is when I went to see A Street Car Named Desire and how I was ready to strangle the female lead. It took everything I had to sit through Street Car. The negativity and the constant yelling had my nerves on end and I was feeling the same thing with this chubby, chipper, leading lady.

I took a deep breath and ordered a Jack & Coke, I was going to need something to calm my nerves if I was going to make it through this play.

However much to my surprise as the play progressed I found myself not quite as annoyed as I started out. The other characters softened the blow of the whining as the story line progressed. Thank god for men in drag, nothing like it to lighten the mood. All in all the play was pretty good. I ended up much to my amazement, not even drinking the Jack and Coke at all. I've certainly come a long a way. Not a standing ovation performance but all in all an enjoyable evening with way too much sugar, in more ways than one.

I left satisfied with my commemorative Hairspray glass in hand anticipating which show I would come and see next. So...Bravo!

Veterans Day 5K Midpoint Madness 2010

Okay, here it is my second 5K of the season and guess what? My time was not as good as last time. :-( Not to make excuses but I had a real hard time breathing, I'm wondering if maybe I don't suffer from some sort of asthma or something. Sometimes I feel like I'm breathing through a cloth and I have to breath deep and cough to clear things out. Gross I know. Anyway another thing to put on my to do list, check out more info regarding asthma.

This race was run over the Midpoint Bridge, hence the madness. It was a night time race which was nice. I could see the moonlight reflecting in the water as I huffed over the bridge. At one point I had to walk for a minute and out of my mouth popped "Holy Shit". Getting over the crest of the bridge was glute burner for sure. Once I realized that I had actually expressed those words out loud I looked around to see if anyone heard my exclaim and a man about my age maybe bit younger shook his head and just said "I agree" we both gave a low effort chuckle and trudged on.

I ended up with a time of 37:18 giving me a pace of 12:01. That's 2 lousy seconds slower per mile than last time. If I wouldn't have take the time to stop and cuss I probably would have met my last time. See what happens??? That'll learn me. (said with a twang) LOL

More on the Cops & Joggers 5K 2010

I haven't been on here in awhile. Here is the scrapbook page that I made for my fist 5K of the season. Cops & Joggers. You can't really see my time but it was 37:11 giving me a 11:59 minute pace.

This was my first 5K since 2008 when I hurt my knee. It's also my first race where I ran it in under 40 minutes. Seems like a lifetime when you consider the elite runners finish in what???? 15 minutes? Oh well, at least I'm out there and hey, I broke 40 minutes and I set a new racing PR for myself of 11:59.

This race was run over a bridge as well and anyone that runs in Florida knows we don't have any hills. After this I can tell that I need to train by running over more bridges. Remind me to put that in my to do list.

Oh my ever lovin'....

ass and right knee hurt! Pardon me but I just did 3.6 miles for my One Hour Runner Week 8 Day 3. You know what that means don't you? There are only 2 weeks left before I'm supposed to be able to run for an hour. If you were to ask me right now I'd say that it's not going to happen but who knows, a lot can happen in 2 weeks. Then again if you had asked me 6 months ago I would have said you were nuts if you had any notion that I'd ever run more than 30-40 minutes...ever.

I have a couple of 5K's planned this month. It would be nice to see a new PR in at least one of the 2. I have to remember that rest is just as important as the workout and not push myself too hard in this beginning phase. Sometimes I feel like if I don't get out there for a couple days in a row that I'll give up and stop all together. I'd have to go back and check but I think just about at 6 months of running.

I started for weight loss and haven't lost anything but now it's morphing into something completely different. A challenge, and questioning myself. Like how far can a fat girl run? Can she run X amount of miles a week and still be fat? Is it all about the food and not about the exercise at all. What will be the thing that tips the scales? Who knows, maybe they won't tip at all. I'm certainly not going to starve myself as a means to an end. Besides been there done that.

OHR Week 8

I can't believe I'm on week 8 of One Hour Runner. I finished day 2 yesterday so my next run will be 49 minutes.


The thing that I need to work on is my mind. I'm slow and I know that my body will do the time but my mind is a different story.


I'm also finding that the more rural the running path is the better I like it. There is a nice park in the next town over that has several short trails and one of them is a dirt path and it's quickly becoming my favorite. It seems like I worry less about how fast or how far I have yet to go when I'm on that dirt path. I don't think about work, chores or errands that I have yet to finish, I just am. Just me and the dirt path. I'm going to have to get busy and see if I can find more places with dirt paths. There are several asphalt paths as well but those don't do the trick, they are nice but they still connect me to the city and to work and the million other things that tug at my life.


I'm definitely down with the dirt.

On another note, did I ever mention that my neighbors are rude and opportunistic? A pack of drunks and stoners (they all seem to stick together)....yee haw in the city? Self righteous, prejudiced, fist fighting, drunken brawl lovin' rednecks? Gee how did I get so lucky?

Video insert coming soon....the Halloween aftermath.