5k on the brain

deciding i needed to give my poor defenseless shins a rest, and wanting to break away from the monotony of starting my blogs with olie whining at 5 am, aj and i decided to take friday morning off. we thought it would be more beneficial to cross-train that evening and save our last two runs of the week for saturday and sunday.

cross-training has been both enjoyable and entertaining the past few days. to our amusement we have been inadvertently working out with this kid named andrew. my guess is that andrew is in the seventh grade, about 4'9" and sitting pretty at 85 pounds. to paint you an even more vivid picture he looks like he'd be the default kid casted as "boy number 2" in a diary of anne frank remake. i'm sure this poor kid gets made fun of enough at school, so i really do not plan on jumping on the bandwagon, but he is quite interesting to watch.

yesterday andrew came into the workout room with another pubescent and equally awkward kid. apparently andrew had been raving about the 60 pounds he could now curl and wanted to show off to said pal. you see, normally i am the person who roots for the underdog. normally i would take one look at andrew and applaud him for all of his efforts. you can tell that inside his tiny frame he is just dying to be like some of the boys at his school that are starting to fill-out and come into their manhood. poor andrew is far from filling anything out.. except maybe a scantron test in seventh grade social studies. i'm sure he'd excel at that.

but anyway, i am digressing from digression. i really have no moral of the story with andrew. he is fun to watch when he makes fish-faces while doing lateral pull-downs and i just thought he deserved a cameo in here somewhere. (i'm hoping he'll become a regular.)

today aj and i slept in. we woke up to the sun shinning in though our window and the wind crashing into the side of our building. i took olie outside to see that it was a beautiful and sunny 46˚ day with some frightening 37 mph gusting winds. we got all wrapped up to protect ourselves from the wind and set out for a 5k run. my shins where doing pretty good, even though there was some pain on impact here and there when i started. as i continued on, the pain got a little more intense and breathing became an issue as well.

over a year ago i was having a lot of chest pains and breathing problems. i went to the doctor and she told me that she did not want to declare me asthmatic, but that i did breath like someone with asthma. she put me on medication and the problem started to go away. feeling like i didn't want to be on medication forever i chose to stop inhaling steroids and the breathing problems never returned. i don't think that i have any kind of breathing problem and i know i don't have asthma. i think that my lungs just aren't as strong as they could be, and through all of this training i feel like they are getting stronger everyday. the natural way.

with that in mind while i was running, i knew i was not going to have an asthma attack or keel over from lack of oxygen into my lungs so i kept pushing. i realized early on that it is just more difficult to breath when the wind is smacking you in the face at over 30 miles per hour. i really tried to focus on a rhythm to my breathing and it seemed to help. in addition to the pain in my shins and the difficulty breathing, the mucus in my face was going nuts! i always try to throw a napkin or two in my hoodie pocket before a run and luckily today was one of the days i remembered it! every time i slowed down to catch my breath i blew my nose and spit out the incredibly thick funk in my mouth. nice imagery, i know, but it's what helped me keep going.

i altered my route today so that i did not have to run the cal de sac with the hill, and i tried to not run directly into the wind too much either. running into the wind is pretty much like trying to swim in chocolate pudding. it might feel a little refreshing, but you get nowhere.

as the man in my ipod starting counting down the kilometers i tried to not walk too much, despite the fact a kilometer means nothing to me. as i closed in on 800 meters left i got a sudden burst of energy. i had just passed aj a block back and i had really expected him to finish his 5k hours before me. i had to keep running. making a turn around a small cal de sac and into the wind, i knew my final stretch was going to be a struggle. i passed a kid on a bike who looked like he'd never seen a person run for fun before in his life, but luckily he knew some runner/biker sidewalk etiquette and gracefully peddled in the grass giving me ample room to pass. at that moment the man in my ipod congratulated me on completing my goal of running 5k and i abruptly cut him off by ending the workout. i generally leave my ipod on during my walking cool-down just to have the added milage, but this time i was very focused on short run time and a quick average pace.

i headed back to the apartment and saw aj still standing outside. i waved my arms at him from a distance and he started heading towards me. seeing that he was not huffing and puffing like i was i knew he had finished before me but the fact he was still outside made me feel great. maybe i had actually finished with a pretty good time. we walked over to the sauna and shared our experience with the 5k and our results. aj had finished in 31 minutes, cutting 40 seconds off of his last 5k! i, amazingly, only finished about 4 minutes behind aj at 35 minutes! i couldn't believe it.

