Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ever Notice.....

Sadie’s run today was fun, did a little over 7 miles again.  (http://www.livestrong.com/loops/north_salt_lake_tried_something_new-skas5RVSt1/)
I use to run solely on my treadmill, which I still enjoy but I have to say I like the street running better now. For one, it's not "given" how fast I'm going or how far I've gone, the fresh air is nice, plus I can't just stop because I feel like it--Somehow I have to get back home, so why not keep running?

The other nice thing is Sadie loves it and needs it just as much as i do! She was leading me the whole way; well first six miles at least, only time the leash gets any lag in it is when we come up on people. I still think it's weird to come across them, doesn't seem to matter if we're going the same direction or opposite directions.

It's weird for me because, well I'm a bit of jerk. I judge people WAY to much and always use to think I shouldn't street run because, well I'm fat. VERY fat, morbidly obese fat (so says my BMI) and for some reason I always pictured a whale running down the street and people looking to see where the ice cream truck was.

I know it's bad to judge people but I have always done it--kind of like Sabrina on last night’s "Raising Hope" (awesome show BTW). See, she grew up always feeling that everyone was judging her, so she constantly compared herself to them to see what she was/who she was better than, and mocked them if she couldn't be better. She finally sees the light though when Jimmy points out that there will always be someone better than her, but she'll also always be better than someone else. Cheesy yes, but the episode was very funny.

Anyway, I stressed so much about what others would think when they saw me running that I didn't do street running for a long time--instead running in the dark of my basement, pounding a treadmill for four plus years of running.

Funny thing is, I know what I at least think as I pass people, and it has nothing to do with them. Rather, I'm thinking stuff like, which side is Sadie on? Those are cute kids. Does the guy in the car see us? There are a lot of cute moms out this morning. Is that dog on a leash? Why is that crazy guy roller blading with Ski poles?  Ok, so I'm still judging, but the point is mostly I'm thinking about my run, not about what they are thinking about me or even paying them a lot of attention and I'm sure it's the same for them--paying more attention to their kids, their car, or whatever then they do me.

Not that I'm a 100% sure of that yet--otherwise I don't think I'd still be spending five minutes each morning looking for the biggest t shirt I can find, but at least I'm sure enough of it now get out the door with only an XL instead of the XXL I really wanted to hide in.

Monday, September 26, 2011

I have cool Pee

I had a hard time getting going this morning, the price to pay I guess for taking a couple days off, my body finds it likes the couch better than my running shoes. Anyway, instead of the two hour run I had wanted to do today, Sadie and I only got the chance to go for about an hour, did cover over 6.5 miles though, so I guess we can "officially" say we are doing ten minute miles now. (http://www.livestrong.com/loops/north_salt_lake_first_run__fall-s53bVkykL6/)

The cool thing was though lab today was BYOP! See, about a year ago I said I finally had it with managing restaurants, changed jobs and went back to school to work on my second Bachelors of Science, which will be in what the first one should have been in if I had not gotten distracted by the money in management. See, I've always been a big nerd, and my dream is to work in a lab running test all day!

So I've re-enrolled at Weber State to do the Medical Lab Science program they offer, and I'm loving it. Lab technicains and scientist are those men and women who run the test to get the data the Doctor needs to know what is wrong with you. That means I'm learning how to do anyalsis on all the body fluids doctors look at--Semen, blood, fecal matter, and urine.  Today during class, it was announced that during lab we would be examining our own urine, hence why the lab is BYOP--bring your own pee.

If your still reading, I'm guessing your wondering what that has to do with running, right? Well, believe it or not, you can tell if a person runs by looking at their urine! See, one of the kidneys jobs is to keep your body hydrated, and it does this by holding onto water when it's being depleted by sweating, pulling if from the filtrate and putting it back into circulation.

Since you typically don't rehydrate while running, say 10 k (like today) it leads to a bit of "hairball in the pipes"--a small build up protien in microtubuals in the kidneys, which will be later flushed out once you are hydrated and drain the lizard, where it can be detected in bodies called hyaline cast.

Typically though, people don't run six miles to go see the doctor so you don't typically see them unless the person is suffering dehydration for another reason, so you typically don't see them and no one in my class had seen one in anything but our textbook. BUT since this morning I ran, Showered and went straight to class...lets just say there were a LOT of cast in my sample, which made it the most interesting one. One girl in the class actually got so excited she declared "you have the coolest pee!"

