Archive for Running

Oh GOD what did I do?

October 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm · Filed under aches & pains, exercise, Maui Marathon, motivation, Running, weight

I called my gym to see if I could set up an appointment with a personal trainer (I may have mentioned this a few times now) and I got an email response yesterday from a person named “PJ”.  I didn’t know if this person was a man or a woman and honestly I wasn’t sure what I was holding out for.   My gym is a little posh so I think it will be humiliating on SOME level no matter who it is – be it a hot guy or a hot girl.

Anyhow, PJ (which totally needs a creative acronym for something sadistic – seriously… it might mean the difference between me getting through this and me NOT getting through this.  I beg of you to comment with something clever!), sent an email asking what my goals were and what I hoped to get out of personal training.   I wanted to be up front and honest without flat out telling how much I weigh, because once PJ sees me in person I’m sure the first thing I’ll have to do is get on a scale.  I sent this in response:

My goals/reasons for hiring a personal trainer:
 
1. I do better with appointments.  I’ve had my membership at **** for nearly a year now and I could count maybe on one hand how many times I’ve been.  It’s quite an expensive donation, if you ask me.  I’d like to have it feel less like a donation and more like something I could actually enjoy paying for!
 
2. Weight Loss – I’ve got a family photo coming up next month and I’m DREADING it.  I know there isn’t much that can happen in a month, but if I’m at least on the PATH to where I used to be, that would be excellent.
 
3. I have some knee issues – the only way I can really describe it is they sound crunchy.  One doctor told me I simply needed to lose weight, another wanted me to get x-rays (and I’ll be honest, I haven’t done either!)
 
4. Ultimately, I want to be healthy enough to run a marathon before I turn 35.  I’ll be 31 in February.

Well, PJ just called me back.

PJ is a woman.

PJ sounds like a very perky woman.

I imagine the face I made when I heard her voice was similar to one Jen Lancaster might have made when she set up her first appointment with her trainer, Barbie.

I’m afraid.  Very, very afraid.

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My confession:

September 10, 2007 at 9:37 pm · Filed under dating, life, Running, weight

I’ve been talking on the phone with a guy who, every time I hang up the phone with him I giggle and say out loud, “he’s so cute!” He’s genuinely nice on the phone, has offered great advice, considering I’m still a relative stranger, on the job front… Hell, he’s in Boston for work and he called tonight to wish me luck for tomorrow.

My fear?  Well, he ran the half marathon this past weekend, and has run Maui and other full marathons before.  While I feel like I’m a reasonably attractive person, I know that I’d probably look a million times better were I to get back down to that stupid average weight I once was unable to move from.  So my fear is he’s all healthy and in shape and will look at me and think psha, right! Or worse yet? Oh hon, you’ll never be marathon material.

Granted, if he does actually think either of these things when we finally can meet, I wouldn’t want to be with someone like that anyhow…  But, it just sucks because I tend to be attracted to smaller-framed guys… and I am not a smaller-framed woman.

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Photos galore.

August 26, 2007 at 8:13 am · Filed under life, motivation, Nike Chip, Running

You’d better be sitting down for this one:

That’s right.  I woke up crazy early today and started my day off walking on the lake.  This is doubly impressive when you consider I spent all day yesterday helping a friend move, and today I get to make my little shoebox look like a home thanks to all the stuff she gave me:

 

 

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Need some verbal motivation.

August 23, 2007 at 10:01 pm · Filed under life, Maui Marathon, motivation, questions, Running

I am unemployed, in a waiting period with the renderings, putting together bits and pieces of my portfolio, and have NO excuse what-so-ever to not throw on my fancy running shoes and get out on the lake tomorrow.

How do I actually do it though?  How do I not give in to the “I’ll go tomorrow”s that I’ve been giving myself all year?

The truth of the matter is, even if I could have afforded the hotel, I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first mile in Maui.

They say it takes 11 days to make something a habit – I can’t even get myself to do ONE day.

Help?

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Reminders…

August 12, 2007 at 4:35 pm · Filed under Maui Marathon, Running

I was just reading a story of a woman about to embark on a journey across the pacific in a row-boat, thinking how amazing this story is, and suddenly remembering the time for the Maui Marathon is drawing near.  Ironically enough, I have more time on my hands these days and probably wouldn’t of had to worry much about taking time off work.

I’m still inspired for 2008, though… I hope to be posting about this more.

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Another one bites the dust.