while i didn't run the entire thing, i am very confident that i will be able to run the entire 5k we just signed up for on march 15!!! (yes, that was worthy of three exclamation points!) this will be our first official race and we are very excited! we are going to continue to run four times per week and cross-train as often as we can find time for. come race day we are going to be fit and ready!

springtime for hitler*

as my eyes struggled to open, i heard olie softly whimpering from his cage. he usually sleeps in bed with us, but after cleaning the apartment last night he was curled up in his cage like a little meatball and was too cute to wake up. now, at 5 am, he realized he had slept through the night in his cage instead of the comfort of our bed and was not very happy. i got up, blindly fumbled to open his cage, then placed him in bed with us. he quickly ran up to the top of the bed to curl up next to aj's head with just enough room for me. the perfect leslie/olie/aj sandwich in his dog eyes. getting situated, he began licking himself (which is always the sound i want to fall back asleep to), then, with all the excitement of getting in bed with us he realized he needed to go outside. he got up and climbed over me as clumsily as possible, then back again, and then on to the foot of the bed. yes folks, we had a sleep walker on on hands. so i got up.

olie and i stood outside as the 55˚ breeze swirled around me, lifting my crazy black bedhair to the sky. it was unseasonably warm and olie thought it would be a good time to run around like a rabid dog. i tried to calm him as we went back into the apartment but he wasn't having it. i looked at the clock and it was already 5:24 am. only six minutes until the alarm was going to go off and alert me that it was time for my morning run. i laid back down in an attempt to enjoy the few minutes i had left on the clock. olie soon realized running around like a chicken with it's head cut off at 5 in the morning was not so fun alone. he joined aj and i in bed and we all fit back together like perfect puzzle pieces. that is until the alarm went off only moments later.

just a few months ago i would have hit snooze and gone back to sleep.. but now, having finally learned to get up like a big girl at the age of 24, i put my alarm clock on the floor far away from the bed. i have to get up. i cannot stand the sound of an alarm clock that does not have a radio option. the beeping makes my ears bleed. seriously. i popped out of the bed, turned the damn thing off, flipped on the lights and sat on the edge of the bed to pet olie and started to wake aj up. after convincing me that olie was in fact the queen of france, i got aj out of bed. mission accomplished.

as i got dressed i was excited to get back outside. i generally just get mad at pseudo-springtime, but this time i was happy and very interested to see what running in warmer weather would feel like. so, i left the apartment a few minutes before aj because of the excitement but mostly because the man in my ipod was telling me i needed to begin my workout. i don't want to disappoint the man in the ipod. i stepped outside to see a number of people leaving for work, hit the center button of my ipod to begin my run and i was off.

rounding a curve in the first stretch of my run i thought i felt a raindrop hit my hand. between my running pants, hoodie, bandana and hat, my hands are pretty much the only part of my body that are exposed. i started to look up and around to see if it had actually started raining or if i had made it all up. after a few more drops hit my hands i realized it was sprinkling. the air was fresh and the small amount of moisture was rather refreshing. i reached my five minute mark, and remembering my blog from yesterday, i decided to keep running instead of walking yet. i looked up to the clouds and at that very moment and a large streak of lightening fell from the sky right over my head. the sudden flash blinded me and it took a moment for my eyes to readjust back to the black of the early morning. i waited to hear the thunder that followed but couldn't hear much over isaac brock singing in my ears, "early, early in the morning; it pulls all on down my sore feet; i wanna go back to sleep." not today isaac, not today. i was running past my five minutes and kept going. i knew i was going to have an amazing run.

i entered a small cal de sac with about five houses on it and very wooded. the rain was starting to pick up and running under the pines had a unique and comforting feel to it. very east coast feeling. i realized i was still running as i passed small landmarks that i generally began to walk at. the cool rain helped keep me going, and besides, i just couldn't justify walking in the rain. getting back out on to the main road the storm overhead got vicious and i felt like i was standing under niagara falls. i couldn't believe it. my feet were completely soaked and i started to worry that the nike+ sensor  in the bottom of my left shoe might drown. with a few more bashes of lightening and a flash flood that was rising to my ankles, i unfortunately decided to run back to the apartment.

