personal record?

no not in terms of running times, but in terms of going soda free. I've survived the entire week thus far sans soda. can I get through an entire saturday as well? it will be tough as I'm going to spend the day at my sister's and she has many varieties of soda on hand. hmmm. but I'm so close to my first entire week, yes seven whole days, without the carbonation this year and probably in a couple years (but I wasn't keeping track before). where's the can of will power?

loser

I want to be a loser - of at least 15 more pounds that is . I'm getting fed up. Maybe that's a good thing and I'll stop eating so stinking much. Is it practical to try to lose 10 lbs in 3 weeks? I'm planning on going to the beach for vacation in basically three weeks and I'd really like to be sans the roll around the middle.

sigh

feeling a bit discouraged today with my perceived lack of progress towards more fitness and less weight. maybe I'm just tired, but everyday seems like a fight with my food cravings and the results are not readily visible. on the other hand, I have lost a little and I'm not putting it back on, and perhaps the biggest victory for today is that despite my low mood I have not sought comfort in carbonated fluids. I'm aiming for a solid week without soda - we shall see.

oh, and the race...

was really good (for me). I had hoped to run about a 12 minute mile pace and in fact finished quite close to that goal. I ran the first 3 miles non-stop in around 33 minutes. the fourth mile, I alternated walking up the hills and jogging downhill. I managed to run the final mile completely albeit slowly. given my lack of consistent exercise (who am I kidding - I haven't even had inconsistent exercise), just finishing the 5 mile course was an accomplishment.

arrival

new york city is roughly a two hour trip for me and I had planned to get to the race about an hour before the start of last saturday's race; however, I left home 20 minutes late and after speeding to make up some time (which I did in fact do), I hit traffic. I actually think it's fun to drive around downtown manhattan and elsewhere in nyc, but the getting into and out of new york city is a royal pain in the arse. some accident on the George Washington bridge going into the city had completely stopped out bound traffic and slowed to a crawl, traffic heading into town. I was dressed comfortably for the drive and had my running clothes in a bag. when the traffic slowed to stop and go, what should have been 10 minutes from my destination, I knew I was going to be cutting it close. there wasn't going to be time for the planned change of attire in a port-a-john at the race site. on to plan B. not that I had actually thought of a plan B, because I really hadn't considered the possibility of needing one. but one was created and I began the process of changing clothes while driving. so as I'm stopping and going with traffic - off with the flip-flops, on with the socks. off with the pants and underwear, on with the running underwear and shorts. and then the running shoes. I just kept hoping someone in a large truck or suv wasn't going to pull up beside me and look down at the show. yes, changing while driving is a tricky feat, but let me add that I drive a standard. this means every time you come to a stop both feet must be on pedals and can not be removed without using some combination of putting the vehicle in neutral and applying the parking brake (and hoping you can get your foot through whatever opening of clothing before traffic starts moving again). before I could even consider trying to change from the waist up, I was through the slow down and hurrying on my way. I parked my car half a block from the park on E 102nd st, did a quick glance around for meandering pedestrians, threw off my top, threw on a sports bra and running shirt, ran from my car to the registration table at a faster pace than I planned for the actual race, grabbed my race number, race t-shirt, and chip timer, ran to the port-a-john (too much gatorade consumption during the drive), ran to the race start, and hurriedly attached the number to my clothing and the chip to my shoe. I usually would have returned to my vehicle before the start of the race to leave my race t-shirt, but had I had the time to return to my car, I wouldn't have needed to change in the car, so the race t-shirt was still in hand. the idea of wearing two t-shirts just seemed too hot and the race t-shirt seemed too heavy/big to carry, so I stripped down to my sports bra (I think I exposed myself more on this trip than I previously have in my entire life) and replaced my running shirt with the race t-shirt. my running shirt was much lighter, made of much less material and hence, easier to carry. when all was said and done, I had an actual 4 minutes to catch my breath before the starting horn went off. *whew*

finished

as in- I finished the 5 mile race in Central Park today. Big hurray. Nearly missed the start, ran carrying an extra shirt (not planned), and hurt more at the end than I cared to be, but I finished. more info to come as I am eager to detail my eventful day, but right now I'm beat.

