Running, Sick, Happy Halloween
You heard it here folks…I’m still running. 2 days til I can say it’s been 2 months! ;) It’s October and I’m sick and it’s 36 degrees out and I am still running (big thank you to Melissa G’s playlist because this morning it got me through the cold without giving up.) Today was unusually hard…so I bet I’ll have to take the next couple of days off and drink lots of tea and eat lots of soup. Everybody send me your healthy good energy…send me the good vibes. haha.
Let see, what’s new? It’s winter, I’m running, oh and p.s. Kurt Cruse moved into our basement! Justin flew down to Tampa on Friday and drove back with him and Chloey the cat (who was very unhappy to meet us at first, but I think she might be getting used to us now. ) Kurt and Bobby have both been sick since the beginning of the weekend so I assume that’s where I got it…although it could be my co-workers…everyone is coughing and sneezing around here too. Bring on the Halls and Dayquil…maybe I can wipe this thing out before it gets too much worse.
This weekend – well, actually Thursday – the Halloween parties begin…and I’m not really a costume-dresser-upper…so hopefully I don’t bum people out at these parties. haha. My cousin’s wife Jen is having a costume party for her 30th birthday at Brownstone and then Friday I’m having dinner at Bridget’s place since Linnea is in town, but I’m stopping by another costume party at Chicago Art Department at some point that evening…so I can see the closing show for Night of the Living Artist – Halloween/Closing Party and drop of a piece of art that I’m donating to their annual fund raiser: Growing Up CAD. Should be fun and exhausting weekend!
What’s everybody else doing for Halloween?
Orbitz Go Go Green 5K
So this weekend Bobby, Jess Large, and I got up on Saturday morning and did the Orbitz Go Go Green 5K at the Peggy Notebaert Museum in the freezing cold and rain! It was fun though and I’m glad we went…good cause and some exercise to start the weekend off right. We just got the times back and they were:
68 ROBERT ARGEANTON 337 24:36 7:55
224 JESSICA LARGE 377 31:52 10:16
225 MICHELLE FIOCCA 336 31:52 10:16
This is actually 2 minutes slower than I did the last one but lets face it – it was freezing and raining in our faces! haha. I logged my time on my Nike+ widget though and it showed that Large and I were very consistent throughout the race so I’m glad we stayed at a good pace and didn’t walk at all. Go us! (I did forget to turn off my Nike+ so the down hill spiral at the end is me walking and waiting for the lady to take my chip off and walking to the snack table. haha) Anyway – good times had by all! Next Sunday is the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K that I’m running with Large. Lets see if we can beat our time! I think we might run the 5K and walk the rest. :)
Bucktown 5K ;)
Today Bobby and I ran in the Bucktown 5K! It was fun and I think we both did good considering our short amount of training or a total lack thereof in Bobby’s case. We both had our Nike+ in our shoes and calibrated them with our ipods yesterday so that we could track our time/miles/calories (the reason my info there says I only ran 4.8K instead of 5 is – I think – because I calibrated it wrong last night. I have to fix it tomorrow or Tuesday morning when I run again.
Also I had a hard time shutting mine off because I didn’t have an armband (I’m not sure Nike has come out with an armband for the new ipod nano – this is the old one) – I was trying to grab it out of a zippered pocket and since it’s the first time I’ve used it I had to fumble with it for a bit…that could be part of my big dip in pace at the end of the race (I had already crossed the finish line and was walking to the food tent)…that is my hypothesis – who knows! ha!.
Anyway long story short – I did the 5K in 30 minutes and Bobby did it in 25 minutes (official times to come later on the website since we had time chips attached to our shoes for this race). We both are happy we did it and know we can do better if we continue to train. This Nike+ thing is super cool because I am able to set up a training schedule for my next 5K and track my progress and goals and calories burnt…its motivation for me, so I’m glad it exists. I am signing up for another race today – The Hot Chocolate 5K – it’s on November 2. Even if I do 30 minutes again I hope I can be more consistent and not struggle as much with my breathing. I want to be stronger.
As an added bonus we saw Sang-woo, Rich, and Mike at the race so we chatted for a bit and decided to walk over to Moonshine and have some breakfast. We walked home a little bit ago and my legs are super sore…ouch!
“Getting Back on the Horse”
Today is the 18th day I’ve gone jogging at 6AM for about 3 miles, since Sept 1, 2008. :D Jessica Large has gone with me a lot of these days but this week she has been sick so Mon, Tues, Wed I went all by myself…which I find to be very fundamentally different and motivational for myself personally! I was smiling this morning when I got halfway around the route just thinking wow I never would’ve thought I could get up and do this THIS early, without hitting snooze, without complaining…but I think I like it. No, I really like it. And I CAN do it, and it’s not so bad! It’s actually refreshing and gets me ready for the day…I need everybody’s support to keep it up though, because usually I don’t make it past two months without “falling off the horse” again. If I can make it past that 2 month mark then I’ll be on my way to a healthy happy body. :)
And kudos to my dad who is doing this with me from Ohio – getting up every day and working out on his Schwin Airdyne Bike for 30-40 minutes! Good work dad!
This map is my jogging route (the point on Bell Ave is my house and the point on Wolcott is Large’s house) – and p.s. google maps rocks for having sweet routing capabilities. Wish me luck – I have to do this!
Bobby 5K
Bobby randomly decided to run in a 5K tonight. It’s the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Grant Park – it’ll help raise money for the Bears Care Foundation. He sent me this pic and of course I had to be cheesy and post it on my blog. he he. ;) He is so cute.
Bears Care will receive a donation from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation in connection with the Corporate Challenge. Charitable giving is a key component of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series, with locally-designated donations at each of our 12 events in six countries on five continents. More than $1.5 million has been provided to not-for-profit organizations in worldwide Corporate Challenge markets since 2005.