Jinx’s Ghetto Garden, 2013

Oh, hello there! I assure you I have not fallen off the face of the earth, nor did the jogging kill me (although I haven’t gone out since the last jogging post). I have been extremely busy and exhausted when I am not working and then away for . . . → Read More: jinx’s garden 2013 edition]]>

Jinx’s Ghetto Garden, 2013

Oh, hello there! I assure you I have not fallen off the face of the earth, nor did the jogging kill me (although I haven’t gone out since the last jogging post). I have been extremely busy and exhausted when I am not working and then away for a long weekend so I haven’t had time to run, blog or do anything. I did get a ton of books read on the train though.  I just needed to turn off the internet for a while.

This is a long weekend in Canada and “traditional” planting time if you live on my coast – even so, it’s still a little cold at night and I am not certain how my – er, Jinx’s tomatoes will fare. This morning Shawn and I went out to the farmer’s market and picked up my (Jinx’s) plants for the garden this year. I managed to get it all done before the rain started to pour down. Score!

I already know the tomato plants I get from this vendor at the market turn out splendidly, so I hope they do again. Once more I got one tomato and one cherry tomato plant. Since Shawn doesn’t like tomatoes and my neighbour sold his house, I won’t have as many people to share them with. (Other than my sister, of course!) Last year I bought six little english cucumber sprouts and ended up with cucumber out the wazoo (much to Jinx’s delight! He might hate tomatoes, but he LOVES his coocumbers). I only got one carton of sprouts this year, but there were 4 rather than three. Let’s see how that goes.

Due to the abysmal experience with the sweet peppers last year, I knew I wasn’t going to attempt those again. But I’m still going to try something new – broccoli and celery. I have no idea how these will turn out, but I am determined to grow my own veggies darn-it-all! I don’t like lettuce or cabbage enough to try those (and they attract earwigs. *shudder*) but I do like fresh broccoli and I will eat celery if it’s fresh. So, we’ll see.

This year I really need to make a sign for the garden. I hope Jinx takes as much pleasure from it as he did last year. He was quite excited when I brought the plants through the house. I also hope the garden does well again this year. I don’t have the best planting area – a lot of rocks under that soil. =/

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | jinx’s garden 2013 edition originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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I tried something new tonight. I have been finding the walk/run/walk/run of the C25K app difficult to keep up with. I end up hurting more than I want to as it goes on, so I thought I’d switch things up and see how it goes.

Taking an idea . . . → Read More: diary of a non-jogger: personal best]]>

I tried something new tonight. I have been finding the walk/run/walk/run of the C25K app difficult to keep up with. I end up hurting more than I want to as it goes on, so I thought I’d switch things up and see how it goes.

Taking an idea from an awesome book that I read last year (Spin – by Montreal author, Catherine McKenzie), I thought I’d try and run for the duration of ONE song and then walk. I thought I’d try to do this as long as I could – at least for the route I wanted to go and guess what? It WORKED!

Here’s the breakdown:

Playlist: Running is Stupid

• Whole Wide World (Mindy Gledhill) – WALK @ 3.29 mins
• Whole Wide World again (hey, it’s inspirational!) – RUN @ 3.29
• Pure (Lightning Seeds) – WALK @ 3.46
• Julian, Darling (Elizabeth & the Catapult) – RUN @ 4.13
• Wide Awake (Katy Perry) – WALK @ 3.41
• All the Pennies (Mindy Gledhill) – RUN @ 2.49
• This is the New Year (A Great Big World) – WALK @ 3.15
• Rockstar (A Great Big World) – RUN @ 3.55

I didn’t use a song for the final walk, which brought me to my front door. That was about a minute and a half or so. And there were a few times I paused while walking when my stupid headphones came unplugged. So I just started the song back up from where it stopped. Luckily this was ONLY while walking. I didn’t stop or pause once while running. I kept it slow and based on my calculations when I got home the running was a little over 2KM of the 3.33!!

I couldn’t believe it. I was absolutely stunned and SO EXCITED!

I know it might seem silly to get so excited over something like this, but you have no idea how much it means to me to be able to run at all. I have NEVER been a jogger. Never. The fact that I know I can run for over FOUR MINUTES in one stretch is just mind blowing to me.

That 4 minute song covered 0.70 km of distance – so I guess I’m about 6mins a km perhaps? I ran really slow and made sure to try and pace myself so I didn’t feel too overextended at all. And I felt so much better while running this way than I do with the C25K app I am using. So maybe I will try this style of training again.

The songs above are all linked to youtube or soundcloud for your listening pleasure. I had my playlist on shuffle, so the only song I actually chose was Whole Wide World. I realized once it ended that I had wanted to run to it, so I started it over again (one of the paused moments and missing 4-ish minutes from my total time).

Now I’m going to pop an advil (because I can feel my shins starting to throb, 3 hours after my run!) and go to bed. I can’t wait to try this again in 2 days!

