Share your thoughts!

It's not over with your vote! Bookmark www.change.gov You can go there and comment on policy and even submit your own ideas. I really like the video they have up there on the plan for aggressively approaching environmental change. Funny, they don't mention anything about drilling at home? Anyways just because gas price are down doesn't mean any real problems have been solved. So share your idea in a forum that could make it into the hands of someone who can CHANGE things!

The World Through My Eyes

The World Through My Eyes
by Terry Coniglio

Gallery Opening
Friday November 14 from 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Clinton House Art Space, 116 N. Cayuga Street

Free and Open to the public
Light refreshments will be provided

The World Through My Eyes is a collection of travel photos ranging from South America to Asia, as well as an insight into Terry's experiences in these destinations. The exhibit will be on display through November 30. The Clinton House is open Monday - Saturday from 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM and Sunday from 12:00 PM - 5:30 PM. The space will be closed on November 27 and November 28 for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

For more information you can contact Terry Coniglio at tmc49@cornell.edu

All the more reason to vote for Obama

If Bush can do it, anyone can...
Please vote responsibly next week and that means Obama!!!

Happy update!

I just got in from a short but good speed training run. It was only a mile of intervals. It felt so good going fast! :) I haven't done that since about May. I have officially had to remove myself from this year's marathon. But I will be running next year and for A Running Start. Being that I had to remove myself I was only responsible for half of the minim fundraising amount, which I've met. Thank you so much for donating everyone and I'm going to work on getting stronger and healthy for training next year!

So I have never been a big video game person, but we recently got an Xbox 360. I love the game Scene It! It's a movie trivia game. We had people over on Saturday night and we were all playing, such a fun time. I highly recommend it. The new version comes out soon, so we'll defiantly be trolling ebay for a cheap copy. Next we want to get Guitar Hero World Tour (when it comes out) so we can have a rockin' out party.

What a good idea!

I want to power my TV this way. So I can only be watching TV if I'm working out.
:)

sad news

Today at about 2:00 PM they pulled a body out of the gorge next to my building. We suspect that it was student who jumped. All I know is that I was out there about ten minutes before it happened to go across the street and get a snack. About 20 minutes later we got word of it inside. The street and bridge was closed off and there were police, fire trucks and ambulances. My co-work said he saw them take a girl away in a police car in hysterics. So I don't know if she saw it happen or knew the person. Within an hour though everything is gone. If you were in class and didn't know what happened and walked over the bridge now you'd never know...

water water everywhere

Oh the water drama continues. We're so happy in our new place and we've finally got it all set up nice. On Saturday morning we went down the basement to do laundry and noticed water on the floor. Apparently our dishwasher has been backing up the entire month we've been there and it broke through the basement celling on Friday night. Dan had been having coughing fits for about a week and now we suspect it's from the mold. The up side is that the landlord is very laid-back and is getting right on fixing it. Here are a few pictures of the new place! :)

BEST ONE YET!

Tina Fey for president!!!!

Tina Fey is a favorite in our house recently. If you don't watch 30 Rock, you're missing out on a fantastic comedy as well as a look into what my daily life seems to be like. Aside from that her recent SNL skits imitating Sarah Palin are priceless!!!! Not to say that just listening to Sarah Palin alone isn't funny enough. If she isn't enough to sink the republicans I don't really know what is...

Wonderful news!

Well I've been training pain free for short distances. I've also picked up on the weight training and started doing some P90X again. I'm going to hold off on the plyometrics for a while though. Anyway, my good news is, since I've only been able to run short distances Dan has joined me! He doesn't really like to run, but I think he's enjoying it. Yesterday he was able to run a mile without walking. With the weather being so nice out now, it's such a nice way to relax after work.

He's probably agreed to run with me because we have NOTHING else to do after work. We can't get TV or internet at the new house yet. We had direct TV come out, but the trees around the house are too high for the satellite. There is a company that's working on getting high speed internet to rural areas and we're on their list, but we're just not sure how long of a wait it will be. We're finally getting our house unpacked. Some of our stuff has been in boxes since July so it's like Christmas! Our house is looking really nice! Probably one more weekend of work and it'll be picture read. I'll post some as soon as I have them! :)

released!