avoiding responsibility

I'm passing the blame for poor diet onto my pursuit of higher education. The Starbuck's hot chocolate with the Dr. Pepper chaser are essential ingredients to the all-nighter required by an overdue empirical research critique. (the fact that I could go to bed sooner if I refrained from blogging this evening or if I hadn't procrastinated doing the paper in the first place is completely irrelevant) Oh, denial is such an emotionally useful tool. Doesn't do a doggone thing for the waistline though...

registered

guess I'm now committed - to saturday's race that is. finally went online and paid my registration fee for the race. I've participated in probably 50 different road races over the past few years and as far as I can remember, there is only one race I backed out of after I had paid the entrance fee. so the odds are I'll be running 5 miles on saturday. I'm going to try not to think too much about the fact that I haven't run a total of 5 miles in the past month, forget about on one day.

saturday repeat

saturday I went and ran the same roads I did the previous saturday. this time I ran a few minutes longer (and a bit farther). I'm a little concerned about the fact that I'm planning on participating in a 5 mile race this saturday coming up, seeing that I haven't run 5 consecutive miles since the first weekend in April. however, the idea of having gone on some kind of a run three saturdays in a row leaves me smiling. I just might get back into shape yet.

PMS

the monthly trial of millions of women is a great excuse for my horrible diet this week. went through the drive-thru today and got fries, a cheeseburger and caffeinated soda. a few weeks ago this would not have been unusual, but the past couple weeks if I've caved to drive-thru enticings, I have managed to only have one item of questionable dietary value. I've heard "relapse is a part of recovery". *sigh* guess I won't beat myself up over today's eating, but if I'm not careful the very few hard fought pounds I've lost will be right back with me shortly.
on a positive note, I'm now in week three of consistently doing push-ups. should be a habit soon, right? Being able to do 10 push-ups is somehow comforting being a double digit and all. Yes, that's only three more than three weeks ago, but it's still 1-0, ten. I've gotta grab a sense of accomplishment where I can ;)

back on the wagon

jeepers, this soda thing is baaad. three different times today I wanted a soda and had to convince myself to stay away. I'm safely home now with no soda on the premises, so I think I'll have a soda-free day under my belt for this week. I sure hope tomorrow is easier.

weekend run

went to a favorite country vacation spot of mine this weekend. saturday morning I got up and of all things, went for a run. look out, that's two runs in the same week. I'd better be careful before I become obsessive ;) ran for approximately 30 minutes, 25 of which was on a nice quiet, scenic, traffic-free dirt road. and to add to the accomplishments of last week, I managed to go six consecutive days without drinking a single ounce of soda. of course, I blew that accomplishment to shreds with my abundant soda consumption on saturday and Sunday, but hope is on the horizon. If I did it one week, I can do it again a second week.

day number five

five consecutive days without soda - dude. will I make it six? uh, beginning the weekend, ummm, no - don't think so.

sick day

I don't particularly care for being sick, but I really enjoy the fact that I can stay home when sick and still get paid. I was going to force myself to do push-ups today regardless of how I feel, but when walking up the set of stairs (1/2 a flight) to my apartment felt like an hour long workout in high altitude, I decided physical exertion beyond the essentially necessary was not recommended. However, being ill has helped keep food cravings at bay. Today marks the fourth day in a row that I have abstained from the consumption of soda. I believe that's a record for this year.

the thanks I get...

finally, I go running yesterday and how does my body reward me? with a nasty head cold. I am aware that immune system function can be temporarily decreased after significant physical exertion, but I can hardly call a mile run at no faster than 12 minute mile pace "significant" exertion. or maybe I'm more out of shape than I originally thought.

running shoes revisited

yes, I actually laced up the running shoes today and put them to use. jogged the maybe .2 of a mile from my residence to a track (dirt base with a very thin layer of cinders), ran a whole entire mile, and then walked home. I didn't take a watch, so I have no idea what kind of pace I was doing. just glad I finally got back to running. hadn't run in seven weeks. unless you're ill or something that's just terrible. (nine push-ups today, look out...)

seven and eighhhhhht...

I managed to eek out an eighth push-up today. I bet if I lost a few pounds, I'd be able to do a couple more without any additional effort. C'mon, you can do it...

June assessment

normally, I would not weigh myself two days in a row (I have no desire to become obsessive about this), but I want to start the first of each month with a gut check ;)

weight: 148.8 (yes, I bought a digital scale recently)
waist: can't bring myself to get out the tape measure
diet: still lousy, but only intermittently as opposed to a steady stream of sucky
push-ups: 7
running: yeah, um, I'm gonna start back with that real soon