Thanks to everyone who has sponsored my upcoming 5K race so far. I’m about a quarter of the way to my goal of $3000. If you’d like to become a featured sponsor and get your link in the right rail, you can donate at least $20 here until race day, August 15, 2009. All donations benefit the National Headache Foundation.

Run Lazy

My Basement Gym

Airplane Extenders

ResuMAYDAY

Yogurt Beats Cake

…Things are going to start happening to me now

Gravel and Rust

Booth or Bust

Fat Girl, Thin Dress

Cupcakes Take the Cake

Why the Weight?

This morning I completed the first day of week 3 of my Couch to 5K training. I like using the Podrunner Intervals MP3s while I’m running because they make a beeping sound when I’m supposed to switch from running to walking or back again. I’ve done interval training in the past by using my watch, which only makes me focus on the time. I’ll be huffing and puffing and look at my wrist to see I only have 30 seconds left…and then I check again and I have 20 seconds [...]

• Continue reading "Thanks for my 5K sponsors! You can still join the list"

Were you aware that this week is National Headache Awareness week? You were? Wow, you’re really aware of your awareness weeks. Good for you! I am excited about headache week because now I get to be like all those people who run around talking about their diseases to raise money, like Michael J. Fox for Parkinson’s or Christina Applegate for breast cancer. I never had a favorite charity because I never had a disease that came with one. (There is no chicken pox foundation.) But now that I have a chronic headache, I’ve basically been assigned my own charitable cause! Yippee!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve entered the Midsummer’s Night Run 5K race that takes place in Lexington, Kentucky on August 15. The race is organized by Central Baptist Hospital, but there is no official fund raising program associated with the event. So, I am launching my own sponsorship campaign to benefit the National Headache Foundation. All the money will be donated to programs devoted to headache education and research, so maybe one day they’ll figure [...]

• Continue reading "Attention all do-gooders: Sponsor my 5K race and get a link"

I used to exercise because I knew it was the only thing keeping the world from exploding. I would dash onto the trail immediately after work so I would have enough day light to complete my runs. I would lift weights as I watched Good Morning America. I did Pilates so much I found myself able to roll backwards and then leap up off the mat. I did this for months and months after I got my horrible, awful, no-good headache. I did it because I knew if I didn’t the universe would collapse and we would all die, because it was only the force of me exercising five times a week that was preventing total world annihilation.

But after about 8 months of the pain and the pathetic push-ups, I stopped. The running shoes stayed in the closet and my Pilates mat stayed in the corner and my weights just stayed put, period. And the world did not explode. The universe did not end. This was a very bad thing to discover. I needed to [...]

• Continue reading "Technically it should be “Loveseat to 5K”"

When I look at the Indy 500 Mini-Marathon finisher’s medal that is hanging on my bulletin board, I fondly remember the race, particularly the part where I got to stop running. While I enjoyed the cinnamon crunch bagels and the thrill of accomplishment, I’ve decided not to run the race again this year. I wiffled and waffled for awhile, but I knew if I ran it again it would just be for show since my heart is not in it. Been there, done that, got the medal.

I greatly admire people who take up long distance running, but it is not necessary to run half-marathons to stay in shape, nor is it the best possible way to lose pounds. I actually gained weight when I was training last year. Right now I’d rather focus on maintaining my current weight and perhaps losing another 10-20 pounds, so half-marathon training is not consistent with those goals. I know some people do lose weight when training, but I’m not one of them.

Instead, my personal health goal for this year [...]

• Continue reading "Do run, run…or, um, don’t"

I had intended to run for 20 minutes but decided 18 minutes was good enough because otherwise I’d be scraping my lung off the carpet after I threw it up. I was a little disappointed with myself. It was only 6 months ago that I ran a half-marathon and now I am struggling to run a half-5K. If you don’t use it, you lose it, unless of course we’re talking about weight, in which case you gain it.

“I don’t know how you do that,” said the 50-or-60-something man who was running on the treadmill next to me in my apartment’s exercise room. In light of the current economic crisis, I’ve decided to ditch my YMCA membership and use my complex’s resources instead. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that no one is using the elliptical machine when I want it and remind myself that a little patience will save hundreds of dollars a year.

“I don’t know how *I* did that,” I replied as I stepped off the treadmill to stretch. I’d interspersed my running [...]

• Continue reading "You can always impress someone"