I hate the end of vacation. Boo.

This weekend I was down at Lake Blackshear in Cordele and I was definitely sad to leave. :( I was supposed to run on Monday morning before I left, but I ended up running Sunday night because I wanted to get it over with haha. But before that I walked 2 miles with my stepmom on Saturday. And on Friday was my Week 6 Day 3 run. So run on Friday, walk on Saturday, run Week 7 Day 1 on Sunday. Oy vey. My legs were not very happy about the walking and then the running hah. But I, once again, employed the old man shuffle to get through the 2.5 miles. So Sunday night I went 2.82 miles in 42:36 minutes (eh, could be better), and burned 406 calories. It was cool to run near the lake because while I was running down the road, you got glimpses of the lake every now and then. The only downer about the run is that the road wasn't always even (which is a given), but especially around the curves in the road it was a bit crazy. So yeah, my left leg from the knee down was on FIRE from just about the beginning. Ugh. But other than that I was happy that I finished. Gotta love the endorphins.

Other than running and walking during the weekend, I went kayaking both Saturday and Sunday, and rode/drove the boat around the lake. My brother is the skier and tuber of the two of us kids, so he did that while I watched. It was fun. :) I also took a hammock down there, so both Saturday and Sunday mornings I was outside on the hammock reading for a while. :) It was quite enjoyable. :) But here are a few pictures of the sunset Friday and Saturday night.

We're almost done! Yay! Then it's just working on time and building up for the 10k! (whenever that may be, of course. :) )

Honk!

Do the shuffle! The old man shuffle, that is.

Soooo yeah...in order to make it through the whole run, I employed the use of the old man shuffle. It was a good idea since lately I have been running out if steam halfway through the run. But I made it haha. I'm not sure of my time and everything because I haven't really looked or been able to upload it. I'm down at Lake Blackshear for the weekend with the fam with no Internet access so yeah. I am excited about running here at the lake on Monday though. :)

Oh! So Thursday I calibrated my Nike+ at the gym's track. It wasn't off too bad so that's a bonus. I was definitely feeling the exercise though. I walked a mile and then ran a mile. Goodness gracious I'm glad I don't have to run every day! My legs were not happy. Hence another reason for the old man shuffle on Friday.

But anyway I'll write in more detail on Monday when I'm back in town. :)

Honk!

i passed the eff out

Yesterday I talked myself out of running in the blazing heat at about 5pm and talked myself into some pizza for dinner with Amanda. Overall a good choice. So I set off for my run at the track around dusk. The run itself was really great. It was one of those runs where you just kept going not really noticing that you were tired or in pain. I ended up finishing around 8:30. The link to my stats is HERE.

The dips at the beginning and the end are my walking laps. And like I said before I didn't notice much of anything as I ran so having that many peaks and valley's in the run kind of surprised me.

Something else that surprised me was that I passed the eff out when I laid down at about 9:30 last night. Next thing I know it is 2:30 am and I've missed 2 texts and 2 IM's from Liz W cuz I missed our Compline via Skype (again, my bad B). Needless to say while Week 6 Day 3 was good, it wore me the heck out.

Today Amanda and I head to Atlanta to visit for the weekend. Hopefully the weekend will include at least one run with Liz Baykur and at least one meal with both Liz Baykur and Liz W. I love you guys and can't wait to see you!

Here is a funny picture I found on the Texts from last night photo roll on flickr.

ugh.

Today was hard for me for some reason. I got really winded pretty quickly, which didn't make me very happy. It was slightly discouraging because I thought I'd be better off since there was walking involved and last week we ran 2 miles without walking. So yeah, I was wrong. Again haha. I wanted to use the walking part to just refuel, shall we say, so that the last half wouldn't be bad. Yeah, it was. I just don't get why I'm so winded! Maybe I should slow my pace back down a bit, but the stubborn side of me doesn't want to because I want to get faster. Such a dilemma. Any suggestions?

