2007 - Here we go!

Happy New Year everyone! Let's greet 2007 with a bang!

I did my last work out for 2006 today. Since I couldn't run and I'm doing a make up of tomorrow's cardio, I did cardio overload today! 40 minutes on the recumbent bike, 15 minutes on the Body Trec, a little bit of back exercises and abs, and finally slow walking on the treadmill at 12 % incline (being extra careful with the shins). Boy was I dripping with sweat! I noticed that there were a lot of people at the gym this morning trying to get a good workout in before we go crazy tonight :-D.

Shins are still bothering me. I've been icing and taking ibuprofen, but they are still sore. I am praying that it is only shin splint and nothing serious like *gulp* stress fracture.

Anyways, enjoy yourselves tonight! I certainly will ;-). And above all, stay safe!

I'm falling apart!

Lower back feels a lot better. But now I have shin splints...on BOTH legs! WTF!!! Must be from the 4-miles fast walk yesterday. Today's planned 4.5 miles run was scrapped. Instead, I decided to play it smart so I shelled out $7 to use the local gym. Here's my workout:

AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 10 minutes MISS), LBWO, Abs

I had to be careful with LBWO since my back still feels a bit tender. For example, I did one set of squats on the smith machine then decided to do something else since it does put a little bit of pressure on the back.

But what a shame! Today is sunny, mild weather, in the mid-50's. Perfect day for running.

I'm kind of disappointed since I keep getting sidelined with injuries. However, I am not deterred! I will keep on going, and hopefully one of these days, I'm going to figure out how I'm supposed to land my feet on the ground, LOL! In the meantime, ICE ICE BABY!

If I have time, I'll probably go to the gym tomorrow for my last workout of 2006.

Have a safe and happy New Years everyone!!!

Dreamgirls

I finally saw this movie! I absolutely LOVE it! Beyonce was great, but Jennifer Hudson rocked the house! Everytime she sang, the whole movie theatre was really getting into it and clapping.

The movie soundtrack was awesome and favorite song from the movie is probably "Listen" which was sung by Beyonce. I highly recommend that you go see the movie!

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I woke up today with a sore lower back. WTF!!!!

I'm not sure what's going on. I've been spending most of my holidays at my parents' house and the heaviest weights my mom has is a pair of 8-lbs dumbells. Since I'm too cheap to spend $7/day to go to the gym (have to counteract the 3 Couch bags I bought as x-mas present to myself ;-D), my weight-lifting days has been modified to supersets with high repetitions. I still felt the burn though. Anyways, I don't think my sore back has anything to do with the weight lifting. I'm pretty sure it's the running. All that heavy pounding does put a toll on your lower back. So today, it's going to be stretching, icing, Icy Blue, and more stretching. In the future, I'll be more conscious with strengthening my lower back - maybe do some low back exercises right after working the abs.

Thankfully, I'm off from running today. I did go to the park for a 4-miles walk. Man, did it take FOREVER! Tomorrow is my long run and I hope my back feels better then.

Post-Christmas Report

One holiday down, one more to go!

I am thoroughly enjoying my holidays and vacation! Besides the onslaught of holiday parties, I've been getting in touch with friends who, like me, are also home for the holidays. Two nights ago, I went out with 2 of my close guy friends from college. One now lives in Nashville, Tennessee and works for Nissan as an engineer. The other friend is now a nephrologist (kidney doctor). He will be moving to Phoenix, Arizona next year to join his uncles practice. Man, I feel old! It seems like only yesterday we were all goofing off, staying up all night, partying, etc. Anyways, I'm so glad those two are living where they are. I'm already planning on visiting my friend from Nashville sometime next year since I've never been there. I've already been to Phoenix years ago to visit the doctor friend when he was going to med school there, so I'll have to see about that.

Yesterday, I met another friend for lunch. This friend was someone I used to work with at my current company, but is now doing some post-doctoral studies in Tissue Engineering at MIT. His family still lives in the area so we usually meet once a year around the holidays. We went to our usual hang out, which is an Italian restaurant specializing in authentic Italian hoagies. Man, those hoagies are sooo good!

