I Come to a Complete Standstill

Those of you kind enough to read this little blog will no doubt be wondering why I have not run in 2 weeks. I wonder that myself. The truth is that it has been as humid as it can be, and while I would love to be running every day sometime after dawn, Beautiful Daughter is not keen on the idea of being here alone while I run and has firmly put her foot down regarding the desirability of biking while being eaten alive by bugs. They never go after me.
The big reason for our lack of exercise is the trip to hospital we took last week to see if one of us had appendicitis Fortunately not! But it took many hours of sitting and lying in hospital to discover this.
It's almost the end of the sprummer semester for me. Apparently my classes spanned the whole of the alternate semesters, spring, intercession and summer, and I am grinding toward the end, with 2 lovely 12 page essays due, of course, last week. You may believe me when I tell you that I would rather have been running some of those days I spent writing til all hours of the morning.
I may have mentioned this before, but I will be more than grateful when school starts in the Fall.....I will run again!

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Alright! Enough with the Humidity Already!!

I've decided to start the Bridge to 10K. Might as well, it's bound to get me to 5 K sooner or later! 3 repeats of 10 min running, 1 min walking today. This will increase to 4 and then 5 repeats as the week wears on.
It is very, very humid this week and this has prevented me from running for 4 days in a row. I am noticing it now, as I return from a brutal jog on the uphill (both ways) trail. I am a sodden mess. Even my pony tail is wet. People on the trail were smiling broadly at us and although I hope it was because we had the cute dog with us, I suspect it was actually because I am wearing a bright green tshirt which clashed with my bright red countenance. That's the more likely story.
I am waiting patiently for September when many things will change. a) I will run alone and not have to carry a bag of dog poo during the entire 5 minute cooldown walk (oxymoron). b) I will run when I want to and not in the middle of the day when it is bloody hot out. c)I will pick my own trail and d) I will not be sweating like a stuck pig (inaccuracy-pigs don't sweat).(Although they cool off by rolling in feces, which I could have done, since I had it with me in a bag).

Running without C25K

Well, this is it, I'm running without C25K telling me what to do. I waited until 1 30 to run, which I will never do again, in deference to Beautiful Daughter who did not want to go out there. Technically, C25K is still telling me what to do, because I'm timing myself by Carli's W9 podcast.
We went out on the new hilly trail, right at the height of the humidity. It is not easy. But I needed to get out there because I have discovered that eating icecream in various forms 3 times in one week will cause said icecream to migrate straight to those areas which were losing weight before. No more sugar for me!
I ran almost as far as the last time-I turned around about 10 yards early, but I started my run after 2 minutes of warm up walking. I really have no idea how long I ran, but the point is, I did run. Once school starts again for BD, (and that cannot happen quickly enough), I will work a bit more on distance. For now, just getting out to run is a major accomplishment. Oh please, please, have a sleepover!

I Have Graduated.

Wow!! I've finished the C25K program! This is the most amazing thing! In April I couldn't run around the block (heck, I couldn't run for 60 seconds!)and today I have run up hills for four kilometres. Not only did I run but I hit a runner's high (the coolest feeling) for a whole 5 seconds. My favourite parts of today-no bugs, no mocking rabbit, the friendly people, and the incredible feeling of becoming something I never thought I would be; a runner.
There's always an incentive to run-today it was to get rid of that cannoli I had at the International Villages Festival. Pretty sure it worked. What new adventure's coming next??

Sor t of D2....

It's 27 degrees out there, 36 with the Humidex. I ran in that. What sort of fanatical person have I become?? One thing that does love this heat is a bug, and not just one, but several at a time. The rabbit, of course, being a wise mammal, is nowhere to be seen. Even the oriole is missing-the only birds are the black ones, and you'd think they'd be the ones to stay out of the sun. No great shock that there was only one other person on the trail, a woman walking who didn't hear me say hello because either her ipod was too loud or sweat was in her eyes and she just missed seeing me entirely.
We got to the point at which I would have been running 5 more minutes before turning around when Naomi had had enough of the bugs in her hair (she had her own entourage the whole way and nearly went nuts). So she asked me, in a small pathetic voice if we could please, please turn around here and go back. I thought it would work out ok, given the snail's pace at which I was running today; surely by the time I reached the car it would be 30 minutes worth of running. Apparently I was running faster than the average snail, because I hit the car before the end. Kept on going on the road (boy, you really notice pavement when it's not your running surface of choice!) and then jogged back to the car, STILL not at the end. So I think I've probably missed a minute or two, for which I could be forgiven, as one minute in the blazing heat =2 normal minutes. I am going to tack these minutes on to the end of my graduating run, which will occur on Friday. In the meantime, I think I'll live in the shower...

Blowing off D2

Ok, so this is cheating, for sure. Not only did I eat sugar yesterday, and not just a little taste of sugar but an entire milkshake, but today I am choosing not to run in the 33 degree heat. 33C is not so bad in itself, (wait, that's a lie...)but with the humidex, it's 40 (that's 104 for you Fahrenheit people). People are walking in slow motion out there, if they dare to go out in it at all. I think that it'll be cool enough to run at about 11 PM, at which time it may have cooled down to 24. I'm fairly sure that I will not run at 11 PM. This is my first "excuse" day, as opposed to a "reason" day. I notice a difference in how my clothes are fitting today, which, of course, makes it easier to rationalize not running, and on the beach yesterday, I did not feel like a landed whale! I may have totally blown off today, but I'll still be at it as soon as the temperature deigns to fall below 33.
Well below.

Oh, no! It's the last week!!

Week 9. Now what? What will I do without someone telling me I have to run so many minutes at a time? Carli's so encouraging. I hope to goodness she hurries with that bridge to 10K podcast!!
Today, in honour of the 30 minute run, I decided to run on the same stretch of trail (which conveniently has parking for hikers at the halfway point of my 4K run) but starting at the opposite end. I figured that if I started from the place where my body is used to thinking it's halfway done (and I always run faster on the home stretch), then I could fool myself into thinking the whole thing was easy.
Truthfully, the whole thing WAS easy! I used some of the things I learned from reading ChiRunning, like keeping my elbows back and my feet behind my core. It actually works! Beautiful Daughter came with me on her bike; I think she's getting used to this now. And she brought the dog, who cried pitifully as we were leaving. It took some doing to figure out how to keep her from running in front of the bike, and ultimately, she just rode on Beautiful Daughter's lap. Good thing she's not a lab.
Fortunately, no one but bikers showed up til the very end. You'd think we'd be happy to run into other people running, but apparently I turn bright red near the end, and people notice....