Good Josephine, Bad Josephine: The Struggle Continues...

I spent the last 5 days at the beach (well 4 days at the beach, then 1 day getting home when my car decided it need a new clutch, but that's a different story entirely). I actually surprised myself in that my desire to run every morning was greater than my running wardrobe. I had only packed two outfits for running, but found myself itching to run all four mornings. So I split the difference by running for 30 minutes 2 days, going for a 30 minute walk another day, then resting the last day I was there. The weather was gorgeous and something about not having to wake up early and rush my morning workout really made me want to just wake up and go for a leisurely run.

And now that I've patted myself on the back for continuing to run while on vacation, I will admit to a 4-day drought preceding the vacation. Saturday night (June 27) I attended a bachelorette party where we were hammered before sundown and the first to arrive at a kareoke bar in the city (neither of which I can say is a particularly great indicator of a successful night out, though it was fun).

Naturally on Sunday morning I was somewhat hungover, which could only be cured by IHOP pancakes, hash browns, and a nap. After I roused from sleep I had to rally and attend a wedding reception (couple had eloped) where I found myself powerless in resisting the bride and groom's insistence on taking shots at the bar. Monday morning brought another hangover and overwhelming feeling of sloth, and consequently no exercising.

Tuesday morning I was still feeling tired from two hard nights out and thus I decided against getting up to run before work (once again . . . man, this blog is really losing the fight against the dynamic duo of drinking and hangovers). Wednesday was much of the same, actually I can't remember why I didn't work out before work, I'll just go ahead and assume it was lethargy.

But I'm glad to say I'm back on track, having gone for a 29-minute run this morning before work. It was nice and cool out so that was a huge plus. But I was sad to not be doing it on Ocean Blvd with a salty ocean breeze blowing while I passed myriad bikers, runner, and walkers who were also enthused about exercising on vacation.

Still Lazy...

So last week I pledged to not take more than 1 day off in a row. That lasted until this past weekend (shocker) when I decided to sleep in on Saturday morning then was terribly hungover on Sunday. On Saturday I did play a game of kickball, which I know I already slammed as not being exercise. Except at our game we only had 7 people so I pitched and got to kick about 4 or 5 times. Not that those are good cardio or anything, but it was ridiculously hot so I sweat a lot and my right arm was sore on Sunday. So it felt like a workout even if it really wasn't. But then I proceeded to not do anything on Sunday or Monday. So really, I took off 3 days in a row... and I wonder why I have huge thighs...

F You, Weather.com!!

Yesterday (Thursday) I brought clothes to work so I could get a workout in at lunch. It had been raining and kinda gross in the morning, so I had planned to use the gym in our building. But by 12:30 pm the weather had cleared and the sun was shining. Hmm, maybe I'll go for a run outside instead, I thought. I opened weather.com to see if it was going to rain again. I looked at the details for the afternoon and this is basically what I saw:

Time Chance of Precipitation
1 pm 0%
2pm 0%
3pm 5%

So I decided to run outside for 30 minutes. It would sure beat 30 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical in the small, pale green gym in the basement of our building. I put on a Led Zeppelin playlist to make the run's theme "Let the Led out Thursday."

A minute after I got outside I felt little light raindrops on my arms. Ah well, it's probably just a little drizzle, I told myself. So I started my run. The drizzle kept up and gradually turned into a steady, light rain. By this point I was already on the trail, 8 minutes in, but it was rather refreshing so I kept on. By the time I hit my turnaround point the rain was coming down hard and steady, my shirt was soaked. Luckily my shirt was green and not white; unluckily it was cotton and not synthetic. It started coming down harder and thunder rumbled. F'ing weather.com!! Seriously, you said 0% chance of precipiation. Even if you had said 5% at this time I would understand. But 0%!! Thanks a lot.

At this point I had no choice but to keep going until I got back to the office. My iPod was in an armband case that I had tucked under my sleeve. I thought that was enough, but when I was about 4 minutes away from returning to the office my iPod froze on "Ramble On." I tried to turn it off, but it wouldn't respond. I took the armband off my arm and tucked the whole thing into my sports bra. Around this same time the skies opened up and downpoured right on me. Water was gushing down the streets and along the curbs into the drains. My pants were so soaked and heavy they started slipping off my hips. I had to stop and pull them up over my ass so at least I wouldn't be half naked while running through the storm.