I was released from PT today!!! I've been running every other day for two weeks and it feels great. Problem is I've only been running short distances, so I'm really not sure if in six weeks I'll be ready for the Marathon. I know everyone has told me to delay till next year and it seems like the smartest thing to do. But there's still a part of me that thinks I can do it...

Oh Well, either way I'm still fundraising for A Running Start. I'm about $1000 away from the minimum. I know this is a crappy time in the economy to be asking for money, but these children have less than we do. Thanks Everyone!!!

hard choices

I have a really hard decision to make. I really don't think I'm going to be ready for this marathon. I've been running pain free but very short distances. It's only seven and half weeks away. I know this seems like a no brainer, just don't run it. It I cancelled I would still be responsible for the fundraising for A Running Start. I could possible defer my entrance to next year, but I'll have to check. I really don't know what to do.

check out my work blog

Here's our new blog for the Scwhartz Center!

1st Run!

Last night I went for my first walk run since June! My physical therapist had me walk run one mile on the track. Walking the curves and running the straights. While I was running there was no pain. It felt strange having to lift my legs in a running motion. It didn't feel like my upper and lower body was working together, but it was pain free. When I woke up this morning the first few steps I felt a little strain in my shin, but not painful. I have physical therapy tomorrow so I'll see what they say and if I can continue! :)

Moving...again

So this weekend we're moving!!!! I talked to the builder today and we got the CO. Was REALLY nervous about that. But everything seems to be on track with it.
The current crappy place is still crappy. The water stinks and the health department found colifom in the water but no E Coli. Little suspicious to me. Either way we're almost done with it! :)
My legs are feeling pretty good. I tried to star the walk run program last week but it hurt so I'm giving it another week of rest. So we'll see! :)

Off to a good start

This week is off to a good start so far. We went to Philly over the weekend and had blast. On Saturday night we saw Maroon 5 with Aunt Molly, Molly, Michael, and his girlfriend Krista. I think between me and aunt molly we took about 500 pictures. It was just the relaxing time Dan and I needed though!
Yesterday I got my orthopedic inserts for my shoes. They feel great! I went for a walk today all the way up to Bebe lake and walked around it no pain. I've been pretty pain free for about a week now. That means I'm going to be able to start running by the end of the week!!!! :)
The health department is coming out to the house in the morning to test the water and look at the well. We've told the landlords that we're going to take them up on their offer to move out, but they're still not going to give us our security deposit back. I just want out and then we can take them to small claims court. Especially if the health department says that no one can live there. We signed a lease on another place. It's back in Ithaca, but not down town. So Dan has to go back to long drive again and I'm not sure about my commute yet. The good part is that it's a brand new construction. Hopefully it'll be worry free!

Next Week!

So my physical therapy went really well today! I got to use the balance pad and did everything on one leg with no pain. So hopefully next week I'll be able to start running again! :)

Half Way!

With all the stress of everything else in my life I've be a little to passive about my fundraising. Happily I'm half way!!! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. If you know of anyone else who would value supporting an organization like A Running Start or someone who would like to support me, please pass on this link.

http://www.active.com/donate/nycmarathon2008/terryconiglio

Moving

Apparently since we would like clean drinking water, we don't respect the house. Our landlords have asked us to move by September 1...Which is fine, but stressful. So now I have to start all over again finding a place to live and moving!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

not getting better

We got the water test back from the house. The one that the landlord said we didn't need. There is E coli in the water...
I had a doctor's appointment last week and the doctor said was obese and I need to lose weight. So basically nothing is going so well...

Overwhelmed

I'm just a bit overwhelmed by everything right now. We moved into our new house and have found a TON of problems. The landlords are "hill womps" (as Dan likes to call them) and they pretty inflexible on understanding other people's desired quality of life. The first thing that we've approached them on is the stench of the water. There is terrible sulfur water in the house. We looked up everything we could on Sulfur water and found that it's not deadly and that it can be fixed. We pretty much just have to have the water tested, then the tank shocked. Unless there is septic leakage, which is an entirely different story. But we're pretty sure it's just sulfur bacteria and it can controlled. Dan wrote a very long, well worded e-mail about how we want it tested and fixed. Basically their response was that they've been living in the house since 1949 and no one has died yet. No concern or respect for maybe the fact that we don't want to waft the smells of rotten eggs as we sit in meetings at work?!?!?!

