Pity Party

Please join me if you please as my mind is back at week 1.

Things that made my run/walk tough today...

• Its been at least a week since my last run
• I have been sick from jet lag and something I must have caught on the plane
• For the last 3 days I have only been laying and standing as I can not sit in a chair due to a pinched sciatica nerve (self diagnosed) I think I did it on my 24 hours of siting while flying
• I have only eaten Yogurt and Soup for the past 2 days and the cream of broccoli cheese soup that I kept burping up and forcing not to puke wasn't helping anything
• Its 96 degrees and when there was shade it covered all of my body except my head and the sun would shine into my sunglasses
• A wasp landed on my lip, I hit it off and stepped on it all while running
• I had the wrong socks on (Karyn was right- socks do matter) and my balls of my feet burn
• My feet fell asleep
• My water bottle was gone before the first 30 minutes was over
• My water bottle fanny pack thingy rubbed a raw spot on my stomach
• Its Halloween

But lets look at the positives

• I did go out today
• I ran for the first 25 minutes without stopping
• I only allowed myself to walk a minute at a time and then made myself run then walk then run then walk
• Im proud to post 53:32 mins and 534 Kcals burned

Tomorrow is suppose to be a rest day but I am going to ride my bike to keep my blood moving and to get my mind back into liking to work out again.

Lisa G is NOT Running

With the Jet Lag, not sleeping and my body not knowing what is going on, I am taking yet another rest day. Ugh! This is the worst round of Jet Lag yet, the nausea is killing me and not letting me sit up for a long time without having to lay back down.

It is said that working out helps with the Jet Lag, but first you have to muster up the energy to do that and to be honest I do not have any muster in me.

I will start again hopefully tomorrow. I'm also hoping it won't send me back a week in training. I am going to stick with the plan as is and run the 110 minutes this weekend at some point or at least try and see how far I get.

I have a lot of Halloween parties to be part of this weekend too but I am thinking if I drink a little bit, it will help me to sleep and then I can start the Lisa G is running again.

I will keep you posted and Have a Happy Halloween!

Massage turned into a 5K run

Greetings from Jakarta.
I decided to take the last 2 days off of training only because my body was and is on the verge of telling me to f- off. 
With that I decided I would treat myself to a $24 1hour reflexology spa Massage. (yes that cheap- everything is cheap even in a 5 star hotel with non-potable water) Well when I called the spa, they didnt speak english so I thought I made an appointment for 8:15am. When I got down there I found out they opened at 9am and I didnt have an appointment after all.

I have 2 golden rules when on a trip for work (aka running the events)
1. Dont eat shrimp- I have had many planners down after eating shrimp the night before the event at the hotel- so I will not eat it!
2. Dont go for a spa appointment because everyone seems to have a radar and tries to contact you the entire hour you are trying to relax.
This was probably God's way of having me stick to golden rule #2.

Anyway, after trying to speak english to the non-speaking english spa attendant, I decided to forgo the massage and go for a run in what they call a fitness room. First I had to walk past 2 naked Asian men as the men's locker room was wide open and after I came down from that shock I found my way to the ancient treadmill.
I couldnt figure out the treadmill and I saw the button 5K so I pushed that and ran for 38:16, 466 Kcals burned. So realistically I did a 5K in 38Mins. Yay me!

I did not bring water with me and below is what they offered for the thirsty worker outters. Based on the fact that in our hotel rooms in the shower and above the sink it clearly states Non Potable Water- Do Not Drink Water it even has a cup and faucet with a universal red circle with a line in the middle so I am sure this water cooler was not reversed osmosis OR purified.  I took my chances on possibly dying from dehydration.

I am off to Singapore the country closest to American Culture, food and safety. I will run again tomorrow!

PS the guy in the room next to me is smoking and its seeping into my room BARF!!!

Running in Manila

Greetings from across the world.

As promised, I am continuing with my training (be proud).
I thought running period while traveling would be a challenge and that running on a treadmill would be even tougher, but when you get a good nights rest and have a view like this... it makes it very easy to be motivated and day dream OR in my case look for sea creatures to appear- didnt see any!

Yesterday I ran for 40mins, I would have stats but I didnt realize the machine only let me go for 30mins at a time and it was in Kilometers. So I am assuming I ran for about 3 miles. Yay me!

Today I needed to run 60 mins. I went down to the gym fighting it all the way and having my mind game until I saw a Marketing Executive from our company on the treadmill and I went right next to her to show her who runs. I forgot she doesn't wear deoderant and once I got passed the normal hotel smell of fish and waste burning plus the B.O, I was on my way and the time really flew by.

I also I figured out that I could change the Kilometers to Miles on the treadmill. I also brought my blackberry so after the first 30 mins I entered my stats into my phone and then again after the last 30 mins. Therefore; I am proud to report I ran for 60 mins- 4.64 Miles (12:49 mile) and burned 553 calories. Not too shabby.

