Impossible is a typoRunning my pants off and loving myself along the way

So my Nike+ has been going all sorts of funky. It is telling me my 3 mile run is closer to 4 miles for about a month now. I recalibrated and it got worse. So I decided to recalibrate at a mile distance rather than 400meters. I hope that helps. So yesterday I walked a mile, then ran a mile on the treadmill and that didn’t get logged as a run. This run is from a few days ago and is probably closer to 2.5 miles.  I ran 2.9 miles in 34 mins. I’m headed off to the gym now to work out because its too darn hot to run outside!!

My Nike Flight headphones fizzled on my run today! OH NOOOOOOO! I love these headphones. I mean, I *heart* them long time. They go behind the neck with the cord hanging down back so it doesn’t get in your way at all while you’re running.

Wait, let me back up. I LOVE Nike Flight headphones for running. I hate using them any other time. I run with my hair in a pony tail. These headphones don’t work for me if I have my hair down all girly like. This is my third pair of Nike Flight headphones in three years. That’s not a particularly good track record and is the reason for most of bad reviews Nike Flight gets. They fit me great however and since it takes me FOREVER to decide to buy something new, I might just have to stick with them

Unless Dear Readers, you want to recommend more awesome headphones??

ACKKKKK Now my iPod is telling me there are no saved Nike+ workouts!! This is not a good Nike Day!

Man, oh man, there is a raging fire tornado in  Nike+’s pants right now. I trot off for my lovely little 3mile jaunt around the neighborhood (I can neither confirm nor deny that there was some air guitar action for Glee’s Total Eclipse of the Heart). I know this is three miles. How do I know? OK, I’m a dork so I mapped it out on Nike+’s MapIt feature and yes, I drove it in my car. 0I’m about a half mile from home when the show tunes end and some groovy mellow tunes come on and I check my Nike+ in my iPod. The lovely man’s voice tells me I’ve run 3.3 miles at a pace of 10 minutes and 23 seconds.

Are you insane??

First of all, a worm hole didn’t just open up and add an extra half mile onto my run. I am certainly not cool enough to have an Einstein theory proved on my running course. Second, I do not run that fast.

I re-calibrated my Nike+ yesterday because it was add about an extra quarter mile to my runs. That’s not so bad, but an extra half mile is a wee bit out of control. I’m going to have to do some research on what’s up with that. Any Nike+ users out there wanna clue me in, I’d love the support!

My fibbing Nike+ says I ran 3.77 miles in 41:09 at a pace of 10’54″ burning 527 calories.

Dinner was done. I was at 1400+ calories for the day. My mom proposes Frozen Yogurt. Now, I’ve got a soft spot for Red Mango. It is the best stuff on this earth. Seriously.

The problem? FroYo is like 200 calories. I want to stay below 1500 calories AND burn more than 1000 calories a day. Hmmmm what to do?

Are you ready to rumble!

In this corner, we have Fat Girl, Champion of Manipulation. Five Time Pity Party World Cup Winner.

In that corner, it’s Fit Girl, a new comer to the scene rapidly making a name for herself.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Fat Girl comes out swinging hard!

I’m quitting smoking, I DESERVE Frozen Yogurt.

Fit Girl ducks and rolls, runs circles around Fat Girl.

You don’t deserve things, you EARN them. Have you earned a FroYo?

Oh, that was harsh, the crowd gasps. Fat Girl felt that one for sure. Fat Girl staggers and recovers, winds up with a classic -

I’ve been good all day, one treat won’t kill me.

Look at the fancy foot work on Fit Girl! That blow doesn’t even come close to landing.

You can have FroYo, IF you burn the calories RIGHT NOW to compensate. Go for a run.

Oooooo That HAD to hurt Bob. Fat Girl is a bit of a mess. Wait a minute, yes, I think the Ref is gonna call it… YES! TKO! Fit Girl Wins!!

And the crowd goes wild.

So yeah, I went out and ran over a mile. I mean I RAN. I pounded out that run. IN THE RAIN. I actually ran in the rain. I have never felt like an athlete before. Right then. I was an athlete. That last half a block, rain stinging my face, in that instant, something small changed. I can’t describe it yet, but beating all the excuses and lies I tell myself and running to earn that FroYo, shifted something. And I suspect I will never be the same.

