Okay, so I haven't figured out how to save drafts..

I went for my first official training run yesterday. You can see it on the side bar.

It went so well! Much better than the last one. With picking up extra shifts and an anime club marathon I didn't do any running over the weekend! Gasp!

Monday was a rest day, I'm thinking because the plan is for people who are already kind of running. I was of course meant to rest but then someone decided to steal something at work, and I ended up joining in on the chase. Anything to get out of work ya know! Well he was on a bike, and I was in my work skirt and silly flat shoes so I didn't really get very far after him. It was fun all the same.

And then yesterday! It started off rather lazy, and after a couple of episodes of Legend of the Seeker I got up and made a pumpkin loaf. With an hours baking time I thought "well I'll definitely fit a 25min run in there!" so I banged it in the oven and away I went.

I thought that the route I usually run would take me about 20 minutes, and then I would push my way home until I made up the time.

Turns out it only ten minutes....so I kept running towards home. That only took five minutes... so I ran a bit of the way up the street some more and then turned around and came home. I'm not entirely sure if I ran 20 minutes or 25, I tend to forget what time I started at....

But it was amazing! I ran all the way to the stairs at my house and skipped my way up them. It was great, I really didn't think that I could run that far at all. I was confident I could go for 20 minutes at least when I started, but didn't realise that the distance I usually run was actually so short. It was an awesome feeling to think, "nope need to go for another 10 min" and not feel all grumbly about it.

I think its an awesome start to my plan! Today I'm meant to go for a 25min fast walk, but I've just biked from work all the way through town, and then from the other side of town back to my house. I think that counts for today.

Why did I go across town. Well to indulge my Spotlight addiction for one, and to hit up Rebel Sports.

I treated myself to this...

Its a Nike+ Sportband! It measures distance, time, pace and calories with the little orange and white sensor. Your meant to put it in a Nike+ shoe, but as the pair I want run at about $200 I'm going to do what many other ingenious people have done. Jam it in a sandwich bag and tie it down under my laces on one of my very cheap pairs of shoes. Ha! There you go Nike! Googling "Nike+ sensor hack" brings up some really great ideas for that sort of thing! The watch records everything and when you plug it into the computer it uploads all of the info. I think I can sync it to my dailymile.com account too, so hopefully the side bar will keep updating as I go along. 

I haven't recorded a workout on it yet. Its meant to be over 90% accurate out of the box but because I'm going to use a hack, I think I'll calibrate it. That can be something for tomorrow morning. But I'll go for a run with it anyway. Can't wait!!

Blah

So, its a great day outside! Should really get some washing out of the way...

And I went for a run! You can see it on the side bar --->. Its amazingly impressive and will blow your mind. NOT!

Usually I run further then that, I cut out a whole side of a block, but by the time I got to the green box thingy (its one of my mental goals "just make it to the green box thingy") I was feeling really awful and turned the corner, made it to the bus stop and then decided to walk the rest of the way home.

I'm not disappointed, when I first started running it was absolute torture to make it that far. I think its just all of the crap food I've been eating lately coming back to haunt me. You can't really run effectively on a dinner of Korean and gelato. I wish you could run effectively on gelato, but alas 'tis not so. I'm also getting a bit of a killer headache, so that's a sign to consume more water right there!

Oh well, at least that stat's bar over there can only get better. Can't wait to see the numbers trailing up on it.

Might go for a walk tomorrow, another short run on Sunday after work (If I'm feeling like a real person!) and then have my rest day Monday. I find it amusing that the plan I found begins on a rest day. I guess it figures you might want to be procrastinating about it, and gives you a little bit of leeway.

Oh, and thank god exams are over! We will have to see how the marks come in now.

Ciao.

OMG OMG OMG OMG...

I have an exam in an hour.

And what am I doing here you may ask. Well I can't concentrate. I'm actually shaking in my boots (literally, am wearing boots - I love my boots....) <-- see what I mean! Thank god this is the last one. I have never been so nervous about exams in my life! I'm particularly worried that I might fail one of these papers! Don't say "oh, you'll be fine!" - I'm currently relying on the whole 'c's get degrees' at the moment. I don't want to have to do another semester!

I just want this year to be over so that I can go and be a 'real' person. Uni has not really turned out to be what I expected... my high school teachers would never believe that! I can't wait to find a job - think happy thoughts for me please, I'm currently job hunting.

Gah - I suppose I better go read my notes again, though I start blanking out half way through sentences... not a good thing.

Ciao

And so it begins....again

Hi there

I'm not really that great at keeping blogs - this is number four i think... I was hopeless at keeping a diary, and I still am.

The whole point of this one? Well I decided at the end of last year that I wanted to run. And to run well. You know how you have those dreams of running, where you just go and go and never stop. Well mine (weirdly) involved some flags - tonnes in fact - and a dark sinister character (don't want to know what that says about my psyche...) and I remember waking up thinking 'wouldn't that be amazing'.

This is coming from the kid who could never make it the first 500m in cross country.

I'm not quite that bad anymore. I actually run every know and then, and hit the gym more regularly than the little lazy voice in my head would like. So the whole running and never stopping thing isn't really as unobtainable as before. Now I can happily run 2-3k, I'm a bit buggered afterward but thinking about it doesn't make me want to throw up like it would have back in high school.

I don't want to run just a couple of km's though. I thought at the start of this year that I would make a goal. A horrendous goal according to the lazy little voice. I want to run a half marathon.

Go for it you might say. Well, I made the mistake of telling my mother (you know I love you mum!) so now I have to... and I'm going to.

Currently I'm really excited about the idea. I've got a plan organised (which I have to convince myself not to be disappointed with if it doesn't go completely to plan - reading other people's blogs it doesn't sound like it will), I really want some Nike Free shoes but am happy with the ones I have now, so they can wait (being a student = tiny budget). Its also exam time - 1 more to go - so that might have something to do with running currently taking up a bit of mental time.

My one worry, that my plans to start my running program next week might turn into starting my running plans the week after that.... it doesn't help that I'm flying home in the first fortnight of the program for a week. And it'll be cold.

So I've decided to make a blog. This apparently is a great way to motivate yourself. Tell everyone about it, and then you can't back out. The whole running idea has been a bit disorganised as it is starting a few months later then I wanted it to. I was planning to run the Manawatu Striders Half Marathon at the end of the year. Its only two months earlier then I thought it was. So I'm aiming to run the 10k race then instead of the Half Marathon and do the Pelorus Trust Bays Race or the Wairarapa Country Race later on.

So I have to do that while staying away from chocolate as much as a can (HA!), trying to eat healthier and getting through Uni. I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

Don't want to tell my triathlete flatmate though. Or my friend who's going to the World Champs later in the year... it would amuse them though I'm sure....

So be prepared for bitching and moaning about sore feet and stepping in dog poo, hopefully more constructive blogs on where I've been running, and maybe other day to day happenings to perk things up a little.

Ciao.

EDIT: ooh ooh widgetty thingies! I added one on the side bar so you can see what I'm up to. The site told me to add something, even if it was an old work out, but I haven't done anything since the start of exam break! (SIN). I'm sure there will be something there soon. Or else the chocolate is going to settle on the hips!