I may have more plans between tonight and tomorrow night, but Saturday night I'm meeting 2 other friends that I haven't seen in a while. These friends are people I used to work with at a department store during summer breaks from college. We'll probably do dinner then a movie. I am hoping they're open to seeing "Dreamgirls" coz I really want to see it! :-)

Between the parties and reunion with friends, my eating has been shot! I've been successful with limiting my portions, but the meals are not the healthiest. Like for example, 2 nights ago we went to Olive Garden then to a diner for coffee and desert. There are no healthy choice at Olive Garden, so I settled for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, of which I ate only half. Then at the diner, the healthiest desert was carrot cake. :-)

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself this holiday, but I cannot wait when this is all over and I can get back to a routine.

On the other hand, workouts has been going GGGRRRREEEAAATT!!!

Monday:
No workout. Christmas day. Had a small get-together at my brother's place for lunch, then went to a friend's house for dinner. I was stuffed!!! However, I did run the day before, which was supposed to be rest day.

Tuesday:
AM: Treadmill (3.4+ miles at 5.9 mph and 1% incline + 10 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down), Abs, leg strengthening exercises
Was planning on doing LBWO, but couldn't get it in.

Wednesday:
PM: LBWO
Was running around all day and was too tired to do the planned cardio. LBWO was completed through sheer will at around 10 pm!

Thursday:
AM: Treadmill (3.4+ miles at 5.9-6.1 mph and 1% incline + 7 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down), Abs, leg strengthening exercises
PM: UBWO
That's more like it!

I absolutely must get back to an eating routine come January! Inspite of the workouts, I can feel the effects of my poor eating habits. My stomach is so bloated I'm starting to look like the Goodyear blimp!

That's it for now! Hope everybody's having a great holiday as well!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

PS: Today is supposed to be my rest day...BUT...since there's a good possibility that I won't be able to work out tomorrow, I got in a 2 miles run + 1.5 miles walk this afternoon at the park. :o)

LSD

Long Slow Distance run = 4 miles

DONE!!!

Okay, that's probably measley to some serious runners, but to me, that's a LOOONG distance! Anyways, I thought that's worth blogging about today, even though very few people are blogging right now. :-)

Went to the park today and ran at a very leasurely pace. The goal is to make it to 4 miles without crashing. My legs still felt like lead this morning so I made sure to stretch a lot before going out. It was a nice 56F, very cloudy but no rain. There were several people there walking and one woman was running. When I first started, the woman looked like she was going pretty fast (tall with long strides) and I was thinking there is no way I was going to catch up to her. So off I went at what I consider a slow pace and pretty soon, I was passing her! The park was pancake flat and has a 1/2 mile loop around it so it was definitely a leasurely run. Runner's high hit me after mile 3 and after I was done with mile 4, I felt I could have gone on longer! After mile 4, I kept on running for a little bit longer and then slowed down to a walk until I completed lap 9, which made it a total of 4.5 miles! Knees are still holding up so I am pretty happy!

Went home and did some leg strengthening exercises and UBWO (supersets).

Total running miles for the week = 11.6

I'm a very happy camper!

doidle - Thanks for stopping by! I'll try to post some pictures soon. Nothing in swimsuit though. ;-) I did post some pictures in myblends a couple of days ago - before BFL and after BFL.

Have a great day everyone!

3 Shopping Days Before Christmas

Still here and still going strong! Cold is almost gone and workouts for today are done!

Treadmill: 3.1+ miles running @ 5.9 mph and 1% incline (~32 minutes), 8 minutes walking for warm-up and cool-down
Leg strengthening exercises
Abs supersets: 4x25 crunches, reverse crunches, oblique crunches (both sides). OUCH!!!

My butt is so sore from yesterday's and today's workouts that it hurts to sit down. It's a good hurt though. I want to do a long, slow run (~4 miles) tomorrow, but I'll have to see. It's supposed to be 60F tomorrow and I so want to run outside, but the rain is predicted to continue throughout the morning. The good news is, my knees are holding up (knock on wood). Those leg strenghtening exercises and stretches are doing wonders!

Today, I got some last minute shopping done. My brother and I went to this shopping center, which is a little on the higher end, so it wasn't too crowded. The worst part is the traffic to and from there. We left after lunch, but I guess a lot of people were either shopping or were let go early from work.