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | diary of a non-jogger: personal best originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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It’s been a gorgeous weekend. I had wanted to run yesterday but I just wasn’t feeling well. Today is even nicer than yesterday and I have managed to get so much into just this one day. By the afternoon I knew I wanted to RUN. So I went out, almost alone, but . . . → Read More: diary of a non-jogger – almost, but not quite]]>

It’s been a gorgeous weekend. I had wanted to run yesterday but I just wasn’t feeling well. Today is even nicer than yesterday and I have managed to get so much into just this one day. By the afternoon I knew I wanted to RUN. So I went out, almost alone, but Shawn followed along with the dogs yet again (though when it’s in the 20s it’s a little too hot for them, so I didn’t let Jinx run with me). I thought I would try the week 2 program on this thing. I’m finding it harder to do the walking part now so I thought, why not try running longer? And…it’s almost ok.

The schedule for this “week” is run 60, walk 90, run 90, walk 90. Repeat 5 times. Well, I got 4 60 second runs in and 3 (and a bit) 90 second runs in before I felt like crap. No bad knee or leg pains, just the normal soreness I have from excercising, but I felt a little nauseous and I was having some trouble keeping my breathing even towards the end. I think had it been a little bit cooler, I might have been able to push through. Maybe.

I am trying not to be too disappointed in this. For much of this excursion I was finding it a lot easier than I have been. I can ALMOST complete it. ALMOST. But not quite. Not yet.

Why on earth running for 90 seconds is so hard, I have no idea. You wouldn’t think it should be. Right? I mean… I don’t know. I feel like it shouldn’t be hard.

I find myself wondering if I should try something else. Maybe run ONE SONG and walk ONE SONG and do that a few times. Maybe I can run longer than 90 seconds if I don’t have to stop and walk. I don’t know. This is like a tried and true training type schedule, right? So it should work. Although I’m notorious for having things not work for me that work for the rest of the world. It’s just the way I roll.

Anyhow, today I went out. I did almost the full Week 2 program and I don’t feel crummy now. I slathered on the sunscreen (but my nose still feels like it might be a little burnt, but that might be because of sitting out back most of the morning!) and I realize I need to get a hat. Although I can only imagine how annoyed I will be as that hat keeps trying to fly off my head as I run. Especially if it’s windy. What do actual joggers do? Tie a hat on? I don’t want the top of my head to burn – and it will. I burn just by thinking about sun.

I will hopefully go out again on Tuesday when I get home from work. I will try this schedule again. I will keep trying it until I can do it. I like the longer running periods over the multiple walking ones.

Still not convinced I will be able to run 5K any time soon. I am waffling on whether or not to sign up for a 5K in the fall. I find that rather daunting and I’m too chicken just yet.

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | diary of a non-jogger – almost, but not quite originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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ow.

No victory shot for me tonight. My left knee did not feel good at all while running and I ended up stopping the training program early to be safe. I know the difference between GOOD pain and BAD pain and this was a little too close to . . . → Read More: diary of a non-jogger – ugh]]>

ow.

No victory shot for me tonight. My left knee did not feel good at all while running and I ended up stopping the training program early to be safe. I know the difference between GOOD pain and BAD pain and this was a little too close to the bad for my comfort. Better safe than sorry.

I’m a little disappointed because I was feeling so good about going out tonight and after feeling amazing on Monday’s run, I was even contemplating trying the week 2 schedule tonight to mix things up. I’m glad I opted for the first week program in the end.

I know I won’t always have great days when I do this training and I know it’s ok to go slow, I was just disappointed that I was hurting so much this time around. I haven’t had any pain or problems the last two days so I didn’t think I’d have trouble tonight. In fact, the worry I had was that it would start pouring rain on me because of how stormy it looked and we’re supposed to have rain tonight (it’s STILL not raining, by the way).

No rain, perfect temperature (for me) to be out in shorts and a t-shirt and yet… I only got 7 of the 9 runs in. So I might have only done 23 minutes of the program, but I did get the entire 3km route in. I did have to get home, after all. I limped all the way back and haven’t moved from the couch since we got home. Ow.

I’m going to go sit in a bath full of lavender epsom salts (mental note: I need more, this will wipe out my stock) and take two advil and then call it a night. Drat and stuff, but I did go out and get SOME exercise in tonight!

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | diary of a non-jogger – ugh originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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Because that’s way more noticeable to everyone in my head.

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | makes sense, right? originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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Run 60. Walk 90. Repeat 9 times.

The biggest tragedy today was discovering that my awesome Runnin’ Rhino t-shirt has a hole in the front of it. I guess something happened in the washer, because we can’t figure out how that happened. I am so disappointed and might . . . → Read More: diary of a non-jogger: week 1 day 1 thrice]]>

Run 60. Walk 90. Repeat 9 times.