I finally got back to the office, literally dripping wet. I had to ring my pants out before I went into the building. My shoes were squeaking as I walked down the hallway into the locker room. I had planned on showering anyways so it didn't really matter that my hair got wet, but it made my clothes and shoes a pain in the ass to handle. I put everything in a plastic CVS bag, I estimated the wet stuff weighed around 7 pounds. My iPod still wasn't working an hour later, and still isn't working the next day (I'm taking steps to dry it out). So a sincere thanks to weather.com for their accurate weather update!

Feeling some results...

...but not where I want them. Although I noted last night that I've been lazier on paper than I feel in real life, I am feeling some results. Unfortunately, it's not in my ass. It's in my stomach. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to be seeing some results somewhere, but it's not necessarily where I need to see them. My stomach has always looked relatively flat since I have an ample chest and a thick, curvacious lower body. My butt, on the other hand, has never looked relatively small or flat next to anything, except maybe Mrs. Turnblad.

In addition to running and working out I recently started following the Flat Belly Diet. It's not really a strict diet, it's based on incorporating monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) like olives, dark chocolate, avocado, nuts, and oils into your daily meals. To me this seemed like a realistic (not to mention delicious) plan. I've tried hard to follow recipes and suggestions from the website and found I have an easier time with breakfast and lunch than I do later in the day, especially since I've had a few dinner engagements lately.

So I'm not sure if it's the running or the diet that's slimming down my stomach, but I definitely feel a trimmer than I have in the last few months (which isn't saying much, since I've been soft and flabby lately). I decided to add some supplemental exercises after my runs to target my legs. After the last three runs (so last Wed, Fri, and Sun) I did some sets of squats, lunges, and leg lifts. I want to get in the habit of doing these at least three to four times a week in the hopes that it will encourage fat burning in my lower body. If I can continue to feel slimmer in my stomach AND somehow figure out how to stimulate the slimming of my thighs and ass I will be stoked!

Quasi-Lazy

Things have been crazy busy in the last week, but I managed to get some decent runs in, but can't say the same about blog entries. Since I left off at the end of last week, here is my activity log ...
Sat (June 6) - ran 35 minutes
Sun - played soccer
Mon & Tues - rest (lazy)
Wed - ran 30 min
Thurs - played kickball, but we all know that doesn't count as legit exercise so let's just say it was a day off
Fri - ran 38 min
Sat - hungover, ate McDonald's breakfast, mmm
Sun - ran 32 min and played soccer

So in sum, I exercised 5 of 9 days. It seemed like more in my head. A new goal for me is not to take off more than 1 day in a row. I am still working on what race I will run at the end of the summer, once I know the distance I will start building up to long runs. I also want to do some speed workouts, though I'm not sure that will help in slimming down the ass.

On a Streak!

I started a streak: ran for 2 days in a row!! Yeah! Unfortunately, I see it coming to an end today (Friday). I am going into work early and have a very busy workday ahead of me so I'll be unable to get in a 30 minute run at lunchtime like I have for the past two days. I do intend to go to the gym tomorrow morning, though.

Update on the hip: it bothered me a lot on the first run (outside), especially when I stopped and started. Yesterday I ran on the treadmill and the hip felt fine and didn't click at all. Maybe it's back to normal? I can hope. For now the record is 2 days in a row, I'll try to beat that in this coming week...

The Last Few Days

Well, it's been almost a week since my last post. If I had posted every day up until now this is how they would have read:

Friday
Tired in the morning, didn't get up to workout. Went to meet friends right after work, started drinking then went to a concert.

Saturday
So beautiful out, but I was so hungover. Laid around nursing my headache until noon or 1pm, went grocery shopping, then did more lounging in the afternoon. Then to another concert at night, no drinking this time.