Anyways, I am DONE with my Christmas shopping! I just have to get a couple more VISA gift checks from the bank, buy some Christmas bags from the Dollar Store, and that should be it! WAAAAHOOOOO!!!

Gotta go! I hear the fire engines going, which means the annual Santa rounds are happening courtesy of our fire department. What can I say, I'm still a kid at heart! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Bored

Can't you tell? That's why I've been on a blogging frenzy lately, LOL. None of my friends and families are on vacation, so it's just me amusing myself.

Workouts are done for today! Here's what I did:

AM: ~51 minutes walking on the treadmill (~3 miles) on a very high incline. This treadmill is old and kind of manual so it felt like I was going faster than what the display says. I was definitely sweating up a storm and my legs were screaming!
PM: LBWO, leg strengthening exercises

I still have the cold, hence, the walking on the treadmill. Otherwise, I'd be outside in the frigid weather running. Thankfully, my cold hasn't been too bad. Guess that Zicam actually works!

Oh, I made a cool discovery on iTunes! There's a podcast called Yoga Today that have video episodes every day! You do not need a video iPod! It's actually better to play it in your computer so it's on a bigger screen. Just download it to your computer, play, and do yoga to your hearts content. And since they have different episodes everyday, you won't get bored! I'm going to dowload an episode to my laptop and go somewhere in the house where there's room to spread out and go from there! Pretty cool, huh?

Now, if you're tech savvy like my one brother, you can build your own computer that has a built-in tv tuner and Tivo-like recording thingamajig, hook it up to your big flat screen TV, and you're golden! He has an older computer (Sony Vaio - still pretty good!) that he's rigging up to function similarly and giving it to my non-tech savvy parents. Lucky dogs!

Anyways, I might do some yoga later, if I still have some energy. ;-)

VACATION!!!

As of yesterday, I am officially on vacation! Not returning to work until January 2nd! Yeah baby! Unfortunately, I've been getting calls from our secretary about urgent things that I have to take care of, so I've been logging into work, resolving issues, etc. Oh well! It's still better not being at work.

Here's my workout log so far for the week:

Monday
AM: eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 15 minutes MISS), Killer Abs (still hurting today!)

Tuesday
AM: ~1.5 miles running + ~.5 miles walking (warm-up, cool-down), as much push-ups as I can manage, leg strengthening exercises
Don't know what happened! One minute I was enjoying my run outside, then I just stopped and decided to walk home. Must be because of lack of sleep (~4 hours)? Then, I had to drive to my parents house before lunch time so I ran out of time.

Wednesday (Today)
AM: ~3+ miles running + .5 miles walking, leg strengthening exercise
PM: UBWO (supersets), Abs

Run today was great! It was pretty chilly, but very sunny and no cloud in sight so that helped a lot. Unfortunately, I was hit with a cold immediately afterwards. Still managed to do my workouts in the afternoon though. Followed my guideline of neck up = workout, neck down and/or fever = no workout. I took some Airborne right away and went to the pharmacy for Zicam and Cold-eeze cough drops, both of which are supposed to reduce the length and the symptoms of cold. We'll see!

Tomorrow if my cold progress, I might just do light cardio like 45 minutes walking plus LBWO.

That's it for now. Be good!

My Power Song

Ending on a good note

Today is the 6th day I've worked out this week. Woohoo!!! What an accomplishment! So today's workout is as follows:

AM: Running outside for 3.4 miles.
PM: LBWO, Abs

Overall mileage ran for the week: 9.85 miles. Not too bad for a comeback. :)

Okay, I didn't do abs last night as promised. I fell asleep early and totally forgot! But I did make it up today!

Running today felt great! It was 46F, nice and sunny - perfect running weather! I actually ended up taking off my jacket after a while because I got too hot. The only annoying thing is the wind - it always pick up everytime I go uphill, just to make things harder for me, LOL. It's strange, but I think it's better for me to run outside than on the treadmill. It seems I get injured more on the treadmill. Must be the way my feet land on the ground or something. Who would have thunk?

Don't want to jinx myself, but...

...I'm doing really good this week!

