Week 7 (repeat) (9.3-9.16)

Previous Summaries

The Smart Coach plan has me doing 3 mi, 6 mi (tempo), 2 mi, and 11 mi

Hal Higdon's have me doing 4.5 mi, 4 mi (repeats), 3 mi, 4 mi, and 9 mi (plus lifting)
The other Hal Higdon one has me doing 4.5 mi, 3 mi, 4.5 mi, and 7 mi.

This week I have done 2 mi, 3 mi, and 2 mi.   See details below.

Friday:  I finally ran mile repeats. 

It was hard but I managed.  i just only ran once.  It was difficult to run because there was too much traffic. 


Total suggested by training plans: 22, 24.5, or 19.

Final Thoughts:
I only ran once. Then the following week I only ran once too.  It was probably the worst I felt during a run ever.  Someone even asked me if I was alright when I was hunched over about a mile into it.

So 2 runs in 2 weeks. Awful.  What a way to train!

9.7

Shoes: Target (they are awful because the sole is wood and there is no bend to them at all)
Skirt: F21
Shirt: Express
Jacket: NY&Co (worn for warmth when we went out to dinner at 8pm)
Necklace: Lia Sophia

I decided to take a break from TV and start being productive. I did a good bit of cleaning.  But I threw productivity out the window when I talked to my mom on the phone for two and a half hours.

Dave and I went to PF Changs for dinner.

I thought I'd catch up on Desperate Housewives but after 1 episode I just couldn't watch any more.  So I started watching Dawson's Creek.

The one main character had on a shirt that I owned. I dug up the old picture of me in it.

Update

My days are all the same anymore.

I go days without showering. I go days without realizing I go days.

I went to sleep at 11:30 AM today and woke up at 12:30 am.  It is 4:15 PM now and my lunch is in the microwave. I did have some cookies that I don't even like for a snack.

In the past week I did get dressed in my running clothes (including my shoes and putting my hair up) and still didn't go run.

I've gone a couple days without even brushing my hair.  I can't even remember if I brushed my teeth this morning.

I do like a lot of TV. That takes my mind off of not having a job but then I get nothing done and get more depressed about getting nothing done.

9.4

I woke up and started watching Pretty Little Liars.   I finished the season 1 season finale just in time to leave to walk to meet Dave.  The google bus broke down so we met for dinner.

I like Pretty Little Liars. I get 3 of the guys confused and I'm pretty sure I could tell who the bad guys are if I could figure out who is who among those guys.  I'm pretty sure they don't even look alike. I get Ian, Noel, and Garret (Ryan Merriman, Brant Daugherty, and Yani Gellman) mixed up.  I think they also have extras randomly around that I think might be any of those 3 people.

8.29 and 8.30

I watched a lot of TV. I did some stuff on my to-do list.

I cooked dinner.

I started watching Season 2 of Suits. I stayed up until 8:30 AM watching the entire season.  There are too many trains so I had to pause the TV.  It took far too long to get through the episodes but I made it.

I woke up at 10:30 and forced myself back to sleep. I slept on and off until 1PM.   Poly napped with me a lot. I watched more TV.   I didn't even get off the couch until 3 PM when I got some cereal.

Near 4 PM I fell asleep again while watching the RNC.

I cooked rice for dinner to go with the leftovers. I watched some TV with Dave. I almost fell asleep at 9:20 but heard the dryer buzz so I had to go fold. I got a second wind and was very annoyed by that. I played Solitaire in bed trying to get tired again and finally fell asleep around midnight.

September workout goals

I'm keeping all the goals the same as I did in August even though I didn't meet a bunch in August and I didn't even workout 5 of the 6 days at the start of September.

1. Complete 16 cardio workouts (running, exercise bike, elliptical, or workout video)  
2. Complete 13 core workouts 
3. Frequency: Run 12 times. 
4. Distance: Run 60 total miles 
5. Workout with Dave 5 times. 
6. Lift weights 10 times. 
7. Exercise 5 times that aren't considered cardio above (mainly thinking about walks here that don't fit in anywhere) 
8. Have 3 double workout days (morning + evening, lunch + evening, etc) 
9. Stretch for 10 consecutive minutes 2 times  
10. Do foam roller exercises 3 times 
11. Do yoga 1 time.