Oh yeah, and the Red Mango was delicious. Key Lime with Mochi.

And to catch up on runs posted to DailyMile… This is what I ran yesterday. It should be one run but stupid Niki+ decided to END rather than PAUSE when I stopped to tie my shoe.

On 8/23/10 I ran 2.75miles in 32:25 mins at a pace of 11’46” burning 392 calories.

On 8/23/10 I ran 1.11miles in 13:19 mins at a pace of 11’57″” burning 158 calories.

I decided to actually go to the gym today. I know! Crazy idea right!? I’ve been pretty focused on running, just running. Hey, I like to run and I’m tickled that I’m back to running 3 whole miles at a time again. And I know, yeah I know, I need to put more strenght training in my life and do some of that weird “crosstraining” the fitness nuts all talk about. So off to the gym with me.

I go to a fairly cool gym. Big Al’s Family Fitness. They have a great machines, a big projection screen so you can watch movies and work out, some nice classes, stuff for kids. Oh they tweet too, well sort of. The best part? Big Al’s is like a 6 minute walk from my house. And yeah, I know, if it’s so close why don’t I go more? Good question! Anyhoo…

So on the treadmill. I decide to push it just a wee bit. Running intervals at 5.8mph to 4.5mph. And man that last half mile was rough. I walked a couple of intervals and grrr it was not pretty. AND I stopped before I wanted to. Here’s the tricky thing about the treadmill – you can get off anytime you want. When you’re out on the road, you still have to physically get yourself home so it’s not like you can give up and teleport yourself the mile it takes to get home. So I did my 3 miles, clicked off my Nike+. Clicked it back on and did a 15min walk at a good pace on a 5% incline. I wanted to get my 10K steps DONE for the day. Mission Accomplished!

So here’s the stats for the two Nike+ workouts:

I walked 1.1 miles in 18:34 at a pace of 16’38″ burning 158 calories

I ran 3.09 miles in 40:38 at a pace of 13’13″ burning 441 calories

So I forgot to have breakfast again. I don’t know what’s up with that. Going on like two weeks now, I’ve just totally fallen out of the breakfast habit. On days I’m not working, I get up, do email and twitter for a while, write a bit then decide it’s time for a run. Halfway into my run, I’ll realize that I skipped breakfast and I’m running out of gas. I come home and down a smoothie. Now it’s almost lunch time and my food gets all out of whack for the day.

I really need to work on getting a plan together and reclaim breakfast time!

Anyway, I did make it out for a run and my legs felt awful heavy again. Could be the no breakfast thing. Could be it’s hot. Could be that I just don’t know how to push myself to go harder. I’m just going to do my little three mile loop at whatever pace for a few more days and then try and push harder. Fat Girls is screaming of course that she can’t go any faster or harder. Ha! We’ll see who wins this battle!

Today I ran 3.5 miles in 42:22 at a pace of 12’09″ burning 497 calories.

Woke up WAY late today which means I’m in a schedule squeeze. So I have to sacrifice something. Running or Housework or Job Hunting or something else.

I tweeted: @FatGirlsCanRun I woke up late, my schedule is looming, my to-do list is long… can I really squeeze in a run???

And the responses came flying in:

@katdoesdiets @FatGirlsCanRun you’ll feel better?

@SkinnySushi @FatGirlsCanRun YES! You’ll feel better if you do

@fitblogr @FatGirlsCanRun My mantra the past few weeks has been “someone who is busier than you is running right now.” It always gets me out the door

@katdoesdiets @FatGirlsCanRun I struggle with those choices often!

@ashleyjane36 @FatGirlsCanRun even a short one is better than one at all! It will give you more vigor and a clear had to tackle the to-do list!

@MyFitnessGuy @FatGirlsCanRun YOU CAN DO IT!!!! lol

And on and on and on.

So you know what? I got on my sneaker and got out of my jammies and RAN

I ran 2.3 Miles in 25:28 at a pace of 11’03 burning 328 calories.

