I guess I run now

oKay, maybe not so much.

I’ve been going back & forth on what to title this post, but I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: “I CAN’T do this!” or “I CAN do this!”

On the one hand, I feel like I have no time to keep up with this blog, but on the other hand, I feel like I really need to keep up with this blog. I mean, what am I doing here? Is one post a week really going to keep me honest & accountable & motivated? And how am I going to figure all of this stuff out if I’m not reading up on how all of you are figuring this out? UGH!

On the one hand, I’m only 1/3 of the way through these interviews, but on the other hand, I’m finally 1/3 of the way through the campus interviews. Only 4 more candidates coming to visit. Of course, if we don’t find someone who wants to work here, all the work I’ve done since September will matter none & next year someone will start our discussion of the faculty search with the statement: “what can we learn from the mistakes that were made last year?” UGH!

On the one hand, I lost 3.6 pounds last week, which is a weekly record for me. But on the other hand, I cut out chocolate & actually did more exercise than just opening (and never closing) a box of chocolates. So the weight loss is to be expected. I gained it fast over the holidays, so losing it fast only gets me closer to where I was before the holidays. But it’s still a loss, so maybe I CAN do this? Weird that I buried the lead here…this is a diet blog, so you’re supposed to lead with the weekly weight loss. Clearly I’m not all that excited about it, which is weird.

And on the one hand, I’m looking forward to getting back to running & lifting, but on the other hand, I won’t have bootcamp to persuade me to run & do crazy, crazy lifting. Bootcamp runs for only 1 month at a time, on Monday & Wednesdays, and all four of my next candidates will be here on a Monday or a Wednesday. So I’m on my own for the next month, which feels both good & terrifying all at the same time. I mean, wouldn’t it be cool to come back to boot camp a better runner & a thinner me?

I’m wound so tightly right now I could scream…yesterday after my meeting I rented some movies, came home & made a lovely curried lentil soup (the only really fattening thing in it is the can of coconut milk I used, although there are potatoes), shoveled the driveway, and decided not to work for the rest of the night. I spent 3 hours just watching the first disc of the Mad Men series…no computer on my lap, no work opened while I watched. It was fun!

& running was fun last week, even though I got in only one official C25K run, we still did a mile between lifting at bootcamp. I gotta get it together. My clothes have been fitting tight & I feel huge & out of shape. Time to review my rules…something about eating salads & not eating in front of the TV & using small plates? Maybe I should add in one about the amount of exercise I need to get each week? Yes…good idea.

So I don’t know if I’ve resolved my title crisis. Not sure which title fits this week. But I guess I’ll just keep my head down, plow through next week, and see if I can’t figure it out later.

Cheers Chicks!

We got married 2 years ago on a beach on Lake Superior, middle of a snow storm, freezing cold, we wrote our own vows & a friend performed the ceremony. It was lovely, low pressure, & fun. For the reception we hit a friend’s house for cake & bubbly, then went to the local brew pub & ordered pizzas. My favorite memory was from the morning as we got ready. My husband-to-be held up his spare pair of long johns & asked, “do you want to wear these?” I said, “I am NOT wearing your long johns to our wedding!” And he replied “grrrr, bridezilla!

Ugh! I’m running late!

Happy day chicks!

Took a run down memory lane this morning & it felt good. I wish ya’ll were there with me.

Okay, another title for this second post of the new year might be “things I learned in book camp:” 1. that ain’t running; 2. lean slightly forward into a fall to get momentum; 3. I can do a lot of crazy crap, but I need someone there to push me to do it.

So. I’m back with Robert the podcast guy & it feels like I never left. The awful techno, the seemingly endless runs, the “you can do its” that make me want to scream. It isn’t love, but it works.

So the plan is do the podcast from the very beginning, but no wussing out this time. Last year I started on walks of 2.8 with runs of 3.2. No wonder I never got the hang of it. Now, thanks to brutal bookcamp sprints, I feel like my body understands what a run is, what it feels like, what it can do. This is not to say that I can run, only that I think I have some muscular understanding of what’s involved that I didn’t have before.

Sounds weird, & I can’t remember what tiny2b used to call it, but what I’ve been doing is a walk/jog…a wog, if you will. I mixed in a few carefree runs, but too few. I’d see runners on the road & think, “that’s what running looks like, but I know that’s not what I do.”