I have a few other goals that are related to exercise but aren't me working out.

1. Have a photo shoot to get some athletic pictures for at the top of this post.
2. No more than 12 rest days all month (stretching or doing foam roller exercises means it is not a rest day)  
3. No more than 2 consecutive rest days. 

If you are curious how they compare month to month, you can look at old months or I might post my excel file.  I used to put in parenthesis what the old months goals were and if I met them but that cluttered it all up too much.

Photoshop Actions

I found an old email that I sent to myself with some photoshop actions. I downloaded a few and tried them out.  In the past I've used Actions from Pioneer Woman. These are from some random site that shows you 40 vintage + retro actions. About half of them no longer work.  One of them linked to another site with a ton.  Actions are cool because you just click once and you get some effect.  Sometimes it's not the effect you want so you just undo that and click another button. It is still easier than trying to figure something out on your own.  So far I have liked Pioneer Woman's the best because she has all the actions grouped and she names them better than "Action 1" and "Action 2."

I think the HDR one looks cool in a this picture looks fake kind of way.

The top left photo is the original and it was taken on September 2.

Week 7 - Training

Previous Summaries

The Smart Coach plan has me doing 3 mi, 6 mi (tempo), 2 mi, and 11 mi

Hal Higdon's have me doing 4.5 mi, 4 mi (repeats), 3 mi, 4 mi, and 9 mi (plus lifting)
The other Hal Higdon one has me doing 4.5 mi, 3 mi, 4.5 mi, and 7 mi.

This week I have done 2 mi, 3 mi, and 2 mi.   See details below.

Monday: I slacked off all day so it ended up being dark so I decided to just do 2 miles on the treadmill. It was a rough 2 miles because I had just finished eating KFC minutes before starting to run.  My stomach wasn't too happy with all the running.  I  started off doing 3% incline for .25 then 0% incline for .25 and repeat at 6.6 mph. But then I swapped it to 7.6 mph and 6.6 mph intervals.  I did 2 miles in 17:28 (9:00, 8:28)

Tuesday: Rest - I had my running clothes on all day and just never did it.

Wednesday:   I woke up planning to do mile repeats (6 miles counting warmup and cooldown). As I got ready to run, I realized that wasn't going to work so I decided I'd just do 3 miles.  After about a hundred yards, I thought I should cut my run down to 2 miles.  After .13 mi, I was at the intersection where I had to wait for the walk signal at the light. I just wanted to pass out right there. I didn't even want to stand up to wait. I just wanted to hunch over. I thought if that's how I was after .13 maybe I shouldn't even be running.  Before I had time to contemplate that, I got the walk signal so I set out to run.  It wasn't so bad as I got going.  I still thought I should stop at 2 miles but then I thought how I'm so behind on my running so I should do 3.  After I was done, I barely made it up the steps to get to my apartment. I just wanted to pass out.  I could barely stand long enough to get water.  I didn't eat anything before my run.  It was 75 degrees and sunny. I drank only a few sips of water that was leftover in my cup from the other day.  I basically did everything wrong. 

Even with feeling awful and doing everything wrong, I still beat my goal.

Thursday: Rest

Friday:  Rest (because I was a huge slacker and just not feeling it. Even though I knew if I got out there and started running not only would I like the run but I'd also feel better in general.) 

Saturday:  Rest

Sunday: I should have done a long run but felt under the weather.  I set out to run 2 miles only. When I had to wait to cross the street, I felt like I was going to pass out (again). Then I figured I'd set out with a goal of 9:30 pace. I've done this before but for some reason I thought that meant my splits had to be 2:15. I didn't realize this was wrong until after I got home and looked at my data. I was having trouble getting 2:15 so I decided to make my goal 9:40 pace so I could add 3 seconds to each split. This is the first time EVER that I have screwed up what the splits should be.  I also had trouble adding the bonus or penalty seconds from one split to the next. This was the first time I had trouble doing that.  In the past I might only have trouble after 5 or so miles of adding it all or if I got up to over a minute.   

Total Miles: 7.23 (So pathetic) 
Total everything else: weights once (Monday), and a walk to/from dinner
Total suggested by training plans: 22, 24.5, or 19.