OH OH! And Lance Armstrong came on at the end of my workout via Nike+ to tell me I recorded a new personal best for the mile! 10’54″. How ’bout that?

So I take off today for my little 3mile loop. I usually walk the first quarter mile or so, to warm up. I had this very slight pulling sensation in my inner thigh so I decided to take it easy and see how it goes. I started off at a fairly slow pace when I hit the corner where I usually start running. I usually loop around the block and try and make it to the first stop sign. And I usually stop running about a block away. My pace was a really slow comfy jog. When I got to my usual stopping point, I felt pretty good, so I pushed on to the stop sign. Then I just kept going, I felt good, I wasn’t out of breath, no muscle tightness. Really no physical reason to stop.

And man, did the Crazy Fat Girl in my head go nuts! I hit the 1 mile mark and still felt great. Keept on running.

OMG you’re going to hurt yourself! Take a little break, recover and go at it again. You said you were going to progress nice and slow and easy right?

So 1 mile down, 3/4 of which I jogged. OK. GREAT! The next bit coming up, right around this tiny little block, is usually a run section, so let’s keep running.

Whoa cowgirl! Slow it down, just take a break. Look my ankle is throbbing. I’m all sweaty. My earphones keep slipping out. This is so gross. How am I suppose to listen to the Glee soundtrack if my earphones keep slipping.

Still feeling fine as the 1.5mile marker is coming up. I’m exerting myself, but I’m not winded, my calves are a bit tight but not terribly uncomfortable. But the Fat Girl in my head is getting out of control. It’s time for a talk.

FG: Whoa whoa whoa! Are you nuts? You’re gonna hurt yourself. You can’t possibly run the whole rest of the way. I’m gonna die

Me: Are you in pain?

FG: SEE!! I’m hyperventalating! I can’t breathe! My calf muscle is just gonna explode!

Me: Are you in pain?

FG: You said we were gonna run and then WALK. Where’s the walking?? huh?

Me: Are YOU in pain?

FG: This isn’t even freaking running! Look, you’re going so slow, grannies in go carts could whip by you! If you can’t run like the wind you shouldn’t be running out all, fat ass!

Me: ARE YOU IN PAIN??

FG: NO OK I’M NOT IN FREAKING PAIN. But this is NOT FUN. I’m sweating and it’s gross and people are looking at me all funny!

Me: If you’re not in real physical pain, then just shut up and enjoy the view

And here is the birth of my inner Fit Girl.

I jogged the whole three miles, with a warm up and cool down walk. I RAN THE WHOLE THING. Yeah my pace was slow. I did the 3 miles in 42:31 at a pace of 12’07, burning 499 calories.

Fat Girl, you’re days are numbered!

So yesterday I decided to do a little experiment. I had already run my 3Mile Loop. I looked at my BodyBugg and saw that I had like oh, 4,000 steps to get to 10,000. I had about a half hour before I had to get ready to leave….. so why not go out and run a mile and see how long it takes me?

Well I did! And it took me 12mins and 25secs. Obviously, I did not run the whole thing. I wanted to, just I’m just not there yet and that’s ok. But what this did teach me, is that I have no excuse not to get some sort of exercise in. In that 12 mins I burned 143 calories. That’s more than I would have burned sitting on my but.

Now I have two milestones to work with. Improving on a 50min 3mile route, and improving a 12minute mile!

I had a late-ish morning. Well, that’s not true. I had something to do at 9am, which caused to me forget breakfast (I did remember to have coffee, Oh coffee, how I love thee) and really start my day a bit later than expected. I watched the temperature climb and just threw on sneakers at got out for my 3mile Loop. I can’t say I felt hungry during my run, but I wasn’t dealing with feeling nauseous or had any side stitches which have been plaguing my runs as of late. So maybe running on an empty-ish stomach isn’t a bad idea. I’ll have to see how that effect my energy level. So here’s my running stats for the 3mile Loop:

3.19 miles (Nike+ is liking this number now.)

in 4o:38

average pace: 12’44″

burning 454 calories

I ran this 3miles almost 2 mins faster than yesterday, so I guess I am feeling better. I don’t think I really ran faster, but I ran more than I walked yesterday. So PROGRESS!