Good reads, paranoia, and television

So I picked up a couple of books at Barnes & Noble this weekend. This is pretty amazing for me considering the last book I read was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. LOL.

Anyways, I was so engrosed with this book that I finished it in two days:

If you want a motivational read, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong is highly recommended.

Right now, I'm reading this book:


It's not really a training book for running. It's about John Bingham's story from being a couch potato to a "penguin" runner. There are tons of advice for beginner runners, but it's more autobiographical than a step-by-step instruction manual.

Actually, I SHOULD be reading this:

Zzzzzzzzz....Boring! Unfortunately, I have to read it for my class and I am way behind!

----------------------------------------------------

Paranoia

I got a phone call this morning at 5:30 am! Luckily, I was already awake. It freaked me out because I thought something bad happened to someone. It turned out it was my dad wanting to know if I was okay. Apparently, he had a nightmare that someone broke into my house. I have an alarm system, thank you very much! I am touched that he called. However, now I'm all paranoid at the possibility. Sheesh!

--------------------------------------------------

Television

Still watching my normal TV shows -- 24, Heroes (courtesy of my VCR), American Idol, etc.

24 and Heroes are the usual action packed, edge of your seat storylines. I love them!

As for American Idol, I think the great singers are Melinda, Lakisha, Jordin, and Stephanie. The guys can all go home for all I care. However, I can't really say that anybody is standing out as a "star" to me. I'm still waiting.

I ended up watching "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?", which was right after American Idol. I got the question to the Dewey decimal system wrong! I just don't care about it. I got everything else right though! Woohoo!!!

When is "House" coming back? They've been teasing us about the next episode with Dave Matthews, but it doesn't say exactly WHEN it's coming back. I miss it!

And OMG! "Dancing With The Stars" is coming back in 3 weeks!

I thought I lost my iPod Nano!

Talk about feeling like I lost an arm!

Yesterday, I noticed the side pocket of my gym bag was open and NO iPOD! I looked everywhere but nothing. I quickly called the my gym and asked if someone turned in an iPod. Figured since that was the last place I used it, I have most likely dropped it somewhere in the locker room. They didn't have it but they said they'll keep a look out for it.

Well, it got me thinking. Maybe, this will be a good excuse to get the new iPod Nano with the skinnier body and cool colors. I have the first generation one, which was only available in black & white when I bought it. I was already drooling at the prospect of getting the hot pink one and plotting of a way to sneak out of work in the middle of the day to purchase the hot pink iPod Nano at the nearby Circuit City. What can I say, I'm an iPod whore. ;-)

But alas, it wasn't meant to be!

I got in this morning to find a voicemail from the gym telling me they found my iPod. Oh well! The way I see it, I don't need the extra expense. Especially considering I just bought a car and I haven't even made the firsts monthly payment yet. LOL.

Speaking of colorful iPod, did you see the new hot colors for the iPod Shuffle? Again, I got the boring silver one coz the colors were not available back then. I swear Apple does this to me all the time!

Nothing much going on. Still working, still working out, and still running. I have also been watching American Idol and actually paying attention since it's now the top 24. All I can say is, send the all the guys home and keep the girls! Well, except a couple of the girls who were beyond horrible. The best singers were on the girls side. And OMG, Lakisha! I saw Dreamgirls a couple of months ago and I thought Lakisha did Jennifer proud with her rendition of "And I am Telling You I'm Not Going". But anything can happen so we'll just have to see.

I'm very happy to say that I'm looking forward to the running break this week. According to this training schedule I'm following (week 6), I'm only supposed to run 5K this weekend! Woohoo! My legs can definitely use the break. BUT, I am increasing my mileage next week to 4.5 miles on the weekdays and 7 miles for my weekend long run. I'm scared!

Today, I ran a 10K!!!

I think that's worth repeating.

Today, I ran a 10K!!!

6.25 miles to be exact. That's my longest run to date! Granted, it's on the treadmill (1% incline), but it's still all good. I was experimenting with hydration & refueling for longer runs, so I took walk breaks every 2 miles. My total time is 66:12 (10:34 min/miles), which I think is still pretty good. My legs felt like lead at the end though, so I made sure I stretched real good.

Oh, and I found this really nifty website called Running Ahead. You can log in your running miles and other workouts, then you can link it to your blog (see sidebar). It's all free too. There's a course mapping function on it too, like mapmyrun.com or gmappedometer.com. Another cool feature is you can also track the mileage on your running shoes so you know when to replace them. Cool, huh? I still have to retroactively enter my past workouts so it gives a complete picture.

As for the shoveling, it totally sucked! It looks like we got a foot of icy snow. Took me 3 painful hours of shoveling on Valentine's Day. Yuck! I was so sore! But, I was proud of myself the next day coz I still ran 4 miles. My friend thought I was nuts! I'll take that as a complement, thank you. ;)

That's it! Hope you all had a great weekend! Oh, and Happy President's Day tomorrow!

