It is 1998 on my ipod.

Week 2 of the corporate challenge is already off to a solid start for me. I'm doing much better with fitting my runs in, remembering to hydrate throughout the day and perhaps most importantly, 82 degrees feels like a cool fall night compared to last week's consecutive 90+ degree days. In short, life is good and I'm crusing along according to the training plan (first six weeks here).

So since I haven't dry heaved while running for a few days (totally just jinxed myself), let's move on to more important matters. Running music and playlists. I'm always curious as to what other people listen to while running and more often than not I'm surprised by the answers. I for one cannot run to a slow song. I need a quick pace, it needs to be loud and bonus points if it's a song I can easily lip synch to while running (a habit I am completely unable to break). Also, gangsta rap more often than not finds its way onto the playlists...something about bitches and hos just really gets me moving.

However, the most recent playlist I've been listening to for most of the summer has very few current songs [except for Drake, who is my new music obsession] and instead is taking me back in time to middle school. Here is a sampling:

-Semisonic - Singing in My Sleep, Never You Mind, Completely Pleased, This Will be My Year
-Everclear - So Much for the Afterglow, Amphetamine, Heroin Girl, Santa Monica, Nehalem, Sunflowers
-Third Eye Blind - Losing a Whole Year, 10 Days Late, 1000 Julys, Graduate, Burning Man
-Counting Crows - Mr. Jones, Angels of the Silences
-Hootie and the Blowfish - I Go Blind, Only Wanna Be With You
-Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy With it
-LFO - Every Other Time


After seeing all these hanging out together, some thoughts:

*Everclear/Third Eye Blind were the angsty teen phase...I still remember driving my first car and blasting the cassette tapes in fits of MOM DOESN'T GET IT rage. Now they're great for taking my frustrations out by pounding out a few miles on the pavement. Old age.
*I'm going to sound like an idiot, but I honestly never put two and two together of what 10 Days Late was about until googling the song lyrics just now...uh awkward. Go on everyone, download songs about unintended pregnancies! Makes for great running music! Seriously though, it is a good song, all possible schsmortions aside.
*Semisonic was so much more than just Closing Time.
*Counting Crows will never leave my ipod.
*Will Smith...don't pretend like you don't want to do the gettin jiggy with it dance right now.
*LFO...better known for Summer Girls, but this song has the classic lyric "keep it up homegirl don't you quit you know the way you scream is the ultimate."

So now that I've divulged all my guilty pleasure running songs...spill. What are yours? Are you able to run to just about anything? Or do you need an upbeat tempo to keep you going?

Heat and Humidity Disgusts Me

I don't know what changed in the last year, but I am convinced my body's core temperature has changed. I am now permanently overheated. This creates problems (as you can imagine) when running in the extreme heat and humidity we've been dealing with as of late. During the winter I would tag my posts with "I can't wait to run in a wifebeater and shorts again." Hell no. I would run 16 miles right now (I'm trying to summon the energy to shower, to give you an idea of my current lack of motivation state) if it meant I could do so in weather requiring gloves, a hat and enough Under Armour to outfit a third world country.

This has made my runs...interesting. I've been trying to run slower to let my body deal with the heat, but sometimes that's not even enough. I end up having to take walk breaks and occasionally spitting out phlegm (gross, I know) just to be a be able to breathe enough. And then there are days like Tuesday, when I end up just completely wanting to curl up in a ball and die rather than finish my run. After 3 miles of dry heaving and spitting I nearly had a stomach disaster in the last mile, coming thisclose to puking outside of a Dairy Queen. The only thing that stopped me was seeing the family of four hanging out in their four door sedan, enjoying what they thought was going to be a lovely after dinner treat. The poor kids' eyes got as big as saucers when I dodged into the side street and bent over. So I didn't. But the result didn't make my stomach much happier.

The biggest frustration is that I know what I need to do...hydrate more, further in advance. I need to spread my extreme water consumption over the course of the day, not chug a gallon when I get home from work and hope for the best. So after three days of the corporate challenge, that's where I stand...trying to remember how to prepare for running in the heat. Is it fall yet?

Run Til I'm Fun

Remember how this thing all started. Running til I'm fun. Getting rid of my frustrations. That's kinda how today's run went. Day three of the corporate challenge and I'm finally remembering why I love this so much. Because some how, some way, running calms me down.

It's not always long lasting, but at least for a few moments I really feel at piece. My runs are like venting. They start out strong and I'm essentially sprinting and fuming, running to angry rap songs and cursing along with them. Then I hit a point where I stop caring, things come into perspective and I start to feel better. I'm either getting tired and start focusing on running, or my inner rant ends and something else grabs my attention. Some days its other runners or cute apartments. Somehow I find myself playing the "I could totally live in this neighborhood" game. Or I should come back here with so and so, they would love this park. Everything just calms down and I finally understand what it's all about. Essentially it's all about me (god isn't that the slogan for one of those weird tshirts that everyone rocked in junior high).

Anyway, one of the things I'm known for is "Ange time." It drives everyone I know crazy, but essentially I cut myself off from the outside world. I shut off my phone and stop checking email. I seclude myself and just do whatever I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I watch crappy tv, sometimes I go shopping by myself, sometimes I cook, sometimes I just sit in my bed and zone out. It's weird, it's frustrating for others, but I love it. You see I'm constantly talking to people. I email and text and talk on the phone and bbm and tweet and facebook and blog and well you get the point. I'm in a constant state of communication and sometimes I just love to stop everything.

But I've noticed that whenever I'm running, my desire for Ange time slips away. I'm content. I get my peaceful state of being alone. I get lost in my thoughts. And today I finally starting feeling all of that. And while the run itself was slow and sloppy, the "Ange-time" was amazing.