Sunday
Another gorgeous day! And I wasn't hungover! But I had a soccer game at night, so I took advantage of my free time earlier in the day to clean the house. Housework burns calories, right? Played my game at night and felt really out of shape. Also bought new headphones today.

Monday
Sore from soccer. I think something is wrong with my left hip. Will monitor it and see if it continues.

Tuesday
Very tired in the morning, couldn't get out of bed. Had class right after work so no exercise. sigh...

Back On the Trail

Nine days is too many to go without running. That's how much time I took off from my half marathon (did play bball and soccer in the interim) and it was wayyy too much. I was huffing and puffing out on the trail yesterday, granted I did go out a little faster than I should have. My stomach also felt much flabbier and jiggled more than just nine days ago.

Then about 9 minutes into my run I got the itch--the itch that shows up after I take a hiatus from running. It's like my skin is lashing out at me for making it sweat so much. Yesterday it was only on the sides of my torso, as opposed to my entire torso, thighs, and arms. So that was a plus I suppose.

The other dagger on the run is that only one of my headphones is working. So when I turned around at the halfway point I switched ears to give each one equal time. I think the left one might have stopped working because it got sweat-logged. It sounds gross, I know, but I sweat a lot when I run and it always runs down my temples into my ears. For some reason the left ear seems to get more saturated than the right ear, so I'm wondering if this is connected to the left headphone not working. In any case, a new set of headphones will be purchased this weekend.

Despite the rustiness, itching, and broken headphones I got in a good 37 minute run. A good start to getting rid of the badunkadunk.

First Day, First Failure

So when I said I was starting my training today, what I actually meant was that I would wake up at 6:10am, hear the rain pouring outside my window, consider driving to the gym to run on the treadmill, roll over and fall back to sleep, and finally get up at 7:40am when it was too late to fit in a run.

After I blew off my run and slept in I proceeded to eat a brownie for breakfast (after my Cheerios and banana, but still). My lunch wasn't much better - a bowl of turkey chilli and chips & queso from Cal Tort. I had class tonight so a post-work workout was out of the question.

Although this post may seem useless since I didn't actually do anything today, it has highlighted two of my biggest challenges: motivation and eating decisions. I'm hoping that writing this blog will be motivation enough to start getting out of bed in the morning to run. If not, I'll have to change the theme to be "Sleeping My Ass Off" and that'd just be pathetic.

The Background of my Backside

Like my brown eyes and penchant for Lifetime movies, I got my ass from my mother. Or, more accurately, from her Italian family. All the women in my mom's family have junk in their trunk and what I like to call birthing hips. My younger brother prefers the endearing term thunder thighs. I've read that we're actually fortunate, that we'd be way worse off if we stored the fat around our stomachs, which is more harmful to your heart. But this offers little consolation when I'm shopping for pants.

I grew up an active kid, playing all kinds of sports through my high school years. I continued with field hockey in college, which guaranteed a minimum of two hours of exercise every day in the fall, and a steady schedule of workouts throughout the rest of the year. This lifestyle allowed me to eat liberally, without much concern for weight gain (until I started binge drinking, but that's a subject for a different blog entirely). But now that I hit 25 and spend 9 hours a day in an office, I've found I can't be as liberal as I used to be. Or, rather, my increasingly tighter jeans and growing muffin top have let me know that I can't be as liberal as I used to be.

My solution: I will attempt to run my ass off.

I started running races after I graduated college so I would have a goal to work toward. My first half marathon was great, I finished in just over two hours. But I also trained a lot. I've subsequently run five distance races (ten milers and half marathons), but never with the same success as my first race. I just completed a half marathon on May 17 at the sloth's pace of 2 hours and 18 minutes. In the race photos my thighs look like two gigantor blobs in too-tight spandex pants jiggling along the course, nothing vaguely resembling runner's legs. I'm sure if I asked people who don't know me to guess--based soley on the size of my thighs--my finish time for 13.1 miles, they would pick something closer to 3 hours.

This August I will run either a half marathon or ten miler in Chicago. The race still to be determined, depending on the availability of my hosts in Chicago. Tomorrow I will begin my training for the August race, with the dual hope of getting back to the 2-hour pace and slimming down my haunches and big booty.