Monday
AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 10 minutes MISS), Abs

Tuesday
AM: Treadmill (2.2 miles @ 5.8 mph (~23 minutes), 7 minutes LISS (warm-up, cool-down), leg strengthening exercises
PM: LBWO, leg strengthening exercises (cable machine)

Wednesday
AM: Eliptical (20 minutes HIIT + 15 minutes MISS), Abs

Thursday
AM: Treadmill (2.25+ miles @ 5.9 mph (23 minutes), 7 minutes LISS (warm-up, cool down), leg strengthening exercises
PM: UBWO, leg strengthening exercises (cable machine)

Friday
AM: Treadmill (5 minutes warm-up + 2 miles run @ 5.8 mph (~21 minutes) + 9 minutes fast walking on 3% incline), leg strengthening exercise.
Will do abs tonight - PROMISE!!!

I'm working from home this morning because my heater is being serviced (preventive maintenance). Unfortunately, the service guy is LATE!!! Ugh!!! It's gone past 1:30 pm and I'm supposed to be at work at 2 pm for our Christmas party. The guy is still in the basement doing his thing. So annoying!!!

Test Run

Yay, I'm back to running! For the last couple of days, all I've been doing was brisk walking on a high incline for loooong periods (boring!!!). Today, I eased back into running by doing a moderate 5.7 mph pace and 1% incline for 2 miles, which took about 21 minutes. My right knee, which was giving me problems, feels FINE! WAAAHOOO!!! For the next week or so, I'm going to be strict and not increase my speed or time by no more than 10% a week. At the same time, I'm going to continue doing the leg strengthening exercises. Hopefully, those two combined will lead me to build a good solid running base, and maybe I can finally improve.

Also after my run today, I did an UBWO. A good day overall for fitness!

Food is another matter. I met my family at Maggiano's for lunch today since it's my brother's birthday. It's an Italian restaurant (for those who don't know) and we had their family style special in which you share the food and you get a choice of 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 2 pasta dishes, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts, plus the bread. Their portions are huge and the food is amazing! My family and I are fairly light eaters, so we ended up taking most of the food home! Needless to say, I was so full afterwards.

After lunch, my mom and I decided to walk off the meal by doing some shopping at the nearby mall. I got a good deal on a pair of jeans at Express. They have a special going on in which the jeans are $20 off, and I have a $15 coupon, so I ended up paying only $25 for a pair of jeans! SAAWEET!!! That's not even the best part! The best part is I actually fit in a SIZE 0 SLIM FIT JEANS!!! This is my first pair of Express jeans since like college, so their size might be bigger. Don't know. But it's still pretty amazing! I was a size 2 in jeans and size 0 in regular pants and was quite happy with it, but I guess I still lost some inches. I bought the size 0 boot cut jeans, but for kicks I tried on the size 0 skinny jeans and they also fit!!! They actually look darn good! I almost started cheering in the fitting room when my fat legs actually slid through and the zip closed with no problem, LOL! The skinny jeans were $20 more than the boot cut one so I didn't get it. Maybe next time. I would probably wear them with knee-high boots worn over the jeans. That would look really sharp! Oh well! Like I said, maybe next time. Hopefully, my fat calves also caught up with the size reduction so I can also get a new, non-stretchy, knee-high boots, LOL!

I was feeling so confident in my newly discovered size that I ended up buying a Coach bag, LOL! There goes the great deal at Express! ;)

Well, that's the end of my fun for the day. Now it's onto cooking for the week, folding the laundry that I did last night, maybe some cleaning, and FINALLY setting up my Christmas tree. I do have the lights outside already set up, so I'm not completely late with my Christmas decorations.

Sick

I've been struck with some nasty stomach bug. Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling feverish and nauseus. The only thing I had yesterday was a cup of hot tea and some water. I just couldn't keep anything down! My temperature was above 100 for the whole day so I took some Tylenol. I was feeling nauseus all day, but didn't actually throw up until 9 pm! What a horrible feeling!

I feel better today - no more fever or nausea. I was actually able to eat 2 pieces of toast and drink a cup of hot tea this morning. However, I still feel drained from yesterday, so I decided to take another day off from work today to recuperate completely. I have been checking emails regularly from work to keep up to date and I am already dreading going back! Just so much work to do!

I was watching the news this morning, and apparently there has been an outbreak of E. coli in our area. I don't think that's what I have or I'd be in worse shape than what I've been. Plus, they traced the source to a couple of Taco Bell fast food restaurants, and I know I haven't been to one in months!