We're having the test done any way and if it's something they can fix we'll press further to have them fix it.

Second major concern with the house is the murder basement. There is an area of the basement that they didn't show us on the walk through of the house and it's where the washer and dryer hook ups are. I can't even describe the shambles and condition of this area. First, there is no sub-pump in the basement so it's a swamp. This leads us to our concerns of black mold, which will be our next testing requests. Second the foundation is ruined and falling to pieces. So one day the whole place is just going to crumble in. There's massive holes in the rotting insulation where you can see right out... Pretty much we could have a Halloween party down there and not have to do much "decorating."

Then there are just a ton of little things that we didn't notice before we signed the lease, like the bathroom door that's off the dinning room doesn't close. The door is about a half inch too long. The whole entire house is one bad weekend project gone WAY wrong. There are electrical shorts and sockets that don't work, the stove doesn't get hot enough to boil water. The list goes on...

This house is pretty much everything that I've hated about Wellsboro. Cell phone signals are spotty so we'll have to get a land line. We don't think we can get high speed internet. These are just think that even in the most rural areas should not be an issue in 2008.

The plus sides to all of this is that Dan is closer to work so we're saving on gas. I just have to drive about five miles and I can take the bus in. All our furniture fits in. The living room and bedroom look very nice.

Other stressful things are that my class is ending this week. So we had our final today and tomorrow we have a final presentation. I really enjoyed the class but I didn't have the time to commit to all the readings like I would have wanted too. It's also extremely hard to take a class call the Psychology of Social Commuting and have to try to study and do projects with no internet connection! First it was in Ocean City and now it's at our house. So I just feel like the world was against me performing my best in the class.

Work is just really sucking right now. I'm not passionate about it anymore. The task feel very meaningless and I'm to disconnected from the productions and the art work. It's really sunk in that we're slaves to the faculty and nothing more. They don't want staff members to be free thinking, creative, or productive. That's left up to the faculty only. Staff members don't need to think they just need to be servants to the needs of the faculty. It's really demeaning. On top of that we got a new chair for the department. I was really excited for this change, but I don't know that it's going to be as good as I would have wanted. The personalities of the other people on the administrative staff just make me sick and uncomfortable. Especially the way they suck up to the new chair. Everyone is just acting so fake and playing so many mind games. It's really emotionally exhausting to be at work not even counting the actual work.


Since this is a running blog, I'll talk about that. Running is not happening right now. My legs still hurt. Not in the same way and I've stopped wearing the braces. But they just don't feel right yet and I'm scared they're never going to heal. It would just be nice to be able to have my time to go running back, especially since I'm so stressed out.

Moving

I had my doctor's appointment on Thursday and it didn't go as planned. I have one more week with the braces. I was feeling really good but the past two days I've pushed it really hard with moving and I'm scared it's set me back. Before I was feeling no pain at rest or walking. Now I'm back to how I was a few weeks ago. Dull aches at rest and sharp when walking...I'm not liking this one bit.

So at the moment I'm not much help with the moving, hence I'm sitting here blogging.
:(

Tomorrow

I have my check up appointment tomorrow with the doctor! Hopefully I'll be able to ditch the air casts. I honestly don't think I'm going to be able to start running for another week or so. My legs don't feel the same kind of pain they did before. Every now and then it's just a dull ache of a reminder that I'm injured. Walk at this point is completely pain free. I think one more week off from running and slowly working back into it will do me good.

I've been swimming a lot and running in the water. But it's just not the same. So tonight I plan to re-write my training plan with a slow two week phase to work back into running. Getting injured has probably also been a bit of a blessing in disguise. I'm taking a summer class that's really interesting but time consuming. It's call Psychology of Social Computing. Six week courses are so intense and there's so much reading. But it's really opened up my eyes to the kind of work I'll be doing if I'm accepted to the M.S. in Communications. It's very exciting and very different from anything that I've done before.

The Sexiness of the Air Cast.

So I've been wearing the air cast for a week now. My legs are defiantly starting to feel better. I woke up this morning with pretty much no pain. Usually the first few steps in the morning are the worst. I swam 1500m this morning and they felt great after that!