once the entrance of my building was insight, i could see aj standing outside scanning the streets and parking lots looking for me. we made eye contact and i motioned for him to meet me in the sauna. at that same moment the man in my ipod told me i had completed ten minutes.

ten minutes!

i have not run for ten consecutive minutes ever. well, ok, there was this small moment in time.. many, many years after the time i tried skipping instead of running in gym class. i was throwing around the idea of joining the air force and a friend told me that in basic training you needed to be able to run two miles in 18 minutes. 18 minutes? i did the math and realized that was two back-to-back nine minute miles. i decided i needed to condition myself and started running on the treadmills at the gym i had just joined. i was doing 12-something miles. i quickly realized the air force was not for me.

in the dryness of the sauna, aj and i talked about our brief jog in the rain. since i had left before him he had only gone a few minutes before noah came cruising by on his arch. i, on the other hand, had gone for 10:36 without walking a single step of it! i was so mad that that bitch mother nature decided her stupid plants and trees needed a drink.. i mean i was having an amazing run! defeated, i decided it wasn't the end of the world and if i had done it once that i could do it again. after trying to dry ourselves aj and i returned home and decided if it wasn't too wet out when we got off work that we would start our run over in the evening. the overly enthusiastic weather gal promised the rain would let up, so i was going to believe her.

even though this run was small, i am still posting it in here proudly. and if molly mcweather was telling the truth this morning i will post the results of my real 35 minute run later on tonight.

*attention: the title "springtime for hitler" is by no means an anti-semitic statement. whenever the weather reaches spring-like temperatures i always refer to it in this manner, referencing the fictional play from the producers. so, if you didn't get it or were offended by it, please, go obtain a sense of humor or go see the play and/or movie. it's really very good. even in the nosebleeds.

two for one special

sometimes it is hard to get to a computer to blog with the craziness that the weekend brings, but it is never too hard to get out and run. because of the weather, aj and i swopped friday's run for saturday and had a full weekend of training.

for saturday we had 40 minutes of running scheduled. as aj and i were getting dressed and setting our ipods, i realized mine was dead. completely dead. needless to say, i had to sit and wait for it to charge enough for 40+ minutes of running. i told aj to go ahead without me. as he left, i went and plugged my ipod into my computer and sat down to read a new book i had just purchased the day before. our dog, olie, was more than excited that i had not left like aj had and decided we needed to have some quality puppy play time. after a few attempts to start a game of fetch and some whining/crying, he realized that i was pretty involved in my newly started book and he accepted the fact that i was not going to throw his tattered rope or disgusting pig ear he kept sitting on my leg. defeated, he tried to finagle his little body somewhere in between me and my book. you see, olie is not the most graceful of dogs and ended up sitting on my new paperback book.

i only got through one chapter that day.

i continued to busy myself by creating a new playlist for my run and surfing the web. i had finally had enough of sitting around and hoped that my ipod was charged enough. i feared it dying in the middle of my run and losing my running progress, but olie was still antsy and i wanted to get out of the apartment. i put him in his cage, tied my shoes and was on my way.

i started my run and by the time the man in my ipod told me i had completed five minutes already, i realized i had ran every step of it. it was then that i started walking. i don't think i had run for five minutes solid since right before the time in middle school when i thought i was "beating the system" by skipping when we were running laps in gym class. little did i know then it takes way more energy to skip than it does to run. with that knowledge, i have not been skipping during our training.. but once from a distance, it looked like aj may have been. he has heard the skipping story before. maybe he was trying it on for size.

once i reached the 35 minute mark i felt like i was beginning to experience a runner's high. the setting sun's rays were spilling through the trees on the horizon and ever so softly warming my cheeks. the wind blew gentle, effortlessly helping me along the way. and on top of all that, matt pryor was serenading me with every step, "our boats collide, we'd feel the breeze; we'd stay afloat and make the most of everything." it was truly a beautiful moment.

i took a turn at the next intersection and made my way down a medium grade hill. the hill ended in a cul de sac and i knew i'd have to make my way back up it on the other side. i was still feeling my high and decided i could handle a little hill. on my way back up to the top i felt so accomplished i couldn't help but to smile. (bear with me.. i'm not getting sappy on you, i am building to a good story here.)

as i kept running i saw some bikers approaching me. they were two guys around my age in pretty good shape. by the aerodynamic-ness of their helmets i assumed they were some fellow fitness fans and was happy to see others out being healthy. i felt somewhat of a camaraderie as we were about to cross paths. i felt like i wanted to do a low wave to them.. you know, the type of wave one harley rider gives to another harley rider when passing on the road? when we were side by side i smiled and saw the one closest to me had began to say something. hot damn they think i'm cool i thought.. i bet they want to compliment me on my form! or ask what i'm training for! or tell me they respect running because it is so much more difficult than riding a bike!

