Another day without running...

Thursday turned out to be a late night for me as well. There just isn't a time when I can exercise unless it's on the weekend of course. The only way that I can think of is that if I can be disciplined enough to get up and run in the morning. Of course, the only I can do that is if I promise to sleep by 11 p.m. every night, which is as far as I can tell, an impossibility.

Alas!

Another busy day. I had classes starting @ 8:30 until 4, then meetings until 5:30. An info session for an hour at 7, followed by 1 more hour of meeting that ended at 9:30. I finished reading the research paper, wrote my summary, and voila, it's 12:30 a.m. Alas! Another day without running! I can totally see that the busy-ness will not end! And here I was thinking I can actually beat the system and follow my daily running schedule! oh dear, what to do? (perplexed)

No Time!

Work is the highlight of my life.

Starting at 11:30, I had a 15.821 group meeting. From 12:30-2 p.m., I sat through an ASA meeting. Then from 2-6 ish, I finished my CA work for 15.655 and at 7 p.m., I had a research meeting with my UROP group. Needless to say, I had a presentation tomorrow which I haven't started working on and a paper I haven't read, so the first thing I tell myself is...out goes the exercise. In conclusion, I was supposed to run 3 miles today, but I didn't run at all. Bummers.

I checked my schedule tomorrow and I do not even have a break to exercise either unless I go after my last meeting which ends at 9:30. Perhaps, I will go and run the 3 miles then. Busy busy busy. Somehow, my brain is telling me...damn, I should have done more work over the weekends!

Columbus's Day Food Parade

Happy Columbus's Day! (no classes, woo!)

Today was also my day off so I decide to celebrate that by going to brunch with Tiff at IHop. The food was awesome! I had a stuffed french toast topped with bananas, sausages, 2 eggs, hash brown, and orange juice. It's a good thing that I'm training because now I have an excuse to carbohydrates and cholesterol! hehe. Btw, it was very tasty and yummy and absolutely filling.

As the Chair of resource development committee, one of the many UA committees at MIT, I had to run to MIT to prepare for the first meeting. There, I ordered Froyo from Ankara Cafe. Mine was vanilla with melon and raspberry. Mmmm!

For dinner, I got one of those salad bars from LaVerdes supermarket again. After revamping itself, I have to say that LaVerdes is beginning to be very conforming to my taste. Of course, I also got green apples with caramel again, but self control tells me that I should save those for tomorrow! Let's hope I can keep myself from eating them!

Unproductive Sunday

I am by no means insulting old people, but I just can't help but notice how the z center was inundated with fat old men with big beer bellies. I entertain with the fact that they were probably successful alumnae, but I try really hard not to wonder whether the guy friends I know would one day look like that.

I ran 3 miles today in 28:26. It's still pretty slow compared to what I'm used to but I'm improving gradually. I was able to completely run 2 miles non-stop at the pace of 6.5. After 2 miles, my ankle were in pain so I had to stop and walked for 0.25 miles, then finished the rest of the mileage at a pace of 7.0. After running, I also did 60 crunches. Unlike the first day, I did not feel sore; in fact, I wasn't that tired at all. Still, I have decided that I will keep to my running schedule and do not overwork myself. Thus, Tuesday will be a 3 mile session as well.

In terms of food, I had a double chocolate muffin for breakfast, green apples dipped in caramel for snacks, and a salad with dressing for dinner. It wasn't particularly healthy but I was proud of myself to have eaten so many vegetables! yum yum!

Day 2 Training

Today is the start of a four day weekend! With no classes Monday (Columbus's Day) or Tuesday and an almost nothing planned weekend, I knew that it would be a perfect opportunity for me to continue with my training plan.

This morning, I woke up at 10 ish, took a shower, and biked to Boston Acote hair salon and got a hair cut/tri/style. For those of you who don't know me, I have had long hair ever since a sophomore in high school. Before that I had short hair traumitizing experience in which the hair stylist cut my hair so short that it was sooo ugly. After that I just few my hair long all the way until my waist. It wasn't until this year that I realized that I had way too many split ends and that the hairs at the end were turning dry and brown. It was so ugly that I knew that I had to change. My friend agreed to give me a trim, but she gave me a haircut that was just too short for me to digest. I hated myself for over two weeks and avoided looking at myself in the mirror for fear of the surfacing feelings of regret from cutting my hair.

