It's official. I now have two weeks of training under my (hopefully?) slimmer belt. Yesterday's run was tough; I still felt a bit congested and it took me awhile to convince myself to go out. When I did, however, I was pleasantly surprised with sunshine and less-than frigid temperatures. My surprise was somewhat diminished when I came across a series of steep hills that I was probably less than prepared for. I ran a full 20 minutes, but I am pretty sure the distance was a bit shorter because of how long it took me to lug myself up those hills. I will be avoiding that route in the future. Hills are not my friend.
After my run, I went to meet a friend downtown and walked the mile and a half home from the bus station to my apartment both ways. So even though my actual "run" was a bit short in distance, I happy to tack almost 3 extra walking miles onto my total distance for the day, totaling just over 4 miles.
If getting off my butt to go run after several sniffley days off wasn't enough to put me in a better mood and back on track, my incredible good fortune today has done the trick. After sleeping in and enjoying delicious homemade egg McMuffins (Thanks Big_Shoes!) I leisurely start skimming through my inbox, and come across my beloved Groupon deal of the day, which just so happened to be two skate passes to the outdoor ice rink, including rentals, for only $10.00. I know I am constantly finding ways to plug Groupon in my posts, but I've been bugging Big_Shoes to strap on some big_skates and take me ice skating for awhile now, and so when the opportunity presented itself I got out my credit card. But much to my surprise, when I went to purchase my Groupon I realized that I still had $10.00 in Groupon credit for referring a friend on my account, so we didn't end up spending a dime. After spamming the hell out of my unfortunate Facebook friends, we were able to get a group together (all of whom got the amazing discount) and now all we need to do is pick a date. So there you have it, three of the four important Fs in my life: Fun, Friends, and Free, all rolled into one. And just for good measure, I'll shamelessly spam my own blog too, just in case anyone is in the mood to check out the holy grail that is collective buying power while providing me with my next $10.00 credit: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu533334
Anyway, after I stopped patting myself on the back for this ingenious freebie, I wandered down to check the mail and found a sparkly new pay check made out to me for a decent chunk of cash. FOR THE JOB I HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED YET. Yes, you heard me right. I just got paid for the Teaching Assistantship I start on Thursday. Basically, I get a predetermined stipend for showing up to class, coming up with a few moderately intelligent things to say, and grading a few papers once every six weeks. Doesn't even matter that classes haven't even started yet. This goes far beyond instant gratification. Preemptive gratification, perhaps?
So how does any of this relate to running? Well, I, of course, needed to get this check in the bank so that I could start spending my future earnings, which made for a great opportunity for a run. I strapped on my shoes, zipped the check and my bus pass safely into my coat pocket and set off for the bank, about a mile and half away. I was hoping to stick to the C25K program and run the full 20 minutes, but I found myself standing in front of my bank in just over 15 minutes (less time than it takes me to get there via public transportation), so after depositing my check and picking up some groceries I made up for the shorter run by lugging the groceries up the stairs on the subway, instead of coasting along on the crowded rush-hour escalators. I am finding that using running as a primary means of transportation is much more rewarding than taking a few repetitive loops around the block. For one, I can't talk myself into stopping early, because I won't get to where I need to go. It also tends to be faster than waiting on the bus (which I guess would be relative to the city that you live in), and I can incorporate my run into the tasks that I'm already doing, instead of trying to tack it on as something completely separate. I guess I'm just less likely to procrastinate on my run if it means three or four other things will not get done either.
So it's on to Week 3, but the big challenge on the horizon is seeing how all of this running business fits into my schedule when classes start and the stress piles on. Stay tuned!
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Ok so this is going to be a long comment post.
ReplyDeleteFirst off how awesome that you are back in those shoes after being sick. That's half the battle right there. I don't think it matters how far you went, the fact that you went out and did it in the first place is great!
I"m always so jealous of you big city girls that are able to take advantage of sites like Groupon. There's always something to do or see and always new places to eat. Here in my rinky dink town there's a choice of Walmart, the mall, cheeseburgers, pasta or pizza. And holla for the egg mcmuffin!
When I was in high school I went to DC and Baltimore for a week with the children's choir here. SD was in charge of the national christmas tree and we got to accompany the tree there for the lighting. Anyway, so I've always been infatuated with big city living since then. Here, we just jump in our cars, drive 2 minutes to the grocery store, get our stuff and come home. there's no buses or subways involved. It seems so silly but I've always wondered how you peopel buy groceries. I suppose its similar to big city people thinking that South Dakotans still live in teepees with no running water and walk around naked all day. Such a simple concept but so foreign at the same time.
Anyway, this is long enough. Congrats to you missy for getting back out there! Keep on going!! And have fun ice skating!
Having so many non-chain restaurant options is great, but the choices can be a bit overwhelming. It would be easy to spend half of our income trying out every coffee house, bistro, and pub on our list, but in reality we probably won't even make a dent. I know how you feel though, Big_Shoes and I lived in a small rural for four years, and even though we grew to love the town, the most exciting thing to do on a Friday night was head down to the six lane Bowling Alley/Laundromat.
ReplyDeleteHow do we buy groceries? We haven't exactly mastered that yet. A "big" grocery trip usually requires a lot of planning. We use reusable bags because you can stuff more in there without the risk of torn bags, but by the time we get through the subway, off the bus, and up the stairs, we always end up with squished bread and at least a few broken eggs.
We've started using PeaPod online grocery delivery service for the heavy/fragile items that we go through quickly, so that we only have to pick up one or two random things at the store every so often. The delivery service costs $6.50, and they almost always have some kind of $5.00 off coupon running. If I pick an off-peak delivery time, I get another dollar off, so the $.50 cents is definitely worth it in the end. I rarely miss my car anymore, but there are times when I would love to go to a Target, or Albertons, or COSTCO without planning it a month in advance.
We are traveling through South Dakota on our cross country trip this summer, so I'll be sure to keep a lookout for them teepees.. lol