"how's your run going?" guy number one asks. "great!" i replied ready to have a mini conversation about how cool fitness is. guy number one then pulled his bag around from his back and reached in as guy number two watched intently. "would you like to talk about christ or watch this video about or lord and savior?"

what the hell?

completely taken back, and bummed they didn't want to talk about fitness i replied more breathy than the first time, "no, i can't, i'm sorry.. i can't let my heart rate go down."

i promptly put my right earphone back around my ear and ran in the other direction at a faster pace than i had gone yet. (you can actually see the peak in my run near the end.) mormons. who knew?

it was right around that time that the man in my ipod told me that my run was complete. i did a short cool down walk and made my way to the sauna. as i approached the sauna door i could hear that someone was in there and hoped it was aj to save me from the mormons. instead it was an older asian lady i had not seen in the gym before. i asked if there was room for me and she gladly invited me in with a heavy accent. i laid down and lifted my leg to the ceiling and started stretching. "een mi cousty we haav biiig saunas an noone lee down causs dey dieee!" she told me. "haa old aar yuu?" it was a good thing i had actually thought about my age this morning because at the moment i had almost forgotten. "i'm just about to turn 25." "ahhhhhh, yuu juss a bebeee." we continued talking and i caught what i could through her accent. she complained about her water bill being too high and right when it got to the point where we were talking a little too much after a 40 minute run, the timer went off and i was out of there.

i came home to find aj in the office and he wanted to know all about my run. apparently he had also had a run in with the mormons, but he knew better than to give them eye contact. i guess i'll know better next time.. or so i thought!

(to get that joke you should probably keep reading on to sunday's run, which i promise will be much shorter.)

after saturday's run aj and i felt great. we were not sore and were actually very excited to get out on the sidewalk. we had 45 minutes scheduled for our run and headed out the door a little before 5 pm. i started the run much like i had the day before. in no time the man in my ipod told me i had completed five minutes, and again after hearing that i started walking. tomorrow i swear i'll keep running.

i finally decided to run out on the main road after much discussion with aj a few days before. we scoped it out while driving and saw that there was only a small stretch of sidewalk that was not finished. maybe five or six feet. as i ran down the first stretch of road i could smell chicken wings as i passed golden coral. i am not a big fan of this particular restaurant but it had been a while since i had eaten and it got my stomach going. further down the road, after making a turn i passed a car wash and the small was horrendous! it smelled like wet trash and what i would think the dirty snow on the side of the road in the winter would smell like. there were a few sweet undertones here and there but overall it was pretty raunchy. rounding my last turn and passing what i assumed was a lot of super bowl traffic i sucked up an unhealthy amount of fumes and decided that this route was not a good route to take. i was pissed and so was my nose. (apparently you are much more sensitive to scents when you run than any other time.)

i made my way back around to the comforts of my complex and breathed in the sweet smells that it holds. i swear everyone was doing laundry because i could smell dryer sheets galore. after walking a bit to enjoy the bounty fresh goodness i started to pick my speed back up. i began approaching a woman with two large boxers and a four year old. i am sure her dogs are lovely and well trained, but i didn't want to run by them and find out. i crossed the street to the vacancy on the other side of the road. to my surprise she followed. all i could picture in my head was blood, guts and disembowelment. at that time i heard the sound of about a half dozen ambulances speeding down the main road a block back. at least if i get attacked i know medical help is not too far off. as i neared the woman and her 3 foot companions i smiled and i could tell the small boy was trying to tell me something. not wanting to be rude, and thinking they could possibly be lost i pulled my right earphone off to hear what they had to say. the woman seemed embarrassed that her son had made me stop running as she rolled her eyes at him. she kindly apologized and said that he just wanted to know if i had heard the ambulances too.

next time i will be sure to not make eye contact with anyone. no bikers. no kids. not even aj. (sorry aj.)