Friiiiiiiiiiiiiday (now with more parentheses!)
This weekend hasn't begun and I already feel like it is over. Tonight we are Bowling for Rhinos, which is a zoo fundraiser thing, and it's fun because you can win prizes and John and
Monica (as well as John's son and a friend of his) are joining us. Beer, bowling and friends after work on a Friday? Good times.
Tomorrow is the NFL Draft!! The NFL has finally figured out that the people who actually tune in to watch the draft are also worthless drunks and therefore don't like getting up early, so they have moved the draft to the afternoon this year. It will start at a very reasonable 1pm (Mountain time, so like 3pm Eastern) this year. We are going to watch it at Jesse and Sharon's house. They live 20 miles South of us (a great distance to us since we like, never leave our neighborhood) so we're going to leave early to hit some stores that they have down there in Southern Utah that we don't have up here. Ikea! OMG! After the draft we'll be too drunk to do much of anything (We're taking our tent down so we can have a campout in their yard if necessary! Don't you wish we were YOUR friends?) so Saturday is pretty much shot for anything productive.
That leaves Sunday, upon which I must go for a run, and we should probably clean a little bit since Chris' parents will be here for a visit on Wednesday. The house is actually pretty clean, due to a meth-commercial-style cleaning rampage I went on last weekend (we're never home, so our house stays clean for longer than a week), but we need to freshen up (ooooh, that sounds Martha-esque) the bathroom and put fresh sheets on the guest bed and vacuum up the ton of cat hair that the damn cats have shed in the last week.
Okay, so I ran last night and I ran an actual, honest to god, 5K. Not 2.85 miles. Not 3 miles. But 3.1 miles. And my time was 37:00.05. So yay, now I just need to get a whole lot faster. Like, a really whole lot. But everyone has to start somewhere, right? Right.
Moving on. Well I really don't have much to say, so I'll post this picture of Chris and me at his cousin Steve's birthday party. Steve took the photo and then Chris cropped it to leave out the other 2 people in the picture, since they probably don't want their picture on the internets for people to find when they google "slow ass runners".
I feel fantastic today, and I have no idea why. I drank half a bottle of wine last night (plus a martini, shhh) and was up past midnight, which would normally mean that I would feel fine but wouldn't feel GREAT on Monday morning. And that's just it, I don't feel fine, I feel AWESOME. Whatev, I'll take it.
So running update. I did 10K (6.2 miles) on Friday afternoon (and took FIVE minutes of my time from the last time I did it), and then on Sunday I did the dreaded speed work. It really wasn't that bad. I ran a quarter of a mile at a pace 10% faster than my usual pace. Then I rested for 90 seconds, and ran another quarter of a mile at the faster pace. Blah blah blah, repeat 8 times. It totally appealed to my short attention span, and my love of fairly-instant gratification. I think I will do a 5K run tonight and hopefully I will set a new best time for myself.
The weekend was great. Friday night we went to a hockey game with Scott and Jessica and a bunch of their friends. It was a really good time. I spent Saturday doing some yard work. Nothing major, some raking and stump killing and general spring stuff. I also stained some mirrors that I got last weekend that I think will look great on the wall once they are stained and arranged nicely (there are 9 of them). On Sunday I cleaned like I was in a meth commercial. Our remodel left so much dust around, so I cleaned the whole downstairs and now I won't be ashamed to have Melissa over tonight and Jessica over tomorrow night.
At one point on Saturday evening I was in the back yard staining those mirrors, and Chris was breaking up some cement with a sledgehammer. Our (new) neighbor stuck her head out the window and was all "Oh my god, you scared me, that is shaking our house!" We laughed and introduced ourselves, and I almost explained that I was doing a little art project which was SO not like me, and then I realized that I was also wearing an apron that I sewed myself and holy shit, maybe this IS like me. So I kept my mouth shut. It was really nice to finally meet them, though, and I hope we get to know them better because they have a great front porch that I would really like to be invited to drink beer on.
Ami's "Training" Program
Tessie asked to hear about my training for the race I'm going to run.
