Not THAT bad...

Thanks to all who expressed their concern over my running lamentations. Fear not, I won't pursue something that doesn't bring me any joy... but I also won't give up without giving it a fair shake. Cross country skiing was frustrating at first - just ask my husband about our first skiing trip - but now you can't keep me off the trail when the snow flies.

Thanks, also, for all the tips and recommendations. I do have proper shoes, vetted by my physical therapist, and know the proper stretches to do to keep things loose... I just need to DO them.

My primary hope in my post was to document how I felt at the beginning, so that a few months down the road, when I'm feeling the running love, I can laugh and be proud that I persevered. I'm grateful to all those who were worried for me! *hugs*

The transformative power of data

I went on my first outside (non-treadmill) run today. I think that first runs should always be done on a warm, sunny, spring day, when the pure joy of being outside after a long winter buoys you up and helps you ignore how terribly out of shape you are.

My guess would be that it would greatly improve your attitude. I say "guess", because my first run was at 6:30 am on a 42 degree dark and cloudy morning - so I wasn't feeling the love. At all. Actually, by about mile 1.75, I hated running with a passion. I thought of the surge of joy that I feel every time I start off on a bike ride; the "this is where I belong... I love this!" feeling I get every time I ride.

Running doesn't give me that. It humbles me and gives me pain.

I did try out a new iPhone app - RunKeeper - this morning, and it may help me actually make good on my commitment to run a 5K. I turned it on when I started my workout, and it used my phone's GPS to track my speed, location, and distance. At the end of your workout, you can view a map of your run (or other activity) as well as a chart of your speed and elevation changes.

Toxicgirl c25k w1w3 workout

Anyone who has known me more than, say, a day knows how I love me some data. It's like a drug, and it's truly scary how it can change my attitude in a split second. One minute I'm standing in my driveway, certain that I have just finished my first and last ever outside run... then I hit "stop workout" on my phone, and get the summary. Suddenly, I'm in love - more with the data than the running, but it benefits from the sudden rush. "Hey! I did better than I thought! Maybe this isn't so bad, after all. I'll have to see how the chart looks next time."

Next time?? What happened to first and last run ever? My outlook changed so fast I'm now nursing a severe case of mental whiplash.

Sigh. I guess I better go and research preventing shin splints, because it looks like the data high is going to keep me going... at least for a while.

Reactions

Apparently, you can now have "reactions" to blog posts. I guess this is kinda like the "like" button on Facebook. Anyway, I've added it to my posts, so now you can "react" to them. Hope I can get this to work...

*posts entry*
*logs back into edit*

OK, I'm not seeing them, and unfortunately, don't have time to try and make it work. Maybe in the future...

Where's the snow when I need it??

So now I am SO wishing for some snow again... so I can try out this new cool new app that I downloaded for my phone, called RunKeeper. It uses the phone's GPS to track you on your workout, so that you know distance, speed, elevation, route, etc. for workouts. It would have been perfect to use on my skiing this winter! I'll use it for my walking, running, and biking this summer instead. For my inside workouts, I'll rely on the Nike+ iPod sensor that my mother-in-law got me for my birthday (which, unfortunately, doesn't work with the skiing motion.)

All this accountability! Now I'll hopefully see some real progress over the summer if I can remember to move properly! Last year's injury really slowed me down, but this year I'm determined to run at least one 5K. There, I wrote it. I'm committed! Now I just need to use what my physical therapist taught me and really think when I'm running. If I don't focus on proper hip rotation, things get all sorts of messed up. Guess so many years of being twisted has really done a number on me... but I'd like to think it's never too late to change.

So - if you're a RunKeeper member, look for "toxicgirl" stats... that's me! I posted my first workout of the c25k (couch to 5K) series today.

New Skis are Here!

My skis came in the mail yesterday afternoon, and I almost immediately put them in the car and headed to the ski shop to have the bindings installed. At the risk of sounding more girly than I actually am, I love how they match my new boots and are SOOOO pretty!!

I wanted to post about my first outing on new skis, but am so busy that I'm going to cheat and just copy my ski log entry below... hence the sentence fragments, etc. I use a different standard of writing on the ski log, but you'll get the idea...

3-2 (solo) Vadnais Lake. Maiden outing with my new skis!! While now I can actually glide, this was not the trail for it today - most of the trail is in the sun, and the snow was very soft and mushy. Temps were in the high 30's. Skied the 4.3K in about an hour, but was very tired at the end. Going up hills is so much easier now, but steering is much harder - I've got an extra 12 inches of ski to compensate for. Only fell once at the very end when I couldn't navigate the turn. So amazing to feel my skis respond differently to different pressure zones! Had fun leaning and shifting my weight all over to figure out what would happen.

New Calling... yipes!

Well, it's official - Sunday I was sustained as the Young Women's president. Because she can't keep a secret AT ALL, I didn't tell Sarah (or Madilyn) beforehand. After it was announced in sacrament meeting, Sarah turned to me and said "What? I don't want you in Young Womens! I want Sister Vessels! Where is Sister Vessels going??".

I sure wish she'd learn to whisper these things...

Anyway, later I think she got comfortable with the idea, but this will be an interesting ride, to say the least...

Oh, and in other news...

I can't believe I forgot to mention... I ordered my new skis today!!! Gary says that this should buy him at least a full 6 weeks of (insane amounts of) travel with no complaints from me. If he wants to buy my silence, that's just fine with me. This time, silence comes in the form of Salomon's Elite 6 Vitane Grip W skis with SNS Pilot bindings. *sigh*

Hope my skis get here before the snow is gone! *happy dance*