I'm probably taking a rest day tomorrow, but I'll get my last run of the week in over the weekend and of course I'll keep you all updated.

Also, in case you all don't already know. Co-blogger sarah turns 24 tomorrow (Thursday). So feel free to shower her in happy birthday comments :)

Training Plan - November Half Marathon

First off, I would like to state that Day 1 of the Corporate Challenge kicked me in the ass. Not because I couldn't complete my run, but because I was caught in a monsoon (rain whipping my face, blowing sideways, the whole nine yards) and was 2 miles away from home. And was wearing a hanes white t-shirt. And running shorts. And a yellow sports bra. And had to stop back at the gym to grab my keys and water bottle out of the locker room. I literally wrung out my shirt before entering the gym, and then continued to sprint home to minimize my appearance as a wet tshirt contest entrant. And then threw my 1.99 hanes tee into the garbage can before even entering my house. Not even worth trying to salvage.

Moving on to the training plan....I had high hopes of having a fancy excel sheet set up, but sorry, no time for that, you're getting links. As of today I have 16 weeks to train for the half, which is the same length of time that I trained for the full last year (oh how the mighty have fallen). I'll be taking the first six weeks of an intermediate training plan to try and get myself back into shape, and then I'm going to segway into a 10 week advanced training plan (I will break 2:00 hours this time around. Or puke three times instead. Either/or).

A disclaimer: I am going to be adjusting these schedules as I see fit, but this is the general overview. For example, no way in hell I am going to a) find a grassy area to run in, or b) run hard five days a week. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I will also let you know the conversion for meters to miles, because I have already spent far too much time doing that and wouldn't want any other victims of the American school system to suffer the same math related trauma.

First six weeks here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-10-week-150-plus-half-marathon-schedules/99.html

Next 10 weeks here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-10-week-sub-150-half-marathon-schedules/97.html

This week (so far): Monday: 3 miles, Tuesday: 4 miles. Yep, already flip flopped those days. That's how its going to be.

Day One

Today was the first day of the corporate challenge and I'll admit that I was a little intimidated. The run was only 3 miles, but based on my running as of late, I wasn't too confident. Luckily everything worked out alright, but it definitely was not my best run.

The weird thing about the whole "corporate challenge" is my mindset. When I was training for Newport running was my first priority. Seriously, I'd turn down Sox tickets, skip out on drinks with friends, and wake up at the crack of dawn. Now its something that I think of as a perk. Like omg my day was great I actually fit in a run. I guess before running was like eating and now it's more like having the time to watch a show on tv.

What I want desperately is for the challenge to fix my running mindset. I want to plan my runs like I plan my meals, think of them as essential again and drop everything for the run, not the other way around.

But hopefully I'm on my way. For now it's off to bed. One step closer to getting my "umba" back.

Yea I'll have to explain that tomorrow

July

Dear God. I have no words for how insane the last month has been. Pretty much the minute I hit "post" on the last entry, I completely fell out of the running groove again. For the most part I blame that on the schedule of events taking place in my life for the past several weeks...I've just been in a permanent state of busyness (is that a word? I almost spelled it with an "i" and then realized that is BUSINESS, a very different word than what I'm looking for, and then started hearing ludacris singing BIZNASS in my mind.....this is why I shouldn't drink coffee at 9 pm) and have been letting little things get in the way and/or telling myself I'll run the treadmill but in reality not really letting that pan out.

July is normally a crazy month for me thanks to the stork having delivered myself and both of my sisters within three weeks of one another. Throw in my dad's birthday and you have four family birthdays in July, resulting in GIANT meals every 7-10 days, followed with copious amounts of cake and ice cream and booze. Toss in visits from friends, family, a 21st birthday celebration, a 36 hour weekend trip to DC, and you have my current state of permanent fullness and a complete lack of running stamina. It's been so hot and humid, so I've been trying to run on the treadmill. Always a bad idea, I hate the treadmill more than anything, and get so bored that I crank it up to 7.8 at a 2.0 incline and tell myself that .80 miles at that completely unmanageable pace is equivalent to the six mile runs I was cranking out several weeks ago. Uh, not quite.

So! After talking with Ange, we agreed we were on the same page with needing to re-commit to our illegitimate love child, aka long-distance running. I am signed up for a half marathon in November, and am attempting to peer pressure Ange to do it with me...at the bare minimum she's doing the training with me. We have deemed this the "Corporate Challenge." No particular reason (although we both are employed by corporations of some sort, so that part seemed fitting), but we do better when we have plans that have names. It makes it seem more legit. So here we go...back at it and attempting to regain where we once were. G2 and ice baths, here I come.

Tomorrow: the training program. Get excited, people. Get excited.

I guess I fell off the wagon

So I haven't blogged in a while. Probably because I haven't ran in a while. A year ago I was banging out 10 milers and feeling great. Today I ate a gluten-free bagel with bacon and cream cheese, a vat of gluten free pasta salad and hot wings, which I "burned" off with a 1.75 mile run and 20 minutes of pilates. So as you can probably guess, my fitness goals have been at a fast decline.

To top it all off last week I was hit-and-run-style fat attacked. Walking home from a networking event in Cambridge with a rather thin co-worker, we stopped so she could to switch into flip flops and I could take off my cardigan and some random man out of no where said "keep your clothes on - you're both fat." Now the girl I was with was very small, and I am by no means "get called out on the street" fat, so I know it shouldn't phase me. But seriously? A girl skips a few weeks of running a now gets fat-assaulted on the street. WTF?!?

But we're getting back on track - at least I hope. Sarah will share the details, I'm just along for the ride, but don't worry I'll be logging my journey here.

More on this tomorrow. It's good to be back!