But as I've been hobbling around all week I've noticed how others react to seeing the air cast. The reaction on their face when they do a once over is priceless, especially kids. One guy this morning caught me noticing him staring at me and he waved. My legs are the parade and I'm the princess in the float.

Then another stranger actually stopped me and asked "how did you break both legs?" I said running and that it was stress fractures. I really need to come up with a better story than that. Something like, "well when I was flying in my private helicopter over the amazon..." Alas, I was not that quick.

Well I'm off to Ocean City for the weekend to relax!

$1000

Thanks Aunt Mollie for setting me over $1000! Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. It's keeping me positive through my injury. I can't wait to get back out there and train for real!! There's still plenty of time to make a donation if you haven't

Weekend

Well the one nice thing about having an injury is that you get to sleep in on the weekend! There's no pressure to wake up at 6:00 AM or earlier to get that long run in before it gets to hot! The gym doesn't open until 10 and the pool doesn't open until noon. On Saturday after a nice little lay in Dan and I went to the gym. It was the first time I've been to Helen Newman in a while. They have a new elliptical-like machine that's awesome! It simulates stair climbing or running. It really got my heart rate up and I felt like I got a much better work out on that than the normal elliptical.
On Sunday we spent the afternoon stuffing our faces at Leslie's house. It was great! Her house is right on the lake and the rain held off. When we got home I went up to the pool and ran for an hour. Today the physical therapist informed me that I should only be doing deep water running. So I have to go get a pool noddle and just do a running motion in the deep end. She said that if it didn't hurt to run in the shallow end it was ok, and so far it's been fine. But I really don't want to take my chances. My legs still hurt when I get up from sitting or first thing in the morning and it's uncomfortable to walk long distances. Going down stairs sucks. So basically I'm only 100% pain free when I'm sitting.

Air Cast

So I had my Sports Med Appointment yesterday with Dr. Getzin at Cayuga Sports Medicine. As you can see I'm bound to air cast for at least the next 3 weeks. He diagnosed it as stress fractures, they are very low grade. It could have been a lot worse. The good news is that the NYC Marathon is still happening. For the next three weeks I can run in the water, swim, bike, anything non-impact. I'll be going to physical therapy, I don't know how many times a week though. Dr. Getzin has run the NYC Marathon twice and he said it's a hard one. I have an appointment with him in three weeks, so we'll see how my legs are feeling then and get back to training. I might have to shift my goals and I might not get the time I wanted, but I'll finish. With a marathon finishing is the most important part, but I just wanted to do better than last time. That would have been hard either way though because there are a lot more inclines in NYC than Tokyo.

Sports Med Appointment

I have my sports med appointment this afternoon. My legs are feeling pretty good, but I haven't tried to run at all. I've just been swimming and running in the water. The physical therapist on Monday said that inserts in my shoe might completely correct the problem because I pronate in SO much. She also gave me some strengthening and flexibility exercises to work on. So we'll see what the doctor says today...

The Weekend

So I took it easy this weekend. Obviously I didn't run the Laurel Festival 10k. We actually didn't even end up going to Wellsboro. It was Ithaca Festival this weekend, basically the same thing as the Laurel Festival but here in Ithaca. So we went down to that on Saturday afternoon. I also got a membership to the Ithaca College outdoor pool and went running in the water on Saturday and Sunday. My legs actually felt really good after that. The front of my legs still ache, but my calf muscle seems to be doing ok. I have PT this afternoon so hopefully they'll be able to tell me some more.

Medical Update

On Thursday the pain in my leg was so bad, I called the doctor to make an appointment for Friday. When I explained the pain in my legs to the nurse on the phone she got worried and said to go to the ER and have a Doppler test of my legs because it could be a blood clot. So I got a little scared but about a half hour later, after talking to the doctor, she called back and said that it probably wasn't a blood clot and made an appointment for me to come in the next day. By the next morning my legs were still in pain, but the swelling in them had gone down. The doctor looked them over and is pretty sure it's a stress fracture so she gave me a recommendation to a sports med doctor. But she didn't want to ignore the possibility that it might be a blood clot because my calves were very warm and my feet were cold. So she sent me right over to the hospital for the Doppler Test to rule out DVT. When I got to the hospital they said they would do the test and after look at the images. If it was nothing I could leave, if it was something I would be going right to the ER and probably have surgery that afternoon. The test was just an ultrasound of my legs looking for clots and checking the blood flow. Everything was normal, not like this picture. So I just got to go back to work. Now I have a sports med appointment on Wednesday. Seems like a long time to wait... The doctor I'm seeing though also does marathons, triathlons and Ironmans so getting me back in the race is the first priority. I really didn't want to go to someone who would say that I couldn't do it, because that's not an option for me. Today my legs are still feeling a little achy, but not terrible. So I'm going to go up to IC's outdoor pool and run in the water. I shouldn't loose much ground by doing that and it'll be no pressure on my joints or bones. So we'll see how that goes, and I also kept my physical therapy appointment on Monday.

