Challenge Jog 15

Today was my first jog of the 2nd half of my challenge. With Sarah in town for the holiday weekend we definitely did not spend time exercising. Though we did eat nothing that was actually good for us, I am proud of myself for not making the junk food eating a non-stop kind of thing. I showed much more restraint than I would have not too long ago. I think this is a great sign of the progress I am making with the other healthy choices I have been shooting for such as eating less totally worthless calories and drinking more water. :) Yay - me! 1st mile - 12:05 mins - j 2nd mile - 24:35 mins - j .5 mile - 30:52 mins - j walk back to start line 3rd mile - 43:55 mins - j .2 mile - 46:31 mins - j .2 mile - untimed - w

1/2 Way There!!!! Challenge Jog 14

Today I went out to the park with 5.7 miles left before I hit my halfway mark in my 100 mile challenge. Technically I had 3 days left to make it there, but my best friend Sarah was coming down on Friday for a weekend at the beach so I really didn't feel confident about getting any jogging in while she was in town. Of course, I could have done some on Friday, but the odds of that happening were small. So, I decided to hunker down and make it happen! It wasn't easy and I had to take some walking breaks between the laps, but I made it!!! :) :) And, I did an extra .3 miles just to be sure I could cross of that '50' on my mirror! :) I can't believe that I have actually made it so far! I mean, I knew when I made the goal for myself that I could theoretically do it, but I wasn't 100% sure that I WOULD actually do it or not. Most of the fitness goals I have made for myself over the last few years I have quit caring about or trying for well before I actually met them. In many ways this challenge is more mental than physical for me. So far, I have conquered both :) 1st mile - 12:05 mins - j 2nd mile - 24:15 mins - j .25 mile - untimed - w .75 mile - untimed - j 3rd mile - 36:27 mins - j .25 mile - untimed - w .75 mile - untimed - j 4th mile - 49:06 mins - j .5 mile - 55:14 mins - j 6 miles - jogged!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) Now I only have 49.7 miles left to go!!!!!!!!

Challenge Jog 13

I totally rocked my 5k on Sunday, so I gave myself a day off. Tuesday I went jogging around the complex to save on time and gas money. The jog was good, but it is definitely not my favorite place to jog. It is ugly and it gets annoying to run in circles and see nothing but parked cars and smelling paint fumes from the garage near the mailboxes everytime I pass by. 1st lap - 5:38 mins - J 2nd lap - 11:09 mins - J 3rd lap - 16:30 mins - J 4th lap - 22:40 mins - J 5th lap - 28:08 mins- J .1 mile - untimed - W 6th lap - 33:39 mins - J .1 mile - 34:41 mins - J

Challenge Jog 12 - 5k RECORD TIME!!!

This morning I pulled myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6am so that I could support one of the student organizations on campus who was hosting their first charity 5k. They were raising money for a good cause (an organization that provides educational afterschool care for children in need). I figured that I would need to do a 5k that day anyways so I might as well get a t-shirt for it. Of course, I would have much prefered that it be held a little later. However, because of the time the weather was really nice. No too hot,just really humid. That though can't be helped. When I got there, I was disheartened to see that there was only a small handful of people participating. I was logged in as runner #10. (Of course, I still and most likely will never consider myself a runner - I prefer to jog. It is less fast and competitive.) When the student registering me gave me my number I joked with her that my number was fitting because I would be the last place jogger. She reassuringly told me that we are not competing with each other, but only with ourselves. I responded with, "Oh that is for sure. I already consider myself a winner because I got up early enough to be here. I am worried only with finishing." Which is totally true. I am self-aware enough to know that despite my fairly successful forray into jogging, I am by no means an athlete. I say that, but when I got started on the 5k a small amount of competitive spirit awakened inside me. I didn't want to be last. Winning, or anything close to that would be a ridiculously unrealistic goal, but not losing didn't seem like such a bad idea. But from the start I was about a minute behind the two girls closest to me. An 8 year old boy took off like a bullet from a gun, the 60-something year old man who registered right after me was much closer to the kid than to me. Thankfully, for my fragile ego's sake, one of the women who had been well ahead of me started at a faster pace than she could maintain and ended up having to walk for awhile, which allowed me to pass her. I am not sure why it matters, but coming in 10th out of 11 joggers some how feels better than coming in 11th. Plus, I totally called my place before the race even started. I wouldn't want to make a liar out of myself. :) The best part of the whole experience though, was the fact that I set a new personal record time!!!! I completed the 5k in 33:23 minutes!!!!! That is almost 3 minutes faster than the 5k I completed just the day before and approxiametly 5 minutes faster than my Race for the Cure time!!! :) :) :)