Needless to say, no workouts yesterday and today. Honestly, that's the last of my concern right now. I'm more concerned about getting more food in me.

So that's what I've been up to for the last couple of days. Not fun!

Blogging again

Surprise! Another post from me, and so soon! Anyways, I decided to start blogging more regularly again. I need to be extra vigilant right now with my workouts since I can't run so that the weight doesn't creep up. Posting my workouts will hopefully keep me accountable.

So here goes:

Yesterday (Sunday)

• 2 miles walk at the park by my parents house. My dad wanted to go for a walk so I went to keep him company.

Today

• Moderate walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes (first thing in the morning on an empty stomach)
• Abs (3 sets of planks: 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 minute)
• Leg strengthening exercises

My knee feels so much better. But I'm being smart this time and giving it time to heal. When I do start running again, I will have to force myself to start easy.

I found some great websites that have exercises on how to strengthen the leg muscles to help avoid runner's knee. I'll be sure to incorporate these exercises into my workouts:

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/guides/knee/xpatello.gif

http://www.drpribut.com/sports/spknees.html

The latest Runner's World magazine edition also has an article on injury prevention with exercise recommendations. I ripped the page off and posted it on my magnetic board in my basement where I work out.

That's it for now!

Runner's Knee :(

No running for me right now :(. It seems like I have runner's knee, specifically on my right knee. I lost my motivation for a week after Thanksgiving, which means no workout at all. Thankfully, I was able to keep my eating 90% clean (not counting the Thanksgiving meal, of course). Anyways, I finally regained my motivation yesterday and ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes (BFL HIIT) and walked for 10 minutes (warm-up and cool-down). I made sure to stretch a lot before and after too. I was fine for the whole day, then by the end of the day my right knee started hurting when I walk down the stairs. Also that afternoon at the gym, I couldn't even do leg extensions. Hence, no running for at least a couple of days for me. And today, my planned 5K race has been scrapped :(. This coming week for cardio, it will be walking and cross-training (ie: bike, eliptical, etc.).

It's kind of frustrating. I have never been made for running and have to work my butt off to get to this point. But I love it and will not give up. So this is just a temporary drawback and I WILL BE BACK! I have been doing a lot of reading on runner's knee and I will be sure to do the exercises recommended to strengthen the leg muscles. Also, I will be more conscious of taking my Glucosamine-Chondroitin-MSM and Fish Oil supplements - yeah, those went out the toilet along with my workouts!

I did get the iPod Shuffle and I am totally in love with it! So if any of you are thinking of getting it, I highly recommend it! You don't even notice that it's there! I'm hoping my knees will feel better soon so I can take advantage of the Shuffle.

My Second 5K!!!!

So I ran my second 5K yesterday! And I sucked...or so I thought.

I ran it again with a friend of mine, who is our department admin. from work. It was a lot warmer this time, probably around 60s when the race started at 9 am, sunny with a slight breeze. It was unusually warm yesterday, it actually went up to mid-70's! Anyways, this race is a lot bigger than the one I ran a couple of weeks ago. It started out in a park trail then to the surrounding neighborhood. The description says that it's supposed to be mostly flat terrain, which it wasn't! I must have started really fast because by the half-way mark, my time was 14:45. And here's the sucky part, I ended up walking 3 times! I don't know what was up with me! Early last week, I did have a cold with fever. But I ran approx. 4 miles Thursday morning, albeit very slow. Don't know if it has something to do with that or the hills or what. So anyways, to my shame I walked. I did notice a lot more people (more than normal) taking walking breaks so maybe it just wasn't me. My friend, who was behind me the entire race, also walked several times. She didn't understand it either as this was her 4th 5K race and have never walked on her previous 3 races and on her training runs.

The race ended also at the park and I sprinted towards the end. I was so disgusted with myself that I didn't even want to know my time. But get this, inspite of all the walking I ended up beating my time from my first 5K race! My finish time was 30:09! I am kicking myself though because I most likely would have been sub-30 if I just kept on running.

Overall though, I had a great time. 5K races are so much fun! You see so many people of different ages and different fitness level. And everybody is just so friendly! I'm just going to keep on running and hopefully keep on improving.