June 12, 2007 at 3:43 pm · Filed under Daily Log, dating, ipod, life, Running

Well, that was an interesting weekend.

I live in an apartment the size of a shoebox.  No.  Wait.  It might be smaller than a shoebox, but it does have its own kitchen and bathroom so it’s not as cramped as one might think.  Because of its small size, there are limited things I can do with my space, as well as limited places to store things.  Saturday morning around 8 I decided to flip my bed around, only to decide I didn’t like it there and had to move it all back.  This involved not just moving the bed, but unsettling everything I have stored under it too.  One of these days I will just purge some of the stuff, but… I’m a pack-rat at heart.

Saturday was also WWKIP day – or World-Wide Knit in Public day.  Andi and I hit Millennium Park running with our knitting needles in hand – she to work on lys and me to work on my own little iPod Nano holder thing for when I (get ready to laugh your ass off) run.  It was a beautiful day to be outside and lots of people asked us what we were working on, which was fun.

Saturday night into Sunday morning I spent chatting away with Zboy and… well… let’s just say there will be no big fat Greek wedding in our future.  I think 3 is usually the magic number for determining if things are going to click or not, and things definitely did not click.  (However, I didn’t tell him this until Monday morning because I needed to give my head some time to really process if I really had no interest.  I’m getting better at this…)

Sunday afternoon my good friend came into town and I was able to show him some tourist spots.  We hit Millennium Park, the riverfront, the Merchandise Mart (and a really awesome view was of all the furniture trucks sitting out in front… I think I peed my pants a little), hopped on the train to Chicago Ave and then hopped in a cab to go to the Hancock building.  Now, somewhere between that cab ride and the Hancock building I lost my effin camera.  I am SO pissed at myself for this because it’s the camera I managed to have in London for 2 months and not lose, yet one night on the town in Chicago and it’s gone.  I keep trying to call the cab company to see if anyone might have turned it in, but no such luck.

So, it’s back to the dating drawing board for me.  My mother keeps telling me to stop looking for ladybugs – they’ll find me.  I wonder if they’d be able to find me if I just decided to stay in my house all the time and knit with my cats at my feet. 

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3 years for what?

May 30, 2007 at 8:59 am · Filed under Daily Log, life, Maui Marathon, Running

Get prepared for a little bit of woe is me… 

It used to be, when I was working strictly admin jobs, that I could send out 60+ resumes, get a 10% response, and have a job within a month of looking.

Trying to get a job in the design industry feels like it’s next to impossible.  Part of me wonders if it’s Karma – I didn’t go to that interview in Seattle… I didn’t take the job that I thought was “too far” because it simply would have been an annoying commute.  I feel like I keep talking to these design recruiters and they just don’t seem to think I have enough experience for the positions they have open.  It’s that old circle of how to get experience when no one will hire you without experience.

And even though I’m applying for jobs outside the industry, the more I think about it, the more I don’t want something like that because I really enjoyed the job I had, while I had it.  Sometimes the people drove me nuts, but the work itself was great!  I remember the first time a client said that my space plan looked awesome I started dancing around the office.  I can’t see that happening if I write a good memo, or create an awesome spreadsheet.

And on top of everything else, I came to the realization yesterday that I cannot make the trip to Maui – the source of me starting this whole blog in the first place.  Delta will refund my skymiles for a fee of $50, and I can’t even afford to ask them to cancel my ticket right now.  I only just last Friday paid May and June rent, and while I did renew my lease for my apartment and my rent will stay the same, I’m unsure where money for July rent will come from, as I’ve got calls coming in from all my creditors and I’ve become an expert at ignoring my phone.  When I get my paychecks I’m paying my utilities so I can keep a roof over my head.  My fridge consists of Slim-Fast, sugar-snap peas, cheese, and crackers in the cupboards. 

I could get to Maui, but I’d have no place to stay.  And given all of the above, I have no way of saving up for a place to stay, and it’s too late to call the travel agent and have her book it because I couldn’t even afford the deposit at this point.

I might contemplate the half Chicago marathon, just so I’m still doing something in the running aspect, and I won’t feel like a complete failure for bailing out on yet another one of my grand ideas… but we’ll see.  Right now goal #1 is to get a job.  Goal #2 is to pay some stuff off.  Goal #3 is to live happily ever after – or at least happily without worrying where all this stuff is coming from.  I’m pushing 30 for crying out loud… shouldn’t I have shit figured out?

