Posts Tagged: exercise

Fitness / Health — Comments
23
Nov 09

Course for LA Marathon 03.21.10

Well…wish me luck. I just checked out the details of the map and WOW! That’s a nice chunk o’ LA right there. I can see why people are excited about this course. The race is in 4 months, so it’s time to get serious with training on hills. Just looking at the map, I can see that I’ll have some issues with the Echo Park/Silver Lake area. It’s not too hilly, but it is climb nonetheless for someone like me.


View 2010 LA Marathon Course in a larger map

Of course, I still need to register for the race, buy new shoes & socks, build up my core again and…uh…start back running. The best thing about doing the Great LA Walk is that I now have a glimpse as to what my running time could be. Granted, I’m not a fast runner, but I have my moments. I also won’t be stopping to take photos or sitting down at a restaurant to eat. If I finish with a 7:45 run time, I’ll be happy.

Los Angeles — Comments
22
Nov 09

Great LA Walk ‘09

Yesterday was the 4th annual Great LA Walk. Began by Mike to mark his 10th anniversary in LA, it has grown to hundreds of Angelenos showing up to walk this great city. The walk started at the Shrine Auditorium and ended in Venice Beach. We met at Baja Cantina in Marina Del Rey to celebrate the end of the daylong walk. Below is the slideshow of some of the photos I took and the map route.

Map Route:

Fitness — Comments
4
Aug 09

EA Sports Active: Halfway through the 30-day Challenge

Day 5 - Me doing DDR Universe I splurged on the EA Sports Active back in June after hearing rave reviews. The title was created for the Nintendo Wii and I was eager to compare the ‘game’ to the Wii Fit. Surprisingly, I haven’t taken the time to write about my experiences with the Wii Fit, so I’ll try to squeeze in some thoughts here in comparison with the EA Sports Active.

After you make your profile, you can choose between using preset workouts, creating your own or taking the 30-Day Challenge. It’s clear from the title that I chose the last option. I first set my 30-Day Challenge in June, but due to an injury and general busy-ness, never completed it. I decided to start over and stick with it as much as possible.  When you do the Challenge, you’re given a calendar that tells you went your next workout day and  it gives you days of rest. July 21st was my first day back below are my thoughts on the first half of this Challenge.

Continue reading →

Fitness — Comments
29
May 08

Racing photos are up

Why do I look so short and fat?  I’m not that squashed, I tell ya!  But look at me run!

Fitness — Comments
25
May 08

Brentwood Run 5K

What a good race. Much better run than the Santa Monica Classic, they had drink stands throughout the course. The advertised expo was a nice size with lots of helpful booths. The race was chip timed, so there was no mix up with my bib. Whoever did the Brentwood Run, clearly has more experience than those who did the Santa Monica Classic.

But no matter what the page says, I think this course was a little harder than the SMC. Maybe it was the lack of adrenaline of a first time race or lack of anything interesting to look at, but even though this was a simple loop on a mostly flat course on San Vicente Blvd. it was very trying. The only thing I learned was that Brentwood has way too many coffee shops on one street. There are 2 Starbucks, 2 Coffee Beans, Coral Tree Cafe, Peets Coffee and various smaller coffee shops. All in less than a mile area.

I thought that I was going to have to leave the race before we even started. I had been doing stretches and knew my ankle was hurt, but didn’t realize how hurt until I stretched. YEEOOW!!! The heel was so tender, I started crying because the pain was so bad. 5 minutes to race time and I could barely put my foot on the ground. I popped two Aleve, I had the foresight to purchase and waited for the horn.

I did wind up running and was pleased when I hit the 1 mile marker and the timer yelled out 14:23. Whoo-hoo! I was banking on a 17 – 20 mile because of my ankle, so that made me happy. The second mile was not happy. There was a hill involved. And it was a deceptively nice hill. Me and fat ass struggled up that hill. I did try to run a bit on it, but that really hurt my foot. Right before the turnaround was a drink stand. I grabbed a cup and almost died. Grape Gatorade! Why did they hate me? It was like drinking Dimetapp. Bad, bad, bad!

Turnaround came, I started paying attention to the people around me ’cause I was bored. The coral trees aren’t the big draw Brentwood thinks they are. There was a woman who was pretty much walking most of them. Every now and then she’d run. She was there with a friend who was 1/4 of a mile ahead. Every time she got within talking distance of this friend, the friend would take off running. Somehow, her baby in the stroller disappeared and she finally caught up to the friend unencumbered. Wouldn’t you know it, the moment she finally fell in beside the friend, the friend took off. That’s fucked up.