Today I ran 2.89 miles, 13:39 pace, and 416 calories. It took about 40 minutes (as of now my wristband thingy doesn't feel like uploading....boo), which is okay, but not the best. I'm really hoping that Friday goes well. I'm gonna need a run that I feel glad about haha. But I wasn't bummed for too long, because as Elle Woods says, "Endorphins make you happy!" Which is true. I was in a good mood when I was done, which I attributed to being glad to being done and still breathing as well as the endorphins.

I've decided that I'm going to start doing yoga. There's a place near Rita's (yay!) that isn't too expensive and it's a 12 week program. I'd go twice a week (my off days), so I think that would help with my muscles not being so sore and just being able to really stretch out a couple times a week. So I'll let you know when that's all official. I've always wanted to do yoga, so I'm pretty excited about it haha.

Here's another picture from Antigua. This was a church that was pretty run down that was near where the marching band was performing for some kids from the elementary school. I thought it was pretty. :)

Honk!

Calibration station

I went to the track today to calibrate my Nike+. After walking a lap and running a lap it seemed a little off still but close enough. The walking was dead on but when I ran a lap it said I did .27 instead of .25. I'm not all that worried.

After I did my calibration I went home and ran around the neighborhood. I'm going to post a mile or 2 mile route on the Nike+ map thing on the website soon. If you haven't gone yet its really cool, other Nike+ users post routes so if you you're looking for a specific distance and don't want to use the track then there they are! Oh I also bought some sunscreen and one of those little pouch things to go on my shoe so it doesn't feel like I'm running on a rock with the Nike+ sensor.

Here is another picture of me from the gorge. It was really awesome and I think would make a fun trip for us to do one day.

Peace

Matt

Nike+ and me

Today was my first day running with Nike+. First off I have to say that I like Nike+ a lot. Or I will once I get it calibrated. I did week 6 day 2 at the track today, so with the warm up lap and cool down lap equaled 11 laps or 2.75 miles. Well Nike+ said I ran 2.93 miles so i think its fair to say it needs to be calibrated.

As for the run itself, not at all bad. I did notice a lot more random pains in the legs and side but they never lasted long. I'll go ahead and give my Nike+ stats but understand that they are a little off: 41:10 mins, 2.93 miles, 14:01 mile pace and 653 calories burned. Now again, not sure about the accuracy. I plan on doing a light run at the track to calibrate tomorrow.

And now a funny dog picture:

OM NOM NOM!

Matt

clever title.

I had a good run!!!! (W6D1) I was really starting to get run down, in all honesty, and a little discouraged. I felt like running was just one more thing I had to do, on top of my scary, time consuming, and exhausting new job. Not only that, but adding an activity that makes me feel like I'm dying because I can't breathe and I have side stitches... well its just not a great motivator. Today though, most of the time, I didn't really notice that I was running. I kinda had to estimate a little bit on my timing, but according to GoogleMaps, I completed 2.6 miles, in 29 or 30 minutes. My iPod did a good job of giving me good running songs, and I didn't really hurt too much today. My right hip does give me a little trouble towards the end, but I'm getting better at stretching so I'm doin ok. ALSO! I ran a little extra so that I could get to run down the big hill, and then not have to run up it again. So that helped the motivation for sure. In the sidewalk, besides the place that says "YOUR MOMM" there is a place that says "LOVE" which just seemed nice and positive for today. I thought it might rain while I was out there, but it didn't.

Anyway, thanks so much for being so continually encouraging. I'm pretty sure I would have given up before today without yall. And obviously I am so so glad I didn't :) Here's to being runners! Cheers!

Tomorrow I work on the floor (and I get to stay on my medsurg floor, which I'm happy about), Thursday I have class (then I will move on to W6 D2), Friday I have to work on the floor again (ack!), and then I should be free for Sat and Sunday, and back to work on the new floor on Monday (scary!!). And that's my life.