Anyway, Week 1, Day 1 walks of 3.4, runs on 5.5. Dropped my shuffle on the first run, grabbed it & stopped the podcast in the process, finished the 60-second run & started the podcast over on the warm up walk. So I ended up with 9 60-runs. 8 on 5.5 & the last on 6. Last year I remember my very first run on the treadmill at the gym & how much easier it was than running on my stupid machine at home. So I’m going to get up to about week 4 on the home machine & then go back to the gym. Stats: 2.30 miles, 335 calories, 35 minutes.

Pick up our first candidate tonight & we have about 10 inches of snow on the ground from yesterday. UGH! I don’t mind airport runs, but the snow combined with Detroit tailgaters drives me crazy. Then we have a late dinner at a really good Italian restuarant…I’m ordering fish or chicken without any pasta or bread!

Breakfast: kashi nuggets with blueberries, lunch will be salad with hb egg, snack of apple & probably an egg to hold me over until dinner.

Nice to be back & see everyone again. Hey TJ, I went to your site to see where you were in the podcast, but I see you’re more into snowshoeing these days. Hubby’s been dying to get me into it…although he left his snowshoes in the UP, I think. & Eryn…a run on Feb 20th? I’ll never be ready, but I’ll hop on the treadmill then & run in solidarity with you!

Okay, time for the 1000 mile challenge clicker to go up. Wish me luck with the drive & charming the candidate & eating smart tonight! I hope I don’t need it!

Update: ate a pb&j on whole wheat for snack instead…a big snack. Dinner was at 8:00: salad, broiled salmon, green beans, & 1/2 piece of bread (I actually just picked it apart). All incredibly good & since the sauce on the salmon was just tomatoes & fresh basil, not too fattening. The pastas looked mighty tempting, though!

Looking back, I was losing weight until hubby & I moved in together. So I suspect the weight-loss stall has to do with my wanting us to have home-cooked meals we’d both like, rather than with me recognizing that the meals I was eating before were working. Not good. Change that.

I also let the holidays sabotage me again. So I have some clicker adjustments to make…next post.

I lost touch. When the stress got big & the workload got bigger, this blog community was the first thing I cut. Second thing? Running & working out in general. Change that.

My first challenge this year is to survive these campus interviews…we have 6 people coming in over the next 3 weeks. The interviews last a little over a day; they’re a pain in the @ss to get scheduled (and that’s pretty much all on my shoulders); when my colleagues don’t volunteer to escort the candidate or eat with him/her; I’m expected to fill in; and there’s a ton of eating at rich-food restaurants involved. UGH!

SWAT starts up again in two weeks (we have two make up sessions next week) & because of the timing, I’m not sure I can sign up again. SWAT’s been the only constant. While I gained, rather than lost this month, I know things would be a lot worse without it.

Okay, enough bit@#ing. I’m back & here are my goals for 2009:

This year my goals are to lose at least 20 pounds. Highly doable & a highly conservative number. I guess I don’t want to be back here next year writing another “why I failed to meet my goals” type of post.

Actually run a full 5K, which means starting the C25K program from scratch. I’m so out of shape running-wise. We’re deadlifting 115 in SWAT & I can flip those 200 pound tires like a pro, but running is killing me…what happened? Oh, that’s right, I stopped running. duh!

Get in shape to bike to work on non-teaching days this spring. It’d be a 14-mile round trip, but 14-miles broken up into 2 rounds of 7 shouldn’t kill me after a while.

Fit into a size 12 jean comfortably.

Okay, that’s all for now. I’m about to be late for an appointment to get my hair done: the job candidates aren’t the only ones who have to put on a show during the interviews, don’t cha know.

Of course, I’m not fully back till I check in with my chicks, but I’m backish!

HELLO AGAIN CHICKS!

UPDATE:

Food: no breakfast, lunch was big salad with pumpkin seeds, snack was 1/2 apple & hb egg, dinner was 1 1/2 country rib (about 5 oz) in tomato, plain whole grain/wild rice, spinach with 1/2 tbs cream cheese, salad, 2 vanilla wafers (boo).

Exercise: 1 hour shoveling the driveway, not quite as difficult or fun as bootcamp, but an okay workout for starters.

First day back on C25K tomorrow! Fresh start, good things to come!