Final Thoughts:
This week was so awful that I feel like I should do a repeat of week 7 in my goals and just call it week 8 and only follow 11 weeks.  I'm even debating trying to find another half that is later on because of how bad my runs have been.  I felt lightheaded so much this week and just couldn't get a good run in. I don't know why. On Saturday, I napped on the couch with 4 blankets, a hat, gloves, and a hoodie on. I would have rather been running.  I'm so mad about this week. 

8.27

Shirt: Gap
Pants: Indi
Necklace: Lia Sophia
Shoes: Famous Footwear

The shirt is a little bit weird but it worked out great because it was so loose around the gut that you couldn't see a belt buckle lump.

In bed, Poly was sleeping at my feet. I debated staying in bed so she wouldn't annoy me but I actually got up.  Then when I got up, all Poly did was annoy me. She kept pawing at me and meowing at me.  I even fed her early. She just would not let up.  I played with her too.

When I went to eat lunch, I ate on the couch and Poly went up on the other couch cushion and she was a perfect angel.  Is she trying to get me to watch more TV?

I got up to try to be productive and Poly got up to be annoying again.  I was about to get up from my computer to do other things on my to-do list and Poly got on my lap.  I didn't want her to annoy me so I just let her nap on me for a few hours.

I added some layers to my hair but since the longest length is still the same it is hard to tell. I need to get a real hair cut.

I watched more TV in the evening and ended up staying up late (3am)

My camera remote won't work at all. My cheap camera remote that doesn't also focus is missing but at least when I find that one, it will work. 

Email Progress

I've previously posted about my work emails and my personal emails.

I'm down to under 65 conversations in my inbox.  If I can just get it under 50 so it all fits on 1 screen I'll be happy.  I'm doing a good job of keeping up with new emails coming in.  The 50 shown on the first inbox page go back 23 months worth. Oh I just checked and it's 5 days short of 2 years.  I just need to go through a few more. (I'd be even further along if I didn't watch 5 hours of TV today.)

My unread emails is going down. I'm down to 21 unread emails.

With my new method of sorting, my follow-up and hold folders are increasing but I've also made it a point to go through those quickly to get rid of some.

I used to star emails and then never look at them again if they weren't on my main page.  I have been going through them.  A good portion seemed to have pictures attached that I needed to save to my computer.  I am saving them and then unstarring them.  It's going well.  I open the starred folder daily and go through about 10. I don't spend too much time because it gets to be a little boring.

I did a combined graph but it's hard to tell the lower numbers.

I looked at the past year.

I should get some sort of software that just keeps track of all this stuff for me.  I read about this one that guy even kept track of his keystrokes. He had his emails sent and received.  I'll have to google it sometime to find the link again to the stories and blog posts about the guy. You could see basically when he slept each night based on all the emails he sent throughout the rest of the day.

August Workout Goals - How I did

Here's how I did

1. Complete 16 cardio workouts = 16
2. Complete 13 core workouts  = 8
3. Frequency: Run 12 times = 15
4. Distance: Run 60 total miles = 55.26  
5. Workout with Dave 5 times. =11
6. Lift weights 10 times. = 6 
7. Exercise 5 times that aren't considered cardio above (mainly thinking about walks here that don't fit in anywhere) = 6
8. Have 3 double workout days (morning + evening, lunch + evening, etc) = 5
9. Stretch for 10 consecutive minutes 2 times  = 0
10. Do foam roller exercises 3 times = 3
11. Do yoga 1 time = 0

I have a few other goals that are related to exercise but aren't me working out.

1. Have a photo shoot to get some athletic pictures for at the top of this post. = 1
2. No more than 12 rest days all month (stretching or doing foam roller exercises means it is not a rest day)  = 13
3. No more than 2 consecutive rest days. = Never did more than 2

If you are curious how they compare month to month, you can look at old months or I might post my excel file.  I used to put in parenthesis what the old months goals were and if I met them but that cluttered it all up too much.

I would have hit my mileage total and not hit my rest day limit if I didn't put on my running clothes and 15 hours later still not run on the last day of the month.

I am actually surprised I did as many of these goals as I did and that I got close on the mileage goal.