If it's not because of the start of training in marathon run and the fact that I just feel more confident and happy because of the training, I have decided that a change isn't that bad. In fact, if I can find a hair style that is pleasing to the eye and something in which I will feel confident in, I would be happy. I asked my rather stylish friend, Yifan, for recommendations and she said Acote. I did some simple research online and it turned out that Acote is a popular place in Boston. I made an appointment and voila, I got a haircut.

It's still long, but now I have side bangs and angles down my face. I think she took off an additional inch, but I think the fact that I trusted her professionalism and expertise made me more at ease. Anyway, I'm pretty happy now with the outcomes. After cutting my hair, I went to Prudential Center and got some tasty Boston Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. Then I went to Sephora. :)

Then, I came back to campus and went to the Z center to do my Saturday run. It's shame because I couldn't remember the number of miles that I had to run so I just did what I think is the right one:

4 miles in 39:13.

I improved by a little which is pretty good for me. This run is more organized in that I basically ran nonstop at the pace of 6.5 for 1.5 miles, the walked for 0.25 miles, ran 6.5ish for 1 mile, walk for 0.25 miles and then did some more at 7.1. It was just random...I thought I was going to get a much better time than last time but I guess the extra walking really killed the time. Last time, I think I was running faster, walked more but for a shorter time.

The noticeable change was that I realized that I can do a full mile now before "feeling it". Hopefully this will increase each running session I put myself to.

For dinner, I will be eating a tuna salad, yogurt, maybe a fruit cup. Healthy all the way!

The Beginning of A Grand Adventure

After one month of classes, parties, birthday cakes, cheesecakes, chips, root beer floats and more, I realize that I was not only had a big stomach but I got tired doing simple activities like climbing two flights of stairs or lifting an item. When I started to binge at night, stuffing handfuls of chips down my throat, I knew I was in dire need of direction and a sense of purpose.

I have always wanted to run a marathon. It was one of those abstract goals in which you tell people and expect them to be impressed. "I'm training for the marathon." just sounds so wonderful and it makes one seem so athletic and healthy. However, for 3 years now, the marathon goal has never even got off the ground. Before I even got started training, I would convince myself (subconciously, of course) that I had too much work, too much stress, and no energy. As a result, the goal always got pushed back. "Oh, I'll do it next year."

Now as a senior, I realize that I can't push it back any more. I just feel like I have to do this or I will feel regret for the rest of my life. Maybe this is one of those experiences that you don't want to miss. I guess there are many other personal reasons for wanting to do this:

1) I want to get in shape. For the longest time, I know that the fat (love handles, stomach fat) is just getting out of control. I guess it's the fact that I'm a student makes it even easier for me to stay 24-7 in front of my computer screen, sitting in one spot. I guess I just don't have that much will power to make myself exercise every day in order to lose weight. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a student and no one seems to care about issues like this in my school that this motivation alone is just not good enough.

2) "Reach for the moon, if you miss, you will be among the stars." This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. I thought that if I just train for the marathon with my heart into it and even if I don't run it that well or if something goes wrong, I will have had the benefit of the exercise, lose the extra weight, lose some fat, and everything is happy.

3)...which leads me to divulge to you why I want to lose the weight and fat. For one, I plan to do some hardcore traveling after graduation..on the Asian continent. I plan to hit Singapore, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Japan and more and boy do they have high standards for the ladies. I consider myself to be average built here in the U.S. but over there, I'm a fat cow. Haha.

4) Meet some new people....hot guys!!! Let's just say that my love pot is dryyyyy! Of course, I wouldn't blame it on my body and that's definitely not the reason that my love pot is dry. But I really think that if I start training daily, I might be able to meet people whom I would not normally meet and I think just the experience alone is worth the effort.

Enough of the reasons behind it...what I need now is ACTION.