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Must love dogs.

May 23, 2007 at 2:17 pm · Filed under life, Maui Marathon, motivation, Running

I’ll have an exercise buddy this weekend:

Her name is Heidi, and she has far more energy than I – despite the fact that she had an accident a couple weeks ago involving her chasing a bunny across the street and a car not being able to stop fast enough.  Heidi and I have plans to watch dvd’s, eat Chinese food, and hit the lakefront together.  Her mom is going out of town and I’m totally taking advantage of her apartment for all it’s worth (she’s in a high-rise right on the lake.. sweet!)

For a running blog, there hasn’t been much running to talk about.  Honestly, there hasn’t been much to talk about in general, as things seem to be the same as ever.  As I said to the lawyer on our usual late-night-texting session last night, “I’m trying to stay positive, but all these no’s keep creeping in: No job.  No boyfriend. No motivation. blah blah blah.  I’m on a desperate search for my happy place…” because I do believe that somewhere in the depths of my soul and mind there is a happy place where everything is clean and, well, flourishing.

It’ll all come together eventually.  It has to.  Seriously.  I will not become the recluse spinster with 20 cats (or 3 cats that have a combined weight of 20 cats, which is what I have now!)

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And about Maui…

May 20, 2007 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Daily Log, life, Maui Marathon, Running

Me:I’m starting to feel like right now is not the time to attempt to make Maui happen.
Andi:You’re going to have to wait and see when you will get a job and how much it will pay, what your benefits will be, etc, before you can really make a decision about Maui.

So yes, the nay sayers are living in my head, infecting my thoughts this time.  More than anything, it’s a financial thing – I’ve got the plane ticket and the marathon fee paid, but the hotel and extra expenses are a different matter all together.  If I don’t get a hotel near the start or finish, then I need to either plan on a rental car or a taxi and both of those are expensive. 

But Andi is right… I need to see where I end up working for good before I make a final decision about Maui.  At this point, I have talked so much about it, I’m afraid that if I say I won’t be going everyone is going to be flashing big I told you so signs in front of my face… but if it’s not a financially sound move, then I guess I’ll just have to figure out some way to block out those views.

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It’s only funny because it’s true.

May 8, 2007 at 3:49 pm · Filed under life, Maui Marathon, Running

I’m on one of thosedating websites, and in my profile I mention running a marathon later this year.  I don’t tend to email people right off the bat, but this one guy had such a hilarious opening statement that I literally “lol-ed” and immediately copied it into a chat window with Andi (which, is totally allowed because girlfriends tell their boyfriends stuff and Andi is as close to a spouse as I have these days so if you tell me, more than likely she’s going to know about it too). 

Anyhow, said guy with hilarious opening line wrote me an email back and asked, “Would meeting up for a beer interfere with your marathon training?”

Man, this guy… he’s made me laugh out loud TWICE now.  This was my reply to him:

My marathon training goes something like this:

Last night I walked 2 miles.

Tonight I’ll probably go home with the intention of walking, but instead curl up with my cats and end up asleep way too early.

I’ll tell myself I’ll get out there and walk/jog each night for the rest of the week.

Next Monday, I’ll get out and walk a couple miles.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

In other-words, beer is fine. :)

I should be bothered that I just made myself to appear quite sloth-like, but it’s just how things sort of happen for me.  As I was writing that email this morning I kept thinking to myself, “No.  Not this week.  You’re getting a darn bottle of water and getting on the lakefront again, just like you did last night.” 

Tonight’s running plans were slightly tentative because I had bought tickets to the Arctic Monkeys concert (way back when I was employed and could afford small luxuries!) and while I had been trying to sell them last week and over the weekend, no one was biting on them.  If they didn’t sell, I couldn’t see wasting them, so Andi and I were going to go.  But, the whole point of selling them was to get some cash so I can pay that little thing called rent. 

About 45 minutes ago, a cute little hipster kid with a “Class of 2005″ t-shirt on, came into my office and bought the tickets off me – which means I should be cleared for running, right? 

Except that at noon today, Andi called me because her dad has tickets to the Cubs game tonight and asked if she and a friend wanted to go.  So… guess where I’ll be this evening?  Nope, not the lakefront running, like I should be – BUT, not curling up with my cats and falling asleep too early either.  Instead I’ll have a hot dog, a beer, and cheer on the Cubs.

I am so a creature of the wrong habits.

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