Going Bananas!

Training has increased and with it has my appetite. I’m eating like a monster, and it’s kind of crazy.

Happily, I am still sit’n pretty at 120 pounds, and hoping to loose a little more (or tone up rather). But seriously, not only can my co-workers believe how much I am eating I can’t believe how much I am eating. It’s INSANE!

Among the new foods I am ingesting…BANANAS…

Those of you who really know me, know that even before I was a vegetarian, there were two foods I just DIDN’T EAT…bananas and ham.

And now I’m eating bananas…my body recovers nicely when I eat one after or before a long run. The potassium I guess.

ANYWAY…off to do a really long run (10 miles) and I am not really looking forward to it at all. It’s late, about 10:40 pm, and I won’t get back home until almost 1 am…SUCK.

Hopefully I will write more tonight or tomorrow to let you all know how this ten miles compares to last weeks ten miles!

Yoga Now!

After mentioning an interest in taking up yoga, Alyson invited me to join her for a free Sunday night yoga class at a place called Yoga Now. I immediately hopped on the chance!

Tonight after running errands, I relaxed for a bit and then was lucky enough to have Ivan drop me off at the class so I made it there on time.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I have never done yoga before, and I was a little intimidated by this one girl who *clearly* knew *everything* about yoga and our instructor for the evening. I quickly let that all go and just gave it my best.

Let me tell you something people…yoga is not for the weak of heart, mind or will. Yoga is ALL head…all heart and all encompassing. I believe this might be the start of a life changing experience.

There is not one pose I got correct without assistance and guidance from the teacher, and even then, I doubt it was correct. But the experience was incredible. I haven’t sweat so much doing something like this in a long long time. I was sweating so much, that when I went into the downward dog* position, sweat would roll into my mouth and eyes and into my hair. It was gross and cool all at the same time!

*Fig. 1. Downward dog position

The class started around 6 pm and ended around 8. It was hot, and intense people!

By the end I was so excited to have completed a full class that I got very excited about the next time. I am hoping I can make this free yoga class a once a week tradition. From what I learned today, it seems that it won’t be for another couple of years before I actually really get the hang of yoga and the moves and positions and all the benefits.

In any case, I am so happy that Alyson invited me (she, by the way, is AMAZING a yoga) and I hope that we can do this again. Having a friend there really made it much easier to take the first step in going. I know I can do it now on my own, but I might have been too intimidated to have done it solo!

Thanks Alyson, Patricia Hyland (my instructor for this class) and Yoga Now for offering such a beautiful experience for free. If I stick with this, I really do believe it will be life changing in an incredibly positive way!

Lincoln Square on a hot summers day!

Today, Ivan and I made our way to Lincoln Square for the little street festival they had going on.

It was sunny, and it was hot, but we braved it for the greater good. The mission: to get Devin some good running gear. Status: mission complete!

After last nights run, it was very clear to me that getting a water belt could not be put off any longer. I need to have someplace to put my water other then to hold it in my hands, because that was very taxing on my wrists.

So today I picked out a few items I am very excited about!

-Water belt (in black)
-Sports top (in black)
-Special undies (in black)
-Running shorts (in black)
-Running hat (says FLeet Feet Sports on it)
-Wrist bands (in red & in white)
-Gu (Tri-Berry flavor)

Check, check and check! I know that my performance is really going to go up after this! I’m so excited I can hardly wait to try everything out. I HOPE that the water belt doesn’t chafe me, or annoy me too much, but I rather suffer through annoyance then to suffer through carrying another water bottle around for a long run!

The Gu, I am convinced, will get me through those last miles when obviously last night I was not well enough equiped with the pesto cavallini alone!

I will let you know how it all turns out once I try each item!

My totally awesome date.

Yes, Saturday night rolled around, and while everyone prepared for their fun evenings out with people and for drinking and/or socializing, I came home from work, returned some phone calls, and then laced up my running shoes for a late night run.