I have realized that one of my biggest flaws is that I plan a lot and act little. Sometimes I can talk about for days and daydream for months even years on what I plan to do or what I will do if I was given this and this opportunity, yet I hardly ever have anything to show for it. My cousin, from China, recently arrived in the states to pursue a master's degree. His English was decent but he still had a lot to learn and adjust. Yet, after arriving only three weeks on campus, he was able to attain a driver's license as well as receive a social security card. If I were him, I don't know if I even have adjusted to my entire environment during that time. Yet, he was able to actually have results to show for it after setting his mind on the things he need to do.

ANYWAYS, I thought I would divulge a little about my plans of actions since I hope that there are some of you fans out there who are perhaps thinking of traveling with me on my journey to running my first marathon: The Boston Marathon.

In order to set up a training schedule, I basically looked online and find this little neat site:
http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/m_mile.html

Mileage Buildup Schedule (Schedule I)

Week#	Sun.	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thu.	Fri.	Sat.	Total
1	4	Rest	3	Rest	4	Rest	3	14
2	4	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	3	15
3	5	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	3	16
4	3	Rest	3	Rest	3	Rest	3	12
5	5	Rest	3	3	3	Rest	3	17
6	6	Rest	3	3	3	Rest	3	18
7	6	Rest	3	4	3	Rest	4	20
8	3	Rest	4	Rest	3	Rest	3	13
9	7	Rest	3	5	4	Rest	3	22
10	7	Rest	4	5	4	Rest	4	24
11	8	Rest	4	6	4	Rest	4	26
12	4	Rest	3	Rest	4	Rest	4	15
13	8	Rest	5	6	5	Rest	4	28
14	9	Rest	5	6	6	Rest	4	30
15	9	Rest	5	7	6	Rest	5	32
16	5	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	4	17
17	10	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	4	34
18	10	Rest	6	8	7	Rest	4	35
19	6	Rest	4	Rest	5	Rest	4	19

I thought this was a good schedule to use because the numbers didn't look that intimidating. Plus there are rest days almost throughout the training weeks so I can incorporate those days into my busy school schedules and make sure that I only work out on days when I don't have five million hours of classes or a ton of psets due the next day.

Today was just my first day training...whooo! As you can tell, today is a Thursday and how I wish I can start on a Sunday so I can walk through this schedule, but I have decided that enough routines and rules, JUST DO IT.

So, today I finished four miles on the treadmill in 39:38. It wasn't good by any stretch of imagination but it was a good start. My ankle started to hurt around the beginning of the second mile so I had to walk and then working off the pain so I can start running.

In freshman year in high school, I ran for the school's track team. During one of the trainings, the coach wanted us to do a pyramid training, basically means little rest, lots of interval runnings. I reached a point where my ankle or my shins were hurting so badly that I wanted to stop. My coach yelled at me and told me that only quitters stop in the middle of their races. Without a choice, I ran on. Eventually the pain became unbearable. Later, I went to see a doctor and he told me that I had shin splints or something so I ended up quitting track for the rest of the season. Now, I think the splints thing has healed but whenever I run long distance, my ankle would hurt. The hurt feels like a tightening sort of pain like if I just stop and walk it out, everything will be fine. If anything, I'm afraid that I will experience that pain while running the marathon and then I won't be able to run on. I will have to watch for that in the later weeks.

For dinner, I had a chicken caesar salad from ABP and a bottle of water. If you ask me, I am starving now! It's 10:53 p.m. and all I can think about is the strawberry cheesecake icecream that is sitting in the freezer...*shudders*. I have started to watch this new show on ABC. It's called the Fashionistas Diaries which are basically about six young people trying to make it in the fashion industry. I will not trouble you with the details of the show (you can look it up online), but there is one quote in the show and it says, "If you have money, spend on clothes, not on food, after all, no one eats around here." Of course, now I have to have a little disclaimer which is that I am in no way shape or form supporting anorexia or whatever eating disorders that people seem to be experiencing. I just want to make a point that there are some people out there so determined to look a certain way, to achieve a certain accomplishment, that they are willing to go to the extreme to succeed.

I am ready to do the same. In the next however many weeks until April 21st, 2008, I will be providing lots of details on my training as well as little life tidbits about me, and of course so you can track me and hold me accountable for my committment. Be sure to tell your friends about me, leave me lots of comments/encouragements/suggestions and best of luck to all you runners out there training for your marathon!!!!!!