Today is Day #1

In an effort to really commit to the Pittsburgh ½ Marathon I have signed up for a fitness/runners training program. The program is 8 weeks long and begins today. It’s very reasonably priced. It consists of 2 training runs and 1 optional run a week. Without the optional run it’s only costing me about $16/session. I’m terrified and excited. I don’t feel ready at all. I walk daily and do some Wog intervals … see, there’s the problem. That word “some”. I’m not jogging or wogging daily or regularly. Some will leave me gasping, wheezing and not finishing the 1/2 marathon. May 2011 is going to be here before I know it.

So, here I go. Head first into the pool. I hope there’s water in it. I’m in a training program for the next 8 weeks.

My first Official Jog-Walk

I just did my first official jog/walk today during my lunchtime break.

I my legs felt very fatigued last night so I did not do the jog/walk interval I talked about in my previous post.

So, today at lunch I did my very first C25K Jog/Walk Interval. I'm very excited and proud to report that I ran 1.31 miles in 26:21 minutes. According to my Nike+ app on my phone that calculates as a 19.58 mile pace.

Two days ago I did the same distance in 30:14 minutes. My pace that day was a solide 21 min mile.

Just be doing short jogs I was able to increase by pace by 1.5 minutes. Wow!  That's seems like a big increase.

Today was a beautiful day for it too. I went back to Lake Accotink Park. It's a really pretty area to walk.

The temperature was grand. About 70F and sunny out. I forgot to take my before/after blood sugar to see the differences. I'm curious to see what kind of difference there is.

At points during the run, I felt like my calves were on fire. I can only take about 30 minutes during lunch so I doubt I'll go much further in distance during my lunchtime runs, but I'm looking forward to tracking my progress as I get better and better at jogging.

Couch to 5K Training

As I posted previously, I have registered to compete in the Pittsburgh 1/2 Marathon in May 2011.

This week I have begun my training. First goal. Run a mile. I can walk a mile but I can’t run or jog hardly at all. I found a site that gives a schedule for going from couch potato to 5K runner/jogger in 8 weeks. Basically you run/walk in intervals. It’s actually called Couch-to-5K or C25K.  The intervals go like this to start with.

Week 1 Intervals

• Five minute brisk warm-up walk
• 60 seconds of jobbing
• 90 seconds of walking
• Keeping this up for 20 minutes and then doing a 5 minutes cool down walk.

While that seems pretty simple, it is not. Well, not for me. I jog for a few seconds and can barely breath and end up walking the rest of the 30 minutes.

So, this week I have been upping my walking game. I’m walking for 30 minutes but trying to walk a faster pace. I’m using my Nike+ Sensor. Yesterday I walked 30 minutes at lunch and was able to cover 1.44 miles. That’s definite improvement on what I’ve been doing on the treadmill even.

I found another source that has a suggestion for moving from couch to 5K running. This came from a book by Jeff Galloway. I’ve never heard of him but I’ve seen his articles in several running magazines (yes, I’ve started reading them online and in paper). He apparently is the source and has been running and winning marathons for a long time. His run/walk intervals look a little easier to manage so today I’m going to begin doing his method of run/walk. Here is how his intervals go.

For a 20 minute mile

• Five minute brisk warm-up walk
• Run 30 sec/Walk 60 sec
• Run the last few minutes/miles of the race.

This sounds much more doable. I can certainly run for 30 seconds.  Not sure how many intervals I can do but I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

So, today after work we’ll be giving this a shot and see how things go.

Crochet-Along Clue #1

I’m participating in the Bernat Mystery Crochet-Along afghan contest.  Each week Bernat publishes a pattern on their blog site.  The patterns gives the instructions but doesn’t give any pics of what a finished square will look like.  I finally got around to making Clue #1.  Below is what my square looks like.  According to the Clue #1 update, this is exactly what the square should look like so I’m on a roll.  Sort of…

I haven’t created the Clue #2 square yet but it should be easy.  It’s a granny square.  I love granny squares.

Stop the Bullying – Stop the Madness

Yesterday on Twitter quite a lot of people were Tweeting about bullying. Many people commenting and responding to the tragic death of a young man who jumped off the GW Bridge in New York after his roommate filmed and then broadcasted him having sex with another man. Of course he’s not the only young person to be bullied or teased to the point of no return. There are more and more stories of young man/women who just can’t stand the taunting and pain any longer so they kill them selves or they get a gun and they just start shooting. It’s tragic on a lot of levels.

I tweeted a few myself. I remember being bullied and teased mercilessly in elementary and junior high. The faces of most of the kids who did it to me in are pretty much a blur. The bizarre thing is when one type of teasing stopped it seemed like another one just started up again. I remember screwing up a word in a spelling bee in our 5th grade classroom and the kids teased me almost non-stop for months afterwards. In 6th grade I was teased daily because of my overbite.

I remember being teased because I didn’t “bloom” when the other girls did and was one of a few girls who wasn’t yet wearing a training bra. I can’t remember if that was 6th or 7th grade but I DO remember the pain and embarrassment. I remember begging my mom to buy me one just so I’d “fit in” and the teasing would stop.

… But it didn’t…

Then I was teased to tears for not shaving my legs. Begged my mom to let me shave.

Then I was teased to tears for having a bad overbite. How many 6th graders do you know who begged for braces? I did.

Then I was teased for being a brace-face. Sigh…

Then I was teased for not having a boyfriend. Then I was teased when several of the kids thought it would be funny to send me notes pretending to be a secret admirer. Yeah, that was real funny what that all finally blew up.

One teasing would end and another would start. Something different each year until around 8th or 9th grade. I’m not sure why it stopped but that’s where my memory of the teasing ends.

It’s shocking to me to think how little help I got from my teachers. I remember kids openly teasing me in front of a teacher and he/she would say nothing. They would just look the other day. My parents tried to help but honestly that just made the teasing worse – “Ooh, you Mommy had to come to school. Big Baby….” In that sing-songy way that bullies do. By not saying anything, the teachers were basically telling the bullies it’s OK.

It’s NOT OK. It was NEVER OK.

The point is this all happened to me years ago and when I think about it still it hurts as much now as it did then.  It's like a knife sticking into my chest and I can't breath for a moment. The effects of the teasing have affected my life in ways that no one realizes. I have self-esteem issues that go all the way back to elementary school.  I expect very little from people.  Expect negativity from people.  I'm surprised when people are good and nice.  That's so backward, right?

I don’t know what the answer is, but something has to change. Parents have to do a better job with their kids. Schools have to do a better job with discipline and punishment of bullies and bullying behavior. Parents and Schools have to send a message to kids that it’s OK to be different and it’s not OK to make fun of people who are different.

We can’t let kids in school be bullied/teased to tears. We can’t accept that it’s OK to film your college roommate and broadcast it world-wide because he’s a fag.

We just can’t

The madness has to stop.