Challenge Jog 11

Man - I am was dragging Saturday morning. I didn't get home from Relay until almost 1am and for whatever reason I haven't really been sleeping much so I was TIRED. But, I knew that I had to get back out to the park. I am fast approaching my halfway mark and need to keep on track in order to make the millage needed. So, I forced myself out of bed, to the gas station, and to the park. I should have gotten moving earlier because it was starting to get hot when I finally got there. That combined with the exhaustion and leftover soreness from the uneven 6 miles the night before the jog was not an easy one. I had to take two walk breaks just to make it through. But, what really counts is that I got the 3.1 miles I set out to jog - jogged! And for that I am proud of myself. 1st mile - 11:51 mins - j 2nd mile - 23:49 mins - j .1 mile - untimed - w 3rd mile - 35:33 mins - j .15 mile - untimed - w .1 mile - 36:37 mins - j

Relay for Life

I gave myself Thursday off since my attempt at jogging Wednesday didn't go so well. I had intended to make up for it by jogging before taking my cats to the vet on Friday. The vet's office is only a few blocks from the park I like to jog in. Eh - nothing ever goes as planned. Instead, I took a friend to a doctor's appointment downtown, went to lunch (her thank you for the ride), then took the cats to the vet. :( Tang requires a special diet to help him lose weight and hopefully to stop the vomitting that has me scared for him and in desperate need for new carpet. Bunni is going to need dental surgery :( UGH - It is a good thing I picked a sport that is basically free. I am going to need every penny I can save. Anyways, after dropping the cats off at home, I went out to the local Relay for Life to meet up with my parents. I figured that I would have plenty of time to jog at an all night relay. The location of last year's Relay was too far from home to be easy to get too, but it was a nice wide college track with plenty of room for everyone who was walking. Thus year's location was much closer to home, but also much smaller. Too small for all of the people that were there trying to walk and play and hang out at their booths and shop at other booths. I had to step over the luminaries to walk on the grassy inside of the path just to walk at all. Jogging was totally out of the question, except for one guy who literally ran circles around everyone for almost the whole 4 hours I was there. I on the other hand stuck with the walking. In my defense though - I managed to go 6 miles. :)

Challenge Jog 10

Today was not my best day for jogging. After the 10k I jogged on Sunday my hip and knees hurt - a lot. :( I was hoping to hold off until the end of my challenge and buy myself new shoes as a reward, but I think I am going to have to cave at the begining of the month instead out of necessity. But, we will see. Either way, on David's advice, I took Monday off to let the soreness work its way out of my legs. Then I took Tuesday off because I was too tired to get off the couch. Seriosly, when you are too tired to even watch TV you know something is not right. I haven't been sleeping well, was achy all over, and just mentally drained from another mind numbing day at work. I thought about jogging, but as soon as I sat done that was IT. But, I did the math and realized that I needed to jog 16.8 miles in 12 days in order to make it to 50 miles by May 27th, which is the halfway point in my timeline. If I stick with my plan to do 5ks each time out, I would need to go 6 of them in 12 days. That doesn't seem too terribly hard as long as I don't get lazy. Unfortunately, I have been lazy this week. That will change though! I made myself get off the couch tonight. Again, not my best showing, but it was better than nothing. 1st lap at the complex: 5:39 mins - j 2nd lap: 10:53 mins - j untimed .1 mile - w untimed .4 mile - j untimed .1 mile - w untimed .4 mile - j The total of 1.8 miles jogged leave me with an even 15 miles left! :)

Challenge Jog 9 - a 10K!!!!

