Weddings and Pull-ups!

So last post I mentioned that I got depressed trying on dresses for a wedding. BUT I didn't mention that I'd found an AWESOME dress for that wedding that fit pretty nicely! Thanks H&M! Granted I had to get a fairly large size...largest I've ever had to get...BUT I will comfort myself in the knowledge that sizes are weird there and I even had to go smaller on a different dress I tried on.

Anyway, I ended up buying a couple dresses in a similar style because they fit me well. Though I do hope to be losing a bit of weight eventually. Guess I'll just have to wear these dresses soon. :)

So here's the dress!

Totally sucking it in.

 Twas a very comfortable dress as well. This was the last wedding of the year for me (phew). I have seriously been to a minimum of one wedding a year for the last 10 years, with many years have 2-3 (I had three this year). Insane. But I do LOVE weddings (for the most part), so I don't mind. I mostly just mind how much money I have to spend, since as a woman, I have to double-dip with the bridal showers too. Being single, this shit adds up.

Standard wedding selfie. But with beer.

So today I did another 2 miles run/walk this morning. Yay! I did have Chinese food for dinner last night, which isn't the healthiest, but I didn't follow up with cookies or some other snack. Just another couple glasses of water. I've been doing really well drinking a lot of water the last couple weeks. Pretty much like two liters a day. Which makes me get up more often to pee, so more walking! haha

More like the alcohol.

I also am trying to do this pull-up thing program thing which started with 5 sets (though I could only do 4) of negative chin-ups (cuz I can't even do ONE real one yet). After the first time I did it, my arms were INSANELY sore for days! It hurt just to get dressed! So I waited like five days (instead of two like the guy on YouTube said), but then when I tried to do my second day, I felt a pain in my shoulder that hurt like a real pain, not like an exercise soreness, so I'm waiting a couple more days. But I've always wanted to be able to do a pull-up (or even a chin-up) so I really want to try to stick to this.

Trying

So recently I had to try on some dresses for a wedding and in the process became incredibly depressed about it. I swear dressing room lighting is the absolute worst in the world for feeling good about yourself.

I'm definitely the heaviest I've ever been in my life. (And to think, I thought I was fat back in college when I was 30 lbs. lighter. So dumb.) I know it's partially age, the older you get, the harder it is to lose weight. Plus you (or at least I) get tired more easily. But it's mostly the fact that I'm so god damned lazy! Too lazy to cook healthy meals, too lazy to burn off calories. Oh and I LOVE TV. I know everyone does but man, do I. One of my BFFs always jokes that I watch EVERYTHING (this is untrue of course but an indication of how much TV I watch). Even I don't understand where I find the time.

But anyway, that was a depressing week in dressing rooms but it's motivated me more than I've been in ages. A year or so ago I ran three days a week for at least five months, but I think more. Once that winter hit, though, I basically stopped. Now I run like once every few months. But no more!! (I hope.) Today I ran/walked for the third time since last Monday.

One reason to run. This view!

And I'm trying hard to cut back on the food intake. It's hard to say "no" to yourself. And when you're in a city full of delicious food all around... And when the main form of socialization consists of dinners and boozing... And when you've got one hell of a sweet tooth... More excuses. But I'm trying.

So I heard blogging helps. You tell people what you're up to and don't want to be embarrassed when you don't do what you say. So we'll see. But considering I'm too lazy to blog about FUN stuff, I don't know. But I'll try.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:21st Ave,New York,United States

I Dashed! Warrior Style!

I'm a warrior!! Again!

Finally did my second Warrior Dash! I did the first one two Octobers ago (as mentioned here) where I was out until 4AM the night before getting drunk at the Marvel NYCC party and had to get up at 8AM to get to the race. I finished it in approx. 45 minutes which was pretty good, but considering I couldn't run for more than 2 minutes straight back then, I thought THIS time I would do even better! Now I can run for 35 minutes STRAIGHT since I've recently completed a couch to 5K program!! (BOO-YAH!)

And then I saw the hill. O_O For this Warrior Dash, I went all the way up to New Hampshire! (OK, I also visited an old friend, but this was what we planned our weekend around.) It was held at Gunstock in Gilford, NH. This is where people go skiing/snowboarding. So...HILLS. More like MOUNTAINS. The obstacles in the Warrior Dash can be challenging but not TOO bad. Some are downright easy, but the first thing we had to do in the New Hampshire dash was a giant hill. It seemed to never end. In fact we went uphill for the first 1.5 miles of a 3.1 mile run!! And it was STEEP. At some points it was almost like I could be on all fours and still be upright. It was brutal. BUT I DID IT! 