Out for the Laurel Festival

Well I'm not going to run the Laurel Festival 10k this weekend. I was really looking forward to it. From my knee to my ankle, front and back is just in pain. I tried to run 5k at lunch and I made it little over half way, but had to stop. I've never had pain that's made me stop before. I've been soar and just been able to push through it, or once I've loosened up it's gone away. So I'm really worried. I'm going to rest it until Monday when I have my physical therapy appointment.

ouch

So I've been complaining for about two weeks now about "shin splints." Which I've found is a very broad term. So my self diagnosis has been that my calves are not strong enough. So yesterday morning I woke up and did P90X legs and back plus ab ripper. Then I was going to go for run after work on the treadmill. Thinking that the treadmill would be easier on my legs/joints/muscles than pounding the ground. Well I took about two running steps on the treadmill and though I was going to die. The pain in lower leg was so sever. So I though well maybe it's just the pounding, so I did the elliptical for thirty minutes and then I thought I would try to run again. No way. I stepped off the elliptical and was in so much pain, it took me 15 minutes to walk to where I was being picked up. Normally it would take me less than five. More so than the front of my legs, it was my calf muscles. They were on fire. As soon as I got home I iced them and took Aleve. I'm scared it's compartment syndrome. First thing this morning I called and made a physical therapy appointment. I have an appointment on Monday and I'll just have to see how I feel this weekend for the Laurel Festival 10k. I feel worlds better this morning than last night and we're suppose to run 5k at lunch so I'll test my legs out then.

I didn't run today. My calves are a little soar. I tried to run but it was just uncomfortable. So I think I'm going to try to make a PT appointment. I'd rather have it looked at now than get injured later. What I did do, was Core Synergistic from the P90X series. Prison cell push ups are a killer!

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=runners,avatar_viewer,1352364867

Check out my cute little avatar on Nike+
:)

Nike+ Human Race

So I'm adding one more selfish thing to Dan's birthday, I'm going to run a 10k. But it's not going to be a virtual one for me. So I can just go outside and run for an hour and have it over with. So no traveling or waiting to start. I did Run London when I was living there. That was before the Nike+ clip so I think this is just the next step in that series. It'll be fun to be one of the million people that day running a 10k!
Anyone want to do it with me?
If you do, go to
http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/humanrace/index.jsp
You just need an ipod nano and the nike+.

In just two days I'm 15% of the way to my goal! Thank you so much for everyone who has donated.

Shout out to Brendan!

Props to my coworker Brendan for being the first to donate! I really appreciate it. This is adding a whole new dynamic to the race that I've never experienced before. Not only am I running for me and A Running Start but all the people who are showing their support through donations. Thank you!
http://www.active.com/donate/nycmarathon2008/terryconiglio

Fundraising Page is up!

My fundraising page is up and active! My goal is $2700 and any contributions will take me one step closer to my goal. To make a donation please visit
http://www.active.com/donate/nycmarathon2008/terryconiglio

THANK YOU!

A Running Start!

So I found out on Friday that I didn't get a spot in the lottery for the NYC Marathon but I've registered with a charity called A Running Start. I'm very excited to run for them! It's already bringing back memories from Semester At Sea and when I had the chance to visit that part of the world.
Formed in 2004, A Running Start is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to using the power of sports to improve the lives of young East Africans. This region, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, is impoverished yet is home to the world's greatest store of running talent. Our mission is to harness this talent in order to allow more East Africans to earn a U.S. university education from their athletic gift, to leverage sports to inspire local children to stay in school and to enable more talented young athletes to earn a living from the sport. Sport is an increasingly popular tool for youth development and social change in developing countries. In early 2008, Nike and the non-profit organization Ashoka selected A Running Start Foundation as one of 16 finalists out of over 380 applicants for its Sport For a Better World charity competition.
For more information about them, check out www.arunningstart.org

I'll be send more information out soon about how you can help suport me in my fundraising efforts to run the NYC Marathon with A Running Start.