The race is a 5K (3.1 miles). Up until last week my "training" program consisted of running 3.1 miles a few times per week. Seems logical, right? WRONG, apparently. I work with a guy who is a runner, and is currently training for a marathon. He told me that I need to add speed work or distance work, and preferably both. And then I cried.
After I pulled it together, I talked to him and we broke it down like this. I should be doing:
- a 3 mile run (1 day per week)
- a 6 mile run (2-3 days per week)
- "speed work", consisting of running a quarter of a mile as fast as I can and then resting for 90 seconds. Repeat this 8-12 times. (1 days per week)
So that is what I'm shooting for. I did a 6-miler on Sunday, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I then did 3 miles on Monday and today I am so sore. I think I will probably run again tonight anyway (3 miles), just because it is Tuesday and it is the night I meet my friend Jessica to run in the park. Tomorrow I will try to lift, and then I will take Thursday night off because I have a board meeting for Community Council. I've dropped my weight lifting down to one day per week until after the race, because I just don't have time to do both and I'm really trying to increase my running right now.
The most frustrating part is how slow going it is. It is hard to get excited about shaving 30 whole seconds per week off your time, because, seriously? Thirty seconds? Sigh.
Low Self Esteem Days
What does one do about a low self-esteem day? I had one today, and I just could not shake it.
Anyway. Today's big excitement was that I joined the running club at my job! You pay $30 and you get a (moisture-wicking!) t-shirt, and then they will reimburse you for up to 5 races or $125 in race fees (whichever amount is smaller) before Jan 1, 2009. Sweet deal, eh?
I paid my $30 today, so this settles it. I will be doing the Race for the Cure on May 10th. I have been affectionately referring to it as "Lumbering Along Awkwardly for the Cure", but in all seriousness I am excited. I've never run a 5K before, and it is four weeks away, so I have time to get ready. I would like to finish in under 36 minutes (12 minute miles, or 5 miles per hour). That isn't fast at all, but I am not fast at all, so it would be a good finishing time for me. And more importantly I will have done a 5K and it won't be such a scary idea.
The other excitement for my Wednesday was that I had a brow wax after work, and the brow lady (who can be a little bit of a nazi sometimes *cough*understatement*cough*) declared that "your right eyebrow is ALMOST perfect". That made my day. How sad is that? She also declared that I was "doing a good job". Of not touching them in between times that I see her, I guess, because it's not like I'm doing anything. Maybe she was sensing the low self-esteem and trying to help me out.
Tuesday Night Chronicle
On Tuesday nights, I meet my friend Jessica in the park (I'm not saying which one STALKERS) for an outside run, and then we go and get beers afterwards. Tonight's run was great. I reached a new personal best, and I didn't feel like I was going to die, either, which is always a plus. We went to The Bayou afterwards, where I drank 2 Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde Lagers, ate a yummy spinach salad with a tuna steak, and talked to nice man from Phoenix who was in Salt Lake City for work.
I came home at 9pm, which is a pretty early night for these Tuesday night shenanigans, and now I'm chatting with a coworker online while I shop around for a GPS watch. I'm not buying one yet, I'm just researching it. It would be really nice to have one for my outdoor runs. Maybe if I do the 5K I'm looking at in under 36 minutes (which would be just faster than 5 miles per hour, which sadly is good for me) I will reward myself with a GPS watch.
Oh, and speaking of running, remember how I was telling you about how much I love my coworkers? Well here is an example of the kind of behavior that warms my cold, black heart:
Today I emailed the guy who is training for a marathon to ask him some questions about running. His email response not only included a graph, but also the use of the word "asymptote". I couldn't make this up, people. Finer nerds you will not find anywhere in the world. LOVES IT.
So
I'm trying to be a responsible blogger and post week-daily or some shit. And the problem is that I have jack shit to talk about during the week, and if I do I'm so busy doing the exciting activities that I have no time to post. Oh, life. Such a paradox, you are.