Tomorrow is an early morning and the gym will not be open at 4am. There is no way in hell I am running on the streets of Manila- I can see the headlines now- American girl killed in Manila while training for the Phoenix 1/2 Marathon.

I will take my well deserved rest day tomorrow and pick it back up in Jakarta- hopefully the view from the gym will be as nice!

Group Runs are Fun

Saturday I found the courage to go meet my cousin at Sole Sports at 6am for a group run. She wanted to run 12 miles and said she would run with my for my 25mins and take off with the group.

I arrived at 5:55am and there were about 30 people already there. I sat in the car for a second because I was worried about bringing my fanny pack water thingy but I noticed a few people who were getting out of their cars with theres and immediately felt good about bringing mine and relieved at the same time. If I didnt have my water bottle full of Heed I probably wouldnt make it.

I got out of the car hoping to see Barb and I kind of hid out observing all of the people. They ranged from young to old to fit to not so fit to tired to super enthusiastic stretching guys. I found it pretty cool that the store was open and they provided water jugs for us to fill our bottles, allowed anyone to keep their keys etc at the counter and they have showers for anyone to use free of charge.

I waited for a few minutes and there she was- My cousin Barb.. I saw her and said "surprise" we both said we didnt sleep the night before because if we have something going on in the morning, we cant fall asleep.

Anyway we didnt have time to chit chat as a guy announced that they were leaving so Barb put her keys at the counter and we were off. We started running and the group went ahead but I think I was going at a good pace because I was hurting right away. That hurt soon passed as we reached the canal and began running on the trails. We talked, well Barb talked more because I cant do both yet and the time really went by fast.

We hit the 25min mark and ran a few more to get to a place I could turn around AND to my surprise Barb said she would run back with me the 25min and then turn around again and finish off her 12mile run by herself.
That was so sweet and nice, I think she secretly knew I would have walked if she didnt go with me and she was right! BUT as I turned the corner, I continued to run without my huge supporter. I will admit, I did stop and walked a little until some of the people from the group started passing me and I couldn't allow that.

So I am proud to say I ran 57min- 512Kcals and approx 4.9 miles with a group!

I will agree the group runs are much easier and will probalby do them every saturday from here on out because when I went today it was a total mind game again, but I was able to log 42:11 and 440Kcals burned.
Im assuming I did not do an 11min mile so I only probably ran 3 or so miles. Still good in my mind

Tomorrow I leave for Asia for 12 days. I do have my schedule all mapped out and ready to follow. It will all depend on the Jet lag, schedule of events and how I feel. -Wish me luck!

I will keep you posted!

Its the Carbs!

In a previous post I indicated I had gained 7lbs. I thought I was losing my mind and there was something seriously wrong with me. So I went to the drs asking what was wrong as I am following Weight Watchers and running 4 days a week and am gaining weight.

When I told her about everything she said it might be the carbs and that a lot of people who join weight watchers gain weight because they eat what they want as long as its within the points range and a lot of what we eat are carbs. She wanted to rule out everything and after a battery of tests, it ends up Im perfectly healthy (I was going to say normal, but thats not true haha) and that it must have been the carbs. She advised me to follow the South Beach diet- not to an extreme but to cut out a lot of my carbs and I should see a difference.

And wouldnt you know it, 3 days of very limited carbs I am back down 6lbs to my starting weight.. Hopefully if I continue the running and low carb diet, I will be at my high school weight. What? One can dream...

Tomorrow is a 50 min run and I am attempting to run with a group at 6am... very scary!

I know I can.. but my mind isnt ready today.

Yesterday I met my cousin at Pecos park at 6:45am. This used to be the park that we would do boot camp at 5:30am in the freezing desert winters. Once that was over we used to meet there by ourselves and run/walk until a creepy homeless guy was there watching us and then we stopped going all together.

Anyway yesterday we RAN and talked the entire time 42:11 to be exact and 512Kcals burned. I did it again and proved that I CAN run but always liked the excuse of I can't so I didn't have to. I was so excited that I almost made the next step and committed to a group run on Saturday.. Still thinking about it! Not sure why I am so afraid of the group.

Well today my mind was not there at all AND it was a Bike ride..UGH what is happening. I'm also very sore - my legs and my left knee hurt so bad. Plus I'm exhausted I think from working out this much. OH and to top it off I had to ride on the trainer because I had an early meeting and it was too dark to ride outside this morning. But after all those perfectly pathetic excuses I have to say I managed to struggle through 35:48 mins 302Kcall burned (should have been 45-60) on my bike, on the trainer, in the living room, fighting every ache, bad song, mind stopping tactics and boredom.

At least I did something and will NOT get discouraged!
Tomorrow is a rest day and then Saturday- to run with the group or not, that is my question to myself...

We will just have to wait and see!