I also found out on Friday that I've gotten the galarie opening that I wanted downtown in NOvember. So for the month of NOvember my travel photos will be exibited in the Clinton House!

Live like Liz

I've been really bad about keeping this updated. As far as my running progress goes. I'm on track. On Sunday I completed 16 kilometers so that's been my longest long run yet. It wasn't too bad except someone or something stole my water bottle. Every time I go for a long run I bring sports water bottle with me. Not a plastic disposable one but a sports water bottle. I always leave it by the gate at the entrance of the trail so when I double back I can take a drink. Well I was just a little over 8k's into the run and ready for my water and it was no where to be found. I'm guessing someone just thought it was trash but it was only there for about 45 minutes. I was so pissed so I ran home to get a drink and then ran back out. I'm surprised I completed the work out. It's hard to go home in the middle.
Last week I went to the running store downtown. They have a group of people who run out of the store on Tuesday nights. They were all a LOT faster than me but it was fun to run with other people. I want to keep going but I'll miss the next two weeks. I'm going to FL tomorrow for Andrea's baby shower and I have to leave the house at 4:00am. So I'm going to skip the group this week. I get back from FL late on Monday night so by 6:00 PM on Tuesday I'll probably be ready for bed.
Another thing I'll be missing this weekend is Leslie's first 5K! :) She's running the Live Like Liz 5k on Sunday in Watkin's Glen. I know she's nervous, but I know she'll make it. http://www.livelikeliz.org/index.html

Grade

So I just got my grade back for Communication Law and I got an A in the class!!! I'm so happy! An A in my first Ivy League class. Hopefully I can keep it up over the next few years.
As for running I slowed down a little for the last week of classes and the final, but this past week I've been back up. On Saturday I did my first longish run. I went for 13k's and it felt good. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't that soar or tired the next day. This weekend I'll probably bump it up to 15k's.

Democrats vs. Rebublicans

The election better look pretty similar!

skipped run

I am currently skipping a run so I can do homework...we see how that's working out. But I've been good running six days a week. I guess today isn't a total rest day because we had our walk to run class. Today we ran 9 minutes and walked 21. It was so cold and that made it hard to go slow.

Over the weekend I got in a few good runs. I did an hour on Sunday. I remember the days when an hour was nothing, now I feel it. But I'm sure within a few weeks I'll be back up there to a comfortable 10k.

Two a Day

So I've been in a pretty good habit of two a day work outs. On Saturday I did yoga and then Dan and I went for a long walk. Sunday I tried to run the whole upper part of South Hill Rec Trail, but it ended up being a walk run... It was still about four miles though. Monday I woke up and did plyometrics which is a killer. It's a good hour long work of jumping. When I first started doing it in February I couldn't even get through the first half. The very first time I thought I was going to pass out. Now I can pretty much do the whole thing. I hope it helps with running in the end. Last night I did my first tempo run. It was hard. I only tried for two miles but speed and I aren't getting along just yet... :( After my run I worked out chest, shoulders and triceps. Finished off the night with Ab Ripper X!
This morning I woke up with a lot of energy, don't know where it came from, and did back and biceps, Ab Ripper X, and walked to work. I have a feeling I'll crash this afternoon. We have our walk to run class and we're going to run six minutes and then walk 24. It's a beautiful day outside, so I'll be happy to get out and get some fresh air. After work, if I have the strength, I want to try to do a little hill work... but we'll see how I'm feeling. Tomorrow is my rest day, so hopefully I can push it!