Man this week got busy quick! Thursday, I spent the day at a Women's Conference. It was fun. I bought a super cute ceramic snail from one of my favorite charitable organizations (Hope Village), sampled a mushroom risotto cake, and learned about fun day trips to take throughout the state. But, I had to get there early (I left the house at 7am) and then had to go back to work for my late night (I didn't get off until 7pm). UGH! Friday, I was at the banquet hall at 7am for the annual meeting for another of my favorite charitable organizations (Bay Area Turning Point) where I was recognized with the Educational Partner Award. It was a great honor and a nice event, but again - an early morning. After that I went to work for a graduation potluck and a recognition potluck followed by helping David move his stuff to his uncle's house before dropping him at the airport. Instead of getting a good night's sleep, I spent most of the night trying to keep Tang from hurting himself while running from the thunder. Saturday was spent painting my bedroom, cleaning, and redecorating my apartment. It was a LONG, productive day of work. I have a few more projects I want to do (mainly I want to make a new headboard to match my new bedding), but they wil have to wait a bit. Bank roll and time do not allow for much more right now. Sunday morning I was rudely awakened at 6am by nighmares of home invasions. Awesome right. So, after staying in bed pretendng to sleep for another 2 hours, I hauled my butt out of bed and to the park. While was rounding the turn towards the half mile mark on my 3rd lap, I heard my Dad yell "JP" from across the parking lot. He and my mom have started walking again. :) I am not sure what possessed me, but I thought I would jog until I caught up with them. I figured it would get me to 4 miles. I was wrong. Even though the park isn't that big, I couldn't find them after that first wave. When my feet crossed the line on my 4th mile, my head said "What the hell - Keep going". Then, as I moved on - I started thinking "I wonder if I could make it all the way to a 10k? I wonder if I could do it. Hmmmm.... My legs are still moving steady, I am still breathing fairly well, maybe I could do it." So, I decided that I would go as far as I could just to see if I could. I figured that whatever distance I logged past the initial 3.1 miles would be a bonus regardless and anything past the 4 mile mark would be a new record for me during this challenge. :) I am VERY happy to report that I did in fact make it all the way to the 10k mark!!! And, I even found my parents at the 3/4 mile mark during my 5th lap. It was kind of cool to be able to wish my Mom a Happy Mother's Day while jogging past them. :) 1st mile - 12:12 mins - j 2nd mile - 24:16 mins - j 3rd mile - 36:08 mins - j .1 mile - 37:20 mins - j .9 mile - 47:40 mins - j 5th mile - 58:55 mins - j 6th mile - 1hr 10 mins - j .2 mile - 1 hr 12 mins - j .3 mile - untimed - w

Challenge Jog 8

I decided that it would make more sense to title my blogs "Jog __" rather than "Day __" because I am taking days off between jogs. For example, after my jog on Monday, I gave myself Tuesday off. So, my next successful addition to my challenge goal occurred on Wednesday, May 9th. To save time and gas money, I jogged around the apartment complex while David was at practice. I MUCH prefer the park, but this is better than nothing. Plus, here I have the opportunity to be awkwardly stared at by people who either don't exercise or are in awe of my PERFECT jogging technique (sarcasism of course) and who doesn't love being awkwardly stared at?! The particular person of interest during this jog was a teenage boy who was hanging out in the garage responsible for the paint fumes contact high I get once each lap. I felt strong today which was nice. Strong enough to push a little harder than I had originally intended. :) As normal, I had planned to do a 5k, but ended up doing 3.5 miles! That's not a massive increase in distance, but every step counts! And, just for fun during my 7th lap the teenager gave me a high five because I was "getting it". Maybe it was that high five that motivated me to finish the lap instead of stopping at the .1 mark. Who knows - but it is a bit nice to recieve some on the spot encouragement. I guess that is why they station people along 5 and 10k routes simply to serve as cheerleaders. Having someone watch you can encourage you to push further than you thought you could. 1st lap - 5:55 mins - j 2nd lap - 11:48 mins - j 3rd lap - 17:37 mins - j 4th lap - 23:30 mins - j 5th lap - 29:22 mins - j 6th lap - 35:16 mins - j .1 miles - 36:06 mins - j .4 miles - 40:46 mins - j

