Author Archives: The Yellow Forest

11.08.11
by

Susan G. Komen 5K Run FAIL

The Susan G. Komen 5K run basically failed.  All the preparation for nothing!  Haha, it’s ok though.  Things that happened or were observed:

  • We got there late – thus unable to get to the start where the timed runners were – heck we didn’t even know this existed – poor planning on our part.
  • We couldn’t even find the start.
  • Because we were late, we were stuck behind thousands of people WALKING – therefore making it impossible to run.
  • We didn’t even see anyone with the timed bibs – now we know why.
  • We thought about walking the 5K, then going and running a 5K afterwards.
  • As we crossed the bridge and looked down at the 163 and saw the people running we realized that that’s where we should have been – oh well.
  • Once we got to the fountain which was about 1 mile in we decided to bail the walk and run our own course.
  • We ran C’s crazy canyon course – she told me there would be some hills.
  • It was the hardest run I’ve done yet – parts were so steep and long that my running turned into the same speed as walking.
  • I even had to stop a few times going up those “hills”
  • Ran for 31 minutes – probably wasn’t a 5K because of all the hills but man it was hard.
  • Susan G. Komen 5K Run FAIL – guess we’ll have to sign up for another.
11.04.11
by

Weight Loss Challenge

The entries in this blog have turned into my workout/running log lately so it must not be that exciting.  However, it’s good for me to keep track just so I can one day come back and read about how I actually exercised.  It’s also nice for me to track my progress.

Anyway, so C. and I decided yesterday that we are going to have a weight loss challenge.  I’ve actually been losing some weight since June and its been great – but I’m still quite a bit away from my ideal weight.  Not all of the details are ironed out yet but at a high level it’s whoever can lose the most weight by the third week of January (I think).  The main goal is 10lbs.  There’s a prize for the winner – paid for by the loser – any ideas?

In my attempts to be fit and lose weight, I’ve definitely been continuing to workout.  Was supposed to workout yesterday but C. was feeling lazy or something so we just threw the ball around and did pushups/situps/plank/burpees.  Now that we’re fighting daylight – the only time to exercise is in the morning and I am really bad at exercising by myself especially if I have to wake up to do it.  So this morning, since C. didn’t have to go to work until later, we went and worked out at 7am.  That was so early, considering I don’t normally wake up til 7:45ish.  I woke up at 6:30am!!  The goal was to go 3 loops around the park but I kinda only made it 2.5 loops before we kinda ran out of time cause I had to go to work and I was dying.  I’ve never gone up the hill 3 times.  Twice is difficult enough – the 3rd time I really struggled.  I wanted to walk so badly.  Man.  That was hard.  Then because we didn’t have that much time.  We had to do our push ups/situps like super fast.  We usually do 3 rounds.  1 round for me is 15 push ups / 30 situps.  Usually there’s more time to rest in between but after that run, then a sprint at the end, then having to do push ups and situps non-stop.  What a killer.  Then I had to hurry and take a shower and go to work.

So weight loss challenge here I come!  Weigh-ins are Saturday mornings.  Now I’m going to have to be more conscious about what I eat.  It’s a lot easier to do that at lunch time than at dinner.  We’ll see.  We’ll see.

11.02.11
by

Miramar Lake Run

I’ve only been to Miramar Lake 3 times in the many years I’ve been in San Diego and all of them were within the past 1.5 months.  Miramar Lake is pretty nice to watch the sunset.  Actually, the sunset was pretty amazing on Sunday, I wish we would have stayed 10 minutes longer to watch it.

Anyway…

C. and I had plan to run a 5K at Miramar Lake on Sunday but on Saturday I had further hurt my ankle since I hurt it the previous weekend working out.  The previous weekend, I was sprinting and I stepped on root or large piece of bark on the grass, rolled my ankle, and fell over.  Surprisingly it wasn’t that painful throughout the week.  Then on Saturday, the last drill we did, I totally hurt it again.  Partly my fault because earlier on during practice, I had adjusted the straps on my ankle brace to be higher up, since it was kind of cutting into my heel.  And then what?  Well, I ended up rolling it right under the strap.  Fail.  This time hurt way more than last week.  But C. was telling me that “a hurt ankle is no excuse to not go running”.  Dang, I didn’t even get to use the excuse before it got rejected.  Haha.

I limped around all Saturday night, iced, and wrapped it.  Tried to elevate while sleeping, that failed.  Still felt pretty sore on Sunday but I decided to suck it up and try running.  C. was like, its a 4.92 mile loop, be ready to run!  I was like, “what?! just because the loop is that long, doesn’t mean you have to run the whole thing…”  She thought otherwise.  Whatever.  So, I taped up, ankle braced it up and off we went to the lake.

Less than 30 seconds into the run, my leg cramped!  It was the side tendon, outside part of my leg between the calf and shin.  Less than 30 seconds.  How lame is that?  I felt so embarrassed and lame.  We didn’t come all the way out here to not run!  I realized it was because I had been limping around all night and morning that I had fatigued that muscle so when I tried to run, it just cramped immediately.  So, I sat down, ripped off all the tape and ankle brace stuff because I also think that every time I have that stuff on, something else on my leg gets jacked up.  So I massaged it for like a minute and got up.

I felt really lame.  So I had to go on.  So off we went.  Multiple times I thought it was going to just die and cramp but I kept running.  Sometimes, it felt like when I went slower, it was going to cramp so I had to go faster!  So the goal was to run 10 minute miles.  C. was going to pace me.  The first one was around 9:45 I think.  I think we ended up just over 20 for mile 2?  C. was trying to get me to pick up the pace but I was too tired cause we ran too fast earlier.  Mile 3 she took off so I just ran myself.  I ended up at 34:24 minus the time I stopped to remove the ankle brace and massage my cramp.  Man, running 3 miles is tiring especially when its not flat.  My ankle and leg also starting hurting more in the 3rd mile.

