Braving the streets of Toronto

Took a hiatus from the gym in order to hit the streets on Saturday. It began as an impromptu easy 3-miler, but something took hold of me, and I swear my feet grew wings. Suddenly it was a long tempo run, and it felt utterly sublime. The rain was coming down hard, but *I* was on fire! Hell, I was passing cars on my way down Spadina! I'm fully serious. Okay, so they were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but they were trying to move, so in my mind, the feat is legit.

mile 1: 9:19
mile 2: 9:42
mile 3: 8:19
mile 4: 9:17
mile 5: 8:47

I'm not entirely convinced about that 3rd mile... I think maybe Garmin had a brainfart... but I'll take her up on her sweet little lies...

Total time: 45:26 for 5 miles. That definitely shatters my own records - and my fears about coming up short. I am cruising through those last few hundred kilometers, and I am going to show them who. is. boss.

ARG!

For those who've been following along, you might remember (it seems like aeons ago) my New Year's Resolution to run 1000km this year. 2007 approacheth at lightning speed it seems, and while I'm trying my darndest to log them all in, at the moment all I have to say is one thing:

Crap.

Why do I make myself answerable to such things?

Gym rat

It's taken a while of easing in, but I think I'm officially there now: I'm a gym rat again. After all, I was there twice today - once for the 3 deadly miles, and once for an (almost as deadly!) yoga class.

Bye bye, great outdoors! You are too cold and blustery for me. Here is why hitting up the indoor track kind of rocks:

1-It's warm.

2-I can crank up the ipod (which works again! This is SUCH a high point in my life right now...) and tune out the world without fear of being run over by a car/bus/truck/rabid pedestrian/equally rabid racoon.

3-Almost everyone is faster than me. No really, this is a good thing: it's motivational. For the most part.
4-A select few are slower that me. And damn - THAT makes me proud.
5-A good portion of the girls there have far hotter bodies than I. That, I'll admit, turns me a particular shade of green on occasion (I should get shorts to match), but, again....it's motivational.
6-And most importantly: I get to have GYM CRUSHES! No, it's healthy, really - nothing like having the hots for someone to make you keep on running :)

Incidentally, my gym crush of the day spurred me on to greater speeds, greater agony, and overall greater satisfaction:

mile repeats:
1- 8:30
2- 8:32
3- 8:25

Too bad that secret somebody was finished working out and gone before I got down to stretching. Ah well. I don't take these things personally.

Oh and P.S., in response to the many questions about my last post: yes, she is in fact a scale AND a body fat monitor. And I take what SHE says VERY personally.

Spawn of Satan

She is sleek, sexy, and all knowing.

She brings out the obsessiveness in me.

I know she's just the messenger... but really. What a bitch.

Golden miles

I've logged a lot of miles this year. Or kilometers - whatever. Not as many miles as most of you real runners out there :) but lots of them all the same. But until today, I never ran miles. As in repeats. Hard, brutal, long, incredibly gratifying mile repeats. And I think I'm hooked.

Mile 1: 8:46!
(rest)
Mile 2: 8:41!!
(rest)
Mile 3: 8:30!!!

Pretty cool for someone who usually churns them out between 10 and 11 minutes. There may be a little speed yet in these short legs o'mine. If I can bring myself to give them the proper training and attention. Regularly. Consistantly.

Ha.

Finding my mojo

Breaking news... this just in...

I have learned how to exercise again.

I finally did it - went to the gym, did some swimming, some running, some core crunching - THREE WHOLE TIMES this week. And I feel GREAT.

Isn't it idiotic the way we get ourselves (okay, I won't speak for everyone, the way I get myself) into these vicious cycles of "I feel crappy. I don't want to exercise. Now I feel crappier for not exercising"? The only real solution is to lace up the shoes, suck it up, and get the hell out there.

And all it took was Thanksgiving dinner, about a zillion pounds of chocolate, and 3 new and decidedly unwanted pounds on my body, to finally convince me something needed to be done. Motivation, motivation, motivation.

An unorthodox workout

So - today I was going to go to the gym. I really really was.

But first... first I had to go to Future Shop to return/exchange a DVD player. So I walked there... only to discover that I had brought the WRONG RECEIPT with me! I walked home. I got the right one. I walked back. A customer service person then informed me that there was nothing wrong with my DVD player at all - I only needed an adaptor to make it work. No exchange - and no receipt necessary.

I walked home. And I skipped the gym.

I figure, I spent enough time walking today to merit workout points. And I probably burned lots of extra calories by muttering, cursing, and smacking myself repeatedly in the head.

Sometimes, I am really an imbecile.