Tag: ‘exercise’
October 10, 2009 at 10:11 am
I finally got my hands on a copy of the November edition of Runner’s World, so now I can scan page 80 and tell you all how and grateful and honored I am to be in it (though I’d be just a teensy bit more grateful if they’d mentioned my book or my blog). I was interviewed for the “How it Feels…” article back in July to tell people what it feels like to run off half your weight. I am pretty much over myself, so I don’t usually mention these things, but I’m really flattered to be included in the same article as people who have run in outer space, broken world records, and run dressed as a Porta Potty. (There’s an idea for my Run Like Hell costume.) Does this mean I’m real runner? I must be! I was in Runner’s World! (The full article can be seen after the jump, at the bottom of this post, by clicking “Continue reading” below.)
When the copy editors were fact checking the article, they sent me […]
October 8, 2009 at 9:03 am
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. It seems pretty easy. I don’t mean to brag, but I have been breathing all my life. However, one of my doctors at the headache clinic I visit has been teaching me how to breathe even better. If you breathe deeply from the diaphragm you oxygenate your blood more quickly and you can reduce tension. It feels pretty silly to be sitting in a doctor’s office breathing in and out like I’m in a Lamaze class, but I do what they tell me and hand them my money.
I was on the treadmill yesterday, running as part of my training for my next race, and I started to concentrate on my breathing. Usually I breathe in for 3 steps and breathe out for 2 at the beginning. Then as I get more tired, I breathe in for 2 steps and breathe out for 1. As I was breathing, I thought about the headache clinic and all the deep breathing I’ve been doing. So I started to breathe deeper, […]
September 21, 2009 at 9:19 am
Unlike my first running of the IrishFest 5K, I didn’t witness an unofficial “Escape The Cops 5K” on my way to the starting line. This year’s race also wasn’t at night like the one two years ago was, so they did not hand out any glow sticks :( But by God, there were bagpipes!
I sat on a folding chair waiting for the race to start, when a thirty-something man in a grey shirt and square-frame glasses came up and said, “Excuse me, but do you know what pace you plan on running?”
“I have no idea,” I told him honestly. I haven’t been tracking the distance I’ve been running while training, just the amount of time I spend running. “Maybe a 12-minute mile pace?” I said optimistically recalling my average pace a year and a half ago.
“Do you mind if I pace off of you? I haven’t run a 5K for almost two years and it would help a lot if I could pace myself with somebody.”
“Sure,” I told him.
“I just thought I’d ask you…because you […]
September 8, 2009 at 9:45 am
Many people have been bemoaning the end of summer, but not I. Summer always feels too hot for me, so I welcome the cool relief of autumn, which is probably why fall is my favorite season. In the past few years, I’ve realized that with fall comes perfect running weather. It’s just chilly enough that I can run in a t-shirt and not become overheated. The sun isn’t beating directly down on me, slowly causing skin cancer. And unlike winter, there is still a fair amount of daylight in the morning and evenings giving me flexibility on when to run.
I like the fitness room in my apartment complex a lot. It’s much nicer than the fitness room at my old apartment, which was located in a carpeted room that looked like it used to be part of the lobby. The new fitness room has mirrors on the walls, more machines, and overhead fans. But whenever I run on the treadmill there I get really hot and sweaty. It’s so much nicer to run outside in […]
August 17, 2009 at 9:53 am
I was number two in the 5K last weekend!
Sadly, this does not refer to my finishing placement but to my bib number. I was evidently the second person to register for the event, only after the elusive number one who I never sighted. This made me such a celebrity that a guy ran up to me after the race to ask, “Are you really number two?” to which I replied, “Yes, I’m number two!” Then his friend took a picture of us both holding up two fingers like a victory sign.
I had planned to run the Midsummer’s Night Run in Lexington, Kentucky with my old college roommate, Kelly, who lives in town. Sadly, Kelly injured her foot while riding a slide into a basement dressed as the Cheshire Cat, so I had to run alone. This was for the best because it would have been Kelly’s first 5K, and it was so AWFULLY organized that it probably would have turned her off to racing all together.
I had positive thoughts for the race at first […]
"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