The biggest tragedy today was discovering that my awesome Runnin’ Rhino t-shirt has a hole in the front of it. I guess something happened in the washer, because we can’t figure out how that happened. I am so disappointed and might have to splurge on a second shirt. This one might me moved to full-time running t-shirt. It makes me happy when I run. I will be that bloody unicorn.

It was cool tonight, but the sun was warm and I have to say I think that tonight’s temperature was the best one – I was chilly when I started out but was perfect as I ran. Not too cold and not too hot. I wish it could be 14C and sunny every time I run.

My body did not want to run tonight though. It was being lazy. The first run was uncomfortable, but all of a sudden I realized I’d gone farther than I normally got, so BONUS. Right around the 5th & 6th run I told Shawn I didn’t want to do this anymore. I was BORED. I guess it’ll be time to switch to the second week schedule soon. This wasn’t easy and the last 2 runs had me about to give up the running just as the chime sounded to walk (THANK GOODNESS) but I pushed through and on the walk home I felt a little jello-y , but by the time we got home…. I felt AMAZING. I still feel amazing.

Amazing, but exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for a week.

Listening to my body and not running last week made a difference. I hope it’ll be nice out on Wednesday when I plan to go back out again.

I think next week (or, this weekend rather) I will try the week 2 schedule… Maybe?

I can’t believe how good I feel after tonight’s “run”. I didn’t feel fantastic WHILE running, but when I was done and half-way through the cool down I felt great. I dream of being able to run this route without stopping. Maybe by the end of the summer?

(And Jinxy ran 7 out of 9 runs with me. He started dragging on run 6, so I left him with Shawn and Sophie for runs 7 & 8 and took him back for the final one. Poor old boy. He’s snoring SO LOUD right now and wiped out completely. Heh)

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | diary of a non-jogger: week 1 day 1 thrice originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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End of Week 1 Redux

Today marks the end of the second time I have done the Week 1 training routine for my Couch to 5K app. This means I have successfully run 6 times in the last 2 weeks. (And there was that unsuccessful almost half-way through . . . → Read More: diary of a non-jogger – i will be the unicorn!]]>

End of  Week 1 Redux

Today marks the end of the second time I have done the Week 1 training routine for my Couch to 5K app. This means I have successfully run 6 times in the last 2 weeks. (And there was that unsuccessful almost half-way through the first day of Week 2 in the middle, so did run 7 days, sort of…) As much as I have to push myself through those last 3 60-second runs, I am seeing progress in my distance while running and my pace. I don’t feel like collapsing and giving up before I read the half-way mark and I am not as beat up when I end the 31 minutes.

I think I will give myself one more week of this schedule and then attempt the Week 2 schedule again. I am still not convinced I will be able to run for 90 seconds, since towards the end of this one I am struggling with the 60 seconds. I am not going to force myself to get through if it’s too painful/difficult. Right now I am at my limit of what I can push myself to do and I am not injured & beat afterwards.

I think I might also open my Runkeeper app and see if the distance matches up, I’m confused as to how it’s always so different. Not to mention it stops calculating when the time is up, so when my 5 minute cool-down is over, the distance stops. I still have to continue to walk HOME. I don’t just POOF where I am. Obviously. =P

As much as this can hurt physically while my body gets used to it, and as little fun as it actually is, I find that it is helping me. Not just with the weight loss/getting in shape, but with my mood and with the anxiety. I mean, to top off all the traumatic stuff from 2 weeks ago, this week my husband was given notice that he’s got 2 months of work left as his company laid off 2/3 of their office in Montreal. LOVELY.

I still feel like I might never be able to run 5K, or even more than 60 seconds at a time with a break in-between, but there’s a noticeable difference between now and the first day I tried this, so I am trying to believe it will happen. At my own pace. I try not to get discouraged and/or jealous of all the “I just ran 5, 7, 10k in x-amount of time!” posts I see my friends writing. These people are runners. They didn’t just step out the door for the first time and run 7km. Some people might be able to do that, sure, but it’s not me. I will just be happy when I can run those 90-second bouts in this training thing. The weather is HOPEFULLY getting nicer finally (I didn’t run on Friday because of the SNOW STORM. Really, April. Get over it.) and I hope running will be easier when it’s not so chilly.

I think I will have a teeny, tiny window of decent weather though before it gets way too hot to want to do anything. Running in damp, cold is one thing. Running in extreme heat and humidity isn’t going to be fun either.

But I will do this. I will don my Runnin’ Rhino t-shirt and I will BE that unicorn!

© 2013Beyond Elsewhere | diary of a non-jogger – i will be the unicorn! originally published by Cat for Beyond Elsewhere . | This post cannot be republished without permission of the author. If you're reading it anywhere other than a feed reader (or my own blog!) you are in violation of copyright. Illegal is wrong!

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