Take out the shovel!

We are now officially under a winter storm warning! Woohoo!!! Our first "real" snow! A whopping 3"-6" by the end of the day tomorrow! LOL. Well, it supposed to get bad. We already got 2.5" then it's supposed to turn icy tomorrow morning. Driving home today wasn't too bad. Took longer than normal, but people were just driving smartly and taking their time. And my new car handled beautifully!!! I love my little SUV!

Tomorrow, I'm going to do everybody a favor and work from home. We already got the go ahead from my boss. :) So I'm going to take my time, get my cardio done in my basement, then shovel the driveway. Looks like tomorrow is extra UBWO with shoveling icy snow. I should really go out and start shoveling, but I just got back from work and I'm tired, and it's dark and cold out. ;)

-----------------------------------------------

Workouts for the week so far:

Yesterday (Monday):
PM: Elliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 20 minutes MISS backwards), Abs

Today:
AM: Treadmill (5 min warm-up + 4 miles running + 2 min cool-down), Leg Strengthening Exercises
PM: UBWO (to be done tonight)

My New Baby!!!

Yes, I finally traded in my little black 1999 Honda Civic Coupe with over 180,000 miles with a brand new red 2007 Honda CR-V 4WD! As much as I love my new car, I felt kind of sentimental as I drove off from the dealer parking lot while catching my last glimpse of my old car. I didn't think it was going to be so hard, but it felt like my dog died. Other the the noises that I started hearing recently, my old car was really good to me! It handled well on near-misses, drove through snow storms, floods, hails, etc. But it's all for the good. At least this is one less thing to worry about now, right?

Oh get this, speaking of near miss, I almost got into an accident Friday afternoon on my way home - the same day I was due to pick up my new car! I was driving pass a traffic light in which I had the right of way (green light on my direction) when the car on the opposite lane somehow decided to make a left turn while I was just about to cross the intersection. Almost hit me too! Idiot driver! Surprisingly, I wasn't shaken or anything. I was pissed and more concerned at the thought of my car being hit as I'm about to trade it in that night, LOL.

I've forgotten how difficult it is to buy a car. I felt like I was getting an ulcer! Luckily, I had my dad there doing all the wheeling and dealing. I sealed the deal last Saturday, then picked up the new car this Friday.

So that's what I've been up to. Also, I was in training for 3 days. The training was in the city, so I was waking up much earlier than normal, driving to the train station, then taking the train to the city. I don't know how people do this everyday! It is just exhausting! The first day of training was on Wednesday and I was able to wake up early, do a 40 minutes walk on an incline, and catch the 6:48 am train to the city, so I can be in the city before 8 am. Then when I got home, I did another 40 minutes walk on an incline + Abs. Thursday and Friday - forget it! No workouts! I was just exhausted! I actually felt like I was coming down with a cold or something, which luckily didn't progress into anything serious. I think the sub-zero temperature we've been having lately didn't help either!

Eating also suffered during the training. I wasn't expecting the food to suck so bad! Usually, when you go to these big trainings, you pay big bucks, and you at least have decent meals. It was so bad even the coffee suck! The lunch one day was cheesesteaks. Then on one of the snack breaks, we had Tasty Cakes. It was really cheaply done! It was really unexpected since the training was held at one of the fancy hotels in the city! Oh well, that's done thank God!

On top of training, I still have to keep up with work. So, at the end of the day, I have to log in and follow up on emails and projects. Yuck!

The good news is my running has been going extremely well. Running 4 miles now is getting to be routine for me. Then today, I ran 5 miles! And on the treadmill too! I figured if I can overcome boredom for that long, I can run longer when it's finally nice enough to run outside. So far, no injuries! I may do LBWO tonight, just coz I wasn't able to do my 2nd one for the week.

We're supposed to get our first snow storm on Tuesday. They said it's expected to be "major", as in 6" or more. I can handle 6" but the "or more" scares me. The weather reports hasn't exactly been specific. Depending on when the snow hits us, I'll probably be working from home. But at least I'm ready to tackle the driving with my brand new spanking 4WD! LOL.

Attention!!!

You're never too old for Harry Potter! (LOL)

--------------------------------------------------------

Workout Log:

Wednesday:

PM: Eliptical (28 min HIIT + 7 min MISS), Abs

Thursday:

AM: Treadmill (3.75 running + 7 min walking), LSE

PM: LBWO

Eating is clean for the most part. Had to meet my friend for lunch today at a Chinese Restaurant. Not quite perfect, but I kept the portions in check. Water - check! Supplements - check!

Well, I'm tired so that's all for today!