Helen, sorry to hear you're battling a cold - you might just be my hero for getting out there anyway, though!

Kara - a 'hen do', like Helen said, is party for the bride - but very unlike a bridal shower; it tends to be a lot more like a stag night, but for the girls. It's a UK thing!

Today is a straight running day - hoping for 4 miles, but as we're skiing again later, I might do another two with hill work instead... boy does that make me sweat!

Heather

Kara - my blog definitely isn't in Korean, though that would be cool if I learned to speak it I was actually thinking of trying to learn a language this year, and an Asian language would be neat since I already speak English and French.

I just ran 12 miles: the farthest I've EVER run. Ever. My longest run before this was 10 miles, which I also ran 43 secs/mile slower than I ran today. I'm signing up for the Manhattan Half-Marathon at the end of January, so it looks like I'll get one of my New Year's resolutions (running a half) completed very soon! This is so exciting for me.

Way to go Laura! I'm sure you'll finish that half marathon in record time!!!

Helen, I believe we'd call a hen do a "bachelorette party", a shin dig out with the gals, generally invoving a bit of drinking and a lot of silliness. (Mine consisted of my three sisters and me at dinner having a nice chat, but I don't drink and I'm boring...)

Heather, I'll join you in a four miler today. I think I might be able to do it outside, as the temperatures are supposed to be a bit warmer - up to about 8* (Celsius)! This past week it was averaging around -11*, so this is much better!

Off to get ready to hit the road!

Kara

WOW! What a busy thread!

I just got home from Sedona. The good news is that we hiked quite a bit, packed sandwiches instead of eating out all the time, and I ran once. The bad news is that the above is the only good news, and I had too many chips and cookies on those hikes.

Congrats on the pregnancy, Lisa. I had suspected as much from a previous thread. :-)

I have the Nike iPod thing too and I have a little pouch that straps onto my laces to hold the little square sensor thing. So you don't have to buy those shoes unless you want to. A friend of mine cut into the tongue of her shoe and shoved the sensor in there.

Happy Running All!

Midwife, have you ever checked the Nike iPod against any other sources for distance? GMaps Pedometer, a track, mapping it against your car, etc? I've heard varying reports on accuracy if it isn't in your heel or something that really strikes the ground, and that's my main hang-up about getting one.

Laura, you can calibrate it. Mine is pretty accurate, based on the markings on the indoor track I've run a couple times. But I do have the Nike+ shoes.

I just finished my four miler. Felt good!

Midwife, are you in California? We had our third at home in northern California (but we didn't have an attendant). Best labor and birth, by far, out of our three!

Kara

I'm not sure if anyone remembers me a few months back I asked about running when heavy, and quite a few of you were very helpful with all your suggestions.

Anyway I started today! After doing cardio for about 7+ months now I felt I had both dropped enough weight not to hurt myself (if careful) and felt I had built up my cardio base enough to start off. I normally do DVDs at home (Kickboxing, Step, Walking etc) about 6 days a week.

Anyway, I did 4 mins walking and 1 min running (Range of 3.2-5.5 mph) and alternated that for about an hour. I quite pleased at how it went. Any other time I tried this I was not conditioned enough and doing 30 second intervals about killed me and hurt my lungs... so I wasn't sure what to expect. Why I did challenge myself today, I found the running fairly comfortable. I'm very pleased I went a total of 10.5 mins of running between 5.0-5.5... while it might not have been consecutive it's probably the most I've ran since I was a kid (or maybe ever! I couldn't even do that damn 10min mile in school)

Anyway I'll probably be hanging out with you guys so I'd thought I'd pop in and share my joy, and thank you again for all your help a few months back. I'll probably be doing my own version of the various learn to run programs (I suspect I will have to repeat quite a few weeks as I still have quite a bit of weight to drop)

-muse

Strong work idealmuse!! Keep it up!

Laura, I calibrated it against the Gmaps pedometer site and I also have an arroyo that is half a mile long. I would consider it's accuracy "ballpark" but I also consider Gmaps pedometer kinda ballpark. I mostly just like the music, but dh keeps trying to get me to track the mileage and do graphs and stuff online. That is not really my thing....although it would be nice to see at the end of the year how many miles I've run. He seems to have fixed the km vs mile issue I was having where the ipod readout had my distance in km. Now it is in miles. One thing that I think is odd is when I check my pace during my run it is ALWAYS slower than the average pace readout at the end. But the average pace is always what I expect it will be. Does that make sense?

Kara, that's awesome about your birth. My third was my best birth too, but usually third babies give mamas more interesting labors. Someday I would like to attend homebirths. Right now my schedule (kids and all) demands I have a scheduled job. So I catch at a hospital in NM. In fact I need to get going or I'll be late!! :-)

Heather, skiing and running on the same day? You are the cardio queen. Enjoy a soak in a hot tub or something!!

Hahaha - I am so NOT the cardio queen after all, midwife: yesterday the weather was so horrid here that we DIDN'T go to the ski hill after all, (so much rain here the snow is mush!) and in the end, I did my strength training instead of running! On the other hand - I really NEEDED to get back to my weights, and I did run 4.25 miles today!

Muse - what a great start! Keep it up!!

Heather

to running Muse ...

Today unfortunately I did not run ... Life got in the way, I hate when that happens

The Nike iPod calculates based on your average stride though right? So if you change your SL, won't it be off? I could see this especially be a problem with uphill/downhill/stairs/getting tired/etc.

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in here and introduce myself (hope I'm not treading where I shouldn't be). My name is Liz, I'm 25, and a completely new runner. I recently decided to add running to my workouts. My fiance and I are doing the Couch to 5K program to start off because neither of us is a runner and I've read so much about Couch to 5k on 3FC we thought we would try it out. I've been exercising about 4 times a week since last July, which included a lot of cardio, but no running. Any time I've ever tried to run in the past I could never do it because I think I tried to do too much too fast. I'm just now completing week 1 of C25k and I'm already liking it. We went out to a running store yesterday and got fitted and bought new running shoes, plus we got a heart rate monitor to help us keep track of how we are doing. For now we are running inside on the treadmill because it is so dark when we both get home, plus I just prefer the treadmill to outdoors for now. I'm not sure I will ever turn into a "runner" like everyone here (BTW - reading all of your posts about running 5-10 miles is so inspirational!) and be out running 5 miles a day, but I do think that by adding it to my exercise routine a few days a week it will help improve my health. Well, thanks for reading. I think you are all great!

HI girls, I haven't posted here in awhile, but I just thought I would start again. I did 4.5 miles yesterday, that was my "long" run. i am training for a 10k on Feb 2 of this year. I'm very excited, but a little bummed at how slow I am. Oh well, hopefully it will get better.

I picked up a book called Chi Running, has anyone read this and applied the principles?

Hello Liz!

I've never really looked into chi running, so not sure I'll be much help on that.

Scenestealer - the Nike+ system works in the same way as my old polar footpod I think, and yes it is based on average stride length. I only used the distances I got from it as a vague guide, rather than a definite distance. I'm definitely finding the Garmin to be a lot more accurate - it had the 5k I did on Saturday as 3.11 miles which is pretty much bang on.

Day off for me.

Hi Liz - - I never feel like a 'real runner' either, but this is a VERY motivating bunch!! I LOVED the C25K, and I am having a love affair with my treadmill, so I hear ya!

Renee - great to see you! Never heard of Chi Running - what's that all about then? And good for you getting signed up for that 10K - W00t!!

Heather