The Camelbak Water Bottle.. and Haiku!

A couple weeks ago I ran into a friend at Scheel's. He was checking out a display of Camelbak water bottles, the kind with a straw, because they were on sale and "amazing," in his words.

I scoffed at this comment.

He replied, "I'm serious Kira. You will drink more water using this water bottle."

I responded that I don't really drink water, nor do I care to drink water.

His reply was a challenge, "If you don't drink more water because of this water bottle, I will buy it for you."

My thought, BRING IT ON, WATER BOY!

Sure enough, a couple weeks later, my water intake is up. Seriously up. Before the water bottle, I was drinking about 0-1 cups of water a day. Now, I am easily consuming the recommended 8 glasses of water. CHAD YOU WERE RIGHT! You made me eat drink my words.

So... I thought this dive into drinking water deserved a haiku:

Camelbak's strange straw
Draws me in to drink water.
Water Holder King.

kc

Weak 3 - an admission

I have an admission to make. I fell off the running wagon. (Or rather tripped and fell nose first off the running track.) I did not complete Week 3 of the Couch to 5K training schedule. Honestly, I expected this would happen at some point, but I didn't think it would happen so early in my training.

Is it possible that I have become weaker in my older age? I turned 29 (for the first time) last week, and it was also the day my downward spiral began. Let me paint a picture of my destructive tumble from running grace...

First, I ate a burger called "The Artery Clogger" on my birthday. No joke. If you're trying to feel healthy again, why on earth would you choose to eat something called The Artery Clogger? Another sign of my weakened state, (surely induced by the lack of blood to my brain because of the aforementioned Artery Clogger consumed the day before) I skipped my scheduled run. I didn't even have a good reason, or rather a well-devised and made-up reason, to skip that run. And just to round it out, I skipped my last run of the week too.

What was I thinking? I clearly wasn't keeping in mind the 2 reasons why I started this running thing again 1) to alleviate the pain in my heel (running helps this), and 2) to feel healthier. So, I did a little reflection and figured out my problem... DIET.

Despite knowing better, I chose to run again and not really change my eating habits. (My sister Marin's voice is in my head right now reminding me weight loss is 10% exercise and 90% diet.) Bad idea! All of the work I put into running the last 3 weeks has amounted to nothing. Zero change. When I realized this last week, that's when I gave up. What's the point if nothing is going to change? Right? The problem is I can't give up. The pain in my heel is pretty bad, and it's not OK with me to feel as crummy as I do right now. So I'm putting Weak 3 behind me, repeating the Week 3 Couch to 5k training, and changing my diet.

In an effort to revamp and refocus my efforts, I am tracking my calories now with MyFitnessPal on my Smartphone. I can access this on my computer and using an app on my Droid 2 phone. Thanks to Peter Jensen for suggesting it to me!

Hopefully this is the only low point in the training schedule, but I doubt it. Thanks to everyone for following me through this process. It really does help knowing you are all WATCHING me! :)

Runnin' In the Wind

Today was pretty windy. Windy enough that small dogs can't walk successfully into the wind. Speaking of dogs.. we started our little run at the Spencer Dog Park today and the dogs were really cute.. I digress. Today's wind inspired a little rhymin' Bob Dylan style. So please read my rendition of the 70-year-old's classic revamped for my own selfish purposes. Enjoy!

Runnin' In The Wind (To the tune of Blowin' In The Wind)

How many roads must a girl run down,
Before you can call her a runner?
How many complaints must this girl make,
Before you all just have to shun her?
Yes, how many times must she stretch her heel in pain,
Before she sees the painlessness it's won her?
The answer, my friend, was runnin' in the wind.
The answer was runnin' in the wind.

Enjoy some sunshine today!

Week 2 begins!

Week 2 started off at a slow, pained walk that I was trying to pass off as a run. I don't know if it was the humidity, a lack of hydration or just my body remembering it's out of shape, but yuck! Today's run really sucked.

On the bright side, I saw some baby ducks! (Actually, I'm not sure what type of water fowl they are, but they're cute.) When we "ran" past them, the Mama was not happy with our staring and gave us a serious hiss. I didn't know that cats and water fowl shared this common ability to make me nervous instantly. Well done, Mama. Well done.

Running Hills

For as many hills as I live on, I haven't run a lot of them. Because I'm a wuss.

Emily had the bright idea of running some hills today, which was actually sort of fun. (I can't believe I just used the adjective "fun" describe some type of running.) Unfortunately for poor Emily's friend, Brenna, who doesn't run much, she got in on our little hill running adventure.

Again, poor Brenna, because we also ran a faster pace on the downhill portions. To the left is Emily running so "fast" the computer scanner couldn't calculate her speed.

One run down...

Yes! Emily and I knocked out our first run with general success. We ran 1.85 miles in 25 minutes following our Couch to 5K plan. And to christen our first run, Mother Nature let loose the rain just as we finished!

It feels good to go running again. Emily and I talked today about why we decided to start running again, and I think I found a really good running partner. She pushes me to run a little faster and pushes me to expect more out of myself. I think this will be good for both of us... but especially me! :)


One more thing.. I meant to have RunKeeper post our stats automatically, but I messed it up the first time. If you're curious, check out the link at Runkeeper.

Non-Runner Running Into Haiku

For those of you who don't know my affinity for haiku (or just don't know me), I write haiku to highlight moments like this one - the start of a journey.

Running from nothing
But still running for something
Must reclaim "Sweat" Title

Run, run, run, run, run
In my dreams! It is more like:
Walk, jog, pant, walk, pant