Monday Amusement

Since this is mainly a running blog, most people that read this will be pretty familiar with the Garmin sports watch and heart rate monitor or some other variation. I use the Garmin 405 and I've become so dependent on it, that I have mild anxiety just thinking about running without it.

A friend of mine that is new to running just got one for her birthday from her husband. The very first thing she did was try out the heart rate monitor during sex to see how hard she's working out. True story.

Weird Relationships and Running

Happy Saturday!

There's a National Geographic Channel marathon of the show Taboo running today. Now I've never seen the show before, but I couldn't stop watching. Any time you think you've chosen poorly regarding your choices of mate in relationship, just remind yourself that at least you are not dating an inmate.

Yep. That's right. An inmate. Like from PRISON.

Getting married by proxy via the prison radio station. Romantic, right? (source)

This woman married a man serving at least another decade in prison. She met him when he was on the run from the law. They lived together for a year before he turned himself in because he knew that it was the only way they could eventually have a life together. Um, huh?

She then decided to marry him, but since he's in a maximum security prison, she got married by proxy (which is only legal in a handful of American states) over the prison radio. Romantic!

That's not nearly as weird as a man who married a woman serving a life sentence for her part in the brutal murder of a teen aged boy. The man, recently divorced, found her via the prison pen pal system and told her that he would most likely marry the next woman that came along. So they got married. 'Cause that makes sense, right?

He put up a mannequin in his living room as tribute to her - wedding dress and all - and pretends she is the real deal.

                  This just seems a little too Criminal Minds to me. Even the house is creepy!
(source)

Now, I don't believe in regretting past relationships because, regardless of how they ended, each one brought some sort of joy into my life at the time. I've mourned the loss of a few and maybe questioned my own naivete in thinking I could make them work out, but at least my relationship compass isn't lacking to the point where I'm trolling a prison pen pal system to find my soul mate.

My view on our long run this morning by the canal.

This morning, Tara and I joined the San Diego Team for a long run. The weather is unseasonably nice today in Phoenix, AZ. Most of the group just did a 5 mile run since they are tapering for the race next weekend, but we did 7.5.

Susan, our coach, ran with us for the first couple of miles, and by "run" I mean she strolled along while Tara and I shuffled at our incredibly slow HR pace. Susan reassured us that we're on the right track by slowing ourselves down. We got to chat a little bit about heart rate and I told her that I regularly run at a heart rate of 170, even all the way up to 180 and she definitely agreed I should slow it down. I'm crossing my fingers that I will eventually get faster by going slower first, but it's hard!

We shuffled along, slogging through 2 hours at that slow pace, but we were able to have a conversation throughout the whole work out, so it has been nice to have someone to chat with to distract me from how long we were out there.

As the few runners passed us on their way back, Susan turned around and ran back with them to let them back into the store (we met at Sole Sports this morning rather than way out at Pecos Park) and Tara and I continued on our way.

A park along the canal.

Running over the 101 freeway.

All in all, it was a good run. We had beautiful weather and it feels good to be regularly training again. I'm finding that even though we're jogging very slowly, I'm not dreading going out and running because I don't feel completely trashed afterward.

So far, my 3 day weekend is starting off nicely. Please be careful out there this holiday weekend and do not indulge too much. Or do, but don't drink and drive!

Always looking to try new things!

Manic Monday

I had one of those mornings where I woke up at 4 something and somehow managed to worry and stress while trying to make myself go back to sleep for another hour. No such luck. Have I mentioned I some serious anxiety issues?

(source)

I don't really know why some days I feel that way. I get so overwhelmed by the sum total of all of the little things worrying me that I want to just stay in bed. But alas, I have a mouth to feed (besides my own) and I wouldn't be a very good mother if I didn't go to work!

He does have a really big mouth, after all.

Anyway, after my round of morning anxiety, I got my ass in gear and started my day. My day turned out to be pretty darn good, so as usual, all of my worrying was for nothing. I tackled all of the things I had to get done and now I don't feel so overwhelmed.

I went to the gym straight from the office and worked on keeping my heart rate under 150. It was a challenge! And also a little boring. One of the bonuses of doing treadmill work is doing intervals which breaks up the tedium of running in one place. So it seemed as if I was on the treadmill for an enternity. It's only my second run focusing on my heart rate and I already want to be faster!

(source)

I'm somewhat impatient. That's why I have to write things down, otherwise I think I should be making progress immediately. It's tough to be running this slow and not feel like you're regressing rather than progressing, but about halfway through my workout I realized that my current "slow" pace used to be a goal pace when I trained for my first half marathon and couldn't run to the mailbox without stopping. 

I ran for 3 continuous miles only stopping twice for a few seconds to drink water. And I only did that because the other day, I nearly chipped my tooth trying to take a drink while running.

I ended my night having Mediterranean food with my aunt for dinner. It was so delicious and the restaurant is right across the street from my house. I need to go there more often.

And two stores to the left is a Starbucks...

I tried taking pictures of my steak kabob salad, but my phone just isn't doing the trick. I used to carry my little Canon Powershot Elph with me everywhere before I got a decent phone, but that was also before I started blogging and my phone pictures just look crappy. I have no plans to invest in a mighty and awesome camera, but I think I might upgrade to the next generation of Canon Elph.

(source)

It's not the top of the line, even for the Canon Powershot Elph, but the one I have is only 7MP and did a pretty good job. Plus, I already have a two expensive hobbies, I do not need to add photography to the growing list! I'm sure this will do the trick. Maybe I will get around to purchasing this little guy this weekend.

I'm off to bed, there's a cute pony waiting to see me in the morning. Good night!