The 2 mile marker came with the guy yelling our 29:30something…damn hill added a minute to my time. Ugh. I made it a goal not to let the 3 old guys walking in front of me to beat me, but they kept running. Assholes. :P Finally, ahead I saw the finish line. I didn’t think that I was ever going to make it. Limping big time, I started into another run/jog. I think I hit the line at 44:38, my watch said I finished in 44:41 and some change. When results are posted (I’m number 248) I’ll know. Oh and when photos are posted, I’ll be sure to share.

UPDATE: Times are posted and here’s mine

Place Div/Tot  No.      Time        Pace  Start    Chip Tm
===== ======== ======== =========== ===== ======== ===========
  751  53/63        248 0:44:59.69 14:31  0:43.65  0:44:16.04

14:31 pace makes me very happy indeed. My ultimate goal is to eventually get that down to 9 min. but for now, on a bum ankle? That’s pretty good.

Fitness — Comments
22
May 08

Born to Run

Look for updates on Monday…I hope it’s hot enough soak in the pool

Fitness / Health — Comments
4
May 08

I’m not dead yet!

Today I ran AND completed–thank you very much–my first race. I ran the Santa Monica Classic 5K/10K. I did the 5K.

First off, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong; I over slept (both alarm clocks did not go off), I couldn’t find my shirt, the kids woke up, the batteries in both cameras were dead, I waited in a long line for parking only to find my permit was for the lot a mile away…and I had to walk back that mile to the start line. The race was to start at 7:30am, I got to the start line at 7:28, and was amazed by the crush of humanity for such a small race. I…uh, didn’t get the race was starting and watched all these people move forward. Some guy told me, “Yeah, that’s the 5Kers.” OH! That’s me! Where was the gun? I wanted a gun!!!

There was no way I was running with all those people around so I started walking. Once we got onto Main St. and the major group of Runners were gone, I started on a small jog. I guess I should mention at this point that I hadn’t run or walked in almost a month because of my knee. My relationship with the gym had dropped to something closer to a booty call. I had been smoking abut a pack and half a day. I also neglected to eat anything this morning becasue I thought that there’d be time to get something before. Oops. For a moment there, I thought I was just going to have to die. Then I saw the mile marker and beamed. That wasn’t too bad. I can do this!

As we turned left onto Colorado, we can see the mass of Runners hitting the finish line. Show-offs. I kept trudging up Ocean Blvd. mainly to get away from this couple running with their two dogs (WTF!?!). As I headed back down Ocean Blvd. we saw the leaders in the 10K coming up with a police escort. Ha! I thought, I’m going to finish the 5K before the 10K people show. Whoo-hoo!

I didn’t do too bad. I was finished around 8:20, so that means I walked/ran 3.2 miles in about 50 minutes. I was banking on completing the race in 1:30, so that was very good time for me. Not bad for an out-of-shape smoker with a bum ankle.

UPDATE: My time didn’t get posted. I didn’t know that the bottom of my race bib was used to scan my results. It looked like a receipt for the t-shirt I got in the mail and I didn’t need an extra t-shirt, so I removed it before I got out of the car. So, beyond my watch (49:53) there’s no record of me even running the race, short of my photos and my aching legs. Sniff. I’m pretty upset over this now.

Fitness / Health — Comments
15
Mar 08

Frustration

Okay…it’s more like anger.

The running thing.

GRRRRRR.

The man sucks.

It’s nearly impossible to get out of the house because of him.  Why?  Because there are two toddlers here and he’s only awake between 1pm and 4am and most of that time he’s eating, working or dicking around.  And dicking around and eating are very important to getting the working part done.

This morning, I got up to go running.  The little boy felt a bit hot, so I was going to leave him here.  Asked the Mr. if he’d stay up so that I can do this, I’d take the little girl with me.  8:30 rolls around and the man is on the sofa sleeping with baby boy cuddled up.  Great.  Only problem is that he was really and truly sleeping.  I wasn’t going to leave baby boy with sleeping dad, so I got the kid ready and we left.

Got to the park and started walking, so far so good…started running, oh wait…the kids want to look at the swimming pool.  Then they wanted to look at the baseball kids, the playground, the ducks, they lake…baby boy started picking friggin’ flowers.  Not to mention the entire time Miss Diva whined and begged for stuff.  45 minutes later, I had run a total of 57 seconds.  57 seconds?    We spent another 20 minutes at one of the playgrounds and then we came home.

I told him,”Dude, this is not going to work.”

Mumble-grumble, “What? I told you you could leave the boy with me.”

Pfffft.  I asked him to get up so that I can go back to the park.  “No.”

No.

He won’t even get up for 20 minutes.