Challenge Day 7

After my 4 miles on Saturday, I decided to give myself Sunday off. Well, not off so much as busy with other things. Saturday night, David had a brillant idea for a fun art display for my living room and helped me start making it. He also helped me rearrange my living room. So, Sunday I bought a new coffee table (which he was sweet enough to put together for me), attended an induction ceremony for a student organization on campus, and had dinner at a friend's place. She was attempting her first roast beef and yorkshire pudding, so I contributed my first attempt at cookie dough cheesecake. Well, technically it was my second attempt because my first attempt ended up all over the kitchen when the pie tin buckles as I moved it from the counter to the stove. The second one turned out really good though. Next time I will add a bit more sugar because it was a tad tart for me, but everyone else really liked it. Anyways - today was a good day to start my week's worth of jogging. Instead of driving all the way to the park, I just went around the complex. It is not as nice of a jog, but is more convienant. Compromises-ugh. Regardless of location, I am happy with my success. I jogged a little faster than normal and felt strong at the end. Also, my knees don't hurt as much. I think I need to be more careful about taking breaks between jogs to prevent too much stress on them. 1st lap - 5:50 mins - j 2nd lap - 11:41 mins - j 3rd lap - 17:22 mins - j 4th lap - 24:57 mins - j 5th lap - 28:58 mins - j 6th lap - 33:25 mins - j .1 lap - 34:23 mins - j 3.1 miles down and 76.6 miles to go!!! :) :)

Challenge Day 6/Week Two

Today was my first jog of the 2nd week of my challenge. In my first week I jogged 16.4 miles!! I am stoked about my success thus far and ready to celebrate my completed challenge. :) I have a ways to go still, but at this rate it won't be a problem! This morning I put in 4 miles!! Now, I got winded much quicker than I expected to so I walked .5 miles after jogging the first two miles. The break allowed me to catch my breath enough to do the last two miles without much trouble. My knees are bothering me though and it started to get really hot towards the end of my jog. I need to go out about an hour earlier tomorrow to avoid the heat. I am not sure what to do about my knees, but I am hoping that there isn't any kind of permanent problem that I need to worry about. Maybe I just need to stretch more before and after the jogs. I also need to include some strength training to keep my arms and abs from getting or staying flabby. Anyways - My times this morning were: 1st mile - 12:26 mins - j 2nd mile - 24:33 mins - j .5 mile - untimed - w 3rd mile - 36:51 mins - j .1 mile - 38:07 mins - j .9 mile - 49:04 mins - j .25 mile - untimed - w Total of 4 miles jogged and .75 miles walked.

Challenge Day 5

So, following my first four days of gung-ho jogging I decided it really was time to take a break. So, I took off Monday and Tuesday. Monday I went to my neiece's baptism, got a new mattress, and scrapbooked. Tuesday I worked and then waited for the delivery man to bring me my new queen sized mattress set!!! :) :) Which I then spent the night watching Hulu on. :) Wednesday though was a make or break night. I HAD to go jogging. Because I covered the late night for a co-worker, I didn't get of until 7pm so I didn't make it to the park until almost 8pm. I could have gone around the complex, but it is not as nice of a jog and seems longer because I have to do 6 laps. Same distance, but pyscologically I prefer only having to run the circle three times. I started off a bit slow, but pushed myself towards the end and ended up going pretty dast - for me at least. Anyways - I was VERY happy with my results. :) 1st mile - 13:14 mins - j 2nd mile - 25:38 mins - j 3rd mile - 37:06 mins - j .1 mile - 38:05 mins - j .15 mile - untimed - w

Challenge Day 4

David told me that I should take a day off after jogging three days in a row and was probably correct. My body needs to recover properly or I could hurt myself. BUT it was just soo pretty outside that I didn't want to be stuck indoors all day. And, I figured if I am going to be outside, I might as well add to my miles. :) So, I jogged 3.1 miles around my apartment complex. It is not my favorite place to jog, but I did pretty well. I had to take a walking break after jogging the first two miles, but considering that it was 3pm and hot and it was my 4th day in a row of jogging, I was okay with that. :) Each lap is a half mile. 1st lap - 6:05 mins - j 2nd lap - 12:07 mins - j 3rd lap - 18:11 mins - j 4th lap - 23:53 mins - j 5th lap - Untimed walk 6th lap - 29:48 mins - j 7th lap - 35:37 mins - j .1 mile - 36:26 mins - j