ANYway. So here's an example of a goddamn Monday. Part 1: Attended work. Had much fun. Busted a co-worker for something I may/may not be able to tell you about later this week. Loved my job more than I knew I did before I thought about having children, at which point I was faced with the Staying at home because I feel that it will be best for my non-existant child/Not having kids because I heart my job conundrum. Dude, don't EVEN think about commenting about how it is okay to put kids in day care or it is okay to not have kids or I won't miss my job that much because life is not about that or MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE. I know all of those things, but emotions are not rational, motherfuckers. It is not about how much I love my job for me, it is more about how much fun I am having at any given time, and good god, it has not always been like this, but right now? GODDAMN. My coworkers crack my shit up. I love it. Mormons, non-mormons, ex-mormons. I heart all of the crazy bastards with which I share a paycheck source. I am having more fun right now than I have ever had working for money.
Right, moving on. Got off work. Attended the gym. Ran 3.1 miles. Took me longer than I had hoped. Am sub-40 minutes, but longer than I would like. Will leave it at that.
Walked to Melissa's house, for Bachelor night with the girls. Drank wine. Criticized people way hotter than us, criticized people way more sober than us. Was drunk. Chris picked me up, so don't worry about that people.
And that brings me to right this moment. Am drunk and happy. Blogging. See? Shoulda kept it to myself. ;)
Weight Lifting
Tessie wants to hear about my weight lifting routine, and since there is nothing I like to talk about more than my muscles, I am happy to oblige. This will be good for me because in a few months when I'm wondering how much I have improved, I will be able to come back and see.
I used to lift sometimes in college, and I loved it. At one point I did it consistently for about 4 months, but since then it has always been in an off and on fashion. Like most things in life, off and on is not the way to lift weights if you want to see major improvement. Anyway. This time around, I have been lifting consistently for 3 months, and I hope to keep it up.
I lift 2 to 3 times per week. I do 13 machines, 3 sets, 12 reps each set. I will list the machine and link to one so that you know what I'm talking about, and tell you how much weight I use on each one. I up the weight on a machine whenever I feel like it has gotten too easy, usually every 2-3 weeks I will bump a machine up a notch. Some are definitely harder than others; some of the machines I feel like I never increase on. Chest press, I'm looking at YOU.
Shoulder press. 65 pounds.
Chest press. 40 pounds. (PUSSY!)
Lat row. 60 pounds. The one at my gym is a little different than this, but the concept is the same.
Lat pulldown. 80 pounds.
Hamstring curl. 90 pounds.
Quad curl. 70 pounds. (Again, PUSSY.)
Horizontal squat. 145 pounds.
Weighted crunch. Simlar to this machine. 100 pounds.
Tricep push. Like this, but with a weight stack. 65 pounds.
Bicep curl. 50 pounds.
Leg adduction. 110 pounds.
Leg abduction. This is the same link as the last one, this is a machine that does both. At my gym they are two different machines. Same thing, though. 110 pounds.
Leg raises. There is no weight on these.
So there you have it. I feel so strong, it is awesome. I can beat Chris at arm-wrestling if we use our left arms. I'm sure he appreciates me sharing that with the internets.
So thanks for the suggestions about things to talk about, Utah John and
Tessie, I'm working on those! But for now I have like, 5 minutes to post so I'm just gonna ramble.
I've been running and lifting weights a lot lately, and I would just like to say that I feel fucking awesome. I mean, exercise makes you feel good? WHO KNEW? Heh. I'm just kidding. I've been exercising regularly for a long time, I just feel exceptionally good lately. I have major muscles in my arms and I feel like a bad ass. (Note: I don't have major muscles in my bad ass.)
Tonight I am going to a wine tasting co-hosted by Joanna and a friend of hers that I have never met. I am really excited, it should be really fun. 7:30pm can't get here fast enough. Tomorrow night Chris has school and I'm going to dinner with Utah John and his crew. On Saturday night I am going to get some sorely needed alone time with Chris. We are going to dinner and to a play at the Salt Lake Acting Company.
In other news, everyone probably already knows about
this website but it is KILLING ME and I feel obligated to share.