Now…remember back when I say I’m surrounded by non-encouraging people?  He’s their ringleader.  I know this about him.  I’ve always known this about him.  I’m not asking for a “Good job, honey!” or even daily inquiries on what’s going on.  I don’t need, nor want that–in fact, it would probably bug the crap out of me.  What I need is for him to be helpful.  What I need is for him to get out of my way.

About 6 or 7 years ago, unless it affected him directly, I pretty much stopped telling him my plans because of this, what I dramatically call, sabotage.   He’s a perennial roadblock.  You’d be amazed at how stuff he had been talking about for years all of a sudden gets Really Important To Get Done NOW when I’m in the middle of something.   Actually, you probably have someone in your life like that.  I’m lucky in that I can count 9 people I know in my life like that.  It sucks when it’s a friend, it’s hard when it’s a relative, it super blows when you’re married to that person.
Well, I’m off to run the “track” I didn’t want in my tiny backyard.  I love the part where I try to avoid poking my eye out on the lemon tree, running into the fence, and stepping my plants.  I figured that 16 times around equals ~1/4 mile.  Hey, he wanted the track for his cars and has used it maybe 9 times in the past year.  It’s about time it gets some use.

Fitness / Health — Comments
5
Mar 08

These shoes were made for runnin’

asics.jpg

These are my new shoes. Like Ruth, I had to get new trainers. My experience was similar to hers. I went to A Snail’s Pace in Pasadena for my shoes. I heard they had decent prices and figured any store with a running club would have knowledgeable people on staff.  They checked my gait and had me fast walk to get an idea of my pronation, though I could have told her that I’m a severe over-pronator. I’ve known that since I was 11.

I’ve been thinking of doing a run for the past few months. I was never much of a runner, but there’s no reason not to. The training isn’t all that time consuming and it’s something I can easily do. I’m following the 8 WEEKS TO YOUR FIRST 5-K training schedule on Runner’s World website.  I’ve been studying this for the past month and there’s no reason to not start.  Spoke to my doctors who have been telling me to take up running for years, so that was out of the way.   All I needed is a sports bra, shoes and non-cotton clothes.

Now, ya’ll know a sista’s broke.  But I figured that this wasn’t an investment in a hobby, this is an investment in my life.  But damn…those shoes set me back.  So much, that I’m going to have to run in cotton clothes.  Ha!  Actually, I get rashes from sweating (allergic to my sweat) and I get rashes from lycra/spandex mixes (allergic to latex) so I wasn’t looking forward to buying a $50 t-shirt from lululemon.  Then I’m looking at another $50 for a sports bra. Gaah.  Good for me I already have a heart rate monitor and pedometer.  Though I’m am drooling over this piece of gadgetry.

Why are all the healthy things so damn expensive?  It’s bad enough that organic foods and healthy foods are priced so that the poor can not do that, but even participating in running is cost prohibitive.  I mean, sure you can just run and possibly hurt yourself with bad shoes.  But even entering in these 5K races are pretty pricey.  I’ll probably only be able to afford 4 races a year at the rate we’re going.

At any rate, I have my shoes and the DWP is just going to have to bite me regarding my late bill.  Priorities, ya know.

Fitness / Health — Comments
3
Mar 08

Meet me in Santa Monica

I must confess, my destiny’s manifest
In some Goretex and sweats I make tracks like I’m homeless

I just registered to do the Santa Monica Classic 5K to benefit Heal the Bay. I can’t believe I did it. Broke as we are, I went and registered for this thing. Eek!

So…I’m going to run/walk 5K. Me. I’m so excited it isn’t even funny. Tomorrow, I go to get my gait checked. Did you know that it matters? Hijole! Just reading about this running stuff has amused, horrified and awed me. I’m doing an 8 week training for this and then I’ll probably join the Nike Club Run LA when that ramps up.

Yeah runnin down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads
Im runnin down a dream

I need to get a sports bra. Now, if you’ve seen Bert and Ernie, you appreciate just how difficult this will be. Tomorrow I’m going to my specialty store to get fitted. Hopefully, they’ll have something under $50 that fits. Wish me luck on that one. I also need to get some more shoes. Lucky me, I’ve had such problems with my feet (flat arches) and bad ankle, that I’m actually an expert in finding the right trainers. I just need them to be the right price. My current trainers are good enough, but I’m thinking of getting a smaller brace to wear when I run, so I’ll need them to be a little more padded or something.

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn’t get away.

I’m going to do this. I’ll probably bitch and moan and try to give up, but I am going to do this. I have almost no encouragement from anyone I know. I’m surrounded by doubters. I know this and I’ve always managed to ignore them and this won’t be any different.

I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me

Wish me luck.

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