Stranger Danger!

Well today was officially scary. 

I was a little under a mile into my run on a nice long wide  neighborhood artery type road when I noticed a newish dark blue Suburban style SUV slowing as it passed me. People seem to have a vested interest in not hitting me (which I appreciate) so that didn't bother me overmuch at first.... except that the SUV never sped back up. 

I noticed that the driver pulled to about 50 yards past me and started pacing me, and after about a block or two of pacing me they pulled sloppily off to the right side of the road, stopping (but not parking) less than two blocks south of a forced left turn with a lot of foliage and no houses right at the corner (the outside corner seems to be some sort of municipal property).

I maintained speed but made a sudden left turn at the next block I passed after I saw that they had pulled over, and watched from around the corner as they immediately pulled back into the lane and drove away.

Clearly, the picture of subtlety.

I keep my phone on my left arm in an armband so I immediately switched my phone to video camera mode and started recording. I described why I had the phone on record, what I had seen, and how I was changing my route to account for the scare and stuck to main roads for the rest of the run (which was pretty hard, and kind of owie). 

Of course I didn't realize until hours later that since the camera was on the *back* of the phone and the microphone was tucked in my bra along with the right earpiece, so I now have an excellent video of the inside of my armband with accompanying audio of my right boob.

At least the idea was there, and I will set up my phone better to account for that in the future. I've always been a bit iffy about that corner but now it's right out. I may also alter my route to avoid a couple of other less populated sections for a bit. Actually I can think of one route tweak which may also avoid a completely insane intersection I currently go through, so at least that's helpful.

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Day 27 Do you use any meal replacements or shakes?

Does cheese count? I replace dinner with cheese on the regular, but other than that no meal replacements. I use Clif bars as midday snacks quite a bit though. I've calorie counted in the past to reasonable effect, but right now I'm finding I'm doing really well with just eating better food.

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My run today: 5K run with warmup and cooldown walks
3.17 miles at an average of 11:53 per mile -  total time of 37:42 

My right ankle and knee were kind of... tweaked? for much of the run. Not enough to effect me much at the time but now I'm noticing it in my ankle and I'm deeply annoyed to be missing a nearly full tube of Arnica gel. The weird thing is my right wrist is also hurting, so maybe I slept stupid or something. 

I spent so much time distracted by the creeper car and trying to work my phone without killing myself that I'd call this one of my worst days out. I also didn't cool down and stretch after as well as I should have today or Tuesday.

I wasn't sure when I went out I was even going to do a full 5k today but by one mile I knew I was committed, so there's that. I don't think I'm going to be able to run again until Monday due to my weekend plans which has me kind of annoyed, but we'll see if I can fit something in.

Measuring up

My car GPS and running are in cahoots to control my thoughts. I now measure all short distances against my runs.

Disembodied British lady: In 2.2 miles turn left on to Road Road McStreet Lane
Me: I totally run that far, multiple times a week even!

Disembodied British lady: In .5 miles take exit, on right, on to EatingAwayYourFreeTime Memorial Parkway
Me: Is that really how far half a mile is? Daaaaamn. That looks long for not very far at all.

Disembodied British lady: In 12.6 miles bear left on to NotLikeYou'reGoingAnywhereGood Highway
Me: Ugh, I do NOT want to run that far. Then again that's not even a half marathon. Well neither is my 20 minute by car commute to work.
Holy crap a marathon is longer than my daily work commute. 
(by 0.2 miles, I just checked)

That being said: I had a weird realization today... 3.1 miles is way bigger than I think it is.

Per yesterday's post I started mucking about in Google maps to retool my route. My aim was to make a single 3.6 mile loop from door to door avoiding some of the busier intersections in my neighborhood. The picture below is the result (sans identifying info, because the internet).

See the green blob labeled "tiny park"? I keep meaning to check it out as a place to run and getting sidetracked by things; until today anyway, when I actually looked at it in comparison to the distance I fully expect to be doing by Tuesday. There are *ten* regulation Little League ball fields (among other things) in that park! I know I've been training up for this and everything, but C25K has actually been pretty well paced and the distance increase was so natural I guess it just didn't really dawn on me how far I was going.