My friend, who is 49 this year, will be cleaning up the medals next year! She just missed the next age-level, but she always beat at least one of the medalist's times in the 50's age category. She just started running this year so she should be better next year.

So my next race? There's another one in Dec. 2, but I have to play it by ear since it might be too cold by then. This race is going to be held at the same place as my first 5K race, even the same running path, just different organizer. I'm just going to wing it and see how the weather is. But I read that the sponsors are supposed to provide food and 2 of the sponsors are Starbucks and Coldstone Creamery! Those might just be enough to bring me to the race, LOL!

I'm also thinking of doing a 5-miler in April. God help me! Of course, I have to train for it. This is the race I'm thinking of doing: Valley Forge Revolutionary 5-Mile Run.

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SHOPPING!!!

I just found out that an outlet store is opening like 7 miles away from me! Eeeek! Like I don't shop enough! The construction is already underway and the mall is slated to open in the Fall of 2007.

I'm also thinking of getting an iPOD Shuffle. I already have the iPOD Nano, but the armband is getting cumbersome for me during my runs. The iPOD Shuffle only costs $74, holds 1G of songs (~240), and a lot more portable. Check this out!

Quick Update

Yeah, I'm still alive. Just nothing new to say.

I am planning on running my 2nd 5K next week. Wish me luck!

My First 5K!!!!!

My first 5K was today! Boy, was it an experience! I was sooooo nervous going into it. First because I dind't really prepare for it until this week. I procrastinated! After my vacation, I indulged in several days more recovering from my vacation, LOL! So this week, I crammed as much running as I can into one week. My last runs were 3.5 miles this Wednesday and 4.5 miles this Thursday. Big mistake! I was so sore even today going into my 5K.

To add to injury, Aunt Flo came yesterday. Driving to the race, I got cramps so bad I had to pull over a parking lot. I almost turned around and headed back home. But I knew that I would regret it if I did that. So I waited a bit and went on my way once I felt better.

Furthermore, it is FREEZING today and I am not used to running in the cold! 40F with 10mph wind. Thankfully, it was sunny. I tried to warm up without tiring myself too much by walking around, stretching, making bathroom trips, etc. There were some people there wearing just t-shirt and shorts and I don't know how the hell they do it! Also, our race started in a high school so there were some people taking advantage of the track and running there even before the race started. I was just amazed with that since the thought of running 3.1 miles is daunting enough for me.

I found my friend who was also running the race and who happens to lives in the area. She started telling me about this one road that we were going to run in that consists of this one long hill that they call "The Wall". She said some bikers avoid it because it was so hard to climb. That immediately made me more nervous that I already was!

So finally we lined up in the starting line. Once the starting gun went off, it seems like this big group of runners just took off. I started out slow and it felt like I was going to be left behind. But eventually I got into the groove. Honestly, I didn't even notice the hill. I guess running at constant 1% incline on the treadmill helped me a bit. That and running in my development which has short but high inclines. What got to me were the trails. We went into this park and ran in this trail which was really windy, uneven, and wet because of the rain from yesterday. I honestly thought I was going to twist my ankle. The trail seemed to go FOREVER. Finally we were out of the trail and this one volunteer was yelling "One more mile!". At this point, exhaustion was getting to me. And to find that I still ahd one mile to go totally deflated me. I slowed down to a walk for about 20 seconds and after a couple of people passed me, I got pissed with myself and started to run again. Well, it turned out that we had like less than half a mile left after getting out of the park! We went down a block and once we made a turn, you could clearly see the end/start point. Needless to say, I wish I didn't hear that volunteer yelling "One more mile!" coz that got to me mentally.

I ended up finishing well: 30:18

I wish I finished less than 30 minutes, but I'll still take it!

We stayed behind for some food and the awards. Get this, I got 3rd in my age group and got a medal! WOOOOHOOO!!!! Unfortunately, they kind of screwed up that part. As they were announcing the winners in my age group for females, they went from 30:02 for second place, then skipped me and awarded the girl that finished 35:something for third. My friend and I had to go to the organizers afterwards and get it corrected. They had a bunch of extra medals and just gave me one and apologized for the mistake. I doubt they're going to "officially" correct it since they can't take back the 3rd place award. Oh well! I know my time and that's all that matters. My friend also took 3rd place in her age category so we were both happy.