Tuesday/Thursday Walk to Run

We just got back from our "Walk to Run Class." Today we ran two minutes, then walked 8 minutes three times. The schedule is great for beginners and I really think that my coworker's Tanya and Leslie are getting a lot out of it. I can't say that I'm not getting anything out it. It's so nice to get out of the office on our lunch breaks especially since the weather has be wonderful! We don't see too many days like this in Ithaca. For me, trying to build back up mileage, I just mentally can't really consider it a training session. That's not why I joined the class though, so hopefully I'll get back out there today after work. It's also just too nice outside to be inside today! I have an office with no windows, so it's so refreshing when I do open the door and there's sun and not a gust of wind and ice.

I also registered for the Rochester half marathon today. So I'm officially in at least one half.

I'm trying to get my sister to do the Laurel Festival 10k with me. She's not very excited about it and isn't giving in. I sent her a training schedule, so we'll see! :)

First "run/jog" in a while

Tonight I went for my first run, if you could even call it that, in a long time. First I calibrated my Nike+, and found I am much slower than I was giving myself credit for. So it seems I've got my work cut out for me. I ran for about 20 minutes after I calibrated it and did about 3.25k's. I definitely have some work to do.

Let the fun begin!

So it's become apparent that I need running in my life. I've taken a nice long break! I actually haven't really run on a strict schedule since about October. That's not to say I've been sitting around, well that's not entirely true. I sat around and ate my way through the holiday's. I feel like I deserved it though having been abroad for three holiday season in a row.
In late February Dan and I started a program called P90X. They are these really intense DVD's. Now I have never been a believer of home video work outs and I was very skeptical of p90x, but I'd have to say it's one of the best work out programs out there! I didn't get the exact results that I wanted with it because I totally didn't stick to the diet like I should have. But I am by no means disappointed in the results. I can comfortably and with good form pump out over 20 push ups now and I could only do about five before. My body feels a lot more muscular which I hope will help me as I move into this running season. If you're really looking to get into shape and spice up your workout routine, I highly recommend p90x.

So I decided that the only way I'm going to get myself back out there and running is to get registered for a couple of races. I really want to do the NYC Marathon. I put in for a lottery place last year and didn't get it. That was a blessing because there is no way I could have moved from Japan, travel Europe, and started a new job while training for a marathon. A few weeks ago I put a bid in for the lottery for this year. I got to thinking about it though, this might be the only year I could run it. The following year I hope to start grad school and again I don't think I'd be able to handle school, a job and training that hard. So I plan to run it for a charity if I don't get a spot from the lottery.
In training preparation, I have a few other races that I'd like to do. I'm going to do the Laurel Festival 10k in June. I haven't been to the Laurel Festival in years. If you don't know what the Laurel Festival is, it's in Wellsboro and usually hot as hell. There's a parade and craft fair and other events like this race. Basically, little old Wellsboro shuts down for a few days to eat carnival food. I hope to find at least another 10k in early summer, but eehhh I'm not worried about it. Then I'm going to do the Rochester half marathon on September 14. Yup I'm going to torture my body on my birthday! This past year I did the Nike+ half marathon in October. It's virtual marathon. You just run the distance on that day with your Nike+ and ipod, then you download your run. So I'm sure I can incorporate that into my training schedule.
I will also be doing a few 5k's with my walk to run class. My co-workers and I signed up for it. The class meets twice a week and the goal is to run a 5k at the end. I probably don't need the class, but it's been a good jump start to wanting to train. I'm also really excited to see my co-workers getting excited about it. The schedule of the class is really manageable for a beginner runner so I hope everyone sticks with it. I'm really looking forward to sharing their first race experience with them. Plus it gets us up and outside two days a week and you can't beat that!
On the down side, I've injured myself before training has even really started. A few weeks ago, Dan got the great idea to build a little fort/sofa bed for us to be bums for a weekend and watch season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. The best show on tv for those of you who aren't familiar with Battlestar. Anyways, Dan pushed the two larger sections of our sofa together and put our spare bedroom mattress on top. It was lush heaven.

Well that is until I got the bright idea to get a running start and jump on it. In the processes I bent my two back and it hurt! All night I complained about the pain but it didn't look like anything and I could move it. When I woke up the next morning it was swollen and turning black and blue. By the end of that it looked like this...
The swelling went down after a few days and I gave it a weeks rest from all exercising so I would be healed before I started training. It's a little tight still but getting better everyday. So if I'm lucky that'll be the worst injury I encounter in training...keep your fingers crossed!