I suspect the marathon people want to pinch my cheek a bit about now and I'm not going to risk hurting myself by fighting these fit, determined, mildly unhinged people who could probably tell me exactly what pace they would use to run me down without breaking target heart rate.

However I am still firmly entrenched in the super jazzed and mildly incredulous category, right where I should be I think.

September Blog Challenge Day 14 - Share your fitness bucket list

 I am the Lolrus

Oh man, I don't know! There are so many things I would like to do but nothing really concrete right now. I think I am still stuck in the "get back into" statements level.

Running
I don't have a bucket list for running because I haven't really decided where if anywhere I'm going with it yet. I kind of like the idea of a marathon someday, but then I read about the reality of it and *shudder*. I think at this point my main thing pushing me toward even anything with the word marathon in it is that my Aunt did several halves POST leukemia treatment (I think she may have actually done a full too) and I'm very in awe of her strength.

I am pretty realistic about my relative athletic abilities (and living in  a major metropolitan area), so I don't think placing in a bunch of things is a reasonable goal, but I would like to make a decent go of it. Whatever that means.

Yoga
Yoga makes my body happy and I need to get back to doing it.
I want to be crazy flexible yogini woman. I've always wanted to be a contortionist so that level of yoga is I suppose my bucket list item.

Dance
Anyone who doesn't consider dance a fitness activity has never been to a real dance class... or actually gone out dancing for the night. If you're not treating blisters and peeling your clothes off to crawl into the shower (if you can even move that much) something has gone horribly awry.

I want to learn African dance, Tango, Flamenco and more Middle Eastern dance and I'd like to get to the point that I'm willing to do them in public.

Other stuff
I'd love to get back into kettle bells and get me some sexy kettlebell shoulders and a sexy kettlebell back.

It's hard working out in my apartment though (especially with pendulous weights). Besides the clutter and perpetual half unpacked state my cats are very demanding of attention and one of them has been sick lately, so it's hard to get up and get moving in a way that doesn't involve endlessly petting or playing with one or the other of them (also not conducive to the half unpacked state).
Not so good for working out but great for blogging.

September Blog Challenge Day 5 -Workout settings

Day 5 Share pictures of your favourite place to workout

I run in a suburban NY neighborhood that I only moved to recently. There's um, some houses, with pretty flowers... I guess?

Ok, so hardly inspiring, but I'm going to take that as a challenge to go run in some other places. There is a nature preserve very close to me that I'd like to check out but I do have some personal safety concerns. At the very least it's not paved so I want to have a better idea what I'd be encountering before I start running there. I really need to get a better handle on what kind of parks this area has to offer. There's actually a gate on my regular route that may be an entrance to a regular style park which is across from the preserve, but it's hard to tell if that land is public or private based on the map. I suppose I shall have to check the signs next time I'm there. 

For a time I was doing regular walks through the Holtsville Ecology center with a friend of mine and that would probably be a pretty cool place to go back to. There's a paved 1.2 mile circuit (with a fitness course) and various open unpaved areas you can just meander through, parts of it are a bit hike-ish, in a very minor way. The paved area often smelled kind of funny (ahh nature) so more often than not we'd just sort of hike around the wilder areas and make our own way.

Click here for more Ecology Center pictures via Foursquare

Bonus: if you go while the Wildlife Center is open you can look at the fancy chickens and feed the baby goats!

Interesting side-note in these days of self-aggrandizing marathon time confusion from the BIA Sport Facebook page - Marathon Man:  Is Kip Litton a Marathon Fraud?
An out-of-shape Midwesterner transformed himself into a competitive marathoner. But he insisted on transforming himself further, inventing a character a bit too heroic to be believed. 
Long article, but the situation is kind of fascinating in its audacity.

What do you think of Kip Litton and what he is being accused of?

While we're on the subject: has the Paul Ryan marathon time mistake made an impact on your opinion?

What do you look for in a new workout spot?

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What active things did I do today?

Not the best day for activities.  I did however take a righteous nap. I loooove sleep but I'm pretty nocturnal so its hard for me to wind down at night and let myself get the sleep I need. This usually catches up with me on weekends and I sleep astoundingly late, but I had too many early days this past weekend and apparently needed a bit more.