Dumb thing to take pride in, but hey---I'm not the cutest, not the richest and definatly don't have the best car, but a chick got excited about my pee. I think that puts me on a new level of dorkiness, but oh well, it impressed the ladies.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Birds and Bug

This mornings run was great! We covered 7 miles in 68 minutes, (http://www.livestrong.com/loops/salt_lake_city_sadies_sweet_seven-3c1RzMxayw/)
and Sadie definately likes running in the morning much better than the evenings, which means she is no longer letting me sleep in! This morning she came in, seven on the dot when she heard the radio turn on and gave me her "collar please" look. It's so cute. She sits and looks straight up so I can get to her collar (We are working on training her to do this so she holds still while we hook it on--otherwise she starts to bounce around before we are ready to go).

The reason I think she likes the morning is all the birds that are out. Being a french brittany, she loves birds--she goes crazy any time she sees them out the window on the yard and bounces around until someone lets her out to chase them. The funny thing is she ignores cats, at least while we run. I don't know if she doesn't see them or doesn't care, but we have passed several cats outside, doing their thing and she doesn't even tug at them. But she sees a bird, even in the air, she has to at least try to get it.

It's cute, and makes the walks more fun since there are birds out EVERYWHERE in the morning. Luckily, she is fairly good once we get going but she still tries hard to lunge at any bird she thinks that she could catch.  It makes us pick up speed, sure, but I'm afraid she'll hurt herself as she tries to catch them--a few times she ends up on two legs, still trying her best to go at them full speed!

While the birds make the walks fun for her, she has become a very big scaredy cat while we are out there! She tries to hide between my legs anytime someone passes us, and if she hears a dog bark she HAS to get as far away from it as possible, be it on the other side of the fence or in someones house. It's hard to believe the reason we got her was because she keep fighting with my in-laws other dogs!

I find some of them even make me nervous though. I have had to alter courses several times because someone has their dog in the front yard, usually with them or tied up, but I never know how they/she are going to react to each other and since I don't want to take the chance, we go another direction. Usually it is no issue, but today I found myself worried--one long circle we usually go down had a big black lab in the front yard, and from what I could tell it wasn't tied up at all (at the least was on a long chain) with no owner in sight.  We crossed the street and headed back out of the circle, but I keep checking behind us to make sure the lab was not following. I never have really thought about what we would do if we run across a stray, or Sadie and another dog get into it. Any ideas?

Luckily the closest we've come to another dog being an issue was a month or so ago when we were still running in the evening (now it's to dark when I get home). We've passed other people with their dogs before, especially while on the Legacy Parkway Trail, so when I saw the guy and his dog coming towards us I didn't think anything of it. Suddenly, his dog bolts at us, Sadie lets out her "help!" cry and about trips me with the leash trying to get away. From what I could tell, the dog was friendly enough and just saying "hi" to Sadie, but it still was scary as he growled after she yelped.
The whole thing lasted seconds, but as we left I did get a little mad--I know people train their dogs to behave off leash, and I'm hoping to get Sadie to that point someday, but come on! First, in my opinon the dog wasn't trained well enough to be off leash, since 1) he took off after Sadie and 2) didn't come back when called, but more important rules are rules! There are signs all over the place that say "clean up after your dogs. They must be a leash at all times" yet this guy didn't have even have a leash with him! The city is nice enough to make sure every one of these signs have little black baggies hanging there so you can clean up after your pet, so the least we can do is follow the rules--other wise they won't let us keep taking dogs along the trail!

But of course, that's the nice thing about running. ten minutes later, the guy and his dog where a couple miles away and Bug and I were happily moving along, admiring the sun set as we finished up another great outing.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Why is it so hard?

Why am I not loosing weight!?!
 Currently, I'm over 220 lbs, (my highest ever was 250 back in 2000) and the lowest I've been able to get my weight is 175 (2008) , but that was before I hurt myself and packed the weight back on. It's not that I'm lazy (ok SUPER lazy).
I love running, and go on slow but long runs (6 to 8 miles in 60-90 minutes roughly) and am trying to work my schedule so I have time to take Sadie (our dog) on a half marathon (13.1 miles) which I'm guessing is going to take us around two and half hours. (you can follow our runs @ www.livestrong.com/loops So far this week we have done 13 miles!)

The problem is I just love to eat. even when I'm not hungry, if you put food in front of me, it won't last. My parents have often claimed I never learned to chew, and swear they caught me several times sleep eating. So I see the fit, slender guy at lunch and ya I'm jealous as he eats his Whopper with large fries as I enjoy the bananna and water-ed down soup. I wish that could be me, redouble my efforts to ignore the tasty treats that surround me, then moan when the scale says I added a pound for the week! BAD SCALE!!!

So I keep the food away. packet of oatmeal for breakfast, small sandwich and fruit for lunch, get home late stay out of the kitchen when I get home. So far, not working.

I can't wait till I'm back down to the 180's (still to much weight for how short I am) and I know I won't let the weight come back on. This Time. Again.