I decided to walk for awhile after 3.  The original plan was to walk the last 2.  C. just took off and ran all 4.92 miles.  I decided to walk for 1/2 a mile and then try to run the rest.  I ran probably just over 1 mile when I saw C. start walking my way with water.  WATER!  So thirsty.  So I walked the rest.

All in all, I ran 4 miles (even though I had a break)!!  That’s the most I’ve run since 6th grade!!  I felt so accomplished, especially with a bum leg and considering I couldn’t even run 1 mile to MOL’s house a few months ago.  :)

The end.

10.29.11
by

My 5K Goal

Next Sunday, I’m running the Susan G Komen 5K Race for the Cure.  The last time I did a 5K race (non-obstacle, non-Exodus) was back in 2006 with a bunch of college friends.  A couple of them did the half marathon and the rest of us just did the 5K.  At that time, I had said I would never do a 5K again.  Why?  Well, because I hate running.  Funny thing is that I’ve been working out and running in the past few months and well, hard to believe, but I don’t actually hate running.  I think I ran almost 3 miles today.  Maybe 2.75 or a little less.  I feel like running 1 mile is actually much easier now.  I still remember a few months ago I couldn’t even make it to MOL’s house which is about 1 mile away.  But I felt like when I ran it at Breen, it was pretty easy.  So, as referenced by my previous post about the 2006 5K, my time was 31:56.  This time I aim to run it under 30 minutes.  That’s actually going to be tough.  I’m going to have to run at roughly a 9:40 pace.  There’s going to be so many people and so many walkers.  And I have to run faster.  I think right now I’m still running slightly over 10 minutes a mile.  Anyway, it’s about 1 week away, so to prepare some more, we’re going to go run 5K on Sunday.  Crazy, this running business.  :)  At least I feel somewhat fitter than I used to.  =P

10.26.11
by

Easy to Injure, Slow to Heal

Man, I think my body is getting old.  Easy to injure, slow to heal?

My throwing arm has already started bothering me.  This happens every year and it ends up being in pretty bad shape near and by the end of the season.  The problem is that mission bowl season hasn’t even started and we’re just tinkering with turkey bowls!  Eeks.  Need it to get stronger and perhaps less overused.

I hurt my left tricep playing “well I have a flush” about 2 weeks ago.  It wasn’t a sore type of pain, it was a injured type of pain.  I don’t even know what happened, I was just doing pushups.  I thought I had let it heal and it was feeling pretty good for a few days, then I decided to work out and probably doing all those pushups was a bad idea.  Then, because my right arm was hurting, I started throwing with my left arm and now the tricep hurts again.  Wonder if that’s from throwing or still hurting from the original injury.  It’s a weird pain – only when I use strength in a specific way which I haven’t pinpointed yet.

Also, I thought my fingers were sore from holding a football but 3-4 weeks later, my right ring finger is still hurting.  I can’t figure out what’s wrong with it.   It hurts on the bottom half when making a fist, grabbing things, etc.

Oh, and my back/shoulder pain is coming and going.  GO AWAY! Haha.

Oh, and my shins hurt from running.

Lastly, I rolled my ankle while sprinting on Sunday.  I stepped on some large piece of root or wood or bark or something and just fell over.  The strange thing is that while it felt pretty bad at that moment, it’s actually not too painful now.  It’s only painful sometimes and in weird spots.  But I just noticed it was slightly swollen today.  Eeks.

Geez, so many problems.  OLD.

10.23.11
by

Oh No, You Never Let Go

For some reason, I have on several occasions gotten emotional during service.  I think it’s just a time when whatever message or song really just hits my heart/mind.  A few weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about burdens, and the message, the songs, and the prayers just hit me hard as my mind just filled with every single burden I had and I just started tearing.  I don’t think anyone saw me though cause I was trying to hold it in.  Well, maybe F did cause she was next to me.  Who knows…

Then today as we sang, “Oh No, You Never Let Go” by Matt Redman, as soon as the lines hit:

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

It was like bam, I felt like God was embracing me, holding me so tightly, reminding me that He is always there, “through the calm and through the storms”.  And started getting emotional again.  It was a really good reminder and experience that He never lets go in all circumstances.  Every high and low, calm and storms, He is there.  And I feel like at this point in my life, recently, even the things that shouldn’t be stressful for me, things that are supposed to be good, things that I enjoy, have created a lot of underlying stress for me.  And I was thinking that wow, nothing in life is really going well right now, because even the seemingly good things, aren’t deep down.  But God is reminding me that He is with me through it all and that He cares and hears me.

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

You keep on loving
And You never let go

Thanks for loving me and my brokenness.

10.22.11
by

3x a Week

I have successfully worked out 3 times this week and will count tomorrow’s football practice as half of one!  I was a bit concerned at how much I would workout since C. was out of town.  But I got myself to go even though it was a lower intensity than normal.

Monday – Basketball – this is easy and I even played 2 games

Wednesday – Ran 1.2 miles + 30 pushups + 40 situps + 10 bench jumps.  I didn’t work out for too long cause it got dark and I was getting paranoid

Friday – Since I got off work before 6 I was happy there would be daylight.  Ran 2 miles + 60 pushups + 60 situps

I really wanted to see how long it would take me to run 2 miles on flat land but I failed at using my watch – after I had run 0.8 miles I realized the timer wasn’t even on.  Then on the next 0.4 miles I turned it on and realized it picked up from the last run which I didn’t know what it ended at.  Finally, set the last 0.8 miles correctly and it took either 8:21 or 8:41 but that’s with me running pretty fast in the last 150 meters or so.

The craving workout feeling is strange and very real haha and I keep being hungry!!!