You see, I was supposed to have run in the morning. But when 5:30 am rolled around and I heard no voice of reason (Alyson) telling me to get my lazy butt up and run, I thought to myself, what a wonderful opportunity to sleep in a little.

I haven’t slept in at all, and frankly, haven’t been able to sleep much with all that I have been doing, so I was VERY excited to just zonk out for a couple more hours.

And that is what I did. I then woke up, and headed to work. Once at work I started my day…sweating. The HEAT kicked in and just standing outside I knew I wasn’t going to smell like roses (white ginger actually) once I actually made it to air conditioning.

Hillary arrived at some point and I told her how instead of running tonight like I should (since I hadn’t run in the morning) I was going to run on SUNDAY and instead play with art stuff tonight.

She rolled her eyes at me and said how I have been making excuses up like that for a few weeks now. I thought about it for a moment and realized she was quite right, and I was quite embarrassed.

Then Ivan told me I should go running TONIGHT! That I could do it and that I SHOULD do it. Great…now even IVAN is telling me I’m a looser for not running. To top it off, I received a text message from a friend who was kind enough to inform me that I was a whus for not running in the morning, which also implied he would think I was a BIGGER whus if I didn’t go running tonight.

So as I was lacing up my shoes I was thinking of these three people. All of whom were NOT planning on running 10 miles alone, at night, in 90 degree weather. But none the less, I knew they were all right, and secretly I was thanking them for giving me a hard time.

It’s bad enough to disappoint yourself, but much worse to know you are disappointing others.

So that’s what I did. Tonight, I ran from my house along Sheridan Road, into Evanston and up to Noyes street. Then I doubled back and made my way to the store before they closed to refill my water bottle, which sadly I had to run with while holding it in my hand. Bleh. Then I headed back towards Sheridan and made my way back home.

I was doing quite well for the first 8 miles. I was feeling good, walking when I needed to and drinking lots of water. I was sweating like a beast would in a sauna, but I kept myself nicely hydrated. Dehydration was not what got me however. It was the SUGAR!

By the second to last mile I felt like I was dying of hunger. I was craving nothing but peanut m&m’s and so low on sugar that I wasn’t sure how I could finish it. I did finish, and once I hit Bosworth I picked up my pace and practiced a good solid finishing stride. DUDE, it was killer.

I came inside and immediately downed an ice-cream éclair bar (so yummy) and then a small bag of peanut m&m’s as well as a tall glass of refreshingly crisp coke. It was awesome. The exact opposite of what I SHOULD have been eating, but what really hit the spot in the moment.

Sasha enjoyed licking my heavily salted arms and legs while I enjoyed removing my heavy and pasted running clothes from my body.

I feel so good! I saw all the couples holding hands and all the girls dressed in their cute little outfits ready for a night of flirting, and I was doing something even better. I ran 10 miles, all on my own and without a running partner, in a little less then 2 hours.

Yeah…it’s moments like these that I realize I CAN finish the marathon. Now the questions is, in how much time?

I feel really great too! This is the longest distance I have run in years, and the most consistently I have paced myself since I have started training. I ran pretty consistently the first 8 miles, walking when I needed to, and stretching along the way, and though I lost my stride in the last two miles, I know that will be corrected with sugar goo’s and running aids!

All things considered, my body feels GREAT! I am not too tired, and certainly not in pain. I feel like I stretched myself out well and really prepared myself for a good run. I know I had some fat burnage in the ass and thighs and that’s GREAT! So really, it went as well as it could without me having all the right gear!

In short, my date with myself tonight was terrific…though I will admit I’m looking a little forward to a slightly more “traditional” kind…then again, maybe not. Maybe I will just stick to the running!!!

appologies

I haven’t written since May. Part of that is because I haven’t been training like I should be, another part of that is that I have been pretty lazy about posting here or on Chameleon.

I apologize for not posting regularly, but would like to let you know that there will be a few posts to come, that will be up soon, that will document some events that have passed that I haven’t written about.

I will let you know when these go up as they will not be posted as new entries but rather as back entries…Thanks for your understanding!