The first overall winner was a guy who finished around 15 minutes! Holy crap! That means he was running 5 minute miles! That's freaking unbelievable! The overall winner for the ladies finished about 19 minutes. That's also freaking unbelievable! I can't imagine running that fast!

Overall, I'm glad I did it. I started to question myself during my run on what the hell I was thinking in doing it, but at the end of it all, it was a ton of fun. Will I do this again? Heck yeah!

Trip report - Part II

Okay, so where was I?

So after the Grand Canyon we headed back to Las Vegas. The next morning (late though coz we were pooped!) we drove about half an hour to BEAUTIFUL Red Rock Canyon. I love it there and could actually picture myself living in the area. The area looks fairly new but there are still a lot of developments going on. Can you just imagine the canyons as the view from one of your house windows? Also, for a mere $20/year, you have unlimitted access to the national park where they have trails, rock climbing, and a 13-mile scenic drive where people also go biking! HEAVEN!!!





We did an impromptu 2 mile hike, as indicated by the inappropriateness of the attire...LOL! I thought we were just going to do the 13-mile drive but we got taken in by the majesty of the place. I was wearing sandals and it kept sinking into the sandy ground. Thankfully, the weather was mild which made the hike more bearable. I couldn't do too much rock climbing because of the sandals. Plus, I'm not too fond of heights. ;) I went on some of the lower rocks though. That was fun!

On our last day we just walked the strip. Pictures below are of one of the lions in the Lion's Habitat at MGM Grand. They sleep ALL DAY! Wish I had that luxury! The last picture is of me next to the Golden Crocodile at the Mandalay Bay Aquarium.





During our stay in Vegas, we also caught 2 Cirque du Soleil shows: Mystere and Love. I highly recommend Mystere. Love was okay. The music was great since it's form The Beatles repertoire. However, I wasn't too impressed with the acrobatics. It just might be me. We caught the 10:30 pm show for Love which is late for me, especially considering all the walking we did during the day. Also, Mystere, which was the first show we saw, was so awesome that I set my expectations too high for Love. I really really wanted to see Ka, but the tickets cost much more than the average and my brother, who set up the trip, was insistent on seeing two shows. I wish we only saw one show, preferably Ka. We really stretched ourselves too thin on this trip.

Overall, I was exceptionally pleased with the trip. Vegas was definitely unique. Also, the FOOD! There were just so many selections, and not many were healthy! We ate at the buffets several times because of the convenience. Although I tried to not go all out crazy, I still ate more than normal. Because everything in Vegas (ie: food) was expensive, I felt guilty eating too little at the buffets. I felt I wasn't getting my money's worth...LOL!

Besides all the walking, I didn't get any workouts in. Not even a run on the strip. I did do pushups, dips, lunges, and crunches in the hotel room. Where we stayed, you had to pay $25 to use the gym! And after my first day there, I wasn't too confortable running on the strip, which I regretted later on. Although the Vegas strip is considered safe, I did see some questionable looking individual/peddlers there. As I said, I did regret it later on because I saw a couple of runners here and there.

Oh, I just found out that Olympia was held there during my stay! I was wondering why I was seeing all these buff women around. I didn't see anyone I would recognize though. The women I saw were, in my opinion, too buff to the point that they could be considered masculine. To be honest, they look like they're on steroids.

And that concludes my trip to Vegas...LOL!

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FITNESS

I came back last Tuesday and I only started working out this Monday. Talk about slacking! My running sucks! I can't even run 20 minutes straight! I know I can do it, but there seems to be some mental block preventing me from doing it. Like I said, I have a 5K in less than 2 weeks and I have to get it together by then. I think I'm going to get those hypnosis tapes to help me look forward to my workouts again. The good news is that I weighed myself today after my workout and I maintained my weight from before Vegas...108 lbs. Don't know if weighing myself is a good idea though. It gives me an excuse to continue slacking off.

Oh, and my gym got new elliptical machines! I haven't tried them out yet, but they look pretty swanky! I overheard a woman in the locker room telling her friend that she likes the new machines because the magazine tray is closer to her and she's able to read better. I wanted to tell her "Girl, if you're able to read you're not working hard enough!".