Medal #2! More to come!

The hardest obstacle was, I think, the straight wall we had to climb. It had a rope and little ledges, but it was still pretty difficult. The only other one I found hard was the balance beam, but that was mostly difficult because my legs were wobbly from all the climbing. The end was the best part, as we jumped over fire and trudged through a mud pit! Anyway, so I finished this one a LOT slower. Took me an hour & 19 minutes. I blame that hill. No way I was running up it, I was barely able to walk it!! All that running training came in NOT HANDY. Sigh. I guess I would probably have been worse without it.


Well, it was fun regardless. And we couldn't have asked for better weather, sunny but still breezy and cool! And I got an extra free beer (you get one) because a girl didn't want hers and then we bought giant turkey legs. Cuz that's what warriors eat.

Meal of Warriors!

So anyway, if you have any interest in fun mixed with a bit of fitness, I recommend a warrior dash! They go all over the country, so hopefully you can find one near you!

I Run!

I can't believe I'm doing it, but I'm running! My entire life I hated running. Well... I guess I didn't hate it as a kid. I remember from the age range of about 10-12 there was this kid on my block that was really fast and I was the only one that was able to catch him (sometimes), so I know I ran at SOME point. But those runs were just short bursts anyway.

But I remember in high school, before I started, I was trying to start my high school career out right and doing extracurriculars in the preceding summer. Not only was I taking Russian and Electronics classes AHEAD of time (yes, I took summer school to get AHEAD. I am a nerd.) — I went to a technical high school that taught us drafting and electronics and we had to learn Russian — but I also decided I would try joining the track team. I had absolutely NO sports skills whatsoever. My parents never forced me to play any sports like most of my friends and I thought that was awesome (now I wish they had), so I wasn't about to join a school team where I could show off my LACK of skill. So instead I thought, "well everyone can run." Or something equally dumb. I think I went to two meets. I remember stretching beforehand and I remember we had to run around the school's grounds. I was dead so quickly. I remember feeling like I was going to throw up.

But NOW! Now I'm doing it!! A couple of months ago my friend posted on facebook that he was doing the NY Giant Run of Champions 5K that ended on the field at Giants Stadium! You got to run into the endzone!! THIS I needed to do. At first I though, "Eh, I'll just jog/mostly walk it, just so I can get to the field." But my friend suggested I try one of the couch-to-5K programs that are so popular these days. So of course I looked for an "app for that" and I found the 5K Runner (which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend). It starts you off really slowly and in a way that is doable, doing like 4 sets of running like a minute or two followed by a minute or two walk. Which is great because at first three minutes felt awful and impossible. But by the time I got to the Giants run, I was running like 10 minutes straight, followed by a 3 minute walk and then another 5 minutes (not exactly this I'm sure, it was a few months ago)! Here's my results from that:

NY Giants Run of Champions 5K

I did it in 38 minutes!! I still can't believe it. But the best part? I haven't stopped! I decided I was going to do this thing! I've signed up for a 5K every month since then (except July). This week alone I did TWO! Last Sunday I ran the Color Run — the happiest 5K on the planet! It was amazing, you get hit with coloured powder as you run and at the end there's basically a giant rave of people dancing and throwing MORE colour at each other!

Here's me hamming it up, mostly green.

It was a great time. Then last night I did a 4-mile NYRR Back to Football Run! It was a run in Central Park to celebrate the return of football season! It was great! And I'm proud to say I didn't really walk very much at all. We stopped a couple of times at the beginning but not very long at all and from about the start of mile 3 to the end of 4 I only stopped for a few seconds to drink water. My pace was slightly slower than the Giants 5K but I definitely felt better for this one:

NYRR Back to Football Run

I still haven't technically finished the 5K program. I struggled with the 25 minute run mark, but a week or two ago I ran those 25 minutes, then added 5 more! Very soon I should be able to run a 5K without stopping! I can't wait!

Next month I'm visiting a friend in New Hampshire and I'll be doing my second Warrior Dash! It's a 5K in the mud with obstacles! I did one a couple years ago and the obstacles were fun but the running was so horrible for me. This time it should be much better. Then I've got a 5K on the boardwalk at Coney Island to raise money to help walruses in October and the Race to the Finish 5K in November (runs part of the NY Marathon course... the END part). I think for December I'll do the Jingle Bell Jog. :) Signing up for races keeps me from slacking off in between. 

Yay for running!!

PS One other app that really helped me get this running thing going, that I would be remiss not to mention, is the Zombies Run app. This app is so cool and so entertaining, I really push anyone who wants to run or who already does to check it out. It's not cheap, but it's worth it! Happy running!